Familiar of Zero, Homeworld 1. Chapter 1

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs i'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

**AN: **Hello and welcome to Banded Exiles! This project of mine was born out of my twin desires to write something with Homeworld and to cross it over with something crazy that would probably never work. So judging by the very nature of this story, say goodbye to FoZ canon. (And a lot of Homeworld canon as well.) That being said I really want to explore what would happen when these two cultures mix and want to bring a sense of humor to the process at the same time. Be wary: Homeworld is a very serious game with very serious characters about a race of people who lived on a really crappy planet for a few thousand years, barely escaped genocide twice, and fought a massive empire across the galaxy. Familiar of Zero is a bit of a goofy harem anime with a nice chunk of very chaotic romance. I will have to fudge the two tones slightly so they can fit together. This will result in slightly serious FoZ and slightly cartoony Homeworld. (As compared to the base values of both) Anyway, I'm done ranting, enjoy!

Chapter 1

Louise's unconscious mind drifted through a vast sea of stars to the delight of its dreaming passenger. Since she was a little girl, the youngest Valliere had often visited the heavens in her dreams. It had a calming effect that left her serene the following day, temporarily immune to the teasing and the cruelty of her peers. Fortunate then that this dream would come tonight, for tomorrow was the day that Louise would summon her familiar. If she failed... best not to think of that. Louise's dreaming mind relaxed, pushing the idea of failure away and watched the vast, unending sea of stars that stretched out before her. If she had possessed a body she might have sighed in contentment.

The peace was not to last however as a new feeling began to slowly bleed into her awareness, an almost unfathomable grief grew and grew in her until she felt that, had she possessed a chest, her heart would have shriveled up and died within. Her dreaming spirit began to fear the feeling as some kind of premonition, of her failure, of her being stricken from her family and pawned off to some lesser noble in an effort to get her out of her mother's sight. Her panic was slowly drained away as another emotion bled into her dream. A burning rage, a desire to burn those that wronged her in the flames of judgement. It was jarring, an emotion so black couldn't have come from her, could it? She often fantasized about embarrassing or flaunting some great success over those who gave her grief but this... Louise had never experienced this kind of hate before. As she tried to think of anything that might make her murderously angry in the near future (So she could take great care to avoid anything remotely related.) another feeling bled into her mind, a solemn determination, a will to see something through no matter what may come.

She was trying to make sense of the pieces of the odd puzzle the dream presented her with when she first saw it. It was distant, growing slowly, blue and white and a coppery brown, as it grew further as she tried to make out details. A hundred smaller shapes were arrayed around the far larger one, huge lumbering shapes, tiny flighty ones that zipped here and there and many other shapes in between. And then it was before her, it's titanic form so close she could reach out and touch it. Her fingers acted before her mind and they almost instinctively reached out to trail over the surface of the freezing metal. Louise felt a strange sense of belonging as she pressed closer to the object, this was her cradle, a strange feeling told her, this was her rest, her charge. Words appeared in her mind to describe the odd relationship. This was her Tower in the Desert, she had to protect it.

Her mind slowly awoke after that. The dark fabric that was the canopy above her bed meeting her eyes as she stirred awake. Louise could only remember her latest dream in half measures as she pulled her diary from its drawer so she could inscribe the bizarre experience, the details already slipping from her grasp.

The rest of her morning went swiftly as they often did when she was feeling the after effects of her favorite dreams. Dressing, breakfast, even her first class, complete with the daily teasing that came with it, went by in a flash and she soon found herself filling out onto the lawn to perform the ritual that would determine the course of her life.

**.XXX.**

"Someone's had one of her dreams again~" an overly sweet feminine voice called from just behind her left ear. Louise merely tilted her head away from Kirche's attempt to rile her by breathing on her ear like a harlot. "So, when are you going to tell us about him, the boy of your dreams?" Kirche grinned as she pressed herself closer to the smaller girl, frowning as her pink haired peer simply stepped away. Louise cared little for Kirche's insinuations and simply didn't reply, she never had on the day after one of her dreams. That probably wasn't the best choice on her part as it allowed the rumors about her seeing a boy in secret to spread unchallenged, but today like every other day she had one of her dreams, she couldn't bring herself to care.

She could see the other girls of her class giving her sideways glances and a few of the boys speculative looks, even as vicious rumors circled her like carrion birds. They still couldn't break the good mood she was in, even the rumor about her having romantic trysts in the night with one of the stable boys didn't get a reaction. Kirche grinned at her latest failure to enrage the pinkette on one of her 'good days' and retired to a decent distance from the girl, there was always tomorrow.

The rest of the class saw to their summoning rituals one by one as normal and a menagerie of creatures now stood at the sides of the other mages in Louise's class. Now it was her turn. She stepped forward away from the rest of the students, her explosive magic necessitating the extra room. She raised her wand as she began to prepare her chant, the one that she had spent the last month practicing, the one she had created specifically to call forth a being worthy of becoming the familiar of a noble of her standing. She held the words in her mind and began to speak.

"My family that exists beyond the ken of the universe!" ...Wait, that wasn't what she had meant to say at all! Louise tried to stop and start over, no idea where the odd words had come from.

"Come to me my weary kiithid, my stricken exiles!" Louise tried to gasp as she couldn't stop, the words spilling from her on their own. Panic and fear began to eat away at her but the words didn't stop even as she struggled.

"Join me and escape the horror of the past and the trials of the future! Let a reality burn in the fires of your absolution!" She couldn't see the other students or the professor but she hoped they would realize something was wrong and help her. She could feel her willpower being pulled from her as the ritual continued, pulled from her in quantities she was sure should have killed her a thousand times over by now. She wanted to scream, to cry and latch onto the nearest living thing for comfort but the words would not allow her to stop.

"Come to me my Tower in the Desert!" The end of the chant was punctuated by the slash of her wand. Louise gasped for air as she sank to her knees in exhaustion. Tears rushed to her eyes from the frightening experience, she didn't even notice the laughing students or the distinct lack of her familiar appearing so glad was she the event was over.

**.XXX.**

Professor Colbert made to step forward, a sting in his heart over what he had to do. Never before had he had to explain that without a familiar a student could not continue to attend. Then an earth shattering boom drove him to his knees as a shockwave hit the courtyard. He scrambled back to his feet, ignoring the screaming students for now as he searched for the source of the explosion.

He looked around failing to spot a cloud of dust or any signs of further disturbance when one of the students screamed and pointed into the sky. A bright green window hung in the air. It was instantly recognizable as the summoning portal but it was enormous and oddly rectangular instead of its usual oval shape. Slowly a shape, long and curved exited the portal and streaked across the sky away from them. Colbert stood dumbstruck, he had seen meteors before but this object was obviously massive, as were the few other objects that tailed behind the main one. He watched the object as it neared the ground, fearing the untold destruction that would be caused by such a large object striking the ground.

Then the summoning window returned, though oddly bright blue in color and swallowed the falling object whole, leaving the many smaller objects to slow and finally hang in the air. Colbert starred as many of the objects began moving straight up, leaving their world behind as they became too distant to see. But one of the larger objects... vessels... didn't go like the rest, it turned and hovered towards them, belching a thick black smoke from several places along its round, almost beatle like body, before landing in one of the grassy fields not far away. Colbert shook himself from his stupor and snapped his attention back to the petite girl who sat and quietly staring at the sky. A quick glance confirmed that the large vessel from before, now hung as if by a string in the sky so far above it was only barely visible.

The spell, the size of the summon, it might have... Colbert ran over to the girl and threw himself to his knees next to her. "Louise!?" He shouted at her. Louise kept her eyes trained on the ship, her body mostly limp. "Louise are you alright, answer me!?" Colbert grabbed her shoulder and shook and the girl finally looked at him, though he could see that her eyes were glazed as if she wasn't seeing him.

"...yes..." Louise answered in a small voice. "I'm fine."

**.XXX.**

Karan was exhausted, even considering she hadn't moved a muscle since they had finished installing her neural circuitry. She wanted to sleep but the Mothership needed her, the fleet needed her, especially after their sudden unexpected detour. She recalled the brief few minutes of sheer terror for her and every other Kushan on the Mothership as it fell, burning, from the sky.

One emergency activation of the hyperspace core later and the fleet hung in low orbit, short one damaged carrier that hadn't been able to make the climb. Karan had felt nervous leaving behind those hundreds of the only surviving members of her race but she hadn't had much choice. At least she couldn't detect any signs of industrialized settlements or a mechanized army. That didn't mean they were safe but until they completed repairs keeping a sensor peeled was all she could do.

"By the maker, what was that?" Came a tired voice over her private comm. Kilh'al Paktu, the man Karan had spent the most time talking to since their voyage began and the 'voice' of fleet intelligence sounded very distressed and it worried her.

"Unknown." Karan responded, her usually flat voice also shaking with leftover nerves. "We were shunted away from our planned course while in hyperspace. The experience was dissimilar to the inhibitors employed by the Taiidan or any of the anomalies we have faced thus far."

A mental chime heralded the completion of the hyperspace telemetry analysis and as Karan poured over the information it gave her pause. The data was filled with errors and information only half understood by the sensors that recorded it. Her confusion grew even further as the report from the astrometrics supercomputer. The stars were different. The information came and went quickly after that as Karan scrambled to discover their location. Her mood worsened as report after report confirmed that they were lost.

**.XXX.**

"S'jet Kiith'sa the other Kiith,sa (1) have called for the Daiamid." A younger crewman that worked in the residential section of the Mothership messaged her. "Please attend on channel 2-64g."

If Karan had been still in control of her physical body she might have blinked at the priority message that just forced its way to the fore of her awareness. The sudden reformation of the ruling body of Kharak? She quickly opened the channel regardless of her slight confusion to find a group of people talking amongst themselves at a table in the mess, the only room large enough to fit such a gathering. Less strange was the fact that each of them was dressed in the standard jumpsuit worn by the crew of the mothership. It had been several hours since she had informed the fleet of the reality of the situation and had been re-checking the information ever since. The speed at which these crewman had put this together was impressive. "This is very unexpected Kiith'sa, what is the purpose of this meeting?" her voice came from the intercom in the room and stirred the others from their conversation.

"S'jet Kiith'sa," a woman with blue eyes, brown hair and a severe demeanor she recognized as Lefir Soban, last she remembered Lefir had been a member of the bridge crew, not the head of Soban. "A decision was made while you were confirming the telemetry data to reform the Daiamid. The clans chose their representatives and you were chosen as the S'jet Kiith'sa. The purpose for this was to make a choice, below us lies a world, rich and largely underutilized. It is not Hiigara, but it has also not been found by the Taiidan." Lefir paused and the other Kiith'sa waited for Karan to speak.

"How am I to know the process was legitimate?" Karan asked skeptically.

"Ah, we expected your suspicion, the internal sensor log in conjunction with videos we made during the voting will ensure due process has been followed." Lefir answered gracefully.

It only took about two minutes to go over the data pertaining to the election and once she was finished Karan was satisfied they weren't trying to form an illegitimate government. "I understand, you wish to decide if we settle here even though there are already inhabitants." Karan called forward all the information they possessed on the world below to the forefront of her mind as Lefir rambled about the benefits of ending their odyssey here. It was a beautiful blue green ocean planet, sparsely populated but with a relatively small surface area that actually consisted of useable land. The primary landmass was separated into three large sections by a dessert that was defended by a massive artificial wall. Another area that may have once been another set of continents on the other side of the planet consisted of large hunks of rock that somehow floated several thousand feet above the ocean. That left the only option to integrate or remove the native population in order to secure space for the people she held in cryosleep. Almost nothing was known about the inhabitants themselves, only that they had not advanced beyond the age of heresy, judging by what they could see from orbit, and that the air they breathed was comparable to the atmosphere of Kharak. Overall the planet was a dubious prospect but the only other alternative was to blindly jump into a galaxy where their star charts were completely useless.

"I do not wish to disrupt the natives as we know little of them and they may react badly if we are too intrusive. However the fact remains that they are widely spread and any activity we take on the surface will be at their detriment." Karan said as she finished looking over the information. "I understand your desire however and will support any consensus of this Daiamid."

The other clan leaders in the room nodded and returned to deliberating. It took only minutes before Lefir stood and turned to the camera through which Karan was watching. "Then it is by decree of this Daiamid that we will seek to colonize this world and it shall be known as Var'Hiigara. We will begin preparing to land colonists in one week, until then we will rely on the crew of the Yorn'ilgara (2) to attempt to make our intentions known to and soothe the natives."

"Let the will of the clans see us safely home." Came the traditional words from all those in attendance, ratifying the decision made as official policy and ending the meeting.

**.XXX.**

Trant Soban the captain of the grounded Kushan carrier Yorn'ilgara sighed in equal parts relief and exhaustion as his crew finished planting several support columns into the ground that would keep his ship from falling over. It was a simple reassurance but one that put him at ease. The ship had been precariously balanced on the crushed resource processing system that took up the entirety of the bottom deck. The Yorn'ilgara had also sunk a few feet into the soil after that and was likely the only reason the ship had stayed standing long enough to make the braces.

The thruster damage they had suffered by an unexpected Taiidan attack just before their hyperspace jump had rendered his ship unable to join the fleet in orbit. This had everyone aboard, even himself, antsy. As one of the sayings that had been invented since the start of their voyage said, 'The fleet is life, to be apart from the fleet is death.' It was a bit of wisdom that many people had taken to heart in recent days and it showed, especially here on one of the most vulnerable ships in the Kushan navy.

Trant's thoughts were interrupted by a message appearing on the screen attached to his station and he sat down to read it. His eyes widened slightly at the content of the message. Orders to attempt first contact with the native population. He was to try first at a lone structure nearby and if that went well he was to approach a small city only slightly farther away and try and repeat his success there. After his ship's thrusters and structure had been repaired he would then make for several other cities before ending at a desert area many miles from their current location.

Trant sighed as he tried to ease the headache now pounding behind his eyes with his fingers but mostly failed. The other crew on the bridge noticed his distress and soon one of them approached him about it.

"Why the look captain?" A blonde woman named Vayan of the Manaan, his fighter wing commander, asked as she sat on a nearby console and crossed her arms.

"Orders, we are going to try making nice with the locals. They reformed the Daiamid and decided to have us be the ones to try and calm them when they start landing colonists." Trant replied tiredly.

"So we're staying then?" Vayan asked with a grin. Trant sighed and nodded as the woman did a giddy little dance around his bridge. He should have guessed she'd act like that, she had always been... light on the military decorum. He really couldn't blame her, he had seen many of the crew looking at the green fields outside with a longing in their eyes.

With a small smile and quick series of commands on his station he assigned Vayan to drive the vehicle he and whomever else he assigned would be taking. She would certainly be happy about that. His eyes trailed over her trim pilot's physique as she bounced around the bridge and he sighed again. It was a real shame she wasn't a Sobani woman. Neither did he think she would be interested in joining, she was almost Manaan personified after all.

