GC flowar saxa 21

Chapter 21 Interlude: Distant Events – Several weeks ago Deep space, minus 270 degrees Celsius, the stars were sparsely seeded in this region of space and these suns were generally very old stars. This near vacuum had not been disturbed, since this universe began. An observer would have seen the sudden glimmering disturbance and then it was there! Out here was no light to reflect of an object but this shimmering light gray thing with bright light behind tiny space ports brought its own light. It was shaped like a huge wedge and on its wide end it had four big box like extensions. If that observer could read it would see the bold lettering on its side: USS Ivanhoe. Right below a stylized symbol of a white spiral arm galaxy on a blue field with red and white vertical stripes on the side, a triangle superimposed forming the logo of the United Stars of the galaxy. The beautiful sleek looking visitor to this place in time and space paused for a moment. Sensor beams whispered and reached out from the object, tasting, sensing and probing. Collecting vast amounts of data, then it accelerated again, stretching as if elastic for the time span of a second and then it was gone again. Captain Flowar Saxa brushed over his dull bluish bald head as he always did when everything seemed alright and nothing was out of the ordinary and yet, somewhere deep inside he had the feeling there was something the sensors had not picked up or somehow over looked. Something that was a potential danger to his crew and ship. Saxa was a Plato, and one of a small handful of this species living as free beings in the Union. He was certainly the only Plato Union Captain. To the Kermac, the Plato were the lowest class of slaves, only good for the most primitive labor. No Plato knew where they originated from, their home planet either destroyed or lost, but there where hundreds of millions of Plato serving on every Galactic Council planet, ship and installation. The Kermac breed them in slave breed camps, sold them to other species as laborers and cheap workers. Plato Nan taakte meant lowest useful life form in Kermac. Plato were strong and tough and had a legendary endurance, needed little sleep and could tolerate temperatures on both ends of the scale most other humanoid life forms could not. He had been sold as Slave merchandise when he was still young, but the slave trader made a mistake. He tried a short cut through union space and was caught. He became a Union citizen and ever since had only one goal in life, repay this glorious nation with his unwavering dedicated service. He hoped that the Kermac would fall one day and then he would help to free his brethren and educate them how wonderful freedom and liberty was. The Union trusted him with the command over an E Type Explorer. His ship was based on the same hull as the Galantor Class Super Cruiser. 1400 meters long, 400 meters wide and 600 meters deep at its base tapering to a chisel bow of only 20 meters. It was not as heavily armed as a Galantor Class, but had the same armor and shielding and his ship had much greater range. It also was equipped with a wider array of sensors and had a much larger science department. His mission was deep space exploration and the Ivanhoe would be the first ship to reach the Palomar 12 globular cluster 64,000 light years away from the Galactic rim. Even though this was the Core ward Sector, no Union ship had ever come this far into this direction. He got up from his command chair and walked over to the OPS station and asked the Klack Lieutenant.” Nn’tik anything on the boards?” The Klack was a reliable, dependable officer and he would of course report anything anyway, but Saxa could not shake this feeling. “No Sir, all boards show green and I have nothing on the scanners. We are almost done with the deployment of Sensor Relay buoy 27.” The Ivanhoe had placed 26 SRB’s since they left Union space. Each of these sophisticated robotic devices would not only allow them to be in zero delay communication with Fleet Command, but monitored space with automated sensors, allowing both his crew and analysts back home to monitor the space they had already passed through. Officially their mission was the same as all the thousands of explorer ship, to expand the knowledge horizon and to make contact with other civilizations and was part of the Galactic Survey project. The goal of this project was to completely survey the M-0 galaxy. The projected completion of this project was in 13,200. By then he would be nothing more than dust, but he would not be forgotten, star system and sun bore his name and it had three garden worlds with suitable atmospheres. His XO, a Pan Saran complete with polished brass chest armor, knew his Captain well and said.”Maybe we should take a longer break here and send out two P5-Specters to recon the space ahead. It is the last star system on our course and from what it looks like it has planets and two are in the green zone.” “Yes Marcus, good idea and while you at it sound Alert Condition Yellow.” No one on the bridge questioned his decision to raise alert conditions to Elevated status, despite the fact that there was nothing on the sensors. Many of them served with Captain Saxa for more than five years and even more than regular combat units, explorers were away from known space and regular base visits for the most time and that often bonded crews like tight knit families. The Crew as not nervous or concerned but they knew if Saxa’s guts acted up, there usually was a reason and they trusted their captains feelings more than the best sensors. His Chief Science officer was a Wurgus, one of the few not being a solar engineer, waved his captain over.”Sir, I went over the sensor recordings with a Terran fine tooth comb and I did find faint traces of exotic Hadron particles, all in a linear pattern towards that Star system ahead. Now these patterns are decaying and they are at least a month or so old, but Hadron particle spurs are often associated with Kermac T- engines, their equivalent to our Isah Drive.” “I was just thinking about these bald headed bastards. Hail the Specters and tell them to be extra