Ravens of Eternity

362 Intel & Recon, Pt Gredalii Moon, Planet: Zha’ress III, Zha’ress System, Imperial Domain of the Boundless Drogar

The Zha’ress System. One of the many critical industrial star systems inhabited by the Drogar.

Like most other systems in the entire galaxy, the Drogar relied on dyson spheres around their stars for energy.

The one surrounding the Zha’ress’ primary star was made of countless hexagonal photonic plates, which made the entire thing look like a perfectly cut spherical gemstone. And each of those plates not only absorbed the star’s radiation, but they also converted it to raw power directly.

And as a whole, transmitted photoelectric energy to every planet in the system. Gredalii moon included.

On that moon, the numerous crystalline industrial cities that dotted the surface soaked in that boundless energy.

Although darkness crept across Zha’ress’ moon as night fell on its far side, there was still plenty of power for it to operate. Shadows fell across the massive sprawling facility on its surface in various angles thanks to the buildings’ beautiful crystalline designs.

They were certainly as beautiful as the coral-like metropolitan cities found on numerous Drogar planets, even though they were monochromatic in color. It was also because they jutted out of the ground at differing angles from each other. As though each of the cities were clusters of crystals sprouting out from the barren, rocky ground.

Though, unlike typical crystalline structures, these had little luster, and were completely opaque. More than that, their exteriors were lined with light armor plating and had numerous hidden access ports with defensive turrets inside.

.....

At one of the larger industrial cities, the central crystal structure opened up at the very top. Multiple metal crystal plates bloomed open and flared outward. It revealed that this crystal tower wasn’t just partially hollow on the inside, but that it was in fact, a destroyer fabrication bay.

Its most recent creation swam out to space, though it seemed to move somewhat awkwardly, and with unsure movements. Seemingly as though whoever was flying it was a novice. Or as though the ship itself had just been birthed.

Equally as important, the ship itself was already fully armed and armored. Its myriad weapon systems adjusted themselves one after another in near unison, as though they were stretching out. The guns waved in the air, seemingly to test their flexibility in their mounts and emplacements.

And the destroyer’s chitin armor also had a slightly different sheen from ones that were already deployed. Its surface shimmered very lightly, and its hues and colors shifted when viewed from different angles.

Inside its bridge, a handful of engineers checked over the myriad systems scattered all over. They went through all of the bridge terminals, screens, input/output ports, communications circuits, everything. Even the command station in the center was triple-checked with absolute scrutiny.

One of the engineers opened up comms through the main screen, which was answered by a technician in a large observation station back in the crystal tower.

“First flight checks complete,” said the engineer. “All systems are reporting over 95% operational efficiency. It’s ready for teleportation delivery and handoff.”

The technician nodded as the engineer spoke, and seemingly checked off some kind of list at the same time.

“Acknowledged,” the technician replied. “Shutting origination bay 4606, transmitting teleport commands remotely. Please strap in and prepare for teleport.”

The destroyer came to a standstill as its teleportation engine kicked in. Space warped all around it as it was sucked through in a flash of light. And when all went back to normal, the destroyer was gone.

While the massive bay doors folded back into a closed position, a handful of Republic commandos slipped in the gaps between. Their presence was practically undetected by any of the facility’s security and detection systems, even as they sped quietly towards a stack of large hexagonal cargo containers.

The half dozen of them pressed themselves up against the large containers, hidden by its imposing shadow. Each of them wore sealed environmental stealth suits which were lightly armored with flexible antiballistic weave. They were also lightly armed with disruption pistols and rail SMGs, which they kept at the low ready.

The six commandos were also joined by Raijin, who crept up alongside them. Though she wasn’t wearing any kind of armor, environmental or otherwise. Her specialized nanite body had no need for any such containment.

The commando that was leading them gave them the signal to stop and regroup briefly. Then their environmental face shielding slid open so they could see each others’ faces. Most were wearing grim, determined looks, as befitting their current mission.

Xylo looked over her team with pride, then spoke to them. Though she hardly uttered a whisper, each of them could easily hear her through their specialized communication systems. On top of that, they saw her words laid out across their DIs.

“Remember,” she told her team. “We’re only here to observe, not start an incident. Stay in the dark, keep your fingers off your triggers, and maintain calm at all times. If we have to engage with force, then we’re pretty much dead. Clear?”

Her unit nodded simultaneously at her in silent agreement.

Xylo then spun around and joined Raijin in observing the rest of the facility surrounding them. Both looked on in absolute awe not just at the size of the crystal building itself, but at its mechanical complexity.

