Authors note: Alright, I've rewritten my story, and made some minor but important changes. Firstly, I came up with a name for my custom made OC race that wasn't copyrighted, and I know it isn't copyrighted because I used a random Japanese name generator. Secondly, I've fixed up the first chapter as best I could, and corrected some mistakes I made. Lastly, I'm not rewriting this again. So you no longer have to worry about that.
Other than that, enjoy the show!
Chapter 1: Strangers in a Strange Land
Star Date: Decembary 15th, 5464
Log Entry: 1
My name is Raziel Al Swearengen. I am the leader of the "colonization expedition" into the Lawless Rim Region. I've taken to writing in a journal (So have most of the other guys as well.) in order to provide a first hand testimony of everything that happens once we reach our destination. You know, just in case we all die horribly, or get eaten by cannibals, or probably both. This is a rim world we're heading to after all. At least if the worst case scenario comes about, there'll be a record of what happened, and maybe whoever finds this can punish the bastards responsible for our deaths. But hopefully things won't come to that.
At this point you're probably wondering who the hell we are, and why we decided to come here of all places. I'll tell you.
We're from the a high tech glitterworld called Aki Zeta 5, and our reasons for coming here are, well, because we were banished. To explain things a little more, we're a race of genetically engineered soldiermorphs called the Yoshika. We served in the military branch of the government known as the Overwatch as soldiers for several centuries before our know it all post human Overlords decided to replace us with mechanoids. As you can guess, we didn't take too kindly to being cast aside like that, and promptly rebelled. At first things were going well, pampered upper class college boys who only had the vaguest idea what a gun was didn't exactly make for good fighting material, but then they deployed those mechanoids against us. Things slowly went to shit from there on out, and we were eventually defeated. Then, rather than just finish us off, the pussy ass bitches decided to banish us to some post apocalyptic wasteland in the Lawless Rim Region instead.
So there you have it. We're a bunch of soldiermorphs who have been thrown out like trash once we outlived our usefulness. There are a little over a million of us left out of the hundreds of millions there were before. Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm in charge, the answer is simple; I was the highest ranking Yoshika still alive when it was all over.
Anyways, the final preparations are almost complete, and soon we'll be on our way. I'll write more after we arrive, and get set up.
"Defrosting process complete, all vital signs normal, welcome to your new home colonist." An automated voice said as the cryptosleep sarcophagus opened up, and a male Yoshika shakily climbed out.
The Yoshika in question was dressed in a pair of light brown synthweave pants, knee high black boots, a light brown button down shirt, a green long coat, and he wore a tan colored bandana around his neck. He had the standard issue Yoshika features with his pale white skin, sharp angular face, white hair that was almost chin length, yellow eyes, claws on his hands and feet, along with pointed teeth that had tiger like canines. His height was pretty standard for a Yoshika as well, standing an imposing 6 feet 5 inches tall, as well as being built like one of those overly muscular 1980s action heroes, with his body appearing uncannily perfect, and beautiful, like a sculpture.
This was Raziel Al Swearengen, and he was about to vomit.
Which he promptly did as he bent over, and deposited the contents of his stomach onto the floor.
After he did that, followed by a minute of dry heaving, Raziel felt well enough to stand up straight, and take stock of the situation.
From what he could see, the cryptosleep section of Colonization Ship number 5 looked exactly the same despite decades having passed. He quickly checked the date on the cryptosleep sarcophagus panel, and saw that, indeed, 36 years had passed, which meant that the colonization fleet was most likely in orbit of planet Fucked. He, and other key personnel had likely been woken up to do a scan of the planet, and select a suitable location to build their colony. After that, they'd head down to the surface to get everything set up, and things would take off very quickly from that point onward. Not to mention there was establishing (Probably violent.) contact with the locals. He cringed slightly at the thought. Keeping these idiots from starting a war before their position was secure was going to be a pain his ass, he could sense that already.
His musings were then interrupted by a voice on the ships PA system.
"Expedition leader Raziel Al Swearengen, report to bridge immediately, urgency code red."
Raziel raised an eyebrow at this. Code red urgency? That was a bit excessive wasn't it? He gave a mental shrug. Whatever, the guys were probably just in a hurry to get things started. He began to head towards the bridge, but then stopped, and glanced down at the large pool of vomit on the floor.
"Fuck it." He muttered. "Let the janitor clean it up. It's his fucking job anyways."
