The streets in the mega city of Atarii were crowded with races of various kinds. Everyone wore different costumes and they all behaved differently one from another. Some were friendly looking, while others were menacing. I kept my arms in my large, dust-covered cloak. My blaster was placed securely beside my muscle-filled left leg. I towered above all others while staring at their faces through the shadow of my hood. Wriik was walking beside me. A communication radio was in his hand.

"... Approaching the designated target..." The radio crackled a few times, and Talus' voice came through the speaker.

"Be cautious. Try to find the Rebel Leader, Roxan, fast," Wriik advised with a soft murmur. He didn't want to attract other people's attention, lest some eavesdroppers gathered important information from us. There were Federation spies everywhere.

"... Roger that... Be back... in an hour, Standard Time..."

Wriik closed the connection and looked at me. He shrugged as he pulled out a map that Orb had drawn for us.

Our mission was to head toward the ammunition supply, and gather as much troops and weapons as possible. We had split up into two groups: Wriik and I in Group One, Talus and Orb in Group Two. Dantri stayed at the Six Pack Beer Inn to take care of Traven.

We headed down a side street. The buildings were now so close together that our shoulders were brushing against the rough concrete, making deep marks in the walls with our spikes.

The giant fireball in the sky beamed down upon us. Its death rays baked the ground scorching hot. In the distance, I could see scalding air currents rising up from the dirt floor. Few people were present in the byway, all of them wore ragged clothing and none of them acknowledged us.

After what seemed like an hour's walk, we had arrived at the dock. Sounds of waves crashing against the banks levitated into the air. The water was red with an uncanny smell floating in the wind. There were a few boats and gun ships around. All of them had rusted hulls with savage-looking men standing beside them.

Wriik motioned me to a bunch of crates along side of the long walkway. We stepped into the opening area and glanced around. Some aliens were staring at us coldly and some pulled out their weapons. I took a look at the guns: Pulse Rifle, Blaster, M1 Anti-Tank Shoulder Launcher, Stun Gun...

I brought my left arm out of my cloak and placed my left hand on the handle of my gun. If they were to shoot us... But I wasn't afraid. Even if I couldn't use my own weapon, I still had my psychic power. As I was conceiving about how to defend Wriik and myself, a smile stole onto my face.

Wriik saw me grinning, and he relaxed a little.

One muscular man walked toward us. He was a human. He wore a dark sunglass with a cap on top of his head. His arms were huge! They were like thick steel poles. They looked as if they could punch a gapping hole in the wall or something.

With a black, messy beard around his face, he took off his cap. Short, spiky, dark hair sprouted out. He wore nothing more than a work shirt and a pair of jean. With an invisible command, his men gathered around us.

He studied us with his glowing eyes for a while before saying: "You are not from here."

Wriik nodded as he drew his hood back, exposing his alien appearance. I too, followed. People gasped as they saw our powerful shoulders and dangerous spikes along our bodies. They gasped when they saw the abundant veins crawling around our arms. My dark, navy-colored skin glittered in the sunlight, as sweat coated my entire body.

"What do you want? You are not Federation, I suppose?" The stranger continued. He puffed out his thick chest and stared daringly up into our eyes. He wasn't afraid of us, even if his head only came up to our shoulders, perhaps even lower.

Birds screamed above, as we stood in the same spot, not moving.

I couldn't stand the silence any longer. I was getting rather impatient. We didn't have much time to lose. I held Wriik back with one hand and asked: "Do you have artilleries that we can have?"

"Have?" The man chuckled loudly as if it was a joke. "Have?"

I frowned as I was annoyed by that smirk on his face. "Yes. Have. You guys are rebels, aren't you? Then you must want to bathe in the blood of the Federation, isn't that right? I can, we can, help you accomplish that. But we need your support."

"You can't do squat, you fool," he spitted on the floor, right in front of my talons. "The Federation is too strong right now. Hell, even our sources are saying that the most powerful place, Center Com, on Earth, was defeated! How can we ever stand up against a power that strong? Apparently, we have lost the war."

