3350, Unknown Shield World, Outpost Fare, Sublevel
"All personnel, get to combat ready positions. I repeat: all personnel get to combat ready positions. Unknown aircraft are en route to us. Get ready people."
Alarms flared throughout the outpost as all army personnel quickly ran to their stations, getting ready for the worst possible situation.
Kitha took the lead as she ran ahead of her team, careful not to bump into other soldiers that ran passed them.
It was still such a surprise. For nearly the past hour, Kitha was having a meeting with Fare's commanding officer about the situation in space. And then sensors detected a massive force of spacecraft descending to the planet's surface, and these spacecrafts seemed to belong from different races!
Analyzation from scans found out that these small ships were indeed military; x-rays gave visuals of missiles and weapon placements within those fighters. No one knew just how effective these weapons were, so everyone was getting ready for the worst.
The situation got direr when Rahkoan air defenses around the planet began shooting at the unknown spacecraft. Many of them were shot down, the skies were filled with exploding fireballs and clouds of black smoke. These unknowns aren't faring well at all.
Kitha couldn't keep track of all the alien spacecraft that got destroyed when she saw the video feed, but it was close to a hundred.
She (along with everyone else) hoped these unknown aliens would not consider them as enemies, or just focus their aggression on the Rahkoans. They had enough problems to deal with already.
Kitha activated her radio as she turned another corner, her teammates running behind her. "This is Chief 'Kiromai to Urs squad. Report in."
"This is Urs Four-One," responded Vorik. "My team are reinforcing the vehicle depot. The others are providing aid to Fare's east side."
"Affirmative, Four-One. We're making our way to assist the lookouts. Continue helping our brethren and report any issues to Fare's Lieutenant. Over."
"Affirmative, sister. Out."
"Warning to all personnel!" came Fare's commanding officer on the intercom. "Unknown spacecraft are commencing a bombing run. Brace for impact."
Kitha stopped dead on her tracks and activated her magnetic footlocks, before gesturing her team to do the same. She watched all other army personnel around her followed suit, all of them prepared to brace the worst explosions or shockwaves.
Not long after, everything around them began to shake. However, it wasn't as strong as when the unidentified Forerunner craft flew out of the dyson sphere. This was barely as strong as a mild earthquake.
This meant the outpost's armor were more than capable of resisting the bombs dropped from the unknown attackers.
And not long after, the shaking stopped.
"Bombing run is over. We received direct hits but suffered no damages and shields remain strong. Everyone, proceed to your stations and report on any emergencies."
With that said, the corridor was filled in a flux of activity as everyone went back to rushing to their destinations.
Kitha felt a familiar sense of urgency and adrenaline pump throughout her body, and had no doubt her team had some version of it too. This beckoned her to run at a faster pace, fueled the determined warrior spirit present in all Sangheili.
The next few minutes became nothing more than a blur to Kitha. She and her team were too focused on running through different sections of the base they didn't keep track of time.
They turned corners, rushed up a few flights of stairs, and had to go through an area filled with troopers. Navigating through them wasn't difficult at all because everyone ran to their stations in an organized manner, preventing the worry of people bumping into each other.
"Hey!" Kitha stopped just an inch away from the door, her team immediately followed suit. She turned around to the one who called her only to see two technicians by an active teleporter.
"Are you Urs Actual?" asked the technician on the left.
"Yes," Kitha answered.
"The teleporters are operational now, this one is calibrated to where you need to go. A lookout team already went through! Get over here and use it!"
Kitha didn't respond, she made a gesture to her team before sprinting to the teleporter.
After stepping onto the bright blue panel, Kitha's vision was briefly consumed in a white light. This was normal in teleportation, and did not deduce any harm. And for anyone in the MWR, this was a regular thing in their lives.
In less than a second, the Sangheili Ascetic materialized in different part of the base; where she and her team needed to be.
She saw a squad of soldiers waiting on the other side. They stood by the doors that led to the roof. Most of them were discussing with the squad leader or checking their equipment, and a few were watching the outside camera feed on their TACPADs.
Kitha glanced behind herself to see the rest of her team to appear before her one at a time in flashes of light.
"Let's go," Kitha said to her fellow Ascetics before walking to the squad of soldiers, they team followed suit in formation.
As they got close, the squad leader stopped his conversation with his troops and approached them.
