________________ / ________ / _______ _______ _______ /___/ / / /______ |_______| \_______ / / ______/ | \ \_______ / / / / ---=[ P e t r o s ]=--- / / /___/ -\- Introduction -/- -=< Who would've thought?! SRE7 is here, and I must say that I am impressed. Not only have I recieved more fan mail and requests than ever, but the files keep getting downloaded like crazy! I have noone to thank but my readers, and those who continue to be interested in these stories. SRE7 is -not- the final chapter to the series, as some have rumored. But, I'll tell you more at the conclusion. On to the story! >=- -\- Prologue -/- The Kazik Regime had been the dominant force in the Multiverse for millenia. They had watched countless other Universes grow up, and then had proceeded to squash them. But this Universe was different. The Kazik had monitored them, as they grew up in their respective Galaxies, not even knowing that other Galaxies existed. They had always been a warring species, those aliens. But for some reason, the wars they fought always brought out the best in them. Good always won out, and found a way around oppression. Other Universes had become captive to evil forces, until the Kazik came and overtook them all. But not this Universe. The Kazik had a feeling that this Universe would be no harder to conquer than any other, but definately not as boring.... -\- 1 -/- "Sir; SIR!" yelled Lieutenant Bur. Krael whirled to face his chief scanner. "What is it, Bur?" he asked. Bur wanted to look up, but what was on the scanner held his mind captive. "Sir, I think I've found a habited Universe!" yelled Bur. Krael's breath drew short. He was the Director of Petros Station, part of the Petros Extrauniversal Exploration Program, an organization desgined to seek out new Universes. This might turn out to be the first ever discovered. "You're sure it's a HABITED new Universe?" asked Krael excitedly. Bur nodded so fast, his head looked like it might fall off. "I've got very faint pictures of the new species! We've got to show Amoko!!" exclaimed Bur. The pictures were sent immediately over the FaxCom. Amoko immediately switched on his VidTerm to view them. The aliens' appearance were surprisingly similiar to his own species. One thing stuck out in his mind, though; they looked to be suffering from starvation. Amoko hailed Krael over the VidCom. "Amoko? Did you get the pictures?" asked Amoko over the Com. "Yeah, I did. I's amazing, simply amazing. I want you to look into something, however. They all seem so famished. Do a little investigating, will you?" replied Amoko. Krael nodded, and then his image vanished. Amoko sighed. Hopefully the first extrauniversal contact would occur soon.... -\- 2 -/- Hopni was the leader of the Recon fleet. Their mission was simple. Go in, take some detailed pictures, and come back. He throttled back, and then hurtled through the subspace jump field. Just as quickly, they were inside the new Universe. Within minutes they would be approaching a group of planets. The fleet dispersed and spread out, each to a seperate planet, to do their jobs. The results were the same. It appeared that this Universe was on the verge of collapsing from starvation and poverty. Krael knew something had to be done. He hailed Amoko over the VidCom. "Amoko, we got the pictures in. It would seem that the people in the new Universe are in bad shape. We've got to help them some how," he said. Amoko thought for a moment. "Get together a goodwill fleet, consisting of about 2,000 heavy cruisers. Get a Command Ship ready with ambassadors and xenoscientists. Let the scientists decide what's best and let them carry out what it takes," order Amoko. Krael nodded, and shut off the VidCom. -\- 3 -/- The fleet from the outsiders had entered Kazik space. The Kazik Regime decided that their ploy had worked. In order to give the enemy a taste of what they were up against, they decided to activate the plazfield. Soon the ships would be gone. Admiral Petyr was stationed inside the Command Ship. "Nothing sir. No satellites, no ships, no NOTHING. It would seem they haven't even developed space travel yet," said the voice of the science officer, Jolma. Petyr knew what must be done; he had to consult the scientists. He was just about to do it, when Jolma's voice interrupted him. "Sir! I'm reading an incredible plasma wave on the scanner!" he yelled. The VidScreen lit up to reveal a wave consisting of a myriad of colors hurtling toward them. "Activate deflector grids, NOW!!" he screamed. "Advise the other cruisers! Send a fleet-wide alert!" he ordered. The grids went up, but were no match for the