《Resistance is Futile》


 Prologue

    Resistance is Futile


    2336


    G-L32 is my title. I go by G¡¯ell though, pronounce it how you like, it doesn¡¯t matter.


    I was born like the rest of the human race this era, with my abilities. I can manipulate the world around me, using the Strand to do it, like the old telekinesis ¡°superpowers¡± the old humans used to entertain themselves with.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    As of only recently, within the last 20 years, the Ul¡¯Katoin ripped open space to take our planets. However, they didn¡¯t expect our resistance. They are stronger than us, faster, and far, far more adaptable and enduring. Humanity however, can use technology. Wherever they lay their roots, we burn them away with plasma and radiation. But where we lay down our foundations in their world, they snuff out our light with their vines and tendrils.


    And with the Jhar Empyrean and other space-faring empires keeping their borders tight, we have nowhere else to expand to.


    Humanity finds a way, and our soldiers will bring the fury of a Nebulean storm upon the Hellscape the Ul¡¯Katoin call home.


    And I am one of those soldiers.

 Chapter 1

    ¡°This is a dumb idea.¡± I was really not looking forward to having to do this.


    ¡°Come on, this will be fun! This is your last day of leave, and you should try it out¡± S¡¯kay bounced from foot to foot, on the planet of Eon, which orbited Sirius, one of the 3 planets, with four moons orbiting it. The enormous dome held an entire city, completely self-sufficient. Humans androids and even a few million Cellic. Cellic were a sentient species such as us humans, they were still mucking around in tribes on their homeworld of Feyu when they were discovered half a century ago. Nearly all of them had adjusted to life in modern society, but their traditions remained.


    The natural atmosphere of Eon was thick, and had slightly below average gravity. Given gliding suits, one could fly through the air rather easily. That was what S¡¯kay was attempting to convince me to do with her.


    ¡°Fine, but I already told you, it¡¯s not going to be worth my Currents.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see soldier boy¡­¡± She took me by the hand and dragged me to the registration counter. After a short two minute line, we got through, and ot the suits. Slipping my arms into the wing-like mechanics, and donning the thin vibra-film suit that was both sturdy and comfortable. It was the barrier between air I could breathe, and the atmosphere of Eon that would clog my lungs like a liquid. The air was a light yellow, and I couldn¡¯t see very far through it all, but enough to be able to react to obstacles and such. I lifted off with some turbo jets, and then as I began flapping my ¡®wings¡¯, and began flying away.


    It was worth the currents. The feeling of flying through the air of my own will was exhilarating and exciting. The murky yellow atmosphere resembled the now yellowing paper of olden times, except diluted and sort of watered down. The blue flames of the jets propelled me through the surprisingly habitable temperatures of this planet¡¯s surface. The chilly atmosphere resembled that of a cold area of Earth, only a negative 28 degrees celsius. The thick air provided extremely stiff resistance, or rather, it would have, except for the quite recent technological innovation of minitiarizable energy shielding. The foot long chrome oval upon the back of the glider suit, provided an aerodynamic shield that let me cut through the thick, resistant, and crushing atmosphere like the artificial butter that was common in The United Governments. Normal animal products were quite rare, and a mild taboo. The overwhelming majority of meat and animal products were grown in growth chambers, at the expense of no animals or livestock.


    Then I reached a planetary landmark, the mushroom forests. Enormous but proportionally short fungi covered the landscape with their wide tops. The largely purple but black mottled shrooms held an enormous amount of biodiversity and life. The most common among these was the multiple species of Silac, lizards with six bat-like wings, and a snail-like foot. They blended in with the yellow skies, and could be anywhere from the size of my hand to the size of my 6 foot physique, the genetically engineered height for all humans. Some people choose to be taller or shorter, but most stay the same height. My piercing brown eyes scanned the ¡®treeline¡¯, and I saw a few Colo¡¯s, one of the most unique creatures ever encountered. They were thick orbs containing their organs, with various tentacles that were both limbs and sensory organs. They would swing and stick around the large shrooms. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    The massive fungi themselves were rather different than those of the mother planet. They had five thin stalks they balanced upon, and emit their spores from the location where the stalks merged into one. Their, there was a small hole, where seed pods dropped out of randomly. These seed pods would be eaten by various wildlife. Then, the outermost layers of the pod would be digested to make it worth the animal¡¯s effort, and a small, hard, spore launcher would be shit out. The launcher would release clouds of spores that flew with the wind, most never making another tree. The ecosystem of the mushroom forests were complex and constantly changing.


    Then just as soon as it had come, an hour later, it was no longer visible. I spent a few more hours gliding before I reached the halfway point on my fuel, and began to return. On the return I flew over the Felios sea. The massive body of water was frozen over year round, and contained large amounts of life. Flying over the massive sea I saw a large glacier, and decided to have some fun.


    I focused on a large icycle, and connected to The Strand. I connected the middle of icycle and my hand, using a psychedelic, rainbow like tether, and started to hover using my gliding suit. I pulled my hand back hard, and felt the tether strain. I channeled more energy into it, and pulled a little harder.


    ¡°Shit this won¡¯t move.¡± I heaved my arm back, and the icycle came flying. I slowed it down through the tether, it coming to a stop before me.


    It was beautiful. The watery surface was mixed with the helium bubbles that comprised a large part of the extremely dense air. It had to be 12 feet long, at least. I lifted it without a movement of my hand, and observed it more through the sunlight.


    I then thrust my hand rapidly forward, like throwing a spear. The thick shard of ice flew, the tether having flung it before I snapped said tether. It flew threw the air at insane speeds, shattering on contact with the sea surface over 100 feet way in half a second. Satisfied, I stopped hovering, and begun to speed off, the wings flapping more to compensate for the slight loss of fuel for the primary engines. As I flew away, the cracked ice shimmered and glistened, cracks having spread in a similar pattern to the shards of what was left of the pummeled icycle.


