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In Our Darkest Hours
🕑 Added 2021-08-25 03:33:20 +0000 UTCA/N: Hey, guys! This is something totally off the wall, a one-off with nothing to do with RH or any other universe I've written about. The idea for this has been kicking around in my head for a couple weeks, now, and I finally got around to hammering it out, just for fun. Hope you enjoy!
Edit: Was going to come out of early release with this tomorrow, but I'm going to be busy all day tomorrow, so it's going public a day early!
In Our Darkest Hours
In our darkest hours, they came for us.
Like every species, they made agreements of trade, and treaties of alliance. Hollow words and empty promises that matched rattling sabers, but fell silent when the blade was drawn.
Except for them, in our darkest hours.
When the Shulzin and their mighty armadas stormed Kilea, threatening their people with slavery, their world with annihilation …
“Grand Commandant,” Fleet Advisor Tulzin said, turning from the master display of the system with the solemnity of a prince who stood before his own doom. “They have arrived.”
“How many?” Grand Commandant Crozli said, her gaze locked at some point beyond the display. Her upper back was stiff, her normally excitable legs locked in a regal pose next to her command couch. The holoprojector’s silver and cobalt light matched the décor of the flag deck, the proud colors of the Kilean Defense Force. The friendly silver triangles arrayed against a staggering number of hostile dark cobalt squares.
“Three full armadas, Your Grace,” Tulzin said, his voice even and calm despite the fear and despair that clawed at his hearts. “And the Imperator’s personal battlewagon.”
“How many got away?” she asked.
“Twenty-three colony ships, five super-freighters, and hundreds of personal craft managed to clear the system before the Shulzin engaged their interdiction, Your Grace.”
She turned her gaze to look at him, granting him the honor of meeting his eyes with hers. “And your family, Tulzin? Did they escape?”
“No, Your Grace,” he said, struggling to keep his mandibles from chittering. “They are still on Kilea.”
The Grand Commandant gave him the barest of nods before turning her gaze back to the master display. “And our fleets?” she asked. “Are they ready to carry out their final duty?”
“All Commodores and Squadron Commanders have reported in, Your Grace,” Tulzin said, turning back to the holo projector as well. “Every ship that can still bear the fleet colors has been armed and put to space. All ships ready and standing by. All defense stations and orbital batteries at full readiness.”
“Will it be enough?” she asked. She already knew the answer.
“No, your grace.”
“Then let us meet our ancestors with honor, and make these vile Shulzini pay dearly for every-“
“Fleed Advisor! Grand Commandant!” one of the aides monitoring the system-wide sensor network shouted, her mandibles clicking in shock. “More ships are coming in!”
“Another Armada?” the Grand Commandant asked. “Do they think three is not enough?!”
“They’re Terran, Your Grace!” the aide said, looking up from her console as new icons started appearing on the display, separate from the Shulzin Armadas, and kept appearing. “A lot of Terrans! Hundreds,” she looked down at her display, her mandibles hanging open in disbelief. “No, thousandsof ships!” More silver circles continued to appear on the display.
“Incoming audio transmission!” another aide called. The general speakers clicked, and an alien voice filled the room.
“This is Fleet Admiral Pietri Ahuja of the United Earth Stellar Navy, commanding the Fifth and Fourteenth Fleets. Are we too late for the party?”
***
When the Bramnvi Syndicate and their pirate fleets terrorized the space lanes, breaking interstellar trade and threatening to subsume lesser star nations into a growing slave empire …
Cahni clutched at her console as the Starwind Gallantshuddered from a heavy blow. Another alarm from her console joined several others already chiming on the bridge. “Main drivers have been hit!” she called, her finger-pads rapidly tapping her console as she desperately tried to reroute power. “Driver Two has shut down on critical failure! Driver Five is at fifty percent power and trending erratic!”
“Report status of the weavefold drive!” Captain Hagl shouted, swiping across his own console. “Their point interdiction has finally faded!”
“Engineering reports the weavefold drive is fried!” Crewman Shakn said. “The interdiction crash burned it out!”
“What about the jump drive?”
“We’ve got no pilot!” Cahni said, stuttering power to Driver Five, trying to keep it from shutting down. “And they seared off both point arrays. We try to jump, we’ll core the ship in half, and both halves will be scattered across every sector between here and Faltirai!”
The starliner shuddered from a close-aboard explosion. “Staarwind,” the pirate captain’s voice taunted them over the open comm. Cahni wanted the comm terminated, but a glance at their commlink operator, Gehza, told her it wouldn’t happen unless she did it herself. The woman was rocking in her chair, knees to her chest, crying. “You know you can’t run. The Syndicate always gets what it wants.”
“Power spike in the Number Two Furnace!” Shakn cried out. “Stabilization fields are falling to the Kanjanin Limit!”
That’s it … Her skin dimmed from her normal, iridescent emerald she took personal pride in to a pale celadon. We’re lushma in a barrel … At three hundred meters, the Starwind Gallantwas a mid-sized merchant, but a ripe prize for the Syndicate. She carried 5,000 souls, in addition to the crew, 80,000 tons of high-value cargo, and barely enough point defense to redirect a rogue asteroid. A fast liner, but no match for a pirate corvette, not out in the open lanes between borders.
Her controls flashed into automatic avoidance mode as a new, piercing alarm blared over the others. The collision alarm?!? Her skin turned almost white. “Proximity alert! Khach! Unknown cruiser just jumped in right on top of us!”
