:: Unknown ::
Kalea brought her forearm over her eyes as another gust of wind ripped
by her. Heavy ash blanketed her body as she slowly dug her shovel back into the loose
soil. The sweat poured down her forehead, mixing with the ash and absorbing into her wrap
clothes. She took a momentary rest, leaned against her shovel and glanced upward through
the small slits in her wraps. The dual suns were cast in a crimson red, trying desperately
to break through to the atmosphere above. The ugly red haze only worsened the surrounding
environment. Kalea’s rest was only momentary though as the butt of a guard’s
rifle came down hard across her back. Kalea crashed to the ground and quickly looked
upward at her assailant. The Taiidan guard loomed over her with his gun pointing downward.
“Get back to work Kushan, the suns will be getting overhead
soon.”
The words were muffled through the guard’s heavy mask and were
quickly blown away by the heavy wind. Kalea slowly brought herself to her feet and dug her
shovel back into the ground. She turned her head to the side, watching as the billowing
ash quickly engulfed the guard. Damn Taiidans. She remembered when she was first brought
to this planet. Its soil was incredibly loose and soft, it was an agricultural beauty.
Unfortunately it didn’t fair as well to strip mining, its topsoil was now permanately
part of its lower atmosphere. She wondered what happened to the inhabitants of this world
but she knew the answer was the same for every other Taiidan conquered planet. If they
were lucky they were just killed or left to die in this waste. If the Taiidan were in need
of a new work force, they were in for another horror. Kalea’s mind was adrift as her
shovel struck something solid. Scrapping her shovel across the surface revealed the shiny
metallic plate they had been looking for. Satellite images had determined high metal
deposits in this area but because of the high amount of ash in the atmosphere it had been
unable to determine an exact location. Kalea depressed the alarm switch on her arm bracket
and waited for the guards to arrive. Three dark figures quickly came through the flowing
ash, stopping in front of Kalea. Kalea pointed over to the metal deposit. The guards
ordered her to quickly return to the transport before the suns got overhead. A guard
pulled out a locator beacon and entrenched it near the metal deposit, ordering a mining
crew and vehicle to be dispatched to the area. Kalea braced herself against the wind and
began to fight her way back to the transport.
The work group of women stumbled into their barracks as the wind blew in
hard from behind them. Pushing as hard as they could, they fought back the wind and
slammed their door shut. Kalea shuffled over to her bunk as the layers of dust fell from
her and onto the floor. She slowly began to unwrap her cloth clothing that covered her
from head to toe. The clump of clothing and dust grew at her feet until she was clean of
the mess. She crashed down on her bunk, her body was once again able to breathe. She
looked over her bunk and across the room at all of the women. They all sat and waited for
the same thing. Kalea looked over to the empty bunk next to her. Why weren’t they
back yet? Her work group rarely beat them back. Kalea looked again across the room at all
the nervous faces, they were definitely thinking the same thing. The wind hollowed and
screamed through the cracks of the barracks. Maybe they weren’t coming back today.
Kalea covered her face. No, it was too early, it can’t happen yet. Kalea’s head
jerked up as the barracks door was blown wide open. The small children filed in one by one
as the anxious mothers jumped to their feet. Kalea quickly unwrapped each face that went
by, franticly searching for her child.
“Mom. Hey mom, I’m right here.”
Kalea spun around and grabbed her boy. She pulled him close, she thought
today was going to be the day.
“Geeze mom. I’m okay, I’m here. Can I get out of this
wrap now?”
Kalea let go of her son. It wasn’t today, that is all that mattered
now. She knew it was coming soon. All Kushan males were taken away by age sixteen and her
son was close. Some say they kill them to squash rebellion, others say they brainwash them
to add to the Taiidan war machine, but everyone knows they never return. Kalea brushed a
small tear away from her eye, her son was still with her. Her momentary relief was
shattered as the barrack door burst open. A line of guards quickly marched into the
barracks.
“Get dressed now! We have an emergency to attend to.”
Kalea looked at the guard in shock. They wouldn’t take them out during the suns
highpoints. A woman near the door began to object but was quickly silenced by the butt of
a rifle.
"Lets go. We have a stranded mine group, we have to get that equipment out of
there now!"
Kalea began to quickly wrap up her son as best she could when a guard stepped in front
of her.
"Nope. Just the women."
