Flamebearer

An Offer from the 9th Legion

“You want me to do what?” Retvik sighed as he put down his newspaper. “Please tell me I somehow misheard you.”

“You heard correctly.” Unlike most Rethans, this rather small and lightly armoured individual was not quaking in the presence of Retvik. Most Rethans would be at least somewhat nervous, standing...Read More »


Mastakon's Pressure

“General Retvik! It is a pleasure, no, an honour to see you again so soon!”

General Mastakon was an unusual Rethan at the best of times. While very little was known about his Legion of loyal vok, a lot was known about him, his strange antics, his overly friendly tone. All...Read More »


Privacy or Safety

“Don’t do this.”

The appearance of a bright yellow Rethavok-like in the middle of the secret control room was strange, but no one seemed to really be reacting to it. Almost if teleporting Rethan ghosts were only uncommon, here in the 9th Legion bunker.

“Arkadin, why are you here?” Retvik asked. Unlike...Read More »


A Perfect View

Retvik felt unreasonably worried. Not because everything had gone wrong so far, but because everything had gone right. Every single thing, from major planning to tiny, almost insignificant things, had been perfect. Everything. It was almost… unnatural how well everything had gone so far.

Even now that Retvik was floating in...Read More »


Falling Failing Thoughts

In a mere moment, Retvik’s situation had gone from perfectly fine to utterly catastrophic.

The satellite has been knocked from orbit, the ship had been disconnected from the satellite, everything was shaking violently and there was no power what so ever. Breathable air levels were dropping, the space shuttle was spinning...Read More »


Comatose Chat

“You are so damn lucky that I like you…”

Retvik was pretty certain he wasn’t dead. He couldn’t feel his arms, legs or tail, he hurt all over and he stank of burning plastic and scorched flesh, but he had been hearing voices for a while. He certainly felt like he...Read More »


Unescape Plan

Mastakon had no idea how many were dead. All he knew was that he was to blame. The rest of society didn’t know yet, but they didn’t have to know. As far as everyone else was concerned, this was a freak incident, a sudden solar flare that had caused massive...Read More »


Skyan Spa Treatments

Gath took a deep breath as the two little Skyavok knocked on the door, bearing gifts. His parents had always told him to be weary of Skyavok bearing gifts, but thankfully Gath did recognize these two Skyavok. They were Psiksi and Kass, one of Retvik’s friends and his partner.

“What are...Read More »


Problems of Various Sizes

“You look glum. Less glum than when you’re in one of your moods but more glum than when you’re not in one of your moods. What’s wrong?”

Arkadin had been sitting on the roof of this Rethan hospital for a few hours now, watching as the injured moved in and the...Read More »


Burning Fears

Most of the anti-fire systems had cleared out the larger parts of the hospital, but this room in particular was having trouble. Mainly because the source of the fire was still here, rampaging around, panicking, not sure what he was doing. There was not much the mortals could do, but...Read More »


Moment of Understanding

It had been a while since Retvik was… of sane mind, at least sane enough to begin to piece together what had happened. None of it was good. His arm plating was basically gone. His tail was ruined. Pieces of his armour were burnt and singed and flaking off. And...Read More »


Replacement General

Captain Relkai didn’t expect to suddenly find himself in a hospital in the Rethan capital. Seven 100th Legion soldiers had intersected him on his way home after he finished his work shift, picked him up, bundled him into the back of a transport vehicle and zipped him away without any...Read More »


Concerned Partner Call

“Good day, General Gath Tsoriou, how are you doing?” Rethais spoke calmly and slowly down the microphone of his communicator. He had been in the hospital all morning, mainly there as a sign of leadership and support to those injured in… recent events, but also to help facilitate in the...Read More »


Orientation Meeting

“Good morning, Retvik Rethianos. Welcome to your orientation meeting.”

Retvik’s eyes snapped open as he was rudely awoken from his sleep. He was strapped to a chair, sitting in a bright, white room. Strangely, Retvik could see his breath, condensing then on the glass window in front of him, making Retvik...Read More »


Thirteenth Moon

Captain Trismit was feeling uneasy. While his work had been somewhat tame, with only one unusual incident that caused any major problems, there was a strange, tingling sensation in the back of Trismit’s mind that something weird was going on. Or that something weird was going to happen. Or maybe...Read More »


Fiery Investigation

Retvik had been waiting for hours now, waiting for one of the 11th Legion captains to come and put him back into a coma, like they said they would. In his strange, drug-induced dreams, Retvik had slowly been learning to control his fiery powers. To Retvik’s surprise, some of that...Read More »


Sheer Flames

Where an ironclad, reinforced wall once stood, there was now nothing but smouldering rubble and charred debris. Smoke wafted upwards, lingering at the ceiling before slowly fading away. Ashen black lines smothered their way across the remaining walls, coating everything in horrible dust.

