Risen: Shatterverse

Chapter 5: Conquest and Consolidation

Tate let a slow breath trickle out of his nostrils as he looked at the list of assets that Ares had put together for him at his request.

"And they know this is likely a one-way trip?" he asked quietly.

"Affirmative, General," the station's A.I. replied. "Volunteers only, as per your request."

The juggernaut slowly nodded his head in acknowledgment. If these numbers were accurate, and considering they had come directly from the station's very powerful Artificial Intelligence, they were, the new volunteers to his K'ethik Campaign almost doubled their original number, replacing all those that he had lost and once more again.

He let another sigh slip free. 'Now, to come up with a plan that won't get them all killed,' he grimly thought.

Speaking of plans:

"By the way, Ares, what's the status of the Collectorverse Campaign? Have they engaged the Collector?"

His question was followed by a slight pause as the A.I. checked the communications logs.

"The fleet has successfully penetrated into Collectorverse space, General," Ares's subsequent report began, "and they have engaged a number of smaller gatherers that were stationed near the port-in point the Collector uses to dump its pilfered matter. However, they also report that they've lost nearly all of their ground forces."

Tate's brow lifted in curiosity even as he frowned in confusion. Lost their ground forces? Why did they even have ground forces?? What would they use them for? It wasn't like the Collector had an army to engage like the Vanguard did back in the day. Or even the K Campaign did in fighting k'ethik that had dropped out of a swarm cloud!

His mind demanding an answer, a tap on the tablet he had in his hands slid the asset list aside and pulled up data on the C Campaign's complement and its initial battle plan. Bloody hell, they did have ground troops assigned to the fleet. Which, according to everything that he knew about that campaign's goal, didn't make any sense.

Then it hit him: the Collectorverse world entities. Even in the brief time he had known them, they had expressed a desire to return to their universe of origin and take back what they had lost from the half-mad god that was the Collector. A scroll down the troop manifest confirmed it: every one of the world entities Max had saved from the download of the Collector's control spire prison, was with the fleet.

But how were there ground troops with the fleet? It was supposed to be the fleet against gatherers and that was it. Had the entities engaged in some sort of recruitment process with the premise of taking whatever planets the Collector had built to form whatever systems it was making? A recruitment that had happened right under the very nose of the Risen that worked to help them retake their home universe?

Tate's expression tightened. The how, or even why no longer mattered. From all indications, it was enough to say that it did. The Collectorverse entities had managed to convince the C Campaign command to put ground troops with the fleet. But that didn't explain how those troops were suddenly missing.

His next question came out loud:

"But they haven't engaged in ground combat. How could they lose troops they didn't land?" he asked.

"According to the brief, but incomplete report that was filed afterward, possibly due to the fact that they were engaged in battle at the time, the fleet's commander indicated that the Collectorverse world entities managed to open a portal to one of the handful of planets that had been constructed around the newly-built stars and transported them there."