Chapter 1: Project Sigma
Chapter Text
The Zenith
Tai-Lung opened his eyes. At first, everything was blurry and distant, like he was looking through a twisted piece of glass. He blinked, trying to shake the intense grogginess of the drugs.
"Where am I?" he wondered. "What happened?"
Then, he remembered. Everything. The firefight, the retreat, the electric net falling over him, fighting to get out of it, and then nothing but the darkness closing in.
Tai-Lung opened his eyes and put all of his energy into focusing on the area around him. He was in a very dark hallway. Crimson lights were periodically placed on the ceiling, giving the black metal walls a sinister glow. The hallway wasn't in the shape of a rectangle, but instead, it tapered closer together towards the top, so that the top of the hall was smaller in width than the bottom of the hall, almost making it a triangular prism. As Tai-Lung squinted, he could see that the walls next to him were not empty. There were the outlines of rooms. He turned his head to look, and he saw something in the corner of the small, bare room. It was in the corner. It looked like… a pile of dirty clothes?
"No," Tai-Lung thought. "It can't be."
But it was. As he looked, the pile of clothes shifted, and it was then did he realize that it was a person. Beaten, starved, and hopeless, it was a person. He could only see the shine of a pair of eyes coming from the clothes.
It was then did the leopard realize that he was moving. How was he moving, he wondered? His feet weren't moving.
Tai-Lung suddenly was hit with a wave of senses. The pain of the electric net coursed through his body. The powerful smell of antiseptic flooded his nostrils. The gentle buzz of the electricity flowing through the building, his current state of motion.
In panic, he looked down, and he finally realized that he wasn't walking. He was strapped to a table that was tilted slightly back. It had magnetic hover mechanisms, so it never actually touched the floor. It was an automated table, so no one even needed to push it. It merely floated on its own accord, with its metal straps tightly securing the leopard. Tai-Lung struggled to break free; he thrashed as violently as he could to get his arms loose. But it was all to no avail. In fact, it almost seemed as if the bonds were getting tighter, as if the table was somehow mocking him.
Suddenly, everything made sense to the leopard. It had been such a confusing time recently, waking up again and again, only for someone to quickly stick a needle in his neck and put him back under again. He now knew where he was.
The Zenith. The one place in the galaxy where he didn't want to be.
Located on the moon, Greon 6, The Zenith was home to the Grandmasters. Located within a perpetual storm system and surrounded by a raging sea, the dark fortress had been impossible for the rebel's spaceships to access. The Grandmasters were the very people Tai-Lung and his entire family were fighting to gain freedom from. Well, to call that thing a person wasn't exactly accurate. It could imitate, it could copy, and it could learn, but it would never be a person.
Tai-Lung stopped struggling, as he knew it was pointless. The table would take him wherever it wanted to take him. A wave of fear hit him.
"Why are they keeping me alive?" he wondered, as he had been hopeful that they would have just killed him when the electric net hit him. Were they going to interrogate him? Yes, he thought, that must be it. "They're going to ask me about where they are. Where we were hiding. Which system, which planet, which quadrant, which sector, everything." Tai-Lung did his best to calm himself down. He would not give his family to these monsters. No matter what they did to him.
Setting his jaw defiantly, Tai-Lung mentally prepared for whatever came next. The table hovered on, carrying past the cells. Even though the cells didn't have bars or any kind of barrier, he knew better. If anyone tried to cross the line between the small cells and the hallway, the force fields would kick in, causing great discomfort.
The table finally came to the end of the long hall. At the end of the wall, there was a door. It slid open, revealing an elevator. The nearly perpendicular table adjusted itself to fit through the door, spun around so Tai-Lung was facing the door, and stopped moving as the door slid back in place. Tai-Lung could feel the elevator moving upwards, and he could also see the numbers on the large dial move upwards.
3rd floor.
10th floor.
37th floor.
The elevator went higher and higher, going and going. It seemed like it would never stop. After what seemed like hours, until finally came to the floor right before the top.
The 999th floor.
The door slid open, revealing another poorly-lit room. The table pushed him forward, the elevator door closing behind him.
Tai-Lung looked around the room. The whole room was circular, but as soon as the table hovered out of the elevator, it began to rise on a few stairs, leading to a small circular platform. Like the hallways, the room was mostly dark, but had a few crimson lights on the tops and sides.
As the table rose toward the platform, Tai-Lung could see that it was mostly empty. It only had two things. In the center was another table, designed for people to rest on. Attached to the top of the table were a pair of hinges that held two metal boards. The metal boards had spikes on the end of them, and Tai-Lung knew at that moment what the chair was used for.
He was in the interrogation chamber. Those boards folded down and electrocuted any victim unfortunate enough to be on the table. Not enough to kill their victims, but just enough so that they would talk.
The second thing that caught Tai-Lung's attention was the peacock. Tai-Lung had never actually seen the Head Grandmaster in person, but he had seen him everywhere else. On the screens, on the monitors, he was everywhere. He occasionally gave broadcasted announcements, which every person in every planet he controlled was required to watch on their holographic screens at their homes.
The peacock turned to look at the leopard. He gave a soft smile. Here he was, a small, pale peacock, wearing only a simple white robe, yet Tai-Lung felt a wave of terror wash over him at the sight of Lord Shen.
The lord extended his wings in a gesture of welcome.
"Greetings, leopard! We meet at last!" Shen gave a slight chuckle as the table carrying Tai-Lung hovered over to the other table. When the two tables were near each other, the restraints on Tai-Lung began to both loosen and spin, flipping the leopard around. Suddenly, the table tipped itself forward and retracted its restraints, dumping him on the interrogation table. The second he hit the table, more restraints shot up from the sides of the table, locking him securely in place.
Shen walked up to the immobilized Tai-Lung.
"I do hope you're finding our home suitable for your taste."
Tai-Lung only growled back, desperate to wring the peacock's long neck.
"Ahh, tsk, tsk, that kind of behavior won't get you anywhere. Everything will be a lot less painful if you just cooperate."
Tai-Lung made his eyes look in a different direction, focusing on his metal toughness. He would need it a little bit.
Shen wasn't so pleased at the leopard's silence. "Oh, come now, my friend, I don't like using this little contraption, but I will be forced to if you won't talk with me."
Silence.
With a grin that disproved his words, Shen reached for the side of the table and pushed a button with tips of one of his fingers. He backed away, and the two metal boards slowly came to rest right above Tai-Lung. It stopped just as the tips of the thin needles came to a rest on his pitch-black prisoner's outfit.
Before it could start, Shen gave him one last offer.
"You do know that this won't kill you, right? It will only make you suffer until you give me what I want."
Tai-Lung finally responded to the lord's words. "What you want? You mean what it wants."
Shen, in what seemed like one giant stride, was suddenly standing right next to the table. He quickly put a feather up to Tai-Lung's lips.
"Shhhh," he whispered. "Please, he prefers to be called he. You see, he gets very angry when people call him an it. It is unwise to make him angry. Now, this is very simple. I just want to know which rock your father and his whole little gang are cowering under."
"I can't tell him," the leopard thought to himself. "No matter what."
He opened his mouth and began with, "I'll never-"
"-Never tell me?" Shen finished. He seemed disappointed "Tsk, you people are all alike. Nobody has any imagination anymore." The peacock gave another smile. "Well, I suppose I'm partially to blame for that." With that, the lord took a few steps backward.
"Very well. Just remember; you may speak to me at your leisure. Power on; lowest setting," he finished, talking to the table.
The table came to life, with the tips of the needles beginning to flow with electricity.
Tai-Lung was in discomfort, but it wasn't anything major. He could stand it.
"Raise the level," the peacock ordered the table.
The current rose, causing greater pain. Tai-Lung gritted his teeth together, trying to ignore it.
"Raise the level," the peacock said once more.
Now the leopard was in pain. He began to twitch against his restraints, hoping that it would end; that somehow he could break free.
"Raise it five levels."
The current surged, and Tai-Lung thrashed against the restraints, letting his cares slip past him as he wished for death, as it would surely be better than the pain he was going through at the moment.
"Raise it five more."
Tai-Lung let loose a primal scream, trying to divert his pain anyway he could. Sometime during the scream, Shen suddenly ordered-
"Shut down."
And just like that, the electricity stopped flowing, and the torture ceased. Tai-Lung groaned, relieved that it was over but worried that he couldn't get out of his current situation.
"Now, I don't like using this barbaric machine, but, you must admit, it is effective."
Tai-Lung could only whimper in pain.
"Now, won't you just tell me where they are? It really is simple."
Tai-Lung managed to collect enough breath to speak. "And what… and what are you going to do with me then?"
Shen was silent for a moment. Then that cursed smile appeared on his beak once more.
"Ohhh," he said with some realization. "I see. You think I'm going to kill you after you tell me what I want."
Shen got closer to the table and gently ran the back of his feather down Tai-Lung's face. Tai-Lung tried to turn his head away, but the restraints wouldn't let him.
