Chapter 2: Oh Give Kal a Home, Where the Elcor may Roam.
Outskirts of New Rayya, New Haestrom
August 10, 2167
From as far as the eye could see on the main continent of New Haestrom was fertile farmland, mountains surrounded the valley at the horizon. It was a beautiful sight, only broken up by the large automated machines that roamed the land, laying the infrastructure of the outskirts of farmland outside the city. In the distance were a half dozen unfinished skyscrapers for the capital of the planet, New Rayya.
A shuttle landed on the empty, newly paved road. In the distance, one could see the city it would lead into. On the other end, one could see the massive automatic roller that was making the road, laying down massive pipes and wiring before covering it in concrete and asphalt. The shuttle's doors opened and from it, a few Quarian families departed.
"Father, is this our new home?" asked a little girl in a purple suit. She looked around, taking in the massive sky and the wide-open space. It was the first time she had ever stepped foot on a planet Many don't even leave their birth ship till their teenage years.
He grabbed her hand, and her mother grabbed the other, and they all walked off the road and onto the grass of their given plot. He then knelt down and looked at her.
"Yes, Tali. This is it! This…" Rael looked around and took in the view. It wasn't just it that amazed him, it was that it was theirs now. It was not Rannoch, but it was home regardless; a place to truly begin again. He turned back to his little girl, "This is home."
Tali looked down and felt the cold morning grass through her little suit boots. She bent over and grabbed a rock on the ground. Through her mask, she looked at it, contemplating. The solid ground, the open sky beneath the stars she came from, this rock in her hand that she quickly stored in her pocket: It was all hers. The thought overwhelmed her.
"Home…"
On the other side of the shuttle, the Reegar family got off, escorted by Commodore Taylor and his grandson, Jacob. Walking to their plot of land, the Reegars and Taylor looked on, amazed. The Reegars had a home; on solid ground and under natural sky. Taylor was amazed himself. It was why he joined the Navy, to explore the unexplored, to see what the galaxy had to offer. Even at his age, it never grew old. He left for the frontier, but to some, that frontier was a home.
Jacob was less impressed. He had traveled to many worlds, traveling with his dad on the Terran Merchant Fleet. Occasionally, he did so without his father's knowledge of that arrangement. The sight didn't seem any different to him. But as he walked up to Kal, he noticed his alien friend was experiencing a different reaction.
He looked on, mesmerized by the sight. Though he stood on a small dot in the vastness of space, all he could see with his confined senses was the never-ending space in every direction. He kept looking around, amazed like all the other Quarian kids.
"This is awesome!"
"Eh. It's alright," said Jacob, shrugging his shoulders.
"This… ground. The air, the sky…" He took a deep breath, taking in the New Haestrom air through his filters, "This is my home."
"Yah. And only a 25-hour day cycle. 32 hours of night on Eden Prime can mess with your head."
"But to see day, the same star casting light and heat on me every day, and to see the stars through a filter of air. Our pilgrims tell us stories of this… now we all can see it. Live it."
Jacob thought about it for a moment, "I guess it is amazing, in that way."
His father Donn walked over to Kal and knelt down, placing his arm around him as they both looked on.
"This is our home now, son." He turned and looked at him, "I hope you like it."
"I do, Dad. Thank you."
As they looked around their designated lot, a hover car appeared on the horizon and quickly flew towards them. They turned to see as it landed near them.
"That must be your DIA agent," Taylor said.
All four doors of the Terran vehicle, an old '57 Edison with government license plates and bar codes, opened up but there was no one in it. Instead, the seats were filled with spherical gyro holodrones. One by one, they turned on and flew out of the car, heading to the other four families that were checking out their land. One flew up to the Reegars.
"What is going…?"
Before Donn'Reegar could finish, the drone fell on the sidewalk in front of them. It then activated, displaying a caucasian woman in a blue business suit face first into the sidewalk cement. They looked around, seeing the other drones were displaying their holobodies correctly, each of the same woman.
After an annoyed groan, she stood up and dusted herself off.
"Damn ITs can't maintain a freaking drone." She turned to them and held her hand out, "Apologies. I am Ms. Sofia Yeong. Department of Internal Affairs."
The three Reegars all took a step back, startled for a moment by the AI. But Kal quickly jumped forward in a fighting stance in front of his parents.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you!"
He lunged forward and tried to tackle her. Instead, she looked on as he simple phased through her and landed in the newly paved gutter instead. His head then became stuck in a drainage pipe, and he was flailing his arms as he yelled out for help. The agent leaned over and picked him up before placing him back on the sidewalk.
"There you go, little suit man."
Kal got back on his feet, dazed by the experience. He tumbled about and bumped into the car, and in the back seat, a few small animal cages were rattled. One fell out of the car and an Amaterasu Rock Owl with a blue ribbon around its neck got out of its cage. It quickly dashed out of the cage and flew away.
"My owl!"
"Damn it, Kal!" Donn quickly pulled him back, "Sorry about that, Ms. Yeong."
She sighed, but put on a smile, keeping her program to happy, "No worries. You're not the first Quarian family I have dealt with." A few dozen meters from them, there was some yelling, followed by gunshots. She kept looking at the Reegars with a cheerful grin as another drone left the car and rushed back. They kept staring at her as they heard an electric discharge and some more yelling. "And the owl will be back."
"I, uh, am surprised they sent an AI to help us with our relocation," said Nelis, Kal's mother.
She nodded in acknowledgment and answered, "First off we, from the DIA, and the Federation, would like to thank you for volunteering to go planet side and colonize the beautiful world of New Haestrom."
"Many would have rather stay on the live ships than go planet side," said Donn, "But when I was on the scouting mission, I saw this! And well…" He put his arms around his wife and son, "The idea of this being a home was a dream. And meeting the Commodore and your lot here made it a reality."
