textfiles/stories/SRE/sre_feqh.txt

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                        T h e   F e q h   G a l a x y



-=< Here it is! SRE: The Feqh Galaxy. It's been advertised for almost
seven months. People have asked me repeatedly, "What IS Feqh?" Well,
here's the story. Enjoy it... And now! On to the story!! >=-


-) Prologue

Feqhicans had exceptionally long lives. It was unfortunate, too. Jirca
and Phee, the two dictators of Feqh, would reign for years to come. They
were perverted, too. They had the sickest sense of enjoyment. They
forced billions of people to form empires. Then they would make the
empires join into alliances. And then they would watch as the alliances
battled to the death. Whichever alliance came out to be victorious got a
reward; the reward was eradication. The people of the Feqh Galaxy had
had enough of Jirca and Phee.

-) 1 (-

Deep within ThroneBase One, capitol of the Feqh Galaxy, was the Throne
Chamber. Seated in the Throne Chamber were the dreaded lords of the
Galaxy; Jirca and Phee. They had been married for over one hundred
years. They had ruled the Feqh Galaxy for over eighty-five years. And
now they watched the recorded segments of the latest Tyrannical Battle.
As was typical, both alliances were trying to die in battle; it was far
more honorable than being murdered by the lords' soldiers.

Later in the day, the two lords visited their Heads of Societial
Control. "I am tired of the same old game. The Tyrannical Battle no
longer holds the entertainment value it used to," said Phee. "I agree. I
want something more," put forth Jirca. Buctia, the Head of All Society
Repression, spoke up. "My lords, you know of the Siberian Group," he
began. "CYBERIAN!" corrected Jirca, "Yes, we know." "Well, perhaps there
could be some sort of battle! You could take a billion people or so and
attack them or something," suggested Buctia. "Intriguing.. I like the
idea. I have an even better one, though. But first, here are your
orders: Gather as many people as you like. A trillion, if you wish. Give
us the best battle we've ever seen. Pick some people who are willing to
try and win. Creative people. And also; temporarily drop the reward for
the winners. Of course the winners will be killed as usual; just don't
tell them that. I want to see the best game EVER!!" ordered Phee. "Yes,
my lords," said Buctia, humbly. He turned and left to execute her
orders.

-) 2 (-

Iseylon had been picked as the leader of the Cold Alliance. She had hand
picked her leadership team, which included such people as Ureya, Frezar,
and Rufreji. She had not determined what strategy her alliance would
use, nor had she made up her mind who should take what positions. But
that would happen in good time.

Relf Miga had been elected as head of the Second Alliance, as they
called it. He hadn't picked any of his leadership team  per se. He had
allowed anyone to apply, and based his decisions on their
qualifications. He had picked Lakas as his Chief of Military Maneuvers,
Dina as his Minister of Finances, and Honawa as his Underchief of
Military Maneuvers and Head of General Action. Relf and Lakas were
carefully preparing attack plans. This war would be the best fought yet,
and Relf Miga planned to win.

It had been decided. Over one trillion citizens had been given new
homes. It was up to the Alliance leaders to decided where they were put;
military service, civil service, or just as commoners. If Buctia had
done as good a job as he thought he had, this game would please Jirca
and Phee more than all the others.

-) 3 (-

The two alliances struck into battle immediately. The Second Alliance
was easily defeating the Cold Alliance with it's better organized
leadership cabinet. After the first week, twenty billion civilians were
dead. This battle was proving to be quite interesting.

"I have decided on your positions. You have done a terrible job. We have
no chance now unless we do several things." Iseylon was holding a
leadership staff meeting. "First we must begin central financial
planning. Second, we must begin covert opertions. The only way we can
get an advantage is to perform highly clandenstine operations
successfully," she said. "Get these things done or we will die," she
ordered.

Relf Miga got the latest death toll. His forces still outnumbered those
of the Cold Alliance. Fortunately not too many civilians had been
killed. His cabinet members were executing their orders with superb
efficiency, carrying them out to the letter. If things stayed like this,
the war would be over soon.

-) 4 (-

"We have founded the Cold Netur, Iseylon. 'Netur' is an ancient term
from the planet Wasalia IV, meaning 'Secret Destructive Force.' It
perfectly sums up the team we have assembled," reported Refreji. "This
Cold Netur of yours.. Exactly what can it do? How advanced are they?"
asked Iseylon. "The Netur can penetrate enemy lines and sabotage
virtually any target, as long as the enemy has no covert force. Our
early reports show they are concentrating their civilians into military
training camps. We have found an area of their alliance that is
unprotected; covert operations," replied Refreji. Iseylon nodded here
head. "Good! Dispatch this team. Show me what they can do," she
demanded.

