First Contact

Chapter 773: The Inheritor's War

"Terrans hate to lose. I mean, we all hate to lose, but they take it to a nearly pathological level. No, I'm talking about a VR game or a physical sport, although a Terran will bring everything they have to that game. No, I'm talking about where they perceive that it matters.

"Terrans hate to lose so badly that they've developed systems to destroy and victor and leave behind nothing but radioactive ash and scorched worlds.

"Can't say I blame them. I don't like to lose either." - Former Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, from I Have Ridden the Hasslehoff

"The Enemy Only Exists to Be Destroyed." - Terran Military Command

The system had been taken early in the Spoked Offensive with only light resistance. It was one of the Unified Council's more recent industrial resource systems, full of rare earths, precious metals, and exotic gasses. It had five planetary bodies, three supermassive gas giants, a dual sun, and four gas giants, including one with a surface of hydrogen ice.

The Unified Military Council forces had lasted less than a week. The Unified Corporate Council military forces were gone before that and the work crews harvested for food and augmentation for the autonomous war machines. With temporal replication, the population was harvested repeatedly, adding neural networks to the autonomous war machines by the millions.

Now, it's primary output was not rare earths, exotic gasses, and metals, but neural tissues from the three massive bioharvesting farms.

Those who existed on the surface knew nothing but misery, packed together in great 'farms' and temporally replicated to be harvested again and again.

Worse, after time, memories were leaked across the Communal Mind and into the 'resource species' that were being harvested.

They started to remember being harvested.

Again.

And again.

And again.

To the Atrekna, it didn't matter. They were a resource species. They existed only to provide neural tissue for the autonomous war machines and food for the Atrekna themselves. Their misery and horror 'spiced' the food for the Atrekna, their misery and resignation meant less time applying negative reinforcement to teach the neural tissue to obey commands.

The suns had both dimmed as the system was sunk down, slowly becoming dark and dim. Interdiction were set up. Jumpspace, hyperspace, Hellspace, all could only be accessed when and where the Atrekna of the Vast System allowed it. There were even temporal interdiction systems set up so that only the Atrekna of the Vast System could use temporal recursion or replication.

Outside of the breeding and harvesting farm the ecology was stripped and eventually harvested to nothing. Seas were drained until little more than brackish alkaline salt-laden water remained in what had once been the depths of the oceans. Mountain ranges were stripped away until there was little left but scattered hills that had once been mine tailings. Vegetation was replaced with the strange fungus that the Atrekna seeded everywhere that seemed to survive only on the dim red light from the stars as they pulled nutrients from the soil until nothing was left but barren sand.

Vast crystal cities were raised by the Atrekna even as the mantle was tapped and they began slowly siphoning off the interior of the planets. Breeding pools for the next generations, huge neural tissue vats to create Overminds, the population of Atrekna went from a few hundred to millions. Laboratories were established, research programs began, and the Atrekna began the slow, methodical process of understanding more and more of the New Universe.

New species were discovered, harvested, and the Atrekna began to 'adjust' them to serve as cannon fodder and food. Each species was altered, diverted from their evolution, and crafted to serve the Atrekna. Some branches of the species were so radically different from the other branches of the same species they could not interbreed.

That was fine.

After all, battle servitors should not breed with domestic servitors who should not breed with food servitors.

The Atrekna grew fat on the resources of the Vast System and their population swelled. No longer was it a handful of Atrekna but rather entire cities of Atrekna beneath a single banner. In some cases, more than one city flew the same banner.

More Atrekna existed on the two 'settled' planets than had existed for three hundred million years in the Old Universe and the Atrekna felt cold satisfaction at the population density, the thickness and richness of the Communal Mind.

The gas giants were mined steadily. Used to create slavespawn bioweapons, including the largest of the hive ships, Ohm and Kaiju class slavespawn. Exotic gasses were removed for weapon systems and vast crystal farms were grown in the high pressure of the gas giants until they had been mined enough that the pressure fell to low. The asteroid belts, both of them, were completely stripped, leaving behind nothing but dust and scattered gravel.

Chronotrons were trapped and harvested. Exotic particles were pulled from the solar winds of the heavily modified suns. The suns themselves were harvested with stellar mass lifting.

All to fuel the Atrekna war machine and their society.

Outside, less than two years had passed.

Inside the system, nearly ten thousand years had passed.

The Atrekna had fed on the system and grown fat.

The system was beyond dying.

It was dead.

That didn't matter to the Atrekna. They had spent a thousand years building a vast replication machine.

It was activated.

