Chapter 4, part 3
The next transition was also a short one, bringing them amidst what looked like a fierce firefight. A dozen or so armored Barsam were defending a choke point in the middle of a long ,familiar looking, corridor.
“Where are we?” Stillstorm asked as she studied the Barsam who seemed to have wings of ‘light’ sprouting from their backs and legs but the light didn’t actually glow; it was a weird and eerie sight to witness but the wings seemed to make them float just above the ground as they quickly flew from cover to cover, firing green beams from a weapon that looked like an extension of their armor. She turned to look at their targets but she could barely see anything, only vague silhouettes that seemed to dance in and out of existence. The armor of the Barsam seemed to be identical to the alien’s armor in the way it functioned, its surface seemed to ‘flow’ like water and reform itself whenever the Barsam were moving, always offering a thicker front to where the enemy was located.
“We are 50 tozons after the birth you just witnessed, aboard the Dreadstar where the first revolt happened.” The alien replied.
A green beam hit one of the Barsam and an energy field flickered briefly as it absorbed it, a solon later an invisible force took hold of the Barsam, forcefully made it float in the air before crushing it into a big ball of blue flesh, bone and liquid metal.
“What was that?” She asked again.
“Telekinesis…” Palan Fireblade replied but her mind betrayed her uncertainty about something.
“Do they have a Lotai?” Parat Tempo asked.
“Or are we unable to sense non telepaths from the past?”
“The Soians saw fit to equip the Barsam guarding their Dreadstars with tech level 14 equipment after the first revolt proved the ineffectiveness of tech level 12 equipment against ascendants, even with the extreme numbers of Barsam that the Soians were willing to sacrifice. Their ‘new’ equipment was a smart material armor that could form an artificial lotai device, bio matter disintegrator lances, personal forcefields, personal anti-grav jetpacks and other minor equipment. A squad of Barsam with this equipment would easily outmatch 10.000 shell hardtroops if they were pitted against each other.” The alien replied.
“An artificial lotai device?” Is this how the shells are hiding from us?” Stillstorm asked.
“The shells don’t have the technology necessary to create such a device, their trick is different and you will discover it soon after this foray into the past comes to an end.” The alien replied.
“If they have a lotai then how was this one killed?" Para Tempo asked.
"One would have to know its precise position to kill it like that.”
“I think… that I can sense their weapons and armor… it’s odd, it’s not like telepathy…” Fireblade broadcasted.
“Very good.” The alien commented.
“Their weapons and their personal forcefields tap into the dimensions that form the basis of several ascendant abilities. Forcefields in particular are a form of crude artificial telekinesis. Easy to pinpoint for one who can now naturally sense telekinesis like you are able to do now. Your sensing is still crude and unrefined but you should be able to sense the wake of their equipment. With time you will be able to freely sense natural telekinesis as well as the feedback of yours.”
“Sensing telekinesis is a very taxing conscious effort, one can’t just sense it in such a way.” Parat Tempo pointed out.
“Consider this a small proof of your kind’s failures, telekinesis is very much like telepathy; if you are able to use it then you should be able to sense it and feel the feedback. The fail safes installed partially cut this ability away from you but with sheer concentration you can overcome it. If your kind had pushed said fail safe to the breaking point for a few generations then it would have grown inert, much like all the other fail safes that your kind has learned to work with, instead of trying to break them. Locking the very memories of their use in your legendary sagas, as if they were a child’s tale and not the very heritage that you should have striven to surpass.” The alien sent angrily and derisively, the Mizol wanted to rebuke him but elected to not press that point, choosing to ask an obvious question.
“And Fireblade can now perceive all this?”
“Yes.”
“The modifications required for this must be extensive. It’s like the introduction of another sense.” Beryl interjected.
“Not really. The fail safes don’t mutilate your form; they severely limit and hide your true potential. We perceive you as forcefully limited and downright misshapen existences that are content to be just that. You have the potential to fully unsheathe yourselves and reach the natural human abilities we had before the Soians took them away. Lesser than what we are now after the extensive upgrades we went through but still a form that we would consider truly ascendant. You act like novice warriors who still elect to fight with knives instead of striving to discover the ways of the gun and cannon.” His derision continued but he pushed it away before nodding to the Barsam who were dying one after the other.
