by Aer-ki Jyr
The Hadarak also began to move towards the Uriti, perhaps not understanding that its minions were not pinning it in place or perhaps not caring. Bahamut held his ground even as the Hadarak came within grapple range, extending Lachka-like energy fields to hold the Uriti in place and even draw it towards its gravity generators that had a much shorter range, reflecting inside a pass-through shield matrix to enhance the effect and not pull on everything else in the universe.
As the Hadarak got closer, orifices on its surface began to open up and the tips of its giant tentacles crept out and into space. Paul counted 4 on the near side, then saw tips of at least two more coming out beyond the horizon on the huge Hadarak. It dwarfed Bahamut in size, and maybe it thought it could actually kill the Uriti, but right now Hera wasn’t giving him any information as to what was happening between the two of them.
But what Paul could see was the reaction of the other Uriti. They were too far away to see the attack yet, but they were already moving…all four of them…and heading towards Bahamut. They wouldn’t get here soon, with Nami being the fastest of the four and her ETA at no less than an hour and a half, but judging by their speeds they weren’t just coming in for a look, they were racing to help Bahamut as fast as they could.
They probably saw the minions move, and a message from Kara confirmed that they were under the impression that the Hadarak was going to attack Bahamut and they weren’t going to hold position any longer.
He sent a message back indicating that she should trail them at a distance with the fleet, but he wanted it close just in case they needed to take action as the Hadarak finally got an energy field grip on Bahamut. Hera was still sending telemetry to him, and he could feel Bahamut’s capture and resistance as he tried to pull away…which he did, easily, since the minions were not generating IDF fields to immobilize him.
The Hadarak didn’t relent, pouring fourth more minions and following Bahamut, who began striking down the minions as soon as they got within a few miles range.
“I know you’re busy, but I could really use an update…”
“It’s happening so fast, Paul. I’m just trying to keep up. The Hadarak are not accepting the Uriti and Bahamut is arguing the point. I don’t think this is going to end well.”
“Keep me updated when you can,” Paul said, letting her continue to monitor without pestering. “So much for making new friends.”
As he continued to watch the Hadarak closely, Paul saw additional orifices on the surface of the moon-sized lifeform open and pour out more minions…far more, making him think it was emptying every hangar it had to release a swarm that blotted out the sunlight behind it as they swirled around the circular mass of the Hadarak and moved in towards Bahamut. The Uriti swatted down many of them, but couldn’t get them all fast enough before he felt through the telemetry that its grip on the gravity well of the star had just diminished.
The Hadarak accelerated towards it quickly, almost making a microjump of its own, and Bahamut couldn’t match the acceleration at first, getting back within energy grappling range of the Hadarak before it began to break free again…then the Hadarak did make a microjump and nearly slammed into the Uriti as Paul moved the Excalibur out of the way and paced them as the first of the tentacles began to wrap around Bahamut’s left wing. The Uriti was pulled in even more by the localized gravity fields that could grasp the Uriti but the Uriti could not push off of due to the IDF goo of the corpses of minions that had rammed it and had not yet been burnt off.
Many were, as there was a constant cascade of red lightning arcs, but the swarm kept depositing more and more on them.
“Get back,” Hera warned. “Withdraw now,” she said, and Paul knew that wasn’t her warning but Bahamut’s.
Moving the Excalibur was easy, for compared to the two massive lifeforms it might as well have been a bolt of lightning. He tripled the distance to Bahamut, but continued to pace it as the two grappled on a random course further out into the system but off from the incoming jumpline the other Uriti were incoming on.
An update from Hera told Paul that Bahamut’s wing was damaged, being crushed by now two tentacles that were wrapped around it…but even as she sent that telemetry over to him he saw the pre-emptive flash of light indicating that Bahamut was about to discharge his main weapon, the Torronna that his wings generated.
When the big bang came it was larger than anything Paul had seen recorded by Bahamut, guessing that he’d been able to dig down a lot deeper now that his own life was threatened in a major way…and probably with a lot of anger too. Regardless, the yellow/white discharge was so large that it nearly obscured the entire Uriti from view and overloaded the Excalibur’s sensors so Paul couldn’t see what had happened until several seconds afterward.
Out of the aftermath Bahamut flew free, no longer entangled in the Hadarak’s tentacles and freeing himself from what remained of the minion good on his body with additional red lightning arcs as the Hadarak chased after him, now faster than before, but he couldn’t catch the slight faster Uriti even as the two accelerated so fast Paul worried about them being able to stop before careening out of the system.
When it became clear that the Uriti was uncatchable the Hadarak began to slow, pulling on the star even as the gravity well began to weaken and decrease its maneuvering power. Bahamut did likewise, but arced further away to get clear entirely.
Paul watched both maneuvers as he headed closer to the Hadarak, wanting to get a good damage reading as he noticed one of the tips of the tentacles was missing. Sensors found it shortly thereafter back in a lower stellar orbit before the chase got underway, and the closer the command ship got to the Hadarak the more he could see the massive damage that it had suffered…but nothing more than a good punch to the stomach, with its outer hull still partially intact in places and only a few small punctures around the orifices that were naturally less resistant to firepower even when closed.
