Creation's Guardian Ch. 13B

"I've got them locked about two light days behind me. Just out of combat range. Do you want me to keep them that way or pull them in closer?"

"For now, keep them that way, Lyssa. You can be our rear guard until shit hits the fan. Then drop them out of combat range and move up to join us as soon as the battle starts." By the time Bob finished his response to Lyssa, all her ships had arrived and formed into a single fleet.

Before Bob could give the order to open a hailing frequency, Cassandra held up her hand. "Wait a minute, Master. Mom has something important to tell us."

Cailin opened a channel to Neuveia, and Aphrodite appeared on screen. "I just received a petition from Lactivia, the current empress of the Sokilum. She's asking me to protect her empire from an evil enemy that's invaded her territory and enslaved one of her colonies. I know you're nearby speed wise. Is there any way you can help her out?"

"Actually, Mom, that's exactly where we're heading. It's the damn Trogs again. But why is she petitioning you?"

"The Sokilum are a species slightly younger than humans. They have brilliant minds but they've never given up on worshiping the ancient gods. I know it seems strange to you, Master, but there are tens of thousands of species throughout creation that haven't been seduced by con artists and other false prophets promising things that a non-existent God can't deliver. Some of them are young races like the Sokilum. But there are also some very mature races even older than the Atlantians who still petition us. That's part of what the Boss meant when she said that Zeus's betrayal would have a huge impact on creation. You have one hell of an advantage if you choose to use it. Cassandra and I look like twins. If you let Lactivia think Cassandra's me, I'm sure she'll do whatever Cassandra asks. Of course she knows me as Artruna, not Aphrodite."

"I don't want to lie to Lactivia. I have a better idea, Mom. Just tell Lactivia that you've heard her petition and that you're sending your daughter, along with your greatest warrior, and a small fleet to aid her in her hour of need. She would never question that after getting one look at me."

"I like your idea much better, Cassandra. It's the absolute truth. Okay it's done. I also told her to obey you as she would me."

Cassandra giggled. "Okayyy, I guess that works, thanks, Mom."

Bob grinned. "Okay, Sweetie, stand front and center. You're gonna do the talking this time." he had the ships on the move as Cailin hailed Lactivia.

When the hailing frequency opened Lactivia's eyes widened. She dropped to her knees and said, "It's true! Artruna has heard and answered my petition! There can be no doubt you are her child! What are your commands, daughter of my Goddess?"

Cassandra smiled gently. "Stand and face me like the empress you are, Lactivia. For I am not a goddess; I'm only the daughter of one. My name is Cassandra. I have no commands to give you; only requests that you are free to decline. My mother asked my husband and I to offer our assistance to you and your empire. There's a huge Trog fleet inbound. Your ships will be outnumbered, and out gunned by more than ten to one. My husband's fleet is blessed. The Trogs can't hurt us. If you allow us to help you, we will destroy the incoming Trog fleet, while your fleet works to retake your colony. Some of us will join your forces on the ground, and by working together, what was once yours, will become yours again. We only need your approval to begin operations, and we will of course stop, if you request us to."

"It is a great honor for myself and my war council to meet and speak with the daughter of our goddess. Please do what you must to protect us from this evil scourge. You not only have our full approval but the heartfelt thanks of myself, my council, and most of all, my people."

"By allowing us to assist you, Your Majesty, you honor my mother, and through her, you also honor my husband and myself. We have a sacred responsibility to aid beings of the light such as yourself and your people when they are threatened by the forces of darkness. I thank you for granting us the opportunity to do our duty."

Once the channel was closed, Cassandra took her seat beside Bob. "I know you probably think I poured it on a bit thick, Master. Everything I said was the absolute truth. I just phrased it in a way that would ease her fears, and allow her to be more accepting of us. With any luck, Lactivia and her people will not only become great allies, but very good friends as well."

"I'm not disturbed by anything you said, Sweetie. But I do think that you're gonna have some explaining to do once we actually meet her. Let's worry about that later though. It's time to commence operations. Cailin, get me Lyssa, and Jacobia."

