Author's Note:
I was planning to finish and publish this chapter in three weeks.
However, I had already written a third of it, and there are two fans following this story, so let's make them happy.
But don't get ahead of yourselves: Bahamut Effect is not my priority project. There are many stories that need to be rewritten or that deserve new chapters, not to mention new projects.
XXX
Story Arc: First Contact with a Rogue Trader Militant
Episode 2: The world inside the alien spaceship (IV)
Chapter 8: Sexy Aliens and Monstrous Aliens
Plot: The humans end up in a new area and Isaac wakes up, learning a few things about Viera culture and biology once he reaches his destination. Subsequently, the humans encounter problems managing the more monstrous aliens.
XXX
POV Narrator
The train cars spat the humans out of the heavy metal, straight into a mammoth geodesic dome. The air smelled of damp earth and electrical sap. Around them stretched an aberrant replica of Yellowstone: disproportionate sequoias and pines clawed at the artificial ceiling, their massive bark veined with bursts of bluish bioluminescence that pulsed in the dark.
The prisoners moved forward, lacking any military structure or a shred of discipline. They were a shapeless mass of flesh, a packed herd of cattle dragging their feet on the ground.
The Astra Navis soldiers flanked them closely, moving with the cold precision of alien cowboys intent on corralling a nervous herd. In that underground chaos, the humans' animal instinct drove them to pack together: they huddled shoulder to shoulder with their acquaintances, their bodies close to ward off the anxiety of that absurdity.
An armored arm shot up in the fluorescent darkness. The golden engravings on the metal plate's pauldrons gleamed beneath the alien plants. At the officer's signal, a thousand soldiers froze instantly, their boots sinking into the mud in unison with a sharp thud. The silence of the Azure Galaxy aliens weighed heavily upon the clearing. No human dared to utter a breath; the weight of a thousand aimed weapons was a far too physical deterrent.
The front plate of the officer's helmet vibrated, breaking apart into geometric segments that slid away from her face to reposition themselves as a rigid collar around her neck.
Beneath the metal, a humanoid face with sharp features emerged. Glassy, stark white skin, and cold blue eyes that scanned the herd. A thick blonde ponytail hung rigidly behind the nape of her neck. Atop her skull, two tense equine ears twitched, intercepting the whispers of the humans, while a twin tail, identical to the hair, whipped the air from the base of her spine, thudding against the backplate of her armor.
'Another beautiful kemonomimi woman. If these aliens wanted to invade us, I'm sure the Systems Alliance would suffer quite a few betrayals,' Malloy thought, starting to consider this incident as his greatest stroke of luck.
"Humans, some of you seem fatigued. I grant you a ten-minute break, then we resume the march. It won't be long before we reach the center of the dome, where you can lodge, receive food, and personal hygiene tools," the female officer with horse ears explained.
'I wonder if this woman discovered Uma Musume: Pretty Derby. Would she consider it an insult to her race, a racist thing, or a compliment?' Malloy thought, using his brain to formulate questions that few other men and women would have ever conceived.
"If you are thinking of escaping among the trees and bushes, know that this wooded area is located inside a war Starship, and we can unleash the Buglizards," the woman with horse ears said, proving herself to be empathetic, but not stupid or incompetent.
'Buglizard... What kind of strange and frightening alien animal is that?' Malloy thought, noticing that Julie and Koko, the friendly guards, seemed to stiffen at that name.
'I still remember that terrible mission on planet Lepidopterra,' Julie thought, having almost lost her arm to bites because of that planet's nasty insects.
"And if you attempt to grab stones or branches as weapons..." The officer's voice cut through the air. Even before the echo faded, her fingers clamped around the hilt. A flash of steel described a perfect arc in the bioluminescent darkness. The blade passed through the massive trunk of an alien tree with a sharp hiss, without the woman's arm showing the slightest effort.
For a blink of an eye, the immense plant remained motionless. It looked like a missed swing, a failure.
The officer did not break her stance. She pushed the sword into its scabbard, making it snap with a metallic clack that resonated through the dome. At that exact moment, the wood fiber gave way. The vegetable colossus slid sideways with a dull groan, crashing to the ground and kicking up a cloud of damp earth. At the point of collapse, the base left on the ground showed a surface as smooth as a mirror, a clean cut bleeding luminous sap.
"This thing came straight out of an Anime," Malloy murmured under his breath, his eyes wide open.
"The message has been received," Captain Anderson said, certain that none of his men would attempt to face the guards with just wood and stones.
Many of the humans simply sat down on the ground, on the grass, on a boulder, or leaned against a tree.
"Cutting a tree trunk with a single strike isn't that impressive. An omni-blade prototype can technically do it," Aiden Shepard muttered, knowing technologies capable of achieving the same result as the horse-eared woman's sword.
"Maybe, but I doubt it would be just as impressive or done so quickly and gracefully. That woman moved like a martial artist," Alara said, impressed by the movements of the aliens' commanding officer.
