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[Rafv Nin IV]

Asadin Margrande relished the thrill of the hunt, of the return to primal instinct. Naked, he flipped through the water, pursuing his prey. The ocean soothed his worries, brought a calmness to his busied mind. The Rakbi flared his wide flipper-hands and pushed more vigorously through the fluid, driving his body down to further depths. Light dimmed with the distance, and Asadin Margrande, Ruthless Roamer, opened a set of eyelids, keeping only the final transparent film to protect his orifices from sea-bourne material. Ahead he caught a glimpse of his prey flipping agilely into the cover of a reef-cave; Asadin streamlined his body and dove through the same opening, fangs and claws outstretched.

The resulting struggle took little time. Eyes wide in fear, the pitiful juvenile Rakbi crowded into a dark corner as Asadin Margrande gently nudged forward. In the space of half a second, Asadin the Ruthless once again validated his name. His legs sliced the water in a single motion; his tense hands seizing the protesting arms of the young female; his yellow, chipped fangs digging viciously into the neck of his victim.

Fresh with the exhilaration of the kill, Asadin tore into the raw flesh of the girl. He had not eaten in days, and a cloud of red permeated throughout the surrounding water. Asadin itched his eye through the last eyelid, and resumed his feast. He pondered about the girl’s life. Had she had family? Was she wealthy? Would she have made a good slave, or was her best use as his meal? Asadin’s neck rose from the corpse. He swam a bit, circulating fresh water through his gills, then returned to his food. Asadin decided, as he always did, that who she was didn’t matter: she was of a different Clan than Margrande, and that was plenty reason for the murder.

Having eaten his fill, Asadin the Ruthless drug the body away from the reef and let it sink down into the city nearby, where the girl undoubtedly had lived.

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Gesh Nin removed the chairs in the room, and took a deep breath. The aristocrat could not afford word of this meeting to leave the company arriving, and so he could not rely on servants to prepare for it. He hadn’t done such manual labor in many years, but felt a sort of primitive joy in standing over the wide screen that took up the majority of the study’s floor, shoving the desks and computer to the side and covering the floor currents. Gesh Nin tried to recall the last time he’d stood for so long—even his speech at the “State of the Clan” summit last Oceanic Current Oscillation had not lasted more than half an hour, and he’d commissioned special braces to support him through its duration.

Shuffling with the gait of a Rakbi unaccustomed to either swimming or walking, Gesh Nin crossed the room and dismissed his staff, claiming “personal desires.” They would, he hoped, assume he merely had bought a loose Rakbi woman for the night and did not want his wife to know; a twinge of panic shot through Gesh Nin as he contemplated what would occur if word of the meeting escaped.

The aristocrat did not fear opposition from his own clan; any that existed could be crushed with his political clout. The Vore would approve, the Kar/Tan would not mind, and the Lab/Var and Gles would not care; Gesh Nin feared only trouble from individual maniacs.

Unfortunately, Gesh Nin thought, while most of the insane could be guarded against, Asadin the Ruthless had the power, the wits, and the will to punch through the tightest defenses. The reactionary Margrande disapproved of any inter-Clan alliances and would seek to end them; especially ones like what Gesh Nin hoped would arise from the upcoming meeting. If the Ruthless received word of Gesh Nin’s activities, the aristocrat knew he would not see another Current Oscillation.

Gesh Nin’s brooding thoughts were interrupted by a soft tap at the door. He called the image up on the floor-screen and then, confirming the nature of the correspondent, lifted a small sidearm and hid in a corner, dimmed the lights, and then pressed the contact to open the door.

A Rakbi dressed in blazing white robes crossed the threshold and stared directly at Gesh Nin, then spoke. “You can’t hide from me, Gesh. Nobody can. I would have thought people would have learned that by now, but perhaps I just don’t spend enough time on the main planets for word to get around. May the Tides help you if you ever have to conceal yourself from Asadin Margrande. He’s got my senses, times eighty. And I’m wearing enough armor to stop your sad sidearm, Senator. Just put the damn thing down.”

