NationStates Jolt Archive

Darm-class bombers swooped overhead, their engines roaring and blowing down trees as they dropped their payloads. Small round bombs slammed into the soft earth below, blasting dozens of human-like creatures into the air like ragdolls, falling back down and breaking on rocks.

A town appeared to be under attack. White, rounded buildings made from stone were now scorched and blasted to pieces by the overhead assault. A nearby clearing was illuminated, red and blue bolts of deadly light zoomed back and forth above the grass, killing or burning anything they hit.

Gerash Specials. Huge brutes armoured from head to toe in glistening silver metal. Their heads encased in large snake-heads, their hands clutching huge black plasma rifles. Gerash were relentless in combat. Red lasers hit them, they stumbled, and roared, stepping forwards with smoking holes in their otherwise flawless armour and firing even faster than before.

The human-like people seemed to be unprepared. Armed with small, primitive laser rifles and wearing loose, ragged clothing. They defended the small town, a mere handful of them against hundreds of greater opponents. They fought valiantly, women and children joining them in their defence, but it was a futile attempt. Gerash took no prisoners. Only snacks.

“Reklar!!!” the leader of the Gerash roared, waving his rifle in the air as his helmet retracted to reveal his powerful snout. His men roared in response and started running at the broken town, firing blue blasts of plasma as they ran. The mammals dropped like flies, scurrying deeper into the town. Terrified. As they should be.

One Gerash looked back as he reached the small white wall that surrounded the town. Several others nodded. As he climbed over the wall and dropped down to the other side, his comrades perched themselves on the wall, covering him.
The Gerash cautiously stepped through the rubble with his massive metal boot, kicking rocks out of the way when they were too big to step over.
A female mammal, unarmed, stepped from the house, screaming and running to escape. The Gerash tripped her and quickly stamped on her head, killing her instantly. The horrendous cracking sound that resulted indicated that her skull was crushed. He continued.
As he was about to round a corner and walk out onto a main street, the two who were covering him dropped down from the wall and sprinted over, taking up new positions. He stepped cautiously out, looking from side to side with the green eyes of the large serpent helmet. He rounded a central square punctuated by a now-dead water fountain and reached a large white building. He peered around the door, immediately stepping backwards when a hail of red lightning nearly removed his head.

“I have found it,” the Gerash said gruffly. “Destroy the entire building.”

“Acknowledged,” a voice said, with a backdrop of whistling air. “Moving in now.”

As the Gerash sprinted away from the building, leaving behind a small transponder, two Darm bombers appeared on the horizon. They flew over the building with a roar, pulling up at the last second and leaving behind several small bombs. They hit the building, exploding with such force that the entire building was literally ‘rammed’ downwards, collapsing in on itself violently. Anyone inside would have been killed, almost certainly. A cloud of dust billowed across the entire town. The Gerash didn’t bother shielding themselves; their helmets would protect them.

And that was it. The entire Keldonishian civilisation had been totally exterminated. A population of 900 million reduced to nothing. Men, women, children, soldiers, civilians, factory workers, farmers, office workers… all dead. Their corpses littered the entire planet, in major cities, small towns, country estates… the stench of death was everywhere. Blood quite literally ran through the streets like rivers. Such was the price paid by technologically deficient civilisations standing on planets with resources the Imperium wanted.
The Ghargonian officer in command of the ground troops emerged from one of the side alleys and placed one of his boots on the dead central fountain. He pressed a button on his belt and the serpent helmet elegantly retracted into a compartment on the back, revealing his powerful green snout. His yellow eyes narrowed as he through up an arm and roared in victory. The Gerash surrounding him did likewise, throwing their arms up and roaring. As the roaring spread outwards across the entire army, the roaring could be heard for miles. And then it stopped.

The Ghargonian officer stepped down and held his wrist up to his jaw.

“General Trekkor, come in please,” he growled. Gerash around him started milling around, throwing huge chunks of stone rubble into the air as they searched for any survivors.

“This is General Grekkor, report,” a deep voice came through.

“This is First of the First,” the ground officer stated. “I have unofficial confirmation of 100% extermination. The planet is now dead.”



In his office, General Trekkor stood with his arms behind his back, standing commandingly in front of his window, looking into deep space thoughtfully. Music played, something particularly unusual seeing as Ghargonians didn’t have music. It was music from Earth; Mars, the Bringer of War, roared through the speakers. Datapads on his metal desk vibrated and move slowly across the smooth metal surface.

