Chapter Text
Operation Artemis
A story by ThisPanLikesToRead
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Kora was 10 years old when the Affini arrived at the edge of the Terran Republic. Now, two years later, they’re here, at her home, the Moon of Abraxas. But Kora isn’t the same as she was two years ago. That Kora was weak. This Kora is a survivor, and she’ll be damned before she gives up. Because she’s not just fighting for herself, she’s fighting for her little sister, Aria.So when she, along with other, are elected to be leaders of Operation Artemis, she pledges to do everything in her power to protect the children she’s been entrusted with, whatever it takes. Whatever is necessary for survival.
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A/N: This story is TV-14. It contains depictions of language, violence, alcohol use, substance use, sexual assault, and child neglect. If any of these may trigger you, I don’t recommend you to continue. Take care of your mental health, it is your responsibility. However, let me be clear, this is PG13, TV-14, however you call it. This is NOT considered explicit. Why? Because I have underage characters, you know, CHILDREN.
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Chapter One: Ten Floors Down
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Dog Days Are Over - Florence & The Machine
“The horses are coming
So you better run”
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It was a cold night on the moon, if it could be called that. The night wouldn’t end for another 709 earth days. Kora was packing the items she was selling at the bazaar when her best friend, Nix, ran up to her.
“Kora, Kora, wait!” Nix yelled, through pants of air, breathing heavily from the sprint, their face wet with tears, “Liv, Liv, Olivia was drafted.”
Kora looked up at Nix directly, paying attention now, and exclaimed, shocked, “What?! But she’s only 14!”
“I know, Good Gaia, I know. The draft was expanded. Word on the street is that it’ll go down to 12 soon,” Nix said solemnly.
“But t-that’s-,” Kora stammered.
“Us. I know. I’m hoping I’m wrong and it’s just a rumor. Gaia, I don’t want to die. I don’t want to go to war. I don’t care about the damn weeds!” Nix sobbed to Kora, “and honestly? I think the government’s lying to us. I call BS on the they’re-going-to-eat-our-brains propaganda. They’re plants; why would they eat meat?”
Kora sighed, she’d heard the second rant many times, “ They’re aliens, Nix, aliens. Why would the government lie? Exaggerate? Yes. Lie to it’s citizens point blank? No.” As she talked, she put the last item away.
Nix scoffed at her, “Have you studied history? At all? And I don’t mean the whitewashed propaganda BS they teach in school. I mean, read a history book. Well, you know, one that hasn’t been banned yet.”
“…No. Look, I have enough on my plate. I gotta go, Nix. I’m sorry. I hope Liv is ok,” Kora waved goodbye.
As Kora walked on her way home, she dodged a knife accidentally thrown her way from a fight in an alleyway. Three men ran after one who had blood streaming from cuts on his face and a black eye, swollen big and ugly. They caught up to him and swore dirty names and homophobic words in his face, their spit flying as they kicked his ribs. Kora sighed, this unfortunately being a common occurrence, and crossed the street to walk on the opposite sidewalk.
The rest of the way, she took the subway, walking down dank and dirty steps underground to a musty entrance area, mold in the air and in the groves of the tile floor. Kora shuffled through her pockets, making her movements obvious, not to set off the bored trigger-happy transportation police. Finally, she found the flimsy plastic card and scanned it, a green light shining when she did.
“Thank you for choosing Vexery Travel, Kora! Have a wonderful trip!” A chirpy AI voice told her.
Kora rolled her eyes, ah yes, the shitty, loud, falling apart train with gum all over the seats. Wonderful . It was rumored that the gum actually held it together, kept it running all these years. She got on, pushing through bodies to find a narrow space for her to stand.
The train ride was fine, good even, Kora mused, when she exited. She only had to knee a middle-aged man once in the crotch when he fondled her boobs. He left her alone after that. On the walk home, she mentally counted her earnings from the bazaar. She did well today, most of the items had been sold. The trick was probably the low-cut top, Kora thought. She sighed at the depressing thought and unlocked the door, sliding the key in the lock.
“Papá, Aria? I’m home!” Kora announced as she slid off her shoes and threw the keys on the small cramped countertops of the ‘kitchen.’ She walked over to the living/dining room and saw Papá nursing a beer, which looked to be one of many. Shit . Papá wasn’t a very happy drunk.
