Star Force: Hamoriti (SF62) (4 page)

The Trinx knew that they couldn’t
keep the Hamoriti on planet or even in the system if it wanted to leave, so
their mission here was to observe and then attack any minions it produced
before they could snowball out of control. Those minions were biological
technology that the Hamoriti produced, and even now there were a few sites
along the Hamoriti’s trail that were showing positive contacts on the Trinx
sensors.

They were defensive growths,
essentially a turret covering seeds that would begin harvesting surrounding
resources and producing the mobile minions. If they were allowed to continue
unchecked they’d become a huge problem even if the Hamoriti didn’t spawn any
more. The problem was they were still within the firing radius of the Hamoriti,
and unless it got very sloppy it wouldn’t move off until they’d developed
further.

That meant the Trinx had a choice to
make. Sit and watch while their long held nightmare’s forces took root and
began to multiply…or go in to eliminate them and hope to weather the Hamoriti’s
firepower long enough to accomplish their mission, at which point the monster
would begin spawning new seeds again, starting an endless war that they could
never win.

If for no other reason than to buy
time they made the strike, sending a portion of their fleet into extreme
weapons range where they began firing down on the planet from low orbit with
pinpoint accurate energy beams, hitting and vaporizing the growing
biomatter
in all the various locations simultaneously as patches
on the Hamoriti began to form on its ‘skin’ and charge with energy. As they did
the Trinx, knowing they were going to have to sacrifice themselves to take out
their targets, held position and continued firing with their helmsmen ready to
make an emergency jump out the moment they had the word that the targets had
been destroyed.

But they weren’t even close to
achieving that when the spherical burst came, rushing out so fast from the
Hamoriti that the atmosphere around it literally caught on fire. The binary
pulse came first with an invisible field that almost instantaneously reached
out and rendered all the ships inert, disrupting their internal mechanisms in
an almost magical fashion and leaving the ships falling from orbit when the
physical disruptions hit them, dragging the burning atmosphere behind it.

The Trinx ships were destroyed
within a second, but what was left of the biological seeds on the surface partially
survived, though the forest they were in did not. Now visually exposed amongst
the instantaneous char, they rode out the hurricane of atmospheric
restabilization
as another group of Trinx ships made
microjumps down into the plume of atmosphere bulging up into lower orbit.

Their shields nearly collapsed under
the physical strain as they braked into firing position, then as the Hamoriti
took a moment to recharge they continued the orbital bombardment that their
fellow ships had started, barely finishing in time before the second blast wave
came. Better than half of them managed to jump out in time, with the rest
succumbing to the disabling wave and being left helpless as the next fire plume
visibly reached up to devour them.

The Trinx had accomplished their
mission, but at a cost. Then, as if in spite to their sacrificial actions, the
Hamoriti was seen spawning another seed at its current location. First forming
as a tiny pinprick of a lump on its body, then dropping off onto the ground
where it dug roots into the charred soil and began to grow like a plant on the
devastated landscape.

The Trinx had bought some time,
though not much, and they’d have to do the same thing again and again else let
the Hamoriti’s minions grow to consume the planet, then transition out into the
galaxy.

4

September 22, 2723

Prenthor
System (Sety
capitol)

Qitor

“
We
have to have your assistance
,” Nesfa said, pounding his angular fist on the
railing before him in the council chamber. “
You
know the strength of the Hamoriti as well as any of us, and if we are to have a
chance of accomplishing anything it is in this moment, when the beast is at its
weakest. My people are dying to preserve this window of opportunity and I will
not let you or the others waste it through speculation or diplomacy.
”

“
It
is not that simple
,” Ivvit said, being the only other representative from
The Nine that had been able to make the trip to
Prenthor
before the Trinx arrived. “
We must
develop a plan of action before we start sending troops. I will not sacrifice
my people against the Hamoriti to buy time unless that time is of value. We
have no known means of defeating them, and according to the Oracles we also do
not have the ability to return them to their confinement…so I ask you, what
choice do we have besides dying now and dying later?
”

“
I
do not know
,” Nesfa answered the cyborg honestly, “
but I do know, what we all know, is that the Hamoriti’s minions will
grow and spread. They are formidable enough without the Hamoriti’s presence and
they will begin claiming worlds on their own. I do not suggest assaulting the
beast, but in containing the minions before they grow and spread out of control
.”

“
The
Hamoriti can build up the minions around it, then leave to do the same
elsewhere
,” one of the six Sety in the chamber pointed out. “
In order to strike at the minions to prevent
their growth we must strike near the Hamoriti, and we cannot do that without
massive casualties
.”

