[hider=Collab with Kale19] [center][h3]Collab Between [@Raylah] and [@Kale19][/h3][/center] The people from the crashed ship were weird. The injured man seemed relatively normal, but the two big guys… It was as if what they were granted in extra height was taken away from them in intelligence points. Dumb and dumber. The woman hasn’t done anything strange yet, but she was unconscious most of the time, so it didn’t have much predictive value. Jim gave them some space during the flight back to the Omega station and they kept whispering. The big guys whispered loud enough to recognize some words, but it hardly made any sense. Supernova? What were the odds of that? Immediately after landing, the woman was rushed to surgery. Jim was surprised she had survived this long, the wounds in her stomach were massive and she was deadly pale from the loss of blood. The Sergeant with broken legs was taken to the infirmary and Kfuu and Ralo into an empty storage facility. It was not a great place for guests, but it was the only room on the base where they could stand up right without banging their heads on the ceiling. Jim made sure they were given some food and were guarded, in case they had any ideas to wander around the outpost. These people were still potentially hostile and the Undefeated didn’t want them walking around their military facilities. When he arrived at the infirmary, the doctor was just finishing up with the Sergeant - putting soft elastic girdles around his legs and administering a bone growth support serum into his IV. It was much more comfortable than the classic casts they used back on Earth. The man still won’t be able to walk for several days, but it should heal fast. “I hope everything is okay here,” Jim addressed the man as soon as the doctor left. “Your men are safe, they are just in a room that fits their… stature better. And the woman… I am sorry, I’m not sure what to call her? She is in surgery, our best professionals are trying to repair the damage caused by the pterro claws. So, did you come through the Gateway to discover the fate of other colonies?” Jim pulled a chair next to Rogers’s bed. “I know we were very surprised when the thing reactivated. We sent our first envoys to Earth. Sorry to inform you if you haven’t heard already, but… it’s gone. I mean the planet is still there, but it’s uninhabitable, no trace of humans left on the surface or above it. A lot has changed since then, though. All the surviving colonies pitched together and built a neutral space station above Earth called the Meeting Place. Each nation is free to send their representatives there. If you don’t mind me asking, where did you come from? And how did your ship suffer such damage? I’m only asking just in case there is some new war going on - we need to keep our people safe.” [center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center] “I think they think that we’re dumb.” Kfuu told Ralo, like it was the most crazy thing in the world. “You are, I was just playing dumb. I’m a guard you realize, I’ve been trained for this.” “But more importantly I got a message, like the last one it came from the future, supposedly the queen is planning a rebellion on the humans, and expects us to help her.” “I doubt any of the abberians would commit mass geoncide, even is ordered by the queen.” Ralo told him, casually hinging and unhinging his jaw. Kfuu recognised that stretch, he’d seen guards doing it before they ate corpses. It was pretty grizzly, but the humans never came back for them, and the abberians had no use for them. The stretch was meant to increase your jaw size to be large enough to swallow a human, whole. Kfuu couldn’t think of any reason he’d do that. Maybe to relieve stress in his jaw? [center][color=indigo][b]* * *[/b][/color][/center] SGT Rodgers listened to each question before answering. He tapped on his biomechanical leg as he often did when he was thinking. As usual it produced a hollow thumping sound, as his bones still hadn’t grown in since he lost his legs in the ambush with the Abberians. Hopefully these treatments would help. He thought about the first thing the man had asked. What was his name? Jim? Or was he just guessing. “SGT Jodie Scott, that’s the woman who got bit. I’d bet she’ll make it. We entered the Gateway for a way to find peace between our two peoples, but that back-stabbing witch, the Abberian queen had other plans. We were hoping to find a peaceful planet, but look at this,” he gestured around the room, “This looks like a room that’s healing a people at war. Although with all those beasts outside you’d need it.” “We come from a place known as the dead drift, the name turned literal, that’s all I’m going to say about it. Our ship took damage from a space station long since abandoned, and even as we went entered the rift things still hit us. Our Pilot, Kefp, left his post to warn us about the fighter that you… sent…” Realization dawned on SGT Rodgers face, then it turned to anger. It was their fault everyone had perished, had the fighters not been sent… “That’s all I’d like to say, you can leave now.” He told Jim with mock politeness then remembered something he’d said, “and if you don’t mind, dropping us off at a neutral station would be fine.” [center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center] Jim tried to keep his diplomatic face up when listening to Rodgers. “I’ll have