Chapter 3: Flawed
"About 9 years ago, Earth saw its last days! Everything we had was taken from us! Family! Memories! Our lives! Our countries! Our soil! Taken from us! So I stand before you today and I ask you...Soldier, who is our enemy?!"
"The Vashki, Sir!"
"The Vashki are our enemy?"
"Sir! Yes Sir!"
"Damn right they are!"
K rolled his neck, releasing the tension that sat heavy beneath his bones,
"You good there buddy?"
A lady in her mid 20s or so, fiery red hair braided and tied in a tight bun, nudged at him. He knew her, but he just couldn’t remember who she was,
"Who are you?"
"Finch"
K’s eyebrows pulled together, "that’s the lieutenant, you’re not Finch"
The lady chuckled and patted his back, "it’s good to know you didn’t completely fry your brain, it’s me Lex, L-0-0-3"
"Hmm"
K had felt funny all day, ever since he left the cryotube, his memories were funky.
"Do you happen to have footage of yesterday’s battle on the outer districts of Meredith?"
"Yeah about that, the footages were deleted and the battle happened a week ago"
"Deleted? Why? What do you mean a week ago?"
K gripped the Matyr’s hand, his voice dropping several octaves. The woman shot him a look,
"Well. One, the Admiral would rather have a stake shoved up his ass than show the public footage of their "greatest war asset" getting beaten up by a Vashki and struggling. Two, you took out your pellet without authorization, do you know what that could get you? Three! You advanced against an enemy, defying direct orders from Control to fall back! Oh K, I can go on, for this list of mine goes on AND on!" Lex rambled, her voice in a hushed tone to avoid the other soldiers hearing them.
K nodded absentmindedly, his eyes trailing back up to meet the lieutenant’s
"Thira sure fixed you up real good, you were all broken bones and blood...ugh"
"Hmm"
"Gosh you’re less fun when you have your pellet back in...don’t take it out again!
"Did we win?"
"What?"
"The war"
"Yeah, you beat those Vashki to shit, they beat the shit out of you too but yours matters"
"Hmm"
"Fuck this, I’d rather talk to a brick wall"
Lex huffed and marched away.
Why was she so grumpy?
"That’s it! Back to positions!"
"Sir! Yes Sir!"
The sea of men quickly dispersed. K waited til the ball emptied out before marching up to the Lieutenant.
"Lieutenant Finch" he saluted.
Finch glanced at him before going back to inspecting his rifle,
"Don’t you dare salute me, a soldier who can’t follow orders is no soldier of mine" he spat.
"I need to know what happened a week ago"
"You want to know what happened?" Finch tossed the rifle, facing K,
"You, took out your pe—"
"—yes, I took out my pellet without authorization, defied control’s commands. What else happened lieutenant?"
The lieutenant scoffed and tsked before walking off,
"That fucking worm must be feeding you brain mush gas!" He yelled over his shoulder.
Thira.
The Vashki was busy operating on a body when K walked in,
"K, you’re here! Come see, I’ve made progress"
"You watched me fight those Vashkis, right?"
"K..."
"Yes or no?"
"You know the Admiral doesn’t let me do things without his authorization, I couldn’t watch it"
K slammed the table, sending the body a few feet up before it flopped back.
"What’s wrong?"
"Something’s wrong...my memory is all messy, I can barely remember anything from that fight"
"You were in a cryotube for a week, things like these are bound to happen"
"..."
"Relax, your memories will come back to you so enough"
Thira led K to a chair,
"Shall I comfort you?"
"No"
"Okay"
The two sat in silence, K staring blankly into the wall and Thira stroking his back,
"I came to this place because I was casted away from my own, K, we are one and the same"
"..."
"From your wounds, you probably fought a U’Kan"
"...oh"
"U’Kan are t—"
"I know who the U’Kan are"
"Yes"
"What happened the night you found me?"
Thira shifted uncomfortably, "that is a memory I wish to keep away."
"Thira..."
"No, K...you need to go" the Vashki stood up, the ring on its ankle shook and dimmed as it passed around.
K huffed and headed towards the door, armored boots thudding with each step he took. The doors chimed as it confirmed his identity and opened up revealing a face he mostly saw on a holoscreen.
"Admiral Bak" K saluted and stepped aside,
"Get out, I want to have a word with your ’mommy’"
K nodded and left the lab.
Once he was out of earshot, the admiral nodded at one of his guards,
"Have Lex follow him and stand outside"
"Yes Sir"
The doors sealed shut, leaving him and Thira. The Vashki looked tense, hands gripped tightly and feet planted like he could bolt anytime,
"Vae’Thira"
"Do not speak my name if you cannot pronounce it properly"
"What have I said about speaking that damn language to me?"
The admiral advanced, standing about a frightening height of 6’11, he towered the Vashki,
"I had you learn our language, yet you still speak that foul tongue, even to K? Tell me Thira, are you loyal to us or to those who made you an outcast?"
"...I am loyal to Meredith"
"That’s the spirit!"
The Vashki stepped back a bit, out of all the humans it had encountered, this man was the scariest of them all. Eyes so dark, they seemed to house a black hole and lips so sharp the words they spouted cut through skin.
"You’ve proclaimed your loyalty, Thira, it’s time for you to show me. Where do you come from?"
"...uh?"
"Where do the Vashki come from?"
