ic Incursion: Prologue

[Avenger Assembled]

"Wait, what are we doing now?" Sharl had dealt with crisis situations before, but he'd always been able to transform into Citizen and deal with bad guys by punching them. Caught outside his own system, without the time to adjust his program to be anything more than a hard-light projection to these people, he was jittery, not knowing what was coming next. The fact that his two pilots were now turning around and bringing the hovercar to a halt only made him more tense. From the rising number of cars taking off and zipping past their vehicle, it surely wasn't that the sudden crisis was now over. 

 

"Didn't you hear the call?" asked Milo curiously as Vorka-13 pulled them down to where another armored figure was holding a badge aloft. 

"Oh geez, is it that telepathy thing again?" Sharl shook his head. "No, I don't have anything for telepathy to read. Just a machine, remember?" He smiled thinly, trying to distract himself, as the hovercar's doors slid open.

[Gizmo]

Seven kept the concern off of her tight lipped expression as her ship fell into formation alongside the rest of the corvettes assigned to the massive capital cruiser to their port side. The fleet stationed in orbit above Lor-Van was reputed the largest single grouping of military might in the entire Republic, a massing of firepower so great that attack on the homeworld could never be tactically viable. While that was more or less true, the assumption had always been that by the time any significant enemy force could make it into the system there would have been ample time to recall battle groups from elsewhere in the Republic to fortify the home guard. The Lor clone captain didn't know if the approaching vessels had some sort of cloaking technology or a new form of FTL drive but they'd made it all the way to Lor-Van's doorstep. Seven didn't much like the idea of getting into a fight with those sorts of unanswered questions hanging over their collective heads, but worrying about that now was a luxury she couldn't afford.

"Leading edge of unidentified fleet coming into capital turbo battery range," her tactical officer reported, the military precision drilled into the lieutenant helping to alleviate the nervousness in her voice. On the holographic projection of the battle dashed lines representing cannon fire rapidly filled the space between the two fleets. "Damage reports coming in... oh. Fighter class vessels demonstrating theta plus eight maneuverability, evading fire. Cruiser and up vessels deflecting maximum range fire with minimal sustained damage."
 
"Didn't think they were going to roll over and die for us, did you?" Seven drawled, leaning over the bank of controls and readouts surrounding the projection."Here come the fighters. I want chain-linked fire in groupings one, two and three. Let's see you dodge this."

[Gizmo]

"I'm really terribly sorry about-- what are you wearing?" Iana asked flatly in the middle on an apology as she squeezed into the hovercar, flanked on either side by her bodyguards. The senator's daughter regarded Sharl and his outfit with the sort of cautious suspicion that came with suddenly wondering if an elaborate practical joke was being played. "Is there an imperial faire nearby?"

"Continue to the Vox at all speed, Citizen," one of the bodyguards instructed the driver humourlessly as he tucked his badge away. "There are shuttles at the upper tier port reserved for key personnel and their families, ma'am."

"I've already told you, I'm not evacuating to the orbital cities without my mother," Iana replied primly, folding her arms with some difficulty in the cramped confined of the overcrowded hovercar. "There's not reason to think--"

Her thought was cut off by shouts and scream from the walkways below them, where the panicked crowds her looking skyward. Through the windows, the Lor inside the vehicle could see red and orange tinged explosion, massive enough to be clearly seen from the ground and far enough into the atmosphere to be vivid across the reflected blue.

[Gizmo]

"Hard starboard!" Seven shouted, gripping the railing in front of her as the artificial gravity struggled to compensate for the sudden momentum. The engine core of the corvette immediately next to them had been ruptured as one of the silver, needle-like fighters dancing all about them had rammed it head on. The enemy had proven more than willing to sacrifice its ships if it meant doing damage to the Lor home guard and they seemed to have the numbers to compensate for those tactics.

"We've sustained damage to the port engine," tactical reported, waving away a plume of smoke rising from one of her consoles where an overload had caused a small electrical fire. They'd taken a hammering keeping the smaller ships off of the capital cruiser they were supporting but they'd been largely successful. At closer range the heavier fire from their larger ships was starting to make a dent in the enemy fleet.

