MILITARY SECURED CHANNEL 4814sd3C

DON'T FEED THE TREANA'AD GRUB, IT'S ALREADY EATEN

SIS FORGOT THE POPCORN, BLAME HER

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Technically, we could push the counter-attack now. The logistics bases and the war material stocks are above 50%. All units are at at least 80%, nearly 80% are completely refit and the personnel transfers and reinforcements are largely done. Nearly 75% of units have or are about to undergo force training.

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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

Are you sure it's smart to attack when the enemy is attacking across a broad front?

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

I know, right?

Still, follow the logic chain here.

The Atrekna started with a single star system, they jumped forward to five others. From each of those five they jumped to five more. They repeated this, so from the initial star there is a fan five ranks deep.

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AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

Right. Which means there's literally thousands of worlds and systems that they hold and thousands more they threaten. We have to fortify up on the worlds that we've still got enough of a presence to hold them.

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LANAKTALLAN FREE GRAZING FIELD

I agree. It's our only hope of preventing them from doing another set of spokes.

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TNVARU GRIPPING HAND

I agree. We're engaged in combat in hundred of worlds, hundreds of systems. It feels like we're splitting our forces.

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HAMAROOSAN PINCHING ROOM

If we split our forces we're risking being defeated.

I feel this military strategy invites defeat.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

Do you know why those of us with seniority used our override vote?

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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

You feel that we're wrong.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

You are all advocating for a defensive strategy. Dig in and fortify.

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HAMAROOSAN PINCHING ROOM

Yes. Let the Atrekna break their jaws on our bulwark.

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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Like we had to explain to our junior members, this is what makes or breaks wars.

Valiant defenses, the civilians stoically enduring the siege, the military holding against all odds.

That's the defensive war.

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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

All right.

That sounds suspicious.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

Meanwhile, the enemy takes other worlds, entrenches themselves, increases their resources, manufacturing, recruiting (or in the Atrekna's case, temporal replication opportunities), and retool their military to take us on with a military that's better equipped, larger, and we're on the defensive, which makes it all harder.

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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

It just seems like it's asking to be defeated, attacking in the middle of this attack.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

All right.

What you're not looking at, is each world, the Atrekna have to garrison and protect it. They're normal strategy of sinking the system to deny to others don't work.

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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

You're all welcome.

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HAMAROOSAN PINCHING ROOM

Um, thank you?

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TRENA'AD HIVE WORLDS

It's the gravitational anomaly around the Rigel System that enabled us to not only detect but then penetrate the system with military forces.

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TNVARU GRIPPING HAND

Ah. OK, I get it.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

So, we're actually doing good right now.

The Atrekna caught us out of position. We were still positioned to take on the Council.

We were in the middle of moving a massive amount of troops and ships.

We were still dealing with the Great Die Off.

But now... they made a mistake.

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TELKAN FORGE WORLD

What?

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

They concentrated on those spoked systems. We were able to stop them in each spoke. Only one spoke managed to get all the way to the bottom layer of systems.

Hell, two of them were stopped dead in the second layer or the first layer.

Rather than fortify their position, they kept going, hoping to overrun us.

It's a viable strategy.

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PUBVIAN DOMINION

Same one you used, sis used, hell, even I used. Most species use the overrun strategy. Overwhelm the enemy.

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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

Then why attack?

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Raise your hands if you know what 28.84% means and if you can beat it.

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...

...

...

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Raise your hands if your 'overrun strategy' worked.

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...

...

...

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Guys, we learned from the best.

The Terrans methods of warfare, their varying generations of warfare that they will draw back and forth on, enabled them to beat what was probably the greatest threat anyone had ever seen.

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LANAKTALLAN FREE HERD?

Us?

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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

The Dwellerspawn

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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS

Oh, the Atrekna!

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PUBVIAN DOMINION

No. Not one of these could have defeated that threat.

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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

Wait...

The Terrans themselves!

