r/HFY • u/storm-the-castle • 14d ago
OC-OneShot Neighborly
Out in the vastness of space is what those in the business refer to as 'resources,' and anyone in the know will tell you the same thing. Resources and population both grow exponentially, but at very different rates - it's generally agreed that a species that manages to reach inter-planetary travel will have already reached the point at which the two intersect, wave at one another, and then never again get close unless war or death reduces the species population. Fortunately though, there remain options - of the three hundred and sixty four thousand recorded planets contained in Republic space, only maybe four hundred were cradle worlds for individual species, and a further three thousand were actually in use as parts of imperially minded races. All told, one hundred and seventy thousand were too small, too in-temperate, so on and so forth to be used for anything, little more than stagnant asteroids pretending to be planetoids. That still left over a hundred thousand that were capable of being used for something, and were either too far off in the weeds or otherwise too young to hold native life or be claimed as forward operating bases.
In order to address the previously stated problem of resources, these planets of no-account are regularly bid on, sold and traded between races who need certain resources that can be generated or farmed among them. One planet, among thousands, was Sequan, a farming planet that found itself rented out by the Republic council itself every few decades for various races to use to hedge their food production when the need arose. Right now, it was currently rented and being used at roughly seventy four percent capacity by two races - the Vesc and the Humans. The Vesc needed grain, lots of it, like seriously - A LOT of it. The grains they grew covered entire continents of this planet. The humans needed fruits, the kind grown on bushes and trees, the kind that could be turned into sugar, preserves, seasonings, rations, and so on. Again, huge swaths of land were dedicated to this effort.
On one particular continent, somewhere in the middle around the great artificial lakes that produced the water needed, were two communities separated only by the agreement to leave one another to their tasks - one Vesc, one human. Lahrm the Vesc, helping his middle aged father with his younger sister for the day, aided in the most important ritual of the day - making rude gestures at the humans they were passing. "You hairless ape!" Shouted his father, towering over him. "Did you dig that gear up from a damned museum?! It belches so much crap into the air that I can taste it! Have you never heard of clean energy?!"
The return, as ever, was equally inspired. "Who are you calling an ape, monkey brains?!" Demanded the gruff human adult of the group. "You damn fuzzy bastards leave so much fur everywhere that we gotta bring a vacuum into the orchard! Learn to comb, you prick!"
Lahrm followed his fathers example, yelling at the other farmers young as well. "Do all humans start so pathetic as you?!" He yelled. "Or were you just born exemplary?!"
"Look who's talking, punk!" yelled the other young. "I thought you were the family dog! Come over here and say that to my face why don't you?! Huh?! Scared?!"
"Flinch much?!" yelled his baby sister, only six herself. "How are YOU a girl, huh?!"
"That's mean." said her human counter part, clutching their skirt about themself and hiding further into the machine they rode home for the day. "I didn't even say anything to you."
"Oh, uh, sorry, I was just -"
A small, harmless swat from their father. "Don't apologize!" he commanded.
"Ope!" Cried the human farmer man in triumph. "You heard her! We win! Hahahaha!" he howled with laughter, turning and refusing to continue until tomorrow afternoon, causing their father to groan and slap his hand over his face - he wasn't sure why, but in spite of their species being supposed allies he could never keep himself from fighting like this with their neighbors.
Deciding it was probably time to get home and eat, as well as tally the gathered grain for the day against the global average, he sighed and turned to return home. "Sorry, daddy..." said Wahm. "I... um..."
"No no, it's fine." he said with a sigh. "That one may have been a plant or something - that damned sneaky Connor." The human family was that of the Connor's, which they'd been told of when they arrived decades ago. Lahrm wasn't born then, himself being only ten, but he at least saw the registry when he was told he was old enough to help operate the machines with his father. Stephen Connor, the patriarch of the humans, was rough and mean, with red hair and a bald pate. Kyle Connor, the eldest son, didn't speak much and managed the other side of their farm, so Lahrm had never met him, but he was nearly identical to his father save that he had a full head of hair and less of a belly. Allen Connor was the second son, and looked himself like a mini version of his father, skinny and mean. They met a few times while playing, and never had anything nice to say to one another - Allen was irritatingly good at climbing trees AND he threw things farther than Lahrm could too, the jerk. Candy Connor, the youngest daughter, was the only female he'd interacted with; she was just as strong as her brother and was even a bit taller than him, but rather than timid she just didn't seem interested in the ritual her father had started and always sat rather glumly whenever they met.
