Chương 179: Chapter 149

Hastatus Posterior Ga'ardmo'o stood silently with the rest of the guards. Dressed in red painted warsteel Mark-V imported from Smokey Cone, carrying plasma glaives in a pair so that the four armed Lanaktallans could hold them crossed over one another, they stood silently in the chamber. The door opened with an audible whoosh, something Ga'ardmo'o had come to appreciate. If a door didn't make a noise he found himself stopping, or at least hesitating, to make sure the door had operated properly.

Even though he was staring forward, his additional four eyes let him see around himself in a 360 degree view. He had been at this duty long enough he no longer stared at the figure who trode through the door, heading down the stairs toward the hexagonal chamber at the bottom of the atrium fifty vertical feet below the door. The figure moved down the steps slowly and steadily, reminding Ga'ardmo'o more of an unrelenting tide than a slowly walking person.

The inside of the room was terraced, each terrace only a few feet wide, but five feet high. The figure's breathing was loud in the otherwise silent chamber. The mechanical wheeze of breathing assistance ventilator, the thud of heavy footsteps as the black armored figure slowly moved down the steps, the black cape billowing out behind. The chamber opened, revealing dark screens that were just starting to come online as they warmed up.

No longer the flat high-definition flat screen LCDs that could show images in resolutions higher than a living creature's visual acuity. Now they were sodium lighted cathode ray systems, most of them bluish-white static filled as the system to counter phasic shades. The mist that poured out of the hexagon as the top half was lifted up by the heavy mechanical arm was red to signify the ferrite doping of the water droplets.

Ga'ardmo'o watched as his ruler, who had ruled over the Empire with a mailed fist for over two centuries, entered the chamber. His ruler sat down in a chair as the hexagonal 'egg' closed over him. Ga'ardmo'o was three hundred fifty-two years old. He remembered what it was like before the massive armada had arrived and liberated his homeworld, liberated his people from vile debt slavery. Had liberated him from tyranny. Sure, others might claim the Empire was tyrannical.

System and Sector leaders were appointed by the man who ran the Empire. All power rested with the person who had entered the meditation chamber at the bottom of the chamber. But Ga'ardmo'o had lived through true tyranny. Where he had accumulated enough debt by the time he left basic schooling to ensure that he would be nothing but a debt slave for his entire five centuries of life, denied the basic pleasures. Had it been tough? Yes. Had it been more than he could bear? At times it felt that way.

Had it all been worth it? Without a doubt, yes. As the time went by Ga'ardmo'o thought about how much had changed. His sire and dame were no longer working off debts incurred by their own parents, but instead had retired to a lovely villa on one of the islands. Ga'ardmo'o's re-enlistment bonus had paid for a N'Karan to come in and design the villa all the way from N'Karoo. Such a thing would have been impossible for his parents to enjoy. Such a thing would have been for the Second Most Highs and the like.

But the tyranny brought order, stability. And every Lanaktallan craved order and stability. Nearly an hour had passed before the lights flashed red and the buzzer went off. Ga'ardmo'o's phasic shielding jumped to 125%, filling his mouth with the taste of berries and microplastic glitter. He focused his attention on the hexagonal meditation chamber. It was wreathed in corona discharge of phasic energy.

Purple and red threads and ropes, some as thick as Ga'ardmo'o's upper right arm, crawled over the warsteel housing of the chamber. Sirens began to wail as the phasic shielding jumped to 135%. Ga'ardmo'o could feel his consciousness slipping away as a black dot appeared in the middle of his 360 degree vision, slowly widening until there was a black bar through the middle of his vision. 141% Training and willpower kept him on his feet, let him lock his knees, hips, ankles, and hocks.

The bar was now growing, eating away the middle of his vision as the rest of his vision filled with purple dots and sparks. 155% His mouth tasted like he'd thrown up berry jam and electric glitter. He was aware of two of the other guards collapsing. It suddenly dropped to zero. It took everything Ga'ardmo'o had not to sag in relief. Silence returned to the atrium for a moment before medics rushed in. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Ga'ardmo'o half expected, due to his childhood, for the medics to ignore the fallen guards and rush the still closed chamber. Instead, they moved to the fallen guards. Ga'ardmo'o heard things like 'phasic shock' and 'phasic injury' as the medics bustled around the wounded. They had moved all but himself and one other by the time a medic came to examine him more closely, checking his armor's readouts for his vital signs.

"Phasic injuries to neurological systems," the medic said.

"In need of treatment," the medic motioned to the grav-stretcher.

"Get on."

"Not until I am relieved," Ga'ardmo'o stated. The medic sighed.

"Fine," he stated.

"I'll start field treatment." Ga'ardmo'o waited another twenty minutes until his relief, with armor showing heavier phasic shielding, arrived to take his place. Then, and only then, when he'd been properly relieved, did he move to the stretcher. The whole time he kept one eye on the chamber. He didn't wonder what had caused the phasic backlash. He knew it was the occupant. Darth Harmonus. 0-0-0-0-0 Awp'penheifer trotted into the room, feeling slightly nervous.

She knew that she had nothing to fear, but at over six hundred years old she could remember the Before Times quite clearly. Back then, being called into the office of the Most High of Most Highs usually meant you would be standing on plastic sheeting. Not to mention, she had been lucky and hadn't been scooped up by Confederate Intelligence. While she'd helped devise the anti-shade protocols used by the Harmonous Empire, she was always afraid her past would come back haunt her.