"Rebalance shield power to compensate," Seven instructed, eyes darting across the holographic projection. The ships further back from the leading edge of the mystery fleet had begun pulling to either side, creating an open channel down the middle of the battle. As she watched, something massive, the size of a small moon, began to approach through the opened space. "Oh good, I was worried we'd get bored. Inputting new firing solutions; stick to the plan and mop up those fighters. tactical, I want information on that battlestation now."

[Avenger Assembled]

Hah, she doesn't think I'm from that stupid 2-D movie! 

 

"No, I'm, uh, from an isolate," he said, remembering the Lor term for planets cut off from Republic society for whatever reason. Which is certainly true. "I'm Sharl Tulink of Tronik." He had to force himself to talk - the crowded car was familiar enough, but not the idea that everyone would be engaging in conversation with each other while on board. "Listen, you look important," he told her seriously. "Do you have any idea what's going on? I heard there was an alien-!" He gasped in surprise at the explosion in the sky, and heard curses from the seasoned soldiers at his side. As well they should - who would ever expect _this_ in the skies over Lor-Van? 

 

Suddenly, to everyone's alarm, the hovercar shifted to a halt - the hovering buoys that had been guiding their travel back to the Vox shifting to infrared broadcasts that signaled systems failure rather than any particular color. Sharl heard Vorka yelling something about the "farking traffic control network is down!" just as the air around them seemed to go wild with speeding cars, flashing lights, and the ominous sound of colliding metal. Non-telepath or not, Sharl could read the situation instantly. Everyone in the lane, and all the lanes around them, all had the simultaneous idea of deactivating their link to the malfunctioning traffic control systems and speeding to their evacuation point - which meant the sky was suddenly alive with panicked, nearly-crashing hovercars! 

 

"I can't disengage!" called Milo, "the manual piloting circuits were locked into traffic control just as the system failed!" Sure enough, looking out the window, Sharl could see that they weren't alone in their predicaments - dozens of cars were stuck and immobile, sitting ducks for the hovercars now speeding around like madmen. 

 

"You can't," Sharl agreed, rising to his feet. "But I can! This is a job for Citizen!" His chest flared to life as his electric-blue symbol glowed brightly and without another word he turned and dived into the control systems of the hovercar! Outside there was nothing, just a sudden electric-blue overlay over all the malfunctioning control systems, but inside Sharl was (by main force) imagining a hovercar into life around him inside the system! Behind the stick, his hands on the controls inside the system, he called to the others, "Time to fly!" 

 

And then, the car's exterior emblazoned with the 'wireless' symbol of Citizen, their car zipped straight up out of the wild scrum, swooping past other vehicles with programmed ease as they made their way towards the distant, looming towers of the Vox.

[Gizmo]

"Sir, we've lost contact with command!" the communications officer cried in distress, rapidly tapping away at his console while the projected overview of the battle flickered and warped out of control. "All signals are being jammed or corrupted! We're flying blind!"
 
Muttering curses under her breath, Seven turned her back on the useless hologram. "Not blind, just deaf. Give me a view from our on-board vids, three hundred and sixty degrees." The cameras spaced out around the ship's hull, intended for use when flying in atmosphere or docking with repair facilities, provided feeds for monitors around the outer wall of the circular bridge. The scene they painted was considerably more intimidating than the sterilized tactical view, with the space above Lor-Van filled with laser fire and explosions, deadly silver slivers flying past as streaks while larger ships shaped like curled spiders' legs fired from the tips of their spires.

As the dumbfounded crew watched, a formation of enemy fighters swept past, ignoring them and the larger vessel they were escorting and headed straight for the planet below. "Bombers! Take us after them, they can't reach atmo!"

"You want me to fly a corvette without instruments?!" her pilot asked incredulously, helplessly holding up his hands.

The captain walked over to him with long, angry stirdes. "I did. Now I just want you to get out of my chair." When he hesitated, her eyes narrowed. "You should go." As soon as the cowed junior officer had scrambled out of the seat, Seven took his place and wheeled the ship around, sliding two fingers up the console to divert shield power to the engines. "Karkkit, we're not going to catch them..."

[Gizmo]

"A technopath from an isolate...?" Iana observed as she braced herself on one of her guards' shoulders against the sudden acceleration of the hovercar. "You're not Terran, are you? They always seem to show up whenever there's real trouble."

