NationStates Jolt Archive

The forest was full of green and brown trees. Animals played in the scrub and small birds flew above the tree tops chirping happily. A young girl with brown hair and hazel eyes ran threw the underbrush, smiling and laughing loudly without a care in the world.
A roar came over head, a shadow passed along the ground, but it was no bird’s shadow. The object flew through the trees, knocking many out of the way, as it came down towards a clearing in the forest. The girl ran towards the clearing, ignoring the calls of her worried mother, to see what had just landed.
The girl crept closer to the edge of the clearing, trying to stay out of sight of.. what was that thing? It was about twice as tall as her and three times as long. And for a girl of 4’11” it was quite large indeed.
A section of it’s smooth metallic surface slid outwards, then to the side. The girl had to shield her eyes from the reflection of the sun setting in to the right of her.
By this time the girls mother had alerted the entire village to the unknown object’s landing and the adults were walking towards it.
Suddenly, as fast as a swallow, three men ran out of the object and began throwing strange balls of light at the people of the girl’s village.
With her last breath the girl’s mother called, “Seska, run!”
Seska, the little girl, did not run. The light from the intruders light orbs reflected off Seska’s light brown skin. Her eyes were wide open one minute, but the next they were tightened into a glare of rage.
Seska ran towards the nearest intruder and head butted him in the stomach, winding him easily. He dropped what appeared to be a tree limb made of the same material the object behind her was. It had several glowing lights on it.
Seska pointed what appeared to be the front of the branch at one of the men and started pushing buttons.
The man she was aiming at saw her and he quickly ran over to her. By the time he reached her, of course, it was too late for him. Seska pushed a red button on the branch and it sent a ball of light into the man’s chest. Causing him to glow bright yellow and fall to the ground. Seska aimed for the other intruder and pushed the red button again. This time she had to do it a second time as the first orb she fired had missed. But not her second, the man also glowed yellow and fell to the ground.
Seska remembered the intruder she had winded and turned around to see him gone, she turned to the object to see the intruder running into the object, Seska gave chase and jumped through the hole into the object.
She landed flat on her stomach. She saw the man sit on a chair she aimed and pressed the red button. This time the chair also glowed yellow, and it disappeared.

With all the intruders dead. With her family dead. Her friends dead. Her entire species was dead, except for her.
Seska would not forget this. She would seek revenge. Seska was the last Za’aan

Seska awoke, covered in sweat.
The room was dark. No sounds except the silent hiss of recycled air being pumped through the small craft.
Seska blinked a few times, trying to get the last images of the nightmare from her mind, but to no avail. What she experienced ten years ago will be with her forever.

Seska walked through the door out into what the ship’s computer called the bridge.
Over the past ten years Seska has read everything about the ship, its name was the Aurora, a pirate scout. Seska knew how to fly, fire and fix the rickety old shuttle.
Seska had learned about a primitive world that wasn’t too far from her own, she decided to go there and meet the people. However the shuttle’s Stardrive, faster than light engine, had was only working every now and again, so there were a lot of stops and starts. But finally she had arrived.

The planet was almost one and a half times bigger than her home world. But being a nineteen year old that had only seen the inside of a shuttle for ten years, and the occasional asteroid belt which she had to mine to get fuel for the engines, the planet was huge. So she dubbed it Titan.

Seska decided to meet the people of Titan, who she had dubbed the Ri’aan, which in her language meant Free Man.
So Seska slowly landed the shuttle in a forest clearing, like it had been done ten years ago. She left the alien weapon inside the shuttle, but took a scanning device with her. She quickly found that the people here were just as curious as the people she once knew.
“I am Yhea Hheinia of Takon Province. Who are you?” A short stout man stepped forwards, “and what province do you come from?”
Seska smiled as she tucked the scanner in the pocket of the blue jumpsuit she made. “I am Seska Armarosa, from a very distant.. er.. planet actually.”
Yhea looked at Seska, “What is a planetactually?”
Seska had to stop herself from giggling at the man’s inability to comprehend. “When you look up at the sky when it is dark, and you see the lights... I come from one of those lights.”
Yhea looked up at the sky then back at Seska, “You aren’t from here, another place. Are you a friend or foe?”
Seska looked at the man sternly, “I believe I’m a friend I was hoping I could perhaps, stay here. My planet has too many memories.”
Yhea thought about this idea for a few moments then looked up at Seska, town leader was killed in recent battle, and none of us want the job out of fear. Would you do it Seska Armarosa, from the far off light?”
Seska looked at the man incredulously, “you want me to be your leader?”
Yhea nodded very quickly up and down.
“Sure, I’ll do that, what do you call yourselves?” Seska replied.
Yhea looked quizzically at Seska “we are the free. We don’t have a big name.”
Seska looked at Yhea, “Then you all are now called the Rian, under Seska, the last Za’aan.”

