Star Force: Hamoriti (SF62) (2 page)

More and more of the vassals were cut down hurling the
seeds at the creature, whose return fire was diminishing in response, but after
a lengthy fight the vassals were all destroyed leaving their baskets half full
and mostly spilled over the floor surrounding the monster.

The Sety in the control room got a brief message from
another of its race in the Oracle chamber, relying the wisdom from the Ancient
program. The tree-like quadruped disconnected the private
comm
and looked at the other 8 leaders. “
It
wasn’t enough, the creature is still waking. We have slowed it, but nearly all
the chemical is still lying on the floor and now out of our range until we can
get more vassals here.
”

“
How much time
do we have?
” the cyborg asked.

“
The Oracle says
no more than 4 days.
”

The Trinx shook its head again in dismay. “
We cannot have more here before then, not in
the number we need.
”

“
What do we do?
”
the Yisv asked, having studied the warnings from the Oracle in detail. It had
been insistent that their only hope came from immediate action, else the waking
creature would scale beyond their ability to contain.

“
The Sety have
killed us all
,” the Trinx said, realizing that it was lost.

“
No
,” the
cyborg said before the panicked bickering could begin. “
There is another way
.”

“
What have we
not considered?
” the Sety asked, desperate for even the slightest glimmer
of hope.

The cyborg reached a thick finger up and tapped the
side of its head, then ran out of the room knowing that every second he delayed
the creature would grow stronger. They had to stop this thing now, no matter
what the sacrifice.

Those thoughts were transmitted out to the other
Chamra on the planet instantaneously, with them understanding and agreeing
without argument or dissent. All of them, no matter where they were, began
heading towards the shell and gathering around the inner breach point. They
didn’t bother to enlighten the others of The Nine about what they were doing
for there was no point and no time, they had to get the sedatives deployed
immediately, for even when the Oracle got the repairs completed the creature
could not be in an agitated state, else it would overwhelm the machinery in the
shell.

The Chamra leader met the others and waited for them
all to arrive, then as a group they took off running towards the spilt chemical
seeds, moving far faster than the bigger vassals had traveled but not fast
enough to trigger the physical defense barrier that had stopped any missile
attempts. When the cyborgs hit the psionic field their brains were compromised,
immediately stunned into a trance…but their technological components were not
and acted as a counterbalance, running security checks on all impulses and
weeding out the interference. It was labor intensive calculations, but it
allowed the Chamra to continue functioning on a low level as they ran by the
Sety statues that were gradually starving to death where they stood.

There was no time to save them, and as the cyborgs
came closer to the creature a few lightning arcs emerged, not so many as
before, but enough to begin killing them by the handful as those that were not
immediately hit were starting to get to the spilt chemical seeds. They picked
them up individually and ran forward, smashing chemical packets against the
side of the creature then retreating to pick up more. Moving with an enhanced
speed that was typical of cyborgs, they rushed to deliver as many chemical
seeds as possible before they were cut down.

The other 8 leaders watched from the control room as
thousands of Chamra sacrificed themselves to deliver the last of the chemical…coming
up just short before all of them were killed, but the Yisv quickly confirmed
that the psionic field had shrunk, and if it was as low as it was when the Sety
first breached the shell then the sickness should have replaced it.

Desperate to finish the task the Sety, Trinx, Yisv,
and every other race of The Nine pulled all personnel on site and sent them into
the shell, with many taking sick the moment they got near the creature. Many
dropped to the ground within a few seconds, with the Yisv being completely
compromised and catatonic, but some stronger willed individuals in the other
races persisted long enough to get to the seeds and smash a few more, though
often it took two weakened individuals combining their strength to break one
open.

Most of the individuals in that assault lived through
the next hour then died over the coming days, but the Oracle was quick to
inform them when sufficient chemical had been applied and the suicidal charge
was recalled. Those Sety that had been turned into living statues did not make
it out, dying from the sickness within minutes, but their bodies were dragged
out all the same and the Oracle oversaw the final stages of the repairs,
finally resealing the monster to its fully dormant state.

