Ravens of Eternity

389 The Promise of Retribution, Pt Remote Recuperation Facility, Miralli System, Imperial Domain of the Boundless Drogar

A Drogar geneticist wearing a full-body sterile suit checked on the pristine regeneration pod in front of him. While his assistant drone hovered around the pod itself, he scanned its systems through the hovering terminal beside him.

The statistics and reports on the screen showed that everything seemed stable, and that nothing was out of the ordinary. No alerts or warnings, just nice and even graphs that showed a smooth and steady progression.

Next to the various reports was the dossier of the person inside the regeneration pod. She was a high-ranking drogar in a very prestigious clan. And although her listed age was 133 years, the person inside the pod itself was someone half as young.

Once the geneticist was done with his checks, he brought up his datapad and completed his checkup.

An antigrav drone picked up the regeneration pod only moments later, then lifted it out of its examination stand. It carried the pod up the incredibly tall, hexagonal lab, whose walls were lined with hundreds of regeneration pods all the way to the top.

The drone deftly maneuvered the pod back into its housing halfway up the lab carefully, and slid it back into place with a CLACK. Then it hovered a few rows down, lifted out another pod, and brought it down towards the examination stands.

There at the bottom, a dozen geneticists and technicians diligently watched over every single pod in the lab itself.

Not that it was the only lab in the facility.

.....

In fact, in the lab right above theirs was another dozen geneticists and technicians who watched over their set of regeneration pods. But unlike the one below, this one was far shorter, and only had six dozen pods inside.

It was also much more spacious and appeared to have even better equipment. Even the sterile suits that the drogar were wearing seemed to be of much higher quality than anyone else in the entire facility.

In the center of this lab was only a single examination stand. On it was a more prestigious regeneration pod, and it had intricate etchings along every edge it held.

Much more critically, all twelve geneticists and technicians were focused solely on this one pod. They, along with numerous assistant drones, examined the pod and its inhabitant with excruciating detail. Half of them stood at floating terminals that faced towards the pod itself, while the other half were scattered around the room.

“Biological signs stable,” said a geneticist. “All restoration procedures performing well within acceptable parameters.”

“Mental faculties also stable,” added a technician. “Finalizing memory restoration.”

He adjusted a few holographic controls on his terminal even as whatever memories were being uploaded to the person in the pod. There was a soft PING from the terminal moments later, once it completed.

“All systems are green,” said another technician. “Initiating Clone Wake. Input approval now.”

Every geneticist and technician in the room then ok’d the procedure on their terminals, which caused numerous energy nodes inside the pod to light up.

Inside the pod, each of the energy nodes pulsed various energies at the body they surrounded, which caused him to twitch and jerk and move uncontrollably. Though they seemed violent at first, the movements eventually calmed over the next few moments.

Then, the drogar blinked awake and drew in a massive lungful of air.

His heart thumped loudly in his body as it pumped fresh blood through his system. While he slowly regained his consciousness, and as the galaxy came into focus, the pod opened up around him.

He was immediately hit with fresh, but sterile air. It felt cool across his scales.

The drogar stumbled forward as though unsure how his body worked, and fell to the ground right in front of his pod.

“Welcome back to the Empire, Swarmfather Theryss,” said a voice above the drogar.

When he looked up, he saw the holographic projections of Senator Konleth and Machinefather Gravoss. Both of them peered down at him with pride on their faces. And a bit of happiness as well, at seeing their compatriot wake.

“And how are you feeling, old friend?” asked Gravoss. “Not too put out, I hope? I hear the process can be unpleasant.”

Theryss stood up with a light groan, but was rather surprised at his own body. He looked at his forearms and hands carefully, as though in wonder.

“I can guess that it’s a more pleasant experience than dying,” he replied. “This is utterly fascinating, by the way. Everything feels new.”

He ran his fingers along his arm’s scales lightly, and felt their youthful rigidity. It was something he hadn’t felt in many decades. In fact, he had all but forgotten.

A thought suddenly struck him as he recalled the last memory he had before he died. He stood on the bridge of his devastator and ordered the ship to port to Rhyen Terra.

After that, nothing.

But the fact that he was now waking in a regeneration facility meant that his old body had been destroyed. He assumed that meant they were defeated.

“Did we lose the planet?” he asked. “Did we at least retain the system?”

“Don’t worry yourself too much about that,” said Konleth. “We kept the system, and the planet. Alethii’s still alive, thankfully. The remains of his fleet are keeping watch.”

Despite hearing that they won, Theyrss still gave a hard tsk.

After all, he lost his life defending what he considered a backwater. Worse, someone as ineffective as swarmchief Alethii managed to stay alive. To every drogar in the lab, he was right.

Who could blame him?

“That was a massive loss just for one planetary system,” he said. “They’re mineral and ore rich, certainly, but does it make up for a single lost devastator? I can’t say that it does.”

