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Krvtz, Obish Admiral and military leader strode up and down, waiting for the guests to arrive. Everyone in the Galactic Arm who was an enemy of the UEC had been invited.
They would be there to coordinate the final fall of the UEC: The Battle of Sol.
------------------ It's all fair and good to say everybody's equal, everyone's innocent untill proven guilty, but as the UNS learned so painfully at the end of the Audemedon Wars, there are those who will take advantage of that system and bring massive destruction upon others. -High Commander Gerald Z. Levt United Earth Confederacy
The system's jumpgate opened, and the Flamewave and three X-19 gunboats came in, and set up a docking course with the system's trading post. Mag felt that something wasn't right. Several microseconds later, he knew what it was. The system was completely empty of traffic moving to and from the trading post, save his trading fleet. A few ships were docked with the trading post, but, other than that, it was only them.
The jumpgate suddenly opened again, and a large Gaitori fleet came through, consisting of several hvds, about five carriers, and twenty gunships and cruisers. A message came on the screen:
This is the GCS Smokerider to all vessels in the system. Evacuate or dock with the trading post now. A UEC fleet will arrive at any moment to attack the system, and we're here to defend. Stay out in the open at your own expense.
Mag didn't know what to do. Even at superlight, he couldn't arrive at the trading post very soon.
"Don't worry, Mag, with the upgrades you've got on our gunboats, we can take the other UEC ships," came the voice of one of the X-19s' pilots over the bridge comm. The pilots had been grateful for the medical and repair services that Mag and his crew had provided, and had defected from the UEC to work with him. They were mostly guards, though, as they didn't have much cargo room.
At this time, the Gaitori fleet was all around them. Another voice came over the comm. This time, it was a Gaitori. "Merchant Destroyer Flamewave, proceed to the trading post immediately. We can't have civilians sitting around in the middle of... too late! Get ready!"
The jumpgate opened, and a UEC battlegroup entered. Another message:
All alien craft: you have three choices. First, you self-destruct. Second, you power down your systems and prepare to be boarded. Third, you can be destroyed. I leave the choice to you.
The UEC fleet engaged their superlight boosters, and they dropped out right in the Gaitori fleet. The two massive battlegroups began combat right away.
"Crew, engage all UEC ships at will."
"Yes, sir!" said the human pilot. "Let's teach those racist SOBs a lesson!" Mag and the rest of the crew had to hold on to the nearest solid objects to keep themselves from being knocked over as the Flamewave roared into action. The gunners began firing wildly, and they racked up kill after kill after kill.
Fifteen minutes later, the exchange was over. The Gaitori fleet had one, with a heavy destroyer, a badly damaged carrier, and three gunships remaining. If it hadn't been for the Flamewave, the system would have fallen. Another message came on the viewscreen.
Merchant Destroyer Flamewave, please report to the trading post. The captain of the GCS Guardian would like to speak with you.
The remaining Gaitori ships superlighted to the station, and so did Mag's fleet. Civilian traffic had soon returned to normal.
------------------ "I am the supreme dictator of the universe, it's just that nobody knows about it yet." "Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow."
_Darkk was running down the hall. He was holding a weapon, but he couldn't remeber what it was called. Sord? Sword! That's it! He was after Levt. They were the only people in the whole building. Somehow he knew that.
Accross the room was a mirror. Darkk was reflected in it, but somehow... wrong. Darkk swung the sword at the mirror. The mirror shattered from two sides as a sword connected in answer to Darkk's from the other side.
The man wielding the sword looked just like Darkk, except somehow insane and more irrational. They thrusted, parried, lunged, Darkk noticing his opponent's savage vigor and frustration. Suddenly, Darkk wrote an oath in midair with some blood on the point of his sword. He couldn't read it, and thus knew it was a dream. The other swordsman shouted 'NOOO!!' and swung his sword over his head for a huge sweep at Darkk. Darkk had seen people make this mistake countless times, and stabbed his adversary in the gut._
"WILL, WAKE UP D***IT!!"
"Sorry about that sis. Guess I nodded off."
"We're here."
