Ushra’khan Stories

‘Sorry Voushod, we had to replace that hip of yours, if you ever wanted to walk again.’ Sarkos noded, ‘I guess in time all things must change Doc.’ Sarkos looked around and noted that the lights were back on, he felt fresh air blowing gently on him from the air vent. Just then the door hissed open and in walked a cleaned up Eddie Gordo and the rest of the council. Eddie pointed to the doctor and the guards, ‘Please leave us alone for a moment.’ The others left and the door hissed closed. 

‘It’s good to see you’re going to be ok’, Eddie said as he sat gently on the edge of the bed. Looking around at the others, he continued. ‘We, the council need to talk, now.’ Sarkos looked around and biting his lip asked ‘How bad Eddie? How many did we lose?’ 

Eddie Gordo stood and began a slow pace about the room. ‘385 dead, 1127 injured. Kiongozi and Makkar were both shot in the head. They are alive, but the doctors can’t say when, or even if they will snap out of it. The fleet has the station stabilized and repairs are in full swing. As soon as your doctor gives the ok, there will be some fleet internal security people in here to ask your version of what happened.’ 

Sarkos winced at the number of dead and injured. ‘How long have I been out?’ ‘It’s now about 20 hours since the first explosion Sark’ Mah replied. Shaking his head Sarkos looked up to Eddie, ‘Ok, what next Eddie?’ Again Eddie sat on the edge of the bed. ‘Voushod, without Kiongozi to guide us, we need your leadership. At least until the council can meet to officially choose a new leader according to our laws. Due to the emergency of this situation, we have voted to place the leadership of Masuat’aa Matari in your hands, for now.’ 

Stunned, Sarkos could only blurt out a ‘But….’ This was cut short by Eddie. ‘You don’t get to vote on this one. You are the only one left with any qualifications as a corporate leader. If you want, start training someone to replace you.’ Sarkos nodded, ‘It’s not that I don’t want it Eddie. However this is not Oracle. My personal philosophies may interfere with normal operations.’ ‘Well Voushod, you have no choice, for now’, Eddie grinned. 

‘What of Doctor Lokree’, asked Sarkos. ‘We found nothing in his personal stuff, though his weapon did give us a clue. It was an old laser pistol, one made for the Nefanter by the Amarr Empire. We have people checking into more possibilities.’ 

Several hours later, propped in his bed, camera on, Sarkos addressed the gathering of warriors watching in the Great Hall. ‘….emergency. Due to the nature of this emergency, I, Voushod Sarkos of the Oracle Tribe, as sanctioned by the Council of Masuat’aa Matari, do hereby assume leadership. I shall remain in charge until a more permanent solution can be voted on by the Council. Fly safe, fly free my brothers and sisters. Sarkos out.’ 

(The End)

Sarkos headed towards the medical bay, nursing his burned left hand. Wiping the sweat from his eyes as he walked, he swore at himself for grabbing that broken wire. Sure the others there working in the low gravity of engineering called it an accident, but he felt stupid at it happening. ‘Look Sark, we have it under control, just get something for that hand’ Etumretniw had said. Padaxes, Xerxes X and Tar Kovisky had all nodded agreement, so here he was on the way to medical.

In the medical bay, a figure stood over the now concious figure of Voushod Kiongozi. Doctor Lokree stood, laser pistol in hand. “Kion, you are about to make me a very wealthy man. With the drugs in you,I know there is nothing you can do to stop me, so….. any last words?’ Kiongozi struggled against the drugs that were forcing him back into sleep,his blind eyes open through sheer force of will. ‘Do with me what you want FILTH, my death will not stop anything’ he spat out.

Lokree chuckled to himself as he glanced around the room. ‘I wonder if these others felt the same way Kion, some died screaming.’ ‘You know, had that delivery boy not stopped to speak to everyone, I would not have to be here now. The bomb would have done it’s job. Had your crew not tried to open a case of my other “gifts”, I would have had plenty of time to escape. Oh well, prepare to die.’ With a smile on his face, Lokree leveled the gun at Kiongozi’s head.

