The Wars of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (find a book to read .txt) 📕

of knowing for sure what forces were deployed on Sebur Nag. And second, and much more important, their fleet was relatively small to deploy an all-out war. True, there were hundreds of ships stationed in the immensely long tunnels beneath the Crypt that this race had been building for decades, cleverly concealing their existence through huge bribes to Governor Elmbaum. For almost thirty years they had been silently building their plan. They knew about the corrupt governor, who was their only chance to leave them alone while they gathered the strength to survive. There was no other way to achieve it. And the Myeranians were rich and held all the near-planet trade through the Governor naturally. He regularly reported a percentage of all profits to them. If he had screwed them, they would have killed him instantly without a thought. Even Gordon wasn't that brazen. Or rather stupid. They'd heard about his escape on Sebur Nag from their own sources, but they hadn't even suspected he'd made it all the way to Osonia. They had never heard of this planet.

Gordon had taken them into account when he had set out to escape. The swarm had approached Sebur Nag at a safe distance.

Mieru ordered them to look around a bit before doing anything. Her swarm would not be sacrificed in combat for anything or anyone. Anything could go wrong. And she had already attacked enough. As the saying went when you hit a hive with bees, they could sting you.

Sebur Nag seemed calm and by no indication he had sensed the approaching danger.

The swarm had the time it needed to regroup and be level in fending off any resistance from the seburnagians.

The huge fleet, including over three hundred nundrigo, was about to launch the attack.

Mieru wanted to preserve the planet's resources, not destroy it mercilessly, as their fleet had nowhere to go afterwards. Maybe Gordon was here at the moment.

The Villeria cannons the little guys had could easily even cause an internal implosion of the planet in just two or three hours of aimed fire. The Myeranians usually avoided using these fearsome weapons, as the end of the battle in such a case was a foregone conclusion.

The little queen didn't want it that way. She ordered her faithful Admiral Kat' Nor Mus to make and cost, but to get as close as possible to the planet to get a closer look at it. A small number of scout ships - morts - had been dropped into the high exosphere and would, on a set signal, be put into a free fall that would take at least half a day. They knew that the morts would not initially attract anyone's attention. A little later, however, the Evaricean anti-radar systems would still intercept them and destroy at least some of them. Mieru didn't rely on them too much. Their goal was to instill panic and show that they were finally going to have their own planet to settle on undisturbed by any other race.

Mieru was counting on dropping little killer cocoons, as they called their equivalent of human Esonian bombs, that would burrow deep beneath the planet's surface and cause moderate earth tremors that would startle the natives. It wasn't going to be easy to make some preparations because the ones they had were very limited in quantity. She decided to act professionally and not rush into releasing all of them. The ships had scanned some small caverns on the surface of the planet where the cocoons in question, could fall and be used if needed, even in a ground assault of a hundred and fifty thousand small Myeranians.

Somehow all this had sharpened everyone's nerves to the limit. This was happening according to a preconceived scenario that had been worked out by them for years.

Cyclo To and Gordon were still on the terrace and the Governor was just about to leave when they saw something in the sky that looked like fireworks. Gordon almost immediately sensed that it was not his old acquaintances Spears and Elisandra, but some of his former vassal allies that he had to deal with once and for all. However, the problem was that things weren't as comfortable here on Sebur Nag as they were on Osonia. His riches were locked up right there, and so were most of the people he had at his disposal.

- Something we never even expected was beginning, Gordon. 'Be careful that wave doesn't sweep us away!' the sovereign voiced his concerns.

- 'I've always slipped up so far, mate,' Gordon countered, 'and I know only too well that we're both in this game together. I'm sure you remember it too well. Somewhere down there someone's coming for my head. Wants it on a platter. And he believes he'd be a better manager than me. But maybe he's wrong!'

Cyclo To didn't answer. Half-turned to his interlocutor, he sensed the hidden threat. Gordon had not proved a particularly lucrative party, not because he had not benefited enormously from it over the years, but simply because in his lust for grandomania he had set too many people against him. This made him an extremely dangerous ally.

Cyclo To mentally ran through options on how to get out of the situation in the best way possible. And it was trying to reorganize its own resources, but it wouldn't have enough time to act. Then it decided on a desperate act.

^^^

To be fair, Mieru didn't hate the governor. She just didn't like his approach. He was more relaxed in his dealings with his 'wards'. The Queen didn't see why Gordon had to harvest nearly seventy percent of the commercial profits generated by the planets of the so-called Inner Ring. Gordon was just a greedy and insolent scoundrel who was going to make her pay. But it wasn't the money that was the reason, it was his treatment of her race. Myeranians were short in stature and a bit shy in their contact with other races. Gordon had demonstrated his use of this approach to isolate them and discourage them from skipping over him when making communications with certain races. In short he was trying to impose an inferiority complex on them, clearly aware of their intellectual and material superiority. The Myeranians had to grit their teeth and endure these arbitrary actions, as they still felt like pawns in the experienced hands of the city leader.

