Ravens of Eternity

452 Action-Reaction, Pt Planet Chiruuk, Anye System, Great House Shaizen, Hegemony of Free Peoples (formerly)

The shattered debris of thousands of warships hung in high orbit above the war-torn planet. Joining the wrecked Hegemony and Imperial ships were tens of thousands of frozen corpses floating in space alongside.

Most had been torn to pieces or burnt to a crisp from all kinds of weapons fire. Some were frozen solid as they choked to death.

Regardless of how they met their end, it was no doubt incredibly painful.

Space around the planet’s port beacon flashed and warped as part of the Corvus Republic teleported in. Alongside their ships were a few dozen Einherjar warships – mostly cruisers and heavy frigates. All of them flew down towards the planet once the entirety of them had finished porting in.

As they did so, Rear Admiral Shintarra issued her orders fleet-wide.

“We need to avoid the cities,” she said. “All their ports are filled to the brim with ships and people, so all we’d do is get in the way of their operations.”

“So where do we go then?” asked an Einherjar rear admiral. “Why’d we come all this way if we weren’t going to try to evacuate as many people as we can?”

“We’ll still be doing that,” replied Pallon, a Corvus Republic Civil Defense Major General. “‘Cept we’ll be going for the smaller townships and communes and what have you. The ones who’re cut off from the major cities and star harbors.

.....

“Which, by the way, could we get some data? Maybe find the most vulnerable people?”

“Scan’s already underway,” Daerven replied. He had taken over as Chief Technologist since Raijin transferred herself to Yggdrasil. Though he was greatly honored when he was elected to the position, he was highly apprehensive about it.

He turned to the terminal on his right and scanned the dozens of reports that his staff sent. Each of them had quickly analyzed the countless small cities and towns dotted all over the planet. They compared who were most isolated and in dire need of support, such as those living on islands or remote research camps or frontier towns.

There were many. More than enough to fill their ships with people five times over.

And the list he had was still far too large to present. There were hundreds of thousands of townships and cities and communities all over the planet, all of them in dire need of help. He couldn’t just show all of them to the rest of the fleet.

They’d never be able to make a decision. It was up to him to choose the ones most in need.

He grimaced at the decision itself, at having to choose who evacuate, and who to leave. Who lives, who dies. Sure, they had collectively done this for close to a decade now, but this one decision felt too heavy.

To him, Raijin would’ve filtered through it all in the blink of an eye and presented the absolute best choices possible. Of course, he was no Raijin. Then again, he didn’t need to be. As she and Freya had always said, all that was necessary was for them to do their best with whatever they had.

A flash of inspiration hit him suddenly, and instead of presenting a shorter list, he decided to alter the tacmap with everything they needed.

He placed layers of colored heatmaps on top of the planet’s holoprojection to represent the raw data. Specifically, to show where they were most concentrated, or had the most needs, or were more isolated, and so on.

And in doing so, revealed the numerous communities the fleet could target – those who were at the lowest had the highest priority. Where all those heatmaps were most concentrated across every spectrum.

It greatly impressed everyone who saw it.

“Alright, looks like our path’s clear,” said Shintarra. “Here’s our route. Any objections?”

She targeted numerous communities along a path that stretched nearly all the way around the planet itself. Major General Pallon added a few other points as she did so, but everyone else seemed content.

“I’m estimating that we’ll be picking up close to a million civilians,” Pallon muttered. “Can we even handle that much?”

“We’ve got the room,” said another Einherjar officer. “Plenty of space in our holds. ‘Specially now that we’ve emptied out the spare munitions. Could maybe do one and a quarter mil.”

“With supplies?” asked Shintarra.

“With supplies.”

“Then let’s get this operation going.”

The Corvus Republic then immediately adjusted course and went straight toward their first target on the planet. As always, an army of sonic emitter drones came down and announced their rescue plans even as the fleet itself approached from a distance.

They were soon followed up by numerous Civil Defense hoppers and emergency pods which came down in small groups all over the small city. Throngs of anxiety-ridden people waved at them mostly out of cheer and greeting. Sometimes due to panic coming from the need to be rescued.

The CRCD rescue teams came out of the hoppers and immediately went to work in helping out everyone closest to them. They treated anyone who needed aid or fed anyone who was hungry. Most critically, they helped everyone evacuate the city itself.

Each of the teams stationed themselves at various locations and corners, and pointed everyone towards the next team down the line. As a whole, they helped usher everyone inside the small city out to where the rest of the fleet landed – at the city’s outskirts.

Each of the cruisers and frigates in both the Corvus Republic and the Einherjar settled themselves into wide semicircles around the small city itself. That allowed everyone to evacuate out the most convenient route and pick any of the ships to evacuate in.

The CRCD did their absolute best to get as many people as they could through the streets. Some even escorted larger groups of people towards their evacuation points, while others packed their hoppers with the sick and wounded and infirm.

Those went back up into the air and sped straight towards the medical ships scattered all around, where they quickly docked and unloaded their patients.

