Privileged
By Griffin
Note: Farscape belongs to Henson people. I think I strayed a little here
and there but not too bad.
Officer Tanis Parin was from one of the core worlds, that much was obvious to everyone in the crowded bunker on the frontier world of Kalin Zar.
This meant that Parin's father or mother, or both, had some influence in either the Sebatian Senate or Peacekeeper High Command. Whichever it was, Parin had been given a spot on one of the safest and yet still active border worlds within Peacekeeper jurisdiction.
Sub-Officer Alexia Danovaul could tell that Tanis Parin was from the heart of the Peacekeeper empire as soon as he'd introduced himself, and his subsequent attitude had reinforced Alexia's belief. To someone who wasn't Sebatian, the slight difference between a Core Citizen and a Secondary or Frontier Colonist was nearly unrecognizable. But to a Sebatian those same differences were enormous. Even the slightest mispronunciation of a word would mark a person as an outsider. And the way Tanis had said 'ease,' focusing on the 'a' to make it long and the 'e' silent, had given him away. After his introduction, he had proceeded to go on and on about himself and his graduation from the PK academy third in his class and so on and so forth.
Right now he was admiring himself in the dull light of the bunker's only mirror, located in the bunker's only toilet facility. He was long done with his shower, as were the other three men and three women in the bunker.
Tanis' grey-white eyes were piercing, but with a subtle hint of arrogance that could not be hidden by any amount of PK uniform. His long blonde hair was braided down his back and bone dry already. He wasn't unattractive, Alexia admitted, just arrogant.
Alexia herself was quite attractive. Sharp, dark blue eyes were accompanied by a head of dark red hair only slightly longer than Tanis'. She was from the nearby agri-colony of Kevem, where few people made it off world unless they were joining the shipping industries as a work hand or joining the Peacekeepers as a soldier. Alexia had taken the latter. Now Alexia sat on her bunk, watching Tanis groom himself.
She was the second ranked officer in the bunker, and as such was in command of second watch, which had just ended. Tanis was in charge of first shift, which started in a little over nine arns on this twenty-eight arn planet. Right now only Sub-Officer Rewen Zar and First Rating Tevya Lanis were 'on- duty.'
Alexia, First Rating Ilnas and Second Rating Manis were 'off-duty' and SRs Cartil and Emons were asleep.
The bunker was part of the front-line defense for the planet's capitol and the PK base that was the headquarters for their unit and the ships in orbit. They were on orders to stay alert but with the ongoing negotiations between PK High Command and the Scarrens, and the quite extensive PK task force in orbit, attack on the planet was unlikely.
Still, the peacekeepers kept their weapons loaded. The eight soldiers had their pulse pistols and rifles, three mounted dual-barrel pulse cannons, four portable pulse cannons and a pair of portable, computer targeted, tri- pod mounted tri-barrel pulse cannons. It was equipped with a single, long- range transceiver to receive or transmit reports about any ground-forces on the planet.
The bunker could withstand direct pulse cannon fire and some indirect artillery fire. It was in place more to slow any ground-force advance than to repel an invasion.
Dust.
Dust, something that really shouldn't have been there considering it was a PK bunker, was shook from the support beams of the bunker as the structure was rocked by an explosion.
From the force of the explosion, Alexia guessed that the explosion had been about three hundred metres or so behind them, toward the city, about where the PK artillery was entrenched.
Moments later several, but hauntingly not all, of those same entrenched guns opened fire as the bunker scrambled to readiness. The screaming hiss of artillery shells deafened the peacekeepers. But they were used to the feeling.
"This is KZ Central to all units; attacks of unknown origin are underway on west and north frontiers. Repel all attacks!" The radio suddenly died as a piece of shrapnel ripped the bunker's transceiver antenna off.
"Move it people!" Alexia shouted as she dropped to the bunker floor and ran for her combat armor.
The rest of the soldiers followed suit and within minutes the off-duty Peacekeepers were ready for battle. FR Lanis, Ilnas and SR Manis were assigned to the mounted dual barrels; Cartil and Emons were assign two of the portable pulse cannons; Alexia and Tanis were assigned to run the two tri-pod- tri-barrels out to their flanking positions.
