by Solea Razvan
“Something’s up there on the second floor!” he shouted as a shaped appeared from where the initial deadly salvo was launched.
A form emerged from the building, it appeared to be humanoid in appearance, but as the smoke from the barrage cleared the shape retreated back into the mist and disappeared.
7, 38
“Fire two salvos of several high caliber energy arrows west of your location with the green building as your target, but make sure they are fire and water arrows and launch them in that order.” a voice on their windwaker crystals was heard saying.
“What! Who the hell is this?”Tubarin angrily said into the crystal.
“The one who you where staring at a few seconds ago scholar, now if you please fire a few salvos west of your location at the green building, lest you lose the opportunity that is before you!” the voice on the other end replied.
What followed was a cacophony of enquiries from the rebels in regards to that statement, until a great shout from Ahmaianos silenced the chaos.
“QUIET! Now you said that we would lose the opportunity, opportunity for what?” he asked.
“For victory of course, also you have four minutes left.” the voice replied nonchalantly, which made everyone’s eyes bug out in amazement.
“Victory!?!Victory against the Empire!”Kalynka said, the words surprising her.
“Why the hell should we listen to you!?”Tubarin asked suspiciously.
“You should listen since I’m the one who singlehandedly slaughtered a force you couldn’t even scratch, and If you continue on your current path you will meet your end in annihilation, but if you do as I say you will win, it’s that simple, also you now have three minutes.” the voice replied.
“Who is this guy? What kind of crazy-”
“Start firing!” Tubarin said, but was cut off by Ahmaianos.
“You can’t be serious, Ahmaianos!” he said, stunned at their leaders sudden order.
“What choice do we have, you saw what he did, so just do as he says!” Ahmaianos shouted desperately as they all lined their bows and crossbows and fired the respective volleys.
“Now what? We just wasted what little ammunition we had and made a lot of noise for nothing! That was just-“
“The enemy is moving away from our location!” Tubarin shouted but was stopped by Usanthus, who was looking at the portable farview he was carrying, which depicted the battlefield map.
This course of action surprised everyone, since none expected this turn of events.
“But, but why?” Daiamar said, stunned at what had just happened.
“If you look closely at your position, you will notice that you have just fired over a river, and that the green building shielded any eastern view of your location, that combined with the destruction of the platoon, will make the enemy presume that after destroying it you’ve moved west because of the energy signature.” the voice replied.
“And since there is no direct crossing here and the enemy must think we are on the other side and they’ll move down town to where the bridge is!”Kalynka added, amazed at what just happened.
“We kept our position hidden by making as much noise as possible and led the enemy on a wild goose chase!” Ahmaianos, thought to himself surprised at how obvious the answer was.
“There is no time to waste, you in the red battle armor go to point seven up river and jump at exactly ten minutes from now and not a moment too soon, the rest of you will head to the coordinates I am currently transmitting to your farview, I’ll contact you all with further instructions latter on.” the voice replied, and ended the transmission.
“Cocky kriffer, isn’t he?” Tubarin said in anger, at the strange voice.
“Do as he says.” Ahmaianos told them, and from his tone you could tell that he was in no mood to argue, he was after all the leader of their group and for the most part he was a casual and easy going one, but he could be very serious and scary when he wanted to be, so they all complied and Kalynka went to her respective point.
“This is deep water and this armor is not calibrated to fight under it, I’ll drown if I jump!”
“What are you doing? If you don’t jump now, you’re friends will all die!” The voice said all of a sudden and to that Kalynka snapped to attention, the combination of an authoritarian voice that resonated with power behind it and the prospect of losing what was left of her friends made Kalynka loose her hesitation and most of her grasp of basic common sense and so she prepared to jump.
“Oh, Great Catcher preserve me, let my aim be true, my catch be bountiful, its prize be great!” Kalynka mentally said the ancient prayer of her people and then jumped into the water and in another act which was against all common sense and logic; instead of drowning she stopped her submersion at knee depth.
“There is something beneath the surface!” she thought to herself, as she felt that the ground or rather the water below her started to rise and Kalynka realized that she was on a submarine. As the hatch opened and a crew member came out of it to see what was happening, he was immediately slayed by the armored resistance fighter, she then proceeded inside where she finished off the rest of the crew.
“What is this thing doing in the river?”
“The surrounding area does not have train tracks and the roads are too narrow to properly supply the Imperial assault, so they are relying on the river for logistics, your comrades will be joining you shortly, you can consider what’s inside the submarine a bonus for our future contract, suit up and after that I will contact you with further orders.” the voice said.
“Wait! At least tell me your name; it’s kind of odd to just call you the voice.” Kalynka almost shouted that request to him.
“I’m Nobody.” he replied and ended the transmission just as the status quo would start to change for this corner of the universe.
Volun 4 system, the Planet Volun 4, headquarters of the 378th corps.
Metternich exited the train and before him lay a sight which would have unnerved others; there was a gathering of what could only be describe as monsters in front him.
