Kiru slipped into the building. She had left Qelu back at the apartment. May and Qei had come along for this little job. It was getting dark now and the local base was rather sleepy. She shifted the stun pistol in her hands. The plan was to get in, disable the generator and get out. If all went as planned, they wouldn’t even need the pistol. In addition to the pistol she had also brought along a bag full of grenades.

She was going to be point on this mission, and was actually responsible for getting in and shutting down this section of the planetary shield. The other two would be playing lookout.

Kiru sent a signal to the others and quietly moved out of the shadows. Her cloak was already engaged. So the patrol passing by the gate didn’t even spot her as she approached. Walking right up in front of the checkpoint. Hoping over the barrier and proceeding into the base. It was protected by a fence, a number of automated guns, and an area shield. One that was open by the checkpoint and permitted only people on either foot or in a ground vehicle. 

None of the defenses were built with a cloaked infiltrator in mind. As such, she proceeded into the base unnoticed, passing by a number of lightly dressed Neku soldiers. Most of them were wearing a uniform that was nothing more than belts. A few of them wore more, but in either case their breasts and vaginas were on full display. Kiru did note that everyone out and about had a weapon and a personal shield. So it was not like they were defenseless.

Honestly, their equipment was not all that different from ship security. A light uniform, a shield belt, a couple of grenades, a rifle, and a sidearm were pretty standard for light infantry and police units. Armor had its advantages, but a shield was much lighter and easier to carry around. For roughly similar cost as well. So most units didn’t bother with heavy armor in favor of a lighter kit. 

Kiru had been here before, so she wasn’t surprised by their equipment either. She also knew that standard issue full body armored suits were stored in the local armory. Those powered suits were designed to enhance the wearer’s abilities and provide additional protection. They weren’t cheap however, so only elite units were issued them. Shock troops were prime examples as they needed that kind of hardware.

Reaching a door into the main building, she slipped inside. Not far from the door was a locked armory door. Not the main armory, but one of several scattered throughout the base. It was quite common for there to be multiples. She didn’t give the door any heed since it had no bearing on the mission and simply headed deeper into the building. Passing several small patrols and even a few people doing other tasks. No one noticed her as she passed.

As such, she reached the armored door to the main generator without issue. Only having to stop once or twice while waiting for a door to be opened. This one, however, was not one she would have such luck with. As her previous recon indicated that people rarely went into the generator room. The door was heavily armored and shielded but no matter, she had a very good ticket in.

Raising her arm, she allowed the plates to recede. Revealing the wrist cannon concealed in her arm. Not that anyone else could see it since she was still cloaked. Normally a small arm like this had no chance to get through a secure blast door like this one, but it was never designed to handle the kind of firepower she had. After all, they had never been intended to deal with the kind of power precursor weaponry packed.

With that in mind she mentally selected the primary sustained beam firing mode. As Megumi had mentioned during her initial training on the weapon. This mode was useful for cutting through walls and that also included blast doors. Given enough time that is. On the Constellation it would take awhile, but here? She would be through in about a minute.

Kiru took aim and fired. A coherent blue-green beam of deadly plasma leaped from her cloaked form and tore into the barrier. A shield flared brightly as the beam bit into the door. She slowly moved the beam as it cut into the door. At the same moment several alarms started blaring. Nearby an automated turret popped out of the wall. Two of them, armed with dual plasma pulse guns, but before either could fire they were sliced by burning plasma. Leaving furrows in the shielded walls.

She returned her aim to the door. When suddenly a squad armed with rifles burst into the corridor. Without even turning, she reached into the bag she had brought with her. Armed and then tossed a grenade. As she engaged her self-protect systems. The world dissolved as it detonated at the feet of the squad as they were taking aim. Their shields popped and all eight Neku soldiers in the group crumpled to the floor. 

After a moment Kiru blinked as her self-protect mode dropped. Having successfully protected her from the effects of the precursor stun grenade. A weapon that had just unleashed a calibrated ionic pulse approximately five hundred meters in radius. That would have disrupted any energy shield not properly hardened, along with a secondary energy burst that would have stunned any organic being within fifty meters of the device. A radius she had been inside of, but her enhancements did their job. Protecting her from her own weapon. Well mostly for 0.0387 seconds she had briefly been decloaked. Before her cloaking shields had reset that was.

With the squad and turrets neutralized she focused on finishing the door. Blue-green plasma quickly burned through the armored door. In moments a large hole had been cut. With a single forceful push and a clang her path was open. The heavy blast door now had a large hole in it and a large slab of metal sat on the floor. Kiru glanced at the hole, noting that the door had been quite thick, extremely thick. Roughly three meters of armored metal and further protected by an energy shield. Yet she had cut through it like it was nothing.

Kiru proceeded into the generator room. She had no doubt that response teams would be on the move soon enough. Her grenade likely triggered automatic blast door deployments and with its secondary effects there wouldn’t be anyone left nearby to respond. Not for a couple of hours at least. As she knew the response teams would have more trouble getting past their own blast doors. Especially the ones immediately entering the section.

