Governor Fergoop stared at the young Cyph’d currently cowering in front of the desk. Fergoop glanced over at Commander Tenqop, who shrugged back at him. Nobody was willing to address the whale in the room, so Fergoop addressed the trembling underling in the center of the examination space.
“Your story is ridiculous, Lakip” Fergoop said. “It’s eggs-birthingly insane. Go back to the beginning.”
“But Governor - “ Lakip tried to interrupt, but Fergoop cut him off. “Explain to us again, sub-gunner. Explain to everyone the ludicrous story of how the GCD decorated Festive Nightbeak, a K Class Cruiser and all its tents, save you, were lost.”
Lakip looked around at the gathered tribunal, writhing his tentacles together with worry, but nobody looked like an ally right about now. The room of Cyph’d warriors and politicians were mostly staring, muttering to each other, and taking notes on slates in front of them. Lakip firmed up his body to stop the trembling.
“We came out of the Tunnel 120 Lsecs away from the system’s eighth planet as part of the forward reconnaissance.”
“Sol Eight,” Fergoop said.
“Yes sir. We didn’t expect to find anything, as we’d surveyed the system before with probes fifteen years prior and there was only one civilization recorded on the third planet out. A pre-quantum civilization.”
“I have that survey,” Tenqop said, waving around a glowing slate. “No Tunneling tech. No observed Class C AI’s. No orbital or deep space structures outside of some low-tech satellites. No ships in the system. In fact, four of the probes came in too close to a lot of orbital junk, causing them to lose attitude control. They came down in some population centers, probably doing some damage, but there was no response from the planet. They didn't investigate the other probes that didn't crash, either. Probably couldn’t detect them. We wrote the system off as something to look into exploiting when the timetable came to it.“
The junior gunner nodded. “Yes. So we didn’t expect what happened. We came out of the Tunnel and within a few minutes we immediately were hailed. Tight beam radio. We triangulated the radio to a ship approaching in sub-c space, just like us. ”
“Not tachyon or graviton beams,” Fergoop said. “Radio, of all things. That’s part of what makes the story a little difficult, yes? Sub-gunner?”
“I can only tell you what happened. Captain Rammep answered the hail. It was a pretty simple attempt at universal communication - it showed a picture of the third planet lifeforms, and a map of the system showing the planet they were from. We weren’t going to respond to the Thirders, standard protocol, when one of the navs said… uh…” Lakip trailed off.
“Yes, here’s where it gets interesting. You said the nav complained of a skullache and then heard voices,” Fergoop growled. “Voices. In his skull. In our language, but spoken by a Thirder. And then he said the voice asked if he was from the Greater Collected Domains, and he said he was compelled to answer, so he answered yes. And then the attack started.”
Lakip nodded his body, cringing, aware of how the story must sound.
“Describe the attack,” Commander Tenqop said.
Lakip looked down, and slowly spoke. “It was egging strange, sirs.It wasn’t plasma emitters or drones or railguns. A dozen circles of light and… and geometric shapes opened in spots around the Nightbeak, and Thirders wearing armor of some kind came through, landing on the hull.”
Tenqop sucked air derisively. “They led a boarding action. Through space. Through individual quantum Tunnels. A civilization that didn’t even have space travel two generations ago not only mastered quantum Tunneling but built short-range microTunnel emitters. What about the Tunneling ring on the main vessel?”
Lakip shook his upper body. “They didn’t have one. Not one we could detect, anyway.”
Fergoop rolled his eye. “Continue with these armored 'Thirders'. You said they were armed with no energy weapons or... ranged weapons, but close-combat melee weapons, of all things.”
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“They were armed with hammers, mostly. Big hammers. The hammers were covered in script of some kind. Symbols. Their armor had symbols. And… uh… when they struck the hull with the hammers, symbols would appear briefly floating in space right next to the hammers.”
“Holographics projections?” a different Cyph’d asked, this time Chief Warbrain, Commander of the Engineer corps.
“I don’t know. And their movements weren’t all combative. They would wave the hammers around in complicated patterns and draw symbols in the space with glowing trails, and then at some point strike, and -”
“Split the hull, yes,” Fergoop said. “Hulls reinforced with structural integrity fields. Honeycombed Titane designed to repel sub-light meteor collisions. And some Thirders with hammers just pounded their way through them.”
