Planet: Kestra, Sanctum Command

First Insurgency War

MAIA

Quadrums of careful planning and bolstering our defenses around high-profile places... the damage is done... and now we're questioning why we fight. The hospital took patients from both sides into its once sturdy walls.

Dreams ruined in explosive fire.

Rayan Falae was right... we were divided, right to this.

Maia stood on one side of General Falae, while James took her other side, his hazel gaze empty of any of Black Wolf's previous arrogance. He kept his hands behind his back and drew his gaze to the space in front of him. Maia held her position in support of General Falae, but weight crushed her spine. Across the massive holotable, General Keaton stared her superior officer down across the pixel galaxy, with the other three general's off to the side in observation with no stake in the war.

"We're out of time," General Keaton said. "You must see that, Falae. We have to set up this quarantine. We know the Insurgency have gathered their primary force in Kalto." He prodded the edge of the table as if that would accentuate the point. "We won't get another opportunity like this."

"You're forgetting several points, Keaton," General Falae said, flat. "Our intel revealed that the First Insurgency split in half."

General Ijuna piped up from her seat, "We've confirmed defection among the ranks of the Insurgency — which means half of their defenses will be weakened. We have a war on three fronts, and we've run out of resources to continue this. We have to finish this if we want to return stability to the solar system, especially with the bioweapon."

General Falae blinked once, then the blues steeled. "I argued against the usage. It was dangerous and we didn't have the full picture of its capabilities. We didn't know what would happen once we dropped it in the field."

"And we had no other options!" Keaton snapped, and Maia bit on her tongue. "If we didn't push out the Insurgents, they'd never come out of their hole. We would be running around while they sat back and picked us off one by one." He shook his head, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We can't keep going around in circles, or else we might as well wave the white flag." He narrowed his eyes at the battle map, then sighed. "We can't risk the next phase without something to pin them in place. We won't use the bio-weapon. We'll put Kalto under siege."

Maia opened her mouth, but stopped when General Falae eyed her with a warning. "Keaton, that city is full of people. If you send that strike we'll have civilians caught in the crossfire," she argued. "We have to take this cautiously. Try to evacuate people."

"Celestials sake, Falae," Keaton bit. "I say one thing, you say another."

Poron stood up from his chair. "We have to come to a decision now, Falae," he said. "I have an idea. Why not send the Elites during the siege? We have perfectly engineered soldiers and we can use them. If the Insurgency gets pinned by the strike they won't notice the real weapon among them."

Maia jolted at the faint bell from the door, and a young communications officer stepped in. "General Ijuna? We've just received a new report from ground teams."

"What is it?" General Ijuna asked.

The officer took in a breath. "There's something going on in Kalto. They've bolstered their ranks," she explained and shuffled with her datapad. "They've captured the defectors — Rayan Falae among them."

"Perfect." Keaton nodded. "Two birds with one stone. Rayan Falae is — well, was one of the de facto leaders of the First Insurgency."

General Falae's expression hardened into a threat. "He told me he was a tactician, nothing more."

"And it didn't cross your mind that he might've lied? Forget that you went behind our backs to set up a meeting with Rayan Falae." Keaton waved his hand at her. "Your familial relations made you refuse to see the possibility. He has you emotionally compromised," he said with a scoff, and Maia glanced at General Falae's hands when they clenched behind her back, and her expression contorted into her son's rage, hidden underneath a porcelain surface. "You can't deny he is the brains of the First Insurgency. Void Hells, he might've orchestrated the hospital attack and got cold feet after. What do the rest of you think?" Keaton asked, ignoring the target he painted on his own back.

Ijuna nodded at Poron. "The Elites can get people out in marked safe checkpoints while the strike occurs. We'll center artillery fire in abandoned areas as a deterrent."

Maia flinched at the blue fire within General Falae's eyes.

"This is madness, Keaton," she snapped. "Even if you direct the strike into less populated areas people are still going to get caught in it."

"This is our last chance to end this war," he argued. "Once we've taken out the leaders, the Insurgency will fall right with it and we'll stop the strike. If your Elites are as good as you claim they are, it'll be done before any need to intensify the strike." Keaton wrote something down on his datapad and tossed it to Poron. "Send out the order — the First Insurgency dies in Kalto. Send out people ahead of time to screen for Insurgency ties. We keep them in the dark... and this ends here." Maia flinched when Keaton glared at James, who blinked back into attention. "Elite, I have a new order for you. Find both Seeto Utyr and Rayan Falae, take them both out, and end this war."

Trapped in a corner, with no room to argue.

For they were but weapons.

James' nostrils flared. "Understood, sir," he said, where Black Wolf once huffed at authority; he obeyed.

"Good, an Elite who knows his purpose," Keaton said, then eyed General Falae, who never wavered. "Your plan worked for a time, but it's not enough now. Even the bioweapon couldn't keep the bastards down. We have to take action. Sometimes we have to cut your losses, which means your son has to die. I thought you of all people would understand that. You're still an Elite, you don't get to argue. Your Elite has his order. Follow it. Dismissed."

Maia winced when General Falae grabbed her collar and their superior officer dragged them out of Sanctum command.

Stone returned to James' angled features, and shoved into her office, Maia steadied herself when the older woman slammed the door before returning to a calm state when she headed for her desk to shuffle through the infopods.