With another heavy sigh his eyes turned to the rest of the bridge crew searching for another to fill space on the team when they landed on Gacil, his fellow Sobani tactical officer. He snapped his fingers as he recalled that the dark haired, serious man had been a school teacher back in the day. That was both security and diplomatic positions filled well enough. Finally, a few more taps on the keys added in about half a dozen escorts.

With a final press of a button the list was sent back to the mothership and Trant leaned back in his chair. "Vayan, Gacil, head down to the hanger and take the Baserunner, don't forget your escorts." Trant said, jabbing a thumb to the door.

Vayan stopped her attempts at getting a poor Paktu to dance with her and turned to look at him beaming. She opened her mouth to ask a question but Trant beat her to it. "Yes you can drive." He said, grinning at the sudden frightened look from Gacil. "Good luck and try not to cause a war."

**.XXX.**

Louise sat in her nightgown looking out of the window at the new breathtaking sight in the night sky. The tower from her dreams glowed in the night sky with lights she could see even when the moon passed behind, casting it in shadow. Then her thoughts turned to the beatle like vessel that had landed in a field far on the other side of the academy and sighed. She had practically begged to be allowed to ride out to it, she had summoned it after all, but she had been denied and she along with all the other students had been forbidden from leaving the Academy.

Classes had been canceled of course and the teachers had been in an uproar at the idea that she of all people had summoned the new object that hung in the heavens. They had also still been terrified, the huge burning tower falling from the sky making many of them fearful of attack. Louise smiled at the memory of Professor Colbert adamantly insisting that it had indeed been Louise's spell that had brought the tower here, even if those that believed him had looked at her with fear creeping into their expressions. The older man had been something of a tutor to her when she first came to the Academy, making her explosive spells something of a personal project. Sadly he had never been able to discover what was wrong with her and her excellent grades in theory had meant that there was no use continuing to go to him for extra learning. Louise leaned against the window frame and sighed. "What are you?" She groaned at the object that hung above the sky. "Why did you come to me? Why couldn't I say the chant I practiced?" Louise muttered, the frustration of the day catching up to her.

So caught up in her questions was she that she almost missed a faint growling sound that floated in through the window. Curious, Louise stuck her head out and looked around. She certainly didn't see anything strange but the noise continued to grow louder. Then the sound spiked as a something huge flew into her range of vision, It was bigger than the stables! It soon passed out of sight and then came back around as it circled the school. It was some form of carriage, one that didn't need any animals to pull it and was a strange blue/grey in color with bright white stripes over its surface. A light that lit up the forest and fields beyond as if it were the light of day shone from lamps along its front. The titanic carriage made one final pass and Louise could see that it had awakened the entire Academy as lamps were lit, people shouted and teachers took to the walls and courtyards to protect their charges. It finally slowed and started to angle towards the gate. Throwing herself away from the window Louise quickly gathered up a coat and buttoned it up tight to cover her nightclothes before rushing out into the hallway. Only to crash head first into the one person she least wanted to deal with.

"Oh my Louise, I had no idea you felt that way! I'm sorry but I am partial to men~" came the voice of Louise's most hated enemy Kirche Von Zerbst.

"Now is not the time for this!" Louise growled as she tore herself from Kirche's bountiful chest.

"Oh my, are you late for meeting your stable boy?" Kirche held a hand over her mouth as if scandalized.

"Get outta my way!" Louise shouted as she darted around the older girl, pushing her into the wall and sending the older girl tumbling to the floor.

"Oof!" Kirche blinked in shock as she hauled herself up from the floor. A grin crept onto the germanian's face before she quickly rose and rushed after the smaller girl.

Louise was already downstairs and roughly shoving her way through a crowd of students who had gathered to watch a confrontation in the courtyard. It didn't take Louise long to shove her way past the crowd and duck the teacher in charge of keeping them inside.

Louise could feel the cool damp grass under her feet as she dashed towards the gate, which was again crowded with people. She didn't really understand what was driving her so desperately towards what lay beyond that wall of people but she pushed herself onward as if her life depended on it.

**.XXX.**

Gacil fought to keep himself from tumbling out of his chair, a large amount of G-forces his opponent. As the Baserunner made its third circuit around the stone tower he did his best to turn his gaze into a pair of ion cannon beams and fry the blonde woman in the drivers seat.

Vayan had been cackling with twisted delight every time one of the six security team members in the back had screamed or shouted at her to slow down. Gacil hadn't screamed, of course not, instead he had latched onto the harness and consoles around him and proceeded to attempt to force his eyes to undergo the biologically impossible metamorphosis for the entire time it took for them to arrive.

"We're here!" Vayan announced as she swung the vehicle around and backed up toward what appeared to be a gate in a rather anemic defensive wall. Gacil did _not_ nearly trip over the blonde madwoman as he made his escape. Neither did he notice the security troops already collapsed onto the grass or leaning against an oversized tire once he actually made it out of the deathtra- ...transport.

Gacil straightened his appearance as much as he could, straightening his blue grey jumpsuit and making sure his hair wasn't totally wild. It only took a few minutes before their never before seen future roommates to show up. The gate opened and what met Gacil's eyes would change the course of his people forever.

**.XXX.**

**End Chapter**

(1) Kiith'sa is a form of formal address for a leader of a clan called a Kiith. Kushan Kiiths, unlike any similar organization on earth, are made up of possibly millions or even billions of individuals.

(2) Yorn'ilgara is the name of the first carrier produced by the mothership. The word has no direct English translation but it roughly means 'pleasant feelings of home.'

Special thanks to DerKommissar for his work on the Hiigaran language.


	2. Chapter 2

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs i'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 2

Karan S'jet very rarely ever had a moment where she wasn't hard at work and this one was no exception. It had been hours since the Mothership had appeared suddenly over the jewel of a world and she was busy working. However the tone of the work had changed, it was new, it was refreshing, and gave Karan a sense of joy she had missed ever since her voyage began. Instead of analysing battles to come she was marking out ideal areas for new cities, instead of building new warships she was designing transportation infrastructure, if her body could manage it she would be smiling.

It seemed, by the lack of any direct demands on her, the immediate needs of the fleet were being seen to by the ever industrious men and women who operated the myriad of vessels that now drifted in a stately parade formation next to the Mothership. Of course she knew everything they were doing. She always did, but she appreciated their letting her work in peace.

If Karan hadn't been so used to it the sudden call on her personal comm channel might have startled her. "Yes Kilh'al?" She asked the moment the channel opened.

"Karan, sorry to disturb you." Karan really wanted to grin in amusement at the slight shakiness in the man's voice. She really hadn't meant to catch him off guard by speaking first but that didn't stop it from being somewhat funny. "There has been something of a development." Karan's amusement faded quickly at the sudden uncertain tone he was taking. Kilh'al had always been one of the most decisive and straightforward men she had ever met, that he sounded so lost was cause for concern indeed.

"What has happened?" Karan replied, ceasing her colony planning and going over the communication logs from the past few minutes. All of it was simply messages and chatter from the fleet, an odd spike of messages to med bays but that happened from time to time and the only thing cited in them was "a strange rash", the only exception was a video message from a mobile ground asset registered to the carrier Yorn'ilgara. The message opened to show a very haggard looking, dark haired, young man and instantly she had his entire identity laid out in front of her. His name, service record, medical history, family line, and psyche evaluations all spoke of a very, trim, fastidious and dependable young member of Soban, strange that he looked so harried. She was deeply surprised when she spotted a strange new, very faint, tattoo on the back of Gacil Soban's previously unmarked hand, he didn't seem the type. That and the little girl who was clinging to his side barefoot and wearing an old fashioned sleeping garment, there was also the bizarre fact that the girl possessed bright pink hair that fell around her in loose curls.

"I assume you've already found it?" came Kilh'al's voice out of the sudden chaos her mind was in. "It has all of intelligence in an uproar." He continued after she had not responded, too busy playing the message over and over, back to front, and run it through a dozen filters to determine if it was faked.

"Its real." Karan eventually responded after the video had passed every test she could throw at it. "How can this happen?" She asked staring at the girl who looked Kharakid, yet was not showing up in any search she performed. She was not a member of the crew, nor colonist, nor was she showing up in the family histories. She felt a lump settle in her stomach,despite not being able to feel hers, a feeling mix of dread and excitement over what this could potentially mean.

"We don't know." Kilh'al responded, still sounding as shaken as she now felt.

Karan started the video again just to reassure itself that it was indeed real.

**.XXX.**

(several hours previous)

Gacil looked, shock written plainly on his face, at the crowd of people he would be willing to testify under threat of interrogation were simply other Kushan citizens. They wore clothes that wouldn't look out of place in a history exhibit about pre-heresy wars Kharak and several of them held ancient weapons they seemed to know how to use. They also seemed to be almost as shocked as he was, though their attention was on the Baserunner itself rather than him, though a few of them were looking at the armored guards who were just now collecting themselves and joining Vayan in standing behind him and in front of the lowered ramp. One of his guards was still crouched and running their hands through the grass, he would have to give them a talking to about protocol at some point he noted in the back of his mind.

Gathering his wits, Gacil took a few steps forward and drew in a deep breath, he had to say hello to these odd people eventually. He shook some neves out of his hands and clasped them behind his back and adding to his 'official' look. "People of this world, we greet you on behalf of, Oof!" Gacil fell to the grass with the air knocked from his lungs by a pink missile. He floundered on the ground in panic for a moment, thinking he had been attacked by some projectile he desperately checked his chest for wounds.

His attention was finally pulled away from his frantic check for holes in his person by a stick poking him on the end of the nose. Only for his breath to suddenly flee him again as he spotted a young, pink haired girl.

A young, pink haired girl in an old fashioned night gown.

A _young, _pink haired girl in an old fashioned night gown straddled indecently over his waist.

Gacil barely perceived the fact she was speaking or that it was her who was poking the end of his nose with a stick he was so embarrassed. His mortification only intensified when she quickly leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips. For a tense second the only thing he could hear was blood rushing in his ears, not even noticing a slight itch on the back of his hand. The feeling only passed when the pink haired girl scrambled off of him and took a few steps back. When his hearing returned an odd and strangely loud noise met his ears. It took a few seconds to realize it was the sound of Vayan laughing herself to death.

Face still as red as a Kharakid sunset, Gacil got to his feet and shot the woman who was crouched on the ground with a hand over her chest and still wracked with laughter, a glare that somehow was even more intense than the one from minutes before. Gacil raised his hand to rub his eyes in exasperation when he spotted a slight discoloration on the back of his hand. Normally this wouldn't have drawn his attention but the strangely straight lines and organized pattern drew his eye. It was a set of odd markings, barely discernable from his normal skin tone, only standing out at all due to the marks being slightly darker.

The situation was not improved when an ancient looking man accompanied by a balding man who looked about as old as Gacil's father separated from the crowd and approached him, immediately causing the young pink haired girl to latch onto Gacil's side. The look on his face at the strange closeness of his molester must have been funny because it sent Vayan to laughing again.

The old man with the long beard cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak, Gacil expected it to be more gibberish. "Ah, our apologies for young Miss Valliere stranger." The man spoke and Gacil immediately felt a headache coming on. "She must have been excited to try completing the ritual, which-" The old man grabbed Gacil's wrist and held the back of his hand up in front of the balding man. Gacil allowed this to take place out of both being almost too off balance to care and a desire not to offend. "-I see was successful, well done Miss Valliere."

"Ritual? Oh, don't tell me! Congratulations on your new wife Gacil! Odd that they were still clothed for a wedding though... and way too little sand." came Vayan's voice from over his shoulder. Gacil didn't know when she had snuck up behind him to eavesdrop but he suddenly felt a very strong urge to punch her in the face.

"What! Thats not-" the little pink haired girl began before being interrupted by the old man.

"I suppose in this instance... the familiar contract could be interpreted in that manner." The old man replied, placing a hand on his chin as if in thought. Gacil froze at that, as did Vayan before she chuckled nervously.

"Wait..." She said after the man failed to reveal any punch line. "You're serious? I was only joking!" Vayan could see Gacil's skin going white and felt a little guilty seeing as he looked like he was going to keel over dead any second.

Taking a few very deep breaths Gacil calmed himself down and made a mental not to get painful revenge on Vayan later. "Perhaps you should explain," he finally managed to say after a few deep breaths.

"Ah, of course but..." The old man glanced up at the Baserunner and then swept his gaze over Gacil, Vayan and the security team. "Perhaps an equitable exchange of information?"

"Ah, yes of course." Gacil attempted to straighten himself but the mussed clothes and messy hair were not so easily banished. "In the commotion of our meeting I'm afraid I forgot my manners." Gacil stood as straight as he could and held out a hand, palm up. "I am Gacil Soban, tactical officer of the carrier Yorn'ilgara and I am here to inform you that we the Kushan people have determined your planet as being suitable for the creation of a new home for our people. I am here to explain the situation and attempt to sooth any misgivings."

The old man's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline as he reeled from the introduction. The balding man narrowed his eyes but stayed where he was. After a moment of silence the old man cleared his throat and idly tugged at his beard. "I see, perhaps we have much more to discuss than I first believed."

"Speaking of speaking..." Vayan stepped forward. The normally flamboyant Manaan woman looking uncharacteristically serious. "How are we understanding each other right now?"

Gacil jerked a little at the fact they had been speaking Kushan-la this entire time and he hadn't noticed.

The old man merely held out his hand towards Vayan. "If I could see your hand?"

Vayan looked a little uncertain but lifted her right hand towards the old man. "Ah, my apologies, your left hand please," the old man said as he twirled a finger in a circular pattern. Vayan quickly swapped the held out limb for the correct one without comment. The man looked at the back of her hand before showing it to the balding man who "hmm'd" and mumbled words like "fascinating" and "unprecedented."

"What? What's wrong with my hand?" Vayan asked before pulling her hand back to look at it herself. On the skin, barely discernible from her normal skin tone, much lighter than Gacil's, was the same marking that he possessed. "By the maker, what happened to my hand!?" Vayan asked before grabbing Gacil's hand and yanking him over so she could compare the strange markings. "What's with the matching tattoos?" Vayan asked, ignoring the indignant grumbling from the man whose hand she had hijacked.

"We all have them," came a voice from one of the helmeted security team. All six of them had huddled together and pulled off their left glove to check their hands.

The old man glanced to the crowd of people still hovering around the gate, unwilling to approach. "Perhaps we should retire to my office to continue this discussion?" Gacil nodded and with a few barked commands the group, sans the security team made its way into the school.

**.XXX.**

Louise's head was spinning as she sat in her pajamas on a chair in the Headmaster's office. Every thing she had heard over the past few minutes profoundly changed the way she saw the world.

Above her, above the sky, there was a vessel, a vessel she brought to this world. Inside of that vessel was half a million souls, perhaps all of which were her familiars. All of those people were going to come to her world. All of those people were going to build homes and cities in every corner, regardless of who owned that land already. Because of her they had lost their chance to fight and win back their stolen home. Because of her they were now going to make _this_ world their own. Because of her she had irrevocably changed fate, both theirs and her own words.

Why then, was all she could think about was 'would mother be proud of me?' She felt ashamed, all of these people having their lives changed irreversibly and all she could worry about was if her mother would approve of the great power of her familiars.

