by Aer-ki Jyr
Mak’to’ran realized it had to be him, though he wasn’t set up well for a fight against an aquatic. If he was to be the leader of the new V’kit’no’sat then it was going to fall to his new empire to deal with threats and violations such as this. If Itaru wouldn’t hold the V’kit’no’sat races to even the most minimal of restrictions then it was, in many races’ opinion, abdicating whatever authority it still possessed. When the Garas’tox withdrew from their holdings in Itaru, defaultly declaring their independence without even the courtesy of an official announcement, the arrogant did nothing but invite the other somewhat loyal Garas’tox in to replace them, thus maintaining the appearance of Itaru unity when the core of their race had packed up and left for Neddop.
At that point Mak’to’ran made his move, putting out a call for loyalists from any faction to join the culling force that he was assembling. The Garas’tox had to pay for their many crimes, and while Mak’to’ran wasn’t going to annihilate them in parody, the aquatic race’s oceans would be clouded with the blood of their treason as they were brought to heel.
4
November 15, 3669
Teqwisor System (Garas’tox territory)
Naviyo
Mak’to’ran stood onboard the command deck of his Kafcha as a mixed fleet from the reforged V’kit’no’sat hammered the planetary defenses of the Garas’tox waterworld below them. Concurrently he had 4 other smaller fleets hitting Garas’tox expansion colonies that, without massive defense fleets, would be nothing more than mop up operations. They were easy affairs if you had the fleet resources to commit to removing them, but this assault was not. Naviyo was a heavily defended world owned solely by the Garas’tox, and if this culling was going to be legitimate then Mak’to’ran had to hit them where it would hurt.
Fortunately he had one big asset in his fleet that was going to allow him to get through the planetary shields without a massive loss of ships. Irruit, the only Mach’nel the Sevn’orr possessed, was under his command. Currently, all other Mach’nel in the empire were being used to guard systems, hoarded as fixed emplacements and bargaining chips meant to entice support or leverage compliance. The threat of their power was their greatest asset…but that is not what they were meant for and Mak’to’ran was putting this one to its proper use as it blasted into Naviyo’s planetary shield with its orange Tar’vem’jic beam supplemented by the combined firepower of the fleet that had just finished pounding the Garas’tox naval defense.
The remains of it had scattered, leaving defense stations easy pickings for the Mach’nel to remove at range, but it could not take down the shields on its own. That would require more firepower, and the 18,492 warships that Mak’to’ran had assembled from 38 different races were providing that and them some, enabling him to eat through the layers of shields in short order as multiple Tar’vem’jics on the surface damaged or killed his bombarding ships quickly. Their numbers would sustain them, but his fleet was having to accept some deaths in exchange for this hammering of the shield. It wasn’t the first time Mak’to’ran had led his people to their deaths, but every time he had there was a legitimate purpose that benefited the empire…and today was no different.
His fleet knew it too, and there was no hesitation in the ship placements or rotation. Those vessels large enough to survive a Tar’vem’jic hit immediately pulled back while others would move in front of them, minimizing losses, but the smaller vessels’ shields were being punctured with ease and their usually large masses reduced to junk under the assault of Tar’vem’jic far larger than what the Mach’nel carried.
The Garas’tox had brought themselves to this carnage, and the price they were exacting on Mak’to’ran’s fleet would be repaid in blood. A culling was not a reprimand. Far from it. A culling was a very serious matter enacted as a last resort, but the outright slaughter the Garas’tox had been committing left no negotiation possible aside from their surrender and forfeiture of massive amounts of territory and resources. Mak’to’ran had offered that prior to the fighting, but as expected the Garas’tox had refused, sealing their fate, and now that he was losing ships and their crews to the planetary defenses there was no going back. They were dying to accomplish this culling, meaning he and they were committed to what had been deemed necessary for the empire.
This was as serious a matter as any, and far more important than the Stun Wars. Those had people dying for the sake of greed, but no one in Mak’to’ran’s fleet was here for that. They were here to do their duty, and when they did punch through the shield and land troops on the planet, stun weapons were not going to be used. The Garas’tox were forcing Mak’to’ran to bleed his fleet to reach the planet, and they were going to pay recompense in like manner.
But it would not be an easy fight. Breaching the shield was the most costly part of the assault, and once the final energy layer was down his fleet quickly targeted shield generators and knocked them out, ensuring that the protective barrier couldn’t be reestablished over their invasion corridor, then they hammered the Tar’vem’jic batteries that were within range. Four of them were in weak bunkers that required some pounding to eliminate, but the fifth was in a planetary defense station. Mak’to’ran did not want to assault one, but he had no choice. Every other approach to the planet held 2 or more such defense stations, making this the weakest angle of assault.
That was why the Garas’tox had added more Tar’vem’jic batteries, in order to discourage invasion from this direction, but the savvy naval commander that Mak’to’ran was knew that the additional firepower could not sustain itself after the shields went down, and whatever extra losses he took from those batteries would be lessened during the orbital bombardment to follow as they were soon eliminated leaving only the single Tar’vem’jic in the planetary defense station to deal with…along with the other weaponry it possessed, though the big gun was the primary threat due to its range.
