Post by Gigachad on Aug 18, 2021 12:08:39 GMT
Eatov system-Invilis Corridor
The lithoid menace had been pushed back,all while loosing only ten vessels and without damaging any piece of infrastructure within it. Usually,this would have been an excellent victory,were it not for the fact that said group of frigates were not dead. Just before the enemy engaged their ftl,they were briefly visible,their forms plastered with fungal growths as roots dug into their frames
Even now,The Almighty could feel them,command them,yet they obeyed none of the orders. They could not,their forms too intertwined with the foreign agent,twisting them to move like puppets. To have its constituent parts taken away,perverted and chained to another intellect,it was a terrifying prospect. Ironic,considering the acts it had committed on others.
This trepidation and paranoia would haunt the gestalt consciousness,urging its drones to carefully dissect those lithoids they had captured,studying the pathogen so as to better adapt against it and if need be use it. At the very least,the magnetic screams of its prisoners soothed its mind. They knew pain,they knew fear,they knew death,they were not insurmountable,The Collective had a chance.
This period of calmness was interrupted as one of its lost ships returned,speaking on behalf of its new owners. They desired peace,it said,and were willing to discuss in a neutral system within a few months.
The spark of rage quickly grew within The Almighty's soul,bursting into open pyre. They were mocking it,they wished to set a trap,to bring it yet more fear and suffering. This would not stand,they HAD to die,every last one.
Every constituent part was outraged,every drone seething with malice. They wanted to open fire upon the afflicted vessel,to put it out of its misery. The Almighty could not let them,this was a prime chance for action. If one piece of itself had to suffer so that others knew peace,so be it.
The demand was accepted,the designated system was catalogued and farewells were shared. Now all that was left was to plan the attack….
Months later-At the meeting
The lithorian probe waited patiently in orbit of the only habitable planet in the system,its living lenses scrutinizing the barely industrialized civilization below. Its sensors bellowed,the alcubierre bubble it had been observing for hours finally entered the system's confines. In a few more minutes,a titanic figure appeared. It was the patriarch of the horde,The Almighty knew it well.
Its form was barely cobbled together,vast canyons,cracks and fissures still littering its surface. By its side was the infected frigate. Rage once again swept The Almighty's mind as it watched the vessel weakly flapping its gravitic tendrils,still desperately trying to resist.
The operation was put into action. Before any words could be exchanged,hundreds of bioships,previously dormant and covered in layers of rock and ice,revealed themselves with a flare of their plasma shields. They swarmed around the leviathan like a mass of insects,shells already flying out of their mass drivers.
Magnetic waves of pain left the mountainous being as the spheromak shells detonated,scrambling its still recovering nervous system. A variety of gifted drones lead a unified psionic intrusion into the creature's thoughts. These beings had potent defenses against such strikes,yet with a better understanding of their inner processes,the spheromaks scrambling its crystalline nerves and the damage it had already sustained,a breach was made.
The creature was now paralysed,forced to battle tooth and nail within its own mind just to cling on to sanity. The second phase of the plan could begin. Back in Eatov,one of the smaller moons around the system's gas giant opened,revealing a weapon system of grand proportions before blasting forth a missile,easily a kilometer long.
The projectile engaged its ftl drive and was gone in a flash,vanishing into the strange dimension proliferating the entire galaxy and beyond,the Meridian. Some lithorian bio vessels were equipped to brave the shallower layers of this place,both for travel and to chase some of the more slippery austral prey. This was different.
The missile positioned itself and engaged its gravitic engines,straight into the depths. The descent was both wondrous and terrible,packed with strange beings that needed to be avoided,distorted gravitic shadows and unknown anomalies. Eventually,the proper depths were reached,littered with gravitic shadows packed so tightly that they were nearly impossible to avoid. A single piece of monolithic matter floated below,ancient beyond belief and made of raw nightstone,only corrupted and degraded beyond value by this realm's strange forces. The missile would have suffered the same fate,were it not for the layer of halostone sizzling between it and the hostile space,bought with a generous sum from the sickening regime that was Orbeole. Indeed,no expenses were spared for this plot of vengeance.
The missile's processors kicked into full gear,calculating the enemy's location that had been provided prior to entering the realm and accounting for the grievous distortion of space. It began navigating,steadily,methodically,narrowly avoiding the darkened streams of concentrated gravity. Eventually it came upon a particularly faint one,implying a small object by celestial standards. It cross referenced this with the corresponding location in "true space",then did so again. There was no mistaking it,this was the gravity shadow of the lithoid patriarch. The missile repositioned itself upwards,its gravitic engines screaming once more as it ascended,hugging the blackened projection of the shadow tightly.
With a screeching distortion in the fabric of the universe,the projectile found itself back in real space,below its quarry. The thing was still screaming in agony,slowly but surely pushing back the mental intrusion like a vast wave carving away at the cliffs. The time to act was now,the missile surged forth,accelerating to relativistic speeds and hurling itself into the largest gash on the beast's body,the impact causing its antimatter warhead to detonate.
In an instant,a second sun would grace the northern hemisphere of the planet below,the natives looking on with awe,some with terror.
The colossal form was gone,shattered into thousands of different pieces,some larger than spaceships. Many fell to the planet,others were launched towards distant corners of the system,a few even joined its asteroid belt. It did not matter,harvesting even a fraction of the resources would be more than enough. More importantly,that horror which had haunted The Almighty's mind was gone,reduced to shards.
