Chapter 24 | Landing Page | Appendix

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 25

Her father had a dream one time. Like all things, the one constant was change. Like all things, he said the Raiders had to change.

For thousands of years, the Raiders were nomads. They were pirates. They were mercenaries. They started from a core of liberated slaves, then added with other disenfranchised, dislocated races. But as their population becomes larger, as each House becomes more powerful, their enigmatic, nomadic ways had come to a pass. They settled into territories, marked by outposts and planetoid bases that laid the infrastructure for a more sophisticated society. As their society progressed, so did their technology, and with both, the demands for a greater economy.

That was what her father said. The Houses have become small kingdoms. Eventually, they must seek other means to finance their living beyond piracy, smuggling, organized crime, and mercenary activity. The Res’coom reverted to deep space mining and salvage. The For’lym moved to a lucrative business of merchant escort, toll collecting and territorial licensing. The Harkk’hah went into pilot and systems training, as well as systems development and software development. The great ability of their pilots, navigators, system administrators as well as their ability to create vast informational networks made the Harkk’hah one of the most powerful Houses in the Raider sphere, to rival even the For’lym itself. The great recorders of Raider history, the Flo’karr turned to the entertainment media and software development, but also serve as valuable spies with their vast web of internal connections. The Soo’nan went into engineering, building ships, bases and designing new weapons. Some stayed with their traditional disciplines, the Hu’nan as smugglers, and the Du’ran as assault mercenaries. As guilds and specialties formed, the vaunted Raider society has become predictably increasingly complex.

Chapter 23 | Landing Page | Chapter 25

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 24

Seejuk tapped slightly Zha’s cheek. Slowly her eyes opened. “What happened?” She cried out.

“The nodes got to your Beast form. You’re back in your real body now,” Seejuk explained. “The whole process is truly incredible.”

“Wow,” Zha exclaimed. “Being in the Beast form was a magical experience. Your senses were heightened and you can see through more of the spectrums. My head hurts.”

“Take it easy,” Seejuk warned. “We need to get the two of you back in the ship.” Just then, the moans and groans came from the waking Kuo’ran. Kuo’ran asked the same questions as Zha did, and Seejuk merely repeated the answer.

Zha looked to her side, where her Beast body lay. Nearby lay Kuo’ran’s Beast body. Further on, she saw Zerun, and cried out, “Father!”

Chapter 22 | Landing Page | Chapter 24

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 23

“The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and the sky were darkened from the smoke in the Abyss. And out of the smoke, locusts came down upon the earth, and were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth. “

Revelations 9, 1-3

The nebula was a battle between the red and orange fires, fueled by hydrogen clouds, and the smothering blackness of the dark matter that floated from the Abyss. Inside it was the dim star of Mohilim, an aging red star that had lived a life of eons in loneliness, no star, no planet to give it companionship, no life form ever arising from it. At the farthest edge of the galactic spiral, the Mohilim star awaited its end, waiting to return its life giving elements back to the cosmos, the only worthwhile event of its obscure existence.

Chapter 21 | Landing Page | Chapter 23

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 22

The Annihilators were slow, slow machines. Even in cloaked mode, the Corsair quickly left the Unbound fleet behind, undetected.

“The slowness of the huge ships will buy us time, but only for a short while. We still do not have time to waste,” said the Fly self. The purple gate appeared, and the Corsair slipped through it.

When it appeared, two ships were waiting for them. The Fly assured them that the two ships were Beast, and the crystalline splotches on their sides told them that the ships were Firelance clones.

“Now your computers must be ready for a download,” said the Fly. The lights inside the Corsair darkened as the main computers temporarily overloaded from a massed influx of data. The lights recovered to their steady glow and the computers resumed normal functioning.

Chapter 20 | Landing Page | Chapter 22

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 21

The Corsair frigate moved slowly past the open port. Soon the frigate was free into open space. Seejuk watched the windows behind, as the Corsair left the Turan planetoid. The Corsair was chosen because of its cloaking and mimic abilities, a hunting vessel that could stalk convoys under extended lengths of time and pick off helpless victims. There was no chance they could fight the Nemesis openly; stealth and deception was the only way they could get to the White Beast mother vessel. But the Corsair wasn’t there to hunt; it was only there to deliver.

To recruit his special team, Seejuk encountered both the polar ends of reaction. There was both reluctance and gung ho enthusiasm. He invited them all, Zhoan, Mushak, Giirsa, Maalasi and Zhura to the laboratory inside the Mule. It was time to be straight with them.

They were all seated around the conference table. They were wondering what he called them for, yet they perceived that it had the utmost importance, and one surely dealing with the crisis. He brought something with him, and it was covered with a cloth. They all didn’t have much time, so he went straight to the point.

Chapter 19 | Landing Page | Chapter 21

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 20

Zha pulled her father’s body to a more comfortable resting place among the crystal shards. Small spiders and scorpions began to crawl out of the ground and ran over his body. The sight of it wanted to make her freak out, but another sense inside her told her that what the spiders and scorpions were doing, were all essential to keeping Zerun alive. They were trying to repair his broken body.