careful and high tail out of there as fast possible if they think there is danger.” Marcus the XO sat down.” That system would be almost 20,000 light years from Kermac Prime. Could not another species use a similar propulsion system?” The Wurgus rotated his onion shaped eyes.” Of course this is possible, the Dai for example use similar engines, but it’s the pattern that made me think of the Kermac first.” -- Olnatar was a Siucra. His kind was the oldest and the very first Thrall species of the Kermac. They had one purpose and one task only, protect Koken. Koken meant Origin in the old Ker language. This was the holy planet of the worshipped masters before their move to their new home Kermac Prime 20,000 light years away. Olnatar had never set foot on Koken; he would never dare to defile such a holy place with hos unworthy presence. No Kermac had been seen in 453 cycles, but he had been blessed beyond believe as he was allowed to see four Kermac ships pass in the far distance and his ships received the holy codes. He was certain his scanner and sensor data was altered by the Kermac Gods on purpose, how else could it been explained that the Worshipped Masters travelled in ships that did not appear all that sophisticated? The Masters had left Koken a very long time ago and their real technology must have been beyond the grasp of comprehension. This is why they fooled the sensors of lesser beings to appear traveling in ships appearing to be barley more sophisticated than the Siucra. Olnatar knew all the songs and all the passages of the holy texts and knew why the Kermac had left their place of origin. He also knew why they had returned four times; they had come to talk to the Spirit of the Universe and to make the call. To Olnatar it was clear that the Y’All who came each time after the Summon was made, were another Thrall Species of the Kermac, only the Worshipful Masters could control and call such ferocious warriors. The Siucra never revealed themselves to the Kermac. The Worshipped Masters would contact them if there was something they wanted done. It was not proper for a servant to address his master without being asked to do so. For almost 900.000 cycles did the Siucra guard this area of space and have sterilized it of other life that could potentially insult the Kermac by their presence. The peaceful Tinkehel ascending on their own proudly flying their first deep space mission only to be crushed by the Siucra. Olnatar was one of the ship leaders that orbital bombed the Tinkehel world; they had the audacity to be on a direct course to Koken. The Siucra commander hung from his gripping tail in a relaxed position, when the alarm gas flooded his quarters with the scent of potential danger. The System raised the bar he was hanging on through a short pipe and transported him directly into the commando stand. One of his officers waved his clawed legs at him in the prescribed gesture of obedience.”Initiator, a space ship of unknown origin has just appeared at the very horizon of our space feelers. It is so big, our mass detector operator thought it was a very fast wanderer of some sort, but it emits energies and has slowed down. Therefore it must be a ship. Not even the Y’All had something that big!” “Send message to the Combined Force and alert every combat unit! We will not fail in our holy task!” Olnatar made the hanging bar rotate twenty five degrees and faced another of his command crew.” You who interpret knowledge. What do you make of this?” Uncomt was the scientific advisor and the smallest of the eight Siucra hanging in a circular pattern around the central Command bar. His leathery skin was more wrinkled as that of the others as his time of study was much longer than those of the others looked with one of his big eyes at a visualizer and with the other at his Commander.” Facilitator, we do not have enough feeler knowledge to make a precise evaluation, but it is an artificial construct. Not a hollowed out asteroid generation ship like the Magulon used, the one we destroyed seventy cycles ago. It appears to have a dense metal alloy that deflects or inhibits most of our feeler rays. Only space mass displacement and external energy can be measured. It is …” The Knowledge interpreter stopped speaking and almost fell of his tail bar, recovered and croaked.” Whoever they are they know we are here. We were just hit with energy magnitude 77 feeler rays. I can conclude it is a very advanced species.” -- The Pan Saran XO shook his head.” I don’t know how you do it Sir, but your gut is better than our sensors, especially since you have no known psionic talents.” Both the Plato and the Pan Saran stood before the main viewer and looked at the close up visual scanner image of the foreign vessel. Both P5-Specter recon craft were under full cloak and both pilots reported that the vessel of unknown origin had not scanned or detected them yet. The science officer a pretty Saresii true woman came over, a small data ball projection floating next to her. “It looks like Tech level seven. Sir, Six hundred meters bow to stern, a crew of 900 carbon based life forms. Neuro patterns not on file. Technology somewhat similar to Kermac, but distinctively different. No Trans Dim or Para Dim Tech detected, but they do use a neat Quasi Space Communication system that I would like to analyze more closely. It looks like the most sophisticated Comm technology we ever encountered, that is not Union tech.” The Tactical officer, a human reported without turning from his readouts. Unknown vessel has certainly detected us and raised shields and activated weapons. That alien ship has some serious fire power. I am detecting twelve FTL Line Blast cannons, and one weapon that look like nothing I ever seen before. It does not relate to any of the other tech. It is clearly of a higher tech level than the rest.” The Captain returned to his seat.” Comm, inform Fleet command about this new contact. Science I want you to work on the scanner data of that strange weapon. Dedicate a Com channel to Arsenal III and work with the Xeno Techs there. Tactical they raised shield so we do the same. Standby on all weapons, but leave the turrets