Banded Exiles
I don't own anything here, the two IPs i'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.
AN: Hello and welcome to Banded Exiles! This project of mine was born out of my twin desires to write something with Homeworld and to cross it over with something crazy that would probably never work. So judging by the very nature of this story, say goodbye to FoZ canon. (And a lot of Homeworld canon as well.) That being said I really want to explore what would happen when these two cultures mix and want to bring a sense of humor to the process at the same time. Be wary: Homeworld is a very serious game with very serious characters about a race of people who lived on a really crappy planet for a few thousand years, barely escaped genocide twice, and fought a massive empire across the galaxy. Familiar of Zero is a bit of a goofy harem anime with a nice chunk of very chaotic romance. I will have to fudge the two tones slightly so they can fit together. This will result in slightly serious FoZ and slightly cartoony Homeworld. (As compared to the base values of both) Anyway, I'm done ranting, enjoy!
Chapter 1
Louise's unconscious mind drifted through a vast sea of stars to the delight of its dreaming passenger. Since she was a little girl, the youngest Valliere had often visited the heavens in her dreams. It had a calming effect that left her serene the following day, temporarily immune to the teasing and the cruelty of her peers. Fortunate then that this dream would come tonight, for tomorrow was the day that Louise would summon her familiar. If she failed... best not to think of that. Louise's dreaming mind relaxed, pushing the idea of failure away and watched the vast, unending sea of stars that stretched out before her. If she had possessed a body she might have sighed in contentment.
The peace was not to last however as a new feeling began to slowly bleed into her awareness, an almost unfathomable grief grew and grew in her until she felt that, had she possessed a chest, her heart would have shriveled up and died within. Her dreaming spirit began to fear the feeling as some kind of premonition, of her failure, of her being stricken from her family and pawned off to some lesser noble in an effort to get her out of her mother's sight. Her panic was slowly drained away as another emotion bled into her dream. A burning rage, a desire to burn those that wronged her in the flames of judgement. It was jarring, an emotion so black couldn't have come from her, could it? She often fantasized about embarrassing or flaunting some great success over those who gave her grief but this... Louise had never experienced this kind of hate before. As she tried to think of anything that might make her murderously angry in the near future (So she could take great care to avoid anything remotely related.) another feeling bled into her mind, a solemn determination, a will to see something through no matter what may come.
She was trying to make sense of the pieces of the odd puzzle the dream presented her with when she first saw it. It was distant, growing slowly, blue and white and a coppery brown, as it grew further as she tried to make out details. A hundred smaller shapes were arrayed around the far larger one, huge lumbering shapes, tiny flighty ones that zipped here and there and many other shapes in between. And then it was before her, it's titanic form so close she could reach out and touch it. Her fingers acted before her mind and they almost instinctively reached out to trail over the surface of the freezing metal. Louise felt a strange sense of belonging as she pressed closer to the object, this was her cradle, a strange feeling told her, this was her rest, her charge. Words appeared in her mind to describe the odd relationship. This was her Tower in the Desert, she had to protect it.
Her mind slowly awoke after that. The dark fabric that was the canopy above her bed meeting her eyes as she stirred awake. Louise could only remember her latest dream in half measures as she pulled her diary from its drawer so she could inscribe the bizarre experience, the details already slipping from her grasp.
The rest of her morning went swiftly as they often did when she was feeling the after effects of her favorite dreams. Dressing, breakfast, even her first class, complete with the daily teasing that came with it, went by in a flash and she soon found herself filling out onto the lawn to perform the ritual that would determine the course of her life.
.XXX.
"Someone's had one of her dreams again~" an overly sweet feminine voice called from just behind her left ear. Louise merely tilted her head away from Kirche's attempt to rile her by breathing on her ear like a harlot. "So, when are you going to tell us about him, the boy of your dreams?" Kirche grinned as she pressed herself closer to the smaller girl, frowning as her pink haired peer simply stepped away. Louise cared little for Kirche's insinuations and simply didn't reply, she never had on the day after one of her dreams. That probably wasn't the best choice on her part as it allowed the rumors about her seeing a boy in secret to spread unchallenged, but today like every other day she had one of her dreams, she couldn't bring herself to care.