Alexia hefted her load and hurried toward the hatch, expecting Tanis to follow suit. He didn't. She got mad.
"Come on, damn it!" She yelled at him. "Pick up the frelling gun and let's go!"
"Do not swear at me, Sub-Officer. I am your superior officer and a privileged citizen of the Sebatian Empire," Parin yelled back.
"Frell you and your arrogant dren!" Alexia yelled as she grabbed the other weapon and carried them both out of the hatch.
The hiss of artillery rounds flying over her head, the thud of distant explosions and the crash of explosions far too near for comfort, all were ignored by Alexia in her rage. She hurriedly set up the perimeter cannons and charged back into the bunker, ignoring Tanis as he cowered by the transceiver trying to call for an evacuation.
Alexia stood for a moment and watched as the hill-side facing the bunker erupted. Peacekeeper artillery created a wall of fire on the hillside, apparently shooting at something she could not see. Moments later that same territory was covered by troop shuttles and Scarren forces. The troop transports stopped at the makeshift wall the PK forces had erected exactly for that reason.
Huge forward hatches slammed down on the stone wall, crushing it and leaving gaps in the wall for the Scarren forces to breach. The transports released an entire brigade of Scarren forces, over seven thousand shock troopers.
Peacekeeper artillery fired again, pounding the troops with anti-personnel shells and anti-armor rounds. Moments later, a battery of Scarren artillery appeared at the crest of the hill and began firing, their ranged shells slamming the PK installation and silencing several of the cannons.
Alexia watched through her range-finder as the lead element of the Scarren attack made their way across the gently rolling plains toward Bunker 71- Alpha. They were mostly armed with standard Scarren pulse rifles. But several of them carried dual-barrel pulse cannons and at least a dozen mortars could be seen among the crowds.
"Targets entering dual barrel range, Alexia announced and winced as the three mounted pulse cannons opened fire, spitting streams of pulse fire into the attacking waves. Bunker 71-Alpha was not alone in releasing streams of death as every bunker along the perimeter joined in the fire.
Dozens of attackers feel with each volley but the others pressed on.
"Tri-barrels engaging!" Ilnas shouted as the hum of the automated turrets filled the air and the scratch of the guns firing cut through the chaotic noise environment.
The tri-barrels had a maximum effective range of four hundred metres, anything beyond that and they were utterly ineffective. But at exactly four hundred metres the guns were lethal. Even to the thick skinned Scarrens.
But four hundred metres was also optimal firing range for Scarren mortars, as Alexia soon found out. The screech that heralded the incoming mortar shells would be terrifying to anyone that didn't have their emotions all but drilled out of them. But even the peacekeepers were unnerved by the sound.
The crack of the mortars firing, the evil screech of the rounds in flight and the subsequent thud as the shells landed filled the air. Alexia wince as one of those thuds occurred right in front of Bunker 71-Alpha and bits of shrapnel flew into the bunker. Second Rating Manis was killed as a piece of the red-hot shell smashed into his chest and SR Emons was all but totally blinded by the explosion.
Alexia quickly grabbed the now vacant pulse cannon and lifted it into the firing groove. She had high marks for accuracy and began targeting the mortar teams as communications relays were finally brought on-line and the comm transceiver lit up with combat reports, orders, calls for artillery support and calls for evacuation teams.
"Command this is Bunker Seven-One-Alpha. We have one dead and one seriously wounded! We need immediate evacuation!" Tanis said over the comm.
"Seven-One-Alpha, this is KZ Central. A wing of Marauders is en route to begin evacuations. Surrounded positions will take priority. Sit tight."
Another mortar round slammed into the ground near the bunker. Too far to completely collapse the structure, but close enough to punch a hole in the wall. One of the chunks of concrete slammed the transceiver and Tanis swore as he picked up his pulse rifle and slammed open the hatch.
"Tanis get back here! FRELLING DREN!" Alexia yelled as Tanis ran for the artillery bunkers. He thought he would be safe there.
A volley of Scarren pulse rifles erupted as their heat sensors spotted Tanis. He made it a matter of metres before he was cut down, never to bother anyone with his arrogance again.
But that left Alexia in charge of the bunker without any form of communication with KZ-Central.
