The Satellite

Glistening stars flickered across the hull of the magnificent and enormous battle carrier the Y'thcor. She was the finest in Tyranno military technology, a flag ship in the fleet Yar'thrak. Such a ship armed with various photon torpedoes, plasma cannons, energy disrupters, and filled to the brim with various vehicles, drop ships, shuttles, and star-fighters of various classifications, was a marvel of engineering and a testimony of the advance technology belonging to the Tyrannos. No force could reckon with the might of this ship. Around the carrier were various classes of star ships, two destroyers, and two battle cruisers. A corvette hovered just above the carrier, surrounded by a flight of star-fighters. Another battle group of star-fighters kept in formation below the carrier. She was armed, she was deadly, and she was also protected. The battle group had just returned from hyperspace from Alpha Eradanus, a system with only one habitable world. This world was controlled by a rebel faction who opposed Tyranno rule. At least, they did oppose Tyranno rule. Eradanus was obliterated by this fleet, per the orders of the fleet's supreme commander Genghis Rex. Though the brilliant strategist knew that there were some rebels that remained, especially on their home-world. And that bothered Rex so. For almost 500 years, Reptilon was controlled by the Tyrannos. Before the time of their rule, Reptilon was much different, controlled by peaceful, pacifistic regime known as the Dyrios. 500 years since, it seem that the descendants of the Dyrios are starting to pop up again and gain power amongst the stars, but this time, they shrugged off their pacifistic code for something with a little more bite in order to take down Tyranno rule. The Tyranno hold on the Reptilonian Empire was beginning to slip because of the rebel descendants of the Dyrios, who began to call themselves the Dinosaucers. Dinosaucers, a name that so far is the only proper translation that would fit them in English. It was a name that the Tyrannos often made fun of as well. Dinosaucers sounded more like something that would go under a cup of Joe than a fearsome rebel force.

To anyone who studied extinct creatures, the crew of the Y'thcor looked to have some sort of relationship with dinosaurs. In fact, that was more than truthful. The citizens of Reptilon were descendants of dinosaurs. Genghis Rex was what he considers himself an evolved Tyrannosaurus Rex. His head was shaped like that of a Tyrannosaur, and he had the powerful legs of his ancestor, and he walked with digigrade, on the toes of his feet, like a theropod would. His scales were crimson and molted brown and his eyes were a striking chartreuse. Framing his box-like, chiseled chin was a ruff of auburn feathers, which belied his relationship to birds. He wore a black uniform like all officers in the Tyranno Space Command. Enlisted men wore dark gray. Because of his high rank, he had gold trimmings around the collar. Below his command station was his helmsmen Ankylo and Edmont, who had the nickname of "Quack-pot" because he often played jokes on the other crew members, much to Rex's dismay. Ankylo claimed ancestry to the spiny-backed and club-tailed thyreophor known as Ankylosaurs and Quack-pot was a descendant from Hadrosaurs. Above was tactical which was commanded by Brachio. Brachio claimed his lineage from the massive, long-necked Brachiosaur. Behind him was the science officer Plesio who claimed his heritage from the Styxosaurs, long-necked aquatic reptiles that were not dinosaurs, but existed at the same time as the dinosaurs back on Earth. Though his ancestors had flippers, their descendants like Plesio developed dexterous claws which included opposable thumbs and also legs and feet. The bridge of the carrier was bathed in crimson light, a favorite color of the Tyrannos. On the other side was communications which was operated by Styraco, a spiny evolved ceratopsian who talked rather in a rushed and grating voice. Styraco's black eyes lit up when he heard his holographic control pad beep at him. Pressing his clawed, orange-scaled hand upon the flashing light, he listened into the message that soon flowed into his earbud. Then, he swung around back to his commanding officer.

"Supreme Commander!" he called. "A message from HICOM."

"Yes, what is it?" Genghis Rex asked.

"It's Chancellor Dei," he replied. "She wants to speak to you."

Rex caught himself in mid thought and then straightened out his collar: "On main view screen."

The holographic screen flashed on in front with the image of a rather enraged dromaesaur with yellowish green scales and dark green feathered crest upon her head.

