《Guardians Of The Helm》 The Beginning(Prologue) "Captain, the Flare storm between those stars will kill the EM drive engines. We can''t reach KC-1063 along this route." "Going through the other route will require more fuel than what we have." The Captain thought for a few seconds. "There''s no choice we must go for plan B. Tell everyone to change the destination to KC-135" "But Captain, that planet has not been mapped properly yet! We don''t know for sure what well be getting into!" "We don''t have a choice Johnson. Just do as I said." "Okay Captain" .................................................................................. verheating warningverheating> "The atmosphere is denser than we thought. Make sure the heat shields hold." "Roger Captain" "Tell everyone to prepare for landing" "Roger" ................................................................................. "All 80 of the passenger ships have landed successfully Sir. One of the 50 cargo ships damaged it''s landing gear, but landed all the same. Some of the people got sick during landing but they are being taken care of, Sir" "Good. Give the order to prepare the temporary habs so that the people can get some rest. We will start unloading cargo from tomorrow." " Roger that Sir" "And put up a defensive perimeter, we don''t know what is lurking along these jungles" "Roger" .................................................................................. It''s 2243. It has been 50 years since the asteroid crashed on the Earth. And ever since then, a part humanity has called KC-135 its home. The original plan was to reach KC-1063, an Earth like planet 350 light years away from the old solar system. But an EM storm blocked the route, so the convoy of a hundred and thirty Massive Hyperspeed Transport Shuttles, was rerouted to KC-135, as plan B, 172 light years away. Most of humanity had been transported to KC-1063 successfully. the last 100 thousand people, people from different nationalities, were being transported. And so, around a 100 thousand people ,20 thousand domestic animals, and a whole lot of supplies were transported by hyperspeed transports to here.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. They created the Helm, the around 150 sq km area where humanity set up civilization with the resources brought from earth and some resources gathered from here. The population of a hundred thousand had grown to about a million, and the Helm too had grown to about 500 sq km. The whole area is divided into four main subdivisions, North bloc - South bloc - East bloc -West bloc, for ease of administration. The whole area is governed by elected council members, along with a government with officials for different purposes. the leader is someone who is chosen by by the previous leader. Currently, the leader is a person named Henry Romer. The population of hundred thousand people who had come to KC-135 has since then grown to about three million people. Powered by a new energy source named simply as "Power", and abundant resources and technological know-how, humanity flourished. Now, dangers were abundant for the first people who came to KC-135. But, most of the wild animals here were subdued or defended against. Except one. The Kaiser. The Kaiser is a 10 - 18 foot tall ape like creature. Put a large Earth gorilla on steroids, make it a bit thinner, give it bluish grey fur, teeth like that of Earth sharks, and blue glowing bands and designs on its body, kind of like some supernatural tattoo,put two horns on its head, and you have got a Kaiser. During the initial stages of human settlement this was a huge problem. The kaisers are carnivores, and eat most animals, including humans. And they cause devastation wherever they go. Only extremely high calibre weapons were good against it. This was why the Helm was made. The Helm is actually a first level border defense against Kaiser. Its a walled boundary around the settlements, with men posted all over. Kaisers usually attack in groups, and a lot of men with big high calibre guns are required to kill them. The boundary provided men with the ability to delay the Kaisers, and kill them. The kaisers aren''t that intelligent,and unable to climb up the the barricades, get killed. The Defense Army was created for the sole purpose of defending humanity from kaisers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For fifty years humanity had fared extremely well on the planet. Many had grown over-confident due to the lack of danger. but then Humanity suffered a rude awakening. The New Planet I stood upon the scorched ground, as the battle raged on behind me. My enemy stood before me, grotesque,pulsing with energy and smiling. I was barely able stand to before him as my energy aura surrounded me. The Kaisers would be taken care of by the defending soldiers of humanity, but this man, or monster, would be impossible to defeat for them. I must take him down, even if it takes away my life. With this thought, I gathered Power in my hands and charged at him, as the air around me whished with the sound of a thousand birds chirping. The monster charged at me too, gathering the same blue energy at his hand, readying for an attack. This fight would determine the fate of humanity. I charged towards him, my feet barely touching the ground, shouting, "Houseeeerrr!!!!!!", while he charged shouting "Alrekkk!!!", as the impending clash took place........ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My name is Alrek Konig. I am 17 years old. I am a pretty unremarkable looking thin guy of short stature with black spiky hair and a thin face. My mother died in a car crash when i was three years old, and i have no recollection of my father. I lived in an orphanage in West Bloc. I ran away from the orphanage when i was 15 years old, out of hunger and neglect. The South bloc is a large commercial district, where most of the people come only for work, and it is also a cesspool for the unemployed and loungers. The reason why the South bloc is densely populated is because Kaisers mainly attack from the north, leaving the south bloc relatively safe. A few strays attack sometimes, but they are taken care of by the soldiers defending the borders. I had come here with some tarpaulin, some food, a bottle of water, and a small watch that i had ever since i remember, and a few other scraps I had managed to scrounge up from around the orphanage in a torn backpack. I had some little money with me, which i had got from some of the visitors. I took a train from the Avery Street station near our orphanage. I got to South bloc within a couple of hours, and then i was in a completely unknown place, facing a sea of unknown and somewhat hostile looking people. I ran through the area and into the main street. I walked along the footpaths keeping an eye out for policemen while chewing one of the mango like chewy fruits found on this planet, when i found a public portal. A portal is essentially a screen which is used to provide information to the public, and something which the public can use to look up maps, shops, news, etc. There was no one near the portal, so i went ahead and used it to look up the map of the city. To the west of my current location was a an area of full of twisting roads and alleys, marked as the Favella. It seemed interesting. I started walking there, and reached it to find that the area was mainly for people who had moved here for work. The whole place had a shabby look compared to the central parts of South bloc from which i had come. But for me, this was a bit more familiar, a bit more comfortable, even though the road i walked on was full of potholes, and there was a stench of garbage coming from somewhere. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.The alleys which I had seen on the map were actually where homeless people had setup tents and were living with their families. Suddenly I heard the shout "Hey kid, come here." A tall man wearing shabby clothes and face hidden by a hood had spoken the words , and they were directed towards me. I walked towards him. He growled" What''s your name boy?" I said apprehensively, "J-j-Jim" "Good false name you got there. Anyways, Imma guessing ya''re a ranaway, ya stay in that alley, most people won''t bother ya. If you don''t have any sorta roof, just take some plastic from someone, but don expect much help." With that, he went away before I could say anything. I saw the alley he had pointed out was a little empty one. I went there and sat down. I looked up at the purplish sky where a few stars and the two satellites could already be seen, and thought of what was going to happen to me. That''s how I came to the South bloc, and got a place of my own. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Settling In I have been in the South bloc for about a week now. I used the tarp i had brought for a roof by putting it up between two walls and some boxes. I use a brick and my backpack for a pillow. The roof was tested during the second night when it rained heavily. My head was dry, but leaving that nearly everything was wet. Thankfully the boxes were waterproofed, and i snuggled up close to them to stay warm. Next morning i got some scraps from nearby and burnt with a lighter i had found on the road to get my clothes dried up. I bought some food with the little money i had brought. Overall, the days were barely okay. But the problem right now is that I don''t have any money. And I ran out of the little food I had bought with it. I would have to do something in order to get some thing, but I don''t have a clue what I should do. Thinking about my current predicament, I was walking around South bloc''s commercial area , with my face hidden under the somewhat tattered hoodey I had stolen from the orphanage. I guessed that no one would search for me, but I deemed it was better to be safe. The commercial district is actually two worlds in one. One half is all clean stately buildings for business. This is the area where most of the big company offices are and where people come to work. The malls for rich people to shop, electronic gadget shops, high quality materials, anything you want you can