Prelude to Darkness

 

The morning sun crested the mountains that encircled the Palace on the Royal Moon of Plundarr, bathing the surrounding countryside in a brilliant pink light, illuminating the silver towers with it’s warm glow.

The beauty of the scene was not lost to the witness.  His personal transport lingered as long as was possible outside the Palace, not wanting to be fashionably late per se, just not looking forward to the inevitable meeting with his Queen.  There were reports… or rather, a significant lack of reports from the innermost sectors of the Empire. 

Lord-Commander Zijjin relished the scene for one last moment before passing under the shadow of the flagship Naginata, and into the Royal Palace of Queen Lunaria.  The nephew to the Queen stiffened as the transport came to a halt inside the main hangar.  There was a pneumatic hiss as the door opened in the back of the ship, and he stepped smartly out.

As was expected, there was only one to greet him.  The two smiled at each other, and exchanged greetings.  It was obvious from the up-and-coming officer that the Lord was needed urgently, that these strange lack of transmissions were more than just a sensor glitch, or some other technical error.

“My Queen has informed me that this is dire indeed, my mentor.” The young man said.  He had done well to rise this far in the ranks of the Lunar Fleet.  Not being related to a Royal in any way, and only being a moderately powerful psyche Lunatak had its disadvantages.  For one, you couldn’t just rise without having any skill.  But this is what gave him his strength, the knowledge that he made it on his own.  With a little help from Zijjin, naturally.

They walked briskly down the massive and lightly coloured halls of the Palace.  Guards saluted their passing down the halls and their boots clicked neatly against the hard floors. “Perhaps there is more to this than we can see.  However, this raises the question of what could possibly be blocking our transmissions?  The planets affected were loyal to the Moons.  Have our officers been able to find anything out yet, Boron?”

The young Lunatak looked at his older counterpart, “No, my Lord.  We have been able to glean nothing of this situation.  We were waiting for your arrival. The Queen extends her regrets in the recent loss of your wife, and the suddenness of the summ-.” 

Lord Zijjin stopped in his tracks and put a hand on Boron’s shoulder.  “Boron… you’ve known her as long as anyone. Why do you think she did it?”  There were… not tears… but droplets of water forming in his eyes as he spoke.  They glistened in the light of the dawn and of the Palace. 

“My Lord, I cannot answer that truthfully.  But from what I know, she did not do it because of you.” Boron smiled weakly at his mentor and friend.  He honestly did not know why Lady Musstafee committed suicide so suddenly.  Zijjin had taken it understandably poorly, but the Queen cared little for the concerns of one officer when she had an Empire to look after.  Zijjin remained painfully silent for several seconds.  Boron became uncomfortable, and changed the subject to one he knew gave his mentor pride, “How is Shrivala?  Is she enjoying her new post?”

At the mention of his daughter, he snapped out of it.  “Very much so.  It wasn’t my idea to place her on my ship, though.” He said.  He took his hand off Boron’s shoulder and rested it on the handle of the weapon he held at his side. “Now, which room was this being held in?”

 

Boron led Lord Zijjin to the main conference room.  The massive doors opened, and the pair were silhouetted in it.  The room was dark, in stark contrast to the outer hallway. A holo-monitor was in operation in the center of the room, which was surrounded by tables.  The Queen sat on the opposite end of the chamber, seated in her royal throne.

“Welcome, Lord-Commander Zijjin, my beloved uncle.   And young commander Boron, a pleasure as always.” The duo bowed deeply to their mighty Queen.  They took their respective seats around the holo-imager and the meeting began.

The Queen opened, as was her right.  This was intended on being a brief meeting. Queen Lunaria had just been established scant months ago, and was still learning how to be a Queen.  She couldn’t always run the conferences… that what ministers and judges were for. Still, she was fair and just so far.

“As you all may know, we have lost contact with some of our worlds near this system,” she motioned to the image being formed in the projector. “Our deep space scans have revealed nothing so far. As far as we can tell, this is nothing but a malfunction.

“Still and all, we called Lord-Commander Zijjin to resolve matters.  Commander?”

The aging Lord stood up and addressed the council. “My friends, based on what I have heard,  I believe it wise at the very least to deploy one of our battle cruisers stationed near the area to deal with whatever is happening.  If there is an enemy, it should have no trouble taking care of it.  If not, the soldiers of the Empire can help repair or re-build whatever went wrong or was damaged.”

The Queen smiled down upon him.  “Very good. I was just confirming my own thoughts on the matter.” She waved her hand and a face appeared on the imager.  “Caption Derricult, proceed.”

Zijjin stiffened. This was a waste of time. He had been called here because of protocol.   His presence was unnecessary.  Boron frowned, but said nothing.  The Captain and he had been contenders for promotions all throughout their careers in the fleet. It seemed Derricult had moved up a bit…

“Your will be done, my Queen.” He said.  The image panned out to show the ship entering the system.  The audience fell silent as the images came through. 
            The planets were destroyed.  Not completely, but enough that anyone would mistake the region for an asteroid field.

“Damnit!” Zijjin swore, and heard the mental scream he recognized so well ripped through his psyche.  The Queen looked worried.

