Chapter 4.

Talon feels the pain in his gut—he had no idea that he was doing such harm. He is at a loss for words. But soon, the image of Mary appears in his mind, and he knows that he must try to free her. He agrees to help Hataa, any way he can, but first, he must go see if he can free Mary.

Hataa, through her pain, understands saving those close to the heart—she wipes the moisture from her face and steps back into the shadows and pushes back a rusted panel. It opens to a strange, polished hallway. She steps in and Talon follows.

The hallway seems to curve up into the darkness and snake away an impossible distance. Hataa steps up to the curving area and taps a few times on one of the dark, shiny tiles. All of the sudden, the tile slide of from the wall, revealing a gas-plasma display. She makes several gestures with he finger on the display, saying “we only know a little of their world, and our control is limited, but I can take you back to the prisons.” In a second, a gaseous glow appears before them and seems to pull apart, tearing space with it. Talon looks through the undulating hole in space to another place, very similar to where they are now.

Hataa speaks: “Step through here and find your precious Mary. I shall keep the gate open. Bring her back here, so that we may find the Hegemon together. Perhaps he will help us both. Now, I must attend to the burial of my sisters…” She turns away and leaves Talon standing there.

Talon steps through the gate, and as he passes through, he feels a tingle wash over his body and he notices the slight smell of ozone. Instantly, he is in another place, looking back through the gate at where he just came from.

Talon looks around and sees what looks like some sort of exit. He steps close and it appears as if the walls simply pull apart, opening into the hallway of the prison. He steps out and immediately hears the wall sealing back up. He steps close to try to stop it, but he cannot—the wall closes. As it does, a small, keystone like piece from up above Talon’s reach rattles loose and falls to the ground.

Talon searches the cells and he sees, just down the hall, where Mary was. He runs close and looks into the cell, but it is empty. Only a dead body lies lifeless in the corner. Talon retches instinctively—he’s too late! Mary is dead! But soon he realizes that it is the body of an Indian he knew from the reservation—not Mary. He takes in a deep breath, relieved that it was not Mary but feeling guilty that another from their reservation has died.

Talon is at a loss of what to do. Perhaps if he gets back to Hataa, and takes her to the Hegemon, he might be able to help him find Mary. Just as Talon formulates these thoughts, he hears the rush of guards heading down the corridor, running as a group.

Talon tries to hide behind a beam, firing on the first guard as she approaches. For what seems like an eternity, Talon battle the guards, using their own weapon against them. He dodges, rolls, and gets singed in the shoulder once, but soon, he drops the last guard and picks up what weapon charges he can.

Talon hears more guards coming in the distance… then he looks at the fallen keystone. That might be the key to get back to the gate—but the slot is far too high. The Talon hears the old mans voice, urging him to use his new abilities, telling him “they only grow stronger the more you use them.”

Talon concentrates on the keystone, using his fingers as a focus—with the power of his mind, and slight blue energy crackling at his fingertips, he is able to raise the block and slide it back into the slot. Suddenly, the wall begins to split open. Talon rushes in just as the guards close in—strangely, they see him in the strange hallway, but they do not shoot and they do not fight—almost as if they are scared of this place.

Talon returns to the gate, and just as he is about to step through, it vanishes into nothing but a speck of blue-gray smoke. Suddenly, an eerie light fades up, from no discernable source, and Talon smells ozone again.

He turns around to see the filigreed for of the Staleene Keeper again. First, Talon hears just high pitched static, then she speaks: "Found your way back here, I see. You must be wondering about your stock brothers… we have had them moved. They might prove to be interesting in the game, and not much interesting has come from this gene-stream in a long time. Oh, I nearly forget..."

The keeper stretches out one filigreed appendage and lightly stroked a shiny tile—just like before, it opens to show a gas plasma display. The soft, fractal-like mini appendages of her hand paint complicated patters on the display as she continues to speak,” you might be interested to meet the new governess of your little Earth…” A new gate opens up, far above Talon’s head. Through it, Talon can see part of what looks like a huge, glistening, insect-like creature. “She will earn that position soon, after we rid that planet of your failed gene-strain.”

