Prelude

It was the year 2524 and the Human race had been growing, developing and colonizing their way across the Galaxy. They were all alone, no other life had been found, and Humanity knew that they would rule the universe. Boy, were they wrong

I write this five years later, at the request of my 'handlers'; I believe that is the correct term. You see I used to be human until an unlucky shot crippled me and I was released to the care of an experimental Vyborg project. But enough about me, you can read that in all the historical transcripts. You can also read about Monopoly IV, the human race's thirteenth colony, and how the loss of it showed the humans that they were not alone. Actually there are many sentient races in the Universe, just none, which we knew of, in the Milky Way galaxy.

It was actually very surprising that the humans met another race; call it Karma or Fate, what ever it was it was bad luck for the miners on Monopoly IV. I suppose I should tell you exactly what happened at that colony to clear up all the myths that were thrown about by the New Reform Church and others who use that incident for their own programs of disinformation. First, though, I am going to have to tell you about the Rics.

Actually, that's what soldiers affectionately call them; no one can pronounce their proper name, which I believe is a swear or curse in more than a few languages. The Rics would never have advanced as far as they have without an edge; they can't use the simplest of tools, have never built or created anything, really can't move about too well, but they can control the minds of others.

Their methods/limits to their control are classified, but they are known to work together thus expanding their power to be able to even affect organically or scientifically shielded beings. Yes, there have been unshielded humans taken over, but these incidents are rare. They would rather try to influence lesser beings, including manufactured humans, like the pleasure slaves on Monopoly IV.

I feel that I must explain for the undereducated, why there were pleasure slaves on Monopoly IV. The average human colony goes through three phases of development: strip mining for all valuable resources, Terra forming and seeding with colonists. Mining is a tough, thankless job and the miners need diversions for when they are not working. Hopefully that is all the explanation that readers will need. Further information regarding features or specifications may be found at your local data terminal.

Needless to say, pleasure slaves are built for softness and durability, not for intelligence or shielding. The Rics found the pleasure slaves more than suitable for their purposes. Thus came the massacre ... erm ... loss of the Monopoly IV colony.

So the humans were suddenly thrust into a war, not knowing anything about their adversaries. They had no allies, no standing army and few space craft capable of combat in space. Remember that they thought they were alone in this big universe and the only reason they saw for armed space craft was the occasional pirate. After two years of half-steps, missteps, and no further colonization of anymore planets, they thought that they were finally ready to take on the Rics. That is where our story begins, with a very unconventional team, Sergeant Mary Gertrude Kelley and Private Roc...

Chapter 1 »