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PtV - Backstory 1 - Chapter 1

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Cza'o's Path: Captain's log of the "Red Raven"

Side notes:
- Cza'o is spoken Djaoh
- Cycles are days...but since in space there is now day and night, there is only passing of time.

Chapter 1 – Observations and Flashbacks

It was dark on the bridge. Only a few passive sensors and essential systems were still online and emitted an eerie glow on the faces of their operators. The captain sat in the middle of the oval room, facing the slanted window in the front part. He sat there, leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands folded and his chin on his thumbs. Only 2 other people were on the bridge with the captain, both of them totally quiet. The sensor operator was completely concentrated on his task, but the helmsman was fast asleep, breathing silently. I can't blame him, it IS boring to just watch... the captain thought.

They were on a reconnaissance mission for over 10 cycles now and they still had another 20 to go. The whole ship was powered down to a minimum to give their target no more sensor echo than an average metal asteroid. The only thing those "Keepers" keep is us awake and alert...the captain thought and smiled grimly. The mission was to monitor the actions of a small Keeper fleet that had penetrated the holy Nebula a few weeks ago. Just as many times before, the fleet of older ships sent to drive these wretched mechanical beings out of the nebula was defeated without the Keepers loosing more than a few of their combat drones and frigate-sized autonomic combat ships. Now the crew of the Hybrid Frigate S-72575, or how the crew called it, the "Red Raven", had to watch what was left of that fleet and the charred remains of their brothers and sisters.

The fleet that was sent to battle the Keepers consisted of one first generation's Avatars, 5 Multibeam Frigates, 2 Podships and a great number of Swarmers. The original attack fleet of the Keepers had already moved out again before the "Red Raven" got there, now there were only 3 ships left. The captain knew the records, these ships were able to think and like humanoids and called themselves "Keepers". He had heard their voices long ago, their cold, heartless and faithless computer-generated voices. They were said to command all smaller ships around them and he had seen them do so, but to see 3 of them working together in perfect unison was enough out of the ordinary to satisfy the need of the mission.

They were building something. It became obvious just a cycle after the "Red Raven"'s arrival, because in the hours after it, the Keepers were literally "eating" anything up, from ship wrecks to mere asteroids. They worked like the machines they were, taking everything in with their maws and cutting anything too big to pieces with surgical precision. After they had taken in a certain amount, they moved to the large scaffolding and "threw up" finished parts that were moved and pieced together by some support drones. At first, the scaffolding was just a huge partial ring that was finished within the first cycle, after that they were adding pieces to it that made it look like a tunnel, a comically short tunnel in relation to its width. Over the last 2 cycles, the "Ring" had been finished and the Keepers had begun to build a structure right next to it, according to the sensors linked to the "Ring" by a few forcefields.

The "Ring" was huge. Its diameter was greater than 10 lengths of the "Red Raven". The moment he had seen the complete ring, Captain Cza'o had had a terrible suspicion about it's purpose that became more and more concrete the longer the Keepers built and a few hours ago he had ordered his engineers to analyze the sensor data they had gathered so far. He hoped that it wasn't true, but he knew better. Life never dispersed bad feelings, it only made them come true...or  worse. And this was one of the worst suspicions he ever had. If they really build a Hypergate here, then the nebula will never be safe again. Cza'o thought. He couldn't really blame them, they only did what they were programmed to do, but they were endangering his home. The more religious people of the nebula would claim that these "mechanical monsters" were "defiling the gardens and must be dealt with no matter what", but he would just shake his head at those religious exclamations.

His "Cult" had split completely from the rest of the Kadeshi after the first Keeper war. To many, the first incursions of the Keeper fleets seemed like some kind of godly rage or divine punishment, because their ships and drones tore through the hallowed Needleships and clouds of Swarmers like a mining laser though lead. They weren't hostile at first, they even were welcomed to the nebula with the offer as anyone else: Join the Kadeshi or be destroyed. They didn't answer, and after it was discovered that they were nothing more than AI-controlled ships, a great debate broke out: Are these "Beings" able to worship Kadesh, the great Deity of the Nebula, or should they even be allowed to exist? But after the Keepers began answering the Kadeshi's calls and exclaimed their intentions, a short but bloody war broke out. They had come to raze the nebula and the whole galaxy of all humanoid lifeforms for some race's crime of abducting and corrupting one of their leaders, Sajuuk. Lucky for the Kadeshi, their sensors weren't working well within the clouds of the nebula and many survivors of that war were able to hide deeper in the nebula.

The war only ended because the Keepers thought that they had gotten them all, but on the contrary, the survivors, more than 85% of the population, were still alive and hidden deep within the clouds. Some thought that to be proof of their Deity's power and they worshiped Kadesh even more. Some saw that it was the "Garden" that protected them and chose to safeguard and expand it. And then there was the "Cult".