Gesh Nin closed the door, locked it, and set the sidearm on the desk at the side of the study. General Rafv Masad-Solgrande Nin rested idly on the room’s screen with the cocky confidence of the Rakbi who holds all the cards. Gesh’s discomfort with standing upright showed, and Rafv commented on it. “For a Rakbi who owns four vacation homes on land, one would have thought you’d be used to this. You look like you’re about to hemorrhage. Get yourself a little exercise—you’re becoming corpulent. I say that with all due respect, Senator.” The Masad spat out the last words.

“She should be joining us soon,” Gesh Nin stammered nervously, “any minute now, really. I don’t want to waste your time, General.”

[Rafv Nin IV]

Gesh Nin's drill repeated itself, with another, more capable hand aiming a sidearm at the entrance to the study. In strode a young Rakbi woman, tall with the arrogance of control and the bearing of one accustomed to having orders obeyed. Shandrava Vore gazed around the room, momentarily blinded by the dim light in the room, emanating from the floor-screen. Outside, where she had stood just seconds before, the sun had dipped beyond the sea in the horizon, and the planet's lone satellite of note reflected little light. With an audible swoosh, she closed her middle eyelid, filtering out some of the light until her pupils could adjust. As she did not face full, blaring sunlight, she had no need to close the outer, polarized membrane.

Shandrava Espacigrande Vore, once identified, apparently posed no threat, as both Nin holstered their sidearms. Shandrava announced to the room, “Am I the last here? Alright, then, let’s begin. Why have you dragged me out here, Gesh Nin?” The Senator gazed into the air for several moments, then pressed a contact on his desk. A representation of the Galaxy, as seen from Rakbi Mejor, shined in the screen. The General and the Admiral stared deep into the mapping, then pivoted as one towards Gesh Nin. Shandrava, annoyed that her little time landside would be wasted in such a manner, vocalized their confusion. “What is that supposed to mean, Nin?”

The aristocrat wasted no time answering her query; both Shandrava Vore and Rafv Nin could easily turn into formidable political enemies, should they become irritated. “We see the view of the Galaxy, from our current position, facing Sed-South by West.” Gesh Nin manipulated the screen’s controls, and a light blue washed over the screen. “Rakbi territory,” Gesh explained, “and as we go further, we see how it fades into a thin haze when we reach the farthest Gles and Vore outposts. A thousand thousand Standard Astronomical Units, or SAUs, more, and this barrier emerges, which you know of, Admiral Shandrava.” A crimson screen blocked the path of the camera, then adjusted to allow just a red tint to mask the true colors, but not the shapes, of what lay beyond. “The Rakbi-Fonai Non-Penetration Treaty of seventy years prior established this far-out boundary, by which no Rakbi or Fonai vessel would cross, signed by the Greater Rakbi Conglomerate. This would assure that our two races would not enter into devastating conflict.”

Gesh changed the map, shifting colors again. “The purple spots you see are Fonai outposts known at the time of the Treaty. As you can easily deduce, few Fonai structures exist within three million SAUs of the Non-Penetration Plane. These few are merely far-flung observation stations, much like we have.

“Now displayed on the screen is the situation only fifteen years ago. The Fonai have constructed a few more bases, almost all observatories, and penetrated another five hundred thousand SAUs towards the Plane. We reasonably expected the Non-Penetration Treaty to last for several hundred years, at this rate. Now, however…” Gesh Nin adjusted the map. “Here we have today. Over only a decade and a half, the Fonai have pushed right up to the Plane in a massive expansion. Closer inspection reveals that the Fonai have built almost entirely military bases within a hundred thousand SAUs of the Plane. Further in, they erected mining facilities and agricultural facilities to provide necessities to these bases.

“They are creating a front to stage attacks from, and there is little doubt that they intend to push into Rakbi territory. The Fonai must have, at some point in the last twenty five years, vanquished enemies and rebuilt their society from whatever horrors they faced. Strong again, they have chosen a new target. We were fools to let them coexist with us for so long.”