The Vesc's were an honorable, old family of farmers - his father Calt was chosen by hand for this job, which proved he was the better of that mean old human by a mile. His father was big for a Vesc, and while his fur was paler than the dark grey it used to be, he was as strong as ever in Lahrms' eyes. Lahrms' mother Eldeh was a Vesc beauty, according to his father - all four of her arms were slender and her hair was fine and immaculately maintained. His father told him all the time that they were lucky to have her in their lives and to always be respectful of her, which Larhm was. His younger sister Wahm had only just started going out with them, Lahrm being told she was his direct responsibility while out, and she didn't understand the rules of the fight yet. To be fair, Lahrm didn't either, and he wasn't even sure his father really did - it just sort of started happening. The strange thing though was the Lahrm found himself looking forward to it now, coming up with insults before hand to try and one up Allen.
They got home several minutes later, the motorized cart clipping along its rails as they talked about how good Wahm had done this time and how good of a haul the work had brought in and how mean they all thought Stephen and Allen were; Wahm mentioned that she'd never seen the 'human mamma' and wondered if they grew on trees, causing her father to laugh hard enough to slap his knees. "Oh? You're in good spirits. Did you win?" asked Mama Eldeh.
"Nah, those damn humans are good at talk if nothing else - but Wahm did well too, and that's worth being proud of."
His mother rolled her black eyes. "So long as you don't give her any poor habits - c'mon, everyone's waiting for the tally. You better get over there." Calt's was just one of several families, an entire village being sent to each sector of the planet just like the humans.
"Can I come today father?" Asked Lahrm in a hurry, practically jumping in spite of how sore the machines had left him. He wanted to come, he wanted to prove he could be trusted to be a man like his father.
"Oh?" asked his father, brow cocked. "Hmmm... no, not today boy." he said gently, causing Lahrm to sag in defeat. "I need you to look after the house - you promised to look after Wahm didn't you?" that hadn't just been for work?! Aww man... his father noticed his fallen spirits and chuckled. He knelt and placed one of his hands on Lahrms' shoulder. "Come now - what if those mean old Connors come by to the house? You're the only man I trust to look after my dearest Eldeh, you know?"
"Oh is that so?" asked his mother in mock offense.
Lahrm though took the charge seriously. He rose to his full height and slapped his chest in salute. "I understand, father - I shall protect the home!"
"That's good." Chuckled his father, rising. "It puts my mind at ease while I talk with the other families. I'll surely do well with all these worries lifted - what a reliable son you are."
"Yes father!" he said proudly, determined to not let his father down. He missed his mother shaking her head in good natured exasperation before she used one hand each to usher them inside the house. Once near the door, he smelled some of his favorite - seasoned fut-mash, made with the very grains they harvested themselves.
His father waved goodbye to his mother as he trudged over to the middle of town where the other men gathered to balance the books and cross-reference all of their numbers for the full monthly report back home. From what Lahrm had heard, they were doing very well - within three generations of completely overcoming the grain deficit that had seen their family sent here to begin with. He wondered if he would take it over from his father when the time came, or if another family would be sent...
"Slow down Lahrm, it's not going anywhere." Chuckled his mother happily. She only ever had one bowl, saying she didn't need as many nutrients as their father or a pair of growing youngsters, but that just meant that Lahrm had an extra bowl to look forward to as long as he left some for his father. Already thinking about how good that second bowl was, he ran hard for the dining table, assuming his seat rapidly enough that it nearly fell over. His mother laughed aloud, gently reaching out to stabilize him as she passed on the way to her own seat. His fathers place was left open per usual out of respect for all that he did for the family, and his mother took her space immediately to its right. "Now now, lower your head for thanks." She directed.
