1008: 1008 Not Alone

1008 Not Alone

The drones continued to circle the planet for six more hours, looking for targets and eliminating survivors before Nico called them back to the ships.  0

Even if there were some Warriors left on the planet, their numbers were so small now that even the civilians could deal with them fairly easily.

"Are we done here?" Nico asked as the last of the Drones returned to the Colony Ship and were stored away for repairs and restocking with raw materials before their next battle.

"I believe we are. Let's get off this god-forsaken rock before the locals turn on us." Max agreed.

The locals had realized that the battle was mostly over now, and they were beginning to take stock of the damage done. That meant they were beginning to realize the full extent of the damage that the Drones did during their 'rescue' effort, and they were not happy.

The Arisen had the same idea. The enemy was gone, so they had no reason to remain. As quickly as they had appeared, they vanished into the secondary layer of space, out of sight of the locals, so Max sent their departure order.

[Activate the portals and move us into the other layer along with the Arisen. The faster we disappear, the better.]

The local population was torn between celebrating their survival and raging against the strange species that had shown up along with the Arisen to devastate half of their planet in an effort to remove the Great Enemy. 

In their minds, it was ridiculous and uncalled for. They were a peaceful species from the start, only developing their military might for defensive purposes, and the damage to their planet was beyond anything that they could deem acceptable.

"They have sent an official message to the Koleska Territory, requesting an explanation from our species representative. The Anomaly Defence Force Commander is awaiting instructions." Nico informed Max only a few minutes after they had made the transfer.

They were still floating in the chaotic energy currents near the Rift, and Max had been more interested in the strange phenomenon going on there than the anger of a species whose name he didn't even bother to learn.

"I will make one in just a moment. You pick out another defence target while we wait. We will give it a day or so to rest and recover and to give the others time to respond if they're going to." Max instructed.

Max considered the tone of his message for a while and then decided that he would go for overbearing. It made life easier when nobody questioned you.

[Envoy, we acknowledge your concern about the damage done to your planet by the invasion of the Great Enemy, and we sympathize with your plight.

We are also grateful for your appreciation of the fact that we rescued over eighty percent of your civilian population and would like to offer you discounted Terraforming services once this conflict is over, should your species survive.

-Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company]

Even through the tiny portal that he had opened to send back the message, Max could sense the outrage of the planetary government as they received his message.

"How dare he offer to terraform our planet after being the one to destroy it? And IF we survive this conflict? IF? How DARE HE!" The planet's Governor was raging while Max resisted the urge to laugh.

"You seem a bit too happy. What did you tell them?" Nico asked before she read the message.

"Oh, that is a good one. We will have to turn it into a template for later. We can just update the survival rate and use it over and over every time that someone complains that we broke more of their planet than we defended." She laughed as she read the message Max had sent out.

That would just be too cruel. He had only chosen his wording this way because they were so mad about being rescued like it was just expected that someone could turn aside a full planetary invasion without a second thought.

After a few more minutes, Nico had a location for them. There was another planet under attack by the Great Evil, as the Arisen called them, and their sensors had detected some strange energy signatures bleeding through the layers of space near the planet, suggesting that a greater being was nearby.

That was her choice of calls to answer so that she could collect more data on what they were actually fighting, not the minions that made up the first wave of shock troops.

It might not be the best idea that they ever had if that enemy turned out to be more than they could handle, but the plan was to approach from this layer and see if there was any reaction from the enemy. If there wasn't, then they could retreat here if things went bad. 

But if the enemy did react to them here, they would hold back and engage from a distance, dealing with the orbital fleet while other forces which were on their way made landfall.

"Well, if we travel through this layer at the usual rate, we should be there in two days. Should we take a little break?" Nico suggested.

"What did you have in mind? Kepflix and chill?" Max asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, that's a good idea too. But I was thinking of a nice soak in the hot tub in Section E while we set the holographic walls to transparent mode and watch the swirling energy around us like we were floating in space."

"That actually sounds pretty good. A nice soak to just unwind and do nothing for a while. We've done enough thinking for one day." Max agreed.

Section E was right near the middle of the ship and only a short walk from the hangar bays, but Nico already had the room ready by the time that they arrived, and both the temperature and the jet pressure of the tub adjusted perfectly before they arrived.

"And, now we switch the walls to external camera mode, and perfect." She announced as the view around the tub turned to one of swirling clouds of energy.

What Max hadn't expected was that the tub had the same display function, so they really did feel like they were floating naked in a bubble of water in the void.

One more new experience to put down on the recommended list.

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