Fluidly, belying reflexes faster than humanly possible, the reggf dodged to the side and fired from the hip with a hand beamer. The soldier before him blew up. From behind the reggf more entered the chamber, firing their weapons.
Soussa's men returned fire, instantly killing the three reggf in the room. The doors surrounding the whole chamber opened and the light was blocked as figures stepped in front of the door. Soussa saw the armored saurians step in and fire some weapon. It tore his men to shreds. Fighting side by side with the saurians were reggf, the people that had allied themselves with his people, the people that lived at Barnard's Star and flew human ships. Soussa pulled the detonator from his pack and triggered it. Nothing happened. He still didn't know why when a beam fired from a hand weapon held by a female reggf burned its way through the center of his skull.
Three Asia class ships flew towards the red giant star at two fifty C. Speeding away from them at seventeen fifty C were a cluster of torpedoes heading to the group of saurian ships that moved to come between the invaders and the battle station.
Energy flashed and the three ships ceased to exist. The three Asia’s flubbed their drives and dropped to point two C at a hundred light hours from the battle station.
Tigee stood on his platform, the dome above his head showing the three alien ships, each equal in size to his battle station. Surrounding him were the command stations of the station. They buzzed with activity, communications coming from everywhere.
“Leader,” the liaison extended his neck as he entered the command platform. He was to be communicated with by the crew, he was the one to speak with Leader Tigee. He was Second Leader and had the power of command. “Ground station reports the elimination of the Intruders.”
“Get me Leader Kitean,” Tigee said, leaning his arms on the railing as he stared at the giant ships.
“Torpedoes have been launched.” Came the statement from the defensive wing of the command bridge.
“Launch defense on automatic,” the liaison ordered.
Kitean's face floated before Tigee.
“Leader,” Tigee dropped to his knees. “You have received the data?”
“Yes, Leader,” Kitean said. “Continue.”
“Your orders.”
“Fight the aliens. I have routed ships to aid you.”
“Yes, leader.”
Kitean's face wavered until it vanished.
“Engage all weapons,” Tigee ordered.
Beams erupted from the battle station, traversing the distance at C, travelling no faster. They filled the entire area, a radius of space slowly growing to encompass more than ten light hours. Racing ahead of the beams were torpedoes, leapfrogging through their own warp holes.
The three Asia class ships maneuvered, each launching another array of missiles. From the third ship flew five squadrons of fighters, speeding at point nine C around the orbital to come to a different vector onto the defenses of the battle station.
The fire was incredible, but the torpedoes could not penetrate the defenses of the station. The warplanes flew into position and launched their missiles. Thin beams traversed from the station, the space around the blue streak warped so that it raced passed the barrier. For each of the one hundred twenty five fighters there was one beam. The warplanes maneuvered but all were hit by the beams, as their missiles, and the whole no longer lived.
Like the station, no weapon fired at the Asia class ships penetrated their defenses. The station fired the beams that had destroyed the fighters at the larger ships, but their shields were too strong to allow penetration.
Space shifted a few light hours from the Asia ships. A group of five saurian battle cruisers appeared in now time. The Asia class vessels loosed a salvo of torpedoes at the ships and turned, accelerating to the barrier and beyond. The five saurian ships changed vector warped after them, two vanishing in the flash from the FTL missiles fired by the aliens.
The main screen of the Klastopogee showed the aft image of the three alien ships speeding away at unbelievable speeds.
“Navigator,” Leader Kashinae said, “are they past vortex range?”
“No, Leader.” The navigator continued to scrutinize his screen. In fact two of the other ships are vortexing to a position ahead of the aliens.”
“Helm,” Kashinae ordered, narrowing his eyeslits in a smile, “all stop.” Unnoticed to all the ship ceased moving.
“Open a vortex hole,” Kashinae rubbed his airslits reflectively, “end coordinates to match the position one of the alien ships.”
“Leader,” the helm looked confused.
