Chapter 77: Striking at the Heart.
Adem slammed his fists into arms of his command seat with such fury that he actually dented them both while his spines bristled and vibrated making a loud hissing rattling noise all around him, "Fucking Clan Mason!" he bellowed as the view from their spy satalite showed an absolute armada of ships of all shapes and sizes coming and going from the Beledon planet pulling people from the surface before the planet eventually detonated.
He pressed his comms button, "What was the final death count?" he demanded from his first officer, there was a moment of silence before the report came back.
"Our satalite scans show less than five per cent, it seems that Clan Mason and its allies were far more prepared for something like this than we envisioned," the reply came.
Adam snarled and smashed his fist into his this time, "How could they have been so prepared? And how the hell did they manage to stop the chain reaction? Those four bombs should have torn the planet into dust long before they were even able to arrive?" he demanded.
"Telemetry is sketchy but it shows that somehow they were able to defuse one of the bombs, therefore breaking the chain, while it didn't stop the inevitable it did delay it enough that their forces were able to rescue the vast majority of the population, should we be worried about this boss?" his first officer Arex asked uncertainty.
Adam scratched his chin thoughtfully and angrily, "No I don't believe so, Clan Mason may have saved the primitives but we got some of what we came for though I do wish it had been more, now they are going to be stuck with the task of homing and feeding their new pets so that's going to keep them busy for quite some time this should keep them off our backs, we are going to proceed as planned, have the mercenaries been acquired?" he asked.
"Yes boss they didn't come cheap but they are very highly sought after and we have it confirmed from multiple sources that they are the very best at what they do, creepy fuckers to say the least though, never seen a sentient insect before and that queen of their's is something else let me tell you, she could win the creepiest fucker in the universe aware hands down, imagine a blood spider talking to you and smiling at you, still makes me shiver," Arex said.
"You do know that all the Vesatori are female right?" Adem said and Arex seemed to pause for a moment.
"Seriously?" he replied eventually.
"Yes, males are rare in their species like one to every five hundred rare and only one who manages to secure one becomes a queen, something to do with the mating exchange I believe his pheromones and genetics are what trigger the metamorphosis," Adem explained having encountered the sentient insectoid race on multiple occasions, he also knew that one battlefield they were the true epitome of the word 'fearless'.
"Huh that kinda makes sense I guess, fuck knows how they keep their numbers up with that kinda ratio though," Arex said.
"You've never seen a Vesatori planet have you my friend?" Adem said feeling his mood lighten somewhat.
"Nope only met these ones through word of mouth in the pirate circles," Arex said and Adm nodded.
"Think giant ant hive, it's almost completely subterranean, they have many different races and what could be called sub-races I guess, any males born are immediately given over to the government or I suppose you could call it a matriarchy, there they are schooled, housed and trained until they come of age when they do they go out with the sole purpose of choosing a mate that union will birth thousands of them and they are highly adaptive as well from what I understand due to a natural disaster some decades ago that killed quite a few of their males some desire or such don't ask me for details they implemented a genetic engineering program of some kind that was injected into all the remaining males that made them compatible with all the sub-races of the Vesatori, but apparently it had the side effect of making Vesatori born of this engineering far more adaptable not only to their own races but others as well," Adem said happily in his knowledge of other races giving him an edge.
"Wait so do you mean to tell me that a Velon and a Vesatori could..." Arex began until Adm cut him off.
"Yes! But we will not speak of such a disgusting outrage! Imagine polluting our blood with ones so unworthy to carry it such as those insects!" he exclaimed feeling a shiver pass through his quills at the mere thought of it.
"Uggh you're right boss doesn't bare thinking about but it does explain some of the looks that some of them were giving our team," Arex said.
"Make sure you inform the Vesatori that they are to keep their claws, pincers, mandibles or whatever the fuck else they have to themselves when aboard one of our ships understood?" Adam said sternly and he could actually feel Arex nodding on the other end of the line.
"Not a problem their boss pretty sure our guys are on the same page as us, they'd be more likely to stick them with a poisoned quill than any other part of their body," Arex said both confidently and firmly.