General Rafv Masad-Solgrande Nin, eye ridge furrowed, let out a long sigh from his nostril, and flicked his tongue over his yellowed fangs. “Shandrava, why don’t you just IPBM these forward bases, and Gesh’s types can smooth everything over with the Fonai after letting them know that this isn’t okay? We annihilate them in a preemptive strike, and they recoil. They have no need to fight our space fleets; we don’t want them to. I mean no offense, Admiral, but we can’t fight skirmish after skirmish against these morons. Their ships are, on average, nimbler and swifter than yours. We’ve got to hit them hard, so that they think they can’t win. Once they’re thinking, my people slip past their observatory stations, which you so kindly destroyed, and slaughter every civilian leader in their outer worlds, and shut down the planet’s energy sources. By the time we want to splash down with the Kar/Tan Navy, the Fonai’ll be jumping at every opportunity to surrender. Hit ‘em hard, hit ‘em swift; they’ll think they’re horribly outclassed and they’ll back off. We need to go, Vore and Nin, now, if your figures are correct, Gesh. I’m sure they are; I’ve seen similar ones myself. The Kar/Tan will refurbish your Francium supplies later, Shandrava; Gesh can work that out with them. We need to act as soon as your forces can be gathered, Admiral.”

“That won’t work, General,” Shandrava Vore replied after a slight pause, “we can’t expect IPBM’s to be effective. What if the Fonai can intercept them? And even if they don’t, we’ve got to make the Fonai believe we’ve outclassed them in every possible way. I’ll gather my entire fleet. It’s the largest one the Rakbi have got, and we’ll get the Gles to pick a mid-strength fleet out somewhere from the Fonai. We assault and crush them. Then we probe with IPBM’s, and if we can land a few, we’ll launch a larger attack. Failure of a side-attack with IPBM’s won’t be anything but a little money flushed away; the Fonai might view repelling a large attack as a victory, which would encourage them to fight more. If they can intercept the IPBM’s with some land-side defense, General, you take your masad in there and interfere with their defense. You get yourselves out, and then we incinerate the whole goddamned base. Repeat, over and over, until we’ve got past their military outposts. Then, we proceed as you outlined…” Shandrava Vore and Rafv Nin discussed their plans, occasionally asking Gesh to tweak the map, but largely excluding the aristocrat from the conversation. He did not mind; his duty was to get the ball rolling: whichever hill it sped down was up to the Admiral and the General.

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Gles exploratory vessels received heavy casualties in their scouting. They fought light skirmishes with the Fonai, but in no way were they fit to battle; constructed from outdated technology, their most valuable assets were the observatory instruments on board. Soon, however, Shandrava Vore grinned in satisfaction as she stood at the head of the command bridge of the Star Orca, blasting the 28th Panit Assault Wing into nothingness. The sky filled with stark images of devastation, but only the vastly outnumbered and outgunned Fonai fleet suffered any significant casualties. Shandrava smiled wide at the end of the battle, the final Fonai ship scattered across the parsecs, and sent the few damaged vessels back to the nearest Rakbi base for repair.

[Casojin]

Being in intership conference with one of the most renowned Fonai warriors was a great honor to Vakk Cruso Eral of the Flame Sword. The Panit Fleet Mistress (fleet commander), Vakk Korin Pralk, appeared in the middle projection in the conference chamber. Tactical chart of fleet deployment was displayed nearby. The Fleet Mistress had outlined tasks for each fleet that was deployed to retaliate the annihilation of 28th Panit Assault Wing. As a senior member of 27th Mattia Explorator Wing, Eral was entitled to this meeting.

"As of now, civilian population from various outposts are being transported off the frontline. Class 9 outposts, which have little to none-existence of warrior presence are ordered to evacuate. Our staging area will be Outpost Dedron Prime, which is recently equipped with new planetary shielding and orbital interdiction system. A scout squadron has reported Rakbi movement in outer threshold at these coordinates." She paused to let red star-liked shapes appear in the tactical chart. "We have two main objectives. We're to cleanse these vile creatures off our threshold and strengthen our defenses. Secondary objective will be incursion into Rakbi territory and seize an initative for further campaign."

Eral voiced her request to talk. With a curt nod, Pralk gave the permission. "Fleet Mistress, you said about further campaign. Is it correct to assume that we're going to conquer this Rakbi?"