"No," Shen continued. "I'm not going to kill you." He put his head closer to Tai-Lung's and softly whispered, "You are going to be part of something beautiful."
Shen backed away once more and sighed.
"Well, I was hoping that you would tell me before we began the project, but I see that'll take too much time." Shen raised his head and shouted, "Bring them in!"
At his command, four circular doors on the ceiling opened up, and the circular pieces of the ceiling gently floated down to their level, carrying a variety of black machines and tools. When they all simultaneously reached the floor, they all hovered towards the table. There were machines of all kinds, from androids to what looked like a box with arms. As they approached, the metal bars containing the electric tips moved upwards on their hinges and folded themselves so that they were at the back of the table. The table tilted backwards, until Tai-Lung was facing the ceiling.
They all hovered above the terrified leopard, who could only look at their light sensors, pretending that they were eyes with some kind of sympathy inside them, instead of the soulless machines that they really were.
Shen walked to the table again, the machines moving to the side to make room. He peered down at Tai-Lung.
"We've been working on a new project lately. It will help us greatly in exterminating your annoying little friends. And the best part? You'll do all the work for us."
Shen turned around to leave. The machines closed the gap, and the box-like one one moved a needle towards his neck until Shen stopped right before he reached the door.
"Oh, don't give him the anesthetic immediately. Just start with his legs. After those are removed, then you can give him the anesthetic for the other parts. I think it would be fitting if pain is the last memory he has."
Tai-Lung's yellow eyes grew as wide as grapefruits.
"Remove my legs?" he thought with panic. On command, the machine about to insert the needle froze, reversed its arm-like appendage, and placed the needle back on the tray.
Another humanoid machine near his legs lifted it's appendage, where a circular saw was located where a hand would normally be. The teeth on the saw were sharper than any tiger's or crocodiles. The saw began to spin. Slowly at first, but it spun faster and faster until it almost appeared to be spinning backwards.
Then, it slowly began to lower the saw towards Tai-Lung's left thigh. Tai-Lung began to fight against his bonds once again, desperately trying to escape. But there was nothing he could do. The bonds wouldn't let him go, and there would be no one to rescue him at the very last second, like all the stories told.
"No," Tai-Lung grunted. But the saw just got closer and closer.
"NOOO!" Tai-Lung shouted out.
Shen had just closed the elevator door when the saw made contact with Tai-Lung's skin. He could briefly hear the mutilated screaming through the door.
The peacock smiled as the elevator moved up only one level.
The door opened, and he stepped onto the 1000th level.
Chapter 2: Shooting Star
Chapter Text
Two years later
Delia: Federal-controlled planet
The silence in the room was impressive considering the number of people.
The building was in the shape of a pyramid, made of a shiny black metal that had lines etched across it, making the metal appear to be separated into blocks. Inside this temple, on the bottom floor, was the sermon.
A few hundred people were gathered on the bare floor, only covered with a thin carpet. They were all bent down on their knees, their faces all the way to the floor, with their paws, hands, or claws stretched out before them. From some of them came quiet murmurs and whispers, but others were silent as they prayed to their chosen deity. They were packed in like sardines, with one persons' hands touching another one's feet, and everyone touching somebody else on their sides.
The whole crowd wore the same exact clothing. A simple white robe, designed for this very building.
Amidst the crowd was someone of great importance. Yet, if you asked around, no one would be able to tell you why. Even the person himself would reply that he didn't know what you were talking about, and he would be telling the truth, as he did not yet know of his significance.
Somewhere in the middle of the crowd, a panda was bent over in prayer.
"Please, let us have a good harvest this year," Po Ping prayed. His prayer was routine by now, he didn't really say it out of heart anymore, but more out of repetition, as he had already said it a million times, and would probably say it a million more.
"Please help my father and all of us. We know you will be with us."
The only trouble with Po's prayer was that… he didn't really didn't know who he was praying to. He had always seen nature and life as its own deity. The grass, the trees, the wind, the rain, all of it was just so… perfect. It had to be a deity, and Po had decided to worship whoever had created such things, as the perfection of his natural world must be a reflection of the perfection of whoever made it.
But that was the choice that he had. Anyone could worship whatever deity they chose. It was for the benefit of society. At least, that was what the priests told them.
Said priests were at one side of the square base of the building. There were seven of them, sitting on a small stage-like elevation, peering down on the worshipers. The priests came from various places, and were made up of various species, but they all wore the same red robe, with deep hoods thrown over their heads. They sat in simple thrones made of simple stonework. Their position at the front of the sermon made it feel like the people were worshiping them. For all intents and purposes, they were, but they made sure not to tell them that. Better that they be content in their little bubble of innocence and perfection. Because content people didn't ask questions. People who didn't ask questions never caused any trouble. And trouble was something everyone wanted to avoid.
After a few more final minutes of praying, the priest in the middle rang a small bell next to his throne, and everyone quietly stood up. A single nod from the priest, and everyone silently filed their way out of the temple.
Outside, the world around them was flawless. There were green hills and patches of trees, where rivers ran and the sun shone brightly. If you could look up paradise in the dictionary, a picture of this place would be in the definition.
As people filed out, some stopping to talk amongst their neighbors and family members, Po moved his head back and forth, searching low to the ground. Finally, he found the person he was looking for. Once outside of the temple, Po met up with his father in the crowd.
"Are we ready for the day?" Mr. Ping asked Po, having to look up at him with their size differential. Mr. Ping was actually a goose, but Po never really seemed to be overly concerned with it. In reality, he had no knowledge of how children came into the world, so it seemed perfectly normal to him.
"Yeah, Dad, we're ready."
Together, the two followed one of the many branching pathways that left the temple, leading to the various farmlands scattered around the area. As Po and his father walked, they each looked around at the world around them, appreciative of what they had been given.
"We have to keep plowing the fields today," Po thought to himself.
Technically, that was both a lie and the truth. Po really was going to keep working on plowing the fields, but his father wasn't going to be doing it. It was simply hardwired in Po's brain to use the word "we"in place of "I", because the word "I"was forbidden.
It had been decreed long ago that there would no longer be the word "I".Because "I" was the cause of all troubles. "I" led to thoughts about oneself, which led to pride, greed, gluttony, wrath, lust, envy, and sloth. "I". Without "I," none of those things existed. When your entire existence was centered around the society around you, these things simply disappeared. You couldn't be prideful of something you did when you did it in the name of society: it belongs to society, not to you. You couldn't be greedy when you were only permitted to buy things you needed. You couldn't be angry with your neighbor, because you didn't think about how you felt, you were much more concerned about understanding how your neighbor felt, and your neighbor was more concerned about you. There was no such thing as laziness, you had to work for society just as society works for you. The only thing that you really owned was your name. That was it. That was all you needed.
And even then, it was really more for the benefit of other people.
Po and his father passed by the river, their small hut in sight. Next to the hut was a barn, which was actually much larger than the hut, as it housed all of the necessary equipment for making a successful harvest.
Po's life centered around the farm. He woke up with the sun, plowed, seeded, covered up the seeds, watered, fertilized, weeded, trimmed, and did everything else he needed to do. All of it built up to the harvest, where the crops were finally ready and offered to the government officials, who then distributed all of it equally among the citizens of the village.
Then, after a slight celebration, it was back to seeding again. You see, Delia was a planet that had a ninety-degree axis, which meant that there were no such things as seasons. Of course, Po had heard about them, but he had never experienced winter or summer. His sector, located in a comfy position between the equator and the pole, was blessed with eternal spring. Which meant that there was no rest for the farmers of the village.
Actually, everyone in the village was a farmer. Everyone except the priests. And on the minuscule chance that something happened that you couldn't solve on your own, then you went to the priests, who would then confer with their gods, going up to the top of the pyramid-like temple to pray. They would then come back down and answer your question.
The wisdom of their god was great. There were no problems he couldn't solve.
If only people knew what they really did at the top of their pyramid. There was no praying, only connecting. Plugging themselves into the machine. Getting the answers. Unplugging themselves, now with the knowledge to answer the question.
Meanwhile, Po and his dad had separated, Mr. Ping heading to the small hut, ready to begin preparing lunch, while Po headed to the barnhouse to get a head start on the plowing. They had just had the Harvest Celebration recently. There had been a great feast outside in one of the farmer's fields, and there had been much eating and drinking together.
But that was the issue. They may have eaten and drank together, but they didn't talk. About what? Other than the small talk of "how are you?" and "We're well. How about you?" there was silence. There was nothing to talk about. Nothing ever happened to anyone. They all got up, went to the temple to worship, worked on their land, ate, and went to bed. Over and over and over again.
But they were content with the silence. They were used to it. The simple act of eating together was regarded as bonding. Words weren't needed; they could only spoil the revered atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Po entered the barn, looked around, and reached for the plow. He backed out of the barn and closed the door, heading for the piece of land that he had left the day before when the sun had gone down. The land looked the same from every direction, but Po knew that piece of land like the back of his hand. Probably better.
