Ravens of Eternity

300 Just Max

Planet St Jakque, Montsoll System, House de Jardin

The Ravens flashed in at the planet’s teleport beacon, high above its orbit. Both the Spirit of Amelia and the Accursed Bootlegger were scanned by planetary security, then allowed to descend down to the planet.

As they approached, they wowed at the planet itself.

It was, like many capitol planets, one great big city. However, unlike most other city-wide planets, this one was still incredibly lush and beautiful and filled with all manner of flora and fauna. The plantlife’s primary colors were a deep orange, going all the way to a dark, earthy brown. Its seas sparkled a brilliant lavender, which Eva immediately adored.

And despite the massive ringed city that spanned its entire equator, the rest of the planet was mostly forested land. Cities of various sizes, many of them massive, sat nestled nicely inside of those vast forests.

Both their corvettes descended the atmosphere at incredible speeds, and caused layers of air to burn up in their wake. Their hulls glowed orange as they absorbed the heat of atmospheric entry, but began to cool off and dull as they slowed down and descended further.

The Ravens got a much better look of the cities, and in particular the equator city, which they were headed to specifically. As Claire contacted traffic control and got permission to land, the others raved at the scenes all around them.

Here, the city was still covered in stunning nature. Grass was found more often than paving, and trees very often circled or lined the buildings themselves.

The buildings themselves were unlike the boring, boxy ones that were in the Federation, though they weren’t quite like the organic, coral-like buildings in the Empire. They were curved and stylish, and almost all of them tapered up towards the top.

.....

They also didn’t seem to be made out of reinforced titacrete, but rather some kind of semi-synthetic tungsten-based hyperpolymer.

More importantly, they differed from each other very slightly, in terms of their aesthetics, curves, and expressions. Though they were all also bound by multiple similarities, such as overall length, width, and even color.

Every building also had numerous plants that hung down from them. They were often decorated with long orange vines that grew numerous multicolored blossoms up and down their length.

The buildings themselves shifted color based on the environment around them, from the plants surrounding them, or the current weather, or the people walking around. They were often somewhat darker than the plants that were all around, as though to highlight the natural beauty around them, while minimizing the building itself. Or rather, to show that they were part of nature as well.

Even more impressive, the colors shifted as the hours passed – they were darker during the night, and lighter during the day. They also very subtly shifted among each other, so the entire city looked as though it was fading in between colors. And it all made the people and the planet seem to be in harmony with each other.

It was unbearably beautiful to every single Raven, and seemed a literal paradise to them.

They came to the equator city’s primary star harbor, which was a series of massive wind-swept towers that were staggered among each other. Here, a multitude of ships traveled in and out of the towers, each one guided by personal beacons that traffic control sent their systems.

The Ravens wove through all of the ship traffic as directed, and headed towards the largest tower. It sat in the middle of all the others, and seemed the largest and most regal of them all. They flew towards their assigned hangar, close to the top of the tower itself, and watched with awe as the huge hangar bay doors slid open to let them in.

Their ships slowed as they hovered over the landing pads inside, then carefully set themselves down on it. And as their ships decompressed and let in fresh planetary air, the hangar bay doors slowly slid back closed.

It didn’t take long for the Ravens to disembark from their respective ships, and head towards the far end of the hangar, where the transport tubes to the surface were. But they only got halfway before a small gravity pad came zipping up to them.

On it was Max, who had a joyfully wide grin etched on his face. He was lightly armored in what appeared to be the de Jardin colors – burgundy, black, and silver. On his armor’s right breast was the logo of the de Jardins, which was a woman in robes leading an unseen charge while wielding a shield in one hand, and a long open scroll in the other.

He came to a stop next to them, waved hello, then urged them to get on board. As the Ravens climbed on, they realized that the gravity pad was much larger than it looked. It was certainly enough to hold all of them.

Along with two heavily armed and armored soldiers to boot.

“Don’t mind them,” said Max. “They’re just my, uh, assigned House Guards. Anyway, it’s great to see you all! Looks like you got a few new members, too, huh?”

The Ravens then introduced Kali and Lucifer to Max, who most certainly didn’t know who either of them were. Kali was completely surprised that he didn’t recognize her, but then again she was practically a whole different person.

As they spoke, Max tapped on his datapad and caused the gravpad to speed off towards the elevation tubes.

“You can’t even imagine how happy I was when I saw your comms a week ago,” he said. “And sorry it took me this long to arrange a landing.”

“Don’t sweat it,” said Claire. “Honestly, we kinda expected this to take way longer. Months longer, even.”

“If not years,” Xylo added.

“Well, I guess it helps to know me, huh?” Max joked. “Anyway, nation-state status, huh? That’s a big move. Seriously big. Especially since you’re defecting from the Federation. My House loves that sorta thing. But... There’s a bit of a downside.”

