Centauri Dusk

[Lonestar]

This story is a continuation of Micheal Ely's Centauri Dawn .

I make no claims that I created the background for this story. The primary reason why I'm writing this is because I'm tired of the second book in Ely's trilogy to come out.

Feel free to add on to this.

------------------
"People should know when they're conquered."

"Would you Quintis? Would I?"

"Soylant Green is people. PPPeeeoooppllleee!"

[Lonestar]

It's been 20 years since planetfall, and already the human race has declared war on itshelf. The Spartan Federation, ignoring Pravin Lal's status of planetary Governer, marched on UNHQ. The result of the battle was dramatic.

Jahn Lal, Pravin's son and head of the ON forces, was murdered personally by Santiago. Santiago's son had been killed in the fighting, driving her over the edge. Right as victory for the Spartans seemed clear, however, the Colonel pulled back her troops and left the country, leaving a dispirited and shattered Pravin Lal to rebuild UNHQ.

------------------------------------------

"Matt? How are things going?" Spinner said, walking over to a corner of the mess tent where Matthew Bucher, Xenoarcheologist for the Peacekeepers was sitting.

Matt grunted, "Well I suppose... why do you ask?"

"Because, of the reports of your sudden change of personality during the siege...and the fact that you're rapidly heading back to your bad old self. My God, you had your company hold off a company of Myrmidons! And now your going back to being quiet and scared."

"Why should it matter Spinner? A Xenoarcheologists' job rarely calls for being a tough macho man."

"Because," Spinner said, " The Council is talking about making you head of UN Security Forces."

Bucher stared in disbelief at him " Why ?"

"Because, you're the only one left at UNHQ that has had any formal military training, and, I might add, real experience." Spinner saw the look Bucher gave him, thought He's still scared...he's been scared since the first mindworm attack "Listen Matt, I just came here to tell you that the Council wants to see you in 4 hours, you better get your sh*t together." Spinner stood up and left.

Matt Closed his eyes and thought of worse times....
-----------------------------------------------------

San Antonio, 2048

The Northern Mexico Liberation Army (NMLA) had crossed the Texan border with 10,000 men. The US Army was to thinly spread to stop them, and the city of San Antonio had been taken.

Bucher and several other former cadets from Texas A&M raised a militia, and, after a pitched battle far worse than the recent one at UNHQ on Chiron, drove out the survivorlists, even capturing their Leader, Sammy Gomez.

His friends recommended that Gomez be shot on the spot, but Bucher put him on a train to a Federal court in Corpus Christi.

Than Gomez escaped.

He made his way to Dallas, killed every member of Bucher's family. When Matt finally arrived there, he spent the better part of the next ten years trying to push that scene from his mind.

When he finally made it to Chiron the nightmares came back, and everyone knew that the calmer man on the trip there would never return. Until the Spartans attacked....
---------------------------------------

The long column of Spartan troops were making their way back to Sparta command. None of them knew why they had suddenly left in the midst of victory, only that Colonel Corazon Santiago seemed to have finally gone mad.

" She has, you know. " PFC Ford whispered to Cpl. Pineda. "Gone mad. Sammy Gomez must be spinning in his grave"

"Quiet soldier." Pineda said through clenched teeth.

"She's weak." Ford continued " She no longer cares about her on philosophy, 'oh poor me! I lost my son!'"

"Quiet! Even if that were the case...the council will handle it!"

"And if they don't?"

Pineda paused...."Then the Soldiers will. I promise you."

[Lonestar]

"Good Afternoon Brother Lal" Bucher said as he walked into the Council chamber.

The man looked older than ever. His eyes seemed sunken into his sockets, while the lines on his face seemed to stretch into a eternity.

"Good Afternoon Captain Bucher" Pravin said with a sad smile. " I see you put on your old uniform from the Texan Guard, am I to take this to mean that you've excepted the council's offer?"

"Yes, yes I have Pravin. Altough I think either Pierson or...Jahn would be more qualified. But I... guess that's moot now." Bucher sat at a chair marked SECURITY CHIEF.

"Thank you Captain. Now then, shall we get to buisness? Van Dinter?"

The man whose plate said CONSTRUCTION leaned forward. " It's amazing how much the Spartans left us. Even better, we found some prefabricated walls from a Unity pod near Base two, we can use them to rebuild the Childrens Creche. We might have UNHQ rebuilt in a matter of months."

"Health?" Pravin asked.

