Gronth Ch. 09 Gronth Civil War

"We're naming them after the Greek letters just to keep them straight. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, you know. And we're adding more planets thanks to translocation. Right now we have ten of the prettiest planets you've ever seen. They have rivers, mountains, fields of sardu, everything you need to raise a family. One of the planets even has a big moon like Earth does," Ben told Namira.

Namira had really enjoyed Earth's moon. Ben and Matt were right, the Gronth were not on the Elani's doorstep just yet. The Elani still had time to move. Without the Terrans to divert them, the Gronth would be inside the inside nebula in a few months. The run-in with the Gronth was inevitable, but Namira was not ready to leave Elan behind yet.

"Would you like for Dad to set up the government on the planet with the moon?" Matt asked.

"I suppose that we must set the government up somewhere."

"We can call it Epsilon. Joya and her family were among the first to settle there." Ben suggested.

And so the Elani transition to the Terran Analog planets began. Starting with the government on Epsilon.

"It's still months away," Joya said, disappearing beneath the surface of Lana's pool, even though Lana, her family and her home had already translocated.

Sofia sat with her feet in the cool water while Ando went inside to fetch a bottle of Terran wine for them all to enjoy. The water was not warm enough to bathe in, just to swim. Ando was getting really good at picking the layers of water within the mountain streams and hoy springs. The pool was nearly perfect for swimming in the cool evening air.

"I heard that it rained yesterday during the morning," Matt observed.

"It was wonderful to watch the rain while the sun was shining," Joya said as she emerged from underneath the water and joined the conversation.

Everything was nearly perfect now on Ralajan as far as Matt was concerned. Without someone controlling the weather, Ralajan reminded Matt of Dorian, his second favorite Elani planet. Most importantly, before Lela left to reposition the Clinic, she had removed Matt's birth control implant, and Joya wanted to make a baby.

"Let's make a baby now that you are not shooting blanks at me any more," Joya said.

Matt laughed at Joya's openness about having a child now that Matt was home more often.

"What? Here? Now?"

"Yes."

"I think that Ando and Sofia would have something to say about that."

"I don't mind," Ando offered.

"Well I certainly do," Sofia interrupted.

Matt laughed at his sputtering wife after he splashed Joya and moved away from her roaming hands. Matt smiled at the thought of Joya having a child, his child. What would the child be like? Would it have a full amount of testosterone, or somewhere in between?

"If we have a baby boy we will name him Willy. If it's a girl we will name her Nilly," Joya said.

"Those are beautiful names." Sophia said.

"And they will run naked in the sardu with their father," Joya added.

Matt scooped his wife up into his arms and kissed her.

"Only if you run naked with me," Matt told his wife/mate.

"Willy is definitely a good name, it's short for Wilhelm, a good old germanic name to go with Seabolt."

"And Nilly is a perfectly good Indian name," Joya said.

"Willy and Nilly it will be then," Matt laughed and hugged his wife.

"Get a room," Sofia shouted at the two lovebirds.

Trying to make a baby in the pool was nothing new to Ando. He had watched Fala and Venya do it after the other adults had gone home. For some reason that he didn't understand, Sofia never wanted to practice making babes in the pool either. Ando had asked about modesty and had just gotten a nasty look from his mate. He was on birth control and it was just for fun, but Sophie insisted that they do it in their bedroom without an audience.

When morning came, Matt watched as Joya joined her family on Epsilon. Matt, Ando and Sofia entered a newly created shimmering portal and stepped out into Matt's office in Colorado.

"The Armada has turned around," Cruz told the Terran leaders after checking her probes.

The Terran military leaders joined Colonel Cruz on her screens and looked closely at the track of the Gronth Armada as it changed course and headed back to Zandor.

"It's a good thing that you cleared the airspace over Zandor from the reverse integrators, the Gronth are sending probes now," Matt told Sofia.

"Can't you bring the reverse integrators back and just zap the Groth ships when they return?"

"It doesn't work that way. As long as there are living beings on those ships, they can't be disposed of. Remember, the reverse integrators were designed to take care of trash," Sofia reminded them.

"Or shit," Hoshino added.

"They're traveling another month out of their way," Fairfax said with relief.

That'll give you more time to train the defenders," Baranov told his comrade.

