Sunday 23 February 2014

Defiance: redraft of Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zosen IV was a hive of activity. The colony on this far flung, temperate world had been founded five years previously and had rapidly increased in size. Settlers from all over the Empire had been drawn to the rich mineral deposits and the endless employment in the defence factories. The Admiralty required a constant stream of warships, star fighters, and a defence force garrison. The population had grown from the first few thousand settlers who had emerged from the seeding ships to forty million in just five years.

Unlike so many other worlds forcibly settled by Parliament, Zosen IV had a rich wealth of minerals and a good temperate climate and no surprises. The memory of Partolli II was still fresh in the mind of every Galactic Scout and colonist. The planet scans showed a similar template as Alpha prime and rich in minerals with fertile soil. Four nights into the colonies existence all nine thousand settlers were killed, as was the battalion of soldiers sent to investigate. It was a month before the next military vessel passed by and landed more troops. Lieutenant Herrick, the sole survivor reported to his Captain that nocturnal Ogre like creatures rose from the caves and culled everyone.

Luckily for the millions on Zosen nothing like that existed here.

By eighteen years old Stacey Nash had already seen much of the Galaxy. Her father had been assigned as a navigator on a civilian Survey ship and had taken his family with him. Stacey had seen the birth of a star, looked into the eternal darkness of a black hole and the deep purple haze of a Quagor Nebula. Life on the "Aurora" had been educational and an experience that had moulded her view of the galaxy, it was bigger than her and in comparison she was a tiny atom in a much larger animal. She knew others who thought they were a vital organ or even the very centre of the Galaxy but she let them labour under their false beliefs, it would one day catch up with them one lonely night. She still thought about the days out in deep space wandering and exploring, she would let her mind return there to stop it thinking about the boring nature of her job and there here and now…

Now though... Now she was stuck here. Her mother had died four years previously and her father had deteriorated and almost penniless took the emperor's golden credit and became a miner on Zosen. After the accident that had left his left side paralysed she had taken a job as a pit worker too. Two years of scratching a living from rock and taking care of her two younger brothers had left her with a wistful melancholy but with a chipper sense of humour. She had learnt to swing a pick and operate heavy machinery quickly and to defend herself from the advances of the other miners even quicker. More than one man had reported to the infirmary with a broken jaw or arm and the whisper "Leave Stacey Nash" ran quickly through them. She loved the respect she had earned but it came at a price, people were often too scared of her and she was often treated as a pariah by most. Her only real friends were Eddie and George, two other pit workers from the same watch. George was like a surrogate father who constantly looked out for her where as Eddie was a young lad, a newbie. She' saved him from a fight two years previous and since then they'd become inseparable. Eddie reminded her of her brothers and his wide eyed youth, albeit that he was only two years younger than her, was like a reminder of the innocence she had lost the moment she had walked into the mines and picked up that axe for the first time.

It had been another gruelling day in the mines. The government had upped the quota of ore required, they were obviously gearing up for something and the supervisors were taking it out on the workers with louder threats, shouts and abuse than usual. More carts had to be filled, more rock chipped and with less workers as the military reservists were called up for active duty.  She was even starting to feel grudging jealousy for them, a way off planet or at best out of the mines and into a barracks with regular food and pay. She had thought about volunteering but who would take care of her family? She was also below regulation height and she had heard women got a tough time in the infantry which was a shame because she had been trained to shoot by her father and she had always been a dead shot.

Stacey and Eddie were walking down the escalator to the habitation sector, stretching their aching arm muscles and trying to acclimatise to the bright summer day light. The sound of martial music carried across the crisp cool morning air. Stacey strained her eyes in the direction it came from. From their lofty vantage point she could see the columns of figures marching along the main street that ran through the centre of town before cutting past the pits and on to the space ports and the squadrons of transport ships that had been arriving for the past fortnight. Green helmets bobbed like a sea whilst silver plates and bayonets glinted and sparkled in the sun. The sounds of crumping boots on concrete and the shrill shouted orders of officers and NCOs carried through the still air/

"Looks like a parade." Eddie said incredulously

"Well Yeah..." Her dry sense of humour often relied on Eddie's stupid comments and was rarely left wanting.

