Level 87: Subsidiary DARPA Labs

Cheyenne Mountain Complex

Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2176 A.D.

June 17th, 2176 A.D.

Dr. Bryan Schaeffer giggled as the swirling fractal patterns shifted again, turning the ceiling into a kaleidoscope of geometric shapes and colors. In his peripheral vision, he could see the familiar feminine spirit squatting in the corner of the ceiling as she looked down at him benevolently, her vaguely humanoid face right side up in relation to her upside-down body.

He could feel her presence along the edges of his consciousness, asking for permission to enter him as the ayahuasca brew he had drunk began to take full effect. He spoke to her in his mind, inviting her to merge with him.

Mother Ayahuasca, thank you for coming to see me again. You are welcome to share this vessel and join your essence to mine.

The feminine entity smiled at his thoughts and vanished from the corner. The office chair he was reclining in suddenly felt warm and soft, and the chair became Mother Ayahuasca he was lying on top of.

He felt her strong yet gentle arms wrapping themselves around his body as his soul relaxed in the tender and loving embrace, and the vision shifted as the swirling geometric patterns were replaced with millions of undulating question marks.

~ Why are you here? ~

I need inspiration, Mother Ayahuasca. A terrible evil is coming; they mutilate and devour all the life they come across. Nothing is sacred to them, and I need to make weapons to fight them.

The arms tightened around him, and he felt the waves of strong disapproval emanating from the entity as she answered him.

~ Those who make weapons die by them, child. Evil thoughts beget evil actions. Why do you come to my realm with hate in your heart? This is not a place for such things. This is a place of learning and wonder.

This is a place where one can leave the cage imprisoning their mind and spirit and fly free, unbounded and unburdened. This is a place of healing. What you seek is sacrilegious and not allowed here. ~

I know, Mother, I am sorry. I do not want to bring my world into this one, but if I do not make weapons to save ourselves, humanity will die, and then no more of us will be able to come here and visit you. Do you want that, Mother Ayahuasca?

~ You and your kind are not the only ones who come here, child. Others have visited me long before your kind emerged, and others will come visit me long after your kind passes into the realm of death. ~

Her voice had anger in it, and her arms tightened to the point where he couldn't breathe anymore, crushing him like a vise as the warm presence behind him vanished and he was suddenly falling into a black void filled with an agonizing despair.

He fell for an eternity, visions of humans killing each other and hurting each other in terrible ways by the tens of billions flashing by and tearing his soul apart as he was confronted with the evils of the human heart.

He curled into the fetal position and clenched his eyes shut, his heart not able to take it anymore as he cried out in desperation.

Please stop! I cannot stand it! We are not like this anymore!

~ LIAR! ~

Her roar shattered him into a million, million pieces, and he felt his essence shriveling from the accusation as he finally stopped falling and found himself in front of a towering and ornately carved stepped ziggurat. On the top, he saw a large and menacing black jaguar staring down at him with a crown of rotating stars and planets around her head.

Behind the Jaguar was a massive tree with branches touching the heavens and filled with opaque fruits that fell in a torrential downpour, and his heart sank as he realized the dark centers that he thought were fruit pits were instead human embryos.

The jaguar spoke to him in Mother Ayahuasca's voice, and it was filled with anger and recrimination as the jaguar pointed a paw at him with fully extended claws.

~ A hundred and fifty billion souls the sacred World Tree has seeded in your realm, and your kind, with its evil and capricious ways, has spoiled her generous gifts of pure soul-fruits for untold generations.

The blood of sorrow and suffering did her roots have to drink as you defiled her gifts with war and evilness. When the roots of the spirit drink from hatred, the harvest is rot, and the fruit withers before the hands of love may pick it. Such is what you have sown, and such is what you shall reap. ~

The massive tree branches began to sag as all the billions of fruits fell and hit the ground with sickening splatting sounds, releasing small motes of light that screeched in agony before fading into oblivion.

He felt his soul weeping at the sight, knowing he was receiving a sacred vision showing the end of humanity and the death of Mother Earth as the tree continued defoliating until all the branches lay bare and lifeless. In the span of a moment, the great tree petrified and shattered into a billion pieces as all the stars of the heavens began to darken one by one.

