Valkyrie Deliverance - Chapter 2 - One's Own Heart
Chapter 2 - One's own heart
Location: Gateway (Homeworld, Helfhiem)
"I can't fail now!" shouted Kestra as she was knocked back along the cliff. She had grown during her years of incarceration, her originally emerald hair had dulled to a point of gray and lines on her once young, echidna face showed signs of her aging.
She fell into the harsh rock that looked over into the turbulent sea beneath her, the rock was slightly red and dusty from the windstorms and water that continually lashed at the planet.
Gateway was a desolate world, filled with ancient ruins of a civilization that had long since been abandoned. It was on the very edge of known Terran space, the last stop before the border into the great darkness of dead space. It was appropriate that this world was here because it was also dead.
However the glimmer of life that was in Kestra's eyes was what kept this planet alive. Kestra looked up to see her position, she was precariously near the edge of the cliff in the middle of a turbulent windstorm. One false move and she would plunge into the merciless waters below that was if the jagged rocks did not kill her first.
The environment was not the only thing that she had to contend with.
He sword glimmered in front of her, knocked from her hand during impact. It begged her to be taken and return to her battle... her own personal war.
She reached out for it, her tired eyes determined to use her last ounce of life to take up her sword. She grasped for the beautifully embossed hilt leading up to the incredible inscriptions on the blade. This had been a gift to her, a long long time ago.
As she reached for it, a paw from another creature kicked the sword off the narrow cliff and into the waters below. She looked up to see an Asaruu hanging over her, looking down at her with dark red eyes.
The Asaruu were a race of anthropomorphic rabbits that lived on a world that was on the other side of dead space. They had never been seen before by a Terran and Kestra was the first to encounter them. This particular Asaruu had flaming dark red eyes and purple fur which she could just make out from under the cloak that fluttered in the unrelenting windstorm.
She looked up at him, examining his purple paws as she raised her head to look up at his eyes.
His face was completely emotionless as he lay staring back down at her as she futilely tried to move away from him. His sword, long and black, formed from the purest obsidian.
Kestra narrowed herself to the cliff, managing to climb to her feet under the intense winds that were flying at her. She had nowhere to run to, it looked like her luck had finally ran out.
"Are you ready to surrender?" asked the Asaruu, shouting over the wind, his voice deep and powerful.
Kestra looked down at the rocks below her and then returned her gaze to the Asaruu. "This universe is my dream! I will not let you destroy it!" she shouted at him with an aged look. The Asaruu turned his head slightly in the confusion of what she had just said, he had been in combat with her for only a few seconds before he was able to defeat her. "I will not go back!"
"You must!" interjected the Asaruu, his blade twitching nervously in his hand. "The Celestial Star must be opened! This shattered dream must be made whole again!"
Kestra shot a look straight down at the rocks.
"The Gods have foreseen it... the revolution is coming... You must go back... into your confinement" shouted the Asaruu, he started to look slightly nervous as he battled to be heard over the winds.
"NEVER!" shouted Kestra with all her strength, she began to cry, her tears blown away unto the sea by the wind. She threw an object out into the sea and looked over at the Asaruu, one final time before falling backwards off the cliff.
"NO!" shouted the Asaruu as he rushed to the cliff to watch Kestra fall down from the cliff. The two hundred foot drop seeming like an eternity, she smacked into a rock on the way down that instantly shattered every bone in her body. The sea falling over her as she plunged into the turbulent waves and down into the depths of the ocean.
The Asaruu stood up, almost overcome by the sadness he had just witnessed and looked over once again before he turned to walk back along the rock. His mission had been a failure.
Location: Chentrilla City - Terra - Presidential Office
1 year ago...
A cargo ship zoomed overhead of the tallest skyscraper on Terra. It was the office of the president of the Terran Federation. The walls were decorated with spectacular marble the appeared to shine from the sunlight coming in through the greenhouse-like room.
Kashima sat nervously at the desk, she had no idea what this was about. She had received an urgent call from the president himself telling her that he needed to meet with her immediately. The clock on the wall read that it was half past nine at night, what could be so urgent?
"I apologise for the urgency of my meeting" explained the president. He was a large bare, brown with blonde fuzzy hair and rather fat, sat in black suit with a cigar smoking between his lips. "But it could not wait..."
"Strange that he would be inviting me here" thought Kashima as she cleared her throat, trying to stop herself from coughing on the cigar. "I've never met him before." She waited for a few seconds before asking. "So what am I here for sir?"
