Story:Confrontation

A story written by Horakoeri and Holbenilord. Featuring the Karmelons.

Karmelon
Shakul, a planet rich with ore the Karmelons can use. Several years ago a survey team was sent to prospect the planet, they confirmed the rumours. Within the coming months the Karmelons had established several mining camps and a dozen refineries. Several major companies, be it for mining or security, played a big role here.

Nishkar Volothan, a security officer, patrolled the perimeter of one of the camps. “Nishkar, sir. Anything to report?” One of his inferiors asked through the comms.

“Nothing, quiet as usual. Beasts also seem to have settled down at last. Returning to base, have some fruit brought to my room.” Nishkar replied.

“Yes sir, Kreshvon out.”

Nishkar slowly came climbing out of the tree, moving one of his 8 limbs at a time, when he reached the ground he looked up to the stars.

“They’re never so bright as on Archaius, I’m starting to like this planet after all...” He thought to himself as he moved to the camp while crouching through the long grass, wingbeats alerted the presence of one of the many predators and he lay flat on his belly hoping it wouldn’t see him. When the wingbeats did not stop he slowly turned his head to look, he saw a large dark shape flying above him, he knew it was looking, it knew he was looking. Nishkar didn’t hesitate and made a run for it, avoiding the creature by zigzagging along his path.

When he fell over a root he thought his life was coming to an end, the claws of the predator flickered in the moon’s reflection. A shot echoed through the field as the beast flew over Nishkar and crashed on the ground, dead. He jumped up and detected a beacon of one of his inferiors.

“Oy Sir, twas no favour, twas saving you. Any prize ye have for me?” The inferior said, Nishkar recognised the voice immediately, Bolkosh.

“Bolkosh, the chance I will reward you is as big as the day Nokrosh will fly.” Nishkar said with an angry tone, he walked back to the camp while trying to come up with a good argument of why he didn’t have to be saved

Iralek Alliance
On board the GBV Descending Lunacy, several Sethaleya were gathered around a meeting table. The lights were a constant blue, giving everything they illuminated a glowing cyan border, creating the appearance of fuzziness throughout the room.

Sethaleya are not small creatures. These were no different, standing over two metres at the shoulder, their great heads long and thin but filled with narrow teeth. Their muscled, tense bulks projected a sense of purpose and solidity, and indeed they were a race of warriors. They looked at each other for a few moments before one spoke.

“The Censul vanguard escaped our counterattack. It is heading outside explored space, towards an uncharted system. Our orders are to follow and destroy.” He looked hard into his commander’s eyes.

“Then we shall. What is our current velocity?” “Point nine-eight cee. Their speeds remain lower, and their fuel must be dwindling. The advantage is ours.”

“Good. Continue, pilot. We shall reach them soon enough.”

Karmelon
In the communications APC where operators were monitoring the actions of the security and the mining personnel a signal was received.

“Vectors entering the system, KarMiFor Nuzsdravhon, do you copy? Can you confirm the arrival of a vector?”

“KarMiFor Nuzsdravhon here, we confirm the arrival of a vector, orders?”

“Open communications with it, when it does not reply you open fire. Over.”

“We copy, commencing communication attempt.” As the large bulky ship slowly moved towards the recently arrived ships the operator received several new signals.

“KarMiFor Nuzsdarvhon, fall back immediately, multiple vectors are being detected, there are more ships, I repeat there are more ships!”

One by one the ships decelerated their speed and opened fire on the Karmelon ship obliterating it in an instant due to the overwhelming fire. The remaining Karmelon ships and fighters did not hesitate and changed course to engage this unknown hostile. Their power was not enough to stop this enemy as the Karmelon ships were destroyed one after another by the weapons of the foe’s fleet.

Shukal was defenceless, there were no more ships aside from some freighters to escape the planet and communications was not strong enough to reach the nearest planet. Slowly but at a steady pace the enemy fleet began to near Shakul, dropships flew out of the hangars to spew its contents on the planet.

Meanwhile Nishkar began nearing the camp, he tried to radio but his communications was being interfered, not being aware of the coming threat he simply assumed there were some technical problems.

Censul
The dropship shook as it entered the atmosphere of Shakul. The vibrations moved across the floor and ceiling, transmitted down the straps that held its occupants against the walls.

