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The astorians were much more successful in such operations as they still had a few covert traders going around, traders who would send over their best illegal drugs and other stuff that you had fifty laws against. The criminals in the empire just... gave it. Yep, just gave up their stock and said to send it to their enemies to fuck them up. Yes, there were extensive protections to not lead to an immediate arrest, but such a time could inspire some security officers that such people were practically redeeming themselves on the spot. It gets harder to run such a military complex when your troops and the guys making ammo are tweaked out of their minds.
This was a very humiliating war for their enemies.
*
In a room that was halfway to a cathedral while also being the office of a rather important being, someone was getting consequences. The Tan'a Supremarch had reviewed the recordings of that day in the forum and now she finally had the time to speak to their esteemed delegate. The blue woman was dressed in an overflowing outfit that was supposed to inspire awe, with her opposite having only slightly more humble vestments.
She felt the noticeable fear from the woman standing before her, yet there was a true feeling of faith in her. That was enough to not be sent to rehabilitation directly. Her feelings were controlled, but the disappointment was intentionally shown.
"I should ask why you have chosen such a course for us. A course that I only found out recently. Is this from some fear of the heretics? I can feel you have such a complicated bundle of emotions in this movie. And I can also feel how that woman is showing no fear before a galaxy."
"Esteemed, I have gauged from that that such a course would be destructive to us. And we can see it now as their fleets have sustained not a scratch after several large-scale assaults."
"Proof is one thing, but we stand on faith. And here I can feel faith in you, the question is in what. If you had faith in us, you would have agreed, if you had faith in the community, you would have agreed, if you had faith that this is a message we should send... you would have agreed. And yet you did not. Now the community is shunning us."
There was a sentence she might wish to say, and yet she did not say it. Ali'sha held her mouth shut, even as the words were on the tip of her tongue. But the Supremarch noticed.
"You have a reasoning. Say it. The thoughts you hide can become radical."
"They have faith." Okay, she wanted to say "Do we feed our people with faith or blow up battleships with faith?", but the woman decided on something else.
"The astorians have no such thing." Her words were level, yet one could feel the wave of rage that blinked from her at that moment. "They have a mask given to us. They have been ahead of us and present only something to confuse. And you have been confused. We have no need of a delegate like you."
No need for her to say anything. There go ten years of working her way up to this. She might be lucky to get a job as a clerk. She might even have her government assistance intentionally lost. And that is how defiance starts. But the 30-year-old woman could do nothing now but hope. Faith. It was that thing to guide you when you had nothing else, but she knew what reality would offer. Faith meant nothing. And yet it was necessary or else she might not see light ever again.
"I will see if we can reverse your decision, but at this point, it looks like we're going to suffer for that for years. Already have the trades with the other empires slowed down. You held our people in your hand and you destroyed them. I should do worse. But it cannot stand for one so high to fall so publicly. Disappear in one of the border worlds. I'll see that you get your trip."
And she would have to. After being born into one of the more prestigious families, after being chosen for this due to her social skills and mental faculties, this was where it went. Her official mention was of going on vacation and that replacement was temporary, but the years would pass and that replacement would not go.
But the Supremarch was so fucking wrong.
*
And it was now a joyous day... relatively. After chilling for years, after letting the aliens come and get blasted to bits.... It was time to roll out. Mina had the joy of telling that directly to the ship carrying her. She got on that chair and pushed herself higher to get a good view, turning on the audio modulator to let everyone hear her right without shouting.
"Alright, just made the call. We're heading out. I know some of you guys think I should be sitting back at the Strategic Center, but I'll be shit when not doing stuff from here. Don't mean I can give orders to anyone I can't, but you get to have my green ass along to impress. We're moving out and giving it back to the guys. First stop is the Raff. Any of our furry friends want to give their distant cousins something special?"
One bull-man spoke, if only because he was the first to get the idea.
"Nah, just deal and move on. Let them know to sit down."
"Fuck that! Maybe we can kill their leaders and let new guys come in." And that was a wolf boy.
