Naero's Valor

by Mason Elliott

  This was the one major weakness in the struggle that had remained clear and glaring.

  The defenders of their very universe clearly needed more numbers—many more. They needed more support, more crews, more fleets.

  All along, the only place that they could find both was among the unaligned worlds, the so-called free, mostly Human worlds.

  These were also largely the same flurry of hundreds of thousands of worlds that had been formerly dominated and controlled by the now defunct Gigacorps.

  Nearly all burst at the seams in some capacity, ever ready to expand anywhere they could to better the lot of so many. They had stubbornly refused to join the GSA or any other alignment that asked them to abide by certain standard rules of rational, sentient conduct.

  Now that all rapidly changed.

  They converted by wholesale numbers in the face of naked oblivion.

  Amazingly, however, even in the face of death, there were still holdouts.

  Twenty percent of the lander worlds, by all reports, actually hesitated on the very brink and weren’t sure about what to think or do. They appeared to act out of stupefied shock more than anything else, paralyzed into doing nothing and cowering down in fear and disbelief.

  Such hesitation would not suffice.

  The cause of galactic survival could not endure a loss from the outset of twenty percent of their raw numbers.

  As they had insisted from the very start, they wanted to keep all of their options open. The approach of doom made all posturing irrelevant.

  Thus they had done do nothing, and attempted in a quite infantile way to have everything both ways, and any way that would favor them.

  That was all about to change far beyond anyone’s reckoning.

  Within a standard week, if not sooner, any of their lander whining and posturing would soon mean nothing to the lost and the dead.

  Once the enemy continued to break through, the G’lothc would effectively campaign to exterminate Humanity on a galactic scale, just as they would any other threat to their power. This had been one of their paramount goals all along, for centuries.

  They had pursued this exact kind of war in the distant past, many times.

  The GSA had rightly tried to warn the landers and make them see what came at them.

  Now it all loomed over them, nearly too late.

  Naero focused her final efforts on the stunned worlds, and tried to explain it all to their leaders once again, even as time itself turned against everyone.

  The very stars turned against them.

  The last preening lander lackeys and mouthpieces still laughed and rebuked her with great bravado. They were so stuck in their obstructionist roles that they seemed incapable of playing out any other part.

  They insanely dismissed all of the warnings; they were all too full of themselves. Still too busy jockeying for their own positions, importance, and influence.

  All while the mounting panicked reports poured in from hapless dying worlds that none could save.

  As expected, the Great Adversary riddled the thinning defensive lines with holes and widening breaches that they exploited in every way.

  Already, in a matter of hours, over twenty more lander colonial worlds and systems fell to enemy hands.

  This was but a trickle of the deluge of death yet to come.

  The sentients on each one of those worlds, multiple millions and billions, had all been quickly obliterated out of hand by the enemy’s rampaging forces.

  None enslaved or captured.

  They were all exterminated without hesitation or thought.

  The lander’s second hand ships and few petty fleets on hand hardly slowed the Great Enemy down.

  Even now, the invasion swept out toward many other ignorant, unsuspecting lander worlds, and the utter annihilation only continued to expand.

  Lander bullshit and empty bravado meant absolutely nothing to the ravaging G’lothc and their hyper violent slave hordes. Folly did not stop a foe that had crushed entire galaxies beneath their feet before, and left them blasted, scorched, and lifeless in their wake.

  Shetanna Prime called out to these hold outs. THE TIME IS NOW, BEFORE IT REALLY IS TOO LATE. JOIN THIS FIGHT. TAKE UP THE CHARTER OF THE GSA. IF YOU REALLY WISH IT SO, YOU LANDERS CAN ALWAYS QUIT AFTER THE FACT, AND RETURN TO BEING INDEPENDENTS LATER, IF YOU THINK THAT THAT WILL SERVE YOUR INTERESTS BETTER. HAISHA, MEMBERSHIP IN THE GSA IS ALWAYS VOLUNTARY!

  RIGHT NOW, ALL FREE SENTIENTS NEED TO BAND TOGETHER AND FIGHT–FIGHT LIKE THEY NEVER HAVE BEFORE!

  Once Humanity was crushed and put down, the enemy would never allow it to rise up again.

  At last the newly appointed leader of the slammed together Lander Confederation Defense Force, the only group that existed to actually defend the remaining unaligned worlds came online and delivered a much needed wake-up call to the landers and their leaders.

  She was young, perhaps only in her early thirties at the most. Dark hair, one gray eye, the other covered up by a nanomaterial eyepatch and a slip of her short dark hair.

  She still had slight hairline scars on the rest of her face, and she wore a Confederation gray and light blue uniform, with the rank of Fleet Captain. “I am Fleet Captain Malline Robertson. Admirals Cho, Grayson, Park, and Ghavri are all dead. I am now in command of our failing defenses. Listen to Shetanna Prime. This threat is upon us now! We have retreated from fifty-six more lander colonial worlds to once more regroup. Heaven help their populations now! We can only hope that they will perish quickly, like the other worlds that we have already lost. This terrible new enemy outclasses our warships and our fleets in every way.