Her eyes rose from where they were locked on her feet and sought out the man she had used the ritual on, Gacil. He was standing in front of Osmond's desk and removing some kind of fat arrow from a tube. He examined both closely before placing them both back on the desk separately. She was surprised, and felt a little cheated when Osmond had shown him magic. He had simply watched, asked a few questions, dictated notes to the woman, Vayan.

He was so very tall, head and shoulders above even professor Colbert. He was also handsome, with dark hair and eyes and sharp facial features. It was kind of nice... In a strict and completely unpleasant way!

Louise shook her head and looked instead at Vayan, apparently also her familiar somehow. She reminded Louise of her older sister Eleonore only her hair was much shorter and her expression was filled with mischief instead of rage. The older woman was tapping her fingers on some strange flat device whenever Gacil dictated to her. Was that how they wrote?

Louise's attention turned back to Gacil and Osmond as Gacil finally took a seat.

"The presence of this third... excuse me _fourth_ civilization is concerning news." Gacil crossed his arms and his brow furrowed as if in deep thought. "I hope you will permit us to examine the remains?"

Louise fidgeted and wished she had payed closer attention, she was totally lost.

"It currently resides in a special crypt deep beneath the academy, it will take some time before I will be able to retrieve it." Osmond replied, stroking his beard.

"I see, you're certain no other people on your world could have produced this?" Gacil tapped a finger on the metal tube.

"I'm certain," Osmond replied. "There are many artifacts like this one in the world, out of place things that no one created. Most of them are gathered in Romalia with the Church."

"I see, we will need to gather our own information then if we are to hunt down any remaining unclaimed artifacts and approach this Romalia for access to theirs. One of them could hold the secret to returning to our home." Gacil glanced to Vayan who nodded and rapidly tapped some more on her flat... thing.

"So you will seek to return to your world?" Osmond said, leaning back and looking hopeful.

"Yes, it is my belief that will be the decision of the Daiamid. Though I doubt they will release their control over this world if a reliable method of traveling between the two can be found. This place offers many advantages and better the Kushan control it than the Taiidan." Gacil answered. Louise grimaced, there really was no reprieve from the changes she wrought.

"What assurances do we have that you are any better than these... Taiidan?" Osmond asked with narrowed eyes.

"None." Gacil answered as he stood with a frown on his face that made him look a little offended. "However, the Kushan do not burn the worlds of those who slight them." Gacil turned sharply and headed for the door. "We need to report in Vayan." The woman quickly rose and followed him out of the door.

"Wait!" Louise cried as she dashed after the pair.

**.XXX.**

Gacil sighed as he stopped recording the report that would be sent back to the fleet and sent it on its way.

"I suppose we should talk." Gacil finally said after a long moment of awkward silence. The pink haired girl who apparently had been the reason behind this unexpected detour nodded even as she refused to let go of his clothes. She had been practically attached to his hip ever since he had walked away and nearly left her in that office. Gacil could only describe his feelings towards her as 'profoundly uncomfortable' and the amount of attachment she showed towards him, a total stranger was concerning.

Gacil led her to one of the seats bolted to the floor in a tiny living area in the Baserunner. At its core the vehicle was meant to act as a mobile headquarters to perform almost any matter of work. The area they currently sat was directly behind the cab and had several facilities meant for long term occupation. A row of bunk beds lined either wall and a small kitchenette occupied part of another wall directly across from where they sat in the equally tiny eating area.

"Your name was Louise right?" Gacil began, holding out a hand as if to physically pass the conversation to the girl.

"That's right." She said.

Gacil waited for a few minutes for the girl t continue but she just blushed and looked as uncomfortable as he felt. "Ok" he finally said, fed up with the silence. "I'm just going to come right out and say it... This" Gacil gestured in between the two of them. "Whatever it is this familiar business, it's _not_ something romantic, nor will it ever be anything romantic. You don't look a day over twenty and-"

"Twenty?" Louise somehow looked confused and like she was trying to preen at the same time. For a little girl in a rumpled nightgown and with dirty feet it was a comedic sight.

"Kharakiid girls don't start their cycles till twenty five." Gacil said matter of factly. "They don't stop being able to have children till seventy. The longest lived Kharakiid make it to about two hundred and ten."

Louise looked dumb struck for a minute before her expression shifted to an angry scowl. Gacil was horribly confused when she grit her teeth and punched him in the arm as hard as she was able.

"Ow," Gacil deadpanned as he rubbed the spot on his arm that stung slightly. "What did I do?"

"Lovers spat?" Vayan asked from where she emerged from the door to the cab. Gacil resumed his attempts to ignite flesh with nothing but his eyes and determination.

"Don't worry Louise, you'll get him eventually! I believe in you!" Vayan called as she ran past them and down the ramp. Good thing too because a particularly large and heavy looking disposable napkin holder bounced off the wall where she had been standing.

**.XXX.**

AN: Welcome back to another chapter of Banded Exiles! Ok there I'm going to go ahead and respond to the reviews here. If there begins to be too many I'll just respond via PM.

javichuelas : Yeah so do I. Though few Scifi/FoZ stories take into account the huge changes something like that would really cause, not that there aren't a few good ones out there.

DWM : Well, I'm not entirely sure how to really answer this one. Yes, Louise is going to be right in the thick of things. No, she isn't going to be shouldering all of the mess caused by the Kushan, its going to be a _really_ big mess after all.

Midweekcomic13 : Thank you, thank you! Yes your praise pleases me... Ahem, on a serious note blood sacrifices are every wednesday; yes this fic was somewhat pushed into the top spot on my "things I want to write" list by the coming revival of one of the best games ever made. (Really looking forward to the remaster, can you tell?)

Ridli Scott : Yes I really hope it will be as awesome as you think.

Haan : Glad your looking forward to it!

Celestia's Paladin : You're not? You should check it out then, they just completed a remake on steam.

Dra'ka'do : Yep just in time indeed! The timeline is actually only part way through HW1. They got shanghaied right before the third to last mission.

ShotgunWilly : Has been replied to in PM due to spoilers!


	3. Chapter 2,5

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs I'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 2.5

Medical report: 2200 shipboard, Mothership tertiary medical bay. Dr. Xif S,jet.

Patient: male, 37 years of age, Soban.

Patient arrived complaining of a strange feeling during his duty shift at defense emplacement A-5. Initial physical examination shows no abnormalities in brain nor blood chemistry.

Patient was prescribed one day's bed rest and if feeling persists, reintegration into cryosleep bay till establishment of proper facilities to care for mental illnesses.

Notes: Kid just looked tired, all he needed was a break. Still, better safe than sorry.

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Medical report: 2230 shipboard, Mothership tertiary medical bay. Dr. Xif S,jet.

Patient: female 34 years of age, Somtaaw.

Patient arrived complaining of a skin rash that consisted of odd patterns on her left hand. Symptoms became apparent while she was at her post in the control booth of assembly line F.

Rash consists of a series of geometric lines seemingly burned into the back of her hand. Patient tested for and tested negative for radiation exposure. Maintenance crews were notified to check to ensure no radiation leaks are present in assembly line F.

Patient was prescribed suspension of work until maintenance cleared work area for return to duty. Patient was advised to keep an eye on the area and to immediately return if any evidence of cancer appeared.

Notes: This was a strange case. No traces of radiation exposure but I have never seen anything else burn a pattern into the skin like that.

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Medical report: 2302 shipboard, Mothership tertiary medical bay. Dr. Xif S,jet.

Patient: male 41 years of age, Paktu.

Patient arrived complaining of skin irritation on left hand. Examination proven to the similar, possibly identical, rash as the previous report. Patient was on duty in hydroponics bay 3 when rash appeared. Due to a possible infectious pathogen previous patient was contacted and told to enter nearest confined space and not to come into contact with other crew.

Extensive testing revealed no disease present. Previous patient notified and ordered to return for further testing.

Note: I have no idea what's going on. Everyone's got it. I contacted fleet intelligence, they told be to keep everyone as calm as I could. I hope they figure this out quickly.

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Medical report: 2347 shipboard, Mothership tertiary medical bay. Dr. Xif S,jet.

Patient female 29 years of age, Manaan.

Patient arrived complaining of nausea. Examination and hormonal tests revealed the patient was pregnant. Skin pattern was also present on back of left hand but the patient had yet to notice.

Patient was prescribed light duty followed by maternity leave. Patient was also turned in for reprimand.

Note: Just because we are planning on settling on this world does not give people an excuse to cut loose... yet. Still I suppose congratulations are in order and I'm sure the fleet will want to celebrate the first child since Kharak was burned. It's a sign things are changing for the better. Now if only they could hurry up and figure out these weird markings.

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Supplementary Note 0450 shipboard: They just contacted me with the results of the investigation. Apparently it's a side effect of whatever yanked us out of hyperspace. It's properties aren't known but they likely have something to with all of the reports of unusual prowess in flying, shooting, estimating target vectors, and setting up tracking algorithms just to name a few. We've seen some bizarre things on our journey but this is by far the strangest.

**.XXX.**

Hello guys! Just a little mini chapter to bring you a few of the adventures of one of the Mothership's doctors during the whole Familiar brand incident.

Trekkiezero : Glad you're enjoying things so far! As for your questions I hope this little mini-chapter shed some light on a few things. The Kushan aren't going to get _too _OP however, its a rune meant for one person split amongst half a million people.

Sociopathic-Antichrist : Yep! The Kushan are going to be trying to figure out that one for a while. Glad to have you with us.

Wa7tch1nK1d : Its the same size as the official forums/ manual state it is. So yes 25km.

luis3007 : Thank you, I'm trying very hard to ensure we get a nice mix of both the HW and the FoZ side of things.

Celestia's Paladin : Glad to see someone caught that rather than just immediately branding Louise as OOC.

Ornstein the Dragon Slayer : Thanks glad to provide something to the HW and FoZ fandoms.

Midweekcomic13 : Ah no, they were on the _third to last_ mission. So Bridge of Sighs. As for the rest... Spoilers.


	4. Chapter 3

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs i'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 3

Louise drifted in her starry slumber again for the second time in two days. The dream this time, while the same field of glittering light it always was, felt... odd. She struggled to determine why exactly that was when she saw tiny spheres of air shoot upward past her vision.

Bubbles, she was... underwater?

"Karan..." An impossibly deep voice, distorted with... something, reverberated around her. A deep feeling of panic and dread washed over Louise's sleeping mind. The voice was a terrible relic of roads not taken, an impression of "might have been" she somehow understood this. But that understanding didn't help as for the first time she could recall she awoke from her dream shivering and covered in cold sweat.

Louise groaned and crawled off her bed and looked around the dark room for a towel. She hadn't had any nightmares since she left home for the academy and never any like the one she just woke up from. Locating a towel she quickly wiped the sweat from her face and neck. She shivered slightly as the chill from her damp clothes wicked away the warmth from her skin. Her nightgown wasn't completely soaked but the idea of going back to bed in damp clothes offended her sensibilities.

Deciding that a fresh nightgown was in order Louise opened her dresser and retrieved the only other gown she had. After shedding the old sweat soaked one and pulling her head through the new gown, a flicker of light on the glass of the window caught her eye. Curious, Louise walked over and peaked out, opening the slightly clouded, greenish glass for a better look. Louise blinked at what she saw... then rubbed her eyes to clear out any residue from sleep. Looking again the scene didn't shift in any appreciable way and Louise couldn't help but gape at the spectacle and blush right to the roots of her hair.

Out in the courtyard, in the fountain, a trio of shadowy figures could be seen. They were illuminated by some sort of lantern that emitted a steady, dim blue light and cast deep shadows on their bodies. One of the figures was bathing in the water, easily recognizable as Vayan from the short blonde hair. The other two figures she couldn't place but admittedly figuring out their identity was the last thing she was focusing on.

The other two figures were on the opposite side of the fountain from the bathing Vayan. The first was a woman with long black hair. She was sitting on the edge of the stone basin and the final figure, a man far too wide and muscular to be Gacil had both of her legs under his arms and he was... he was...

Distant moans and giggles floated up from the scene below and Louise floundered for a moment as she realized exactly what was going on. As her brain kicked in again she dived away from the window, clutched the front of her nightgown and tried to catch her breath. She shook her head as her mind struggled to banish the image she still had fueling certain... imaginings. Of course she knew exactly what was going on down there, she wasn't a naive child... the books she had snuck out of Eleonore's room once years ago were probably to thank for that. But even the characters in those lewd tails weren't so... so... blatant as to do such things where anyone could look out a window and see.

Deciding a walk would be a very good way to calm down Louise stood and headed for the hallway. As she walked the images she had just had burned into her memory clashed with the image of her familiars she had already built. They were immensely powerful beings compared to her little world, they had barely escaped genocide twice. They didn't care who might take issue with their decisions, they cared enough to send envoys to explain themselves before hand. They were a tall, graceful people from the holy void itself, they were also apparently perverts. Louise felt her head swim as her traitorous mind so helpfully informed her that they, all half a million of them were _her_ perverts.

"_Really_ long walk." Louise muttered as she turned and walked down an empty hallway.

**.XXX.**

The morning was an interesting experience for Gacil. He had risen early to question the staff of the school, a legion of maids, hands, and aids as they made ready for the day. The interesting part came when he had entered the kitchens to sample the local fare, weeks of Kharakiid military rations had left him craving something "real."

It was during his meal, a hearty soup of yesterday's leftovers, odd that such alien food felt so... _correct_ going down, that he had let slip that he was searching for out of place artifacts to the chef. The man had, rather enthusiastically, introduced him to a maid named Siesta whom he had heard speak of such a thing. The girl was as short as everyone else from this planet, dark hair, slightly darker hint to her skin and eyes that were exotically shaped. She looked to be somewhere around twenty eight or nine but he had learned from Louise the previous night, through her gritted teeth, that his impressions of age were skewed by about a decade.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me." Gacil said as he slowly turned his tea cup in his fingers. He had invited the young maid out to a set of white lawn furniture, that had been set up for some event later in the day, to have a cup of tea along with their discussion over relics. Overhead a wing of Arrow scouts flew by at speeds that had the air screeching as it parted around the swift strike craft.

Siesta was enraptured by them until they faded from sight, leaving only rapidly fading white contrails. The young girl shook herself out of her state and returned to the conversation. "My apologies for my distraction, it was rude of me. I have only heard stories about things like those." She gestured to the sky before bowing her head.

"Stories from who, if you don't mind me asking?" Gacil smiled and did his best to appear open and friendly. He was alright when it came to talking to people but he needed the information Siesta possessed and that had him a little nervous.

"My grandfather." Siesta answered looking down at the table, lost in thought. "He told us about the Dragon's Raiment and how he used it to fly and fight in a war."

"War?" Gacil leaned forward slightly, this was exactly the kind of thing he was searching for.

Siesta nodded and glanced over at a few maids who had begun airing out laundry. Siesta looked a little guilty but turned back to the table. "Yes, but no one ever believed him. They asked him to make the Raiment fly but he always said it couldn't anymore."

"Interesting... Siesta has anyone told you what my people plan to do on this world?" Gacil asked.