Of the leaders of The Nine on planet, none survived,
for they had gone in the final wave as well to maximize their window of opportunity,
but those who were left alive in the aftermath reported what had happened and
relayed the warnings of the Oracle to their distant leadership while continuing
to ply it with questions. Coming to grasp the horror they had narrowly avoided
The Nine immediately took up custody of the planet and quarantined it under
heavy guard to ensure that no one could intentionally or accidentally breach
the shell again.

The galaxy had been spared a fateful blow, and The
Nine intended to protect the work of the Ancients indefinitely, no matter what
the future costs, for they would be nil if the creature was ever to wake again.

2

May 3, 2723

Haphchap System
(lizard territory)

Unnamed planet

Four Li’vorkrachnika rushed down one of their angled
tunnels, descending lower into the bedrock as the three standard variants
escorted a larger ‘tech’ that had approximately the same body type but was
reserved for dealing with scientific matters. It had been grown along with a
few others when the highly dense corovon deposit that they’d located deep
underground had been found to be housed within an artificial construct of
unknown origin.

The tech variants had been analyzing it and given the
go ahead to begin cannibalizing a section of the outer hull, for while it
wasn’t the source of the majority of the corovon readings it still held an unusually
high concentration of the valuable element. As it was, there were three
different breaches in the hull that were being expanded upon as an army of
lizards were surveying the interior, learning and collecting whatever bits of
technology they could get their hands on.

Another team had been delving deeper trying to get to
the source of the insanely high corovon readings, which required breaking
through a secondary internal hull. A defense program had been hindering their
progress for months, but finally they’d been able to shut it down via some
well-placed explosives and burn their way through the inner hull to get their
first look at the corovon deposit.

It wasn’t as large as the interior, rather just a
‘small’ object laying inside the 10 kilometer-wide empty internal cavern.
Whatever it was wasn’t pure corovon, that was obvious by the dirty blue
coloration, but it was giving off such high readings that even a tiny piece of
the mile long object would be invaluable to their operations on the planet…let
alone what the entire mass would do for the lizard empire as a whole once they
got to the point of sending out exports.

But apparently there had been some sort of chemical
contamination, for the workers on the collection efforts had begun reporting
illnesses as they tried in vain to chip off even a small portion of what
appeared to be a massive statue. The high levels of corovon were obviously
responsible for that and it would take some time to break it down into
transportable chunks for processing, but if there was a contaminate in or
around the object the tech lizard was going to be the one to ascertain what it
was.

To that end it was carrying an array of gear strapped
to its body on top of the envirosuit it wore. The three standard variants wore
no protection, nor did the others still working in the massive artifact, but if
this one was to leave for further analysis of any samples collected it couldn’t
risk bringing the contamination out in its own body so protocol dictated that
it err on the side of caution.

When they came out of the descending tunnels they
passed through the original breach point in the artifact and were met with reports
of additional illness, though it had escalated to onsite incapacitation rather
than the mobile and conscious patients that had been examined previously by
standard variant medics. If this was a disease locked away for who knew how
long then it could very well wreak havoc with the Li’vorkrachnika population on
the planet.

Before it went any further the tech relayed an order
to seal the shafts at the surface. If they couldn’t contain this then they’d
die here rather than risk spreading it to the others, but if they were going to
die he’d need to gather information to send to the others up top so they could
devise a cure or countermeasure because this corovon find was by far the
largest ever recorded, and even if it meant the deaths of billions of his kin
it would be worth it to the empire once harvested.

Knowing what his duty was, the tech variant hurried
forward with its assistants/escorts through the outer ring of compartments
until they got to the inner breach site and found a mass of their kin waiting
there. They were stopped immediately, then the tech variant was allowed to pass
to the front of the crowd where he was pointed towards the sea of tiny dots
ahead that were the other Li’vorkrachnika that had been affected.

