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Beyond Hope
- Chapter 1 -[]
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Prelude: In the darkest hours…[]
Every movement in the universe can be modeled in mathematical form. This is proof not of some divine hand, such a proof would inevitably be inaccurate, as divinity is by definition outside the context of creation.
Kowloon has been occupied by the Rim Worlds Republic since the Age of War, the conquerors of this world getting their victory through the material and technical support of Mankind's oldest nation-the ****** Terrans.
From here, she could imagine she could see the scar of her homeworld's first city, blown to hell by yet more Terrans working on behalf of House Amaris almost forty years ago.
Tonight, today, it is the day. Decades of planning, generations of rage kept quiet and silent, the Rimjobs have moved the divisions stationed here to conquer their benefactors, and left a mere single division and a couple of their less-effective Naval vessels on overwatch.
Anh finished the math, the release, the vector, the curve of gravitation were timed to the meter, ten decimals of complex three-body problem worked out to time with a rising.
A rising for freedom, for vengeance.
For the home of a destiny not enslaved.
She released the cargo, as Deb Sithers and Tonya Jenkins made their own approaches, coasting on gravity at near-relative speeds from the outer system.
The pull-away was only a few tons of thrust, and if the Rimjobs saw it?
Well, they'd be too late anyway.
The Date, is January 1, 2767.
Kowloon, is rising.
By tomorrow, the Garrison fortress that keeps the slave-market in Nha Tranh open for business, will be a pattern of craters lined in meteoric iron.
The sacrifice[]
Dark Cell in outskirts of Unity City
Terra, Terran Hegemony
1st January, 2767
The cold floor of the lab on her feet and legs was causing her muscles cramp.
Amaris had given the orders.
Do nothing to damage their minds. No concussions, knocking unconscious, or choking. Feed them normally.
Allow them to bathe and otherwise be sanitary.
The guards were free to do whatever else they wished to them.
Today they found out why they had been spared certain tortures.
“You see ladies, I found this thanks to Richard. It is the machine that digitized the mind and experiences of the original donor to the M5 program. I had hopes for immortality at first, but it is quite lethal as it turns out. I am many things, one of them is attached to my current state of being. But rather than declare this a waste…”
Amaris eyed them with a sinister smile.
“I had the best minds in the Republic and my new Empire make these.”
A pair of nude female figures that looked very much like them before Amaris and his goons had started taking turns with them were wheeled in.
“They’re fully anatomically correct and equipped with the best synthetic nerves possible. I even have these handy remotes so that I can inject other certain sensations.”
Elizabeth was dragged over to the chair, too weak to move.
Another guard forced her to watch as the procedure started.
After several hours the ‘doll’ that looked like Elizabeth began to move and all Helena could do was watch and cry as Amaris moved to take his new toy away with him.
Elizabeth's battered body in the couch lunged, then lunged again, and again…and the padded restraints tore loose, as the 'doll' also stepped, negligently, tearing free from its mounting.
What followed, was not what he expected, as her soon-to-be-dead sister rasped something, and moved, catching one guard by surprise, she stripped his weapon from his hands, and the doll attacked the other.
Amaris, quite reasonably, fled the room, screaming for guards.
"Come on, Helena, we've gotta get out of here!!" Her sister…and the doll, spoke as one.
Helena trembled as she extended her arm, weekly grasping her sister’s or was it the dolls?
She didn’t know for sure. She was too weak to do much more than barely stand and stay standing while she was practically dragged along by whichever one of them it was.
"Pick her up and GO!!"
"But-"
"I've got this. Get Helena to safety, she's the only one that matters now!!"
That was when Helena could tell. She was in the hands of the doll. It carried her gently. The very advanced robot covered in synthetic flesh, that had been made to look very lifelike, and very much like her sister, had one difference. It didn’t have her sister’s smell.
The three ran-well, the robot carrying Helena ran, and Elizabeth was pushing herself to keep up.
"Lizzie!!"
"I'll be with you always." Elizabeth stopped, dropped to one knee, and began firing as the guards, finally organized tried to pursue. "GO!!! DAMN YOUR EYES GO!!!"
Helena’s voice was too weak to allow her anything more than unintelligible sounds as she tried to call out for her sister.
The doll picked up its pace. All the secret ways opened to them and closed on the guards. It was the only thing that allowed them to get to the shuttlepad.
"Shhh…I know." the robot said, "I know…you're the one who matters to her, matters to me."
Elizabeth…two? Other? Manipulated the locks and carried Helena into the shuttle, sealed it up, strapped her in, and took the controls.
"Where can we go?" Helena managed to murmur.
"Away from here. I know exactly where…"
Helena just nodded as she tried to adjust the simple gown she had been forced to wear since being captured by Amaris’ goons. It did not give her proper modesty. But there wasn’t time to get her anything else to wear before they launched.
Elizabeth didn't bother to wait for the clearance, or for the silo doors to fully open before lifting out-a move she'd done at the Academy not three months and a lifetime ago. "Broadcast signal sigma alpha two six one, Elizabeth Cameron override Delta, seven nine seven one five, defense system deactivate. 'On my word as witch of the skies' end." the robot sighed, "they'll take at least an hour getting the air defenses operating again, Helena. The computer core he used is on a ship, we're taking that ship away from him…and away from here."
Helena just let the tears flow as she felt the press of the thrust. Despite not seeing it for herself she knew her sister was now dead, having sacrificed herself for them.
Punish with touch of Mercy[]
Hue, Kowloon, morning of the 2nd of July, mid-summer…0344 AM
The strike had flattened the Garrison outside of Kowloon's oldest remaining city, and the Grange riders from outside town and up the Little Mekong all the way down to Golden Lake converged, by water and land, taking Militia Police stations and Security checkpoints all the way to the ornate palace that housed Governor Suleiman 'Slaver' Bin Hawli and his wives.
