Humanity is Doomed. Earth is in flames, yet humans foolishly continue to vie and struggle for...
Guardian Spirits
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User Total Elmithian 5
Character
Elmithian
Cherno Alpha's fists are nothing to laugh at
- Location
- Iceland
Just before I start the prologue let me introduce you to the "hero" of this story
This is our lovely protagonist, Letizia Bailar, otherwise known as Zia.
This is merely how she looks at the start of the story. Her appearance may and will change as time passes.
Her appearance also plays a large factor in the story so keep out an eye for that.
More info will be revealed as the story continues.
This is merely how she looks at the start of the story. Her appearance may and will change as time passes.
Her appearance also plays a large factor in the story so keep out an eye for that.
More info will be revealed as the story continues.
Prologue
Elmithian
Cherno Alpha's fists are nothing to laugh at
- Location
- Iceland
Prologue
What was this place? Last thing she remembered was the air raid sirens going off... then nothing. Just darkness. Then she had woken up here, in this weird, bright, prison like room. She had already checked every nook and cranny and hadn't found any indication of an exit at all. She crossed her arms, irritated, she was used to getting into trouble, but this felt a bit beyond her pay grade.
With nothing better to do, she took another look at the room. For a prison cell (at least she assumed it was some kind of cell) it was quite comfortable. The bed was soft and comfy, and there seemed to be ventilation so at least she wouldn't choke to death, there were also some clothes in her size lined up in the closet behind the mirror. The only issue anyone might have was how small it was. It didn't allow much space for movement of any sort, if she had been claustrophobic this might have been an issue but personally she preferred cramped spaces like this. They felt comforting.
She moved her fingers in a familiar pattern, nothing. She clicks her tongue in annoyance. Her suit was powered down, even her internal circuits were non-responsive, which should be impossible. The internal circuits should partially be charging just by her moving. Although she suspected that even if she somehow managed to get it to work it wouldn't be of much help. Sighing she let herself fall on the bed, kicking her legs back and forth in annoyance. Would it have killed her captors to have at least something to do in here? Anything would do! Even reading an old fashioned paper book would have been better than staring at the blindingly white ceiling, doing nothing. This was torture, pure and simple! If the Geneva conventions hadn't been rifted ages ago she would have said that her captors were inhuman.
A bitter smile spread across her lips, heh, like there were many humans human at this point. Morality had been thrown out of the window long time ago, or so her father had said, dead eyes and all, before leaving her to fight in the Wars. She traces a finger down the pillow absentmindedly. Zia didn't like that memory. She remembers when she had been a lot younger that the first thing that he had taught her was that being human meant that you cared. Not just cared for yourself, but cared for the well being of others.
But that had been before the country got dragged into the conflicts ravaging everyone. Once that occurred, her father became a "volunteer" for the "cause", the light in his eyes slowly fading away, replaced by blank stares and unending nightmares. When she heard that he had finally died in battle she had felt relief rather than sorrow. Finally he was free from those pointless bickers that were called wars. She had been 14 at the time of his death.
Her mother... well, the left said about her the better, Zia had been deeply grateful when her father divorced her mother and left with her. She hadn't been a nice person. Wherever her mother might be, Zia hoped that she was being as miserable as she had been to Zia those 5 years they had lived in the same house as that monster.
Flickering her eyes she tried that hand pattern again. Nope, nothing. She sighs, maybe her captors were actually trying to make her go insane with boredom? Zia chuckles at her own impatience. She couldn't really understand how people could cope with doing completely nothing for hours upon hours eons ago. Jumping back to her feet she began to warm up her body. She kind of hated doing this but it was better than pure boredom. Taking a stance she start going through the movements. As expected, she was quite stiff. She hadn't done this for almost 5 years, or since the death of her father's.
In mere minutes she was already out of breath. Not wanting sweat to set into her clothes she takes them off before fetching those that were hanging in the closet. She was vaguely aware that there might be someone watching but she didn't care. Let them stare all they want, she doubted that they had any intention of harming you at this point. You didn't put your enemy into a room such as this. You put them in a soggy, disgusting place where their psyche would slowly be broken down. Whoever her captors were they had other intentions. Now, was there anything else than white clothes in there...
30 minutes later
She allows herself to crumble onto the bed, exhausted. It had drained her much more than she had expected. Who knew that taking 5 years break from something as physically demanding as CQC training could tire oneself so much? She laughs tiredly at the thought. There was also this small sense of irony that her father had been teaching her Muay Thai since she was small. Last time she checked, this "sport" was quite lethal.
When she was 11 she had asked him why he was teaching her a killing sport, he had simply laughed and told her there was huge difference between learning something that can kill and learning something with the intention to kill. He never explained his reasoning better than that, the damn fool. Sighing deeply Zia hugs her pillow. At times like this she missed the old man terribly. He, with all his antics, had been everything to her. Zia squeezes the pillow, shaking her head furiously, what was the point of getting all mushy now? She stares bitterly at the ceiling. She blamed it on this cell, when one had nothing but their own thoughts to pass the time with, the brain tended to wander down the darker roads of the mind. Or maybe it was simply because she had been doing something she associated with her childhood for a good half an hour?
She sighs again. Better change, she wasn't fond of wearing sweaty clothes. Thankfully the room had running water and she was pretty confident she had seen towels in the closet....
3 hours later
She was bored, so booored! Zia didn't like having nothing to do and the complete silence was killing her! If this continued she might end up like the people that write on the walls with their own blood. Was that their goal perhaps? To drive her insane by boredom? Zia laughs at the thought. This was the second time she had thought that and the idea still sounded silly. Her smile wanes. How long time would have to pass until that thought was no longer a joke? She shakes those depressing thoughts out of her head and start inspecting the room again. There must be some indication of a door...
9 hours later
With a start Zia wakes up. Something bright was in her eyes. Weird, her sleep addled brain thought, I was sure I turned off most of the lighting when I went to sleep. She blinks couple of times, her vision returning, leading to her gasping from surprise as she is faced with a large muddled figure standing in front of her bed. "What do you want?" Zia demands as she moves a bit further to the other end of the bed where her clothes were neatly folded.
No response. That wasn't a good sign.
She quickly puts on her clothes, turning her back to the figure standing in the room. Preparing to fight back as she fully expected them to assault her. But nothing of such nature occurred. When she finishes donning her suit, she turns around and is startled by the person's appearance. She had expected a man in uniform, not a soldier in full exoskeleton.
When she stares at him he gives her the universal sign of 'follow me' with his hand, the gun in said hand was also quite motivating. Before Zia can get in front of him he starts walking, slightly surprised she follows him out of the room... wait those doors weren't there before... were they? She wonders at the back of her mind. Looking around in wonder the well lit, white octagonal hallway, quickly discovering that even if the place as bright, there were no signs of any sorts of lighting at all. Her train of thought is quickly broken by the sounds of multiple footsteps in her vicinity. She looks around but doesn't see anyone, or at least not until they reach a small hallway.
There she is greeted by a large a number of people, just as surprised and confused as she was, all accompanied by a fully armed soldier of their own. As she is guided to the group the soldiers, almost mechanically like, walk towards one of the walls. With no apparent sound the wall splits open into a larger hallway, with the soldiers splitting into two formations, one marching through the door in unison, whilst the other moved behind the Zia and the rest, guiding them to follow the point group. Hesitantly, they obey their captor's demands and catch up to the other soldiers at the front as they continue marching trough the huge, nondescript, hallway.
The way they behaved intrigued Zia, ignoring the frightened whispers of the people behind her she began observing the soldier's movement. Sure thing, those weren't human beings but bots. She begins to move closer to the group in the front as they march onwards but one of them lets out a low wailing sound that she takes as a warning.
As the convoy continues walking a small lanky person approaches her "Where do you think we are?" he asks her with a skewed accent "Some of us are from warring countries so we have ruled out those. So what do you think? Private corporations looking to sell us for ransom or some weird cult maybe?"
Zia glances at him. He was a short man around his forties with a light brown skin, indicating that he was from the more central/southern countries, though his accent indicated... European origins? She wasn't sure, she couldn't properly place his accent. He bit his lips nervously as he waited for her to answer. Her guts told her that he was faking it, something about his demeanor screamed professional. He shoots her a nervous looking glance. Zia sighs "No idea, but I suspect that if we follow these bots we will get our answer." She replies absentmindedly. He gives her one final look, this one giving off a lot more malicious vibethan the other, before scurrying away to another group nearby.
After good ten minutes of walking they reach the entrance to a huge hall, easily hundreds of meters across and at least 50 meters high. Zia, among many other's look around with awe for a moment before the bots remind them to keep moving towards the center. At the center there are rows of seats with a group of people already standing there in front of them. As the group walks down towards them Zia begins understand why. Around the rows stood sign that had a relatively odd message "GO TO YOUR DESIGNATED SEAT."
Why would they go to this extent? She wonders that question as she reaches the rows, after scanning the area she find her designated seat surprisingly quickly. Standing in front of it she fights the urge to remain standing, even though she really really want to provoke them her curiosity got the better of her. Zia really wanted to know what was going on and being shot was perhaps not the best method to acquire info. Looking around she notices that number of people seemed to have come to the same result as her. A large woman, at least six feet tall, with olive coloured skin gives you an understanding nod. The rest however, simply appears to be too terrified to not sit down.
Soon the hall echoes with whispers. People from everywhere around the world were chatting intently with each other. Zia engages in a conversation with a couple, hoping that someone knew what was going on. Sadly, that didn't seem to be the case. No one, not a single human there had any idea where or who might be behind this. A long powerful clong sound rang through the hall and everyone went silent. For a moment after the sound Zia couldn't hear anything but the nervous breathing of the people around her. Then the sound of footsteps could be heard. Out from one of the walls in the far right corner exited a procession of weirdly looking... Zia had to blink couple of times, unsure whether she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. As the procession came closer she got surer and surer that those forms were definitely not human ones.
At the outer edges of the convoy walked heavy built guards of sorts, on the inside a more armored and elegantly decorated soldiers holding pikes walked in a unified fashion and in the forefront walked a person that was without a doubt, an alien, marching with a gait of both confidence and power.
When the alien reached the podium in front of the seats, to Zia even the breathing of those around her seemed to have stopped. No one said anything, no doubt too dumbfounded to even react in fashion other than opening their mouth as wide as they could.
"Hello Earthlings" The being began, his accent rough, like it hadn't had much practice speaking the language. "I am Zo'rikos, a representative of a race known as the Role" It... he pauses and looks down at the crowd "Most, if not all of you are without a doubt wondering who I am and where you are. Let me explain that." another pause, Zia was beginning to suspect that he was just pausing to be dramatic "A few Earth years ago, humanity reached something we refer to as a 'point of no return' that is, the point where they have ruined the planet to the level where survival is going to be unsustainable for much longer. It also means that humans have burned up too many resources to become a proper spacefaring race."
He, Ze, looks over the crowd, this time a slight anger could be sensed from his tone. "Since the Role don't want to watch a whole race of sapient beings become extinct they activated the Ocru'Zeal plan, or in your language, the Noah Plan. In this plan, exactly 20 thousand humans were carefully chosen to be saved. Based on their actions, their genes, and their offspring potentials. The rest of humanity has been left to live with their mistakes. Who knows, perhaps they will find some miraculous way to save themselves that doesn't involve erasing more of their own species."
He sniffs at that line. "You may be wondering what your role is in all this is at this point. Obviously you aren't on earth fighting pointless wars right now, but neither are you a part of those 20 thousand people that were saved, otherwise they would undoubtedly be here as well. So what is your purpose I wonder?" He makes another dramatic pause.