"I come from Cilsto, my planet harbors a dying species of Vashki called ’Miwa’, we can mimic other life forms and are born androgynous, we evolved to be that due to our forced near-extinction. We are the bottom of the Vashki food chain, we—"
"Thira," the admiral clicked his tongue, "that’s not what I asked you"
"I have more to say but I won’t say it until you accept my offer...admiral, I’m nearly the last of my kind, I don’t want to die and watch our generations’ hard work go down the drain. Please..."
Thira pleaded, his porcelain like knees met the floor as he bowed, baring his neck as a Vashki surrendering itself would do.
He had done that the same day they had been rescued off that ship.
"I’ll rather slit my own throat than fuck one of the bastards that killed my family, I don’t give a flying fuck if your species go extinct. That’s one Vashki lineage off my board! Listen to me Thira, you will tell me where your solar system is. I don’t mind killing you for it"
"You can’t kill me"
"What was that?"
"You can’t kill me"
"Is that right?"
"I built every technology your soldiers wield! I built you the Matyrs that defend this planet, if you kill me. Everything will crumble to pieces"
Bak chuckled and reached for his rifle.
Before Thira could register what was happening, silver-white blood poured down his face. The center of his head burned.
———•———•———•————
Somewhere in the solar system—Qashka—Vashki Planet—The right hand of Shira.
A soft chorus filled the hall as a Vashki walked down a hall, multiple rings that sat around its neck hummed in unison with the song in the air singing praises to their King and the gods that brought him to throne. The hall widened into a throne room.
The throne room stretched endlessly into darkness.
Pale light bled through fractures in the towering white walls while enormous black rings rotated silently high above the chamber, humming with deep harmonic resonance that same tune.
The walls curved like polished bone layered over living machinery, veined with silver light that pulsed slowly beneath the surface like breathing nerves.
At the center of the chamber hovered the throne.
Massive and ancient.
Formed from black metallic material so dark it swallowed the surrounding light entirely.
Thin strands of luminous energy extended from its base into the floor beneath it, spreading through the chamber like the roots of some cosmic organism.
And seated upon it—was something that made every Vashki kneel.
"First Lord Adon, your humble servant asks that you see him"
The Vashki on the throne, glanced down at the servant. The rings upon its fingers, neck and feet glowed and trembled, it stretched out a long arm,
"Tuk’Aon sees you"
"This servant thanks the First Lord, I have come with news, Ira’Oka of the nation, Kun, has arrived from the attack on the humans of planet Meredith"
"Bring him to me"
"H-he’s wounded...bad shape"
"Bring him to me"
"Y-yes, as the First Lord commands"
The servant crouched down, pressing its palms into the glowing pulsing light,
"Bring Lord Ira, the First Lord commands it"
The floors shook and wailed, the lights pulsed faster and the a space in the air split open and a wounded Vashki stumbled out.
"Lord Tuk’Aon" it fell to its knees, bowing to the figure on the throne
"Tuk’Aon sees you, Ira’Oka"
"My Lord"
"Tell me, about the demon child, tell me"
"Ignorant, crude, impulsive and pride rides him like a fool, the whore who escaped with him needs to teach him better!"
"You say that but you’re the one with a hole sitting in your belly and finding it hard to regenerate"
"...he is strong"
"And how is the kept one?"
"I could not make contact with him, it seems the humans have him hidden"
"Hm, leave him be"
"Yes my Lord"
"Go, rest and tend to your wounds"
Ira’Oka bowed and stepped into the rift from before.
"You" Adon pointed to the servant, "call on the order, we must pay a visit to the demon child soon"
———•———•———•———
Planet Meredith—Clarity—Command Base
"For how long do you intend to follow me?"
K groaned as he bent a corner, trying to shake off a redhead that won’t stop following him around,
"I’m on my day off today so I have all day" Lex chirped in her usual ’happy-fuck-others’ tone and that ticked K off. A lot.
"Where are you going anyways? We’ve been turning around the same corridor for like what two minutes now"
"..."
"...wait, you’re not trying to lose me, are you?"
K shook his head, making a sound as he bent another corridor,
"Okay so where are you going?"
"Just go do whatever you were doing before you saw me and decided to follow me"
Lex groaned and tugged him, the sheer strength took K by surprise as he nearly tipped over. Of course, she is a Matyr. She’s strong.
"Just tell me!"
"...Surveillance"
"Why?"
K looked around and dragged her further away from the people roaming the corridors,
"The battle from last week, I need to see it"
"Why?"
His eye twitched, "I just need to"
"Yeah, no can’t do. Besides Matyrs aren’t given access to surveillance without an issue card"
K glanced behind her then back at her, "you want to follow me around so bad?"
"No actually..."
"You’ll help me get an issue card"
"Nuh uh"
"What do you mean ’nuh uh’?"
"I don’t know. I mean I’m not going to help a Matyr who went berserk rogue batshit out there on the battlefield!"
"Look, I don’t know"
"Don’t know what?"
"I don’t know why I took out my pellet! I can’t remember why! I can’t remember anything from after I took it out...I can remember the day before but nothing after"
"That’s impossible"
"There’s this gap...in my memory, I don’t know why?"
"..."
"L-0-0-3, did you see the footage from the battle of last week?"
"I didn’t...I swear, I don’t know why but there were orders for media control"
K ran his hands through his hair, "why?" He pulled Lex closer, his mouth to her ear, "I need that card."
Lex swallowed.
She needed to report back to Admiral Bak,
K-0-0-1 seems to be compromised!