“Attention pirate vessel,” an stern voice cut in over the comm. “This is the United Earth Ship Tannhauser’s Gate. You are under my guns. Heave to, and prepare to be boarded.”
“Tannhauser’s Gate, this is Sable Claw, there is no piracy happening here. We are merely a Syndicate vessel rendering assistance to a stricken starliner.”
“Sable Claw, you are engaged in pirate activities in open space. This is your final warning. Cut your engines and lower your shields, or you will be fired upon.”
Cahni brought an intuitive display up on one of her side consoles, showing the three ships together with skewed distance scaling. What is a Terran ship doing all the way out here?! By the Shamans, she’s half-again as large as us, and jumped in so close I could look out a window and see her!
Her screen flashed as several particle bolts stuttered out from the pirate corvette, splashing across the cruiser’s shields. They barely flicked as they shrugged off a barrage that would have gutted the Starwind. The Terran’s return was a single, heavy beam that obliterated the pirate’s shields like they weren’t even there. Cahni saw it punched into the Sable Claw’s port bow, and clean through the ship, out its aft starboard quarter, before her screen was whited out by the catastrophic failure of the corvette’s furnaces.
“Starwind Gallant, this is Tannhauser’s Gate,” the same voice called again. The stern edge was still there, in the background, but the forefront was calm, gentle. “Do you require assistance?”
***
Like any species, they had their unique traits, and special skills, but they were not gods. Their technology was incredibly advanced in some areas, but lagged behind in others. All star nations had secrets and technologies they refused to give up, resources they refused to share, but none gave so freely as they.
When the Vohmlghash Plague was unleashed upon the galaxy, and whole worlds faced quarantine and death …
“The Riggsta Auditorium is short on water again, and sanitation nurses,” Orrinz said, scrolling through a data pad. His voice was muffled by the improvised medical mask he wore, the same Burhin wore. It wasn’t enough. “And the Southern Stadium is still short on blankets and shelters.”
“The utilities drones are laying the new service lines to the University. They would be done by now if we didn’t have to repurpose so many of them to maintain the other drones.” Burhin gripped her pad with both hands to hide the tremors. They had begun, a sure sign of the first stage, the day before. “Febreezi Station should be delivering another shipment of emergency blankets and shelters from their fabricators by drone in two days.”
She looked up at him, knowing what his next report was, and dreading it. “New cases?”
“Another three thousand cases in the city today. It’s slowed down.” He snorted and scratched at his upper left arm, his sleeve shifting just enough for her to see the spots he tried to conceal. Stage two. “Most of the city’s population is either already sick, or left to try and flee the disease.” He left out the other category, that was rapidly becoming the majority. Dead.
“And outside the city?”
“Another million-and-a-half cases across the continent in the last two days, and at least one hundred thousand dead. We’re still waiting on reports from the other continents. The last word from the bioresearch lab at Xolf’tk is that they think it’s not just airborne, but windborne, and likely to stick to fauna as it travels.”
“Have they given us any updates today?”
“No,” Orrinz hesitated. “They haven’t answered any calls in three days.”
“Oh,” she said. “I see.” Cousin Kezzi worked there … At least she got Kmala and Hahz to Febreezi Station on a private shuttle before the planetwide lockdown …
The door to Burhin’s commandeered office opened. “Excuse me, Dr. Burhin Vahbzrizn?”
She turned to see a strange, two-armed, bipedal figure in an almost skin-tight environmental suit, complete with semi-rigid hood and sealed facemask step through her door. Is that a human? I didn’t know we had any on planet … “Who are you?”
“I’m Dr. Richard Amsted,” he said, stepping through the door and pulling a wheeled trunk behind him. “With Doctors Without Borders.” Several other humans in similar suits followed behind him, hauling similar trunks.
Orrinz’s pad chimed an urgent alert, and he turned away to take the call while Burhin dealt with these intruders. She stood, stepping towards the human with a certain realization. We didn’t have any humans on planet. That just left only one question. “Dr. Amsted … What are you doing here?”
“We’re still coordinating drone delivery of the bulk of it with Febreezi Station,” he said, setting his trunk down in front of her. The other humans started breaking open their trunks and pulling out equipment and supplies. Most were unfamiliar, but she had spent enough decades as Doctor across the known galaxy to recognize medical supplies and equipment when she saw it. “but we’ve brought medical supplies, emergency rations, emergency survival gear, and an early-stage inoculation that we hope will help hold patients over until we can finish developing counter-virals and a vaccine.”
She blinked at the human before her. “What?”
“Dr. Vahbzrizn,” he said, reaching out to take her hand. “We’re here to help.”
***
When the Mulchuzu Supervolcano on Prabsti erupted, suddenly and without warning …
“Mama?” Rell coughed, stumbling through the rubble that used to be their kitchen. The ground had shook, and a great, deafening thunderclap, like all the thunder in the world, had ripped through their town.
It broke windows everywhere, and the sky to the west had turned dark and angry orange.
She ran inside with Trin and Tash, like Mama and Papa said. She wanted to run inside, anyway, because she was scared. Mama and papa said that she was okay, and that everything would be fine, and she thought they were. The great thunder had come twice more, but was softer each time.
Then the dark, angry clouds came, and giant rocks of fire fell from the sky.
