Chapter 537: Resurgence - Legends (1/2)
The evening was bright and clear, a light cool breeze coming in from the north after a day of dry heat ruffling the fur of the Telkan gathered up wearing formal clothing. They watched as a large dropship slowly and stately landed, jetting steam from beneath it as the graviton engines were cooled via gas injection to offset the loss of airstream across their surfaces. The lights blinked several times, then shut down with the exception of a single light on the nose, tail, and the end of each wing. Lights came on, a bar of them, above a door that slowly opened and lowered down, a personnel ramp that thumped against the tarmac.
Brentili'ik adjusted the collar of her formal dress as a half dozen armored Telkan left the ship. They all were carrying weapons and she could see the flickering laser lights of scanners play over everything around them. The armor was strange, unfamiliar. On one hand it was sleek, black, slightly glossy. On the other hand, it looked almost bulky, almost malevolent. Chrome spikes on the shoulders, forearms, the back of the hands, and the knees. On the gripping hand, the helmet were designed for a wearer who's skull sported a muzzle and the ears were undeniably Telkan.
They are a long way from home, yet they have returned home, Brentili'ik thought to herself.
The next group was nearly a dozen, all with heavier armor, heavier weapons, the twinkling of phasic and battlescreens forming a nearly solid wall between themselves and anything that might be a threat.
It was what was in between the heavy armors that caught Brentili'ik's attention.
A female Telkan, all in black, a dress that seemed both gauzy and protective that was almost a perfect circle around the her. She had a high waisted bodice that was held in a tight color that had some kind of metal ornament holding it close. She wore a veil over her face that had silvery edging, and even though it covered her entire face beneath her ornate hat, Brentili'ik felt as if she could see the golden eyes of what she had been informed was known as a ”Void Captain” of the Telkan refugees.
Afterwards came another twelve Telkan in full power armor, before the door slowly raised up and shut.
The group moved across the tarmac in silence, broken only by the hissing of the power armor and the heavy thudding of the boots of the armored Telkan. Brentili'ik noted that the edge of the Void Captain's dress didn't move, made her appear to be floating across the ground.
She nodded to herself. It was a striking visual and she had no doubt that the Void Captain had practiced it until it was second nature.
The insect noises stopped and Brentili'ik could feel the politicians around her huddle down inside themselves as the Telkan moved at a slow steady pace to the concourse. She watched as the faint IR lasers of the targeting systems on the power armor kept scanning the area, as the weapons on the shoulders or mounted on backpacks slowly moved to cover the angles.
She was glad she had cleared the airspace for a hundred mile diameter.
The press had shouted and hounded that they should have been allowed to be present at this historic meeting, but Brentili'ik had called out Fifth Telkan Marine Division and Third Telkan Infantry Division to secure the starport and make sure no journalist tried to ambush the party approaching.
They act as if this is enemy territory.
When the ground reached the landscaped lawn between the landing field and the concourse the group suddenly moved to the side. Brentili'ik watched as the Void Captain moved onto the grass, then slowly lowered herself to roughly half her previously height. She slowly removed one of her black gloves, then reached down and touched the grass.
Brentili'ik could see the Void Captain close her eyes, despite the veil. She lifted her face up to the stars and held that position for a long moment.
The deep pain was palpable.
How long since you've touched the earth of Telkan? Brentili'ik wondered.
Finally she stood up and the procession began to move again.
”Are you sure we do not need guards, Madame Director?” one of the Telkan regional governors asked, nervously twisting his cap in his hands.
”These are our brothers and sisters, who are more lost than we ever could be,” Brentili'ik said softly.
”That's an awful lot of heavily armed troops in power armor,” another said, her voice quavering.
”These are not penniless vagabonds without possessions,” Brentili'ik said softly. ”They, and the ones remaining on the other ships, are all that remains of Telkan where they are from. Once they are gone, there will be no more Telkan in the universe there. They, and the Terrans, and the Lanaktallans, will be extinct.”
