Havok Bringer

Havok Bringer Book 2 – Chapter 1. Natasha

Earth, I didn’t know when I would be able to see it again. Honestly, I didn’t know if there would be a planet to return to.

The Lacertine Empire had initiated the Right of Reaping on my home planet over three years ago. Those orbs had dropped from the sky and shattered the world as we all knew it.

The Orb's purpose was three-fold. First, they shut down anything electronic by periodically blasting EMPs across the globe. Earth and its defenses, however meager they may have been, were immediately blown back to a pre-industrial Revolution state.

Secondly, the orbs acted as a terraforming platform. The temperatures on the planet were raised an average of nine degrees. Nine degrees doesn’t sound like much, but there was a specific purpose. The average temperature on Earth was 59 degrees Fahrenheit before the drop; after the drop, the average temperature was 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

Why the temperature rise, you may ask? The average temperature during the Mesozoic Era on Earth was also around 68 degrees Fahrenheit, perfect for dinosaurs, lizards, and Lacertines.

The Lacertine Empire intended to strip the planet of its most valuable resource: people. Then, set up a military outpost on the planet. The plan was going well until the initiation of the dungeon to name the victor. The victor would claim the Right of Reaping and be able to claim the planet and, for all intents and purposes, the solar system.

That is where I came in. I was ripped from my home planet and given an AI to guide me, a spaceship, and a super advanced combat suit. After that, things got wild. I was drafted into a rebellion against the Universal Council and managed to help throw the universe into turmoil. Don’t worry, they had it coming.

Now, four months later, I’m sitting in the mess hall on my ship, the Bloodhound.

“Hey, Andy, how long before we can go back to Earth?” CJ straddled a chair beside me and took a long drag on his vape.

“I think we have gathered enough intel; we should be able to head back immediately,” I replied, chewing on the last bite of a turkey sandwich I had been eating.

“Captain, It seems that we will be returning you and the crew to a more hostile environment than you left. I am sure there will be battle… and glorious death for our enemies,” Elvis said, sitting across from me, sharpening a battle axe.

Yes, you heard that correctly. Elvis, the ship AI given a body by the all-knowing Coeus, was sharpening a battle axe; the axe was approximately three feet long, with a carbon fiber composite handle. The blade was a mix of stronger alloys than any Earth metal. The two-sided head of the axe was sharper than any blade I had ever seen, and along the blades ran microlasers, just for some added punch.

Elvis had decided that his battle style would be Berserker, taking inspiration from the Vikings of Earth's history. Elvis loved Earth stuff, whether music, movies, or history; he had even decided to model himself after several of his Earth heroes. So, I wasn’t exactly surprised when he called everyone into the VCR to show off his new battle style. All Kidding aside, Elvis would be a devastating addition to the battlefield. He didn’t have the benefit of enhanced armor like me, but he didn’t need it. Even without armor, Elvis was nearly as strong and fast as I was in my armor.

His real advantage though, were his reflexes. His super-advanced AI brain could run multiple battle scenarios in real time, giving him an almost god-like ability to outmaneuver his opponent. His speech had changed as well. He was still an ultra-violent masochist, but he tried to emulate our speech patterns to fit in. Still, even with his new body and fighting ability, Elvis remained highly loyal to me as his Captain and leader.

I had started to embrace my role recently. I never set out to become the Captain of a rebel starship or a leader of people, but I realized I had been given a gift. With that gift comes the responsibility of ensuring that my friends are safe. It also comes with the responsibility of knowing that I can and must help my planet and other species suffering at the Council's hands.

The crew had taken their respective roles on the ship well since our escape after we completed the dungeon. After me, there was Tiff, acting as XO of the ship. She had really taken to her role as XO; she had worked with Elvis to ensure that there were procedures in place for the ship and crew covering everything from extended travel to battle stations. She ensured the crew was up to speed and trained for the respective positions and responsibilities; she even created a maintenance and cleaning schedule for the A-gangers to keep them out of our way when we were most likely to be traversing the ship. On top of all that, she had found time to help bring me up to speed on my level and abilities and educate me on how to improve in the future.

Matty and Jax had taken on the responsibility of being the ship’s SAT team. The Security Alert team would train the crew in case of the Bloodhound being boarded and be team leads for any terrestrial missions. Matty and Jax both had extensive military backgrounds and understood how to operate as a unit. Part of their responsibilities had been to set up team training exercises over the last few weeks. We would need a strike team, and that team would need to be well-trained.

Loren and CJ had been assigned to start learning the basic ship's systems; the hope was that they could eventually operate the navigation and weapons systems in case of an issue with Elvis. It was a redundancy, but we needed to be prepared for worst-case scenarios.

