“It does. We always knew the Hadarak were capable of greater combat. Now we are seeing it unleashed and I do not believe even we can stop it.”

  “Do you know what precipitated this?”

  “No. Neither do the V’kit’no’sat, and I do not believe it was their progress. The Hadarak did not even respond with a surge, so I believe something else is in play.”

  “Are the V’kit’no’sat fully engaging?”

  “They are.”

  “Then they will weaken themselves earlier than expected.”

  “I anticipate so, which leaves us with a decision to make. Do we ignore the Hadarak and take our vengeance on the V’kit’no’sat, or do we fight the Hadarak in some manner and spare the traitors so their deaths can be of use to us?”

  “You have not decided?”

  “You are no longer hatchlings. We must decide together how to proceed, for we are in grave danger no matter what course we fly.”

  “We have to use the Uriti, or we have no hope of defeating that many Hadarak,” another Zak’de’ron said.

  We do not have the knowledge to make them reproduce, one on the outside of the spire said. Only Star Force and the Chixzon do.

  “We cannot find the Chixzon, and Star Force already has an army of Uriti. Are they not going to use them?”

  “Star Force is in Itaru,” Zeno’dor answered. “They have engaged in some combat with their ships, but not their Uriti. They are assisting in relocation efforts for the primitives in the path of the Hadarak, but eventually they will use them.”

  “But will they wait until the Hadarak are on their border to do so?” another asked.

  “What will the Hadarak do when they encounter them?”

  “I am curious as well,” Tew’chor added. “Can the Hadarak escalate beyond this? And if it is limited to a geographical region, would introducing the Uriti to them cause them to push further?”

  “All questions to which we do not have the answers,” Zeno’dor admitted. “But Star Force is in the prime position to dictate events. They will not come under assault for hundreds of thousands of years, and more so if the V’kit’no’sat delay the Hadarak’s advance. But waiting to act will give us fewer options as the Hadarak-occupied territory grows. We must decide on a course now, before they gain greater advantage.”

  Can we exist within the occupied territory?

  “Not in the open. All worlds are being occupied by minions, even uninhabited ones. They are denying opposition safe havens and establishing an detection network to identify incursions. The Hadarak have tolerated us before. Now it is clear they want us exterminated,” Zeno’dor said gravely.

  “We can hit Itaru now. Kill Mak’to’ran. Reclaim the V’kit’no’sat to use against the Hadarak,” someone else suggested.

  Tew’chor growled in the direction of the Zak’de’ron who’d said that. “You think they would accept our dominion?”

  “If they fear the Hadarak enough, then they might.”

  “It is possible,” Zeno’dor offered, “but a foolish gamble at this point. Once the V’kit’no’sat fleets are broken and they are desperate, they might take an offer of reunification in exchange for their service. But not now. They are still strong and only engaging where they choose. Striking Itaru would cause them to turn their full attention to our destruction and deal with the Hadarak later.”

  “I concur,” Tew’chor said angrily. “You do not know them as I do. Even Zeno’dor does not. Their hatred of us is intense.”

  “Would they come after us if we did not attack them, but revealed ourselves to fight the Hadarak in parallel?”

  Tew’chor paused for a moment. “They would be conflicted if we absolved our vengeance against them. Many would not believe it, others would not accept it. Many would welcome the assistance if we could show we had a superior combat edge that they lacked.”

  “I do not think we can prevail alone,” a large green dragon said from behind Zeno’dor, with his scales indicating his status as a Que’cho’vox. “We either begin a scale-down and prepare to survive in Hives alone while the galaxy burns, or we begin to reestablish our dominance by making ourselves useful to an alliance. I agree that the Uriti are going to be the major weapon in this war, and other than Star Force, we are the only ones to possess them. I think a private test of their power is our first preferred action.”

  “Do you refer to the minions or against a Hadarak?” Zeno’dor asked.

