Chapter 1

Each night, same empty shadows. It’s suffocating my thoughts and dragging me down into an abyss. A grip holding my ankle pulling me deeper under. A shadowy figure emerges from the blackness, an Amber Krowen like myself, but twisted, monstrous, warped. It stalks towards me, each step leaving a trail of sticky, crimson blood in its wake.

Panic grips me again. Can't move, can't breathe, as the grotesque specter draws closer. The darkness inside of me, my lurking copilot, manifest.

Hair raising. The ordeal shifts and I'm back on Caisteal, standing amid the yelling and chaos as the villagers brandish their pitchforks and kitchen knives, anything they could find to try and survive. They never stood a chance though. It was an extermination. I observe as I cleave through them one by one, methodical, unhurried – the screaming thinning with each pass until only the wet sounds remain. The taste of iron in my maw – so real, so vivid.

My blood is everywhere. The demon—me—kneels in the wreckage of overturned furniture, illuminated by crimson moonlight through shattered windows. Its jaw of bone extends through the flesh, mouth twisted in a scowl. It wears my armor, soaked and steaming. One hand claws at a grotesque wound in its gut while the other grips a glowing orange sword. On the wall, smeared in blood, the word "JETHRO" taunts me. With a shriek of shearing flesh and metal, the creature digs its claws into its own chest and pulls, splitting its torso open. Welcome to my panic room.

As the nightmare continues, I try desperately to claw my way out of this hellish mindscape, but I'm trapped, pulled back again and again by memories that refuse to let go. I know what I've done. I know the pain I've caused. And yet I can't escape the grip of these nightmares, a constant reminder of the monster I am and the darkness inside me. “I’m so sorry, Forza,” says the Caistealian fox’s shivering jaw resting atop of my head, holding me tightly as she cries.

The scene shifts once more, the blood-soaked walls of the room giving way to the battlefield where I met said Caistealian fox, Rio. Our fates had knotted together in ways neither of us had chosen, each of us dragging the other deeper into whatever this was. As much as I long for freedom from this torment, I can't help but wonder if it's possible to ever truly escape. Where is Rio now? Where did she go?

"Go back to sleep," the voice screams, spitting blood at the side of my head. Black feathers fall like snowflakes again, a testament to the past. Their soft descent in the wind mockingly reminds me that this is not just a dream – it's a reality I cannot deny.

"Wake up!" a new voice calls out, shattering the eerie silence, yet no face accompanies it. Vision blurred, I struggle to distinguish between dreams and reality. The world around me shifts, distorted and uncertain.

"Where are they?" I ask myself, searching for the source of the voice that had tried to rouse me from my slumber. If I can find them, maybe I can finally wake up and leave this.

I felt the hands on my shoulders gripping me with an urgency that sent shivers down my spine. My eyes were locked onto the bloody sword in his hands and the crimson liquid dripping from its blade like a macabre metronome. Go back to sleep... But as the fog of the nightmare began to lift, I recognized the touch belonged to Shiinx. The battle for my soul was won… and tomorrow we'll start anew.

My blue eyes opened, my wide pupils constricted, and I let out a long exhale.

“Forza, honey it’s okay,” she said in a soft, soothing voice. She tenderly ran her slender fingers through my damp hair, slowly drying off the water and calming me down. Her warm smile reassured me more than her words ever could. It felt good. Her touch.

I still stared at the ceiling with apprehension for a few more moments. Taking a few deep breaths, I raised my arm and gently placed it against her cheek, feeling the warmth of her fur as she held mine in hers. I tried to manage a small smile, although I wasn’t sure how successful I could be.

“Was it one of the 'bad ones'?” she asked softly.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”

I swallowed hard before finally managing to whisper, “Yeah.” My gaze wandered to the clock on the wall and I realized that Shiinx should have been on shift. What was she doing here? Had she taken a break from work in order to check on me? Even though part of me wanted to thank her for caring, another part of me resented her presence. I felt embarrassed for her to witness me this way, yet it was moments like these that I required her support the most.

