Star People

Chapter 13

The Planet Ravager

Feb 5^th, 12 AE…

The Council of Prime Director’s Conference Room…

“As you are all well aware during our war with the Cryterians, the Planet Ravager was… I mean, is one of the most brutal and destructive weapons ever created to kill all organic life.” Benjamin stated as a three-dimensional image of the device was displayed on the main holo-monitor.

“Yes, we remember full well how one of those things forced us off our home planet of Katyron.” Anida remarked while frowning.

“The Planet Ravager gets its name by using any of a planet’s materials to create a nearly unstoppable army of crystalline mechanoids to destroy all organic life.” Nerto said. “Any material, regardless of whether it is organic or inorganic can be used. Even the corpses of its victims. It will propagate these mechanoids on an exponential scale. In less than a week, a single unit can create an army of over 5 billion mechanoids.”

 “The mechnoids themselves are quite difficult to destroy, due to the hardness of their crystalline bodies and their ability to absorb various forms of ambient energy.” Nasaak commented. “As a result, we had to resort to more physical methods to combat them. Hence the reason why we built the Battle-Mechs. And they were quite effective, until the Cryterian Armada came in and destroyed our home planet of Catlana.”

“On Earth, we barely managed to defeat one Planet Ravager, and it killed over 4 billion people.” The Terran Director said. “Afterwards we put up a defensive barrier to keep any more of those things from landing. It worked, until the Cryterians forced their way through and destroyed the planet.”

“Well, as informative as this reminiscing is, there’s still one big question. What are we going to do about the Planet Ravager that’s heading our way?” Viska pointed out.

“The Planet Ravager has engaged its phase-shift cloaking field.” The Velor Director stated. “As a result, our sensors can only detect very faint readings from it and only at very short distances. It will only be fully detectable after it enters a planet’s atmosphere.”

“By that time, it will be almost too late to stop it from landing on the surface and begin producing mechanoids.” Nasaak growled. “We’d have to deploy our forces and destroy it the instant we detect it.”

“It’s even worse in this case.” The blue-skinned Director added. “On Katyron, we discovered that the Planet Ravager will feed on certain energy emissions, making it stronger and able to produce mechanoids even faster. It was especially receptive toward psion-based energy. In other words, magic.”

“And this planet has a higher-than-average level of psions in its atmosphere. Not good.” Verto shook his head. “If the inhabitants try to use magic against the Planet Ravager or its mechanoids, they’ll just make them stronger and cause them to replicate even faster.”

“So we have to warn the people to keep their distance and not use any magic against it.” Viska said.

“We might cause a world panic if we did that.” Nasaak countered. “Not to mention that there are some individuals out there who still don’t believe that we come from the stars, let alone that there’s a doomsday device heading toward us.”

“In any case, we must prepare for the Planet Ravager’s arrival and prevent it from creating mechanoids.” Benjamin stated before changing the image on the holo-viewer. “As I remember, the outer shell is made of a crystallized substance that is similar in durability to neutronium. It’s basically as hard as a piece of white dwarf star matter.”

“Which means, not even the Missouri’s Neo-Proton Wave Gun would be able to scratch it.”  The Catian Prime Director remarked. “Fortunately, the mechanoids it produces are made of a lesser material. They’re still tough, but they can be destroyed if enough force is applied to crack their shells and destroy their cores. The main problems are their sheer force of numbers, their regenerative abilities, and their ability to absorb various types of energy, especially psions.”

“Destroying or stopping the Planet Ravager before it can produce mechanoids should be our main goal.” Anida stated before turning to the Terran Director. “As I recall, your people were able to stop the Planet Ravager on Earth.”

“That’s right. We found out that the Ravager continued to create mechanoids so long as it detected organic life on the planet. So we managed to transmit a specialized computer virus to fool it into thinking it had already succeeded in killing all life. That caused it to go temporarily into stasis and stopped creating mechanoids. We then sealed it in an energy-dampening material before it finished rebooting, and launched it into our Sun. Afterwards; we finished off the remaining Mechanoids.”