The Staleene Keeper starts to back away, her appendages doing another dance on the display as another gate opens, at Talon’s level. “You may find this useful…” Her voice trails off as the lights fade towards darkness and Talon is left standing alone between two gates, one to a hideous creature, the other to a dark and abandoned room who knows where…

Talon examines the wall that had opened, but it seemed sealed tight, like there never was an opening there. They only way out seems to be through the lower gateway and Talon takes a deep breath and dives through.

He finds himself in what looks like an urban subway station, but it is not human, not familiar except in function. It also looks abandoned for years—rust dusts the floor and what light is there shines through thick and stagnant dust. That creature has lead Talon here, but why? What is he to do?

Soon, Talon hears a high-pitched wailing sound, like the distant scream of metal upon metal. Soon the station rumbles and shakes and in a few seconds, a strange, almost art-deco looking tram rockets into the station and tops suddenly. The door opens automatically, and it seems as if the interior is floating within some sort of shell, almost like its floating on some type of viscous shock absorbers.

As Talon enters, the door closes behind him, but the tram goes nowhere. There is a control panel—something upon which you tap your destination, but it seems dead—the display membrane is pale. Talon notices a wire that’s pulled out of the box—he grabs both frayed ends and twists them together and the panel flicker to life. From the schematic, Talon recognizes part of the large ship that he witnessed in the library. It seems like he has two destinations—back, only a short way off on the display, or forward, off to another one of the large tower structures. Talon pushes the icon representing the farthest destination.

The tram rumbles for a moment and it seems like the gap between the shell and the interior fills with liquid—through the windows he can see the bluish liquid rise up. In a moment, the shuttle rumbles and then is off. Talon can feel the acceleration, but he can’t escape the feeling that he’s traveling much faster. Soon, the tram bursts out of the tunnel and seems to be flying along in some tunnel on the exterior of the ship. Talon can see the stars, the planet Earth (more distant that he remembers) and other portions of this massive ship. Given the scale of the ship, Talon can’t even begin to imagine the speed of the tram.

After what seems like an eternity (but Talon knows it’s only been a few minutes), the tram decelerates and comes to a stop—the liquid is pumped out and the door screeches open. Talon steps out.

What he sees immediately brings the blood pounding in his temple—an environment far too alien to fully comprehend. The walls curve and twist, looking at one moment like woven blankets of thin metal, at other moments like glistening, wet, mucus-coated surfaces. Talon stumbles backward as he tries to catch his breath.

The narrow corridor twists off to the left and Talon moves forward cautiously, reluctant to touch the strange surface with his hands. He walks and walks and soon sees some light ahead—the corridor opens like a mouth to a gigantic undulating plain. Talon can see many mounds with dark, gaping holes leading down to the dark. He moves cautiously and in a moment, he sees several creatures, looking like some aerodynamic bastardization of an ant mixed with a bee, scuttle out of one hole and down into another. One seemed to be carrying something in his mandibles.

As Talon steps closer to the opening, he sees a sparkle color the air for a moment in the distance and the form of his great grandfather materializes out on the plain. Several more worker insects scuttle about, but they don’t seem to notice him. He raises his staff to Talon and beckons him closer. In a flash, the old man disappears down one of the holes.

Talon darts out onto the plateau—looking back over his shoulder, he can see that he’s on some sort of gigantic outcropping from one of the main Trocaran towers. Talon can clearly see that this plateau is covered by some sort of dome, presumably to keep the air in. In the distance, Talon can see the twinkling of the distant stars.

