Story: Battle for the Valka Galaxy

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A story about the long war between the Katsoja and the Styhacians for the Valka Galaxy.

Chapter 1

Kastar observed the incoming Styhacian warships. Radar scanners had detected twenty in all. They were slightly bigger than Katsoja warships, but their were twenty-five of them, so Kastar expected a good, even fight. He uttered a quick prayer to Luominem, and then ordered their own ships to meet the Styhacians in combat.

As soon as they were in range, the ships fired at each other. Enormous mass drivers fired from the Katsoja warships, and there were bright flashes as they were vaporised by the Styhacian forcefields. Plasma beams were fired from Styhacian warships as retaliation; the energy simply scattered as it came into contact with the cold plasma circulating round the Katsoja warships.

Kastar stared ahead, silent and unmoving as the ships exchanged blows. Suddenly, the radar bleeped. One hundred more Styhacian warships had appeared on the edge of the radar, moving to reinforce the twenty they were fighting.

Kastar muttered an oath under his breath. There was no way they could fight off one hundred and twenty warships, and they had no time to get reinforcements. He knew the reinforcements must have come from a nearby planet, though which one he did not know. However, he had a good idea, and a plan quickly formulated itself in his head.

"I want five ships ready to go into FTL. We want to come out a few thousand miles behind the Styhacian fleet. The other twenty, stay and destroy as many as you can. Once we're out of FTL, search for the nearest planet under Styhacian control, and we'll go there."

Technicians and pilots rushed to obey his order. A hail of mass driver projectiles struck the forcefield surrounding the ship, followed by a helium bomb that dealt worrying damage to the forcefield. Nearby ships fired their own mass cannons as retaliation, and a hydrogen bomb smashed into the lead Styhacian ship's forcefield. When the explosion cleared, the ship was still there.

Then, there was a bright flash as the five Katsoja ships entered FTL, and they were gone.

The battle continued in their absence, and the reinforcements arrived. They pressed the advance, forcing the Katsoja backwards. A volley of helium bombs blew up one Katsoja warship, and two more fell to the highly explosive lasers used by the Styhacian warships. A Katsoja warship retaliated with its own lasers, and very quickly cut through the forcefield surrouding the lead Styhacian ship, which consequently exploded.

The battle became more intense as time passed, but in the end, all the Katsoja warships were destroyed, at the cost of only seven Styhacian warships. The fleet powered onwards.

Chapter 2

As Kastar had expected, as soon as they had come out of FTL, their scanners had detectable a nearby terrestrial planet. Now that they could see it on the monitors, it was obviously owned by Styhacians. Their sprawling warship factories and storage facilities covered every square inch of available ground, and they could just about see individual Styhacians bounding about their duty.

"Fire the mass drivers," Kastar ordered. Streams of missiles powered straight down to the planet's surface, striking it in a small explosion. As Kastar had hoped, the warships on the ground had their forcefields down, and were torn apart by the streams of missiles. Factories exploded alongside the warships, and Styhacians began to panic.

A single, flaming trail powered up from the planet's surface and struck the cold plasma circulating the warship. They clearly had a rapid-fire ground to air cannon. Kastar grunted, and redirected some of his fire to the source of the trail. There were a few explosions on the ground, and it ceased.

"Prepare to land," Kastar said. "I want to fight these beasts up close."

The five ships landed amid the chaos, but almost instant, a cluster of ground troops arrived and began firing at the ships. Their shots bounced of the nanotube armour uneffectively. They weren't actually Styhacians; they were ten-metre tall, humanoid robots; Styhacian Crusher Droids.

"Counter them," Kastar ordered. "Send out the KDDs!"

The Katsoja Destruction Droids - large metal boxes on wheels - rolled out to engage the SCDs. They were made of hardened steel, and a squat, six metre cube, armed on the front with a laser cannon, electrolaser, and four machine-guns. In comparison, the SCDs had a cannon replacing one hand, and a rapid-firing mass driver replacing the other.

Shots were exchanged between the two groups of robots, but both had repulsor fields protecting them. A SCD was enveloped in smoke and fire as an explosive laser repeatedly struck its forcefield. There was a larger and louder bang, and SCD parts were blown outwards, to land scattered across the battleground. SCD shots, however, were not sufficient to break through KDD repulsors.

Eventually, all the SCDs were destroyed. One KDD had sustained minor dents on its front, and one machine gun was non-functional. Other than that, they were all intact. Unexpectedly, another group burst out from behind a destroyed Styhacian spaceship. One, moving as fast as it could, barreled shoulder-first straight into the nearest KDD. One caterpillar tracked was lifted off the ground, but the cube proved stocky enough to right itself. In the time this had taken, the other KDDs had swivelled to face the oncoming SCDs.

The SCD, and the KDD it was pushing against, vanished in several laser explosions. Both were destroyed, and only a bundle of singed parts were left when the smoke cleared.

However, more SCDs were already opening fire, and another battle ensued.

Chapter 3

Talnak studied the region of space shown on the monitor. There were hundreds of specks of light - stars - but no visible, terrestrial planets. He sighed.

A recent battle over Caltas had forced him to flee with his family and crew onboard one of the smaller cruisers. It was only around 500m long, and very vulnerable to the two warring forces that dominated the galaxy.

They had flown for five days straight, and so far, had found to habitable planets, both under Styhacian control. They had quickly moved on before they were spotted and destroyed.

He hated both the Katsoja and Styhacians with a vengeance. They had gone and declared war on each other, and his planet was caught two many times in the crossfire. First, he had hid underground, but orbital bombing had blown far enough through the earth that he and his family's hiding place had been exposed. They had rushed to one of the surviving Cruiser hangars, to find their crew already boarding a cruiser, so desperate to survive they would have abandoned them. Luckily, there had been room for them all.

And they had to find a safe planet soon. Their ship had been briefly attacked by a Styhacian warship, and had sustained minor damage to the hull. However, they were unable to repair it unless they could set down.

Talnak sighed. This was a disaster.

Then, one of the stars was blotted out. It was a distant star, therefore small on the monitor, but to blot it out, a ship would have to be significantly closer to them. And that was worrying, because it could be a Styhacian ship. If it was Katsoja, they were safe, as Katsoja viewed themselves as guardians. If it was Styhacian, they were in trouble.

It wasn't either.

The ship got closer, and Talnak could make out some details. It was about eight kilometres long, and shaped like a squashed sphere. It was pitch black, so much so it was hard to see. And it seemed to bristling with various cannons.

Talnak had spent so long examining it, he had failed to notice it had come almost right up to them. As he had not seen this type of ship before, he tried to communicate, but it was blocked. Then, some of the cannons on the side facing them flared bright, and the missiles slammed into the cruiser, completely destroying it.

Chapter 4

A large, blue, arachnid-like creature stood at the front of the spaceship.

"What data have you collected on this galaxy?" Its voice was dark and menacing.

"It is home to multiple sapient species, most of which have achieved a certain degree of space travel. The two most advanced races are the Katsoja and the Styhacians. Their key religious beliefs contradict each other, and they are at war. The war has raged for decades, from end to end of the galaxy."

"Interesting. We shall temporarily leave this galaxy."

"What?"

"Even for us, conquering the multiverse is not an easy task. We shall divert the forces sent here to a more worthy location. We shall wait for the Katsoja and Styhacians to wipe each other out, then destroy the races that live amongst the ashes of the bitter war."

"Understood. I shall inform higher powers immediately."

"Good."

The slightly smaller creature moved off. The larger one spoke into a communications device.

"Withdraw all Verplaatsen forces from the area. We are returning to the main fleet!"

Chapter 5