In fact, he had never left the village. None of the villagers ever had. What for? They were always taught that there was nothing out there for them. The gods had sent them to where they were born for a reason, right? So surely that was where they were meant to stay for all their lives.
But sometimes, in the dead of the night, Po would look at the stars and wonder what they were. He would look out on the horizon and have a glimmer of thought. The question of what was over there. He knew that as he walked towards the horizon, it moved away from you. Surely, he had thought, if he just kept walking, he would reach the edge.
As he began to plow the fields by hand- a painstaking job, but he didn't mind- that question happened to be on his mind.
'Is it like a wall?" he wondered. "Is it soft like the grass on my feet in the morning, wet with dew? Or is it hard, like the walls of the temple, so that you can rap your knuckles on it and it makes an echo? Or is it more like a cliff, where you can peer over the edge? What would you even see?"
But these thoughts soon faded as the work started to settle into Po. Throughout his life, Po had been rather curious. Maybe a little too much. Thoughts were something that were given little value in his world. What was there to think about? All there was to think about was work. When to plow, when to eat, when to sleep, when to wake up, when to start the process over again. There was no use in questioning things you didn't know. As the priests had told them all from an early age, questions that get answered only lead to more questions, which causes unhappiness. And no one wanted to be unhappy. So everyone was content to be nearly thoughtless, only a faint whisper of a thought that didn't involve basic survival going through their heads. Living and working were the only two things that mattered, so why bother thinking about anything else?
Po looked up at the sky, admiring its beauty. Such a perfect shade of blue, he thought. Not too dark, not too bright, but a soft touch of blue and green to wrap his world in a warm blanket. With that comforting thought, he focused on what was important to him. His plowing.
Little did he know that someone was about to tear a hole through his small, warm blanket.
Interstellar Space
The stolen spaceship flew through the galaxy nearly at the speed of light. The ship was large and bulky, well-maintained and very expensive. The interior of the ship was arranged like a small apartment, with the small cockpit in front, a short hall connecting it to a larger living and eating area in the middle, and yet another small hall that connected it to the back, where the bathroom and bunks were located. Electrical- the part of the ship that made it function, could be found right underneath any of those rooms. You just had to lift on the tiles off of the floor and slide down there. The ship was a freighter, designed for carrying cargo, so much of the space on the ship was in the back where the cargo was stored.
At the moment, the ship was on auto-pilot, as the computer had already calculated the path to return to their base from their most recent mission.
In the living area, which was made up of a small, square, metal table with a long seat that rested against one of the walls, three people celebrated.
There was a pop! as the cork flew off of the bottle of champagne. The three of them watched the bubbly fizz run down the bottle with satisfaction.
The rhino held the bottle, and then reached for the pig's glass. He poured some in his bottle, set it back in front of him, and then reached across the table for the tiger's glass, doing the same with it, until finally pouring some in his own glass.
He raised his glass, and the pig and tiger did the same.
"Here's to a successful first mission!" the rhino shouted.
"Here's to having enough of the Federation's bullcrap!" the pig shouted.
The captain of the ship, a young tigress, did not say anything, but raised her glass and the three of them tapped the glasses together with a clink!
The rhino and pig drank their small glasses immediately, but the tigress only took a small sip before putting it down on the table.
"The new recruits are coming along nicely," she thought to herself.
Tigress, as the captain was named, was younger than both of the recruits, but she had been in the fight against the Federation for much, much longer. It was all she could remember.
In many worlds, such as the one Po Ping lived on, the Federation controlled everything that happened. The priests were their agents, telling them of any trouble that might be happening. In return, the Federation advised the priests when they came to them with issues.
But there were still a few worlds that were problematic. Some people didn't take kindly to being taken over by force. The Federation had existed for generations and generations, and no one could tell you when it had begun its reign over the galaxy. All they knew was that they came in their spaceships, first with their fighters and their bombers, softening the defenses of the place they wished to control.
Then, they sent in the ground units, special members of the Federation bred for war since birth. Few forces could stand up to them head-to-head, blow for blow.
That was why, over centuries, the Federation had taken over planet by planet, establishing a new system of farming life and manipulating the young into the ideals they wanted them to believe in that made them easier to control. After the generation that remembered what life was like before was gone, this new life of permanent farming became normal, and having no desires in life but basic survival put the planet's population under the Federation's control.
But there were some who resisted.
There were pockets of resistance everywhere in the galaxy that weren't already in the Federation's grasp, but some caused larger issues than others.
Some planets were simply too difficult to take over. The terrain, combined with the hostile population, made some plants inefficient to invade. And the ruler of the Federation lived off of efficacy, so it never did anything that didn't have a satisfactory risk/reward ratio.
One such people were the Gunslingers of Crides. The planet itself was one enormous desert. Resources were scarce, so the few people that managed to survive the heat were forced to fight for them. There were pockets of tribes scattered throughout the planet, always at war with each other. The warrior culture of the planet produced many formidable warriors. However, they were not isolated from the rest of the universe, as they traded what little they had stolen from other tribes with the greedy merchants that visited every non-Federal controlled planet for high-tech weapons. They didn't carry primitive weapons such as swords, but suits of metal armor and powerful blasters, which shot bolts of lasers that melted through just about anything. The richest of tribes could even afford jetpacks, which were a luxury that only a few enjoyed.
The Federation had made the mistake of attempting an invasion on their planet. The ruler of the Federation had its troops moved out in less than a month. However, evacuate was a much better word for it. The harsh desert was already pounding on their army, and the briefly united tribes of Crides proved superior in skill to the soldiers of the Federation. Their uncanny accuracy with their guns became so legendary among the soldiers that they earned the nickname, "The Gunslingers."
A few other planets had similar issues, such as Agiuq, which was made up of an enormous ocean with only a few islands scattered throughout the planet-wide ocean. There weren't even enough people to deem it worthy to invade. Or Silogawa, which was a rocky planet dotted with so many volcanoes that lava ran through the surface like rivers. Needless to say, it wasn't the kind of place the Federation had any desire to control, even if it did sport a large number of subterranean residents.
But there was a group that always plagued the Federation. The Unity of Peace was a large organization that oversaw coordinated resistance movements, from uprisings in Federal-controlled planets, to attacking shipments, to even plotting attacks on the Federation's home base on Greon 6.
The Unity was a problem for the Federation, because, unlike the Gunslingers of Crides, they were a people, an organization, not confined to any one planet. It was a massive group, with members all throughout non-Federal planets, called the "free" planets by the Unity. It was headed by General Thundering Rhino, as he was known. He was a skilled military commander and knew how to set large traps and use his army's situation to his advantage.
The Unity had been around almost as long as the Federation, and only a handful knew of its original founder. Few knew the story of the tortoise and his creation. It had almost become a folktale, a tall tale. Many had heard of it, but few believed it to be true.
Many of its members had children together, and they raised their children in such a world. A world of constantly moving from makeshift base to base, a life of constant alertness, always under threat of attack.
The captain of the ship was one such person. She had been raised in the war for freedom, there was little else for her. Trained by her foster father how to survive, Tigress knew how to survive in a galaxy that cared little for her. She never knew who her real parents were, but her foster father was a commander in the Unity, and she had followed him from base to base as the war raged on in dozens of different fronts.
And that was why, at such a young age- she was only in her twenties- she was in a higher position than late thirty year-olds.
The rhino and the pig were new recruits, people of the free planets who decided they had enough of the Federation's abusive control. Even though some planets had not been targeted yet due to their distance from Greon 6, few understood that they would come for them if they were not stopped. The rhino and pig were two such people.
The three had been sent on a raiding mission. They were to ambush a Federal convoy and hijack one of their ships. It might not have seemed like much, but Federal tech was a huge score for the Unity. The Federation had amassed enormous wealth in their conquest of other planets, and the Unity's members were not exactly swimming in money, so their equipment was rather second-hand, putting them at a disadvantage during battles and skirmishes with the Federation. Any samples of Federal tech could be recreated and distributed among the Unity's soldiers.
The mission had been successful. For the rhino and pig, it was the most thrilling moment of their lives. They had finally stood up for what they believed in.
For Tigress, it was no big deal. She had run so many missions she had lost count long ago. It was normal for her.
Their celebration was suddenly interrupted when the ship slowed down dramatically and a loud crack! was heard, signifying the jump out of warp drive.
The three heads jerked up.
"Why are we stopping?" the pig asked, his voice laced with worry.
Tigress stood up, her composure generating a calming effect on the two nervous fighters.
"I don't know," she calmly replied. "Let's go and find out, shall we?"
With that, she turned around and headed toward the cockpit, the other two following close behind.
When they entered, quite a sight was waiting for them beyond the window.
Tigress calmly read the instruments on the dashboard and looked over at the main computer interface, looked outside the front window, and put all the pieces together in her head. Her comrades were not as fast.
"Wait, w-what's th-that blockade doing here!?" the pig stuttered, his feelings of joy during their celebration turning into fear of the sight before him.