Immediately, two of the strange worker insects emerge from one of the holes—they’ve spotted Talon and start scuttling towards him. Talon pulls up his weapon and fires at one, blowing off a few legs. He spins as it scuttles past and fires into the abdomen—the creature spurts green goo as it tumbles to the ground. Talon spins around and fires twice into the churning mandibles of the second insect. It drops cold, but Talon can see others coming up out of one of the holes. Talon turns to run and sprints towards the opening where he saw the old man. The tunnel opening is dark and wet and Talon can hear the bugs closing. He keeps running, and he’s not sure if he hears an echo or if more bugs are coming up from this hole. Before he can be certain, a portal opens up and Talon dives for it.

When he brushes himself off, he is on the dusty floor of an Indian lodge, his grandfather waiting. Through the portal, Talon can see the insects scuttling past, but they don’t seem to notice. The portal diminishes into nothing. The old man turns to speak:

“Talon—it is time to continue your teachings. I feel that you other self is growing within. Let’s take things one step farther…” with a wave of his hand, the old man vanishes, leaving Talon alone once again in the strange dream world.

As Talon stands and brushes himself off, he hears the old man’s disembodied voice from above, “in your struggles to come, you will feel much pain, both in your soul and in your body. You must first learn how to heal your body…”

Talon begins to walk along the smooth wall, searching for some hidden trigger as before. Soon, his fingers move over a raised area of the sandstone wall and he presses down—he feels a catch release. He hears a clicking sound, then the whoosh of something flying trough the air—he turns just as three carved wooden darts plunge between his ribs. He gasps for breath and falls to his knees.

“Use your medicine cord… focus your mind…” says the disembodied voice.

Talon, gasping for breath, raises his medicine cord—there, he sees a new marking, freshly carved into the hide and bone. He lifts his right hand and makes the movements signified in the marking… after several passes, Talon can begin to feel a power guiding his hand along the path of the marking, almost like his hand knows how to move without his help.

Blue energy begins to crackle over his right forearm and up towards his chest—the energy crawls across his chest and surrounds the wooden spikes, pulling on them and filling his wounds with healing energy. Talon can feel the breath reenter his lungs as the three spikes fall to the sandy floor. Talon stumbles to his feet.

As soon as he regains his balance, a section of the sandstone and wooden wall seems to melt away, leading into a larger, formalized ritual hall. The wood is painted red, the color of blood, and Talon hesitates before he steps in.

Once in the center of the room, Talon gets the eerie feeling that dangerous rituals have taken place here, wherever here might be.

”First, learn to heal the body… then learn to shield the body,” echoed the voice of the old man.

Talon turns around slowly and once again, he hears the whoosh of something flying through the air. He drops to the ground and rolls left… the darts whistle over his head, but another barrage fires out and one dart lands firm into his thigh. Talon moans and rolls again, pulling the dart and covering the wound with his hand, the blood seeping out between his fingers.

Talon once again raises his medicine cord, concentrates and forms the marking in the air with his fingertips—soon, the blue healing energy crackles over his leg and seals the wound. As Talon concentrates, he notices that another marking has appeared on his medicine cord. As Talon studies the mark, he hears another whoosh of darts—he instinctively rolls left and the darts miss him, but no sooner that the darts bury themselves in the opposite wall that he hears more darts firing. Rolling right, he stares at the medicine cord and works with his right had to make the new marking in the air. As he does so, a dart barely misses his out stretched hand. Soon, the crackling energy from his hand expands outward, growing into a sphere-—Talon concentrates and the sphere grows larger, soon completely surrounding him.

Surrounded by the sphere, Talon feels dozens and dozens of carved wooden darts bounce off of the energized blue membrane. After what seems like hours of intense concentration, Talon can no longer focus, the sphere vanishes and he collapses to his knees. Talon closes his eyes and falls to sleep.

When he awakes, it’s with a start—he’s no longer in the ritual room, but back out in the Insectoid corridor, with no sign of his great grandfather. Talon begins to head out to the surface, but then he remembers the words of the strange creature who showed him the large insect—that she was to be the new ruler of Earth. He must have been told for a reason—he must find the creature. He turns and heads down into the dark tunnel.