“Excellent work, First,” Trekkor bellowed. “Complete your confirmation and prepare to receive the first batch.”

“Acknowledged,” First’s voice said. “Ground force out.”

All was as scheduled.

Fifty-Second hated total exterminations. They were so very tedious; traipsing around the planet, looking for survivors of the main onslaught and finishing them. He wouldn't mind, but he didn't really see a point to exterminating this species. They were barely intelligent, but they could have been reasoned with. It would have been a lot cheaper, and easier. And Fifty-Second could have stayed aboard the Kranlos and slept. Or eaten something. He was worried as he hadn't seen a single verkosaur around here. That meant they were either eating rations, or something else...

He was stepping over rubble and debris, poking his head around the ruined buildings and scanning for lifeforms, looking for survivors.
He stopped kicking rubble out of the way as he heard something. A clicking sound of some kind. Could just be some of the local wildlife, and they didn't need to exterminate the local wildlife, just the dominant species. All the same, it didn't sound far away.

He stepped into a building, following the sound of the clicking sound. He heard a voice now, too, speaking the tongue of this world's species. He held up his scanner, surprised to see that it was reading a single mammal up ahead. He quietly pulled a sheet of metal to one side and stepped through a narrow gap, clutching his plasma pistol in readiness. He peered around the wall, looking into the trees. This small town was surrounded by forest, and forest rarely made for good visibility.

Whoever it was, it was still talking. To itself, if the scanner was anything to go by. The insane creature was somewhere nearby, just inside those trees. He stepped away from the building, carefully jogging up to a tree trunk and peering around. He squinted in disbelief as he saw what was there.

One of the mammals they were exterminating, definitely. Those human-like features were unmistakably ugly. A member of their militia, no less; he wore a brown, torn uniform with blue patches signifying rank. Although a primitive laser pistol hung in a holster attached to his belt, he wasn't particularly worried about the creature. No formal training, no experience, slower reactions and a more primitive, less reliable weapon reduced his chances significantly enough as it was, but he didn't even know Fifty-Second was there.

No, it was the creature he was talking to that was of interest to him. Long, spindly legs, with flat 'pads' on the bottom rather than feet, paws or hooves. Its legs were bent the opposite directly to most bipedal species; its knees were at the rear, and they were actually bent quite far. Fifty-Second imagined that if the creature stood to its full height, it would dwarf even a Gerash, if not in width.
Its arms were long, apparently with a ball joint that allowed it to bend it in many directions. It was incredibly skinny; if it were a mammal or a reptile he'd think it to be near-death, but it looked more like an insect than anything else. Its lanky body was topped with a peculiar, 'anvil' shaped head. The top 'corners' of its head had two tiny black eyes, which blinked rapidly. Once in a while the mammal would stop talking, and this insect would start, opening its mouth to reveal dagger-like, metallic teeth. The clicking sounds it made were very peculiar indeed; they were rapid, high-pitched and quiet. They seemed to make a cohesive language, but Fifty-Second couldn't understand a word of it. The mammal didn't seem to have any trouble, though, remarkable for a species as limited as theirs.

The creature looked strangely familiar to Fifty-Second... he couldn't quite put his claw on it, but he recognised it somehow.

The two creatures were definitely communicating; an exchange of words in two completely different languages. Fifty-Second supposed that the one lacked the vocal capabilities to mimic the other, but both understood each other. He wasn't about to leave them talking long enough know for sure. He pressed the button that released his pistol and pulled it from the holster, aiming it between the two of them and stepping out from behind his cover. With his other hand he held a small translator device up to his snout, beside his mouth.

"You two," he said commandingly. "Drop any weapons you are holding and lie face-down on the ground."

The mammal immediately pulled his pistol out from his holster and tossed it to the ground, putting his hands up. The brown creature didn't do anything but look at Fifty-Second, though. He blinked slowly, cocked his head sideways, and then looked back at the mammal. The mammal shrugged, wide-eyed.

"You are an Impure," the brown creature said finally, in a hissing, snake-like voice with a distinctly Ghargonian-like growl. "A Ghargonian, yesss. I know thisss."

"Who are you?" Fifty-Second called. "What are you doing here? What's going on?"

The brown creature remained silent again, its spindly arms hanging limp by its sides.

"I won't ask again," Fifty-Second growled.

