Space Faction (eBook)

1

The Decagon, a galaxy that was once a sanctuary for the outcasts, the frail, and the uncelebrated heroes of decades past, was now riddled with war and terror. Ten inhabited planets at the periphery of familiar space saw more loss than ever—people, flora, and fauna. Most living beings in the Decagon walked through destruction and fought for hope, but every victory was fleeting. With a galactic war raging for centuries and for an unknown origin, continuing to fight became less about power and more about survival. However, not everyone was aware of that. Within planet Darcya, the faction leader called the Crystal Resistance believed that he and his soldiers could restore his home to what it once was—rivers that weren’t polluted with toxic chemicals and marketplaces that sold art, technology, and comforting goods instead of weapons and sustenance. The general’s name was Vince Starflight.

Vince was relatively young among his followers, but he was just as battle-hardened as the rest. What drove soldiers to follow him was that he stood alongside them on the battlefield—his ideas and calculative perception were secondary. Vince was a leader that his soldiers knew. He sat with them, shared drinks and laughs with them, and carried their dismembered but alive bodies to shelter. When it came down to it, Vince was a man who never left another behind. As rational as he was, he was driven by an almost rigid sense of morality when it came to protecting his own people. The same could not be said, however, about those who stood against his ideas.

“Sir, come take a look at this,” Vernon Bakowsky, captain of the Crystal Resistance, approached Vince. Vernon was a rhandian, a race of humanoid beings that immigrated and settled at Daryca a millennia ago. He had bright red skin, matted silver hair, and white patterns on his face—thin lines stretching across his forehead and down the cheeks. Over the years, his ancestors integrated with humans and made this planet their home. Whatever tensions there may have been before the war were non-existent when both humans and rhandians united against common enemies—the people of the other nine planets of the Decagon.

Vince nodded and followed the captain into the tent, where they busily reevaluated their plan for the ongoing attack. The sounds of explosions from a distance rang in his ears as he walked under the chilly night sky in the encampment. As soon as he entered the command center, hopeful eyes looked at him. On the table before them was a green hologram—a skeletal but accurate representation of their ongoing battle against the Tarfiens. The Tarfiens, from the planet Tarfa, were known for their brutality during the war. They operated on the belief that mercy against the enemy, even if it is one person, compromises their position of power, laying the seeds of deposition. Thus, the Tarfiens were absolute in their adherence to and application of the military rule, which was arguably the case with all factions’ leaders, Vince included.

“We believe we’ve found a way to stop the Tarfien starship before it closes in on our airspace,” a commander of combat operations, Ursula Jardenian, said. “If we deploy a stealth cruiser from the Harbinger moon, we can get two soldiers inside to disable their attack cannons, leaving them defenseless against Strike Force One from the front...”

“Do we know how to disable the cannons?” Vince interrupted.

“Yes, Jaime from Cyber Operations managed to secure the plans to their starship, among a few other of their fighters.”

“Go on.”

“The weapons control center on the port side of their vessel. Our Stealth Operations specialists will come in from the left as soon as the ship is eighty degrees from the moon.”

“Eighty degrees? Won’t that mean that the Tarfien starship will be too close to Darcya for a nuclear option?”

“…Yes. But we’re confident that our Stealth Operations specialists can disable the cannons and retreat successfully, giving us enough time to take the starship out with Strike Force One.”

“So, you’re suggesting that we leave the fate of our home, our freedom, in the hands of two of our operatives? Who the hell are they anyway?”

“Ingrid Riley and Lalo Penn, sir. They’re the best we have, and they showed their mettle at the Battle of the Onyx Mines.”

“That was them? Impressive.” Turning to the hologram in front of him, Vince said, “Rentyke, what do you estimate the chances of this plan to be?”

“Sir, I don’t think we should let the numbers make this decision for…” Ursula interrupted.