A standard variant passed him a magnifying scope and the
tech placed it over his left eye, allowing him to see in more detail those who
had fallen ill…except they hadn’t fallen. They were standing perfectly still,
every last one of them.

A perplexed expression crossed the tech’s face, then
the others pointed out the approximate boundary of the affected region, citing
that when they’d sent another team in they’d become affected almost
immediately. The tech turned his attention to that location and saw the 18
Li’vorkrachnika there, all standing still like statues.

He took a moment to think through the possibilities,
in a way that only his scientifically engineered mind could, then told the
standard variants to stay put while he investigated, given that he was the only
one with a body suit. So he began the long, multiple kilometer trek alone and
by foot, not using any of the vehicles nearby and taking atmospheric readings
every step of the way…yet finding nothing out of the ordinary.

The tech variant was pondering what could possibly be
going on that would cause the ill to stand erect rather than fall as he got
within 200 meters of the most recently effected, then suddenly his mind started
to blur and he stumbled forward a few more steps before his momentum stopped.
He moved his scanner so he could get a better view of it, but it was his eyes
that were beginning to go out rather than the position of his head or the
device.

Before he realized what was going on the majority of
his brain locked up into a kind of active stasis, with ‘holding’ input signals
going out to every part of his body, fixing it rigidly in place and maintaining
his last stance, adding the tech variant to the growing number of statues
around the object.

Three days later the ‘freezing field’ had extended out
to the breach in the inner hull, with many of the bodies trapped inside it
having fallen to the ground from exhaustion or death from the illness that had
first afflicted them. New ones had been added to them around the edges as
Li’vorkrachnika were sent in wearing
biomonitors
so
they could try and ascertain how they were being affected and by what, but
their readings were inconclusive right up until a tremor tripled through the
artifact and toppled half of the remaining living statues to the ground.

Pushed back beyond the entryway, there were no free
Li’vorkrachnika to witness the twitch of movement in the object, but had they
been there they wouldn’t have known what to make of it anyway. The large stone
statue bent slightly, and that motion was enough to cause a chain reaction
within it, clearing out more of the lingering sedative and partially awakening
the beast from its artificially induced slumber.

With the surrounding array no longer capable of
keeping it sedate, the enormous
hexaped
pushed its
left rear leg out, scraping it along the floor and gouging out a deep furrow on
the pedestal that held it in the center of the array. With every movement that
followed the pedestal broke and tore as if it was merely loose dirt being moved
aside until the creature finally rose up on all six legs, each more than 300
meters wide, and released a roar that coincided with a telekinetic wave that
hit and ripped apart everything around it.

The pedestal crumbled further beneath its feet,
sinking it down some 30 more meters, but the array above the creature didn’t
fare nearly as well and was almost instantaneously disabled from the invisible
impact, leaving only that part beneath the false ground to continue
transmitting the restraint psionic that worked in conjunction with the chemical
to keep the living mountain incapacitated.

As the thing woke further it released more psionic
energy in a series of angry tantrums, slowly breaking apart its cage as the
lizards in the outer ring of the artifact ran up their tunnels towards the
surface…only to be blocked by the quarantine and locked inside to their
imminent deaths.

2 months later…

“
Easy helm,
let’s not get too close
,”
Gosfu
said, watching
their scout ship’s position on the system map relative to the large
Li’vorkrachnika warfleet they’d run across.

“
Easing off,
though we’re well within sensor tolerance
.”

“
Best to be
overly cautious where stealth is concerned
,” the Trinx commander said,
watching the ships as they repositioned from jumppoint to jumppoint across the
orbital arc of the main star. To date the Li’vorkrachnika had only assaulted
his homeworld once, in pathetic fashion, but since then their scout fleet had
been given orders to survey the surrounding region that the reptilian race had
encroached upon.

They were spreading out far and wide, as opposed to
the Trinx who inhabited only one system and chose to keep it that way. This
primitive race was no real threat to them, but their other neighbors were not
so secure and succumbing rapidly as this juggernaut continued to roll forward.
The Trinx were not interested in fighting other people’s wars, but they did
want to keep appraised of what was going on around them.

