Chapter 4

Virgil

The entire team in the command center watched both battles, staggered by what they were seeing. It was all over so quickly. They replayed the encounters, progressively more and more slowly to better understand what they were seeing. Andrea and Linda were not able to leave their stations as battles were still continuing. They were both distracted and worried about Jason. The encounters continued to be replayed on a single large hologram, which many watched, when they could.

“Please, Peter, check on Jason! Let us know what’s happening. We need to know so we can finish this as soon as possible,” begged Linda.

Peter Kane was happy to be delegated to check on Jason’s status in medical. He was more than anxious about him. He looked at Morgan James in passing, but saw he was fully engaged assisting the generals and operations teams with the continuing ground assault.

Hurrying into medical, he queried the AI about Jason.

“Jason lost remarkably little blood. However; it was enough to lead to shock. Had he not cauterized the wound he would have died very quickly. His actions were extraordinarily quick and effective. Patton sent the fight to me when I asked him what had happened to Jason. What manner of beings were those?” Phyllis asked rhetorically. “When Jason arrived back here he was in shock from almost losing the limb, the effects of a severe burn, pain, some poison and blood loss.

“He has now been in the pod for five minutes. He is likely to remain there until the morning. I am cleaning his wound. We have a new arm for him. The doctor said the sword was poisoned, the analysis has been done, and I had to remove the arm quickly and cut off additional tissue and bone to reduce his risk from the poison. The burn fortunately destroyed nearly all the poison and the lack of blood flow prevented the tiny residual amount from getting into his cardiovascular system. I removed the remainder. Once I am satisfied with the preparation and cleanup, I will fit the arm to him overnight. After his last attempted assassination, we grew a full set of spare parts for him. We have these spares for all the senior admirals and generals. Jason will again face a period of rehabilitation. That is going to drive him crazy. He is such an impatient young man.”

Jason woke early in the morning feeling cheerful. He could feel his left arm but it was weak.

“My Lord your wound was cleaned, and the poison and burnt tissue removed. A new arm was ready for you and I attached it overnight. You will need to return for three sessions of rehabilitation each day, for the next month. It will be done in an hour, each twelve minutes long followed by variable breaks. I commenced your initial rehabilitation series at three this morning, and you have had your three sessions of rehabilitation for the day. You will be able to use the arm fully within a few days, but you will need to exercise it continuously to build up your strength. I note that your crystals changed from immune mode and commenced enhancement processes at four o’clock. You are otherwise in good health. Have a good day.”

“Thank you very much, Phyllis. Your bedside manner has improved in leaps and bounds. You are now the friendliest medical AI I know!”

“Thank you, My Lord,” she said in a breathless husky voice and then laughed.

“Bloody hell!” Jason said to himself as he climbed out of the pod and made his way to breakfast. He was feeling famished. He entered the canteen and the whole room applauded. He waved his good arm and sat down at his usual table. Morgan James and Peter Kane welcomed him back, and chatted for a while.

“We are both delighted to see you up and about. The Mob will not surrender. We are going to have a briefing and then a discussion, while looking for ideas about bringing the ground campaign to an end after breakfast.”

The atmosphere in the operations room was much more relaxed than it had been the day before. There were more smiling faces. Andrea, Linda, Celia, and Felicia sat in discussion with their senior staff. They greeted Jason excitedly; all rose from their seats and came over to give him a kiss. He sat at the table a little awkwardly as his left arm felt uncoordinated. He had to move it to the table with his other hand as it seemed to go into spasm when he tried to lift it.

“We targeted and captured the senior leadership of The Mob that remained. The dogs recovered both bodies of your enemies and brought them back along with the scimitar and the sword and they are being examined. That sword is so heavy none of us can lift it. I would like you to teach me to change into a large tough woman so I can help you. Then you can give me the sword or the scimitar. It would be interesting to make love as a giant. The orgasms would be earth shattering,” said Linda.