As soon as the group leaders were on screen Bob said, "Lyssa, I'll keep the transports with me. Take the rest of your original group and do a wide sweep up the Trogs right flank. Stay out of their scanning range until you're slightly ahead of them. Jacobia, you do the same thing up their left flank. When you're both in position you can engage the enemy at your convenience. While you're both making your end runs, I'll close in, drop the transports and hit the center with the Cassandra's Vengeance and the Seeker. The mining ships are still about twelve hours away from their main fleet at their present speed. I'll send a fighter wing after them just to disable their engines. I intend to return that antimatter back to its rightful owners. Both of you begin your end runs now!"

Bob opened his intercom. "Attention all decks. We'll be commencing combat operations in ninety seconds. All pilots man your fighters and prepare to launch on my command. Asimah, bring us to within a half a light year of the enemy." Exactly ninety seconds later Bob continued with, "wing one there's four mining ships about two light years ahead of the main body heading inbound. Your orders are to disable their engines then rejoin the other wings attacking the main body. Warning, those mining ships are full of antimatter so keep your distance. All other wings will attack the main group of ships. Launch all fighters NOW! Cailin open fire with all weapons whenever you're ready. Tell Carolyn to do the same. But ask her to try and avoid hitting our fighters."

Cailin giggled. "Carolyn says her gunners aren't fast enough to shoot down our fighters, and she doesn't have a fly swatter handy, so they should all be safe."

Bob chuckled softly as he glanced at Cassandra. "I'm really beginning to like that young lady. She reminds me of you. You're both a couple of smartasses."

"Lyssa, and Jacobia's groups are engaging the enemy flanks now, Master," Cailin reported. A few seconds later she continued, "Wing Commander, Davis reports that wing one has completed their objective. The mining ships are dead in space. He also reports that scans show no life forms aboard any of them. They're fully automated. His wing is joining the others in attacking the main group now." A half an hour later, Cailin added, "All enemy ships are destroyed, Master. Lyssa and Jacobia are awaiting your orders. I've recalled all our fighters and ordered them rearmed and refueled so that they can be ready to provide air support for the ground troops. My scans show no life signs anywhere in the enemy fleet. We do have one problem though. My analysis of the Trog drop ships confirms that they're capable of attaching themselves to a ship's hull and boring through it to off load troops. Lactivia's fleet is seventeen minutes away from being in range to engage the carriers and there's no way the current shields on her ships can prevent a boarding action by the Trogs."

"Well let's solve that the easy way. Kadir, give all of Lactivia's ships the same shields we have on a temporary basis until after this battle. While you're at it upgrade all the shields on Lyssa's ships just to be on the safe side. Then give everyone the same personal defensive shield that we have, again on a temporary basis. Cailin, Tell Lyssa and Jacobia to meet us at the colony; we're gonna take a short cut. Kadir put the Seeker, the transports, and Cassandra's Vengeance in orbit around the colony now."

Instantly, they were at the colony. Three seconds later the drop ship carriers became nothing but derelicts. "Cailin, let me see what's happening on the ground," Bob asked.

"Holy shit! There's thousands of the fuckers, down there," Cassandra exclaimed! What the fuck is that huge monstrosity in the middle of them all?"

"I have no fucking clue. But there's no way I'm risking lives by sending Lyssa's troops down into the middle of that mess. Selena, just like last time, end them all."

"I'm sorry, Master, I can kill all the Trogs; but whatever that other thing is I can't touch it. In fact I can't even sense it."

"That's okay, Selena, just off the Trogs, and clean up the mess afterwards. Cassandra, Kadir, Cailin and I will handle the big bastard. Cailin send the transports all down at once. We go in three, two, one, now!"

As soon as they all appeared, the creature let out a primal roar and began firing some sort of black energy bolts at them. It seemed shocked that its energy bolts weren't penetrating it's enemy's shields. Bob was just as shocked that their combined firepower wasn't hurting the creature at all either. Finally after about five minutes of useless exchanges Cassandra sent, "I'm gonna try something, Master. When I distract it you try using your magic."

Before Bob could respond, Cassandra ran toward the creature as fast as she could. Just before she reached it, she jumped up doing a half turn back flip over it shouting, "HEY ASSHOLE DROP YOUR FUCKING SHIELD!" As she was coming down, Cassandra two handed her sword stabbing downward with all her weight behind it. To everyone's surprise Cassandra's sword cut clean through the creature's fourth cervical vertebra severing its spinal cord and paralyzing it instantly.