With that said, Raziel made his ways out of the cryptosleep section, and down the maze of winding hallways towards the bridge. This took a considerable amount of time due to the ship being 12 kilometers long, but he eventually made it to the bridge, and stepped in through the automatic doors. The sight that greeted him was one of total pandemonium. Various Yoshika were running back, and forth on who knew what sorts of errands, others were talking furiously with each other, and the rest were typing frantically on bridge consoles. He looked around, and soon spotted two familiar individuals talking to each other, and unlike everybody else, they were calm.
The first of the two was Raziel's younger brother, and right hand man; Lemuir Swearengen. He looked almost exactly like Raziel, except maybe a couple inches shorter. He was dressed in light brown pants, black shoes, and a green shirt. He also looked to have a serious case of bed hair, but otherwise seemed to be fine. The other individual he was talking to was a slender, effeminate looking young man with long hair that had tips that were dyed bright neon blue. He had the same features as all other Yoshika (White hair/skin, yellow eyes, pointed teeth etc.), but could have easily been mistaken for a female were it not for his amazingly deep, and sexy sounding voice. He was dressed in a pair of baggy black pants, red sneakers, and a black t-shirt with the brightly colored word 'Nightlapse' on it, along with fake cat ears that also had those bright blue dyed tips, and one of those clip on anime cat tails. That individual was Athi Abusa.
Athi Abusa.
Content creator, musician, Glitternet megastar, over 1.7 billion subscribers on VidTube, and more money than Raziel could ever dream of having. In fact, before the civil war, Athi was one of the richest, and most famous people currently alive on Aki Zeta 5. He had never had to serve in the Overwatch like the rest of his kind due to his natural charisma, and musical talents. Of course, that was before the civil war. Now with the liquidation of all Yoshika owned assets, and their subsequent banishment, he had pretty much lost everything, and was probably feeling more than a little bitter about the whole ordeal. Poor bastard.
Shaking himself out of his musings, Raziel walked over to the two, and greeted them with his characteristic charm, and wit. "The fuck is going on?"
Athi was the first to respond. "We're at the wrong planet."
Raziel nodded his head in understanding. A few seconds later, he fully processed what he'd just heard. "Are you shitting me!?"
Lemuir spoke up next. "It's true. Somehow we've wound up at a completely different planet. Even worse, none of the constellations match anything we have on file. Even scarier yet, the ships Persona AI has gone so far as to imply that we're in a completely different universe altogether."
On the outside, Raziel appeared to be his usual crass, and angry self. But on the inside, he was about to throw a hissy fit. 'Well this was just fan-fucking-tastic.' He thought to himself. Their journey to another world had barely even begun, and already things had gone horribly wrong. He was also beginning to wonder what else had happened while he was in cryptosleep. But he knew from the administrative neurotrainer upgrade that he needed to deal with present problems first before anything else. He could ask questions later.
Raziel, forcing down the overwhelming urge to start swearing up a storm, summoned up the most authoritative tone he could muster, and spoke. "This changes nothing. Tell the others that we've arrived at at different planet, but do not reveal anything else until we have more information. I also want a scan of the planet in question, and a list of suitable locations for settlement."
"We've already done that last part." Lemuir replied. "To make a long report very short, this is a mostly standard planet with a single large landmass, little axis tilt, and plenty of rainfall. Most of the land is dense jungle with some savanna nearer to the poles, and we've detected extensive deposits of minerals beneath the surface. There's also one other thing. Computer, bring up the alien pict capture."
A holographic image of a hulking green skinned humanoid creature appeared in front of the group. The creature was dressed in animal skins, armed with a club with a rock tied to it, and hunched over like a gorilla. It had beady red eyes, a heavily exaggerated cave man like brow, a giant mouth full of tusks, and seemed to radiate primal brutality.
Raziel studied the creature carefully for a minute, then gave his opinion. "That is, hands down, the ugliest soldiermorph I've ever seen."
"That's not a soldiermorph. That is an honest to whatever higher powers exist alien life form." Lemuir said in a completely deadpan tone that brokered no humour. "We sent some probes to the surface of the planet. You know, take some samples to make sure everything isn't poisonous, and what not. But then some of them happened across these creatures before all communications ceased. After that, we did a more through scan of the planet, and lo and behold, they have settlements established everywhere."
