Chapter Seventy-Four

TOP SECRET - NOFORCON - NOXENOCON

SIGMA (BLUE LEMUR) // 50 // CONFED

Kteshaka'an was an Unified Outer Rims system halfway between the Great Gulf and the Unified Inner Systems, firmly in the Unified Out Rim. It was an agricultural system with moderate resource extraction. Three planets firmly in the green zone providing food for nearly 200 systems, the great gas refineries and the asteroid extraction and smelting facilities providing raw materials to the great factory worlds of the Inner Systems. For two thousand years the lemur who evolved on the middle planet of the Green Zone had been pacified. The birthrate had been controlled through genetic engineering, their numbers diminished to sustainable levels so that after their system resources were collected the species would still survive according to the Unified Science Council.

The Lanaktallan had ensure that the species would be a net contributor to the galactic system rather than net consumers and for 2,000 years had carefully nurtured the system so they could harvest the fruit of the largess of the system.

Then the Precursors had came. The Lanaktallan had fled the system or entered shelters to protect them until the Precursor machines left.

Even worse, the humans had arrived right after.

The Lanaktallan had watched from their shelters and from their ships as the Terrans arrived, clashed with the Precursors with a fleet that kept arriving during the battle, getting larger and larger as time went by, and refused to withdraw even after taking more than 10% casualties.

Finally the Terrans drove out the Precursors and began landing on the planet. Massive dropships that disgorged robotic soldiers, Terrans in heavy armor, tanks, artillery, air defense, and many other craft and personnel.

Ustelet was a Hakanian, one of the small people who had managed to evolve on the middle planet of the three in the Green Zone. He had been raised to care for the Overseer's gardens outside of their luxury apartment. When he was done tending the garden, he received his rations for the day and was allowed to return to the burrows that the Overseers allowed them.

He had watched the Overseers enter their shelter, stood there in the garden and watched as the doors closed and the tube had retracted into the ground with a hum. For a long time he didn't know what to do, so he went through the manor and cared for the plants.

When darkness came he went back to his burrow. There he heard others repeating the same thing. Many were worried, no ration coupons had been given out and the dispensers would not give any food without the coupons.

Ustelet and his warren-mates had huddled together, worrying about the lack of food.

The next day the houses were still empty. Ustelet wandered around, caring for the plants, then went and stood in front of the computer terminal that was supposed to give him a ration coupon. It was dark, silent, even when he risked touching it a few times.

He and the rest of his warren-mates went to bed hungry.

The next morning Ustelet had been walking to his place of employment. The shuttles had shut down, just sitting in the street, when he had spotted something new.

A group of Hakanian females, all walking down the street, holding infants, leading children, looking around with wide eyes. Ustelet had run forward, stopping and looking at the female. She had stared at him, fascinated by the way he looked.

She was a house servant by the name of Elleft. She and other female house servants had heard crying and investigated. They found infant and child Hakanians in a building and had rescued them. Then they had started walking, looking to see if anyone had food.

In desperation Ustelet had opened an Overseer food box, handing out the food to the females. He waited for an Overseer to rush up and chastise him, maybe even hurt him, for opening the box, but nothing happened.

That night, many of the Hakanians did not return to their warrens. Instead, they sat out in the green places, where there were trees, bushes, plants, and pools of water, and watched the bright flashes in the sky. They oohed and ahhed over the flashes, the streaks, the patterns in the sky.

The next morning they began to leave the cities, streaming out into the fields and farms and great sculpted parks. They ate what they could, drank from they could, as they left the cities.

Ustelet stayed in the city. He painted arrows to where food plants were, to where water was, and wandered the empty streets.

On his travels he found a display screen. On it he managed to puzzle out the meaning of the pictures. The pictures were asking if he needed help. If any of the Hakanians needed help.

He pressed the icon that he needed help.

The icons asked if someone could come in to help him.

Looking around the empty street, where litter was blowing around despite his attempts to pick it up, he wondered why someone would ask that.

He pressed yes and forgot about it.