IGE - Ishiman Galactic Engineering. Prime contractor to the Ishiman millitary, creator of some of the finest ships and weapons this side of Audemed. The Ishimans had undertaken a collossal military expansion to aide the UNS, but the UEC's rise had cut that off in mid-stoke. Now all sorts of military hardware had piled up, being sold to mercenaries at cut-rate prices. Darkk felt like a little kid on Xmas with all the credit's he'd taken from the Salrilians that he didn't have to turn over to the UNS because there wasn't an UNS anymore.
Darkk would need some of that hardware against the UEC. He first went to missles, where he picked out some LRMs, as well as their onboard micro-manufacturing plant. Next he got some overburst capacitors to increase his ships' endurance. Finally he got some upgraded engine coils for the various ships. He also got a lot of minor items - new model EVAT armor, plasma rifle quick-recharge cells, and assorted junk.
This would put somethign of a dent in his pocket, especially after covering his tracks through "Divv Armament Retailers", but it would be worth it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Darkk, sir?" "Yes, what is it?" "Comm for you from the Escapade "
Darkk walked into a privacy booth, and entered his comm-key code. Instantly one of his apprentice hackers appeared. "Boss-man, there's some stuff going down! Every non-human military command we know of except the Auds are online with each other, sending so many messages they've overloaded the tertiary diplomatic backbone nodes." "Something's going down. Maybe everybody realized at last that a nationalist, racist, millitant government lead by a criminally insane fool is a bad thing." "What are you going to do?" "Get some answers. Can you patch me through to Wizr?"
------------------ Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI
The hologram of the Obish Admiral strode up and down on the desks of every one of the diplomats logged onto the network. "As you can see, the UEC has been throwing a significant amount of it's effort, time, and resources onto this battlestation, seen here in orbit around Sol IV, or Mars as the humans," he spat the word humans , "Call it." A large hhologram popped up in place of the Admiral showing a humongous bax, like a robotic clam with an underbite.
"Our initial analysis of the reports brought to us by the heroric escort squadron, led us to believe that this massive twenty-kilometer-long monstrosity was a mobile battlestation of sorts, but after further investigation, it became apparent that it was a shipyard of some sorts.
"We have witnessed first-hand the horrific atrocities the UEC has committed against us in the name of science, and I am sorry to report that you have all ben subjects of a massive Confederate weapons test. Once completed, the ship inside that station will make the UEC an unstoppable power, the one that the Prophets of Salril foresaw in their prophecy during the Aresian Wars.
"For months our scouts have reported unusually high levels of confederate activity to the South, and we believe the UEC has run into a snag, for in his rush to solve the problem with a military solution, the Confederate High Commander has made a critical mistake, giving us the opportunity to strike down the hated UEC. One that would be illogical to turn down regardless of the risk it involved.
"The three Confederate fleets, commanded by Fleet Admirals Sackler, Lincoln, and Levt himself, have been accurately tracked for the past four days." The hologram again shimmered out and was replaced with a map of known space. On it, various dots were placed regarding the positions of the various fleets of various faction, three blue dots were highlighted.
"The Expeditionary Fleet, commanded by the human Sackler, as encountered and tracked by the Darkklight Entrepeneurial Federation, has been searching for the secret rebel base in the Paylos system. So far they have been unsuccessful and have embarrasingly lost several capital ships to Darkk's brilliant and devious mining tactics. Not bad, for a human.
"The Fleet of the South, commanded by the traitor Lincoln, was last seen heading for the unexplored Dominus sector, engaging what appeared to be mercenary battlegroups, with some degree of success.
"And the Primary Fleet, headed by Levt himself, has been waging a crusade against Salril with devaststing results. After their victory at the Battle of Thasero, they were last seen headin towards the Hatares wormhole cluster.
"With their fleets spread across space, the Confederates have left their very homworld open to attack. We shall no longer wage fledgling strikes, but we should band together ourselves. Brothers, while we may be of different families, we share the common hatred for our enemies, the humans. We hereby forge a blood pact, and will unite!"
Cheers erupted from the audiences and the viewers of the holograph speech. The representatives from Cantharis, Gaitor, Salril, Obain and Bazidan all swore into the brotherhood of aliens, known only as The Woven.
The representatives all sat down and brooded for their battleplans.
