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lethe-distillery-blog · 6 years ago

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Hamartia, Part One

"I can protect you from everyone but myself."

Little did I know when he spoke those words to me how true they would end up being. His Grace, the High Advisor of Military Strategy, Seat of the Gravon Central Intelligence and Security, Chancellor Aludra. Or, as the man I loved. Jawza Aludra. He was a military genius that had no equal; at a little more than thirty spans old he had a mind that had been raised on Virtual Reality war strategy and the top simulation systems in the sector. A perk of being a son of high military I supposed, but where Jawza's older brother had decided to go through G-SpeC, Gravon Specialized Command, following in their father's footsteps, Jawza had elected to go through their Armada. He had gone through the ranks of ordinary men and women, climbing his way through the ranks, his military prowess tested time and again before retiring from live combat at a span of twenty-seven to a more political stance. Just in time for the Gravon-Tria Prima war that finally erupted after years of unrest in 04263.

It didn't take much to think of Jawza, his lean body that rippled with muscle and determination with skin that seemed so pale compared to mine, almost like the man was sculpted from ice. The only thing he had not kept from his strict military upbringing was his hair. Longer than the standard rules allowed he wore it as a deliberate taunt to anyone, daring them to try and use the longer locks as a means of control or a weakness to be used against him. It took some major spunk to pull that off, especially when he sparred with several Splattarena fighters, even I, who my parents had called the wild child, wasn't that suicidal.

"I hope it's the impending fight that has you smiling so dreamily." I jerked at the intruding voice and looked over to where Fidda sat, her red eyes almost glowing in the dim light with her humor. It was only then that I realized I was smiling, like a whimsical child, and Fidda had seen. "Or that you finally got laid," I rolled my eyes at the jibe, "only Najm makes me feel like that, or a good fight." She shrugged as if either one was of no consequence to her.

Thankfully, I was relieved from answering as the sensors started to beep with a sharp and demanding three tone, "Alright ladies, battle stations!" Hopefully, the impending rush of adrenalin and thrill of combat would knock the thought from Fidda's mind, or, I'd have to think of some excuse. I sucked at lying but I really couldn't tell the truth either. I shook my head, forcing my thoughts to clear as I looked out of the clear deck glass at the small squadron of ships. Five on three, I had had worse odds.

"Glaucous armed." Aaliyah's voice broke through the control panel and I watched as her Artillery Cruiser fell back, taking position, the main plasma howitzer glowing as it armed itself. The ship was basically a floating gun, able to fire a superheated ball of plasma through the vacuum of space with a precision that would make any elite sharpshooter in our ground force armada jealous.

"Falu in position." Wahid's deep rumble came as his dreadnought spun slowly to the side, lining up position for a full volley of zero gravity missiles. The massive bulk of the ship eclipsing out the blue sun of Sancta Remin, I was glad we had been on patrol here; the thoughts of how many would have died from the three dreadnoughts before us left me feeling positively furious.

I glanced to Fidda, as second in command she followed through with mundane matters as I focused on strategy, the star charts spread through on a transparent overlay on the main bridge. Three dreadnoughts, that was a nearly ridiculous amount of firepower, what the shit? Jawza usually gave us at least some forewarning for heavily armed assaults. But, as the corvettes started to disembark I had no choice but to take action. "Glaucous, take out that one on the left, thirty degrees down, they moved to shield that one as we engaged. My guess it's heavily armed." I took a long deep breath, contemplating my suicidal choice of action. "Falu," I paused.

"Yes Major?" Wahid sounded as calm and implacable as ever, there were times I wondered what really would rattle that man.

"Make us an opening."

"Aye Major."

The cold impersonal tone sent chills down my spine, it was as though I had simply asked him to take out the trash, which, in a way, I suppose I had. I heard Fidda talking in the background, relaying specific orders. I turned to her, "All systems green Major."

I nodded, sinking back into the form-fitting cushions of the captain's chair, my fingers resting easily on the controls, my ladyship, the Petalite, had become an extension of my own body over the years, I knew every one of her quirks. There was no way I'd let these fuckers win and kill our people. I swapped the controls over to manual watching as my crew bent to their stations. And, as Fridda had said. All was green. "Alright ladies." I smiled to myself, feeling the familiar flush of adrenalin as the corvettes spread out in attack formation. I ignored the hail. "I hope you're still hungry."

