The Mad Lemurs of Terra and the Inheritors are a danger unlike any the Atrekna have ever encountered in all of the billions of years of existence. While every species is wired for self-preservation that can be briefly overwritten, the Mad Lemurs of Terra and the Inheritors of Madness seem almost self-destructive as they throw themselves at the enemy.

They do not care about the enemy numbers, they adhere to the belief 'the enemy only exists only to be destroyed' which means they do not care what the enemy has planned or what technology they have.

They don't care about casualties, they adhere to a maxim of 'acceptable losses' when attempting to attain a goal, be it military, economic, or political.

They don't care about deprivation, they adhere to 'something gained without struggle has no value' even when it comes to food or other basic sustenance.

They don't care about killing, they adhere to 'sucks to be you' and 'better you than me' when attacking their perceived foes.

They don't care about future repercussions, they state 'future me is talking shit about me but the joke's on him, I'm going to ruin his life' and the statement is only in half jest.

They don't care about defeat, they stand up, wipe the blood from their faces, and sneer 'I didn't hear no bell" as they cannot be beaten, only defeated or stymied.

The Atrekna High Convention would do well to understand that the lemurs and the inheritors of their madness are like nothing the Atrekna have encountered during the domination of the four universes they have harvested.

The Mad Lemurs of Terra and the Inheritors of Madness do not fear death or oblivion.

They welcome it at the Atrekna's hands.

If they can lunge from the grave, grasp the Atrekna by the feeding tentacles, whisper 'this grave has room for you also' and drag the Atrekna people into oblivion. - Heretical Wisdom of Cult of the Defiled One

The Atrekna High Convention ruled over the entire Atrekna species. While the Quorum of Shadows existed behind the High Convention, only a handful of Atrekna on the ruling faction knew of the Quorum's existence.

Only a scant few knew that the Quorum of Shadows had been forced to purge members that had fallen in with the Cult of the Defiled One. Over half of the Quorum of Shadows had begun following the whispers of Dalvanak the Defiled One.

The purge had been silent and nearly bloodless.

Now the High Convention had met for the first time since the Precision Purification.

They all hovered in midair, ten to fifteen meters above the polished phasonium floor, in a rough circle around the phasic hologram of the Cygnus-Orion Galactic Arm Spur.

The frustration and irritation was almost palpable.

The Spoked Offensive had been stalled on a thousand worlds, stopping it far short of its fifteen thousand targets. A year into the Spoked Offensive and there was still fighting in nearly two thousand stellar systems. Over six hundred systems had been liberated from the attacking Atrekna forces.

The gathered Ancient Ones, having purged the Old Ones from their ranks, stared at the glimmering representation.

It did not look like it was supposed to look.

The Second Spoked Offensive had been planned in this very room, had been gamed through.

The Inheritors of Madness, without the sheer numbers and hyperviolence of the Mad Lemurs of Terra, had surely spent their remaining strength stopping the Spoked Offensive.

The High Convention knew that the Inheritors of Madness could not stop a new Spoked Offensive.

Some had stated that the Warrior Caste of the Hive Lords and the Herd Lords had never materialized, meaning that those castes had not appeared because the Hive and Herd Lords were somehow shepherding their strength.

The rest of the High Convention ignored such ignorance.

It was obvious that the warrior castes had not been deployed by the Hive Lords or Herd Lords because they no longer had those castes available.

Starting a new Spoked Offensive would keep the Hive Lords and Herd Lords from having the time to breed up a generation of warrior caste.

The Atrekna had carefully tended to ten different species they had discovered in their old system holdings, species that had risen to prominence on their worlds in the tens of millions of years the Atrekna had been banished back to the dying Old Universe.

The Atrekna had taken those species and groomed them for war, turning them into war servitors to fight the Inheritors of Madness. They had tweaked those species genetics, adjusted their thoughts, enhanced them so their thought to action delay was measured in single digits or low two digits of seconds and their reaction speeds were as low as a brief three seconds in some cases.

The Atrekna had armed them, industrialized their societies, ensured the species that they existed to serve the Atrekna and defend them. In every system centuries had passed, tens of generations, allowing the Atrekna to fully dominate and alter the servitor species's entire existence.

You Exist to Serve

The High Convention had mustered hundreds of millions of servitors. Had bred and deployed tens of millions of slavespawn. Had manufactured and readied for deployment millions of autonomous war machines of all design.

The High Convention had been ready to begin to deploy in order to start another Spoked Offensive, this one that would break the back of the Inheritors of Madness and sweep them aside and relegate them to either extinction or proper service to the Atrekna.

The High Convention knew there was nothing that the lesser species of the Inheritors of Madness could do to stop the Atrekna from taking control and possession of the bountiful New Universe and harvesting it.

That had been before the High Convention called an emergency meeting and even summoned the High Quorums and High Conclaves. The members of those groups were only a bare five meters off the floor in the case of the High Conclaves, barely a third of a meter off the floor in the case of the High Quorums.

The star map they were all focused on were showing an impossibility.

Without exception every world assaulted by the Spoked Offensive, every system dedicated to building strength for the Second Spoked Offensive, was flashing the "Enemy Forces in Strength" runes. Nearly all of the Atrekna holdings outside of those two operations were also flashing the "We Are Under Attack and Request Reinforcements" runes.

**this is impossible** one of the High Convention stated coldly.

**yet it is ongoing** another stated as nearly a hundred runes went from "Situation Normal" to "We Are Under Attack" and three went lurid purple with the runes that roughly translated to "SOMEONE HELP US!"