“I wish I could do more.”

“Oh man,” I chuckled, feeling her body move off of mine as I sat up from the bed, my nakedness exposed in the dim dorm room light. “You know what I always say when you say that.”

She shifted herself off my stomach as I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood. I crossed to the sink and turned the handle hard. Cold. I shoved my hands under it and held them there, then drove the water up into my face—once, twice. I gripped the edges of the basin and let it run. The droplets fell from my chins fur and hit the porcelain. It was quiet. I could hear the water beads landing in the water one after another like a clock ticking Maybe it was just a heightened sense of things through the anxiety. The pressure in my chest hadn’t moved. An hour, maybe two, and he would loosen its fist. It always did. I just had to get there.

“That everything was worse before we found you?” she asked, her voice uncertain.

I lifted my head and looked into the mirror above the sink, meeting my own gaze through my blue eyes. “Imagine, love,” I said softly, “the nightmare continuing for what feels like years. Being asleep, forever, unable to wake up.”

“I know,” she frowned. “You were something else when I first saw you.”

A smile played across my lips as I remembered how far we had come. “Yeah,” I said simply, “Bloodtiger.”

I slowly glanced over my shoulder, and beheld her form draped across my bed. Her feline fur was a mix of many shades – tans, browns and yellows – and her long, blonde hair glinted in the light from my window, so soft to the touch. I loved the different natural tones that raced across the fur of her face. Her eyes held a quiet steadiness that never wavered, even when everything around her was falling apart. To me, she was a perfect blend of strength and beauty; her Asuya Company uniform hugged every contour of her body like a second skin. I stood there in awe a moment, filled with admiration for this incredible creature before me, and all I could think was why me? Why is it she chose to stay by my side when she has larger problems looming overhead? It's almost as if her presence alone kept me grounded through all the chaos that had come our way. That’s why I loved her.

Unlike her, I’m an Amber Krowen. We’re a rabbit-like people, all long ears and short snouts. I remember being told we looked like the little hares hopping through the farmlands back on our home world. That was before we spread out from Amber Krowe and founded the Systems Alliance, the interstellar government now headquartered there. Its history is complex, and so are the things that have happened under its rule.

Shiinx's eyes softened as she watched me, her lips quirking into a frown. She placed a hand on my arm, her touch feather-light. “No more 'Bloodtiger' talk,” she said. “Just be yourself. No matter who that is or what it feels like is living inside you. You'll figure it out eventually.”

I let out a weary sigh and glanced at her, the corner of my mouth twitching in an apologetic smile. I reached for my vest and pulled it over my head, followed by cargo pants and boots. Shiinx shifted to sit upright on the bed, watching me with a serious look. “Anyway,” I said tugging at the straps of my pants. “What's going on? Aren't you supposed to be working?”

“I received a secure briefing report from the Alliance,” she grinned tilting her head to the side.

“An important one I imagine.”

“Yes. I have a special assignment for you, ‘Liam’,” she said with a smirk at the name had to use here under certain circumstances. The reasons for the alias were complicated.

I zipped up my trousers and folded my arms across my chest. My fur, a patchwork of burgundy-red and white, was a constant reminder of what happened a few months ago. It wasn’t always like this, these colors. I try to explain to Shiinx that my normal colors are a muted-yellow, but here we are. The change came when I arrived on Tier, same time as the nightmares. Much of my memory of Caisteal is still a blur—the Sun Jin Empire hunting me, wanting to use me as a weapon again. I rubbed my temple, pushing the thoughts away. Dwelling on it only hurt. What mattered was now.

The best way to avoid the anxiety of the past is to just focus on the present. That’s why when Shiinx and her team found me here on Tier, I found it best that I simply do what I can for now and work under her command of the Asuya Company, here. To just exist while I figure this out.

