Taken from Conquest of Capricia: Part IV - Leveller of Empires:

8 years ago...Kail Ranges


Kraken’s confident look seemed to sour a little…

“…nevermind, we can take whatever they can throw at us, troops no matter how well trained are no match for us in here…this fortress was designed to withstand a siege for years…”

The commander slapped the huge Durasteel, thick wall as he talked, almost as if to half-reassure and convince himself.

…it might be as old as the hills…but it was made to last…

“…we just have to sit tight and wait for reinforcements…”

Nodding to himself, he picked up his small cup of Caff, and took a sip.

In the very low levels of the fortress, similar to a bunker complex, he could still hear the low distant sounding explosions of many Vinda-Corp fighter squadrons bombarding the Stronghold from the air. As they reverbed a little, and did little to damage the complex, the Commander smiled a satisfied smile, for he knew the shield would hold.
 


 
An Age or two past...
 
Ardeni watched the skies as the fires were beginning to die down. The cycle of Ages had ended with the death toll in the hundreds of thousands. He clasped his hands behind his back as the shadows of fighter craft were cast from overhead. Always in a constant state of vigilance they were. They had to be.
 
"Sovereign?" came a voice that Ardeni knew to be his future wife. An arranged marriage that he had accepted as a necessary sacrifice to enlist the aid of her father's clan.

It was almost a tribute to the failing traditions of their world for he realized soon enough that even their tentative grip on their own legends would soon slip.

Perhaps even the clans themselves will be forgotten.

["Sovereign?" came the shy voice once more and Ardeni sighed, turning to view a bride that was as unappealing as one might expect from arranged marriages. The stories always spoke of such institutions as bringers of bliss, joy and everything inbetween.
 
And the stories always, always!, told of brides being beautiful

And here his bride-to-be put to lie all the stories.

Could he really bring himself to love such an ugly creature? Part of him felt revulsion at his superficial thoughts, a revolt from the accepting manner in which he was raised, and yet another part of his mind put justifications to his revulsion.
 
Whoever said 'beauty was skin deep' had never set eyes upon this creature before him.

“Sovereign?" came the voice that began to grate at his nerves. Nevermind that he was right there in plain sight! She would continue to drone until he answered as if she were a droid with a faulty speech box.

His mind, in the search for justification, grabbed at these thoughts like a man thirsting for water in the middle of a desert. He could learn to live with an unattractive woman provided the woman had a mind of her own and a brain!

Not only had he agreed to a union with an ugly woman but a fool at that!

"Yes Hessa?" he responded without enthusiasm.

"May I approach?"

He mentally sighed. "Of course, Hessa. You are to be my wife. My lands are your lands. My property is your property. Treat this home as your own."He spoke without looking at her, content to view the fires on the horizon. The last of the damage burning itself out.

Sovereign, I could never roam your magnificent home without your leave." she shyly chided and took a few tentative light steps towards him, still seemingly unsure. Her reasons why were lost to him as their marriage was already complete save ceremony.

“As you wish," he sighed again. He yearned for the agile legs of Serenia knowing that they would soon be falling into bed come twilight.

Not soon enough!

"Sovereign, is the evil banished forever?"
 
Ardeni turned his head arching an eyebrow. This was the first question she had uttered since her droning to capture his attention? This?

"Hessa, my dear," she positively glowed at his endearment causing him to hold in another sigh, "How long since the last scourge of evil?"

Her eyes widened as she whispered the ancient chant in her head. "Oh Sovereign! At least a hundred years ago."

"And the time before?" he asked dryly.

"Oh.. Sovereign? Oh! Another hundred years!" she squealed with delight at finding the answer to the second question. Ardeni began to grind his teeth.

"According to prophecy, First comes the Scourge. Then comes the Iron. And Last comes the Force." He paused, "And you know what comes next."

"For centuries we've endured the Scourge but it has never ever won. By stopping the Scourge, we stop the Iron from forming. We halt the Force that is to come and we stave off a bleak future." he paused, seriously. "But the Scourge comes every one hundred years."

"But Sovereign. You destroyed them! Before, we could only stop evil's advance on our fair world but you stopped them cold. You destroyed them!"

The blind adoration in her eyes almost softened his view of her. Almost. At least until she opened her mouth again.

"Surely, they'll never come back!"

"Hessa, the Scourge always comes. Always. Every hundred years."

He saw her eyes widen in fright, as if they might befall their world at that very hour.
 