“Program position and open the vortex to exit directly on their ship. Weapons,” he turned his to face the weapons station, “time your actions to the helm. As soon as the vortex is created shoot through three purge bombs.”
“Yes, Leader.” The weaponsman narrowed his eye slits in a grin. He had never thought of such a tactic, and never would have. His Leader was great.
Before the Klastopogee opened a torrent of swirling gravity, spiraling out from the center, a center large enough for a ship to drop through. From the Klastopogee spewed three giant tubes. The tubes fell through the eddy and landed directly on the alien ship. The flash spread across the distance and even touched the alien ship next to it, causing it to drop sub-light.
Torpedoes flooded from the remaining alien ship as it curved back in a wide turn. The torpedoes sped to the nearest ships and destroyed one, damaged the other two.
In the distance another battle cruiser appeared from non-existence. It changed vector and vortexed to a closer position.
The wounded giant alien ship cut loose with a flurry of smaller ships, each speeding, spreading out, and edging to the two damage ships.
The Klastopogee altered course to match the vector of the wounded ship. She opened another vortex and dropped through three more purge bombs, with similar results. The reverberation from the blast destroyed a number of the warplanes. These smaller ships sped to the wounded katsurani vessels and horded about them. They were too small and agile for the ship's main beams to hit. Anti-torpedo defenses took out almost half the fighters. But the larger numbers of smaller missiles finally overwhelmed the two ships and they puffed out, imploding into dust and then spewing out the smaller debris.
From the new battle cruiser came five spheres, each five meters in diameter. The spheres opened their own vortex hole and dropped through, landing on the remaining Asia class ship. The initial explosions did not destroy her. She dropped from FTL, and listed, spinning as her pusher plates worked intermittently and unevenly.
The new battle cruiser vortexed to within beam range. Anti-matter beams spewed from the Asia, disintegrating the invading ship. The spinning ship righted herself and stopped, facing the Klastopogee from a distance of almost a thousand light hours away.
Kashinae stared at the enhanced image of the giant alien ship. It faced him, its gigantic triangular bulk looking very odd. He was too far away to do anything. He wondered why it didn't fire, why it didn't launch the smaller ships. He stared at it, trying to divine what its occupants looked like from the shape of the ship. He could only guess that they were much bigger than his own people.
“Leader,” his second walked to his side, whispering to him. “Those smaller ships are vectoring to our position.”
“How many?”
“Thirty, Leader.”
“Shift to a point on the other side of the alien,” Kashinae said out loud, more thinking than ordering. “Hold the same distance.” Before he could confirm it as an order his ship shifted, phasing out of reality and, after a few minutes, reemerging a thousand light hours from the alien, facing her aft.
The alien ship turned, bringing her bow to face the Klastopogee.
“What do scans tell us,” Kashinae asked.
“Inconclusive, Leader,” the scannerman reported. “I am unable to penetrate them with normal scans, all tachyon scan tells is their location.”
“They have defensive screen
s similar to ours, we have seen that.” He rubbed his air slits. “I am assuming they have numerous shield generators like us. I am also guessing that their only operational shield generator is for their foreword shield.”
“We have no more purge bombs, Leader,” the second offered.
“I am aware of that,” Kashinae's voice held a slight edge, but was still reflective. “Open a vortex to just aft of the ship and fire a standard spread of warp torpedoes.”
“Yes Leader.”
The swirl of gravity spun and opened a hole. Through the hole the Klastopogee fired a volley of six torpedoes. They entered the hole and emerged aft of the alien, detonating their warheads.
The explosions rocked the alien ship and caused part of her hide to erupt, sending shards of her skin into the surrounding space.
“I can read the alien now, Leader,” the scannerman reported. “Its power level is rapidly dropping. I read no anti-matter emissions. If her reactor is similar to ours it is not working.”
“Enough,” Kashinae spoke.
“Leader,” the scannerman reported, extending his neck, “The thirty smaller craft are nearing the alien's position. I am detecting a standard radio emission coming from the alien.”
