Seyla frowned when they saw the coordinates, the Futility were on a path down to their newly established territory, but this futility were not the same as the ones they fought, they seemed to be more intelligent and had different fleet compositions. Her husband had been right that the futility was not gone from the galaxy and with the data the truth was in,
S-4XN-001 immediately began scanning and deploying scouts across the nearby galaxies to get the real picture and what he saw confirmed it, it was a five galaxy wide futility force same as the one he trapped, He had enough firepower to engage them head-to-head now instead of just simply relying on the Solar Awakening Devices, but he would rely on them now too, no point in showing too much in case they had a communication network between the fleets, their organic computing was extremely hard to understand, and he had tried, they seemed to operate from a hive mind or simply reprogrammed orders.
The refugees had to come first, so he portal ed them to a well stocked earth like system and adapted the food for their biology and planetary needs, they would settle here for the meanwhile while he engaged the enemy. "Thank you, Human. We have been running for many years in our galaxy from this terrible enemy, they do not fear or negotiate. We had no way to save everyone, and we hope you will avenge them!" the chieftain of the aliens said, Marcus nodded and replied with his translation "My father have fought the futility before and found counter-measures which he has shared freely, They are the greatest threat my father have known to the galaxy, and they are to clever and too many to simply be destroyed so easily, we believe they are scouting fleets. Not the real fleet."
S-4XN-001 engaged the futility fleet in the nearby galaxies and what he saw from the combat data proved his point, the different ships were extremely resistant to the solar awakening device, they were still weak but it proved his point that they were not the true attack force which probably were traveling down slowly from the center of the universe, and he had no idea how big their numbers were or how strong they would be, but he knew one thing, he alone could not contain them anymore. He had several trillions of ships, but that was just what was active in this one system alone by the futility fleet, and they had five galaxies worth. He was winning the battle, but he could not see an end to the war.
He immediately began his containment operation and started to devote more resources toward quickly killing the ships before they got reinforcements or "evolved" like these new ships that were highly resistant of his one-shot dreadnought that guarded the milky ways borders. He needed someone a squad to board the new ships that were active, and he knew just the right people for the job.
Zhang was chugging a beer while watching his kids play in the sunshine in the Eden system, he was filthy rich and his clansmen were all on this planet living in giant neighborhoods which were sparsely spread around the planet considering there were over a thousand of them circling the same star in a beautiful rotation, Zhang heard a noise and looked down to see his communicator chiming, he pushed the button to activate the call, and he heard that familiar voice that haunted him all those years past with his dreadful conversation "Zhang buddy, Do i got a mission for you! He-he!" Oleg he frowned, he did not like where this was going, but he knew it was important.
Christine was sitting in the vanguard office yawning at blinking screen on her desktop, she had always wanted to help other people and being general useful to society as a whole, but this job was killing her. She had enough with the shoplifters and the general drunks which occasionally crept up in the station, she would have rather settled for a cloak and dagger job but this was it, she was not to be trusted around any military equipment which was fair, she did work off the books a few times and did cause an invasion of Earth, she just hoped they would forget about that which seemed to be impossible.
She was about to end her shift when the screen flickered to life and a huge frown came upon her face and her eyes widened "Yo, Christine! Got some work, calling the gang back together so to speak, big things! Haha! Also nice rack!" She threw the screen to floor with a crashing thud and everyone looked at her in her cubicle area, her cheeks turned rose tinted and quickly shuffled out of the office clocking out, She would have to know what this was about, but she would not follow some mad-scheme by Olaf.
Two days later.
Christine stood upon the dock and her body was at full attention when she saw the ship dock, she knew that tech from anywhere and it was not vanguard colors, she immediately stepped on board and the ship zoomed across the galaxy instantly with its powerful portal drives, she entered the cold steel corridor and walked down the lit path until she came to a big council chamber, seemed to be something of old and forgotten like the warrior tech she had been seen so many times in her long life.
She quickly noticed a few familiar faces from her old teams and a few commanding officers that had retired from the Vanguard, She even noticed active military person ell including Redmond which had been a half-warrior half-human before being forced to revert to his "mortal shall" as they called it.
"Good. Everyone is here. Mission is extremely simple this time, and we all been drafted for a few quick raids on a few futility flagships, now many of you do not know me but i will introduce myself, My code name is Monarch. I am a member of the temple, which most of you never heard of. But we are deeply connected to S-4XN-001 since his daughter is our leader." he spoke with poise and grace like an old priest like the stories.
Everyone just sat down and made no faces or even any emotion at all, they were trained for these meetings and something clicked inside them to sit down and shut up while their commanding officer spoke. "The truth is, Futility is not dead. And we have discovered another large fleet similar sized as the one that has been recently quarantined around the Ortha galaxy, The Ortha are fine by the way if anyone asks. Now. We have solid data that these new ships" Several holographic images followed.
