The Voss family began their missions in earnest, their unorthodox fighting style coming together as they targeted pivotal stations close to their location. Stations that would hurt the Yornkata in the finance department, disrupting the funding for their large-scale attacks.
On the first mission they attacked a station using ghost ships. They stole Yornkata vessels and flew them toward the station over space traffic control within the Empire. They rode aboard until they were in range for enemy sensors to read their ship signatures. Then they put the ships on autopilot and attached themselves to its hull with straps, clinging like small bugs to a beast. The Yornkata, receiving no response to their hails, made the predictable choice and shot it down. When the ship exploded, it detonated in a blinding flashbang that left the station senseless and reeling.
While the station was blind, the Voss family rode space riders in groups of six. The riders were simple things, a stick with a jet engine in the back and a spearhead in the front. They flew hard at the station, the spearheads punching into the hull like cosmic horns. They boarded through the holes they created, killing stragglers and tearing down airlocks. Blowing up sections of station creating chaos and confusion. Killing those that had the will and sent them floating into the void of space.
And when it was over, the station floated dead in space with bodies drifting in and around it. Rixon just for this plan kept a small group aside for evacuation to pick them up when the assault was over. But while they waited on evac he walked among those he could tell were killing for the first time. He hugged them with firm embrace, then spoke.
"This is for your freedom," he told them. "You decide who you want to kill next when this is all over. This life is not forever. But it is needed to survive."
When they returned to base, Rixon gave them a week off. Then he drilled them immediately. He made them fight until they literally could not stand, and then he had family members pick them up and hold them upright while they fought off the next groups. He trained the idea into their bones: no one gets left behind, no matter the reason. They fought to be the last to fall, so don't you dare dishonor their trust in you by quitting when you think it's appropriate.
The next mission was something out of old war stories. Rixon and his four hundred family members had to help a rebellious planet take back one of their capitals, specifically the transport hangars depots that controlled all trade on and off the planet. When they landed on Nimersa, the rebellion was getting pushed back hard, losing territory and the funds they needed to keep fighting.
The Voss family, with tactical leadership from Vena, Masinon, and Kiala, managed to complete the operation without a single casualty from their side. They attacked in unison and only went when those three gave ok. Defended no spots and stayed on the move.
The challenge pushed everyone to their limits. Injuries would build up and then disappear because to be injured meant you were down, and to be down meant you couldn't help your family. Rixon never even had a moment to look around and feel proud of what his family had become and was executing. He was too busy being part of the espionage and task force unit that took out generals and outposts holding up the advance.
When it was finally over, Rixon, Rel, and Oyric were heading to the ships scheduled for evacuation. As they arrived at the open field where the ships waited, they heard a distant command. They watched all four hundred of their family members fall into formation, a lane opening between the two halves.
Then they heard it again. "Let our brother know how far, we are from our own freedom, family!"
And then, like a single heartbeat, the roar came. It was so intense the grass seemed to sway from the sheer force of it.
"ONE MORE."
Rixon could not help the smile that spread across his face. He saw some injured, some with new confidence burning in their eyes, some emotional, tears streaming, knowing they had survived something real. He walked as smoothly as he ever had up the ramp of the middle ship where he could tower over everyone. He sat down with his legs crossed and looked out at them.
"Now not many things can break a person," he said, his voice carrying across the field. "But a fight like this could push one to their breaking point. So what I want to ask you all to do is just understand that this scene right here, right now, means we were the last to fall."
He paused, letting it sink in.
"And with that being said, you all get the okay from me that when we return to base, you can fall. As we all have been standing for way too long, my family."
He stood up slowly.
"But before we do that, give me one more."
"Ti."
Four hundred voices answered as one. "UDA."
Each voice carried different emotions. Tears. Exhausted smiles. Fatigue that went bone deep. But they all meant it.
They were off the planet within four weeks and Nimersa was able to regain control of their planet's airspace and stop the planetary blockade by the Yornkata.
Three months passed.
Rixon, Kiala, and Masinon went to see Beelo for the final details, to confirm their last target. When they reached the door, Zay, Talonia, and Beelo were standing at low level tower window, looking down at the underground city as it operated far below them.
