(AN: I know I said it will be done in a few days but I got delayed because I just got back from vacation with my family
So this is the next update of Ophis: The Autarch of Helghast Shinobi. I've got nothing much to say this time and with that, ON TO THE STORY!"
Story start!
Intro: Fall Out Boys - Centuries
xXxHelghastxXx
Underground shelter: Refugees area
Ophis POV
"Hey hey hey look who's arrived down there"
"I can't believe it"
"Is it really her?"
"She's here! Our saviour is here!"
"Ten years! Ten years! Our prayers were answered!"
…
Well crap…
Fate, whatever form you may take either a three siblings, a machine, cell phones, etc. I will find you and I will crush you with my bare hands get you wreck so bad till your creator forces to create another Fate
I don't dislike being called a god, really
But it's bothering me to no end every time they call me as if I'm the creator of this universe. I am a God but after failing certain task from my own world I doubt myself worthy to take that title anymore
Right now, I'm just a travelling lonely dragon seeking redemption
"*Sigh…" I sighed again for umpteenth time today. Right now we are navigating through the underground complex while being watch by bystanders many of them were civilians along with several military personnel guarding the gate and patrolling along the catwalk above us
The complex were completely filled with civilians and military personnel alike taking refuge from the wasteland above them many of them look sick and kinda look malnourished
"Milady! Milady!" I heard someone rushing toward me, I stop walking and look to my right and see a bald woman trying to reach me but were stopped by two of my escort
"Let me go! Let me go! I need to speak with her!"
"Be quiet woman! We have another pressing matter right now!"
"I know you're in pain we all do! But please understand our Lady need to consult with the leader right now, be patience!"
I watch the woman as she struggle to break free from my escort trying to reach me
"Milady, I know it's hard but… let's move before it getting worse" the lieutenant plead me
"Master, just like the lieutenant said we need to move before more civilians surrounding us" suffer told me
I only nod in response while keeping my face down "let's get going then" we started to move again while 2 of the escorts separate themselves from the group holding the woman down
Several minutes later
"Here we are, milady" the lieutenant gestured at the sliding door in front of us "our leader is waiting inside"
"Thank you, Lieutenant Fitzgerald and good job for your first assignment" I thanked him with a smile
"I uh, thanks milady, I'm sorry about earlier but-"
I cut him off "no problem, like I said before I'm not angry with you, It was also your first assignment so take notes of what mistakes you have made and ensure you didn't repeat that in the future, got it?"
"Thank you, Milady. Now if would excuse me I still had my job to do" he said I bet that under his intimidating gas mask he's smiling gratefully
"Your welcome" sending a bow to me he and his subordinate walk away leaving me and my servants in front of the room "well let's find out what's going on"
The door in front of us slid open allowing my group to enter the leader's room.
The room is not very decorative only steel-like wall 4 bookshelf with various books arranged neatly at the far end of the wall and in the middle of the room are a single desk table with a lamp and a holographic computer and behind the desk is a man with white-haired and thin body wearing a suit any gloves he cover his face with both of his hands
"Go away, I had enough complain report right now Sergeant" he said while keeping both of his hands on his face
Wow… looks like whatever happen here caused him to enter a depressed state
"I thought you sent your men to bring me to talk to you," not expecting a feminine response he lift his face revealing his wrinkles to us he also looks like in his sixties. His eyes widened and mouth agape when he saw my face "not to dump me immediately after I arrived, Jorhan" I said with smirk. This man is also one of many friends I made in Helghan. Jorhan Brimve Stahl, son of Khage Stahl the founder of Stahl Arms, a man who responsible for supplying Helghan army with weapons
He raised from his chair in a hurry and walk to me in a hurry before stop in front of me and proceed to inspect me from head to toe "Ophis, is this really you? I'm not dreaming right?"
