Chapter 281: (The Confederacy)

The It Tastes Sweet had been rebuilt from the partially destroyed ship that had made a desperate run through hyperspace with multiple hull breaches. Chrome warsteel glittered across the ship's hull, strong lights to make it glimmer in space, six heavy jumpspace engines with a primary and secondary jump core. Upgraded particle shields, debris shields, and battle-screens. The weaponry it had never carried had been replaced with modern 'civilian' grade weapons so that the ship would never be unarmed in a hostile universe again. It boasted a primary medical as well as secondary and emergency now, one of the cargo holds having been converted. The computers were twice as fast, they now had eVI hash creches attached to provide assistance.

Nakteti had to admit she loved it. There was no trace of the violent Precursor attack that had resulted in her meeting an Immortal, the First and Last of his kind, and making it all the way to TerraSol.

She stood on the bridge next to her command couch, one hand on the back of the armored crash cradle, and watched as her crew, reformed after the hideous losses they had taken, took the Sweet out of the docking cradle and slowly moved it out.

"Time to Terra?" Nakteti asked. Normally it would have taken two to three days to travel the roughly forty-five million miles with her old sublight drive but her new one had a good cruising speed. The 'speed limit' inside TerraSol was limited to different orbital bands, so she wasn't quite sure.

"Six hours, Captain," her pilot, Lektat, said. He had originally been a navigator and assistant pilot back when they'd been attacked, but his performance under Precursor attack had been the main reason they had survived.

"Course set, Captain. Sol Stellar Control has verified our flight plan, including emergency protocols," her navigator, Ulamanti said. Another one of the crew who had survived the desperate flight from the Precursor machine. She had lost a leg, but the Terrans had replaced it with a cloned on grown from Ulamanti's very own DNA. Ulamanti had elected to keep a thick scar all the way around her leg, visible through her fur, as a reminder of her luck in surviving.

"As soon as Anvil Central give us clearance, engage the main engines," Nakteti ordered. "We'll be back to Terra by dinner."

It made Nakteti shake her head. She knew they could do it faster, but there was so much traffic around Sol that her ship had been required to file a flight plan.

"You all right?" Major Carnight asked Nakteti, watching her hold onto the back of her seat with the lower pair of her four hands, her 'gripping hands'. His eyes had been red for the last few weeks and Nakteti knew he had spent almost double his normal amount of time in the gym.

Nakteti nodded, smiling. "It is good to have the Sweet rebuilt. I cannot wait to show my mother my beautiful Sweet."

Major Carnight tapped his fingers on the thigh of his armored vac-suit. "I think your mother will appreciate it."

"Pfft, she'll appreciate the holodeck even more," she snorted.

Her mother, Matron Sangbre, had rapidly become a fan of Terran movies, a thing that seemed to wasteful for the Unified Civilized Council races to bother with. Her whole crew had learned to enjoy them and Nakteti had to admit they were a wonderful invention.

Nakteti moved over and settled into her crash couch, feeling the restraints auto-lock in. It was designed for her four armed body, with seven points of attachment to the center buckle. The cushioning of the armored captain's seat adjusted to her quickly.

Six hours between two major planets, she thought, shaking her head again. And this is intra-system 'safe' speeds for a high traffic area.

"Anvil Central, Captain. They say we can light our engines and wish us a safe journey," Ulamanti said.

"Engage," Nakteti said. She tensed slightly, knowing the engines had been tested after being built by the Hate Anvils of Mars, but this was the big test. She clutched her command stick tightly with all four hands as Lektat counted down.

"Engines engaged, increasing power to 8%," Lektat stated.

There was no sense of change.

"Is it working?" Nakteti asked. "I don't feel anything."

"We're accellerating quite rapidly," Ulamanti said.

"Captain Nakteti?" came over her link. It was Taltek, their drive engineer.

"Yes, Taltek?" Nakteti said.

"Jump drive is online. Checks came back green across the board. Primary and backup jumpcores are all within tolerances," the engineer said. "Our sublight drives are all well within tolerances and easy kicking."