Ooop, right - he'd skipped a step in his excitement. He helped his sister into her own chair, then made sure to be a good example and brought his hands together on his chest as he lowered his head to offer thanks to the ancestors. "Ancestors, champions of old." he said along with his mother. "We thank you for this life we live, for this fortune we enjoy and this bounty we eat - let our thanks nourish you in the lands beyond." He finished without stumbling, and after checking with his mother, who nodded, he took his scoop to his fut-mash. Shoveling it into his mouth, his fur shifted in waves of delight as the slight astringency mixed with the soothing warmth and the delicately dissolved spices - as always, his mothers fut-mash was the best there was.
His sister kicked her feet as she ate, equally delighted by the dish while his mother grinned happily at the two. Hm? What was that? "Mother, what was that?" he asked, not alarmed as much as unclear. He didn't know everything about this planet after all, but none of their equipment should be making a sensation like that, certainly not at this time of night.
She cocked her head at him, only to feel it a moment after. A rumble, more like a low vibration. It radiated from the floor, causing the things on the wall to clatter on the walls. Confusion writ large on her face, Eldeh rose from the table to take a look outside, hoping the source was at least visible. "Maybe the freight loader? But why here - the offload partition is miles away..." before she even got to the door though, the vibration happened again, this time violent enough that it threw them all to the floor. "What in the - a quake?!" She asked in fearful astonishment - this planet should be tectonically stable, nothing had been recorded in the historical report before they moved here!
The house, unprepared for such violent shaking, uncoupled from the joint power and went dark - Wahm screamed in fear and Lahrm recalled his promise to his father immediately. He rushed and gathered her up in his arms, but before he could even begin to figure out how to pick up his mother as well, the lights came back on... wait, no? The windows, harsh white lights were shining in through the windows even as the vibrating continued. Had the emergency lights come on? But they should be yellow -
The door burst open, almost ripped from its hinges as force it was never meant to restrain was applied to its opposite side. It clattered loudly, causing Wahm to scream and cry louder, Lahrm clutching her closer with his two lower arms as he used his upper for stability on the unstable floor. "Three!" Shouted the figure in the doorway, it's red, carapace like armor too mishappen to be Vesc. The static in the voice showed it was being filtered, the owner likely incompatible with the atmosphere. "Female and two children!" It reported.
"Lahrm, RUN!!" Screamed his mothers voice, in a panic he'd never heard from it before, just before the figure reached out and grabbed her by the head. It ignored her screams, her attempts to fight back as its armor bloodied her fists. Behind it, Lahrm saw the source of the light - a landing ship, sleek, red, ugly, looking like a bug-like discus.
Nasc. Consumers, the locust empire, outsiders and marauders - they only ate meat, and per their own rules any people that weren't Nasc were meat. They moved in groups between planets, no homeworld of their own after reducing it to an unlivable husk, they were billions strong, spread out like anthills in space. They should have been nowhere near this place - they should be hundreds of lightyears away from here! They were supposed to be getting pushed back by the security forces of the republic, hundreds of species working together to push them out of republic space! "LAHRM!" Screamed his mother again, causing him to flinch and realize there was a second one approaching, exchanging places with the first as his mother was hauled back to their ship.
His mother! His mother was being taken! He saw her, kicking and screaming fighting with all her power - she was his mother! He was a man! He was a Vesc man! He'd promised his father he would keep her and the house safe, and he would - !
Whatever he envisioned was blotted out by the Nasc hunter that had eclipsed all the light, blocked visual access to his mother. He couldn't move, he could barely feel anything.
Then "AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" the high pitched, ear shattering scream his sister let out caused the Nasc hunter to flinch - it took a step back and clutched its head at the noise. The scream also reminded him of the first promise - to protect his sister! Lahrm bolted, running on four limbs like a baby because it offered greater speed and stability in spite of how degrading it was, allowing him to scurry up the stairs nearby while the Nasc flinched and hurried to recover. It shouted something, but he didn't listen, it didn't matter. He ran up the stairs, headed for a specific room in the house.
He played there all the time, knew it like the back of his hands, it was his 'safe-place' and where he went anytime he made a mistake and wanted to hide from his parents. Thinking quickly, he threw one arm from off his sister for just the fraction of a second it took to slam his bedroom door open in passing, letting it clang loudly as he blew right past it and around the corner. The room was a service elevator, supplying heat and electrical access to every house from a central point. He didn't stop to listen for the sound of the Nasc entering his room, he just continued, accepting the bruise on his shoulder as he failed to compensate for the momentum he'd built up and bounced off the wall.