"In the flesh Stahl"
"You're back!" he exclaimed
To my surprise, he hug me and… is he crying? "You're really back! You don't know how this foolish war has taken its toll on me"
I blinked before I return the hug and pat his back "There there, I'm here my friend, take your time before you talk okay?" I didn't get any vocal response from him but a nod on my neck is the answer I need
…Hm? The same strange sensation… appearing again…
xXxHelghastxXx
Ophis POV
"Sorry about the accommodation, we've stripped out of luxury 6 weeks ago and I got nothing to serve you other than mineral water" he said as putdown four small bottle of mineral water on his table
"It's no problem, Jorhan" I replied. I took three bottles and distribute it to my servants which they take it "I'm not into luxury anyway"
"I see, so I take it you have a lot of questions right?"
"Yes, first how do you know I'm coming? And the second is what the hell is going on? I know you just got through a war as your Lieutenant told me, but I want to know more, especially what caused the appearance of new petrusite sub-element and why it had radioactive chemical components?" I asked him. Leaving my first shocking conclusion about the nuclear bomb. I need to hear it from him
"For the first question, it's not that hard I mean, before you arrived on Helghan over 2 decades ago we detected strange space-time continuum disturbance on our radar. The same can be found when you leave Helghan to continue your journey" Jorhan explained "so when the same disturbance occurred I quickly ordered my men to fetch you"
"I see… what about the rest?" I asked
"This will be a long story" He take a deep breath before he start talking "I'm not going to sugar coat this, 6 month ago under the order of UCN, ISA dropped a Nuke on top of Phyrrus in order to cut down our morale"
I narrowed my eyes at his blunt statement "You're not making this up aren't you? Why would they do that? I know that UCN is just an organization filled with greedy fat slobs and their ISA lapdog but they won't do something stupid like declaring a war not to mention ordered a nuclear strike. They rather seat back and relax, with money keep flowing into their pocket" I know this for a fact ever since I'm in Helghan 20 years ago those fat slobs rather live peacefully in warm bed while not giving any shit about my suffering people
He grimaced from my questioning "look, I may be not one of your favourite person, Ophis, but I would never hurt or lie you" he rebutted "since you are the one that ensure my father health to see me taking his throne of our company and so on. I never felt so grateful in my life and I wish to repay you for what you have done, not spit at your help" he reason with me
"He's not lying master, his eyes clearly shows it" my hooded servant aid his argument
It's not like I can't do it myself but I give this task to my servants to detect any kind of lies coming from spokesperson should we need to negotiate something
"I see… sorry Jorhan, war is not my thing. So, what caused this war?"
"If I were to quote those fools at the UCN, they want 'retribution for years of exploitation'. How they concluded this? Simple, back in 2357, a week after you left our scientist managed to create an energy purifier. These purifier convert the petrusite into its purest form increased the effectiveness and the efficiency of Petrusite by triple" he smile reminiscing
"With the discovery of this new type of petrusite, we finally managed to find not only a more suitable fuel for our warp drive/coil we also applied it for daily need. Due to the magnamous amount of petrusite and completion of warp drive, we enacted our own colonialization plan and started to colonized our moon and nearby planets and open a trade with ICSA it was fruitful and our people were prospering even more"
ICSA? Independent Colonial Strategic Alliance? Isn't that unaligned version of ISA created to support independent colonies?