In front of their window, a Federal blockade was in their way. It was a large cluster of ships, with their black, sleek, rounded forms all facing in their direction. Close by was a planet, one covered with splashes of green with specks of blue.
"They must have set up a new checkpoint for Federal ships above this planet very recently," Tigress explained to the recruits like a teacher explained to their students. "It didn't show up on our monitors back at the base, but the Federal ships must have had their computers updated already. The auto-pilot knew we were passing close by, and redirected us here."
Tigress glanced at the small screen at the corner of the cockpit once again. In the top right of the screen, she could make out the words-
"Planet name: Delia."
"Status: Controlled."
"What are we going to do?" the rhino asked, the panic seeping through his voice.
Suddenly, the radio in front of them crackled to life.
"Freighter 353, please submit your checkpoint code for routine inspection. After you have completed the task, you may proceed in your way."
For the first time, Tigress felt a knot of worry build in her stomach. She had always been taught to never panic, as that would surely lead to death, but this concerned her.
Checkpoint codes were digitally given to individual pilots, who then submitted them at Federal blockades to confirm that they were really Federal pilots, and not Unity members in possession of a stolen ship. The code was valid for twenty-four hours, and was then scrambled and re-sent to the pilots.
Tigress quietly sat down in the pilot's seat, strapped on her belt, and looked at the computer screen. After a few button presses and scrolling through the menus, Tigress finally came to the portion that said-
"Menu 3: Checkpoint Codes."
Tigress opened it up, revealing a thirteen digit space. Right above the blank space, it read-
"5G4F9C2Y0L3T7- is previous entry. Do you wish to enter again?"
Ahh, Tigress thought. So it saved the previous entry in case pilots had to pass through heavy Federal areas, where checkpoints were very common, and they had to enter the code several times in a twenty-four hour setting.
Uttering a silent prayer, Tigress selected the "Yes" option, hoping that the code had been used in the last twenty-four hour cycle. If it hadn't… she didn't want to finish that thought.
"Hold on one moment," said the voice from the radio.
Together, the three of them sweated in silence as they waited for the results.
At first, there was no response. Then, all of a sudden, there was a flash of red light from the front ship of the blockade, and a huge-
"BAM!"
They had been hit. Apparently, the code had expired.
The shot had hit the engine, disabling the ship's main thrusting capabilities. The gravity of the nearby planet began to quickly absorb them, and the Federal ships wouldn't shoot in the planet's direction.
So, the ship began to fall toward the planet.
In the cockpit, the explosion hadn't reached them, so they were safe for the moment. The fires were at the back of the ship, and they could smell the smoke, but they couldn't yet see the fire.
The rhino and pig were panicking.
"What do we do, what do we do!?" he frantically shouted.
Tigress' usually calm voice was now also struggling with panic.
"Get to the escape capsules! GO!" she shouted back. As she said it, she pulled at her seat buckle, but it wouldn't budge. It was stuck.
"Hey, guys!" she shouted. "The belt's stuck, help me!"
The two thought about it for a fraction of a second, but they then saw the window begin to heat with the flames of their re-entry on the planet's atmosphere.
They turned around and left Tigress behind. They weren't going to risk their lives for her.
"Bastards!" Tigress shouted at their backsides, pulling at the belt with all her might, but the strong lock wouldn't budge.
Meanwhile, the rhino and pig ran over to the escape pods, where they both quickly got in one, shut the door behind them, pressurized the cabin, and threw the separation lever down. The pod detached from the freighter with a loud "hiss," and then began to drift towards the planet's surface.
The pods, being much smaller, put up less resistance, which meant that they descended down towards the planet's surface much faster than the ship.
The rhino and pig sat on either side of the spherical pod, both silent in shame of how they'd left their captain behind in their rush to save themselves.
There was no window, and they couldn't see anything outside, but they could feel the G-force on their bodies as the pod fell faster and faster towards the planet's surface.
The pod's computer began counting down.
"800 meters until parachute deployment."
"600 meters until parachute deployment."
"400 meters until parachute deployment."
"200 meters until parachute deployment."
"Deploy parachute now. Deploy parachute now."
The pig grabbed a lever underneath the small screen and threw it down.
"Parachute malfunction. Parachute malfunction."
The rhino and pig could only look at each other with wide eyes.
They didn't even have the time to scream when the pod crashed into the surface of the unsuspecting planet.
Meanwhile, Tigress, who was still stuck in the pilot's seat, decided to control the ship the best she could and make her inevitable crash-landing as survivable as possible.
The atmosphere caught on fire as she blew past it, making the ship's temperature increase significantly, making Tigress sweat even more than she already was. She pulled back on the ship's control handle, making whatever still function resist the ship's rapid descent.
It helped a little, as the ship did slow down, but the ship's engines were far too damaged to make the ship fly again. So, the ship began to fall to the surface in a state somewhere between floating and falling. It might not have been favorable, but it was better than hitting the surface full-speed.
The atmosphere began to fade away, replaced with clouds in the night. Soon the clouds passed, and Tigress could see the vast green land below.
She grabbed the edges of her seat tightly with her paws and did her best to bend herself forward so that her head was in between her legs, bracing herself for impact.
The surface drew closer and closer.
Chapter 3: The Priests
Chapter Text
Delia- Night
It had been a busy day for Po. He had spent the whole day plowing the fields. While he was plowing, he simply focused on the harvest ahead of him. In fact, that was mostly all he really thought about whenever he was plowing. The Harvest was always the end goal. It was his purpose in life: to farm and reap the fruit of the land for everyone else, just as everyone reaped the fruit of the land for him. He had to work so everyone else could eat, just as they worked for him. There was no thought of reward or congratulations in the panda's head. He only wanted to serve his people.
However, the people on the planet couldn't survive on farming alone, so there were small towns here and there where people with special skills lived. They were made up of people who followed the profession of their parents, as they followed the profession of their parents before them. Most made things that the farmers needed; things such as tools and clothes. There wasn't a large diversity in the professions of the people in the small town, but there was just enough to keep the farmers alive.
Po's goose father had stopped by the panda in the fields, telling him that they needed a new hoe. It was true, Po had told Mr. Ping a week ago that it had broken. But Po hadn't needed it immediately, so there was no rush to get it. But, Mr. Ping had finished weeding the fields, a project he had been working on for the last few weeks, and would have to start over again in a few more.
So now, after sundown, Po put his hand-held plow back into the barn, and had retreated back to his small hut by himself, waiting for his father to come back from town.
The walls of the hardened clay hut danced with the flickering of the flames in the fireplace. The hut itself was very simple. There was a table by the wall opposite of the fireplace; an old, rickety table that barely supported two bowls of food. The single room functioned as the living room, dining room, and kitchen. On one end of the hut was a misshapen doorway, where an even smaller room could be found. Inside the room were two piles of cloths laid out on the floor, serving as beds for the two inhabitants. On one side was a smaller pile of cloths, while the other side sported a much larger pile.
Above the fireplace, which functioned as the oven, Po had his bowl of rice warming up. For Po, rice was the focal point of the culinary experience of his life, as rice was what he grew. Different farmers were assigned different crops, and Po's ancestors had been given rice to grow. And so they had grown rice for as long as anyone could remember.
Of course, they appreciated eating different foods, and the one thing that Po loved most was noodles, made from the wheat grown by a few of his neighbors. Such a refined product was a luxury, as it didn't grow extremely well in their warm, moist climate, and noodles were only given to people during celebration times such as the Harvest Celebration. But Po had already learned from his father the family secret, and that was how to make a mean bowl of noodles. Of course, his father had withheld the Secret Ingredient from Po, so Po believed that his wasn't quite as good as his father's. But maybe one day…
Po got up from his seated position on the table, sitting on the right side of the table as he always did, and walked over to the bowl of rice. Seeing that it was ready, he picked it up out of the fireplace and set it on his table, letting it cool a little bit. He patiently looked at the bowl for a few moments, and then grabbed it, grabbing his seat in the other paw. He brought his meal and his chair outside on the grass.
He much preferred being outside than in his hut. The only time he liked being inside was when he was inside the temple, when his nature god was with him. But he also felt the presence of nature when he was in it, not just in the temple. He knew it was watching over him.
Po, holding his bowl with one paw and adjusting a pair of chopsticks with one, began to eat his supper. He looked out at the sky, and saw all of the stars that blanketed it.
He loved the stars. He liked them even better than the Sun. The Sun may have brought warmth and made his crops grow, and he did like it, but he simply liked the stars better. There was just something so profound about how they watched silently in their thousands, shining their light on him. It was like a million eyes staring down on him, making sure that he was safe and protected. It didn't make him feel uncomfortable, those eyes, as if they were watching him, judging him, but they made him feel secure. He didn't have to worry about anything; he knew those eyes were always watching over him.
As Po looked up, he picked out the constellations he liked to find every night. He could make out many of his favorites. He found them by looking for the brightest star in each constellation. But one star caught his attention.
It was very bright.
Po knew every constellation and knew where all the brightest stars were. So when Po tried to search around the bright star, he became confused when he didn't recognize any constellation around it. This was a star that he didn't recognize. Po wondered what it could be.
