Maty, Aer-ki Jyr [top 20 books to read .txt] 📗

around the now elevated lair were drained by the rebel fleet as they kept back what part of the ocean was trying to return on the eventual reversal of the tidal waves.

Then a few ships, including Rajamal’s Domjo, flew over top the Lair and poked more holes in it, seeing water coming out of it as the interior was drained partially. Only then did the elder Zen’zat leave his ship and go down to the surface inside mechanized assault craft that further cut into the holes in the armor. They blasted into the inner structure, draining out water then hacking and cutting as far as they could get before the support beams became too big and slowed them down too much. At that point Rajamal and the others went in on foot and continued the work with explosives, detonating one water-filled section after another and killing whatever J’gar remained living in personal armor the hard way.

But without their ability to swim they were easy targets, and with each corpse they had a team check the genetic code to identify who they were. Rajamal wanted a kill record, otherwise he would have dropped the asteroids directly onto the lair.

But if he had done that, they would never know for sure if the Didact was here or not.

More ships send assault teams to other portions of the perimeter as the planet around them complained grotesquely. Explosions continued even after the fleet silenced their guns. The crust still moved and breached at spots, throwing up a mix of fire and stream from spontaneous volcanoes…most of which were beyond the ring of ships that were holding the water back as it crept higher and higher, for the tidal waves would not stay pressed outward forever.

The lair itself was not obnoxiously huge, and the ground teams were making quick progress. They’d be done before the water rose high enough to jeopardize the holding shields, and without water inside the lair the fearsome J’gar were no match for the seasoned Zen’zat who didn’t care to make a fair fight out of it and killed them often out of sight with self-guiding missiles and other non-traditional weapons that normally would have been stifled due to the water environment…so the lair didn’t have defenses against them.

Chamber by chamber they went until one random J’gar, killed in armor, matched the Didact’s genetic code.

That wasn’t enough by itself, for genetic codes were publically known because it was too easy to get a whiff off someone’s body to sample it. They became your easy ID in V’kit’no’sat society, but ID’s could be faked as well.

That’s when Rajamal sent for Vikov. He was one of the rebels who had served the J’gar…and one that had personally met the Didact on two occasions. He had him examine the damaged body, from which they removed the armor. All J’gar looked alike…but that was true for just about every race in the galaxy until you got to know them better. In the case of the J’gar there were certain patterns to their bioluminescence that were fairly unique, along with crest height and other factors that could be changed if there was a reason, but the Didact would have no reason to do so as he kept a clandestine life safe from potential threats, as did almost all of the V’kit’no’sat leadership.

But the Zen’zat never had. Like the Archons, their strongest and wisest and eldest went first into the toughest of battles…or maybe not first, but second after unknown defenses were probed by those of less value. They knew the risks, as did all Zen’zat, and back when Rajamal was new he would have gladly taken that risk to shield a more valuable Zen’zat from a surprise attack.

That was why Rajamal had kept Vikov back, because he was the only person in the rebel fleet that could personally identify the Didact.

Vikov knelt next to the head of the J’gar…which had a large hole in it…and he pressed his exposed hand against the blue/purple flesh.

“I did not want this,” he said flatly. “But they forced it upon us.”

“In order to defend ourselves we had to break our oaths,” Rajamal agreed, feeling a familiar tightness in his chest…but one he had grown accustomed to long ago. Still, being here in the Didact’s potential presence, it ached a bit more none the less.

“What are we without our oaths?” Vikov demanded. “What is our purpose once vengeance is satisfied?”

“Is it satisfied?”

“This is him. We’ve killed him,” Vikov said regretfully. “How did it come to this, Rajamal? How?”

“He was our enemy, Vikov.”

“I served him. You did not.”

“I turned on those I served long ago when duty demanded it.”

“It makes me sick to see this. We’ve become a pack of predators and little more. What happens if we run out of prey? Who are we then?”

“I welcome that day.”

“I fear it. For we have nothing left but vengeance.”

“You can always serve Star Force with the others.”

“The trust is broken. And once broken, it cannot be mended.”

“They are not the V’kit’no’sat.”

“And I am still an oathbreaker. That will not change.”

“What would you have had us do?”

“Nothing different,” Vikov admitted. “We were driven to this by the failure of the V’kit’no’sat…but we are still being forced to break oaths. They were never relinquished.”

“A Deathmark doesn’t relinquish them?”

“Why do I still feel the bond then? Why do I still look at them with envy and awe despite what they have done?”

“You see what they were promised to be. Not what they actually are.”

“That ignorance was far more fulfilling than this truth.”

“But it is truth.”

“And our very purpose for existing was based on the ignorance. What are we now?”

“Warriors. With an unfulfilled mission.”

“To kill them all, Rajamal?”

“If that’s what it takes. But the objective is to defeat them once