Sheffali's Caravan

The moment he dismounted, the bird's legs unlocked, and it dropped to the sand, exhausted. He shook his head and slipped quietly around the last dune to see the last wagon of the Sheffali caravan. He smiled as no one was in sight. They were probably wailing over the dead families.

A shrill whistle sounded from the wagon, and he ran forward into the open space just in time to see the Sheffalis scatter. He looked to the wagons and spotted the barrels of many rifles pointing at him.

He turned on the suit's loudspeakers. "Lorrenz Sheffali. You're wanted for the murder of Commander Gorresh. Turn yourself in now, and no one else needs to get hurt." He boosted the gain on his external microphone to hear their whispers, but there was only silence.

He scanned over the controls for the armor's weapons but couldn't decide which one to use. He finally selected the railgun as it sounded dangerous.

Lorrenz and Lissan slowly walked out from behind a wagon.

Pinorra was delighted yet surprised at how easily this was happening. He stood before the older couple, who were side by side facing him down from three wagon lengths away. He knew his weapons would have no issues at that range.

Maybe gunfights weren't as frightening as he thought.

-=-

The older couple stepped out from behind the wagon. "North-east," Lissan whispered. She noticed the helmet on the suit swing toward her.

"Take him," Lorrenz whispered back.

Lissan drew and fired in under a second. Her oversized round went through the scope on the energy rifle and exited through the back of the sniper's head.

Lorrenz saw the armored arm rising, so he drew his own weapon and fired, hitting the suit center mass. The strength of the impact knocked his target back, but there was no penetration, not even a scratch. He fired another round at the same spot, and again the suit was kicked backward. Its arm was now pointing skyward, and its shot went there. Lissan joined in, and the noise was deafening as boom after boom echoed across the little valley. The soldier in the battle suit wasn't getting a chance to point his weapon at them.

Lissan whistled, then everyone on the caravan opened fire on the suit. They knocked him from his feet under the hail of bullets, but it didn't look like any were getting through the super-tough shell.

They were in trouble.

-=-

Pinorra was screaming in terror, rage, pain, and frustration. He struggled to keep himself on his feet under the bombardment. He struggled to fire back, but the weapon he'd chosen was too slow to load and fire, and he was jerked around so much he couldn't point the damn thing at the old couple when he could fire it!

Worse, he couldn't find the control to turn the volume down on the suit's microphone. The noise inside the helmet prevented him from thinking straight, and his ears hurt. The impacts hurt as well, but the armor wasn't letting anything through. He'd be bruised, though.

When he got knocked onto his back, he took a moment to rest and try to get control back. There was another sharp whistle, and the gunfire suddenly stopped. He twisted and managed to sit up. The old couple was nowhere to be seen. Something dropped with a soft thud in the sand behind him. He tried to turn to face it when the grenade went off.

That impact and noise took him down into a dark pit he didn't think he'd be returning from.

When his eyes registered sunlight once more, it was colored with warm afternoon tones. He tried to activate the weapons once more, but there was... nothing. He glanced down. He was naked!

"The traitor awakens."

He tried to move to see the speaker, but he was staked to the ground! Then she walked into view.

Gorresh! She was wearing his body armor!

"Thank you for the battle suit. Seriously, it looks better on me than it did on you. I removed Hresh's kill switch before putting it on, of course. You knew he intended to kill you once you eliminated the Sheffali Family, didn't you? Of course not."

"How... how are you alive?" Pinorra muttered.

"You mean after you put the bomb in my office?" she asked, and he nodded stupidly.

"I saw you were in early when I arrived. You're never early. When I got into my office, I spotted the light on my desk showing a power source had been brought into my office. I had a split second to escape, so I leaped out my window into the trees below. Even then, I barely avoided the explosion. Valri, my assistant, didn't."

An armored boot slammed into his groin, and he wished the darkness had taken him. Once he'd finished retching, he weakly looked up at the Commander.

"That was for her," Julla growled. "I kept in touch with my loyal people, playing dead while I watched you try to consolidate your power. You suck at that as no one trusts you. Hresh sending you the power armor was the trigger for me to act. The moment you left, I returned to headquarters and arrested all the people you put in charge. Thank you for identifying the rot for me."