"Nothing would change, Ralph. New guys would turn into bastards within the month."
"Keh. Fine, just blast them and move on. Actually, why not blast them to hell? We got the Apocalypse, why not use it?"
"Well, my furry fuck-friend... because we don't need to. And it would take so much action from our boys in boots. They've been training like hell to do this. Gonna be even more embarrassing to not use it. BUT, we do have plans for it. The Zynn look like they masterminded this. We're giving their capital planet a shine. Before you ask, we checked... nothing but utter bastards and people to which death is a mercy. Outer colonies are a bit more okay."
That got the agreement. It was time to move things out. After it was clear that the station and the planet could hold shop without any need of the fleets, they could mobilize all of them. Some had the distinct assignment of escorting the transports holding the ground troops, but the rest would cruise on ahead and clear a path. This time they weren't even trying... they went right through their fortified stations as if to prove a point. The Raff might be so proud of those stations that had so much stopping power in them, which was indeed enough to get through the shields of the fleet that came upon it, but not through the armor. Round two would be even worse than the first, this time having the drop pods go straight for their defensive structures.
It was a grand point to go against their nearest neighbors that had at one point been slightly ahead in tech, at least military tech, now looking like they skipped an era of development. While laser batteries, flak cannons, and energy shields tried to stop those drop pods, each was armored to a point where the soldiers inside did not even notice they were fired upon, just assuming it was the forces of the drop. Then you had dozens of astorians rushing out of those pods with weapons live and clad in power armor, giving an offensive that was more for show than practical benefit.
Their fleets could cut into the other empires with ease, and their troops could land and not give 100%, but they did give like 64% to still give a good show. It might be an insult to the Azaan, but to those guys, they had some toys to give them. It wasn't just infantry they sent over, but also plenty of armored support, space-to-air shuttles to give air superiority, and some very fun things that the dedicated warrior bug men might enjoy.
Not a war to last a hundred years, but it might last a while.
*
"So, what DO we know about the Pasha?"
"Plenty. Heck, we know everything, even without having them in the forum. Bless the Sentry array. We picked up every last signal they sent and have them down to individual bunkers."
Still a few days out. The two infantrymen were chatting casually in the great hall of this transport ship, the first a Cow Raff, the second a synth. A bit of rank difference, but that stuff was only important for work. Even then, it's more of an agreed order. The hall was busy around them with plenty of the troops distracting themselves. After properly showing the Al'tar that they should also TRAIN rather than just relying on cybernetic augments, the guys were in a good mood.
"Sounds like it might be easy."
"Nah, not quite. They have a LOT more population. Like, we're talking thousand to one of our numbers. And that's population. If we're talking military assets, we have thirty thousand to one."
"Shiiiit.... That sounds bad. No wonder these guys took so much space." The woman took a sip of her drink to give him back the space.
"Yeah, but... quantity over quality. Kill thirty thousand guys and your job is done. Most of them don't even have armor or weapons, just using their base strength. Can't properly equip that number when you don't have as good an industrial backing. But they have stronger troops who use guns that are worth our salt... and some elites that are downright scary." Beat. "Relatively."
"Ya know what.... I changed my mind. Can we just bathe them?"
"Apocalypse is busy."
Above the Planet of Lokquan, the capital of the Rotog Imperium, a ship bigger than even the titans that made battleships look small charged slowly in its orbit, the neutron emitter readying the immense energy it would unleash on a planet. Shaped similarly to an ion cannon, if much bigger, with its semi-spherical back and those four big arms extending from it, arms bigger than the battleships... the thing was now open like a flower and spinning as it readied its task. A neutron bombardment to cover the whole planet, an energy flow that would wipe it of all life and robots, doing some recoverable damage to the biosphere and leaving cities clean as billions would die. This was a point because the Rotog went to one of the worlds they had seized for the moment and started bombing it from orbit, which required an emergency return of a fleet to not just safeguard the garrison, but keep that planet. Now they were going to make that planet-killer go to every last world of the fanatic xenophobes and wipe them into inexistence.
