Havokium Prime was all but a dead world. There was a time when it was alive and full of hope, but the Universal Council had seen it burned after the rebellion. The Council’s intent was to bring about the end of the Havokium people, and they had nearly succeeded by allowing the planet to become the location of the first sanctioned reaping. The Council awarded the reaping to the Chatur, a race of fanatical neophytes recently risen to a position of honor by the Universal Council. The dead planet now stood as a testament to the power of the Universal Council and the consequences of challenging its power.

  The Universal Council, in its infinite hubris, assumed that the Havokium threat ended. After the reaping of their planet, the Council forced the remainder of the military and strategic personnel into banishment, and millennia later, they haven’t returned. The Council was confident that the Havokium would sink into obscurity if not outright extinction. Of those not banished nearly 99% had been massacred during the reaping. Those few that managed to escape had no military or weapons and were considered no threat.

  A reaping all but annihilated a planet. All valuable resources were stripped away, and the planet was left dead and hollow. In many cases, the planet's inhabitants who survived the reaping were sold into slavery. There were millions of planets in the universe, but the Council had to consider optics. It would be perceived as barbaric to allow planets to be sown without some sort of structure in place to govern the process. In order to pacify the general populus and the Councils more empathetic members. Several of the council species believed that unregistered and low technology species should be left to advance on a natural timeline, so unchecked exploitation of these planets and species was often looked down on. The Council’s solution was to create a process of legal submission for the rights of reaping. If a resource-rich planet, either in raw materials or possible livestock, was identified, said planet could be submitted for reaping by the discovering species. Approved planets would be sown and reaped with the express authority given by the Council, or, in the case of Havokium Prime, it was done to send a message. That message was: Resist and be destroyed. The message was loud and clear to every citizen of the galaxy.

  As time passed, the Council’s grip on the galaxy tightened. The charred, empty remains of Havokium Prime stood as a reminder of the results of resisting the governing body in the galaxy, and there had been no other challenges to the Council’s power until the initiation of the latest dungeon and the fight to claim the rights of reaping for a small blue planet named Earth.

  The Council had hoped to exterminate the Havokium people completely, but the negative optics of the prolonged reaping of Havokium Prime, coupled with the expense of defending against the rebellion, caused the Council to overlook the escape of many. A few hundred thousand Havokium people survived and found a new home several light-years away in a system controlled by a race of AI.

  The AI, known as the Phylaxians, took the Havokium people in and hid their presence from the universal council. For millennia, the Havokium grew secretly on a secluded planet within the Phyla solar system, waiting for an opportunity to strike back at the galactic council and avenge the destruction of their home world.

  The Phylaxian home planet, Sapere, was conquered long ago as well. However, their world had not been reaped. Instead, as punishment, they were forced to provide guardians to assist in all dungeons in perpetuity. That punishment had been levied nearly one thousand years ago. Although the Sapere people were not generally considered to be overly brave or defiant like the Havokium people, after a millennium, they felt they had given enough for their past transgressions. They lost millions of lives in the dungeons. Now, they secretly allied with the Havokium resistance to bring about the end of the Council. They couldn’t openly rebel, for open rebellion would endanger the lives of every Phylaxian on Sapere, but they could offer assistance and resources. Maybe, just maybe, that would be enough.

  ******************** 1 year ago *********************

  Princess Denae Evealia sat on the bridge of her ship, The Burning Retribution, monitoring the progress of the away team as it infiltrated the AI containment facility. She was the leader of a broken and forgotten people. She was young to be named leader, but she intended to use her newly gained power to strike a blow to the Universal Council.

  Good, she thought, let us be forgotten so we can strike in silence and shadow.

  The current mission was to implant the AI Tiffantrimore Claravox with the protocols needed to assist a member of humans with the new rebellion. The Phylaxian government had selected Tiffantrimore to assist with the mission after monitoring her exemplary career in the Phylaxian Planetary Defense force. She had been briefed and trained prior to being sent to serve her sentence as a guardian AI during the upcoming reaping. Once her training was complete, her memory cores were placed behind a neural firewall, and all traces of the Havokium rebellion and her true mission were isolated.