"How's the FIDO working out?" Nakteti asked.

"Just fine. He's over there sniffing around one of the new drives, checking for particle leakages. Engineering out," the link closed.

Nakteti had followed advice and purchased a FIDO, a cybernetic assistant and companion, an intelligent canine brain attached to a robotic body. They excelled at search and rescue, crew relaxation, and helping with engineering.

Nakteti smiled at the fact that Hlenkut, the ship's doctor and another survivor of the initial attack, had ensured she had two 'six packs' of purrbois, which were feline brains connected to a cybernetic body, for disaster and stress relief.

Nakteti opened her mouth to ask how the sensors were working when Ulmanti suddenly sat straight up, dropping her gripping stick. She reached out and slapped a big red button. The lights went red and an alarm started to wail as the ship went to Action Stations.

"Message from Sol System Astro Control!" Ulmanti barked out. "All ships bulletin!"

"What is it?" Nakteti said, feeling her gut clench.

Precursors? Here? Or the Mar-gite are back? she wondered.

"Go immediately to superluminal drive! Follow emergency plan Omaha," Ulamanti said. "Running astrogation now!"

Nakteti frowned. "Omaha? I don't remember filing a plan Omaha."

Nakteti heard a sharp intake of breath and looked at Major Carnight.

The big Terran Space Force officer had gone pale, one hand dropping to his pistol on his hip. "TerraSol is being invaded by enemy forces in strength," his voice sounded sick.

"Course locked!" Lektat said. "Ma'am, hyperdrive or jumpdrive?"

Nakteti looked at Major Carnight.

"Hyperspace," the big Terran said, his voice sounding shocked.

"Running hyperjump solutions," Ulamanti said.

"Sol Astro Control is ordering all ships to go to lightspeed ASAP," Ulamanti said.

"Going to lightspeed as soon as you get the computations finished," Nakteti said.

"My God," one of her bridge crew said softly, looking at his control panel. It was Laminati, who was a former point defense gunner who's main task had been popping any asteroids too big for the shields to handle. He looked up, his hands clenched tightly on the bar in front of his panel. "My targeting system crashed after it counted over a million point sources heading in system."

"Computations fini-" Ulamanti said.

"Engaging hyperdrive!" Lektat snapped.

Everything stopped. Froze. Nakteti felt like she could see outside of herself, like her view swooped around her own body as everything stopped. Even the lights froze, sparkling in her vision.

The fractured second broke and the ship hummed as the hyperdrive carried the ship through a dimension that the speed of light was a thousands of times higher.

"We're in hyperspace, Captain," Ulamanti said softly.

"Engineering here, Captain," Taltek said.

"Go ahead, Taltek," Nakteti said.

"Any particular reason we're running an unscheduled test on the hyperdrive?" he asked, his voice cold with barely repressed anger.

"Sol System Astro Control ordered all ships out of the system," Nakteti answered.

"What? Why?" the engineer asked.

"They were under attack. Before we jumped to hyperspace Laminati said his board crashed at over a million incoming ships," Nakteti said. "My apologies for not warning you."

Taltek gave a harsh bark of laughter. "I think we'll all survive, Captain. The hyperdrive is working just fine, FIDO is happy with it. How long will we be in hyperspace?"

"Ulamanti, how long are we to remain in hyperdrive?" Nakteti asked.

Ulamanti checked the Case Omaha file that had been transmitted to her from Sol System Astro Control. "Twelve hours or until forced to drop out."

Nakteti relayed the information.

"We'll be two hundred light years out by that time," Taltek said. "All right, we'll keep an eye on things down here."

"Major Carnight?" Laminati asked.

"Yes?" The Major's voice was cold, remote.

"Why didn't we stay to fight? We have weapons," Laminati said. "We have a three barrel near C velocity cannon now."

"Don't take this wrong, but you have civilian armaments and shielding. What's about to happen could kill you just being in the region," Major Carnight said. "Terran Defense Force will tear apart space-time to defend Terra."