"Good, those insects are here to ensure our attack goes smoothly and to plan, nothing more, they are to ensure that those infernal Guardians have something to worry about while we ensure that this gets done without too much damage to either the infrastructure and if possible the civilian populace, nothing more," Adem said.
"No problem boss but what about well you know...her?" Arex said.
"Yes she will need to be dealt with very quickly because if she gets words out to those fucking symbiotes of hers word could go planet-wide in seconds, so she will need to be silenced first before we proceed to step two of the plan, but you can leave her to me and my kind we have just the thing to put her in her place," Adem said menacingly and he knew that Arex knew exactly what he meant when he said 'his kind.'
"Alright, boss no problem we'll follow you're lead on this one, have you contacted the rest of Clan Ruara still on the home world?" Arex asked.
"Yes they stand ready for our go, so what is left is to drop off the promised primitives to the Dark Seed and then it's on to the homeworld and to the final and long-awaited victory and rule of Clan Ruara!" Adem said with powerful defiance in his voice.
'To the victory and to strength, power and purity of the blood!" Arex said with such powerful passion in his voice that Adem couldn't help but be moved by it.
"Power and purity of the blood indeed my friend," Adem said and with that, he closed the comms.
From his right he saw a stirring of movement and he turned to see the large form of his Beledon apprentice Wesirai move beneath the sheets of his bed and he sighed heavily, he had to admit he did hate himself for his affection for the powerful primitive Beledon woman, no matter how many times he tried to remind himself that she wasn't Velonan he just couldn't help but find her beautiful in her own way, she was also about as loyal and trusting as it was a person to be and he knew no matter what she would be stood at his side ready to face his enemies with a fury that few could seldom imagine himself included had he not seen it with his own two eyes.
Wesirai suddenly sat up and turned to face him, "Good morning master, are we there already?" she asked and Adem nodded.
"We are, it is time to begin the operation to reclaim my home from the vile ones who have taken it from me and those like me," he said in a soft voice.
Wesirai stepped instantly out of the sheets letting them fall to the bed and revealing her incredible frame with all of its bulging muscles, he could see dark patches between her thighs that stood in evidence and testament to their activities last night where he had rewarded her loyalty with something a bit more gentle but no less enthusiastic than she was used to by now.
As she stood her massive thighs which were easily the size of his torso for each one bunched and flexed leading into her sculpted tail end and massive broad back which flexed and bunched beneath her thick fur as she retrieved her clothes from the floor next to the bed.
Adem watched her as she dressed actually feeling a little sad that her body was now hidden from view behind her clothing and her armour, oh well he'd have to make sure that when their victory here was secured he'd take his time removing her clothing again himself, maybe when their all-out victory was secured he'd assign her to his private chambers and forbid her from ever wearing clothes again though he would definitely not forbid her from training or exercising if there was anything Teheran had given him an appreciation of despite everything he'd managed to hate her for it was a woman with a solid well-muscled body.
After she was dressed Adem took Wesirai down to the meeting chamber where the other Beledon Nightmare Assassins that he'd managed to keep for himself for this mission all three of them were waiting, with him and Wesirai they numbered only five but if everything went to plan five of them was all they were going to need.
"Ok listen up and don't you dare not pay attention, if any of you fail me in even the slightest way here I will deliver your soul to the Dark Seed's throne in person to be held as an example of what is done with traitors am I clear?" he snarled looking around at the massive Beledon surrounding him at the table.
"Yes master!" they all chorused together in perfect unison making Adem nod his head.
"Good, now this is what you've all been training for, a chance to prove yourselves to both me and the Dark Seed himself, this is to be my reward for all my loyalty to him and if you prove yourselves to me, in the same way, I will ensure that loyalty does not go unrewarded either, now here's our target," he said turning to a large view screen on the wall and pressing a button on his wrist control to bring up an image.
The image showed a land mass from high up showing large trees and bushes that all seemed to be interconnected leading back to a singular large tree in the middle of the landmass.
"These are the Blood-Plains and are home to one of the Velon races, specifically Mycelia a sentient fungal organism thought to be as old as Velona is though how long she has been sentient is a matter of great debate among our scholars, she is what you might call a spymaster of sorts, there is very little that happens on Velona that she does not know about thanks to her connections to nature just about everywhere and where she doesn't have connections she has these people," Adem said pressing the button again to make the image change to show a Velon like himself but wearing a robe with purple and gold runic designs on it.