“
I
know that
,” Nesfa growled, frustrated. “
But
I also know that if we devise a way to combat the Hamoriti down the road that
we will look back on this moment in regret if we did not deal with the threat
when it was at its weakest. I will not allow this to become a lost opportunity.
My people are presently dying to preserve it, and while I do not expect us to
devise a solution overnight, we must have your help to contain the spread
before it truly begins.
”

“
To
what end?
” Ivvit reiterated. “
Even
the Ancients could not kill them
.”

“
Despite
what the Oracles say, this one is smaller and must be lesser in some degree. We
need to learn about it before the minions spread out of control
.”

“
How?
”
another of the Sety asked, standing on a pedestal and looking like a leafless
tree rooted in place with its 4 legs twisted about one another forming a pseudo
trunk.

“
With
blood
,” Nesfa said, his mind going dark at the sacrifices that would be
required. “
We attack with multiple
weapons and defenses, each time trying to adapt and provoke different
responses. As we die we will learn the capabilities and limitations of this
Hamoriti…and with luck we will find a weakness to exploit.
”

“
So
you are suggesting we assault it?
” Ivvit pointed out.

“
Not
now
,” Nesfa said, becoming irritated with the lack of insight he was
getting from the Sety and Chamra. “
We
must focus on the minions while we devise tests to probe the Hamoriti. When
those have been constructed we attack, die, and learn in our failure. I see no
other way to proceed, and waiting only allows the Hamoriti’s minions to grow in
number
.”

“
We
have responsibilities within Nexus territory to see to
,” Mafrin said,
reluctantly having to disagree with his Trinx peer. “
The Sety may have a larger military than yours, but ours is not as free
to redeploy. We are 92% tethered to current assignments. Even if I agreed with
your assessment we do not have the strength to aid you, not in the numbers
required. At best a single fleet could be mustered, but I will not send them to
their deaths just to buy us a few years
.”

Nesfa threw his arms up in the air
in frustrated defeat. “
Then we just let
the Hamoriti consume the galaxy
.”

“
I
conferred with our Oracle, and it indicates that it will take a very long time
for the Hamoriti to assert the kind of territorial domination that the Ancients
faced. Even though we have not caught up to their technological level, we are
not helpless. If we are to study the Hamoriti then let us do it from afar. The
Li’vorkrachnika have already gone into combat with it. Let them continue to do
so and we will watch. Sacrificing our troops before we have a plan of action is
wasteful
.”

“
And
how long did the Oracle predict it would take before the minions grew too
strong for you to defeat, absent the Hamoriti?
”

Mafrin stared back at the Trinx,
wondering if he’d had a nearly identical conversation with their Oracle. “
Concerning the Nexus alone, conservatively
300 years, though with this Hamoriti being a new one the estimates were labeled
as being largely speculation rather than data-derived
.”

“
Have
you been able to examine the shell?
” Ivvit interjected.

Nesfa turned his attention to him,
trying to let his anger with the Sety dissipate. “
The Hamoriti moved off far enough that we were able to slip a small
team inside. They confirmed it was Ancient technology and got a few generic
schematics from the placement of the rubble before the minions within repelled
them. They were not able to recover or locate the Oracle. Nearly the entire
shell was destroyed by the Hamoriti as it left.
”

“
I
still do not understand how there could be another Hamoriti
,” one of the
other Sety commented. “
It makes no sense
for the Ancients to build the Oracles with knowledge of the others and not
include this one.
”

“
I
agree, but it is here none the less
,” Nesfa said, wondering if the others
in The Nine would be equally obtuse to the situation when they arrived. He’d
hoped to be returning with at least a Sety fleet by now, but these idiots
appeared not to be able to grasp the obvious.

“
Our
task all these millennia has been to prevent the release of those imprisoned
,”
Mafrin stated evenly, “
knowing that if
even one were to escape captivity that the galaxy would be doomed. We have not
failed in our duty, yet by events we do not understand a Hamoriti has been
released. While it is unknown to us the simple fact is that our only hope was
in containment. The Li’vorkrachnika unwittingly released it, much as we did
here so long ago. I do not see that there is anything we can do at this point
.”

“
Short
of locating the Ancients
,” Ivvit threw out.

“
They
are most likely dead after all this time
,” Nesfa said, once again pointing
out the obvious.

“
Then
we need to find who killed him and ask their assistance
.”

The Trinx glared at the cyborg. “
Unless you have discovered something new,
such thoughts are merely academic games
.”

“
The
Oracles have made it clear that we cannot defeat the Hamoriti, and the fact
that the Ancients could not find a way to destroy them either only underscores
the fact that we cannot handle this. Thus we must consider alternate
possibilities, no matter how remote
.”

“
Agreed,
but what do you intend to do in the meantime?
”

“
If
we had a viable strategy I would send every Chamra against it immediately, but
given that we do not the logical path ahead is to conserve resources rather
than to spend them without merit
.”

