Gabatrix: Legacy

Why is all of this important? Why is the knowledge of a couple of Itreans amongst trillions worthy of being remembered? Because humanity has much to learn about the Itreans. Only by digging through history can a solution to a new era be found. Today, humanity's struggle is against an overwhelming force. Is the UWA doomed to be destroyed? That depends on the choices and actions that are made. The T'rintar, Aksren, and Shal'rein clans serve as the "Tri'anta," the three balancing powers in the galaxy. The UHN is insignificant in being able to fight back against such overwhelming firepower by one clan. That is why recapturing Cipra, humanity's most bold but unwise move, proved to have varied results. Much like Rototrein, the UHN is a tiny spectacle in resources and strength. However, Rototrein still won against such severe odds. It's an important lesson that if he and his supporters could do it, others could do it as well.

Regardless, overconfidence lurked in the hearts of the UHN and T'rintar clan. The Cipra Campaign has produced lingering consequences, many, as a matter of fact. While Cipra has been retaken, the expenses and loss of significant resources were extreme. An act of emotion against an enemy action over a year ago, it is something that I had wished that humanity avoided. Unfortunately, it was more than expected....predictable even if the results were seemingly victorious.

However.....all is not lost. As I said, it was predictable. A lingering plan must adhere to the many paths that go along to ensure its ultimate success. There is a solution to my father's plan. It is there, and it can be reached. But you ask me what is that plan?

As the humans would say, "one does not always reveal all their cards on the table so easily." Instead, it is time to close out this lesson. Time is passing, and I must rest for the impending day to come. Everything is set, and it's up to the others around me to carry out their duties, including my own mate. I will leave you to the "Guide" so he can continue explaining to you everything that is happening.

You watch as the galactic map begins to fade into obscurity. The stars and their light disappear until there is almost nothing. It darkens more and more, leaving a background of solid black. Then you hear the sound that disturbs your hearing. It's that of a facial covering being applied to oneself, followed by an elastic band snap. It is that of an eye patch being applied over one's eye.....

*******

In the vestiges of space near the red planet of Mars is the ongoing commercial traffic of transport vessels and freighters. The occasional UHN warship dots the distant background.

What comes into view is that of a single UHN Mark 12 space shuttle. The gray cylindrical vessel is dotted with a few arrays of small AIO turrets and several sets of various thrusters. Its rear engines have stopped firing as it has safely left the planet's orbit. Free from the gravitational hold, it coasts steadily in a straightforward direction. Its current destination is not made clear yet. However, the enclosed armored exterior is clearly seen when one continues to get closer and closer to the vessel. Written on the side of the shuttle is the name "Babur," in both English and Chinese characters.

Finally, we move past the armored shell of the shuttle until we can see the ship's interior. Inside is a relatively comfortable living environment. The spacious area allows personnel to walk to the various rows of side-mounted passenger seats. The forward compartment leads to the pilot's cockpit, while the rear section leads to other rooms. The lack of g-forces is the only thing that genuinely affects one another. The lack of gravity guarantees that everyone is buckled in, and their magnetic boots clamped down onto the deck to ensure that no one is floating freely.

There is at least eight personnel in the main compartment that is present. Six of these individuals are humans, while two of them are Itreans. Of these humans, four of them are dressed similarly. They wear a dark and light blue colored shirts with the words "Marine Recruit," written in both English and Chinese. They also wear red and blue camouflage cargo pants. Of these four individuals, three appear to be men, while the other seems to be a woman. Each of these recruits appears different, coming from various environments. One of the men is skinny and lanky, having a mixed complexion, lightly bald, and similar to that of a person from Central America of former Earth. Another man is bulky and muscular, his pale complexion and short-cut brown hair reminiscent of someone from former Russia on Earth. The last of the three men look like a person of Chinese descent. He has a pale complexion and a light muscular, athletic body with short black hair. This individual is noticeable for the fact that he has two different colored eyes, the right eye being blue and the other being brown. The woman has a pale complexion with tied-up black hair, possibly that of a person of Greek or Turkish descent. A nice scar rides down her chin. A tattoo can be seen of a knife on her arm.

All of these individuals appear distracted or carrying some form of resentment of the current trip. However, even if they all appear this way, the man with Chinese features gathers the courage to break the ice and talk to the other recruits.