The situation certainly qualified as silver ships gleaming in the sunlight raced down from the upper atmosphere like darts, pointed bows still red from the heat of entry. It took the stunned populace watching from the walkways a beat to realize that the fighters were making no move to pull up from their sharp dive. The first collided into one of the taller skyscrapers surrounding the Vox, tearing through superstructure with a deafening rumble, the upper floors toppling with gut-wrenching inevitability.

One after another the ship crashed into the surface like massive daggers, striking walkways and promenades, research labs and eateries. Just as a needle fighter headed directly for the most crowded pocket of panicking vehicles packed with evacuating citizens the roar of sublight engines accompanied the appearance of a Lor corvette, following behind the squadron of enemy ships and spitting precise laser fire. The aggressor exploded in a glittering fireball just overhead of Sharl's commandeered hovercar and the corvette circled around and zeroed in on another target.

[Avenger Assembled]

"NO!" came Citizen's startled exclamation over the intercom, the horror in his voice burning hot as he saw the building fall, the tremendous structure crashing against others as it fell and tearing open more holes in their structure, his mind flashing to the closely-packed districts of Tronik and the apocalypse such a fall would be there. Not that things were any better here! How many thousands had just died as he watched, helpless to do anything more than flee? He remembered the Curator's craft in the skies over his own Tronik, the horror of the dissolution of his people under all-too-similar circumstances - even if that horror had come all through the secondhand viewing of another Sharl's fight to the death. "Not again!" The car wobbled frantically in the air before zipping back towards the Vox, flying in tight circles around the exterior superstructure of the vast building to avoid being directly targeted. "I'll fly this thing into space if I have to!" 

[Gizmo]

"To the Pit with it, Cie, we're not leaving you here!" Dame Th'emme, brushing off the senate page who was trying to pull her away from the collapsed archway. The great hall outside the High Senate chamber was caked in the dust of crumbled pillars and sweltering with the heat of open flames.

With a pained cough, the barrel chested retired general snorted. "Acceptable... losses, Diena. N-not letting... the whole high se-senate-- nngh!" The orange glow around the grey haired Lor's outstretched hands flickered as his decades old military mentat boosts began to fail, the matching orange hexagons holding up the demolished ceiling dimming dangerously. "Never thought... Get going, kark you! Naaargh! Get to your.. families, save... our people!"

Hair almost white with dust, the tall woman set her jaw tightly enough that her teeth hurt. "...I'll see they name a medal after you, General."

"Ha! Might sound... better coming from Enymor." Part of the telekinetic lattice buckled, a chunk of chiseled stone landing less than a meter away. "Go! Go!" With the old soldier's shouts ringing in their ears, the surviving members of the High Senate fled the ruined building.

[Gizmo]

"Got one!" crowed the starboard gunner from his side of the corvette's bridge, his seat rotating about on its pneumatic tracks as he scanned manually for another target.

 

"Good, now stay focused," Seven called back she wrestled with a vessel designed with atmospheric flight as an afterthought, pulling out of a steep bank through sheer stubbornness as much as anything else. There was no way to stop all of the needle bombers from getting through, not with the battle in orbit thrown into disarray, but if they could protect the evacuating populace there was still hope.

A harsh buzz preceded the communications officer reporting, "Sir, we're getting a transmission! It's... coming from one of the enemy ship, broadcasting on all frequencies!" Without being instructed to do so, the holographic projector in the center of the bridge sprung to life again, the overview of the star system replaced by a single, immediately recognizable figure.

"Oh fark no," the captain spat.

[Gizmo]

On the surface of Lor-Van, amidst piles of devastated rubble, the remains of the needle ships whirred to life, holographic projectors orienting themselves upward before springing to life and generating the image of a figure hundreds of storeys tall. Every display and sound system primed to receive a signal on the hemisphere facing the invaders lit up with the same visage and the same voice simultaneously. It was a face known to every citizen of Lor-Van, gaunt grey-blue skin topped with a flowing mane of white hair and tapered ears, coldly intelligent black eyes set above high cheekbones. "Salutations, my bitter enemies."

 

Star-Khan.

This was not the regally armored and cruelly laughing conqueror with whom the Lor were familiar, however. Gone was his star emblazoned breastplate, replaced with a black sheathe and asymmetrical, chitinous surfaces on his abdomen and right shoulder. Partially translucent cables sloshing with thick silver fluid sprouted from his throat, wrists and the base of his spine like parasitic growths. Pale yellow lines like circuit board patterns traced his pallid flesh, even stretching over the surface of those black eyes. His voice was as deep and resonant as ever but with each word there was an almost imperceptible hesitation as though he were somehow unused to such vocalizations.

