Chapter 482 (2/2)
”Report,” the Admiral said, lifting several of his spines in curiosity.
”Biological War Machines have just made realspace translation in massive numbers. More are coming in,” the midshipman reported.
”Stabilization!” Admiral Shtuklar snapped out.
”Aye, sir?” the Commodore asked.
”Flutter the system, time to slice and dice some unwanted echoes and memories,” the Admiral said calmly.
”Executing Fluttershy Protocol,” the Commodore said.
The Atrekna felt satisfaction as they brought in slavespawn by the thousands. Only a few dozen of the larger ones, nothing compared to the massive PAWMs, but still enough to sterilize or capture a world.
The few remaining gathered their powers and began to phase in the next wave.
The entire system seemed to turn upside down and inside out. Temporal munitions exploded, the stabilizers cycled rapidly, and the space-time regulators oscillated along a predetermined chaotic pattern.
The entire incoming wave of slavespawn exploded into gobbets of flesh that froze instantly.
”Fire Volley Two,” Admiral Shtuklar ordered.
The Atrekna aboard the surviving AWM stared at what instruments they had as the tiny primitive fleet fired again.
Three quarters of them fled, translating to the surface of the planet to join their fellows, the rest died as the second strike blew the last remaining AWMs into spreading debris.
Half of the fleeing Atrekna were torn apart trying to reach the surface.
When they reached the surface they quailed back from the savagery. Feral primitives were everywhere, slaughtering the slavespawn, attacking spawnseeds, creating temporal disruption that prevented any method of adding to the slavespawn in that area, either from the past or the future.
Worse was the cold malevolent force moving through the thickest spawning fields.
A half dozen of a Conclave sneered at the Quorum that tried to warn them and reached out to control or snuff out the minds of the cold force attacking the primary spawning field.
The Quorum watched with cold satisfaction as they touched those strange minds.
Two of the Conclave dropped from the sky, plummeting through the air, to slam into the ground, their eyes bulged from their heads. Two others screamed and attacked each other despite the remainder of the Conclave urging them to control themselves.
Within minutes the Conclave was reduced to a mere fifty, pulling their minds away and shielding them from any kind of contact from the creatures spreading out through the spawnseed area.
One was slow and felt the cold dead hands grab him.
i was her hero the cold trickle of thought, like nearly frozen swamp water, wormed through the Atrekna's brain. some hero.
It screamed and writhed.
The others held back from killing their fellow Atrekna. True, he was millions of years old, a coldly professional and skilled strategist.
But they could sense that strange intellect grabbing their fellow and chose to watch rather than quickly and cleanly kill their fellow.
The Atrekna felt fingers wrap around its conical head.
i saw the black dog on that hilltop the thought was slow, cold molasses on a winter's morning, with the taste of bad meat and spoiled milk.
The Atrekna screamed and tried to push away the thought, the feeling of those cold hands on its skin. It could see a bluish face, one of the feral primates, in front of it's eyes, the mouth opening to expose blackened and bloody teeth in jaws that kept gnashing.
The tongue was bluish purple.
i've been hurt worse the thought informed the Atrekna. Pressure started to increase on its head and it began gibbering as it felt its skull shudder and compress.
but i really can't remember when the mind said. a mar-gite pulled my arm off.
The Atrekna screamed as the primate bit deep, ripping away a chunk of flesh, and swallowed.
so hungry i'm so hungry i can't remember when pulled my arm off happy birthday some hero
The Atrekna's skull ruptured suddenly and it dropped from the sky.
The others heard the voice.
i can taste nipplegloss and blood
They put up shielding between themselves and that voice.
The Quorum that was already there refused to join their communal mind, harshly rebuffing them.
The newcomers sent a demand for an explanation.
One felt cold primate fingers down its spine.
i was nineteen when i killed my first mar-gite it heard.
Another felt fingers brush their chest, beneath their robe.
it took me nearly three decades to be accepted to Third Armor and now i'm so hungry i'm so cold and your so warm i'm so hungry
They could hear the clackity clack clack of jaws, teeth gnashing, smell bad rotting blood and flesh, feel a coldness seep into their flesh.
come and see they all heard.
The Quorum suddenly lunged forward, attacking the remaining members of the Conclave, ruthlessly and without any mercy.
They had been fighting for nearly sixty hours against that cold dark stain.
They knew infection when they saw it.
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The Admiral looked at the newest targets.
”Time till we are in range of their weapons?” he asked.
”Biological war machines, Admiral. They won't reach close enough to the stellar mass to fully thaw for another three hours,” the Commodore said.
”Run the firing solutions. We'll kill them while they're still frozen and half-asleep,” the Admiral said. ”My compliments to Missile Division Alexander, if you would.”
”Yes, Admiral,” was the reply.
Admiral Shtuklar rocked back and forth on his heels, flexing his hocks.
Now this he understood.
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”Do we know how long Trucker's been down there?” Smokey 'No asked, lighting another cigarette.
His aide shook his head. ”Estimates based on tidal forces believe that nearly sixty hours have passed since he made land-fall. Surface temporal distortions are making it hard to tell.”
Smokey 'No nodded his head slowly and carefully. The last thing he needed was another surge of euphoric chemicals.
”Keep an eye out on Dead Blood and First Telkan. It looks like A'armo'o and Ekret have their areas wrapped up, the Treana'ad Hordes appear to own the cities,” Smokey 'No jabbed his cigarette at several place on the holotank. ”If we keep up the momentum, we'll have broken the enemy's back within the next forty-eight hours, then it will just be mopup.”
The lights flickered and General NoDra'ak felt the weird plucking through his ichor marrow of C+ cannons firing. He looked up at the ceiling then back at the holotank, taking a long drag off his cigarette. He exhaled through his footpads and gave a wry chuckle.
”Say what you want about the Admiral's ground combat expertise,” NoDra'ak chuckled, ”I'll wager you sprinkles to caramel that the space forces won't even get a shot off at us before he's mopping them up.”
”No bet, sir,” his aide said.
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Vuxten leaned against the side of the grav-lifter, his arms crossed and SMG in his lap. He was mostly awake, dreaming of Telkan as the flitter kept low to the ground, heading toward the next incursion. His armor was dented, scraped, and discolored, like the rest of First Telkan's armor.
But he hadn't suffered any KIA yet.
Across from him, feet anchored as if it was rooted to the very earth, the sole Terran in the entire Telkan Division stared to the south.
Where Dead Blood was crushing the largest of the Atrekna Dwellerspawn forces.
”Do you love me?” Casey asked.
”Forever and ever,” Lozen answered.