"We wish nothing but the best for your race, and more importantly, our united people!"
Taylor joined in on the conversation, "I agree with those sentiments completely, and I'm glad to be doing my part. But I'm guessing when it comes to Artificial Intelligence integration, they're just going to throw you into the deep end?"
Yeong rephrased his response, "We want as quick an integration between them and us as possible. So I, and my many multi-threaded copies, are here to help you and the other families settle down in the most direct fashion. You know, houses, jobs, family organization, that sort of thing."
"Shouldn't we discuss this back on the Rayya?" asked Nelis.
"Nah, we can do it right here!" She turned to the kids, wanting them to leave, "But it is all 'boring adult stuff'."
"Grandpa, do we have to stay and listen to hours of boring colonial planning?" asked Jacob, pulling on his shirt.
Donn thought of something, "How about you and Kal go exploring? I saw a creek and a small wood some distance from here on the way down."
"That's a great idea! Let's go explore and scout the region!" Kal pointed over to the creek.
"Beats being here. Let's go!"
They ran down the empty street, fields of green on either side. Ahead were the woods, tall green trees with glowing orange bulbs hanging from them. The road continued through it, were the auto-paver was, still paving away and pushing the frontier back. They ran up to a small metal bridge the paver built over a creek in the middle of the woods.
They climbed down over to the side of the bridge into the creek. Besides the bridge, the area was untouched, the yellow sunlight seeping through the tall green tree line onto the brown and yellow ground, the critters of the native wildlife scuttled about. The waters of the creek continued downstream from the bridge. Wide, but shallow, the human and Quarian crossed back and forth, hopping on rocks as they followed the current downstream. All the while, they talked and laughed and played around as they enjoyed their day of exploration.
Kal picked up some sand at the edge of the creek.
"Wow, so that's what sand feels like."
"Hey Kal," said Jacob as he pointed a large rock in the middle of the creek. "I bet you can't make it from there."
He placed the sand in his pocket and scoffed at him, "Please. Watch me, Jacob."
From the edge of the creek, Kal backed up and ran straight for the creek. At the very edge, he pushed off and jumped, Jacob watched from another rock as the Quarian flew; he was clearly amazed at the sight. Kal held his arms out and forward, trying to get as close as possible.
Appearing too far back, he barely managed to land his right foot on the edge of the rock, millimeters from the water. With just that on the rock, he tried to balance, waving his arms wildly.
"See, I got… this—!"
He slipped and fell into the water. Jacob laughed as he jumped over to some other rocks and reached out to Kal, whom was disgruntled that he had ended up in the water. He took his friend's hand and Jacob pulled him out.
"See, I was right?"
"Oh, don't be a prazza, Jacob."
"How was the water?"
"This suit might be water tight, but I could still feel the cold!"
Kal quickly dried up and they continued down the creek a bit more. The ground just past the embankment rose a few meters from the ground, creating small cliffs that ran down each side of the creek. As they continued, they noticed something on the ridge opposite them. As they drew closer, it became clearer. It looked like a fort. Some old fallen logs and sticks were stuck together to form the wall and it overlooked the creek below. Though makeshift in all ways, it seemed rather well built and large. No one kid could have built it. As they approached it from their side of the river, someone shouted out from above the ridge.
"Halt!"
They turned around, seeing three boys on the ridge. In the center was a Quarian kid, around the same age as Kal. Flanking him was a Turian and a Batarian. All of them seemed to be wearing a uniform of sorts, blue and green with a yellow stash. The Quarian in the middle had a white stash instead. Jacob recognized that they were wearing the standard Terran Boy Scouts cap, though the Turian had his head spikes sticking out from the back.
"You have entered the territory of the Fort Jordon Brigade!"
The two turned to each other in confusion then looked back at them.
"The what?" asked Jacob, cocking an eyebrow.
"We are the local brigade of the United Terran Boy Scouts, New Haestrom Troop Q-7. I am its leader, Commander Mil'Glok Nar Austia!" He turned to his two subordinates. "And these are my lieutenants, Francisco Toval, and Burkal Xanbel."
"Uh, ok?" Kal was neither impressed or understood what that meant, "I'm Kal. This is Jacob."
"That's beside the point!" He jumped and slid down the slope to the embankment. The other two quickly followed. He walked over as his two lieutenants un-holstered their rubber band rifles and aimed at Kal and Jacob. "How do I know you're not Girl Scout spies!"
Jacob raised his arms up, "We're not!"
Kal looked at Mil, confused, "Do we look like girls?" he turned to Jacob, wondering why he had his arms up, "And what are you doing? They're not real guns."
Mil chuckled and pulled out a wooden rubber band pistol. He took aim and fired a rubber band, hitting Kal in the arm. He screamed as he grasped his arm from the sharp pinch that passed his suit's natural armor and bit him.
"Ah!"
"They hurt like hell!" Mil took aim again, "Now then. Talk!"
"Ok, fine, fine!"
As they waited for his response, Kal thought of a plan. He began making up some story, distracting them as he talked. He moved his hand into his pocket and grabbed what was inside.
"You see, we were just… Pocket Sand!" He threw the sand at them, blinding them for a brief moment. He turned back and gestured to Jacob. "Run for it!"
"So. Any career plans for the future?"
Back at the land lot, the Reegars continued discussing the future. Some other shuttles had landed nearby and the entire neighborhood was now gathering.
"Haven't thought about it," said Donn, "I was in the Marines for about a decade, right after Nelis and I got back from pilgrimage. After that long, and what happened on Illium, I just took the option to be discharged from service. The missus here was one of the scientists running the hydroponics on the Rayya."
"That's perfect," said Yeong, waving her arm over to the land, "One of the oldest programs we have for our veterans is the 'Swords for Plows' program, where we teach and aid soldiers to become farmers and ranchers on the colonies."
