The journey on Aerilia has been an experience Del was likely to remember forever. However, the day had finally come. Today was the day the Ta've sought to negotiate their freedom with the Drenzien's. That being the initial goal anyway.
"You're certain?" Chieftan Rom asked. His wide eyed gaze directed at Adelaide who was back in the Nara'ki temple.
"I am." Del replied with a smile.
"I'm just kinda charming I guess." He shrugged.
The Chieftan eased back and stroked his short grey beard once more and then finally gave a slow nod. He smiled at Del and motioned for him to follow.
"Come. I have a ship for the occasion. I would like you there as well, outsider." He said as he moved.
"Of course." Del said.
He smiled back at the Chieftan before going to follow him down a series of hallways leading to a moderately sized looking hangar. In the middle of which sat the chieftans ship.
Del was surprised to see the chieftans own ship look a bit more luxury than his own. It still had the primitive aesthetic of the ship Del had been gifted, but something about it was more sophisticated than it appeared at first glance.
"Who made this ship?" Del asked out of genuine curiosity.
The Chieftan looked over at Del and smiled upon seeing his shocked expression.
"My people have spent much time studying them. They have more to offer than just violence." He said.
Del took that to heart. The Chieftan truly believed that. No matter how misguided the thought was, Del still respected the stubbornness of it.
They boarded the chieftans large ship with a few of the other Ta've he called over to him from the temple. The Ta've were dressed more exiquisitleu than the others Del had seen in Nara'ki. He took it to mean they were acting as kind of diplomats. Del smiled, he couldn't help but admire the native peoples growing intellect.
The ship, appropriately named The General, took flight and in a matter of moments was soaring out of Aerilia's atmosphere snd towards the stars.
Del watched as the planets familiar green lush fauna faded from view below them and a thick darkness enveloped the ship broken by the nearby star Adresta S2, and its twin Adresta S1 only a few million miles from shining its light at the ship from the same angle.
Del was piloting the ship, another favor to the Chieftan. The Ta've on board were all staring out into the void with wonder and bewilderment in their eyes. Del recognized the look on their faces. He once had it himself. No matter how many stories or descriptions one heard of space there was nothing quite like seeing it for yourself for the first time.
"The contact said the meeting spot would be on Tyrelious, the larger of your planets teo moons. Any hidden surprises for us up there?"
The Ta've were all too distracted by the scenic wonder outside the ship to respond, but finally chieftan Rom managed to step away and answer Del.
"Little is known about the dark side of Tyrelious. Where as our smaller moon, Beverin, is a constant rotation, Tyrelious, in contrast, remains motionless but in a constant orbit." He said, scratching his short beard.
He stopped there, apparently expecting Dee to understsnd that in truth, he didn't know. But Del was still looking at him, expecting to get something, anything.
For this reason, it has not been observed very well." He finished
"Great." Del said, shifting his focus back to the flight. He looked at the nab screen and saw they were only another forty five minutes out.
The rest of the flight was filled with silence and intense focus on the sighs to be seen. Del would have expected some questions or even discussion amongst one another eventually, but the Ta've remained in a calm deep trance while staring out the ships double sided plastic windows.
Finally, the moons surface came into view, the general not being equipped with an auto landing feature this is where Del had to do most of the work. He pulled back on the flight stick backing over the moons various dusty hills until the nav screen beeped upon reaching the designated cooridibates. Dep brought the ship to a halt and slowly descended to the ground, launching out the landing gear just before touching down.
Del exhaled a sigh of relief and relaxed in his chair. He then looked up to see the Ta've all looking back at him, even chieftan Rom. He gave a slow nod. He must have had some newfound respect for Del as a pilot. Del returned the gesture with a smile and the group went to put on their helmets.
***
Across the jungle from Nara'ki, a few kilometers outside the stone walls of Ad'dache back on the surface of Aerilia, another ship was preparing for launch.
After The General was far off in Tyrelious' orbit, the second ship launched. The Pretipice, Del's ship being piloted by Dimmit with Arish in the copilot seat, took flight and set out towards the large moon as well.
The reason for waiting was intentional, as this ship was launched without Rom's knowledge. This ship contained, other than Dimmit and Arish, as many Ta've fighters Namiri could fit into the small vessel as well as herself, which ended up being right in total not including Dimmt, Arish, and Tamiri herself.
All the Ta've warriors were all armed with melee weapons due to the low gravity they had predicted. The Ad'dache proving to be the more practical, scientific tribe and the Nara'ki the more nataraul and idealistic tribe, more in tune with its nature.
Tamiri had put up with much protest about coming on this mission herself, being older and smaller, and being the Ad'dache's Chieftan, her fellow tribe members had much to say about her departure.
Even Del himself had tried to talk her out of it, but the Chieftan was stubborn. She insisted no one could lead her fighters better on an unfamiliar terrain, to which they begrudgingly agreed.
Dimmit pulled back on the flight stock sliding the ships speed. Per Del's orders they made sure to maintain a lower speed and pace than the General to maintain the element of surprise.
****
On the surface of Tyrelious, theTa've were preparing with their long fated meeting with the Drenzien officials. Rom, his three diplomats and Del were all aboard the general about to embark on the unfamiliar moon.
The moon had much the same atmosphere as Aerilia, just one tenth of the gravity. This made the air much too light so it didn't stay on the surface to long, msking it hard to breath. Luckily, Roms luxury ship had come equipped with Four space suits and Del brought his own that the Drenziens had given him in order to royal for them.