"I don't know anything about their religion, but I think their god is a mangaka," Mavuika commented, finding no other explanation for the attractive appearance of every Azure Galaxy alien she had seen without a helmet, for their advanced technology, and for their martial skills.
"Instead of talking, help me put Isaac down," Aiden Shepard said, needing a little help.
Commander Shepard was carrying an unconscious Isaac on his back, who had not yet recovered from his fainting spell; his brain must have been overloaded with information from seeing too much of the Azure Galaxy aliens' technology.
With a little help from Alara and Malloy, Isaac was taken from Shepard's back and laid on the ground, his back resting against a tree.
"Maybe we should request medical assistance?" Malloy asked, beginning to feel slightly worried about Isaac's well-being. Plus, carrying an unconscious man made him feel strange, as if he were trying to hide a corpse.
After those words, Isaac began to twitch a finger and moved a foot, showing signs of recovery.
Within a few minutes, Isaac was completely awake and operational, like a freshly rebooted computer.
"Isaac, you're awake!" Alara exclaimed, happy that one of her companions was doing well.
"A relief for everyone. If he hadn't woken up, I would have had to call a doctor and write a report on the matter, and I hate writing," commented Corporal Julie, the alien Bunnygirl guard who was in charge of watching over Shepard's group.
"But you always write," commented Sergeant Koko, a Lalafell woman who was Julie's superior.
"Writing a blog and writing a report are two different things. One is pure pleasure, the other is just work," Julie said, crossing her arms.
"Did I faint?" Isaac asked, slightly dazed.
"Yes. When you saw the city located on this ship — if we can still call it a ship — you dropped like an apple from a tree," Malloy said, taking advantage of their environment to make themed jokes.
"I didn't fall, but I was close to it. These aliens are unparalleled builders," Alara confessed, certain that many others had been left speechless at the sight of a city inside the Moonbreaker.
"I've heard of people losing consciousness out of fear or from seeing an attractive person, but never from seeing Lumity City," Koko commented, finding the whole situation amusing.
"My fans will be left speechless when they see this reaction: aliens fainting in front of our wonders!" Julie said, with a happy smile for her future post and a pinch of patriotic pride.
"Congratulations, Isaac, you're famous. The first human to faint in front of the wonders of the Azure Galaxy," Malloy commented with an amused expression.
"How long was I out?" Isaac asked, wanting to know what he had missed.
"About twenty minutes, more or less," Shepard said, having kept track of the time.
"It's the first time in my life that I've fainted," Isaac said, as he slowly stood up with a bit of help from Alara.
"Don't be ashamed. About 380 years ago, my species knelt en masse before the Airships, and we were about to offer them our youngest and cutest males," Julie commented, trying to help Isaac feel better, even though he didn't really need it.
The humans cast a strange look at the Viera woman, finding what she had just shared quite bizarre.
"Corporal Julie, could you give us some context? Surely there's a story behind that," Captain Anderson asked, fulfilling his role as diplomat and representative of the humans present on the Moonbreaker.
"We Viera are a matriarchal society. This is due to the fact that 90% of our population is composed of women and only 10% of men," Julie said, sharing something that any inhabitant of the U.S.K.Y. and the Voidwalkers' Commorragh learned in their first years of school.
"Only the Salarians have a similar sex ratio, although in their case it's the opposite: 90% are men and 10% are women," Isaac said, finding the topic interesting. It wasn't much compared to everything else the Moonbreaker offered, but it remained a subject worth exploring further.
'The Bunnygirls are lucky,' Malloy thought, seeing only the superficial side of a world and a race where there are nine women for every man.
"We Lalafell are at a roughly 50-50 ratio, but the Ysatnafians are 70% women and 30% men," Koko commented, referring to the space elves.
"I'm curious to know how marriages work in a society where there are more women than men," Malloy murmured, never having been as interested in learning about an alien race's culture as he was at that moment.
Aiden Shepard did not hesitate to elbow the SSV Tokyo's helmsman in the ribs to make him behave.
"But didn't you say something about kneeling before the ships?" Captain Anderson asked, shifting the discussion to something more useful.
Julie's ears drooped, as if she were about to talk about a topic she didn't like at all.
"We have strict rules on how to conduct First Contact. We cannot have any kind of contact with races that have not yet achieved space travel or that have not sent messages into space asking if they are alone in the universe. If we find a planet with intelligent but technologically primitive life, we limit ourselves to monitoring them," Julie said, speaking as if she had memorized a poem.
"A very ethical approach. Letting a civilization develop at its own pace," Captain Anderson said, finding comfort in the fact that the Moonbreaker aliens did not want to interfere with less advanced races.
Captain Anderson was no genius, but he had learned many things over time: he knew that the Salarians, and especially the Batarians, would never respect such a rule.
Of course, the Salarians preferred to do it more subtly, but Anderson had heard rumors about secret research projects concerning the Yahg.
The Batarians, on the other hand, were practically hyenas that threw themselves headfirst at anything weaker than them.