Lieutenant Commander Charlton sat, stunned. He stared at the EUS Australia, the only Asia class remaining alive. He re-read the transmission. It was perfectly clear.
“Sir,” Lieutenant Wiffle's voice came across his link. “What do we do?”
“What we are ordered to do,” Lieutenant Commander Dougtery's voice came across. He was empty, his plane out of missiles, yet he elected to attack with them, to give more targets to shoot at.
“What do we do?” Lieutenant Carlisle said, emphasizing the ‘we’, his voice wavering slightly.
“We ram this bastard,” Dougtery said.
“We can't let them get our technology,” Ensign Tokagi said, his voice matter of fact, his accent still strong.
“They don't need our technology,” Charlton said.
The radio message came across again, this time text followed by voice.
“What the hell are you waiting for,” the voice said, strained. In the background noises of damage control parties could be heard.
“We can't do it, sir,” Charlton said.
“It wasn't a request,” the voice was agitated.
Charlton locked his weapons onto the Australia. His actions were followed by what was left of the squadron.
“My system is malfunctioning,” Wiffle reported, “I can't lock on.”
“Bullshit,” Dougtery said.
“Fix it,” Charlton said. “We've no choice, Lieutenant.
“Yes, Sir.”
Charlton looked at the ship, his only home, his only way home, and fired. His six-pack dropped from the underbelly of his fighter and pulsed to the Australia. His scanner traced the path of all the missiles as they impacted the larger ship.
Isolated explosions erupted from various parts of the Australia, even places that weren't hit, until the whole thing blew and large chunks darted away from the center of the explosion.
“They killed their Leader,” the scannerman said. “The smaller ships killed their Leader,” his voice trailed off in disbelief.
“Status.” Kashinae stared at the exploding ship.
“No life forms. The smaller ships are now unarmed.”
“Insane,” Kashinae's second said.
“Leave them,” Kashinae ordered. “Shift back to the battle station.”
Krishnae stood, eclipsed by the larger Kitean, and stared through a large glass wall at the strange being. It was small, but yet still larger than the Pyrinni and the Reggf. They had it strapped down, nude, while one of the Proconsul's mind wizards pierced its thoughts. Krishnae had ignored them, but they fascinated Kitean. He even had one that served him. He was assured that for some reason they were unable to even sense the minds of katsurani, but they had no problem with other reggf and pyrinni and, it seemed, this new species.
The door behind them opened and Soltyn entered.
“Ah,” Krishnae widened his eye slits in a smile, “it is the ombudsman.”
“Elder,” she lowered her head.
“Come, ombudsman,” Krishnae turned back to face the room beyond the glass, “tell us of this new species that attacks us from deep space.”
Soltyn walked to the glass and touched it with her hand. She saw the reggf mind worker probing the new species. Her breath stopped when she saw the creature. She recognized it, knew it from briefings.
“It comes from far away. I do not know exactly where it is from, but I know of it.”
“Tell us what you know,” Krishnae's voice seemed odd.
“The Tecktons had restricted a number of systems within this one region of space. It was a large collection of star systems, around seven hundred. They said that it belonged to these creatures.
“I have seen their ships before, Elder,” Kitean admitted. “In visions.”
Krishnae faced the larger, younger, katsurani. “I too have seen them in visions. Only I have seen them as formed differently than this, and of relative size to us.”
Krishnae walked to the edge of the glass and looked in at an angle. “In my visions I have seen them fighting with Opeo.”
“Why do they attack us?” Kitean said, extending his neck, staring at the naked beast. “They do not invade, they seem to have no reason to their attacks.”
“Like the incursion at the research facility,” Krishnae added.
“Yes, Elder. They were going to blow it up. Leader Tigee showed his ability, he was worthy.”
“I understand, Kitean.” Krishnae looked at Soltyn. “You did not tell me of these creatures.”