inside.” The crew responded like a well maintained piece of machinery. The Plato always felt pride at moments like this. “Sir I am detecting more than 400 enemy contacts coming in fast centering on our location. All of the same configuration as the first enemy contact. They all have their weapons and shields active.” “We are here to establish contact. Begin standard first Contact procedures and hail them!” The Computronic started to transmit the most basic binary code sequences on all know channels and after contact was established on one of them, more complicated mathematical problems were exchanged. From there the Computronic send a mathematical expression of basic language references. It turned out the Aliens spoke form of Ker and with Kermac dialects of file it took little time to establish two way communications. -- Olnatar was impressed by the size of the alien ship but now that most of the fleet was on its way, even it could be rendered to scrap. They had encountered technologically more advanced species before, but none of them could withstand the Holy fire of the Kermac Present. The Ones worthy of worship have left behind a huge cache of these weapons belonging to one of their other Thralls, a civilization called the Uni on the moon that orbited Koken. Over the millennia the Siucra had learned how to install them in their ships. While they still knew little about the principle behind the weapon. No enemy had ever been encountered that could withstand it. “The intruder into prohibited space is attempting to plead for mercy, Great Initiator.” His Distance Speaker said. “Let me see the faces and if they leave their ship with us, we shall be merciful.” The visualizer changed and what he saw made his nostril curl in the most convulsing disgust he had ever felt, a Plato stared at him, standing like a lord in black clothing. He did not crawl on the floor like it should have and wore the offensive shade! “How dare you standing! This space has been once graced by the very presence of the most exalted Kermac! How dare you be clothed! How dare you wear black the unholy shade! A Plato must crawl and be naked! You will hand over that ship now! Then submit so you can be exterminated for your insolence!” “I am Captain Flowar Saxa of the USS Ivanhoe and we are of the United Stars of the Galaxy. We are on a peaceful mission of exploration. Am I to understand you are a Galactic Council species?” “Now you speak! Without my permission and you are still standing! You will die now!” He made the sign and his Weapons operator placed both his feet on the firing contact plates.” The Holy fire weapon rocked the ship and drained power! -- Captain Saxa almost fell, the Ivanhoe rocked hard, but the Ships Computronic reacted faster than any living being could and used a tractor field to pull him back into the Command Chair and the safety restrains snaked around him. “Shields down to 30 percent. Forward shield generator damaged. Secondary system on line! Light casualties on deck nine.” The XO barked. “Reverse engines! Go to Course 45.34.12 mark seven. Full weapon activation! Launch both Loki tubes at these Kermac worshiping bastards!” The Ivanhoe shuddered again. A second enemy ship had taken them under fire from a distance that was beyond their translocator cannon range! “Primary shields down. Secondary shields buckling. We have hull damage starboard aft. Damage control procedures in progress!” -- Olnatar could not believe his eyes. The other ship was still there after it was hit by two charges of Holy fire Cannons. As if hit by an enormous hammer, his ship rocked and shook. Sparks from over loading circuits showered from visualizers and he could smell the putrid smell of fire! “Energy Buffer Bubbles were unable to deflect enemy smart weapon effect. Heavy damage to engine and hull” “We will not fail!” He screamed. “Unleash the Holy Fire!” “The weapon is at twenty percent at best!” Olnatar slashed his claw across the face of the Weapons operator hanging to his left.” Unleash it now!” He then activated his personal Escape pod and said to the command crew.” You will fight to the last while I organize the battle from another ship.” -- “Secondary Shields gone Sir! 12 Percent Hull damage, FTL Drive damage! ISAH field symmetry no longer certain. Reaching FTL threshold no longer safe.” Saxa turned.” Did you send our distress call? Is the Log Drone on its way?” “As Ordered Sir! Drone is away and we have contact to Fleet Command. The closest help is twelve days out.” He said to his XO. “Pack as much crew as you can in our auxiliary craft and fly as far as you get back home. Stay on the relay buoy route!” The Commander reacted and did as he was told. “Saxa slaved the controls of the stations and fired the Translocator canon. One of the attacking ships now within range exploded almost instantly as a five kiloton TL bomb at the point of detonation rematerialized in its engine room. He send out another Loki and destroyed the already severely damaged first attacker. The Ivanhoe’s FTL Directed Energy projectors opened up on a third ship, but at the same time was hit by three more discharges of these powerful alien weapons.

The Ivanhoe had enough FTL auxiliary craft for everyone. The XO called him.” It’s time to go Captain! All Aux Craft but one is gone.” “I gave you an order Mister. I stay with my ship and risk to go TL! The Ivanhoe is not done yet. I got plenty of energy. Now go!” “Aye Sir and good luck! The Ninth Fleet is on its way!” The Ivanhoe got hit again. Repair robot resources already stretched to the limit. He cut of Life support to all decks, and pushed the accelerator. The Computronic warned that the Isah Field was not symmetric. An absolute necessity to safely pass across the FTL threshold into Quasi space, asymmetry meant chaos condition not predictable. He risked it anyway. The Ivanhoe, with over 50 percent hull damage vanished from this reality in a bright white flash. Neither pilot of the still cloaked Gazelle had ever seen such a flash when a ship went into Quasi Space. They knew about the asymmetric Isah field. One of the pilots was an Ult and he wished he had tears, he certainly felt like crying as he