Chapter 33: "Priority: Southward"
-World building fact-
The Federation of Planets was formed by 4 founding species before Earth developed FTL technology. In the beginning, they were just 4 planets that had the capability to communicate with each other through the vastness of space but they did not have the technology to build ships to travel between the stars. When they made first contact with each other via these communication channels, they decided to form a Trading Treaty of Planets. Through this treaty, the planets shared technology with each other to improve their relay satellites. Communication that would take many years to reach the destination, is eventually, reduced to months, weeks and days. Their scientists worked together to further advance their technology and, in a breakthrough, they invented an FTL engine. The technology was made available to all 4 planets and they began to build ships that could finally reach the home planet of their friends.
While the ships were being built, the leaders of these planets gathered in a diplomatic talk and decided that there might be threatening civilization out there and they must band together. It marked the foundation of the Alliance of Planets, which later changed to the Federation of Planets when the governments of these planets united to form a single governing body.
When the Federation encountered the UNE, their technology was far superior to that of the Federation. Before the UNE, all species that they discovered were either inferior or roughly equal to them in terms of technology. A series of diplomatic missions were made to establish relations with this new power. When a relationship was formed, the UNE expressed an interest to join the Federation but was refused. The UNE at this point was in the middle of a war against the Turian Hierarchy and the Federation did not wish to be dragged into the war and insisted that only when peace was made that the UNE would be considered for membership. However, when the war ended and a series of diplomatic dramas with the Citadel Council happened, humanity decided that it would be better on its own than to trust aliens and retracted all applications.
-Minerva Temple, Rondel-
Rondel, although not as big as Sadera, has more than just Minerva Temple. They have a temple for every major god across the city. However, as Rondel is a city of knowledge, Minerva has the majority of the worshipers and her temple is the biggest of all. When the apostles arrive in every city, they will stay in the temple of the god that they are representing.
While the SIFs are celebrating Lelei's success with the test, Rory returns from the Emroy temple near Rondel and heads straight to find Kaian. Ava informed her about the mission and asked her to join them after she talked with Kaian.
"What did you find?" Kaian asks while not looking at Rory who is walking in.
"Nothing, the whole temple died from the plague before I got there. The sicks went there to pray and spread it" Rory replies.
"What about your friends, will they help us?" Kaian asks.
"Yes, the commander just informed me that they've been authorized to travel to the Valley of the Gods" Rory says then she walks next to him and then continues "We're traveling with them on their floating wagons tomorrow".
"Wagons? Don't they have those flying beasts that could travel much faster?" Kaian asks.
"These people work with their own logic and law, they've agreed to help us then we'll take what they offer" Rory replies.
Kaian just stands there looking at Rory in silence for s moment then he asks her "Why are you working for them?".
"With them" Rory interrupts him.
He doesn't seem to care about Rory's correction and continues "Is it because Emroy is the god of war and these people are the most powerful force?".
Rory giggles and then replies "Boy, boy look at you, you're just an apostle for only a few dozen years and you're talking like you know it all. Emroy is the god of war, yes, but war is her tool of balance" she holds out her halberd with 1 hand and let it sit balanced "You see, through war and chaos the god ensure there's balance and order. For a time, the Empire was the only force capable of waging war across Falmart and uniting it. However, over time they got corrupted, their men raped and kill innocent people, their armies razed and sacked peaceful villages and cities. They committed genocides and mass murder and the list goes on. So, Emroy, agreed by most other gods, opened the gate and brought these people here to do what the Empire was supposed to do. Bring order, through war".
"The gate was the work of the gods?" Kaian asks.
"That's what Emroy told me, before she went silent" Rory replies as she walks to the door. Before she leaves, she turns around and looks at Kaian "First light at Rondel Inn, don't be late" she says then leaves.
-Rondel Inn, Rondel-
Kaian arrives at the inn exactly when the first sun ray peaks over the horizon. It is about 6AM, whereas Ava ordered to move out at 8AM, this means that the SIFs are up but they're not gathering in the yard until 7AM to check everything one last time before departure. He looks around and sees only 2 the 2 SIFs on guard duty and 4 metal beasts guarding the wagons.