Then I saw him tapping the screen on his holographic computer revealing four planets with Helghast triad spread on certain part of the planet "This is the planets that we colonized either it's still barren or already colonized by several members of ICSA and with our arrival as per trade agreement, we share them our purified petrusite and thanks to it we have a fruitful relationship between the ICSA and the Helghan empire"
"However, our fruitful relationship with the member of ICSA attract more trade agreement than we can take and made us repeating what our ancestor does in the past, overflowing with wealth, while it improve further our living condition, it also attract unwanted attention from ISA and UCN"
"They took notice of our new type of petrusite and tried to 'took part' in the trade but giving us a lot of unfair agreement, the talk fail as the Autarch declined the agreement" Stahl said with Venom in his voice
'They already embargoed the Helghast and gave them unfair trade agreement and when Helghast found new type of petrusite, they want took part with the same old agreement? I'm starting to sense a pattern here'
Jorhan tap his computer again now showing the images of Autarch in news headline and an image of a dead "ISA's Shadow Marshal?" I asked
"Yes." He answered "Not taking in a good way on our refusal, they sent a team of shadow marshals tried to steal our Purified Petrusite and the blueprint of the purifier. Keyword: tried. Colonel Radec and Cobar found out about this and killed all of them and retrieved an order from ISA Command which we used to threaten them with war for this dreadful act. Despite their denial, the order –which were supposed to be destroyed before the mission start- were retrieve from the dead operative complete with the signature of ISA current leader, putting them into a bad position added the fact that the act were broadcasted through UCBN" He continued
"Not in the position to argue, The ISA decided to answer to our demand. Our demand were simple: stay away from our business and we're good. The ISA and UCN reluctantly agreed to our term"
Again, Jorhan tap his computer again and the images change once again "2 years later however, our economy reached its peak just like our ancestor did in the past and the other colonies seems prefer doing business with us rather than the ISA or UCN, even some of them went so far declaring they're part of the empire. In this age we reap the fortune from the fruitful trade with other colonies, again like our ancestor" he said while smiling but that smile quickly replaced with a frown
"UCN suffered economic crisis once more, since some of the important colonies liberated themselves from UCN control, The UCN started to lose their money factories, many of the important corporations like shipbuilder, energy, etc. cut their contract with them and went to Helghan"
"Their getting desperate… again" Regret commented
I see Jorhan scowled as the images change again "not wanting to lose more than they can take, The UCN demanded us to return the companies and colonies that defected to us. We proposed a talk with the UCN along with the colonies and the companies who defected to settle this matter peacefully"
"Let me guess… the talk failed… again" Suffer commented
"Well what do you expected? Successful talk with us must pay 65% taxes or we defend the way it is?" Johan hissed
Well who want to pay 65% taxes? Not even I want to pay that much to greed men like them I would rather completely decline their demands and defend what rightfully belongs to me
"2 days after the talk, The UCN declared war on us. THE. UCN. DECLARED. WAR. ON. US" he repeated stressing on each word "like I said earlier, the UCN claiming the war is for 'Retribution for years of exploitation' they accused to planned this for over a hundred years back when our ancestors arrived on the wasteland of Helghan and gathering the people before we strike claiming our original home of Vekta"
"And the war begin" Suffer muttered
"We knew this is inevitable, so right after the declaration we quickly armed our military for any attack from the UCN/ISA and we forced to cut our ties with ICSA and other corporation" I saw him sigh before continuing
The images changes again to a pictures of space cruisers trading missile barrage at each other with several destroyed cruisers ISA/UCN and Helghan Empire alike "like any war, this one was also devastating, we called it the Second-Extrasolar War or SEW due to the fact UCN/ISA, Helghan another colonies that pledged themselves to either faction, also involved in this war" I saw him gulping some of his water before continuing
"Sorry I'm thirsty"
"It's alright" I kindly replied
"Anyway, the war last for ten years, with either side took heavy casualties. The war was in a state of stalemate for eight years since none of either side can push their forces forward. Cruisers from Helghan and UCN/ISA destroyed alike. Our Cruiser outfitted with warp coil and arc cannon can perform a Hit-and-Run tactics almost perfectly and at the same time dishing out a Zeus-like attack, while UCN and ISA Cruisers were built like a fortress/artillery pieces capable for taking heavy punishment and long-range assault"
His face now sporting a small smile "But… despite the stalemate state. We were winning this war. Every encounter with the UCN/ISA always ends up with them suffering the most while we suffered the least. All thanks to Hit-and-Tactics, the warp coil, and the arc cannons, that and the fact my latest designed cruiser approved by the Autarch has been a great aide for the military"
"You must be very happy Mr. Stahl" Suffer praised
"Well there's nothing made an inventor proud except to see his/her invention approve and use by many people" he chuckled "my cruiser design are capable to carry and launch a smaller craft called 'Strike Fighter' an exoatmospheric fighter designed to perform dogfight or bombing. These fighter also responsible for harassing and destroying some of their cruisers which is lacking these kind of spacecraft"
And now his smile morph into a frown "but again, that made the UCN/ISA frustrated over the casualties of their forces, and seeing that we managed to defeated two-third of their forces, they started to do something that anyone, including Visari, never expected…"
"Nuke" I heard Regret growl behind me, I can tell that he's angry by his voice alone
"Yes… during the ninth and tenth year of SEW they started bombing our colonies and eventually Helghan itself with it…" his voice is hoarse and putting both of his palms on his face
"How could they allowed this to happen? They are the one who created the Stockholm Treaty an—" Regret tried to ask only to be answer with a raging Stahl slamming his table
"DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT THOSE FUCKING TREATY!" he roared at us, his face now show a pure anger "THOSE FUCKER BACK ON EARTH REVOKE THOSE TREATY SO THEY CAN ALLOW THEMSELVES TO DISCRIMINATELY BOMBED OUR CIVILIZATIONS WITH NUKES AND GIVING THEM FREEDOM TO EXECUTE ANY INNOCENT HELGHAST CIVILLIANS!"
