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Conquest
MY 2371
I sat expectantly in the front row of the VIP section. To my left was Commissioner Lal, talking earnestly with General Gupta. Father and Mother were also in the front row, special guests for the occasion, which was the unveiling of the S.S. SARITA, our newest addition to our fleet, and shortly to be deployed at the Morganite front.
We felt a slight tremor shiver through the dais on which we sat, then an almost imperceptible pulse reverberated deeply in our bones. All eyes were on the hanger doors as they slowly peeled apart. Our ears picked up a slight humming sound and the pulsing sensation intensified.
The metallic gray snout slowly emerged, followed by the awesome mass of the prototype Deathsphere. The SARITA’s bulk was immense, dwarfing the four Neutronium armored Gravitron Behemoths lined up on the parade ground. They would form part of her command. This was a proud moment for all of us. Chandra, my younger brother, was in command of the SARITA, and we were all present for her christening except for Javed, who was our commanding officer on the Spartan front, with the Psi-mindworm corps.
As she came into full view, hovering gently a few feet above the ground for all her immense size, we could make out the details - the armor and weaponry, simple but effective; the huge mass of the stasis generators and the immense antigrav struts. At a command from Commissioner Lal, my brother activated the controls to let the assembled VIPs see the unmatched power of the Deathsphere.
The weapons pod opened and revealed the Singualarity Laser, which to my untrained eye appeared impressive, but to the military was obviously awesome. They lost their reserve, slapping each other with high fives, and I could hear snippets of conversation of “Just wait till Morgan Industries gets a load of this”. A target had been set up about a kilometer away, - an obsolete shard copter that had been fitted with probability sheath armoring (which our snoops at the Planetary Governor’s office had advised us was the current level of Morgan’s defense capability). At a command from Chandra, the Laser was deployed, pulsed twice and before our disbelieving eyes the copter disappeared. A great cheer went up.
Chandra’s voice came to us. “We will now demonstrate the SARITA’s defense capabilities”. He engaged the Stasis Generator, and the whole Deathsphere began to shimmer before our eyes. One of the Neutronium Behemoths peeled out from formation and trained its Gravitron Phaser at the SARITA. The commander fired, and we were treated to a psychedelic array as the energy was harmlessly dissipated by the stasis armor of the SARITA. At a signal from General Gupta, we all put on our Comm-Viz helmets, programmed to parallel the observation capability of the Morgan defenders. Chandra engaged the SARITA’s Blink Displacer program, and the SARITA disappeared. I took off the helmet, and there she was, barely visible, shimmering like a mirage in a heat haze.
The reception afterwards was a celebration. Rahul Gupta passed me with a fungal gin in his hand and whispered “I think we’ve gotten away with it”. I smiled nervously back. My career as Minister of Production was on the line. Unbeknownst to Commissioner Lal, I had already commissioned six bases to produce the Deathsphere, and two would be rolling off the production line this very evening. But he had not yet given his blessing on the venture.
I need not have worried. Where Chandra had done his bit for the venture, with the awesome display of the SARITA’s powers, Javed now came to the rescue.
Lal’s com-link alerted him to an incoming message. “It’s Javed”, he said, activating the large control monitor. Javed’s face filled the vidscreen. He looked hardly human now, as the psi mind-interface lymphnodes had severely disfigured his skin. His eyes were black, as to him now vision was an abstract thought only. His awareness came from collective sentience of Planet itself, via the sensory experiences of the mind worms he commanded and now was part of. He had “observed” the SARITA’s demonstration through the sensory images telepathed by two young mindworms at the base who were in brood training. He was immensely proud of the honor bestowed on the memory of Sarita, his dear, dead, wife.
Javed’s raspy voice was heard. “Commissioner, we’re at a stand-off on the Spartan front. Santiago has developed a strong Psi-defense capability and I can’t commit my forces to suicide attacks. She won’t attack us directly with her needlejets, but is playing havoc with our formers and crawlers, severely degrading our production capabilities in the region. A Deathsphere or two would tilt the balance immeasurably in our direction.”
Commissioner Lal’s response was immediate. “You’ll have them, Jared.” He said, and turning to me said, “Get on with it, Tazeem”.
I heaved a sigh of relief, and glanced over at the grinning Rahul, who gave me a thumbs up.
*********************************************
Chandra engaged the Blink Displacer, and left the captured city of Morgan Construction, moving cautiously down the fungal patch towards Morgan Industries. The mag tube link to Morgan Construction had been cut earlier, but now Peacekeeper formers were replacing it, and his Behemoth brigade were poised to pounce after he had softened the defenses. The two singularity copters were on high readiness alert in case they were needed for interdiction purposes.
