The Vandle War

by Reg Franklin

  “Ashpool to Tazer. Package delivered.”

  “Tazer acknowledges, Ashpool.” Chris’s voice was relatively calm, but she could hear the strain. “We need the transmissions into Sagittarius stopped. Can you manage?”

  “I can try.”

  ---

  +Admiral, she must hurry!+ Zath was pleading. +V’elj holds more than just rocks!+

  “Like what?” Chris watched as the rail gun blew apart a frighteningly large piece of debris headed for the Alex.

  “Sir, is it just me or is the black hole a lot less black suddenly?” Jemma’s voice rang out.

  Chris looked at the wide display of the battle. “What the-?” A brilliance was beginning to form at the center of the anomaly.

  +Light!+ Zath practically screamed. +It will release the light it has captured!+

  As if on cue, a burst of light sliced out of the darkness of V’elj, blasting through a Xaodi battlecruiser, cutting it in two. The Pride of Xaod spilled crewmen from the breach into cold, merciless, vacuum.

  “Fâalta!” Athlé shrieked.

  Chris pounded his communications array. “Vren! I’ll send a rescue team! Hang on, buddy!”

  “Too...late, Admiral…” Was the weak response. “Athlé, take care… Admiral...greatest honor to serve...now, finish them!”

  They saw the half of the ship containing the engines maneuver towards the defensive wall of ships before the core went critical, blowing a massive gap in the line of vessels.

  “Take that transmitter out, now!” Chris bellowed, glancing over at the Cynosure, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she stared at her brother-in-law’s sacrifice.

  38.

  Aster collapsed onto the console that controlled the blasts into V’elj, pain screaming through his body.

  What-? He had time to think before another wave blasted through him. Something about the light V’elj had ejected was doing something to him. He screamed as the pain tore through his face and arms. +Hello, my child.+

  That voice-! Aster twisted himself, saw a hologram of Quordex appear in the room.

  +You did not even consider why you felt compelled to take poor Lva-ne-Brn’s legs, did you?+ The image shrugged. +You did not even consider why there would be parts of the Cradle that could only be opened by her genetic code, although she is immobilized now.+

  Aster screamed again.

  +You truly are pitiable, child. Thinking that you had surpassed my plans for you, when instead all you did was what I had programmed you to do. Even poor little Lva-ne-Brn didn’t know the scope of what I planned. Probably for the best.+ The hologram knelt next to Aster. +Our early conflicts with C’sal-vir showed me something. Our people are weak. I thought perhaps with the Vandleifdulus, we could become mighty. But I was stalled again and again by the council; they called for peace, yow know that? Prelt were being slaughtered, and they wanted to just roll over and take it. So, I gave them no choice. I allowed Lavnabren to issue the command to turn on us. Perhaps, with a war on two fronts, the others would reject their attempts at pacifism.+ Venom dripped from that last word.

  Aster stared at his biomechanical right arm. They were grafted over Prelt arm-stalks at a young age, and would grow with the body. A split was growing along it, greenish-black ichor pouring from the opening.

  +Naturally, it didn’t. We even lost our world, and the fools sued for peace! So, we need to change entirely. The idealistic Zath eventually came to power, and he does understand defending our people...to a point. But our people must ascend to our ordained place in the cosmos!+

  Aster stared in horror at what emerged from the chitin of his artificial arm: an arm of flesh and bone, with six fingers on the hand, two of which were opposable thumbs.

  +We accept grafts so easily.+ Quordex whispered. +And the light you released from V’elj was intense enough for our photosynthetic systems to process this new graft and hybridize it into your system, creating something...new.+

  Aster screamed again, first in horror at what he was becoming, then in additional pain as bone began forcing its way through the skin on his head. Teeth began developing where none had existed, slashing into place in his mouth.

  +Your composite personality is worthless. It lacks...vision. You merely see imperfection everywhere, desiring to wipe the slate clean so it may start anew. I would much rather take raw material and improve upon it. Potential exists in all things, my child. And now you have reached yours.+

  The rapidly mutating creature that once was Aster lay prone on the floor. Wires snaked down from the ceiling, guided by computer signals, stabbing into the sides of his skull.

  +So, I shall relieve you of the burden that is your personality. I created a personality matrix here to place within you when you were ready, to override your composite. You shall cease to exist, child. And I have no regrets to that.+

  Aster closed his eyes.

  Quordex opened them.

  39.

  “Ashpool, the station stopped firing. Was that you?”

  Jennifer crept around a corridor. Jesus, this place’d give H. R. Gieger nightmares. The interior of the station was redolent with the rotting egg and fish smell of the Vandle, biomechanical features along the bulkheads. “Negative, Tazer. I’m still hunting.” A...pipe?...on one wall was literally throbbing, giving the impression of a physical pulse. I am showering every hour for a week if we survive this. Experimentally, she drew a combat knife, and made a small cut in the line. An oily, clear liquid full of small black specks squirted out over her hand.