"Do you want to take a closer look?"

She didn't even have to answer, this was excitement and standing in the darkness all day carving out chunks of rock was an occupation that needed any form of excitement, anything new to talk about in the canteen or if you saw a colleague for a few fleeting moments before you felt the lash of a supervisor’s tongue for shirking duties.

The hurried down the hill and into the shanty town of grotty prefabs, lean-to's and unsanitary tenements that lived under the grandiose name of worker’s habitation sector. Jumping a burst sewer main and its stinking discharge they picked their way through the slime towards the merchant sector and the aortic road that was the "Main Street."

Stacey had become accustomed to this place. She hated it and yearned to leave but the sights, sounds and smells had long been engrained in her mind and she had acclimatised even secretly loved it. She knew every alleyway, back route and side street in Mineville. The official cartographers and military planners probably called it something else but for those who lived here it would always be named after it’s defining feature.

Eddie still curled his nose in disgust at the effluent that flowed down the street in the open drain and tried to avoid stepping in slime. His attitude would change but Stacey hoped that would take a long time, when others had lost their standards and embraced their lot they had lost a part of themselves as she feared she had.

They crossed the rusting bridge over the brown slimy river that was clogging with slag and sewage and into the "Merchant sector" and walked down the dark ally into the cheering crowd.

Through the mass of citizens Stacey could make out the soldiers of the fourth Zosen light infantry, their pulse rifles held to the port, the regimental band playing with a jaunty number that kept everyone in step behind the red regimental standard. Behind the column of men came the APCs and light tanks. Their engines roared a throaty cough as they rolled down the black tarmac streets.

It was an impressive sight especially for the civilians who rarely saw such a spectacle, or any spectacle come to that. She couldn’t help feeling a sense of pride at the flower of Zosen’s youth marching off to war to protect them from alien aggression. They’d all read the news and releases about how the N’kell ate human young and were a terror of all civilisation pillaging their way across the Galaxy and now they were coming this way. Animals in body armour with large claws and a savage disorganised and poorly equipped scourge that would ravage the planet and leave it burning before continuing on. These boys would stop them in their tracks and turn them around at the first battle. Tell this barbarian horde to try somewhere else.

"Fools" a familiar voice filled her ears. George stepped out of one of the shadowy doorways and up to her and Eddie.

“Come on George they’re the shield of the Empire.” Eddie scoffed

“They’re dead men walking.” His voice was as cold and crisp as the morning air. “I’ve fought the N’kell boy, they are ruthless and efficient killers bent on one thing- the annihilation of the enemy. When their Admiralty has finished wiping these boys out they will come for us here.”

“Do you really think so George?” Stacey half smiled as she tried to make light of the dark prediction. “I’ve heard the N’kell are a mindless rabble. Surely our disciplined lads will make short work of them?”

“Definitely” Eddie pointed at the proud looking infantry column “They’ll deal with them easily. Look at all their kit, the discipline.”

George shook his head, his eyes fixed on the troops. “Their high command has known this day was coming and have prepared for any incursion by us. Then once our shield is cut off they’ll stab deep into our heart.”

Stacey’s blood ran cold. What if George was right?

“I’ve seen N’kell troopers, twice the size of you boy, seen ‘em cut a man in two with one swing of their blades. I watched a whole battalion wiped out by a squad of their frontline assault troopers like they weren’t there. They’ll fight and they’ll win and then they’ll come here.”

“But…”  Eddie tried to break into George’s flow but was waved silent by the elder man.

       “Discipline and weaponary is all well and good on the battlefield but the trick is to get off your warships first. Their warships are impressive, even more so than ours and they know that we’re coming, you think these boys will stand and fight on the field of battle? I say they won’t even get to disembark.” George took one last look at the parade before turning away towards the Worker’s habitation area. “You mark my words… Death will come to us all if they cross the border.”

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