(Krvtz would be pronounced ker-VEH-tez, BTW. Don't get too annoyed at the Obish spellings)
The Obish task force assembled at Arqum (ar-KYOOM) was the largest in Oben's history. It dwarfed that sent at g'eto'r near the end of its last war and eclipsed by far any of the land and sea fleets before the discovery of lightspeed.
Assignments were in: Sa'lril and Q'a'nthari's were to engage Levt, Ba'zi'da'n to head off Sackler's fleet. Oben and G'eto'r* were to dispatch Lincoln, and strike at the UEC's heart, Earth.
*Obiards never capitalize "Gaitor," to show their disdain.
------------------ -=MoC 94:19=- "Cheaters don't really win, and winners don't really cheat. Unless you're talking politics." -Durandal "Fate protects fools, children, and ships named Enterprise." -Riker to Bridge Crew (This message has been edited by Pallas Athene (edited 11-27-2830).)
Mag and his crew sat down in the bar, taking up several tables. Non-humans near them began to edge away, seeing the humans, and the non-humans that didn't mind mingling with them. Mag felt much tension in the air.
A Gaitori Admiral came into the bar, as well, and beckoned Mag into a separate room, in the back.
"First of all, the Gaitori Union would like to thank you for your assistance in defending this system. We were surprised that you did a thing like that, with all of the human crew members on your ship-"
"Let's get one thing straight before we proceed, Admiral. Humans are a very divided species. Very few of them share the same views. In fact, most of the UEC soldiers and crew members aren't prejudiced against non-humans, they simply have to follow their orders, which are given to them by somebody that does. Humans, as I said, are very divided, and often get very angered by their different views. So you know, my pilot and gunning officers are all humans, and they are sickened by what their species has done. So don't start being just as bad as that UEC dictator, Levt, and assume that all humans are mindless, cruel beings."
"Point taken, Captain. Point taken." The Admiral looked glanced around carefully, and a dismayed look planeted itself on his face when he noticed that his guards were trying their very best not to laugh. The thought of a Droid trading captain chewing out a Gaitori Admiral was by itself funny, but to do it to defend humans... The Admiral composed himself, and continued, "As I had been saying, we are glad for your assistance in defending the system. For that, you'll soon notice an increase in your banking account. I also have one other matter to discuss with you..."
"Yes, Admiral?"
"We were wondering if you could assist us in a large attack that is scheduled to take place on the UEC fairly soon. We'll be having fleets from almost all races in the strike, and we'd be ready to pay a goodly sum of money, if your ship would be there, flying as well as it was a few minutes ago. And you'd be a galactic hero, helping bring down this tyrannical dictatorship of Levt's."
Mag considered. The UEC was very powerful, and his chances of making it out alive if the attack did not succeed were fairly slim. And he didn't want to participate in a war over racism. Then another thought struck him. If his crew, partly humans, participated in the battle, it'd show that not all humans were evil, mindless animals, and that some of them did not approve at all of the UECs actions. "I'll do it," he said with finality.
"Good, just get to Gaitor as soon as possible after you're done in this sytem, and we'll get you set up with your wing of mercenaries right away. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get a drink." The Admiral walked out of the room, and into the main bar. He came back, soon, drink in hand. "So, Captain, what should we talk about?"
Just then, Mag heard some shouting from the main bar. He headed to the entrance, and looked in. A Cantharan and one of the pilots of an X-19 were yelling at each other. Soon, a fight broke out, and the rest of the people in the bar joined. Mag was really getting angry with all the racism in the galaxy...
(This message has been edited by Mag Steelglass (edited 03-01-2001).)
Spann's shuttle leaped through the jumpgate into the Ishima system. Mere minutes later, it landed with a thud against the docking pad. Spamo leaped out of the pilots chair and down the stairs. One of the Ishiman ship techs emptied his stomach as Spamo raced past. Maybe I flew a bit too fast. thought Spamo as he dashed down the ramp to a waiting functionary.
"Sir, Trey'sh Wizr is busy at the moment with a matter of state, but he will be free to see you within the hour."
"Good. The events I've heard are very important that I discuss with him. Where is William Darkk?"
"William Darkk is..." the functionary looked at his pad again. "I don't have any record of a William Darkk here. Perhaps you have the name wrong?"
