|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tepi|Tepi-3|

11,163,955,738cy

Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tepi-3 Orbit

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What later became known as the Ritik wars was a slow and suffering war. The turbulent movements of the worms caused the terrain to shift, sometimes every hour. Many lives were lost to the under caverns, large stretches of which the worms, or Ritiks, called home. Some of the survivors of the original attack had allowed Command the opportunity to glean some information about this new found threat. While giant, these worms were the juvenile stage of their life, going by the singular large skeleton found by multiple teams. Another theory was that the female, or more reasonably the one that fosters the eggs, are simply larger due to sexual dimorphism. However scientific thought was quickly shut out in the face of obvious aggression even if the worms were simply defending their territory. Fending them off became the obvious priority to the majority of people, even in the face of the worms being the first species recorded to exist naturally on Tepi-3.

Many wondered how the creatures were not found before. Something that size digging into the ground would have been picked up by telemetry devices. Those devices were instrumental in defeating the worms to begin with. The simple answer is hibernation. Waiting for something, perhaps food, to wander close enough to one to wake it up. The movement of one of the worms would easily wake up any in the nearby area. It’s likely that one of the drilling teams caused enough movement to become noticeable to one of the worms which then started a chain. In truth, to this day nobody knows if there are any more worms on Tepi; given the size of the planet it’s very likely though.

Many lives were lost but at the end of the day the undercavern was secured and the colony expanded, rather cautiously, down into the depths. The mourning was great and even today tales are told to children about the planet-crawling Ritiks to keep their behavior in line.

However, that war was nothing compared to the war being waged elsewhere in the sector. During those one hundred and fifty years an outrasector mercenary group entered the fray between the TFS and the Coalition forces on the side of the Coalition. The proud and undaunted forces of the TFS quickly became scrambled and the gust of wind at their backs pushing them towards victory was knocked from them. This was done quite effortlessly by the generations-ahead technology of the mercenaries. These mercenaries were also very experienced, even the logistics personnel had seen more action than most TFS fleet members, though they lacked the discipline of a well maintained military.

World after world fell to the mercenaries, worlds that cost millions of lifes to take from the Coalition that were traded back for millions more. The worlds that were traded were left devastated by the multitude of battles and by the bombardments from the mercenary fleets using weapons that the planets had no way to counteract. Essentially, once the navy lost the planet was considered to have been lost at the same time. Often resulting in bloody and pyrrhic attempts at retreating to the next planet in the defensive line.

The only successful strategies were those used to buy as much time as possible. It was a, perhaps hopeful, measure so that the TFS could reverse engineer as much technology as possible while wearing down the enemy's fleets. Since it was simply a mercenary group any ship they lost could not be replaced, except with the inferior ships of the sector. The second problem was that the mercenary group was not as large as the TFS military and could only spread themselves thin or serve as the speartip of the Coalition. At this point in the war, the Coalition served little purpose other than a garrison for the worlds retaken and to support the mercenary group. Their navies were mainly made up of converted ships from the private sector and only now that they had the help of the mercenaries could they divert resources into rebuilding their fleets with standard military vessels.

For now, the war has stayed within occupied Coalition space and the only worlds affected are Coalition worlds under TFS occupation. However, even TFS’ policy to buy time is being stretched as far as possible and it will reach the point where the battles are being waged in their own space. The war has turned into a race. A race between the mercenaries burning away all opposition and of the TFS turning all of the mercenary ships into husks. It was a race that was a threat to the existence of the nation, though to the people on Tepi-3 it wasn’t a very apparent struggle.

As many colonies before it, the people of Tepi were disconnected from the influence of the TFS on a grand level. They still retain much of the culture but in a few hundred more years it would likely be drastically different. Even simple things like celebrities aren’t shared, with Tepi being largely disconnected from even the basic news of the homeworlds except for when convoys reach the system. For now there are only a few minor differences, most obvious being accent and slang which could serve as the basis for a newly derived language in the future.

Other differences existed in smaller and less impact but all of these shifts resulted in a slightly apathetic view towards the war. They were far away from it as well so they never truly witnessed the destruction wrought by the invaders. So the colony carried on, not paying too much heed to the news of the war.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

#Point of View of Captain of the TFS Tevphos

The command screen flickers and shakes as the ship rocks due to the raw force of the blasts hitting it. The piercing yells and screeches of pain are grating to the ear with their demand for attention. Attention that has to be concentrated to somewhere more important right now, the dangerous make of the enemy's ships. Those ships launched thousands of torpedoes the moment our fleets had engaged, making escape a hazardous journey. One such torpedo hit us squarely on the lateral line of our ship, blinding us to the further raining down of powerful railweapons that created a rhythmic and destructive music.

