Chapter 9 – Bigger Fish, Bigger Stick

Admiral Adam Grayson stood in his red-hued ready room. The notion that he could blast his way through a determined defense ran into the reality of trying to both coordinate millions of ships and deal with enemies as committed to stopping him as he was to moving forward. Sure, Minervas and Star Dreadnaughts sent in an "out-and-around" course managed to elude most of the fleet he hit head-on, but then old-fashioned politics got in the way.

"Well yeah, nobody likes Darksiders, but they haven't done anything to us" came the response from most Outer Rim planets offered "protection and defense" forces. The few that accepted them ended up regretting it as Council forces engaged in vicious combat with their new guardians—bombarding the planet as equally as they fired against the outside ships.

Rumors swirled of a disease striking people who'd relocated (or returned) to "Paradise Worlds" reclaimed from the Flood. The government assured all was well, but it represented the first suspicious thing anyone heard regarding the "New Future" everyone had been promised.

"Given that this galaxy's government is about as topsy-turvy as a youngling's ride, that the honeymoon period is over this soon is hardly shocking" opined an editorial for the Galaxy News Service. If it were Nova Network or some other trashy tabloid, nothing would've come of it. But throughout the eons, GNS represented the best in journalism—much to the annoyance of various corrupt business and government types who would rather have their dirty laundry go unaired.

The resulting conflict left Grayson's forces moving forward, but far too slowly and taking too many casualties. They'd win battles only to lose the war by attrition. He answered a call to his personal comm from the group of Force-users who'd been helping to power his push.

"I may be the newest kid on the block" growled Armando Bailey, "but even I can tell when something's wrong with these weird powers I seem to have. And something's very, very wrong."

"Our powers are blunted" continued Sarah. "The fight we just had would not have been nearly so difficult; it is as though we operate in a fog, unable to see exactly what is going on around us."

She produced the Great Holocron from her robes.

"Seen stranger things, I have not. Diminished, the Force is. Disturbed."

"Master Yoda is correct, though as to why, none of us can tell" said Luke Skywalker. "Even Tionne cannot find any historical record of such occurrences."

"If you ask me" interrupted Zera Zelit, "I feel like I'm swimming in oil. It isn't just the rage and hatred of the Dark Side, it's worse."

Ultimatum slipspaced out immeasurably quickly, again, to where the month-long task of constructing the design-study, now Colossus, was taking place.

He summoned the architectural team and those who'd been instrumental in fighting the war to this point. About to ask for a status report, Grayson found himself interrupted by proximity alarms.

"Trial by fire it is, then!"

All 87km of Colossus had been given the once-over, the three-part ship attaching itself at precise locations after which digistruction would finish the rest as only the outer hull had been completed around the portions to be joined—several meters inside each section were "short" to avoid having everything at nanometer tolerances. For instance, digistruction connected deck plating across chasms, or completed power conduits which were then rerouted. As a result of this semi-modular construction, Colossus possessed redundant systems almost everywhere, save one thing: its massive internally-mounted slipspace machinery. The drive and its attendant gadgetry took up a volume almost equal to a whole Revenant, and that wasn't counting reactors to drive it!

Such a vessel required a gargantuan bank of engines, which all pushed at once. No more "steering only" propulsion systems, though some mid-mounted units identical to the main "pushers" were arranged in groups on each side, aiding in turning and accelerating. Experimental weapons were incorporated willy-nilly. Starship-scale explosive flechettes, artificial Eridium-crystal-focused turbolasers which entirely compensated for the loss of range from synthetic Tibanna without requiring reactor overdrive, and even three superlaser-analogs derived from Farsight.

Internal digistruction bays, not incorporated into Revenants "to save time," let Colossus spew out an army and navy entirely on its own. Though this used an immense amount of energy, its reactor was more than capable of sustaining such production, producing more energy every second than some supernova bursts. In the event primary power proved insufficient, a good volley of enemy fire topped up special capacitors connected to its shield grid, marking the first large-scale deployment of energy-absorbing shields that were initially fitted to Normandy SR-2.5 years ago by none other than the Republic Intelligence Service.

"For once, we didn't build that" laughed Gaige when asked later. "There are other engineering teams, you know!"

Boarding parties attempted to use cloaked craft to sneak aboard the drydock which produced Colossus. While they were able to approach without facing naval resistance, the resulting internal conflict would go down as the successful introduction of "Valla"-class clones derived, again, from RISE's own designs. Initially, lighter and faster Athena clones attempted to hold back "purge troopers," but they were quickly cut down no matter their numbers.

"Hm. Upgrades" muttered Grayson, observing yet another slaughter on a bank of vidscreens.

A squad of the heavier Valla clones marched in over the bodies of their comrades.

"They fall like leaves. We are wroshyr trees!" bellowed the leader.

Endowed with a counter to every technique hardcoded into Venus Assage's "children," "Josann" and her fellow clones utterly dominated their opponents. Grayson watched as one shrugged off a lightsaber swing, turned about, and grabbed her opponent by the neck. Spidering cracks, a sickening crunch, and a headless clone dropped to the deck while her helmet (presumably including head) flew in another direction.

One of his clones struggled to breathe from being gripped by what had been described as "Force Choke" while being scored by Force Lightning. The air itself seemed to move like a sonic boom as she pushed her opponent back and her sisters piled onto the attacker, not seeming to care if they used fists, mass-manufactured lightsabers, or other instruments of destruction to take down their enemy. Another disappeared in a flash of light—disruptor fire. Its source pinpointed, three held their arms out. Energized pulses emitted from two cannons per limb, peppering the sniper with green death at thousands of rounds per minute. Her lightsaber could not block them all, and her armor scorched from dozens of impacts. Despite their bulk, these new clones possessed at least two-thirds of their predecessors' agility, leaping up to the fallen aggressor. A wet splat over audio told the Admiral all he needed to know about that particular enemy's fate.

"I enjoyed that" said Josann with relish. Unlike the insanity brought on by Xytler's JumpPaks, however, the Vallas actually experienced the opposite. Any time sensors detected their lust for blood rising to predetermined levels, they were dosed with an appropriate amount of DS-PLNE, a sort of hyper-depressant drug that acted to push them back into a state of calm. Repeated tests showed no reduction of effectiveness after a twenty simulated deployments. Besides, any clone with that long a service record would automatically be retired anyway. That was almost three times the "lucky seven" that granted an Athena-class troop similar treatment, but the Vallas' greater survivability meant consummately longer tours of duty.

The Admiral found himself interrupted by an urgent comm.

"What would Sarah want in the middle of a battle? Isn't she supposed to be boosting us?"