Life On Helghan

OK first off I'm grateful for all the criticism on chapters 1 through 5, I know it's been awhile but unfortunately I've been busy so I've decided I'm gonna play KZ2 while I write lol, that way the story narrative will be fresh in my head. So let's get started shall we?

Chapter 6.

Unfortunately we didn't sleep for long, about an hour later a soldier came in and woke the captain and me up and told us we'd been assigned to colonel Radec as his personal guard , we were completely dumbfounded at this it took me a few minutes to finally say something and even that was dumbfounded. "How did...why did he...what!"

"Don't think you're anything special boys, the colonel changes his personal guard a lot, most members are re-assigned to other duties after about 2 days, so enjoy it while it lasts." And he turned and left.

The captain spoke. "Well how about that then eh? It couldn't be more useful tactically because we know about Alpha Squad as well as the colonel so we can be even more useful to him."

"Yep, shall we report to his office then?"

"Let's go."

It was at that point I started thinking he might've noticed someone had been in his office and somehow he knew it was us, but I dismissed it as stupid. How could he possibly? We went to the lockers and changed into our uniforms and made our way to his office, I knocked and waited.

Five...four...three...two...one "Come in." We entered to find him standing at his window looking out, the captain stepped forward again. "Private Lente and Captain Hakha reporting for duty as your personal guard sir."

He turned round to face us "Good first things first, Lente you're getting promoted affective immediately to master sergeant, I went over your debriefing many times and the way you delivered it so professionally has prompted this decision."

He stopped expecting me to thank him and speak out of turn but I stood to attention and said nothing, after a few seconds I swear I heard a low chuckle through his helmet before he carried on.

"All right now that's dealt with, I have a meeting scheduled with Autarch Visari so if you'll both accompany me."

"Yes sir." We said in unison, we followed him outside to a dropship and boarded en route to Visari's Palace, neither of us said a word during the trip for obvious reasons and eventually we heard the dropship's engines powering down and the colonel stood up and disembarked, we followed him from the landing pad inside, the Palace was fucking big, we'd been moving through it for about 15 minutes before we finally arrived at the doors to the throne room, the colonel opened them and we followed him inside.

I looked around the room and was completely blown away by my surroundings, the room was amazingly decorated, it was even better than the academy. I looked up and saw the Autarch sat at his desk, unlike the captain I wasn't completely indifferent about Visari, I found it inspiring how he had chosen to lead the planet and thought of him as a great man, but I wasn't fanatical like most of the soldiers and people on this rock. The colonel walked to the centre of the room and bowed down on one knee and lowered his head.

"Autarch Scolar Visari, colonel Mael Radec at your service."

"Rise colonel, ah I see you have two new men at your side, may I greet them?"

"Of course my all-powerful Autarch."

He stood up from the desk and came down the staircase towards us, my heart was jumping and I couldn't believe this great man was going to shake my hand, I was managing to contain myself barely, he came up to the captain first and greeted him, the captain and Autarch exchanged the traditional pleasantries with each other. Then he came to me.

"What's your name and rank soldier?"

"M-m-master sergeant your highness, master sergeant Caleb Lente." This seemed to surprise him.

"Lente? Did you have a brother?"

"Yes your highness but my father told me he died before I was born."

"Hmm, what was your father's name?"

"Kertrac Lente sir."

"Ah Kertrac yes I remember the general mentioning him, well Caleb I can verify that you are indeed related to one of the finest men I have ever had the pleasure to meet, yes he unfortunately severed all his family ties when he became a colonel because he wanted to only focus on his duties, while I admit this was unfortunate to you and your father it benefitted our fine nation and army greatly, he lead the invasion of Vekta well and died on the battlefield, so I hope you'll find some reprieve in the fact he was a truly incredible soldier and leader, and I also hope to see you follow in his footsteps. I understand if all this comes as a shock to you so I'm going to break protocol and allow you to speak freely because of who your brother was."

"What so he was a general? Wow I can't believe it. That's amazing news sir, and I'm incredibly grateful that you told what truly happened to my brother, I always had a feeling my father knew more than he was telling, whenever I asked how he died he told me it was a mining accident, which I found difficult to believe."

"Yes he knew he had a brother and did want you to at least know of his existence so he gave your father the story for you, but I personally see no harm in telling you the truth, I believe Joseph would have wanted you to know and I also think he would have been proud to see you in the duty of personal guard for his best friend."

"Thank you so much sir."

"It was a pleasure to meet you Caleb, now colonel..." He stood in front of Radec. "I've received word that a scientist with knowledge of how we can get the nuclear codes for Red Dust has been sent with a small squad to the Suljeva mining village, they're most likely looking for a way to halt our petrusite distribution grid, so your orders are to capture this scientist and any men protecting them and take them to Tharsis Refinery for prisoner processing, after obtaining this information of course."