“Where’s Aria?” Kora asked.
She tried to keep her tone light, as not to set him off. Parents or guardians could volunteer their kids for the draft, which Papá had threatened before, but neither Kora nor Aria were old enough at the time. Now, it’s dangerous. Still, Kora knew Papà needed her. It was her who took care of Aria and made the money and took care of the apartment. Aria wasn’t technically her full sister, but they acted like they were.
“Upstairs. You have credits?” Papá slurred, his Mars accent coming through, with his hand on the beer can waving and his eyes focused on the Holoscreen, which was showing an ad against the Affini.
“Become someone bigger than yourself. Be a part of something bigger than yourself. Join the fight. Fight for your people. Fight for humanity’s survival! Volunteer today. Scan the QR code to join the fight now!” The HoloAd declared.
“Yeah, I sold most of the stuff,” Kora paused before handing it over, “Can you get a new pair of pants for Aria? She grew out of the old pair.”
“I’ll spend it on what I want,” Papá said, annoyed.
Kora knew she had to simply accept it. There were more important battles to fight. The dangers was too high now, with the draft age limit lowered. Kora knew that Papà didn’t always think logically. The age limit had lowered significantly over the years, when it was 21, it caused chaos and protests, as on Abraxas, you weren’t an adult until 25. Now, it’s 12, and barely anyone notices. It was a stark change, and Kora knew, logically, it meant there were a lot more fatalities than the government wanted to admit or the Affini were even more dangerous than the government made them out to be. But Kora didn’t want to think about that, Kora couldn’t.
Kora nodded slowly at Papá, and walked over to Aria’s bedroom. She knocked on the door, and Aria opened it, revealing a short, glaring, adorable gremlin. Her sister had a buzz cut, her hair so short, it was barely even there. It was per uniform policy at the public academy, to prevent lice. Kora dropped out a year ago, her hair touching the tips of her ears.
“I’m sorry, Aria, I can’t get them,” Kora apologized.
“Why! Everyone at school makes fun of me, saying we’re poor,” Aria crossed her arms angrily, “We’re not poor!”
Kora didn’t have the heart to tell her, that in fact, they were very poor. Mostly because of Papá’s gambling. He had a crappy poker face.
“Aria, I-” Kora was cut off by the door slamming in her face.
“I hate you,” Aria screamed, muffled through the door.
Kora sighed(it seemed she was doing that a lot recently), it was always her who took the blame. Kora started off to her room, pulling up old K-pop videos. Nix teased her often for crushing on the band’s leader, Bang Chan, even though they were long gone(can you blame her though? Yeah, that’s what I thought.🙃). The group’s members all died hundreds of years ago. She watched a few MVs, and looped Red Lights only a few dozen times(love you Bang Chan 😘) and was watching the God’s Menu MV(I’M A FIVE STAR MICHELIN) until loud, screeching sounds started blaring from her HoloPad.
At first, she thought the cracked old thing finally broke, but a happy little voice started announcing, “Citizens of Abraxas Moon, warning. Affini attack imminent. Seek cover in your assigned shelter. Warning, Affini attack, this is not a drill.”
Kora turned it off and ran to get Aria, who was already getting ready, shoving her stuffies in her school backpack. Kora grabbed their go bag, which she packed in preparation and anticipation for this.
“Aria, we need to go, now .” Kora ordered.
Aria yelled back, over the alarms ringing outside, “Ok, I’ve got it. Let’s go!”
The two rushed down the stairs, with loud heavy footsteps.
Kora yelled out, “Papá, we need to leave. The Affini-”
“Those damn weeds won’t get to us in here! I’m staying, and you are too,” Papá said, grabbing Kora’s arm tightly enough to leave a bruise.
Kora protectively held Aria behind her body and snatched her arm away, “We are leaving. The Affini technology is clearly beyond us. We’re safer underground.”
“You’ll die and I won’t miss you! You were always a waste, both of ya!” Papá cried out behind them as they walked away.
Aria flipped him off, walking backwards. Kora looked at her little sister, gobsmacked(😧).
Once they were a safe distance away, Kora lightly slapped Aria’s arm, “Where in hell did you learn that from?”
“Nix,” Aria shrugged casually.