”Oh,” another said, her voice quiet and full of sympathy.
The doors opened and four guards moved in, scanning the gate area. One turned to face a nondescript Telkan male leaning against a softdrink beverage dispensing machine, the shoulder weapons and the rifle leveling at the male.
The male slowly lifted his hand and touched his datalink. After a second the heavily armored Telkan lowered his weapons, his shoulder weapons returning to slowly scanning the gate area.
**I owe you lunch, Madame Director** Brentili'ik saw on her datalink. She snorted slightly, she'd warned her bodyguard that even a macroplas 'stealth' weapon would get picked up by the sensors of the Void Captain's guard.
The next ranks entered, militantly ignoring the Telkan who was now sipping at a can of Countess Crey Cherry Tastyfizz.
Then the Void Captain entered.
Brentili'ik saw the Void Captain stare at her, saw the slight stumble, the slight hesitation, before the Void Captain smoothly moved toward her. The front ranks of the armored troops parted to allow the Void Captain to move up to Brentili'ik.
”Madame Director,” the Telkan's voice was female, and strangely familiar to Brentili'ik.
”Void Captain,” Brentili'ik said. ”I realize it is late, but can I offer you the comfort of my office? It is a short ride away.”
The Void Captain shook her head. ”That is not necessary,” she said. Several Telkan in Brentili'ik's entourage stiffened in outrage as the Void Captain reached out and touched Brentili'ik's whiskers with her gloved fingertips.
”It's you. After all these years, it is really you,” the Void Captain said softly. She cupped Brentili'ik's cheek. ”I lost you so long ago.”
The voice twinged a memory, one so far back she had almost forgotten it.
No, it twinged a memory that she had pushed away, had thrust away from her in her grief.
”She'ishlos?” Brentili'ik asked, reaching forward to touch the Void Captain's veil with her fingertips.
She ignored the way the gathered armored troops suddenly turned to face the two of them, rifles coming up, pointing at her. She could hear the barrels pinging and hissing, less than a foot from her face.
The dozen muzzles didn't matter.
”She'islos, is that you?” Brentili'ik asked, tears coming to her eyes.
”It is,” the Void Captain said. ”I am home, sister. I have returned to Lost Telkan and found you alive.”
The Void Captain wavered for a second and Brentili'ik reached out and steadied her.
”But... but how?” Brentili'ik asked. ”Vuxten cleaned out the cell himself. He saw them carry away your body.”
The Void Captain shook her head almost imperceptively. ”You and Vuxten just vanished one foggy night. I never found out what happened to you.”
Only a handful of years ago she might not have been able to avoid fainting at such a shock, but the years since the Terrans had come to fight first the Precursor Autonomous War Machines and then the Dwellerspawn, had hardened her.
”My sister,” she said softly. ”My twin. My heart.”
”My soul,” She'islos whispered back.
”Sister,” they whispered together.
Around them the politicians shuffled uncomfortably. The heavily armored soldiers shifted in unison, a precision machine, bringing their weapons back to port arms as if they had not been aiming their weapons at Brentili'ik's head a second before.
”I have returned to Telkan to find my soul, my little sister, my twin sister, returned to me as if by magic,” the Void Captain said. ”A malevolent universe laughs itself sick at our pain.”
”Mother and father are gone in the night,” Brentili'ik said. ”I'm sorry. Our broodmommies still live, though. Still sing to podlings.”
”They still sing,” She'islos made a pained sound. ”I lost them. When the planets broke before the Terrans did. When Telkan and III & V Corps was Lost.”
”Intrude not upon their grief,” one of the armored figures growled, the vocoder making their voice into a bestial sound of barely restrained rage. The rifle came up and a wisp of steam eeked from the muzzle.
The politician that had moved forward to ask if they could retire somewhere more comfortable gave a squeak of fear and jumped back. The rifle was returned to port arms almost mechanically and the helmet went back to slowly moving back and forth as the armored Telkan surveyed their surroundings.