“One of them had a sword, and he sawed off the gamma antenna," Lakip said.
"For eggs sake, sub-gunner," Fergoop groaned. "A sword."
"Yessir. At this point Captain Rammep activated the point defense needlers and started strafing them. Most of the Thirders had already breached the hull. One of them - the one with the sword - seemed to be caught by surprise by the needle attack and started trying to draw a complicated pattern around them, but got interrupted when he got a needle through the arm. The symbols around him started shimmering and vibrating and then he… uh… he sort of exploded.”
“Needles are depleted Urane slugs,” Warbrain Finnlip said. “You said in the report the armor didn’t appear to have tanks of fuel, batteries, reactors, or rings. A slug wouldn’t explode. What exploded, for eggs sake?!”
“I don’t know. Then a larger ring appeared and the Thirder's ship nosed through it, only a few k’s away, and held that position.”
Fergoop looked up at the agitated sub-gunner. “The Thirders held open a Tunnel, and parked their ship half-way through it. A Tunnel that should last a millisecond, they just held it open. With no Tunneling ring on their ship. A Tunnel that, and I quote, ‘was composed of multiple circles or light with symbols rotating on it.’ Why would anyone project symbology on a Tunnel exit!?”
“I don’t know. By now we heard reports of the Thirders rampaging through the ship. One of them got to the fusion core and hammered a hole in the side.”
“He holed the reactor, eh?” said Chief Warbrain Finnlip.”He just hammered through a synthetic Neutronium reactor shell. And then the hole! What about the radiation pouring out? What about the egging heat, sub-gunner? He should have melted to atoms in seconds!”
Lakip was really shuddering now, as he spoke. “Engineering said when the reactor buckled, the Thirder started… um… singing and dancing and waving their hammers around, and uh… clanging them together rhythmically, and the heat sort of… arced around them. They weren’t hurt.”
“Sub-gunner-” started Fergoop.
“They said it was singing in three part harmony and-”
“That will be all. I’m remanding you to the care of Warbrain medical,” Commander Tenqop said. He gestured to two burly Cyph’ds who escorted the agitated sub-gunner off.
After the hatch closed, Fergoop looked around before speaking. “None of this makes any sense,” he said, “but we don’t have a lot to go by. The fusion explosion wiped all the wreckage, what little we found. Lakip there only survived because he was one of the first pods to eject and was hidden in some wreckage. The Thirders seemed to do a pretty good job of either wiping out survivors or covering their traces. Warbrain Finnlip?”
Finnlip shrugged. “Some of the tech looks vaguely similar - Tunnel tech, gravity manipulation, and so forth, but the… implementation is bizarre. And the whole symbology nonsense. I assume it’s a… cultural affectation, like when we paint Beak-skulls on the hulls.”
“I’m not sure I agree.” Everyone turned to look at the speaker, the GCD Bishop Qrem, direct representative of Hir most holy Cyphipope. “Some of the symbols the young soldier described… well. He sketched some, and a few looked a lot like the religious iconography used by the spiritual sect. Those symbols are universal runes, passed down from our more primitive fore-squids. We use them in religious rituals, in meditation. When I prayer-commune with the Cyphipope I use a mind-to-mind dreaming that vaguely sounds like the initial contact.”
Fergoop snorted air in short humor. “Qrem, please.”
Warbrain Finnlip interjected "I noticed that also. A couple of the symbols look like Tunneling geometry we use in the Tunnel circuitry. Not religious, though."
Qrem waved his tents around, angrily. “I can’t explain it,” Qrem said. “But it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve encountered this. Several carbon-based lifeforms we’ve incorporated into the GCD had independently discovered the runes before meeting us, why not the Thirders?”
Commander Tenqop leaned closer for emphasis. “Bishop, are you suggesting the Thirders… weaponized Mysticism? That’s preposterous.”
“Nevertheless,” Qrem said. “I’m communing a meet of the Greater Collected Domains. These… Thirders must be investigated and analyzed. Determined if they are just protecting their territory or already an enemy.”
“It sounds like they already have an egging beak-on for us,” Fergoop noted.
“Then we destroy them,” Qrem said. “So sayeth the Cyphipope.”