"But perhaps that may change."

Her eyes smiled. "I knew you would not let evil live." Then her smile faltered. "But..?"

Before her question escaped he put his hands on her shoulders. "Hessa, we have achieved star travel. We have figured out where this Scourge originates from. I will lead our people to the very lair of evil and rip it's heart out! Before their Iron forges, before their Force is mustered! We shall smash evil once and for all and we shall experience a Scourge no more!"

Hessa giggled with delight.

"Now go, beloved wife. I've much to prepare for and would not want to be tired for our first night together."

The bride to be blushed at his comment but bowed and quickly stepped away lost in her fantasies and dreams.

Ardeni turned back to the fires, hoping his disgust would fade.



"The things we do for country." came an amused voice behind him and Ardeni's face flushed with pleasure and annoyance at the same time.

"Serenia, what are you doing here? If she.."

"Calm, Sovereign." the uniformed woman stepped out onto the balcony without so much as a 'by your leave'. When she stopped, her face was mere inches from his, her breath hot against his skin. "How can you stand the thought of bedding that thing?" she hissed.

"With luck, I won't have too." Ardeni whispered pulling away from her intoxicating presence. "I will have the poor woman drugged and pay a street urchin for the honor."

"And if she's becomes pregnant?" the uniformed woman warned hotly. "Not only will your wife be untouchable, she'll have a low-born child ..."

Ardeni smiled, putting a finger to her lips. "I have already paid to have an accident befall my beloved wife while we are on campaign. There will be no child. There will be no wife."

"And then?" Serenia's eyes watched his just as hungrily as he hers.

"Then, my wonderful, beautiful Serenia. Then I shall have to follow my heart and obtain a new Sovereigness."

A smile crept across Serenia's features as she licked her lips in anticipation of the night's activities.





...There is not much in the olden account. On the Blood Month, Sovereign Ardeni did leave with his fleet to a location known only to his strategy planners at the time as 'the Source' (of evil or the Scourge). While there are numerous accounts of the Scourge striking Kail every one hundred years, the exact nature of this Scourge remains unknown. Later historians felt that the Scourge referred too a mutating disease which carried a hibernation period of a century. This is the most prevalent and popular theory for those who even think to look this far back into the antiquity of the planet Kail.
 
The only contradiction to this popular theory is the Campaign of the Sovereign Ardeni. A fleet of ten ships of the line left Kail never to return. It is thought that this being one of the first instances of star travel by the people of Kail, the fleet suffered the malfunctions and hazards typical of early space flight.
 
But it is not so much the Campaign itself that is the contradiction but it's result. For the Sovereigness left behind was so distraught with the loss of her husband to this Scourge that she ordered the treasury emptied to build the largest fortification the likes of which Kail has never seen down through the Ages.
 
It was built at the edge of the last Scourge 'marking' during the Blood Month and throughout the reign of Sovereigness Hessa the fortification construction continued forward and was not completed until near the end of the reign of her son, Theo, by Ardeni. This fortification was called the Kail Ranges.
 
If one were to look upon a certain wall within the structure of the Kail Ranges, one would see the following inscription:






For Ardeni, my Love.
This stands upon the mark
of where you once stopped evil's advance.
The Scourge of Evil shall range no farther.
with Infinite Vigilance.
 
For first comes the Scourge,
second comes the Iron,
then will come the Force,
and then, at long last, evil's Domain shall awaken.
 

Orvan gripped the rails in fevered anticipation. The time of prophecy had come at long last. And end to the Blood Month and the rising of the Scourge.

The great metal hall before him clattered with a great chattering of clicks. As if carapace rubbed against carapace in similiar emotion. The sound was intoxicating.

As he tightened his grip on the rail, he noted several priests moving down the rows and rows of bodies in some sort of frozen animated state.

The Chosen.


The Chariots!


Orvan noted the sounds becoming louder the closer a priest stepped towards a person interred in the cryo-chambers.

"A-54325!" the priest shouted up towards Orvan and he moved over to a control panel. Being stationed on a walk that extended the entire hall gave him a view of the awesome scope and vision his forefathers had laid down.

His fingers flew across several controls and the glass cover over the interred body near the priest slowly lifted. Cold smoke began to move over the rim of the containment box as the priest lowered his head to the bare body.

The stillness of the body reminded Orvan of a serene statue.

The clattering grew in frequency and volume.


The priest moved his hands to and fro over the abdomen area of the body.
"Magnificent," he whispered.