He approaches one of the SIFs causing all of them to be on alert "Where's your commander and everyone else?".
Knowing that Kaian is not hostile for the moment but given the past encounter with him and how dangerous he could be, the SIF doesn't want to take any chances "Please, kid…sir…whatever you are, keep some distance from me".
Kaian takes a step back but still looks at the SIF.
"Good, thank you" the SIF says "The commander ordered that we move out at 0800, you're almost 2 hours early".
"Rory said first light, it is first light" Kaian replies pointing up the morning sky with a rosy hue color of sunlight.
"Yea, well, I suppose you don't have a clock do ya? So first light is close enough" the SIF shrugs.
"Clock?" Kaian confuses.
The SIF projects the holographic clock in front of him causing Kaian to get into a defensive stance. Because of that, the SAT8s also snap their weapons are him.
"Calm down" the SIF says as he waves the SAT8s off and as Kaian is easing up, he continues "this is a clock, or any device the display time of the day. You see, it's currently 6:21, which is 0621. When this number reach 8:00, which is 0800, then it's time to go. Now you can either wait here, everyone will be here at 0700 or you can go do anything you want and return here before 0800" the SIF explains.
Kaian sits down right where he is and starts mediating "I'll wait".
"Ermm…ok, sure" the SIF awkwardly replies.
Ava and the rest, including Rory, are having breakfast in the inn's dining room. Everyone is eating in silence, not because they're sad, but because everyone is still missing their beds. Laura is looking at the updated data on the plague, new mutations and variants. Ava is finishing up the short note of the situation in Rondel for the replacing unit via TACNet.
"Did you guys know Universal just open a Jurassic World in Hia system?" David says breaking the silence. Seeing that everyone is giving a confusing look, he continues "Well, just wanted to break the silence" he shrugs.
"Well, that's not good!?" Ava says.
"Why?" Ashley asks, everyone is now looking at Ava even more confused.
"I don't wanna fight dino-reaper, hell no!" She explains.
"That's a scary thought" David replies shaking his body as some chuckles because of his, somewhat, childish way.
"Alright, finish your meal and start moving out to the vehicles" Ava orders.
By 7:45 everyone has finished checking everything and was ready to depart. Ashley is going through the list one last time in case the guys forget a sentry or a force field generator behind while Ava is checking on the route. Kaian and Rory are sitting on the steps in front of the inn and watching the SIFs getting ready.
"These people, they're so well organized. I've never seen such an efficient army before, even the noble knights of Elbe are not this discipline and they fight like demigods" Kaian comments about the UNE.
"This is nothing, behave and they might take you to visit their worlds" Rory replies.
"Worlds?" Kaian asks looking at Rory.
"Yes, they're an empire of great many worlds. They built many of those themselves and many other wonders as if the gods built it themselves" Rory giggles then replies.
Kaian tries to comprehend what Rory just told him. After a few minutes, he looks up and sees Ava approaching. As she gets closer to him, spreading from her chest is a strange liquid-like thing that turns into solid metal as it quickly covers her entire body in the armor.
"Time to go" Ava says as she stops in front of the 2. Seeing that they both nod in acknowledgment, she turns away and walks towards the vehicles as her helmet materializes.
After saying goodbye to Lelei, Laura and Cato, Ava gets on the APC and tells Rob to start moving out of the city. Just like when they arrived, a group of guards escort them to the gate and clear the way off the curious watchers. Because Lelei and Laura are staying back, there are now two extra seats for Kaian and Rory in the APC. Kaian spends the entire trips asking questions about UNE's technologies as well as history and culture. Being an apostle of the god of wisdom, he is curious and always wants to learn new things. While Rob busy answering Kaian, Ava and Grey are having good talks about their past battles.
It takes them a little more than half a day to reach the first village. This village is larger than Coda village with a population of almost 200. Ava orders the convoy to stop right outside of the Village and dismount. Through TACNet, she can see that many of the villagers are armed and hiding. Women and children as well as the elders are moving along a series of underground tunnels that leads to various direction away from the village.