Pinorra squirmed as his hate for this bitch fought against his need to survive. He saw a way out of this. "It was Hresh's idea! You were threatening his business!"

She smiled down at him. "I know Hresh wants me dead. I also know who's supplying him with the toys to make it happen." She gestured to the battle armor then moved her face closer to his. "I'm also aware of how you contacted Hresh with a work terminal to ask him for help. I know what you offered to him in return."

"You can't prove that was me!" Pinorra cried.

She shook her head in disgust as she straightened up. "You offered him a Gate Pass. I checked, and there's only one active pass on Llevven, and guess what I found in your pocket when we stripped your clothes off?" She held up the Gate Pass. "You murdered the original owner of this. We're going to start at your home and tear your life apart to find every dirty little secret. We'll dig them out."

Pinorra couldn't suppress the involuntary twitch when she said dig.

Her expression became one of icy rage. "You buried her in your... basement."

Her guess caused another twitch, though he tried so hard to remain stone-faced. He was suddenly retching his guts out as her boot found his tender genitals once more.

It took longer for him to recover this time. When he was finally coherent, he lifted his eyes to see her standing at his feet next to someone in a robe that covered their head and face. A Chaos caste? He thought of the Master Vet in the Sheffali household. Why would she be there?

"I'm ready to present your initial charges. Murder of Kalli Mrissa, murder of Valri Looren, attempted murder of your Commander, Julla Gorresh. There will be further charges laid as the case unfolds, but as these three charges carry the death penalty, I will pronounce sentence with my authority as a Fleet Commander." She looked into his terrified eyes. "Guilty." She nodded to the hooded one next to her, and they dropped the veil and pushed the cowl back.

Pinorra was suddenly trapped in his worst nightmare. He'd joined the military to avoid prison and get off the planet, but after they showed him what he'd be fighting, in his terror, he'd used every dirty trick in the book to get assigned to ground duty. Now it was standing before him, opening its horrifying jaws until all four shook as it roared at him. His bowels released in his mindless terror, then he screamed in agony as the beam of energy fired from the Commander's armor gauntlet burned its way into his skull and cooked his brain.

Death finally took him away.

-=-

"Was that really necessary? I found it very disturbing," Zell said to the Commander as he tried to get his fur to settle.

She looked at him in surprise. "You took out over thirty combatants, and you found that disturbing?"

He nodded. "I wasn't trying to terrorize them, just kill them. They were paying their debt to the ones they betrayed and murdered, the Krattos and Sprell families. I don't enjoy killing. I'm just good at it."

"Pinorra was directly responsible for the death of my young secretary and another young woman whose grandparents wanted her to experience the finer things in life. Instead, she was murdered and buried in his basement. Who knows how many other deaths will be linked to him. He deserved to go out that way," Julla insisted firmly.

She looked at him with a curious expression. "What do you enjoy?" she asked.

"Being with my family. The peace of a desert. Nature of all kinds." He looked at her cautiously. "What will happen to my family now that you know about me?"

Julla gestured for Lorrenz and Lissan to join them.

She looked back at Zell. "I'm responsible for the deaths of so many of your people because I believed in the lies of our leaders. I was a good little soldier and did my duty to defend against a race I was told was our mortal enemy. When it finally became clear that the orders I was receiving weren't just or honorable, I refused to continue their war. They stripped me of my command and have been trying to silence me ever since. They've pushed me as far as it's possible to go.

I just want what's best for the Borrelian people, but it's clear that the Rulers have an agenda that only provides for a select group. Through my limited network of contacts I've maintained in the military, I've learned that once the habitable planets in the Ush home system are cleared, there will be a mass forced migration of the Borrelian people, enforcing new and more severe caste restrictions. Your parents will be affected by that." She gave him a moment to process that, then continued.

"This has to end. The Borrelian Rulers need to be removed. The caste system needs to be abolished. Gates need to be added to all planets, and people need the freedom to go where they want. The benefits of being connected to the Gate Network need to be granted to all Borrelians. I believe you have a destiny to save your people, those who remain. We must stop the extinction of the Ush! Are you ready to face this challenge?"

