Hello there!
Welcome, welcome! I do hope you'll enjoy your time here! Oh, by the way, here's a stupid little fun fact:
So, you may have been tempted to pronounce the title "Two-thousand-one-hundred-twelve," but since it comes from a song title, it's actually pronounced, "Twenty-one-twelve." Which is ironic, because I've always called it "Two-one-one-two." I still call it that.
Anyway, that's the end of this dumb rant.
On with the show!
Two years later
Delia: Federal-controlled planet
The silence in the room was impressive considering the number of people.
The building was in the shape of a pyramid, made of a shiny black metal that had lines etched across it, making the metal appear to be separated into blocks. Inside this temple, on the bottom floor, was the sermon.
A few hundred people were gathered on the bare floor, only covered with a thin carpet. They were all bent down on their knees, their faces all the way to the floor, with their paws, hands, or claws stretched out before them. From some of them came quiet murmurs and whispers, but others were silent as they prayed to their chosen deity. They were packed in like sardines, with one persons' hands touching another one's feet, and everyone touching somebody else on their sides.
The whole crowd wore the same exact clothing. A simple white robe, designed for this very building.
Amidst the crowd was someone of great importance. Yet, if you asked around, no one would be able to tell you why. Even the person himself would reply that he didn't know what you were talking about, and he would be telling the truth, as he did not yet know of his significance.
Somewhere in the middle of the crowd, a panda was bent over in prayer.
"Please, let us have a good harvest this year," Po Ping prayed. His prayer was routine by now, he didn't really say it out of heart anymore, but more out of repetition, as he had already said it a million times, and would probably say it a million more.
"Please help my father and all of us. We know you will be with us."
The only trouble with Po's prayer was that… he didn't really didn't know who he was praying to. He had always seen nature and life as its own deity. The grass, the trees, the wind, the rain, all of it was just so… perfect. It had to be a deity, and Po had decided to worship whoever had created such things, as the perfection of his natural world must be a reflection of the perfection of whoever made it.
But that was the choice that he had. Anyone could worship whatever deity they chose. It was for the benefit of society. At least, that was what the priests told them.
Said priests were at one side of the square base of the building. There were seven of them, sitting on a small stage-like elevation, peering down on the worshipers. The priests came from various places, and were made up of various species, but they all wore the same red robe, with deep hoods thrown over their heads. They sat in simple thrones made of simple stonework. Their position at the front of the sermon made it feel like the people were worshiping them. For all intents and purposes, they were, but they made sure not to tell them that. Better that they be content in their little bubble of innocence and perfection. Because content people didn't ask questions. People who didn't ask questions never caused any trouble. And trouble was something everyone wanted to avoid.
After a few more final minutes of praying, the priest in the middle rang a small bell next to his throne, and everyone quietly stood up. A single nod from the priest, and everyone silently filed their way out of the temple.
Outside, the world around them was flawless. There were green hills and patches of trees, where rivers ran and the sun shone brightly. If you could look up paradise in the dictionary, a picture of this place would be in the definition.
As people filed out, some stopping to talk amongst their neighbors and family members, Po moved his head back and forth, searching low to the ground. Finally, he found the person he was looking for. Once outside of the temple, Po met up with his father in the crowd.
"Are we ready for the day?" Mr. Ping asked Po, having to look up at him with their size differential. Mr. Ping was actually a goose, but Po never really seemed to be overly concerned with it. In reality, he had no knowledge of how children came into the world, so it seemed perfectly normal to him.
"Yeah, Dad, we're ready."
Together, the two followed one of the many branching pathways that left the temple, leading to the various farmlands scattered around the area. As Po and his father walked, they each looked around at the world around them, appreciative of what they had been given.
"We have to keep plowing the fields today," Po thought to himself.
Technically, that was both a lie and the truth. Po really was going to keep working on plowing the fields, but his father wasn't going to be doing it. It was simply hardwired in Po's brain to use the word "we"in place of "I", because the word "I"was forbidden.
It had been decreed long ago that there would no longer be the word "I".Because "I" was the cause of all troubles. "I" led to thoughts about oneself, which led to pride, greed, gluttony, wrath, lust, envy, and sloth. "I". Without "I," none of those things existed. When your entire existence was centered around the society around you, these things simply disappeared. You couldn't be prideful of something you did when you did it in the name of society: it belongs to society, not to you. You couldn't be greedy when you were only permitted to buy things you needed. You couldn't be angry with your neighbor, because you didn't think about how you felt, you were much more concerned about understanding how your neighbor felt, and your neighbor was more concerned about you. There was no such thing as laziness, you had to work for society just as society works for you. The only thing that you really owned was your name. That was it. That was all you needed.