"My name's Enlai. What's yours?" he asks with a faint Martian accent. His tone is aggressive.

"Dariea," the female recruit said beside him. She gave a mean and scornful look at Enlai. "What's it to you?"

"Just curious."

"The name's Gavrill," the Russian-like individual stated. His voice carried a broad but light Cebravin and Russian accent. The volume of his words boomed in the interior, somewhat startling the lanky individual. There was pride in that voice as he pounded his fist to his chest, but it was still an aggressive posture. Finally, the last recruit sitting beside him caved in, perhaps out of peer pressure.

"I'm.....I'm Isandro," he said. The Martian accent was clear and present.

"What the hell is going on?" Enlai asked the other three. "Why the fuck are they sending us out here?"

"I don't know," Dariea remarked. "I just remember them telling me to get on the shuttle. I figure that they're sending us home."

"They can't get rid of me," Gavrill said. "The UHN needs more men. Can't say that they need little women around to fight." He deliberately tried to mock Dariea, and she didn't seem pleased.

"Care to say that again?" Her voice carried hostility. She was showing a fit of anger.

"I say that you're puny. UHN probably thought you're too unfit to serve."

"How about I rip your balls off and shove them down your throat, meat cake!"

"You couldn't even scratch ol Gavrill." He laughed as Dariea was getting ready to unfasten her seatbelt.

"That's enough!" yelled another individual in the shuttle interior. It quickly seemed to silence the argument and for a good reason. This individual was a standing guard, his hand and arm braced to one of the shuttle interiors holding bars. He was dressed in combat armor and holding a carbine of some sort. His responsibility seemed attuned to the four individuals. It was impossible to see this individual's face due to his helmet and visor. However, he was clearly agitated by the argument that broke out.

"What's it to you?" Enlai asked the guard. "Care to explain what's the meaning to all of this?"

"I'm just here to escort you to the UHN Lifen. I don't need to explain anything else."

"The Lifen?"

"Umm.....it's a ship," Isandro tried to answer.

"I know it's a ship," Enlai snapped at the recruit lightly. "Why the hell they're sending us to a fucking ship?"

Dariea and Gavrill both didn't seem to have the answers.

Isandro lightly pushed the scene further. "Um....maybe because they were impressed with our performance in boot camp?" He nervously said.

"Ha," Gavrill remarked with a single laugh. "I take that as a compliment, little man. I learned to challenge at the right time, and now it's time for ol Gavrill to start fighting Itreans. Pound them to the ground!" He took his hands and slapped them together. "Just like that, they go splat!"

"Please," Dariea scoffed at him. "The Shal'rein would just bite your tiny cock off and spit it back at you, you steroid junkie."

"Tiny? You think that you could handle ol Gavrill? You wouldn't last one night with me."

Enlai seemed to think about the attitudes of the other three recruits present. It didn't take much for him to start putting the pieces together. He even started to look at Isandro, who was similar to him. He was thinking hard, trying to assess what was going to happen. Enlai's eyes narrowed. He almost chuckled as he thought about it.

"Hey...," Enlai asked the others, virtually silencing the argument. "No, really. Why the fuck are we going to a ship?"

"Why are you asking me?" Dariea asked. "Probably ran out of room in boot camp or something."

Gavrill sighed as he tried to get serious. "Probably to train us on how to fight in a ship."

"Yeah, but....that wouldn't happen unless we graduated," Isandro replied. "Did you graduate?"

"No....two weeks in."

"One for me."

"One," Enlai added. He looked at Dariea, and she answered.

"Three."

"No, that means that none of us graduated yet."

"UHN is just desperate for fighting men," Gavrill said with a shrug. "After Cipra, the UHN marines need soldiers. They rushed us into service....end of discussion."

That did not seem to be a satisfactory answer to the scene. It didn't entirely make sense. Isandro put his hand to his chin. Enlai looked at the other passengers that were sitting far from them. This consisted of three individuals. One was a UHN enlisted man dressed in a red and blue jumpsuit. The name and rank of Petty Officer Mizu could be deciphered from Enlai's working augmented eye. This person had short black hair, almost similar to his. He was holding hands with the two Itrean women that sat strapped in beside him.