In the beginning, the "Cult" only consisted of the few people that had survived the first and most vicious attacks the Keepers launched 35 years ago. Numerous Needles and Cloud Cities fell to their onslaught and those who made it out alive swore to avenge their fallen families. They took the fight to the Keepers and they managed to win a few battles, even pushing back some of the Keeper's reoccurring patrols of the area around the nebula, but they were beaten most of the time. One day, there was only one badly damaged Needle left of the "Cult"'s fleet. They had destroyed every single ship the Keepers had thrown at them, but it seemed as if the Keepers had still won. It was then that the "Cult" was reborn as the "Cult of Sajuuk", even if they didn't call it that back then. Their last ship was damaged almost beyond repair and they were looking in the face of their demise.

But even in a group of religious, revenge-driven nutcases, there are some smart scientists and engineers. With nothing left to lose, they went out to all the wreckages of friend and foe alike and collected any piece of still working technology. They analyzed it, re-engineered everything they didn't know or couldn't build and used the time of their forced exile to study the workings of the Keepers in order to battle them more efficiently if they should ever return. During their studies, they found that some of the technology of the Keepers was similar to the "Blessings of Kadesh" they used to wield and use before and they began to question their faith. After almost 5 years, they reemerged from their exile on the long forgotten battlefield and rejoined the Kadeshi within the nebula, calling themselves the "Cult of Sajuuk" or the "Sajuuk'kar", Children of Sajuuk.

Cast out of the Kadeshi faith by the High Priests of Kadesh for the loss of it, the Sajuuk'kar continued to prosper in a far-out part of the nebula, fighting off any Keeper patrol that came their way. Having trouble with the regular reappearing of the Keepers all by themselves, the Priests of Kadesh grudgingly had to call the Sajuuk'kar for help. They accepted without holding a grudge themselves, and as the followers of Kadesh saw, how powerful their "Blessings of Sajuuk, The machine God" were, they lost many people to the new choice of faith until the Sajuuk'kar had grown to almost a quarter of the nebula's population. By that time, the High Priests of Kadesh knew that they no longer were the unquestioned leaders of the Kadeshi and they had to accept the Sajuuk'kar as a path of belief aside their own. Encouraged by that, the movement of the "Gardeners" also claimed their own way of faith and numbering about 30% of the population, they were acknowledged as the third path of the Kadeshi only a year afterwards.

From then on, the Kadeshi were split in 3 main factions that still continued to work together when they met. It stayed that way, until recently the Keepers came back in force. As they had done 33 years ago, they waged war on the nebula, but this time they were met by the strongest war fleets the Kadeshi ever had. And they were beaten back. But they returned, stronger than before as well. This time, they brought some things they called "Harbingers", city-sized ships with the firepower of a sun. All differences were forgotten the instant they tore through the fleet of the newly commissioned battleships named "Avatars". Nowadays, many of the hallowed Needleships were traveling the void of space in search for raw materials to rebuild their home and to build combat ships to fight the Keepers and to find and destroy the race that had caused the Keeper's desire to destroy every living humanoid.

Behind Captain Cza'o the door to the bridge opened with a swishing noise and closed again after someone came through. Cza'o heard that person come up and stand right beside him. But he didn't say anything for a minute.

"Report!" he said in a casual tone.

"Your suspicion was right, it's a Hypergate..." his trusted first lieutenant said, "...the readings indicate that it's able to call far-off forces through hyperspace and bring them here faster than any hyperdrive we've ever seen."

Cza'o leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh. "This is going to get really messy if we let them finish it.... Is the messenger still aboard?"

"Yes, he is scheduled to stay for another cycle and then move to the next watch post."

"Cancel that, give him all the information and data we gathered and send him to the command ship, we need to prepare for a strike to destroy this thing BEFORE it's finished... And it seems as if we haven't got more than 3 cycles. Is he still flying that Electronics Pod?"

"Yes."

"Good. Get him going, we need the fleet here in 60 hours at the latest...no, make that 48."

"Right away, sir." the lieutenant said, saluted and left, the door swishing shut after him.

And even that might be too late...let's hope they know what's at stake here... Cza'o thought continued to watch that one Keeper cutting apart the wreck of the Avatar far outside the window.
This is the first Chapter of a backstory I wrote for the mod Path to Victory I helped making. Here's the link to it: [link]

It follows the captain of the Kadeshi Hybrid Frigate S-72575, named "Red Raven".

Let me know if like it. If you don't, well, then STFU and GTFO! ;)

Nah, just joking, hit me, I'm open for constructive criticism.
© 2011 - 2024 Ryuseimaru
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