    I came back a bit over a minute after S¡¯Kay. She was ecstatic, and had a smile from ear to ear.


    ¡°That was so much fun! We neeed to do that again!¡± She squealed.


    ¡°It was fun, but I don¡¯t think I can before my leave time ends. Maybe the next time I come on leave, but you know we have to take that trip to Io!¡± I sighed. ¡°Those apartments are booked months in advance, let alone the ticket prices to get there!¡± After the big Jhar Empyrean invasion 41 years ago, the military bought as many commercial transports as they could, and commandeered them and a third of theirs into military vessels. We won that short war, our tech was extremely advanced, and we had stronger troops. We had only taken one system from them, but it was now the primary defense point against the Jhar, and a powerful military system. I had visited it personally multiple times, and Tau Ceti was one of the most powerful systems in the UG.

 Chapter 2

    One day later¡­


    I took the air-borne atmospheric transport system to the space elevator, traveling mach 7 through a shield bubble enclosed mag-lift railway. In the rapidly approaching distance, I could see the space elevator. A tall metallic, shimmering tower stretching up into space, and as my eyes followed it upwards, I saw the Karlsson Ring that looped the planet. Designed by one of the most ingenious engineers to ever grace the UG, now 237 years old, was Stephan Karlsson. He had helped to create one of the most important architectural discoveries, ever. The ring was completely self sufficient, with immense and numerous shipyards and docking stations dotted throughout, and each housing roughly one billion people on average. They held schools, food dispensaries, everything. Not only that, they were donned with innumerable plasma beam turrets, kinetic rammers, and the most powerful shields the military could make. It was often given the prize of the largest reason the Jhar invasion was a complete failure, and why nothing similar has ever been attempted. The worst that has been attempted are the occasional attempts at stealing technology and other quick raids by the Guillom. However, they cannot withstand some overwhelming attacks, and cannot fire on the surface. In addition they take over 50 years to construct, and cannot fire upon any planets, their own included. The expense of one is simply immense and truly inconceivable.


    ¡°Sir. Please.¡± Shaking my head, I throw away those thoughts and pay attention to the real world. I¡¯m a fucking idiot. A small droid is tapping my shoulder, with mild concern in its voice.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, excuse my daydreaming.¡± I stand, and leave the public transport. As I glance around, the ¡®small¡¯ lip protruding from the immense tower supported the thousands of people standing on it exiting the multiple trains. All the way up here, the air was far clearer, essentially being a near-completely transparent gold-like color. I began to jog over to one of the enormous elevators. Within the hour, I was launched upwards. The elevator tore through the vacuum in the lift chamber, going insane speeds, about 1/100 the speed of light. In only a minute or so, the passengers aboard were at the Karlsson ring.


    As I stepped out, I opened my fist. In my palm was a small disk that was surgically implemented in my hand. I watched as it flashed a hologram in front of me, that only I could see. It showed the directions to my space port, only cleared for military personnel. In the thick haze of people, I didn''t want to walk. Using my training from the military, a thin, rainbowy film stretched over my body. I tuned out of my Strand sight, and took off flying towards my port. The tens of thousands of people I passed over set their eyes on me. This was a rare sight, something only military or ex-military could train you to do. Stunts like this were permitted by the military only because it made more people enlist.


    Within ten minutes I landed down at my port.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± I pushed out of my mouth like trying to spit up that feeling in the back of my throat as I felt Strand exertion tug at my frontal lobe. It was a sort of firm pulling sensation, sort of like the second after one sneezes except worse and it sticks around for much longer. A Cellic walked up to me, giving me a hand up. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    He was an old friend of mine, Cellic were far more common in the military, having only recently come out of the tribal age, they still had strong militaristic traditions. He was taller than any normal human, 7¡¯ 7¡±. He was bipedal, like humans, with knees that bend both ways. He had four thin toes, all having short claws on the end. Cellic didn''t really have soles of their feet, their feet more looking like the body of an octopus. They split evenly in four directions, and stuck to the ground. Strong, smooth scales covered their bodies, and protected them well. However, they had far weaker skeletons, and were thinner than humans. Cellic rarely wore shirts or upper body wear. His bare chest revealed black traditional markings on his scales, and more of his maroon scales that camoflauged him in the jungle world his species evolved on. Cellic arms were thin, but dense with muscle, although humans were stronger pound for pound. Cellic heads were thin and crocodilian, however their muzzles more resembled dog muzzles, more squat and thick. He had the most common color eye of a light red background, and yellow pupils. Their heads were hairless, although they did have short fins on the top of their heads that stretched down to their 3 foot tails that were very thin and flexible, like a mouse¡¯s. The tail of a Cellic split into two ends halfway through, and helped them balance, but also made them seem larger, probaby to scare off predators.


    I gave him a firm, quick hug. Cellic had similar vocal cords to humans, although their voices were considerably deeper and naturally had trouble with l¡¯s, although a little help and focus quickly fixed that issue.


    ¡°Ah, my old friend, coming off leave, yes?¡± He asked, his voice reminiscent of the russian accents of old. We had been friends for some 20 or so years. I was 42 years old, but it was like I was 23, thanks to some advanced and high-tech age slowing. ¡°Our squadron is being deployed to the Ul¡¯Katoin front again. I must tell you,¡± He lowered his voice. ¡°That a new portal has opened in Epsilon Indi, thankfully they only attck that one system. This time however, it is on Fytlin, and they are launching a ground campaign to not only take the portal, but attempt to set up a permanent outpost on the other side.¡±


    ¡°Shit. How long will the journey be?¡±


    ¡°It should only take a week, we are using the Mag Highway to get there.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll notify some friends, see you on the ship in 20.¡± We parted ways, and I told S¡¯Kay and a few other friends that I would likely not go on leave for a while. I also held back my tickets to Io, which was allowed for military personell in rare circumstances. I then had to race back to our ship, and it lifted off.