“The problem has been that the remaining troops have dug in. They are still resisting. I have called off the dogs and moved back our troops. I am reluctant to order them all killed. We have penetrated their implants but they will not listen. Does anyone have any ideas?” Linda asked.

“I am prepared to speak to them and suggest that they surrender,” said Jason calmly, “I can be persuasive in these situations.”

“We hoped that you felt that way. How do you want to go about it?” Andrea asked.

“I will sit here and talk to them. I am connecting now to their implants.”

“I hate how he just does that. I would also like lessons in teleporting myself,” said Andrea to the group as Jason assumed his giant form.

“Yesterday, The Mob attacked Virgil without provocation. We destroyed your fleet. You have no escape. On the planetary surface, leading you, were two abominations. The leader was a foul imposter. He was an entity of indescribable ugliness! He was a ghoul of a bio-mechanical nature, who pretended to be a man. The other is as yet of indeterminate origin, but is not human as we know it. They and their henchmen and their minions were destroyed.” Jason sent graphic images of his battles showing clearly exactly what he had seen.

Your fleet has been captured and this Admiral killed and all the others either killed or captured. He showed pictures of the Admiral and his destruction and the capture of the fleet. He showed the dogs and Marines bringing back their prisoners.

“The Mob has been misled by these creatures and their cohorts for thousands of years, to fulfill their own purposes and enslave your people. They have led you three times into futile wars. I call on all of the remaining commanders of The Mob to immediately tell your troops to lay down their arms and surrender. This will be a total and unconditional surrender, or you will be destroyed by the fires of destruction and the powers of my army.

“Your fleet has been completely vanquished and you have nowhere to go. All you have left is your lives ... or your deaths, if you prefer. You face overwhelming forces on the ground. I give you five minutes to ponder your fate before death and destruction will rain down upon you.”

Jason transmitted his previous horrific images of people’s worst fears along with feelings of terror, desolation, and abandonment. He again sent images of the battle with the two entities, pictures of the dogs rendering people asunder, fire and electricity from their heads, scenes of destruction on the attack platforms as well as attacks on the ships. It would have taken no more than two minutes.

Jason returned to his normal size, not even realizing he had grown and shrunk.

They sat and waited. Jason walked over to the buffet table to pour himself a drink.

The commanders of Jason’s troops received increasing numbers of communications informing them that Mob troops were surrendering. Resistance all over the planet had collapsed.

The clone troops had been deployed and had faced action. The combat AI’s had been deployed and had done well. In many areas, the battle had been protracted; but his untried forces, in a major battle, had acquitted themselves well. The assault ships, AI Marines, and Mechs performed well also, though some smaller Mechs were overturned by boars from behind. Many of the dogs returned, following Jason’s injury.

The soldiers fought fiercely and effectively against experienced troops. Over twenty-million prisoners were taken.

There was a marked difference between The Mob taskmasters, as Jason called them, and the original people of The Mob worlds. The Mob taskmasters were tall and reminded Jason of Conquistadors, tall with hawkish noses, dark skins, handsome but with cruel sharply defined faces. They proved to be arrogant and self-righteous.

Jason had terrified them, but within a half an hour of surrender many began taunting and mocking their captors. He vowed to the team that he would send them all to Porquenta after interrogations. The original Mob people were short and stocky with more rounded friendly appearing faces. Initial reports were that they were greatly relieved to be captured and didn’t believe tales that they had heard of the cruelty of the Empire.

Sufficient information had filtered to them over the years, for them to realize that they were being fed propaganda.

Jason was very keen to hear the interrogator reports once they had had the opportunity to question prisoners in detail. The taskmasters were kept separated from the others.

Jason stood in front of the room in command central, holding his as yet uncooperative arm.

“I would like to invite you all to join me in a few minutes for a special dinner. Your teams have done well. The dogs were absolutely stupendous. They proved themselves to be formidable, great companions, warriors of great note, versatile and were entire game changers.