Raziel nodded his head in understanding. Well this was an interesting turn of events. Mankind's first ever contact with aliens, and not those genetically engineered lizard man xenohuman freaks like the ones he had read about. He then smiled sinisterly as a wave of excitement rose up in him. This was wonderful news! Not only had the Yoshika arrived at a largely unspoiled jungle planet with who knows what kinds of dangerous animals to fight, but there were also tribes of alien savages for them to shoot at as well, and the best part was that there were no pussy ass peace nicks to tell them that they couldn't do that. Truth be told, he hadn't put much thought into their banishment, and what that meant up until now. But now that he was thinking about it, it was beginning to dawn on him that they now had the opportunity to write any rules they wanted, form whatever society they wanted, and do things however they wanted. This also meant they were now free to do whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted with no one around to tell them otherwise.
This almost seemed almost too good to be true.
Raziel forced down his excitement. As much as he wanted to charge in, and start shooting, he needed to make sure they had a secure base of operations before doing anything else. "Computer, bring up a map of the planet so we can select a suitable location for settlement. Oh, and mark all of the alien settlements on the map while you're at it too."
Once he had said this, a holographic map of the planet appeared with various icons scattered all over the continent. Raziel was more that a little dismayed to see that the map was completely saturated in red tent symbols that symbolized the alien settlements. But he resisted the urge to rage quit, and scanned the map for a location that was at least somewhat away from the natives, and quickly spotted what he was looking for, a nice piece of flat land near a large lake.
He then looked at the name of the lake, and immediately noticed something peculiar.
"Why the fuck is that lake called the Great Sodomy Lake?"
Athi promptly burst into uncontrolled laughter while Lemuir tried to explain. "All of the names for territories are randomly generated by the ships Persona AI."
"So the Persona AI decided that the best name for the lake was a word for butt sex?" Raziel asked in a sarcastic tone.
This prompted another fit of laughter from Athi while Lemuir looked at Raziel sheepishly. "I guess so?"
"Whatever." Raziel waved the unusual name off. "Begin the colonization process. Send some more drones to observe the natives. Oh and set up the automated mining operations while you're at it too. I'm heading off to get something to eat."
Lemuir saluted. "Yes sir."
Raziel then turned to Athi. "You're going down there too. You may have been a big shot back home, but now you're like the rest of us, and like the rest of us, you need to pull your weight."
Athi let out a long protracted groan at this. "Are you serious?"
Raziel rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Yes. Now go, and make yourself useful."
Athi muttered something derogatory under his breath, and left the bridge.
With that done, and everyone getting to work, Raziel headed off in search of food.
"Stupid Overlords. Stupid civil war. Stupid mechanoids. Stupid exile." Athi cursed to himself as he, and roughly a dozen other guards walked behind the massive building sized bulldozer as it cleared away the jungle. The sound of splintering wood, and plants being crushed were like music to his ears, while much further behind him, a construction crew cut up the fallen trees, and plants to be moved to a stockpile. Athi then stopped, and looked up at the sun through the massive trees as it bore down on him for a few moments, before wiping the sweat off of his brow, glad he had chosen not to wear his issued flak armor (He did spring for a tactical vest and the oversized gun however.), and continuing his vigil. All around him, save for directly behind, there was dense jungle that completely blocked all visibility, and over the sound of clanking treads he could hear countless alien sounds coming from it.
This environment was a far cry from the arcologies, skyscrapers, and heavily congested streets he was used to seeing.
In all due honesty, Athi didn't even know why he was here. Raziel had probably thought that there might be some wild animals still around after the bulldozers had passed, and so had assigned some guards to take care of them. Truth be told, this idea wasn't entirely unfounded. In fact, it was rapidly being vindicated. Ever since they had made planet fall, and begun clearing away the jungle, Athi was hearing more, and more reports over the radio of attacks by dangerous jungle wildlife.
But the reports he was hearing were just simply ludicrous.
Now it wasn't the reports of animal attacks themselves that were ludicrous. It was what was in them that was insane. Eyewitness testimonies of giant man eating plants, giant insects, giant ferocious alien animals, and flesh eating monsters were just some of the things he was hearing about. Despite this, Athi wasn't ready to run just yet. He may not have been a fighter or served in the Overwatch like the rest of his kind, but he certainly wasn't a coward. So he soldiered on despite his complaints.
This lasted for about five minutes.