“Uh… I apologise, General…”

General Litvir blinked, staring almost...Read More »


Emotional Feeding

“Tell me, how are you feeling?”

Retvik wasn’t sure whether he was conscious or not. He was conscious when General Litvir led him into the lead-lined room. He was conscious when he sat down on the stool at the little desk. But whenever Litvir had touched him, something had felt… off....Read More »


Little Shadow Rethan

Everything was dark, yet warm. Machinery beeped away to itself. The bedsheets were crumpled yet comfortable. Whatever light dared enter the room was shooed away by the closing of old, dusty curtains. Everything was at rest, until it wasn’t.

Retvik jumped up in shock, ripping the coverings from his eyes as...Read More »


New Schedules and Tasks

Everyone sat round the battered, cracked table, not really sure what was going on. All six of the Rethans present had been lounging around for a while, avoiding eye contact with each other and definitely not staring at the insanely buff physique of the one Rethan who was mostly nude....Read More »


Evening Chat with Kuta

Retvik smiled just a little as he kicked off his feet protectors and removed his stomach wrap, hot and sweaty from a hard day of cleaning and tidying. He and Trismit had been in charge of keeping the more… lost Rethans preoccupied, making sure they ate, exercised and took their...Read More »


General Smiles

This was the only vaguely nice room in the entirety of the facility. It had a warm, fluffy carpet on the floor, a fancy, wooden desk, a plump couple of chairs and a second, tiny room behind it which had been completely converted into one large, cushion-filled bed. Another small...Read More »


Seldom Seen Kid

“Retvik.”

“Gath, you have no idea how pleased I am to hear your voice! It has taken me far too long to convince General Litvir to allow me to call you.”

Retvik glanced around the room to make sure that no one was watching him. He couldn’t be certain that the line...Read More »


Flaming Rebellion

General Litvir drifted around his five captains, examining each one of them in turn. Litvir was rather pleased with himself, having trained these otherwise broken and damaged Rethavok, taught them how to use their unnatural, almost magical powers while also making most of them submissive to him. Only one more...Read More »


Not Solitary Confinement

“Bad day?”

“Bad month.”

Retvik sighed, closing his eyes and trying to ignore the godly being that had just sat down on the cold, metal floor next to him. They were both currently in an ugly cell, with barely enough room for Retvik to stretch his legs out. There was no bed,...Read More »


Kuta's Fears

“Are you awake?”

A small, beady black eye appeared in the gap underneath the door. Whoever it was, they were peering into the room, acting as if they were not supposed to be there.

“I am…” Retvik grumbled, his neck and back sore from not being able to sleep for the last...Read More »


A Complete Flip

Retvik stood to attention as the cell door opened. He was aching all over, but he was about to re-obtain his freedom after far too many days locked inside a cell, so Retvik didn’t care much. To his surprise though, he found himself being pushed back as someone forced their...Read More »


Litvir's New Plan

“Why is there a fire in the middle of the canteen?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing…”

Retvik shrugged as he stood in the doorway, watching as Nisir and Isir worked together to snuff out flames and get rid of burning paperwork. By his side, Trismit was rolling his...Read More »


Concrete Balcony

“Wait wait wait wait!”

Retvik’s voice echoed down the hallway as a small, red and white robot drifted by, hovering the ground and sucking up dirt.

“What?” Kuta asked, holding a broom.

“You have cleaning robots?”

“Yeah. The whole facility is automized or automaticed or autowhatever it’s called… Automated. It’s all automated.”

Retvik stopped what...Read More »


Generating Flame

In the time it had taken for Retvik to get Kuta to the hospital wing, the shadowy Rethavok had attempted to throw himself off ledges and down stairs no more than ten times. But after what had seemed like a few hours of worries and discomfort, everything seemed to be...Read More »


The Realization

Nothing made sense. Retvik had just been standing next to Trismit in a seedy little office, leaning on the desk shifting through maps and working on their plans to escape. Step one had worked perfectly. But now nothing was as it seemed. Everything was pitch black but everything was wet...Read More »


Twinned Shadows, Twisted Reality

Trismit led Retvik down corridor after corridor, past rooms filled with canisters, all linked and wired together and all leading to a single, utterly dark chamber. Inside were monitors, all as silent as the chamber itself, and a single, lone canister.

“Alright, what the fuck is going on?” Retvik snarled as...Read More »


The Day After

“Feeling any better?”

Trismit remained fixated at the plate of food in front of him. Despite the severity of what had happened, the Rethan government had been very calm and understanding with him. He hadn’t been locked up or persecuted or anything like that. In fact, all they had done was...Read More »


The Meeting with Vaksavar

Considering how small this corridor was, it was well protected, with two rows of guards at either end and a couple more guards pacing up and down. Aside from plain walls, the corridor contained two things – a row of chairs, two of which were filled by nervous Rethans, and...Read More »