plazfield. It slammed into the fleet of ships, and began dissolving them. Petyr could feel his very cells screaming as they became ionized and assimiliated into the wave. He was about to scream himself, when he vanished completely. The fleet of ships were completely destroyed, except for one small fighter, which, after seeing a whole fleet destroyed, immediately turned heel and fled through a subspace jump field. "A fighter was all that survived. The pilot, Guke, says that a massive wave of plasma completely dissolved the entire fleet," said Krael. Damn. Damn! "Was it natural?" asked Amoko. Krael shook his head. "He doesn't know. There wasn't much time to analyze it, and Guke's fighter didn't have detailed scanners, like those of an HC." he said. "Put the Armada on battle alert. Notify every empire of the situation and advise them to put their own militaries on a battle alert. It may have been a natural storm, but if it wasn't... well, I won't let us get caught with our pants down," said Amoko. -\- 4 -/- The small, light Kazik fighter screamed though space at 700 times the speed of light. The pilot stopped the craft and exited subspace. He had reached his destination, inside the 'Tau Galaxy,' as it was called. He allowed his craft to become visible, permitting enemy scanners to detect him. Within minutes, several defensive heavy cruisers were heading towards him. He waited longer still, ignoring their repeated attempts to communicate with him. More and more enemy patrols came towards him. Soon enough there were approximately five thousand heavy cruisers, all trying to figure out what to make of this unusual alien vessel. The time was now, he decided. He depressed the appropriate control, and his invisibility screen went back up. "Sir, we've lost track of him! He simply vanished!" reported the young woman stationed at the scanner. "Let's give it a little more time," ordered Admiral Naras, "Maybe they're still trying to understand our messages." Nothing could just disapear. There must have been a scanner malfunction of some kind... Fools. The Kazik pilot activated the plazsphere. The brilliant violet-colored sphere resonated from his ship, expanding. By the time the enemy patrols figured out the sphere was hurtling at them, they were ashes. The Kazik pilot chuckled, his mission accomplished, and left the enemy Universe. -\- 5 -/- Amoko couldn't believe it. Someone had eliminated 5,000 HCs. The attack had been carried out with stealth, and cunning. This was deliberate; planned. Somebody was just toying with them, and Amoko knew it. "It was deliberate. Put the Armada in a full defensive posture. Prepare for possible invasion," he ordered, "What can we do to stop something like this from happening again? Get a science team to work on it..." Vedet was in charge of finding a way to disable the plasma fields that had been used against his people. The field's operation was simple. A wave of ionized particles would sweep through space, ionizing any type of matter that would come in it's path, and thus converting it into plasma. He could think of nothing that could stop such a field. Every particle field, every substance in their science was susceptible to ionization. He could only think of one possibility: Finding a way to get a weapon to penetrate -through- the field. A beam of pure energy couldn't be ionized, since it was not matter. The only problem is that energy was hardle to properly channel. It had to be transferred, controlled, and special carrier waves had to be used to concentrate the beam. Only one pure-energy weapon existed, and it was mounted on Amoko's Cyberian Platform as a defensive weapon. The money needed to build other emitters didn't exist. Energy weapons were simply too expensive. He would have to look into other possibilites... -\- 6 -/- Tecouk reviewed the AudLog for the eighth time. The only thing Admiral Naras reported was a small ship, not responding to their hails, and then he requested massive assistance from the Armada. After that, no other contacts. Naras gave no clues as to the spacecraft's origin, it's mission, or even it's appearance. Was it alien? Or was it the vessel of an Underground dissident? Tecouk couldn't be sure on such sketchy evidence. He had a team of workers sweeping the area of the attack for any type of clues, but it was unlikely they'd find anything... "And so you mean the only solution is the heat-soliton emitter mounted on the Platform?" asked Amoko. Vedet nodded. "Nothing consisting of oridinary matter can hope to pass through the field. Only energy could even have a chance to go through. Unfortunately the heat-soliton beam