Iter Per Astra: Volume 1 - Lost Princess
Astral 5 - Rose Attacked

Rose looked at all the different types of people who walked past the store, the street was one of the widest of all the streets she passed by when coming to this store, it was probably one of the biggest streets in the marketplace.

Of all of the people who passed, there were people of multiple different nationalities, there were people from Planet America, the Japanese Empire, Britannic Kingdom, and multiple other smaller nationalities that Rose couldn’t remember.

“Maybe what Joseph was saying it’s true, Nautica Harbor is a famous place in the galaxy,” Rose said. “I wonder how it compares to Mirror Lake though. I heard from other cadets that it was very beautiful.”

Among all the people who walked past the store. Rose noticed a man with a rifle on the other side of the street looking at her.

Rose unconsciously looked around, trying to act as if she hadn’t noticed him.

Rose looked again in the direction of the mysterious man and noticed that he was headed directly toward her, she first assumed that he was a navy soldier, and he was just by coincidence walking that way, but his clothing and direction said otherwise. She also thought that he was going to enter the store, but he was looking directly at her.

Out of panic, she headed backward into the alley between the Intrepid Technologies shop and the shop beside it, she hoped that she could exit by the other side.

As her back suddenly collided with a wall, she felt a cold shiver of fear run through her body, she realized that it was a one-way alley, and she would be trapped if she didn’t get out quickly.

“Oh no.” She said to herself, she quickly turned around to exit the alley but the man she was running away from was standing at the entrance.

“I have been following you for quite some time, but as you finally left the station, I can do something else than watch.”

“Who are you?” Rose said. “Why have you been following me?”

“You are coming with me.”

“S-s-stay away!” Rose said. “You will get in trouble with the CRN.”

“The CRN won’t know you are gone.”

“T-T-T-They will—I am under direct protection by order of the director.” She said out loud not being sure if that was even true. “You w-will be punished. A-a-a-a-and executed!” She lied.

“Doesn’t matter.” He said as he reached for the rifle in his back. “You and I will be gone before they realize what happened.”

“I have no choice,” She thought. “But I have to do it like it isn’t me.”

Rose then moved her right hand behind her back and closed her fist.

The metal pipes and other metal objects hanging from the two walls beside them started to rattle as if a strong wind had passed by or an earthquake was occurring.

The unknown man looked at all the vibrating metal objects around him.

“That’s it.” She thought. “Now I have to make it so he is so scared that he will have to run awa--” She then felt a piercing sound in her head followed by a strong headache. “No, not now, NOT NOW!” She shouted to herself as she kneeled on the ground with her hands on her head. “Of all the times that could happen why did it happen now.”

“So, you are one of them.” The man said dumbfounded.

“Huh?” She said lifting her head.

“So, you people do exist, I thought you people were a myth, this might be a bit harder than I thought, so let’s end this quickly,” he said aiming his rifle at her.

“No wait!” Rose pleaded extending her hand to him.

Rose felt as if she had stared at death in the face as the rifle was aimed at her.

Suddenly, the rifle was shot up into the air, blasted out of the man’s hands, as it fell again, the rifle was split into four parts, the barrel was snapped in half and the rifle itself was not fixable.

“What the heck?” He said as he turned around to run away. “I’ll be back.” He said.

Rose sat down on her knees, to calm herself down.

Then, as if appearing out of thin air, a woman in black and white clothing appeared in front of him. The system’s star was in that direction which made the face of the woman difficult to see because it was so dark.

“Who the heck are yo--” The man said before being pushed against the wall.

The woman didn’t answer and only pressed him against the wall and didn’t let him move.

She then reached for her pocket and took out a small cylindrical tube, which then expanded into a foot and a half long spike, which she then used to stab into the man’s left leg.

“AAHH!” He shouted.

Rose blocked her mouth to avoid drawing attention to herself.

“What do you want!?” The man shouted.

“Tell me, who are you.” The woman asked the man. “You’re a Bounty Hunter, aren’t you?”

“Melody?” Rose said to herself as she recognized her voice.

“Yes, I’m a bounty hunter so what?” He said.

“I didn’t think bounty hunters operated on Coryzen after the accords.”

“Well, we do, and you are also one of them huh? I thought you people were a myth or just some American democrat propaganda to control the population.”

“Yes, we do exist.”

“Is that how you broke my rifle?”

“Want to see?”

“What?! What are you talking abou--”

Suddenly both Melody and the man disappeared, the dust on the ground and where the man was held up was shot up into a cloud.

“Huh?” Rose said as she stood up and slowly walked to where Melody was standing. “M-Melody?”

Suddenly Melody reappeared from thin air, throwing the man against the wall at the end of the alley, while also scaring the living daylight out of Rose.