I followed Wahid's missile barrage in, my destroyer making quick work of the damaged and disoriented corvettes who had been expecting the massive dreadnought to fire on what would be considered its equals. Thankfully, we were smart enough to avoid that particular level of stupidity, even if it was because I had seen my friend, Zinat, go down less than two weeks ago from the same folly and leaving herself open to the hive attack of the much more maneuverable corvette fighters. She hadn't had a chance to survive, even with a warp jump in, I couldn't save her. I knew war was messy, I knew that it cared not for life and even less for the innocent. But still, I hated the cost of it. I could at least give her death a proper sound off.

My hands shook with my eagerness as I maneuvered through the wreckage strewn void of space. "Firing." Alliyah's voice broke through the comm and I checked co-ordinates and veered thirty degrees to the left. The tube of plasma shot through space with a rather flickering and haunting light. It looked beautiful. Like the glowing lights in the sky back home. But like most beautiful things, this too, was deadly. Fridda and the others whooped in triumph as the blast of plasma sheered through an engine on the back ship, I smiled in triumph.

"Friendly transmission incoming Major."

I looked up onto the screen where on a small corner a window popped into view to reveal a handsome man that was shaved bald, the glow of his control panel making his red eyes glow with the darkness of space surrounding him. "Sergent Ziya Aldin, Defense Leader of Sancta Remin." He smiled dryly, "thanks for the assist, wasn't exactly sure how we were going to survive otherwise." Being a colony planet I doubted they had much more than a few destroyers to aid their corvettes and likely not more than a couple dozen to keep off pirate, scavengers, slavers, and all sorts of scum. "I have a squadron of eighteen corvettes and two destroyers at your service, what can we do to assist?" As we worked our way through the remaining corvettes, Alliyah and Wahid managed to ruin one of the dreadnoughts and severely damage the back one before they slipped back into light speed. All in all, it was a clean battle, we had taken a few hits but so far everything seemed to be cosmetic. Ziya said he had two badly damaged craft and asked if we would land on Sancta Remin, I agreed, if only for the selfish purpose of trying to hail Jawza and ask him what the fuck.

Jawza didn't answer. I wasn't surprised, it was difficult to keep in contact through sectors and with his political schedule it was positively impossible to get a hold of him sometimes. I didn't leave a message this time, just in case. Still, at least hearing his voice did wonders to ease my mind. I walked into the meeting room as I pressed my link back into my pocket. Fridda, Wahid, Alliyah, Ziya, and a few others I got introduced as the heads of what constituted as a Conclave on Sancta Remin. My people looked at me and I shook my head. "I can't get in touch with my contact," Fridda looked slightly annoyed that I refused to tell even her the name, even after all this time, "but this type of thing is unusual, I at least usually have a little warning." Even if it was nothing more than coordinates in an encrypted message, Jawza very rarely failed to let me know about anything. Let alone something like this. Had we not been passing through on our way to what was supposed to be a larger battle in the Gurung sector, Sancta Remin likely wouldn't be on the map anymore.

I listened more than spoke at that meeting, Wahid had sustained minor damage from a few enemy missiles breaking through the shields but nothing that would ground him. Still, as a show of courtesy and gratefulness, the Conclave agreed unanimously to have us stay until all was repaired and hold a feast in our honor. It was touching, when high military protocol would be that we had just been doing our job. But because of that, this colony was still in existence.

The next few days went by in a blur of action. The helpful locals made short work of repairing the Falu and Petalite, even though it gave me hives to have others fixing my ship. Fridda at least agreed to watch over everything so I could focus on my talks with the Conclave. I didn't pay as much attention as I should have when we discussed possible strategies, bunker designs for if that type of siege were to happen again. Jawza was beginning to worry me. Granted, we rarely reached each other, and occasionally had to play catch to try and line up enough where we could talk but not hearing him for five days at all was setting me on edge. Even worse it seemed like this particular sphere of rock had gotten way too much attention. "Jawza." I spoke, fighting to keep my voice under control and not give in to the emotions raging inside me, it wasn't proper. "I'm worried about you. We've had three attacks in the last four days, this rock is getting decimated. What's going on?" I paused, taking a long breath. "Please Jawza, I need you."

