Interstellar Age

After a long and hard fought battle. The Germanic Star-Empire and its valiant marines had established a foothold in the Narku infested world. The sound of artillery fire echoed through the air as explosions rocked the surface of the planet. Some things were eternal, insofar as their use could never be fully replaced. Supplemented yes, but supplanted entirely? No.

Artillery was one of those things. It turns out dropping a giant explosive on top of a group of enemies’ heads was useful no matter what era you were in. The only difference was the guns used by the Germanic war machine were capable of launching shells far larger than those of the 21st century.

And capable of inflicting explosive payloads substantially larger than the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. These artillery bombardments that utilized shells capable of wiping out an entire city were fired via batteries that were entirely automated by artificial intelligence.

Everything from the loading of the shell, to the calculation of the distance between the gun and the target, to the identification of hostiles to shoot at. Was all done by a basic artificial intelligence which was just one of countless such devices operating beneath Tia’s damn near omnipotent control.

Shell after shell rocked the Naraku, while the soldiers of the Germanic Star-Empire stood alongside those of the Ennead Theocracy, watching the massive explosions in the distance. Had this world been inhabited by beings other than the bugs, this would be considered a war crime of the highest degree.

But the bugs were considered a threat to all biological life other than their own, and because of this they were treated as pests, rather than sentient living things. Despite the overwhelming destruction in the background which cracked the crust of the world’s surface which was being pounded. The bugs never ceased to come.

In fact, countless insectoids spewed forth from the cracked surface of the planet, having thoroughly been embedded beneath it following their conquest and terraforming of the world. The moment they emerged to the surface however, they were struck again by another barrage.

A nonstop pounding of the enemy position, sending billions, or perhaps even trillions of Naraku to their deaths within every 24 hours, which was considered a standard Earth Day by the Germanic Star-Empire.

Kurt watched through his visor, which enhanced his already exceptional sight, witnessing the bugs blasted into bits by the millions with each strike. The only reason the Naraku had not tunneled to their current position was because the Germanic Star-Empire had learned to counter such tactics during their Crusade against the Milky Way’s native insectoids.

Forcefields were created to defend the ground beneath the positions which the Marines stood upon. Which were powerful enough to prevent the Naraku’s attempts to break through. Zapping them, much like a bug zapper, as they tried to attack it.

The Ennead Commander looked over at the Germanic General, his mouth agape as he tried to understand just how many shells his men intended to fire over the horizon.

“General… My I ask you, just how many shells do you have before you run out?”

Though the Jackal headed man could not see Kurt’s face behind his visor, he could tell by the way that the man slowly shifted his head over to look at him that the Germanic General was looking at him as if he were an idiot. His tone matched this expression perfectly.

“Run out? The Germanic Star-Empire does not run out of munitions… Our logistical network is secured, even this far beyond our borders. So long as the Theocracy continues to allow military access into its borders, it is a battle of attrition between us and the bugs.

And though they are experts in that field, we are much better at it than they are. Take, for example our current situation. All across the world, we have driven the bugs into specific dead ends. They are forced to rise to the surface in an attempt to dispel us from this world.

But with our force field technology, we have made it so they can only appear at certain locations. And those locations are currently being bombarded by us. They will run out of genetic material to hatch new offspring before we ever run out of shells.

And once that happens, our teams will enter the tunnels and clear out what remains of their nests. We have spent the last few decades preparing for this eventuality. Perfect our tactics against the bugs, as well as the equipment best suited to disposing of them.

The Naraku did not expect the Emperor to understand how the function as species to such a degree. And it was this that they were unprepared to properly face us. If they wish to send two galaxies worth of their bugs to the Milky Way, then all we have to do is bleed them dry here on these worlds which they have already conquered.

Once we have thoroughly dismantled their forces to the point where they can no longer deploy troops to the Milky Way, then we will mop up what remains here before launching our own invasion on Andromeda and Triangulum.

This is our eternal crusade, Commander. To liberate the Universe from the Naraku Menace and rebuild what they have destroyed in our image. This war will never end, and the Germanic race is determined to fight it until the end of time itself.

If you do not have the same resolve, then it would be best to submit to us, and provide material aid to our war efforts…”

The commander didn’t take Kurt’s words seriously. An eternal crusade against the Naraku? What kind of psychotic and bloodthirsty race would think that was a goal worth aspiring to. Nor did he consider Kurt’s suggestion to submit to the Germanic Star-Empire, and to provide material aid to their future war efforts as anything other than chit chat on the battlefield.

Instead, the Ennead General returned his attention to the battlefield in the distance. Where as Kurt had said, the subterranean Naraku were forced to surface at very specific locations that were being bombarded every time a great number of them appeared. Thoroughly turning the bugs into meat paste.

If the Germanic Marines really had an infinite number of shells that could be deployed to the battlefield, then wasn’t this victory assured?