Spamo shook his head. "Let me see your pad." Spamo took the pad and tapped in a few quick commands and searches. "There, he's here. Thankyou very much."
"Sir, the military research complex is off limits..." the functionary trailed off as Spamo hurried off. Humans. he thought and then began writing his request for Spann's meeting with Wizr.
<><><><><><>
"Darkk! There you are. I've been looking all over for you." Spamo said as he ran into William Darkk outside of a Ishiman government building.
"Spann, I hadn't expected you to be here! Why aren't you with the carriers?"
"They're fine Darkk. Some weird stuff is going on. We've got to talk to Wizr as soon as possible. I'll explain it all to you when we're in a meeting."
"Jack, are you talking about the virtual polarization of the galaxy against the UEC?"
Spamo blinked, and then replied. "Yes, that's exactly it."
"I'm on my way to meet with Wizr right now. The shuttle'll be here any moment. Come with me, it'll save time."
Spamo nodded, and his reply was drowned out by the roar of an executive shuttle setting down nearby.
Wizr smiled broadly as his old friend Jackson Spann entered his office.
"Jack! It's been a long time old friend. How have you been during this tumult?"
"Very well Maletena, very well. I'm sure you know about why we're here."
Wizr nodded. "Yes, the requests detailed that you wished to discuss matters of the UEC. I have little doubt that you know of the alliance of nearly every non-human race against the UEC. Everybody has decided that the UEC is not a government that they want in this galaxy."
Darkk spoke up. "That's why we're here. Jack here's got some sort of plan he's cooked up. Or something like that. He's been waiting to tell us here so no-one would hear it."
Wizr looked over at Spamo. "Paranoid I see?"
"Not quite" replied Spamo "but always catious. The biggest concern that I have is that the alien alliance will lump all of humanity together into one group. The UEC. We know that this is not true. People like me, rebels against the UEC, defectors that Darkk and I have picked up, as well as the multitudes that did not return to Earth immediatly after the war. They are to a greater or lesser extent, against the UEC. Most because of the racist and facist idealogy of the UEC."
"I see what you're saying Jack. Go on."
"I need to get in touch with the Gaitori government. During the Audemedon occupation, I had made something of an alliance with them, and I want to exploit those diplomatic ties to help out myself and the rest of humanity that is opposed to the UEC."
"Just the Gaitori? There's lots more than just them."
Spann shook his head. "I'm only one person. I want to personally talk with the Gaitori. Wizr, I was hoping that you would talk with the Obish and Ishiman governments? And Darkk, can you get in contact with the Bazindanese? They're traders and you're the best authority on negotiating with traders."
Darkk looked for a moment at Spamo. "Ambitious. What's in it for me?"
Silence reigned for a moment. Then both Spamo and Darkk burst out laughing. "Pirate at heart Darkk. Hopefully, once the UEC has fallen, pirates will all there will be to worry about."
Darkk "Is that a comment on something? Nevermind. We've got a lot of planning to do Jack. Wizr, how 'bout you call up some refreshments. We'll be here a while."
<><><>
------------------ Ne Cede Malis Sed Contra Audientor Ito
"What's going on?" The Cantharan Admiral irqued. "The Humans are behaving erratically."
"The UEC Fleet is breaking up." His Salrilian counterpart answered. "It will be impossible to successfully track and distract all the ships while The Woven attack Earth."
"Then we should strike now while they're still engageable!" The Cantharan swung his tentacle in the air for feeling.
The Salrilian gave him a disgusted work. He hated working with Cantharans. Warrier Races.... Always thinking with their guns, never their six-lobed brains. "If we launched the diversionary attack now, not only would we blow our cover but we would alert Levt to the fact that his fleets are being followed. Our purpose is to distract the Primary fleet while The Woven attacks Earth. Plus The Woven is not yet in position to strike Sol down. The odds of surviving a direct assault on the Primary UEC Fleet are 431:2."
"My good friend, we will strike fea-"
"I am not your friend, Mek Ret. I may have been good friends with your late father, but you are more than a mouthfull of exasperation. I fully lothe you, but we are coworkers and I cannot let your stupidity stand in the way of victory. We are to distract the fleet- no more. Do you understand?"
