Maty by Aer-ki Jyr (big screen ebook reader .TXT) 📗

is your total destruction? Do you have a short term mission of such great value?”

“We are reverse-engineering the technology of the Maty, and every day we hold it we grow stronger. We will not relinquish it under any circumstances.”

“How will you get this information back to the other PanNari?”

“I am not trapped here. Only those on the planet are.”

“Is this technology valuable for you to possess, or for you to solely possess?”

“If possession of the Maty itself is not disputed, we are willing to bargain for your assistance.”

There. That’s what Mak’to’ran had been expecting. Logic rather than blind fervor.

“Why do the Hadarak want it so badly?”

“It comes from an ancient power greater than them, and contains records of places and events across this galaxy from before either of our races existed. There are more than one of these facilities in this galaxy, but none others have been discovered. They are places of great power, but also built to facilitate the education of lesser races and individuals who would travel here to learn. That knowledge the Hadarak have already partially assimilated. The real power is that of the Gahana, and the Hadarak cannot access it easily in their biological state. The Gahana were living machines such as us, only far more advanced. Their legacy will accelerate our development by millions of years at the minimum. Do you understand the significance for us now, Era’tran?”

“Are the previous owners going to return for it at some point?”

“They cannot. This galaxy became toxic for them, and the conditions of that toxicity are still present. It is a lost relic that we shall possess.”

“Granted,” Mak’to’ran agreed. “And we will help you secure it in exchange for access to the relic and your promise of no discovery being hidden from us. We may not be living machines, but there may be useful upgrades for our non-living ones.”

“We only agree to your terms because we cannot allow the Hadarak to possess this place again. We are willing to die to achieve this if necessary, and do not like sharing the dominance the secrets will provide, but the Hadarak response to our taking it from them has been more severe than anticipated. We require assistance for permanent possession.”

“Then we are here to make our first contribution. Where can we best assist you in killing them?”

The Elloquim’s response came not in words, but a datapacket outlining every weak point in the Hadarak positions across the system and on the 8th planet where the Maty was located, and some 18 Elloquim were partially buried in the crust around it, protecting it with their mass and weaponry, though the information showed continual damage they were repairing in a race against attrition as the Hadarak swarms above continually made attack runs at them to wear them down in addition to the overland assaults coming from much further away.

Mak’to’ran saw a sea of minions around the location, moving across the ground and being destroyed so quickly it wasn’t worth effort…but they kept coming and coming, and the information on those support ships made clear the reason why they could keep up that continual slaughter.

They were growth ships continually fueling the ground assault with new blood as harvesters were collecting resources from around the system and within the stars to produce a never-ending stream of them.

Mak’to’ran waved off the comm channel and brought up the system map in more detail as he summoned over his top minds to the center of the command deck to help him plan the best use of their fleet amongst so many…too many…available targets.

8

September 30, 154959

System 9923004 (Hadarak-Occupied Territory)

8th planet

Every day Kyra was in battle. Every day without exception since she had landed inside the great complex now known as ‘Maty.’ The others were known as Snoejy, Buenzy, and Teurty, and their locations had been determined by the numerous Craniem now located inside Maty that Kyra and many more QuipNari were fighting to protect. They knew they couldn’t win this war. They knew they couldn’t hold Maty forever. But the longer they did the more knowledge the Craniems would deceipher from the operating systems and database, and each day they held out their race would advance by leaps and bounds.

It was the single most important task Kyra and the others had ever been a part of, and in truth, she knew that was also true of the Elloquim and every other PanNari in this system…including all of those who had died. Kyra had expected to join them eventually, for she’d been injured near death twice already, but that did diminish her eagerness to face the swarms of Hadarak sneaking their way into the Maty. It was her quest now, and fatigue was not an issue most days as she rode around inside a Kel’zat and went diving into the worst of the fighting.

The sentries and other attack drones the PanNari had brought with them were also in play, but the Maty was so huge they couldn’t defend all of it, only certain sections, and the Gahana technology was proving to be far more battle worthy than their own…most of which had been reduced to trash that other teams were collecting and recycling inside Nevantha and the other closest Elloquim who had burrowed tunnels down to certain entrances and now had a direct linkage to them encased in Nam’sti’tri molded armor hundreds of meters thick.

The Elloquim produced it in a liquid state, then poured it down through the cracks in the bedrock around their burrow points, then hit it with a specific frequency of energy that caused it to solidify within minutes as a chain reaction took place. One exposure up top would eventually bind all of it together, and it was proving to be an effective means of keeping the Hadarak out of the comm and cargo links to the nearby