Red had taken responsibility for the armory. He maintained weapons and inventory, such as ammo and explosives. He loved guns, so why not put that to use? He was even working with Elvis to start fabricating new types of weapons and ammo based on everyone's preferences.

That just left Kaj. Kaj was our resident alien angel. He had sworn his loyalty to me and my cause through a blood pact after I saved his life on the Alcaran Moon. Since he had made this pact with an enemy, he was convinced that he would be ostracized. He didn’t show it, but I knew this ate at him. I had sworn to help him clear his name; in time, I would find a way.

Kaj was a warrior and part of an advanced alien civilization; it stood to reason that he would be a valuable asset aboard the Bloodhound. He, in fact, was not. He had no discernible skills other than fighting. He had no desire to learn either. He was content to be a passenger and was ready to be called on to fight at a moment's notice, but other than that, I had found no use for him aboard the Bloodhound. Well, he did have one use. Besides me, he was the only crew member able to challenge Elvis in a head-to-head fight, and he loved fighting almost as much as Elvis. So, I let him train anyone willing to step into the VCR with him.

It was good for everyone to fight a superior opponent; they needed to feel defeat and helplessness. Between Me, Elvis, and Kaj, they got to feel that often.

Everyone had a job; A busy crew is a happy crew. I had read that somewhere, and it rang true here on the Bloodhound. Everyone was busy all the time.

For the last few weeks, we had been roaming around the Milky Way galaxy, trying to gather recon and figure out what was happening on Earth. We lost three years when we traveled through the Quasar; a lot happened in those three years.

We were able to intercept communications buoys that were used as information hubs. Ships would pass the buoys and download any relevant news or orders, leave whatever information they needed, and continue on their way.

There was only general information on these comm buoys; anything sensitive or relevant to a particular species' military movements was too important to be left for prying eyes.

Luckily for us, we just needed general information.

Earth was now entirely under lacertine Occupation. The pocket dimension's implosion after the Alcaran Moon events had interrupted almost every significant species' military action, and the Lacertine Empire was no exception.

Since they had a sizeable force on the planet at the time of the implosion the emperor decided to move forward with the reaping until the Council decided to intervene.

That wouldn’t be happening any time soon as all future reapings were put on hold until the Council could figure out how to deal with the disappearance of the Coeus, who acted as dungeon architects and custodians.

We were currently in the Orion Spur, drifting near the Rosette Nebula; It was time to go home.

“Elvis, how long will it take us to return to Earth?” I asked as I swiped through star charts on my tablet, sitting in my chair on the bridge.

Elvis sat at the navigation station in front and to the left of my chair and was currently talking CJ and Loren through the processes involved in programming a jump.

“Captain, I live to serve, but could you ask the ship? Elvis replied without looking up.

Now that he had taken physical form, Elvis had created a secondary ship AI to handle ship-related tasks. He assured me that this would alleviate any confusion for the crew and me, especially if he was away from the ship.

I sighed as I looked up, “Natasha….,” I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes, waiting for the response.

“Yess, Andrew?” the ship AI said in a sultry raspy female voice.

“I have asked you to refer to me as Captain, Natasha,” I responded.

“Ooooh, so strong and demanding, I'm positively on pins and needles. What can I do for you… Captain….” The AI giggled gleefully.

Elvis had created the AI, but much like himself, he gave it the autonomy to develop its own personality and name itself.

Natasha, as it was now known, had decided that it would be female and modeled its personality after a stereotypical stripper. Natasha was also enamored with me. Not in a healthy way, either. I constantly had to correct and reprimand the AI for being too forward. I could deal with it, but it made things really uncomfortable when the rest of the crew was around.

Natasha wasn’t as advanced as Elvis. She couldn’t pilot battle armor or really do anything that wasn’t directly relevant to the Bloodhound, but she could handle all functions related to the Bloodhound which would free up Elvis to, well, to live his new life.

“Natasha, how long would it take us to get to Earth from here?” I asked.

“We are just about 5000 light years from Earth if we push the ship hard…. Push it….real… hard….”

“Okay, stop! Just tell me how long it would take!” my face turned red as CJ and Loren giggled at the navigation station.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Captain Andrew; I was only trying to give you an estimated arrival time. It would take approximately five days. On the fifth day, our last wormhole would gently open up to take the full mass of our ship inside; we would penetrate it expertly, then before you know it, we would….explode out the other side near Mars.”

“Jesus, Natasha!” I said as CJ was now laughing so hard that he was losing his breath.

“That AI definitely has a thing for you, Andy!” CJ said, slapping his leg as he continued to laugh.

“Hey, the Captain thing goes for you too!” I said, glaring at CJ.

CJ was my best friend; nothing would change that, but I had a feeling that our little crew would continue to grow, or at the least, we would encounter people unfamiliar with us. I talked to Andy about being a little more formal while we were on duty together. He didn’t love the idea but understood why, so he relented.