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MANTID HIVE WORLDS

LOL. Yeah, well, good guess.

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LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

Wait... I know this one...

THE MAR-GITE!

Yeah! The Mar-gite! They don't talk, they don't communicate at all. They view everyone as food. They use mass waves. They're the threat!

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

Yes.

They keep coming in waves. The worlds they take become nothing but spawning grounds until it runs out of multicellular life and whatever else they can metabolize, and we're not sure if they could exist just off of silicon and sunlight.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Trust us, kid.

The Atrekna are NOT going to expect a counter-attack while they still have operations ongoing.

Every time the Terrans pulled it, the enemy collapsed.

Trust us, guys.

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PUBVIAN DOMINION

All of us, all the big boys who went toe to toe with the Terrans, we've seen that it isn't just how tough they are as individuals.

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TNVARU GRIPPING HAND

It's not?

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LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

It's their military tactics.

It's the lessons of jawnconnor.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Speaking of military actions.

We finally decoded the rest of a certain scary movie?

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

What scary movie?

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

The Lost Telkan Vessel and the Meat Eating Omnivore Predators, Part III.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

The what now?

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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

Wait, the rest of that recording? Where the trade ship loaded with cats and dogs encountered the earthlings and DIDN'T get blown out of the sky?

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

That's the one.

You guys want to...

ALL> YES!

All right. All right.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Breket felt like he'd been turning inside out, folded, spindled, mutilated, and then yanked right side out. He could taste dirt, old blood, and that zingy feeling of metal on fillings. He lifted his head and shook it, looking around.

Half of his bridge crew was unconscious. Life signs above their heads showed they were all right, just suffering something called 'transit shock' and their breathing was getting better.

Grektik looked at his captain, then at his board.

"Everything's out. The only thing we have is internal coms, the internal computer network, and external cameras," he said.

"Can you see anything?" Breket asked.

"Yeah. That big gray ship," Grektik said. "We're snugged up under the primary hull, maybe a half kilometer from it."

"Anything else?" Breket asked.

"Yeah. Orange, yellow, and purple," Grektik said. He made a tossing motion at the main viewscreen and it winked on.

There were no stars visible from the camera angles. Just streaks of color that started nebulous and thickened until they were completely opaque.

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

Before you ask, there isn't any stars you can pull luminosity and other data off of to get a cartographic check.

They're completely inside the nebula and it's impossible to tell which nebula it is, only they're in an extremely thick part.

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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

So, that's how they've managed to stay hidden for all this time.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

Shh. Down in front.

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"So, we have no way of telling how far we've come? What about gravitics?" Breket asked.

Grektik shook his head. "Those big ships around us are messing it up too bad," he checked his scanners again. "Yeah, the system is completely confused. It's recommending I do a low level reboot down in the server farm."

Breket shook his head. "Kretiker, anything?" he asked the Assistant Chief Engineer, who had lifted his head up and rubbed at his eyes.

"A moment, Captain," the Engineer said. He frowned, tapped at his board, then leaned back. "Everything's offline. Some kind of lockout."

"I want to know how," Breket said.

"I can tell you," Easy Jump, the ship's DS, said, sliding out of her 'shock core' and into the holotank.

"Enlighten me," Breket said.

"When their combat VI jumped me, he grabbed access codes to everything, jumped back out, and apparently jumped back in," Jump said. She shook her head. "He's got the DCC computers, the emergency bridge, and pretty much has control of the ship."

Breket frowned. "What's he doing?"

Jump shuddered. "Chewing on bones. Well, that's what it looks like. He's decrypting secure files," she shuddered again. "He's a combat VI, maybe a custom grown combat Dee-Ess. I don't want to go anywhere near him."

The other holotank suddenly lit up and the marionette appeared again, hanging limp for a moment before straightening with a jerk.