Two more days, searching the city during the day and watching the flashes in the skies at night, and he met a creature.

It was big, black, made of some kind of metal that was dark it almost hurt his eyes, that seemed as if it should gleam but did not. It was bipedal like him, only it stood straight up and was huge compared to him.

It had glowing blue eyes.

It knelt down, and using Overseer speech, asked if he needed help.

Ustelet answered that he was looking for lost females and immature Hakanians.

The big one promised to help, then began to follow him around the city. Ustelet saw other bipeds, some as big as the one that followed him with thudding footsteps and the faint sound of humming, others smaller but harder to see, as if their clothing was blurring into the background.

Twice he encountered females holding children being loaded into vehicles.

He worried, until he was allowed to accompany the vehicle. The vehicle, driven by two of the smaller bipeds, took the females and the little ones to the farms outside the cities. There he saw the smaller bipeds, with the larger ones standing around, handing out food, blankets, water, toys, and in some cases even helping out by giving females and little ones medical care.

Ustelet went back to the city, helping the search.

On the fifth night, the flashes, began a crescendo and then slowly stopped right before dawn.

That day he still searched, eating when he could, drinking for the stale tepid water when he found it, but found nobody. He headed toward where the ships came from the sky and looked around.

He had always been curious about it, but had never been allowed near it.

There were no Overseers to chase him away.

He sat on some boxes and stared at all the wondrous things. He slept inside a mass transit vehicle, for Overseers not for Hakanians, then got up to wander about the massive building. He found abandoned luggage, rotting food, and litter scattered everywhere.

A roar got his attention and he ran to the window to see what it was, his natural curiosity getting the better of him.

Ships started landing. The Overseers began to return. Tubes of metal raised up out of the ground, doors opening, and Overseers came out. The tubes rose again and again, more and more Overseers coming out.

He ran out to the big black biped, who's eyes were still glowing blue, standing next to it and watching as the tubes came up and the Overseers exited the tubes.

"They left you here to die," the big black biped rumbled in Overspeech.

"They went away," Ustelet replied, half agreeing.

Ustelet saw his own Overseer and the family leave a tube. The female trotted over, reaching down and grabbing Ustelet's ear.

"Why are you not tending my garden, slave?" Madame Overseer harrumphed. "You will docked ration coupons for every wilted leaf."

"Release him," the big biped ordered, stepping in between them.

The Madame Overseer gave a blubbering exhale of shock, clopping backwards. She motioned to the nearby Security and Social Police. Four of them came trotting over, three holding sting-sticks, the fourth holding a thing that Ustelet had never seen.

"This, this... creature, interfered with my discipline of my slave," Madame Overseer harrumphed. "Teach it a lesson."

"This system is under Terran Confederacy Martial Law," the biped said, the words vibrating Ustelet's fur.

"Kneel down and put your gripping hands behind your head," an Socio-Police Overseer stated, galloping nervously around the big figure. "Or be prepared to be negatively stimulated."

"An assault upon one is an assault upon all," the big biped rumbled. "There is no need for violence."

The Overseers jabbed the big biped with the sting-sticks. Ustelet closed his eyes, not wanting to see the big biped fall down and foam at the mouth. He wished he didn't have to hear the scream.

"This is a violation of Terran Confederacy Martial Law Statues," the biped rumbled.

Ustelet heard more sting-sticks go off.

"You are assaulting a member of the Confederate Marine Corps, a duly recognized and bonded authority during this period of Martial Law," the biped said.

Ustelet opened his eyes just as the Socio-Police Overseer with the strange thing lifted the long object to its shoulder and pointed it at the big black biped.

More Overseer Socio-Police had shown up. Ustelet could even see LawSec and CorpSec surrounding the biped, that had moved away from Ustelet, who was now forgotten.

"Do not," the biped started.

The long thing the Overseer was holding gave a loud crack and a line connected the biped with the object for an eye-watering second.

The biped still stood there, a light smear on its chest. "First violation. Transmitting to Command and JAG," it stated.

