Chương 193: Nova Wars - Chapter [INITIATING CONNECTION]

"The sound struck fear into the Mar-gite. We thought the Mar-gite didn't feel fear, that they didn't have the neural wiring for it.

"The sound of 'meep meep meep' carried through the vacuum as they charged into Mar-gite boarded vessels.

"The Felt Marines were on our side.

"It's thirty years later and that sound still makes my hands shake." Commander A'argu'uyle - Kra'at Systems Ship Executor Officer. Mar-Gite Siege of Cygnus Orion"Another wave, Admiral! Two-hundred fifty six point sources! All in Giga or higher range!" tactical called out.

"We've got another dark matter pool forming!" HEAVY METAL INCOMING rang out. Admiral Kra'akenwulf knew it was full of data for the navigation, communication, and other stations as well as a warning. The Solarians were coming. The Iron Fist shuddered as it suddenly corkscrewed through space, its damaged engines roaring, vibrating the whole ship as it managed to avoid a brace of spears as well as the cloud of 'boarders' sailing through space.

A quick glance showed that the boarders would sail out and hit the stellar mass in a few months without intercepting anything. Lighter ships or ships that had been heavily damaged had been tasked with taking out any groups of 'boarders' or any spears that might intersect with an orbital body before falling into the stellar mass. The ship shuddered again and the artificial gravity heeled over to the starboard.

Admiral Kra'akenwulf held onto the bar that circled the holotank with his left side0 hands, pointing at holotank 3 with his upper right hand.

"Go to evasion!" he shouted. He had a steady whining noise in one ear and was blind in two eyes.

"Tell the Pride of the Emperor Task Force to pull back!" He knew that everyone had to keep at least a five light second distance between themselves and the Dra. Falten task force, since the weapons were dangerous to everyone, allies and the Dra. Falten alike.

"Dark matter pool is showing bulging!" scanners called out. ARISTAEUS IS HERE roared out enough that several of the Mar-gite constructs near the dark matter pool suddenly exploded into slurry that froze almost instantly. The dark matter pool bulged, then tore, splashing dark matter for light seconds. Mar-gite clusters hit by it detonated, pieces flaming, burning in th vacuum of space with purple fire that completely consumed them.

What came emerged was a massive colossus closer in size to a subcontinent than a standard spacecraft. Its warsteel hull looked like a female Terran sitting down, legs open, arms held out wide. She was naked, lush to the point of obese, with her hair spilling down her back. Broken chains hung from her arms and legs and crisscrossed her chest and vanished under her hair. The holotank flickered and what appeared made Kra'akenwulf blink.

It was a puppet made of plush, blue fur, wide eyes, a big mouth, a medieval helmet on his head. Above its head read dumbwire approximation in floating letters.

"Captain Super-Grover here, Admiral," the puppet exclaimed, flailing its arms. Kra'akenwulf realized the strange creature was wearing a cape.

"Stack your ships up for repair! Dumbwires for all!" the puppet yelled. It thrust a fist in the air.

"NONE SHALL FALL! WE'RE BUILT FOR THE STREETS!" The signal suddenly cut out. Kra'akenwulf didn't bother asking questions.

"Queue them up by most need and most tonnage," Kra'akenwulf said. Another set of spears slid by so close lightning arced off of the Fist's battlescreens to play up and down the compressed calcite spear. The Kra'at heavy cruiser You Serve at the Voter's Sufferance Not Consent moved up to one of the outspread legs, cuddling up to the outside of the massive thigh. Gantries and tractor/pressor beams reached out, gently cradling the mangled hull and bringing the massive 2 kilometer long warship close.

Fuzzy creatures that resembled long bodied long mouthed felt puppets clad in armored spaceesuits charged in to work. Welder's sparked, hammers slammed against bent hull plates to the rhythm if 'yup yup yup'. Inside a massive fluffy yellow bird wore a cap with the left side curled. It cracked a whip at the shaggy elephantine creatures.

"PUT YOUR BACKS INTO IT, YA SCURVY DOGS! THE BATTLE'S STILL ON!" the avian creature shouted over the din of the repair bays.