"Your purpose is to become the greatest symbol of peace and justice in the Allied Galaxy, your purpose is to become the symbol of the Role, their peacekeepers!" He pauses again, this time to give people time to raise their voices and opinion. Many being on the fence on being forced to do something like this. Zia remains silent and observes "Mr." Zo. She had the feeling that he was smirking, though it was hard to read with a face like his. "Now, now" he starts "I can understand your issues, so we will give you the same offer we gave the other 20 thousand people. We are, after all, civilized. You have two options." He raised his hand and held up two fingers. "Either you become guardians and enjoy a long life where you bring justice and law wherever you go... or you get sent back home."
On cue an image of earth springs up. It was a ghastly sight. Most looked away, either in shame or regret. "The choice is simple, those who want to study to become a Guardian Spirit only need to stand up. Those that want to go back home to Earth only need to remain in their seats, those that sit will later be escorted back to earth to the exact location from wherein they had been taken from. Simple right?"
His eyes scan over the crowd and this time Zia was sure he wasn't smiling, his expression seemed... apologetic? "I know it sounds unfair, but without these measures we cannot have peace. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made for the good of the future. Currently those 20 thousand people are being re-located to an earth-like colony planet where they will be working with another species that went through similar mistakes. This is done in hopes that these groups will learn to work together and hopefully in the future, learn that constant in-fighting and greed isn't the answer. If they show promise, those that show they have learned from the folly of their ancestors will be sent to a new colony world, this time uninhabited by any other sapient species, whereas they can start to grow and prosper even more so than before." With that he goes silent.
Looking around she sees, one after another, people standing up, until every person had stood up from their seat. This confirmed to her just of how fucked up Earth had become. Even though the terms seemed unfair they did indicate that they weren't making them out of malice more so than out of necessity. Zia still wasn't sure what this organisation's goal truly was but it couldn't be worse than waited for her back on Earth, especially since she now knew that earth was past the point of saving. A tired smile spread across her lips. Her, a Bastion of Justice? Who knew, maybe she could do some actual good for once now?
Zo was looking around and seemed both relieved and surprised that everyone had risen. "It is great to see so many that understand the gravity of the situation." The opaque wall behind him began to turn transparent, revealing gargantuan windows. Leaving the podium he starts walking towards them "Now follow me, it is time that you learn how to become how to become a.... Guardian Spirit!" he finishes and waves towards the window. Everyone, Zia included, gives out a gasp of as they stare out, towards what they later learn was one of the sacred cities of the Role.
Prologue End
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This story is a slow starter so give it a chance eh?
What was this place? Last thing she remembered was the air raid sirens going off... then nothing. Just darkness. Then she had woken up here, in this weird, bright, prison like room. She had already checked every nook and cranny and hadn't found any indication of an exit at all. She crossed her arms, irritated, she was used to getting into trouble, but this felt a bit beyond her pay grade.
With nothing better to do, she took another look at the room. For a prison cell (at least she assumed it was some kind of cell) it was quite comfortable. The bed was soft and comfy, and there seemed to be ventilation so at least she wouldn't choke to death, there were also some clothes in her size lined up in the closet behind the mirror. The only issue anyone might have was how small it was. It didn't allow much space for movement of any sort, if she had been claustrophobic this might have been an issue but personally she preferred cramped spaces like this. They felt comforting.
She moved her fingers in a familiar pattern, nothing. She clicks her tongue in annoyance. Her suit was powered down, even her internal circuits were non-responsive, which should be impossible. The internal circuits should partially be charging just by her moving. Although she suspected that even if she somehow managed to get it to work it wouldn't be of much help. Sighing she let herself fall on the bed, kicking her legs back and forth in annoyance. Would it have killed her captors to have at least something to do in here? Anything would do! Even reading an old fashioned paper book would have been better than staring at the blindingly white ceiling, doing nothing. This was torture, pure and simple! If the Geneva conventions hadn't been rifted ages ago she would have said that her captors were inhuman.
A bitter smile spread across her lips, heh, like there were many humans human at this point. Morality had been thrown out of the window long time ago, or so her father had said, dead eyes and all, before leaving her to fight in the Wars. She traces a finger down the pillow absentmindedly. Zia didn't like that memory. She remembers when she had been a lot younger that the first thing that he had taught her was that being human meant that you cared. Not just cared for yourself, but cared for the well being of others.
But that had been before the country got dragged into the conflicts ravaging everyone. Once that occurred, her father became a "volunteer" for the "cause", the light in his eyes slowly fading away, replaced by blank stares and unending nightmares. When she heard that he had finally died in battle she had felt relief rather than sorrow. Finally he was free from those pointless bickers that were called wars. She had been 14 at the time of his death.
Her mother... well, the left said about her the better, Zia had been deeply grateful when her father divorced her mother and left with her. She hadn't been a nice person. Wherever her mother might be, Zia hoped that she was being as miserable as she had been to Zia those 5 years they had lived in the same house as that monster.
Flickering her eyes she tried that hand pattern again. Nope, nothing. She sighs, maybe her captors were actually trying to make her go insane with boredom? Zia chuckles at her own impatience. She couldn't really understand how people could cope with doing completely nothing for hours upon hours eons ago. Jumping back to her feet she began to warm up her body. She kind of hated doing this but it was better than pure boredom. Taking a stance she start going through the movements. As expected, she was quite stiff. She hadn't done this for almost 5 years, or since the death of her father's.
In mere minutes she was already out of breath. Not wanting sweat to set into her clothes she takes them off before fetching those that were hanging in the closet. She was vaguely aware that there might be someone watching but she didn't care. Let them stare all they want, she doubted that they had any intention of harming you at this point. You didn't put your enemy into a room such as this. You put them in a soggy, disgusting place where their psyche would slowly be broken down. Whoever her captors were they had other intentions. Now, was there anything else than white clothes in there...
30 minutes later
She allows herself to crumble onto the bed, exhausted. It had drained her much more than she had expected. Who knew that taking 5 years break from something as physically demanding as CQC training could tire oneself so much? She laughs tiredly at the thought. There was also this small sense of irony that her father had been teaching her Muay Thai since she was small. Last time she checked, this "sport" was quite lethal.
When she was 11 she had asked him why he was teaching her a killing sport, he had simply laughed and told her there was huge difference between learning something that can kill and learning something with the intention to kill. He never explained his reasoning better than that, the damn fool. Sighing deeply Zia hugs her pillow. At times like this she missed the old man terribly. He, with all his antics, had been everything to her. Zia squeezes the pillow, shaking her head furiously, what was the point of getting all mushy now? She stares bitterly at the ceiling. She blamed it on this cell, when one had nothing but their own thoughts to pass the time with, the brain tended to wander down the darker roads of the mind. Or maybe it was simply because she had been doing something she associated with her childhood for a good half an hour?
She sighs again. Better change, she wasn't fond of wearing sweaty clothes. Thankfully the room had running water and she was pretty confident she had seen towels in the closet....
3 hours later
She was bored, so booored! Zia didn't like having nothing to do and the complete silence was killing her! If this continued she might end up like the people that write on the walls with their own blood. Was that their goal perhaps? To drive her insane by boredom? Zia laughs at the thought. This was the second time she had thought that and the idea still sounded silly. Her smile wanes. How long time would have to pass until that thought was no longer a joke? She shakes those depressing thoughts out of her head and start inspecting the room again. There must be some indication of a door...
9 hours later
With a start Zia wakes up. Something bright was in her eyes. Weird, her sleep addled brain thought, I was sure I turned off most of the lighting when I went to sleep. She blinks couple of times, her vision returning, leading to her gasping from surprise as she is faced with a large muddled figure standing in front of her bed. "What do you want?" Zia demands as she moves a bit further to the other end of the bed where her clothes were neatly folded.
No response. That wasn't a good sign.
She quickly puts on her clothes, turning her back to the figure standing in the room. Preparing to fight back as she fully expected them to assault her. But nothing of such nature occurred. When she finishes donning her suit, she turns around and is startled by the person's appearance. She had expected a man in uniform, not a soldier in full exoskeleton.
When she stares at him he gives her the universal sign of 'follow me' with his hand, the gun in said hand was also quite motivating. Before Zia can get in front of him he starts walking, slightly surprised she follows him out of the room... wait those doors weren't there before... were they? She wonders at the back of her mind. Looking around in wonder the well lit, white octagonal hallway, quickly discovering that even if the place as bright, there were no signs of any sorts of lighting at all. Her train of thought is quickly broken by the sounds of multiple footsteps in her vicinity. She looks around but doesn't see anyone, or at least not until they reach a small hallway.
There she is greeted by a large a number of people, just as surprised and confused as she was, all accompanied by a fully armed soldier of their own. As she is guided to the group the soldiers, almost mechanically like, walk towards one of the walls. With no apparent sound the wall splits open into a larger hallway, with the soldiers splitting into two formations, one marching through the door in unison, whilst the other moved behind the Zia and the rest, guiding them to follow the point group. Hesitantly, they obey their captor's demands and catch up to the other soldiers at the front as they continue marching trough the huge, nondescript, hallway.
The way they behaved intrigued Zia, ignoring the frightened whispers of the people behind her she began observing the soldier's movement. Sure thing, those weren't human beings but bots. She begins to move closer to the group in the front as they march onwards but one of them lets out a low wailing sound that she takes as a warning.
As the convoy continues walking a small lanky person approaches her "Where do you think we are?" he asks her with a skewed accent "Some of us are from warring countries so we have ruled out those. So what do you think? Private corporations looking to sell us for ransom or some weird cult maybe?"
Zia glances at him. He was a short man around his forties with a light brown skin, indicating that he was from the more central/southern countries, though his accent indicated... European origins? She wasn't sure, she couldn't properly place his accent. He bit his lips nervously as he waited for her to answer. Her guts told her that he was faking it, something about his demeanor screamed professional. He shoots her a nervous looking glance. Zia sighs "No idea, but I suspect that if we follow these bots we will get our answer." She replies absentmindedly. He gives her one final look, this one giving off a lot more malicious vibethan the other, before scurrying away to another group nearby.
After good ten minutes of walking they reach the entrance to a huge hall, easily hundreds of meters across and at least 50 meters high. Zia, among many other's look around with awe for a moment before the bots remind them to keep moving towards the center. At the center there are rows of seats with a group of people already standing there in front of them. As the group walks down towards them Zia begins understand why. Around the rows stood sign that had a relatively odd message "GO TO YOUR DESIGNATED SEAT."
Why would they go to this extent? She wonders that question as she reaches the rows, after scanning the area she find her designated seat surprisingly quickly. Standing in front of it she fights the urge to remain standing, even though she really really want to provoke them her curiosity got the better of her. Zia really wanted to know what was going on and being shot was perhaps not the best method to acquire info. Looking around she notices that number of people seemed to have come to the same result as her. A large woman, at least six feet tall, with olive coloured skin gives you an understanding nod. The rest however, simply appears to be too terrified to not sit down.
Soon the hall echoes with whispers. People from everywhere around the world were chatting intently with each other. Zia engages in a conversation with a couple, hoping that someone knew what was going on. Sadly, that didn't seem to be the case. No one, not a single human there had any idea where or who might be behind this. A long powerful clong sound rang through the hall and everyone went silent. For a moment after the sound Zia couldn't hear anything but the nervous breathing of the people around her. Then the sound of footsteps could be heard. Out from one of the walls in the far right corner exited a procession of weirdly looking... Zia had to blink couple of times, unsure whether she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. As the procession came closer she got surer and surer that those forms were definitely not human ones.
At the outer edges of the convoy walked heavy built guards of sorts, on the inside a more armored and elegantly decorated soldiers holding pikes walked in a unified fashion and in the forefront walked a person that was without a doubt, an alien, marching with a gait of both confidence and power.
