Maty by Aer-ki Jyr (reading books for 6 year olds .TXT) 📕

in front of him, mentally accessing it and activating the transformation of the data device into a claw-like skull cap that he put on his head. Included in the device was comms gear, which was why the courier wasn’t staying around to offer her services, but the important part was the data contained in the device.

On it was the record of a Sevn’orr encounter with a passing PanNari fleet traveling through their Grand Border slot enroute to the Hadarak Zone. Such things were normal, for the PanNari were one of many advanced non-Star Force races assisting with pruning the enemy forces on the other side to diminish some of the strain on the Border worlds, but this occurrence wasn’t a normal assault fleet. It was multiple Elloquim all in one convoy, with a huge amount of support ships behind them.

In fact, it appeared to be all the known Elloquim in existence, plus a few more that Star Force didn’t know about, along with most of their warfleet.

When the Sevn’orr inquired as to where the PanNari were going and what were they doing with such a large force, they had received only a simple reply.

WE ARE GOING TO WAR

That was far premature, and Mak’to’ran’s eye ridges furrowed as he reviewed the data, for it was not just about the passing. The Sevn’orr had held onto the information as they sent scouts to follow the fleet to see what it was doing. When those scouts returned they brought with them the destination point and records of massive battles going on in a Hadarak-occupied system of no apparent value far from the Grand Border.

The PanNari were everywhere inside it, and what was even more perplexing were the amount of Hadarak there battling them…and continuing to come in through multiple jumplines with near constant reinforcements.

The carnage occurring in this one system was greater than any of the Grand Border worlds had ever seen by a large margin. No, that comparison didn’t even do it justice. This was total warfare at a level that should have reduced all the planets in the system to rubble, but it hadn’t. Instead everything was focused on one world that the PanNari had tentative control over, and the Hadarak were not trying to ram it.

Speculation followed, with snippets of the highly encrypted PanNari communications referencing the location and far more of the Hadarak telepathic conversations revealing an object of great value on the planet. One that must not be destroyed, but one that could not be relinquished to the PanNari at any cost.

Mak’to’ran stopped moving, stopped breathing, and stopped thinking. The sound of the wind moving through the tree leaves and the lapping of the water on the shoreline became deafeningly loud. Something in him stirred in a way that it had not before. Something of terrifying consequence that he recognized but had no knowledge of. Hamob had referenced evidence of powers greater than the Zak’de’ron leaving behind clues of their existence from the distant past, but Mak’to’ran had never found any. Yet now he had one before him, even though the information didn’t say what it was.

Something the Hadarak valued so much they would not destroy, and something the entire PanNari civilization was trying to take away from them single handedly.

Mak’to’ran had no logical reasoning for his next decision, but in his Core he knew it was vitally important that he get there, even if there were closer fleets that may have already been dispatched to help…or perhaps not, for the PanNari had not requested assistance.

Mak’to’ran immediately ordered his pickup via drop pod and began rallying various V’kit’no’sat ships from multiple systems to rendezvous with him at a select location on the Grand Border. Getting to the system was going to be difficult in anything larger than a scout ship, and it would take more than a year to get there, but he knew this wasn’t a conflict that was going to conclude soon…and if it did, it meant the PanNari had failed to hold the planet.

And if that was the case, he intended to take from the Hadarak whatever it was they were so desperate to possess.

5

July 21, 154959

System 9923011 (Hadarak-Occupied Territory)

Medium Stellar Orbit

Mak’to’ran’s convoy came out of their interstellar jump early, so to avoid low stellar orbit. They’d been having to do this the last few jumps due to increasing amounts of Hadarak activity around the destination system. Their current location was one jump away from it, and the contacts popping up on passive sensors showed a swarm of Mainline units and Wardens partially ringing the central star in the system as they trickled out on the jumpline to the PanNari system, feeding reinforcements to it constantly as spurts of other lines were coming in from 18 other jumplines to coalesce here.

That told Mak’to’ran that units were not being diverted from the Coreward reinforcements and sent, which was probably also happening, but the Hadarak were also pulling from other areas in order to get enough pressure to apply on the PanNari. The fact that the reinforcement flow was this strong indicated that the PanNari were probably still holding out, but if this had been the case since they arrived, Mak’to’ran had no idea what kind of carnage had been ensuing, but he was soon to figure out how just how formidable the Elloquim were depending on how many had survived and what condition the system was in.

However, if they were to assist the PanNari, they were going to have to get through that crowded jumpline…and there was no way to do that with the size of a fleet he had without giving the Hadarak free shots at them and maybe picking off some of his ships. He wasn’t going to leave anyone behind, and his hunters’ instincts were salivating at the chance to strike so many Hadarak gathered in the same space and