to talk to my superiors, but I’m fairly certain arranging transport is not going to be a problem. I’ll let you rest,” he said politely and left the infirmary, heading towards a room that has been temporarily assigned as his office. “What an ungrateful bastard,” he vented as soon as he was sure he was alone. “We come rushing to rescue you risking our lives, losing a soldier in the process. And you are going to frown at me for sending fighters to check an unknown ship in our own airspace? Fuck you, assholes!” He had to grab a drink from the station commander’s secret stash to calm himself a bit before reporting to Guardian Hamonga. “We should have vaporized your ship and forgotten all about you,” he gritted his teeth while activating the comm systems. An exhausting hour later during which he thoroughly described the mission, everything he knew about the crash survivors and they went through all the data from various scanners and recordings, he was finally free to rest for a bit. He, Hamonga and some other people debated various theories about who these people are, where are they from, and what the hell do they want, but couldn’t really come up with any answers. They agreed it wasn’t some ingenious Zetan trick to infiltrate their planet, but other than that, who knew? The debate revolved around the ‘big guys’ a lot - chief scientific and medical officers invited to the meeting were convinced that they were humans suffering from some sort of mutation. The mutation would have to be artificial, since the human body couldn’t naturally change that much in just 300 years. All things considered, the Undefeated agreed they didn’t want anything to do with these new people. If they wanted a new planet, they could go look for it elsewhere. A Scout class ship was assigned to transport the survivors to the Meeting Place - none other than the Pathfinder, the ship that Jim used during his mission on New Hollywood and was hoping to never see again. It was decided to wait a few days before the transfer to allow Sergeant Scott to recover after surprisingly successful surgery. It turned out that her injuries, while deep, were not that severe. By some miracle, the pterro talons missed all the vital organs and the biggest threat to her life was the bloodloss. Thankfully, unlike her compatriots, the woman was human and could have been given a regular transfusion. Jim had one storage facility turned into a nice suite, almost luxurious given the Undefeated standards. The ceilings were high enough for Kfuu and Ralo to stand up straight and move without any problems, as long as they were careful when passing through the doors. One room was equipped with beds and other furniture large enough for the two of them, another room was an improvised infirmary, where Rodgers had been moved and later joined by Scott, as soon as she was stable enough. Medical personnel visited them regularly, but otherwise they were left alone to rest and heal in peace. Jim just assumed that since they came from the same planet on the same ship, they would want to be together. They were offered a large selection of various foods, so even though the circumstances made it look like they were in prison, at least it was a fairly luxurious prison. [/hider] [hr][hr] Margaret was sitting on her bunk bed, unsure what to do. It had been just a few hours since the High General’s speech, but the barracks had been in a weird state since then - shock, disbelief, happiness, anger, relief, frustration, fear, all mixed up into one big chaos. Nobody decided to take the General’s offer to leave yet. Some, like Margaret, were considering it, but no one wanted to be the first. Plus there was a crippling fear. What if it was just a joke? An error? A provocation? And those who would dare to ask to be dismissed would get nothing more than a bullet through their heads for being cowards and traitors? “MAGGIE!” Nadia stormed into the room at her usual speed, grabbed Margaret into a tight hug, and twirled, her tight blonde braids flying around them. “Have you heard?!” A short sigh escaped Maggie’s lips as she noticed dark stains on her clean uniform. Nadia must have come straight from the maneuvers, still covered in mud and sweat. “Nadezda, you are making a mess!” “Who cares?!” Nadia laughed and kissed her. “Didn’t you hear? We can go! Finally, we can be free, do all those things we talked about!” Fantasizing about what they would do if they weren’t in the army was their favorite way to spend time. In Maggie’s mind, there was always a small house somewhere out in the countryside, a garden full of fruits and vegetables, some animals. Kids. “Nadia, that was twenty years ago. Aren’t we a bit too old for such fantasies?” “Silly,” Nadia scoffed, “we’re 45, our lives lie ahead! Fine, maybe we have missed out on the kids, but what about dogs? And those fluffy brown horsies you love? What were they called?” “Alpacas. And they aren’t horses, they are…” Maggie sighed. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t just pack our things and start a new life somewhere. We can’t leave.” It was unthinkable. “That is where you are wrong, girl. We can. And I know what you are thinking, that it’s some stupid trap or a joke or something, but it’s not. You remember Keys, from 46th?” Maggie barely had time to shake her head. “Big black guy with… heh never mind. He left right after the speech, and you know what happened? Nothing! They just thanked him for his service, nobody arrested or shot him. Granted, he did get punched in the face by his squadmate, but I think that was just a stupid way of saying goodbye.” Nadia scratched her head, smearing more mud on her hair. “Someone tries to punch me, it is going to be the last thing they do.” Maggie shivered. “So you are really doing it?” “Yes, I’m going there right away.” She stopped and sniffed. “Well, maybe I will have a shower first, I stink like a pig. Maggie,” her tone was urgent and she grabbed Maggie's hands. “Do you really want to die in a filthy jungle somewhere, coughing up your own blood? Or worse, fighting some alien robots in a war that’s not even ours? Please, come with me.” Maggie smiled, knowing that she would follow her anywhere. Out of the two of them, Nadia was always the more decisive one, and Maggie did her best to protect her from some of those rash decisions, but deep down she felt this was the right one. “To the shower?” she smirked. A wide grin appeared on Nadia’s face. “If you want,” she winked at Maggie and they both disappeared in the common bathrooms. [center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center] Everything felt so different. Her old uniform with the insignia and squad markings removed. The public shuttle that brought them out of the capital. A small bag with what little belongings they had. The constant anticipation of the next order, an order that was never going to come. The freedom seemed terrifying. How do you decide what to do? People suddenly had so many options. After a lifetime of having everything lined up and predetermined, the ability to choose was almost overwhelming. Maggie was glad to have Nadia around, someone who always seemed to know what to do. The town was called Westbridge. The Undefeated weren’t very inventive or even poetic with naming things, the name was simply derived from the time this was a war front. There was a river running through the town, and decades ago a bridge was built across to allow easier movement of troops and cargo. It was a western front, so it was the Western Bridge. Over the years, the front had moved forward. The bridge and the associated outpost remained, becoming a center of a small agricultural settlement. The area around the river was lush and fertile, and these days the small town was surrounded by vast fields, greenhouses, pastures, and orchards. It was strangely quiet, compared to the constant noise of the capital. Just a handful of people got off the shuttle along with Nadia and Maggie. “So, what do you think?” Nadia looked around, smiling as always. Maggie hesitated. “Well… it’s different. The air is way cleaner here. Let’s look around.” They wandered around the town, looking a bit strange on the empty streets. As they stood and admired one of the new bridges, a sharp honk sounded right behind them. They both jumped and instinctively reached for their sidearms. It was good they were allowed to keep those, Maggie would rather walk around naked than unarmed. “Perhaps we shouldn’t shoot the locals,” Nadia smiled and stopped Maggie’s hand. “I think the gentleman just wants us to move so he can ride through.” She raised her fingers to her forehead to salute an old man driving a huge cargo transporter with several wagons filled with grain. The vehicle took almost the whole width of the bridge, practically blocking it. The driver nodded at them respectfully as he slowly passed by, never looking into their eyes. Maggie recognized that subservient attitude, knowing the man was a Rejected. He probably spent his whole life here in Westbridge, plowing, planting, harvesting, being ignored, or even mistreated by the soldiers. Now he was to be treated as equal. Maggie really had no problems with that but knew a lot of others who considered them “subhumans”. No order was going to change that attitude within a few days. There was some more honking and yelling from behind the transporter. The women stepped aside a bit to see a hovercraft filled with young soldiers. Apparently, they were planning to cross the bridge but their way was blocked now, and the fully-loaded large vehicle barely moved faster than a walking speed. A few of them got off and walked towards the old driver. “HEY! Move that shit wagon out of our way!” one of them yelled. The man sighed and turned their way, his head bowed down. “I am sorry, sir, but the transporter does not move any faster than this when loaded. Perhaps you could use another bridge, there is one just half a mile that way.” He waved his hand north. “What did you just say?! Are you giving me orders, you worthless piece of shit?” The soldier climbed into the cabin, pulling the driver out, sending him flying to the ground. Nadia made a step in their direction, but Maggie grabbed her hand, stopping her. The old man curled up in the dust, mumbling apologies, expecting to get beaten. If this was daily life here, Maggie didn’t want to stay. On the other hand, perhaps something could be done about it. There was no officer around to order her to start a fight or stand down. The decision would be hers. And so will be the consequences. Nadia’s choice was clear. But Maggie’s? As one of the soldiers got ready to kick the old man, Maggie stepped forward. “Stop!” she yelled at them. “Didn’t you hear the orders from the Grand General? Leave him alone or I will have