Dawn of the Apocalypse Read online

  Normally the Hadarak didn’t care who lived on what planet, and the only times the V’kit’no’sat could detect a pattern in their attacks was when they came for their own worlds and bypassed others. But even then it was sporadic, as if they didn’t actually have territory to defend. In fact it was much like V’kit’no’sat territory, where they did not own most of the planets in the coreward half of the galaxy, but held dominion over those outside the Deep Core. They only bothered to interact with the denizens of the unclaimed planets when they proved to be a nuisance, had something the V’kit’no’sat wanted, or rose to the level of a threat. Beyond that they were ignored, and so too did the Hadarak ignore those that lived in the galaxy.

  But they did feed on planets, and if you happened to live on one they happened to land on they would cause massive damage. Some planets lost their entire populations even if the crust itself remained mostly intact when starvation and infrastructure loss caused their civilizations to collapse. Others managed to rebuild after the fact, because the Hadarak did not stick around to kill them all. Their minions didn’t hunt down every last one of them, they simply ran them over when they got in their way.

  But now they were hunting them down, to the last person, on every planet in their path and leaving minions behind on all of them. To Mak’to’ran it was clear what was happening, but he didn’t want to believe it. He was hoping he was wrong, that this was just an isolated incident following some protocol he hadn’t figured out yet, but the results were stark and gradually expanding across Hadarak controlled space while ever so slowly approaching the V’kit’no’sat border.

  The Hadarak were exterminating all animal life large enough to attract their attention, but they weren’t destroying the plants specifically. If Mak’to’ran wanted to glass a planet he bombarded it from orbit and anything that was on the surface got charred into glass. But the Hadarak were not doing so, despite the fact that they did have enough ranged weapons to do so in their minions. That said, they didn’t need to bombard a planet to destroy the forests and other vegetation on them. They could just tear them down…but they weren’t except where it was necessary to hunt the lifeforms.

  And it didn’t matter if they were groundpounders, aquatics, or avians. Everyone was being targeted and killed, and at first Mak’to’ran thought they were feeding off them, but that wasn’t categorical. Sometimes the dead were being harvested near minion colonies, but elsewhere on the planets they were just left to rot where they were killed.

  Mak’to’ran had worked this every way he could, but there was only one undeniable conclusion.

  The Hadarak were exterminating all people from their territory.

  The two questions foremost on his mind was how far they would take this, and why were they doing it now? Never in the history of the V’kit’no’sat had the Hadarak done this, not even on a single world. It was also true that the V’kit’no’sat had never pushed this far into Hadarak territory. Perhaps this was the backlash to their continual victories, but they were not attacking the V’kit’no’sat! Despite the thousands of Hadarak coming out of the Core, none had come to the border. In fact, the normal patrols had been pulled back to join the others in the eradication efforts, leaving the V’kit’no’sat free and clear to claim vast tracks of territory all the way in to the tiny rings of exterminated systems that were slowly expanding outward.

  Mak’to’ran now had access to maps he never had before, for his scouts were able to explore systems that had been too heavily guarded in the past. There were even a number of those systems that had been stripped of minions, packed into Hadarak, and taken elsewhere. Some of Mak’to’ran’s commanders in the area had attacked and destroyed those strongholds in their moment of weakness, and still the Hadarak did not return.

  They were all concentrated into three slowly forming rings, between which were inhabited systems as of yet untouched. Why they were doing this Mak’to’ran had not deduced yet, but the rings were being drawn vertically first, as if creating a wall of destruction to pin in the rest, but there were no patrols to catch fleeing ships so it was completely ineffective for that purpose.

  They’re transit rings, a voice said inside Mak’to’ran’s mind as another Era’tran approached from the distant entrance to the war chamber that hadn’t been used since the Rit’ko’sor rebellion. They have to use couriers to keep updated on counterstrikes, and if they cannot pass through secure territory they will be blind if we can intercept them.

  Then they anticipate counterattack, Mak’to’ran replied as Dona’gran walked up behind him then angled sharply to the right around the perimeter of the massive holographic galaxy map that dominated the center of the chamber.

  “They wish to be thorough,” the elder Era’tran said aloud as he looked Mak’to’ran in the eye. “They cannot let anyone live. This is extinction they are imposing on us.”

  “Why multiple rings?”

  “They may grid the territory rather than only advance to adjacent systems. Have you found any control hubs yet?”

  “I have been looking at several possibilities, though the Hadarak themselves serve the same function.”

  “If they stay in one location. This appears to be a mobile assault force. Command and control would require fixed locations for communications if only accomplished via courier.”

  “I suspect they have additional communication methods.”

  “Death screams would not be efficient for an extinction task.”

  “If they can transmit across stars upon death, they may be able to transmit in other forms.”

  “Possibly. What do you plan to do?”

  “What we are sworn to do,” Mak’to’ran said firmly.

  “We cannot engage the Hadarak in groups, and the larger ones we cannot engage singly. Do you intend to lead us to our deaths in combat now rather than wait for them to come to us?”