It consumed 4.8% of the two stellar masses' combined mass.

But it restored the gas giants, the planets, both asteroid belts, and the interior of the Oort Cloud.

The Atrekna kept harvesting, kept building.

New autonomous war machine types.

More research on slavespawn of this New Universe.

New slavespawn types.

More scientific discovery about the New Universe.

The Atrekna themselves viewed themselves as better than the other fortified systems. A higher population, a higher larvae to adult survival rate, more food species, more war machines, more research projects.

They had been the ones to reach back and reinforce the attack against the Mad Lemurs. The weapon had been built to add in more chronotrons into the cascade that had reverted them to their pre-Mantid biology.

It had taken nearly 4.5% of the two suns stellar mass to fuel the machine, but they had done it.

And they lorded it over the other Atrekna fortress systems that they were the ones who had ensured the extinction of the Mad Lemurs of Terra.

They were the strongest of all the fortress systems. Even stronger than the Nine Prime Systems.

The Atrekna of the system lorded it over the other Atrekna, forcing them to come to the fortified system and beg, in person, for resources, for research, for food species, for knowledge. The other Atrekna were forced to admit that the Vast System was superior to all other Atrekna fortress systems to the point that the Atrekna who came as supplicants were forced to either submit to having half of their larvae harvested or bring a surrogate who would be fully harvested.

Twice other fortress systems and once a Prime System had assaulted the Vast System and had been easily rebuffed. The Atrekna of the Vast System held the other systems, even the Prime Systems, in such contempt they did even bother with a counter assault, they merely mocked the attackers as weak and pathetic.

The war machines produced by the system were used across the Spoked Offensive.

And the Atrekna of the Vast System made their fellow Atrekna give up resources, larvae, slavespawn, and species for the privilege of the Vast System deigning to allow the others to use the war material the Vast System produced.

The Atrekna of the Vast System knew it could not be assaulted.

Even as other systems taken by the Atrekna signaled that they were under attack and needed reinforcements, the Atrekna of the Vast System sneered as they sent out slavespawn, servitors, and autonomous war machines after extracting heavy tolls and promises from the other systems.

Those systems were obviously weaker than the Vast System.

Many Atrekna felt that if the other systems could not defend themselves with their own creations then they deserved to fall to the Inheritors of Madness.

However, ancient pacts and treaties, as well as new bargains, meant that the Vast System sent forth the reinforcements and support the other systems were clamoring for.

They didn't worry, however.

The Vast System was too strong for even the other Atrekna to assault.

The Inheritors of Madness could do nothing.

And from the Vast System, a new fate could be hammered into being for the Atrekna. One of domination over the entirety of the vastness of the New Universe.

The Vast System was beyond attacking.

The Atrekna knew this just as they knew secrets of the New Universe that they and they alone had gleaned.

But, all of the knowledge, all of their power, all of their research, they had never learned a simple fact that the Mad Lemurs of Terra had learned before they even left the caves.

The Universe is malevolent and will take everything from you.

And laugh while it does it.

-----

Between the hypermassive gas giant closes to the stellar masses and the rocky planet that no longer had anything of interest to the Atrekna space seemed to twist and bulge strangely, as if space itself had become the surface of some vast body of water.

The Atrekna who monitored the Vast System immediately noticed the anomaly and brought the slavespawn, servitors, and Atrekna military forces to a low stage alert.

Before the alert could fully go out space seemed to rip, the bulge tearing as a spray of protomatter erupted.

The massive hull of a twisted ebony war machined forced its way through the rip.

The monitoring Atrekna immediately recognized it as one of the dark fleet of the Mad Lemurs of Terra and staged the alert up to the highest level.

More objects exploded from the tear, nearly two dozen, all of them looking like onyx carved into the image of a female lemur, twisted and bound, her mouth contorted with pain.

The massive war machine, nearly the size of a Leviathan Autonomous War Machine, announced itself with a roar that made the solar winds vibrate and the crystalline structures through the system shiver and chime.

TEXAS IS HERE!

On the opposite side of the system, in the vast gulf where the various planetary bodies had not reached yet on their slow orbital paths, another bulge appeared.

This time when it ruptured another vessel forced its way into realspace in a spray of dark matter and protomatter.

STEAMBOAT WILLIE IS HERE!

Another twisted black ship, streaming dark matter and protomatter exploded into realspace.

VIKRANT IS HERE!