"What could have made them change their plans like that?" Zhao asked.

"Maybe they spotted the gold," Matt suggested.

"Could be. They build their energy armor out of it," Hoshino added.

"It's not doing anything for us," Matt answered.

"We need to find out what they're thinking,"

Sofia pulled out what appeared to be a thin sheet of paper. The paper was so thin that it was virtually transparent. It could be placed on nearly any surface and virtually disappear.

"Vana has the prototype ready for use. I think that I should send the spy-paper directly to Karak's ship," Cruz said.

Matt knew that the Elani scientists were still working on war preparations for the Terran planets. The other Elani, however, were moving as fast as they could on completing the move to the Newly discovered planets in the Terran sector that had been prepared for them in the Orion Stub. When the Gronth arrived at the Elani's former homes in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy, all they would find might be the odd baroo.

"If we only have a few sheets, we need to put some on Goko and find Kankree's flagship too.

"Consider it done," Cruz said.

By the afternoon, Colonel Cruz had intercepted all of Karak's transmissions to his Armada, and had pieced together a report for her superior officers. The report was mostly concerned with Karak's obsession with all of the gold on the surface of Zandor and how to defend it from Kankree and his followers.

"Does Kankree even know about the gold?" Matt asked.

"Not yet," Sofia smiled.

Zhao caught on right away. There was going to be a fight between Karak and the rest of the Empire. He was even cutting the Emperor out of the spoils.

"It's time we let everybody know Karak's plan. Don't you think?"

Sofia had enough video of Karak telling his officers about his plans to take the gold out from under the nose of the other task force leaders and the Emperor that she felt confident that she could pull her plan off. She would edit the big Gronth's words and leak it to all of the concerned parties. She was sure that the new Emperor would have something to say about Karak's plans.

Karak was as angry as he had ever been. How had all of his plans been blabbed to the Emperor and everyone else? Karak had only sent the messages to his most trusted Commanders, how had everyone gotten the transmissions? That damn communication officer had once worked for Kankree. That must be it. He would have that officer executed at once.

He was surrounded by enemies, former stooges of Kankree. Karak had to decipher which Gronth officers were on his side, and who was against him. He ordered two more containers of strong beer and drew up a list of officers aboard his flagship. The Communications officer and his aides had to go. Wasn't the officer who controlled the probes a friend of the Communications officer? He was sure that the Intelligence officer was part of the conspiracy.

"The probes are just orbiting randomly now," Colonel Cruz told the military leaders who had all teleported in from their homes on different Terran worlds.

"They aren't looking at anything at the present time," Sofia told them.

"You said something about a purge yesterday," Baranov said.

"Karak must've killed his Intelligence officer as well as his Communication officers."

That means that we can move things around a little," Matt said.

"I've been thinking about the gold we have. If we put some of it in all of the hills that we were pretending to protect it would make it seem that we have more gold than we really do."

"Put a little in several caves underground on the other side of the planet. Let's make Karak really look for the gold," Colonel Cruz recommended.

It took just a few minutes for Cruz to reposition a single reverse integrator and reposition the gold inside all of the berms of dirt the Terrans had defended as well as some of it underground in caves. Then, she simulated a sandstorm to strategically hide some of the gold and to expose other parts of it. All of these things had to happen before an Intelligence officer loyal to Karak finally took over.

Zhao smiled again, Matt's plan of starting a Civil War among the Gronth seemed to be working. Moving the existing gold around to make it appear that Zandor was worth fighting for, Terrans or no Terrans.

It was two days later that Karak's first purge was finally over. The big Gronth was finally waking up. Karak had fallen into a drunken stupor, and Korat, the flag ship's Captain, finally had the courage to wake Karak.

"I have a headache," Karak complained.

"It's no wonder. Two days of drinking and killing your enemies can do that to you."

"You forgot to address me as Lord Claw," Karak grumbled, swinging his big, sharp claw halfheartedly at the evil Ship's Captain that had awakened him.

Korat expected the fatal claw to be swung at him and easily sidestepped it.

"Don't you don't remember? The Emperor withdrew your title. You are no longer Lord Claw."

