My name is Fion le Moykraf, I am the Count of Charshin County and my family is in danger right now. A monster in the form of a woman, no, in the form of a demon, grabbed my wife, my children and threatens to kill them if I don’t do something terrible, namely kill Queen Ilifreeta.
If this bitch lives, my family will die.
That's what she said.
As proof of her “mercy,” the demoness released my son from her clutches, but my wife and my daughter are still in her captivity, and I don’t know what this monster will do to them if I don’t do what she demands.
I was very scared, I was shaking like a beaten dog and thinking about how to get close to the queen and kill her. She is, after all, a queen, she is very seriously guarded and she herself has a punishing hand, which means that you can only kill her by being close and unexpectedly, but I don’t know how to do this!
Walking through my chambers inside the capital's estate, I thought about what I should do, how to get out of this trap, but I could not do anything except decide on it and kill the queen.
A child's cry could be heard in my ears. My son, not forgetting that pain, kept moaning and shedding tears, burying his face in his knees. He was scared, he lacked his mother's affection, but I could not help him. My consolations were not enough. No matter how much I reassured my son, he could not come to his senses, he constantly called his mother, and I also could not sit idly by for long.
"We'll be al-alright."
I lied to myself and to him.
Many days have passed since that ill-fated meeting. I had already established connections with some of the queen’s opponents and together we began to gather like-minded people to commit an assassination attempt, but literally today in my bed after a difficult sleep, as if a terrible warning, I found a piece of black hair. By the smell, I immediately recognized who they could belong to: Tulea, my wife.
Among other things, I smelled blood in my hair. He is so bitter and disgusting, which is why I again trembled in horror, imagining in my head all the pain that my love is experiencing. I was shaking more than ever and, shedding sweat, I thought about how to get out of this terrible situation, how to save my family and how to kill the queen.
She's hurrying me up! She threatens the life of my family! She's torturing her! AND WHAT SHOULD I DO?!
Questions, questions, questions, just these damn questions! I have no idea how to get to the queen and kill her. Although in fact I had a couple of ideas, namely to attack her openly, but then I risk dying. Either way, I took too many risks.
If I die, will the demoness really keep my family alive? She will simply kill them, and then find a new “victim” of her intrigues and bring the matter to an end. I’m just the first victim that comes along and I can simply be replaced at any moment.
And yet the demoness let my son go, which means she keeps her word.
At least that's what I wanted to believe.
Even so, I don’t want my wife and daughter to die at the hands of this monster. I have to do what she told me!
I constantly imagine in my head how my wife, exhausted, cut up, sits in some basement, and her intestines are falling out of her stomach, where a mountain of maggots, worms and flies are in full swing building their kingdom. Such a terrible sight just makes you want to puke.
Grabbing my head, I repeated to myself:
I won't allow this! I will save you, Tulea, the love of my life. Be patient, survive! I'll come back for you!
I was suddenly interrupted from my thoughts by a knock on the door.
"Who is this?"
"Fion, it's me."
I immediately recognized the voice of Rayek, my brother, and hastened to open the door for him. His gaze was stern and at the same time worried.
"Fion, what's going on? Where is your woman and..."
My brother's gaze fell on his crying son, and then on me. I subsequently had to tell him everything so that he would no longer suspect us. He learned about the meeting with the demoness, the kidnapping and the deal, and then I begged him:
"Help me brother."
"Should I help you?"
I nodded.
“Rayek, I can’t take it anymore, time is short! We need to kill her and quickly!”
"Fion, calm down."
My brother grabbed me by the shoulders and sat me down on a chair. I took deep breaths in and out as my heart raced, pounding loudly in my ears.
"Okay brother, I'll help you."
He made a decision quite quickly, for which I was very grateful to him.
"Thank you, Rayek. I-I'm glad you're with me."
"And what do we have?"
I thought about it, trying to remember the connections I had made.
“Some of the palace guards are on our side and are waiting for the moment to attack, but they need an escape route. Several court maids are also involved in this and the aristocrats from the central counties.”
"It's clear."
Rayek nodded, starting to think about something and offered a number of his ideas. Often our thoughts coincided and therefore were quickly cast aside, but then he suggested something unthinkable.
"Brother, I understand how difficult it is for you now, but you will need to wait. Now is not the best time for this."
"But…!"
I tried to object, but Rayek interrupted me.
“Don’t give in to this demoness’s provocations, she’s just rushing you. Your wife and daughter are fine. You just have to wait for a better moment.”
It’s difficult to just wait for the right moment when the demoness is rushing me. I then saw how she strangled my children, and now she can kill my wife and daughter! How could I just wait?!
And I was thinking of yelling angrily at him, when the next moment this “right moment” finally arrived, when a new knock on the door was heard in the chambers.
"Who is this?"
Rayek asked and were very surprised by the appearance of a new guest.
***
Diplomacy is a difficult thing. I understood this while watching General Zeonid and Princess Ilifreeta negotiate. And although their cooperation is largely unequal and often the issue of misunderstanding arises between them, they take a step towards each other and do not allow the relationship to break due to disagreements. You can see how the connection between us is growing, and with it a share of mutual respect.