“Do you think that computer virus trick would work on this Ravager? Perhaps we can trick it into thinking that all life on this planet has ceased and therefore there is no need to create mechanoids?”

“It’s a possibility. It’s not one hundred percent guaranteed though. We need to wait until it makes planetfall in order to transmit the virus. It won’t receive the virus while it is cloaked due to phase-shift interference. Nor will it receive the virus while passing through this planet’s atmosphere. And what worked for one Ravager might not work for another. We’ve never had to test it on a second one. After getting rid of the Ravager on Earth, we set up the planetary defense shields to prevent future incursions.”

“A slim chance is better than none.” Nerto said. “It would also be best to have a few backup plans in case the virus fails. We expect the Ravager to make planetfall sometime today, near midday on the western hemisphere. We’ve already received word that most of our Starfighter and Battle-Mech pilots on the planet have been recalled. All destroyers, cruisers and capital ships are reporting in. All Battle-Mech divisions on this planet are being activated. The fleet that is still in orbit is already on standby alert. Both the Missouri and the Yorktown are being mobilized.”

“It’s a terrible shame that we have to pull Captain Delan away from his new baby girl.” Ben remarked.

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The Delan home…

“Are you certain that you don’t want me to…?”

“You’re still on maternity leave, Sweetheart.” Mark said as he prepared to leave for the Missouri. In his wife’s arms was their newborn daughter Rebecca, peacefully asleep. Standing beside Reelan was their eldest child, Rachel. Her father knelt down to give her a hug.

“Make sure to look after your Mommy and your sister, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy!”

As he stood up, he nodded to their live-in housekeeper. “Make sure Reelan doesn’t exert herself and take care of my family, Kisar.”

“But of course. Be safe Mark.” The elderly, female Velar said.

“The Missouri needs its First Officer…” Reelan insisted, only to be cut off by her husband embracing her and their new daughter.

“I’m sure that Harken will do a fine job filling in for you. Everything will be all right. I have to go now.”

Seeing that he was not going to brook any more arguments, Reelan let off a sigh and nodded. “Come back soon, Darling.”

Giving his family a parting embrace and a kiss to his wife, Captain Delan rushed off to a waiting transport to take him to New Pearl Harbor.

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Fifteen minutes later…

“Captain on the bridge!” Lieutenant Commander Harken announced as Mark arrived.

“As you were.” Delan said as he sat down in his command chair. Instead of sitting in his usual position, his third-in-command was now occupying the First Officer’s chair on Mark’s right, in Reelan’s absence.

“May I offer my congratulations on the birth of your second child, Captain? I trust that Commander Reelan and her new daughter are doing well?”

“Thank you, Lt. Commander. They’re doing fine. Status report?”

“All Missouri crew, save for Commander Reelan, present and accounted for. We’ve just received orders to move out and head for a location near the southern portion of the Vados continent.”

“The Vados continent?”

“Yes sir. Even though we cannot track the Planet Ravager precisely while it’s using its cloaking field, its last know trajectory placed the location of its landing to be on that continent.”

“Have the nations of that continent been warned?”

“We have sent messages to both the Kingdom of Naran and Empire of Euracon about the approaching danger, as well as all the smaller territories and countries near the continent. However, it seems that both Naran and Euracon are ignoring our message.”

“What? Weren’t they informed about the dangers of the Planet Ravager?”

“Apparently, they do not believe us. Naran seems to think that they can easily defend themselves from attack and Euracon said that anything that lands in their territory will automatically become property of the Empire.”

“Those idiots! We’re trying to prevent a catastrophe of planetary proportions! They better hope we’ll be able to deactivate that thing before it hits the ground! If it starts producing mechanoids, then the entire population of the Vados continent will be wiped out within a matter of days!”

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The Kingdom of Naran…

“Your Majesty, do you think it was wise to disregard the warnings of Free Land?” The advisor asked.

Vilgar Sensherine IX, the ruler of Naran, nonchalantly waved a hand and replied. “I find it extremely suspicious that Free Land would suddenly warn us that a great weapon of unimaginable power is about to fall from the sky.”

“They have no reason to deceive us, begging your pardon, my liege.”