  “Both. We still do not know if the Uriti can control Hadarak minions when a Hadarak is absent, and if they intend to take the galaxy with minion armies we need to determine if this is a weakness or not. As for the Hadarak, we need to find an isolated one and confirm the Uriti can kill it. We can then use records of the kill for any future negotiations we may entertain.”

  “We do not know how the Uriti will react to the Hadarak,” Tew’chor warned respectfully, for even though he was younger, the Que’cho’vox were held so highly that their position within the battlemeld was accepted as dominant and the other Zak’de’ron, when in battle, would trust their judgement with their life and allow them to guide the masses without hesitancy. “And we do not have the Chixzon override. Do you think our hold on them is sufficient?”

  “If it is not now, it will never be. We need to determine if we have a viable weapon.”

  “Agreed,” another said, with a chorus of telepathic ‘nods’ echoing that sentiment.

  “The Hadarak are being closely monitored by the V’kit’no’sat. We will have to wait until more arrive and spread out. Their minion held worlds are being destroyed as fast as they’re being created,” Zeno’dor informed.

  “No,” Tew’chor said firmly. “If we are going to hide, then we hide fully. If not, then we have nothing to gain by remaining anonymous unless you think this Hadarak campaign in limited in scope. Does anyone truly think that?”

  He received no responses, which only confirmed what they all suspected.

  “They are going to destroy everything in the galaxy then return to the Deep Core with no one left to bother them. We all know that. We’ve all suspected they could do it and now it’s happening. Are we really going to wait until they make it halfway to the Rim before we decide to act?”

  “What are you suggesting?” the Que’cho’vox asked.

  “If the V’kit’no’sat are monitoring the Hadarak with scouts, then let them watch as the ghosts of their past appear and do the work they are failing to do…then watch them squirm even more without knowing where we are, but they will know that we also have Uriti at our command.”

  “And if the Uriti disobey us, or even join the Hadarak?” Zeno’dor asked.

  “Better to know now than wait for later. The V’kit’no’sat cannot easily find us, and they have a huge distraction to keep them focused away from us. I am tired of waiting to emerge, and I see no further benefit in secrecy unless we intend to fully go to ground and wait out the destruction of the galaxy and try to carve something out of ashes for ourselves afterward.”

  “Act or hide,” Zeno’dor repeated. “What say you all?”

  A telepathic ping fest ensued, with each present indicating their thoughts…and not a one of them wanted to hide any longer. There were only a few hundred here, with another 129 billion Zak’de’ron spread around the galaxy, but Zeno’dor doubted those would feel any different. Hiding was not natural for their race, and it was time to come out of the shadows and reestablish themselves as a galactic power, even if they couldn’t be the galactic power.

  “So be it. Arrange the test,” he told the Que’cho’vox. “The mission is yours.”

  9 months later…

  There was one Hadarak and 12 planets in System 1993201, and the Zen’zat Wur’ki was monitoring the gradual eradication of the lifeforms on 5 of them. Two had already been overrun, but the remaining 3 were trying to fight back with primitive laser, missiles, and other things that barely qualified as weapons as this one-system, barely space-faring race fought to their doom.

  A few of the scaly bipeds had already been recovered and moved out of the system, but the Wur’ki-class warship was sitting here to monitor the progress of the Hadarak. If it left the system the Wur’ki would go with it, leaving behind a beacon with information as to where it had gone so that other ships passing through could collect the data and add it to the Urrtren the next time they passed a mobile relay point. If the Zen’zat ship went to report itself, then it would lose the Hadarak and might or might not be able to catch up again depending on where it went and how long it stayed in each system. They moved slowly, but taking weeks to get information back to the Urrtren then weeks to return just wasn’t prudent.

  In addition to that, new minions were being used and Itaru had declared they needed as much information as possible, so these Zen’zat were tasked with following and recording everything that happened regarding the Hadarak, but they had to keep far enough away to not attract its attention. Twice already minions had come after them, but after repositioning faster than they could follow, the minions had abandoned them until the Wur’ki creeped back in a little too close again.