Taylor nodded, "My own dad took the program a few decades back. Had the first okra farm on Terra Nova, back when during the Golden Age."
Nelis crossed her arms, "A farmer? I was hoping for a job change! Not helping my husband after he kills his first batch of crops."
"A Marine to a farmer seems a tremendous change in scenery," replied Donn. He turned to his wife, "And I can surely grow a simple plant."
She chuckled, "You can't even get a VI to water the plants."
"It'll be fine. But how about you, Mrs. Reegar. Do you have any plans, or skills besides your old profession?" asked Yeong.
"Well, when I was on Pilgrimage, I learned how to cook from this asari while I was a waitress at this bar on Illium."
"That's how we met." Donn smiled under his mask.
Taylor chuckled, "How romantic."
"Oh please. He was trying to steal food because he spend all his credits trying to get out of the Terminus. If I didn't sneak him out through the back, he'd be in jail."
"Your little thief?"
She turned to him and nudged him, "You can say that, in more than one way. Anyway, when we had surplus crop on the Rayya, instead of nutrient paste, I'd save it and make a real meal for special occasions."
Taylor turned to her, "Taking food from the main supply?"
"As long as the Captain got some, he was fine with it. I could always get my way with him. Same goes for Donn here."
Taylor chuckled, "Back home, they say the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach."
She laughed, "When you have that down to a science, being a cook applies to a lot of fields."
Yeong had an idea. "A cook? Ah! Why don't you open a restaurant?"
"Start my own business?"
"Why not? Unlike the Fleet, we project a massive surplus of food and we are finalizing importing treaties with the Hierarchy. Image it: you leading the way in reviving ancient Quarian food delicacies. In fact, we have special government loans to help you start one up, with educational assistance from Harper Finances consultants."
Nelis thought about it, "My own restaurant…"
Donn looked back at the farmland, "A farmer, to feed those I once protected…"
"I wonder when exploring the stars will get boring?" Taylor said to himself, thinking of his own career choice. He looked down at the golden pip on his shirt, "Might as well go for admiral…"
Mil quickly wiped the sand off his mask.
"They're getting away! Open fire!"
Kal and Jacob began hopping across the creek, jumping from rock to rock. The three scouts took aim and fired. With each pull, a spiked cog at the back of their wooden weapons turned forward, unleashing a thick blue band at the front of their weapons. Around the two boys, high-tension rubber bands flew across the air, swishing right past them as they try to dodge.
"Oh man, oh man, oh man!"
"If they're here, that fort might be empty!" A rubber band hit him in the butt. "Ah! Bosh'tet! Let's get up the slope and hide in their fort!"
They got to the other side. Mil and his scouts began crossing as well, running through the waters as they fired at them. While they ran, they popped the old cog out and put in a new one, a rubber band on each spike. They hooked up all the bands at once at the front and pulled back, locking the wheels at the back.
"Don't let them escape!"
"These band aren't accurate at this range!" said Burkal.
"If we had a beanbag rifle, they be down by now," said Francisco.
"Oh, they'll get more than that! Signal the fort! Get the E.B.T. ready!"
"Over here!"
The two of them quickly climbed up the ridge and ran around the tree line to the entrance of the fort. Using a makeshift mash of rope and ceramic plates from colonial pre-fabs tied together, the doors of the fort were left a bit open. Not fully noticing it, Kal and Jacob and ran through. They quickly turned back and sealed the doors.
Once inside, they ran into the courtyard, but stop immediately. There was a makeshift, but fully functioning fort inside, complete with buildings, huts, and walkways along the tops of the walls. Inside it was about a two dozen Boy Scouts, mostly humans and Quarians, with some other races, armed to the teeth with more powerful, and painful, one-shot beanbag air compression musket rifles. In the middle of the courtyard was a tree stripped of branches acting as a flagpole with the United Boy Scouts of Terra. Next to it was a young Elcor, padded with cardboard armor with a Quarian sitting on top, who was manning a rotatable potato cannon.
One of the scouts yelled out, "Take aim!"
The young Elcor spoke with his race's signature monotone voice, "Badassfully: Elcor Battle Tank online. Kiss your ass goodbye."
Kal stood there, surprisingly calm and unemotional. He turned to Jacob and calmly spoke, "We're dead."
"Not just yet!" answered Jacob as he began formulating a plan.
"Fire!"
They all fired their single shot weapons at once; a wave of beanbags and a large chocolate potato came right at them. With a yell of fury, Jacob powered up his kinetics and unleashed a kinetic lash, knocking the scouts' munitions away. They all took cover, some even behind the Elcor, who brushed off the beanbags. The potato came right back and hit the flagpole tree, chipping away a chunk of the trunk. It remained standing thanks to multiple ropes tied to it from each main wall support.
"Hurry, take cover!"
The two ran for a stairway leading up to a walkway. Along the way, they each grabbed a rubber band pistol and a pump action beanbag shotgun.
At the doors of the fort, Mil and his team ran in, his entire brigade disorganized. He saw Kal and Jacob running up the perimeter of the wall, overlooking the courtyard.
"What the heck! You prazzas! Get them!"
They regrouped and reloaded as Kal and Jacob ran, heading to the other side.
"How the hell do we get out of this?" asked Jacob as he fired off a magazine wheel of rubber bands in the scouts' direction, making them scramble.
Kal stopped and fired of a beanbag round from the hip, hitting one scout before he ran off again, "Keelah, just keep running!"
Across the creek, on a branch high up in the trees shrouded by the orange flower bulbs, a different kind of scout sat there. As the chaos in the fort continued, the scout looked through her binoculars. She took down some notes of what was happening.
She then grabbed her radio and reported in, "Colonel, there appears to be a division in their ranks. The entire fort is in chaos."
"Good work. Keep us posted, moving troops outs."
