THE WAR OF THE ANCIENTS (2377 – 2379)
Zaktic’s skies were torn open when the mutagenic armies of the Avarrians descended upon the planet, one of the many forces of invasion sent into Hypercoil space to quickly batter their opponents into submission. Unfortunately, like many an invader, they were soon to find out the world was filled only with slaves and automated defenses, like many other planets in sheelikean space.
*****************
-More!- shouted Zacadliss, wrapped around the top of his command post. –Protect the flagship! Protect the greater future of our kind!-
Hundreds of ships had assembled in the Beacon of Infinity to lay siege upon the great outpost of the ancients. The sheelikoi had given their ultimatum of complete surrender right before attacking, only to follow the old rites, knowing full well that the guardians would have not bowed down to their requests. The Fang had caught the bulk of the enemy fleet unaware, while it was moving out of the system. The guardians had probably thought to make short work of their invaders, relying on a huge army and the advantage of their technology to quickly assault the Hypercoil’s heart, but the High Farseer’s quick action had divided their armies from the fleet, pinning the ancients’ warships right outside their star-ring.
The advance of the armies in the nearby systems was unfortunate, but a small price to pay. It would have taken them many years and losses before reaching the core planets and, by that time, Zacadliss had no doubt the automated defenses would have been enough to completely destroy the mutagenic forces of the guardians.
For the campaign, the First Slither had ordered the construction of a new Slither’s Whip, but Zacadliss did not oppose the decision, knowing that both fleets would have remained under his full control and be employed against the same targets for the war.
The restless work of countless slaves had made possible for the Fang to nearly double its size compared to the strength it had at the end of the Great Coalition War. Every production line on every planet of the Hypercoil was working incessantly even then to produce an endless supply of reinforcements.
The fight against the avarrian ancients was proving to be a long one, like the orbital battle over Xanaslisk, but unlike the onslaught of the Coalition, it was also a much bloodier one for the sheelikoi: the lightning weapons of the guardians were easily cutting through the defenses of the Fang’s ships, vaporizing their hulls faster than they could repair themselves.
-There is no retreat. There is no fear. Only the light, stolen by the ancients! Fight the pitiful and decadent guardians, let our mighty civilization be reborn from their mysteries!-
*****************
“You were barely willing to join this Coalition…” started the ikaanan representative. “...now you ask this?”
Carclak clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Once consensus is reached, there’s no need for indecisiveness. The Star Hive does not deal in half measures. This is our chance.”
Only a few days before the Uri Consciousness spy network had been able to decode some military transmissions coming from the Hypercoil that had led the Compact to believe another war had been declared by the sheelikoi, against an unknown enemy.
“We’re not ready to fight them so soon.” Protested the Uri ambassador.
“The Consciousness is not, but we are.” Said the bessadon. “It is our time. We know of war more than any of your governments. You’ve asked for our help in destroying the Hypercoil, that’s how one does it.”
“Perhaps, if we just waited for a few years...”
“No. The more we wait, the more time they have to finish whatever they are doing and refill their losses. Did you not learn anything? Never wait. Their slaves build faster and cheaper than our workers combined, we must attack now, when they don’t expect it. It doesn’t matter if we aren’t as strong now. We need to have them be surrounded by enemies at all time, for as long as possible. Only then we can break their economy.”
*****************
Xirleekan was steaming with outrage. He had just received the declaration of war from the Righteous Compact, this time led by the bessadons. The message had come not too long after the last report on the avarrian campaign, which appeared to be still in a stalemate.
-The pathetic forces of the ikaanan and the treacherous bessadon and all the others will crawl up again, trying to take our spoils, yes. But the plan cannot be stopped. The Ancients must fall. With their secrets and their mysteries, all the Slithers will ascend. Yes, we shall proceed as it was foreseen.-
*****************
“Two years!?!” The Avarrian Old Tecnocrat shouted. “Two years!?!”
The commanders, reunited in the great hall looked down, with the shame clearly visible on their faces.
“The Avarrian Ascendancy has existed from the beginning of times!! You incompetent idiots will have it fall within two years!?!”
The great overview behind the scientist showed the fight currently happening in the Ring’s orbit, where the Hypercoil’s forces had surrounded one of the last orbiting defense platforms and were in the process of dismantling it.
“Never, in our millennia-old government, an enemy dared to open fire upon this sanctuary! And you’ve allowed primitives with not even the common sense to cover their genitals to destroy our great fleet!”
The Tecnocrat waved his hand to establish a channel with the ground commanders, dismissing the navy ones with the other.
“These troglodytes will not make a mockery of us, our armies must stop their advance.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Old Tecnocrat closed the channel and started to walk back and forth below the great window.