“There has not been anything in our long history of our kingdom, in which our mighty magics and mystic technology could not overcome. Even if there is some truth to Free Land’s message, we will be able to handle it.”

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The Empire of Euracon…

“This is a grand opportunity.” Emperor Xerxal Shilor stated after receiving the message from Free Land.

“Indeed my liege.” Prime Minister Jaxelo Surn. “If even the Free Landers fear this device, then it must be an object of immense power!”

“What do our sages say about it?”

“The sages confirm that some kind of gigantic crystal is falling toward the continent of Vados. It seems to be some sort of enormous artifact that is quite receptive towards magic. Perhaps it could be some huge magical stone.”

“How big are we talking about?” The Emperor asked excitedly.

“Our sages say that the falling crystal is larger than a small town.”

At that point, Xerxal’s face displayed an extremely greedy and malicious grin. A magic stone of that size meant that any country that possessed it would have a gigantic leap in terms of magical power and value.

“Order all of our forces to keep watch for the falling stone! We shall take immediate possession of it, should it land within our borders! If it lands outside of our territory, use whatever means and excuses necessary to lay claim on it! As of now, that is our top priority! All operations to seize Free Land technology are to be put on hold for now!”

“Yes, your Majesty!”

As the Prime Minister left the throne room, Xerxal quietly contemplated the power he would soon gain with the giant magic stone. With this boon to their magical forces, the superpower of Naran will finally fall and the continent of Vados will belong to Euracon! And then, the world will tremble at Euracon’s might!

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Three hours later…

Aboard the Missouri, Mark and his bridge crew could only wait in silence as the ship held its position. There was basically nothing they could do but wait until the Planet Ravager appeared. The Yorktown and several other ships stood on standby well. Everyone in the Star Alliance was on edge. Who wouldn’t be as one of their greatest nightmares was about to make a reappearance?

As for the rest of the world, they were all curious as to why Free Land had sent a formidable armada to the Vados continent. Some thought that they were intent on invading and conquering it after practically stomping the Empire of Sath. However, if they were intent on invasion, then why were they just doing nothing for hours? Was that fantastic rumor of a doomsday weapon arriving really true?

At that moment, everyone’s questions were answered as a fiery object appeared in the skies above Vados.

“Captain, bogey has been identified as the Planet Ravager!” Ensign Taichen announced.

“Begin transmission of the Stasis Virus Code!” Mark ordered. “Have the other ships deploy measures to minimize damage at the point of impact!”

Travelling at a speed of over 25,000 mph, the Planet Ravager would cause substantial environmental damage when it hit the ground. It would be like the meteor that killed all the dinosaurs on Earth. To prevent such a catastrophe, several of the Free Land ships engaged their tractor beams and inertial dampening fields to slow down the Ravager’s fall toward the planet’s surface and direct it away from the Vados continent.

“Status report?” Delan asked.

“The Planet Ravager did receive the virus and we are detecting lower levels of activity within its computer core.” Taichen stated. “However, we can’t tell if the virus has taken full effect. Furthermore, the Ravager is emitting a repulsor field and is resisting all our attempts to steer it away from the Vados continent. It’s going to land there, regardless of our actions!”

“Damn it! What’s the projected landing coordinates?”

“Near the southwest region of the Vados continent. That would put it about 20 miles south from the Euracon capital of Vadania.”

“Let’s hope the Euraconians don’t do anything stupid until we get to the Ravager and make certain it’s been deactivated!”

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Twenty-five minutes later…

“THE GIANT MAGIC STONE IS THE PROPERTY OF EURACON AND HIS HIGHNESS, EMPEROR XERXAL SHILOR! KEEP BACK! ENTERING OUR AIRSPACE WILL BE SEEN AS A DECLARATION OF WAR!” Prime Minister Surn declared with a magical spell that amplified his voice. He and a very large number of Euracon soldiers had been first at the crash site and were now surrounding the Planet Ravager. The device had dug a huge trench more than a thousand meters long when it landed. Due to the heat of re-entry, it was just too hot for them to get within 50 meters of it.

