Chương 138: Nova Wars - Chapter 116

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS We're not sure just how big the Ornislarp Noocracy is. We just know that they have at least a half dozen other species besides the Ornislarp involved. We've had to be careful with them. They've been pushing their war fighting technology and industrial capability until they're able to go toe to toe with the Confederacy and make any victories extremely costly.

And before you get all angry on us, remember, we had to deal with a massive tech loss after the first century you had vanished into The Bag. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- SOLDOM All right. Still, they fired on us. We're not going to back down. ////// TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS We're not asking you to. I'm just telling you why they haven't been knocked out yet. Plus, right now, we've already got the Mar-gite as well as whoever is building the Hellspace Barrier.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- RIGEL It doesn't help that ship building is more and more difficult. The lack of warsteel has really set up back. Besides 0->HATWEARINGAUNTIE shivers HATWEARINGAUNTIE>brrrrr there is several key compon... what? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- HAT WEARING AUNTIE Nothing. Keep......... brrr... ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS What? Tell us. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- HAT WEARING AUNTIE Felt like someone was walking over my grave. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS Oooh boy. That's not good.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- Violet looked over the reports from the various diplomatic assessment agencies as well as diplomatic investigators and analysts. With the Terrans having engaged the Ornislarp in combat, the political situation was extremely delicate. Already, the Terrans had reaffirmed that with the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems being defunct, the Terrans were not a signatory to any of the Confederacy of Aligned Systems treaties, agreements, or promises.

The Solarian Iron Dominion apparently not only covered the Terrans, but all the species that had spent the 50 years local inside The Bag. Violet had to admit that he had seen deep psychological and emotional changes in peoples who had survived the fifty years trapped in a highly competitive 'survival of the most adaptable' environment. Even the mantids who stayed 'tasted' different to Violet's senses. The door chimed and Violet checked the holoemitter on the table to see who it was. It was the Ornislarp delegation.

Violet sighed. The Ornislarp were insisting they were innocent, that the Dominion had attacked without warning and were interfering in a strictly internal Ornislarp Noocracy matter, in clear violation of Confederate regulations and tradition. He quickly adjusted everything on the table, saving his documents and locking them. He checked to make sure there was nothing that was culturally insensitive around, then tapped the door icon. The Ornislapr delegation moved into the room.

Two staying by the door and three others moving into the room. One stopped on the other side of the table from Violet, the other two moving to either side of him. The Ornislarp usually arranged themselves in such a manner.

"How may my office be of assistance?" Violet asked.

"We demand diplomatic seals against survelliance and listening. We wish this to be only semi on the record," the Ornislarp demanded. Violet nodded. It was standard with the Ornislarp.

"Very well." He activated the privacy systems, leaving on only the local recorder.

"The Terrans have forced one of our important stellar systems to surrender under the threat of destruction and other violence," the Ornislarp diplomat stated, his screechy voice outraged. Violet nodded.

"I am aware. I am also aware of the Terran's claims of the Ornislarp being the initial belligerents despite warning."

"Lies and falsehoods," the Ornislarp proclaimed.

"The matter must be fully investigated. We cannot take one side's words over the other without having pertinent information and getting answers to import questions," Violet said. He picked up a glass of water and sipped at it to soothe a tickle in his throat. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He had spent too much time speaking.

"We have stated that the Dominion is the aggressors. That should be enough," the Ornislarp said, the tentacles spilling out of the forward 'mouth' starting to twist and writhe with agitation.

"The mere statement of supposed fact by one party that is involved in a multiple party incident is not proof without confirmation," Violet said. He resisted the urge to rub his eyes. He had explained it to the Noocracy diplomat four times.

"We demand that the Dominion leave our territory, to include the territory claimed by the Noocracy that the Confederacy does not recognize as within our borders. We also demand the Confederacy recognize the actual borders of the Noocracy," the Ornislarp diplomat said. Violet shook his head.

"No. The question of borders is between the Dominion and the Noocracy, as the Noocracy has taken territory that the Dominion claims is its own."

"If they are not the same entity as signed the treaties and agreements binding them to the decisions of the Confederacy then they are not the same entity that formerly possessed those stellar systems," the Noocracy diplomat countered.

"We are tired of being treated as if we are lesser. We are the dominant species wherever we go." Violet went to say something and realized the room was starting to spin. He fell back slightly, his legs trembling.

"Perhaps a demonstration is in order," the Ornislarp said. The ones to either side rushed forward, grabbing him by the front legs and his bladearms. The diplomat raised up slightly. The seam at the bottom of the Ornislarp's body opened, revealing digestive acids and writhing feeding tentacles as well as articulated 'fingers' to pull things in and hold them. Violet tried to protest. Tried to get his mouth parts to work to tell the ambassador that this course of action was self defeating.

He tried to bring his bladearms up to protect himself but they were held tight. He could feel the forward mouth tentacles of the two holding him caress his forward legs just above his footpads as well as hear the choking and gagging noises they were making. He knew they were about to vomit up digestive acid on his legs. No, no, not like this, he thought through the confusion, the muzziness, the strange layer of cotton over his thoughts.

Despite his dizziness and confusion, his body reacted exactly as it had been taught to. He tapped the button with his fingers. 0-0-0-0-0 Seeks the Paths to Peace looked out the window at the city of Shra'ashlahsh, taking in the ramps that the Ornislarp preferred, the spiraling architecture, the vehicles on the road around her. She sighed and looked back at the documents floating in front of her, projected by the holoemitter in the floor of the limousine she was traveling in.