  Twice an hour. She mentally corrected. There was a peculiar mewling sound ahead. Moving slowly, Jennifer entered a room, larger than some cathedrals she’d seen, with a large console on one side, view screens displaying the battle raging outside. “Well, this looks important…”

  +g’yahh-tou-fdey...+

  Jennifer whirled around and went slack-jawed. A Vandle, much larger than the average, was spliced into a series of machines. Where its legs should have been terminated in a stump that seemed to be slowly regrowing tentacles.

  “...sweet Jesus on the cross.” Jennifer whispered. The thing looked down at her.

  +D’ha? K’to-reya’t?+

  “What the hell did they do to you?” She circled the thing, keeping out of arm's reach. Pipes snaked into the lower half of its torso, other bits seemed to be monitoring vital signs such as heart rate.

  +...D’key Lavnabren.+

  “...Lavnabren?” Jennifer stopped. “Are...you Lavnabren?”

  It seemed to sob.

  How the hell do I communicate with this thing? I can’t touch its mind without killing it, can I?

  +...human.+

  “You...understand me?”

  +I do. You are an abomination in my eyes, but your tongue has been analysed and forced into my mind.+ Lavnabren gestured weakly at a cable running into the back of her skull. +Vile. Disgusting. But, I no longer care.+

  “Why? Are you surrendering?” Jennifer slowly stepped back from the imprisoned Void Queen.

  +If it were in my power, I would still wipe your race from existence. But I no longer have any power. I have been...usurped.+ Bitterness tinged the mangled accent.

  “Aster? Hst-ur-Dra?”

  +Yes. He will destroy my children and me to get what he wants.+

  “Isn’t that what you wanted? To kill everything and then yourselves?”

  +Not...what I wanted. What...father put into my head. I now wish only for my suffering to end. My children’s suffering as well.+

  “Why? What changed?” Jennifer was actively curious.

  +I now know that this was a battle I could never win. That there are simply too many species that do not suffer daily as we suffer. Our existence is pain. These bodies, they hurt. Before father remade me, I did not hurt as I do now. He felt it would...motivate us. To give us a reason to inflict pain on others.+

  Christ, if Callixta hadn’t killed him, I think I might have. Jennifer’s mind swam. “What if we could stop the pain? Fix you?”

/>   +It would not matter. Hate is all we know. It takes all my control to not scream at you now, human. To denounce you as an impure abomination. The will of the Void is that we should suffer, and the will of the Void is the will of Lavnabren. But I no longer wish to suffer. I wish him to suffer.+

  “Aster?”

  +HIM.+ Lavnabren’s control started to slip. +HE IS THE TRUE ABOMINATION TO OUR PURITY AND PURPOSE AND HE SHOULD SUFFER AS WE SUFFER. THE WILL OF LAVNABREN DEMANDS THAT THE USURPER SUFFER AND THEN WE MAY ALL ENTER THE VOID.+

  “Then let me usher you in!”

  Lavnabren’s back arched as she began an all-too-familiar seizure. Jennifer turned to the door, already recognizing that hateful voice.

  “And here I was afraid you would rob me of my rightful revenge.” Paul Stragdoc grinned.

  ---

  The Gieron forces leaped out of their landing shuttles as they landed in the main docking bay. Roaring, they plunged into a mass of Vandle warriors, smashing, chopping, and doing what they could to draw as many of the enemy to this location so that the Yellow-Hair could end this battle. Sadly for many of them, they died upon exposure to their enemy’s blood, cancers forming and killing them before they hit the deck plates. But the distraction was working as more and more of the Vandle emerged into the bay.

  The Gieron knew they would die this day, but it would be a death that they were proud to march towards.

  ---

  “You unbelievable ass.” Jennifer choked out.

  “I was immobilized for several weeks because of that thing.” Stragdoc countered. “You have no idea what it’s like being trapped in your body, aware of what’s going on around you, but unable to do a damned thing. Relying on others to interpret commands.” He pulled his displacement pistol and fired into the machines holding Lavnabren aloft. “And don’t tell me this thing doesn’t deserve to die. How many humans has it killed? How many of your allies?”

  “Millions.” Jennifer admitted, falling into a crouching stance, ready to spring into action. “More than you have. But I feel more sorry for her than I ever could for you.”

  Stragdoc rolled his eyes. “Oh, wonderful, a morality lesson from the killer of my child.” The limp body of Lavnabren finally hit the ground.

  Refusing to take the bait, Jennifer moved on. “How did you know about the psychic probe hurting them? Every report I saw said your people were just blasting them apart.”

  “Probes...hurt them?” Stragdoc paused. “I just reached in and squeezed her heart in my hand. No muss, no mess.”

  “Of course.” Jennifer muttered.

  “But now you and I shall have an accounting of things.” He pointed his gun at her. “Now, should I drag you back to Numenor, or just kill you now, carry your corpse back and put it on display?”

  “You and what army, Paul? Looks like you’re all alone here.”

  “That army.” he indicated the screen at the console. Jennifer glanced at it, seeing a large force of Psi-Omegan ships arriving. “That woman, the..Cynosure, was it? She’s about to learn about shotgun diplomacy. She either gives you up, or we kill everyone.”

