The moment our boots hit the soil of Halvodon, I could feel the tension in the air, thick and choking, like a storm about to break.
The year after basic training ended had been pretty slow, at least by my standards. Most of my time had been spent in supplementary training, doing formations, or sleeping in the barracks. I kept apart from most of the others. I wasn’t here to make friends.
We started being deployed on campaigns to the various worlds to put them under The All Fathers thumb. Being a soldier of the Black Palace Military was a lot like being in a gang, except we only got in trouble if we disobeyed orders. Halvodon was my first campaign, and it was one to remember.
My platoon was selected to accompany a group of Fargulkians to the planet. All the talk about Halvodon indicated it would be an easy campaign. We would land, the Fargulkians would intimidate the Havodi into accepting terms, and we would be decorations standing in the background.
It didn’t go that way at all.
As we approached the surface, the air crackled with an energy that set my nerves on edge. The doors were open before we hit the ground, and we streamed out of the carrier and spread out in formation with our rifles at the ready. We were greeted by a contingent of Halvodi dressed in mismatched armor and holding laughable weapons. We might as well have been facing a group of farmers with pitchforks.
The Fargulkians took their time coming out of their own carrier, waiting until we were in position and sufficiently intimidating before they added to the effect. My squad was on the right flank, giving me a perfect view of both sides as they came together, but too far away to hear anything.
It didn’t matter. Most of the planets had bowed to The All Father without incident. We didn’t expect Halvodon to be any different. They didn’t have a military, they barely even had weapons. The pitiful assemblage they had gathered was all for show. Something to give the appearance of them having a leg to stand on during the negotiation of terms. They’d go back and forth for a while while we sweated it out in the sun, and then the representatives would go talk about the details of the terms while we ran patrols through the city. In a few days, we’d get back on the ship and head home.
That’s what I thought anyway. I was scanning the crowd, looking for anyone who might look like trouble, and saw the stern faces of the people assembled. The feeling I got from them was as hard as the stones around us. Something was wrong, I could feel it.
Raised voices from the Fargulkians brought my attention back to the center of the crowd. The lead Fargulkian, a Commander whose name I never bothered to learn, was jabbing his finger at the Halvodi leader. The man shook his head and said something that must have pissed the Commander off something fierce, because he drew his weapon and pointed at the other man, barking something harsh and guttural.
The man shook his head again and the Commander shot him in the face. Then, chaos erupted.
To be continued…
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