saw his Captain die. -- “Hey Eric, are you asleep yet?” I opened my eyes and looked at an Elly. “No I couldn’t really sleep. I was thinking about Ninio and Potsema and whatever his name is. You’re Deadan, right?” “No I am Plemo, Deadan went to look for them and now he is gone for almost 40 minutes.” “I guess I have slept after all. Aren’t the instructors concerned?” “Both of them sleep as well and I didn’t want to alarm them and get the others in trouble if they just forgot the time.” I got up.”Well we might as well see if we can find them. This Space port doesn’t look so big. How much time do you think we have?” “About two hours maybe.” “I think we better make an effort, otherwise they do get in trouble.” I could not put it in words but I had that odd feeling they weren’t late because they had a good time somewhere. I adjusted my weapon belt and checked the charge on the TKU and dialed the setting to four. Plemo made a sound like a balloon loosing air, but then checked his blaster as well.”You’re right, bad things happened already twice today.” The Space port was well lit but quiet. The Yokuta did not have any space ships on their own and the facility had been used by their Nogoll masters. I was sure this would change soon and perhaps one of the business men was a representative of Arthur’s and one of these would soon open up. I wondered what the local Rib burger would smell like. Plemo and I walked down the concourse, it was not like a Union Space port with lots of businesses, it had been a military installation and most of the doors had steel shutters before them. Perhaps storage rooms. We finally reached the end of the long corridor where the entrance doors were, outside was the road leading to the city in the distance. “Do you think they took a taxi or something and went back to town?” I asked Plemo. He moved his ears and wrinkled his trunk.” I would not put it past Ninio, if he was determined to get music, but I would hope he was smarter than that. Besides we should have run into Deadan by now. He certainly would not have done that.” I heard a metallic noise and turned. It came from a metal door to the side that was not completely closed. A sign in Yokuta writing above it, the door kept moving and repeating the metallic sound, as if it was animated by a draft of wind. “Can you read that?” Plemo squinted his eyes.” Only partially. I don’t know all Yokuta glyphs. It says something about Train and Connection, and if I read that right it says something about shop or shops below.” “I bet that is what Ninio deciphered too, and that is where they went, unless they went the other direction from the lobby.” “No I am sure they went that way. Besides the other corridor leads to the boarding gates and the landing field.” He went straight for the door. “Slow down Plemo. I don’t have a good feeling about that.” “I think they took a train to town and found out it isn’t running back because of the festivities or something like that.” It was a plausible hypothesis; still it would not explain Deadan not coming back. Unless the train ran only in one direction or something like that or they simply got lost. My hand rested on the butt of the blaster as Plemo opened the door. “It’s just a flight of stairs leading down.” He said. A cool breeze wafted from the open door, the walls were naked gray concrete and we could only see to the first landing. The light came from long tubular lamps, one of them flickered erratic and emitted an electric hum. I had the urge to turn around and tell the Instructors. I would have felt better if two marines in destroyer suits were going down those stairs instead of me. I could not explain why I had this strong feeling of something being very wrong. Our friends could be in some sort of trouble and any delay could make it worse on the other hand I would be responsible for them being reprimanded if it turned out to be nothing. Both the Elly and I went slowly down the stairs. As we reached the first landing, the door on top fell shut with a heavy thud and the lights went out. -- Interlude: Distant events – present. Olnatar had been celebrated as a hero, as the one defeating a huge alien ship full of Plato, no less! He had to tell the events many times over and now was the grand Initiator of the fleet and in a brand new ship. He was leading the largest fleet ever assembled and commanded by one Siucra back into the direction where the boats and little ships of the Plato went, that survived the destruction of the big ship. They had left a trace of little sophisticated robotic devices behind marking their way. The things would self destruct before one could be secured, He was not sure what the purpose of these things were, but he was certain they would lead them to a planet or perhaps several planets of Plato scum. Escapees most likely from the master hand of the Kermac. It would be to the glory of the Masters to destroy and eradicate them. He commanded over 1000 ships all equipped with Holy Fire casters. -- The crew of the USS Ivanhoe in their small fleet of twelve D 20 shuttles, 8 P5-Specter and two science shallops had travelled back towards Union space as far as their engines allowed. Even the specters could make it 200 more light years; Commander Marcus Rullus made the decision to have the little craft stay together. Only the specters, based on the Wolfcraft fighter were armed. All the craft were cramped to the last possible space with the 600 beings of the Ivanhoe crew with the bulk of the numbers in the two shallops. The Ivanhoe had been equipped with escape pods, but launching pods with such a hateful enemy nearby was most likely suicide. The shallops were slow and did not have a very good long distance range. The life support systems strained beyond limit, Rullus was not sure how long they would last. They were still over 6000 light years from the fringes of Klack space and the nearest Union out Post. The twelfth fleet was on its way and thanks to the relay chain they were in direct contact with fleet command. However they were able to look into the other direction as well. They could access the Buoy scanner and sensor data and saw the huge alien fleet approaching, and