by Aer-ki Jyr
Those spears were sent forward ahead of the bulk of the drone hive, which was still in singles. The Bez commander also ordered the warships to move forward with them, for they wouldn’t be in significant danger given the technology gap, and their weaponry would help break through the opposing fleet quicker and get a hole in the planetary shields established so the drones could fly down and begin picking off the planetary defense cannons from close range.
As for the spear formations, they took the first incoming fire from both the fleet and the planet as they raced towards the Opaty ships, with their combined shields holding up almost all the way there before some of the cubes got hit and blown off the formations…but the rest remained intact as they got within pointblank range of the Opaty fleet, where they then broke apart into singles and began to attack on individual vectors, some of which put them in between ships and forced the Opaty to risk shooting their own vessels with rare misses.
However, the drones also had deflection shields that could bounce the energy attacks against them slightly, redirecting them into the ships directly behind them, meaning the Opaty had to get direct hits in order to make them fully stick, and the drones were moving around a lot in order to make it harder for the enemy gunners to do just that.
But with computer controlled weapons, most naval combat in this day and age didn’t see misses…especially with ships that were miles long. The drones were all under a mile and small in comparison, but without the deflection shields the enemy would not have been missing many shots at this close range.
Once the spears broke up and began to engage, the rest of the hive moved forward and joined in the assault with the warships interspersed amongst them. Those larger ships were what drew the attention of the ground-based weaponry…which was a mistake, for they could soak up a lot of shots that otherwise would have been killing the smaller drones. It was a common misjudgement in naval warfare to shoot the biggest, most appealing targets, but if you couldn’t actually kill them then you were wasting shots, and the Bez knew when to pull back just before their warships’ shields went down, thus depriving the Opaty of doing even a small amount of hull damage.
The fight went on for over an hour before the fleet was broken, then the bombardment of the shield began as the planetary defenses continued to pound the Star Force fleet. If they’d brought a Uriti with them it would have been much simpler to get through the shields, but all were currently occupied or too far away to call on, so this had to be an old school planetary invasion, though with a few new toys to help.
One of those was a shield buster, which wasn’t a warship or a transport…the latter of which were holding back out of firing range while the warships and drones did their thing…but it was a ship with one purpose, and one purpose only. Carry a big fat gun to batter down the shields of fixed targets.
This one carried a small Tar’vem’jic, and once the Opaty fleet was destroyed it was deployed to firing range just beyond the maximum range of the planetary defenses. Then it began adding its heavy hits along with the rest of the fleet as they poked down a section of the shield to the point where it snapped…then blinked back into place as the recharge rate kicked in.
Open, shut, open, shut. That’s how it went until some firepower got through the gaps and hit the shield generator below. Once it went down the gaps got longer, but there was still no clear window, for the Opaty had overlapped their generators so the loss of one wouldn’t open up a permanent hole. It took more pounding and shooting through the gaps before two more generators fell, then a small hole formed, and through that hole went the drones that then began eating away at the cannons and other shield generators now that they couldn’t hide behind their primary defense shield.
The Bez fleet retreated back up and out of range while the Tar’vem’jic continued to add some low power shots at precise points, but it was mostly the hive of drones that carried out the subsequent strikes, and when they’d cleared out a decent area and expanded on the hole in the shields, it was time to bring the transports down to either the surface or low orbit, depending on the type, and begin offloading the mass of Bez and their Esquire Knights to handle the face to face fighting that would end with the capture of the majority of the population and add yet another planet to Star Force’s holdings.
That planet appeared as an updated dot on Davis’s master empire map back on Earth weeks later, alerting him to a change in status once the information made its way across the galaxy through the relay grid. The Director noted the change and briefly analyzed the data packet accompanying it, seeing nothing out of the ordinary that would require his attention. Just another day of good work being done on the frontier, rescuing people from a barbaric civilization and giving the individuals trapped within it a chance at a real life.
The prisoners would be put into indoctrination facilities soon to be built on the planet by an army of Calavari already on the way there. The Opaty would then have a choice…learn from their mistakes and regain their individual freedom, or hold to their barbarism and remain in prison until such time they changed their minds or died, with the accompanying training facilities offering them the possibility of obtaining self-sufficiency if they tried. Which meant those truly stubborn ones could be imprisoned in perpetuity, and there was a fairly long track record of individuals in that situation that had eventually shifted after more than a century in captivity.
Davis doubted the Opaty would be any different, but you never knew until you faced that situation what one individual or race would do, but Davis had people to troubleshoot that without his getting involved and he trusted them to do what was necessary…as well as having the wisdom to ask for help if they did find a situation where they couldn’t get a handle on it.
No such requests or notations were accompanying this update, which Davis reviewed at lightning speed through the mental interface. He’d eeked his way up to Piccolo 234 in the Archon ranks, but he’d long had Sav before that, along with every other psionic and upgrade that he wanted. He wasn’t active enough to warrant a Saiyan biology, but he’d devoted enough time to develop some of the Essence skillset while he oversaw the juggernaut of an empire he’d created.
