The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (75 page)

Buoyed by their victory, they set out hunting again, still seeking the trail of their original enemies.

They were lucky again when they found their second demon horde.  Though stronger and more powerful, it was caught by surprise while in the midst of attacking a world.  The world they were invading was a harsh place, even for demons; constantly swept by winds blowing at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour, often carrying abrasive sandstorms, and the true storms were cataclysms of lightning and rain and wind beyond anything ever seen on Kellaran or Triax.  There were no oceans, only temporary lakes and floods beneath the rainfall of the storms, and almost all of the plants and animals were tiny things that lived their entire lives in the air, being carried by the wind, breeding and dying without ever touching land or water.  The demons had sensed a lot of life there from a great distance away in the void, and by the time they arrived they were committed to plundering this world’s life; they lacked the resources to make it to another world otherwise, unless they consumed most of each other along the way.  But they were finding it almost impossible to survive, feed, and re-stock effectively on the hostile world.

Only a few of the horde were still within their rough, stony vessel slowly circling their target world when the Triax attacked and destroyed it.  Without their vessel to provide support and refuge, the horde who were already down on the violent world were easily destroyed from the void by The Triax, or were killed or starved by the conditions they were stranded in.  The Triax waited patiently for centuries, half of their telescopes and sensors focused on the world below, until they were absolutely sure that the last demon there was long since dead.

The patience of The Triax there meant that the horde that had destroyed their world was getting farther away and harder to find with every day that passed before the hunt for them was resumed.  This caused a great deal of dissatisfaction among The Triax, but no dissension.  None of them were willing to chance leaving a single demon alive behind them.

They searched again for almost three millennia before they found their original foes; the demon horde that had destroyed their world.  And when they did, they found that their lucky streak had run out.

This horde had been doing well; they had recently consumed a world rich in life that had offered no appreciable resistance, and had found another life-bearing solar system relatively close to it after that.  They were near the peak of their strength when they arrived in a mighty system with dozens of worlds and thousands of moons, and there was rich life on two worlds and a moon.

When The Triax arrived in the system they found that the demons had almost finished consuming the life on the moon and had already made two new vessels from metallic asteroids they found, then divided into three independent hordes.  The original vessel continued to attack the almost-depleted moon, one of the new vessels had begun it’s attack on the outermost of the life-bearing worlds, and the other new vessel was enroute to attack the innermost one.

The Triax attacked the demons’ original vessel first and drove it down onto the devastated moon in a cataclysmic impact, killing all the demons in the vessel and on the moon.  The Triax had correctly assumed that only the hardiest of invisibly small life forms survived among the native life, and that those would have the best chance of surviving the impact and it’s aftermath, whereas the demons were certain to sterilize the entire place eventually if left to themselves.  The Triax sustained minimal damage and casualties, and hurried to attack the second horde.

The two surviving hordes had been aware of the destruction of the first, and they disengaged from the planets they had targeted and joined forces in the void to face The Triax.

Such was the hatred of The Triax for their foes that they charged forth in a head-on attack against both demon vessels, and pressed the attack relentlessly in a continuous battle that lasted for weeks before they were victorious.

The cost of their victory was grievous, however, for only a quarter of them survived it, and their vessel was sorely damaged.  Never again would they force the fight so aggressively, as they adopted a firm policy of retreat whenever their losses or damages were greater than one part in nine.  Better to heal and rebuild, then attack with greater strength.

Having fulfilled their need for vengeance, they began an era of methodical hunting and expansion that continued to this day; striving to clear all demons from the void in an expanding sphere of colonization and defense centered on the Triax homeworld, which had finally been re-settled by Triax millennia ago.  The group of sixteen Triax vessels that approached Kellaran were their main exploration and attack force, and the original vessel that had once contained the entire Triax race when they first set out in the void was still their command ship, though much-modified from it’s early days.

The Triax considered their ultimate victory over the demons to be inevitable, since the demons needed to consume life to survive and thrive, whereas The Triax needed only the energy and magic that blazed from stars and materials that were commonly found floating about in the void near them.  Freed from the need for suitable worlds, their numbers and power increased everywhere they went in the void.  They considered it ironic that having become independent of life-bearing worlds, they still spent most of their effort in defending them.

It took First Mauve over five and a half hours to complete her presentation.  The other Triax in attendance had come over and joined in watching it after the Kellarani presentation finished, the big habitat sphere hanging above and behind them all.

When she was done there was a long moment of silence, then many there took a deep breath.

“We’ll, ah, need a bit of time to consider what we’ve learned.  Please.” Six thoughtfully stated.

“Certainly.” First Mauve agreed.

“Well I for one need to use the privacy, and I think a meal is in order.” Talia briskly stated as she stood and brushed sand from her dress, then pointed.  “There’s a small privacy behind the tree line down there.  Check the Hilia map if any of you need to find an appropriate and unoccupied one.  We’ll have a dinner served here in a few minutes.”

“My people also have bodily functions to attend to, some of which they prefer to do in privacy.” First Mauve responded.  “We shall return in seven minutes, and join you in feasting this great occasion.”

“Excellent.” Mark told her with a nod and a quick bow, then Translocated to the privacy in the royal cottage.

Ten minutes later they were all either feasting or snacking, depending on their appetites.  The mortal Triax served their food in spherical elastic nets of widely varying sizes, some of which contained live prey animals swimming about within them.  The Triax simply stretched an opening on the bag farther open with two points of their flat and supple triangular bodies, and reached in with the other in a quick snatching grab, stuffing their morsel into their mouths as they released the bag.  It was easy to think of their front two points as hands and the rear one as a tail, but they seemed to use all three interchangeably, and with equal dexterity.  A Triax was capable of folding itself flat along any line across its body, or rolling itself up like a scroll, and they used their entire bodies in manipulating objects and tools.  They could swim in any direction at whim, and with incredible speed and maneuverability.

