Oppression by FoX
Published on Kiith Iopia on date Unknown
Kalea brought her forearm over her eyes as another gust of wind ripped by her. Heavy ash blanketed her body as she slowly dug her shovel back into the loose soil. The sweat poured down her forehead, mixing with the ash and absorbing into her wrap clothes. She took a momentary rest, leaned against her shovel and glanced upward through the small slits in her wraps. The dual suns were cast in a crimson red, trying desperately to break through to the atmosphere above. The ugly red haze only worsened the surrounding environment. Kalea’s rest was only momentary though as the butt of a guard’s rifle came down hard across her back. Kalea crashed to the ground and quickly looked upward at her assailant. The Taiidan guard loomed over her with his gun pointing downward.
“Get back to work Kushan, the suns will be getting overhead soon.”
The words were muffled through the guard’s heavy mask and were quickly blown away by the heavy wind. Kalea slowly brought herself to her feet and dug her shovel back into the ground. She turned her head to the side, watching as the billowing ash quickly engulfed the guard. Damn Taiidans. She remembered when she was first brought to this planet. Its soil was incredibly loose and soft, it was an agricultural beauty. Unfortunately it didn’t fair as well to strip mining, its topsoil was now permanately part of its lower atmosphere. She wondered what happened to the inhabitants of this world but she knew the answer was the same for every other Taiidan conquered planet. If they were lucky they were just killed or left to die in this waste. If the Taiidan were in need of a new work force, they were in for another horror. Kalea’s mind was adrift as her shovel struck something solid. Scrapping her shovel across the surface revealed the shiny metallic plate they had been looking for. Satellite images had determined high metal deposits in this area but because of the high amount of ash in the atmosphere it had been unable to determine an exact location. Kalea depressed the alarm switch on her arm bracket and waited for the guards to arrive. Three dark figures quickly came through the flowing ash, stopping in front of Kalea. Kalea pointed over to the metal deposit. The guards ordered her to quickly return to the transport before the suns got overhead. A guard pulled out a locator beacon and entrenched it near the metal deposit, ordering a mining crew and vehicle to be dispatched to the area. Kalea braced herself against the wind and began to fight her way back to the transport.
The work group of women stumbled into their barracks as the wind blew in hard from behind them. Pushing as hard as they could, they fought back the wind and slammed their door shut. Kalea shuffled over to her bunk as the layers of dust fell from her and onto the floor. She slowly began to unwrap her cloth clothing that covered her from head to toe. The clump of clothing and dust grew at her feet until she was clean of the mess. She crashed down on her bunk, her body was once again able to breathe. She looked over her bunk and across the room at all of the women. They all sat and waited for the same thing. Kalea looked over to the empty bunk next to her. Why weren’t they back yet? Her work group rarely beat them back. Kalea looked again across the room at all the nervous faces, they were definitely thinking the same thing. The wind hollowed and screamed through the cracks of the barracks. Maybe they weren’t coming back today. Kalea covered her face. No, it was too early, it can’t happen yet. Kalea’s head jerked up as the barracks door was blown wide open. The small children filed in one by one as the anxious mothers jumped to their feet. Kalea quickly unwrapped each face that went by, franticly searching for her child.
“Mom. Hey mom, I’m right here.”
Kalea spun around and grabbed her boy. She pulled him close, she thought today was going to be the day.
“Geeze mom. I’m okay, I’m here. Can I get out of this wrap now?”
Kalea let go of her son. It wasn’t today, that is all that mattered now. She knew it was coming soon. All Kushan males were taken away by age sixteen and her son was close. Some say they kill them to squash rebellion, others say they brainwash them to add to the Taiidan war machine, but everyone knows they never return. Kalea brushed a small tear away from her eye, her son was still with her. Her momentary relief was shattered as the barrack door burst open. A line of guards quickly marched into the barracks.
“Get dressed now! We have an emergency to attend to.”
Kalea looked at the guard in shock. They wouldn’t take them out during the suns highpoints. A woman near the door began to object but was quickly silenced by the butt of a rifle.
"Lets go. We have a stranded mine group, we have to get that equipment out of there now!"
Kalea began to quickly wrap up her son as best she could when a guard stepped in front of her.
"Nope. Just the women."