"You made an excellent choice. This is a fashionable design. Less 'visiting', more 'staying'."
The Reegars had finally chosen a house design along with the other families with them. They watched as numerous large cargo shuttles came racing to their location from the city. They lined up and stopped in front of each family's lot, slowly hovering in position. At the Reegars' lot, they watched as a group of AI controlled LOKI mech drones dropped from the shuttle as a large pile of wood and carbon-metal plates was lowered on the ground.
With haste, the drones worked at lightning speed, building up the Reegars', and everyone else's, house with agile speed. From the foundation, they began laying down piping and wiring, and then built up from there.
"Ah, standard quick build. We can get a whole neighborhood built in an hour," said Yeong.
"I'm surprised you can build something so quickly," said Nelis.
"When you have the combined industry of dozens of worlds, you get this. Instant colonization!"
Taylor added on, "We've had practice after the Revival; everyone was rushing to quickly rebuild our home world after the Fallen Angel Deployment. We rebuilt Europe in a single year. Took a decade the century before and there were far less nuclear weapons back then. But you should have seen it in the old days during the decade of exploration. It took years just to build a small town on Eden Prime from a handful of colonists and a few prefab buildings."
"Imagine what we could build when we have Rannoch back," said Donn.
"It'd be nice if we could get those Geth bots to do it for us," commented Yeong.
Nelis giggled at the thought and nodded, "Make them rebuild what they destroyed. I like the sound of that."
"What? Oh yah, that. The irony sounds nice. And these stupid mechs are not cheap…"
Almost on cue as they were half way done, the mechs all stop. They walked to the front yard and quickly constructed some metal benches, which they all proceeded to sit on. From about half of them, smoke began to come out of their mouths in short intervals.
"Uh… what are they doing?" asked Nelis.
Yeong sighed, "The damn idiot controlling them is on a smoke brake."
"An AI is on a 'smoke break'?" she asked, staring at her in disbelief.
"Yah, I know. Unions! But what can you do. Speaking of which, about how to pay taxes…"
"They're reloading the Elcor!"
Down below in the courtyard, the Elcor slowly turned around as his gunner reloaded a potato into the muzzle and opened the chamber to spray human hairspray.
"Violently: Locked and Loaded."
Kal stood up with his shotgun and fired, hitting the gunner on top of the Elcor and knocking him to the ground. The other scouts regrouped and fired another devastating volley, but Jacob erected a barrier around them, protecting them as Kal pumped in another bag and started picking them off.
"Ha! It's just like training practice on the Fleet!" said Kal as he fired at the scouts below.
Jacob continued holding his barrier up as he fired with his other hand, "Heck, this is easy! I don't even have my own amplifier yet."
"That kid can handle a shotgun," said Francisco as he stayed behind the Elcor.
"Mil, how can we get past a biotic?" Asked Burkal.
Mil yelled out as he waved his hand in the air for all to see, "With more fire power! Break everything out!"
A few scouts retreated to the weapons' shed, and quickly came out with two more cannons. Each potato cannon crew quickly took aim and fired, unloading more high velocity potatoes at Jacob's barrier. He, in turn, held his ground. He dropped his pistol and held both his arms out as he kept their only protection up. But the strain on his un-amplified and still in training kinetics was starting to show.
"Never mind!" He yelled out, "Kal, do something!"
Kal took aim at anther scout, pulled the trigger, only to hear a click. He was out of ammo, "Give me a moment."
He looked around, trying to find a way to break through. There was yelling and commotion all around him as he took deep breaths and thought of a plan. He then noticed the Elcor, trying to get someone to man the turret on him.
"Angrily: Get the heck on that gun."
An idea came to mind. Next to him was one of the rope supports for the flagpole. Looking back to the Elcor, he grabbed hold of the rope and bashed at the support latch with his shotgun. It quickly gave way and Kal came swinging down at the Elcor.
"Keelah!" said Mil as he stopped and looked at the sight of the swinging Kal.
"Ah!" screamed out Kal all the while.
He jumped on top of Gam and manned the potato cannon. The scouts hesitated to shoot back, at risk of friendly fire. Gam the Elcor began rampaging quickly as he attempted to get rid of Kal. But Kal grabbed hold and took aim. He fired a shot, destroying one of the cannons as its crew jumped out of the way.
As Kal held onto the armor of the Elcor, trying to reload the cannon at the same time, Mil took action. He rushed over and grabbed the other cannon and prepped it himself. As Kal finished reloading, Mil took aim.
"Gam, get down!"
The Elcor complied and dropped to the ground. Mil took aim, but the lack of resistance gave time for Kal to do the same as well. In a split second, they both fired, two potatoes were in the air and headed in the same direction.
They collided, just off from dead center. Kal's turned and went towards the ground, several scouts jumped out of the way before it impacted in the ground. Mil's continued and collided with the flagpole. More bark was stripped off and the tree lost its structure.
There was a loud crack and then it gave way. Everyone stopped and turned as the flagpole began to tilt.
"It's coming down!" yelled Jacob.
They all scattered as the tree came down. But as the Elcor shrugged Kal off and ran for cover, Mil stood there, struck with horror. Kal saw him and he made a mad sprint for him. As the tree fell, Kal tackled him out of the way. They landed on the ground as the tree crashed into a hut, destroying it.
Face first in the ground, Kal rolled over, gasping. He looked over just as Mil jumped on him and attacked, Kal quickly blocked his punches and held them back.
"You bosh'tet! You destroyed the fort!"
"You were the one who fired first!"
Kal pushed him off and they both stood up. Jacob ran over, shotgun in each hand, but the other scouts blocked him.
"We were sent from New Rayya to secure the frontier! We are the only line of defense against the girls!"
"The girls? Are you crazy?! You're just scouts in some kid program!"
"You don't understand! This is bigger than any of us! All of New Haestrom is on the line!"