"In the Azure Galaxy, some of my sisters work in these surveillance centers. Currently, we are keeping an eye on eight primitive races," Julie said, as her ears suddenly perked up, showing her sudden change of mood.
'Fantastic. If they wanted to, they could gain eight client races and swell their ranks, as if they weren't numerous enough already,' Aiden Shepard thought, certain that everyone was friendly in times of peace, but that things could change drastically in difficult moments.
"However, clauses exist that allow for first contact with a primitive alien species. For example, an alien invasion, a planetary calamity, the danger of extinction, or the risk of self-destruction," Koko said, joining the conversation.
"If I remember correctly, the Hanar saved the Drell from extinction," Malloy said, remembering something useful.
"From a humanitarian standpoint, these clauses are useful, but what happens after the rescue?" Isaac asked, certain that a primitive species aided by such an advanced civilization could never return to what it was before.
'I admit that interfering for an alien invasion, a planetary calamity, or the danger of extinction can be a good thing. But the risk of self-destruction can be interpreted in many ways. If these aliens had seen Earth during the height of the Cold War, what would they have done?' Aiden Shepard thought, not wanting to know how these aliens would intend to "help" a race that risked destroying itself through wars and weapons of mass destruction.
"Ask Julie. Her species was one of the few races to benefit from the clauses of the non-interference rule," Koko said, shifting her gaze toward Julie.
The rabbit-eared woman ran her hand through her hair; clearly, she was not a fan of history lessons.
"Nearly 400 years ago, Viis, my species' home planet, was invaded by a space fleet of slavers. They had firearms, while the Viera of those times used bows, arrows, spears, and swords," Julie said, speaking of events that were very ancient from her perspective.
"That didn't bode well," Malloy said, stating the obvious.
"To cut a long story short, the U.S.K.Y. intervened, saving the Viera of the past from becoming a race of slaves. Afterward, the Viera came under the protection of the First King. It took dozens of generations, but the Viera transitioned from a tribal society to an interstellar society," Julie recounted, putting her hands on her hips.
"Dozens of generations? But didn't you use to live for 900 years?" Isaac asked, finding an inconsistency in Julie's story.
"Nowadays, a Viera can reach 900 years thanks to Ysatnafian medicine, which has tripled our lifespan. Without it, we Viera could only live up to 300 years, but most barely reached half of that due to diseases, tribal wars, poor harvests, and bloody feuds over men," Julie replied to Isaac's question.
"Bloody feuds over men?" Alara asked with a hesitant expression, hoping she wasn't touching upon a taboo subject.
"A bit embarrassing, but in the distant past, Viera males were viewed as the tribe's treasures to be protected, or as a reward for the best Viera women of the warrior caste," Julie said, continuing to talk about old traditions.
'In short, in the case of the Viera, gender roles have been reversed compared to the human perspective,' Isaac thought, certain that it would be an interesting sociological topic to explore further.
Isaac made a mental note to study the phenomenon of human women's emancipation, and then analyze the differences and similarities with the emancipation of Viera men.
"According to old texts and folk tales, during wars between different tribes, the males were the ones targeted. Therefore, in some situations, communities would find themselves with only one adult male and very few male children," the Viera woman said, providing context to those bloody feuds.
"We humans weren't that great 500 years ago either," Malloy said, considering that people of the past were foolish.
"Actually, around 1500, the Renaissance had begun. In that era, humanity was taking a huge step forward," Isaac commented, having a somewhat different opinion on what humanity was like during that historical period.
"In those situations, it was resolved with the practice of the 'village husband,' or the best female warrior would take him all for herself, telling the others to wait until the children grew up," Julie said, speaking of her people's old customs.
"I vote for the village husband practice," Malloy said without thinking too much.
Alara stomped on his foot, trying to make him shut up.
Julie didn't seem the least bit bothered by Malloy's words; on the contrary, she nodded as if she agreed with him.
"I agree, the practice of sharing a man is the best. We still use it today, although the concept of the tribe husband has been replaced by that of the house husband," Julie said, showing how polygamy was a common concept for the Viera and for anyone who aspired to be with the aliens of the Azure Galaxy.
"You stomped on me for nothing," Malloy commented under his breath, holding his sore foot.
"Sorry," Alara replied with an embarrassed expression.
"Thanks to men from other species, we Viera women can now have a man all to ourselves, or even multiple men for a single woman, although that rarely happens," Julie commented, personally finding it strange to have more than one husband.
"Reverse Harems are extremely popular among Viera women, but in reality, most Viera women get tense when they are surrounded only by men for too long," Koko commented, providing a piece of information she considered interesting.
"That's not entirely true. It's just that we Viera women feel more comfortable in modern polygamy, with three to nine women and one man. Except instead of an entire tribe relying on a single male, it's more of an intimate group thing: friends, sisters, and sisters-in-arms joining forces to get a man," Julie said, superficially presenting how things worked for the Viera.
"I would love to set foot on Viis. Culturally speaking, it sounds fantastic," Malloy said, having absolutely no problem with the idea of being taken by three Viera women and becoming a house husband.