    The ship resembled a 3-D oval with two large engines near the back, and two large fish like fins that helped with manuverability and extra speed, solar sails. It also had a large disk on the ¡®top¡¯, which allowed it to access the speedy trasportation that was the Mag highway. The ship only had one large plasma lancer, and two kinetic batteries.


    The engines began to burn, and suddenly we were launched off, inertial capacitors keeping us steady. The ship began to quickly spin as well, and within the hour we had gravity. I roaed around for a bit, talking with the other occupants, and noticed something.


    We were all top notch, highly experienced veterans of combat. Something was wrong. Something horrible had happened. The UG never put all their eggs in one basket, at least not since 8 years ago. Since the Ul¡¯Katoin brought in new soldiers.

 Chapter 3

    A week later¡­


    The ship I was on stopped at the orbiting station around Fytlin, and I stormed off the ship, already fully equipped and ready for battle.


    I was wearing the Mark IV nano-particulate suit. It was made of nanoplates that intersected and connected with one another, each one perfectly placed and movable to better cover up wounded areas. It was a royal purple and vibrant blue, with customizable patterns, allowing for recognition of troops when their face wasn¡¯t visible. I also was wearing the shield gauntlet, a thicker section of armor on my right hand that provided a large mobile shield. On my left arm I had a Grenade launcher that provided my own artillery when needed. My boots had jump jets for maneuverability. I held a Plasma spitter, incredibly effective against the cold-loving Ul-Katoin. I also had an energy lance, for when the Ul¡¯Katoin finally reached us in their heavy-casualty charge. On my waist I had an Inertial launcher. The Ul¡¯Katoin had extremely sturdy exoseletons so they didn¡¯t pack as much of a punch compared to most other life and starships, but were still effective, highly so.


    Me and my squad rushed to fill an empty drop pod, and were dropped onto Fytlin the moment our squad was buckled in. The strong inertial dampeners couldn¡¯t protect from all of the g-force though, so it was still downright painful. My body felt stretched, and I grit my teeth. A minute later, seconds before landing, dozens of chemicals were injected into me, only one working immediately. As we crashed into the firm soil of Fytlin, The pod shook, and it HURT. My body took the full force impact, feeling like I had crunched. I got up soon, pain nullifiers and g-force dampeners in my bloodstream helping. A few others in my squad took deep breaths, and then followed J¡¯jay out, another human. Tyren and H¡¯eff followed him, Tyren and I had spent far too much war time together to be lost here, so I followed after. My ears met the sound of plasma blasts and gunfire. I stormed out into the battlefield with trenches dug from orbital pinpoint lasers. I slid into one, and then lifted my Plasma launcher to my head, and looked down the sight.


    Zooming in, I¡¯m horrified. ¡°Fuck, what are those.¡± Over a mile away were tall, beasts. The Ul¡¯Katoin was the name of a conglomeration of species from the alternate dimension laying siege to ours. Out of the enormous portal in the background poured the Avian Ul, Runner Ul, and these new creatures. The Avian Ul were horrific, dozens of feet long bodies shaped like crescents. They had eight long insectile arms that would grab and rip starships up with their powerful claws. They also had hundreds of tentacles that stretched out longer than the human body for consuming material and they could be released as worms that would rip apart infantry on the ground. Like all Ul, they were a sickening mottled green and orange. The Runner Ul were only three feet long, and resembled large ants. Except these had long tails, a thick, hard exoskeleton and could spit acid from their mouths. They could run at 60 miles an hour, and hit like a small hover bike.


    These new creatures however, were ugly. They were bipedal, 9 feet tall, and insectile like the other Ul. They had big sharp beaks, and long arms. Small pointed horns came from their head, resembling the spikes on the elbows of their arms. They had a second set of much smaller arms with two small claws. Their legs were long as well, and had double-jointed knees. In between their legs was a thick aquatic looking tail. They had small, yellow-green eyes. Their fingers and toes ended in sharp claws, and looked deadly.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    I gripped my rifle a little tighter, and waited for them to come. Snipers were already taking shots at the assembling crowd. Starships were already in deep aerial combat with the Avians. We were winning, but the ships were still being torn apart by the rapidly advancing Avians, surging forward through terrifying casualties.


    Then, after all the pods were down mere seconds later, the orbital bombardment began. Long metallic rods slammed into the hordes of Ul¡¯Katoin, and plasma beams pierced through the multiple brains and hearts of the Avians. Through my scope, I saw the new creatures pause, turn their heads upwards, and screamed. I couldn¡¯t hear it from here, but it was like they had begun the battle only now.


    Then they began sprinting full speed towards us. Arms swinging and legs pushing off the ground, showing off some rather spectacular musculature. The runners were going about twice the new creatures speed, and in only a few seconds, I began to fire.


    Needles of plasma leaped out of my gun, eight a second, and nearly instantly hitting the wave of enemies. The flood approached, albeit at a seemingly slower pace as line after line of runners fell, taking an average of two needles. Millions of Ul¡¯Katoin were dying by the seconds, but it wasn¡¯t enough. By the time I had run out of ammo in my gun twice, they were here.


    The wave slammed into the shield barrier just before the trenches. The pure kinetic energy killed thousands, the line stretching as far as I could see in both directions. The shield shimmered blue, and then snapped away, overloaded. At that point, the orbiting starships fired again, Enormous orbs of plasma melting dozens at a time, and tungsten rods killing hundreds more. By the end of the bombardment, nearly all of the runners were dead. And over three quarters of the new beasts. But that only meant we weren¡¯t guaranteed a death sentence. Despite these horrible odds, the chemicals kept my emotions steady. Through all of this I hadn¡¯t stopped firing. Soon, the shield was penetrated though, and I dropped my gun. I swung out my energy lance. I fired off ten rounds into the air from my grenade launcher, and then activated my arm shield.