These Itreans were something that Enlai was becoming accustomed to seeing ever since the alliance between humanity and the T'rintar clan. An entire race of reptilian women supposedly descended from dinosaurs of former Earth. Most of it sounded like nonsense, but their presence was proof enough. Both of these Itreans were of the Yutilian variety. They were short-statured, being around four feet in height. One of the women had light green scales on her skin and greenish-yellow feathers that protruded from her head, arms, and tail. She also had blue and different shades of green patterns on her body and digitigrade legs. She wore some sort of brown and white overlapping dress. Her belly was slightly distended. Was she pregnant? It didn't matter to Enlai.

The other Itrean was unique looking that it caused Enlai to look harder. She had a much larger protruding snout almost to that of a beak. It was difficult to tell if it was a she because the individual was flat-chested when compared to the protruding chest that the green Yutilian had. This Yutilian had white scales with green and brown patterns that covered much of her body. Her feathers were way more prominent, being white and pink. It covered much more of her arms, head, and tail. Even her eyes were shaped differently, being more brown and rounded. It was rumored that the Yutilians were descended from the Velociraptors. If it were true, then the white Itrean was much closer in appearance to one. She almost looked like an anthro bird. The conclusion to this person being a she was the presence of a protruding belly. She might have been pregnant, perhaps gravid. She was wearing an extravagant yellow and blue silk dress. Enlai only knew so much about the Itreans, so he wasn't going to bother with the scene. However, he was able to overhear some of the conversations. There seemed to be excitement in their voices about their impending arrival to the Lifen. They were doing their best to ignore the noisy recruits.

"Hmmm...," Enlai remarked. He turned to look at the other recruits. "This doesn't make sense."

"It doesn't fucking matter," Dariea said.

"It does. Boot camp is supposed to be handled on planets only, right?"

"Yeah," Isandro added. There was concern in his voice.

Enlai turned to look at the guard. "Hey, are we in trouble?"

"I'm not supposed to be talking to you!" the guard replied.

"Hey!" he tried to call out to Mizu and the pair of Itreans, but the guard snapped back.

"You're not supposed to be talking to the others in this shuttle! Is that understood?"

"Meh, meh, meh....," Dariea mocked the guard. "Don't do this. Don't do that." The guard only seemed to give an annoyed look back at her. Gavrill only seemed to chuckle a little bit. Even Enlai felt inclined as he gave a mild snicker by her attitude. However, Isandro was reading the recruits' faces rather well. Enlai turned to look at his face but could see that he bowed his head in shame.

Enlai turned to look at one of the display feeds in the interior. The camera on the outside of the shuttle showed the endless vacuum of space. In the extreme distance, he could see the destination of where the vessel was heading to. The Lifen was interesting to look upon. It was a near-frontal point of view from the camera. The spaceship was a gray boxy rectangular looking transport, but it carried a set of wings on the side. Most likely, the ship was capable of atmospheric flight. The entire box structure was a massive storage facility. A set of large doors sat in the bow section. Lined on the top were sets of AIO turrets. Another set of turrets was on the port and starboard bow section near these doors. On the port side was a pair of light railguns mounted on a turret. On the other side of the turret was a secondary bridge section. A jutting primary bridge compartment seemed to be on the dorsal rear of the vessel. Various additional and adjustable vectoring thrusters protruded from the rear and side portions of the hull. The ship was connected to a sizeable rear module. This component had a spinning centripetal rotating ring, power generator assembly, and engine thruster. Altogether, the Lifen must have been a composite-like vessel measuring around 290 meters in length.

"Hey," Enlai questioned all of the recruits with a smile. "What are we really here for?"

"You keep asking that," Dariea asked.

"No. We brought our belongings with us, remember? No...there has to be a reason. Hmm......How were you in boot camp?"

"Me?" She laughed a little bit. "Ha...." She paused for a short while. "I was doing well in the first week, but the drill instructor....she was an absolute bitch. I filled my complaints with the boot camp officials a day ago."

"How was she a bitch?"

She scowled. "Kept complaining about how my hair was tied up. Kept making me do pushups till I....." She seemed hesitant but then felt confident. "I finally had to bitch slap her to tell me to stop. Had drill instructors all over me because of it."

"Wow," Isandro commented. "You actually struck one of the drill instructors?"

"Yeah.....she fucking deserved it."

