The Harrow Collective, it turned out, was a vast space-faring group that conquered worlds one after the other and forced the citizens of each world to serve the collective’s needs. Recruits were trained and forced to serve in the Collective’s conquering forces while the worlds they left behind were plundered for natural resources to help fund the war effort.

  As Gideon, Mia, and Red pulled armor off the dead alien, Bullseye ran through what he thought were the salient details of the information they’d received from Sargeant Book.

  “The creature you are currently dissecting is called a Stalker. It’s a scout unit The Harrow uses to prepare the way for invasion. They are swift moving and contain stealth abilities. Their primary weapons are their claws, but they also use throwing blades and can emit various noxious gasses to distract enemies.”

  Another large piece of armor came lose and the trio covered their mouths as they turned away. This time the stench was far less potent, but still powerful enough that it brought tears to Gideon’s eyes.

  “Shit!” Red blurted, blinking rapidly. “That really kicks you in the teeth, huh?!”

  Gideon nodded. “We need to find a better way to do this. If it’s gonna take half an hour to pull one of these bastards apart each time, we’re never gonna get anywhere.”

  “That may not be a problem,” Bullseye said. “Apparently these creatures are infused with ether, as are all Harrow soldiers. If you can get to the heart of this beast and release the ether within, I should be able to connect the dead soldier’s etheric signature with your echo.”

  Gideon wipe tears from his eyes. “And what if that works?”

  “You will be able to loot the creature as you would any beast on Artemis. There would be no need to carve it open like the proverbial Christmas Turkey.”

  Red grinned. “Good! This thing smells like ass.”

  “Wait,” Mia interjected. “What about us? Will Elysia be able to do the same thing?”

  Gideon wasn’t sure, but he thought for a moment that the little turtle was grinning maniacally.

  “That depends whether or not such a task is part of her core programing or not. In my current state I am far less restricted than if I was tied to Gideon’s body. In fact, the botched transition he underwent has given me far greater flexibility in the options available to me. It is as though a whole world has opened up before—”

  “We get it,” Red blurted. “Congratulations on your new life. But there’s no way in hell I’m gonna be pulling any more of these pricks apart, so if you figure out a way to automate looting, and Elysia can’t figure it out, you’re gonna have to show her.”

  “And what if I refuse?” Bullseye said, holding his head up a little higher.

  Red grinned, his eyes narrowing. “You ever see what happens when a turtle gets run over by a car?”

  Gideon intervened, holding his hands up between the pair.

  “Let’s just get this done so we can find those EV suits and get the hell out of here.”

  Using the throwing knife, he began cutting into the viscous membrane covering the chest cavity of the dead soldier as Bullseye continued his information dump.

  “In addition to Stalkers, there are Boneweavers that function more like standard infantry units, Abyssal Titans, Void Shriekers, and more.”

  “How do they know so much about the enemy when we only just met them?” Gideon asked, pulling aside the membrane to reveal a series of bones and organs nestled within the enemy soldier’s chest.

  “Apparently, The Harrow are quite open with this sort of thing. An hour before the first attack began they sent a good deal of information to earth and various listening posts scattered around the solar system. Included in that information was a lengthy history of the Collective’s various exploits, worlds they have conquered, species that have been eradicated, and so on. They outline their chief combat methods, soldiers, even some weapons details.”

  “Why would they do that?” Mia asked.

  “To cause fear,” Gideon suggested. “My guess is, they want to show as that they’re so overpowered that they don’t care if we know how they’re gonna fight. They send through all the historical data so we’ll know that we’re no match for them.”

  “Precisely,” Bullseye said. “An offer of clemency was sent along with the information, a demand that all major powers throughout the planet surrender without opposition.”

  Mia frowned. “What happens if we surrender? Will they let us live?”

  “No,” the turtle responded with a shake of its head. “They promised only that they wouldn’t summarily destroy us. The Collective make an assessment of each world they conquer and only once this had been completed do they determine whether they plan to keep some portion of the local population alive, or if they intend to wipe out everything and simply strip the planet for its resources.”

