Gauntlet Wars: House Phoenix (Star Force Gauntlet Wars Book 3), page 9
It took a few hours to take down the buildings, and in that time some of the pods hatched and new Asferja came out. Cora knew they’d probably attack her, for a limited hive mind was still active on the planet even if this facility was no longer generating it. They could telepathically talk to each other from very long distances…or at least receive commands from long distances, and these new Asferja would know Cora’s unit was the enemy soon enough, perhaps even before the pods hatched, she wasn’t sure.
She had a few mechs waiting for them, and when the pods cracked open and they dropped to the ground, unarmed except for their unaugmented claws, the mechs shot them with stun weaponry…for each mech was only equipped with one such weapon, and a small weapon at that, for there was no point in taking a lot of them that they couldn’t use in battle. The Asferja dropped out of their pods, then were dropped a second time to the ground even before one of her collection ships arrived overhead now that the hive base defenses were down, including its sky side shield generator.
No matter how bad things got, Cora didn’t like to leave a messy battlefield with survivors, so she always brought support ships with her to pick up prisoners…or if things went really bad, her own mechs and mechwarriors. But she knew that if the battles dragged on for too long, she’d end up with more prisoners than she could handle, so even before the collection ship arrived, Cora and most of her mechs hopped back up off the ground and into the open doors on their transport ships that came back for them…then as they flew to their next destination on the planet, some of the worst damaged mechs got quick repairs done, which mostly meant replacement armor plates and those with missiles got reloads.
Some 22 minutes later, Cora was hot dropping again near another stream of Asferja moving to assault a Yu’kor city whose defenders were dug in tight around the perimeter, complete with canyon-sized moats that had been dug around the city. It was a curious idea, and one that seemed to be working as the Asferja were trying to cross it by swimming…something that it seemed they weren’t that good at.
Cora signaled her star to stay onboard as the rest dropped, then had the transport move over to the mound of dirt on the inside of the moat. Her star leapt out there and hit the ground next to the Yu’kor soldiers, scaring the shit out of them so bad they fired on her mech.
“Easy fellas,” she said on the external speakers as the computer translated her words into their native language, one of over a million different ones Star Force had catalogued to date across the galaxy. “We’re from Star Force and we’re here to help. Shoot the Asferja, not us,” Cora said, ignoring a few more shots coming her way as she walked down the bank, yelling “Move!” at some of the clusters of Yu’kor ahead of her, and having to jump jet over some to get to the shore-line where a few of the Asferja were climbing out after their swim…while the dead bodies of others floated in the water, already killed by the Yu’kor.
Cora stood her mech on the bank and opened up on the swimmer and those on the far shore, using her heavier and longer ranged weapons on the latter. The four mechs in her star spread out, two on either side of her, and basically claimed a stretch of the bank with no Asferja allowed to cross.
“Thank you, metal warriors,” she heard one of the Yu’kor say from behind her, which brought a brief smile to her face. Did they actually think she was the mech?
“Stay behind me and shoot any Asferja that make it onto the shore on either side of us,” she told him, continuing to rain bright and fiery death at the Asferja swimmers…only to realize that their floating bodies were creating a bridge, and soon she saw others on the far side hopping across them at a fast pace.
“Shit,” she said, adjusting some of her fire to the corpses in order to vaporize, or at least break them up enough that they couldn’t be walked on. The damn bugs were not going to make this easy on her…
8
EG29
August 4, 158438
ANDROMEDA GALAXY
Mesh’va’kay Nebula
Temple #2611
Jiynalen had spent most of his life as a Neofan battle commander leading armies of their servants beyond their home galaxy of Utovi on a wide range of missions. Some were to help out other members of the Bond of Resistant in their almost futile efforts to grow into the Neofan’s peers, others were to secure the resources necessary to construct new Temples. And yet some had dubious origins that he had never fully understood. He simply obeyed.
He was formerly of House Innex…a very, very old House that had ceased to exist due to an absorption of the other Houses. They weren’t killed off, but broken up into bits and simply disappeared. It happened after he had been exiled, so he never knew the truth of what had happened to his House some 31 million years ago, but unlike most exiles he had survived his madness and now stood reinstated into the Neofan race at some 38 million years of age.
It was depressingly sad that most of his life had been spent in exile…wasted…but now he saw it as a blessing. For had he stayed with House Innex he too would have been moved to another House or ‘disappeared’ as others had simply gone unaccounted for. Not exiled, for there would have been record of that, and he’d checked the records after being reborn into House Phoenix. No, his former brothers had simply vanished, with the few others becoming members of Houses that this cursed Mev had recently destroyed.
And he would have died with them, most likely, but his exile had sparred him from this Mev and the destruction it had caused. When he had been summoned to return, living in a Temple far beyond this galaxy away from anyone, even the Vargemma, at the behest of an automated drone that knew of his location, he had done so to find stories of this Mev and the suspicion of where it had come from and why.