What…?
"AND MOST OF OUR CASUALTIES IS ON THE CIVILLIANS SIDE! ONE BILLIONS! ONE FUCKING BILLIONS LIVES LOST!"
What?
"And you know what, mister Regret? They once agreed for a peace treaty because said they 'tired for this unnecessary bloodshed' at first we agreed since we also lose many of our forces during the course of SEW. The Autarch, Senates, Admiral Orlock, General Metrac, Colonel Cobar, Colonel Radec, and I attended that event with our own fleets ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT WAS A SET UP TO KILL US ALL! THEY AMBUSHED US WITH A FLEET THAT TRIPLE THE SIZE OF OUR FLEET AND START FIRING AT US WITH MISSILES AND LASER CANNONS!" he roared again
What? Is this for real
I tried to suppress my shock at the new ordeal. Are human authorities in this world has stoop so low just because of simple resources?
I can feel anger filling my body but I hold it
Jorhan breathe heavily as he calm himself. When he calm enough he continue himself "We managed to escape though" he said as calms down
'That's a good thing' I thought but I know that I shouldn't conclude it too fast
"But not with heavy losses" there we go. Heavy losses… great just all I need to make my day miserable
"We lost half of our ships including…" he paused trying to gather his resolve to tell me "Cruiser New Order, the Senates ships and Cruiser Hope… Metrac's ship and his right hand man Cobar"
No…
I can see what their plan was, they planned to lure all the Helghast leaders in one place so they can kill them to cut down Helghast people morale or better yet, cripple Helghast fighting capability
And then there were Metrac and Cobar
Those two despite being the most controversial military officers, they actually two of my students who willing to change their view on the military and held my name with high regard heck, Cobar praise me like Irina nee-san Praying to God minus the strange gesture she always make.
I can feel the anger is coming back but I hold it again
The duo is like Motohama and Matsuda –Tou-san's partner in crime- but with military discipline freak instead of… certain topic
Gathering my thought back, I focused back on Jorhan
"I'm sorry to hear that"
"Yeah… I just hope god or whoever will forgive them… if god want to show us mercy" he hoped.
I don't know or want to know about that, in a world like this Religions is almost non-existent while some of them still celebrating religious event like Christmas in Vekta, but I never saw any of them pray on the church, it's like said religious event is just yearly holiday event event
Hmm… maybe they lost hope in God after the World War 3
"So what happen next?"
Jorhan tap his computer again revealing a picture of… a Nuke explode above Phyrrus now I can feel the anger start forming on my face "We fight strong and hard but eventually we start losing… badly… this picture is some of our failure in defending Phyrrus and among other things" he ran his hand through his hair "and after that they send their forces to capture Visari but… the result is unexpected"
I raised an eyebrow at that "unexpected?"
He grab a holographic file and looked hesitant, he look at my face, then at the file, he look at my face and the file "before I show you, please don't do anything rash" he pleaded before pull out the file and extend it with his finger and tap it opening the file revealing
"No… No… NO NO NO! This can't be happening!" I can't control my anger anymore in front of me is a dead picture of Visari laying down lifelessly at the centre of his Sanctum just above the Helghast Triad logo
"It's happening… and there's nothing we can do about it"
"What about Radec that were supposed to protect him?!"
Jorhan hesitant again but he pulled another picture revealing Radec in his ACU lay dead with gut filled with bullet and a bullet to the head
I look in disbelief at the photo of a dead Radec in front me
"How… How could this happened?"