“What, are the Ravens too small or something?” asked Eva. “Or do we not qualify some way or another?”

“No, no, not at all. Well, maybe a bit. More like, we’re gonna run into political problems getting you in. It’s not like nation-states get born every cycle or anything. Choosing who gets to be sponsored for one takes a whole lot of time and effort and vetting. There’s a whole lot of opposition at times.”

“Would other Houses really get in the way?” asked Lucifer.

“Yeah, kinda. Mostly, they’ll just try to snipe you and sponsor you themselves. Happens sometimes. Depending on your political importance, the Federation might use diplomacy to block your founding. But you don’t really have to worry about that – you’re not a major corporation with hundreds of trillions of credits or ducats at stake.

“Really, we mostly have to worry about my Father. He’s the type who would block you, just because I’m the one pushing for your sponsorship.”

“He sounds like a real piece of work,” Kali muttered.

“Yeah, he’s a serious hardass. And he’s got a massive reputation on top of it. His people call him Dregha Skeszha – the Star Dragon. You Feds, er, ex-Feds refer to him as Admiral Blood.”

Xylo’s eyes immediately went wide when she heard the moniker. Her unit had definitely heard of Admiral Blood. Most of the Federation Navy had heard of him.

“Are you serious?” she cried out. “Your dad is the goddamn High Admiral of the 5th Hegemony Fleet? Is that some kind of joke?”

“Can you maybe not be so loud?” Max exclaimed. “But yeah, that’s him. What he says has huge pull in the Hegemony, especially since he’s winning his colonial war against the Federation. Or at least, he says he is. If he decides he wants to label you as degenerate spies, people will believe him. We don’t want him to oppose your sponsorship, no matter what.”

“We saw the aftermath of one of his planetary skirmishes out in the colonies,” said Eva. “It was a massacre. The naval fleet stationed there didn’t have half a chance. Their bodies and their ships were scattered everywhere.”

“You all saw him fight?” asked Lucifer. “What was he like? How’d his fleet move?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Xylo answered. “We were hired to salvage the battlefield.”

“And also to lay to rest the crew of a particular ship,” added Amal. “At the behest of their families.”

The gravpad reached an alcove set into the wall at the far end of the hangar. Its transparent door slid open and out of the way, which allowed the gravpad to enter the elevator tube. They then began to descend down the entire tower, and watched as they passed hangar after hangar along the way.

Given the height of the whole thing, it took them many minutes to get down to the bottom.

“You mentioned your father would oppose our sponsorship simply because of your involvement,” said Miko. “Why is that? If he is against the Federation, wouldn’t our switching of allegiances make him happy?”

“Yes, it would, honestly,” Max answered. “The simple fact is that he hates me right now. It’s because I deserted the Hegemony marines, remember? When I came back, I planned to confess it all, and show the rest of the House why the war’s wrong. But I never even got the chance.”

“I see now. Your father is ashamed of you, and swept you under a rug somewhere.”

“Yeah, exactly. He covered up my desertion, mostly to protect the de Jardin name. Also his own legacy and influence. Can’t have the son of a highly decorated officer be vocally antiwar. He would’ve been torn down from his post. Or at least, that’s what he thinks.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t execute you or something,” joked Eva.

“He almost did,” Max replied. “Exile came a close second. In the end, he decided to court-martial me, then put me under house arrest. If it wasn’t for my grandmother, I would still be locked down at the de Jardin headquarters.

“She took me under her wing, sort of, and got me into the House Tribunal. I got trained to be an Arbiter, and started doing some really good work as a result. Nothing too crazy. Basic civic judgements here, criminal accountancy there.”

“That’s kind of her,” said Eva.

“Kindness, sure. But also saving the de Jardin name. She’s really hawkish about that, and knew that keeping me as the family pariah wasn’t going to do any of us any good. She reasoned that if I wasn’t going to fight for the House, then I was at least going to keep it orderly.”

“So, basically, get your grandmother’s help? Is that what you’re saying?” said Claire. “If we get her help, she could counter your father’s opinion?”

“Well, yes, that would be good,” Max replied. “But...”

“But?”

“She’s the de Jardin Grand Matriarch. She’s literally the most powerful person in the entire House. If anyone could refute my father, she could. Her words sway the Hegemony, easily.

“That said, asking for her sponsorship directly is... a bit of a challenge. Getting her to sign up to support us, and going over my father, potentially against him, is going to take a whole lot of effort on our part.”

~Author Notes~

Times are getting rough for all of us – global inflation, corporate greed, etc. And to help with that I’m reducing my chapter word count so they’re cheaper to unlock. I recommend supporting me directly on P A T R E O N slash CeritusOrbis. You can read for a more affordable cost and the chapters are one week ahead! Also – I’m considering starting a webtoon of Ravens of Eternity.