He attached a silver, metallic scoop to the end of his right hand and, after saying a prayer, inserted the tool into the abdomen.


The clattering stopped.


Orvan could not see the priest extracting his hand but he did see something small moving out of the body.



"First Comes the Scourge!" the priest, waving his bloodied tool into the air.


Orvan dutifully turned out the lights allowing the priest to commune in private with the arisen Scourge.


"We are whole once more." he whispered.

"So the union of souls is complete," came the voice of the First. It was not a question but a statement of realization that the cycle of renewal has come to pass.

The holy chariots have carried their charges to the end and now that the task is complete, the Scourge stands upon the threshold of rebirth. Taking what they have from the sacrifices of the Iron, the Scourge has once more entered the dominant phase of their ecology.

First must come the Scourge.

Having feasted on the Iron, as the Scourge pass through the cycle, so too the Iron must subjugate and convert thus replenishing their numbers. And once their cycle passes, the Force sets up the killing fields for the next cycle.

A balance of a brutal life.

A life where three sentient species all clamor for dominance but rather than the mutual pursuit of self destruction, they found a way to existing in a rather symbiotic manner.


The Second directed her gaze to the other. "There is a new power to be dealt with. A Commonwealth has moved into the area dissolving the old bonds of CSA."


The First closed his eyes. "Vinda." The name was said without malice and yet, with an emotion that conveyed purposeful action. "It is of no consequence. No manner of enemy can stop our emerging."


"The Scourge will be set loose upon Kail." the woman continued, as if to her self.


The First brushed the long hair at his side as if the very mention of the name harkened back to something familiar.

"Kail."


"This Commonwealth will fall." entered a voice of a Third, yet unseen. "And with it the dreams of it's followers."



"First comes the Scourge.." the Second intoned with great piety.


"Second comes the Iron," the First reminded.


"And then comes.... us." the Third stated gravely.

When I wake up in the morning, my first priority is my eyes. Oftentimes I find them dry and irritated. Though natural tears are the best ocular cleanser, distilled water is effective if I am too tired to summon the tears that I require.

With clear eyes, I turn to the shower. There are few better ways to wake the body and shock all its senses from a dreary, sleepy state then a concentrated flow of cold water. I use a homebrew body cleanser with substances tailored to my unique lifestyle; I sometimes find it necessary to wipe blood stains out of my skin, so I add appropriate solutes to a standard industrial soap. The results are satisfactory.

It is usually during my morning shower that I am first reminded of my mechanical arm. The bleating of the water against the surface of the metal produces a tactile reaction that while not altogether dissimilar, is still noticeably different then the feel I have retained in my human arm. I generally take the time to look at it and ponder it, as if it were a symbol of me, something from which I could draw a form of clarity. Unsurprisingly, that clarity never appears.

An old habit of mine is shaving. I started to, and continue to, shave my entire body, as hair and rough, dead skin can cause friction during grappling and martial maneuvers. I prefer to stay smooth, so before my skin has dried, I take to it a razor. I begin with my head and face, moving down to the arms and legs. I finish with the fingers and toes; delicate operations, those, as one wrong move could result in accidental amputation. Anything that will be covered at all times by clothing is shaven once weekly, more for minimization’s sake then anything else.

At this point in my routine I begin to think about the day ahead of me and how it pertains to the clothing I will choose to adorn my body. If I going to be going into a situation where combat is a probability, I like to dress in leather, as it slides easily against the human skin and has just the right amount of stretch, when tailored well. If I am going for a more casual adventure, I’ll mix a combination of loose fabric robes and pants and dark cloaks, woven into a dark tapestry of mystery with a hint of paradox. Form fitting custom black leather boots and gloves complete any outfit; a custom boot is a necessity, as a shoe that doesn’t fit properly causes undue stress on the spine and can shorten a lifespan considerably.

There is an idea of an Andrew Micheal Rashanagok, but it is an illusion. A careful fabrication of a Jedi Master; doing the right thing, in control of himself and all that surrounds him. And though we may speak and you might get the impression that I am a man in control of his faculties, and when you shake my human hand you can feel my flesh against yours and imagine that our lives are somehow comparable if but by our shared humanity, and you can maybe even take comfort in my stability as a testament to the incorruptibility of my spirit as a person, it all exists as but a lie and it’s assumed truth.

There is an idea of an Andrew Rashanagok, and you can even shake its hand. And though it feels real to you as a moment of friendship between two stable human beings, I simply am not there.

