by Aer-ki Jyr
“Not near enough if there is more than one Lurker.”
“You need our assistance, and that of the V’kit’no’sat, to fill them faster. Can you learn this draining technique and siphon some Essence from us without us being given the knowledge?”
“I don’t know how to do it, and I’m not going to kill people experimenting to figure it out.”
“You have never tried to learn it?”
“We are working to develop new techniques, but we have lost people by pushing too far too fast. We have learned to nibble with anything new in Essence, and we are not able to tell how close to a breakthrough we are until we get there.”
“What if we supplied volunteers who would be willing to risk death to give you faster results?”
“No.”
“And that is where I fail to understand your methods. If the individuals choose the risk, why deny them the choice?”
“Are you volunteering yourself, or others?”
“If I volunteered myself, would that matter?”
Jason raised his hand out to horizontal position. “If you choose to, make physical contact.”
Nil’horn visibly hesitated, then to his credit he carried through and moved his leg over close enough to Jason that he could move the final inches and make contact skin to scales.
“This is going to hurt,” Jason warned. “If you want me to stop, telepathically say so. Do not strike me.”
“Proceed,” the Zak’de’ron said between gritted teeth…then he felt something horrible stab into him. It wasn’t in his body, and yet it was, turning him inside out and devouring him chomp after chomp. He had to fight every natural reaction he had to let it continue, but after a few seconds he could take no more.
Stop.
The vile snake inside him withdrew, but his insides felt damaged beyond repair. His toe rings that contained his armor could not activate to heal him, for they could not detect any damage. He mentally reset them and tried again, but there was nothing visibly there interfering with his body, though many of his normal stats were in danger levels. His body was reacting as if it had been injured and stressed, but no physical damage could be found anywhere.
“Do you understand now?” Jason asked, part challenge/part sympathy as he could feel the pain rolling off the Zak’de’ron who was not fully containing his telepathy.
Nil’horn stepped away from him, then began to spasm on the deck, crashing down so hard it made small earthquakes before he eventually puked, then thrashed some more before finally growing still. He wasn’t dead, but his Essence was finally starting to reassert itself over his body as he fought for some kind of control over the invisible damage done to him.
“That is why we cannot accept volunteers,” Jason finally said into the silence, for they were the only two on the deck at the moment. “We will not do that to anyone who cannot fight back, who cannot control their own Essence. So the only experimentation we can do is with each other, in very small amounts. And even then it stresses us incredibly. What occurred to you is actual damage, and even if you suggest it is worth the price, it is not. We will not become monsters in order to defeat monsters. If you cannot understand that in this moment, when it has occurred to you, then you probably never will.”
Why me? he finally asked, still laying flat on the ground and not so much as twitching.
“I am not squeamish, as you believe. I respect all life, no matter how small or insignificant. And no one can choose what you just experienced without first experiencing it. That is why we will not take volunteers. And even if you volunteer again, which I think you won’t, I won’t accept. What I was doing was so crude I was literally tearing you apart as I did it. I will not do that to someone outside of combat, and not even then if I have an alternative. In your case, Star Force and the Zak’de’ron are going to war someday, and we both know it. The only way we can avoid that is by falling to the Hadarak first, or by you learning. And if attacking you now will give you some badly needed experience that will spare others in the future, then under those conditions I chose to accept your volunteering…barely. My gut said no, even under those situations, and I overrode it. We’ll see if I was correct or not in time.”
Jason crinkled his nose at the smell of the not so small puddle of puke creeping its way across the floor. He used his gauntlets and signaled a nearby cleaning drone to take care of it, with the small half sphere popping out of one of the walls high up and floating down to the floor where it ignored the gigantic dragon laying there and floated over to the pool of puke and began sucking it up with an energy beam while simultaneously sterilizing the floor beneath.
“I suggest you stay right where you are. Moving will only make it worse,” Jason advised as he turned and walked away. “It will take time to heal. Don’t rush it.”
Nil’horn didn’t respond, laying there and staring straight ahead as tears of pain rolled down his face and started to puddle on the floor. When the drone finished cleaning up the puke, it rolled over to his giant head and began sucking up the tears…then a tiny burst of Jumat hit it and sent it tumbling across the floor to where it finally stopped, with its dome now crushed and its internal systems destroyed enough that the dragon’s puke began to seep back out the cracks and reform the puddle on the floor around the dead machine.
Nil’horn didn’t move a muscle for the next two hours, lying on the floor alone as he came to grips with the new reality of the galaxy…and how the Zak’de’ron were totally unprepared to face it.
10
March 31, 128532
System 7112934 (Hadarak Zone)
Stellar Orbit
Paul-024 entered stellar orbit in the face of evacuating ships, avoiding collisions as they jumped out thanks only to the limited range signals both sides sent up the jumpline just prior to a jump. The Excalibur emerged with only half a drone load trailing behind it as a mix of Star Force and V’kit’no’sat ships were gathered, waiting to jump out. Ace-095’s Borg vessel was here, waiting at the end of the line, and before Paul could make contact his holo popped up in front of him in the command nexus he used when not plugged into his astromech.
