The ambient noise of the world outside the window ajar, and the faint voices of his parents could be heard on the ground floor below as he lay in bed in the dark room watching the CSPA Gallente 11pm bulletin, the radiant green and cyan glow from the holo-projector dancing across the walls like the reflection of moonlight on the shores of a tropical ocean. Yet again, the Amarrian Empire had slaughtered Minmatar freedom fighters in the thousands as they made another failed attempt to breach the security of the Amarr home system.
He watched the graphic images of vacuum freezed corpses, modulated Tachyon beams slicing into Minmatar armor and floating debris fields forming during the last recorded moments of the battle, as the Minmatar fleet was decimated in the three hour long fleet battle in Sarum Prime. Slowly, the distressing images put before him on the holo-projector faded and distorted into darkness as he drifted into a semi state of consciousness, on the path to a good nights sleep.
He was awaken minutes later by the noise of a PV pulling onto the driveway of the typical, upper class, two level Gallente family home on Duripant III. He lifted his head from the soft, yet crisp surface of the fresh pillow case, and approached the window cautiously in the dark, as the black vehicle’s doors opened and closed silently, and four heavily built, black masked individuals approached the house, in two by two infantry formation, heavy with Caldari military equipment. The light from the four visible moons in the sky bounced against the lenses of their night vision glasses, like the glistening eyes of an owl hunting its prey in the blackness of the night.
For a second, he became incapacitated with terror, not knowing what to do, before starting for the bedroom door as he heard the wood of the front door to the house give in and splinter violently to the pressure of the ram being used on the other side to force it open. They were moving fast.
As he reached the stairs to the ground floor, treading softly barefooted on deep pile carpet, in the pitch blackness of the hallway of the upper floor, he heard the sound of his mother screaming in horror as the first four rounds of depleted uranium were pulsed from what the CONCORD investigation had later named as a Caldari State Infantry Issue Assault Railgun. One of the rounds struck the dark granite of the stairwell wall, shattering the surface like glass, in a perfect circle and throwing a cloud of vapour and dust into the air.
What the hell was happening? The four figures swept past the ground floor entrance to the stairwell silently, almost ghost like, towards the dining room. The granite dust from the stray round was now beginning to clear. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, still treading barefoot, now on the immaculately polished, ice cold surface of the morphite cut white marble steps he heard the voice of his father, slightly muffled, gesturing toward the attackers:
“Leave her, you got what you came for...�
The words came with a distinct tone of pain, and arrogance in his voice. When the child rounded the corner at the base of the stairwell, he realised why the pain was evident.
His father lay sprawled across the floor, breathing shallowly and weakly clutching the black clothed leg of one of the attackers just above the knee. He had two gaping impact wounds from superheated plasma bolts oozing thick, almost black viscous blood in the centre of his back, his left leg was severed from the knee down, the departed and twitching limb lay on the floor a few feet back, relieving itself of the crimson fluid that once kept it alive. Dense pools, trails of scarlet life giving fluid, and heavy splattering covered the sky blue lounge carpet forming a perfect opposition of colors. The young child slipped back into the shadowed darkness at the base of the stairwell, unnoticed, in a state of shock, as his father continued grappling with the attackers to no avail.
His mother’s screams were brought to an abrupt, and certain end with the sound of three powerful pulses from the Railgun, and the violent shattering of glass and splintering of wooden furniture from the direction of the kitchen. One of the heavily armoured, masked individuals spoke to father in a rough and harsh voice, slightly distorted by the mask covering his mouth:
“Mr Sundara sends his regards. Lady Orviegnoure was asked repeatedly to cut your department’s funding. For her failure to do so, your project, and the federation must pay the ultimate price.�
He spoke in a deep, and heavily accented Amarrian voice. Father’s final words rang out:
“You bastards, you’ll all pay.�
The child peered around the impact scarred wall from the darkness, as his father sunk his teeth into the fleshy thigh of the clutched attacker, causing him to let out a deep groan of pain. For him too, it was over, the bitten attacker plunged a Caldari military issue combat knife into the top of the dying man’s skull, the sound of the bone and sinew splitting caused the child to close his eyes, as the lifeless body of his father slumped to the carpet, into the ever expanding pool of lifeblood, which had by now, turned almost black from it’s sheer purity.
