Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4) Read online

  Every great civilization, and every great power in this galaxy has a story. The story of each civilization winds through twists and turns, triumphs and defeats, as the civilization progresses to a position of eminence and dominance. The path is rarely straight but always interesting, and it always has a humble beginning. This is the story of the rise of the civilization and power that would come to be known in the galaxy as the ‘Human Empire’. Like all such stories, this too has a humble beginning.

  Index

  Dawn of a new age?

  Tidings of War

  Behind Enemy Lines

  Ka-let’s Bounties

  Shaitan’s Folly

  Fool me twice…

  The Heretics

  Reactionless

  The Transporter

  The Holy Lands

  Battle of Hades

  Judas

  Treachery!

  Long Grind

  Ghost Planet

  Eerie Silence!

  Ragnar’s Log

  Lord of the Hunt

  Chapter XXX

  Dawn of a new age?

  World #2, Home system of the Shaitans

  230 Cycles after the massacre on World #12

  Taste of Solidarity had not hibernated or eaten anything for many cycles now. He was no longer young to be putting his frail body through this kind of a treatment. Even by the hardy standards of his beings, he was starving and sleep deprived. Before his mind started losing coherence, he decided to give his body the break it so desperately was crying out for.

  Solidarity returned to his nest and to the feeding pool next to his niche. He let his body soak up the nutrients it so desperately needed, while trying to force his brain to slow down and enter into a mild hibernation. Sleep however was hard to come by for the disturbed soul of Solidarity. The harder he tried to get into hibernation, the more agitated his mind became. Taste of Solidarity finally gave up and let his mind meander wherever it wanted to.

  Solidarity was not the only being of the Grand Council to be in this state, he knew that. Right now every member of the Grand Council, the council of seers of each world, and perhaps each of their beings spread across all the remaining worlds were in the same state that Solidarity was. ‘Remaining worlds’! The phrase sounded so surreal to him!

  This had never happened to their beings! They had never lost a settled world! Not even to a natural disaster, let alone to a spawn of Ka! In their 6.7 billion cycle history, their beings had held many a requiem for the departed souls of their beings lost to accidents, disasters and even wars with spawns of Ka. Never before in that long history had their beings ever held a requiem for an entire world of 43 million souls!

  The news of the massacre of World #12 had spread across the Shaitan universe at the speed of light. Literally! It had taken 230 cycles for the news to reach the core of the Shaitan universe – The origin world and world #2. Even now the news was racing towards some of the worlds on the other side where light had not had enough time to reach. Those currently ignorant worlds would get the news in less than 200 cycles at the most, when they would begin their cycle of mourning.

  An entire world! Each and every being on that world wiped out! An entire world that could not resist the initial attack of 4 enemy warships! An entire world of 43 million wiped out by few tens of thousands of spawns of Ka! How was that possible? Granted that World #12 was the youngest of the colonies with the least resources of any of their worlds, but they were no pushover!

  What kind of evil machinations of Ka could evolve a species so powerful as to exterminate 43 million of their beings with just 40-50 thousand enemy combatants? By all accounts the Ka-Baal weapons were not anything extraordinary. In fact in most cases they were less powerful than that of their being’s weapons. The Ka-Baal were physically far weaker than their own beings, and yet they managed to exterminate an entire world in a campaign lasting barely a thousand cycles!

  The thought brought a bout of involuntary shiver to the old body of Solidarity, which shivered in any case due to old age. Were his beings entering a new age? An age which would be named by a euphemism of sorrow? Or would there be no more of his beings left to name this age at all, as it must be the case with every spawn of Ka they themselves had exterminated. The last age of any species remains unnamed, for there is no one left to name it.

  Was this how every other spawn of Ka must have felt, as his beings exterminated those spawn of Ka? The body of Solidarity gave another involuntary shiver. No – that was not possible. His beings had 11 worlds in 10 distinct systems, while the Ka-Baal had only one… two now, Solidarity had to remind himself! World #12 had been taken from his beings, just as they had taken worlds from other spawns of Ka.

  Still, Taste of Solidarity was confident that in the long run, his beings would prevail over Ka-Baal. There was no way the Ka-Baal could reach each and every world of his beings and exterminate them, even if they turned out to be stronger than he anticipated them to be. It just wasn’t possible to reach some of the worlds of his beings from the home world of the Ka-Baal.

  Even if the worst were to come to pass and World #11 were defeated along with World #8 which were the only other close enough systems to the Ka-Baal home world, that would still leave his beings with most of their worlds and resources. Their beings could plan an extermination of the Ka-Baal in the long term even if the coming battle turned out to be a disaster.

  No… his beings would not die out. His beings would not be exterminated. It was ordained in their holy scriptures, they were the chosen species. Taste of Solidarity had to admit though that this was easily the toughest challenge thrown by Ka at his beings yet. Possibly tougher than even the original test of the Ka species themselves when they enslaved his beings on world #2.