"If possible, yes." the old warrior replied. "Shall we continue?"

"Of course, my lady."

"Our explorator wings will be deployed once the battle groups move into position at Erindia 1 through 7. Explorator mission is to flank Rakbi main group and pick off smaller fleets. Our tactical analysis reveals that Rakbi seems to be more effective at close range, so our assault wings' duties are to hold off closing Rakbi vessels. Assault wings will not close in with the Rakbi without given order from Command. Our support wings will throw everything at the enemy from far away." Pralk then keyed in a code and the tactical chart was displayed with battle wing level disposition. "Record this deployment order and await commence signal. This meeting is over."

As images of officers disappeared, Eral recorded the tactical chart and headed back to the bridge of the newest addition to Fonai fleet. The Flame Sword was classified as 'Heavy Explorator Cruiser' and was equipped with recently invented Hyperspace Resonance Propulsion System, which increased ship speed in normal space by 35%. Though not as heavily protected as battlecruisers, Eral's warship was fast and packed with big punch. She swore that the Rakbi will pay for their transgression.

[Rafv Nin IV]

Shandrava Vore relaxed in the floor current, basking in the waters after a difficult shift. Lazily, she swam underneath the surface by several feet, lamenting the shallow nature of the pool. Drifting along in the liquid nude, she savored the salts and minerals in her private bath, designed to mimic the true nature of Rakbi oceans.

A light knock sounded on the portal to her main bedroom. Few Rakbi had the authorization to enter there. Shandrava pondered this for several moments, unwilling to rise out of the current. However, if any of the other high-ranking officers who could intrude on her quarters dared to disturb her in such a compromised position, the Vore Fleet Admiral knew that the message would be of vast import.

With a rapid series of clicking noises, Shandrava complained bitterly as she rose to the surface and exited the bath. As she stepped onto the solid floor again, the Admiral did not deign to switch to air-supported language, continuing the sharp, smacking noises that the Rakbi use to communicate underwater. Donning a light robe, she addressed the portal to her chambers brusquely.

"Name, title, message!" she demanded, "I want them now."

"Ship's Captain Marcuvr Vore, of the Star Orca. We have a small Fonai fleet challenging a patrol squadron farther out, and the situation is repeated in three more instances. We have four small skirmishes currently in action. However, Gles observatory ships have spotted several larger conglomerations of ships throughout this region. They're trying to thin our forces out; they want us to send our battleships to the skirmishes, so their main force can assault this fleet. Your presence is requested at the command briefing antechamber. I'll be at the ship's helm if you require me."

The Captain turned heel and exited her chambers, returning to the duties he had abdicated to his second. Shandrava Vore grumbled momentarily, then donned her uniform and left her bathing room steaming and without an occupant.

[Casojin]

The Flame Sword along with her small band of warships dropped from hyperspace and rushed toward a Rakbi patrol squadron. Torpedoes were unleashed as soon as they were in normal space. Volley of long-range projectiles equipped with photon dispenser each slipped through space like bright ministars. Following the torpedo volley, the explorator cruisers closed in swiftly and fired photon beam cannons. The yellow glow death columns dashed toward the Rakbi with deadly firepower. Explosions rippled through space as ships were hit.

Eral smiled as her explorator wing jumped back into hyperspace with heavy damage inflicted on the Rakbi and damage sustained on themselves in expected tolerance. Another successful raid had raised morale among the rank of Fonai warriors. "Report our progress to Command."

Vakk Davzen Krull, the senior war officer and also Eral's mate, added with formality. "Prime Lady, we've received tactical update. The main battlegroup is about to attack Rakbi main fleet. Our new order is to commence flanking attack on the main fleet once signalled by Command."

Three Indars ago, none would have expected a senior war officer to be a male but these days that was about to change. Krull was only at the beginning of the major culture shift. The Prime Lady nodded as her mate finished reporting and turned her attention toward the comm station. "Signal our wing to change course by 198 dash 15 vertical and slow down to half hyperdrive speed. Also give them the new order from Command."

As the tasked officer carried on her order, Eral straightened her posture in her seat with nothing to do but wait.