Upon the planet.
The environment of this planet was exceedingly harsh; wherever the eye fell there was desert, near enough, and nothing else.
And the sky, too, was full of flying yellow sand.
And it was in an environment of that kind that industrial zones had been built here, tract upon tract of them.
Because this planet could meet the basic wants of biological survival, it had been designated a slave industrial planet.
As for any question of living conditions — the Qian family's people naturally cared nothing for that.
"This is the newest batch of slaves taken. The number of slaves called for lately has been far too great; we had to go as far as the Starlight Empire's Chu River Star Region to bring these few shiploads back, and were nearly discovered by the Chu family's fleet." One of the crew of a slave transport, wearing a breathing mask, was handing this batch of slaves over to the local overseer.
They wore breathing masks; while those slaves brought down under escort had no such good fortune, and came down in a line, each of them shackled in chains, with any who walked too slowly shocked by a monitor's electric prod.
To their eyes, these were no people at all — merely so many articles of cargo.
"Indeed. And with what's being called for now for shipment out, the number of slaves at our own work posts has fallen short. Before, they only wanted the bodies of the dead, and the gravely ill, the crippled, the old and weak, the women and children. Now the requirement has been loosened: anyone under 15 years, over 50 years, of improper attitude to work, or failing to meet a work quota, is all to be shipped away as 'cargo'." The local factory overseer let out a long sigh.
The factory overseer hesitated a moment, then asked in a small voice, "It's a wonder to me — so many slaves; where in the end is it that those above us mean to send them? Other places I don't know of, but in this factory of mine alone, the dead and the living carried away between them have come to above 1 billion. In former days a slave in our factory could work about 30 years on average. Now it's a hard thing for one to last out 20."
Hearing the question, the transport crewman glared at him outright. "Don't forget the rule. What oughtn't to be asked isn't asked — and this above all."
"I spoke too much, I spoke too much." The other apologized in haste, and to make amends pressed a box of something into his hand. "This batch of goods is a very fine one; it'll take you out of yourself."
The transport crewman glanced at it and showed a satisfied smile. "The thing you wanted, I've put in cargo container number 077."
Those in the carrying trade would all of them privately bring some goods of their own along, and trade for whatever each wanted.
That box the overseer gave the transport crewman, for instance, was a kind of psychoactive drug that could answer a crewman's wants of the mind through the long stretches of starship life.
A prohibited article.
"In point of fact, that thing you asked — we don't know either. During the carrying, the outside network is shut down altogether; even the internal net may not be used. Half a month a run, and I'm kept the whole time in my own department's few square feet of ground. And even at the unloading we're all of us required to stay in our quarters and not leave. …Though… I seem to have heard some sounds that weren't quite right. At any rate… it wasn't anything human moving." The transport crewman muttered it with something of fright still on him.
He had seen nothing with his own eyes, but his instinct told him that he had been very near to death at the time.
And just then, a girl in filthy clothes staggered and fell to the ground.
Which brought the whole line of slaves she was in to a stop where they stood.
The monitor charged with escorting them came rushing over at once with his electric prod in hand.
A boy behind the girl rushed up on the instant and shielded her body with his own — and took the prod himself for it, so that his whole frame shook with it.
"Don't… don't shock my brother… I… I can walk…" The girl looked at her brother lying shaking on the ground, and wept as she begged.
The monitor went up and kicked the boy who had been shocked. "Don't play dead. Get up and keep walking, quickly!"
And then he saw something showing from the boy's pocket.
The monitor's face turned greedy on the instant, and he reached out to take it.
"You little mongrel — daring to hide things, are you!"
The boy, seeing the thing he treasured snatched away, struggled to his feet at once, meaning to take it back.
But the monitor put a foot on him outright, without the least ceremony.
"What wretched thing is this? Only a soldier's name-tag. A waste of my trouble." The monitor looked at the little tag, with a man's name written on it, and the force he had served in.
Chu Family Legion, Ninth Fleet… Song Dashu…
"Give it back… that's my father's! My father is a Chu family interstellar soldier! Let the Chu family know… that you dared attack our planet… and plunder us. The Chu family will not let you be. The Chu family's fleet will come and destroy you!" The little boy glared in fury at this pack of bandit bastards who had wrecked his home!
"The Chu family? Ha ha ha ha. Little brat, perhaps you don't know. This is the Stellar Alliance, and it's a very long way from that Chu River Star Region of yours. The Chu family will never come all this distance for a pack of lowly commoners like you. So you'll all of you work here meekly until you die, and have the last of your worth squeezed out of you." The monitor laughed at him.
And then he looked the girl over with a lewd grin. "Rather small just now. But when she's grown, we can enjoy her properly — I only hope she lives that long."
The girl trembled in her fright.
And just at that moment, the sand and wind outside rose in a great blast.
"What's this? The forecast said nothing of a sandstorm this size today?" The monitor looked at the slaves being blown about staggering, which would make their work the harder.
"Damn it… what is— what is that!" That slave-transport crewman looked up at the sky in terror.
And it was then that everyone thought to look up.
They saw a colossus coming slowly down out of the sky full of yellow sand.
Some way above the ground still — but that vast body was like a fortress hanging in the air.
"A starship? That's a starship! Has the Qian family sent a warship? But one this large… that hardly looks like a T3-grade warship…" The monitors muttered among themselves; the sand and wind kept them from seeing the whole of it.
But the hull ran to several kilometers at the very least!
Hanging above their heads, it gave one a sense of being pressed down upon.
"Look — it seems to be putting out drones?"
Someone sharp-eyed noticed now that no few drones were being released from this warship's belly.
And spreading out in every direction round about.
And just then, the alarm sounded throughout the whole factory base.
"Why has the alarm gone off?" Someone was at a loss; this alarm sounded only when there was some urgent danger.
And now one of the drones hung above their own position.
And then a woman's voice came out of it.
"I am Chu Xuan, granddaughter of Marshal Chu Changhe, Governor of the Chu family! I am come, by command, to take the people of the Chu River Star Region home!"