Chapter 200: (The War)

Era'amo'o System

The Military Most High had galloped to the command center, woken, like everyone else, by the booming "SPACE FORCE IS HERE!" when the Terran fleet somehow materialized inside the resonance zone. The doors to the Command Center had barely opened when he galloped through and slid to a stop, his durasteel shod hooves striking sparks.

His Command Staff were all gaping at the holotank in the middle of the room, which showed a dark skinned bald Terran's head slowly rotating. Next to the head were the words "Rear Admiral Kwame O'Nalley - Space Force 512th Task Force" and a breakdown of the ships.

Sadly, they were only able to display rough size, not types with queriable datafields on the ships themselves.

Nearly a hundred ships.

"Most High, this human will not get off our holotank," the Third Most High of Corporate Security said, wringing all four hands.

"No, I told you to make me," the Terran replied. "There you are, Most High Swe'etnlo'o. So glad you could grace us with your presence while we're invading your system."

"Get out right now," Swe'etnlo'o demanded.

"Make me," the Terran answered, baring his teeth in an aggressive display. He waited a few seconds. "Yeah, you can't, can you."

"What do you want?" the Most High asked.

"Well, surrender or die sounds nice," the Terran said.

"Pfft, you have only a few hundred ships, I have a thousand times as many," the Most High sneered, inflating his crests in a signal of dominance.

"Well, just so you know, we realize you have three hundred seventy five thousand, nine hundred sixty three ships, most of which are currently just starting to power up. On the planets you have a total of nine hundred sixty two point three four million ground troops, all of which are currently drawing weapons from their armories and staring at the sky like morons," the Terran said.

The holoemmiters around the Command Center lit up, showing close up views of the ships starting to power up, of Lanaktallan officers boarding ships, of Lanaktallan drawing weapons from the armories, of Lanaktallan standing on the parade fields and looking up.

"That's right. It's real-time," the Terran said. He leaned forward until only his eye, now the size of a Lanaktallan's upper torso, was broadcast by the holotable.

"I see all," the Terran said, then leaned back.

"So, surrender or die," the Terran said.

"You have no real hope. I will not give forth my command to some primate who thinks they are something important. The Lanaktallan Dominion will never submit to some jumped up lemur," the Most High sneered.

"Last chance. Surrender or die," the Terran said as if the Most High had not spoken, raising up his hand at the same time.

"Never, I," the Most High started.

The Terran made a chopping motion and the holotank went dead, replaced with the image of the entire system. Five worlds in the green and yellow zones, two in the red zone close to the sun, four in the red zone opposite of the sun, five gas giants.

The worlds in the green and yellow zones contained millions of troops. Each of the gas giants had hundreds of thousands of ships around them.

A small icon, looking like a Terran skull made of swirling code, looked around.

"You have chosen destroyed," the skull said. "You are being destroyed."

The Most High went to snarl at the holotable tech to get that annoying little icon off the holotank when a shout interrupted him.

"Most High!" a scanner technician said, jerking back from his screen.

The gas giant known as Culmo'ot's Eye was on his screen. As the Most High watched the planet's appearance changed, becoming almost fuzzy. It then seemed to shrink slightly before there was a massive energy spike from it.

From the holotank came the voice of the skull. "You are being destroyed."

The Most High knew that every ship, all the shipyards, all his forces at the gas giant were gone as the gas giant suddenly began to radiate energy.

As the Most High watched, each of the shipyard gas giants quickly shrank then erupted into fusion powered flames. Each time the skull said "You are being destroyed." As he watched each of them slowly shifted until they were a Terran skull wreathed in flame, with flames between the teeth and coming from the eyes.

Next were the planets. They convulsed, rippled, their density suddenly increased. Their atmosphere suddenly thickened. Methane, CO2, CO, hydrogen, all of them spiked in the atmosphere.

Five planets went from livable to molten hellscapes with atmospheric temperatures in the hundreds of degrees. Each time the skull said. "You are being destroyed." as the planets were terraformed within minutes into inhospitable hell worlds.

There moans of terror and horror from the surrounding Lanaktallan as the Most High just stared.

"You have been destroyed," the skull said, and vanished from the holotable.

The Terrans face reappeared on the holotank, orienting until he could see the Most High.

"I'll be taking my eVI's with me. You have been destroyed. Thank you for choosing the Terran Confederate Space Force for your consequences," the Terran said.

The holotank went black.

The lights went dead.

The Most High could tell, by the sudden lack of vibration and air currents, that the power and environmental of the station he was on had all gone down.

It took him two days to die when one of his subordinates caught him a cold hallway, bodychecked him against a wall, and took his air tank and suit power cell.

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System Most High Noodlmo'o sneered at the Terran in front of him, the Terran's head showing in the holotank.

"What makes you think I'll surrender to your measley single vessel," Noodl'mo'o asked, his tendrils quivering and his crests inflated with outrage.

"Well, you're not Council, you're Lanaktallan Empire, for starters," the Terran said.

Noodlmo'o felt himself go cold at that statement.

"Secondly, we know that your System Most High outside of the military is Sixth Most High Krimo'op, who arrived here yesterday after fleeing the Council Capital," the Terran said.

Noodlmo'o's knees went weak at that.

"The third is..." the Terran drew it out. "We inserted a Genesis Device nine days ago."

The Most High frowned. "Gen-ass-iss Device?"

"A weapon of mass destruction. Outside of the scope of CNBRAN," the Terran said. He smiled. "Now for the fun part: Surrender... or die."

"NEVER!" the Most High said.

"That's twice," the Terran said. "Surrender, or be destroyed."

"We will never surrender to the Terran Government," the Most High said.

