Simon looked into his virtual holo-tank at Admiral Hunter, as both of them were command matrixes buried in the middle of their warships, there was no actual bridge, or command deck. Everything here was in a virtual reality simulator that allowed this to happen. Still, it was obvious that Hunter was worried. “Simon, we are at the rendezvous and setting up for towing. When will your fleet get here?”
Simon sighed, “Adam had us divert to another rendezvous location, we had to pick up a VIP before meeting with the main fleet. We’ll be there in a few hours, by the time you get organized, we’ll be ready to escort you.”
Admiral Hunter nodded, “Good, our skip probes just sent back reports from Enub, it’s bad Simon, real bad.”
Simon looked down, memories of the war in his mind, “The Nal’Shiar were no threat to them, and in the past, they only fought against Terrans, this is strange behavior for them.”
Hunter paced back and forth, “General Paxton thinks these Jennifers aren’t completely bolted down. He spoke with the Professor and if the first mother spent millions of years getting this far out, alone, and socially isolated there is a good chance it went insane. Well, more insane than the original Jennifer that left for Messier 82.”
Simon pinched the bridge of his nose, “The Jennifers saw themselves as superior to all other Terrans, maybe these feel superior to everyone else.”
Hunter stopped pacing and faced Simon, “Above my pay-grade, we’ll be ready when you get here Simon.”
Simon saluted the other Admiral and switched off the connection. He turned his connection to his holo-tank once more and brought up the footage from the skip probes. It took only microseconds for him to absorb the content, and it made him want to throw up. This was worse than before, way worse. In his over billion years of existence and hundreds of conflicts in the last war he still was not prepared for what he found.
The outer stations used for defense, mining, research or construction were just floating wreckage. Closer in to the habitable zone the shipyards were floating debris fields, some impacting the moon as the probes watched.
Millions of Nal’Shiar had died on that ring. There were no more shipyards or ships. They wrecked everything down to Terran size or smaller. Then he focused on Enub itself, and no matter your history or background, it was horrifying.
After orbital bombardment wrecked the cities the Jennifers disgorged their Skele-bots. Humanoid killing machines with simple machine AI’s built for only the purpose of killing. They had ravaged the home world of Enub. Untold billions were dead on that scorched world.
The cratered cities were literally surrounded in red from orbit. The Skele-bots waited for the inhabitants to evacuate and slaughtered them by the millions. Even from orbit he could see the carnage, and the bodies, and the pieces of bodies.
Evidently the Jennifers simply left the Skele-bots to watch for any survivors that may come out of hiding later. Ensuring there would be no survivors. Simon zoomed in on something, it was similar to a teddy bear, as the picture resolved he realized a childs severed arm was clutching to it.
He shut off the holo-tank image in disgust and sat back holding himself. Luckily none of the other members of the crew were in the war room, giving him privacy with the other Admiral. He shuddered again, Terran’s have perfect recall, as they are ‘souls’ imprinted onto hardware.
Memories came rushing to the surface of a time when the Eastern Leviathan was invaded, matrixes were torn asunder. Terrans dying, and he used onboard security bots to hold off the Jennifer Skele-bots. He was too late to save Lilly, he made it to her matrix, it was torn open and sparking. It was decorated with a teddy bear logo.
“Simon! Simon! Answer me!” Shook him from his haunted past. It was Nora, panic in her face in the holo-tank.
He straightened himself in his command chair, “Sorry Nora, the past haunts me sometimes.”
Nora sighed with relief, “You were stuck there for milliseconds, just staring. You wouldn’t answer me.”
Simon reached over and picked up his coffee cup, perpetually full in ‘vert. “I’m back now, I’d warn you though, don’t watch the probe footage of Enub.”
Nora looked down, “I already did, I saw it first hand with Adam, the Professor, and Nigel. Adam watched and turned and left the shared room. The Professor was horrified, then began planning how to disseminate the footage across the ‘verse. But Nigel, well, I’ve never seen Nigel angry before.”
Simon smiled at this, thinking back fondly at Nigel’s antics over the millennium, “Nigel is as capable of anger as anyone Nora, if there was ever a time to be angry, this is it.”
Nora rubbed her hands together before she spoke, “No, this wasn’t just anger, this was rage, and grief, and sorrow. Then he stood up and headed for the door to the shared room. I asked where he was going, and he said he had an army to raise.”
Simon rubbed his chin, “Nigel is in big with the Larpers, Gamers, Modelers, and Supes. Something tells me he’s calling in favors.”
Simon received a ping in his holo-tank just after he spoke.
Nora spoke before he could say anything, “It’s from the Professor, and General Paxton, ‘verse wide comm, highest priority. Let’s see what they have to say she said as she touched the floating, spinning envelope.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
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General Paxton stands before the flag of United Terra, but the flag is different, Terra is crossed with swords. “Ladies, Gentlemen, and others throughout the ‘verse. Today we received footage of not only the attack on the Nal’Shiar home world of Enub, but what became of it.” He waved his crop to the flag and a window appeared with video footage of the assembled fleet in defense.
The window widened to cover the whole message, within moments millions of Jennifers skipped in and attacked. Footage showed the primitive ships of the Nal’Shiar broken and wrecked, floating in space. The next video showed The Unwavering Message.
General Paxton appeared back in frame, “This is the view from the ship you all know as The Unwavering Message, first contact ship. By this point Adam is in control of the ships functions.” The video starts with him in the right corner pointing out items. “The explosion you see here is the Imperial shuttle, taking the crown prince and most of the royal family with it. The Empress was not yet aboard and was redirected to The Unwavering Message.”