It never ended. No matter how big it grew, there was always something else that had to be done. Star Force territory now ringed the galaxy, but there were vast tracks of it that Star Force hadn’t even touched. In those threats remained…and within as well. The Chixzon were out there, and probably not keeping beyond the frontier border. They were within as well, lurking amongst the independent races dotting the interior of Davis’s domain. The big question was whether or not they were on Star Force worlds themselves, though that would have been difficult to accomplish, but not impossible.
Sensors across the empire were calibrated to their genetic code, and if they caught even a whiff of it Davis would get a direct message. So far none had ever been detected aside from where Nefron went, and it continually worried Davis that the Chixzon were so good at evading him. How had the Ancients destroyed them all so long ago? Were they overconfident and now, facing their failure, being far more cautious?
He didn’t think so, and he really wished he had more data on the previous fall of the Chixzon, but what he had learned since indicated that the great races that had become known as the Ancients had been sabotaged after their costly victory. It wasn’t just instability, but an active hand in their undoing. It was thought that the Chixzon had established agents that would enact various pre-planned campaigns in the event of their defeat, but sometimes Davis wondered if some of the Chixzon hadn’t survived all this time.
But that didn’t add up. As near as he could determine, they’d only been active in the galaxy for about 150,000 years. Now that he knew where to look, he could backtrack evidence of their ‘touch’ on many races and civilizations, and what he’d gathered told him that they truly had been gone, then come back, meaning that they had taken their vengeance on the Ancients through some other means.
Then there was the Zak’d
e’ron, who had been very quiet over the millennia. They’d been surprised at the resolution to the V’kit’no’sat war, and not all too happy with it. Whether or not they’d extend their ‘grace’ upon the V’kit’no’sat races in Star Force or not hadn’t been covered, but at this point it didn’t matter. Star Force wasn’t taking orders from anyone at this point, and if the Zak’de’ron wanted to move against Star Force they’d pay the price for it.
The missing Uriti was concerning, but with the fleet of new Uriti slowly growing to size the missing 3 weren’t a huge threat to Star Force. A surprise attack against a few systems would be costly, but once the Uriti fleet got moving they couldn’t hide and the rogue Uriti would either be killed or confiscated, so he wasn’t sure what the Zak’de’ron’s long term plans were. He was worried about them too, but in some ways he felt the Chixzon were the greater threat.
Davis sighed and leaned back in his office chair, looking out the panoramic windows at the Pacific Ocean beyond the rebuild Atlantis. His office was in the exact same position as it had once been, and the city wasn’t much bigger either, though this one had the capability of lifting off and moving if needed. It even doubled as a space ship, though not a very good one, and could move around Earth orbit or even out to the other planets at a slow clip, but Davis had never used it for that. It was just a backup capability that would allow it to move inside the planetary shields if someone wanted to bombard them directly over the city.
But good luck getting through the shields. They were 109 layers deep, each of which was far stronger than the original shield covering Earth when it first fell. Earth was a fortress world now, but one with low population. More of a resort world for the Star Force elite than a major population center, it was still the functional capitol of the empire and setting foot on the surface was a major accomplishment for most people, for there was no tourism allowed.
It was home to Davis, but it felt empty. Those he considered to be ‘family’ were gone, spread across the galaxy overseeing the empire and leaving the Solar System familiar, but hollow. He hadn’t seen his closest associates in a very long time, and even Wilson, who had been by his side constantly in the early years making sure he didn’t succumb to old age, was gone to his own personal training system for the Archons and Mavericks. That was his home now, which left Davis feeling very old and alone despite his physical youth.
It was quiet here, and Davis knew that was a problem if he let himself get complacent. The war being fought now was a quiet one, with the victories and defeats occurring in small measure here and there. It appeared like he was winning, but he felt otherwise. Something was going to happen, and the longer he didn’t figure it out the more he worried. The Chixzon and the Zak’de’ron were not two races that admitted defeat. They had to dominate, and they would never accept a subservient positon in the galaxy.
Right now it was the twin empires that ruled, Star Force in the Rim and the V’kit’no’sat in the Core while the true power of the Hadarak slept in the deep core, dismissively ignoring the two empires as insignificant. If something happened there it would be the V’kit’no’sat who took the hit long before they ever got to the Rim, so he wasn’t concerned about them.
No, there was something brewing. He could feel it in his bones while everyone else felt things were fine. It was just that type of an environment he’d use to his advantage if he were in the Chixzon’s position and had their lack of morality.
Davis stood up and took a lap around his office, eventually ending at his desk again but standing and looking out the window instead, seeing the cityscape far below his tower office that eventually ended at the blue wall of the ocean beyond with waves so small they barely registered to his enhanced vision.