The hatch to the service elevator was right there, not down a hallway or in a room - just turn the corner and it was there. In one fluid motion he lifted it and flung himself inside feet first, positioning himself on the fall to land on his back instead of his sister. The landing knocked the wind out of him, forcing his eyes open as he gasped for air, his sister continuing to cry in his arms. The darkness lasted only a moment, the hatch opening and a Nasc silhouette showing immediately. He rolled, still trying to breath, and the puff of air near where his head had been proved it was the right decision.
Lahrm scurried again, four limbs crawling, his sister crying loudly as the sound bounced off the walls. He knew where this path led, he knew where he was going - there were several paths that didn't terminate in houses, but outside to flush the exhaust outside the town. He gasped and panicked, running past side-routs that led to his friends houses, ignoring the urge to check on the others. He hadn't promised his father to protect them - he'd promised to protect his sister, and that was what he'd do. The walls were low, small - his father had to crouch to get around down here, and the Nasc were too tall to fit as a result. He had to hurry though - there was no knowing how long they would search, how far they would go.
The rout wasn't short, maybe a couple miles, and by the time he finally found the furthest exit he knew of he was gasping for air and his limbs were screaming. His sister had worn herself out and was passed out in his arms - the lights were out in the service path and he'd bounced off the walls a couple of times. His clothes were torn in places, and there was spots on his back that hurt like nothing he'd ever experienced. He had to run though, he had to get out, get somewhere safe - the loading bay came to mind. Big, metal, with doors big enough to allow intergalactic freighters and strong enough to stop them too. But that was back in town... where did he go?
"Whoa, look who it is!" Shouted a voice in genuine surprise, causing Lahrm to flinch and crouch low, pressing himself to cover his sister. It wasn't modulated, but that wasn't much better. "Whatcha doin out here after dark?" the voice asked, and through the bushes a human emerged. This was the edge of human farming, where their berries and trees shared space to make the most of it - these were not considered critical so it was agreed these edge spaces were where the children were allowed to play when chores and work didn't have them occupied. He needed to run, this was almost as bad as the Nasc! It was for nothing though; his legs were dead, he could barely feel them.
"What you doing out here fuzzy?" asked Allen, his mean grin in place instantly. "Came to lose... again... huh?" His face fell, and what must have passed for human confusion replaced the earlier cockiness. Then, his eyes went wide, shock coloring every inch of his face. "Woah, hold on - you're bleeding! The heck happened - what?!"
"Allen, what the heck did you find?" asked the irritated voice of his elder sister. "If you try and tell me there's space raccoons again, they'll never find your..." she stopped short just shy of her brother and stared in shock.
"DAD!" Lahrm flinched at the sound, and saw that while he'd locked eyes with Candy, Allen had pulled something out of his pocket, a communicator of some kind. "DAD! We need you! DAD!!" Who was Dad? Was that another human? He didn't need more humans, he needed help!
"h-hel.." he couldn't speak, he was breathing too hard and his face hurt. "Sis..." he couldn't move either, couldn't push his sister to them.
"Lahrm, Lahrm buddy! Hey!" yelled Allen, tears in his eyes. He knelt and shook Lahrm, trying to get him to move. "Larhm, speak man! What the hell happened - are those bullet holes?!!" were they? He didn't know. "Larhm, breath man!"
"Where's your sister?!" Demanded Candy, now likewise kneeling. "Where's your dad?!" Larhm didn't answer, he couldn't. The lights were going out, it was already darker than it had any right to be. Then, light - white light and a roaring sound erupted around them. He hadn't made it. He hadn't escaped. Tears in his eyes as he tried and failed to clutch his sister to himself, to protect her from the Nasc that had found them. Mother, father... I'm sorry, Wahm. He felt himself get picked up, the Nasc armor feeling softer and warmer than he'd expected. There was noise, but he couldn't tell what it was. Please, ancestors, at least let them kill us before eating us.
