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The Civilization Long Past Gone

Before the two of them was a big city both of them had never seen before, as it looked otherworldly, as if they were in an entirely different universe. Many aliens of unknown races crowded the road, doing their daily lives without even looking at the two of them, who were different from the rest of them. Many of the aliens had no visible anatomies that resembled any known animals in Terra or even any Federation members' planets. They were different in all aspects.

Yet despite of that, Dairyu was particularly more interested with how the technologies were actually used. The aliens used crystals for their own daily lives, ranging from food processing to vehicles. The crystals had a different assortment of colors, ranging from obsidian, emerald, ruby, and even azure, and they were used accordingly with what kind of devices they were used. One device could even store up to three to four crystals.

"Something like this is inside my mind all the time?" said Dairyu, surprised.

"No, this is merely the one inside the red stone you touched," said Atho. "This explains the old ruins we uncovered during the establishments of this colony."

"You're here when this colony is being built? That might take..."

"I am a historian and a soldier, so the knowledge of these findings is shared by the forefathers of this colony."

"So all of you are historians?"

"Only for those who wishes to be one."

One of the aliens then make a ruckus, before running towards where Dairyu was standing. At that position, Dairyu could take on the snatcher with his sword. But when he managed to swing his sword, it went through, as with the sword, before some of the aliens, clearly with tentacles, strung out their appendages to apprehend the snatcher. The aliens were clearly different from the others, appearing with black color and somehow were a mix between an alien and another. This scenery, alongside the physical appearance of the aliens, made Dairyu realized what they were.

"Impossible.... They were sentient in the ancient civilization?"

"It seems so."

One of the aliens then approached the snatcher, and said, "Give back that purse, thief."

"Fuck you!" exclaimed the smaller, more agile alien that looked like a cross between a fly and a man. "I need the money for living!"

"Stealing is not one of the options, Hendilasian," said the alien again.

"I don't care, you fucking abomination!"

The scene suddenly became blurred as the echo of the crowd began to disperse. The scene became white all of the sudden, before it slowly darkened into the dark scenery both of them were in before. Upon returning, Dairyu felt sick, but he didn't have the same effect from before.

"A Hendilasian? Is that one of the insectoids out there?"

"Hendilasians are...unknown. I don't even remember if any of them ever lived in this planet."

"Yet, surprisingly, I don't even know if they're existed, alongside a good portion of the aliens in that scene. But the use of crystals...that's like something out of a fantasy story. This red one somehow worked like a database of memories of some sort."

"Then what do you want to do with it?"

"We can't risk bringing those aliens with us, so my call is to destroy..."

Dairyu sensed a difference of pressure in the air and drew his gun out to a direction. Without hesitating he shot to the darkness and a shriek was heard. He quickly used a flare and lighted the cave, where there were a group of infected Rendloks trying to get to him. Dairyu was quick enough to send some flying with low-level air manipulation, creating a gust of strong wind equal to a tornado to sweep some away. He quickly grabbed Atho's smaller body and started running up the spiral passageway, cutting through their ranks along the way.

Atho didn't take the role of a helpless victim. While being grabbed by Dairyu, he used his pistols on all four of his hands to shoot the jumping infected Rendloks, occasionally wincing on each shot. He threw a grenade to them, sending a big explosion that momentarily lighted their way.

After fighting through the group, they managed to find the opening, but they found out that the door was stuck when Atho closed it. Dairyu quickly devised a plan, and he used his sword to cut through the door and kicked it away. Yet outside, they were met with more of the infected Rendloks.

"Just how many Rendloks are in your colony?!"

"My colony had around 500 Rendloks."

"So the Rendlok survivors we managed to get..."

Atho nodded on approval, which made Dairyu feel hopeless.

"You're just lucky to be able to get away from them," said Dairyu while sheathing his sword. "I'll make sure you're one of the survivors."

"I appreciate it, but we won't be survivors if we can't get out of..."

"Capisa, can you see my position on the interface? Drop the hatch and we'll do the rest."

Dairyu knew his ship better than the new Aquros, so he wished that Capisa wasn't tampering with the functions of his ship and get to his position faster. Despite of his abilities, years of neglecting the training had taken the toll on him, though he wished he could still use THAT particular technique.

He realized that it might be too late for Capisa to fly there, so he wanted to empty his rifle's canisters to at least kill some of them. Atho had done that first, shooting around with his laser rifle, yet both knew it couldn't hold, especially if they were talking about 488 Rendloks currently surrounding them from both behind and the front.

Surprisingly, Capisa arrived earlier than expected. Without any more delay, Dairyu grabbed Atho and quickly summoned his will to use a particular technique that he was trying to master, with no progress.

A strong swirl of wind suddenly formed around Dairyu, and with great effort, the Orient managed to make a jump, helped by the small tornado that propelled him up. With a little wind manipulation he managed to force his body into the ship. Within the ship, he pulled out a sphere from a compartment beside him and threw it down while closing the hatch. There was a strong explosion, followed by a shock experienced by the whole ship, where it made a rocky movement.