"Stars don't just appear," he thought. "Do they?"
As Po kept looking at the star, it almost seemed as if it was getting brighter. How was that possible, Po wondered? First a star just appeared out of nowhere, and now it was getting brighter?
As Po looked on in a mixture of confusion and wonder at the brightening star, it kept getting brighter and brighter. In fact, it appeared to be moving across the sky now. Bigger and bigger it grew, until Po began to realize that it was not, in fact, a star at all.
"An asteroid?" he briefly wondered as the ball of fire continued its descent. He finally settled on that theory, but it did nothing to ease the concern he now felt as he realized it was getting even larger and now seemed to be moving in his direction. Even though it had never happened in his lifetime, he was aware of asteroid impacts, and had no desire to be on the bottom end of one.
After a few tense seconds of gripping the bottom of his chair with his free paw passed, he soon realized that it wouldn't be smashing him nor his house into oblivion. But he watched with curiosity as the asteroid grew and began to appear to be more than a bright star, and now a large fireball flying across the sky. He watched until he realized that one of his neighbour's land was bound to be struck by it, and his look of wonder soon turned to one of shock.
It came closer and closer, until it was close enough that Po could see that it wasn't very large at all. Perhaps the size of his house. No, even smaller. Nothing that would wipe out his village, at least. As it got closer, the fire seemed to fade away, revealing a curiously shaped asteroid. Po almost had time to make out its shape before it hit the ground a distance away from him, sending up a spurt of flame and a boom that echoed throughout the land.
In the future, Po recalled himself remembering the situation with a tactful and dignifying thought such as-
"Oh. That might cause a bit of a stink."
He stood up, leaving his bowl of noodles and chopsticks resting on the seat of his chair. He jogged forward in the direction of the plume of smoke, cutting across his fields of rice.
It seemed to take quite some time as Po jogged and jogged. As a panda, he suffered from the natural endurance issues that all his kind shared, but living life as a farmer had aided him in that aspect, and it might be said that he was rather athletic when compared to his own kind.
As Po approached the impact site, he could make out a small crowd around it. When he finally arrived, panting and sweaty, they parted a little to make room for him, and he took his place among them, looking at what the sight had to offer his eyes.
Before him lay a long stretch of thrown-up crops and dirt where the object had made impact at an angle and continued sliding across the fields some distance. But what was most interesting was the impact object itself. Upon inspection, it was clearly no asteroid, nor rock of any kind. A mass of twisted metal lay before them. The people in the crowd had only ever seen metal in one place, and that was the walls and columns of the pyramid temple in which they worshiped daily.
The mass of metal was warped and broken into pieces, scattered across the fields, but the group was gathered around the main portion of the ship, which was currently on fire. There seemed to be no sense of urgency among the group. They merely remained silent as they witnessed the flames rise up out of the wreckage before them. They knew not what to think, nor did they know what to say, nor did they know what to do. So they simply stood there, staring.
After a few minutes, they were joined by their neighbors who had either seen the object fall or heard the sound of it crashing down into the ground. They joined the group, only to fall into their same reaction, and silently stare.
Meanwhile, Po was trying to comprehend what this strange object could possibly be. It most certainly wasn't an asteroid. So what else could it be?
He could think of nothing.
After a few more minutes of staring, coming down the road was one of the seven priests, his red robe flowing behind him and his head well situated under his hood. He approached the group, and the crowd parted as they let him approach.
The priest, an elderly goat with pale-white fur, stepped forward and placed his hoof on the heap of twisted metal. If the crowd was silent before, they were now doubly so, as they witnessed what they believed to be one of the seven gifts from the gods, here to help and guide them throughout their lives, come to solve this issue.
No one could see the old goat's face under his hood as he carefully examined every inch of the object, but he soon turned around to face the group, and they each focused their eyes on him as he began to speak.
He held his hooves up in the air and spoke in a majestic, flowing manner that commanded attention and belief.
"Oh, my brothers and sisters!" he began, "The gods have bestowed upon us one of their many blessings on this good night!"
A paw shot up in the crowd, and the Priest nodded towards it. The crowd turned its head to see an older rabbit. They recognized him and knew him to be the owner of the land in which they were all now standing.
"Umm, how is this 'ere thing a blessin'? Just look to what it's done to me crop!"
The priest held his hoof up, silencing him.
"Peace, Brother Bai. I assure you this object can be used for the benefit of us all. This object can be given up to the gods, and an offering of such magnitude will not go unnoticed by them, I assure you! They will bless us with seven years of good rain for such a gift!"
These words were met with a murmur of approval, as it was an appealing thought.
"The High Priest knows all the proper and necessary preparations and rituals necessary to give the gods this gift. Do not fret, my friends, we will take care of this matter immediately. You may all go back to your homes tonight, and I can promise you the Fathers and Mothers and I will have this removed and out of your minds until the ceremony is ready!"
Another murmur of approval was heard as the crowd obeyed the order, each member turning to head back to their homes.
Among their numbers was Po, who stood there for another split second, curious as to how this fallen piece of the sky could have been a blessing.
But, if the Priest said it was so, then it was so. His word was the truth, and the truth was his word. It was not to be questioned, much less doubted.
So Po continued on his way back the way he came, back through his neighbors' field of rice and into his own. On his way, he briefly wondered when his father would return home so he could tell him the news of what he had seen. What a wonderful thing it would be to tell him, he thought. Nothing different ever really happened around that place, and a change was something to be admired by the panda. A terrible shame that most of his neighbors did not share similar sentiments. An even bigger shame that the Priests detested it.
Meanwhile, as everyone cleared the area, the Priest stood standing in his spot near the wreckage, keeping a watchful eye for anyone who's curiosity may have gotten the better of them. But fortunately, no one really had any imagination in that place. He should know, he helped make it that way.
A few minutes after everyone had disappeared from sight, the Priest turned around and went back to the broken spaceship. He briefly ran his hoof across the metal hull absent-midendly before continuing back to the temple. He entered the path back on the road and walked down it until he came to the pyramid-shaped building.
He walked up to the door and casually opened it, sliding it and closing the door behind him. During the night, the temple was an eerie place, with its floors empty and the shadow of the columns looming long across the floor, the moonlight flowing in from the windows. But the Priest was not very interested in hanging around by himself, so he quickly walked through the bare floors, stepping up onto the platform and past the seven seats where he and his comrades oversaw the daily prayers. Finally, he reached the back wall, and he came to the point where it met with the other wall and formed a corner. The goat put his hoof up to what seemed like an arbitrary spot on the wall, but he knew better.
Suddenly, the square around his hoof flashed to life, and a line of horizontal light appeared at the tip of his hoof and ran down the length of his hoof, scanning it. After it finished, the light died and a beeping noise was heard. Then, a panel of the wall before him hissed as it detached itself from the wall a few inches. It then spun in place, revealing the backside of the wall. It was a small and tight platform, with a tiny light bulb on top of the space which offered some light. The goat stepped through the secret doorway and onto the platform. The door soon spun back into its place again and shut itself with another hiss, and the goat felt himself moving downwards.
After a few seconds, the entire platform spun in place once more, and the opened doorway led to a very different place. He now found himself in a short hallway, with electric lights running in thin pipe-like carriers all the way through the width of the ceiling, down the walls, and across the floor, the ends meeting on the bottom of the floor, completing the loops.
The Priest walked down the hall and opened the first door. Inside it was a room, lit similarly to the hall. By one wall was a set of consoles for keeping track of what happened inside the farming village they were in charge of, and by another was a small kitchenette, with all the machines necessary for it to cook meals entirely by itself. There was a table by the other side of the room, capable of serving up to seven people, and a large sofa nearby that table, backed up against the wall.
When the Priest walked in, a most interesting sight was before him. There were four people in the room. One was over by the console, talking into a device that he held up to his ear. On the sofa, a young ram was lounging on the sofa with his legs spread out over it, one arm supporting his head and the other holding a glass of wine. The ram on the sofa was enjoying the spectacle that was going on at the table.
Sitting in one of the seats, a male deer buck was groggily looking up, half a dozen small empty cups in front of him. Standing on top of the table was a leopardess, who was occupied in drowning a cup of alcohol down her throat while balanced on one leg. When she gulped down the drink without falling off the table, she shook her head and smiled at her competition sitting by the table.
"Let's see you top that, you pansy."
Finally, the ram by the sofa noticed the old priest standing by the doorway.
"Hey, Xun! Come in, come in, you're just in time for the big moment!"
The priest shook his head in mock disappointment.
"You know what I love about gettin' old?" he asked the crowd, his tone now very different than when he had dazzled his people. But only the ram was paying any attention to his words, as the leopardess stumbled down from the table as the deer buck shakily climbed up.
"Hmm?" the ram responded.
The old goat reached up behind his head and firmly gripped the back of his neck. He pinched the back of his neck until he finally gripped what he had reached for. He pulled it up and over his head as hard as he could, ripping off the mask he had been wearing, revealing a goat that was much younger.