The entire system had been transformed into a graveyard. The avarrian fleet had destroyed twice as many ships as it had lost, if not more, but the primitives kept on swarming them, again and again, a new fleet warping into the sector every other week, until the defense forces could hold them no more. They had lost contact with their invading armies; the Old Tecnocrat could only hope that his generals had been more successful in the campaign than his admirals. Even then, if they didn’t manage to repel the primitives’ forces in the Beacon of Infinity, their entire civilization would have been doomed. He was certain that the enemies would have targeted the abandoned ring first, the Beacon of Stability, thus giving time to the avarrian fleet to cut its way through the core systems of the sheelikoi; he couldn’t have conceived a direct strike to the seat of the Ascendancy’s power, and even less that they would have managed to wear down their fleet.
*****************
“Proud soldiers of the great Avarrian Ascendancy..!” The general looked down on the lines of commanders and the hosts of soldiers beneath the platform, sprawling through the highways of the star-ring, fitted with heavy armor and high-powered weaponry.
“...the Beacon of Infinity.. has stood as a sanctuary and the ancestral seat of power of our great nation for countless generations..!” his voice was artificially amplified to reach every soldier over the loud bombardments weakening the District’s deflector shield.
“…we have endured, survived any invader, survived the treachery of the machines, guarded our arts, that no primitive species can be trusted in knowing.”
Only a few mutagen troops stood alongside the army’s vanguard. Most of them had been sent off with the invasion forces.
“The monsters that attack us are ignorant and petty creatures, driven by their greed and bloodlust. Every last one of us has sworn to protect the secrets hidden in the Beacon of Infinity. We know that, in the wrong hands, such knowledge will bring only doom to all the lesser beings of this galaxy. Yet, today, we are not fighting just for our ancestral heritage: we are fighting for justice! The senseless and suicidal tactics of these primitives have cost us our pride and many lives of our comrades..!”
The main deflector shield started to fade and some of the automatized alerts went off, tracking the first incoming transports.
“Our peace and our prosperity depend upon our reputation. This stain must be cleaned off and the primitives made an example of our ancient power! Only then, when the dread they feel upon hearing our very name is enough to paralyze them with fear, only then we will be ourselves again!.. Soldiers of the vanguard! Prepare for contact!”
The first psionic attacks started to buzz in the general’s ear, interfered by his bionic helmet. Decoded material from the orbital battle had given the idea the invaders used telepathic warfare to demoralize their opponents, but the only thing that the avarrian could catch now where disconnected and frenzied thoughts.
*****************
-Kill the prey, as you should! Blood! See its blood! See its entrails!-
The Great Conqueror emerged alongside his veteran psions when the main bulk of the sheelikean forces had already engage the avarrians, adding his thoughts in the unhinged flux flowing from the invading army.
-The prey will fall! The prey’s fate is to fall! Fall!-
The telepathic screeches were flowing freely, reaching both enemies and warriors. The battle in the Ring’s orbit had been the most gruesome the sheelikoi had had in their entire history. Thousands of hunters had died, each further upsetting the peace of mind of the remaining ones. There was no coordinated effort to undermine the enemy’s morale, nor a set battle plan: the invading anthropoids swarmed ferociously the avarrians, each trying to prove to himself of his rank as predator by killing and mangling as many opponents as possible.
At first, the lack of strategy allowed the avarrians to hold steady and cause more losses on the sheelikoi’s side, but the constant bombardment from above and the endless new reinforces coming in proved too much to handle for the avarrian defense army, whose soldiers had never seen a real battle in their entire life.
*****************
The occupation of the Beacon of Infinity went on for four months, but, after the first major battle, the avarrians were unable to oppose any real resistance, only slowing down the advance of the sheelikoi through their District.
When Zeraxim broke through the main research center of the Palatial District, dripped in the blood of gene-troops, he found the Old Tecnocrat feverishly working on the central mainframe. The alien shouted something at him, without even turning, but the Great Conqueror just rushed and pounced on him, pinning the Tecnocrat on the ground a carving away his protective band, alongside one of his crests, violently pushing himself in the avarrian’s mind.
-Give me your secrets and mysteries, old one, your time has come!-
The avarrian growled, suffocating under his coils. –You’ll never have our knowledge, it is both beyond your understanding and wisdom to use it.-
-Irrelevant. What the predator takes is his spoils.-
-Your kind is even more primitive than I expected. It is gone, I’ve deleted all.-
-You lie!-
The avarrian felt the grasp of his captor growing, so he bit his poisoned tooth, soon starting to agonize.
Zeraxim growled in frustration as he saw the most prized captive slip away from his coils right at the moment of his greatest victory.
-Your kin,- said the Slither, infusing all of his rancor in every word. -IT shall be the one to pay for your insolence, old one. Know this and.. and...-
The sheelikor stopped, realizing that the avarrian was dead already, and snapped forward, biting his face off and starting to chew on it.