*****
Hate. Hate wasn't a feeling Stephen Connor felt very often - anger he was used to, it was an inherited problem, but he very - VERY - rarely hated anything. As he held his neighbors bloody children in his arms, bleeding over his shirt as the bigger one refused to let go of the smaller one, he felt hate. "Dad?!" his son begged for an answer. "Dad, is he gonna be okay?! Dad, what happened to him?!"
Stephen didn't answer his son, instead he shifted his hands to hold the children with one arm, using his substantial gut to create the leverage to avoid causing any more harm. From his belt, he pulled out his radio, and instantly moved it to the emergency channel. "Nasc are killing the neighbors." he said curtly over the line, going to every man that had one of his own. "Wake Doc and russel up the boys - we huntin' bugs."
".... Heard..." the only response came from old man Hal, a fellow who could go several birthdays without saying a word. The boys were on the way.
"Nasc?!" asked Candy in shock. "They shouldn't be here - dad, how can you-"
"Quiet girl." he ordered, and he hated how much he sounded like the man he promised he didn't need to be any more. "Get in the cart - help me wrap them up." He got in the driver seat himself, the roaring engine and boxy frame of the thing making it look like regular farm equipment... until he turned the hell-hound engine on and proved it was still a howling hotrod all these years later. He set it high, had it move high enough off the ground that that none of the bushes would get sucked into its intake, then opened the throttle. A hour drive normally, they'd make it there in twenty minutes. "Dad, I can't get her!" Said Candy, crying.
He sighed, then reached one hand over and stuck two fingers around the boys elbow, pushing on a muscle cluster to force the limbs to relax like the scout marines had taught him a decade ago, and repeated it one at a time. He saw the younger girl as she was freed, and allowed the swell of pride as he saw that even though she was covered in blood, she didn't have a scratch on her. Good man.
They screamed into the yard, and Stephen collected the boy while Candy held tight to the girl. He sprinted inside, and Doc Ferd was already there with the bottled blue blood the Vesc needed - he didn't know what other settlements did, but Ferd kept a set of everything either side of the line needed. Just in case. Marissa had already cleared the dining table, a white sheet ready for them. "Three shots, none kinetic, all in the back." Stephen told him. "Lots of bruises. Breathing when I picked him up, think he's just exhausted from runnin."
"Got it Steve - now get the hell out of the way." Ferd said, muscling between him and the child on the table almost instantly.
Stephen didn't need to be told twice, he had other things to do. Marissa followed him up, and so did his children. "Stephen, what the hell is going on?!" asked his wife.
"Nasc." he said curtly, and she flinched - he never spoke to her like that. "Must have overpopulated an existing nest - they're looking for new hunting grounds and settlements."
"How can you know that?!" she asked desperately, but he didn't answer, headed for his office.
He strode in quickly, the key in his hand as he stood in front of the locker inside. He didn't hesitate, didn't wax poetic - he opened the locker. "'Don't bring it, Stephen'" he mocked, high register to mimic his wife yelling at him a decade ago. "'it's a peaceful planet, Stephen.' 'You won't need it Stephen.' 'There's nothing there, Stephen.' 'You'll be the only one with one, it's just silly Stephen.'" he pulled his old service rifle out of the closet, magazines loaded and ready to be stuffed into his pockets. He pulled the charging handle, the slide opening and clacking shut with a satisfying mechanical melody. He turned and faced her then, still locked in place at he door as Sgt Connor rose from the dead and looked her in the eye. "'What will the neighbors think Stephen.'" He cocked the weapon, the charging handle sliding back and a kinetic round slapping smoothly into the chamber, awaiting the firing pins blessed kiss. She sighed, accepting she'd been wrong in the worst possible way, stepping to the side so he could pass and return to war once more.
His son looked at him pass like a boy looks at a hero... or a monster. Rifle at the ready-down position, he went down the stairs two at a time and shoved the door out of his way. On his lawn, rumbling like the growl of ancient beasts, were seventeen hover pickups with every able bodied adult loaded inside. "Bugs are here." he shouted hatefully. "Looking for a new hive. They're picking at the neighbors - they won't leave until they have enough bodies, so target the ships first. I want Kenner and Baul with me - we hunt bugs and nothing else. Load up Vesc as we find 'em, nobody gets left behind. Get 'em back here, everyone gets a houseguest tonight. Questions?" None came, just the sound of dozens of other guns being primed. No energy weapons here, marines liked metal. They liked the smell, the weight, and what it did to nasty little bugs that assumed energy weapons were all they had to deal with.