The whole universe was now dead, and all the light was extinguished, plunging everything into darkness except for the two glowing eyes of the jaguar and her crown of rotating stars and planets.

The blue and green one representing Mother Earth turned black, and the jaguar reached up with its paw and pulled it out of the rotating crown before holding it out for him to see.

The long, curved claws closed around the now lifeless orb, and he felt an existential horror pervading his spirit as he saw black sand trickling out from the clenched paw.

We are not like this anymore, Mother! Please look into my essence and see how we have bettered ourselves. See for yourself why I came for knowledge on a weapon to save not only ourselves, but all other life in this galaxy! We have become more than what we once were, and now my kind will fight for life or perish trying to save it if need be!

The glowing yellow-green eyes narrowed in suspicion before a threatening growl emanated from the inky blackness all around him. He tried to flee but could not move, and he felt warm, fetid air blowing across his face before he saw the flash of yellowed fangs as they clamped on his neck and ripped his throat out.

As his lifeblood poured out, a large earthenware pot appeared and rapidly filled with his essence. A large jaguar paw emerged from the inky blackness and dipped into the pot, stirring the dark red blood before pulling back out as he continued to hear purring growls all around him.

On the surface of the now swirling blood, moving images began to appear, showing the few fighting against the many as the entire world descended into madness and evil across many generations.

The good few won against the evil many, and now the scars and rivers of blood covering Mother Earth disappeared, turning her back into the verdant garden she once was before humanity defiled it.

Visions of Republic ships fighting the Insectoids in the Eleani system appeared, showing the bravery and sacrifices of humans as they fought and died to save billions of others. The Battle of the Jaleeni system came next, and then he watched as millions of human soldiers fought, bled, and died to take back the worlds of the Dead Zone.

The red blood turned stygian black, and now visions of the Balrikans appeared, showing their unstoppable march across the stars as they murdered and devoured trillions of innocents in an orgy of sheer evilness that made his soul shrink into nothingness.

Another vision appeared, showing humanity and its allies fighting against the darkness as it descended upon the quadrant, the few against the evil many. The humans fought with unbridled ferocity, but it was not enough, and they were pushed back relentlessly by the unstoppable darkness that consumed everything in its path.

Hundreds of worlds in the quadrant were consumed by the unstoppable tide. Eleania, Xenxia, Nekul, Iri-Sha-Na, the Queen World, and Jaleenia, among many others, all fell to the onslaught as trillions suffered in agony before being feasted on by the beasts.

Mother Earth appeared, vibrant and lush with hues of greens and blues, and then it was cast into semi-darkness as the sun was blotted out by the swarms of Balrikan ships descending upon her.

The Balrikan ships were not black and angular as usual but shaped like locusts as they hurried to feast on Mother Earth and all the life that sprang from her loins.

Whatever was left of humanity's forces had assembled for one last stand as they formed massive battle lines along the orbital path of Jupiter and prepared to fight their final battle.

The ships and the people on them glowed with an ethereal light, contrasting sharply with the approaching darkness that seemed to malevolently absorb and devour all the light around it like a massive, moving black hole.

Spears and bolts of light shot out from the glowing fleets and the bases on the moons of Jupiter, and he could sense his people's refusal to submit to the end as they valiantly struggled against the forces of darkness, killing hundreds of locusts for every vessel of light destroyed.

The locusts pressed on, paying no heed to their losses as the forces of light initiated a fighting withdrawal through multiple glowing minefields until the battle was rejoined along the orbital path of Mars.

Here, humanity fought with an even greater ferocity as massive particle accelerators and railgun bases on Mars, Earth, and Luna shot bolts and spears of light that smashed into the black swarms and destroyed tens of thousands of them.

Despite the devastating defenses arrayed against them, the locusts still pressed on, forcing what remained of humanity's fleets to fall back yet again around Mother Earth to make their last stand.

Through more minefields the locust swarms passed, seemingly unstoppable as they continued their inexorable march towards their prize.

The alabaster glow of the moonlight disappeared as the locusts enveloped Luna, plunging the nighttime side of the world into an even greater darkness as the remnants of humanity's fleets fought with wild abandon at the Lagrange points.

