-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- _____ _____ _____ _____ /_____ |_____| \___ _____ _____/ | \ \_____ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ T h e F e q h G a l a x y -=< Here it is! SRE: The Feqh Galaxy. It's been advertised for almost seven months. People have asked me repeatedly, "What IS Feqh?" Well, here's the story. Enjoy it... And now! On to the story!! >=- -) Prologue Feqhicans had exceptionally long lives. It was unfortunate, too. Jirca and Phee, the two dictators of Feqh, would reign for years to come. They were perverted, too. They had the sickest sense of enjoyment. They forced billions of people to form empires. Then they would make the empires join into alliances. And then they would watch as the alliances battled to the death. Whichever alliance came out to be victorious got a reward; the reward was eradication. The people of the Feqh Galaxy had had enough of Jirca and Phee. -) 1 (- Deep within ThroneBase One, capitol of the Feqh Galaxy, was the Throne Chamber. Seated in the Throne Chamber were the dreaded lords of the Galaxy; Jirca and Phee. They had been married for over one hundred years. They had ruled the Feqh Galaxy for over eighty-five years. And now they watched the recorded segments of the latest Tyrannical Battle. As was typical, both alliances were trying to die in battle; it was far more honorable than being murdered by the lords' soldiers. Later in the day, the two lords visited their Heads of Societial Control. "I am tired of the same old game. The Tyrannical Battle no longer holds the entertainment value it used to," said Phee. "I agree. I want something more," put forth Jirca. Buctia, the Head of All Society Repression, spoke up. "My lords, you know of the Siberian Group," he began. "CYBERIAN!" corrected Jirca, "Yes, we know." "Well, perhaps there could be some sort of battle! You could take a billion people or so and attack them or something," suggested Buctia. "Intriguing.. I like the idea. I have an even better one, though. But first, here are your orders: Gather as many people as you like. A trillion, if you wish. Give us the best battle we've ever seen. Pick some people who are willing to try and win. Creative people. And also; temporarily drop the reward for the winners. Of course the winners will be killed as usual; just don't tell them that. I want to see the best game EVER!!" ordered Phee. "Yes, my lords," said Buctia, humbly. He turned and left to execute her orders. -) 2 (- Iseylon had been picked as the leader of the Cold Alliance. She had hand picked her leadership team, which included such people as Ureya, Frezar, and Rufreji. She had not determined what strategy her alliance would use, nor had she made up her mind who should take what positions. But that would happen in good time. Relf Miga had been elected as head of the Second Alliance, as they called it. He hadn't picked any of his leadership team per se. He had allowed anyone to apply, and based his decisions on their qualifications. He had picked Lakas as his Chief of Military Maneuvers, Dina as his Minister of Finances, and Honawa as his Underchief of Military Maneuvers and Head of General Action. Relf and Lakas were carefully preparing attack plans. This war would be the best fought yet, and Relf Miga planned to win. It had been decided. Over one trillion citizens had been given new homes. It was up to the Alliance leaders to decided where they were put; military service, civil service, or just as commoners. If Buctia had done as good a job as he thought he had, this game would please Jirca and Phee more than all the others. -) 3 (- The two alliances struck into battle immediately. The Second Alliance was easily defeating the Cold Alliance with it's better organized leadership cabinet. After the first week, twenty billion civilians were dead. This battle was proving to be quite interesting. "I have decided on your positions. You have done a terrible job. We have no chance now unless we do several things." Iseylon was holding a leadership staff meeting. "First we must begin central financial planning. Second, we must begin covert opertions. The only way we can get an advantage is to perform highly clandenstine operations successfully," she said. "Get these things done or we will die," she ordered. Relf Miga got the latest death toll. His forces still outnumbered those of the Cold Alliance. Fortunately not too many civilians had been killed. His cabinet members were executing their orders with superb efficiency, carrying them out to the letter. If things stayed like this, the war would be over soon. -) 4 (- "We have founded the Cold Netur, Iseylon. 