"You can't give up just like that!" Wriik said hotly. His face was slightly red with rage. "We have devised a plan that can destroy the Federation once and for all!"

Now the men, humans and aliens, laughed all together. They didn't take our words seriously.

The headman said: "You must be dreaming'. You are fools for not listening to our advice."

"We don't have to listen to your advice," I snapped back. "You guys should listen to our advice."

I sighed as I grabbed a giant crate from the side. I sat on it, and the top sank downward under my weight. It creaked with stress. More people were near us, listening to what we had to say.

I started off: "The only thing that is keeping the army of the Federation alive, is the leader himself. How do you suppose the soldiers would do all these slaughtering and mass-murdering? It must be the influence coming from the leader of the Federation."

"Yeah? But what does this guy have to do with our war? The leader I mean," the man questioned with suspicion.

"Mak, is now the leader, and the President, of the most potent Dome City. He alone wields enough strength to crush this rebel planet - Atarii. He is currently living in the Capital Dome of the New World Colony. Now, suppose that we can take Mak out, then who's going to rule over the army of the Federation? No one! And the order will be gone and chaos will appear within the army itself!"

"But how do you know that once we've killed the leader, the rest of the troops won't continue to attack us?" One man in the group shouted from the back.

"They won't. Here's our plan:" I lowered my voice. They moved forward. "We can split up in three major groups. Group One can attack the Capital Dome, Group Two can attack the army or at least hold them back, and Group Three can contact the rest of other Dome Cities to start a rebellion. With thirteen million people on this planet plus the citizens from other cities on Earth, we can easily overpower the Federation. We can concentrate most of our soldiers in Group Two, where they can hold off the army of Mak Empire - that's their new nation's name - and split up the rest of force into two other bands."

"That won't-" the original guy started again.

I grinned. "Easy. Use the planet buster, the Tri Forty-Two Particle Bomb. That bomb, the size of my palm, is strong enough to destroy half of the Earth. Of course, we won't use all of it. We can extract the main part of the bomb and use that part to destroy the force field."

Now they panicked.

"You can't use that on Earth!"

"How can you still live there on the surface, if you detonate that killer bomb?"

"We don't even have the bomb!"

Both Wriik and I were shocked by that last comment. A female pushed the crowd away and she stood in the sunlight. She was like a goddess. She had a medium length, orange-red hair. Her large, blue eyes looked down at me. Her skin was the same colored as mine, dark navy blue. Her claws shined brightly in the light. Her lips, so full, so moist. She was fairly tall, taller than most men beside her, yet slightly shorter than me. Suddenly, a strange feeling that I had not felt before clutched my heart tightly. Its grip was so forceful, that I almost couldn't breathe.

Wriik groaned as he slumped on the crate that I was sitting on. The wooden box exploded in pieces and both of us fell to the ground. Men laughed, except Afren. I immediately got up and shot a dangerous look to my friend.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I said with extreme annoyance. I didn't like to be seen as a fool, especially in front of a beautiful female that looked similar as me.

"Sorry," Wriik forthwith apologized. "But I think that's the guy who has attacked Talus' home planet, Detarii. Remembered what Dantri has told us? And what Traven, who stayed conscious long enough, has said? Brook Gyr is the Captain of the Space Farer! The man who has brutally killed all of Traven's comrades!"

I gritted my teeth as I thought about just how close we were at capturing that old freak and ripping him apart. How dare he sacrificed other lives just for his own enjoyment?

"Talus? Dantri?" Afren grabbed my arms with her hands as her wide eyes stared into mine. "They're here? Where are they?"

I was surprised for a moment. Then I smiled. "Dantri is at the Six Pack Beer Inn, taking care of one former Federation troop. Talus is around somewhere in downtown, looking for Roxan here." I turned to my left and faced Roxan. "Talus was supposed to be the one who should find you, not us. We were supposed to gather arms and people to start the final war against the Federation."

Roxan's lips were pressed together in a straight line, as he frowned with displeasure. I stopped grinning and gazed.

"You said a Federation troop is here? With you? In the room that you two have rent?" His voice trembled with suppressed fury.

