The Third Book of the Alienbutt saga. Emperor of the Universe. Part 46.

“The evidence provided by the Galactica points to Mr Fluffy’s Cyborg production facility being on the planet Caratesk. There has been a massive amount of Hyper Jump activity at its station and heavy traffic of cargo ships into the system,” Frank announced.
“Can we be sure this isn’t a trap to try and lure us into an attack?” one of the Ick officers sitting at the table asked.
“From the spy probe reports the Galactica have obtained, there is evidence of massive holding pens and a definite industrialisation on one continent. The shielding over that entire area has made it impossible to get more than satellite images, but everything looks to support the Galactica in their assessment,” Frank replied.
“It was suspected that a large underground cyborg facility was situated on Caratesk before the outbreak of the war but my predecessor was unable to get anyone inside to fully verify our suspicions,” Whiff put in, acting as the head of Ick intelligence since the death of Snoodgrass.
“What information has your department been able to uncover?” Nifty asked, looking up from her knitting. If any of the other officers around the table had views on Nifty’s activities during these meetings they kept them to themselves.

“Very little. Our organisation is running about sixty percent blind, the chaos in the Inner Systems is confounding my attempts to re-establish our network. What we have received is a report from CR-32 yesterday that appears to show a new battle unit in Fluffy’s army. It’s humanoid and could be a first sighting of his cyborg army on a test mission,” Whiff said as she pressed the control on the table display to put the image on a large screen behind her. “This is the best shot we could get and even after upgrading the resolution, it’s not very good.”
The people sitting around the table studied the grainy image; the figure was half obscured by smoke.
“These cyborgs seem to be encased in a silver battle armour. Like the Federation droid units, their weapons are mounted onto their forearms rather than carried.” Whiff pressed a button and the video film of the figure began, it was only a few seconds long and showed the figure marching forwards. In the background, hazy shapes of other identical figures could just be made out. “We believe this is the replacement for Fluffy’s droids and if this is a field test, he’s ready to go into mass production on upgrading his prisoners.”
“Then we need to act fast and destroy the facility,” Alienbutt said, refilling his glass from a whisky bottle in front of him.
“The shielding around the complex will slow down any attack from our ships long enough for an organised defence to repel it and for reinforcements to arrive, Commander Alienbutt,” the Ick officer pointed out. “Any attack would be doomed while that shield is active.”
“I may be able to help there,” Frank said. “Such a shield would need a great deal of power, as would the prolonged use of the hyper jump. Both the jump and the shield control room would have to be close together. I can get a small team in through the hyper jump so they can disable the shield generator.”
“How would you be able to do that? Fluffy is bound to have the entire hyper jump network sealed up,” a second Ick officer asked.
Frank looked at the officer and smiled. “Because I invented the hyper jump. No one knows how it works like I do, and no one at all knows of the backdoor systems built into the programming. How do you think I escaped the Coffee Houses’ attempts to take me into custody when I decided to come and work for the Ick?”
“That would explain how he ensured he has a constant supply of tomato soup even on a space research station that never had it before his arrival,” Whiff said, causing Frank to blush.

To be continued.

All images are mine.