When the alien reached the podium in front of the seats, to Zia even the breathing of those around her seemed to have stopped. No one said anything, no doubt too dumbfounded to even react in fashion other than opening their mouth as wide as they could.
"Hello Earthlings" The being began, his accent rough, like it hadn't had much practice speaking the language. "I am Zo'rikos, a representative of a race known as the Role" It... he pauses and looks down at the crowd "Most, if not all of you are without a doubt wondering who I am and where you are. Let me explain that." another pause, Zia was beginning to suspect that he was just pausing to be dramatic "A few Earth years ago, humanity reached something we refer to as a 'point of no return' that is, the point where they have ruined the planet to the level where survival is going to be unsustainable for much longer. It also means that humans have burned up too many resources to become a proper spacefaring race."
He, Ze, looks over the crowd, this time a slight anger could be sensed from his tone. "Since the Role don't want to watch a whole race of sapient beings become extinct they activated the Ocru'Zeal plan, or in your language, the Noah Plan. In this plan, exactly 20 thousand humans were carefully chosen to be saved. Based on their actions, their genes, and their offspring potentials. The rest of humanity has been left to live with their mistakes. Who knows, perhaps they will find some miraculous way to save themselves that doesn't involve erasing more of their own species."
He sniffs at that line. "You may be wondering what your role is in all this is at this point. Obviously you aren't on earth fighting pointless wars right now, but neither are you a part of those 20 thousand people that were saved, otherwise they would undoubtedly be here as well. So what is your purpose I wonder?" He makes another dramatic pause.
"Your purpose is to become the greatest symbol of peace and justice in the Allied Galaxy, your purpose is to become the symbol of the Role, their peacekeepers!" He pauses again, this time to give people time to raise their voices and opinion. Many being on the fence on being forced to do something like this. Zia remains silent and observes "Mr." Zo. She had the feeling that he was smirking, though it was hard to read with a face like his. "Now, now" he starts "I can understand your issues, so we will give you the same offer we gave the other 20 thousand people. We are, after all, civilized. You have two options." He raised his hand and held up two fingers. "Either you become guardians and enjoy a long life where you bring justice and law wherever you go... or you get sent back home."
On cue an image of earth springs up. It was a ghastly sight. Most looked away, either in shame or regret. "The choice is simple, those who want to study to become a Guardian Spirit only need to stand up. Those that want to go back home to Earth only need to remain in their seats, those that sit will later be escorted back to earth to the exact location from wherein they had been taken from. Simple right?"
His eyes scan over the crowd and this time Zia was sure he wasn't smiling, his expression seemed... apologetic? "I know it sounds unfair, but without these measures we cannot have peace. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made for the good of the future. Currently those 20 thousand people are being re-located to an earth-like colony planet where they will be working with another species that went through similar mistakes. This is done in hopes that these groups will learn to work together and hopefully in the future, learn that constant in-fighting and greed isn't the answer. If they show promise, those that show they have learned from the folly of their ancestors will be sent to a new colony world, this time uninhabited by any other sapient species, whereas they can start to grow and prosper even more so than before." With that he goes silent.
Looking around she sees, one after another, people standing up, until every person had stood up from their seat. This confirmed to her just of how fucked up Earth had become. Even though the terms seemed unfair they did indicate that they weren't making them out of malice more so than out of necessity. Zia still wasn't sure what this organisation's goal truly was but it couldn't be worse than waited for her back on Earth, especially since she now knew that earth was past the point of saving. A tired smile spread across her lips. Her, a Bastion of Justice? Who knew, maybe she could do some actual good for once now?
Zo was looking around and seemed both relieved and surprised that everyone had risen. "It is great to see so many that understand the gravity of the situation." The opaque wall behind him began to turn transparent, revealing gargantuan windows. Leaving the podium he starts walking towards them "Now follow me, it is time that you learn how to become how to become a.... Guardian Spirit!" he finishes and waves towards the window. Everyone, Zia included, gives out a gasp of as they stare out, towards what they later learn was one of the sacred cities of the Role.
Prologue End
------------------------------------------------------
This story is a slow starter so give it a chance eh?
Last edited:
Update 1
Elmithian
Cherno Alpha's fists are nothing to laugh at
- Location
- Iceland
Some months later...
Zia gasps for air. Her lungs were on fire. she has to stop momentarily, hands on her legs for support. This was hell, this was, without doubt, hell. She bitterly thinks as sweat runs down her face like a river. She eagerly gasps for air one more time before raising herself and start running again. Whose idea was it that 100 kilometers as a warm up was a good idea? She forces her body to keep moving. Like hell she was going to give up now. Not when the goal was so close by. Comon... only 20 more kilometers to go...
Finally she reaches the training field and stops to catch her breath. After couple of seconds she regains her breath and lets her eyes wander around. It was a huge field filled with various bizarre looking training devices. Unsurprisingly half of the Guardian candidates were already there, most didn't even seem slightly out of breath. Were they human? Zia looks down at her hands. Was She even human? Shortly after she had been enlisted into the candidate program the aliens had injected all of them with some weird substance. She wasn't quite sure what exactly it had been but she had been told that it was supposed to lengthen your lifespan way beyond that of a normal human.
It also did something to your body. After the injection it she had quickly noticed that her body could move faster than ever before, her strength had also greatly improved and most of all wounds that she got healed many time faster than they had done before. Oddly enough, even though her fellow candidates also experienced lot of similar physical changes no one seemed to mention the regeneration part. When she investigated why it seemed that very few had experienced a sizable improvement on that field. Intrigued she had inquired about this to the aliens. To her surprise, even they appeared a bit taken aback. After couple of tests they had told her that her body's regenerative capabilities were much higher than they were supposed to be.
It wasn't unusual that those injected with the chemical experienced high amount of improvement in their overall physical state, but usually that came in the form of improved reflexes, toughness and strength, it was exceedingly rare to see such levels in the field of self regeneration. They nevertheless told her that this was still within the boundaries of their estimations so she had little reason to worry.
In the end it appeared it was just a freak happening. She stretches, her muscles already recovering from the run. Well, at least the regeneration made up for her lack in other fields. Even if she couldn't quite keep up to most of the candidates when it came to speed and strength at least she had the endurance to outlast most. Nevertheless, in a real fight they could, without doubt, kill her before she even started moving. An icy cold wind passes through the field, sending chills up her back. Zia wasn't exactly sure what planet they were on but guessing from the two suns the planet circled it was definitely not earth.
The plant life there was surprisingly similar though, almost to the point that she suspected that the aliens had picked this place just because of that. Albeit she had noticed from the data that her suit had gathered when they had landed that the planet's gravity was almost twice that on earth. Oddly enough she, nor rest of the candidates had noticed much difference at all. Either it was caused by some artificial gravity technology or possibly it was due to the fact that their bodies were much stronger than before.
She moves her finger in a circular pattern, giving her the familiar feeling of her circuits heating up. She quickly checks her current body status. Everything green, good, slight increase in white blood cells activity but nothing alarming. She effortlessly scans through rows of data. After they had left that odd city both her suit and her internal circuits had started working again, much to her delight. Though it had saddened her slightly that her suit could not receive any signals. That confirmed two things. They were far from Earth's frequencies and these aliens didn't use the same form of signals to communicate or send data, which was quite interesting in itself.
Ah, there! The map of the surrounding area was almost complete. She had been taking different running routes every day so she could scan over larger area. If there was any way out of this place then she would find it! She takes a quick glance at the partially finished map and sighs. Still no indication of any form of structure in the vicinity with the exception of the camp and the training grounds. If there was a hidden launchpad somewhere, they were hiding it seriously well. She closes her eyes to make sure no one can see them glowing, even if no one should be able to see the map Zia didn't want to take any unneeded risks.
"..ei" ...was that someone calling her? Nah must just be a bug. "I am talking to you knife ear!" ...yep, a bug, that was definitely a bug. Ignoring the buzz you decided to forget the map for now. With slight twitch of her finger she is about to pick a song when someone roughly shakes her shoulder. "Are you deaf now, knife eared freak? I am talking to you!" Zia slowly opens her eyes and meet the gaze of the interruptor.
The man was tall, well built and by all accounts quite handsome. If she was (a lot) more susceptible and simple minded she might have felt attraction towards him but the moment she saw him she had gotten a bad vibe from him. And when he had attempted to flirt with her on the first day on the ground her suspicion had been confirmed. He was nothing but a prick. A selfish, self-centered narcissist that only thought about his image and getting into people pants. Since you had turned him down he had been a constant pain in the but, using every change to insult and demean her.
Of late he had become increasingly more aggressive, most likely he noticed that his insults weren't having any effect. His behavior reminded Zia of those stupid school dramas she had seen when she was younger. She had never suspected that such a stereotype actually existed... okay, that was a lie, but she hadn't expected one in the group of candidates labeled as bringers of "Justice". Him being picked must have been a glitch in their system.
"Yes? Mister Bug, by what reason do I have the honour to be in your presence today?" She asks him and feel a tinge of satisfaction as a vein bulges up on his head. "It is Bugton! Not Bug you fucking knife eared bitch!" his grip on her shoulder tightened painfully "Show some fuckin' respect! It was you East Kroans fault that half of my family companies got blown up. If you had simply defended the west wing of your country better those bombing planes would have never gotten through!" Zia attempts to pat his hand off but he wasn't letting go. A smirk spreading across his face.
She glares at him "Could you please let go of me, mister Bugton? I am supposed to have a training session with Kro in couple of minutes."
His ugly grin widened even further. "I have bad news for you, he got delayed and wont be here for the next half an hour." Wait, that meant... She takes a quick glance around. Sure enough, no supervisor was in sight. She could almost feel the smile on his smurfy face widen further, if that was even possible. "Yes, that is right. No one here to stop a proper... sparring practice. So what do you say, you going to accept my challenge or flee like a chicken?" his two 'followers', Chi and Ruik chuckled nervously.
She sighs, there was no reason to indulge him. "Then I am a chicken, cluck cluck later" She responds and pushes his hand roughly off and turns around with the intention to leave. She could hear his fists clench and crack "Chi, Ruik put up the arena now!" He shouts, Zia curses and start running. Chi appears suddenly in front of her and puts something down, "Sorry Letizia, bosses' orders" she whispers and takes a step back. A sudden field of energy bursts up from the device and creates a spherical area around Zia and Bugston. "You know the rules. If you fight and loose you just loose couple of points but if you leave a set arena you forfeit 30% of the points you have gathered so far!"
He chuckles. "Well? What are you going to do now? You don't want to loose all the points you have gathered now do you?" Zia had this very strong desire to rub her temples. This man was trying too much to sound and act like a villain. Next he was undoubtedly going to grow a weird looking beard and force people to salute him. A number of candidates seemed to have noticed that something was going on (the bluish sphere around her and Bugton helped) and were starting to gather around. Bugton seemed to be pretty happy about that, quite unaware of the glares he was getting from many of the onlookers.
After a short pause Zia gives him a tired glance. "You know, you could be doing something good instead of this childish attempt of bullying. My answer is going to be the same, I am leaving." The look on his face was easily worth the price of these points. Who even cared about them anyways?
Her leg was about to go through the field when something grabbed the back of her neck and forcefully pushed her to the ground. "You. do. not. IGNORE ME!" Bugton practically spits in her face, his eyes bloodshot with rage. Feeling slightly dizzy from hitting the ground headfirst Zia is silent for a second... Which was apparently enough for him to think that she was ignoring him. "ANSWER ME YOU TIG'OREL SCHA!*"
Something cracks in Zia's mind. With a powerful roar she grabs his shoulders and uses every inch of power to throw him over her. Disappointingly enough he lands on his feet roughly 5 meters away. A bit shaken, but unharmed. Zia rises up, fists clenched. A grin spreads across his face.
