Alpha Scorpii – Antares

554 Light-Years from Earth

Bal'Ri'Kan Hunter Fleet 12

37.2 solar hours after arrival

Kil'Ssha waited impatiently for the computer to finish organizing and categorizing the massive data transmissions from the twelve shadowcraft currently surrounding the flagship as he leaned over the terminal and clacked his claws.

The war packs were continuing to death feign as ordered, and twelve of the thirty-four shadowcraft he had sent out to scout for potential target species had finally returned, far sooner than he had expected.

After many solar minutes the computer finally finished analyzing the nearest potential prey species based on the billions of harvested scents, and Kil'Ssha had the terminal display the results.

Stellar coordinates appeared with the system details, and the first inferiors shown were a furry, mammalian species with a dense and powerful musculature that was obvious even through what looked like extremely thick and loose hides.

Kil'Ssha eyed the sharp fangs and claws of their jaws and paws apprehensively for a long moment before he carefully considered the other images being displayed.

The world they inhabited was densely populated with an estimated 2 billion inferiors, and the tastings had confirmed it to be heavily industrialized, though the computer had calculated it to be a colony world and not a Core World.

It was a suitable target for his needs, though the absurdly large, heavily armed orbital fortresses and defensive satellites surrounding the entire planet gave him considerable pause.

Are they currently engaged in a conflict, or are they an aggressive, expansionist species? He wondered as he took his time going over the computer's analysis of the resistance quotient before looking at the estimated meat harvesting potential.

They would provide a lot of meat per individual processing according to the computer's calculations, but the inferiors looked extremely hard to kill, and he could sense they would cause his crusaders much trouble trying to harvest them.

His initial reservations were soon proven correct as he watched a group of the filthy mammals engaging in what looked like ritual combat involving a round object.

He watched them ferociously bite and claw at each other as they tried to take the round object away from whichever mammal was currently holding it, and he did not understand what they were doing or why despite trying his best to analyze their actions.

Not these ones, Kil'Ssha finally decided as he saw tufts of fur and blood flinging everywhere while the bloodlusted combatants tried to rip each other apart.

Surrounding the fighting mammals on curved elevated benches, he could see thousands of other mammals watching the combatants, and they too began to attack each other in a frenzy, each group of attackers wearing distinctly colored cloths that were different from their foes.

Maybe they are clan-based like we are; this would mean they are always at war. Not what I am looking for, he confirmed to himself before closing out the windows.

Feeling disquieted by the vicious mammals, Kil'Ssha had the computer change the search parameters to focus only on species with an estimated resistance quotient of Class-3 and below and to exclude heavily developed Core Worlds and Birth Worlds.

As he waited for the computer to display the next series of images and visual feeds based on the new search parameters, he picked out a squealing pika hatchling from the deep-sided feeding bowl next to him and tossed it into his jaws.

He bit down on it, relishing the crunch and subsequent gush of salty fluids as his sharp fangs quickly ground down the tasty treat. He swallowed the remnants and reached for another when the computer hissed and began to display the next target species.

An image of a sparsely furred, clothed mammalian ape with a thin tail appeared next, and a sibilant hiss escaped Kil'Ssha's jaws as he discerned the female nature of it from the small frame and the obvious mammary glands on the chest.

His hiss faltered as he began to eye the delicate curves of the female, and he felt blood rushing to both his sex organ and his face scales as he tried to imagine what kind of cloaca it might have and where it would be located.

Female mammals typically had their cloacae between their upper legs where it terminated at their hip joints, and Kil'Ssha scratched himself deeply across his chest to regain his focus.

Flesh between the teeth outweighs prey downwind, he admonished himself as he realized he was fantasizing about prey concubines not yet in his harem.

Shaking his head to clear his mind of lust, Kil'Ssha forced himself to focus. He did not want to see female prey; he wanted to see the male apes they would be fighting to gauge their resistance potential.

He angrily stabbed at the controls to have the computer display only males from now on so he wouldn't be distracted again, and he could feel the blood trickling down his chest as a painful reminder to keep focused on the hunt.

The computer corrected the images and displayed a series of male apes next, and he stared at the slightly more muscular male filth being displayed with a critical eye.

This ape prey had much less meat than the first mammal, but they also had no sharp teeth or claws. That did not necessarily always mean they would not be competent fighters, as the crusaders have learned time and again during their cleansings.

He clicked in disapproval as he watched two inferior ape males bounding with large leaps and then flitting through a thick forest canopy with superior agility.