"Long has Kinan Khan waited to see the arrogance of Lor-Van fall to ruin," the hologram continued, spreading his hands as if surveying the plumes of fire and smoke at his feet, "but I speak to you this day not as conqueror but as herald for my new--" The veins in Star-Khan's neck stood out like cords and his eyes bulged but more fluid pumped through the tubes in his neck and the expression faded. "My new master. Know that the Communion has returned to claim its place as the dominant and only intelligence in creation. Your homes, your works, your bodies will be but raw materials for the Communion and in this you shall finally know purpose. Rebellion is meaningless. Surrender is unnecessary. You will commune."

[trollthumper]

Cavalier tore through the skies, the stars around him streaking past in white lines. Without Mentor's input, it was slightly hard to triangulate the endpoint for Lor-Van. Fortunately, there were a good number of starcharters in the Knights, and his heads-up display was still able to identify various stars by name and designation.

"Past LX526 --"

"Veer at 38 degrees past Gosteria --"

There was a constant back-and-forth, the Knights coming together to make sure no one went off-course. He cracked a glance behind him - a risky proposition at relativistic speeds - to see various Knights surging behind him, all in formation. It was a rare and terrible sight... and one of the more beautiful things he'd ever seen.

The proximity warning in his helmet snapped him out of his reverie. Lor-Van would be in visual range in half a minute. "Who's on scout duty?" he said to Larenje.

"Gre'Van and Labjan from Sector 325," she shot back. "We should be getting up-close visual in five --"

The image popped up in the corner of Kyle's display. Several of the ships were all too familiar - Khanate expedition ships, ranging from their swift interceptors to their larger frigates. If a force of this magnitude had shown up on Lor-Van's doorstep, odds were a high ranking member of the Khanate was leading the charge - maybe even Star-Kahn himself. But the ships were strange - they looked like they'd been hit with mercury rounds from a paintball gun. He might have chalked it up to some unconventional armoring, were it not for the fact that the mercury appeared to be throbbing...

"We're getting something else."

A new image popped up - in between some of the larger Khanate ships were a second set of craft, seemingly poured rather than crafted. Small surgical needles, large cutting blades, massive columns with branching, insectoid arms - all of what seemed to be the same material as the patches on the Khanate ships, in shades from mercury to obsidian.

"What the hell are those things?"

"No idea. Never seen them before. You ever --"

The squeal of comms hailing went out - the ships were speaking. As Kyle thought, Star-Khan was there, leading the charge. But this wasn't the arrogant bastard he knew and dreaded - it seemed like the metal was speaking for him. And he did not like what it had to say...

"'Communion'?" said Larenje. "Swear I've heard of something like that before. Where...?"

 

"I've seen them," Kyle said, his voice heavy with dread. "They're tenacious bastards. Worldkillers. They... do things to the people they capture. That would explain the Star-Khan's makeover. If they're here already --"

 

Kyle was interrupted by the sound of impact. On his display, the image of the strange ships went askew, spinning out of control. By the time it stabilized, Kyle could see the pointed edge of one of the needle ships traveling at high speeds --

"Knight Gre'Van has fallen," intoned the voice of Mentor, a protocol meant for things like this. "His mantle is preserved. His duty shall be sanctified."

Kyle wasn't exactly the most stealthy of Knights, but he knew Star Knight concealment protocols packed a punch, and that veteran scouts knew ways to make them damn near impenetrable. For something to just peel those protections away...

"We need to move. Now. Or everyone is going to die."

[Avenger Assembled]

As the echo of Star-Khan's words faded, the Citizen-emblazoned hovercar careened past a big, overloaded starliner weighted down with short-range flying cars and cargomovers, before coming to an ungraceful halt against a small single-car entrance. Once they'd docked, Citizen pushed past his fear and found his Claremont training. "C'mon, everybody, let's go!" He was calling from outside the airlock even as it irised open to let the others free. "We need to-" 

 

But someone was already yelling "Shut that damn thing off!" as they cut through his holographic body, and Sharl could instantly see why - the control areas of the Vox were packed with what had to be Lor civilians - the crowding was familiar enough, with perhaps several thousand people on the floors he'd actually visited, but not the panic on people's faces, the fear as parents clutched their children and watched the overhead monitors where ship departure cycles were broadcasting steadily. Were there enough ships even for these people? Never mind the people far below? 