The Neofan had not fully bowed to their mysterious masters…and for that he held some pride in his race…while at the same time he felt shame for them ever kneeling to anyone. How many of his missions had been to serve this master and not their own people? How many of the races that he had destroyed on unspecified orders had been the enemy of the T’fen and not the Neofan?
When he had met Reignor Vikarathe, the larger yet far younger Neofan had been surprised that he had not succumbed to the Mev…and then he had surprised Jiynalen when he told him that his aura was not corrupted…the very reason for his exile. It was just outside the parameters the Neofan had set…parameters that had since been deemed to be in error.
Jiynalen had been banished from his home for being too aggressive, and while he knew the risks of such emotions coupled with the immense powers of a Neofan, he had never had trouble controlling himself. Vikarathe had welcomed him into their new House without requiring the full graft that the others did, but he had accepted a partial one, for Vikarathe had told him they needed to go to war immediately and he didn’t have time to teach him what he needed to know through other means.
Jiynalen, already committed to the affront of a full graft in order to return to his race had no qualms about a partial…and with it he had learned of Star Force, the lightside, and how they had triggered an ancient holocaust upon them…the very holocaust the Neofan had originally been trying to unleash upon themselves by collecting as many Pre-born as they could, for prophecy said the race that collected them all would begin the endgame and rise to a new level.
The Pre-born were those that were born with knowledge they could not have learned. And it was not something that could be controlled, other than the more advanced races had more of them, and the only way to collect them all was to defeat and destroy the other races so all the Pre-born were born into your race. He had believed many of his missions were contingent on this, but now he saw that the prophecy had been incomplete.
That was the nicest word he could use for it.
The Pre-born were actually individuals granted knowledge by a living god, of which there appeared to be many. Who they guided and how was up to them and not how many races the Neofan destroyed, but they were trying to get races to the point where they could trigger the endgame…which was what the T’fen were trying to stop entirely. They were themselves the product of a previous endgame, which created a new race of living machines to assist the race that had triggered their creation.
The T’fen, however, had been defective and turned and killed their masters. Now, they sought to prevent other races from achieving the endgame and creating peers that would hunt them down and destroy them for their treason.
That is why those great races, like the Neofan, had been either enthralled by the T’fen into their service, or hunted down and destroyed to prevent their rise. Even the Hadarak were under their command and sent out to patrol their various galaxies looking for those who advanced too far, then destroying them before they could rise to become a threat.
And Jiynalen had been unwittingly helping this enemy, and squashing potential races that could one day trigger an endgame themselves.
He would not forgive himself for that. Nor would he forgive the ruling Houses for their compliance over the course of their history. They had chosen to become slaves rather than die fighting…but in their cowardice they had succeeded in keeping the Neofan alive this long, and because another race had risen to the point of an endgame far faster than any other, the Neofan had a chance at revenge…but only by bonding with that other race as brothers, not as servants. The T’fen wanted both of them dead, and together they would stand and fight.
No more servitude, regardless of how this ‘Gauntlet War’ turned out.
That is why Jiynalen had no qualms about following Reignor Vikarathe. He wanted war too…but a proper war. And thanks to his graft, Jiynalen now knew what proper war actually meant.
He’d been dispatched to this Temple, the first of many, as other House Phoenix Neofan likewise traveled elsewhere. The power of the Temples had been created by the Neofan over the course of their dominant history, and it was a power that the few of them that still remained alive could wield. The Mev could not destroy the infrastructure they had laid down, and now that they were purged of the Mev, the Neofan were going to war and using the efforts of past generations to build the army they now required.
Jiynalen had already made contact with the Vargemma leaders here, instructing them to notify the 3.8 trillion people in the Temple that he had arrived and would be addressing them shortly. Soon there was a crowd filling the plaza in the city where he would be speaking, but his image would be spread across all cities and all individuals, for he had ordered the Caretakers to track down those beyond the cities and display to them this message, whether it be live or on replay.
They all needed to know, and he did not intend to waste a single day here. The war had already begun, and he was late to it.
“I am one of the Founders your teachings have spoke of,” he said in his native Neofan language, knowing that the Temple could translate it to the common Vargemma tongue and refused to diminish himself to their level for the ease of communication. It also sent a clear reminder who was dominant.
“There are three races of Founders…Neofan, Veloqueen, and Denogi. I am Neofan. My name is Jiynalen, of House Phoenix. Long have you been promised that one day you would fight in a war to purge this galaxy of the Hadarak. Now I am here to tell you, that you must do much more, for the Hadarak have a master far more powerful who has commanded them to seek and destroy anyone who begins to advance to a level to challenge them.”
“We must not just defeat the Hadarak, but their master and the other servants of their master. The name of the master race is the T’fen, and they are living starships who cannot use Essence…which is one reason why they fear those of us who can,” he said, addressing a population that was almost entirely made up of Essence-users.