One look at the holotank and she knew it had. No, not the fact that Darth Harmonus himself was standing by the holotank. It was what was being projected.

"A fine weapon," Darth Harmonus wheezed, cutting through the preamble, the praise, and the ass kissing that Awp'penheifer was used to.

"A shame that my forces captured it before it could be deployed." The image changed.

"This one as well. I have always loved the sleek lines of this weapon. Again, captured fully intact by my cloned troopers." For a long moment the only sounds were the buzzing of the electronics, the lights, and the wheezing of Darth Harmonus. The image changed again.

"Another beautiful thing," Darth Harmonus wheezed.

"Again, captured by my loyal men." Awp'penheifer moved up next to him in the following silence. In the holotank over two dozen facilities appeared in their own boxes, data streaming down at the edges of the boxes.

"There is nothing you did not build or design or put forward project specs that I do not now possess," Harmonus said. He motioned at the holotank.

"Go ahead. Check one." Awp'penheifer touched one, a massive creation that would create artificial gravitational pockets as if there was a miniature black hole at the location without the need for mass. She had conceptualized it but had never gotten funding from the Unified Council to make it. There was video of it being used in defensive modes to stop asteroid or comet strikes. There was video of it being used to stop an attack by a rogue PAWM fifty years ago.

"That one was phenomenal. You do indeed have a unique mind," Harmonus said.

"My scientists went through your notes, your memos, even the diaries you left behind," he paused.

"You had no need to run from me. I would have shielded you, I did shield you from Confederate Intelligence."

"You used Terran sorcery on this one," she said, pointing at the C+ Inversion Cannon.

"I had theorized the weapon, but not how it worked." Harmonus nodded.

"Yes." Awp'penheifer watched as the weapon was shown being sunk into a hypermassive gas giant. STORAGE MODE ENABLED appeared. She turned and stared at the Terran with both her forward eyes.

"You stored them?" Harmonus nodded slowly, then turned away from the holotank with a swirl of his black cloak, the red edging at the bottom flashing.

"I had a vision recently," he said, his voice buzzing with modulation.

"I saw the Harmonus Empire burning, the Kra'at Systems on fire," he stopped and clenched his fist. Awp'penheifer could see Jacob's Ladder threads moving across the armored Terran's knuckles.

"A devouring tsunami. A tidal wave of appetite," he said.

"I could hear the screams of trillions as they were devoured by an endless hunger." The lights flickered and dimmed and Awp'penheifer suddenly felt chilly.

"In the depths of my vision I saw them," Harmonus said.

"Saw who?" Awp'penheifer whispered.

"The Mar-gite," Harmonus said. Awp'penheifer shivered. She had never seen one, but she had researched the XNA creatures. They were nothing more than appetite that moved from stellar system to stellar system and devoured it.

"They will return. I have foreseen it," Harmonus said.

"In the buzzing of my sister's bees I heard the screams, in the remembered happy sounds of Sindee I heard the warnings." Still shivering, Awp'penheifer just nodded. The silence stretched out. The coronal discharge moved up and down Harmonus's forearms.

"You will be lavishly compensated," Harmonus suddenly said.

"Grand Admiral La'amo'o will ensure you have everything you need. He will answer to me and me alone." Darth Harmonus turned around.

"Let your imagination run free, Doctor Awp'penheifer," Darth Harmonus said.

"Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds, and build for me weapons that will make the galaxy shudder in fear." He slammed one fist down on the holotank, shattering it.

"LET THE MAR-GITE SHUDDER IN FEAR WHEN THEY FACE THE MIGHT OF THE EMPIRE!" Awp'penheifer nodded, still struck mute. The tears on her face, however, were those of ecstasy, not fear, as the visions she had suppressed for decades came surging up. She knelt on her front knees, putting all four fists against the floor. She bowed her head. As she felt Darth Harmonus's fingertips touch the top of her head she spoke in an almost inaudible whisper, goosebumps covering her hide under her hair.

"My life for you. My life for the Empire." 0-0-0-0-0 Grand Admiral Hy'ighpermo'o stood on the bridge of the Superdreadnought You Can't Stop Me as it slowly approached the rogue gas giant sailing through the nebula. It had been impossible to track, the hypermassive gas giant vanishing into the nebula thirty thousand years before. But the being standing before the armored glass of the show bridge had simply ordered in coordinates and then ordered the vessel into hyperspace.

It had come out less than one point five light seconds from the lone hypermassive gas giant moving alone through the gasses of the nebula. Technically it was orbiting an object, a white hole that was hidden by heavy dark matter dust and gas, preventing it from being detected by any normal means.

"There it is. My Armory of the End of Days," the black armored figure intoned. He tapped one finger on the glass, a red spark shooting off from the impact.

"Doctor Awp'penheifer's legacy," he said softly. He turned from the window.

"Alert the boarding crews," Harmonus stated. Time went by. Hours slipped away but Harmonus remained perfectly still, only his ventilator's noise giving any hint he was more than an onyx statue.

"Signal from the recovery teams. The weapons are operational."

"Sent a hyperwave signal to the Kra'at Systems. The Harmonus Empire will honor its treaty obligations with pleasure," Harmonus wheezed.

"We must stop the Mar-gite or all is lost."