Clearly, the SSV Tokyo's helmsman had no idea how difficult the life of a Viera male was, or that of any man who joined a colony of bunnygirls.
"It certainly is. Viis is an excellent planet," Julie said, feeling a deep love for her species' home planet, even though she hadn't been born there.
"I second that opinion," Koko said with a happy smile on her lips, having spent some beautiful vacations on planet Viis.
"The conversation is very interesting, but if you used to live for 300 years during the time of First Contact, how did you manage to have hundreds of generations?" Isaac asked, seeking a precise explanation.
"Viera multiply quickly. In Julie's species, pregnancy lasts only 90 days, and they don't give birth to a single offspring, but to an average of four little ones: minimum two, maximum eight," Koko explained, having studied many details about Viera culture and biology purely for pleasure.
"A third of our pregnancy, and countless times more fertile than us," Alara said, surprised by such a reproductive capacity, especially for a mammalian alien species.
"Biologically, Viera women can start giving birth around age 20, and menopause arrives around 700 years. If that weren't enough, every 10 years they have a strong urge to procreate: all adult Viera women go into heat, and then their population experiences a massive demographic boom," Koko said, having personal experience with this biological phenomenon.
"Don't exaggerate, Koko. We Viera know how to regulate ourselves nowadays. We learned from our ancient history what happens if we multiply too much: we end up with too little space, too little food, and we have to wage war on each other to reduce the numbers. Then everything repeats itself," Julie said, speaking of a cycle of conflicts that had plagued her race until the arrival of the U.S.K.Y.
'The Viera are like rabbits, a true revelation,' Captain Anderson thought sarcastically, certain that the phrase "multiplying like rabbits" had just gained a whole new meaning.
'The Bunnygirls and Bunnyboys are the Krogan of the U.S.K.Y. They don't lay a thousand eggs, but if a percentage of their women get pregnant and give birth to children every ten years, they get a demographic boom inconceivable to us,' Aiden Shepard thought, continuing to reflect and treasure the information he was gathering from them.
"Anyway, the Viera are the most prolific species with the largest families we have," Koko said, giving Julie's knee a friendly pat.
"True, from your perspective we have a lot of babies. My biological mother is only 358 years old, and I am the two hundred and sixty-eighth child," Julie said, as if it were a perfectly natural thing.
'267 older brothers and sisters... I can barely stand my older sister,' Alara thought, certain that if she had that many siblings, she would have run away from home.
"Don't ask about the number of younger sisters and brothers, let alone the number of half-sisters, half-brothers, or cousins. You would need to take notes just to remember it all," Koko said in a playful tone.
"So, which area of Lumity City are we in?" Isaac asked, believing that the train had stopped in the city inside the Moonbreaker.
"Lumity City was not our destination, just a road to travel. The destination is this geodesic dome," Koko said, spreading her arms as if to indicate everything around her.
'Are we indoors?' Isaac thought, looking around. The only sign that they weren't in a real forest was the total lack of animals, even insects.
"We can chat and all that, but you are neutral-ranked aliens. Good enough to be treated civilly, but not good enough to be taken into our oasis of peace," Julie said, making it clear how things stood.
"I understand the logic, but I'm sorry not to have the opportunity to set foot in that city," Isaac said in a disappointed tone, eager to explore the heart of the 100-kilometer Starship.
"Me too, it could be the highlight of my life," Malloy commented, very curious to see with his own eyes what Lumity City was like.
Aiden Shepard stepped closer to Malloy, sensing what the helmsman would want to do the moment he set foot in the Azure Galaxy aliens' city.
"If you are thinking of asking to be taken to a brothel or a strip club, I will make sure you are no longer a man," Aiden Shepard whispered, ready to castrate Malloy with a gunshot.
The helmsman turned a bit paler and moved away from Shepard, preferring to stay close to Isaac and Alara.
"The reasons to enter the history books are so many that one is spoiled for choice: the largest ship ever to exist, portals connecting two different points in space, First Contact with a civilization outside our galaxy, a monarchical nation composed of different races, a railroad, and a city inside a ship," Isaac commented, expressing his line of thought.
"It's always nice to hear how amazing we are. It should get boring after a while, but it makes me feel proud and honored to be here and to serve Lord Bahamut," Koko commented, appreciating hearing from the humans how wonderful the Master was.
"I almost feel like thanking the slavers. If they hadn't tried to turn us into merchandise, we Viera would probably still be living on Viis in tents and wearing animal pelts," Julie commented, finding the silver lining even in bad things.
'The universe has never been a fair place. Five hundred years ago, humanity was experiencing the high Renaissance; at the same time, rabbit women who were something akin to Native Americans or mythical Amazons were being elevated by aliens. Humanity is trying to make a stand in the Galaxy, while the rabbits have become part of a society so advanced they conduct intergalactic explorations,' Captain Anderson thought, starting to believe that the human race was unlucky or always ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Are you alright, Captain Anderson?" Aiden Shepard asked, noticing the change in his mentor's expression.