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Tranh Truk Ngo
Tran Truk Ngo paced into the courtyard, ranchers and outriders saluting with captured weapons and weapons brought by smugglers and from other sources.
"What do we do with his family, sir?"
"Let them go to the Civil Service dependents quarter, make it clear they're not safe if they come out."
"You're not going to break the defenses there?"
Tran shook his head, "Why? Best cell in the world, they're holding it locked for us.."
He paused, as men from the Luus Nghien family up Ia Drang came out, dragging Kowloon's Rim Worlds Governor in rope bindings, naked.
"Mister Governor." Tran tipped his hat, "We have business, you…and all of us."
"I'm valuable! I have…I know Access codes, and accounts!! I can make you Wealthy!!" he pleaded.
"No. You're going to join your staff…" he pointed at the bridge extending from the lowlands up to Highway One coming down the Plateau, "You're going to hang, Mister Governor, for all you've done for us." he glanced, "Hang him mid-span, he can join his senior staff."
"Yass sah!"
The fat man screamed and pleaded as he was dragged up the main street of oldtown, to the highway bridge, a crowd of angry residents, and angrier rurals, jeering and shouting invective.
Tran followed up the bridge, half a kilometer he walked while the Rim Worlder governor tried to beg for mercy, for his life…
"I'm letting your kids live, Mister Governor, I'm letting your wives live. That there, is mercy enough and more than you've shown us." he picked up the rope, as his men held the condemned, "There's always gotta be a cost, Mister Governor, I would that I could hang you a hundred more times, but it ain't the world." he cinched the noose, and (wth help) tossed the obese overlord over the side, to snap the rope taut.
Screwed up the knot, the man was still struggling down there.
"Sir?"
"Leave him, make sure he doesn't somehow come back up the rope, but let the son of a bitch hang." Tran said, "we've got to get ready for their counter strike, no Dinh Dieps this time, we don't stay concentrated where they can decap the leaders of The Movement in a single orbital strike."
As he walked back down the bridge, watching as other Rimjob officials-and a few of their officers, joined the Governor's dance over the kilometer-wide river, he looked to Town, and the flag of the Rim Worlds Republic had been taken down.
The Red-blue-and-gold banner of the Kowloon Republic was being hoisted as the second sun started to crest the eastern horizon of a mild winter day.
Tran stopped, and saluted the banner that had been outlawed since the Rim Worlds Conquest.
"We're going to need the government in exile to stop being in exile." Tran resolved. “I also want it clear that families are not to be harmed. That’s a Rim Worlder tactic, not ours.”
No, we haven't had a president since we were conquered…
Cal Sithers, dressed out in his pressure suit and helmet off, met him at the base of the bridge.
"Mercy, sir?"
"We're not animals." Tran said, "We're going to need a provisional government to get the lights back on and keep order. You know that, right?" Tran stated.
"Ayeh, Sirrah."
"I want the Belts in it this time, helping lead…and we have to move fast."
"What do we do when Amaris cries to the Camerons and they send a Royal Division this way again?"
"We fight. There can be no peace with slavers, or slavery, and we've lived the price of surrender." Tran said, "So…never again. Pass the word, make it ring, never again. To the last of us?"
"To the last of us."
“Then let’s burn together.”
By noon, his wife Marjery, with her degree in political science from UW Donegal, had been elected [Provisional] President of a Provisional government, and by E: 30 (25:30 on a 30 hour clock) the provisional assembly had re-ratified the Colonial Charter Constitution that had been suspended and outlawed after the Conquest.
It was weak, it was ad-hoc, but Kowloon had a government of its own by the 3rd of July, 2767…
Steps by Steps to Recovery[]
SLS Elizabeth Cameron, CiC
Lutyens 64-28, Uncharted System in Terran Hegemony
3rd July, 2767
Elizabeth had managed to at least find an emergency ‘one size fits most’ jumpsuit in the shuttle for Helena to change into to allow her some minor modesty.
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"Elizabeth Cameron"
Still Helena did not let anyone other than her ‘sister’ get close to her.
“Why is she acting that way?” A nurse from the station asked.
“One of Amaris’ particularly cruel tortures. He’d have his guards dress up as members of the ‘SLDF’ to ‘rescue’ us and then demand a ‘reward’. He was particularly delighted in having them dress up as members of the Royal Black Watch.” Elizabeth answered.
“But you don’t seem to have that problem.” The nurse said.
“I’m not human anymore. I have all of Elizabeth’s experiences, all her pain and anguish. Everything she too suffered at the hands of Amaris and his highest supporters and the guards that he had watch us. I’m no longer that weak thing that could not stop it until it was almost too late. My perspective has changed a lot.” Elizabeth answered. "...I'm not her anymore. I saw her die, to save Helena, she chose to hold them off long enough for us to escape."
“I’m not even sure where to begin. But we do need to tend to your sister. Has she at least been eating like we instructed?”
“I’ll make sure she’s relaxed enough to let you give her the routine exam you wish and yes, she is eating. Amaris did not want us to starve. I think he also delighted in trying to keep us ‘pretty’. So he fed us reasonably well.”
Elizabeth stepped over to her sister. “It’s okay. They just want to make sure you’re healing like you should be. We’re safe here. I promise. I’ll stay with you the whole time.”
The exam was nerve wracking for Helena as she had to disrobe and be touched in places she did not like being touched right now but Elizabeth was with her.
The laundry list of physical and sexual abuse that was now documented would gave any sane person pause, and most nightmares.
A shower after the exam helped calm Helena.
“What are we going to do now?” Helena asked as she sat down to eat.
“Take it one day at a time.” Elizabeth answered.
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