get here. The roads are clean, and bustling with traffic. However this is also the region of high security. For this reason I didn''t attempt to get in there. Instead i went into the other half of the commercial district. This was a huge market covered with a tin roof, with shops set up under it,and people shouting to sell goods. I wouldn''t exactly call it the underbelly, but its definitely a far cry from the clean and trim business centers. From the upper surface this region is for the sale of vegetables,fruits and other eatables in wholesale quantities. Move a little further and you will find a business of textiles, good quality and bad. Keep moving, and you will enter the region of black sales. Electronics pirated during transit being sold for the "right price", drugs which can cure all sorts of diseases made from plants of the KC-135, materials illegally mined from the Hills. I saw all of this, but kept a distance. I had heard from the people living near me at the Favella and during the time i was at the orphanage that this place saw large number of criminal activities. I mostly kept to the food stalls. As I was walking around, thinking what I was going to do without any money, I saw a boy of probably about my own age standing behind some wood slabs kept for sale, obviously hiding. I could not see him properly, but he was a bit shorter than I was, a white shirt on his body, slippers on his feet, short cropped hair,a face covered with a dirty cloth, only the black small eyes were visible. He was looking at the fruit shop in front of him. I was somewhat intrigued, and stood around. Soon a group of workers carrying building equipment came to the shop to buy fruits. The rushed forward calmly, and stood behind the workers who were choosing oranges. Suddenly, he pulled out of the crowd with what I saw as three oranges in his hand and started running. The shopkeeper must have noticed something, and started hollering "Thief! Thief!'' He came out of his counter and looked around, but that boy was already missing, he looked around ,saw me, and pointed his stick at me angrily. I did not wait for the rest and ran in the direction the boy had gone. I was quick, having been mischievous at the orphanage, and managed to escape. After I had gone some distance away among the different stalls and the crowds, I felt a grip on my left shoulder, I turned to see the boy was behind me. He said with an Asian accent, " I saw that you had seen me during my hit. You look hungry. Here, have an orange, and forget what you saw." He thrust an orange in my hand and was going away when I caught his shoulder and said, "Teach me what you just did" "What? You one of those newcomers are you? Ran out of food and money? " " Yeah, just teach me how to steal some food, and I will go away. " " How about I say no?" "Then I will start screaming you are a thief. I bet the fruit shop owner isn''t far away. " He glared at me for a few moments as if trying to say" I dare you", but then he looked around, and whispered,"Come with me." I followed him out of the market, and he walked into a side alley. "You look hungry, so I will tell you. The key is to make sure there is some sort of distraction around when you do it. And while picking, don''t slip or falter, or hesitate. Be confident, and then run." Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.He then looked at me and said, "Come here tomorrow morning at 10:00, you ran really well today, I could use a partner." "Okay, tomorrow at ten then?" "Yeah. What''s your name? I''m Hiiro . " " Alrek. " With that we went our ways. ................................................................ The next day we met at the same alley at the time. Hiiro was a boy of around my age, and he lived in the favella too. His parents had died in the army, and he was left with an aunt, from whom he ran away after being used as common laborer. He had come to the commercial district two years earlier, but before that he used to live in the east bloc. Hiiro took me with him to another part of the market. A bakery was the target. As soon as a crowd came in, we went in, and got two bread packs, and we were immediately off. I heard a few shouts behind but he told me " Keep running." After we had managed to run away, we had we whatever we had stolen. We waited for a few hours and went to another part of the market to steal some fruits that were being sold. We called it a day after that. ........................ This kind of cheap hits went on for a few weeks. Hiiro kept teaching me ways of the street. Some days we nearly got caught, but Hiiro''s plans of escape, and my ability to run really fast, helped save us from the cops. But, by that time, i had learned parkour. Basically, i was already accustomed to climbing walls and jumping down from areas. During one of the hits, me and Hiiro were partnered with a guy called Asuka to steal a shipment of spices. The whole thing went off smoothely, but the cops dropped in at the very end, and we had to haul it. After the run Asuka said i could be good at parkour. I had seen him at it, and asked him if he could teach me. He agreed to do so. After about two weeks, numerous cuts and bruises, i was somewhat okay with it. Hiiro could not learn this as his left arm had broken once, which, due to improper healing, was not usable at full strength. One day Hiiro stated teaching me about picking pockets. He taught me how to keep touches soft, so that the person would not feel anything, and to grab everything quickly. He taught me a few other things. After that, I practiced on him a while. After innumerable attempts, Hiiro decided I was fit for the streets, although I still couldn''t properly get past his reflexes. By this time he had started calling me AL. "AL, I got a tip from a guy at the faceless that a guy would be coming to the black markets worth a lot of cash with him. And we need to get a hold of some of it. They will be bringing a shipment of electronics. I know you run well, so you will be causing a distraction, while I do the actual pick pocketing. As I soon as I give the signal, pick up a box of electronics, and run, coz this one may get dangerous. " " Dangerous? ", I asked. " Yeah. We might face guns, or worse the police. Now I''m going to be right behind you as soon as i get my hands on some cash, and you don''t stop for no reason. " I was pretty scared, but I didn''t hesitate for long, hunger and empty pockets took care of that. Hiiro had told me that he had his sources, and that a bald guy would be the man in charge of the shipment. The shipment was to reach the market at around 5 o'' clock in the evening. We waited for it among the alleys. Three men in working clothes came soon with carts carrying the cartons, while a bald guy wearing better clothes came behind them. The people carrying the cartons dropped the carts. Before a group could gather before the carts, i rushed in, grabbed two cartons, and dashed. The cartons had handles, which i put around my arms, and then shimmied up the nearest wall. I heard cries of "Thief!" behind me, even a gunshot, but i did not care, i just had to run as far as possible. A location in the favella was the rendezvous point. Basically, the favella is kind of like a labyrinth, so tracking there was quite difficult. I kept running as fast as i could along the shortest route to the favella, hoping Hiiro was safe too. I was nearly away from the market, and was about to jump from a tarp roof, when i felt i was far enough and decided to wait for Hiiro. I waited on the roof, catching my breath, when i saw Hiiro on the alley under me. Thankfully no one was chasing him. I dropped down in front of him. "Whoa Al, don''t scare me like that. What are you doing here? I told you to get to the favella." "I needed to catch my breath. Don''t worry no one is chasing you. Did you get the cash?" He smiled at that, put his hands in his pockets, and took out a bundle of notes. "The guy was rich, i got two bundles, his pockets were loaded." He gave me a bundle. I was looking at it, as i never had so much cash in my hands. At this moment, someone came from an alley behind Hiiro and caught hold of him. His hand was on Hiiro''s throat in an instant, a knife in that hand. "Now man, i want that stash of cash in your hand if you want your mate alive." The Escape A hostage scenario. That''s what I found myself in after a heist. Awesome. Our adversary was a heavily built guy, the muscles evident under the T-shirt. No chance I was going to be able to overpower him. Hell even both of us together may have lost to him. There has to be a way out even though I don''t see any. I was staring at the guy''s face, while Hiiro was staring at me. The Caucasian face had no signs of hesitation. As I kept staring the knife nudged closer to Hiiro''s throat. "Oi mate what are you waiting for? Place the wad on the street and move away with your hands up." Hiiro said, "Give him the cash, we can get more another day." As all of this was happening, I was also aware of a commotion coming from the south of us. It sounded like a lot of people shouting together, but also a different sound I couldn''t understand. I was hoping the sound was of people coming thus way who could then help us. Until then, I had to stall. However as the sound kept coming nearer, I recognized a different sound in the commotion, loud thumping noises, along with crashing sounds. Both Hiiro and the thug noticed the sound. Soon, the sound got quite close, and the thug turned to look in that direction. Immediately I ran sideways and jumped on a low pedestal that i had been eyeing, jumped up from there and gave a turning kick to the thug''s back. The thug lost his balance and fell forward, but Hiiro managed to get down and escape his grip. As I did this and jumped back to safety, the sound got defeaning with loud thumps, like something massive was stomping. Before me and and Hiiro could catch our breath, and the thug could get up properly, the house before us came crashing down as a massive body crashed through it. I barely managed to process what I was seeing and jumped up the wall behind me out of pure instinct as the two storey house came crashing