The hologram shifted again to show a docking bay on the Planet Slicer near the area where the shields had come down. “Earlier recon data, and the scout ship’s own navigational system, has revealed that this is the primary dock for these ships. As you can see, it’s remarkably close to what we believe is the bridge of the Planet Slicer. We’ve also discovered the name of the Gorvian’s leader.”
Marda almost retched at the sight as the image morphed to reveal the countenance of the Gorvian’s supreme ruler. It was more horrid than any other Gorvian she’d yet seen. The amphibian head with its wide mouth and five eyes wore a crown of five brain tails. The leathery skin seemed covered in mucus and boils on all of its six limbs. None of the hands looked like they’d come from the same species, with one possessing digits like hers, another tentacles, a third a claw, and the last what almost looked like Bichard’s mouth and grasping pincers.
“This is Lord Gondral,” the admiral announced. “At ninety metra tall, it’s the largest Gorvian we’ve encountered during this conflict. Sightings were uncommon during the original Gorvian intrusion into Confed space, but there seemed to always be at least one leading every assault force. We called these the general class, and have no idea how many still exist.”
“Are we thinking that monster Blazer and Zithe took down might be one of these generals?” Gavit asked.
“Yes,” the admiral replied. “However, it appears that it wasn’t fully grown.”
“What of their telepathic abilities?” Marda asked, staring at Gondral’s five brain tails. Most Gorvians she’d seen only had two of the appendages. She thought she’d seen one with three during their last mission, but she could have been mistaken.
“We think we’ve confirmed that as well. Analysis of the head you brought back revealed that the Generals might possess a telepathic link to the lower caste Gorvians. Similar analysis of those Gorvians showed their brain tails to be more like receivers with limited talk back ability.”
Blazer locked eyes with Marda for a moment then turned back to the admiral. “That makes sense based on what we saw on the retreat from the Nashig system. I haven’t seen that level of coordination between ships before, ever.”
“That’s our working theory as well. It correlates with what we’ve observed with other Gorvians in the past. Back to the mission. There is another docking bay nearby that some of our retreating ships noticed Gorvian retrieval ships using. We think this is where they took most of our ejected crews.”
“Messiah protect those poor souls,” Matt sighed.
“Get them out of there and he won’t have to,” the admiral replied.
Blazer looked across at Gokhead, Zithe, and Arion, nodding to them all. They pulled out their macomms; then he turned back to the admiral. “Why are we delaying our insertion? We can have a plan in place in less than a cycle.”
“We’re trying not to arouse suspicion. The ship you’ll be traveling on was in an emcon state and isn't expected to return or even make contact with the Planet Slicer until 252. If you were to arrive early, it might draw unwanted attention.”
“What about those prisoner transports Blazer and I spotted on our way out of the Nashig System?” Arion asked. “There had to be at least four of them.”
Marda glanced over at Gokhead, the question irking him. Despite all his work over the past decle, he and Que-Dee had uncovered nothing. The intelligence community wrapped up the sensor data tight and neither one could locate even a single thread of it.
The question shook the admiral and she almost turned away from the table. “We’re still analyzing the data we were able to gather. The few probes we left in-system showed that they’ve already left. We expect that they’ve fallen back into Gorvian space and we’re sending recon teams to track them down.” She paused and looked each of them in the eye in turn, lingering longer than Marda would have liked on Blazer. “It would do you better to focus your energies on the mission at hand. Despite your relatively short service history, you have the most experience in close quarters combat with the Gorvians and, more importantly, aboard the Planet Slicer itself.”
Blazer held up a hand to the rest of the team and motioned Arion down with his eyes. “We’ll get started on mission planning and prep immediately.”
“Good. A lot is riding on this mission, not just getting our people back. We need to keep the Gorvian occupied with their repairs as long as possible so that we can formulate a plan on how to stop the Planet Slicer for good. I want an initial mission outline and a simulation series in place and on my desk by this time next cycle.”
