Eric Olafson, Fleet Cadet 26

Chapter 26: The Herald Interlude

The Call has been made and the Herald was about to complete the first part of the mission. He had been sent in advance to gauge the strength of this union and to secure the secret of the weapon that was able to defeat the Y’All. He had not been sent alone, but with him he had 300 mighty Y’All ships crewed not only by a new generation of Y’All warriors, but also by a large number of cloned beings, called the Kermac. It was decided that the Y’All should be led this time by an intelligent species with considerable Psionic talents. One thousand Kermac had been cloned of the old DNA that was still on file from the previous attempt to invade that Star spiral.

To destroy and obliterate any species that could be capable of being the host for the Dark One. It was simple, if the Dark One could not find a suitable host to reincarnate; the Dark One thus remained slain and defeated forever.

The other way to ensure the Dark One remained in limbo forever was to find the Twelve Token of Power and destroy them, make sure they could not be reunited, but to find these token was nearly impossible as they could be anywhere and not even the Lords of Light knew how they looked like or how to find them.

As the Uni were driven out of that Galaxy, by the old foe they had left the seeds for a new Universal collect behind on a world its natives called Koken. The Ker native to this world were destined to develop into the next Universal Collective, yet somehow they had squandered their holy task.

The Herald smashed one of his fists on the armrest of his seat. He would not have to be born so painfully if those cursed Ker understood what they had to accomplish and what they were destined to become. But thankfully the Uni had not set all hope on one species, but set up the Crucible so far away from that ill destined spiral star isle. The crucible was the birthplace of the Yah-ha Al, which meant Celestial Soldiers in the ancient language of the Universal Collective and recently had become the birthplace of the Herald. The survivors of the first invasion had passed on the name over many generations and the name had been changed during the passage of time, they were now known as the Y’All by their enemies and the name was synonymous with fear.

The Herald as confident he was on the surface that the Crucible would prevail and accomplish what the Uni had decreed. After all he had reported his success to the Crucible, but deep down inside he was anything but confident. He had only seen a glimpse of that Union. They had developed much faster and much stronger than anticipated. Not only did they possess powerful weaponry and shields, but everyone was able to communicate instantaneously across the entire Union region. He turned and looked at the crucified human hanging in the back of his ships command room. He was barely alive, tortured to great extend by the expertly skill of the Herald. “Tell me about your Union, Commander.”

The blood caked, swollen face of the man rose an inch and he mumbled,” Commander Richard Brady United Stars of the Galaxies Navy, born January 4th 4978 on Limerick, Service number 04014978-RB-938483329.”

“Your strength amazes me and yet it is wasted. At the Crucible we will clone your body and copy all your knowledge in that new brain without those impressive Psionic safeguards and your new self will freely talk. We do this sort of thing for a long time and we are quite efficient now.”

The Station commander of the Fornax Hub actually managed to put a painful grin on his swollen face.” It is your outfit that is fecked raisin face. You picked the wrong guys for a fight.”

“You keep saying that and yet you are here and you were unable to stop us.”

“A single Ranger dragged your ass in, shot your shit pile looking ship to bits and it took thousands of you to get a few hundred of us. Do the math you dumb brute, you’re fecked.”

The Herald looked at the neural map of the Commanders body, selected a nerve cluster and activated pain impulses of burning flesh in his brain. The Union officer finally screamed after he added a second cluster and he broke another tooth and sacked in his shackled. The Herald stimulated the Nerves again and made the Commander regain consciousness.

The Commander laughed. Then the tortured men said. “The truth is hard to swallow and you show your impotence against a single helpless man.”

“I said, tell me about this Union of yours. How many ships of this Barracuda Ship type do you have? How many of these mechanical combat soldiers?”

“That little Destroyer caused much mayhem to your mighty asses, didn’t it? And eight old Class IX Cerberus took a lot of your ugly friends out before they even got to you.”

The Herald had to admit these Battle machines were quite formidable. They lost over a thousand troops before these Machines could be destroyed.

The Commander found the strength to extend his right middle finger in an ancient very vulgar Terran hand sign. “That was a single destroyer. Wait till you see Ultra Battleships hunting you and you will wish to undo all you did when Marines and XI Class Cerberus rain on that Crucible of yours.”

“Impossible. You don’t even know how to traverse your own Galaxy let alone set foot into another Galaxy.”

“You really don’t know anything. We have member species in the Andromeda galaxy and there is steady traffic between both Galaxies.”

The genetic enhanced brain of a Kermac was floating in his Communications Device. Using its Telepathic abilities the Herald was able to contact the Crucible and also talk to the Strike force he had left behind.

This devices simulated a Kermac voice and it interrupted him.”Herald of the Crucible, the Kermac and Y’All you ordered to destroy anyone coming to investigate the fate of the space station report the arrival of a Union ship. It identified itself as the USS Devastator and the being hailing is Stahl.”

The Herald knew about the legend of that human warrior and a mystical ship that supposedly helped stop the last invasion. “Impossible that was 1500 years of their time ago. Perhaps it is an inherited name or title.”

“The ship is immense and under shields we cannot analyze, the being Stahl immediately knew we were Kermac.”

As impossible as it was, the tortured commander raised his head fully and looked at the Herald with his one remaining eye full of defiance and such spirit that even the Herald felt it.” That’s it Raisin face, your goose is cooked. The Devi is here and Stahl. He’ll find you.”

“You might as well hear what will transpire. That ship will be destroyed, there are 266 ships of immense power against one and they are crewed by the trained and engineered Kermac clones and half a million new Y’All warriors.” The Herald sounded proud and confident. Yet no matter what he told the human he could not seem to break his spirit.

“You lost 24 ships against my station and a single Barracuda and you think those few ships left will make the Devi even get a scratch, Buster you in for a surprise.”

The Herald cooked in silent anger as he listened to the mounting casualty reports, but then he heard the strange shields of that big ship finally were about to buckle.

The Commander managed to anger him again. “I am not supposed to tell you any military secrets you know, but the Devi has triple shields.”

One of the Kermac Captains fighting over a thousand light years away reported. “Herald, a Narth Sphere has arrived. It fights with the Union ship. Our weapons are useless against it and our ships are disassembled in every component in mere seconds by Telekinetics unimaginable.

“To the glowing nether regions of the Omniverse with these meddlers from the Outside, the Uni hated them for not taking sides and now...”

A man holding a blaster weapon entered the command chamber just then. “Now, Pilgrim I suggest you stop this freak ship of yours or I drill you a new nose hole.”

The man with the strange hat and the powerful blaster weapon stood in the bio membrane door of his command center and the weapon was aimed at him. Through the open door he saw the corridor littered with the bodies of his personal guard.

--””--

He who guarded the Crucible and carried out the will of the Uni waited for the next report of the Herald, but even after many hours past the time it should have come in, there was silence.

Yet he already hailed success and said he had secured samples of the Union weapons and shields and was well on his way back. The Herald was not alone but had mighty servants with him, why did he not respond? He who guarded the Crucible stared at the Connection-Brain and it suddenly pulsed and its voice said.” Don’t mess with the Union. I am coming for you next, amigo.”