The Powers That Be by Aer-ki Jyr (best sci fi novels of all time .txt) 📕

Esna snorted. “No. While it may be hard for the Hadarak to get there, the Temples can be taken down by them, correct?” she asked, looking directly at Tennisonne.

The Mastertech’s head came up slightly. “The Temples have been designed to defend themselves against a Hadarak attack, but other than their mass they are more vulnerable than our Castles. Once their Essence reserves are expended…great as they might be…the structure of the Temple has no defense against ramming. They are better than anything we have right now, but they are not impregnable.”

“No they’re not,” Esna agreed. “But there are two factions in Star Force that are not vulnerable, and Canderous is the only one with civilians that are not threatened by ramming Wardens…because our worlds can move faster than them and dodge the attacks.

Davis’s laser eye lock went to Bren, who lightly smiled as he too saw the implications of this, though previously he hadn’t known where Esna was going with it.

“It is of limited value,” Kirritimin noted. “I have considered this tactic, but the amount of infrastructure Canderous has is tiny in comparison to a fully developed planet. In theory, if we had eons to build sedas and slowly moved our population into them, we could have a mobile civilization, but it will not help us in the near future. We simply cannot construct enough sedas for it to help us hold the Grand Border, let alone push beyond it.”

“You wouldn’t need genetic modifications for that,” Bren noted as he looked down at Kirritimin with an intelligence challenge.

“No it would not. Genetic upgrades are only useful in physical endeavors unless they are for brain capabilities regarding drone control. Since sedas are defensive stations the only logical assumption is that Canderous needs stronger minds to control more drones per person.”

“Not even close,” Esna said with an ironic snarl. “Anyone else care to speculate?”

“You don’t want to fight them with the fleet,” Grand Admiral Serren said with a perplexed look on her face.

“Right. Keep going,” Esna urged as Davis watched, with her knowing his mind was calculating faster than any of the others, perhaps except Kirritimin, though the bug wasn’t an Archon and Davis was…which was something many people had a habit of forgetting.

“You can’t fight space battles without a fleet unless you use planetary defenses. Those are vulnerable to Warden ramming, so you would have to use seda-based weaponry to fight the space battles, which is doable as long as the naval minions don’t cover you in IDF goo and slow you down enough for a Warden to catch up and crush you.”

“But that doesn’t involved genetic modification,” Lord Daegan chimed in. “She’s talking Commando work to take planets, not orbital bombardment. Which begs the question what the fleet would be doing?”

“What it should be doing,” Esna said angrily. “The minions are the most vulnerable during transit, and most of those assaulting small worlds are not being carried by Wardens. They’re being carried by other minions, weak minions that your fleets should be eviscerating before they ever get to a world,” she said, pointing a finger at the two Grand Admirals. “But what are you doing now? Covering worlds during evacuations while a few roaming fleets do damage to worlds via orbital bombardment, essentially mowing the grass so the Hadarak had to send more units to repopulate them and thus delay the forward movement. Defense, defense, defense. We should be on the attack!”

“How do we deny them reconquest?” Kirritimin asked calmly.

“The same way they do. We can play their game better than they can. They’re just a bunch of newbs, guys. Grown on site for the most part. Give me 50 year old Canderian newbs with the proper training and augments, and we’ll tear apart 5 year old minions easily. It’s the numbers that are always the problem, and it’s the numbers that the Star Force combined naval fleet should be focused on thinning and blocking their paths of travel. Do to them what the J’gar have done to the V’kit’no’sat. Deny them the spacelanes, and poach the hell out of those that try to get through. Never let them know where you are, always moving, always attacking, no spacelane is safe. When you go defensive your positions are marked and they have the movement advantage. Take it away from them and make them think defensively.”

“And leave the evacuees helpless?” Grand Admiral Lucin argued.

“No. I can’t get Canderous ready fast. We need the Grand Border intact and holding the swarms back. If that happens, and I’m counting on you guys to make it happen, then Canderous will do its part and become a Star Force faction dedicated solely to fighting and killing Hadarak.”

“What can Canderous do that the Paladin cannot do better?” the Viceroy challenged.

“Other than move our people around, not much, but you rely on swarm tactics while we work with superior units. I know you’ll argue that, but we press our people harder than any faction in training and you operate on genetic memories. In the short term you’re superior, in the long term my warriors will defeat yours given even numbers, because we’re better. And that’s how we have to beat the Hadarak. By being better. The Founders are getting their ass kicked and losing one of their three galaxies because of numbers. Because of the swarm. Not because of Essence. The Hadarak use Essence units to support the swarm, not the other way around. It is the swarm that is defeating the Founders, and us. And to defeat the Hadarak we must take their primary advantage and face it head on, rise above it, and crush them over the course of time in a long, arduous grind. We have to earn this, and when we do the bigger Hadarak units will be easy pickings for the rest