The Twin's light have just barely bestowed upon the landscape with their magnificent shine. Peeking above the tip of a far away mountain range and ever so gracefully spin in an eternal cosmic dance as they slowly rise to the vast blue sky. As the moment goes by, their radiant glow further embraces the world, chasing away the reminiscent shadows of the previous shade.
Aluria is already up and going though, cleaning and moving about in the kitchen, preparing it to make breakfast for her family. Being a woman of the farm for her entire life, she has gotten used to waking up early every day, rising from her bed even before the first light from the Twin peeks over the mountain top.
As she put firewood into the oven, her mind start to go over the list of ingredients she will be using for today's breakfast. Some eggs from the chicken coop, some milk, a few potatoes, some leftover bread and whatever her daughters bring back from their trip to the forest just behind their fields. Enough for a small portion of soup that four people could enjoy. It's not much but at least there is food. The same can be said for most of the village's population. Food is present, but not abundant.
Peace was just established for a couple of months, the village's resident have just recently moved back to Mildo after evacuating it several starcyles ago due to the war with the Empire. There weren't much supplies back then, and food had to be rationed. But slowly the village recovers, destroyed infrastructure rebuilt, food and farm products started to become more available. Overall, everything will soon return to normal. Mildo village will go back to it's peaceful and quiet life back then, hopefully.
Aluria walks out of the back door of her family's small cottage and heads toward the small shed off to the side of the house, where the chicken coop resides. On her hand hangs a basket with cloths bedding. The stained and patched-up wooden building has existed ever since the time of her grandfather. The house along with a number of fields surrounding it has been passed down through many generation, same for many other families within this small community. Fortunately for her family, most of the village, including her home, were practically untouched by the war. Only some sections of the wall, some watch towers and some barns in the village center were destroyed.
The chickens run rampant as Aluria move from cage to cage, collecting eggs as she goes.
Twenty eggs total, that leaves sixteen to be sold.
She exit the shed and heads back inside her home. Milk are already in the kitchen, brought by her husband earlier, potatoes have been peeled and prepared the night before and the breads from yesterday dinner are still inside the basket on the dining table. With everything prepared she proceeds to start the fire in the oven and lay the old cooking pot on the stove after filling it with water.
She begins making breakfast for her family as the light from the Twins steadily wiggles itself through the windows and cracks on the wall, illuminating the small and cozy home with warm golden light. Particles of dust in the air further illuminate the rays of light, creating mesmerizing golden patches floating in id air. Slowly a delicious fragrant of hot soup and bread spread throughout the kitchen before engulfing every corner of the house, leaking to the outside field.
As Aluria prepares breakfast, she can't help but notices that something is off. Usually around this time, even before the fire of the stove were lit, Elaa and Evaa voices could be heard chirping in the distance. Both of them would always return while arguing about some miscellaneous topics. They would bring back whatever they managed to collect and add it to breakfast, be it herbs or mushroom, sometimes even small fishes they get from the nearby stream in the woods. She decided to postpone her cooking and wait for her daughters to return. So she proceeds to clean around the house in the mean time. Thinking that they may have been going to the village center to do something, as they always do every time they come back late. She sweeps the floor, collect dirty garments to wash later and tidy up every rooms in her small home. She cleans as minutes go by and returns to resume her cooking after she was done. At this point, breakfast is almost ready and hour vier has arrived for quite some time. Yet there are still no signs of her daughters anywhere.
Finding it strange, she leaves the kitchen and goes to look for her husband, who is currently working on the field. He usually wakes up the earliest in the family and goes to take care of the crops before breakfast everyday. She walks through the opened fence gate at the back of the cottage leading to the small fields. From there she can spot a familiar sight of a man in work clothes currently clearing out an empty field half filled with grass.
"Horace dear, have the girls returned yet?" Aluria calls toward Horace from where she stand.
"No, Aluria, they haven't. In fact, I was going to ask you the same question." Horace stop the scythe swings and turn towards his wife.
"It is strange, they have never been this late before"
"They do occasionally return late, do they not?" Horace lowers the scythe to the ground and walks toward her.
