- CHAPTER FOUR -
Alarms bells spurred villagers out of their wooden huts and into the cobblestone streets, a ragtag assembly of humanity that dwelt in this European frontier forest. Some were City refugees, some were here by choice, but most were here because this was their motherland. If there is one thing humanity does well, it is reproduction, especially when the species is on the verge of extinction.
"Good morning everyone," said Yi Yi, still dressed in dirty gardening clothes. He stood on a metal platform that acted as the village square, flanked by his teenage students. Several hundred sleepy faces looked up to him in silence. Not even the babies cried. "Fallen skiffs will arrive by nightfall. Cabal harvesters will investigate. I believe they will fight each other, but our crops will suffer collateral damage. Instead, my fireteam will draw all of their attention away from the farms and village."
On cue, two jumpships swooped down over the village square. The villagers cheered, recognising the glossy silver-blue Runereed and the shiny teal-purple Regent Redeemer. Their respective pilots transmatted onto the village square in flashes of blue and purple light, decked in lustrous armour the same colour as their respective ships: Shover-2 and Callisto. They stood with Yi Yi who, in a flash of orange light, now wore glorious red and gold robes.
Then Shover-2 shoved Yi Yi off the platform and into the mud. She bent over him with a question in her glowing blue eyes.
"I am protected," Yi Yi replied with a thumbs-up.
"SPACE HAS A TERRIBLE SECRET," she agreed, then helped him up with one hand.
With muddy face, hair and robes, Yi Yi finished his speech to the villagers. "My fireteam will defend you, but you must teach your children to defend themselves from the Fallen and Cabal. Our vaults are open to you. Cullen and Cass will distribute gear. Let's protect our home!"
The villagers cheered again, then dispersed to organise their militia. The two jumpships moved out of the village airspace to land in an empty field beside a third jumpship: the radiant red-gold Breath of Stars. Three little machines drifted out of their docking ramps to meet each other, winking their cyclopean eyes.
"Hello, Tac and Solaire!"
"PUSHER. SOLAIRE."
"TAC, PUSHER, BE LIKE THE SUN! PAINT YOURSELVES GOLD THIS INSTANT."
"It's so good to meet you fellows again," said Pusher, smiling as much as a tiny robot with only one eye and no mouth can smile. "Shover killed a whole nest of Hive on Titan before we left."
"GLIMMER. NESSUS," Tac said, summarising the days Callisto spent hoarding glittering cubes like a draconic Ahamkara.
"YI YI CULTIVATES PHOTOSYNTHETIC ORGANISMS. HUMANS EAT THEM. THAT MEANS HUMANS EAT THE SUN!" Solaire remarked with a twirl of his shell.
"I wish you Ghosts wouldn't gossip so much," said Cass, who was wheeling a cart from one of the ships. "It's unprofessional."
"You can criticise us after you've lived three hundred years," Pusher shot back.
"Is that how old this gear is?" asked Cullen, who was also moving weapons and armour from another ship.
"Don't be silly!" Pusher snorted. "The City foundries resumed operations after the Red War. Even the best metal would oxidise to dust after centuries, Golden Age supertech be damned."
Cullen and Cass spent the whole morning outfitting the militia. The biggest men and women donned Shover's bulky heavy armour, the average-sized villagers wore Callisto's medium armour, and the smallest wrapped Yi Yi's plated robes about their bodies as best they could. The weapons were less of a logistical problem, for they accommodated both large hands and small. From rocket launchers to sidearms, every able-bodied man, woman and teenager carried at least three tools for ballistic engagement.
After lunch, veteran villagers assisted the three warriors in weapons training. The average frontier person was accustomed to using pistols, rifles and shotguns for small skirmishes, but they had never seen anything like these⦠these were tools designed to end wars. Training began with three basic disciplines: muzzle, trigger and ammo. Then they taught stances: how to stand, kneel or lie prone without injuring themselves or each other from weapon recoil or backblast. Finally, they taught how to load ammunition. Only then did they allow the villagers to start shooting at crude targets set up well away from anything flammable.
It was a beautiful sight. The targets exploded, the ground exploded, the rocks and trees behind the targets exploded, and Yi Yi started cursing loudly about burning the whole damn forest down before the enemy even got here. Thankfully, the villagers were able to contain the blaze they started. Solaire danced and sang among the flames and was quite put out when someone chucked water over him.
Then the evening came, bringing with it the unnerving sight of four skiffs decloaking less than a kilometer from the farm fences. Yi Yi put down his binoculars and put on his helmet.
"Cullen, Cass, protect the village from stragglers. We'll do the rest."
"Yes, Master!" the teenagers shouted with a salute.
While the three warriors mounted their Sparrows and zipped away, the villagers waved farewell. Some waved handkerchiefs; others waved tattered flags of long dead warriors. They were ready.
"Amazing how much time you waste here," Callisto said over their private fireteam comms.
"Hey, we're not all godslayers like Axis-15," Yi Yi snapped. "Some of us plant corn."