A woman with willowy hair began, " We have almost no medical supplies, the Spartans walked off with plenty of those. Zakharov is allegedly sending us more efficient medicinse, but I'll believe it when I see it."

"That's unfortunate" Pravin said, he was a doctor by training "Farms?"

"Lady Skye is doing her absolute best to help us get back on our feet. No complaints here."

"And now," Pravin said, looking at Bucher "Security?"

"Anemic." Bucher said bluntly "Our forces were to weak to begin with. I am going to propose a series of reforms and programs, which you'll find under agenda12-c." Bucher waited while the council looked up his appropriations bill. Now he'd find out how much the council really wanted him as Chief.

HEALTH looked up. "You must be joking. You want to train a regiment? Establish a service academy? And, send a expedition intothe Spartan Federation, the same Spartans we just fought."

Bucher began to explain his reasoning. "First off, I plan on modeling the Academy after West Point in the early 1800's, It'll be a civil engineering school in addition to a war college, and we need Civil Engineers, do we not?"

Van Dinter nodded.

"Second, the expedition, think of it as more of a Lewis a Clark expedition. Intel shows that Saprt knows next to nothing about their territory. We can send 20 Mountain men armed with nothing more than Rifles and what they can carry in their rucksacks. Their man job will be to map out the country and recovery and supply pods. We'll need them, especially now."

"And the regiment Captain?" Pravin asked, his voice hard.

"Fine, we don't have to make soldiers of them, BUT does any here disagree with me when I say we should get as many people qualified on shredder rifles as possible, in case of an emergency?"

Van Dinter leaned back and smirked at HEALTH "See, I told you he'll make a good chief."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Corazon Santiago leaned forward on her desk in her quarters, doing her best to not to cry. It wasn't good enough.

Madre de Dios she thought I sent my own son, barely a man, to die. And he died with more honor than anyone would have thought.

Wiping away her tears, she touched her comm screen. "Morgan."

"Good day Corazon!" came Morgan's seemingly perpetually happy voice. "What can I do for you?"

"Morgan," She began " The walls... they were not as weak as you led me to believe."

"Really? Are you sure? I am a honest buisnessman, if nothing else. Maybe it was a miscalulation on your combat engineers' part?"

" I am quite sure Morgan. You decieved me."

Morgan's grin disappeared and he became somber. " Do not accuse me of lying Corazon. Do not question my honor. It is not my fault you were foolish enough to attack UNHQ. I told you how strong it was."

"But not to the extent Morgan."

" Bull. Corazon, if you are looking for someone to blame for your son's death, look at the mirror, not me. Goodday." The screen went blank.

Stunned, Santiago got up and looked at the mirror. She noticed how unnerved she looked for the first time.

3 seconds later she pulled out her shredder pistol and shot it.

----------------------------------------------------------

"Ahh!!! The mountain air! A pity we can't breathe it!"

"Very funny Suggs, now shake your arse, we need to get these samples back to camp ASAP"

The two Gaian ecologists were looking at the mountain vegetation for a new source of food. Suggs hefted his sack. figures I'll get the one with the melons. Then he noticed something metal protuding from the ground.

"Hey Frannie?"

"Yea?"

"Look at this, will you? It's like a camera or something."

They both leaned in closer towards the camera. Frannie pointed at it. "Look! It has a symbol on the side! Do you recognize it?"

"Suggs stood up and backed away. "I do. Frannie, let's get this stuff loaded and out of here."

"What is it?"

"It's the Yin/Yang of the Golden Emperor." Seeing this meant nothing to her, Ralph suggs continued. "And Yang used to be chief of the Golden Emperor's Guard."

[Lonestar]

" I think Lady Deirdre is hiding something from us."

Pravin Lal turned away from the observation window. His military advisor, Captain Bucher, was standing at the door to the observation deck.

Lal's eyebrows shot up. "And why do you think that?"

"I've been going over the reports of the Spartan attack on UNHQ, particularly when those mindowrms attacked the Spartan camp."
Lal motioned for him to continue.

"And, well, if it was a native mindworm attack, our people would have been affected by it too, we would have felt something. But we weren't, just the Spartans."

"Why do you think the Gaians have anything to do with it?"

"We got one of the Gaians from the last supply convoy drunk-please don't give me that look- and he commented that the Gaians are, well, breeding native lifeforms."

Lal took this is in. "Thank you for telling me Captain. When will that scouting expedition of yours be ready?"