  “Who the fuck would agree to that?” Red asked. “No one’s gonna just drop their weapons when there’s no guarantee you’re even gonna survive.”

  “Maybe they don’t actually want that?” Gideon suggested, pulling apart two curved bones in the middle of the dead soldier’s chest to try and get to the small, pear-shaped organ inside the bone cavity. “Maybe they expect us to resist because they get some kind of perverse thrill out of fighting an enemy that’s offering some resistance?”

  “Like the Hunt?” Mia asked. “When a party of Hunters deliberately taunts and enemy so that it’ll get riled up.”

  “Exactly. Then, when they kill the monster the amount of ether it drops is more than what it normally would be.”

  “So,” Red added, “they’re deliberately trying to provoke us because they think we’re gonna drop ether when we die?”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Gideon shrugged, feeling the bones crack as he pushed them aside and gained access to the organ within.

  “Dude, they’re aliens. Who the hell knows why they do what they do. I’m just spit balling here.”

  He pulled the bright red organ gently from inside the chest, raising it up above the chest cavity as tendrils of vivid crimson connected to the object began to wither and fall away one by one.

  “That it’s heart?” Red asked.

  “Looks like it.” Gideon turned to Bullseye. “What do I do with it?”

  “You need to eat it,” the turtle said flatly. “You must consume the heart of your enemy and then its ether will be released to you.”

  Gideon felt his stomach lurch. “What?!”

  The turtle nodded. “It is the only way I will be able to integrate this species into the echo system.”

  Gideon looked to Mia and Red, both screwing up their noses in disgust. The heart was warm in his hands, a squelching mass of muscle the size of an apple that smelled only a little better than the corpse lying in front of him.

  Red grinned. “Maybe it will taste better than it smells. You know like a McDonalds burger?” He chuckled. “I hope so, because it smells like a hot dog turd.”

  Gideon raised the organ to his lips, stomach churning. He was on the verge of gagging, trying to force himself just to do it without thinking and realizing that he’d be forced to chew to get it down. He opened his mouth as peels of laugher rose from the little turtle sitting on the table nearby.

  “You almost ate it!” Bullseye chirped. “I can’t believe you almost ate it!”

  “Because you told me to!” Gideon roared. “What the fuck, dude! So, I don’t need to eat it?”

  “No, of course not. I’ve already made the connection. Just give it a few seconds and your echo will be able to identify anything of worth within the body.”

  Gideon stood in silence for a moment, goop dripping through his fingers as he held the heart in place. In one rapid movement, he turned and threw the heart as hard as he could at the turtle. It bounced off the table, only an inch in front of Bullseye who prompt slipped inside his shell as the organ left a wet smudge on the tabletop and bounced off to splat against a nearby wall.

  Red was clapping and laughing as Gideon turned stomped to the kitchen, his boots crunching on crushed glass as he searched for a towel and began cleaning his hands.

  “We should get moving,” Mia said from her place by the door. “I just got another message from Book and he says things are getting worse at the transit station.”

  Red frowned. “Well, why the hell would we even go there then?”

  “Because,” Mia insisted, “they need us. We’re soldiers now, remember. This is kind of our job.”

  “Not my job. I only joined this stupid lottery because I figured it would be a good gag. I never signed up for a war.”

  “Actually,” Bullseye said, slowly poking out of his shell, “the contract you signed on being added to the Great Hunt included a clause that came into effect the moment the invasion started. You are all Specialists within the Ministry’s armed forces, and you’ll be pleased to know that desertion is punishable by death.”

  Red turned to Gideon. “Give me that damned heart! I wanna take a shot at the little bastard!”

  A heavy thud interrupted the exchange. They all turned to face the main door, the door that the Stalker had come through.

  Red raised a finger. “Was that—”

  Another thud reverberated through the chamber and this time the door visibly shuddered.

  “Shit!” Gideon blurted. “We’ve gotta move!”

  He scooped up Bullseye and started running, opening up one of the ship maps Book had provided in his HUD and searching for the path toward the weapon’s locker. Mia and Red fell into step beside him as another thud shook the room.

  “Wait!” Bullseye barked.

