They attacked the destroyers as they rushed in. Unlike the Jukal who didn’t believe in using nanites to enhance themselves, these bodyguards had no such issues. They were closer to the Emerilians than they were to the Jukal.
This allowed them to use Mana, just like the Emerilians.
Plasma cannons tore through the sky, impacting the destroyer’s Mana barriers, while spears of metal shot out from the ground and curses landed on the destroyers.
The runic lining underneath the destroyers lit up, creating magical formations on the ground.
Units wearing Devastator armor landed on the ground. Earth and Dark mages threw out their hands as around them a fort started to rise from the ground. The defenders attacked this growing defensive structure, but although they were able to slow its growth, they weren’t able to stop it.
Overseers from the Mage’s College and Guild took to the air, becoming the focus of the defenders’ attacks. They acted as if they didn’t even see the attacks. Their Mana barriers stopped the incoming attacks as they gave the defenders terms for surrender. Their armor changed their voices, so that the different races would be able to understand them.
As the overseers stood in the air, asking for the defenders to surrender, the destroyers turned their sides, presenting the modified artillery cannons along their sides. The dwarves managing them didn’t waste any time as they put their guns to use.
Grand working shells were unleashed on the pristine grounds of the planetary governor’s residence. Seas of lightning shot out from where the shells landed. Magical formations appeared in the sky, as clouds came together and created a massive thunderstorm, filled with cutting winds, penetrating rain, and lightning that turned the ground to glass where it hit.
All while this was going on, the Devastator forces organized themselves.
“Blood Reevers are taking the charge!” the operations officer said.
From the now several fortresses, holes opened in the walls as gleaming black armor covered in glowing runic lines shot forward. Gnomes and orcs, all of them equipped with Devastator armor, rode armored blood reevers.
The blood reevers shook their heads and let out their howls, racing faster and faster. They came together from the different fortresses, forming into one body, creating a line across their front.
The ground forces that were defending the planetary governor’s home looked at these charging blood reevers. Drums could be heard coming from the fortresses as the gaps in the walls became larger. The sound of boots and drums made the very ground shake as dwarven warclans marched behind the advancing blood reevers. As they cleared the fortresses, the creatures that had been on their shoulders shot into the air, unleashing their attacks upon the defenders.
They formed their warclan units, advancing toward the enemy, their hands on their swords as they held their massive dwarven shields in front of them.
Behind them came mages and archers. As these ranged fighters got free of the fortress, spell formations appeared in the sky and upon the ground.
“We’ve got drones incoming from the southeast,” the operations officer said, not looking from their screens.
Fighter crafts appeared in the sky, bearing down on the ground forces. They shot out laser beams that cut through the sky, only to smash into Mana barriers.
Interceptor modules twitched and locked onto the drones. After the second shot, the drones’ lasers stopped working as the interceptor modules used the runic coding Jekoni had created, disrupting the coding of the lasers.
Lightning rained down from the skies, as meteors tore through the perfect drone formations.
Arrows tore at their shields and punched holes through their armor. Drones spiraled down in droves, crashing into the ground below as the charging blood reevers and the gnome and orc riders atop of them smashed into the defenders.
Under the blood reevers, the defenders were crushed. The riders cut out with large blades and small bows that easily pierced the defenders’ armor and killed them.
The blood reevers didn’t slow their advance, leaving behind broken and scattered defenders in their wake.
“Shields!” the dwarven warclan commander called out. Shields came together with the sound of metal hitting metal.
“Artillery cannons, hold fire,” Frank called out, as now the battle was joined, it was more likely that his people would hit their own instead of the enemy.
Ranged artillery came in from the planetary governor’s buildings and more drones came out, but it wasn’t enough to stop the destroyers and their forces on the ground.
The defenders that had been run over by the blood reevers continued to not listen to the overseers in the air as they met the dwarven shield wall.
Nothing passed the shield wall. As the defenders hit a steel wall, swords appeared in the dwarves’ hands as they cut forward, and advanced with the drums.
The defenders were cut down without pause. The ground forces and destroyers advanced forward as more and more people seemed to drop from the destroyers.
It seemed as if there was an unending supply. What the defenders and the Jukal didn’t know was that the destroyers were connected to the ark, where units wearing Devastator armor were marching from the asteroid base through a portal, and then teleport pads before being dropped onto the battlefield.
If someone’s armor was low on power, they were switched out and could activate their teleport back to the anchor within the destroyer, charge up and then drop back down and return to battle.
Seemingly unending waves of Devastator-armored Emerilians joined the fight as the destroyers advanced.
After a few hours, one of the destroyers moved away from the planetary governor’s residence and started to move around the planet. Where it went, it would drop off factories, growing towers, and other items that would be needed by the population as they were cut off from the rest of the Jukal Empire.
