Song of the Void

-------

The Governor-General was bored beyond belief. The advisory council had gathered to give their recommendations on dealing with the Zarnian pirates. They all knew the answer would be to send a fleet to Zarnia and to eradicate every ship capable of flight. It had worked hundreds of times in the empire’s history, and it would work again. It was the stock answer for a reason. The advisors simply enjoyed the sound of their own voices and seem as if they were actually useful. They also didn’t like the fact that it would cost them. They had to either fund the construction of ships, or they would have to ask the sector armada for assistance. Either way it would cost them, and that meant a tax increase. As the wealthiest people in the sector, the advisors would have to carry the burden, as was their duty as local nobility.

They would ask the Governor-General to use the current fleet to do the job, but that fleet was already overextended protecting hundreds of worlds. If the fleet protecting this world, for example, was thinned any further, then Zarnians would not be the only ones to take advantage of the gap in defenses. So he would have to turn them down. They would once again demand to know why he didn’t have control over the sector armada if he was the ruler of the sector, and he’d once again have to tell them to demand the answer to that from the empire. But they were too cowardly for that, so the argument would be repeated. And he would be stuck in this meeting until it was. Just because he knew how it would go didn’t make it any less dull.

He was almost happy to get his boredom interrupted by a beep from his communicator. He didn’t know what the alert was about, but it was an excuse to interrupt the meeting and that was good enough. He reached for the communicator but his hand suddenly froze. So did the Custodians around the room. The head of everyone with a halo in the room turned towards the ceiling as they all felt the same thing. Some kind of powerful psionic disturbance. And it was getting closer. Quickly. Was that what the alert was about?

“Raise the defenses!” He commanded, though the Custodians around him were way ahead of him. They all fed their power into a crystal array behind them, near the heart of the palace. A psionic shield rose around the palace in a blink, and just as quickly it was shattered, as if it wasn’t even there. The eight Custodians around the room and the Governor-General all fell to their knees or fainted on the ground. Two of the Custodians were vomiting due to the sudden backlash.

The Governor-General looked up when he sensed something, and he saw something he really didn’t want to see. A being seemingly of pure energy clad in armor similar to the elite Custodians he’d seen protecting the Empress and the imperial palace. The focus crystals of the armor glinted in the pale light of the room as the being slowly floated downwards. Or so it seemed, even though everything happened in scant seconds, so slow was relative. He got up from his chair but was suddenly hurled across the room and crashed into the stone wall. He saw that the advisors had fared even worse, and some of them looked like broken dolls as they were scattered around the room. He felt a small jolt of satisfaction at that. At least he got to see them suffer.

The being of energy pointed a finger towards him and it felt like his entire body was placed in a vise, not that it made much difference as the being’s sheer presence already had a similar effect. The guards outside would’ve already rushed in, if not for the fact that they could not approach. Now that he got a better look at the being, something in her form woke instincts inside him. He didn’t know where the instincts came from, but he was shocked by the level of dread he suddenly felt and tried to ignore it.

“You…can’t do…this.” He managed to squeeze out from beneath his teeth, as he coughed up a gob of grey blood. “The Eternal Empire…will have…your head.”

“There. That’s the problem. That’s your sin.” The feminine and silky smooth voice spoke in a language usually reserved for the core families of the empire. “You sully the name of your betters. I know what you are Cortoid, and no amount of lying will change that fact.” Her disgust was clear just from her voice.

He gasped at the old name. Even mentioning it was heresy that would have you and your entire family executed without a trial. How did this strange being know about it? Even he had learned about it by accident. “I don’t…know what…” His words were cut off as the pressure on him increased further, cracking several of his ribs and scales, and he was pretty sure his third lung had collapsed.

“Don’t play games with me ant. You will answer my questions and you will answer them well. Those answers will decide how many of your people will lose their lives this day.” The being stated, and it seemed like the entire palace was shaking. The shaking was getting worse and suddenly he realized that it probably wasn’t just the palace that was affected.

