Mortag's Ascent

Mortag's Ascent

He boarded the space cruiser to go to Cron's Abbey. Cron would be waiting there with the package. In that package he knew the fate of a planet rested. He had to cross through treacherous enemy territory to get there. He hoped the space cruiser was in good repair after its last jaunt through the Korlien space-space.
He slipped into the cruiser's command module. It felt good to be back in the old bird. Now that the docking crew had done their job he could go do his. He kissed his astro-cross and said a silent prayer to Metok, Watcher of the Stars. The cruiser pulled out of the docking bay into the dark night of the isolated SynBlares belt.
The first sign of trouble he received was a blip and a whistle on the dimensional 11d console. It was 3 Korlien fighters out patrolling the Kuipores Belt, 100 AU from SynBlares and 100AU from the planet Korlien. The first fighter he honed in on with a dimensional 11d gravity bomber. The quick jaunt for the bomb through the 5th and 6th dimension turned the fighter inside out leaving it's pilot a jumbled mass of flesh and blood floating in 4d space. The second fighter fared no better as another gravity bomb rearranged the laws of physics for the pilot.
The third fighter came on a like a bolt from the dark. Too bad it didn't have 11d technology. It's laser radar picked up the cruiser and started firing plasma blasts. The warped pathway of the laser found it's way into the cruiser's front 11d shields. A quick press of a button and the cruiser fired back. The 11d laser easily bypassed the fighter's shields and struck directly at the heart of the craft. The Korlien pilot had precious few seconds to say a few expletives to Kor before vaporizing in the quantum uncertainties of Korlien space-space.
Though it was the first scrap of this flight, Mortag knew there was more to come. If only he had an 11d transporter engine to fit on the cruiser he could easily skirt the lesser technologized Korlien forces. No time for that now. He had to get to Kron and the package.

He guided the cruiser down to land on the planet Kron's desert surface. His hideout needed stocking but his hover-skiff was still there. He cranked it up with a few flicks of some blue switches. The camouflage aqua skiff purred low and the controls felt good to grip again. The desert surface blended well with the skiff. And the micro-organic Blutornins that colored the desert surface blended well with the low profile of the skiff.
Speeding along the surface to Cron's Abbey took no time at all. After passing some acolytes saying morning prayers he went to the sanctuary to find Cron. Cron was in front of an altar saying his prayers to bring peace or at least, less fighting, to the Korlien system.
Mortag coughed. Cron turned round from his devotions. Cron put his finger to his mouth and silently led Mortag into the Abbey's underground vault. The vault was an underground cave used in the past to make Blutourno wine. Today it held something much more important, a black box. In this box was a powerful new 11d technology.
Cron said "This box will do what you wish to terraform and create new 11d technologies. I trust you with it because I know you want the same. Peace in the Korlien system. Mortag took the box. It was a plain dark box. A red button on the side facing panel sat indignant. Mortag pressed the button. A holo-schematic popped up. After a few adjustments Mortag got it to display the weapon he wished to make. Cron told him, "Take the box to a resource asteroid. There you shall be able to build your peacemaker. "
With a thank you and a nod, Mortag boarded his skiff and went back to his hideout. He arrived at the hideout. Everything seemed to be in place. ALTERNATE: <Korliens have discovered his hideout. After a brief fight and dispatch of the Korliens he gets his damaged cruiser back into deep space. >END ALTERNATE. So he boarded his cruiser to get into space and to find a resource asteroid.
The asteroid was easy enough to track and capture. His mining equipment would make short work of the small asteroid over the next few days. The wait was interminable. No Korliens, no Blubornins, and no Hualoths showed up. ALT<A Hualoth shows up trying to eat the asteroid, his mining equipment, and the ship. >END ALT Mortak would be the better for it though once he got it there.
After an uneventful flight through Korlien space-space, Mortag made it to planet Mortak. He pressed the red button on the black box. A wonderful apparatus emerged. Starting off small and unfolding bit by bit into a larger and larger construct. The many gears and metal bars converged quickly forming a geodesic dome of equipment. The dome immediately set to work on the surrounding red desert of the planet's bare lifeless surface. As it terraformed it grew, building new structures and machines as it went. The dome being the locus of the creation activity. The red desert was slowly turning the color of rich top-soil where the dome had moved over in its rush of creation.
Within 1 week the entire planet had been terraformed. Grass had grown first followed by budding flower stalks, then variegated flowers. Saplings peeked forth from the virgin soil, ready to send branches, leaves, and fruit to the welcoming changed atmosphere. The sky went from a pale brown to a blue within a year. But before that happy time, the planet was found out by the Korliens.
They came some 4 weeks after the terraformer box was doing its work. The first scout to spot it on his radar reported back to central headquarters. The Korliens sent a research and combat team to check out the reports of a drastically changing desert planet. It was curiosity and malice that motivated the Korliens. Long since giving over to destruction of all living things but themselves, they sensed a new opportunity to plunge another planet into a desolate, bare existence.
The drop-ships landed and the 10 person crew stepped out. They did not go unnoticed by Mortag who tracked them from his base on planet Ambien. He boarded his battle-skiff, fully loaded with energy packs and laser weapons.
Picking off the Korliens was too easy. They never even saw him coming. From 10 km away he fired hissatellite guided lasers to burn up the 10 Korliens in seconds.
As the planet was a backwater they never sent more Korliens for quite a long time. In the peace that followed the planet grew from its scraggly survivors of countless encounters with Korliens to a small paradise with food, water, and vegatation aplenty. Terraforming had come a long way in 200 years. Mortag knew his mission to destroy his home race and planet would best be met by creating what no Korlien ever could, a lush paradise of organic richness.
It took around 3 months for the lush paradise to be created. The black box was really amazing. The civilization that created it even more amazing. Too bad the Korlien scouts who were sent to check on the defeated forces found the green spotted pockets of life on the desert planet. They ray-casted messages to the local Korlien planet, Kormal.
The ships arrived at Ambien with their red and black ship decals shining in the splendor that was Ambien's sun. A splendor they maliciously willed to destroy and rape for all the mineral resources they could possibly extract to further their malign goal of exploitation and racial survival.
Mortag gathered the few pilots from Ammerci, the largest settlement on Ambien and fighteres which hadn't seen service in 50 years. Unfortunately the ships were Einsteinian based technology. However, Mortag's cruiser had enough 11d techonology to take on 100 Korliens fighters. This day was not the day that capability would be tried.
Mortag dispatched 10 of the Korlien fighters within 30 minutes of tracking them on 11d scanners. The gravity bombs did their dirty work with quantum quickness. Mortag let his other pilots chase after and eventually pick off the remaining 3 fighters with laser weapons. They needed the practice if they were ever to be able to defend their planet from further Korlien or other unknown civilizations attempts to explore, colonize, exploit, despoil, or otherwise wish harm on the Ambien humans.
Mortag gave the all clear signal from reading his 11d scanners that the Korliens were defeated and would not be back soon. The 11d gravity bombs made sure that communications from downed enemy ships got nowhere with no warning or indication of what happened to them.
Mortag and the pilots came back to Ammerci and went to Bannigan's and had a beer or two to celebrate the short and conclusive victory. The pilots bragged on and on into the night about their flying exploits. Mortag smiled and nodded but said nothing much, other than , " Yeah they did good. Next time we'll need more. Who wants to join?" Not that there was a shortage of takers who wanted to be pilots but getting those who could handle the forces and sophistication of the equipment involved was a problem.
Not to be daunted they passed the time merry-making until the warm sun of Ambien rose again to signal another wonderful new day for the inhabitants of that blessed and developing planet.