She immediately realizes that she had made a mistake. In that one second of weakness he had managed to get through her mental armor and gotten her angry. She was back at point zero. Since he now knew that would get rise out her he was never going to give up until he had made sure that her life here was as miserable as possible. Cursing under her breath she readies her stance, waiting for him to strike. Maybe she could try to beat him? Unlikely, he was both physically stronger and faster. But... nothing is certain in a fight, one misstep can be the difference between victory and death.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Just to alleviate people's fear. No, this isn't going to end up being a school setting disguised as sci-fi story. This segment is only few updates long (and their stay on the planet is almost as short). My point is, things will be changing radically soon enough.
Oh and I am likely going to be posting updates every 1-2 days (maybe couple per day even) until I have used up all the surplus stuff I have written for this story. Then the updates are going to slow down a bit, but by how much? I am not sure. Possibly one update per week if things go well.
Translation from the Ethok language:
*TIG'OREL SCHA! = A whore that f***s her own father
Zia gasps for air. Her lungs were on fire. she has to stop momentarily, hands on her legs for support. This was hell, this was, without doubt, hell. She bitterly thinks as sweat runs down her face like a river. She eagerly gasps for air one more time before raising herself and start running again. Whose idea was it that 100 kilometers as a warm up was a good idea? She forces her body to keep moving. Like hell she was going to give up now. Not when the goal was so close by. Comon... only 20 more kilometers to go...
Finally she reaches the training field and stops to catch her breath. After couple of seconds she regains her breath and lets her eyes wander around. It was a huge field filled with various bizarre looking training devices. Unsurprisingly half of the Guardian candidates were already there, most didn't even seem slightly out of breath. Were they human? Zia looks down at her hands. Was She even human? Shortly after she had been enlisted into the candidate program the aliens had injected all of them with some weird substance. She wasn't quite sure what exactly it had been but she had been told that it was supposed to lengthen your lifespan way beyond that of a normal human.
It also did something to your body. After the injection it she had quickly noticed that her body could move faster than ever before, her strength had also greatly improved and most of all wounds that she got healed many time faster than they had done before. Oddly enough, even though her fellow candidates also experienced lot of similar physical changes no one seemed to mention the regeneration part. When she investigated why it seemed that very few had experienced a sizable improvement on that field. Intrigued she had inquired about this to the aliens. To her surprise, even they appeared a bit taken aback. After couple of tests they had told her that her body's regenerative capabilities were much higher than they were supposed to be.
It wasn't unusual that those injected with the chemical experienced high amount of improvement in their overall physical state, but usually that came in the form of improved reflexes, toughness and strength, it was exceedingly rare to see such levels in the field of self regeneration. They nevertheless told her that this was still within the boundaries of their estimations so she had little reason to worry.
In the end it appeared it was just a freak happening. She stretches, her muscles already recovering from the run. Well, at least the regeneration made up for her lack in other fields. Even if she couldn't quite keep up to most of the candidates when it came to speed and strength at least she had the endurance to outlast most. Nevertheless, in a real fight they could, without doubt, kill her before she even started moving. An icy cold wind passes through the field, sending chills up her back. Zia wasn't exactly sure what planet they were on but guessing from the two suns the planet circled it was definitely not earth.
The plant life there was surprisingly similar though, almost to the point that she suspected that the aliens had picked this place just because of that. Albeit she had noticed from the data that her suit had gathered when they had landed that the planet's gravity was almost twice that on earth. Oddly enough she, nor rest of the candidates had noticed much difference at all. Either it was caused by some artificial gravity technology or possibly it was due to the fact that their bodies were much stronger than before.
She moves her finger in a circular pattern, giving her the familiar feeling of her circuits heating up. She quickly checks her current body status. Everything green, good, slight increase in white blood cells activity but nothing alarming. She effortlessly scans through rows of data. After they had left that odd city both her suit and her internal circuits had started working again, much to her delight. Though it had saddened her slightly that her suit could not receive any signals. That confirmed two things. They were far from Earth's frequencies and these aliens didn't use the same form of signals to communicate or send data, which was quite interesting in itself.
Ah, there! The map of the surrounding area was almost complete. She had been taking different running routes every day so she could scan over larger area. If there was any way out of this place then she would find it! She takes a quick glance at the partially finished map and sighs. Still no indication of any form of structure in the vicinity with the exception of the camp and the training grounds. If there was a hidden launchpad somewhere, they were hiding it seriously well. She closes her eyes to make sure no one can see them glowing, even if no one should be able to see the map Zia didn't want to take any unneeded risks.
"..ei" ...was that someone calling her? Nah must just be a bug. "I am talking to you knife ear!" ...yep, a bug, that was definitely a bug. Ignoring the buzz you decided to forget the map for now. With slight twitch of her finger she is about to pick a song when someone roughly shakes her shoulder. "Are you deaf now, knife eared freak? I am talking to you!" Zia slowly opens her eyes and meet the gaze of the interruptor.
The man was tall, well built and by all accounts quite handsome. If she was (a lot) more susceptible and simple minded she might have felt attraction towards him but the moment she saw him she had gotten a bad vibe from him. And when he had attempted to flirt with her on the first day on the ground her suspicion had been confirmed. He was nothing but a prick. A selfish, self-centered narcissist that only thought about his image and getting into people pants. Since you had turned him down he had been a constant pain in the but, using every change to insult and demean her.
Of late he had become increasingly more aggressive, most likely he noticed that his insults weren't having any effect. His behavior reminded Zia of those stupid school dramas she had seen when she was younger. She had never suspected that such a stereotype actually existed... okay, that was a lie, but she hadn't expected one in the group of candidates labeled as bringers of "Justice". Him being picked must have been a glitch in their system.
"Yes? Mister Bug, by what reason do I have the honour to be in your presence today?" She asks him and feel a tinge of satisfaction as a vein bulges up on his head. "It is Bugton! Not Bug you fucking knife eared bitch!" his grip on her shoulder tightened painfully "Show some fuckin' respect! It was you East Kroans fault that half of my family companies got blown up. If you had simply defended the west wing of your country better those bombing planes would have never gotten through!" Zia attempts to pat his hand off but he wasn't letting go. A smirk spreading across his face.
She glares at him "Could you please let go of me, mister Bugton? I am supposed to have a training session with Kro in couple of minutes."
His ugly grin widened even further. "I have bad news for you, he got delayed and wont be here for the next half an hour." Wait, that meant... She takes a quick glance around. Sure enough, no supervisor was in sight. She could almost feel the smile on his smurfy face widen further, if that was even possible. "Yes, that is right. No one here to stop a proper... sparring practice. So what do you say, you going to accept my challenge or flee like a chicken?" his two 'followers', Chi and Ruik chuckled nervously.
He chuckles. "Well? What are you going to do now? You don't want to loose all the points you have gathered now do you?" Zia had this very strong desire to rub her temples. This man was trying too much to sound and act like a villain. Next he was undoubtedly going to grow a weird looking beard and force people to salute him. A number of candidates seemed to have noticed that something was going on (the bluish sphere around her and Bugton helped) and were starting to gather around. Bugton seemed to be pretty happy about that, quite unaware of the glares he was getting from many of the onlookers.
After a short pause Zia gives him a tired glance. "You know, you could be doing something good instead of this childish attempt of bullying. My answer is going to be the same, I am leaving." The look on his face was easily worth the price of these points. Who even cared about them anyways?
Her leg was about to go through the field when something grabbed the back of her neck and forcefully pushed her to the ground. "You. do. not. IGNORE ME!" Bugton practically spits in her face, his eyes bloodshot with rage. Feeling slightly dizzy from hitting the ground headfirst Zia is silent for a second... Which was apparently enough for him to think that she was ignoring him. "ANSWER ME YOU TIG'OREL SCHA!*"
Something cracks in Zia's mind. With a powerful roar she grabs his shoulders and uses every inch of power to throw him over her. Disappointingly enough he lands on his feet roughly 5 meters away. A bit shaken, but unharmed. Zia rises up, fists clenched. A grin spreads across his face.
She immediately realizes that she had made a mistake. In that one second of weakness he had managed to get through her mental armor and gotten her angry. She was back at point zero. Since he now knew that would get rise out her he was never going to give up until he had made sure that her life here was as miserable as possible. Cursing under her breath she readies her stance, waiting for him to strike. Maybe she could try to beat him? Unlikely, he was both physically stronger and faster. But... nothing is certain in a fight, one misstep can be the difference between victory and death.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Just to alleviate people's fear. No, this isn't going to end up being a school setting disguised as sci-fi story. This segment is only few updates long (and their stay on the planet is almost as short). My point is, things will be changing radically soon enough.
Oh and I am likely going to be posting updates every 1-2 days (maybe couple per day even) until I have used up all the surplus stuff I have written for this story. Then the updates are going to slow down a bit, but by how much? I am not sure. Possibly one update per week if things go well.
Translation from the Ethok language:
*TIG'OREL SCHA! = A whore that f***s her own father
Chapter 1: The Role (update 2)
Elmithian
Cherno Alpha's fists are nothing to laugh at
- Location
- Iceland
She wasn't going to play along. Since she had been forced into this she intended outlast the bastard rather than throw another punch. "Why should I pay any attention to you? You are just another two-bit bully from a world that destroyed itself. You aren't worth it." She spits at him with utter disdain.
His smile crumbles, she had hit him where it hurt. Screaming incoherently he charges at her. Zia tries to prepares herself from the incoming punch but the man suddenly stops his fist just before it reaches her block and before she can follow his movements his other fist hits her in the stomach with full force. Zia coughs violently as her lungs violently expel air, the content of her stomach almost leaving her in the progress. Something important had just got torn. Nevertheless she was still standing, she could deal wi- too late she notices his leg. With sudden and immensely powerful force he kicks her across the field, leaving her lying in the dirt. Her eyes widen up, she had heard something crack, and considering that her lower legs felt... dulled, unresponsive it was clear what had happened.
Shaking her head, trying to regain every ounce of clarity she could. Meanwhile Bugton was gloating over her, just within her peripheral vision. "Well? Do you admit defeat? Either way it is obvious you will lose, so why not admitting it now and avoid an ongoing painful experience?" He almost seems to gleaming with joy from seeing her on the ground like this.
Zia stares up at him, disgust in her eyes. He notices and laughs "Oh what's that? You trying to kill me with that glare? Ohhh I am so sc-" He swallows his words and jumps back when she starts trying to rise. His eyes go even wider as she somehow stands up, ignoring the burning agony in her lower back, Zia forces her legs to move. She would not give him the satisfaction of gloating, even if it ended up making her a cripple. "H-how?! You shouldn't be able to stand! I felt it, I felt it crack! You can't be standing, i-it is impossible!" He stutters terrified. "You fucking monster! No one simply 'gets up' from an injury like that!" He takes couple of steps backwards. Now standing, Zia's upper body was still bent forwards, feeling every neuron in her body scream she forcefully rightens herself. A loud crack echoes from her back and suddenly her legs felt a lot lighter, the agony slightly more tolerable than before.
She glares at him before giving him a disgustingly sweet smile. "Well, aren't you going to make me suffer? I am standing here, come at me!" She shouts at him, challenging him. He takes few steps back, but quickly remembers that there was an audience, biting his lower lips in blend of frustration and dread he charges her again.
