I found myself awake in a vast savannah, the green grass lush while a golden star beat down upon my pale, naked flesh. I was surrounded by a vast void, though a warm void, like an exercised breath in the terrestrial atmosphere before me. Yes, the savannah was quite empty-save for the occasional trees, along with a deep, blue pool of water, reflecting the pale azure of the sky above. Surrounding this pool was a heard of some foreign ungulate, horned and lazy, but muscular in its great size. They seemed unfazed by my presence, as if mine were a presence they had known for millennia.
Suddenly, my throat was dry and dehydrated, and I felt a compulsive urge to drink from the pool. I ran to it in my nakedness, and plunged my face into its cool, wet relief. When after a minute I arose for air, a woman was standing next to me, not unlike myself, save for her skin being a near pitch black. She was clothed, in a bright robe of colored textiles and animal skin. Still, she was beautiful, her tight curls cut short to emphasize her sharp features. She seemed primitive, yelling at me in some long-lost tongue, a tongue native to this alien planet, likely perplexed at my presence, or my nudity, or perhaps was simply dutiful in her stewardship of these beasts. I couldn't understand a word she said, and yet I felt my arm reaching out to touch her...
"People don't come to Felix to read, Koaga," Ghanzi chastised, forcing the young Janari to look up from his book. After all these thousands of years, one would think hard copies would've 'gone out of style', but Koaga wasn't one to keep up with the trends. The amphibian quickly dogeared the page and placed the novel down onto the bar. Outside, the gaseous pink mass of Petrion-B loomed into view, casting its shadow onto the Starfort.
"Sorry," the private replied sheepishly, "These sort of, uh, 'scenes' aren't really my thing." By scene, he meant anything that the infamous Starfort Felix was known for; gambling, drinking, drugs, prostitution. Unlike most fortifications, most visitors passing through Felix aren't travelers from abroad. They're citizens trying to escape the pressures of Martian life by pouring their hard earned money into a Laadaruuan whore, and the fort's commanders are happy to sap up every cent of it. Off the books, of course. Yes, the fort had quite relaxed liquor licenses and didn't quite keep the same tabs on their...'civilian employees', but records show that Felix is a Starfort like any other, replete with enough Customs bureaucratic bullshit to make a Free Nest trader forget all about the advanced weapons systems and guards at every corner. And it was the filing monotony known to all Starforts that brought the First Cavalry to Felix. After all, how could an Imperial Ruin scouting mission be considered a success unless the State knows how many corpses they found and exactly what caliber of munitions were in the far left ammo boxes in the back closet of the second gunnery?
That isn't to say, of course, that the First wouldn't be using Felix's...facilities at the same capacity as any other visitor. Major Astari disappeared as soon as the paperwork was done, likely into some closeted whorehouse, while Animo was catching up with some friends from officer school she ran into by their sleeping quarters. Luckily for Koaga, he found one of the more secluded bars that the Starfort had to offer, the kind of place a soldier can really contemplate the true cost of citizenship...or the kind of place a certain Xuha sniper could drink away the plight of Martian honor. "Ey, barkeep, another one for my friend here," he requested, to which the Aldzir behind the bar happily obliged. An Aldziri heartbreak ballad played in the background, complete with human guitars, Cultor grainharps, and the low incoherent rumble of an Aldziri trunk singing its heart out. Once Koaga unconfidently had another drink in his hand, Ghanzi continued. "If you want to survive more than a month in the First, you gotta relax, peregrine." The Janari winced at the old Imperial term, denoting an Alien citizen of the empire. Nowadays, it was more of a slur when it comes from humans, but honestly, Koaga wasn't quite a fan of how aliens threw that term around, either.
"You made it to the fucking top, you don't got to keep up the nerd shit!" The Xuha exclaimed. "What are you even reading, Koaga?" With this, the sergeant gestured aggressively towards the book in his hand.
"Adonis," the private corrected, protectively bringing the novel into his body.
"What?"
"Adonis. That's my name." Ghanzi scrunched his face at that. A Janari with a human name? Pft. Goes to show what happens when an Alien grows up thinking they're human. Xuhajann aren't like Janaris, they know what they are, and they know their place. And their place is on the battlefield. That's why they get a warrior's name. That's why Ghanzi's name was Zeitan, not Orion, not Josephus, and not Adonis.
"Alright, Adonis. What are you reading?" Reluctantly, Adonis brought the book from his body, carefully passing it over to the sergeant, who took it and examined it like he was looking for a 'Xuha safe' logo on some dairy products.
"
Earthly Daughter," Koaga answered. "Victoria Astrelius. Read it a couple times through back in school, thought I'd refresh myself." Zeitan started chuckling.
"This old-ass Imperial shit?" He asked, tossing the book back to the Janari. "Thought this stuff was made for humans."
"Still a good book, Ghanzi." There was a moment of silence while the Xuha thought it over and Adonis took his drink. "It's uh...this privileged young Imperial women, has everything she'd ever want, but she has no satisfaction in life...every relationship she's in feels meaningless, her work all seems futile, her friends are shallow...basically, just miserable despite being rich
as hell, when she starts getting these recurring dreams of life on Earth."
"Earth?" Asked the red alien. "You mean like...where humans are from?" Koaga was starting to get annoyed at how frequently Ghanzi was referencing things as 'human' or not, how he made it seem like they didn't all have a common history, a common heritage, and now, a common cause. Still, he didn't want to bring it up.
"Yeah, Earth." Zeitan looked at him while the Janari finished his drink, waiting for him to finish the story as well.
"Well? How's it end?" Koaga looked to him, a wicked half-grin on his salamander like face as he waited to build up tension.
"You'll have to read it," He finally said, and the sniper began chuckling.
"Sounds fucking lame, Ado." The private began laughing in turn.
"Hey, say what you want, but Astrelius was a fucking
genius." The two soldirrs sat for a moment, laughing, and then went quiet for a bit. Koaga spotted an Ulala woman sitting alone at the other end of the bar. She was dressed well for a commoner, but still clearly was one, and her bright eyes caught the Janari's before she smiled at him. Gathering up his courage, he stood up from his seat and went to talk to her, leaving behind his book, which Ghanzi reached across to examine. A silenced screen behind the bar flashed news about the Resurrectionist admiral, Olivia Lahti. The Xuhajann smirked as he saw the two side by side.
"
Earthen Daughter," he muttered under his breath, and turned his gaze to the pink immensity of Petrion-B. "Ain't much earth left it seems." On the glaring screen, Lahti was labeled 'terrorist' and a 'dangerous fascist, bent on the annihilation of alien populations'. Following this were images of the Resurrectionist genocide and the hurried explanation that while it was unknown if Lahti was connected to these images, she would certainly condone the actions taken in them. Zeitan snarled at the piles of dead Xuhajann.
"When they give me a war to fight, you won't have any." While Ghanzi stewed in his dreams of bloodshed, Koaga was smiling wide as he spoke of nonsense with a beautiful stranger. In the same fortification, their commander was paying for meaningless sex, their other commander was trying to impress people who didn't matter anymore, and all the while, the First Cavalry had no idea of the blood to come.
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