Another image appeared on the imager.   Derricult barked orders quickly. The shields had been activated. They scanned the ship and opened fire on the behemoth.

The image went dead.  The holo-screen fizzled. The audience was silent as those on Derricult’s ship.  What was left of it, anyway.

As suddenly as the silence enveloped the courtroom, pandemonium erupted.  Some believed that this was some sort of hoax; others that the Empire had crumbled right then and there.  Zijjin looked down at his feet.  He felt the burning shame of sending a ship to its’ untimely destruction.  Meanwhile, Queen Lunaria was screaming for order to be maintained. It was only when she began using her magical powers to keep the audience in line.

“By the Six Moons…” Boron whispered.  The scene replayed much to everyone’s horror.  There it was, a Leviathan class destroyer.  Then, nothing… a flash from the alien vessel, and static.  Finally, Lunaria was able to calm down the ministers and captains down enough for her loud voice to be heard.

“Listen to me, my people!  The tragedy that has befallen captain Derricult’s ship was, indeed, a misfortune. But, we are Lunataks!  Have we not been exploring the galaxy since other races were infants? Have we not raised these races from the ashes and made them mighty, shaped destinies on countless worlds? We have survived many trials through the ages, this is but another that we as a people will overcome!” The Queen was in tears.  She hadn’t perfected the art of hiding emotions, yet.  Not like her mother, at any rate.  The ‘people’ would eat this up, and she would get their full support.

There was a brief questions and answers period, but both the Lord-Commander and his protégé had ducked out before it got too heated.

“My master, what should we make of this?  The sons and the daughters of the Empire have no idea-!” Boron began as they walked briskly down the halls of the palace to the communications room.

“None of us have any idea as to what these are.  We need to check the records on all the worlds to see if any of them have seen anything like this. We also need to re-check the recording, determine this monstrosity’s size.” Zijjin said.  He seemed to age during the hearing.  He was still a strong and tall son of the Empire, but was missing something, Boron thought he has been under a lot of stress lately…

“Did you get see the size of that thing? It dwarfed the cruiser.  It’s got to be over a 5 miles long!” Boron said, almost excited.  Zijjin shook his head.

“The size of the ship is unimportant. We need to discover if there are more of these and from where it came. Only then will we be able to come up with a defense.  We need a more detailed scan of the ship…” They reached the communications room, and Zijjin stepped inside, while Boron remained in the hall.  “You know what you must do.”  The door closed and Boron was left in the hall alone.

 

The halls below the Palace were dark with neglect.  Most Lunataks had no idea the ancient caves existed still.  They were believed to have been lost for aeons during the First Civil War, when the races were still petty and cruel.  Boron thought it fortunate that they no longer behaved as savages.  Since the Moons united over 4000 years ago, there had been nothing but prosperity throughout the galaxy.

Even in the darkest recesses of the Royal Moon, there were still rules.

Ugnarth stared out at the approaching Lunatak.  His eyes were very much accustomed to the near absolute darkness of the caves, and he had heard Boron approaching long ago.

“Put out the light, my young friend.  You know I will not lead you astray.”  Boron lowered the light, but did not put out the electrical lamp.  He did trust the scarred Darkling assassin completely, but still…

“Very well.” Silently, Ugnarth walked through the tunnel.  Never disturbing so much as the dirt below his feet. Boron, however, made little noise.  No footprints followed him either, but that was because he was not touching the ground.

Down twisted corridors and dead ends that didn’t quite end, Boron had long ago given up on trying to remember the way down to the forgotten levels of the Royal Moon.

In not too long, but long enough for any passageways to be lost and mingled as one, they emerged into a larger cavern, that was the training room for the elite Shadow Warriors of Plundarr.  Those in the chamber gave Boron and Ugnarth a respectable amount of room.  In the darkness to either side, Boron knew they were being watched, and knew that there were more chambers at either end of the room.  He had never been there, however. He could feel them, though.

“What do you want from us, commander Boron?  To what do we owe this honour?”

“Master Ugnarth, there has been… an accident in the core worlds.  One of our ships was lost while investigating a mysterious loss of contact with some colonies.  When they went to investigate, their ship was destroyed, and contact was lost.

“Since the Fleet is about as subtle as a landslide, I thought we should come to you…” Boron said.

“Under who’s orders? Who knows you came here?” He snapped.  The Shadow Warriors were very secretive, aided by military and political cover-ups to completely abolish all knowledge of the assassins’ clan.

“Who else?  Lord Zijjin.” Boron said.  This was a common argument that happened every time he came down here.

The master assassin considered this.  “You are telling the truth, of course.” Ugnarth nodded to a short sandweller Lunatak, who bowed and drifted back into the shadows.  “I will send some of our ships to do a scan of the area. Do not expect anything too soon.  My men can work fast or they can work efficiently. Expect some answers in a month.  That is all I can do.”

A month?  Boron thought, even the military could come up with something sooner than that. But then again, the military could pull resources from just about anywhere.  The Shadow Warriors were an isolated group, consisting of nearly 500 Warriors, and they had to develop most of their weapons and craft themselves.  All this took time.