Rell coughed, stumbling into the shattered remains of their living room. “Mama?” The air hurt her lungs, and she coughed again. Trin and Tash’s rooms aren’t supposed to be in the living room!
The house groaned and made weird noises. She clutched Tinmy to her chest, despite the soot and grime that stained his fuzzy trunk and flopears. The same soot and grime that covered her scales and featherfrills. “Mama?!”
“Rell,” a soft voice called from the far edge of the livingroom, followed by a cough.
“Mama!” Rell stumbled, scraping her knee as she scrambled over the broken remains of their house, and nearly dropping Tinmy, trying to get to Mama.
“Rell,” Mama said, her voice soft, like when she was tired from a long shift and had a migraine.
Crawling around what was left of Papa’s favorite couch, she found Mama by the door to the downstairs hall, lying under parts of the ceiling, which were now on the floor. “Mama!” she cried, crawling under the floor of Trin’s room to get to her. “Mama, I’m scared!”
“It’s okay, sweety, it’s okay,” Mama said, turning and reaching out a hand for Rell, grimacing as she did so. Half her featherfrills were scraped off or broken, and matted with blood. Rell scrambled over to take her hand, still clutching Tinmy to her chest. “There you are.” She coughed. “Did you see Trin or Tash, or Papa?”
“No, Mama, just you.” She tried to squeeze in closer to Mama. “Mama, can we get up, I don’t like it here.”
“I’m afraid I can’t, sweety, I’m,” she coughed. “I’m stuck. You- You remember when your playhouse fell over and you got stuck under it?”
“Yeah,” Rell said, nodding her head as she clutched Mama’s hand.
“Well, I’m stuck like that.”
“Our big house fell over like my play house?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s what happened, sweetie.”
“Can Papa put our big house back upright like my playhouse?”
“No, sweetie, I don’t,” she coughed, “I don’t think Papa is big enough to put our big house back upright.”
“Then what are we gonna do, Mama? I don’t want to be stuck under the big house!”
“It’s okay, sweetie, you’re not stuck. But Mama’s gonna be stuck here for a little bit, okay?”
“Not okay, Mama, I don’t want you to be stuck under the big house!” Rell said, but started coughing before she could really start crying. The air made her lungs burn. The ground rumbled again, just a little bit, but like it did the first time.
“Shh, shh, it’s okay, sweetie. Mmm.” Mama grimaced. “Listen, Rell, sweetie, you can’t stay here. It’s not safe here for you right now.” She gasped, then coughed. “I need you to be my big girl right now, okay? Can you do that for me?”
Rell flicked her frill, clinging tight to Tinmy and Mama’s hand. Mama squeezed her hand back.
“Good. Good. Do you remember the way to Uncle Lan’s house, down the street?”
“Yeah,” she said, sniffing.
“Good,” Mama coughed, grimacing again. “Do you remember the shelter he has in his basement? How to get to his down downstairs?”
“Yeah, I remember how to get to Uncle Lan’s down downstairs.”
“Do you remember the outside way, and the inside way?” Mama coughed again.
“Uh-huh.” Rell coughed. “I remember the outside way and the inside way.”
“Good.” Mama coughed. “Sweetie, I need you to go to Uncle Lan’s, and go to his down downstairs. But his big house might have fallen over, too, so you might need to use the outside way, okay?”
“But, Mama, but what if his big house fell over on the outside way?”
“Then, Sweetie, ah!” Mama grimaced, and clutched her hand tight enough to hurt for a moment. “Then, Sweetie, I need you to go east, okay? Remember the long road, we take to go to Brovlough, to go shopping?”
Rell flicked her frill.
“I need you to walk to the big road and go east, towards Brovlough, and just keep walking east until you find help, okay?”
“Mama, I don’t want to go.”
“Sweetie, I need you to go. It’s not safe here. I need you to go. I need you to go to Uncle Lan’s, and if you can’t get to his down downstairs, I need you to go to the long road, and go east.”
“But, Mama, I don’t want to go without you!” Rell said, clutching Tinmy and Mama’s hand as she started to cry. A low rumble filled the air, and more dust and wind was kicked in from outside.
“Sweetie, I need you to be my big girl, okay? I need you to be my big girl. I need you to go!” Mama said. She was crying now, too.
“I don’t wanna go, Mama!” Rell said, bawling into Tinmy as she tried to scoot closer to Mama.
“Sweetie, please, I need you to go! I need you to-“
Light flashed through the ruins of their livingroom. “Over here!”
Rell turned her head with Mama as more light flashed into the livingroom. “I got lifesigns over here!”
“He-“ Mama coughed. “Here! Over here!”
“Help!” Rell cried. “Mama needs help!”
Light shined into their hole, cutting through the smoke and ash. “I’ve got two survivors in here!” someone shouted. They crawled under the ceiling, getting a closer look. “Hey, there,” the strange man said. He was wearing a helmet, and some kind of armor, and he didn’t look like an Olshan at all. “It’s alright, we’re here to help.”
“Mama’s stuck!” Rell said. “The big house fell on her!”
“I can see that,” the strange man said. He turned to Mama. “Ma’am, we’re going to get you out of here, okay? Just stay calm.” Mama winced as she flicked her frill. He turned back to Rell. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Rell,” she said.
“Alright, Rell, my name’s Ron. Let’s get you out of the way so we can see about lifting the big house off your Mama, and get you in the shuttle where the air doesn’t hurt and Doc can take a look at you, okay?”