Suddenly, everything just froze around them as time itself stopped. Destiny and Life appeared. "Bob can we talk to you for a minute before you kill that fucker"Destiny asked.

Bob glanced at the creature lying on the ground, its eyes filled with terror as it stared at Destiny and Life. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but he had never seen so much horror on a beings face before. "Sure why not. I'm in no hurry now, Sis."

Destiny gave a grim smile as she looked at the creature. "I've been waiting eons for this moment, you fucking prick." She turned back to Bob. "Life and I would love to just stand here and watch Cassandra hack that pile of shit into tiny pieces. But Mother has asked that you spare it. Its name is Drakalor. It's the prince of darkness. Mother didn't give birth to it like she did Life and myself, but she had to create it to strike a balance in creation. She would rather punish this thing than to have to create a new one that she won't have a reason to punish.

The reason Mother is so pissed is because Drakalor broke the laws of creation. Neither he nor Mother is supposed to have a physical presence anywhere in creation. Even Life and I can't have a permanent place here. We're like mother's messengers, so we're allowed to exist in creation for short periods of time. You and your women are like her minions. You were born here so you have the right to exist here. Another thing is he created the Trogs using a power we all know Mother reserves for herself only.

We also now know that he's directly responsible for what happened to Tranquility. Because of their opposing natures, we didn't know any of this until the instant Cassandra's sword severed his spinal cord allowing us to see that he was actually here in creation. So he IS yours to kill if you want to. Mother won't be the least bit upset about it. But her form of retribution would be far worse than death to him. She would ban him from influencing this material plane of creation for eternity. He has thousands of minions as well as whole species under his influence so this was his favorite playground for eons.

That's not all though. She's banishing him to a brand new plane of existence created just for him. He'll be alone there for a few billion years at least. The best part of this for you is that the only automatic chaos status for new lives and new species will be neutral. A beings own actions will decide their chaos status without any outside influences. You should also know that evil will always exist and that you will never completely erase it."

"Okay, Sis; I accept the Boss's proposal. Get this piece of shit out of my realm. I'm still gonna exterminate the Trogs though. They're an abomination that has no place anywhere in creation." As soon as Bob agreed to the Boss's proposal, Drakalor disappeared and Cassandra's sword returned to her hand.

"We agree with you that the Trogs have to go," Life said. "But what you need to realize is that offing the Trogs is only the beginning of your problems. The Trogs didn't just decide to go out and conquer other species in the last few centuries. They've been at it for more than fifty thousand years. The populations on most of those worlds have known no other way of life. On all the conquered worlds the original inhabitants have been treated far worse than cattle.

With the exception of about a dozen worlds that have been seized in the last few decades; the indigenous populations are uneducated, and untrained in even the most basic skills. On an evolutionary scale, almost all of them would be at about the nomadic tribal stage after millennia of enslavement. The rest, including the newest conquests, are a little better off; but not by much. I'd say about the equivalent to the early Bronze Age. The only advice I have to offer you is to remove any and all signs of space based technology, including anything that may even hint at an advanced species, and let them start over from where they're currently at."

"I'm gonna have to get a bit creative to pull something that big off," Bob rubbed his chin in thought then continued, " okay, here's my idea. Persephone is now the Goddess of Peace and Prosperity. I'll give her the lead on this. These worlds will be her primary responsibility for the time being. I need Styx, Bia, and Nike for other things. So I'm gonna return the six Titanides to goddess status and give them whatever responsibilities Persephone thinks she'll need help with." He turned to Kadir. "All right, Kadir, wipe em all out; every last one of em. Then clean up the mess and remove any traces of advanced civilizations. Finally, remove the memory of their existence from the native populations of all but the Sokilums. Then give them all at least the ability to fish, hunt, farm, and provide some sort of basic shelter from the weather. Don't worry about the ones that can already do all that. Just focus on the ones who can't."

Destiny shook her head with a laugh. "You make solving difficult, complex problems look so damn easy, Bob."

