Nemta

Nemta is a Cemtrary fighter pilot that has defected from the Unified Military after crash landing during a battle and becoming stranded with a Terran cyborg.

Description
Furry, mammalian (?), once had a tail which was amputated by UMF.

History
Nemta was a pilot with Unified Military Fleet for twenty years. He flew many missions for them, and was quite skillful, as evidenced by the fact that he survived a dogfight against three human pilots, as well as warboi missiles. His fighter craft, a Kulkett Class Parasite Fighter, was disabled in the fight and he had to perform an emergency landing on the sole survivable planet in the system, which had hosted a thriving multi-species settlement—one he hadn't known about—before being ravaged in the Sixth Precursor War.

Rescue
On landing, he discovered that his emergency supplies had long since been pilfered. The craft would not fly again, so he triggered his emergency beacon and settled down to wait. Fortunately for him, a Terran cyborg soldier called Terry arrived before the local Precursor machines (referred to as Clankers) did. After salvaging parts of Nemta's craft (and eating part of a battery) Terry escorted Nemta back to what was called Camp Dustup.

Camp Dustup
The camp was built from war debris, and housed refugees from various neo-sapient and Near-Civilised species, including a Hamaroosan called 'Mother', and a Shavashan called Shevassti. All were suffering from mental tics resulting from long exposure to the psionic Precursor scream, which tended to result in a religious devotion to Terry (or 'Friend Terry') as they called him, his mantids 303 and 821, and Terra, which they referred to as 'The Mad ArchAngel Terrasol'. Prayers were not uncommon, usually directed toward a piece of salvaged Terran fighter nose art, depicting a bloodstained human woman wielding a sword.

The centerpiece of Camp Dustup was a huge sphere placed in the middle of a large fire, which turned out to be a nanoforge from a Terran heavy tank. Nemta was told they intended to use it to assemble a starship, bit by bit, which seemed far-fetched to him.

Strained Relationships
Nemta was initially suspicious and fearful of the sapients in Camp Dustup, partly due to the religious fanaticism they showed at every turn and partly due to the drug-enforced conditioning he had undergone at the hands of the Unified Council Fleet. This nearly got him killed by a Clanker at one point when he ventured out of the camp without the jamming unit for his implant, but he was saved by Terry. He was gifted a piece of battlesteel to make into a knife like the others carried, but he scoffed at the idea that the material could be worked by hand. Even when he saw one of the members of Camp Dustup cause steam to rise from the metal with a prayer, he convinced himself that it was impossible.

His disbelief extended to Terry's attempts to force him to face the reality of the situation. Every time he was faced with logic that contradicted his long-held viewpoints, he dug his heels in and refused to see the point of what Terry was saying, even to the point of contradicting something he had admitted to moments before.

Building Up
Terry and the mantids were going out on a daily basis. A badly damaged Precursor ship had crashed a distance away, its main processor banks destroyed, but it was able to generate Clankers. Terry battled these regularly and salvaged the remains, and the mantids repaired the damaged done to him in these fights. He was determined to rescue as many refugees as possible and bring them back to the camp. In the meantime, the mantids had brought the nanoforge online and were starting their construction of the starship. Nemta, still considering himself an effective prisoner of war, thought more than once about stealing the ship once built and making a run for Unified Council space.

While still in this state of mind, he collapsed.

Recovery
On partly recovering, he was informed that he'd been cut off from the supply of drugs the Unified Council had been dosing him with in his ration bars, and had suffered a near-total breakdown as a result. Terry had saved his life, then a broodcarrier named Phreni'ima took over his care. He would grow close to her during his time in the camp, both emotionally and for the physical contact. While he was still weak, she helped him move around, and he was surprised at her strength.

He found that while he had been out--a total of one week--the camp had been expanded considerably, along with more refugees. The starship was well on the way to being built, and the camp facilities were much improved.

Turnaround
After a relapse, he recovered once more with the help of the broodcarriers and found that his mind was much clearer than before. The arguments that Terry had made before were no longer rejected out of hand, and he realized that if he went back to the Unified Council with news of the crushing defeat by a much smaller force, he would be disappeared. Despite the fact that defection was not something he'd ever considered before, it became very much a subject on his mind. His attitude toward the other members of Camp Dustup--now almost a small town--had changed considerably by this time, and he was on good terms with them all. He even prayed with them from time to time, though he never achieved the same level of sheer belief that they did.

He spent time recuperating, sleeping on a flat rock in company with the broodcarriers and several of the numerous youngsters who seemed to find him irresistibly cuddly. Terry noted that this was all helping him to heal. He told Terry that he was done with helping the Unified Council push others down.

Escape
With the starship (called Lucky Strike) completed, they lifted off and set course for the Telkan system. On the way, they suffered a glancing collision with a 'jumpspace bulge', apparently caused by large ships moving through a different jumpspace band. The ship was badly damaged, with its computer systems failing, but Terry had the Mantids wire him into the circuit so he could maintain the systems himself. When Nemta finally eased the ship out of jumpspace, half of it failed explosively, but the passengers were in lifepods so they were unharmed. Nemta was shocked into unconsciousness, but was able to answer a signal and ask for help when he came to.

Finale
The Galactic Press Associates reported that all on board (162 adults of various species, 209 young) were rescued safely. Terry and Nemta were in critical condition but expected to recover fully. Nemta had repeatedly requested asylum as a defector, and been granted it by Telkan authorities.