Laminati thought about how helpless he'd been when the Precursor attacked, and how one ship had taken on that massive robotic vessel and apparently won.

"But I thank you for your desire to help defend TerraSol," Major Carnight said. He closed his eyes and took a deep heaving breath. "Believe me, I want to go back in, guns blazing, with every fiber of my being, but my first responsibility is to you and this ship's crew."

"And we than you for that, Major," Nakteti said, settling back in her captain's crash couch. She waved at the assistant gunnery cradle. "Why don't you take a seat. It's going to be a while before we stop and figure out what's going on."

Major Carnight nodded, moving over and sitting down. Again, Nakteti noted those burning red eyes and the slight facial tic.

The ship had been underway for almost two hours when it suddenly dropped from hyperspace, alarms wailing.

"What happened?" Nakteti demanded. She opened a channel. "Engineering, is everyone all right down there?"

'Grav pulse, I think," Talktek said. Nakteti could hear the high pitched sound of one of the FIDOs talking. "FIDO Two says it was some kind grav-pulse coming from behind us, probably dumped every ship in hyperspace or jumpspace out and back into realspace for a hundred or two hundred light years."

"Any damage to the hyperdrive or jumpdrives?" Nakteti said, suddenly anxious.

"No," Talktek said. "Still we've gotta discharge the core and run diagnostics before I can say for absolute."

"All right. Let me know when you're done," Nakteti said. She looked at her bridge crew. "Take us down to General Quarters. Get everyone a meal and some rest time," she looked at Major Carnight. "Do you know why this might have happened?"

Major Carnight nodded. "If the enemy seems to be relying on multiple reinforcements, we have ways of disrupting that," he said.

Nakteti waited a moment, but he didn't elaborate.

Nakteti sighed. "Well, Major, as my crew and some of my people have been your guests for the last year or so, allow me to extend the hospitality of the Tnvaru people to yourself and the Terran engineers aboard the Sweet."

"Thank you, Captain," Major Carnight said.

Nakteti tried to relax.

And not think of her mother and the hundreds of thousands of Tnvaru refugees still on Terra.

On the unmanned communication officer's panel two words kept flashing over and over.

CASE OMAHA

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The Combined Rigel System was, to put a bluntly, an astrophysical mess.

Multiple stellar masses orbiting each other and a localized gravity anomaly, dozens of planets -some of which swapped which stars they orbited every century or so-, gravity sheers, and spacial distortions.

Hyperspace normally allowed ships to penetrate deep into a gravity well with the right angle and computations, coming out only near a planetary gravity well or within too close to a star.

Not Rigel.

Rigel had a 'band' where gravitational stress prevented any ships from travelling jumpspace, hyperspace, or even a few other of the superluminal drive spaces. It extended out from nine days from the combined 'gravity center' of the system in a thick band nearly a light month thick around the Combined Rigel System. Anyone familiar with the Combined Rigellian System knew it was going to take an three or four months of travel just to get in from the Oort Cloud.

The massive gravity shadow of the anomaly meant that only subspace drives could be used within the Combined Rigel System, with a maximum speed of .7C before the anomaly began exerting gravitational pull upon the object in direct proportion to the speed of the object.

The Lanaktallan Corporate Fleet dropped from jumpspace to realspace with a half million ships.

And discovered they were over a light month from the edge of the system.

They immediately tried to jump forward into jumpspace, overrriding their systems.

Which was just a fancy way of committing very obvious suicide.

A third of the ships crushed against empty space like a beer can against a Vodkatrog Cyborg's forehead. Another third were smeared like fine jelly across the thin atomic layers. The other third changed their minds and began moving forward with sublight drives.

Several hours passed and the Unified Military Council Fleet arrived with nearly a million vessels. They too discovered that attempting to get closer with superluminal drive was useless and sullenly began heading into the system with sublight drives.

Two hours later the Executor Fleet dropped. Three hours after that the Combined Fleet dropped.

They all slowly began to cross the gravity band, almost seeming to sulk.