    Cluster bombs tore through the ranks of the Ul¡¯Katoin, but then they were in the trenches. I stabbed at one of the new beasts, my plasma coated blade slicing through the thick exoskeleton. It died immediately, flopping to the ground. Through the Strand I tethered two of the new Ul¡¯Katoin, snapping their necks. Thick, acidic orange blood covered the trench. I was blindsided by two right after, one tearing its chest apart on my energy lance, the other jumping right on my and snapping at my armor, leaving deep scratches, and drawing some of my own blood through the armor. In my Strand sight I saw the beast. I tethered both sides of it¡¯s open maw, and tore it¡¯s head apart, ripping it by it¡¯s jaw. The gore was incredible, muscle fibers tearing and snapping, bone crunching. Then more jumped on me. Three tearing at me under the shield bubble I had created, the shield flashing blue where they struck it.


    I stabbed at them with my energy lance, but they kept jumping on top. I shot a burst of Strand energy outward, knocking each one on their ass. I whipped out my Inertial launcher, and shot each in the head, crunching through their heads.


    I swung my lance around, slicing through the chest of another Ul¡¯Katoin. As the dust settled, I knelt down, my armor the only thing keeping my skin from melting by the Ul¡¯Katoin blood.


    ¡°AH!¡± I screamed, falling completely and clutching at my head. The Strand exertion ripping at my head. The world slowly turned black, as I began to fade into unconsciousness.

 Chapter 4

    Chemicals flooded my veins. A powerful stimulant, picking up my whole body. My eyes turned a sickening green-yellow. The universe leapt around in front of me, figures bouncing and moving around as I stood up. The world swam, and then suddenly sharpened. I saw everything. I took a deep breath, and jumped out of the trench. Corpses flashed by as I charged the dimensional portal. The rip in space pulsated in resemblance of a beating heart ripped out of some demonic beast. I charged at it, the portal being guarded by immense beasts. Enormous beetle like creatures with innumerable vines where their mouth should be, and hundreds of them are guarding the portal. On the run, my Plasma spitter was reloaded. I pointed it at the Beetle Ul and fired. The small needles burned scars into the beasts, who seemed barely bothered by them. The 230 foot beasts swept out their 46 foot tentacles, the closest ones nearly hitting me.


    I tried an advanced technique with my Strand abilities, all prior Strand exertion gone, like it was never there. My body was flooded with Strand energy through every orpheus, a little pooling in every cell, and I transferred into the Strand. The home dimension blurred and shimmered beneath a veil of rainbowy energy, largely a neon yellow. Hundreds of bubbles containing colors I could not normally see filled this dimension, beautiful beyond words. If purple was a mix of blue and red, then a color resembled a mix of green and orange, but that is the best I can describe it. It was truly indescribable. I peered into my home dimension seeing myself get to a safer location. In this malleable dimension, I ripped a path from here to the home dimension.


    A blurry portal spit me back out onto the battlefield, and closed behind me. I flew under one of the immense beasts powered by my jump jets. I unloaded round after round into the thing. It¡¯s softer underbelly was shredded under the heat of the plasma. I heard it scream and squeal as more of my fellow soldiers followed suit. Suddenly, I was out from underneath it. I landed, sliding into the ground a bit as my feet dug in.


    ¡°I need an airstrike, pronto! Fire Heavy shells as close as you can to the portal without destroying it. Beetles are tearing us apart over here!¡± Just then I saw runners come through the portal, charging at the soldiers underneath the Beetles.


    ¡°We cannot provide orbital bombardment, the Avians are ripping apart our ships as well. However we are winning, expect bombardment in about five or ten minutes.¡±


    ¡°We may not be around by then.¡± I said, blasting away runners attempting to maul me into the stony ground. I froze two in the air, and tossed them into a group of eight more with my Strand tethers. Using the 20 seconds or so I had, I stormed the breach. I launched grenade after grenade into groups of runners. R¡¯Yu took up position behind me as I reloaded, firing a heavy Shredder Gun into the enemy ranks, flak-like miniature shells launched from the three barrels of the gun rapidly. The runners were ripped apart, chunks of flesh ripping off their bodies as the Amilian Alloy shards spread acidic blood, and twitching muscle fibers. Like a billion tiny claws ripping apart a steak. I got back up, R¡¯yu continuing to spray at the runners. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    I launched another grenade, and seeing a streak of green to my right. I activated my personal shield just in time. It immediately overloaded, completely shattering. I took off across the battlefield, skipping like a rock across calm waters over the stony ground. The vine from an enormous beetle had broken all of my ribs and the ground broke my back and neck. I eventually came to a stop, feeling my bones painfully reconnecting, and the bone shards being taken apart from the nanobots in my bloodstream. I lay still as my armor shifted, putting the bones back into place, and sub-foam replacing the shards that were in my body, now released in a powdery form from my waste holes, a horrible sensation. As of the moment, I was completely immobile, from having my spinal cord torn in multiple places, but soon a light appeared, shining in my eyes. Stem cells were injected into my back, replacing the dead nervous system cells.


    Suddenly I sat up, a metal hand on my shoulder. ¡°Go get ¡®em pal, kill those dirty bastards!¡± The medic bot chirped. I slowly left the battlefield ambulance. I entered into a slow jog, an hour had passed since I was hit. Thankfully, by then the battle had almost been won. Otherwise, runners would have come for me. I skidded to a stop, my eyes drifting upwards at the portal. The rip in space was surrounded by a tightly fitting metal frame, made of the same stuff as capital ships. I ran through, now with urgency. As I touched the portal, I felt resistance. I pushed through, finding the Strand. This was the in-between dimension, and the tunnel between the two realities was already being built up and reinforced. An orb-like hangar was filled to the brim with Aerial fighters. I floated through the tunnel, guarded by hundreds of turrets and androids, ready to target and kill any hostiles. Androids were never used on the offensive because it was near-impossible for them to make quick decisions in a scenario that wasn¡¯t pre-programmed for. But they were excellent for defense. I emerged onto the other side, seeing the Ul dimension for the first time. It was strange. I learned through my map, that I was on a massive platform of life.


