Year: 2718, April the 8th/Year: 6272, Vaan’jorch calendar
Sector Vaan’jorch-79-12.991
Quebix system, Quebix Prime surface, Fort Sylvia
Captain Jin’sun’thar studied a bunch of Colossal’s twenty meters away. The eight foot Serphoro looked as they laughed, yelled and punched each other in a friendly manner. Their lack of discipline annoyed him greatly-when they were off duty. They had perfect discipline when they were on duty and especially with a goddess nearby. In battle they had discipline-sort of. They didn’t have the same kind of discipline as most military factors in the known galaxy saw as discipline but they still had it. That is, their own form of discipline. Actually, the Colossal’s punished a break in discipline hard in combat. Outside of battle, it was seen as less important. But it battle, you could be executed for it, or at best be beaten and whipped.
Captain Jin’sun’thar-or Sun as he was called-turned his head down the corridor to look at the doors up to the tower where the goddess Alydia had her personal chambers. Two Serphoro soldiers stood guarding the doors. It didn’t seem like much but there was another twenty Serphoro’s between Lady Alydia and any intruder that might get past the two first guards at the bottom. There were also countless Jorchae aids that could sound the alarm well inside and it would be only moments before one-hundred Colossal, Serphoro and Jorchae arrived to kill any intruder and defend their goddess.
He had just finished the preparations for the goddess’s departure. She would take a shuttle on the air field inside Fort Sylvia to orbit, where she would board the Heavy Carrier Flower of Peace-an ironic name for a Heavy Carrier built for war, yes indeed. Anyway, she would proceed onboard the Heavy Carrier, surrounded by a defense fleet of ten Destroyers, two Light Carriers and one Battlecruiser. He had wanted further support but it had been refused by Councilor Nibbi. The Vaan’jorch Golden Concord Councilor was of course old and wise and it was not for Sun to question a goddess’s decision.
He had decided to place a Battalion of eight-hundred troops onboard. Warlord Jael’aar had agreed to spare troops for the goddess’s protection. Sense Jael’aar was in command of the planets military-beneath goddess Alydia’s authority of course-he had spoken to the Colossal. Also he had found the support fleet too small for a goddess to be escorted by and immediately agreed to provide three Battalions of troops. A Squadron of elite Serphoro Multirole Starfighter pilots was transferred onto the Flower of Peace. The three Battalions was made up of Jorchae, Colossal’s and Serphoro troops. He would have preferred some Kurhkzan soldiers, but there were none on Quebix Prime. They cannot live on desert planets. The heat would kill them. Flower of Peace’s commanding officer was a Kurhkzan Elder named Ji-lo-fa-el. Ji-lo-fa-el was-to Sun’s knowledge two-thousand years old. The large snaillike being was not even considered “that” old by Kurhkzan standards.
He walked passed two Colossal’s. They wore the regular metal silver armor, covering half their bodies in total. They gave Sun a mock salute. He stopped as they passed him by and turned around, gas-based projectile rifle in hand.
“Hey!” He called in his half mechanical voice-added to him by the breathing masked helmet-as it came through the speakers of the breathing mask.
They stopped and looked back at him.
“What?” One of them sneered.
“I do not tolerate that kind of mockery of the command chain,” he warned them.
They chuckled.
“Stay out of our way Serphoro filth,” one of them said.
Sun clenched his hands around his rifle.
“You will obey your superior officer,” he said harshly with anger.
One of the two Colossal’s stepped closer and readied to grab his own plasma rifle from his back.
“Stand. Down,” Sun threatened. “Or face the consciences.”
The Colossal growled and drew his plasma rifle. Sun drew his own carbine. Aimed. Pulled the trigger. The Colossal dropped and fell to the floor. He was still alive. He squirmed as the poisonous gas inside the projectile had been released into his blood system at impact when it shattered inside him. The other drew his knife and charged Sun with a roar. He stopped and fell to his knees when he was shot in the back. Slowly he looked over his shoulder painfully to see who had dared to help the blasted Serphoro filth.
Three Jorchae levitated in the air, wings buzzing at their backs. They each held a plasma rifle aimed at the Colossal. They were ready to fire again.
“Do not get up,” one of them demanded in a chirpy voice.
The colossal snorted in anger and motioned to rise, grabbing his knife tighter.
“Stay down or die,” Sun declared to him.
He growled.
The first Colossal on the floor had now died of the poisoned projectile.
“What is going on here?!” Jael’aar snapped furiously.
