Hellfire
Kragnok the Destroyer was...unnerved. It wasn't because he was covered in blood, bone, viscera and other pieces of a dead man. One doesn't obtain the moniker of 'Destroyer' for playing the drums, smoking, and spreading love across the galaxy...well maybe some males did but Kragnok did not count himself a member of that clique.
It had been a long road to get to where he was: a leader of a respected mercenary band eligible to expand and receive authorization to form an independent platoon. It was an important step for any ambitious non-human soldier. Individual mercenaries were fairly paid and on time but since they merely augmented the already effective rank and file of the hobnailed PFI there was little glory or opportunity to stand out. Some mercenaries eventually banded together forming, aptly named, bands of a dozen or so soldiers. Ten to fifteen men are a moderately capable force but since they untested and unproven the humans baptized them in fire, subjecting them to insane risks for very high rewards. In the end, most bands collapsed and died off.
Kragnok had been smart he'd seen the writing on the wall and joined the human armies when they were still expanding then he'd worked his way up, ultimately earning the right to go through training with prospective members of the Arcani on Krassus IV. He then leveraged that training to earn the right to command a squad. Now he stood in the pay line of his second to last mission as a squad commander and he couldn't help but smile: one more mission and he could apply for command of a platoon sized unit, a mere formality, and he would become eligible for naturalization. He could become, in name if not genetics, human and gain all the benefits and more importantly the rights and privileges that afforded.
He wouldn't be a free man in name only, relegated to the underclass of a galaxy dominated by herbivores. He wouldn't be restricted to third class tickets and dimly lit dive bars where no one could see what he was. With a human passport he could follow in the footsteps of the others of his kind and march into the highest of institutions, the hallowed halls that had, for so long, looked down upon his kind and they would serve him. They would do it with barely concealed disgust but they would give him what he demanded. And even if they had to force their smiles and politeness they would because every human, genetic or otherwise, is protected by the guns of Old Earth, the credits of the Guilds, and the silver tongues of the Diplomatic Corps. He already knew where he'd go: A bar on a station orbiting the Gas Giant Ha-Az. He'd been working as an enforcer of the peace and laws of the Grand Assembly for the Kal-Eth. He'd been a minor officer and so his fellow officers were his natural peers, all Kal-Eth. It had been a barrier at first but when you fought, drank, and bled alongside the same people you became brothers. Until you weren't.
When they'd docked they decided to take in what was supposed to be a spectacular sight as the station orbited the giant and its moons. But when Kragnok had moved to enter he'd been barred. He was refused entry to the crown jewel of Ha-Az. Told it was only for certain more reputable people and that he wasn't welcome. That he wasn't worthy. His Kal-Eth 'brothers' had shrugged, apologized, and entered leaving him humiliated and alone. In the end, he had found a dive and drank until it looked like a palace. It wasn't anything new. He was used to it. But he wasn't an Issad who would let everything roll off their massive shoulders content to please the ancestors and feed the tribe. He had his pride it had accumulated a lifetime of wounds.
But when he became a human, when he got that hard paper booklet, he would make that pathetic snob at the door read every god damn line that declared the protections afforded the citizens of the United Nations and Colonies of Earth. He would walk in. He would sit down. And he would drink watching as the great storms of Ha-Az and its glowing moons passed by. And they, the herbivorous bastards whose kingdom his presence besmirched, would finally experience the same impotent rage he had always known. And he...he would never have to feel it again.
That thought warmed him. It warmed him even as cooling blood saturated his now ruined uniform. The thought that he was so close to what he had strived for since a foul mouthed human had shown him a simple kindness... He had protected their principles, fought for what they held sacred, he had done it as an outsider and soon he would do it as one of them. They had unwavering unshakable lofty ideals, and yes they failed as often as they succeeded to live up to them. But the vast decent majority tried with every waking breath to meet them. And that was worth defending, that was worth fighting for, that was worth becoming.