"N-no I'm afraid they haven't sir." Siesta suddenly looked more nervous, even afraid.

That was the exact opposite of what Gacil needed from her, if she knew the location of the Raiment, obviously some kind of airborne vehicle, he had to convince her to tell him where it was. Judging from her story it was likely her grandfather kept it near. So now all he had to do was convince the scared girl that telling the invaders from outer space where her family lived was a good idea. "Siesta..." Gacil started, looking at her with a serious expression. "The only thing we are going to do is find a place to live while we search for a way back to our _real_ home." Gacil launched into the story of the Kushan people, their hard but mostly happy lives on Kharak, and finding the guidestone. Siesta forgot her fear and quickly became absorbed in the story. She stared in wonder when he told her about the sixty year effort to built their great colony ship. She gasped in horror when he told her about the burning of their world. By the end of his recount of the Mothership's voyage Gacil could tell he had her.

"Siesta, now that you know, will you help us find a way to finish our journey?" Gacil asked her plainly.

Siesta looked down at the grass under the table lost in deep thought. "Okay." She finally said as she looked up. Gacil grinned but before he could thank her she held up a finger. "On one c-condition...?" Siesta said, suddenly so nervous her words came out sounding like a question.

"I'll do what I can." Gacil raised an eyebrow. Siesta was an ametur at negotiation, he could tell but this was quite a shrewd move. It was a little surprising coming from her.

Siesta almost looked panicked as she hurried to explain herself. "I-I've been having problems... w-with a m-man and-"

Ah so that was the problem. "Of course I don't see any issue with helping you if it's something like that." Gacil smiled and rose to his feet. "

"B-But-" Siesta started.

"Don't worry about it we are more than capable of fending off an unwanted advance for you." Gacil grinned it was a rather cheap price to pay for a relic that could possibly lead the way home.

"Uuuuuugh..." Came a terrible noise from somewhere behind Gacil. The pair jumped, startled as a horrible pink haired creature flopped into the third chair at their table.

"You look terrible." Gacil told the creature.

"Bad dream." Louise said, head still planted on the surface of the table. Gacil nodded, he knew what it was like to be kept awake by nightmares.

Voices drew Gacil's attention and he looked around to see about three dozen children starting to occupy the other tables. "So what exactly is going on this morning?" Gacil asked, gesturing to the gathered class.

"We get the morning classes off to bond with our familiars." Louise mumbled into the table.

"I should go back to work." Siesta said as she stood and smoothed out the wrinkles in her uniform.

"Ah, of course." Gacil said, holding out his hand. "Thank you for coming to an agreement with us Miss Siesta. We will keep in touch and don't be afraid to come find me or any member of my team if you need help with your 'guy problems'."

Siesta took his hand and just held the fingers for a second before bowing her head. "And thank you for helping, I don't know what I would have done otherwise. Good day." She said before hurrying off.

"What was that about?" Louise asked as she turned her head to look at Gacil.

Gacil grimaced as he saw the dark bags under her eyes and reached for a pocket in his uniform. "Here Louise." He said as he handed her a foil wrapped bar. "You need this more than I do."

Louise looked at the bar for a minute taking in the strange script that covered the shiny silver package. She had already eaten but, after a short series of instructions from Gacil, she opened the wrappings and took a bite out of curiosity.

The taste was... Interesting. Some kind of fruit she couldn't identify, alien spices and a bouquet of strange scents made the tough, overly chewy bar interesting enough for her to continue eating despite the general blandness of most of it. She swallowed the last of it and took another glance at the empty wrapper before pocketing it to look at later. Oddly she started to feel better and better as the minutes ticked by and it almost felt like she could function despite still feeling her exhaustion just under the surface.

"Wow, what was that?" Louise asked as she tried to smooth her hair out, finally alert enough to care about it.

"Emergency ration bar." Gacil answered with a smile. "It's not very good but it has everything the Kharakiid body needs for short term survival, more relevantly it's laced with some pretty strong stimulants."

"Good morning~!" Came the singsong voice of Vayan as she took the seat recently vacated by Siesta. The woman was smiling brightly and looking like she had had an amazing night of sleep... the implications set Louise to blushing again.

"Good morning Vayan." Gacil nodded to her. "How much longer till we're ready to move?"

"We're good to go, all we need is to collect you and your little wife and we'll be all set." Vayan grinned as Gacil huffed in annoyance.

"Me!?" Louise cried out in surprise. "I can't go anywhere. I have classes."

Vayan shrugged before handing the flat thing she was tapping on the day before to Gacil. "Tough luck, we've got orders to bring you back to the Yorn'ilgara from Fleet Command herself."

Gacil read something from the surface of the slate before handing it back and looking at Louise apologetically. "Sorry about this Louise, we'll be sure to let the headmaster know you'll be absent for a while."

Louise stared at him for a few seconds, before she came to some sort of mental conclusion and she seemed to shrink in on herself. "How long?" She asked finally after a few minutes.

Vayan and Gacil shared confused glances for a moment before the blonde woman spoke up. "I'm sure it won't be longer than a few days. Hey don't feel so bad, think of it as an adventure!"

"Yeah..." Louise mumbled still looking like she had a sword hanging over her head.

**.XXX.**

Gacil stood looking down the rear ramp of the Baserunner at the last of his team as they finished boarding. It had indeed been no problem to borrow Louise for a few days. Of course that was if you discounted the saddened look from the old man or the heated glare from his green haired secretary. It was likely just some sort of misunderstanding but he didn't have the time to correct whatever their problem was.

As the last of the security team made their way up the ramp Gacil motioned the last two over to him. He may not know what was going on but he had a deal to uphold and through that maybe he could find out.

"Sir?" The two security officers echoed each other as they made their way over to stand in front of him.

"Officers Jirh and Rakia." Gacil addressed the two of them. "I have an assignment for you. You two are going to be staying here until we get back." The two officers shared a glance before returning their attention to their superior. "You're going to be looking out for a civilian maid named Siesta. Find her and one of you will keep an eye on her. The other will engage the staff and students in social situations as opportunities present themselves for the purpose of intelligence and cultural information gathering. Pay special attention to anything about Louise and try and find out more about the whole magic thing. Got it?"

The two snapped off affirmatives and retrieved some extra supplies in the form of a pair of backpacks with radios, food and ammo before heading back down the ramp. The moment they were clear Gacil hit the button that closed the ramp and headed towards the cab.

It was a quick journey and soon he was seating himself in his seat. A quick glance behind Vayan, who was going through the process to start the monster vehicle, led to the sight of a still glum looking but too curious not to gape at every little thing Louise. Gacil frowned as he observed a nearly identical expression on the young girl's face. "Hey." He said drawing her attention. "Are you going to pout the whole way or are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

Louise blinked at him for a moment before turning her head sharply to look out the window and refusing to answer.

"Trouble in paradise?" Vayan quipped with a wide grin.

Gacil groaned and had to physically stop himself from throwing something at the infuriating blonde's head.

"Are you talking me hostage?" Came a quiet voice, stopping the budding argument cold.

"Uh... What?" Vayan asked as she shared a confused glance with Gacil.

"Mother taught me that this could happen. She said that if the country was ever invaded while I was at the Academy that they would try to take me as a hostage. They would try and use me as a bargaining chip to keep my family's soldiers from fighting. She said that if that ever happened she was going to fight anyway and that by going to the Academy whatever happened was my fault." Louise looked up at them with watery eyes. I didn't know because you're my familiars but you're also here to take over the world and now that you're taking me somewhere I thought that maybe..."

"What a messed up thing to tell a kid." Vayan mumbled as she turned back to her work.

"That's not it at all Louise, we'll likely have you back in a week. I'm sure they just want you to explain the whole familiar thing, maybe take some gene samples too. Gacil placed a hand on her head, doing his best to seem reassuring. "Look at it this way, you're going to be the first person from your world to see the inside of a starship."

Louise looked skeptical for another second before nodding and finally settling in looking far less upset than she had. "I think I would like that..."

**.XXX.**

Princess Henrietta de Tristain frowned as Cardinal Mazarin pulled her poor abused fingernails away from her teeth for the third time since yesterday evening. She couldn't help but worry. Over the span of a few hours her world had witnessed a near cataclysm, gained a new moon, and to top it all there were rumors that her best friend from childhood was somehow involved.

The poor man who had delivered the news had ridden his horse half to death at the gate and sprinted all the way through the city to the palace.

Henrietta was thankful she was in awake when he arrived as it had allowed her to hear his almost babbling report to Mazarin from her balcony overlooking the courtyard. Of course the old man had noticed her presence after she gasped at her best friend being pointed out as a bringer of the apocalypse. It was a story that was hard to disprove, everyone had seen the fire in the sky and heard the boom.

After Mazarin had dismissed the informant he had quickly found his way up to her room and demanded she stay silent about what she had heard. By this time she had already been a worried wreck and he had a few scathing words about her 'performance' under pressure.

Now it was early morning and Louise's moon, as she had begun calling it in her mind, was plainly visible in the sky. The whole city was tense and was still skittish after the events of the previous day. There had been a short riot and a fire that burned down a tanner outside of the walls and various other attempts at looting and street crime that had paralyzed Tristania for several hours.

"Look." One of the guards who stood on the wall next to her said as he pointed off towards the academy. In the air a formation of strange shapes streaked across the horizon trailing white vapors. Henrietta pulled her coat closer and started to whisper "Please be safe Louise." to herself as the trails faded from sight.

**.XXX.**

**Author's Note: **Here is the latest installment of BE, enjoy! Also, there were a lot of reviews this time! Keep it up folks I greatly enjoy your feedback. Sorry for the shortness or if the quality was not quite my usual, I was feeling kind of sick.

Poliamida: Yes, it is one of my childhood favorites as well. As for Colbert being slightly unprofessional with Louise: He thought she may have been injured by a bad case of mana drain. He was concerned for her health and professionalism is often sacrificed in the face of concern.

Ridli-Scott: Yep pretty crazy isn't it? I can foresee many shenanigans in the future!

Wa7tch1nK1d: Yep, pretty much.

voidzzz: Creating a grey and gray situation is what I'm kind of going for here. The halkagenians believe that magic and the ability to do it trumps everything while the Kushan... don't really care what they think and do whatever they want anyway.

Kitedtk: In order: Defecate rectangular building materials, not well, probably fairly soon yes and there are a lot of things easier to do in orbit like; repairs, resource gathering, and resource transmission. Sadly you probably didn't like this chapter too much. At least you got a look at some cultural points I'll be bringing up here and there.

Dash-Driver: Actually I spent pretty much most of chapter one/two explaining why they were willing to put down roots here. They haven't finished their quest for their homeworld no but they currently are stuck in the current star system due to having no data on what is where in this new galaxy. They could jump away only to end up inside a star.

But don't worry too much the Kushan aren't likely to give up on their home so easily.

As for Tambuur... There aren't any Taiidan to kill and idk if he could stand the grief till such a time as there are. As for turning on the halks or Louise... Why? One has nothing to do with his wife's death and the other is a little girl. Finally about Karan being treated as a goddess, at this point in the story a lot of the Kushan think of her that way a little, just not openly.

Durabys: Thank you glad you're enjoying the story. You might want to PM me the website you're talking about as ate it. My update schedule is simply as much as I feel like doing. At this point in time that means relatively quick chapters


	5. Chapter 4

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs i'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 4

The sound of a shoe tapping against stone rang through an empty hallway. Kirche von Zerbst stood, leaned up against the wall outside of her afternoon earth magic class. She nibbled her thumb nail as she waited. The rumors of Louise leaving the academy with the strangers who had appeared the previous night had been spreading since sometime earlier. She had only heard about it a few moments ago from Malicorne. She wasn't worried. Of course not. The girl was a Valliere her family's great rivals, if the girl had been spirited away by unknown persons then... what did she care?

The sound of wood scraping against stone drew her gaze as a diminutive bluenette stepped out into the hallway. She was carrying a book under one arm and a staff under the other. As she made her way down the hall she leveled her impassive eyes at the Germanian teen. "Problem?" the girl asked.

Kirche shook her head. "No... I just wanted to tease Valliere this afternoon and she hasn't shown up for class. I don't suppose you've seen her?"

"Gone," Tabitha said as she flipped open her book in apparent disinterest. Kirche continued unabashed.

"You think she was taken? By those strange people that showed up last night." Kirche tried to ignore a sinking feeling in her stomach. It was something she ate. Probably.

Tabitha shook her head slightly, never taking her eyes off her book. "Left."

"She went with them?" Kirche started to slowly pace, her shoes still clicking against the stone. "Who were they, do you know?"

Tabitha shook her head again before pausing and looking up. "Colbert," she said before going back to the book.

"So Colbert knows something?" Kirche intoned as she stopped in her tracks. "Then we'll-" Kirche paused and glanced at Tabitha. "-_I_ will just have to ask him!" She said striking a fist into the palm of her hand. Kirche turned and grabbed the much smaller girl by her wrist before taking off down the hallway at a run. "Come on, lets go find out what's going on!"

Tabitha spared the girl a suffering glance as she was dragged around a corner.

It didn't take long to find Colbert's workshop. It was a place most students knew existed but typically avoided. It wasn't unusual to find the windows blown out by some backfired experiment, or flames licking the window sills. Kirche placed her ear to the wood and listened as Tabitha read silently a few steps away. A muffled banging alerted the girl to the eccentric man's presence. Once again taking Tabitha by the wrist, Kirche pulled open the great door and pulled her through.

They found Colbert hammering away on a piece of metal on an anvil, sometimes halting to compare it to some smattering of parts on the workbench beside him and then returning it to the anvil for more hammering.

"Professor! Oh, Professor!" Kirche called in a singsong tone at the first lull in activity. Colbert looked up from his work in surprise before quickly setting aside his equipment. He dusted off his long coat as he approached the girls.

"Ah! Ms. Zerbst, forgive me for not noticing I had guests... Actually, why are you here? Shouldn't you still be in class?" The kindly, balding man pulled his heavy leather work gloves and gave both of the girls a chastising look. "You shouldn't be so flippant with your education, it will be important for your future."

Kirche's composure cracked just a little. Her brows knit together and she let out a haughty snort on reflex before she remembered who was addressing her. Without missing a beat, she plastered on her most winning smile. "Oh, but Professor we were just so worried. We were waiting for Miss Valliere in class today but she never arrived! Tabitha thought you might have heard something so we came to ask you if you'd seen her." Her tone was sweet, positively saccharin.

It was Colbert's turn to snort as he shot her a knowing look, but after a moment of silence he sighed and looked away. "I do, and I suppose it wouldn't do to have even more rumors about the poor girl spreading in her absence." The aging man pulled a stool over and sat down. His shoulders slumped, heavy with fatigue beyond his years.

"She left early this morning with the group of individuals who visited us in the night. They told Osmond and myself that their leader wanted to meet with Ms. Valliere and that she would be returned to us in a week, approximately," Colbert said as he looked up at Kirche from his seat. "We protested but... there was nothing we could have done about it."

"Who were they, Professor?" Kirche asked, her overly sweet tone slipping out of her voice as her smile visibly deflated.