With a hiss, the door to medical opened as Sarkos walked in. With uncanny speed, the doctor spun around and pointed the pistol directly at Sarkos’s head. ‘Oh look’ grinned Lokree, ‘two for one.’ Sarkos glanced around, seeing the carnage of death in the medical bay, and realized he was about to join it.

‘FIRE’ came the order as the three Tempest class battleships unloaded a volley at the designated spot on the station hull. An instant later hull armor vaporized in a blinding explosion. A hole appeared, then a pillar of flame jetted out. ‘Nice work people, target the next coordinates’.

As the station shook, the doctors shot went wild, scorching the wall behind Sarkos. Jumping in and grabbing the doctors gun arm, Sarkos attempted to disarm the madman. With a savage kick, the doctor planted his right foot into the bad hip of Sarkos. Pain exploded in his head as bones shattered. Falling to the floor, all Sarkos could do is scream.

‘It’s nice knowing all the medical problems of everyone’ Doctor Lokree spoke as he turned back to Kiongozi. Leveling his pistol without hesitation, he pulled the trigger. The station shook again as two shots rang out. The first, a 12mm slug from Sarkos’s pistol caught the doctor in the arm. The second, a laser blast struck Kiongozi in the head, but not where it was supposed to.

Sprawled on the floor, recovering from the recoil, Sarkos saw the booted leg step over him. As the impact from the slug spun Lokree around, the last thing he saw was Cairhein, mid swing with his Khumaak. The Khumaak struck home, right at the temple. The spikes entered and bone shattered from the force. Death was instantanious.

‘This is Cairhein. Get emergency medical people to the medical bay FAST!’ Fastening the mic from the portable comm the Republic fleet had handed out, Cairhein then proceeded to help his old friend. ‘I’ve told you Sark, I’m always where you least expect.’

(Epilogue to follow)

With the first *CLICK*, four heads turned as one to see the wheel moving by itself. ‘RUN!’ By the second one, all were mid run, headed back to the safty of the magnetic bubble. At the *GREEN LIGHT*, the massive doors hissed, then began to open.

Looking up at the yell to run, BH came to the sudden, and very shocking realization that he was holding the end of Hippey’s tether rope. ‘FREK!’ Bad Harlequen jumped up as the light went green. ‘GRAB ALL THE TETHER ROPES’ he shouted, as he wrapped his rope about himself and braced. All across the hanger floor, people looked in bewilderment at the shouted order, fatigue dulling most sences.

The first to react was Ipcress, grabbing the cut rope of Red 6. Derran next moved to grab the rope belonging to Sykosys, also cut. Leaping from a higher area, Crusa landed with an ‘OOOF!’, stretching his hands out, he just managed to grab the last rope, that belonging to Caldicott as the four Brutor stopped running and began being drawn out the hanger door.’NEED HELP HERE!’ shouted Crusa as he started to skid across the floor. Balsak reached down, his large Brutor form overshadowing Crusa. His left hand braced Crusa’s shoulder and stopped the slide, with his right hand, he grabbed the rope beyond where Crusa had grabbed. ‘Got ya friend’ was his only responce.

As Hippey, Red 6, Sykosys and Caldicott were quickly pulled from the cold vacuum, with all present now responding, all eyes looked through the hanger door. There, floating in a synchronized tumble with the station, sat many ships. Three of them Republic Fleet Tempests, two were haulers, one of which was maneuvering into the hanger, people making room as it gingerly approached. Beyond them sat a cluster of ships not only from Masuat’aa Matari and Ushra’Khan, but ship from other corporations in Istodard.

Floating in her pod, Suza smiled as her sensors recorded lifeforms in the station. Since beaming the the problem to the nearby CONCORD station, along with copies of damage scans, over an hour ago, she had sat here and hoped. Joined by others, they had sat there all waiting, and hoping. They could see the internal damage from scans, but had not been able to open communications. The local comm channel exploded into cheers as all could now see the lifeforms on scanner.