Then one of the other bulldozers apparently hit a nest filled with man sized murder hornets which proceeded to attack the escort team. Athi knew they were being attacked because he could hear a loud buzzing sound, along with screaming and gunfire over the radio.
Right around there Athi figured that it was time to seek safer work, and headed over to the squad leader, one sergeant Moxxy Krieger, to see if he could weasel his way out of this.
Sergeant Moxxy Krieger had fought on the front lines of the Aki Zeta 5 civil war pretty much from start to finish. As a result of this he had seen some of the worst fighting of the war, and had the scars to show for it. So with this in mind, Athi knew he had to approach him carefully, and delicately to avoid any acts of violence.
"Uh, sir? I'd like to-" Athi began but was suddenly cut off by Moxxy harshly whispering "Quiet!" without even looking at him. He was currently standing stock still, and looking down the sights of his hand cannon at some bushes. In fact, the entire squad was looking in that direction with their guns at the ready.
Athi had a sneaking suspicion what was going on, and carefully reached for the large bore anti material rifle slung across his back.
After the failed rebellion on Aki Zeta 5, all of the modern military equipment used by the Vex had been confiscated, and they had been given whatever obsolete industrial tech small arms that happened to be lying around. These weapons took the form of various high caliber rifles, hand cannons, and shotguns. Athi's weapon of choice was a BFG-80. Built to resemble an old fashioned Serbu anti material rifle, this thing was over 2 meters long, fired these absolutely massive .80 caliber heavy machine gun bullets from a 7 round double stacked box magazine, had a high end digital scope that looked like it was stolen from a spy satellite, weighed more that 130 pounds, and could optionally swap out the 7 round box magazine for an enormous 60 round drum magazine. You know, just in case you needed to snipe an entire army. The sheer size of this piece was difficult to put into words.
Athi brought the BFG-80 out, pointed it at the bushes, and got ready to blast whatever came out.
And not a moment too soon, because with a deafening roar of "WAAAGH!" a horde of dozens of the green skinned aliens from the pict capture came roaring out of the bushes, and charged right at Athi's squad waving primitive weapons that consisted primarily of rocks tied to sticks. There were other armaments as well, such as a few spears here and there, and a crudely made metal axe too. But mostly it was just caveman level tech.
It was one thing to look at recordings of these creatures, it was another thing entirely to see them in the flesh. They stood roughly the same height of a Yoshika, but would undoubtedly stand much taller if they stood up straight. Their muscles were absolutely massive, and made the average Yoshika look almost scrawny in comparison. They also moved much more gracefully than one would expect from creatures such as these. Granted, they weren't doing flips, and cartwheels or anything like that, but none of them were tripping over rocks, or stumbling over uneven ground. Each step was carefully measured, and precisely placed with no wasted energy. It was just really bizarre to see that from what were essentially a bunch of stone age savages.
The entire squad immediately engaged the alien monsters, and the air was filled with the deafeningly loud roar of gunfire.
The first to act was Moxxy who opened fire on the lead alien with his PZ-600 hand cannon, putting a round into each of the creatures kneecaps, causing it to topple forwards into the dirt before putting a final .600 Nitro Overkill round into its head, exploding it, and sending skull fragments flying in all directions. He proceeded to shoot two more aliens in the face, sending them tumbling to the ground with cracked open heads, before holstering his gun. He then pulled out an enormous 2 foot long mono edged combat knife from his sheath, and in a blur of motion, charged into melee combat with the alien directly in front of him. He expertly ducked under the swung club before wedging his knife up under the aliens armpit, and taking its arm off with a jerking motion. The alien let out a howl of rage as blood sprayed out of its now empty arm socket, and swung at Moxxy with its remaining arm. That attack was also skillfully dodged, and Moxxy promptly robbed the creature of its other arm as well. The alien looked back and forth at the bleeding sockets where its arms used to be, the confused expression on its face almost comical, then reared its head back, and brought it forward at breakneck speed in an attempt to head butt Moxxy. Only to suddenly find a combat knife shoved into its eye socket all the way up to the hilt. The creature promptly died as Moxxy yanked the knife out, and moved onto his next target.
