The Old One

 Cet calmly cut down the fleeing inhabitants with a steady beam of burning light as Uahl and Seld intercepted the single ship that had managed to make it off the ground. Cet slew perhaps more species in those few hours than he had in his entire military career, and the unarmed people of BN-225 were hapless before him. An orchestra of death howls surrounded him as the settlers burned, and he could hear screaming from one of the nearer huts as Sab helped himself to some poor individual; gender and species mattered not, so long as Sab could find a hole he liked. Cet chose to ignore him and his barbarism. Finally content with his work, he smiled as he lowered his beam focuser. The tubular lens radiated heat from the prolonged exposure, and he allowed it to cool before he began polishing it carefully with a fine cloth and a little mineral oil. Seld had left his empty plasma thrower lying in a puddle outside of the hut. The soft, damp ground beneath his feet felt spongy as he made his way between smoking corpses to the administrative building he had cleared out earlier. The computers would hold a plethora of information on the inhabitants as well as allow him access to the existing scanners to amplify their own.

The sky was a cool grey, and the local star's light was dampened severely before it could reach the watery surface of the boggy world. BN-225 was a small planet, but an incredibly old one. One of the officials on Cet's homeworld had suggested that life had existed on BN-225 before anywhere else in the galaxy, though at a glance it did not appear to have evolved much. Most of the life on the planet was plant or plant-like and thick groves of trees and vines spanned the globe. Cet wouldn't have been surprised if the planet had been covered by a single ocean at one point, or even if the plants were simply covering the water, accumulating enough dead organic matter to rot above the hidden seas to form soil and mud. He shuddered as he imagined what horrors the untold depths might hold, though he told himself that it was due to the chill in the air.

Cet slung the pristine beam focuser over one shoulder as he walked up several metal steps to the main entrance of the administrative building. Corpses littered the ground, and he was grateful that a sophisticated weapon like his cauterised instantly rather than allowing his victims to bleed everywhere. They were, after all, going to have to clean up and live here for the untold future. Cet's waved a six-fingered hand before the computer tower as a scanner detected his species and the keyboard warped and reformed to suit his own needs. He had been a little worried; most computers had millions of keyboards and billions of languages to suit the broad array of species that may use them, but he held no delusions that a forgotten settlement this far out would have the information on file for an Ourou, his own race.

A greyscale holo-screen projected before him, and he activated the little gear widget to change a few settings. He expertly adjusted the projector to display a colour spectrum accessible by him and his comrades before he went delving into the records. A few deft activations and several keystrokes later he had the information he wanted. The planet had been home to a total of seventy-two settlers. Three families of Kikn from SK-356, one family of Eutphon from RT-579, three individual Skur from SK-998, two Humans from XT-110 (though the record said one had died several cycles ago), and one Gurg from PT-293, all of whom had lived there for quite some time, with little contact other than with occasional supply ships and infrequent research vessels. Cet made a face. He didn't remember killing a Gurg, and the thought of one running loose on the planet filled him with apprehension for their mission. Cet closed the projector as he pulled his communicator from his pocket.

"All clear on this end. The computer says there are seventy-two individuals, but one of them is a Garg. I'll have Sab help do a body count," Cet spoke clearly and concisely into the black rectangular device, though his voice was likely to be garbled due to the cloud cover.

"Gotcha, Cet," Uahl called back, her voice distorted through the small device. "We just sent their transport down in flames, we'll be right there." Almost as if on queue, a massive explosion rattled the entire building, threatening to topple Cet. He remained upright, despite its efforts. Cet waited for a moment for an aftershock, then checked that his beam focuser wasn't damaged before proceeding out of the administrative building. When he finally found Sab he was still busy with the corpse of the poor thing he had taken into the hut earlier.