“It’s okay, sweetie,” Mama said, squeezing her hand. “You’ll be okay.” She turned to Ron. “Take care of her, please.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am, we’ll have you out of here soon enough to take care of her, yourself.” He reached a hand out to Rell. “Okay, Rell, let’s get you out of the way so we can help your Mama.”
Rell took his hand, crawling out of the hole, and soon found herself and Tinmy being carried out of their fallen over big house. A big, rumbly ship, bigger than their big house, sat in the street outside, with bunches and bunches of strange people like Ron running into houses all over the street. He put his hand to the side of her head and turned her away from their neighbor’s house as he carried her to the big, rumbly ship, then inside it.
Inside was unlike anything she had seen before, but she was quickly taken to a place that looked very much like some of the rooms at the doctor’s Mama and Papa took her to. She was sat down on a bed, and Ron introduced her to a man named Timmy. She introduced him to Tinmy, and asked if they were related.
Timmy did a bunch of doctor things with her, and gave her a bandage for her scraped knee, then moved her to another room in the big ship to wait for Mama. He gave her a pad to play on.
She was only just starting to figure out the games on the pad, when the door opened. She looked up. “Papa!” She dropped the pad and slammed into his legs. He picked her up, and she clung to him, squishing Tinmy between them. Tinmy didn’t mind. “Papa, the big house fell on Mama! She’s stuck!”
“Shh, shh, it’s okay,” Papa said, crying into her shoulder. “Mama’s okay. The Terrans got Mama out from under the big house.” He carried her to another room on the big, rumbly ship. This one had several beds, all filled with her neighbors, and there she was! And Trin and Tash! “Mama!”
She tried to wriggle out of Papa’s arms and run over to Mama, but he held her tight. “Easy, easy, now. Mama’s hurt. She’ll be okay, but we have to be careful, okay?”
“Okay,” she flicked her frill, and Papa gently set her down.
“There you are!” Mama said as Rell stepped over to her, reaching out a hand. She clutched it immediately, and her older brothers both wrapped her in a hug. “There’s my big girl.”
A door opened, and Ron walked up to them. “Everything okay over here, folks?” Their featherfrills waved as they all flicked them up. “Good. I’m going to have to ask all of you to step back in the room where Rell here was and take a seat. We’ve done all we can here, and have some critical patients, so we’re about to take off.”
Papa flicked his frill. “Alright, you heard him. Rell, show us the way.”
“Wait!” Mama said, reaching a hand out to Ron.
“Yes, ma’am?” he asked, stepping over to her.
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for saving my family. But … Why? Why are you here?”
“We’re the Terran Red Cross, ma’am. It’s what we do.”
***
Most species were happy enough to lend a helping hand to others, to render aid when needed, when it was easy. When the costs were low.
When help was needed, and the cost was high, even requiring the ultimate price …
“Are you recording this?!” Brahnin said, grabbing at her shoulder and trying to pull her away from the window. “Are you crazy?! We need to hide!”
Sekmet shrugged his arm off, flicking an ear at him in annoyance. “People need to know about this!” she said, peering out the window with her tablet. The stuttering pulse and low booms of weapons fire echoed through the city.
“Well, they won’t know anything if the Sacrin Guard finds us and kills us!” he said, grabbing her arms and pulling her back from the window. “We should never have come here in the first place!”
“Brah, let go!” she twisted out of her brother’s arms, wrinkling her snout at him, though she didn’t return to the window. “What the Imperialists are doing here is genocide! They’ve locked down all communications off-world, and if we weren’t here to see it, nobody would know!” She tapped her hand against his chest, her claws retracted. “Exposing these things to the light is why we became journalists in the first place!”
“Guys,” Reela said, her false mandibles clicking in agitation.
“We became journalists to expose corruption and abuse of power,” Branin said, batting her hand away. “Not to get teat-deep in a warzone!”
“Guys,” Reela said, again, but both eyshun ignored her.
“This is corruption and abuse of power! Of the worst kind! If Imperator-General Khazin isn’t stopped, he’ll kill millions!”
“GUYS!” Reela shouted. “The Sacrin Guard is here!”
Brahnin and Sekmet turned to her just as the dull thumpand clatter of an explosion burst through the front door of the building they were hiding in.
The Meduini family they were hiding with cried in fear, the mother, Yayah, clutching her younger pups in fear.
“We gotta go,” Trell said, grabbing his computer bag, his scaly frills raised in alarm. He was the editor of their team, and hauled his prized rig everywhere, allowing them to create full-production videos in the field.
“The courtyard, and the back door,” said Kaiyah. Yayah’s wife and the Matron of their pair, she was already ushering her family out of the room. Sekmet exchanged a worried glance with her brother, then shoved her tablet into a blouse pocket as they both hurried to follow.
Moving quietly, they snuck down the hall to the far stairs, hoping the soldiers wouldn’t hear them as they broke open doors and ransacked rooms, searching for any hidden Meduini.
They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Kaiyah was just opening the door to the courtyard when they heard shouting from outside. Kaiyah jumped back as the stuttering flashes of particle bolts ripped through the door. The pups screamed as Reela skittered forward to grab Kaiyah where she lay on the ground and drag her back towards the stairs.
The Matron was alive, but bleeding. Bleeding a lot.
