So I said I was going to do it and here I am ... I'm doing it.

For those that are new to this, I am writing a novel on Steemit. This is my first chapter of which I plan on there being many. However, here's where you come in. Based on your votes, you help guide the story. Leave comments and if any of the comments get a lot of votes, that'll help me decide which way the story should go. I am really excited about the potential for this, but I know it'll take time.

This is Chapter 1 of The Cygnus Wars. It follows Darius Stone. Future chapters will have other characters. I hope you enjoy!

Why the hell do I always find myself in situations like this, Darius asked himself as he ran down an ally, his heavy black boots thudding on the concrete. Chasing him were two males, though one was far less human than the other. With wide, almost bug like eyes and large hands with seven sharp claws, Darius didn’t know what was worse: being killed or being touched by him. Though they were shaped differently and wore different clothes, they each had a red stripe of cloth sewn from where a human heart is, over the shoulder and then sewn in again where the shoulder blade ended. The mark of The Cobalt Bloods.

Darius Stone was a lowly drug dealer who dealt in grams, not kilograms. His dealer was a guy who dealt in kilograms whose dealer happened to deal in hundreds of kilograms. Darius was just about at the bottom of the food chain, taking the scraps and trying to make a living. Unfortunately, The Cobalt Bloods didn’t quite like him selling on their turf.

The drug of trade? Zikan dust. Think of like coke, but giving you a way higher high without the impending crash that came when you were over it. It was also way more addictive than cocaine, making it virtually impossible for someone to stop once they had gone a few days in a row using it.

Zikan dust came from the planet Zika, hence the name. Zika was a barren wasteland, but it had deep caverns of low hanging crystals that, when shaved and pulverized into dust, provided a great mechanism for someone to have the party of a lifetime. But unlike the other shit on the streets, it was expensive because getting to Zika was no cupcake. Zika is too close to its star to make it comfortable for any humans to go there, but robots are willing to do it. The only problem is that they burn out after 30 days of use, making it even more expensive to get the drug. So what’s an average drug dealer like Darius Stone doing selling Zikan dust? Remember how I mentioned that he has a dealer who has a dealer? Well, by the time it gets to Darius, the drug is far from pure, which makes it cheaper for the average person.

But back to The Cobalt Bloods …

The Cobalt Bloods control ten square miles in the northwest quadrant of the 3rd city on planet Mothichi. It had once been a powerful city-planet for the Mothi species, which happened to be the second creature chasing him. However, the Sol Empire had invaded seventy years prior, wiped out about forty-five percent of the indigenous folk and made it a trade and business hub for the Empire’s holdings in the Cygnus arm of the Milky Way.

Believe it or not, humans have colonized space. But it has not been peaceful. In the year 2060, an alien race came down and enlisted half of humanity to fight in its wars. For the first time, humans were carted off to space to be meat for the grinder. It’s what we’re best at anyway. As we fought more and more battles, though, we realized that we were really good at it. And since our numbers were greater than that of our oppressor, we rebelled.

After fighting for another dozen years from planet to planet, the humans won. Democracy at its finest. The people praised their leader, a hardened warrior who had originally been a useless slacker on planet Earth. And he did the best to start uniting the planets that humanity had conquered. But war had taken its toll and of a population of 13 billion in 2060 had been cut by forty percent to only 7.8 billion; not nearly enough to truly colonize.

But humanity took up the cause and they did the second thing that they do best: procreated.

With copious resources, increased lifespans due to recovered medicine and sciences, family sizes grew from an average of 2 to an average of 15. Why? They were encouraged to leave Earth and colonize the conquered planets. With each human family having so much land to work on, family size grew. And population followed. Quite aggressively.

Fast forward nearly eight hundred years and the Sol Empire stretched across tens of thousands of planets with a population of humans and conquered aliens. The reality is that there are trillions of species in space. You think biodiversity on Earth is intense? Expand out to the universe and you’re bound to be incredibly surprised.

So on this wonderful year, 2852, Darius Stone found himself being chased by The Cobalt Bloods. But it wasn’t all bad. Darius was used to this, so he knew the back alleys better than most.

“We told you to stop selling on our turf!” yelled the human, aiming a pistol. Darius looked back, saw the pistol, and immediately turned down a side-alley just as the Blood shot at him. A laser bolt hit the wall with a sizzle.

