Hello, everyone. I hope you are enjoying the story. I would like to ask you to leave your reviews so that we can get the star rating on this platform. As always, please be as honest as possible, as I need your opinion to improve.
-----------------------------
If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
-------------------------------
POV of a Servant of New Khorhal
"This is wonderful… blessed be the God-Emperor," I said as I warmed my hands on this strange machine that constantly emitted heat and kept our whole house warm.
"Dear, remember that you must keep practicing… the new teachers said it was very important for you to know how to fly those little things," my wife said as she handed me a nutrient bar.
"Have our little ones finished already?" I asked.
"Yes, they're done with their lessons for today," my wife said, smiling warmly.
I stood up, ate the nutrient bar, and walked toward the thing the new governor had given us. It was quite strange, because it allowed you to see through something they called a camera, and you could control some kind of bird. The governor's servants insisted heavily that we had to learn to handle it well.
At first, we were all afraid of these kinds of machines, but the pontiff stated that all of this was the divine will of the God-Emperor and that we should not worry. Some members of the clergy said it was heresy, but they were soon considered the true heretics and were burned at the stake by order of the Deacon.
That is why we had to keep practicing with the controllers and learn to use the visors properly, in a sort of constant training for some job they would assign us later.
In the last few months, our routine had been very similar. They took us to the fields of the new village, where we had to work plowing the land and helping with the irrigation channels while a group of the governor's workers followed us, laying a kind of liquid stone to secure the channels. There were also many of the governor's warriors. The first days were extremely good, because his warriors spent all day bringing back the bodies of huge beasts—horrors we were told about as children—but now hunted with ease by those brave warriors who must surely have the blessing of the divine Emperor.
And they gave us their meat to eat, because there was so much of it that it would go to waste. They soon left the meat to us in exchange for delivering the hides.
Those days, I made sure my family ate better than ever. I made stews, dried meat, roasted meat… they even gave us part of the fresh corn harvest, with which we made bread using the flour they gave us, adding it to our diet.
Although recently we had returned to a diet of nutrient bars, because there was no fresh food left. Almost all the dangerous animals on the planet had been exterminated to extinction, and some of those monsters were captured alive and taken to another very distant place.
They had given us a house made from materials I had never seen before. They used stone and metal, and it was much better than our old house, which they destroyed when they began construction of the new city.
It was a marvel that could only have been conceived by the hand of the Emperor. We had beds made with extremely comfortable materials, good cloth to cover ourselves at night, and incredibly durable clothing.
The God-Emperor had sent us many gifts through His servant.
After finishing my two-hour training with these metal birds, we were called to the village center, where we all gathered quickly.
Not long ago they had installed something that emitted images… or something similar. On it appeared the one who seemed to be the superior of the current governor. It was the only official image of the one who ruled us, since no one knew what the governor looked like. Only the Deacon had had the privilege of seeing him, although he says he does not remember his face—only that he had a meeting with him where he saw the Emperor's light shining strongly in his presence.
Since it was the face of a human, but he was not physically there, it was strange, although it broadcast a message frequently:
"Friends, with our official work program you can all contribute to building a better tomorrow."
"Work hard, stand proud, we must all make sacrifices for the glory of the Dominion."
"Keep a close watch on your neighbors; seditionists will only delay our progress."
"New Korhal is the heart of the Dominion, but the common man is the heart of our future."
"No sacrifice is too great to keep our communities safe."
The image repeated these words over and over, and the governor's soldiers, whose helmets were slightly opened, looked clearly sad when they watched it.
Until finally one of the governor's envoys appeared. Unlike the guards who came in those huge armors, this one wore only a leather suit with many golden ornaments that covered his entire body. His face was hidden behind a kind of metallic mask with three eyes.
Eyes that moved nonstop, sliding in and out of his face… and the third sometimes switched position with one of the other two.
"Well, by order of the Lord Regent, this offer is given to all of you…" said the envoy, while one of his eyes made a strange sound as it moved. "Since you have completed the basic courses in drone handling, you are to be granted personal dominion over twenty hectares of land, which you must care for in the name of the Terran Dominion. The benefits and income obtained from this work will not carry special taxes, only the gains tax that all inhabitants of the Dominion must pay. Those who accept this offer will receive, free of charge, all the necessary equipment to keep their farms operational: drones, fertilizers, and semi-autonomous agricultural machinery. Repairs and new machines will be sold at production cost."
Only the noise emitted by the image—which continued speaking nonstop—and the sound of the envoy's guards' armors could be heard.
"Those who accept must provide all their data to be properly identified. That said, you may go to the labor office established over there," said the envoy. "Those who do not wish to accept the deal… may go to New Korhal and look for work."
We stayed talking and began walking slowly toward the office, until I noticed that the envoy had disappeared the very second we stopped looking at him.
We approached the office, since the idea of being able to have control over land was something unheard of. The lands had always belonged to the lords, and it seemed the merciful God-Emperor had new plans.
When we entered, we were lost, because there were signs pointing at things, but no one understood the words written on them. I recognized the Gothic script, but I didn't understand what the words meant.
"Excuse me, good sir, where should I go to accept the governor's offer?" I asked, lowering my head before the guard.
"It is the Lord Regent, filthy mutant… it's there," he said, pointing, after opening a layer of his helmet that allowed me to clearly see his face, which was full of disgust.
"I… I… I'm not a mutant, my lord," I answered nervously.
"You may not have visible mutations, but at the genetic level… you're barely human," the guard replied, closing his helmet. "Walk and don't waste our time," he said, waving me away with his hand.
I lowered my head; although I was used to the terrible treatment of the previous governor… I had never been called a mutant before…
I walked to where he had pointed, and after answering a whole bunch of questions about myself and having the shape of my fingers taken, they gave me a stack of papers granting me dominion over a farm and a lot of machines.
It wasn't long after that I was eating with my family in the afternoon when a huge truck bearing the symbol of the Terran Dominion arrived and unloaded a massive amount of things: drones, seeders, fertilizers, and a sort of machine that told me how my crops were doing based on the information sent by the drones.
We didn't take long to start working with my family, since one of the governor's staff soon arrived and configured our machines so they could work almost on their own, setting their paths and routines.
In a single day we had all the fields planted, and all we had to do was use the drones to pass over the fields frequently. The computer told us what we needed to do with the plants—if they lacked water, if they lacked fertilizer, if there were soil issues—everything was indicated and all we had to do was solve it.
Compared to the previous system, where I'd break my back working just to plant a small plot of land, now I had done more in one week than probably in my entire life of work.
And the best part was that it was mine… my family's.
I couldn't help but go pray to the God-Emperor for such fortune.
-----------------------------
If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
-------------------------------