The Rebel Faction

Four Months Prior

The enemy came in droves, forcing the people of Ohallan back into their homes, deep into the ground, into the mountains, anywhere that they could hide. Their ships were faster, better armed, had better armour. Their warriors had better weapons, better training. It was a slaughter and that's what the blood thirsty creatures wanted.

The Ohallan marines, widely regarded as one of the best fighting forces they knew, were nearly wiped out in the first phase. The enemy numbers and weapons all but destroyed them. At first the Ohallan military forces had fended them off, nearly destroying the first wave, but it had come at a price. That wave had taken them down to a third of their original strength.

Then came the second wave, nearly wiping them from the face of the galaxy altogether with their armoured soldiers and heavy tanks. No Ohallan ventured above ground anymore, it was suicide to do so.

They'd taken to the life of living in tunnels far beneath the ground, or living in caves deep within the mountains. Few ventured to either place from above, and the enemy that did was destroyed. The mountains, easily flown to, were bombarded constantly, the enemy trying to flush the Ohallan's out. It hadn't worked so far and it never would.

With the first wave destroyed and the second wave entrenched, there was little hope for survival. The very few that had survived were being led by only a Captain from the 201st Marines, a man named Delvin Olden with little battle experience and a lot of nerve.

They called it the Gambit Complex, and he had it bad.

Present Time

"What hasn't anyone answered our call for aid!?"

"Because no one cares about us!"

The 201st had set up a command center underneath of one of the burned out hulks of a skyscraper inside of the capital city of Verdun. There weren't many people left to man it, most soldiers being spread out to attempt to protect the civilians as best as they could. So while bombs rained down upon the city, and with the building shaking all around them, Delvin and a few other officers from other divisions were manning the small room.

"That's not true. People do care about us. Maybe the enemy jammed our transmissions as soon as they got here. We don't know so stop bickering about," Delvin said, glaring at the two Lieutenants that were arguing.

"Yes, sir.." came the reluctant reply.

Delvin turned his gaze away from the two lieutenants, the both of them promptly shooting each other angry looks as soon as he did so. The map in front of him drew his attention more than the handful of others in the room. As the only ranking officer still alive, it was his job to formulate the plans, his job to provide hope.

He wasn't very good at providing hope, not yet anyway.

None of their plans had worked, they'd all been shot full of holes as soon as they had been implimented. Delvin suspected it was because they had been too pristine, too clean cut. They had been tactical, well thought out ideas. They'd been predictable and the enemy had done a good job of predicting.

Hit and run tactics were a failure. Covert missions had been a failure. Infiltration was a no go. They'd tried openly engaging in battle, running through the streets and shooting at the enemy. They'd tried taking the high ground and laying ambushes. They'd tried just about everything that, if there was a book, would be in the book.

As a result, and much to the dismay of the other officers, Delvin had thrown the book out and was planning to do something spontaneous. Fuel and ammunition were needed to supply the war effort and the enemy had a well guarded supply depot a couple of miles out from the first line of Ohallan troops.. if you could call about forty soldiers spread through a city that was 20 miles in diameter a line.

He planned to take it, and he planned to do something that the enemy wouldn't expect. Something that not even his soldiers would expect. It was all part of his Gambit Complex, and it was going to be risky.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do...."

So when the door creaked open slightly, Delvin tensed up completely but only for two seconds as he waited. Fingers tightened in grip upon the dagger that he held in his right hand. When the enemy trooper, also a human, walked into the room, he stepped forwards towards the man, grabbed onto his shoulder and shoved the blade with the serrated edge facing forward right into the mans neck.

Blood immediately began to gush from the wound, flowing out over the man who immediately tried to speak, but Delvin ripped the knife forward through the mans neck, half severing his head in the process. Pulling the knife away, and subsequently removing his arm from about the man, the now dead enemy soldier fell to the floor with a dull thud, splattering blood all over the floor of the room.

Delvin grabbed onto one of the mans arms and drug him towards the desk that occupied the room. Laying the corpse behind it, he walked quickly and quietly back to the door and glanced out to see if anyone had been looking. Behind him, the dead mans communications unit crackled to life, but Delvin didn't know what they were saying. He just had a suspicion from what they were saying.

Stepping out of the room, he quietly closed the door and then turned to creep down the hall. The sounds of a quiet scuffle came from one room as he passed and he knew that one of his soldiers was taking it to the enemy. He didn't stop to assist but crept on until he came to a much larger room, pressing his back against the wall just to the side of the open door.

Inside of the room he could see two soldiers, both with backs turned to him and both standing about twenty feet from each other. Holding the knife within his grasp, he prepared himseld, bracing foot against the wall. Then, with a sudden spring, he pushed himself from the wall, launching himself through the room at one enemy soldier and tackling him to the ground.