Soon, the tunnel is only illuminated by what looks like phosphorous secretions. Soon, he hears the scuttling of the worker bugs. Immediately, talon raises the medicine cord and conjures up the shield sphere—he discovers that he can still walk with the sphere energized. The first bug he sees comes over to investigate the sphere, but finds nothing of interest so it scuttles away. The others just ignore Talon and the sphere—the first one must have sent out some sort of phenerome signal to ignore him.

Soon, Talon comes to a branch in the tunnel—this new passage is smaller and seems completely lined with phosphorescent gel. The bugs that move to and for seem to go out of their way to circle the opening of the tunnel, stopping for a second to take a nibble of the glowing yellow goo.

Talon heads down this new passage, his feet sinking into the goo with each step. Soon, an almost unbearable stench fills the air and the goo gives way to some sort of twisted weaving of the organic and the manufactured—oval CRT monitors are suspended in thick web cording, metal and secretions mix…

Talon sees a membrane with a port-hole-like opening in it, and he knows instantly that the stench comes from beyond that hole. Talon steps close and can partially see the undulating body of the loathsome creature he was shown earlier. The gigantic creature seems to pull itself closer to the opening—Talon can see the CRT light reflected in a pair of glistening black mandibles.

It begins to make some sounds, high pitched whistles and clicks mostly, but to Talon’s uncomfortable surprise, his mind soon begins to translate the alien sounds into intelligible speech…

“sssshe told me that you we coming… that you might be sssomething ssspecial. But I can sssee that ssshe was wrong again.” The creature takes in a deep hiss of stale air, and continues, “You sssee, it no longer matters. We have easily won your sssseed world. Too easily, in fact. Your ssstock fathers were nothing short of pathetic. Now ssshe wants us to wait to claim our prize, to follow the rulesss, but the victory was sssso easy that the rulesss should not apply. Ssso we’ve decided to take your ssseed world now and to release the xenocide drone.”

Talon meets again with his great grandfather, who offers him a familiar and teaches him further skills through a second learning dream.

Talon finds a seemingly abandoned tram that takes him to another one of the large towers of the Trocaran mothership. Here, he encounters the large and loathsome hive queen of the Insectoid species. She relishes in telling Talon of the demise of his species on Earth, as well as her plan to eliminate the humanoids from the Trocara as well. She tells Talon of her plan to release the extermination drone (to wipe out the Earthly humans) without the Keeper’s consent. She is very proud of herself.

Talon makes his way to the external region of the Insectoid area and rides another tram to where he thinks the drone will launch from. He is too late, and he watches helplessly as the large gas drone launches towards Earth. Talon meets again with Hataa-skeen, and she offers him information in return for his commitment to help. He accepts and she leads him to a shuttle bay. Talon leaps aboard the foreign shuttle and takes off after the drone. He docks with it, boards and disarms the drone. The drone counts down to destruction. He races to get back on the shuttle. He gets on and starts to speed away

Chapter 5.

…—the drone blows up (huge), with a giant chunk flying right at the shuttle and hitting it. The shuttle is damaged, falling, out of control. Talon has slight control and he tries to hold on as it falls towards the humanoid atmosphere. He breaks through the orangish clouds and spots a building with enough room to land… he struggles but he manages to get the shuttle to do a controlled crash landing on the building.

Talon again meets with the Staleene Keeper, who has been following his progress. She is intrigued by Talon and offers him a challenge—survive three arena contests, and she will take Earth “out of the game,” effectively saving the human species. Talon agrees, but he must first honor his obligation to Hataa-skeen. Together, they track down the royal chamber of the humanoid hegemon.

*** have the humanoid flying ship here—where the hegemon is—he meets with him—pleads his case, is refused, fights a bit, but then the hegemon’s ship is attacked—Talon agrees to help and save the hegemon’s barge—in return, he admits that the humnaoids can’t help Hataa (they lost the stock and the scientific breeding background), but they will help Talon is he needs it (their seed worlds are getting fewer and far between)****

They have an audience with the opulent, yet unkempt ruler. He refuses to help, but Talon forces his hand—the ruler reluctantly agrees to help both Hataa and Talon. As they leave, they both know that he has no intention of keeping his word to Hataa.