I often wonder if she should have killed me when she found me. My mind was in a different state - lost in the nightmare that had become my reality. I was no longer just a man, but a wild animal fueled by instinct and an insatiable hunger for blood. It was then that I first met Jethro, the entity that corrupted me from within and consumed my very being. Even now on the planet Tier, I struggle to understand how I became this ‘Bloodtiger’ and what led to these never-ending nightmares. Jethro's voice echoes in my mind and mocks me in my sleep, driving me further into madness with each passing day. But despite it all this new life is still preferable to being a Sun Jin military weapon used to... Stop it.

“Shiinx!” I snapped back to my senses and clapped my hands together. Realistically I’m still waking up, right? Understandable my mind is still lingering with the nightmare.

“Yeah?”

“Tell me about the communication you received.”

She hopped off the bed and headed towards the door leading to one of the corridors of the station. “How about I show you the message instead?”

Shiinx was doing well for herself as the base commander of Asuya Co, an independent military logistics company whose services included cargo delivery and weapon purchases. It was advantageous to be connected to whoever held power in the contested space around Tier, and currently, the Sun Jin Empire controlled the planet. In truth, however, much of the command staff at Asuya Co were Systems Alliance operatives who kept tabs on Sun Jin activity on Tier, including Shiinx.

The room she led me to was filled with metal shelves, boxes, tools, and laptops. The industrious hum of machines filled the air. She sat on a stool in front of one of her many computers, running active holographs along its surface. I followed her lead and knelt down next to a table covered in parts, taking mental inventory as I watched what she did.

“Remember last week? That explosion?” She asked as she typed away at her keyboard.

“Yeah… K8 storage facility, burnt to the ground.” We were dispatched to investigate, but we were recalled shortly after departing the station. The Orbital Sun Jin fleet had beat us to the punch and sent their own investigation.

“More or less. Something like that, except this time it was a ship. A full-on cargo freighter crashed.” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “How does that happen, Forza?” She started the recording on the holo-screen as I scooted myself a little closer to her.

A Systems Alliance logo, our date and time stamp; top secret classified audio recording all appeared on the screen. “2.28.0041 – Secured Transcomm Link 10-10005 General Order – Asuya, Colonel Ukatan,” floated across in bright white letters against a dark background. My eyes fixated on the word Ukatan for a second, followed by an uncontrolled natural twitch in the muscle under one of my eyes.

A deep males voice broke through. “The Alliances has received intelligence that at a 2234, your local Tierian Time, a Sun Jin cargo freighter was destroyed over the Kovar region after entering the atmosphere. The exact coordinates are attached.”

As he talked I looked up at the digital wall clock above the door. It was 2302. That was pretty damn fast.

“We do not suspect that this vessel was destroyed by any allied forces or local resistances, but this provides us with an opportunity. Your orders are to salvage any data from the vessels computer that may reveal the Sun Jin’s future intentions for Tier. I understand this isn’t your usual type of operation, but the incident is only 200 miles northeast of your facility. We would appreciate any assistance you can offer, Shiinx, but please don’t risk your neck. This is a great opportunity, but not worth jeopardizing your cover. I understand if you are not equipped to lead an armed team into this forest.”

I looked up at Shiinx. “It almost sounds like he doesn’t want us to go, huh?” I couldn’t help it. She looked so adorable. Since I was down here anyway I rested my chin on her knees and looked up.

The colonel’s name was Ukatan. His full name, buried somewhere in a file, was Maolong Ukatan, though most who answered to him never knew that much. I had been watching his rise through the Systems Alliance intelligence community for some time. When I discovered that Shiinx reported directly to him, something cold moved through my chest. When I told her that at one point I had reported to him myself, she had promised me to keep me out of her reports entirely, but if my existence absolutely had to be acknowledged, to list me as her Station Security Chief under the name Liam. Of all the people in the Systems Alliance with the reach to unravel everything I had built here, it had to be him. He was one of the reasons I am here, now, in hiding. Nothing good for me would come from him finding me again.