“These fools thought that they were making their last stand, they hoped that they would take just a few of the murderous monsters with them before they died. The truth was that they were simply toyed with.”
“Toyed with? They have weapons and equipment that would allow them to best thousands of hardtroops, you just told us that. How can they be really be toyed with?” Stillstorm pointed out.
“Easily… The game is very simple, one has to telekinetically manipulate their disintegrator lances while in cover, aiming to hit a Barsam. The referee overseeing the ‘match’ kills the Barsam right after it is hit and awards a point to the one that scored said hit. The ones lagging behind in the score are the bait to draw the Barsam out of cover. The last Barsam standing is worth four points. The victor gets to mate with a certain highly desired male.”
“How can you know all that if you can’t sense their thoughts properly?” Parat Tempo asked.
“You will know soon enough, just observe for now.”
The game, if that was what it was, continued for quite some time as the greenish beams were fired back and forth while the Barsam were shifting positions rapidly by levitation, their legs or with all fours if they had to. True to his word a Barsam was only crushed to death only after its shield stopped a green beam from hitting them. Soon there were only three Barsam left and it was then that Loroi sounding shrieks and jeering were first heard from down the corridor.
“What’s going on? I didn’t notice anything getting hit down there.” Stillstorm asked.
“Wait and see, the game is almost over.”
One more Barsam was hit and crushed in quick order but the jeering from down the corridor became louder and unceasing, while the weapon’s fire seemed to have stopped. The two Barsam used the lull to get behind cover but one of them was hit on the shoulder mere moments after it did so and was crushed almost instantly. The moment that was done the jeering turned into unceasing laughter and booing before a lone levitating warrior appeared down the corridor, quickly approaching the Barsam position. The lone remaining Barsam made to stand up and aim its weapon but it was stopped in mid motion and had its left arm ripped off its socket telekinetically, if Stillstorm was to be a judge.
“Someone is a sore loser, despite the fact that her only hope was the last moment upset.” The alien broadcasted as the fully armored warrior reached the hapless Barsam that was now kept in the air telekinetically. The wings of light at her back and legs fluttered slightly as she came to a stop in front of the floating Barsam that couldn’t do anything anymore. She extended her arms to her sides as if she was preparing to embrace the Barsam, however it immediately became apparent that this wasn’t her intention. Parts of her armor turned into silvery liquid that floated down her arms and onto her hands, there the liquid started floating just above her palms in two silvery balls that quickly took the shape of a long cutting knife and a spiky club, both weapons falling onto her waiting palms when they were fully formed only to begin floating and moving on their own.
The warrior then tilted her head slightly as the club seemingly swung itself against the bleeding Barsam, it’s armor realigning itself to take the hit only to live other areas exposed for the knife to stab and cut with a supernatural speed before the armor could protect its wearer.
“A really nasty sore loser!” The alien sent again as they stared at the butchery that was unfolding in front of them, the Barsam tried to remain silent through all that; with only pained muffles leaving its mouth as it was being repeatedly stabbed and cut.
“Won’t the others stop her?” Beryl asked, having turned her gaze away from the grim spectacle; only to jump up when the Barsam first let out a scream of pain.
“Why should they? It was fun teasing the pretentious loser that was two hits away from stealing the win but they held no ill will towards her, they understand her anger and they have better places to be now that the Porei gamble on assaulting the Dreadstar had paid off.” The alien explained.
“It is not right.” The Tozet replied, drawing agreement from even Stillstorm. An honorable enemy warrior should just be killed quickly, not be butchered in such a way.
“Maybe for you but not for someone who was born only for vengeful killing. Vengeance is the sole reason of why they came to be and they will make sure that it is carried to the fullest.” Their location changed again, away from the gruesome sight and the screaming. They found themselves floating in space with a planet a distance in front of them. No it wasn’t a planet, it was obviously artificial! A Dreadstar!
“So that’s a Dreadstar?” Stillstorm asked as she observed it. It’s surface bore some obvious damage which were like superficial scarring to the massive and menacing starship.