There was a new type of ship that looked like a red lobster with two long horns crisscrossing the hull and a beehive that looked well like a beehive, "These two ships are named the Hive and the Command ship, We are tasked to board and kill or capture any high ranking Futility commanders or leaders if there are any, S-4XN-001 has seen proof that they operate more intelligently than the fleet that came before and these ships are highly resistant toward the solar awakening device which litters the galaxy keeping us safe" Finally audible gasps and murmur broke out in the room considering the news that the futility was not dead and gone as they thought.
Christine raised her hand and spoke "So the futility are stronger and more plentiful than we realized? How long has he kept this information from us? Or any other alien lifeforms in the galaxy." The speaker stared at her before speaking "There was another alien convoy discovered in a system labeled "Waypoint-7" A minor system compared to the milky way only a few million stars, but the futility struck there anyway, and they have a similar sized fleet which we believe is a scouting fleet not the real enemy. We are to board these "command ships" get the valuable data, if there truly are more futility out there these ships must have the key to communicate or even detected them which the "fighters" and troop transports we once fought, their data is extremely primitive, and we hope a large strike crew with everyone in here, with additional support will be able to kill and capture any enemy aboard to get the valuable data intact, considering its organic" he spoke.
Everyone listened a few added in "Why does he not do it himself? Why send us?"
The speaker guffawed "I would not state why, but it's currently impossible for him to board and collect the data. Any electronic signal even with the portal direct connection are being blocked from accessing the outside, this is why you are here. We know what to expect from recorded assaults on the ships, but every time they frag their cores with zero to none valuable data, we believe a human strike team can go faster harder and stop their sabotage before being completed, there are countless ships of these makes, so we gonna have a lot of tries to nail it all down."
"Do not worry!
We will all leave a backup of ourselves before going on the mission, so you will have the option to resurrect if you so chose in a new body. Or you could take the warrior upgrade but it would leave bit of a lapse in memory if you died considering."
Monarch said.
Everyone looked at the tactical data and Zhang finally stood up and spoke "Where's the armory? I need to dust off the rust" Monarch laughed and spoke "We can leave right now, there's a ship waiting docked on gate 6, get onboard immediately." Everyone started to slowly shuffle down the hallway to the elevator. Zhang felt the alcohol breath behind him, and he knew Oleg was behind him, he let out a sigh this was gonna be a long mission.
Chapter 13
Six days later.
Zhang was properly attuned to his new equipment which were extremely sturdy and well-made although the proper sets he wore previously in his campaign were above anything else he had seen, this was beyond his imagination. Exoskeletons inside the armor that could increase his strength to a ton and his leg speed to maximum, the weaponry were extremely lethal and accurate, and he enjoyed that immensely, He had properly gotten back his form and more.
The mission would start in two days, so he had bit of time to do some more adjustments or challenge someone to a virtual duel which were what most people were doing, he rather aims at moving targets while the guns fired live bullets instead of the virtual stuff which were pretend, he never wanted to feel the gunfire coming at him were not deadly or it would dull his senses in battle which he would need considering this "mission" which was as good as a suicide mission, if the ship ever got back its drives it would be instantly melted by the massive fleet guarding it to make sure the people inside don't get taken or the technology itself.
But the one thing he could not understand where these temple people he could not make heads of tails of them, Monarch were a potent magician if he had to put his finger on it, he wore a special kind of armor that helped his psychic gifts to manifest, and he had seen him deflect and bend bolts of plasma mid-air before striking him which were insane, Zhang had a shield generator which were better but knocking bolts out of your face with your mind seemed interesting and something he might look into if he were two hundred years younger, he was old school and the agent and his clan would agree, else they would not have lasted for so many years.
Yua immediately left the Cyr home world when she got wind of her fathers plan to storm a futility ship, she needed to be in the thick of it, and she had set course immediately toward the only place where they could be, her mother and father had stonewalled her on this information, but she was technically done with the naming of the Cyr people which were a lot more than 2 million, it was an endless stream, and she managed to solve the situation by supplying them with books of names and myths from earth lore. They would pick the name out of random or whatever first popped into their heads and felt right.
The amount of people named after her father were extremely many just like her mother as well, but that was normal considering their worship of the powerful warrior that solved all their problems in a single battle, they were extremely devoted and with their powerful processing powers and a great resistance to boredom considering their connection to other Cyr through the net they were the best workers for anything that needed it, They improved a lot of resources gathering with their hands on approach, and they could also link single handily to a station and help with the mining and optimizing the drills to target the biggest pockets of ore, or simply call transports the moment the warehouse needed it.
