Utter Chaos

For a moment, nobody moved in the council chamber - then everything happened all at once. As Dustin and Emely wheeled back around, several of the attending envoys doubled over, clutching at their abdomens. Meruk raised an eyebrow as the envoy nearest him erupted in a ball of Fractal spines, the Durathisian seemingly unphased as he wiped a chunk of his former colleague from his shoulder.

Linne and Veil’k were thankfully unaffected; the Rabyth envoy hitting some kind of control that encircled both their balconies in a rapidly rising wall of reinforced glass as screams echoed through the chamber. Behind him, Dustin was dimly aware of guards bursting through the door and freezing, station security unsure of what to do in the face of the carnage in front of them.

Yril’k and the others came hot on the heels of the guards, the Vex’ess warrior vaulting over the heads of the station’s defenders to land next to Dustin on all fours, eyes narrowed and blade arms fully extended. Just in time too - one arm flicked out and caught an incoming flash of metal, sending a Fractal projectile spinning to one side to bury itself in a bank of translator equipment rather than Dustin’s leg.

Meruk turned as the attack continued, walking out of the chamber calmly; Dustin didn’t have time to figure out what was going on with their opponent or why he seemed so relaxed however as the bombardment of Fractal darts intensified. Emely dodged an incoming strike and managed to find the control for the glass shield for the central dais, raising it just in time to stop a bolt from skewering the chief of station security who’d advanced with his men to their position.

Linne’s voice crackled through the speakers as dust fell over the glass dome and the lights started to flicker on and off. “They appear to be single-use darts. Only a few more to go and we should be able to start tallying the damage.” Dustin took a ragged breath as he peered out, waiting for those final thudding noises to stop. How many councilors had died? And this hadn’t been a closed session, so there should have been a live feed of the attacks going out across the galactic news. What would happen when the people saw the Fractals attacking the council in the heart of galactic governance?

The answer, it turned out, was utter chaos. Linne and Veil’k led Dustin and his party through the station a short time later, accompanied by a pair of twitchy Rabyth guardsmen that were apparently Linne’s personal security detail. The council envoys had been decimated by the attack - leaving Meruk, Linne and Veil’k aside, only fourteen more out of over a hundred species’ representatives had survived. Less than a fifth of the total council - and it’d been live broadcast. The common areas were filled with merchants trying to salvage what they could, looters hoping to get something to trade for passage off the station on the limited number of shuttles, and station security trying to keep order in the face of total madness.

People were disappearing rapidly too - the lower levels had lost all communications at the same time as the attack on the council, as had the main shuttle docks. Fortunately, the Rabyth had their own docking port due to their shipbuilding reputation - Linne led Dustin and the others into a sleek Rabyth-made shuttle, sinking into the pilot’s chair with a sigh of relief as the craft un-docked.

“So… those were the Fractals?” Linne said once she’d caught her breath. Dustin could do little but nod as the Rabyth woman set them on a flightpath back out to where Sola was docked. Behind him, he could hear Emely’s fingers dancing over a terminal as his comms officer tried to get a sense of what exactly had just happened.

Feeling he should do more than just stand there and nod, Dustin slid into the copilot’s seat and glanced at the readouts before speaking. “We’ve never encountered anything like this before though. There’s also nothing in any of the information we’ve gained from our Fractal informant that indicates they could strike like this - all those council envoys looked like the Fractal drones were inside them… you’re all scanned regularly, right?”

Linne nodded, but it was Veil’k who answered, stepping up and resting two of his hands on his partner’s shoulders. “You are correct’k ambassador. We have regular’k body and health’k checkups. Your comms officer and medic are currently’k investigating the health’k checks as a potential’k vector for the others’ exposure to the Fractal material’k.” The insect made a clicking sound that Dustin’s experience of Vex’ess thanks to living with Trea’k and Yril’k suggested was their equivalent of biting your lip before asking a question. “We’k know that you are very busy - and regardless’k of the outcome of today’s events’k will need to return to Earth. Could Linne and I ask for’k your assistance in getting to our’k own people before you’k return home?”