Boron bowed to the Master, and was escorted out by a troupe of 5 assassins.  Boron knew better than to strike up a conversation with them.  They wanted nothing to do with the outside world whenever possible, seeking to become perfect warriors, they needed no outside distractions.

He reemerged outside the Castle grounds, the secret passageway lost to the naked eye, still, he knew it was there.

 

The month passed shorter than Boron had anticipated.  There was a great deal of things to do in that time.  There had been 2 other ships detected on the fringes of their sensors’ range.  Several more outposts and colonies vanished, and back on the Moons, things were getting tense amongst the populace. Queen Lunaria was trying to hold things together as best she could.  Lord-Commander Zijjin was sent out with the Naginata to establish a military presence on the frontier.  Orbital platforms were hastily being erected near key systems to act as a fall back point in case things got out of hand, and to act as fueling stations for the fleets that were being assembled. 

The Queen called Boron to her quarters for a quick meeting.  Boron had been left in charge of military matters in Zijjin’s absence, and she found him to be quite a relief from the stiff-necked commanders and captains she normally had to put up with.

“Boron, things to not bode well on the fighting front.  We have lost over a dozen ships and double the number of planets. I am not a… experienced Queen, nor am I trained to deal with matters such as these.  The public in unsettled, what am I to do?” She collapsed on her bed.  Boron remained standing near the door.  The Queen got like this on occasion, and there was very little he could do to help her.

“My Queen, there is little any of us can do…”

“But what am I to do?   I should be leading my people to victory, not crying in my room like a… a child!” She stood abruptly, wiping her damp eyes.  “What would my mother have done?”

Boron remained silent. She had a difficult image to maintain of the Royals.  The former Queen, her mother Lunarix, was one of the greatest leaders of the Lunatak Empire.  Lunaria had some big shoes to fill, and was trying as hard as any 19-year-old could.  She was still in schooling, and learning all the ways of being a Queen.  But she lacked confidence in the things that she did.  She constantly asked her advisors for help in making even minor decisions, and the advisors took advantage of this fact by getting what they wanted done.  Boron knew this, but didn’t want to tear the Queens system apart. She would learn all this in time. 

But time was not an option.  As it was, they were detecting activity on the frontier.  Another system had just lost stopped sending reports back. Zijjin was sending probes instead of wasting ships and men to try and crack the mystery of the alien force, and Lunaria was sending for Alzorra, the most powerful psychic on the Moons, and Nyphyities, the chief diplomat of the Moons.

Nyphyities was going along as head negotiator.  Perhaps if the menace could not be destroyed, that they could be reasoned with.  That was the theory, anyway.  The chances of it working were slim at best, but by the Moons, they had to try.

Boron sighed.  “Queen Lunarix would have done what Queen Lunarix would have done, my Queen.  You do not need to live in her shadow forever.”

“But- but you’ve fought in wars before, you at least have some sort of idea how to command under pressure…” she started.

“I was in the Gessyper conflict a year ago, on the side lines learning from Zijjin.  If you want advice, he’s the one to ask for help. Not me.”  He turned quickly on his booted heel, and spun out of the room as fast as decency would allow.  As the door swooshed behind him, he heard Lunaria make a transmission to deep space, probably Zijjin.

Boron had more pressing matters to attend to.  He had been called down to the Shadow caves, apparently there was some news from the spies sent by Ugnarth.  The message was sketchy… but that was to be expected.  They used the word “cryptic” instead.

An entourage of Warriors met him at the entrance under the cover of night. They led him swiftly down the corridors and passageways until they reached the central room.  A table had been set up and there were data pads scattered across it.  Ugnarth squinted at Boron, who bowed.

“Save the pleasantries for someone who deserves them, Boron.” He said.  He skimmed the data pads intently.  They were obviously of great interest, and he barely noticed him Boron.  There was near silence for several minutes, until Ugnarth spoke up after putting down the final pad.

“There it is. All the information you want.  Mind you…” He trailed off. Apparently, it seemed like Boron was not going to like what he was about to hear.

He picked up the first pad and reviewed it.  He threw it down on the table when he was finished.

“This is trash, Ugnarth.” He stormed out, “Inform me when you find something that’s not ‘inconclusive’.”

 

The Fourth Moon of Plundarr was especially warm this night.  Japhoria stared across the desolate dunes to the lone figure walking towards her.  Right on time, as usual, she thought.  Then again, he made a habit of never being late.  It came in useful on more than one occasion, and she was just glad tonight was no exception.  With the military going full force, she was glad he wasn’t in command of a ship or leading an army, he could come back to visit once and a while.

 The figure kicked up no dust as it made it’s way towards her.  She knew perfectly well why, and it made her smile to see him do it.  Telekinetics was rare amongst any Lunatak strand, but it was more then welcome should it arise.

Suddenly, dust kicked up around him, for a he it was.  It swirled around the figure, and dissipated just as suddenly.  There was nothing where the storm had been. She smiled and looked around quickly, trying to find her soon-to-be assailant.  There was a “thud” behind her, and she had her eyes covered by large grayish hands.  She spun about and so did he, so he remained behind her.  He removed one hand, and she was looking at a crystal flower, dangling from a fine silver string.