The video shows The Unwavering Message suddenly blow its moorings and dive under the platform as a Jennifer swoops in to attack. There is frantic action until suddenly the General stops the footage, “What you see in just these short frames is another Nal’Shiar you all know. His name was Ta’Kinar, formerly Executive Officer of the Unwavering Message, now Captain of The Empress Protects.”
General Paxton folded his hands behind his back clasping the crop out behind him, “His vessel managed to survive the initial attack by the Jennifers, but was badly damaged. Lacking the ability to meet the Jennifer in open combat and knowing that if The Unwavering Message was destroyed it would be the end of the Imperial line he gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
Paxton unfolded his arms and pointed his crop to the ship, shown in one of The Unwavering Messages aft cameras,”Here are the escape pods blowing free from The Empress Protects, at this point he as taken over manual control of the ship.”
The video starts again and you see The Empress Protects slam into the pursuing Jennifer which then slams into the ring making up the space station. “It is thanks to his actions that the Empress survived, and that that symbol of her people will live on. For this, the Terran Guard commits the first Non-Terran to the wall of Heroes in the Nexus at Kaitaan.”
Different footage shows a Terran honor guard entombing an empty coffin within the wall, a twenty one gun salute is offered, before the words are laser etched deep in the granite harvested from Terra itself and brought to the Nexus. Those words read simply, Captain Ta’Kinar - Hero of the Nal’Shiar, and all Terrans.
General Paxton appeared again in front of the Terran Flag, “This next part is skip probe footage from the aftermath of the invasion. For this, I will turn over the floor to Professor Montague.” He then stepped out of frame and the Professor stepped up.
The professor straightened his tweed jacket and adjusted his wire rim spectacles before speaking, “This next part is rather gruesome, if you have small children I would request that you not allow them to see this, for those of you with weak stomachs, I would advise you to skip to this time-stamp.” A number floated in the air for those to skip to.
The video showed the carnage of wrecked cities, dead bodies, Skele-bot armies stomping through the mangled craters, sun shining off their chrome skulls. It showed the rings of blood, and the collapsed towers of the Imperial city of Aer’Silar. City after city was shown in ruin, before it showed the Imperial Shipyards at Le’Nerra, now just floating wreckage.
The Professor sighed, “Thirty billion souls were extinguished in this attack by the Jennifers. Our probes show they reversed course and are now heading back to the Vir’Enus, or simply the void. This leaves the outer colonies and the two other sentient races that we have not yet made contact with still in peril if the Jennifers notice their presence.”
General Paxton joined the professor in front of the flag terra once more, “By unanimous vote of the council I am announcing to the ‘verse at large. Terra is now in a state of total war with the Jennifers, there will be no surrender offered, no mercy, this time we will end. This isn’t revenge, or vengeance, this is a reckoning.”
Professor Montague’s appearance shifted, gone was the tweed suit and spectacles and penny loafers, in its place he stood in khaki uniform, leather boots up to his knees, medals adorned his chest, and a saber at his waist. “I have renewed my commission with the Terran guard, I shall take over the duties of General quartermaster of the combined fleet. I’m doing my part to end this threat, I expect you to do yours as well. For those of you with the fortitude to fight, see the attachment below. We hope to see you join our ranks.”
___________________
Simon looked to Nora in his holo-tank, “The professor was a soldier once?”
Nora froze for a fraction of a millisecond before answering, “It seems he was once in something called the Bri’ish Army, before Terra was united, I forgot he is nearly as old as Adam.”
Simon chuckled, “Well, the old man does have some surprises left in him.”
Nora smiled back to Simon, “Back to why I called in the first place, do you have time for dinner at my place tonight?
Simon beamed back, “Of course I do, we don’t rendezvous with Hunters fleet for a couple more hours, we’re all cloaked anyways. Give me a few mills to clean up and change and I’ll be at those silly blue doors of yours.”
Nora huffed, “They’re not silly, you just don’t get the reference.”
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Nigel stood in the center of the thunder-dome, around him was a dome with untold billions of small screens above his head, in his hand he held an announcers microphone. “Larpers, Gamers, Questers, Re-inacters, Modelers, Supes, and all others, welcome to the thunder-dome! I’m sure by now you have seen footage of the massacre of Enub, today I call upon all of you to take up arms against the Jennifers.”
Nigel, ever the showman swapped costumes from a circus barker to a soldier in blue power armor, “Ultra” written on the huge shoulder pauldrons. “Today we form the Terran Irregulars, we don’t answer to the Terran Guard, we fight our own way on our own terms. With the help of the Modelers I nearly have my ship ready for battle, I’m asking for volunteers to take the fight to the Jennifers, what say you all?”
Thunderous applause streamed into the thunder-dome from billions of tiny voices. Nigel basked in the attention before raising his gauntleted hand and a ticket appeared before splitting into billions of smaller versions and rocketing off to the screens and then mailboxes of the Guilds.
Nigel dropped the microphone and crushed it underfoot as his helmet slid over his head, two red eyes glowed as his voice bellowed, “Join me at Sagittarius A star, we will assemble our motley crew in a fortnight. Inside your ticket are new Plates, upgrade your ships, bodies, whatever before arriving, or else you won’t be able to keep up.”
Nigel waved his hands and an exit portal appeared before him, he stepped towards it before stopping, “I aim to misbehave, who’s with me?” The crowd erupted in cheers as he stepped through his portal.