"Oh, I'd hate for us to mess up the beautiful picture y'all are watching play out," Rixon said as he sat down in a chair in the corner of the room. Kiala and Masinon made their way to the bar and helped themselves to drinks.
"Your last mission is to board a station and destroy their ammo cache," Talonia said. A smile slowly crept onto her face as she kept her back to them, staring out the window. "We don't want them getting any supplies when they finally decide to attack."
"Man, it must be beautiful the way y'all are staring out of it," Masinon said, trying to see over their shoulders.
All three turned around with the same calmness in their movements.
"Hey, lil cuz." Zay walked over and sat in the chair across from Rixon. "How much longer you got on the ships? And did that doctor actually teach those kids science?"
"They're done and technically science is an ever going lesson so yes and no. But yeah, After we finish this mission, we're preparing to leave ASAP. Leaving y'all all alone to your perilous war."
"Well good. Finish that mission and get out already. I need my droids back." Talonia walked to the bar and for a moment dropped the high and mighty act around Kiala and Masinon. "Do y'all have enough food to last that travel?"
"Look at you letting your tail feathers fly." Rixon kicked his feet up on the plush chair beside him. "But yeah. I spent all the money from this side of the galaxy. Got no need for it where we're going."
"Manners will never be your way, will they?" Talonia sipped her drink and turned back to the window. "Anyway, I got one more thing I want you to do."
"Yeah, let me kill this bitch so we can be done with these games." Kiala pulled her pistol and aimed it at Talonia.
Beelo jumped in front of her aim and Masinon gripped his pistol on his side. But Rixon didn't move. "Stand down, Kiala. She's faking."
He took a long drink, his eyes visible over the rim of his cup, his locs framing his face. "Now about this mission. Are you sure this is needed before you use up our services forever? You sure you don't need another small war for us to win again?"
Talonia never turned to face him. "You saw through me again, Rixon. But yes. That is all I need. Just wanted to do it one more time before you left my service."
"Alright, well, we're out. We got a trip to plan and a mission to execute. Nice talking with you Talonia" Rixon set his cup on the bar and walked out. Kiala and Masinon followed.
When Rixon and them made it back to the family, he explained the news. The only response was a roar that rumbled through the underground tunnels, shaking dust from the ceiling. Rixon decided that only him, Kiala, Masinon, and Vena would go. They only needed to sabotage the station, not completely destroy it.
He left Oyric, Rel, and Sentio in charge of evacuation and departure for when they returned.
Rixon and the crew sneaked onto the station disguised as maintenance technicians. No weapons. Complete espionage. He split them into two teams: him and Vena as the distraction squad, Kiala and Masinon as the actual sabotage unit.
Rixon and Vena knocked out some guards, destroyed a fuel line, and set fires in the kitchens. Panic spread through the station as troops ran to respond. They started making their way to the four-man evacuation pods.
Kiala and Masinon used the chaos to move deeper into the station and set the charges.
"Hey, Rix, come in." Her voice was the lightest he had ever heard from her.
"Yeah, I'm here. Any trouble planting the charges? You sound too happy." Rixon pulled down half of the maintenance disguise to his waist and put on a blast-proof vest.
"Oh, I don't think that is happening, my favorite little brother."
He attached a Yornkata sword to his hip and slung a rifle across his back. "Oh, y'all must have found something else. What did you find, Ki? Is it something we can take with us to our new life?"
"No. You shouldn't—"
The comm crackled with blaster fire.
"You should leave this behind and just go on ahead." Kiala's voice was already shortening, her breaths coming faster.
A knot tightened in Rixon's stomach. "Kiala, we are on our way! What is going on? Vena, we kill everyone on this station if we have to. Our family is in trouble. Don't fall!"
"Understood, Rix."
"Hang tight. You better not fall. We are on our way to you." He was already running. "Where is Masinon?"
"Well, Rix, at the moment Masinon has gone into his eternal sleep and opened his third eye for the last time." More blaster fire. Louder now. "But it's not so bad. I get to caress his head as he lays on my lap one more time before all is said and done."
Rixon ran and fought like a man obsessed. He was reckless but getting to the bottom line, kill and run. But blood from wounds he hadn't noticed covered his maintenance jumpsuit pants and his shoulder. Even like that Vena at best just could stay with pace.