  Taste of Solidarity was now thankful for the farsightedness that had been shown by the Grand Council in general and himself and his close associates in particular in planning the response to the Ka-Baal discovery. When the first scout ship from world #12 had reached the heart of the Kalshuk system almost Eight thousand cycles ago, it had been proved that a rich inhabitable world lay out there ripe for migration.

  The fact that the scout ship had been attacked by an indigenous species barely void capable, was hardly a matter of concern. A lot of his being’s scout ships had been attacked on previous encounters with spawns of Ka throughout history. At that point the Grand Council had been fairly confident that World #12 would be able to handle these spawns of Ka. In the worst case, they might need some help from World #11, which was almost as close to the heart of the Kalshuk system, but in the opposite direction.

  The Grand Council however seemed to have a premonition of things to come. The experience of the Ka-let, the most recent spawns of Ka to be exterminated by his beings, had taught the Grand Council a lesson. The Ka-let had not been a very effective warrior species. Despite this fact, the Ka-let had put up a tremendous fight and strained the resources of his beings in their effort to exterminate them.

  The analysis of the seers had determined that this amount of resistance was possible from an otherwise militarily incompetent species, due to the vast amount of resources available at the disposal of the Ka-let. It had all boiled down to the location of the Ka-let home world. More specifically it boiled down to the abundance of harvestable energy available to the Ka-let.

  Ka-let was the first home world his beings had encountered, that was orbiting a star. The source of energy for the home world did not emanate from deep within the bowels of planet, but from the abundant energy radiated by the star that bathed the home world planet of the Ka-let in a rich and diverse ecosystem that could harness that abundant energy. This had provide
d the Ka-let with access to an amount of resources, not available to any single home world of his beings.

  The home world of the Ka-Baal was also a planet orbiting a star. In fact Kalshuk was a far brighter star, and the 3rd planet of Kalshuk was far bigger than the home world of the Ka-let. It was entirely possible that these spawns of Ka had access to tremendous resources, which may have bolstered their population into the hundreds of millions, possibly in the billions. It was entirely possible that exterminating the Ka-Baal would turn out to be a particularly difficult job due to these factors however primitive they may be.

  Keeping this factor in mind the Grand Council had changed the migration pattern for the Kalshuk system subtly. Every world of his beings was duty bound to send migration vessels to populate any new world discovered by any of their beings. This was done to ensure that there would be no genetic drift in the population of the newly settled colony world.

  In fact to fight genetic drift, the Grand Council had a rigorous program of regular inter-migration between the various worlds of his beings. Each world of his beings sent migration vessels to other worlds every 30-40 thousand cycles to cross populate. This intermingling of genes ensured that the entire population of his beings across all the worlds maintained their genetic cohesiveness without diverging and becoming a different species. It also bonded the beings culturally ensuring that his beings stayed united.

  What the Grand Council had mandated from the council of seers of all the worlds was that along with every migration vessel, each world had to send a war vessel as well. This precaution had turned out to be a good call when the first migration vessel from World #12 was destroyed by the Ka-Baal two thousand cycles later, when they reached the heart of the Kalshuk system.

  The Grand Council immediately put a moratorium on any further movement of migration vessels towards the Kalshuk system, but ordered all its worlds to advance their spare war vessels towards the Kalshuk system at a measured pace. The war vessels were ordered to hop to the next settled world of their beings and be on standby, just in case the situation escalated.

  The situation did escalate! Another two thousand cycles later when a combined force from World #12 and World #11 was defeated against all expectations, the Grand Council knew that their fears about the Ka-Baal were not completely unfounded. This species was not as primitive as had been estimated originally, but worse was the fact that this was a very militarily competent species.

  The Grand Council immediately took over the reins of the prosecution of the extermination from the discovering world i.e. World #12. The situation had blown way beyond the capability of a single world of his being, let alone the weakest of the worlds. By this time a lot of war vessels and the original lot of migration vessels that had been dispatched towards the heart of the Kalshuk system had reached close to their destination. Thankfully none had actually crossed the furthest of their colonies.

  All these earlier dispatched war vessels and migration vessels were ordered to gather at the last port of call before Kalshuk system – World #11. They could wait there awaiting orders. In the mean while they would act as a defense force in the unlikely case of World #11 being attacked.

  From whatever technology the Ka-Baal had displayed till then, it didn’t look like they had the capability to travel very far. It didn’t seem likely that the Ka-Baal were capable of launching a counter attack on either World #11 or World #12. However every time his beings had made an assessment of the Ka-Baal capabilities, they had ended up underestimating the Ka-Baal. These spawns of Ka were absolutely capable of surprising his beings once again.

  Thus a contingency plan was drawn up, in case the Ka-Baal were capable and did launch a counterattack on either of these closest of the worlds from the Ka-Baal home, at least World #11 would be well protected with the number of war vessels gathering there. Unfortunately nothing could be done for World #12, which was on the opposite side of the Kalshuk system. World #12 was instructed to build up its military forces as best as they could but refrain from any further attacks or provocations, including the use of Ka-ma-khya.