“Fuck!” Darius yelled, turning down another alley almost as quickly as he had turned down the first. In a previous life, Darius might have played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. He was six four, slender, and fast as hell. His skin was dark brown, not nearly as common as it had been before humanity spread out amongst the stars. The reality was, race amongst humans became less important than survival. Space is nasty; it’s important to procreate when you can with whomever you can.

When he turned down another alley, he ducked low behind a dumpster and gritted his teeth. His chest rose and fell hard, his nostrils flaring as he tried to control his breathing. He took a deep breath and held it just as the two Bloods stopped at the entrance to the side alley.

“Where did he go?” the human asked.

“You’re asking me?” the alien replied.

“Fuck, Rocco is not going to be happy. We told him we’d stop Darius for good this time.”

The alien didn’t say anything. He just closed his large, bug eyes and took a deep smell of the area around them. His eyes opened and narrowed just a bit. “He’s nearby. I can smell him.”

“Split up?” the human asked.

“Fine. You head back down that way. I’ll head this way. Meet up in an hour at the bar.”

The human nodded his affirmation and then turned away. He broke off into a jog, the pistol still in his hand. The alien turned back around and looked down the alley. His eyes ran over the dumpster before he started walking forward, his long, thin claws glistening in the moonlight.

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” he said. “I can smell you, Darius. You can’t hide.”

He was right. He knew this species of alien and they were notorious for having impeccable smell and ferocious claws. Seven on each hand. With his back against the dumpster, Darius thought about his options and quickly realized there was only one. Fight or get caught. Both could end up with him dead, but at least one gave him a shot.

Carefully, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a long, thick knife, half razor sharp and the other serrated. So much for getting out of this one, he thought.

Just then, the alien reached the edge of the dumpster and looked down at Darius. The man looked up, grinned, and then stabbed the blade forward, hitting the alien in the thigh. It gave out a roar and swiped at Darius with his seven razor-sharp claws. Darius rolled out of the way, barely, pulling the knife out as he went.

“Fuck!” the alien roared before continuing to curse in a different language. Yellow blood poured from his leg, but he didn’t lose too much of his composure. “I’ll kill you, Stone!”

Immediately, it started throwing punches. But unlike your typical, closed fist punch, these were designed to have claws stabbing forward. Darius parried the alien’s hand away with his knife, the blade barely cutting into the claws. He had to step back and duck simultaneously as the other hand came down, trying to catch him unsuspecting.

Not pausing, the alien kicked up and caught Darius in the thigh. He grunted and fell back a few steps, but immediately had to roll out of the way. He then cried out in pain as three claws ran down his back hard, tearing away the black shirt he wore and digging into his skin. Darius, with his back to the alien, kicked one of his legs back and connected with the wound that he had initially inflicted with his knife.

Again, the Mothi cursed and swung his claws aggressively at Darius. The man, just barely, stepped to the side and then brought his knife down harder, this time against the alien’s wrist: flesh. While it didn’t completely cut off the alien’s hand, it left a serious gash, more yellow blood pouring out. But by now, there was red blood mixing with the yellow due to the three gashes on Darius’ back.

“Come on,” Darius said through gritted teeth, taking a few steps backward. “Come on, you asshole. You want me? Come and have me!”

The Mothi lunged forward and tried to attack with both claws, but the one with the gash couldn’t keep its strength. The other, though, made contact with Darius’ chest just as his knife came across to push it aside. He had prevented a deeper wound, but he had seven holes in his chest, each about half an inch deep.

Finally, Darius had his opening. He lunged forward and slammed his shoulder into the Mothi’s chest, causing the alien to stagger backwards. Darius wrapped his arms around it then and ran it straight into the wall. The alien dug down into Darius’ shoulder with his claws, causing the man to roar in pain.

Clenching the blade in his left hand, he thrust up and dug the blade straight into the alien’s stomach. Continuing to hold it firmly, he lifted it and felt the Mothi’s entire chest cavity open with the serrated blade cutting it like butter.

Soon enough, the claws loosened and left Darius’ shoulder. Pools of yellow and red blood were on the alley floor. He stepped back, slowly, and pulled the knife out. He turned and looked down the alley, seeing a few people walking around. Darius took a step forward and then fell forward, his head cracking on the concrete.

As his eyes closed, he saw a young woman running toward him saying sir repeatedly. But it didn’t matter. Soon enough, Darius had passed out, blood leaving his body. At least I took him with me, Darius thought just before he was gone.

-- End Chapter 1 --

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