by Aer-ki Jyr
And therein was the trick of being a Monarch. You had to keep building to the future even while dealing with the immediate demands of the present. And integrating the Furyans into Star Force was one such project that he wanted to get as far ahead of as possible, for what they would become was still a wildcard. They would not all be Archons, he knew that, but what happened when you put a normal person in a body designed off of trailblazer badassery?
Davis didn’t know, but he wanted a plan in place before the first maturia started up. And he wanted that plan in multiple dimensions with contingencies. This was not something they could let blow up in their face, nor could they let it be underutilized. Wilson would take care of the first part, he had faith in him to handle whatever came, but the second was up to the Monarchs more than the trailblazers. Integration into the rest of the Empire was the key, not the construction of a standalone faction to increase their overall strength.
Davis was perusing the Round Table’s latest delayed responses that were coming from across the galaxy at different rates when a priority message popped up bearing Paul-024’s marker. Davis had assigned key personnel visual symbols that he could recognize at a glance rather than having to read numbers, though the trailblazers’ numbers were so short it hardly mattered. Still, as the Empire had Factions with their own symbols, Davis’s most valuable personnel also had them as far as his personal comm system was concerned, though no one else knew about them. It was just a form of shorthand he used, and whenever Paul’s came up he immediately stopped what he was doing and checked it out, regardless of the priority level indicated.
His jaw dropped when he heard about the death mark the Zak’de’ron and Neofan had put on any dragon that didn’t leave the galaxy, knowing that was going to require an immediate threat from Star Force delivered through their ambassadors to the three Neofan Temples. Star Force would not tolerate any such thing, and they needed to know it even if all the Zak’de’ron left as expected. This death mark was a slap in the face to the relationship Star Force had built with the Neofan thus far, and he sensed it was designed as just that. A theoretical situation that Star Force would not tolerate as an assertion of the Neofan of their perceived dominance without coming into actual conflict with Star Force.
It was an inch taken, seemingly innocuously, but Davis was too experienced and wise to miss the implications. For inches taken here and there could eventually add up into miles. And while a mile taken immediately would be an obvious cause for conflict, taking it the slow way would beguile many into a sense of peace thinking these advancements were just misunderstandings or unimportant enough to trigger a conflict now.
Davis hoped the rest of his Empire was not so gullible, but since he was leading it there would be no mistake of how to respond…which would be immediate and firm. Star Force had claimed the mandate for this galaxy, not the Neofan, who had barely fired a shot in this war except where they found it convenient. Davis knew they were continuing to increase their population, building cities, factories, and warships they did not try to hide…all being draw from resources from this galaxy collected from the fringes by the Temple support networks.
Their strength increased while Star Force’s was being chewed up by attrition in the war. Though the Neofan here were far, far away from being in a position to challenge them militarily, their Essence weapons had never been seen fully used, and Davis doubted that what the Vargemma had from the Temples was the best technology available to the Bond of Resistance.
And right now all the Neofan had to do was wait. If Star Force lost, the galaxy would be purged and the Temples left behind undiscovered. Then the Neofan could stay safely inside until the Hadarak withdrew, then come out and claim the outer rim for themselves after the life springs sparsely repopulated it.
Davis suspected that was their backup plan, or perhaps primary plan. Star Force actually holding back the Hadarak had been seen as impossible or unlikely by other members of the Bond of Resistance, but House Atriark had never been so negative of their hosts, always encouraging them with a heavy dose of skepticism, but giving them technology and intel that had been useful. They had earned their refuge here while most of the other Houses lost the majority of their population as their previous galaxy Utovi burned under an ongoing Hadarak and Apocalypse Monster assault, though the latter was now far more interesting given when they’d learned from Azoro. Still, it wasn’t finished and wouldn’t be for millennia, and even now many Neofan were dying as they were left behind under orders of their ruling House.
Atriark was the only other House that had gotten the majority of their people out, but had been essentially banished to this galaxy for it in a negotiated endeavor. Davis would have made the same choice in their place, and even now a message was being sent to Utovi through the Neofan’s associates telling various slave races that they could seek refuge with Star Force if they could get themselves here, for the routes out of Utovi were not jammed except those seeing the shortest distance to travel to Yenoiv, the new home of the Neofan civilization that they’d taken from the Hadarak in what was reported to be a significant achievement that few could compare with.
If the reports weren’t bullshit then it was significant, and it meant the Neofan either had larger numbers than Davis thought, or their Essence weaponry was far more impressive than Star Force’s…and he expected the latter. If they were leaving people behind, then their numbers could not have been so impressive. And the fact that they’d cut right to the heart of Yenoiv coming in from the Rim and fought the Hadarak in their strongest position and took it from them…well, such strength was rare, and with it would probably come an ego equally as large. And this little shark bump of a challenge to the lightside philosophy of Star Force…after knowing they had engaged in a short war with the Zak’de’ron over this very issue of death marks…did not seem too crazy to be genuine.