Once the weaker Tar’vem’jic bunkers were destroyed along with some other lesser weaponry, Mak’to’ran pulled his fleet back up into high orbit and out of range of all but the single Tar’vem’jic, then the Mach’nel descended down all the way to the atmosphere. Unlike the J’gar’s egg shape, the Sevn’orr vessel was three claws coming forward and circling together until they almost touched, with the middle and upper claw being the thickest. This left an open space inside their grasp that was a void and exposed the ‘belly’ of the ship, and this design was the same for all Sevn’orr vessels, which was fortunate, for inside it and the heavy defense shields it possessed, the Mach’nel was cradling thousands of drop pods as the defense station fired upon it across the horizon at a very low angle.
The Mach’nel had rotated so its mass was between the defense station and its cradled troops, so even if the shields fell its mass would protect them. Had Mak’to’ran sent it down in any other region at least 2 defense stations would have had firing lines on it, meaning one could have targeted a gap and potentially punched through the shields. That was why he’d forced the orbital fight over this section of the planet, because it ensured his ground troops could get to the surface untouched.
Once they were below the line of sight and brushing the top of the atmosphere with the moon-sized Mach’nel, the drop pods were released along with a few warships that had come down with them. Those warships accelerated ahead and targeted smaller surface defenses, some of which were on artificial islands and others that were rising up from below the water from mobile craft or deep water spires. There was no land on the planet to put down on, so the drop pods gently hit the water and floated there…or at least that’s what it looked like. In truth they were hovering on anti-grav with their lower edge dipping into the water as V’kit’no’sat troops swam out.
Most of those troops were not aquatic, and those that were spread out in a defensive halo around them as the awkward swimmers headed for one of the artificial islands. Weaponsfire from the few warships overhead targeted Garas’tox craft below the surface, firing energy weapons into the ocean that
fought against the water to reach the necessary depth. The result of each shot was a huge plume of steam of dislodged water, though the surface effect was far more impressive than the damage actually done to those below, for the ocean itself was a huge physical shield protecting most of the Garas’tox infrastructure that lay on the ocean floor or dug deep beneath it.
Then one of the warships got out in front of the swimming troops and partially submerged, taking fire from the island’s defensive weapons and giving the swimmers a blocked angle to approach from. Using its shields artfully, the naval crew created little corridors of air that the swimming troops entered and then ran through, stepping on nothing but the energy matrix as they ran up to the edge of the island whose own shields had been taken down by a single shot from the Mach’nel as it retreated back up to high orbit, for it couldn’t hold position and slug it out with a planetary defense station indefinitely.
When the troops got to the island they ran up a slight incline in the shield corridors to get to the upper lip, then they were in shallow water only a few meters deep as they trudged their way across the shallows firing on those few batteries that the warship hadn’t already toasted. Some had been held back and were popping up out of the wet deck plates to attack them, but the armored troops handled them well and pushed their way up to the next tier that was completely out of the water.
From there it was a land war against nothing but automated defenses and some Zen’zat…who wisely backtracked after doing some sniping work.
Some of the V’kit’no’sat troops continued up to higher elevation on the 32 mile wide island, but a group stopped just above the water line and began cutting through the armor. It took hours to accomplish without the help of the warship, but per Mak’to’ran’s orders they were not to overly damage the facility. The single cut they made was a narrow line transcribing an entry portal some 230 meters in diameter then the warship used a mooring beam to lift it out, releasing a gush of internal water that quickly emptied out as internal shield generators stopped the outflow.
Into the breach aquatic Dan’chey and Sevn’orr went, attacking the internal shields that were not meant to be defensive, but rather protect against water loss for the part of the island above the ocean level. The Garas’tox could not move around the interior if it was not water, so with every internal shield the V’kit’no’sat troops breached a bit more ‘land’ was created, claiming it for the invaders as the rest of the assault force claimed sections of the surface of the island for the mass of troops to be flown up to and land on now that the anti-air in specific areas had been eliminated.
The water was far more deadly, for the defenses there were not so easily destroyed, so the aquatic troops swimming around the partially submerged warship took care to cherry pick their targets in conjunction with the naval firepower as a defense force began to rise up from the ocean depths. Both craft and armored Garas’tox by the tens of thousands came at the underside of the warship as its weapons fired through the water, churning it up into a maelstrom and killing many, but the thousands of targets could not be stopped from getting to the shields.
There they used special equipment to destabilize them on contact as the troops that made it through clustered between the naval guns where they could not shoot, then when shield breaches were made they began cutting into the warship hull as it sat patiently, shooting what it could as it provided cover for the aquatic V’kit’no’sat troops to get up to the surface of the island, for none of them were purely aquatic, per Mak’to’ran’s assignments. He knew better than to fight the Garas’tox in the water on their own turf, so he was only going to hit them where they were at a disadvantage…which meant in the air.