"That doesn't really solve anything, Sis. It just gives me a place to start from. There are all kinds of long term issues here, which is why I'm assigning a whole team of goddesses to watch over things."

"Well you're off to a good start," Life replied. "Mother needs to restart time; so Destiny and I have to skedaddle while we can. See ya, Little Brother." Life and Destiny disappeared as time restarted.

Bob felt his rage begin to grow again as he finally got his first good look at the total devastation around him. He took a deep breath and forced it back down deep inside himself. The entire area was covered with the corpses of Sokilum troops and citizens. There were thousands of badly wounded scattered among the dead bodies, many of them near death and some with black slime oozing from their wounds. He looked at Cassandra. "What the fuck are we supposed to do? There's no way in hell we can possibly heal them all." He heard the Boss's voice in his head. "Be careful Captain; don't touch the ones with blackened wounds. The ooze could infect, and corrupt you. You can't do this without my help. Let me do all the healing through you. Just stand still and focus your will outward, and I'll do the rest."

"You're right, Boss. There's no way we could help them all. Thanks for the assist." Bob looked around. "Everybody stay still. The Boss is gonna do the healing through me. Cassandra, whatever you do don't let anyone touch them." He closed his eyes and pictured the battlefield in his mind. He watched as the wounds on the dying disappeared. Then much to his shock the wounds on the dead disappeared as well. Once again he heard the Boss in his head. "Yes, Captain, I returned the dead to the world of the living as is my right. It wasn't their time to die yet. They have many years of good service left to give their empress."

When Bob opened his eyes, he was amused to see thousands of people on their knees worshiping a flustered Cassandra. When he started chuckling, Cassandra elbowed him in the side. "This is NOT funny, Master! I'm not my mother! Their praise should be going to her not me! I am NOT a goddess! Gods this is sooo embarrassing! Can't you please make them stop somehow?"

By this time, the Atlantian troops were exiting their transports and getting into formation. Lyssa and Jacobia were also on the ground joining in Bob's amusement at Cassandra's expense. Cassandra looked at the laughing trio and stomped her foot in frustration. "You three think this is sooo funny! Just you wait; I'll find a way to pay you all back in kind sooner or later."

When Bob finally stopped laughing he said, "Sweetie, if you really want them to stop just raise your arms over your head and say 'rise and be greeted.' then you can actually introduce yourself."

Cassandra rolled her eyes. "And you call ME a brat?" She did as Bob suggested. The crowd quieted and stood waiting patiently for her to speak. Cassandra looked around and spoke in a clear loud voice. "Greetings, I am Cassandra; daughter of the goddess Artruna. She has sent us here in answer to the petition of your great empress Lactivia! Your goddess has required us to aid and protect you in your hour of need. Look around you! As you can see, we have fulfilled Artruna's promise to your empress. Your enemy has been vanquished; your wounds have been healed. You stand victorious on the battlefield! What was once taken from you belongs to you once again! Rejoice, celebrate your victory; and give your thanks to your goddess Artruna! She is the one deserving of your praise; not us. We are simply instruments of her will. We will leave you now as we must meet with your empress. But I give you my solemn oath that we WILL return should you ever have need of us again!"

Bob turned to Lyssa. "The Trogs are completely wiped out of existence. The war is over. Have your troops re-board their transports and join is in orbit. It's time to head to Sokilia and meet Lactivia. Please do us the honor of escorting us there, my heartfelt thanks to you and Jacobia and to your brave troops. The assistance of the whole Atlantian Empire has been invaluable in ending this conflict. Because of your help; billions of lives have been saved."

Lyssa ordered her commanders to load up and rendezvous with the main fleet. She turned to Bob. "You know thanks aren't necessary, Bob. Just as I know you'll always be there for me and mine; you know I'll always be there for you and yours. That's what families do; they stand by one another."

A few seconds later everyone was aboard their respective ships. While they were waiting for the transports to meet up with the rest of the ships, Bob ordered Cailin to open a channel to Lactivia and once again had Cassandra do the talking.

When the channel opened Lactivia stood with a nervous frown on her face. Before she could say anything, Cassandra grinned. "Good news, Lactivia. The battle is over, and your people are victorious!"