It was the first move in a very long chess game, and Davis had to stomp on it immediately.
He came to that conclusion before finishing Paul’s message, only to discover that their theoretical situation had become reality. One Zak’de’ron had stayed behind, jumping ship as the last of the their fleet went through the portal enroute to another unknown galaxy. Paul and Kara had managed to get him out through the very same ship-sized portal, with Kara being said to have powered it personally.
That raised an eyebrow, for he hadn’t realized her output level had risen that high. It seemed all the Archons liked keeping secrets about their personal power levels until needed, which was a slight relief, because that would suggest others had abilities and skills laying in wait to be revealed when the time came.
But in this case they had been chased by the Neofan, and only their quick reaction had got the Zak’de’ron…the same one Kara had previous experience with, named Pol’ake…out before the Neofan could intercept. Azoro had read their minds and insisted they did not want a conflict with Star Force, but Paul was still requesting follow up with the embassy to make sure it was still intact and sovereign.
For if the Neofan wanted to murder everyone in it, they would have little resistance inside the Temple that they dominated.
Davis sent out orders to that effect immediately, calling for a confirmation of the state of all three embassies, as he finished reading Paul’s message. They’d taken the Zak’de’ron away from Temple Lambda Sefora, on the off chance the Neofan would pursue them to it in an attempt to assassinate Pol’ake, and had moved the dragon to one of Star Force’s larger Hycre systems. One with 12 gas giants in it called Zotopek, which meant a lot of room for the Zak’de’ron to fly around in his armor and very little ground for the Neofan to step on if they should be able to track him there, though that was very unlikely.
Paul was already heading back to the warfront, leaving Kara with Pol’ake and a very big frown, the trailblazer noted. The last bit of his message asked Davis what he wanted to do with the dragon, who was claiming to be fully open about everything Zak’de’ron, and also willing to produce egg
s for use in Star Force maturias and not his own new colony.
After that a second message came through, also from Paul, with this one detailing the information Azoro had got for them from the other Zak’de’ron. It confirmed everything Pol’ake had told them, suggesting that he was trying to be honest and forthright…as odd as that was for a Zak’de’ron…but the intel went further than that. The Zak’de’ron had been thinking about what lay ahead, as well as what they were leaving behind. They’d told Star Force they were removing all their technology from their personal worlds in their last few years here, already having done so on the servant worlds that Star Force had already been given possession of, but apparently that hadn’t been the full truth.
The deconstruction of their most advanced technology had resulted in a treasure trove of natural resources…and they couldn’t take all of it with them. In fact they barely had enough room in all their own ships to hold the some 82 billion Zak’de’ron in their population.
That number shocked Davis. He had expected far fewer to ever have been in existence, especially after the V’kit’no’sat had found and killed so many in their most recent war. But apparently their bountiful list of surprises held a far larger population than expected, especially considering the size of the dragons compared to a Human. The Les’i’kron population in the V’kit’no’sat was only 538 million, and their opposite number in the Knight races, known as Charizards, only had 392 million. It took so much to feed, house, and maintain them that the larger races in the galaxy typically had smaller populations.
The same was true of the other V’kit’no’sat races, so 82 billion Zak’de’ron seemed almost unthinkable…as was their ability to cram them all into their ships along with the other treasures they were taking.
And there were many of those, but Azoro didn’t catch much thought of them unless they were on that specific ship. It was the treasures being left behind that were gnawing on them, hence they were thinking about them in full view of Azoro’s eavesdropping.
The resources they extracted from their planets’ infrastructure they refined down into 12-meter wide cubes…and then they dumped them in the nearest stars so Star Force wouldn’t have access to them. It was more spite than security, for all the advanced technology was destroyed, but now that Davis knew where it went, Star Forge’s could be sent to those locations and, even if it melted and spread to the winds, those stars would now have higher concentrations of it…meaning they would be good mining sites even if previously deemed of low value.
Davis knew they wouldn’t get all of it out, but they’d get some…and that some would be far easier to collect at the ‘trash’ sites than elsewhere, meaning Paul’s little trip with Azoro to snoop had already paid off, but there was more. Sites across the galaxy that held treasures that the Zak’de’ron wanted to get but never did, including many under Star Force’s own nose. Others were in Hadarak-held territory even before the purge. Azoro had put together a decent map based only on his memory, but thankfully the Ascended Sha’kier had impeccable mental retention.
Davis downloaded the treasure map and overlaid it on the much more robust map taken from the Maty, and saw that some locations matched up, but not all. Meaning that there was a lot in this galaxy that even the Gahana did not know about, and some big stuff too, but the most valuable items the Zak’de’ron could not take with them had not been destroyed…rather they had been loaded up on a fleet of servant ships and sent out of the galaxy on a trip that would take 1.3 million years to reach their destination.
And that destination was the Butterfinger galaxy.