Gokhead smirked at that. “Gives us more time than Tadeh Qudas would.”
UCSB Date 1003.252
Bridge, Planet Slicer, Nashig System
Gondral sat in fas command chair in quiet contemplation, feeling the minds of millions of Gorvians as they toiled to repair the extensive damage to the Planet Slicer. Gondral reached out to the mind of a work crew leader and through that Gorvian’s eyes peered into the crater breaching the Planet Slicer’s primary solar core. It would take almost a third of an orbit to repair the damage and reignite the solar core. Until that happened, the Planet Slicer would remain immobile and vulnerable. Drawing away, Gondral plunged into the mind of another work crew leader. This one endeavored within the skin of the massive ship; rerouting and bypassing power conduits to supply energy to the breached shields.
Satisfied with that team’s progress Gondral withdrew to fas own body and looked out of the repaired dome at the fleet overhead. The Death Fleet was a shell of its former self. The damage forced Gondral to order in more ships from the homeworld to defend the Planet Slicer. The Dondicks would be hard pressed to mount any attack however. Their fleets were just as battered, if not more so. Now that Gorvian Assault Carriers had begun landing troops on other Dondick worlds, their repair efforts would slow even further. There was bounty in the destruction around the fleet; Gondral’s chief engineers had reported that the harvest of the shattered Nash-9 and salvaging of the Dondick ship remains would triple the size of their own fleet.
A ship dropped out of slipstream above the Planet Slicer, but it remained a black spot in Gondral’s telepathic vision. Fae focused on the ship, and still nothing. No mind called back to the mental hail, but there, something, a marker, not Gorvian. Gondral pondered the marker. It felt like an invitation, but it was from a mind the likes of which fae had yet to touch. Gondral pulled back and pointed at the pistol-shaped craft. “Has that ship identified itself?”
The communications officer turned away from the temporary terminal; lesser Gorvians worked at replacing the damaged station. “They have Lord of All. It is the Vec’lina, a long-range scout, returning from an information gathering mission in Dondick space. They’ve been under a full communications blackout since launching.”
Gondral sat back, at ease. These long-range scouts had powerful telepathic barriers built into their hulls to prevent snooping by psionics. It made them all but invisible to the mind walkers, but the telepathic marker itched Gondral’s brain. Somewhere in its travels however the ship had come close to a powerful telepath. That being had imprinted the message Gondral was now feeling. Gondral turned to the ship again; the imprint wasn’t on the whole of the ship, but a single portion; a pod had latched on. “Clear them to land immediately,” Gondral called. “There’s something attached to its hull. Have the crew report for debriefing and the deckhands bring me that pod.”
“Aye Lord of All,” the communications officer replied, then sent the order.
Gondral eased back into the command chair and felt something curious on fas head. Reaching up, fae plucked a bead of sweat onto fas outstretched claw. “Curious,” Gondral commented; examining the bead clinging to the claw tip.
Gondral’s aide emerged from out of the shadows with a thunderous cough, fas lungs still recovering from the rapid decompression that had killed the previous bridge crew. “Shall I have the environmental controls adjusted Lord of All?”
Gondral fin
gered the marks the old Gorvian had dug into the armrests of the command chair during the incident. “No,” fae replied and flicked the bead of sweat away. “The prison transports. What is their status?”
“Lord of All. They have dispersed into safe locations within our space and are commencing their experiments as you have outlined.”
“Excellent,” Gondral snarled and contemplated the experiments the scientists had envisioned. “Now tell me of our planetary conquests.”
Cockpit, Vec’Lina
The cramped control module that the engineers had crammed into the forward bulkhead of the ship’s cockpit stank with fear sweat. Blazer almost felt convinced that he could siphon off enough of the Terran crew’s nervous energy to generate a tazing charge as they waited for orders from the Gorvian flight controller. It didn’t sit the best with him that the crew of the ship were Galactic Federation. A glance at the pilot’s tiny screen almost made Blazer wish that they could scrub the mission. Seeing the Planet Slicer in such detail shook him to the core, their last mission affording no such view.
