Dawn of the Apocalypse Read online

  1

  November 20, 128456

  System 88219317 (Hadarak Zone)

  Middle Orbit

  A Lir’nen Kaeper-class scout ship sat in the void of space far from any planet or the two stars at the center of the system. It wasn’t cloaked, for the Hadarak could see ships from their gravity silhouette and so could their minions to a lesser extent. This Kaeper, like most of the V’kit’no’sat ships, didn’t even have a cloaking device. Instead the hull space that would have contained that equipment held an additional gravity drive, making the ship faster, which was the best defense against the Hadarak minions.

  Right now there were a few on the 2nd planet, but no Hadarak had been in this system for some time…unless it was buried deep in the stars and had stayed down there since the Kaeper arrived 4 months ago. That was unlikely but not impossible, and it was the job of the Lir’nen to keep track of their movements through this system if/when they passed so the scout could alert nearby systems and get the word out long before a Hadarak could arrive at the border worlds.

  Those border worlds did not hold civilians, but rather were aggressive construction sites to collect raw materials and build defensive platforms, shipyards, sensor arrays, and everything else being used on the border as the V’kit’no’sat continued to inch the Hadarak back and free more systems from their reign of terror.

  This system actually had a native population on the 6th planet, so primitive that they could not even travel into space, but it looked like the Hadarak had ignored them and chosen to feed on the 2nd planet at some point, leaving behind minion facilities when it left as if they were crumbs attesting to the feast they’d made of the planet.

  The Lir’nen had made a detailed analysis of the damage done to the planet from afar, and the minions had not bothered to come out after them. If they’d gotten closer that probably would have changed and patience, which Mak’to’ran continuously underscored, would gain more valuable data than bravado against the Hadarak. Though they hadn’t gotten as close as they would have liked, the impact crater of a Hadarak landing on the planet was clearly visible with newly formed mountain chains ringing it, some of which were still oozing lava.

  That didn’t mean it had been too recent, for when plates were bent out of position they could bleed the planet for decades before gravity finally pulled the mass into some semblance of shape and the coldness of space hardened over the cracks. Best estimate on this one was about two years ago and a level 3 Hadarak. I had not sank into the magma layer of the planet, but rather stayed on the surface and extended taps down to suck on it while also producing minion colonies to mine other parts of the planetary crust.

  This wasn’t unusual, for Hadarak needed the materials within planets to grow larger. Stars were mostly used for their version of ‘water’ while planetary rock was their ‘food.’ They needed both, but unless a star had swallowed up a planet or two they had to seek out the cooler and smaller gravity wells to feed, much as the V’kit’no’sat empire did, though their harvesting efforts were much more precise and didn’t damage the planet in the process.

  That damage had been fixed on many planets, with Mak’to’ran insisting that they try to repair as many as possible as an additional insult to their sworn enemy. They would not be colonized by the V’kit’no’sat, but that didn’t stop other races from following in the wake of the warring powers and setting up residence in what was now a ‘safe’ zone behind the V’kit’no’sat border where the Hadarak used to roam and feed almost at random.

  They typically didn’t target inhabited worlds unless you started shooting at them…but then again, they didn’t avoid them either. That left the Hadarak Zone with a lot of denizens that periodically got culled when a Hadarak happened to choose their world to snack on. It was that horrific and random threat that the V’kit’no’sat had been created to push back, and while they had the Hadarak in slow retreat, the Lir’nen definitely knew that this ‘safe’ zone could easily reverse itself. Others, it seemed, did not care nor thought as far into the future as they should, for many were moving into the region and setting up colonies despite the nearby danger.

  The V’kit’no’sat were not going to stop them…nor would they defend them if the Hadarak landed on their worlds. They would have to take their chances if they wanted the reward of the unclaimed worlds, but the wiser races knew to not encroach beyond the original V’kit’no’sat border, for they saw the dominant empire was not doing so itself…and if the V’kit’no’sat would not push their colonies further, why would anyone else dare to?

  But there were still populations in the Hadarak Zone that were native to it, such as in this system. They’d probably always been here or were a degraded colony of another star system. Either way, they didn’t have a choice of leaving, and the race in this system probably didn’t even know how perilously close they were to the Hadarak. If they were lucky they’d never know, but the threat was still right here in their own backyard.

  The Lir’nen were holding position and monitoring the pair of stars with their active and passive sensors along with a series of probes they had previously positioned around the system. Those signals gave them a view opposite the stars where they couldn’t see themselves, and two of those probes suddenly began transmitting an alert.

  “Hadarak arrival,” one of the bridge crew said, flicking its tongue out distastefully. “Tier 2.”

  “Identify,” the commander of the small vessel said as the first blurry images of the decelerating Hadarak appeared, though the probes had been able to pick up the hyper-accelerated stellar radiation bouncing off it and preceding the Hadarak far earlier, giving them an approximate diameter.

  “Negative,” another of the Lir’nen said. “This is a new one…” it trailed off as another alarm began going off.