Incidentally, his knife stabbed right through the troopers armor at the armpit, causing him to cry out in pain. The other enemy soldier immediately turned towards the sound of the falling trooper and lifted his weapon to fire upon Delvin. Delvin flipped the enemy soldier over on top of him, letting the man absorb the bolts and subsequently die.

Yanking the dagger from where it had stabbed into the now dead man, he flipped it around so that his fingers were holding the blade, then flung it straight out at the enemy soldier, catching the man right in the neck. For a few moments, the enemy soldier staggered around grabbing the dagger and yanking it from his neck which sent a spray of blood everywhere. Then he fell to the floor dead.

Delvin rolled the dead trooper off of him and then stood, glancing down at the blood that was now sprayed across his chest from the first guy he head killed. Shrugging, he walked over to the other dead soldier and bent down to pick up his dagger. After wiping the blood from it, he sticks it back in the sheath at his ankle and then walks out the door, lifting hand to his wrist where his comm unit was.

"Report status and meet at the main entrance. You have five minutes..."

The sewers stank of waste, feces, mold, and just about everything else that a sewer could possibly stink of. Their noses were assaulted in a manner similar to how Ohalla itself had been assaulted. To make matters worse, most of the stuff they were walking through hadn't been put there by any Ohallans.

"I think these people need to work on their diets. It smells horrible in here."

Although he received a few chuckles out of his remark, the seriousness of their situation ultimately prevailed and they didn't speak anymore of it. No, they merely plodded along through the crap that had been left for them by their enemy. If they ever won this war the lasting effects would be horrendous just in the fact that they would have to plug their noses all the time.

They sloshed along until they rounded a corner and found themselves face to face with a completely blank wall. This was something new and Delvin strolled forward slightly to wrap a hand against the wall. A hollow sound escaped signifying that there was nothing on the other side unless you counted more tunnel. That's exactly what he was hoping for.

"We need to get this wall down so we can get through. Did someone bring along a saw by any chance?"

No one answered so he figured not.

"Well, we need to get this wall down but we need to do it quietly. I guess that means its time for some knife work and shoveling if we have any. Start at the top."

Grabbing his knife, he started to pick at the top of the brick wall, thankfully brick otherwise they'd have to blow it down. Scraping out the mortar was going to be a slow process, but you had to do what you had to do if you wanted to accomplish your mission. Unfortunately, this was what they had to do.

It took longer than he had wanted it to for them to finish clearing the wall from where it had been erected. There was a lot of bricks that they placed off to the side. Once the way was clear, they donned eyeware that would allow them to see trip wires in the form of lasers. They weren't going to be caught off guard.

Weapons held firmly in their hands they strode quietly through the water down the tunnel. Eventually they came to the end of it and there they found a ladder that led up and out of the sewer system. They had finally reached their destination and they hadn't encountered any forces other than the ones they had eliminated at the beginning of their trek.

Turning to look at his troops, he lifted a single finger to his lips to quiet the group. They didn't want to get caught by the enemy above before they even did anything. That would make it completely useless for them to have taken the time to trek this far through the city.

With a single hand, he laid out their plan, motioning for his troops to split up into groups while he remained alone. Silently, he motioned the first two troops up and stepped aside to allow them to pass. They climbed the ladder silently and the top most one stopped to listen at the manhole cover. There was nothing there so he silently pushed it up and to the side before peeking out.

Soon enough the first two were gone and silently moving through the came to commandeer a vehicle. Delvin turned to the other two and motioned for them to go up, waiting for them to disappear before he climbed up himself. When he was out, he gently replaced the manhole cover before ducking behind some crates just in time to escape notice from a patrol.

Right now would be a good time for some help to arrive from somewhere. What happened to our friends in the Corporate Sector?

Shaking his head, he waited for the enemy patrol to pass before stepping out from his hiding spot. Quietly, he stalked around the building he had found, moving quietly through the came towards where they kept their excess fuel supplies. One of the other groups was gathering fuel and that for them while the other acquired food and a vehicle.

Delvin was going to rig up the excess fuel storage to blow so that they could damage the enemy forces. Not only was this a raid, but it was a designed attack as well. As much damage as possible was going to be done to the supply camp to hinder their ability to fight.

Here goes all of our planning...

Space

Needless to say, the arrival of the Commonwealth gunship couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. The enemy, which had a name though none dared to utter it, was about to unleash one of their stereotypical salvos of energy down upon the planet as it arrived. Fortunately, these salvos were halted with the arrival of the Commonwealth Pride.

The enemy ships began to move, swinging around to move towards the Commonwealth gunship and open fire on it. However, they never had the chance to fire as the gunship opened fire, shells bursting from its main cannon. The enemy vessels weren’t equipped for that kind of firepower. No, they most certainly were not.

