Ambrosia Software Web Board: Ares Chronicles: The Slice, Part 1 (By Cicion) - Ambrosia Software Web Board

The interior of the Nijayias Border listening station was quiet. A few cargo ships that had already been cleared and were proceeding into the Nijayias Empire. The scanners were empty. Suddenly, there was a small fuzz on the scanner screen. Then it disappeared. The sentry, knowing that his shift ended in thirty seconds, forced himself to dissmiss it as nothing and, thirty seconds later, forgot about it in deep sleep. Meanwhile, just outside, Pure Taeskor Traek Cicion smiled to himself as his cloaked one-man vessel sped along. "I knew I could trust those sentries to be a little relaxed." No hostile ships had passed the Nijayias border in several hundred years, and the guards had not had much to do in a long time.
Not that Cicion's ship was hostile. He was on an infiltration mission, but it was not espionage he had been sent to do, it was investigation. The High Octicon, sole governing body of the Phylydion Stellar Imperium, had lost almost all contact with the Nijayias in the past months, and they voted unanimously that Traek go on the mission immediately. Cicion agreed eagerly not only because he was concerned about the safety of the PSI, but also because Admiral Darkk, the Nijayias Head of the Navy, was a close friend. He snapped back to the present as his ship approached an outlying Nijayias planet. He needed to refuel and get something to eat. This was the perfect place. He brought his ship down slowly, and settled it just outside of a small town on the dry planet. One thing he liked about this was that he didn't have to wear a disguise. Besides the short blue cape, nothing on a Pure Taeskor's uniform looked anything but ordinary. Just a grey jumpsuit and black boots. Shedding his cape, he proceeded into town. He walked into a bar, hoping to find other Phylydions, but doubting it. It was a dusty, low-tech bar, with a bartender who looked like he couldn't hurt a fly but with fifteen patrons who looked exceedingly like they could. Armed with various weapons, they all gave him nasty grins, obviously believing Cicion to be a harmless foreigner whom they might have some fun with later. #If they only knew,# Cicion thought to himself, feeling the very small weight of his dagger in his sleeve.
- TO BE CONTINUED.