down. It was like i was seeing everything in slow motion, the massive hairy, strangely patterned body jumping above, the chunks of concrete hurtling down. I could hear Hiiro screaming. I also heard the screams of the thug. He was stuck under a chunk of concrete which was crushing his hand. Through the muddled scene, my overwhelmed brain realized I must help him as i was somewhat responsible for his current situation. I was just realising that something huge had just crashed into and brought down a building, and it had just jumped over us which saved our lives. Also, gauging by the stomping noises, more were coming towards us. I quickly jumped down and rushed to the thug. He couldn''t pickup the chunk on his own with one hand. I also started to push the chunk, it barely moved. Suddenly the chunk moved up. I looked to the side to see Hiiro also trying to pick up the chunk. After what seemed an eternity, in reality barely a few milliseconds, the chunk moved, and the thug could remove his hand. His forearm was broken. But we didn''t have time to tend to his wounds, the sound of stomping was getting closer, and this time we might not be lucky. We looked at each other, three pale, scared and shell shocked faces, with the thug''s face being scrunched up in pain. At this moment we heard a loud siren and an announcement from above us," We are under attack. All citizens are asked to evacuate to the Southern Army Forward Operating Base to the north."This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "That is the Kaiser Alarm." Both of us turned to the thug who had said these words. "The Kaisers must have overrun the city, we must run for our lives." None of us said a word, and immediately started running. I said as I was running,"Do you know where the Base is?" Hiiro said," I don''t exactly know where the Base is, just running North is going to get us killed. We should look for a portal." The thug said,"There''s no time, I know the place, my brother worked in the army, follow me." We followed him. We ran as fast as we could, stopping only whenever the stomping sound got farther, just to catch our breath.We tied the thug''s arm up, although the other arm was sprained too. "Thanks a lot. The name''s Colin.",he breathed through his pain. We saw a lot of the buildings in a lot of the areas were completely destroyed. A lot of corpses. Blood spilled all around. A lot of the bodies weren''t whole, some parts were cut off, probably eaten. Crushed cars all around, a few completely upside down. A lot of people were running in the same direction as us. Running through the by-ways near Round House Road, we found some bicycles lying undamaged. They were unlocked. I took one. Hiiro took another one while Colin rode with Hiiro barely holding on with his sprained arm and telling the directions through gritted teeth. We had one close encounter, near Barrington Avenue. We were crossing the road,when we heard a huge crash behind us. A smaller sized kaiser had crashed into the building and was now chasing us. We put all our strength onto the pedals, and rode as hard as possible. Hiiro was driving just as hard as I was even though he was carrying Colin. "Get into that by way it can''t chase us too far in there." The byway was narrower than the other byways. But it was also quite long, meaning the Kaiser had to destroy quite a few buildings to follow us. Being a smaller one, it probably didn''t have enough strength, because, the stomping soon started to fade. After five minutes of frantic cycling, we had escaped. After a minute to catch our breath, we moved on again. Going through the byways as fast as possible, we came across a girl sitting by a wall and crying. We stopped. I asked,"Hey, what''s wrong with you why aren''t you running to the escape?" She looked at us and started crying hysterically,"Please! Please help me. My legs are both broken. Please take me with you I haven''t seen anyone else I can''t move at all." Her legs looked quite bloody but not completely crushed. She had somewhat tied them with strips from her shirt. Her short hair was all matted with blood as she also had a head injury.She looked the same age as us. I kept talking to her as she was quite in shock. She said her name was Rene, and she was a street kid like us.We made sure she wasn''t in any immediate danger. Hiiro then helped me get her on the cycle behind me and we pushed off. After about half an hour of the escape, we entered Bridgewater Street. We saw a lot of scared people running, driving, even cycling like us towards the gates in front. A lot of people were heavily injured, bleeding, with lost or mangled limbs, all moving towards the goal, shellshocked into silence. Soldiers wearing the black armour uniform were helping heavily injured people. A few divisions were rushing out with weapons to take down the Kaisers. Just as we were about to enter the gates,a Kaiser appeared behind the crowds, sending the crowd into hysteria. But as the monster rushed forward, a blast was heard, a rushing sound above us, and the Kaiser was dead. We safely entered through the gates.