Leaving the 2nd squad to stay with the vehicles, Ava takes the 2 apostles, 2 SAT8s and Grey with her along with the 1st squad into the village. They stop right in front of the biggest building in the center of the village, usually, this is the town hall. Ava looks up, although naked eyes can't see, she can see, with TACNet, a GS-12 has descended from a ship in the orbit and is not circling the area ready to support. In addition, a destroyer in orbit is aiming its weapons in the general direction of the village in case they need COBS.
"Commander, they're surrounding us" Rob says as he can see, through TACNet the armed villagers are trying to surround them behind the buildings.
Being in the yard of the building, the SIFs have no cover so they form a circle pointing their weapons in all directions. Kaian and Rory are in the center with Grey, all have their weapons ready and expecting a fight.
Ava steps forward to the building as she sees a few villagers are hiding behind the closed door, one of them looks like a leader.
"We're peaceful explorers, we wish you no harm!" She shouts, although the villagers seem to be talking among them, they did not reply to her.
After a while, they all come out of hiding but approach the group cautiously. The only reason they're not attacking is that they do not wish to fight an apostle, let alone fight 2 of them. This village is far from the heart of the Empire, they're often raided by bandits and sometimes the Empire troops came to take men to go to war. Therefore, they do not take kindly to strangers.
"You say you're peaceful explorers, yet you wear strange armor that hides your face and carry strange weapons. We can't trust people who hide their faces" the elder say.
"It is for our protection" Ava replies, she implies that she can't show her face because that would expose her to the villagers that are pointing their crossbows and bows at them.
The elder looks to a large man next to her and nods. He then tells the others to lower their weapons.
"You are safe now" the elder says.
Ava dematerializes her helmet and nods at the SIFs to lower their weapons and dematerialize their helmets as well. Grey is wearing a white suit but he is not allowed to carry a gun so he's using his sword instead.
"I'm commander Ava…" Ava is interrupted by voices behind her.
"Ey, ey, ey, stay back!" Rob shouts.
"Get back!" Jimmy shouts.
Ava turns around and sees the SIFs are pointing their weapons at a group of young men that are trying to get to Grey. This causes all other to be on alert again.
She turns back to look at the elders "What's the meaning of this?" she asks.
"Himmar, why are you disobeying my will?" the elder asks the young man who is leading the group.
"It's him! Grey Co Aldo, this imperial killed my father!" Himmar says.
Ava and the rest of the SIFs helmets are now rematerialized and aiming their weapons at the villagers.
"Grey" Ava says "You know this kid?".
"I do not" Grey replies.
"Cowards! He lies!" Himmar says aiming his crossbow.
"Himmar" another young man next to him put his hand on Himmar's shoulder "calm down my friend, I do not recognize this imperial".
"It's him!" Himmar replies.
"If it is then he must be put through trial. We do not take revenge like this or we're no better than the imperial dogs" the man says.
"The trial will prove my words" he says then walks towards the elder and whisper something.
"You" the elder looks at Ava and says.
Ava points at herself "Me?".
"Yes, you're the leader, are you not?" the elder asks.
"I am" Ava replies.
"You may go" the elder says.
"That's it? But we want to stay for awhile and learn from you, maybe you can learn from us too" Ava says.
"No, you must leave now" the elder replies.
Knowing that she cannot convince the elder, Ava bow slightly "As you wish" she then turns to the rest and orders "Lets get back to the vehicles".
"Not him" Himmar says pointing at Grey.
"Excuse me?" Ava says.
"He will have to stay for the trial" Himmar replies.
"Ok, let me get this straight, you can't have that man" Ava blocks Himmar's sight of Grey.
"He's not a man, he's an imperial dog" Himmar replies.
"Hey, no need to get offensive there, plus, he already told you he doesn't know who you are" Ava raise her voice a little.
Without a word, Himmar takes out a wooden medallion and walks closer to Grey "You said you don't remember me, then maybe you'll remember this" he holds the medallion up. On it is a sculpting of a tree, there's also blood stain on it.
Seeing the medallion Grey immediately remembers it and has flashback of the time he came here with Molt when he was still an Imperial Army officer. The flashback of him putting his sword through the chest of an old disabled man while the other soldiers are holding the old man's child, Himmar, back.