After initial hungers and thirsts were slaked, one of them was the first to speak.  It swam up to the closest inner surface of the habitat sphere facing the Kellarani, and made a subtle ripple from front to rear.  “Greetings, I am Second Brighter Orange, First Strategist of Triax.  Your methods of warfare on your world and in your air are certainly fascinating, and amazing in their variety.  Your use of pure magic in almost every endeavor is surprising.

“But you have never fought in the void.  Your efforts to do so have only begun.  Your gods are powerful, but few, and beyond them you will be able to bring relatively little capability to bear in the void when the battle with these demons begins.

“I suggest that those of you who are prepared to fight in the void at that time be maintained as close defense about your world, while fighting the demons beyond your world’s moons be left to my people.”

“Ah.” Six nodded.  He set his utensils aside and paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, then met the eyes of Second Brighter Orange.  “First, I must say I’m humbled by what we’ve learned.  The breadth of your history, the nobility and incredible dedication of your quest, the amazing knowledge you’ve given us, all are humbling, and somewhat disturbing.  Learning the true scale of the conflict makes me feel very small, and knowing that all the immense volume you’ve explored is just a tiny, tiny part of this galaxy…  It’s truly humbling.

“For me, the most disturbing knowledge you’ve given us is knowing that most stars are not a source of any kind of magic, and that most worlds have no magic at all; no energy that can be shaped or directed by a mortal body’s energy field or by a conscious mind.  To know that in most places we would be almost powerless, and that our star may even be unique in supplying the kinds of power we use.  Perhaps, only here are we formidable; we being the mortal magic users of Kellaran.

“But this fact, combined with the fact that your people only developed magic quite late in your development, explains why you do things the way you do.  To us, it seems strange that your gods seem to be the only ones among you to use magic directly; and your mortals only seem to use magic to provide power to machines and devices.  But it makes sense, since you would have almost no magic available to you at all in the deep void between stars, so you need machines you can power with other, non-magical energies, when necessary.

“And compared to us, it seems your methods are obsessed with energy efficiency.  You fly around using these ‘orbital mechanics’, balanced between gravity and thrust and momentum, instead of just Moving or Translocating to where you want to go.  You reach incredibly fast speeds, but it takes you a very long time to speed up or slow down or turn, because you aren’t pushing your vessels through the void with very much energy compared to the weight of what you’re moving.  And you have to move a lot of weight, because your big vessels are full of a liquid that’s mostly water.  You protect yourselves in the void with suits and machines and armor, because they use so much less energy than maintaining magical Shields.

“Now, when we Kellarani finally travel through the deepest void between stars, we’ll probably have to use your methods.

“But not here, not within the vicinity of our star.  Here we have power to spare, and we’ve recently learned to use it far more effectively.  Here we can Translocate one of our small vessels from Kellaran to our star’s farthest planet in fourteen jumps at most, and be there in less than a minute.  In that time we can send a chain of vessels from here to wherever the demons are around our star, all strung out in the void like beads on a string from here to there, and then we can send most of the power of this world along the chain to whoever we have stationed in the end vessel as our Strike Wizard, as my father used most of the power of The Just Alliance against Zarkog in their battle.

“I have no need to circle around a world like my vessel was a moon in order to stay close to it.  I can spare the power to hold my vessel still with Movement against the pull of any world that circles our star, and simply hover wherever I like for as long as I wish.  Likewise I can hold position in the void between worlds without circling our star or falling into it.  From there I can fly in a straight line from wherever I am to where ever I want to go, needing to maneuver only to match the movement of whatever I’m meeting.  That’s if it doesn’t seem worth it to just Translocate there.

“I propose that when we attack the demons, that you allow us to supply your small vessels and suit fighters with Translocation and Movement, for if you don’t, you’ll lack the speed to be anywhere near the battle until long after it’s over.  Without our assistance, only your gods will be able to participate.  Or perhaps your people should remain in a defensive position around Kellaran while we attack the demons, since most of your offensive power is contained in your great water-filled vessels.  As formidable as they are, they weigh too much to be worth Translocating them around for interplanetary distances.  They have little place in the almost-instantaneous void warfare that we foresee fighting.  Our tactics will be much more akin to those used by your gods, who are your true fast long-distance strike-force.

“As we speak, thousands of our vessels are being built, and their crews trained.  When the time comes to attack the demons, we’ll have millions of them.

“We are eternally grateful for your assistance, and we have great respect for your knowledge and experience.  But this is our world and our star, and everything that circles our star is ours, unless we give some of it to you in a formal agreement.  The void from our star out to the farthest object that circles it is ours.  We will be in the forefront of any combat with the demons in our void.  We will defend what is ours.”

“I…  Understand.” Second Brighter Orange acknowledged.  “We did not realize the full extent of your capabilities.  The void warfare techniques you just described were not included in your presentation.”

“I’m sorry.” Six nodded.  “The presentation shows only what the mortals of Kellaran as a whole have done and are doing to prepare for warfare with the demons, through The Just Alliance.  It doesn’t show what the gods are planning to do.  Also, the building of void warfare vessels and the training of their crews that I spoke of are not being done by The Just Alliance, they’re being done by the nations of Serminak and Hilia.  It’s basically stuff that the nine of us here are doing as family projects, through the nations and wealth we control.  I’m sure many other nations have their own plans for void warfare that we haven’t learned of yet, simply because those plans aren’t complete or finalized enough for public presentation.  We haven’t had very long to work on this, but I’m sure the other nations are producing results, just as we are.  But like them, our plans are still in the early stages.  Only four Hilian void vessels have been completed, and there is still a great deal of testing and final development to be done.