"It's the usual thing that happens to everyone who meets us. The elders lose their minds and feel as if everything they've accomplished no longer has a purpose, or they feel threatened by us; the youth, on the other hand, remain filled with wonder," Koko commented, acting smug, though after all, she had plenty of reasons to be.
Suddenly, the entire environment tilted by thirty degrees, causing a good portion of the unprepared humans to lose their balance. Those who were sitting fell to their knees or sideways, while others ended up rolling like carpets.
Soon, the Starship returned to sailing straight.
"Lord Bahamut has moved Lady Amelia," Julie commented, looking upward. [1]
"What are you talking about?" Aiden Shepard asked, finding the way the aliens reacted strange, as if it were a matter of routine, akin to rain.
"Some cities have earthquakes, we have Blight Disturbances, or naval love disturbances," Julie said with an amused expression.
The humans looked at the Bunnygirl as if she were speaking an incomprehensible language.
"The Moonbreaker's helmsman is one of the Lord Trader's concubines," Koko said, believing this was enough to make the concept understood.
"In short, if Lady Amelia is at the helm and Lord Bahamut decides to be sweet with her, there are chances that the Starship will tilt a bit to the right or a bit to the left," Julie said, mimicking the oscillation like a tower built on unstable ground. [1]
'The ship's captain and the helmsman are together... This violates the Systems Alliance's internal regulations and compromises the onboard hierarchical management,' Captain Anderson thought, finally noticing a flaw in the Azure Galaxy aliens.
"Some joke saying that if Lord Bahamut asks to have a sixth child, Lady Amelia will faint, the Moonbreaker will capsize, and we'll all become paint splatters on the ceiling," Julie said, making a bit of dark humor.
"Is it normal for you to know these things about your superiors?" Aiden Shepard asked, wanting to know how the chain of command worked.
"Well, the Moonbreaker is a Rogue Trader's Starship, and this grants us quite a bit of freedom of action, both for the simple soldier and for you. If you had encountered an Astra Navis military Starship, by now you would all be handcuffed and locked in a cell or a sealed hangar," Koko said, appreciating having greater freedom of action.
"The Moonbreaker is a one-hundred-kilometer Starship and the crew consists of one hundred million individuals, but here, everyone knows everyone. What happens in the high ranks, sooner or later, ends up in the low ranks. Thanks to this, I can report new updates on my blog," Julie said, loving her current position.
"Impossible. In anthropology and sociology, there is a scientific limit called Dunbar's Number: the brain can manage a maximum of about one hundred and fifty stable relationships. Taking into account the size and population of the Moonbreaker, it is physically impossible for everyone to know everyone," Isaac said, rather reluctant to believe Julie's claim.
"Lord Bahamut frequents the high-rank circles. If it's about secret projects or military stuff, they are silent, but his love life is a soap opera for the officers, who talk to their subordinates, who tell their underlings who, once they return to Lumity City, tell the others. Gossip about the Rogue Trader and his concubines is a pastime for many of us. There are even bets on which concubine will give birth to the next child," Julie said, replacing her fanaticism for trains with what seemed like a fangirl disposition toward her favorite idol.
'These aliens have a strange cult of personality directed at their leader,' Captain Anderson thought, starting to believe that the rule against fraternizing among soldiers had never existed for them.
"Would it be possible to subscribe to your blog? I'm interested in seeing what you have to say and reading the latest news," Malloy asked, continuing to speak sincerely; something that would have caused him a thousand problems in other contexts, but in this scenario seemed to work.
The Bunnygirl smiled as if she had just gotten a promotion.
"I love all my fans, both veterans and rookies! I can't give you access to our internal computer network, but I can give you a paper version. But make sure to behave, or you'll lose your reading right," Julie said, turning friendly with a future fan from a new Galaxy.
"Reading right?" Captain Anderson asked, never having heard of such a thing. For a moment, he thought it was a translation issue.
"We offer basic rights to every single intelligent life form that falls into the neutral or benevolent category and ends up under our authority. Obviously, benevolent aliens receive more rights and protection, and our citizens receive all the rights present in our law," Koko explained, offering the basics.
'For a ship that looks like it belongs to the Final Boss of a fantasy video game where magic and science have merged, these aliens prove to be extremely civilized,' Aiden Shepard thought, pleasantly surprised by how they had been treated so far. It wasn't a vacation or a luxury, but it was certainly better than how a prisoner of war would be treated by the Turians.
"Julie, what are the seven basic rights?" Koko asked, turning to her bunny-eared friend and subordinate.
The Viera woman let out a sigh, not appreciating those surprise questions, but she knew the answer.
"The right to practice one's religion, the right to hygiene facilities, the right to food, the right to clothing, the right to a fair trial, the right to literature, and the right to writing," Julie listed the seven basic rights in a bored, apathetic tone.
"The first ones we understand, we have them too," Captain Anderson commented, comprehending the meaning of the first five rights.
