Gateways by Aer-ki Jyr (world of reading txt) 📕

It was an amicable solution to a very old problem, and the portions of the galaxy that were not Hadarak controlled were seeing peace and order on a magnitude that none living could ever remember existing.

That said, if you looked close enough, you could always find problems, and Mak’to’ran didn’t expect that would ever change, but here, amongst the Monsters, the V’kit’no’sat were finally arriving at their rightful place in the galaxy. Most Socani were too small to interact with them, and the Megaloids too big. They were caught in the middle, and now the middle is where they would thrive. The Grand Border was the new dividing line where the free Megaloids could not pass, and large chunks of the territory taken from the Hadarak were also becoming no go zones, but those Megaloids confined to the Deep Core were now free to roam vast tracks of the galaxy they had never seen before…and they were no longer hunted by the Socani out of fear of them landing on their planet and exterminating them in a matter of moments.

Mak’to’ran could see the framework for the future, if it was allowed to take place. Davis’s warnings of attracting threats from other galaxies around this so-called ‘Endgame’ worried him, primarily because no one knew what it was, or more specifically what would trigger it or what mechanism would draw others here. But if they came, then most likely it would be through the Gateways, and this one in particularly saw the most activity from four neighboring galaxies, making it more critical than the other smaller supermassive black holes on this side of the spherical Deep Core.

Galaxies on the other sides couldn’t reach here. There were far too many stars in between, let alone nebula that would be a quick death sentence if one ran into them at intergalactic speeds. That meant only the Gateways on the edge were accessible, and if a galaxy did not contain any such supermassive black holes, then the only way to get there was to go very, very slow and have very good engines. Something that most races could not achieve, including Star Force and the Hadarak. Mak’to’ran’s new empire still had a lot of growing to do, but amongst the Socani of this galaxy, they were clearly the dominant power, and even the Jedein, who were capable of forging new races of Socani at will, recognized Star Force’s position and had agreed to create none without their consent.

Likewise the Jedein recognized the Veloqueen’s dominance over the Megaloids, and provided an additional bond between the two natural factions. Mak’to’ran didn’t completely trust them or the Veloqueen, nor did he consider them fully lightside, but both of their observed natures appeared compatible with it, which was why this alliance was holding and growing stronger with time.

Personally he would have preferred Star Force to single handedly dominate this galaxy, but living here amongst the Monsters he had come to realize the futility of that ignorant desire. Some places Socani simply could not go, and the dark circle in the sky was one of them…yet inside it were many Essence lights when he traveled close enough to look. An entire civilization of Megaloids from numerous races coexisting in that gravitational ‘mud’ so large and restrictive that neighbors would never find one another down there unless they had Essence abilities or a few other exotic means of navigating that bizarre world.

That was a place Star Force could not conquer, nor did they need to. Some Monsters needed to be out of reach until they showed up on your doorstep, otherwise the guardians would get bored in their dominance.

But here, at one of the few Gateways in the Milky Way massive enough to allow travel to more than the few satellite galaxies around its immediate perimeter, Mak’to’ran could never become complacent. For he never knew what would be coming through that metaphorical door that he stood guard over along with legions of the most elite V’kit’no’sat ready to battle whatever Monsters showed up looking for trouble.

And today was going to be one of those days.

2

Mak’to’ran was still outside getting some air when the armor band around his head received the alert. New arrivals had come in, of a previously unknown ship design, and had immediately began attacking everything in sight. They were technological, not Megaloids in armor like the Veloqueen, who were already responding to the threat, but their arrival spacing was tight and they were pouring in at random points in sector 8, probably originating from either the Rolo or Sweet Tart galaxies, though there were other options if they came from further away or the closer smaller galaxies that had never seen any activity at this Gateway since the V’kit’no’sat had arrived.

The Era’tran turned around and immediately started running back along the trails as he called a drop pod to his moving location. It arrived a few minutes later, hovering over the jungle trees with its landing ramp deployed given there was nowhere to set down. Mak’to’ran leapt up to it, using a lot of muscle in the high gravity environment just to move around normally, and having to use a heavy dose of Essence to get the necessary height.

As soon as he landed on the ramp he felt lighter in the artificial gravity as he walked inside and the spherical ground to orbit transport sealed up and began racing upward through the atmosphere to the large wedge-shaped ship sitting in low orbit along with a fleet of Kafcha, most of whom were already breaking their parking orbits and heading out toward the distant combat. It would take a few hours to get there at maximum speed, but the biggest ship was waiting for Mak’to’ran to board.

On the trip up he got upgrades on his headpiece, missing the rest of his normal combat armor that he rarely wore on planet. He’d don the full