“Happy birthday, my love,” Boron said, “I know it’s not much, but…”

She now turned to face him, and looked him in the eye, a tear forming in her eyes.  “This is a Jaccnith Flower from the Ice Moon!  How the hells did you get one?  I heard they cost…”
            “Cost is unimportant, my dear, the point is that you turned 25 and that doesn’t happen everyday.  Well, it may happen to someone, a different person each day, but, it only happens once to…”

“Dear,” she said, smiling, “shut up.”

They kissed each other passionately for a moment, then Boron broke the kiss and said, “I almost forgot… how would you like to get away from here, and go on a trip?”

She stared at him. The she loved travelling, but Boron did not. The fact that he even brought it up meant he had something up his sleeve.  What it was, she had no idea.

“Well, I suppose I could think about it for a while I guess…”

“I’ve got a ship waiting for us in the city. I though you could grab some of your stuff and we’ll take off for a week.  No army dragging me down, no university for you.  We’ll just go to the Ice Moon and have a good time.” He held her close and put the necklace around her pale neck.  Her eyes sparkled, as did the flower.  She looked radiant in the fading light of dusk.  In the sky, Plundarr shone like fire.  Looking up, they could see a sliver of the Ice Moon, pale blue against the sky.

Still holding hands, they made their way swiftly back to the city, not wanting to be caught out in the open in the desert at night.

 

“What is it, my Queen?” Zijjin said, kneeling in Lunaria’s audience chamber.  It was devoid of any other people. He felt rather silly, really.  The Queen was young enough to be his granddaughter, not sitting on the throne of the Empire. Still, the hierarchy had ruled for the past 2000 years, he’d be damned if it changed any time soon.

“Lord Zijjin, I have re-summoned you from the war so that I may… seek your advice on a matter of rulership.   As you know, I am the Queen. And, as you also know, I am younger than any Queen has any right to be.  I am not experienced in any way really… Look, I don’t know what I’m doing. You are the oldest commander in the Fleet, in the entire Army.  Please, help me.”

Zijjin sighed.  He drew the sword that hung at his side, the oldest relic of power in the whole of the Empire, without it, the Lunataks would be lost, weak and defenseless.  The Queen stood, wary.  It was not usually permitted to wear arms in the audience chamber, but Zijjin was privy to special rights.

“This is my guide, my Queen. It leads my actions and it makes me great. I would never have gotten this far in my career if my mentor Chorgal hadn’t given me this, the Lunar Sword.”

Lunaria looked with awe at the fine weapon.  She had heard that such a weapon existed, but that it was being kept somewhere safe from everyone.  There were some legends attached to it that it kept the Lunatak race alive or some such.  In any case, it held her spell bound. 

Zijjin sheathed the Sword and looked at her.  “I am not a great leader, by any stretch of the imagination. By your leave.” He bowed low.

“Wait!  May I… touch it?” She came down the carpeted tier hand extended cautiously.

“It is not meant for you, my Queen.  The Sword selects who can touch it and when.  Perhaps you will be the next owner.” He smiled the way adults do to children when humouring them.  She withdrew her hand and turned back to the throne, head down.

“I am sorry, your Majesty.  Some things just are not meant…” The Sword yelled in his mind.  There was danger. Not immediate, but in the Empire…

An officer opened the door to the audience chamber and walked in.

“My Lords, we are receiving an urgent hail from our forces battling our enemy. We can finally give our nemesis a face!” 

The Queen and Lord-Commander rushed down to the communications room.  On the large screen they saw the battle unfolding.

Two of the alien ships had closed in on one of the platforms.  Sensors showed no sign of their approach, leading some of the scientists to believe that they had developed the unimaginable cloaking device.  Lunatak researchers had been toying with the idea for years, and had gotten nowhere.  If we could capture one of there ships…

“Hail our fleet!” Queen Lunaria ordered.

The channel was opened to the command ship, a new-style carrier called the Immortal.  It was being held back in reserve, the other 50 ships engaging the enemy.

“Send us any information you can about the ships, weapons, propulsion, hull.  Have it on continuous feed.” Lunaria said. “Oh my gods!”

The first alien vessel opened fire. A huge ring of energy formed around the ship, and launched itself at one of our Leviathan class ships.  It was blown to pieces.  The other fired with similar results to a war frigate.  The smaller ship simply vanished, it seemed.

“This is Commander Zijjin, Immortal, launch fighters now! Engage the enemy with everything you’ve got!”

Whether the hail was sent or not didn’t really matter. The ships that were close enough to fire seemed to be having trouble actually doing anything.  They seemed to flounder in space, adrift.  They patched a channel open to another Leviathan ship, but got a garbled response.

            The crew in the comm. room listened attentively.  It sounded like they were all screaming, but about what was uncertain.  The ship was undamaged.  Like they had all gone mad.

            The Immortal opened fire, both with fighters and with its conventional weapons.  Torpedoes sped towards the massive ships’ shields, but splashed uselessly against some sort of energy field. The smaller fighters that got near went erratic, fired on the ship, on each other or lay dead in space.