Zell looked at his parents and saw their worry for him and their fear of the new caste restrictions. He looked to the Commander and saw what the Borrelian people really needed. A powerful leader with a solid core of empathy for the people, be they Borrelian or Ush. Someone like his parents.

"What do I need to do?" he asked.

Julla gave him a relieved smile. "All you need to do is leave Borrelian space, and I've got just the thing," she said as she held up the Gate Pass.

Zell looked at the unfamiliar card and blinked in confusion at the Commander.

She looked embarrassed. "Sorry, I thought you would recognize one of these, but of course, you've never seen one." She took a breath. "This gets you into a Gate Terminal on a primary world. Then you get to save your people."

Zell realized he was being asked to be a hero for more than just his family. For the first time in his life, he could do more than just exist to maintain some presence for the Ush people. He could save... some. The war had been going on for so long. Were any left? He suddenly felt the pressure of time, and that was unfamiliar. To save his people, time was of the essence. He looked over at the almost panicked expression on Noola's face. His heart felt tight in his chest.

He looked to the Commander. "I need a moment." She nodded.

Zell walked over to Noola and put his arm around her to guide her behind the wagon for some privacy.

"You're going away," she said before he had a chance to speak.

"Yes. I've been given a chance to save the remaining Ush population. I don't know how this will work, but if there is even the smallest chance, I have to try," he said gently.

"I'm never going to see you again--"

"NO! I will return. This is my home! The Sheffalis are my family! I-I love you!"

Noola looked in his eyes and saw he meant it. She pulled his face to hers and kissed him fiercely. When she pulled back, she continued to hold his face, and his head was spinning. "You will keep your promise to me!"

"Yes!" he gasped as his heart soared.

"Go. The next time you see me is when you return to me." She ran back toward the last wagon and didn't look back. He could tell she was crying.

Zell rejoined his parents, and Lorrenz handed him the Ush book, which he always carried with him in his pocket.

He looked at his father and hugged him and his mother. "I love you both." He looked at the sad faces of the other family members watching. "I love my family. I love Llevven, my home, but I must try to save the Ush." He turned to face the Commander. "Who will protect my family while I am away?"

She looked at the six soldiers she'd brought with her. "Volunteers to travel with the caravan to protect them from bandits?"

Six hands went up, and six faces burst into grins. All were armed with energy weapons and looked very confident they could deal with any bandit threat. She looked back at Lorrenz, Lissan, and Zell. "Will six be enough?"

"Compared to my son, not nearly enough, but I graciously welcome their help," Lorrenz said with a smile to take the sting from his words. He looked at the five Krattos wagons. "We'll be bringing these wagons with us and add two extra Druug to each team. We should be quite the sensation when we reach the west coast cities."

"We'll take the Sprell wagons back, linked together with their remaining three Druug," Zell said. His family nodded and jumped to make it happen. They determined the loads in the other wagons were secured for running the Druug, which spared them the grief of reloading them.

Zell finally got to eat, and they gave him a quiet place to rest while the others went about making preparations for the journey onwards and back.

When they were ready to head back to Mnemmesh, Zell was woken, and he hugged his parents, then gave one to each family member except Noola, who remained in her wagon. He climbed up to drive the wagon as the Commander had no experience with that. They had just enough light to reach the previous night's rest stop. His parents would head off in the morning.

As they rolled out of the desert back into the grassland, Zell looked at Gorresh. The afternoon sunlight was gleaming off her armor, but she kept the helmet off to enjoy the breeze. She smiled at him.

"I'm so glad I found you," she said.

He looked into her eyes and saw... relief. "Why?"

"For so many cycles, I've been looking for a way to strike back at the Borrelian Rulers, but they've had too much power and riches coming in from the Gate. You are going to change that. The truth will set us free."

Zell returned his attention to the Druug and thought about her words. He thought she was... overly ambitious. He smiled to himself because sometimes that worked out.

"What's our first move?" he asked.

