Chapter 11: Strategy

Palace of the Queen, Merka Planet Remza Universe Recta 9:

Conference Room 4.6

Preliminary Strategy Discussion

Attendees:

Gen. Nastovor Sarajengus — Head of the Armed forces for the Azayal; Chairman.

Adm. Maron Mergazengis — Chief admiral of the Azayal Fleet.

Adm. Pawela Hage — Intelligence Chief combined forces.

Jacob Peck — President of the Flock of the Una.

Grefel Magoo — Director of Intelligence of the Una.

Queen Mergal Ravengus — Queen of the Azayal.

Lisirra Chamadar — Crown Princess of the Zaos

Ixal Kabal — Crown Princess of the Ghouls

Gen. Corvus Omulix of the Gromelix.

Jason Kargo.

Sheila Von Porquenta, Razza Croft, Julia Farinelli, Perdita Nazared, Andrea, and Linda

“I welcome all of you to this preliminary discussion prior to the leaders meeting on Porquenta tomorrow. We will be accompanied by Jason’s small fleet here and his asteroid which is taking his ancient battleship back. Some of you will not be part of the leader discussions, so here is your opportunity to say your piece,” said Mergal. “I will now hand over to Nastovor who will chair the discussion. Please note this is an informal planning discussion to help frame our thoughts. It is first names only.”

Mergal waved to Nastovor before sitting down next to Jason.

“Following the attack upon us by the Ghouls, we have been occupied planning our counter-attack upon them. We were aware of the critical role of the Ghoul Queen in the debacle that led to her betraying the allies. I will now ask Maron to summarize our latest intelligence and update us on the imminent threats the allies face,” said Nastovor while handing over to Maron.

“As usual, Jason, seems to manage to turn everything on its head,” said Maron dressed in her regal leathers, pausing as most in the group laughed. “We learned there were real Gromelix, we acquired a new Ghoul ally, discovered a new enemy the Ordreg who may well have surprised us during the attack on the Una and have found out, the enemy intends to attack the Parzool within a week. Thank you, Jason, for single-handedly destroying most of the fleet of the Ordreg. I’m not surprised you were a little tired afterwards. I pick up a pound telekinetically and I’m tired for a week. I send a few fireballs or use a psychic shield for half an hour and I’m tired. Jason destroys a fleet and can’t understand why he’s tired. How tired would any of us be if we carried Lisirra, a cruiser and her Castle around with them?”

“Many of you have already talked to Lisirra after we were alerted to her presence and received her vital intelligence information. I have communicated with the Zaos King as suggested by Lisirra. He will pledge to the alliance and Lisirra will represent him. The Zaos of old specialized in intelligence. He provided useful information on the Ordreg, who were a past ally but in their current form unknown to us and described the complex relationship between the group we know as the Grork and the Schlogg. He spoke with me just before this meeting to tell me the Grork wish to use poisons and biological weapons during the attack on the Parzool, but they have been opposed by the slugs. The independent slugs are increasingly unhappy with the progress of the war. They see themselves as being very different to the jellyfish. But since there is an agreement still in force between the jellyfish and the slugs, the independent slugs continue to fight with the jellyfish/slug forces,” said Maron as the audience smiled at her.

“The Grork had tried to establish a parasitic relationship with an ancient people, the Safion and that led to the great war. The Grork fled to Norbut 18 following the great war and we believe the Safion chased them there because of the Grork introducing biological weapons and created plagues and poisons during their campaign in the great war. The Safion were determined to remove the curse of the jellyfish. I feared they might be your original people, Jason, but I understand from Andrea that is not the case.

“There has been a great battle in the Universe Norbut 18. The Safion lived in a nebula which also contained the Grork. They were at a great disadvantage when they moved to that universe, but they gradually caught up. The Grork managed to create an explosion that destroyed the entire nebula. The Safion did not know the jellyfish had been leaving Norbut 18 and moving to other universes in anticipation of this final act.

“The Schlogg, who see themselves as peace-loving by nature are increasingly unhappy about what they are discovering. They insist they are accompanied on the ships by an equal number of Grork in stasis, so they do not become cannon fodder. As time progresses more Grork are put into stasis. They are desperate to find new hosts. The Schlogg do not accept the Grork telling them that they cannot transfer their consciousness. They believe the Grork are parasites and manipulators behind the scenes. The Grork simply don’t see themselves as independent beings, having to ambulate, prepare food and build things themselves. The Schlogg are aware of experiments that succeeded where the Grork were able to transfer to biological beings and to AIs. In both cases they were desperately unhappy. They did not want to do the activities necessary to sustain themselves on a day-to-day basis.” Maron continued.

“The people of Dhoom faced similar difficulties in transferring consciousness. Their difficulty is learning to control an entirely different body. For some reason, they find it extraordinarily hard to learn to move as a mammal.

“I have communicated with Queen Parayekt. She tells me they were aware of the emerging threats of poison and even of plague to the Parzool. She did know the poisoning attempt was related to an impending attack. She was very grateful to the Zaos to receive further information. She is aware of them as they used to live in her galaxy, Albos. She believed they had all been killed. She was delighted to hear they were alive and she is now independently in communication with the king. She knew him when she was a child. She does know of the Ordreg who also come from Albos.

“We now know that the Grork/Schlogg also live in the Albos Galaxy. The Grork have a combined fleet of seven hundred of their own ships some of which are in Bekta Delta. None of the Schlogg have ever heard of Grork living in any other universe or galaxy, other than Nasta 9 and Bekta Delta. They no longer have a significant presence in Norbut 18.

“We were surprised to hear the people of Dhoom only have three hundred ships. The Ordreg have thirty effective ships,” said Maron.

“What about the Ghouls, how many ships do they have left?” Razza asked.

“Two hundred fighting ships of which fifty are capital ships. They will provide a force of twenty million to invade the Una.” Maron explained. We now also know where the Grork planets are in Bekta Delta, thanks to both Lisirra and Ixal.”