“We’re bugging out, Paul. Don’t try to fight the bastard. It’s got Essence weapons and it’s pissed right now.”
“Where is it?” Paul asked, pulling battlemap data from the other ships and not seeing it anywhere on active sensors.
“We left it on the other side. It came out of the star and did some poking at our drones. We left them there to distract it, and all three fleets are pulling out. We don’t have anything left that can hurt it.”
“What can it do?”
“Plenty. You’ll see when you get through the records. It’s got Essence weapons, and a huge body to charge them. We have to withdraw…now.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
“Don’t poke it, Paul. We already did.”
“I can see that,” he said, mentally working through the records that Ace’s ship was sending him with notations attached. “Standard Yeg’gor?”
“A little thinner, but the same stuff. We don’t know what it released into Morgan’s ship, but it consumed all the matter it touched like a bacteria colony. It’s still floating out there, and I’ve got a small sample quarantined on my ship.”
“What the hell is this thing?” Paul said, half to Ace and half to himself as he reviewed the data at lightning speed.
“It makes the Hadarak look like pushovers. Looks like the Ysalamiri really kicked the bee hive.”
Paul raised an eyebrow. “The Zak’de’ron were here?”
“They bugged out on a different jumpline. They didn’t have many ships left. The Viks actually showed some sense and held back, and we’re heading the same way unless the Lurker comes knocking. It’s damn fast when it wants to be.”
“Morgan actually used it?” Paul said in astonishment.
“Yeah, and it worked like a charm. Do you have one?”
“I’ve got a tiny one, not a Materia, just a
collect orb. Unless there’s only one Lurker, we’re going to have to figure out a different way to take them down. Why’d she shoot it in the arm?”
“Weakest point in the armor. We didn’t know how effective it’d be. In retrospect, should have gone for a brain shot…though we’re not totally sure where that is in this one.”
“Point,” Paul agreed. “You wasted a lot of drones.”
“We were trying to get it low. Hopefully that was why it retreated and stayed down so long.”
“We still have a maneuvering advantage.”
“If we keep our distance. It’s too good of a jumper at short range to completely block. We need more powerful dampeners if we want to get up close, and it might be doing something with Essence to partially slip through anyway. That’s still up for debate right now, but the dampeners still have some effect, just not enough.”
“That’s easy to build,” Paul said, his mind working to review everything quickly, but most of his thoughts were spinning off into ways to counter this new threat. “This is workable.”
Ace’s hologram raised both eyebrows. “Please share.”
“Working on it. You got a lot of parameters lined up. He’s not so scary now.”
“Really? We’re all running for a reason.”
“You’re not me,” Paul said flatly. “Relax, I’m not going kamikaze, but I think I know what this is now.”
“A super Hadarak, what else beyond that?”
“It’s their weapon system. The Hadarak are the batteries. And there are no Hadarak in this system right now.”
Ace flinched, then his whole body went rigid. “Holy power cell, Batman.”
“Exactly. But it’s playing assassin right now and doesn’t have them. If we keep it separate, we can kill them.”
“We don’t have that many charged Materia. There could be hundreds of these bastards coming.”
“Not Materia. We can’t rely on those. We have to use Ysalamir.”
“We can’t line up a shot…unless we build catching ships.”
“Dampeners galore,” Paul added, still reviewing data. “But that won’t last long with that disintegrator. We might get a shot off, but the big Ysalamir will only work on the Hadarak. Not the Lurkers.”
“So…oh shit, I get it. Legion.”
“Legion with a kamikaze application. We need them to ram the Lurker before the Lurker can disintegrate them.”
“That’s not what they’re working on now. Not last I checked.”
“They’re going to. This thing is going to be running from us soon, not the other way around.”
“The hunter becomes the hunted. I’m down with that until it cozies up to a Hadarak and starts sucking Essence like milk.”
“Then it can only move at the speed of the Hadarak…unless it can carry one with it, which I doubt.”
“Even if it did you can’t ignore the extra mass,” Ace added. “I’m so glad you’re on our side.”
“Riona took the hit for us, and now we’re going to adapt and kick ass. Once we start mass producing Ysalamir this galaxy is going to be ours, not the Hadarak’s. And these Lurkers are not going to change that.”
“We still don’t know how many Essence skills they have.”
“We know some, and their speed is the biggest factor. So long as we’re faster, we have the advantage,” he said as Ace’s ship was getting close to being the last ship yet to jump. “You get going. I’m going to have a look at that goo before I leave.”
“Paul…”
“I’m not going to attack the Lurker,” he said flatly.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Ace said, with his hologram pointing a finger at him, then it shut down and a few minutes later the last of the Star Force and V’kit’no’sat ships left the system with Ace bringing up the rear.
Paul sighed, still not seeing the Lurker on sensors, and accelerated his ship into a fast, low orbit around the star. The great glowing orb appeared to rotate slowly as he did, then eventually he started picking up battlemap signals from the drones left behind who were still fighting the Lurker. There weren’t many left, but Paul signaled them to break off their attacks and scatter. He watched to see how the Lurker would respond, with it chasing after one briefly, then it broke off as the drone accelerated faster than it could, making an emergency microjump further out into the system.