"GET OUT THE WIRES AND MAKE THOSE SHIPS DUMB!" At the windowed repair oversight bridge a creature much like the Captain, only red and without helm or cape, watched with cold calculating eyes as the puppet ship crews flew into a frenzy of activity. He pointed out any starting mistakes, any misstep, any confusion and corrected it with a voice of frozen helium that was obeyed instantly.

The cape and helmet clad Captain turned to a green hairy version wearing in jungle camouflage fatigues already stained with motor oil and coffee grounds, his battered and dented helmet had a banana peel tucked into the strap with "SEWN TO KILL" written above it.

"Commit the widows, Commander, start recovering the derelicts. Get Marines out there," the Captain ordered, flailing his arms.

"Aye, Captain. Tasking the widows," snarled the puppet that everyone knew joined the Black Fleet just to spite the recruiters. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Tugs detached from the woman's hair, spreading out, heading for mission killed or partially destroyed craft or ships that could not move under their own power. They looked like Terran woman in tattered wedding dresses, veils tattered and torn.

Their faces were half cold beauty, half skull visage, their arms reached out toward their target, the razor sharp talons curled in a gentle yearned. Emanating from the tugs were psychic screams of absolute rage and insanity. One tug reached out their cupped hands, taking hold of the target. It nestled up to a heavily damaged super-cruiser. It connected as the arms wrapped around, tubes shooting out to connect to the holes created by the Mar-gite to board the ship.

Another joined it, on the opposite side of the hull, the arms of the ship wrapping around the massive warship. The desperate crew members, some down to fighting with prybars, knives, or worse, felt their ship jostle as the tug, shaped like a woman gowned and veiled with outstretched arms, reached out and drew their ship close. There was a tremble to the deckplates. The crew heard it, insanely, through the vacuum. meep meep meep meep. Then an all consuming crazed scream of insane joy and pleasure.

Dozens of screams, all overlapping. From the tugs flooded the Marines. Crazed eyes, red curly fur, a roaring chainsword in their hands, a spiked collar around the neck. Behind them came a shorter, purplish creature with a question mark for a nose, stitches down one side of his face, an archaic designed Kevlar helmet with Gunnery Sergeant rank on the front, an unopened pack of Pall Mall reds on one side and "<3 CAMILLA" written in dried chicken blood on the other.

Behind them came a tall humanoid puppet with an elongated head with a shock of hair at the top. It pointed out directions, shouting a sharp and almost chirping "meep! Meep meep meep!" as it did so. The Marines rushed down the corridors of the ship. Hundreds of them, with scores of SNCOs and dozens of officers. All looking identical. The Mar-gite screeched in the vacuum and charged the puppet creatures.

In seconds the interior of the ship was a nightmare of starfish flesh, howling felt, snarling chainswords, and thundering guns. Armored vac-suit engineers rushed from behind the tall 'officer' puppet, pulling trails of copper wire behind them. They pulled open plating to start running wire through the bulkheads. Supervising them was a round headed puppets wearing old-tymie spectacles and a lab coat.

The red ones hacked apart the Mar-gite without care of their own injuries, of their own casualties, screaming with malevolent joy and unbridled rage as their cutting bars tore through Mar-gite flesh to spray frozen slurry across the decks and bulkheads. The hooked nose SNCO lit a cigarette with his flame thrower, then began hosing down groups of Mar-gite. The tall officer fired his sidearm, going "Meep meep" with every shot.

The crew, Lanaktallan, Telkan, and Puntimat, stared in shock as one of the wild eyed red puppets lifted a string of grenades over their heads and yanked the wire, pulling all ten pins free, then charged into a large pack of Mar-gite. The explosion scattered burning Mar-gite meat, felt, and stuffing everywhere. The other puppets cheered.

"WHOSE STREETS?" the one with the curled nose yelled.

"OUR STREETS!" the others screamed through the vacuum.

"MEEP MEEP!" the officer added. The Captain of the vessel just gave up trying to figure it out. Kra'akenwulf knew none of it as he watched the entire battle. The Mar-gite were still making landing on the three planets, but the planetary defense was picking up the slack as more and more defense stations came online. Kra'akenwulf knew it was the Solarian creation engines manufacturing the defense points by the thousands. He looked at one planet where the Mar-gite were swarming. Planetary defense was failing.