A deafening roar filled the courtyard. Looking out one of the narrow windows, Sekmet saw eight pods drop in, braking hard on jets of fire just before hitting the ground. Doors exploded off the pods. Tall figures in armored suits charged out, weapons firing rapid, precise pulses of red-orange plasma.
More particle bolts from the Sacrin Guard stuttered out at them from another window across the yard. The armor-suited pod people responded with a thumping weapon that punched clean through the brick and stucco, then collapsed the entire wall in a deafening explosion that rattled her teeth and claws.
It all happened so fast, Sekmet barely had time to twitch an ear in shock.
“Clear front!” one of them called.
“Exit secured!” another shouted from the back door.
“Rogers, Mubashir, get the civilians,” another called. “Leif, Silva, Eckert, get across the street and start securing our egress route!”
The man’s orders were met with a series of “Aye, sir!” and the team executed their directions with swift, practiced efficiency. As the two sent their way approached the door, she finally realized what they were. What are humans doing here?!
“We’re coming in, we’re here to help,” one of them said as he pushed through the shattered remains of the door. Two rifles swept the hallway as they entered, then moved toward the huddled family and journalists.
“Shit,” one of them cursed, seeing Reela pressing her lower, more dexterous hands to Kaiyah’s bleeding side. “LT, we got wounded!”
“Are they mobile? Patch them up and get them up, or carry them. We don’t have much time.”
The human pulled a kit off the pack on his back and gently pushed Reela out of the way. “It’s okay,” he said. “Just a scratch.” There was a hiss of biofoam, a lot of biofoam, then he stretched a patch over the wound. “There, that will hold you together for now. Let’s get you up and see if you can walk.”
The other human started guiding Trell and Brahnin towards the courtyard, followed by Reela.
Armored boots crunched through the door. “Come on, Rogers, get the journalists on their feet, and let’s go. Overwatch has three more squads closing on our position.”
Rogers stood up, pulling Kaiyah to her feet. She stood, but hunched in pain, barely able to hobble on her own.
The other human, Mubashir, took Sekmet’s arm, guiding her past the other humans, when she realized what was happening. “Wait! No!” She pulled out of the human’s grip, moving back to Yayah and her pups. “We can’t leave them!”
“Ma’am, we don’t have clearance to interfere here,” the human commander said. “Our orders are to get you and your team out, that’s it.”
“If they don’t come with us, they’ll die!” Sekmet cried. “The Imperialists will murder them, or worse!”
“Ma’am, I don’t-“ he looked at Kaiyah, then the Yayah and the pups. “Fuck.” He turned to the first human. “Rogers, if she can’t move fast enough with help, carry her. Mubashir, you’ve got the wife and kids.”
“Aye, sir,” the human said, her voice higher than Rogers or the commander. Humans have dimorphic vocals, the females have the higher pitch, right? Yes.
The commander took Sekmet’s arm, and pushed her into the courtyard. “Sir?” one of the humans asked, eyeing the Meduini family as they joined the journalists.
“They’re coming with us,” he said, leaving no room for questions.
“Aye, sir,” was his only response.
“We’ve got our egress route,” the commander said, waving them to the back door. “Let’s move!”
Sekmet followed the humans out of the courtyard and into the street. They ducked down an alley, and across another street. Most of the humans stayed close, fanned out around them, though some ranged ahead or lagged behind.
“Who are you?” Sekmet asked the commander when they stopped to survey a crossroads at an open square.
“Lieutenant Hopkins, United Earth Stellar Navy,” he said, never taking his eyes off the street he was surveying. “We’re part of SEAL Team Twelve. Your embassy was trying to get you out, and we were in the area.” One of the other humans waved a hand signal from across the square. “We’re clear, let’s go!”
She moved out after him, crouching low as she scurried across the courtyard.
“CONTACT FRONT!” one of the humans shouted.
“Down!” Hopkins said, shoving Sekmet to the cobbled ground as particle and plasma bolts pulsed over her head.
“Clear!” another human called out as silence fell. She looked up, and saw three Guardsmen slumped in the doorway that was now sprayed with blood and gore, holes burned clean through their bodies, armor and all.
“Alright, get up, let’s keep moving,” Hopkins said. Sekmet scrabbled to her feet, helping Brahnin and Trell up as she moved forward.
“Contact rear!” Mubashir called, followed by the pulsing report of her plasma rifle as she spat fire back down the street they came from. Particle bolts snapped back up the street in return.
“Eckert, Silva, make us a path!” Hopkins ordered, pointing at the bloodied doorway. “Get off the street.
More plasma bolts cracked down the street, silencing the sporadic spray of particle weapons, but not for long. Sekmet rushed into the building, helping Yayah carry one of the pups, the young wahkyin shivering in fright as he clung to her.
She followed the humans through the building, down a hallway, through a wall they just crashed a hole through. She ran past another wahkyin family, huddled fearfully in their kitchen. Not Meduini, so they’re probably safe, was all the thought Sekmet had time to give them, before they were crossing another street and she was hopping over another set of broken doors. Another street, and another building, and Sekmet found herself jogging down a narrow alley, struggling to keep her breath.
“LT, we gotta stop,” Rogers called out. “I need to repack her wound.”
Hopkins looked over his shoulder at Rogers and Kaiyah, then back down the alley.
“This door’s open!” one of the humans called. “Inside’s clear!”