The computing systems in Kitha's armor automatically linked with the squad leader and the rest of his group. Her HUD began outlining their names, ranks, and the status of their health which was all green.
/SERGEANT LIAM O'REILY. LOOKOUT SQUAD DELTA./
"Good to have all of you here, Chief," said the Sergeant as he gave a salute.
Kitha responded with a light bow. "Likewise, Sergeant. What's the status outside?"
O'Reily began typing on his TACPAD which emitted a large holographic screen for all to see. It showed live camera footage from outside the outpost.
The ground near the building was covered in craters, some of which combined to form large ditches that could trap groups of people. However, the walls showed no signs of damage, and reminded Kitha of the Lieutenant's announcement.
Direct hit from a bombardment and no damages.
Not even a scorch mark.
"Our airspace is clear. No breaches on our defenses," he began. "Orders are to stay inside and monitor everything from here for the time being."
"Attention! Attention!" came the Lieutenant over the intercom. "Another wave of unknown fightercraft are en route to us now. Scans also identified dropships. All personnel, brace for another bombing run."
No one said another word as they all magnetized their feet to the floor. And began distancing from themselves by a few meters, preventing anyone from falling onto each other if these unknown strikecraft use stronger explosives.
Despite everything going on, O'Reily kept the holographic screen active. Live feed still shown from the outside.
Not long after, the top half of the screen became filled with swarms of strikecraft zooming past the camera's visual range.
The floor beneath them began to shake as the unknown spacecraft dropped bombs, filling the live feed with a flashes of red and orange from the explosions. This forced the camera to compensate by adjusting the lighting and saturation so it could record clear visuals by making the explosions be near transparent.
This went on for minutes, but it felt longer. Watching what seemed to be dozens of alien strikecraft flying by and dropping explosives. Many of them fell directly on the base itself, forcing the energy shielding to shimmer as it covered the actual walls from the explosions. Some of the alien craft carelessly bombed away from the outpost, riddling the grass-filled valley with large craters.
As time went on, the explosions began to cease as it seemed the actual fighters and bombers decreased. This left groups of boxier ships to zoom by the camera's feed.
Unlike the strikecraft, these boxy ships all shared the same exact design. There was no other difference besides some of them sporting different colourings or patterns.
And then the skies were clear, the bombings have finally ceased.
The once lush valley had been reduced into mounds of mud and craters, some of them large enough to swallow tanks.
"Is it finally over?" asked one of O'Reily's men as he walked closer to the screen.
"No, scanners are picking up two spacecraft," alerted a Corporal in the middle of the group, his eyes trained on his TACPAD. "One is coming in fast."
"Location?"
"In front of our camera. Looks like a crash landing."
Kitha turned back to the screen. And true to what the Corporal said, one of the alien ships came the camera's direct line of sight.
The alien vessel landed hard against the dirt and skidded a few dozen meters forward. Clouds of black smoke and dirt filled the air as some parts of it emitted flames.
This ship was one of the boxier the ones, its outer hull was blood red with black claws painted over them. The exterior was extensively damaged, riddled with smoking bullet holes and some parts of the metal coating were burnt to a crisp. And fires erupted from a gaping hole on the front of the ship.
The second spacecraft came into view, it was identical to the first but sported a black and gold colour palate. It showed no signs of damages whatsoever, and hovered around its crashed ally, most likely looking for survivors.
Kitha reactivated her radio. "This is Chief 'Kiromai to Lieutenant Powaski. Come in, Powaski."
"Affirmative, 'Kiromai. Report in," responded the Lieutenant.
"We have visual on two unknown spacecraft. Check the live feed from Lookout Point A. Over."
"Affirmative, 'Kiromai. We are already watching the feed. We are trying to sort out a First Contact Package."
"Please elaborate."
"The planetwide EMP damaged the data files with the First Contact Packages, including the backups," he explained. "Technicians from here and the other outposts are coordinating to rush out a new one."
"Something's happening," stated O'Reily, getting Kitha to look back to the screen.
The camera zoomed into the side of the crashed spacecraft which shook and quaked from the inside, something strong was bashing it. And not long after, the wall was sent flying over a meter, tumbling against the dirt before falling flat on the ground.
A hulking figure stumbled forward out of the wreckage, a thick black cloud of smoke coming out of the ship's interior.