            The battle was lost it seemed, nothing they could do would affect the other craft. 

            “Captain!” Zijjin yelled, “Pull out now! Don’t sacrifice yourselves!”

            Mad screams were their answer.  The fleet that had heroically fought the menace was utterly destroyed.  The station followed moments later, another ship coming out of nowhere and firing, once, on the platform.

            The cameras went dead. The last of the information trickled into the comm. room.  They finally got a read on the size. The ship was 7 kilometers in length.  It seemed to be made of a near organic/constructed material.  It had numerous weapons at its disposal, but none could be identified as anything the Lunataks had ever encountered.  The screams and the anguish experienced by the crews of the warships went unexplained, as did the mysterious appearance of the three ships.  They couldn’t even place a name on the daemon race that assailed them.  No race they encountered knew of this race. 

            Zijjin slumped.  Lunaria excused herself from the communications room, and left weeping openly.

            Moments later, the ships were reported entering deeper into Lunatak space, massacring all planets that had life on them. 

            “They’re coming here.” Zijjin said to the assembled crowd.  “Call an urgent meeting.  We need to prepare for the absolute worst.”

 

            The transport made it too the Ice Moon in a short time.  Boron was blissfully unaware of the defeat recently suffered by the Empire, but didn’t care right now anyhow.  They were headed for an ice hotel on the southern continent, nestled amongst the Nievekh Mountains, where the troubles of the outside world could not reach them. Boron had left his parents a note saying he was leaving for a while on military matters, and he wasn’t too concerned about Japhoria’s parents. They didn’t like him much, and he wasn’t too concerned if they hated him more now or not. He was almost finished his military training, and Japhoria was nearly through her rigorous schooling. Soon they would leave the Fourth Moon and come here, maybe.  Neither cared much for the High-Grav Moon, and the Dark Moon held little appeal.  The other option would be the Avian’s Moon, which was lower gravity, and the Avian’s were just so pleasant to be around.  They rarely ventured off their planet, but were very numerous.  There were many living in the Royal Palace, because they were the mediators of the Moons, without their guidance, the Moons would never have united under one banner.  They talked a little about the future, and hinted at what they would do when their learning was finished.

            They landed, and were escorted to their room, where they unpacked their things and settled in for the night.

 

            “You summoned my, you Highness?” Alzorra said pleasantly.   The master hypnotist had entered the Queen’s chamber after a short discussion with the guard outside.  He was a psi Lunatak, and could tell anyone to do anything.  Anyone except the Avains... they seemed immune to his mental prowess. 

            And Zijjin.  Something about him made him immune to suggestions, but there were other means of messing with his mind.

            “I did.” she said.  She didn’t ask about how he had gotten in here.  “This menace, the aliens, are plaguing our forces.  We fear they may come here to get at the root of the Empire, but we don’t know how to defeat them.  I was thinking that I could send you out in a small craft so you could scan the ship with you mind, and…”

            A pale blue light filled the chamber.  Alzorra pulled a pendant from beneath his flowing purple robes and said, “No, Lunaria.  I will not risk my life on a fool’s errand. Send Nyphyities in my stead, the Diplomat of the Moons will fare far better than I.  We will build up our forces around the Moon Kingdom, and wait for the enemy to fight us on our own terms.  Tell the races that we protect that they need to prove their loyalty to the Empire and to you.  You will send Zijjin out into combat, and he will not return. All this you will do for me, do you understand?”

            “I hear, and I obey, master.” She said, under his influence completely.

            “Good, little one.  Now, you will send for Zijjin, but do not tell him I was here.  Go, now.”

            He waved his hand in front of her.

            “Brilliant idea, your Majesty.  Laying a trap for them here was an excellent idea.” He said smoothly.  Alzorra left the room, laughing. It wasn’t until after he left that she snapped out of it. She went to her comm. unit and called for Zijjin.

 

            “If we brought in the Crescent Fleet to hold them for a while in the Rubricron system, we could then…” Zijjin motioned to the holo-projector which displayed the known locations of 10 enemy ships, and all the fleets in the Empire.  Hypothetically, the idea would work, if they stood a snowball’s chance in hell, that is.

            “Zijjin, you’ve lost. Don’t you see?  If we move the ships there, they have a clean shot through the Tobor Nebula.  Not that it matters much,” the Psi General said. He waved a long-fingered hand at the image, which changed as he did. “If we attack just one ship, with everything we have…”

            “We weell be keelled, you fool,” High-Grav General Moggart interrupted. “Notheeng we have weell hurt thee enemy vessels. I say we retreet, to another more friendly galaxy.”  His voice thick with accent, he displayed the total evacuation of the Lunatak race. It was completely improbable.  It would take years to get everyone off planet, and even the mighty Lunatak Empire hadn’t been able to travel even across their own galaxy, let alone make it to another one.

            “What the lot of you need, is a good icing,” General Spyek said. She was the first female General of the Ice Moons, and usually had some good ideas. She was, however, prone to icing the High-Grav and Psi Generals on occasion.