“Indeed, that’s a Soian Dreadstar, this one is about the size of Deinar and could easily be crewed by dozens of billions if it was so required. The Soians never had the numbers to fully crew even two of their Dreadstars by themselves so a lot of its functions were left to some very sophisticated automated systems. This Dreadstar here was the industrial and administrative center of the whole local bubble before the first revolt.” The Alien replied.
“You said earlier that this Dreadstar was incapacitated due to the damage inflicted on it during the first revolt.” Stillstorm pointed out
“Indeed. Of the more than four billion Soians aboard at the time of the first revolt more than half perished from the repeated combined shouts of the human males that were cast throughout it. In turn several key administration and industrial centers were damaged and destroyed in the ensuing fighting. The loss of life and the damage inflicted were enough for the Soians to temporary retire the Dreadstar from its official duties so it could be repair itself. About ten million Soians were left aboard to facilitate the repairs with the rest scattered on the seven remaining Dreadstars that now had to fill the gap that was left. It was estimated that the repairs would require several centuries and would require the full remaining industrial output of the Dreadstar before it could resume its duties, the Porei managed to high jack it when the repairs were about three quarters done.”
“How did the Porei high jacked it? It would require a whole fleet and hundreds of thousands of boarders.” Stillstorm asked.
“It was a long and arduous effort which required a lot of sacrifices and dangerous gambles. Suffice to say that all of the human females kept giving birth for more than fifty tozons and they had become quite the capable pirates while doing so. The idea of capturing this Dreadstar wasn’t theirs but one of their firstborn daughters.”
“Were all the Porei telekinetics?” Tozet Beryl asked out of turn, momentarily drawing Stillstorm’s ire.
“Yes they were, all of their firstborn sons and daughters had their full ascendant potential available, the fail safes making the subsequent generations weaker and weaker. The sixth and seventh generations were the ones where the fail safes brought them to your level.” The Alien replied.
“How many were alive at this point?”
“In total? About two hundred thousand dispersed aboard 348 ships of varying sizes and abilities.”
“If every human female gave birth every tozon then there should be about one hundred thousand alive at this point.” Beryl pointed out.
“There were about eighty thousand firstborn alive when the assault begun, of those about twelve thousand perished in the assault and the five nanapis of fighting it took to fully secure the Dreadstar. The remaining one hundred and twenty thousand were second and third generation Porei, weaker than the firstborn but still significantly stronger than you.” He replied and turned his gaze at Stillstorm.
“Now tell me Lashret Stillstorm. What would your response be to this development if you were the Soian Commander in Chief?”
“I would immediately amass all available strength to either capture or destroy all hijacked assets. An overwhelming and resolute retaliation, nothing less than that would be acceptable.” She replied without needing to think about it.
“The correct course of action and anyone with a warrior’s mettle would give the exact same answer; this wasn’t what the Soians elected to do however, can you think of a reason as to why?” The alien asked.
“No.” The very idea of not immediately retaliating just made her mind recoil.
“Parat Tempo, your thoughts?”
“If they wanted to maintain the loyalty of all their subjects they would have to be swift, brutal and resolute. I agree with my Lashret.” It was rare for the Mizol to agree so quickly and readily with her; the thinking behind her agreement was through her caste’s prerogative but it was something that a leader would have to consider as well after such a disaster. The alien then looked at Pallan Fireblade for a quick moment before his attention rested onto the Listel.
“What do you think Tozet Beryl?”
“At first I would agree with the Torrai Lashret and the Mizol Parat but after some thinking I have my reservations. We Loroi always thought that the Soians used their Dreadstars mainly for war, with policing and administrative duties being secondary to war fighting. Few have theorized that they were used as the industrial centers of the Empire as well but not to the detriment of their warfighting potential. What you have shown and told us so far makes it clear that the Dreadstars served as the primary administrative and industrial centers of the Empire and as such the Soians would have extreme reservations in moving such assets away from their primary duties. The consequences of focusing both the administrative and industrial cores of the Empire elsewhere, even for a little while, would certainly be catastrophic for the large swathes of their territory that they covered.” The Tozet explained. The concept was easy to understand but still couldn’t compare to the fact that a lethal danger to the Soian Empire has appeared and had to be hunted down and destroyed as swiftly as possible.