Weird, he appears to be moving much slower than before. Was it because he had lost his calm or was she getting used to his movements? No matter, this time she was going to make sure he wouldn't get in another shot at her back. Thankfully his first punch was laughably easy to avoid, had she really unnerved him to this point? There was a lot of power behind hi spunch but his mind wasn't really in it. Guiding his punch away with ease he loses his footing and falls to his knee. Rolling away from her, he doesn't break eye contact with her, seemingly terrified. Meanwhile Zia watches him with a pitiable look. "Well? I am still standing, you are free to attack me. Where did all that confidence of yours go?" Hearing her mocking words he reclaims some of his previous composure, though he was still clearly shaken. She twitches her fingers slightly, 'song picked' a low voice mutters in her ear. Her smile widens. The music would clear her mind of unwanted thoughts.
Shakily, he stands back up, charging her once again. And again, she could see his attack coming from a mile away, however, his form was improving, nevertheless Zia was still is in much better position than before. He continues to charge at her again and again and again. And albeit her defense wasn't perfect, she was blocking the worst of his strikes. Then, from her blind spot an overwhelmingly powerful punch strikes her in the lower jaw, causing the world to go blank fro a moment but she manages just about to regain her senses and not fall.
Minutes pass
After 10 minutes of constantly defending against his onslaught it was he who on his knees, gasping for air, knuckles covered in blood, some of the blood not even hers.
Zia was bruised all over, at least 4 of her ribs broken, one of her arm was hanging uselessly by her side and her face was bloody beyond recognition... but she was still standing, her mind still holding on despite numerous wounds on her body. "Why aren't you down!?!" Bugton spouts out in a panicked state. "You should be done! You should have given up by now! You... you freak!"
Zia smiles through broken and bloody lips. "Well, I am still standing, if that makes me a freak, so be it." She grabs her dislocated arm and sets it right with an audible clack sound. Bugton whimpered. The audience, which had been quiet until now, were becoming increasingly unruly, unfortunately Bugton was too focused on her to notice that.
Then she takes a step towards him, causing him to take a step away from her, his eyes as wide as they could go. Not giving him a chance to crawl further, Zia approaches him, intent on not breaking eye contact with him. He missteps and falls on his back and whimpers as he tries to crawl away from her. It was kind of ironic. He was, for the most part, completely unharmed, with the exception of broken knuckles, while she was bloody all over, and yet somehow he was the one terrified... even if she hadn't laid hands on him even once. His previous arrogant attitude completely overridden by his flight instincts. He ceases his crawling when he reaches the forcefield, his eyes closed like he was unwilling to face the reality of the situation. Zia calmly stops in front of him, he twitches. Going down to one knee she delicately she puts her good hand under his jaw and lifts his face to meet hers. "Open your eyes" She orders him. Her face only inches from his. She looks intently at his shaking frame. "Do you give up?" she asks softly. He twitches again, trying to free his head from her grip but she wasn't letting go.
Eventually he opens his eyes and stares back at hers. "I give up" he mutters in a low voice.
Zia stares at him "Repeat that, louder this time" Not an ounce of pity or patience left in her voice.
His whole body shakes. He bites his lips. After couple of seconds of him staring back at her he shouts "Fine! I give up! You win knife ears! You win so please... by everything that is good and holy... please let me go" he finishes practically crying.
"Sure" she replies nonchalantly and stands back up. The field dissipating around them. She glances around at the onlookers, some avoid eye contact while others give her a respectful nod. Ignoring them she walks through the crowd. People moving out of the way as she passes through. Once out of the crowd she heads for a more quiet area on the compound where she could sit down in peace. Ah, those benches would do well enough. With a groan she shuffles over to them and allows herself to collapse on them, exhausted from the fight.
Allowing her eyes to wanders she watches as the onlookers disperse and return to what they doing whilst Bugton and his followers rush towards the main housing on the camp. With a grunt she twitches her fingers, trying to scan the current state of her body, unfortunately she was only getting a lot of errors. Cursing she inspects the information center of her suit, sure enough, it had been damaged in the scuffle. She lets out a breath of relief, the damage didn't seem to severe, it shouldn't be too hard to fix, though she would need an access to the camp's main workshop again to fix it.
Sighing she moves her fingers in a hexagonal pattern, if the suit wouldn't work properly she would have to use one of it's subsystem alongside her own circuits. Closing her eyes, she takes in the data that the circuits were giving her. Zia opens up her eyes in shock. Woah, the damage she had suffered was pretty bad, though already mending. The spinal damage she had received at the beginning was already in the process of recovery. As she rubs her eyelids she realizes that her hands were coated in drying blood and she had this strong suspicion that her face didn't look any better.
Grunting from the pain she forces herself to stand up again and heads for nearby stalls. There she could wash the worst off. Zia grins ruefully, she must look like a mass murderer right now. She grimaces, smiling still kinda stung. Pain notwithstanding she was satisfied nontheless. She had made Bugton give up without her ever laying hands on him. Arriving at the stall she enters one of them and starts washing her face and hands.
Internally she felt like she could leap with joy, but externally she had to keep up that serene and serious expression that everyone else seemed to have. Seriously, there had to be a limit how long one could act all serious. They needed to be able to smile and laugh, even during the most difficult times, that was part of being human wasn't it? She splashes some more water on her face and stares at herself in the mirror. Huh, not nearly as bad as she had initially thought. True, there were some scratches and bruises, but other than that her face was in surprisingly good state. Zia smiles again, that idiot wasn't going to bother her again after that.
"That was a nice show of endurance. I am impressed!"
Zia jumps at the disembodied voice, startled. She hadn't heard anyone approaching nor did she see anyone in or around the stall right now. "Over here silly" the voice says coolly, this time clearly coming from one of the corners in the stall, looking up there she was surprised to be greeted by a tall woman. Had she been there the whole time? She was pretty sure that the stall had been empty when she entered it.
"No reason to be alarmed" The stranger states when she sees the glare in Zia's eyes. The woman walks towards her in non-threatening manner, making her realize just how much that woman towered over her.
She was easily 2 meters tall (6'5 ft) and had a strong, lithe built. She gave Zia a carefree smile as she stopped half a meter from her. "Hmm, how odd" the woman muttered as she inspects Zia. "I could have sworn that your injuries you suffered were worse." She puts a hand on Zia's shoulder, causing her to wince slightly, it likely hadn't clicked properly and was thus extremely sensitive "May I?" the woman asks. Not exactly sure what she meant Zia nevertheless nods. "Clench your teeth, this is going to hurt." The woman says as she grabs Zia's arm. Not giving her a time to react the woman pushes the arm back in. With another, louder click Zia feels a rush of pain flowing up her arm. Then it was over, the pain fading away.
The woman takes a step back, giving Zia some space to test out her arm. She moves it around, testing out its mobility, good, everything appeared to work fine. Zia looks up at the woman. "Thanks..."
"Orien is the name, but those who kno- well more those who knew me called me Ori so just call me that." she replies and smiles warmly, putting out her hand. "As I mentioned earlier. I am impressed that you didn't try to beat him up."
Zia shrugs as she grasps Ori's hand. "It would have been pointless, he would have just used some excuse why he lost and would have continued to harass me after recovering."
Ori looks at her thoughtfully for a second before releasing Zia's hand "Huh, a good point, I hadn't thought off it that way. I would have just beaten him up every time he had opened his mouth. But I guess that that might only make things worse."
Zia looks at her in surprise "You realize that if you do that without creating an arena you lose most of the points you have accumulated."
Ori shrugs nonchalantly "I honestly don't care about them. They are just methods by the aliens to make us more competitive and work harder." She scratches her chin. "Truthfully those aren't my words but that of, Helsons" Noticing Zia's confused look she chuckles. "Sorry, I am getting ahead of myself. Helson is a friend of mine that I knew before we ended up here. Follow me, I will take you to him." Ori states as she grabs her arm. Taken by surprise by her enthusiasm Zia allows her to drag her away from the main area of the field to where a darkly dressed man was doing target practice. He momentarily looks at them, gives Ori a curt nod and then continues firing at the targets.
"Hey Hel, this is..." she looks at Zia "I never got your name..."
"It is Letizia Bailar, nice to meet you..." She says and puts out her hand. He looks at her again, this time with a bit more interest. Putting away his pistols he walks over to them.
In comparison to Ori he was quite short, only around 175-180 cm (5'8-5'9 ft) but judging from his strongly built frame and his gait she suspected that he had military training. Like Ori had done he began inspecting her "Yeah, I recognize you, you were that woman that was fighting sir Bugton couple of minutes ago. I didn't recognize you without all that blood." Sir? Zia gives him a skeptical look, but before she can comment on it Ori raises her voice.
"Hel, You know you don't need to call him sir. That snake doesn't deserve to be treated with a single ounce of respect. You even don't work for him anymore!"
Helson nods curtly. "Yes, you are right, I don't have to but old habits die hard" He turns back to Zia "I am sorry, m'lady but do you mind if I ask you some questions?" he asks Zia curtly.
Unaccustomed to being treated in such a manner she tells him it is fine.
"I apologize that some of these questions will undoubtedly sound uncomfortably direct. But I need to see what kind of person you are before we can continue with our conversation."
Zia tells him again that it is fine, albeit she is a bit more defensive this time around. "First question, name?" She answers. The following row of questions are about various things, including what she would expect a policeman to ask someone that was suspected of certain crimes and so on.
"Now then." he mutters as his eyes start to glow blue "Now that I got a good idea of your character let me ask you this. Why are you planning an escape?"
The question takes Zia by surprise. She hadn't expected him to ask her that at all. He inspects her reaction carefully "No need to answer that, your reaction was enough" A hint of a smile appeared for a split second on his lips.
"Woah" Ori exclaims amazed. "You are planning to escape? Why?"
Zia glances around and then back at those two. Seeing that the cat was out of the bag she resigns to her fate. "It is just a backup plan. I don't trust those 'Role' aliens. They claim that we are candidates of justice, but I cannot in good faith see how leaving billion people to rot on a dying planet is justice. That's why I am working on an escape plan. Until I know their true goal, I want to have plan B just in case" she explains .
Helson nods "A decent enough reasoning. I do agree that only saving 20 thousand people is a bit weird, but I believe that they have a solid reason."
She gives him a skeptical glare and he puts up his hands "Just listen, I have couple of reasons for why I think this.
Reason One; I did some investigation and it turns out that many other sapient species have been 'saved' the same way, hundreds of them. Most of them are now scattered all over the galaxy, thriving and blooming. There are of course some bad apples in-between but overall, the gist I got of it is that most of these races are doing well and are thankful towards the Role. Enough that the main body of these species actively have armies defending the few Sky-cities the Role have left.
Second Reason; From my interviews with the alien staff and supervisors I got the feeling that the Role's view on what Justice is is very different from our own. In their eyes, Justice is no doubt based purely on logic and reasoning. In their eyes, injustice would be to leave an intelligent race to die, but to minimize the risks of the same mistakes being done, and uprisings they pick only those that are least likely to make them. Why exactly 20 thousand I am still not sure but I suspect it has something to do with genetics. They are thinking thousands, if not tens of thousands of years ahead rather than dozen of years.
Thirdly; I think that the Role aim to make Guardian Spirits, that is, future us, their successors"
Zia stares at him in shock. "Are you sure about that? I don't see how an ancient, superpowerful race would want to share a part of their fat, fat pie"
Ori chuckles but Helson stares back at her, dead serious "I am not kidding, and my theories are well founded. I ask you this, what do you know about the Role?"
Zia thinks carefully "They are a highly intelligent race that is able to live for million of years and was spacefaring before any other known species in this galaxy."
Helson nods "That's true but that is only a tiny fragment of their story. The records don't mention much about it but the whole Role race is actually dying. One by one they are succumbing to death and for unknown reasons they are not reproducing. That is why there are only few Sky-cities left. Their numbers are too low for them to be able to maintain all of them. Their numbers are only in the millions now and those numbers are deteriorating at a rapid pace." He goes silent for a couple seconds. "The reasons why I came to the conclusion that they are planning for Guardian Spirits to succeed them are mainly due to three facts."