Del elected to leave Dimm on the ship, he wouldn't be able to breath in the harsh atmosphere of the large moon. He uncoiled his sleeve abs the small Sceko crawled out of his shirt.
"You gotta stay here dude." He said letting the creature crawl off his arm into the ships front console.
The Sceko looked around and blinked, taking everything in for a moment before finding a resting spot on the isftmost side of the pilot seats console.
Del turned back to the Ta've who all had helmets their secured. Del followed suit and secured his own helmet and went to cycle the airlock and let down the ships ramp.
"Stay alert. These guys are sneaky, trust me." Del said to them before pressing the two buttons on the small console in the back of the cabin, letting down the ships long ramp.
"Just some last minute advice." He shrugged upon seeing Rom's questioning eyes. Rom only gave s polite smile and nod in return.
The five people aboard the ship descend
The long ramp, Del leading them, and they made their way forty paces out just as the instructions had said. Sure enough once there, three other figures came into view. These figures were wearing more high tech space suits and even them on it was hard to miss their purple skin and jet black features. They were undoubtably Drenzien's.
Del looked at Rom, worried he might lose his cool upon seizing the Drenziens. But to Del's surprise, Rom remained calm and collected. He stood still and was stone faced as he waited for the aliens to approach them.
The three Drenzien's stopped ten yards from the four Ta've and Del. The one in the middle was the one that stepped forward to speak.
"You've got some iron thick courage green one, I'll give you that." He said. He then waited a long moment for done snarky come back but Rom remained silent.
"Cat hit your tongue big one?" He asked after a short pause,
"I have come to negotiate a truce, not intimidate." Rom said finally.
The Drenzien smiled and looked down then back up at the natives.
"Come on now green man, we lost a lot of good people at that operating base." The Drenzien said snarkily.
"And a lot of money, huh?" Del piped up catching the Drenziens attention.
"And a lot of money, yes." The Drenzien said, unashamed as he shrugged the comment off.
"We lost many people as well. Many more, over your tireless campaign." Rom stated.
The Drenzien looked back to Rom and sighed, offering a nod of agreement.
"Well, maybe… maybe we've both lost too much." The drenzien said as he looked at the moons dusty red surface.This admittidley caught Del off guard.
"Alright green man. We'll make a deal. We will come to study your planet, and nothing more.." the Drenzien began before pointing a long accusing finger at the large chieftan.
"… and you and yours will leave us alone."
Del looked to the Drenzien and then to Rom who was stroking his short gray beard. For a moment, he was in disbelief, had that actually just worked? Rom looked at Del, seemingly for his input. Unsure of whether he could trust the Drenzien, but seeing no alternate peaceful options, Del shrugged and gave a nod. Rom smiled at him and nodded back to the Drenzien.
"Excellent." The Drenzien said with a bow. The three Drenziens then turned around and headed back towards their ship.
"Did that just.. work? That easily?" One of Ta've asked, eyes wide at the departing Drenziens.
The other two diplomats shared the firsts wide eyed gaze. Though they didn't voice their opinions, their shock at the ease of the situation was obvious. It almost seemed to good to be true.
"I think so." Rom said.
Rom looked at Del and smiled, and gave his familiar slow approving nod. He then turned with his fellow Ta've to walk past towards the ship. Though they were filled with wonder, they had all had their share of anxiet on this unfamiliar terrain.
Del was the last to follow. Just before he turned to head towards the ship though he heard something. It sounded like a soft snickering, and another voice chuckling, laughter? Del looked ba k over to the Drenziens, the middle one whirled around with a pistol in hand followed by the other two.
"Get down!" Del shouted wide eyed at the Ta've.
The middle Drenzien fired. The other two fired just a second after, the Ta've had been caught completely off guard.
Del looked at Rom who was staring back at him wide eyed. Del looked down in horror to see two plasma holes melted through the Ta've's body. Rom looked at Del one last time, there was a hint of sorrow in his eyes as he fell to the ground, dead.
Del was in shock, he fell to his knees and crawled behind a nearby rock formation for cover, he was unable to make sense of what he just saw. He couldn't comprehend the horror of it, he remained wide eyed and motionless for a long moment.
The diplomats shouting, frantically running around making themselves easy targets. The drenziens picked them off easy enough.
Del closed his eyes and clenched his fist, unable to contain his swell of emotions. Sorrow, anger, rage.
"No!" He heard a deep bellowing voice shout from afar. Tamiri called out to her fellow Ta've fallen from the attack from behind.
"Snakes!" She shouted and pointed a finger issuing a roar to charge.
Eight other Ta've burst from out of the ti k formations of the surrounding area and rushed the three Drenziens.
The three Drenziens were caught off guard. Though they were momentarily startled, they quickly let loose with their energy pistols.
They only a hit two of the rushing Ta've as they were in a frenzied rage at the sight of the attack on their fellow Aerilian natives. The plasma in the pistols Drenzien's tearing through the two poor souls their flesh and dropping them in their tracks.
Though they put up a brave front, the Drenzien's were soon overrun with the six rending fighter and were stabbed relentlessly with the long wooden spears. Their screams quickly turned to gurgles and they were done.
Del had waited for the exchange to be over, still in shock. He couldn't get Rom's wide eyed face, and his last expression out of his head.
"Outsider!" He heard Tamiri's voice cry out.
"I'm here." He shouted in reply.
Tamiri saw Del's waving hand from afar. She approached Del and they both walked twoards Rom's and the diplomats bodies.
Rom's eyes were still open. Del knelt down and closed them. He stood back up and looked at Tamiri who wasn't able to hold back her tears. Del simply nodded, and for a while, the two were silent.