War of Fates: (Chapter 3)

Location: Sklitna vessel “Homid” in high orbit.1

Shaiv nervously boarded the immense vessel, the largest he’d seen in months, the Homid was a large vessel, but was small enough to dock in the hangar of the mother ship. The location of the mother ship, known as “The Empress”, was kept top secret, and unless the ship were under attack, the location was not to be uttered on the radio, for fear of an interception. Shaiv had been assigned to a Shorna host, his host had been recently modified with a “Peeve Chip”. The single most incredible piece of technology ever devised. His own body was nearby, in a ship close in orbit around the planet, the host must stay within a light year of the chip, or it will lose the signal entirely, in a way that he didn’t understand, the connection was instantaneous to that point, the technology itself was top secret, if the Shesh learned how it worked, it would be the end of the Sklitna Empire. Nearly a quarter of the galaxy belonged to them, in fact, the only major threat to the Sklitna, were the Shesh, and their allies, this had been the only major opposition that they had ever faced, quite a frightening prospect. As soon as the Shesh learned of them, they had to pull out everything that they could, but they still couldn’t land on the surface, never had a Shesh been taken alive, and they have not won, a single offensive against the Shesh home front. Although weak with weapons technological advances, the Shesh were worthy opponents.2

A distant movement, that he only barely felt, indicated that the pod he was in was moving, his real body felt so strange, although it felt like he was inside this Shorna, he could still feel his own body, in a way, it made him feel so vulnerable, but he also realized that he was safe, where the Shorna was, he couldn’t be harmed, his pod was safe, even he didn’t know exactly where he was. Now all he had to do, was make his way to the room he’d been summoned to. He didn’t know what it was about, but it couldn’t be bad, as the first word in the note had been “Congratulations.” He read the note silently to himself. “Congratulations, you have been selected to meet at the Homid to seek meeting with the Prime Sentient.”  It gave the date and coordinates, and the room number he was to meet. The “Prime Sentient” was the Emperors adviser. He was only one step below, there were actually 4 Prime Sentient’s, each one had their identity kept secret, and only they knew who the Emperor was. Of course, there was no way to tell, since nobody knew who they were, but in a warrior civilization, precautions must be made, and he would somehow prove his authority to him, how… Shaiv had no idea. 3

He continued to make his way up the deck, not paying any mind to the beings surrounding him, there were all sorts of races, he was familiar with them all, and he had long since gotten over the discovery of vision, and sound. It had been ecstasy! A marvelous new sensory perception of the world around him, it was now daily existence, a constant. The trip didn’t take long, he soon found himself in the middle of a room, filled with many Sklitna, many different hosts, many different ranks, he didn’t take the time to talk with any of them, he shared no concern, he had grown passed the early thrill in his life, when everything had just been for fun, and that to kill was just a job to be done, to get back to having fun. He knew that there was no fun, he was in a war, and it was never fun, it was serious business, and being on the edge of becoming a general, he didn’t play games anymore, he just wanted to end this war, but he didn’t know how to do it, there was nothing left, they were running out of hosts, even if the Sklitna death tolls had come to a nearly complete halt, there had to be some way to replenish their losses, but scouts had been unable to find anything of use. He remembered the day that the war had started, it had been so sudden. First there had been news of a new species to enslave, and soon after, war had been declared.4

It wasn’t as if they had never had a war before, but all had been skirmishes compared to this. Most races never found out about them, until there was no chance of victory, and the remainders had gone into hiding, only to be swept out later. Of the Shorna, there had been one tribe that evaded them, one small tribe, now taken into shelter of the Shesh army. On a land that had held, untouched. The only planet that had ever been able to do so. He was told that after years of holding their ground, the Shesh were now ready to take on a full scale offensive. The casualties would be horrible, and stun rays were useless against Shesh space craft. There were only plasma beams, an invisible wave, that could completely obliterate anything from existence, but it was easily absorbed, and harnessed, using helium gas, that force fields held in close proximity to Shesh ships. The energy absorbed charged up the energy shield underneath, that prevented lasers to penetrate. But while the Shesh proved very difficult to damage, the ancient weapons they used were laughable, but effective. He thought that the long forgotten art of projectile weapons would have been very effective, but the mixtures necessary had been erased from existence, and all arts of forming appropriate weapons were long forgotten. Many attempts had been made, but they proved, that black powder, was an ancient craft, one that unfortunately, had been lost in the ages.5

There were some day’s that he thought that the war would never end, and that peace would never return in the galaxy. He feared that he would not live to see the end of it. But he would see the Shesh crushed forever! And furthermore… “Yes! What is it?” he shouted at a Shorna controller.6

Taken aback, the small Sklitna spoke “Well sir, I was trying to ask you, why have we been summoned here? The others are ignoring me completely, I believe its because I was given a female Shorna host, they are all ranking officers anyway, what is your rank?”7

“I am a Grand Kallah, on the verge of general, my Shorna host was my own decision, as this was my first, it held some sentimental value, and I know no more than you do about why I am here. My letter said something about a meeting, but gave no details, I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.” Shaiv spoke quickly, hoping to discourage the young host without having to do anything, his antics failed.8