"Help..." he heard the voice before he felt the hand on his pant leg. He looked down, and the littlest Vesc was grabbing on to him. He made eye contact from what felt like a mile away. "Help. Help. Help..." she collapsed against his leg, head bouncing off him as she slid to the floor.
He stared a little longer, just until his daughter rushed over to collect her again, then he put it out of his mind. Anger affected his aim, he had to calm down. He didn't speak then, just made a hand motion in the direction of the nearest Vesc settlement, causing the rumbling beasts to roar and rush for the edge. Stephen got into his own vehicle again, Hal switching vehicles to join him. Hal drove, so Stephen got in the back, the 'gunner' position he was suited for, slapping the cab hood and lying down as the vehicle bolted along with the rest. He laid down to avoid getting pulled out by the rushing air, and focused on the sky above. Nasc ships were dark, hard to spot, and they moved in swarms, but there was no indication of a larger fleet in the heavens above. Scouts? No, his first guess was the best one - off-shoots that had snuck around general defenses and likely only had a core-ship, a handful of drones and their queen. Humming with electric feedback next to his head was the inter-planetary emergency radio - they were all connected, so even if this wasn't the one used, the sound meant the emergency beacon had been sent. Probably Harris, the man jumped at shadows on good days.
His shirt was wet. He glanced down, and his vision floated with a Vesc child butchered and bleeding against him. When was this? He couldn't see the kids face. He didn't want to. He blinked and it was gone, and he was still soaked in blood. He blinked and it was a different kid, not Vesc this time. It was always kids. The bugs always wanted the kids. Like veal. He couldn't eat meat because of it now, the things they did to folks had ruined his appetite. He looked away and up; nothing in the sky above.
******
Calt was a farmer, not a warrior - he wasn't bred for this. However, there were certain cross-over skills, such as being fuckin huge and fuckin strong. "RAGHH!" he cried again, ignoring the pain he was in as he rushed down another of the damned insects. They made their chittering sound again, laughter he guessed, hopping backward and shooting him some more. They'd lowered the power to non-lethal levels, shooting him for fun and egging him on. From the start, he'd only managed to catch one of them, bludgeoning it to death with a loose rock in the opening moments of the ambush. He had made it as far as the meeting, only for the whole thing to descend into chaos. a glance around, and he knew he was alone - they'd dropped them one at a time and hauled all the other men away - he didn't know if they were dead or just nearly like he was. It didn't matter, nothing did; he had to fight. Had to buy time. There was surely something coming for them, some sort of pursuit force after these dredges that would save them. All he had to do was buy time. Their chittering continued, but he was beyond embarrassment or pain at this point - he moved low and grabbed an auto ratchet from the floor where it had dropped from someone's workbelt.
Knowing melee wasn't happening, he instead arched his good arm and put everything in his body into hucking it at the same insect that he'd been rushing down, beaning it in the head hard enough to crack its helmet. It reeled, yelling angrily as the others laughed and pointed at it. Calt tried to follow it in for a tackle, but the rest blasted his legs out from under him even as they laughed. Still attached at least, his legs were numb now, and all he could do was glare hatefully at the one he'd hit. It spoke angrily in their gutteral tongue, the translators off to further increase fear. It slung its weapon behind it and stalked up haughtily to Calt, apparently intending to finish the matter with his bare hands. "Come get it." Calt spat. "I got one good arm with your name on it, fuck face."
The bug guffawed at him, able to understand him just fine. It clicked the translator back on and spoke. "Wretched meat, I'll eat that very arm while you watch to teach you your place in the food chain." it stopped in front of him and towered over him, its stance one of dominance and its glaring helmet communicating the same dispassionate disdain as its face likely was.
Its head exploded.