Untold numbers of bolts and spears of light shot up from the surface and destroyed hundreds of thousands of locusts, but it was not enough, and they hemmed in the scattered survivors while forcing them back into low orbit.

After a valiant and heroic struggle, the last of humanity's warships were finally destroyed, and the victorious Balrikan locusts descended through the atmosphere before landing and disgorging hundreds of millions of ravenous and depraved beasts.

Like in space, humanity fought bravely on the ground, their glowing essences scattered around the world and winking out by the millions as they made the Balrikans bleed and die for every trench, for every city, for every meter of ground they took.

After fighting for thousands of light-years and on the surfaces of hundreds of worlds, humanity was depleted. Most of her noble warriors lay decomposing on worlds they were not born on, orbiting strange suns that never touched their faces with warmth before they went there to die.

Less than half of humanity remained, but still his people fought like demons, refusing to submit to the end coming for them as they desperately struggled to keep the flame of humanity lit for a little longer.

He wept with unfathomable grief as he saw the glowing essences around the world vanishing by the hundreds of millions as entire continents plunged into darkness.

What little remained of humanity continued to fight, but it was not enough; they soon were overrun, and the few glowing souls vanished all over the world as Mother Earth finally succumbed to the darkness.

The last embers of humanity had been extinguished forever as Mother Earth turned into a black and lifeless orb of death, and Mother Ayahuasca's grief-filled voice echoed all around him.

~ This is the fate of your kind, child. You will be no more, and all you have ever done and wrought, all that made you what you are, will vanish forever if you do not flee. ~

We will not run. I told you; we are not as we once were. If this is our fate, then so be it. We will never stop fighting, and we will die knowing we gave it our all. What better way is there for us to go than for humanity to meet its end in the defense of life itself?

We will not abandon the world from which we sprang. From her womb we came, and she is our mother. Humanity will end where it began, and we will fight for Mother Earth tooth and nail until we are no more.

From the darkness emerged the jaguar, and she held out her paw as she stared at him with yellow-green eyes that seemed to harbor hope. From below, the black sand floated back up and into the paw, reassembling itself into the blue and green orb that was Mother Earth.

The jaguar placed the orb back into its place in the crown, and it began to spin serenely again, glowing with the ethereal essence of all the life dwelling within it.

There was a brilliant flash of light, and he felt himself being hurtled across the universe for another eternity before he was suddenly back in his office and reclining in the chair again.

Mother Ayahuasca was back in the corner of the ceiling, staring at him upside down from her perch as her lips formed into a smile filled with both great pride and deep sadness.

She silently pointed at the ceiling, and the millions of undulating question marks disappeared as mathematical formulas and engineering diagrams began to manifest themselves.

He felt his mind expanding as the disparate concepts began to align themselves and make sense, and he felt both elation and fear as he realized what it was that she was showing him to make.

Null space gravity mines.

Uncharted K-Type Orange Dwarf Star

7,923 Light-Years from Earth

The Hirgoth-Skree pods floated in the dense atmosphere of their planet, feeding off the never-ending bounty of aerial phytoplankton drifting on the air currents as they drew in air through their mouth cilia.

The Patriarch leading the three pods began to sing the lament of his tribe, unchanged since his first ancestor sang it 3.2 million cycles ago during the Great Drying.

He was singing it for the young ones so they may know the history of their tribe and teach their own young ones when the time comes.

The orb grew hotter, and we dived deeper.

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The orb grew hotter, and our food became scarce.

The orb grew hotter, so we dived deeper.

But the depths we sought refuge in were less than before.

The orb grew hotter, and our forebearers suffered.

Many beached themselves to end their agony.

Many beached themselves so their young could eat.

Still the orb grew hotter, and the depths now became shallows.

Less than four pods the whole orb over remained of us.

And our time drew near as we struggled to breathe.

No other answered our songs as we sang in mourning.

No others sang any mourning songs for us to answer.

And we knew the time of our end had come.

A bright light from the outer ocean sank down.

And they entered the shallows where we were dying.

They took us into their floating habitats and made us sleep.