Naturally they had a good enough memory to teach him once and for all that it would be well for him to respect them at least a little, for without their financial support he would not have won the election.

The peculiarity in the education of this race was in their manner, unencumbered by material scruples, for they secretly possessed most of the wealth of the planet Zegandaria. Even a not insignificant portion of Gordon's fortune was also to some extent their property.

Gordon's main sin was his guilt, that he had willingly or unwillingly delayed their development, or at least some of their plans relating to it.

The myranians were looking a thousand years into their future. Compelled by circumstances, they had had to reduce some of these plans to a period shorter than thirty years, a practically impossible thing. After much debate, their scientists arrived at the only possible solution - the construction of supermodern nundrigo ships, previously unknown, to allow future settlement at least as far as the planets of the so-called Outer Ring. Those planned after the hundredth quadrant belonged to it. There was no mistaking it, Gordon had been wrong enough to be worried about their retribution. But he wasn't sure if they were the ones attacking him, as he'd screwed too many other races over the long term, such as the Elinazai, the Arrhenoi, the Penoquaqtors, and many others. These races hadn't even set foot on the surface of Zegandaria, but the contacts were kept by Gordon and he was hoarding the profits he stored in the bowels of his skyscraper. Gordon followed a rather simple investment principle. Quantitative accumulation of wealth would at some point carry his real power far beyond the confines of the planet Zegandaria.

Mieru was no trifle. Gordon had been getting his for so many years without giving too much in return. Now it was his turn to pay with interest. And he was determined to do so. And how! The queen of the Myeranians was going to punish him in her own way. The Myeranians had a saying, ‘Nundrigo ir hus do so lir ex cous mo.’ The queen was determined to acquaint him with its meaning.

 

^^^

Cyclo To sensed that the planet was under siege early enough. He had already sent orders to mobilize available forces for a counterattack. He could use Gordon's momentary weakness to take him out. But something had unhinged him. The oracle who had foretold an entire planet could not find the strength within himself to end it once and for all. He assumed that Gordon was being hunted by others, and if he killed him now he would sully his dignity as high priest of Sebur Nag himself. And there was no telling if the hatred of his persecutors would spill over onto himself.

The Myeranians had no suspicion of his abilities, as the Seburnagi were notorious for keeping secrets. None but Gordon was aware of his oracle gift.

Everything had to thwart this desperate assault aimed at the survival of the Myeranians.

Cyclo To ordered Gordon to be taken to safety, along with the guards he had been leading since Osonia. He needed to think for a moment. After a while he began to concentrate energy through his mind. Emandan's energy field was something very rare and required particular skill to use against certain individuals. Cyclo To decided to attack the ships crew directly with a psycho attack, he strained again but seemed to be blind. His mind was slipping like a smooth pane of obsidian-colored endosian, and he could not see what lay beyond.

The dormant anger in the oracle's chest was unleashed. He realized that somewhere deep inside he had been very wrong. His morale had fallen, and so had the energy aura he was trying to use against the enemy invaders. There was no escape. He was mentally dead this time. Perhaps he would ever regain his equilibrium. Perhaps he would reap greater successes next time. But the invaders were coming now. He had not heard of the Myeranians. He didn't even know what they looked like. Immediately, he ordered the activation of the level two energy nerium shield as the only alternative that would keep the approaches to the capital city of Naras Tu open.

Naras Tu had to survive at all costs. The deaths of so many Seburnagi could have been avoided, but Cyclo To realized clearly his great mistake. Gordon was never really needed, and thanks to his beneficence, he held the power. Cyclo To realized his ingratitude with a bitter taste.

His tall dry figure hunched slightly in anticipation of the dreaded blow, but none followed. The Myeranians were stubbornly silent. This, however, did not dissuade Cyclo To.

The strategic importance of Naras Tu was that it was the capital of the transition zone to Ivinon Rus, the most resource-rich part of the planet. Besides, Cycloloque To didn't want the entire Seburnag civilization, built with so much effort after years of bloody wars, to collapse.

The Seburnagi were valiant warriors, but he decided to simply not answer the provocation. Instead, somewhere deep in the bowels of the planet lurked the flower of Rien .

Instead of being enemies, Cyclo To would welcome them as dear guests . And since his intuition whispered to him that they had some kind of leader after all, he thought of giving him the flower.

This flower was extraordinarily beautiful. Blood-red and bewitching to the senses, it looked like a rose without thorns, but in practice it was much more special. It was Cyclo To's most treasured possession. No one else on this planet, not even Gordon, his closest associate,