Dina and Honawa were meeting, discussing the matter of financing a civil
protection program when a vibration rumbled through the meeting hall.
"What was that?" asked Dina. "I have no idea," replied Honawa. Their
questions were soon answered as the viewports in the hall were broken
open. Since the ports protected them from space, and they were now
broken, air quickly rushed out. Dina and Honawa were thrown from their
chairs and hurtled toward the empty vastness of space. Before they could
get there, the were killed by the sudden loss of pressure. The resulting
mess was too gruesome to describe...

Similar events were reported throughout the Second Alliance. Soon Relf
realized that overlooking covert operations was a severe oversight on
his part. His Alliance was crumbling, even though the military was
triumphing over the Cold Alliance.

-) 5 (-

"Jirca! I've had a brilliant idea!" cried Phee. Jirca rushed to his
consort's side. "What, my dear?" he asked. "You know of this Cold Netur
that has taken the Second Alliance by surprise?" she asked. Jirca nodded
his head yes. "What if we created such a force... a Feqh-Netur! And what
if we randomly began to irritate the other forces of the Universe with
our Feqh-Netur. We could use the Netur as a jumping platform, so we
could thrust our we into a full-force invasion. What do you think?" she
said. Jirca pondered it all. "Very interesting.. A Feqh-Netur. Hmm.. I
like it already. Halt the game! We should reward these people for such
an idea. I have it! We'll take four of the players, say Iseylon,
Refregi, Relf Miga, and Lakas, and put them in charge of creating a
Feqh-Netur!" exclaimed Jirca. Both laughed hysterically. "What excellent
ideas!" they yelled in unison.

-) 6 (-

Underinspector Tecouk was going over another sample. Several Galaxies
were reporting acts of terrorism. In Tecouk's opinion, there was a new
Underground dissident group to deal with. But Inspector Orinaka wasn't
interested in opinions. In fact, Tecouk was sure Orinaka had
specifically given Tecouk this assignment to keep him away from the main
Forensics Lab. Orinaka didn't like Tecouk at all...

Little over two thousand miles away, on the planet underneath the
Cyberian Platform, Rybosi II, was the Forensics Lab. Inspector Orinaka
was inside, along with several assitants. He had just finished showing
several trainees the workings of the Lab. One of them particularly
interested Orinaka; a certain T'Hoj. She was quite intelligent. Orinaka
wouldn't mind having her as an Underinspector... Maybe even replace
Tecouk! As Orinaka contemplated all this, a strange odor reached his
nostrils. At first he didn't recognize it, but then the pungent smell
identified itself. It was nioxyia, a version of the theoretical nioxyl,
only it used ordinary oxygen. Of course nioxyia was deadly. Orinaka
realized that too late. He was consumed by the chemical gas, and it swam
through his head. His brain began to shut down, and Orinaka was soon
dead.

-) 7 (-

"I want to find out why the hell my chief Inspector is dead! I want to
know why there are countless other assassinations being reported all
over this Universe! Get me the answers and get them NOW!" yelled Amoko.
"There have been no major incidents since we shut down the Underground
twenty-seven years ago. I want it to stay that way. Get the only
remaining Underinspector... What was his name? Tuh-Coo-Coo? Whatever his
name was... Get him on this case. And while your at it, alert the
Admiralty," ordered Amoko. His couriers all rushed about giving the
various commands to the people responsible. One came back, a bad look on
his face. "Amoko, sir, it would seem there's only one Admiral left...
Admiral Grosne. Shall I have him promote some more people?" he asked.
Amoko nodded.

Admiral Grosne paced down the briefing room. Seated were eight people.
Five of them had the rank of commodore. One was a full commodore. The
other two were subcommodores. Six of them would be promoted to Admiral,
to take the place of the six that had been assassinated. "Subcommodore
Rytek, Commodore Dwool, I'm afraid you didn't make the cut. This is not
a blemish or a reflection of dissatisfaction. I need men with
experience," he said, almost compassionately. In the same motion, he cut
them off. "Dismissed," he said curtly. The two men, one young, the other
middle-aged, turned and left. He addressed the other six. "You all are,
as of now, Admirals. I expect you to carry out the duties as you
normally would. Two of you, Admirals Naras and Petyr, will be in charge
of assisting Underinspector Tecouk in his investigation of the
assassinations," he explained. As he did before, he cut them all off.
"Dismissed," he said. All six new Admirals left the briefing room, a bit
overwhelmed; particularly Naras and Petyr.