“The Marines, and when I say Marines I include the Combat and Marine AIs, did an amazing job. Everyone worked together well and it is a pleasure to see a plan survive the commencement of battle. Very little occurred that had not been anticipated and our plan was carried through with precision, impeccable planning, dedication, and timing.

“I am proud of you all. We are proud of the dogs. Their Marine units will be proud of them, their packs will be proud of them, and this battle will be spoken of for centuries. All of this came about from a unique confluence of events, the significance of which we are yet to find out. The taskmasters are not The Mob, but they control the people. Evil forces control The Mob; of that I’m increasingly certain. The people need to be freed and the corrupted group amongst the overseers given to Porquenta for reconditioning and rehabilitation.”

The dogs knew that they were being talked about and were thrilled to hear what was said. Jason received happy dog pictures from Rover.

“I have had some discussions with Rover who has worked in the past with warlords,” said Jason continuing in the same serious tone that he began, “and I can confirm that in my view he is either a sentient or close to sentient hound of the first league. He is the leader of the pack but I understand from their trainer that a number of them are at a similar level of evolution. Therefore when I say discussion I mean discussion. He is of the opinion - and I agree with his opinion - that both Andrea and Linda would qualify as warlords, as do Celia and Felicia. He does understand that Morgan James and Peter Kane are mentoring all of us. He also sees them as warlords. Therefore he has proposed following suggestions made earlier that hounds of the Apocalypse will commit their loyalty to them independently, to fulfill their purposes.

“This leaves me, as always, with little role, which makes me sad. My skills, however, are unique in the conceptualization of menus and the preparation of food and drink that provides pleasure. It is my honor and privilege to accord to the four of them their own personal dog Marines for space, ship warfare, protection, and land warfare.

“I would further propose that once they all recover from the shock of this announcement that they prepare themselves to spend time with their trainer, who by the way is known as Basil and is an old friend of mine. He will teach them to communicate and manage the pack.

“It becomes progressively harder therefore for me to find new ideas for battle. For what is mine is theirs, and they are much cleverer than I.”

He sat down looking sad. He grinned broadly at both of them and then laughed. Senior staff launched into clapping hooting and shouting.

All the while Rover was sending him happy images of delighted dogs who perceived opportunities to do things. The females, Jason hesitated to call them bitches, were delighted to welcome female warlords as pack leaders. Rover was delighted to not have them on his back. He was concerned that he didn’t have enough interesting warfare for them to conduct. The opportunity to be used in broader conflict was of great appeal to the war dogs.

Jason found them very interesting. They were happy loving dogs, and bloodthirsty killers. They were ideal for his purposes. He blessed the day that he had encountered Porquenta.

Every day was an adventure. His life was daily upheaval and transformation. He thought he had better get used to it.

He missed Lauren and specially Chloe and Chuck more and more as the days passed. He continued to communicate with them at least once a week. She kept her brother and family in the loop, and he often saw communications from them to which he replied.

Council Chamber - Queen of the Ghouls

“What did you say?” screamed Ghoul Queen Parbath Kabal.

“I am sorry, my Queen. We have received bad news. My Queen, we have heard from ‘The Mob’. Our ship was attacked by Demon Hounds and destroyed by the attacking fleet from the Empire. All on board died,” said Biqalak Kabilal, Secretary to The Queen. “They fought valiantly, but the Empire technology has evidently improved. They saw our ship and their weapons penetrated both the shield and the ship itself in a very short period of time. They were unable to escape.”

“That is totally impossible, we have an instantaneous ejection pod system which should have saved the officers and my old friend and most loyal Admiral Lambertinus Azajek. This cannot be. This is a disaster.

“Do you believe that we were betrayed by the Coven of Cockroaches?”

“No, my Queen, it is unlikely as they need us as much if not more then we need them. They have been loyal minions. They have the same technological problems as do the Mob. The problem lies with improvements in Empire technology. The Empire has beaten back our allies at every point and I believe that it is a matter of time before the Empire takes The Tentacles.

“We also lost General Namenal Kabilaqa. He was killed in combat by a fiendish creature with a Warhammer. They have taken his body and we cannot recover it. It is in some kind of stasis and is not signaling.