He didn't answer instead he touch the picture and it start playing it
Oh… it's a video footage
"sorry no audio, we didn't installed audio recorder on it" Stahl explained but I'm too focused finding out who's the lucky asshole killing Radec
The footage show how Radec inside Visari's palace hall, coordinating his forces against… two soldiers?
I patiently watch as Radec forces were slowly decreasing as the two soldiers broke through Radec's platoon
How come he's losing? And how come they got overpowered by two soldiers with an assault rifle and a machine Gun while they have a better weapons?
I watch how Radec got shot repeatedly by a soldier with the spike hairstyle and fell. He still alive though, he pull out his sidearm and aim at the soldiers but before he can do anything, the other soldier with a clean shave-cut kick his weapon to the side and proceed to hammering him with his MG stock before pulling out his own sidearm and unload a bullet to his head and proceed to spit on his mask
The video stopped when the two soldiers leave him lay on the ground dead
'How could you do that motherfucker?!' I thought with growled "What happen to Visari?"
Stahl Comply my demand, he start to play the video "the CCTV on the sanctum is equipped with Audio recording so you can hear their conversation"
"Save your comment Jorhan, I need to know what happen to him, so start playing the damn footage!" I ordered him to which he complied without question
xXx Playback xXx
Third POV
We could see Visari, The Autarch of Helghan Empire putting his hands behind him while he's watching the devastated Phyrrus through the sanctum's window
Where have they go wrong? Why is this happening? Why the freedom they just got back 12 years must be ends up with another war? Another foolish war started by the greed of the people of the Earth and Vekta
Why they must be the one suffered the heavy backlashes for defending something that rightfully belong to them?
Visari was sad that the city that built with sweat and blood, reduces to rubbles in a minute by the ISA. He vowed to his people that he will repel the ISA Invasion and the city will stand tall as the battle rages on
But he fail them. He fail to fulfil his promise to his people and now he's here forced to watch the catastrophe in the form of thick mushroom-cloud explosion down below the city
"Scolar Visari" he heard a voice behind him
'It seems Radec has fallen too'
"Scolar Visari… I'm placing you under arrest under article 27-"
"And who are you, Soldier?" The Autarch spoke with a booming noble voice
His captor kindly reply "Sevchenko, Sergeant First class"
Visari turns around toward his captors
He could see two ISA Soldiers pointing their weapons at him. One Soldier is wielding M82 Assault Rifle his notable figure was the spike hairstyle
While the other is a strong built soldier with shaved cut wielding M224 LMG
"A sergeant? They sent a sergeant to take Visari? Are your commanders are all so afraid?" the Autarch mocked
"War's over Visari, you lost" judging from his voice, Visari knows this the one who named Sevchenko
"Really sergeant, and who won? The greedy hypocritical cowards who commanded you and your comrades here to die in a foolish you started?" he mocked again as he walk past the two soldiers while keeping their guns ready
"The Helghast have lost nothing. We fight for who we are and we fight to protect our new way of life and new home away from your superior's greed. We wear our wounds like a batch of honour. The Helghan is ours, and we will die before let it fall to plunderers" he stopped in front of a painting engraved on the wall "That is why your leaders dare not making martyrs of me"
The Autarch turn around again walk straight towards his captor "Your fleets burned, your friends butchered, and you become a hero for saving my life? Does that sound like a victory to you sergeant Sevchenko?" The Autarch mocked again
"Son of a bitch" the soldier with LMG cursed ready to hammering the Autarch but stopped by his friend
"Good men have died, and I'll see you rot in hell for it! You'll pay for you've done!"
The Autarch turned around once more presenting the paintings on the wall "For giving my people pride, Purpose? We have built this great nation from nothing and the god graces us with her presence and allowed us to live in this third Earth!"
