Ivan Kal - Warpath

“And you still remember the way?” Garth asked.

“Guxcacul don’t forget.” Riss responded. The rest remained silent following Riss as he led them towards a large rock formation. It took them maybe thirty minutes to get there, and then Riss guided them to a cave opening that was hidden and unnoticeable from the distance.

The eight of them entered inside through a narrow opening only to see it widen the further they went, until it was wide enough for four humans to walk side by side in their battle suits. Riss lead them downward in the dark for what seemed like hours, navigating the twisting tunnels and leading them deeper and deeper underground. Riss apparently could see in the dark, the rest of the squad used night vision capabilities of their helmets to see.

Then eventually Riss stopped and turned to look at the wall of the tunnel. “We have arrived.” He said.

“Uh… We have?” Loca asked.

Riss ignored her and placed one of his limbs on the wall, then a few moments later the entire side of the wall moved outward and to the side, revealing a dimly illuminated hallway. He led them inside.

The hallway led to a wide and tall room, with terminals both on the walls and on the ground, with kind of staircases on the walls. Riss quickly moved to one of it and accessed.

It was encouraging that the room still had power, but they all waited for Riss to do his thing. He accessed the terminal an after a few minutes stepped back.

“They are alive.” He said ecstatically. “A patrol passed through here four months ago, they have been using this route to get to the surface unnoticed.”

“That is great. Are they scheduled to come back soon? Or are we going to have to go and look for them.” Sahib asked.

“They don’t have a schedule they just came and go as they need. And after so long of a period fighting there can’t be many of them left. And this planet is vast, our tunnels and cities spread out. We will never find them on our own. But I can use this terminal to send a message to all the other active terminals of the other outposts. Get them to come to us.” Riss said.

“Alright let’s do that.” Sahib said.

“I will need to send a message to all active stations. And if I do that everyone watching will know where we are. If Sowir have control of any intact post they will know too.” Riss said.

Sahib weighed his options, then decided. “We have no choice, send the message.”

Three hours later they still hadn’t received any word back. Riss had sent a message in Guxcacul, saying who they were but also providing personal information about himself that could be verified in the Guxcacul databases. He even included a video of himself and Sahib’s team in the message. But if anyone had received the message didn’t see fit to respond.

Sahib was inside the small outpost with Riss, Red, and Bella, while the rest of his team kept watch outside in the tunnels.

“Are you sure that you sent it?” Bella asked.

“Yes, I am sure.” Riss answered, and Red grunted. Bella started pacing back and forth across the room.

Another few minutes passed and then someone spoke over the comms.

“PL, we got incoming over here.” Loca said.

All four of them inside jumped at that. “Guxcacul?” Sahib asked.

“I don’t think so PL. You better get here, I think that our Sowir buddies are crashing the party.”

Sahib ran towards the exit, with the rest following close behind him. By the time he reached the exit, the others were already firing their weapons into the wave of incoming Sowir agents. Laser fire from the mass was scorching the ground, but the return fire from the Empire soldiers was cutting them down at an amazing rate. Soon enough the rest joined the fight. Using rocks around the tunnel as cover they kept firing at the enemy.

Riss was standing behind one of the bigger rocks and fired his custom made weapons. He had a rifle attached to each of his two top arms and was firing the powerful plasma blasts at the enemy, killing them by scores.

But no matter how many they killed more kept coming, and soon the few from the swarm entered close range. Garth and Red moved to engage them in the melee with their mono-blades, while the others tried to keep the rest of the hostiles at bay.

By the way that the enemy was fighting, Sahib knew that there was no Sowir guiding them, which was a blessing. But it was also just a small comfort, as the numbers of the agents were overwhelming. Then more and more entered the melee range, making difficulties to the two soldiers.

Sahib could see the tide turning in the enemy’s favor, soon the line will falter and he and his people will die. Then a shudder went through the ground and a top of the tunnel wall collapsed on the enemy’s head. From the ceiling shapes came down firing weapons and smashing the enemy with their limbs. Within seconds the pressure on Sahib and his people lessened, and they started pushing the enemy back as more and more shapes came down from the ceiling. Within minutes the enemy was dead, and two dozen shapes stood in front of Sahib and his squad.

One of the shapes moved towards them, and Sahib could see that it was shaped like a Guxcacul. Only it appeared that this Guxcacul was dressed in a full body armor. Sahib glanced at Riss who was studying the newcomers.

“I thought that you Guxcacul didn’t like full body armor?” Sahib asked.

“Things have obviously changed.” Riss answered.

The figure stopped in front of Riss and spoke in a series of chirps and clicks. Riss responded in kind, after a quick exchanged turned to Sahib.

“He said – Welcome, friends.”

March; Year 32 – Sanctuary

Tomas sat in an almost empty meeting room, the only people inside were him and the Hand. The agent of the Hand looked like any other, except that Tomas could tell that this one was female. It didn’t really matter, every agent spoke for the whole. The agent was here at Tomas’s request. Tomas had done some drastic things in the last year, and he wanted to ask the Hand’s input on a few things.

“Why have you called on us?” A highly modulated voice said.

“I have a few things that I want to talk to you about. The first is about your stance on the direction that I took the Empire in this last year.” Tomas said.

“We have no problem with your foreign policies and actions. We have been created as a check upon your power, to protect the citizens of the Empire. You have not abused your followers, and your actions concerning the Sowir, Furvor, and the Trivax, have all been in the interest of protecting your people and the innocent.” The agent said.

Tomas relaxed, he maybe better than anyone knew the pits that power could one into. He needed the Hand to stand as a reminder to him that he was never to use his power for self-interest or in a way that would harm his people.

“Trivax… I wanted to speak with you about that too. I have already spoken with the other Clan Leaders. But I wanted your opinion as well. They have asked to join the Empire, I was wondering what your thoughts on that are?” Tomas said.

The agent didn’t respond for a while, apparently thinking about the answer. “That decision is for the people and you to make. If you do decide to allow them to join, it must be done slowly and handled carefully. The Trivaxian’s have not been in the space for long, and they had only two contacts with other races, one of which lead to the deaths of many of their people. It will be difficult for them to put the resentment aside. And you already know that their ways cannot survive if they are to join us.”

Tomas nodded slowly, he knew the history of Earth countries and kingdoms all too well. When one force conquered another or when two different factions joined together, the unions never lasted long. Difference of beliefs and the ways of thinking always bred ill will and resentment. In the end rebellions or uprisings happened. And Tomas had done a lot to prevent that happening to his Empire. He knew that if the Empire was to grow, he would need to allow other races to join. But he also knew that those that joined needed to completely become a part of the Empire.