PD-Universe Eternal Ch.1

Chapter 1
Planet Lycania


“So the project begins?”

“Ahead of schedule, yes. It was quite easy to track down the nearest signal. I hope the others will be so easily found.”

“So, a raid? What do you think? A handful of C-Class operatives?”

“That hardly seems necessary. It’s just one target, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then just send a Class G operative.”

“A ‘flunkie?’ Are you sure we should send a dreg for a task like this?”

“It’s better in the long run. If it fails, we won’t lose a good operative. They’re all trained for missions like this.”

“If you say so. We can’t risk many losses. If this first plan fails, we might need to be a bit more careful.”

“Feh, whatever. Just start this one.”
********************

Camis woke up in his bed, the same as any other day. He fixed the covers, the same as any other day. He brushed his teeth, the same as any other day. When he looked in the mirror, he saw the reflection of a lupine head staring back at him, attached to a humanoid body covered in a soft brown fur, with a tail protruding from his posterior, the same as any other day.

Of course, it was obvious he didn’t wake up on Earth. People didn’t do that every day, and if it were to suddenly happen, there would be reports, mobs, religious fanatics spreading heresy about armageddon, and just all around bad things.

So, to clear up this matter, he woke up and got dressed and ate breakfast all on a planet far from Earth, called Lycania.

Lycania was a relatively unimportant forested planet. Of course, it had tons of grand technology, and wasn’t very backwater in any way. The inhabitants, the half-wolf Lycanians, lived mostly in the trees, but their cities were stationed in small cleared areas on the ground, so that tourists could travel freely.

So, other than the fact that it was on a planet other than Earth in which Camis woke up, it was a very normal action.

Camis did the rest of his daily routines that he normally did. He showered, made and ate his breakfast, and packed up his laptop and Lunar Orb into his backpack. Why he brought his Lunar Orb with him, when all it did was keep him alive off-world by feeding him lunar radiation that his body needed to function, was just a simple fluke, something he never thought about.

Camis walked out of his tree-home and took an elevator to the planet’s surface. Once he got to the ground, he wandered through the vast forest until he got to another building. This one, unlike others, was situated on the ground. Its roof was a dome, instead of being a slightly flat octagon. It was, in fact, Camis’ school.

He wasn’t yet old enough to acquire a job in his city, only being around 2 in Lycanian years, and 15 by the increasingly popular Earth-based years, so he was forced to do mind-bending tests and quizzes, and learn about pointless Lycanian history, which mostly consisted of farming and the occasional war…only about 5 in the history of Lycanian civilization. The only things that kept Camis somewhat awake were 4-D Geometry and Hacking classes, plus Battle class.

Camis walked in through the front door, subconsciously hating its height. It wasn’t too tall or short, but rather, that was why Camis hated it. Camis, short for even a Lycanian, was constantly hassled about his 4’ 9” stature. He wasn’t midget-like, but rather, he still looked like a smaller child. About the only people who didn’t joke about his height were his friends, and even they would let a short joke pass by.

His friends.

Camis forgot that his friends were waiting for him in front of the school, or rather, had been about an hour ago. Wake up early…Camis smacked himself in the forehead for forgetting that he was supposed to meet them earlier.

Knowing that they were probably going to ridicule him for forgetting, Camis had nothing else to do but head to his classroom.

The building was organized in a circular pattern. From a top view, it would look like a three-ring target. The first and second would be classes, organized in “slices” all the way around the building until they met up with the entrance again. There were restrooms, a library, and an office also scattered in slices. The middle section was a large walkway filled with tables, benches, and various fauna. Since the dome on top was transparent, it almost gave the impression of being outside, if not for the metal and plastic.

Camis headed for room 129, which was at the other end of the school. Typical. Camis almost wondered if the schedules were created to exhaust students even more, and then realized that with the various actions of the school, he probably wasn’t too far off.

Inside the room, it was nearly empty. This was typical, people usually didn’t come in until about 3 minutes before 1st call. The only ones in the room were Camis’ friends, obviously waiting for him to enter.

“Sleep well, Camis?” Mephis jostled.

“I thought you might come in late, so I took some notes on what we discussed,” Amyal joked.

“So…any excuse for yourself?” Hylia asked jokingly.

Camis smiled. It was typical for his friends to act as if he wasn’t needed in their daily discussions. Mephis, a skinny brown-furred Lycanian like Camis always began the joking by pointing out how Camis overslept. Then, Amyal, a tall blue-furred Lycanian, would say something that would signify that Camis wasn’t needed in the discussions. Finally, Hylia, a tomboy female vulpine (fox-like) would let Camis futilely try to defend himself.

He walked over to their desks, which were all fairly close together.