Kora sighed exasperatingly, yep, sounded like them to teach a nine year old that. The sister walked a couple blocks until they came across a long line, which most likely was for this area’s designated bunker. The crowd of people were trying to weave themselves in. Kora looked above and gasped at the sight. Countless, bigger than life alien ships hovering in the moon’s atmosphere. It made sense why they would attack Abraxas, if they meant to hurt civilians. It was one of the most populated moons in the Terran Republic with just over a billion residents. There were military bases on Abraxas, but Kora knew from the media that those were training or research bases, not strategic locations for war.
Aria shivered and came closer, into Kora’s side, “I’m scared.”
Kora looked down at her, “Me too, me too.”
Then, soldiers with large automatic blasters came up the line and waved at the sisters, “Children first, come on.”
Kora and Aria followed them and several other kids joined them as well. All of them were led into the massive underground bunker, already housing thousands. The two of them were directed to a separate line, where they gave a prick of blood for the system and given rations, which looked like tofu at first, but it was greyer, like dirty snow sludge. Aria scrunched her nose at them, and Kora agreed in her mind. It was a good thing Kora packed the go bag with plenty of non perishable food(🥫). They were given a sleeping bag to share and two bands to verify their spot on the tenth floor down. Apparently, there are 100 floors and entrances throughout the city of Saphir.
Kora gathered the items and added them to the go bag, and carried the sleeping bag under her arm. They were ordered by the female soldier with a kind smile, but lines of stress lined her face, to take the stairs straight down and find the number 10-0701247, which would be marked in the floor. As they walked down the stairs, it was an eerie silence in the staircase, with all the bodies walking down with them, you would expect loudness and overlapping conversations, but instead there was only a sense of foreboding, like this was the end.
Finally, they got to the tenth sublevel, and stepped off the aluminum steps to the concrete floor. There were signs to show the direction that the numbers went in. Kora followed it, holding tightly to Aria’s hand. About thirty minutes later, walking almost three kilometers to get to their assigned area. The area was five by two meters, the borders marked by a line of spray paint. As Kora started setting everything up, Aria went over to play with some kids Kora vaguely recognized from Aria’s class. After Kora laid down the sleeping bag, she started on making a mental tally of all the items that they had.
- Nine (9) bottles of water
- Six (6) ration cubes
- Two (2) toothbrushes
- One (1) tube of toothpaste
- Two (2) HoloPads
- Fourteen (14) granola bars
- Twenty (20) packs of sandwich crackers
- Three (3) cans of corn
- Five (5) cans of bean chili
- Eight (8) stuffed animals
- One (1) flashlight
- One (1) charging pad
- Seven (7) bandaids
- One (1) pencil
- One (1) notebook
- One (1) bandana
- Ten (10) batteries
- Three (3) pocketknifes
- One (1) can of pepper spray
This was both a relief and humorous to know. Did Aria really need all her stuffies? Kora looked back over at Aria, who was now playing tag. She smiled, it was nice to see Aria get a childhood. At least one of them would get one. Then, suddenly a soldier pointed a blaster at the kids and shot at the ground. It left a black smoky mark.
He yelled at them angrily, “Get to your ordered spaces! No running! Now, you urchins!”
Kora quickly grabbed Aria and set her down, with the stuffies comfortingly laid on the sleeping bag.
Aria sheepishly looked at Kora, “Sorry.”
Kora waved it off and whispered, “It’s ok. That guy was just a jerk.”
Aria stifled her giggles behind a soft looking avocado. Kora smiled at her and relaxed a bit as the soldier walked to outside the 10-0702 room.
“Are you hungry?” Kora asked Aria with a quiet, light tone.
Aria just looked at Kora and gave her a deadpan, “For those cube thingies? Nah, never. I think I’ll just starve.”
Kora snorted, “Alright, just a little dramatic there, huh? No matter, because luckily for you, I have snacks in the go bag. All for me~”
Aria glared playfully at Kora for her teasing, “Kora~, stop~”
Kora grabbed a granola bar from the bag and opened it and started dramatically eating, “Mmh, chocolate. So good .”
Aria reached over Kora’s arms, which were blocking the backpack, and unzipped it. Quickly, she dove in and snatched a granola bar as well. Kora updated the list - Twelve (12) granola bars. Together, they tried to calm each other down, and pray that the Affini would move on, even if that wish wasn’t realistic. But what else were they to do?