This thing was large, roughly the size of a Jiralhanae but not as big or bulky. It was completely covered in layers of heavy armor that was no doubt pressurized. Burn marks were seen covering portions of the blood red paint, along with gashes damaging the white skulls on the shoulder pads.
But what got everyone focused on was the weapon in its hands. It appeared as a large and heavy cylinder with a symbol incredibly familiar to a. . .
'Wait. . .'
And then the alien aimed the weapon towards them, an orange light building up from within the barrel.
/DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!/
The holoscreen immediately flashed in red warning lights.
"Detecting high levels of energy!" warned the Corporal.
And then the alien fired its weapon, launching a ball of black and orange energy heading to the far left side in fast speeds.
"Everyone brace!" ordered O'Reily as the energy ball left the camera's point of view.
An enormous explosion shook everything around them, the shock was stronger than the earthquake hours earlier. Everyone maintained their footing due to their mag boots, despite the chaotic shaking.
The holoscreen showed nothing but a near-blinding white. However, the camera itself wasn't destroyed as the colours began shifting and changing to eliminate the blinding flare.
"Were we just hit by a nuke?" asked Haeiyo as he remained calm with everything that transpired.
"No, not detecting any fallout," answered the Corporal.
"We've been hit by unknown high yield weaponry. Turret Tower B has sustained damage; shutting down for self-repairs. No other damages reported," said the Lieutenant over the intercom. "Greenlight to engage unknown forces."
Everyone diverted their attention back on the holoscreen and saw that the camera filtered out the white flash. The feed was clear again, showing the alien fiddling with the weapon in its hands, possibly loading it.
A large bolt of plasma was fired from the heavy turret out of the camera's view. The bolt hit the alien's exact location, consuming it and the vessel behind him in a fiery explosion.
The second vessel was blown away from the blast and forced to spin around somewhat madly. It was dangerously close to crashing against the ground, but managed to stabilize itself just in time. However, this kind of peace didn't last as the heavy turret fired again; the vessel exploded into a violent fireball after being struck by the plasma, leaving fires and plumes of black smoke.
"There goes peaceful First Contact," commented an Army trooper.
"That chance was gone when they bombed us," said his partner.
"This is Powaski to Lookout Squads. Outside vicinity is clear, you can take your positions in the lookout posts," said the Lieutenant. "If there is any presence of high yield weaponry like that, you are to retreat back into Fare ASAP."
"This is Squad Alpha, affirmative."
"Squad Beta, affirmative."
"Squad Gamma, affirmative."
"This is Squad Delta, affirmative." O'Reily pulled the SPAR from his back.
Kitha immediately did the same, and watched as everyone around her followed suit. She looked at O'Reily for a moment and gave him an affirmative nod.
The Sergeant took out his TACPAD and pressed the interface, causing the doors behind him to open.
Without another word said, everyone quickly ran out those doors with organization and purpose.
3350, Unknown Shield World, Northern Continent
Calem stopped in front of a high cliffside, granting him a view of unknown alien soldiers gathering close to a cave. He knew why they were there, and he acted fast.
There was a squad of the aliens taking cover behind some kind of APC as it laid suppressing fire from its machinegun. One by one, they briefly peered out of cover to try and shoot what's inside.
Calem knelt into a prone and reached for the extened barrel on his side. He brought out his Bludgeoner with his other hand and tightened the extension onto the gun's barrel. Lastly, he took out a specialized sniper scope and attached it to the top.
He aimed at the APC's turret and activated his helmet's x-ray vision, his crosshairs fixed on the gunner. This also allowed him to see the locations of the vehicle's crew, such as the driver.
He noticed that the aliens' skeletons shared some traits to avians, but he pushed these curiosities aside. Now was not the time for it, he could always look into it later.
"I say again: all nearby MWR forces respond! I am taking fire from hostile forces!" came in a female voice.
"This is Black Three-One, I hear you. Remain in cover while I provide assistance."
"Copy."
Calem pulled the trigger, the round hit the target instantly. The projectile pierced the armor like paper, obliterating the gunner's head as it went through the other side.
He readjusted his aim on the driver, not yet aware of what happened to the gunner. Calem fired another round and killed him instantly, scaring the alien trooper that was a few feet away.
The leader of the alien squad screamed an order to his men before he began running to the large rocks nearby. Everyone else made mad dashes to different directions, all of them heading to some form of cover.
Calem knew there was another reason behind this. By scattering like this, it would make it hard for a sniper to hunt them down.