“That’s our exit, go!” Hopkins ordered without missing a beat. He ushered everyone through, then stepped through himself. “Yu, see if you can find anything to bar or wedge this door shut.”
“On it,” the human said, ripping off a piece of wood paneling from the wall to jam under the bottom of the door.
“Dead end over here,” one of the humans called from one end of the hallway.
“Hallway with rooms,” another called from the other end. “Possible exit.”
“Miles, Eckert, Leif, Silva, sweep and clear.”
“Aye, sir,” they replied, and all disappeared around the corner.
Moments later, Hopkins waved them down the hallway. “They’re clear.”
Kaiyah was carried into one of the rooms, and set down on a table. Rogers pulled out his medkit again, and repacked new foam into her wound. This time, he squirted a clear liquid around the edges before pressing a new bandage over top.
“Where are we going?” Sekmet asked, stepping over to where Hopkins stood in the hall.
“Large courtyard, big enough for our transport to fit, and give us cover while we load up.” He put an armored hand on her shoulder. She flinched at the contact, but tolerated it. “It’s only two blocks over. We’re almost there.”
“Ready to go, sir,” Rogers said, stepping out of the room.
He nodded. “Good. We’re almost there, people,” he said, raising his voice. “Let’s move!”
Sekmet helped Yayah with the pups again as Rogers carried Kaiyah. I still don’t know their names, she thought, as she hugged the frightened child to her chest.
The rest of their journey was tense, but uneventful. They seemed to have evaded their pursuers.
The courtyard was part of an old, stone manor. One of the minor castles that had been built when the wahkyin were still in the iron age, and the sprawling city was ruled by independent lords and merchant princes. The ancient keep still stood, overlooking the courtyard. Still sporting its flat, battlemented roof.
The doors were locked, but not barred, and a few well-placed shots from one of the human’s plasma rifles ruined the latch. The armored humans pushed the great doors open with ease, and when everyone was through, they shut them and dropped the heavy bars in place.
Sekmet felt a weight of relief lifting from her shoulders as she followed the others into the courtyard. The humans kept them against the inner walls, but moved them away from the entrance. “Yu, Miles, guard the door. Our ride is inbound, but Overwatch is tracking half a battalion headed our way.”
Sekmet looked up, and saw it. A tiny dot that was rapidly growing larger, resolving into the sharp lines of an armored gunship, plummeting straight for them. They’re moving fast … REALLY fast …
As she clenched her shoulders in anticipation of the impact, a sudden roar filled the courtyard and the speeding shuttle came to a sudden stop just meters above the walls with a deceleration that could only be afforded by inertial dampers.
Her ears sagged in relief, and she smiled up at their salvation, just in time to see two streaks slam into its shields before she was blinded by the actinic glare and heat of an explosion too loud for her to hear. Debris rained around them, and her vision cleared just as the shattered hulk of the gunship crashed to the ground in front of them.
“Holy fuck!” one of the humans shouted.
“Silva, Eckert, check for survivors!” Hopkins shouted
“LT, those were microfusion warheads!” Leif said. “They’re not supposed to fucking have those!”
“Well, obviously, they do! Keep it together!” He turned to the burning wreckage of the gunship, where Silva and Eckert were pulling out bodies. Two were obviously dead, but a third was moving, despite being severely burned.
Sekmet sank to her knees, clutching the pup to her chest. She heard Yayah crying.
“Alright, new plan!” Hopkins said. “The Murphy’s on her way down for a direct pick-up!”
“What?!” Mubashir said.
“Everyone inside! Up to the roof!” He looked at Mubashir as Rogers picked Kaiyah back up. Sekmet swung an ear around to listen to his low words as she walked by. “We’ve got to hold out for twenty minutes until she can deorbit and get down to pick us up.” He paused. “If they don’t think they can kill us with infantry, they’ll level this place with artillery.”
Twenty minutes!? Every Guardsman in the city has to be heading our way!
“Aye, sir,” she said, waving Yayah and the kids towards the keep. She started pulling things out of her pack that looked a lot like explosives.
Rogers took her hand as he passed by, pulling her along, and she soon found herself pushed up several narrow passageways and old, spiral staircases, until she found herself on the roof, sheltering under a stone hutch with the others. The two bodies were laid nearby, and the sole survivor of the gunship was handed a snub-nosed carbine and propped up nearby.
“Now you just wait right here,” Rogers said, booping the nose of each pup. “The ol’ Michael Murphy’ll be down to pick us up in a jiffy.” He picked up his rifle and disappeared back down into the keep. Two of the SEALS took up position along the battlements and began firing on Guardsmen below.
An explosion rumbled over the battlements, followed by a plume of dust and smoke at the far end of the courtyard.
Particle bolts began to zip back up from below, but did little more than take chips out of the thick, old stone.
Another explosion thumped below, this one throwing dust and smoke up the wall of the keep. The staccato pulse of rapid-fire plasma weapons echoed up the stairs.
More particle fire snapped and cracked into the crenelations, forcing the humans down. One of them pulled a grenade off his chest and dropped it over the wall, catching a particle bolt to the hand in return. Sekmet wasn’t sure which human it was, but the loudly-cursing voice sounded female.
Three explosions in rapid succession shuddered the keep below, and the distant plasma fire became a little louder.
Two of the humans came up the stairs, hauling one of their comrades. His armor was riddled with holes and dripping blood. They set fallen SEAL down next to the hutch and sprinted back below. Sekmet recognized the writing stenciled on his chest plate. It was Rogers. He didn’t move.
