The Legend of Earth

Chapter 10



Even Jonnif of the Kracori was surprised at how easily his forces had infiltrated the Juirean Alliance Cluster. Before even the first alarm was raised, units from Ludif-Five were already strafing the breeding facilities on Salin, killing thousands – if not millions – of young Juireans, their birth mothers and the females nursing them to maturity. This one action would set the Juireans back a hundred years, depleting their future numbers to a level where hunting down the survivors would be a more manageable task for the Kracori.

Other units were just now reaching the energy facilities and manufacturing centers on Oannan and Bal. With so many dependent on the energy modules and generators produced at these locations, chaos would soon reign throughout the Expansion, and when the Kracori revealed their own reserves of modules and generators, penitent races would come crawling to them, begging the Kracori to help them maintain their decadent lifestyles.

These early victories were significant and satisfying, yet Jonnif’s true goal lay just ahead, as he watched the blue and white planet of Juir grow ever larger in his forward viewport.

There were dozens of defenders grouping between the planet and his forces, but they would be inadequate. The Klin-designed ships were of a superior style and weaponry than the Juireans, and much of the local defenders were just a hodge-podge of hastily culled together ships of all classes and function. Even as he watched, intense bolts of energy lashed out at these ships from his forces, firing even before his own ships came within the range of the defender’s weapons batteries. The bulk of his attacking forces barely even slowed down before entering the atmosphere and zeroing in on their assigned targets.

Jonnif had reserved the Malor Complex for himself, along with the twenty ships in his squadron. He swung in low over the Southern Sea, and then climbed for altitude, attempting to avoid the ground-based defenses that were still a danger on the homeworld of the Juirean race. Three of his ships disintegrated even before he could see the form of the Kacoran Plain rising up in the misty distance.

His energy bombs were smaller than those of the orbital release variety, their power more concentrated. These were building-busters, not city crushers. Jonnif would take his time on the Kacoran Plain, where a number of iconic structures where located. These were the symbols of the Expansion, monuments to the power of the Juireans.

Jonnif activated his ship’s vid recorders; he wanted to document for all time the destruction of these structures, including the giant pyramid that was the seat of power for all the galaxy. Legend was what determined a Kracori’s placed in history. After this day, the name of Jonnif Vinn would be Legend for as long as the last Kracori breathed.