Two Peacekeeper Quantum Tactical needlejets, now used for close ground support, roared overhead to take out the sensors that our probeteam had reported. His vidcom crackled “mission successful, Chandra, she’s all yours”.
He moved in for the kill. Intelligence had reported only two garrison units, lightly armed but heavily armored (our earlier intelligence was faulty – the probability sheath had been replaced with the much more powerful Neutronium armor, but fortunately they had been given Psi-defence capability rather than the more problematic AAA or ECM jammer capabilities.
The Deathsphere hovered a few centimeters above the fungus just outside the base, invisible to the defenders inside. Sunil, the targeting officer came on line: “Chandra, we’ve got the Barracks painted, all systems go”. “On my mark, Go”, said Chandra. The singularity laser pulsed repeatedly, until its power ran low and the audible and visual warnings became more pronounced.
Chandra toggled his vidcom. “Status?” he barked. His intelligence officer replied: “Sources in Morgan Industries report that one garrison unit has been utterly destroyed, and the second has been degraded to the extent that it can offer only token resistance.”
“Deploy the Copters” Chandra growled.
The ungainly beasts rose from their lair and trundled over the hillside towards Morgan Industries. From a distance the crews could see the devastation wrought by the Deathsphere. Barracks completely destroyed – only the land remained on which it had stood. As they got closer, they could see the stunned survivors of the garrison milling around, unsure of what was happening. No mercy shown, one copter engaged its Graviton cannon and removed the last remnants of the defense. “All clear” the pilot radioed to Chandra.
“Move up”, he said.
I was in the first behemoth that entered the city, determined to claim that prize. Commissioner Lal had wanted to, but we dissuaded him. “CEO Morgan has escaped”; we told him “you won’t be able to confront him in person.”
As we entered the Base, I looked around with pride. We had captured intact their base, its facilities, taken some 600 energy credits from their depositories, and, from my perspective more importantly, captured four of Planet’s Special projects intact. These were the Merchant Exchange, the Supercollider, the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm and the Network Backbone.
Now, finally, we are invincible
<font size=1 color=444444>[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited June 02, 1999).]</font>
[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited June 02, 1999).]
MY 2371
I sat expectantly in the front row of the VIP section. To my left was Commissioner Lal, talking earnestly with General Gupta. Father and Mother were also in the front row, special guests for the occasion, which was the unveiling of the S.S. SARITA, our newest addition to our fleet, and shortly to be deployed at the Morganite front.
We felt a slight tremor shiver through the dais on which we sat, then an almost imperceptible pulse reverberated deeply in our bones. All eyes were on the hanger doors as they slowly peeled apart. Our ears picked up a slight humming sound and the pulsing sensation intensified.
The metallic gray snout slowly emerged, followed by the awesome mass of the prototype Deathsphere. The SARITA’s bulk was immense, dwarfing the four Neutronium armored Gravitron Behemoths lined up on the parade ground. They would form part of her command. This was a proud moment for all of us. Chandra, my younger brother, was in command of the SARITA, and we were all present for her christening except for Javed, who was our commanding officer on the Spartan front, with the Psi-mindworm corps.
As she came into full view, hovering gently a few feet above the ground for all her immense size, we could make out the details - the armor and weaponry, simple but effective; the huge mass of the stasis generators and the immense antigrav struts. At a command from Commissioner Lal, my brother activated the controls to let the assembled VIPs see the unmatched power of the Deathsphere.
The weapons pod opened and revealed the Singualarity Laser, which to my untrained eye appeared impressive, but to the military was obviously awesome. They lost their reserve, slapping each other with high fives, and I could hear snippets of conversation of “Just wait till Morgan Industries gets a load of this”. A target had been set up about a kilometer away, - an obsolete shard copter that had been fitted with probability sheath armoring (which our snoops at the Planetary Governor’s office had advised us was the current level of Morgan’s defense capability). At a command from Chandra, the Laser was deployed, pulsed twice and before our disbelieving eyes the copter disappeared. A great cheer went up.
Chandra’s voice came to us. “We will now demonstrate the SARITA’s defense capabilities”. He engaged the Stasis Generator, and the whole Deathsphere began to shimmer before our eyes. One of the Neutronium Behemoths peeled out from formation and trained its Gravitron Phaser at the SARITA. The commander fired, and we were treated to a psychedelic array as the energy was harmlessly dissipated by the stasis armor of the SARITA. At a signal from General Gupta, we all put on our Comm-Viz helmets, programmed to parallel the observation capability of the Morgan defenders. Chandra engaged the SARITA’s Blink Displacer program, and the SARITA disappeared. I took off the helmet, and there she was, barely visible, shimmering like a mirage in a heat haze.