  Right now they were stable and recording images of the Hadarak sitting on the 3rd planet, but then all of a sudden it began to detach and move into orbit so fast that it damaged surrounding minion facilities when it tore through the ground with its tentacles because it had lifted off before fully retracting them.

  That was extremely odd behavior with no threats in the system, and a single V’kit’no’sat ship couldn’t even scratch the Hadarak, so this was something that Itaru needed to know about. The Zen’zat chose to move a bit closer to get better records when they eventually picked up passive sensor pings from the stellar radiation hitting ships arriving in the system.

  Apparently the Hadarak had known they’d arrived before the V’kit’no’sat did, which was odd. While they might be able to detect gravitational mass almost instantaneously, they could not identify what that mass was at this range. It could be more Hadarak arriving, so why this Hadarak took off in such a hurry was perplexing.

  But so too were the large ships, three of them, along with numerous smaller vessels too far away to be identified yet, but they were making microjumps and messing with the passive sensor reception enough that the Zen’zat decided to go active even if it attracted the attention of the minions. It seemed the Hadarak was too busy to worry about the flea of a ship the Wur’ki was, so after several dozen minutes of waiting the first active signals returned to the Wur’ki and set off a very unusual and loud alarm.

  Indicators flashed up warnings along with the ship profiles of the smaller vessels…indicating that they were Zak’de’ron vessels. Exactly the same designs as they had once used, no variation or disguise whatsoever, and it appeared the larger vessels were made of similar technology, though the design of those had never been seen before.

  “Is this really happening?” one of the Zen’zat on the command deck asked the ship’s commander.

  “I don’t know how, but those ships are reading as Zak’de’ron. I’ve never even heard that name before, but the computer says…”

  “What?” another Zen’zat asked as the commander’s eyes were glued to the text readouts that accompanied the alarm.

  “They’re the precursor form of the Les’i’kron, thought to be extinct, and we’re ordered to report any sighting immediately. Override of existing orders established.”

  “You mean before the Les’i’kron were culled?”

  “Apparently so. Those are V’kit’no’sat ships that shouldn’t exist, and they’re not registering any IDs.”

  “We have to leave, now,” the commander said. “The orders are clear. Get all evidence we can, but we’re running. Max speed.”

  “What if they intercept?”

  “We do our duty. Now get us as much of a head start as possible.”

  “We should avoid the star entirely,” the helmsman suggested. “Slow jump out from here to be on the safe side…after we see what happens.”

  The commander chewed his lip as he considered that. Running past these Zak’de’ron to get to the star would give them a chance to intercept, but if they stayed out here they could see them coming and jump away slowly if they chased after them. They’d get out of the system, but in the next they could get caught if the chasers dipped back down near the star to get a faster push with their gravity drives.

  But if they were going to rendezvous with the Hadarak, either as an ally or for combat, Itaru needed to know. No priority 1 enemy had ever been known in his time as Zen’zat, and while he didn’t understand what was going on here he knew Mak’to’ran would need to know as much as possible. The question was, how could he ensure they would get away and still get data on the upcoming encounter?

  “Move us towards the 8th planet. Take us slow and watch for any intercepts, minions or Zak’de’ron. If nothing comes for us we’ll draw this out. If something does, we don’t take any chance and go. Make sure the capacitors are full and stand ready to run reactors at high output. I want as much of a jump as we can manage off the planet.”

  With that the Wur’ki began drifting away from the Hadarak as the beast moved in closer to the star where the newly arrived ships appeared to wait for it at the jumppoint it was coming in on. But before that encounter occurred the three massive ships broke apart, revealing that they were in fact transport containers.