Another explosion thumped below them, followed by rapid exchanges of particle and plasma fire.
Two more grenades were lobbed over the battlements, then one of the SEALS peaked over the wall before leaping away. “RPG!”
Something thumped into the wall, shattering stone and tossing both humans across the roof. Sekmet’s ears rung, and she felt something trickle down her cheek. Reaching up, she found a cut, just below her right eye.
The pups huddled against their mothers, while Reela and Brahnin shielded them with their bodies. Trell stared down in shock at the shattered case he held clutched to his chest, and the shrapnel that nearly ended his life.
The female human coughed, pushing herself to her feet despite her bad hand. “Miles!” she shouted, scrabbling over to her fallen comrade. His armor was crumpled, torn, and leaking blood, but he was apparently still alive. Grunting in pain, she dragged him over next to the gunship pilot. Propping him up, she handed him the rifle she had picked up along the way.
“You two still alive up here?” Hopkins asked, dragging another armored body up the stairwell.
“Yes, sir!” the woman replied, and Sekmet finally placed her voice as the one called Yu. Miles just held up a fist, thumb pointed in the air.
“They’ve already packed inside, and shooting at them from up here is just drawing fire. We need more boots down below.”
“Aye, sir,” she said, dropping the emptied biofoam dispenser next to Miles and picking up her rifle.
“Ten more minutes,” Hopkins said, before they both disappeared down the stairs.
The pulse and crackle was distinct, now, barely muffled. Another series of explosions shook the keep, and the gunfire got even louder.
The rumble of engines echoed across the city. Sekmet looked up, searching the sky for their salvation.
“Shit,” Miles cursed, pushing them all further into the already-cramped hutch as a particle beam scythed across the roof.
The human gunship pilot grunted and began dragging himself away.
An Imperial gunship rumbled over them, slowing to a hover and drifting slightly as it spun to face them. Sekmet saw the pilot and gunner clearly as the gunship’s chin-mounted particle lance swung towards them, rocket pods extended and ready.
Sekmet’s ears sagged as she stared her death in the eyes through a transparent canopy.
A rapid stream of plasma bolts so fast it was nearly a continuous beam peppered the side of the gunship, tracking up to the cockpit. The human pilot screamed as he emptied his weapon into the wahkyin gunship, but the small carbine wasn’t strong enough to penetrate the gunship’s armor, though it filled the gunner’s portside canopy plate with so many dimples that he couldn’t see through it.
The gunship turned. The particle lance swiveled. The beam stabbed across the roof, shattering rock and cutting the human pilot in half.
Miles reacted with incredible speed, falling over as he grabbed a long tube from his back and swung it to his shoulder. With a hollow thump, something spat out the end. The rocket barely had enough distance to light its motor before it slammed into one of the gunship’s engine pods.
The explosion shattered the gunship, ripping the starboard engine pod clean off and shredding half of the port engine. It shuddered, then dropped below the battlements, only to throw up a column of fire taller than the keep when it hit the ground and exploded.
The gunfire below had tapered off. It was slower now, less frequent, but more often punctuated by smaller explosions.
Yu crawled back up the stairs, her armor pocked and scorched. She pulled herself along with her hands. The way her right leg dragged along behind her, the armor mangled and torn, Sekmet wasn’t entirely sure it was still attached.
“Still alive, Miles?” she asked. He gave her another raised thumb. “Good. Murphy’s in atmo now, two minutes out.” She waved at the far wall. “LT says stay away from that half of the roof.” She rolled over onto her back, rifle pointing back at the stairwell, just as two Guardsmen came sprinting up. Three pulses later, and two corpses were falling back down the stairs.
“LT and Eckert are still holding the main stairwell, but there’s a back way, bunch of ‘em got around behind us.” She fired another burst into a head that poked up the stairwell, turning it into pink mist, then pulled her last grenade off her chest and tossed it down the stairs. Shouts echoed back up, followed by an explosion.
More plasma fire echoed down below, then Yu pushed herself up. “It’s been an honor, sir.” She fired another pulse down the stairs, then the whole keep heaved as sound stopped. Half the roof lifted up, then collapsed as the entire front quarter of the keep blew out. Smoke and dust geysered up the stairwell. Sekmet stared in shock, her ears ringing, chocking on the column of dust that towered into the air.
“You still alive, Miles?” Yu asked. It took a moment, but as the smoke cleared, Sekmet could see his raised thumb.
Yu pushed herself backwards, towards the hutch. “What about you guys? Everyone still alive?”
“Ye- Yeah,” Sekmet said, as she looked at the nodding faces around her. “I think so.”
“Good,” she said, painting as she leaned herself up against the corner of the hutch, where the pilot had sat. “Because we’re- Shit.”
Sekmet turned to follow her gaze. Two more gunships were screaming up, their engine pods swiveling as they slowed to a hover, rocket pods open. Yu reached for the tube on her back, but she never got the chance to grab it.
Red-orange beams of superheated plasma lanced straight through each gunship, lighting off fuel and weapons stores and turning them both into giant balls of fire.
A deep roar filled the air, rumbling so loud it vibrated her lungs. Sekmet looked up as an actual ship loomed over them. It has to be a hundred meters long! Resembling a flattened, hexagonal brick, this human ship was sleek and sharp. There wasn’t a single right angle to be found anywhere.