“If your real flesh bound father is still alive, he would be very proud of you,” the Zerun self said.

She ran her hand over his forehead before kissing it. “I guess, you would have to do in his place.” She placed her hand over his, and felt the interface of the White Beast matrix circuits working to link them. She immediately felt the internal damage of his body. But there was something else too, like a vast ancient sea of knowledge and awareness the White Beast had accumulated from its ancestors. The memories stretch far beyond across the abyss eras ago into another galaxy. Visions of pained development by the alien creators filled her mind. The creators had to kill whole strains of complete hives of the sentient nanobyte virus, in attempt to rid the basic strain of imperfect variety. The controlled forced evolution was not without its pain. The hives were living complete creatures, innocent from the sins of their birth. They hurt nothing, no one, yet they are being destroyed for no purpose, because they do not suit the perfect plans of their creators.

Chapter 18 | Landing Page | Chapter 20

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 19

Tbe child stood outside the ship’s windows, her arm holding a stuffed animal, staring at the titanic battle outside. Outside was a giant monster, like an immense ship, burning and consuming everything it sees. Her father’s ship, a carrier, had been hit and burning, and the monster prepared to devour it. Beams burned from the monster to the helpless ship, consuming it, devouring it.

“Father!” she cried at the top of her voice. She stumbled hard on her knees, her beloved toy falling to the floor. Tears streamed down her face as she cried his name again. “Father!!!…”

She stood on the surface of another creature that ranged for miles and nearly as big as a large asteroid. A thin protective field held a small atmosphere around the surface like a bubble. Crystal spikes stretch like peaks pointing the heavens above. White, crystalline patches ruled the surface, measuring it with hexagonal patterns. Here another battle raged. Fighters streaked down the sky, beams burning into the surface, as other fighters hunt down them down. Explosions filled the skies everywhere like fireworks. Glowing trails filled the sky like the script of death, written by fighters caught in a flying embrace of combat against each other. Farther away, larger ships exchanged beams of ions and balls of energy. Spectacular balls of white light mark the demise of an unlucky vessel.

Chapter 17 | Landing Page | Chapter 19

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 18

From the large screen in the laboratory, Seejuk stared at the maw of the Annihilator, and through it, the Eye of Death watched him. The hungry embers in its mouth glowed, the fires rippled along the rim of the mouth. The eight arms of the monster bent forward to focus its ring array, and lights ran up and down the length of the long stalk that extended backward from the main sphere body. The Mule, like the Soran and the Marauder, were helpless inside the planetoid dock. If the planetoid was destroyed, so will the Mule.

“Nice working with you, Seejuk. I think you were born in the wrong race and should have been with us. Hahaha.” Zhoan laughed in the comlink, sitting inside the Soran.

His thoughts was the desert sands of Kharak, where the god Sajuuk sealed his immortality. The very grains of the desert sands where pilgrims spilled their blood and gave their lives, their act of sacrifice sanctifying the sands holy. In those sands, in his mind, he prayed to Sajuuk.

Chapter 16 | Landing Page | Chapter 18

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 17

The star was dim, old, a lonely red dwarf in a region of space where there was only a few stars. Around it orbit clouds of gas held together by electronic magnetic forces. Once in a while, a flare would erupt from the surface of the red dwarf, its flames igniting the auras within the clouds. In the lonely eons this was the only song the star gave, an oasis in the darkness, a sole guardian of light. The dense clouds that contained dark matter had stayed adrift for eons, existing without a purpose, matter that never formed into a gas giant, never ignited into a nebula where stars were born. It was a place that never saw life.

A new visitor came and disturbed its ages old solitude.

The new creature sought to feed its hunger among the rich clouds. After it satiated itself, it gave birth to a child it called the Deliverer, and the Deliverer went away with the multitude of tiny living creatures in the giant vessels.

Chapter 15 | Landing Page | Chapter 17

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The White Beast

A Homeworld Fanfiction

by Crobato

Originally posted April 26, 2001

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Chapter 16

Zural watched over the three dimensional battlemap on the conference room of his Qwaar Jet class heavy cruiser, the Irkan. The ship used to belong to Taiidan Imperials but Zural had it sequestered when the Imperials could not afford to pay the “bill” for his services and stay. The conference room, used for discussing strategies, was fit for the last Taiidan Emperor himself, or the highest nobles of the once proud Imperial Navy. It had all the top flight communications and modeling equipment, a luxury one doesn’t see on barren and spartan Raider ships.

Next to him were the holographic darkly robed figures that were supposed to represent the Thousand Voices of the Tiamat. The way the tiny voices fill the room randomly, it all gave him the creeps. He deeply feared them as one would fear the unknown, the demons, or the ghosts of the dead. Yet there was something coldly logical about the Tiamat, a clear understanding of what they are, and what they must do.

A voice from the darkness said to him, “Now, we are on sight of the Turan planetoid. It’s conquest would provide us a strategic strait between the Rim areas and the inner galaxy.”