“Like I…care. Kill me, if you dare. The empire…will avenge…me.” He growled. He truly didn’t care. There was less than a hundred thousand Dhar on this world, as most of them wouldn’t show their faces on a piddly little backwater like this. The other eight billion inhabitants were from the lesser races. What did he care about them? Who- or whatever this being was, the empire would have its revenge for this slight. He was pretty sure he would not live through this anyway.

The alarms suddenly started blaring all around the palace. Not just the one on his communicator, but the general alarm that was used in genuine emergencies. How nice of them to take notice finally. “Little ant, there are so many ways to die and I can make your death feel like an eternity. I can make it take an eternity. A man in your position should know. There are deaths, and there are deaths. Yours will not be a quick one or a clean one if you try to put up a fight. In the end, I will get what I want.”

He would’ve tried spitting at the being, but when he even thought about it, he got the feeling as if he was planning on spitting on the graves of the previous Emperors. He couldn’t bear the thought of such sacrilege. “Do your worst.” He just growled.

“Then so shall it be.” The being stated and the shaking got worse. Now he was pretty sure the entire planet must have been shaking.

Suddenly the ceiling above their heads was torn away as if leaves thrown by wind, and he saw two things above that drew his attention. First thing was that there was another orbital ring around the planet, and that wasn’t the habitat- shipyards ring. It looked eerily similar to the halos of powerful psions, only much larger. Secondly, some idiot had actually flown a gravity propulsion ship into the atmosphere. The opposing gravitational forces were doing a number on the surroundings.

Then he really paid attention to the ship. It looked like the ships that the royals were using. To be exact, it looked like the ships the royals were fervently attempting to replicate. Except this was the real thing. He was starting to realize just how fucked he was, and why. Perhaps the empire would not be able to avenge him after all. “I don’t think I have the answers you seek.” He finally said. “You want to know about some of the deepest and darkest secret of the empire. I’m not at the position to know.”

“I believe you.” The being stated, though her next words crushed any shred of hope he might’ve had. ”But I will make sure.” At the same time, the being's finger pointed at his head and he screamed as something tore into his mind. And then he knew nothing. His last thoughts were the awareness of pain, and the thought that some idiot was firing weapons inside the atmosphere.

-----

They all watched with anticipation as the ship suddenly accelerated towards the world below them. They had warped fairly far from the planet and the orbital ring surrounding it, but the speed at which the ship moved caught them all by surprise, as it apparently had any defenses the system had. Some ships started to move towards them once they got over their initial shock, but it was already too late. They didn’t have the almost instant acceleration of this ship. The stationary defenses opened fire on them, but most of the shots missed them with plenty of room to spare. The few shots that were on target got deflected by the hexagonal shields that appeared out of nowhere around the ship.

One battlecruiser-sized ship managed to place itself on their trajectory, but Nox simply utilized one of the ships beam weapons to cut the enemy vessel in two and the Enduring Symphony crashed through the gap that opened. The broken halves of the enemy ships were spinning away while their progress wasn’t even slowed. Those on board didn’t even feel anything from the collision. As they entered the atmosphere, some of the defenses finally managed to get their aim right, and some of the ships managed to move close enough to open fire, yet most of the weapons pointed at them didn’t. Any missed shot would hit the city below, and even the shots that did hit would do more damage to the city than to them. A few stupid ship captains didn’t realize this and fired their weapons with predictable results.

At the same time, they also noted that the ship seemed to be creating a small gravity well around itself. Some of the debris on the ground seemed to be pulled in the air and started rotating around the ship as their descent slowed down. That debris included quite a few living beings. They came to a halt above the palace and the same nanite-beams that they used for gathering materials and mining tore the roof of the palace away. The guards fired on the ship in a panic, but their personal weapons didn’t even merit the creation of a protective shield.

Nox focused the external cameras to a particular room inside the palace and they all saw several dead or dying Cortoids lying around, while Selendil had her hand on the forehead of one with a fancy dress. “Get us down there. Somehow.” Moonshadow demanded.