Wriik held out a hand to stop the leader from attacking me. "Hold on there. Traven isn't part of the Federation anymore. And I know that you don't believe my words, but Traven has gotten the Tattoo of Pledge. This is a sign that he has defected."

The man first looked at me, then at Wriik. Finally, Roxan grunted as he backed off. I saw everyone let out the breath that they had held during the intense moments.

Afren said: "Please, can I go with you two back to the inn? I want to see my old friends."

"Talus and Dantri are your buddies?" Wriik questioned as he patted out the accumulated dusts off his long tendrils on his arms. His face was covered with sweat, as the sun seemed to be getting bigger. It was currently late afternoon.

"Old friends of mine. They come here occasionally, to get supplies from me in my store, though I haven't seen them for the past four years."

I nodded with understanding. "Very well. You can come along with us. Do you have a weapon, or something? It isn't safe in that sector where we live."

She flashed me a smile. I almost fainted right there and then. She turned to the side and brandished her powerful-looking gun in her holster.

"I never go out of my house without one of these babies."

I laughed at that. Then Wriik said: "Roxan. Are you going to join us?"

He glanced around at us, then at his men. Finally, he shook his head. "No. I'm afraid that I can't risk harming my people. Their lives are my responsibilities. And with the multi-layer shielding defense of the Capital Dome, I can't join you, at least, at this moment. Perhaps if you can figure out a way to disable the system..."

"You guys haven't reported in for the past five hours! Do you know how worried me and Dantri were?" Talus paced around the small lodge as he lectured us. I gave Wriik a look, and he smiled sheepishly.

We were fortunate when Afren interrupted.

"Talus?" She ran forward to greet her long time friend.

"A... Afren?" Talus voice was filled with astonishment. "Afren, is that really you? Wow! We haven't seen each other for quite a while, eh?" He gave her a hug. His head was only around her waist. The scene was like a mother holding onto her child.

She pouted. Looking down, she said: "That's because you and Dantri didn't come and visit me anymore."

Talus chuckled, as he was glad to see his old pal once again. Then Dantri moved on the couch that he was sleeping on.

Groggily, he said: "I heard someone calling my name. Who is it?" He rubbed his eyes then saw who was in front of her. "Afren! My god!" He too, embraced her.

All three of them laughed together, as Wriik and I went to check out Traven. Orb saw us, and he nodded to us while moving away to wash the cloth that was on Traven's head a moment ago. Traven was lying awake. His light-purplish eyes stared up into the ceiling, almost was if he was thinking about something.

When he heard our footsteps, he sat us and greeted us.

"Thank you for saving me," he said.

"It was nothing. At first, we only saved you because we thought you would be a good data provider about Mak Empire Army," I answered bluntly.

Traven shrugged. "Good enough for me. I've mostly recovered from the wounds, thanks to you people."

Finally, Wriik spoke after all these quiet times during our journey from the dock: "Traven... do you know if there still are nuclear missiles exist on Earth?"

With that inquest, everybody stopped chatting and looked at the weak human before us, on the bed.

Traven looked nervous and scared, but he gulped once and said: "I... Well, I guess so... I mean, you want nuclear missiles, right? I believe there are some more of those ancient weapons sealed up in their silos deep in the mountains. However, those areas contain large amount of radiation and chemicals. The only way to get them, is to suit up and descend deep into the ground and extract the warheads."

I stared at Wriik for his brilliance. "I don't know how would I survive without you, Wriik."

He blushed. "Ah, get outta here. It was nothing. I figured since we don't have the Particle Bomb, why not use the nukes as substitutes? Though they are ancient, and their strength might not be able to compare with our modern warfare, nevertheless they are still effective. I hope. With around six nuclear explosions near the shield of the Capital Dome, we should be able to penetrate it with ease."

I agreed silently. Then I face Afren, who was looking at my back. I saw her blushed a little and turned away slightly. My heart quickened a pace.

Laughing, Roxan responded: "That was just a bluff. We were trying to make the Federation to be afraid of us, but... it doesn't work anymore, as you can see."