"I don't have to be!" he answered.
The ram raised his glass of wine in the air. "Here, here!"
The goat then moved over to the corner by the door, where he hung his age-enhancing mask by his comrades'. He also quickly tore off his long, flowing red robe, hanging it on a rack on the wall that held six others. Underneath the robe, he wore a simple white uniform, which matched the ones all his friends were wearing.
He walked over to the ram on the sofa and plopped down on the opposite side of his friend. He reached over on the edge of the table, where his friend was getting refills on his wine. The goat picked up the bottle and poured himself a glass, most graciously left there by his friend. He gestured up to the sight on the table before them, and his friend explained.
"Yeah, Xian said that he could outdrink Lu any day of the week, or something stupid like that, so she challenged him to a drink-off, and before you know it, here we are."
As he finished speaking, the deer buck held a cup to his own lips, slowly drinking its contents. There was a hushed moment of silence among his three friends as they admired his skill in digesting eight of those cups without faltering. He finally had consumed all of it, but when he bent his head back down, his eyes stared forward into the distance quite suspiciously. With a triumphant smile, the leopardess, Lu, moved around the table to the buck's backside. The buck managed to stand on the table for a few more seconds before he finally lost his bet and began to tip backwards. It soon turned into a fall, but Lu caught him by the shoulders before his head could hit the ground and turn into a slight issue.
The ram and goat raised their glasses in celebration.
"Yeah!"
"Woo-hoo!"
After setting the buck down, the leopardess graciously bowed like one who had accomplished great deeds, before taking her own seat by the table.
"So," the goat began, "What about Wang and Cao?" Where'd they go? I figured they might wanna see something like this."
"Oh," Lu answered, "You know them. They're back in the barracks."
The goat's eyebrows raised in a shocked amusement. "Again!?"
The ram chuckled at his response. "Hmm-hm."
"That's the second time this week! Don't they get tired?"
"Well," Lu answered, "You have to admit, there's a lot of free time down here and little to do."
"But, come on! I get so tired of having to ask SU to clean their sheets the next morning! It's so embarrassing!"
"Ah, SU's only the housekeeping robot. She doesn't care about much of anything," the ram answered.
Xun rolled his eyes as he accepted defeat. But, he still had one point to make.
He raised his hooves in the air, his drink still in one hoof, and replied, "Well, I'm just saying that Wang sucks at retreating at the… moment of victory."
His little joke elicited a pair of laughs from his friends. The ram reached over and patted the goat on the shoulder.
"Oh, come on. Let them have their fun."
The goat held his paws up in defeat for the last time. He then gestured to the person over by the console on the wall with the device by his ear. He was speaking into it softly, with his paw held over his mouth so his friends might not try to eavesdrop on his conversation. But it had the exact opposite effect, as the goat asked his friends-
"Who's he talking to?"
"His girlfriend back home, I think," the leopardess answered.
The trio then leaned forward to overhear his conversation. The fox over by the console caught their amused stares out of the corner of his eye, and quickly moved to end his conversation.
"Oh, hey," he spoke into the device, "My friends aren't minding their business again. Hmm? Yeah, I love you too. What? No. Really? Well, I'll call you back tomorrow." The fox then gave a coy smile. "Oh, and don't forget to say your prayers before you go to bed. Yep. Okay, bye-bye."
The fox put the device back on it's holding hooks on the console and turned to his friends with an irritated expression that conveyed his message much better than words could. His friends got a chuckle out of this.
Just as he was about to say, "Oh, shut up!" a red light suddenly flashed on the console, and the group suddenly went silent.
A red alert message. They hadn't received one of those since… ever. At least, not since they had been stationed on Delia and replaced the previous Priests just a year and a half-ago. Whatever humor or light-heartedness had been in the atmosphere was now sucked up by that small, silent, flashing red light.
Finally, the fox by the console picked the phone back up and put it to his ear.
"Yes sir?" he asked. His friends now leaned forward again, although they were in much less of a good mood.
"Umm, I don't know sir. Hold on, let me ask him." The fox put his paw on the speaker of the phone and turned back around to his friends.
"Hey, Xun?" he asked the goat. The goat in question raised his eyebrows in response as the fox continued. "Did you check out that small meteor?"
The goat quickly nodded, secretly berating himself that he hadn't told his friends about it sooner.
"Was it a meteor?" the fox asked. The goat quickly shook his head in the negative. The fox turned back to the phone.
"He says it wasn't, sir. Hmm? Yeah, I'll ask him."
He turned back to the goat. "What was it then? A spaceship?"
The goat nodded in the affirmative.
"Yes sir, he says it was. Yeah, I'll ask him."
He turned back to the goat once more. "Did you see any survivors on the ship?"
"No way. That thing was a total wreck. There's no way anyone could have survived that. Besides, it's on fire anyway."
The fox turned back to his phone. "He says he didn't see any, sir. What, sir? This is High Priest number…" the fox quickly held up his paw and opened it up, reading the number he had written on it. "452, sir. Hmm? No sir, I'm not drunk, sir. What's that? Yes sir."
The fox turned back to the goat. "He says he wants to talk to you directly."
With a gulp, the goat stood up from his comfortable position on the sofa and walked over to the console, its various cameras, monitors, and devices lighting up his face. The fox handed the goat the phone and he immediately heard-
"What landed in your quadrant tonight?"
"Umm, it was a spaceship, sir."
"I know that, retard. My ship just shot down a hijacked freighter over your planet and we tracked it down to your quadrant. But did you see any people?"
"No, sir, there's no way anyone could have survived the crash-"
"Did you see anyone around the crash!? Did it occur to you that the pilot might have ejected!?"
"No, sir."
"So there's no confirmed body sighting?"
"No, sir."
From the other side of the line, the goat could hear the headset being slammed down, but not disconnected. From the other side, he heard two loud footsteps, the last one quieter than the first, suggesting he was backing away from the headset. Even though he was far away from it, he could make out the sound of the commander of the ship yelling out-
"FUCK!" -At the top of his lungs. There was then a moment of silence from across the line. The goat held the device to his ear, tempted to hang up and get out of the stressful situation. He had taken this position in the Federation to avoid stress.
Finally, he heard the sounds of the headset being picked back up and someone sighing on the other line in frustration.
"You know what?" he asked. Before the goat had time to actually ask, the person continued. "I did my job. I did my fucking job. I shot down the ship. I'm done. You can deal with the pale bastard."
Suddenly, the line disconnected, but it didn't die. Instead, the tone rang and a robotic voice came on that said-
"Your call is important to us. Please hold as one of our representatives becomes available. Thank you."
Then, music started playing on the other end, and the goat started sweating as he realized he was being transferred to who had just been referred to as the "pale bastard."
At this point, the goat truly wanted to hang up the phone, as he didn't want to talk to the pale bastard. The pale bastard was someone no one in the Federation wanted to see, talk to, hear from, or interact with. Usually, people as low as Priests didn't have to worry about ever interacting with him, or seeing him at all, for that matter, but if he was personally attending to this matter, then it must have been important. Scratch that. It was super-uber-mega important. And given the ship captain's calm reaction to there not being a confirmed body sighting, he assumed it had something to do with that.
Finally, after a few more tense minutes, a low, silky voice came through the phone.
"I don't like talking through these primitive machines. Attach yourselves, now."
"Yes sir!" the goat quickly responded. He gestured his two friends by the other end of the room over, and as they approached, the goat and the fox pressed a few buttons on the bottom of the console by their feet. The doors slid down, revealing odd-looking helmets. They were made up of a very thin sheet metal, with wires attached to it at various points. They all pulled out a helmet for themselves and placed it on their heads, each helmet pre-designed to fit them individually.
When the four of them were all seated by the console, with the helmets on their heads, the goat quickly searched the console for a specific button. He finally found it and pushed it, and then he, as well as his friends, closed their eyes.
A soft whirring sound could be heard as the machine worked its magic. The goat opened his eyes again, but a very different scene was around him. All around, it was pitch-black. He looked to his left and right, and saw his friends right next to him, also looking around, confused. He wasn't sure how he could see them, as there seemed to be no light coming from anywhere.
Before he had further time to contemplate that thought, suddenly, a flash of light appeared in front of them all out of the darkness. They had to shield their eyes from the harsh, white glow, and when it faded away, the pale bastard himself was there.
Dressed in his signature white robes, the pale peacock wore his usual expression of disgust towards his subordinates. He stepped forward a few steps, while the three priests stood there in shock. After the peacock harshly stared at them for a few seconds, they finally got down on their knees and bowed. When they got back up, they remained with one knee on the ground and their eyes low.
"Do you know why I am talking to garbage such as yourselves?" the peacock politely asked.
"No, Lord Shen," the leopardess quickly answered.
"Does it have to do with the spaceship that fell over our quadrant?" the ram asked.
"I ASK THE QUESTIONS HERE, BOY!" the peacock shouted at the top of his lungs, making the group flinch in fear. There was a pause as the Priests continued staring at the floor while Lord Shen paced back and forth in front of them.