It was called Wequo by the Neofan, but other than their presence there nothing was known about it…and it was close enough to the Milky Way that Davis had already named it otherwise. It wasn’t right next door, but not too far away…which is what the Director had expected given the amount of Essence required for this deal. He hadn’t known exactly how many ships the Zak’de’ron had, but he knew how much the portals took moving from Temple to Temple. Across galaxies would be different, but not radically so, he imagined. And his general guess had been right. They weren’t going super far in the Bond of Resistance network.
And if Azoro was right, this convoy was actually multiple ones so to increase the chances of at least one making it across the uncharted void between galaxies. And they had only been launched a couple of years ago…and from locations not on the very edge of the galaxy in case Star Force refused to honor the deal to provide the Essence, or could not because of war concerns.
That would leave the Zak’de’ron the ability to intercept and recover the convoys if the deal fell through, all the while allowing them to gather as planned without anyone knowing about the convoys of inferior ships being quietly sent toward non-usable jumplanes that extended out beyond the galaxy.
Davis whistled. That meant if he acted fast, Star Force could catch and claim those convoys for themselves…and the Zak’de’ron wouldn’t know about it for the next 1.3 million years.
He laughed out loud, sending a priority message to the Factions in that area of the galaxy who would have ships on hand and telling them to organize an immediate catch and recover operation, as well as requesting an estimated time of arrival…for if he needed to send Avenger-class ships that could go beyond the galaxy boundaries a bit using Essence-enhanced drives to make the catch he would, but otherwise those ships needed to stay in the war zone and in the few scattered locations across Star Force territory for defensive purposes in case other enemies manifested.
As for Pol’ake, he sent a message to Kara and Paul, telling them he wanted the dragon to come to Earth. He’d handle his future personally…
9
August 3, 154965
Itaru System (Novunu Region)
Wendigama
Mak’to’ran stood on the surface of Wendigama once again, and a piece of his memories ached in sympathy. The planet…all the planets in the system…were trashed. The original V’kit’no’sat structures were all gone, probably eradicated when the Zak’de’ron reclaimed it, and now all that was left was the remains of their rebuilt society.
Spires were everywhere, as befitted an avian race, but most had visible damage to them. Not from combat, but from scavengers. Pieces ripped apart next to intact segments in a chaotic pattern that suggested decay rather than defeat. Yet Mak’to’ran knew no scavengers had come to this system. The Zak’de’ron had it locked down until they left, and the Star Force fleet had taken possession of it in a very brief handover ceremony that he had missed due to the war. That meant all the scavenging done had been their doing…and all that they’d left behind was intentional.
It was a ghost planet from a ghost race, abandoned with the same disdain they held for this galaxy. Nothing of particular value was left, though the buildings could be reused if Star Force wished. Yet then they would be living in the footprints of those who came before them, and Mak’to’ran was pleased that was not the plan. The Zak’de’ron should have left them intact buildings or a blank slate with everything removed. Their leaving their stripped trash behind was an insult, but it was an insult that left building materials that could be recycled, and that was of some value.
The high end materials were gone, and many buildings had been stripped of them via nanites…meaning they still stood, but without the structural integrity they once had as the compounds were taken out of the support beams while they still stood. Mak’to’ran didn’t know how much that weakened them, but a few of the buildings appeared to have collapsed on their own, though most still stood in various states of disrepair.
All the technology was taken out of them…at least everything that Star Force might find useful. Mak’to’ran had been told some of it had been dumped into the stars to deny Star Force their conquest, while others had been spirited away for their use later in another galaxy. A task force had already been dispatched to try and intercept it, but that was not for Mak’to’ran to worry about. His place was fighting the Hadarak, or more accurat
ely leading others in the fighting, but considering the uncertain nature of that war and the timescale involved, he felt he had to come here first and put to rest old business before fully dedicating himself to the future.
Wendigama had always been the capitol of the capitol, and the huge planet had been an inspiration to the V’kit’no’sat ever since the Zak’de’ron first brought them here. They had decided this would be the common center of their new empire, though it wasn’t the Zak’de’ron homeworld. He didn’t know what it was, actually, for the disclosure given to Star Force didn’t say as it listed all the worlds being turned over to them. Perhaps that was one secret they’d take with them, but to Mak’to’ran this world had always been about the V’kit’no’sat more than the Zak’de’ron.
It and the other planets and moons in this system made up a small empire of their own, and from it the power of the V’kit’no’sat had been projected elsewhere. No one would dare touch it, for it had been a deathtrap to any who attempted to do so. It was untouchable and undefeatable…then Eldorat had flown in and assassinated the V’kit’no’sat leadership right in the midst of such power, and nearly escaped with his victory.
Wendigama and Itaru had lost their power that day for Mak’to’ran…and he nearly lost his life. Some of his memories had been casualties after his severed head had been reattached to his body by loyal Zen’zat who still served him now in Star Force. And ever since that day the fate of Itaru had gotten worse and worse, reclaimed by the Zak’de’ron and never fully rebuilt. Now the few cities they had across each planet were reduced to this squalor.