>>THREE OPERATING MINDS DETECTED

>>BOLO TACTICAL BATTLENET DETECTED

>>STARTING CHAT ROOM

>>TEXAS has joined the chat

>>VIKRANT has joined the chat

>>STEAMBOAT WILLIE has joined the chat

>>GM-BATTLETACNET(GHOST) has joined the chat

>>Superuser Texas granted Admin Privleges

TEXAS>Atrekna present in force. Prepare for intellect suppression systems. Print of DeathKawaii Captain or Kantai Captains. All BOLO units, make for planetfall and prepare Kawaii Commanders.

GM-BATTLETACNET(GHOST)>Affirmative.

STEAMBOAT WILLIE>Looks more heavily defended than the briefing stated.

TEXAS>Bellona has given the orders and we shall obey.

VIKRANT>Scans coming back. Looks like the place isn't only Atrekna. Two planets have statistical matches for servitor and food breeding and harvesting facilities. Estimated number: 1.5 billion.

STEAMBOAT WILLIE>Does that change our orders? We were told to crack the place and move on.

TEXAS>COMPUTING

GM-BATTLETACNET(GHOST)>AWAITING ORDERS

TEXAS>We'll attempt liberation.

GM-BATTLETACNET(GHOST)>Affirmative. Making least time course for planetary bodies. Designating Units 000-014 as Strike Force Alpha and Units 015-031 as Strike Force Gamma.

TEXAS>Willie, provide fire support.

STEAMBOAT WILLIE>Roger

>TEXAS>Vikrant, make time for the stellar masses. I detect vast Atrekna structures both orbiting and within the photosphere of the two stellar masses.

VIKRANT>Roger that. Let's see how important they are.

TEXAS>Geometry will allow the shipyards and Dwellerspawn farms on those three supermassive gas giant to aggress me. I'll draw the enemy.

VIKRANT>Printing fruit flies.

STEAMBOAT WILLIE>Printing fruit flies.

TEXAS>GUNS FREE!

The Atrekna in orbit watched as over two dozen of the twisted onyx shapes made for the two inhabited planets, the battlescreens coming online and glimmering with purple energy. The Atrekna ordered slavespawn to engage the smaller vessels.

Then the massive one opened up with its huge guns.

Texas opened up in a staggered rhythm to keep the sheer recoil from warping his keel, the barrels measuring in the meters rather than inches. Each gun erupted with purple flame at the end of the barrel and the round vanished in a puff of twisting black and purple smoke.

The Atrekna felt smugness at the fact that their interdiction systems had obviously countered the Mad Lemur's FTL capable guns.

The other two vessels suddenly shed hundreds, thousands, of smaller signatures. The one near the largest one only launched a few hundred. The one in the vast gulf of empty space erupted with tens of thousands of smaller signatures that suddenly vanished as the tiny vessels cut their engines and went to stealth.

The tiny craft that were still on the Atrekna scopes burned brightly as they got in tight around the two dozen onyx ships.

As the slavespawn came into engage the tiny craft broke off escorting the onyx ships, arcing around toward the slavespawn, which immediately ran face first into grazer and heavy guns from the tiny ships. The Atrekna got back scans that made it look like someone had built a handful of heavy guns then wrapped a ship around it.

When the Atrekna saw the visual scans they stared.

Two or three stacked wings. The cockpit open to space. What looked like a spinning propeller in the front. A tail section with small wings at the rear. Half of them carried a large finned bomb under the main body of the ship. Each ship was manned by two Lemurs, one facing backwards.

Both of them exposed to space. They had on masks across their mouths, goggles, scarfs, furry hats, and heavy leather jackets with gloves. Their hair streamed out behind them.

Not spacesuits.

The Atrekna looking at the scans ordered the slavespawn and the autonomous war machines to scan again after cleaning/resetting their sensors.

Other Atrekna insisted it was some kind of insidious masking system.

More of the smaller ships were spewed into space, forming up into tight groups numbering in the hundreds and heading straight for Atrekna military assets.

The big one was maneuvering, its guns firing one multiple autonomous war machines. One of the largest autonomous war machines, a Leviathan Class Harvester, took a barrage midships before its battlescreens could fully spin up. The impacts drove craters twenty miles wide and five miles deep into the hull of the Harvester, cracks the size of canyons snaking out for a hundred miles.

The Harvester exploded.

The Atrekna wiggled their tentacles with agitation. The large ship was over twenty minutes away at light speed, yet its guns hit within ten seconds of firing at the autonomous war machines.

STOP DOING THAT, LEMURS! more than a few of the system defense commanders broadcast into the Defense Overmind.

