Chapter 493 (2/2)
”The Outsiders, as we are calling them,” Sma'akamo'o started.
”Atrekna. They call themselves the Atrekna and your people did at one time too,” Adamant Mihn-Pok Yuda stated. ”At least in my former reality.”
Sma'akamo'o nodded, made an adjustment to the holodisplay data. ”The Atrekna and their Devourer weapons.”
”Dwellerspawn,” the Void Captain said.
”Dwellerspawn, have attacked over two hundred systems in the Unified Civilized Species Council Space,” Sma'akamo'o said. ”This is their appearance in time-lapse for the last sixty days. They appear without any orbital assets in many places, or the orbital and space assets appearing after ground forces emerge. There appear to be no rhyme or reason to the patterning.”
He paused and gave a braying laugh. ”Not that my people are known for their pattern recognition.”
The joke got chuckles.
”Additionally, twenty systems have vanished. High speed Executor scout ships have reported finding nothing where the stellar system had once been,” Sma'akamo'o stated. ”In six cases, however, the system reappeared after the appearance of this group of Terrans.”
On the screen appeared teenage female Terran lemurs, dressed in skimpy outfits, with wands in one hand, three of them badly scarred up from past injuries.
”Lolita Battle Sorceresses of the Sailor Moon Sisterhood,” Admiral Modise said softly. ”Things are indeed dire here.”
Everyone was silent for a long time.
The cyborg stepped forward, reaching toward the holotank. ”May I?”
”Of course,” Sma'akamo'o said, moving backwards with the clatter of hoods.
”Analysis of the worlds invaded show a distinct pattern that is quite obvious once it is discovered,” the cyborg said. He brought up a hologram of the Milky Way Galaxy, with the two hundred stars highlighted. The galactic wheel began to turn. One by one the planets were marked by a strobing red pinprick.
”Each world has occupied the space of another of the invaded worlds at some time in the past. When you eliminate everything else and only the impossible remains, the impossible has become the improbable,” the cyborg stated. ”Scanning for any other known intersections shows that Doom Tubes and Niven Rings have intersected those world's paths in the future or past.”
He stepped back. ”Our enemy continues to utilize temporal mechanics to duplicate fighting forces as well as to move from place to place.”
”How does one fight such a tactic?” Spy'inmo'o asked.
Smith stepped forward, tapping the holofield. A space battle appeared and Sma'akamo'o listened with interest as she described the battle between the Lanaktallan fleet and the Terran fleet, how the PAWM arrived, and then the Atrekna arrived, followed by the collapse of the wormhole and the chronotron explosion.
Finally, she highlighted six planets.
”These planets will be hit in the next five days by the temporal shockwave, which has the characteristics of a hypernova explosive shockwave but exists more in subatomic and chronotron space than what we would notice,” she said. She tapped all six, bringing them up. ”They are currently under attack. We can have elements of Task Force Ragnarok there within 48 hours to directly observe what takes place when the shockwave reaches the planet.”
”You are sentencing hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, to certain death,” Su'uprmo'o stated. ”I cannot accept such a plan.”
”I didn't say stand back and observe from a distance. The only way to directly observe what effects the temporal shockwave has upon the Atrekna force's combat power is be engaged in combat with them,” Smith said.
”Terran forces are asymmetrical in their ability to project power and control,” Su'uprmo'o mused. ”It would take a company of Great Herd tanks to equal the firepower of one heavily armed Terran Confederate Army infantrybeing.”
Smith nodded. ”The Atrekna have shown, in the battles we have data on, to have a singular point of failure in their plans.”
”Really? Elucidate, please,” Spy'inmo'o said.
Smith opened up two dozen windows, showing planetary movements. ”Dwellerspawn for nine of these worlds, direct conflict with Terran forces in the other three. Every time that resistance occurred, the Atrekna forces mobilized greater and greater resources and combat power to crush the resistance, each time to their own detriment as Terran forces do not suffer logistical fatigue in the same manner as most conventional forces.”
”Your nanoforges and creation engines,” Su'uprmo'o said.
Smith nodded. ”Tell me, from your combat experience, is it wise to do an open field charge at an entrenched Terran position?”
Su'uprmo'o shook his head. ”No.”
”How long have they had to dig in?” Sma'akamo'o asked.
”Say, ninety minutes,” Smith said.
Sma'akamo'o shrugged. ”The time to use atomics to dislodge them has passed. The planet is lost. They now own it, they will win.”
”Sounds like you have experience,” Admiral Mihn-Pok chuckled.
”Six times, I have faced the might of the Terran Confederacy's Space Force. Once have I achieved victory when I denied them use of the gas giants through geometry and had mined the comets,” Sma'akamo'o said.
”Nicely done,” the Void Captain said. ”Not an easy victory.”
”The Treana'ad lord it over everyone that they won 28.84% of all combat engagements against the Terrans,” Admiral Smith smiled.
”And they'll ride that stat to the end of time,” the Void Captain said, her chuckle a burst of static.
”As would I,” Sma'akamo'o said, braying laughter.
”Aside from that, the Atrekna have shown a willingness to keep throwing troops at Terrans. Hesstla showed that they were willing to keep throwing good after bad in hopes of dislodging Terran forces, giving them weeks or months to dig in,” Smith said.
”How will the Great Die Off effect your force levels?” Su'uprmo'o suddenly broke in.
”Apparently due to something with the temporal cascade, we are not suffering any effects from that incident,” Smith said. She shrugged. ”I have already made arrangements to have non-Terran officers and enlisted in critical positions to take the place of any Terran that succumbs.”
Su'uprmo'o nodded. ”I misspoke. I should have remembered that you Terrans prioritize saving civilian lives even during combat.”
”It is not something we have encountered before,” Spy'inmo'o admitted.
”No blood, no foul,” Admiral Mihn-Pok said.
Sma'akamo'o got the gist of it.
”If I may,” Sma'akamo'o stated. Everyone turned to him. ”What is your plan once the Atrekna are forced back? The Unified Council is still in command of our government.”
Cu'udchu'ar shook his head. ”They will not be at the end of this. The Unified Council has already been defeated, it is just a corpse staggering on under its own inertia.”
Su'uprmo'o just stood still for a long moment then exhaled. ”You are correct. More and more systems are dropping out of contact, refusing Executor orders, or just ignoring the demands of the Councils. The Night Terran is active on nine different worlds, all of which are emergency command systems for the Unified Sentient Systems.”
Spy'inmo'o nodded. ”It's obvious to us, who have to do the fighting, that the war is lost.”
Admiral Huong lit another cigarette. ”Now you just have to convince the politicians, and as long as the battle is at least fifteen feet away and they aren't personally and immediately threatened by it, they'll still claim the war can be won.”
Spy'inmo'o nodded. ”Yes, that is the problem.”
Huong looked up, blowing out smoke. ”You know how to deal with that, right?” he asked.
Spy'inmo'o shook his head. ”No.”
Huong's smile was a cold, dark thing.
”You listen to their speech about how the war can be won, and simply tell them: That's nice. Please face wall now.”