This mountain base was supplied with electric power by a water turbine and there was little danger to run it, the whole world was using similar primitive power sources and one more would not make any difference.
Now was the time to decide what to do. The longer they stayed the greater the chance they would be discovered and none of them wanted to experience a Union marine assault on the mountain base. He was almost certain the Yokuta would file for Union Membership anyway. The lean brothers of the Elly were not stupid and frankly the Union would offer them tremendous benefits without asking much in return.
Cust, his second in command was in his herd for over twenty years and a dear friend. Cust, also had settled on Arlicherb , had several Nannies, kids and a nice estate with hundred Yokuta servants keeping his estate in good repair while he was in space, pulled on his coarse chin beard as he always did when he was thinking." We need some intelligence as what is planned and where the Union ships are. "
"I am listening to local radio broadcasting. We don't have any of the Yokuta 2D screens for their visual media." An Engineering Billie said sitting before an antique Yokuta receiver." They are expecting the Union Flagship and some very high Union Guests by tomorrow. There are festivities planned and the execution of 20 captured Nogoll and 45 Yokuta collaborators."
Someone cursed." Whatever we plan, there is no way we are going to fool Stahl! The Devastator is indestructible, at least with what we got along and with her comes the entire first fleet, and many thousands of marines."
The Engineer laughed."It's not Stahl. It is the Admiral of the Fleet and the newest Union Battle ship."
Cust smashed his hairy three fingered fist on the table before him." They are not going to overdo it with security, so not to scare the Yokuta. I bet they asked the Admiral to bring along a bunch of kids. This is our best and only chance for revenge! We kill the Admiral, his delegation and every Yokuta Elder."
"No we should capture the Admiral and use him as a hostage to get access to that new ship. I am sure it is loaded with Translocator Cannons! The Kermac will welcome us with open arms!" A Weapons Officer said.
"The Kermac have sold us out!" Ealy cursed." If we ever got to Kermac then with blazing canons! We lost home and families because of it. We are homeless Nogoll following the last commando of our First Billie to certain doom! Die we must that is certain, let our deaths be meaningful and with as much impact as we can inflict."
All the way in the back of the conference center were two Nogoll billies, not officers but chosen because of their strength and fighting abilities. The rest of the crew had remained in the two capital ships now hiding on a moon in an unpopulated neighbor system. Uley and Harel would rather have stayed with the rest and once the Commander and his fatalistic officers met their fate, surrender to Union forces and be home on 'The Nog' in a few weeks. Of course neither one of them wanted to openly say so. Ealy would have no qualms executing them for treason or cowardice. Ever since the war had started the Commander led them from one catastrophe to the other and now he was on a suicide mission. The way they talked there was not even a chance of survival. They wanted to die! Yes it was all bad and horrible what the Union did to them, but neither Uley nor Harel had big estates or large Nannie herds, but Uley did have family on The Nog. He whispered to Harel:" It's easy for him to order us on a suicide mission, I wager my right horn he is going to remain behind to plan further actions and perhaps even return to the ship, before the attack is made!"
"You don't have to wager your horns. I am sure he will announce to go back to the ship anytime soon, while he leaves some of us behind."
"What do you think is better? Dying for sure as a hero no one will remember or dying trying to get home?"
"Just be careful. He has the Nunthu glow in his eyes, he's not on the side of the sane anymore, but the other officers will do what he asks and kill anyone who is a coward."
The Nogoll prepared the costumes and bio flex masks, to make them look like locals and four of them were send ahead to reconnoiter. Harel was picked as a volunteer and he chose Uley.
Chapter 19: Cont
The rest of the journey was quite uneventful; we slept in actual crew quarters, two cadets to a cabin. I shard mine with Two Three. I had almost forgotten about Bennett Waite and my dilemma. Should I report him? Every morning we repeated that oath and pledge not to tolerate intolerance to other sentient beings. On the other hand I never liked tattle tails. The ship so we were told already approached the Arlicherb system and we were assembled in a conference room and the Instructors kept telling us what an honor it was to be addressed by the Admiral of the Fleet and even be on the same ship.