“
We
do not wholly agree
,” Mafrin differed. “
The
Sety may not have the strength to fight the Hamoriti, but we do have the
strength to focus on lesser threats to the Nexus. Those must be priority.
However, to let the minions spread to a second star system would be folly. The
Hamoriti can only be in one place at one time, and we know this is the weakness
that allowed the Ancients to dismantle their stranglehold on the galaxy. We
will not waste our troops going up against it directly, but if we can strike at
the minions and hinder their growth I feel we must, as Nesfa has said, to buy
us time. I do not feel that we will find a solution, but we must try
nonetheless.
”

The Trinx shook its head adamantly,
headtails flying back and forth behind it. “
There
are enough resources in that system to grow an army of minions that we will be
hard pressed to counter. If we give the Hamoriti free reign it can fortify even
a single planet to such levels that it will take all of The Nine’s combined
might to cleanse it again if the Hamoriti leaves. We must work inside the
system, and the mathematically prudent method is to sacrifice a few troops
continuously to knock down the minions in their infancy.
”

“
If
we had an objective to achieve and required a delay, then I would reluctantly
agree
,” Ivvit said. “
But we have no
objective. We will continue to lose troops until we are defenseless, then the
Hamoriti will continue as it is now. If we can find a way to contain or destroy
it, then we are obligated to do so. If we cannot, perhaps it is best to run,
staying ahead of the expansion while looking for such a way, if it exists. If
not, then our focus should be on survival
.”

“
While
the galaxy slowly burns?
” Nesfa asked angrily.

“
If
we cannot stop it, then we should at least try and survive it
.”

“
Nesfa
is correct in that we must contain the spread of the minions for the time being
,”
Mafrin said, crackling with movement as he pointed an arm towards the Trinx. “
We know from the Oracles how to fight them,
and the damage they will cause if they are allowed to escalate. Containing the
Hamoriti is impossible, but we can fight the minions and I believe that we
must…even if only to give our people time to evacuate
.”

“
Evacuate
to where?
” Nesfa asked. “
As dangerous
as the Hamoriti is, it will not be able to spread quickly. But put that aside,
there is a bigger problem we have to face. Where did this Hamoriti come from?
The Oracles spoke of their reproduction as an unknown factor. Never did they
witness or come to understand the origins of the Hamoriti. We now have one that
appears to be younger, though we can’t be sure of that or much else at this
point. Where did it come from if the 7 were imprisoned? They could not have
reproduced it, at least not after their sedation
.”

“
Valid
questions but I fail to see their consequence. If another Hamoriti were to
emerge we would be equally helpless to defeat it.
”

Nesfa pounded his two knuckle fist
on the railing again. “
How can you be
this blind? Have you not been guarding a Hamoriti here as we have done? Have
you not studied it intently? If this Hamoriti is younger then by studying it
and feeding data to the Oracles they can compare it to the others and
potentially gain insights that they do not currently possess. What the Ancients
knew of this one they did not update the Oracles with, and that knowledge may
be critical to finding a way to deal with this one
.”

The cyborg twitched with
understanding. “
The Ancients used all of
their power to contain the seven, and in doing so their civilization was nearly
destroyed in the process. Yet they combated and contained another Hamoriti
presumably afterwards, suggesting they either regained their strength or the
task was easier with this one?
”

“
Exactly,
and given that their civilization is now gone I would not bet on them having
rebuilt their full strength
.”

“
That
is warrantless speculation
,” Ivvit cautioned.

“
Speculation
it may be, but this is an opportunity to gain additional data on the Hamoriti
above and beyond what the Oracles presently possess. They have shown an ability
to process new data, and how the Ancients wrote code that could do so is beyond
me, but we should utilize this ability while we possess it. And the only way to
do so is to attack the Hamoriti directly to trigger selected responses for
analysis.
”

“
Costly
lessons
,” another voice said as a fog-like cloud moved through one of the
three access doors. The
Yisv’s
‘body’ took on more
cohesion as it approached one of the empty podiums, eventually forming into the
frail bipeds that they were in their solid state.

“
You
arrived quicker than expected
,” Mafrin commented.

“
Current
events warrant expediency. Am I right in hearing that the Trinx want to attack
the Hamoriti directly? The Oracles have told us repeatedly that it is suicide
and I question the sanity of those suggesting it, for you are not ignorant. If
the Ancients could not destroy them then neither can we, regardless of what we
might learn. Such curiosity is not worth the lives of our people
.”

“
I
concur
,” Ivvit echoed.

“
Those
lives will be lost in time
,” Nesfa reminded
Sefib
.
“
Better that their deaths serve a purpose
in the here and now, regardless of whether or not the information proves to be
strategically useful
.”

“
What
of those who released them? Your packet said they were engaging the Hamoriti
initially and were not overwhelmed
.”