Mek Ret scowled at the Salrilian. "Alright, oh Salrilian , what do wedo now the UEC Fleet is breaking up?"
"There is nothing we can do at the moment. Logically we must let them slip through our fingers."
"So there will be no attack on Sol?"
"I did not say that. The Woven merely has a deadline now. It will take the UEC Fleet some time to reach Earth."
As the account request was processed, Wizr couldn't help but smile at what he was doing. Aiding a known terrorist faction in direct violation of Legislature mandate. It wouldn't be the first time. He looked from his terminal up at Darkk and Spann, who were sitting around his conference table in his private offices.
"The money's out. I've laundered it thoroughly. The Intelligence committee itself couldn't link Reestablishment to these transactions. In the mean time, I had an aide take your sister to meet with a Professor Johnathan Hardei, an expatriat Human who is a professor at one of our top astrophysics labs. She has my letter of reccommendation, she'll be in good hands. Bizz says she will start purchaseing supplies as soon as the credits clear, and I've weaseled into a seat on the delegation at the "Kill the UEC" peace conference."
"Ishima is sending a delegation? I thought they were boycotting the war, calling it genocide." Darkk looked surprised.
"They are, but we're sending a delegation anyway, and this is the important development, because If I can paint the UEC as a tyrannical despotic dictatiorship seizeing power from the traditional moderate government (that means you, Spann) Then these beligerant races would be less likely to stomp Earth into the ground. I've already got the Elejee behind us in this, they are staying aloof, as usual, but my connections on Elejee believe that they could be convinced to aid the UNS resistance that once saved Minister Jommo. I've also called the Gaitori Ambassador to Ishima, he'd be willing to meet with you."
"Are you kidding, that sounds too good to be true! When does the shuttle leave?" Spann was halfway to his feet already.
"Not so fast, we still have a big problem. The commitee isn't really there to destroy a tyrannical government, Ishima sees this, and decided to stay out of the fight. It seems that the Salrillians are orchestrating this to eliminate Earth, just as they have been since the beginning. Convinceing that comitee not to slag Earth could be next to impossible."
"Well we should still show up, just to make our position known."
"I've arranged it. Our transport leaves in 17 hours, we have a lot of preparations to make before then.
------------------ Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee. "I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."
Krvtz crossed his armes and walked back to the podium. "Fellow Woven, I regret to inform you of the human fleet en route to Earth from the Galactic North. While the evil humans have given us a major obstacle to leap over to accomplish our mission, it is not yet an uncrossible barrier. After an emergency meeting in the War Room with your commanders, we have devised a battle plan for the Battle of Sol.
"The Gaitori Union will establish a blockade- a siege if you will- on all the major quasiports entering Sol. Your job is to engage the human forces defending Sol long enough for our gunships to overwhelm and cripple the Battlestation, hopefully trapping the massive object inside it. With their home guard engaged, we will establish a perimeter with our Carriers and capital ships. Our fighters will penetrate the Earth defenses and do as much internal damage as they can. Levt will bring in his fleets, but we will hold them at bay long enough for our troop transports to capture the Capital of Earth, Washington D.C.
"With his fleets crushed, his Capital city and planet captured, Levt will have no choice but to surrender." A unanimous approving came from the crowd of captains and wing commanders. Krvtz's wrist comm unit flickered and he looked at it. After staring at it for a while, he looked up, a look of prominence on his face. "Get to your ships, men. We launch in one hour."
Pharris felt strange motions throughout Salrillian space. The codes from the wrecked Salrillian ships had allowed him to insert his AIs onto the Salrillian network, and, undetected, had burrowed themselves so deeply into so many computers across Salrillian Space that their total destruction would be next to impossible. Every now and then they would return intelligence, revealing to Audemed an opportunity just as great as the one that had been afforded to the Salrillians themselves. A gateway to the homeworld...
------------------ NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT The Hard-Boiled Egg Why? Because she cant be beaten!
The woven? By any chance related with The Weave from Empire? (EV plugin)
------------------ --Talon_Karrde, MoD, 61:4-- Visit (url="http://"http://www.planetarion.com")www.planetarion.com(/url) and sign up for some real gaming experience!