He raises up a finger "One; The drug we were injected with before we arrived and is supposed to lengthen our lifespan is the Role's blood"
Zia and Ori eyes widen
"Two; They told us that it should lengthen our lifespan by couple of decades but I suspect that is a white lie. I dug a bit deeper in the data when we arrived here and discovered that all species so far that have been made Guardians Spirits have been able to live for well over ten thousand years, not counting those that died in the line of duty. Not a single example I found indicated numbers lower than that. Hell, some of the original first Guardian Spirits are thought to be still alive, and they would be over hundred thousand years old by now."
He raises a third finger "Three; When a Role is on the verge of dying they put a part of their consciousness/soul into the Eye. I admit I am not exactly sure what the purpose behind that would be but why would they do that if they didn't intend the Spirits to succeed them. You wouldn't hand over something as important as your own consciousness to someone you didn't intend to trust would you? Well, those are my thoughts."
He goes silent. Leaving Zia there, staring blankly at him. That had been one heck of a speech. The eerie thing was that it did make a lot of sense. The puzzle in her mind felt a lot more complete now than before. There were still a lot of pieces missing from it, but if his theory was right, then a lot of their actions could be explained. It didn't mean that she agreed to some, if many of their methods, but at least now she had a basic understanding of their thought process.
She turns to face Helson. "This does make a lot of sense, but why are you telling me this?"
He looks at her intently. "Because you are the sort of person that is worth trusting... that and Ori has been spying on you for the last 2 weeks to make sure my hunch was right."
Zia was slightly startled by the fact that they had been spying on her but decided that the shock over her ruined privacy could wait 'til later date.
"I apologize for our discretion, but there are a many people here that one simply cannot trust and I have to make sure those the few people I let into our group are worth it. You fitted the bill so I asked Ori to fetch you, and here we are."
Zia stares at him "Who are you?"
He faces her stare and shrugs. "No-one important. My name is Helson Gorton the third. I run... ran the detective and bodyguard company known as the LifeArmor. And moments before I was beemed up I was standing in front of that guy's father firing squad" He shrugs towards Bugton direction. "If you are wondering, I wasn't being shot for something I did, but for something I refused to do. I refused to remove the apartment buildings surrounding their estate. Their reason for wanting that? Because someone had looked at the owner's wife the wrong way. I may be many things, but even I need hellofa better reason to off innocent folk."
He gives Zia a grim smile. "So, since we now know a secret about each other, how about it, would you like to join this ragtag alliance? We are currently 7 strong. And yes, I am aware that once we become Guardian Spirits we are split up and sent to different parts of the galaxy, but I think it is a good idea if we remain in touch even after being separated, sharing information, maybe even aiding each other at times when we are close enough each other. So what do you say?"
He goes silent again, patiently waiting for her reply.
Zia ponders his offer for a while, and is about to say something when she hears someone calling her name. Helson glances towards the direction of the voice and sighs. "That would be your tutor no doubt, just go over to him and mull over my offer. There is no rush. There are still over 6 months before the final exam so take your time. We will be waiting."
She nods sharply and dashes over to Kro.
Kro was an alien of the species Hir'Okl (or so he claimed) and a senior Guardian Spirit. "Sorry that I am late, there came up an situation and I had leave momentarily to ensure that the safety of you guys hadn't been compromised." He explains in perfect English.
"What kind of situation?" She asks him
"Nothing serious, our scanners simply picked up unknown artifacts in the system but it turned out to be a registered trading convoy that had jumped into the wrong system. The situation was easily resolved and done with so you have no need to worry yourself over such matters."
Zia tells him that she was still interested to know more about the matter.
Kro sighs and smiles "Still more of a thinker than a fighter eh? I heard about the scuffle you had with Bugston. Nice job surviving, but if we are going to send you out there in only 6 months time you are going to have to be able to do more than just 'survive'" Cracking his fists in unusual fashion he proceeds to loosens up his shoulders. "It is my job to ensure that happens. We can go into strategies and plannings of armies and civilian evacuation plans at later date, but while we are here I am going to beat as much as possible about fighting into you. The question is simply, what form of fighting you want to focus on? Close weapons, ranged weapons, what size etc etc. I do not have hundred years to teach you everything I know so you are going to need to focus your study on something specific."
Her expression turns serious as she takes up her stance, she was ready. From this point onward she was going to absorb everything he could teach her as if her life depended on it.
Chapter 1: The Role
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No idea what to put here. :3
His smile crumbles, she had hit him where it hurt. Screaming incoherently he charges at her. Zia tries to prepares herself from the incoming punch but the man suddenly stops his fist just before it reaches her block and before she can follow his movements his other fist hits her in the stomach with full force. Zia coughs violently as her lungs violently expel air, the content of her stomach almost leaving her in the progress. Something important had just got torn. Nevertheless she was still standing, she could deal wi- too late she notices his leg. With sudden and immensely powerful force he kicks her across the field, leaving her lying in the dirt. Her eyes widen up, she had heard something crack, and considering that her lower legs felt... dulled, unresponsive it was clear what had happened.
Shaking her head, trying to regain every ounce of clarity she could. Meanwhile Bugton was gloating over her, just within her peripheral vision. "Well? Do you admit defeat? Either way it is obvious you will lose, so why not admitting it now and avoid an ongoing painful experience?" He almost seems to gleaming with joy from seeing her on the ground like this.
Zia stares up at him, disgust in her eyes. He notices and laughs "Oh what's that? You trying to kill me with that glare? Ohhh I am so sc-" He swallows his words and jumps back when she starts trying to rise. His eyes go even wider as she somehow stands up, ignoring the burning agony in her lower back, Zia forces her legs to move. She would not give him the satisfaction of gloating, even if it ended up making her a cripple. "H-how?! You shouldn't be able to stand! I felt it, I felt it crack! You can't be standing, i-it is impossible!" He stutters terrified. "You fucking monster! No one simply 'gets up' from an injury like that!" He takes couple of steps backwards. Now standing, Zia's upper body was still bent forwards, feeling every neuron in her body scream she forcefully rightens herself. A loud crack echoes from her back and suddenly her legs felt a lot lighter, the agony slightly more tolerable than before.
She glares at him before giving him a disgustingly sweet smile. "Well, aren't you going to make me suffer? I am standing here, come at me!" She shouts at him, challenging him. He takes few steps back, but quickly remembers that there was an audience, biting his lower lips in blend of frustration and dread he charges her again.
Weird, he appears to be moving much slower than before. Was it because he had lost his calm or was she getting used to his movements? No matter, this time she was going to make sure he wouldn't get in another shot at her back. Thankfully his first punch was laughably easy to avoid, had she really unnerved him to this point? There was a lot of power behind hi spunch but his mind wasn't really in it. Guiding his punch away with ease he loses his footing and falls to his knee. Rolling away from her, he doesn't break eye contact with her, seemingly terrified. Meanwhile Zia watches him with a pitiable look. "Well? I am still standing, you are free to attack me. Where did all that confidence of yours go?" Hearing her mocking words he reclaims some of his previous composure, though he was still clearly shaken. She twitches her fingers slightly, 'song picked' a low voice mutters in her ear. Her smile widens. The music would clear her mind of unwanted thoughts.
Shakily, he stands back up, charging her once again. And again, she could see his attack coming from a mile away, however, his form was improving, nevertheless Zia was still is in much better position than before. He continues to charge at her again and again and again. And albeit her defense wasn't perfect, she was blocking the worst of his strikes. Then, from her blind spot an overwhelmingly powerful punch strikes her in the lower jaw, causing the world to go blank fro a moment but she manages just about to regain her senses and not fall.
Minutes pass
After 10 minutes of constantly defending against his onslaught it was he who on his knees, gasping for air, knuckles covered in blood, some of the blood not even hers.
Zia was bruised all over, at least 4 of her ribs broken, one of her arm was hanging uselessly by her side and her face was bloody beyond recognition... but she was still standing, her mind still holding on despite numerous wounds on her body. "Why aren't you down!?!" Bugton spouts out in a panicked state. "You should be done! You should have given up by now! You... you freak!"
Zia smiles through broken and bloody lips. "Well, I am still standing, if that makes me a freak, so be it." She grabs her dislocated arm and sets it right with an audible clack sound. Bugton whimpered. The audience, which had been quiet until now, were becoming increasingly unruly, unfortunately Bugton was too focused on her to notice that.
Then she takes a step towards him, causing him to take a step away from her, his eyes as wide as they could go. Not giving him a chance to crawl further, Zia approaches him, intent on not breaking eye contact with him. He missteps and falls on his back and whimpers as he tries to crawl away from her. It was kind of ironic. He was, for the most part, completely unharmed, with the exception of broken knuckles, while she was bloody all over, and yet somehow he was the one terrified... even if she hadn't laid hands on him even once. His previous arrogant attitude completely overridden by his flight instincts. He ceases his crawling when he reaches the forcefield, his eyes closed like he was unwilling to face the reality of the situation. Zia calmly stops in front of him, he twitches. Going down to one knee she delicately she puts her good hand under his jaw and lifts his face to meet hers. "Open your eyes" She orders him. Her face only inches from his. She looks intently at his shaking frame. "Do you give up?" she asks softly. He twitches again, trying to free his head from her grip but she wasn't letting go.
Eventually he opens his eyes and stares back at hers. "I give up" he mutters in a low voice.
Zia stares at him "Repeat that, louder this time" Not an ounce of pity or patience left in her voice.
His whole body shakes. He bites his lips. After couple of seconds of him staring back at her he shouts "Fine! I give up! You win knife ears! You win so please... by everything that is good and holy... please let me go" he finishes practically crying.
"Sure" she replies nonchalantly and stands back up. The field dissipating around them. She glances around at the onlookers, some avoid eye contact while others give her a respectful nod. Ignoring them she walks through the crowd. People moving out of the way as she passes through. Once out of the crowd she heads for a more quiet area on the compound where she could sit down in peace. Ah, those benches would do well enough. With a groan she shuffles over to them and allows herself to collapse on them, exhausted from the fight.
Allowing her eyes to wanders she watches as the onlookers disperse and return to what they doing whilst Bugton and his followers rush towards the main housing on the camp. With a grunt she twitches her fingers, trying to scan the current state of her body, unfortunately she was only getting a lot of errors. Cursing she inspects the information center of her suit, sure enough, it had been damaged in the scuffle. She lets out a breath of relief, the damage didn't seem to severe, it shouldn't be too hard to fix, though she would need an access to the camp's main workshop again to fix it.
Sighing she moves her fingers in a hexagonal pattern, if the suit wouldn't work properly she would have to use one of it's subsystem alongside her own circuits. Closing her eyes, she takes in the data that the circuits were giving her. Zia opens up her eyes in shock. Woah, the damage she had suffered was pretty bad, though already mending. The spinal damage she had received at the beginning was already in the process of recovery. As she rubs her eyelids she realizes that her hands were coated in drying blood and she had this strong suspicion that her face didn't look any better.
Grunting from the pain she forces herself to stand up again and heads for nearby stalls. There she could wash the worst off. Zia grins ruefully, she must look like a mass murderer right now. She grimaces, smiling still kinda stung. Pain notwithstanding she was satisfied nontheless. She had made Bugton give up without her ever laying hands on him. Arriving at the stall she enters one of them and starts washing her face and hands.
Internally she felt like she could leap with joy, but externally she had to keep up that serene and serious expression that everyone else seemed to have. Seriously, there had to be a limit how long one could act all serious. They needed to be able to smile and laugh, even during the most difficult times, that was part of being human wasn't it? She splashes some more water on her face and stares at herself in the mirror. Huh, not nearly as bad as she had initially thought. True, there were some scratches and bruises, but other than that her face was in surprisingly good state. Zia smiles again, that idiot wasn't going to bother her again after that.
