Fall of Kesler - burning sky.
Itel tried not to be as quiet as possible. She barely dared to take a deep breath. She hadn't seen anything dangerous yet, but the forest was so quiet that the pounding of her heart seemed as loud as thunder. She was scared. For the first time in her life, she was truly scared. She hadn't heard much about the Swarm until now, and even when they started talking about it approaching their planet, she had never truly believed that she would ever have to face it, or rather flee from it. But she didn't know where. On the banks of the river, a several hours' rowboat ride away, was the town of Ulm, where she hoped to meet her family...
Her family… She hoped they were safe… That they had all managed to escape. She forgot the anger she felt towards them, now she just wanted nothing to happen to them. She prayed silently to all the gods for it. Her plans to become a soldier were dashed. Real soldiers aren't so afraid that they pee under themselves, she barely had the courage to lower her pants. She had no idea how long she had been swimming, judging by the position of the sun it must have been only a few hours, but it was impossible. She was sure it had been a whole day or more. Her blood father had left a surprising amount of supplies here for her, clearly he had been preparing for the possibility of escape for some time. Was he planning for the two of them to escape together, leaving the rest of their settlement behind to the mercy of the Swarm? She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that question.
While she was lost in these dark thoughts, she heard a loud buzzing noise. She immediately stuck to the bottom of the boat, not caring that it was wet with urine. Before, she only rowed when she had to avoid a rock or a shallow spot, afraid to make any noise, but now she stayed still, letting the boat drift. Nothing happened for a moment, so she lifted her head to look around and that's when she saw it. The creature was in the tree and she felt like it was watching her. How intelligent were the Swarm creatures? This monster was quite large, larger than her anyway, and had wings like a locust and somewhat resembled a Shirren, many members of this species lived on Kesler. However, this one had larger mandibles and front limbs equipped with long chitin claws capable of tearing it to pieces. She didn't move, hoping that the monster, like many predators, was mainly capable of perceiving movement, but then he looked in her direction and she realized that he saw her. Power flared around his antennae. She felt an overwhelming fear, so great that what she had experienced so far was only ordinary anxiety. She wanted to escape, to run as fast as she could, away from this monster. However, she realized what had happened, the creature had cast a spell on her that caused terror. She managed to fend him off, she didn't know if she would have been able to do it if it weren't for the fact that she was on a boat, because she would have had to jump into the river to escape. However, the monster saw that his spell did not work and jumped towards her with a loud hiss. He pinned her to the bottom of the boat and tried to crush her head with his mandibles, but she stuffed the gun her father had given her into her mouth and pulled the trigger. A beam of light shot from the gun and exited from the other side of the head. The creature fell in an instant, but it clamped its mandibles spasmodically on her weapon and slid into the river. She wanted to jump after him, but the corpse sank along with her weapon. She stared at the water for a few moments, breathing heavily, and then she felt the fear melt away... She wasn't afraid anymore, not like before. Instead, she felt a sudden surge of determination. She had to survive, at all costs, even if her only weapon was a knife. She grabbed the oars and started rowing.
He shuffled one foot at a time, passing cars stuck in traffic jams. Most of their owners stayed there, not wanting to abandon their belongings. Alatar didn't care. He didn't care about anything anymore. He lost his sister, whom he promised to take care of. He lost all his camp mates, his means of transport, everything. He was left alone in the middle of the Swarm invasion. He had no idea what to do now or where to go, so he just trudged forward, one foot at a time.
Flashes and flames still lit up the sky, although less intense than before. He didn't know if that was good or bad, and honestly, he didn't care anymore. He didn't care about anything. He felt almost no pain in his feet, in fact he felt almost nothing. Some tried to call out to him, others even tried to stop him. He didn't understand what they wanted from him or what they were saying to him. Whether they wanted to help him or expected him to help them, he didn't know and he didn't care. However, no one bothered him, after all, he was a Dragonkin and he was bigger than everyone else in every way and he breathed fire, no normal person would try to stand in front of a dragon, even such a small one.