Like a 70mph bus, realisation suddenly hit Fifty-Second. He almost stepped backwards as though he had actually been hit by something. This was a Kree. He recognised it because of the briefing he had received some time ago.

"Then I will not forccce you to," the brown creature said. It seemed to smile, its metallic teeth glaring the sun in his face.

"Oh frek," Fifty-Second said. The Kree's arm snapped up, aiming a ring-like device at him. He leapt to one side, firing his pistol at the creature as he went. The blue bolts impacted on the Kree like they were flies on the bonnet of a car; it was nudged slightly, but didn't appear harmed.
In retaliation, the Kree fired a rapid volley of yellow energy pulses in his direction, missing narrowly. Fifty-Second hit the ground with a thud and rolled to his feet, just in time to get out of the way of another volley.
He held his arm backwards, firing blindly in the Kree's general direction as a hail of yellow pulses flew past him. He ducked and jumped through the foliage until he emerged from the forest again, almost running into a wall. A pulse blasted into the wall right above his head, sending chunks of molten rock flying. He looked around to see the Kree wave. It pressed a button on its ring device, and the air around the creature started to ripple. As it vanished it turned and sprinted off, deeper into the forest. The terrified mammal grabbed its weapon and scrambled to its feet, also running clumsily deeper into the forest, nearly tripping up several times.

Fifty-Second braced himself against the wall of the building, gasping.
That was too close, he thought. Sighing, he held up his wrist and pressed a button.

"Sir?" he said into his wrist. "Sir, we have a problem..." No response. A frekking excellent time for the communicator to break. He growled angrily and forced his way back into the building he had originally passed through, and started to make his way back.



Several transport pods emerged from fireballs that streaked through the atmosphere, finally past the worst of entering the atmosphere. The engine ports at the rear extended slightly, forming miniature wings to help with the flight.

The long ships descended to the centre of a makeshift military base -- a collection of tents and empty vehicles in the centre of a large grassy clearing -- and gently touched the ground, their roaring engines retracting again and shutting down.

The rear ramps dropped down, and several civilians stepped out of each pod. some were females. Females could serve in the military if they wished; indeed, there were no sexist laws in place and there never had been, and females were more capable than males in combat. But females preferred to prove their superiority to males through intellectual pursuits.

"Xeno-archaeological team reporting as requested," one of the civilians said, the lead researcher. A Ghargonian soldier nodded at two nearby Gerash, and then stepped over to greet them.

"Greetings," the soldier said. "I am First Guardian of the First Shocktrooper Division; you must be Researcher Elros."

"That's right," Elros nodded.

"We will take you to the underground entrance at dawn tomorrow," First said. "For now, night approaches, and the extermination has not yet been officially completed."

"Excellent," Elros nodded. "I am eager to see more of this 'facility' that your commander mentioned."

Elros covered his head slightly as First blasted some rock out of the way with his plasma rifle. These caves were dark, damp, and cold. The cold was the worst part of all. It was alright for these military types, with their thermal regulation systems in their armour, but Elros could feel his body getting stiffer.

"We are nearly there," First called over his shoulder. "It is warmer there, for some reason."

"Good," Elros shouted back. He looked over his shoulder, made sure his team was still there, and then looked back. He stepped over a rock and around a corner, and stopped in his tracks when he realised it was light in this next area.

He looked around; it was a fairly large cavern. Features had been carved into the rock a long time ago, features like stairs, platforms, even alcoves that probably formed rooms. Cutting stone was nothing new, though; it was the contents of the cavern that fascinated him the most.
Whether the pink and blue metals were painted or naturally that colour he didn't know, but they definitely seemed to form curvaceous computer consoles. Highly advanced computer consoles from the looks of them. Then there was a device on a higher level of the cavern; a tall, narrow, cone-shaped object with fins at the top.
Lighting was built into the roof of the cavern, and panels were built into the walls at various places.

"Who put all this stuff here?" Elros asked, his mouth gaping. "What does it all do?"

"That's your job," First snorted. "I just shoot stuff."

"Yes of course..." Elros nodded vaguely. "Do you know where the power generator for all... this... is?"

"There are several caverns like this," First said. "A Gerash squad is searching for anything that may be a generator right now."

"I'll need a Tech team from your ship," Elros said, walking over to one of the ancient consoles. "As an archaeologist I know quite a bit about technology, but their assistance would greatly speed this along."