"The humans finally did it!" she hissed. "The humans finally sent a probe to our planet!"

"So?" whispered Ankylo under his breath, taking little interest in this news.

"What was that?" Dei called. "Who said 'so'?"

"Idiot!" Rex called. "Show some respect to the Chancellor."

"Yes, sir," the club-tailed reptilianoid snorted.

"What my dimwitted helmsman means is why is it very important to you that the humans sent a probe to Reptilon?" Rex cleared his throat. "They've sent probes to every part of the solar system without a single one of them even coming across our various bases. We've hidden them so well."

"Yes, all too well," Dei said. "Which is why they thought that our home-world which shares Earth's orbit was also uninhabited. But the problem is, that probe landed outside one of our shipyard factories. Luckily, the probe was pointed in the other direction not even noticing the factory behind it, but still, a guard smashed it before it could even take pictures of it. It deployed from a satellite in orbit around our planet, taking pictures of its surface. And I sent a ship to blow it up."

"May I still ask why we're being so secretive around those hairless monkeys?" Rex asked. "Why bother if we're not gonna take them over? We had our chance while they were still pre-industrial. In fact, we would of have our chance over 50 years ago before they discovered how to split the atom."

"We have our chance now!" Dei called.

"Yeah," began Quack-pot. "But now they have strategic air command, nuclear powered submarines, and John Wayne. What do we have against that?"

"Your recent mission ended up with you plasma bombarding an entire planet," Dei growled. "Until it was nothing more than black, volcanic glass."

Rex took off his uniform's jacket and threw it at Quack-pot.

"Moron!" he bellowed.

"We are still more advanced than those stupid, evolved monkeys," said Dei. "A thousand times more advanced. If we want that planet, we can take it! But the only problem we have is the resources. In fact, I wish you hadn't wasted your energy blowing up a planet to prove a point to those rebellious Dinosaucers. The council thinks you were over zealous, Rex."

"They pissed me off," Rex growled.

"Our recent scouting report has returned with findings of the resources we need on our twin sister planet," continued Dei. "All you have to do is go and get it."

"How?" Rex asked. "There are six billion humans on that planet and according to recent reports, within the last decade one of their major superpowers is in the middle of a war all because some religious zealots crashed two civilian aircraft into two skyscrapers of one of their large cities."

"But notice how they're handling it," Dei continued. "They're scared. And a scared monkey can be a dangerous hazard."

"Yeah, they'll fling shit at you," snorted Brachio.

"If I wanted your opinion, I would have beaten it out of you!" Rex bellowed.

"Yes, sir," he sighed.

"Anyway," Genghis Rex returned his stone gaze back at Chancellor Dei. "What is it do you want me to do about Earth?"

"That planet is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off," Dei's scaly lips curled into a fanged grin. "And I want you to light the fuse."

"What for?"

"Well, as you stated, there's 6 billion of those apes infesting that planet," Dei crossed her long, slender arms. "And the only way we're going to get the resources we need to continue our interstellar empire is to remove them right? Well, why should we waste what precious resources we have left to do that? Why not let them remove themselves?"

"You mean have them blow themselves to oblivion instead?" Rex asked.

"Exactly," Dei nodded.

"And how do you propose I do that?" Rex snorted back.

"Have your science officer figure that out," she retorted. "But do it quickly. And be subtle about it, Genghis Rex. The last thing I want to happen is one of those rebel Dyrios showing up to lend a helping claw to the humans after finding out about your noisy attempt."

Then, her image clicked off and the screen returned to showing the image of the planet Jupiter that they were just passing. Rex cocked his brow and glanced back at Plesio.

"Well, you're the genius," he began. "Any ideas on how we can do this subtly, Lieutenant Commander?"

Plesio perked his head up and scratched under his chin with a black talon. Then, his crimson eyes lit up: "From our reports, we know that Earth has had a global network of satellites ever since Sputnik."

"Go on," Rex urged.

"The satellites work in helping them communicate with each other much faster than they used to," Plesio continued. "Everything can travel faster. They have television, digital phone, cell phone service, even their military uses various satellites to coordinate strategic commands to their troops and to keep an eye on things. They even use satellites to spy on each other."