Two Star Hawk fighters were hovering above in the sky, just off the coast. Ignoring the idiotic Euracon Prime Minister, the pilots initiated a sensor scan of the Planet Ravager. Seeing the troubling readouts, the lead pilot opened a communication channel to both the Yorktown and Missouri.

“Star Hawk Seven to Fleet.  Star Hawk Seven to Fleet. Do you read me?” Lieutenant Peter Strides said.

“This is Captain Delan of the Missiouri. Go ahead Star Hawk Seven. What is the current status of the Planet Ravager? Has it been deactivated or put into stasis?”

“Negative sir! Our sensors indicate that the Planet Ravager is still active! It hasn’t begun creating mechanoids yet and we’re detecting low energy emissions. Most likely it used up most of its energy reserves to resist our tractor beams and inertial dampening fields. If I had to speculate, the Ravager is in standby mode while it is recharging itself.”

“This is Admiral Tarhesse. What is the status of the Euraconians?”

“They’re still surrounding that thing and claiming it as the property of Euracon. Apparently, they think the Planet Ravager is some kind of giant magic stone.”

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On the bridge of the Missouri, Mark’s face took on a look of puzzlement as he turned to Harken.

The Catian could only shrug his shoulders. “Well, I can understand them mistaking the Planet Ravager to be a giant magic stone. Its crystalline appearance does resemble the magic stones we’ve found on the Alder continent.”

“Regardless of what they think it is, the fact of the matter is that it’s too dangerous to leave alone. The longer we wait, the more likely it will reactivate and begin its primary goal of destroying all organic life on the planet.”

“I’m even more worried that the Euraconians might inadvertently speed up the process if they try to use magic on it.”

“All the more reason to get that thing away from those fools.” Mark turned to his communications officer. “Have we received any instructions from the Council on how to proceed on this matter?”

Lieutenant Visera could only shake her head as she replied. “The Council has actually been in conference with the head of the Euracon government for some time now. However, it seems that they weren’t able to make any headway in convincing the Euracon Emperor to let us take the Ravager.”

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Polaris City, Council of Prime Directors Conference Chamber…

After the war with the Empire of Sath, the Council had learned that every superpower nation had a kind of hotline that allowed them to keep in touch with one another. After its defeat and loss of superpower status, Empress Lexina had offered to give her magical communicator to Free Land. However, the Council did not need such a device and told her to keep it. All they needed to do was to learn the psion-frequency it used and they were able to easily contact the nations on the Vados continent.

At this moment, the Council was regretting ever contacting the idiot named Xerxal Shilor.

After informing the Emperor of the dangers of the Planet Ravager, and even showing footage of its past usage during the war with the Cryterians, the Council had hoped the Euracon ruler would see reason and let them take the Ravager away, in exchange for some technology to improve their infrastructure and the daily lives of his people.

However, much to the Council’s displeasure, Xerxal arrogantly proclaimed the ‘Giant Magic Stone’ to be Euracon property, and that the story of the Planet Ravager to be a gigantic hoax. He certainly didn’t believe their warnings not to use magic on it. He even had the insolence to demand that Free Land hand over a few Starfighters and Battle-Mechs to his government, stating that they were originally technology invented by his people more than 6,000 years ago and that Free Land had stolen the technology. He also demanded that the crew of the Missouri get off the flying ship that was originally built by Euracon.

After twenty minutes of useless negotiations, the Emperor severed his communications to Free Land, allowing the Council to discuss the matter at hand.

“I can’t believe that idiot accused us of theft!” Anida said with some exasperation in her tone.

“He’s got some nerve to say that.” Nasaak growled. “You know, I’m really tempted to just let him keep the Ravager and suffer the consequences.”

“It was apparent that he was trying to justify himself.” Nerto said. “You saw just how quiet he became when we showed him the footage of those Dreanat agents.”

During the negotiations, the Council had shown the evidence, that the Emperor had sanctioned the attempted theft of Free Land technology and attacks on their officers. Xerxal had to backpedal a bit when he heard the Dreanat agents confess. Not being able to counter such conclusive evidence, it was at that point that he cut off the link.

