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flowing from the orb had nearly rid Buri of the last of the infection, when suddenly an unseen force surged from the infection sending Oa reeling back. His focus was broken and he returned to himself. The sphere darkened instantly and fell into his hand. Oa remembered he was in danger and he rolled backwards. A piercing white beam ripped through the space where his head had been a split second earlier.
    The leader of the Marauders turned and knocked Oa’s attacker back, shouting, “No! Don’t kill him! He’s levitating a lump of light, and that’s got to be the most interesting thing I have seen in a billion cycles. If you damage him, I’m gonna have lieutenant Bota feed you to Eol.”
    The Marauder named Bota chimed in. “Sorry Captain, but Murd’s head is too thick to eat. Eol would spit him back out.”
    The Captain turned to Bota. “Ha! Good point. Anyway, grab this stranger.” He pointed at Oa. “We’ll deal with the rest.”
    Oa scrambled back to Buri, knowing time was short. He stared down at the dying Awoken, the infection having returned even stronger than before. She was beginning to shake uncontrollably. Oa tried to see the symbols again; but before his inner sight could return, he was grabbed by the Marauder lieutenant. Bota dragged him out of the now ransacked hut while Swift’s bitter voice followed them out.
    “Let this be your first lesson, Oa: accept that your good intentions are just going to rot like the rest of us. You won’t ever fix anything here.”
    Oa wanted to struggle, but he froze in shock as the other two Marauders raised weapons toward Swift and Kane. He turned from the sight as execution shots where fired. Glancing back, he caught a glimpse of the Marauders pulling the lifeless soul embers from the corpses. Oa gripped the silver sphere tightly in his hand, trembling in terror at the brutality of the world he abruptly found himself in. He had never encountered death before and it frightened him immensely. The young Awoken deactivated his visual receptors. Retreating from his senses, he let his mind grasp at the vision he had been so close to realizing. Buri was gone; but Oa could still see her burned in his memory, as she would have been. He felt cheated. His efforts had been thwarted.
    But how? Oa thought, remembering the mysterious force within Buri’s infection. He longed to understand what he had witnessed. And he promised himself he would find the answers.
     

Episode 02 - Exchange
    Oa was dragged through the harsh shale for a short distance before he was roughly pulled to his feet and shoved forward. He allowed his sight to return quickly. The irises in his visual receptors widened to let light in as his foot caught the edge of a metal deck. He barely had time to put his hands out in front of himself as he tripped and fell onto the floor of one of the Marauder’s Mark IV Reapers.
    Oa quickly glanced around the interior of the dropship. He appeared to be in a spacious hold located directly in front of the vessel’s engine. Luminous strips embed into the walls cast a faltering glare. In the flickering light, he could make out the slowly spinning turbines of a powerful jet through a grate in the back. He felt heat emanating from that area of the deck. Oa reasoned that the airflow through the open passage helped keep the engines cool. The space where he stood served as a platform that the Marauders could carry passengers and cargo on. Two other Marauders were already on board: one of them laid wounded on the floor of the ship while the other knelt, working with strange tools to fix the damage. Oa peered up to see a pilots seat nestled in a small alcove above him, surrounded by buttons and dials. A windshield bulged out of the top of the ship allowing the pilot to see where they were going.
    Lieutenant Bota stepped in after Oa and leaned up against the wall. He reached up and casually grabbed a handhold. Oa noted several other makeshift handholds welded to the inside of the