System Supervillain, Chapter 146

Chapter 146 – First Blood

(Command Nest, Gel-nak Imperial Navy Ship Threefold Destruction of the Unworthy, Srusk System, Gel-Nak Empire)

Ship High Commander Arlushk was less than pleased. Ever since the invasion of Earth, things had been going wrong. The loss of the fleet and the stalemate at the invasion points had been bad enough, especially with the existence of the Uprising Controls being spread throughout the Empire. Xarthun and Thraxl both suffered disaster, the first from a fusion plant detonation on Earth, and the second from an atomic weapon, on top of a global weather realignment plunging the world into an ice age, and, as a rithik on top, the Emperor being assassinated with his severed head shown to the entire empire!

Still, that much would have been survivable. It would have been bad, certainly, but one of the Royal Heirs would have become Emperor, undergoing the Rite of Perfection to raise them from the Leader caste. They would have been able to unify the empire and direct their vengeance upon Earth. Unfortunately, that was not to be.

Emperor Throhi had been acclaimed as the Tamer of the Kez Sisterhood. It had been one of his early glories during the first years of his reign. He had taken a full legion and assaulted their Temple of the Old Gods on Gel-Neth, slaying many and taking the survivors as his concubines and breeders. Unfortunately, the idea that the Sisterhood had been ‘tamed’ was, it seemed, a falsehood.

The Sisterhood had not been tamed, it seemed. Instead, they lay in wait, sharpening their knives and brewing their venom, until the time was right. The news of the Emperor’s death had barely spread to the homeworld when they struck, killing their own children without hesitation, ensuring that the Royal Line was shattered forever.

Without the Royal Line, it was impossible to conduct the Rite of Perfection, as the genetic templates in the infusion that would transform a Leader to the Emperor were genelocked to the Royal Line, which possessed genetic markers that had been purposefully excluded from all other Gel-Nak lines. With no Rite of Perfection, there could be no Emperor. With no Emperor, the Empire was falling apart. Already, System Leaders or Fleet High Commanders were claiming lordship. Some Planet Leaders, as well! The unity of the Empire had been completely shattered.

The Srusk system was not immune to these problems, of course. Srusk 3 was one of the core worlds of the Empire, but aside from the muster point for the Invasion Force, the world was primarily agricultural. The frozen wasteland of Srusk 4 had the yidra mines and the thora quarries, along with the training grounds for the 173rd Planetary Assault Legion, but it relied wholly upon Srusk 3 for its food. The mining colonies on Srusk 2 and in the asteroid fields around Srusk 5 were the same.

However, even with the yidra and thora, the system was the backwater of the core worlds. There was no heavy industry here, no shipyards or arms factories. Which put the Srusk Defense Fleet in a bad position, as any replacement parts were going to be hard to come by. And they needed replacement parts badly, with the sudden and pressing need to try and get rid of the Uprising Controls.

Unfortunately, all he could do was follow the lead of Fleet High Commander Drisz as he tried to keep the system together. At least they had plenty of food. It was the only bright point of the whole thing. The attempts by the Slavetenders to adjust and control the captured humans were going ‘poorly’, to say the least.

The standard pacification and ordering methods would not work on the humans, apparently, and so new methods needed to be drawn up from first origins. Worse, the human slaves had not submitted or given up once captured, as they should have. They resisted any attempts to control them, and the one time the Slavetenders attempted to use population reduction procedures on them, the riot took a full month to put down, and left the medical research wing of the complex a burnt-out wreck. Computers, machines, equipment, and supplies all destroyed, to say nothing of the deaths of the specialist Worker caste that operated the facility. And they couldn’t get replacements, because the Empire was in crisis, meaning the humans were still being kept in pens, a drain on their resources.

At least the riot had brought down their numbers somewhat. Of the ten million taken, roughly half that number had been culled before the Warriors could quell the riot. That, in and of itself, was not a problem, since it reduced the number of mouths to feed as they found a way to order the slaves. The problem, though, was that most of the dead were males of breeding age.

Ordering a new species was not an easy thing. Especially when their base genetic coding was as varied as the human genome was. If the normal methods of ordering the species were not available, then the Slavetenders would be forced to use the old ways, breeding the slaves for compliance. But that was a messy way of going about it. They would need all the genetic diversity they could get in order to isolate genes for compliance without creating deformities or mutations and other genetic weaknesses. They could not afford too many more dead males.

Still, that wasn’t his problem. He was simply Ship High Commander for the Threefold Destruction of the Unworthy, the lone battleship in the Srusk Defense Fleet. There were two cruisers, six destroyers, thirty patrol craft, and two hundred fighters on the Orbital Station Authority of Order, where Fleet High Commander Drisz nominally ran the defense of the system. In practice, there wasn’t anything to defend against. They were well inside the Empire’s borders, and pirates typically preferred more lucrative goods than foodstuffs or raw materials. Not that they would turn up their nose at capturing a freighter full of food, if they found it unguarded, of course. Even pirates had to eat.

The point remained, however, that the system was ordered, and peaceful, despite the turmoil in the Empire. Other systems were in the midst of civil war, perhaps, but Srusk was not involved, as of yet. Part of that was the Fleet High Commander’s own scheming, trying to ensure that he wound up in the faction of the winning side, yes, but a far larger part was that Srusk was not worth the risk of forcing them to pick a side.