  The Wur’ki didn’t get any good pictures from so far out, but what it did get of the three Uriti battling with and eventually killing the Hadarak was enough to chill all the Zen’zat to the bone…and when they eventually did make their slow jump out of the system they didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. Not until several jumps later when they rendezvoused with the nearest combat fleet and passed on their valuable data packet…and the commander of that fleet canceled their return scouting mission in favor of more experienced scouts.

  8

  February 7, 128465

  Itaru System (V’kit’no’sat Capitol)

  Wendigama

  Mak’to’ran was sleeping when word arrived through the Urrtren of the Zak’de’ron’s reemergence, and even though they had not struck the V’kit’no’sat, the empire was incensed and panicked even before he was able to arrive at the Elder Conclave after viewing the reports and issuing non-engagement unless fired upon orders that would take time to work their way out across the galaxy.

  When he arrived at the Elder Conclave there was a mix of individuals who already knew the Zak’de’ron were suspected to be alive and many others who had not been previously informed. More than that, large portions of the empire were never told the truth about the Zak’de’ron. Rather they believed the lie that they were simply an older version of the Les’i’kron prior to their being culled. Now that the Zak’de’ron had returned, they were getting an unpleasant history lesson from those that knew the truth and many of the younger ones in relatively high positions were furious and demanding to know why they had been lied to.

  There were too many things happening at once for Mak’to’ran to deal with. The Zak’de’ron hadn’t fired a single shot at the empire, yet they had sent it into a confused panic nonetheless. Right now they needed leadership badly, so he was going to the top and starting there, knowing that many others would be viewing the Elder Conclave today as no one dared to make it a closed session with such outrage and panic flowing through Itaru and beyond like a ripple as word traveled across the Urrtren.

  Mak’to’ran walked quickly but did not run as he made his way from outer entrance to the central mount, which he climbed to the top of so that he stood above the head height of all in the miles wide chamber that had numerous ‘islands’ that consisted of slightly elevated pads that each race’s representatives stood or laid upon, and each of which had a technological interface that duplicated Mak’to’ran’s image via holo for those too far away to see him well…which was most of them.

  “Be still and listen,” he said slowly, calmly. “The Zak’de’ron are still alive and in possession of the 3 missing Uriti. This is not good news, but it is something that I have suspected for a long time. We have been quietly preparing for their return, not knowing where in the galaxy they were located. We could not attack that which we could not find, and there was many flaws in our security that the Zak’de’ron could exploit if they wished, including shutting down the entire Urrtren. I could not tell you of their existence without risking them striking us early, before we were ready. I also did not tell you because there was not a war to fight. They were hiding, and this is our first proof of their existence, but we are not being caught unaware.”

  “To those of you who do not know who the Zak’de’ron are, that is not my doing. The Elder Conclave decided long before I took power to lie about who and what they are. The Les’i’kron are not the Zak’de’ron, they are their lesser cousins. The Zak’de’ron are far more powerful, and it was they who created the V’kit’no’sat so that the empire could assist them with the Hadarak threat. They ruled the V’kit’no’sat. It was not a co-equal sharing of power with the Oso’lon and J’gar. Then, when I was young and not aware of what was happening, the V’kit’no’sat decided to eliminate the Zak’de’ron and nearly did so. Apparently we were not totally successful, and the Zak’de’ron survivors have been hiding in the galaxy waiting to return. They do so now to fight the Hadarak. What of their vendetta against us, I do not know. We have had no communication with them whatsoever.”

  “If they attack us, we will defend ourselves, but we will not instigate combat. Their first sighting has been in combat against the Hadarak. If they wish to engage them, then I welcome the help. I do not believe they will be allies, but we cannot afford to fight a war with the Zak’de’ron if it is avoidable. The Hadarak threaten us all, so we will wait and see what the Zak’de’ron do. Our empire is prepared for a war against them…I have made sure of it. They would be foolish to engage in one, but their hatred of us must be vast, so it is a threat that I will not ignore. But make note, that if they wished to engage in a surprise attack on us, they have wasted the opportunity.”

 

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