Chapter 11

Aftermath

“I thank all of you for coming here this evening. Today was a resounding victory. You all have the gratitude of the Kingdom,” said Queen Mergal Ravengus. “We have concluded the formal part of the meeting, from now on please use first names only. Nastovor as head of our armed forces I would like you to chair the meeting to review and discuss the battle and any related issues you think are important.”

“My Queen err ... Mergal, I thank you for this great honor. I have thought all afternoon where we should begin. I would like to thank our allies and friends who have assisted us so ably today. Without your help the outcome would have been much less certain and much more painful. I will not name all of you as Mergal did so at the dining table, but we thank you very much.

“I will begin on the night I received a call three and a half months ago, to attend at the palace, by the secretary to the King, Gromon, who for the first time in my long experience was excited. He suggested that an incident of great importance to the Azayal had occurred and he suggested I should bring my most senior staff. I conferred with my learned colleagues on the way to the palace, but none of us could throw any light on what might be going on.

“The palace butler led us to the dining room where the first sight that immediately struck me was the Vizier lying on the ground with his head chopped off and his abdomen was cut open. He was a man I had met on many occasions over thousands of years. I was nevertheless hard-pressed to understand how this could be a matter of national importance. I was led to understand the Vizier was a Ghoul and on examination his innards showed his fundamentals electronic nature. The events of the evening were explained in some detail.

“After the Ghoul brain was downloaded, I appreciated we were dealing with a major threat to the Azayal and we discovered time was running out. After discussion with our exchange students we understood the Ghouls had infiltrated us. We were to become a source of energy for the Ghouls. We were disturbed to hear intergalactic war was being waged in the Nasta 9 Universe.

“We were provided with an historical document which we all watched. The document provided valuable insights into the extraordinary recent life of Jason and gave us an excellent introduction to the issues faced in Nasta 9. We clearly understood the threat we faced and understood our intended fate.

“Jason introduced us to the leaders he felt were most relevant to assist us. We were offered assistance by Porquenta, the Collective, both Empires and all the allies. We began to work with all of them, providing them with technology and equipment and receiving the same in return. We appreciated the need for the Una to find their people and appreciated we were all linked by at least one common foe.

“Strangely, Jason appears to be at the center of removing many efforts to destabilize us,” said Nastovor. He looked around quizzically as several people laughed out loud.

“He and the palace guards found assassins preparing to kill the royal family. We found enough information to find other special forces hiding around the planet. We developed simple methods to find Ghouls. Rogue mole AIs attacked us prior to the attempted invasion. Porquenta’s cyberwarfare AIs found them quickly and we removed them. The palace team along with the exchange students played an important role in the apprehension of the Ghoul who had kidnapped Pardela and Grefis Trodd and his cohorts.”

“Despite all the help we received, the final scenario looked bleak. We were delighted to meet the representatives of Porquenta and Mars, the Una and the team of Jason who were leading the defense on behalf of the allies who sent ships troops and equipment. I have Andrea, Linda and the Una to thank for insisting that Jason become involved in the broader strategic planning. I was assured that he could produce an integrated plan that would increase our odds further. He had already provided some suggestions which we intended to implement, but none of us could accept a plan could be created that was much better than ours. We were not happy to change our entire plan with a week left before the invasion. We had three months of sleepless nights behind us.

“I was not easily persuaded, but I realized we had nothing to lose to listen to his ideas. I was skeptical.

“Crucial to his plan was the concept he called smoke and mirrors. He drew our attention to the extraordinary skills of the Una. He said they could create illusions that would appear to be real. I know of magicians and illusions, and I know of ruses to give the enemy an impression the forces they face are bigger than they are. I was not impressed for some time during his explanation of what he was proposing.

“This exercise was a model of the role of illusions in cyber-warfare.

The Una looked pleased to receive the compliment.

“One objective of the first part of the exercise was to damage the morale and the ships of the Ghouls. Secondly, we wanted to delay the Ghoul attack to give the Una the opportunity to set up both in Bekta Delta but also in our sub-universe. The most audacious part of the plan was to capture the Titan battleships. We followed the Titan battleships to their base several days before the intended attack upon us. We simply loaded our troops alongside the Ghouls and increasingly substituted our own people during attacks we used as a distraction and diversion. I don’t believe the Ghouls ever discovered we captured the big ships. We knew everything they were doing and thinking on the command ships, thanks to the efforts of the Warriors and Collective cyberwarfare groups. When the Ghouls sent the Atarax to our sub-universe we used the opportunity to take over the battleship and continued to create a false impression of what was happening.

“We used simple cloaking the Ghouls could penetrate when we wanted them to see something. They did detect the moon battleship by its gravitational influence, but as soon as they did, we moved it elsewhere. It was able to load and carry the tens of thousands of missiles needed in Bekta Delta, we had already planted thousands of missiles as well as hundreds of thousands of mines. We wanted the Ghouls to get used to detecting and chasing ships. They needed to find at least a few damaged ships. Two of Jason’s frigates were sacrificed to this end.