“And that was the reasoning behind the decision that brought forth the end of the Soians.” The alien announced.
“It is a ridiculous line of thinking for any sentient; if the Soians still had the ability to feel anger, pride and fear they would have certainly taken the correct course of action but the Soians simply didn’t feel anything and just used simple calculative logic which led them to a false alternative.” He continued with clearly felt derision.
“The Soian Dreadstars were indeed a very potent martial asset but they saw war-fighting as a tertiary use. When this Dreadstar was deemed inoperable after the first revolt the remaining seven had to fill the void it left which took them several tozons to accomplish. To send even a single Dreadstar after them would cause extensive damage to the order that had barely managed to return in their territories after the first revolt. A partial mobilization and entrusting the loyal Mizol with the task of finding and recapturing the Dreadstar was deemed adequate. For this purpose the Mizol were allowed to enhance their numbers and were given access to even more otherwise forbidden technologies. This was deemed more than enough to combat a pirate menace that didn’t even number half a million and couldn’t hope to fully man a Dreadstar to its full potential, even if they knew how.”
“Foolish…” Stillstorm broadcasted without really thinking.
“Indeed, the Soians were exactly that kind of fools. They underestimated sentient tenacity every step of the way, even when said sentients had potent Ascendant abilities at their disposal.” The alien agreed.
“They were such fools that they hadn’t allowed the Mizol to launch an extensive anti-piracy campaign into the wastelands for decades, seeing it as a horrid waste of resources for what was a mere nuisance to the grant scheme of things. Their foolishness became suicidal when they came to believe that the Porei passivity for the next two dozen tozons was due to the limited tactical successes of the Mizol and not because the Porei were preparing to unleash themselves against most of their territory. They underestimated the Porei every step on their way to extinction; your ancestors had learned how to fully exploit the Dreadstar through captive Pol and Soians, they had shifted its entire industrial output into war manufacturing and had exponentially increased their numbers both naturally and artificially now that they had both the safe unassailable habitat and the means to do just that.”
The force took them again for another trip, this time depositing them onto the surface of a planet, amidst what could only be described as a massacre.
“It only took twenty four tozons for the end result to become apparent. The Mizol were exterminated and the final days of the Soians were at hand.” All around them hundreds of fully armored warriors were flying around with their wings of light and were just sadistically butchering thousands of Mizols and Neridi of all ages at will. A small group near was gauging the eyes out of their victims with their armorer fingers before dropping them onto the ground to crawl away screaming in pain. Another group was slowly beheading their victims with short knives before tossing their heads onto a pile that was twice as tall as Fireblade. Further away a larger group had surrounded some Neridi… no they were Mizol males that were screaming in terror as they were castrated one after the other, their severed manhoods then sewn onto their mouths and eyes. Every sight and sound was revolting and enraging but the worst part was the enjoyment that the Porei seemed to take from their savagery.
“We are on Derro by the way. The Porei gave a very simple ultimatum to the Neridi. They would surrended every last Mizol on their world or they would suffer their fate. As you can see some Neridi actively disagreed and reaped their just dues.” The alien sent.
“This is barbarous butchery!” Tozet Beryl finally pointed out.
“No, this is vengeance at its basest form.”
“This is not just!”
“Vengeance has nothing to do with being just.” He replied callously before continuing.
“True to their word the Porei let the ones who did as they were told live, after bombarding everything that looked important as a matter of course. They were after all only interested in the Mizols and the Soians, the rest were inconsequential as long as they weren’t in their way. Unsurprisingly everyone in the local bubble and beyond quickly learned to fear and obey the Porei after their ravager fleets burst out of the Wastelands in droves. The most interesting of all were the Barsam who the Porei were more than prepared to exterminate in some very creative ways for the Soia puppets they were. The Barsam however had seen what was in store for them after witnessing what happened to those that merely slowed the Porei advance. They were terrified, especially after realizing that their masters wouldn’t arrive in time to save them. They proactively rounded up all the Mizol they could on their world and their neighboring systems and just offered them up as tribute to the Porei ravager fleet that arrived over their world. The Porei were of course surprised and amused at the sudden submissiveness of the Barsam and just bombarded them from orbit after taking care of the Mizols that were so easily given to them.”