"Her familiars," Colbert answered much to the confusion of both of the girls, though only Kirche reacted outwardly.

"Her familiars? But how is that possible? They were human… And what do you mean by familiar_**s**_. As in more than one? You can't have more than one." Kirche blubbered as she tried to wrap her head around the revelation. Tabitha, for her part had closed her book and was now devoting her full attention to the Professor.

"Yes. From what they have told us, the object that Miss Valliere summoned yesterday was filled with people. They claim to number over half a million and have come from some other world from beyond the Void." Colbert shook his head, he could hardly believe his own words but the proof was there over their heads just sitting in the sky like it belonged there. "Their leader is a woman named Karan and they have an understandable interest in Miss Valliere. I'm afraid thats all we know."

Kirche looked on, dumbstruck. A moment of quiet and she turned listlessly to exit the workshop. Tabitha nodded her thanks to the balding man and followed, closing the door behind her with a thump. When Tabitha found Kirche again she was sitting on the steps that lead outside to the grounds idling with her fingers.

"I guess Valliere beat me after all." Kirche said despondently when she heard Tabitha walk up behind her.

With a glare at the back of Kirche's head, Tabitha reached out with her staff and bonked the sulking germanian on the head.

"Ow! Tabitha, why would you do that!?" Kirche groused as she cradled her head.

"Thinking of useless things," Tabitha stated as she sat down and cracked her book again.

"I see... Thank you," Kirche said as she went back to staring out at the grass.

Tabitha shot her a look before returning to her book and replying "You're welcome."

**.XXX.**

Louise kicked her feet back and forth as she waited on a padded table in a room filled with strange objects. She was a little nervous, Gacil and Vayan had told her to wait in the room so that a doctor could look at her before she met their leader. Louise had almost no experience with commoner healers but her nerves were buoyed by the fact that she knew there was nothing wrong with her, at least according to their family's water mage. The trip to the ship had been comfortable at least. The huge carriage was probably the smoothest ride she had ever had the pleasure to experience. It likely had something to do with Gacil giving Vayan a ten minute lecture about her driving. After a very swift journey Louise had gotten to see their ship up close and its enormity was astounding. It was probably as long as the capital city Tristania was across! Then they retrieved the carriage with a _crane_ of all things and hoisted it into the ship, leading to her current situation sitting and waiting for the doctor.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity someone opened the door and stepped inside. The woman was again a little taller than most people Louise had seen. She had loose brown curls that reached the middle of her back and almost luminescent sea green eyes. The woman smiled and raised her hand towards Louise in greeting. "Hello Louise, I'm Dr. Noim S'jet and I'm very pleased to meet you."

Louise stared at the hand for a moment before taking the doctor's hand and kissing her knuckles. She was afraid she had insulted Noim when the doctor jerked her hand away and laughed in a very nervous sounding manner. "H-Hello doctor, how did you know my name? Did Gacil talk to you?" Louise asked, hoping to draw attention away from her faux pas.

"Yes, we did talk for a moment before I saw you today." The doctor smiled and nodded before going to a miniature fountain in the wall to wash her hand in... something that didn't smell like water at all. "Though I will say that I knew your name since early this morning. It was in the daily briefing you see. I'm certain almost everyone in the fleet knows your name by now."

"Everyone?" Louise asked.

The doctor nodded as she turned around and put on some oddly stretchy and thin gloves. "Well the fifty thousand or so active personnel yes. Our colonists remain in cryosleep. Now open your mouth and say 'ahh'."

After four hours of what was decidedly the most intrusive experience of her life Louise almost jumped for joy when Noim said it was almost over. Not that the experience wasn't valuable, she had learned a lot from the doctor's habit of rambling. Things like how well her body worked, that the bone she fractured as a little girl had healed fine, and that she was generally healthy.

"All done!" Noim chirped as she placed the last vial of blood from Louise into some strange boxy machine. "I'm sorry if any of that made you uncomfortable."

"It's fine." Louise said as she rubbed at the spot where the needle had punctured her skin. That had been by far the worst part of the entire ordeal. As Louise watched Noim finish up her work her white sleeve slipped a little, allowing Louise to see the faint marks that identified the kind woman as her familiar. The weight of her responsibility settled on her shoulders again and she cast her eyes at the floor as she once again fretted over her lot.

The woman reached out and grabbed Louise's hand, startling her from her brooding and using it to help the small girl down from the table. "Now that that's over with we can finally get to the reason you're here." Noim said as she pulled Louise over toward another metal door.

Louise nodded a little when an unanswered question started to wiggle into her mind. "Why exactly did you bring me here? I mean... I know to talk but, _why? _Gacil never told me the reason, just that I had to come." Louise grimaced at the thought of the huge stacks of work she would have to make up after this was all over.

Noim smiled and a small giggle escaped from the doctor as she led them out the door and down a short hallway. "Gacil has always been... well kind of stiff. It doesn't surprise me that he didn't tell you if he didn't think you needed to know. Sadly, I don't know the reason, besides maybe studying how you brought us here. As to _her _purpose, you'll be able to ask her yourself." Noim said as she hurried Louise through the door. She smiled and gave a small wave as she closed it leaving Louise alone.

Louise wasn't sure what she expected when she was told she was going to be meeting the mysterious Karan but being shoved into someone's bedroom wasn't it. Curious, Louise scanned the room around her. It apparently belonged to the very woman who brought her here, judging by the few images being displayed in sequence on an oddly flat picture frame mounted to the wall. Louise took a few steps closer to the frame and took as many details as she could.

_Noim standing and posing with a crowd of other people in white coats on a sand covered sidewalk surrounded by tall white buildings._

_Noim holding a baby next to an older woman who looked like she was related to her. An older, brown haired, man stood behind the two looking tired._

_A picture of a young brunette girl standing with the older couple from the last picture in a dirt area pointing up at an odd, glowing, shape in the sky._

Suddenly the picture shifted to a very dark room with the silhouette of a person outlined by a glowing screen full of stars. Louise was startled and almost stumbled as she quickly stepped away.

"Hello." A voice filled the room from every direction. It was feminine and somehow sounded warm in spite of the totally flat tone.

"H-Hello?" Louise stammered, confused by the disembodied voice in concert with the strange image that was getting more and more familiar the longer she looked at it. "Are you Karan?" Louise tried to keep her voice from wavering.

"Yes, I am. I wanted to meet you." The voice echoed even in the confined space. "I presume you are Louise de la Valliere, the one responsible for us being brought here as well as this..." Something moved on the picture frame and Louise felt her skin crawl at the sight. A thin metal... thing, extended from the top of the dark shape and used a pincer looking appendage to grasp something and pull it into the light. A pale hand emerged from the shadows, shaped for a woman and healthy looking despite its pallor. On the back of the hand, standing out in stark contrast on such pale skin was the darkened skin of the familiar runes.

Louise nodded and tried not to look afraid. "Yes, it was me, I summoned you and took you all as my familiars."

"Please explain how this is possible." The voice of Karan reverberated and Louise felt as if the person behind the toneless emissions was... eager.

Louise blocked out her nerves and focused on Information she had been internalizing for the past two years. "The Springtime Summoning ritual is an ancient coming of age wright for young mages to prove their worth by summoning creatures to serve as companions and servants."

The voice was silent for a moment and Louise began to wonder if she had heard her. "This is the 'magic' that was mentioned." It finally said and Louise nodded despite not being sure if the person on the other side of the picture frame could see her.

"Yes." Louise confirmed. "During my own ritual something... frightening happened." Louise swallowed as the lingering fear from having her body under something else's control returned. "It, made me say the wrong words. Made me call for my 'family beyond the ken of the universe' instead of what I wanted to say.

"I see." The voice said quickly. Louise was certain she could hear concern in the flat tone but it was likely just her own mind playing tricks with her. "Many of the crew are unhappy with being lost here. They are the minority but our journey was a hard one and we are... weary."

Louise nodded understanding, at least a little, of what she described. "That is the reason for the declared invasion?" Louise asked feeling more and more out of her depth every second.

"Unfortunately." The voice agreed. "We normally would not disturb your people Louise but the safety and survival of our kind takes precedence over all other concerns. We have suffered greatly at the hands of those mightier than we..." The voice trailed off feeling full of an indecipherable pain. "We... I... will not allow the same to happen to you."

Louise blinked, stunned by the concern and pained emotions in the voice. "Karan?" Louise asked after a several seconds of silence.

"Yes Louise?" Karan replied.

"Why are you hiding in the dark?" Louise felt silly even before she finished speaking. Yet the curiosity was eating away at her the longer she stared at that single hand illuminated in a shadowed scene. A second passed before the scene in the picture changed to one of bright light. Louise gasped and her hand flew up in front of her face as she learned the reason for the darkness.

A young woman, no older than her eldest sister was hung from the ceiling like an idle puppet. She was entirely nude and very pale but that was only the beginning. Metal cables and thick hunks of machinery ran beneath and over the woman's skin. Connecting and emerging around her mangled neck. She was shaved bald, except for several metal bolts that looked liked they bored straight through her skull and were connected to even more cables that dangled from above. As Louise watched in horror the pincer that held the wrist aloft let go and the arm drifted slowly back to the side of its owner, totally limp and lifeless. Somehow beneath the shock Louise realized that the woman was floating in a vast chamber of nothing but macabre machines and fluid. But by far the worst thing was when the eyes, the same sea green eyes that Noim possessed, flickered over to and watched the limb as it fell. "I am told that, to the uninitiated, the procedures to allow me to control the mothership can look... grotesque. I created the machines you see. It was the only choice. But it does bring benefits, as some... ones once said to me, 'the solar wind blows across my skin and hyperspace sings in my ears.' I carry all that is left of our species within my body because I am the living _spirit _of the Mothership."

Louise sank to the floor as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. She stared at screen even as it returned to the dark. "One day I will need your help Louise," Karan said, her voice sounding hesitant. "Help to send us home... Will you help me?"

Louise nodded as she silently cried on the floor.

**.XXX.**

Karan watched in silence as the little girl she had just manipulated was collected by one of her distant S'jet cousins, a harsh feeling in her chest.

"You did what you had to." Kilh'al spoke directly into her mind from a console in the Mothership's CIC. "I hope we don't have to do anything drastic. She will be the key to our going home but I still don't like the idea of having to experiment on someone so young."

"It may not be necessary," Karan replied as Dr. Noim's cabin door clanked closed.

Silence reigned for a few moments."But if it is..."

Karan turned her mind back to her work. leaving the comment unanswered.

**.XXX.**

**AN: **Ok, this chapter did NOT want to be written but I think I finally got my groove back by the end. Before anyone points out that Karan's modifications aren't that bad. Remember, they are being described by someone who doesn't have the cultural background to be able to understand the concept of cybernetics. To Louise what she saw was probably closer to someone being mutilated and nailed to a wall than what we see when we look at the same image. Also, I apologize if this last scene was really similar to the one with Siesta, gotta set this stuff up and why fix a technique thats not broken?

Midweekcomic13: Of course she is, Karan is her familiar after all. ;p

New Universe Returns: Yes...

Celestia's Paladin: Yes we can only hope that Louise can withstand the trials ahead.

Poliamida: That may happen, but it also might not. Only time will tell. (I really like the idea though.)

Durabys: Lol. Probably. They are both quite free spirited.

Wa7tch1nK1d: Oh she will be playing a part in Kushan politics but I won't say what exactly.

luis3007: Yes the Kushan are stranded and beginning to settle in for a long wait but that doesn't mean they won't also be looking into every avenue that might lead to a way home.

There is some debate on the exact origin of the Mothership's hyperspace core. In some older fluff the core was a scaled up version of the one they found in the Khar-Toba. The _control module_ was the only thing they didn't manage to copy and had to be jury rigged onto the larger core. There was a retcon with HW2 that changed it so that the core was the same one that was in the Khar-Toba and one of the _Far Jumpers._

Kitedtk: Yeah sorry about that, sometimes its necessary to set up future developments. With the short chapter format I'm using that can mean some chapters aren't as fulfilling. As for the Raiment? Well thats Gacil being a little excitable. People sometimes make assumptions when they are lacking information and often those assumptions turn out wrong. His self assigned mission to find relics is based on the idea that there is a hidden or defunct civilization thats a lot more advanced than the one they first located.

Ah yes the fountain scene. I had to explain this to a buddy of mine who didn't understand what the purpose of it was already so this should be somewhat easy to explain. To put it simply; You take a couple of people who are used to living in a planetwide sandbox and then suddenly dump them in a relative _Garden of Eden_, after a_ near species ending war,_ with the added factors of an extremely sexually free society _and_ a quiet, dark, place with no one around? What that leads to is self explanatory.

But why did I write it? The reason is twofold; To show Louise a clear image of these people's humanity and to bring across the idea that these people are riding the wave of relief and joy that comes with the end of war or surviving a terrible event. Essentially the people you saw in the fountain are the first participants in a Kushan population boom that makes the one the US had after WW2 look puny by comparison.


	6. Chapter 5

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs i'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 5

Jeru Manaan grumbled to himself as he watched Rakia interact with their charge. A gauss rifle was in parts laying on an oiled rag as he meticulously inspected each part. He was still a bit angry over a short altercation several hours ago in which he had seen how truly deluded some of the people were on this planet. A young blonde boy had tried to assault his charge, for the most asinine of reasons. Thankfully he could perform the field service on his weapon blind so his anger didn't affect his work.

Of course he hadn't been too rough with the kid, the boy was an idiot not a criminal. Still it had gotten him a scolding from Rakia, his sometimes serious, girlfriend. She liked to fluctuate between a physical only relationship and a confusing possessiveness that still boggled his mind. He tried to be sneaky as he watched the curve of certain parts as she bent over in some show of frustration that Siesta was inspiring by failing to understand her instructions. After a lingering glance he shook his head and tried to focus.

The fleet frowned on fraternization while on duty and he and Rakia had 'fraternized' so often that only the fact that their usual superiors looked out for them kept them from a well deserved disciplinary hearing. Now that they were their own detachment (something that never would have happened had Gacil known about their relationship) it was difficult to keep his mind on mission and not have it run away down Rakia's pants.

"Now when I say 'Tea Time' what are you supposed to do?" Rakia asked, holding out a hand in a slightly mocking manner to the girl they were protecting.

"Umm... run outside?" Siesta replied squirming in her chair.

The dark haired officer nodded, "Right but only after...?"

"I have one of you with me." Siesta said much more confidently.

"Good job." Rakia said as she sighed and sat down on one of the cots that they had dragged into the maid's quarters. "I think that's enough for now, we can drill it tomorrow."

Siesta also moved onto her bed, one of four that occupied the cramped room. Six if you counted the cots. She flopped over backwards and looked up at the ceiling. "Finally." The girl huffed.

"Hey you were the one that bargained for a security detail." Jeru barked from the floor. This got him a look from Rakia and it wasn't a pleasant one.

"What? You don't like being out here? All on our own? Nobody around to 'answer' to?" The raven haired woman smirked at Jeru's pout.

Cowed, Jeru sighed and went back to cleaning his coil rifle. "It's not that..." Jeru moaned, sounding a bit like a whiny child.