"So do we," Rex snorted. "What's your point?"

"Well, since everything is connected in this enormous network," Plesio stood up. "If we disrupt that network, it'll bring about chaos to the planet."

"Dei said subtly," Rex growled.

"It can be done subtly, Rex," Plesio slowly slithered over to his commanding officer. "Very easily. A computer virus can do it. A worm that will eat its way through the network, shutting down airports, cutting service to cell phones and TV stations, shutting off all satellite communication. If we do it correctly, then the humans may think instead of an alien force causing this, one of their enemies would be at fault of it. They would be pointing the fingers at their enemies and then—they'll be pointing their weapons at their enemies and vice versa. I see thousands of megatons of TNT being blasted into the Earth's atmosphere, roasting every one of those disgusting mammals. They would have glassed themselves to death!"

"And dumping enough radiation in the atmosphere to roast us too," Genghis Rex growled. "We'll be reduced to mining the planet like we mine asteroids, under a lot of insulation."

"It'll be worth the price," said Plesio. "We'll need to find a suitable satellite to feed the virus in."

"We did have some ideas to conquer the planet and make it another home," said Rex. "But with the radiation, that would be difficult to do."

"For a while Earth may seem like a radioactive wasteland, but we can terraform the planet after the humans obliterate themselves," said Plesio. "We have that ability."

"Alright, you've convinced me," Rex growled. "Program the virus."

"As you wish, Supreme Commander," Plesio chuckled.

"Ankylo!" Rex called. "Find me a suitable satellite to infect with Plesio's virus."

"Perhaps a satellite connected to the military grid will do, Rex," Ankylo began as his stubby fingers tapped at his holographic keyboard.

"The virus can be fed into various satellites," said Plesio. "But we don't need to infect them all, one or two will do the trick."

"Send one virus through the military grid, and another through the civilian grid," said Rex. "Program it to be self replicating. Not only that, but I want the virus to also be programmed to upload to the Y'thcor information on the humans, their bases, their military secrets, points of interest, anything that could help us succeed in this. Also, I want to know who it was that built that probe."

"Sir?" Ankylo asked, confused.

"You heard me," Rex growled. "The probe, the one sent to Reptilon. I want to know who built it. If the upload to our database can tell us that, then, we may have a fallback plan if this doesn't work. No doubt which government and which personnel in their militaries that built that probe may have a high clearance in their government or know who does. We can use that to our advantage." He settled back down into his chair, feeding his long, thick tail through the hole at the back. "Call it Plan B."

"What's Plan C?" Brachio asked.

"Plan C?" Rex asked, his claws curling up into fists. "We glass the planet! Now, shut up and get to work!"

Rex ordered the other ships to depart for Reptilon while his ship made it towards Earth. He knew that the Earth did have may eyes and ears pointed towards the stars and he had to make sure his massive ship would not be detected. He thanked whatever power out there that Reptilonian technology included cloaking devices.

"We're approaching Earth, Rex," said Edmont Quack-pot.

"Cloak the ship, Lieutenant," Rex began. "I don't want those mammals to know we're coming."

"Engaging cloak," Edmont nodded.

"Scanning for a suitable military satellite, Rex," Plesio announced. "Found one. It's located on what the mammals call the Clark Belt around the equator. A spy satellite."

"Perfect," Rex grinned. "Lock onto its frequency."

"I've programmed the virus," said Plesio. His slender, taloned fingers flew across the holo-panel. A grin spread slowly across his scaly lips as the holographic screen in front of him zoomed onto the satellite before him. A target cross-hair zoomed the image even closer. Then, he commanded the computer to tune into the frequency the satellite was projecting.

"I have a lock, sir," he hissed.

"Good," Rex glanced back at the evolved Styxosaur. "Send the virus through."

"Uploading," Plesio informed as he watched the gauge on his screen fill up to the top. "The virus is in."

"How long will it take before we see any effects?" Rex asked.

"It's instantaneous, Rex," Plesio replied. "Not only that, we should be getting the information on who sent the probe within a few minutes."

