There were two frightening things I discovered when I examined, in depth, the AVENGE-US-DOC.
The first was that there were obviously large sections that ended before the Terrans revealed the full extent of their technology. That there were large sections of their easily observable technology and science that was not detailed in the document.
The second, and most frightening, was that nobody paid my warnings any heed. - Bo'okdu'ust, Lanaktallan Socio-Mathematical Researcher, 73 Post-2PW
The stealth pod settled to the ground with a barely heard hum. Cameras recorded the area around it, then activated the holofield, hiding the flat gray teardrop shaped pod. The sides opened and a six person strike team left the pod. Four were male Terrans, two were females. All of them were dressed in black suits with a white undershirt, cufflinks, with an earpiece in their right ear and a pair of black sunglasses covering their eyes. Their features were vaguely similair, the females were the same height at five foot six, the males were much larger at seven foot two. They had the feeling of all being identical, as if an observers brain would tell the observer 'you saw one, no need for me to tell you what the others look like' and then fill the observer's brain with boredom.
"Weapon check," one stated.
All of them reached inside their jackets and pulled out identical heavy magac pistols. Black warsteel frames, hologram sight that popped a crosshair at the back and a single pearl of red at the end of the barrel, ammunition counter on the back. Textured handgrips, extended magazines, smartlink circuitry, and a heavy frame that was much heavier than the .72 caliber round needed.
"Check," they all said at once after checking over the pistols with the same motions at the same time. Their voices were almost identical.
"Munitions check," the first one stated.
They all checked the additional magazines, the grenades, the flat-pack mines.
"Secondary weapon check," the first stated.
All of them checked to ensure they had all four knives on them as well as the throwing spikes.
"Camouflage systems," the first stated.
All of them seemed to prism and then kaleidoscope before vanishing.
"Check," came from empty air.
Silence for a moment.
"Move out," the first one stated.
The grass shifted as something that wasn't a breeze moved by unseen.
Toward the city that surrounded the park the stealth pod had settled into.
They moved unseen. Law enforcement cameras and surveillance cameras did not pick them up. Their mass did not register. Lasers and motion detectors saw nothing. They wove in and out of the vehicles as they rapidly approached their target.
The Ornislarp Noocracy Chamber of Philosophy of Appetite.
They slipped in unseen as one by one someone exited or entered the building. They moved past and around guards, the safety measures and security protocols missing them completely. An elevator opened and nothing went in before the doors closed and it began moving.
The dataplate flashed and 'security override' appeared on the digital display.
The elevator moved toward a floor that was not listed on the buttons.
The elevator door opened to nothing. The four guards waiting on the elevator moved in and felt around, just in case, but found nothing. The alarms and systems of the hallway detected nothing.
The auxiliary door opened and shut without registering on the security terminals. The door to the security control booth opened and closed silently, the lock never disengaging. All twelve of the heavily armed Ornislarp security beings did not notice.
They were unaware that they were no longer alone.
The emergency exit passageway, used to move high ranking government officials in safety and secrecy was not as empty as the guards that walked through it looking for any threat thought it was.
In orbit General Rippentear, commander of the expeditionary force, stared at the holotank.
"Do you have a channel to the planetary leaders?" he asked.
"Yes, General," the EW officer stated.
"Do we have penetration to social media and information networks?" he asked. He watched as his armored vac-suit reported that the fleet combat and control bridge was now under atmosphere.
"Yes, General," one of the communications specialists answered.
"Put me through to the planetary ruler," Rippentear stated, his faceplate retracting and then his helmet folding up into his collar. He ran one hand through his hair, then pulled out a cigar, putting it between his teeth. He glanced back and saw that his XO was sitting down, other bridge officers in their own command chairs.
The holotank flickered and one of the creepy spider-like Ornislarp appeared.
"This is General Rippentear, Task Force Commanding," the Terran said.
The Ornislarp goggled as the Terran appeared in the holotank that it had just been using to show the rest of the high government officials that the Solarian Iron Dominion was advancing on all fronts.
"I demand your surrender," the Terran continued. "Order all vehicles to stop and cut their engines, their crews are to exit the vehicles. Your troops are to lay down their weapons and sit down to await further orders. All missile and rocket stations are to go offline. All planetary defense systems are to shut down."
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The Ornislarp stared, its mouthparts slapping together idly with the sound of two raw steaks smacking together.
"Your fleet is being demolished by my guns. You cannot hurt my ships. Your ground forces have been destroyed or routed," Rippentear continued. He paused to light the cigar.
"We will not submit to an ancient relic that..." the Noocracy leader started to say.
"Has you personally under threat," Rippentear said, puffing on the cigar. "I will ask you again, sir, to surrender. Save the lives of your troops, save the lives of your fellow politicians," he paused and looked at the cherry red end of his cigar. He looked back at the shocked Noocracy leader. "Save yourself, sir."
"I will do no such thing! This is a violation of the cease fire between the Confederacy of Aligned Planets and the Ornislarp Noocracy! We are the aggrieved party! You fired upon us!" the Ornislarp yelled.
"I ask you for a third time, sir. Will you surrender?" Rippentear asked. He glanced at the secondary window.
The exchange was being pushed through the Ornislarp communications channels.
"Absolutely not! This is an unprovoked attack upon..." the Planetary Thought and Appetite Leader shouted.
"Kill him," Rippentear interrupted.
The wall behind the Ornislarp seemed to suddenly bulge forward. The coloration of the Noocracy State Seal seemed to stretch out, then tear at the front of the bulge, sliding back toward the wall.
What came out of the bulge was a nightmare.