It didn't take long and Mc Elligott arrived and gave us our final briefing. Basically the orders were to stay together, act friendly to the natives and answer questions put to us about the Union in a preferably positive way.
Waite muttered something about the stinking natives that should be bombed and forced to do whatever humans demanded them to do.
To him I said in the sharpest tone i could muster." I warn you fair and square, the next time you open your mouth or utter any decretory remarks against anyone, I will report you. I made up my mind! My oath is more important!"
"You would not rat out a fellow human! Not even you could be that low!"
"Don't test me! I will do what I said!"
"You could always die in an accident!" He hissed.
"I am not afraid of you and the first time we have some time off duty I am going to show you exactly what I think about assholes and bigots."
From the briefing room we had a view port view of our approach and the landing procedures. Arlicherb was a beautiful world with lots of blues and greens and the sprinkling of clouds. It had oceans and large continents.
According to the information we had received, almost 5 billion Yokuta populated the world and hade several big metropolis. Even though it was considered primitive since the Yokuta reached TL3 it was still a highly industrialized modern world and far busier than Nilfeheim. The Nogoll had the locals under strict control and promoted industrial and agricultural growth, while much of the planets resources and products were drained by the Goats, the locals now had a strong economy. Even though they had some sort of Elder Council, unlike on Nilfeheim, here the young were heard and had a voice.
The Shetland touched down at the planets main Space port. Yokuta ships and Nogoll freighters looked like toys compared to the Union Battle ship.
The Admiral himself inspected out uniforms and state of dress and then we followed a delegation of business men, a delegation of Assembly representatives and a detachment of marines.
The first thing I noticed was a strange smell in the air. Pure coughed and said." The first thing we need to teach them is how to run a cleaner industry."
At the bottom of the wide ramp was a Yokuta band playing the Union anthem and several officials in colorful uniforms greeting the Admiral first.
Pure curled his chops." I never thought my first official mission will be so soon and then a diplomatic one of all things! I hoped for something more exciting!"
I grinned back." Could be worse. We could be in a big pool swimming with the others!"
Ninio behind me trumpeted in my ear." I am no expert on Academy procedures but I bet the others didn't have a leisurely day at the pool and they found a way to make them wish they were with us. We had a good night's rest and we will get a lot of good Yokuta food!"
Fectiv groaned." If you find it good, I am afraid already!"
Interlude: Planet Odin
Genetic altered humans. Previously Corporate owned Clone slaves. Now recognized sub species and own race.
After Earth ascended with the help of the Saran and before Earth became Terra and a founding member of the Unites Stars of the Galaxy (Union), there was a time of fast and virtually unchecked scientific and technological advances. Even before the Ascent, Earth scientists made vast progress in Bionetic sciences and Mega Corporations put great sums of money a
nd enormous efforts into Bionetic and genetic research. Virtually every possible life-form both native to Earth and alien with compatible DNA were crossed, linked, tweaked and genetically altered to create new life forms for all kinds of purposes. It started with the Canadian Organ Donor Swine. Hogs and later great apes were altered to grow human compatible organs that could be transplanted. Almost every settler and colonist group that left Earth to migrate to other world received some form of Genetic tailoring to make them better suitable to their new environments. The Mega Corporations also tried to develop the most perfect soldier, worker and slave.