“Cowards!” Stillstorm spat.
“Pragmatists.” The alien corrected her.
“They had no way of defending themselves from a ravager fleet. Their survival as a species is testament enough that they made the right decision.”
“Did this happen throughout the Soian domains?” Parat Tempo asked.
“In the local bubble and much of the rest of the Empire, the areas that weren’t hit by the ravage fleets collapsed into anarchy and recessed severely when the Soians themselves were wiped out.”
“The Soians let this happen unopposed?”
“The Soians were caught by complete surprise as they fully believed that the Porei threat had been contained and that it was only a matter of time before the Mizol, their favored creation, would secure the Dreadstar. The ravager offensive was very brief, extremely brutal and outright efficient in its purpose of violating everything that the Soians had created. By the time both the Mizol and the Soians realized the true extent of the attacks it was too late for the Mizol who still resided only in the local bubble.” The alien explained.
“What about the Soians? Didn’t they fight?” Stillstorm asked.
“They did fight; in fact the brutal savagery of the ravagers forced them into martial action for the first time in one hundred millennia. All sever Dreadstars were to gather and coalesce into a unified force in order to find, overwhelm and destroy the rogue Dreadstar, the problem laid with their peace time positioning. Four Dreadstars were spread out throughout the up arm territories, the other three down arm. This positioning, combined with the delaying actions of the ravager fleets would mean that the Porei would have freedom of movement at least for a few nanapis until that force became cohesive.” The alien replied.
“I wager that they weren’t allowed to gather their forces.” Stillstorm commented at that.
“The Porei tried their best and they had some success in doing that. The fact is that they had planned their ravager offensive in such a way to draw attention away from their Dreadstar, that was at the time of this initial attacks moving to intercept the three Dreadstars down arm.” The force took them again, away from the scene of butchery and back into space to witness a battle between two Dreadstars and their tending fleets. One of the Dreadstars was the scarred one they had seen before while the other one looked eerily pristine in comparison.
“Attacking the enemy before they gather their force is the only prudent course of action when outnumbered. Despite their inexperience the Porei easily grasped this basic martial tenant.”
“The Porei? Didn’t the human females lead them?” Tempo asked, making Stillstorm realize that he hadn’t mentioned or showed any contributions or actions of the human females in the fight against the Soians.
“No, understand that out females don’t have the natural grit and mindset required for fighting in such a scale. The few who did have what was needed had always been the product of harsh people and harsh times.” He replied.
“You can take pride that your ancestors were the force that brought down a major tech level 16 empire and they did so in less than a century from when the first of them drew breath.”
“Why are we here in the distance and not near the fighting?” Stillstorm asked as she observed the silent battle.
“It’s too dangerous.” Palan Fireblade replied out of turn.
“I can sense the battle raging even from this distance. The mental attacks from both sides are monstrous.”
“Indeed, perhaps if we had all of you reach the same level as Fireblade but as you are now it’s too dangerous for you, even with our precautions.” The alien warned.
“Although neither you or the Porei ever had the mental outlook necessary to launch combined mental attacks like human males do; the Porrei were more than a match for the Soians if only for their singly minded determination. For all their faults the Porrei were the apex of your kind in that regard, especially the firstborn sons and daughters. As she is now Pallan Fireblade rivals them and perhaps she will serve as the catalyst for your kind’s ascension.”
Suddenly the pristine Dreadstar seemed to implode for a single moment before it exploded violently, sending continent sized debris rushing out to the void with the gigantic shockwave that followed. The Porei Dreadstar and the fleets that still fought bore it without issue but it was obvious that the system they were in would be ruined once the shockwave and the debris run its course.
“What happened? It didn’t look like it had sustained any damage in the fighting.” Stillstorm asked.
