It was just another day on the Decimator, the flag ship of Emperor Zix and his Empire. The pilots made sure the ship stayed on course, and the engineers kept it running. The soldiers on it were prepared for battle, while the emperor himself orchestrated it all.
However, this story doesn’t revolve around an Irken; far off from one, to be exact.

Ryan was sitting at his desk. His armor and mask hung from the wall beside him. His dark-brown bangs obscured both his forehead and eyes slightly. He was typing something up on the holo-monitor in front of him, most likely a report for a human colony.

An Irken in an off-duty soldier uniform with brown eyes walked into Ryan’s office, and took a seat in an empty chair. Xivix was one of the few Irkens, besides Zix and Serenity, whom Ryan actually associated with. After matching him in a sniper challenge of a mile and a half, they became friends and hung out a lot.

“Still doing work, aren’t ya?” Xivix asked, leaning back in the chair.

Ryan looked up at him, eyes full of concentration. “Got to get these done by the end of the day.”, and went back to work.

“You really need to get out more, man.” Xivix said with a slight chuckle.

Ryan looked up again, and smiled. “You know I do stuff… every now and then.”

“Yeah occasionally…” Xivix rolled his eyes. “I only see you out of this office when you go to the range or the bar.”

“Yeah well, I just have a lot to do. I just like getting my work done.” Ryan rolled eyes back at Xivix.

“Fair enough…” Xivix leaned back in his chair again. “…but why don’t you associate with your own kind?”

“I don’t know…I just don’t see eye-to-eye with them.” Ryan said with hesitation.

“What do you mean?” Xivix asked inquisitively. “You’re all the same species…”

“But at the same time, we’re not.” Ryan butted, cutting Xivix off. “They have advanced to the point where they’re colonizing on a galactic level. My society barely got to our moon, let alone off our planet.”

“More the reason to; you’ll learn how to adjust.” Xivix stated.

“I don’t have a problem with adjusting. I just don’t feel like getting attached.”

“Why?” was all Xivix could ask.
“Why?” Ryan said, as if one of the rudest things he’d heard all day. “Because…you just don’t know what I’ve been through…” Ryan saved his work and shut off the monitor, knowing he wouldn’t get any work done.

“What then…what have you been through?” Xivix questioned curiously.

Ryan sighed. “I’ve done things that would leave you astonished, and your stomach churning.” He said humorously, but with a dark tone to it.

Xivix made a ‘pff’ sound, obviously unimpressed and crossed his arms. “Please, I’m the Imperial Elite Commander. I’ve done it all!”

Ryan took it as a friendly challenge, and thought of the most awesome things he could remember he’d done. “Have you ever taken a Megadoomer down single-handedly with only a pistol and a grenade?”

“Yepp…”

Ryan’s tone “Oh! Well… have you ever had to face off against a dozen soldiers as you drag your injured partner to safety as second-degree burns settle in from deflected plasma blasts?!”

“Oh ho ho, don’t even get me started.” Xivix chuckled a little bit.

Ryan had only one bold act he could remember left. “Have you ever torn the Pak off an Irken, and as it pleads for its life, you shoot it through the head…several times?!” Ryan finally asked.

‘Such an act would be horrible to do to your own kind’, Ryan thought, grinning at the Elite commander.

Xivix hesitated at the last question, thinking hard if he had ever done that.

“I think I did it a few times,” Xivix finally stated. “…but I can’t remember exactly.” He finally managed to get out.

“Hehe. Can’t get anything past you, can’t I?” Ryan said in defeat, laughing a bit.

“But even so, that’s still a way to go. I’ve only did that on rare occasions. What would drive you to do that?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t really care back then. I just wanted to kill them.” Ryan said, deep in thought.

“Must’ve been one hell of a battle. You know, back on Earth?”

“Oh trust me, it was a battle.” Ryan rolled his eyes.

“Well…go on. Don’t keep a juicy story all to your self!” Xivix said, chuckling a bit.

“Eh, why the hell not?” Ryan began.

“It was about 8 months ago. I was assigned to a platoon of US Rangers to capture a warlord in Somalia, along with my partner, Clyde.”