Karak groaned again. He wished that there was a medic on board that could give him something for his head. The Gronth females had doctors, why couldn't a warrior have a doctor too? Warriors were supposed to receive a coup de grace from their comrades if they were severely wounded or suicde if they were in great pain. What did someone do when they just felt like they had been gravely wounded?

"Who all did I order to be killed?"

Korat pulled up the list of ship's officers that Karak had purged. It was a long list.

"Remind me why I killed this officer. He used to be pretty good as I recall," Karak asked after Korat read the fifth name on the list.

"His Junior Officer requested his death. He said that the Captain had recently praised Kankree's actions in the past," Korat reminded the former Lord Claw.

"Who else did I have killed," Karak asked.

"Thirty-eight ships worth of claw wielding warriors. They were still asleep, just ejected into space at your command. You said that you needed all of those landers freed up."

Thirty-eight ships worth of warriors? That was more than Kankree had lost. Oh well, it wasn't too bad especially if he needed the landers to load all that gold. It could've been much worse. All of those officers though? The junior officers were certainly energetic, but could they lead the warriors in an attack? Or a defense? The force that Kankree was sure to have assembled would be made of veterans with excellent officers, Oh well, time to look at all of that gold again.

What in the Demon's name was this? A sandstorm had changed the surface of the planet entirely. Where was all of his gold?

Korat was there immediately to help Karak zero in on the area of gold that he had seen before. He was glad that he hadn't purged Korat too. He had always considered the effeminate Gronth to be quite a cloaca kisser.

There wasn't just gold there. As he and Korat looked around, they found gold in all of the berms of dirt that the Terrans had been defending. The Terrans weren't just defending dirt. There was gold everywhere on Zandor. It would soon be his.

Aboard Kocek, Ganoot's flagship, Kankree had joined his old friend.

"Are you seeing this Kankree?" Ganoot asked.

Kankree had finally caught up with Ganoot, He was leading the first friendly group of Gronth warriors who were not associated with Karak.

"There's a lot more gold on Zandor than you or I initially thought," Ganoot said.

"I didn't leave any gold on Zandor, only dead bodies."

Ganoot showed Kankree the mountains of gold on the surface and a definite lack of dead soldiers.

"I've changed our trajectory to intercept the crazy bastard. Is there any truth to his conclusion that you have troops hidden somewhere?"

"How can you even ask me about that Ganoot? I've always been honest with you."

"Just had to ask."

No, I don't have troops hidden somewhere else. What I have left is what you see,"

"Empty troop ships and vacant Aircraft Carriers. You don't have much Kankree."

"Just my experience," Kankree said.

"True."

Of all the Gronth leaders, Kankree was considered to be the very best. He had been Lord Claw for over twenty revolutions of Grota. His expertise would be needed to attack Karak's defensive positions. The Armada led by Karak was huge. The remaining officers, even though they were inexperienced, were dedicated to Karak's plan. It would not be an easy task to beat Karak. Kankree and Ganoot would need some help from other Gronth Commanders to take the gold for themselves and their supporters.

"How many did he purge all together? I recorded thirty-eight ships. That's nearly as many warriors as I lost on Zandor," Kankree said.

"Three point eight million good claw wielding warriors and over three thousand talented, veteran officers," Ganoot told Kankree as he discussed the purge with the former Lord Claw.

"The bastard ordered both of us killed, but I guess that our Junior Officers weren't paying attention."

"They know which side they can depend on. I'm going to give my officers two shares."

"Speak for yourself. Most of your officers were killed by the Terrans," Ganoot laughed.

Kankree was bewildered by Karaks recklessness. That many soldiers had cost Kankree his position and almost had cost him his life. At least the Emperor had come to his senses and taken the title of "The Emperor's Right Claw" away from Karak. The huge idiot had never deserved the title in the first place.

Back on Grota, the new Emperor was having a bad day as well. Karak, his chosen General, had turned against him to take the gold that the Terrams had left on Zandor. Most of the remaining task forces had chosen sides and were aligning themselves with either Karak or Kankree.

Of the two popular Generals, Kankree was easily the better of the two. Karaks political pull, especially after letting his clawed warriors keep the gold rings on the Terran's fingers earlier, had made him popular. Karak's wife Kookie had plenty of political clout and had always been powerful. Her father had started a multi planet wide beer distributorship, and Kookie had inherited everything. Kookie's wealth and influence meant that he had to listen to Kookie, whether he liked her advice or not.