  “But our numbers continue to grow and we shall resist to the end, and fight them everywhere, and in any way that we can. I hereby demand that all of the unaligned leaders unite and move against threat seriously, or we are all doomed. Join the GSA. Now! We desperately need their tech and all of the help they can give us. The situation is dire. Just as we did during the High Crusade, all of us need to stand and fight together as one against this grave new threat.”

  Conversion offers and requests flooded in.

  Within minutes, the convert rate zoomed to ninety-nine percent as the last twenty percent of those worlds capitulated.

  The GSA accepted the provisional agreements under extraordinary circumstances. The ranks of the Alliance instantly swelled by zillions more.

  Alliance Command did their best to coordinate the new flood of older generation fleets and bring them into the fold in a coherent manner. Waiting hidden fixer nebulae exploded in hundreds of key sectors. They converted the lander fleets and trained their lander crews on the latest weapons, defense systems, and tactics.

  Naero’s reps took over the process and led the converted fleets to the shifting battle lines.

  Little time could be spared.

  The enemy breakthrough continued to spread like a plague of death.

  Fresh lander fleets were close at hand and hit the battlefronts in record numbers all about the contested border regions.

  Veteran GSA fleets rushed in to help lead and direct them.

  Slowly these fresh reinforcements, so close at hand, checked and even contained the enemy for the most part.

  The battle lines closed ranks and stabilized somewhat throughout the course of the next five days.

  Ever larger numbers of fleets continued to slug it out day after day.

  No one knew how long that would last.

  At least the swell of lander numbers and converted ships gave the defenders a fighting chance. The fixer nebulae, the Pelani shields, and the fickle Vortex cannons in large batteries also proved to be deciding factors.

  Many more stars, however, slowly continued to turn corrupt with the Darkforce, all throughout the battle zones. In time, this alone would give the Great Adversary the advantage once again

  The threat continued to expand ominously, and the defenders struggled to find a way to stop that process, or defend against it.

  In
a lighter moment, Naero had the chance to meet with her counterpart, Admiral Malline Robertson.

  “Shetanna, do you recognize me?” the admiral asked. “It’s Mally, from the High Crusade? You and Bravo Command saved my little sister Evvy and I, and a bunch of lander kids, back on Zodos-4 from the Ejjai. Do you remember any of that?”

  “I do,” Naero said. “I do remember. You we’re all little kids back then, but you were trying to save the younger ones. That was a very tough time, yet you were so brave.”

  “Many of us will never forget what you and those amazing Spacer Marines did for us. You were all so powerful and fearless. That made a big impression on all of us. Now we’re fighting side by side against the same foe. I hope that we can repay some of that good will from the past. We sure need to. I’m so glad that we’re all on the same side again. I just wish our enemy wasn’t so powerful, and numerous. I guess some things never change.”

  Naero smiled and embraced her. “Together we shall find a way once again. Remember that they were defeated before, long ago by others who fought for freedom. They and their hordes of slaves will fall in the end once more. We will all make that happen. Together we are far mightier than they and their mindless lackeys could ever be.”

  They pulled apart.

  “Admiral Maeris, I would be honored if you and your people would take time to dine with me tonight. I’m bringing my sister Elly in to join us. Bring any of your family and friends or crew that you wish.”

  Naero laughed. “Please, call me Naero, or N. I insist. My husband Khai and myself would be greatly honored in return to sit down with you and yours. I’ll bring some of my people. What is little Elly up to these days?”

  Mally laughed in return. “Funny that you should ask. She’s not little Elly any more. My stunning sister grew up to become a vidstar among several of our nearby worlds. She even played Shetanna in a highly successful vid series that made her very wealthy. She can’t wait to meet with you again. Her husband and kids nearly fainted when she told them that they were going to have dinner with the real Shetanna Prime, and the real Enforcer Khai.”

  37

  Day 20. Just as Naero and many others feared, the newly corrupted Darkforce stars became hubs for the enemy’s power. The G’lothc openly referred to them in their coms as stargs. These new enemy power sources attacked anything that came within range.

  How could the defenders stop this new major threat that continued to spread? What if even a portion of the stars in their galaxy became weapons and power sources for the Great Adversary?

  They had to have an answer, but as yet, there wasn’t one.

  The enemy could still overwhelm their forces with superior Darkforce power and growing energy forces that the GSA could not match.

  As it was, the latest trickle of lander fleets coming on line weren’t much help by now. The bulk of the badly needed lander fleets already fought or moved to do so, providing the defenders with about a week’s time. The war had stabilized somewhat while each side struggled to re-position such great numbers, but not for long.

  Getting the bulk of the lander fleets where they did the most good caused major logistic headaches for the defenders.

  It would still take days for the majority of them to get into the proper positions. These heavy reinforcements backed up many lines shooting through the wyrmhole lanes in order to reach optimal strategic deployment. Such delays and confusion could not be helped.

  The fastest methods of long distance SpaceTime travel stood packed to capacity.

  This plight forced Naero to send out so many of her rep units that she depleted herself once again and needed time to regen and recover.