"This is S-One-Alpha to S-One-Beta. What is your status?"
"Two casualties, but not too bad," the voice reported. "What about you, S- One-Alpha?"
"Lost one, commander ran got cut down and one out of action. All weapons but I don't have enough people to man all of my weapons."
"Do you still have transceiver?"
"Negative, got hit by shrapnel."
"Central says that we are pulling out. Seems the task force in orbit got pummeled by a surprise attack. Almost completely destroyed and before they could even warn us. There are enough long-range vessels here on the planet for a complete pull-out but its going to get ugly with the Scarrens controlling space."
"Any word on how long until we get pulled out?"
"Negative, Central says they are pulling surrounded units first and then support forces. Front-line and hard-line are the last to go."
"Thanks Beta, Alpha Out," Alexia said as she cut her comm.
She pulled the trigger of the pulse cannon and the searing bolt caught a Scarren square in the eye. The Scarren slumped, knocking the mortar he was holding down and causing the round to fly right into the attacking waves of Scarrens.
The explosion ripped dozens of Scarrens apart and caused the attack on 71- Alpha to pull back slightly and pick more attractive, and less dangerous, targets for the moment.
But the respite was temporary. And when the onslaught returned, it was even stronger. The artillery began focusing on Alexia's bunker, pounding the nearby ground with heavy shells.
The peacekeepers in the bunker responded as best they could with their pulse cannons. But it was a lost cause.
Alexia was about to set the bunker's self-destruct when a crackle on her comm stopped her.
"This is.to section Seven . bunkers . We are. route to begin evacuations. Hold. our ETA is thirty microts. I repeat: This is Marauder Wing Zeta-Tau to section Seven-One bunkers. We are en route to begin evacuations. Hold the line, our ETA is thirty microts"
Alexia, a renewed sense of hope in her, turned her attention to pushing back the Scarrens. But as she turned to pull the trigger on her pulse cannon, a pulse round slammed into her shoulder, knocking her to the ground.
But she felt no pain.
And as the light faded into darkness she heard the sound of birds chirping. She opened her eyes once more to find herself in her palatial quarters in her family's Sebatia mansion. She found herself in her life of Privilege.
Officer Tanis Parin was from one of the core worlds, that much was obvious to everyone in the crowded bunker on the frontier world of Kalin Zar.
This meant that Parin's father or mother, or both, had some influence in either the Sebatian Senate or Peacekeeper High Command. Whichever it was, Parin had been given a spot on one of the safest and yet still active border worlds within Peacekeeper jurisdiction.
Sub-Officer Alexia Danovaul could tell that Tanis Parin was from the heart of the Peacekeeper empire as soon as he'd introduced himself, and his subsequent attitude had reinforced Alexia's belief. To someone who wasn't Sebatian, the slight difference between a Core Citizen and a Secondary or Frontier Colonist was nearly unrecognizable. But to a Sebatian those same differences were enormous. Even the slightest mispronunciation of a word would mark a person as an outsider. And the way Tanis had said 'ease,' focusing on the 'a' to make it long and the 'e' silent, had given him away. After his introduction, he had proceeded to go on and on about himself and his graduation from the PK academy third in his class and so on and so forth.
Right now he was admiring himself in the dull light of the bunker's only mirror, located in the bunker's only toilet facility. He was long done with his shower, as were the other three men and three women in the bunker.
Tanis' grey-white eyes were piercing, but with a subtle hint of arrogance that could not be hidden by any amount of PK uniform. His long blonde hair was braided down his back and bone dry already. He wasn't unattractive, Alexia admitted, just arrogant.
Alexia herself was quite attractive. Sharp, dark blue eyes were accompanied by a head of dark red hair only slightly longer than Tanis'. She was from the nearby agri-colony of Kevem, where few people made it off world unless they were joining the shipping industries as a work hand or joining the Peacekeepers as a soldier. Alexia had taken the latter. Now Alexia sat on her bunk, watching Tanis groom himself.
She was the second ranked officer in the bunker, and as such was in command of second watch, which had just ended. Tanis was in charge of first shift, which started in a little over nine arns on this twenty-eight arn planet. Right now only Sub-Officer Rewen Zar and First Rating Tevya Lanis were 'on- duty.'