*** the hegemon lets Talon take off in an autocraft (hataa stays behind to see if there’s something she can do)—he takes it, but it malfunctions close to the wall—it crashed on the wall—Talon makes his way across the wall, down slopes and to a small base—from here, he takes a tunnel to the saurian underwater seaport (one level), and makes his way up to the saurian city—here he finds the arenas***

Talon reaches the saurian area of the mothership. Here, he battles first against a specially bred “triplet” raptor. He narrowly wins, and the cheering crowd grows silent. Talon then faces a larger saurapod, and wins using his wits rather than simply brawn and weaponry. Finally, he faces the Insectoid alternate who has won the right to seed Earth. The battle is harsh and brutal, and Talon can only survive by relying on his budding mystical powers, and he ekes out a win by destroying the arena so that it crushes the hulking insectoid.

As Talon flees the angered crowd of saurians, he confronts Rex, the regal ruler of the saurian species. Rex is very distressed about the numerous chaotic divergences from the “norm.” The actions of the Hive Queen bother him, as well as the games of the Staleene Keeper. In an attempt to put things back on track, he rationalizes that killing Talon is the way to go. A battle ensues, but Talon uses his magic to trick the large saurian and escape.

***Talon battles towards a port where small space fighters are docked—using his powers, he gets in one, controlling the pilot—he flies up and out in space—other saurian ships fight them—finally talon’s ship arrives at a humanoid shuttle dock, high on the tower***

Talon finally confronts the Staleene Keeper. She tells him that he has won—that Earth will indeed be taken from the game. She gives him directions to place where Mary and the others are being held. She will meet him there.

Chapter 6.

Talon follows the directions, but he has been lead into a trap. Instead of finding Mary, he finds himself on the front lines of a raging skirmish between the Trocaran humanoids and insectoids. Talon makes his way through the battle zone, hiding whenever possible and fighting when there is no choice. He once again runs into Hataa-skeen. Resigned to her fate, she is fighting alongside of the humanoids against the insectoids. She tells him that she has seen Mary and the others.

Talon begins his escape, but a large insectoid skimmer bears down upon him—Hataa leaps in front of the organic tank, screaming for Talon to run. As he flees, he hears the tank fire and Hataa scream.

Talon flees through some deep Insectoid corridors (round and sticky with mucus), and a seeming army of worker insectoids stops him. They lead him into a large chamber where the Hive Queen and her drone queens monitor the progress of the battle. She is furious at Talon for his disarming of the xenocide drone.

Talon locks into fierce battle with the Queen. First, he must destroy her drone queens, who are breeding fast, nimble warriors as fast as he can dispatch them. At last, Talon destroys the Queen and rushes to find Mary.

Chapter 7.

Talon makes his way into the dark folds of the mothership, using his newly heightened mystical senses. He is obviously in the Keeper portion of the ship—it has an old, almost timeless quality about the strange architecture and design. Ahead, there appear to be numerous doors, all in succession, all with multiple locks. Talon watches from the shadows as several lessor Keepers enter and leave. Using his powers, he possesses one of the Keepers and enters the multiple locks—on the inside, he manages to sabotage the locks so as to leave the doors partially open. Talon pulls back from the Keeper, returns to Talon’s form and runs through the slight opening.

Talon finds what looks like a bank of cells, only it looks more like some sort of ancient zoo than a prison. Moving cautiously along, Talon discovers countless bodies of what were once human. Fueled with hate, he enters a large room, octagonal, almost like some sort of lecture hall. He hears Mary’s voice. She is lying on a table in the center, the fragile prosthetic form of the Staleene Keeper above her. Mary is talking incessantly about childhood memories, but the words have a strange cadence about them.