"Hmph" the soldier with LMG scoffed "you're delusional son of a bitch god! would never side with freaks like you"
"And how do you think we transformed our beloved Helghan? Terraformers? Do you ever wonder why our report about changes on Helghan is always filled with 'God' words? And did you really think God would side with an organization who justified nuclear bombing that killed thousands of good men? They have family that waiting for them to go home, and you wipe them out like cockroaches yet you called that as a 'legitimate strategy'?" The Autarch retorted heatedly while keeping his noble composure
They didn't or can't answer the Autarch question because all of that were true
The Autarch then walk closer to his captor "Take me and Helghan will dissolve into chaos, The ISA war machines powerless against the sheer will of my people, We will choke the streets with our dead before we surrender, Your pathetic master will beg me to return order!" Visari come face-to-face with Sevchenko "You have not won! You will never!"
*RATATATAT*
As soon as he shouted the soldier with machine gun unload some of his bullet to the Autarch's gut
"GUH?!"
"RICO! NO!"
The Autarch fall to the ground just in the middle of the Helghast Triad symbol with his arms fall to his side matching the same direction its upper arrow lead
The soldier who now identified as Rico look at the Autarch with scornful look before morphing into regret
"Madness" Visari managed to speak "The madness… begin…" he look towards his killer with dead eyes staring deep into Rico's eyes "and the world… will know… you… are the one… who disturbed… the… Sleeping Dragon…" he said as he just breathe his last breath
xXx Playback End xXx
Stahl POV
As the video ends I could see Ophis clenching her fists so hard that I can see blood trickling from her fist
"That son of a bitch" she growled
That was supposed to be a simple capture mission on their part but that buffoon can't keep his emotion in check and let it taking over and chose to kill him instead capturing
I made a big mistake by showing her the footage but I couldn't stop revealing it to her she deserve to know this as she and Visari were close friends
I know it is hard for her to take it but she want me to tell her everything I know about the war
And I happily obliged
I already expect her to do something rash so that's why I plead to her
But that doesn't mean she won't do anything rash
"RRAAAAARRRGGHHHHH!" she roared and rush toward the sliding door and
*CLONK*
…
Did she just punch through a steel door?
A 14 inch thick sliding door made of reinforced steel? And she just punch it like hot knife through a butter? I heard a rumour in 2350 that she use a giant sword against Radec and Cobar who use Sta-3 LMGs in two versus one duel and winning and also a rumour where she's capable of lifting a crate filled with heavy weaponry with two fingers
But this is…
*CLONK**CLONK**CLONK*
"I'M GOING TO FIND THAT MOTHERFUCKER AND GUT HIM LIKE A DEAD FISH! AND I WILL HANG HIM WITH HIS OWN INTESTINES!" I cringed at her blunt outrage
'Ouch… and here I thought Metrac and Cobar is psychopath… I almost feel sorry for you Rico… Almost'
*CLONK**CLONK**CLONK*
With each punches I can feel my room… no the entire complex is shaking from the impact caused with her fist
I know she's strong but this kind of power is... unworldly? Now it's kinda makes me scared about her power. If she had the power to turn Helghan to a third Earth and that's her trying to make our lives better, I don't want to know what will happen if she's rampaging… if the hole in the wall is any indication
The punching stop. I saw her slumped to the ground as her servants come to her. The female one hug her tightly while Regret whispered something to her
It doesn't take long though. As she raise back up, she walk toward me
And that's when I feel my body stiff and a dreadful feeling come washing all over me
I looked into her eyes… not her usual Onyx eyes but an eyes of something that coming out from horror stories
Those red sclera eyes with black slit and reddish-black veins surrounding her temples with some sort of scales? Appearing on her neck
I feel like staring into death itself
To my reliefs, her eyes morph back to her usual onyx eyes and the veins start to subside back to normal
"Sorry you have to see that"
"W-What was that?" I asked fearfully
"What was what?"
"Those red eyes, bulging veins, a-and that jet black scales" I know it's rude to ask a lady such question but I'm curious
"Let just say, that's my power leaking" she said dismissively
"Okay…" I'm not going to pry any further it's rude for me if I trying to sate my curiosity "So uh, any other questions you want to ask?"
