SEKTI
CHAPTER 1

The explosion causes the visual on Prince Leeran's bot to begin flickering again. Leeran has to clench his will tightly over the damaged circuits to stop the flicker. He won't be able to hold his bot together much longer.

Leeran is from the conquered house of Toledran. He pushes his battered bot across the battle field carrying the stasis tube which holds his unconscious body. The normally quiet bot whirs and groans in protest. "Come on!", Leeran silently screams at the bot, "Stay together long enough to get me off this battle field." Leeran listens to the dieing cries of his family over his audio as the rest of the males are systematically tracked down and slaughtered. "Damn the tech who designed an audio with no shut off circuit!" But the cries he is hearing is nothing compared with the wave of terror he had felt when the mother had died. Echoes of it still shiver across his consciousness. He would never forget that cry. "Although, never doesn't seem too far away right now."

As Leeran's bot lurched across the landscape his mind wandered. He would miss the feeling of power and invulnerability he received when possessing the bot. He always regretted returning to his body. He would also miss the battle rage brought on by the Sekti Mother. That feeling of rage and courage. It was like a rush of adrenaline. He felt like he could do anything. Of course he would not miss the feeling of stark terror the Sekti women were able to induce as punishment for any mistakes. It left him shivering for days.

Had Leeran's radar been working he would have noticed the small bot coming up behind him. Instead his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the hiss of a rocket followed by an explosion which ripped the right arm off his bot and sent him and his stasis tube tumbling down a short hill. Leeran immediately clenched his will down on the bot and brought it under control. His mind leapt to his battle training. "I have to end this quickly or I won't survive." He let the bot continue its roll down the hill. "He hasn't fired again. He must be out of rockets." As the bot continued to roll and faced up hill Leeran brought his laser to bear and drained the remainder of his battery in a last ditch volley up the hill. He knew he would never get the bot back on its feet in this condition.