  “Second Hadarak in extremely close spacing,” the other warned.

  The commander sneered. The only time Hadarak traveled together was when they were convoying to another location or were paired up for patrols…but when they patrolled they didn’t stick close together during jumps, often giving each other a half an hour gap while they slowly coasted through interstellar space. The only times they moved close together was when they were in larger groups.

  “Tier 1. Identity processing…”

  Then a different alarm sounded. One triggered off a slight repositioning of the arrival star itself. Whenever a Hadarak arrived in system, its own gravity tugged on the star by proximity. The deceleration didn’t push the star away, for gravity emissions were like light, and once released they free flew through space. Pulling or pushing on them didn’t move the emitter, but once the massive Hadarak got nearby their own emissions could nudge a star ever so slightly…but the alarm hadn’t triggered for the tier 2 and tier 1 Hadarak.

  “Massive object approaching. Estimated Tier 5,” the Lir’nen said, looking warily at the commander, as if he didn’t believe the computer calculation.

  “Let’s see it,” he said, waiting for the first true images to come through as a fourth smaller Hadarak was detected on approach behind it.

  “No identity match on any of the three,” he heard another say, but his eyes were glued to the hourglass-shaped monster that looked like two spheres smashed together with ridges spidering out from the collision point. Those ridges were something new to the V’kit’no’sat, but they’d been picking up several tier 4s and up that had them, though they’d never engaged one to find out exactly what the surface features were.

  Only now they were activating, almost as soon as the Hadarak finished its deceleration, with the massive 2,312 mile wide beast flaying out those ridges like flower petals and releasing hundreds of objects, each bigger than the 1.1 mile long Kaeper.

  “
New minion classes detected. Size is larger than previously encountered. They appear to be warships or transports.”

  “Don’t speculate. Analyze,” the commander reminded them as another alert pinged, indicating a 5th Hadarak arrival, this one a tier 2.

  “New minions are heading away from stellar orbit. Initial tracts indicate the first two planets.”

  “That rules out a simple pass through. Launch a probe on an intercept trajectory. We need a close analysis of the new minions even if we lose it.”

  A few moments later one of the two hangar bays on the Kaeper opened up and a small pyramid-shaped object flew out then arced to the right before making a slow microjump towards the closer 1st planet in the system. The 2nd might be closer in orbital path, but at the moment it was almost directly opposite the star from their observation position.

  Time between revelations and movements was slow, for traveling across space was vast even with V’kit’no’sat engine technology, and the Hadarak moved far, far slower. Their minions, however, were not so encumbered with mass, and they made good time…too good of time.

  “Velocity?” the commander asked.

  “Acceleration profiles are wrong. They’re moving too fast for their mass unless they have different gravity drives than known minion types.”

  “Empty cargo ships?”

  “No. Their mass indicates no voids. They’re solid assuming normal tissue density.”

  The commander tipped his head down and scratched the side of his face with his short arm. “It’s been speculated that the Hadarak were far stronger than they allowed us to know. This could be the first sign that their territory in the Inner Core has different defenses. These could be a higher level minion class being sent in response to our constant annexation of their territory.”

  “You mean that we’ve only been dealing with their second line troops?” one of the 6 dinosaur command deck crew asked.

  “That is what has been suspected, but until now I never believed it.”

  “How long do we wait before leaving?”

  “Until we know how many arrived. If we have to make a periphery jump we can still beat the Hadarak to the next system.”

  “And the minions?”

  “If their couriers are also enhanced it will make no difference. They have nothing ahead to relay to.”

  “Tier 5 is descending into the star,” another Lir’nen noted as the incoming Hadarak count hit #11 with yet another alarm ping. “New arrival is tier 3.”

  “Warship minions are diverging. A group is splitting off and heading for the outer planets.”

  The commander sneered as all eyes were on suddenly on him.

  “We can’t save them and they can’t defend themselves. All we can do is observe and learn, then take that information back to Mak’to’ran. If this is the beginning of a superior invasion force, we need to know as much as we can before our forces engage them. The inhabitants of this system are beyond our help, but we could save others with the information we gather here. Regardless, these will be avenged when combat occurs.”

  “Mak’to’ran wants them preserved,” another Lir’nen noted.

  “Even a full warfleet could not save this system. What would you have us do?”

  “They are unique in our records. If we cannot save their planet, we need to preserve enough that they can reproduce later.”

  “That is not our assigned mission, and doing so would compromise it. We need as much data as possible, and revealing our presence with engine activity will diminish our time here.”

  “If we snag a few on the way out we can accomplish both the primary and the secondary mission. I for one do not want to be punished for disobeying Mak’to’ran’s standing orders.”

  The commander growled, but not at his subordinates. They were correct, for Mak’to’ran had punished others for letting indigenous races be wiped out when they could have preserved some of them. He did not care about the lives lost so much as the genetics of unique races being extermished. That was a victory for the Hadarak, and Mak’to’ran liked to deny them victory as often as possible.

