Olvr-Kul-Gizeks
In orbit around Earth's moon
Sol System
My name is Olvr-Kul-Gizecks.
I am a warrior, or at least my superiors thought so. That had to be why they sent me, along with the rest of Prince Sotol's soldiers, out to this middle-of-nowhere planet. That or they were just tired of me babbling about my theories on Earth.
We had all heard the report from Prince Elfangor's travels about Earth and its people. How beautiful the world was, how intelligent its people were. He forgot to mention one thing.
He forgot to mention how violent they were.
Every transmission we intercepted from Earth was filled with tales of murder and death, the wailing of women and children who had lost loved ones due to the actions of some ne'er do well or tyrant.
How our comms officer could decipher Z-Space transmissions through all the noise was impressive, but then again, Lyris-Talyn-Phierra was considered a genius even amongst her male colleagues.
She managed to track the transmissions down to three likely locations, spread out across the southwest hemisphere of Earth, across the regions known as Central and South America. It didn't seem coincidental to her that one of the worst of current human conflicts was taking place there, a multi-kingdom coup of sorts. She theorized the Yeerks were behind the conflict, using the natives to cause chaos while they expanded their influence.
Our War Prince wanted to investigate the warzone directly, but Sotol advised against it. Something about not wanting to alert the natives, much less the Yeerks, of our presence: there was a fair amount of debate between the two officers, the War-Prince hesitant to admit a female might have been correct in her assessment of the situation. I felt he wanted to prove his might against the primitives who inhabited the planet.
In the end, Sotol won his superior over. Three scouting parties would be sent to the planet, and I had the fortune of being assigned to Sotol's team alongside Phierra.
There was a comfort in knowing that she was there with me. She and I often spoke of our views on Earth before being assigned to the same ship. Where mine were more idealized, hers were more pragmatic.
Well, She said as we boarded our dome ship. What do you think of Earth now?
I'm… I paused, trying to collect my thoughts. I'm not so sure anymore. This isn't anything like Elfangor described.
Elfangor probably had the fortune of arriving in a time of peace. We have not. Let's not be too hasty to judge humans before we've interacted personally.
Easy for her to say. She'd most likely be the last to leave the ship.
As I looked at that massive blue dirtball, a part of me told me she was right.
CIA Blacksite
Location Unknown, USA
El Sueño's ears perked up as the evening news rolled into its international segment. For the past several few months, there'd been talks of Santa Blanca making a comeback, Santa Blanca killing an official, Santa Blanca blah blah blah.
This was not his Santa Blanca.
His Santa Blanca was a masterpiece; a balance of order and terror, carefully constructed to reflect his view of a perfect country. His country.
The Americans stole that from him. Them and their Ghosts brought everything he built crumbling down into dust. Now there was an impostor running around using his organization's name to openly commit acts that he'd condemned El Muro for. Murder. Torture. Terrorism.
His blood boiled and he lost himself for the slightest moment in his rage.
It was the sound of glass breaking and the racking of gun slides that brought Sueño back to the present. Armed men, federales, surrounded him, their guns all trained on his chest. Across from him, the TV remote had buried itself into the monitor from the force Sueño had thrown it with. Sueño raised his hands slowly above his head in surrender.
Bowman would come with questions soon. Then she would be in his debt.