Censul never sat- they could not. Headless quadrupeds, with their sense organs and brain located in a hump upon their back, they simply tied themselves to the wall with a harness to remain in place. Yerrhul’s eyes gave him 360 degree vision of his crewmates preparing themselves for landing- checking guns, testing armour, and working to psychologically pump themselves up.

He wondered why they were landing here. They never usually landed. Perhaps there was something that needed to be retrieved, or captured, or something. He didn’t get to know, and top brass had a habit of only informing the dropteams of their objectives after they had completed them. It made no tactical sense, but these were desperate times.

The juddering ceased, and there was a soft bump as the ship met the ground. A sliver of starlight shone through as the ramp began to lower, and the Censul loosened then removed their straps. They grabbed their weapons and began to file out.

Censul weapons had to be light, by necessity. They held them with arms that had once shovelled food into their mouths, and could not take much recoil. Pistols and SMGs were the only options. Throwing grenades was impossible. Some could carry heavy weapons, if they were attached to their backs and the trigger lead was held in one of their hands. But this was a light dropteam, and they were all armed the same.

Heading out into the nighttime plain, they scrambled into cover. The squad leader went behind a tree and shouted to them. “All troopers, report!”

“Yerrhul, aye!”

“Gensun, aye!”

“Vattros, aye!”

“Gaxoll, aye!”

“Full squad, aye. The radios have all been jammed, by necessity. We’re stuck to microwave communicators, so don’t go far out of range. Keep together, keep to cover, and keep your guns closer. We have no idea how good these guys are.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright. Now, on me. Three, two, one, move out!”

They rushed off towards the camp.

Karmelon
In the camp troops were preparing for a possible attack, they suspected it to be pirates but knew they couldn’t handle a military fleet the size that was guarding the planet. They brought the personnel to safety bunkers and gave them firearms to defend themselves in case the enemy would break into the bunkers.

Nishkar was still on his way to the camp when he had noticed an object flying through the sky, he knew it was no creature judging from the shape. When he looked closer he saw it was a dropship, unable to recognise the signature or shape he assumed it were pirates and began following it.

Coming out at a small open spot in the forest he climbed into a tree and observed the occupants of the dropship, when he saw they were no Karmelon pirates he tried to contact the camp but only had interference, seeing these aliens he assumed it was them interfering his communications. He climbed out of the tree on the opposing side to remain hidden from enemy view and began crouching through the high grass.

It was barely high enough for him to remain hidden from his enemy’s view but he was able to track them, the dropship taking off again startled him for a moment but he was able to keep himself from being discovered. When he began recognising landmarks he knew they were headed towards the camp and began to fear for the lives of his men and the personnel.

It was during this small moment of being inattentive that he stepped on a twig that broke, his enemies turned around looking what the sound was. In an attempt to escape them he actually gave away his position as they noticed the grass dancing with his movement, they sent one of their men while another one crawled in a tree to keep watch.

Nishkar was close to being discovered, he only had one last chance, he crawled as fast as he could ridding himself from his equipment along the way and reached some vegetation. Here he made a halt and crawled together as if in fear.

When the enemy soldier arrived and saw Nishkar he mistook it as a native creature and moved on.

“Fool...” Nishkar thought as he began collecting his equipment again..

Censul
“Just another native creature. Looks quite weak, and unlikely to be an apex predator of any kind. Shouldn’t pose much of a threat.”

“Interesting how scared it is of us, though, sir.”

“Well, never mind it. Carry on the mission.”

They marched on, at double-time. The lights of the camp appeared amongst the trees. “That’s our target. We’re to wipe it out.”

“What kind of defences does it have? What do we do afterwards?”

“Orbital pictures show evidence of at least machine-gun emplacements, and possibly lasers. We couldn’t see a minefield, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. It doesn’t seem too heavily fortified- just a concrete wall and barbed wire.”

“What’re we waiting for, sir? Get the ships to hit it from orbit. Take out the perimeter, for us to move in.”

“Don’t jump the gun, Vattros. We need confirmation that the other teams are alive, well, and in position.”

“How? The radios are jammed.”

“You may have noticed the tightbeam communicator on my back. Each squad leader is communicating with the ship. We can find out through there.”

“Right, sir.”

“We’ve got confirmation from each. None seem to have encountered any trouble. We’re being asked to wait here a few minutes, so get in cover and turn image enhancement to maximum on your suits.”

“Yes, sir.” They chorused.

Karmelon
Knowing that he was close to the camp Nishkar hurried in getting geared up again so he could do something to warn his brethren. He followed the trail of footsteps and tracked the scent to determine how far they could’ve gotten, when he walked over a small hill he noticed the enemies hiding in some brush observing the camp.

