Nova Wars

The biggest part of a rebellion is knowing when to lay down your arms. That it is over. That you have won.

The problem is, some want to keep fighting, out of blood lust, idealism, or just to keep hurting someone. They won't stop, until they are sated or until their chosen people are in charge.

We were lucky. The Dra.Falten were able to put down our weapons after we had won.

Once, of course, we had eliminated those who wanted to throw away our victory and keep fighting. - Excerpt from: When the Empress Knelt, the Dra. Falten Civil War, New Telkan Press, 3 Post Terran Emergence

The amount of "commoner" female Dra.Falten had fallen from millions to almost none since the last Empress, praise to her memory, so the search for the Emperor's bride was slow.

Ilvekrik amused himself during the search by watching as the Emperor ruthlessly put down those loyal to the Empress. He had his own work to do, but it was nice to see those slavishly loyal to a dead female get purged themselves after they had committed so many purges.

Everyone knew that the Emperor had poisoned his twin sister.

Many traditionalists felt he should have done so decades ago.

Ilvekrik didn't really care.

Captain Okleka had given the orders, he'd helped put down the ones who wouldn't stop, then he had stopped.

That's not to say the rivet gun wasn't wrapped in aerogel normally used on stealth drones and then hidden under the sink.

There was plenty of available housing now.

The Way of the Means and the Means of the Way troopers had ensured that when they had opened fire on riots and demonstrations with energy weaponry more commonly seen on military armored vehicles than riot control vehicles.

The city, not the capital but another megapolis, had clouds all over. Ilvekrik had heard that the planners had wanted a sunny day to have the Event outside, but the pressures on the weather system had mandated at least rain.

The city Ilvekrik lived in had been populated by nearly thirty-eight million Dra.Falten, 95% of them males, before the Popcorn Rebellion had started. Now there was only two point six million, a third of the buildings were destroyed, all the skyrakers and arcologies were gone, even the larger hab complexes were gone.

The Way of the Means had dropped atomic weaponry on skyrakers and arcologies and hab complexes rather than clear them out in close quarter's fighting. Millions had been killed in the bombings but millions more had died from untreated radiation poisoning afterwards.

Which is why Ilvekrik had ridden inside a captured APC to the airbase nearly fifty miles past the city limit and joined the charge on the wire.

He had personally fired rockets into the hulls of the large intra-atmosphere bombers.

It had been glorious.

He had to admit, as he watched the tri-vee as the new Empress to Be walked down the steps in an intricate dress, that he liked blowing stuff up more than he liked killing people.

He had liked handing out food and medical supplies they took from the Way armories and supply rooms too.

Which is why he was watching the official betrothal on a Tri-Vee in a nice front room in a spacious and roomy apartment that only had the windows closed off with tape and plastic. He had learned how to get things working again after an EMP and the little robots had cleaned the apartment nicely and gotten rid of the smell of decay.

The Tri-Vee had better clarity than anything he had ever thought he could afford.

He watched as the large female stepped out from behind the screens and stopped at the top of the stairs. Lighting flickered outside but Ilvekrik knew the difference between lightning and something terrible now.

The female looked around then motioned for small male servants to pull back the screens.

Giving everyone the first view of the Betrothed & Beloved, the Empress to Be.

The future Empress's dress was amazing, Ilvekrik admitted to himself. It scintillated, sparkled, and moved slowly through the more pleasant colors. She had tiny twinkles on the tips of her whiskers, which were straight and pleasant to view. Her eyes were wide and lovely.

The whole thing made Ilvekrik a little sad. It reminded him of his own wedding, in a field of flowers, in front of the Life Bonding Tree, on a beautiful summer's day with a slight breeze that had rustled the leaves and showered those getting bonded with sweet pear blossom petals.

The Empress to Be reached the bottom of the stairs and moved slowly forward. At the end of the carpet she stopped and knelt down, her dress spread out around her, like she was sitting on a sparkling cloud.

The Emperor stepped forward.

Ilvekrik watched as the slow stately movements continue. The Emperor asked questions, which Ilvekrik couldn't hear, then held out his hand to the Empress. The Empress asked a question, again, Ilvekrik couldn't hear it.

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The high pitched whining in his ears prevented him from hearing the Empress ask the Emperor for clemency and amnesty for all of the rebels who put down their weapons with the intent of making and working for peace. He didn't hear the Empress to Be clarify that those who were discontented with the Emperor were no surrendering to the Crown but rather offering a gift to her wedding to embrace peace.

At the Emperor's motion a Dra.Falten male stepped forward. He had a bag with eyeholes cut in it over his head, gloves on, and held a painted and modified power rifle in his hands. The Dra.Falten offered the power rifle to the Empress to Be. The Empress to Be accepted it in the name of those yet to be born and hopes for a better Empire for the children.

The bag headed one stepped back.

Ilvekrik remembered the concerns that it was a trap to catch one of the leaders.

Grand Field Marshal Nekplak had been injured three months prior, healing up in a basement medical center. He knew nothing of any value, as all of his information was months out of date. His scarring had obviously been hidden by clothing and possible CGVFX.

That was a test. If the government led one of the early planetary leaders leave unmolested, it meant the Emperor and Empresses' promises could be trusted.

Lighting flicked outside and this time the thunder rumbled his apartment. Wind picked up, snapping the plastic covering the windows that had been blown out when the Way of the Means had dropped a therm on the hab blocks on the other side of the city.