"Major." I turned just as I hung up and I looked over to Wahid entering what had quickly become a rather hastily built command center. "I just hailed Commander Ruh. This is getting out of hand. This is a colony outpost. There's nothing here." He spread his hand to indicate the entire planet around us at large. "It's a mining outpost, food is either synthetic or grown in hydroponic systems indoors. What could the Gravon's possibly want with this?"

He was right. I didn't know. While rich in minerals there was nothing the Gravon's could gain from the number of resources that they were hurling at this planet. It was as if they had a grudge match with the fact we had turned them aside the first time. Granted, the Garvon's were petty but even this was a bit much. "I don't know Wahid. I truly don't know."

"Is your contact pulling through?"

I shook my head. "This is unusual."

"I know, I learned a long time ago to follow your orders, no matter how unusual they appeared at the time. Do you think he was captured or killed? There was a large attack on Hilemah the other day." He pulled out his link to pull up stats and sent them to me before reciting. "247 confirmed dead from a bombing run."

I winced but shook my head, "No," I almost said he, "they're safe. I know it, but this is highly unusual." Wahid gave me a look like he wanted to ask me how I know that Jawza was safe but thankfully Alliyah came and called us to where the Conclave had summoned a meeting. "When is Commander Ruh due in?" I asked Wahid as we walked.

"Five local days, if all goes well."

"Excellent."

I had no idea that eight more days would take so fucking long. By the time Ruh arrived with reinforcements we had been hammered day after day. We were surviving on less than five hours of sleep a day, a skeletal crew of corvettes and destroyers, Alliyah's ship was grounded but worked on at an angle so it could be used in addition to the meager planetary defenses. Wahid and crew had it the worst. After six days on planet they had launched and had been spaceborne ever since. They were refueled and resupplied in by small freighters. If we hadn't had Wahid, I don't think we would have survived it. Even with Alliyah, myself, and Ziya working constantly and efficiently. Thankfully, a desperate ploy by remote flying a massive freighter filled with M2HO3 and crashing into an enemy dreadnought and the entire contents exploding with the power of a nuclear bomb. It had been a massive boost in morale as all of us on the ground watched the massive supernova and cheered.

Ruh arrived two days after that momentous occasion to even more cheering and excitement as Wahid linked in and relayed the news. I had never been more eager to be relieved by someone in a higher chain of command. In he came with four more dreadnoughts, half a dozen artillery cruisers, a small squadron of destroyers and a swarm of corvettes. He arrived planetside with Wahid, the tactical cruiser looking like a mere corvette next to the gigantic bulk of the dreadnought. Wahid and his crew were around long enough for the briefest of introductions, congratulations, and then he and crew got some well-deserved sleep. I wanted to join them but they had done a great deal more than the rest of us so I stayed up and talked with Ruh, Alliyah, and the Conclave.

"Interesting." Ruh stroked his chin as he looked at all of us. "It looks like your training did you well." We smiled if it was tiredly; it was likely all the praise we'd get from Ruh but I would hold onto the memories of the way the common folk had treated us like heroes. That is why I did what I did. To save people like that. "We have a retaliatory strike heading after those that attacked Hilemah as we speak, with all their training, there shouldn't be any survivors." My stomach clenched. I hated war, everything about it. It wasn't just the Gravon's that killed heedlessly, my patriotism was slowly fading to jaded weariness as I saw that my own people too killed the innocent. I knew better than to voice it though, anything aside from killing the weak would be viewed as the highest form of treason.