"Still pissed about the brat?" Rakia asked as she folded her arms, seemingly still angry. Jeru could see her eyes soften though and deep down he knew she was also disturbed by the disgraceful display that blonde brat had put on.

"Yeah," He said as he finished reassembling his rifle.

"Thank you again but..." Siesta said as she crawled to the edge of her bed. "You shouldn't ever go against the nobility. He could have killed you."

The coil gun in his hands hummed as he reinserted the batteries that powered the weapon. "The fact that you even have that attitude pisses me off," Jeru growled.

Rakia patted Siesta on her back as she shied away from the fuming man. "It's alright," she said soothingly. "Jeru's tribe was played as a scapegoat about twelve years ago. He doesn't like how comfortable your leadership is with their power," Rakia explained.

"What happened?" Siesta asked, eyes wide with curiosity at the prospect of stories from another planet.

"Nabaal merchant accused my mother of killing and robbing one of his employees." Jeru almost snapped off of the straps that held his body armor on as he grabbed it. "That kind of thing has always plagued the Manaan, followed us like a diseased shadow. People accuse us of some crime and the ones in charge barely bother to even think of the possibility that it might not be true." Jeru roughly repacked his own supplies after removing the comms gear from his pack. "Thankfully the building of the Mothership forced most people to forget their prejudices and work together. A Sobani spoke up at her faux trial and turned it into a real circus. It was an open and shut case once the wider world got involved."

"Why did they try to do that?" Siesta asked, propped up on her elbows and listening closely.

"It's some old superstitious nonsense." Rakia chimed in from where she had lied back on her cot. "People used to hate outsiders and the Manaan always traveled around place to place in small tribal groups. Terrible people saw us as a convenient scapegoats for thefts or murders, almost any crime."

"That's awful." Siesta gasped.

"Yeah well. That little prick was trying to do the same stuff since you were 'just a commoner.' It's that kind of thinking that got innocent Manaan killed for hundreds of years." Jeru said, sitting at the foot of Rakia's bed and starting to absently stroke her leg with his finger tips.

Siesta grinned but stayed quiet as she eyed the couple. It was almost painful how obvious they were. In the few short hours since she had met them they hadn't gone an hour without shooting coy glances or a quick caress when they thought they were out of sight.

"But it wasn't all bad." Rakia grinned as she feebly kicked at Jeru's hands.

"I have another question... Are you in an illicit affair?" Siesta leaned closer with a hungry look in her eyes, this was great almost like one of her books.

Jeru choked and snapped his hand away from where it had been wandering. "Ah no no, not at all... of course not."

Rakia rolled her eyes and gave Siesta a look, pressing her finger to her lips in the universal 'shush' gesture.

Siesta giggled and nodded before getting ready for bed. It wasn't late, by any means but her two bodyguards didn't look like they wanted to leave the room and well... If her employers wanted her to go back to work, they could take it up with them.

**.XXX.**

Gacil's eyes narrowed in frustrated annoyance when Vayan's foot poked his arm for the third time in as many minutes. She was laying, spread across the Baserunner's seat like she was lounging on a couch. But the worst part was that since he had kicked her out of the driver's seat after dropping off Louise the infuriating woman had taken to jabbing his arm with her bare feet.

After the altercation where he refused to let her drive again the trip had been silent and, judging by her self-assured smirk, it was another ploy to piss him off. In fact every time he had fallen into the monotony that was driving and began enjoying the quiet she poked him again.

As traffic on the road had increased he had slowed down quite a bit and now after two hours thatch and tile roofs of the capital of the country finally poked over the last hill.

"Oh thank the maker we're here." Gacil intoned as he watched guards and archers climb up on the walls in sheer panic at the massive vehicles approach. Wagons were rapidly pulled out of his way as frightened civilians fled off the road and a portcullis was dropped to block the way into the city.

"They certainly look like a friendly bunch." Vayan quipped as she slid her shoes back on.

"Can you blame them?" Gacil muttered as he easily slid the great truck off the road before backing up towards the gate. "The last place was a school, this is our first real stop," He continued as they gathered the rest of their things and stepped into the rear compartment where the replenished security team was waiting for them. That he expected Vayan to take her job seriously for once went unsaid but understood and the blonde nodded as she straightened her jumpsuit, it having been disturbed from the way she had ridden.

The ramp began to drop to the ground and the security members took up their rifles in a pair of lines to either side of Gacil and Vayan. As the ramp finally finished extending the two of them shared a glance and a nod before stepping out into the late afternoon sun.

**.XXX.**

Princess Henrietta practically ran to the throne room when word finally reached her of the bizarre events at the city gate. Her heels clicked loudly against the gleaming tile and the protests of her keepers faded rapidly from her awareness even as they practically leapt in front of her to plead their arguments for her remaining in her room. She might have listened to them once upon a time but now she was worried for her friend and her country, there was no way she was going to leave this alone.

She strode through the doors to the throne room with purpose and motioned for Mazarin to vacate what would be her future seat, at least for a little while before she was married off. "Excuse me Cardinal but I am to see to this meeting personally."

The old Cardinal frowned but moved after a wordless clash of wills. He took to standing over her shoulder as she seated herself just as the doors at the end of the room opened.

A procession of oddly dressed, slightly tall, but otherwise normal looking people marched in, escorted by a full sixty armsmen, mages, and Agnes, the captain of her personal bodyguards.

There were three foreigners on either side of what she assumed would be the actual diplomatic group, obviously soldiers. The soldiers wore an odd uniform that included a fully enclosed helm and were armed with some strange, musket-like contraptions. Henrietta didn't know a lot about warfare or the use of muskets but obscuring ones vision like that seemed to be counter productive to any musketeer.

Agnes raised an eyebrow at the sight of Henrietta but held out a hand towards the strange visitors. "Gacil de Soban and Vayan de Manaan diplomatic envoy to the Kushan people here to see Princess Henrietta de Tristain on matters of state."

Gacil stepped forward and nodded his thanks to Agnes before he spoke. "Greetings Princess, on behalf of myself and the Kushan people."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord Soban. On behalf of the citizens of Tristain I welcome you to the city of Tristania." Henrietta said, confidence filling her voice. Gacil failed to hear the touch of eagerness that lurked behind her tone. "While I am happy to welcome you, you must surely realize that I have many questions for you."

"I do and I will attempt to answer them all in the course of this conversation." Gacil took a deep breath and began to speak. "Yesterday afternoon my people found ourselves pulled across the void and to your world. The transition nearly killed us all but thankfully our vessel managed to escape."

"Summoned by Louise de la Valliere correct?" Henrietta asked interrupting Gacil's story.

"Y-yes." He answered, caught off guard by the sudden question.

"And where is Louise now?" Henrietta continued, leaning forward with a certain glint in her eye.

"We have taken her to our carrier the Yorn'ilgara. She has agreed to help us to discover the mechanics behind our summoning in an effort to reverse it." Gacil responded, once again on his toes but slightly concerned.

"I see." Henrietta said, leaning back in her chair. She fixed Gacil with a rather piercing stare but he continued on regardless.

"Our entire civilization has been banished to the stars in a great atrocity and we were nearing the end of a campaign to retake our home planet-" Gacil would have continued speaking but the room erupted in shouts of disbelief and denial as the nobles who occupied the room found his story too fantastical to believe.

"That cannot be!" Mazarin roared over the noise. "Nothing lives beyond the firmament!"

Henrietta raised her hands and the room quieted. "You are the creators of Louise's moon?"

"Pardon?" Gacil asked, not understanding the phrase.

"My apologies, it's just a phrase that has begun to be used to describe that..." Henrietta waved her hand towards the sky.

Vayan's eyes lit up with understanding and she quietly elbowed Gacil in the ribs and whispered "She means the Mothership," into his ear.

Gacil rubbed his sore ribs and shot Vayan an irritated look before nodding in understanding. "I see. We call it the Mothership and it has been our last bastion from our enemies, home, workplace, and the seed that has kept the last of our people safe." Gacil straightened up as he pushed on to the point of the meeting. "I have been sent to tell you that we will be founding a colony on your world. All regional conflicts are to be ceased at once. We will not tolerate any threats to the safety of our colonists. There are precious few of us remaining and they cannot be put in jeopardy. You will likely be allowed to continue your governance for now but that is likely to change in the future when we begin to settle the planet more completely. I have yet to be informed of how your population will be integrated with ours but I will send you a-"

The room exploded in noise again as protests rang out and weapons were brandished. Henrietta was stunned, aghast that this man had the gall to walk into her father's throne room and tell her that her family's rule was coming to an end. "Explain yourself." Henrietta stated, still somehow being clearly heard over the clamor.

Gacil took a step back as his security detail closed ranks around him. The masked soldiers twitched as the crowd fumed, their rifles fixed on the most threatening targets. "It is exactly as I said." Gacil said with an even tone that didn't betray his nerves. "You are to stand down all military forces. The Kushan navy will take responsibility for any defensive actions that need to be undertaken."

"Even if I were to agree with this, the threats to our nation are many. As powerful as you claim to be I cannot do as you say." Henrietta said calmly, earning her a look of approval from the Cardinal.

Gacil held up a hand and mumbled something into the wrist. Minutes passed and the stalemate continued. Henrietta was just about to ask them to leave if their business was concluded when a shadow fell over the room. At first Henrietta didn't even notice but then the room started to vibrate as a deep rumbling throb reached her ears. Someone screamed and the rooms occupants rushed to the windows. Henrietta stood and look out as well only to see that the sky suddenly had a ceiling.

A titanic vessel that nearly stretched from one end of the castle grounds to the other hovered overhead. It cast a dark shadow that had the people too afraid to panic. The rumbling got worse as the vessel was joined by a pair of somewhat smaller, yet still huge companions that drifted to a stop on either side.

"May I present the heavy cruiser _Kharak's Wrath_ and her escorts." Gacil said as the room gaped at the sight. "We posses two more ships of the Avatar class." He gestured towards the ship. "So you see, you have little choice."

Henrietta turned and returned to her seat. She didn't outwardly show signs of fear even if she was still afraid. "I cannot stand down and we will not be intimidated into compliance." She said simply before waving her hand to signal that the Kushan be escorted from the room. Once they had been forced from the room at the end of a blade she rubbed her eyes with her hands. The man's protests still echoed in her ears. "Take a letter." She said to a nearby servant.

Once the man had the appropriate implements she began. "Dear Karin-"

**.XXX.**

Louise grunted in discomfort as a cramp threatened to make itself felt in her tired arm.

"Ok just a few more readings and we can take a break."

Louise wanted to growl at Noim but any threat she could make would be obviously hollow with her wand arm trapped in a cocoon of wires, metal, and glass. Louise steeled herself for one more round of casting and felt the first of her failed spells leave her wand.

"Good, good, I now I want you to think of target number two while you aim at target number one."

Louise tried to do as the doctor asked... really... but all she could think about was a nice soft pillow with her name on it. This had the effect of her spell bursting in mid air.

Noim poked her head up from where she had been hiding behind a metallic wall, a pair of large black goggles on her face. The woman looked at Louise before smiling and walking over to pat the exhausted girl on the head.

"If you're too tired just say so Louise." Noim said as she began dismantling the device, a cobbled together lump of every measuring tool the Kushan could think of. "You did good today."

Louise slumped from where she had been made to stand for hours with her hand stuck in the contraption and smiled at Noim. A warm feeling fluttered in her chest at the thought of being needed and the simple praise that came with it. "It was no problem for me." Louise shrugged off the discomfort from the work and the budding feeling of fulfillment she managed to get from the small compliment, trying her best not to look like she was trying to shake feeling back into her fingers.

"Now I happen to know the cafeteria is serving curry today so if you would like to just wait a little longer for me to finish up we can go get some." Noim said with a wink as she made her way over to a computer console and began to rapidly tap the glass.

Louise smiled and made her way over to a cushion to wait. A few minutes after she got comfy on the over stuffed pillow Louise paused in thought. "Noim?" Louise said with a question on her lips.

"Yes Louise?" Noim muttered as she concentrated on her work.

"What's curry?" Louise asked curiously.

Noim paused before smiling in a slightly concerning manner. "It's a surprise," She said as she quickly went back to her work.

Louise frowned and huffed as she wiggled back into a comfortable spot on her pillow.

**.XXX.**

"You're really bad at this." Vayan quipped as the Kushan group finally made it back to the baserunner.

"It wasn't meant to be a request. The girl didn't have to agree with anything. You know as well as I do it was a courtesy to even tell her in the first place." Gacil almost growled back at her as he buckled himself into his seat. "It's none of my business if she decides to ignore the warning."

"I get it, I get it. Calm down already." Vayan replied as she started up the transport, a pouty expression on her face. "Louise isn't going to like it." She mumbled as she set course for the capital of Germania.

Gacil huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, shooting a dirty look at the blonde pilot. "Don't be an idiot." Gacil said as he turned to look at the scenery just barely beginning to move past the window. "You think they would tell her anything that might damage her motivation? Not likely. She probably isn't even going to see the light of day again until they find what they need."

Vayan turned and looked at him with a grimace. "You don't think they would really be that cruel do you?"

"They'll do whatever they have to." Gacil replied grimly. "They aren't going to take pointless risks with the only source of information on how to get home."

"But she's just a child..." Vayan said with a frown.

"Yeah, she's just a girl and the Kadesh were just a bunch of frightened refugees too." Gacil replied, a sad tone entering his voice. The Kadesh had been a mistake, a big one. Gacil could still remember seeing their distinctive motherships burning in the murk of their nebula.

"How's that related to anything?" Vayan snapped angrily at him. "You know they didn't leave us any choice."

Gacil shook his head. Vayan had been on the front lines of that particular conflict. Nose to nose with the enemy you couldn't waste time looking at the bigger picture. "They were defenseless after we smashed their fleet. They didn't have a single fighter left but we finished them off anyway."

"They were zealots," Vayan replied weakly. "They wouldn't have shut down their inhibitors."

"You really think they would have chosen death had we asked them to surrender?" Gacil asked.

"Probably." Vayan replied with a small hesitant nod.

"I guess we'll never have the chance to ask will we?" Gacil said driving the cab into an awkward silence that lasted for hours.

**.XXX.**

Karan frowned at the recording of the meeting between the ground team and the leader of the country's they had initially chosen for the site of their colony. The large areas of poorly utilized farmland and low population density was perfect for their needs. They could have easily relocated the natives to the area of the colony that had been set aside to allow interaction between the natives and Kushan civilians. But now that location was proving less than perfect. She would withhold judgment until the political situation at the other sites had been tested but she somehow doubted any of the other sites would be more welcoming.

Turning from her worry over the colony her attention returned to the rest of the system. There were several rich asteroid belts, planets and moons that dotted the system. And several resourcers had already begun to take advantage of them.

The one thing that was missing was the tell tale signs of previous habitation. In their old galaxy, debris could be seen in almost every single area of space. Even the Kharak system had been home to obviously artificial wreckage that had cemented the existence of alien life early in history. Here there was only dust. No debris, no sensor echos, and no radio signals from far off worlds. The galaxy was a very quiet place.

