Our snippeting comes to an end with Varan and friends arriving, finally, at Thann'Ta for a fateful meeting... ----- Chapter 21. Varan: Downbreak this time happened precisely on schedule, with both myself and The Eönwyl in place, rested, and ready. Thann'ta's sun was slightly more orange than standard, but Thann'ta itself orbited closer to its star by enough to make it a hotter world than most Imperial planets – one that would have violent weather and, if experience was any guide, a lot of thick and deadly jungle over much of the [ Continue reading... ]

Varan's gamble is a painful one... ----- Chapter 20. Varan: Morno came straight in, as I'd expected; his style was to hammer fast and hard, typical of the Ternam Ralyeh, and his technique was a unique combination of jai-ye and zairaka. Taelin used a lot of the latter – Lukh was an expert in it – but jai-ye was almost exclusive to the Dragon Strikers; it meant "wing-claw" and was a style focused on swift, multi-level punching and kicking, a highly aggressive combat style meant to maim and kill. But I was in Mind Center, the calm [ Continue reading... ]

Varan had a plan... ----- Chapter 18 Varan: "All right, Varan." It had taken him just another half-hour to finish up whatever business he had elsewhere; Morno settled himself into a chair just outside of the doorway. "We're recording now, though I'm sure you don't need that warning." "No, I rather expected you were recording long before you got here." Morno's eyes narrowed. "Actually, no. Without a Monitor to order me otherwise, I'm sticking with full military procedure, and that means that even suspected psis like you aren't [ Continue reading... ]

Varan had just gotten a really rude shock... ----- Chapter 17 Varan: "What?" The inane question was out before I could restrain it, and Commodore Morno let his grin widen a bit. "Apparently your friend is an exile, not welcome on Thann'ta. They told us that you would be coming, that you would pass through this system, and even gave us a good general arc – one small enough that I could place scout pickets along the line with a good chance of picking you up, if you were in fact coming when and where they said. The timing was short [ Continue reading... ]

They'd been yanked out of FTL drive and captured... ----- Chapter 16. Varan: I stared out the viewport as The Eönwyl was brought down to a cleared landing area in the central bay of the Kukanaro. I realized that they must be taking the fighters which had deployed to intercept us into the other landing bays – and it'd be getting very tight. Their flight deck boss would be severely annoyed. With all nonessential power cut off, we could appreciate the delicacy of the maneuvering by the unseen tractor wrangler. There was barely a jar [ Continue reading... ]

Varan and company had learned much from the Thovians... ----- Chapter 14. Varan: I took a deep breath, realizing that we were once more moving forward to the unknown. "Thanks to you, Hargan, Boduras, Chondu – and all the rest of the Thov Hok Shu. All of your people, really, even the ones who don't know what's going on." Hargan and the others bowed to us, and I was touched to see that they were quite seriously giving to me and the rest of our little crew the Six-And-One – even though to them that was hardly an important symbol. [ Continue reading... ]