But there was something different about this Velon they appeared to have large veins branching out under their skin that may have made them look well muscled or that they spent way too much time in the gym if they had been bigger, but when you compared it to normal Velon skin there was an obvious difference and this made them stand out a little bit from the others around them, 'These are the Hands of Mycelia, Velons like myself who have chosen to bond with her and to allow her to communicate through them while also seeing and experiencing the world through their eyes and using their senses, it is a kind of mutual symbiosis, they get knowlage, experience and a whole litany of memories and data, she gets to see the world as one of us and they are a royal pain in the fucking quills to root out as they are very good at hiding, not from our kind your understand but from whose without our gifts," Adem explained remembering quite vividly how the Hands had played a major role in infiltrating Clan Ruara and passing intel through Mycelia to the Guardians in the first place.
"Both of these problems need to be eliminated, now we aren't going to kill Mycelia as I know what all of you are thinking and that isn't what is needed, if she dies a whole chunk of Velona will go with her, she is important to the ecosystem of my world in ways I cannot even begin to describe so no harm must come to her understood?" Adem said in a dark snarl that showed he meant business on this and instantly Wesirai raised her hand.
"Yes Wesirai?' he asked showing his irritation at the interruption but he would rather them ask questions than make mistakes this was too important for any kind of fuck up.
"How are we supposed to eliminate a threat without hurting its master?" she asked.
"Simple my dear apprentice, the major problem is her connection to all living things within her realm, but all of this can be traced back to this one single central point," he said pressing a button on his wrist comp and bringing up an image of a massive central tree at the centre most point of the continent, it had a large thick trunk that was covered in what looked like armoured bark that was black-brown in colour while all the branches high above it had green leaves with a tinge of pink to it and it seemed to have odd purple like veins pulsing down throughout it.
"This is the Heart Tree and is Mycelia's central point her core if you will and contains the vast majority of her consciousness, without it she cannot function properly as it will reduce her, using our powers more specifically the Soul Binding we can lock her within herself unable to reach out to anyone around her including her accursed Hands and speaking of which they are a much more simple problem to solve, we just kill them wherever they hide and thanks to their connection to Mycelia being severed they will be next to useless and easily exposed as before we shut down her network we're going to use it to our own ends to send a pulse of pain throughout her network, this should make her fucking servants real easy to identify, anyone who collapses at that point will be an obvious target," he said with an almost gleeful smile.
All of the gathered Beledon nodded in approval at their master's plan, Adem pointed at two of them "When she is sealed within her own head where she belongs you two will guard her and make sure she doesn't find a way out, do not underestimate her, she might be nothing more than a thinking fungus but she has been around longer than your entire species so does not underestimate the knowledge and strength that she has gathered in that time, she is wise and crafty, you also have my permission to eliminate anyone who attempts to prevent you from doing your duty understood?" he said and the two large Beledon males who were called Remus and Rufus nodded.
"We will not fail you, master," the pair said and Adem nodded approvingly.
"Good, once this is done, myself Wesirai and Felicia will head to the capital city of Moon-Crystal and join the fight there, the Guardians might be worthy opponents on their terms but this time they are going to be fighting those who do not play by their fucking stupid rules and let's just see how long they hold up against that shall we?' he said with a dark nasty smile spreading across his face.
Once the remainder of the briefing was done Adem headed down to the hanger bay where a single shuttle was waiting for him and his team and it thanks to its origins and design it was kinda obvious in the bay which was primarily filled with Felenis fighters and shuttles.
It was a fairly large and somewhat old Yautja scout shuttle both heavily armed and armoured but it had most important of all a cloaking device which would allow them to approach the planet and slip by the defences unnoticed, Adem knew that once Mycelia fell silent it would throw Velona into absolute chaos and it was this chaos that he was banking on, it was time to show Clan Lunara what true strength looked like.
As he boarded the shuttle and dropped into the pilot's seat he pressed the comms panel, "Arex is everything ready?" he asked.