The Ornislarp Noocracy was demanding that their borders be recognized as virtually all of the anti-coreward Terran Tomb worlds, which would place their border two hundred light years coreward of the Sol stellar system itself. They were demanding that the Solarian Iron Dominion surrender and apologize for attacking Noocracy military forces and planets without provocation. It was a belligerent letter that had no compromises, no standard diplomatic give and take, just 'give us what we want or we'll take it' language.

She looked out the window in time to see it. The rocket streaked out of the back of a truck, hitting the front of her limo. Other rockets flashed out, hitting her escorts. Flaming wreckage climbed for the sky as her vehicle flipped over and rolled. Windows shattered, plasteel deformed, endosteel and armor exploded away from the chassis. The double pulse from her implosion wire woke her. The cold empty feeling of it going offline made her frown, trying to understand it.

She blinked and realized she was staring at the sky. Debris was still raining down, the smaller chunks already scattered around her, the larger pieces falling, still burning. She couldn't feel her left foreleg and she could tell by the dizziness she had lost an antenna. She wasn't sure what was happening, how she ended up laying on the ground staring at the sky. Her hand fumbled at her waist as she stared at the sky. It was getting hard to breathe. She could feel the Bliss lapping at her, trying to cradle her.

Footsteps rapidly approached. She looked over when a shadow fell across her. An Ornislarp stood over her, joined quickly by two others.

"Fortune favors us," the Ornislarp said. Bloodslicked fingers found what they were looking for even as Seeks stared at the Ornislarp and tried to figure out what was going on. She could see the mouth beneath the main oval body start to open, the articulated finger-like graspers visible outside of that purplish slice lifting so that the mouth opened. Digestive juices started dripping down and the tentacles inside the mouth unrolled, hanging down.

The Ornislarp started moving forward, intending on straddling her supine form.

"You, not so much," the Ornislarp said. Her fingers pressed the button. 0-0-0-0-0 The diplomatic ship was heavily shielded, arguably to protect any diplomats within. It was also heavily shielded, obstinately to protect the secrets of both the diplomats and the nation it represented. It was still parked at the main spaceport of Brightflash City, on the coast of one of the larger southern continents of Terra. It was surrounded by other diplomatic ships, there were power armor marching around to protect the ships.

There were passenger liner shuttles, some military craft, and personal starships parked at the spaceport. On any given day Brightflash Starport serviced over a half-million sentients on their way to other locations or arriving on Terra. The Ornislarp starship sat with many others, all of them diplomatic vessels. It had the standard 'band' of reactionless sublight engines at the back, used the standard 'teardrop' style of hull layout.

It had only a few weapons, all of them dedicated to minor self defense and counter-debris and point defense work. The design and its mission made it so it stressed speed and the ability to run away while taking fire over everything else. It had heavier jumpcores than normal and the fact it contained four jumpcores with two auxiliary jumpcores was no surprise to the inspectors. It was largely uncrewed. Just a single shift of engineers to keep the ship running, two security personnel, and the piilot.

Day in and day out it had sat, sealed up, without even the Ornislarp delegation returning to it. The Ornislarp delegation was in constant contact with the ship and the ship was in constant contact with its escort vessels in orbit. The fact that the starport could detect, through the shielding, that the jumpcores were kept charged was nothing to be concerned about. Every other diplomatic vessel did the same, just in case of an issue requiring the evacuation of the diplomats that the ship was in charge of.

But today wasn't like other days. Inside, the 'pilot' looked over the control panel it had unfolded from beneath a standard pilot control panel. All of the jumpcores were at 100% power. Those who dare, eat," he said. He pressed the button. 0-0-0-0-0 In orbit the small Ornislarp detachment was beyond Luna, in the minimum foreign distance ring of Terra orbital control. The satellite, Luna, was on the other side of the planet as the Ornislarp detachment of eight ships orbited the planet.

The diplomatic ships were eclipsed for a moment by a set of four large cargo haulers shifting from high orbit to the orbit allowing them to dock at one of the many heavily armored space stations around Terra. The ships went to full stealth, their weapons powering up as the slipped 'down' and 'sideways', the weapons spinning up and the firing orders locking in as they spread out. Before any of the ships could get a single shot off the defense batteries on the "Ring" opened up.

Automated systems reached out with tractor beams and grabbed at the wreckage. Ships that had sat in stealth for months fired along predetermined firing plans, raking the wreckage and cutting the two heavier vessels. Missiles fired from pods that had followed the Ornislarp delegation's ships exploded and turned the two heavier vessels into spreading vapor and energy. The cargo haulers broke 'up' and 'right' following standard operating procedure, clearing the area. They were safe.

The Ornislarp delegation's ships were already spreading energy debris. 0-0-0-0-0 SOLDOM Did they think we're punks? Do they really think we'll back down? WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY ARE? ////// HAT WEARING AUNTIE Oh no. no no no no ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TELKAN FORGE WORLDS What? What's going on? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS We've got a mass-cal event on Smokey Cone! We're unsure of what's happening. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- RIGEL We have a Class One Diplomatic Incident!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS What? What's happening? ---NOTHING FOLLOWS--- THE GREAT GESTALT WE CALL THE LANAKTALLAN GREAT GALLOPING PLAINS OF GREAT THOUGHTS AND GREAT IDEAS ABOUT GREATNESS AND BEING GREAT Someone just made the Prime Miscalculation. ---NOTHING FOLLOWS---