“Sure thing, Captain. I'm just saying you might need to get Natasha under control a little bit, haha.” CJ laughed and went back to studying the navigation controls.

“Natasha does not need to be controlled; she is loyal to Captain Dawes and the crew of the bloodhound. She is just… expressing herself,” Elvis said.

“Could you maybe program her to express herself a little less? She acts hornier than a damn teenager!” I replied.

“Captain, as of now, Natasha is simply AI. She cannot have physical relationships. You do not need to worry; Natasha is just showing her admiration for you.

“Just keep it under control, Natasha; I need to see some civility from you while we are on the bridge. Understood?” I asked.

“Oh yes, of course, Captain. I can be whatever you need me to be.” She said in her most sultry tone.

I chose to ignore the tone and take the win for now. Natasha’s personality was problematic, to say the least, but she did follow directions, and one more super AI on my side wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“So, is five days the best we can do?” I asked, looking at the ceiling again and tapping the arm of my chair in annoyance.

“We could do it in three days, but I need to service the Moscovium chambers before we attempt a trip of that duration. I need to inspect each chamber, identify the most affected chambers, and service them as I identify issues. We have been warping frequently over the last few weeks, and the chambers are beginning to erode. I also need to vent the excess radioactive waste that they have accrued. The entire process will take approximately 40 hours if I begin immediately.” Natasha responded, surprisingly, with no sexual innuendo.

“Thank you, Natasha. Do you need any assistance servicing the chambers?” I asked.

“Oh, Captain, I would love you to help me service my chambers!” she replied in what I can only describe as a moan.

“Just service the damn ship, Natasha!” I said, embarrassment showing on my face once again.

“Starting now, Captain. I will inform you once the service cycle is complete.” Natasha said.

“Captain, you walked into that one!” Elvis said, slapping CJ on the back and chortling loudly.

A few hours later, I was in my quarters scrolling through the latest recap that Elvis had put together from the last comm buoy we visited. Most of the information was useless, at least useless to us. The Lacertine force on Earth had not been sending much communication lately. They had sent several requests for additional supplies, as well as some requests for troop rotation schedules. The responses were minimal, if they got one at all.

It seemed the Lacertine Empire was busy at the moment. Most of their available interstellar assets were tied up either in defense of their home planet or trying to patrol their home galaxy. Since the implosion, several of the Species vying for seats on the Council had decided that there was no better way to prove they were worthy of a seat on the council than by showing their military strength.

The Lacertine Empire was also vying for a seat on the Council, but their resources were spread thin at the moment, so defense was their best option.

The 25,000 or so lacertine troops on Earth were effectively cut off with no ETA for support, or rotation off world.

The Cargo ships kept coming to pick up livestock, and the Lacertine Empire had contracted those ships to carry supplies, not enough to thrive, but enough to survive.

So basically, the Lacertine troops on Earth had been there three years, they were on the brink of starvation, and they saw no end in sight. Good times.

Tiff and CJ walked into my quarters for our daily briefing.

“Hey guys, any good news today?” I asked with a half smile.

“Yeah, Loren and I should be ready for our first test jump in the next week or so. Elvis has programmed a user interface that allows us to easily program a jump so we don’t have to do the in-depth calculations that Natasha does. I don’t think we are ready to do anything that requires us to hit a certain destination, but we can jump away in case of an emergency.” CJ said as he sat across from my desk and took a long drag on his vape.

“Is that a new one?” I asked.

“Yeah, Elvis made it. He calls it MangoDango.” CJ replied, “Since he can taste now, he really likes playing with flavor combinations.”

“Well, I guess that is good, something else to keep him busy,” I replied.

“The dude doesn’t sleep, like ever. It’s kind of creepy. I went into the mess hall at like 2 am the other night to get a snack and he was just sitting there sharpening his axe when I walked in. He looked at me dead in the eye, smiled, and just kept sharpening; he didn’t say a single word, just sat there sharpening his axe, staring at me,” CJ shuttered as he spoke.

“You realize he is just fucking with you, right?” I asked, chuckling.

“Still weird, bro, still weird,” CJ said.

“Captain, we need to discuss something I found in the latest buoy report.” Tiff chimed in.

“Yeah, I just started going over it. It looks like the same stuff we have been seeing.

“There was a message encrypted in the file. Normally, this wouldn’t happen, but the Lacertine Earth force hasn’t had much contact with their home fleet lately. They encrypted the message and hid it beneath the code of a standard resupply request.” Tiff said as she straightened her back in her chair.

“Okay, why would they go through all that trouble?” I asked.

“Captain, it seems the Lacertine troops have captured a high-value target and are holding him for transport off world.”

“Who on Earth would be considered high value?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

“The Brother of Captain Andrew Dawes, that is who,” Tiff said