Several of the Socio-Police and LawSec drew their weapons.

Ustelet had seen the SocioPolice and Corpsec use those weapons to kill unlucky Hakanians who had been accused of violations of the Social Order Policy. He winced, but watched, as he had forced himself to watch the executions.

More of the bipeds were showing up, only to be immediately surroudned by the Overseers with weapons drawn.

"This area is under Confederate Martial Law. Set down your weapons and raise your hands," one of the smaller bipeds stated. Ustelet saw he had a sword in a sheathe on his hip that was longer than Ustelet was tall.

One of the LawSec sneered and spit cud on the ground at the bipeds feet. "This is corporate property. We do not recognize your authority."

Another LawSec, with a much more ornate sash, pointed at the smaller biped. "Execute this fool as a lesson to his compatriots."

A LawSec turned and fired, hitting the biped in the chest. The biped looked down at the impact point, which had not even marred his strange clothing that kept changing colors.

"SECOND VIOLATION!" all of the bigger ones intoned.

Ustelet saw the big black biped's eyes all go from blue to green. Ports opened on their backs and large tubes rose out of their backs, connected to their bodies by chains of smaller tubes.

"You don't want to do this," the smaller biped said. "You can still stand down."

The LawSec Overseer with all the flashy stuff on his sash clopped forward, pressed his pistol against the biped's exposed forehead, beneath the short black hair but above the mechanical eyes.

And pulled the trigger.

The biped's head didn't move and when the LawSec Overseer drew back the smoking pistol all that showed was a purple mark that faded to red and vanished between one breath and the next.

"THIRD VIOLATION!" all of the big ones stated. "COMMAND AND JAG JUSTIFICATION REACHED!"

Their eyes went to amber, the same as the small bipeds, all the mechanical eyes turning color at the same time.

Ustelet watched as swords were pulled out. Not clean edged metal but ones with edges that roared and blurred and rattled.

The biped that had been shot in the head pulled his out, the blade going from choppy looking to a blurry roar, and swung it at the Overseer, hitting the centuar-like creature at the base of the upper torso.

Blood sprayed as the sword howled, tissue gobbets sprayed across the street, bone and cartilage was ripped apart, and the sword tore free. The Overseer didn't even scream, just fell into two pieces, its mouth working.

All around Ustelet the bipeds set to work with swords.

Two of the larger ones turned and faced vehicles, the tubes on their back suddenly vomiting flame as a loud BRRRRRRRRT sounded and what looked like a solid beam of light connected the biped to a LawSec vehicle.

The LawSec vehicle suddenly exploded as it was ripped lengthwise down the side.

Ustelet dove to the ground, covering his head. Loud thudding footsteps sounded and a black armored foot was on either side of him. Ustelet looked up just in time to see the big black biped rip the Madame Overseer down the torso with the sword, flesh and blood spraying from the rapidly moving teeth on the edge of the blade.

Overseers were screaming, pushing to get away, trampling at each other. SOme were shooting around themselves with pistols, forgetting their LawSec and CorpSec training as they tried to keep the crowd from knocking them over.

A shot hit one of the smaller bipeds.

The big one standing over Ustelet turned and the tubes over his shoulder roared again.

BRRRRRRT!

The crowd just... dissolved as the twin beams of light swept across it. The Overseers, those nigh-on gods to Ustelet and his people, exploded into rags of bloody flesh.

In a few moments it was over, the street cleared of Overseers.

"Are you all right, Colonel?" one of the smaller ones asked the one who had been shot in the head.

"Yes. Drop the Marines. I want this place locked down. Eject the Lanaktallans. We'll sweep the system, make sure they're all gone, and turn the place over to the natives," 'Colonel' said. He walked over to the huddled Ustelet.

"I'm not going to hurt you. None of us are," the 'Colonel' said. He knelt down, holding out his hand. Ustelet took it carefully and was surprised that he was gently helped to his feet.

"We are the Terran Confederacy," he said. "How may we help?

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