The President rubbed his head as he stood up to watch the city lights below, the expression on his face was rather... odd. It was a mixture of both relief but also of sadness. President Liden Van had always been carefully concerned with the welfare of his people and the protection of the environment. His genuine concern for people make him a welcome change from the other politicians that had graced this office.
He took another deep puff, looking out of the window of the tall skyscraper. The people all looked like insects along with stars that twinkled overhead, they could just as easily be snuffed out.
"I will get straight to the point Captain..." he started when Kashima suddenly looked up, interrupting his tired words.
"C-Captain sir?" she asked.
President Van just stared at her for a second before finally reaching the point of remembering something important. He had just realised that he had not explained himself properly at all. "Lemme start again?" This was confirmed from a nod from Kashima's muzzle.
"Your being transferred off the active duty roster for the TM". Kashima looked absolutely shocked, as if her own life had been thrown into complete disarray, she felt the anger inside her rise. HE was a politician, what right did he had to take her out of the marines. What the hell did she do wrong? She was getting ready for the next confrontation when the President continued.
"This is because we need you for a very important project." He sat back down at the mahogany desk, leaning over at Kashima and throwing a large dossier in front of her. "This is your new assignment... Colonel Harashima speaks very high of you, you have received a number of awards for combat situations along the outer-rim of Terran Space."
Kashima muttered, she straightened out her uniform in the chair. She had never thought much of Colonel Harashima. She had been with him for a long time, since he was deputy commander for the entire platoon to Colonel Tigerfox. She was so bitter about what had happened to Miles and she always suspected that Harashima had taken "advantage" of the situation at the time and helped command to incarcerate Miles for a promotion. Luckily... the President continued and did not her mutter.
"You are being transferred to the starship corps... All the info is in this file but I'll give you the "abridged" translation if you want. Feel free to go over the files yourself."
"Another one of commands wonderful ideas?" thought Kashima as she tried to hide her anger under her professionalism. She had a nasty suspicion that Harashima had put her forward for whatever because he was scared about that idea of loosing the platoon to her. She was popular amongst the men and her position as deputy gave her the power to command loyalty.
Too much loyalty.
The dossier was relatively a collection of graphs, pictures and photographs mostly of the new "Celestial Star" wormhole that had appeared in the Terran system only a year ago. There were some geological reports with unnecessarily long words written annotating the graphs, this was all just pure alien to Kashima. "I think you better give me the abridged version sir" she asked politely, making the President smile.
"Your aware of the wormhole right?" he asked, suddenly dropping his formal attitude and leaning back in his chair, putting his chubby paws up on the table.
Kashima retained her military discipline and was still sat bolt upright when she nodded. "Yes sir... they call it Celestial Star Wormhole... but I am no scientist."
President Van smiled slightly and went back to recalling events. "Well, what you won't know is that everyone on this planet is dying..."
"Excuse me". The confused expression mixed with the declaration of shock said it all to the President as he took out a beaker from the draw and started to drink from it.
"I'm not sure what the scientists call it but its... erm... Ikena... or something radiation generated by the wormhole. It will kill everything on Terran by next year."
The shock was slowly mounting on Kashima's face, even past the state of the military discipline. For one brief moment, the president could see her true personality. She was totally in a state of awe at what he had just announced with such could calm precision. She was almost angry at him. Why had he given up so simply? Terra had space technology... why the hell could they not just resettle the planet or something. "Surely... you can do something..!" she burst out.
"The radiation interrupts the Pegasus Drive, we cannot get ships in or out of the system, have you noticed why you have not been called off-world since the wormhole appeared..."
"Yeah... its the ion storm that's passing through this system right?" she asked, desperately hoping that this was all just a joke and Terra was not facing an apocalypse.
"I wish" laughed the President, chugging down another swig of the bottle. "No... that was the story we fed to the press in order to prevent panic. The truth is... we have no ships close enough for a mass relocation, no way to disrupt this fucking wormhole and the radiation has already begun killing the people around the equator..."
"No... that was just... the Vercurso Plague!"
Kashima did not want to here anymore... she wanted to believe the fantasy that the news network put out. However it made sense... there had been a number of extreme natural disasters on Terra since the wormhole had appeared and there had been no contact between shipping lanes. The government had kept this under wraps for a YEAR!
"Why the hell are you telling me this now!" shouted Kashima, slamming her fists on the table and getting up. The President shouted at her to calm down and she slowly slipped down back into her chair.