Finally he reached the river. He only noticed it when he was waist-deep in water. The bridge was blocked by cars, a truck was standing across it and turned on its side. The coolness of the water and the smell of mud sobered him up a bit, and he began to wonder what to do next. He should consider how to get to the other side and then look for the nearest town. He saw an elf in a boat, rowing furiously. He looked behind her and thought for a moment, then entered the water, took the datapad into his mouth, and lay on his back. He was a good swimmer, great at swimming on his back, and decided to swim downstream. It will swim somewhere. What next, he didn't know.
She cried all the way, hugging Mr. Tut. She wanted to go home, but she knew it was impossible. She wasn't stupid. She knew her home was gone. Dad and mom… she couldn't even say the word in her head. She could only drive away crying. She was shaking terribly and everything hurt, but they didn't stop, only once to pee, even though she almost didn't want to. She didn't drink anything, they didn't even think about eating anymore. They were taking side roads because apparently the roads were blocked or something. They hadn't seen any other bugs so far, but she was afraid that they would get them. She was even afraid to look out the window because they could be lurking everywhere to catch them and devour them. She saw flames in the sky. Sometimes they managed to pick up a radio signal and then heard them say that the fleet was still fighting and had shot down hundreds of enemy ships. Mr. Tut said that the sky was burning because they were enemy ships exploding and they are winning. She felt like she should be happy about it, but she didn't care. Besides, her guardian probably didn't believe what he was saying either.
Eventually they ran out of fuel. They didn't have any food or even anything to drink. Although she wasn't hungry, Mr. Tut said she had to eat something for mom and dad. As soon as he said that, tears came to her eyes. He placed a chitin-covered hand on her back to comfort her. She looked into his face, He was a bug, just like the others. He had bug eyes and antennae, but other than that... He was a Shirren, and Shirren weren't evil, almost never. She could trust him. She sniffed and calmed down. Finally, Mr. Tut saw a gas station and they decided to stop there. They will refuel and buy some snacks. That's what Shirren said. They were on the outskirts of a town, similar to the one near her house... Mr. Tut went out to notify the staff and look into the shop. But first he started pouring fuel into the tank. However, she felt that something was wrong. It was quiet, definitely too quiet. She started to be afraid. She looked out the window and wanted to shout to him to come back, because there was something very bad here. But then there was the sound of breaking glass. A bugran out from inside, it was smaller than the ones on the farm, but it ran towards Mr. Tut . Her guardian reached for an ax he had taken from the house and began beating the monster over and over until it fell dead, then he leaned heavily against the cab and panted for several minutes while he waited for the car to refuel before she got inside. and they set off. Lilka saw that Mr. Tut's clothes were soaked in yellow Shiren blood.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine." he said in Shirren way, in her head. Then they drove for some time. Mr. Tut looked weaker and weaker. She even had to wake him up several times while driving. Finally he stopped in the middle of the road and said.
"I'll take a nap, I need to rest for a while. Follow the road until you reach the evacuation point. Find soldiers there, they will definitely help you." he handed her the ax, now dirty with blood, so similar to Shiren's, and left the cabin. She took the driver's seat and started driving the car. Her parents allowed her to do this several times, but only ion the open ffields, not on the road. But now they were gone. She was alone... She wiped her tears so they wouldn't obscure her path.
Bina began to wonder why she was hanging out with that psychopath Igzar, instead of looking for a way to escape from this planet. The black-haired Pahtra looked menacing enough to make her shiver just looking at him. He gave the impression that he wanted to kill anyone who annoyed him, even though that wasn't a problem. What's worse is that he actually intended to do it. As they were leaving the nightclub, a Shirren tried to stop him and ask him what was going on, and then Igzar hit him with a rifle stock, smashing his head. She wasn't sure if Shirren had survived. Then they looked for a car, or rather Igzar told Wagar to stop the first passing car by simply standing in its way, and then Pahtra, threatening the driver with a gun, threw him outside, along with his wife and children. The orc looked at him reproachfully, but said nothing. She also felt sorry for that family, four humans, judging by their appearance, typical inhabitants of the suburbs, but if even Wagar was afraid to oppose Pahtra, what about her, who was three times smaller than Ork.