Declaring Karak to be The Emperor's Right Claw might have been premature. Up until his last battle for Zandor, Kankree had been the best General on his staff. Now it seemed that Kankree might not have lost anybody. The defeat by the Terrans might simply have been a ruse to throw him off so that Kankree could get all of the Terran gold.

Finally, he was in orbit around Zandor. Karakakia, he corrected himself.

"Zandor indeed," Karak cursed.

By the time he was finished collecting his gold, the whole idea of Terrans would be part of the history books just like the damned, ... who was that? What was the name of that civilization that had given them the energy shields and the FTL drive? It didn't matter. The Terrans would simply be part of the Gronth's forgotten history.

Karak had plenty of empty landers since he'd ejected all of those warriors out into space. The aircraft pilots didn't have any claws to speak of, he would send those down to pick the gold up from the piles of it on the ground.

Karak had three full days and nights to pick up all the gold and leave Karakakia to the others who were following him here. Nobody would know how much gold he had. Besides, the Junior officers now in charge of most of his supporting ships wouldn't expect as much gold as their recently dead Captains would have wanted.

Two full days had passed, and a single lander hadn't left the surface yet. One day more and the first ships from the remainder of the Armada would arrive.

"The gold is just too heavy to lift from the ground, the way that you have it loaded, Karak."

"Use more landers then. I don't care. We have to get all of that gold."

"It's a mixture of gold bars and dirt, Karak. Just like I told you. We have to pick the gold out by hand." Korat said.

"Have some of the warriors file down their claws. I want all of that gold picked up and on board my ships before the rest of the Armada arrives."

Not wanting to hear more criticism from Goko's Captain, Kankree closed the door of the cabin in Korat's face. He needed to think. He didn't need Korat bringing him down with all of his bad news.

Korat shook his head at Karak's bad decision making. He would've at least kept a proper air cover to protect the landers on the ground. Karak hadn't even thought of that. He hadn't even warmed up his reserve warriors for a fight. They couldn't fight at hibernation temperatures like they were now. Then again, Karak wasn't worried about that yet. As far as he knew, he was surrounded by friendly troops.

"Send down more landers. I want enough landers to lift all of the gold at once," Karak ordered once he decided to come out of his quarters and face the world.

"That will limit the number of warriors that you will be able to send down in case of an attack," Korat warned.

"Nobody's going to attack us now. I have an entire armada defending my gold."

"You mean our gold, of course."

"Oh yes, of course. Our gold."

In Colorado, the Terran military leaders had gathered again.

"General Paku has just joined the Armada," Colonel Cruz informed the gathered military Commanders.

"Is he for Karak or against him?" Zhao asked.

"Paku has wisely kept his mouth shut since the insurrection occurred," Cruz said.

Colonel Cruz laughed at the innocent look on Matt's face.

"Should I have this Paku fellow talk some shit about Karak?" she asked Matt.

"I have a feeling that Kankree is running the show. Leave Paku alone. He will choose one leader or the other when the time comes.," Zhao said.

Ganoot agreed that Paku hadn't said or done anything to make him suspicious. In fact, Paku hadn't said anything to anybody. Ganoot had no real idea of where Paku stood on any of this. Kankree might still be the very best General of the bunch, but the best Carriers were still Ganoot's to control. He'd better wake up his pilots and have them trim their claws, just in case.

The promise of all that gold was simply too much for Paku. As soon as he was in range, Paku sent whatever resources he had to shoot down Karak's unmanned Aircraft Carriers. Ganoot only controlled ten Carriers, but his pilots were ready, and already in their aircraft, ready to launch against Karak's Troop Carriers.

"In the Destroyer's name, Ganoot's aircraft are good," Paku observed.

"That's nine-teen spacecraft destroyed for us to twenty-five of his," Paku's Second in Command noted.

"There has been no air defense from Karak's carriers. It's as if all of his aircraft and pilots are on the ground."

At this rate, we'll be able to shoot down hundreds of Karak's ships today alone."

Hoshino was more than ready to help destroy Karak's Troop Carriers. Most of the ships destroyed so far by the Gronth had been Gronth Lander Carriers with their claw wielding warriors on board still.