Maty Read online

  “The Maty complex is compromised with ground assault. The Hadarak will not assault it with ramming. They want it alive. So they’re spamming an insane number of units, some of which we’ve never seen before, from some giant minion production ships we’ve never seen before.”

  “Damn it,” Paul said in a whisper. He had a feeling they’d been holding back.

  “Ditto,” Jason echoed.

  “So there’s a lot of hand to hand going on inside?” Morgan asked.

  “An unlimited supply,” Jason confirmed.

  She sighed contently, placing her hands on her hips and starring up at both of them. “I’m in.”

  “Not sure if you make the height requirement,” Jason said, eliciting the glare he hoped for.

  Show me their attack forces, Azoro demanded.

  Jason adjusted the holocube and displayed three different images side by side, all of which were moving. The first was the situation inside the complex. The second was the mind boggling blockade around the planet…with numerous Elloquim half buried on the surface around the facility. The third made Paul’s breath catch as he saw the system schematic followed by little tendrils producing additional holograms of new units and ships.

  “Thought I was exaggerating, did you?” Jason said.

  “Azoro?”

  “We never encountered these units. Either they were not used against us, or they are new designs. It’s possible the Hadarak have been managing both of our empires without using their full force to do it, but I doubt that in my time. However, they have had a great deal of opportunity to advance since then. They may be trying to learn from you as much as destroy you.”

  “Like they did with the V’kit’no’sat,” Morgan added, punching her first into her palm. “They’re going to pay for that oversight.”

  “How much does this throw off our calculations?” Jason asked Paul.

  “We can’t be sure how much they might still be holding back. I’m more concerned about how we’re structured. If we make a preliminary move to secure this one system rather than move the entire Grand Border into assault mode, I think we can use it as a stepping stone…and one to draw out some more surprises the Hadarak have been holding back on us.”

  “Still think there’s a master race controlling them?” Jason asked.

  Yes, Azoro said firmly.

  “So does the master race want this place, or the Hadarak?” Paul followed.

  This could lead into a confrontation you are not ready for, Azoro warned. But conceding this place to the Hadarak would be unwise if it has reconnaissance units beyond the Hadarak’s current capabilities. Does your information say when this race inhabited this galaxy?

  “Yeah, almost forgot to mention that,” Jason said apologetically. “Since the place is pretty much a library it has a clock running. Timestamp of its construction is 22.84 billion years ago, and it was abandoned 3.61 billion years ago. So that’s before you guys, right?”

  It is, Azoro said wistfully. And the structure is still intact? Regenerative infrastructure?

  “Mak’to’ran said the material does not decay, though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have repair bots in case something gets damaged…”

  Only one race I know of had technology that fabricated molecular structures impervious to long term decay, and their secrets died with them. The fragments of their technology were taken by many, including the Sha’kier, but we could never uncover how they were created. If his report is true, many will want it if they know it exists. Where is the location?

  Jason brought up a map on the holocube showing it deep into Hadarak-controlled space.

  This is fortunate. No one but the Hadarak and the PanNari know of it. Show me all records that were sent.

  Jason tossed the cube into Paul’s hand. “I’m going to go have a chat with Davis. You’re welcome to join us once Azoro is caught up.”

  “Is he wavering?” Paul asked.

  “He senses opportunity and a trap, and doesn’t want to throw away all our preparations by launching too soon. Once we leave the Grand Border we leave all the infrastructure behind us. If we mess this up we’ll be rebuilding forever before we can try it again…but you know that better than I do.”

  “Yes I do. Thank you for pointing out the obvious for Morgan,” Paul said deadpan.

  “My naval skills are still higher than yours,” Morgan said to Jason.

  “Barely,” he admitted as he turned and jogged off as Paul began to flip through various holograms for Azoro.

  Morgan watched him leave and the battlemeld link break from his end, sending a few choice telepathic words directly to him before turning to Paul. “How big is this?”

  “I’m not sure. At the minimum there’s technology there that we don’t have, but there also appears to be galactic record-keeping all the way up to the present.”

  “It’s been keeping watch on us?”

  “Partially I think. But not in a comprehensive…ah there, I see it. Survey missions sampling the galaxy looking for particular trends. I don’t think it has enough capability…at least not in its current state…to do much more than that.”

  “Current state?”

  Paul looked down at her shorter frame. “I’m not joking, ok?”

  “Ok. About what?”

  “I think it can transform…and even move…if directed to.”

  “Wait…” Morgan said cautiously. “He said machines…”

  “Yeah. There are no pictures of the Gahana that we’ve found yet, but the technology indicated and some of the choice records that Mak’to’ran sent…”

  “I’m going with you. Period,” Morgan said firmly.

  “I get the feeling this is going to be a class trip regardless of what Davis decides.”

  Morgan stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Paul’s bare, sweaty shoulder. “See you later, giganto.”

  “Where you going?” Paul said, not looking at her as his eyes were focused on the holograms as she began to head to the door.

  “For a shower…then some arm twisting if Davis needs it.”

  “I’ll be right behind you,” he said, still rifling through the holograms.