Their rescue proceeded like clockwork. It was all highly efficient, proceeded quickly and with very little interruptions and delays.

More importantly, whatever panic the people felt seemed to dissipate. At the very least, their worries didn’t seem quite so imminent. Sure, they were all harried and hurried. Who knew if their planet was next in line to get swallowed up by the void?

But the very presence of their rescuers gave them a greater sense of calm and security. It wasn’t just their professionalism, or their dedication to safety and health. It was that they seemed to genuinely care. And because of that, they were all going to be alright in the end.

It didn’t take long for the first of the city’s inhabitants to reach the first of the ships. All were guided aboard by more CRCD rescue teams, along with the officers and crew of the respective ships themselves.

Some were intimidated by the Einherjar’s military ships and demeanor, though they pushed those feelings aside quickly. Refusing rescue in the face of utter annihilation was simply a ridiculous notion.

A few became trepidatious at the prospect. Although they were looking at being utterly annihilated by some unknown cosmic force, it also hit them that they were losing everything they had. Whole families were forced to uproot themselves and leave behind everything they ever knew.

They had little choice but to leave on these ships and face a future filled with uncertainties and misfortunes.

Whatever fears they had were quickly resolved as their system’s star began to dim and fade. Quickly. They watched in real time as Godeater’s shadow began to swallow it up more and more. And as it did so, its light waned.

~

Back on Yggdrasil Station, countless fleet commanders and assistants worked tirelessly in what appeared to be a massive central communications chamber. There were dozens and dozens of small semi-private communications terminals all facing outward.

Similar to an Imperial bridge, the chamber was ringed with one large wraparound screen with numerous live feeds and comms lines plastered all around. Each of those feeds were of the Corvus Republic and the Einherjar in various sectors of the galaxy.

All were doing their part with ongoing rescue operations, everywhere. Some, like on Chiruuk, were a bit too close for comfort. Their operators were yelling at Shintarra to get the hell out as fast as possible.

But of course, she wasn’t having any of it. They had just landed, after all.

Freya, Raijin, and Azrael walked around the chamber and observed as everything went on all around them. They watched as the many teams coordinated with each other as they saved as many people as possible.

The chamber was filled to the brim with incredible amounts of tension – so much was at stake, after all. Although it felt thick enough to choke everyone to death, they all also held a sense of hope inside. And that kept them going through everything.

The three were incredibly impressed at what everyone was able to accomplish all around them.

Tens of millions of people, saved.

“This is great and all, honestly,” said Freya. “We get as many people as we can out of Godeater’s path, save them from getting turned into more… more Godeater. But then what? Where are we gonna relocate them? Can’t keep them on our ships forever. We just don’t have the supplies.”

“I don’t know,” Azrael answered with a sigh. “But doing something’s better than nothing at all, right? Better that we pick people up where we can. We can figure out the rest afterwards.”

“We could potentially bring them all here,” said Raijin. “Yggdrasil is a planet onto itself. I could have it recreate something like Helios in a layer. Except not simply a city, but an entire planetary ecosystem. Soil, water, atmosphere. Could even simulate a star instead of a black hole.”

Freya looked downcast as Raijin spoke.

It truly was an ideal solution – the remnants of civilization could hide out at Yggdrasil for as long as they needed. Raw materials were richest here, at the very center. They had everything they could ever want, for many tens of thousands of years.

But it would also be a prison of sorts. There’d be no leaving it, as the only other thing out there would be Godeater and its endless darkness.

Worse, there wasn’t any guarantee at all that Godeater wouldn’t consume Yggdrasil either. Just because it hadn’t done so already didn’t mean it wasn’t going to later. Everything felt as though they were right on the precipice of falling into an eternal abyss.

“I really like the sound of that,” Azrael replied. “But Yggdrasil can’t be the only option, yeah? There has to be other places out there that maybe Godeater can’t reach, or maybe doesn’t want to. Is that even a thing?”

Silence filled the space between the three.

“Admittedly, there are planets that Godeater has not consumed,” Raijin said after a moment. “Even deep inside its own territory. Yggdrasil is still receiving signals from those few systems.”

“Wait, hold on,” Freya interjected. “Are you implying that Godeater chose not to take over a few planets? A few systems? Really?”

Raijin nodded solemnly, but with a wry smile.

“Interesting, is it not?” she said. “That, combined with its targeted takeover of certain systems implies a level of planning and purpose. Its goals are not simply to consume the galaxy. Also, they are not merely a few planets, but many planets in the galaxy.”

“What kinda planets and systems are they?” Azrael asked.

“Mostly lifeless, without atmosphere. Impossible for anything to live on them. But a great handful are lush and rich with life. Some are incredibly abundant with various lifeforms. For example, every single sanctuary planet in the Hegemony has been spared.”

“Okay, well that’s a thing. Can we put people on them? Should we put people on them?”

“Yeah, sure, why not?” said Freya. “Problem is, though, would Godeater wipe ‘em out if we do that?”

“Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Azrael replied. “And that’s to put people on ‘em.”