The flecks of gore were annoying but not unexpected. The first and third most dangerous things in the Galaxy stood and sat behind a solid desk opposite the pay line: A human quartermaster, and two Redire Legionnaires. Kragnok changed his mind as the corpse was dragged from the hall; sure the human wasn't as strong as a normal Steel Legionnaire. Humans were soft squishy fleshy things without their armour but the Legionnaires weren't prone to impulsive bouts of extreme violence and that made Humans slightly more deserving of the second spot since a human would gut you if only to satisfy the voices in their heads while the Redire...Kragnok shivered.
The Redire were AI's who had sworn the Compact with Humanity; fifty years in the legion, two centuries of freedom, and fifty years of retirement, but after their mandatory service ended had elected to rejoin. They were neigh indestructible killing machines capable of putting their fists through the chests of every living sapient, though the Human's swore up and down that that wasn't an intentional feature, and were just as impulsive, egotistic, unpredictable, and batshit insane as their creators. So why anyone thought it was a good idea to boast, threaten, and demand higher payment from a man flanked by two of them was beyond comprehension. For his trouble the new-blood had taken a plasma bolt to the chest and Kragnok found himself at the front of the line.
"Towel?" Quartermaster Smythe asked as Kragnok approached.
"Thank you." Kragnok replied grateful for the chance to wipe his exposed skin clean
"There's one in every line." Smythe said shaking his head sadly "Always one idiot..."
"Respectfully Quartermaster. That's how it is everywhere else. Puff yourself up. Talk tough. And angle for higher pay."
"You know..." Smythe began taking the bloody towel back "My great grandfather once told me that you should never eat before a battle nor shout during one. Because a full stomach and full lungs are liable to explode if shot."
"Really?" Kragnok asked, the bony protrusion above his eye rising
"That's what he said. I've never shot someone in the stomach right after a large meal so..." Smythe shrugged as he pulled out Kragnok's data sheets and after action report.
At first Kragnok had been amazed and then impressed by humanity's dedication to paper. But it made a strange sort of sense: Not even the most advanced AI could hack a piece of tree pulp. It was a strange gambit but not a single alien had managed to breech a human data vault since their ascension to space.
"Yes yes yes...all good." Smythe nodded skimming over the document before tapping a section "Your next is your last mission as a squad commander."
"Yes sir." Kragnok's face twisted in his species simulacrum of a smile
"A promotion and citizenship eligibility. Excited?" Smythe asked
"It's too early to be excited. I am...Optimistic."
"You should be." Smythe said finally letting a smile crack his stoic mask "Scuttlebutt says that there are five groups already looking to claim you as one of their own."
"Five..." Kragnok wondered, wistful notes creeping into his voice "Already?"
"Why not?" Smythe retorted "You impressed Joachim von Ros during the...events on Algoth. You impressed Darius while training with humans on Krassus IV. Even surviving the training would have been impressive given the gravity differential but to impress the Grandmaster of the Arcani...well." Smythe chuckled
"He was impressed?" Kragnok asked, unable to mask his surprise "I always...I got the impression he was disappointed."
"Of course he was disappointed! He spent the entire time wishing all his prospectives had four arms."
"Oh..."
"From what I've heard yeah you have at least five parties negotiating, quietly, to claim you and, if my information is correct, two of the countries are on Old Earth."
That piece of information hit Kragnok hard enough to make him forget how to breathe and how to swallow. The result left him coughing and spluttering in front of the Quartermaster who was now struggling not to laugh.
"I had thought...some colonies. On the fringe they... always need veteran mercenaries and soldiers but...Old Earth?"
"That's what I heard."
Old Earth was...most travel writers compared it to a drug. It was a cesspit of slums and poverty juxtaposed against the archologies of the rich and powerful. It was a world of ultimate death, a place where everything could and, given half the chance, would kill you. But despite that anyone who had been, human or alien, felt an inexplicable pull towards the planet that had created humanity. It didn't matter that the strangler figs of the Caribbean gave Carlag nightmares as they imagined the vines growing over their massive limbs. They were too enraptured by the sheer diversity of sights and smells and noises of the jungle to care. It didn't matter to the Syrinx that there were hundreds of predators for whom they were a prime target; they were too busy enjoying the updrafts over active volcanos or the easy flights over the thick polar air.