Ever since the territory around the Trinx homeworld
had been overrun and the Li’vorkrachnika’s attempt to conquer them had failed
without prompting a counterattack, their empire had been more or less quiet in
this region, slowly building up their worlds and producing more ships to send
off in small groups to the ever moving fronts. So when this convoy had crossed
their paths it took
Gosfu’s
attention, in so much
that he was curious about where exactly it was headed.

He wasn’t worried about it being sent to attack them,
for such a fleet, while overpowering to others, was no match for even a handful
of Trinx ships. His scout ship alone could destroy more than a quarter of them,
so his curiosity was based not in self-preservation but in adding to the Trinx
situational awareness. As far as they knew there was no one else in the region
worthy of this level of Li’vorkrachnika attention, nor were there any primary
shipping lanes passing through it.

“
Stay well clear
until the last one jumps, then take us with them at a discrete distance
.”

“
We’re
following?
” the helmsman asked, his headtails flipping aside as his face
spun around.

“
A hunch
,”
the commander explained.

“
As you will.
How far do you plan on following them?
”

“
Until my
curiosity is sated
.”

“
How discrete
would you like?
”

“
Calculate their
jump vector and speed, then mimic out of sensor range. Their redeployment speed
is pitiful. We can reacquire on the far end
.”

“
What are you
expecting to find?
”

“
I don’t know.
That’s why I’m curious
.”

The Trinx scout ship dogged the Li’vorkrachnika
through six additional jumps before they finally arrived in the Haphchap
System, a location known to be under their control but otherwise uninteresting.
The last intelligence data they had on it was the existence of a small startup
colony like hundreds of others were being seeded throughout the region, but
upon deceleration into the system they discovered a great deal more.

The warfleet they had been following was only a small
fraction of the total number of ships present in the system, all of whom were
located in orbit around a single planet.

“
What’s going on
here?
”
Gosfu
wondered aloud, looking at the
thousands of warships in orbit as they approached, following the last bits of
the convoy as it moved in to join them…then as they got within proximity of the
planet the sensor panel lit up with a preprogrammed alarm that shot a mixture
of adrenaline, shock, and horror throughout the Trinx crew.

The sensor officer literally knocked herself out of
her seat as she reflexively jerked back from the screen, landing on her butt
and turning to face the commander. “
Hamoriti
,”
she whispered.

“
Recheck all
systems
,” he said immediately, hoping like hell this was a mistake. “
Bring us out of stealth mode and give me full
sensor scan…and get us closer. I don’t care about that fleet. We have to
confirm this one way or another.
”

The Trinx scout ship, about the length of three
Li’vorkrachnika cruisers, dropped its camouflage shields and accelerated
towards the planet, bypassing the last of the convoy and flying straight down
to upper low orbit. They all knew they had to keep their distance, for the
stories they learned as children taught them as much, but they needed to get
within better sensor range to confirm the psionic signature they were picking
up from afar.

The scout ship decelerated in the blink of an eye,
with the orbital fleet moving slowly to chase it and the commander not caring.
His eyes were on the holographic displays before him as they were updating and
centering on a surface location that had several hundred Li’vorkrachnika
cruisers surrounding a mass even larger than one of them. They were firing on
it from multiple angles with weapons that were not plasma-based, which was
totally foreign to their design motif, but they had to or their ships would be
caught up in the paralysis field if they didn’t use long range ordinance.

That thought barely registered to the commander as he
stared at the blue, six-legged mass not believing it was really here. This
planet was not one of the seven, and there were only 7 Hamoriti the Ancients
had trapped. One of them sat below his homeworld, with the Trinx as its
self-appointed guardian and keeper. The others in The Nine were doing likewise
with four more. The remaining two were beyond their reach, sitting buried
beneath planets in enemy territory where they could not presently reach.