Star Force: Mak'to'ran (4)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  But Mak’to’ran wasn’t worried. Appearances were not the same as reality, and what he didn’t want the Garas’tox seeing no one else would know of either, in particular the drilling teams coring through the bedrock beneath the ocean.

  The island infrastructures that Mak’to’ran had attacked and seized were not random targets. The first had been a foothold on the planet to work out from, then the others had been near to but outside the weapons range of the planetary defense stations so long as you hugged the surface, for the curve of the planet protected you from the straight line firepower.

  Those nearby structures reached down all the way through the ocean shallows to the seafloor as most Garas’tox buildings did, and once you got beneath the water you were once again outside the natives’ preferred fighting environment…and that’s where tunnels were being fast drilled and flooded with air pulled down from the surface all the while each bit of seized infrastructure was being covered with a sensor null field. That looked like Mak’to’ran didn’t want the Garas’tox knowing exactly what forces he had in play and where exactly they were, so the umbrella-like shroud now covered all the locations that he had taken from the Garas’tox and left a little lingering doubt in those watching as to what exactly he was planning.

  Mak’to’ran kept moving out and hitting more buildings that had tops above the ocean surface, making it look like that was his agenda while avoiding the huge amount of underwater combat that would be necessary to take the planet from the 4.5 billion Garas’tox, but in truth that was little more than a distraction as the null fields hid the progress of the drilling teams until they got within close sensor range of the planetary defense stations…and all nine of them simultaneously.

  That left several hours of prep time for the defenders if they noticed immediately, which Mak’to’ran was assuming, but his tunnels were so deep that none of the weaponry on the defense stations could target them. Nor could the aquatic troops do anything about it, for the V’kit’no’sat diggers were below the water and near to the molten material deep in the planet that each defense station was tapped into for supplemental power generation.

  His diggers didn’t go that deep, but within 49 minutes of one another all nine teams made contact with the heavily armored hulls of the deepest third of the planetary defense stations where they did NOT have Yeg’gor protecting them. That meant his diggers could core through it with the proper equipment, which he’d supplied them with, and as soon as they made contact with the hulls Mak’to’ran gave the order for his troops on the surface of the captured islands to move down into the tunnels and begin moving towards their true targets, safe from the mass of aerial and submerged defensive weaponry the installations possessed.

  The troops got to the drilling teams only minutes before they broke through, then using an environmental shield to keep the water from spilling out into the tunnel, there was a hurricane of air being pulled through the long corridor that dislodged the troops slightly as that same shield pulled the air through it and forced it into the water.

  That caused chaos within for the Garas’tox troops waiting near the breach point as it was expanded out into the full width of the tunnel. When that was complete and the air was continuing to be forced inside, the V’kit’no’sat amphibious troops went in along with many elite Zen’zat, the latter of which did little fighting and made use of the chaos to slip past and out into the interior where they began locking down various areas by sabotaging surveillance equipment, defenses, and hacking into what they could…and the Oso’lon had offered some limited override codes to assist them in the culling that they had privately sanctioned. The J’gar had not, but the Oso’lon codes allowed the Zen’zat to bypass a lot of security, including some of the environmental controls that saw certain areas start draining the water out and replacing it with air from the surface.

  This was happening in all the planetary defense stations simultaneously to make the most of the element of surprise, and before the Garas’tox knew it there were air footholds at the base of the defense stations where the bulk of the interior mechanisms were…and once the Zen’zat got into the heart of those they were able to take over large chunks above without even setting foot or fin there.

  Entire levels were drained, leaving the Garas’tox to waddle around until they found a water level to get back into as the Sevn’orr handled most of the frontline combat. Comfortable on both land and water and with a size that made them difficult to kill, they had a workable approach that they fought hard to exploit, for the Garas’tox were not helpless even with the air bubbles racing through the watery levels. The limited fighting was intense, but because there were only a few hours of warning at best, a large amount of troops had not been able to get back inside the defense stations, for most of them had been arrayed further out nearby the invaders’ footholds.

  And with the Zen’zat controlling a lot of the systems with the Oso’lon overrides, the exterior entrances had been locked down so more couldn’t keep moving inside to assist, forcing a fight between the invading V’kit’no’sat and those already inside, and the more room the invaders got the more troops were able to come in from the tunnels and expand the fighting. Even non-aquatic troops were fighting in chambers where the upper half was in air and the bottom half was in shallow water, sometimes above their heads or no higher than their knees. It wasn’t ideal for either side, but the V’kit’no’sat were determined and the Garas’tox were taken offguard so fast that they weren’t able to effectively organize against the speed of the takeover, for they did not understand the nature of the hacking.

  Override codes were not something that were flagged as intrusive, and with the water rushing out so fast they didn’t have a lot of time to think. Mak’to’ran’s forces kept them reacting and running as he monitored from high orbit through the defense stations’ own comm systems that his Zen’zat now had access to. They transmitted encrypted status reports that others couldn’t quickly decipher and he replied in the same, troubleshooting where necessary and overall pleased with the professionality and vigor his new V’kit’no’sat were hammering away at the Garas’tox with. They believed in the cause they were fighting for and their unity was evident as they did not operate as separate races. They fought as one integrated whole that the V’kit’no’sat were meant to be.