Alexia, First Rating Ilnas and Second Rating Manis were 'off-duty' and SRs Cartil and Emons were asleep.
The bunker was part of the front-line defense for the planet's capitol and the PK base that was the headquarters for their unit and the ships in orbit. They were on orders to stay alert but with the ongoing negotiations between PK High Command and the Scarrens, and the quite extensive PK task force in orbit, attack on the planet was unlikely.
Still, the peacekeepers kept their weapons loaded. The eight soldiers had their pulse pistols and rifles, three mounted dual-barrel pulse cannons, four portable pulse cannons and a pair of portable, computer targeted, tri- pod mounted tri-barrel pulse cannons. It was equipped with a single, long- range transceiver to receive or transmit reports about any ground-forces on the planet.
The bunker could withstand direct pulse cannon fire and some indirect artillery fire. It was in place more to slow any ground-force advance than to repel an invasion.
Dust.
Dust, something that really shouldn't have been there considering it was a PK bunker, was shook from the support beams of the bunker as the structure was rocked by an explosion.
From the force of the explosion, Alexia guessed that the explosion had been about three hundred metres or so behind them, toward the city, about where the PK artillery was entrenched.
Moments later several, but hauntingly not all, of those same entrenched guns opened fire as the bunker scrambled to readiness. The screaming hiss of artillery shells deafened the peacekeepers. But they were used to the feeling.
"This is KZ Central to all units; attacks of unknown origin are underway on west and north frontiers. Repel all attacks!" The radio suddenly died as a piece of shrapnel ripped the bunker's transceiver antenna off.
"Move it people!" Alexia shouted as she dropped to the bunker floor and ran for her combat armor.
The rest of the soldiers followed suit and within minutes the off-duty Peacekeepers were ready for battle. FR Lanis, Ilnas and SR Manis were assigned to the mounted dual barrels; Cartil and Emons were assign two of the portable pulse cannons; Alexia and Tanis were assigned to run the two tri-pod- tri-barrels out to their flanking positions.
Alexia hefted her load and hurried toward the hatch, expecting Tanis to follow suit. He didn't. She got mad.
"Come on, damn it!" She yelled at him. "Pick up the frelling gun and let's go!"
"Do not swear at me, Sub-Officer. I am your superior officer and a privileged citizen of the Sebatian Empire," Parin yelled back.
"Frell you and your arrogant dren!" Alexia yelled as she grabbed the other weapon and carried them both out of the hatch.
The hiss of artillery rounds flying over her head, the thud of distant explosions and the crash of explosions far too near for comfort, all were ignored by Alexia in her rage. She hurriedly set up the perimeter cannons and charged back into the bunker, ignoring Tanis as he cowered by the transceiver trying to call for an evacuation.
Alexia stood for a moment and watched as the hill-side facing the bunker erupted. Peacekeeper artillery created a wall of fire on the hillside, apparently shooting at something she could not see. Moments later that same territory was covered by troop shuttles and Scarren forces. The troop transports stopped at the makeshift wall the PK forces had erected exactly for that reason.
Huge forward hatches slammed down on the stone wall, crushing it and leaving gaps in the wall for the Scarren forces to breach. The transports released an entire brigade of Scarren forces, over seven thousand shock troopers.
Peacekeeper artillery fired again, pounding the troops with anti-personnel shells and anti-armor rounds. Moments later, a battery of Scarren artillery appeared at the crest of the hill and began firing, their ranged shells slamming the PK installation and silencing several of the cannons.
Alexia watched through her range-finder as the lead element of the Scarren attack made their way across the gently rolling plains toward Bunker 71- Alpha. They were mostly armed with standard Scarren pulse rifles. But several of them carried dual-barrel pulse cannons and at least a dozen mortars could be seen among the crowds.
"Targets entering dual barrel range, Alexia announced and winced as the three mounted pulse cannons opened fire, spitting streams of pulse fire into the attacking waves. Bunker 71-Alpha was not alone in releasing streams of death as every bunker along the perimeter joined in the fire.
Dozens of attackers feel with each volley but the others pressed on.
"Tri-barrels engaging!" Ilnas shouted as the hum of the automated turrets filled the air and the scratch of the guns firing cut through the chaotic noise environment.