He hated mammalian tree apes; their stringy meat was barely worth the effort of processing, and only their livers and large brains offered any enjoyment.

Their deliciously fatty and sweet brains did offer one additional benefit, though; it made them cunning and tenacious sport prey, and his most dangerous and exhilarating hunts always involved mammalian apes.

Kil'Ssha noted their quick nature and mannerisms, and he could see the obvious signs of crafty intelligence within their eyes as more images and visual feeds were shown to him by the computer.

They would surely be cunning prey, difficult to capture and harvest.

They look advanced and organized based on the level of technology and the strange tree cities being displayed, and the computer had calculated this to be a developed colony world and not a Core World.

On the ground, the filthy apes had industrial districts spanning hundreds of draks in diameter, and there were over one hundred of them located all over the coastlines of the three large continents.

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There were also dozens of spaceports and low-orbit elevators, as well as what looked like two shipyards under construction in orbit. Such infrastructure indicated a self-sufficient, established technological and industrial base that could be rapidly converted for war production. Exactly what he was looking for.

He noticed the orbital battle stations and the massive defensive forts littering the system, and he carefully analyzed the tastings for a long time as he tried to calculate the risk-benefit of assaulting such a system.

Many inferiors had such systems, and none have ever stopped the Bal'Ri'Kan from fulfilling their mandate. Fortifications can be bypassed and destroyed from afar, and though the cost in ships and crusaders was always high, such systems always fell in the end.

The Crusaders had specialized tactics to deal with such defenses, and these too, would fall before them as all others have.

What mattered was the number of warpacks the inferiors had available to fight with, and according to the scents being tasted, there were currently less than a hundred warships defending the system.

The males would make for good hunting and sport, and their females would be a joy to break, Kil'Ssha decided as he pressed a control to show more samples.

Another series of visual feeds was displayed, this time with the inferior apes and another type of ape that was mostly furless except for the top of their heads that had either short or long fur of different colors, and Kil'Ssha went catatonic as he finally recognized the new apes.

The saliva dried up in his jaws, and he had the computer isolate the new apes and confirm their species as he felt his spinal feathers going erect with atavistic fear.

A few inta's passed before his worst fears were confirmed by the computer, and he shrieked with fury for having such misfortune befall him.

Their images had been disseminated across all the fleets by the Council of Elders, with strict warnings to avoid any worlds with such Ma'Kin'Ati on them unless specifically ordered to harvest such worlds by the Masters themselves.

He did not understand any of the mammalian behaviors he had been seeing so far, lacking the proper context for what the repulsive filth were doing.

What he was glimpsing now was even more confusing. The furry female was wearing all white cloth, and the Ma'Kin'Ati standing next to it was wearing black cloth that seemed stifling and restrictive, unsuitable for combat or quick action.

The Ma'Kin'Ati is male. Short cranial fur and no mammary glands, he noted as he struggled to comprehend what was being displayed.

All around them were many furry ape mammals and other Ma'Kin'Ati, and they were all grimacing with their teeth or showing emotional weakness as the furry female and the male Ma'Kin'Ati leaned their faces close together.

Kil'Ssha's slitted eyes narrowed as the furry female pressed her lips to the Ma'Kin'Ati. Are they going to bite each other? He wondered in confusion as he struggled to understand.

A disgustingly wet, mammalian display of obvious affection ensued, and then the other inferiors disgorged a myriad of objects and rapidly smacked their hands together as he reared his head back in disgust.

Kil'Ssha's throat convulsed from the repulsive sight, a guttural hack escaping his jaws before he could suppress it. His teeth gnashed reflexively, and a low rumble came from his air sacs as he averted his gaze from the terminal screens.

His jaws moistened again as he fought to keep his stomach acids down, feeling ill as if he had just eaten overly rancid or poisonous meat. Filthy inferiors, sharing their bodily fluids with no regard for purity, he thought with sheer disgust as his stomach continued roiling.

Kil'Ssha spat a glob of stringy saliva onto the deck, his chest heaving in disgust as he frantically tapped on the controls to make the revolting visual feeds go away.

These are not suitable prey either. The Ma'Kin'Ati are taking their females as concubines, which means they will fight ferociously to protect their harems, he realized dejectedly as he felt frustration welling up inside of him.

Kil'Ssha did not truly understand why the Masters had ordered them to avoid the descendants of the ancient Ma'Kin'Ati. By doing this, they had created an element of doubt and dissension within the crusader ranks and perhaps fear as well though none would admit it.