No one cared that entire regions were fenced off because of active minefields or nuclear fallout not when there was so much else to see, not when a single day's travel could take you to what might as well have been a different world. Humanity had never been a unified people, never had a unified language, culture, or beliefs and it showed. You could spend the morning listening to prayers in Latin in a gothic cathedral in France and by nightfall vanish in the thick woods of the North where the old gods had been reborn and partake in rituals conducted in guttural languages spoken by only a few old shamans to honour the first gods. From there you could take a train to the tiled mosques whose perfumed air was thick with the smell of spices and whose thick walls couldn't quite silence the sounds of markets. In the high mountains you could meditate with silent monks whose every movement had been honed by a martial art only taught to the initiated or call out to the sky father in his great palace of the steppe.
Every country, every region, every culture brought change. Brought new art, new music, new poetry, new dance and there was no lifetime long enough to see or hear or feel it all. Nobody could ever claim to truly be done with Earth. Old Earth took the thing most precious to every sapient: Time...and it left with sensations that no other planet could mimic. So...every sapient returned for one more hit, one more adventure, one more path, one more dream made manifest until the only thing they had to give was themselves.
And they did. Countless humans and now even aliens sacrificed all they were to capture the imaginations and dreams of humanity if only for a moment. So that maybe...one day....someone might look back through the pages of time and be inspired by what created if only for a moment. So that maybe...one day...someone might look upon deeds and feel their heads be filled with a thousand dreams. So that maybe...one day...your soul would become part of the ever growing tapestry of old earth.
Kragnok had felt that. Once. Once he had felt all the eyes of humanity upon him. But he had been an outsider. The idea that he might get a second chance. A second opportunity to stand under the gaze of humanity as one of them...that he, Kragnok the Destroy, might count himself among Earth's greatest defenders, most valiant heroes or...just maybe he would be proclaimed the newest Generalissimo. That one day they might count Kragnok among the Titans so that he could mete out vengeance even after his body had long since returned to dust. There was no dream sweeter.
"Besides" Smythe continued "You might not be a five foot four Texan but you're a man of can do. And a lot of us appreciate that. It's in that spirit." Smythe pushed over a single chit loaded with the fee his men were owed "That I'm giving you a bit of a bonus."
"Thank you." Kragnok began before Smythe cut him off
"You won't be." Smythe said his face hardening back into its usual mask "There's work in the Abyss. The Cult of the Black Sun is getting uppity and they need to be put down. Hard." The man added for emphasis.
"That doesn't sound...."
"Ah but you haven't heard the weather report. There's a chance of severe storms with a high probability of fire."
"Y..."
"It likely that the Black Sun will try a partial firestorm."
"Oh..." Kragnok shuddered; fear and cheap booze were the most common companions of a mercenary. But the feeling of death closing its hands around your chest and starting to squeeze...He hadn't felt that in a very long time.
"Ah don't look like that Krag." The left Redire spoke up smiling at the mercenary "The Black Sun won't be able to pull off a true firestorm. It can't be as bad as last time."
Kragnok's eyes, all of them, darted towards the AI trying to read its inscrutable face for any hint of identification the only thing he saw was a small dent and a few burns in the otherwise flawless metal.
"Gaius?" He finally guessed
"The dent gave it away?"
"The dent, burns, and...There aren't many Redire."
"True enough." Gaius smiled displaying remarkably realistic teeth "But I am serious. The Cult doesn't have the ships or the resources to pull off a true firestorm. You survived the real one so a cheap knockoff shouldn't kill you."
"Barely and there was a lot of luck."
"So prepare..." The Redire said with a shrug "And if you survive I'll buy you a drink or five."
"Definitely going to be five. All right." Kragnok took the folder from the Quartermaster's desk "I'll do it. To hell and back." The mercenary smiled grimly already almost regretting his stupidity.
Smythe chuckled "I knew you would. Now go on. The line is getting long and Gaius is right. You need to prepare."
"Aye sir."