two buoys had already been lost. Even though they had barely space to move, some of the scientists worked analyzing scanner results, language patterns, and weapon and tech specs. A hail came in on Union Com.” This is the personal Honor guard of her majesty the Queen. Her Majesty and sovereign ruler of the Klack Hegemony ordered us dispatched and come to the help of our brothers and friends in distress. We are ahead of the Twelfth Fleet and should arrive within two hour. ” Nn’tik, the former OPS officer of the Ivanhoe, made a pulling motion with his upper right arm in a very human expression of an emotion.” Yes!” Someone padded the chitin back of the Klack and said.” Let’s hope they brought enough ships! Those aliens will be here in approximately 90 minutes.” Nn’tik had a hard time turning in the crowded confines.” My friend, the honor guard has only one ship. All other Klack ships are under Union Fleet command.” “We should warn them! One ship won’t be enough.” “The Klack put his Antenna gently on the face of the human officer” What is the largest Space ship my friend?” “The Devi of course!” “No my friend. The Devi is the largest ship in the fleet capable of landing on a planet. The Bison Fleet tenders are technically space ships and are bigger than the Devi, the long freight tugs making it across the bridge with freight too large for the trains, are often 100 kilometers long and more, but soon you will see something few non Klack have ever seen.” He then said.” However I too would love to see the Stahl appear with the Devi and tear these upside down hanging Kermac thralls a new one!” “You sound more human every day, Nn’tik.” A Purple throat Shiss wedged in between other crewmembers observed, while two small furry Holdian were sitting on his proud shoulders avoiding be trampling or crushing. “There is no need to insult me, Old enemy! I am as Klack as can be!” Everyone knew that the two were the best of friends and Nn’tik was playing on the fact that the Shiss and the Klack had been enemies for millennia. Nn’tik was of course not offended but very happy that the racial distinctions and habits slowly eroded and the huge collection of different civilizations slowly but surely became one new civilization. -- In this complete darkness. Something inside me made me close my eyes, just as I did riding on Tyr’s back. I could sense my surroundings, felt every heartbeat of Plemo and I learned that Elly had two hearts. I felt the stairs and the faint electric residue in the lamps. The stairs transformed with a metallic hum, into a steep declined slide. Plemo had no warning and was sliding away before I could warn him. I managed to hold onto the hand rail and prevent the slide, but Plemo and most likely the others where sliding into a death trap and the fastest way down was sliding, but I would not slide unprepared. I drew the blaster dropped onto my butt and let go. I heard voices below, commanding voices, I raised the blaster…There at the bottom of the stairs that now were a ramp two figures, perhaps 150 cm tall large heads and armed. I saw Plemo float in mid- air struggling against some unseen force, but with my new sense I saw the head of one figure almost if glowing. Psionics! I did not hesitate, I fired right at the center of that bright perceived glow, and Plemo fell almost instantly. The other figure turned his brain and something on his chin started to emit energies. Whatever the figure wanted to do, it was too late my second beam sliced right through his head. Plemo screamed, more out of anger than fear.” I am going to get you!” I yelled back.” It’s me Plemo, Eric! I killed whatever was holding you. I noticed a circuit board on the wall and pressed the contact. With a sharp clack the Ramp went back into stair form and a second switch turned on the lights. Plemo ripped his blaster out of his holster and even though I never seen an angry Elly before, but I knew he was furious. Two dead beings still armed with strange shaped blasters lay on the floor, most of their heads were gone, burned to molecular ashes. “Plemo calm down, right now!” I said with a sharp tone.” Get up those stairs and wake the Instructors. Tell them we need help down here.” “But…” “No argument! Now go! I need to guard this panel so no one turns the stairs to a ramp again!” “Yes Sir!” He turned and stomped up the stairs. Only after I heard the metal door slam I went to my knees. I was in a short corridor, with some sort of conveyor belt on the left hand side, it was not active. It disappeared after a few meters through a square opening with a slated roll gate closing that opening, next to it a metal door. The door was rusty and had dirty glass panels in the upper half. I kicked the dead alien’s weapons under the frame of the conveyor belt. Now I could stay here and wait for the professionals to arrive, which would be the smart thing to do, but I resigned trying to go against my own nature. There were friends in danger, that much was now clear beyond doubt. I had no idea who these white skinned small men were in those stupid looking robes, but if there were two there might have been more! On my knees I crawled towards that door. Whoever was behind it was warned something had gone wrong. So I pressed myself as much as possible against the wall and gave the door a push at the bottom three bright beams perforated the door at the same moment. If I would have been standing… A shower of metal sparks burned my back and I clenched my teeth not to make a sound. Steps came closer. From the gap between floor and door I saw four Elly like feet. Someone in the local language said.” Whoever it was you got him. Our masters will be pleased!” I was glad they had uploaded the local language into our brains and hour before we landed. I aimed the blaster’s muzzle at that gap and the feet behind and fired describing a small arch while keeping the trigger pressed. The beam dug a bright glowing fan shaped pattern into the concrete and a wide slot with metal dripping white hot borders into the door. I heard them fall and one screamed at the top of their lungs in pain. Now I kicked the door open jumped through, avoiding the semi liquid concrete by a