"What happened to the others? Lente, Hakha, Kratek, and Orlock?" she said with hollow voice
"Lente and Hakha died in a space battle during the invasion of Helghan, Kratek died during nuclear detonation in Phyrrus, and Orlock…"I hesitant again, how couldn't I? I have a hand on…
"Died in his cruiser defending me so I can fired Irradiated petrusite missile barrages against them" as soon as I said that, I practically jump from my seat and take a step back as I felt the same dreadful feeling now engulfing my body and it seems intensified when I look at her red eyes with slits
"You weaponized Irradiated Petrusite? You finally resorted to something so low that those fools would do?" I saw her move closer to me and the dreadful feeling intensifies "give one good reasons I shouldn't kill you, Stahl?" she said uncaringly
I have good reasons but will she accept it?
I hold my hands forward while I start begging for my life "Ophis… please I beg you to understand that… we have suffered to many loses against them… we were desperate from so many death caused by them… please… please understand we need some kind of deterrent against their WMDs… and it can only be achieve by irradiated petrusite" she walks toward me
"Look I know you're upset but we don't have a choice and I regret creating the monstrosities"
"What do you mean?" she stopped her advance
"Like I said, I regret it. After Orlock died I snapped and fire the missile barrages against the opposing forces the missiles get their job done quickly and the energy shielding we deployed have rendered ISA snow missiles ineffective decimating those fuckers like no tomorrow but I didn't count a squad of ISA forces to hijacked several of our Strike ships" I grimaced
"Every Strike Fighter were equipped with a specific code that can be used to bypass my cruiser's shielding for refuel and rearming purposes. Using that as an advantage they destroy my ship's warp coils and my cruiser were descending fast towards Helghan sky." I explained
"I-I managed to stabilized my cruisers but I was above the ruins of Phyrrus where we first discovered the Irradiated Petrusite and contaminated large part of the city. Not taking any chances one of the Strike ships launch another nuke to my ship" I grimaced at the memory
"The nuke destroyed my ship along with the Petrusite I escaped in time though. However, due to the volatile nature of the Irradiated Petrusite it caused massive explosive chain reaction that engulfed Helghan with radioactive mist… until today"
I finished my explanation to her she narrowed her eyes whilst give me a look that pierced my soul preventing me from moving
Then she close the distance between me and her
Well this is it. My reasons are not good enough to convince her and she's going to kill me. She touch my forehead with her index finger and close her eyes? What is she doing?
For the next few minutes she keep standing still with various expressions anger, sadness, straight, etc. When she move her finger, the next thing I know I was embraced by her in a warm hug
"Ophis?"
"I'm sorry if I doubt you" she apologized "I was entering your mind to confirm you're stories"
Entering my- Seriously? She can do that? What's next creating a clone of herself with her with a trickle of her blood?
"And I apologize to ever doubt you"
"It's okay I don't mind, it's understandable" I said as he release her embrace from me
"Is there anything else you want to know, Ophis?" I asked again as I saw her with hopeful look
"Just few more thing Stahl-"
*Ophis POV*
"-What about Hera and the survivors?" Please give a good news I already had enough bad news for one day
I saw him placing a small smile on his face "Hera… She's safe hiding in a safe house in planet Gyre," oh for goodness sake... I feel relieved hearing my little princess is safe
"With her protection detail team disguised as civilian as for the survivors…" he stop talking and his face scrunched up as if he just realized something
"Now that you mention it… I was supposed to receive the report about the living settlement few minutes ago right when you punch… the… door…" he said as his eyes widened in realization
Oh. My. Self
Did I just?
I quickly turn to my female servant
"Suffer, open that door see if there's any injured personel!" I ordered
"On it! She quickly rush to the door hoping it would slide open "damn it's not opening, I'm going to pry it open"
Stahl raised an eyebrow at my servant declaration "Pry it open? Miss suffer that door is a reinforced steel with advanced locking mechanism you can't just—" his word died down as he heard metal screeching courtesy of Suffer prying the door wide open
"Or yeah you could just pry it open"
xXxHelghastxXx
Minutes Later
Thankfully, the soldier who was supposed to deliver the report were unharmed but found scared shitless behind the door
The Helghast quickly give the report to Jorhan and made a bee line out of this place while keep saying 'I'm sorry' until it fade away with him disappearing on the corridor
I'm the one who should say sorry not you
"Damn it…" I heard Jorhan cursed
"What is it, Jorhan?"