And even then, it was really more for the benefit of other people.
Po and his father passed by the river, their small hut in sight. Next to the hut was a barn, which was actually much larger than the hut, as it housed all of the necessary equipment for making a successful harvest.
Po's life centered around the farm. He woke up with the sun, plowed, seeded, covered up the seeds, watered, fertilized, weeded, trimmed, and did everything else he needed to do. All of it built up to the harvest, where the crops were finally ready and offered to the government officials, who then distributed all of it equally among the citizens of the village.
Then, after a slight celebration, it was back to seeding again. You see, Delia was a planet that had a ninety-degree axis, which meant that there were no such things as seasons. Of course, Po had heard about them, but he had never experienced winter or summer. His sector, located in a comfy position between the equator and the pole, was blessed with eternal spring. Which meant that there was no rest for the farmers of the village.
Actually, everyone in the village was a farmer. Everyone except the priests. And on the minuscule chance that something happened that you couldn't solve on your own, then you went to the priests, who would then confer with their gods, going up to the top of the pyramid-like temple to pray. They would then come back down and answer your question.
The wisdom of their god was great. There were no problems he couldn't solve.
If only people knew what they really did at the top of their pyramid. There was no praying, only connecting. Plugging themselves into the machine. Getting the answers. Unplugging themselves, now with the knowledge to answer the question.
Meanwhile, Po and his dad had separated, Mr. Ping heading to the small hut, ready to begin preparing lunch, while Po headed to the barnhouse to get a head start on the plowing. They had just had the Harvest Celebration recently. There had been a great feast outside in one of the farmer's fields, and there had been much eating and drinking together.
But that was the issue. They may have eaten and drank together, but they didn't talk. About what? Other than the small talk of "how are you?" and "We're well. How about you?" there was silence. There was nothing to talk about. Nothing ever happened to anyone. They all got up, went to the temple to worship, worked on their land, ate, and went to bed. Over and over and over again.
But they were content with the silence. They were used to it. The simple act of eating together was regarded as bonding. Words weren't needed; they could only spoil the revered atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Po entered the barn, looked around, and reached for the plow. He backed out of the barn and closed the door, heading for the piece of land that he had left the day before when the sun had gone down. The land looked the same from every direction, but Po knew that piece of land like the back of his hand. Probably better.
In fact, he had never left the village. None of the villagers ever had. What for? They were always taught that there was nothing out there for them. The gods had sent them to where they were born for a reason, right? So surely that was where they were meant to stay for all their lives.
But sometimes, in the dead of the night, Po would look at the stars and wonder what they were. He would look out on the horizon and have a glimmer of thought. The question of what was over there. He knew that as he walked towards the horizon, it moved away from you. Surely, he had thought, if he just kept walking, he would reach the edge.
As he began to plow the fields by hand- a painstaking job, but he didn't mind- that question happened to be on his mind.
'Is it like a wall?" he wondered. "Is it soft like the grass on my feet in the morning, wet with dew? Or is it hard, like the walls of the temple, so that you can rap your knuckles on it and it makes an echo? Or is it more like a cliff, where you can peer over the edge? What would you even see?"
But these thoughts soon faded as the work started to settle into Po. Throughout his life, Po had been rather curious. Maybe a little too much. Thoughts were something that were given little value in his world. What was there to think about? All there was to think about was work. When to plow, when to eat, when to sleep, when to wake up, when to start the process over again. There was no use in questioning things you didn't know. As the priests had told them all from an early age, questions that get answered only lead to more questions, which causes unhappiness. And no one wanted to be unhappy. So everyone was content to be nearly thoughtless, only a faint whisper of a thought that didn't involve basic survival going through their heads. Living and working were the only two things that mattered, so why bother thinking about anything else?
Po looked up at the sky, admiring its beauty. Such a perfect shade of blue, he thought. Not too dark, not too bright, but a soft touch of blue and green to wrap his world in a warm blanket. With that comforting thought, he focused on what was important to him. His plowing.
Little did he know that someone was about to tear a hole through his small, warm blanket.
Interstellar Space
The stolen spaceship flew through the galaxy nearly at the speed of light. The ship was large and bulky, well-maintained and very expensive. The interior of the ship was arranged like a small apartment, with the small cockpit in front, a short hall connecting it to a larger living and eating area in the middle, and yet another small hall that connected it to the back, where the bathroom and bunks were located. Electrical- the part of the ship that made it function, could be found right underneath any of those rooms. You just had to lift on the tiles off of the floor and slide down there. The ship was a freighter, designed for carrying cargo, so much of the space on the ship was in the back where the cargo was stored.