fraction, and jumped onto the conveyor belt, well remembering the third beam. Two Yokuta with badly burned leg stumps lay on the floor, one in shock and the other still screaming. A third stood about five meters behind them. Holding the same type blaster as the little men held. I aimed the blaster, holding it with both hands.” Drop your blaster or your toast!” It was as if he was fighting something inside him. He wanted to lower the blaster I could see that but against his will it raised. He was controlled by someone or something. I didn’t want to kill him. So I fired into the ceiling, showering him with sparks, hoping to distract him. His instincts were stronger than whatever controlled him and he raised his arms to protect his face. Now he was a Yokuta, at least double my mass and two heads taller, and I had no idea if they had any vulnerable spots, but I holstered the gun and I closed in anyway, hit him midriff with a running tackle and as much force I could muster. He was driven back but not as much as I had hoped. It felt as if I had ran against one of those big sand filled leather bags we had at fight school. I just knew I could not have done that with a Yokuta on top of his game, his left hand brushed my ear with a powerful hay maker punch and the burning blazing pain blinding my right eye felt as if he had taken my ear clean off. I retaliated with two left right combination right in the middle of his face where the trunk meet the eyes, and rammed my knee into what would be the stomach pit. If he would connect another one of his punches I would have been done for. So much for my decision not to wait for back up. He made a tooting sound as I hit him again this time right at the trunk, and he stumbled back, and I barley avoided another punch. He was trying now to aim the weapon he still held. Either I ended it now or I had to shoot him as well. I stomped my heavy boots on his open toe sandal like shoes and that had the desired effect. He screamed raised a leg and gave me a wide open target for an axe handle blow to his trunk! He fell back wards, and I kicked the blaster out of his hand. It took two more kicks against the head to make him stop trying to get back up. This seemed to be some sort of postal depot. The conveyor belt ran along a row of chairs, most likely occupied during normal operations to sort whatever was coming down the slide and along the conveyor belt. The stairs converting to a ramp was not a real trap but part of some industrial or ware housing purpose. Four man high capsules in the middle of the room looked out of place, the metal looked different and the design did not fit into the surrounding. A little square box was strapped to the middle of each; a red read out was displaying foreign glyphs changing in a steady pace. Even knot being able to recognize these, I knew these were timers and those capsules where bombs or weapons of sorts. Something very bad would happen if the timers had counted to zero, that was obvious. No one else was in the room. I did not see Deadan or the others and thankfully no one hostile either. Not knowing if I doomed everybody including me, I pulled my knife and cut the metal strap that held the first timer box to the large metal container. . It came loose. Now what? I had a life bomb counting down in my hands! There were three more like it! Over there, across the conveyor belt a metal chute. There were chutes like this across all the now abandoned sorting or work stations. I cut all the boxes of and threw them down each in a different chute. I noticed the cold sweat on my forehead now stinging in my eyes. I heard some machinery starting up from the first chute and the conveyor belt started running. The Conveyor belt disappeared through another portal at the other end of the room and I simply hoped on and lay flat on it. Just as I made it, there was a muffled explosion and the first chute emitted a flash cloud of fire and smoke, heartbeats later the other three did the same and I was through into the next area of this underground ware house place. I saw Deadan! He was lying on the floor and due to that I overlooked the robot arm that grabbed me, by the left shoulder in a painful crushing grip and was about to stuff me in some sort of machine. I fired the blaster against the robot arms base and dropped to the floor. My left arm was next to useless; the robot claw must have broken my shoulder, or dislocated it. I could not say but it hurt like hell, making me forget my still throbbing ear. Before I rushed to Deadan, I recognized him by his uniform; I took cover behind a large crate and looked around. The place was some sort of assembly plant, with machinery, conveyor belts and towering shelves. Millions of corners for someone to hide and take aim. The machine behind me so it turned out was similar to the machine that I had seen what seemed so long ago at the exchange wrapping the dead Tyranno in plastic. This machine was wrapping anything that entered it in a shrink wrap plastic skin and onto a pallet. I saw an empty pallet exiting the machine wrapped, the pallet I would have been on if hadn’t escaped that machine. I kept low and rushed over to Deadan who wasn’t moving. I didn’t see any obvious reason why he would not move but he felt stiff and cold. I hoped against my sad conclusion of his condition that he was still alive, and just knocked out. The empty pallet had reached the end of the conveyor line and a robotic fork lift took it and placed it into a shelf, next to a pallet that had something on it that moved! Trying to stay as much behind cover I rushed to the shelf and found the human cadet, Ninio and Potsema, tightly wrapped in plastic, Ninio still moved! It took me no time to cut the plastic open. Ninio did nothing but breathe like I never seen anyone or anything take in air. Potsema was up and out next to me seeming little affected. She simply squiggled me all over.”Eric! You saved us!” “Ninio not now! Take care of Ninio!” I checked on the human cadet. He was dead, no question. I could not feel any pulse and even after five minutes of intensive CPR I got no sign of life! A heavy hand dropped on my shoulder.”Let him go, Cadet! He is gone!’ I turned ready to fight but it was not necessary. A Union Marine and one of our Instructors were there. -- Olnatar heard his space feeler operator tell him they located the small fleet of little boats that had escaped from the doomed Plato ship. They didn’t get too far! Out of fuel or with burned out FTL drives stranded in the middle of deep space. It would hardly take one ship, to destroy them. but he came that far with a thousand ships. The disgusting Plato must have their colony somewhere out here. They were moving towards the more star populated space of this sector of the galaxy. “Grand Initiator. We are receiving a long distance speech request.” “As much as it disgusts me to see and talk to these Plato slaves, I will give them a chance to explain where their home world is.” Not a Plato slave but an insectoids being appeared on the Visualizer.” I am N’Vaant, First of the Guard of the N’ Toothal. I am here by the command of Queen N’thannskknta the 674th most sovereign and sole ruler of the Klack Hegemony. I am hailing you Up Side down hanging aggressors! Let it be known to you. That the queen in her great wisdom has declared this space to be Klack and therefore Union space, you are to turn around and return to wherever your came from. We are the Klack and we are proud members of the United Stars of the Galaxy and we shall not fail in protecting our brothers and friends.” “Empty threats from a being that is no more than vermin, you will be exterminated. You may report to your queen that we will exterminate anyone harboring Plato slaves and attempting to come this way! Go run and tell that queen of parasites to beg for mercy so we will be amused.” “We will be soon in range of your limited scanners. You cannot insult us as we know who we are. I have delivered my official message and now let me give you a personal piece of advice.” You destroyed a Union ship and you made the Terrans very angry! There is a fleet of Union ships on its way and you may seek doom fighting us, or turn tail and flee, but trust me it is you who should beg for forgiveness and offer pertinence. It is not just those few ships of yours, but your race that is in deadly peril. This was a friendly warning. Make your decisions either way. The time for talk ends now.” Olnatar was furious that this insect cut off communications before he could spew a few more insults, but the Insect would soon enough hail again to beg.” The first forward units of the Siucra fleet was almost in firing range, but then their space feelers detected something that could not be. A moon size object, almost overloaded the feeler circuits had just dropped into scanner range and standard space. It was no moon! It was artificial. A sphere of 4200 nuthum diameter. Not much smaller than the home world moon of the Siucra, and it moved! -- “Oh my god!” Someone whispered in the crowded Shallop. “Is that the Queens ship?” Nn’tik said proudly.”Behold the last of the Battle Moons of the Klack Hegemony, once we had 50 of these, but that was almost 12,000 years ago. We lost 48 in the first Y’All war and during the Red night, the darkest years of Klack history, about 7000 years ago, we lost the knowledge and the ability to build new ones. One is in permanent orbit and no longer able to fly, but this currently refurbished and restored in a secret project by Union Fleet engineers. It is not done yet, and will take many years to complete.” Marcus snapped.”We will honor the Klack and this awesome ship later, Nn’tik. Hail them so we can get inside. Communication to all Auxiliary craft of the Ivanhoe, approach that Behemoth and see if they let us in!” “Already receiving hangar guide beams Sir! That hangar just opening would have room for the Devi!” “I think I am going to kiss you, Nn’tik!” Marcus said and then added.” And I promise I be on Klackt next time the Queen celebrates her birthday to honor her!” -- It took the Siucra a few moments to digest what they saw, but one of them released a bolt of Holy Fire and the bolt penetrated the shields of the huge ship and burned a tiny but visible hole into the huge ships armor!” Olnatar screamed in delight.”Big it is, yes. But no match for Holy Fire! It will just make a bigger explosion when it goes! All Ships close in and fire!” -- N’Vaant was well aware of the limitations of his huge ship. The N’ Toothal was very old and her Armor had was only replaced by thirty percent with Union Ultronit. The rest was simple steel. The shields were original Klack, the new Para Dim shield generators were still being manufactured by SII, and since the ship was considered a private ship, not a Fleet unit. It had not received modern military grade weapons. He simply hoped he could buy enough time for the crew of the Ivanhoe, until the 12th fleet arrived. The good thing was that the N’toothal had only 100 Klack crew and the simple Steel armor was almost 100 meters thick. He had received the Intel reports of the Fleet and the analysts on Arsenal III were certain the cannons used by these aggressive aliens were of the UNI that long gone highly advanced species. His Computronic calculated that the 1000 alien ships would have to fire three times each to cripple the ship. And since they had to recharge after each shot, he thought he had a good chance to collect the stranded crew and go to Trans light.” He silently listened to the damage reports of his officers from each shot from the alien fleet. So far nothing vital had been hit.” Hail the Ivanhoe crew and tell them to hurry up!” -- Olnatar could not stop laughing. The weapon fire of the huge ship was sporadic and so far had only destroyed one of his ships, a ship that went to close. It was obvious that this giant had no weapon that could reach as far as the Holy fire could. He told his fleet to take no risk. And concentrate fire on one side of the ship only.”If that was meant to impress us they failed. They build big but that iron ball is slow and primitive!” “Grand initiator, there are new contacts on the Feeler horizon. This time tiny little things, but very fast!” “First an Iron ball that is slow and now gnats, what will they send next to amuse us?” -- “This is Bobcat, Attack