Zephyr Rising

by peppers-writes

The Elemental Tetrad planetary system is thrown into disorder when the imperial expansion of Ignis Five ultimately results in the elimination of the peace-loving Zephyrian race. A hundred years later, the Freedom Fighters roam the tetrad, surviving with the sole purpose of avenging their losses at the hands of the Ignians. Space Pirate AU.

PROLOGUE

For almost a hundred years, the four planets and seven moons of the Elemental Tetrad have engaged in a costly and bitter war. It all began when the royal governing bodies of Ignis Five, who believed that Ignis' status as the smallest planet in the system would potentially limit their ability to house and feed the planet's burgeoning population, began to expand their empire. The mass efflux of native Ignians to the other three planets—and their subsequent seizure of major components of the other planet's resources and major industries—had at first only initiated small protests, but as years went by and the malcontent grew, protests turned into riots, riots lead to martial laws, and martial laws spurred the collective rebellion of virtually every non-Ignian being in the Tetrad. The resistance grew and flourished under the guidance of the Zephyrians, a peaceful and frugal race of nomadic humanoids, and within a decade Zephyr Four—their largest permanent lunar settlement—was teeming with leaders and revolutionaries intent on seeing the war reach as peaceful an end as possible.

Word of this resistance reached the then monarch of the Ignian Empire, Lord Sōzin, when a formal request for peaceful negotiation was made by the Zephyrians and their allies. Enraged by their insubordination, Sōzin assembled a covert team of planetary physicists to alter the path of a large asteroid into Zephyr Four. The asteroid collided into Zephyr Four's northeastern hemisphere, fracturing the lunar body and killing every single one of its 50,000 inhabitants almost instantly. The Zephyrian population was effectively reduced to nothing, and most of the resistance—leaderless and stricken with shock and grief—either surrendered to Ignian authority or fled to the cosmopolitan metropolis of Ba Sing Se, the planet Lōm's largest city.

The rest roamed the Tetrad in large interplanetary vessels: some roamed far and wide, scavenging the vestigial remains of once beautiful cities. Others devoted themselves seeking the last of the Zephyrians in the hopes that, with their help, a resistance might rise again.

And then there were the bands of scrawny, parentless children: children of all races, defiant and wild and left with nothing but each other and the bitterness and anger of their losses. They clothed themselves in warpaint and mismatched armor and fed their vengeance day after day, doing whatever was necessary to protect the last of the Untouched Lands from the charring clutches of the Ignian Empire.

These were the Freedom Fighters.

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A/N: I've been itching to do a Freedom Fighter science fiction A.U. for ages, and wanted to gauge interest in the idea with a little exposition. I was thinking of sprinkling in a few elements of my favorite science fiction series, including Star Trek and Firefly, as well as a couple of concepts from Star Wars. Aesthetically speaking, I envision this universe kind of like Disney's Treasure Planet, with a steampunk flair and emphasis on classic themes of adventure and exploration with modern technological twists.

Let me know what you think!