"That was a nice show of endurance. I am impressed!"
Zia jumps at the disembodied voice, startled. She hadn't heard anyone approaching nor did she see anyone in or around the stall right now. "Over here silly" the voice says coolly, this time clearly coming from one of the corners in the stall, looking up there she was surprised to be greeted by a tall woman. Had she been there the whole time? She was pretty sure that the stall had been empty when she entered it.
"No reason to be alarmed" The stranger states when she sees the glare in Zia's eyes. The woman walks towards her in non-threatening manner, making her realize just how much that woman towered over her.
She was easily 2 meters tall (6'5 ft) and had a strong, lithe built. She gave Zia a carefree smile as she stopped half a meter from her. "Hmm, how odd" the woman muttered as she inspects Zia. "I could have sworn that your injuries you suffered were worse." She puts a hand on Zia's shoulder, causing her to wince slightly, it likely hadn't clicked properly and was thus extremely sensitive "May I?" the woman asks. Not exactly sure what she meant Zia nevertheless nods. "Clench your teeth, this is going to hurt." The woman says as she grabs Zia's arm. Not giving her a time to react the woman pushes the arm back in. With another, louder click Zia feels a rush of pain flowing up her arm. Then it was over, the pain fading away.
The woman takes a step back, giving Zia some space to test out her arm. She moves it around, testing out its mobility, good, everything appeared to work fine. Zia looks up at the woman. "Thanks..."
"Orien is the name, but those who kno- well more those who knew me called me Ori so just call me that." she replies and smiles warmly, putting out her hand. "As I mentioned earlier. I am impressed that you didn't try to beat him up."
Zia shrugs as she grasps Ori's hand. "It would have been pointless, he would have just used some excuse why he lost and would have continued to harass me after recovering."
Ori looks at her thoughtfully for a second before releasing Zia's hand "Huh, a good point, I hadn't thought off it that way. I would have just beaten him up every time he had opened his mouth. But I guess that that might only make things worse."
Zia looks at her in surprise "You realize that if you do that without creating an arena you lose most of the points you have accumulated."
Ori shrugs nonchalantly "I honestly don't care about them. They are just methods by the aliens to make us more competitive and work harder." She scratches her chin. "Truthfully those aren't my words but that of, Helsons" Noticing Zia's confused look she chuckles. "Sorry, I am getting ahead of myself. Helson is a friend of mine that I knew before we ended up here. Follow me, I will take you to him." Ori states as she grabs her arm. Taken by surprise by her enthusiasm Zia allows her to drag her away from the main area of the field to where a darkly dressed man was doing target practice. He momentarily looks at them, gives Ori a curt nod and then continues firing at the targets.
"Hey Hel, this is..." she looks at Zia "I never got your name..."
"It is Letizia Bailar, nice to meet you..." She says and puts out her hand. He looks at her again, this time with a bit more interest. Putting away his pistols he walks over to them.
In comparison to Ori he was quite short, only around 175-180 cm (5'8-5'9 ft) but judging from his strongly built frame and his gait she suspected that he had military training. Like Ori had done he began inspecting her "Yeah, I recognize you, you were that woman that was fighting sir Bugton couple of minutes ago. I didn't recognize you without all that blood." Sir? Zia gives him a skeptical look, but before she can comment on it Ori raises her voice.
"Hel, You know you don't need to call him sir. That snake doesn't deserve to be treated with a single ounce of respect. You even don't work for him anymore!"
Helson nods curtly. "Yes, you are right, I don't have to but old habits die hard" He turns back to Zia "I am sorry, m'lady but do you mind if I ask you some questions?" he asks Zia curtly.
Unaccustomed to being treated in such a manner she tells him it is fine.
"I apologize that some of these questions will undoubtedly sound uncomfortably direct. But I need to see what kind of person you are before we can continue with our conversation."
Zia tells him again that it is fine, albeit she is a bit more defensive this time around. "First question, name?" She answers. The following row of questions are about various things, including what she would expect a policeman to ask someone that was suspected of certain crimes and so on.
"Now then." he mutters as his eyes start to glow blue "Now that I got a good idea of your character let me ask you this. Why are you planning an escape?"
The question takes Zia by surprise. She hadn't expected him to ask her that at all. He inspects her reaction carefully "No need to answer that, your reaction was enough" A hint of a smile appeared for a split second on his lips.
"Woah" Ori exclaims amazed. "You are planning to escape? Why?"
Zia glances around and then back at those two. Seeing that the cat was out of the bag she resigns to her fate. "It is just a backup plan. I don't trust those 'Role' aliens. They claim that we are candidates of justice, but I cannot in good faith see how leaving billion people to rot on a dying planet is justice. That's why I am working on an escape plan. Until I know their true goal, I want to have plan B just in case" she explains .
Helson nods "A decent enough reasoning. I do agree that only saving 20 thousand people is a bit weird, but I believe that they have a solid reason."
She gives him a skeptical glare and he puts up his hands "Just listen, I have couple of reasons for why I think this.
Reason One; I did some investigation and it turns out that many other sapient species have been 'saved' the same way, hundreds of them. Most of them are now scattered all over the galaxy, thriving and blooming. There are of course some bad apples in-between but overall, the gist I got of it is that most of these races are doing well and are thankful towards the Role. Enough that the main body of these species actively have armies defending the few Sky-cities the Role have left.
Second Reason; From my interviews with the alien staff and supervisors I got the feeling that the Role's view on what Justice is is very different from our own. In their eyes, Justice is no doubt based purely on logic and reasoning. In their eyes, injustice would be to leave an intelligent race to die, but to minimize the risks of the same mistakes being done, and uprisings they pick only those that are least likely to make them. Why exactly 20 thousand I am still not sure but I suspect it has something to do with genetics. They are thinking thousands, if not tens of thousands of years ahead rather than dozen of years.
Thirdly; I think that the Role aim to make Guardian Spirits, that is, future us, their successors"
Zia stares at him in shock. "Are you sure about that? I don't see how an ancient, superpowerful race would want to share a part of their fat, fat pie"
Ori chuckles but Helson stares back at her, dead serious "I am not kidding, and my theories are well founded. I ask you this, what do you know about the Role?"
Zia thinks carefully "They are a highly intelligent race that is able to live for million of years and was spacefaring before any other known species in this galaxy."
Helson nods "That's true but that is only a tiny fragment of their story. The records don't mention much about it but the whole Role race is actually dying. One by one they are succumbing to death and for unknown reasons they are not reproducing. That is why there are only few Sky-cities left. Their numbers are too low for them to be able to maintain all of them. Their numbers are only in the millions now and those numbers are deteriorating at a rapid pace." He goes silent for a couple seconds. "The reasons why I came to the conclusion that they are planning for Guardian Spirits to succeed them are mainly due to three facts."
He raises up a finger "One; The drug we were injected with before we arrived and is supposed to lengthen our lifespan is the Role's blood"
Zia and Ori eyes widen
"Two; They told us that it should lengthen our lifespan by couple of decades but I suspect that is a white lie. I dug a bit deeper in the data when we arrived here and discovered that all species so far that have been made Guardians Spirits have been able to live for well over ten thousand years, not counting those that died in the line of duty. Not a single example I found indicated numbers lower than that. Hell, some of the original first Guardian Spirits are thought to be still alive, and they would be over hundred thousand years old by now."
He raises a third finger "Three; When a Role is on the verge of dying they put a part of their consciousness/soul into the Eye. I admit I am not exactly sure what the purpose behind that would be but why would they do that if they didn't intend the Spirits to succeed them. You wouldn't hand over something as important as your own consciousness to someone you didn't intend to trust would you? Well, those are my thoughts."
He goes silent. Leaving Zia there, staring blankly at him. That had been one heck of a speech. The eerie thing was that it did make a lot of sense. The puzzle in her mind felt a lot more complete now than before. There were still a lot of pieces missing from it, but if his theory was right, then a lot of their actions could be explained. It didn't mean that she agreed to some, if many of their methods, but at least now she had a basic understanding of their thought process.
She turns to face Helson. "This does make a lot of sense, but why are you telling me this?"
He looks at her intently. "Because you are the sort of person that is worth trusting... that and Ori has been spying on you for the last 2 weeks to make sure my hunch was right."
Zia was slightly startled by the fact that they had been spying on her but decided that the shock over her ruined privacy could wait 'til later date.
"I apologize for our discretion, but there are a many people here that one simply cannot trust and I have to make sure those the few people I let into our group are worth it. You fitted the bill so I asked Ori to fetch you, and here we are."
Zia stares at him "Who are you?"
He faces her stare and shrugs. "No-one important. My name is Helson Gorton the third. I run... ran the detective and bodyguard company known as the LifeArmor. And moments before I was beemed up I was standing in front of that guy's father firing squad" He shrugs towards Bugton direction. "If you are wondering, I wasn't being shot for something I did, but for something I refused to do. I refused to remove the apartment buildings surrounding their estate. Their reason for wanting that? Because someone had looked at the owner's wife the wrong way. I may be many things, but even I need hellofa better reason to off innocent folk."
He gives Zia a grim smile. "So, since we now know a secret about each other, how about it, would you like to join this ragtag alliance? We are currently 7 strong. And yes, I am aware that once we become Guardian Spirits we are split up and sent to different parts of the galaxy, but I think it is a good idea if we remain in touch even after being separated, sharing information, maybe even aiding each other at times when we are close enough each other. So what do you say?"
He goes silent again, patiently waiting for her reply.
Zia ponders his offer for a while, and is about to say something when she hears someone calling her name. Helson glances towards the direction of the voice and sighs. "That would be your tutor no doubt, just go over to him and mull over my offer. There is no rush. There are still over 6 months before the final exam so take your time. We will be waiting."
She nods sharply and dashes over to Kro.
Kro was an alien of the species Hir'Okl (or so he claimed) and a senior Guardian Spirit. "Sorry that I am late, there came up an situation and I had leave momentarily to ensure that the safety of you guys hadn't been compromised." He explains in perfect English.
"What kind of situation?" She asks him
"Nothing serious, our scanners simply picked up unknown artifacts in the system but it turned out to be a registered trading convoy that had jumped into the wrong system. The situation was easily resolved and done with so you have no need to worry yourself over such matters."
Zia tells him that she was still interested to know more about the matter.
Kro sighs and smiles "Still more of a thinker than a fighter eh? I heard about the scuffle you had with Bugston. Nice job surviving, but if we are going to send you out there in only 6 months time you are going to have to be able to do more than just 'survive'" Cracking his fists in unusual fashion he proceeds to loosens up his shoulders. "It is my job to ensure that happens. We can go into strategies and plannings of armies and civilian evacuation plans at later date, but while we are here I am going to beat as much as possible about fighting into you. The question is simply, what form of fighting you want to focus on? Close weapons, ranged weapons, what size etc etc. I do not have hundred years to teach you everything I know so you are going to need to focus your study on something specific."
Her expression turns serious as she takes up her stance, she was ready. From this point onward she was going to absorb everything he could teach her as if her life depended on it.
Chapter 1: The Role
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No idea what to put here. :3
Last edited:
Update 3: Improvement
Elmithian
Cherno Alpha's fists are nothing to laugh at
- Location
- Iceland
The next 4 weeks fly by in a flurry of motion as she focuses all her time on strengthening herself and in the use of warhammers. The tutors and supervisors are close to stunned by her intensity. Rarely had anyone in the history of the Guardian Spirits taken such huge leaps in such a short period. By the end of the month she had built up enough body strength to be able to swing around a huge warhammer, even somewhat decently with one hand. Other candidates were starting to take notice of her. Her nearly obnoxious stubbornness/will to keep on going no matter what, inspires many to do the same.