At the moment, the ship was on auto-pilot, as the computer had already calculated the path to return to their base from their most recent mission.
In the living area, which was made up of a small, square, metal table with a long seat that rested against one of the walls, three people celebrated.
There was a pop! as the cork flew off of the bottle of champagne. The three of them watched the bubbly fizz run down the bottle with satisfaction.
The rhino held the bottle, and then reached for the pig's glass. He poured some in his bottle, set it back in front of him, and then reached across the table for the tiger's glass, doing the same with it, until finally pouring some in his own glass.
He raised his glass, and the pig and tiger did the same.
"Here's to a successful first mission!" the rhino shouted.
"Here's to having enough of the Federation's bullcrap!" the pig shouted.
The captain of the ship, a young tigress, did not say anything, but raised her glass and the three of them tapped the glasses together with a clink!
The rhino and pig drank their small glasses immediately, but the tigress only took a small sip before putting it down on the table.
"The new recruits are coming along nicely," she thought to herself.
Tigress, as the captain was named, was younger than both of the recruits, but she had been in the fight against the Federation for much, much longer. It was all she could remember.
In many worlds, such as the one Po Ping lived on, the Federation controlled everything that happened. The priests were their agents, telling them of any trouble that might be happening. In return, the Federation advised the priests when they came to them with issues.
But there were still a few worlds that were problematic. Some people didn't take kindly to being taken over by force. The Federation had existed for generations and generations, and no one could tell you when it had begun its reign over the galaxy. All they knew was that they came in their spaceships, first with their fighters and their bombers, softening the defenses of the place they wished to control.
Then, they sent in the ground units, special members of the Federation bred for war since birth. Few forces could stand up to them head-to-head, blow for blow.
That was why, over centuries, the Federation had taken over planet by planet, establishing a new system of farming life and manipulating the young into the ideals they wanted them to believe in that made them easier to control. After the generation that remembered what life was like before was gone, this new life of permanent farming became normal, and having no desires in life but basic survival put the planet's population under the Federation's control.
But there were some who resisted.
There were pockets of resistance everywhere in the galaxy that weren't already in the Federation's grasp, but some caused larger issues than others.
Some planets were simply too difficult to take over. The terrain, combined with the hostile population, made some plants inefficient to invade. And the ruler of the Federation lived off of efficacy, so it never did anything that didn't have a satisfactory risk/reward ratio.
One such people were the Gunslingers of Crides. The planet itself was one enormous desert. Resources were scarce, so the few people that managed to survive the heat were forced to fight for them. There were pockets of tribes scattered throughout the planet, always at war with each other. The warrior culture of the planet produced many formidable warriors. However, they were not isolated from the rest of the universe, as they traded what little they had stolen from other tribes with the greedy merchants that visited every non-Federal controlled planet for high-tech weapons. They didn't carry primitive weapons such as swords, but suits of metal armor and powerful blasters, which shot bolts of lasers that melted through just about anything. The richest of tribes could even afford jetpacks, which were a luxury that only a few enjoyed.
The Federation had made the mistake of attempting an invasion on their planet. The ruler of the Federation had its troops moved out in less than a month. However, evacuate was a much better word for it. The harsh desert was already pounding on their army, and the briefly united tribes of Crides proved superior in skill to the soldiers of the Federation. Their uncanny accuracy with their guns became so legendary among the soldiers that they earned the nickname, "The Gunslingers."
A few other planets had similar issues, such as Agiuq, which was made up of an enormous ocean with only a few islands scattered throughout the planet-wide ocean. There weren't even enough people to deem it worthy to invade. Or Silogawa, which was a rocky planet dotted with so many volcanoes that lava ran through the surface like rivers. Needless to say, it wasn't the kind of place the Federation had any desire to control, even if it did sport a large number of subterranean residents.
But there was a group that always plagued the Federation. The Unity of Peace was a large organization that oversaw coordinated resistance movements, from uprisings in Federal-controlled planets, to attacking shipments, to even plotting attacks on the Federation's home base on Greon 6.
The Unity was a problem for the Federation, because, unlike the Gunslingers of Crides, they were a people, an organization, not confined to any one planet. It was a massive group, with members all throughout non-Federal planets, called the "free" planets by the Unity. It was headed by General Thundering Rhino, as he was known. He was a skilled military commander and knew how to set large traps and use his army's situation to his advantage.
The Unity had been around almost as long as the Federation, and only a handful knew of its original founder. Few knew the story of the tortoise and his creation. It had almost become a folktale, a tall tale. Many had heard of it, but few believed it to be true.
Many of its members had children together, and they raised their children in such a world. A world of constantly moving from makeshift base to base, a life of constant alertness, always under threat of attack.