"Sorry, sir, but there's been another set of assassinations," reported a
young aide. "Damn!" yelled Amoko. "When is this madness going to end? I
heard there is an investigation team on the case. What's their
progress?" demanded Amoko. "Not much yet, sir. They have yet to meet,"
replied the aide.

-) 8 (-

"The Group has assembled a small investigation team. They are seeking
out the assassins," said Lakas. "Then we must prepare to fight back! Get
an Elite-Netur group together and kill this team!" ordered Iseylon.
Lakas turned and left. "Insure his success, Relf," said Iseylon. Miga
nodded and walked slowly towards the door.

"So what all do we know?" asked Admiral Naras. "Not very much. I've
asked assitant T'hoj here to pull together some information. Ms. T'hoj,
what have you got for us?" asked underinspector Tecouk. "We know that
for the past month, the Universe has been plagued with espionage,
assassinations, and covert attack operations. To our knowledge there are
no Underground dissident forces in any position of power, but we do
believe this is such a dissident force," explained T'hoj. "And we're
just supposed to find them? How exactly will we do that?" demanded
Petyr. "Considering the fact that we are inside one of the buildings
containing important Cyberian personnel, I believe within a limited
amount of time we will have an assassination on our hands and something
to go on," replied Tecouk. Suddenly, the door burst open and two men
came towards them. One spoke: "This is a vastator," he said, pointing to
his sidearm, "it's beam is silent and invisible, but completely deadly."
T'hoj reached over and pushed a green button, and then a red one. A
containment grid snapped around the two men. One raised his vastator and
pulled the trigger. Without warning, the grid dissipated and the two men
continued walking forward. "Ohhh boy," said the underinspector.

Head of Security, Nalsi, saw it first. "Intruders in the conference
room! Prepare for anti-assassination techniques," she ordered. A small
team of six people assembled and grabbed weapons. Together, they ran
down the corridor, and stopped in front of the conference room. They
came in slowly and saw the two men, holding strange-looking weapons. One
whirled and aimed his gun at the team. Without warning, two security
people fell to the ground. Nalsi aimed her weapon and fired, downing one
assassin, and knocking his gun across the floor. The remaining assassin
fired repeatedly, downing two more officers. "What do you want?!"
screamed Nalsi. The assassin aimed his weapon at the two last officers,
when suddenly he keeled forward, the result of an invisible shockwace.
"It really IS silent!" exclaimed T'hoj, holding the vastator.

-) 9 (-

"The Elite-Netur failed their mission! The investigation team is still
alive!" exclaimed Lakas.  "How is this possible?" screamed Iseylon.
"Damn! What next?" demanded Relf Miga. Iseylon shook her head. "We must
eliminate that team! They have one of the assassins alive. If they got
any information out of him, it would give us away. Jirca and Phee would
not be too happy about that," said Iseylon.

Noliana, chief pilot of Supra Wing Fighter Division Five. She was eating
her favorite meal during her break, because her fighter was being
recharged and repaired after an interception run the other day. As she
began to eat, the 'unidentified ships' alert went off. Noliana ran off
in the direction of her fighter.

Sixteen Feqh-Netur attack vessels sat outside the Trios Galaxy, which
was under reconstruction after being obliterated by the nioxyl missile.
Inside Trios were several Cyberian Armada carriers. The Netur had been
ordered to destroy them, so off they went, towards their targets.

"Deactivating latching moors now," said Noliana. She pressed a touchpad
and her tactical layout came up on one of eight VidTerms. The other
eight were programmed to display engine efficiency, damage reports, Com
transmission, wingmen positions, navigational controls, and
computer-direct monitors. She activated her thrusters and zoomed outside
the carrier.

Ten fighters came out to meet the potential threat. The Netur
immediately shot two of them with pulse cannons.

Sparks flew, and fire rained inside the cockpit. "Damn it! Noliana, I'm
hit!!" screamed Bov. His fighter careened sideways, then lurched
forward, out of control. Bov frantically tried to gain control of his
craft, and managed to steer it towards an enemy vessel. They collided,
and a massive explosion erupted.

Noliana had two enemy attack vessels following her. Checking her
NavTerm, she executed a u-turn and faced her opponents. She opened fire
with the photon bolts. A direct hit on one enemy ruptured it's hull. The
other ship fired on Noliana with it's pulse cannons. Her small fighter
shuddered under the impact of fire, but held up. Her Tactical VidTerm
lit up and showed five enemy vessels approaching the carrier. She
whirled her fighter hard about, and sent it as fast as it could go, in
pursuit of her enemies.