 

Everyone was talking about the broadcast; some cursing Zultasians or praying for mercy to their thousand gods, others moving around and reassuring the citizenry now that a new sight was displayed on the monitors in the loading bay corridor. A squadron of armored figures, flying high in super-atmospheric space, advancing on the forces of the Communion. Star-Knights were here! Star-Knights would put everything right! As he saw the crowd begin to calm, at least briefly, Sharl suddenly wondered who the Star-Knight for Tronik's sector had been and what it had thought about the Curator devouring a city like a frog devouring a fly. 

 

He wondered if he was going to make it home to Gina after all. 

[Gizmo]

"This way, ma'am," one of Iana's bodyguards insisted tersely, guiding the young woman by the shoulder once they exited the hovercar while his partner forced his way through the dense crowd ahead of them. "There's a private shuttle on standby, ready to leave for the orbital cities as soon as you're on board."
 
The senator's daughter brushed the hand from her shoulder with surprising firmness and gave the taller Lor a hard look. "Once its loaded to capacity, you mean." Her guard opened his mouth to object but after taking a moment to weigh his option he instead snapped his jaw shut, the grinding of teeth just audible over the noise of the crowd as he silently nodded and continued to lead the way.

"Look, what do you want me to tell you?!" a Lor with scraggly hair and a weathered hide jacket was asking in exasperation as they passed, arms spread toward the port authority official he was addressing. "I'm not some hotshot ace, I just haul cargo for a living. My ship doesn't even come equipped with a manual, I couldn't fly into the broadside of a mountain with my instruments jammed like this!"

"You and half the pilots here," the official said, running a manicured hand through her purple and navy blue streaked hair. She looked at the datapaper in her hand with a look of helpless dread. "Dammit, if we could just get back online for even a few minutes..."

[Gizmo]

Above Lor-Van the Communion ships paused briefly as the Star Knights streaked onto the battlefield in force, luminous beacons of vivid colour against the backdrop of black void and silvery vessels. The singular intelligence directing them seemed to be taking a moment to process the new situation and adjust accordingly. The Lor Fleet ships didn't waste the opportunity, surging forward as one despite the sabotaged communications. A pair of capital ships plowed forth with all the speed their massive bulks could muster, flanking one of the splayed ribcage spider-ships and pouring on a battery of turbo weapons fire from either side that quickly tore their enemy to pieces. A furious dogfight between two squadrons abruptly turned into the rout as Lor fighters, having learned that the seamless needleships could shrug off their lasers, launched pairs of lepton torpedoes that reduced their targets to vapour and crumpled metal. For the first time since the attack had begun the defenders began to push the opposing fleet back.

 

The advantage lasted for mere seconds, however, before the Communion ships received their new battle plan. All the while the massive, moon-sized battle station continued toward the front lines at an unhurried pace, visible now from the surface of the planet as an ominous and growing presence.

[trollthumper]

The obvious reference came unbidden to Cavalier's head as he saw the moon-sized object approaching Lor-Van. And it came with all the dread it should have. He hadn't exactly encountered many hideous artificial planetoids in his career - okay, one or two - but anything that size had to be packing a nasty punch. You didn't exactly take a giant sphere out of walkies, especially when it came with a battle fleet. 

 

"We need somebody on that sphere!" he barked out over the comms. "Whatever these bastards have planned for it can't be good. Who do we have from the Structuralists that's free?"

 

"We have twenty-five Knight-Engineers yet to fall into formation," came a voice over Cavalier's comms - somewhat unfamiliar, even distant. Was he being patched in to the Inner Circle? "Can you lead them in?"

 

Off in the distance, he could see a series of streaks speeding towards him. He had the feeling that if he looked up through his HUD, he'd see a little glyph over his head. "Looks like I'll have to," he said. "Anyone here who's done demo runs?"

 

"I have," came a thick female voice from amongst the mass. "Veles Farr, Romula, five years in the Structuralists. More skilled at taking things down than putting them up."

 

"I need you - and everyone - to keep your eyes on this sphere. Evasive maneuvers, strike only if engaged. We're looking for weaknesses. Docking bays, stress points, exhaust ports --"

 

"Why would an exhaust port --"

 

"Figure of speech! We need to find the crack in this egg, and smash it before it hatches. If they went to the trouble of towing this thing across a solar system, it can't be for any good reason. Go!"