Although he looked intimidated, he seemed surprised, Shaiv knew that he was the only Grand Kallah with a Shorna host, but he preferred it to any other. “Well sir, I apologize if I offended your position and honor, sir!”9

“At ease.” He said, with a  casual wave.10

“Yes sir. I am Jedm, a Specialist. I’m a deep undercover agent, I accounted for 3.4 million of the Beigel host’s taken, I may be doing something similar for whatever the Emperor wants.”11

“That’s fine, I don’t know why I’m here but one must be patient, your questions will be answered with time.” Shaiv said.12

At that moment, a voice on the P.A. system called out “Unit S-21 report to Room 1”13

“See? What did I tell you, good luck.” Shaiv said as the nervous Sklitna moved into the next room. 14

Several minutes went by, and the P.A. called somebody else, but Jedm didn’t come out of the room. Another was soon called, and another, and another, neither of them ever exited the room they entered. He soon became wary, as one after the other entered the room, and none left. Would they ever come out? He began to perspire, fear pulsing through his veins.15

Finally, they called his name. Silently, he walked, the sounds of his boots echoed across the well kept floor, resonating around the chamber. He knew his time had come, he was finally going to see the Prime Sentient.16

He made his way thought the crowd quietly, and proudly, he had no reason to be punished, and knew that he’d been nothing but a devoted servant of the cause. This was it. The door  opened, and walking in, the door shut, and he was swallowed by the darkness.17

“Welcome Grand Kallah Shaiv. You were brought here to a special meeting because again, and again, you disobey orders, and come out, alive. And not only alive, but victorious, and a hero. Your judgment had proven you to be a worthy soldier. And it is my pleasure to announce to you your next assignment.” The unseen voice said, he still hadn’t adjusted to the dark. “This is normally a Specialists assignment, but somebody with your judgment, and your skills, will most certainly produce the single most wonderful results. You will have to give up your host, but I’m sure that it wont be a problem. Will it? General.” The voice paused.18

General? A promotion? This was too good to be true!19

“Of course not sir! What is my assignment?” He said in an orderly, obedient manner.20

A light appeared, illuminating the center of the room, a small figure, a strange being, and alien of this like he’d never seen.21

“You are to infest this being. A strange, weak thing, they are a desirable host. You make take a closer look to this creature, to get a feel for what it is.”22

He moved to the creature in the center of the room. He realized that it was actually much further away than he’d thought. It was taller than he was, and probably stronger. It was tied, arms spread eagle on a flat surface protruding from the center of the room. It had pale, almost pink skin. Long dark hair on its head was an uneven pile of wire. The mouth of the being was also bound, as were its feet and legs. It wasn’t infested, for if it were, the creature would be walking free. A rather interesting prospect, that they’d not try to learn more about this being. 23

“Why hasn’t this creature been infested?” He inquired.24

“She already knows way too much. I wouldn’t want to dispose of a valuable Sklitna host.” The voice answered slowly, and it walked out of the shadows. “This is part of a rather important campaign in the war.” He now saw why he’d refer to the being as “weak”, the Sklitna had a wretched Macha host! At 10 feet tall, it was quite formidable. “Already, I have somebody else with a mission similar to yours, which may weaken the Shesh enough for us to take them. After the Shesh go, there goes the foundations to the Alliance, yes they will fight, but it will be like picking off individual sword wielding enemies. Always an interesting choice. With us all working together to weaken the governments of all the Shesh Allies, and the Shesh themselves, we can manipulate everything. We can bend them to do exactly what we want! We’ll know every individual surprise attack! Think of the possibilities!”25

“I’m thinking of them, but, I’m not familiar with this race, they aren’t allies of the Shesh. What will I accomplish?”26

“An excellent question, but I’ll tell you what! We did manage to capture a live Shesh! In fact, so high up in the government ,he is, that only a few small steps will send the Shesh crashing down! This being you see, is a member of a Class 3 race, only on the brink of becoming a Class 2! With a race like this on their side they could become quite powerful! This race, they have weapons technology that Shesh only dream of having, and they plan on convincing the humans to join the fight! We have to act quickly, you need to infest all the highest officials in the government. In less than a year, because the Shesh are going to try to manipulate them a slightly more conventional way. We have to get these on our side, this is one of the most crucial missions, for, even if we eliminate the Shesh at home, the ones over earth may well have the humans on their side, and they will be able to take back what we have taken. So now, you see the importance of this mission?”27

“Yes. I understand sir, but what of the captured Shesh?” Shaiv asked.28

“They are being taken care of by a specialist. He managed to slip more than 3 million Beigel into our clutches, using nothing more than political finesse. As for her? She knows about the Shesh mission, so I could only entrust her to you at this point. Do you accept?” he waited for Shaiv to accept.29

“Yes, I accept. What does this race call themselves?” He asked.30

“Well, like most sentient races, they have many names for themselves, but most call themselves. ‘Humans’”31