There was a Caracian, a gray skinned giant spider who had eight long legs to support its body and two additional limbs that where about half as short as the rest, the pair ended with hands that contained long retractable claws.
Beside it was an Eschimariom, a black long haired centaur like creature that had an eye patch over his right eye and a bushy beard.
A Calabenecan, a giant insect like humanoid with locust features was next, followed by the Tetremadian who looked like normal human but had four arms and piercing green eyes. A Melionarion, a being that was made out of thousands of small yellow insect like creatures was what followed.
Next to the Melionarion was a Galapagian, who had a turtle’s body, a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, a bipedal frame and two upwards curbed long tusks coming out of its mouth.
Then came a Tumescan, a great raptor like beast who was holding what appeared to be a lollypop in its mouth.
Finally there was a Caninian, a great black furred wolf like humanoid that ended this lineup.
They were all dressed in a uniform similar to Metternich and Adrian, and each had various medals pinned to his and her’s chest.
Behind Metternich Adrian emerged, a smile on his plucked hen features as he was happy to see his old classmates once more, from behind the aforementioned knight, the scent of a very expensive perfume that indicated that the sentient in question was always prepared to look his best, probably for company of the opposite sex came and penetrated their sense, signaled that Buts was right behind them, magic pouring out of his head as he levitated several pieces of luggage down the ramp and towards the assembled lineup.
Who and what where these beings before him you may ask?
“My Lord, may I formally introduce ourselves, I am Commodore Third Class Horatia TJ Jackson of the first division, these are viscount Antonius de Palamese commander of the second, Valyria Treakle third divis
ion, Duke Oscar von Raqianus fourth division, Tarkan el Balamarus fifth division, Prince Georgaian vi Alontaire sixth division, Prince Dalius Augustus seventh division and finally Colonel Werner von Braun, who commands the Black Berets assigned to our fleet.” the giant spider being known as Horatia said.
Metternich smiled, and gestured to the eagle like being and the magic wielding serpent behind him and said:
“A pleasure to meet you all, you already know Adrian my Knight, the one behind him is Butz my personal aide.”
Who where these creatures, you may ask? Why they where his new fleet of course!
Extract from the book “Confessions, an Admirals tale volume I”
I exited the ramp and upon gazing at the collection of monster and freaks which I would eventually call my loyal soldiers, confidants, and right and left hands, I immediately fought down the growing urge to vomit and bolt out of the place at full speed, all the while making my way down the ramp towards my new command.
But what should have stricken me as odd was that they were in their First Form.
You see even then Imperials, unlike Republicans or those Federals have the ability to change between their native form (called the first form) and a humanoid shape, or multiple native forms if they have mixed parentage.
It was one of the many things which helped unite the various nations of the Empire and keep it together.
Even before the Imperium when two sentient species from different planets met; hostility towards the other is the first thing that comes to both their minds. It’s not their fault, since for some strange reason sentients have a sort of built in biological programming against those who are different than them.
Long ago the Great Founder of the Empire and her lieutenants found a way to get over that and gave the nations that would make up the Empire what is now called the ‘Blessing’.
As you know, the blessing allows Imperials to morph from their native shape to a humanoid one and back, the only notable indication between them and humanity is the fact that the skin retains the same pigmentation as their original bodies, and certain aspects like various distinctive facial features or in more extreme cases and extra pair of arms, legs and various other appendages remain.
This had three delightful advantages: one was that it was rather hard for them to hate their fellow sentient since the barrier of racial differences (barring a few divergence in skin color) was gone, and there was no more hostility because of that, or rather it was reduced from a mainstream mindset to more of a annoying and trouble making indie scene, but for the most part the hatred and desire to blame others for their misfortune because they were different was diminished for the majority of people; well except if you’re a Republican or Federal, they always find some reason to pin the blame on you and not themselves.
The second was that, well let’s face it, sentients have always had a preference for new and exotic things, exotic food, exotic toys, exotic company, and when you can have a pretty girlfriend from another planted that is a whole new ‘motivation’ for friendly relations!
Thirdly, as I said earlier it changed the nature of Xenophobia and hatred for what was different. All of a sudden the various species which would make up the Empire realized they had something in common and it was a whole galaxy that barring the exception of a few immigrants who would join them, had nothing in common with the Empire, and so they did what any good rational and moral civilization would do and namely unite and prepare for war against the foreigners that were not ‘blessed’.
And as I said before thanks to the ‘Blessing’ if you call it that, there were three shapes that an Imperial could take.
The First Form was their native one, the Second Form was the humanoid one, the Third Form is……….. Well, more on that later on.
What was odd was the fact that as an unofficial tradition in the military, when someone new arrived at a unit the members of the welcoming party where usually in their second form.
The idea in case of the enlisted men was that: ‘you’re an outsider and you got to earn your place’ and in case of officers it was a sort of sign of respect only attributed to worthy leader. Now back then I had a reputation as a hero thanks to the media, but so many others like myself had similar reps in the army, navy, space fleet and air force/fighter corps, so I probably shouldn’t have received at that point in my carrier such an honor, for that was shortly before the part of my carrier which would thrust me into the most dangerous moments of my life and earn me the respect of the army and fleet and draw a big bullseye on my back for enemy armies.