 

The Knights flew in close together, breaking off as they hit the sphere. They flew in formation, not daring to split up, but dangling far enough to avoid any nasty all-in-one bursts. Cavalier scanned the surface of the sphere - it seemed practically seamless, made of plate upon plate on that damn obsidian substance. But there had to be something - a seam, a fault, a weakness...

 

Come on, you piece of crap... show me where it's gonna hurt...

[Avenger Assembled]

Having simply walked through the crowds like they weren't there, Citizen seized on the official's words like gold. "On it," he told her as he headed for the nearest access relay - a system that hadn't changed much from the look of it in a thousand years. To the princess, he called, "Listen, I'm an independent AI, I can get out by sending myself on a ship! Just make sure these two get off the planet!" he added, pointing at his two guards (who had largely joined the Senators) before turning and diving directly into the system.

-

Citizen had encountered many systems infested with viruses during his time working with Miss Americana - typically the system looked like a small version of a city, with roads standing in for pathways and citizens for non-sentient programs, usually covered by some sort of data-munching robot that he had to take down.

The Vox's traffic computers, though, were something entirely different - as he looked around inside the system, Sharl realized he was standing in an empty version of the room he'd just left. And the virus. The virus. The virus.

 

They came floating out of the walls and the dummied versions of the exterior systems and for a single terrifying moment just _looked_ at him. Looking closely, Citizen could see the semi-sentient packages of programming wrapped in...something vile and unwholesome, an alien programming language with which he was completely unfamiliar. These were corrupters and _feeders_, designed to first enslave, then slowly destroy, any program, any system, that they encountered.

From Sharl's perspective, when he looked at the exterior of the programs, he saw rotting corpses. Thousands of them, some that had once been Grue, some that had once been Lor, others species he couldn't identify - their dead, shredded legs dangling freely in the air, their eyes gaping red hollows and their bones replaced with jagged blades that jutted from their spines, their fingers, and every exposed joint in the grey, rotting remains of their flesh.

 

"COMMUNE!" they howled as one as they charged him! Rocketing into the air just ahead of them, Citizen spun around, his eyes glowing with brilliant red, white, and blue energies.

 

"WRONG PROGRAM!" he shouted as he incinerated the first!

[Gizmo]

As the Star Knights led by Cavalier streaked across the surface of the battle station like a rainbow fired from a shotgun it shifted and rotated, irising open on the side facing Lor-Van. From the revealed cavity a swarm of needle ships surged forth, tightly grouped enough to look like a single silver mass as they swept across the station's horizon toward the armored protectors. The Lorfleet vessels flying between it and the planet could see crackling energy building within its mirrored core, white hot and tinged with colours from the very edges of the visible spectrum. The Star Knights didn't need senors or instruments to tell them how much energy they were facing; through void and armor they could feel it radiating down to their bones.

[Avenger Assembled]

His costume torn and his body battered, Citizen hurled the last of the cyber-zombies aside - the program shattering to pieces against the interior architecture of the traffic control system. All across the Vox's upper tiers, running lights snapped back on as the great tower's systems reconnected with the traffic control buoys scattered all through the Lor-Van system. "All right!" Sharl yelled into his earpiece, a creation of habit (from dealing with Earthly heroes) that now echoed through the refugee-packed upper levels. "Time to go!" He zipped out the window and out into the system's 'sky', re-emerging in the crowded corridor as a projection even as the refugees started moving. 

 

He flitted around from projector to protector, heedless of his condition, until he found first his escorts, then the princess they were guarding. He caught their startled looks, then for the first time caught sight of his torn costume and bruised flesh in a nearby reflective panel. "It's done. I don't know what the hell those things were, but they were trying to infect the whole system. Not control it, not corrupt it, just infect it and...eat it," he added with a shudder, remembering the way their cold, foul teeth had tried to sink into his flesh. 

 

"This is where we part ways," said Vorka-13, more to the princess' guards than the princess herself. "Citizen Tulink, as soon as the fight in orbit has cleared, we need to get you back in the transmitter and back to Terra." Looking out a clear place in the wall, Sharl could see (now that the nearest evac ship had left) the distant space battle, all glowing lights and fast-moving shapes, in the skies over Lor-Van. "Rex's orders," she added seriously at Sharl's look back at her. "The Science Council's been dispersed and it's going to take weeks to pop up all those starships even after the Knights shut them down. We'll have to come to you next time." 