"Understood," First nodded. "I'll put in a request as soon as I'm clear of this cave. The General is particularly interested in what that might be." He pointed at the tall cone-shaped object on the other side of the cavern. Made from the same strange pink-blue metal as the other things here, it did not end in a single point, but instead three prongs. Not much further down from the top were three upward-pointing fins, the ends of which reached a height equal to that of the prongs. A console was built into the side of the narrow cone, but other than that, the surface was flawless. It had no obvious function; the prongs could be an emitter for a weapon, perhaps some sort of planetary defence gun. But it seemed to be fixed to the floor of the cavern, and there was no hole for any weapon discharge to pass through.

"I think our first priority then," Elros said. "Should be finding the power generator so that we can get these computers online and start translating whatever writing or words they throw at us. There might be something contained in their databanks."

"I'll go and order that Tech team now, then," First nodded, and started walking out. "If you need to leave for any reason, the Gerash will escort you to the surface."

"Whatever," Elros said, sitting down on a stood beside one of the computers, looking over the controls. His research team began to spread out across the cave, examining different items. This would probably take some time.

Weeks of research, of tinkering, of fiddling, had led to the hum that now greeted them. This place was more than 2,500,000 cycles old and yet it still had power. Even Imperium technology couldn't manage such a feat. Nobody was sure exactly what this power generator ran on; there was nothing to indicate whether it was a nuclear fusion reactor, a matter/antimatter reactor, an artificial singularity-based power supply, some kind of biological power...

Whatever it was, it was good. The power readings on their sensors had gone off the scale. It could power a hundred thousand battleships, yet it was only four feet high. If they could discover the secret of this power supply and reproduce it, the galaxy would be theirs for the taking...

Elros walked back into the larger cavern. He'd dubbed it the 'control centre' because of the morass of computer stations that were there. He glanced up at the strange cone-shaped device, and shook his head. Still no change. The team up there were scanning it and shaking their heads in disappointment.

Some of the computers had come online, though. Orange text scrolled long the screen rapidly. Elros moved over to one and tapped one of the buttons. The text slowed down, and he squinted at it. Definitely not Ghargonian, but...

He yanked his pad up excitedly and started working away, pulling up datafiles. Grishnaki language banks. He held the pad next to the small screen, and looked between the two. The language on these computers was definitely Grishnaki. This was big.

"Jop, here, now!" Elros called. One of his assistants looked up and darted over to him.

"Yes, chief?" Jop said. He was very short for a Ghargonian, at just under five feet. He was probably just a child, on an apprentice sort-of scheme.

"I need you to go and fetch the First," Elros told him. "There is something very important he needs to see."

"Yes chief, I'll go now," Jop nodded. He ran up the steps towards the cave tunnels and disappeared.

*****

"Report!" Trekkor roared as sparks flew from a nearby console.

"The energy barrier... it held!" one of his officers cheered. "The anti-Kree modifications worked!"

"They won't hold for long though," Trekkor growled. "How many ships?"

"Another fifteen just jumped in, sir," the officer said. "Time to leave?"

"Time to leave," Trekkor nodded. "Inform the planetside team that we're being forced to pull out, and that we'll return with reinforcements as soon as possible. Helm, photonic jump, any heading."

"Message sent," the officer nodded.

The huge vessel slowly turned to starboard, its ailing shields being pounded by bright yellow energy blasts. And then, it fired itself off into the distance in an explosion of red, and disappeared from sight. The lone Kree ship flew over where the Ghargonian ship had been, and another fifteen Kree ships soon joined it in an orbit of the planet below. Small 'switchblade' fighters started to drop from their underbellies. As their wings folded out they turned and dived into the atmosphere.

"Are you sure?" First asked, looking down at the panel.

"There's no doubt," Elros shook his head. "Unless another species from another planet developed exactly the same language as them, this is Grishnaki technology."

"I though they were made extinct before they developed any technology?" First said. "I thought we made them extinct, millions of years ago."

"Apparently they were already in space by then," Elros shrugged. "It's possible there are installations like this on Ghargonia Prime, although getting to the ground level of the city and digging would be nearly impossible now."

"Can you find out what that is?" First asked, and pointed at the cone.

"If it's in the databanks I can find out," Elros nodded. "But I really think we should focus on the power supply in there, it's really something. If we could..."

"Researcher," First interrupted him. "The General thinks this cone here could be a weapon. We like weapons. This is a military-funded operation, you'll do as we ask. However, make the power supply a secondary objective."