Eddie watched as a troop of Republic troops made their way across the hanger floor having disembarked from the hauler. He quickly brought the Republic damage control specialists up to date on all the info he had. ‘Thank you Mr. Gordo, please make yourself and your people ready for an inquiry following station stabilization. Our people will begin replacing yours as they arrive. Get some rest.’ As Eddie slumped down, he could hear the Captain call orders over a portable comm unit. ‘Captain, I need your ships to make five surgical hull breaches at the following coordinates…..’

‘EDDIE!’ Eddie looked up, that voice was Conrad’s. ‘Eddie, I’ve just found Makkar while on the way to medical. He’s been shot with a hand laser!’.

(to be continued)

Standing on the boarding gantry of his Tempest, Eddie Gordo used the speaker system rigged into his ships power to the best possible advantage. Looking down at the mass of people, he shouted down orders that were then passed on by assigned gang leaders. The heat high up here was almost unbearable, as only basic life support and lighting was available. Wiping the sweat from his brow, how he wished for an enemy he could just lock onto.

Looking quickly at his watch, he noted about three hours had passed since the first explosion. Not good, not good at all he thought. He pulled a ration bar from a utility pouch, bit a piece off and began to chew when the sound of boots ringing on the metal stairs of the gantry caused him to pause and turn. With a grin and handshakes, he greeted Mah Kraah and Caldicott. ‘By the spirits, it’s good to see you two’

‘Hey bossman, good to see you also. Heard you were here’ said Caldicott. With a grin and a roll of the eyes he added ‘Oh, and Mah here has a plan’. Mah spoke next, his voice even and almost without emotion. ‘Thank you for the introductions Caldicott, now perhaps you can help Hippey down there with that door instead of following me around. Thank you’. ‘Uhm, sure thing Mah, on my way’ said Caldicott as he quickly raced down the steps.

‘Eddie, I do have a plan.’ spoke Mah as he unrolled a paper blueprint of a section of the station. ‘MAH! Where did….how did..’ Mah raised his hand, cutting off Eddie’s question. ‘That does not matter at this time. Look here’. With a quick gesture, Mah indicated an area of the station in the lower, starbord quadrant. ‘Here Eddie is the majority of the fires we fight’. He than motioned to indicate several small locations. ‘These are bulkhead doors that even under emergency power, will close in case of a hull breech’. Stabbing his finger at the paper his voice raised a a bit. ‘HERE is a door that once the fires are out, we can manually override, open and repair the oxygen tanks, thus assuring our breathing’.

Eddie looked and listened, but looked a bit bewildered at the last statement. ‘Mah, the fires are not yet under control, much less out.’ With a small chuckle, Mah spoke. ‘Oh, they will be, they will be. Well, as soon as that hanger door unjams, which should be soon. The magnetic bubble is up and set, so we will not all be sucked into space. When the door is open, we take some ships and fire missiles here, here, here, and here. Breaches at these areas will extinguish about 95% of all fires, and close off the oxygen that has been feeding them. As the other door close, they will protect the rest of us from hard vacuum.’

Eddie clenched his jaw, he knew that if any people were in the fire zones Mah had indicated, they were already dead. As long as the doors worked, the plan would suceed. ‘Make it happen Mah, and as fast as possible’. With a nod, Mah rolled up his blueprints and left. Speaking softly Eddie added ‘Make it happen people, this is not the way for warriors to die’.

The four Brutor stood, straining against the wheel of the manual door release. Their torsos were bathed in sweat, glistening in the pale red emergency lighting. Around their heads were the remains of their shirts, tied to keep sweat from the eyes. Hippey, Caldicott, Red 6 and Sykosys all strained in unison, moving the wheel until a satisfying click was heard.

Releasing a deep breath, Hippey look at the others and nodded. ‘Ok guys, remember the drill. This is hard space area. As soon as that light up there goes from RED to GREEN, run like hell. We each have a tether line attatched to beyond the bubble, so just try and keep them from becoming tangled. Ok?’
From the floor where he was sitting, Sykosys let out a brief chuckle. ‘Hip, I’m a miner. By the time that door opens, I’ll be luckey to be able to walk never mind run.’ Following the short round of laughs, Caldicott looks down and speaks. ‘Guess I’ll just have to carry you Amarr-boy.’ CLICK! CLICK!

