Arkkon: the Starillian legacy

Chapter 48

Jessica's PoV
I open my eyes to find that I'm lay on the cold metal floor of the ascension. I get up and look around, seeing that bits of the room had fallen about the vault, making a mess of the place. I look around and then find myself being gripped tightly. I turn my head to see that it's Charlotte hugging me.
"Oh my god, you're okay" she said like she was the happiest girl alive

"Yeah, I'm okay" I turned my body to face her "what happened?"

"After Vaxenier sent the ship into a stargate jump, the ship ended up crashing on some uncharted planet" she told me "we've been trying to pinpoint our exact location but so far we have nothing"

"Finally awake I see" Me and Charlotte look at Jasmine in the doorway

"Is everyone okay?" I asked them both

"James got knocked unconscious by a monitor, but yeah everyone's fine" Jasmine answered "they're all outside, trying to see where we are"

I began to walk with Charlotte and Jasmine through the ascension and it was then that I could see that the majority of the damage done was just monitors and consoles being smashed out of place. The ship was a mess. We got to the doors and when I walked out, I saw the planet we were on.

The planet looked like so kind of demonic land from a dark tale, the ground was a purplish black gravel, the trees were a dark down and had no leaves on them, the river that the front of the ascension was submerged by was a dark red colour. I saw that there was an enormous forest with what looked like a man made opening in the centre. In front of the forest I saw that everyone was okay, even Draxx's people.
"Where are we?" I asked myself

"Untore" I turned to Draxx, he sounded displeased that we were here "the homeworld of the Sanguis and of the Cimex"

"The what and the what now?" Jasmine asked

"The Sanguis and the Cimex" Draxx repeated "you didn't think every species in the galaxy had been discovered did you?"

"Wait, you mean there are more races than just those allied with the republic and the federation out there?" I asked for confirmation

"Yes" Draxx answered "but we should leave this planet as soon as we can, it's environment is...hazardous to say the least"

"Just the environment? Or the locals as well?" Ulag butted in "because I think some of them are over up in that tree"

We turned to see what appeared to be three young women stood on tree branches at the edge of the forest. They had pale white skin and wore very revealing, dark purple, sleeveless clothes that didn't even reach their knees, and they were barefoot. Two of them were wearing hoods and masks that covered most of their faces and the last one had her white coloured hair tied up in a ponytail. The two hooded women were wielding what looked like crossbows whereas the third woman had a long serrated knife in her hand, I managed to see the woman's face and saw...were those fangs? The three woman stood in the tree, observing us, the woman wielding the knife spoke to the other two woman when her gaze fell onto Draxx.
"We must warn mother" she said, with a cold voice "the defiler has returned"

Just then the three women began leaping through the tree branches, further into the forest. They didn't say a word to us, they just left.
"So their clan did survive..." Draxx muttered to himself

"Who were they?" I ask as the women left

"They were members of the bloodsisters, a clan of witches" he said "their clan is made up of the Sanguis people"

"Is it just me..." Jaymos started "...or did they remind you of-"

"Vampires?" Draxx asked, Jaymos nodded and Draxx continued "the stories of vampires were spread across earth when a group of Sanguis travelled to earth and began feeding on human blood and flesh"

"So they're cannibals?" Bailey asked "just what we needed"

"No, they can drink any kind of blood, and consume any kind of flesh" Draxx corrected "they usually feed on animal carcasses, but they occasionally eat more sapient beings if they so wish"

"You seem to know a lot about them" Okeer stated "have you dealt with them before"

"Yes...lets just say I'm not on friendly terms with the Sanguis, or the Cimex for that matter" Draxx admitted

"You make a lot of friends, don't ya?" Jasmine sarcastically remarked

"Will they be able to help us fix the ascension?" I asked him

"You'll have to ask the clan mother for that" he told me "just follow the clearing and you'll eventually find their fortress"

"How do you know the clearing will lead us there?" Charlotte asked

"Because the serpentine made the clearing during the battle of Uncore, six hundred years ago" Draxx told us

"What? Trees don't grow back or something?" Jaymos asked

"Not when the roots have been completely torn out by serpentine war machines" Trident answered "the serpentine torn a path through the forest and marched on the bloodsisters"

"Why were the serpentine at war with the Sanguis?" I asked

"Because they were playing with dangerous magics, trying to break the rules of time itself" Draxx told me "they were attempting to kill me, without the events that prophecy spoke of taking place"

"Impossible" Baxter chimed in "what is in the prophecies is what will happen"

"And it would have happened, from a certain point of view"Orish corrected

"Wait, why were they trying to kill you?" I turned back to Draxx

"They had allied themselves with my last apprentice, Xor Shazee, and plotted to kill me" Draxx explained "so I sent the serpentine to wipe out the Sanguis, clearly some of them survived and rebuilt their species"

"I'll go speak with this clan mother" I said

"Who's going with you?" Draxx asked "we can't all go, the Cimex might try to scarp the ascension for parts so they can build houses"

"Oh, these Cimex are real charmers aren't they?" Ulag said sarcastically

"I'll go with Jasmine, Charlotte and..." I now had my chance to speak with him "...if you don't mind Draxx, I'll take Aaron along as well"

"Very well, knight, do as Jessica says" Draxx said

"Of course, master" Aaron nodded

"Jessica?" Okeer said "with your permission, I would like to come along as well, this planet is teaming with undiscovered life"

"Okay, Okeer you can come too" I agreed "everyone else stay here and keep the ship safe"

I made my advance into the clearing with Jasmine, Charlotte, Aaron and Okeer following me. We enter the darkened area, the ascension getting smaller and smaller the further away we got from it. I really hope these Sanguis are reasonable people, I wouldn't want our first contact with them to be a violent one.