That didn't stop the fleet from trying to fill the silence however. Already two new resourcers had been constructed and the finishing touches were being placed on a new controller. Most of the newly gathered material was being sent to the lone carrier still in orbit and in only half a day after that five new interceptor wings would be available to protect them.

There were also new schematics being loaded into the system. A new fighter capable of performing much better in atmosphere than their current interceptors. A large scale construction ship that would be able to externally assemble space stations. And finally the chosen design for the shuttles that would carry the Kushan colonists to the surface a thousand at a time.

Their plans were marching forward faster and faster. Karan could only hope that the situation didn't spin disastrously out of control.

**.XXX.**

**A/N: **Hey guys, I'm really really sorry for how long this chapter took. There are probably more individual reasons why this was delayed than there are words in this chapter.

Things are kind of picking up in the Kushan effort to take over Halkegenia. Hope nothing goes wrong!

Lastly, in order to get you guys more involved I'm starting up an OC contest. Send me a PM with a name (nothing too western sounding plz) and a bit of personality and backstory.

For Example:

Gacil Soban.

A fastidious man with a love for the rules.

Was a school teacher on Kharak. Secretly laments some of the ruthless acts performed by his people.

You can go a bit more in depth than that if you like but be warned I'll probably change a few things to fit the narrative. I'll pick the winners as the story goes on, based on how well I think they fit in. (There's going to be tons of OCs in various positions so I'll probably use a fair chunk of them.)

Sigma-del-Prisium: Very true, although there are issues with building things the way the Kushan do when they are in a gravity well. Still a colony would likely only take weeks to construct if you are only talking about the basic infrastructure.

Poliamida: I've already experienced a bit of rage from the people who sometimes help me edit when I mentioned that Louise might be experimented on. So you're not alone in the hope she makes it out ok.

Rubin34: Oh ya'know someone playing the sympathy card to get them to do what they want. Though I imagine that the Kushan would milk that as long as it actually worked.

Wa7tch1nK1d: Don't worry you'll get to see a little of where I'm going with this part next chapter when she gets to mingle with the crew a little.

Though I expect while a lot of people will be happy they are somewhere the Taiidan could never find them. There will also be a significant faction that will be upset that their true home is beyond their reach.

luis3007: It was indeed a great achievement that Karan was able to be freed from the mothership. They had to literally reconnect her spine. But no one has said they might have to go that far with Louise... yet.

Ridli-Scott: No. She doesn't have anywhere near the ability to create a world door kilometers high.

Durabys: That's got more to do with the fact that I've been using the Somtaaw symbol as a personal calling card since I first played cataclysm than it does with any special Somtaaw involvement with the story. They will definitely be a part of things though so don't worry. (Next chapter probably.)

Banded Exiles


	7. Chapter 6

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs I'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 6

Louise frowned as she was led into the largest room on the ship. Noim stood behind her and guided her further into what seemed to be a noisy common area filled with the sounds of people chatting over meals and the smell of exotic spices and foods. She had been looking forward to dinner with Noim. The woman was very maternal and had easily drawn Louise into her presence, almost like a favored aunt. So why then did she insist on forcing them into a room filled with so many random strangers? Louise made an attempt to vanish behind the woman's legs but was shooed away and seemed to immediately draw every eye in the room.

"Go on Louise, go meet some of the crew," Noim said as she retrieved a pair of trays.

Louise sighed, Gacil hadn't cared if she... She shook her head, trying desperately to clear the sudden redness in her cheeks. The last thing she needed was for someone to notice _that_ and start asking inconvenient questions. Even if she really didn't like that stuck up, patronizing, idiotic old man, she really didn't want to deal with the problems that would dump in her lap. Louise's internal rant suddenly broke off when a hand was suddenly thrust under her nose.

"P-p-pleased to meet you Sa-s-ma'am." A man in a strange hooded version of the clothes the other crew wore stood shakily in front of her. He had plain brown hair, cut very short and held his hand out in greeting. A bright white semicircular marking with a four pointed star stood out on his clothes. He seemed to be so nervous his teeth chattered. Confused and a little concerned for the man, Louise offered her hand, hoping that the simple greeting would calm him down. Some people found comfort in the simple traditions like greetings and such.

She was wrong.

The man nearly threw himself onto the deck on bent knees and even then had trouble bringing the back of her hand to his lips. Whispers and quiet muttering filled the room as the man leapt backwards as if burned once he had pecked the back of her hand.

"Umm... Are you ok?" Louise asked, feeling a little of the man's nervous behavior rub off on her, the whispers didn't help either.

"F-fine lady Sa-Sa-Valliere." The moment the man finished speaking the volume of whispers tripled.

"Lev, it's good to see you out of the lower decks." Noim said as she pulled Louise next to her. "This is Louise, she's working with me in the lab for now." Lev, the nervous man, nodded.

"Y-You're looking for a way back." He said as he pulled himself to his feet, a sudden seriousness fell about him even as the signs nervousness bled transition made Louise feel a little lightheaded, like emotional whiplash. "Why bother?" Lev said, his eyes occasionally flicking down to look at her but otherwise fixed on the other participant in the conversation.

Louise returned to and dug herself deeper into Noim's shadow as the whispers burst into a loud din of conversation.

"Ah, I've heard some people thought that way." Noim said, obviously becoming engaged by the sudden debate her dinner had turned into. That was the one thing Louise had learned through hours of idle conversation that she didn't like about her. Once you expressed a belief, she had a strange fixation with analyzing it, picking apart all the inconsistencies or fallacies. "Might I ask why?"

"It's simple." Lev said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "We don't need to sacrifice anything more when we have found a perfectly good home here." His eyes once again found Louise and she easily noted the obvious look of gratitude they held.

Louise swelled with pleasant feelings that her accident had been truly appreciated and welcomed by at least one person among her familiars. "Umm-" she tried to inject herself into the interaction but held her tongue when the man spoke over her timid attempt at socializing.

"Returning to wherever we were before will only deliver us into the claws of the Taiidan. I doubt we can survive a second brush with them. Even with the fleet victorious in every engagement, we have lost so many." Lev said in a voice that easily cut over the din that swelled even further.

"Bullshit! We cut them down in the thousands!" Someone shouted from the other side of the room.

"Shut up you idiot!" Another shouted at the first.

The whispers and murmuring escalated, rapidly turning into a shouting match. Louise cringed, the situation was already alien, the sudden burst of emotion and volume quickly overwhelmed her. She turned and quickly bolted out of the door emerging into the relatively quiet corridor. Sighing in relief Louise turned and began walking, wanting to get far away from the sudden crack in the dutiful silence of the crew. The corridor grew almost eerily quiet as she walked and she let her mind pour over the rapid changes in her life.

It was nearly twenty minutes of meandering later when the plating she was standing on suddenly thrummed to life. A great vibration made her feet tingle as a strange feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. She giggled. She couldn't help it! The feeling gave her goosebumps and tickled the soles of her feet.

"Alright, I'm proud to announce that, thanks to our supremely dedicated repair crews, we have propulsion. We're going to be making orbit in a few minutes to finish up the major repairs and replacements. Good job people."

The voice seemed to come from all around her, echoing in the empty corridor. Louise quickly cast her gaze around, searching for any way she could see. She might not have known what he really meant but she knew what the word 'propulsion' meant. A short search down a side passage found her staring through a tiny porthole into the cavernous gap in the front of the ship. Far below, she could see the ground. The gap was at a strange angle so only a sliver of darkly shaded green was visible but that didn't stop her from recognising a stretch of forest they were already passing over. The night obscured the details but the tannish streak was obviously the road leading to Tristania.

Soon the ground was no longer recognizable, it seemed like it was an ocean of shadow and patch works of multi colored fields far below her. There was the slightest feeling of vertigo when a few minutes later the ground rolled out of view. For a terrifying second, Louise thought that the ship was capsizing before a gorgeous sight met her eyes.

Stars, a vast glittering ocean of them slid into view as the curve of her world vanished. Louise was almost convinced she was in some waking dream. The thrum of the floor and the awkward gap filled with stars easily brought a smile to her face. It was an odd feeling to be actually standing above the sky...

It took an actual physical effort for Louise to pull herself from the window and start backtracking towards the cafeteria. Though now she wielded an excellent mood to face the whatever strange situation Noim would try to foist on her next.

**.XXX.**

Vayan sighed as she tossed in her bunk. She couldn't help but cast jealous glances down the metallic ramp that led to the camp where the security personnel were getting to enjoy a night sleeping under the stars. An opportunity that almost everyone in the fleet would indulge in with prodigious enthusiasm. Her gaze turned towards the source of her woes for the evening. Gacil was in a bunk across the cabin, already fast asleep. He had apparently decided that her current circumstances made the best revenge for the pestering and annoyances she had heaped on him that morning. After all, "The driver should stay with the vehicle at all times, in case of emergency." She mocked him silently.

Joke was on him though. Vayan grinned mischievously as she inched her way out of her bunk and crept towards the ramp. There was no way she could miss out on getting to enjoy the outdoors.

The security team's campsite was a ring of fallen trees surrounding a collection of sticks that burned in the center. The process of finding out that they could burn the local vegetation was a harrowing one. The poor people hadn't wanted to harm any of the lush green around them. Thanks in most part to an irrational fear it would all disappear if they harmed even a single leaf.

The soldiers were all sitting upon their improvised benches and staring into the flames as she stepped off the metal ramp. They had stopped in the middle of some forest in the country of Germania. They were on their way to the next stop on their journey to piss off every national leader on the continent when it had gotten too late to continue. The call was made to stop for the night and soon they found a large clearing just off the dirt path the locals called a road and settled in.

Vayan looked from unfamiliar face to unfamiliar face, disappointed that none present were any of her vast network of acquaintances. Well, there wasn't any way she was going to let that situation stand for much longer.

As she took her first step toward the camp there was a soft whistle and then one of the logs seemed to suddenly grow an oddly straight branch. It even had little fuzzy sprouts on one end. Was that how the plants grew on this world? Then there was another whistle and another odd branch grew, this time out of the dirt at her feet. She puzzled over it until a sudden hail of the 'branches' suddenly struck. Vayan hopped backwards into the relative safety of the baserunner's shadow as one of the security team suddenly had 'branches' growing from his unprotected neck. It was only now that Vayan understood what was happening. She chastised herself as the first cracks of return gunfire echoed into the night. She was only halfway up the ramp when the whole vehicle shuttered as the turret on the roof spoke in anger.

She stumbled into the cab and nearly crashed headlong into Gacil as he manned the gunnery station. She twisted around him and into her seat. Gacil shot her a look but returned to blowing up the tree line without a word. The man must have woken and jumped to his feet instantly after hearing the first gunshot, if not the scream that preceded it.

Vayan's fingers flew over the vehicle's console and brought up the sensor manager. Around them, dozens of heat signatures converged on their camp site. They were locals, insane people that were attacking them. They must know they don't stand a chance. Why would they be so stupid as to attack a group of Kushan soldiers? It was suicide!

Another half a dozen of the locals were wiped out as the cannon fired again. They fell rapidly from both the small arms and the big gun and they faltered and turned to run in mere minutes.

Just as the rabble had turned to flee an explosion rocked the baserunner. It was enough to set off the automated "under attack" claxon and flood the room in red, emergency lights. As Gacil regained his balance the attack struck again, shaking the huge vehicle. The hull integrity was only down by a couple of percent but that was still impressive for the primitive locals.

It only took a third and a fourth attack for the fire control computer to calculate the origin and provide Gacil with the targeting data.

The baserunner lurched as Vayan pulled towards the vector. The cannon spoke again and more trees exploded.

The unknown attack did not come again.

Vayan circled the clearing aggressively, searching for more attackers. When after a few minutes none came, she pulled towards the camp.

"Get the medkit." Gacil said as he dashed towards the lowering ramp.

Fearing the worst, Vayan snatched up the white case and ran after Gacil.

**.XXX.**

"Raiders..." Gacil muttered as he examined the prone corpse at his feet. The morning light refused to make the grisly wound in its side any more pleasant. It was the most intact one they could find, the rest mostly bits and pieces. It was no surprise that the coil guns had that effect, they were a large caliber and made to spread as much and as quickly as possible. Many of the people on Kharak had found them distasteful but the design was necessary to avoid hull breaches. The cannon on the baserunner needed no explanation as to why it had showered the clearing with naught but gore.

What drew most of Gacil's worry was the large area of scorched hull where an unknown attacker had managed to do some damage. _'Magic.'_ The word echoed loudly in his thoughts as he turned back toward the transport. Several corpses were laid out at the bottom of the ramp. One struck down by a pair of arrows in his neck, the other's head lulled in a sickening way that spoke of a shattered spine. The Raiders armed with metallic clubs and blades had managed to close the distance. They, for a few terrible seconds, managed to sow chaos and death in the security team before they were killed.

Gacil stepped up to a haunted looking Vayan as she slumped on one of the seats in the transport. "You look tired... Sleep, I've got everything under control." He said as he approached. The blonde woman paused before nodding and wiping her eyes.

"Yeah, I think I will." Vayan said morosely as she slowly rose.

Gacil, frowned. It was obvious the woman had been thinking about. "There was nothing we could've done differently." He offered as she turned away.

"Yeah, I know." Vayan responded as she climbed into one of the small bunks. "It still sucks though."

"It does." Gacil simply responded as he turned and walked into the cab.

**.X.**

Lefir glared at the information on display in front of her like if she made it feel enough shame that it would rearrange itself into the real report. Needless to say that the characters remained stationary and thus the information unchanged.

"Two dead..." She said as she paced back and forth holding the pad up to her face.

"Two dead and a damaged vehicle to _raiders._" She continued as the rest of the Kiith'sa. The others seemed to shift as the agitation they felt stirred at the woman's words.

"We should not act in haste. The people on the surface are barely as advanced as we were at the beginning of the age of heresy. It was only the founding of the space effort and the unification of the Kiith that put a permanent end to Kharak's own raider bands. Surely we cannot expect them to be able to police all of their lands perfectly?" A man in a hooded jumpsuit said loudly, hoping to be the voice of reason. Several others among the Kiith'sa nodded, accepting his words as wise.

"You speak out of turn Somtaaw." Lefir reminded him, her voice harsh and her eyes harsher. "You forget, for all of their primitive ways and backward attitudes, they have the ability to, somehow, manipulate space and matter to do their bidding. Yet those with those abilities sit idle in their homes as dangerous bands like these run amok. They more than have the ability to police their own lands but they are content to squander that ability."

"Get to the point." The Nabaal Kiith'sa grumbled.

"Of course." Lefir bowed slightly to the only real equal she had in this new political arena. "The landing of further troops and the acceleration of the colonization schedule." Lefir said simply.

A commotion consumed the room for several minutes before the Nabaal Kiith'sa stood and held up his hand for silence. Once the room was quiet he spoke. "Very well, I support this course on behalf of the Nabaal."

The murmurs returned as the order was signed and Lefir cracked a small, triumphant grin.