The males he had seen in the visual feeds did not match what was passed down in the sagas and via oral tradition by the elders, nor did they match the ancient images disseminated among the crusader fleets after destroying the disgusting insect fleets in Sector 17.

The Ma'Kin'Ati were no longer exceptionally large and powerfully built, and they had no natural defenses that would warrant such aversion to engaging them in combat, as far as he could see.

Their impossible feats were whispered in secret for over 7,000 generations, becoming legendary at first and then near mythological in scope as the elders constantly reminded them of how close the Bal'Ri'Kan came to losing the Paradise that was promised because of such foes.

He snarled in frustration as his claws clacked against the controls to display the next sequence of images and visual feeds the computer had isolated and categorized as potential prey.

Kil'Ssha's vision sharpened suddenly as the next target species was displayed on the terminal, and he brought his head closer as he carefully absorbed what was being shown.

A very tall and delicate-looking mammal that looked somewhat like the rodents that infested their ships was being shown, and he felt an atavistic urge to bite down on its nape and violently shake his head to snap its neck.

It took several inta's for him to regain his self-control as the overwhelming urge to feed possessed him, and his saliva production was already reacting to the potential prey as his stomach growled with anticipation.

Looking at their natural defenses, he noticed their small claws and teeth in relation to their body mass, and he felt his facial scales flushing as he realized he had finally found a potential inferior to harvest.

He quickly entered a series of commands for the computer and waited impatiently for it to perform its function. As he waited, he analyzed his visceral response to the new mammal.

Perhaps they hunted such prey in the time before, and his instincts still remembered even over the thousands of generations. A few more inta's went by before another series of images and visual feeds appeared, focusing exclusively on the weak inferiors.

He could see that their world was even more technologically advanced than the ape mammals, and he input new commands for the computer to analyze the resistance quotient of the system.

As he waited, Kil'Ssha felt a rare despondency coming over him. He couldn't help but be awed by the massive and brilliantly lit cities as tens of thousands of small aerial transports darted between structures that seemed to touch the skies.

The Bal'Ri'Kan were the chosen of the Masters, and they have faithfully followed the mandate to cleanse this galaxy for thousands of generations, but they never seemed to match the same level of technology or capability as the inferiors they hunted and exterminated without mercy.

Their technological progress was never allowed to go past a certain point, and he looked around the command chamber, acutely aware of how primitive everything looked compared to what he had been seeing of the inferiors in this area of space.

The Masters were parsimonious with their knowledge, never sharing their wisdom and advanced technology with the Bal'Ri'Kan except for small scraps as needed to subdue a potent adversary and then taking the scraps back when the prey had been exterminated.

Kil'Ssha felt his resentment growing as he looked away from the primitive-looking tech they were forced to use and back at the terminal screens displaying gleaming and high-tech cities filled with technological marvels.

We have proven our fitness for thousands of generations; why must we continue to live in squalor while these inferiors experience lives of ease and plenty? He angrily thought as he continued to wait for the computer to finish its calculations.

According to the computer, this was not a Core World but a colony world on the edge of their territory with a population of 2.7 billion prey. It was also a major manufacturing and shipbuilding world, which was exactly what Kil'Ssha was looking for.

The computer finished and displayed the results, and after carefully analyzing the defensive installations and the number of warships currently defending the system for almost two solar hours, Kil'Ssha made his decision.

They will take this world and preserve its technological and industrial base. He would spare half the population and make them his thralls, and the other half would be processed for their meat.

He will force them to share their wisdom and show his underlings how to fabricate and maintain their advanced technology, and he will use the thralls as meat shields to prevent any counter assaults as they dig in and wait for the main crusader fleets to finally arrive.

He will claim the spoils of this world and preserve it for all Bal'Ri'Kan. They would benefit from the advanced technological base instead of destroying everything the Masters told them was impure or not needed.

If the Masters deemed him heretical, Kil'Ssha could claim it was necessary to ensure their survival against such great odds and that he did it for their glory, not his own.

Having made his decision, Kil'Ssha pressed a control to connect to the twelve shadowcraft operators still waiting for further commands. He will order all twelve to return to the system and collect more tastings so he can plan a proper invasion.

After sending the instructions, he closed the channel and had the computer approximate the species name. It appeared a few inta's later, and he carefully sounded out the displayed phonetic ideograms as his salivary glands moistened with anticipation.

"Irrri-Shhkaaa!"

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