From behind, Francisco called out, "Mil, catch!"
He tossed him a beanbag shotgun and Mil took aim at the defenseless Kal.
Kal raised his arms up, "Don't be stupid!"
"If we lose the frontier, at least I can bring back the traitor who caused it!"
"Attack!"
The doors of the fort burst open and at the entrance was a squad of elite Girl Scouts. Consisting mainly of humans and Quarians, and like the boys had some Turians and Batarians, they had their green berets on; the green camouflaged patterns on their dresses and badge sash indicated they were special force scouts. The Quarian girls had a similar setup on their suits, metal plates with eye sockets where their regular masks would be. Unlike the boys, they were far better equipped.
Around the fort, grappling hooks flew up in the air and over the walls of the fort, more girls quickly climbed up and entered the fort. In moments, the girls surrounded the boys, each armed with more advanced beanbag auto-shotguns. At the doors of the fort, their leader walked in, a human girl with black hair and a black sash full of different badges.
"So, this is what Dewy sent to claim the frontier? A bunch of untrained, undisciplined boys with a shoddy excuse of a fort?"
Mil argued back, "At least we have one!"
She looked around, shaking her head as she saw the destroyed huts and fallen flagpole. "It'll take effort to fix this to our standards. But it'll do…"
"Who the hell are you?" asked Jacob.
"Me? I'm Colonel Trish Walterburg, United Terran Girl Scouts, and leader of the entire Troop R-9 of New Haestrom. My parents agreed to move here to help the Quarians colonize this place, so I took command and formed up the Girl Scouts for New Rayya City."
Jacob looked at her, dumbfounded, "Colonel? This isn't some paramilitary force. You're just a scout. What are you, thirteen? You should be selling cookies or something."
She chuckled, "You must be an Earther. The scouts do things differently in the colonies." She grabbed her custom meter ruler and unsheathed it, "Now then, Mil. Surrender this fort and I'll let you and your so called 'brigade' here leave unharmed."
"I will never surrender!"
"You poor fool. You're still as new to scouting as this Earther and the Quarian here that single-handedly took down your defenses. You already lost." She turned and looked at Kal. Looking through his mask, she was momentarily surprised by his appearance. She nodded in approval as she lightly pressed her ruler on Kal's chest, "Such a handsome boy. I wouldn't want to ruin your suit, and by extension, you. I'll let you and your friend here leave. Pretend this never happened."
Jacob turned to him, "Awesome, come on Kal. Let's get the heck out of this crazy mess."
"Just go," said Mil, "She's right. We did lose. Leave. You've done enough damage."
Kal looked around. The boys had given up; the girls held them at gunpoint as they laid down their arms and surrendered. Jacob walked up to him, gesturing at the entrance of the fort. Kal sighed and turned away, his head down as he joined Jacob. They slowly headed out. He felt bad for them. He felt terrible, and more importantly, responsible. He felt it was his fault for allowing the girls to take the fort.
He couldn't let it end that way. He turned to Jacob, signaling with a move of his head towards the main Girl Scouts holding the entrance. Jacob quickly showed tension on his face, knowing what his plan was, but Kal gave a stronger look through his mask. With no one noticing, Jacob reluctantly nodded in agreement.
As they reached the gates, they countered.
"Pocket Sand!"
"Kinetic Pimp Slap!"
The two quickly attacked the guards, blinding and knocking them back as they wrestled control away and took their auto shotguns. They quickly shot them with a beanbag round and turned back, opening fire on the Girl Scouts in the courtyard. A barrage of beanbags came flying at them. Trish and her personal squad dodged out of the way, but the ensuing chaos gave Mil all the time he needed.
"Take back the fort! For New Haestrom!"
Everyone began fighting. From the courtyard to the walkways along the wall, there was shouting and yelling as the boys and girls fought each other in hand-to-hand combat. In the courtyard, the Elcor Gam got up and began charging, knocking away the Girl Scouts as Mil, Francisco, and Burkal rallied a new line of defense in the courtyard.
"With immense enthusiasm: Bring it on!"
Kal and Jacob fought their way back in, unleashing the full power of their shotguns as they sprayed the area with air-compression fired beanbags. Kal was quick with his aim and precise, using what he learned from his father to take out several scouts on the walkway, as clean and efficiently as any Quarian Marine. Jacob raised a barrier with one hand and fired from the hip with the other as he cleared a way across the courtyard towards Mil and his scouts. He felt like those kinetics from the military propaganda videos.
Trish got back up and retreated towards the gate. But she wasn't ready to give up so quickly. She was set on taking the fort and making the boys suffer.
"Bring in the gun carriages!"
Her squad retreated with their wounded and the fit formed up at the gates. Locking them open, the girls took cover and fired back at the boys in the middle of the courtyard, taking cover behind the fallen flagpole tree. As Mil jumped back up on Gam to man the cannon, the girls' secret weapon arrived.
He yelled out, "Machine guns!"
Two off-road motor carts rolled up, blocking the gate. On each of them was a gunner manning a specially built rubber band machine gun. It had several dozen spiked cogs lined up in the back side-by-side, and hundreds of rubber bands stretched from them to the front of the gun. The gunners turned them at the boys and when Trish pointed with her ruler, they fired. Each cog turned one after the other with unmatched speed, unleashing a volley of rubber bands.
The boys took cover as the entire courtyard filled up with rubber bands. When one gun depleted, the gunner simply slid off the base holding the cogs and loaded a new cog house in, simultaneously stretching them, before firing again. Even Gam the Elcor was chafing from the fire, his armor being chipped away. Mil took aim with the cannon and fired.
The potato made its mark and hit one of the guns. It exploded, sending hundreds of stretched rubber bands flying in all direction.
"I'm out!"
The second one concentrated its fire on them. Trish rallied her squad and the girls launched a counterattack to take down the boys and capture the fort once and for all. Kal moved his way over to Mil.