"They got more of us. But it doesn't mean they're just throwing us at the guys. You got a tuning specifically to fuck with their preferred defense. And I guess it might be a test. See if we went against the spiders for nothing."
"This is the kind of test that finishes with us walking away and not dying to make a point, right?"
"We ain't lost many and we're not gonna start here. But, might want to hit the simulator again."
The Pasha have been called dragons with good cause. Reptiles with warm blood, the things had a hive mind and you had a wide variety between them. The rank and file were just genetically-improved soldiers just a step above the worker caste, indeed relying more on their natural ability and sheer numbers to defeat an enemy, their weapons basic, the stronger troopers were bigger and equipped with weapons, leaving you with bus-sized heavies that could act as both tanks and air support. One really should specialize in something... multi-purpose means it sucks at both. And then you had the few elites which were indeed scary because they were BIG, we're talking troop transport big and equipped with their best weapons and armor. These were actually intended to act as generals and were the relays of the hive mind, their excessive protection was intentional and they would be as far from the front as they could be.
When those two would drop on the living planet that was the dragon homeworld, one that they had turned into something that was part of the hive mind as well, the ground was their first enemy, as everything on the planet was trying to kill them while it had no such problems with their enemies... but they solved that. Beth would hit the ground with a thump louder than the rest, her pod containing her alone as the 3-meter tall cow woman was encased in an armor so thick that others might not be able to move in it... still powered, but she was to serve a different cause. Why does melee combat still exist when you have guns and nukes? Well, because it's very difficult to shoot a gun at someone who is in your face, and suicidal to fire a nuke on them in that same situation. So you had the Raff juggernauts... improved with gene therapy and growth hormones, their physiology allowed this while making the process reversible. Her job was to weave in and fuck up enemy lines by being in their face so they couldn't rely on trench warfare. She could run with the speed and force of a rampaging train and even shoulder-smash through established fortifications. She was a humanoid tank that could shrug off a low-power nuke and ignore gunfire. That also meant she had no weapons but her limbs, but the things ahead would be no problem for her.
Everything tried to kill you here, everything was breathing and alive and fleshy and reaching for you and it was a horrible place. As she charged forward, leaving clear lines for the others to follow, others like her running just beside her, a line to both intimidate and blitz the enemy hard. And she was not the only surprise. In the sky, she could see the weaving forms of the transformer Synth, those who could pop up and provide aerial support before getting back on the ground to wave middle fingers at anti-air defenses. From the rear, the humans were toting real weapons, the kind of stuff that might actually bother her if they didn't have a precise aim. Gull were either providing sniper fire or looking for anything to blow the fuck up since they could do sabotage like no other... and if the reptiles thought they had the ground, there were some Zox drilling under them to provide some surprise passage behind their defenses... and deal with any burrowers themselves.
And then she saw the tank that made her look like a measured thing. Ahead, the 88-meter tall titans were getting dropped without pods, just letting those huge, human-shaped machines of war right in the middle of the aliens. Now, someone might say that big, humanoid robots are unfeasible, impractical, difficult to armor and arm at the same time, needing so many systems just so they don't fall over. And they are right. But those giant fuckers were not intended at weapon platforms... they had "enough" weapons to attract attention, but those things had ARMOR. They were some of the most resilient things the empire had created and they were intended to be a giant fucking distraction, a big and scary thing that attracts attention and fire, the thing that troops and defenses focus on while the real guys can advance with a notable 38% less damage coming their way. When you can say that one of those things saved 38,000 people, the price tag on it was worth it. Also, they were awesome. It even played music using sound engineering that made it audible even through the chaos of war. An electronic piano sound came on, a build-up before the drop of the strong stuff. Also scientifically researched that doing this makes troops fight harder. The lyrics hit just as it squashed over five dozen lizards.
"This is your time to pay,
This is your judgment day,
We made a sacrifice,
And now we get to take your life."