They drove along sidewalks and through parks and gardens, so they somehow managed to get out of the city despite the traffic jams. When their group left the city, she asked carefully.
"And may we know where we are actually going?"
Pahtra just looked at her. She realized that she couldn't and was about to curl up in her seat and pretend very hard that she wasn't there when Wagar, who was pressing himself in the back seat, said something.
"We're going to the Shadows of Tarak, and then we're leaving this planet." the orc said this last regretfully. Igzar growled angrily, and Bina began to wonder. She heard about the shadows of Tarak . It was a company of mercenaries, specialists in operating behind enemy lines. They consisted largely of veterans of the Tarak Civil War, or their descendants. They were known for both their effectiveness and ruthlessness. But if the Shadows were here, that meant …
"By devils and demons." she said. It was this Igzar, the famous war criminal prosecuted by the supreme tribunal of Absalom, or the national hero of Tarak, depending on your point of view. Most importantly, he was the sworn enemy of Admiral Antares, who also came here to defend the planet from the Swarm invasion. And since they were both here, that meant… she swore under her breath. It couldn't have been a coincidence, and since they were both here, Igzar probably had one thing in mind and she had absolutely no intention of helping him with it. On the other hand, she didn't mind staying here and letting the bugs eat her. She had to grit her teeth and cooperate with Pahtra, although she wasn't sure why they were dragging her along, but she didn't want to ask, lest Cat Noir would reconsider his decision and throw her out. On the other hand, he knew about Antares' connection with her Father. In this case, she found herself between a rock and a hard place, although in Igzar's case it was not a hammer, but a device that caused much more pain. She herself knew little about her Father's connections with Antares, only rumors repeated to her by her sisters and other employees of her Father.
While driving, she saw fiery explosions in the sky and flashes of light, and from time to time a shooting star appeared, probably the remains of a downed ship. She guessed it was a battle taking place in space. Bina had never seen anything like this and had no idea which side was winning, although she had the impression that a lot of ships must have been destroyed.
"The swarm doesn't take into account losses, so it can lose hundreds of ships and won't even feel it. Maybe if the Atrax Fleet arrived now, you would have a chance, but without it..." Igzar answered the unasked question.
"So why did you come here if there was no chance of winning?" she asked and immediately regretted it. Pahtra twisted his scarred muzzle into a particularly nasty smile and said.
"We were hired to cover the evacuation of civilians from the planet."
She did not receive more detailed explanations from him, but she did not demand them either. She liked living too much.
After a few hours, they arrived at what was probably supposed to be a recreation center for the working class. There were several small people's republics on Kesler recent times, and they must have found one of their remnants. It turned out that the Shadows of Tarak were quartered here. Igzar's mercenaries were mostly Pahtra and or Vesca. Representatives of other races also served him, Drows, halflings, Ysokas... There was even one Skittermander here. They all looked very dangerous, including Skittermander, but they also seemed to be very disciplined and, as far as she could tell, well armed. Everyone, or at least the vast majority, gathered in what had once been a playground. The sight of such a gang of thugs between the swings was truly absurd.