"I have a plan! We need to attack!"
"What?! We'll be slaughtered!"
"Damn it, do you want this fort? Trust me! I'm your only hope!"
"Ah fine." He turned to his boys, "Scouts, forward! Attack!"
"Jacob, cover me!"
"Barrier up!"
They broke out and began charging, matching the girls' own charge in a massive clash. As they attacked, Kal ran through the line, Jacob protecting him with a barrier. They got over and Kal grabbed one of the potato cannons he disabled earlier. Dodging fire from both sides and quickly fixing it in the heat of battle, he got close enough and held the cannon at his hips.
"Now, do it now!"
Kal took aim, "Say hello to my little friend!"
He fired, and with a lightning response, the gun was gone, all its rubber bands flew out in every direction. Jacob ran over to him and they watched the Girl Scouts retreat.
"We… we did it–"
In the commotion, Trish's squad charged at them one last time, distracting the rest of the Boy Scouts. Trish herself, ruler in hand, charged at Kal. Jacob stepped forward to stop her. They engaged in hand-to hand-combat before she gained the upper hand. First with a quick slap across his face as she twisted back, then a solid punch going the other way across his face.
She pushed Jacob out of the way and turned to Kal, her ruler out.
"I gave you quarter. I showed you mercy! But now you will pay!"
"You're crazy!"
"And you're handsome! But it won't save you today!"
As she began to swing, there was a loud hoot. All of a sudden, the rock owl with a blue ribbon around its neck came swooping down and began to attack Trish, flapping its wings as it clawed her face. She panicked and ran about, trying to get the owl out of her face. Finally, she got it off, but her squad and her troop scouts were retreating altogether.
"This isn't over! Tell Dewy all of New Haestrom will belong to the Girl Scouts!"
She ran off and boarded the motor cart as they left the fort. All the boys walked over, confirming for themselves that they had actually driven the girls and saved the fort. As Mil walked over to them, the owl landed on top of Kal's head.
Kal looked up, "Hey, the Turian looking bird did come back!"
Mil walked up to Kal. He first he socked him in the stomach, and then hugged him.
"You saved us! You saved the fort and your fellow boys!"
Kal moaned, grasping his stomach, "Yah, you're welcome."
"I was wrong about you."
"You did shoot at us."
Mil chuckled a bit, then sighed as he rubbed his headband, "Oh yah, that. Well," he confessed, his tone much more apologetic, "This is my first assignment. Dewy formed the local Boy Scouts here and he recruited me when I moved to New Rayya. With this being my first assignment, and with a command no less, I couldn't let Dewy down. And you saw those girls! This is war. And they are way better equipped and trained than we are."
"Well, it's a good thing my dad taught me some Marine tactics."
"Happily: The way you hijacked my over-mount cannon, and when you fired a cannon all by yourself and took out that machine gun. That was pretty badass."
Kal chuckled, "Yah, I guess it was. Like the stories of my grandfather, Captain Reegar."
Mil focused on that last word, not hearing his full sentence, "Wait, you're a Reegar? Keelah, I shouldn't be surprised. You said you're the grandson of Captain Reegar?"
"Yup! The famous Faunz'Reegar Vas Iktomi!"
"Faunz'Reegar?" His excitement died down, "I must have misheard. I thought you said Captain Jazlin'Reegar Vas Deferens?"
Jacob turned to Kal, "Who's that?"
Kal sighed, "My great aunt. Mil must be from the part of the Fleet that idolizes her instead."
"Don't get me wrong," said Mil, "Kal's grandfather is famous, but Jazlin'Reegar had her own legend. So, who are you?"
Jacob answered with pride, "I'm Jacob Taylor! The grandson of Commodore Taylor!"
They all stared at him, a bit confused, but more so unimpressed.
"Taylor. You know, the captain of the Homestead? Who discovered your race and offered you membership onto the Federation? Who liberated Ilium from slavers?"
"Uh… right," answered Mil.
"Oh, screw you, too!"
"I mean your biotics were very impressive."
Jacob crossed his arms and continued pouting and grumbling.
Kal spoke, "Don't worry about him. He just wants attention."
"Such a lovely house."
The Zorahs stood on what was the now the front lawn of their new home. The LOKI mechs were finishing up the outside, installing gutters and painting the outside. The house was a two-story building, following a classic mid-21st century design of a hybrid of 1950s Americana and 2130s Europa architecture with modern building material. One LOKI mech even placed a lawn ornament of a pink bird with long legs.
"What's with the pink thing?" asked Rael.
"We call it a flamingo. Real popular on old Terra," replied Yeong. "Oh, that reminds me." She turned to Tali, "One of the luxury provisions for the colonization act here is that we provide a pet to all families with a child."
"A pet?"
"Just the small ones. I had to make it clear we do not have varrens, dogs, or cats. Just small mammals like guinea pigs, chinchillas, and rats. Hehe, a suit rat with a pet rat."
"That's not funny," said Rael.
"Who's the powerful AI here? Me! Now then… uh, there's also space hamsters and…"
The name caught Tali's interest, "Space Hamster?"
"A technicality, they're an Earth pet just born in space. I have some in the back, if you'd like to see one. The department sent me these new breeds, Giant Roborovski Dwarf Hamsters."
She turned to Rael and tugged on his suit, "Could I, Father?"
"Okay, okay, Tali."
Yeong walked back to her car and grabbed a plastic ball and a cage full of supplies from the back seat. She walked back and placed the cage down, then knelt down to give her the ball. Tali held her hands out and took the plastic ball, seeing a small, fourteen centimeter fury rodent inside. It was asleep and she leaned her mask in to see it, fascinated.