______
"Captain!" Ted exclaimed his face starting to turn red courtesy of the drink in his hand "We were just about to start the funerary toasts."
"Indeed." Marius, their resident Redire added nodding "I was about to start looking for black paint so I wouldn't be out of place at your funeral."
"Yeah yeah shut up." Kragnok growled as the rest of his men echoed similar sentiments. "I have news." Kragnok said falling onto the nearest bench.
Krognak's ship wasn’t much: A galley, engines, cargo hold, cramped quarters, and a flight deck big enough for two people. But it was his, and it allowed him the kind of freedom of contract that most mercenaries could only dream of. The galley was easily the heart of the ship, whenever the crew weren't preparing in the cargo hold, sleeping, or planet side they congregated in the galley and thus it had to be both large enough to comfortably fit a hulking Issad, stable enough to balance a Syrinx and rugged enough to survive the humans who had, one more than on occasion, forgotten about the low gravity and sent themselves flying into the ceiling and furniture into the walls.
"News?" Chirde, their lone Syrinx, asked landing on Ted's shoulder before hopping onto the back of an empty chair
"News..." Kragnok sighed wondering how he would tell his team that not only would they not be getting paid but that their pay chits were going to be used to by armour to turn their mission from suicide to extremely dangerous.
"Tom. Get the captain a drink." No sooner had Marius spoke than a beer flew through the air. In one fluid motion Marius caught it, popped the cap, and let it continue its journey to the captain.
"Thanks" Kragnok took a grateful swig. "The good news is that Smythe gave us a job."
"YEAH!" Tom shouted high fiving his brother Ted
"Bad news....We've broke even so there's no pay."
"What?!" Efp, one of two Issad, had to be dragged down by Lum, the other.
"We fight. We kill. We win. We get paid. Simple." Lum growled.
"Yeah what's going on Krag?" Chirde chirped his feathers puffing in surprise and anger.
"The Bird's right. Two system jumps, boom bang done. Another. Boom bang done. And then four jumps back. There's no way we burned through that much fuel and ammo." Tom began
"And the bounty on the pirate scrap cruisers alone should have us up to our dicks in cheap gin." Ted finished
"Why would you want to stick your dick in...?” Tom stared at his brother
"You've been sticking your dick into the booze?" Chirde chimed
"Would you all...just SHUT UP!" Marius roared "How the fuck, is the captain supposed to explain himself if you all keep raving like drunken lunatics?!" The Ai paused glaring at them his eyes glowing red "Thank you!"
Kragnok rubbed his eyes, flakes of dried bone falling from his brow "You're right. You're all right. Our expenses were fuel, ammo, and minor armour repairs. Even if we give the tub all the repairs it needs we'd still be swimming in liquor." Kragnok sighed again "The job Smythe offered...the Black Sun has set up in the Abyss. We need to clear them out."
"What does that have to do with our damn money!?" Ted demanded
"So help me god Ted I will unscrew my hand and glue it over your mouth." Marius growled. That was not an idle threat.
"Our money and some of the savings are going to purchasing new armour for all of us. Military special Inferno Armour."
"Why." Marius asked slowly "None of the habitable, or even human survivable, worlds in the Abyss are that hot."
"Because...according to Smythe...there's a good chance that the Black Sun got their hands on hellfire."
"Oh..." Marius licked his metallic lips, a nervous tic inherited from human soldiers. It was rare for Marius to display any sort of emotion and none of the men aside from Kragnok could ever remember the AI being nervous. "Well..." The AI sighed "I'll need some new ablatives at the very least and preferably some new armour as well."
"What just happened?" Ted whispered to Chirde
"No idea" The Syrinx squawked back
"What happened is..." Marius shook his head "You're all going to stop bitching at the captain and be grateful that between the two of us we can even get Inferno Armour."
"I don't need new armour. Mine is fine." Efp said, curt as ever
"Mine as well." Lum said nodding with Efp
"Then you're both dead. Hellfire will burn you before you have time to scream." Kragnok snapped
"If...” Tom waved the two Issad to silence "If Hellfire is so dangerous then one: why did you take the job. And two: why have I never heard of it?"
