Jade: When victor falls.

JADE.

When victor falls.

By Pavel Popov

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM! – The sound inaudible for most sentient beings radiated from beneath the lush jungles of the green planet, from deep within the planet's crust, like a giant heart pumping blood through the veins. Its source was hostile to life and unnatural, and yet the planet enveloped it like an oyster cradles a precious pearl.

TAP! TAP! TAP! – Natara’s elegant fingers with long fingernails impatiently tapped on the tactical screen as she observed Jade and its moons, planning her next move. A Human Borealis-class cruiser was orbiting the planet, yet it was still too far to notice her ship with any type of sensors that Natara knew the Humans possessed. There were multiple heat signatures on the surface, and she was informed of transmissions sent from the planet's surface using apparently stolen Amarant equipment to one of the planet's moons. She couldn't see what was on the dark side of that moon, but in several hours it would turn in its natural rotation cycle, revealing its secrets to her.

What was most important – Natara was sure that neither Humans, nor the ones that destroyed the Amarant recon vessel and salvaged its comms equipment were near the artifact or actually had any idea of its location or nature. The woman never considered lesser races to be worthy of any attention apart from immediate destruction, and she was not surprised that they were ignorant enough to walk on a priceless treasure without even knowing it.

Her mission this time was not to clean another system from Human filth or other sentient presence, but to investigate the source of the strange signal, triangulate its location and recover it.

Amarant Kriel-class battleship, “Detrati”, translated as "The Heritage" to Humans, on which Natara was the captain, was a technological marvel, a jewel of Amarant fleets. Its sleek yet heavily armored hull reached an equivalent of nine hundred Sol feet in length, and was further protected by two multi-layered energy shields, each of them incorporating a separate automatic recovery system and a repulsor drive. Detrati could easily move in three dimensions using its multiple thrusters, and could achieve incredible speed despite its mass. To a Human’s eye, the Amarant battleship looked like a tree leaf-shaped crystallized construct with multiple angled appendages, created with geometric perfection. However, no Human so far was able to see Detrati and live to describe it. Matching its level of protection was the vessel’s weaponry. The ship sported ten beam arrays on its sides, aft and bow, as well as six quad plasma torpedo launchers. The ship’s two hangar bays housed multiple Kyrissa space fighter-bombers, Moneri boarding barges and orbit-to-ground Chaerys Gunships for planet operations and troop transportation.

Natara was confident with her ship and her crew, however, and it was a first time in her many years of service, she had no idea what exactly was buried beneath the planet's surface. She sincerely hoped that it was one of the Progenitor relics scattered across the known space, each of them a priceless artifact for the Amarant empire.

As so many females of her generation, Natara was infertile. It came as a shock to her, but even more shocking it was for her mother who knew that she would die without seeing her grandchildren. Despite all their scientific achievements, Amarant scientists could not help their women, and the race was facing a threat of slowly succumbing into oblivion.

Every Vesateia knew that Progenitors were more than mere mortals, and they were sure that their knowledge could easily remedy not only inability of Amarant women to give life, but cheat death itself. “Please, make it so!” – preyed Natara. She sent brief messages to weapons officers and signaled for attack, a standard teleportation charge that she performed so many times.

With a sensor-blinding flash Detrati vanished and reappeared within ten miles from the Human vessel, and immediately opened fire. There was no option, or need, for negotiations. The first beam broadside ripped apart the Human ship’s bow thrusters, and the second that followed several seconds later tore through the cruiser’s massive armor plates at the back of the ship, where Natara knew the crew quarters were located. She learned long ago exactly where to sting to bring the most pain.

The Humans were fast to react, and heavy blaster discharges produced ripples of crackling blue light on energy shields of Detrati. Amarant’s torpedoes were almost entirely blown up mid-flight by automated defense lasers, the several remaining failing to penetrate the cruiser's armor to do any significant damage. However, as the ships exchanged several more volleys, it became apparent that the Human cruiser was both outweighed and outclassed.

In a desperate attempt to save its remaining crew and assets the Humans sent all remaining drop ships to the planet's surface, and despite the Amarant blowing several of them apart mid-flight, Natara saw a dozen or so ships break the orbit of the planet.

In four more volleys the fight was over. Detrati suffered minor damage to its phase engine and its shield systems needed recharging, however no crew was reported killed or missing. The Human Cruiser was reduced to a scattered pile of debris slowly hovering on the planet’s orbit, wrecked and devoid of life. Natara sneered as she read the name of the ship on one of the charred and blackened plates of metal – “Victor”.

Natara did not like to engage the enemies on ground, where losses could be inevitable. However this time full orbital bombardment was not an option. The source of the signal needed to remain intact. She sighed and tapped the comms button: “Ventris, prepare for ground assault in two hours. Standard attack pattern. No survivors. Use of seismic or gravity weapons limited to ground vehicles and infantry”.

Deep inside her heart, she suddenly thought that this operation would be different, and the world that she knew would never be the same. She waved away that thought and raised. She had work to do.

End.