"Yes, dear. But they've never been gone for this long before. It's already halfway to hour nunf, The Twins light have already engulf the world in their fullest already." Aluria voices her concern. Slightly worried about her children. She looks at her husband with worrying eyes.
"Maybe they decided to go for even longer this times, who knows?" Horace tries to calm his wife. He is certain that nothing is happening out of the ordinary," You are overthinking it, my love. Don't worry. I will go and look for them in the village. They are probably messing around with the kids or harassing Albert's shop again. Go ahead and prepare breakfast and I will bring them both back in no time, alright?"
"Yes-" Aluria was about to answer when she interrupted by the sight of a strange object floating in mid air above the border of the woods just opposite of the fields.
"What is it, Aluria?" Horace asks, confused by the sudden pause in his wife's answer.
"Horace dear what is that?" Aluria points her slender finger towards the strange flying object. Her husband follows her gaze and spots it as well." I don't know. What is that?"
The strange flying object gets closer and closer to there house, it flies pass the crop fields directly towards them. Then it stops and hover a small distance away from the confused couple.
The object doesn't look like anything they have ever seen before. It is mostly black, with some gray and white lines on it circular body. Some spots and lines of cyan light can be seen slightly illuminating its body. It is round in shape and is very small, in fact it can fit snuggly inside Aluria's small egg basket with some room to spare. Its surface is smooth and there is a hole in the middle of its 'body'. Listening carefully, a very subtle and quiet high pitch sound can be heard mysteriously emanating from it.
Both the husband and wife stare at it for a while, confused about its appearance in front of them. It just stays there in the air, a small distance away from them, completely still. As if it is watching them. The only thing Aluria can think of to explain this weird object is that a mage is probably doing some kind of magic to this weird 'stone'. She has never seen anything levitate like this before. Still, she does knows about the existence of magic and has heard about mages being able to lift things off of the ground. Most magic capable people either become mages in guilds or adventurers. Those that has the highest affinity with magic however are usually nobles, aristocrats or royalties.
"Dear, did any mages or nobles visited our village?" She asks her husband, eyes still gazing at the strange object. Which has begun to slowly rise higher into the air.
"Maybe, I don't know. We would have known several days prior if a noble ever come. So it's most likely adventurers, maybe." answered Horace. He too gaze at the magically floating object.
The couple was too busy observing the strange floating object they didn't realize that large black figures have exited the woods in the direction where the strange flying object came from earlier and are currently approaching them. Until they heard a very familiar voice screaming at them from the distance.
"Father! Mother!" screamed a very feminine and childish voice, no doubt coming from a young girl.
Upon catching a glimpse of the extremely familiar voice, as if it was their pure instinct, Aluria and Horace immediately switch their focus from the strange object to the direction the voice came from. And could not fathom in absolutely any way what happens next. The expression of both of their face turn into a mix of surprise, fear, confusion and strangely, relief.
Right in front of them is a group of large figures clad in pitch black from top to bottom approaching the couple. Even from a distance both can tell that these strange 'people' are not really people. They have a very distinctive feature that differs them from normal people, their unnaturally large size. Being as tall as orcs or even orges, but not as fat. This combined with their jet black armored appearance only drive up the already overwhelming intimidation that this group of creatures imposes.
The group comes to a stop a distance away from Aluria and Horace. Both parties study each other. Until the one at the front put what looks to be one of its hand into the air and wave at the couple, a friendly gesture. That action somewhat drive away quite a bit of tension. It looks like these "people" do not appear to be hostile, at least not yet.
There are a lot more to be described about these strange creatures, but the married couple can't spare another single moment to keep their attention on these strange beings. As their eyes are now fixated onto a single small figure being carried by one of the dark ones. They know for certain that the scream earlier definitely came from this small one. That is the one they were about to go look for a few seconds ago. Who else could she be, other than their oh so dear daughter, Elaa.
"Father! Mother!" Elaa screams again at her parents. Her voiced is trembling with sobs and cries. Her faced is wet and redden from tears. As if knowing what comes next, the dark one put her on the ground and releases its arms. Freed from its grasp Elaa runs towards her family while still crying and calling out her parents names.