“As asinine as his behavior was, we can’t just stand by and let the Euracon people suffer for his idiocy.” Viska pointed out. “After the Ravager activates and wipes out the Euracon population, it won’t just stop there. The Kingdom of Naran would be next and its magic-based technology will only just feed the Ravager and make it stronger.”

“We can’t just go in and take the damned thing, can we?” The Catian Director asked.

“We’d be seen as the aggressor if we did. That might put us in a bad light with the other nations.” Benjamin interjected. “The main reason why Xerxal doesn’t believe us is because the Planet Ravager is dormant at present. It seems that the only way to convince him is if…”

At that moment, the Omega-Level alarm went off again as the main holo-viewer activated, showing an image of Captain Mark Delan.

“Captain Delan, what’s going on?!” The Terran Prime Director inquired, though he had a feeling he already knew what was happening.

“The Planet Ravager has been activated!” The Missouri’s captain announced. This caused all the other Prime Directors to gasp in horror.

“How did that happen?!”

“Those idiots from Euracon did the one thing you shouldn’t do with a Planet Ravager. They fed it energy!”

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Flashback…

At the crash site, Prime Minister Jaxelo Surn smiled after receiving a message from the Emperor. As he had thought, it seemed that Free Land was anxious to get their hands on this giant magic stone. That meant that it was extremely valuable. Though the Emperor had not been able to negotiate any deal to exchange it for some Free Land military technology, it would only be a matter of time before the Star Alliance caved in to Euracon’s demands. And of course, Euracon would not give up the magic stone even if they received Starfighters and Battle-Mechs. It’s just the way Euracon business works. Not their fault if Free Land was foolish enough to believe that Euracon would keep their end of the bargain.

After a messenger had come up to him and informed him that the magic stone had cooled down enough to approach it, the Prime Minister made the decision to have it moved. He didn’t like the fact that two Star Hawks were still watching them. To ensure that they didn’t try anything to upset Euracon’s bargaining position, Jaxelo thought it would be best to move their trump card to the capital city. So for the past hour, he had sent for teams of horses and other beasts of burden to haul the giant stone to Vandania.  He had also called in engineers and some of their greatest magic users in order to assist with the transport.

Jaxelo smiled as he had visions of the people cheering as the giant magic stone was paraded through the streets. It would be Euracon’s greatest triumph thus far.

He was brought back from his daydreams when it was announced that the engineers and magic users were about to begin moving the giant stone. The process was a simple one. They would use their magicians to lift the stone above the ground long enough for the workers to place roller logs beneath it. Once they were in place, then they would attach ropes to the giant magic stone and haul it back to the capital city.

As the magicians chanted their spells, Jaxelo thought that nothing could stop them now.

Then it happened.

As soon as they began using their magic to invoke their levitation spells, the Planet Ravager shuddered and a loud whine was heard from within it. Before they had begun, the huge device had been in a dormant state after depleting its energy reserves during its fall to the planet. Now with an ample supply of psion energy being thrown at it, the Ravager immediately began absorbing it all. Every magic caster near the Ravager, screamed out in pain as they felt their mystic energy being drained away.

The Ravager shuddered again as its prime directive was initiated. Almost instantly, crystalline spikes shot out from its body and buried themselves into the ground, trees, rocks and even people. Dozens of workers and magicians screamed in horror and pain, as they were skewered and impaled on those spikes, dying instantly and providing the Cryterian Doomsday Device with enough raw materials to begin its mission of annihilation. The corpses suddenly turned into blue-white, inorganic crystal. They started to reshape and separate into smaller forms that resembled mechanized spiders. Each was approximately two meters in diameter and had a small, red core within their translucent bodies.

On the ground where the spikes were implanted, more of the blue-white, crystal beings appeared. These were larger versions of spiders, at least 5 meters in diameter, while some formed claws and pincers like huge crabs. Each also had a red, orb within their bodies.

These were the mechanoids of the Planet Ravager. And they only had one purpose.

KILL.

