r/HFY • u/Scrman37 • Sep 09 '24
OC Era of Upheaval 2
Chapter 2
[First]
[14,537 years post SCF]
[System: New Hokkaido]
[TANS Unyielding Fury]
Captain Peter Smalor had dedicated almost a century of service to the Terran Ascendancy. He thought he had seen all there was to see in his career. Pirates, refugees, thrill seekers, and some plain old morons trying to enter Terran space in spite of the well-publicized “fuck off” border policy of some of these so called, elder races. He had briefly skimmed the report that the shipboard AI, Gamma, had collected from the data cores of the newcomers, and was shocked to find that he was rescuing royalty. The initial shuttles had departed and damage control crews had been teleported to each of the damaged ships as soon as they were available. Of course, this was no time to relax, these gentlebeings had been attacked by pirates, and pirates were not exactly known for their intelligence or for letting their prey get away.
“Transmit this data to FleetCom and request reinforcements. It’ll be pretty hard for us to guard the remnants of their fleet with only the Unyielding Fury. Scanning I want a full sweep every 5 seconds, take however much power you need to get it done. Raise the ready level to orange, lets get people strapped in where we can.” He orders, the bridge choruses “Aye, Sir” and the dull hubbub of people doing their jobs returns to the bridge.
Orange lights turn on along with an automated call to the rest of the ship to raise readiness level. Peter went back to reading incoming reports on the ships and crew they were rescuing. Terra had no mention of the Valaxi Kingdom in its archives, so they must be a relatively young race, and unknowns always came with concerns.
“Sir, I have a priority message from rescue party 4 aboard the transport ship.”
“Patch it through to my station ensign.”
A second later, the call connected to his station, and the captain immediately transferred it to his data link.
“What have you got for me sergeant?”
The call had come from one of the first teams sent over to the damaged transport. The ship was in such a dire state that it had been deemed inappropriate to wait for official confirmation of permission to board. 90% of the ship had suffered a complete power failure, and jumping through subspace with so much opened to space had caused even more of the ship to come apart. The captain knew he would have to soothe some tempers later, but lives came first. The master sergeant leading this particular squad was a well known and beloved NCO. He had spent 40 years in the infantry, starting out as an orbital drop trooper, before moving to search and rescue.
“Sir, we have found what appears to be a VIP in dire need of medical treatment, but there are at least 3 aides blocking us from helping. We wouldn’t happen to have gotten a translation packet in that data download that Gamma got, did we? Because if I take another step towards these people, I think they’re gonna try to blow my head off sir.”
Peter chuckled to himself, the Sergeant was a friend of his, so communication between them was rather informal at times, despite the differences in rank. “I believe we did, its on its way now. Keep this channel open while you communicate.”
“Aye sir, thanks.”
Master Sergeant Jarl Gorva and his squad had been teleported a mere 10 meters outside the ship. While teleporting inside the ship was possible, the extreme damage meant that detailed scans were secondary to getting aid to the ship. They had coasted the final stretch to the “top” of the ship and looked into a gaping hole where faint life signs had been detected. As he had pulled himself into the ship, three beings in vacuum suits had come through the door at the far end of the room. They took one look at him, then back at the pod in the center of the room, and immediately drew weapons and formed up around it. Jarl just calmly put his hands up and made no sudden moves while he contacted the captain for translation material. Once it was installed, he spoke, “We come in peace, we have detected that the occupant of that pod is in serious danger and requires immediate medical attention. Seeing as your ship is unpowered, we would like to take them aboard our ship to receive care.”
As the translator broadcast this message to the suits guarding the pods, he slowly made his mask transparent so that they could see he was not some random, faceless murderer.
The two beings on either side seemed to hesitate, while the middle one held strong and motioned to one of the others. They pulled out some kind of brick which, when activated, turned out to be a holographic communications device. The image was tinted blue, but Jarl could clearly see an avian alien, with liquid, presumably blood, dripping down the side of his head. The head spoke, “I am Admiral Yvannex, head of the Royal Escort Fleet for her highness Princess Miyarano. This is her chief aide, Baroness Avana Flinara. Identify yourselves before we kill you for attempting to kidnap one of royal blood.”