"Yup all good, all ships are hidden at the edges of the system waiting for your word boss once you give it we'll drop the fucking hammer on those weak Lunara tail holes," Arex said with a chuckle.
"Good very good, once I give the word I want you to relay a message that is preprogrammed into the comms system under Adem one, it's a call to arms for all our brothers and sisters still in hiding, once they get it they will know exactly what to do, I will see you soon my brother and it will be right in the heart of the Moon-Crystal council chambers where we will gather all of those Lunara fools and we will show them exactly what we do to traitors to the Velon people!" Adem said.
"Power of the true blood!" Arex yelled and Adem instinctively slammed a fist to his chest over his heart.
"Power of the true blood indeed my brother, I'll see you soon," Adem said and with that, he cut the comms, it was time.
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A young woman walked through the abundance of interconnected nature of the Blood-Plains, she could feel the power of Mycelia's connection here, it was like being surrounded by the knowledge mother on all sides in this place, she had only been here once before and that was during her bonding but to be called back here again felt so wonderful even if the request had worried her somewhat.
As she reached the Heart Tree she could feel the life simply pulsing through it and outwards into everything around it, it was like watching the flow of blood through a circulatory system or the electricity running through a brain as it travelled the neurological network.
As she reached the tree she reached out and placed a hand on the bark and as she did some of the sap leaked through the surface around her palm like a web of little purple tendrils joining her hand to the great keeper of secrets and knowledge that was Mycelia.
"Ahh you have arrived young one good I am sorry to have been so cryptic in my summoning of you here and I do so wish it could be under so much better of circumstances," the voice of Mycelia drifted through her thoughts like it was made of the purest silk running through her mind.
"What's the wrong mother, what troubles you so?" she asked.
"A great evil and calamity approaches Feris and I need your help, one of my many Hands like you has sensed a great evil approaching us, dark times are ahead of us, all of us and try as I might to make the Guardians listen they still refuse to acknowledge the threat so we must act if we are to protect Velona," Mycelia said into her mind.
"What kind of evil mother?" Feris asked in alarm.
"This I do not know but what I do know is it has something to do with Clan Ruara, others like you have reported to me that they have been excited and animated lately but every time we try to get close they simply melt into the shadows like smoke and it is maddening, but one of us walks among the dreams and he has seen a great evil coming our way that we cannot escape on our own, but there is hope young one a hope among the great sea of black, out there is the salvation of all Velons everywhere," Mycelia said.
"Tell me what I must do great mother and it will be done I swear it to you!" Feris said with a fiery determination in her voice.
"We do not have much to go on young one and I fear I hand you an impossible task but it is all our brother who sees through dreams could tell me and when I looked into his memories it was all I could pull as well but he did well to bring this to me, as our newest bonded you are not yet known to Clan Ruara and their eyes you must travel to Moon-Crystal and meet a Guardian of Life there called Adesus, she is sympathetic to us and will listen to you, I had our brothers and sisters prepare a simple ship to carry you both out into the ocean of black, there you must embark upon a quest in order to find the God Slayer and his great love the Breaker of Chains, find a book and old book called the Unchained Heart, it will point the way, I wish I could tell you more young one but this is all he saw in his dreams, these two names, without them Velona will be crushed under the heel of Clan Rusra's ambitions and remade into a darkness that will be a strain upon this galaxy and all who call it home, we will be nothing more than slaves to the darkness and thralls to it's will and whims, go young one find these two and bring them here by what ever means it takes," Mycelia said.
"I will not fail you mother, I will find this God Slayer and the Breaker of Chains and I will return with them, I will not let Clan Ruara destroy the beauty of our home I swear it to you on my very blood!" Feris said with such fire that she felt her quills rustle and snap outwards before settling back down against her skin.
"Good now go young one and may the blessings of the blood and all who share it go with you," Mycelia said and with that, the connection was severed and Feris was off as fast as her legs could carry her.
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Adem's shuttle glided through the space of his home system and as he looked at Velona before his eyes he felt his heart swelling in his chest, finally, he was going home, the place of his kin and his blood, a place he had longed for ever since his expulsion all those years ago, finally he was back and what's more, he was going to reshape it, soon everyone everywhere would know the name Velon and they would fear them just as they should.
