The sector Commander sent two fleets to check on things.  When we got here we found your space boys taking a beating, so we jumped in.  As soon as we could get in close enough we dropped our shuttles and began hitting these guys at their staging areas, then comin' up behind 'em.  They sure didn't like it!  We lost quite a few people.  I'm the highest ranking officer left, but we'll do what we can, sir, hold the line.  We sent one ship for more help.  There's another fleet nearby.  They should be able to get here in a day or so.  That ought to be enough to send these things packin'!
      "The Emperor nodded.  "Your service is gratefully accepted," he acknowledged, "your dead will be honored, and their loved ones seen to."
     "Commander!"  one of The Humes cried. "We've got some dead boogies over here.  They're just like the others, breaking down, evaporating. But they look like these people, they don't look like us!"
      "Coming!" the Warlock answered, and started over to where his medic was.  The Emperor followed.
     "See, sir?" the medic continued, "The same scans.  Unorganized matter in flux, breaking down to the most basic elements...hydrogen and helium.  theoretically these things shouldn't exist!  Matter doesn't decay like this.  And here's these crystals again.  They're the only things that survive when the body disappears, just like the ones from our sector.  They make up a part of the skull."
     "Gather them!"  Warlock Polley ordered.  "Gather the rest of those bodies.  Put them over here, too, and when they evaporate gather their crystals."
    "What are they?" The Emperor asked. 
     "Our scientific boys think they may actually be their brains, or, part of their consciousness, at least, that they create the bodies we see as a means of surviving in each environment.  We really haven't had that much time to study them yet, we've been too busy fighting them.  But they're like nothing we've ever seen before!"
     "And that must make them VERY unusual!"  The Emperor remarked.  
     "We've got boogies coming!"  a Hume screamed.  Everybody returned to their position, and the fighting started again. 
     "Question," The Emperor called as they laid down a hail of fire.
     "What?" the Warlock asked.
     "What are boogies?"  The Emperor continued.
     "Oh!"  the Warlock explained, "A story we used to scare our children with.  An evil creature, the boogie man, which would come and carry them away if they weren't good.  My people are calling these things boogie men, or, boogies for short."
     "A most appropriate definition!"  the Emperor remarked, disposing of two boogies that had managed to get very close, "A quite appropriate definition!"
     The Warlock only nodded and fell a boogie himself.  And so it went, hour after hour.  No matter how many of them they destroyed more seemed to come.  But there were breaks and they took turns sleeping.  Somehow they held on, and the palace did not fall, though they were paying a price.

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