    There was an enormous jungle like ball surrounding a ¡®sun¡¯ like a dyson sphere. There were multitudes of layers, and the ground was entirely plant life. The plants resembled vines and ivy, not any real trees, just eormous twisting assmeblies of plant matter. And it was hostile. There was a plasma sphere set up, protecting the base sitting upon a strange crystal-like material, made from nanites.


    A type of highly controlled Grey Goo had been released, turning the uninhabitable and unstable plant matter into the odd crystal formations. This entire dimension was hostile. The base was like a giant dome anchored into the crystal, and multiple defense turrets had been set up.


    The stars in this dimension were entirely a new thing. These were balls of black plasma, made of millions upon millions of strands of magnetically guided pillars of plasma. The cores of the uns from what could be observed and guessed were strange ever shifting balls of intensly heated but solid matter. Highly magnetic, but the magnetic fields were everywere.


    Time worked differently in this dimension, seeming to pass slightly slower, roughly every 11.1213 seconds in the home dimension was 10 seconds here.


    I was supposed to stay at this base for a little while, until more of a foothold could be established. As it was, turrets were melting away any infantry and ships were tearing apart the avians. But the biodiversity here was as diverse as that of Earth. This was a whole new universe to explore, and I got to be witness to the first part of said exploration.

 Chapter 5

    I laid down in my bunk, the chemicals always took a toll, especially that stimulant. It was sadly extremely addictive and deadly. It was even made partially of Ul¡¯Katoin fluids. I suffered through the pain, looking directly up, thankfully only for a short bit of time, before the sleep meds kicked in, and I blanked out peacefully.


    My dreams swam in and out of comprehensibility, the universe seeming to turn inside out, and logic disappeared. The world grew dark and cold, then bright and hot, and endless siege of the limits of what my senses could take. Unimaginable pleasure and pain, a light so bright the universe got as dark as a black hole, a sound so loud, low, high, and quiet it burned and twisted my ears. A taste so revolting yet enticing that I was lost in a sea of temptation and disgust, and a smell that was worse than I could imagine, but smelled heavenly at the same time. My mind felt as though it was stretched and torn, I was unable to move. Then suddenly reality snapped back into coherence, and I woke from my tripped-out dream.


    I was sweating everywhere I could sweat, and I felt ice cold, although I knew I was burning hot. I passed out yet again.


    Waking up, I took a nice warm shower and found it had been 73 hours since I passed out for the first time. The chemicals really did a fucking number on me. But to beat the monsters, you had to become a monster. Shaking my head as I cleared my head, and put on my military clothes. A thin, comfortable, and form fitting jumpsuit. Mine was a light blue, like Hawaiian waters, with light green highlights and details, the same color of pine needles. I then donned my nano suit, now fixed up from after battle. It was the standard purple blue coloration of the UG, and my helmet visor was a deep orange. I took a Plasma spitter, and inertial launcher, and an energy lance. I left to go out on patrol, but was stopped by the guard of the armory.


    ¡°Go grab a sludger, you have to burn down one of the bigger vines we''ve seen yet. Are you doing okay, you look a bit hazy.¡± Concern was evident in his voice.


    ¡°I think I might¡¯ve chem od¡¯d a bit, but I should be fine. Just slept for 73 hours.¡± I replied, knowing I should still be sleeping, but honesty was important to me.


    ¡°Ouch. Go kick some plant ass, and dude, get some sleep.¡± The guard said as she let me leave reluctantly.


    ¡°Thanks.¡± I said, getting into a jog and grabbing the sludger. It was a heavy-duty gun, used for burning away Ul¡¯Katoin undergrowth and sometimes low-altitude carpet bombing. It was the size of an old school minigun, and weighed about twice as much. Massive air vents lined the side, heating the atmosphere to a consistency of magma, and vomiting it out onto whatever was beneath or a maximum of 15 feet in front of the gun. During the Jhar invasion, these were put on fighters that when used in squadrons of 100 would melt an unshielded cruiser down to scrap in less than ten minutes minimum.


    I flew over to and began hovering over a section of the vine I was assigned, it seeming to recoil from the intense heat of other sludgers. I began spraying, the molten air condensed by magnetic fields emitted from the sludger, melting through enormous amounts of plant matter and dripping onto the ground beneath, or whatever was considered ground here. The plasma fizzled, and after getting out of the range of the sludger¡¯s mag fields, it burst, crackling in the air, fizzling back into the atmosphere. The technology was far more complicated than that, that explanation being an extremely dumbed down version of what I knew of the gun. I heard screeching. Thousands of the newly dubbed Hunter Ul charged out of the undergrowth. Automatic LMG turrets locked on and began to fire. The fire rate increased rapidly, mowing down the Ul, but not well enough. They took the kinetic energy well, bullets sinking into their flesh, slowly moving through them, and then coming out the other side, minimizing damage to the Ul, the reason plasma was the primary weapon against them.