"But what are the rights to literature and writing?" Alara asked, imagining that it involved books and pencils.
"A neutral alien, if they wish, can request literature material from an approved list at least once a month," Koko replied, while looking around, noticing that some of her companions were getting ready to move.
'Access to the public library has become a basic right for them? An enlightening thing, which would benefit many of us,' Isaac thought, ready to request to make use of this right.
"A neutral alien, if they desire, can request thirty pages of blank paper and a set of twelve colored pencils once a month, to be able to express themselves through written words or art," Koko added.
'So I can write my memoirs, draw a map, or take notes on what I see,' Aiden Shepard thought, imagining the possible uses of such a right.
"Returning to talking about something fun, my blog is the most updated one you can find on the Moonbreaker. We Viera are quite popular among all the races of the U.S.K.Y. and we get along extremely well with the Tabanian Sisterhood, which occupies a good part of the seats on the command bridge, and with their cousins, the Little Drukhari," Julie said with enthusiasm and a hint of arrogance.
"The Tabanians would be?" Malloy asked, not knowing much about the races present on that gargantuan ship.
"One of the four sub-races of the Ysatnafians. They are women who stand 215 centimeters tall, hard to miss," Koko said, gesturing with her head toward an extremely tall woman in heavy armor, armed with a battleaxe.
Before the humans could ask any more questions, the commanding officer made an announcement: "Humans, your break is over. Back to marching!"
The human beings, understanding that the halt concluded, stood up and began to follow the guards.
XXX
A twenty-minute forced march wore down the humans' legs before the forest opened up onto a vast clearing overlooking a still body of water.
'If someone put up four wooden cabins, this place would be perfect for a summer camp,' Malloy thought, wiping the sweat from his forehead and letting his gaze wander over the silent shores.
But reality pressed back immediately after. The Astra Navis guards deployed rapidly along the perimeter, forming a steel ring on the boundary between the grass and the shadow of the trees.
'We're surrounded. If some idiot tries to play the hero and attempts to escape, it will end terribly for him. Or for all of us,' Aiden Shepard calculated, clenching his fists in his pockets while studying the soldiers' firing lines.
A dull hum made the air vibrate above the lake. A mammoth floating truck, a mass of dark metal and futuristic sharp angles, glided over the water and touched down in the clearing without a shudder, pushing back the grass with the pressure of its invisible thrusters. About a dozen guards snapped into action instantly, surrounding the vehicle in a fan formation with their rifles drawn.
The blonde female officer used no ladders. She flexed her knees and, with an explosive push that coiled the muscles of her legs, executed a prodigious leap, landing heavily on the truck's metal roof. The metal plates rumbled beneath her boots. With her face covered by her newly resealed helmet, her amplified voice thundered over the crowd: "Listen to me, humans!"
The Systems Alliance soldiers, already pinned in place by the vehicle's presence, rotated their heads in unison, lifting their tired gazes toward the armored figure dominating them from above.
"I am Lieutenant Colonel Diana Nearl, leader of the White Pegasus Brigade. My subordinates and I have been tasked with keeping an eye on you and taking care of your needs for the duration of your stay on the Moonbreaker," Diana continued in her declaration.
'The head of the brigade is a Pony-Girl and her unit is called the White Pegasus Brigade... This is either a huge coincidence or someone has a strange sense of humor,' Malloy thought, wondering if Diana Nearl might have a sister leading a platoon called Horseland.
"One of the core philosophies of his Excellency, Lord Bahamut, is that Good must be repaid with Good and Evil with Evil," Diana declared, laying out the facts.
'She called the commander of this mammoth ship "his Excellency"? Are these aliens fanatics? Die-hard fans? Loyalty maniacs? Or a combination of all three possibilities?' Captain Anderson thought, unable to get a clear idea of how those Azure Galaxy aliens thought.
So far, Anderson had only had contact with four members of the Moonbreaker's crew: Admiral Ignis, Lieutenant Colonel Nearl, Sergeant Koko, and Corporal Julie.
The first two were extremely dedicated to their roles and showed absolute loyalty to their leader; Koko was somewhere in the middle, while Julie... resembled Malloy with her relaxed attitude.
Diana continued her speech.
"Behave in a civilized manner: no brawls with my subordinates and no far-fetched escape plans, and you won't receive so much as a scratch. Try to believe you are the protagonists of a movie and you risk ending up in a maximum-security cell, in pure isolation, and with one less limb," the woman with horse ears said, placing her hand on the hilt of her sword.
Several humans touched their shoulders or thighs, preferring to keep them attached.
"My subordinates will unload the crates with provisions and essential material for you from the vehicle; we will set up tables and a tent. You humans will form an orderly line and, one by one, you will come to us. You will tell us your name, your position in the Systems Alliance, if you have any allergies or illnesses of any kind, and then you will receive your share," Diana explained regarding what would happen shortly thereafter.
'At least they don't waste time giving us food and a pillow,' Malloy thought, eager to fill his stomach and lay his head on something soft.
