The Rebel Faction

It was always the same.

The masses...

Overwhelming in their incessant efforts to simply break them.


It was a the straining of martial courage, the fraying of the strands of inventive hope, the realization that the final leap had been taken and there simply was nothing left...




BOOM!


Dust, dirt, debris and bone scatter as the orange plasma fire strikes the snowy hard ground scattering particles over the remaining defenders.


A soldier sinks to his knees babbling incoherently, his mind fracturing against the stress. Against the inevitable truth the enemy has been pounding into their lines time and again...


That they were all going to die.



The skies were darkening as the snow began to grow heavy falling at a rapid rate. The chanting of the enemy had reached a crescendo set against the symphony of destruction that had been raining down upon them since the morning.


The long range firing had stopped and the ground trembled against the lumbering creatures being repositioned. The defenders knew what was coming next as the shouts of their enemy grew louder.


...as if power were building for the inevitable release.




That release came....


..and the defenders gripped their weapons nervously staring out at the cold snow searching for the shadowy outline of their enemy moving at full charge against their thin line, stretched taut and ready to snap.


He was no different.


He gripped his rather large, multibarreled weapon his knuckles turning white.


By Clannus Prime, if he was going to die he wou--...



"It's a shame the sun isn't out.." came a voice behind him startling the defender, nearly causing him to cry out in alarm.


"It's a shame we are all going to die!" he snarled back, embarrassed at his fright.

The man behind him had a sandy colored hair dressed in the lighter version of the familiar body armour they all were wearing. Where his own armour was pitted, dented and scratched the newcomer's seemed to shine.

"Sounds like you're defeated before they," he motioned toward the sound of the approaching shouts, "have even arrived."

The old soldier gritted his teeth wondering if he could spare the power from the energy cell of his weapon to put two holes through this annoyance. Why couldn't he just die in peace? Was that too much to ask?


"I am NOT defeated!" he growled out, turning menacingly towards the other.


The other man put up his hands in a surrender gesture as if warding off the soldier's invisible intent to do harm. "Hey! I am not the one you have to convince! They are!" He motioned towards the enemy.


"And how," snarled the old soldier, "do you expect me to do THAT!?"


Before he could react, the younger man stepped up snatching the heavy weapon from the old soldier's hands and hefted it over his soldier, pointing it into the fog of wind, sleet and snow. Turning to look at the angry soldier, the newcomer fired the weapon sending it's charge through the snow.


A shouting enemy's voice went high pitched and was suddenly silent.

The young man grinned, tossing the weapon back to the old soldier. "If you can convince one, you can convince others..."

The old soldier looked at the younger man through narrowed eyes. "You're a base-born bastard son of a whore!" he barked, checking the recharge rate of his weapon by rote.


The young man grinned. "Ahh... but am I a wrong base-born bastard son of a whore?"


The old soldier could not help but feel his lips stretch into a grin of his own.

"PROVIDENCE DEFENDERS!"

The young man had taken a station next to the old soldier and the soldier nodded approvingly before saying that which would tempt fate.


"FIRE!!"









Lorell


The Stellar Explorer, the first in a series of exploratory and science vessels had been diverted from their return trip from Elrood to Lorell, inside the Hapes Cluster, had seemed odd to Mathias. Even after the Captain, Herridian Wye, had given the reasons, which (truth be told) simply served to convince everyone aboard, especially the 1st Providence soldiers, that Dakkon Darksword was a shrewd sonofabitch and would probably steal their clean socks if they turned away, the old Caprician soldier could still not understand why the Stellar Explorer was called upon.

The Caprician science vessels, while not warships, were tough, fast little buggers that ran from edge of the Domain to Wild Space and had, in one swift swoop, increased the Caprician and Commonwealth's scientific knowledge of the space around them exponentially.

So, when they were told that Dakkon had requested the Hapan Battleship, Sword of .. no... Dagger of the Crown.. err..no. the Crown's Blade... be sent off as a lightning rod to all the yahoo's and inferior hicks such isolated cultures bred enmasse, Mathias had to ask why it should have affected their shore leave on Homeworld?


"Because," Herridian had explained cheerfully, "Not only can we test our hypothesis regarding the Transitory Mists, but we can also help Hapans come to an understanding about our own culture."



Mathias could have kicked the former leader of Herridian Clan, in hindsight, but he had too much on his mind as the Hapan giant circled around him, his glistening, well oiled body reflected the light of Lorell's primary.


His company had gone planetside and at once, he was struck by just how good everyone seemed to look. Upon second glance however, and when his company poked around more of the native city (away from famous touristy traps), the look of the people became more common.

There were Hapans of all shapes and sizes though they still tended to favor the "good looking" shapes and sizes but every once in a while you saw a fat Hapan ambling by.

The people of Lorell were not exactly surprised at their presence for Lorell, as the rest of the Consortium, had spent the last year debating and finally reaching a decision supporting their Crown Prince to associate itself with the Commonwealth.

Lorell had the distinction to be one of the first to have their representatives return to Hapes with their decision.

The web back to the Queen Mother was indeed growing strong as Consortium interests were becoming much more sophisticated than the racial hatred a few country bumpkins espoused as their rallying cry under the banner of independence.

Lorell had no desire to revoke their allegiance to the Queen Mother or the Crown Prince and so, as was the tradition of one testing something new, a Hapan soldier had come up to Mathias near the central market and challenged the old man to a fight.

The man was pretty but also well muscled.

Mathias had accepted after a quick look-over of the youth and soon a crowd surrounded them. Colonel Vinda was orchestrating friendly wagers (in the name of diplomacy of course) as Mathias provided the sweat.

The Hapan had taken off his shirt revealing a pack of muscles that looked like they belonged to a mule and as the two men grappled, Mathias knew the the other man was stronger.

But it was a strength that the other man did not capitalize on as his attacks were off. It seemed to Mathias as he bounced back and dodged several strikes, that the Hapan was not used to frontal attacks but preferred the slithering strike of dancing around trying to wear the Caprician out before the cutting, slicing attack .... almost sneaky underhanded attack that the stronger Hapan seemed to want to make.

It was a philosophy alien to the older soldier for if a problem was presented to him, he did not need to dance around it poking.. but, rather, strike bluntly smashing your big problem into smaller more manageable ones.

And so, despite the groaning in his ribs as the Hapan's sharp hand seemed to strike against at times, the old soldier used his endurance to simply 'take it'. After a while, feigning weariness and pain, his motions began to become exaggerated.

The Hapan smelled blood and danced a little more nimbler.

At least until, during one of his attacking darts, Mathias didn't turn as expected and simply released a strike of his own that he'd been holding.

The grizzled soldier's fist smashed into the face of the Hapan dropping the larger man instantly.

The crowd had grown quiet while soldiers from his Company were shouting praises.


As Mathias wiped the blood from his lips he noted that the Hapans did not think he would win.


It was all he could do to keep from breaking out into a grin.


Tyscio Korban's words on Providence during the Conquest suddenly being called to mind as he bent over to help the large Hapan up who still couldn't believe he had been beaten, "If you can convince one, you can convince others..."


While Herridian had met with the leadership of Lorell, a matter of courtesy to the reinvigorated Consortium, allies of the Commonwealth, he was doing a little diplomacy of his own.

The diplomacy of the common man.

Too much diplomacy will put you in the hospital, Mathias, my boy!

He wondered how Dakkon's lightning rod was doing, parading all over the Cluster while real men did all the work....