The gestalt reached out,still sensing the other frigates amongst the stars,still shackled to an alien will. They needed to be found,they had to be liberated. And should they be with a school of the Patriarch's progeny? All the better,there could be no mercy
At last,the ant had toppled the mountain
The lithoid menace had been pushed back,all while loosing only ten vessels and without damaging any piece of infrastructure within it. Usually,this would have been an excellent victory,were it not for the fact that said group of frigates were not dead. Just before the enemy engaged their ftl,they were briefly visible,their forms plastered with fungal growths as roots dug into their frames
Even now,The Almighty could feel them,command them,yet they obeyed none of the orders. They could not,their forms too intertwined with the foreign agent,twisting them to move like puppets. To have its constituent parts taken away,perverted and chained to another intellect,it was a terrifying prospect. Ironic,considering the acts it had committed on others.
This trepidation and paranoia would haunt the gestalt consciousness,urging its drones to carefully dissect those lithoids they had captured,studying the pathogen so as to better adapt against it and if need be use it. At the very least,the magnetic screams of its prisoners soothed its mind. They knew pain,they knew fear,they knew death,they were not insurmountable,The Collective had a chance.
This period of calmness was interrupted as one of its lost ships returned,speaking on behalf of its new owners. They desired peace,it said,and were willing to discuss in a neutral system within a few months.
The spark of rage quickly grew within The Almighty's soul,bursting into open pyre. They were mocking it,they wished to set a trap,to bring it yet more fear and suffering. This would not stand,they HAD to die,every last one.
Every constituent part was outraged,every drone seething with malice. They wanted to open fire upon the afflicted vessel,to put it out of its misery. The Almighty could not let them,this was a prime chance for action. If one piece of itself had to suffer so that others knew peace,so be it.
The demand was accepted,the designated system was catalogued and farewells were shared. Now all that was left was to plan the attack….
Months later-At the meeting
The lithorian probe waited patiently in orbit of the only habitable planet in the system,its living lenses scrutinizing the barely industrialized civilization below. Its sensors bellowed,the alcubierre bubble it had been observing for hours finally entered the system's confines. In a few more minutes,a titanic figure appeared. It was the patriarch of the horde,The Almighty knew it well.
Its form was barely cobbled together,vast canyons,cracks and fissures still littering its surface. By its side was the infected frigate. Rage once again swept The Almighty's mind as it watched the vessel weakly flapping its gravitic tendrils,still desperately trying to resist.
The operation was put into action. Before any words could be exchanged,hundreds of bioships,previously dormant and covered in layers of rock and ice,revealed themselves with a flare of their plasma shields. They swarmed around the leviathan like a mass of insects,shells already flying out of their mass drivers.
Magnetic waves of pain left the mountainous being as the spheromak shells detonated,scrambling its still recovering nervous system. A variety of gifted drones lead a unified psionic intrusion into the creature's thoughts. These beings had potent defenses against such strikes,yet with a better understanding of their inner processes,the spheromaks scrambling its crystalline nerves and the damage it had already sustained,a breach was made.
The creature was now paralysed,forced to battle tooth and nail within its own mind just to cling on to sanity. The second phase of the plan could begin. Back in Eatov,one of the smaller moons around the system's gas giant opened,revealing a weapon system of grand proportions before blasting forth a missile,easily a kilometer long.
The projectile engaged its ftl drive and was gone in a flash,vanishing into the strange dimension proliferating the entire galaxy and beyond,the Meridian. Some lithorian bio vessels were equipped to brave the shallower layers of this place,both for travel and to chase some of the more slippery austral prey. This was different.
The missile positioned itself and engaged its gravitic engines,straight into the depths. The descent was both wondrous and terrible,packed with strange beings that needed to be avoided,distorted gravitic shadows and unknown anomalies. Eventually,the proper depths were reached,littered with gravitic shadows packed so tightly that they were nearly impossible to avoid. A single piece of monolithic matter floated below,ancient beyond belief and made of raw nightstone,only corrupted and degraded beyond value by this realm's strange forces. The missile would have suffered the same fate,were it not for the layer of halostone sizzling between it and the hostile space,bought with a generous sum from the sickening regime that was Orbeole. Indeed,no expenses were spared for this plot of vengeance.
The missile's processors kicked into full gear,calculating the enemy's location that had been provided prior to entering the realm and accounting for the grievous distortion of space. It began navigating,steadily,methodically,narrowly avoiding the darkened streams of concentrated gravity. Eventually it came upon a particularly faint one,implying a small object by celestial standards. It cross referenced this with the corresponding location in "true space",then did so again. There was no mistaking it,this was the gravity shadow of the lithoid patriarch. The missile repositioned itself upwards,its gravitic engines screaming once more as it ascended,hugging the blackened projection of the shadow tightly.
With a screeching distortion in the fabric of the universe,the projectile found itself back in real space,below its quarry. The thing was still screaming in agony,slowly but surely pushing back the mental intrusion like a vast wave carving away at the cliffs. The time to act was now,the missile surged forth,accelerating to relativistic speeds and hurling itself into the largest gash on the beast's body,the impact causing its antimatter warhead to detonate.
In an instant,a second sun would grace the northern hemisphere of the planet below,the natives looking on with awe,some with terror.
The colossal form was gone,shattered into thousands of different pieces,some larger than spaceships. Many fell to the planet,others were launched towards distant corners of the system,a few even joined its asteroid belt. It did not matter,harvesting even a fraction of the resources would be more than enough. More importantly,that horror which had haunted The Almighty's mind was gone,reduced to shards.
The gestalt reached out,still sensing the other frigates amongst the stars,still shackled to an alien will. They needed to be found,they had to be liberated. And should they be with a school of the Patriarch's progeny? All the better,there could be no mercy
At last,the ant had toppled the mountain