Adem placed the shuttle down outside of the Blood-Plains so as not to tip Mycelia off, he stepped into the passenger bay where his entire team waited patiently for him, "Are you ready?" he asked as he began to set up the ritual for the Shadow Step and they all nodded.
"Good now this is what we are to do..." he said and he began to explain the final part of his plan to take down the great keeper of knowledge.
From the shadows of her own branches Adem and his team burst through the shadows all around the Heart Tree and before she could even begin to react he plunged his blade into the soil at his feet while all of his companions did the same each of them sending a pillar of shadow-black energy straight into him forming a circle around the tree trunk made of pure shadows and he channelled the energy into his blade filling with energy like a battery and more specifically he channelled some of it into a very special dagger that he had prepared for this exact moment.
Once he hit critical mass Adem pulled the vile-looking jagged dagger from its sheathe on his belt and plunged it right into the armoured bark of her core sending a pulse of jet black energy right throughout the three and everything connected to her and he smiled as he imagined all of her hands all around the world dropping to the floor and screaming as the pain of a thousand cuts hit them all at once.
Using the painful distraction Adem immediately began the Soul Seal with all of his Beledon companions doing exactly the same thing before in perfect sync the five of them reached out and slammed the palm of their right hand against the trunk of the massive tree tearing right into it with pure shadows and forcing all of them into the mind of the great mother of knowledge.
Shadows flooded her mindscape and pulled Mycelia from every being she was connected to like drawing pus from a wound with a poultice, the Soul Seal pulled her mind from everything around her and forced it into a central singular point that was surrounded with the blackest f shadows from which it was impossible to escape.
She took the form of a Velon of the same race as him but made of an odd glowing purple light that actually kinda reminded him of his own blood in a way, "Greetings oh keeper of secrets, it's so good to see you again," he said from his place in the darkness his voice echoing around them giving her no way to know where it was coming from.
The glowing figure looked around herself as if she couldn't believe that this was happening to her and she tried reaching out into the shadows only to find nothingness in every direction, "Adem I should have known, why are you doing this!?" she said in a voice that sounded like an odd mixture of mist and air.
"Well I thought you'd like to see exactly how it feels to be cast into a sea of blackness with no end no matter which way you turn, kinda like you did to me and all of my brothers and sisters, kinda ironic though don't you think that while my sea was not only endless it was far from the one place I yearned to be, while yours is right here on the homeworld so you should count yourself lucky that I 'm more merciful than any of you ever were to us, at least you are safe in the knowledge that you are still where you belong as a Velon, you'll never see any part of it ever again but at least you'll have that knowledge, now if you'll excuse me I have a civilization to liberate and an empire to begin," Adem said.
"Adem wait you cannot do this! Adem? Adem!" Mycelia yelled into the endless darkness, but he was not there to listen, there was no one there only her alone in the infinite shadows.
"As long as that dagger stays in her trunk the entire network will be flooded with endless shadows and pain, anything that tries to reach into it to free her will be flooded with a pain the likes of which they have never imagined in their wildest nightmares and with all the souls of the fallen in this place and everywhere her tendrils touch it will never fade, gotta love the irony that I have turned her greatest strength into her inescapable weakness, she was so desperate for connections with living things other than herself that that entire network now works against her as a spy-network to funnel soul energy directly into my trap, your job is to ensure that no matter what that dagger remains exactly where it is understood?" Adem asked and Remus and Rufus nodded.
"Yes master," they said in unison.
"Good come girls we have important business to attend to and fools to crush," Adem said turning with Wesirai and Aldina to head back to the shuttle as he did he pressed the comms button on his armoured wrist.
"Now my brother bring the justice!" he said it was time for a new Velona to rise, a free Velona a strong Velona, a Clan Ruara Velona.
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From the cockpit of their little ship both Feris and Adesus watched in horror as the fleet of ships jumped into the orbit of their beloved home and began flooding the sky with smaller ships all heading for the surface.
The vast majority of the ships kinda looked like giant insects for some reason, well all except for one, one which must have been the command vessel given its placement right at the centre of the pack was sleek and angular, made of metal as black as the ocean of space and if it wasn't for the light of the sun reflecting off its hull they might not have seen it at all.
