Star Rebellion

by Alicia Howell

  “As Vatican had tried to warn you before the connection had cut out, demons like to be in high places. As far from the Underworld as possible, I believe he said.” Vatican smirked a bit at Arctic’s mimicry of his voice. Arctic wasn't able to achieve the deepness of it though, so it had sounded mostly silly. “We have the top floor of our building completely guarded, not even a demon claw can get through without being shot. I’m afraid that we can’t say as much for the garage; they seem to have an affinity for gas or really anything toxic. Most of the cars have been ravaged, as I’m sure Icestar will be disappointed to hear.

  “Now, as for the world of Earth, things are going quite poorly. Word has it that the citizens didn’t believe their leaders when they had been warned, and the militaries only half heartedly made their preparations. When the demons came from almost every crack and crevice that they could, spreading throughout all habitable continents, there was extreme panic. It has only been three hours since then, but already there has been near a hundred-million casualties on Earth. It’s highly populated areas, like the cities of London, New York, Tokyo, and Beijing, that have been prime areas of target for the demons. Our plan is to first secure the portals and the main resource areas of Calsh before traveling to help them. The survival of our sister plant depends on how efficiently we can execute these plans. Our estimates that are within a month they will lose close to four billion people unless they can find a decent way to fight back worldwide. A way that won't strengthen the demons along with killing them.”

  “How many freaking people do they have? They must breed like pollution,” I muttered. So that analogy might've sounded stupid, but hey. It's all we have on Calsh so deal with it.

  “You mean they must breed like rabbits,” Forest’s voice carried over from behind me. Stupid ambassador, all Earth savvy when it came to stuff like this.

  “Whatever,” I rolled my eyes and looked back at Arctic.

  “Eleven billion, and counting,” Vatican said.

  No wonder Calsh was so messed up if it had been taking pollution from a planet with over eleven billion people. Calsh had less than a hundred thousand, not counting the NOPCW, who came and went quite frequently. And if you didn't know, that's less people than quite a few Earth cities.

  “So we’re just going to let Earth suffer? I mean, yea there isn't much we can do right now, but that's eleven billion people who don't have great defenses right now. I would rather not go down in history as the people who let the majority of humanity die,” Waterstar stated from next to me.

  “We don’t have much choice; what are we supposed to do? Leave the families here unprotected as we send forces up to Earth? Less than half the people here are trained fighters, and many are having troubles keeping demons from slaughtering the citizens in our bases and villages to begin with. They have militaries there that are large enough to fight wars across their globe, they just need to get them trained to fight within their borders. We have one Rebellion, only one, that can fight for all people on Calsh. Unfortunately, we do not currently have the resources to deal with Earth and help them.”

  I could see that Arctic was really strung up about this; almost like he was in charge of the protection of both Calsh and Earth. Damn, that had to be a lot of stress for one person. But it also didn't make sense that the Commander from a mostly forgotten colonization project is the one who is incharge of both worlds. I had a feeling that my team and I were making this more complicated than it needed to be. It didn't make sense that Earth wouldn't be able to defend itself. They had more resources than we do, more fighters, more everything. Why would we need to come to their rescue?

  “Tell us what to do, and we’ll help how we can. We’ve fought them, and have brought back a lot of weapons from the NOPCW, thanks to Water’s infatuation with them.” I butted in before Waterstar could come back with a retort to Arctic. We didn’t need fighting among ourselves, and I had a feeling that this was a lot bigger than any of us knew.

  Water smirked next to me and crossed her arms while Arctic eyed the backpacks we still had with us for the first time.

  Finally, the Commander sighed. “You are to first report to your rooms and sleep. We have a set of eight hour shifts in place, which changed recently. I’ll send a messenger to wake you before the next shift, and you four can take patrol. I’ll have further instructions when you report back in a few hours.” Arctic turned his back to us and started studying a map on the wall that had about fifty bajillion sticky notes.

  I glanced at Vatican, who had been silent for most of the meeting. He was good at observing, and I knew that his silence meant he had simply just been taking notes on the six of us. What he had to do with this I am unsure, but Arctic believed him to be important. Vatican finally spoke, “Once you all are rested, I will tell you what I have to say. It’s a pretty mind boggling thing, and it’s best to be told when you’re fully recuperated. Until then, goodbye. Oh, Vladimir, please stay behind.” His head dipped slightly before joining Arctic at the map. Guess that was our cue to leave. How nice of him to come in and act like he is in charge.

  We filed out of the room one by one, with me being last. I glanced back at Vlad and he shrugged; guess he didn’t know what was up with that either, not that I trusted him to tell me what he was thinking. We weren't exactly buddy-buddy if you hadn't noticed by now. “Come on, let's go bust into Ice's room, even if they say we can't,” I said when we came to where the hallways separated. The others nodded but were silent. No one has had experience with demon cuts, nor could they figure out why Foreststar was peachy fine and Icestar was unconscious on diseased. When science doesn't know what's happening, things tend not to bode well for others.