*GREEN LIGHT*

(to be continued)

‘He’s going to be ok, just smoke inhilation and a bang on the head.’

As Sarkos became aware, he could feel the breather on his face. Slowely he opened his eyes, blinking at the light. As his eyes focused, he could see many wounded about him, all showing burns and bandages. Soot streaked faces looked up at him, some with a smile, others a look of someone lost.

‘Sarkos!’ sounded from somewhere close. Snapping his head around he saw the grimy face of Hippey staring at him. ‘Come on old man, Eddie’s waiting for you’. The two wound their way through throngs of people. Some on the way to fight the fires, some coming back, some walking, others carried. ‘Here you go, the counsil chambers is the emergency operations room. Just go in, I’m on my way to see what I can do to help with the hanger situation’. ‘What hanger…..’, but he was already gone.

Opening the door, he understood just how bad things must have been. Where he half expected to see most of the tribe here, inside waited one man, Eddie Gordo. “Sit down Voushod. I’ll make this fast. We are in big trouble. The blasts have taken our stabalizers offline, ruptured our oxygen tanks, thus feeding the fires more, and cut all power. We have had no contact from the main control area, the hangers are safe for now, but the doors are stuck closed. Fires are raging on all decks and we are slowely tumbling towards the surface of Moon 5.’

Sarkos noticed Eddie look down a bit before he next spoke. ‘Then there is the matter of leadership. The first blast happened near Voushod Kiongozi’s room, somewhere in the corridor. He was found unconsious’. Looking up now, Eddie continued. ‘The doctors have reported severe injuries and he in surgury now. The second blast has been shown to come from the storage area. The third one was a ruptured oxygen tank blowing’.

‘I need your engineering skills to see if we can get those stabalizers back online. Hippey has gone to see if he can help open that hanger door, and I have no idea where everyone else is….no communications’. Sarkos looked at his friend, soot and grime streaked his skin, yet his strength of command could clearly been seen. ‘No problem Eddie, on my way to engineering now’.

Winding through the corridors, his head throbbing with pain, Sarkos reached a newly created deadend. Fires ragged beyond the stream from the fire hose as men and woman fought the fire, smoke and the heat. Looking around, he spotted a hole in the wall. Looking in Sarkos could see enough metal pieces to use as a ladder, and he slowely began to decend , always looking down for the telltale glow of fire.

(to be continued)

It appeared to be a normal day in Istodard. The station was busy as normal, with craft entering and leaving, however today was one of those special days as the transport arrived with mail from home. The deliveries were randomly scheduled and known to only a few select people, but Sarkos was excited to see if anything came from his mother or sister. 

Watching the transport dock through his small window, Sarkos began mentally going through the procedures he had helped set up with all incomming items. First the mail would be scanned for anything that might be a danger, or suspected danger. Then the mail would be sorted and delivered. He refrained from running down to check for himself, as to alert everyone mail was here might start a mass stampede. He sat and waited. 

After what seemed a small eternity, a satisfying knock on his door rewarded his patience. Opening his door, he saw Kiglin, a new recruit pushing a large cart loaded with many packages aboard. With a small bow, he handed Sarkos a letter and small box. ‘Voshoud, these are for you’ he stated. ‘Thank you Kiglin’, he said taking the items. ‘Anything of intrest in this delivery?’ ‘Well…yes sir. It seems Voshoud Kiongozi has gotten a gift of 20 cases of some real fine Brutor ale. The instructons were to bring one case directly to him. Me and the men were kinda trying to guess what it’s all for, as we were storing the rest into storage bay 12. We were wondering if a party or something was about to be thrown’ he said with a slight grin.  Click here to read more.. »

 

Into the golden system we were thrown. Warriors of Matar, Soldiers of the Ushra’Khan diving deep into the abyss of evil. 

Amarr. A Slaver fleet fleeing but caught in a trap from which there was no escape. On this day their God would fail them. No mercy would be given to those that we had rallied against. 

Fire spat from the cannons of our ships and riddled the “impervious” ships of the “superior” Amarrians. They are confused but they do not cry for us to relent. They stand against us but it was all for naught. Their hulls rip apart, their pods go flying. The terror of past sins weigh heavy on them and prove to be too much. Like a sleeping giant awoken the Matari warriors strike with deadly accuracy. Emptying our ammunition into the enemy with a fierce determination. They threw stones and we threw mountains. 