“You are cleared to land in bay 112,” the controller’s eventual reply came and an air of calm washed over the crew.
For Blazer however, that was the final signal that their mission was a go. Shutting his eyes for just a moment, he opened them on a universe without personal fear or doubt. “Request an audience with Gondral!” he ordered.
The communications officer's hand hovered over the transmit switch as he looked back at Blazer. “Say again?” There was no mistaking the disdain in the man’s voice. The Galactic Federation had captured this ship, refitted it, and wanted the mission. The Confederation wasn’t willing to hand over the MeG-CEs, not yet. Were it up to Blazer he would have given them the mission, but that decision was not his to make.
“Recent intel. If we don’t request such an audience, it’ll look suspicious.”
The communications officer did his best to hide his disbelief, but made the call. “We read you control, and request an audience with the Lord of All.”
“Clearance is granted Vec’Lina. The Lord of All has other duties to attend to. File your report upon landing and await instructions for debriefing.”
“Understood.”
Blazer couldn’t help but smile and pushed out of the cockpit into the null-gravity flight deck. Flipping about, he came face to face with his Gorvian skin wearing MeG-CE. His hand flew to his sidearm out of reflex. He resisted the urge to shoot the creature and instead reached out. Gliding up, he grabbed hold of the leathery skin, thankful that he wore gloves and pulled himself in to land. He clambered over to the back and the open cockpit hatch, and climbed in.
It was a simple matter to slip into the shock harness and synch it down tight. He then attached his life support umbilical and pulled on his neurointerface helmet. Once secured, he closed the hatch and activated the MeG-CE. Immersed in darkness, he felt the shock gel fill up around him until it reached his neck and everything went dark for a moment. When Blazer could see again he found himself looking not through his own eyes, but those of his mech suit.
The robot’s head sprang up and Blazer released it from its dock, the skin flaps over the mooring points closing. As Blazer stepped out he felt the balance shift, his body continuing to move for a moment, then it hung still and quiet in the shock harness. It took Blazer a moment to readjust to the robotic form, the task that much more difficult with the Gorvian skin encasing it.
A Gorvian approached from Blazer’s right but through his link Blazer recognized it as Marda in an instant.
Marda turned towards Gavit in his distant MeG-CE.
Blazer looked. He couldn’t see any flaw, but that was the point. He looked like any other Gorvian, a monster cobbled together out of all his childhood terrors, and a few adult ones.
The pilot poked his head out of the cockpit a moment later, drawing Blazer’s attention. “We’ll be docking in five minutes.”
Blazer turned to Mikle, more than any of the others he’d studied Galactic Federation terminology and systems.
“Understood,” Blazer called back to the cockpit and turned towards the weapons rack. He removed a pistol from the frame and held it to his leg. A pocket opened in the Gorvian flesh suit and he slid it in, the flesh closing back over it. Taking his oversized rifle, he slung it over his shoulder. The holographic mask blended the weapon into the flesh. On the others, it varied; some had been made to appear as pieces of equipment. The same went for the rescue pods; most of them took on the appearance of humps on a team member’s back.
The Blade Force made their way down to the main hatch of the craft as it maneuvered in for a landing. A soft thump echoed through the ship as it settled onto its massive landing gear. For the first time this cycle, Blazer felt gravity pull on him. Blazer looked out the small porthole in the airlock, spotting numerous crablike Gorvians skittering around the bay. None of them looked armed, but did carry around tools.
“Loud and clear,” the pilot called back. “Just try and make the job quick and get back here. We don’t want to sit around here any longer than we have to.”
“Neither do we,” Blazer replied. “Cycle the lock on your ready.”