Finally, he said in a much calmer tone- "You do know we have enemies out there, right?"
At first, each member of the group was afraid to answer, so there was an uncomfortable silence as no one said anything.
"Right?" Lord Shen prompted.
"Right!" all three of them suddenly shouted.
"And you know they have a nasty habit of stealing our ships when they can lay their grubby, greedy little paws on them, right?"
"Right!" the three of them shouted again, now getting accustomed to what they were expected to say.
"Well, we have sources that tell me that a very valuable member of said enemies was on the shot-down ship. Now, I really would like her to die, and I'm hoping that was what happened. But, she's very slippery, and until I have a confirmed body sighting, I'm not going to be happy. And when I'm not happy, you're not going to be happy. Understand?"
"Yes, your Excellency!"
"Very good. You may go. Oh, wait, one more thing! I should probably tell you that if you don't find a body, but a live person, kill her. And if you fail me in this, you are to report to the blockade ships above your planet for immediate liquefaction. So, a word of advice: don't fail."
The priests weren't looking at the peacock's face when he said those words, but they could tell that he was smiling. Before they had further time to contemplate that thought, the black, empty world around them began to blur, and they each closed their eyes for a few seconds, only to open them back up again to see they were right back at the console again, the helmets still on their heads.
They quickly took them off and stood up, looking at each other with expressions of shock.
The ram gave a nervous chuckle, trying his best to ease the situation, but failing. "I guess we better find that fugitive, huh?"
He was met with two nods.
"I'll go and get Wang and Cao," the goat said.
As he walked out of the room and back into the hallway, the deer buck still laying down beside the table on the floor finally stirred, supporting himself by the elbows. He looked over at his friends, and saw their expressions of near-terror.
"What's the matter with you guys?"
Meanwhile, as Po had returned to his home following the spaceship impact, a few thoughts had been running through his head. The Priest had said there would be a ceremony for the gods. That might be interesting, he thought. They hadn't had a ceremony since… well, he couldn't remember. The Harvest Celebration was really the only time he interacted with his neighbors at all, with the exception of the daily prayer.
As Po was thinking these thoughts, he finally arrived at his home once again, passing by the barn house and reaching his hut. As he walked up to his hut and passed the chair he had left outside the door on the grass, he absent-mindedly reached for his unfinished bowl of rice, which he assumed was cold by now, but his paw only grabbed air.
Po finally looked down and saw that the bowl was no longer on the seat where he had left it. He looked under the chair and around it, thinking it may have fallen. But it was nowhere to be seen.
Finally, he realized why it was missing.
"Oh, hey dad!" he merrily shouted through the wooden door. He pushed it open and entered.
"I didn't know you-"
He suddenly froze as he looked up at the table, where someone was sitting.
And it wasn't his father.
Chapter 4: Salutations
Chapter Text
Motionless, Po stared at the stranger that sat in his chair, at his table, eating from his bowl of rice. He didn't recognize this new person who was now turned around towards him, mouth half full of food and something clutched in their paw, pointed at him. She was hunched over as if in pain, but her face didn't suggest that.
The young tigress stared back at Po with what he could only describe as a predatory look, worthy of her species, as she seemingly waited for Po to make the first move. As the two matched each other's gazes, the tigress decided to chew the food in her mouth.
Po tried to come up with something to say that would somehow make himself sound tougher than he really was; he had never seen or dealt with a thief before.
But all he could come up with was, "That rice was grown by my father."
The tigress' brow raised in amusement. "Really?" she sarcastically asked. Turning her head down, she let go of the paw that clutched his chopsticks and reached into her strange clothes, pulling out a handful of metal objects. With her other paw still tightly holding the strange object towards him, she used the other to toss a yellow metal object at Po, which he caught with both paws, not making himself look any more graceful in the process.
He held the object up in his paws. It was a yellow piece of metal, perfectly round, with markings engraved on both sides.
"What is this?" he asked.
She chuckled. "It's money. Go and get more rice with it."
Looking back at the object, he couldn't understand how he could use it for anything.
"We can't eat this," he finally declared, tossing it to the side.
"Oh, gods," the tigress softly whispered. "It's true."
"What's true?" Po asked, still in the process of figuring out how the conversation went from him meaning to ask, "what are you doing in my house" but turned into a conversation about rice and strange metal objects.
"You're one of the Neutered," she replied, putting special emphasis on that last word. "I mean, I knew people like you existed, but… I've never met one in person."
"People like me? What about people like you? Who are you? Where do you come from? And what are you pointing at me?"
At this last sentence, the tigress seemed to be a little surprised, but she soon realized the cause of it.
"Of course," she muttered to herself, "You don't know anything."
Drip.
Po heard the sound and looked underneath the chair, where a drop of blood had fallen to the floor. He looked back up at the intruder.
"You're bleeding."
The tigress stood up, but she struggled, and had to use her paw and grip the back of the chair to steady herself. She turned around, but when she saw the large bloodstain she had left on the seat, she knew how much blood she had lost and almost as if on cue, began to feel queasy in the stomach.
"No, it's nothing," she tried to say, but the dizziness that she had been experiencing for the last ten minutes was finally too much, and she fell backward. Instinctively, Po jumped forward and caught her by the shoulders before her head could slam on the ground. But, surprisingly, he found her difficult to lower.
"Ouch, you're heavy," Po thought to himself, setting her down on the ground. With her unconscious, he took a good look at her.
The tigress was covered in clothing completely unfamiliar to him. Personally, he only wore a pair of pants made up of stitched pieces of cloth. Other people in his village wore robes, vests, and other various clothing made out of natural materials. But nothing looked natural on this stranger. On her feet were a pair of boots. Upon touching them, Po discovered that they were smooth, but very hard. Nothing like he had ever felt before. On her legs, she wore a pair of black pants, but again, out of a material he was unfamiliar with. On her torso, she wore a vest of similar material, but it was torn and ripped in several places. Her bare arms also bore marks and scars from times long past. Reaching down, Po reached down and gently grabbed her arm. To his surprise, he felt that her arms were quite muscular, much more so than the average woman in his village. Actually, much more so than the average male, he thought to himself.
Finally, Po's gaze reached up to her face. Of course, her eyes were closed, but Po could feel an air of a stubborn determination still emitting from it.
His inspection complete, Po looked back at the object she had been pointing at him while she had been conscious. He had to pry her fingers off of its handle, and when he did, he held it up to his face.
It was a long, tubular object, with a short handle at one of the ends. Po had never seen an object like it, and as he was fiddling with it, turning it about in his paws, his finger brushed up against the corner where the handle and the main piece met, and suddenly, a flash of white light was emitted from the end of the main piece and flew into the wall, blasting a hole bigger than his foot through it.
With wide eyes, Po instantly dropped the item and back away.
"That thing was just pointed at my head a second ago!" he thought to himself. Looking back at the hole, he realized that the hole in the wall could just as easily be in his face.
He turned his head back to the tigress.
"I gotta know where you come from!" he thought. He wasn't quite sure of all of the item's uses, but Po remembered how she had been pointing the dangerous end at him and he was able to put two and two together.
Kicking the item to the side, he bent down and gently flipped her over, trying to get a better view of her wound. Once again, he felt the muscles in her back and body, and wondered what she did for a living. Whatever it was, it was much more strenuous than farming, and much more dangerous, too.
With her on her back, Po got a view of where the blood on his chair had come from. Starting at the bottom of her neck and running down a good length until the small of her back, was a bloody gash, and it was still bleeding. Fortunately, Po was prepared for these kinds of things, as farming accidents were bound to happen whenever sharp tools were involved. And with his clumsiness, a trait not exactly looked highly upon but it never harmed anyone enough to require correction, hurting himself was not something that was too uncommon.
Po ran out of his small hut and into the barn where he and his father kept their supplies. The night was still young, and the breeze was a welcome friend as it ran across his face and body. The stars still shone brightly and lit his path, but also watched over him as he ran across the path from the hut to the barn.
As he reached the wooden barn, he turned his head towards the road to the village center. No one seemed to be coming down it. For some reason he couldn't explain, he found himself relieved. It was almost as if he didn't want his father to know about this stranger who had eaten their food. It was an absurd notion, as surely the most logical thing to do would to be tell his father what had happened, and then they could go and report the problem to the priests. Then, the strange issue would be out of his paws, as there were no issues that the priests couldn't solve: they were one with the gods, and the gods could solve any issue.
He pushed the thought out of his mind as he realized that with every second he wasted, the tigress' wound continue to bleed. He pulled the doors open, but then silently scolded himself for forgetting a lantern to light his way. No matter, there was a candle and some matches in the barn itself.
However, time was running short now, and besides, Po thought, he had been in the barn enough to sort his way through it with his eyes closed.