  “I need more information before deciding on a war strategy, but for the moment we are going to strike where we can to interfere and degrade their operations.”

  “Then I would suggest prioritizing the couriers.”

  “I am prioritizing all minions.”

  Dona’gran huffed. “You believe we can win a resource war?”

  “I believe it will slow their advance, not stop it.”

  “And beyond that?”

  “I do not know. What counsel can you offer?”

  “I greatly wish we were on the Rim and Star Force was here.”

  Mak’to’ran glared at him. “You think battle is hopeless?”

  The larger Era’tran pointed a short arm towards the map. “This is the beginning of something so vast and complex we do not even know what we are looking at. Our only victories over the Hadarak are because they allowed it. Now they are asserting their power, for whatever purpose, and I believe they will be able to do whatever they want to do. The pertinent question is what exactly are they doing? The races they are killing are no threat to them, so is this a precaution for our invasion? I think not. They are not engaging us while they set up their transit rings. They are ignoring us, so I would assume this action is not because of us.”

  “If not us, then who?”

  “I have no answer for you, Mak’to’ran. I am here because Jamtren is requesting instructions.”

  “For what?” Mak’to’ran asked. The Era’tran capitol was far from the Deep Core and under no immediate threat.

  “Word is spreading that this might be the war to end us. They want to know how to prepare.”

  “Harthur are of no help against the larger Hadarak, but they cannot have many of them. If widespread eradication is to occur, they will have to spread out. When they do, we can begin reducing their numbers. Tell Holloi to prioritize Harthur construction.”

  “And how will we attempt to stop a tier 5 Hadarak?”

  “We will not. Our fight is with their minions. If a Hadarak chooses to stay and fight without them, then we will decide. Historically they choose to run when their minions are depleted.
”

  “Are you considering the sedative?”

  Mak’to’ran growled a negative. “They are too large. We could not get enough deep into them to be effective. But we can use it to numb an area of their surface. We have never attempted to do so on one so large, but if we can develop a weapon against them, then the sedative may assist in the delivery of it once the minions are eliminated.”

  “Is there any realistic hope of a new weapon?”

  “We have several that are more effective, but nothing on the level that we need. Our progress is incremental.”

  “At the rate the Hadarak are expanding, we appear to have plenty of time.”

  “Do we?” Mak’to’ran challenged. “You have pointed out several possibilities that I had not considered, but you have missed the greatest threat to us.”

  “And what is that?”

  “The minions. The Hadarak are collecting them from planets rather than waiting to grow them internally.”

  Dona’gran starred at him quizzically for nearly a minute before he twitched and stepped back reflexively as the already stifling fear that was gripping the V’kit’no’sat empire like a parasite spiked beyond measure.

  “Now you see it,” Mak’to’ran acknowledged.

  “The minions,” Dona’gran said in a whisper. “They’re not surveillance on captured worlds…they’re a breeding ground for an invasion force.”

  “A necessary force to screen for the numerous Hadarak. They retreat when deprived of them, but if we should wait until their devastation zone reached out to our border, with minion factories on every planet they have cleansed, we will never be able to remove them to get to the Hadarak. If we wait to fight, we seal our doom. Now is the most critical moment, before they have established their growing fields.”

  “Then we must burn them, and burn them all. The Hadarak cannot keep pace with our fleets, and they cannot garrison every system. There cannot be that many Hadarak in the Deep Core.”

  “I agree, though we know there are some tier 6 Hadarak that have not yet joined the invasion. I anticipate we have barely scratched the surface of their true power or numbers. We cannot fight them effectively even without their minions, so if we ever do develop a more effective weapon, we have to first get past the minions…so it is the minions that we will now make war upon and ignore the Hadarak unless we can catch a small one on its own. Others are having trouble understanding this, for they believe the minions are inferior.”

  “If they scale to such numbers as there are systems to produce them, then they may be the greater threat. We must burn them Mak’to’ran, and burn them now,” Dona’gran insisted.

  “I have already given the order to begin.”

  The Les’i’kron task force was 204 ships strong, centered on 3 Kafcha with the legendary Vos’re’nor in command. He was amongst the oldest of the Les’i’kron, but like nearly all of his kin he did not like the idea of leading from behind. Whereas other races had their Elders retreat from the battle lines to pursue quieter, yet essential tasks, the Les’i’kron kept their most experienced leaders where their skills could be felt the most, and with Hadarak to fight that had always been the border.

  But now there was a greater need, and Vos’re’nor would not allow any of lesser rank to lead the first mission deep into Hadarak territory. His task force was not the only one the Les’i’kron were sending, and all of them were necessarily small compared to the threat even a tier 1 Hadarak entailed, but his orders had come directly from Mak’to’ran and he knew his target was not the Hadarak, but the recently laid minion factories on the cleansed planets.