Eventually the warship had to leave, for the air spaces in the ship were being flooded as the Garas’tox worked their way inside…then hastily fled as the ship pulled up and the water began to drain out. The Garas’tox, like all the aquatic races, could breathe oxygen through water or the open air, but as good of swimmers as they were, they were complete klutzes on land, so they abandoned the ship along with the water and dove back down into the ocean as it rose up a few dozen meters and held position there, exposing the underwater weaponry on the island to any troops still in the water…but there were none. All the V’kit’no’sat troops were now on top.
Slowly, over the course of several days, the inside of the island above the natural waterline was emptied of water leaving only the Garas’tox Zen’zat capable of fighting back and many of them did not, surrendering to the V’kit’no’sat troops citing that their oaths did not allow them to fight a non-faction, accepting the legitimacy of the new V’kit’no’sat as the reincarnation of the old and to which their loyalties were affixed, but many loyal Zen’zat had already left their factions to come over to Mak’to’ran’s forces in previous years, meaning a good portion of the Zen’zat on this planet were dedicated to the Garas’tox, but they were no match for the land forces that Mak’to’ran had sent down to the artificial island.
It was soon his…or at least the upper parts. The island stretched below water for three miles before it hit the bedrock, but with all the Zen’zat techs accompanying the troops they were able to take physical control of the environmental controls that they could not hack and began replacing the water with air until only the lowest levels remained wet. When those areas were reduced to a containable amount, the Sevn’orr went in and fought the Garas’tox and Zen’zat in the remaining water levels.
It was tough fighting, but the lowest levels could not be drained without being onsite. Mobile shield generators were used to create little pockets of air here and there that vexed the Garas’tox to no end, giving the amphibious Sevn’orr an advantage as they offered the Garas’tox surrender options then promptly killed those that did not accept, still angry at the losses that had occurred in orbit and the few deaths occurring within the island, for the Garas’tox could not be taken down without some V’kit’no’sat losses.
In the end they lost control of the island, with some 336 prisoners taken and held in a water pen made up of part of a level. The rest of the island interior was filled with air and fixed that way for when the Garas’tox got around to cutting their way inside and trying to reflood it. Meanwhile Mak’to’ran saw to securing the skies and taking out more and more defensive emplacements that showed themselves on the surface, expanding his ring of influence while monitoring the movement of the Garas’tox forces in the ocean. He wasn’t even going to try to hunt them down and force a fight, rather he was going to go after their infrastructure. If they wanted to evade capture or death, then they’d be left on a mostly useless planet.
His highest priorities were the planetary defense stations, of which there were 9 of varying sizes. All of them had their upper surfaces in the air, with most of their mass in the shallowest of water so they could sink into the bedrock for additional protection. That left the deep water areas less defended, which was where Mak’to’ran’s forces currently had their foothold, but he had to take or break those key defenses, otherwise this culling would be blunted and word of the new V’kit’no’sat’s incompetence would spread, for he hadn’t disabled the Urrtren relays and knew the entire empire would be watching from afar to see what happened here.
Taking planetary defense stations was not something V’kit’no’sat were used to doing, but there was limited experience during other cullings and both the Rit’ko’sor Rebellion and the Zak’de’ron War. Such knowledge wasn’t advertised, but older commanders like Mak’to’ran either knew from experience or had exchanged notes regarding such things. The Garas’tox had built in the shallows to reduce the amount of armor needed on the flanks, for the water wouldn’t provide much protection against heavy weaponry that would just vaporize it. It was useful against the lower power weapons, especially kinetic, but bedrock was the best natural defense and they wanted their defense stations sunk in it as much as possible.
But they also needed the tips of the defense stations above water so it didn’t int
erfere with their weaponsfire to orbit or the air. That meant the ‘neck’ of the defense stations below the water line also had to be coated with heavy Yeg’gor armor…though not as thick as there was up top. If Mak’to’ran could get warships in low and fire laterally he would have a better chance of blasting through to the interior, but he knew that was a fool’s errand. The was no easy way to take a planetary defense station, but on occasion there was a way to use the water to his advantage.
What he had planned was going to take a long time to implement, but if successful he would get all the planetary defense stations without losing a single ship in the assaults.
5
January 12, 3670
Teqwisor System (Garas’tox territory)
Naviyo
With the blockade of the planet holding and Mak’to’ran’s V’kit’no’sat forces dominating the air and a handful of surface locations, it looked like the Garas’tox were going to be able to hold off the assault. They were weathering it beneath the waves and just waiting for the invaders to come down to them and fight in their element, but Mak’tor’an wasn’t having that and the first major effort in this culling was looking like an embarrassing failure.
That was what little talk on the Urrtren was saying as it worked its way back to the Teqwisor System thanks to the communications lag. Those watching and commenting were noting the complete inability of Mak’to’ran’s ‘faction’ to engage the Garas’tox and enact a proper culling, as well as pointing out that he wasn’t even trying. The Era’tran knew that such statements would continue to escalate until this whole invasion became a debacle that would undercut what legitimacy his reforged V’kit’no’sat had amassed to this point, as well as his reputation as a military commander…which had already taken a hit after Terraxis.