"Spinner's gonna lead it,Svensgaard is gonna be XO. They'll leave in about a week, so I'm told."

"Thank you Captain. I'll call a council meeting after I speak to Deirdre."

"Sir" Bucher saluted and left.

Lal turned and looked out the window again. breeding mindworms he thought one more thing to worry about .

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"How long, do you think, until the Gaians actively seek us out?" Yang ask.

The man in the blue robe, Ming Hoa, answered " This I do not know comrade. They are certainly aware we exist. Perhaps they are too busy conduating their 'planetmind' experiments."

"Perhaps." Yang murmered. He pointed at a specific base in Hive territory. "So, we remain unknown to the other colonies, now we only have to worry about this, eh, Domai is it? Who seems to relish creating trouble at Drone Mound."

"He is only one man, comrade."

"So was Lenin. So was Mao. So was..." Yang afforded himself a smile "The Golden Emperor. We have to watch him. When the other factions finally find us, most will disagree with our ideology, whether or not it is right."

"They will also asked how we did so well by ourselves."

"So they will Ming Hoa. Speaking of which, how are those new hybrids we've acquired working out?"

"Excellant comrade. Deirdre couldn't have produced such plants."

"Well, these are a bit advanced, even for her " Yang was talkative today "Just remember Ming Hoa" Yang said, staring at the map of the Hive "All revolutions begin with one man."


------------------
"People should know when they're conquered."

"Would you Quintis? Would I?"

"Soylant Green is people. PPPeeeoooppllleee!"

[Lonestar]

"The beacon's right over this ridge boss. Man, it's a big one." Urlik Sveensgeard commented.

"Thanks Urlik" Spinner said.

The survey mission was going very well. in the past 3 weeks they had recovered 2 Unity pods, and now it looked as if they had found a third one. Of course, since this expedition skirted Spartan territory, they had to be slow going and careful.

The PFC that had taken point was up on the ridge. "Holy! Major Spinner!! You better see this sir!!"

Urlik and Spinner went running up to the ridge, with the rest of the survey team in tow. Stretching out before them, 7 kilometers long, was the crashed body of the UNS Unity .

-------------------------------------------

Sparta Command

"Colonel, you need to address the people soon. It has been 5 weeks since we left UNHQ, and you have said not a word publicly."

Santiago stared at the little man, the economic advisor for the Spartan federation. "Is that so Sharif? I think not. The people will do what this council tells them. We have drilled discipline into them for the past 21 years."

"Colonel," Sharif began " We withdrew when we had defeated the Peacekeepers. We could have had immense resources at our disposal. You ordered the withdrawl. You have not told the people, and, I might add, us, why."

Corazon's eyes darted around the little councilroom. The other 3 members were nodding their heads in agreement.

"I see," Santiago said. "So, you dare oppose me? I can disolve this council you know. And, liqudate you."

" I think not Corazon" evryone noticed Sharif was no longer refering to her as 'Colonel'. Sharif pushed a button on his conference phone. He spoke into it. " She isn't cooperating sir."

The voice came back, it sounded vaguely familar to Santiago, as if a distant dream.
" I'll be right there."

One of the side doors to the room opened. Santiago's eyes went wide as she saw the person coming in. " You!!! "

-----------------------------------------------------

UNHQ

"Colonel" The intercom chirped.

Bucher awoke from his sleep. 0350 hours. Maybe I just imagined it.
He rolled over and put his head back on the pillow.

"Colonel" the intercom chirped again.

"Damnation!" Bucher cursed. What now? " This is Colonel Bucher"

"Sir, this is Sargeant Major Hastings, UN SecForce."

"That's nice Sar Major. Why are you calling me?" Bucher said, wishing, not for the first time, that he had remained head xenoarcheologist.

"Sir, we have intercepted a Radio transmission from Sparta Command. It appears that Colonel Santiago has been forced to step down."

"Really?" Bucher was hopping into his BDUs "Anything offcial from Radio Sparta?" Radio Sparta was the 'civilian' newstation for the Spartan Federation.

"No sir."

"Okay Sar Major, I'll be right down."

-----------------------------------------

"How about that, the power works." Spinner remarked as he flipped a light switch.

"Bet you a cuppa coffee the secondary reactor is still running." Urlik commented. The rest of the team was going over the cargo bays. Spinner and Urlik were in the Astrogater center. Urlik walked over and put his eye up to a scanner. The computer recognized him and gave him access to the ship's computer.

"Okay lets see what we have here."