She could see the other girls of her class giving her sideways glances and a few of the boys speculative looks, even as vicious rumors circled her like carrion birds. They still couldn't break the good mood she was in, even the rumor about her having romantic trysts in the night with one of the stable boys didn't get a reaction. Kirche grinned at her latest failure to enrage the pinkette on one of her 'good days' and retired to a decent distance from the girl, there was always tomorrow.
The rest of the class saw to their summoning rituals one by one as normal and a menagerie of creatures now stood at the sides of the other mages in Louise's class. Now it was her turn. She stepped forward away from the rest of the students, her explosive magic necessitating the extra room. She raised her wand as she began to prepare her chant, the one that she had spent the last month practicing, the one she had created specifically to call forth a being worthy of becoming the familiar of a noble of her standing. She held the words in her mind and began to speak.
"My family that exists beyond the ken of the universe!" ...Wait, that wasn't what she had meant to say at all! Louise tried to stop and start over, no idea where the odd words had come from.
"Come to me my weary kiithid, my stricken exiles!" Louise tried to gasp as she couldn't stop, the words spilling from her on their own. Panic and fear began to eat away at her but the words didn't stop even as she struggled.
"Join me and escape the horror of the past and the trials of the future! Let a reality burn in the fires of your absolution!" She couldn't see the other students or the professor but she hoped they would realize something was wrong and help her. She could feel her willpower being pulled from her as the ritual continued, pulled from her in quantities she was sure should have killed her a thousand times over by now. She wanted to scream, to cry and latch onto the nearest living thing for comfort but the words would not allow her to stop.
"Come to me my Tower in the Desert!" The end of the chant was punctuated by the slash of her wand. Louise gasped for air as she sank to her knees in exhaustion. Tears rushed to her eyes from the frightening experience, she didn't even notice the laughing students or the distinct lack of her familiar appearing so glad was she the event was over.
.XXX.
Professor Colbert made to step forward, a sting in his heart over what he had to do. Never before had he had to explain that without a familiar a student could not continue to attend. Then an earth shattering boom drove him to his knees as a shockwave hit the courtyard. He scrambled back to his feet, ignoring the screaming students for now as he searched for the source of the explosion.
He looked around failing to spot a cloud of dust or any signs of further disturbance when one of the students screamed and pointed into the sky. A bright green window hung in the air. It was instantly recognizable as the summoning portal but it was enormous and oddly rectangular instead of its usual oval shape. Slowly a shape, long and curved exited the portal and streaked across the sky away from them. Colbert stood dumbstruck, he had seen meteors before but this object was obviously massive, as were the few other objects that tailed behind the main one. He watched the object as it neared the ground, fearing the untold destruction that would be caused by such a large object striking the ground.
Then the summoning window returned, though oddly bright blue in color and swallowed the falling object whole, leaving the many smaller objects to slow and finally hang in the air. Colbert starred as many of the objects began moving straight up, leaving their world behind as they became too distant to see. But one of the larger objects... vessels... didn't go like the rest, it turned and hovered towards them, belching a thick black smoke from several places along its round, almost beatle like body, before landing in one of the grassy fields not far away. Colbert shook himself from his stupor and snapped his attention back to the petite girl who sat and quietly staring at the sky. A quick glance confirmed that the large vessel from before, now hung as if by a string in the sky so far above it was only barely visible.
The spell, the size of the summon, it might have... Colbert ran over to the girl and threw himself to his knees next to her. "Louise!?" He shouted at her. Louise kept her eyes trained on the ship, her body mostly limp. "Louise are you alright, answer me!?" Colbert grabbed her shoulder and shook and the girl finally looked at him, though he could see that her eyes were glazed as if she wasn't seeing him.
"...yes..." Louise answered in a small voice. "I'm fine."
.XXX.
Karan was exhausted, even considering she hadn't moved a muscle since they had finished installing her neural circuitry. She wanted to sleep but the Mothership needed her, the fleet needed her, especially after their sudden unexpected detour. She recalled the brief few minutes of sheer terror for her and every other Kushan on the Mothership as it fell, burning, from the sky.