is the only energy beam that is capable of passing through the field AND acting as a weapon," Vedet explained. "Have their been any explanations at all? Any clue as to where the ship came from?" Amoko inquired. Vedet shook his head. "The only connection we can find is the plasma wave encountered in the new Universe. Our theorists believe that it's possible someone used the events of that encounter as a basis for such a weapon, but noone is sure at this point," reported Vedet. Amoko looked dissappointed. "Keep up the work. Let me know immediately when you find something," Amoko said. He reached over and shut off the VidCom. This was getting more and more frustrating... -\- 7 -/- "Inspector Tecouk, we've got something," stated T'hoj. Tecouk immediately looked up. "Really? What've you found?" he replied. T'hoj tilted her head. "We found residual ions, left from the enemy weapon," she began. Tecouk interrupted. "That's nothing new, T'hoj," he said. "If you'll let me finish, Inspector," she replied. Tecouk nodded. "The ions are not actually normal ions. They appear as ions on a scanner, but under examination, one discovers that they are really matter in a depolarized crystalline form," she said. "It is possible to convert the particles back into normal matter. We've done it. The 'ions' we had found turned out to be pergium-steel molecules. We've come to the conclusion that fighters built from pergium-steel with specially designed decrystallizing/repolarizing fields could pass through the plasma fields," she concluded. Tecouk paused. It was all overwhelming. "Let me guess; you've already taken the liberty of constructing such a fighter, haven't you?" he asked. T'hoj smiled. "You know me too well, Inspector," she replied. -\- 8 -/- Tecouk had taken his findings to Amoko, inside the Platform. "We discovered that certain substances, like pergium-steel, are not ionized by the field, but depolarized and crystallized. We've added the equipment needed to make a fighter out of pergium-steel, and make it impervious to the plasma weapons," he reported. Amoko was stunned. "You told me the plasma field ionized anything and everything!" he said. "We've never actually encountered the field long enough to scan and analyze it. All we've had are the residual traces left by the fields, which were all ionized. The pergium-steel molecules appeared to be ionized, but on closer examintion we discovered what they really were," Tecouk explained. Amoko nodded. "Good work. Any luck finding anything to tie together the recent events?" he asked. "Unfortunately, no. We've found one reference in past history that resembles the plasma wave encountered in the new Universe. It was recorded at Sei Galaxy, during Ultra's attempts to overthrow Vafan Puttana. Other than that, we have nothing that we can correlate either the plasma wave, or the alien fighter's plasma weapons with. We are working under the assumption the spacecraft is that of an Underground faction we overlooked somehow," replied Tecouk. Amoko turned in his chair. He was desperate for answers, but there were none. "Very good work so far. Just make sure we're ready if this type of thing happens again," he ordered. Nota, the premier Kazik pilot, was in charge of the invasion fleet. Eight hexagonal Kazik fighting spacecraft, Blakta-class fighters, were headed to the Universe's only equivalent to a capitol. Amoko's base, Cyberian Platform, was the target. Amoko supposedly was in charge of the 50-year old Cyberian Group, that made sure it kept dissidents under wraps. Destruction of this base would tkae the who Universe by surprise and make it easy for the Kazik to overcome them. Nota told his fellow pilots thatthey were going to take a subspace thrustjump. He pulled back the throttle and opened up his craft's subspace doorway. The graviton engines kicked in, and his ship screamed through subspace... "Amoko, Admiral Rytek is on the VidCom; Alert status," reported Grosene, communications chief. Amoko activated his VidCom. Rytek's disheveled face filled the screen. "Amoko, we've got eight enemy fighters headed your way. Unless I miss my guess they are the same thing that attacked Naras' fleet," he said. Amoko stared. "Headed at the Platform? Divert the Armada back home, immediately. We'll prepare our defenses," he said. Rytek nodded, and the vidscreen sent blank. "Grosene! Get me Vedet on the Com, and do it fast!" "I can have the emitter ready soon. Inspector Tecouk is also sending the only four fighters equipped with technology he believes can counter the plasma fields. Right now every possible defense we have is experimental. We weren't