"Elaa? Elaa!" Aluria was the first one to respond to her child, her maternal instinct doesn't allow her to do anything else but to run toward her child. So she breaks into a half sprint and open her arms wide. Horace following suit, both glancing back and forth from his daughter to the dark creatures who seem to have stopped their advance upon seeing the action of Elaa.
Both mother and daughter embrace each other in a heartwarming reunion. Elaa is crying her heart out on the shoulder of her mother while Aluria simply kneel there, her eyes closed, both arms wrapped around the frail body of her child. There was a moment of silence, as if the whole world has become still for Aluria, as she let her daughter weeps away, muttering constantly without a stop.
"I'm sorry, mother...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."
She is confused, no doubt. About what is happening. Many question came to existence inside of her mind. But she decided to stay quiet, letting her daughter calm down before parting from the embrace. Hands on both her daughter's shoulder, she takes a quick look over Elaa's appearance and notices many patches of dust and dirt covering her child's body and clothes. With a voice befitting of a caring mother figure, she asks:
"Elaa dear, are you alright? Why are you crying? What happened?"
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Local hour 0620. Site A
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"Two civs. Humanoid. Male and female. Structure behind is empty."
Talon 4 opens up in comm, confirming the drone's feed currently visible on the visors of all members. Images depicting what seems to be a humanoid couple, male and female, looking directly at the screen and talking to each other. They are standing in front of a fence gate behind what looks to be a wooden cottage. No signals can be detected inside. Between them and the edge of the forest lies several fields of unidentified crops and plants.
"Afirm. Objective imminent. Cloak off. Prep for contact."
Terian convey his order to his squad. Upon receiving it, everyone begins to gradually slow down to jogging speed as they approach the few trees at the very edge of the woods. Sights of crop fields can be seen ahead. They turn off there camouflage function in their suits. Immediately the outer layers of their suits fade back to black from their previous half transparent texture as quiet hums fade to complete silence.
As they jog pass those trees, they slow down to walking pace. Bright light from the local stars embraces their figures, trying to invade their vision behind high tech visors. Members that were keeping watch for the group while they were moving lower their weapons in order to not appear hostile towards the local populace, but they are nevertheless ready to respond to any threats.
They walk between fields of alien crops, crops that are unknown to man. The wind blows with gentle breeze, caressing the tips of the plants, making them sway in unison like golden ocean waves. They keep walking, eyes looking around, trying to absorb in the strangely not so alien sight around them. Everything looks so familiar yet so distanced at the same time. None of them can remember the last time they ever saw something like this. A village like settlement of wooden structures, surrounded by fields of wheat like crops, inhabited by a human like species. Some have never even seen any wooden structure or crop farms before. Most structures today are built using advanced materials and farms are almost completely replaced with organic production facilities or mass vertical aquaponics, even on the most desolate frontier worlds where colonization effort have just begun. On top of that, everywhere they look, be it by themselves or by drone feed, everything scream antique and ancient.
To the visitors, this picturesque scenery looks just like those in historical documents or history museums. They display information about the ancient human race, thousands of years ago. Back when mankind was still culturally and technologically bounded to their homeworld.
A young feminine voice snap their attention back. It comes from Elaa, who is being carried by Talon 2. She is facing toward the direction if the wooden cottage ahead of them. More specifically, the two figures standing in front of it, who are still staring at the drone above them.
She then scream out to them in her native tongue.
"Father! Mother!"
The two humanoids immediately avert their gaze from the drone and turn their head to face the approaching group of mysterious warriors. At the same time the whole squad stops. Both sides spend the next few seconds to look at each other. Everyone Talons were quite surprise as once again the 'aliens' standing in front of them are not really 'alien', but looks exactly similar to humans, at least in appearance.
Both look like they are dressed in the style of ancient human farmer, according to the historical information that was taught to them many decades ago, when they were still young. The female wears a brown long dress, with white tunic and undershirt. She wear a white piece of cloth on her head, covering her beautiful long blond hair. The male wears long black pants, a white long sleeve shirt and a short loose leather vest. On his hand is an old looking straw hat. Their facial features look almost identical to the two within the squad, so it can be concluded that they are blood related. The couples are most likely the parents of the two young girls.
