I feel a predictable burst of envy as one of the E.D.F.'s cruisers… The Monte Carlo, just flies right up to a Reach listening post and slaughters the entire crew with precise bursts from its purple death rays. Didn't even show up on their sensors. Unless they were faking, which is possible. It sounds like Reach people are pretty fanatical on those few occasions when it would matter.
Gotta love weapons that only affect
organic matter. Leaves all those useful devices intact to claim later.
I aim the Absolute Dominion's main gun at the Reach fleet I caught undergoing repairs on the opposite side of the system. Normally they'd be outside of engagement range, but… When your gun fires faster than light on its own… Strike Hard, Strike True
...The enemy is dead before they even realise you've shot them. A pleasant trick.
A battlecruiser disintegrates, and the docking frame it was resting in loses about a third of its mass. What's left starts spinning and shattering, collapsing in a few moments as the Absolute Dominion realigns and targets its nearest neighbour. Debris is mostly caught by the shields of the other frames and ships, but a few smaller vessels are hit by larger fuel-carrying fragments and are crippled or consumed.
Messy work. If all that falls out of orbit, the planet is about to have a bad day.
"Grayven to Spider. What news?"
"The intelligence briefing was correct. The people here are fully acculturated, but they have no particular resistance to telepathy. Should I tell the genomorphs to give them new personalities?"
Sending his super-spy in to raid their systems? Very sensible indeed.
I shrug to myself as another docking cradle bursts, along with its cargo. No visual between ground and fleet, of course. Mr. Near nearly rolled his eyes at the very idea, though his practical argument that a transmission with more data would be more easily detected eventually won the day. Normally I'd hate the idea of mentally scrubbing people like that, but they won't be able to function without their Reach masters unless we do. And I know what trying to avoid executing her Citizens is doing to Diana. Sometimes you just can't help people in the way you'd like to help them.
In this case, they probably would be better off dead, than trapped in their blind obedience to masters that would happily exterminate them. Or getting their minds wiped in favour of a more pliable mindset as suggested.
"Not up to us. Offer that service to the Controllers. If they want it, they can negotiate with the genomorphs themselves."
"M."
Wonder if any of the Controllers have been taking an interest in the
noteworthy biology of the Genomorphs?
"Any of those Scarabs around?"
"There was. I can report that when the Scarab is inactive the host is no more resilient than a normal member of their species. Also, Scarabs appear to be 'alive' for the purpose of purple death rays."
That's an interesting discovery. Then again, we've seen that Orange Lanterns can
attempt to assimilate them as if they were living beings rather than smart technology.
I nod. "Worth knowing. Good work."
I hear a very deliberate… Not a sigh, but a slow intake of breath before the channel disconnects. He reprogrammed the pickup just so I'd heard that. The sheer amount of work he's prepared to put in to delivering a mild near-insult…
And it probably annoys him that the Renegade
doesn't take it as such.
Ah? Looks like that was a fuel hauler. Explosions in space aren't a big deal, not unless things are right next to each other and the explosion is very radioactive or exotic. Still a blow to them-.
Huh.
The ships near the one that just exploded are… Disintegrating.
...Let me guess, Qwa-Matter? Since the Reach in this timeline wouldn't have had anyone interfering in those research plans that OL disrupted.
Ah…
And so are the ones a little further away. That doesn't chime with anything I know about space warfare. The only thing that comes to mind is nanotech, but that wouldn't act so fast.
Or a form of matter inimically hostile to nearly all other forms of matter.
Log and report, I guess. I-.
Ping.
"
Done. Also, the Reach are hailing us. Do you want to gloat?" I'm sure some Controller is going to find all that data very fascinating.
Of course they do. But I suppose that there's no sense passing up an opportunity to spread misinformation. Put them on.
Ping.
"
Connection opened. Do try not to be too
smug, dear." I see he's quite certain they're going to be relaying whatever he says to the Reach command.