So Seska took control of that one province. Then another, then another. And finally the last province, took its stand.

Seska had brought with her several decades, if not centuries, of advanced knowledge for the Rian, they had modern weapons, by Earth’s standards, and advanced leadership.
Seska lead her troops onto the battlefield, “Colonel Solos? I want claymores set up at five metre intervals along that ridge there.” Seska pointed to a nearby ridge.
“I also want a sniper and scout up there so we know when the enemy is coming.”
Solos saluted, “Yes sir.”
Seska walked over to her XO Colonel Alidar Jarrok, “Colonel, are your troops ready for battle?” The general raised his arm and all his troops loaded and readied their weapons.
“They are ready Lady Seska.” Alidar replied, smiling.

Shots were heard, Seska turned to see the scout signalling the enemy’s approach.
Seska gave the return to base signal but the scout was taken down by an axe from the last tribe. The sniper got off a few shots before being hit by a crossbow.
The enemy approached the ridge at a running pace, disorderly, chaotic. Seska’s troops were in lines, ordered and silent.
Colonel Jarrok turned to his troops and said, “after the first claymore run at them and fire at will.” The troops replied in unison, “Sir, yes sir.”
Seska walked to Colonel Jarrok and signalled to Solos to begin the attack.

Claymores exploded along the ridge, sending debris and enemy troops flying, “GO, GO, GO!” Alidar ordered running into the fray with his men.
Seska looked up to see several planes heading to where the barbarians had come from, “The bombing will start any minute now sir.” Solos reported.
Seska listened as the bombs dropped on the barbarian’s village. The entire planet now belonged to her.

Another ten years passed, Seska had initiated a small space program, travelling to the nearest planets in the system. There were already two off world colonies, though small they were already prospering.
“Supreme Lady, the colony on AG-1 wishes to know when the next shipment of altrazium will arrive.” General Alidar Jarrok said to her.
They were in a brightly lit room with a long mahogany table surrounded by chairs, with bookcases’ and computer monitors on the walls. A large window on the wall behind Seska, at the head of the table, let in plenty of ambient light.
Seated at the table with Seska General Jarrok, Colonel Solos and numerous other advisors.
“Also the colony on AG-2 requires another garrison of troops, the locals are growing restless,” Solos added.
Seska nodded to the men, “We have a freighter returning from RW-7, they were mining altrazium so they will be able to make the delivery. Also get the Aurora to deliver a refinery construction team and materials.”
Seska pondered the thought of sending more troops to AG-2. “How many troops does AG-2 want?” she asked Solos.
“One thousand.” Solos responded quickly.
Seska stared at Solos, then turned to Alidar, “How many troops can you spare for them General?” she asked him.
Alidar smiled, “we can spare a thousand, if the colony needs them.”
Seska smiled back, “then that’s settled. Force Marshal Rllaillieu, send Aurora to AG-1 with the supplies they need. And send shuttle Columbia to AG-2.”
The Force Marshal nodded, “It will take Aurora three days and Columbia two weeks to arrive at their respective destinations.”
Seska smiled, “Let it be done.”

Science is a wonderful thing. But science can be dangerous as well.
One afternoon Professor Takaram Dorek`a, a nuclear physicist, was doing an illegal experiment using several extremely powerful energy sources. Almost instantly the Rian had discovered the second best kept secret in the universe. To them that is.
The Rian had discovered Stardrive, or faster than light travel.
Seska ordered a first test flight of a Stardrive ship. Thus the SD 01 was created.

“Are you sure this thing can fly?” Seska asked looking at the ship carefully, “It looks.. flimsy.”
The engineer looked flabbergasted at the young woman, that hadn’t aged at all in the twenty years that she had been on the planet, and thus still looked like a fourteen year old girl, when she was in fact twenty-nine.
“Supreme Lady, it is ready to fly.” Seska wondered who the engineer was trying to convince more, her or himself. “I’ll believe it when I see it. You took it for a test run this morning I am told... show me the footage.”
The engineer looked at Seska, then at her aide, then back to Seska. “Well, er.. milady.. we haven’t got any footage.”
Seska cocked and eyebrow, “Oh, is that so.” She smiled and shook her head, “Never mind then, we launch tomorrow as planned.”

That night the engineer slept well, Seska however was having second thoughts, “What if those aliens discover her here?” she questioned herself, “I cannot deny these people what they have learned.”

The next morning quite a crowed had gathered out side of the Astley Space Centre. The press were having a field day, “And we are here, outside the gates of the ASC, we can see the pilot in the cockpit of the craft codenamed SD01 as you can see he has prepped the shuttle and is ready for launch.”

“T-20 seconds.” An announcer spoke, “T-10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. Launch!”