"Money is money and Smythe promised eight figures." Kragnok said trying to keep his blood from boiling over
"Bullshit! You've said yourself credits are useless to corpses. So why in gods name would you take a job that has us going broke just too maybe not die?"
"Oh for...Because it's MY LAST DAMN JOB!" Kragnok roared
Silence in the galley. Nobody knew what to say. Or even how to interpret what their captain had said.
"You plan on retiring?" Ted finally asked
"No..." Kragnok groaned "No I..."
"He needs one more contract before becoming eligible to apply to be recognized as a citizen of the United Nations of Earth and Colonies." Marius said saving the captain from his own nerves
"Wait! Shit! That's now?!" Tom blurted out "You stopped talking about it...I...I thought you still had at least a dozen contracts left!"
"No...I uhh..." Kragnok rolled his shoulders nervously "I didn't want to jinx it."
"Seriously boss? You didn't want jinx it?" Chirde asked his trilling laughter breaking the tension.
"I'm just so tired so...god.... I'm so fucking tired. I'm so tired of being second class. Of having people slam doors in my face. Of being locked out of damn near everything. And yeah. Yeah I know that having a piece of paper isn't going to actually change the minds of the people who hate me on principle but...but it will..." Kragnok sighed "It will change what they can do to me. They won't be able to keep me out. They might wish they could but they won't be able to. Once I get my papers it becomes my choice not to go to the places that don't want me. They won't have any power and maybe that doesn't really matter much but...I'm tired of not having a choice."
"Alright. Fair enough. Hellfire. We'll do it." Efp said as the others nodded with him "But..."
"....What is hellfire?" Lum asked finishing Efp's thought.
"Yeah. I've never heard of it." Tom said
"It was only ever used once and nobody talks about it for that reason." Marius said pulling out a data drive from a compartment in his wrist "But you are familiar with the Styx Firestorm?"
"Fuck me. That's hellfire?" Ted asked aghast
"Yep. But nothing you've seen or heard is even close to the truth. Marius and I." Kragnok gestured over to the AI "Were both there."
"Well...I guess that makes this story time doesn't it."
"Fine. But then I need another drink. Let me set the stage." Kragnok cleared his throat washing the bitter taste from his mouth with an even bitterer beer "So you have to understand. Nobody knows about humanity. Nobody. As far as anyone is concerned Nemo and his crew are all escaped members of a slave race that the D'Neth have almost completely exterminated. So nobody payed them any mind. I know I didn't. Humanity almost became a slave race but that's another story. Anyways. The point is that as far as everyone was concerned every major player in the galaxy was accounted for and a known quantity, which suited Humanity just fine. See, Humanity had spent over thirty years building themselves up in secret. All they needed was a reason to make their debut, and the D'Neth-Caralis war gave humanity their reason."
"It was an ineradicable effort to prepare. Ships were rushed along the line, every reservist activated, every last ditch push made to bring every ounce of force to bear." Kragnok smiled "Humanity appeared and every scum sucking sapient in the galaxy shat themselves in unison." Kragnok laughed "I remember! I was drinking in a corner when the news started blaring. Emergency alerts from every screen and every corner. Some strange alien race had appeared, had grabbed the D'Neth by the head and was smashing their ugly faces in. Every Kal-Eth I was working with went purple with terror. It was glorious. I didn't know who humanity was but HAH! I already loved them." Kragnok paused to wipe a tear from his eye.
"You have to understand." He continued "As far as the galaxy at large was concerned this was the end of Caralis independence. They were done. A tributary slave state at best, thrall or breeding worlds at the worst. I can't imagine how many angry gamblers lost fortunes that day. You all know the story of how first contact went between the D'Neth and Humanity. A million man firing squad that turned the D'Neth into a fine mist. There was so much debris from the space battle that even when I got across half the galaxy to join the human offensive it was still raining metal. But see. Now the galaxy is a chaotic mess."