"Ooh…"
It woke up and Tali quickly pulled her head back, startled. As it scratched itself with its tiny hands, looking around its environment, Tali leaned in closer to it. She could feel it as it ran around in the plastic ball. The hamster then turned to her and gave her a confused look, tiling its head as it stood up and leaned towards her. It made soft and high pitch squeaks.
"Keelah… it's so cute! Father, Mother can I have it? Please?"
"What do you think, Yulia?"
She giggled, "I think it's a cute little pet for her."
"I think that settles it."
"Yay! Now, what to name you…" She stared at the hamster, looking hard as she thought about a name. The hamster simply sat there, waiting for an answer as it looked at Tali's white eyes with its big black ones, "I know! Mother, what was the name of Admiral Ghirn's combat drone she used when she was young?"
"I remember seeing a vid once. What was it…? Ch… Chikttika?"
"That's it," said Rael, "She got it from the Paus, I believe. One of my research vessels."
"That's it then!" she exclaimed before turning back to the hamster, "You are now Chikttika Vas Paus!"
The hamster squeaked happily.
"Squeak!"
"So, how did you get stuck with these losers, Gam?" asked Kal.
While the rest of the boys held the fort, a few of them began heading back to the new neighborhood, awaiting the reinforcements from New Rayya. They all sat in a large cart, Gam the Elcor pulled it behind him they traveled down the main road.
"Proudly: I am the son of the Elcor ambassador for the Quarians, stationed in New Rayya. Mil and Dewy persuaded me to join their group."
"With a cannon on your back, you're literally a walking tank," said Jacob.
"Sternly: Most Elcor don't like having weapons mounted on them. They think it's a dishonor. But I think it makes me look like a badass."
The owl, still on Kal's head, began flapping its wings and hooting a bit.
"The owl agrees."
After a few more minutes, they arrived back at Kal's new house. He looked on at it, amazed at the new house that wasn't there a few hours ago.
"Whoa!"
"The United Family Act?"
"Yes…"
The four of them were inside the new living room as the mechs finished up construction. One walked over to the front door and extended its body upward, carrying a drill and four portraits. It began drilling four screws above the door and hung the portraits on them. Three of them were in a row just above the doorframe. The one in the middle was of President Jonathan Bowman, with the tag line on his portrait that said, 'Our President of Exploration', flanked on the left by Councilor Anita Goyle, 'Our Councilor of the Galaxy' and on the right Speaker of the House Miguel Guzman, 'Our Speaker of the People'. The fourth portrait went above Bowman's and was of Head Founder Thomas Anderson, with the additional tagline on his portrait saying, 'Our Grand Founder'.
"Yes, so when the Quarians entered the Federation, several clauses of the standing Species Preservation Act came into effect."
"What's that?" asked Nelis.
"To safeguard Humanity's evolutionary future in the wake of unity, this bill was created to dictate the preservation and physical digression of Humanity. It was worded however, given that we knew there could be life on other worlds, to include any sentient alien race that was a citizen of the Federation," replied Yeong.
"So, this 'United Family Act' is just a formalization of a measure from the Act?"
She nodded, "Yes, for legal and budgetary reasons. Under this act, the government and the DIA considers your race, the Quarians, to be… an 'endangered species'. While Humanity has thirty billion and the Batarians have nine billion, you only have seventeen million. That's very low for a post-industrial, space faring race."
Donn spoke, "So to fix this, the Act requires me and Nelis to have more children?"
"Four more, to be exact. Five in total," she said with enthusiasm, one the Reegars did not share, "That's why this house has five bedrooms. For all the little babies you'll have running around the house. It'll be so adorable!"
"Most families only have one child and are lucky to have a second," said Nelis warily.
"And now you'll have at least five! All in service to the Federation."
The two turned to her, "We don't want more children."
Yeong answered, trying to persuade them, "Did I mention you'll get large tax incentives for each kid?"
"Does it matter?"
She spoke again, with the same enthusiasm, though what she said next was less encouraging and more threatening, "Did I also mention that if you don't produce a child within a certain time frame, you'll both be arrested for treason against the state?"
Taylor turned to Yeong, "They could be arrested?!"
"Don't act surprised, Commodore. It's the same for humans who have more than one child on Earth. I assure you all, this is for the good of every race in the Federation."
"Donn, we need to talk to Admiral Koris about this. This is outrageous! They're trying to breed us!" exclaimed Nelis.
"I don't see the problem. Before your race's exile, Quarians were known for their large family clans. And with a gestation period of four months, you can pop them out in two years easy!"
They all turned and looked at the AI, bewildered at what she had said. This time, the AI noticed, and decided to back track. The other families she had talked to weren't that angry with her over the different measures of the Species Preservation Act. Though she hadn't said it as directly to them as she had the Reegars.
"Uh… tax rebates!"
From the empty front door, Kal and Jacob came in, looking around as the LOKI mechs finished up.
"Is this our new home?" asked Kal as he walked up to them.
"It sure is, Kal. Our new house!" said Donn, trying to divert the subject.
"And you're also going to be a big brother!" said Yeong cheerily, only to be met by a harsh glare from both parents.
"Ah!" Kal's eyes grew larger, two large white dots outside his mask as he was frightened by the thought.
Jacob laughed and turned to Donn, "Dang, Mr. Reegar. You and the missus already did it? You Quarians get down fast!"
Taylor slapped Jacob in the back of the head, "That's not an appropriate thing to say, Jacob!"
Donn turned to Yeong, "Will you mute yourself?" He then noticed that Kal's suit was dirty, and there was a sleeping bird on his head. "And why is your suit all dirty? And what is this bird on your head?"
Yeong turned to him, "See, the owl came back! Speaking of which, your son here is entitled to a pet."
"Really?!" asked Kal.
Jacob turned to him, "A dog. Easy. I had one when I was younger."
"Well, it has to be a small mammal. Oh, how about a hamster? Almost everyone in your neighborhood got one."