Each of the hexagonal sides were gravity-active, which meant that every surface acted like a floor. Every side was ‘down’, and the open middle in the center was ‘up’.

There were dozens of Drogar amidst all of the machinery on each of the six sides, doing their jobs as normal. Engineers and technicians were at their terminals or cleaning up their workspaces or attending to some small emergency. Designers and analysts were in discussions with each other as they pointed to various datasets on their screens or holoprojections.

There were also handfuls of armored personnel patrolling up and down the entire facility, each one armed with wickedly curved stinger-like weapons, and wore complex visors.

As Xylo noted their patrol paths, Raijin wowed at the entire structure itself.

Each side of the hexagonal structure had all kinds of mechanisms and sensor clusters and machine arms up and down their length. It reminded her of a car assembly line, if they were also massive and installed on the walls and ceilings.

What impressed her most were massive pools at the very far end of the ship fabrication bay. Each one appeared to be four times the size of olympic swimming pools, and were filled with what seemed to be various liquid compounds.

They jutted up from from the floor roughly a meter up, and seemed to be filled to the absolute brim.

At the distance she was at, she couldn’t really tell what they were filled with, specifically. But it was clear that some were metallic in nature.

“Those might be material printers,” Raijin whispered to Xylo. “I need to take a closer look, to confirm if that is their primary fabrication process.”

“You need us to back you up, or are you gonna do your swarm cloud thing?” Xylo asked in response.

Raijin shook her head.

“No,” she said. “I would never attempt to distribute myself through unknown systems. Who knows what kind of defenses the Drogar have implemented. We will need a much more complete understanding of their technologies before we launch any kind of attack on them.”

“Which leaves us with direct physical access, then.”

“For now, yes.”

Xylo then turned towards her team, who were already set to go and were eagerly awaiting orders.

“Let’s begin the operation,” she told them. “Ensure your signal dampening fields are even. Keep your heads cool and your hearts steady. Use Azrael’s sedation stim if you need to. On my point.”

Xylo and her commando team then crept towards the other end of the fabrication bay nearly a kilometer away.

They kept to the shadows as much as they possibly could, and hid behind large equipment or stacks of materiel or massive pipes. And if there was nothing to hide behind, they dashed across open space as quickly and as quietly as possible.

Despite the multitudes of Drogar all around, they remained practically invisible and unseen. Even the security forces’ robust detection visors could hardly see them.

The team darted around closer and closer, until they reached a set of large terminals close to the busiest part of the entire fabrication bay. There, numerous Drogar were talking and working and walking about.

Each moment that passed threatened to reveal the hidden commandos.

All of them crouched down, pressed themselves up against the terminal itself, and tried their absolute best to remain undetected.

Raijin crept up to the very front, then peeked around the corner. Roughly a dozen meters away was the closest pool. In between them was nothing but open space and handfuls of Drogar. There was no way she was going to be able to get a closer look.

Her baton consolidated in her hand, even as she waved it at the pool. Then, with a grimace, she waved it at the terminals next to her, then at whatever other mechanical systems nearby.

She tapped her nose a couple of times, frustrated by the Drogar systems, but immediately brightened when an idea hit her.

Raijin opened her hand with a flattened palm facing upwards. A tiny, fuzzy metallic spider rose up from out of it, built by her own nanites. It turned towards her once it was complete, and waved two of its arms at her.

It then hopped off, then made multiple leaps all the way towards the massive pool. It dodged any Drogar walking to and fro along the way – any collision would have certainly resulted in damage or destruction. The spider might have been made with titanium carbide compounds like Raijin, but its diminutive size made it unbelievably fragile.

Despite the dangers it braved, it made it across without problems. It climbed halfway up the pool’s wall, then completely flattened itself out. The nanites in its body spread out evenly, until the whole thing was a flat circle.

Then, its surface shifted color to match the pool it was attached to.

Once Raijin’s spider had set itself, she turned to Xylo with pursed lips and shook her head solemnly.

“Everything is walled off and scrambled,” she said purely through her DI. “I am unable to get a direct stream of data.”

Xylo nodded in understanding and thought about it for a moment.

“Alright, so then how do we complete our mission?” she asked silently. “Can’t leave here empty handed.”

“I say we continue further inside the facility,” Raijin said. “What we see is the operational center of this tower. No doubt the back end systems are close by, such as any backup circuits and nodes. There will surely be a security flaw somewhere among them. We will find it, and we will exploit it.”

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