wing Alpha calling the USS Balmung. We arrived at engagement area. The Klack monster is in trouble but they just managed to take the last Aux craft of the Ivanhoe aboard. Do we have attack permission?” “This is Admiral Strother. All Wolf Craft, engage to destroy. I repeat engage and destroy. No mercy no quarter! The Long range sniper bun boats are in range in T-13.” Bobcat switched to Wing channel.”All wings you heard Wild Bill, the first kill gets a case of beer!” -- Olnatar was not concerned even though these tiny ships that now approached were faster than anything he had ever seen. What race would put resources in such a big ship and then build so small ones? What could these little one possibly do against a Siucra Battleship?” The first Siucra battle ship exploded right next to his flag ship, it suddenly expanded like an inflatable toy and then disappeared in a sun bright explosion! Grand Initiator, our targeting calcmatics find it difficult to predict the course of these little ships! We cannot bring the Holy fire Casters fast enough into the right direction!” Another Siucra ship exploded then five right after that. There was no detectable weapon fire from these little ships, yet he got reports that antimatter explosions suddenly occurred inside the ships engine rooms! There! Two Siucra battle ships managed to fire and hit one of the little ships, the withering energies simply made a purple energy bubble visible for a short millisecond then the small fighter ship was gone and two more of his fleet’s ships exploded! Now on the furthest magnification horizon of their Visualizer 100 wedge shape ships appeared, shaped exactly like the Plato ship he had destroyed but by magnitudes bigger! -- “Giga loads authorized! Giga loads authorized!” Came the speaker message. The main battery crews of the USS Balmung grabbed their anti static rags and gleaming red aluminum casings came up the bomb elevator. Sergeant Nick Stone grinned at his Petharian partner.” It’s big boy time!” The Petharian with his four arms wiped like a whirlwind and growled back.” They picked the wrong Admiral to mess with; Our Wild Bill loves his giga loads!” Nick wrote: Greetings from the USS Ivanhoe on the case as it slid into the dematerialization breech. While the next red casing came up. -- Commander Marcus had reached the Command center of the N’ Toothal and stood next to the Klack. They and the rest of the bridge crew saw the USS Balmung slowly drift to fire lee as all her main batteries, all 20 giga load cannons simultaneous displaced. Twenty small suns bloomed between the Alien fleet where ships once were. “That is for you Captain Saxa!” He said with a constricted throat while the crew behind them cheered. -- There was fear in the voice of his Distant Speaker Operator.” Great Initiator, we lost 345 ships already! And there are more of these Plato ships coming! We must retreat! The Holy Fire does not penetrate whatever protection bubbles they have.” “Tell the other ships to fight to the end, while we return to Holy Space and get more ships!” He said that knowing deep inside, that all ships of the Siucra would make no difference. The insectoids was correct after all. Who or whatever these Terrans were, he wished now he did not anger them. But there was one more option he would ask the High Protector of Koken to contact the Kermac. They would then come to assist their most obedient thralls and then destroy these terrans and the Plato with the wraith of gods! -- Admiral “Wild” Bill Strother, COWACOM (Coreward Fleet Command) had personally taken command of the 12th Fleet and made the USS Balmung, BBG-31 his flag ship. He didn’t like to sit even though regulations required everyone on the bridge to be secured in a Battle station chair during General Quarters. There were a few perks that came with his three stars and not to take every regulation as strict as a Cadet was one. Besides if there was something that could throw him off his feet standing in the best protected area of a super dreadnought Arsenal class ship, he would not be much safer in a battle seat. He had his hands rested on the railing surrounding the so called Command Balcony. Behind him was Captain Bernhard Sassoon, completely disappeared inside his CONN seat cocoon. It was those moments he wished he was a captain again. Yes he earned his rank and for the most part liked the fact that he was done with work every day at 1600 hours and could go home into a nice little house by the river, but in times like this he itched to be back in the thick, back in a command chair. It was there where he earned his nick name, no one dared to say in his face, but every ne said with loving respect behind his back, Wild Bill. Then he thought of it and said to the XO. We do have four of the new Barracuda Destroyers aboard don’t we?” “Yes Sir!” “Ready the Crew, I am taking one out in the Command Seat.” -- Olnatar had left his shrinking fleet behind; his Ship was gaining speed for Trans light when the Space Feeler Operator said.”Sir we are being followed by an enemy ship slightly smaller than ours but it is gaining fast. We will not make it to Translight before they arrive. We still have fully charged Holy Fire!” “Smaller you say” “Yes!” “Turn around and take aim. Let us teach them not to follow me!” Olnatar paid for all his sins in this universe as a 5 kiloton Anti matter bomb at the point of detonation materialized right under his hanging bar. -- Sixty hours later the last transmissions of the Siucra Fleet and Olnatar arrived at Koken Moon and the first protector listened to them with great concern. The entire fleet of 1000 ships that went out to eradicate the renegade Plato slaves had been destroyed, even Olnatar had not returned. The Siucra did not have that many more ships and most of all not enough crews to man them if they did. The holy task to protect Koken was in jeopardy. He knew that the Kermac had been here only recently to make the call, but they had not taken the Nuthrum Device that was buried deep. He would make the sacrilege and go to Koken and have it dug out. With it retaliation and revenge was certain! It could open a gate and bring the Y’All much faster! --