A bit later Paul’s ship rounded the horizon of the star and he could finally see the Lurker without bouncing signals back and forth from the drones. He could see it, and it could see him. It chose to hold position rather than come at him, and he slowed the Excalibur to an orbital stop 12 times maximum Tar’vem’jic range and stared it down.
It probably was wondering if he had a weapon like Morgan used, and if he got closer it might attack or it might run, but he wasn’t going to. He was just going to sit here and watch while the drones took a long loop around and back to his ship, with one breaking off to do a close flyby of the goo orb that used to be part of Morgan’s ship.
“You heal fast,” Paul said, seeing that the hole that had been punched clean through the Lurker was now obscured by internal matter. It wasn’t very thick, and according to the battle data the drones were providing him there was still a massive hole on either side, but the centermost portion had closed in on itself and was healing outwards.
“I wonder how much Essence charge you’ve got. Can’t be full, but you’ve got enough to fight the drones, and you wouldn’t have come out unless you had some reserves. How far can you go before you start to get lightheaded?” he wondered.
Paul flared his own Essence, not much, but enough that the Lurker could see it. He expected it to chase him so he’d have a chance to test the Excalibur’s speed against it, but instead the Lurker turned and accelerated in the blink of an eye back down towards the star so fast it was almost comical.
But Paul wasn’t laughing. This Lurker wasn’t your standard Hadarak. It was clever, and it wasn’t running out of fear. It must still be drained to the point where attacking his ship would leave it vulnerable. Without its Essence abilities, all it had was ramming and its grapple field. It didn’t even have tentacles like the Hadarak did. That meant when it had expended its Essence reserves it had to retreat or refuel.
And with Paul showing an Essence Rush onboard his ship, it was logical for it to assume that the Excalibur had another Materia onboard. It had no way to know he was bluffing, at least not yet. Maybe in the future it could feel the contained Essence, maybe not, but right now it was running and running fast towards the star as it hit the uppermost atmosphere and began to glow around the edges from the friction as it wasted no time in getting into cover.
It was hard to believe it could move that fast, but Paul could see the Essence rush himself. Like a halo of fire around it, even at this range, that overlayed on his vision. He wasn’t doing that on purpose, but that’s the way it manifested until he closed his eyes…at which point it was still there glowing with a light only his Core could see. At least that was the theory. So far Star Force hadn’t been able to create an Essence detector or discover how the Archons could ‘feel’ it, let alone explain how it got linked to their sight, but it was here, as inexplicable as it might be. It was here, and the Lurker could use it as well. And it probably had a few million years more experience with it than Paul had.
He held position and let the drones come to him, save for the one at the goo orb that stood some 62 miles wide. Gravity wasn’t holding it that tightly together, so it had to be a cloying function of its own. The drone got within 120 miles of it, scanning intensely and giving Paul some more data on whatever it was, when suddenly a tendril of it shot out, almost in slow mo, towards the drone.
Paul backed it off far faster than the tendril could move 120 miles, but it was still traveling multiple miles per second and stretched out more than 430 before it eventually stopped accelerating and began to pull back just as fast.
The Excalibur leapt from its orbital parking position and flew out t
o it, keeping out of range but getting close enough for Paul to use his Ikrid with a range boost, thanks to his Essence, and sought out the living being inside the goo that Morgan had reported. And just as she said, there was someone there. The goo was alive. But it wasn’t a single person, rather it was a colony of people, and all recently born.
Paul had seen many people born, and a fewer amount die, since his elevation to Neo rank, and every time someone was born there was an Essence residue left on them. For Humans it occurred early in the womb and lingered for months, as if the Core wasn’t transported instantaneously, but in a process. During death it disappeared in a snap, but the road in was more complicated in the extreme…and this goo was all showing the telltale residue that made it sparkle in his Essence vision. It wasn’t an Essence Rush, but it was something similar on a very low power level. Whatever this thing was, it hadn’t been born on the Lurker. It had been born as it ate away her ship and gained more mass, meaning most of these people he was feeling had come into existence after the attack.
Ace’s notes said the sample he’d taken was not active. No person was inside it, so maybe there was a mass issue before one would be ‘born.’ However it worked, this goo was like a minefield. Anything slow enough and close enough it would literally leap to, using its central mass as a platform, then the people in the tendril would attach, feed, and reproduce more.
Paul snapped his fingers. That was it. This Lurker didn’t have minions to collect resources for it, not in the traditional fashion. But if it set down on a planet and released the goo, it would eat into the planet’s crust rapidly, seeking out the various nuggets of value, digest them, then possibly return to the Lurker to be devoured themselves? Perhaps, or perhaps they’d just send the refined materials back through their gelatinous mass. Could this thing eat an entire planet?
Paul analyzed what he could without touching the material, compared Ace’s limited notes on it, then began to realize it wasn’t the omnivore he’d assumed. There were a lot of specific molecules in it, stuff that couldn’t be made out of rock and water alone. But it could digest the rock and water, and if given enough of the other materials, in theory it could consume and become a planet in and of itself…