“I was unaware of them. What I knew was because of briefings when I was young.”
“Before my birth,” Krishnae mumbled.
“Yes, Elder,” Soltyn smiled, “before your birth.”
Kitean stared at her. He had never thought of the pyrinni being as longevous as himself. He had seen numerous reggf generations and knew them to be short lived. Now that he thought of it he had known the same pyrinni as when he landed. He knew of none of them dying.
“How long do you live?” Kitean asked.
Soltyn looked to him, her small mouth turned up at its corners. Kitean knew it to be a smile.
“They live approximately three times longer than us, Leader,” Krishnae answered him.
The old reggf finished in the room and left. He entered the room with Krishnae and bowed.
“He knows a lot of useless information. It was very hard weeding through it.”
“Go ahead,” Krishnae ordered.
“This creature calls itself Brandon and it calls itself human. In his history,” he looked to Soltyn, “he knows of the pirennie coming to his people. They gave his people technology, raising them to space travel and then left. Since then his people have grown to the level they are now at. They attack us, fighting for the pirennie.”
“Where is their homeworld?” Kitean asked.
“I can see a map in his mind, but it is hard for me to tell.”
“We can carry the battle to them, move onto them and absorb their technology,” Kitean said.
“We still need to consolidate what we have, Leader,” Krishnae left the room, followed by the others. He walked down the hall to his office and sat in the chair. Kitean sat opposite him, with Soltyn taking her seat. The reggf remained standing.
“When he awakes,” the reggf said, “I will have him make me a schematic so that maybe we can find his homeworld.”
“If you cannot take it from his mind I will not trust it,” Krishnae said.
“We must wait for others to give us the opportunity we need.” Kitean looked out the window and narrowed his eye slits at the heaving sand. “We can fight them until they show us their home.”
“Leader,” Krishnae pressed keys on his desk, the surrounding stars floated above their faces. “Station ground facilities setting a p
erimeter on the furthest circle of our ability. Design sensor stations and put them up. These aliens will attack those installations. We can divine the direction from which they come based on both the sensor data and their choice of attack.”
“Kunte,” Kitean stood, extending his neck. He spun and left the room.
“The creature, Elder?” the reggf asked.
“Put it in a pen. Study it.”
“Yes, Elder.” The reggf turned and left.
Krishnae turned his attention to Soltyn, staring at her.
“Elder?” she asked.
“What do you think?”
“Perhaps a raid on the Compendium itself. An attack of that nature would call the forces of the humans back to the compendium in order to defend it.”
“There is no purpose in that attack. Now, there is no purpose in taking the Compendium.”
“Yes, Elder.”
“It is not the way of the Triconitae, Soultinn. Do you forget the Triconitae that easily?”
“No, Elder. I was thinking of a diversion to thwart their attacks.”
“That is what I have given to Kitean. We will give them a purpose to their attacks.”
“Elder,” she said, “it would seem that they do not know where our homeworld is either.”
“Homeworld,” Krishnae was puzzled.
“I mean Junta, Elder.”
Krishnae narrowed his eye slits in a smile. “Does everyone consider Junta homeworld?” he asked.
“To many it is, Elder.”
Earth Union Ship Independence, a Spruance class assault carrier, CVA thirty one, floated in deep space two parsecs out system from 46 Epsilon Orion, a B class supergiant, also called Alnilam, over twelve hundred light years away from Earth.
Within the system orbited fifty seven planets, with a total of four hundred eighty three moons and an uncountable number of asteroids. In orbit of the twenty third planet of the Alnilam system a katsurani troop ship, the Klatanatou, shifted into real space. She was followed by two destroyers of the new Pung-Ti class.
The troop ship fell through the dense nitrogen atmosphere and hovered above the sandy brown land, flat and old with yellow grass covering the whole thing like a carpet. The aft end of the troop ship opened as the craft gently planted herself into the hard soil. From the ship came the katsurani. They then drove out in machines and began building a base.
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