'Netur' is an ancient term from the planet Wasalia IV, meaning 'Secret Destructive Force.' It perfectly sums up the team we have assembled," reported Refreji. "This Cold Netur of yours.. Exactly what can it do? How advanced are they?" asked Iseylon. "The Netur can penetrate enemy lines and sabotage virtually any target, as long as the enemy has no covert force. Our early reports show they are concentrating their civilians into military training camps. We have found an area of their alliance that is unprotected; covert operations," replied Refreji. Iseylon nodded here head. "Good! Dispatch this team. Show me what they can do," she demanded. Dina and Honawa were meeting, discussing the matter of financing a civil protection program when a vibration rumbled through the meeting hall. "What was that?" asked Dina. "I have no idea," replied Honawa. Their questions were soon answered as the viewports in the hall were broken open. Since the ports protected them from space, and they were now broken, air quickly rushed out. Dina and Honawa were thrown from their chairs and hurtled toward the empty vastness of space. Before they could get there, the were killed by the sudden loss of pressure. The resulting mess was too gruesome to describe... Similar events were reported throughout the Second Alliance. Soon Relf realized that overlooking covert operations was a severe oversight on his part. His Alliance was crumbling, even though the military was triumphing over the Cold Alliance. -) 5 (- "Jirca! I've had a brilliant idea!" cried Phee. Jirca rushed to his consort's side. "What, my dear?" he asked. "You know of this Cold Netur that has taken the Second Alliance by surprise?" she asked. Jirca nodded his head yes. "What if we created such a force... a Feqh-Netur! And what if we randomly began to irritate the other forces of the Universe with our Feqh-Netur. We could use the Netur as a jumping platform, so we could thrust our we into a full-force invasion. What do you think?" she said. Jirca pondered it all. "Very interesting.. A Feqh-Netur. Hmm.. I like it already. Halt the game! We should reward these people for such an idea. I have it! We'll take four of the players, say Iseylon, Refregi, Relf Miga, and Lakas, and put them in charge of creating a Feqh-Netur!" exclaimed Jirca. Both laughed hysterically. "What excellent ideas!" they yelled in unison. -) 6 (- Underinspector Tecouk was going over another sample. Several Galaxies were reporting acts of terrorism. In Tecouk's opinion, there was a new Underground dissident group to deal with. But Inspector Orinaka wasn't interested in opinions. In fact, Tecouk was sure Orinaka had specifically given Tecouk this assignment to keep him away from the main Forensics Lab. Orinaka didn't like Tecouk at all... Little over two thousand miles away, on the planet underneath the Cyberian Platform, Rybosi II, was the Forensics Lab. Inspector Orinaka was inside, along with several assitants. He had just finished showing several trainees the workings of the Lab. One of them particularly interested Orinaka; a certain T'Hoj. She was quite intelligent. Orinaka wouldn't mind having her as an Underinspector... Maybe even replace Tecouk! As Orinaka contemplated all this, a strange odor reached his nostrils. At first he didn't recognize it, but then the pungent smell identified itself. It was nioxyia, a version of the theoretical nioxyl, only it used ordinary oxygen. Of course nioxyia was deadly. Orinaka realized that too late. He was consumed by the chemical gas, and it swam through his head. His brain began to shut down, and Orinaka was soon dead. -) 7 (- "I want to find out why the hell my chief Inspector is dead! I want to know why there are countless other assassinations being reported all over this Universe! Get me the answers and get them NOW!" yelled Amoko. "There have been no major incidents since we shut down the Underground twenty-seven years ago. I want it to stay that way. Get the only remaining Underinspector... What was his name? Tuh-Coo-Coo? Whatever his name was... Get him on this case. And while your at it, alert the Admiralty," ordered Amoko. His couriers all rushed about giving the various commands to the people responsible. One came back, a bad look on his face. "Amoko, sir, it would seem there's only one Admiral left... Admiral Grosne. Shall I have him promote some more people?" he asked. Amoko nodded. Admiral Grosne paced down the briefing room. Seated were eight people. Five of them had the rank of commodore. One was a full commodore. The other two were subcommodores. Six of them would be promoted to Admiral, to take the place of the six that had been assassinated. "Subcommodore Rytek, Commodore Dwool, I'm afraid you didn't make the cut. This is not a blemish or a reflection of dissatisfaction. I need men with experience," he said, almost compassionately. In the same motion, he cut them off. "Dismissed," he said curtly. The two men, one young, the other middle-aged, turned and left. He addressed the other six. "You all are, as of now, Admirals. I expect you to carry out the duties as you normally would. Two of you, Admirals Naras and Petyr, will be in charge of assisting Underinspector Tecouk in his investigation of the