One emergency activation of the hyperspace core later and the fleet hung in low orbit, short one damaged carrier that hadn't been able to make the climb. Karan had felt nervous leaving behind those hundreds of the only surviving members of her race but she hadn't had much choice. At least she couldn't detect any signs of industrialized settlements or a mechanized army. That didn't mean they were safe but until they completed repairs keeping a sensor peeled was all she could do.
"By the maker, what was that?" Came a tired voice over her private comm. Kilh'al Paktu, the man Karan had spent the most time talking to since their voyage began and the 'voice' of fleet intelligence sounded very distressed and it worried her.
"Unknown." Karan responded, her usually flat voice also shaking with leftover nerves. "We were shunted away from our planned course while in hyperspace. The experience was dissimilar to the inhibitors employed by the Taiidan or any of the anomalies we have faced thus far."
A mental chime heralded the completion of the hyperspace telemetry analysis and as Karan poured over the information it gave her pause. The data was filled with errors and information only half understood by the sensors that recorded it. Her confusion grew even further as the report from the astrometrics supercomputer. The stars were different. The information came and went quickly after that as Karan scrambled to discover their location. Her mood worsened as report after report confirmed that they were lost.
.XXX.
"S'jet Kiith'sa the other Kiith,sa (1) have called for the Daiamid." A younger crewman that worked in the residential section of the Mothership messaged her. "Please attend on channel 2-64g."
If Karan had been still in control of her physical body she might have blinked at the priority message that just forced its way to the fore of her awareness. The sudden reformation of the ruling body of Kharak? She quickly opened the channel regardless of her slight confusion to find a group of people talking amongst themselves at a table in the mess, the only room large enough to fit such a gathering. Less strange was the fact that each of them was dressed in the standard jumpsuit worn by the crew of the mothership. It had been several hours since she had informed the fleet of the reality of the situation and had been re-checking the information ever since. The speed at which these crewman had put this together was impressive. "This is very unexpected Kiith'sa, what is the purpose of this meeting?" her voice came from the intercom in the room and stirred the others from their conversation.
"S'jet Kiith'sa," a woman with blue eyes, brown hair and a severe demeanor she recognized as Lefir Soban, last she remembered Lefir had been a member of the bridge crew, not the head of Soban. "A decision was made while you were confirming the telemetry data to reform the Daiamid. The clans chose their representatives and you were chosen as the S'jet Kiith'sa. The purpose for this was to make a choice, below us lies a world, rich and largely underutilized. It is not Hiigara, but it has also not been found by the Taiidan." Lefir paused and the other Kiith'sa waited for Karan to speak.
"How am I to know the process was legitimate?" Karan asked skeptically.
"Ah, we expected your suspicion, the internal sensor log in conjunction with videos we made during the voting will ensure due process has been followed." Lefir answered gracefully.
It only took about two minutes to go over the data pertaining to the election and once she was finished Karan was satisfied they weren't trying to form an illegitimate government. "I understand, you wish to decide if we settle here even though there are already inhabitants." Karan called forward all the information they possessed on the world below to the forefront of her mind as Lefir rambled about the benefits of ending their odyssey here. It was a beautiful blue green ocean planet, sparsely populated but with a relatively small surface area that actually consisted of useable land. The primary landmass was separated into three large sections by a dessert that was defended by a massive artificial wall. Another area that may have once been another set of continents on the other side of the planet consisted of large hunks of rock that somehow floated several thousand feet above the ocean. That left the only option to integrate or remove the native population in order to secure space for the people she held in cryosleep. Almost nothing was known about the inhabitants themselves, only that they had not advanced beyond the age of heresy, judging by what they could see from orbit, and that the air they breathed was comparable to the atmosphere of Kharak. Overall the planet was a dubious prospect but the only other alternative was to blindly jump into a galaxy where their star charts were completely useless.
"I do not wish to disrupt the natives as we know little of them and they may react badly if we are too intrusive. However the fact remains that they are widely spread and any activity we take on the surface will be at their detriment." Karan said as she finished looking over the information. "I understand your desire however and will support any consensus of this Daiamid."