  +Mass murder? Why, that sounds absolutely delightful.+

  Stragdoc stiffened at the sound of the Prelt voice. “You’re dead.”

  +I believe the human phrase is, ‘I got better’.+ Both the Alphites were confronted with a horror. It bore a superficial resemblance to both Prelt and Vandle. The skin was black as pitch, as was the bony crest that had erupted from the spherical head. The mouth was still Prelt at first glance, but full of shark-like teeth. The eyes remained distinctly Prelt-like, glowing a fiery red. But unlike the Prelt, who averaged maybe a few inches above the human norm, this thing easily stood fifteen feet tall with its tentacled legs flat and outstretched.

  “Codex.” Stragdoc snarled.

  “Aster?” Jennifer gasped.

  +You are both wrong. I am Qrd-ex-Dra, Quordex to my people, and death to yours. The cattle species of the galaxy shall fall in worship of me, for I am the one who makes souls shriek.+

  40.

  “Additional Psi-Omegan vessels have arrived!” Jemma shouted across the bridge. “They demand Ms. Safyo be turned over immediately!”

  “Like hell we will.” Chris muttered. “Inform them that we will only discuss this once the Vandle are defeated.”

  The ship rocked with an impact. “They respond that was a warning.” Jemma snarled.

  “What is wrong with these people?” Athlè whispered. “We fight to save all our lives and they try to start another war in the midst of this one?”

  “They’re fanatics.” Chris responded. “Anything their leader says, they parrot.”

  “Sir, they’re now being hailed by Commodore Vaathek on open frequency, being ordered to stand down!” Jemma risked a smile. “At least one of them can think for themselves.”

  “All fleets! Concentrate firepower on the defensive barrier of vessels. Psi-Omegans, you want your Emperor back? He has to be able to break through that fleet!”

  ---

  Jennifer remained in a defensive crouch, Stragdoc at first looking relaxed, idly twirling his gun like an old west gunslinger. “Souls shriek, huh?” He laughed. “You’ve become dramatic, haven’t you?”

  “It’s a Prelt prophecy. Their version of the AntiChrist.” Jennifer corrected, her eyes darting around for some advantage.

  “Oh that’s absolutely adorable!” Stragdoc laughed even louder. “This mismatched collection of spare parts thinks it’s the bringer of the end times?” Jennifer swallowed a smirk, recognizing that Paul was trying to provoke the mutant, anger it into a mistake or distract it.

  +You jest?+ The Quordex-thing cocked its oversized head. +Perhaps I should demonstrate why you should not?+

  It moved impossibly fast, Jennifer was barely able to keep track of it as it pounced on Stragdoc, grabbing for his arm. He barely spun out of the way, the creature’s talons leaving a deep gash in his biceps. Enraged, Stragdoc flipped his gun into his good arm, firing at the offending claw. “First blood to you,” he acknowledged, growling the words. “But last blood counts for more.” A portion of Quordex’s hand evaporated into mist under the blast, only to start reappearing.

  +Many species regenerate. Some quicker than others.+ Quordex backhanded the dumbfounded Stragdoc with the newly regrown hand, slamming him into a nearby console.

  “Okay, say goodnight.” Jennifer snarled, hurling a mental probe like a javelin. The mutant merely smirked as the psychic projectile washed harmlessly over it. “Ah, shit.”

  +Did you truly believe I would allow the vulnerability that I gave my children to infect my new perfect form.+ It mocked, slithering towards her, seemingly savoring the moment. +I shall kill you. Then I will again release captured light from V’elj, and incinerate your fleets. Then my children will wipe your stained remains from existence before moving on to other galaxies. And creation will be perfected under my watchful eye.+

  “Do you ever shut up?” Stragdoc snapped. Levitating himself upright, he fired off several blasts, forcing Quordex to dodge rapidly. “Christ, and they accused me of having delusions of grandeur!”

  Jennifer rolled to the side, telekinetically wrenching the console Paul landed against from the floor and at the mutated Prelt. It snaked out of the way, right into one of Stragdoc’s shots, where part of its bony crest dissolved, eliciting a scream of fury.

  +YOU DARE?!+ Quordex’s hand went to the newest wound, already regenerating. +I will strip the flesh from your bones, gnaw the marrow from them!+

  It’s going feral. Jennifer realized. Whatever this thing had done to combine Prelt and Vandle DNA, the Vandle instincts were taking over. Paul, keep it angry! She sent, looking for anything to use as a weapon.

  He understood immediately. “Perfected? A freak show like you has no concept of the word!” Stragdoc began to radiate psionic energy, projections encircling his arms, vaguely resembling swords.

  Quordex raised itself to its full height. +Your people will be
maintained as a food source, providing the most succulent of meats!+

  “Not likely.” Stragdoc charged, arms swinging. Quordex attempted to parry, losing several fingers and a tentacle in the process. “You’d have to catch us first. And even if a monster like you could,” he mocked, using his psionic blades like scissors now, “Keeping us is a different matter.” One of Quordex’s hands fell to the deck. “In other words, bring it.”

  The alien roared, springing upwards, intending to crush this annoying being under its bulk.