Point Zero by Aer-ki Jyr (christmas read aloud TXT) 📕

everything other than a direct assault, but they’d never shown themselves through all that time, and since the Hadarak surge had begun Star Force hadn’t been able to track any activity back to them.

Which now made sense, for the informant also stated that the Chixzon were responsible for initiating the Hadarak surge by baiting it out of them through a false activation signal, and that they had a network of repositories in deep space where they were collecting individuals who agreed to work for them in exchange for protection as the galaxy burned…and this world was one of the gateways into that hidden network that the informant had no location data for.

That meant this invasion was more than just about confronting the Chixzon directly for the first time in Star Force history. It was also about obtaining information regarding the location of the others and their deep space habitats.

As soon as the ground batteries opened fire the warships responded, finding their first few salvos blocked by surface shielding, but the Chixzon hadn’t invested enough resources in the planet to defend against a Star Force fleet…only to quickly destroy any local traffic if necessary to keep their anonymity a secret. Now though, they knew they were found out the moment the warships arrived, so the exposing of their weapons was a last ditch effort to offer what little resistance they could as they probably went about erasing files and destroying whatever links to the rest of their race they now had exposed.

That’s why as soon as the orbital bombardment cleaned the surface, the real dropships sped down to the landing pads and a few other places that were not designated entrances and disgorged the first wave…which was composed of hundreds of Archons, all of which were Saiyan level, for two reasons.

One, the Chixzon were probably the most dangerous foe left in the non-Hadarak portion of the galaxy. And two, if they were destroying information, they needed the first wave to have the maximum speed possible.

That’s why they all hit the ground while blonde, though you couldn’t see it inside their full armor as they ran in a blur out of the lowering ramps before they fully touched the ground and moved to entrances and ducts and any other way down while a few more decided to create their own passageways using explosives.

The Chixzon didn’t have any defenses at the city top…other than to blow it up. A series of detonations took out chunks of infrastructure and collapsed others, but none were targeting the Archons specifically. They were trying to block the easy routes and delay the invaders’ arrival.

That had been expected, and soon a few Saiyans found ways down and the others responded, flocking to their call and moving like frenzied ants below ground where they immediately stunned any non-Chixzon they came across…and there were a lot that weren’t Kiio…and left them to be rounded up by the later waves, for this planet was becoming Star Force property immediately, knowing how the Chixzon manipulated their business partners into situations where they could not exist without them.

That meant it was safer for the Kiio if Star Force made sure they were taken care of directly rather than leaving them to their own fate after plucking out the Chixzon, even if that’s not what they wanted. But that’s not what the Saiyans were here for. They had come for the Chixzon and only the Chixzon.

Lower and lower they went, scanning with sensors, telepathy, and some with Essence every room, hallway, and interior space out to the bedrock and further in one giant network of battlemeld linked individuals that operated as the most advanced hive mind in the galaxy…even if it was just a temporary one.

First contact came 18 levels down in a stairwell as a fleeing Chixzon was caught in transit. He knew the Saiyans were coming before they got into view, and stopped just short around a hairpin in the downward stairs, jutting his shoulder appendages backward and activating the lightsaber-like cutting surface on the ends as he tried to jab the first person to catch up to him as they blindly came around the corner.

But the Saiyans weren’t blind, and could see through the walls with their Pefbar as the first one easily ducked underneath the double jab and wrapped his arms around the Chixzon’s rock-like torso and used his momentum to push the monster further down with a twist that slammed him into the next landing below…with the Saiyan ending on top and emitting the tier 4 psionic Takbri, which was a biological stun pulse, at point blank range on the unarmored Chixzon.

The green glow from his appendages that were cutting into the nearby wall as they hung limp faded back to neutral black as he was rendered unconscious, then another Saiyan moved up to the pair in a blur and threw several technological stun blasts into him just to be sure as he and the others moved on downward while the single Saiyan that had grabbed the Chixzon was going to stay with him until the second wave came through to properly claim and contain him.

But that didn’t mean the Saiyan had to be idle, and while his prisoner was unconscious he tapped into his mind and began to search around for any and every bit of useful data, copying the memories using his tier 2 psionic Do’shi, then redundantly logging them in the mechanical memory of his armor as he mentally transferred them to preserve integrity in case he was in too much of a hurry and left out or corrupted something, knowing that there were automatic suicide nodules in the Chixzon’s body that would kill him if he was taken prisoner.

And there were, but they hadn’t been activated, so maybe they weren’t automatic if they just passed out.

As the Saiyan recorded data mentally, he used his armor’s Regenerator to reach into