"Yes almighty Autarch, your will is my command."

"Excellent, you may leave." With that he turned around and headed back to the stairs, Radec turned and we followed out of the throne room, he seemed pensive about what the Autarch had told me. He never showed ANY emotion toward me when we'd first met and now that I knew the truth I'd guessed he'd got it as sson as the captain told him my name on Salamun Bridge. We left the Palace and boarded the dropship and took off for the village, I finally plucked up the courage from the Autarch's special treatment to speak out of turn to the colonel.

"So sir you knew my brother?"

He actually responded. "Yes, Joseph Lente was a fine man, he believed in freedom for our people and always kept a level head no matter what situation he was in. But unlike me he always knew how to switch off, I remember at the Autarch's celebration party he got so drunk he actually tried to flirt with Chairman Stahl, ha ha ha it did make me laugh when his reaction to these advances was a kiss on the cheek, the Chairman's attitude while sober is extremely relaxed, informal and improper, even worse when he's drunk, qualities I tend to look down on but I will say that without him you wouldn't have that rifle in your hand right now. Your brother finally managed to obtain a steady boyfriend a few months before he was made a general and picked to lead to invasion of Vekta, I was saddened to learn of his death, not just because I'd lost a great friend but because his partner commited suicide after hearing of it, anyway master sergeant enough chit-chat, I believe you deserve to know more about your brother but we're almost there."

"Thank you sir." We landed about 2 minues later and left the dropship, the village looked deserted, the colonel lead us to a temporary command post and we went inside, he even had a private office here, he went inside and we were left to guard the door.

The captain finally said something to me. "Well that must've been a lot to take in."

"Yeah definitely, but hey my brother was a general ha ha yay."

"I'm happy for you Caleb."

"Thanks Frederick, and I'm truly sorry about your brother."

"Ah it's OK, he might've been a traitor but he was actually good friends with your brother, yeah I was in the army with them both and we were all pretty inseparable, neither of them ever told me about you though, he was a good man, and Gregor my brother was a good man too, even if he might have switched sides that was simply because he was disgusted with the way Visari was speaking about our enemy, he would've been happy to follow orders but every day seeing a devout worshipper of Visari got to him and he started to think how people viewed this one man, ultimately he made the decision to defect so he could help to free us from Visari's hold and to be honest I agreed with him, Visari had become a god to almost everyone at that point and these days anyone who doesn't worship the ground he walks on never will, but almost everyone does, Gregor feared the power Visari would gain from this, he knew all too well the history of what happened on Earth during the nineteen thirties and forties, and the nazi dictator Hitler's power was immense and the things he did to England were terrible, and that's where our people came from, he saw the perverted irony in Visari's reign and decided he wasn't going to let the British become the very thing we hated when we were on Earth, the Helghan corporation was originally a British company you see, and this was the reason he defected, ha ha ha seems the yanks are trying to save us again seeing as most ISA soldiers are american. The irony is ridiculous."

"Wow i had no idea we were what you'd call English back on Earth, hmm interesting."

We stood in silence after that and took some time to ponder what had just been said, 15 minutes later the colonel burst out of his office and didn't even stop to tell us to follow, it was hard for us to keep up with him, the captain asked what was happening and he told us he'd finally managed to pin down the location of Alpha Squad who were the ones accompanying the scientist. We were both excited at this opportunity and followed him outside to a large squad of men, he briefed them on where Alpha Squad was and told them to bring all members they encounter back alive. He dismissed them and they marched off, he turned to us both and told us he was going to escort them personally to the Tharsis Refinery and we were going to stay here and await either the squad's return or news of their deaths, he dismissed us both and actually said we had some free time of our own, not that it was much good in this place, we saluted the colonel and he turned to go back inside the command post to his office.

The captain looked at me and said. "Right then what shall we do?"

"I have no idea, this place is dead."

He laughed and said. "Well let's play some poker in the break room."

"Hmm all right then."

I followed him inside and we sat down for a few hands.

End of chapter 6.

Ooh it's getting interesting now, can ya feel it? Lol anyway this was a bloody long one I know and the criticisms really helped, if I missed something let me know, and Hawki thanks for your suggestion on fleshing them out, I was gonna put Radec's interrogation of Alpha Squad in this chapter but I though I'd leave you all wanting more instead lol, more chance you'll come back and read chapter 7 lol, just joking anyway I'd like to apologize again for the wait and hopefully you kept checking for updates, if you're one of the people who did I'm grateful to know some people are actually enjoying this. That's all I need, so I'm grateful to you for reading and I'd be even more grateful if you leave a review lol, and chapter 7 will be a full return to the narrative.