Superior Firepower, subverted Hierarchy Command Cruiser
Xayn, son of Xagh
Xayn bellowed his bestial laugh as he put the Zheron gun through its paces, letting it get good and hot before letting the weapon rest. The corpses of his enemies, some sort of amphibians wearing heavy armour, were reduced to a mess of chunky flesh mingling with molten hull by the time he’d finished.
He turned to the small, grey alien huddling in cover beside him and laughed again. “Did you see the look on their faces!? That’s what V’Straki workmanship will do! So good that it lasts sixty-five million years!”
“It’s been in stasis with you for most of that,” the little alien replied. “And I must say, when you said ‘then it seems that I have a plan’, I was expecting something more than throwing junk at a door until they investigated it and then killing them all in barrage of deadly… whatever that was.”
Xayn looked down at the little alien, somewhat confused. “I am not very inventive. It just seemed easiest to slaughter our enemies all at once.”
“Yes,” the little alien conceded, peering out from cover at the dead invaders. “It does seem to be the case, even if you did send off part of my ship with them. What exactly does that weapon discharge?”
“The Zheron gun is a sophisticated V’Strak weapon,” Xayn said, proudly remembering his father’s lectures on matters of war. “Eclipsed only by the annihilation engines of the starships. The Zheron gun fires self-encapsulated packets of ultra-high energy, essentially using the power of the rounds themselves to maintain the encapsulation, but it also allows for spread fire as you saw today. This model lacks the cooling components that would allow for indefinite firing, but it means that I can use it in a single hand, thereby freeing my second hand for other tasks such as using another Zheron gun. Is this explanation to your satisfaction?”
The little alien hesitated for a moment before giving an uncertain answer. “Yes?”
“Excellent,” Xayn enthused. “Because there’s still one more boarding group to bring vengeful death to. Mark my words, small and grey Askit, we shall deliver their ruined corpses to their families so that none will dare to defy our greatness.”
“I’m not sure the couriers would send that,” the little alien replied. “And in any case, I think it would be a very good idea if we could capture one alive.”
Xayn nodded in agreement, pleased by the wisdom shown by the small grey alien. “Yes. We will record the screams of his torture and deliver them to his family-“
“I was thinking we could ask him where Grznk and the Vaulting Star were,” the little alien corrected. “Since we still need him to protect the galaxy from whatever you’re carrying.”
Once again Xayn considered this, and found the small alien’s words to be wise. “That,” he conceded, “could also be of use.”
+++++