ORIGIN

Last Ones of a Dying Breed

   A couple of days after he had been approved for advancement to a higher rank in the Star Brigade, he and three of his new, well-trained starfleet recruits had just finished working on Lulu. They were on the ship playing hologram games and loading up photon weapons; trying to come up with a decent plan of action. Each of his recruits expressed their concerns for his situation but also gave Ezrith his privacy and time alone on the lower deck of the ship. There, he contemplated deeply. It was just him, a photo of his mother, and the Starhawk One charm on his necklace. He fiddled with the charm while sipping from a flask of glow-in-the-dark liquor called Moonghost.

    The Brigade recruits that Ezrith personally chose were the ones from the Veccan outpost in whom he established the most trust. One of his men was born on Chronesius. One had even attended the Plumoritan School for Starship Mechanics with him years back.

    His digital specialist's name was Hank Floyd, codename: "Circuit". He was twenty-three years old and had been a program manipulator for almost his entire life. At just twelve years old, he joined an Arkeshan hacker empire known as "Code Hearts". Arkesha was known for its constant, torrential weather and its complexly constructed jungle communities. The Code Hearts, however, were known for performing the quickest data heists on the satellites of neighboring planets, stealing intelligence they would anonymously sell to the governments of any other planet on the "cyber market".

    Ezrith's medical officer's name was Cleff Bo'az, code name: "Bio". He used to be a genetic modifier on the planet Vecca. Genetic modifiers were hyper-genetic surgeons who did things like give people digitally enhanced eye implants and robotic arms that could shape-shift into different weapons. Most people on Vecca were four-armed, three-eyed, genetically modified freaks. That was part of their culture. On Vecca, the field of hyper-genetics was where the money was. Bio had four arms himself, just so he could shoot four different guns at once.    

    Ezrith's weapons specialist was from Solara. His name was Oludommi. His codename was "Ratch". He was always in the back of the ship working on his various inventions. One in particular was some type of short-distance teleportation device called a "shifter" which was meant to allow someone to dodge lasers. Oludommi was always telling war stories about Solara. He spoke of the time when Solara started to exile its criminals to the planet's six surrounding moons, which were Volcrim, Constantina, Celestra, Trisa, Morgaza, and Cynesa. Because of the lack of order and denser criminal activity around and on them, the moons were constantly warring with each other.

     After days of trying to contact him over several secret communication networks, Ezrith got another surprise call from Max. Max's call was in the form of an encrypted message that was a little distorted. In the message, Max said that he had been on the run from corrupt Plumoritan Brigade bounty hunters ever since they last spoke. Right after the dragonwing attack, a few of Baino's men caught up with Max while he was trying to leave the solar system. He said that when they detained him they tortured him for a week, trying to get him to tell them whatever he told Ezrith at his retirement party weeks ago. He supposed that they suspected he or Ezrith had something to do with the Shinobi Nobles' attack on Baino's fleet. Max also told Ezrith that the media was portraying him and Ezrith as "renegades" to the Star Brigade with possible criminal ties to the Shinobi Nobles. He said that the media was calling Baino Helzer "a fallen hero". He also said that he lost some weight due to a lack of food and sleep deprivation in Zynnis' asylum ward where the Brigade had been holding him. But Max swore that he would never give Baino's men any leverage on Ezrith. He then told Ezrith that his (Ezrith's) mother was also in great danger from corrupt Brigade bounty hunters in the Euvorix solar system. That sect of the Star Brigade, he stated, operated with deep criminal ties to several outlaw bands. After that, the message was suddenly cut short.

    Ezrith told his men: "We need to get to the Euvorix system to find my mother before they kill her!" For more than twenty years, Ezrith's mother was a planet-hopping master of disguises who had traveled from Pumorita to the Euvorix system with help from some trustees of Kengi's. She successfully evaded corrupt Brigade agents who were given orders from high up to kill her, often for reasons that they weren't even told.  Max's coordinates to where Ezrith's mother had been hiding turned out to be on a Euvorixan water planet called "The Aquapolis". Soon, Ezrith was finding out about the many enemies he was gaining. Some of which were joining forces. He figured he had more prices on his head than he could keep track of. But he was still gaining more and more trust from the higher ranks. Thus, he gained more respect from those in the Brigade who would die before being corrupted, which gave him many resources for his cause. So the sound of his name, which buzzed through the galaxy, came with some respect. 

    Ratch suggested to Ezrith: "I say we try and hi-jack the Stargate space bridge. So Ezrith and his men came up with a plan to get to the Euvorix by way of the spacebridge. If Ezrith and his fleet hadn't been considered renegades to the Star Brigade, they would've been able to legitimately use the space bridge through a few steps of authorization. But that didn't at all stop Ezrith's determination. It only fueled it.