  And when they fought in such a manner, no one was going to be able to stop them.

  The attacks took no more than 6 hours in total, and at the end a few of the Garas’tox surrendered but 98% of them did not and were killed in the assaults…but none were revived. Cullings were meant to be bloody and this one was no exception. You either submitted to the penalties or you died, and all nine planetary defense stations were pushing bloody, gore-filled water out into the ocean as they were converted to fully air-breathing.

  The infrastructure inside didn’t fit that in all cases, but there were some levels for the Zen’zat that had already contained air up near the top and planetary defense stations were by necessity capable of holding all the various races. These had been biased towards aquatics, but not all areas were designed for them initially, though they had been converted for water later. When those conversions were undone and the aquatic areas drained save for a select few used as prisons, the defense stations once again became a bastion of V’kit’no’sat dominance rather than home to only one race.

  And within a single day, the embarrassing inability of Mak’to’ran’s ‘faction’ to effectively fight the Garas’tox suddenly transformed into a complete reversal and one of the most stunning defeats an aquatic race had ever suffered against land dwellers. Reaction to it through the Urrtren would not reach the system for weeks, but the Garas’tox on the planet were completely dumbfounded. One moment they were holding not one, but nine planetary defense stations that were going to bleed Mak’to’ran’s forces to even take one of them, and now Mak’to’ran had claimed them all taking no naval losses and only a handful of infantry casualties.

  But Mak’to’ran wasn�
�t waiting until the rest of the galaxy saw what happened, and as soon as he reinforced the planetary defense stations and secured them all, he brought his fleet in close to the planet, down through the existing breach in the planetary shields, and had them begin firing on targets across the planet with the Mach’nel coming down to duel with a few more Tar’vem’jic batteries…but without the planetary defense stations in support it now ruled the sky and soon the water, for Mak’to’ran transmitted a destruction schedule to the Garas’tox, demanding that the cities beneath the waves either surrender or evacuate by the given times. If they did neither he didn’t care, for he was going to destroy them whether they were inhabited or not.

  Many of the ships in his fleet could fire down through the water in the shallows and hit targets on the seafloor with adequate effectiveness, though defense shields beneath would last a long time with all the water that was being vaporized and thus bleeding off energy above them, but even that did little to stop the V’kit’no’sat as multiple warships would come in over an area and use their shields to pull back the water over their targets with bits spilling in on the edges where the barriers did not perfectly meet the ground. That little water vaporized as the weaponsfire came down nearly unstopped and hit the now dry targets beneath.

  In the deeper water that wasn’t so easy, and there were some city defenses that could shoot back up and damage his warships if they hovered nearby, so he didn’t bother to risk them like that. Rather, he had the Mach’nel park overhead in orbit and use its Tar’vem’jic to fire on the deep water targets with its beam cutting straight through the water with plenty of energy left over to destroy whatever was beneath.

  At first the Garas’tox did not evacuate, and Mak’to’ran didn’t hesitate to fulfill his threat. He attacked and pounded the first cities until there was little left but rubble that the ocean water quickly cooled and buried as the V’kit’no’sat ships moved on to the next on their list with several groups operating simultaneously in addition to the Mach’nel. Within the first week 130 million Garas’tox were killed, then they did begin evacuating en mass out to open water as they watched their cities get blasted from above. The planetary defense stations that were meant to prevent a disaster like this were silent and now in enemy hands, leaving them nothing to do but flee or surrender.

  The surrenders didn’t start to occur until more than half of the planet’s infrastructure was junk over a month later, and even then they only occurred in small groups that began to realize that without adequate food production the masses of Garas’tox in the open water would eventually starve to death. Those cities that did surrender were required to evacuate while some of Mak’to’ran’s people came down and took possession, reconfiguring security and some hardware to give them actual possession, then select Garas’tox were let back into begin working specific infrastructure and to start emergency deconstruction of areas that would be reconfigured into food production and other basic necessities.

  The highly industrial and elegant planet was being reduced to a survival project and the Garas’tox knew it, which was why they were the ones working furiously to make the changes in order to keep their people alive in the coming years until this culling was complete, for until it was the system would be under blockade with no promised help coming…and the invaders had stated plainly that they were not going to provide anything that the Garas’tox lost because of their refusal to surrender.

  Yet most of them still did refuse and the bombardment continued with the moon-sized Mach’nel drilling down deep into the bedrock to destroy the cities there. None were safe save for a few very deep mining facilities and those were later assaulted via troops when needed, leaving most of the planet wrecked without the massive aquatic war that the Garas’tox had expected.

  When defeating a superior enemy, often the key to victory is in not letting them fight in the manner of their choosing…which in this case was in the water, and Mak’to’ran was making exquisitely good use of his in-close naval bombardment to circumvent that now that the planetary defense stations were no longer a deterrent.