While that was going on, another member of the squad, Val Halla, opened fire with his TOZ-4 chain shotgun, and put a huge 4 gauge mass reactive slug into the torso of one of the charging aliens, blowing open its belly, and spraying what passed for its internal organs all over the ground. A subsequent shot to the head ended the aliens life in a shower of skull fragments, blood, and brain matter. He then spotted another alien with a bow, and quiver of arrows step out of the bushes. The alien knocked an arrow, but before it could take aim Val blew its arm off, causing it to drop the bow. The alien shrieked its dismay before drawing a crudely made stone dagger, and charging. But Val simply blew its leg off at the knee next, causing it to topple over to the side. He then shot it in the head, spraying more gore everywhere, and turned to engage another alien.
The most notable combatant, however, was Capella Masaki who had charged into the aliens midst with her two handed ōdachi sword the moment they had appeared. This weapon, a heirloom passed down for generations, forged from modern materials, and mono edged, could slice through advanced materials such as plasteel like it was paper. The weapon could also cut through the aliens just fine as Capella demonstrated when she bisected an alien from left shoulder to right waist in a geyser of blood. Another alien swung its club down at her with all the strength it could muster, only to have both its arms sliced off at the elbow. Then before the alien could even react, its head was cut off, and sent sailing away in an arc.
A third alien charged at Capella. It leapt high into the air with its club raised above its head in both hands, and brought it down to crush her skull. Capella met the alien with an overhead slash of her own, slicing through its weapon, and then cleaving the alien from head to groin in half, showering herself in blood, and turning her bright white gi a dark red. She then sliced open the belly of an alien that was charging at her from the side, and its organs spilled out. Then she cut its head off.
The rest of the Yoshika were engaging the aliens with similar results while Athi stood there, and looked for a suitable target to engage. He soon spotted one when a massive hulking brute, many times larger than the others, and dressed in crudely made metal plate armor, unlike the others who were all wearing animal hides, stepped out into the open, and began bellowing what sounded like orders.
Knowing a leader when he saw one, Athi took aim, and fired two shots into the aliens chest. Amazingly, it wasn't immediately killed, and was merely staggered from the hits with its armor dented. It then regained its composure, turned to glare murderously at Athi, and charged at him with all the speed, and ferocity of an enraged bull.
Wasting no time, Athi emptied his remaining five shots into the brute which only seemed to anger it further as it rapidly closed the distance between the two of them. Another Yoshika opened fire on the massive alien with his AK-50, but the hail of .50 caliber bullets weren't doing enough damage to stop it, merely slowing it down. Athi was now beginning to panic, seeing as he didn't have enough time to reload, and was seriously considering making a tactical retreat. But before he could turn to run, he remembered something.
Dropping his gun, Athi reached into his pocket, and pulled out a huge and bulky looking derringer. This particular model had been made to fire the same .80 caliber rounds as his rifle, and was more of a novelty weapon than anything else. But given the situation, it was either this or look like a complete pussy in front of his kin before being killed. So he decided to give it a try.
Taking aim, Athi fired just as the alien was coming within arms reach of him, and nailed it right in the face, blowing the upper half of its head off in a spray of blood, and brains. The now partially headless alien stumbled forward a few more steps, then it tripped over its own legs, and toppled over like some great felled beast, knocking over the other Yoshika who had been shooting at it, and pinning him underneath it.
With the death of their apparent leader, the surviving aliens immediately broke, and made a run for the treeline. Most of them were shot in the back as they turned to flee, but a few managed to escape into the jungle. The Yoshika stopped firing once they were gone, and a relative sort of peace returned to the jungle once more.
Now that he was no longer in mortal danger, Athi looked around, and took stock of the situation. The fight had lasted less than a minute, and around fifty of the aliens now lay dead a few paces away from the treeline, many of them in multiple pieces. Most of them, save for a few lucky ones plus the leader, hadn't been able to close grips with the Yoshika lines. Many of the Yoshika were now in the process of reloading their weapons, others were double tapping the downed Greenies with still intact heads just to make sure they stayed dead, all while squad leader Moxxy was talking over the radio. No doubt he was reporting what had just happened to Raziel.
The massive bulldozer was still clearing away the jungle in front of it, the driver completely oblivious to what had just happened.
Seeing nothing better to do at the moment, Athi pulled a massive bullet from one of the pouches in his tactical vest, and reloaded his derringer before stuffing it back into his pocket. He then bent over, picked his rifle off the ground, ejected the empty magazine, and slotted in a full one.
"Whoo! That was fun! Mankind's first ever contact with aliens, and we fucking destroy them!" Someone from off to the side shouted.