"Listen to me, because I don't like repeating myself." Igzar began to speak in a growling voice, looking menacingly at his subordinates. "As I warned you, we must escape from here on our own, because the government here was unable to defend their planet. We will head southeast to the Evacuation point in the city of Ulm and from there we will head into the mountains. I know where we can find ships. So get off your asses. You have fifteen minutes to prepare. Anyone who doesn't make it in time will end up as food for the Bugs"
Ulm was further away than Itel expected, in fact she had been there maybe once as a child and had been taken there by car. She thought her arms would fall off from the effort. Even though she wasn't sure if she could row well, she had never done it for so long. In fact, she had never made such an effort. She was a member of the school volleyball team, but she didn't take part in training because she couldn't afford the uniform, she wanted to earn money for it. It was probably completely irrelevant now anyway. However, she needed to rest, at least for a quarter of an hour. She swam to the shore in a secluded place near an abandoned summer house and here she moored. Then she cleaned the bottom of the boat as much as she could and lay down with her backpack under her head.
She wouldn't have woken up unless the boat had moved. She drew her knife and jumped to her feet, feeling terrible pain in her overworked arms. She almost fell into the water. In front of her she saw a human woman, about fifty years old, tall and wearing an old, slightly short cloak .
"Lady! Good Lady! Let me get into the boat, there's plenty of room in it. There's enough for both!" she said in a slightly hoarse voice. Her eyes were nervous and darting.
"Don't come close to me!" she said in a voice full of fear, holding a knife in both hands. She saw the blade of her weapon tremble, so she adjusted her grip and tried to look more dangerous than she actually was.
"There is a plenty of room. Really, there's a plenty of room here." the woman said as if she hadn't heard her at all. She stepped into the boat with one foot. Then Itel struck. She plunged the blade of the knife into the woman's neck. She wheezed and grabbed her wound with her hands, then slipped and fell into the water. However, she did not give up and grabbed the side of the boat, trying to get inside. The boat tilted and turned upside down. They both ended up in the water, but only Itel surfaced. She looked at the boat, which was slowly moving away from the shore. All her belongings ended up at the bottom of the river. Even oars. All she had left was her knife. The blood-covered blade looked completely ordinary, but it had just taken someone's life. She considered turning the boat around and continuing downstream, but she couldn't bring herself to get into the water. So she set off on foot towards the city.
Lilka drove for a long time until her leg hurt from pressing the gas pedal. She had to dodge moving cars once or twice, but she barely noticed. She was alone, no one was with her, she had no one. She was alone in the world. She couldn't think, she just did what Mr. Tut wanted her to do. She had no idea where she was going or why. She just drove forward. Finally, she approached a larger city, around which she saw a lot of people and some vehicles flying in the sky. This was probably where she was supposed to go, although she had no idea why she got there. The whole place was surrounded by a wall and barbed wire, she saw soldiers everywhere. As she was driving inside, she almost ran over an Elf girl with green hair. The soldiers were shouting something to her, and only after a while she realized that they wanted her to stop. She braked so suddenly that she hit her head on the steering wheel. A soldier opened the door suddenly and aimed his rifle at her, but when he saw who was the driver, he pulled her out of the car. She tried to take Mr. Tut's ax with her, but it didn't stay inside. The soldiers looked at the vehicle carefully and talked to each other for a while, and then a female soldier accompanied her deeper into the camp, between the barracks, gave her a badge, and then told her to go to the supply point. She didn't understand exactly what she meant, but she went where she showed. There, another lady gave her a paper bag and two bottles of water. The bag contained bars of something similar to chocolate, but smelling completely different. She drank the water, she didn't even know how thirsty she was, and went towards the barracks. She was alone again, although there were plenty of people around.
The column of vehicles belonging to the Shadows of Tarak was moving surprisingly fast, although Bina had no knowledge of logistics or such matters. She sat in an armored personnel carrier next to Igzar . She would have preferred to go with someone else, but Cat Noir seemed to prefer to have her on ou. Completely unnecessary, she had no intention of leaving the Shadows' company, be around them was probably in the safest place on the planet, no matter how much Igzar would want to kill her when he decided that he didn't need her. He didn't even have to shoot her a bullet, it was enough for him to abandon her by the road. She was from the B series, she was a cheater and a trickster. If she were from the K or W series, she might have had a chance, but in her case... She was at the mercy of Igzar and his gang. She decided that she had to try to be useful, or she wouldn't survive even the time she had left.