"We have to turn around! Velona needs us!" Adesus yelled grabbing at the controls until Feris grabbed her hands and stopped her.
"No the great mother saw this happening, she saw this evil and she told me what we have to do, if we go back there now empty handed then we will fall like all the others and Velona will be lost forever, we have to find the God Slayer and the Breaker of Chains only they can save Velona now, the great mother saw it," Feris said in as calming a tone as she could muster considering her heart was bouncing in her chest as she watched her beloved home being invaded.
Adesus growled and smashed her hand into the rest of the pilot's seat in anger, "I will make whoever is responsible for this villainy pay with my own two hands I swear this before you, we will find this God Slayer and Breaker of chains and drag them here by their bloody quills if we have to!" she snarled and with that, she focused on getting them out of the system as quietly as possible only engaging the relatively newly installed short-range hyperspace jump drive only when they were safely out of scanning range, though where they were headed and how they were going to even find these two people the great mother had set them on a path towards was still a mystery to her, all she could hope was that somewhere there would be a sign of some kind to point them in the right direction because how in the name of the great blood was someone supposed to find a single book in all this great nothingness?
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The fighting was swift as it was brutal and efficient, the mercenaries were everything that Arex had promised him they would be and with him and his two Beledon companions to fight alongside them they cut through the Guardians like a hot knife through butter.
Soon they had secured every major control and resource point while his brothers and sisters of Clan Ruara who had been in hiding and preparing for this day with the money and weapons that he had been secretly smuggling home through some rather unscrupulous traders that the blind Clan Lunara had permitted to trade with Velona, so when the call to arms had sounded the Guardians found themselves fighting not one one one in the old traditional way like they'd expected but powerful alien weaponry which had almost immediately cut through them like they were made of nought but paper, forcing the survivors to retreat into the shadows and the depths of Sand Home.
But this was no matter he and his loyal Nightmare Assassins would locate them and drag them kicking and screaming out to face the justice of Clan Ruara sooner or later.
Without their loyal warriors to hide behind the council had quickly been rounded up and dragged through the streets now filled with mercenaries, cheering members of Clan Ruara and scared-looking civilians up to the stairs in front of the council chambers where Adem himself now waited to greet them with the rest of the Clan Ruara leadership.
Adem had wished to publicly execute them before all of their people to show them what true strength looked like but the Clan leadership did not wish that they wanted them to suffer what they called a fate worse than death, so before the entire crowd they were loaded into pods and loaded onto a shuttle that was bound for the depths of space before being launched into their exile never to see their beloved home again under threat of death.
The leadership wanted Adem as the architect of this victory to address all the people of Velona so they set up a worldwide broadcast from the very same steps the first thing of which showed the council being exiled before Adem with his two Beledon bodyguards stood at his sides popped up on their screens standing before a podium displaying the crest of Clan Ruara on it.
"My brother and sister Velons, today is not a sad day, it is not a day to mourn, or to lament, it is a day to rejoice and to be happy, long have our people suffered and been made weak under the rule and so called guidance of Clan Lunara and their ilk not to mention their so called Guardians of Life, but now all of Velona is free from that weakness like one would cut a cancerous tumour from a healthy body we have cut them from this great society and now this wound can heal, this body can grow stronger and together we can show the entire Galaxy as a whole what our blood truly stands for, purity, power and prosperity, we will make all who oppose us fear us and all who embrace us and know their place under us prosper along with us, we will show them all what a truly strong and united Velona is capable of, this day we rejoice because today the blood is finally free!" he yelled to thunderous applause from the Clan Ruara members and the too scared to object civilians.
Now all he had to do was make good on that promise and while he was at it he had another promise to make good on and this promise was to someone a lot more powerful than his Clan, this one was to the Dark Seed himself for to be allowed to do this he had promised to turn Velona over to the Dark Seed on the understanding that his people wouldn't be enslaved but would be educated in his power, that they would spread the word of his power and glory to the stars, that this place would allow the Dark Seed to take hold and grow so that he may increase their power to what it should have been if Clan Lunara hadn't weakened them, to begin with, together they would undo all the damage they had done and together they would show the universe not just the galaxy what a truly strong and united Velona could really do.