Gondral’s Dining Chamber
The reports coming in from the planetary conquests pleased Gondral as fae sat in the ornate dining chamber, the hull plaques of dozens of ships adorning its walls. They had the Dondicks on the run in multiple systems and were well on their way to conquering two, the campaigns having got underway since they’d attacked Nash-9. Most of the task forces that the Dondicks had deployed to protect those worlds had left to join the main forces in their attack on the Planet Slicer before Gondral had cut the system off. Those remaining stood little chance against the Gorvian advances. The reports whet Gondral’s appetite for further conquest. The news of troops feasting on their fallen enemies made fas stomach yearn for their flesh as well.
A portly Gorvian trundled into the room behind a cart with several covered trays. “Lord of All. Your feast is ready!” moe announced, Gondral able to smell mor pregnancy over the meal.
Gondral set aside fas macomm and the reports to gaze upon the cart. The chef’s bulk jiggled with each footfall, the fat rippling in turn. Upon reaching the table moe lifted the covered metal tray from the cart and set it down before Gondral with the same care one would a newborn pup. “What have you brought me?”
The chef lifted the cover to reveal two blackened, steaming bodies, smothered in a brown sauce. “A true delicacy Lord of All. A pair of roasted Lodrans smothered in a gasl sauce.”
Gondral growled in anticipation and reached for one of the bodies. “Excellent,” fae said, lifting the first of the roasted forms to fas cavernous mouth. The smell filled fam with an almost sexual excitement and after slipping the head of the Lodran into fas mouth, bit down on it. Gondral let the juices of the boiled brains slide over fas tongue before fae chewed and swallowed. The second bite tore an arm free. The sauce and juices dribbled out of Gondral’s mouth and down fas fleshy neck. The bones shattered with enough force to echo around the chamber with each bite. “How much do we have left?” Gondral asked between bites.
The chef took a moment to think. “Not counting those you’ve reserved for experimentation Lord of All; we have over five hundred in the freezers plus ninety fresh specimens of varying races in my stores. There are, of course, hidden pockets throughout the ship that the crew has gathered for themselves.” The chef allowed Gondral to finish the first Lodran before continuing. “The crews of the prison barges have assured me that any that do not survive your experiments will be frozen and sent to us immed
iately. We will not want for supply for some time, especially if the news from the planetary assaults prove true.”
Gondral pondered that for a moment. “The experiments should provide some interesting flavor combinations.” Taking another bite of the leg of one of the Lodrans a thought occurred. “Do we have any Vegetoids aboard?”
“Just a few Lord of All. Shall I prepare them for your next dinner?”
“Of course. I must balance my diet after all. You are dismissed, I will have the cart returned to you.”
Gondral leaned back in satisfaction and continued the meal after the chef had left. The prison transport experiments would elevate fam beyond the status the Gorvians already held fam in and would put Gondral on par with their own masters.
Then there was the matter of the prisoners aboard the Planet Slicer. To keep them in a condition where they’d retain meat on their bones was a waste. It would prove more efficient to kill and freeze them all. Alive however, they made excellent performance awards. The Gorvians did so enjoy a live meal.
A chime at the door drew Gondral’s attention. “Enter.”
An intelligence officer entered, a small pyramid-shaped object in hand. “Lord of All. We located this on the hull of the Vec’Lina.”
Gondral studied the object. It was gold with odd hieroglyphs and it radiated telepathic energy; a message repeating itself. Gondral focused on the message. The language was ancient, alien, and one fae had never encountered before. The race rivalled their old masters for age, but were lesser. The conceit was apparent however, the being thought its race greater, maybe even the greatest of races. Such arrogance. The race had strength however and resources, that much was clear from the impressions they’d left. Gondral would translate and consider their offer.
Corridor GL-12
The circular and largely featureless passageways of the Planet Slicer always gave Marda a sense of vertigo. For reasons she still couldn’t figure out, it was feeling even worse this mission. Maybe it’s the Gorvian skin or something up with my interface. I’ll have to have Gokhead check it later.
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