The holographic image of a Reach Negotiator appears before my command throne. Due to the fragile ego of Other Grayven, the Negotiator appears both smaller than she is in reality and below me, meaning that she has to look up while I remain sitting down. Something about the system replicates the effect on the communication system of anyone who sends messages to me. You Are Beneath Me
And of course, he probably can't change that if he wanted to, so he's stuck with it. Probably amuses him a little when dealing with foes, but it would be a little insulting towards allies.
It's so petty that I smile every time I use it.
I steeple my fingers as wait patiently as the last battlecruiser dies.
The difference between the Renegade and the Reach? Presentation!
"Lord Grayven. I was under the impression that you had left."
I smile broadly, something that immediately makes him uncertain. Old Grayven never did that, I bet. "I always have time for old friends."
I suspect Grayven was more of a 'sit upon his throne with stormy frowns under a troubled brow' or at least affected that sort of image.
"You appear to be attacking one of our research stations."
"Yeah. Using brains as computers? I honestly thought that your command of electronics was better than that."
"Ping."
"
Quite disgusting, using living things as mere calculators." Well, there's a familiar idea. OL dealt with that in the main timeline, if I remember right.
"We find them suitably efficacious."
"Might need to find a new solution now."
You assume he's only crushing
this one site? Think again.
"That was hardly our only production facility."
My smile broadens to manic levels. "I know! Your people are marvellously industrious." I shake my head. "I wouldn't expect to hear from their garrisons again. I haven't read the reports yet, so I can't give you feedback…"
The Earth Fleet proving quite efficient, I suppose? Or Darkstars and Lanterns, more likely.
"You do realise that will impede our ability to fight the Controllers' operatives far more than it will impede our ability to fight you."
"Yes? Oh! Sorry. I don't care about you."
Nice, turning a confident boast into a pathetic one with a single implication.
"You did seem to care when you launched your invasion."
I shrug. "Had a bit of a rethink. Frankly, Vega had more to offer me, and I can probably just trade for the parts of the Reach that I actually want from the Controllers after they win. Which will be easier now that they aren't spitting their attention between you and me."
Which would have been
unthinkable for the original Grayven. Someone else operating outside of his control in
his territory? Heresy!
"You've come to terms."
"I got out of my own way. Thank you for assisting with that personal breakthrough."
It's more that they're pointing their guns in the direction of a mutual foe first. Though the Renegade isn't likely to turn them back on the Controllers afterwards until they make the first foolish move.
"With the Controllers." She considers me for a moment. "You've changed."
"If we ever meet, I'll give you a wooden spoon."
It would be
tres embarrassing to be the first player eliminated in a 4X game
this quickly.
She blinks. "What?"
I shake my head, waving my right hand dismissively. "Cultural reference. A prize of no great value, usually awarded for last place or to someone who got no points." I lean forwards slightly. "So, yeah. I'm not trying to take and hold your territory for myself, just degrade your war fighting capacity for someone else. And since I don't need to prove myself to anyone, I'm happy to just fly from target to target annihilating them as I go."
They do make such
nice pops when they explode, after all.
Mother Box, message Kara would you?
Ping.
"
Sending the request now. Doomsday
acknowledging and taking action."
"Or send someone else on my behalf."
The Negotiator's eyes widen as the alarms in the room she's in start to go off.
I bet she's not even in the same
system as he is.
"You're fortunate; the flagship of the Kryptonian Stellar Navy hasn't seen action -baring a minor policing action- for over a century." She turns to flee… Too late, I suspect. "I'll send the spoon to your next of kin!"
The hologram shuts down and I sit back, pleased.
And that will put a cat amongst the pigeons of the Reach High Command. Kryptonians on the move? Most concerning, I would imagine, assuming they know of them...
"Has Mister Near evacuated?"
"Ping."
"Good show. Then lets head back to Maltus and find out what else they want us doing."
"
Naturally. And being quite irritable about the 'ease' of the operation." I bet the Renegade's work
looks more impressive than it actually ends up being...
He wasn't a 'Taskbar on the right edge' sort of freak, was he?