"You remember me now, don't you?" Himmar says calmly.
Her suit detects Grey's heartbeat is raising, Ava knows what is up "Not a word, Grey".
"But I must" Grey replies.
"That's an order, don't say anything" Ava presses each word.
"He doesn't need to, take him into custody" Himmar orders.
"Hey!" Ava raises her PAS-5.
Jimmy quickly tries to calm her down "Commander, this is not the way to handle this".
Grey deactivates his white suit and hands the cube over to Ava. He is now only wearing a tunic and is being taken to a holding cell by the villagers. The so-called prison is just a small stone building with only 5 cells, arranged in a semi-circle and 2 guards armed with forks and no armor of any kind. Grey is put in the center cell.
Because of their training, the SIFs had already memorized the layout of the route to the prison. Every detail from guard positions, building layout, potential ambush locations, corners, turns are memorized and uploaded to TACNet to form a pool of tactical intelligence. Ava, while watching the men putting Grey into the cell, had already come up with a plan to break him out.
Ava walks to Himmar "I don't suppose we could bail him out…or something? Gold?" she asks.
"He's guilty, he'll be punished for his crime" Himmar replies still looking at Grey with an angry eye then turns a look at Ave more calmly " tomorrow will be the trial, you are welcome to stay."
"Hey" Ava holds him back "at least untie him?" she says.
Himmar nods at his men allowing them to untie Grey's hands and then they all leave before each of them bows to Rory and Kaian. Wait for the villagers to leave, Ava begins to brief her plan to break Grey out of there.
"Ash, I'm gonna need to make as much noise as possible on my signal. Only kill if you can't wound them" Ava orders Ashley over the radio and then turns to the ones with her "Alright, put your weapons away, once Ash's squad causes the diversion, Rob, you and your team take left flank, I'll take right. Rory, Kaian you 2 and the SAT8s clear a path forward. We're punching our way out of here, their weapons can't hurt us" she orders.
"Awe, no killing" Rory says.
"Is that all you could think of? Killing?" Kaian shakes his head at Rory.
"Commander, are you talking break out?" Grey asks.
"Well…yea?" Ava replies "We're gonna grab you and head straight for the vehicles, there's no way they could catch up with us even with horses".
"No" Grey says calmly.
"Excuse me?" Ava asks.
"Do not execute your plan, I will not go" Grey replies.
"Why?" Ava replies a little bit annoyed.
"To run away is to disrespect these people" Grey says.
"He's right, you're in their village, you should show some respect" Kaian adds.
"Did anyone hear what that kid said? They've already decided that Grey is guilty already!" Ava says, she pauses for a short moment and then continues more calmly "For all we know, their idea of a 'trial' is an execution".
"I will not run" Grey says calmly but determined.
Ava gives out a sigh as she accepts that she must respect Grey's wish. A woman enters the prison dressed in silk and decorated with gold trinkets. She approaches Grey's cell and stands next to Ava.
"Hi?" Ava says.
"I'm the 'Voicer' of this man, I'm here to hear his confession" the woman says.
"Confession? Have you ever considered that he's not guilty?" Ava asks.
"If he's not guilty then there would be no trial" the woman replies.
"Again, innocent until proven guilty" Ava says.
"Actually, it's the other way around on Falmart" Kaian replies in an indifferent tone.
Ava gives him a stare and then looks at the woman "Voicer?".
"Yes, I will be his voice in the trial" the woman replies.
From that, Ava understands that voicer is like an attorney in court. She cannot let this woman or any of the villagers be Grey's attorney. They've already formed a bad opinion about him, it must be someone on Grey's side or at least neutral.
"No you're not" Ava says.
"Then who will be his voice?" the woman is confused.
"We'll…erm…we'll bring out people" Ava says.
"Very well, I'll inform the elders of your wish" the woman says then bow and leaves.
"Commander, what you have in mind?" Rob asks.
"I'll inform Alnus Command to bring an attorney. We don't know their judicial proceedings but at least with an expert we have a fighting chance" Ava replies then contacts Ashley over the radio "Ash, stand down we're changing plan".