Chapter 20: Phase 2

“There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.”

—KURT VONNEGUT, JR., The Sirens of Titan

Jason woke feeling groggy. Linda had come to bed very late, hyped up and demanding. She aroused the sleeping Jason sucking on him until he was aroused and then mounting him. She rubbed herself frantically as she rose and fell until she got herself off several times then fell asleep suddenly lying on top of Jason. She was still fast asleep and snoring lightly, while Andrea was singing in the refresher. Janet had returned to the surface to direct the cleanup and talk to the loyalists. Jason gently tipped Linda onto the bed and climbed out of bed. He almost tripped over the dogs who were snoring in a pile next to the bed. They woke yawned and stretched after he cursed. He waved to them to join him and Andrea in the shower. Fifteen minutes later, comfortably dressed in trousers and a smart shirt as requested by Razza, he made his way to the canteen. He saw that Razza and both groups were there sitting at a large table talking to four crew members. He sleepily made his way to the table to sit down at a seat that had been kept for him by Razza, next to one of the crew-members. He leaned over and kissed Razza on the cheek before he sat down. He looked at the person next to him but didn’t recognize the uniform or the person in the same uniform sitting opposite him. He saw both groups were observing him closely, while the unknown crew members calmly ate their breakfast, evidently enjoying the food.

He had an odd feeling about the person that he was sitting next to. He was somehow familiar. He tried to remember him, but his prodigious memory failed him as did the AI. His AI showed him the uniform that they wore was an ancient Empire uniform from the earliest days of sailing ships. He looked closely at the badge and emblem that was woven into the front of the uniform. The AI was slow to recognize the image.

“Emperor Ergol, I am delighted to see that you are well and enjoying your breakfast. I am surprised at your form,” said Jason very politely while nodding to him.

“Jason this level of genetic manipulation was known to our family for even longer than the Collective have known how to do this change. Many of our people have been able to change form but kept it hidden. We did not want Razza to know that she could change form easily as we could not risk the information reaching our enemies. If she had inadvertently changed herself at the wrong time it could have been catastrophic,” said Ergol. “Had the Coven known what we could do we would have been forced to spy for them.”

“The rescue was amazing. I have watched the holo-pictures of the battle you had with the general. I would’ve thought what happened was only part of myths and legends. My family and I are truly grateful for everything that you have done.” Ergol said fervently clasping and shaking Jason’s hand. “Now we are on the way to ‘The Old Palace’. You are due for many surprises. None of this was unplanned, but how it happened has exceeded my vision or even my imagination. My mother’s vision and prophecies hold court today. Eat young Jason, your admiral awaits us in command central.”

Merpakt and the Old Palace of the Emperor of the Cockroaches

“Be an example to your men, in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don’t in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactful and well-mannered and teach your subordinates to do the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide.”

– Field Marshall Erwin Rommel

“We now come to the report of Gremd Mordrake; Para Overseer Internal Affairs. Your report is not pleasant reading. Can you please explain your findings?” The Grand Overseer asked.

“Colleagues our situation is grim. We lost the best part of our fleet in the attack on Charassa. We have also lost two of our three manufacturing facilities for the Super Dreadnoughts. Collective attacks on our industrial planets have reduced our manufacturing volumes of weapons and ordnance. They are targeting anything and everything that is related to the military. Even though all of us have blamed ‘The Royal Family’, their destruction will further decrease the morale of our demoralized population. After a million years the people remember the Emperor and his rule fondly, undoubtably more fondly than it warrants. I fear the risk of insurrection grows closer.”

“Yesteg, do you have any positive news?” The Grand Overseer asked.

“Overseer I can only report what is happening. The Collective and the Empire are capturing our people and the supporting AIs we have infiltrated. We are facing one intelligence disaster after the other. A strategy of nine thousand years evolution and planning is unraveling disturbingly quickly.

“We have not delivered for our Ghoul partners, but despite not being happy with us they have given us new weapons and upgraded shields that further puts us in their debt. We were able to fit out two fleets with Ghoul newly designed weapons and shields. Our supply of people to meet our obligations to the Ghouls from the Empire has temporarily dried up. I have met up with my counterparts from the people of Dhoom and they informed me they are facing similar problems. It is my hope we can yet pull a green grub from our antennae!” Yesteg Krimpt Supreme General Intelligence reported.

“I would like to welcome Supreme Admiral Yornog Blek, leader of our illustrious Armed Forces,” said Larnor Bakt-Yek Grand Overseer of the Coven. “I have asked him to update us about the fate of the Royal Family.”

“I can now provide you with the update you all on the fate of the Royal family.” He did not look happy and was agitated. “Overseer and Gentleroaches, with your help and intelligence information we built an elaborate trap for the loyalists and the Royals. As you know many of our generals balked at leading the attack on the Royals. We selected a most ruthless general together with her loyal and highly experienced troops. We doubled the troops general Gotchek Boychick requested, adding the forces of Gen. Parov Gerev. He served as her second in command. He has been her second in several campaigns and they worked together well. We assembled a fleet more than adequate to defeat the Emperors fleet, and his loyalists. The fleet was big enough to defeat a large enemy fleet. We knew of the pending involvement of the crown princess and her meddlesome consort Lord Jason Kargo and their allies.