"Rix, don't forget my promise, you little idiot. You go find love and don't hold a cold shoulder. You are at the age where you should be seeking love, not death. The only reason I even know this feeling of love is because of you and your ambition to live. So it's unfair if the person who helped me find it can't obtain it themselves."
He could hear her struggling to breathe between words. He could hear her still shooting.
"So make your big sister proud and go find me a sister-in-law. If she is royal or bougie, allow her to hang around Oyric. She needs to act more lady-like. But if she is your type, I know she will be slightly rough on the edges."
He was crying now. Silent tears mixing with blood as he ran through corridors, killing anything that moved between him and her voice.
"You know my family was killed when I was five years old. I never had a last name until you and little bro Sentio came up with it. It was nice to be Kiala Voss while I could, you know."
Rixon screamed. Not words, just sound. Primal and broken.
When they finally reached the room, he limped inside and stopped.
Kiala sat against the wall, Masinon's head in her lap. His eyes were closed, his third eye dark forever. Her hand rested on his chest. Her other hand still held a pistol aimed at the door, ready to protect him even in death.
Rixon moved slowly. He picked up Masinon's body and put him over his shoulder.
"I can carry her," Vena said softly, already moving to lift Kiala. "But are you sure you can carry him? Rixon, you're limping. I don't want to leave them behind, but—"
Rixon grabbed a stim-pin from his pants and stabbed it into his thigh. The effect was immediate, his eyes cleared, his stance steadied. "I'm good. We sprint from here to there and don't stop."
His face was cold. Tears still ran slowly down his cheeks.
As they ran, Rixon dropped the charges from Masinon's body. The ones meant for the supply cache and used them to destroy the station as they fled through it. Vena looked back to check on him, and every time she did, more tears had dried and a colder gaze had taken their place.
By the time they made it to the evacuation pod, the station was in flames on the inside. Alarms screamed, sending distress signals to nearby fleets.
Rixon got in the pod and laid Kiala and Masinon beside each other. Then they left the dying station floating in space.
The flight back was silent. Painful. Rixon bled slowly but stayed alive. Vena tried desperately to contact the ground, calling for a medical team, but received no response.
When they arrived, she understood why.
The planet was under full assault.
They flew through an active fleet battle, nearly escaping with no new damage until a stray shot clipped them and sent them off course from the underground hangar. The landing was hard. For a moment Vena thought the long journey was over.
Then she noticed they were surrounded by Yornkata troops.
She and Rixon shot out the front window and back hangar door of the pod, killing and creating a perimeter. Rixon moved in cold blood, showing no emotion, no sign he was bleeding out. Just going.
A crack sounded from the sky. Explosions. Friendly ships killed the remaining troops and surrounded the pod. Two fighters flew above them, providing cover. When they could finally see who it was, Oyric and Rel dropped from the sky with the squad she had trained with.
"Get Rixon!" Vena stumbled outside and used the pod to hold herself up. "We have two fallen and I'm not losing another! Damn it!"
"I'm fine." Rixon limped past his family. "Get our brother and sister. I'll get medical attention on the Star Hopper."
Oyric wanted to run to her big brother, but she saw Kiala and raced to get her onto the ship instead. She saw that look before and knew she could got not pull him out of the deep end.
Some family members stared in shock at his wounds and his ability to still walk. Some looked emotional as they saw Kiala and Masinon carried onto the ship. Some looked straight ahead, telling themselves not to show emotion.
When Rixon made it to the ship, and out of sight he began to fall.
Sentio caught him out of nowhere.
"Way to be last to fall, my friend." Sentio's voice was steady. "Now let's get you in this med bay."
Rixon passed out. Sentio took over almost instinctively.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" He shouted commands as he worked. "Go to the coordinates for that sector. We'll regroup there and depart to our new home. Liva 1 and Liva 2, go! We are right behind you!"
The ships flew away. Sentio got the med-team to take over after he put Rixon in the med-bay and took back control to get the Star Hopper off the war-torn planet and into the safety of space. As he flew he could only think about his friend as he saw Rixon's face, the dried tears were still visible on his cheeks when he caught him.
He wondered what toll this would take. What breaking point looked like for a man who had already been broken so many times.