Jackob took his disguise seriously. With a few chats and plenty of patience, he slowly earned the trust of the other soldiers on board. Red bugs weren't exactly known for being clever — most were simple-minded brutes, barely smarter than cattle. But that made things easier.
After a few days, he figured out which room belonged to his assumed identity. The Red Bug whose soul he'd stolen. He found his cabinet, his quarters, and slipped into routine.
Eat. Patrol. Small talk. Repeat.
Two weeks passed like that. And in those two weeks, Jackob learned more than he ever had in seventeen years of slavery.
There were three main "nations" in this sector of the galaxy. Three homeworlds orbiting the same dying star.
The Yellow Bugs. The so-called "smart ones," masters of tactics and control.
The Red Bugs. Brutal, primal, warriors by birth. Stronger. More numerous.
The Green Bugs. Fewer in number, but wielders of strange, magical powers — rare, unpredictable, and dangerous.
Of course, only the noble bloodlines in Yellow and Red societies had access to true abilities. The common soldiers — like Jackob now — were just muscle.
There were other civilizations out there, too. Bigger ones. Older ones.
Terrifying ones.
But they didn't bother with bug-kind. Didn't even glance their way. In their eyes, bugs were short-lived parasites, fighting over scraps in an empty sector.
Even the red stones — the so-called "precious energy source" the bugs fought and died for — were a joke to outsiders. Low-grade trash.
Worthless.
Jackob had heard all this whispered between patrol shifts, passed around like rumors or myths. He didn't know what was true.
Until he saw
A week later, standing by one of the ship's few viewport windows, Jackob saw something that made his heart stop.
At first, he thought it was a planet.
A silent, black orb drifting in the void.
But the longer he stared, the more wrong it looked. It was shaped too perfectly. It had lights. Panels. Movement.
It wasn't a planet.
It was a ship.
A ship bigger than anything he had ever imagined. It made the Red Bug warship he stood on — already over 3 kilometers long — look like a speck of dust.
Hundreds of times larger.
A god's vessel.
And suddenly, the sirens blared.
Emergency alarms screamed through every corridor. Red bugs scrambled like ants, grabbing weapons, shouting over one another.
The ship shuddered violently.
But it wasn't because of their engines.
It was because something was pulling them.
Dragging them.
As if they were caught in a tide, helpless.
Some bugs screamed. Some prayed. Others just stood frozen, unable to comprehend.
"Damnation..." Jackob whispered. "It's over."
He clenched his fists.
"My galactic adventure ends here? That's my luck, huh? Screw it all..."
Then the light changed.
A deep, pulsing glow filled the ship as the outer hull opened.
Jackob ran to the main viewport like the others.
And what he saw outside...
Was a god.
The figure stood almost as tall as their warship. A humanoid giant, four glowing eyes, no hair, wrapped in black armor etched with unreadable runes.
And on his back...
A sword.
No. A mountain.
At least 2 kilometers long, made of dark crystal or some alien alloy. It crackled faintly with power.
Jackob stared, jaw slack.
"...And I thought my sword was long," he muttered.
Then, after glancing downward at his current bug form:
"I wonder how long his other sword is..."
He paused. Realized what he was thinking.
"Damn it. I miss my little Jackob."
The price of power, he supposed.
Still, it was better than being dead.
The ship hissed, metal creaked... and then a voice blasted through every mind on board.
"Step out of the ship. Kneel before the being outside... if you want to live."
The bugs didn't need to be told twice.
More than 500 red bugs rushed for the exit, spilling out into a docking corridor that led into the giant's vessel.
They all knelt.
Jackob included.
He didn't want to test what happened to those who stayed standing.
Then... she appeared.
Another giant.
A woman.
She was tall — just slightly smaller than the first giant — but had a very different presence.
Long red hair flowed from her helmet like fire. Four eyes, like rubies, glowed with intelligence and wrath. Her armor was elegant, shaped like a blade of war given life.
She wasn't exactly pretty in the human sense... but to Jackob?
She was a goddess.
A holy warrior queen.
His fear vanished. Replaced by something... worse.
Lust.
Obsession.
"Giant women," he muttered, eyes wide.
He could feel the thought poisoning his mind. He knew it was wrong.
But he couldn't stop.
He was raised in filth, surrounded by brutality. In his world, women were tools — used to breed, dominated to show strength, and discarded as stress relief. They were thrown into the mines at sixteen, like cattle. If they gave birth to girls, those were taken to be broken all over again in a separate underground sector.
Jackob never knew what a mother was. He never saw love. Affection.
Only possession.
So now, staring at a godlike woman towering over him, something inside him shattered.
She was war.
And Jackob... was in love.
Or something close to it.