“When the Ghouls finally arrived here on our schedule, we wanted to split up the fleet and reduce the number of ships that could damage our infrastructure and land troops. Everything was done to keep them away from the planet and channel them into areas where we had planted thousands of missiles. We also wanted to separate the landing craft from the support of the fleet.

“Quite frankly, I had my serious doubts they would fall for any of it. Then I wondered how many steps along the way they would take. I was pleased they used missiles they could not replace. Of course they did not know we cut them off from their own supply ships. The key to the strategy was to help them never feel themselves in real danger. They only saw an easily vanquishable foe at any time. This led them to constantly move on to follow the bait as provided by the Una. The asteroid belt was a wonderful illustration of what can be done. We loaded the asteroids with missiles and cannon and the impression was created of a large fleet lurking and sending out active sensor scans. The Ghouls even boarded a large armed asteroid and once they landed, we blew it up. They were kept occupied in the asteroid belt for a considerable time while we steadily reduced their ship numbers and boarded others.

“Teleportation to reduce boarding risks worked better than we ever thought possible. The bottom of our boarding ships created the impression of a fearsome dragon like beast. Jason’s hounds were provided with a holographic disguise that made them look like small dragons that entered the ships and flew around rapidly and entered the Ghouls. The Ghouls hardly resisted the boarding and the ships used for boarding are largely undamaged. The ending was equally dramatic with Jason appearing as a fearsome Dragon and then he paralyzed them all. I now understand smoke and mirrors and cyberwarfare in a way I never did before. We have all learned a salutary lesson in how to conduct war.

“Our casualties were minimal and ship damage was trivial. We captured the entire fleet of the Ghouls,” said Nastovor.

“Jason you have indicated you would like to speak?”

Jason slowly stood and walked over to the podium. He smiled at the assemblage.

“I would like to compliment all of you for executing the plans flawlessly. Rarely do big plans survive the first encounters with the enemy. Today was a triumph for cyberwarfare. We knew what the enemy were doing and thinking during every phase of the campaign. We thank the extraordinary cyberwarfare groups from the Empires, The Collective, My Teams and the Una. The Una exceeded every expectation I had. The enemy did not realize at any time they moved from killing zone to killing zone. My first hope was we could create the impression of a fleet so large we could scare the Ghouls off. We could do that but they would partner with the Grork, the slug/jellyfish people, and later we would have faced a more formidable foe. The Ghouls desperation and greed helped us.

“We have won this battle conclusively. I propose we move on quickly, but with due care to conquer the Ghouls, before they can recover. They must not be allowed to get back on their feet. We need to take them out of the game and reduce the risk to all of us. The Una could face the combined might of the desperate Ghouls and the Grork in Bekta Delta. Our forces are intact, we can repair the Ghoul ships and we will have a fleet capable of traveling between Universes. Mr. Chairman I raise this for discussion,” said Jason.

Nastovor turned towards Adm. Pawela Hage the intelligence chief. “Pawela, I would like you to give your detailed assessment of the situation as you see it.”

“Thank you Nastovor for inviting me to speak. These issues are not new to us, we considered what we would do next during our strategic planning. With that in mind our intelligence service, along with our allies, has operatives on the ground on the seven core Ghoul planets. Our findings surprised us. We are aware from our interrogations the Ghouls do not know they can use simple chargers available everywhere. They discovered as battery power began to run out, they could acquire the electrical energy from living beings. It is highly inefficient. We have no idea why this change came about, it is bizarre. We first thought they could not recharge in Bekta Delta. We captured and interrogated several prominent individuals during the chaos following the attacks on the capital. They are all running on 5% charge at best, but we could easily recharge them in Bekta Delta. They have ample power supplies in their own cities. This is an extraordinary conundrum we cannot explain. The people look terrible and they are lethargic. I think they have given the military preferential treatment, but we have not found a single Ghoul who is more than 20% charged. The garrisons and training areas show little activity. I think they simply cannot afford to use the energy. There is also little activity on the streets.

“On Drak we have already destroyed the defenses. They have months of work to restore the infrastructure, and we all consider they are very vulnerable to an attack. Repair activity was lackadaisical at best. Something is seriously wrong with the Ghouls and many of them look terrible.

“They are preoccupied with their fears for the future. They do not understand what has gone wrong with them. They also think the Queen has gone crazy, but they are programmed to follow her and they will never go against her no matter how bad it gets. We captured their most senior admiral. She was on the ship next to the Queen when the Queen changed. They were in the middle of a battle and the ship was hit. The bridge was badly damaged.

“We watched the sequence of events over and over again. The Queen received significant injuries and it is our view she was damaged. We watched her behavior and her actions prior to that battle and subsequently. We saw her change personality and sides in the middle of the battle. She even looked confused and we saw her become easily enraged. She showed stable moods prior to that crucial day. We can say we know what happened to the Queen!” Pawela said.

“Does that then mean if we cut the head off the snake, it is possible that the Ghouls will change?” Mergal asked.