Kaisara and I were both once part of Shrike, an off-the-books unit, assassins and spies mostly, buried somewhere in the Systems Alliance intelligence apparatus. Then Kaisara disappeared to go plan her war that started all of this. Not long after, our team commander turned up dead on Amber Krowe, and Ukatan slid into his place. Sharp mind for tactics and intelligence work. I didn’t serve under him long before things fell apart for me. Somewhere in that timeline he played a role in what was done to me, giving me these nightmares and ruining everything, but with the uncertainty of what happened on Caisteal, and me ending up on Tier, I just haven’t been able to pin down exactly what that role was, this transformation into my Bloodtiger had so many recent memories stripped. That’s why Shiinx couldn’t just shout from the rooftops that his old friend Forza Ninetails was working for her now.

“Okay,” I stuck my tongue out of my mouth just a tad playfully, acting like a pet or something as she rubbed my hair. “I’ll lead a team. I suppose we need to get going if we’re going to beat the Sun Jin recovery team there, right?”

“That’s right. Good pet,” she patted my head.

I could only smirk back at her. Smartass.

“Go on, get out of here. Pick your team and let me know when you’re on your way.”

A smirk crossed my face as I got up, gave her a kiss on the forehead and headed for the door.

The corridor hums with fluorescent light as I move through it, boots ringing off the metal grating. The air is cold. The burning in my chest isn’t. For a moment something dark claws at the edge of my thoughts and I give my head a single sharp shake. “Not now, Jethro.”

I tap my wristwatch as I round the corner toward the locker rooms. “Chambers, Raf. We’re up. Wheels up in fifteen.” A beat of silence, then a groggy female voice through the speaker: “Liiiiaaam. It’s almost midnight.” I don’t respond, but a chuckle did escape my muzzle.

A voice in the earpiece, the pilot, "We're almost at the AO, commander."

The musty, oily scent of old plastic and spilt hydraulic fluid splashed the air as I peered at the forest under, behind us, as we cruised along. Most of this planet was green forest, or ocean; a lot of places to hide, or get lost.

I made my way up to Chambers and Rafaya, both of whom I had become friends with while working within Asuya. Chambers wore a leathery black hide with a line of horns that snaked along his short snout and stood tall in his full tactical gear. A reptilian, he tapped watched the treetops pass under us, one hand on the rail, the other holding his slung rifle in place across his chest.

“Loud and clear, sir,” said Chambers through a thick accented tone.

I spoke to the pilot through the transmitter. “Once we reach the crash site and it is safe, fly one lap around it, then move on with our current trajectory. Use the Kovar Region Sun Jin communication relay to contact Sun Jin orbital command and report the crash and offer aid. Nice little helpful bystanders.”

“Good copy, sir.” Nice clear transition in the earpiece. “We’ll be over the drop point in thirty seconds.”

As he spoke I walked down the extended ramp a bit into the exposed outside. I looked over the side at the forest below. We were only a few thousand feet up so it wouldn’t be a very long fall.

It was a beautiful night; a pleasant heat lingered in the air, even though it was the middle of the night. Summertime on Tier was always pleasant, not too hot and not too cold. I had grown to love staying on this forest planet over the past few months. It reminded me of home back on Amber Krowe, which also enjoyed lovely summers, though I suppose right now it was winter there, where I grew up.

I felt my rifle between my hands and let out a heavy sigh as an unbidden anxiety welled up within me. I heard what sounded like Rafaya descending the ramp next to me, so I turned to look - only to find it wasn't her at all, but instead the tall green-furred Amber Krowen I'd known from years past wearing her signature gray and black camo hoodie and her purple scarf draped over her shoulders. A tired looking, and deeply exhausted, Redken… Sun Jin Kaisara… stood there stoically, taking in the trees shrinking away in the distance, her pointy ears pointing back towards me and two Templar swords – which would one day become mine – secured to her belt. We exchanged a silent gaze for a few moments, both of us aware of the gentle gusts passing by us.