Jorhan close and throw the report away "food, water, and medical supplies is all time low, the petrusite generator is half depleted, and many refugees start getting sick. If this going on we can only live for another 2 or 3 day before they killing each other fighting for food. Fuck my life"
"What about the MREs?"
He scoffed "heh… we're eating that 'Meal, Ready to Excrete' since day one, like I said we're stripped out of luxury 6 weeks ago and that means eating that shits to survive" he ran his hand through his hair and slammed it on his desk "we're doomed"
Man… this is bad I gotta do something before everything went south
"Do you have any mess hall? And where's med bay?" Jorhan lift his face with curious look "what are you going to do?"
A smirked formed on my face "You'll see"
xXxHelghastxXx
Underground complex: Mess Hall
Hours later
Third POV
Its lunch time and some of the Helghast people gather inside the mess hall usually, people will always chatting about what food what they will eat however
"Here we are eating a barf bag again" a male Helghast spoke
"I rather eat grenade or bullets than that 'Meal, Ready to Expel'" the other spoke
"Hey, don't eat that! We need it if any spiders or bugs decided to attack the complex" a Helghast soldier said taking it seriously
"I'm joking, soldier. How did you fine with MRE I don't want to know"
"I don't want to eat that dump" a young female Helghast said
"Come on, be grateful you still can eat" the other female said positively
It seems no matter where you are, either in different dimension or different galaxies. MRE or 'Meal Ready to Eat' will always be hated and only be touch when there's no alternatives
Their purpose is to provide soldiers or survivors with food that can be serve quickly but, many of them were not very palatable earning them many unfavourable nicknames
The Helghast civilians and off-duty soldiers now lining up in front of the food stall waiting for the Chef to get their food when they notice Jorhan Stahl entering the Mess hall "My fellow Helghast" he said as he walk toward the food stall near the kitchen on the far side of the hall where the Helghast lining up gaining every attention to him
"For six weeks we have been stripped from luxury and forced to live this kind of hell, and this" he held up his MRE bag "abomination that we were forced to eat, have keep us alive but today" he throw down his MRE and pull a shotgun out of nowhere and shoot the MRE
*BLAM**KACHACK**BLAM**KACHAK*
Due to the closed space, the sound amplified several times forcing the civilians to cover their ears
"We won't eat this… Shit in disguise" he gestured a soldier to take his shotgun and give it to the soldier "because someone has decided to contributed to make us food today"
Murmurs and whispers can be heard among the crowds wondering who would so kind making those foods and how they made food when there's no ingredients left
"Chairman Stahl what do you mean someone cooking for us? We don't have any food ingredients left after the Petrusite Terracide, how they can cook for us?" one of the civilians asked
Another murmurs and whispers can be heard questioning their acting leader
"Yeah, how? We're dying here please don't give us false hope" asked another one
Jorhan smile toward them "don't worry my fellow Helghast, for she have her own way to access the resources. I guaranteed, you will be satisfied with her godly food" he finished
'She?' were the collective thought of the refugees
"Really Jorhan, Really? You need a work on your speech and did you really have to shoot that poor MRE?"
Hearing a feminine voice coming from the kitchen the collective helghast civilians and military alike widened their eyes gasping at the person emerges from the kitchen
"L-L-La-Lady Ophis" one of them said with stutter
Ophis walked out of the room revealing herself to everyone in the mess hall
"Hehe sorry, it's my first speech and that abomination kinda deserve it" he apologize while justifying his act on destroying the MRE "nice outfit by the way"
Ophis roll her eyes.
Well it's not an outfit, more like she wear a white apron over her tight leather jacket with a white high chef hat like those in high-class restaurant
"Oh shut up you" she looked toward the lined up Helghast now with bright faces happy no longer need to eat from MRE and the one they considered as their god making it just for them! Can this day get any better?
Ophis smile and ask them with a cherry voice "So who's hungry?"
-Done-
Outro music: A7X – Dear God
(AN: Alright that's a wrap. Like I said I can't say a lot today as I need rest from the long vacation
I always welcome every reviews with open arms either its compliments or critics
But I'm not going to respond on flames, I either delete it or use it to grill my Giant Trevally fish for dinner
Anyway that's it for now. See you later –Rectha101 signing off)