“No point. She’s almost done.” Nox reported. “Besides, that’s not how it works, like I said.”

“We really need to figure out a way to quickly exit the ship. Something like the automatic warp used between the auxiliary arms of the ship and the center.” Amaterasu muttered. “Otherwise this will continue to be a problem. Selendil can teleport so she doesn’t need it, but…”

They watched through the hologram showing the events in the room as Selendil released the man she was holding, who then slumped on the ground. She then looked towards the ship above for a short moment. She seemed to reach a decision, and suddenly she appeared back inside the ship's bridge. They were all about to speak as Selendil suddenly waved her hand and the entire palace complex and several city blocks connected to it just disappeared. “We can go now.”

“Yes, master.” Nox stated and the ship started to ascend from the atmosphere. As soon as it did, the ships that had been waiting opened fire. Everything ranging from missiles to mass drivers, to plasma weapons, and energy beams approached them, but the ship vanished in a flash of light before any of it aside from the energy beams moving at the speed of light reached them, and those didn’t manage to accomplish anything.

“We are back at the mining system we visited earlier.” Nox reported.

Now that the situation had passed and they were just peacefully standing there, no one was entirely sure what to say. “So a halo large enough to go around an entire planet, huh?” Xiaoli was the first to recover.

“Yes, well, originally the Dhar also had multiple halos like everyone else, but it got a bit silly after a point. The Keepers came up with a way to combine them all into one.” Selendil said with mixed feelings. The silly question had taken some of the wind out of her sails.

“You left the planet in one piece?” Amaterasu asked. “We left so quickly that I wasn’t entirely sure what happened at the end.” She was actually not opposed to Selendil punishing those that were disgracing the Dhar name, but she wanted it to be something done with strategy and thought, not something done in anger. Calm judgment instead of a temper tantrum.

“Relatively. Those calling themselves Dhar, the Cortoids that is, had concentrated their own luxurious villas around the palace, so I dealt a punishment to them. I left the other races alone, though there’s likely some damage from the quakes.”

“Selendil, you can’t punish an entire race for one decision. Not to mention all the collateral damage.” Moonshadow finally brought up the point that some of them were thinking but didn’t dare to speak about. “You said that we might have to try and stop you if your anger gets the better of you. This seems to be one of those cases.”

Selendil’s tails made a gesture that none of them had seen before and only Ka’aukai understood for some reason. He knew it to be a complicated one that signaled contrition, admittance of guilt, but also disagreement. “For a very short moment I did consider it, but indiscriminate genocide is not the way of true Dhar. That said, there is one thing that you need to understand. The Cortoids will not continue shaming the Dhar name. I will make sure of it, no matter what it takes.”

“Maybe they made the decision as a eulogy, to honor their old masters. It could be a sign of respect.” Lilly suggested.

“The idea did occur to me even in my haze of anger, albeit after I was already committed to the act," Selendil admitted. "But my little temper tantrum did bring some benefits. This matter seems to be more complicated than a simple case of impersonation. There's some kind of larger secret tied to this. Unfortunately, the secret is rather well kept. Even the Governor-General was not truly aware of what's behind it. Apparently, this thing is the sole purview of the noble houses and the imperial family that rule the empire. Just their old name is a deeply held secret akin to heresy. Speaking of, I wouldn’t feel too bad about the lives lost. Apparently the Cortoids are ruling the galaxy with a tyrannical grip. While the others are resisting, the Cortoids are doing their best to exploit their position before things go to shit. They know the other races will at some point manage to drive them back but they will exploit the others to the hilt until that day comes.” Selendil explained her findings.

“Things are rarely so black and white.” Moonshadow pointed out, playing the devil’s advocate. She also wasn’t taking the sudden killing of thousands of beings quite as well as the others. On the other hand, she had advocated for Selendil to deal with the Shinzen, so judging the Keeper too harshly would be hypocritical of her.