  “For the shower? Is Kara busy?” she said, holding the comment for the moment she turned out the door so when Paul’s head came up she was already gone.

  “Fucker…” he muttered, then looked back down at the holograms at Azoro’s insistence given the fact that he couldn’t see them well enough to read them except through Paul’s eyes.

  10

  June 13, 154960

  Meuneushi System (Hesphatus Region)

  Meuno

  Rajamal stood onboard a Zen’zat Domjo-class warship along with the ragtag rebel fleet made up mostly of ships of similar size. The largest they had were a pair of Na’shor captured from the Per’tal in the same battle, and neither had been fully repaired. All were spaceworthy, but many were missing weapons, hangars, sensors, and other items where the hull had been patched over cleanly without replacing them.

  Rajamal and the rebel Zen’zat didn’t have the infrastructure necessary to repair most of them, for the Star Force Zen’zat worlds no longer assisted them freely since the Deathmark had been officially withdrawn. They could still use their services if they paid for them, and they often did when possible, but Star Force had bigger enemies to worry about…and they had gotten the official Deathmark removed, which was no small feat. But they couldn’t be everywhere and do everything, and the rebel Zen’zat had been told if they wanted to continue their war they would have to do it on their own terms.

  That suited Rajamal fine, but it also meant he couldn’t dock the damaged warships they salvaged from battle into the nearest Star Force repair yard to get them fixed up and put back into service on his side. Though, even if Star Force allowed it, they had so many of their own ships waiting in line with priority that he doubted he could get his worked on soon enough to matter…though some were so badly damaged he had to just sit them in a hidden location and use them
for spare parts. Those he would have let sit in line for as long as necessary, but Star Force’s generosity had evaporated along with the official Deathmark.

  He had discussed that with a Human High Admiral by the name of Chadon at the time, and Chadon had informed him that Star Force was aware that unofficial bad behavior was rampant in the areas they didn’t monitor well, and for that reason Star Force wasn’t going to intervene and stop the Zen’zat in their war against the Zak’der’on. As long as their common enemy pursued their agenda in the shadows the rebel Zen’zat could as well. But if the day came when the threat ended, Star Force would be of another mind about the matter.

  Rajamal wondered what they would think of this mission as he rode in one of 2,319 warships just above Meuno’s atmosphere as they bombarded the planet from orbit now that the defense shields were down.

  They probably wouldn’t like it, but there was no way Rajamal could organize an effective planetary assault into the oceans. The J’gar were too dominant in the aquatics realm, and it would be suicide for the Zen’zat to go down there and fight them hand to hand. Even with aquatic ships that he did not have many of it would be a slaughter, for this world was one of 5 that the J’gar had moved their capitol infrastructure to after their previous capitol was consumed by the Hadarak surge.

  Itaru had survived because it was on the good side of the Grand Border, but the J’gar and 43 other V’kit’no’sat races had their capitols and/or homeworlds wiped clean by the Hadarak. Nothing remained on them but rubble and enemy infestation, and the J’gar had chosen the redundant approach afterward rather than simply moving all their people to another system on the safe side of the Grand Border and rebuilding it as close to what it had been before.

  Meuno was not even close to the J’gar’s former glory, and was a testament to how far they’d fallen. It had been strong enough to defend against just about any attack the galaxy could throw at it aside from the major players…but the rebel Zen’zat were using the V’kit’no’sat’s own technology against them, and they hadn’t built up enough defenses to stop them from coming in and clandestinely targeting one of the planet’s shield generator complexes.

  They didn’t overlap, so when the one went down the planet had a hole in its spherical protection, and through that hole the rebel fleet had moved in and destroyed the rest along with the pittance of a defense fleet the J’gar had here…for they didn’t think anyone would dare attack them other than the Zak’de’ron, and if they did there was no stopping their initial attack. So why build up a lot of unnecessary resources when you could better use them to intimidate and coerce your neighbors into servitude?

  Rajamal and the other rebel cells had gathered a significant amount of intel on the J’gar and Oso’lon, but not from the inside. They had no more Zen’zat serving them, but they did trade with a number of other races. Races that could be surveilled and tracked, and from those interactions and the scout ships they had out snooping around their systems and following some of their own ships, Rajamal knew the weakened state the J’gar were in…but he hadn’t realized just how much until he’d come here 3 weeks ago and found it to be far less defended than he anticipated.

  Their defense fleet didn’t even engage, retreating back underneath the intact shields and trying to evacuate certain individuals from the planet. Some got away, but most were forced back to the planet while others were intercepted and disabled. Some were destroyed entirely, though Rajamal did not like wasting useful ships.

  But as he had learned two days ago, the evacuations of the ‘key’ personnel were a ruse designed to make the rebels think the planet didn’t hold much remaining value…when it did. Many of his Zen’zat served the J’gar at some point during their lives, and they knew their operating codes and procedures enough to poke around their comms and captured databanks until they found multiple references to the Didact being on planet.