assassinations," he explained. As he did before, he cut them all off. "Dismissed," he said. All six new Admirals left the briefing room, a bit overwhelmed; particularly Naras and Petyr. "Sorry, sir, but there's been another set of assassinations," reported a young aide. "Damn!" yelled Amoko. "When is this madness going to end? I heard there is an investigation team on the case. What's their progress?" demanded Amoko. "Not much yet, sir. They have yet to meet," replied the aide. -) 8 (- "The Group has assembled a small investigation team. They are seeking out the assassins," said Lakas. "Then we must prepare to fight back! Get an Elite-Netur group together and kill this team!" ordered Iseylon. Lakas turned and left. "Insure his success, Relf," said Iseylon. Miga nodded and walked slowly towards the door. "So what all do we know?" asked Admiral Naras. "Not very much. I've asked assitant T'hoj here to pull together some information. Ms. T'hoj, what have you got for us?" asked underinspector Tecouk. "We know that for the past month, the Universe has been plagued with espionage, assassinations, and covert attack operations. To our knowledge there are no Underground dissident forces in any position of power, but we do believe this is such a dissident force," explained T'hoj. "And we're just supposed to find them? How exactly will we do that?" demanded Petyr. "Considering the fact that we are inside one of the buildings containing important Cyberian personnel, I believe within a limited amount of time we will have an assassination on our hands and something to go on," replied Tecouk. Suddenly, the door burst open and two men came towards them. One spoke: "This is a vastator," he said, pointing to his sidearm, "it's beam is silent and invisible, but completely deadly." T'hoj reached over and pushed a green button, and then a red one. A containment grid snapped around the two men. One raised his vastator and pulled the trigger. Without warning, the grid dissipated and the two men continued walking forward. "Ohhh boy," said the underinspector. Head of Security, Nalsi, saw it first. "Intruders in the conference room! Prepare for anti-assassination techniques," she ordered. A small team of six people assembled and grabbed weapons. Together, they ran down the corridor, and stopped in front of the conference room. They came in slowly and saw the two men, holding strange-looking weapons. One whirled and aimed his gun at the team. Without warning, two security people fell to the ground. Nalsi aimed her weapon and fired, downing one assassin, and knocking his gun across the floor. The remaining assassin fired repeatedly, downing two more officers. "What do you want?!" screamed Nalsi. The assassin aimed his weapon at the two last officers, when suddenly he keeled forward, the result of an invisible shockwace. "It really IS silent!" exclaimed T'hoj, holding the vastator. -) 9 (- "The Elite-Netur failed their mission! The investigation team is still alive!" exclaimed Lakas. "How is this possible?" screamed Iseylon. "Damn! What next?" demanded Relf Miga. Iseylon shook her head. "We must eliminate that team! They have one of the assassins alive. If they got any information out of him, it would give us away. Jirca and Phee would not be too happy about that," said Iseylon. Noliana, chief pilot of Supra Wing Fighter Division Five. She was eating her favorite meal during her break, because her fighter was being recharged and repaired after an interception run the other day. As she began to eat, the 'unidentified ships' alert went off. Noliana ran off in the direction of her fighter. Sixteen Feqh-Netur attack vessels sat outside the Trios Galaxy, which was under reconstruction after being obliterated by the nioxyl missile. Inside Trios were several Cyberian Armada carriers. The Netur had been ordered to destroy them, so off they went, towards their targets. "Deactivating latching moors now," said Noliana. She pressed a touchpad and her tactical layout came up on one of eight VidTerms. The other eight were programmed to display engine efficiency, damage reports, Com transmission, wingmen positions, navigational controls, and computer-direct monitors. She activated her thrusters and zoomed outside the carrier. Ten fighters came out to meet the potential threat. The Netur immediately shot two of them with pulse cannons. Sparks flew, and fire rained inside the cockpit. "Damn it! Noliana, I'm hit!!" screamed Bov. His fighter careened sideways, then lurched forward, out of control. Bov frantically tried to gain control of his craft, and managed to steer it towards an enemy vessel. They collided, and a massive explosion erupted. Noliana had two enemy attack vessels following her. Checking her NavTerm, she executed a u-turn and faced her opponents. She opened fire with the photon bolts. A direct hit on one enemy ruptured it's hull. The other ship fired on Noliana with it's pulse cannons. Her small fighter shuddered