With the starlight enough to light a few feet inside the barn, Po stepped forward and tried to recall where the items he needed were. A bucket, he thought; he would need water to clean her wound. Fortunately, it was close by the entrance, and he only had to turn around to reach for it. With it in his grasp, he reached for the cloth that hung on the hand-held hoe, pinned to the wall by the tip of its handle. Putting the cloth inside the bucket, Po turned around and stepped beyond the line of light, now walking in darkness, trying to use his memory to find his way. It was working until-
Thump!
Po hit the wall face-first. He recoiled back, clutching his forehead with his paw.
"Guess that wasn't the right direction," he thought to himself. Reaching out with his paws, he regained his sense of direction and headed over to a pile of supplies. He couldn't see, but a few pats with his paws eventually reeled in the desired item: a bundle of bandages. Throwing it in the bucket along with the cloth, he turned back around and followed the light from the door to get out of the barn.
Once out, he left the double-doors behind him open, as his paws were full, and he headed over to the small river that ran on the side of their farm, gifting them with irrigation water through the small trenches they had dug in a grid-like pattern that emanated from the river. Standing on its edge, Po removed the cloth and bandages from the bucket and held them with his free paw, using the other to dip the bucket into the river, filling it with water. He bent back up and turned back to his hut, heading back.
He soon came to his door again, pushing the wooden door aside and entering. The tigress still lay on the floor where he had left her, her wound still bleeding. Po, setting his things down, walked over and scooped up the tigress, once again finding her heavier than he expected. He took her over into the "bedroom," which was barely the size of a closet with only two blanket piles on the floor, one large and one small.
He laid her down on her stomach and then pondered on what to do next. It wasn't as if he had ever tended people with huge gashes running down their backs before. While he thought, he fetched his bucket of water and other supplies and brought it back into the bedroom.
Finally, Po, coming up with no alternative, picked up the tigress' arms and wiggled her black vest off of her, taking it off and placing it to the side. Fortunately, he didn't have to feel like a complete pervert, since she did wear chest bindings. Only now, with the wound before him, did he understand how bad it was.
Po felt his stomach sink. He didn't know how to solve this. As he thought, he brought the bucket of water over, and, dipping the cloth into the water and then wringing it in order to leave it damp, began to clean the blood off of the fur of her back. He tried to be gentle, only patting the cloth a few times before putting it back into the water. As he ran the cloth over her strong back muscles, he pondered on what he should do.
Who was this person? Where had she come from? From another village? He had never traveled to another village, so perhaps they wore different clothing and all had that strange item that shot light out of it. However, that theory didn't set very well with Po, so he dismissed it.
And why had she been so hostile? Nobody had ever acted like that towards him. And why had she been stealing his food? So many questions ran through the panda's head that it made him dizzy.
But one thing was for sure, she didn't want to be found. She wouldn't have been sneaking around in empty houses if that was the case. But when did she get there, he wondered? He only left to go and see the strange asteroid-
Po's eyes widened.
The asteroid!
Was it possible that she had… come from it? No, he thought, that was crazy! Everyone knew that his world was the only world. No, he thought, that was ridiculous. Still, though, he couldn't help but dream of all the possibilities.
Finally, after he cleaned off as much blood from the wound as he could, he reached for the bandages and began wrapping them across her back, chest, and stomach. As he applied them, blood still began to seep into the bandages, but it was now lessened than before, and quite honestly, Po had no other solutions. He thought about taking her to the village doctor, but the memory of her look stuck with him.
A fierce look, sure, meant to deter any and all, but underneath that gaze was fear.
Po had always felt as if there were something inside of him that was sleeping. He had been contented with his life, sure, but that part of him sometimes wanted to wake up. It stirred sometimes, shuffling around inside him and forcing him to question and doubt things that no other would think of.
But now, for the first time, that part of him was finally fully awake. And it was going to speak with this stranger before he made any other decisions. He knew it was against the rules, as thievery was a capital punishment, and all were encouraged to tell the priests about anyone who committed crimes, that way the criminals could take their destined place in the afterlife a little sooner than expected. Yet, it had been so long since anyone had committed a crime that he had never once within his lifetime heard of someone being punished.
"No one will know of this until I speak with her first," Po finally thought to himself, his mind made up. If she were really just nothing but a heartless thief, then he would gladly turn her in and no harm would be done.
Until that time, he had to hide her from his father. Luckily, he knew just the place to do so. He bent down and scooped up the tigress once more, supporting her back with one arm and her legs with the other. He took her across his hut and outside, heading across the gap between the hut and the barn. Once again, he threw a precautionary glance to the road to the village, and took another sigh of relief when he didn't see his father strutting along it.
Finally, he came back to the barn, grateful that he had left the doors cracked open. He used one foot to swing one door open and entered. Once again relying on his memory, he walked in between the aisles of various farming tools until he came to the very back of the barn. He turned to the side and took a few precautionary steps forward until his foot sought what it was searching for.
A stair.
Putting his other foot forward and slightly above it, it too was met with a stair. The barn was large enough that his father had built a loft near the top, stuffing it with blankets. As a child, he had loved sleeping up in the loft, as it had seemed an adventure for his younger, more imaginative self. He hadn't slept in it for a long time, but the blankets above were still there.
Reaching the top of the stair, he turned and set the tigress down into the blankets which were located right next to the stairs. Turning back around, he walked down the stairs in search of the candle and matches.
He couldn't quite remember where these items were, so he had to stand still in the dark and think about it for a moment. Finally, he remembered and walked a little to his right, reaching down into the ground and picking up the desired items. He returned to the stairs and climbed them again. When his face was level with the loft, he took out one of the matches and struck one, its light illuminating the darkness of the barn.
He turned his head, but the tigress was gone.
Shocked, Po leaned forward, but suddenly, something flashed by his sight and stuck him in the face, sending him rolling down the steps. He continued to roll, being naturally prone to do so due to his shape, until he reached the floor again. His eyes fluttered as he realized that she had just hit him in the face.
"I clean her wound and give her a bed and she does that!" Po angrily huffed to himself. As he had fallen, he had been too shocked to let go of the candle and matches, so he still clutched them in his paws. He simply took another match, as the other had fallen from his grasp and blew out as it fell, and struck it, bringing the light back once more.
Standing right in front of him was the tigress, her fist reared back and ready to strike again, and suddenly, Po's anger was quickly replaced with fear. He scurried back and threw his paws into the air.
"What were you doing with me!?" she growled at him, slowly advancing, her sharp fangs bared and her amber eyes burning even brighter than usual.
"I… I…" Po stuttered, too afraid to make a coherent sentence. The tigress grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back into a wall, keeping her other paw reared for a strike.
"Well!?" she prompted, clearly none too patient.
"I cleaned your wound and was about to put you in the blankets in the loft so you could sleep!" Po suddenly blurted out. So fast his words came out of his mouth that the tigress almost missed them. She now stood confused, still aggressively pinning the panda to the wall, but her fist slowly lowered and her expression changed. Finally, she let go of Po.
"What?" she asked, her tone now softer. She reached behind her and felt her back, and her fingers brushed against the bandages. She looked down and realized that they were the only thing she was wearing besides her pants, as Po was planning to wash the blood from it in the river while she slept.
Now stuck in a difficult place between confusion, guilt, and gratitude, she looked back up at Po.
"Um… thanks?" she said, almost as if it were a question. As Po reached up for his jaw, rubbing it where it was now sore, she nervously chuckled. "Yeah… sorry about that."
Po waved his paw, signaling that it was fine.
The two awkwardly stood there in the barn, with only the light from the match in Po's paw to light their surroundings, both unsure of what to do or say.
Finally, Po decided to put all of his questions on hold as his internal clock began to run out of time. He still needed to clean the blood off of the chair, hide the tigress' vest and the bucket, cloth and bandages before his father got home. And he couldn't be caught, otherwise, he would be in big trouble.
"Well, I've got to go. My father will be home soon. You've lost a lot of blood, and you should rest. If you want, you can sleep here tonight. My dad won't come in here."
Handing the candle and matches to her, Po turned around to leave, heading back for the open door. Just before he reached the door, however, the tigress called out to him-
"Hey."
Po turned his head.
"Why are you helping me?" she asked, her tone sincerely curious. "So far, I've only stolen your food and punched you in the face."
Po chuckled. "Well, first of all, you did give me… something in return for the rice, and second of all, you seem like you could use some help right now. Good night. I'll be back in the morning."
"Good night," the tigress echoed.
Po finally walked outside of the barn and shut the doors behind him. He quickly turned his head back, but still, there was no one on the road.
As he ran back to his hut to clean up and make things look like they did before, Po briefly thought to himself-
"Tomorrow's going to be interesting."
HahaLmaoHeHe on Chapter 2 Mon 22 Aug 2022 09:03PM UTC
Comment Actions
xxXTryMeXxx on Chapter 4 Thu 28 Jul 2022 02:19AM UTC
Comment Actions
StarlessEchoes on Chapter 4 Thu 28 Jul 2022 07:51PM UTC
Comment Actions
ProfTrueman on Chapter 4 Fri 02 Sep 2022 07:24AM UTC
Comment Actions