Kalea was relieved. She knew her son wouldn’t be subjected to this lunacy. Kalea
grabbed the long wraps from the floor and wrapped herself from head to toe. Filing in line
with the others, they were lead out into the sweltering heat. The dust storms ripped at
their clothing as they began to march to a transport. The guard began to shout orders
through his mask, all of the words being sucked away by the intense wind. The dull red
surroundings had turned intensely bright as the dual suns began to reach their highpoints.
Kalea’s heart began to beat out of control as she noticed the guards stepping aside
the transport. They weren’t coming along. They never let the workers outside during
the suns highpoints, not only did the heat increase exponentially, the air became
incredibly unstable allowing huge dust storms to sweep continually. The guards were too
scared to even worry about accompanying us. Kalea scanned the other women as she took a
seat in the back of the transport. Through their small eye slits the fear was very
apparent. They knew this was anything but standard procedure.
Through the small viewpanels in the transport, Kalea could see nothing. The dust blew
by in sheets, obscuring everything except the red dust itself. Kalea sat back as the
speakers in the transport began to crackle.
"Attention. In one minute we will be arriving near the mining group. Contact has
not been established since the initial break in contact. You are to find the mining
equipment and radio back its location. The mining vehicles are incredibly valuable,
remember that if you fail."
If those intentions weren’t clear enough, Kalea thought, then she didn’t know
what clear was. Find the mining vehicles or die. Chances were they would die just in the
process of finding the mining vehicles. But why now? Why not wait until the suns fell past
their peaks? There had to be a strong dust storm blowing in, they were afraid it would
bury the area and destroy their equipment. She guessed they figured they could afford to
loose workers, just not their equipment.
The transport lurched to a halt as the back doors began to slowly creak open. Kalea
pulled up on her wraps, trying to cover as much of her face as possible. The wind quickly
threw open the doors the rest of the way as a large gust blew through. The women filed out
of the back one by one and were quickly engulfed by the dust blowing. As Kalea stepped off
the back of the transport she was assaulted by the incredible dust storm. Stumbling,
trying to remain balanced, Kalea began her search for the miners and their equipment.
Kalea’s feet were quickly caught up on something and she tumbled to the ground.
Slowly turning her body back to the thing she tripped over, she saw the body of a worker
half beneath the dust. Crawling back she turned the body on its back to see who it was but
quickly realized that this wasn’t a worker from her group. Looking down the body
discovered the cause of death. A small blast mark, right through the middle of her
stomach. Must have been an attempted escape, but that didn’t account for the lack of
radio contact. Kalea turned back in the direction of the transport, barely visible when
the wind died down. She depressed her wrist band to open the radio channel when bright
flashes erupted around the transport. The transport reeled backwards and began to climb
into the sky as it returned fire. No sooner had it begun to escape than the entire back of
the transport blew apart, bringing it crashing back to the ground. Kalea was stunned, she
didn’t know what to do. Scrambling back to her feet she began to run blindly away
from the resent fire fight and was quickly tripped up again. Crashing to the ground, she
turned back see more bodies half buried in the dust. A guard surrounded by a couple of
unknown workers, a rush attack. What was going on, workers didn’t attack guards.
Kalea quickly crawled across the ground, large objects becoming more visible through the
dust ahead. More bodies were sprawled across the ground, a worker here, a miner there, and
a sporadic guard appeared as she neared the abandoned mining equipment.
The large mining tractor loomed before Kalea. If she could find a way to get into that
she might just be able to survive this. She slowly climbed up the outer hull of the
massive machine, the wind ripping at her and trying to throw her off. Upon reaching the
top, she braced herself against the wind and pushed her way to the main control bridge.
Kalea reached out and got a hold of the handle, trying desperately to open the door but it
was locked. She pulled herself up against the door and peered through the heavy viewport.
The silouette of a body showed through, sitting in the seat. Kalea pounded on the
viewport, begging to be let in but the body never moved. Shifting around to the front of
the bridge, Kalea looked through the larger front viewport and quickly found her entrance
point. A large blast hole had ripped through the front of the bridge, catching the pilot
square in the chest. Kalea pulled herself through the hole, and dropped into a small pile
of dust on the deck. The wind still ripped through the cabin, flowing through the blast
hole in the front viewport. Kalea looked around for something big enough to fill the hole
and her eyes fell on the dead body of the Taiidan pilot. Hoisting him up on her shoulders,
she pushed his body though the hole, successfully filling it. Kalea collapsed into the
pilot chair, ripping the wrap from her face as the dust storm roared outside.