UNS UNITY...STATUS REPORT...
HYDROPONICS BAYS 1-5 AND 7, HAVE BEEN JETTISONED.
ALL COLONY/IMPACT PODS HAVE BEEN JETTISONED.

SHUTTLE BAY DESTROYED BEYOND REPAIR. SHUTTLES GODDARD, VAN BRAUM, AND RODDENBERRY BROKE APART ON ENTRY OF CHIRON ATMOSPHERE.

"Guess we won't be returning to space anytime soon" Spinner commented.

"Nope"

CARGO BAYS 1-3, 6-8 REPORTING NORMAL.
CRYOBAY 7 HEAVY DAMAGE. 27 PODS REMAIN ACTIVE. DETAILS?

"Mary Mother of God." Spinner whispered. "Bay 7 was the one damaged when the asteroid hit us, we couldn't get to it..."

"They're engineers, security, medics, mining experts..." Urlik trailed off.

Spinner stood up, turned to the PFC who was going through the cargo manifest.
"Private, go get Dr.Griffin and Sgt.Falcone. We need to wake some people up."

----------------------------------

UNHQ

"I hope this is important Colonel." Pravin Lal stood at the door of the very small UNSecForce signals office.

"Yessir...it looks like Corazon has been forced to step down, she's being transfered to Militia Station."

"Step down..you mean a Coup Colonel?" Pravin asked.

"Very likely sir." Bucher continued in order to answer the next question before it got asked. "I'm guessing she didn't have a satisfactory answer as to why she withdrew from UNHQ for her council."

"Mr. Governor, Colonel," the Duty NCO began "we're getting transmissions from Radio Sparta."

------------------------------

"This is Radio Sparta.

"Members of the Spartan Coalition, I say coalition because it is time for us to return to our original intention; survival as our founders saw it on sweet, distant Earth. Fortunately, Lady fate has truly blessed us, as one of the original founders of the Spartan Coalition has been asked, and he has accepted, to rule over Sparta Command and all bases that follow the Spartan way. I give you Commandante Samuel Gomez!"

-----------------------------------

" What!!! That Sunuvwhore! How is that possible!!!?? " Bucher spat, bach at UNHQ

-----------------------------------

" My dear Spartans, for 21 years, I have kept quiet, electing to remain unknown here, on Planet. I was happy being a common soldier again, it reminded me of my roots in the NMLA. I stayed obscure, took another name. Santiago seemed to be doing such a good job, there was no need for my prescense to be known.

" Then, five weeks ago, as we withdrew without reason from the so-called UNHQ, I had a revelation of sorts. Santiago was a woman who could not be trusted with the survival of the human race. She would rather that weaklings like Lal and Skye drive us to ruin. And so, when my good friend Usman Sharif, one of the few who knew my identity but proved his loyalty by keeping it secret for so long came and asked me to lead you, what choice did I have?

" Make no mistake, I will make Sparta strong. I will make the human race strong. A great war is coming, againest this very planet. We shall be victorous against all foes, human or otherwise."

----------------------------------

"What'd he mean by that?" Sargeant Major Hastings asked.

He turned around, Colonel Bucher was already storming out the door.

----------------------------------

The Hive

"You are sure Ming Hoa?" Yang asked.

"Yes comrade Chairman. The Gaian colonists are being quite thorough in their search for more Hive artifacts. They are being very deliberate. They must know we exist."

"It cannot be helped, we would have been discovered eventually." Yang considered. " There is no evidence that our sore limb, Drone Mound, has been revealed to Lady Skye's followers?"

"No Comrade Chairman. Domai seems to dislike their ideology as much as us."

"For now." A buzzing sound began to form in the back of Yang's mind. "Ming Hoa, I must ask you to leave. I will send for you if I have need for you."

With a bow, the blue robed man left.

"Door:lock" Yang whispered. He didn't want anyone barging in.
"How can I serve you Conqueror?"

The not-quite voice came drifting into his head.

< Yang. The other earthTerrens have gained knowledge of us.>

"What? How?"

< Likelyhood that you allowed security lax: Great>

"It wasn't us Conqueror. Not even those pests, the Free Drones have made contact with the other factions"

< Truth: Bargain on your end held. Truth: Possibility other Progenitor survivied have. >

"What?"



"Your ideological foes..here? Are they as weak as you?"



The buzzing went away.

"Wait!" Yang shouted "What do you mean?"
----------------------------------------

" And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hades followed with him."
~Revelation 6:8