The people in the area shouted out in panic as the mechanoids immediately began attacking. As they started to swarm and decimate the soldiers and magicians, the Planet Ravager continued to make more mechanoids at an alarming rate. The soldiers found their swords, spears and arrows to be worthless against the crystalline shells of the mechanoids and were torn apart and converted into more mechanoids. Magicians found their spells to be useless as fireballs, lighting and other energy-based spells were immediately absorbed. They too were killed and reduced into raw materials to speed up production.

One magician got the idea of attacking the mechanoids indirectly by using his levitation spell to drop a two-boulder on one. This managed to break the mechanoid and its core, thereby causing the individual unit to crumble into powder. However, with the rate in which the mechanoids were being produced, he wasn’t able to use the same trick again. His life ended when one of the monsters snipped off his head with a claw.

As the numbers of mechanoids grew, the Prime Minister began to panic and ordered a full-scale retreat from the area. However, the Cryterian mechanoids were merciless and pursued them. Soon, thousands of the crystal monsters spread across the landscape, eventually catching up with the Prime Minister’s party and slaughtering them all. Jaxelo Surn was the last to be killed as five Mechanoid spiders jumped on him and tore him to pieces.

Then the growing swarm moved to surround their parent, the Planet Ravager. The main device retracted its spikes back into it, and then sprouted six, jointed legs to lift itself off the ground. Like some huge, grotesque insect, it slowly began to move toward the next concentration of organic life in the area, the Euracon capital of Vandania.

Armageddon had come to the world of Istaria.

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End of Flashback…

“And that’s what happened.” Mark said as he finished his report. “The Planet Ravager is now on the move and heading toward the Euracon capital. Our best estimates put their current numbers at 4,400 Lesser Spider-Types, and 3,000 Intermediate Crab-Types. The Ravager has also begun launching several Lesser Fying-Types, resembling starfish. We estimate their current number to be 300 or so.”

“So the virus didn’t work.” Benjamin said with a disappointed tone.

“Actually sir, we think it did work, at least partially.”

“What do you mean?”

“It didn’t stop the Planet Ravager from creating Mechanoids, but apparently the Ravager was fooled into producing the Mechanoids at a reduced rate. We would be seeing over a million of them at this time if it was unaffected.”

“So that means we were able to buy us a little time.”

“Yes, sir. But we better start acting soon before their sheer force of numbers gets too big for even us to handle!”

“Understood. Keep us informed Captain.”

“Aye sir!”

After Captain Delan signed off, the Terran Director faced the Council with a grim expression.

“To say that this situation has become most dire would be a gross understatement.”

“Hey, it’s not like we didn’t warn those idiots.” Nasaak stated. “It’s not our fault that they didn’t listen.”

“It may not be our fault, but it seems to have become our responsibility.” The Velor Director stated.

“He’s right. The Star Alliance is the only nation with the experience, knowledge and power needed to defeat a Planet Ravager.” The Kyteeri Director added.

“And it would be best that we use that experience, knowledge and power quickly.” Viska said. “At this point, the Vados continent is not going to survive long if we just stand by and do nothing.”

“We would be violating their sovereignty if we suddenly send in our forces into the continent.” Benjamin commented. “And since the virus didn’t have the effect that we wanted, that would mean…”

“We’d have to fight our way through hordes of Mechanoids and isolate the Planet Ravager.” The Catian Director finished. “That’s what we had to do on Catlana. And we sustained a considerable number of casualties.”

There was a long silence among the members of the Council of Prime Directors as they weighed all their options. What it finally boiled down to was not a question of politics, but a question of survival. If left for too long, the Planet Ravager would produce enough Mechanoids to wipe out all organic life on the planet. If that happened, then violations of sovereignty would be irrelevant.

“My fellow Council members, it seems we must vote on our very future on this world. All those in favor of sending in military intervention to contain and destroy the Planet Ravager?” Ben asked as he raised his hand.

Anida, Viska and Nerto also raised their hands. After a pause, Nasaak let out a sigh and raised his hand as well.

“The decision is unanimous! Begin setting up communication channels with all the other nations! It is time for us to again battle an old foe from the Cryterians!”

To be continued…