But Calem didn't have to worry about this issue.
He targeted the squad leader and blew his head off before he could take cover. The soldier next to him froze in shock as he saw what happened to his superior right before his eyes, and then he met the same exact fate; another headless corpse fell flat on the ground.
Calem began sniping the rest of the squad. One by one, more headless bodies fell, smearing the dirt with purple blood and skull fragments. The few who managed to get behind cover found their heads exploding shortly after; Bldegeoner rounds went clean through thick rock.
"Alien aircraft coming from my three o'clock."
"I have visual."
Calem switched to explosive rounds and took aim at a boxy dropship. He located the internal fuel tanks with a brief scan and fired.
The rear half of the dropship exploded violently, the other half crashed to the ground while engulfed in flames.
The other ship beside it began to turn around, possibly attempting to flee. It was a different model, skinnier body with thrusters attached to the wings.
Calem fired a round to its cockpit, causing it to explode into pieces as it descended to the ground. It tumbled and spun violently against the dirt as parts flew everywhere until all that's left was a battered hull.
"Area is clear. Stay in your position, I'll come to you."
"Copy."
Calem stood up and jumped off the cliffside, using his armor's thrusters to slow his descent. His landing caused the ground to shake, and took off sprinting to the cave.
He slowed down to a walk when he was in front of the cave, and went inside.
He was greeted with a wall of unfolded barriers blocking him from the rest of the interior. In the middle of it all was the rear of a churrel, the main turret focused on the entrance. One of its rear doors opened from the inside.
An armored snake-like figure slithered out with a SPAR in her arms. A cobra-like hood was flared up and easy to see and covered by thin plates that was part of her armor. After seeing him, the hood shrunk back into her head as she slithered to Calem.
"Sergeant Vaghassier, sir." She took off her helmet and saluted, showing a cobra-like head. Sleek, steel gray scales brighten under the light from the cave's entrance. "Thank you for the assistance. Never thought I'd meet a Spartan."
"I'm a Demon."
"Oh damn." She reeled back in surprise.
"Easy, Sergeant. Are you injured?"
"No, I'm fine, sir."
"Why are you here and where's the rest of your unit?"
"I left my group when we were being chased by unknowns. I took initiative by making myself look like a bigger threat and most of them focused on me," she explained.
"I only saw you being chased by an APC and a dozen foot soldiers."
"There were more," she sighed. "I had to make some crazy moves to lose them."
"And the whereabouts of your unit?"
"They should be back on the mammoth southeast from here. We were heading back to Firebase Juno when the bombings stopped."
"Do you have any information about the aliens attacking us?"
She shook her head. "No, we know nothing about them other than they're hostile."
Calem looked at the churrel and began scanning it for damages, only for it come up clear. "Your churrel is still in good condition, are you going to regroup with your unit?"
"That's correct, sir." She nodded.
"Alright, I'm tagging along with you," Calem said. "You've been good holding yourself so far, but you'll need an extra hand."
"Pardon me, sir, but don't you have far more important objectives to do?" she asked as she began breaking down the barriers.
"They're all done," Calem replied, watching her bring the folded barriers in the trunk of the churrel. "Now helping friendly forces is my current priority."
The serpentine only nodded as she put another folded barrier in the trunk.
"I'm going back outside to gather information on the unknowns," he said, simply. "Call me if you need any assistance."
"Yes, sir," she replied as he turned and left the cave.
Calem sprinted to the wreckage of what's left of the dropship and ran scans. Even with its hull burned to a crisp, his helmet's systems gathered and compartmentalized useful information.
His helmet's computer pinged once the scan was complete, and Calem moved on to inspect the alien bodies; many of them were heavily damaged from the fighting, some of them in pieces because of him. Regardless, he activated a full area wide scan anyway. Information regarding x-ray images, blood analysis, biological and chemical composition, composition of their body armor, and so on were compiled.
And then his helmet notified him of a minimally damaged body nearby. He sprinted to it, finding it laying against some large rocks.
Smoke seeped into the air from the black hole on the scorched visor. And more smoke escaped a bigger hole on the back of the head.
Calem put a hand on the helmet and removed it, revealing the alien's face underneath.
The right eye was destroyed and only left a black hole. Other than that, there was no other damages.
Calem took the opportunity to run another set of in-depth scans. His HUD filled with screens depicting different photographic and written information being gathered from the body.