The other clan leaders in the room nodded and returned to deliberating. It took only minutes before Lefir stood and turned to the camera through which Karan was watching. "Then it is by decree of this Daiamid that we will seek to colonize this world and it shall be known as Var'Hiigara. We will begin preparing to land colonists in one week, until then we will rely on the crew of the Yorn'ilgara (2) to attempt to make our intentions known to and soothe the natives."
"Let the will of the clans see us safely home." Came the traditional words from all those in attendance, ratifying the decision made as official policy and ending the meeting.
.XXX.
Trant Soban the captain of the grounded Kushan carrier Yorn'ilgara sighed in equal parts relief and exhaustion as his crew finished planting several support columns into the ground that would keep his ship from falling over. It was a simple reassurance but one that put him at ease. The ship had been precariously balanced on the crushed resource processing system that took up the entirety of the bottom deck. The Yorn'ilgara had also sunk a few feet into the soil after that and was likely the only reason the ship had stayed standing long enough to make the braces.
The thruster damage they had suffered by an unexpected Taiidan attack just before their hyperspace jump had rendered his ship unable to join the fleet in orbit. This had everyone aboard, even himself, antsy. As one of the sayings that had been invented since the start of their voyage said, 'The fleet is life, to be apart from the fleet is death.' It was a bit of wisdom that many people had taken to heart in recent days and it showed, especially here on one of the most vulnerable ships in the Kushan navy.
Trant's thoughts were interrupted by a message appearing on the screen attached to his station and he sat down to read it. His eyes widened slightly at the content of the message. Orders to attempt first contact with the native population. He was to try first at a lone structure nearby and if that went well he was to approach a small city only slightly farther away and try and repeat his success there. After his ship's thrusters and structure had been repaired he would then make for several other cities before ending at a desert area many miles from their current location.
Trant sighed as he tried to ease the headache now pounding behind his eyes with his fingers but mostly failed. The other crew on the bridge noticed his distress and soon one of them approached him about it.
"Why the look captain?" A blonde woman named Vayan of the Manaan, his fighter wing commander, asked as she sat on a nearby console and crossed her arms.
"Orders, we are going to try making nice with the locals. They reformed the Daiamid and decided to have us be the ones to try and calm them when they start landing colonists." Trant replied tiredly.
"So we're staying then?" Vayan asked with a grin. Trant sighed and nodded as the woman did a giddy little dance around his bridge. He should have guessed she'd act like that, she had always been... light on the military decorum. He really couldn't blame her, he had seen many of the crew looking at the green fields outside with a longing in their eyes.
With a small smile and quick series of commands on his station he assigned Vayan to drive the vehicle he and whomever else he assigned would be taking. She would certainly be happy about that. His eyes trailed over her trim pilot's physique as she bounced around the bridge and he sighed again. It was a real shame she wasn't a Sobani woman. Neither did he think she would be interested in joining, she was almost Manaan personified after all.
With another heavy sigh his eyes turned to the rest of the bridge crew searching for another to fill space on the team when they landed on Gacil, his fellow Sobani tactical officer. He snapped his fingers as he recalled that the dark haired, serious man had been a school teacher back in the day. That was both security and diplomatic positions filled well enough. Finally, a few more taps on the keys added in about half a dozen escorts.
With a final press of a button the list was sent back to the mothership and Trant leaned back in his chair. "Vayan, Gacil, head down to the hanger and take the Baserunner, don't forget your escorts." Trant said, jabbing a thumb to the door.
Vayan stopped her attempts at getting a poor Paktu to dance with her and turned to look at him beaming. She opened her mouth to ask a question but Trant beat her to it. "Yes you can drive." He said, grinning at the sudden frightened look from Gacil. "Good luck and try not to cause a war."
.XXX.
Louise sat in her nightgown looking out of the window at the new breathtaking sight in the night sky. The tower from her dreams glowed in the night sky with lights she could see even when the moon passed behind, casting it in shadow. Then her thoughts turned to the beatle like vessel that had landed in a field far on the other side of the academy and sighed. She had practically begged to be allowed to ride out to it, she had summoned it after all, but she had been denied and she along with all the other students had been forbidden from leaving the Academy.