They changed us in ways we did not comprehend as we awoke.

And then they floated up in the skies and let us go.

And we thought they were cruel to do this to us.

But we did not sink as we thought we would.

We floated in the skies like we were always there.

We thought as they left us that we would still starve.

But behold, we saw our food floating with us.

The unknown ones had saved us from a terrible end.

And now we remember them always in song.

We remember the unknown ones who saved us.

As I tell you, so shall you tell your own young.

And always remember the lament of the Hirgoth-Skree

As the young ones took up the song and began to bellow it, other nearby pods heard it and passed it on, where it would soon circle their orb and come back to them with the same words but dramatically different frequencies.

As the young ones frolicked and tried to gain altitude on each other in friendly games of dominance, the Patriarch felt a disturbance on the edge of his consciousness. There was a new presence nearby, a dangerous and malevolent force his telepathic mind recoiled from.

Alarmed, the Patriarch reached out to all the other Patriarchs with his mind, and they responded instantaneously, having felt the same danger as he did. They all joined their minds as one and reached out to search for the disturbance.

It was not of their orb, so they reached into the outer ocean past the twelve moons that made night day when all were in alignment, which only happened once every 2.7 cycles.

Their minds reached across before they found the source floating around the gas orb on the edge of the outer ocean. Their minds recoiled from the casual brutality and evilness in the millions of small minds, and the constant, insatiable hunger that drove them was terrible to behold for the peaceful Hirgoth-Skree.

Such suffering and death did they carry within them, and the Patriarchs panicked as they envisioned what these evil creatures would do when they descended on their peaceful orb.

As one, all the Patriarchs channeled their immense psychic powers and formed a mind-choir for the first time in many generations. Mind-choirs were used for times of great crisis and calamity, and the last time it happened, many Patriarchs died from the mental trauma after redirecting the large outer ocean coral that would have destroyed their orb.

The Patriarch, who sensed them first, channeled the combined power and looked far beyond, feeling a strong anchor point many light horizons away where they could exile the evil ones who would feed upon them.

Right before leaving, the Patriarch detected a strange presence within every habitat. It was a concentrated field of patterned energy he had never come across before, and he touched it with his mind to determine what it was.

After some careful investigation, the Patriarch felt a concept forming in his mind as he labeled the strange anomaly as a thought object; it could make and store thoughts like a brain, but it was not alive or feeling.

He unraveled the small, structured energy pulses the thought objects were making and saw knowledge of their outer ocean and orb within it. He must make sure these evil ones, and their thought objects, never return to threaten their peaceful lives.

Rejoining the mind-choir, the Patriarch showed them the anchor it had found and the strange thought objects. After explaining what he wanted to do, the rest of the Patriarchs joined him and helped to remove all knowledge of them and their outer ocean from the evil minds and the thought objects.

After they were finished, the mind-choir prepared for their next task. They could all feel the waves of space-time rippling through the outer system, and they created a thought pocket around the evil ones and their habitats before reattaching it to the distant anchor found by the Patriarch.

The millions of evil minds and the habitats that harbored them disappeared instantaneously, and the mind-choir kept a careful watch for some time to ensure none of the danger remained before disconnecting and rejoining their pods.

The Patriarch began to sing a new song for the tribe, telling the young ones of the evil ones who had come and how the Patriarchs had banished them. Now the young ones would know this song and what to do if other evil ones from the outer ocean came to their peaceful orb.

Alpha Scorpii – Antares

554 Light-Years from Earth

Bal'Ri'Kan Hunter Fleet 12

High Chieftain Kil'Ssha hissed fearfully as he struggled to fight off the stupor, feeling the lingering aftereffects of what had just happened crippling his mind and body.

His panicked eyes darted around the command chamber, seeing his underlings still dazed and drooling as they lay on the deck or draped over their stations.

Feeling his own drool splattering on his chest as it dripped from his jaws, the high chieftain used his fear of showing weakness in front of the others and losing his hard-earned dominance to finally break the paralysis afflicting him as he lurched out of his sitting bench and fell to the deck.

His arms were still not obeying his commands, and he shrieked in pain as his sensitive snout slammed into the metal deck plate, fracturing the delicate bones around his nostrils.