The tri-barrels had a maximum effective range of four hundred metres, anything beyond that and they were utterly ineffective. But at exactly four hundred metres the guns were lethal. Even to the thick skinned Scarrens.
But four hundred metres was also optimal firing range for Scarren mortars, as Alexia soon found out. The screech that heralded the incoming mortar shells would be terrifying to anyone that didn't have their emotions all but drilled out of them. But even the peacekeepers were unnerved by the sound.
The crack of the mortars firing, the evil screech of the rounds in flight and the subsequent thud as the shells landed filled the air. Alexia wince as one of those thuds occurred right in front of Bunker 71-Alpha and bits of shrapnel flew into the bunker. Second Rating Manis was killed as a piece of the red-hot shell smashed into his chest and SR Emons was all but totally blinded by the explosion.
Alexia quickly grabbed the now vacant pulse cannon and lifted it into the firing groove. She had high marks for accuracy and began targeting the mortar teams as communications relays were finally brought on-line and the comm transceiver lit up with combat reports, orders, calls for artillery support and calls for evacuation teams.
"Command this is Bunker Seven-One-Alpha. We have one dead and one seriously wounded! We need immediate evacuation!" Tanis said over the comm.
"Seven-One-Alpha, this is KZ Central. A wing of Marauders is en route to begin evacuations. Surrounded positions will take priority. Sit tight."
Another mortar round slammed into the ground near the bunker. Too far to completely collapse the structure, but close enough to punch a hole in the wall. One of the chunks of concrete slammed the transceiver and Tanis swore as he picked up his pulse rifle and slammed open the hatch.
"Tanis get back here! FRELLING DREN!" Alexia yelled as Tanis ran for the artillery bunkers. He thought he would be safe there.
A volley of Scarren pulse rifles erupted as their heat sensors spotted Tanis. He made it a matter of metres before he was cut down, never to bother anyone with his arrogance again.
But that left Alexia in charge of the bunker without any form of communication with KZ-Central.
"This is S-One-Alpha to S-One-Beta. What is your status?"
"Two casualties, but not too bad," the voice reported. "What about you, S- One-Alpha?"
"Lost one, commander ran got cut down and one out of action. All weapons but I don't have enough people to man all of my weapons."
"Do you still have transceiver?"
"Negative, got hit by shrapnel."
"Central says that we are pulling out. Seems the task force in orbit got pummeled by a surprise attack. Almost completely destroyed and before they could even warn us. There are enough long-range vessels here on the planet for a complete pull-out but its going to get ugly with the Scarrens controlling space."
"Any word on how long until we get pulled out?"
"Negative, Central says they are pulling surrounded units first and then support forces. Front-line and hard-line are the last to go."
"Thanks Beta, Alpha Out," Alexia said as she cut her comm.
She pulled the trigger of the pulse cannon and the searing bolt caught a Scarren square in the eye. The Scarren slumped, knocking the mortar he was holding down and causing the round to fly right into the attacking waves of Scarrens.
The explosion ripped dozens of Scarrens apart and caused the attack on 71- Alpha to pull back slightly and pick more attractive, and less dangerous, targets for the moment.
But the respite was temporary. And when the onslaught returned, it was even stronger. The artillery began focusing on Alexia's bunker, pounding the nearby ground with heavy shells.
The peacekeepers in the bunker responded as best they could with their pulse cannons. But it was a lost cause.
Alexia was about to set the bunker's self-destruct when a crackle on her comm stopped her.
"This is.to section Seven . bunkers . We are. route to begin evacuations. Hold. our ETA is thirty microts. I repeat: This is Marauder Wing Zeta-Tau to section Seven-One bunkers. We are en route to begin evacuations. Hold the line, our ETA is thirty microts"
Alexia, a renewed sense of hope in her, turned her attention to pushing back the Scarrens. But as she turned to pull the trigger on her pulse cannon, a pulse round slammed into her shoulder, knocking her to the ground.
But she felt no pain.
And as the light faded into darkness she heard the sound of birds chirping. She opened her eyes once more to find herself in her palatial quarters in her family's Sebatia mansion. She found herself in her life of Privilege.