Beaming down
evil_kyjellico eventually made it to the transporter room. None of us would dare tell him that he had delayed the transport; he was clearly in a bad mood, and his bad moods tended to be fatal.
I turned to the security stormtroopers and said, "We're beaming down, unannounced, to the garden atop the palace. That gives us fire coverage from orbit. Be aware that you're likely to hear a sound like phasers. I warn you now: it is not phasers, but a native insect. Ishtar troops tend to use disruptors for lethal effects and sonic stunners for nonlethal effects, as their technology level is generally below that of the Empire. Do you understand?" Everyone saluted except Jellico, who grumbled and said, "Let's get this over with. I'm missing my stories."
I joined the others on the platform and said, "Energize." A moment later, we were standing on the palace roof. 90 decibels of sound assaulted our ears, with the tone of a 20-kW phaser cannon. The sound came from the trees around us.
Jellico turned to me and bellowed, "What is that infernal racket?" I handed him a pair of communicator earplugs, and pulled out some for myself and the rest of the attack team. "The bugs are called gazam, and they used to be a harmless insect. They haven't been for some time, not since my father altered them."
I briefed the group about the gazam while we made our way out of the garden and into a rooftop atrium. The bugs had been herbivorous, appearing approximately every decade or so. (A local decade was approximately the same as 17 Terran years.) They had been noisy and harmless, and a nuisance only to orchard farmers. I outlined the changes my father had done to them: made them emerge from the ground yearly, changed the pitch and volume of their mating call, and bred into them some interesting instinctive behaviors.
As the door to the atrium shut, the sound cut off. I removed the earplugs from my ears, as did the others. "So, my father imported a batallion of mercenaries, armed them with phaser cannons, and set them loose to conquer. No one knew at first that there were attacks, because the attacks sounded like the gazam. Also, the bugs tended to swarm at anyone firing a disruptor. They're harmless, but they made it difficult to fire...which made stopping anyone with a disruptor easier. Holding power after he captured it was easy, since he controlled the only phasers on Ishtar. When he was forced from power, all the phasers stopped receiving the deadman signal from the planetary computers, and each overloaded at about the same time. Devastating to the forces who had captured the phasers from the armory."
We found our way to an elevator, and headed down to the fifth floor, where the throne room was situated.
I turned to the security stormtroopers and said, "We're beaming down, unannounced, to the garden atop the palace. That gives us fire coverage from orbit. Be aware that you're likely to hear a sound like phasers. I warn you now: it is not phasers, but a native insect. Ishtar troops tend to use disruptors for lethal effects and sonic stunners for nonlethal effects, as their technology level is generally below that of the Empire. Do you understand?" Everyone saluted except Jellico, who grumbled and said, "Let's get this over with. I'm missing my stories."
I joined the others on the platform and said, "Energize." A moment later, we were standing on the palace roof. 90 decibels of sound assaulted our ears, with the tone of a 20-kW phaser cannon. The sound came from the trees around us.
Jellico turned to me and bellowed, "What is that infernal racket?" I handed him a pair of communicator earplugs, and pulled out some for myself and the rest of the attack team. "The bugs are called gazam, and they used to be a harmless insect. They haven't been for some time, not since my father altered them."
I briefed the group about the gazam while we made our way out of the garden and into a rooftop atrium. The bugs had been herbivorous, appearing approximately every decade or so. (A local decade was approximately the same as 17 Terran years.) They had been noisy and harmless, and a nuisance only to orchard farmers. I outlined the changes my father had done to them: made them emerge from the ground yearly, changed the pitch and volume of their mating call, and bred into them some interesting instinctive behaviors.
As the door to the atrium shut, the sound cut off. I removed the earplugs from my ears, as did the others. "So, my father imported a batallion of mercenaries, armed them with phaser cannons, and set them loose to conquer. No one knew at first that there were attacks, because the attacks sounded like the gazam. Also, the bugs tended to swarm at anyone firing a disruptor. They're harmless, but they made it difficult to fire...which made stopping anyone with a disruptor easier. Holding power after he captured it was easy, since he controlled the only phasers on Ishtar. When he was forced from power, all the phasers stopped receiving the deadman signal from the planetary computers, and each overloaded at about the same time. Devastating to the forces who had captured the phasers from the armory."
We found our way to an elevator, and headed down to the fifth floor, where the throne room was situated.