    The Ul got closer and closer, to the point where a full retreat was ordered. I flew off, watching turrets get torn apart, metal ripped and torn by beaks and claws. That attack would set back progress for a few days. We couldn¡¯t afford this, these attacks were becoming more frequent and harder to push back. But until we figured out how to expand the portal, we couldn¡¯t bring our really heavy weapons in. Only small ships could come through, and while some bigger ships were being built, it wasn¡¯t quite enough. I got back to base, which was still very well defended and fortified, far too entrenched to be attacked by anything less than a full army of gargantuan proportions. LMG turrets, plasma beamers, and the rarest weapon in the UG. Fission and Nuclear weaponry. A few straight-up fucking nukes, and far more complex weapons I could barely understand. Such as the massive ADRR, cannon. It stood for Atomic Deconstruction and Rapid Release. AI would designate a small area, deconstruct the atoms in hundreds of ways hundreds of times in the span of less than a second, and then release the energy from that in a targeted direction.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    The energy prior to being released would form a miniature sun, incinerating the area around it. Still don¡¯t understand how it is all done, but it is destructive. These immense superweapons were immensely hard to build, and nigh impossible to move to another place. Usually if one of these beasts was moving, it was because it was on a planetary defense station in the big five systems, or it was on one of two Atom-class ships. The Quark, was on constant defensive duty at the Jhar Empyrean-UG border. The other, the Neutron, was on constant patrol in the core systems, Sol, Alpha Centauri, Barnard¡¯s star, Wolf 1, and Sirius. It kept away pirates from the heart of the empire and made it impossible for incursions from the Ul a wasted endeavor. One more was in construction, the Proton. This would be a smaller one than the others, but built with sturdier materials, and upgradable frame, and the best point defense and engine systems we could conceive of.


    As I returned to base, I refilled my sludger and took a quick three hour nap. I woke back up, and looked at the current situation. There were a few new deaths from a wicked push of an unsuspected army. However, this left a new sector for extermination. Our push had burned away another few dozen square miles so far, of which half was already crystallized, while the other half was being guarded, and burning out any scraps of living plant life that tried to crawl in. I went to an exit, the guard pointing me to another area that was a densly forested thicket full of Ul¡¯Katoin guerilla troops that had been harassing our troops. I took my Plasma Spitter my inertial launcher, and a scouting exoskeleton.


    An hour later my cloak was depoyed as I cautiously snuck through the canopy. I stood still for a second, listening to the surroundings. I heard warbling calls from some of the odd creatures here. The odd atomosphere of surprisingly similar air to Earth itself carried the sound well, so I had to move quietly. I closed my eyes, stretching my mind. A sonar of Strand energy formed, sweeping through the trees, detecting a few Hunter Ul, and a bit of the natural wildlife not connected to the hive mind here. I slowly floated from the trees, restraining myself as the still shoddy cloaking systems barely kept to my form, it was the best we had and it kind of fucking sucked. I tapped the ground lightly, soundless, and lowered myself as the cloaking stabilized leaving only a strange sort of bulge in the air. I moved slowly, approaching the crawling hunters, their lower arms curled close to their bodies, but that isn¡¯t what drew my attention. They had made tools. Long quaterstaffs of the surrounding wood like material were hung around their backs. They had spikes on small knobs at the end, looking deadly, and could absolutely hurt me through the relatively weak armor. I slowly took out my inertial launcher, keeping it close to the ground and my body as possible, as it wasnt cloaked, however some of the cloaking effect touched it as long as it was close enough to my body.


    I slowly aimed towars the left eye of the leftmost Hunter. As the center one blinked, I took the shot. A loud deep Voooom sound could be heard for a few hundred feet as the round smashed into it¡¯s eye, and stuck firmly inside the skull, catching on a thicker bit of bone, as it¡¯s thick brain tissue slowed it quickly enough to not go out the other side. The Ul immediately rushed to it, one checking where the round went to see if it could decipher direction, only knowing it came from in front of them, and not any particular direction due to the lack of a hole in it¡¯s head.They were both guarding themselves vigilantly, eyes locked in the area I lay in. Their quarterstaffs were out, and shifting in their hands. Eyes darted around, and the secondary set of arms was twitching and flicking around.


    I took out my plasma spitter, knowing that with their heads always on the move I couldn¡¯t get another clean shot. I got up quickly, leaving the cloaking system on as the center one saw a gun emerge from a bulge in the air, sensing soething amiss and charging, I fired. Four quick plasma plinters shot into its chest, it falling to the ground as the other one got close enough and swung at the bulge in the air. Making a solid hit, it smashed into my shielding, the shields on the border of shattering. I flung it away with Strand energy, as a loose blast was let out from my body, sending it flying through the air, tumbling and landing on it¡¯s feet, charging again, took seven to the head and torso. All of them dead, I moved the bodies into some denser bits of shrubbery, and sat still for a moment, letting my shields recharge, re-activating my sonar, and allowing my cloak to settle once more.


    Ten more running this way. And fast.

 Chapter 6

    I laid low, and crept through the bushes. The hive mind couldn¡¯t communicate everything, but it could communicate that I was here, and alone. I saw that these guys also had quarterstaffs, and two had what appeared to be a hammer, and one had something resembling a sword. Shit.


    I slowly moved my hand down towards my gun belt, and slowly and methodically took out a small WireNade. There was no chance I could just roll it into the middle of them without them noticing and losing the element of surprise. I slowly moved away, not turning my back to the small group. They continued to sniff around the nearby jungle, and closely inspect the bodies, or guard the ones inspecting the bodies. I then threw a rock at my feet, they all noticed the noise and looked to where the rock could¡¯ve come from, and three split off from the group to go near where they heard the sound and check out the area. I then threw a small rock in the air, and all but one ran over to where it was. I dropped the WireNade, and slipped behind the tree behind me.


    I took all power from my cloaking and diverted it to my shields, and put all my shields on my back. As one saw me, opening its beak and charging, the others followed. Then tiny wires erupted from the small ball I¡¯d dropped, slicing at the world around it, Slicing into the tree I was behind, as my shields flickered with each small slice that made it through the tree. One second later, the barrage stopped. It was a bloody mess of orange and melting foliage.


