Xeres daughter of the seventh warlord took a seat near the back of the conference room. The entire Corps of special forces officers were required to attend the meeting as Ni son of the first warlord would unveil their secret orders. Up to this time, every one of activities performed by this vast Armanda had been shrouded in secrecy. Personnel thought something big was in the making but although there was much speculation, no rumours had facts to fortify the theories. Xeres was not looking forward to hearing Ni rant for hours being unable to leave for whatever reason. Servants meandered their way through the crowd bringing liquid refreshments and snacks for each participant.
She had never been asked to attend a meeting in this room. Its seats were formed in an arc surrounding a dais. At one side was a control centre where the ranking person in the room controlled different equipment that allowed holograms on diverse subjects to be employed. However, it was the seats that impressed Xeres as they massaged bodies and made sitting through long discourses pleasant. Normally, her level of rank was not invited to participate in high level discussions. She was happy to be included.
Other officers were looking at her with disdain. Xeres ignored the contempt. Most of the officers were siblings of the fifth warlord who thought children of lower entities were 'cannon fodder' and should be kept in their place. Xeres knew that they questioned her coarse features. This was the result of a disguise on her last undercover assignment. She felt like screaming that her undercover assignments were dangerous but furnished the Federation with valuable insight. On the other hand, even if they knew her byzantine route to obtain her rank, they would still not want to be in the same room with her.
As she was waiting for Ni appear, she opened the box of snacks and seized two of the furry creatures. She was pleasantly surprised how tasty they were. Maybe her superiors would allow her to function at this level. Lights dimmed and Ni appeared on the dais.
Ni was handsome and gave the impression of strength. Everything about him was calculated to make both males and females want to serve him. He looked at the audience. This made everyone in the room feel like he was speaking solely to them.
"Soldiers of the Federation, we have a great crisis that only we can solve. The RA Empire has decided not to allow us to import white crystals and refuses to rescind this practice.
"We, the soldiers, have always insured that our families were kept safe and have the ability to enjoy a peaceful life. Therefore, with great reluctance we have decided to conquer RA. I know that, it is your expectation to bring this crisis to a quick end where the Federation will prosper and your families will be able to enjoy a serene but fruitful existence."
Ni was replaced by a hologram of the home world of Ra. Now the leader of the elite shock troops took up the narrative.
"We have been tasked to seize major docking ports so that the rest of Army will be able to land and proceed with the conquest of Ra. There might be a problem. Our planners speculate that the conditions are ripe for a black hole to develop.
"For this reason warships will only engage the enemy and not bombard targets of military nature. Because of your superior training, the planners feel that casualties will be minimum. Your objectives will be explained in more detail when you rejoin your task forces. Good Luck."
Alarms began to sound. Xeres knew they were under attack. She saw protective suits appear in the corridors. There was no use trying to find a suit small enough for her so she jumped into the first available. To her surprise, it was state of the art. She concluded that this suit was for one of the senior officers. By this time, the suit conformed to her and rather than replace it in its pod, she continued along the corridor towards her unit. Both vehicles and moving sidewalks were no longer working. She didn't care as the suit assisted her to speed towards her unit.
The giant ship shuddered and Xeres knew that this time the wound was fatal. Life support systems shut down. There was no gravity. She floated towards the mangled mess that used to house her unit. Another explosion fired her out of the ship into the void. As luck would have it her path took her to a loader. Many of the other survivors ignored the loaders instead looked frantically for escape pods.
She knew that loaders would have life support facilities therefore she would be able to conserve equipment in her protective suit. The only problem was that loaders had no tracking tools that might make being rescued more difficult.
A brilliant flash occurred and the ship disappeared. Shock waves buffeted the loader sending it away from the fleet. Her acceleration increased. Xeres had a sinking feeling that she was going to enter the black hole. She made peace with herself. This was the way she wanted to die in the midst of battle. Blackness engulfed her and she lost consciousness.
Xeres regained consciousness just as she hit the roadway. The protective suit tried to protect her but she bounced twice before splaying against a wall. She was in pain. A quick inventory revealed both she and the suit were damaged. She needed to find a host quickly.
Fortunately her equipment was still in working order. She activated a location unit. However, it came back with a message saying, "Insufficient Data." Time was not on her side. A scan revealed that a host on the third floor met eighty percent of her needs.
The last of the jumping ability enabled her to enter the room through an open window. She observed a woman moaning and tossing on a filthy bed. She hid her protective suit along with unneeded equipment before entering the host.
Pain shocked her. Embedded medical units were attempting to use part of the host's body to dress the many small wounds. Unfortunately, the host body was diseased and the medical unit could not find a method to get rid of the disease and use the result to patch the wounds. Xeres exited the host.
She dragged herself to the window and hoped she could find another host. A woman was running along the sidewalk. Xeres almost burst into tears. She was too weak to capture this healthy host. Her medical units examined the woman. The woman stopped and began to flay the space around her. Other people on the sidewalk rushed over to the woman but by this time the units had completed their examination. The woman backed away from the concerned people and ran in the opposite direction.
After re-entering the host the medical units found the problem and were able to replace damaged parts. They fed the parts to Xeres. She was surprised because her own body began to use the nutrients to heal smaller wounds. A by-product occurred, the woman sighed, quit tossing and fell into a deep sleep. Needing rest, Xeres allowed herself to sleep after connecting to the woman's optical nerve.
"You look different Anna. In all the years that I've known you, I have never seen you so calm or relaxed." Xeres' computer was able to translate the jumble of sounds into speech patterns that she could understand without having to disturb her.
However, the voices shocked Xeres into wakefulness. She wondered if Anna could ward off an attack. Although the embedded computer informed Xeres that Anna did not feel under attack because of lack of hysterical behaviour, Xeres was watchful. The other woman was wearing a loose fitting dress and spoke with a deep voice.
"I don't know what's happening to me. The awful pain seems to have disappeared. I feel stronger and I want to eat real food. I'm also getting lots of sleep." Anna shrugged her shoulders.