I exist but to create the lie, perpetuate it, and simultaneously make a mockery of it.

And worst of all, I cannot even summon why.





I no longer see the world as I once did. I now see rain that makes no puddle, deaths that leave no bodies, and strangers becoming lovers.

Her name is Leia Organa Solo.

From as young as I can recollect, she was a Jedi Master in the Jedi Order, and I hated her. I suppose that she personally was a nice enough person, but it was what she represented, the unity, the peace, all the fabrications of a better world that the Jedi represented were personified in her. She was their head spokesmen… their public relations department, spreading their optimistic fallacy through her position as head of the New Republic.

There came a day when I woke up when I realized there would come a day when I would not.

On that day, Leia Organa Solo seemed kind of stupid.

That was when I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb.





Every beginning has an end. Every great story comprised of its’ three pivotal parts; the beginning, the middle, and the end.

I often wonder whether I’ve reached my end. I’ve disassociated myself with my poorly written beginnings, but am I close enough to my personal climax that I could be classified as amerced in the end?

I often wonder whether it really matters.





Why was I created?

Why does Andrew Micheal Rashanagok exist?

To be or not to be, that is the question that preoccupies our people…

To be… what?

Who knows?





I don’t know.





I confess that every narrative to myself feels like a suicide note. If I were to write a suicide note, would anyone read it?





Would anyone understand it?




Chang?




Chang.





I can’t go yet. I have work to do.





It became a laborious task for Ahnk to wake up. Nights of heavy drinking and sobering thinking took a toll even on the former Sith Lord. His eyes would draw open together, then close in unison… trying to fight off the memories of the night previous and sore at the lightest caress from the morning light. Eventually, bloodshot eyes were exposed by the parting of his tired eyelids, and Ahnk shook his head, rising to take his morning shower.

It was while shaving his head that the door to his compartment opened.

“I always assumed you had clone pattern baldness.”

Ahnk shot Bill a glare filled with the early morning malice he could muster.

“It’s an old habit. Besides, I looked pretty mangy with long hair.”

“If you say so. Anyway, what are we going to do today?”

“The same thing we do everyday.”

“Try to take over the world?”

Ahnk said nothing, putting down his razor and throwing on his vest.





”We’re going to find Chang today. I can feel it.”

“You say that everyday.”

“Perhaps. But today, I am right.”

Month Three of the Commonwealth Expeditionary Force Campaign on Kirima. (The Present)

Mars walked up the trenchline towards the direction that the assault group was coming from. An assault is a Commonwealth military term for everyone rear of the line that can hold a weapon. Mars directed them to weaker spots in the line.Then he saw what he was looking for. A speeder was hauling about twenty barrels of very explosive torpedo propellant.

"Ah, a ray of sunshine from division H.Q."

"That place was overrun yesterday Colonel. Us, your unit and an artillery battalion at the top of that mountain is all that is left.

Mars sighed.

"Get that fuel over to Sergeant Wim."

Mar's unit, the 332nd Heavy Infantry Brigade (Bonadan's Bravest), had been fighting a losing war against hordes of flesh eating bugs for the last three months. It had been retreat after retreat, defeat after defeat but out of defeat comes innovation. That's where the barrels of torpedo propellant come in to the picture.

Conventional mines were ineffective against the bugs. There are just to many of them. The bugs mass attacks. Hitting a mine field barely slows them down. Quite recently a solution was found. Each barrel was paired with a flame emitter and an pressure sensor. When pressure is detected a wall of flame is shot from the barrel. The barrels of are very large so the bugs can be kept at bay for up to an hour.

Mars sat down in one of the dryer areas in the trench and watched the men setting up the flame mines.

Three Months Earlier

"They're breeding in the house! Everyone Clear! " Yelled a trooper.

He along with a few other troopers threw multiple grenades into the dwelling.

"Oh shit! I've got one on me! Get it off! Get if off!

The bug began eating a hole through the man's thigh.

"Get it out! Get that thing out of me!"

It was too late. An all to familiar expression came over the man's face. The bug had reached his brain. If taken to a hospital immediately, it was possible the man could be saved.

"Get H.Q. on the horn now!"

"Yes sir" said the radio man as he handed Mars the radio.

"Kilo 11 this is Kilo 66 over."

"This is Kilo 66 go ahead."

"I've got a critical casualty and need a medevac immediately over."

"Negative Kilo 11, if we put down a bird in your area every bug in a hundred mile radius will zero in on your location over."