    There were a few remnants of what they were, and the last Hunter, seeing the gore had stopped charged me. This was the one with the sword, probably the smarter of the bunch. My shields on 25% energy reformed over my body, and I ducked as the Hunter swiped the blade over my head, and brought it down again, trying to slice through my shields. I barely managed to dodge out of the way, again as the red and speckled orange wood swished past my face. I lunged forward, punching the thing.


    It caught the punch. And threw me, one handed into the tree I had hidden behind. I rolled out of the way as a  blade came right past my ear. A Strand tentacle smacked the motherfucker away, and sent it tumbling, but it just landed on its feet, and this time, picked up a nearby branch and threw it like a javelin.


    At this point I was on my feet, and sidestepped the flying weapon. A thin blade swun from my suit¡¯s wrist, and ignited with plasma. The charging beast was already at me, and swung again. I jumped forwards, into the creature, stabbing it through, and dodging the blade. Before it could snap it¡¯s beak at my helmet, I drove the blade upwards and through it, coming out the shoulder. The arm holding the sword went limp, along with the rest of it. As it fell to the ground, I stabbed the blade and watched it¡¯s still tense lower arms truly go limp.


    The motherfucker was playing dead, they were getting smarter. Or here they were smarter, or I don''t know. I left three plasma grenades on the ground, and ran. I sprinted through the foliage, hearing the plasma release into the jungle, and starting a hot burning, rapidly spreading forest fire. As I emerged from the forest, I didn¡¯t stop running until I was on my rescue fighter.


    As we passed, we dropped some more magma on the foliage, and by the time we were back, I realized how big an issue this was.


    This was an enormous issue, I barely got out with the element of surprise and the most advanced gear we had. Why were they now using tools? Was this a new hive mind, what was going on? As I landed, I requested an immediate, meeting with a high level management bot, which was allowed. I walked to a room in the building, and put on a small visor.


    I was in a large white room. Across from me in the bleak furnitureless atmosphere was another human, although I knew that was just an illusion. What was standing in front of me was a hyper complex series of wires and computer chips. Hyper-thin pieces of technology, and all of this built within a day using a plethora of pre-assembled pieces. ¡°How are you today, G¡¯ell?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m doing pretty badly, the Hunter Ul have figured out basic wooden tools.¡±


    ¡°Repeat please¡±


    ¡°The Hunter Ul have made wooden quarterstaffs, hammers and one had a sword, and was acting intelligent as me, almost killed me.¡± I repeated, sensing the impact of the statement as the supercomputer took a whole second and a half to process this. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°That is not good. I¡¯ve come up with over a dozen possible and feasible possibilities for this. I will send a messenger back to Earth itself to have this information processed. It¡¯s eyes glossed over, as in seconds, it had hacked my suit. It took not even half of a second to break through the advanced firewall, accessing my files and the suits memories. ¡°This is not good. They are getting better. Much better. I have sent the messenger now.¡±


    The visor disconnected from my head, and I walked out, dazed. I had nothing to do, so I was going to sleep off some more fatigue.


    After a 9 hour rest, I reported for something to do.


    ¡°You again,¡± The guard asked, a bit puzzled. ¡°Most people aren¡¯t this¡­ energetic I guess.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m bored, what¡¯s available.¡±


    ¡°Go out there and be ready in case of another push from those Ul bastards, they haven¡¯t attacked in a while. Check in with those in the field to see if anyone needs anything.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± I muttered, getting in a patrol floater, revving it up, the magnetic boosters, lifting it off the metallic floor, and then the plasma jets activating, propelling me forward. I cut through the atmosphere of the dimension surveying the area. Nobody was in need of help, and nothing too significant was happening. There were dozens more in the sky like me looking for things to do.


    I flew around like this for another half hour, before an army stormed from the brush. And another. Each on opposite sides of the base. I flew to the smaller one, expecting the others on patrol to take care of the bigger army. Two chainguns popped out of the bottom of the disk shaped structure resembling an elongated UFO with no prominent bulge on top. I flew over the crowd, strafing the army, the heated metal shells cutting through the Ul and covering the ground in bodies and gore. I was running out of ammo extremely quick, I only had enough ammo for five more strafes like that.


    The long range railguns and the far shorter range plasma lancers were taking shots when they could at the Avians.


    An echoing warning rang through my helmet and ship.


    RED ALERT LARGE UNKNOWN FLEET SPOTTED. I immediately flew back to base, knowing that some other empire must have made their way into the dimension, somehow. If I was out there for too long I would be shot down. Then I saw the ADRR fire. The magnificent bolt of energy emerged, bouncing off atoms towards it¡¯s target like a thin controlled lightning strike. My eyes followed the beam, as it soared into what was¡­ not a ship. An enormous fleshy bulb. Like another Ul. Except it was massive, the size of a cruiser. I looked past it seeing dozens more.


    I called HQ, in a panic. ¡°What the fuck are you shooting at?¡±


    ¡°Shut the hell up soldier, go back to base and await orders!¡± I put more pressure on the engines, and got, as he said, the hell back to base.


    I flew into the hangar, leapt out of my cockpit and pulled up the radar in my helmet. The enormous bulbs had been dubbed Ul destroyers. Then small zit-like bulges on the bottom of the ship opened like a flower petal, releasing what resembled to be, drop pods. They slammed into the ground, releasing, hundreds of bipedal creatures.


    I switched to a computer structured image of the things based off the seconds of seeing them. They were not as tall as the Hunters, only being 6 ft tall. But they had variety. From 6-5 ft tall. Some were outside of this range even. They had mouths with what appeared to be eight small clattering mandibles arranged vertically in a line, four on each side. They had one long head tail coming from the base of their skull, and one at their hip. They were scaly, and grey colored, contrasting their purple-green ships. They had legs with two joints, and four eyes. Only one pair of arms, but they were proportionally longer than those of a human¡¯s. Seven fingers with small nails. Three horns emerged from what would be their forehead, and nostrils by what would be their chin.They had ears placed where most species had them, but they were hooked and long. These were not Ul. Ul did not have variety, no Ul yet had scales, and no Ul, had guns.