“Yeah, yeah, I woke up knowing what was coming up, and decided that I’d rather sleep than talk to you,” Camis smiled back. He usually joked that doing the morning discussions wasn’t worth his time.

“Well, as long as you’re well rested, I guess we can let you get by again,” Amyal laughed.

“So, seriously, what did you discuss?” Camis asked. “What are we doing after school today?”

Hylia smugly sat back in her chair. “Oh, nothing much. Just thinking about Going to Eastside,” she said, seemingly not caring.

Camis felt a rush of slight anxiety run through him. Eastside…wasn’t that where his parents…

“We were thinking about going to Varsal City, and it’s the fastest route. I have a few Hovers available…Camis…are you OK?” Mephis stopped.

Camis found himself staring at the floor, shaking slightly. He attempted to recompose himself, but found that it was harder than it looked.

“Oh…sorry, Camis…I forgot,” Hylia said, feeling pity. “That’s where Camis’ parents disappeared 8 years ago.”

“WHAT?! Whose idea was it to go, then?” Amyal looked shocked.

“It’s…it’s OK,” Camis said, getting up. He was tired of doing this every time that part of the forest was mentioned. Everytime one of his friends showed him pity, Camis felt as if they were treating him more as a child than a member of the group. It wasn’t a conscious feeling, though, so Camis didn’t blame them. “I can handle it today.”

“S…sorry, Camis,” Hylia said, looking ashamed.

It was then that the first bell rang, people began coming in, filling the seats. Various Lycanians, and of course, other species from other planets, filled the empty D.E.S.C.s. D.E.S.C. stood for “Direct Electronic School-use Desk,” and was basically just that, a desk with a port for a laptop to connect to, so that teachers could send information to the laptops directly.

The teacher shuffled in, walking straight and stiff, with his arms behind his back. Camis concealed a laugh. The teacher, Mr. Amyrinos, reminded him a lot of a Lycanian general, and probably, since he wore the traditional markings of green stripes on the side of his face, which signified general status, he probably was one.

“Ok, students, DESC up. Prepare to download your history assignments,” he ordered. Of course, everybody complied. Everyone, that is, except for Camis, Mephis, Hylia, and Amyal.

The four logged on into Free-Chat, an instant message board.

“So, it looks like another idiotic lesson on the 3rd War,” Mephis typed.

“Yeah. Why don’t they at least have us study recent history, like the Shadoh Uprising, or the Stuff Inc. fraud?” Amyal typed back.

“So, anything worth looking at? Star charts? Starship locations? Anything?” Camis asked via the room. It was common for Amyal to occasionally hack the government database for any comings and goings, just in case anything interesting was being imported or exported. It was their main form of entertainment during History class. Since Amyal was Camis’ first friend, Camis usually got the radar pictures first.

Of course, the teacher always saw right through this.

“Is there something…interesting about this assignment? I’ve never seen you express so much interest in wars, Camis,” Mr. Amyrinos said slowly, to both get the class’ attention and to get some dramatic effect.

Camis looked up slowly, at first not realizing that he was being addressed. At the exact moment he looked up, Amyal typed, not entirely knowing what was going on in reality at the time.

“Here, Camis, you might want to see this,” he typed, though Camis didn’t see the message.

“So? Are you going to speak?” Mr. Amyrinos persisted. “If you like this History Assignment so much, how about another one?”

He walked back to his Teacher’s DESC and sent another assignment file to Camis’ DESC. He had never liked how Camis seemed to think he could get away with anything. This would be a perfect opportunity to put him in his place.

Camis just stared at Mr. Amyrinos angrily. Usually he was able to think of a good excuse, but he was tapped out now. Why couldn’t he think of anything now?

“Camis, you should really look at this…a new ship just docked…it has a Shadoh Empire code…” Amyal frantically typed.

Camis looked down at his computer in self-annoyance and finally saw the messages from Amyal. The new 3000-word essay wasn’t a problem at all, but the new ship arriving was a big deal.

Why was a Shadoh Empire ship landing on Lycania? The only possible conclusion Camis could draw was that they were going to do a Raid. Unfortunately, Raids were when outside Black Market dealers came to Lycania to abduct Lycanians as slaves. The only reason they preferred Lycanians over any other species were: 1, their increased athletic ability and endurance, and 2, they gave in to very high pitched sounds, and could therefore be easily be controlled. These evil Raids had been going on for millennia, and there was no sign of stopping, not even now, with Lycania under Galactic Protection.