**there has been no buildup no staging areas created no forward logistics and manpower bases established** another stated. **this must be an error in the Overmind**

There was silence as another hundred system icons began flashing "We Are Under Attack by the Enemy in Overwhelming Numbers" runes that pulsed with desperation.

**the Inheritors could not have fielded a military force this big** one of the leaders of a High Quorum stated. **they have no ability to temporally replicate forces the manufacturing effort would have been detectable**

Another dozen systems flashed that the enemy was there.

**yet they are assaulting virtually every world we possess** a leader of a High Quorum stated. **perhaps you should travel to one of those systems and inform the Inheritors that you have determined it is impossible for them to be there and then they will just gasp in shock before vanishing** the Atrekna paused a moment. **you brainless moron**

There was shocked silence.

Another hundred systems started flashing alerts they were being invaded by force.

**this will disrupt the Second Spoked Offensive** one Atrekna complained. It pointed at a system. **that system manufactures modern autonomous war machines we need that system don't the Inheritors know that**

The leader of the High Quorum wanted to throw something at the one who had just spoken.

There was a sudden phasic energy flare that drew the entire gathering's attention.

A dark system, what had formerly been a Prime System but that the Atrekna had been forced to abandon, suddenly lit up with the runes for danger.

The apprehension and anxiety in the huge chamber peaked and became so palpable that many of the Atrekna could taste it on the tips of their feeding tentacles.

**something is attempting to travel from the abandoned Prime System to this one** one of the High Convention members stated. It drifted forward, reaching out with its power to activate the crystal. **there is nothing but slavespawn there now**

The phasic energy orb swelled and expanded, showing what had caused the alert.

The gathered Atrekna drew back in anxiety driven fear.

The room was a Gathering Chamber, normally used for members of the various high councils to travel quickly and easily between systems without the need for ships or phasic constructs. It was a triumphant melding of phasic engineering and technology.

There were the corpses of slavespawn, some still steaming or twitching, scattered around the chamber. The lights were flickering, showing the curved ramps that led to the lifted pathways that Atrekna would use to reach their safe positions while awaiting transfer after conclaves and meetings.

Two massive combat slavespawn, a melding of living tissue and technology, were collapsed in the middle of the chamber, full of smoking holes with rivulets of blood and ichor spilling onto the floor.

In the middle of the chamber was the transportation hub, an interweaving of phasic power, crystalline matrices, and advanced temporal technology. At the sides were the huge consoles that controlled the destination and arrival points for those Atrekna choosing to use the facility.

But none of that was what caused the anxiety.

Standing at one of the consoles was a Mad Lemur clad in heavy power armor. Barbed wire was wrapped around the biceps, chest, forearms, and thighs. The plates were dented, pockmarked, discolored, but the heavy power armor was still intact.

Beside the Mad Lemur stood a hologram of streaming code that looked like a small Hesstlan female, one hand touching the console, the other touching the Mad Lemur.

**the world ender** one Atrekna shrieked before fleeing.

**there is no reason to give into base instinctual fear** one of the High Convention scoffed. **there is no way the Mad Lemur understands the technology thus no way the Mad Lemur can utilize the transportation...*

The temporal-spacial relocation system in the hologram powered up as the Hesstlan female winked out.

The gathered Atrekna watched as the Mad Lemur clomped toward the glimmering, rotating diamond of the transportation system. It had a projectile weapon in one hand and was slowly loading thick shells into it as the Lemur slowly walked forward.

**there is no way the Mad Lemur will reappear anywhere intact** another one said.

The Mad Lemur stepped into the circle and touched the crystal.

And vanished.

**there is nothing to fear even if the Mad Lemur is able to use it even if it does appear somewhere else intact it is doubtful that wherever it appears will matter** a High Convention member stated coldly.

There was silence for a moment.

**where was the last destination that the system transmitted to before the system was abandoned** one of the High Quorum leaders asked.

There was hushed silence for a long moment.

**I now have that information but I assure all of you gathered that...**

A dull thrumming boom sounded out from deep in the crystalline/alloy fortress.

RIP AND TEAR UNTIL IT IS DONE! roared out.

**let me guess** one of the High Conclave leaders stated.

**here**

**there is no reason to panic** one of the High Convention stated. **we have forces without number on this world in preparation for the Second Spoked Offensive there is no chance that the lemur will endure much less emerge victorious**

Another explosion could faintly be felt through the crystal and alloy structure of the fortress.

WHAT DOG MEAT STANDS BEFORE ME? roared out.

Atrekna started fleeing. Some revealed their allegiance to the Cult of the Defiled One by appearing to turn into tightly interwoven vibrating strings before vanishing. Others fled, screaming, for their private ships. Still others silently glided away, determined not to show panic in front of the others.

Servitors rushed through the hallways, hastily donned armor covering them and rifles held tightly in their grasps. Atrekna hurried to wake up the slavespawn that could fight in the corridors of the fortress. Other Atrekna screeched at the servitors to hurry up and get in there, to face the Mad Lemur.

To stop dying.

There was only ONE of the Mad Lemur! Get in there and kill it!

STOP DOING THAT, YOU LEMUR!

In the chamber where the High Convention met the little pinpoints of light representing stars and stellar systems kept flashing as more and more systems reported being under attack.

The phasic construct didn't care that the room was empty.

It dutifully showed that nearly every world the Atrekna held sway upon was under attack, with more and more being attacked every second.

The walls shuddered again as something large and important blew up deep in the fortress.

Above the tiny pinpoint representing the New and Better Prime System a little rune popped into existence.

WE ARE BEING INVADED BY OVERWHELMING FORCE AND REQUEST REINFORCEMENTS

[The Universe Liked That]