The general had to spend a lot of time discussing a number of important issues. First Zeonid asked about the kingdom, their people, culture, traditions and peace, and then about everything that was happening at the moment. So the general learned many details about this planet and entered them into the database for general study by the soldiers of the 127th Army.
At the end of the exchange negotiations, the general brought up the topic of resource trading and requested information about the missing people, that is, the platoon C1-2-2D1, which Leo commanded. And of course, information about the “shooting star”, which is the Zeus cruiser that crashed far in the east and which could begin the irreversible process of deterraforming the planet. Fortunately, a month and a half after the crash, we did not notice anything noticeable about the global environmental catastrophe, but who knows when irreversible changes will begin to occur.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Having received a number of information, the general gathered the army command and made a number of key decisions, one of which concerned us and our platoon C1-2-2-D4. A week after our arrival, he gave orders and assembled us in the morning at a camp outside the city. All the units sent here were housed here, including the elite stormtroopers we once wanted to emulate.
While one shuttle was on a mission, the remaining two were located on both sides of the camp and were ready to take off at any moment. These shuttles served as living and working quarters and were ready to be converted into a flight vehicle at any time. There was barbed wire, surveillance cameras and turrets around the perimeter, and in the middle of the camp there was an empty grassy parade ground where I and my entire platoon stood at attention in front of the general and several other officers.
With his arms crossed behind his back, Zeonid made a speech addressed to us. His face was serious and therefore it was difficult to know what he was going to say: either he would thank us for something or sternly reprimand us. In any case, we were serious and swallowed every word that his lips uttered.
"Platoon C1-2-2-D4 remains the last unit of Regiment C1-2-2-D. You are still subordinate to the third division, and therefore must be located at the Pharaoh base and protect it. However, I have decided that you will remain here as a special forces reconnaissance force. You already have experience in combat, daring attacks and contact with local residents, and of course you have all the necessary knowledge for conducting reconnaissance."
Walking from one end of the parade ground to the other, the general stopped right in front of my face and said with the firmness of a seasoned soldier:
"Second Lieutenant Boris Kipito will retain his current rank and receive official uniforms... but only when they are sewn."
A roar of laughter rose in the air, but the general did not shut anyone up, he himself chuckled at his own joke, and then continued:
“Although you do not have proper officer training, I think for your services as a confident commander of your unit, you deserve your current rank. However, you should forget about promotion until you finally undergo officer training, and this will happen when an officer school is built on the basis of Pharaoh.”
The soldiers looked at each other after hearing these words; in essence, they meant that we risked staying here for a long time, since the general was going to build military infrastructure here. However, I guessed about this and still I was very restless inside because I would not be able to see my family for decades.
“I see you have already guessed what I mean. Your guesses are correct: we are here for a long time. We have no resources to return home, no ship, nothing except our strength. The 127th Army of the Republican Armed Forces of humanity is currently the most powerful force on this planet. This will be so if you believe the information we received from the kingdom of Lacuus. The greatest threat to us is only a certain Antigone empire, which is rumored to be more than ten thousand years old. You yourself witnessed how they attacked you and killed dozens of your colleagues. At the moment, it can be considered that the Republic of Earth and the Antigone Empire are in a state of conflict."
Zeonid began to circle again before stopping in front of Ashwani, who was dressed in our uniform. He apparently didn’t really like it, he didn’t follow the military regulations, but fortunately for him, he didn’t need to. The main thing was to find out what happened to him. Zeonid stopped in front of him and finally continued his speech.
"You also have another task ahead of you, namely to find out what happened to Ashwani and find out if he really is a member of the Republic Armed Forces of Humanity."
Zeonid turned away.
"Based on the report of a junior lieutenant: Ashwani was part of the platoon, but suddenly disappeared from reality after he touched a mysterious stone inside a hole in a tree trunk near the crash site of the Persia shuttle. Several members of the platoon confirmed the incident and wrote the same in their reports. The name Ashwani is not in our databases, which means we cannot yet be sure whether this native is really your colleague. In fact, the headquarters put forward a theory..."
And then I pricked up my ears. We thought a lot about what happened then and it all boiled down to the fact that Ashwani, or rather information about him, was erased from reality, there could be no other option. Now we are prepared to hear another theory, which probably contradicts ours.
“Most likely, one of you touched that stone and you were instilled with false memories. The doctors did not notice any significant changes in your nervous system and brain structure, which means that if there was an intervention, it was incredibly surgical. As evidence, the stone materialized a rifle with the index and initials Ashwani. The theory sounds crazy, I know that, but you already know how absurd everything that is and is happening on this planet is. So I think there is a place for such an assumption.”
We stood in a stupor when we heard Zeonid’s words. The very idea that all those memories about Ashwani were lies really scared us. How anomalous is this planet that it was able to instill these memories in all those... who were close to that tree and that stone.
But really...
The more I think about it, the more convincing this theory seems. Why did the stone erase the memories of everyone who was far from it, and not vice versa? Could something so powerful simply exist? Rather, it happened exactly as the general said. It is we who have been given false memories of Ashwani. It's entirely possible that the stone created the rifle as evidence to make us believe all this, but what about the occupancy of the shuttle? Why did the shuttle carry 499 people instead of 500? Could we really have missed one person during the evacuation from the ship?