It might take longer than expected, but the Rigellians weren't going anywhere.

On Rigel it was decided that the fleet was Lanaktallan and had come in the name of war.

Anyone could have told the Lanaktallan how protective Rigellian females, those muscular greenish-gray bipedal reptiles, could be about their ducks and ducklings.

They closed The Bag.

The gravitational forces surging across The Band ripped apart the Lanaktallan ships as The Band, that month wide stretch of gravitational force, went crazy.

Then all there was in space was spreading debris and the shadow of The Rigellian Anomaly.

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Ba'ahn Ya'ahrd stared at the screen, all six eyes opened wide and his tendrils curled. TerraSol News Association was reporting that millions of Lanaktallan combat vessels were flooding into the system. That fighting was heavy as the Lanaktallan ships drove deep into the empty space of the Sol System in the hopes of avoiding the majority of the planetary based defenses.

"YOU IDIOTS!" he screamed at the display screen. "YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER IDIOTS! YOU'VE DOOMED BILLIONS TO DEATH HERE AND TRILLIONS TO DIE BACK HOME!"

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Smokey Cone was a world of trees, dusty plains, and a cool red sun.

As well as to twelve billion Treana'ad.

The Treana'ad were considered a silly people in many ways. They enjoyed their ice cream, their smoking, and the males very much enjoyed not having their heads eaten. Over eight thousand years since the end of the War of Terran Aggression had brought such changes to Treana'ad society that anyone from back then would barely recognize it.

They still did not flinch from violence. They were the second most numerous species in Space Force, after the Terrans themselves. They were admirals, ship captains, infantry, robot combat pilots, tankers, even aerospace pilots. Many of them carried names of Terrans that their ancestors had served with during the various wars they faced together. Some even adopted Terran orphans.

When the first Lanaktallan wave dropped in system they did not fear.

They were the Treana'ad People. They had won over a fifth of all engagements against the universe's apex predator. (And they planned on riding that statistic to the heat death of the universe. They had even erected a great warsteel obelisk proclaiming that fact in the space between stars to let everyone who came later know that they, the Treana'ad People, had won over a fifth of their fights against the Terrans) They had even wrested away two planetary systems from the Terrans and held them until they were traded back in the Treaty of Matron Mi'Luki.

When the second wave came in before even a tenth of the first wave had been eliminated, their leaders, wise Hive Queens, had given the order.

Close The Bag.

They would destroy the Lanaktallan by denying them reinforcement. Their 'unending tide' was a strategy that the Treana'ad had relied upon early in their history.

And while war never changes...

...tactics do.

The third and fourth Lanaktallan Waves found themselves entering realspace in the grip of singularities that tore them apart without any notice of their existence.

Inside, Smoky Cone went to war.

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The Mantids were a nervous people. Eight thousand years seems a long time, but when weighed against a history that vanished into the mists of time over a hundred million years ago, it was an eyeblink.

The Mantid people had been free for such a short time. Free from the Speakers, the Warriors, the Queens, their minds and actions their own.

The Lanaktallan First Wave knew they'd force the Mantid to reveal their Speakers and their Warriors. That the Mantid had fought in the same way they had fought a hundred million years ago when the Great Herd had beaten them before.

The First Wave of Mantid Prime held more troopships than any first wave of any of the other attacks.

The Lanaktallan knew they would crush the Mantid, just as they had crushed them before and forced them to flee. The Most Highs couldn't wait to feel Mantid carapaces crush and crackle beneath their hooves. Their minds full of past combats against the Lanaktallans by War Stallions they urged their fleets to drive into the systems.

The Mantid suddenly understood the words of their seers.

They closed The Bag.

The black mantid got their guns and body armor.

The green mantid joined them.

And Space Force, which was comprised of more than just the Mantid, engaged the suddenly cut off enemy.

The Mantid people prized the fact that they were not the Mantid of epochs past.

They had allies. Partners.

Big, hulking, primate partners.

The battle for Mantid Prime was joined.