            “Gruh… I think you all deserve a good thrashing.  Although I don’t have a plan, I’m not the one proposing to sacrifice all our alliess, and even our own people to beat this.  Gruh, we should hear what Ariella has to say.”

            This put the spotlight on the Avian General, who tried to stay out of military matters as much as she could.  She was a negotiator, and knew that the Darkling General Fzarriz was just trying to get to her. “I think we should send Nyphyities to talk to this people.  Obviously they have some sort of anger problem, possibly an inferiority complex,” she said, her musical voice carrying over their arguing.  “Much like some of the people seated around this table.”

            “Nyphyeetees ees a seessy,” Moggar t spat.

            Chaos erupted around the table.  Wild accusations ripped through the room.  Zijjin sat stonily and paid them no attention.  Ever since Lunaria took the throne, they just used him as a figurehead of the Fleet.  The new trend seemed to be younger and younger leaders in the military.  He wasn’t ‘old’ nor was he ‘young’. He was sort of in the middle. 

            Well, he thought so, anyhow.

            The holo-image vanished, and Queen Lunaria’s face dominated their view.

            “My Generals, I have come up with a plan.  I will meet you in the council room in 5 minutes.”

            The image disappeared.  The Generals were left silent.

            “Crap-Rabbitss,” Fzarriz swore.

            They all knew all their planning was going to go to waste.  Although Lunaria was a bit of a dolt, she was still Queen.  She listened to her advisors, why not the Generals?

            They shuffled out unhappily.  They met the Hypnotist on the way, and he being interested in military matters, came with them much to their annoyance.

             The Queen sat in her throne casually.  They took their respective seats and the Queen began the meeting.

            “We will hold here. Pull all of our forces to defend the Lunar front.  You, my Generals, will be in charge of the Moon defense, while you, Lord-Commander Zijjin, will lead the offensive forces.

            “Do not fail. Our lives rest in your capable hands.”

            The Generals were not permitted to dispute the command.   There was fussing, and Lord Zijjin tried to increase the power of his force, but was denied.  The Queen ordered them all to leave her in peace, and that they get ready as fast as possible, for everyday could be their last. 

            All the while, Alzorra stood back, and watched.

 

Nyphyities was sent out in a small craft to where one of the enemy ships was orbiting what once was a planet.  He stayed a good distance out from it, to avoid the psionic influences. He opened a channel and began speaking in his soothing voice, trying to get some sort of response.

He got one, though not the one he was hoping for. The ship opened fire and turned Nyphyities small craft into a gaseus blob.  It cooled quickly, and became a solid chunk of spherical metal.

 

            Boron and Japhoria stared deep into each other’s eyes. Never before had they felt as close as they did now.  They didn’t need to talk, they held each other’s hand on top of the table, their feelings and emotions passing between them like an electrical current.  The Ice waiter tapped Boron on the shoulder.  Boron blinked, and drew back from Japhoria. 

            “What is it?” He asked.

            “Umm… sir, there is an urgent transmission from a… umm… Lord-Commander Jinn? Singe? Is trying to get a hold of you.  Says it’s very dire indeed.”

            Hundreds of curses in as many languages swarmed through Boron’s mind.  He excused himself as politely as he could, and stormed off to the nearest communications outlet.

            “Zijjin, what the hells is going on? You know what I’m doing?”  Boron fumed into the audio-only unit.

            “Boron, this is absolutely necessary.  You must return to the Royal Moon now!”

            “But mentor, you more than anyone should respect my wishes, after what you’ve been thr-.”

            “Don’t say that!” Zijjin yelled. “Come to the Moon now, or not at all.” The connection was severed at the source. Boron was taken aback by this.  Zijjin had never been ‘mad’ at Boron before. As his mentor, he was supposed to be patient and accept, not freak out and ignore him.

            Something was afoot.  Boron began feeling uneasy.  Maybe he should go to the Palace and check things out.

            He made his way back to where Japhoria was seated at their table.  She smiled as he approached, but her smile soon faded when she saw Boron’s sallow expression.

            “My love, what is it?” She asked. 

            “Zijjin has recalled me to the Royal Moon.  I- I have to go.  Sounds like this war is really taking a toll on him.  I’ve never seen him like this before,” he said. 

            Japhoria frowned, and a tear welled in her amber eyes.  Boron looked at her with a pained expression, and turned from her.  “I’ll extend the reservations in the hotel.” He turned with a naughty expression on his face, “You’ll be waiting for me, I’m sure…”

            Japhoria did not find this in any way amusing or humorous in any way.  Boron tried to recover as best he could.  “Consider it a present?”  Japhoria managed a weak smile.  The mountains were beautiful, and the service was known throughout the Empire.  She shrugged.

            Boron couldn’t bear to drag out this farewell any longer.  He gave her a wave, and left for the transport that would take him to the Third Moon.

 

            The halls of the Palace were near deserted.  Boron’s heels clipped noisily against the floor.  Zijjin met him out in the main hall.  He looked withdrawn and strange, older by far than his usual.  He did not stand tall or seem remarkable in any way.  Zijjin was a defeated man.