  “Very well. How many do we need?”

  One of the crew pulled up the survey file. “They reproduce via eggs, tri-fertilized. We need a minimum of three, and any three will do. They have no genders.”

  “Begin reconfiguring the second hangar bay. Launch all probes and shift assets to the primary. Figure out what they eat and if we need to procure it from the planet as well…”

  The sky above the world known as Baxvo was pink, as was normal for the planet’s atmosphere, and the quadruped race of Mentako had built up five large colonies over the course of their existence. Each one was made of brick and extended as far underground as they did up into the air in large, round skyscrapers. They had electricity and other primitive technology, but the Mentako’s wide paws weren’t well suited to construction, hence they had developed biotic limbs that attached on top of their own to do the more delicate work with.

  So there were many fake cyborgs walking around the ant-like colony in the northwestern plains when the sky began to darken. The Mentako did not have orbital sensors, so they did not know what had entered orbit, but a giant mass temporarily blotted out the distant sun before passing by and allowing the light to return.

  That mass continued to grow larger, and soon it was impossible to miss as it dropped low on the horizon and even caught on fire as it hit the upper atmosphere, punching into it with rapid speed before ramming the planet and triggering a massive earthquake.

  Four of the towers in the northwestern plains colony swayed so much they broke, carrying thousands of people inside them to the ground where they landed on other buildings and streets, breaking apart on impact and shattering into shrapnel that flew out killing others. The earthquakes continued in lesser amounts for minutes later, snapping a few more towers but the rest held erect, swaying back and forth like grass, though they were never designed to do so.

  No one knew what was happening, and the entire colony was thrown into a panic long before the first of the images from the other colonies showed the impact crater and the 102 mile wide object sitting in it and extending tentacles out to dig further down into the surface.

  After that came the swarms of beings out of it, some constructing buildings nearby the tortured ground around the impact zone, others marching out as armies towards the nearest Mentako harvesting settlements.

  The Mentako had no defenses, for they had never encountered another race before, but some of them bravely went out to try and defend their kin, only to be slaughtered by the alien invaders that quickly made their way to the nearest colony. There the battle was more protracted, but the end result was the same. The aliens were hunting down and destroying all the Mentako, even searching the underground mining catacombs as if they had orders to cover every square foot of livable space as the monstrosity on the horizon sat unmoving.

  Some Mentako ran into the wilderness, others stood their ground and died fighting, but none were spared and the alien armies continued from colony to colony exterminating them, leaving the northwestern plains for last. When they eventually arrived, they came with both land troops and flyers, and during the initial combat some of those fliers were shot out of the sky by a large dark object that came overtop the colony.

  It fired beams of light at the invaders, killing them on contact as bipedal armored suits dropped to the ground and shot some of the Mentako too, then they took the Mentako bodies back up with them into the dark object and it left, leaving the colony to die alone as it raced into the sky with many of the alien fliers attacking it.

  The remaining Mentako wouldn’t live to tell their story, and within another 4 days every last one of them in the colony would be dead, and the few that had run into the wilderness to survive wouldn’t make it more than two months. After that the entire planet would be dead, save for the Hadarak and their minions.

  The Kaeper stayed in orbit as long as possible, but once it made it to gr
ound and engaged the minions it was marked and would not be left alone. When the warship-class minions eventually came for it the Lir’nen had to run, but not before seeing the first of the Hadarak leave on not one, but three different jumplines. They were spitting up as even more arrived in this system, now up to 27, and it was clear that this was a rendezvous point out from which an invasion was beginning…but an invasion against who? The star systems they were jumping to were more or less lateral to their current position and not on the path towards the V’kit’no’sat bases.

  The Lir’nen wouldn’t know the answer to that question until they returned to the fleet and combined their information with that of others seeing the same thing happening at various points around the Deep Core, and all of them were operating on the same methodology.

  Every system they passed through they attacked and destroyed the inhabitants, leaving behind minions on the exterminated worlds…and in the case of uninhabited systems, they were leaving behind minions just the same.

  That wasn’t normal for them, and it soon became clear that this was an entirely different type of invasion, for the Hadarak were not seeking out the V’kit’no’sat for combat. Instead they were sweeping through all adjacent systems and clearing them of population, then seemingly marking their territory as they moved on.

  It did not happen quickly, and the more data that flowed in to the V’kit’no’sat resulted in a call for a massive fleet response, with V’kit’no’sat vessels traveling for months from across the empire to get to the Hadarak front as they assembled and waited for enough ships to arrive before they attempted to strike back.

  2

  July 23, 128457

  Itaru System (V’kit’no’sat Capitol)

  Wendigama

  Mak’to’ran knew this was bad, and as more and more reports filtered in across the Urrtren it only got worse. The Hadarak were not attacking the V’kit’no’sat border yet, and it wasn’t because of the distance involved. They weren’t even heading towards it, but Mak’to’ran could see all too well what they were doing, and it was something that had never happened before, yet something the V’kit’no’sat had always feared.