Sun turned slowly as he approached. The others had snapped in his direction immediately. Jael’aar fumed as he marched up to Sun. He looked ready to slay Sun at the spot, but held himself back-kinda. Most Colossal’s on lower rank would already have tried to kill Sun. He grabbed him to push him up against the wall.
“Why did you kill one of my men?!” He demanded fumingly.
Sun grabbed his arms and kicked him in the chest, forcing him to step back.
“I didn’t start this. Your men needs discipline and to show the proper respect,” Sun said.
His rifle was lowered but he was ready to raised it and fire swiftly if need be.
Jael’aar glared a death glare. He turned it to the injured Colossal that kneeled on the floor. He marched towards him.
“You dare undermine goddess Alydia’s work by starting a fight with your fellow soldier! We all serve the goddesses!” He exclaimed, fuming with anger. He punched the Colossal in the face. He fell to the ground with a grunting noise. “I don’t care if you like the Serphoro or not. Captain Jin’sun’thar is your superior officer! You will show respect or I will have you eaten by giant Quebix desert worms!!!”
Slowly the warrior got back to his feet.
“I…understand, Warlord,” he mumbled angrily.
Dozens of people had gathered at the scene, hearing the shooting and Jael’aar’s screaming.
Jael’aar didn’t-apparently-like his tone and punched him hard in the face three times. Blood dripped from his lip and spit some on the floor. Jael’aar despised the Serphoro just as much as the warrior in front of him did. But he knew that the goddess’s wanted cooperation and by the universe and the Paragons of ancient times, he would make every single Serphoro and Colossal cooperate outside the battle just like in battle if he had to kill every third man under his command to make it happen. Unfortunately-to Jael’aar’s great shame, it was his people that had most trouble and not the Serphoro. He would change that if it even killed him.
He turned to two Colossal’s and a Serphoro. He pointed at the warrior in front of him.
“Throw him in the pit!”
The three men obeyed and went over and dragged the unwilling Colossal to the pit. Sun and Jael’aar, along with the men and women around them all followed to the pit.
The pit was massive sixty meter deep hole with metal surrounding it under the ground and the tunnel system it was connected with. Hundreds of people gathered around the pit when they heard someone was going to be thrown down. The man struggled all the way until he was forced onto the metal elevator and lowered down into the pit. Most of the watchers was cheering. Even fellow Colossal’s were cheering their brother-in-arms fate.
The Colossal as given no weapon as he stood on the bottom. He looked around, trying to find an exit. He had seen this from the top more than once.
“Disobedience. Is. Punished!” Jael’aar yelled.
The Colossal was breathing heavily, looking around. Suddenly he heard a new sound. Tunneling below the orange dusty sand he stood on. The sand started moving and the ground he stood on became unstable and he started sinking. He panicked and started trying to run. The ground started quickly to swallow him like a sinkhole. Giant sharp spikey teeth appeared, cutting through the sand in a six meter circle around him. The Colossal was down to the waist in sand. He cried out in panic and waived with his arms, trying-hopelessly-to grab something to pull himself up with. The ten dozen sharp one meter teeth started to enclose around him as he had sunken to his chest. He screamed for help. But cheers was everything he received back. His black eyes were filled with horror, fear and panic. His scream disappeared as he sunk below the sand and the teeth completely engulfed him as he disappeared. An inhumanoid sound echoed from below the bottom of the pit. It was a sound that could not be described. It was like a burp from a monster of enormous proportions. After that, there were only silence in the pit.
“Disobedience will be punished!” Jael’aar yelled to force his message deep into the skull of every Colossal watching. With the less than clear idea of what he had done, the message was received perfectly clear. Disobedience will be punished. No one wanted to end up in the pit.
Serphoro watching were gathered and silent, far more professional than the Jorchae and Colossal’s that were cheering loudly. But they did enjoy the Colossal’s horrible fate.
In her chambers Alydia sat on her bed reading a holographic novel. It was about a fictional character in the real historical war between the Dominion and the Colossal’s, five-thousand years ago. It was written by a Colossal and the main character was a beautiful Vaan’jorch that led a ground force in battle against a numerous Colossal force and came out victorious. The Colossal’s of today believed that their ancestors were foolish to resist the Vaan’jorch in the past.
“Dinner is served goddess,” Din-the older Jorchae aid-told her.
Alydia sighed.
“Very well.”
She put the holo-novel away and stood up and headed to the dining hall in the second room. She didn’t like eating alone all the time. But she could not very well eat with her subordinates and there were no other Vaan’jorch on Quebix Prime.