“Porei boarders reached the main black hole generator and sabotaged it. The fail-safes activated the instant the black hole went out of control and collapsed it into a white hole which exploded like a mini super nova as the fail-safe intended.” He pointed at the victorious scarred Dreadstar that was now cruising in space while its tending fleet hunted down the remnants of the Soian fleet.
“A desperate yet effective tactic. The next time they employed it they were fighting two Dreadstars at the same time. They had managed to meet up and things looked dire. The boarders sent on one of them did manage to reach the black hole generator and managed to delay the fail-safe from triggering for a few moments. The other Dreadstar immediately jumped blind to avoid being caught in the event horizon of the black hole that was about to be formed. It was a misjump and the massive ship was caught in the space between dimensions as it was too big to fall into the underspace. It only managed to return to real space about ten millennia ago in a star system about one thousand and one hundred light tozons coreward from Deinar. It was mostly intact but the crew had long died. It was just waiting for someone to claim it and it was the root cause for the greatest and bloodiest war that we humans have fought amongst ourselves.”
“That’s how you reached your tech level?” Beryl asked.
“No, we had several factions with varying technological mastery before the war begun. The Old Worlds, the faction that I belonged to and I now represent in the Senate, had long since passed the fifteenth tech level and had Ascended, electing to isolate ourselves from the rest of our kin until they would do so as well. The ones who discovered the Dreadstar weren’t anywhere near to Ascend and they saw it as a divine gift. We were fools into not investigating the sudden advancement of that faction.” He explained before the force took them elsewhere. This time to witness an one sided fight between the scarred Dreadstar and four pristine ones. The scarred one was already surrounded by its opponent while a massive fleet was pursuing a smaller one some distance away.
“This is where the Soians met their end and where Vengeance was concluded.”
“They were caught and lost?” Stillstorm asked confused.
“Just observe, we are far from finished.”
It all looked hopeless, both the Dreadstar and its fleet were defeated and with no hope of escape that she could see. The Soians had won; there was no other way to describe it. Suddenly the smaller fleet that was pursued split into two parts, the larger one turned to face their pursuers while the smaller part continued its course towards the system’s edge. The pursuers turned and steadied their approach in order to meet the returning part head on while the fleeing fleet opened the distance. The two fleets brutally clashed with one another, the fight being the one sided slaughter she expected it to be. Once the last ship was destroyed the pursuers turned their attention to the remaining fleeing ships that just jumped away before they reached any safe or even sane jump position. What followed next happened too quickly to process. The scarred Dreadstar just imploded in a single solon and then… nothing. Total darkness just surrounded all of them.
“What happened?” Stillstorm asked.
“The Barsam were right!” Beryl broadcasted.
“The well of souls!”
“The black hole?”
“Yes, it all makes sense now. Their legends about it and the end of the Soians. They sacrificed the Dreadstar to create a black hole that caught the Soians within its event horizon!” Beryl explained.
“Indeed.” The alien confirmed.
“The Soians did manage to catch the Porei by surprise with their four remaining Dreadstars but in doing so they themselves were caught in the last ditch gambit that the Porei had prepared.” Everyone remained in their thoughts for a few Solons before Stillstorm decided to share hers.
“So this is the legend of Tempest? We are the bedein? Given birth by wronged aliens who sought vengeance against the Soians?” Stillstorm asked.
“Indeed. That’s the basic truth behind the legend of Tempest as you, a Tabenese Loroi knows it.” The alien replied.
“What you showed us… is important.” Stillstorm admitted, she somehow knew that all she witnessed was true. She couldn’t exactly pinpoint what made her realize this but she had to work with the assumption that all she saw was the truth. The way the Loroi would see themselves would change when this would inevitably become public knowledge, they weren’t the inheritors of the Soians; they were the ones who wiped them out!
It was a grave realization but it still didn’t alter the fact that Loroi were warriors; that much they always knew.
“Despite this importance however I fail to understand as to why this would convince me to aid you with your charade. I may be thankful towards you for showing me this but this doesn’t mean that I will work for you.”
“As I already told you Lashret Stillstorm, we are far from done with the Legend of Tempest.” The alien sent before the force took them again.
Chapter 5, Part 1:
http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 445#p28445