  The door was still closed and the Templar’s cross seemed to glow in the dimmed hallway. Despite what I had said earlier, none of us tried busting down the door. Waterstar leaned against the wall with her crutches loosely held in one hand. “Do you think…” she started to say.

  Darkstar shook his head, and then knocked on the door. There was a look in his eyes that gave me a bad feeling.

  The door opened to show a girl that I had never seen before, though she had pale streaks in her already pale blond hair. “Yes?”

  “Can we see Icestar?” Dark asked without emotion, as usual. This time, though, it was like he was purposely trying to seem calm, not like his typical apathetic-ness.

  “I’m sorry, but he can’t see visitors at the moment.”

  “Why not?”

  “Doctor’s orders.”

  “Is he awake?”

  “No.”

  Dark fell silent after that. I doubted that Ice still being unconscious was something we should rejoice about. “When do you think he’ll wake up?” Waterstar whispered. Her skin had become even paler, and with the dim lights, it looked a bit freaky.

  “We’re not sure,” the nurse looked at us almost pitifully before gently closing the door. I hated the looks of pity we sometimes received, we being the field mission guys. I stared at the cross, not really thinking much except the fact that it was probably my fault if Ice died. I had been the one who had asked if he would come with me. Hell, I already had one death on my shoulders with Sunstar. Maybe it would’ve been better if I had followed what Arctic had instructed me to do; if I had been a good little boy, then Ice and Sun would’ve been fine. But who knows what would have happened to Water and Dark. Did that, however, mean that I valued their lives higher than other people's? Was that something that was morale to do? I mean, being in Star Rebellion isn't exactly meaning we follow morales, but sometimes things happen and it just doesn't seem right.

  “Come on.” I felt a hand push slightly against my shoulder. I looked back and saw Forest pushing me away from the door. Water and Dark were looking at me with worry written plainly across their faces. They followed shortly afterwards. I guess it was kind of obvious that my thoughts were spiraling downwards.

  I let Forest lead me down the hall, and I was about to turn away from him with Water and Dark
to go to our room when he put his hand on my shoulder again. “Can you come with me to my room for a second?”

  I looked back at my best friends and they shrugged. We were all tired, but what could a few moments hurt? “Sure.” I turned down a hall I had never been through before.

  Forest’s room was dark, and I doubted it was because he hadn’t turned the lights on. I then checked the ceiling, and sure enough, light was barely permeating through darkly shaded bulbs. There were posters of various bands on the walls, and I recognized a few from the times that an ambassador would bring CD’s from Earth to play during meals. Most of the members on the posters were wearing dark makeup, like raccoons.

  “What’s up?” I asked while standing by the wall next to the door, which was still open to let the hall light in, as meager as it was.

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “What?”

  “Icestar… and Sunstar… it isn’t your fault. We all went with you by our own choice. We knew there was a risk, and quite honestly, it’s Sunstar’s own damn fault that she’s dead. She didn’t listen to Kuro. Icestar… well, accidents happened. No one was prepared for the demons.” Forest wasn’t looking at me, and I was surprised to hear him say so much in full explanation.

  “How did you know?”

  Forest shrugged. “It wasn’t hard to guess from the way you were looking at that door earlier. It was either you were having regrets, or you are strangely interested in Templar crosses.”

  I looked away. Maybe I should get lessons from Dark on masquerading emotions and stuff. Taking my silence to mean who knows what, Foreststar leaned over a basket that contained CD disks. He pulled one out and inserted it into an ancient looking stereo system. Loud music blared from it, starting with a heavy bass line before two guitars joined the melody. A woman's voice started singing in a different language, and I eyed Foreststar. He wasn't a person that I had communicated with really before the incident at the NOPCW. I didn't know much about him, but for some reason I had thought him trustworthy enough to come to the Underworld and help us.

  Remembering something from what seemed like ages ago, I yelled over the music to be heard. “What is up with your hairstyle?”

  Forest looked over at me and grinned with only one side of his mouth. He turned his music down enough so that we could comfortably speak. “I got the idea from some Japanese bands that I listen to at times. One of the bassists has his hair in this style, short in the back and then the bangs spiking forward. Then I just go the bangs streaked green in customary Rebellion fashion.” He motioned over to one of the posters on the wall, and sure enough there was a man who had the same hairstyle, except his was blond with a little bit of black.

  I nodded my head. “That's pretty awesome. Do you have to gel it?”

  Foreststar legitly burst out laughing. “Of course I do. What do you think keeps it like this? Magic?”

  I rolled my eyes and shoved his shoulder before yawning. “I probably need to get going. I swear I am going to crash any second.”

  Forest nodded and before turning the music up said, “Don't bash yourself too hard, though a bit wouldn't hurt that arrogance of yours.”

  I flipped him off and Foreststar gave a stupid wave by wiggling his fingers. I walked out the door and by the time I was at the end of the hall, there was a heavy bass line blaring from his room again. The tract sounded vaguely familiar this time.