During the years between 2099-2110 new artificial creates life-forms, ranging from special bacteria, over new fruits and vegetables to new breeds of draft animals and meat producing animals were patented almost daily and literally millions of Patents were issued to corporations for life forms and new gene combinations. While moral and ethical restrictions hampered them before there was no law or moral boundary that restricted research during that time. It produced many successes but also horrible failures and catastrophes. It lead to the Corporate Bio Wars of 2111 to 2114 that escalated into the Bio-Robotnik™ Miner revolt of Rasmussen Planet in 2115 and to the all out Super Clone Wars of 2116 that lasted until 2121 with the Gen Clone Attack on the Terran Assembly. The Clone Wars ended in 2122 with the declaration that all Genetic altering and experimentation with sentient life forms had to undergo the strictest government controls. Any corporation caught in this was to be destroyed, with everyone of the management to be hanged. It also gave all Gene Clones the right of Freedom and self control and to be fully accepted sub species of the Human race with all rights every sentient being was entitled too.
Schwartz Bio Engineering officially did not participate in the Clone or Corporate Wars, but had to release and free all their Gene Clone Products. Among the most extreme were the Alpha-War Workers™, designed to withstand the most extreme environmental conditions and be able to fight and work under crushing gravitation. In one Commercial the AWW's were praised as a worker that could even work on Saturn if it had a solid surface and an atmosphere to breathe. The AWW's got the nickname Saturnians. The average Saturnian stood 320 cm and was almost 150 cm wide, with a tough carbon nano tube laced double skeleton, thick carbon nano mesh skin and super dense muscle structure. The average Saturnian could lift up to 2500 kilos under one standard gee, stay submerged under water for up to 4 hours and work in depths that would crush a normal human. This enormous strength and size had a price and they lost much of their fine motoric abilities and no Saturnian can manipulate objects smaller than 3 cm, without cybernetic or mechanical assistance. Saturnians completely lack body hair and, must have artificially implant eye lashes to prevent small particles enter their eyes. Saturnian Women are considered ugly even among Saturnians and usually cover their appearance with Burka like garments.
The Saturnians settled on a large Planet called Odin due to its high natural gravitation of nine gee. They joined the Union in 2210. While Saturnians are able to reproduce, extensive pre and postnatal cyber technical assistance such as the bone structure weaving has to be done artificially.
Today there are approximately 34 Million Saturnians and most can be found either in the United Stars Marine Corps or in the security field. Saturnian Body guards are among the highest paid, especially if they are graduates of the Saturnian Fight and Security Academy. The entire Culture is focused on security and guard duties and is strongly Germanic and duty oriented. Saturnians enjoy extreme sports such as Ultra Wrestling and Beyond Limits Strongman competitions. The Annual Saturnian Strongmen Festivities are among the most watched sporting events in the Union.
Hans was what you would call a troubled youth. He was even among Saturnians considered stronger than most and he had reached almost 350 cm height. At first he seemed to turn out alright. His family considered themselves of German Terran Descent. This was considered a special social bonus as the Saturnians almost fanatically worshipped old Germanic legends of the Riesen (Giants) and the Teutonic knights. His father was First Paladin of the Granit und Eichen Order, a very old and honored society focusing on fighting and guarding the weaker. Hermann Neugruber had great plans for his son Hans and trained him from early on in all sorts of combat related skills. Hans won the Odin wide Schützen meisterschaft, a planet wide marksman ship competition when he was 14 for the third time.
After his 15th birthday he was exposed to the Forbidden past, a secret society inside the Saturnian Society that fanatically worshipped historical events of the Terran national state Germany before the Ascent and what was called Earth's Second World War. His father upon learning his son's involvement in this society first tried to reach his son with discussion and education. However Hans was in a serious teenager rebellious phase of development and the verbal attempts of his father did nothing. So his father used physical punishment; after that send his son to a distant uncle far away from the city, but close to the space port. Hans and two of his friends had stowed away on a freighter and managed to leave the planet hidden inside a container, their plan was to go to Falkenhorst a planetary society of Human supremacists, not members of the Union, but their planet was deep in Union space.
In their youthful blue eyed phantasies they saw themselves already as hailed heroes of the Falkenhorst society but then everything went wrong. The freighter captain knew very well what was in the container and sold the entire box to a slave trader, the three Saturnians found themselves in shackles and in the training camp of a Death Fight Company on Sin 4.