Athi looked over, and saw that the speaker was the same Yoshika who had been pinned underneath the Greenie leader. He had shoved the corpse off of him, and was now dusting himself off with his AK-50 slung over his back. Now that Athi could get a good look at him, he could see that this particular Yoshika was even more heavily muscled than the rest of his kind, with almost comically huge biceps, thick legs, and a massive barrel chest. His facial features were blockier too, with a square lantern jaw of justice, and rectangular face. Finally, he had short cropped hair, unlike the others of his kind who tended to grow their hair out.
He then turned to Athi, looking him over curiously. "Say, you're Athi Abusa right? The big shot ultra rich megastar from back home?"
"Yeah." Athi replied with a slight tinge of bitterness. "My net worth was over 10 billion before the civil war with an emphasis on 'was'."
"Damn." The other Yoshika said slowly. "How did you make so much money?"
Athi rubbed his chin in genuine thought for a moment. "Well let's see, there was all the ad revenue from each video I made. There were also all the music albums I sold. I also had a shit ton of corporate sponsors. On top of all that, I seem to recall getting a ton of royalties. Of course I'm back to square one now."
"Yeah, well you're still young, and can just start over right?" The man shrugged, then introduced himself. "The names Azazel Smalls. I was an engineer before all of this."
Athi raised an eyebrow. "You were an engineer?"
Azazel put his hands on his hips like he were some sort of hero posing for a photo. "Yup. After my 20 years of service in the Overwatch, I became an engineer, and designed all kinds of military hardware as a hobby."
Athi eyed Azazel suspiciously. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have designed stuff that might be useful for our current predicament would you?"
Azazel nodded enthusiastically. "I just so happened to have designed some equipment for just such a scenario. Though I intended my designs to be used by other people looking to colonize a new planet. Not us."
"Alright people, shows over!" Moxxy suddenly bellowed before Athi could reply. "Resume your escort duties, and move out! Also, Azazel Smalls, report to Raziel's office immediately, he wants to speak with you."
"What do we do about the alien corpses?" Athi asked, pointing at the bodies which were already starting to smell worse than they already did.
"There's a cleanup crew coming to get them." Moxxy explained. "Now get moving. That means you too Athi, there will be no weaseling your way out of this one."
"Well, I better bet going. Talk to you later." Azazel said once Moxxy had finished yelling, and headed off down the cleared path to wherever Raziel's office was.
Athi watched as Azazel ran off for a few moments. He then turned around, let out a long sigh, and began to head off with the rest of his squad.
This was going to be a long day.
Meanwhile, over a mile away, perched on top of the tallest tree around, and hidden from sight by his cameleoline cloak, Illic Nightspear watched the whole ordeal through the scope of his Ranger Long Rifle.
"Do we engage Starstrider?" Another hidden figure inquired.
"No." Illic said as he lowered his Long Rifle, briefly causing a brief visual distortion as he did so.
"Then what is our next course of action?" A third hidden figure chimed in.
Illic thought for a moment. He and his fellow Starstriders had come to this planet to relax, and recuperate after a particularly harrowing mission to assassinate an Ork Warboss. He hadn't expected to encounter anything other than wild animals, and feral Orks. So his surprise was great indeed when a fleet of massive star ships showed up in orbit of the planet, and deployed teams of what looked like pale skinned humans, and machines to the surface to clear away the jungle. Since then, Illic, and his Starstriders had spent the following hours observing their activity, and had come to some conclusions about their uninvited guests.
For starters, it was increasingly obvious that these particular humans were in no way affiliated with the Imperium of Man. Their technology didn't match, their language didn't match, their behavior didn't match, and most importantly, he had yet to see a single double headed eagle anywhere. A completely unheard of notion for a worshiper of the corpse god. They also appeared to be a mutant offshoot of baseline humanity if the pale white skin, claws, and pointed teeth were any indication. They were heavily armed, and highly trained as well, if their brutal dismantlement of the feral Orks was any indication, suggesting a militaristic culture.
No. As near as he could tell, they were from an unaligned human faction, and had somehow wound up in the middle of the Ork empire of Dregruk without drawing any attention to themselves. At least not yet.
"We continue to observe them for now." Illic finally said after making his observation. "Once we gather enough information we will decide our next course of action."
"Understood Starstrider." Replied the second hidden figure.