  Other worlds would learn from what he had done and prepare, so he didn’t expect such an easy time assaulting other planetary defense stations, but the key was to always get them via surface combat if possible and avoid the losses that a naval assault would entail. How he would deal with them in the coming months he would decide with each and every invasion, but for right now this total overrun of Naviyo was sending a chilling effect throughout the empire for anyone considering following the Garas’tox’s example. Mak’to’ran’s ‘faction’ was no longer referred to as such amongst many others following this first planetary cull, with growing numbers picking up the V’kit’no’sat label when referring to them from then on.

  Most did not, but more planets and even a couple of smaller factions decided to abandon their independence and sought out the new V’kit’no’sat capitol for terms of reunification…which were not so simple with the various races having splintered and the arrogant still running rampant on many worlds. Still, negotiating was preferable to fighting and Mak’to’ran had a large and growing Conclave to handle such things as he continued the effort to reforge the V’kit’no’sat on all fronts.

  The mop up work his other fleets were doing was coming along well, but he wasn’t going to sanction a culling attack against a serious target without his personal leadership. His new V’kit’no’sat were still too young for that, and given that he was the single point drawing everyone together meant his presence carried extra weight, now even more so after this jaw dropping planetary culling, so once the last of the Garas’tox cities here yielded to the threats or weaponsfire he left a small blockade force in place as more of his ships arrived to replace his warfleet. They were here as overseers and managers now while also to enforce the blockade, but his mainline ships were not going to sit here wastefully. There were assigned to him from other factions to fight, and fight they would so long as the Garas’tox would not yield.

  Two days before he left with the fleet he got a message from the Conclave. Not from the representatives there but from his personal staff regarding a matter discovered via the Urrtren. A warship carrying Tew’chor had left his world enroute to the new V’kit’no’sat capitol to consult with Mak’to’ran again…but it had not arrived. Upon review of records, one of the Urrtren relays had captured a distress signal from the ship as it passed through and was attacked.

  The Les’i’kron vessel was destroyed, with Mak’to’ran able to watch only a little bit of telemetry due to the jamming that had been in effect, but enough of a beacon pulse had gotten through during the navigational evasion to identify the attacking ship by class. It was a Dak’bri and far larger than the Les’i’kron Wur’ki that Tew’chor had been on. Mak’to’ran was slightly surprised that the Wur’ki couldn’t evade the attacking ship, for engine wise the basic blueprints had them at nearly the same speed, but the kill was confirmed and transmitted via the Urrtren and the Les’i’kron were both protesting and threatening the new V’kit’no’sat for the betrayal.

  For the Dak’bri that had attacked, while unidentified as to the exact ship, was clearly identified by the blip of sensor records that got through the jamming as an Era’tran vessel.

  Cold rage built within Mak’to’ran that did not subside as he withdrew from the Garas’tox world and traveled with his fleet back to a staging system where he left them refurbishment and rotational orders while he made a detour at top speed heading back to the Era’tran capitol of Holloi without bothering to send a message to Hamob.

  This was something he and his advanced psionics were going to have to deal with in person.

  6

  May 14, 3670

  Jamtren System (Era’tran capitol)

  Holloi

  When Mak’to’ran arrived at the planet he confirmed Hamob’s location and sent only a single message informing him that he was coming down and needed to speak with him in person. He didn’t listen for any reply and ignore
d the Era’tran security patrols when he put his drop pod down directly on Hamob’s front door, then exited the boarding ramp and felt the elder Era’tran’s mind in his own.

  The jewelry-like armor he wore deployed, covering his entire body as Mak’to’ran activated a seldom-used jamming system that blocked Hamob’s Ikrid along with his own, blinding his telepathy but neutralizing the powerful mind from disabling him. On approach an entrance manifested itself and led him straight inside, sealing behind him as Mak’to’ran came within sight of Hamob standing on the other side of the bowl-shaped room with the central pool between them.

  “You gave me your word,” Mak’to’ran growled as he continued walking forward and down into the water.

  “I did not break it,” Hamob said, backtracking slightly. He wasn’t wearing armor, and without his Ikrid to use as a weapon he wouldn’t stand a chance against the Hakja in combat.

  “Tew’chor is dead,” Mak’to’ran said, summoning a Jumat energy field over the front chest of his armor and holding it there for a moment, shimmering with visual distortion until he stepped out of the water on Hamob’s side, then he released it and knocked the elder Era’tran off his thick legs. He fell on his right side with a thud, then a series of force fields activated and penned Mak’to’ran in as Hamob got back on his feet.

  “We did not kill him,” he insisted.

  “Do not lie to me,” Mak’to’ran said, covering his entire body with the same shimmer then pressing through the shield with an effort as a large piece of ornate decoration was telekinetically pried off the wall and flew through the air to smack Mak’to’ran in the head where it broke into multiple pieces.

  “Listen to me,” Hamob insisted. “If I had betrayed your trust I would not have left myself here to be found, nor let you inside. I did not lie to you.”