Glancing around she noted everything in here was in better shape. Some systems had shut down, but the generator itself was still active. Likely the blast door and shielded walls having served to take the brunt of the grenade pulse. No matter, she was supposed to do something a little more permanent than a grenade pulse to knock these out.

Taking aim at the main generator, she switched to hellfire mode and fired a single plasma pulse into the generator. It exploded on contact with the generator, dealing significant damage and consequently shutting down this section of the planetary shield. Mission complete. Now she just had to get out of the base.

The younger Iniri sighed as she listened to the latest report. It could be summed up in one word: chaos. Some of it was confusing, but she had pieced together a few details. Military bases across the planet had been attacked by infiltrator units of unknown origin. Worse, these units were extremely well equipped and easily overwhelmed any resistance. Not one had been stopped from achieving their goals. That last report indicated that the planetary shield was now down. There was only one conclusion to make.

She turned to the younger Neku beside her. Right now she was the official ruler of the Neku people. In reality she was controlled from the shadows by the council. As one of the councilors it was her job to act as handler, well one of them anyway. The councilwoman spoke up, “Have the fleet go to full alert. Princess? I need you to come with me to the shelter.”

Her young childish face frowned, “The shelter? Why?”

The Iniri sighed. The princess was a little too young for her job honestly,  but there were reasons why she was currently the leader. They had quietly removed most of the rest of the royals from the palace in favor of this young girl since she had been raised from birth to be their puppet. Whereas the others required much more active monitoring to do what they were supposed to. “Because it's the safest place on the planet. The only reason someone would knock out the planetary shield would be as a precursor to an invasion. So just in case we should huddle in the shelter. Its local shields, armor and turrets will keep us quite safe. Okay?”

The princess nodded. “I guess that makes sense.”

The Iniri woman rushed the young princess through the halls of the old palace and down towards the shelter. Every moment spent was one of uncertainty. Yet before long they reached the shelter. Its armored door was a welcome sight. They slipped inside and the door closed behind them. She felt a bit of relief. Turning to the young princess. She smiled, “Okay we should be safer here. Why don’t you go lay down? I’ll come get you later if you are needed.”

She smiled, “Yes Mistress!”

With that the girl walked off her tail swaying behind her. Heading deeper into the shelter for the bedrooms. With her secure, the counselor made for the communications room. She wanted to stay in contact with the defenders. Not to mention she needed to know if the attack she knew was coming had begun.

Entering the room she found the terminal beeping for attention. She activated it and an admiral appeared on the screen. Her demeanor seemed quite unsettled. Setting off alarm bells in her mind

In a shaky voice the admiral spoke before she could inquire. “Councillor I am afraid we have failed. Two minutes ago a single ship decloaked in high orbit. All nearby assets were mobilized but failed to inflict any significant damage before it emitted some kind of high energy pulse.”

She frowned, “The fleet?”

“Disabled, not destroyed. All ships in the system have lost power and are adrift. Those nearest the alien vessel sustained severe damage as well.”

Her mind scrambled to process that. The entire defense fleet had been swept aside in less than two minutes? She knew of nothing that could do that. Even the elders would take longer. She had a sinking feeling that the precursor ship she had been unable to find might have found her instead. There wasn’t much that could be done to combat the precursors. Even the elders had trouble with their relics. Regardless she did have a card to play. “Send out the alert, codeword Starfall.”

The admiral nodded, “Done. I just hope we can hold out long enough.”

She concurred, but it was the only thing they could do. The only thing that would stand a chance at slowing or even stopping that ship. She just hoped it would be enough. Unfortunately their data was limited, she was just glad they managed to get some data on the ship in question. It was from an unexpected source and over a million years old but it was better than anything they could have hoped for. The agents they had sent into the Erali Confederated Systems had not returned anything of note on the ship. Rather the data had come from an asset that they had no direct control over.

Yiria jolted awake. A cloud of worry permeated everything. Something boomed in the distance. Followed by a wave of fear. She glanced at Miku, who was awake. Yiria could sense fear and confusion in her tiny mind but thankfully she wasn’t crying. She reached to Miku with reassurance and picked the little girl up.

With trepidation she made her way out of the nursery. Heading down the hall, she found a window and looked out. The streets were eerily empty of children. Another boom and then in the distance she saw a flash of strange lightning. What on Nekuri was going on?

Reaching out with a tentacle, she pressed a control and turned on the terminal in the room. A news report was playing. With an urgent banner underneath the anchor. A rather pretty Neku girl who was entirely naked and quite visibly pregnant. Normally she would have enjoyed the sight, but instead her mind focused on the words.

“... I repeat. Do not panic. If you are listening to this message you are advised to sit tight, and stay in your homes...”

She blinked. Stared at the screen confused. As it did little to answer her question. Listening to it, she glanced out. In the distance she could see strange lights descending from the sky followed by booms and flashes. She turned back to the report. Only now she saw the anchor slumped over her desk and not speaking. What happened?