"Good enough. Goodbye, Most High, and thank you for choosing Space Force for all of your needs," the Terran said.

Before the Most High could say anything, the Terran vanished. He left behind the words: "YOU ARE BEING DESTROYED" on the holotank.

"Most High Noodlmo'o, do you think their threat might be real?" Sixth Most High Krimpo'op asked, nervously wringing all four hands together.

"Bah, he was bluffing," Noodlmo'o said.

"Most High, the Terran vessel just vanished off of our scopes. It broadcast a signal for a second. There was a slight strange streak, a gravitational pulse, and it was gone," A Scan Tech Fourteenth Class blurted out.

"See, Most High, the Terran fled and..." Noodlmo'o stated with confidence.

"MOST HIGH!" One of the scanner techs cried out, pointing at his monitoring station.

A little skull appeared in the corner of the station's screen. Above it read "YOU ARE BEING DESTROYED"

The second planet in the system, right between the green zone and the yellow zone close to the sun, was showing a high energy reading that started in the middle of the planet and suddenly expanded out until it completely took over the planet.

"MOST HIGH!" another scanner tech called out. Noodlmo'o looked over in time to see it happen to the third planet. Again a little skull had "YOU ARE BEING DESTROYED" above it.

The feed from the satellites above both worlds had cut out.

The fourth planet had it happen next. There was a panicked message from the fourth planet that a wave of energy was approaching, then nothing.

The gas giants, all four of them, expanded outwards, the extraction and refining and the manufacturing sites, much less the shipyards, around them consumed by the gas giant expansion. Then they shrank back down to their original size.

Within five minutes.

"What is happening, Most High?" Sixth Most High Krimpo'op asked, still wringing his hands.

Noodlmo'o turned and stared at the Sixth Most High of the Unified Councils, one of the leaders of the Lanaktallan Empire. He couldn't believe the other Lanaktallan didn't understand what was happening.

"The Terrans are destroying the solar system," Noodlmo'o said slowly. "Planet by planet, moon by moon, they are destroying the entire solar system."

"But... but... we have tens of thousands of ships, millions of troops! They can't destroy the system!" Krimpo'op whinnied, still wringing his hands. "How can they be destroying the system?"

"I... don't know," Noodlmo'o admitted. He turned to communications technician. "How many of our ships are still answering?"

The Ninth Most High Communications Specialist consulted his board. "One, Most High, the Exquisite Domination of Lessers is still answering. She reports they broke orbit from the third habitable planet when the energy spike appeared on the second. They had minor power issues and the ship's AI had to reset, but they're fine now."

"Does he have sensor probes on board?" Noodlmo'o asked. It took a couple minutes, the entire system was awash in some kind of radiation. When the technician reported that it did, Noodlmo'o ordered the ship to launch a probe and scan each of the three habitable planets.

Time passed before the images came back. The Sixth Most High spent his time wringing his hands and whinnying to himself. The Second Most High, who was the station commander, excused himself. When he hadn't returned after an hour Noodlmo'o sent someone after him.

The Second Most High had killed himself in his office.

"Why do you think we are alive?" a sensor tech whispered to another.

"Because the Terrans want us to see what they can do," the other one whispered back.

The images were shocking. Green plants, forests, mountains, clean oceans, clear air. The information started coming back on the atmosphere.

Perfect for Terrans.

Noodlmo'o ordered the Exquisite Domination of Lessers to meet with the station to take on the survivors. He barely got the message out before the station went completely dead. The Captain of the vessel managed to get to the station and bring everyone on board his warship before too many had taken their own lives.

Noodlmo'o stared at the viewscreen as the ship prepared to shift into jumpspace.

One of the prides of the Lanaktallan Empire. A star system entirely devoted to military conquest, designed to liberate any nearby systems that fell under enemy control.

Gone.

Worse than gone.

The gravity was 1.25 Unified Standard on all three planets. The axial tilt was extreme at 23 degrees off of the rotational plane, which would result in severe seasonal change and violent weather patterns.

The Terrans had not just erased an entire third of the Lanaktallan Empire's military might, they had taken away the very worlds that could have been used as a springboard to liberate surrounding systems.

The ship headed for the capital of the Lanaktallan Empire, one of the twelve contingency plans the Lanaktallan possessed to ensure that they would be the dominant species in the galaxy.

In the ship's AI core Wrathful-Spark-88471 watched, picking his teeth with the bones of the AI that had originally been there and who had been foolish enough to put up a fight.

The DS watched with interested eyes of digital flame as the ship moved through jumpspace.

O' Empire... it thought to itself, reciting a poet from a few centuries ago.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

This is a turkey shoot.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Turkeys are delicious.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

They started it. We'll finish it.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

Wow. Are you sure you need me?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

CONFEDMIL

These are the easy systems, kid. No non-combatants, no civilians. Systems entirely devoted to military without even any dependents.

It's a dumb system, but they aren't the only ones to do that kind of system thinking it makes them stronger.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Oh wow, they found a system we want. Full of the rare earths we love, red giant with little hard radiation output, it's amazing.

Totally putting in our bid on it when this fighting is over.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

What was there?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Bunch of ships in storage. Completely cold system. No Lanaktallan life, no life at all.

We just scrapped the ships and moved on, but man, it's perfect.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Hey, has anyone seen that new duck feather oil? Why, it's the greatest. Keeps your duck's feathers soft and smooth, makes their tail feathers shine in the sunlight. Not only that, it smells good too and is available at any duck spa! Just ask for Gurdy's Duck Feather Tonic at any fine spa!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

What?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Sorry.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

BWAH HAHAHAHAH!

FUCKING OWNED!