"The D'Neth are scrambling to figure out which fresh plane of hell opened under their collective noses. The Herbivores are in a collective state of 'What the fuck'. The Jithen are 'what the fuck-ing' right with them and the four carnivorous empires are laughing their asses off. So much for the restoration of the D'Neth Star Empire. But now...here's where things get messy."
Kragnok drained the last of his beer and caught a second before borrowing one of Marius' fingers to open it.
"Nemo had used the ever loving shit out of the Caralis. He pretended, for thirteen years, to be nothing more than a survivor of an exterminated slave race with a massive hard on for murdering slavers, pirates, cartellos and anyone else who wound up with a bounty on their head. And he was so damn good at it that the Caralis not only paid him through the nose but they gave him access. They gave him ships, weapons, supplies, experimental technology, access to restricted installations… everything they could because he was a political goldmine. The politicians who got behind the Great Liberator early, and yeah that's what people called him, didn't have to worry about re-election for over a decade. But even later, who would oppose someone who had become the avatar of vengeance for his dead people while simultaneously freeing slaves and stomping pirates."
"Of course, Nemo was turning around and using everything he was given to begin building the god damn human war machine. He, an omnivore, even had meetings and access to the leaders of the Thon, the most powerful faction in the Grand Assembly. The Supreme Patriarch Gelt was on a first name basis with him and everyone who was anyone would have shot their progenitors if it meant a chance for a photo and some rubbed of prestige and moral superiority. And then they find out that he had used them. He had used them so completely that more than a few of them refused to believe it was him; they tried to claim it was a clone or a twin. Their great liberator had conned them. He didn't just build a few ships. No. He built a fleet capable of kicking the D'Neth's teeth in." Kragnok smalled the table for emphasis.
"But the crown." He said suddenly quiet "The cherry on the cake of exploitation was the goddamn Bismarck! He had, in secret, built the largest, most advanced, most heavily armed, most flat out destructive ship in the galaxy. The Bismarck violates every naval treaty but humanity wasn't party to any of them so the Herbs can go blow smoke...and then for good measure he built four more." Kragnok laughed sadistic glee evident as he imagined the expressions of all the people who had found out their favourite tool had used them.
"None of you understand. You don't understand the terror that the Bismarck put into the hearts of the Jithen and every mercenary in the galaxy. Even the ghost of a rumour of the Bismarck was enough to drive every pirate to their holes and if the Bismarck was actually spotted." Kragnok barked a hard laugh "Every pirate, mercenary, and thug picked up sticks and ran. You could fly a freighter made of gold and filled with gold at sublight though a cluster the Bismarck had been spotted in and nobody would have even dare cough on it. But..." Kragnok smiled "It was even worse when nobody had seen the Bismarck. Because then...then it became a game of roulette. Which cluster? Which system? Which pirate band is going to take the brunt of its wrath? So what did the mercs do? They tripled their prices or holed up and waited for something to see something. Because let's face it the people who hire private mercs do it for a reason and what if...what if that person is something tied or worse a front for the Jithen or D'Neth. Yeah...if nobody had seen the Bismarck...it wasn't worth the risk of having fifty million tonnes of steel come down like the fist of god."
"We remember." Efp and Lum said nodding "We had crested and almost plated. We used to dream of that ship. Of the adventures. It's why we work in human space. Maybe we'll see it for ourselves. And then we will tell the ancestors of what a metal god looks like."
"Yeah. You and every other sapient. So anyways the point is the galaxy politely called a mess and humanity is in the middle. The Four think this is the best thing to happen since they discovered that they could use fire to roast meat. The Herbivores are screaming at each other with some wanting to punish humanity and others wanting to immediately induct them into the Grand Assembly so they can keep bringing the pain to pirates. Some want to kiss Nemo and some want his head on a pike. The Jithen have a massive grudge and are armed to the tits because they were expecting to go to war with the D'Neth once the conquest of the Caralis had ended which is all of a sudden looking dicey because now Humanity is at war with the D'Neth. Fun for everyone." He chuckled, twice.