The Fallen Tribes of the past direct our anger into unswerving anihilation. Debris scatters across the space lanes as ill prepared “servants of God” go to shards. We are a furious wind and we wipe the slate clean. They feel death at the end of an autocannon. Yet, they do not rejoice. They fear what we are. We own the skies above their home planets and they are impotent against us. They have finally found their God at the end of a smoking barrell and they do not like the promised land. 

One speaks in a time before the battle: 

“You’re fight means nothing Matari. You will never accomplish your goal.” 

I say, “Perhaps you would not think that way if it were you in chains that I was fighting for, eh?” 

“Does it look like I’m in chains, scum?” 

I smile, “More than you’ll ever know Amarrian.” 

My daydream breaks when I realize the battle is won. Their are no more targets, no more slavers, not one. They have huddled into a dark corner to lick their wounds. The battle was short but lasted for days. I’m sure the Amarrian realizes now how close the chains really are.

Water is fluid life. It gives replenishment to those that thrist. It is also a harsh mistress, for once it is stirred it can become violent enough to engulf millions. I am the water grown angry. 

Fire is destruction. Everything in it’s path is consumed in a neverending torrent of mindless violence. Nothing is left untouched in it’s wake and no one can withstand it’s fury. I am the fire who’s touch purifies with justice. 

Wind is the gentle guide. It pushes you were you need to go when you are weak. It’s prescence can break and twist you should you defy it. I am the howling rage of the wind.  Click here to read more.. »

I hate Yulai. 

I always have. 

Even before Vronsky Brothers threw our lot in with Freelance Unincorporated and the FOM, I’ve hated coming here. The stations are always overcrowded, the docking facilities poor, and the feeling that CONCORD are watching you always has always put my flayed post pod decanted nerves further on edge. 

Despite it being the most heavily policed system known, there’s always an excess of pirates, prostitutes, drug peddlers, scam artistes and just plain loons here, and those are some of the more palatable people. What the inhabitants of the worlds below think of freak circus above them, I don’t know. Maybe they think that having the police omnipresent is a sign of security… 

I’ve come here to collect some modules, to ship back to the VBS corporate office in Gelfiven. Nothing very exciting but someone has to do the drudge work, and hey, it’s better than mining. 

A check of the local pod pilots on system entry shows no hostiles. A few ‘Star Fraction’ pilots in local, but, maybe not enough to form the critical mass that would demand a CVA response. Click here to read more.. »

Many had wondered at the appearance of a new Gallente woman within the Ushra‘Khan Alliance. 

All knew of the history between the two races, the part played by the Gallente federation during the formation of the Minmatar republic, but none had knowledge of the history behind Ghanimede and the reasons for her chosen path within the ranks of the Stormriders. 

She had grown up with the stories of the continued terrible plight of the Minmatar people at the hands of the evil Amarr empire, seen first hand the effects of the toxins pumped into the few escapee’s she had met. 
Toxin’s which work as an antidote to counter the ever-changing virus forced into the bloodstreams of the proud Minmatar. 

Her parents had worked tirelessly with the scientist’s dedicated to the continuing battle to find a permanent cure for the Vitoc, this had exposed Ghanimede to many hours of tails of the battles, wins and losses of the Ushra‘Khan as the patient’s who came to be helped fought their own internal battles, both to overcome the grievous effects of their poisoning, and the continued struggle to come to terms with both their capture and now their freedom, of a kind. 

Her capacity for empathy with their plight set in stone from an early age her chosen path; a classroom would not be the place for Ghanimede, despite her parent’s desperate pleas. 
The need to ‘make a difference’ was too strong to resist, combat would be her only satisfaction, if she managed to kill one Amarrian it would help, if she could kill one for each of the Minmatar who had shared their stories with her, so much the better, and if she could encourage other’s to help along the way then this would be her goal. 

The Amarr will be forced to see the wrong in what they do, even though it may take a lifetime to achieve.