Deep Space
Outward Reaches
Uhlek Badlands

Milyik was unsure, confused. The Leghk was floating over the same command array as the members of his lineage going back countless generations but something was different. Something was out of place. His actions were no longer as...directed as they had once been, but the impulse was still there. For whatever reason, Milyik’s mind snapped briefly into a shade of focus to see a Spemin creature on the view screen. It was making a great deal of noise and was…disturbing.

The disturbance must be silenced. Milyik shifted his floating centripetal mass to communicate with his subordinates. There was a pause before a spread of plasma bolts shot out toward the Spemin vessel which returned a few bolts of its own before fleeing the scene. Bewildered, uneasy—at times furious—the Uhlek continued to float through their space, grasping for...something.

Thoss World
Vs'Kssh Citadel

Senator Hvhuss crept through the narrow lanes toward the rendezvous in the old citadel. He moved amid the low-hanging mist, soaked by the warm rain that fell almost constantly from the skies over the swamp region. He stopped at the last junction before the descending path that led into the main fortress. As he lifted his trailing foot from the cobblestone path a wiry arm reached from behind him and threw him to the ground.

Hvhuss looked up to see the wide-eyed fear on Grssn’s face. The younger Thrynn crouched gingerly, removing his hand once Hvhuss knew to stay quiet. Pointing down the path, he hissed “they can’t be far behind, sssenator.” Grssn peered around nervously, smelling the air for danger. “A ship landed nearby jusst a few momentss ago—it came in fasst, like sssome manner of asssault vessel—sssmall—”

“We are compromissed,” said the senator, half in disbelief. “Do you know where the othersss are?” Grssn flickered his translucent secondary eyelids, gesturing that he didn’t. “We cannot sstay here. We are too clossse now to fail.” The young Thrynn shot a glance at the base of a building along the damp path. There was an iron grate that led down into the water tunnels beneath the old citadel. Senator Hvhuss nodded. “Yess.” The two Thrynn pulled the grate and slid into the arched tunnels, pulling the grate back into place behind them.

It was perhaps minutes later that two lightly armored Royal Marines charged up the narrow road brandishing reverb rifles with gleaming bayonet-swords fixed to the stubs. The two Thrynn stopped briefly, smelling the faintest wafts on the air but able to isolate nothing. They were followed presently by the body of the squad escorting Colonel Venn’Bk. “Just momentsss ago,” he hissed, crouching to touch the wet ground. He rubbed a pinch of the gritty sand between his sleek fingers. “Ssergeant—get the sssquad back to the lander. I do not wish our presence recorded: prepare to return to orbit.”

“Aye, sssir,” said Sergeant Nussgj. “We shall seize the black cloakss in due time, my masster—per mare, per sstella,” he recited the motto of the Marines before carrying out his orders. Colonel Venn’Bk froze at the utterance. Black cloaks.

How far has the malignancy spread? For eons, honor had guided the sentient lizards in their politics, in their law. It had ruled their existence. Honor they cherished, and calculation. And now this creeping disease. How wide the heresy that has a name?

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Next: “Mack the Hun”

Tradewind Wisdom
K Cloud Nebula Hooray! The dreaded Uhlmanu slave-sentries are gone! Hey wait a minute—aren’t those the
dreaded Umanu pirates over there?
J Bob Drake He’ll close a trillion SP deal quicker than you can say, “three girlfriends last week!”
L Hrixx Bxx Old TW: Bug-in-a-million has gold pin from mating emporium grand-lovely! New TW: Doesn't the Queen get a serious case of the munchies after the mating ritual?

Hilsfar & Company: We got ya numbas right here, pally.
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