"We need to get you on an intersystem spaceflight to Hessani. The thing is, the Llevven's spaceport is Hresh's territory. He controls the smuggling through the port, so it's not exactly a safe place to go," she explained.

He glanced at her again, waiting for her to continue.

"We're going to visit Hresh and convince him to stop being a criminal. He was the last one on my list. His criminal network will rapidly crumble with the head cut off," she explained. "He made a serious mistake bringing a powered armor battle suit to a planet with me on it," the Commander chuckled.

"How dug in is he?" Zell asked as the picture was becoming clearer for him.

"He's surrounded by the largest, meanest Borrelian enforcers I've ever seen. There are at least six outside on the grounds and likely more inside. He never leaves his mansion, and it's lit up with spotlights at night. It's almost like he's afraid of the dark," she said.

Zell looked at the commander and saw her smile as she contemplated the battle ahead. He wondered if she'd felt this thrill when she was hunting his people. As she'd thought she was protecting the Borrelian citizens, he imagined she did.

Maybe this was the difference between Borrelians and the Ush. He felt no anticipatory excitement about the killing he'd have to do. Even when he was targeting the bandits and mercenaries, it was just something he felt was necessary to do to protect his family and get retribution for the dead. There was no enjoyment in the act. He didn't need the thrill to complete the task. It just needed to be done, so he did it the best way he could.

He'd always faced his targets outside the city's boundaries, so urban warfare was not one of his strengths. He'd take any advantage he could. "How dark can you make the area?"

She nodded as she contemplated her plan. "I'll cut the power grid, his comm and network access, and take out the backup generator in the shed next to his house." She paused a moment to consider the optimal time. "We'll strike in the early hours of the morning. The darkness will be absolute."

He nodded to her as that would help.

Hresh was just one more obstacle in the goal of saving his people.

Chapter 9

Zell walked calmly along the broad sidewalk between the Hessani spaceport and the Gate Terminal. He had an ugly orange badge pinned to his robe, showing he was In Transit which allowed him to be on the primary world for a brief time to move between the transport systems.

Covered by his cowl and his face covering, he looked like any other Shaded Caste traveler. He was carrying the forged papers he was given by Gorresh that identified him as such, but so far, those around him barely acknowledged his presence.

The few times an inhabitant of Hessani looked in his direction, he'd paid close attention to their expressions. Most had simply been curious as fully cloaked citizens were likely a rare sight. The few times their expression displayed discomfort, distaste, or even disgust, invariably it was from individuals who showed visible signs of being high caste citizens.

He thought Julla Gorresh was setting herself up for quite a task, tearing away the foundations of this irrational belief of superiority based on an arbitrary ranking of skin tone uniformity.

While he was doing his part, she would launch her own initiative on Llevven. The people were about to hear the news about their Rulers' plans to uproot them from their lives and homes. They would learn the truth about their war against a peaceful neighboring system, the attempted genocide of its people, and the lies that fed the baseless fear. They would know how little effort it would take to get all the benefits of the Gate Network on each world. Better healthcare. Reduced infant mortality rates. Better living conditions. Better education for their families. Better tools to make a better life for all Borrelians.

This message would flow from the bottom upwards, and they would know it was coming from someone the people already trusted. They knew she was there for them.

Her contacts in the military were already moving to get ships dedicated to protecting the revolution.

The Commander would be very busy, but she told him all her efforts would be meaningless if he failed to achieve his objective.

The Gate terminal came into view, and he went over the plan in his mind once more. Julla had thoroughly explained how the Gate Pass process worked. It was an artifact of the Borrelian Rulers as the Tik made access to the Gates free to all citizens of the worlds they were on. The sentient mechanical life forms would not be pleased to know the Rulers had implemented the pass system. As they were restricted to the interior of the buildings and had been informed they should not interfere with Borrelian culture, they didn't know.

He'd been told the Tik were very polite and protective of culture and life especially. Zell was rather eager to meet one. But that was the trick. Getting to meet one. They were relegated to the Cargo Gates. That's where Julla directed him to go once inside. It was the most critical part of the plan, after the one he was now facing.