/ALIEN COMPUTING DEVICE FOUND./
His HUD outlined the alien's right arm, prompting Calem to inspect it. There was some kind of chip just below the wrist.
/INTERFACING WITH ALIEN DEVICE./
/HACKING IN PROGRESS. . ./
/HACKING COMPLETE. ACTIVATING./
An orange hologram materialized around the alien's arm. More curved and rounded compared to MWR TACPADs but it held some similarities.
"Sir, come in," Vaghassier's said over the radio.
"I read you, Sergeant. What's up?" Calem turned off the device and removed the chip from the alien's wrist.
"I'm bringing the churrel out now. Are you done over there?"
"Affirmative. I'm on my way."
2189, Unknown Planet, Desert Region in the Southern Continent
"INCOMING ROCKET!" Staff Sergeant Ripley screamed as he ducked behind the mako.
BOOM!
The ground shook violently as a grizzly in front of him exploded into a blinding fireball. Pieces of hot metal and rock rained from above. Gunfire filled the air as many of his fellow marines fired back against the alien force but it wasn't doing any good; Ripley glanced around to see nothing but carnage, dozens of dead bodies littered across the battlefield, many of them burnt to a crisp or violently torn into chunks.
This was like the Reaper War all over again.
BOOM!
Ripley clenched his rifle as another explosion rocked the earth, followed by a chorus of people screaming in agony. His people screaming.
"We lost another tank!" shouted a nearby marine.
"There's people on fire! Someone get over there god damn it!" shouted another.
'This is bad,' Ripley thought.
Everything was falling apart fast.
The plan was for Ripley's company to storm the facility's west side while Turian-Krogan mixed companies charge the front and the east sides. They thought the bombings weakened the outer defenses but were immediately proven wrong; they walked into a hailstorm of gunfire from many different kinds of projectiles, including plasma!
In a span of fifteen minutes, they already experienced massive casualties. Many Alliance Marines lay dead and most of their vehicles were obliterated. At this point, there won't be much of the company left!
The Turians and Krogan weren't having much luck either. From what bits of transmissions Ripley heard from them, they were being torn apart. And to make matters worse, they lost radio contact with them not to long ago.
"Sergeant Ripley, come in!" said a frantic marine over the radio. "I repeat: Sergeant Ripley, come in!"
"This is Ripley, what is it?" he responded.
"Sir, the Captain's dead! You're in charge now."
Ripley was stunned by the news, his gut felt like it was hit by a truck. But knocked himself out of it and urgently asked, "What about the Lieutenant?!"
"Also dead, and so is the Sergeant Major!" the marine shouted in fear. "You're the only senior left!"
"What about the Turians and Krogan?!"
"The guys charging the front are all KIA. And we still got nothing from the guys in the east," he explained somewhat frantically, an explosion coming from his end of the comms. "We need reinforcements, sir! We're probably the only ones left!"
"We tried but we won't get any. All other forces are too busy handling their own problems."
"Then what are supposed to do?! Half of the company is dead and we got more dying-BZZZZTT!"
Ripley screamed in pain as loud static filled the comm line and echoed throughout his helmet. He yanked off his helmet to save his ears from the noise, only to hear more of the chaos around him. A headache began to form but he tried to ignore it, activating his omni-tool as he tried to reconnect with that marine.
"Private, come in!" he ordered, only to hear nothing but static.
"They're gone Ripley." The Staff Sergeant turned to see Corporal Veers at far side of their mako. "They got bombed by a rocket," he explained before he leered out of cover to fire his assault rifle.
"FUCK!" Ripley screamed as he drove his fist in the sand.
"INCOMING!"
BOOM!
Ripley didn't have time to react as the mako exploded. He didn't feel anything, despite he could see himself rolling and tumbling against the ground. There was no pain, no sensations, everything was just numb. When he stopped rolling, all he could do was stare at the sun, the bright rays basked his body. He tried to move his limbs but just can't, he couldn't even move his mouth.
He felt lighter.
He felt weaker.
Any normal person would be really scared of this but Ripley wasn't. He was tired, exhausted. Even with all of the chaos happening around him, he was just too exhausted to care. And then everything began to dim, his eyes got heavy, and his breathing got slower. And after one last breathe, everything went black.
And all that's left was silence.