  Vos’re’nor had been assigned a geographical area to harass, so he didn’t need to worry about running across another task force, but he also didn’t have a specific target. The Hadarak were expanding so fast across the galaxy that information on their activities were limited. Their movements might be slow, but more and more Hadarak were coming out of the Deep Core constantly, and whereas they had been relatively easy to track in the past, now there were so many of them that reconnaissance ships were getting spread thin.

  Not on the Hadarak themselves, for the V’kit’no’sat had far more scouts than there were Hadarak, but they did not have enough ships to monitor every system the Hadarak were cleansing. Knowing what type of minion factories were being created, what type of minions they were spawning, and how fast those colonies were growing…that was the information that Vos’re’nor had in limited supply, so his target list had to be created impromptu once he entered his target region.

  The Les’i’kron had flexed his wings, eager for battle, when they had come across the first Hadarak…but he knew he couldn’t engage it. Rather he had engaged some of the minions but had to withdraw because he didn’t have sufficient forces to engage all three Hadarak in that system. And it was a system of 4 inhabited planets and well over 80 billion people intelligent enough to speak. Add in all the lesser lifeforms that made the Hadarak’s hit list and these three would be busy here for quite a while, so Vos’re’nor took his fleet to the nearby systems and looked for the one the Hadarak had come from.

  The Les’i’kron task force had found not one, but six nearby systems that had already been cleansed. Maps of this region were sketchy, for very little reconnaissance had been done here, and none had been done on the interior ring. This was ring 3, the outermost of the trio, and other task forces were being sent to the others, meaning Vos’re’nor was going to get his chance for combat before most of the others arrived on target.

  And that moment was upon him as his fleet mopped up the few minions left defending stellar orbit. None were of the new versions reported, so the Les’i’kron was not concerned with them. He’d been fighting identical ones all his life and he knew what his ships could or couldn’t handle, including the few orbital defense minions floating in orbit around the single planet in the system that had once been inhabited.

  But now that he was here and had his scouts spreading out across the system giving him more info while the fleet finished up the minions guarding the star, he saw that two more planets were growing small colonies on them and digging down deep into the planets for the molten material the Hadarak craved.

  That was odd, because the minions didn’t really need it. They got what they required from the crust of planets, and that worried him. If the newer minions were built more like Hadarak then they might be more resistant to weaponsfire, and if the minions here were digging deep, then he bet that the factories needed the magma to produce what were probably superior minion forces.

  But there were hardly any defenses here and Vos’re’nor’s fleet swept through them easily, leaving his ships in orbit high above the primary planet as they spread out into bombardment formation. There was one large colony here with many ‘seeds’ sprinkled across the planet that would expand further, like a cancer, until they occupied every location of value.

  When all ships in the fleet signaled that they were in position he casually gave the order to open fire, unleashing the glowing rain and straight lightning streaks that encountered no energy shields. The destructive energy hit the living structures, partially being absorbed, but the heat soon overloaded the material and they popped like puff balls, blowing out bits of tissue rather than exploding into fireballs as black smoke began to streak up into the air along with plumes of ash from the burnt and often vaporized sections of the living buildings.

  The minions held up better than most artificial technology in the galaxy, but without shields the attack wasn’t difficult, just time consuming, for they couldn’t let anything of sufficient size remain to begin to regrow, and that meant later sending down ground forces for a final sweep.

  Vos’re’nor didn’t think he’d have that option very often, but here, at least, there was such little resistance that he was already ordering the troops to the hangar bays as the bombardment continued, blasting minions and native vegetation alike in the firestorm that didn’t care what it destroyed as long as it took the minions
with it.

  Rock beneath the targeted structures vaporized as well, sending plumes up into the air that actually rained sand on nearby regions, and it was through that solid rain that drop pods descended once the bombardment had stopped or moved on to other areas of the planet. Those drop pods released armies of Zen’zat in vehicles, both ground, aerial, and aquatic as other drop pods stopped midair to released armored Les’i’kron that flew out over the charred and smoking landscape using their psionics to search the rubble below for minions survivors that did register on Ikrid, whereas trees and even Uriti minions would not. The Hadarak used people for buildings, as grotesque as that was, and that made them stand out like beacons once a Les’i’kron or Zen’zat got within natural Ikrid range or within the field of the artificial sensors that had much greater range, though lesser sensitivity.

  Vos’re’nor knew it might be impossible to get every single one, but if he could it meant the Hadarak would have to come back here again to restart the process. And if one ‘seed’ remained, it would take far longer to regenerate what was being destroyed than 10 of them would. The more thorough he was the more time he bought and the more resources he denied the enemy in the near future, but the trend was clear.

  This was not a war that could be won in this manner. They were buying time, nothing more, while Itaru and Mak’to’ran searched for an effective means to fight the growing number of Hadarak before they could get to V’kit’no’sat worlds and do to them what had been done to this one.

  If it came to that, Vos’re’nor knew, the war would already have been lost…but if he was going to die, he was going to take at least one Hadarak with him. Right now he would hold to Mak’to’ran’s plan, and he fully agreed with it, but if it came down to a matter of vengeance before death, he and many others would stop focusing on the inferior minions and face their true nemesis before the end came.