"POSITIVE ASSERTION: TRANSIT SUCCESSFUL," the faceless, featureless mannequin stated in a loud voice. "POSITIVE ASSERTION: SHIP INTACT. CREW INTACT. CARGO INTACT."

It paused a moment. "FORCEFUL WARNING: NEGATIVE ATTEMPTS TO REGAIN SYSTEM CONTROLS. ATTEMPTS DISCOURAGED. LETHAL BYPROCESS EXTREMELY LIKELY."

Breket raised his eyetufts and looked at the rest of the bridge. "You heard it."

"POSITIVE INTERACTION REQUEST: TRADE." the puppet said.

"If we trade you cats and dogs, will you at least take us back?" Breket asked.

"POSITIVE QUERY RESPONSE: AFFIRMATIVE. RESPONSE EXPANSION: YOUR VESSEL UNABLE TO LEAVE WITHOUT ASSISTANCE> POSITIVE REASSURANCE: WE WILL PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO ENABLE RETURN TO POINT OF INITIAL INTERACTION." The mannequin was suddenly replaced by a timer, a little over two hours. "STATEMENT DISPLAY: TIME UNTIL TRADE ENVOY ARRIVAL. MAKE READY."

Breket looked around. "You heard it. This might be weird, but if there's trade to be had, I intend on not only getting us out of this alive, but making a profit," he looked at the holotank and the timer and smiled. "We have something they want. That puts us on the tighter gripping hand."

LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

I think I understand why they communicate like that.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

It's so exciting!

>crams popcorn in his mouth

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LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

It prevents any attempt at using body language to infer actual attitudes. You don't get to see the inside of their vessel, what they are wearing, what stance they are at, or even, really, who they are.

It's ominous as hell, and kind of frightening, but it makes sense. I think I even know where they got it from.

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TNVARU MATRON'S DELIGHT TEA NOW WITH MORE NURTIP BERRIES!

How? Who?

Oh, dammit.

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LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL

LOL Owned.

Anyway, they got it from one of us.

The Pubvians.

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PUBVIAN DOMINION

You know, you might be right.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Hey! Down in front!

---NOTHING FOLLOW---

Breket stood in his best trading vacsuit, watching as the bay doors of one of the secondary cargo holds opened. The permeable force field let the craft waiting beyond the doors through without evacuating the atmosphere, but Breket made sure everyone was in a basic vacsuit just in case.

The ship was not the basic shuttle that Breket had expected. He'd expected the standard Terran runabout. A short boxy body with a sloped front, two engines on pylons, and skids.

Instead, what came through was obviously armed and armored, turrets on the side and forward facing guns. Weapon pods on the underside of the short wings. All the weapons had covers on them.

"You can't even get an idea of the caliber or type," Helgret'tik said. Not only was she the sole female Telkan on the ship, she was also the ship's security and weapon's officer. "Weapons are entirely wrapped. It's probably excused as being peaceful, but it keeps anyone from getting a good look at their weapons and sights."

Breket just nodded.

The ship settled down smoothly, reminding Breket of a stinging insect settling down to make someone's day a lot worse.

The engines didn't cut off, just idled, and the side door slid open.

Terrans in heavy power armor jumped out, weapons held ready, and Breket gave a snapped command over his Captain's channel for everyone to stay calm. The armor was flat gray, a solid color, even the visors were the same color as the armor. Heavy shoulders, back collar, thickly armored legs and hands, thick torso.

Breket was pretty sure that everyone in the armor knew how to use it.

"Standard shipboard boarding sweep tactics," Helgret'tik mused.

One of the armors moved forward and Breket noted there was no rank insignia, nothing to make the armor look different than any other suit. The doors slowly closed and a half dozen of his crew moved forward with crates, setting them down.

"REQUEST QUERY: VISUAL CONFIRMATION OF FELINE AND CANINE SUBJECTS?" was grated out. The voice was entirely electronic.

Breket knew that would be the first thing. He waved at his crew members, who lifted the crates and brought them forward.