"I doubt Rayan Falae had anything to do with the hospital attack," James observed with all the disinterest of a Starcross commentator. "We have that, I suppose."

General Falae clutched an infopod. "If I know my son, he's allowed himself to get caught by the First Insurgency."

"What makes you say that, ma'am?" Maia asked.

"We can assume Kalto is the last bastion of the First Insurgency," General Falae explained. "I think Rayan wants to take out the Insurgency from the inside himself. Ranier is right, I do not believe that my son would ever agree to an attack on the hospital, not after Eastpoint."

"I can extract him when the strike starts," Maia said. "Get him to safety..."

General Falae fell silent, and Maia listened to footsteps coming closer to their door. Tension cracked the air, and Maia frowned when she shook her head.

"No, Keaton's given the order. If that is how it must be, I can 'cut my losses'." Her lips pursed in annoyance when her gaze trained on the door. "Ranier, you understand what you must do?"

James continued to stare into space, but he answered, "Yes, ma'am."

Maia searched both their expressions for any hint of emotion, but when the footsteps disappeared, she hissed, "Ma'am, he's your son."

"Yes, he is my son," General Falae whispered. "It's now far too late to wrest control of the bioweapon... and this war will end." She came closer to James, who stared through her. "Ranier, I'm trusting you. If it's you, I don't think my son will put up a fight."

"Should I expect one?"

"Yes, he'll resist."

Maia gaped at the exchange. "James," she muttered under her breath in case someone listened on the other side of the door. "He used to be your friend. Stars, sometimes I think there is still something between you. Don't tell me you're going to kill him over something that's not in his control."

"I have my orders, Maia," he mumbled, full of stone. "My feelings and sentiments don't matter and never have. We've had enough bloodshed."

Maia shoved her emotions back down into her heart and locked them away. "I just... don't agree with this."

Ignored.

General Falae pressed on, "You'll have to do it before the strike starts. I can hold off the attack only for so long. No one will follow Seeto Utyr anymore. I don't want innocents caught in this. If that means letting some Insurgents escape, fine by me," she added under her breath. "Keaton will be satisfied with the leaders down so long as this war ends." Maia raised an eyebrow at the shifting inflection in her voice. "Ranier?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I know they tried to tell you to trust your head before you entered the Elites," General Falae said. "This time, I have an order. I'm ordering you to trust your heart and do what you think is right... and don't let my son suffer anymore for the mistakes of the generation before him."

James blinked and gave her wide-eyed, youthful terror. "I... understand."

General Falae's expression broke into a mother's smile. "There's always a moment in life," she said when she took out crates of infopods out of her desks. "A moment where you have to decide if it's worth the consequences. If it was all worth it in the end. Do you despise what you've become? Can you forgive yourself for the things you've done? Are you willing to make that choice to save the galaxy?"

Maia bit down on her tongue. "He's your son."

General Falae tugged out a rack of infopods out of the box. "Yes, he is my son." She dropped the rack, where it shattered into pieces of glass. "He came into this world on a cold Novin night." Another rack tumbled to the ground and sprayed information along the ground. "And above all, I raised him to believe in his ideals—" Shatter. "—to chase his dreams—" Another infopod cracked at its base. "And past all of that, to protect what he loves." General Falae overturned the whole box, where the infopods broke. "As long as he stands, a cause can continue. It will change, but it can be reborn in the ashes."

In the ice, something more than the righteous fury of Rayan Falae bloomed in the blues, or a mother's weariness.

It was the embers of a starlit rebellion.

"You have your task, Ranier," she said. "Let it not be an enemy my son sees, but his best friend."

Realization dawned through her heart, but she kept her mouth shut when James bowed and missed the clues.

"You need to get set up outside Kalto," she instructed. "I'll send you a warning before the strike starts."

Before Maia followed James outside, General Falae called her back.

"Maia, close the door."

James hesitated, but then walked out, and Maia shut him away. Back to General Falae, she wandered into a quiet corner, as far away from the door as possible. "Yes, ma'am?"

"I want you to do something for me after this operation," General Falae said. "You have a good heart, Maia, but you need to let James handle this. I know that boy."

"Do you?" Maia asked. "You don't think he's going to..."

"No, I don't think he will, but he has to decide that for himself," General Falae admitted. "But, I will tell you this, Urtanes. If it's between the Sanctum, or my son." Her nostrils flared, and she passed an infopod to Maia. "I'd rather save my son, Urtanes. On that infopod is a contact line to a friend of mine. After Kalto, I'm going to pick you up, and we're going to end this. He'll be waiting for us, I need to tell him our own operation needs to get underway."

"What... are you saying?" Maia asked and gripped the infopod.

"In Kalto, do what you must, do what you think is right," she insisted. "But be ready, Maia Urtanes. Understood?"

"... Yes, ma'am." Maia tucked the infopod into her uniform. "I do."

Maia left General Falae in the office to catch up to James.

But I need to make sure.

"James?" she asked. "Does this not bother you?"

He continued forward without answering.

"James?"

"This is necessary," he whispered.

Maia pushed past him. "Don't say that until you have the scope raised to his head." Maia stopped in front of him, where the emotionless, heartbroken stone remained. "Don't say that until you look into his eyes and see the past staring back at you."

Because I saw how you looked at him the first time... like he was the only thing you had left worth living for.