Talon enters the room. Mary’s head turns towards him, and a flash of recognition paints her face. She smiles and says “Talon, I’ve missed you...” Her head continues to turn—Talon notices a clean red line around her throat. Her head rolls towards him, eyes still open, and falls to the floor. The cut is smooth and nearly cauterized.

Talon collapses to his knees, not sure whether to touch her hair or not. In his grief, Talon doesn’t notice the Staleene Keeper silently moving out of the room.

Talon shakes his head clear and rises with dangerous determination. They must pay, the Staleene Keeper must pay! Talon strides forward, energy crackling from his fingertips. He walks deeper into the Keeper’s realm, passing several lesser Keepers. As he passes, he raises his hands and lightning jumps forth, decimating their mechanical prosthetics.

Destruction seems to want to leap from his fingertips, and in his rage, Talon hardly notices the form of his great grandfather appear—he appears bent and twisted with pain. He pleads with Talon not to let his anger rise too quickly—it is not the way of the power, and only harm will come from revenge borne of anger rather than true spiritual focus.

Talon trembles as several of the small monkey minions descend into the room—leaping on top of each other to form their large brethren. Talon begins using his lightning power to break apart the large beasts, but the smaller creatures circle around him, dodging his fury. The more Talon fires, the more some ghostly apparitions seem to appear at the end of the room. They seem to be the spirit forms of other Indians—at first, Talon sees his fallen friends and Mary Thunder, but soon, they manifest themselves into the forms of the soul stealers—they seem to suck in Talon’s rage and grow brighter and brighter. Talon hears the voice of his great grandfather, begging him to rethink his approach. Soon, the soul stealers begin to turn the energy back on Talon—he hears the panicked screams of souls in pain, and Talon’s only protection is to use all of his remaining energy to raise his circle of protection. As he hides under the veil of power, he hears the soothing voice of his great grandfather, and he gradually lowers his energy.

Soon, his shield falters, but the old man tells him to remain calm and true. Soon, he is exposed and the soul stealers blast their magic upon him—he wants to resist, but the old man tells him to remain strong—his strength pours from him—death seems only moments away as he falls to his knees, yet he notices the soul stealers faltering. Moments before darkness closes in, they vanish and leave behind the ghostly specters of trapped spirits. Talon crawls through these apparitions, and he feels their energy join with him and his strength begin to return. Talon says “I can see your wisdom, old man.”

Moving forward through ancient circular doors, Talon comes to a strange room, the ceiling high and the walls lined with strangely organic machines. The parts begin to peel off the wall and accrete together into a gigantic automation. Talon battles the creature with his magic almost exclusively, shorting out and blowing off parts with his conjured lightning. At last, he delivers a fatal blow and the remains of the machine crash back through a wall.

Talon climbs over the wreckage and through the hole in the wall. He finds himself in the most alien of control rooms. The pictographs on the machines and the walls tell him that this is the control heart of the mothership. He discovers the banks of ancient machines that control the magnetic harness for the manufactured sun at the center of the mothership. He begins to release one, then another of the multitude of magnetic locks. The power flickers as the sun shifts in its magnetic cradle.

****

destroy 1/3 of the Trocaran ship

Talon nearly finishes the task as the Staleene Keeper appears. She tries to sound calm, but Talon can clearly notice the fear in her synthesized voice. She tells him to stop, tells him that he has truly won. Earth has already been taken out of the game.

Talon pauses and the Keeper waves one of here fragile prosthetic arms—a portal opens up and Talon sees Earth—it is morning in Arizona. He steps away from the machine and closer to the portal. She waves her arm again and another portal opens up—onto a city, obviously alien in nature, bustling with activity.

She explains to Talon that he has won, and that the choice is now his. He can return to Earth. But on Earth, who will know that he is any different? He won’t be a hero, he won’t be anything at all... Talon looks up, glares steadily at the Keeper, his gaze full of hate and determination. He turns to the Earthly portal and says “screw that pathetic rock” and leaps through the other portal, into the unknown...

Final shot of earth