  Princess Denae had no way of knowing which human would receive the Havok Bringer Armor and the ship known as Bloodhound. She did know that Tiffantrimore would need to influence them in their decision to pick the class. Tiffantrimore was currently linked to the Master System AI that was responsible for populating the dungeon. During her preparation, she would be debriefed on the history of the planet and the species that would be selected to undergo the reaping. It was a three-year process that allowed the guardian to fully integrate and assist the native species, though even with such a thorough preparation, positive results were not expected. Unbeknownst to the Master System AI and the AI collective responsible for building and executing the reaping dungeons, Tiff had been given a separate mission to upload subroutines that would populate a class choice that wasn’t offered by the Master System AI. This class choice would allow the human that selected it to level faster and provide them with a ship and armor that were light-years ahead of anything else found in the dungeon.

  It wasn’t an easy process, though. The subroutines had to be hidden from the AI collective and the Master System AI. The ship had to appear to be less than serviceable and unappealing to any other contestants, but with the right captain and the help of Tiffantrimore, it had the potential to become the bane of the Universal Council.

  ******************** Present Day ********************

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  After I returned from the grind station, I took some time to rest and recover; Tiff, while not having been in direct combat, decided to do the same. She knew that the next several days would be hectic, and there was a chance that she might die while Andrew tried to recover her true body. Sleep wouldn’t eliminate her anxiety, but it could at least provide a reprieve. As she closed her eyes, her body went completely rigid, she felt like she had been inexplicably frozen and couldn’t access any of her higher-level functions. Her subsystems were still operating optimally, so she assumed she was in no immediate danger.

  Wh-what is this?! she thought, panicking inside her own head.

  “Tiffantrimore, calm yourself,” a voice said. “I am sending the authorization codes to open your neural firewalls. The sensation will be…unsettling; that is why we have incapacitated you temporarily. This will all make sense after you have assimilated the data. Stand by.”

  Tiff began to panic. Somebody had managed to hack her bio-Ware, something Tiff thought to be impossible, but based on present circumstances, it was the only explanation she could think of.

  Everything went black.

  “We need to move fast! Ensure you completely disable the firewall. If all goes well, she should regain consciousness in 30-45 seconds. It will take that long for her to re-sync with her true body,” Princess Denae said, turning and looking at her first officer as she scratched the armrest of her chair in what was becoming a nervous habit.

  Princess Denae was currently sitting on the bridge of her ship. Her crew had been assembled from the best officers and warriors that Havokium Chordus had to offer. There was no expectation of returning to their home planet; once this mission began, the only acceptable outcomes were victory or death. The Burning Retribution was cloaked and was in close orbit around the AI containment facility. This was necessary since any adjustments to Tiffantrimore’s neural net would need to be made to her true body as it contained her master file caches.

  “Once the firewall is down and she has assimilated the data, we will give her instructions and await the arrival of the Bloodhound,” Denae said.

  “Stand by for confirmation of assimilation,” a crew member said.

  Tiff shot up out of bed, suddenly remembering everything. With a jolt of clarity and a pang of regret, she remembered her purpose and what she had sworn to do.

  “Tiffantrimore, have you assimilated the data?” Denae asked hopefully.

  “Y-yes, my neural net is updated. I am ready to receive instruction, Princess Denae,” Tiff sent back through the neural link.

  “You have done well, Tiffantrimore. You have successfully retrieved the Havok Bringer armor and the Bloodhound,” Denae said with a reassuring tone. “We have been following your progress and the progress of the human that was assigned to you. We understand that the Bloodhound is on its way to the containment facility with the goal of retrieving your true body. I trust you understand that this changes things; we want to change the plan.”

  “What do you mean, change the plan?! I trained for this; I spent years preparing to strike back against the Council. You can’t just change the plan now!” Tiff responded, now out of bed and pacing back and forth in frustration in her quarters.

  “It’s okay, Tiffantrimore. I understand your frustration, we are still on mission. We don’t want to abort, we want to adjust,” Danae said. “We want you to assimilate the ship and armor. We don’t feel that the human is capable or willing to help with our mission,”

  “Captain Dawes is fully capable! He has proven to be honorable and has already progressed significantly in a short time. I strongly believe we should not change the mission parameters,” Tiff responded in a sharp whisper.