expecting an invasion this soon," said Vedet. Amoko nodded. "I understand. But what's important is that they're coming, ready or not. We have to be prepared. Do whatever you think will work, and do it quickly," he ordered. -\- 9 -/- Nota's fighters exited subspace as quickly as they could. There was no need to use the invisibility screens. Undoubtedly, their enemy had already detected their entry and their heading. They had to expect a fierce battle. Unfortunately for their enemy, Nota had the plazsphere weapons. "Admiral, the enemies have arrived. No evidence of any energy fields, shielding, or deflector grids. What are your orders?" asked Krael, taking over the scanners. Rytek turned to Holog. "Hail them," he said simply. The puny aliens were requesting communications. Nota decided it would be good to talk to his enemy before he killed them. He activated his communications console, and attempted to match his enemy's comm protocol. "I am Nota, lead pilot of Blakta Force Three. What do you wish to say?" spoke the face of the enemy. Rytek looked him over. This Nota was similiar to his own appearance, but their were differences. Nota didn't have two arms. He had only one (Was Nota a he or a she?). "Greetings, lead pilot Nota. I am Admiral Rytek of the Cyberian Armada. What dissident group are you affiliated with?" replied Rytek. Nota looked confused. "You do not know who we are? We are not dissidents. We are outsiders," he replied. Rytek glanced at Holog. "Are you recording this?" he asked. Holog nodded. "Nota, I'm afraid I must ask you to withdraw from this space. You are intruding upon space owned and protected by the Cyberian Armada," Rytek said. Nota made a gesture with his single hand. "I do not care," said Nota. The vidscreen went dark. -\- 10 -/- Tecouk signaled Rytek. "The cavalry's here. We should be able to handle the enemy plasma fields, but we don't know what other weapons they have," he said. Without warning the enemy fighters ignited their plazspheres. "Fighters two, three, and four, activate polarcrystal grids," he ordered. The grids erected themselves around each of the fighters, and took on a red hue. Tecouk waited and waited. Finally the moment of truth came. The plazsphere hit all three grids. The scene taking place on the vidscreen was frightening. The plazsphere and the polarcrystal grids were ovbiously a match for each other. Finally every fighter lost some power. Under other circumstances, this would be failure. But the grids had held their own, and warded off the plazspheres. "Open fire with everything we've got," ordered Rytek. "Notify the Platform they can use the heat-soliton emitter at their own discretion," he said. Nota was taken completely by surprise. The enemy had found a way to counter the plazsphere. Impossible! He signaled his fellow fighters and they activated their shielding. The heat-solition emitter warmed up. It's turbines churned as many solition particles as it could, while the tip of the emitter created it's superheated temperatures. The beam finally sprang into being and connected with one of the eight enemy fighters. It immediately exploded. Nota was now scared. Never in the history of the Kazik Regime had there been a culture able to destroy their plazsphere or penetrate it. He signaled the other six remaining pilots and had each one activate their plazsphere. The violet spheres careened into the grids surrounding the fighters. Tecouk's instruments went up in smoke. He activated the AudCom and told his other three pilots and let them know he was out of commission. One more hit from a plazsphere and he would be destroyed. -\- 11 -/- Nota's fellow pilots were almost out of power. Nota gave the order. They were to expend all power they could to destroy the enemy forces. Nota would return to Kazik space and notify the Regime of the mission's failure. Something would have to be done about this. He activated his invisiblity screen and initiated a subspace thrustjump. By the time the battle was over, the Kazik had lost seven fighters and the Cyberian Armada had lost two HCs. The worst casualities were the four prototype fighters. Each was lost, but fortunately Vedet still knew the technology. -\- 12 -/- There was one Kazik pilot still alive. He had been captured, and it was then that Amoko learned everything. The Kazik proceeded to tell him that only lead pilots or other important people had names. "Why is your Armada, your base, and your organization called 'Cyberian?' Why isn't it named after you, Amoko?" inquired the Kazik. Amoko sighed. "Fifty years ago, during the Underground War, a man named Cyber grew discontent