The display of weakness further galvanized his rage, and he finally broke the unknown spell and its hold over him. He pushed himself back up, ignoring the bright red blood dripping from his snout as it audibly splattered on the deck.

Leaning down, he braced himself against the terminal by his sitting bench as he stared angrily at his weak underlings.

Lifting his head to the bulkhead above, he drew in as much air as he could before forcing the air through his syrinx, issuing the loudest threat call he had ever made in his life.

The terrible warning honks that issued from him reverberated off the bulkheads and rattled his own brainpan, stimulating a visceral response within himself as he felt the spinal feathers going erect and his face scales flushing.

He drew in more air and issued another series of warning honks, and his intentions were realized a moment later as his underlings began to stir from the spell cast upon them.

"Arise, Crusaders! Arise! A spell has been cast on us! Any underlings not back at their stations in fifteen inta's shall have their bowels eviscerated by me, as is my right!"

The underlings stirred more, moving like they were blood-drunk and dull of mind as they struggled to answer his command.

Kil'Ssha purposefully did not keep track of the inta's, not willing to slay any underlings until he had found out what type of evil spell had been cast upon them.

He was secretly relieved that no one had seen that he had been just as they were, and his dominance over them will be reinforced when they see him alert and in command as they recover.

Though he felt weak and unsteady, he forced himself to remain standing and began to access the terminal computer, bracing himself against it with his two lower arms as he tried to determine what had happened to the hunter fleet.

Hunter Fleet 12 had entered a new system along their course and staged around the outermost gas giant from the primary as they tasted for any scents within the inner system.

System after system they had done this for many lunar months, stopping only to taste if there were any scents from the outer system as hunter scouts were sent into the inner system if any of the planets were potentially habitable.

If any systems showed evidence of technological development capable of resisting the smaller hunter fleet he led, then they left and sent couriers to the Crusader Fleets to mark their locations for a harvesting.

If they were weak and powerless to fight against his fleet, then he ordered them to attack and harvest the inferiors. They always needed resources, and his crusaders always needed fresh meat.

Most of the time, the harvest was his claim, but sometimes it was not, and he was forced to send couriers to alert the others.

As much as he did not like to do this, he still benefited personally from a percentage of the spoils based on the overall harvest, which was determined by the Holy Prophet and the Council of Elders.

His war chest was already overflowing from his many years of harvesting, and he was unusually generous with his spoils, giving his underlings 3% rather than the usual 1% share of his spoils they were entitled to.

The other chieftains looked down on him for this, thinking he was cowardly and trying to curry favor with his underlings to prevent his assassination, but he let them think that and never reacted to their insults or challenges.

They were too small-minded to see beyond their own positions, and he took no part in the rampant assassinations of the fleets that severely hampered their fighting effectiveness in his own estimation, which he shared with none other except for his trusted second.

He was thinking beyond the next rank. He was thinking beyond merely adding to his already too large harem that required too much of his expensive meat stock and attention to sustain.

He had been thinking of himself taking the position of Chief Cleric, but that was not possible now that the Masters had blessed and marked him as their Holy Prophet. So he set his intentions on killing an Elder and claiming a bench in the Council of Elders instead.

This is why he would not carry through on his threat to disembowel his underlings, who were extremely loyal to him alone, and why he was very generous with all the other chieftains and their underlings of the Hunter Fleet he had led for many cycles.

They would fight with him and help him claim his rightful position on the Council of Elders, and he would reward them with spoils and females beyond their wildest dreams.

A shadow fell across the terminal, yanking him out of his musings as his tongue flicked out to taste who it was without having to look and verify for himself.

"Report, Second Kir'skassh."

He heard the second banging his chest in proper deference from behind him, and he felt a wave of pleasure passing through his body as he wondered how many chieftains would never allow their backs to be turned on their seconds like so for fear of assassination.

"High Chieftain, the astrogator and the navigational computer have triple verified our current position. We are in a stellar system with no planets or other large bodies, 989 million draks from the primary, which is a red supergiant."

