She focused her thoughts even more and pair of violet ethereal katars appeared, like they always did when she was angered.  The weapons themselves glowed around her fists and a little bit of her forearms.  They were like tiny tridents in her hands, the middle point considerably longer than the other two, while the side points were pried outward, so they seemed to point at a diagonal. It worked! Echo thought.  I can’t believe I did it!

Someone stepped through the door and looked around.  He spotted Echo, through the dark visor of the mask most PDF officers wore.  She saw him go for his taser, but didn’t let him grab it, punching him.  The ethereal weapon tore straight through his Kevlar armor.  There was very little blood from the attack, but it still spattered over his body.  She kicked him back and the PDF was dead.  As soon as she’d kicked him though, there was a loud whooping sound from the body.


“Officer down!” the radio on the dead PDF cracked.  “Officer down!  District Seven, structure five-six-two, second floor.  All available units, respond!”

“Oh, great,” she sighed, looking for an out.  Echo grabbed the gun from the PDF and smashed it through the window.  The glass broke a little.  She finally kicked it, making the glass shatter, before climbing out onto the thin window pane.  A bullet grazed her and she almost lost her footing, but she managed to stay there.  She looked around, seeing the street below.  A few PDFs were there still.  She could only guess that the other PDF officers were coming up the stairs.  Echo glanced over, seeing the rusty fire-escape.  It led to the roof and she knew there was one on the other side.  If she was quick, she thought she might just be able to get away.

“There!” someone on the ground shouted.  “Lock ‘n load boys!”

Echo moved as close as she could to the fire-escape before jumping.  She fell forward, just managing to grab the edge of it.  A PDF ran to an armored car and talked with someone.  “Code Avenger!” another PDF shouted.  “Code Avenger!” he shouted again.


Echo’s feet landed on the gating.  She heard a bullet ricochet off one of the bars of the fire escape.  She didn’t wait and quickly climbed the stairs.  Another bullet actually landed in her arm.  Echo didn’t notice it though, the adrenaline of the host-body keeping her from feeling the pain.  She soon reached the roof and jumped over the small wall of it and ran toward the other side and stopped.

“No!” she groaned.  There were more PDFs climbing up it.  Echo turned around, looking for an out, but she knew she’d probably have to fight.

“Freeze, citizen!” a PDF ordered, raising his pistol.

Echo didn’t listen to him and ran back to the other side, jumping.  She hoped to have managed to get onto the gating of the fire-escape, but had overshot it.  She grabbed a ledge on the building behind the one she had been in, but her grip wasn’t strong enough and she fell.


“Look out!” a PDF shouted.

A second PDF looked up, but wasn’t fast enough.  Echo landed right on top of him.  His gun went off.  She quickly got to her feet and looked at the other PDF.  He had a patrol rifle and had it aimed at her.  

“Remain still,” he ordered.

Like the one on the roof, she had no intention of doing so and quickly got to her feet.  A bullet bounced off the asphalt at her feet.

“Hands where I can see them! I won’t ask again!”

She slowly did so.  “Leave me alone,” she pleaded.  “Please.  I didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, right.”

Echo whimpered.  Almost instantaneously, her eyes flashed with a purple light.  A single bolt of dark energy jumped from her palms and hit the PDF.  Again there was a loud whooping sound as he fell.  She shook her head and ran again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Arbiter Gaump waited for the tram to come to a stop before standing up.  He watched the two cockatrikin stand.  The history of these soldiers was well-known.  They were one of the few Breed still able to change into their human forms.  It seemed very strange Gaump though.  Even though The Breed had only existed for a few hundred years, they seemed to already be falling.  Rebels and conspirators were moving through the society, demons had overrun Europe, while the lowly Naga and Arachnians had somehow eradicated all civilization from Asia and Africa.

These two cockatrikin were special.  They were members of The Emperor’s Guard.  He remembered in Breed Lore, how Scarab the First had two cockatrikin, the first cockatrikin, when they were known only as Spitting-Basilisk Hosts. Both cockatrikin had been great heroes to The Cause in early Breed history.  As a reward for their service, they had been chosen to be his personal guard.  When they had passed away, their children embraced the power of being the Emperor’s personal guard.  Now only the strongest cockatrikin would ever be inducted into The Praetorian Guard.  Every member of The Praetorian Guard were given much more ornate and impressive armor.  Each wore a cloak woven from ultralight Kevlar and their helms had a rooster-like crest.  The tram slowly came to a stop.  One of the guards approached him.

“Lord Gaump,” the guard said, “Kovius wishes to speak with you regarding what happened today.”