  Gideon looked down at the turtle, nestled in his left hand. “What?!”

  “The transition is complete. You will now be able to harvest ether and other loot items that may prove valuable.”

  Gideon turned back to look at the corpse lying in the middle of the room, barely six feet from the door which was currently buckling under the pressure of whatever was on the other side. A small orb of what looked like purple smoke hovered above the corpse.

  “What do I need to do?” Gideon asked.

  “Simply approach the ether and harvest it, along with anything else which is available. Your echo will automatically loot all valuable items if you are within a three-foot radius of them and they should be deposited in your inventory unless you specifically will them into your hands.”

  The door to the chamber buckled, a huge dent appearing at its center as another boom echoed throughout the space.

  “The ether will help you develop your skills and can be used to enhance your weapons,” Bullseye insisted.

  “I know how the damned ether works!” Gideon snapped. “Shit!”

  He handed the turtle to Mia. “You guys keep running. I’ll catch up.”

  She shook her head, but Gideon interrupted whatever she was going to say. “If this goes back there’s no point all of us eating it! You need to get to the transit station!”

  He turned and ran, not waiting to see whether Mia and Red had continued in the opposite direction. The door to the chamber buckled once more, its outermost edges now bent back so that he could see the black, chitinous claws of at least one more Stalker.

  “Shitting Shit!” he shouted, closing the gap to the dead soldier and standing over the body.

  Nothing happened.

  The orb of purple smoke stayed hovering above the dead alien and, even when Gideon tried to swipe it into his chest with his hands, the smoky orb stayed in place.

  “FUCK!” he shouted as a new message popped up on his HUD.

  Calibrating inventory collection system. Please wait.

  Gideon looked up at the door, now barely more than a twisted chunk of metal. He could see the Stalker through the gaps in the door. It looked larger than the first scout and had a slash of bright red pain running across the side of its head.

  At least, Gideon hoped it was paint.

  Calibrating inventory collection system.

  5 Seconds remaining.

  Five seconds. It might as well have been an eternity. Gideon was already rethinking his approach to the situation. Now it wasn’t a question of snatching up the loot and running to catch up with his companions. That beefy Stalker was going to be through the door any moment which mean’s he’d be forced to fight the brute.

  He still held the small throwing blade in his right hand, but that seemed like a meager weapon against an enemy like this. Gideon also had no way of distracting the enemy like Red and Mia had done in the previous fight. He’d need to kill this thing one on one, without being able to use his new stealth ability.

  Calibrating inventory collection system.

  3 Seconds remaining.

  The door shuddered as the Stalker battered it once more. A piece of metal went flying through the air, clattering on the floor nearby as Gideon clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

  Why was this taking so damned long?!

  He decided that if he survived the next few minutes, he’d be having a very intense conversation with Bullseye. That conversation may or may not involve dipping the little turtle bastard into some very nasty substances.

  Calibrating inventory collection system.

  1 Second remaining.

  The door burst apart, cannoning end over end into the room and forcing Kane to drop to the floor as the twisted chunk of metal narrowly missed decapitating him.

  Dodge +1

  Tactical Insight +1

  Kane abandoned the corpse, crawling back on the floor and getting to his feet as the Stalker entered the chamber. It was only a few inches taller than the first alien, but much broader, with thick arms and legs covered in the same black, chitinous armor.

  Instead of elongated claws, it boasted one oversized blade which ran the length of its right arm. At first, Gideon thought the creature was holding the huge, double-sided sword, but he quickly realized that the weapon was fused to the soldier’s arm.

  The Stalker’s other arm was balled up into a huge fist. The silver marks and scratches on its surface suggested that this is what the brute used to batter its way through the metal door moments earlier. The fist reminded Gideon of The Thing from the Fantastic Four comics, except instead of being made from rock, the soldier’s fingers were covered in the same chitinous armor as the rest of its body.

  “Gee gash eekt aann grashkor!”

  The Stalker spat the words like an insult, saliva frothing at the corners of its mouth as it moved toward Gideon.

  “Sorry dude, I don’t speak creepy ass alien.”