Chapter 120: Chapter One Hundred and Two Invasion Commences

 

Several minutes earlier in high orbit of Nekuri:

Erisa rolled over. Taking a moment to catch her breath and feeling pleasantly sticky. She was very much happy with recent developments. Especially considering that she had managed to get some alone time with Melia. Next to her she felt Melia shift and she turned to look at her favorite person. Where she caught sight of a control console above them. She couldn’t read the display but she recognized enough to know she was looking at some kind of warning. “Um, Melia what is that?”

Melia glanced at it, “Shield overload warning. Nothing to worry about.”

She gave Melia a look. “Nothing to worry about? Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn’t overload usually mean EXPLODE?”

Melia giggled, “I guess. Anyway, that warning is deliberate. Megumi is deliberately overloading the shields.”

Erisa frowned, “Why?”

“Shield Detonation.” she paused, “Solean shields are designed to double as an offensive system. When overloaded they can unleash a powerful shock pulse that can inflict severe damage to nearby vessels or be calibrated to disable ships in a wide area. At the cost of your shields of course, we will lose shields for several minutes while the generators recover. It’s not exactly something the Soleans use often nowadays but in their ancient past they made heavy use of that function of their shield generators.”

Erisa stared at the blinking warning while trying to wrap her head around that one. “That doesn’t make sense.”

A hologram materialized in the room, “Actually it makes perfect sense. You will see why in a moment.” As she pointed towards a viewscreen just as it activated seemingly on its own. Presenting a view of the fleet they were sharing an orbit with. A visible reminder of the fact they had been in orbit of Nekuri for quite some time. Sometimes it was surreal to think that they were just sitting there over the enemy homeworld and no one had noticed the 12-kilometer-long battleship.

“So um what are you doing, anyway?”

“I’m ready to act. It’s time I started dealing with the Iniri. Starting with this world here.” she paused, “are you familiar with how the various ‘Precursor’ races conduct an invasion?”

Erisa frowned, “Is not the same way we do? Take orbital control, eliminate key ground positions from orbit, and then land troops.”

Megumi chuckled, “There are a few differences. Pay attention to what I do and you will see what I mean.”

---

As one instance interacted with Erisa and Melia, her main instance was focused on the battle that was about to commence. The basics of an invasion had not changed much, but technology had led to a few changes in how it was carried out. The orbital part wasn’t that different, but the ground? Well star gates allowed for reinforcements to be sent en masse from other systems instantly. Without the need for transports. A foothold was still required on the surface and time was still required to raise and train new legions. By now she already had an army trained and ready for use if required.

Not that she needed it. For her plan she would need to deploy a few smaller outposts onto the surface. From which she could more easily deploy drones to monitor and ensure a proper transition. Other than that they were not really needed. The big thing she was going to do would be to build a stargate in orbit that would allow Uliera to quickly move from her new nest to this system in an instant.

At the moment however it was finally time to cut loose. With that in mind, she disengaged her cloak. Almost instantly she was detected as several ships scanned her. One of which a small battleship less than a thousand kilometers off her port bow hailed her. It was a demand for her to identify herself. She complied, sending a small comm burst into all of their systems.

The response as she expected was quite hostile. Multiple heavy plasma batteries opened up. Unleashing fiery plasma against her. The bright bolts washed across her shields without harm. She mentally hit the trigger and her overcharged shield grid detonated. Sending out a powerful shock pulse that rippled out across the system.

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The battleship off her bow was tossed around like an ancient rag doll. Her shields popping like a fragile bubble. Her hull ruptured in several places from the stress. Emergency systems did not engage, as her power systems failed. Several internal bulkheads did drop as power failed, but Megumi also acted. As tractor emitters locked onto nearby ships. The beams were calibrated to help reinforce their hulls, stabilize things for their crews, and temporarily plug breaches. An instant later she fired on them with a specially calibrated low power burst from her PPB emitters. The deadly plasma served to seal the wounds in their hulls.

More distant vessels proved not to need the attention as the shock pulse wasn’t so devastating. As for the planet, they received a signal before the pulse hit. Every system she could reach simply shut down for an instant before booting back up. As such they felt only a minor hiccup from the incident. That was true of their inhabited moon as well. Although the moon was arguably a planet in its own right.

She had a small army on the surface of that world as well. As such both worlds were open to her planned attack. With that in mind she started launching drones at the nearby ships while she moved into position to start firing on the planet. Half her beam weapons already had been calibrated for stun blasts.