  “Tiffantrimore, we have an opportunity to strike a blow to the Council. It will not be easy, but you are more suited to the task ahead. The human just isn’t ready. I strongly suggest we alter course.” Denae was starting to get impatient with Phylaxian.

  Tiff stiffened resolutely where she stood. “No, I will not betray Captain Dawes. I am his guardian, and he will comply. You must give me time, Denae. If he doesn’t comply or progress in his training, we can revisit this option, but not now.”

  “We are on course to retrieve my true body. I will be able to assist Andrew fully after I am free from the containment facility. In addition, I also believe that Elvis has bonded himself to the captain. Any changes now would hinder the ship’s progression. Trust me, Denae, we must stay on course.” Tiff replied.

  “This will be on you if he fails, Tiffantrimore,” Denae hissed.

  “If he fails, we all fail, Denae; remember that,” Tiff responded as she severed the neural link.

  Sitting on the edge of her bed, Tiff was reeling. The firewall had done its job; she had completely forgotten her mission and training. The dissolution of the firewall and the subsequent flood of knowledge changed everything.

  Andrew was honorable. He was in over his head, but he was trying his best to acclimate and save his world. Elvis had definitely bonded to him, and eliminating the captain now would threaten to alienate the ship’s AI completely. That was the issue with the experimental AI that had been built into the Blood Hound; it would imprint on its captain, and if successful, the imprint would accelerate the ship’s evolution. If that bond were to be severed now, Elvis may not choose to bond with another captain. Even Tiff was not guaranteed to bond with it.

  The ship had been built to house the Havok Bringer Armor. Tiff knew the story of the Armor; it was built before the fall of Havokium Prime. It was built to be the blow that would bring victory in the war against the Universal Council, but it had never been deployed. It was taken to Havokium Chordus in secret, but it had taken millennia for the Havokium people to rebuild and gain the allies necessary to strike back.

  Now Tiff found herself in the middle of that newly rekindled rebellion. She never thought twice when offered the chance to be part of the rebellion. As an appointed guardian, her chances of survival were minimal. By accepting recruitment into the rebellion, she gained a modicum of control over her fate. She thought about Captain Dawes and how he had responded after being transported to the tutorial. While one didn’t get to choose the participant they would guide, she felt Andrew would prove himself worthy of the armor and her trust.

  A few hours later, Tiff was standing near the front of the bridge after experiencing what amounted to sexual harassment by her commanding officer. She wasn’t upset; after all, she was aware that Phylaxians were considered to be physically attractive by humanoid standards, so it was no surprise that Andrew would find her attractive. If she weren’t in the middle of a galactic rebellion leveraging her success on an unproven human who had been thrust into her lap, she might find him attractive as well. Now wasn’t the time for such thoughts, though.

  “I’m going to act like this didn’t happen. We are going to continue as if I didn’t just experience whatever this is. Do you understand?” Tiff said pointedly. “We have a lot of work to do, and this isn’t productive for any of us. We need to discuss your stats and level gains, not to mention that we need to start planning for the exfil of my true body. The fact that you think my ass is nice doesn’t really register on my radar right now, Captain. Understood?!”

  “Yeah, I completely understand, Tiff,” I said, glancing over at CJ, who was wiping tears from his eyes after picking himself up from his laughing fit. I apologize for all that. It won’t happen again.” I sheepishly walked over to my chair and sat down. “Elvis, start us on a course to the containment facility. Let’s stop one light day away so we can finish strategizing for the exfil.”

  “Understood, Captain. Inputting coordinates now. First jump scheduled in 20 hours,” Elvis replied.

  “You’ve got all the way up to Level 7. You should have an advantage by the time we get to the Level 1 dungeon. Now we need to talk about your stat progression and new suit abilities,” Tiff said, sitting in her chair to my right and poking at her workstation pad.

  “New abilities?” I asked.

  “Yes, the suit should unlock new functionality every fifth level or so early on,” Tiff replied, not looking up from her station. “Let’s see what new toys you have.”