"All immature. Capable of reproduction. Full medical checks, immunizations, and documentation," Breket said. "Three cats, three dogs. I have multiple breeds, all young. No touching, their DNA is just as valuable as they are."

The one that had spoke looked in each cage for a long moment before moving on to the next. After a moment they moved back in front of Breket.

"POSITIVE INTERACTION. REQUEST TRADE NEGOTIATION."

Breket nodded. "With the nanoforge and creation engine system, you know that trade value is less precious and rare or exotic materials and isotopes, but rather things with more esoteric value."

"POSITIVE RESPONSE TO STATEMENT."

"In light of that, I'm willing to sell you up to a third of my cargo of felines and canines," Breket said.

He tensed slightly. This was the sticking part. Too many times people had figured pulling a weapon was payment enough and Breket knew he wasn't in the position to argue at gunpoint with the armored figures in front of him.

"POSITIVE REACTION TO STATEMENT."

"What do you have to offer to trade?" Breket asked.

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

OH MY DIGITAL OMNIMESSIAN AND THE TWELVE BIOLOGICAL APOSTLES, IT'S SO EXCITING!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Down in front!

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The armored figure held out a large datacube. One of the ones that usually acted as the main datastorage for a dreadnought's fire control system. On top was a standard datapad that lit up.

Schematics flickered by. Ships appeared and rolled and vanished.

"NEGATIVE STATEMENT: WEAPONS."

"So, no weaponry schematics?" Breket asked.

"NEGATIVE STATEMENT: MILITARY SURPLUS/EQUIPMENT."

"So, everything is for civilian use?"

"POSITIVE REPLY."

"I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at," Breket said.

"POLITE SUGGESTIVE STATEMENT: PROFESSIONALLY TRAINED ENGINEER AND OR DAMAGE CONTROL OFFICER."

Breket waved at Vutplent, the What, Me Worry?'s DCC officer. He leaned forward, looking at the schematics for a long moment. He turned to Breket.

"I'm not sure of the value, to be honest," he said.

Breket had a nose for a deal, just like he had good instincts of when to take a deal and when to run.

"One third of our feline and canine cargo," Breket said. "It goes without saying that I expect them to be well treated and have comfortable lives."

"POSITIVE AFFIRMATION TO FORCEFUL STATEMENT."

"All right, we'll swap them for your data," Breket said.

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Hey! Why are you fast forwarding it?

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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

It's just the Terrans moving the crates by hand and the crew standing around.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Yeah, that's the best part.

>shudders

So tense!

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

I'm not sitting here for four hours while you eat popcorn like an Anteres Trufflepig.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Fine.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Breket lifted his head up and looked around.

Everyone on the bridge was recovering quickly.

The external cameras were still fed to the viewscreen and he watched as the stars shifted, letting him know that despite the lack of vibration, his ship was moving.

One by one his crew stirred, most drinking a few squirts of water or fizzybrew.

He felt the sudden freefall feeling of that massive ship letting go of his trading vessel.

The holotank came back on, showing the puppet.

"FORCEFUL COMMAND: JOURNEY WILL BE PLEASANT AND SAFE."

The puppet suddenly vanished and the holotank went dead.

Not before Breket saw a flicker move through.

"Oh, thank Enraged Phillip," Jump said.

"He left, didn't he? I thought I saw him," Breket said.

"Yeah, he's gone," she wrinkled her nose. "Aux-Con smells kinda weird. Huh."

"Check it," he turned to his crew. "Go over everything. Compare the software to the OEM copies. Check all the logs. Turn off, recycle, and flush all systems," he looked at Jump. "Let's make sure they didn't leave any nasty surprises for us or someone else."

Jump nodded.

"Once that's done, plot a course for Telkan," Breket said. He leaned back in his chair. "Confederate Intelligence is going to want to hear all about this."

>FILE END

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

THAT'S IT? What's on the cube? Did they get followed?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

LOL