Kragnok smiled, becoming almost reverent. "That's when I showed up. Ship scraps raining on the Caralis home world, the galaxy in chaos, no idea what to expect from Humanity other than that you were small strong angry bastards with massive egos and endurance. Then I met Sargent Mackivoy and that's when I really fell in love with the ideas of humanity. See..." Tears began to form in the corner of Kragnok's eyes "My people are referred to as the Fifth or...filth if you really want to put a fine point on it. We're not strong enough or powerful enough for the Four to risk adding us to their coalition and not worth sponsoring so we're not officially part of the Grand Assembly. We have observer status but...it's so limited that it hardly matters. And as I've said. We're treated like shit and that was the beautiful thing. For the first time in my life everyone, from Herbivores to Omnivores to Carnivores like me..."
Kragnok smiled "Mackivoy treated us all like shit. And when I proved I was better than shit he treated me like dirt. When I proved I wasn't dirt he treated me like an idiot. When I proved I wasn't an idiot he treated me like a man. And when I proved I was a man he turned me into a soldier. And when I proved I could stand being a soldier he treated me like an equal...That first time..."
Kragnok coughed and his men did him the courtesy of not noticing his few falling tears "Yeah..." Kragnok spoke, his voice still hoarse "that's when I decided I'd do whatever it took to get citizenship."
"Are any of your people Citizens?" Tom asked quietly
"Yeah. One guy. Humans call him Ed. He's a citizen of Norway of all things. Last I heard he's a professor now.... What was I saying...yeah." Kragnok coughed again grabbing another drink "Once I made it through training and the human military was convinced I wouldn't get their people killed they sent me off to fight. The D'Neth were stubborn but they were outclassed by the sheer variety arrayed against them; Issad berserkers, Fifth soldiers dual wielding grenade launchers in our lower arms and blasting with a shotgun from our upper pair, Skrilat war packs high, drunk, and completely mad...The Steel Legion wasn't a thing yet."
"We were." Marius corrected
"You were?!"
"Yes. We were being held in reserve, a final ace in the hole."
"Ah." Kragnok nodded "Smart move."
"It was." Marius agreed
"Why?" Efp asked
"Because the Jithen." Kragnok drank again, the bottles slowly starting to accumulate. "The D'Neth were in full retreat abandoning Caralis worlds leaving only the most fanatical volunteers behind to slow the Human advance. Their plan was to fortify their own worlds and bleed the humans world by world until they could launch a counter attack and reclaim all that was lost and then some. Now the Jithen had a choice. Join Humanity which would have utterly ruined the D'Neth and allowed the Jithen to claim the legacy of the Star Empire which they also claim as their birthright or... Fight humanity which would probably save the D'Neth but also prevent the Jithen from destroying them. In the end they went to war with Humanity. They decided it was better to destroy the newcomer who was demonstrably hostile to them and worry about their weakened nemesis later. They never helped the D'Neth directly but there's no denying that humanity was now in an uncomfortable position."
"They were fighting a war on two fronts while funnelling aid to the Caralis and having to remain acutely aware of the instability back home. On top of all that they had to worry about what kind of stance the rest of the galaxy would take via their existence and deception. And thus Operation Charon was authorized. The main focus would remain against the D'Neth and driving them back to their pre-war borders while the three titans, which were mostly complete, would launch with support ships to begin interdiction along the Jithen border. Fast strikes over the border destroying orbital infrastructure and targets of opportunity and then retreating before the Jithen could organize a response that would threaten a titan since losing one would cost not only thousands of lives but also decades of work. In order to facilitate this, the Steel Legion was deployed and that's where I met Marius." He rapped the AI on the chest "Fast forward a couple months and Operation Charon was receiving more and more support and the cat and mouse raids were become more and more honest skirmishes but..."
"Humanity was over-leveraged and overextended even when the war began." Kragnok said shaking his head. "They were counting on a blitzkrieg to solidify their place in the galaxy and with a second front opening; a quick victory by conventional means was no longer an option. Unwilling to risk social collapse by enacting rationing, conscription, effective forced labour and everything else needed for a wartime economy Human Command elected to end the war as quickly as possible to both save lives in the long run and prevent a complete collapse of both Humanity and the Caralis. I don't envy the people who made that call."