“My Queen, we should at the very least take one of the planets in The Tentacles. We need sustenance and The Mob agreed, although somewhat reluctantly, some time ago. They have had to put down two insurrections on the planet since it was conquered, and it will help them with a problem.

“There is also the matter of revenge. We have identified the battleship with the senior leadership from the Empire. They will soon move to Callisto. We can shadow them and strike. This is the most successful fleet they have, and there is nothing better than cutting off the head of the snake. The admirals are desperate for revenge. We can also help our allies. What think you, my Queen?”

“I like it, my little one, let it be done. Be very careful, as no one must know! We are already in breach of the rules. Desperation makes its own rules and we need quality food, and the people are hungry. Let them harvest thirty-million. That should last us for a thousand years. This universe has been a disaster for us, now we are trapped and hungry.

“With regard to the Empire fleet. Let us use a battleship, but this time we strike first, as soon as they come out of hyperspace! They will quake when they see our might. It must be a surgical strike only, one battleship and leave, no more risk than we can avoid in the old universe.

“Speak to the Congress of Admirals and say I finally agreed to their plan for the attack on the most remote planet from the core planet of The Tentacles. Strike when the Empire is attempting to occupy the first planet. The chaos will hide what we do. Let the planet think it is the Empire. Again I say we must not remain in that universe for one-second longer than we have to. Let them take twenty-million at the least but another ten million would be better. That will be enough for us for a thousand years. I am weary of this hunger and the suffering of my people. Tell our allies that we agreed to their old fallback plan. We have lost much.

“Nimrod Khong needs to know that he is at risk if he doesn’t already know. Tell them that we will attempt to kill off the leadership of the pursuing fleet. We will need time to plan and Phobos is too soon. We will see where they go next. I suspect it will be Callisto according to our intelligence. We cannot risk exposing more than one battleship and it will give them enough time to minimize our exposure.

“When we attack the planet, I don’t want more than one freighter in that universe at any one time or our infraction will be flagged and punishment will inevitably follow. Our secondary plan to find the Una in this universe is beginning to bear fruit. Our fleet is shadowing one of their scouts. One way or another we will be replenished. Be away with you little one, and don’t worry. We will succeed. I have patience.”

Battleship-Jason’s Canteen.

Jason had arranged smoked salmon on thin toast as a starter. This was followed by beef Wellington and then baked bananas and cream or ice cream or both. He provided a selection of wines and suggested a wine to drink at each course as it was delivered to the tables. For the first time he brought out some of the desert wines that he had been keeping in reserve.

“As we reach the last course of this meal, I have brought out some of my precious desert wines. I have been saving them for a special occasion. You will note that they are sweeter than any of the other wines that I have provided to date. You have them in very small amounts. I’m bringing them out as a special treat as I believe that today was a critical victory, which is going to herald our entry into the Empire.

“These are not the last of the evil entities. I don’t know how many are left. They are very dangerous opponents. I bid you all good night, and hope you all have a refreshing sleep.

“Today was a great day. May all our battles be as successful! I raise my glass in a toast to you all who have become my friends, colleagues ... and, if I may say it, my family.”

He reached for Linda and Andrea, who took his hands. They beckoned to Celia and Felicia to join them in Jason’s wardroom.

Meeting Room, Palace of Emperor in Exile, the Core Planet of The Tentacles.

“My Lord, the news is not good, I am afraid to say. The Empire’s response was not thwarted as we expected, and they have formidable allies. We have seen Demon Hounds and we are being beaten back. We are doing our best to sabotage the efforts within the Empire but they are rapidly countering our efforts, we are now only able to delay the Empire troop movements to a limited extent. The Empress is helping the Emperor by using her Intelligence people who we have not infiltrated. She is intelligent and relentless. The shipyards are actively preparing, and it is just a matter of time before they drive us back. We will only partly fulfill our objectives,” said General Emret Yek, head of council of generals. “Our council is concerned that we are losing our reserves too quickly, and we may compromise our defenses here. Our defense is formidable. I will ensure if the enemy arrives here they will have a nasty reception. I shall take direct command myself, and will locate myself on the Asteroid as soon as freighters begin to return.