Three and a half meters tall, a meter wide, covered in gray fur shot through with white here and there and black circles around the red eyes. It had powerful animalistic back legs, a furry tail, and long forelegs that ended in claws. Elongated muzzle and perky triangular ears behind the burning red eyes.
But it was the jaws that were revealed when the creature opened its maw. Conical teeth, red tongue.
The creature snatched up the Ornislarp, lifting it as it screamed. Its jaws came down and there was a crunch and a spray of lavender blood.
As the creature bit off the face of the Planetary Thought and Appetite Leader, its powerful jaws crushing the brain case, and tearing a huge chunk of meat from the front of the Ornislarp's body. It threw the body one way and turned its head the other to spit out the savaged meat.
The guard went to draw their weapons, bring them into play, to lift them up over their bodies to shoot at the creature coming to its full height on the stage.
From each wall a female Terran stepped from camouflage, pistols in hand.
They fired quickly, spaced shots, three shots per target before shifting.
All twelve of the security agents were down and in the middle of a pool of lavender blood in two seconds.
The monstrous creature on the stage threw back its head and howled, a blood curdling noise that made the gathered politicians scream in fear.
It jumped to the side and vanished.
The Ornislarp looking around realized that the two female Terrans were gone.
From the holotank General Rippentear looked around.
"I know who is next in your chain of command," the Terran said. "You can come up and offer up this world's surrender or I'll have you killed next."
One of the lights came on, shining on an Ornislarp with fine jewelry and body wrap, as well as expensive leggings.
"You," Rippentear said, puffing on the cigar. He removed it from between his teeth and jabbed it at the holotank. "Yes, you."
The Ornislarp stood up slowly, wondering why security wasn't flooding the chamber.
In the security room a large canine sat in one of the Ornislarp cradles, smacking its tail against the back, front paws on the console controls, staring at the monitors with amber eyes.
Dismembered Ornislarp corpses littered the room around it.
"You might want to surrender. Save your military forces. Save your people. Save the people around you," Rippentear jabbed at the holotank with his cigar. "Save yourself."
The Ornislarp slowly moved to the stage.
"If you keep refusing, eventually, I'll just get tired of you and nuke all your major cities downtown areas and all of your military bases. I won't care about ecological destruction," Rippentear said. He looked at the side of his cigar. "I do not concern myself as to whether or not you have a planet to stand on when I'm done."
"This is not how the Confederacy makes war," the Ornislarp said, its fluting screeching voice shaking with fear that it was trying to project as anger. "Treaties between the Noocracy and the Confederacy..."
"Don't matter," Rippentear said.
The Ornislarp stopped speaking, extending its eyes out on stalks in shock.
"I do not represent the Confederacy," Rippentear said. He smiled, showing plenty of teeth. "You brought us here under false pretenses. You claimed that it was old automated systems, or perhaps even a Terran colony attacking you."
The Ornislarp bounced up and down slightly, its way of signaling assent. "Yes, yes, perhaps a..."
"Instead, it's your slave caste slash little furry snacks deciding its better to die making a break for freedom than continue being eaten," Rippentear said.
The Ornislarp went still.
"And when we retrieved our property," he paused again, looking at the side of his cigar. He looked back at the holotank and put the cigar between his teeth. "You opened fire on us."
The Ornislarp held perfectly still.
"Your agreements with the Confederacy have no bearing on what is happening here," Rippentear said.
"TerraSol is a signatory to all Confederate founding documents. That means that TerraSol is bound by Confederate treaties and agreements," the Ornislarp said.
Rippentear gave a low chuckle. "That was the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems. The current governmental and political body lack that particular word. Terran."
"That does not matter!" the Ornislarp argued.
"You now deal with the Solarian Iron Dominion, and we are not beholden to any treaties signed by any government body that claims to have previously or currently represent Solarian interests," Rippentear said. He leaned forward slightly. "Your aggressive, belligerent, and rude diplomats only got surety from the Confederacy and agreed, without negotiation, to Solarian Iron Dominion troops and vessels entering your interstellar borders."
The Ornislarp was shifting side to side rapidly in agitation.
"Surrender, and we will allow oversight restricted communication with the rest of the Noocracy," Rippentear stated. He smiled again. "If not, then we'll do what must be done and assume that a state of war will continue to exist between the Solarian Iron Dominion and the Ornislarp Noocracy."
The Ornislarp politician went still, its color deepening as its agitation and fear rose.
"Oh, after I kill you and move to the next in line in your chains of authority," Rippentear smiled. "And start nuking your city centers, military bases, industrial capacity, and infrastructure from orbit."
The Ornislarp made a sound like meat running through a rusty grinder. "We surrender."
So Rippentear got the whole system to surrender?
What is the rest of the Noocracy saying?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
They're wavering between screaming the Dominion can't do that, that the Dominion is bound by the Confederacy and screaming at us to protect them from the Dominion.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
They aren't having a good time.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
What about the little fuzzy guys?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
The Confederacy is offering them asylum. They're a food species and the Noocracy was warned last time about eating sentient and sapient life.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
Yeah, like you've ever backed that up before. You've let those drooling spiders run roughshod on the borders for forty thousand years, why would they fear you now?
No wonder the Mar-gite are back.
You've let these upstarts slap you around. You've let them take territory. You've been on the back foot for tens of thousands of years.
No wonder nobody respects us any more.
You'll make a big noise, meanwhile these slobbering wish dot com spiders will keep eating sentients by the millions.
But hey, don't get any blood on you, right?
These things take time.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
A C+ round to the planet is faster and teaches a longer lasting lesson.
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
But if we start glassing planets, the Noocracy will feel like its been backed into a corner and will have no reason to surrender.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
I can give them a reason.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---