Camis made a quick glance that even the teacher didn’t see over to Amyal. He looked frightened; therefore, there must be something else he knew. Camis decided to drop it for the duration of this class.
********************

Camis met up with his friends later at Battle Class. As his favorite, Camis was usually looking forward to these lessons. They were outside the school, on a small, rectangular field surrounded by trees, and were each supplied a fake weapon. Of course, Camis had his real sword, just in case someone else tried to blind side him, as bullies usually did to prove their superiority, but he kept it within his backpack, hidden away.

Today, however, something else had his attention. Absolutely no one was anywhere near the field, or even on school grounds, so it seemed. Camis walked up to Amyal, Hylia, and Mephis, who were talking nervously with each other.

“So, what else has been discovered?” Camis asked hastily.

“We don’t know. Class was spontaneously cancelled, but the fake weapons are still here,” Hylia explained.

“Not only that, but the ship has landed somewhere close by. There’s no doubt that everyone’s hiding,” Amyal said.

“So…what do we do?” asked Mephis.

“Well, personally, I think we should…” Amyal planned, before he was cut off by the ground exploding beside him. He was thrown only a few feet, but he bashed his knee upon ground contact. He crumpled into a heap after that.

“What the…?!” Camis yelled, jumping back. Whatever had been shot was probably a laser, seeing as it left a circular hole in the trees it shot through. Of course, behind it, was a humanoid mech with all the cool toys. Rocket launchers, laser beams, capture rings. It wasn’t hard for Camis to realize that this was a Lycanian Capturing Mech. It stomped forwards onto the battlefield.

“Well…look what we have here…it looks like some dogs didn’t escape with the others,” the mech said, or rather, the man standing beside its leg.

Everything about the way he was dressed told Camis that he was a lackey. He was severely over muscled, but not tall or bold enough to look important. He wore a blue uniform that must have belonged to at least 10 other “expendables” before him, and a helmet that covered his eyes with a visor.

“I am the great Goud, G-Class operative of the grand Shadoh Empire!” bellowed the man, grinning as if he had won some great battle. “I am here with orders to capture a kid named Camis, and by the looks of it, that’s you!”

The man pointed at Camis, and the mech shot a capture ring at Camis, who barely dodged it. Camis drew his sword and dashed at Goud, but he was immediately knocked aside by the mech’s hand. The other hand instantly grabbed him.

Suddenly, the hand holding Camis shattered. Falling, Camis saw that Hylia and Mephis had picked up weapons, a Laser Cannon and a Pike, respectively. Camis knew that Hylia could fight well enough, but he had always thought Mephis to be a pacifist. Oh well, Camis thought, can’t judge the rescuers.

Camis fell to the ground on his feet, a trick he had learned in Battle Class, but was unable to stop what happened next.

Thick wires flew from the mech and grabbed Amyal, who had just begun to sit up. He gasped as the coils squeezed the air out of him, and flailed his arms and his working leg to escape, but with no luck.

“No!” Camis said.

“Now…now…I gave you a chance to come quietly. You forced me to injure your friend,” Goud smirked. “Do you give up?”

“Camis would never give up to a slave dealer like you!” Mephis screamed.

Goud frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said with a pretend sadness.

More wires came from the mech and grabbed Mephis and Hylia. Though they had been better prepared than Amyal, they still didn’t expect to be grabbed by the wires.

“Gah!” the three shouted as electricity coursed through the wires.

“So, are you ready to come now?” Goud laughed.

“Don’t do it!” Hylia yelled.

“We aren’t worth that torture!” Mephis yelled.

“Camis! Don’t!” Amyal said through his compound pain.

It became deathly silent for a few moments, other than the machinery inside the mech and Camis’ breathing. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t live in a life without his friends, and there was no guarantee Goud would let them go.

“Oh, and if you’re worried about your friends, don’t worry. I could care less if they went off to tell authorities about this incident. I don’t need them for what we’re planning,” Goud explained with a greedy smile.

Camis still hesitated for a moment.

“F-fine…I’ll go with you,” Camis said. The others began to argue and protest, but Goud shocked them again with electricity and set them down.

“Very good decision. Thank you kindly for your cooperation,” Goud beamed. The mech shot another capture ring, but this time, Camis didn’t dodge.

Amyal, Mephis, and Hylia could only watch as Camis was loaded into a compartment in the mech, Goud pressed a few buttons, and they both teleported away, probably to a ship nearby. Things went silent again for a moment.

“Damnit!” Amyal yelled, slamming his fists to the ground, though it hurt to do so. “I couldn’t even save him…”

“None of us could…” Mephis said.

Hylia began to cry silently, her eyes flowing with tears without sobbing.

“Let’s only hope that Camis can get out of this mess…” she said.

And the ship that had appeared so suddenly, sped away rather quickly.

http://www.freewebs.com/lycanian_traveler/