"Kilo 66 out."

Mars looked over at the soldier. In about three hours his body will become a breeding ground for the bugs.

"What are we gonna do sir?!!"

Mars pulled out his sidearm, said a prayer, then fire three times into mans chest and forehead. All of the troopers stared in disbelief.

"Get the incineration gas."

Incineration gas was a highly explosive fuel that the brigade had been using to take out bug food sources.

Mars poured a healthy amount of fuel on the trooper's body. He then pulled out his lighter and through it on the horrible funeral pyre.

If I ever have to do that again...

The Present

"Incoming force!"

Mars was immediately out of his sleeping bag and in his place on the line.

"Don't fire until they clear the mines!" Mars yelled down the trench.

He heard the artillery raining down from the civilian fortress shelter on the mountain above.

The mines were set at a high rate of fire and the bugs were beginning to come through the gaps. The horde of bugs was now withen fifty meters of the trench.

"READY! FIRE!"

Mars ducked down in to the trench to reload his rifle. The bugs were getting closer, within thirty meters.

"KEEP UP THE FIRE PRESSURE!"

That was the key to fighing the bugs. Don't let them get too close.

Mars popped up out of the trench and began firing. You didn't have aim. You just fired in the direction the bugs were coming from.

2 and a half months earlier.

Mars scrambled to the top of the hill.

"Damn. If that isn't the largest concentration of bugs I've seen..."

Mars pulled out his rifle scope for a closer look. The bugs were swarming around the entire town. Feeding on the town's dead and food supplies while breeding in the warmth of the town's structures. Mars signaled his commanders to the top of the hill.

"Okay boys, this is the plan. Major Corinth, take your battalion around to the east side of the city. Major Marson take yours to the west. Everybody else is with me and the tanks. We're going up the middle."

The purpose of the mission was to destroy quite possibly the largest concentration of bugs on the entire planet. This city had also been identified as the possible driving force behind the bugs. In a normal situation this city would have been razed to ground by artillery but this was not a normal situation. The city was well out of reach of the Commonwealth artillery and all fighter bombers we broken down or being used to hold bugs back in other theaters of the planet.

This is why the 332nd had been assigned an armor battalion commanded by none other than his son, Major Kine Sinkan. In theory the tanks would punch a hole in the bug formation allowing the infantry to move in and neutralize the bugs. Today that theory would be tested.

A week earlier a huge artillery and bomber barrage had opened up a hole in bug's line. Mar's command had slipped through and stealthily advanced to the position behind the city.

Mars signaled the flanking battalions forward. After that the tanks advanced with the rest of the brigade behind.

As the tanks moved forward they fired their guns in to bug breeding structures and large formations of bugs out in the open. The flanking battalions were moving through lightly populated parts of the city destroying bug formations as they went.

Earlier during the campaign at a general order had been issued to all commanders in the expeditionary force: Eliminate bug food sources at all costs. The war had turned Mars cold. After killing a few soldiers to stop them from becoming food sources Mars had gotten over it also had the rest of his men.

As soldiers went down and became to far from being saved they were declared Combat-Ineffective and were destroyed.

The flanking battalions were now meeting up with the center thrust into the city. The tanks were keeping the bugs at bay as well. They were now moving into larger part of the city. Bugs were now pouring out of the buildings. Many more than intelligence had calculated that this city could support. The tanks at the front of Commonwealth were beginning to be overwhelmed. Bugs were slipping past and were going for the weaker infantry formations.

"What the Hell? GOD DAMN YOU INTEL!"

It wasn't supposed to be this way. The bug population shouldn't have been this high. Then the unthinkable happened. A huge advance of bugs broke through the tanks.

Mars watched as bugs swarmed over his son's command tank.

DESTROY ALL FOOD SOURCES

The bugs wouldn't have his son as host. NEVER would they.

"You! Give me that rocket launcher!"

Mars took the weapon of one the troopers. He lined up the sights of the weapon with tanks.

Never should a man have to do this to is son. God forgive me.

Mars pulled the trigger and the rocket flew straight into the tanks weaker side armor. The rocket punctured the tank's ordinance bin and detonated.
The tank exploded brilliantly, killing all of the bugs in a twenty meter radius.

"RETREAT!"

The Present

"Don't let 'em get to close boys! We're the only thing standing between them and the biggest refugee fortress on the planet!"