“Let the computer speak, commander,” Vince reprimanded. Rentyke was the artificial intelligence system that ran everything on Darcya. It was named after its creator’s wife, who perished early in their marriage after a traffic accident caused by a faulty traffic light system. Determined to improve the transit system, Ger Hans created Rentyke to prevent other people from sharing the same fate of his wife. Since then, Rentyke had evolved and started to look after other bureaucratic processes, ensuring that life ran smoothly on the planet. Ever since the war began, however, Rentyke mostly helped the Crystal Resistance with their battles.

“Considering the two stealth operatives have to travel in a shuttle that has a three percent chance of cloaking failure, have only seven and nine years of experience in the field, need to maintain a calculated speed and trajectory, must enter the automated control center undetected, which won’t have anyone guarding the space according to our assessments, and then Strike Force One has to take down the Tarfien starship, I would estimate the chances at um…carry the one on top…I’m just kidding…sixty percent,” Rentyke said.

“Sixty percent of success is not good at all,” Vince bowed his head with worry.

“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t clear. There’s a sixty percent chance of failure.”

“Then why the hell are we even discussing it?”

“Well, fighting the Tarfien starship head-on does have a sixty-seven percent success rate, but we would most likely lose at least twenty pilots and gunners,” Rentyke added.

Vince ran his hand through his hair and scratched the scalp. He looked up and saw several eyes on him but didn’t say anything yet.

“I really feel like taking the stealth-based approach will pay off,” Ursula said.

“All right, let’s do it. I’m not going to sit here and treat my soldiers, men and women who’ve fought consistently, bravely, and unrelentingly for their freedom, as disposable,” Vince iterated. “Ready the shuttle on the Harbinger moon and tell the two operatives to get to battle stations. Lieutenant General, gather Strike Force One. We’re leaving in five. Let’s blow these Tarfien motherfuckers out of the sky.”

Vince walked out of the command center and toward the runway. He started his military career as a pilot in the Crystal Resistance—a young boy looking to make a difference for his family and his planet. Many have argued that his first battle was what transformed him into the sharp, calculated, and stoic but earnest leader that they’ve come to know. In his first mission, he missed a shot that cost his superior officer’s life, and even though it was an honest mistake, he couldn’t help but feel responsible. So, even after years of training, service, and climbing the ranks, Vince rode alongside his squadron, leading them through battle in space.

“Yo, Penn, what’re you gonna tell your kids about this op? Do they know that daddy’s gonna blow a whole starship?” Ingrid Riley teased her fellow soldier.

“I actually avoid talking about the war to them. Yes, I know it’s right in front of them, but I’d just rather they didn’t have such a bleak outlook on life right away.”

Ingrid nodded at Lalo as she packed her gear for the mission ahead on the Harbinger moon. The two of them worked together for only two operations in the past, but their combined expertise and adaptability made them a formidable team on both occasions. There were, of course, the sporadic disputes, but in a world so consumed by war, consistent harmony among soldiers seemed stranger than conflict.

“Do I look like a stinkin’ Tarfien?” Lalo tried to take a bit of the pressure of saving a planet off him through juvenile humor.

“Sure do, mate,” Ingrid chuckled. “Let’s just hope these disguises and the bypass codes get us in and out of the ship. If not, well, I guess we had a good run.”

“Ever the optimist.”

Ingrid grinned and patted his back. Lalo put on his helmet and walked beside her toward the exit.

The Tarfien starship was moving toward Darcya at a consistent pace, and before long, it would be eighty degrees from the Harbinger moon. Ingrid and Lalo took their places in the shuttle, packing provisions for the half-day long operation. They didn’t just have to reach the position in time, but they also had to disable the cannons and leave the starship before it got too close to Darcya. Too close and blowing the starship would result in casualties at home.

“Let’s do this,” Ingrid said as she took the captain’s seat. She was the commanding officer on this operation, and what she said, Lalo had to follow—their ranks didn’t matter until they returned safely and successfully to the Harbinger moon.

“Yeah.”

“C’mon, don’t get nervous on me, mate. We’ll get through this. You do trust me, right?”

He raised his...