Seeing the frightening look on their face, Terian decides to lighten the tense mood down by initiating a universally friendly gesture, at least to human, and wave at them. Both of them look surprised for a moment before calming down. He once again finds this interesting, the gesture of waving seems to have a somewhat positive meaning to these aliens, too.
Elaa screams out at them again, face wet with tears and voice cracked because of the constant crying, no doubt calling out to her parents. Without any order Talon 2 puts her down onto the ground and releases her. One of the couples also noticed and responds back to the little one, then she too runs toward her daughter with open arm. The father trails closely behind, eyes still dart between his child and Terian's squad.
Everyone watches as a heart warming reunion between mother and daughter plays out in front of them. Both embrace each other, the child keeps on crying onto her mother's shoulder while the mother closes her eyes and calm her child down. A very wholesome moment indeed. But with their decades of fighting both on the very forefront, sometimes deep behind hostile lines, witnessing something like this has become common occurrences, sights of families finding and reuniting with their lost or missing loved ones. And of course along with many other much less wholesome sights, it is but a part of war after all.
And just like many other veterans of war, they are desensitized. Especially for special forces and even more so to them, the elites of elites. SFs are almost completely different breeds of warriors compare to normal soldiers, both metaphorically and literally. Other than the typical bio-mechanical implants or DNA engineering, they are trained and made to be extremely less emotional than a normal human. They do have sympathy and affection but only in certain conditions or situations. Any interactions with civilians whenever they are on duty are only because of and for their missions.
Once they don their combat suits and exoskeleton, the only thing they have are their gears, their orders, their missions and each others back. One would have think of them as a pitiful bunch, as if they are deprived of feelings. But they chose to be that way, and it is only logical for them to do so. Without too much emotions, they can be more effective and more efficient at executing their missions. They can not be threatened. They can not be intimidated. They are trained and modified to be absolutely stoic towards any kind of tortures or pain. They are ruthless when it comes to their missions. They will eliminate all targets their missions require without remorse, regardless of gender or age. Besides, it's not like they are 100% deprived of all emotions and turned into robots. They still have sympathy. They care for the innocent civilians. They look out for the soldiers and troops that look up to them. They respect and protect the people that fight besides them. They can still, though not often, crack some very humorous jokes every now and then. And they can still have fun, mess around or even have a relationship with someone, but only when off duty. Once they are in their missions, personal emotions are coldly and strictly shoved aside. Such is the price to pay.
Nevertheless, right now, they are content. They have just saved two children from their death and reunited them with their parents.
Elaa begins to explain the story to her parents. Her father has now joined in and is kneeling next to Elaa and her mother, listening in. As Elaa's frantically explains with the occasional sobs, both the parents eyes grow wider and wider, the father constantly look up and down between his family and Talon. Terian then decides to give them a bit more detail and to quicken the whole situation so he takes a PDA screen off of his belt and load the image of the giant bear that his suit has recorded, before it turns into a pile of jams that is. He slowly walks forward and show them the image on his PDA while pointing at it and then point at the patience on the stretcher. The family was initially surprised to see such a strange and miraculous magical artifact but they pay it no mind.
After hearing about the identity of the injured patience currently being carried by the solders, the father immediately bolt straight towards where Evaa is while the mother hold Elaa's hand and walk toward Evaa. Another eye watering reunion happens once again. They both make extremely worried faces but after knowing that their eldest child is safe and alive they both let out relieved sighs.
Terian then switch the image inside of his PDA to that of a bed, then a bucket of water, then bread, some towels, bandages and finally a red cross. Then he points to the wounded Evaa again. He hopes they can understand what he is trying to convey.
Elaa and her mother was confused by the last image but is somehow grasping what he is trying to convey. Nodding towards Terian after thinking for a brief moment, surprising Terian. The mother then stands up and calls her husband.
"Horace, dear. I think we should let these people inside. We owe them and they seem to mean no harm. Besides, they want to heal Evaa, we must let them in."
Horace is stunned and was about to protest the idea, clearly still suspicious of the soldiers. But before he can complains and objects anything, she turns to Terian and smile gently.
"Come, kind ones. Let us thank you for saving the lives of both of my daughters."