NaNoWriMo 2011 Chapter1

Genocide is not for everyone!

“Are you sure?” The rough voice from her right questioned with sarcasm. “This kid doesn’t have what it takes.”

“Sure? No. Absolutely positive? Yes.” Her reply was soothing and in an instant Xionide knew that she had made up her mind. Once Zanna had made up her mind it was set and he knew it.

“C’mon Z , you know this kid doesn’t know squat. Heck he ain’t even out of school yet on his world.”

“If I recall correctly, you weren’t either the first time you crawled into a Motokin. In fact you were a failure at school.” She replied never loosing the natural sweetness in her voice as she stared at the view screen.

“Actually it wasn’t a Motokin it was a Btank with almost nothing to it. A stripped down, getting ready to recycle, machine with a pea shooter for a gun.” Xionide replied with a relaxed smile as he placed his hands behind his head and leaned back into his seat. “Those were the good days when all a man needed was a gun, a woman, and a good beer.”

He remembered the Btank. An ugly hunk of scrap no bigger than a compact car with a single machine gun attached to its hood. It was rusted badly with pieces of the body falling off and no glass to separate the outside winds. You had to turn the car to aim the gun. They were cheap battle vehicles that had been cheaply made with a very high rate of fatalities tied to them.

“Too bad all you had was a good beer” piped a smaller male from across the bridge.

“ ‘Twas all I needed lad. ‘Twas all I needed.” Xionide smiled ear to ear.

His face showed layers of scares from a great many battles even through his scruffy beard. His eyes were tight and focused and his lips taut. Xionide had one of those looks where he always looked like he was going to rip someone’s face off when the truth was he was a nice guy. The years that had rolled by him had also been kind as he still appeared to be the youthful boy who took control of a junk Btank to change the tide of a battle. He was just past his 40’s and looked no more than 18.

He was a man harden by many years of war and more battles than he dared to count. Only when he looked at Zanna did his face soften. He made no attempts to hide the fact that he had a crush on her and he didn’t lie about it. He hoped that now that they had a short time that she would notice him.

“Z, we have seen these types of kids before. What makes this one different?”

“I don’t know, I guess it is just a feeling. I have a feeling that this is the one to lead us into a glorious future and restore our home worlds.” Zanna replied with a half whisper.

Her pale blue hair trimmed her youthful and vibrant face as it laid its curls upon the tops of her shoulders. Her big, round eyes seemed to illuminate the emerald green color and reflect off her gentle face. Her eyes always seemed as if a great sadness rested upon her shoulders. Her nose was small and her lips were thin while her high cheeks seemed a bit out of place. She was a little taller than the normal Selaxion female, which stood five foot four inches, and she was a bit thinner than normal but not so much to look anorexic. She wore a sleeveless top with a short “V” at the neck and a short skirt that only hung to just above her knees, both pale blue in color to match her hair. On her feet, she wore a moccasin like shoe, also colored to match her hair and offset the greenish hue of her skin. With the exception of differently colored hair and skin tone Selaxion’s were exactly like Earth humans of the Sol system in the Milky Way Galaxy, a mere two thousand year trip at one thousand times the speed of light.

“Those feeling of yours are what I am afraid of.” Xionide said as he sat forward. He was broad and stout for a Selaxion and he was fit. “He’s kind of wimpy looking.”

“Maybe but I think he can handle a Motokin.”

“It’s your call, Z, you are the commander but I’ll tell ya one thing right off the bat. If he can’t handle a Motokin I’m gonna shot him.”

Zanna turned her head slightly to look at him, her solemn protector, and with a smile replied “Deal.”

A long silence followed as Xionide contemplated things in his head. He knew Zanna, he knew her better than anyone else in the universe. He knew her past, all of it. He knew what drove her and he knew what ate at her soul.

“Genocide. The systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of an entire national, racial, religious, or ethnic group.”

That one definition defined her and made her whole. It was her driving force and the only thing that she lived for, to make sure it never it was never to happen again to any race on any world.

It was the entirety of her being and it drove her wholly.

She could not and would not let it happen again. Xionide knew it so completely that he alone knew what had caused both of the Selaxion home worlds to be destroyed and he knew why it would never happen again.

“You realize, Z, that we are one tiny system against those galactic clans right?”

“Once we stood tall and proud. Once we were the pinnacle of our galaxy and once we were alive.” Zanna replied never looking up from the screen. “And soon we shall stand again.”

“As you wish…” Xionide let the conversation tail off as he studied the object of her obsession.

The view screen showed a young man in his late teens. His face was vibrant though not as youthful in looks as the DNA scans suggested. Somehow the young man lacked any particular feature that could be captured by another mind and remembered. His sandy hair was short and ruffled and again nothing special about it. His clothes seemed to be of a latent style with nothing special about them either; it was as if the young man had no identity of his own. No special marks, no scars, no tattoos, no insignias, he didn’t wear any brand names. Xionide was about to argue the point with Zanna again until he noticed the gleam in the young man’s eyes as he watched intently as bipedal war machines practiced nearby.