"The Strong Survive." I recited with the others, though my heart wasn't quite in it anymore. The next two weeks crawled. Every day vicious, supplies had to be escorted in from nearby systems under heavy patrol and even then we lost one in five shipments. The number of dead were piling up, on both ends. We had lost a dreadnought two days after Ruh had arrived. Alliyah barely survived a hard landing and Wahid, though implacable, showed the strain under the guise of dark bags under his eyes and rumpled clothing. I caught Ruh after being steady without break for over a month. "Sir." He turned, his own eyes looking strained, we had just lost another shipment. "We," I indicated myself and the vague direction of my ship, Alliyah's and Wahid's, the originals, the cabins that had been originally set aside for us had been converted over to a makeshift medical wing. "Need some R&R, or something sir. I had another girl collapse at her station the other day, we're pushing ourselves to the limit but my crew can't take much more of this and I know captain's Alliyah and Wahid aren't faring any better."

He looked over me, eyes that snapped fire cooled as he took in my own ragged appearance and that I wasn't just skipping out on him. I was barely holding onto my sanity. Between the attacks, hearing the wails of loved ones left behind, and my paralyzing fear for Jawza, I was a wreck and I wasn't even afraid to admit that I looked it. He caught my eye and I held his gaze, even though I was so tired I felt like I could literally fall over and pass out on the tile. It looked comfy enough. "Four days Major Nawra, I have more reinforcements coming in four days from Tria Prima." I nodded and turned to get some sleep, six hours went by quickly and I needed all the sleep I could manage.

Seven days later, after two days of pretty near solid sleep I was in space again, my stomach in knots. Still nothing from Jawza and I was beyond worried at this point. Even in the media I could tell that my warning about the retaliatory strike had gone unheeded. Over eight hundred dead. I shook my head, disgusted with the loss of life, any life. It didn't matter anymore. They were innocents, not soldiers. I was disgusted by it all, but mostly, I was terrified. My small corvette, Citrine, for Jawza's mother was a rather homey space when in comparison to Petalite but it was comfortable enough for just me.

I fought to keep my rising panic under control as I flew through space, only twice coming into contact with Gravon forces. One I had to bullshit my way out of but everyone was so on edge that no one took notice to a single fighter cruising through space. I wondered what had them all rattled. I knew we were at war but it seriously seemed like every ship regardless of class or size, was prowling around. Hungry Kraken's that would devour anything they could wrap their limbs around. It did nothing to help my anxiety, it felt like a cold fist wrapping itself around my heart and making it hard to breathe as I struggled to not worry about him. I spent the long hours running through the preciously few photos I had of him, most were state portraits, taken with him looking as regal and refined as ever but to call him that would be missing the subtle, dark undercurrent. Unlike most aristos, when one looked him in the eye one could feel their life flash before their eyes. This man knew how to kill, and he would. Without hesitation. His dark hair was expertly quaffed, his decorative robes were rich and beautifully embroidered. The long folds of it hiding a body that I knew was made for sin, lean hard muscles that I never spent enough time worshiping. Dark hair that seemed to hold hues of red in it when the sun hit it perfectly, and with eyes so crystalline a blue that they should glow of their own volition.

However, my breath did catch when I made it to one of the couple photos I had personally taken of him. He was relaxed, stretched out on a small grassy hill on Elblanca, he had a genuine smile that made his eyes sparkle, his lips pulled back to reveal white teeth, the canines having the slightest of points to them and his hair tucked aside so I could see the elegant way they shaped themselves up into a delicate nib. I stroked a finger over the features that I admired, and worse, loved. He was male beauty and perfection. He was all that I could ever want in a man, smart, strong, cunning, he would create strong children. But more on top of that, he was fair, kind, and when the situation required it, ruthless. I pressed my lips to the photo, glad no one else was here to see my undoing before this feeling that held me tight in its grasp.

I could remember that day clearly, it had been a beautiful day of hiking, talking, of staring at the clouds and guessing shapes within them, and he had surprised me with a picnic lunch he had brought with him in his hiking pack. His mother was an amazing cook, though his dessert was nothing to mock. I had spent a long few hours content to do nothing more than lie with my head in his lap as we watched the stars. We had made sweet beautiful love under the sunset before I had had to take off for what had become this current nightmare. That had been what, a bit over a term ago now? I stroked his features. "Jawza," my voice cracked, I didn't even bother trying to stop it, "You can't leave me. You promised you'd keep me safe, and that at the end of all this, you'd show them all that love triumphs." He was such a dreamer, but that was one of many reasons I loved him.