If this is so... then why? Who or what needed this? Did someone really know that we would meet Ashwani and this someone wanted us to take him with us? Isn't he just an ordinary native? Maybe he's actually hiding something?
Oh Sod.
From such thoughts I even began to pray to the local deity. It all seemed too crazy. Zeonid, meanwhile, did not stop:
"Since this is just a theory, I'm thinking of considering Private Ashwani a native to be the first to enlist in the Republic Human Forces. Congratulations."
From this point of view, we have not essentially lost him, but at the same time we will be able to observe him. It is quite possible that someone wanted Ashwani to enter our service and perhaps give a start to our starting to replenish our forces at the expense of the local population. On the other hand, Ashwani could be a pawn or even a spy to monitor our activities, but it is too early to make such assumptions.
Meanwhile, we clapped our hands congratulating Ashwani on his enlistment in the 127th Army of the RVCh. The general handed him blue shoulder straps on which the number “0” was carved in white. This means that he is a recruit and will undergo training for the time being before he is allowed to perform combat missions.
I was curious to know where and who would train one single recruit, and then the general’s gaze fell on me:
"Second Lieutenant Boris Kipito, Recruit Ashwani is being transferred to your command. He knows the terrain better than us. So don't let him lose and train him properly. Is the order clear?"
"Yes, sir."
I answered.
"Okay, that's all. At ease. Everyone is free."
After these words, everyone began to disperse, and in the meantime I hurried to the general to ask a number of questions.
"And how is this to be understood?"
I asked Zeonid, to which he answered quite seriously.
“We will stay here for a long time, no one knows exactly how long. While you were here, we suffered huge losses in battles with xorxs and we need reinforcements.”
"And you decided to make up for the losses with the local population?"
The general nodded.
"Do we have a choice? We risk getting into a whole series of conflicts where we could lose even more people. In ten, twenty or thirty years, someone will have to fly back to Earth, but who will be alive by that time? Will any of us remain at all? I will be honest with you, Boris, I absolutely do not care about the lives of the local residents, all these natives. We are stuck here because of an anomaly unknown to us, the nature of which we simply cannot determine, and there are hundreds or even thousands of intelligent species on this planet, trapped here just like us, but what's even worse is that they have degenerated and are stuck here forever."
After these words, the general’s decision became more logical and correct for me. And although we may be safe in the desert, some resources are lacking there, which means we will invade the lands of the natives in order to obtain resources that are useful to us. We are almost guaranteed to suffer losses, given what we have seen here. We may face an even greater force than we currently have, including the remnants of the Pantora Empire, our greatest enemy.
“Boris, you know, you said it yourself, that there could be pantorians here. And although we didn’t notice their direct presence here, they could leave behind dangerous technologies.”
The general’s gaze rose upward and, following him, I saw in the sky one of the three gray moons of this planet. It was tiny, even smaller than the Moon in Earth's sky, perhaps due to the fact that it was simply further away or maybe due to the fact that it was actually smaller in size.
“Three hundred years ago, Naltea died. You remember that, right?”
I nodded and began to guess what he was talking about.
The death of the planet Nalthea. The population is 17 billion people and the same number of victims. During the Pantorian war, they miraculously managed to kill the pantorian general, but his body remained lying in the rubble of heaps of bodies and seven hundred years later, someone found the general’s body and a pantorian device on the pantorian’s left hand, which is popularly called the “reality glove.”
The owner of this device could influence reality with the power of thought, but it consumed too much energy. In general, someone intentionally or accidentally decided to move the moon in the sky, after which it changed its trajectory and collided with the planet.
Only a few million people were evacuated on ships on that ill-fated day; the majority could not be saved; they perished along with the planet. I remember at school they showed a recording of the collision of the moon and the planet.
People who escaped from Nalthea saw how their home, where they were born and lived all their lives, perished only because someone decided to move the moon in the sky closer to Nalthea. Knowing this story, I quickly guessed what Zeonid was talking about.
"If the locals repulsed the Pantorians, they probably left behind their destructive weapons. Under no circumstances should they exist."
Zeonid nodded.
"That's right. By Republic law, as part of our obligations with the interstellar confederation Fucult, we are required to search for and destroy all pantorian technology. Their use is strictly prohibited. Even if we find a pantorian ship here and are able to control it... we still must destroy it."
So terrible were those times and so hateful were these creatures that any reminder of them that words or their artifacts should be eliminated. Even if the natives do not know this, they are also bound to be destroyed if they are caught using pantorian technology.
All this was scary and yet we need to remain human, this is our main task. What will be the point of returning if bloodthirsty monsters and not people return home? None. Therefore, the general decided to start recruiting natives into service so that they would die, and not us. Therefore, we will fight with the natives to collect all the resources we need.
This nightmare will not end.
Soon, a communications officer suddenly ran up to us, or rather to the general, with panic on his face:
“Sir, a message has just been received: there is fighting in the palace!”
"WHAT?!"