In no time at all, they managed to go out from orbit and went into FTL speed. All of them made a sigh of relief, including the equivalent of clicking to the Rendloks.

"That's one hell of a close call, huh? That move costs you 5 percent of your hull integrity, and we really must repair this ship before it breaks apart mid-flight," said Capisa while still manipulating the controls. "I think I know why your ship is in a very bad shape."

"Just concentrate on the flight." Then Dairyu returned to Atho. "Where do you want to be dropped?"

"There's a nearby trade colony, assuming that it isn't infected or having the same red stone, too," said Atho, before he gasped.

"Atho, what do you mean a red stone?"

"Shit, I'm not supposed to talk about..."

"That 'blowing the planet' thing of yours was a lie, wasn't it? We are not capable of such thing yet. Are you..."

"No I'm not! There's not in a million light years I'll be harassing another race!"

"Wait, he's just trying to talk about the source of the danger to me, a reliable ally," said Dairyu through his mind, though he tried to suppress the thought of being surprised when Atho dropped his polite manner.

The elder Rendlok gave them the coordinates and they were dropped in a planet in Space Sector B6. They thanked the two of them, yet they were given a complete surprise when Atho stayed in the ship.

"Oi, you're not supposed to be here. Your brethren are down there," said Dairyu to Atho. The insectoid just cleaned his pistols like it was normal for him to do it. His vertical slit pupil had since dilated after the fight. He was somehow very calm, yet somehow the occupants of the ship weren't all that thrilled.

"I have silently discussed it with them. They give me the permission to follow you, if you need any mind-reading to do. Besides, I want to help you in this galaxy-wide investigation, and I know what your intention is to find a Rendlok," said Atho.

"At least you don't have any nasty intentions," said Capisa after activating the autopilot. "When Dairyu said he needs to find a Rendlok, I was interested if the rumor of your ability is true, but talking through my mind is enough to convince myself."

"If you want to help, then start with my previous memory," said Dairyu.

Without hesitation, Atho touched Dairyu's hand using one of his hands. Dairyu suddenly felt the same sensation when he went inside the memory of the crystal. The ship interior vanished into darkness, replaced with scenery of a big city where a group of unknown, possibly extinct, alien was fighting their enemies, a giant alien with the same spaceship Dairyu saw when he ran from Pascoforta. Aside from fighting the giant aliens, they were also fighting their own, infected by the same parasitic alien that was Dairyu's current problem.

"It's no use! Those weapons were lost to those giant things!" exclaimed an alien after seeing one of his friends get his head blasted.

"Round up the survivors and find a ship to get off this planet!" said another. "We have no choice but to initiate Plan Teton."

Dairyu could see that the aliens, a humanoid bird-like life form, were desperately helping out the young and the weak into some ships that could be a life-saving one. Dairyu could also see where the ruby was. It was inside a room of a building where the same bird-like alien went in. The parasitic aliens gave chase, but he was good enough to kill more of them with a unique kind of grenade, trapping the victims in some kind of a pocket dimension.

He pushed some smaller buttons with crystal colors, while the bigger ones were lit. The same Ruby that made the same memory was sitting in the middle. He put it on a place eerily similar with the place Dairyu found.

"If anyone ever to find this piece of memory crystal," said the alien. "It records all about what happened in this place, including the colony and what happened. Tell them the Hunters are coming. I wish you luck."

There was an explosion when he pushed one of the crystals. Then the cave flooded, killing the alien instantly with the violent rush of water. The ruby, miraculously, still sit at the pedestal, where Dairyu would find it many years later.

The memory stopped there, and the scenery of the ship interior returned to Dairyu's view. Again, he was struck with nausea, but he recovered fairly quicker than before. Capisa was now beside him, holding him steady as he dropped on his knees.

"So that's what happened to Pascoforta," said Dairyu to himself. "Now I know what we're dealing with."

"What happened in Pascoforta?" asked Atho.

"It was once a small colony with dammed sea around it. The parasitic aliens were weapons to the ancient aliens, but there's more. The alien told me about the Hunters...but I never even heard of anything so vague. We could be dealing with many types of hunters."

"Then, we cannot confirm the unknown alien we are dealing with," said Atho. "It's best we investigate some other planets to find more survivors..."

"Before that," said Dairyu while standing up. "We need to find a job. We may be investigating these problems, but we cannot go on without credits. Now that we have three crews in Azure we need more money to sustain our living."

"But we still..."

"I'm not the only elite soldier who conducts this investigation. The Council also gave us a degree of freedom to continue on. I won't abandon our main mission, but right now, we need more credits."

Deep in his heart, though, Dairyu had speculated that the other elite soldiers wouldn't stand a chance going alone. They might be doing the same thing Dairyu was trying to do. In his line of work, Warriors had all the freedom to recruit other bounty hunters for a price. As'karans, Greyhounds, Warriors...all had the same mindset: It's better to go with friends.

Right now, aside from getting more credits to at least renovate his Azure to better accommodate the allies they could get, he needed more willing allies to fight alongside him. He placed a bet on how notorious or how famous his name was, and he was willing to find some aliens with gray morale, even if he found those with a darker intention.