Ilvekrik wondered, briefly, as the BobCo representative stepped forward, just how much the atomic, no, the nukes that they'd seized at one of the air bases would matter. Hydrogen fueled fusion weapons with a payload measure in the tens of megatons.

The initial idea was to use them to hold the cities hostage by threatening to detonate them one or two per city until the rebellion's demands were met.

Ilvekrik had pointed out that the Way of the Means and the Means of the War were willing to blow up the cities, mostly full of only males, so that would provide no leverage for the rebellious Dra.Falten. All destroying the city did was punish the males.

They'd be doing the Empress's work for her.

It had been Ilvekrik's idea to send all but two of the weapons back inside of heavy vehicles that were parked inside of a sealed warehouse.

The weapons had been arranged in numerical order of the serial numbers painted on the warheads.

With two gaps.

On the ground had been painted, with a high definition painting drone, an aerial view of the palace. On the other one was an aerial view of the huge cloning facilities.

The threat had been silent and simple.

And had been found the same day the Emperor had poisoned the Empress.

Ilvekrik kind of wondered if he'd been responsible for the Empress being poisoned.

He couldn't hear whatever it was that was said to the Empress to Be by the BobCo representative, but whatever it was, it had the males around her beaming with hope and surprise.

Then the Fallen Confederacy representatives, then the representatives from the Strevik'al Dominion and the Grenklakail Empire. Whatever was being said made lots of smiles, happy body language, and movements.

Then the Empress directly addressed the public.

Her speech ended with a flicker of lighting outside of Ilvekrik's apartment.

She curtseyed.

The camera pulled back to show everyone in attendence.

Then it was over.

No mandatory viewing termination tone, just a picture of the Imperial Estate then the news. The Chiron was talking all about how ansibles were being moved into place. How the Nebula-Steam servers were going to go live.

But the big one, is that the Emperor had stepped forward and said that the horrible disparity between the sexes would be eliminated. That the creches and the cloning banks would only be used until the population was stable or twenty years, which ever was first. And it would be a 1.5 males to 1 female.

The BobCo representative would help the Dra.Falten find gainful activities outside of eVR fantasy for the males to do.

It made Ilvekrik wince that the males his age were already being called 'The Lost Generation' by the news and the experts.

The Strevik'al Dominion and the Grenklakail Empire had agreed to a cease fire on the contested planets as a gift to the Empress on her betrothal. The Fallen Confederacy had agreed to maintain the cease fire through peace keeping operations.

It made Ilvekrik wonder what was going to happen to the millions of soldiers on those planets.

After a few moments the lights flashed, which Ilvekrik knew meant someone was ringing on his doorbell. He checked real quick and saw it was Captain Okleka with a Dra.Falten male with a medic first responder jacket on.

Ilvekrik let them both in.

It took a little bit of pantomiming, but Ilvekrik understood after a few minutes.

With the BobCo mediforges working again, the medic was going to give Ilvekrik an injection at the base of the jaw on each side and then help attune the new implants.

The whining was pretty bad and Ilvekrik agreed just on the off chance that it would go away.

After only ten minutes the loud ringing noise slowly got quieter than quit all together.

"Better?" Captain Okleka asked.

"Yes," Ilvekrik sighed.

"The shots should also regrow the fur on the side of your head," the medic said. His voice was slightly lower than Ilvekrik had thought it would be.

"My boy gets too close to the rocket launchers sometimes," Captain Okleka laughed, slapping Ilvekrik on the back.

The medic just nodded, packing up his stuff. "Now that the forges are working, BobCo's sending me a list of customers. I would love to stay and talk, but I am needed."

The medic left and Captain Okleka's attitude changed instantly.

"Too good and scared to help us. I dragged you to him once. He didn't want to risk the Dommy Mommies kicking in his door, but now he's almost too good for us because his shit comes out like silly string and smelling like cotton candy," Captain Okleka snarled.

"They'll come out of the woodwork. The ones who 'would have helped but...' and all of that," Ilvekrik said. "There was fifteen survivors from Marshal Iron Ears Stompers..." he started.

"And we'll meet all five hundred in the bars and chat rooms in the next few years," Captain Okleka finished. He looked around. "Honestly, I'm surprised. I figured you'd be online."

Ilvekrik shook his head. "I didn't know the servers were actually up already. I saw on the news they were going to be."

"Turned them right after the speech," the Captain gave a sharp laugh. "Part of the new tutorial area is watching the betrothal in the capital city."

There was silence for a moment.

"Are you going to reroll?" Ilvekrik asked.

The Captain looked outside.

The weather computer had finally decided to do something and the rain was coming down.

"No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know," he said.

Ilvekrik nodded. "Same here. We can't go back, but having to rebuild my life after... after..."

"After all we've done," the Captain said.

The wind made the plastic over the windows pop and snap.

"I've got to go. Other members of the Company will need to know it's safe to get medical treatment for the injuries that left them sidelined," the Captain stood up. He put his hand on Ilvekrik's shoulder. "It was an honor to stand by your side."

"The honor was all mine," Ilvekrik said.

The Captain left and Ilvekrik walked out onto the balcony, slipping by the plastic sheeting that vibrated and snapped.

He wasn't even aware that he'd picked the eyepiece up off the table until he saw the power up and POST messages.

HOW MAY BOBCO ASSIST YOU, VALUED CUSTOMER ILVEKRIK?

"Full sensory and interaction medieval eVR LARP worlds," Ilvekrik said softly into the rain swept darkness.