The ark descended into the planet’s atmosphere and moved with the roaming destroyer, passing down more items, until the entire planet was seeded with them. They ran out of pre-made factories and other items and instead started to put down soul gem constructs. These had heat and cold exchangers on them that allowed them to charge up and create new factories and buildings.
Frank looked to his different screens. The fighting on the ground was covered in a magical storm of spells going off, but here and there people were surrendering; the overseers dropped down, protecting them and sealing them before removing them from the battlefield.
As the defenders saw this, more and more of them started to surrender. They didn’t want to die for the Jukal who wouldn’t raise a finger to help them.
In the same hour, four more systems discovered that there were Pandora fleets in-system. Three hours later, the first of the joint Pandora and Deq’ual system fleets entered the Jukal-controlled systems.
***
The Jukal fleet’s admirals looked at the different screens around the conference table. They were using the Mirrors of Communication conference room in order to connect across the Jukal Empire.
They held positions of great power, with their families using them to secure their position within the Jukal Empire’s hierarchy. There were few positions that could demand more respect than being a leader of one of the Jukal fleets.
All of them looked to be at a loss as they watched on the screens as nearly forty systems were being invaded by the Emerilian forces.
“It seems that the Emerilians have an ally. Looking at the ships, there is a clear distinction between the Emerilian-made ships and these rounded-looking ships. We have no idea who this other party is. However, it looks like they have similar designs and technology to what we saw in the war against humanity. From this, we can determine that they are probably a human group that has been hiding these last five hundred years and we have not been able to find,” one of the admirals said, their fury clear.
All of the admirals looked at the different types of ships that were entering their systems as if they d
idn’t care for the Jukal Empire at all.
“What are we going to do? Already we have lost a number of the secure locations we controlled in these star systems. They’re also dropping what looks like to be aid to the people of the empire.” The Jukal admiral started off angry but his words came out with a confused note as he thought of the factories and different facilities that had rained down from the destroyers and arks.
“Send in the fleets. We will destroy their ships and show the glory of the Jukal Empire!” one of the older admirals said with a fanatical gleam in his eyes as he smashed his hand into the table, assured of their victory.
“We don’t know their capabilities,” the first admiral said.
“The Jukal fleets are the most powerful in all existence! Nothing can stand in their way! Wiping away these fleets is as easy as flipping our hands!” the older admiral yelled down the first.
“We have orders to attack Emerilia directly. It will take three months for us to organize our attack.” An admiral scratched his furred chest.
“We have portals in these locations. We can send our own fleets out, overpower them two to one and then destroy them. As their ships burn, we will send people through the portals on the ground and remove any influences that they hold on their planet,” an admiral sitting next to the older one said.
The older admiral nodded in agreement.
“Bring up our reserve fleets, and split the main fleet to deal with these attacking fleets?” the first admiral asked.
The admirals from around the table looked to one another and then looked to him, showing signs of agreement.
“We all know that the emperor wants this dealt with as soon as possible, but we also know that he wants to use this to show the people of the Jukal Empire the power that we, the Jukal, hold. We can use this to our advantage. We have the ships and the power. We send our ships through and we destroy the Emerilians and their allies completely in one go,” the older admiral said.
The first admiral nodded. The plan made a lot of sense and it was well known that the emperor loved to have a show of violence. If they could bring him one, then there was no telling of how he would reward them.
“Very well. We will defeat the fleets within the Jukal Empire completely. At the same time, we will send the main fleet to Emerilia in order to show them how slaves ought to act,” the first admiral scoffed.
Chapter 3: Home Is Where the Heart Is
Deia bounced little Koi on her knee as she looked out over Ice City. In the last couple of days, the apartments and buildings that had been empty were now filled with people. There was a constant stream of people moving between Terra and Ice City. More portals had been laid down to just move items between the different bases.
If the Jukal Empire were to see the way that the Emerilians were using the portals, they would collapse in shock. The Jukal Empire viewed them as symbols of their power; only those who were high up in the hierarchy of the empire and military were allowed to use the portals. However, the Emerilians were using them as nothing more than trade corridors; even their ships had portals located inside, an extravagance that no Jukal would understand.
The Jukal could build more, but they were only made on the Jukal home planet and their distribution was controlled by the emperor himself. It allowed him to assert complete control over the Empire and his own Jukal subjects who might eye the emperor’s throne. They were made on the orders of the emperor and they took months to complete, with them being made by hand. The master craftsmen all made different parts that came together in a portal. By having each craftsman trained in one part, one would need to go to hundreds of the craftsmen to get the complete designs for the portals. It made it so that none of the information was available on the Jukal net: there was no AI to hack, no firewalls to break to get the information.
It was an archaic way of building the portals but it limited access. It was secure and it worked well. The Jukal Empire were not ones to mess with the system.
The door to Deia’s apartment opened as Dave walked in. He looked tired and worried but seeing Koi and Deia, it seemed to evaporate.