"Disgusting creatures.." murmured the Atrius Kabal of the Seventh Column. He gazed at the thousands of the Iron lying in their steel tombs serving as feeding fodder for the growing new generations of the much talked about Scourge.

The Supreme Kabal had initiated the Great Balance between the species feeling it in their interests to avoiding the growing threat of genocide between the three species of their world. But the final agreement in acheiving this 'balance' did not sit well with some of the lower castes.

Perhaps their advance into the dark unknown was to thin out dissent as much as it was designed to thin the ever growing numbers of the Scourge.

But Atrius had no intention of being "thinned". He'd seen the figures and the many possibilities of conquest seemed endless. A world for him and his without the Scourge.

But those there thoughts he kept buried for the Force directed their movements and could, with ease, pull such inclinations from his mind and use them to their advantage.

Mysterious creatures, the Force was. Rumor of the mystical powers they possessed was a thing of legend among their very old writings. No one of the Iron except those among the Supreme Kabal ever saw (much less spoke) to one of the Force.


***


Barak of the Supreme Kabal looked over at the hive mind drone as it took it's time in relaying the request..

Why don't you just admit it for what it is? It's a demand. The Hive never requests anything!


The creature had finished and the Barak looked over at this interpreter. Conversing with the Hive always took time.

"They want thirteen more Columns to replenish their numbers after the fifth planet conquest."

Barak bared his teeth at the news and stopped the shaking of his head in defiance before it started.

"After the tenth planet, Verak. Tell them the tenth."

As the interpreter began the arduous translation the creature's back end started twitching in speedy rhythm as if communicating by some unseen means. Which it, in fact, was.

"Fifth." the interpreter returned in fear.

Barak leaned down to face the twitching bug and spoke harshly too it. "Listen to me you bug brained drone! I deal with hard numbers and if we stop our advance at the fifth planet to replenish your numbers, you bring the overall strength of the Iron down by 50%. We cannot hold all five planets for the Force to begin the conversions to rebuild the numbers. And to train? Any counter attack will lose us our gains and homeworld is threatened."

The bug began to buzz again. Any mention of homeworld being threatened brought out the emotion within the bug community and Barak relished the idea of using it.

After a time the interpreter spoke, "The Scourge cannot guarantee a sixth planet with the estimated losses of their numbers in the first five attacks."

Barak's throat growled. Any admission of inability to carry out the Great Design on the Hive's part was sure to be the truth. They never admitted an inability of any kind if they could help it.


"Instead of thirteen Columns, how about twenty six of the dispossessed?" The races dispossessed by the Domain's conquest typically went to the numbers of the Iron or were killed but if Barak had to choose between those trained or those untrained, the latter would be the fodder for the Scourge.


The bug went back to it's buzzing and Barak sat back once more.


The interpreter turned to Barak. "Agreed."


With business concluded Barak turned to the interpreter. "I thank you for your service." starting the ritual.

"I am happy to serve the Balance." the interpreter said a little better. He had been fearful that the talks would break down and the honorable ritual not be performed.

The interpreter stood and began to walk into the black, hollow orifice that faced Barak behind the bug on what looked like a stump of an old grand tree.

A large buzzing noise started as the interpreter disappeared from sight and Barak knew he was now being implanted.

Barak looked down at the bug before him and brought his fist down quashing it quickly.

"The ritual is done. Balance has been maintained." he finished.


Until our conquest!

Mars watched the bugs overtake the outer phalanx of his trench formation.

Two Months Earlier

Today we could lose this campaign.

The words of his commanding officer echoed in his mind as Mars charged the hill.

You must secure the relay Mars.

Still sprinting Mars flipped the safety off on his rifle.

The message must reach Commonwealth High Command.

Mars crested the top of with the rest of his Brigade(now only two battalions in strengh) close behind him.

The relay was the last communication device on the planet capable of reaching Commonwealth space. The rest of the comm relays had been taken out by the bugs. They were drawn to the electrical signals that the relays gave off. Just like the ones the that the ships of the Commonwealth gave off. The Acclamator that the army arrived in was overrun with bugs earlier in the month. This was their last chance for reinforcements.

"The Experts" estimated that as soon as this dormant comm was activated the Brigade would have twenty minutes before the entire area was crawling with bugs.

Mars walked into the shack that held the relay. He quickly flipped switches that brought the relay to life.

"This is Colonel Mars Sinkan of the Commonwealth Expeditionary Force on Kirima. We are requesting immediate military assistance from any and all Commonwealth military forces who receive this message. I repeat this is..."