The captain of the ship was one such person. She had been raised in the war for freedom, there was little else for her. Trained by her foster father how to survive, Tigress knew how to survive in a galaxy that cared little for her. She never knew who her real parents were, but her foster father was a commander in the Unity, and she had followed him from base to base as the war raged on in dozens of different fronts.
And that was why, at such a young age- she was only in her twenties- she was in a higher position than late thirty year-olds.
The rhino and the pig were new recruits, people of the free planets who decided they had enough of the Federation's abusive control. Even though some planets had not been targeted yet due to their distance from Greon 6, few understood that they would come for them if they were not stopped. The rhino and pig were two such people.
The three had been sent on a raiding mission. They were to ambush a Federal convoy and hijack one of their ships. It might not have seemed like much, but Federal tech was a huge score for the Unity. The Federation had amassed enormous wealth in their conquest of other planets, and the Unity's members were not exactly swimming in money, so their equipment was rather second-hand, putting them at a disadvantage during battles and skirmishes with the Federation. Any samples of Federal tech could be recreated and distributed among the Unity's soldiers.
The mission had been successful. For the rhino and pig, it was the most thrilling moment of their lives. They had finally stood up for what they believed in.
For Tigress, it was no big deal. She had run so many missions she had lost count long ago. It was normal for her.
Their celebration was suddenly interrupted when the ship slowed down dramatically and a loud crack! was heard, signifying the jump out of warp drive.
The three heads jerked up.
"Why are we stopping?" the pig asked, his voice laced with worry.
Tigress stood up, her composure generating a calming effect on the two nervous fighters.
"I don't know," she calmly replied. "Let's go and find out, shall we?"
With that, she turned around and headed toward the cockpit, the other two following close behind.
When they entered, quite a sight was waiting for them beyond the window.
Tigress calmly read the instruments on the dashboard and looked over at the main computer interface, looked outside the front window, and put all the pieces together in her head. Her comrades were not as fast.
"Wait, w-what's th-that blockade doing here!?" the pig stuttered, his feelings of joy during their celebration turning into fear of the sight before him.
In front of their window, a Federal blockade was in their way. It was a large cluster of ships, with their black, sleek, rounded forms all facing in their direction. Close by was a planet, one covered with splashes of green with specks of blue.
"They must have set up a new checkpoint for Federal ships above this planet very recently," Tigress explained to the recruits like a teacher explained to their students. "It didn't show up on our monitors back at the base, but the Federal ships must have had their computers updated already. The auto-pilot knew we were passing close by, and redirected us here."
Tigress glanced at the small screen at the corner of the cockpit once again. In the top right of the screen, she could make out the words-
"Planet name: Delia."
"Status: Controlled."
"What are we going to do?" the rhino asked, the panic seeping through his voice.
Suddenly, the radio in front of them crackled to life.
"Freighter 353, please submit your checkpoint code for routine inspection. After you have completed the task, you may proceed in your way."
For the first time, Tigress felt a knot of worry build in her stomach. She had always been taught to never panic, as that would surely lead to death, but this concerned her.
Checkpoint codes were digitally given to individual pilots, who then submitted them at Federal blockades to confirm that they were really Federal pilots, and not Unity members in possession of a stolen ship. The code was valid for twenty-four hours, and was then scrambled and re-sent to the pilots.
Tigress quietly sat down in the pilot's seat, strapped on her belt, and looked at the computer screen. After a few button presses and scrolling through the menus, Tigress finally came to the portion that said-
"Menu 3: Checkpoint Codes."
Tigress opened it up, revealing a thirteen digit space. Right above the blank space, it read-
"5G4F9C2Y0L3T7- is previous entry. Do you wish to enter again?"
Ahh, Tigress thought. So it saved the previous entry in case pilots had to pass through heavy Federal areas, where checkpoints were very common, and they had to enter the code several times in a twenty-four hour setting.
Uttering a silent prayer, Tigress selected the "Yes" option, hoping that the code had been used in the last twenty-four hour cycle. If it hadn't… she didn't want to finish that thought.
"Hold on one moment," said the voice from the radio.
Together, the three of them sweated in silence as they waited for the results.
At first, there was no response. Then, all of a sudden, there was a flash of red light from the front ship of the blockade, and a huge-
"BAM!"
They had been hit. Apparently, the code had expired.
The shot had hit the engine, disabling the ship's main thrusting capabilities. The gravity of the nearby planet began to quickly absorb them, and the Federal ships wouldn't shoot in the planet's direction.
So, the ship began to fall toward the planet.