When she reached her destination, she found herself alone. The carrier
opened fire with it's limited range of weapons. Noliana fancied herself
with darting between the bigger enemy ships and firing. Within minutes,
she'd crippled two enemies. She was circling again, when her engine
blinked out. Smoke billowed into the cockpit. She looked at ther Damage
Control VidTerm to discover she had suffered a direct hit.

-) 10 (-

The Fifth HC Division of the Cyberian Armada arrived just in time.
Admiral Grosne, in his command ship, was leading the charge.
Underinspector Tecouk had interrogated their assassin and discovered
this small attack. Grosne's fleet had no trouble subduing the Netur
vessels.

Inside the command ship, Underinspector Tecouk was interrogating the
commander of one enemy vessel. "You mentioned 'home.' Where is your
home?" asked Tecouk. "The Feqh Galaxy. You've never discovered it, but
it does exist," replied the prisoner. "And what was the purpose of this
raid? It seems almost useless to me," inquired Tecouk. "It was a
diversion. We've got an entire heavy cruiser division of the Armada
here. When the Feqhican Navy invades, you'll be caught by surprise,"
said the Feqhican. Tecouk looked away. He tapped a blue touchpad on the
AudCom. "Admiral Grosne, I need to speak with you," he said.

Amina Outpost One spotted them first. A very large group of
unidentifiable vessels, headed towards the Sree Galaxy. "Come in,
Cyberian Platform," droned the computer manning the Outpost. "Amina One,
this is the Platform. Go ahead," replied the Platform's Com officer.
"Approximately fifty thousand alien vessels headed towards Sree Galaxy.
Advise defensive measures," the computer continued. "Understood, Amina.
Platform out," said the Com operator.

The Feqh-Netur vessels swept in like a flood. To their surprise, the
Cyberian Armada was there too.

"This is Admiral Grosne, second-in-command of the Cyberian Armada. I am
here to speak for Amoko, our commander-in-chief. I am under orders to
stop you at all costs. If you don't surrender, you will be destroyed,"
came the voice over the AudCom.

-) 11 (-

The Netur invasion fleet dispersed and began forming small phalanxes.
The Armada's fighter divisions flew out to meet them head-on. As the
battle raged, the Armada began to lose heavily. The Netur were heavily
armored and more aggressive. After ten minutes, the Netur had penetrated
the fighter defense lines, and moved in on the Cyberian Platform.

"How can we stop them? There must be a way," mused the underinspector,
aloud. "No conventional weapons will stop them, sir," replied T'hoj.
"But what would? There -has- to be something," he said. In his usual
style, Tecouk paced furiously, as if pacing would help.

The royalship, holding Jirca and Phee, moved in after the pentration of
the fighter divisions. "Ahhh... A glorious battle," said Phee. "I must
agree. We shall be victorious," agreed Jirca.

"Wait a minute! I've got it!" exclaimed Tecouk. "You!" he said, pointing
to the Feqhican prisoner, "What is this ship?" He motioned towards a
large, blocky vessel, at the rear of the Feqhican Navy. "It is the
royalship, holding the dread lords," replied the assassin. "Ah-ha!
Notify Admiral Grosne immediately; destroy the royalship at all costs!"
ordered Tecouk.

The royalship was raked by enemy fire. The throne chamber shook
violently, as if in protest to the attack. "What is going on?" demanded
Phee. Another blast of enemy weapons shook the ship. Jirca and Phee were
thrown to the ground. "Return fire, you fools!" screamed Jirca, into the
communications relay.

In five minutes, the royalship was destroyed. The Cyberian Armada began
furiously attacking the Feqhican Navy, but it appeared no victory was in
sight. Then, without warning, several Navy vessels began disengaging and
fleeing the area.

-) 12 (-

"How did you know it would work?" asked Petyr. "Simple. The Feqhican
mentioned the dictatorship of Jirca and Phee. I put two and two
together. I figured they would be quite happy if their brutal leaders
were killed," explained Tecouk. "Well if it didn't work completely, it
worked enough. The Armada cleaned them out, that's for sure," commented
Admiral Naras. "Yes, but I suspect our troubles aren't over yet. This
Feqh-Netur doesn't strike me as the type of organization that just gives
up," said Tecouk.

-) Epilogue

The entire Feqhican Navy was disarmed by the Armada. A few Netur
operatives fled the Cyberian Group, but otherwise the entire
organization was disabled. Underinspector Tecouk, for his good work, was
promoted to Inspector, in place of his predecessor Orinaka. He picked
T'hoj to be his assistant. After all, she did save his life. No major
incidents occurred for almost fifteen years afterward...