SWNOVELS Chapter First Chant
All lost wants to be found
Black sky covered with sparkling points looks the same on every planet. At least that's what I thought when I was a kid. However each and every planet of our Galaxy is different. Different plants, different animals, different sky.
After graduation I was assigned as High Class Guard of one of the governing clans. Lord Kazaeros himself gave me that position pointing that regardless of my young age I’m much more suitable for this job than any other HG. I think he either overestimates me or underestimates my new fellow guards. Anyway, this leads us to my person.
Who am I, you ask. I am Chief Guard of Royal Department, Akh Dhamm.
Well, it might appear simple to tell you my name and position but what does it really mean to be someone?...
There are only 5 men above me in the whole MWG Society. They are: the Wind Lord Kazaeros Aarivento, the Fire Lord Hika Pozhar, the Ground King Giji Lok, the Water Master Nasui Vodha and the mightiest Ellementall Gamidio Yakufe.
Our race lives peacefully governing the entire Galaxy for over 10mln sun years of our planet. Because flow of time is inevitable, our home planet is aging.
Even with our element-control abilities, we cannot stop this matter and so for centuries map men have been searching for our new home.
One planet finally matched our expectations. 3SS-east23 is her official number. We called her Therra, which literally means, ‘blue home’.
Although a young and uninhabited planet with a strong nature balance sure sounds great in theory, it must be tested first. Two teams were sent to check habitability, fauna, and flora of the whole solar system, Therra included.
I'm in charge of group 1 with mission directly on Therra.
My best friend, Rokki, is in charge of group 2 with mission on neighboring planets.
Rokki always repeats the same phrase before any mission:
“No matter how far they send us, how terrifying the mission will get, mark my words, elements are everywhere and with them we will return.”
It sure would be nice if that was true. But since we discovered only 7 controllable elements, the ones that might get us home could lose to the others.
“Chief! Chief!” First officer screamed right into my ear. “Report! We’re gettin’ close to 3SS-east23! Temporary power loss occurred in the middle of worm-tunnel. Supporters kept substitute air flow stable but we lost contact with command.”
Just as I feared. At such distance without reconfiguration of communicator settings, it is impossible to keep contact all the time.
“Proceed as planned. Estimate the time of arrival and keep trying to regain contact. Second bridge is free for now. Supporters, get some rest. We’ll need you later.”
“Yes sir!”
Dozens of soldiers left the bridge in a flash, leaving only me and captain Megmi Yakufe on stations. Meg is the daughter of General Gamidio Yakufe - he's probably the most powerful being in the universe. Also she volunteered to join this mission and I think that’s the reason I got tricked in this job. Damn babysitter. But what could a warrior like me do in times of peace anyway? At least she is pretty.
“Chief” her silky and delicate voice caught my attention.
“What is it?”
“Do you think this planet, 3SS-…”
“Therra. From now on, we call it Therra.”
“Right” Meg sat on the chair next to communicating panel. “So this planet, Therra. Do you think it will be fine to invade it and take it for ourselves? I mean, I know our planet is dying but what if we find some civilized race out there? Will we invade or retreat?”
“I don’t know. Not yet. That’s why I need to reestablish contact with base. It’s not my decision to make, and neither is yours.”
She looked at me as if I was some kind of villain who only seeks power and destruction. I knew what she was thinking about and I agree with that. If there will be civilization, it will be their choice: either they let us stay or not.
“Could you check on first bridge? Send me Khail with status report.”
“On my way” said Meg, and she disappeared behind the cold steel doors.
“Sir! We are in zone 3 now. Shall I call for supporters?” asked a voice coming from the intercom.
“Negative. Is the arrival time set?”
“Yes sir. We will reach Solar System East 23 in half an hour.”
“Very well. Call supporters in twenty-five minutes.”
“Yes sir.”
Intercom silenced again.
(end of part 1)
part 2
What if? The only question that cannot be answered properly because no one knows the future.
What if… if…
“Chief!” Khail busted on the second bridge with pile of papers in his hand.
“What is it? Are we…?”
“No sir, not yet. But please look at this.” and he gave me a single page from the pile “This is a scanning report. It looks like we’re back in action sir. Those ships aren’t from MWS. Should we change the course?”
“Communication?”
“Still off.”
This is bad. If we change the course without informing command first we might get exiled for insubordination. However, if we leave those ships we might encounter something even worse.
“Call two supporters and captain Yakufe. Assign new mission's priority to C-Class. I’m going for those ships, you continue on first bridge and contact command ASAP.”
“Roger”
In just a few minutes my squad assembled before me. One air and one metal supporter. It's always good to have them close.
“Your names?”
“Mah Omd” said a short chubby guy with beard that reaches the ground. “Air support.”
“Meh Omd” said a tall skinny guy with mustaches hanging to his belly.
“Metal support.”
They looked a little hilarious, and I wasn't the only one to notice - when Meg entered the bridge, she almost fell from laughter. If I wasn’t chief commander, I would do the same…
“Relatives?”
“Yes, brothers.” said Meh, the tall one.
“Any dangerous mission experiences?”
“Yes. We were supporters for Lord Kazaeros private fleet during Andromeda Rebellion.”
Great, veterans. At least they know what to do. As for Meg… Well, she has no battle experience but her knowledge and bloodline gives us advantage.
“Ok. The mission is simple. We approach unallied ships and request to speak with their fleet commander. It is a quick recon mission with eventual force-use solution. I repeat, EVENTUAL. Do not act on your own accord. We leave in 4 minutes. Dismissed.”
Supporters rushed to their quarters for supplies but Meg stayed with me. Don’t know why, though…
“Don’t you have anything to take with you from your room?”
“No. I’m good”
It seems she doesn't get what sarcasm is… Anyway, I prepared the second bridge to detach the Sniffer from the main ship. All went well even with Meg looking over my shoulders the whole time… Annoying brat. But I cannot leave her. She’ll come in handy and here, no one else beside me can cool her down.
“All set. Head to the Sniffer. Take Omd brothers with you.”
“And you, chief?”
“I’ll be right there. I must take something from my room first.”
And so, a few minutes later, the Sniffer separated and the recon squad left the worm-tunnel.
Black space with small bright points… Like I wasn't expecting this view.
No planets, no moons, no stars, nothing. Just a medium ship, no bigger than our TherraN-1 without the Sniffer.
If you didn't know yet, TherraN-1 and Sniffer are spaceships standard and x-small size respectively. TherraN is the modified series of DiscN ships created for discovering planets. Sniffer is very small ship containing at most 4 people (2 officers & 2 supporters) used specifically for recon and infiltration missions. TherraN series have one Sniffer each. And each team have one TherraN (at least for now).
“Ok. Time to contact those weirdoes.” I grabbed the headset and typed in their antenna’s frequency. “This is Commanding Chief Akh Dhamm. MWS High Guard. Do you copy? Over.”
No response, not even a typical buzzing…
“Can you hear me? This is…” but I suddenly stopped.
Huge hangar gates opened from below the ship and a bright green light was all we could see in this moment. Nothing came out so I made a move and flew inside with the Sniffer.
“Be careful, and don’t act by yourself.” I said looking at my team heading for the exit doors.
Recon squad officially starts its mission. We put our cloaks on and with hoods up, we entered the ship. But it was pitch black. So what was that blinding green light? Never mind that, we must find the commander of this ship… Or at least the one who opened the gates. We went deeper and deeper into the hangar with the hope of finding someone, or at least some light. But...