There was an obvious pause as the second stopped speaking, and he kept his eyes pointed at the terminal as he waited for the second to continue. After several more inta's passed, the second finally spoke again, his voice filled with shock.

"The fleet is over 7,000 light cycles from the system we were just in... elapsed transit time was .6 inta's according to the ship's chronometer."

Kil'Ssha hissed in disbelief and kept his eyes on the terminal to prevent his second from seeing his pupils dilating in fear as his mind tried to absorb the impossible statement made by his second.

Tapping his claws on the controls, he connected the terminal to the astrogation station and navigational computers before inputting a series of commands. Ideograms appeared, and he carefully read the results for himself as he tried to consciously keep his spinal feathers flattened.

"This is not possible. What kind of sorcery is this, that a fleet of 5,000 ships can be moved such a distance in less than an inta? Even our Masters cannot do this for us. We will go back to that system and take this method for ourselves.

There must be highly advanced filth in that system to be able to cast our fleet like so. Have the chieftains prepare their ships for emergency departure; we are to return there."

Second Kir'skassh did not confirm his order immediately, and Kil'Ssha spun around, an angry growl emanating from his throat that cut off as he saw the second's flushing face scales.

His second was terrified, something he had never seen from the brave crusader before, and he felt his own hormones responding to the fear chemicals being put out by Kir'skassh.

"High Chieftain... We cannot find the system on any of our charts or within the computers. I feel as if I knew where we marked the location in my own mind, but it is no longer there.

It is as if the system does not exist anymore, and all trace of it has been taken from us. Surely, this is powerful sorcery, and we are fortunate to not be around such corrupting filth anymore."

Kil'Ssha shrieked in anger at what was just said to keep up appearances, but secretly he was greatly relieved now that he had fully processed what the second had just told him.

The sorcerers that cast them so far also had the ability to take things from their computers and their minds, and that was one kind of evil inferior he did not wish to come across ever again.

"So be it. Plot a course back towards the main thrust of the Crusader Fleets. How long will it take for us to rendezvous with our crusader brethren?"

Second Kir'skassh's pupils dilated with obvious fear before leaning closer to ensure none of the other underlings could hear what he was about to say.

"High Chieftain, we are in the uncharted regions where the Crusader Fleets are heading now! According to our charts, we are where we are supposed to be, only four lunar months before the Crusade was expected to arrive here. We are alone among the very filth we were charged with cleansing next!"

Kil'Ssha's spinal feathers went fully erect, the true import of what his second just told him piercing his unbelieving mind as he felt his own face scales flushing with fear and anxiety.

They were a single fleet of just over 5,000 warships within the stronghold of the filth they had been marshalling all their fleets to exterminate, and it would be four lunar months before their Crusader brethren arrived at the earliest possible time.

Quickly turning away and bending back down to hide his face with the terminal, he hissed lowly to the second. "Order all the underlings out, now! Remain here with me."

The second immediately complied with his command and bellowed for all the underlings to leave and eat, which they immediately complied with as they hurried to fill their bellies and whisper rumors to each other about what had just happened.

A few inta's later the command chamber was empty, and Kil'Ssha lifted his head back up, finally allowing his trusted second to see his true fear and worry as he activated the holo screens.

He ignored the insistent beeping of the communications station, knowing they were most likely messages from the other chieftains wanting to know what was going on, and he had the computer display their current position.

A bright yellow icon appeared, which was Hunter Fleet 12, and the computer began to populate the holo screens with all relevant scanner tastings within the nearest 500 light cycles as the two of them silently stared.

The number of tastings and systems surrounding their fleet filled them with dread as they truly came to terms with their dire circumstances for the first time.

It had been many cycles since the Crusade had come into such a heavily populated and technologically advanced region of space, and every system was a potential stronghold filled with billions of inferiors they meant to exterminate.

After clamping down on his panic as best he could, Kil'Ssha hissed lowly before addressing his second again.

"Order a fleet-wide moot of all sub-fleet chieftains and their seconds; we need to prepare ourselves for what is to come. We will have no choice but to find the nearest system with the weakest defenses and harvest them; our meat stocks are already running dangerously low, and the underlings will rebel if their stomachs are empty too long.