Targeting the planet she scanned her targets and fired the beams with a dynamic calibration to ensure the intended effect. A zero casualty bombardment that would neutralize all resistance. As her beam banks unleashed their fury upon the planet she monitored the local broadcasts and communications. Using it as a marker of her impact. Thankfully she was getting the impression that most were confused with little idea of what was going on. No widespread panic had happened quite yet.

That was good. It would make things on her end easier. At the same time she was receiving reports from her drones. They had successfully boarded the local ships and were proceeding to pacify the crews. Ships further out would take more time, but that wasn’t an issue. She stopped deploying drones on the ships and instead proceeded with drone insertions on the planet.

Most of these drones were designed to deploy her nano-virus. It would be quickly and efficiently deployed to about 98 percent of the population within ten minutes. Unfortunately it would take several hours for the full effect to take place. In that time she would have to keep the population pacified. In addition she would also have to reach the remaining two percent that were in secure locations that the virus would not reach.

Most of the communications on the planet were items she could safely ignore or dismiss. One item however struck out as unusual. One of the military bases broadcast a single word in the clear on the emergency channel. “Starfall.” The transmission was beamed towards deep space. An area that to her knowledge was supposed to be empty.

Curious, she directed several long range sensors over the area. The following active scan of the region quickly revealed something of interest. Two hundred capital ships were in that section of space, but they were not of Neku design. Those ships were already moving towards the system at high warp, battle systems charged. They would be here before her shields reset. At this range it was hard to tell what they had, so she could not be sure if they were a threat or not.

Swiftly she calculated their vector and determined their warp in point. With that calculated she started deploying swarm drones. Intent on overwhelming them with superior firepower before they had a chance to fire a shot. Better safe than sorry she figured. Quoting an ancient expression whose origin was lost to time, but whose wisdom remained valuable. The ancient who coined that phrase wasn’t wrong that due caution was often better than being reckless. Even if you were a million year old battleship with nigh invulnerable armor plating. She made a mental note to work on improving that plating especially since she was going to be on her own for awhile.

Unfortunately she wasn’t a research AI. Her mind drifted to that core she had recovered from that crashed freighter before she had left for Nekuri. The core was in good condition and her AI had been in hibernation mode. Unfortunately something had happened while she was down there and her personality matrix had been corrupted. Self-recovery mechanisms had repaired the damage, but she had essentially reverted to childhood. As such Megumi had been devoting some of her attention since she rebooted her a few weeks ago to giving the other core the care she needed. She was looking forward to introducing her to Kiru as well.

Megumi filled those thoughts away and refocused on the task at hand. On the surface she had drones constructing gateways in strategic locations. Five new outposts on Nekuri and nearly a dozen on the smaller moon; Dakur. She would need more on Darkur since her presence there was weaker. Getting onto that moon hadn’t been as easy. It had oceans but none as deep as those on Nekuri. Thankfully it had some vast deserts that weren’t really populated. There was a nice rocky one on the southern pole that had worked well enough for establishing a cloaked base. From which she had moved units into various settlements to gather information.

She wasn’t the only one to put a facility there however. The Iniri had placed one in that desert as well. Speaking of the facility it was built into the ground, so it was one of those targets she would have to physically take. It was also part of their military branch so she already had an idea of what to expect.

---

Turning the terminal off. It wasn’t any use. She didn’t know what was going on. Especially out there. She took a moment to take a breath and focus herself. Before slumping onto a sofa. Carefully she clutched Miku against her chest and continued to send calming signals to her. Each boom in the distance was enough to startle the very young girl, but her presence soon calmed her.

She was also worried based on what she saw, but she quickly decided it best not to worry about it. Yiria pushed them aside. Right now little Miku needed her and so she was going to be there for her. What kind of a mother would she be if she didn’t do everything for her little one.

With that thought in mind she was able to calm herself. After a few minutes the booms stopped and she breathed a sigh of relief. Especially as Miku finally properly settled. Only to start sending her hunger signals. She smiled and guided the little one to a breast to let her suckle. Everything was right again in her world. Whatever had caused that chaos was something to be worried about later.

She shifted, making herself comfortable as Miku nursed. A few minutes later Miku was pleasantly full and she was giving her after meal care. She suddenly started to itch. It was a strange itch, not unpleasant, but not exactly pleasant either. It mostly left her bewildered. Before she could think on it, she sensed Miku’s need and rushed to the bathroom. Weird itches could wait.

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