  After that Rajamal had ordered an extensive search, though the lair wasn’t that hard to find when you had access to their own planetary systems. There was a no-go zone around it labeled clearly, and Rajamal assumed the Didact was still there, for no evac ships had landed in that area of the planet-wide ocean.

  And it was that area they were now bombarding, with most of their weaponsfire being eaten up by the water itself, but with small amounts getting down 2 miles deep and hitting the defense shields covering the Didact’s lair. It was an inefficient attack, but Rajamal did not have the specialized aquatic assault weapons that he had previously had when in service to the V’kit’no’sat. He had a lot less power than he once had, technological and manpower, but he was in command of his cell of rebels and took orders from no one…and often gave orders to the others who usually followed his lead.

  They had all answered the call when he had given it for this attack, and if the Didact was down there he expected heavy reinforcements from the J’gar to begin arriving from far flung locations as they hurried back to get here. He hoped they could kill him before that.

  But where weaponsfire was lacking, ingenuity could still prevail. Right now Rajamal watched as some of that ingenuity dragged asteroids from elsewhere in the system towards the planet with a few rebel ships expertly guiding their courses and speed so they would land on the planet in the precise spot they wanted. The first of those was hitting the atmosphere now and streaking down between the rebel fleet, which was positioned so accurately that the rock flew by harmlessly, despite the fact that it was some 29 miles wide and moving at decent, but not overblown speed.

  But enough speed to smash into the atmosphere and illicit a short lived fireball as its outer shell cracked and pieces shot out in multiple directions…but the central mass held up all the way to the ocean and impacted 18 miles away from the Didact’s complex.

  Rajamal inwardly cringed at the wanton destruction of all those in the water, but he reminded himself that the J’gar were ruthless and he couldn’t miss this opportunity for the sake of the denizens, whether they be J’gar or other races. He knew this world contained two others that the J’gar had coopted or enslaved, and right now many of them just died in the impact, though it wouldn’t be the last.

  A tidal wave ensued along with the planetary crust cracking and what water remained in the depression hit the now exposed magma and exploded outward, creating geysers as the Didact’s lair had most of the water covering it dispelled as its smooth shields held up to the mass of water rushing over.

  The orbital fire from the fleet never stopped, and now with the majority of the water shield gone the rebel’s firepower was getting through much better, and soon the shields…under the combined stress of the weapons and the previous tidal wave…collapsed and the thick armor beneath began to take hits, though it wouldn’t budge much as the water cooled the heated material immediately and kept it from hitting inferno levels.

  The rebel fleet kept poking at it as some of the water back flowed into the depression that now had a giant mountain sticking out of the ocean and creating an instant island on the otherwise complete water world…but it wouldn’t be the last. And a little under an hour later the next asteroid hit, this one smaller at 13 miles wide, and it came down near the Didact’s lair and hit some 34 miles away.

  Four more followed, ringing the lair and making a mess out of the planetary crust. Sensors could barely see the target, but as expected it didn’t break up from the indirect stresses, and it wasn’t until the orbital bombardment finally poked through the armored dome that Rajamal ordered it to cease.

  Then the fleet moved down through the roiling, steam-filled atmosphere as a group, setting down into the water between new mountains and using their shields to hold back the diminished ocean while simultaneously pumping the rest out slowly, though there wasn’t much left at this point.

  Cracks of lava were visible already where the crust had pushed up above water level, and the puddles that were left around the now elevated lair were drained by the rebel fleet as they kept back what part of the ocean was trying to return on
the eventual reversal of the tidal waves.

  Then a few ships, including Rajamal’s Domjo, flew over top the Lair and poked more holes in it, seeing water coming out of it as the interior was drained partially. Only then did the elder Zen’zat leave his ship and go down to the surface inside mechanized assault craft that further cut into the holes in the armor. They blasted into the inner structure, draining out water then hacking and cutting as far as they could get before the support beams became too big and slowed them down too much. At that point Rajamal and the others went in on foot and continued the work with explosives, detonating one water-filled section after another and killing whatever J’gar remained living in personal armor the hard way.

  But without their ability to swim they were easy targets, and with each corpse they had a team check the genetic code to identify who they were. Rajamal wanted a kill record, otherwise he would have dropped the asteroids directly onto the lair.

  But if he had done that, they would never know for sure if the Didact was here or not.

  More ships send assault teams to other portions of the perimeter as the planet around them complained grotesquely. Explosions continued even after the fleet silenced their guns. The crust still moved and breached at spots, throwing up a mix of fire and stream from spontaneous volcanoes…most of which were beyond the ring of ships that were holding the water back as it crept higher and higher, for the tidal waves would not stay pressed outward forever.

  The lair itself was not obnoxiously huge, and the ground teams were making quick progress. They’d be done before the water rose high enough to jeopardize the holding shields, and without water inside the lair the fearsome J’gar were no match for the seasoned Zen’zat who didn’t care to make a fair fight out of it and killed them often out of sight with self-guiding missiles and other non-traditional weapons that normally would have been stifled due to the water environment…so the lair didn’t have defenses against them.

  Chamber by chamber they went until one random J’gar, killed in armor, matched the Didact’s genetic code.