He climbed in a tree and began to sum up the possibilities, he could open fire alerting his allies but dying in the process, he could make light to alert them as well or he could flee. He climbed to the side of the tree opposite of his enemies and held himself tight against it with 6 of his feet. With the 2 remaining feet he took his silenced assault rifle and a flare pistol. He slowly turned himself and aimed at the enemies while readying himself to open fire and pop a flare.

Noticing that the leader, distinguished from the others with the radio on his back was communicating with others, Nishkar realised that if he drew all attention to this position he could make it easier for the enemy to kill them all. He holstered his flare pistol and climbed higher in the tree to have a better overview. Looking at the surroundings with a small lense he spotted another team, the chance this was all was fairly slim.

“Any sacrifice is worth the death of our enemy, I am sorry my friends...” He thought to himself as he kept watching while the enemy was getting prepared for the ensuing battle.

In the camp itself Bolkosh had arrived without noticing enemy movement or tracks, confused about the status of the troops he asked what was going on.

“Our ships were taken down, hostile invaders!” he received as a reply. When he noticed Nishkar wasn’t here he left the camp the same way he got in, without encountering hostiles.

Censul
“I’ve received confirmation that everything’s ready.” The squad leader looked around at his team. “Are you all ready?”

“Yes, sir.” They spoke as one.

“Good. Let’s watch the fireworks.”

There was a sudden explosion on the edge of the camp as a laser beam hit. The beam itself was almost invisible in the clean air, but its effects were more than evident enough- the energy of all those photons transferred to heat, vaporising a section of the wall. The resulting plasma exploded outwards, tearing up rock and metal, leaving a circle of flame and debris.

Another laser fired at the barracks, reducing them to flaming rubble. And another hit the camp’s generators, leaving only twisted metal, and causing every light in the base to go out, leaving only the flickering orange of burning fire and the cold light of the stars. “That’s our signal.” The squad moved out, hurrying across the hundred yards of grass to the camp. This part was unbreached, but a suitable access point was just a short distance away. Hugging the cover of the wall, they sneaked towards it. Bewildered shouts could be heard coming from within.

Small arms fire made a crackling sound on the far side of the encampment. It was that of another Censul team, and was answered by another volley on another side of the base. They were in.

Karmelon
From the treetop Nishkar watched how the enemy had blown up the generator causing all lights to go out, he knew where his men were due to the flashlights they used. He became mad because he thought them not to use any, but when he saw the accuracy they used to fire back he knew they used baits to discover the enemy positions. Snipers throughout the camp were searching for the enemy and were able to kill some before being killed themselves.

Nishkar was mostly keeping track of the activity near the ridge in the camp, they had a ‘surprise’ hidden there. The trembling ground alerted the activation of the surprise, a big tank came out of a hole near a ridge, it’s mortars on the back fired some shells while it’s rocket batteries spew forth its content on the positions the driver assumed the enemy to be. The truth was he missed every shot he made, he wasn’t even close. Revealing the tank so early and after witnessing an orbital bombardment not even 10 minutes ago was a bad idea, the next moment the tank exploded in a giant blast knocking out several soldiers too close.

The remaining soldiers were close to the safety bunker trying to protect the personnel inside but were quickly overwhelmed by the enemy they couldn’t even see.

Nishkar couldn’t see clearly what happened during the fight, but he knew his troops lost and he had to leave or a safer area. He remembered the small observation outpost on the hill where they could see the entire area. Without any hesitation he moved off, not realising that his beacon fell and was activated.

On his way to the outpost he heard a noise in the brush, he pulled out his gun and called out for the beast or person in the brushes, it was Bolkosh who came out of the brush.

“Sir, yer alive?” He said.

“And you’re not...” Nishkar replied, while the two of them can’t get along they realised they only have each other left at the moment.

“Did anything happen to you sir?” Bolkosh asked when he saw Nishkar’s face.

“The camp, it’s gone. Got attacked by aliens, well coordinated strike, me thinks they’ve been planning this for a while.”

“So they did attack...” Bolkosh said, these words drew the attention of Nishkar.

“Wait, you were in the camp?”

“Yes, but when I saw you weren’t present I went looking for ya sir.”

“You left the camp!? While you knew it was gonna be attacked!” Nishkar was enraged, he knew Bolkosh was not the type of person you can befriend unless you have the same personality but he didn’t expect this.

