Starbound: A Space Odyssey

John stopped for a moment and sent a quick glance over Lenny before walking again, "They are probably curious over Saito." John said in a low voice so that only Lenny could hear.

"Maybe." Lenny said, "But, don"t you think it is strange that the Miniknog attack the ISU s.p.a.ce station while targeting Saito? I mean, Miniknog and Letheia has some non-official alliance, why would they attack a family that control a rather large part of the corporation?"

John heard Lenny"s words and thought about it.

It was indeed strange.

Miniknog probably wouldn"t want to mess around with of the three powerful Hylotl clans unless...

[They were working with one the other two clans.] When John reached this conclusion, his face immediately changed. He glanced over Lenny and saw the latter nodding at him. Both of them reached the same conclusion.

John finally realized that they were in danger as long as they stayed in territory Letheia have influence.

"Stay sharp." John whispered to Lenny, "We"ll act normally while we hurry towards Ark Outpost. I don"t think they will act with so many witnesses there."

Lenny nodded and looked towards Peri.

Peri nodded to him and both of them changed their position and stayed near Forge while shielding Saito from both sides.

...

With a flash of light, John and his group landed on the planet.

They curiously looked around after they recovered their vision and stared at the towering skysc.r.a.pers and giant buildings that reached far in the sky.

John tried to move and soon found out that the gravity on the planet was relatively stronger than in Earth, about 10% stronger.

"Urgh..."

Unsurprisingly, Lenny was once again in the ground.

John rolled his eyes and helped Lenny once again.

Lenny was soon pierced by glares of despise.

After that, they started to walk down the sidewalk and watch the advanced city filled with Hylotl everywhere.

John"s group surely caught their attention, as they were a ragtag group of different races, including a Novakid.

But they were the center of attention mainly because of Peri.

John could feel those stares and hear the sneering and whispers of the Hylotls around them.

As he was worried about the people tailing them, John got his group to hurry towards the Ancient Gateway.

...

As they got closer to the gray building in the middle of the city, John could see the streets getting empty as there was less common people walking around and more soldiers that often patrol the streets.

The group was stopped a few times by those patrols and questioned, they were only released once they showed their Ark Outpost ID and the permission they received from the s.p.a.ceport they docked the s.p.a.ceship.

John was walking while lost on his thoughts. He was wondering why it seemed that the atmosphere in this part of the city was strange.

*Whoosh*

"John!" John only heard Peri"s shout and he was pulled backwards by something.

*Clang*

*Blam*

He immediately fell on the ground.

*Bang*

A gunshot could be heard from behind him.

John looked at the source and saw that Lenny had drawn his revolver and shot at a black blur that vanished as soon as Lenny shot it.

"What happened!?" John stood up and retrieved the a.s.sault rifle from his back. He cautiously scanned his surroundings.

"I don"t know." Peri said before glancing at John, more specifically John"s neck.

"What?" John looked down, but saw nothing.

Soon he felt something strange and reached his hand towards his neck.

As soon as his hand touched his skin, he felt blood dripping from a small wound that he didn"t have any idea how it appeared.

A faint line of blood could be seen in his neck. The cut was clean, but very shallow.

John"s blood instantly ran cold and his heart could help but skip a beat.

"How...?" John drily asked as he felt a chill down his spine. He almost died without even knowing how.

If Peri haven"t reacted fast enough by blocking the attack with her spear and pulling him backwards, his head would have been sent flying up in the sky.

Peri, Lenny and John changed their position and raised their guards.

John silently spent some of EU and activated his Barrier Tech Ability.

At least now, he was taken by surprise, he wouldn"t die by a sneak attack.

With the new formation, they guarded Forge and Saito in the middle while John, Lenny and Peri at the extremity forming a triangle.

"Did you see the enemy?" John asked without turning his eyes away from the surrounding.

"Not really." Lenny answered while he drawn his other revolver, "I only saw a black blur and immediately shot it after Peri"s shout."

John pressed the wound in his neck and realized that it already stopped bleeding.

"What should we do?" John glanced at his back and saw that both Forge and Saito were trembling in fear.

"I don"t know." Peri said and tightened the grip on her spear.

After a few moments of silence, John could barely hold on as sweat dripped from his forehead and back.

He was clearly nervous as the enemy this time was clearly stronger than anyone he faced before.

Even with his enhanced senses after leaving the Ceremonial Hunting Caverns, he didn"t feel any danger or killing intent when he was attacked.

Only Peri was able to react, but her reaction was still slow compared to normal, that means the enemy"s stealth abilities were in a whole other level.

Lenny didn"t react as fast as her, but Peri"s shout woke him up and with a quick draw, he almost shot the black blur.

"Stop!" The group suddenly heard a shout coming from behind them.

The one who shouted was a Hylotl that was wearing a black suit.

He didn"t manage to react when as soon as his voice was heard, he was met with two muzzles and a spear aimed at him.

The Hylotl immediately broke in cold sweat.

He forced a smile and said, "Fujiawara said to stop all aggression."

John was confused if the Hylotl was talking them or the enemies.

Soon after the Hylotl"s voice dropped, John and his group saw three people appearing out of nowhere beside the Hylotl.

The three of them were wearing tight, black clothes that covered their entire body besides their three red eyes.

In their hands, a sword about the size of a katana, but instead of a slight curve, it was straight. The name of such type of sword used by shin.o.bi clans of Hylotl was ninjaken.

[a.s.sa.s.sins!?] John and Peri thought at the same time.

[Ninja!?] Lenny thought.

[Shin.o.bis!?] Forge was shocked as she recognized those people with tight black clothes. She immediately used the proper term used to name those Hylotl a.s.sa.s.sins.