  Instead of going back to my room where Dark and Water were, I wandered aimlessly through the halls. I was tired, but restless, which was mostly the reason that I had left Forest's room. Even though he was pretty chill, I didn't want to stay standing around. In an antechamber near the mess hall, there were rows of cots on floor, most of them filled by wounded people. I’d estimated close to a hundred had been wounded on the initial fight with the demons. From what I could tell, there weren’t many people who didn’t look like fighters there. The Rebellion was composed of around five thousand people, give or take a few hundred, but not many of those were fighters. Or experienced fighters at least. A hundred men out is a big deal. Currently, there were more fighters below the age of twenty-five than above it, which was more or less common, but that also meant that there weren't many experience fighters. People either died or lost their young feeling of invincibility and transferred to another department in the Rebellion when they hit their mid-twenties crisis.

  As I wandered around, my mind was filled with a mix of my own thoughts and then my power visions. One second I was remembering Sunstar’s grip on my arm as she was being pulled away in the Shadowlands, the next I saw towering skyscrapers lit by a blood red dawn, plumes of smoke lazily drifting on an almost nonexistent breeze. Calsh didn’t have skyscrapers. I thought back to when Arctic had mentioned how populated Earth cities were being target, and I wondered if this was one of the ones he listed, or if it was a more minor city. One day I wanted to go climb one of those skyscrapers. I don't mean take the stairs to the top, I mean scale the side of the building and hope to hell I don't fall.

  I finally came full circle back to my room and saw that the door was cracked open. It wasn’t exactly unusual, especially since I was still out. They’d probably left it open for me, even though I had been gone for a few hours.

  I stepped inside, but left the lights off in case my teammates were asleep. I pulled my shirt off and fell onto my bunk and closed my eyes, listening to the night sounds. The whirring of Rebellion generators, the buzz of the security lights outside, the slow dripping sound of liquid falling into a puddle.

  I had almost slipped into sleep when it occurred to me that nothing normally dripped. There weren’t faucets or any plumbing in the room, and it sounded different than the torrent of rain outside. I sat back up in bed and squinted to try and see better in the dark room. Dark was sprawled across his bed with an arm hanging over the side like he normally would, but Water’s was empty; the blue covers were pulled back as if she had been there recently.

  “Darkstar?” I whispered.

  He didn’t move. That was highly unusual.

  I sprung out of bed and slammed my hand against the wall switch next to the door. Glaringly bright light made me squint once again, but I could see a dark splotch on the ground near my friend’s bed.

  “Dark?” I said louder this time, hesitantly creeping over to his bed.

  The splotch was blood; I could see the deep red color as it streamed further and further from the puddle. It was flowing down Dark’s arm slowly, its origin was somewhere inside his shirt.

  “Crap,” I muttered as I slung my friend over one shoulder, trying to avoid stepping in the blood with my bare feet. I half carried, half dragged Dark down the hall toward the cots near the mess hall. I was shouting for help, but no one was coming. Our section must have been on the scouting shift this time around.

  I staggered into the main hallway intersection that led to both Forest’s room and the makeshift infirmary. My vision was getting blurry and I was stumbling down the hall. Dark’s blood had coated my back and soaked through the bandages some medics had used to cover up scratches from when Ice and Forest blew up the staircase. It felt like it was burning my skin, absorbing my energy.

  “Help!” I shouted again, my voice cracking on the single syllable. I made it a few more steps before falling into the wall and slipping to the floor. I heard my head thud against the hard ground, but I didn’t actually feel anything. The last thing I saw was someone rushing down the hall toward me, their black hair stained even darker in areas. As my eyes closed, I could’ve sworn I saw white wings unfurl behind him.

  FORESTSTAR

  I ran down the hall, following the sound of Firestar’s voice. My stereo had been between songs when I had heard his shouts, and I had almost mistaken them for the intro to another one of my heavy rock songs.

  I turned sharply around the corner to the main intersection and saw Vatican leaning over Fire. I halted immediately and stepped back out of sight, leaning around the corner to watch what was happening. I
was unsure if the man had seen me or not, and if he was what Fire had been yelling for help about.

  As Vatican shifted Fire onto his back, I saw that Dark was also on the floor, blood weeping from some hidden wound, showing up in bright contrast on the white floors.

  I quickly ran through a mental assessment of the situation. If the Vatican was an enemy, then he had been able to fool Arctic along with taking down what I believed to be two of the stronger members in the rebellion. But if he truly was on our side, then I was pointlessly standing behind a wall when I could be helping him get Fire and Dark to the infirmary, which they clearly needed. The latter also meant that there was some other enemy loose within the halls of the Rebellion, which definitely was not encouraging with the current situation. If he had been the Vatican I had been ambassador too, then this situation would be completely different. Then again, that Vatican had been practically useless.

  I stepped out from behind the corner. I trusted Arctic’s judgment of this man. “Can I help?” my voice sounded eerie in the otherwise silent halls.

  Vatican turned around nimbly, somehow managing to keep Firestar on his back. He relaxed slightly as he recognized me, but I could tell that he was still tensed. Vatican didn’t trust me completely either. That could be both good and bad.