The bunny girl beneath Veil’k’s hands stiffened for a fraction of a second - if Dustin hadn’t been pairing with Rye, he wouldn’t have noticed the microscopic movement, but he understood her concern. If the two of them went to their homeworlds as their job dictated, it could be years before they saw each other again… “We’ll gladly help” he said after a moment, then added “but if things have gone as bad as I fear here, then both your leaders are likely to want to work with us as proctors. Last I checked, Earth didn’t have Rabyth or Vex’ess officers on long term embassy duty. It’s a little bit of a waste of your skills, but I could put in a good word…”

Emely interrupted him at that point, holding out a tablet. “It’s worse than you fear, Sir. I’m trying to keep the remaining envoys from panicking - they’ve all left for ships and are having their own medics scan them after I raised the concern regarding potential infection vectors. But it’s worse than just the destruction on the station we were on - one of the other major stations has gone completely dark and looks to be falling out of orbit, and there’s reports coming in of attacks on junior staff and technicians across every station in the inner system.”

Dustin’s eyes snapped from the table to the Feliax, and she shook her head hurriedly. “I’ve already reported it to Sola, and Yril’k’s team are on high alert. As far as I can tell, the outer system stations haven’t been infiltrated - or if they have, it’s not been sufficient to begin this kind of attack yet.” Behind her, a communicator crackled. “Sorry, Sir, I need to go - there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on right now, and as your representative I’m trying to keep everything together.” She kissed his cheek, then darted back to her console as their shuttle slid on through the darkness.

Emely worked flat out the entire flight back to the station where they’d left Sola. By the time they arrived, she’d managed to link in to all the surviving envoys bar one - unsurprisingly as far as Dustin was concerned, Meruk had disappeared. The reports she’d gotten had confirmed their suspicions; each and every one of the envoys that had died in the initial attack had been ‘ill’ and connected with the medical team monitoring the rise in council illnesses. And additionally, the Durathisian envoy or his closest associates had met with them or senior members of their team in the week prior to their ‘illness’.

“How do we know we’re safe even if we’ve not engaged with Meruk and his friends?” Linne said as Emely filled them in on the dire news while their shuttle moved into dock. The fox girl shrugged and glanced at where Bleu who was running a portable scanner over the pair of envoys, the medic pausing before shaking her head and giving the Feliax woman a shrug by way of diagnosis.

With that being the best they could do to check for the time being, Emely gave Linne the only answer she could. “We don’t. Not until we get you properly scanned.” That, unsurprisingly didn’t make things any easier for the Rabyth envoy - and as a result when a station clerk attempted to refuse them access to the dock where Sola was housed she went for the simple approach. Simple in this case being hitching her envoy’s robes up around her waist revealing a pair of thighs that rivalled Rye’s for muscle, and kicking the offending clerk back into his office before striding past, the others scurrying to keep up.

Leaving that little bit of diplomatic upset behind them as fast as possible, Dustin was relieved to hear the whine of charging carbines as they turned the corner. Yril’k gave a series of clicks, and the team of four security staff lowered their weapons, allowing the party to enter Sola’s airlock.

There were more armed security on the far side - Yril’k’s team were not taking chances. The insect woman paused as she passed one of her junior officers who appeared to be in command - a tall man who despite regulations wore a truly epic beard. “You’k have secured’k this route’k?”

The insect woman asked the question as if she’d not seen the multiple armed guards they’d passed by; Dustin was impressed by the man’s answer. Snapping to attention for a microsecond before returning to his vigil down the corridor, the gruff security officer replied “yes ma’am. Visible guards as you’ve seen, additional units stationed at the junction, security devices deployed in the airlock and along this corridor. We’ve also got devices and initial defense stationed at the other main airlocks, and I took the liberty of ensuring the point-defense was fully manned as soon as reports of the attack came in despite our being in dock, ma’am.”

Yril’k gave the man a nod and click of approval. “Withdraw’k your men from outside and hold this position’k, Alan. I suspect’k we will be departing’k the system shortly.” Turning, the Vex’ess warrior gave her troops a parting salute with one of her bladed arms as she followed Dustin further into the ship and away from the chaos in the system.