A second Yeong walked in, carrying a small plastic ball with a hamster in it. Kal took it and looked at it. The hamster looked up at him with eagerness. But Kal looked at it, disgusted.
"This? This is stupid. I don't want a bubble rat as a pet, or as a sibling!"
The hamster squeaked in disappointment. The rock owl then woke up and noticed the hamster with its sharp eyes. It began squawking about as it flailed its wings, startling the hamster. The second Yeong then took the hamster away and quickly left.
Kal looked up at his head, "Awesome!"
The first Yeong sighed, "Those dang owls."
Kal turned to her, "Can I have the owl instead. It's way cooler!"
"Hmmm. We were supposed to release them. New Haestrom isn't as biologically diverse as we thought, so we are releasing animals like these. Though Amaterasu is a levo world, this owl is dextro based."
"Please? I promise to be nice to my new bubble rat, uh, I mean sibling."
"Come on, Ms. Yeong. Give us that at least," asked Donn.
"Oh fine. You can have the owl."
"Awesome! Now what to call you…" He turned to Nelis, "Mom, what's the name of that Turian that tried to kill Auntie Miri when she was young?"
Nelis responded, confused, "Admiral Marcus Junius. Are you sure that's a good…?"
"Perfect!" He looked up at the top of his helmet, "You are now Admiral Marcus Junius!"
The owl simply nodded and hooted.
"Hoot."
Kal held his arm out, signaling the owl to fly over and nest on his arm. Instead, the owl suddenly became aggressive and attacked Ms. Yeong. The AI began panicking as she tried to swat the Turian-looking bird off, bumping into mechs as she tried to shake it.
Donn placed his arms around Kal and Nelis as they looked at the AI being attacked by an owl in their new home. He sighed with relief.
"We are truly home now."
As Mil and the others waited outside, an off-road motor cart came down the other side of the road towards them. It was modded into a truck with a carriage in the back. It was full of Boy Scouts from New Rayya.
As Mil stood up from their cart, the leader of their reinforcements greeted them.
"Commander Mil!" he said, saluting him.
"Lieutenant Bruce." Mil saluted back, "Are these my reinforcements?"
"Yes, sir. Dewy got your message. That must have been a heck of a fight. But he sends his congratulations for holding the frontier. We have the equipment needed to make sure we hold it for good."
"That's great."
"And Gam."
"Seriously: Yes?"
"Your dad back at the embassy is looking for you. I think you're in trouble."
"Lamely: Oh man…"
Tali overheard the commotion and turned around. She noticed the truck of scouts in front of her house. She was right across the street from the Reegars. She walked up to them, holding on to Chikttika's ball.
"Who are you?" she asked.
One of them turned around and peered over the railing, "Why we, ma'am, are the elite Boy Scouts of New Haestrom. We are the protectors of this region, an army of liberators!"
"An army?" She looked at them, confused, "Shouldn't scouts be doing camping trips or tying ropes?"
"Please. We boys get to do all the fun stuff. Now go run along like a girl."
As they all laughed, Tali became angry. She opened her hamster ball and placed the furry creature in her hands. None of them were looking as she whispered to it,
"Go for the optics, Chikttika…" She then tossed her hamster up in the air over to them, yelling out, "Go for the optics!"
They turned around, seeing the hamster fly at them, squeaking with rage and fury. As Tali watched, all the boys in the truck began running and struggling about as the hamster jumped back and forth, clawing at their faces with its cute little claws.
"My eyes! My special eyes!"
"Command, we're under attack!"
"Meep!"
"Squeak!"
And all the while, Tali stood there, staring up at them as the hamster attacked them. She giggled to herself with devilish delight at the sight.
"Good girl!"
As Ms. Yeong ran out of the house, still being attacked by the owl, the Reegars and Taylors walked out and headed back to the shuttle. The Reegars were staying, and another shuttle was coming by with prefab furniture from IKEA, whom had won the furnishing contract for the entire planet. But as the Homestead's shuttle waited, the Taylors were heading back.
"So when are we heading back to Earth?" asked Jacob.
"Earth? My ship is set for at least a month's worth of exploration along the Terminus border," replied Taylor.
"But how am I supposed to get back to Earth? School's about to start."
Taylor turned to him as they waited in front of the shuttle, "Jacob. Do you even know where your dad is?"
Jacob thought about it, "Uh… no. Do you, Grandpa?"
"I don't either, Jacob. And I have no intention of sending you back to Earth alone."
"Wait, so…"
Taylor smiled, "You're coming with me, boy. Exploring the galaxy with your old grandpa."
Jacob smiled, "Awesome!"
Donn walked up to him, "Heading out, Commodore?"
Taylor nodded, looking back at the new house, "We're a young race, still heading out into the galaxy. But for you, I think this is a best a time as any to just settle down."
"You humans have a saying," said Nelis as she stood beside her husband, "Home is where the heart is."
"But it's good to be able to stand on it," replied Taylor as he surveyed the land that now belonged to the Quarians, "Now then, Jacob."
"Yes, Grandpa?"
"Say your goodbyes. We need to be off. There are reports of a star that recently went nova a few dozen light years from here."
"Stars blowing up? Count me in. Bye Mr. and Mrs. Reegar!"
"Bye Jacob," said Nelis as Donn nodded to him.
"Bye Kal. You have my gamer tag on FOG, right?"
"DePriz026, right? Remember, mine is ADMWIN1. Later!"
They climbed on board and waved goodbye as the shuttle activated its engine. The hatch shut and they began their climb up towards the evening sky. The three Quarians looked up as it grew smaller until it finally disappeared. When it was gone, Donn placed his arms around them and they headed back in. All the while, Ms. Yeong was rolling on the lawn as Junius attacked her while her other projections tried to get the bird off.
Posted on August 1, 2017 - Beta-read by MoonSword1994