Illic brought his Long Rifle back up, and looked through the scope. He quickly found the mysterious humans, and saw that they were once again escorting the giant bulldozing machine. Yes, things had certainly gotten interesting since he had come to this planet. He hadn't expected to encounter anything interesting when he had arrived, but the universe still managed to surprise him even after all these years.
Illic then wondered what kind of planet these humans came from, and if it would be worth visiting.
Raziel's office was located in a clearing not too far away from the shuttle landing site. The office itself consisted of a small, rectangular trailer park home with blue siding, a couple windows, and a single door entrance. There was also a humming power generator off to the side providing electricity.
Azazel knew it was an office because the building had the word 'OFFICE' spray painted in big black letters on the side of it.
Walking up to the door, Azazel steeled himself for whatever Raziel had in store for him, opened the door, and stepped inside.
The inside of the trailer home was even more cramped than Azazel had imagined. Off to the far left at the back of the trailer was the bedroom which consisted of a queen sized bed, dresser, and nightstand. There was a shower, toilet, and sink a little ways from the bedroom area, obviously the bathroom. The kitchen area was where Azazel had come in, and it came fully stocked with a stove, sink, oven, and fridge, along with cupboards. Finally to the right was the living room, and dining area where Raziel was. He was seated at a desk, typing on a high end looking laptop computer while a holographic projector displayed a map of the local area. There were various icons on the map representing different things such as vehicles, soldiers, buildings, and so on.
Azazel cleared his throat to get Raziel's attention.
Raziel looked up from the laptop. "Oh good, you're here."
"I've got a good idea why I'm here, but I want to hear it from you." Azazel stated.
Raziel slid his laptop computer to the side, and stood up. "I know you were an engineer before all of this, and have designed various tools that would be useful in this sort of situation. Show them to me."
Azazel nodded, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a memory stick. He then handed it to Raziel who plugged it into the side of his laptop. The holographic display of a map flickered, and was replaced with the three dimensional blueprint of a tank with an enormous gun.
Azazel then made a sales pitch, as if he were a used car salesman. "First up is the Anaconda Main Battle Tank. To keep this long summary short, it is essentially an industrial tech Main Battle Tank, and nothing like the Titanoboa Supertank we used during the war. So that means no fusion reactor, no TR-3B gravity disrupter, no cloaking device, or any other ultratech level gadgets. Everything this tank uses can be replicated with industrial age technology, with the only exception being the hex cells, and plasteel used in its armor. In terms of size it is a lot smaller than the Titanoboa, being only 3.90 meters wide, 7.80 meters long, 2.60 meters high, and massing at about 55 tons. Despite its technology level, it has many modern tank features such as plasteel/titanium/ceramite composite armor, an armored capsule in the front for all three crew members to sit in, a remote operated turret, an auto loader, full NBC protection, EMP hardening, twin 1000 kilowatt electric motors for propulsion, a stabilized gun, a wide spectrum sensor package, along with a soft kill and hard kill anti missile defense system. For weaponry it has a long barrelled 155mm cannon for taking out anything with heavy armor like mech walkers, and a 30mm coaxial auto cannon for dealing with lighter targets such as power armored infantry. It's most notable feature is a unique dual auto loading system because it stores ammunition in both the carousel, and turret bustle, giving you a total of 32 rounds to play with. Finally, it has a top speed of 115 kilometers per hour off road, 135 kilometers per hour on road, and an operational range of 600 miles at max output."
"Holy shit." Raziel cursed while wearing an expression of mild horror. "What is this thing for? Repelling bear armies?"
Azazel was unimpressed with Raziels joke. "Uh no. This tank was designed to deal with any hostile factions that might be encountered while being simple enough, technology and resource wise, to be mass produced by a civilization that's just getting started."
"Got anything to deal with hordes of infantry?" Raziel asked.
Azazel nodded. "Yeah, switch to the next blueprint."
Raziel complied, and pressed a few buttons on the laptop. The image was then replaced by another vehicle that had the same hull as the tank, but was outfitted with different weapons.
"This is the Rattler Heavy Infantry Fighting Vehicle. It uses the same hull, technology and armor as the Anaconda MBT, but is geared for dealing with a wider array of targets. For weaponry it has twin 30mm auto cannons, 12 Lancer anti tank guided missiles, and two 40mm automatic grenade launchers. Great for urban fighting, tank support, and dealing with hordes of savages armed with stone age weapons. I've also got a Self Propelled Artillery version, an Anti Aircraft version, a radar equipped version, an APC version, and even one that shoots ballistic missiles."