Another two tentacles were partly broken, but not severed. They were just as tough as the main ‘hull’ of the Hadarak, but since they’d been touching the Uriti they’d taken the brunt of the attack and were slowly reeling back in, but doing so at a rate that he knew from V’kit’no’sat data meant they were too fragile to move any faster.
Bahamut had nearly blown apart three tentacles in one attack, but most of the Hadarak was still battle capable and the fact that it had chased Bahamut as far as it had was not a good sign. It could have been panic, but Paul guessed that the damage done, while significant, was nothing even close to a kill shot and the Hadarak’s sheer bulk meant it wasn’t something the Uriti could easily kill. He imagined that Bahamut would have to poke at it for days, if not weeks, to finally kill it, and he was sure Bahamut could due to the Hadarak’s inability to create addition minions as fast as the Uriti could destroy them.
Still, to have an enemy that could stand up to Bahamut’s Torronna and not only live, but keep on fighting as if it never occurred, was sobering. He didn’t know if Bahamut thought that way, but it underscored just how much damage the V’kit’no’sat fleets had to do over time to kill these things.
“Hera?” Paul finally asked as he pulled the Excalibur away from the Hadarak and headed back to where Bahamut was still decelerating from his escape jump.
“He’s hurting, badly, but only part of it is physical. His Torronna discharge bled into the crack in his own wing, burning it, but he’ll heal. The emotional damage…I don’t know. It’s rocked him to his core and he’s talking nonstop, to both me and the other Uriti even though they’re too far away. He keeps wanting to know if he did something wrong, what they could have done different, did they deserve this? He’s very disillusioned right now and he’s looking for answers.”
“What actually happened?”
“A lot. Too much to sum up, but it comes down to this…the Hadarak are going to pursue the Uriti until they’re dead. They’ve just become enemy #1 with the V’kit’no’sat a distant second.”
8
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��Explain,” Paul demanded as Bahamut slowly changed course to rendezvous with the other Uriti, and vice versa, as the Excalibur flew in the gap in between them and the Hadarak.
Hera sighed, having mostly disconnected with Bahamut during his fleeing, and was now able to focus on bringing Paul up to speed.
“I think I know how the Chixzon solved their spawning problem. I’m surprised Nefron didn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“The Uriti are not Hadarak, they’re minions…really big minions. I think they used a Hadarak body and put a minion core in it.”
“How do you know that now?”
“The Hadarak told Bahamut. Told him he was an abomination that had to be destroyed. The Hadarak have a hive mind…that’s the odd signal that was irritating the Uriti. Bahamut doesn’t have it because he’s not a Hadarak, but he can sense it because his body is partially Hadarak…but his body is also partially minion, so there’s a massive confliction, like a feedback loop, that is giving them a headache. Part of them says they’re Hadarak but they don’t fit into the hive mind, another part says they’re minions and they’re supposed to be subservient to the hive mind. It’s all mixed up, but the Uriti are totally rejecting the hive mind.”
“The Hadarak think he’s a minion and not following orders?”
“No. No, no, no,” Hera said, her holographic head shaking. “The Hadarak are following orders. Some sort of purity code. Bahamut registers as a minion telepathically, but doesn’t respond to the hive mind. He’s like a virus, and one that’s pirated a lot from the Hadarak. It’s like the Hadarak view him as one of them, but whose voice is that of a minion who doesn’t speak like a minion. Sorry, this is hard enough for me to understand, but the bottom line is that the Hadarak sees Bahamut as the greatest threat to the Hadarak in existence and pushed him to the top of their kill list.”
“An actual list?”
“Yeah. The Hadarak aren’t just roaming and stepping on everyone in their way. They’re operating on orders, from what source I don’t know, but the hive mind is like an identification mechanism between Hadarak. If there is any anomaly detected it is purged, and Bahamut is showing up as the mother of all anomalies.”
“The Hadarak kill each other?”
“If they’re not pure enough, yeah, I got that impression…at least that they would. Based on the reaction, though, it might not have happened in a very long time, or perhaps ever. There is a rigid unity within the Hadarak and Bahamut is deemed an outsider. But not a stranger. He’s an altered form of them, and for that he has to be purged with extreme prejudice.”
“Well that’s just peachy,” Paul said, irritated to no end. “How’s Bahamut responding?”
“Shock. Utter shock at both the rejection and the attack. He also doesn’t understand the minion thing, because his minions aren’t people. They’re biological drones. So the Hadarak just called him a ‘non-person’ and he’s taking that as a huge insult on top of the rejection. I think he was expecting the Hadarak to be another type of Uriti, but it turns out they’re something very, very different, and not in a good way. He’s not going on a rampage, but he’s rudderless right now.”
“Provide as much of one as you can.”
“We are, and the other Uriti will be soon once they can get within closer range and talk it out. I can already tell they’re pissed that Bahamut is hurt, not to mention shocked that something out there can damage them that easily. All the ‘big people’ they know are friends, so this betrayal is messing with them too, despite them not knowing the details yet.”
“Are they going to want to strike back?”