We need to secure and fortify a system as quickly as possible if we are to have any chance of remaining alive once the filthy inferiors discover we are among them. Choose the system wisely, my trusted companion. We need ore-rich planets or asteroid belts; preferably both."

Second Kir'skassh bobbed his head in acquiescence, though his eyes clearly showed he did not agree with the high chieftain's orders.

"What is troubling you?" Kil'Ssha demanded, perhaps more angrily than he intended, as he let his anxiety get the better of him.

Bobbing his head again as his facial scales turned bright yellow, the second averted his gaze before answering the question.

"High Chieftain, I do not presume to know better than you; you are the alpha, and I am your second. I do not understand how we can hope to survive even if we manage to find and secure a nearby system we can harvest without major losses.

Surely, the inferiors will detect our presence soon and bring to bear all their might against us? Even the Masters were disquieted when they learned of the continued survival of the Ma'Kin'Ati and their heretical machine kin!

This area of space is where their strongholds are suspected to be. They will come and extirpate us before we have any viable defenses in place to give us the means to hold out against them."

Kil'Ssha trilled three times to soothe his trusted companion and let it be known he was no longer mad at him for doubting the decision he made.

He silently watched the second's face scales turn from yellow to blue in response to his soothing trills, and he quickly ordered his thoughts before responding.

"Your foresight regarding our future circumstances is correct as usual, and this is why you are my second. It is true we would have no hope of surviving for long, but I do not plan to do what we always have done.

We will seize a system and harvest it, but we will not slay and eat all the inferiors if they are edible, Kir'skassh; we will harvest and process half the population immediately depending on how many of the disgusting filth there are, and then we will take the rest hostage and use them as meat shields.

Kir'skassh looked back up in confusion, and Kil'Ssha honked with rare mirth at his trusted companion's befuddled expression as he continued explaining his plans.

"This has worked for us before; the Saga of the Holy Crusade speaks of our ancestors doing this many times before when required of them. We shall do as they once did; if it works, then we will fortify the system and wait till our brethren come.

If it doesn't work, then we will exact as much suffering and blood as we can from the inferiors so we may be rewarded as exalted martyrs in the Paradise that was promised. Do you understand my intentions now, Kir'skassh?"

He could see the understanding dawning in Kir'skassh's eyes as the second's face scales flushed a deep blue before he banged his chest in proper deference. "I do, High Chieftain. What are your commands?"

"Get the underlings back in here and order a fleet-wide death feigning immediately. I want ten Shadowcraft launched with our best operators to scout the nearest systems, and I want a perimeter of death-feigning hunter-scouts along the periphery of this system.

After that is done, I want all Sub-fleet Chieftains and their seconds on this ship for a moot in one solar hour. Let them know this: any who do not obey my command will be slaughtered and processed, and their remains will then be fed to their concubines."

Kir'skassh jerked his head back in shock at the threat; such dishonor would prevent the sub-chieftains from entering Paradise and stain their clan descendants for generations to come. To be fed as meat to females was the worst fate that could befall a Bal'Ri'Kan crusader, and the threat was rarely issued verbally, much less actually ever acted upon.

For it to be issued now would get the others' attention and solidify the High Chieftain's dominance for now, which is exactly what he needed for this crisis.

After bobbing his head in acquiescence, the second sprinted to go get the underlings in the command chamber and back at their stations, and Kil'Ssha bent back down to look at the tastings being collected by the scanners.

The sheer number of tastings being collected from local space filled him with dread as he struggled to keep his spinal feathers flattened and exude a confidence he did not feel. Acting fearless and being fearless were two different things, and the terrible misfortune befalling them now made his stomach contract spasmodically.

Another wave of painful stomach contractions forced Kil'Ssha to clench his anus tightly so his bowels wouldn't void themselves on the deck, an irredeemable shame that would cost him his position and his life. Grunting with pain, he forced himself to keep looking at the terminal as the computer continued to analyze the millions of tastings passing through the empty system.

The tastings showed one undeniable truth: they were within a heavily populated and technologically advanced region, and his 5,000 ships were all alone and exposed until they managed to secure and fortify a system rich in both meat and resources.

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