The equation was simple. If the fields burned or the mines shut down, then a good portion of the Empire’s worlds would go hungry, and their factories would cease production. While a backwater, Srusk was too important to the logistics of the Empire to be ignored completely. If Srusk picked a side, then the other sides would be forced to either capitulate, or strike to eliminate their rival’s advantage, which would make things even worse. If left out of the fighting, then no one would be forced to make that desperate play, and the Empire would recover more quickly than if Srusk burned.

Arlushk’s musings were interrupted by an alert coming from the sensor station. Turning to look at the Worker caste specialist who was at the console, he called out with authority, “Report!”

“Ship High Commander, we have detected the signs of a warp bubble dissipation in the outer system. Not on any of the standard exit points. No transponder data. Sensors are not detecting any ships.”

The specialist’s voice was clipped, a sign of nervousness. Not surprising, given the news. There were only two types of ships that would exit warp in a nonstandard approach vector, without a transponder signal and while under stealth. The first was pirates, but any pirate would be a fool to try and attack the few freighters moving through the system while the Srusk Defense Fleet was watching over traffic so closely. They would only have minutes, at most, to strike before ships arrived to drive them off, and that was far too short a time for a raid. Not worth the risk.

Which left the other possibility. Invasion. Arlushk did not know whether it was one of the feuding would-be Emperors, or some outside force. But it was clear to him that someone had invaded the Srusk system, which meant that his day had just gotten a whole lot more ‘interesting’.

Of course, there was always the possibility that the readings had been wrong. That they were dealing with a sensor ghost, or random fluctuations in the background radiation. But Arlushk did not believe that to be true.

“Signaler! Contact the Fleet High Commander on the Authority of Order, and inform him of the situation. Raise shields, and ready weapons. If this sensor reading turns out to be nothing, we will call it a readiness drill.”

“As you command, Ship High Commander,” the Signaler responded, as the rest of the Command Nest burst into the controlled frenzy of activity that always came with preparing for battle. Slower than he would have liked. His people had lost their edge with it being so long since there was an actual call to arms. Even if the sensor readings turned out to be nothing, this ‘drill’ would be worthwhile.

“Sensors, which ship is closest to our mystery vessel?”

“Patrol Craft 23, Ship High Commander. They are already moving to investigate.”

Arlushk nodded approvingly. Standard orders for patrol craft was to investigate any unusual activity in the system, so there was no need to wait on orders from the Fleet High Commander. The patrol craft was a small vessel, with a crew of six worker caste with a Warrior caste leading them, but their small size made them easy to maneuver and fast. If there was a foe out there, then the patrol craft should be able to outmaneuver them long enough for the Fleet High Commander to order in reinforcements.

“Keep a watch on the patrol craft, Sensors. If they are attacked, I want to know by whom, and what weapons they are using.”

“As you command, Ship High Commander.”

Ship High Commander Arlushk had been expecting an attack, so he was not surprised when the first attack came. The type of attack, however, was… unexpected. White light filled the air where the patrol craft used to be. Some kind of atomic reaction? Maybe negative matter?

When the light cleared, however, a new ship was left behind on the scanners. Visuals were impossible at this range (the light from the ship had not reached them yet), but the enemy vessel was roughly five times the size of the patrol craft it had destroyed with apparent ease. Either way, it was clear that this ship was here to fight. Which made his next move an easy one. The Empire had only one response to those who attacked Imperial Navy vessels, after all.

“Battle stations! Full power to engines. Bring us about, and get me target data!” Already snapping commands before the light of the explosion had fully faded.

“Ship High Commander! We are receiving data from Patrol Ship 23’s emergency transponder. Enemy weapon confirmed as a negative matter pulser, area effect. Two shots in that attack. Energy signatures do not match any weapons in the naval database.”

“Forward the data to the Orbital Station, and begin analysis. I want defensive options!”

“Ship High Commander! We have a visual on the enemy vessel from Patrol Craft 13, now in range!”

Arlushk nodded. “On screen. Show me who we’re killing today.”

The ship that appeared on the screen was alien, that much was obvious. No proud curves or dominating lines, like a Gel-nak ship would have. No, it was all sharp angles, like a primitive arrowhead made of volcanic glass. The black hull almost seemed to drink in the light, rather than reflect it.

A splash of light and color stood out against the black. Near the front, where a light shone upon the ship’s name, in some alien gibberish, and Gelna. More importantly, there was an image under it. The image matched one of the old cultural images from the homeworld, and the ship’s name matched that ancient threat, and the fourth planet in this system.

Rhuk.

No Gel-nak would take that name, even in jest. Not even the 173rd, before they were lost on Earth, would claim that name, despite training upon the world bearing that same title. It was a name that only invoked fear, in the most primal part of the Gel-nak mind.

Two more shots lashed out from the Rhuk, and this time, the sensors picked up clear data. Two more of the negative matter pulses, and Patrol Craft 13 disappeared in a flash of light. Even with their shields, the patrol crafts were no match for that kind of firepower.

That said, there should be a limit to how often they could fire something like those negative matter pulsers. It was possible attrition would be the best choice for dealing with this ship. He wouldn’t know until his actual warships joined the fray.

“Ship High Commander, we are receiving a message from the unknown ship!”

Arlushk took a breath, and said, “Make a best-time course to the ship. And put the communication through. Let me hear what manner of delusion guided this blade to stab us in the side.”