There were a dozen different plates on the table as she sat down. Her plate was already filled with something from all of the diches. The most grandiose looking was a cooked piece of meat of unknown origins. It looked very inviting. She had a bottle of human wine from 2582 of the Universal calendar. She didn’t usually like Terran wine but this bottle was tasteful. It was from a place called “Germany” on Earth. Earth… what a horrible name for a planet. It would be like calling the Vaan’jorch homeworld water or dirt. Or even grass. Terran’s were foolish sometimes.
A Jorchae flew up to her with a holopad.
“For you, goddess.”
She took it and waved him to leave her.
The first message was a construction report was about the progress of the six Dreadnoughts being constructed on Quebix Prime’s shipyards. The first should be finished in a few weeks and the last in a year. Three Heavy Carriers was planned for construction when the first Dreadnought was ready for action. There was also a message from Councilor Nibbi. She wanted her to start construction of a Supreme Carrier. But on the orders of Holy Empress Elina, production of capital starships would be focused on Dreadnoughts, Battleships and Battlecruisers. Carriers were to be secondary when it came to the largest vessels. This did not include Escort or Light Carriers, but Supreme Carrier and Heavy Carrier types.
The next point on the datapad was a message from Talia. Talia was an old friend and a General in the Dominion military. She led the army on Ytopia. Ytopia was a poisonous planet, just like the Serphoro homeworld, the air was unbreathable. The cities of Ytopia was located in massive underground caves.
Talia was a very young female of only thirty-six. She was although a skilled leader and known as “the Pacifier”. The name came from her success in pacifying six different worlds to a state where they could not or would not rebel against the Dominion. She crushed the uprisings. She led the 404th Occupying Legion of ten-thousand troops. Talia was-in Alydia’s opinion-very eager to please. Perhaps too eager, in her mind.
Reading through the message, Talia was requesting a few extra armored Battalions to defeat the native Zealot rebellion. She also pleaded for Alydia to keep quiet about how much she needed the Battalions. She didn’t want her reputation to suffer sense she was having trouble with the guerilla forces.
Alydia smiled and chuckled. She sipped from her wine.
“Oh my dear girlie,” she shook her head. “At least you know who to contact.” She smirked amused. “You’re lucky you’re a good military commander, Talia.”
2718, April the 8th
Sector Victory-12-33.706
Alexandria system, New England
Dwayne embraced Katie from behind. He gently pushed some hair out of his way and kissed her soft neck. She giggled.
“I can’t possibly cook dinner with you distracting me,” she gave a half-hearted protest.
“That’s okay,” Dwayne replied. “You’re a horrible chef anyway.”
“Hey. I take offense to that.”
“You do that. When the little boy or girl is born, I’ll cook the food for him or her. Don’t wanna poison our firstborn child.”
She frowned.
“I am not that bad a cook.”
“Whatever you say beautiful.”
“I resent your comments on my cooking.”
“As long as you stick to sandwiches I won’t say anything.”
He chuckled and held her tighter. She leaned against him.
“I’ll burn the steak if you don’t let me go.”
“Perhaps it’s for the best,” he teased.
She giggled. His lips touch her neck gently.
“What would I do without you?” He whispered. “I’d be completely lost.”
She turned around in his grip and faced him. She rested her forehead against his chest. He stroked her hair gently. Katie didn’t want him to leave. Not this time. Sense they were having a child, she didn’t want him to return to duty with the Terran Earth Protectorate Special Forces-or Spec ops- sense they were having a baby, she really hoped he wouldn’t get hurt. His job was very dangerous sometimes. She always worried he would go on a mission and not come back. It always kept her up at night. She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the moment.
2718, April the 8th
Sector Krego-91-44.001
Calabria system, Calabria 7 orbit, Twin Moon Imperial Super Dreadnought Flagship Dauntless
Ada was cutting into a hot steak and cutting a piece off. She was wearing her uniform and her hair was fixed into a ponytail. She were in her quarters with Lt. Commander Morgan across the small table. Morgan was not wearing her black armored suit and wore a black dress uniform. Her blonde hair was sitting in a ponytail and her light brown eyes was looking down at the steak she was cutting.
“Wine?” Ada asked. She opened the bottle on the table.
Morgan looked up from her plate.
“I’m on duty in six hours. Not allowed to drink onboard ship commodore,” she said.
Ada smiled.
“That’s the beauty of being an officer, Lizzy. We get to break a few rules some times.” She arched her eyebrows excitedly.
Morgan looked at the bottle for a moment. She than nodded and gently pushed her glass forward. Ada smiled and started filling both their glasses.