All this went through Hans head as he stood in the elevator that would take him once again up to the arena, where he would fight as the Terror Hammer.
He had come to Sin 4 three years ago. Erwin had died in the training camp after he attacked and killed two trainers under the withering fire of Kermac Line Blasters and Siegfried had died only five month later from the poisonous sting of a Wurlag after fighting a whole herd of these poisonous monsters. Hans however became a star; he had won every match and was sold to several companies to ever increasing prices and in a champion ship match actually won his freedom. He was officially an employee of the Donheer Syndicate, one of the most powerful ruling syndicates on Sin 4. While he was technically free and no longer a slave and even enjoyed the perks of a mega star, he was not really free. He could not leave the planet as no one would want to get Duke Donheer angry by providing Hans the means of escape.
His opponent today was also of the top league and not a slave but an employee of a different Death Fight company. It was a Saturday night special and transmitted into the Union, with tremendous viewer ratings, merchandise and advertisement tie-ins. Even though Death Matches where illegal in the Union, watching them and advertising with images and footage was not.
He checked his helmet and his hammer weapon one more time and then the elevator platform started moving and he rose into the large circular arena, today filled with boiling oil and floating box islands. It mattered little to Hans. All he wanted was to escape this planet and atone for his sins with his family or die right here like his best friends had. He had no longer any ambitions to go to Falkenhorst or belong to the Supremacists. He made good friends among the strangest aliens on this crazy world. He wanted to make his father proud and become a good security guard or body guard and show that he could be a good son and hopefully be allowed to become a Citizen as he left before finishing Union School, he was technically not a Union Citizen yet.
Nuclor the Death Dealer, pride of the Rillo Syndicate was his opponent for this highlight and title match. Hans was not sure what race or species he was, as he like Hans had fantasy origins made up by the PR department. Despite that Hans was almost certain Nuclor was not from any of the cultures associated to any of the Big Four. Like Hans, Nuclor had fought his way up and won every grueling and demanding death match. While both warriors represented a great deal of investment and business to the Companies, it was not called Death match for nothing and only one would leave the arena. Nuc
lor relied on a steel ball on a long chain and with it he was an expert par none. He could make that ball dance in mid air, back and forth, entangle opponent's legs, crush bones and take out eyes and teeth.
Hans stepped from the Lift platform onto the floating square and it rocked back and forth in the boiling blubbering oil. He could still see the gnarled fried bodies of the pre show fight floating in the dark red clear liquid. The air was hot and putrid from the stench of whatever oil they used. He felt very sorry for his opponent already and wished there was another fate, but now he had to concentrate.
Nuclor was almost four meters tall, his arms reached to the ground from his boxy body with relative short but thick legs. This gave the Nuclor a low center of gravity and a sure footed stand, but it came with a price, Nuclor was not the fastest on his legs and this is why he relied on the steel ball with the long chain to keep his opponents at a distance. So far he had not failed doing so, fighting a large number of skilled opponents.
While Nuclor had fans, he was considered the underdog wanting the championship belt. There was an ear shattering roar of 50,000 voices, fans of the Terror Hammer; nicknamed the Hammer Fanatics and all dressed in blue and yellow. Just like the Helmet of the Terror Hammer and they were chanting his stage name. He could not deny it was this chanting did get him going and he felt uplifted by it and always thought he owed the fans for it.
The announcer introduced Nuclor as a man eating beast from another Dimension and as usual the Terror Hammer was from a far distant Galaxy only survivor of a race of Y'All slayers.
While the Announcer was still speaking Nuclor attacked! This was neither fair nor in the rules, but in a contest where Victory meant life and failure painful death, no one was really much on enforcing the rules. All it would do for Nuclor to increase his reputation as a ruthless, no hold bars monster.
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 6 (The Galactic Chronicles Series) Page 244