“Can it wait?” Gaump asked.  “The Emperor has requested my presence.”

“Yes Lord.”

“Tell him I shall meet with him immediately afterwards.”

“Yes, Lord.”  The guard slammed his right fist against the upper left panel of his ceramic body-armor and stood at attention.  After a second or so, he lowered his fist and turned, promptly heading to speak with his captain.

“You know the way, Lord,” the other guard said.  “My orders leave me here.”

“Good,” Gaump replied.  “Carry-on.”

The Guard saluted like his compatriot had beforehand, but held it until Gaump had left the train car.


It was good to be back in Haragath, the capitol of The Breed Empire.  Several of the structures were crafted out of stone and had a definite Romanesque feel to them.  Some were built of cement while others were from synthetic materials.  He walked along one of the streets to the Emperor’s Palace.  It was quiet at this time of day, for children were still in school, while shopkeepers, merchants and artisans had closed their shops.  Gaump knew the streets of Haragath well.  There were no cars, trucks or other machinery on these streets.  Public transportation via electric monorails was provided and efficient enough that everyone could get where they were going.  There were no humans, orcs, trolls or elves here.  Imperial Law decreed that only slaves of these races would be allowed inside.  As he walked, he saw a few people talking, wearing simple clothing.  One wore a robe of sorts that bore a strange symbol on the left breast of it.  Gaump knew it was a chimerkin.  If it weren’t for the visor of his mask, he would have seen the man as a half-human half-winged chimera.  Like cockatrikin, chimerkin could also disguise their true forms.  He also knew some hybrids could not and those he saw like any other would.  He’d see a minotaur as just that, rather than a massive man.


He looked through the dark visor of his fully-encasing helmet.  Few had ever seen his face, not even The Emperor had.  Being in such a high position of power, Gaump rarely had to ask The Emperor for permission for anything.  He walked toward the palace, seeing two more cockatrikin salute him as he passed.  They held long spears in their hands, along with large, door-shaped shields, called scutums, making them appear like Roman soldiers.  


He continued, seeing the palace was mostly deserted.  Its amazing halls and stone walls shone brightly in the artificial light from the ceiling.  Gaump walked into a room with a dome-shaped roof.  There were three sets of stairs, each going upwards.  As he walked toward the one at the other end of the room, he spotted some seteshens.  They had been named for their resemblance to the Egyptian god Seth, and were speaking about their magical arts, or comparing the length of their anteater-like noses or rabbit-like ears.  

Gaump couldn’t tell, nor did he care.  His place was in the forge that was war, not the sanctum of learning.  He passed them and entered the throne-room.  There, among masked men and women sat at two long tables.  Each table had a small computer of sorts on it.  In-between the tables were an open area.  At the end of that open area, sat an imposing figure.  He had bright yellow eyes and wore a mask that looked like the head of a beetle.  The bulbous eyes of the mask were on his head, while the mandibles came in around his cheeks.  He wore a gold mask under the mandibles and watched his general come forth.  

This man was Emperor Horatio Scarab: Fifth Emperor of The Breed Empire and third to bear the name of the First Emperor.


“Lord Vradeus Gaump,” The Emperor said, standing to greet his warrior.  “How went the operation?”

“Well Lord,” Gaump replied.  “There were a few who asked to surrender, but per your orders, they were killed.”  He sighed.  “Lord, you know that I do not approve of such frivolous use of Omega-One plans when dealing with these partisans.  Such actions may ultimately have a reverse effect, drawing more to their cause and they may be much more dangerous…”

“Your concerns are known, General.  You have voiced them before, but they do not understand reason.  Throughout all of our history, not a single human or any other animal like them has shown compassion to our kind.  Why should we not return the favor?”


“Pre-Empire History, July 23, 2019,” he cited.  “The attempted capture of terrorist Osama bin Laden.  He and every one of his guard were killed in the attempt.  Other Al-Qaeda operatives pinned the murder on The Tyrants.  Osama was seen as a martyr and the way The Tyrants were occupied with his forces were one of the reasons, allowing us to rise to power, undetected.”

“That is ancient history General.  And we know now Al-Qaeda was merely a ruse for The Blacksun Crime Syndicate; both of which, might I add, no longer exist thanks to our might and The Cataclysm.”

“All the underbreeds need is a savior to rally around Lord.”

“Let them come.  Then, kill them all.”  He walked back to his throne and sat down.  “I first must deal with other problems.  The Consuls Tribunals are demanding funding for additional research into chronomancy and our orbital program.”