The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (118 page)

“There were only a relative few greater demons left on their vessel when we arrived.”
First Mauve reported from her people’s largest vessel, Speaking only to the members of The Assembly and the pantheons. 
“We had time to Read them thoroughly.  Part of why they had been left there was for that very reason, so that they could be Read by us, and we would be filled with fear when we learned the truth.  And I am indeed filled with fear.  They knew they were about to die, they knew they had been sacrificed, and I am certain that their memories were not false.  Some information was withheld from them so we could not learn it from them, such as the location of their homeworld in relation to here.

“The demons’ leadership judged us well; they left just enough demons in the rock to ensure that we would choose to destroy it rather than just killing the demons and preserving the rock for further examination.”

She paused, as if choosing her words carefully. 
“We hoped that this was a wandering horde who did not know that demons had been defeated here on Kellaran some seven million years ago.  We hoped they were not a punitive expedition sent from their homeworld to punish Kellaran for their defeat here before.  We thought that we had hidden my people here from their sight, and we thought that they could not spy out our planning and preparations from such a distance.

“We were wrong on all those counts.  These demons were indeed sent here by their homeworld, and by every wandering horde that the homeworld controls or maintains contact with.  They know of their defeat here before and they intend to destroy Kellaran, but that is not their primary purpose.

“The demon homeworld has become aware that The Triax are hunting and killing them all over this part of the galaxy.  They are taking the threat we pose to them very seriously, and these demons are their response to us.  Their primary purpose is to erase The Triax from the void completely, wherever we may be.  And they have brought enough power to do it.

“Our situation is worse than grim.

“The demons know almost everything about us, and everything we’ve planned, somehow.  They certainly know all that has been disclosed to the public at any rate, and that is almost all of our planning, so our further planning must be done under a state of military secrecy.  We regret that; secrecy is always less healthy than openness, but it must be done.

“We don’t think they have spied us out closely enough to gain the specifics of our methods; the new spell techniques that have been developed on Kellaran, and the new Triax technologies that have been inspired by what we have learned from you.  We still have many weapons that they cannot yet counter.

“As Zarkog surmised, the energy of their vessel’s momentum has been largely used as an attack against us, which will surely strike us within the next few hours.  The demons who were left as sacrifices were not informed of the nature of the attack.

“The rest of the momentum was used to power Gates, which the demons used to evacuate their vessel.  They are hidden somewhere in the region of your star, preparing their next attack in case their first one should fail to destroy us all.  I doubt that such was their original plan, but they have learned enough of us to know that we are far stronger than they expected us to be.  Despite their strength, they are being very cautious.  Though they are many and powerful, there are still billions of places on your star’s worlds, moons, and other objects where they could hide from us.  Even if we detect them as soon as we examine their location, it may still take a considerable time to examine all the possible locations.  And they may be able to hide from us so well that detecting them may require a very careful examination of their refuge.

“The hundreds of millions of demons who were psionicly detected aboard the vessel were only it’s crew.  It’s cargo was millions of DemonLords, all traveling in a comatose state, all packed in like beans in a jar, as you would say.  Many millions of them.  They are all awake and active now.

“We have never even imagined having to face a force so strong.

“We have already sent our thirty-three fastest gods to warn The Triax homeworld and our other colonies and war fleets, and to ask them to send help.  We can only hope that some of us still survive when they finally arrive, and that they are enough.”

Not the end.

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