Chapter 428 (2/2)

Cricket sent the same order to all ships. There were literally millions of Lanaktallan naval vessels in the system, but fast-cook eVI's had spread to even the smallest vessel, had taken possession of the systems, bringing them to full operating status.

”STATUS CHANGE! ATREKNA DRIVE AND SHIP PROFILES ON TEMPORAL RANGING! ESTIMATED THREE THOUSAND!” Admiral Smith's assistant targeting officer called out. ”Designating Tango-Nine!”

”Instruct Division Three, Nine, Thirty-Two, and Forty-Five to launch fast scan torchships,” Smith ordered. ”Run the cloning banks dry if you have to, I want data on the new fleet.”

The Atrekna who had arrived through the wormhole staggered at the sheer violence of temporal and phasic munitions detonating. They overcame their disorientation, reaching out to the others of their kind, joining with them in their collective mind.

The Atrekna reached out again, fuming. They had felt the Herdlings, felt their minds. They checked again, and realized their mistake. The Herdlings had been clever, oh yes they had, but they did not fool the Atrekna who had just arrived.

The Herdlings, the Grazing Ones, were using some kind of psychic defense that made their neural patterns look like their drone caste even as their minds thought along their warrior and leader caste neural paths. They had used drugs to supress their psychic signatures to prevent the Atrekna from targeting them.

Their gambit, their attempt to hide their leaders and warriors beneath a threadbare costume of droneness, had failed.

With a cold feeling of satisfaction at dismantling the illusion, the Atrekna Full Royal Quorum reached out, into the Lanaktallan on the ships, and twisted the tides of time, the flow of tempus, wiping away the veneer of the drone caste to reveal the warrior and leadership castes beneath. It was tougher than they had expected, had required a further reach, but the Atrekna had faced the warrior caste and leadership caste of the Grazing Ones before, so they knew their thoughts and their taste.

They returned the Grazing Ones back to their reality.

In the same way they had reached out to attack the Ferals.

They stripped away the facade, returning them to their leadership and warrior caste.

Cu'udchu'ar went stock still. His pupils dialted until they swallowed the color of his eyes. His muscles trembled. Pain lanced through his brain. His thoughts shifted, warped, twisted. His grey matter went soft and realigned, the neural structures and patterns shifting from just like every other Lanaktallan to those more closely matching the neural template laid into his brain months ago.

For a moment he struggled with the long dead War Stallion whose memories he carried. For a split second he teetered on the brink of losing himself.

The phasic shielding went active.

The Atrekna lost their grip on the Lanaktallan manning the ships of the Great Herd Armada.

Cu'udchu'ar suddenly broke free.

Cu'udchu'ar turned and stared at Cricket.

”Order all ships to activate phasic dampeners and shielding at maximum power, including personal systems,” he snapped. He turned and looked at the Feralspawn boiling up out of the gas giants for a moment, watching as dozens of PAWM burst through the Feralspawn lines, shattering them, as they too left the gas giants. He turned back to Cricket. ”Get me a channel to your commander.”

”Fourth wave of group designated Feralspawn are rising up out of the gas giants and supermassive gas giants,” Smith heard a tactical officer call out.

Smith thought fast. Those things were exiting in larger and larger numbers, and with the amount of gas giants and supermassive gas giants in the system, it was becoming an exponential problem.

”Signal from the Great Herd,” her commo called out.

”Put it here,” Admiral Smith ordered.

The holotank wavered and the image of Cu'udchu'ar appeared.

”Admiral,” the Lanaktallan said.

Smith noticed his voice sounded different.

”Yes, Most High?” Admiral Smith asked.

”I have seen the results of your attacks upon Executor and Military systems,” Cu'udchu'ar said. Before Smith could ask anything he continued. ”In each system, gas giants were ignited so that they burned like a sun for weeks or months.”

The Lanaktallan paused for a moment.

”Do you have access to those munitions?” Cu'udchu'ar asked.

Admiral Smith nodded. ”It will take around two hours to unpack them, but yes.”

Cu'udchu'ar nodded in return. ”We have no choice. We must destroy or disrupt the gas giants or the Devourers and the autonomous war machines will overwhelm us.”

”I'll order units to start processing the munitions,” Smith said.

Cu'udchu'ar vanished and Smith frowned. The Lanaktallan had sounded different, almost looked different, from her earlier interactions.

”Ma'am! Type I and Type-II PAWMs are fleeing the battlefield, they're breaking contact and entering jumpspace,” one of Smith's tactical stations called out.

”Redirect fire from the Type-I and the Type-II to the Atrekna ships,” Smith said. She tapped the tank. ”Get me Naval Ordnance Command.”

She set about arranging for the units in range to start producing weapons.

If worse came to worse...

...she'd novaspark the stellar masses.