Deia didn’t say anything to Dave, instead choosing to kiss him as he came closer.
All day, there had been people marching through Ice City to the asteroid base; factories had been churned out from the different workshops across the cities, being funneled through portals directly into the ships of the Pandora fleet.
As battles had come to an end, the Devastator forces had been returned to Ice Planet and the asteroid base where they rested, rearmed, recharged and then once again moved through portals and teleport pads onto other planets of the Jukal Empire.
In forty systems across the Jukal Empire, Emerilian ships now moved between planets.
Dave wrapped his arm around Deia as they stood there, looking out over Ice City and glancing to the sleeping Koi in Deia’s arms.
“When do you think they’ll send out their fleets?” Deia asked in a soft voice.
“Might take a week or two—long enough for us to start talking to the different people of the empire.”
Deia nodded and didn’t say anything as she leaned her head into Dave’s shoulder, taking comfort in being so close.
“The Jakan have agreed to help. We’ll give them a planet that they can expand to, one of the Jukal home planets. Mage overseers will make sure that they don’t go overboard and give the Jukal a way out,” Dave said. “If we get to that stage.”
Deia looked to him, seeing the worry that he tried to hide. She nudged him with her shoulder, only having to look at him to transmit her thoughts.
Dave deflated and sighed, looking older as wrinkles appeared around the corners of his eyes.
“We’ve got a good plan, but there’s a lot of variables. Sure, we’re hoping that the Jukal will try to deal with the fleets we have hitting their key systems. But realistically, they might just take all their fleets, and then hit us here at Emerilia. If they do that, we’re going to need to pull out every trick and show all of our trump cards before they even get to Emerilia,” Dave said, laying out his worries. “If that happens, I don’t know if we will be able to keep Emerilia.”
“So that’s why you’ve been pushing for more people to come to Ice City and asteroid base,” Deia said.
“Yeah,” Dave said, not needing to hide anything from her.
“This won’t end unless the emperor of the Jukal Empire is dead, or we are, will it?” Deia asked.
“No, I don’t think it will. The empire needs to be broken for humanity to be given a chance to do our own thing. If even a single part of the Jukal Empire remains, we’ll be hunted down and destroyed. If we can get the empire to destroy itself, then we can be safe,” Dave said.
“Well, that’s one hell of a wedding present.” Deia smiled.
“What is?” Dave asked, a perplexed look on his face as he looked at her.
“Destroying an entire empire,” Deia said wistfully.
Dave chuckled slightly, remembering a promise he had made to her so long ago.
When this is all over, then we can get married.
A light shone in his eyes as a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. He pulled Deia tighter to him and kissed the top of her head.
***
Malsour looked out over the asteroid base from his office. He could see the slips that went off into the distance. Portals along the sides of the main thoroughfare showed scenes within different bases; through them, materials were coming from the refineries and munitions were coming from factories that were located throughout all the bases.
He looked up as a knock came from his door. “Come in.” He sensed the familiar aura. He sipped from his cup of Xer. It was a few hours in the past since it had any effect on him. He’d spent hours working with the diverse building crews to build and alter the multiple projects that they were working on.
“You should be getting some sleep.” Denur, Malsour’s mother, the mother of dragons walked into his office.
“I will eventually. There’s a lot more to be done,” Malsour said.
“You still haven’t fully integrated all the changes to your body. You need rest, at least a few hours of it before your body can get used to everything that has happened to you,” Denur said, not willing to let this go by.
“We’ve got the new warships to build and the flying citadels to update. We’ll have three more fleets ready to move in just a week at our current production levels. That means we can hit six more key systems to try to divide the Jukal’s main fleet.”
“Yes, but right now you’re not going to be much good to anyone if you’re not running in your best condition.” Denur cut him off.
Malsour felt a flash of annoyance, but then sighed as it drained away, seeing the clear concern and love that Denur held in her eyes. “You have a good point.”
“I know I do. I am your mother, after all.” Denur indicated for him to get up out of his chair.
He smiled and let his mother worry over him as she guided him out of the office, talking about things to take his mind off the war.
For the first time in days, he was able to calm his mind.
In his office, on one of the interface screens he had locked to his desk, alerts started to appear.
The Jukal fleets had finally started to move.
Chapter 4: The Jukal’s Response
“In a number of the empire’s systems, we have Jukal fleets moving toward the system portals, which seem to be building up power.” Commander Sato looked to the others in the Mirror of Communication conference room: Admiral Adams, Admiral Forsyth of the Pandora fleets, as well as Suzy, Lucy, and the leadership from the Terra Alliance. Sato didn’t look to where the four anonymous people were sitting; these were the council members of the Deq’ual system. The others in the conference room couldn’t even see them.
Sato had been the one to call the meeting as it was the Deq’ual sensor net that they had been laying down for months that had picked up the Jukal fleet’s movements.
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