under the impact of fire, but held up. Her Tactical VidTerm lit up and showed five enemy vessels approaching the carrier. She whirled her fighter hard about, and sent it as fast as it could go, in pursuit of her enemies. When she reached her destination, she found herself alone. The carrier opened fire with it's limited range of weapons. Noliana fancied herself with darting between the bigger enemy ships and firing. Within minutes, she'd crippled two enemies. She was circling again, when her engine blinked out. Smoke billowed into the cockpit. She looked at ther Damage Control VidTerm to discover she had suffered a direct hit. -) 10 (- The Fifth HC Division of the Cyberian Armada arrived just in time. Admiral Grosne, in his command ship, was leading the charge. Underinspector Tecouk had interrogated their assassin and discovered this small attack. Grosne's fleet had no trouble subduing the Netur vessels. Inside the command ship, Underinspector Tecouk was interrogating the commander of one enemy vessel. "You mentioned 'home.' Where is your home?" asked Tecouk. "The Feqh Galaxy. You've never discovered it, but it does exist," replied the prisoner. "And what was the purpose of this raid? It seems almost useless to me," inquired Tecouk. "It was a diversion. We've got an entire heavy cruiser division of the Armada here. When the Feqhican Navy invades, you'll be caught by surprise," said the Feqhican. Tecouk looked away. He tapped a blue touchpad on the AudCom. "Admiral Grosne, I need to speak with you," he said. Amina Outpost One spotted them first. A very large group of unidentifiable vessels, headed towards the Sree Galaxy. "Come in, Cyberian Platform," droned the computer manning the Outpost. "Amina One, this is the Platform. Go ahead," replied the Platform's Com officer. "Approximately fifty thousand alien vessels headed towards Sree Galaxy. Advise defensive measures," the computer continued. "Understood, Amina. Platform out," said the Com operator. The Feqh-Netur vessels swept in like a flood. To their surprise, the Cyberian Armada was there too. "This is Admiral Grosne, second-in-command of the Cyberian Armada. I am here to speak for Amoko, our commander-in-chief. I am under orders to stop you at all costs. If you don't surrender, you will be destroyed," came the voice over the AudCom. -) 11 (- The Netur invasion fleet dispersed and began forming small phalanxes. The Armada's fighter divisions flew out to meet them head-on. As the battle raged, the Armada began to lose heavily. The Netur were heavily armored and more aggressive. After ten minutes, the Netur had penetrated the fighter defense lines, and moved in on the Cyberian Platform. "How can we stop them? There must be a way," mused the underinspector, aloud. "No conventional weapons will stop them, sir," replied T'hoj. "But what would? There -has- to be something," he said. In his usual style, Tecouk paced furiously, as if pacing would help. The royalship, holding Jirca and Phee, moved in after the pentration of the fighter divisions. "Ahhh... A glorious battle," said Phee. "I must agree. We shall be victorious," agreed Jirca. "Wait a minute! I've got it!" exclaimed Tecouk. "You!" he said, pointing to the Feqhican prisoner, "What is this ship?" He motioned towards a large, blocky vessel, at the rear of the Feqhican Navy. "It is the royalship, holding the dread lords," replied the assassin. "Ah-ha! Notify Admiral Grosne immediately; destroy the royalship at all costs!" ordered Tecouk. The royalship was raked by enemy fire. The throne chamber shook violently, as if in protest to the attack. "What is going on?" demanded Phee. Another blast of enemy weapons shook the ship. Jirca and Phee were thrown to the ground. "Return fire, you fools!" screamed Jirca, into the communications relay. In five minutes, the royalship was destroyed. The Cyberian Armada began furiously attacking the Feqhican Navy, but it appeared no victory was in sight. Then, without warning, several Navy vessels began disengaging and fleeing the area. -) 12 (- "How did you know it would work?" asked Petyr. "Simple. The Feqhican mentioned the dictatorship of Jirca and Phee. I put two and two together. I figured they would be quite happy if their brutal leaders were killed," explained Tecouk. "Well if it didn't work completely, it worked enough. The Armada cleaned them out, that's for sure," commented Admiral Naras. "Yes, but I suspect our troubles aren't over yet. This Feqh-Netur doesn't strike me as the type of organization that just gives up," said Tecouk. -) Epilogue The entire Feqhican Navy was disarmed by the Armada. A few Netur operatives fled the Cyberian Group, but otherwise the entire organization was disabled. Underinspector Tecouk, for his good work, was promoted to Inspector, in place of his predecessor Orinaka. He picked T'hoj to be his assistant. After all, she did save his life. No major incidents occurred for almost fifteen years afterward...