The first round, a hollow point, burst through the main bridge of an enemy frigate sized craft, blossoming outward and causing sever damage to the vessel. The frigate careened off course and slammed into a smaller corvette, smashing it to pieces before the frigate itself blew up. It was truly a spectacular sight and Delvin would later come to enjoy the scene thanks to recording.

Fortunately for the Commonwealth vessel, the enemy really didn’t have the numbers that they tried to portray as having. Those they did have were not equipped for this sort of battle. There were to destroyer class vessel moving towards the gunship, but they were soon full of holes and drifting dead in space at the hands of the gunship. They would make good salvage once Ohalla was won.

With the enemy vessels that had advanced on the gunship destroyed, the enemy saw that theirs was indeed a weak position. Realizing this forced them to scramble and disappear, moving away from Ohalla and disappearing into hyperspace. The ground forces on the planet were left behind, left to the mercy of Commonwealth soldiers as well as the Ohallan military.

With the enemy fleet gone, a message was sent to the surface while the gunship moved towards the planet once more. It bypassed the wreckage of the previous fight and moved into a high orbit around the planet. The crew was ever vigilant and kept a watchful eye on the scanners to make sure no enemy vessels were lingering around.

It was a small victory that had saved the people of Ohalla….

Ohalla, Enemy Supply Depot

Delvin watched in amazement and dawning horror as the supply depot suddenly sprang to life with enemy soldiers running about everywhere. As it was, he was fortunate enough to have quickly found a hiding place and had hidden himself in it. He could only hope that the others had found the same luck that he had.

Something was definitely going on and there was a sense of confusion emanating from the people that he saw running about. It was as if they didn’t know what was going on, were just reacting. Perhaps it wasn’t the Ohallan soldiers that had started this after all. Something else must have been happening outside of the current situation. That brought him hope.

Through the small bit of their language that he understood, he caught the word ‘ship’ as well as the words ‘fleet’ and ‘leaving’ in close proximity to each other. Realization dawned on him and a broad smile suddenly covered his face. Something, this ship, had caused the enemy fleet to leave its orbit around Ohalla and depart the planet. Now was their time to act.

Seizing an opportunity to move, he darted from his hiding spot and ran across the enclosure to where the enemy kept their ammunition. From his pouch he produced numerous explosive charges which he promptly planted upon the crates of ammunition. He repeated this process on the nearby fuel supplies.

As he crept along towards where his soldiers were waiting, he saw a chance he would never possibly see again. The enemy general was standing inside of a building he was passing by. An opportunity such as this should never be passed up and Delvin knew that. Drawing his blaster, he pushed open the door and flew into the room, blaster blazing away as he did so.

The bolts cut the general and one of his aides down before the enemy could open fire on him. Their weapons discharged and one bolt caught him in the shoulder, but he for the most part was lucky enough to not get injured as he finished off the enemy with relative ease. The old gambit complex was really something he had.

Running off again, he soon made his way to where his soldiers were waiting and climbed into the transport. As they sped off and burst through the enemy barricade, Delvin hit the kill switch and the supply depot burst into flames, killing everyone in the supply depot. A marginal victory made all the greater with the death of the enemy general. This was surely a turning point in the war.

Not only that, it was a turning point in the life of Ohalla…

One Month Later

The Commonwealth had sent a small mop up crew to help the Ohallan’s finish ridding the planet of the last remnants of the enemy’s forces. They also began helping with the rebuilding process as the people of Ohalla returned to the cities from their hiding spots, once more moving into the real life.

Apparently there had been some interference from a passing meteor shower that had kept the Ohallan’s plea for help from getting out. The signal had bounced around the meteors until they neared a battle where the Commonwealth was engaging a new enemy. The signal then jumped from the meteors and that’s when the Commonwealth vessels had received the plea for help.

It was then that the gunship had come to Ohalla and it was then that the reclaiming of the planet really began. Now it was to the point where many of the buildings on the planet could once more be inhabited. All of the enemy forces had been rounded up and executed at the hands of the Ohallan military to keep the Commonwealth from any repercussions.

And so it came to be that a vote was cast amongst the people of the planet to determine the future course of Ohalla. Some advocated rebuilding and borrowing technology from the Commonwealth to make a defensive fleet. Others advocated returning to a peaceful life. Some wanted to flee the planet and move elsewhere in the galaxy. However, the strongest idea came in the form of something else. Something greater.

With a broad smile on his face, Delvin shook hands with a Commonwealth representative, sealing a deal between Ohalla and the Commonwealth. Ohalla would become the galactic body’s newest member planet, and Delvin would become a General in the Commonwealth military forces.

Now Ohalla was free from the enemy, and the Commonwealth had gained a new ally.