Synopsis:
In a mission to take over the planet Hol’t, Lieutenant Valder of the Vaff Confederacy leads an elite force of troops. However, their troop transport is unexpectedly attacked, resulting in a crash landing.
Valder wakes up as the sole survivor and finds himself surrounded by hostile native Ul’toid. Using his skills and weapons, Valder manages to eliminate the Ul’toid and escape. Eventually, with the help of the remaining Vaff troops, they defeat the Ul’toid and successfully take control of the planet.
Valder reflects on the efficiency and ruthlessness of the Vaff Confederacy and eagerly awaits their next conquest.
“Things are running quite smoothly, sir,” said the sergeant, “The troop transport awaits in the hangar”.
A smile came to Valder’s face as he looked down at the surface of the planet below. Although they were still too far to tell, he could already picture the billowing black smoke of Hol’t’s forests going up in flames, the idiotic Ul’toid people running to and fro in complete panic. They were primitive, but more importantly, had no strategy in their rule.
But there was no need to worry about that. Their crude, impulsive ways of ruling the planet were soon to end, replaced by something bigger, better, more centered than ever.
As the Vaff Heavy Cruiser descended, smaller, Cruises warped into the area, moving down swiftly with cargo loads of troops. A few of the ships carried mining equipment as well; if they were to take advantage of Hol’t’s rich natural resources, there was no time to waste. Vaff Cadets were being dropped not only in essential political locations such as the capital or the other two major cities, but also throughout pinpointed strategic resource locations. Political takeover was one thing; this time, the most important thing was making sure they had full control over the mines of Hol’t.
“Excellent,” he said, “Let’s go.”
Normally a lieutenant like himself wouldn’t participate in planetary takeovers. But Hol’t was the exception. His supervisors had made it clear that this invasion had to go smoothly, or there would be consequences. The Vaff Confederacy was not a forgiving order.
It had been years since he had boarded a troop transport, and years since he’d felt his blood boil from the heat of action. Yet here he was today, strapping himself in amidst 60 other elite Vaff Cadets.
He felt them staring at him, but did his best to ignore them as he reached out and accepted the pulsed ion grenades and blaster that were being passed around. The weapons had become more lightweight than he remembered, he gripped the blaster and was ready.
—
“Initiating descent,” a cool female voice said over the intercom. The transport shuddered as it moved away from the Vaff Heavy Cruiser. Valder braced himself as they went into warp mode. The darkness of space shimmered around them and was instantly replaced by bright sunlight. Valder blinked a bit to reorient himself, straining to see out of the window.
Their ship hung low in the sky. Through the window he could see the native Ul’toid pointing and scrambling around for their weapons, in complete disorganization. As a lieutenant, the complete lack of military order in this primitive people made him chuckle.
And that’s when another shudder ran through the ship, and then another. The whole transport began to jolt from side to side, throwing several cadets out of their seats as the ship began to tip over toward one side.
“What’s going on?” demanded Valder, trying to turn around in his seat.
“We’re being attacked, sir,” cried one of the cadets, “The Ul’toid are preparing to—”
A massive explosion shattered the window and the man lurched forward, a shard of magnetised glass now embedded in his neck. Leaning back in his seat, Valder held on as tightly to the handholds as he could as the jolting turned into a violent tumble, the ship beginning to free fall out of the low orbit of Hol’t.
The lights in the ship flickered, then went off. Valder’s field of vision went black. All he could hear were the screams of his fellow cadets, until these were suddenly silenced.
—
Valder’s fingers instinctively curled around his blaster the moment he woke up. The ship was no longer moving at all, and the air hummed with warmth of the temperate native weather as the atmosphere of the Hol’t seeped into the ship, replacing the cool sterility maintained by the transport.
The force of the impact had finally flung him from the seat, although fortunately enough the straps had kept him stable for most of it so he hadn’t flown far. He felt a warm stickiness on the right side of his head: the blunt trauma of the bad landing had probably been what knocked him out. Although his head was still ringing, he forced himself to focus and confront the situation before him.
He could only really see things out of the corner of his eye without moving his head, but he heard the grunts of the Ul’toid to one another, saw two of them walking through the husk of the transport slowly, turning bodies over with several rough kicks. The deafening sound of a mechanical blaster being fired; one of the cadets who was trying to crawl away keeled over, dead.
Gritting his teeth, Valder lay still. Even so, he could hear the approaching footsteps from behind. There must be a third one as well.
His body had taken quite a jolt, and it was only then that the portable translator embedded in his ear kicked in again. The grunts of the Ul’toid’s voices became comprehensible.
“…dressed differently, this one. Was he someone important?”
A shrill sound that Valder knew was laughter. “Not anymore!”
As they burst into shrill cackles, Valder spun around on the floor, blaster in hand, and fired three shots.
The first caught the Ul’toid standing above him right in the chest, the second finding its mark on one of the brutes standing at a distance, both of them falling forward instantly, thick fumes rising from their charred bodies. But the third missed, and the Ul’toid troop roared, aiming his own weapon.
“Dirty Vaff!” he shrieked, opening fire.