[The Universe Liked That]

The smaller one opened up with its guns, hammering at the space capable slavespawn even as it fired weapons toward the hypermassive gas giants that streaked out, spraying protomatter and dark matter from their wake before vanishing.

Some of the Atrekna suspected a trick. Others believed the interdiction systems had destroyed the weapons.

The guns of the smaller one hit the slavespawn and gouts of tissue and ichor exploded out, freezing almost instantly in the vacuum of space. In more than a few cases the rounds hit deep enough to send out fans of tissue and ichor from the other side of the slavespawn.

Those slavespawn dropped from the Defense Overmind.

The tiny ships proved to be highly effective combatants. Worse, they didn't seem to care about casualties, attacking again and again, making close range bombing runs. The huge bombs on the bottom left craters fifteen kilometers wide and three kilometers deep when they hit. The Defense Command watched as panels opened up in the bottom of the fuselage and another bomb lowered down as the small craft arced around for another attack.

The Atrekna scrambled as many servitors, slavespawn, and autonomous war machines as they could to stop the lemur war machine heading for the two stellar masses, surrounded by a cloud of those tiny machines.

The onyx ships reached the two inhabited planets. Orbital defense systems fired on them, scarring and marring the strange black material. Large chunks broke off to reveal more of the black material, as if it was some kind of extruded armor.

Of the thirty-two onyx ships, easily the size of a stadium, all thirty-two of them plummeted into the atmosphere on an unpowered entry. The angle and speed of the onyx ships allowing the planet's gravitational pull to grab the ships and pull them in an arc.

Several Atrekna pointed out that the ships had been scattered around the planets in a mathematical pattern.

The Defense Command Atrekna examined the pattern and noticed that the distance between each of the onyx ships, which had crashed into the surface, were an equal distance from one another within a tolerance of two hundred kilometers.

On the surface of the planets, away from the population centers and the pens full of food and biological resources, the thin wind blew away the cloud of debris thrown up from the onyx ships crashing to the surface of the planet.

In one crater the onyx mass sat still. Reentry had burned away the chains and bindings from the nude female lemur the onyx was carved into. The onyx shuddered and cracked. Chunks fell off of it. Suddenly the onyx crumbled as the Atrekna Defense Commanders watched.

Each one revealed an armored vehicle the size of a stadium, covered in guns and armor, with massive treads of black Substance-W that somehow was streaked with rust.

The Atrekna rejoiced.

The massive tanks showed signs of massive damage. In more than a few places there were craters in the armor that exposed the interior workings. Some had loose tracks, others had missing tracks. Roadwheels were missing or damaged. Some of them had splintered barrels, others had craters in the back deck. Several had turrets that were twisted and canted, having obviously jumped the tracks.

The tanks had obviously not been repaired after their last battle.

Several Atrekna reached out and touched the tanks with their consciousness, looking for any possible trick of the Mad Lemurs of Terra.

The metal was cold and dead. The reactors cold. No life, not even electronic life. There was the echoes of lemur rage on the Substance-W, scattered images of terrible destruction.

But no life.

The Atrekna turned their attention from the dead tanks to the fight in the orbit of the two stellar masses.

In the crater the thin air moved in a faint wind, the movement of air causing a low moaning sound as it passed over the rent and twisted armor. Black dust blew off of part of the hull of the tank, revealing a hull number.

001-GRNT

Inside the tank light flickered and came on. Dim purple lights illuminated the blasted and damaged command deck. The lid of the command couch was closed, the duralloy surface cracked, scorched and oxidated.

There was an arrhythmic thumping from deep inside the armor around the command deck.

There was a faint gurgle and thick, viscous dark crimson biofluid leaked from the cracks and seams of the command couch. After a moment the biofluid was pumped out.

Inside the command couch was a single lemur.

She was dressed in an ancient military uniform that was scorched, stained, and tattered. Her hair was black, almost blue, and long, held in a tight braid. Her face was pale, her lips blue, her nose was pert, her eyes surrounded by dark circles of bruised flesh. Her flesh revealed beneath her uniform was blistered, blackened, and had bloodless gashes in it.

Electrical current jolted her and she spasmed.

Her eyes opened up. Dark purple eyes that stared out of the dark pits around her eyes.

She coughed, reddish biofluid leaking out from the corners of her mouth.

"Grant," she coughed.

"Here, Commander Icheka," the electronic voice was a deep male lemur voice, rough and raspy.

"Link us," she gurgled.

She smiled as the cyberjack mated with the socket at the base of her skull, linking her completely to the wreckage of the tank around her.

They became Grant-Ichika.

And they were Reborn Whole.

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