“Don’t be such a grump,” chided Konleth. “The system holds much more value than you or I can even imagine. Otherwise, why would the Benefactor insist on taking hold of it?”

“Exactly that,” added Gravoss. “It wouldn’t matter if it cost us ten devastators to hold. If he believes holding it is necessary, then I also believe it’s necessary.”

“Well I don’t trust the Benefactor’s little hints and ominous truths,” countered Theryss. “Compelling as they are, they never come with data, do they? He never shows us his datasets to prove his predictions.”

Konleth inhaled deeply. He certainly understood where Theryss was coming from.

“The fact that he never provides any analytics or data bothers me too,” he said after a moment. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have datapoints to draw from. We’ve been in contact with him for what...”

He looked to Gravoss for an answer. It only took a second for it to come.

“My clan has been in contact with him for well over a century,” Gravoss replied. “And he has never once failed us. My own... growth has been thanks to his direct interventions. That should be all the data you need, yes?”

“Think of this way as well,” added Konleth. “Your lifespan gained dozens of years. You’re practically a young man again, strong and virile. I can’t wait until I get to upgrade, too.”

Theryss blinked as that realization swept over him. Having a more youthful body also meant having more time to gain Krohn. The other two were right – the destruction of a single devastator was nothing compared to that.

Then he joined the other two in deep laughter at their growing fortunes.

But the laughter was cut short as the holoprojections winked out.

Surprise filled Theryss’ face as he glanced at the technicians around him. He asked them loudly what happened, and why they were cut off. But all they could do was shrug their shoulders at him in response.

Their purview was genetics, not communications.

The entire lab shook suddenly, which caused Theryss to stumble ever so slightly.

And that caught everyone’s attention.

When it happened a second time, and with greater force, Theryss realized what was happening.

“We’re under attack!” he cried out.

Outside, the Einherjar fleet blasted the Recuperation Facility from every side. Or, perhaps more specifically, they blasted the station’s defenses from every side.

Though they had a fully-staffed defensive fleet that was led by a single battleship and a dozen cruisers, they were no match against the Einherjar. The sheer numerical mismatch ensured that.

The Einherjar concentrated their fire on the battleship first, and completely eviscerated it in seconds. It attempted to fight back bravely, but they easily shrugged off what damage it did. In exchange, they ripped into its chitin with numerous plasma lances.

Then, they tore it apart with relentless rail cannons and cluster missiles. The Imperial battleship was torn in half in a matter of seconds, and even began to implode once its demimatter battery was ruptured.

The 13th Fleet didn’t even bother to wait for it to be fully destroyed before they went down the line and sliced every other ship to pieces. They quickly turned their guns on the other ships, and struck them with equal ferocity.

Cruisers and destroyers and frigates were devastated alongside their fighters and mecha and drones. Explosions rocked the space around the facility itself as ships of all sizes were violently ripped apart and torn to shreds.

And they didn’t just attack the defensive fleet – they also took down every defensive turret around the facility itself. Their plasma lances scored their chitin and then blasted them open with their rail cannons.

Because of their overwhelming numbers, they were able to essentially surround the station quickly, and blast apart whatever defenses it had

They made incredibly short work of the entire thing while hardly breaking a sweat.

Not only that, but once all the defensive elements had been completely neutralized, the fleet turned their weapons to all of the ancillary systems surrounding them. They completely eradicated the administrative section of the facility, its port beacon, and its communication array. Really, everything but the facility itself.

Their beams ripped them apart quickly and cleanly. And with absolute prejudice.

Of course, this was all easy pickings – this was merely a secure regeneration station deep in the heart of Imperial territory. It was far from the front, and didn’t have the armament necessary to face a full wartime fleet.

Hell, the station didn’t even have a dedicated barracks or defensive hangar. The only drones they had were purely for maintenance. There was no way that they could have fought them off.

And because the Einherjar destroyed everything around them with such fervor, the whole place was lost in a matter of minutes.

But destroying the facility was only one of their objectives. The other, more important objective was currently being overseen directly by Freya herself.

She and a handful of power armored shock troopers flew inside one of the dozen armored corvettes headed towards the facility. They were escorted by multiple squadrons of fighters and mecha, who flew alongside them.

Though they met no resistance during their flight over, they were immediately peppered with weapons fire once they entered the hangar bay itself.

Numerous security personnel were scattered behind cover everywhere, and fired at the corvettes even as they landed. They even fired into the corvettes themselves as their ramps lowered.

But no matter what they hit, they did practically no damage to the reinforced corvettes. Or to the power armored soldiers inside them.

Instead, the drogar were met with countless streams of plasma-charged slugs as power armored shock troops charged out. Those who weren’t outright killed were shocked at the ferocity and precision of all-black troopers.

Some ran at the sight. Some attempted to surrender.

But none were given quarter, and were cut down where they stood.