Classes had been canceled of course and the teachers had been in an uproar at the idea that she of all people had summoned the new object that hung in the heavens. They had also still been terrified, the huge burning tower falling from the sky making many of them fearful of attack. Louise smiled at the memory of Professor Colbert adamantly insisting that it had indeed been Louise's spell that had brought the tower here, even if those that believed him had looked at her with fear creeping into their expressions. The older man had been something of a tutor to her when she first came to the Academy, making her explosive spells something of a personal project. Sadly he had never been able to discover what was wrong with her and her excellent grades in theory had meant that there was no use continuing to go to him for extra learning. Louise leaned against the window frame and sighed. "What are you?" She groaned at the object that hung above the sky. "Why did you come to me? Why couldn't I say the chant I practiced?" Louise muttered, the frustration of the day catching up to her.
So caught up in her questions was she that she almost missed a faint growling sound that floated in through the window. Curious, Louise stuck her head out and looked around. She certainly didn't see anything strange but the noise continued to grow louder. Then the sound spiked as a something huge flew into her range of vision, It was bigger than the stables! It soon passed out of sight and then came back around as it circled the school. It was some form of carriage, one that didn't need any animals to pull it and was a strange blue/grey in color with bright white stripes over its surface. A light that lit up the forest and fields beyond as if it were the light of day shone from lamps along its front. The titanic carriage made one final pass and Louise could see that it had awakened the entire Academy as lamps were lit, people shouted and teachers took to the walls and courtyards to protect their charges. It finally slowed and started to angle towards the gate. Throwing herself away from the window Louise quickly gathered up a coat and buttoned it up tight to cover her nightclothes before rushing out into the hallway. Only to crash head first into the one person she least wanted to deal with.
"Oh my Louise, I had no idea you felt that way! I'm sorry but I am partial to men~" came the voice of Louise's most hated enemy Kirche Von Zerbst.
"Now is not the time for this!" Louise growled as she tore herself from Kirche's bountiful chest.
"Oh my, are you late for meeting your stable boy?" Kirche held a hand over her mouth as if scandalized.
"Get outta my way!" Louise shouted as she darted around the older girl, pushing her into the wall and sending the older girl tumbling to the floor.
"Oof!" Kirche blinked in shock as she hauled herself up from the floor. A grin crept onto the germanian's face before she quickly rose and rushed after the smaller girl.
Louise was already downstairs and roughly shoving her way through a crowd of students who had gathered to watch a confrontation in the courtyard. It didn't take Louise long to shove her way past the crowd and duck the teacher in charge of keeping them inside.
Louise could feel the cool damp grass under her feet as she dashed towards the gate, which was again crowded with people. She didn't really understand what was driving her so desperately towards what lay beyond that wall of people but she pushed herself onward as if her life depended on it.
.XXX.
Gacil fought to keep himself from tumbling out of his chair, a large amount of G-forces his opponent. As the Baserunner made its third circuit around the stone tower he did his best to turn his gaze into a pair of ion cannon beams and fry the blonde woman in the drivers seat.
Vayan had been cackling with twisted delight every time one of the six security team members in the back had screamed or shouted at her to slow down. Gacil hadn't screamed, of course not, instead he had latched onto the harness and consoles around him and proceeded to attempt to force his eyes to undergo the biologically impossible metamorphosis for the entire time it took for them to arrive.
"We're here!" Vayan announced as she swung the vehicle around and backed up toward what appeared to be a gate in a rather anemic defensive wall. Gacil did not nearly trip over the blonde madwoman as he made his escape. Neither did he notice the security troops already collapsed onto the grass or leaning against an oversized tire once he actually made it out of the deathtra- ...transport.
Gacil straightened his appearance as much as he could, straightening his blue grey jumpsuit and making sure his hair wasn't totally wild. It only took a few minutes before their never before seen future roommates to show up. The gate opened and what met Gacil's eyes would change the course of his people forever.
.XXX.
End Chapter
(1) Kiith'sa is a form of formal address for a leader of a clan called a Kiith. Kushan Kiiths, unlike any similar organization on earth, are made up of possibly millions or even billions of individuals.
(2) Yorn'ilgara is the name of the first carrier produced by the mothership. The word has no direct English translation but it roughly means 'pleasant feelings of home.'
Special thanks to DerKommissar for his work on the Hiigaran language.