"State your crew and serial." The voice broke through the comm unit and I jumped nearly dropping my link as I shoved it into my pants pocket, taking a moment to catch my breath. The autopilot already coming in through the lower stratosphere, the city of Denuth spreading out wide before me.

"Maeva Simone," I was terrified that the ID's that Jawza provided me wouldn't work but still I pressed on, "Serial Number WJ32076JBH25161."

"State your purpose."

Well, this was new. "I'm here to see my brother," ew, "I haven't heard from him in a long while and I was concerned that he had taken ill. He is not well." When in doubt, tell the truth as much as you can.

"I'm sorry," the voice was a little more sympathetic now, "with all the activity going on one can never be too careful, especially since we were forced to start conscripting not long ago, a lot of people are trying to hide from the mandates."

"I understand completely." And really, I did, on both ends. I couldn't imagine being in those shoes. It must be truly desperate measures. Giving landing clearance I headed over to my anointed landing zone. Hanger 3, Section Z13. It was something that Jawza had personally rented for me so I didn't have to deal with the comings and goings of the mundane foot traffic. The fewer people that saw me, the better. I landed in the hanger, he had actually rented the entire space to cause less of a disturbance for me, he was considerate that way. But unlike normally I saw three additional ships, along with Jawza's Mantis, one was a military grade command vessel, simple, sleek, and effective. They weren't known for spending on things they didn't deem necessary. After that was Jawza's Mantis, a beautiful craft that gleamed silver in the light. It was all smooth supple curves and the twin engines gave even pirate's corvette's a good run for their money despite being twice the size. At the end were two ships, one was a royal escort, A Class, it cost so much that I'm sure if I high jacked it and made off with it I could buy a small planet if I managed to find a buyer. The other was a class of ship that I had never seen before, the computer kept saying it was a modified ASEC but I knew my ships and that was most definitely not an ASEC.

I blinked a few times as I slipped off the ramp and into the corridor to Jawza's home. I hated wearing these contacts but red eyes tended to stand out. I moved slowly, taking the time to scan for anything unusual. No, everything was in its place. Perfectly pristine, it looked like a long hallway with statues of granite and marble lining the hall. The evening sunlight making them stretch long shadows in spooky tendrils. The soft air blew in, smelling of the fruit trees that he had planted in a privacy line around the property. The apple trees hid a state of the art security system that we both had installed, my man would never be too safe for my liking. But, as I looked out to appreciate the view, my breath caught in my throat. There was a massive circle of charred earth and several trees were splintered to nothing but rubble. I stared, slack-jawed. What had happened?

Turning I ran towards the door, only the sound of voices kept me from ripping it open. Instead, I pressed my ear to the door, listening.

"I don't get it Shadow," the voice was female, she held the voice of royalty. "People don't just vanish out of thin air." My anxiety ratcheted up a few notches.

"We've had all available resources searching for him your majesty." The voice was a firm baritone, military bruskness was infused in every word.

"I know Boris, thank you."

"I know," I assumed this was this, Shadow, his voice was a low whispering sound, like wet cloth blowing in a breeze, "and technically, we know he didn't vanish." He was snatched, the marks outside signify a Tria Prima vessel, Shade Class Five if I were to guess, fuckers are fast. No weapons, just two engines. A single solid fuel kind that is for fast ingress and egress, and then a slower, more efficient nuclear variety." I looked to the patch, I had to agree, it did look like that, but that was some pretty classified shit, so how did this Shadow know? Granted, there wasn't much mistaking what the takeoff of one of them looked like.

The woman sighed delicately as if exhausted. "I don't know what else to do, I'm doing all I can to keep everything under wraps, so far all anyone knows is that someone highly valuable went missing. Not kidnapped. Missing." She stressed the difference. "Though I know his parents see right through my polite lies. Warret I can handle through Sirius, however, Citrine is another matter and I don't know how much longer I can have Verti here and not looking for his brother."

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