The fact that they were all in their first forms suggested that they were actually glad to see me!
That was crackers, since as I mentioned before I wasn’t that big a hero back then. That combined with the fact that my arrival had the added effect of depriving one of them of the opportunity for advancement in rank, meant that the current situation was so desperate that these poor buggers where either under the delusion that I could actually bail them out or they were glad someone was here to take the fall when the dam breaks!
I approached Horatia, and as she extended her right arm, I took what was an arachnid version of a hand complete with retractable claws in her chitinous fingers and shook it. I searched her eyes, all six of them for any sign of deception, hoping and praying ‘Please God, let these people be lying to me, don’t let them be actually glad to see me, let their happiness for my arrival be false, let the truth be that they hate me for coming here and stealing their chance for a promotion! Let them be bootlickers and ass kissers!’, but much to my horror her smile was genuine in all of its fangy and venomous glory, and upon seeing the others up close and shaking hands with them as well I noticed that their smiles where more brighter , sincerer and happier than what I originally thought.
Dear God, the situation was a disaster! Heaven save me from their happy smiles!
Metternich per Pelasgiamus, Freelance Potions maker
After exchanging pleasantries, he was lead to a conference room where once everyone was properly seated, Metternich found himself next to Tarkan el Balamarus and Valyria Treakle with Butz behind him and Adrian next to Valyria.
On the other side of the table was Prince Dalius Augustus, Prince Georgaian vi Alontaire, Duke Oscar von Raqianus, Viscount Antonius de Palamese, and Baroness Horatia T.J. Jackson, next to them there was Colonel Werner von Braun, the leader of the ground forces, the famous 88th brigade of the elite Black Berets Corps, also called the ‘Hellfire Knights’.
The 88th is considered by many to be one of the finest brigades amongst the Black Berets, some even said that it was one of the finest infantry units in the whole galaxy; one so strong than even the other Black Berets had trouble reeling them in.
Besides him sat the leaders of the space fighter squadrons, who were also the aces of the flying corps, namely Captains: Nagira Tadamaki, Ivan Molotov, Ataru Starstruck, Furio Figaretti and alongside them the many ship captains and squadron leaders.
“Our forces are placed in the following order from north to south: Dalius, Georgaian, Oscar, Antonius, Horatia, Valyria, my division and finally Von Braun’s 88th make out the forces in this sector. Our opponents the Volunian Eight Army and the Federal Task Force have roughly the same numbers of troops and have fortified the Granada Depression, its southern flank is blocked by a mountain range and the northern one is blocked by the sea, so our only route of attack is a direct assault on their positions.” Tarkan briefed Metternich.
“Also, there are only two energy nexuses on this planet, they control both of them, this enables the enemy to recharge their energy crystals, while we have to rely on warp trains to transport them here, giving them an advantage in a battle of attrition.” Valyria added.
“What about siege units like dragon towers, they are specially designed for something like this, could we not used them against those defenses?” Adrian asked them.
“We do not have any towers, hell we don’t even have enough mines to make a decent minef
ield for one of our divisions, let alone our whole front.” Raqianus replied.
“One more question, how in the blue bloody blazes did this force here arrive to such a deplorable state!” Metternich asked in earnest, for you see from what he gathered from the briefing slate the Planet which they now resided was the only one in this system that could sustain life, and it along with Volun 1,2 and 3 where only an outposts for the World Class Fortress Galiana.
And so the original mission of the 378th corps had been to come here, blast the small garrison into oblivion, set up a planetary base and space port, wait until the enemies counterattack came, then withdraw back to their lines and draw the enemy for the main fleet to cut down.
You might think that such a mission would seem odd or even insane, to blow up some garrison and then just sit on down and do nothing but wait for the enemy to come and then run away.
But this was a ‘Moral Booster’, a battle indented to be of small scale, but also designed to be a victory in order to raise morale amongst the troops and civilians, to mentally prepare them for the upcoming bigger battles and to also act as bait to draw an enemy from their entrenched position with a raid.
Metternich saw it for what is was and in his mind it had been the ideal command for him, here he would be the highest ranking officer, the destruction of the base would be enough to say he had done his duty and he could be relatively safe here, at least for the time being.
The only problem was that the planet had not been bombarded from orbit, the ships where now grounded all along their lines and used as anti-infantry weapons instead of being in space, and the enemy instead of being small dust particles where now heavily entrenched on the high ground in front of them.
He looked at his new command, since everyone was refusing to answer his enquire and stated his question once more.
“I repeat, how did we arrive at this sad state of affairs?”
After a few moments of hesitation, and a few quick words of help and praise to her deity Horatia spoke up.
“Upon arriving, we scanned the planet and discovered that the enemy garrison was actually at only 20 percent strength, and that those 20% percent where troops composed of reservists, many of them quite old by military standards.” she then paused and even though it was difficult to see an expression on her arachnid features you could tell that she was now regretting being the one to begin the story.