“If we both survive this you’ll regret that action Bolkosh, mark my words! Now follow me, we’re going to the hilltop observation post.”

Censul
“Clear!” Vattros shouted as he left the final building. The camp was a mass of rubble and wreckage now, with bodies scattered throughout. It had been a massacre.

The squad leader sighed. “Any casualties?”

“Not in our squad, but number three got hit quite bad by a bunch of snipers. Two from one, but they seem saveable.”

“Good. Objective complete and all that. I’ll call the dropships to pick us back up and bring us into orbit. Pack your things and come along.”

“Hey, sir.”

“Yeah?”

“Remember that ‘native animal’ we saw?”

The squad leader’s eyes opened wide. “There’s at least one still out there. I’ll notify the fleet. Thanks, Yerrhul.”

He spoke quietly into his communicator for a few moments, and then turned back.

“We’re being told to go after him. The most likely location is supposedly an observation post out in the jungle. We’ll head that way, and then after an hour a dropship will go there to pick us up. Ready? Let’s go.”

Karmelon
Nishkar and Bolkosh made their way through the forest, crawling through the high grass, climbing some steep hills that proved no problem to cross and passing several rivers by using fallen trees. By sunrise they were finally nearing the outpost, at the foot of the hill began their journey for revenge.

“So what’s the plan sir?”

“We kill ‘em all, or die trying to...”

“...I wasn’t near the camp...but I heard the explosions, screams and gunfire. Do you expect me to follow your crazy plan?”

“No I don’t, I know what you’re made of ever since you fled the camp. You can take an enemy’s shuttle if you want to, but right now you have no other option than to follow me around.” Bolkosh knew Nishkar was right, he did not have any option at all. The grip around his weapon tightened.

When they were about halfway Nishkar called for a halt, he took some water and caught an insect passing by.

“Juicy.” He said while devouring the bug.

He looked up to the top of the hill and saw the reflection of light, that was where the post was located, the reflection eased him as he assumed it was one of the soldiers stationed there.

“Come on Bolkosh, last one to get there has to eat a Nabkab!” Nishkar said while increasing his pace. Bolkosh was uneasy as he didn’t trust the plan at all, if the enemy attacked the camp without any effort they must’ve known every location held by the Karmelon. He told Nishkar this who understood Bolkosh’s fear.

“If the enemy is indeed there then we’ll have to watch out, but on the other hand, they haven’t fired yet so let’s assume the best.” He said with a smile.

A small trail of smoke and the scent of cooking bugs eased the two of them, when they had reached the hilltop at last they saw the observation post, it did not seem to have been attacked at all, no visible weapon damage present, no fire aside that of the cooking fire. But one thing was noticed in an instant, where are the soldiers?

“Stay here, I’ll go scout up ahead.” Nishkar pulled out his gun and and slowly moved forward running from tree to tree for cover. When he reached the gate of the observation post he began to catch a scent. It was that of a Karmelon, but not a live one.

Nishkar signalled Bolkosh to run away, but when Bolkosh tried to stand up he was shot in the chest which began to pour out his blood.

The concrete wall was enough for Nishkar to run and hide into the brush, but he ran further until he was completely safe. “Dammit, how is this possible?” He thought to himself.

Censul
“I think that’s all of them, sir.”

“Right. The dropship’s landing out there soon-” he waved an arm towards the brush- “but we have some time. Check the bodies, and make sure they’re all dead.”

They did so, moving from corpse to corpse, checking pulses and eyes. After finishing, they turned back to the squad leader.

“All done? Good. I guess we just wait now.”

Karmelon
Nishkar was too afraid to check on the enemy at first, but when he saw the dropship he knew he had to act quickly if he wanted to get his revenge, on all of them. When the dropship landed the enemy seemed to be taking their time to leave, Nishkar climbed a tree and checked the small battlefield. A pile of stone on the other side would allow him to make a diversion, the inside of the dropship contained crates in which he could hide, this could succeed.

He shot at one of the rocks using his silenced gun causing them to fall, this took the attention of all the enemies allowing him to quickly reach the dropship unnoticed, he quickly hid in one of the crates hoping he wasn’t being spotted. When the enemy realised it was only some rocks that fell they returned and boarded the dropship to leave. One of them kicked the crate when entering the dropship startling Nishkar as he feared he was discovered.

A short tremble suggested that the ship took off.