Precarious Balance

[Kithraks]

Precarious Balance

Kithrak was seated in the shuttle’s lounge playing cards to pass the time while the auto-pilot flew them to their intended destination. He looked up from the hand of cards he was holding. “Got any fours?”

“Go fish.” The Omni Hunter-Killer droid replied.

“Five minutes to our destination master.” The Omni-Admin Guardian droid spoke over the shuttle’s intercom.

Kithrak told the Hunter-Killer droid to put the cards away as he made his way to the pilot’s seat at the front of the shuttle. When he got there the Guardian droid was in the co-pilot’s seat, monitoring the autopilot. “Master, the autopilot says the landing area is right ahead but I cannot locate any beacons to guide us in.”

“That’s because there are no beacons.” Kithrak took out an encryption module and plugged it into the communications panel. The comm display came to life as it began to send an identification signal. After several minutes they received short audio reply. “Land at coordinates 1560 by 237 by 120.”

The administrator turned off the autopilot and flew the shuttle towards the coordinates manually. When they got there, the landing area was little more than a forest clearing. The shuttle made an uneventful landing. As he was powering the shuttle’s systems he told the Guardian droid. “I want you to stay here with the shuttle until I return. This won’t take long.”

On his way to the main hatch he pointed to his Hunter-Killer droid. “You, follow me and watch for trouble.”

The Hunter-Killer droid quietly sheathed its katana and followed the administrator out the main hatch. They were met by a person in full Omni-Pol armor with a corporal’s rank insignia. Behind him were five Atroxes dressed in the plain work clothes worn by Omni-Tek Notum miners. The corporal spoke first, with a snicker in his voice. “Welcome to the resistance.”

Kithrak arced a brow. “Tierce, you’ve greeted me with that same line every time since this whole project started. Will that phrase ever cease to amuse you?”

The corporal pretended look hurt. “Me, a brainwashed Omni drone have a sense of humor? Hah, wouldn’t the Clanners be tickled pink to hear about us talking like this?”

Kithrak growled lightly. “Knock it off; the Clan terrorists have launched another sustained attack on the citizens of Omni-1 yesterday.”

“How bad was it?” Tierce asked as they made their way to a picnic table to wait while the Atroxes unloaded the shuttle.

“The terrorists were slinging bullets and obscenities the whole way and nothing the entire division of Omni-Pol troopers stationed there can do to stop them.” Kithrak sat down on the bench.
“That bad huh?....” Tierce trailed into silence.

For a while neither the administrator nor corporal spoke as the Atroxes continued to unload crate after crate from the shuttle nearby. Tierce looked over his datapad of the freighter’s manifest and whistled lightly.

Shipment Manifest CCM-002B
Source: ** data corrupted **
Destination: ** read error **

Item Quantity
Nova Flow Mark I 48
Omni-Flamer Mk IV 24
Omni-Tek Crowd Unit XI-Autotarget 12
Yatamutchy X-3 Counter-Sniper Rifle 12
Assult-Issue Omni-Pol Battle Suit 20
Assult-Issue Omni-Pol Elite Battle Suit 10
Omni Carbonum Plate 15(set)
Omni-Tek Steel-Ribbed Armor 10(set)
Nonpartisan Armor 10(set)
Bullets 100,000
Energy Weapon Ammo 50,000
Flamethrower Ammo 25,000

“You giving up on the Clans already? There are enough weapons here for a small army.” Tierce muttered.

Kithrak chuckled to himself at the thought. “No old friend, not yet anyway.” Then his expression turned cold. “It was a contingency plan, in case Phillip Ross is really in trouble. The Loyalists could….”

He stopped; bitter memories and resentment from dealing with upper management came rushing back. The countless times he pleaded his case before his superiors to change their policy of ‘shoot first and if anyone is left, shoot them too’. It had been bad PR for the company he argued. Each time, his request was rejected by upper management citing the high costs of retraining Omni-Pol and Omni-AF as being ‘prohibitive’.

“The Loyalists could, and?” Tierce asked, wanting to know just what he is getting himself into.

“….and rescue Ross, by force if necessary.” Kithrak finished.

“With or without authorization and funding? You know your plan is treading awfully close to what most could consider ‘disloyal’.” Tierce arced a brow at the administrator’s plan.

Kithrak nodded gravely. “It is all relative corporal. If Ross is really threatened by rogue elements within Omni-Tek, our actions would be loyal. If Omni-Tek truly has displaced Ross we will figure out what to do when the time comes.”

[Fixerben]

((nice story ))

[Kithraks]

A little to the left…

Since the last shipment of weapons to the cache Kithrak has been secretly building up over the past months it seemed to have found another purpose, fighting off the alien invaders. Originally, the weapons cache was meant for the Omni-Loyalists in search of Philip Ross’s kidnapping by the Unicorn Company still bothered the administrator’s thoughts constantly. But his concerns have been overshadowed by ‘new’ arrivals in orbit around Rubi-Ka.

The outsiders have intervened in the Omni-Tek / Clan conflict. The….aliens have declared their own side and begun to carve up the landscape with their ground troops. So far, despite their political differences Omni and Clan have been able to prevent the aliens from establishing a beachhead on Rubi-Ka. He knew that this will not last long. All it will take is a single slip by either the Omni, Clan or, even Neutral defenders and the alien menace will take root in Rubi-Ka’s soil.

All of the Clan’s continued freedom fighting (mostly terrorist attacks) have done is divert Omni-Tek’s precious resources that should have gone to building infrastructure and industry instead. Adding insult to injury if the administrator’s sources were correct, it was also the Clans that supposedly triggered the cataclysmic event in Pandemonium. Weeks later, an Omni-Tek Midnight Reveries exploration team finally managed to follow in the footsteps of the Clan expedition and was able to piece together what happened that fateful day in the deepest reaches of the Shadowlands.

Through the final portal in Pandemonium, he and the exploration team found a single robotic entity. Interactions with the robotic entity have revealed that it was sending a signal beacon of some sort when the previous Clan expedition in their greed and profound disregard for the rest of Rubi-Ka killed a guardian of some sort. It was guarding what was referred by the robotic entity as ‘the source’. Who or what the signal was meant for was unknown to him and the exploration team at the time. Now, looking up at the sky with a pair of enhanced binoculars they know.

Attempts to communicate with the aliens have been unsuccessful (and fatal). Administrator Kithrak thinks the Clans are foolish to continue to fight Omni-Tek, draining it of resources that are needed more than ever to protect all of Rubi-Ka. The Clans can boast all they want about their effectiveness in terrorizing the civilian population into submission but they lack the means to touch the aliens in orbit.

Administrator Kithrak believes that there are people within Omni-Tek and the Clans each doing what they honestly believe is best for Rubi-Ka. There is an honest difference of opinion that is keeping from both sides from ever quite reconciling with the other. He saw that truth two years ago. His efforts at peace and improving relations have been rebuked at every turn by the Clans. He was finally beginning to believe that there is no hope for peace.

But the aliens offer a second chance. A voice from the back of his mind whispered to him. A second chance for both Omni-Tek and the Clans to atone for their wrongs. The administrator can’t tell if mystery voice was the same one that spoke to him when Shadowlands portal first opened. Either he is losing it or the mystery voice has returned to offer hope. The administrator hoped that it was the latter.

A stray thought. ….or maybe OTPC was right after all about aliens trying to put subliminal messages into my brain.