Raziel scratched his chin in thought. "Alright, we got something for offensive fighting. You got any defensive weapons?"
Azazel smiled. "Switch to panel 11."
Raziel did, and the infantry fighting vehicle was replaced with a turret with a large Gatling cannon.
Azazel gestured to it. "This is the Mark 1 Avenger Defensive Turret. It has the usual array of sensors, a simple classifier AI, and is armed with a 30mm Gatling cannon. Also, an important note, I couldn't fit a generator inside the turret so it'll need an external power source. I also have turret designs that use cannons, flamethrowers, and missiles."
Raziel looked at Azazel curiously. "How big do these turret designs get?"
Azazel thought for a moment. "For the cannon turrets, I have models that start at 155mm, and go all the way up to 16 inch naval guns."
"Shit man, and you wanted normal human colonists to use these weapons against a bunch of tribal raiders armed with spears?" Raziel said, then after a few seconds of silence spoke again. "Do you have any schematics for small arms?"
Azazel was about to answer, but a question had been building in the back of his mind ever since this meeting had started. "Don't we already have weapon schematics on file? I mean, my weapons are cool and all, but I'm sure we have schematics far for more powerful weapons stored away in our database."
"Nope." Raziel stated simply. "The Overlords deleted every file there was that either contained either blueprints for weapons, or anything related to them."
"You can't be serious." Azazel exclaimed as a feeling of horror slowly overcame him. "How are we supposed to defend ourselves from the aliens?"
Raziel shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe the Overlords expected us to either buy or steal whatever was produced locally?"
Azazel pondered this for a moment. It actually did make a fair amount of sense for the Overlords to take away all their advanced weapons. After all, if the Yoshika somehow got a hold of a fleet of fully functional warships, and travelled back to Aki Zeta 5 for a rematch, they wouldn't have any of the super weapons they originally had to fight the mechanoids with. It also had the added benefit of preventing the Yoshika from simply taking over the rim world once they arrived, and kept their military power in check by forcing them to use whatever they could scavenge, putting them on a relatively level playing field with the other local factions.
"Yeah I got schematics for small arms." Azazel finally said. "You're already using some of them such as the AK-50."
Raziel clapped his hands. "Alright then. We'll begin weapon production once we ship the nano-factories down to the surface. You will of course be compensated once we get our hands on some silver."
Azazel nodded. "Alright."
"Also, you and your giant engineering brain will be needed in the future once I get a research and development facility up and running. So try not to get yourself killed." Raziel warned sternly, then pointed to the door. "Now get back to your squad, and shoot some Greenies."
Azazel saluted. "Yes sir!"
He then got up, and left.
Ordo Historia Entry: Yoshika
Fearsome and beautiful, wild and capricious, the Yoshika (Homo Rapax) represent an intelligence that is at once close, and at the same time far removed from baseline human psychology. Their emotions and tempers are wilder, their instincts sharper, their grasp of the complexities of societies weaker, and their patience thin.
The Yoshika were the brainchild of Doctor Chekmaryov Vitomir Leonidovich who desired to create a tough capable warrior race of Xenohumans with the intent of colonizing/conquering hostile rim worlds, and making all his science fiction fantasies a reality. Unfortunately he died of old age in 4764 before he could carry out the second half of his plan. The Yoshika were then acquired by the Emeraude corporation who re-branded them as soldiermorphs, and then sold them to the Aki Zeta 5 government for a massive profit. Since then the Yoshika have relatively faithfully served in the Overwatch for the next several centuries defending against invasions, fending off pirate attacks, and putting down occasional rebellions. This continued until the Overlords (The ruling caste of Aki Zeta 5 at the time.) decided it would be cheaper to use mechanoids in the military, and moved to replace the Yoshika. This resulted in a globe spanning civil war that would come to be known as the Yoshika Uprising which culminated in the near genocide of the Yoshika, and their subsequent banishment to the Lawless Rim Region.
How they wound up in an alternate universe is up for debate.
Authors note: Alright, there we go. The new and improved first chapter is up, and I've already gotten to work on the second. Feel free to ask me any question you want, and I'll answer them in the next chapter.