“We will need decide if we commit the reserves or not. General Malloory Mephisto has been killed as has the Ghoul General. Their ship was destroyed, along with their admiral and his entire crew. For them it is a disaster. The Empire must have new technology to see through the cloaking of the Ghoul ship. We cannot do so, and our spies have not told us of any such technology.

“The Ghouls warn us the Empire will turn on us soon.” Mephisto added. “They are now making preparations to take LemTok as we reluctantly suggested earlier if our plans failed. They have called in our debt to them. Even though the planet has been an irritation, giving away its people for purposes unknown, gives me the creeps.

“The rumor is that they suck out the insides of people after injecting a poison that turns their insides into mush. Some observed shriveled remnants of people after General Kabilaqa went into a dwelling. The faces were gruesome with pain and suffering. The officer vomited seeing the sight of the shriveled father, mother, and two children. It was done in a minute.

“Let us concern ourselves with our reality. We are committed, we must finish it. The Empire doesn’t know where we are. Commit our reserves.”

“What news from home, will they help us?” Nimrod Khong, The Supreme leader of The Mob and Tentacles asked.

“They say the timing is not quite right for them to show themselves. They want both the Empire and The Mob to be weaker. They say let it play out and let each side exhaust itself a little more.

“I fear my Lord they are busy in another galaxy, and this is not their highest priority. They say be patient, for the second intergalactic war is not far off. They laughed at my concerns about what the Ghouls are doing with people. They said ‘We know’ and laughed, then said ‘Why should you care?’ Indeed, why should we?”

Jason’s Wardroom then a day of negotiations.

Jason woke facing Linda’s hair loving the smell of her fragrance. The four disheveled women looked so tempting as they lay sleeping partly on top of one another. He walked into the cleanser. His arm was still feeling weak but otherwise he felt good. He dressed in his own jeans, a T-shirt, and his boots as he liked wearing his own clothes. He quickly made his way to medical for his first rehabilitation session of the day before he went to breakfast.

They had left Virgil soon after The Mob had surrendered. Peter Kane had summarized the result of the battle to Central Command. Laomedeia was the capitol city of the Empire and housed Central Command in a huge complex, deep beneath the surface. Central Command had expressed their delight when they heard of the victories at both Virgil and Orelia. Phobos was in trouble and with their fleet now available Central Command negotiated for the fleet to relieve Phobos.

Peter Kane considered that now was the time to tie up the negotiation with the Empire. Together with Jason, Peter had spent a considerable amount of time with the legal group preparing what he considered was the vital documentation to support their position. They had a number of objectives to achieve. They wanted to ensure that the clones could become citizens of the Empire. They wanted to validate Jason’s ownership of the priests’ corporations as stated by the Emperor, and Jason’s ownership of Mars and Porquenta. They needed to ensure adequate reimbursement for their defense of many planets. He also wanted to ensure that the participation of Fort Sentinel, the boneyard, would be rewarded and that the risk to himself and Morgan James of adverse findings against them would be abated.

Kane reported to Central Command that Papa Zora had taken his family hostage and had then blackmailed him to assemble a fleet to fetch the clones and then attack the Empire core planets. He had explained that he had split the forces. The Mob to attack industrialized planets, from the priests who he diverted to attack The Mob core worlds. He explained how Papa Zora demanded that he join the fleet to command it on its attack on The Mob core worlds with the support of clones grown on Mars and Porquenta. Kane explained that Jason had assumed control of the clones, had captured the fleet, and attacked Nirvana. Jason had saved him and his family, had worked with the team from the boneyard, saving them all from treason while playing a critical role in defending the empire. He explained how they captured Papa Zora and how during his trial, he shot Jason and nearly killed him. Much of this information had already leaked back to the Empire, but his report neatly tied up all loose ends.

