Lash opened his eyes to the dimly lit room he called home aboard the Vertikat. The massive cruiser had hidden from the Empire deep in the Redoubt and survived the war. She was the last of her kind and with House Mitth and the Copero shipyards far from rebuilt, it would be a long time before another of her class could ply the either of Chiss space. His quarters were lavish and quite spacious for officer quarters even for a ship its size. He had made the room large enough that he could hang the trophies of his hunting days on walls and in cases. Many creatures lined these walls, both large and small. Hunting cleared his mind in a way little else could. He enjoyed the hunt and the thrill of being itched against a creature who hunted him as he hunted it. He put himself in the creatures mind, stalking silently in the dark. Used its behavior against it. After all in the end that is what we all become. Creatures set to a genetic behavior and way of life, knowing how a creature lives and had lived for centuries can be its weakness. This included every sentient species of the galaxy, even the Chiss.
A chrono alarm sounded and Lash stood and walked to the door way across the chamber. The door hissed and slide open into a corridor where six armor clad Chiss stood at attention. He walked down the corridor and through the doorway at the other end onto the bridge. The Bridge of the Vertikat was fare smaller than most ships of her size. The Designers saw no need for a large bridge structure as it was only the nexus for a greater command and control center housed deep in the ship. The forward view port showed the blurred lines of hyperspace. The ship had left its berth in the Redoubt two days ago bound for Caitlia. The world was once the home of a grand Chiss House. Now the remnants of these Chiss remain as little more than drones at times to the Killik and their Joiner pheromones. The Chiss had to this point monitored the Killik and the worlds they had moved upon but had left them alone due to the Chiss populations of these worlds. Now it seemed the New Senate wanted these worlds and their resources once again. His orders were grim and his mission harsh. He could not come to grips with it and in his mind he knew it was the wrong way to go about liberating the world. But his orders were clear and he had no way of changing them or the senates mind at this point. He was set to an action he did not like or agree with. but it was an action he had been ordered into and would carry out all the same.
The massive ship shuttered and the star lines faded as the Chiss battlegroup dropped out of hyperspace in the Catlia system. The world and its two moons sat like dormant eggs before the Chiss. The second moon was moving around behind the world as the Chiss ship slowed and took up formation. The Vertikat sat in the center of the group like a large alpha predator waiting for his pack to move in for the kill. The four Destroyers took up position flanking the ship and as they slowed the smaller escorts, corvettes, and monitors moved into place. Lash closed his eyes one more time remembering the world as it was when he had visited as a child. Before the joiner plague had taken it.
"Commander, The Killik are hailing us."
Lash opened his eyes and looked out on the world once lush and full of life. A world of Chiss people, a world free and flourishing. Now it was a world of slave husks which though once Chiss were now joiner. And is was time for the passive peoples of the Chiss to once again become aggressor. A race sworn to defense and non aggressive tactics sometimes had to move against the enemies of the Chiss preemptively in order to maintain the life non-aggression had given them. Lash turned and walked away from the forward view port. He did not wish to watch what was next. This was not the way Chiss, even those who were burden with the joiner plague were meant to depart this galaxy. So many souls would be extinguished and for what? The minerals and productive capacity of the world. He knew the senate would spin it as a liberation of a former house world. He knew they would tell stories of how they took back what was once a Chiss ruling families holdings. But Lash knew it was for production and selfish political scheming. He had to fallow his orders but he did not have to watch the villainy of his actions cast upon a defenseless world. As he neared the hatchway to his private chambers he turned to the Admiral Krint.
"Fire"
With one word the skies of Catlia turned into the gates of hell as two thousand radiation bombs rained down. Followed by key strikes from Mega masers and missiles. Charge nets spun out expanding around the few defensive vessels disabling them leaving the open and shieldless for the Radiation bombs to whip out their crew. The smaller corvettes and monitors disappeared the reappeared on the far side of the world micro jumping around the system striking key defensive targets rendering the world truly defenseless and open to the onslaught from above.
"Admiral, you have the con."
Lash walked down the corridor to his quarters once again trying to make sense of what he had just done. Nothing seemed right about it. He could not shake it in his mind. For now it was done. The world of Catlia was dying. Leaving behind its infrastructure and production facilities untouched and read to serve the Chiss. He imagined bodies falling around the world in droves. A half a Billion Chiss now gone in a flash. He would not sleep tonight. He knew his mind would not rest until it made sense to him. And that was not something he ever thought would happen. For now he would read, try to push the thoughts in his mind back and keep them at bay until he could get the answers he needed. For now he would rest as he could and think of the world he had visited as a child and the people he had meet.