After thinking seriously about it for a while, Zia decides that she had waited long enough and goes over to Helson to accept his offer of alliance. She was frankly a bit curious about what kind of people the made up the rest of the team, especially considering Helson meticulous personality. But meeting them was going to have to wait to a later date since she already had more than enough on her plate at the moment. After Helson had pointed out to her that there were lessons being taught in the Galactic Standard during the free periods she had decided it would probably be for the best to learn at least the main language spoken by the races, even if it costed her couple of evenings.
The first session was relatively simple as it was an introduction to the 3 oldest races that the Role had helped.
"The three races are Oros, Heks and Va'ons. Together they created the Ulo, or the GS(Galactic Standard) as some of you refer to it. Albeit I think Ulo sounds better. Just saying it makes you feel all... springy doesn't it? Ulo, Uuuulo." A sound of half muffled chuckles could be heard through the room. No one was sure who had started calling it GS but it had quickly spread, much to the language teacher, Brols, dismay.
A sigh could be heard from him. "I am not going to force you children to use the proper name for the language, but I want you to at least remember its real name. It is important to have at least some amount of class when dealing with the other races." And like that he continued, teaching them the proper ways to greet, say goodbye and similar basic stuff. By the end of the first class Zia had absorbed most of what he had said with little difficulty. As did Helson.
The following classes went mostly the same way. Brols was a good, if not a great teacher and even the most arrogant characters in the group of 'students' quickly quieted down and started taking down notes. By the end of the month Zia was pretty confident that she could speak the language pretty well, though not perfectly. Brols also announced that anyone interested could attend more language (this time the second most common language, Trisk) or history lessons about the various races at the start of the next (human) month.
Ori had also attended the language class with Zia and Helson, over that time they got to know each other a lot better. After the classes Zia and Ori often went off and chatted into the late evenings about various things that they had both fancied or hated back on earth. Though sometimes the conversations went to more serious matters like what their thoughts were about fellow candidates and how the people on Earth might be faring.
"I wonder whether anyone I knew on earth was among those saved." Ori suddenly says.
Zia looks at her curiously "Why are you thinking that? Someone you fancied back there?" She asks teasingly and receive a light punch on the shoulder.
"Direct as always" Ori replies and grins "But that is what I like about you." She looks thoughtful for a moment. "No, it is not someone I fancied, it is someone I looked up to when I was back on earth. Though more correct would be to say them, rather than someone." She goes silent, lost in memories. Zia sits there silently, patiently waiting for her to continue. Soon Ori found the strength to continue "I haven't told you this before, but I was part of the royal bodyguards for the United Crown royal family, well, that is not entirely true. I was an apprentice to become a royal bodyguard. You are likely aware, but all bodyguards of the royal family are females. Born and raised specifically to defend the royal family and the throne to the bitter end. But even if you are born and raised specifically for that purpose, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will succeed in becoming one. Just the first exam is extremely challenging and after that it gets a lot tougher. An apprentice is someone that successfully has finished the first test. After you get that title you will receive training from the bodyguards themselves, The Royal Sisters as they are often called."
She goes quiet again, most likely gathering her thoughts. Zia gives her a thoughtful look. "Am I right in guessing that the sisters are the ones you miss?" she asks her.
Ori gives her a soft nod. "Yes, to me, a young impressionate girl, they were as large as life itself. For me there was no other path but to become a sister. Not because I was raised to become one, but rather because I couldn't see myself becoming anything else." she gives Zia a sad smile "The sisters were extremely kind to me. Often forgiving mistakes I made without any punishment. Even when I was trained in use of the hidden blades and the art of hiding in the shadows they were patient beyond belief. Do not mistake me, the training was extremely harsh, but thanks to their continuous support I never gave up. Without their warmth, I doubt I would have even gotten through half of it, not to mention all of it!"
She sighs softly and continues on in increasingly unstable voice. "At that time I had not yet realized that becoming a Royal Sister also meant becoming an assassin for the throne. I blindly believed that the sisters were perfect, that they couldn't do anything wrong. I learned the truth short time before the ceremony that would make me a full fledged sister."
Zia could hear her sniffle couple of times and moves closer to her. "I" Ori gulps down some tears "I-I learned from the sisters that as a part of the ceremony I was required to murder an innocent, as I had to be able and ready to sacrifice the few, for the good of the many." Tears were now flowing freely down her face, but she mustered her courage and continued "Th-they told me that the moment I entered the ceremonial hall I either would kill the innocent or be killed myself."
Zia was now hugging Ori, stroking her hair softly as she kept talking "They told me th-that they had gotten enough of seeing girl after girl corrupted or sacrificed in the name of the throne. I had been the last straw. They couldn't bear seeing another pointless death. This was it, enough was enough! Even after saying that they a-asked me whether I still wanted to go through with the ceremony. If-if I did they w-would offer me to fight and die by their side as they opposed the Throne. If no-not they would lead me out of the palace grounds through a hidden tunnel. They would tell the Throne that I had decided not to kill and had been e-executed and then they would make their final stand."
She was starting to sob so much that what she was saying was becoming increasingly indistinct. She tried to take deep breaths and calm down, but failed "I-I-I chose to run. I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill a person, kno-knowing that the person was innocent. I-I simply couldn't. S-so I ran, I ran as deep into the city as I could. As far away from the cursed Throne as I could!" Unintentionally she shouts those last words.
Her words were getting nigh impossible to understand. "Th-then, a-all of a s-sudden I w-was a-alone i-in th-the dark, a street rat lost in the gutter." she sniffled loudly "B-but th-then H-Helson a-appeared a-and h-helped m-me f-find a-a place of my o-own." she gave you a weak smile between the tears "H-he is l-like a br-brother too me, l-like a b-big br-brother I never h-had!" Her words stopped being intelligible at this point and she full on started crying in your lap. After a while her sobs slowed down and she managed to muster couple of words "I-I am so-sorry that I am like this. I-I must be a huge b-bother to you".
Zia shushes her and kisses her on the forehead, softly singing her into deep slumber.
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Thinking about having each update around this length if possible. No promises though. ; )
After thinking seriously about it for a while, Zia decides that she had waited long enough and goes over to Helson to accept his offer of alliance. She was frankly a bit curious about what kind of people the made up the rest of the team, especially considering Helson meticulous personality. But meeting them was going to have to wait to a later date since she already had more than enough on her plate at the moment. After Helson had pointed out to her that there were lessons being taught in the Galactic Standard during the free periods she had decided it would probably be for the best to learn at least the main language spoken by the races, even if it costed her couple of evenings.
The first session was relatively simple as it was an introduction to the 3 oldest races that the Role had helped.
A sigh could be heard from him. "I am not going to force you children to use the proper name for the language, but I want you to at least remember its real name. It is important to have at least some amount of class when dealing with the other races." And like that he continued, teaching them the proper ways to greet, say goodbye and similar basic stuff. By the end of the first class Zia had absorbed most of what he had said with little difficulty. As did Helson.
The following classes went mostly the same way. Brols was a good, if not a great teacher and even the most arrogant characters in the group of 'students' quickly quieted down and started taking down notes. By the end of the month Zia was pretty confident that she could speak the language pretty well, though not perfectly. Brols also announced that anyone interested could attend more language (this time the second most common language, Trisk) or history lessons about the various races at the start of the next (human) month.
Ori had also attended the language class with Zia and Helson, over that time they got to know each other a lot better. After the classes Zia and Ori often went off and chatted into the late evenings about various things that they had both fancied or hated back on earth. Though sometimes the conversations went to more serious matters like what their thoughts were about fellow candidates and how the people on Earth might be faring.
"I wonder whether anyone I knew on earth was among those saved." Ori suddenly says.
Zia looks at her curiously "Why are you thinking that? Someone you fancied back there?" She asks teasingly and receive a light punch on the shoulder.
"Direct as always" Ori replies and grins "But that is what I like about you." She looks thoughtful for a moment. "No, it is not someone I fancied, it is someone I looked up to when I was back on earth. Though more correct would be to say them, rather than someone." She goes silent, lost in memories. Zia sits there silently, patiently waiting for her to continue. Soon Ori found the strength to continue "I haven't told you this before, but I was part of the royal bodyguards for the United Crown royal family, well, that is not entirely true. I was an apprentice to become a royal bodyguard. You are likely aware, but all bodyguards of the royal family are females. Born and raised specifically to defend the royal family and the throne to the bitter end. But even if you are born and raised specifically for that purpose, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will succeed in becoming one. Just the first exam is extremely challenging and after that it gets a lot tougher. An apprentice is someone that successfully has finished the first test. After you get that title you will receive training from the bodyguards themselves, The Royal Sisters as they are often called."
She goes quiet again, most likely gathering her thoughts. Zia gives her a thoughtful look. "Am I right in guessing that the sisters are the ones you miss?" she asks her.
Ori gives her a soft nod. "Yes, to me, a young impressionate girl, they were as large as life itself. For me there was no other path but to become a sister. Not because I was raised to become one, but rather because I couldn't see myself becoming anything else." she gives Zia a sad smile "The sisters were extremely kind to me. Often forgiving mistakes I made without any punishment. Even when I was trained in use of the hidden blades and the art of hiding in the shadows they were patient beyond belief. Do not mistake me, the training was extremely harsh, but thanks to their continuous support I never gave up. Without their warmth, I doubt I would have even gotten through half of it, not to mention all of it!"
She sighs softly and continues on in increasingly unstable voice. "At that time I had not yet realized that becoming a Royal Sister also meant becoming an assassin for the throne. I blindly believed that the sisters were perfect, that they couldn't do anything wrong. I learned the truth short time before the ceremony that would make me a full fledged sister."
Zia could hear her sniffle couple of times and moves closer to her. "I" Ori gulps down some tears "I-I learned from the sisters that as a part of the ceremony I was required to murder an innocent, as I had to be able and ready to sacrifice the few, for the good of the many." Tears were now flowing freely down her face, but she mustered her courage and continued "Th-they told me that the moment I entered the ceremonial hall I either would kill the innocent or be killed myself."
Zia was now hugging Ori, stroking her hair softly as she kept talking "They told me th-that they had gotten enough of seeing girl after girl corrupted or sacrificed in the name of the throne. I had been the last straw. They couldn't bear seeing another pointless death. This was it, enough was enough! Even after saying that they a-asked me whether I still wanted to go through with the ceremony. If-if I did they w-would offer me to fight and die by their side as they opposed the Throne. If no-not they would lead me out of the palace grounds through a hidden tunnel. They would tell the Throne that I had decided not to kill and had been e-executed and then they would make their final stand."
She was starting to sob so much that what she was saying was becoming increasingly indistinct. She tried to take deep breaths and calm down, but failed "I-I-I chose to run. I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill a person, kno-knowing that the person was innocent. I-I simply couldn't. S-so I ran, I ran as deep into the city as I could. As far away from the cursed Throne as I could!" Unintentionally she shouts those last words.
Her words were getting nigh impossible to understand. "Th-then, a-all of a s-sudden I w-was a-alone i-in th-the dark, a street rat lost in the gutter." she sniffled loudly "B-but th-then H-Helson a-appeared a-and h-helped m-me f-find a-a place of my o-own." she gave you a weak smile between the tears "H-he is l-like a br-brother too me, l-like a b-big br-brother I never h-had!" Her words stopped being intelligible at this point and she full on started crying in your lap. After a while her sobs slowed down and she managed to muster couple of words "I-I am so-sorry that I am like this. I-I must be a huge b-bother to you".
Zia shushes her and kisses her on the forehead, softly singing her into deep slumber.
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Thinking about having each update around this length if possible. No promises though. ; )