The experts also estimated that activated the comm relay had a life expectancy of thirty minutes.

"Private, get in hear."

The private entered the shack with a large suitcase in his hands. Mars took it from him.

"Please enter you pin."

Mars quickly his password.

"Thank you Colonel Sinkan. Please enter your voice authentication code."

"Sinkan, Mars, Colonel. Authentication Bravo Lima Kine 004."

"Authentication verified you have thirty minutes to reach the minimum safe zone. Thank you."

While in his superior's office Mars had recieved another mission. One quite different from the other. Early in the war the use of nuclear weapons had been kept to a minimum. The weapons that were used were small and the radioactivity they left behind had half-lives of less than days.

This one was different. It would flatten everything within a two mile radius. The radioactivity would linger on for a few months.

Mars and the private left the shack at a sprint. The Brigade had taken up a defensive position around the top of the hill.

"If it don't go boom or bang drop it. We've got twenty five minutes to get two miles away from this shack. The bugs will be on our heels the entire way.
So run or be bug fodder soon to be radioactive dust! Move out!"

Mars turned around. The bugs were coming. They were faster than men. Much faster than men. The bugs that didn't take out the shack would be going after them.

Time to go.

Mars quickly caught up with the rest of the Brigade. They were making good time. The lead bugs were getting closer.

"Fuckin' shit!"

Mars felt a bug enter lower thigh. Part of the brigade turned around.

"Leave me! Leave me! Get the hell out of here!"

A medic and a trooper ran over to Mars.

"Soldier, set your rifle for highest level. Aim low."

The medic stuffed a cloth in Mars' mouth.

"Bite down sir. This gonna' hurt real fucking bad."

The soldier fired over and over into his thigh. Mars screamed louder than he had ever before. The pain was unreal. His vision was begining to grey. He yelped in pain again as the medic cauterized his leg.

The Present

While reloading his rifle Mars felt his cyborg leg. He really hated that thing.

*


Bonadan's Drift - Vinda Corporation Convoy



Freighter Bright Valor



"So you've got a relative in the Vinda Corp Security Fleet do you?" the grizzled Captain remarked clearly unimpressed by the claim of his younger crewman.

"Well not VC Sec nowadays. It's all Commonwealth now." the young man in his twenties responded as he opened a locker looking at the ration pack choices laid out before him.

"Commonwealth." the Captain turned to spit in a brass container. "Ask me, it's just another way for the rich to tax us hardworking stiffs."

Clearly disgusted with the choice of meals and realizing there was nothing he could do about it, the younger crewman picked out a pack and started shaking it as he turned toward his captain. "To speak to my Uncle, it's as if it's the Republic incarnate." and the Captain began laughing.

"Everyone thinks their newfound governments are oh so noble and righteous. At least, until they get screwed.." his voice trailed off as his eyes began scanning around the room suddenly alert.

The young crewman didn't notice and sat down opening up the ration pack and snorted at the remark of his Captain before sticking his fingers into the pack to draw out morsels of the tasteless food stuffs.

Wrinkling his nose, he looked up, "We HAVE to replace our stores when we get back to Bonadan.."

His voice trailed off noticing that his Captain had stood with his nose in the air.

"What's wrong?" the crewman asked perplexed, his mouth slowly crunching down.

"A change in the engine harmonics.." the Captain murmured and suddenly the ship lurched wildly knocking the passengers to their feet.

"Captain to the bridge!" came the internal command sounding out throught the ship's corridors.

"Let's go, Ossa!" the older man huffed getting back up and heading for the exit leading out of the galley.


*

"Report?" he demanded upon arriving at the bridge and his eyes went to the tactical screens showing a metallic cylinder floating off their starboard.

"What the frell is that?" Ossa asked moving around the Captain voicing the older one's concern.

"Not sure. But it seems to have attached itself to our deflector field. I am not reading anything explosive but then again, I am not reading a power source either." the scanning officer replied trying to make minute adjustments to his instruments.

"So how's it attached?" the Captain commented

"That's the million credit question," his Exec, an older woman of about fifty said coming from the engine monitoring station off to the side. "It is emitting a small field that is disrupting the energy flow from our power plant."

"Where the hell did we pick it up?" the Captain asked, moving over to the navigation table double checking their chart.

"Sir? Convoy is coming out of hyperspace. We are being hailed..."

The Captain was about to answer the transmission when a thought hit him.