"As you wish," Elros sighed. "Jop; you and Uni start going through the computer logs and translating it. If you find anything that could relate to the cone, tell me immediately."

"Yes boss," Jop nodded.

"I'm going to head back up again," First told Elros. "Send for me if you find anything."

First turned and started walking out of the cave. As he reached the network of passageways he turned his thermal regulation system up a notch, and made his way outside. Just in time to see a huge bolt of yellow energy slam into the camp from the sky, vaporising all the personnel that were there and blowing the weapons stockpiles to pieces. A few soldiers were tossed away by the force of the blast, luckily out of range of the bolt itself.

"What the..." First said, stepping a little forwards. Several brown fighters with forward-curving wings swooped down and started firing at people on the ground. A few Gerash sent some of their own blue bolts into the sky. The fighters seemed unaffected. First had seen these ships before. Those switch-blade wings, the long, brown, featureless cockpit. They were Kree fighters.

"All personnel, this is First of the First," he said into his wrist communicator. "Grab whatever weapons you can and get into the caves, NOW."

In the distance, some of the Gerash and Ghargonians looked over at the caves and nodded. They started sprinting over, dodging the hail of weapons fire that came from above. When all the people strong enough to survive the run made it into the cave, First stepped back and fired at the mouth with his plasma rifle. After a few shots there was a rumbling sound, and rubble collapsed into the entrance, blocking out the light. First nodded and jogged down into the cavern again. This was going to be interesting.

First jumped into the caverns and through a plasma grenade behind him. The explosion from that sent rocks flying everywhere as the tunnel caved in. He looked around at the dig site, and nodded.

"OK, warriors and civilians alike," he called. "We have a very serious problem. Kree ships have just destroyed our make-shift base near here and killed pretty much all of our group. Whether the units on the rest of this planet are OK or not I do not know; I have not made contact with them. What this does mean, however, is that our ship has either retreated or been destroyed. Either way we are stuck here, without air support. The cave-ins should hold off the Kree for a while, and they may not even know we are here. Now, am I right in assuming that all civilians here underwent basic weapons and physical combat training at school?"

All the civilians nodded, shouting various versions of 'yes'.

"I haven't finished mine yet, sir!" Jop called, raising his hand.

"Alright then," First nodded. "Someone take him somewhere and give him a crash-course in the operation of a GIR44. The rest of you, if you're not armed -- find a weapon. Seventh! Are you in here?"

"Yes sir!" a soldier called out, shoving some civilians out of the way and stepping out of the crowd.

"Did we manage to get hold of any SCRs?" First asked quietly.

"I'm afraid not, sir," Seventh shook his head. "The Kree seemed to know exactly where they were and hit them directly. Even if any of them are still intact, no-one could get near them now."

"Damn," First said, slamming his fist into a wall. "ELROS! Get over here!"

The researcher looked up from the console he was working on, and started heading for First. He stepped up next to him and Seventh.

"Yes?"

"Have you figured out how to work... well, anything, in here?" First asked. "Specifically, have you found out what that 'cone' does?"

"I am making some progress," Elros told him. "You have to remember that before I can even attempt to figure out how to work anything, I have to translate all the controls into Ghargonian. This is a very ancient language, and I'm working more off instinct and extrapolation than actual knowledge. I'm not a dedicated linguist. He was killed, as you may recall."

"Yes," First nodded. "I am afraid that you are going to have to pick up the pace a little. If these Grishnaki were anything like us, they would have installed some sort of defences on this facility -- find them, and switch them on."

"I'll try my best," Elros nodded, and patted his chest, mimicking a Ghargonian salute. "Death to all." He stepped back down, and started moving people out of his way so that he could work better.

"Seventh, I have a task for you," First said, leaning closer. "Take a small team, and try to locate an alternate exit to this facility. Assuming you find one, if the Kree have already located it, destroy it. Otherwise, head out and see if you can find any transports still intact, or at least try to make contact with the Kranlos."

"Yes sir," Seventh nodded, and slammed his arm across his chest. "Fifteenth! Two Gerash! With me!" He stepped down to the lower level, and led another Ghargonian and two Gerash out of the cavern, towards some of the smaller caverns that made up the facility.

It was a large facility, and the scientists still hadn't mapped it all out yet. First only hoped they could locate a way out. Otherwise he'd have to rely on science to get them out...