The opportunity to prove their usefulness came as soon as they reached Ulm. The soldiers, seeing a column of non-army military vehicles, ordered them to stop. Igzar went outside and lit a cigarette and started talking to an officer who looked like he had just been promoted. They talked so politely that the two men almost went at each other's throats. She had heard that Pahtra had been de facto expelled from Tarak, and she seemed to be beginning to understand why. But she couldn't allow violence to break out, because then everyone would be lost. So she approached them and began to speak in a friendly but firm voice.
"I'm sorry if there was a misunderstanding. My name is Bina and I represent the sentientarian organization Light of Hope from Atrax . We paid this bunch of mercenaries to help evacuate children from the combat zone and the planet in general."
The officer looked at their company skeptically.
"They don't look like they would like to save children." he said, smiling crookedly, but then Pahtry, who was standing next to him, spoke up Truant.
"Of course we want to save the children! My ancestors would have disowned me if I hadn't saved them." there was so much confidence and enthusiasm in the orc's voice that the officer began to believe him. So Bina decided to go ahead and said.
"Let's be honest, this isn't a place where there was a flood or a riot, but an attack by the fucking Swarm. We will have to fight our way through a war zone. We don't need peacemakers here, just a bunch of damn hardened veterans because no one else will keep these kids safe. Apart from that." she added, smiling slightly. "Besides, the soldiers we hired already have supplies, you just have to provide supplies for the kids."
The officer thought for a moment, then nodded. After all, even if he made a bad decision, no one but the gods would punish him for it.
"Okay, you can come in, but don't try any numbers or you'll remember."
Igzar nodded sullenly, but as soon as they were inside, the Pahtra took her aside and wrapped a clawed hand around her neck and growled.
"What the fuck did you think of making my soldiers into nannies?" he growled, and she replied, smiling despite the streams of blood running down her neck.
"Think Cat Noir. If you escort the kids, absolutely no one will stop you, and they will even help you. Besides, I'm not stupid, I know that you came here because of Lord Admiral Antares . You want to fight him, fine, I don't mind at all. But the opinion of the hero who saved defenseless children will be very useful to you and will tie Antares' hands. And I think I need to tell you something else. I've heard a bit about Shadows of Tarak. You are not an ordinary band of mercenaries who fight for money, but to avenge the fallen inhabitants of Tarak. Many of them have or had families on that planet. They may be cruel to their enemies, but they want to take care of the little spark of goodness that remains in them. If you want to keep an ear among them. – she looked at several soldiers who stood behind him and watched them. Igzar released her and began giving orders.
Lilka sat with her back against the wall of the barracks, hugging her knees with her hands. She barely noticed the arrival of some soldiers. It didn't make any difference to her, no matter how many people were around, she would always be alone. So she just sat there and stared straight ahead. Eventually the sun started to set and it started to get cooler and she felt cold. This woke her up a bit and she started walking around the camp looking for something, although she didn't really know what. Suddenly she saw a large orc who was talking to some Ysoki . Next to him he placed a large and heavy ax, much larger than the ax that Mr. Tut had. With something like this she would definitely be safe and no Swarm creature would hurt her. So she walked up to it and just took it and tried to run away. However, the orc noticed her, turned around and grabbed her by the arms, lifting her and setting her in front of him.
"Hello, my name is Wagar"
"And my name is Lika." She said without letting go of her top
"Why do you need my ax?" he asked, smiling friendly but also a bit menacingly.
"To fight the bugs!" She said, looking defiantly into his eyes. Wagar laughed and asked.
"Where are your parents?"
Then something snapped in her.
"Dad and mom are dead... They're all dead. I'm alone..." She finally said it out loud. She roared, and the fearless warrior who was afraid of nothing knelt next to her and hugged her, for there was nothing he could do.