    These things charged thousands of dog like drones released from the base. The thing launched salvo after salvo of 4 shot bursts of crystal like shells out of their guns that resemble larger longer UMP¡¯s of old. The crystals slammed into the canid-like robots. The crystals imbed into the bots, and knocking them back significantly. These guns were purely biological, or so it seemed. I requested deployment, which was immediately granted. The Ul armies were still approaching the base, although their diversion had already succeeded. Three nuclear missles launched from the base, hitting and obliterating four of the ships, three from direct hits and one from collateral. The ADRR was firing again, destroying three ships in one enormous blast. Railguns hit the big ships, doing little, if any, damage. The plasma lancers fizzled away against the armor of the ship, being a bit more effective, but not much.


    As I ran out into the battlefield, and saw the corpses covering the battlefield, I got the feeling that this was only the beginning. This would be worse than the Jhar Empyrean. Far worse.

 Chapter 7

    ¡°FULL RETREAT ORDERED, GET TO THE DIMENSIONAL BRIDGE BY WHATEVER MEANS.¡± The Super AI of the base said over the comms, as I popped up to fire another clip at an enemy. The plasma flowed out of the gun in needles, ten, twenty, thirty, needles hitting the incredibly heat-resistant exoskeleton. The creature screamed, mandibles slashing at the air, as it rolled to the ground, and twisted to show more of it¡¯s back. I continued firing until it got behind a small wedge of crystalline substance destroyed by ship fire. I then got back behind the small opaque shield wall I¡¯d set up. I reloaded, in a panic. Surely the battle wasn¡¯t going that bad?


    I heard the sound of clawed feet smacking into the ground, rapidly advancing on my position, these bastards were smart and fast. I threw my plasma spitter to the side, standing up and pointing my inertial launcher at the biped. It was closer than I thought, and it shot a burst from twenty meters away. The four orange and sharp rounds hit my armor. The first round hit my shields, flattening. The second shattered and so did my shields. The third round tore into and through my right shoulder, crunching bone and obliterating flesh. The fourth missed completely, the recoil launching it over my head. I was launched back a foot, and my body twisted around due to the one shot I had taken. I swapped the gun to my left hand, and as the creature jumped at me slashing with it¡¯s long arms, and steadying the gun for another burst. I smacked the thing away violently with a Strand tentacle, with enough force to have smacked an unarmored human into two pieces. But this bitch just flew a few meters away, with a cracked exoskeleton, and likely knocked out.


    I picked myself off the ground, and shot two rounds into the things head, seeing the head shatter open on the first shot, the round from so close going straight through the head. The second didn¡¯t have much effect, due to the thing already being stone cold dead, but I had to make sure. I mostly just wanted it to get shot again.


    As I ran to the portal, I picked up not only my own gun, but also the creatures¡¯. I thought back to the order, wondering why we¡¯d been ordered to retreat after just an hour of fighting. The base was heavily, heavily fortified, how could they have broken through?


    Along the way, I occasionally fired the crystal-burst-weapon at the enemy, their own weaponry proving more effective than the plasma spitter. I eventually jumped into the portal, seeing some horrific damage. The station guarding the bridge was completely dead, dents and slashes, scorch marks and holes in the hull, there was no end to the damage. The bridge was nearly empty except for the wreckage that had been there. I floated through, not questioning the reasoning or logic behind the order anymore.  They had crossed the bridge, and they were on the other side. As I crossed through the portal, gun in hand, I stepped onto corpses, blood, and saw the carnage in front of me. Two guard towers with which had probably been stocked full of guns, had been demolished. They had probably been the reason for all the corpses. In the distance I heard gunfire, and I chased after it. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I ran, and ran, adrenaline flowing through my veins. I found the bodies of Ul scattered across the ground, as though they were foot soldiers. I also saw one of these new creatures for every five Ul I saw. There had to be a name for these guys, but I didn¡¯t have the ability to care yet. This planet had a relatively thin atmoshpere, it was existent, but only about half as thick as Earth¡¯s. The red rocky surface I ran across was covered in blood and rounds. I finally saw in the distance, Hundreds of forms. Heavy war machines resembling tanks of old, but with metallic legs, and a thinner shape, were firing upon these forms. It appeared as though the forms were mostly Ul, but with maybe one third of them being these new creatures. A flash of light came from the sky streaked down and slammed into the forms. Releasing a huge explosion.


    I kept running towards the explosion, winds whipping around my armor. When I got within maybe 100 yards, seeing the tanks going around finishing off the few dozen left. I pulled out my inertial launcher, pointing it at one of the creatures that was on top of a tank, putting rounds into the armor, without a clue that it wasn¡¯t doing anything. ¡°BAM¡± The round shot true, blasting through the back of it¡¯s head. As I helped to finish off the creatures, a tall man stepped out of a tank. He was clearly genetically modified, being eight feet tall.


    ¡°It¡¯s good to see another soldier. There aren¡¯t many of you guys left, the Ul and company ripped through our outpost.¡± The man said in a relieved voice.


    ¡°What the hell happened here?¡± I responded, concerned.


    ¡°Information has been heavily censored, there¡¯s no way of telling what¡¯s what yet. I¡¯d tell you if I knew. One thing I do know though, is that ships are ripping holes in space right now, and going to the two nearest systems, one of which¡­¡±


    ¡°Is belonging to the Xes¡¯tor. This could be seen as an act of war. ¡°


    ¡°You should be worrying about how you¡¯re going to get out. Me and my men can return you back to base, but you¡¯ll have to take some sort of shuttle to get back, the militay boats are all full.¡±