"Sensors! NOW! Check for any unknown ships in the vicinity!" he suddenly turned to the scanning station.

His Exec understood immediately. "The convoy." she whispered.

The woman stared at him incredulously. "But don't you want to be someone?"

Tyscio raised an eyebrow in slight annoyance, "But I am someone. Me."

Leia pursed her lips in irritation. "You know what I mean." she grumbled walking away from the kitchen where he was making dinner. Suddenly, turning, she tried a different approach, "You mean to tell me that after all these years you've (somehow) been alive, after everything you've seen and done.."

Tyscio was chopping the last of the green-root with a knife and scooping it into a mixing bowl and he glanced up when her voice paused.

"...you are content to simply sit back and live out the rest of your life doing nothing?" Again, she could not hide the incredulity from her voice.

"Not quite the bastion of ambition you were hoping for eh?" Tyscio grinned as he threw some spices into the mix.

"Tyscio, I've been a Chief of State for a Galactic Republic and before that a key leader in the Rebel Alliance and before that, a member of the Imperial Senate."

Tysico was chopping up more vegetables when he asked, "So you want to get into politics again?"

"I don't know..." Leia admitted sighing. "But I do confess to feeling like I am rudderless. Nothing to anchor my convictions on other than my Jedi training."

"Leia, it has been noticed that your presence has been scarce at the Temple."

"With travel between Capricia, Bonadan and Naboo there is hardly time. Still, my presence it not necessarily required. A Jedi's training it mostly about instilling the necessary self discipline in our initiates. I am training you, Tyscio so I am fulfilling my duty as a Master."

"But won't Vodo.." Tyscio started when she cut him off.

"No one person runs the Order, Tyscio. Major decisions affecting the Order as a whole are arrived at in a meeting between Masters. If they cannot appear in person there is the holonet. We do meet. The lesser decisions we trust to those making them."

Tyscio shrugged as he added a light vinegar to the bowl. "I suppose that makes sense. If you aren't going to trust your Knights, what's the point?"

Leia smiled as Tysico held out a fork full of the salad he was making and took a bite. "Good." she murmured between bites. "I guess I cannot fault you for avoiding politics. There is still much of a mystery around you that not even Hespante is coming clean on. The mystery of the message on Elrood aside. I guess, I find myself for the first time outside the center and not in a position to affect any real change." Her frustration showed. "I just have never been this powerless!" she complained.

"I wouldn't exactly call myself powerless." Tyscio commented dryly picking up a datapad from a nearby table. "It says that as a member of the World Council..."

He never finished for Leia walked around the counter so fast pulling the datapad from his fingers scrolling through the text.

"When did you join?"

"I filled out the application a few months ago. I didn't say anything because I was not sure I'd be selected but someone remembered my war contributions and here I am."

"You have a shot at the InterSystem Congress." she exclaimed clearly interested.

"The World Council on Capricia needs to meet first before members of Congress can be chosen." Tyscio commented checking the main course still being heated. Double checking the time he stretched, walking lazily over to the Jedi Master. "You know the best part?" he asked.


She looked at him curiously amused.

"I don't have to leave the living room to attend meeting--" he started and Leia began to laugh. "Perish the thought of Tyscio Korban having to travel to some Hall of Congress."

"Hardlight system is being installed next week. I swear, we are on the cutting edge of technology nowadays!" He frowned as the oven beeped and bent down to check it. "Now if we could only make decent ovens we'd control the galaxy!"


Leia gave him a fond look walking over to him, placing her arm around his neck. "I am glad you're taking an interest in politics. An interest in the things that can affect our lives."


An eyebrow went up, "If I knew you'd feel this way about it, I'd have become King of Capricia years ago." he joked.



"I'm pregnant, Tyscio."



A remark that often sparked a common comment from most males, Tyscio was no different. "Are you sure?" he asked dumbly.


Her lips quirked up into a smile. "Pretty sure."


He stared at her mouth agape. "So you wanted to make sure I had a job to afford the diapers?" a slow grin began to match hers.


"What makes you think it's yours?" she suddenly asked mischievously.


Tyscio's eyebrow rose higher, "If you have a wookiee I think I'd have to shoot Chewbacca." The Wookiee in question had recently paid a visit to them on Naboo.


Leia barked out a laugh, "A feat for sure since you'd be armless.."


And while they talked on into the dinner, Tyscio's mind went back to his Council Membership Kit to see if he could remember a Health Benefit Package.


I've gotta get a job!