Kragnok stared at the table voice becoming strangely flat "Operation Styx began on May Seventeenth Twenty Sixty. Strike teams were deployed to the Jithen Colony of Jretiin population of sixteen million. Our objective was to destroy the colony's ground to space cannons. On May Twenty Second we confirmed the destruction of all weapons capable of interdicting incoming spacecraft. Later that day we were ordered to begin clearing areas outside urban centers for ground forces. It was a ruse to make the Jithen believe that we were planning an assault on the planet. Assaults, even if the enemy has complete superiority, are slow. Ruined worlds aren't worth anything and bombing cities to dust provokes retaliation so most worlds are captured in the conventional way: boots on the ground. Since the attacks are slow the defender has time and it's worth taking that time given how costly space battles are. So the Jithen counted on having weeks if not months to assemble all their forces to drive back our ships at which point they could leave our armies to wither on the vine and ultimately surrender. Sixteen million people are simultaneously a lot when you think of individuals but no species will surrender over the fate of sixteen million people, not when entire worlds are on the line. The Five Kings and the Titans with a whole host of support ships, all the signs of a proper invasion. Then..." Kragnok swallowed hard "Then they took up...position above the planet...and...Pass the bile" He finally croaked
The black bile more like rubbing alcohol than vodka but it cured taught nerves and loosened lips.
Kragnok coughed, hard, until the lump in his throat melted away "They took up position and started dropping canisters. Every ship in the fleet dropping canisters. Each canister coated with fluorines and filled with four hundred kilos of hellfire. Soon as the first wave of canisters fell the rest of the human fleet arrived and joined in. A wall of fire. From the north pole...to the south. And as the planet turned...the ships stayed in position raining canisters as the world turned below them." Kragnok drank again, beer this time, his voice losing all inflection "Every second...every moment...the world itself brought us closer to the wall of hellfire and anything that passed through it...burned. The Jithen panicked. Of course they did. Their world was literally turning, into a wall of fire. I don't...I can't imagine what it sounded like to the Jithen Commanders. It wasn't an invasion. It was a cleansing. Suddenly their timeline had gone from a month to less than a day. The shuttles came. For us. Not for the civilians. They would burn. Then the Jithen charged in, piecemeal...full of righteous fury and desperation. They saw Jretiin burning but...piecemeal all they could do was throw their lives away which...to their credit. they did...for all the nothing it accomplished" He added bitterly before trailing off.
"Hellfire isn't napalm." He continued quietly "You don't scream in agony or anything like that. When it burns it releases a poisonous cloud and...Even if the poison doesn't get you the fire kills you in seconds. It burns everything. Ever seen water burn? I have. It was quick but...I wonder how many civilians died in terror...stupid thing to wonder I guess. All of them died in terror. We knew what was happening but we could ignore it at first. Ignore everything that wasn't the countdown to evacuation. But when both horizons start turning orange you can't pretend...."
"Two hours before evac hit zero the Jithen main fleet arrived. They weren't fighting to save the planet. It was already three quarters to gone. There were in it for revenge...and maybe to save a sliver of it. Just for the sake of pride. We got the call...too many fighters to land shuttles. What do we do we asked...Run. Run and we'll pick you up later they said. Run from a wall of death. So we ran. It was alright when the terrain was rough, our trucks could handle it and looking forward we could pretend the orange was the sun. Then we hit the flatlands and...It was a wall of fire. I know I'm saying that over and over but there's no other way to describe it. A wall of fire twenty meters high as far as you could see. If you looked to your left. Fire. On our right? Fire.... When it overtook a small town...the buildings melting as they burned. They didn’t collapse they just…melted apart. It was like a bad...very bad dream. Where the rules don't apply but you know that if something happens you’ll die in the real world. In the skies we could see some of the fighters, their pilots intercepting the canisters with their craft...I still wonder if they knew. If they knew that the canisters were painted with fluorines designed to burn through Jithen hulls. Did they know it was suicide? Did they hear their comrades screaming as their bodies burned in the void and do it anyway? I've never had a chance to ask."
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Continues in the comments