“True, they have probably done good things as well. But remember, these are all things I tore from the mind of one of the Cortoid leaders. This is not something a rebel told me in an attempt to gain my sympathy. I would imagine they would put things in a much more damning tone.” Selendil countered.

"So what now," Amaterasu asked. She liked where this was going much more now that Selendil seemed somewhat rational again.

“I’d like to remind everyone that we had a reason to come to this galaxy.” Moonshadow pointed out. “We should not forget that mission even if we now have other priorities to deal with as well.”

"Well, at least this galaxy isn't blown to bits," Xiaoli muttered. "So that's part of the objective complete. A positive development all in all I would say.”

“Moonshadow has a good point. We still need to figure out if they know anything about what happened in that other galaxy. Considering they have some warping ability, they might have even been behind it.” Amaterasu said, nodding towards the Mrrroww.

“As to that, I did find out something before the Governor-General’s mind collapsed. It seems that their warping capabilities are limited as we suspected. Apparently there’s some sort of a qualifier that is putting a cap on their ability to warp ships, and the further away they get from the core of the empire, the harder it becomes. They would not be able to warp between galaxies, I think. I can’t say that for sure though, as this is all based on the Governor-General’s knowledge, and he isn’t privy to the really important secrets.” Selendil explained, she also hadn’t been specifically looking for that bit of information in her anger.

“What could cause that?” Nochehuatl asked brimming with curiosity.

“Well, the Dhar had the warp network to facilitate the process. The Dhar could also connect to the network without any issues like latency and distance through the universal consciousness. I assume that the Cortoids have something that simulates the function of the warp network but they can’t connect to it as easily. That’s because whatever they’re connecting to is located at the heart of their empire and it’s hard to form a stable connection over vast distances. The further you are, the more difficult it gets. It becomes difficult to process such things over long distances as well, so it’s easier to handle ten warps close to the core than it is to handle a single warp at the edge of the galaxy.” Nox speculated.

“Add to that the fact that we don’t know how they’re doing it, so we don’t know what kind of capacity they have so we can’t judge their limits accurately. Depending on how they’re achieving this, the whole thing could be impossible to scale up, or just challenging and costly to do so.” Haven added.

“So it’s entirely possible that they could warp between galaxies with some effort, and we wouldn’t know about it?” Moonshadow asked.

"It's possible, though unlikely," Selendil stated.

“I’m thinking of the fact that we found a single intact beacon in the destroyed galaxy.” Amaterasu suddenly interjected. “Did we make sure that beacon was made by Dhar? What if it was still intact because someone else put it there later on?”

"We did check," Nochehuatl said. "We weren't expecting to find anything, but we did run the check just in case. That beacon was Dhar made. The others were simply destroyed. Or they dropped an original Dhar made beacon there. That is also a possibility.”

“Fair enough.” Amaterasu nodded. “So that brings us back to our next step. What’s the plan?”

“I think it’s fair to say that no matter what we do it for, our path takes us to the heart of this empire.” Moonshadow suggested, though not entirely without reluctance.

“Can we?” Lilly asked suddenly. “I mean it’s one thing to suddenly burst into the palace of a capital world of a sector like this, but can we just barge into the core of their empire? The defenses there are going to be much better. I mean, can we deal with that?”

They all looked towards Selendil. “I can’t say for certain. I don't know the extent of their power and technology. Just the fact that they had warp caught me by surprise. What else do they have in store? If it's nothing spectacular, then yes, both the ship and I myself can deal with it easily enough, but if it’s something actually worth noting, then the result is uncertain.” Selendil was forced to admit. “I’m more confident in dealing with their psions frankly. However, if they have some old Dhar weapon technology as well, then the ship can take only so much punishment. Especially if I’m on the surface of a planet when the ship is attacked.”

“So we might have to find another way other than a simple frontal assault.” Amaterasu summarized. “Or we need to at least figure out the extent of their technology.”