The reception afterwards was a celebration. Rahul Gupta passed me with a fungal gin in his hand and whispered “I think we’ve gotten away with it”. I smiled nervously back. My career as Minister of Production was on the line. Unbeknownst to Commissioner Lal, I had already commissioned six bases to produce the Deathsphere, and two would be rolling off the production line this very evening. But he had not yet given his blessing on the venture.
I need not have worried. Where Chandra had done his bit for the venture, with the awesome display of the SARITA’s powers, Javed now came to the rescue.
Lal’s com-link alerted him to an incoming message. “It’s Javed”, he said, activating the large control monitor. Javed’s face filled the vidscreen. He looked hardly human now, as the psi mind-interface lymphnodes had severely disfigured his skin. His eyes were black, as to him now vision was an abstract thought only. His awareness came from collective sentience of Planet itself, via the sensory experiences of the mind worms he commanded and now was part of. He had “observed” the SARITA’s demonstration through the sensory images telepathed by two young mindworms at the base who were in brood training. He was immensely proud of the honor bestowed on the memory of Sarita, his dear, dead, wife.
Javed’s raspy voice was heard. “Commissioner, we’re at a stand-off on the Spartan front. Santiago has developed a strong Psi-defense capability and I can’t commit my forces to suicide attacks. She won’t attack us directly with her needlejets, but is playing havoc with our formers and crawlers, severely degrading our production capabilities in the region. A Deathsphere or two would tilt the balance immeasurably in our direction.”
Commissioner Lal’s response was immediate. “You’ll have them, Jared.” He said, and turning to me said, “Get on with it, Tazeem”.
I heaved a sigh of relief, and glanced over at the grinning Rahul, who gave me a thumbs up.
*********************************************
Chandra engaged the Blink Displacer, and left the captured city of Morgan Construction, moving cautiously down the fungal patch towards Morgan Industries. The mag tube link to Morgan Construction had been cut earlier, but now Peacekeeper formers were replacing it, and his Behemoth brigade were poised to pounce after he had softened the defenses. The two singularity copters were on high readiness alert in case they were needed for interdiction purposes.
Two Peacekeeper Quantum Tactical needlejets, now used for close ground support, roared overhead to take out the sensors that our probeteam had reported. His vidcom crackled “mission successful, Chandra, she’s all yours”.
He moved in for the kill. Intelligence had reported only two garrison units, lightly armed but heavily armored (our earlier intelligence was faulty – the probability sheath had been replaced with the much more powerful Neutronium armor, but fortunately they had been given Psi-defence capability rather than the more problematic AAA or ECM jammer capabilities.
The Deathsphere hovered a few centimeters above the fungus just outside the base, invisible to the defenders inside. Sunil, the targeting officer came on line: “Chandra, we’ve got the Barracks painted, all systems go”. “On my mark, Go”, said Chandra. The singularity laser pulsed repeatedly, until its power ran low and the audible and visual warnings became more pronounced.
Chandra toggled his vidcom. “Status?” he barked. His intelligence officer replied: “Sources in Morgan Industries report that one garrison unit has been utterly destroyed, and the second has been degraded to the extent that it can offer only token resistance.”
“Deploy the Copters” Chandra growled.
The ungainly beasts rose from their lair and trundled over the hillside towards Morgan Industries. From a distance the crews could see the devastation wrought by the Deathsphere. Barracks completely destroyed – only the land remained on which it had stood. As they got closer, they could see the stunned survivors of the garrison milling around, unsure of what was happening. No mercy shown, one copter engaged its Graviton cannon and removed the last remnants of the defense. “All clear” the pilot radioed to Chandra.
“Move up”, he said.
I was in the first behemoth that entered the city, determined to claim that prize. Commissioner Lal had wanted to, but we dissuaded him. “CEO Morgan has escaped”; we told him “you won’t be able to confront him in person.”
As we entered the Base, I looked around with pride. We had captured intact their base, its facilities, taken some 600 energy credits from their depositories, and, from my perspective more importantly, captured four of Planet’s Special projects intact. These were the Merchant Exchange, the Supercollider, the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm and the Network Backbone.
Now, finally, we are invincible
<font size=1 color=444444>[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited June 02, 1999).]</font>
[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited June 02, 1999).]