“I think that may well be the case. I would certainly suggest we direct our efforts to disable the Queen and then will see if the rest of the Ghouls revert to their old selves.

“I think there is some more useful information I can relate. I will send copies to all of you to look at carefully yourselves so you can make up your own minds.

“Her erstwhile allies frantically attempted to communicate with the Ghoul Queen to find out what she was doing and why. They then sent a series of codes much like Jason did when he shut down the Ghouls.

“The Ghouls moved to Bekta Delta and were industrious. Fifty years later Ghouls communicated to the Queen they were running down but did not know what to do. They began to experiment to try and find ways to recharge themselves. They went about this ineffectually despite their high intelligence and ability in other areas. I suspect two separate chains of codes were sent. The first had no effect and then after some delay the second code was sent. The first code was a shutdown code and it can be reversed by the Queen. The second code removed access to some of their memories and function so they lost the ability to know how to charge themselves. They see themselves as people not artificial intelligence biological beings. They can eat food but it doesn’t do much for them. They found they could extract electrical energy from biological beings and that is what they have been doing.

“We estimate forty to sixty percent of their population is in storage. They have huge warehouse facilities in each city.”

“The Admiral has done her best to moderate the Queen, but the energy problem dominates their day to day existence. They are going to partner with the Grork to attack the Una next exactly as Jason surmised.

“All the Ghouls we captured during the attack believe they have been implanted with eggs that hatch and feed on their energy. It is a strategy well worth using again.

“Our combined intelligence services maintain we should capitalize on our success and attack the Ghouls as soon as we can.

“We need to repair the Ghoul fleet if we are to take and hold the core planets. The Azayal fleet is old and badly in need of repair. We have not built a new ship in three hundred thousand years! We have patched our ships and made do for a long time. Our shipbuilding and repair facilities are neglected. The King started the process of a complete rebuilt, but our infrastructure will not support fleet repairs in a timely fashion,” said Pawela.

Andrea looked at Jason who nodded.

“I speak primarily on behalf of Jason, but I strongly believe our allies will support what I suggest, but I cannot commit our allies until I confirm what I say. With that reservation in mind I will make some suggestions.

“Our asteroid which most of the Azayal have not had time to see and tour is a massive ship building and repair facility. I suggest we repair the Ghoul ships so they can fly between Universes and then we send them to be fully upgraded on Porquenta and by our allies. That will bring considerable industrial capacity to the party. We can do the same with your best ships. Many of your ships could be at risk if you flew between universes. The asteroid is cavernous and has prodigious facilities. It is big enough to transport ships to the allies for refurbishment and to return and repair and rebuild many ships here.”

“Do you have the timeline on the move to our Universe?” Andrea asked. “That is something we need to factor into our plans.”

“Andrea you and Linda can meet with the top team who are coming to talk to me this afternoon about the timetable for a move. Sheila and Claudette will also be there as Porquenta is on the project team. Jason, Ladovaz your mathematics professor asked if you could be there. He said he has some work for you and laughed. He thought you might be bored by now and need some real intellectual stimulation. I think he is quite mad, maybe that is why both of you get on so well!” Mergal said grinning. “Nastovor you need to be there as well.”

“I have arranged for the crews on the allied ships to visit the sights of the planet and visit a few of our other planets before they go home. I have spoken to all the leaders of the allies. They are truly a diverse group of people. Razza I spoke to your parents and Nuswa. The Emperor of the Coven will help. He is building four Asteroid Engines for Porquenta to travel between Universes and is working on battleships on Porquenta with the ability to travel through Universes. The Orcs will start to use our engine design. They had ships that traveled between Universes in the distant past but the Engines like those of the Warriors and the Parzool could do the transition between Universes and did not operate within a Universe. They love our engines they all said and they will become standard on their own ships. One engine does it all,” said Mergal. “Now let us adjourn for lunch and relax a bit before we meet with the super brains.”

The Ghouls

Meeting Room 4.1, Castle of the Queen in the Capital Gresh on the Planet Drak:

Attendees:

Queen Parbath Kabal.

Biqalak Kabilal – her Secretary and Assistant.

Gen. Etzil Tsanak – Chief of Intelligence.

Adm. Namenal Kabilaqua Intelligence Division Acquisitions.

“What have we heard from my old friend, Bilulus?” Queen Parbath Kabal asked.

“Nothing my Queen, we had a few reports during the battle as sent by drones but nothing since,” said Etzil Tsanak Chief of Intelligence.

“We had scouts watching the battle and many sensors. We were doing well, there was little opposition and we were powering forward and then disaster,” said Etzil and trembled. “My Queen, you recall all of us have memories of a Gromelix that terrified us when we were young and newly created. We all believed they were mythical creatures. Now I know why we had the memories. The Gromelix exist, and they attacked our craft. They took the side of the Azayal. We heard many reports and I have visual confirmation from many ships. They boarded and infested our people. They were angry. I have never seen anything so vicious. Perhaps the Azayal know the Gromelix and they have been searching for us. Perhaps they need us to breed.”