  Then the Grand Council got down to the business of planning the actual offensive campaign and the eventual extermination of the Ka-Baal. His beings decided to raise a fleet of 128 war vessels! The greatest number that his beings had ever raised for any military campaign. It was far better to wait and plan for an overkill, rather than be caught unprepared and be exterminated themselves. His beings were after all facing the toughest spawns of Ka that they had ever faced.

  Each of the worlds of his beings went into full war preparation and started churning out as many war vessels as their individual world resources allowed. A timetable for the production schedule and delivery was set, and a gathering point decided. To avoid endangering the fleet being gathered, it was decided that the gathering point should not be World #11, which could in theory be attacked, however remote the chances may be. Instead the gathering point was fixed as World #8, which was the next closest world.

  128 war vessels would slowly gather at World #8 over the cycles as each world finished construction and dispatched the war vessels. When all 128 vessels had gathered, they would start their journey towards World #11 to join up with whatever number of war vessels World #11 had managed to produce. There were already 10 war vessels and 10 migration vessels that had managed to reach World #11 from various worlds. These were the vessels that had started off for colonization in the initial euphoria on the discovery of a new world at the heart of the Kalshuk system.

  After the shock defeat of the combined forces of World #12 and World #11, the Grand Council had put a moratorium on any further movement towards the Kalshuk system, but these 20 vessels had already set out and there was no point in recalling them. In addition, World #11 had promised that they would have built 20 war vessels by the time the grand fleet of his beings reached World #11.

  A brief stopover at World #11 would be undertaken by the grand fleet to replenish, reinforce and repair. Replenish its supplies and fuel, reinforce its skeleton crew and take in fresh crew, and repair any breakdowns in the fleet. If World #11 kept its schedule then the grand fleet would be bolstered to a strength of 158. This the greatest fleet ever assembled by his being would then proceed on the biggest extermination campaign ever undertaken.

  It was the religious right of any of their being’s worlds to participate in an extermination campaign if they were able to do so, as also it was the religious duty of that world. Thus World #12 could not be excluded from the campaign, although their help was not really required. It would be an impropriety of the way of his beings not to invite World #12 in the campaign, so they would be sent the signal when the grand fleet proceeded towards the Kalshuk system.

  Whatever fleet World #12 had managed to assemble by that time could co-ordinate with the grand fleet and arrange to arrive at the same time to participate in the campaign. That had been the grand plan the Grand Council had hatched and followed for over two thousand cycles, refraining from any ad hoc attack on the Ka-Baal during that period.

  The plan developed its first kink when the Ka-Baal unilaterally attacked World #12, breaking their own word given in a broadcast earlier. The promise had not been asked for by his beings, for it would not even have occurred to his beings that such a promise could be asked for. Why would his beings ask for non-attack from a spawn of Ka, and why would a spawn of Ka ever make that promise?

  The promise had not been spelt out really, but had been implied in their broadcast. The broadcast had been done just prior to an attempt at a revenge Ka-ma-khya by the Ka-Baal. The Ka-ma-khya attempt by the Ka-Baal had been pathetic. It hardly had any power and did not bother World #12 at all. Still it demonstrated that the Ka-Baal had some rudimentary ability to strike back at nearby worlds of his beings.

  This should not have been surprising. In his beings’ short history of encounters with the Ka-Baal, the spawns of Ka have always managed to demonstrate one step higher level of technology than what had been observed on t
heir previous encounter. It almost seemed to give the Ka-Baal perverse pleasure in uncovering their technology one by one starting with primitive technologies and progressively increasing the level of their technology just enough to thwart his beings.

  This was a very weird behavior of these spawns of Ka! What possible advantage could the Ka-Baal hope to gain by uncovering the true extent of their technology slowly layer by layer? Were the Ka-Baal trying to convince his beings that they had made those technological progress in the few thousand cycles since their first encounter? That would be laughable for even his beings, who were the chosen beings had taken a time hundred times greater to reach similar level of progress.

  That still left Seer Taste of Solidarity and every other member of the Grand Council with a scary thought. His beings did not know the true extent of the Ka-Baal technology. What if the Ka-Baal were technologically more advanced than his beings? That thought made the ageing body of Solidarity shiver once again. What if the Ka-Baal were simply playing a game of deception, projecting themselves to be a lot more primitive than they were?

  But then again it made no logical sense. In combat it made sense to try and deceive your enemy into thinking that you are stronger that what you actually are. That may scare off your enemy, or put them into the defensive. What advantage can one hope to achieve in trying to convince the enemy that you are weaker than what you actually are? Unless… you are trying to lure the enemy into a trap!

  That had been the worry of the Grand Council. They had concluded that all previous attempts at extermination had failed because the Ka-Baal had successfully deceived his beings into thinking that they were very primitive and hence had succeeded in luring underprepared invasion forces of his beings to reach Kalshuk, where they were slaughtered.

  The Grand Council would not be deceived again. They would wait for as many thousands of cycles as needed and prepare an invasion force that was unprecedented with the resources of every world pooled in. That had to be enough. If that wasn’t enough then… the body of Taste of Solidarity gave another involuntary shiver.