            “I am to lead the assault against our enemy.  The Queen has some idea that I can better manage the battle from a ship.  I think my usefulness as an officer is over.  She said that it was my duty to defend the Moons with my life. I am in agreement with that… this is…” he trailed off.

            “This is suicide!” Boron said.  “Does she think you can defeat them?  How many ships are they sending?”

            “For us, or THEM?  We’ve detected two on a direct course to the Moons.  We have a good 200 ships on the offensive force, more for planetary.  The numbers haven’t been given to me, another reason why I think something is up.”  He motioned for Boron to follow him, they walked briskly through some corridors, and entered a small room that Boron had never been in before.  Zijjin told him it was clean of any sensory equipment, so they could talk privately.

            “Boron, I want you to have this.” He held out the Lunar Sword to Boron.  Boron’s eyes went wide.

            “Mentor, why are you giving this to me?  If you are to win the battle, you will need this.”  He offered it back, but Zijjin waved him away. It seemed a great burden was lifted from him as he let go of the Blade. 

            “No, I know what we must do to win this battle. If it fails, the Blade will be lost, and the Lunataks defeated. No, Boron, if I fail, it is up to you to save the Empire.”  The old man smiled at the younger Lunatak.  His mission complete, he left for his transport that would take him to the Naginata and from there to the fleet gathering around the Plundarrian system.  Boron could only stare at the weapon he held in his hand and wonder.

           

            Zijjin hurried to the command deck of his ship.  He needed to find Shrivala, and time was not on his side.  He found his daughter stationed at her station, monitoring all channels hoping to pick up a stray communiqué from the enemy.

            “Shrivala, I need you to go to the Palace.  Don’t ask why, no questions.” He said.

            She looked up from her station with a confused look.  “But, father, why? I am needed on the bridge, like you’ve said before: ‘duty before family’.”

            “Listen, this is not the time for questions.  I am giving you a direct order, all right?  I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think it was important.”

            “But dad…”

            “Go!” Zijjin shouted. Most of the bridge crew looked over at the scene they were making.  Some officers snickered.  Zijjin shot them nasty looks and they went back to work.

            Shrivala got up in a huff, and stomped off the bridge. Zijjin sat in her vacated seat and put his face in his hands. When all hope was gone, all that remained was duty.

 

            The ship came without warning.  The top scientists were pouring over the readings they got moments before it arrived.  A cloaking device was theorized, but such a device was beyond even their technology.   Lord-Commander Zijjin was tearing his hair out trying to manage the front.  He had called in the High-Grav Lunatak fleet, using their gravity technology to keep the ship away from the planets.

            There was some field that the Lunatak fleet could not penetrate.  Their weapons seemed useless against the massive ships, barely scratching the surface.

            “9^th wing, give the Graviton Fleet some support!  Wings 3-5, engage the enemy!”  Zijjin’s voice rang throughout the bridge of the new-style carrier class war ship.  He kept back from the psychic field that drove the crews of other ships mad.  Already, a quarter of the fleet had been wiped out.  The Graviton’s were the only thing keeping this from turning into a slaughter.

 

            All the while, Boron watched from the Council Room in the Palace.  Alzorra and Lunaria paid keen attention to the status of the enemy ship, and monitoring communication channels for any sign of success of beating through their deflective field.

            “Zijjin is losing,” Alzorra whispered, “isn’t it good we decided to rid ourselves of him?”

 

            Lunaria could only listen.  She had on her belt, her symbol of authority, and the magic club her mother passed down to her.  If the creatures on board the ship decided to attack one-on-one, she was prepared as anyone.

            Boron clutched the handle of the Lunar Sword.  He could see two, even three moves ahead of what was happening. He wondered why Zijjin didn’t keep it for this battle.  With it, he was sure he couldn’t fail.

            Shrivala entered the Council Room and stood next to Boron.  He gave her a polite nod, and kept his attention on the screen.

 

            “Put up a scattering field!” Zijjin ordered.  “Block all transmissions to the Moons.  Keep channels open with the Fleet.  I have an announcement.”

 

            “My Queen, they have put up some sort of dampening field around the fleet.  I can’t get through with any messages!”  an officer said.

 

            Lunaria scowled. “Is it from the enemy, or is it one of ours?”

            “Unclear, but the fleet seems to be functioning normally.”

            “Damnit!” she muttered.  “Try and get through.  Alzorra, can your psychic abilities punch through and get me any information?”

 

            Alzorra snorted. “My Queen, it would be a great waste of my efforts for such a task.” He said calmly.  Lunaria backed down.

            Boron’s eyes went wide.  The clairvoyance came through.  He saw what Zijjin was going to do, and knew why he was given the sword.

            “NOOOO!” Boron yelled.  The audience’s eyes turned to him, then to the viewer where a catastrophic scene was unfolding.

 

            “Lunar fleet, we all know our weapons are useless against these monsters.  Our lasers bounce off their hulls, and our missiles cannot break through their defenses.”  Zijjin’s ship was hit with a shot from the enemy battle ship.  Sparks flew and consoles exploded sending smoke and debris all over the bridge of the Carrier.  “Loyal sons and daughters of the Empire! I beg you to follow me, and stop these beasts from destroying all that we’ve created!  Lunataks, follow me!”   The smaller vessels that were housed inside the Carrier were launched.  All of them were automated.  He begged for a skeleton crew onboard all ships to cut down on the necessary loss of life.   From the enemy vessel, it must have looked like the Naginata had sprung a gas leak, for the dark cloud of robotic attack vessels swarmed towards the ship as one.

