Part 28
Four and a half months after The Tournament of Governors, in the middle of the night in Hilia, a frantic psionic call was sent out that was heard by the entire world. It came from Zarkog.
“They have stopped! The demons have stopped! Emergency Command meeting! Prepare for an attack!”
So strident was his call that almost all of The Assembly of The Just Alliance along with their senior commanders and those of The Triax had joined him in The Hall before he’d finished Speaking the word ‘attack’.
“How do you know they’ve stopped?” Somonik immediately asked. “None of the other astronomers have reported anything.”
“And why is it such a problem?” Gvetwa added.
“I know they’ve stopped because the frequency of sunlight reflected from an object that is approaching is higher than one that is still in relation to us, and theirs has dropped in pitch by an amount consistent with their having stopped!” Zarkog barked in anger, still Speaking psionicly to have it done as quickly as he could and save as much time as possible, his fear almost palpable in the air.
“And it is a problem for two reasons; the first is that the deceleration was absolutely instantaneous, and the second is that there was no deceleration energy expended at all as far as I can detect! The momentum of an object that size moving as quickly as it was represents a colossal amount of energy! Since they didn’t stop by countering their momentum with an opposing force, they must have transduced and used that energy somehow! That is enough energy for a completely devastating attack! The energy is equivalent to their mountain-range-sized lair impacting Kellaran at undiminished interplanetary speed!!!
“We must attack them now, before theirs strikes us!!”
cast the Command Link. “Activate the civil defenses, evacuate the non-combatants to the safe locations, and let’s hit them with everything we
will seek information as our first priority.” First Mauve volunteered on
a blink later the great room was
the demons’ nation-sized rock and all but nine of The Triax gods attacked it with everything they had. In a
demanded in confusion as she instinctively fanned the rapidly-expanding cloud
First Mauve’s report. “Everyone get back to your defensive positions
fully deployed all over Kellaran and in
vessel when we arrived.” First Mauve reported from her people’s largest vessel, Speaking only to the members of The Assembly and the pantheons. “We had time to Read them thoroughly. Part of why they had been left there was for that very reason, so that they could be Read by us, and we would be filled with fear when we learned the
that we would choose to destroy it rather than just
defeated here on Kellaran some seven million years ago. We hoped they were not a punitive expedition sent from their homeworld to punish Kellaran for their defeat here before. We thought that we had hidden my people here from their sight, and we thought that they could not spy out our
were wrong on all those counts. These demons were indeed sent here by their homeworld, and by every wandering horde that the homeworld controls or maintains contact with. They know of their defeat here before and
hunting and killing them all over this part of the galaxy. They are taking the threat we pose to them very seriously, and these demons are their response to us. Their primary purpose is to erase The
is worse
to the public at any rate, and that is almost all of our planning, so our further planning must be done under a
the specifics of our methods; the new spell techniques that have been developed on Kellaran, and the new Triax technologies that have been
us within the next few hours. The demons who