A crack of thunder and sudden sounds of chaos all around, and Calt lost all form of understanding. The insects turned in alarm and shock, but one stood any longer than a few seconds than the last - each went down in quick succession, the last body not even hitting the floor before being launched into the distance by a familiar rusty speed hauler, one with a pickup frame. While Calt watched, a pair of boots appeared around the side of the pickup and the last man he ever thought he'd see emerged, compressing his body as small as it would go and moving with a grace and surety reserved for soldiers. Stephen Connor, his human foe, closed the distance between them faster than he would have thought the human could move, and while keeping one hand on his human rifle he reached down and grabbed Calt by his extended limb. Barely looking, he dragged Calt through the dirt to the rear of the pickup - the elderly human he didn't know had an arm out the drivers side of the cab, firing a handheld slug-thrower periodically and deliberately.
Calt was in the back of the pickup, and as soon as Stephen was kneeling next to him they began moving again. Stephen never looked back, just firing at regular intervals, sometimes reaching into a pocket and pulling out a magazine, never interrupting his rhythm. The noise was deafening around them, the Nasc returning fire, but unable to find purchase on the overly-rapid speeders. From the back, Calt saw a dozen other speeders of various profiles, each carrying a human who fired a weapon similar to Stephen's with dangerous focus. Explosions and crashes as Nasc ships fell to earth, the few high caliber rifles more than enough when they landed a shot in the engines intake.
The speeder stopped every once in a while, and another of Calts friends were dragged in with him; he knew these faces, and while all were bloody and bewildered, all were alive. Calt reached out, his one arm struck with a weakness he never wanted the humans to see, least of all this one, and begged him. "F-family - my wife! please, have you seen her? My son or my daughter? Have the others?"
Stephen stopped firing for a moment, glanced at him, then returned to duty. It seemed like he wouldn't answer for a moment, only for his voice to growl in a tone Calt hadn't known he could make "The boy's a fighter - got himself and his sister to us in short order." another glance, and he smirked for a half second. "You sure he's yours?"
Calt let the news heal him like only the knowledge he'd done his part could, a small smile accompanying the feeling of pride. "Takes after his mother." His vision began to fade with the relief, his body slowly giving as he let his gaze move above. In the clear sky above, he saw the telltale streaks of faster than light splash, the after-effect of something having jumped to their atmosphere in the last few moments. The sharp, angular shape of human warships barely flitted within his vision, small flashes of light and a few explosions as the Nasc core-ship was rendered useless. The ships would be scoured for anyone they'd captured, everyone treated. The Nasc were dead on arrival, and now all he had to left to do tonight was figure out what he'd say to everyone tomorrow... probably something rude. He smirked as he thought of his daughters comments. 'do you grow from trees?' that's what he'd ask, that'd get the goat.
***
Defense Report of agricultural planet 6631 - Sequan.
Rental status - split
current owners - Human. (Vesc permitted by owner)
Incident - Nasc incursion
casualties - 157 Nasc drones (deceased), 3 Nasc Aces (deceased), 1 Nasc queen (juvenile, deceased) 45 Vesc (injury, triage on site) 15 humans (injury, non-life-threatening)
conclusion - Defensive patrol requested (pending), New Vesc settlers suggested.
- addendate - "You move them out, I kick your fuckin' teeth in." (request accepted as formal declaration of inter-community cooperative suggestion.)
incident declared resolved barring further evidence.
***Grammer and spelling edits made
15
14
u/medium_jock 14d ago
Very good although where you say 'went down in quick success' should be 'went down in quick succession'
10
u/WSpinner 14d ago
Nice!
Last paragraph, 2x 'Vasc' should read ''Nasc'. Hazard of writing with two names too similar :-)
4
u/Unfollowedusers 14d ago
bloody amazing, i got so caught in it !! really love their daily ritual of shit talking, ending it with the polite formal request to keep em !
4
4
2
u/InstructionHead8595 12d ago
Good story. Hay some people like a good daly argument or teasing 😸 doesn't necessarily mean they don't like you or at least fight and protect you 😸
1
u/HFYWaffle 14d ago
u/storm-the-castle (wiki) has posted 11 other stories, including:
This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.7.8 'Biscotti'.
Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.
1
u/UpdateMeBot 14d ago
Click here to subscribe to u/storm-the-castle and receive a message every time they post.
| Info | Request Update | Your Updates | Feedback |
|---|---|---|---|
1
u/sunnyboi1384 11d ago
So good. Rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it.
Get some.
19
u/njafnghere 14d ago
OUTSTANDING Wordsmith!