“I have no clue, Paul. We’re way beyond any precedent here.”
“Is the Hadarak coming after us?”
“Yeah, but he’s empty right now. Thankfully we got some more speed into Bahamut, because if the Hadarak can’t catch them they have to use minions and he’s got none left to speak of. I’d guess he’s gonna eat and grow some more, and it looks like he’s angling towards the first planet.”
“And once he’s full?”
“They’re coming, Paul. Bahamut told them enough in their conversation that the Hadarak know where we live now. They’re coming for us, as an afterthought along with the V’kit’no’sat. Star Force is now higher on their kill list because of our involvement with the Uriti.”
“Is this kill list a metaphor of yours?”
“No, it’s not. These Hadarak are exterminators. That’s their purpose.”
Paul frowned as he saw the sensor data. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Couriers I’d bet,” Hera said angrily. “Going to tell their buddies about us.”
“Is there any chance of negotiation with the Hadarak?”
“Zero,” Hera said firmly, with the Excalibur suddenly accelerating at insane speed towards the four globs of material the Hadarak had just released and were moving in towards the star at starship-level speeds. “Are we going to kill the big one too?”
“Buying us some time,” Paul said, bringing the command ship to battle stations. “I assume the Uriti aren’t going to mind me blasting those couriers to bits?”
“Just do it, Paul. I’m not sure about anything they’re going to do from this point on. Are you sure we can get them all?”
“If they stick together, yes. There’s not much armor on them.”
“They’re moving stupidly fast.”
“We’ll catch them,” he promised, goosing the jump drives further and further. He had almost unlimited speed if he wanted to run the drives up to interstellar jump levels, but that was moving directly away or towards the star, with lateral movement options being much more limited. He was having to use both movement components to close on the courier minions, each of which were nearly a mile long…save for one that was about half that.
Paul knew from the V’kit’no’sat data that the size determined their range, and he guessed the Hadarak had sent all it possessed, with the fourth one being only partially grown. If it knew that it would have less range, then that probably meant…
“Damn,” he said as he saw them start to split up and head to different jumplines.
“How many can we get?” Hera asked.
“At least two. I don’t think I can get them all,” he said angrily.
“We need to send other ships to track them down,” Hera insisted. “We cannot let that message get through.”
“Done,” he said, sending a message to Kara to deploy several jumpships to follow them through whatever jumpline they exited on while he focused on reeling in the closest one. It took some time to get to it, but eventually he got within firing range of his Ardent beams and began to light it up…only to see the giant minion make an abrupt course change and head directly for the star, accelerating so fast that it left the Excalibur behind.
Paul adjusted and went after it within a second, but it was already out of firing range. There was no way the Hadarak could have given it orders that fast from this distance, and for the first time he was seeing firsthand the advantage of having minions that were living beings who could think and react on their own. This one knew it couldn’t get to the jumppoint, so it was drawing Paul away from the others.
If Paul let it go it’d just swing around and head back on its original course or head to another jumppoint, so he had no choice but to pursue it. When he got back within firing range again the courier ducked a second time, altering course violently, but Paul was on top of it this time, managing to get a few shots in as both ships zigged and zagged, draining the Excalibur’s capacitors precipitously but with plenty of power left for insystem maneuvering. If he needed to make an interstellar jump he’d have to wait for them to fill up again, otherwise he’d have to limp through the jump, and he knew that the maneuvers were at least as taxing on the minion for the same reason.
That would limit the number of jumps it made before dying, for they were ill suited to eating. They could survive on their own in a system, but they couldn’t refill thei
r power reserves without a Hadarak, so they’d go as far as they could then stop and go into survival mode until a Hadarak eventually found them. This chase would limit how many systems this courier could travel through, but that wasn’t going to matter. The Ardent stings that were hitting at range, while not many, were doing enough damage that the minion’s movements got sloppier and sloppier until the command ship was able to get some better accuracy on it and rip it to pieces.
Literally, because there were no explosion of metal or atmosphere, only a splattering of biomatter until the hole-riddled minion ceased all propulsion. Paul moved in closer and ended any hope of it still surviving, then shot his ship off towards the next closest one, seeing that the other two were going to get to their jumppoints before he could intercept.
The ships that Kara were sending didn’t have a chance of catching them here, but they’d record where they went and follow them, maybe intercepting them during the coast phase of the jump and blowing them up enroute, but at the minimum they’d travel faster and arrive at the destination ahead of the couriers…then blown them to bits when they came out of their jumps.
Paul didn’t like sending a few ships off on their own away from the fleet, but Hera had been insistent that this was necessary and he didn’t doubt her judgement. Whatever had just happened with the Uriti and Hadarak was something they did not want to let word get out about, so these couriers had to go down.
Paul’s command ship caught up to the second a few minutes before it arrived at its jumppoint and dispatched it with ease. It didn’t try to evade, rather goosed its speed a bit further trying to get to the jumppoint, but it didn’t make it. Paul began to go after the third, knowing it was probably going to get away, but didn’t want to give it a jumppoint of its choice if there were preferred ones to locations where it knew other Hadarak were.