Her father was not an omnipotent being and with his countless ships and stations he was being weakened more than anyone realized, he had too much on his plate which was why most of his fleet were sleeping like a beast waiting for prey, they would not activate, and they would not be sent to battle unless needed which she knew would be soon considering if the truth about the futility were true, a truly endless fleet.
"Miss, The data indicates they could be at two locations, One: The Lock: Which houses the biggest man-to-man armory in this galaxy, or they are at location two: The only station closest to the futility front, unnamed but in the records as the last gathering post." Said a Cyr, His name was Wayfinder, and he were extremely helpful in navigating her fathers empire which now expanded several galaxies, the aliens and the few humans working with her father needed the way finders to get the information quickly on where to go and where to get the thing they needed, they could not bother her mother or father constantly for the small stuff.
Yua pondered and thought about it, would her father really give that information on the network so the Way finders could use it. She obviously had enough fuel and time to jump to both of them, which she thought were both wrong. She had called someone that might know, and she would always assist if needed. She walked up to the communication console and pushed in the code to call her sister directly.
"Sister, I need to find the men and women that are about to undertake the mission on the futility fleet, It's important." Yua said. Her sister smiled like usual and spoke "Hello, Yua. How are you?"
Yua smiled "Sister... I am fine, I served my punishment and i want to go on this mission, It's important to all of us and you know it. Father will not invite me and mother refuses to speak of it, but i know you have several members of your temple that are extremely learned in the arts of combat, I assume some of them volunteered? Do you know where they went."
Juliet frowned which were rare even for her "Yes, Yua. I know where they went and i know everyone in the family does not want you to go, including me. You will lose your body and have to re-start your psychic training all over again, you will lose hundreds of years of progress if you die. They would not like that, and father will not like that i was the one who told you."
Yua just shook her head "Father does not want me to live or die it seems, Fate is cruel to me sister. I just want to help in a field i know really well. You have seen my combat data and i have sparred with many of your temple combatants, psychic power is not my for tree, my for tree is in close combat and you know that. Tell me where sister, this is no loss for me but a boon for father that i will tag along."
Juliet sent the data packet and closed the communications, She walked back into the depths of the "temple" which were just a large structure convening a planet in middle of the milky way extremely well protected and hidden, There was a constant holographic display that hid the planet and the nearby fleets completely, she had liked the privacy and her compatriots and comrades as well, she pulled out her watering can and started to pour water on the little singing flowers that now were visiting in a sense, they were the renegades of their race that wanted to live among humans, she assumed that she had poisoned their young when she negotiated with the alien flowers that had no name.
They were just simply alien flowers that sat in the most saturated part of the room where the biggest energies spikes were, and they kept chanting mantras and other calming words, they had picked up a lot from the "monks" as they were called, but she knew they were just extremely attuned to the psychic energies of the massive generators that churned it out and soaked the planet, even her had problem thinking about anything else when feeling like she reached nirvana, her training involved watering the plants and walking around the massive square which were filled with students doing whatever they wanted.
Anyone could leave and anyone could stay, there were people willingly offering lessons in many things like piloting, combat and even farming. She was a master of it all and that had helped pushed her forward alot, but she like most people reached the barrier she could not break no matter what, her father had solved this issue somehow, but he was a lot different than her since he was a warrior and a lot older and wiser. Juliet and her comrades could bypass the block with the custom-made psy-armor which were extremely soaked in psychic energy and had basically a massive generator constantly churning and soaking the user, which made it easier to interact with the environment and the armor itself.
She could levitate
or even fly around in space if she wanted but the generator could not keep up for long, it was great in burst but in prolonged use it would definitely dry out and need to recharge although it was extremely hard to reach that limit if you just did the normal routine, if you tried to move a 500 kg rock you had to pull from the armor and it's generator to make it move, but if you tried to move a shoe you would hardly dent its power.
"The water is not cold enough." Juliet woke up from her thoughts and looked at the little plant nestled onto the dirt just before the generators housing, she smiled and put her hand into the water and a clunking of ice were starting to flow up to the surface, she poured the water on the plant, and she got a happy wave of energy coursing in her mind, She smiled and walked down the path she saw a few "apprentices" walking around talking to the plants which were seniors in a sense since they had been here longer, they taught the mantras and mediation methods since that were something they used to gather more energy which worked even for humans.
Yua docked on the station which she knew was going to be noticed by her father and mother, but she had made up her mind and walked deeper into the room to find the commanding officer and report to duty, she walked down the corridor and saw humans which she had not seen in many years considering, the Cyr had shapes similar to humans since they adopted it early in their lifetime which they now fine tuned to look perfectly human but with a metallic tint usually in platinum colored, but they were individuals known to switch it around as well and add features to look more human.
The Futility Wars Page 40