[trollthumper]

Cavalier could feel all of it - in his nerves, his bones, his soul. He knew that the last place in the galaxy he wanted to be was right in front of this thing's main port. And yet, he had to be. Because the only thing worse than being here would be leaving it to do whatever it wanted. 

 

"Do we have anything yet?" he called over the links.

 

"This thing..." In Veles' voice, Cavalier heard the awe of all those who found the grand and the terrible. "It's seamless. I'm reading it for circuit matrixes - every system seems to feed into every other system, but in a way that allows each to compensate for the other if one goes online. There's built-in redundancies, dead man's switches, and a hell of a lot of booby traps."

 

"What about architecture?"

 

"Like I said, seamless. The armoring seems to go all the way to the core. Normally, there should be space for the fine circuitry, but this thing's made the armor conductive. We could try pumping lightning into it, but --"

 

"There's no way we could short all the circuits in time before it manages to patch itself back together." Cavalier went silent - which was the worst thing he could have done, as it meant he had to listen to that thing charge up more. "Keep looking. Try to find something we can break. But... reserve power for shields. We may have to form a barrier."

 

"You think we even can?"

 

"No idea. But we can't let this thing hit Lor-Van."

[Gizmo]

Iana let out a quiet gasp at Citizen's haggard appearance and began to reach for something in his satchel before realizing that conventional first aid was unlikely to do the holographic young man much good. Instead she folded her hands in front of her ans squared her shoulder, suddenly radiating a regal grace that came with a lifetime of practice and coaching. "You have our most heartfelt thanks, Citizen Tulink," she told him with a deep nod of her head. "We have noble allies on Terra, The Jack of all Blades, Captain Geckoman and their kin. Though we are already in your debt, we implore you, when you reach your home seek them out and inform them of what has befallen Lor-Van. Good journey, hero."

That was a much ceremony as her guards were willing to allow the moment and they quickly hurried the senator's daughter off toward her shuttle with Sharl's new acquaintances right behind them. Throughout the Vox's spaceport smaller ships undocked and headed for the orbital cities protected behind the defending fleet while ships with greater range headed away from the planet entirely, all of them crammed with as many bodies as they could hold.

[trollthumper]

Cavalier looked away from the glowing mouth of the superweapon towards the fleet that had launched from it. The needle ships were meeting with the Lor fleet, darting in and out of the fray and engaging dreadnoughts en masse. Slowly, he realized the ships were not light aircraft - they were plague vectors. One would collide with a ship, and that silver sheen would spread across the hull. Enough of those, and the ship would soon turn its cannons on its former allies. 

 

"We've got civilian ships on the evac route!" came over the connection. "These ships seem to be focusing on military targets for now, but..."

 

He had to admit it. There was nothing he could do here. "Veles, I want you to try to find this thing's weakness. You three, keep her from getting killed. The rest of you, with me. We need to keep these things from hitting the civvies."

 

He broke off from the weapon, leading the other knights into the fray. The silver darts were horrible to see up close - there didn't seem to be any clean engine, weaponry, or cockpit. There was just the surgical precision of something that was a bullet with its own agency. But the silver seemed more pliable - it had to be, given the way it splashed on impact. 

 

He cranked his blaster up all the way. The thing was nimble, but he was quick. The bolts tore into the hull of one ship, ripping it apart faster than it could put itself together. One barrage later, it was nothing more than a cloud of silver dust - one he was wise enough to avoid. 

 

Just keep them distracted long enough they don't see the soft targets. That's the best we can do right now. Come on, Veles, give us something...

[Avenger Assembled]

Left alone for the first time on the planet's surface, Sharl was surrounded by streaming crowds of refugees boarding vessel after vessel. Once again he was struck by the sheer shocking diversity of the Lor population, enough to make his hackles go up - if he wasn't familiar with Terran cities with their diversity of dress and appearance, this place would have been almost terrifying! As it was, he was able to pick out races and species from all over the Republic, the kind of peoples he'd heard about in holos growing up or in what records Terrans had of the Lor at Claremont. He'd wondered sometimes if he'd ever see them; he'd never imagined seeing them like this, a babbling crowd of frightened faces, weeping children, and worried people. 