Small turrets on its belly spat streams of death at the ground around them as the ship pivoted on narrow, blue-white jets of fire. A ramp extended from its side as it lowered to the level of the keep in a mindboggling display of precise maneuvering. Several armored troops ran out, carrying guns and stretchers.
Two more streaks slammed into the far side of the ship with a familiar, actinic flare, but its shields simply shrugged off the impact like so much rain.
Something popped out of the top of the ship with a loud thump, then rocketed away on a column of fire. She followed its path to the bright flare of detonation miles distant. The boom of the explosion came several seconds later, loud despite the distance.
A human appeared in front of her, lightly touching her shoulder. “Are you alright, ma’am?”
“Y-Yes,” she said, flicking her ears in the affirmative, too dazed to recognize the contact.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes. Yes, I can.”
“Then let’s go, ma’am, we need to get you out of here!” The human held out a hand and pulled her to her feet. She saw Miles loaded being carried up the ramp on a stretcher. He gave her a raised thumb. She returned the gesture.
“Let’s go! We’ve officially worn out our welcome!” another human shouted, waving at them from up the ramp. Two of the larger turrets on the top of the ship around and spat out several plasma beams at something too distant for her to see, nearly stunning her again with the thundercrack of superheated air.
She picked up one of the pups and ran up the ramp with Yayah and her friends, everyone carrying a child.
Once they were all inside, the world outside tilted and spun, even before the ramp had fully lifted and the doors closed. She caught a glimpse of the courtyard, and the gunship wreckage, half-buried in rubble, before it was obliterated by several beams of plasma.
She set the pup down, who licked her cheek before running back to her mothers, and took a moment to slump against the wall and slide to the ground. Brahnin joined her a moment later, along with Reela and Trell. Brahnin took her hand, and she squeezed it back. He looked over at her, then did a double-take as his ear twitched. “Hey, your tablet.”
“Huh?” she said, looking down and pulling it out of her pocket. It’s still recording …
***
When all hope had been lost.
When doom and disaster were certain.
They came for us.
And in their darkest hour …
When the Klash’kna Swarm awoke and surged through Terran space, the Terran fleets were caught off-guard and out of position. With surprise and overwhelming numbers, the Swarm overran defenses, consuming whole colonies in a swath that cut straight to Sol before their fleets even had time to react …
“The Seventh and Fifth Fleets are at full alert, and the Fourteenth Fleet just arrived.” Vice Admiral Carlson said. “System defenses are online, and the Citizen Militia is mustering every half-spaceworthy box that can mount a thruster and a gun.”
Fleet Admiral Mason, Commander, UESN, stared at the master holo display, and the wall of red blips creeping into the edge of the system. “Will it be enough?”
“No, sir.” Carlson looked at her tablet again, on the off chance a miracle might have happened since she last looked at them. “Second Fleet will be here in nine hours. Third, Eighth, and Sixteenth will be here in three days. Everything else is a week or more away.” She sighed. “If we had three more fleets we could beat them back. Even with just two more, we could hold them.” She looked back up. “But the swarm will be here in two hours.”
“What about the evacuation?”
“Civilian evacuation is well underway, sir,” She glanced at the numbers on her tablet again, gambling on another miracle. “There aren’t enough ships, not nearly enough, but we’ll buy them as much time as we can.”
“Fleet Admiral, sir, three Sh’awni pilot ships just jumped into the system at the Luna perimeter,” one of the technicians reported, adjusting the master display to zoom in on their location.
Mason glanced up at them, then sighed. “Captain Grayson, warn them away. Tell them the Swarm is here, and to get out while they can.” He paused. “But tell them we would appreciate it if they could spare the time to take on a few refugees.”
Grayson, his communications aide, nodded and turned to carry out the order. He barely got three steps.
“JUMP BREACH!” another technician shouted. “Massivejump breach!”
A dense cluster of blips appeared on the holo display, followed by another, and another, and another.
“Sir, we’re receiving multiple open broadcasts from the new ships,” Grayson said.
“Put them on speaker,” Mason ordered.
“This is Fleet Executor Cahni Tre’tlun of the Sh’awni Starguard First Fleet. We are here to honor our defense treaty. All fleets, report in.”
“This is Admiral Kolgrah of the Wahkyin Republic Navy. All squadrons primed and standing by.”
“All Imperial Armadas at full alert. Glorious day!”
“Fleet Commander Preytesh of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy, commanding First, Second, and Third Battlegroups, manned and ready.”
“Starlord Amdoli guiding the Concordat Starfleets. Every ship. No sacrifice is forgotten.”
“Fleet Queen Gui’d’ktchkln commanding all Sisters of the Sky. The Hive remembers.”
“Grand Admiral Gallish Trell, Son of Trell. Allied Defense Task Force 42 formed and ready.”
Dozens of fleet commanders reported in, leading tens of thousands of ships. The largest allied fleet in recorded history. Mason stared in awe at the sight before him, until the final report made him smile, remembering the words of the first Commander, UESN, before the title had been created.
“This is Grand Commandant Shulza Medjas of the Kilean Defense Force. Are we too late to join the party?”
***
In our darkest hours, they came for us.
And in their darkest hour, we came for them.
Comments
Patrick
Who let the onion ninjas out of their cages?
ImezRuez2
Last three lines made me tear up.