Kalea was relieved. She knew her son wouldn’t be subjected to this lunacy. Kalea grabbed the long wraps from the floor and wrapped herself from head to toe. Filing in line with the others, they were lead out into the sweltering heat. The dust storms ripped at their clothing as they began to march to a transport. The guard began to shout orders through his mask, all of the words being sucked away by the intense wind. The dull red surroundings had turned intensely bright as the dual suns began to reach their highpoints. Kalea’s heart began to beat out of control as she noticed the guards stepping aside the transport. They weren’t coming along. They never let the workers outside during the suns highpoints, not only did the heat increase exponentially, the air became incredibly unstable allowing huge dust storms to sweep continually. The guards were too scared to even worry about accompanying us. Kalea scanned the other women as she took a seat in the back of the transport. Through their small eye slits the fear was very apparent. They knew this was anything but standard procedure.
Through the small viewpanels in the transport, Kalea could see nothing. The dust blew by in sheets, obscuring everything except the red dust itself. Kalea sat back as the speakers in the transport began to crackle.
"Attention. In one minute we will be arriving near the mining group. Contact has not been established since the initial break in contact. You are to find the mining equipment and radio back its location. The mining vehicles are incredibly valuable, remember that if you fail."
If those intentions weren’t clear enough, Kalea thought, then she didn’t know what clear was. Find the mining vehicles or die. Chances were they would die just in the process of finding the mining vehicles. But why now? Why not wait until the suns fell past their peaks? There had to be a strong dust storm blowing in, they were afraid it would bury the area and destroy their equipment. She guessed they figured they could afford to loose workers, just not their equipment.
The transport lurched to a halt as the back doors began to slowly creak open. Kalea pulled up on her wraps, trying to cover as much of her face as possible. The wind quickly threw open the doors the rest of the way as a large gust blew through. The women filed out of the back one by one and were quickly engulfed by the dust blowing. As Kalea stepped off the back of the transport she was assaulted by the incredible dust storm. Stumbling, trying to remain balanced, Kalea began her search for the miners and their equipment. Kalea’s feet were quickly caught up on something and she tumbled to the ground. Slowly turning her body back to the thing she tripped over, she saw the body of a worker half beneath the dust. Crawling back she turned the body on its back to see who it was but quickly realized that this wasn’t a worker from her group. Looking down the body discovered the cause of death. A small blast mark, right through the middle of her stomach. Must have been an attempted escape, but that didn’t account for the lack of radio contact. Kalea turned back in the direction of the transport, barely visible when the wind died down. She depressed her wrist band to open the radio channel when bright flashes erupted around the transport. The transport reeled backwards and began to climb into the sky as it returned fire. No sooner had it begun to escape than the entire back of the transport blew apart, bringing it crashing back to the ground. Kalea was stunned, she didn’t know what to do. Scrambling back to her feet she began to run blindly away from the resent fire fight and was quickly tripped up again. Crashing to the ground, she turned back see more bodies half buried in the dust. A guard surrounded by a couple of unknown workers, a rush attack. What was going on, workers didn’t attack guards. Kalea quickly crawled across the ground, large objects becoming more visible through the dust ahead. More bodies were sprawled across the ground, a worker here, a miner there, and a sporadic guard appeared as she neared the abandoned mining equipment.
The large mining tractor loomed before Kalea. If she could find a way to get into that she might just be able to survive this. She slowly climbed up the outer hull of the massive machine, the wind ripping at her and trying to throw her off. Upon reaching the top, she braced herself against the wind and pushed her way to the main control bridge. Kalea reached out and got a hold of the handle, trying desperately to open the door but it was locked. She pulled herself up against the door and peered through the heavy viewport. The silouette of a body showed through, sitting in the seat. Kalea pounded on the viewport, begging to be let in but the body never moved. Shifting around to the front of the bridge, Kalea looked through the larger front viewport and quickly found her entrance point. A large blast hole had ripped through the front of the bridge, catching the pilot square in the chest. Kalea pulled herself through the hole, and dropped into a small pile of dust on the deck. The wind still ripped through the cabin, flowing through the blast hole in the front viewport. Kalea looked around for something big enough to fill the hole and her eyes fell on the dead body of the Taiidan pilot. Hoisting him up on her shoulders, she pushed his body though the hole, successfully filling it. Kalea collapsed into the pilot chair, ripping the wrap from her face as the dust storm roared outside.