'They certainly know how to treat their prisoners, if among the first things they ask us are our allergies and our ailments,' Alara thought, feeling a little bit better than before.
Diana let herself drop from the truck's roof. Her metal plates touched the ground without a groan, absorbing the impact in an unnatural silence that betrayed a ballistic technology light-years more advanced than the heavy, noisy armors of the Systems Alliance.
Until that second, the unconditional surrender had seemed like an almost painless transition. The humans had yielded their weapons to an unknown alien conglomerate, hoping for a civilized imprisonment. Unfortunately, the earthlings' luck waned significantly.
Diana Nearl's subordinates began moving to set up the camp. With a simultaneous hydraulic hiss, the soldiers deactivated their confinement systems and folded their helmets back around their necks to breathe the dome's air. Their faces emerged into the bioluminescent light, splitting the humans' minds into two distinct, visceral reactions.
On one side were the lineages with harmonious features, figures that awakened a sense of almost erotic admiration: Tanabantian women with velvety skin, slender Viera with long, tense ears, Au-Ra adorned with elegant scales reflecting the forest light, tiny Lalafells, Gundalians, and Neathians. Creatures modeled according to an aesthetic standard so close to Earth's as to seem almost friendly, gods from an ancient myth.
On the other side, the clearing filled with the nightmares of the darkest dark fantasy: four-armed Eliksni whose multiple eyes snapped in the dark, gigantic Thep-Khufans wrapped in millenary bandages smelling of dust and resin, massive Loboans with drooling jaws akin to anthropomorphic wolves, and Transylians of gargantuan stature. Insect-men, living mummies, lycanthropes. For the humans packed in the clearing, that was not alien diplomacy: it was Halloween night taking on flesh, claws, and fangs before their eyes. Panic began to circulate in the form of short breaths and backward steps.
Amidst that creeping terror, Malloy felt a violent jolt start from the center of his chest. His heart quickened its beats, but not out of fear. Against all logic, the corners of his mouth stretched, turning on with a purely positive excitement.
'So many alien women who look like the humanoid or semi-human races from classic anime. That's excellent news! But we also have the Halloween-themed monstrous races... Well, a Galaxy full of only female beauties wasn't possible,' Malloy thought, so focused on his fantasies that he felt no fear toward the monstrous aliens.
Apparently, being a cinephile and a nerd was helping Malloy in this absurd scenario.
Isaac reflexively took a step back, but moved no further. His hyper-rational mind led him to act using his head and not his fear glands.
'So many different species, and many of them humanoid, who with a disguise could pass for humans. Perhaps humanity would physically look like them if we hadn't evolved from apes, but from another animal?' Isaac thought, doing what he did best: studying what he saw through a scientific lens.
'However, aliens that resemble monsters from horror movies and books are something unexpected, but not impossible. Space is infinite, there can be an infinity of life forms, and human imagination is just as vast. Guessing some physical traits of an alien species isn't absurd, considering the thousands of folkloric inventions we have,' Isaac reflected as if he were a sentient machine.
'Space elves, space dwarves, space bunnygirls... And now let's add space mummies, space wolves, and the alien cousins of Frankenstein's monster,' Aiden Shepard thought, calmly accepting everything he saw. At this point, Commander Shepard had seen so many absurd things in such a short time that he had become numb. Furthermore, during his childhood in Chicago, he had witnessed much scarier scenes than aliens resembling horror monsters.
'I'm too old to be scared by aliens with fur, bandages, or bolts in their necks. However, I wonder how Halloween would be perceived by them. Next October 31st will be a delicate moment,' Captain Anderson thought, worrying about political and cultural matters.
'Monsters... I am in a cage of beautiful women and men flanked by monsters much bigger than me, with fangs, claws, and hands bigger than my head,' Alara thought, suddenly turning all pale and feeling extremely small and helpless.
Apparently, when the world goes crazy, strange and strong people thrive, while normal people give in. Shepard's group was almost the only one to have reacted fairly well to that discovery. Besides them, only Captain Malcolm Reynolds' group and the second N-7 soldier, John Carter, had kept their heads on their shoulders; all the other humans had reacted poorly to varying degrees.
Out of five hundred Systems Alliance soldiers, fewer than twenty maintained a shred of military dignity. The biological reaction of the mass was a collective, instantaneous, and violent nervous breakdown. The air filled with high-pitched screams. Dozens of men and women collapsed backward onto the grass, having fainted from cardiocircolatory shock; others lunged at their companions, clawing at their uniforms in a fit of hysteria.
Many remained petrified, with stiff muscles and wide eyes, while the acrid smell of urine and feces soaked the pants of those who completely lost control of their sphincters out of terror. The majority stood motionless, seized by an uncontrollable tremor, staring at the horror through clenched teeth. The most foolish yielded to panic and attempted to flee, scattering toward the sides.
The alien guards' response was brutal.
One of the female mummies lunged forward. The thick bandages wrapped around her body unrolled into the air like organic whips, stretching excessively until they snared the legs and torsos of the fugitives, pinning them to the ground in a suffocating grip.