“We added reserve fleets to the reserve fleets to ensure they could not escape our trap. We were delighted to hear from our person on the inside, that the Crown Princess and granddaughter of the Emperor was foolhardy enough to go to the palace to be part of the rescue. We were surprised to discover the accursed Playboy Duke accompanied her along with their respective university groups.

“We discovered ships of Coven origin which we immediately attacked and were ambushed by a fleet of ships of many origins including several of Dhoom manufacture. We ambushed a reserve fleet of theirs en route to the rendezvous but they defeated us. We brought in our first reserve which we believed was sufficient to defeat them, but they gained the upper hand over us. We lost one of our last dreadnaught battleships which was captured despite the ship being packed with our elite Marines along with our new version of a ship-based small tank. We produced a version of the same tank for the ground campaign to help defeat the hounds and the boars.

“On the ground the situation looked positive, the explosives detonated in the palace, but we found no bodies. The entire family disappeared into tunnels. Those tunnels pass through some of the hardest rock with heavy metals some of which are slightly reactive which makes it difficult for our sensors to detect life forms so we had earlier, secretly drilled holes and inserted explosives and sensors to detect possible lifeforms and movement. After considerable effort we detected twenty-to thirty life signs in a very deep tunnel. We commenced our efforts to collapse the tunnels and some of the life signs were extinguished leaving four in a collapsed tunnel.

“The attack upon our ground forces intensified. We were suddenly attacked by a massive Cockroach the likes of which I have never seen,” said Yornog Blek and shuddered before projecting on the hologram the pictures of Jason with his Warhammer shortly after the fissure was created.

“This abomination killed the generals and her staff then proceeded to create a psychic wave that destroyed our army, destroyed the remains of the palace and blasted a fissure 5 miles long to connect to the next cavern. The abomination then spoke to the entire planet telepathically, while his voice thundered through the cavern. He totally terrified the planet into submission. If you look at his size you will see Cockroaches standing near him. Now I will show you something else.” The admiral said and projected a series of pictures showing Razza blasting the walls of the cavern over a distance of miles in some cases.

“We have never even heard of psychic powers at this level even in the legends of the ancients. These powers terrified our soldiers who now believe that they have made a terrible mistake in supporting us in our coup and want the Emperor back. These holo-pictures have been disseminated throughout all of our planets in every system. Along with the pictures is the statement: ‘The true Emperor of prophecy has come. Only He can save Us.’

“Can we identify these figures?” The Grand Overseer asked.

“The scariest part of all of this is that we cannot identify even a single one of them.” The admiral said.

“What of the Cockroaches in the tunnel?” Yesteg Krimpt from intelligence asked.

“This is even more bizarre, we saw on the sensors life signs joined them and one by one they disappeared. We don’t know what to make of it.

“This information has spread like wildfire through all of our troops. They believe the Emperor is superhuman and had a deeper purpose in not fighting the Coven, but when unfairly targeted and attacked by us has shown that his patience is not endless and he would fight back. I can tell you that morale is virtually nonexistent. My intelligence people believe active hostility against us is but a hair’s breadth away.

“So much inquiry was made of the ancient texts by the population that we were forced to shut down and block the library archives. We were far too late. The old texts are being read throughout the Coven. As we all know there is the prophecy of the return of the ancients who are angry about the wars, we have involved ourselves in over a million years and have reached the end of their patience with this current war.

“Those ancient texts are truly interesting. They say we will ally with the people who live on and feed off the life substance of others, and before the end we consort with creatures of the deep oceans and those that live on creatures of slime. They specifically mention our allies hide behind others and instigate war, hiding in the shadows and poisoning their enemies.

“It is possible these ancient predictions refer to the Jellyfish who feed on the Slugs and have parasitized off them for more than a million years. Their modus operandi is behind the scenes and they use and supply poisons. Our senior people suspect the same.” Yornog Blek, the admiral complained.

“Admiral what you think is going to happen now?” The Grand Overseer asked.

“If I was them, now is the time that I would attack this planet. It is for that reason I have marshaled our remaining fleet to be ready to defend Merpakt. I fear we will not have a reprieve. We have a reasonable chance of our own fleet turning on us. My fleet will look formidable, but many of the ships are old, so old that they were not even scheduled for upgrade. I have one partly functional dreadnaught-battleship. I am dredging up ships and planet-based defenses to buy us time. I don’t believe there is any way we can escape the coming holocaust. We have had a great run and we will fight to the end. In a matter of hours, I suspect you will be heading for the bunkers. You will undoubtedly be too deep for them to find you. Later you can escape but my time is over.