HW Story by Mad Sherpa

Published on Kiith Iopia on date Unknown

Taiidan. So much was fused together in one word: Hate, greed, ruthlessness, wealth, power, genocide, annihilation. This simply couldn't be real. Taiidan. No, it wasn't real, Taiidan was the stuff of childhood's, parents using it as a threat to disobedient young ones. "Careful, or I'll sell you to the Taiidans!" and "Listen to your parents, or Taiidans will come and get you!" But this was not a childhood threat. This was real, and it was happening now.

Jamis rushed down the long hallway, his footsteps ringing with a hollow metallic clang that he had never noticed before in all the times he walked down the familiar path. He glanced at the portraits hanging on the wall even though he knew each one by heart. There was Galach Triste, famous poet and writer of his time, an abstract statue by Logona, and the all known Normani Ferman, the great inventor that had kept their planet, Brazzel, so cleverly hidden for all of these years from the Taiidan. The invention itself was labeled simply "The Shield" for obvious reasons, and the lack of ability to come up with a better name. The idea behind The Shield was quite simple actually and came from an old theory: An object was visible because light reflected off of it. But what if light was not reflected? Was there a way to make light Pass through the object? Would that make it invisible? Normani began to experiment and then produced a small black sphere to a skeptical society at the yearly science and innovation convention. But once the sphere was activated all doubts fizzled into sheer awe. It disappeared. Simply disappeared. Of course everyone could FEEL it but they couldn't see it. And what amazed them even more was when Normani put a small rodent called Dibat into the sphere, All life detectors, heat, motion, x-ray, could not detect the Dibat within the sphere. Normani went on to explain that the sphere simply used common transport technology to place anything coming at it on the other side.

Jamis got to the end of the hallway, raced around the corner and started down the stairway, almost tripping on his way down. He could hear them firing against the door. They almost had it down now and soon they would be after him again. Jamis had blocked the door with an old Holzmann field generator that gave him a sort of false sense of security because he knew that about 3 minuets of handgun beams would destroy it. He continued down to the cellar. It was not unlike the sense of security all of Brazzel had felt when Normani's effect was used to create the Shield all around the Blue in Blue of the planet's surface. The need to create the Shield came about after terrifying accounts of Total civilizations being destroyed by an unknown that was called Taiidan. So To protect themselves they started construction of the Shield nearly two hundred Standard Years ago and over the decades, Brazzel faded into the lost treasure planet, and myths told by Grandparents to their Grandchildren. And it worked, the Brazzelis watched in their isolation from the rest of the universe as The Taiidan swept their iron fist through the galaxy, leaving behind a bloody pulp of civilizations. Some were wiped out completely.

Jamis could hear their footsteps now, heavy and beating on the ground as if to say "There! Take that! And that!" With each step. As if cursing the floor for being under foot. He reached another door and punched in the code number. Damn! Wrong number!. Jamis punched the number in again and the door slid open and then shut behind him with a "Thank you" and "Have a nice day!" Damn Those talking doors! Jamis slapped his forehead, but kept on running. They were closer now due to his clumsiness at the keypad, and they knew which way he went thanks to that talking door, installed years ago with a personality, trying to make people nicer in general but that no effect really except to annoy others. Those Damnable smugglers! They were the ones that got me into this position now. It was true. The smugglers lead the Taiidan to Brazzel. Why? Because they probably paid them more than Brazzelis did. You see, The people on Brazzel didn't finally unite from their island countries, spend a monstrously large amount of the planets resources, and many lives just for nothing building this huge shield to create their "No-Planet", they had a good reason. They knew from reports that Taiidan were interested in a few things. Power and Wealth were among them. Brazzel was the only planet known that produced the extremely resource rich diamond called quand'sit, which was also an expensive jewel to be sold off planet. So once Brazzel slipped into isolation, the Quand'sit market skyrocketed and their price soared. Nobody could find where to get these jewels anymore. Except for a few bands of smugglers. The Council on Brazzel had tried to shut them down but, it was impossible. If the Quand'sit was there, so were the smugglers however small they were. At times they only had one ship flying in and out with the precious gem, but they were always their. So the Council decided to let the smugglers be, and paid them handsomely with gems and resources. This delicate balance was secure for many years. When Smugglers sold the gems and they were questioned about how they came about them, all that they could reply with was a smile. But as the Smugglers sold the gems, their demands for keeping the planet a secret grew and grew. Apparently some day a smuggler was offered an extreme amount of money from the Taiidan, enough to live the life of luxury for him and many of his generations to come, so they sold out. Taiidan ships invaded and The Brazzeli forces were barely enough to stop the first scout ships arrive, and they fell soon after the capital ships arrived. The Taiidan landed and Brazzel was brought out into the universe after nearly 250 years of isolation. And that's how I got here now. Jamis rushed on and slipped on way to the pod. He could now clearly see the attackers at the end of the hall. Shit! He took a black cube out of his pocket, charged it, and hurled it towards the attackers. Jamis was up and running so soon that he didn't have time to see the look of surprise on the first two Taiidans faces who the cube hit as they fell to the floor with their eyes still wide open. But the others behind them didn't seem to care as they trampled over the bodies of their dead comrades. Jamis didn't have much time left. He saw his destination at the end of the hall. The pod chamber. Once he got inside he actually had a chance of surviving. Luckily Council had anticipated that this day would come and built into the capital city an escape system that was memorized by almost everyone. There were about 5,000 pods all around the city, but Jamis projected that only about 1,000 of them actually got manned and only a fraction of them would get through the Taiidan ships up above, but there was always the chance that at least some of them would survive.

Smoke wisped up on the walls where the Taiidan guns shot them. Jamis veered left and right trying no to get hit, but as he entered the pod he couldn't avoid a hit to the leg. He crumpled to the floor and hit the huge red button that would send him spinning into space. As the whole room, (not very big, just enough room for about two people) shook with the ejection procedure, Jamis pulled himself up to the one plaz window to look. What he saw made him cry, hundreds of pods were swarming up, out of the city and into the big pink afternoon sky. There were so many of them that the turrets on the Taiidan ships could barely keep up with them all. Jamis wondered if any of them would ever see Their planet again. Then again, he wondered if any of them would survive long enough to.