Risen: Shatterverse

Chapter 1: Echoes of the Past

"The first drakes were all DNA bonded to the original Risen leadership," a thar'kura on the side opposite the drake, pointed out. She was also a female if I were to go by her voice. She too stared after the mecha, her expression unreadable.

"The bonding gave each a certain perspective, a way of looking at things colored by their connection. I'll let you guess which one she was bonded to."

"Max Niekro," I whispered in realization as my borrowed memories suddenly helped me recognize the mecha. "That was Naveaia."

"Bingo," the female thar'kura replied. Then she was reaching over to give me a slap on the shoulder.

"Don't let her rattle you, friend. There's still lots of time to do what you came here to do. If you can do it with even the slightest sliver of skill and ability that once belonged to the man you came from, then you'll be pretty damn awesome."

I returned her friendly look and found myself smiling in return.

"Thanks," I said, the small bit of sincere gratitude making a smile of her own appear.

"No trouble. Just keep your head down. The Collector has a thing for sucking essences out of echoes and neo-shells. You'll need to hold on to yours, if you want to survive this campaign." Then she too was gone as the assembled soldiery began shifting to file into the modular bunk-downs somebody had set up on either side of the bay.

Spotting the sign that was directing me to my assigned billet, I hitched my backpack up and hung a left. No point in worrying about the Collector and what it could do to me until I was looking that genocidal maniac dead in its face. Pushing aside further thought about the mad god, I focused on getting to my billet, which, by the looks of things, was the target of a good number of those around me. By the time I had climbed up the metal steps into the big shoebox-shaped bunkdown, it was already just about full.

"Well, well, what do we have here," a hard male voice said from somewhere close to the box's front end. "Another Legion wannabe that's come to play soldier with the big boys."

Tossing my backpack onto an empty bunk, I let my eyes scan over the expectant faces looking my way. So it was going to be that way, huh? Fine by me. If there was one thing my memories did teach me, it was how to handle dominance issues in a barracks. Especially when it came to Risen.

Finding the face belonging to the voice by virtue of the sneer he wore, I threw a grin on.

"Oh shit! Only play soldiers are allowed here? Then I'm definitely in the wrong place!" I retorted, earning myself a couple laughs and not a few low 'ooooo's' of astonishment as all the faces twisted around to look at the sneering fellow, a Risen Transcended if I wasn't mistaken. My reply instantly put a mask of anger on his face in place of the sneer.

"A smartass on top of being a tin can," the Risen male snarled, springing out of his bunk to step smartly towards me until we were nose to nose. "If we weren't allies ..."

"You'd ask me to dance?" I interjected with a straight face. "That is the reason why you're so close, right?"

The Risen's face tightened even further.

"Considering that you're only one step removed from being a k'ethik drone, you've got a lot to say. If you had seen as much battle as I have against your kind ..."

"And how much battle is that, exactly?" I interrupted to ask, my eyes narrowing.

Instead of answering, however, the male flipped it around onto me.

"Just how much battle have you seen, tin can?" he fired back, determined to turn this exchange into a pissing contest. "How many fights have you been in?"

I found a thin smile making its way onto my face.

"All of them," I declared with enough blunt conviction that all those watching the exchange leaned forward, eyes narrowed as they examined my face with intent for the first time since I walked in.

"By the Earth Mother, that's Two, Max's clone!" a hoarse voice said from somewhere behind the Risen male that was confronting me. The quiet declaration was enough to make my opponent's eyes abruptly widen in realization even as it triggered a wave of whispering amongst our comrades.

"Oh shit!" he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper of his own.

"Yeah," I replied, my thin smile widening slightly as he took a hasty step from. "I see you remember how Max liked to deal with attitude problems in the barracks." I turned slightly to looked at those now staring at me. "Anybody else want to question my presence here? No? I thought not." And with that, I hopped onto my bunk and laid down to silently stare at the ceiling.

"Risen and their attitudes, right?" a voice beneath me said as the crowd, still muttering about what had just happened, began to break up. "It's like they get jazzed on goa and start thinking they're the only ones that can fight or something."

I frowned.

"I suppose," I replied without taking my eyes off the nondescript ceiling. Apparently that was some sort of invitation because, a heartbeat later, a silver head popped up beside me.

"Hi," he said brightly, holding out a hand. "I'm Terrence Kennedy."

Turning my head enough to first look at him in the face, then at the hand, I hesitantly reached out to take it.

"Two," I replied. "You an echo?"

Terrence gave my hand a firm shake even as he nodded.

"Pleased to meet you, Two. Yeah, I was a young, gay black man that was raped and beaten to death in South Carolina in the early 60's."

"Oh shit!" I breathed in equal parts horror and astonishment. "That's a horrible way to go." Then I abruptly frowned. "Considering that's pretty fresh for an echo, you don't seem to be consumed by anger, fear and pain like a fresh one generally is."

Terrence shrugged even as he smiled.

"Second chances don't have room for regret and anger, Two," he replied pragmatically. "Being a second chance yourself, I'm sure you get that."

I grunted before rolling back over to return my gaze to the ceiling. Buddy, I'm still trying to figure out what I am. I don't need to be throwing second chance bullshit in on top of that.

Unperturbed by me turning away from him, Terrence continued to stand beside my bunk, a smile on his face. Feeling him still standing there, I gave him a couple minutes to go away before I finally turned my face back towards him.

"Am I missing something?" I asked with a frown. Terrence's smile, if anything, got bigger at the question.

"Nah. Just pumped to finally meet you is all," he replied, deepening my frown by saying so. "Not to mention, we silver skins need to stick together."

"Yeah, about that," I began before being interrupted by a loud klaxon.

"All hands, all personnel, stand by to pass through wormhole space into the Collectorverse," a male voice announced from speakers scattered throughout the bay with enough volume to send echoes cascading in every direction. "I repeat, we're about to pass through our wormhole into enemy territory. All on-duty personnel to your battle stations. All on-duty personnel to your battle stations!"

"Here we go!" Terrence announced in a voice filled with excitement before abruptly disappearing, leaving me to glower at the space he so recently occupied. Man, he was way too cheerful to be a ghost! Then everything was disappearing in a rush of color and sound. The last thing I remembered thinking before I blacked out was: 'I don't remember a wormhole transition doing this!'

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