  All the while, the defenders knew that the Great Adversary would not hold back for long. As soon as they had corrupted enough stars, the enemy would achieve the power they needed to strike hard and break through once more.

  While Naero regenerated her physical form, she took that crucial time to plunge back into the KDM.

  Once there, Orean could check in with Shetharra and their Seven about the progress with the Songs of Power, and to seek out some counter for the growing threat of the enemy Darkforce stargs.

  In answer to their desperate plight, the Alliance Champions assembled with her on her flagship, and came to her inside the KDM to assist with the investigation.

  They found her combing through all of the known historical and tek data bases, researching the enemy capacity to corrupt certain classes of stars. They all took up leads and followed them, including Iahk and Neveab.

  Shetharra still clung to her mother, and had just given her the most recent updates on the Process via their mental link.

  Her daughter’s energy being form fragments naturally kept pace with the child’s growing physical body and appearance.

  She was now twelve, going on thirteen, thanks to the time dilation effects on the first round of training on the Mystic Homeworlds.

  “Momma, what’s wrong?” Shetharra asked. “Has there been another major setback? What’s happening in the Great War? Our Seven tell me that the stars are beginning to die, just as they did in the dark days of the ancient war, many ages ago. When the Kexx and the Drians swept into the galaxy of the G’lothc for the final stages of their war, they found that over a third of the stars there were already poisoned and being used as terrible weapons. Many of those poisoned stars blazed with the Darkforce, corrupted beyond the point of no return.”

  Orean protectively hugged her little duck close to her “All of those stars had to be destroyed, Shetharra. The Kexx and the Drians purified everything they could in that malignant, dead and dying galaxy before they vanished from the universe. Doing so could not be avoided. Can you imagine leaving behind an entire galaxy that had become a cancer on the universe–a breeder of abominations?”

  “I will try to comprehend that, Mom. But of course you know, in reality, the Prime Material me is still busy in the fourth year of my Mystic training. This is an energy being, advanced syphyng fragment that we use to interact together here. Yet I’m so glad to have contact with you, Mom. Even our Seven are very concerned, and have told me so. They feel very helpless. They tell me to direct you and your people search the KDM in these key areas.”

  Orean looked at her daughter with both fear and eagerness. “Haisha. Show me what you know, honey. There is little time. Reveal all of these things to me!”

  “We can’t, Mom. It’s all too much data to process at once. You and the others will need to make a concerted search.”

  Shetharra quickly passed along multiple of leads and locations.

  Orean contacted and assigned them to her companions, with Om’s kind assistance.

  They still weren’t finished. With all of that, there was still something important pressing on Shetharra’s mind. She still clung to her mother, even with her mother in a Kexxian energy being form.

  “I can sense you’re worried about something else, sweetie. What is it?”

  “I’m afraid that I am also the bearer of further bad news, Mom. The Seven have explained to me that even if the song learning process succeeds, I won’t be able to use or apply the last half of the Songs of Power directly–all because of my new Urtomium containment suit. My suit won’t allow me to tap and direct the large quantities of energies needed to effectively make use of those songs, the ones we need most. But I can still help support you.”

  “What do you mean directly, Shetharra?”

  “I should still be able to join with you, as one through our link, and focus my considerable energies through you. You are the only one, therefore, who will be able to use the Greater Songs of Power in time, if at all.

  And something else important, the effects won’t be permanent.”

  “What does that mean?” Naero asked.

  “If all goes well, we’ll be able to summon and form Kexxian Starkillers and crew them with your reps. We don’t know how many of them you’ll be able to create at this point, or how long they’ll stay around. We can gu
ess, but we won’t be able to make them permanent. No matter what, we have to start preparing now.”

  “How long will they last if we can summon them?” Naero asked. “What’s the estimate?”

  “Less than a month, Mom. Then they’ll fade away, just like the partial one I created by accident. If the war lasts longer than that…”

  Naero closed her eyes and breathed a great sigh of relief. “Little Duck, if we can create enough Starkillers to turn back the enemy hordes, even for a few weeks, we might just have a chance in this war. I’ll take such risks any day. Haisha, let’s go for it.”

  “I can show you what has been revealed to me at this point. Be warned, Mom. The process will nearly drain your energies to the point of death at first. After that, the Cosmic power transfer will become much easier.

  Before you go back out to fight, you will need time to regen and recover.”

  “We can do all of that.”

  “No, Mom. You don’t understand. We must hurry.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the three Primary Enemy Leaders are coming, leading a mission to destroy first you, Mom—and then all of the Alliance Champions, once you are dead.”

  38

  Naero nearly died, even without the enemy leaders attacking her.

  The preparation process for implementing the Songs of Power proved to be far more demanding and agonizing than Naero could have ever expected.

  The Seven led them through the near two dozen required spheres at a dizzying pace, instructing her and her oldest daughter what to do.

  They passed through the spheres of many types of stars, interacting with them, actually singing in unison with the music of their exact Cosmic flows and learning their precise magnitudes and frequencies.

  They had to repeat the same actions within hundreds of different stars.

  At each juncture after they finished, Naero thought she was being shredded or torn about in some way. After some quick regeneration, they raced on to the next.