Melody stood at the entrance of the alley. “Had fun?” She said playfully, with a rather sinister smile. “I sure diiiiiiid.”

Rose looked at the man and noticed that his clothes seemed to be damaged, but it was as if the clothes had been stretched almost to the point that they would break, his face was also slightly hurt but it seemed to be because of wind hitting his face at high speed.

“Argh!” The man said as he tried to stand up.

“Aw... don’t leeeeeeave...” Melody said as she took a few steps towards him before just teleporting back to the original position with him held against the wall and her holding him up. “We are just getting started!”

“Wha... What did you do?” The man said.

“I took you to the observation platform and back.”

“The observation platform? That is on the other side of Nautica Harbor. It is a minimum fifteen-minute walk.”

“Did I stutter?”

“How? I only saw a blur, the view from the observation tower and back here.”

“It lasted two entire seconds, so if you blinked you missed it. Now, I want you to answer me a couple of questions, if you answer them, I will let you go, if not, I will give you another run across the city, and this time, it might just end with you in a jail cell.”

“Okay, what do you want.”

“Why are you trying to capture her,” Melody said. “Tell me!”

“It was my contract; I was to capture her and take her to my contractor.”

“Who is your contractor.”

He remained silent trying to keep his mouth shut.

“Tell me! Who is your contractor!” She shouted in his face.

“A-As a member of the Bounty Hunter guild, I cannot disclose that information.”

Melody then moved the leg that had the spike inserted in. He was clearly in pain due to the movement. “I only perforated your muscle slightly, a couple of ACR shots and a few days in the hospital will have you good as new... but of course, even an ACR shot can’t regenerate something that is completely destroyed. Like a tendon... or a bone...”

He breathed sharply.

“I would prefer if I didn’t have to reach that point, so I am going to make you an offer.” She said. “Just give me a name and you are free to go.”

“My name is Rodirigo Aimery, I work in the Bounty hunter Gui–”

“Not your name stupid!” Melody said. “Your contractor’s name.” she then pulled a second spike and aimed it at his face, keeping it only centimeters from it. “I want their name, now!”

“H-h-h-h-he was a CRN O-Officer.”

“Go on...”

“I only know his first name and rank.”

“Say it!” she said closing the distance between the spike and his face to the point that it just started to penetrate the skin.

“AAAHHH... okay, okay, okay, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you. Just-- get that thing out of my face.”

She moved the spike away but kept him pinned against the wall.

“I am going to warn you,” Melody said. “I know many of the CRN officers that are not completely loyal to the CRN as I have been keeping watch on them, so I will know if you are lying.”

“His name was Commander Iago... He told me to capture Cadet Nova and bring her to him as he has a special offer for her.”

“Seems you have not lied, anything else that you think I should know.”

“That is all I know; I was paid in advance so if you want the money—”

“Keep it... You will need it to heal. Thank you for your cooperation.” Melody said as she removed the spike from his leg, and before he could scream in pain knocked him out in one punch.

Melody then turned towards Rose. “Are you okay?”

“Uhh... I... am now.” Rose answered.

“I should have known that this would happen, the director wouldn’t have appointed me to protect you if something like this wouldn’t happen. He must be wanting to recruit you into the force. Never mind, Come on.” Melody said helping Rose get up. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions about what you saw there. So, if you want to know I am---.”

“Are you a Xenohuman?” Rose immediately asked.

Melody gasped and didn’t answer immediately.

“The way you appeared before him; you have powers, you have super speed, right? because there is no way a normal person could move at the speed that you just did. Oh no.” She started panicking. “I shouldn’t be talking about this, the government will--”

“Calm down... Coryzen is one of the only planets in the galaxy where being a Xenohuman doesn’t affect you.”

“But... What about the Unified Nations mandates on Xenohumans?”

“The way you are talking about Xenohumans is like if you are one as well. So, are you?”

“Well, um... I am... one, but my p-power isn’t very impressive... I can barely control it.”

“Just know that the CRN won’t do anything to you because of that,” Melody said. “Let’s head to the command center and reunite with Joseph.”

“Where did you learn to fight like that” Rose asked as Melody walked out of the alley and headed towards the command center at the other side of the harbor.

“As you will probably see me very frequently, I will answer you that,” Melody answered. “Back on my home planet, I was trained as an assassin since my powers manifested, but... the director saved me from them, but I want this to be clear, just because I was trained as an assassin, I have never killed anyone, ever.”

“What did you mean by the Director saving you?”

“Again... I can’t tell you in the open; now, let’s go to the command center.” Melody said. “I had your phone sent to our home you can pick it up later.”

“Hey Melody, what is that?” Rose said pointing to the sky where a giant dark gray ship hovered in midair a couple hundred meters over Nautica Harbor Bay.

“That’s odd.” She answered. “The CRN no longer has battleships come over the bay like that.”