Cadets: The Empress of Batoria

#13 XU HUN

Gathered in the teleportation room, we armed and prepared ourselves before heading down to the surface. We brought out plasma rifles, phasers, and explosive charges for when we to the super laser's core and blow it up. Ali was the last to show up and brought along her medical kit but brought no gun. Despite the fact it might get dangerous, Ali, a non-believer in violence like all Tangiens, refused to carry a gun.

Along with Asha, Tom, and Max, we were also bringing along five other cadets on the away mission.

The teleport operator found a suitable location to open a portal and was ready. I gave him the order, and the operator opened a portal leading into a series of narrow utility tunnels, filled with miles of circuitry and piping.

Asha was the first to go through, followed by myself, Ali, Tom, Max, and the rest of the away team.

It was a tight squeeze getting through the tunnels. Asha led the way with me and my friends following closely behind. We had no idea how long we had been roaming the tunnels, but it felt like we have been walking for a long time.

Eventually, we came to a T junction. We had the choice to go either left or right. We chose right, despite not knowing if this was the right way.

We found our way to a ladder leading down a shaft. We decided to climb down it, still with no idea of where we were going.

Max was the first to go down, followed by my friends and myself. We took our time climbing down, but Tom suddenly slipped and fell, causing us all to fall down the shaft.

We fell into the middle of another utility tunnel. Max was the first to hit the hard floor while the rest of us soft landed on top of him. There was a door beside us, and our fall made a loud crash which attracted the attention of two passing guards. We rushed to hide as the guards came in to investigate. They looked to the left and right but could not see us until we jumped them.

After knocking out the two guards, we tied them up and walked out of the tunnels, finding ourselves in the corridors.

Depending on their duty schedule, it would only be a matter of time before someone noticed the absent of the two guards. So, we had to move fast to find the heart of the weapon. However, we had no idea which way to go so we picked a direction by chance.

We had to be careful as we walked through the corridors. For all we knew there could be armed men around every corner. Whenever we heard guards coming, we hid somewhere and remained silent till they passed by.

Suddenly, tricorders were picking up heavy Rodin life signs coming from behind a large door.

We decided to check it out and discovered what appeared to be a large storage room filled with cages. We also discovered a row of operating tables stained in blood and beside them were cybernetic body parts. This appeared to be a surgery ward, where they made the cyborgs.

We took a closer look at the cages, and to our shock, they were filled with Rodins. They looked at us like frightened animals. I was beginning to suspect that the Rodins were not willingly involved in this plot.

Then a severely crippled old looking man concealed in a hoverchair and wearing a mask appeared from nowhere. He seemed barely alive and motionless but holding on. His head was tilted to one side and his face was brutally scarred.

To our shock, this old man was Xu Hun himself, who seemed glad to see us. It turned out that he was not behind this plot either. He was a prisoner like the rest of Rodins who were snatched off the streets to be cybernetically enhanced against their will.

He confessed to the assault on Asha's life, which was in fact a call for help. He felt ashamed but knew that by attacking the Empress within Federation space it would give us a reason to come to Batorean space and find him.

However, he was not willingly responsible for the second attack on the Empress' life. While the first attack was a message the other was a trap set by the true mastermind.

Ali found it horrible that someone would force these repulsive contraptions onto these poor people. She insisted that we save them and the ones who had been enhanced. I agreed, but Xu Hun sadly stated that it was too late to save the ones who have been enhanced. The damage was irreversible and there was nothing left of their individuality. They were now mindless machines.

There was one question that remained unanswered. If Xu Hun and the Rodins were all just puppets, then who was the one pulling the strings. We soon got our answer when Rodin cyborgs caught us off guard and surrounded us. Then, not so surprisingly, Alucard walked in.

Asha was in disbelief that the Secretary of Defence would betray his own kind, but I already figured it was him. I also knew why he was siding with the Rodings. Alucard was a Rodin himself.

Ali and I revealed to our friends that during our visit on Batoria Ali snuck a medical scan on everyone during our visit, including Alucard. She identified his DNA to be one hundred percent Rodin but found evidence of extensive surgery to fully resemble a Batorean. She also found that he was cybernetically enhanced in several places, which explained his strong grip when we shook hands.

Alucard complemented us on figuring out his true identity and confessed to not only being a Rodin but actually Xu Hun's father, Xurell. The very man who kidnapped Asha.

He revealed that he killed the real Alucard when he escaped from the Nexus slave camps and stole his identity to infiltrate the Empire. He somehow reached word about his son's proposal to weaponize Vitronium. Using Alucard's identity to his advantage he sought to convince the Empire into permitting Xu Hun to proceed with this project. They would unknowingly provide the Rodins with a weapon that would destroy the Empire.

Unfortunately, the late Emperor rejected these proposals. Knowing the potential threat of weaponised Vitronium, he was not willing to risk endangering the quadrant with a power that would consume the galaxy into war and destruction. However, this did not stop Xurell from convincing Xu Hun to proceed with the project in secret.

By the time the prototype neared completion, Xu Hun found out who Xurell really was and what he was planning to do. So, he deliberately sabotaged his own invention before his father could use it against the Empire. He hoped his father would perish along with him in the disaster, but they both survived. However, lethal exposure to Vitronium radiation left them both paralyzed. Xu Hun was confined to a hoverchair while Xurell went through cybernetic enhancement.

It took him around three years to recover the pieces of his son's work in order to rebuild everything. It all paid off and now he finally had a Vitronium super laser that would rid the galaxy of the Batorean Empire to make way for the rise of a Rodin Empire.

He was not counting on the Galactic Federation getting involved, and when we started searching for the truth, he made us look like criminals. Because of our meddling, Xurell was forced to move up his plans.

Before he left, I told Xurell he was not going to get away with it. If the Empire failed to stop her the Federation would be ready for any kind of trouble. However, he was not the least concerned.