“It's all too familiar, isn't it?” her voice jumped into my head with an odd dreamlike quality as she spoke.

“Forza?”

I flinched a moment and came back to my senses. Standing where the green Amber Krowen woman was a just seconds before was Rafaya. I blinked a few times and just smiled at her a bit.

She cocked an eyebrow and grinned. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Sorry.” Daydreams. Damn that woman.

“Giving me a pretty cold look there for a moment," Raf said with a snort. "You’re going to miss your jump?” She strapped her goggles on over her eyes and readied her rifle. I wonder what I must have looked like through her perspective there when I lost it. I watched her tighten the straps on her backpack one last time and trot forward a few paces and jump right off the cargo loading ramp.

Still shaken slightly from the vision I watched Chambers in my peripheral vision also head off behind her as he waved at me. “Bye boss,” he shouted playfully.

I blinked out of it, a single shake of my head, and took a few final steps backward. I breathed in a pair of soft breaths as I affixed the goggles over my eyes and walked backwards off the ramp. Closing my eyes a few moments I just tried to calm down. Having moments where I can’t control my thoughts bothers the living hell out of me. It's only been a few months - will I be able to control it one day, or will it continue to get worse and more intrusive into my ever day life?

The air around me created a soft howling sound as my body cut through it headfirst and I scanned the area around us. The crash site was only a quarter mile or so from where we were going to be landing and through simple light-forested terrain. It wouldn’t be hard to find it. The smoldering remains of the aircraft was lighting the whole area up and visible from anywhere within fifty miles for sure.

I thumbed a switch on my rifle and aimed at the ground rushing up to meet me. Just before I fired, I saw two glowing-blue clouds blossom in the clearing where the team was landing—their retro-chutes. I fired two rounds of my own. Upon impact, they erupted into a similar dense, blue gas. I rolled mid-air, hitting the cloud back-first. The thicker-than-air vapor caught me, braking my fall until my boots touched down softly on the forest floor as the gas dissolved.

I always enjoyed these jumps. In the military I had done a lot of unique jumpi... ...A memory: The thunderous clash of broken glass echoed through the floor of the high-rise office tower as the figure crashed in from the sky clad in advanced close quarters combat gear. Swords unsheathed, orange-glowing Varunium steel Templar blades. He leapt into his blade-dance with a savagery and grace that is only possible by a select few across the galaxy. The katana in his right hand rending flesh and the short sword in his left tearing through furniture, nothing could stand against him. His power and skill knew no bounds in this world, a feat of excellence that had to be seen to be believed - this was a jump from space, from orbit, into an office building. No one was beyond him or his reach.

The figure was me. A Shrike assassin, under Ukatan. Another life entirely.

I took a long breath and slung the rifle over my back. Funny, I never was much of a firearms guy. I spent my whole career being a specialist in close quarters combat. My abilities made bladed combat the perfect choice. I was fast. Unnaturally fast, even. It wouldn’t be until I met Kaisara in the Shrike Program that she could explain to me what I truly was and where these abilities came from. I had Templar blood coursing through my veins.

“Where you guys at,” Chambers voice said over the radio. “Ah there you are.” He came up beside me skipping through the brush and Rafaya approached from another direction as well.

“Alright guys,” I nodded at them. “Let’s try to get in and out. That vessel looks shot to hell so I wonder if any data recovery is even possible. If not we’ll start the hike back to the extraction point where we can get picked up without drawing any Sun Jin attention.”

“Sounds good boss,” started Chambers. “Do we know what fragged this vessel anyway?”

In response I slid the goggles up over my brow and shook my head. “No idea. Let’s move.” Together the three of us began marching through the forest towards the debris field. Just had to follow the flickering orange and red light from between the tree trunks.