It was not just any gleam. It was something Xionide had seen hundreds of times over; it was something he knew very well. The gleam in the young man’s eyes was the reason Xionide had lived through many hundreds of battles. It was the one thing, the only thing he respected above all else.

Slowly Xionide stood, straiten his body and cleaned his appearance. The other fifteen members of the bridge crew watched with awe as Xionide sharply saluted the image on the screen.

“Z…Lets go get our general.”

“I take it you finally saw what I did?” Zanna asked with a smirk.

“What are we gonna call our outfit?”

“It already has a name, one it has always had.”

“You can’t be serious?” Xionide retorted.

“Oh I am…We started this and we are going to finish this. The galactic clans are about to realize that we are back. I don’t know why the core computer resurrected our squad but since it did it, we will make them all cower with fear. They will learn the true nature of mechanized battle. They will learn it from the best. They will learn it from us.” Zanna’s words were cold and harsh as she kept looking forward. “Once we pick up this boy then they will learn to hate us because we are not going to make the same mistake twice.”

“You mean?” The smaller male on her left had begun to question.

“Yup lad, it’s time to be tigers.” Xionide answered.

“Not just any tigers.” Zanna added.

In unison the bridge crew shouted as they crashed their knuckle together in front of their chests.

“Clan Black Tiger!!!!”

Zanna waved her left hand in front of her and a small view screen seemed to appear out of nowhere. “Connect: home world 2. Connect: Harkasious Labs.”

A moment later a man’s face came on the screen. He was average looking with large eyebrows and a small nose.

“Good morning commander Zanna, how may we help you?”

“We have located the world were our new general lives. Both home worlds are to imprint the insignia of “Clan Black Tiger” on everything.” Zanna answered with a smile.

“Good, good.” The man replied. “Hyper-Missile system is ready. We can now transport at eighty times the speed of light.”

“Good. Load and send our Motokin. I want an ExeBug added to the standard issue. I also want them with fresh paint and a bucket of apples.”

“Sorry Zanna, the ExeBug has a faulty Fire control system. I would really like to have the time to fix that.”

Zanna looked over at Xionide, gave a half smile and wink with her left eye.

“Okay. Fix the ExeBug problem and send it when it is ready. Add and ExeOut to the list and have them transported to our new cords.”

“An ExeOut!!!!”

“Yes an ExOut. Xionide is going to be using it.”

“Whew…” the man sighed. “As long as it’s for Xionide.”

“You didn’t think I am crazy enough to drive one of those things did you?”

“I was hoping not.” The man replied his voice relieved.

The ExeOut was a dangerous Motokin. Extremely effective in battle, very dangerous to drive. The system sometimes tried to take over the pilot and it could reconfigure the machine as needed. Normally a biped it could became a quad if the situation arisen. It took a certain amount of psychosis to even be able to link with the machine. Once the link was established and the driver survived then the machine was quick, hit hard and difficult to kill.

“Make sure you send my Executioner.” Zanna said with a sigh as she waved her hand and the screen disappeared.

“Really Z?” Xionide questioned. “I get an ExeOut while you are taking your Executioner?”

“No…You get to stay here. I only ordered the ExeOut to get my Motokin. You know as well as I do if I said I was going to go alone they would have found a million reasons to delay the transport.” Zanna said with confidence and strength that Xionide had heard in her voice many times before.

“You can’t go alone.” Xionide replied with some concern in his voice.

“I have to. I have to do this.” Zanna said as her head hung low.

“Commander…” a female voice from behind her said with some excitement “That world you were just looking at has seventeen hours before Clan Mersious invades.”

“Clan Mersious…hmm.” Zanna’s words trailed for a few moments.

“You have an idea don’t you?”

“Yes I do. Set course for the Zwealler System and set it so that we get there thirty minutes after Clan Mersious.” Zanna said.

“Thirty minutes late ma’am?” the female questioned.

“Yes, Gallia, I want to be thirty minutes late.”

“Why?” Xionide asked impatiently “When we can just intercept and wipe out the invasion force.”

“Because, love, the Zwealler system is arrogant like all smaller system and has yet to understand that they are not alone in the universe. They do not as of yet realize that in the scheme of galaxies that their little planet and solar system are just a speck of dust. That and Clan Mersious doesn’t employ great intelligence for their invasion force. The Zwealler’s should be able to hold them off for a little bit and it will give us a chance to evaluate our new general.” Zanna explained sweetly while forming the plot in her head.

“So we let him sweat a little bit and then come save his young butt.”

“That sounds like my plan. Now let’s make it happen.”

“One of the many reasons I love you.” Xionide said with a smile as he turned and punched some numbers into his computer.

“I know.” Zanna said with a slight blush.

“Gallia…let’s get outta here.” Xionide barked.

“Yes Sir.” She responded with a smile.