Author's Notes: 'Ello, 'ello! I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. I know it's been a while, far longer than I'd like. Life's been busy, had a huge move and had to help renovate the new home. This pandemic hasn't made this any easier, I hope all of you are surviving out there.
That's it really. Me and my family have been really busy and that took out time to write out my fics. I've also had some problem with writer's block and that didn't make anything easier.
I haven't given up on this or The Man from another Hell, and I'm still working on them. However, future progress could be very slow because of how life is right now. I know and understand why you guys are upset about newer chapters coming out a lot later than they need to be, and I will try to keep them pumping them out consistently to the best of my ability. No promises though, life has been getting busier.
Besides all of that, I greatly appreciate all of you who chose to stick around throughout all this time. I really do appreciate it, thank you very much.
And that is it. I will focus on getting the next chapter for MFAH out and continue off from there; it's almost done.
Please leave a review and let me know what you think! ^w^
MWR Codex Entries:
Ihkarafuru: Originating from theExtorus Galaxy, the Ihkarafuru were a collection of insectoid-mammalians from the planet Homeurra. They're not a single species as their population composed of hundreds of different races, ethnicities, cultures, and societies. Throughout their history, the Ihkarafuru were incredibly diverse as there would be dozens of different social groups within a species.
Because of this, many different groups were always governed differently. Some were governed by clan or tribe leaders, others formed democratic republics. However, most societies were ruled by monarchies, something that carried on to the present day.
All Ihkarafuru were insectoid-mammalians possessing both endo and exoskeletons; some species exhibit fur on their bodies. And like many mammals, Ihkarafuru give live births; depending on the species, one mother could birth between one to three offspring.
Some time after colonizing their first planet, the Ihkarafuru made hostile first contact with the Rahkoan Empire. This later led to the destruction of their first colony and had Homeurra under siege.
Ihkarafuru losses were immense as they couldn't match the Empire's advance technology and manpower. This forced many survivors to gather as much ships they could and commit a daring escape out of their own solar system. This would be the start of the Black Times.
Their core leadership was turned to a coalition of the surviving government officials, royal families, and tribe and clan leaders. However, high-ranking officers from the various militaries tend to hold the most power.
For the next 250 years, the Ihkarafuru became a collection of nomadic people voyaging through star systems for survival. With sheer presence of the Rahkoan Empire in Extorus, they couldn't spend too much time in one location. They would spend short periods on habitable worlds to research and harvest resources, and then leave. It wasn't an easy life as they had to always be prepared to fight and to run as they construct new ships for the fleet.
All of that changed when the Ihkarahuru organized a daring attack on an inter-galactic slipspace drive constructed by the Rahkoan Empire [See the Mass Exodus for more details].
Sensheinans: Originating from the continent of Kaseer in Homeurra, the Sensheinans were a race of proud warriors and travelers.
Like any Ihkarafurur, the Sensheinans were insectoid-mammalians, however, possessed many traits to Lepidoptera. Like many Ihkarafuru, they have a beauty about them that people in the MWR would find enamoring.
Sensheinans were usually a little taller than the average human and exhibit a variety of body colors ranging from different tones of white, gray, and black. Different tribes adorn their bodies in tattoos or markings reflecting their cultures. Many Sensheinans have a fur-like fluff covering parts of their bodies, commonly around the neck and/or chest.
Before the loss of their homeworld, they lived in nomadic tribes that travelled throughout Kaseer. They had a proud warrior culture that held value in honor, loyalty, and courage. Although different tribes have expressed these differently, sometimes resulting in aggressive rivalries or war amongst themselves in ancient times.
Sensheinans usually keep to themselves and don't get involve themselves with other peoples' affairs unless it affects them directly. However, they're welcoming to outsiders and curious to learn anything outside of their circles. They show great respect to those who have proven to be valiant and honorable, especially to anything that relates to a warrior's spirit.
Sensheinans as a whole are ruled by a warrior king or queen, something that was established thousands of years ago to stop infighting [See Sensheinan History for more details]. The monarchy's has dwindled after their integration into the MWR, as it was mandatory to have elected officials. Despite this, the royal family still holds a lot of influence into their people for being historical and cultural figureheads.
On a smaller scale, each tribe are governed by tribe leaders called Suthotori. Assisting the Suthotori are small groups Shumahiki, they serve as advisers, aids, and top organizers that handle domestic affairs in their respective tribes.