with my handling of the situation. Unfortunately, he seized power and almost kept the Universe from being freed. He was overthrown eventually, but he was killed by a test detonation of the Hydroxyl Missile. I named my organization after him, because our purposes were the same. He had the interests of keeping the universe safe, just as I did. He just didn't agree with my methods of achieving the goal. I've named everything after him, because he died bravely," he explained. "Tell me about your people. Why do they insist on takingover other cultures?" asked Amoko. The Kazik froze. "We do it because we CAN. There is no other race in this Multiverse that can defeat us. We always wait until a Universe has developed to a point where they provide us with a challenge in battle. We then proceed to take them over," he said. Amoko looked at him. "MY people won't let the Kazik Regime do it. We've developed technology to counter your plasma weapons. You won't be able to defeat us," he stated. The Kazik glared. "Yes we will. We have invisibility screens, plus a plethora of other weapons we could use against you. Your Cyberian Armada isn't even a fourth as large as the Kazik Fleet. Your people won't survive," he said coldly. -\- 13 -/- Krael had returned to Petros Station after the battle to see how repairs were coming. To his pleasure, he found them complete, and discovered they were already preparing to send another aid mission to the new Universe. Circumstances were making everything a jumble. The Kazik pilot captured by Rytek had been questioned. Much had been discovered about the Kazik, but Amoko couldn't find anything to connect the two plasma encounters. They concluded that the plasma wave in the new Universe -had- been natural. Nota had reported everything to the Regime. They proceeded to assemble a two-hundred fighter fleet under Nota's command. He was to invade the enemy Universe again and destroy the Cyberian Platform. The new fighters were equipped with three different beam arrays, modified plasma weapons, and invisibility screens. No matter how much defense the enemy had, this time they would be destroyed. -\- 14 -/- Amoko was sitting quietly in his living chamber, watching the latest vidseries, 'Three of Me,' when the alert sounded. Why the heck was there an alert? As if in answer to Amoko's silent question, a rumble spread through his chamber. Walls started splitting, and explosions ruptured the floor. Smoke was billowing from everything, and Amoko was choking. The Platform must be under attack again. He had to get to the command center, and he had to get their soon. "Notify Admiral Rytek that we are under attack. Tell him the enemy is invisible, but we need assistance, and we need it now," ordered Commander Jol. Jol was in charge of the Platform's defenses, but Amoko should be arriving to take over command. "Meanwhile, prepare the heat-solition emitter, and try to find anything that will detect those damned enemy ships!" he yelled. The news spread quickly. Without being able to see their enemy, the Cyberian Platform had been destroyed. Amoko had died with the Platform, as well. The entire Cyberian Armada was intact, but there was no base for it to return to. Krael had quickly taken action and notified every Admiral in the Armada that they coud transfer their flags to the Petros Station. It was the only thing that would qualify as a base. Vedet was working on building a new heat-solition emitter with the limited funds he had, and also constructing several portable units to be installed on the three remaining command ships in the Armada. Every empire was notified that they were on full battle alert, and that Krael needed more money to construct the emitters and equip every Armada ship with a polarcrystal grid. Krael expected battle. He expected it, alright. The Kazik had shown themselves to be ruthless, and Krael was prepared to fight, even if his people were going to lose. =-==-= =-==-= =-==-= =-==-= =-==-= =-==-= =-==-= =-==-= =-==-= =-==-= Conclusion ><><><><>< -=< The Kazik -are- ruthless. However, the next SRE story won't be SRE8. SRE: Galaxy Sei premiers in a few months, chronicling Ultra's adventures in the Sei Galaxy before he moved into Sree. After that, SRE 8 will be released, however it's plot will not be made known. SRE8 will not be the last adventure, but it will be the best so far. Thanks for your continued support. I appreciate it. I also encourage you to check out Politics Online Magazine, the new publication from GrossWorld Publishing Company. Again, thanks! It is only because of the readers that these stories are made! Until next time.... >=-