In the cockpit, the explosion hadn't reached them, so they were safe for the moment. The fires were at the back of the ship, and they could smell the smoke, but they couldn't yet see the fire.
The rhino and pig were panicking.
"What do we do, what do we do!?" he frantically shouted.
Tigress' usually calm voice was now also struggling with panic.
"Get to the escape capsules! GO!" she shouted back. As she said it, she pulled at her seat buckle, but it wouldn't budge. It was stuck.
"Hey, guys!" she shouted. "The belt's stuck, help me!"
The two thought about it for a fraction of a second, but they then saw the window begin to heat with the flames of their re-entry on the planet's atmosphere.
They turned around and left Tigress behind. They weren't going to risk their lives for her.
"Bastards!" Tigress shouted at their backsides, pulling at the belt with all her might, but the strong lock wouldn't budge.
Meanwhile, the rhino and pig ran over to the escape pods, where they both quickly got in one, shut the door behind them, pressurized the cabin, and threw the separation lever down. The pod detached from the freighter with a loud "hiss," and then began to drift towards the planet's surface.
The pods, being much smaller, put up less resistance, which meant that they descended down towards the planet's surface much faster than the ship.
The rhino and pig sat on either side of the spherical pod, both silent in shame of how they'd left their captain behind in their rush to save themselves.
There was no window, and they couldn't see anything outside, but they could feel the G-force on their bodies as the pod fell faster and faster towards the planet's surface.
The pod's computer began counting down.
"800 meters until parachute deployment."
"600 meters until parachute deployment."
"400 meters until parachute deployment."
"200 meters until parachute deployment."
"Deploy parachute now. Deploy parachute now."
The pig grabbed a lever underneath the small screen and threw it down.
"Parachute malfunction. Parachute malfunction."
The rhino and pig could only look at each other with wide eyes.
They didn't even have the time to scream when the pod crashed into the surface of the unsuspecting planet.
Meanwhile, Tigress, who was still stuck in the pilot's seat, decided to control the ship the best she could and make her inevitable crash-landing as survivable as possible.
The atmosphere caught on fire as she blew past it, making the ship's temperature increase significantly, making Tigress sweat even more than she already was. She pulled back on the ship's control handle, making whatever still function resist the ship's rapid descent.
It helped a little, as the ship did slow down, but the ship's engines were far too damaged to make the ship fly again. So, the ship began to fall to the surface in a state somewhere between floating and falling. It might not have been favorable, but it was better than hitting the surface full-speed.
The atmosphere began to fade away, replaced with clouds in the night. Soon the clouds passed, and Tigress could see the vast green land below.
She grabbed the edges of her seat tightly with her paws and did her best to bend herself forward so that her head was in between her legs, bracing herself for impact.
The surface drew closer and closer.
So, what did you think? Please if you liked it (or didn't like it), feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below!
So, this was kind of a world-building chapter, but also had a little action mixed in. In case you haven't noticed, this isn't exactly going to be like my other two stories: this one is going to jump into the action much earlier in the story, but then take breaks throughout. So, I have little world-building experience, as writing fanfiction kind of takes care of that issue for me. So, please, tell me how I did! Please, please, all kinds of feedback is welcome, from compliments to criticism.
Yeah, I know, there's still a lot of questions to answer, I know, but hopefully you now know a little more of how this mirrors the original KFP. Don't worry, it'll have a lot more parallels than this once the ball really starts rolling, but patience, my friends, patience.
A bit of a disclaimer here: This occurred to me while writing this, but I should probably make this clear. I'm going to be using this story as a medium to address some real-world situations, just as many of you do with your stories. Religion is going to be one of those topics. In this story, characters are going to have different beliefs and points of view, and some will be taking some shots at religions in general. I should probably state that I personally am a Christian. Most things don't really make me angry, but people who use religion (especially mine) to justify wrong behavior and exploit people who don't know better really upsets me. It's been prevalent in history practically forever, from Ancient Egyptians claiming to be the sun god incarnate, to the Ancient Chinese having the permission of the gods to rule through the Mandate of Heaven, to the Middle/Dark Age Catholic Church demanding money in order to "buy" one's place in Heaven, to the KKK trying to justify their hideous crimes, even to modern-day people who claim that The Bible condemns members of the LGBTQ+ community (news flash: it doesn't. But that's a WHOLE different topic that I could talk about for a really long time). So, anyway, the potential for religion to be abused is definitely a topic that I'll be exploring in this story, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm not trying to insult anyone of any faith (or lack thereof). All insults to religion that may occur are strictly in the context of this story.
Sorry if all that seemed like a little bit of overkill, but better to be safe than sorry, right?
Anyway, keep being awesome!