Even now, he was flying gracefully in the light blue sky of Khepri, beneath the ghostly silhouettes of the planet’s three rings. His infant son would soon be starting his flight lessons, too. With luck, that would keep Bane too busy so that I could lay claim to the advanced classes of this group.
“Reaper,” Doom mind-spoke to me, “I need you at the HQ conference room ASAP. We have a team meeting.”
His voice in my head slightly startled me. It shouldn’t, considering telepathy was the standard communication method on Khepri.
“On my way,” I answered before disconnecting from his mind. I turned to my brother Rogue, standing a few feet from me. Unlike Bane, with whom I only shared a father, Rogue and I shared both parents. “I must go. I’m being summoned for a team meeting,” I told him.
“Oooh! Someone is off on a mission,” Rogue said. A slightly jealous smile appeared on his adorable baby face that clashed incredibly with his big, muscular body and deep rumbling voice.
“I hope so,” I replied with a fiendish grin. “I’m always up for some action.”
“Enjoy!” Rogue said as I summoned my wings before taking flight towards the HQ of the Vanguard—the army of bioengineered Warriors and of psychic human females.
It was a fifteen-minute flight at high speed from the Dragons Rise—where we had taken to training our young siblings—to the HQ building. As I made my approach and then landed, I nodded at a nearby group of Soulcatchers—the psychic females able to catch the soul of a fallen Warrior. They waved back with a grin.
The large doors of the HQ parted before me, and I entered the imposing hall decorated in the standard black and gold colors of the Vanguard. I hopped inside the elevator at the same time as Reklig and his human mate, Madeline. They made a lovely and visually striking couple. Madeline was a gorgeous albino of African descent, with long, curly, blondish white hair and stunning greenish-grey eyes. Reklig was a Scelk, with dolphin-like skin, a smattering of black chitin scales on his shoulders and cheeks, thicker ones covering his bald head, and large, almond-shaped black eyes devoid of sclera. They were both part of my team.
“Hey guys,” I said to the couple. “Any idea what’s cooking?”
“Sure do,” Reklig said with a shit-eating grin.
I glared at him, realizing he intended to leave me hanging.
“Varnog will give us the details,” Madeline sympathetically offered.
“Varnog?” I asked, surprised that the Scelk leader would be involved in one of our missions. And then it struck me. “We’re going to one of the secret bases?!”
“So it seems,” Reklig replied, his smile turning predatory as the lift came to a stop, and its doors parted.
My hearts soared, their heartbeats picking up the pace with excitement. After our recent victory against our archnemesis, General Khutu, Varnog had read the memories of the General, down to the oldest ones. He’d discovered the location and contents of every single secret lab Khutu had set up in his mad bid for conquering the galaxy. The Galactic Coalition had been given the responsibility of doing most of the cleanup, which meant that our tackling this mission instead implied there was danger or something of great value to the Vanguard. Having no clue what it could be, I eagerly opened the door to the conference room as soon as we reached it.
We walked into the large, rectangular room once more decorated in black and gold. Despite the stark colors, the large windows looking out onto the plaza outside the HQ allowed plenty of light in, making the room look airy and inviting. Doom, our team leader, was already standing at the head of the long conference table large enough to seat twenty people. His Soulcatcher, Jessica, and my own, Martha, were sitting on the opposite side from the door. We settled across from them, joined shortly thereafter by Varnog and Thanh.
Once again, I silently envied Doom’s appearance. Like all his Xian brothers, the genetically engineered Warrior possessed golden scales that contrasted beautifully with the black shirt of the Vanguard. Their creator, Dr. Xi, had given them all large black eyes devoid of sclera, wavy black hair, and breathtaking features. While I couldn’t complain about my own level of attractiveness, I would have preferred similar scales to his instead of my black chitin ones, and my multifaceted bug eyes inherited from my sire. My brothers and I weren’t Xian Warriors but Dragons, as we’d labeled ourselves due to our large percentage of Gomenzi Dragon DNA.
Thanh sat down next to my Soulcatcher, which didn’t surprise me: our women always hung out together. Varnog, the Scelk leader, went to stand by Doom at the head of the table. That’s when I noticed the presence of Stran, a Creckel and Doom’s lifelong battle companion. About the size of a Tibetan Mastiff, Stran’s body generally resembled that of a pangolin—although with slightly longer legs—and with the face of a dragon.
“Thank you everyone for gathering so quickly,” Doom said once everyone had taken a seat. “As you can guess, I've rounded you up for a mission. You’ll all remember that when we defeated the General, Varnog was able to get us the information on all of his secret bases still functioning or abandoned. The Coalition has been diligently dispatching units to clean up over there. But this one is special.”
Doom turned towards Varnog for him to speak.
“The base is located on the Moon of Melibos,” Varnog said.
We all slightly recoiled upon hearing those words. We had already been there and cleaned the place up during a prior mission.
“I know what you're thinking,” the Scelk leader said with his usual taunting smile. “However, there was a second base on the other side of that moon that we'd been unaware of. What makes it so special, you ask? It was dedicated to experimenting on Creckels.”
We all gasped in almost perfect sync, our heads jerking towards Stran. The Creckel’s dark blue lizard eyes sparked with an intensity I hadn't seen in a long time. I could only imagine how he was feeling right now. His species had been nearly decimated when the Kryptids had invaded his homeworld in an attempt to subdue his people and turn them into war weapons for General Khutu’s cause. His mate and offspring had perished in the attack. Ever since, he had dedicated his life to bringing down the Kryptid empire. Now that the war had ended, Stran had planned on going back home at long last and maybe finding himself a new mate to help repopulate his planet, Dreija.
“So, obviously, if anyone is going to see what remains of that base, it will be us with our loyal friend,” Doom said.
We all nodded and cast sympathetic looks towards Stran. He was a formidable war machine. Together with Doom, the pair was nearly unkillable. A few other Creckels had temporarily joined the war effort in the early days. Every single one but Stran had returned home over the thirty-five years it had lasted. What better parting gift to our teammate than to find more of his people alive?
But what if we only find corpses?
It was a dark reality that we needed to account for. We didn't need to warn Stran of that possibility. He had seen enough to have realistic expectations.
“I would therefore like for us to leave first thing in the morning,” Doom said.
“Just be aware that there is no telling what you will find in that base,” Varnog warned in a cautious tone. “From what I've gathered from Khutu’s memories, the base was abandoned more than twenty years ago. The scientists were still inside, including the modified Creckels. There may or may not be any survivors. But if there are, after all this time, they may be hostile or even feral.”