The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2

Part 28

Four and a half months after The Tournament of Governors, in the middle of the night in Hilia, a frantic psionic call was sent out that was heard by the entire world. It came from Zarkog. "They have stopped! The demons have stopped! Emergency Command meeting! Prepare for an attack!"

So strident was his call that almost all of The Assembly of The Just Alliance along with their senior commanders and those of The Triax had joined him in The Hall before he'd finished Speaking the word 'attack'.

"How do you know they've stopped?" Somonik immediately asked. "None of the other astronomers have reported anything."

"And why is it such a problem?" Gvetwa added.

"I know they've stopped because the frequency of sunlight reflected from an object that is approaching is higher than one that is still in relation to us, and theirs has dropped in pitch by an amount consistent with their having stopped!" Zarkog barked in anger, still Speaking psionicly to have it done as quickly as he could and save as much time as possible, his fear almost palpable in the air.

"And it is a problem for two reasons; the first is that the deceleration was absolutely instantaneous, and the second is that there was no deceleration energy expended at all as far as I can detect! The momentum of an object that size moving as quickly as it was represents a colossal amount of energy! Since they didn't stop by countering their momentum with an opposing force, they must have transduced and used that energy somehow! That is enough energy for a completely devastating attack! The energy is equivalent to their mountain-range-sized lair impacting Kellaran at undiminished interplanetary speed!!!

"We must attack them now, before theirs strikes us!!"

"I agree!" Mark psionicly barked as he cast the Command Link. "Activate the civil defenses, evacuate the non-combatants to the safe locations, and let's hit them with everything we can use at this distance, right now! And let's get some information on them while we're at it!"

"We will seek information as our first priority." First Mauve volunteered on behalf of The Triax.

Everyone took Mark's words as an order, and a blink later the great room was almost completely empty.

All the gods of the grand alliance appeared around the demons' nation-sized rock and all but nine of The Triax gods attacked it with everything they had. In a fraction of a second it was absolutely destroyed in a single blazing flash of light, even before the Strike Wizards had Translocated in.

"What the hell just happened?!!" Povon demanded in confusion as she instinctively fanned the rapidly-expanding cloud of rock powder away with her wings. "It couldn't have been that easy, could it?!"

"It wasn't." Mark growled in anger, having already received First Mauve's report. "Everyone get back to your defensive positions immediately, and get ready! We'll explain when we're back."

In the next moment they were fully deployed all over Kellaran and in the void and moons above it.

"There were only a relative few greater demons left on their vessel when we arrived." First Mauve reported from her people's largest vessel, Speaking only to the members of The Assembly and the pantheons. "We had time to Read them thoroughly. Part of why they had been left there was for that very reason, so that they could be Read by us, and we would be filled with fear when we learned the truth. And I am indeed filled with fear. They knew they were about to die, they knew they had been sacrificed, and I am certain that their memories were not false. Some information was withheld from them so we could not learn it from them, such as the location of their homeworld in relation to here.

"The demons' leadership judged us well; they left just enough demons in the rock to ensure that we would choose to destroy it rather than just killing the demons and preserving the rock for further examination."

She paused, as if choosing her

words carefully. "We hoped that this

was a wandering horde who did not know that demons had been defeated here on Kellaran some seven million years ago. We hoped they were not a punitive expedition sent from their homeworld to punish Kellaran for their defeat here before. We thought that we had hidden my people here from their sight, and we thought that they could not spy out our planning and preparations from such a distance.

"We were wrong on all those counts. These demons were indeed sent here by their homeworld, and by every wandering horde that the homeworld controls or maintains contact with. They know of their defeat here before and they intend to destroy Kellaran, but that is not their primary purpose.

"The demon homeworld has become aware that The Triax are hunting and killing them all over this part of the galaxy. They are taking the threat we pose to them very seriously, and these demons are their response to us. Their primary purpose is to erase The Triax from the void completely, wherever we may be. And they have brought enough power to do it.

"Our situation is worse than grim.

"The demons know almost

everything about us, and everything we've planned, somehow. They certainly know all that has been

disclosed to the public at any ratet

and that is almost all of our

veet

planning, so our further planning must be done under a state of

military secrecy. We regret that;

secrecy is always less healthy than openness, but it must be done.

"We don't think they have spied us out closely enough to gain the specifics of our methods; the new spell techniques that have been developed on Kellaran, and the new Triax technologies that have been inspired by what we have learned from you. We still have many weapons that they cannot yet counter.

"As Zarkog surmised, the energy of their vessel's momentum has been largely used as an attack against us, which will surely strike us within the next few hours. The demons who were left as sacrifices were not informed of the nature of the attack.

"The rest of the momentum was used to power Gates, which the demons used to evacuate their vessel. They are hidden somewhere in the region of your star, preparing their next attack in case their first one should fail to destroy us all. I doubt that such was their original plan, but they have learned enough of us to know that we are far stronger than they expected us to be Despite their strength, they are being very cautious. Though they are many and powerful, there are still billions of places on your star's worlds, moons, and other objects where they could hide from us. Even if we detect them as soon as we examine their location, it may still take a considerable time to examine all the possible locations. And they may be able to hide from us so well that detecting them may require a very careful examination of their refuge.

"The hundreds of millions of demons who were psionicly detected aboard the vessel were only its crew. Its cargo was millions of DemonLords, all traveling in a comatose state, all packed in like beans in a jar, as you would say. Many millions of them. They are all awake and active now.

"We have never even imagined having to face a force so strong.

"We have already sent our thirty-three fastest gods to warn The Triax homeworld and our other colonies and war fleets, and to ask them to send help. We can only hope that some of us still survive when they finally arrive, and that they are enough."

Not the end.

This story continues in Chaos of a Demon War - Book Three of The Nexus of Kellaran.

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