Did she enjoy this? Yes. As the woman charged on the field, plowing through troops like a siege engine, she could not think of anywhere else to be. This was... fun. This was right.
"We shoot without a gun,
We'll take on anyone,
It's really nothing new,
It's just a thing we like to do."
Putting these aliens in their place. Teaching them a lesson that they were better off to just leave them be. She could have chilled on Osiris, or if they did not need for defenses, she might have been a farmer on Dawnlight. That song was motivating. Shame the aliens couldn't understand it.
"You better get ready to die
(get ready to die)!
You better get ready to kill
(get ready to kill)!
You better get ready to run,
'Cause here we go-o-o!.
You better get ready to die
(get ready to die)!"
War was hell at times. It was for the aliens. But with good enough equipment, with plenty of training... and a great soundtrack... war could be fun. Ripping lizard heads apart in seconds, stepping on others either on purpose or accident, a dozen of them clawing at her armor, dozens more firing at her, and yet the thrums on her armor were just noise.
"Your life is over now,
Your life is running out,
When your time is at an end,
Then it's time to kill again,
We cut without a knife,
We live in black and white,
You're just a parasite,
Now close your eyes and say good-night."
Away from the battlefield, orbital bombardment was hitting other spots on this planet, around her there was lead, plasma, and other much more exotic energy and material types flying. Ever so often she might be moved a bit by the force, but her shield held or the armor did. There was a simplicity to this that the woman could enjoy. There was no moral dilemma about killing these things. They wanted to eat everything. It was like culling a dangerous animal that never fucking learned. It would not even if they left it standing.
"You better get ready to die
(get ready to die)!
You better get ready to kill
(get ready to kill)!
You better get ready to run,
'Cause here we go-o-o.
You better get ready to die!
Get ready to die!
Get ready to die!"
Split-second decisions as she switched targets when her intended one was blasted by one of her buddies. The titan was getting a pounding but standing proud. That thing was even drawing anti-air fire which meant their flyers could come down and do more than usual. And it was not harmless... such size and weight could destroy buildings.
"Been a long time coming,
Now you better get running,
And you better GET READY TO DIE!"
This planet would burn.
*
Through all of this, James wondered if he should get in there... go and do something. But, the enemies were not cheating. Or, if they were... he sure could not notice it. And even if they were, it was not making a difference. The challenge was passable. Heck, he should give the aliens some help since they were getting ass-fucked like one does not believe. The dildo of consequences rarely arrives lubed.
He was not feeling sorry for those aliens. Okay, he was feeling sorry for some of them, roped into this by their governments... but, at the same time... they have shown in previous times how all of them had this potential of bastardry that came out as soon as they thought they could get away with. WHY? Why was he not getting to them? He tried many efforts to get them to change their ways, and technically there were several wars started by his influence, and yet, those he supported turned into fuckers as soon as he turned around.
The god started with those he thought of higher potential... the Nex sure took it well, but then again, he didn't even really try with them, so they had his respect for being decent without him. It might look like the Cylla had potential, but their flavor of egalitarian is more about giving everyone an equal chance to wage non-violent war on each other, the kind where it's a capital crime to strike someone so you have to find creative means like burying them in bureaucracy or doing emotional damage by hiring someone to sleep with your rival's wife. When he looked closer, that place was shit under the surface.
Not much he could do with the hive minds, even with the Bloom, which was more pleasant than the others, but beneath the surface was a sociopathic entity eager to not just use beings like tools, but a coward on top, the reason for their more peaceful approach. And the Voor... they were good, as even he thought they might be good... and then they go and do that bullshit. Actually, he was quite glad that they went and did that because there were none in this galaxy to remind him of the Ferengi and now, after the Apocalypse went and wiped their capital... ahem... head office... clean, he could now start making jokes like "Twenty billion in one month" and other such jokes that he could not make for a long time. On one side, it was a corporation, but it sure looked like their principles were for sale.