Many people were sucked into the abyss in that small window of time, and given how handicapped the ship is, it’s very likely that everyone will follow them. We wouldn’t even think about calling in for help from the other ships in the nearby area; most of which are facing the enemy's focus now that we’re momentarily down. It’s standard in these situations to evacuate the ship through the shuttle-works, leaving it to luck but there’s always other options. More endearing to my own sensibilities and somewhat controversial but useful in this kind of war.

My hands leave bloody smudges everywhere they touch, a short-lived legacy and repentance for my sins before they’re washed away by the fury. Everyone still on board this near-wreak feels the same as me. Likely people with no hopeful future after the war, or those whose planet’s will be amongst the first to fall if the enemy breaks through here. The others escaped through the shuttles, leaving their fates to the abyss and our allies.

The cluttering thrum of the engine as my ship pushes forward, towards the enemy, and out of the safety of our fleet makes my face scrunch up, my hair raising and turning a reddish hue. Blood, literally and figuratively, has clouded my eyes long ago. The echoing pain from the wound dying my uniform becomes a slow, dull ebb as I push the override drive controls fully forward.

It becomes obvious to our allies and enemies what we plan to do. Hails and orders from our line to retreat buzz into the comm like a fleet of bugs. The enemy has more of a bite and sends messages of death in the form of lasers and railguns hastily retargeted away from our allies. A lucky shot hits the bridge, the armour absorbs most of the heat but some spikes through the ship’s lines and raw heat jets from my console. The point of no return is reached as my hand yanks back away from the heat, losing total control on the ship as the console fries.

The kaleidoscope of lasers looks like stars zipping past while in warp speed, what a beautiful sight. Of course, instead of the destination of that warp being a luxurious tourist world, homeworld, or even a battlefield it’s instead the enemy ship. My vision begins to darken at the edges and all I can see is the battlecruiser. It wouldn’t be able to escape even if it started to maneuver right now. The fat bug is dead to rights and gives it last defense before we crush into it. Mines explode out of emergency access ports all over its hulls, scattering all over the battle line of the enemy. Some bump into their ships but don’t go off due to IFF, they serve as juicy targets for our allies though.

The mines were a good option if they had launched them when we first started our last journey. Even if a mine were to hit us at this point our wreckage would still do considerable damage to the enemy ship, especially when its emergency ports are still open, exposing the vulnerable structure of their ship.

We were the full focus of the enemy's short-ranged weapons, those built to take out missiles and the small-craft. Though numerous they were quite weak and our allies saw the chance and sent out some wings of missiles towards the enemy. We stood at the head of the wave of quickly catching up missiles. Nothing could stop us at this point and I had nothing left to do. The only thing I could do was wait, wait and reminisce about my family; my wife and children. If our fleet loses this battle then my family will be in danger, the first planet in line to the enemy's warpath.

I didn’t have to think long though. The cacophony of screeching metal sung out like a choir as various points of our ship contacted with the much larger battlecruiser. Explosions followed milliseconds later, a few more after that and the armour of the enemy ship hurried into my vision before consuming it entirely.

#End Point of View

The Battle of Tevphos’s Cheer was a great and rare victory for the TFS. The Tevphos’s mad run which distracted the enemy had allowed the rest of the fleet to organize and one-sidedly blasts the enemy fleet. Not to mention the Tevphos’s self-sacrificing charge into the enemy battlecruiser, which was the command ship for the fleet, had crippled the ship forcing it to retreat and leave the majority of its fleet behind. This battle had caused the most damage to the enemy’s critical and advanced ships, the valuable and irreplaceable ones that they had brought with them outrasector. More importantly it had allowed those on the planet of Verstali, and other planets near the conflict, to flee to other TFS planets. The captain and crew that stayed on the ship became heroes postmortem.

Their victory didn’t last long however. While the mercenaries certainly lost more than they thought they would, hundreds of ships could be spent to replenish that fleet. The folly of this battle would not be repeated and resulted in the enemy adopting a more brutal policy of battle. Ensuring that ships, even those thought to be crippled like the Tevphos, would be blown to scrap to insure that something like this wouldn’t happen again.

The war has already created many such heroes, and many more will no doubt follow. Will the TFS run out of heroes before the mercenaries’ sharp spearpoint dulls? Or will the Tarmon worlds burn under the tyrannic heel of the Coalition and its new, very powerful allies?