"Excellent," Rex leaned back in his chair. "Now, find me a civilian satellite."

"I spotted a weather satellite not far from this one," said Plesio. "We can just tune into its frequency."

His screen moved over to the other satellite he found and he zoomed into it as well. Once he pinged the satellite, he fed the virus on through.

"There," he said. "It's done. The moment the virus starts eating its way through their global networks, we shall start seeing small, isolated incidents. A plane crash here and there and such."

"Wonderful," Rex said with a chuckle. "We'll just sit here and watch the fun. All the mayhem I'm about to create on this primitive world, I should sell tickets."

Ankylo glanced down at his own screens at his station and noticed something flickering at the corner. He tapped his stubby fingers on the holo-panel and zoomed in on a ripple in space that caused the stars behind it to twinkle more. His gold eyes lit up and he swung his chair around.

"Rex!" he called. "Commander! We've got company."

"What?" asked Rex, tapping a button his chair as he pulled up the image that Ankylo was seeing onto the main view screen. That was when he saw a single ship come in through a rift in space, a cruiser, which then faded into invisibility. "What was that?"

"I managed to get a scan of it," said Plesio. "But not a good one. The moment it came in, it cloaked. Though I did get a signature of its engines. They match the signature of a Tyranno battle cruiser, specifically, the Char'yur."

"That ship was last reported on a mission to a supposed Dyrio resistance outpost," said Brachio.

"What happened to it?" Rex asked.

"Never reported," said Brachio.

"Dinosaucers!" Rex gasped. "Those Dyrio bastards must have highjacked the ship."

"What do you plan to do?" asked Quack-pot.

"Just because it can cloak doesn't mean we don't have the means to locate it," said Rex. "Plesio, scan for the signature trail of that ship's engines."

"Aye, sir," Plesio nodded.

Rex gave a scratch to the feathered ruff on his jawline. He let loose a deep and agitated growl, beginning to think who exactly it was that highjacked that ship.

"It's crossing over the terminator to the night side of the planet," Plesio replied. "The planet has obstructed my scans. I shall attempt to calculate a good reflecting point to continue scanning for the ship."

"The humans can't scan us while we're cloaked," said Genghis Rex. "Nor can they even detect our position. But just a precaution, I'd like to pull the ship back behind their natural satellite until the virus has worked it's way through."

"We'll still be able to receive transmissions from the virus if we land on the planet's natural satellite," said Plesio.

"Ankylo," Rex bellowed. "Take us out of orbit and head for the Earth's natural satellite."

"Aye, aye, Genghis Rex," the ankylosaur snorted again.

"And what of that ship?" asked Brachio.

"Plesio will keep scanning it," Rex replied. "I want to know who is that's commanding that ship."

"We know it's the Dinosaucers," said Styraco. "That's what they've been doing lately in order to get a hold of military ships. They highjack them. They don't have the resources now to build powerful and fast ships like ours on their own yet. Not only that, they also sabotage supplies coming in and out of the solar system. They are determine to break Tyranno hold."

"Watch it closely, Plesio," said Rex. "Why would the Dinosaucers be interested in Earth?"

"No doubt the message you received from Chancellor Dei has been tapped into by a Dinosaucer spy hiding out somewhere," said Plesio. "We never found who it was because we weren't looking for it. They must have sent the message immediately after Dei cut off. That ship must have been rather close to come out of hyperspace so quickly after the transmission."

"The Dinosaucers think they could perhaps help the humans or stop us from helping those horrible mammals blow themselves to the inferno?" Rex growled. "As Dei said, we must do this subtly. Let's not interfere yet, let's just watch for now. But if those Dyrio rebels try to make a move, we'll counter it."

"We don't know if the Dinosaucers intend to help the humans," said Plesio. "It could be like last time over 60 years ago. That civilian research ship that was sent from Reptilon. But we shot it down."

"Shot it down because they were hiding a Dinosaucer on board," Brachio said. "They were going to send him down to the planet and have him hide out in that desert for a few years until we've forgotten about him."

"Aren't we lucky we shot it down before that happened?" Rex chuckled. "Keep monitoring."