            Followed closely, by the Naginata.

            The first of the miniscule ships slammed into the hull.  There were so many, that the pinprick holes they made were soon gaping holes in the protective alloys that kept the ship safe. 

            “For the Moons!” Zijjin cried a moment before the command ship exploded in a huge fireball into what the scientists could only guess was the main power source.

            The scattering field went down with the Naginata and now the Palace picked up signals that the other ships were transmitting. A good half of the fleet was soon following his example.  Hundreds of personal messages were being sent to the Moons.  Husbands and wives, children and parents telling their counterparts, loved ones, or the entire system, how much they would miss them.  The outcry from the Moons to the lost children of the Empire was incredible as dozens of ships found their mark in the massive ship’s hull. All sorts of debris flooded the skies.  The twisted remains of the ship were burning in space, making a lazy plummet to the nearest moon.

            The Lunatak suicide fleet had blown off a good third of it, the ship had broken into two parts; the Graviton ships were towing the smaller chunk with their induced gravity devices. The largest, though, was on a crash course with the Ice Moon of Plundarr.

            Boron looked with damp eyes to the burning piece of scrap.  He shouted orders for the Graviton’s to get a lock onto it and stop it’s decent.  Shrivala clutched Boron and cried out in agony.

            A transmission from the surface of the Ice Moon confirmed Boron’s worst fears.

            “My Queen,” said General Spyek, leader of the Ice Armies, “The fragment of the enemy vessel is on a crash course with our southern continent.  We’ve plotted its exact course.”  The view screen showed the chunk of debris falling, and almost hitting the ocean. Almost. It instead would hit a remote range of mountains.

            She continued, “It will crash into the Nievekh Mountains in less than two minutes.”

            Boron cried out in sheer pain and agony.  There was no way to let her know…

 

            Japhoria had been paying close attention to unfolding battle in the skies.  It had sounded like they were losing, but had pulled off a costly victory.  She knew Boron was assigned to Palace Duty.  She liked to think that they kept their best officers close to home, so they wouldn’t risk their lives.  It was the only comfort she could find in the resort hotel she was booked at.  This was nothing without Boron.

            There was an announcement that caught her attention. They, the Graviton Fleet had towed one part of the ship out of harms way, but there was still the larger piece to deal with. 

            And it was on a crash course with the Ice Moon.

            The hotel erupted into chaos.  The announcer didn’t say where, but he didn’t need to. 

            The hotel was situated inside one of the mountain.  It went as deep as a kilometer and a half, but had camera’s watching the skies, acting as beacons for when the weather is inhospitable, more so than usual, for transports.  They could see from there cameras the chunk of ship coming down almost right on top of them.  The hotels’ ships were being repaired after a recent bout of hail. 

            Japhoria ran down the steps to the sub-basement, following the swarm that proceeded her.

 

            From the Royal Moon, they saw the impact.  It melted snow for 4 kilometers around it, the crater’s depth could not be determined, for all steam and interference from the ship itself.  There was a lot of praying going on for those on the surface, survivors were expected, but the extent of the damage to the planet was still being debated.

            Boron clenched and unclenched his fists.  If he lost it now, in front of the Council, he would have his rank pulled and expelled from the Palace.  Still, he feared the worst, and with good reason.  He felt a hot tear trickle down his cheek.

            Lunaria sent another transmission to the Ice Moon.

            “General Spyek, prepare for a ground attack.”  Lunaria said.  Boron noticed Alzorra lurking around her ear, but ignored it.  When he looked away, it seemed more obvious.  When he looked back, he just saw Lunaria standing there. “Prepare a transport, I will be heading to the Ice Moon myself.”

            General Spyek nodded sharply, and her image faded.

            The Council went silent.  The Queen’s place right now was in the Palace, trying to calm the populace.  She was a new Queen, though, and had some crazy idea of being a hero, they guessed.  Still, it would not reflect well if the mission were a failure.

            “My Queen,” he said, his voice quavering, “Let me accompany you on the mission.  As Zijjin’s… successor, my place is at your side.”  He sniffed.

            Lunaria looked at him for a moment. “I know Zijjin was your friend, but..?”

            Boron drew the Lunar Blade and held it between them.

            “I need to go.” He said, “for vengance.” His yellow eyes flashed briefly.  Lunaria nodded to the newly appointed Commander of the Fleet.

            Shrivala looked up at him, “Boron, why?  Why did he do it?”

            Boron looked down through tearful eyes, “For you, and the Moons.”  She looked away, consumed with grief.  “I’m leading the assault mission on the Ice Moon… I am relieving you of duty.  This isn’t your fight.”

            “My father died because of these monsters.  The least I can do for him is finish the job.”  Determination flared in her eyes.  Boron nodded, and they left for the hanger.

           

 

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