It was surprising. Such a blatantly obvious mistake by the Salrillians meant only one thing: they were hiding something. For the Salrillians to make the mistake of assumeing that Levt would surrender simply because Aliens had captured his capitol city and homeworld was naive, and more importantly, it went against every single particle of Data that they had gathered on Slug Levt, and humanity in general.
Wizr couldn't figure out a possible motive for the Prophets to make such a blatant mistake. Levt would return to Earth in days, and unless the "woven" (which was essentially an extension of the Salrillian Navy) could construct serious defences in that time, the main body of the UEC fleet would come down on them like an angry Gaath, and all would be lost. This wouldn't be so bad, except that Wizr had friends who were part of the fleet, friends brave and foolish enough to fight to the death in a hopeless battle, if it meant saveing their homeworld. Wizr slid into his meditation, pondering the possible motives of the Prophets.
Spamo bit the inside of his cheek and slowly counted to ten. He was in the middle of discussion with the captain of the Salrillian flagship. Those damn unpronouceable names were getting to him.
"Alright, I'll say this again. Levt will not surrender. That man is a megalomaniac and by not helping to set up those defenses he'll bring the full might of the UEC fleet on our asses!"
The insectile/slug-like Salrillian shook its head. "Noo, Spann. Levt will not sacrifice his homeworld. We are holding a blaster to his head now by holding Earth."
"What do you mean? All we're doing here is waiting for the UEC to catch us by surprise."
"They will not catch uss by surprise Spann. We will wait for them."
Spamo closed the connection, and began bringing up others.
"Darkk, we need to get those flak drones running. What's the holdup?"
William Darkk's face filled the screen of Spamo's monitor. "It's a big system, and drones take a while! You know that Jack. I simply don't have the manpower, even with the extra hands you gave me."
Dammit thought Spamo. What I would give to have some of those Ishiman rapid-deployment base defenses. "Alright Will. Keep working, I don't know how long we have until Levt gets back. Any word from Wizr?"
"None Jack."
"Right."
Spann closed the connection with Darkk and keyed up yet another. He only got a messaging service, so he put through a priority 1 message.
(MESSAGE BEGINS)
Maletena, we need some Ishiman rapid-deployment base defense systems. Darkk doesn't have any, or he's holding out on me. I know that we discussed buying of munitions from Ishima under the table, and now's the time to exploit that. I don't know when Levt'll return from his rampage in Salrillian space, so send those base defenses along with an escort to cover them if they arrive in the middle of a fight.
Admiral Jackson Spann.
(MESSAGE ENDS) (PRIORITY TAG ATTACHED)
The freighters launched, carrying with them several of the Defence Committee's rapid deployment defense emplacements, as well as a medium-scale mobile construction facility. The freighters were owned by a holding company that was owned(in secret) by Wizr himself. Following them were the Reestablishment commitee's four Advanced HVCs, cloaked to provide cover. A special code sent to the Jumpgate Manager would clear them an anonymous jumpstream to Sol, and the hole in the Defence Comittee's inventory would be written off as "replacement of parts already in field".
Traceing the goods to Earth would be near impossible, and linking the transaction to Wizr would be even harder. Wizr just hoped they'd get there in time. He walked to his advanced HVC and climbed in, ordering the pilot to launch. He didn't like fighting, but the battle coming up was not one to be missed. The cloaked HVC sped to catch up with the convoy at the jumpgate just as the six freighters and their hidden escorts leapt towards Earth, all traces of their departure destroyed in the jumpgate's log, and in the scrambleing of their jumpstream.