Verone subdued the noise from his heartbreak, his body shuddering violently in the process as he slipped further back into the blackness of the stairwell, in the hope he would not be discovered. It was done, the four silhouettes passed the opening to his hiding place, and left the house through the shattered remains of the period style heavy oak front door. A second or two later, the activation of the vehicle’s hydrogen power cell signalled the attacker’s departure. The Ten year old was discovered by CONCORD Emergency Services less than a half hour later, curled in a foetal position, and unconscious from shock in the darkness under the open stairwell of the family home.
Awakening and entire two weeks later, between the warm military grey walls of the medical bay on the low orbit station
“Duripant VII, Moon 6 – Federal Navy Academy� he began to try and piece together what had happened to his family that night.
He stood at the only window, it’s perfectly polished surface reflecting his face, and the entire contents of the brightly lit
examination room behind him, as he watched an Iteron MkV Cargo Tugger approach at a snails pace, heavily guarded by two Federal Navy Megathron Class Battleships, and a CONCORD escort.
He later learned that two days after the murder of his parents, a Blackbird Class Caldari cruiser had been destroyed entering Amarr Empire space, with no survivors, and parts of the equipment used in the attack on his home was recovered from the subsequent debris cloud, however no identifiable biomass apparently survived the blast as the ship was torn apart. Very rare, but not inexplicable.
His journey had begun. Young Verone signed up to the Federal Navy Academy and was drafted in due to his circumstances, at the mere age of twelve. After five years of intensive Gallente Military training, and rejection and mocking by the other federal recruits because of his family’s sinister demise, which was now clouded in conspiracy, Verone left the FNA, to find out the real reason behind what family friends were calling his parent’s “Assassination�. Much to his horror, he was no where near ready, at the tender age of seventeen, for the truth that lay ahead of him. Verone had one statement to base his work upon, the words of the masked psychopath that night at his family home.
Mr Sundara, or Kezti Sundara as he was more widely known, was the Chief Executive Officer of The Amarr Imperial Navy.
Verone had a theory, that rapid advancement of the research his father had been heading at The Federal Intelligence Office into mobile “Jump Drives� as he liked to call them had sent the Imperial Amarr military into a state of panic, for fear of the power the Gallente Federation would harness if such a Technology was put to military use.
Leaked documents, just weeks before his parent’s murder, had insinuated that the Federation were working on a top secret ship, so large, that it required the drive his father was testing, to jump from system to system, as the power of the stargate at a system boundary was not enough to harness the sheer mass of the vessel in question. The new class of ship was to be named the “Erebus�, and the four other civilisations would fear it for the sheer destructive power it would harness.
Verone has, since learning of the research his father was involved in, believed that he and his mother were assassinated to delay or halt the research into the new technology, as it posed a massive threat to Amarr security, and political stability. He also knows that the organisation responsible were not the Caldari State, as CONCORD were led to believe from the destroyed Blackbird and the Caldari issue equipment used in the raid on his home.
Little over a year ago, Verone took his radical theory directly to the CEO of the Gallente Federal Senate, Mentas Blaque. He was spared sentencing, for his family’s good history within the Federation, and ejected from Gallente citizenship on charges of attempting to instigate Federal Disorder and Unrest. Cast out from the society he devoted his life to protecting, Verone joined The Dragons Mining & Trading Corporation, in an attempt to leave his roots behind and find a new family. Still with the burning rage for the devious, and arrogant Amarr Empire in his heart.
When finally, he could contain the rage no more, he bid his family in The Forge farewell, and began a journey to seek out his true purpose.
He lives with the death of his family and his father’s last words at the forefront of his mind…
“You bastards, you’ll all pay.�
- V
3 Comments
Well written.
Good story Verone. I will have to consider a more detailed version of my character's history. Thanks for the read.
*Bows to the awesomeness that is Verone's writing.