“I’m sorry to see Captain Haig was busy,” Morgan tried making conversation. She was not very good at the whole social thing.
“He usually makes up a reason to avoid the dining with us, or me specifically,” Ada said. She started pouring into Morgan’s glass. “This is from Aiur actually. I imported it last time we were home.” She looked at Morgan, almost reading her thoughts. “He doesn’t like me much. His name was on the list for command of Dauntless. And, obviously I got it before him. Grand Admiral Valter preferred him for the command, but her majesty disagreed.”
“What’s the Grand Admirals connection to Haig?”
Ada put the bottle down on the table and smiled.
“Valter is a friend of Haig’s father. Vice Admiral Haig and Valter went to the academy together. When the admiral died to Drakken mercenaries, Valter promised to give Haig’s sons career a boost.”
Morgan greatly disapproved of that. If your skill and intellect wasn’t enough, you should not get help to get to where you want to go. Not in the military where lives would depend on your actions, and if you weren’t up for the job.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Ada continued. “He’s a good officer, he really is. But…a tad much ambition in his head.”
“He is experienced at least. He did command the Destroyer Reave three years ago.”
“And, the crew liked him so he wasn’t all bad. Fought off some pirates in a colonial sector close to Terran Mining Consortium space.”
“But a destroyer is far from a Super Dreadnought.”
Ada sipped from the wine.
“Oh yeah.” She put the glass down. “At least he follows orders without questioning me-mostly.”
Morgan gently cut off a small piece from the steak on her plate.
“I noticed him disagreeing with you on the bridge yesterday.”
Ada nodded.
“That is completely unthinkable-” she continued. “-to question your commanding officer in that situation. Especially if you’re a first officer.” She had an angry spark in her voice. “I senior officer should never question his commanders orders in public. Any disagreement is for private conversations.”
“He thinks I’m holding back his career,” Ada said. “He’s ambitious enough for a politician. Rumors are he wants to be an admiral and get into the Imperial court and even the High Council.”
Morgan looked at her commanding officer.
“That…kind of ambitious is… dangerous.”
“I really love steak,” Ada changed subject. “Love it. My dad make the best steak you’ve ever tasted.”
“That good, sir?”
Ada smiled.
“That good. He know exactly how to spice it up just right. He’s a chef back on Aiur. Owns a restaurant in view of the palace.” She smirked and looked right at Morgan. “Next time we get back to Aiur, I’m taking you to try it.”
“Sounds great, sir,” Morgan accepted with a smile.
“How long until we reach the rendezvous for the meeting?”
“Several more days, commodore.”
“Try calling me, Ada or Dravograd when in private, will you?”
Morgan frowned uncomfortably.
“Ma’am?”
“When not on duty, Lizzy.” Ada arched her eyebrows.
Morgan shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
“Very well… Dravograd.”
Ada snickered.
“Close enough I guess.” She put a small potato in her mouth and chowed. It was silent for a moment. “My dad’s pretty good at the Paragon too.”
“Ma’am-eh, Dravograd?” Morgan corrected herself swiftly.
“You’ve heard of them right?”
“Legends, yes.”
Ada nodded.
“Yeah. My dad is fascinated by them. The legends of the first race to travel amongst the stars. Lizzy, did you know that the Vaan’jorch deeply believe that the Paragon were real…and might still be out there somewhere. Perhaps beyond the Dark Rift, or in another galaxy.” She spoke with a dramatic and mystic tone of voice.
“I don’t know if I believe that ma’am…damn it, sorry. Dravograd.”
Ada smirked.
“We’ll work on that. I’d like to believe that they once existed. Imagine it, Lizzy. An ancient race that spread life across our galaxy hundreds-of-thousands of years ago. Imagine how the galaxy looked than. The first sentient race in the Milky way.”
“So…how do people who believe in them explain why they aren’t around anymore?” Morgan questioned.
Ada arched her eyebrows.
“That’s the big mystery, yeah? How? Did they leave our galaxy? Die from a plague or war? And if war…with whom?”
Morgan could understand why a lot of people wanted to believe in them. Even though she didn’t.
“The crystal city ruins is from them, or so scholars and historians believe. Sense similar ruins have been found-not only on Aiur but New England, Kael 5 and three different Vaan’jorch worlds. Something was found on Ki-le-nu-di-the homeworld of the Kurhkzan, but people aren’t aren’t sure if they are related to the other crystal cities and outposts found in known space. I almost squeak just thinking about it.”
Morgan sipped from the wine glass. She shrugged. “Maybe we’ll find out one day.”
ns 172.70.34.108da2