"Request Odin send reinforcements to Dalkanea," Kra'akenwulf stated, pointing at the planet.

"We're going to lose it and I'll be forced to planet crack it." The communications officer relayed the request. The Odin fired a single round at the planet. Kra'akenwulf frowned, but his attention was pulled away by as report from the High Mutator. The twenty-eighth mutation testing was showing promise. Mutator 12776651xqE on Mega-Cluster had suffered nearly 60% Mar-gite mortality within six hours. That mutation would be tested against a Giga-Cluster.

Mutator 1271645t6vEbn3 appeared to slow and hamper Mar-gite Cluster navigation and propulsion. Additional tests would be performed. Kra'akenwulf knew that while it might not seem like too much help for the beleagured system, the mutations would prove useful in the future. As an Admiral, it was his job to look beyond this one battle. To look at the war as a whole. If the High Mutator could discover a method to prevent the Mar-gite from jumping to lightspeed, the war would change instantly.

A Tetra-Cluster group warped in, straight into Odin's guns. The massive Dead Fleet ship started pounding the clusters immediately. Nova Cannons, Superstring Compressor Cannons, World Anvil Guns, Rapid Fire Singularity Vibrational Oscillation Cannons, Temporal Resonance Cannons, and more were being fired by the two massive Dead Fleet ships. The clusters started breaking up.

There was a flash in the distance, bright white, and Kra'akenwulf knew that one of the Dead Fleet ships had just cleared the area of any broken down clusters with something called a Reality Inversion and Oscillation Resonance Cluster Cannon.

"Realspace is recovering," the sensor tech called out.

"More point sources!" tactical called out. One of the Dra. Falten vessels shifted toward the newcomers. It fired its main gun. Space around the ship was suddenly full of sparkling glitter. Space turned blue in globs between the Mar-gite cluster and the Dra. Falten ship. The Mar-gite Cluster turned pink. Then it burst into flame. Then a wide-eyed emoji appeared above it. The Emoji changed to be held in the hand of a nine hundred foot tall female Dra.

Falten with sleek fur, prominent ears, wide expressive eyes, trembling whiskers, a military hat, a Dra. Falten high officer's uniform, and a pair of cat-ear headphone.

"The Empire will crush you all!" the Dra. Falten female said from every speaker, in a voice that was high, breathless, and squeaky.

"Just like Bingo Cola crushes thirst!"

"Oh my Digital Omnimessiah, it's Pratty-Chan," someone laughed. Kra'akenwulf pushed his doubts and worries away. Let others worry about the repercussions of such strangeness, such wild abandon, and such reckless hate. He had a system to save. He glanced at one of the other planets. The Planetary Defense Force and Irregular Civilian Volunteer Corps had been fighting almost as long as his ships, and he was approaching a full ten-day week.

He'd been unable to stop the Mar-gite from making planetary landing, but he could do his best to keep down the reinforcements. The Mar-gite coming in didn't know enough to avoid the massive ships of the Dead Fleet, the deadly biomechanical ships of the High Mutator, the cobbled together junkpiles of the Dra. Falten, or his own ships. Which meant they couldn't communicate with one another while they were traveling faster than light.

For a moment he wondered what was happening on the surface, then pulled his attention back to his fight. Groundside will have to take care of itself right now, he thought. Azzy felt his knees buckle as the creature floated forward. In the shelter, his sister watched on the Tri-Vee as her brother's knees buckled and the fire from his gun slackened. On the fourth planet, the Planetary Defense Force was nearly wiped out. The Mar-gite were trying to rip open shelter tunnel access doors.

The missile fired by Odin hit the retro-rockets, slowing down so that its impact was merely devastating to the surroundings instead of catastrophic to the pod. It hit, sunk in slightly, and tractor treads on the sides worked to lift the pod upright. Inside the pod a single light lit up. Memories and knowledge were pressed into blank gray matter. Electricity hit like a freight train. A woman groaned. A screen lit up. WELCOME BACK, COMMANDER