you arrested!” The soldier scoffed. He was barely a man, more of a boy fresh out of the academy. “You don’t give any orders here.” His eyes quickly scanned her uniform, noticing the empty places where the insignia used to be. “Now get lost before you get some too.” He walked towards her and touched one of the vacant spots on her shirt. “Traitor,” hissing right into her face. Nadia’s eyes widened as she watched Maggie’s stance change slightly. “Oh, boy.” Nadia was fierce and short-tempered, but even on her best days, she could never beat Maggie in hand-to-hand combat. Maggie was always calm and balanced, never getting angry, never making mistakes, which made her one of the best fighters in the unit. The poor boy had no idea what he just got himself into. Maggie smiled, looking directly into the soldier's eyes, and put her hand over his. “You think you know shit?” Unexpectedly, she yanked his arm forward, stepping aside and punching his jaw with her other elbow. The man huffed and stumbled. “I was fighting in the war before you were even born.” Before he had a chance to regain his balance and stand back up, a military boot firmly placed onto his butt sent him nose-first onto the dirt road. The second man roared in anger and came after her, but not even two seconds later he joined his comrade on the ground squealing, his arm tightly wrapped around his bruised rib cage. “You’re gonna pay for this, cunt!” The third one stayed in the safe distance and reached for his gun. Nadia leaped forward, always happy to join the fray. She ran into him at full speed, using her shoulder to knock him down before he could unsheath his weapon. “I’m calling the patrol!” The last soldier moved towards their vehicle and grabbed a radio. Maggie laughed. “Please do that. I’m sure they will be happy to hear how you are disobeying direct orders from the Grand General himself.” The man hesitated. The others have managed to pick themselves off the ground and hobble away, avoiding Maggie and Nadia. “I think the gentleman already told you that the nearest bridge is that way. I suggest you go there to avoid more humiliation.” The soldiers gritted their teeth but vacated the area, knowing that these days they could really get in trouble for their actions. Nadia moved to help the old man who took considerably more time to get up. “Thank you, ma’am,” he bowed to her with respect, dusting himself off. “No problem, friend. We are on the same boat now, aren’t we? Now, you wouldn’t know about any houses for sale around here, would you? One with a garden and some pastures big enough to breed… huh… palcacas?” Maggie rolled her eyes. “The years of fighting really must have knocked your brain out. For the last time, they are called alpacas!” [center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center] Oscar and Claire were sitting in a conference room deep within the Citadel, reviewing the latest data. “You know I have better things to do than watch you read and sigh?” Claire sounded as prickly as usual. Oscar sighed again. Looking at the reports, he couldn’t help it. “27 percent. That’s more than a quarter.” “Congratulations!” Claire rolled her eyes. “You can do elementary school math! Honestly, I expected way bigger numbers, maybe some 40, 45 percent.” The Grand General’s eyes widened in horror. 45 percent? That would mean he would lose almost half of his entire armed forces? Unthinkable. Even a quarter was more than he would expect in his worst nightmares. Were people really that unhappy being soldiers? So discontent that they would jump the first opportunity they had to leave and do… what exactly? “What are they going to do?” “That’s a good question. A lot of them will probably want to start their own businesses.” Oscar smirked. “Yea, that is not happening.” “Why not? You gave people freedom, let them use it.” “I didn’t give people freedom to destroy the economy and destabilize the country. Look, I don’t mind when someone wants to open a bakery, but what you are suggesting… weapon factories in private hands? Civilians owning parts of the food delivery chain? Unacceptable.” His voice was strong, this was not a decision he was willing to debate. “I think your pretty little ex-soldiers would go more along the lines of owning a bakery than a weapon factory. I’m sure there are some rules that can be made to satisfy both sides. Don’t you have some economists hidden away in jail? Or did you have them all executed?” “I don’t have people executed because they are economists.” “No, you have them executed for saying treasonous things and being subversive individuals.” Oscar rubbed his temples, which was a mistake. Moving his right arm still sent sharp pain spikes throughout his body, the gunshot wound on his shoulder didn’t have time to heal yet. One of the orthodox militarists was very unhappy with the changes and got too close. “You give me a headache. I think we can find some non-executed economists somewhere and lay out some ground rules to this madness. Very strict rules.” “I would expect nothing less from you.” Claire got up and seeing Oscar flinch from pain, she forbore the usual insults, raising her fingers to her forehead to mockingly salute him instead. “I’m gonna go get some actual work done. Don’t worry, this is a good thing.” The Grand General sat there in solemn silence long after she left. He didn’t really see anything good in the situation.