A few meters away, one of the anthropomorphic wolves opened its jaws, splitting its snout into four X-shaped flaps. A sonic howl exploded from the depths of its throat, an invisible shockwave that slammed into the crowd. The mud vibrated, and dozens of humans collapsed to the ground, pressing their hands against their bleeding eardrums in an attempt to block that torment.
Immediately after, a large man with the features of Frankenstein dumped his immense weight onto the ground with a stomp. The impact generated a micro-telluric shock that made the remaining soldiers lose their balance. Before they could get back up, the same colossus opened fire: a bolt of pure energy tore through the darkness, pulverizing the mud a millimeter from the earthlings' boots as a silent warning: "Stay down."
In that chaos of drool, bandages, and energy, Jayne Cobb completely lost his mind. Captain Malcolm Reynolds' subordinate, known for being an unpredictable hothead, reacted with the blind violence of a trapped animal. His nervous system activated the element zero nodes in his blood. Jayne's body was enveloped by a dark purple glow, the dense, distorting aura of biotic powers. Lacking weapons and facing overwhelming odds, the idiot yielded to the primal instinct of the flesh: kill or die.
Lieutenant Colonel Diana Nearl drew her sword from its scabbard; at the same time, Julie prepared to deliver a bone-shattering sweep kick to Jayne.
'That idiot could get us all killed!' Aiden Shepard thought, sprinting forward so fast he almost broke the world record.
With an explosive push from his legs, the commander launched forward at an inhuman speed, burning the distance before the aliens could land their blows. Exploding onto the scene, Shepard channeled his entire body weight into a devastating right hook. His knuckles impacted with a sharp, dull thud right on Jayne's exposed chin, cutting off the biotic flow. The lightning-fast impact turned off the soldier's lights, knocking him out cold before his back even touched the grass.
'The idiot is down, now it's time for the rest of the herd,' Aiden Shepard thought, feeling like a sheepdog that has to handle frightened sheep after seeing a wolf.
Shepard planted his boots into the ground and spread his arms, standing as a barrier between the hysterical mass and the alien weapons. His voice exploded through the dome, lashing out like a whip: "Soldati, don't make our situation worse! Anyone who dares to take a single step, I will execute them on the spot for desertion!"
The threat froze the air. The humans' panic halted instantly: the visceral fear of Commander Shepard erased even the terror of the space monsters.
"Raise your damn hands and pray you don't do another stupid thing. If the aliens don't kill you, I will as soon as I get the chance," Aiden Shepard declared, showing who was in charge there.
The entire mass immobilized, their bodies rigid. Hundreds of arms rose in unison in a sign of absolute submission, not toward the Halloween-themed aliens, but toward Shepard.
Lieutenant Colonel Nearl stepped forward. The metal of her armor produced a sharp rustle as she approached, stopping just a few inches from the commander. Her blue eyes scrutinized Jayne's unconscious body before locking onto Shepard's, weighing his worth.
The woman parted her lips to deliver a sentence, but her jaw snapped shut. The equine ears atop her head twitched backward, vibrating under the impulse of a message received through her high-tech contact lenses, which offered her numerous tactical advantages.
Diana tensed her neck muscles and sheathed her blade with a metallic clack that broke the silence.
"This individual will be placed in solitary confinement for forty-eight hours," she declared, gesturing toward Jayne with a sharp nod of her chin.
"For everyone else, the incident ends with a warning," Diana shifted her icy gaze directly onto Shepard.
"As for you, hero... your actions have just earned you an invitation to the table of his Excellency, Lord Bahamut. You will keep Captain Anderson company," Diana concluded, walking away to speak with her subordinates.
Commander Shepard let out a long sigh, feeling his shoulder muscles relax after the adrenaline rush.
'We got lucky this time. No casualties,' Aiden Shepard thought.
The butchery had been avoided by a hair. Now a formal dinner invitation with the alien leaders awaited him, but Captain Anderson's presence would split the weight of that golden captivity in half.
To be continued...
XXX
CODEX - The Astra Navis FO-02 Battalion, aka the "White Pegasus Brigade"
The Chain of Command:
- Lieutenant Colonel: Commands the entire battalion.
- Captain: Commands a single company.
- Lieutenant: Leads a single platoon.
- Sergeant: Directs a single squad.
The Battalion Composition:
- Six Companies
- Twenty Platoons
- Sixty Squadre
Notable Members of the Battalion:
- Lieutenant Colonel Diana Nearl, leader of the White Pegasus Brigade.
- Sergeant Koko Boroko, leader of Squad 34, aka the Silver Acorn Team.
- Corporal Julie M. Maws, prominent member of Squad 34.
XXX
Author's Note:
Great news! This morning around eight o'clock, I took my final university oral exam: I am officially done with college!Now I can finally play the Genshin Impact summer event! I need to return to the moon!One small step for a Traveler, but one giant leap for fans who want new areas to explore.