"Ha, ha," Gavrill broke out in laughter. "You only slap her? Drill instructors are just weak. Try to break you to follow marines. You should have used your fist!" He showed his hand clenched as if he was ready to bash a wall down.

"Isn't.....isn't that bad, though?" Isandro asked. "Aren't we supposed to follow what they tell us to do? I mean....we're at w....."

"Gavrill, listen!" the strong man interrupted him. "I came to pound Itreans. I came to hold a mighty gun as I spray and kill sharkies! It's not my fault that the drill instructors are stupid."

"Yeah....," Dariea added. "Stupid shits. So.....Enlai. What about you? How was your week at boot camp? Didn't pussy out like Isandro, right?" There was already a hint that she was mocking the lanky recruit. It caused Isandro to lower his head and disengage from the conversation.

"Oh, me?" Enlai showed a brazen look on his face. "I was doing good.....'was'....drill instructors just didn't like what I was doing. That's all."

"And that is?" Dariea folded up her arms.

"I was......trying to make Baldrine."

"Oh....ha....," Gavrill nodded his head. "You were smart. Trying to make some good shit, huh?"

"Baldrine?" Isandro questioned.

"Fuck, you never heard of that?" Dariea chuckled. "It's a drug, made out of the boot camp painkillers and a little bit of Hlen'weed. You take a little bit of fire and cook it together, crush it into a powder, and the recruits have something to make you high. Good for trading and gathering favors amongst the others in your division. Of course....drill instructors are getting better at catching that sort of shit."

"You.....you tried to make it?"

"Hell no. Besides, it's hard to smuggle the Hlen'weed in any way and then get access to the pain killers at the same time. It's a bitch to do it, but so worth it. I had one in my division that managed to do it. Fucker never got caught.....yet." She was looking intently at Enlai. "So, you managed to make some? Then you got caught. I bet they ITed your ass, good."

"Oh, they did," Enlai replied. "Of course, I learned how to handle it well. They really got on my case about it. All the extra physical training can't break me, though."

"Bullshit," Gavrill mocked him. "You're weaker than me. You probably tired out in two seconds. Starting crying....like babies." He pointed the thumb at himself. "Not like ol Gavrill. I got strong.....really strong. Drill instructors can't knock me down. I spit in their faces."

"You.....really did that?" Isandro asked.

"Of course! Did it like....oh....three times. They pulled out the level 3 EPT on me. Their yelling and screaming couldn't phase me one bit."

"Level 3?" Enlai was shocked. "They did a level 2 on me before I finally....'broke' down."

Isandro was studying the three in how they were reacting. All of them were boasting about their times in boot camp about getting in trouble. Things were starting to add up. Why were they heading to a transport ship?

"Enlai," Isandro asked him. "Do you notice that all of us have some sort of.....record in our boot camp?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Enlai asked.

"I mean that all of us did something while we were in boot camp. Did they ask you to bring your belongings too?"

"Yes, dammit. We already said that we did." Enlai looked at Gavrill and Dariea, who both gave similar affirmative nods. "Anyways, I did other shit too. Thought that they were just going to kick me out. Getting caught with Baldrine can get you thrown out, regardless if the UWA allows it or not. They just don't allow it in boot camp....'per UHN rules.'" He mocked his last statement.

"So, what did you do, little man?" Gavrill asked Isandro.

"I......I......," Isandro rubbed the back of his head. "I was caught having sex with....one of the other recruits."

"Oh shit!" Dariea seemed impressed. "She must have been good."

"Umm...'he'....actually."

Enlai was about to join in as the other two snickered. However, he could see that Isandro lowered his face a little bit as if he didn't want to say anything. He tried to remain somewhat considerate.

"What level did they EPT you?" Dariea asked.

"Level 3."

"For getting caught having sex?" Enlai questioned. "I had somebody that got caught trying to fool around with the women in my division, but they only gave him level 2. He was like really nailing her in the restroom too. Sounds like your drill instructor was pretty strict."

Once again, Isandro avoided commenting further. Enlai wasn't going to push in his questioning. However, there was something oddly suspicious about how Isandro answered the questions. It was only a mild feeling that quickly passed.

"Something's bad is going to happen to us," Isandro remarked. There was a hint of fear in his voice.