“You’ve let me set the chess board as I liked. So what do you know that I don’t?” he whispered. “What am I missing?”
The answer wouldn’t come to him today, nor tomorrow, but the Director would never let it go. He had to see ahead while others focused on the here and now. That was his job, one among many, and his family was depending on him to catch as many threats on the horizon that he could before they manifested themselves, but this one continued to elude him.
But it was there. The feeling would not go away, and Davis felt that the more time went by the worse the situation was actually getting. The Chixzon should have acted by now. The Zak’de’ron should have acted by now. Why hadn’t they? What long term plan were they pursuing?
“Come on, Sean. Figure this out. If you wait until they tell you, it’ll probably be too late.”
3
April 23, 128439
Jaroon System (Terraxia Kingdom)
Mid stellar orbit
Jessica Parval sat in a waiting room on the space station alone. She’d arrived on a dropship from the planet of Dforan and had been nervous to the point of shaking ever since. This was the personal residence/ship of Starchaser and even setting foot onboard it was an insane honor. The fact that Mina Delari herself had requested that Jessica come was still something she couldn’t quite fully contemplate. She’d submitted her application, along with probably billions of other singers, but the idea that she might actually get an interview was…well, it shouldn’t have happened, but here she was.
The ship/station was huge. More than 30 miles long and capable of traveling around the system under its own power if need be, but it rarely moved from its parking orbit that was off limits to other traffic. It was in a band of stations owned by individuals who wanted their privacy, and within Star Force where everyone lived in cities built by Star Force and leased out facilities, the only way you could get any sort of ‘land’ of your own was to build a ship or station.
You could lease a large structure on a planet and build the inside as you liked, but there was no option of buying a tract of land and putting what you wanted on it. You couldn’t even construct a building within the cities. Star Force built everything the way they liked and let the civilians operate out of that structure, meaning those that had the credits to do more had to go to space and essentially construct their own ‘land’ in order to gain the privacy they wished for.
While Star Force was heavily populated, it wasn’t too bad. Jessica had gotten used to walking amongst crowds within cities, and when she retreated back to her private quarters she had them to herself. That was where she could disappear and get away from everyone, but if you left your quarters you just had to accept living amongst strangers. Some people didn’t want to, and this section of the Jaroon System had been reserved for private slots that the normal traffic lanes were routed around. Jessica’s dropship had to get special permission even to approach, and only those living within the zone could offer those passes.
The station she sat on now was so far from the others that you couldn’t see them, for space was huge and even a little bit of it on a system map was very widely spaced. So Starchaser had her own little realm out here in the form of this ship/station and no one else in sight to contest with. Even the nearby planets were only small dots of light in the sky. It felt lonely to Jessica, but a holy loneliness. So few people had ever been here she felt immensely honored just to have been given permission to sit in the waiting room.
Starchaser was a legend in the music industry. 125,000 years old, she had toured the galaxy many times over then disappeared for long tracts of time, only to resurface again at a random point later. Her fan base found this to be both annoying and enigmatic, and when the call for backup signers had gone out, Jessica had submitted her application with all the others…but for some reason she had been picked to make the interview process. Meaning she was about to meet Starchaser in person.
Jessica’s knees started to knock together, so she put her hands on them to steady her jitteriness. She couldn’t face her like this. No matter how nervous she was, she had to compose herself. This was the chance of a lifetime, and she’d never forgive herself is she ended up acting like an idiot when the moment came.
A nearby door swished open an
d Jessica jumped, seeing a man enter and smile at her. She sat back down as he gave her a knowing look.
“Relax. You’re not the first person to be nervous meeting Mina.”
“Is she ready for me?”
“Yes, but I need to prepare you for a few things first.”
“Like what?”
“Mina has the habit of not wearing clothes. Not just on stage, but here as well. Some people find that upsetting, but to her it’s just normal. If you know that going in you’ll act less skittish. Also, don’t try to predict what she’ll ask or want. Just be yourself. Mina has been around long enough to see through liars, so just be honest.”
“Ok. Anything else?”
“Some people find the ship disturbing because it’s so empty. There’s only a crew of 278 onboard. Mina wants privacy, so most of the ship is hers to roam around. She’s in the gardens now. That’s where she will meet you. Follow this tracker and it’ll take you right to her,” the man said, handing Jessica a small orb. “Do you know how to use it?”
She pressed the button and it floated up to hover just in front of her head, then painted a holographic trail of dots in front of her directing her which way to go.
“I see you do,” the man said. “Off with you then. And good luck.”
“Thanks,” Jessica said, walking out the door in a hurry and following the path as it materialized one dot at a time as she walked, gobbling them up with her body as she passed through them. The tracker floated just ahead of her and led her on a wild path through the ship. Jessica only passed two people as she spent more than 20 minutes traveling through the ship, including 3 different lift cars, until she got to the entrance to the gardens.
