Star Brigade: Resurgent (Star Brigade Book 1) by C.C. Ekeke Read Free Book Online Page B

if they didn’t meet some population quota.”
    “They said that in school, too.” Jeremy frowned in confusion. “What’s a quota?”
    Habraum looked down at his son for an awkward moment. The boy was so bright that sometimes the Cerc forgot he was just seven. “The lowest number needed to qualify for something.”
    “Oh,” Jeremy digested the answer then looked back up at his dad again. “Why didn’t the Korvenites try to keep their world?”
    “The Korvenites did try, ya know. They protested, rioted and everything,” Habraum stated, recalling the Korvenites’ plight with a saddened tone. “But it was just too late. The earthborn had officially made this world their homeworld. It didn’t help that the Korvenites hadn’t thought to appoint an official representative for Terra Sollus’ or the Union’s government until the mid-2300s.”
    Jeremy frowned as his father’s words sunk in. “So the Union took advantage of them?”
    “Yeah, lad,” Habraum stopped on the side of the walkway. “The Union kinda did.”
    “That’s mean,” Jeremy put the most indignant frown he could manage on his adorable face, making Habraum choke back laughter. “Is it why they attacked Earth?”
    “It was never an attack, Jer,” Habraum said after he composed himself. “Which was why such a tragedy happened to a planet as heavily fortified as Earth. It was just a dozen Korvenites trying to make a peaceful statement about their plight and emblazon it on Earth’s atmosphere. But then…there was an accident.”
    Images of Earth burning, and refugees fleeing the planet in thousands of ships were fresh in Habraum’s mind as if it had happened yesterday and not 26 years ago. Nor could the Cerc ever forget his own father’s heartbreaking grief. Almost all of Samuel Nwosu’s family still lived on Earth, except for a younger brother, a crimsonborn wife and his six children including Habraum. It had taken Habraum’s father years to make peace with the fact that the Korvenite race as a whole shouldn’t be punished for the stupidity of a few. Habraum pushed those memories away and focused on his son. “Remember how Earth’s atmosphere was a wreck from centuries of pollution and World War 3 back in the 21st century?”
    Jeremy nodded his head fervently. “Yep.”
    “We say ‘yes,’ remember?” Habraum corrected him gently.
    “Sorry,” Jeremy said contritely. “Yes.”
    “Whatever went wrong with the Korvenite’s ship and Earth’s defense arrays,” Habraum knelt down at Jeremy’s level to make sure his son grasped the severity of  what he was telling him, “ignited most of the atmosphere…killing over half of Earth’s citizens. Back then, the population was about 15-16 billion.” In recent history, Habraum could only recall the last of the Terminus Wars producing a greater death toll than the Earth Holocaust. “And now Earth is uninhabitable,” he said, barely suppressing a shudder.
    Jeremy gasped at the disturbing information. “That doesn’t sound like an accident, Daddy,” he replied, using his most hushed inside voice.
    “But it was,” Habraum countered. “No one was supposed to even get hurt.”
    “How do you know?” the boy challenged, curious as always.
    The Cerc let out a bittersweet chuckle. For weeks after the Earth Holocaust, he and his twin brother Heithoniel had scoured every data source they could find on the TransNet to make sense of the tragedy. And what they found had kept them from hating the Korvenites unlike many others then. “Actually the culprits stole a ship and left no record of their trip to Earth. The Korvenites as a species had nothing to do with their actions.”
    “But did they find whoever caused the Earth Holocaust?” Jeremy asked.
    The question reignited Habraum’s long cooled anger over the massively stupid choice the Korvenites made, which sealed their collective fate. “The Korvenites wouldn’t give up the culprits, which made any denials of their involvement