The primitive bolts ricocheted off the surrounding pipes. Valder ran with his back hunched low, firing off shot after shot in retaliation. It wasn’t long before one of the pulsed ion shots caught the Ul’toid in the face, and he let out a blood curdling scream before falling backwards, smoke still rising from his body as the pulsed ion sizzled.
Valder collapsed on his knees again, panting hard. He glanced around. From all that he could see and hear, the Vaff troops seemed to be dead. For all their elite training, there was no way they could stand against the might of blunt impact and an explosion in such a confined space. The side quarters where most of them were strapped in seemed to have been completely destroyed.
He put a finger to the communicator on his temple. “Vaff Confederacy Enforcement, come in. Come in. This is Lieutenant Valder. Transport shot down, no survivors other than myself. Send backup.”
Aside from a few crackles of static, there was no response. Cursing under his voice, Valder let his hand fall to his side. The ache in his head returned again, a pounding pain behind his eyes.
His chest ached at the loss of the elite troops, but the battlefield was not the place to mourn. After picking up a few of the pulsed ion and swae grenades that had been thrown onto the floor, he headed out. If more Ul’toid came in here, he’d be trapped in a confined space with nothing to do but surrender. It was almost preferable to be shot down in the middle of a field.
The area he walked out into was a wooded one, with dozens of slaughtered Ul’toid lying about. It was easy enough to see that the Vaff troops had pushed through, and were probably taking over the capital by now. If he could only hold out a bit longer the battle would be a victory not only for the Vaff, but also for him.
—
The thought had barely crossed his mind when a bolt whizzed close above his head. He had no time to wince at the sound as a booming voice cut through his thoughts.
“Stand up with your hands up, or the next one will be in your head.”
There was nothing Valder could do but stand and turn around. Standing there in the wooded area were several Ul’toid. Some carried weapons—blast cannons, as well as more advanced weaponry such as thermal shredders.
But the one that caught his eye was not holding a weapon. He stood in the middle, leaning on a walking stick, stroking his thick beard. In his hollow face was a steely look.
“You must be Elder Ulkin,” Valder said calmly, holding his hands up, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you and your people in person.”
Ulkin scowled. “Shut up! You think our people will submit to the galactic tyranny of the Vaff? We are self-sufficient, self-serving, while you are nothing but a government of pillagers. However many times you come here and attack, we will have the upper hand.”
“Is that so? Then why are you fleeing your capital with guards and advisors?” Valder spoke with as much arrogance as he could muster, but all he could feel was the weight of the grenades by his side. If only…
He put his hands against his head instead, a finger rubbing against his temple.
“We are resilient,” Ulkin was still ranting, “And we will not allow ourselves to be cornered and killed! You, on the other hand…you are powerless. Without your cadets, you have no might. But I’m sure you’ll make a great hostage.”
The other Ul’toid howled with laughter. Their people were incredibly easily amused.
Valder had to admit that Ulkin was rather well-spoken—compared to the other Ul’toid, at least. That was quite the low bar.
“Well, I must admit, you’re not wrong,” he said in a tone of mock embarrassment. “What am I to do when I’m surrounded by a group of powerful soldiers like this? Nothing but surrender.”
The Ul’toid were easily amused and distracted. Well, it was time for Valder to amuse them.
He stepped forward, his hands in the air, but pushed his feet together and pretended to fall to the ground. All the Ul’toid burst into raucous laughter, a laugh that turned into shouts and screams as Valder whipped out the swae grenade from his belt, jammed the safety off, and threw it.
The grenade exploded in the air and invisible waves rippled through the air. All the Ul’toid fell down, screaming and holding their ears, while Valder clambered up again, panting. He had activated the protection mechanism with a tap to his temples, so the deafening ringing was nothing but a dull echo.
But the sound was loud, and the trees around them shuddered. The Ul’toid were still rolling around on the ground in pain when the Vaff troops emerged from the forest, training their weapons on them.
—
It was only a few more hours from then when the Hol’t government was fully squashed, and all the stragglers killed or captured. The cargo loads with mining equipment were unloaded, and mining began immediately.
Surveying the scene on a screen in the sickbay, Valder sighed in relief. Aside from a few bumps and scrapes, he had turned out mostly fine. As the ship doctors had made sure to tell him repeatedly, he was lucky enough not to have lost his life in the ship crash alone, especially since it was his first mission out on the field in years.
While they had lost sixty members of their elite force, the Vaff Confederacy was always growing. It wouldn’t be long before that number was replenished, even expanded upon.
He was sure he would be rewarded and recognized for his bravery and resourcefulness, and he relished the fact. But that didn’t even matter as much.
Government of pillagers…the phrase brought a smile to his face. For all his grandiosity, Ulkin was not wrong. The Vaff Confederacy grew because it was ever hungry. It invaded, conquered, pillaged, drew all the resources close so that the power was centralized.
It was ruthless, to be sure. But it was also efficient. And there was nothing that Valder appreciated more than efficiency.
And for all the Confederacy’s needs, the Enforcement would be there to support it, and so would Valder.
He couldn’t wait to see where the next conquest would take him and the Confederacy. The ships began to warp away…
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