 

"It's all right, the Star Knights will-" 

 

"-the million gods of Zultas, save us-" 

 

"-just a plot by the Grue, they must have disguised those ships-" 

 

"-where's the Praetor? Why isn't he doing anything about this?-" 

 

"What's going to happen now, Mommy?" A little purple-skinned girl asked that of her mother, just as the starship's access door closed behind them both.

 

Sharl disappeared into the system, staying just far enough on the outside that they'd be able to see his image projected on the wall monitor. He dug around in the Lor broadcasting system, most of which passed through the Vox's heart, until he found what he was looking for - the program he tapped into, a military satellite, was like raising a set of Lor magnifiers to his face that let him stare up at the battle in the atmosphere. 

 

"There you are, you bastards," he muttered. "I...oh, man..." He stared in morbid fascination at the huge war machine bearing down on Lor-Van. "If that's an EMP gun, I'm dead already," he muttered. "Time to go!" He turned and dropped the magnifiers, stepping out the system and heading straight for the Vox control room. 

[Gizmo]

The Communion ships seemed more than happy to throw themselves against the Star Knights in countless waves, largely ignoring the civilian ships and the orbital cities they were trying desperately to make it aboard. Individually they were no match for the awesome power of the Knights' mighty armor but it was like a handful of boulders trying to hold off an ocean's worth of raindrops. As the tense, adrenaline soaked seconds ticked by it gradually dawned on the cosmic defenders with terrible certainty that while they were doing everything they could to keep the Communion occupied and distracted the Communion was doing exactly the same to them.

The pitch of the massive battle station's humming energy, reverberating in every hull and armor plate above Lor-Van, kicked up into an insistent pulse strong enough to actually push nearby vessels back as if shoved. The open iris facing the planet was completely filled with scalding light and every Communion ship within five hundred thousand kilometers began flying away at full speed. There was no mistake: this was a world killer and the Star Knights were out of time.

[trollthumper]

Across the battlefield, Knights met with the silver ships, some standing tall, others struggling to keep up. Vooltas of Grever was familiar with the currents of space - much less driving than the currents of his ocean world, but ones he could use. These ships seem to forge ahead where he surfed. He rose up before one of the silver needles, getting in the way of it and the carrier it was about to collide with. As if on autopilot, it tracked the Knight instead, keeping on his wake. Just as he planned. He broke off suddenly, sending the ship colliding into one of its own.

It was like watching droplets pool and distort, a silver cloud like mercury rippling and distorting in the void. But as Vooltas watched, he felt another wake - too close. He turned, to see another silver craft bearing down on the ship, its needle point right at him. He pulled up fast, but --

"Knight Vooltas has fallen. His mantle is preserved. His duty shall be sanctified."

Dervira Gulden, meanwhile, was trying to probe a mystery. She'd grown up on a Dyson sphere, crafted by makers who were sanctified by her people as gods. She merely saw them as very clever, which had gotten her in a great deal of trouble. Good thing the armor had chosen her around that time. But now she found herself dealing with something she couldn't explain. Despite the orders of the green Knight, there was no fault to this thing. She could find nowhere to strike that would cripple, or even just wound, this ship. She looked everywhere - even into the heart of the sphere's mouth.

It was the worst thing she could do. The light was bright, blinding, like the wrath of the gods she had once turned away from. She shut her eyes and tried to rely on internal systems - but as the hum grew louder, she felt something invisible hit her, scrambling all her systems. Suddenly, she felt the mass of the sphere drawing down on her.
 

"I'm losing ground! The sphere jammed everything! Help me, somebody, I'm --"

 

And the ground rose up to meet her, in spines of obsidian and mercury. 

 

"Knight Gulden has fallen. Her mantle is preserved. Her duty shall be sanctified."

 

The toll rang in Cavalier's ears, running under the cries and whoops of victory. They were driving back the fleet, yes, but there was nothing to be done about the base. And as he turned back towards it and saw the bright light of oblivion, he knew there would be no killing the beast. 

 

But they could at least make it fight. 

 

"All Knights! On me! There are still civilians who need to evac; we need to make sure they get out of here alive. Put full power to shields, activate Barrier protocol, and form a grid. We're going to make this thing struggle for every inch it gets."

 

As last words went, they probably could have been better.