The Third Book of the Alienbutt saga. Emperor of the Universe. Part 48.

ZACHIA

Chapter 11

INTERSTELLAR NEWS CHANNEL 9 NEWS FLASH

Raids by the onetime leader of the Federal Navies General Jee have been causing wide scale damage. Jee is reported to be gathering fellow heretics to his cause as he seeks to wage war against the Holy forces of Emperor Fluffy. His terrorist tactics are being condemned by the majority of the free Inner Systems now under the protection of our Emperor. In an exclusive interview with our reporters, President Ids of BV4 spoke of how Jee had launched a cowardly attack and destroyed an aid fleet dispatched to the planet. Jee caused widespread damage across the planet as he rescued rebel heretic forces who had failed in an attempt to overthrow the pro-Emperor government.
President Ids went on to say that he had been a lifelong critic of the Federation and welcomed the just and legal Holy War that was necessary to remove the corruption root and branch to ensure a brighter future under the rule of Emperor Fluffy.

Blackarachnia sat in the co-pilot’s seat studying the long-range scanners and the large droid fleet that stood in their way. The way into Zachia was blocked as the fleet attempted to use force to destroy the automated defences set up by Duke Ramboe to keep people out.
“So, do we just sit here and wait for them to eventually kick down the door?” Hydroponic asked.
“Even at the rate they’re going, it’ll take months to clear those asteroids of the defences and that’s just the first level of defence. They’re going to need a bigger fleet or change tactics; the Zachia asteroid field was designed to stop a full-on assault,” Blackarachnia replied as he brought up a star map of the area. “This area was chosen for its remoteness and the fact it has the highest concentration of asteroids in the Ashia Minor belt. What you see here is an almost perfect sphere of floating space rock which just happens to have a high density of heavy metals in its composition. If you set out to create an area where scanners are useless, you’d be hard pressed to improve on it. It takes up an area of almost two light years from side to side and for anyone flying into it, if the defences don’t get you, without a map you’d spend the rest of your life searching.”
“Well if it’s so perfect why the hell are we here?” Hydroponic asked.
“Three hundred category nine prisoners, including the Hive Queen Ilichar are in there and Geurick Tackful has been sent to get them. We can’t be positive he hasn’t got hold of a map,” Blackarachnia said. “So we need to go in there, destroy the stasis chambers and then I get to kill Tackful.”
“I thought the Hive Queen was a myth, a horror story told to humans to scare us when we entered space,” Hydroponic said. The old stories of the Hive invasion were the only other universal war in the Federation’s history.
“She’s real. She is prisoner number one. The facility was set up to imprison her after her defeat. The other prisoners were added over the next two thousand years,” Blackarachnia said.
“So how do we get past that fleet, kill the prisoners and then find Tackful so you can kill him?” Hydroponic said.
“We go in by the back door and if Tackful is as good as his reputation, he’s already watching us so we show him the way in,” Blackarachnia said with a smile.

To be continued.
All images are mine.