**.X.**

**A/N: **Hey guys, I'm really sorry this took so long to get out. RL stuff, you probably have heard that excuse a lot. There were also a ton of reviews this time, mostly about how Gacil acted like an idiot. This wasn't entirely his fault. It's partially culture and partially orders. The cultural part of the problem is the fact that the Kushan tend to be very heavy handed when it comes to diplomacy. When they are in a position of strength they aren't shy about using or threatening force to get their way. The other part was orders, Gacil is traveling around as a messenger to tell the governments of Halkegenia that they're being ousted by inevitability. The Kushans consider what he is doing to be a courtesy. Essentially so that the region is all on the same page and understands what's happening. Did he handle it badly? Yes, that's pretty obvious. Is he a moron? No, he's just falling prey to the Kushan's racial arrogance.

Now onto the individual reviews (of which there are less because I replied to most of you above.)

Durabys: Halk is not in the Milky Way. Though our galaxy may be mentioned at some point.

Kknd2: Thanks a lot for your reviews I loved reading them. As for your actual questions.

Your runes activate when your targeting weapons, so no the MS wouldn't count as a weapon. Karan's could be activated if she took direct control of the defensive batteries though.

As for being citizens? Yes, sort of, it would if the Kushan's actually submitted to the Tristanian government. Fat lot of luck on that happening.

Danial2k2: Here you go!


	8. Chapter 7

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs i'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 7

"It is so strange to see you like this." Karan heard the words whisper through her consciousness.

A bolt of fear shot through her as her senses began to go haywire. The barely lit surroundings blurred, the feel of cold space on her skin heated, the millions of processes that ran in the back of her head ceased. Warning klaxons blared, emergency lighting cast a hellish red glow over everything. The entire ship, the vessel that was as much a part of her as her own nose, suddenly vanished from her senses. Cold dread filled her as she frantically searched for the connection.

"What have you done to yourself... My dearest Sasha."

Karan felt ice grip her spine as she felt fingers trace her cheek. The room was flooded, the door was still sealed. The shadowed silhouette of a man, featureless from the red backlighting stood next to her.

"I'm sorry, I was blind."

The fingers stroked her cheek again, the man's dark robes and pale hair coming into focus. Karan cursed her immobile nature. There was nothing she wanted to do more than flee from the shadow in front of her.

"Could you ever forgive me?"

A pair of fuchsia eyes stared out at her from the depths of the shadow with what seemed like great sorrow.

A bright light filled the dark room, hand held lamps from the medical personnel swimming towards her. The man was gone, her ship was back, a thousand voices screamed in her ear.

"-ran! Karan, answer me damn it!" Kilh'al's panicked voice was the first she managed to hear clearly.

"I'm ok." She replied weakly.

"Thank the maker!" She heard him shout. "What happened? Are you injured? Is the medical team there?"

"I don't know." Karan answered as a woman in a sealed suit shined a flashlight in her eyes. "Something... It was a... hallucination of some sort."

"Karan, hallucinations don't cut power to half the ship. We lost the feed from you and anything electrical refused to work on twenty three decks." Karan liked the sound of his voice, it made the ice still clinging to her spine melt away.

"I don't know, there was a man, he spoke to me."

"A man? In there with you?" His voice was always so warm, even when he was...

...what was she thinking again?

"What?"

"Karan! The man, what did he say?"

"...I don't... what?"

"Medical teams! What's happening?"

"She's going into shock! Get the $%*£!"

"+^#'\€ $&amp; ."

...

**.XXX.**

AN: I feel so evil for this chapter. Muah Ha Ha Ha!


	9. Chapter 8

Banded Exiles

I don't own anything here, the two IPs i'm borrowing are the properties of their respective owners and I make no profit from this.

Chapter 8

.XXX.

Karin stared down at the little piece of paper in her hand. The horrible words etched on it...

Her eldest daughter sat in a chair nearby in tears and her husband had nearly torn the armrests off of his seat he was gripping them so hard.

"Is that all it says?" Her husband asked through gritted teeth.

"It is." Karin answered in her usual tone. Most people wouldn't be able to tell but the anger in her voice made the other two in the room flinch. "Get your coats."

No one argued.

.XXX.

Siesta had been keeping a close eye on her companions since early that morning. The way they had acted was strange, whispering to themselves, pacing, talking in concerned tones... well, they did that anyway. This time just seemed to have them especially worried. After that they had been restrained for most of the morning chores. By the time she was serving lunch she had been worried something had happened. Now they were sitting around that "pad" thing again. Well, she wasn't going to stand for being left out of the loop! Time to practice a bit of the ol' Tarbes charm.

"Does it say something different from this morning?" Siesta asked as she suddenly leaned against Jeru, pressing her bountiful "assets" against his back.

Siesta fought to keep the innocent look on her face as the poor man went stiff as a board and Rakia shot her a dirty look.

"Yes." Rakia said a bit heatedly as she simply took the pad and put it away before she could get a decent look... not that she could even read their language.

"Did something bad happen? You both have seemed worried since this morning." Siesta commented as she slumped further against the man's back. She almost burst out giggling, cousin Jessica really knew how to get her way with things.

"A-A dear friend took ill, we were just worried." Jeru answered as he shot Rakia a look that pleaded for help.

"She's... Important." Rakia said giving Siesta a glare. "Now could you please unhand my boyfriend before he has an aneurism?"

"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make him uncomfortable." Siesta said as she dramatically drew away from the poor man.

"Mmhmm." Rakia mumbled.

"Where is everyone?" Jeru asked after straightening himself up and thinking very hard about sand sailing for a few seconds.

The dining hall was almost empty, only a few scattered students were eating here and there. Siesta looked around for a moment before nodding. "Its almost time for the annual Familiar festival, the other kitchen staff is delivering food to the student's rooms. They need all the time they can get to practise a routine for the contest.

"Festival?" Rakia asked looking a little less worried. Good, Siesta didn't want her body guards stressing themselves to death.

"Its a tradition, the students put on a show for the ruler of the country, who picks the best performance. This year the favorite is young Tabitha, that dragon is going to be hard to beat!" Siesta said as she gathered a few dishes. Rakia and Jeru fell into step with her just as they had been doing since she met them.

"Sounds like a lot of fun." Rakia said with a casual shake of her head.

"Don't you have any holidays?" Siesta asked as she placed the soiled dishes in a tub of water.

"Not really." Jeru said with a forced grin. "The rest of the species is a little dull, It's up to us Manaan to liven them up!"

Siesta frowned, "Isn't that kind of sad? Life would be pretty unbearable if you never got the chance to relax."

"We don't have any major scheduled holidays... but the weddings usually make up for that." Rakia said as she checked some of her gear.

"Oooh! Now you have to tell me about that!" Siesta said with a glint in her eye.

Jeru rolled his eyes but kept a grin of his own while the two women had a conversation better left to the prettier half of the species.

'Good.' Siesta thought, 'This is much more like them.'

.XXX.

Kilh'al stared at the viewscreen that once simulated the window of his quarters. Now the screen was filled with static. His thoughts swam in his head, fevered with worry.

"Kilh'al" came a voice from the crude radio attached to his hip. One of the many half baked solutions that had arisen in the wake of Karan's rejection of her implants.

"Yes." He said, sounding dejected.

"This is Lefir. Karan has been stabilized but there have been some complications. We need you on the bridge to update the fleet."

Kilh'al's hand gripped the transmitter hard enough to hear the creaking of the casing. "How bad?"

"That's hardly important, the fleet needs to be made aware of our plans. Now, tell them that the Mothership is to be incorporated into the planned orbital command station. We will need to alter the plans to incorporate a computer center roughly three times the size that we had planned. Without Fleet Command we are as good as blind until-"

"How bad is it?" Kilh'al asked impatiently.

"That's not-" crackled the voice on the radio.

Kilh'al growled with frustration. "So help me I will beat the answer out of you if I have to."

"Fine." The voice on the radio bit out acidly "Several areas of her brain and central nervous system were damaged, mostly around the implants. She's stable and the medics are going to move her to a carrier to attempt some reconstructive surgery. Now, stop pouting and do your job."

As the transmission cut both of Kilh'al's hands found their way to his face. After a few seconds of pulling himself together the man straightened his uniform and turned to head to the bridge.

.XXX.

(The Next Day)

Jeru cast his eyes around the crowd. The entire school was out waiting for their ruler to arrive. Rakia and Siesta were both inside, no doubt tucked away somewhere where they could get a nice view. Siesta had protested, she wanted to get a closer look at the ruler, a 'princess Henrietta' but Rakia had insisted they stay out of the crowd and that meant watching from some tower window.

He edged a little closer to the carriages that had just stopped in front of the school. There were four of them, the first two rather plain ones that disgorged several soldiers. The center carriage was painted white and covered in frills, that one carried an old man in a funny looking hat and a young girl in a white dress. The young girl was obviously Henrietta as a cheer went up when she emerged and waved to the crowd. The old man looked a little grumpy as he quickly turned and headed towards the last carriage. Jeru's helmet camera zoomed in towards the last carriage, it being a bit far from his current position, and watched as the old man impatiently knocked on the door.

Three people emerged from the last carriage, two pink haired women and a blonde man. The blonde man exchanged a few heated words with the old man but the thing that had drawn his attention was the eldest pink haired, woman. She was looking, no, glaring right at him. Jeru wondered how she had spotted him so quickly... and then he remembered he was wearing his body armor and helmet in the middle of a bunch of uniformed students.

The woman began walking towards him, ignoring the old man altogether. In fact, it seemed he was suddenly the focus of many attentions as a group of soldiers moved towards him from the other direction.

"Halt!" Cried a blonde haired woman as the group of soldiers neared. Jeru raised an eyebrow and shot the woman an unseen incredulous look, remaining rooted to where he had been standing. The crowd, which was already keeping its distance from him, suddenly vanished leaving him facing the soldiers alone.

Jeru wasn't alarmed and raised a hand. "Greetings." He said simply, his hand twitching slightly. A signal to Rakia to hold position.

"What are you doing here?!" The woman practically shouted in his face.

"VIP escort, gathering cultural information." Jeru answered simply.

"Who are you escorting?" The blonde asked, stalking back and forth in front of him like some sort of predator.

"The particulars of my mission are classified." Jeru stated.

The woman growled at him but Jeru simply shook his head. "I cannot tell you who I am escorting or why as it could endanger them... So you can stop pretending to be an angry Skaal-fa now." Jeru's little jab didn't go over so well as the woman seemed to become twice as angry. Jeru doubted she even understood what a Skaal-fa even was but he couldn't help but chuckle at her expense. She was almost cute in a way, like an angry, fuzzy, little animal. Though that was a thought he kept firmly to himself as an angry Rakia was a thousand times as scary as the short woman in front of him.

"Leave..."

The blonde paled and nearly jumped away with a mumbled "Yes Ma'am." as the pink haired, severe looking woman arrived.

Now this woman was an entirely different creature than the little blonde had been. This woman radiated a feeling of danger, a feeling that any wrong move would be met with a swift demise.

Jeru sighed to himself in the privacy of his own thoughts. 'Whys the interesting stuff happening to me all of a sudden? Where is Gacil when you need someone to take the brunt of this cosmic misfortune!' Complaints aside, Jeru merely stood staring back at the pink haired woman through his implacable faceplate.

"I was not expecting to locate one of you so easily. Are you aware of the location of my daughter?" The woman asked in an emotionless tone. Jeru was confused for a moment until he remembered another pink haired girl he had seen recently... Louise, wasn't that her name? If he was honest with himself it would probably be some time before Jeru forgot a kid as cute as Louise. The sheer comedy of her introduction was something he'd probably tell his kids about one day... and then they'd probably call him a perverted old man...

"I am" Jeru answered. "She is currently in orbit aboard one of our vessels."

"Why?" Was the simple question that followed up his answer. This took Jeru by surprise. Had no one bothered to inform her?

"Your daughter is responsible for stranding us here. She is assisting with research into the nature of both your magic and summoning in an effort to return to where we were." Jeru said, at least none of that was considered as sensitive as his mission with Siesta so at least he could tell her that much.

"Louise summoned you?" The woman's harsh look softened an almost imperceptible amount.

"That is what is currently believed." Jeru pulled off his glove to show her the extremely faint runes inscribed on the back of his hand. "Everyone has these markings ever since she kissed my superior."

"Your her familiars? That was true..." Her hand came up under her chin and her eyes closed in contemplation. "Can I speak with her?" She finally asked after a moment.

"Long range communication has been down since last night. We've only gotten a few burst transmissions about what's going on but full communications don't look like they'll be back up for some time." Jeru said apologetically. At the deepening scowl on the woman's face he held up the hand not holding his rifle defensively. "Hey, just calm down. If you want we could pass on a letter to her?"

"That would be acceptable." The woman said just as the blonde man and the other pink haired woman walked up behind her.

"What's going on?" The man said with a scowl.

"We will be writing to Louise." The woman said shortly as she turned and stormed off towards the tower. The man and other woman shared an exasperated look before following after her.

"Well that was weird." Jeru mumbled.

.XXX.

AN: Ok guys, short chapter but I hope this makes up for the previous blunder. I'm also sorry for the formatting errors I can't fight with my cellphone any longer. My computer is currently FUBAR so I'll fix it as soon as I can.

Now onto review replies.

Sigma-del-Prisium: The sheer laziness of the few examples of the nobility we see in FoZ is what led me to the idea that they would have a bandit problem. That, and the comments Mathilda makes in regards to disgraced nobles.

ussopking: Thanks, I appreciate your interest! Also: You should check out the games, some of the best games to have ever been in my humble opinion.

Gem Warrior: Thanks, it took a little bit of thought to devise how I believed the Kushan would act in this situation. (Of which you can get some more insight on in the AN)

As for Siesta: Not really actually, in this her role for the rest of the story is to kind of serve as the voice of the commoners, so to speak. This may change but take heart if you are a big fan of her. I've got a premise for the sequel to this story formulating in my head that will probably deal directly with Siesta and her family's legacy.

Lolroflcake: Thanks for the reviews. I always enjoy when someone gives me something juicy to talk about. First off, the Kushan aren't quite post scarcity yet. They, I believe are sort of semi-post scarcity. They still have to gather resources and turn them into products. Granted the nature of their manufacturing and transport abilities are going to leave almost all products insanely cheap by our standards. Oddly food and water are going to be the most expensive things for people in this new economy.

As for the opinion of the common folk and their assimilation, ofc the commoners are going to love the Kushan. They instantly go from being downtrodden peasants that are almost literally owned to being well to do and free of any undue control. Add that to the fact that most of the commoners are going to be trained in and granted facilities for food production, an industry I just mentioned is going to be highly lucrative, and you get extremely happy and grateful people. People who are told that, they are free and equal to the ones who just kicked over the collective sandcastle of their multigenerational oppressors. Yeah... They are happy, and more importantly LOYAL.

As for the story of species, you got a massive clue to that in the chapter this replaced but that'll come up again eventually if you missed it.

Wa7tch1nk1d: (My god your screen name was annoying to type! Lol) Glad you're enjoying things so far. And yes that's exactly what you heard lol. That'll surely be fun to play with later.


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