“But Essence alone will not win this fight. Even now, the T’fen send their other servant races into our neighboring galaxy to destroy our ally Star Force, for they have grown too powerful, just as the Neofan have. We are both to be destroyed, and together, we will both defy these T’fen. While the Denogi sit and do nothing, the Veloqueen fight with us as well. A new order is forming. Star Force is taking the Denogi’s place amongst the Founders, and together we must use all our power to defeat the invasions of the T’fen’s servants. Defeat is death, for they will harbor no equals.”
“We created these Temples to protect you, but know this…the T’fen and their servants have the power to destroy a Temple if they so choose,” he said, feeling a wave of horror in the crowd. The telepathic buzz was overwhelming, but expected. “It would not be easy for them, but they could do it. They could wipe out all of the Temples where the Hadarak cannot. None of us are safe, but right now their attention is on Star Force and they are assaulting it via two invasion corridors. One is through the Gateways at the center of the galaxy that allow for rapid travel off the massive gravity fields they produce. The other is a technology of one of their servants that allows slower travels from the Rim of one galaxy to another. This servant is called the Asferja, and they are already in this galaxy. They are using it as a staging ground as they extend their bridges across to Kerrsi, which will henceforth be known as Milky Way. Itsi, in which we now stand, will also be known as Andromeda. These are the names that Star Force has given these two galaxies, and to show our solidarity with them, we will use the same names.”
“Andromeda is being carved up to feed these Asferja as they grow new armies to send across the bridges and assault Star Force. Already some of you have volunteered to fight them in space. I am here to ask for those who are willing to fight them on the ground, for we need to raise and train an army to take back the worlds the Asferja have stolen. Purge them of all who will not surrender to us. And then hold them so they cannot be reclaimed by the enemy again. Even now, another one of the T’fen’s servants is riding across the bridge into Milky Way while we attack to thin and slow them down, but we cannot stop them. Not yet. This galaxy was not prepared for war of this level, but you have been here, waiting and training and growing your Essence power. It is not enough to win this war, but it is a key component of any potential victory.”
“I need you to learn how to be proper soldiers, and how to operate the machines this Temple is now beginning to produce. The T’fen thought us weak, but we will show them our dormant strength. The Vargemma will rise and flood across this galaxy, denying it to the enemy as a pass-through, and forcing them to wage war directly on us…which will split their forces and give our ally a better chance to win their fight in Milky Way.”
“If we are to survive this, we must both survive. If not, we will both fall over the course of time.”
“This is asking more of you than was foretold…because we did not know of the Hadarak’s master. Now we do. Now war is already upon us. If you choose to remain here, increase your daily donations of Essence in a responsible manner. Something you can maintain indefinitely…do not overtax yourselves to the point of death. That is of no use to us. You must live and continue to provide Essence, for we are using it in our ships and have already reduced the level of the Temple wells considerably to destroy several of the Asferja bridges…but they build them back, so it is only a delaying mechanism. We must have an army to take planets from them, so for those of you who are willing to embrace the danger head on, we will train you here and then as our mechanized armies are forged, you will lead them from the sky of land to the sky of stars and battle races that are our equal from far off galaxies.”
“Do not let that scare you. We have the advantage, because they can only move a limited amount of people and resources between galaxies. It is not an easy thing to do. We are already here. We already have our Temples. We already have trillions of Vargemma. We simply need to build the machines and train you to use them. Many of you will die, but if we do not fight, the enemy may come here and destroy this Temple eventually…or maybe not,” he admitted. “Maybe they will overlook it and go back into their dormant states waiting for the next high level threat to arise. Their actions are not entirely predictable, and it is safe to say you will be more safe here than out there. We need Vargemma in both places. You cannot all go. The Temple needs your donations, and we need you to continue to reproduce to replace the losses that are coming.”
“This will be a very long war, and I will not send you out before you are ready. That is why we must begin training now, as well as in other Temples. I will have several under my personal command, while other Neofan are being spread out to gather the rest of your kin. All are being rallied to war, and while the Neofan of the past may have compelled it, House Phoenix will not. We do not want reluctant soldiers. We want those of you who wish to fight. Those of you who will never give up. Our enemy is not here to conquer us. They are here to annihilate us! We will either achieve victory, or we will be turned to ash and memories. That is what we face. Now choose how you will serve. There is much work to be done, and we will begin today,” he said, pressing a button before him and activating the Temple’s education network to display a new recruitment option everywhere simultaneously.
The crowd before him wasn’t silent. As soon as he stopped speaking there was a roar of approval and energy. These people had been living in here most, if not all of their lives with the promise of going outside and fighting, and Jiynalen could feel their eagerness. Their voices overlapped into an inaudible roar that slowly morphed into a chant of ‘Phoenix.’
They didn’t need to know the House was brand new. They didn’t need to know there were only two Houses left and that the majority of the Neofan population had been killed. He hadn’t lied to them, but telling them the full truth right now would have been detrimental, and the events in Utovi and Yenoiv did not matter here. House Phoenix was responsible for Andromeda now. And it was here that they were going to fight and defend.