Audemed knew just the ally to bring against the Salrillians, unknown creatures from before the time of the Salrillians. Made by the Grolk during his captivity, the Biplurodon were a testimate to the Grolk's command of all facets of the universe both natural and artificial. A race of spacefareing creatures. Each nearly six miles long, these creatures roamed the cosmos, feeding and moveing. When they were first loosed to roam the stars, the Aelenad were the tale of legend. Roaming from system to system at sublight speeds over hundreds of years, destroying, consumeing whole worlds as they went, hibernating durning the hundred year voyages between their destinations. The Aelenad came down upon unsuspecting, primitive civilizions devouring them, leaveing entire planets bleak, desolate rocks. In a universe new to space travel, these were blamed on superstition and myth. Noone understood what had happened, and two thousand years ago, when they dissapeared from inhabited space, noone knew or cared what had happened to them. Except for Audemed. The Aelenad had aided his destruction of the Grolk, his enslavers. They had no loyalty to their creators, and any opportunity to store energy with little expenditure was quite attractive to them. They had cleansed all the Grolk worlds, left them dead rocks, and noone had recorded their passing as they drifted off through space in search of fresh energy. Two millenia had passed since then. Two millenia that they had spent trying to catch up with Audemed, following the swarth of crippled systems and broken races he had left in his wake. Now, they were drifting through space, forgotten. Pharris' ship dropped out of the quasi stream and approached the thirty huge objects as they cruised across the empty black coldness of space. As the energy from his ship reached the fleet of beings, they awoke. Deep within them, huge chemical reactions began generating heat and freeing chemical energy, thawing the beings as they awoke from their slumber. Pharris began flashing pulses of light at them, sending them a message. Good morning friends. It's me, Audemed. I'm here to rescue you.
(This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 03-08-2001).)
Pharris' ship dropped out of the quasistream just outside the jamming net that protected Salril. The huge vessel projected a fifty G quantum rift in the middle of the large minefield that surrounded the system, hauling the ship forwards, crushing several million mines, leaveing a gaping hole open for the Audemedon ship to pass through.
It rocketed through the empty space above the planet's apogee, and down towards the fifth planet, Salril Prime. As it moved, projecting gravity wells to haul it forward, it left a wake of wrecked stations, and satelites knocked from their orbits. It dropped into the apogee of the orbit of Salril prime, entering a slingshot trajectory that would intersect Salril. This extremely rapid intrusion had set off alarms, but a large portion of the home guard of the Salril system had been rerouted to join the woven at Earth.
As his ship approached the planet, the huge defence fleet launched to intercept him formed up to make their approach. They had never seen a ship like this, and their scanners read nothing. Pharris put their wondering to an end, projecting a huge gravity well directly in the middle of the fleet. Those that were too close were immidiately sucked in, and crushed into a mangled mass of black metal, that promptly exploded when the well dissapated. Only the smaller ships had managed to escape, and they were met with a wall of trazer fire and Audemedon missiles as Pharris hurtled on towards Salril. He slowed himself, and entered a geosynchronous orbit, crushing most of the orbital facilities as he did.
The Salrillians were not going to allow Pharris and his ship to lay waste to their homeworld, and all manner of ships were launching to attack the huge ship that hung ominously in the sky. Suddenly, the ship dissapeared in a flash, leaveing in its place 500,000 of Audemed's finest ships, and 30 of the largest spacebrone creatures that the universe had ever seen. They immediately thrust to a lower orbit, and prepared gorge from the planet's surface. The Audemedon fleet followed from a cautious distance, destroying the ships that came too close, and watching the Huge Planetary batteries that were following the ship/beings, waiting for the firing order...
The huge ship/creatures raised themselves to geosynchronous orbit, and began to unfold. The larger ones dropped huge glands that produced highly reactive enzymes to fill the atmosphere of the planet. In hours, a large portion of the atmosphere was contaminated with this gas. Any organic material touched by the Enzyme was immidiately broken down. Flesh melted, plants turned to mush, and eventually broke down to its most basic elements, Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen. The Enzymes worked more slowly on other compounds, but not much slower. Not even biologicaly hardened structures could withstand the chemical assault that came with the noxious fumes from the sky.
In a matter of days, all life on the surface was destroyed. In weeks, the enzymes would thoroughly remove all nutrients from the soil, and deposit them in the air, where the smaller Alenade could fly through, scooping up the precious organic materials, and be tethered back up to the huge ships in orbit.
Audemed's gamble had payed off. The huge jamming field in Sol had prevented all communications from reaching the main fleet, and the Audemedon ships in orbit over Salril easily finished the meager attempts at defense. By now, it was too late. The atmosphere had already been infested, and there was little that could be done to save the planet. Soon, the Alenade would have their first meal in two thousand years.
(So what happened with the battle against the UEC that Nerec had just joined? Is it over?)
(Oops, sorry, wrong thread.)