Which meant there was no one to stop them, and even if someone saw the Essence transfer there was no way to get here in time to prevent it, for there were no portals inside the emitters. Truven’s faithful few had to get here physically from nearby stations, flown by Caretaker craft that brought in more hydrogen. And all of Plausious’s ships were too far away to get here even if they used the full power of their engines…assuming they had any Essence left after that insane battle.
Hopefully the damage done would leave them vulnerable to the blast wave, but whether they survived or not, everyone else here would be lost to them and they would have nothing but an empty desolate shell remaining…which in the short term would be worthless…only to be restored to its current glory over the course of at least half a million years.
It would cost the Hand his life and the life of those with him. He would not have brought them here if he had known it would be completely undefended. He had expected some safeguards put in place by Plausious when he deactivated it, and even now he offered the others a chance to try and flee during the buildup…but they all refused, knowing there was no way to get out of here in time without direct access to a portal. So rather than panicking, they simply remained with the Hand and stoically waited for the master stroke to land.
It wasn’t a complicated process. The charging required the code, and when complete it required it again to detonate, which the Hand of the Reignor did without hesitation. This Temple was now compromised and had to be cleansed, and his life was worth the cost to keep Plausious from using it as a power base. Reports of what had happened here were already sent out to the other Temples, so Truven would know and prepare if Plausious survived. Now all that was left was to inflict the damage and take away all that he thought he had just stolen from the rightful Reignor.
With the lengthy code keys input again, all that was required was the pressing and holding of a button on a pedestal with two hands, one on each side as if they were two buttons, but they both went to the same trigger, in just case one was accidentally hit as the computer system here made one last audible message informing the user of what they were about to do.
The Hand already knew and was not deterred, pressing down both sides of the trigger, then hearing a mechanical whizzing before the floor underneath him exploded so fast and fierce he didn’t even see it happen as the extremely dense photonic wave disintegrated all molecules it came in contact with…and it wasn’t even Essence enhanced to do that.
Plausious felt it before the ship’s sensors could detect it. The Essence part anyway, and dread filled him as his mind quickly contemplated what was happening, but not how. Only a Reignor could input the codes necessary, which meant someone here had to have them…or they’d rebuild the machinery to not require it.
He knew there were only minutes before the shockwave reached the surface after the sensors detected it coming, and he was probably only a few minutes ahead of that happening.
He had to act fast.
The Reignor was in a command node, thankfully, overseeing action on the ground as the fighting continued in some areas, so he had access to the comm unit that he set to broadcast everywhere, knowing that the other half of the Temple would be hit before his words could get to them.
“All Neofan, you are about to die,” he said quickly, speaking faster than normal. “Someone has triggered the purging protocol for the entire Temple. A stellar blast wave is coming that will destroy everything on the surface, including the buildings. Get down into the catacombs immediately, as deep as you can. Go now.”
He didn’t waste any more words, for if people listened a few moments longer that could be too long for them, so he adjusted the comm to go to the warships and other Neofan ships only.
“Raise all shields and turn them towards the Temple center. Use all Essence reserves. The detonation will be Essence enhanced into a Bru’qua effect. Calibrate for that, concussive, and photonic impact. Any ship without sufficient shields needs to hide in the shadow of another. Group together and cover up, but leave your shields facing the surface open and begin bring up as many people off the surface as you can. Locate those within range and deadlock the portals to come here. Also try for capture transmutation and have the crew set up beacons. Get everyone possible here as fast as you can. Do it immediately and do not ask questions. Everyone will be dead in moments.”
The Ren’mak squawked, feeling Plausious’s rage and dread. Thankfully he had retrieved him off the surface a day ago, and if the shields held they should be safe here.
“Ship status,” he demanded of the crew on station, for the Commander of this vessel had been on the other side and was now a captive as Plausious claimed it as his own flagship.
“There are too many hull breaches to turn away from the Temple center,” one of the Neofan he had yet to learn the name of reported. “But shielding is up and charging. Depending on the level of the blast, we should be able to block it, but there will be damage on the underside if it reflects back from the surface.”
“The blast will not be quick, it will be a torrent. We must survive the impact first. Stand by to use conventional shielding only on the underside if we can spare it, but do not divert any