The legal group comprising the senior legal counsel of the ship and the legal group from the clones prepared background briefings with respect to the charges of Papa Zora and included all the evidence, and then they filed their completed evidence to Central Command.

Peter Kane and Morgan James were familiar with financial negotiations. They had negotiated on Jason’s behalf to engage in the battles for Orelia and Virgil. The planets had agreed to a fee for their defense.

The legal team claimed salvage rights on the enemy ships as agreed on Virgil and Orelia, along with their costs for the defense of Virgil and Orelia. They also filed Jason’s claims for Mars and Porquenta along with claims for the clones to join Jason’s family, obtain citizenship of the Empire, and be part of the Duchy whenever he reclaimed it. They also put in a claim for Nirvana to be a protectorate under Jason’s control as agreed by the Emperor.

The Priests had assured victory over The Mob in two wars so the Empire had rewarded them and given them their planet and a series of valuable corporations to help them support themselves. Papa Zora had made sure that he won strategic companies. The Empire gratefully gave the priests companies that produced the food replicators, medical pods, and medical software. This had been all part of Papa Zora’s nefarious plan

The priests’ companies had then spread their poisons throughout the Empire. They hid what they were as they controlled the diagnostic capabilities of the medical pods. They had used their income to then cause trouble.

People saw priests as heroes of the Empire because of their positive contribution during the wars and due to their involvement in medical activities. They didn’t realize however the extent of the priests increasing nefarious infiltration and poisoning of the Empire. The Empire had known of emerging problems with Papa Zora even though they didn’t know the extent of the problems. They had their suspicions but could not interfere without proof. Then Jason solved the Empire’s problems as he first exposed what they were doing, and then took away the priest’s power and influence. The priests would continue with religious and medical pursuits, with a loss of reputation and less financial capacity to interfere and meddle. The Empire lessened its risks. as Jason took responsibility for the future actions of the priests, and also took care of all criminals.

The lawyers assured Jason that he had solved long-term problems for the Empire. He’d saved the hostages, discovered the priests had poisoned men, and made them infertile. Those were major contributions along with Jason capturing a fleet that Papa Zora wanted to use against the Empire thus preventing it from falling into the hands of the enemy.

Jason was surprised at how rapidly agreement was reached, but suspected the Emperor’s hand was working behind the scenes.

The Empire awarded Jason the value of the fleet or the ships themselves. That was a long established policy. Jason elected to keep the fleet, and for it to become part of his family’s defense fleet. The Empire accepted this decision.

The Empire had defined clear formulas, from over thousands of years, to calculate payment for planetary defense. The Empire did contract for the Dukes to defend planets on their behalf with the planets protected repaying the fee over ten years to the Empire. The protector also received the salvage rights of damaged enemy equipment and fleets.

The prize that they received was the Priests’ corporations and the entire fleet; and it was without any argument.

Phobos, and further Entities

They asked for but didn’t receive a detailed briefing from the Phobos planetary defending general and admiral. Admiral Peter Kane and General Morgan James knew Admiral Dale and General Reynolds by reputation only, and neither of them were reassured of the competence of the defenders. They alleged that they were too busy to talk.

Admiral Dale simply didn’t comply when live data feeds were requested and she asked them to attend as soon as they could, stating that they needed a little help.

Peter Kane agreed to help, subject to a detailed briefing to which he received old and redundant information. The general sense of the communications was that they just needed a little help in mopping up a few attackers.

Peter Kane knew the defenders were desperate but they refused to face reality and were playing games. He decided to play hardball in his own inimitable manner.

“Admiral Dale and General Reynolds, we are happy to help you with mopping up. We will arrive in a week or so. We will be busy here until then, helping interrogate prisoners, analyzing equipment and weapons, and helping to clear up,” said Admiral Peter Kane on Jason’s behalf to the most senior officers in charge of the defense of Phobos. Jason now knew that neither of them were well-regarded and that they were trying to pretend that the situation was better than it was.