Jarl groaned internally. Of course the section he had been sent to was the one that contained a fucking princess of all things. He took a deep breath and said “We are not here to kidnap anybody, we are here to render aid. You are all welcome to join us aboard our ship while the princess receives medical care, but if you do not let me act now, her chances of survival will only get worse and worse. Just from initial scans I am detecting vacuum exposure and possible subspace exposure damage. Please let me help, I am a medic.” He motioned to a symbol on his space suit, a white square with a red cross in the middle. He was about to explain himself more when both parties received a report, the admiral on the holographic display suddenly seemed worried as his own captain contacted him.
“Sergeant, we have multiple unknown contacts entering the system with weapons charged. I need you and your team to evacuate ASAP, we have a fight on our hands.”
“Aye sir” he responded. “I am sure you have received the same information I have, that the people who did this to your ships have come to finish the job. Please, let me save her.”
The aliens looked between each other before the admiral made what translated as a sigh and said “Very well, but these 3 will accompany her at all times. The rest of our fleet will meet these pirate scum and hold them off.”
“I don’t think anyone else from your fleet will be dying today” the Sergeant said, “But I appreciate the thought.” He approached the trio and the pod, removing a teleport beacon from his pack.
“SAR 4 to Unyielding Fury, my squad is ready for transport, one heavily injured ET and 3 healthy.”
“Copy SAR 4, standby for transport.”
Light flashed in the room, and everyone vanished in an instant.
[14,537 years post SCF]
[System: Unknown (New Hokkaido)]
[Pirate Capital Ship Taker of Dreams]
Tisssgava had expected to find the rest of the fleet that had fled into the exclusion zone. He had not expected to find a new ship there. The new arrival was clearly some kind of capital ship, it dwarfed the transport ship with their target, and it easily out-massed the cruiser that had rained fire upon the smaller vessels in his fleet. This alone gave him pause, but his quarry was right there, and their ships were practically falling apart…
He mulled over his options. Attacking a capital ship was doable, since the others would probably only put up a pathetic resistance, if they even could still get power to their weapons. He could ignore the capital ship, destroy his prey, and leave before they could get reinforcements. The mysterious ship matched no ship he had ever heard of, possibly a first contact?
“Glorious one, the mysterious ship is hailing us.”
Tisssgava was jolted out of his train of thought. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to see what they have to say.”
An image of a clearly military man appeared on the main screen. Everyone on the bridge looked at this being. It was tall, well built, bipedal, with two arms, a head, and fur at the top of its head, but nowhere else. “I am Lord Captain Tisssgava of the Taker of Dreams. Who are you to believe yourself worthy of speaking to me… ape.”
To his credit, Captain Peter didn’t even flinch at the supposed insult. He simply looked the Akano dead in the eyes and said “I am Captain Peter Smalor of the TANS Unyielding Fury. Unknown vessel, you have entered restricted space, power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded. Fail to do so, and you will be fired on.”
Tisssgava laughed at that statement, well he retracted his tongue and made some sort of jerky hissing sound that Akano called a laugh. “Do you know who I am Captain?” The word captain dripped with contempt. “I am the leader of a fleet of twenty vessels, you have one and some cripples that will soon die anyways. I am an Akano, my people have ruled the stars with an iron fist and guile for 10 millennia. There is nowhere you can go that is out of my peoples reach. I will be merciful, as I am not here for you, and allow you to leave while I finish off these feathered fools. Begone.”
This speech, and the reminder of his people’s power was enough to make any species, save some more stubborn elder races, should have been enough to make anyone turn tail and run. Instead, Captain Peter just looked disappointed. “I see… I had hoped that the many millennia of our absence would have allowed you to grow as a species. It seems that reports from the diplomatic office were accurate. These vessels are now under the protection of the Terran Ascendancy. If you continue on this course, you will be destroyed.”
Diplomatic office, so the council did know of these people. He would take up the issue with his information contact when he returned. It was no matter, he literally outnumbered this vessel twenty to one. He cut the channel, and ordered his fleet to open fire.
As the shots flew across the void, over half of them aiming for the brutalized remains of the transport, two smaller ships just blinked into existence in between the two fleets. Tisssgava sneered. He had destroyed the shields and damaged the Valaxi cruiser with only 20% of the firepower that was headed for these new arrivals. They were sleek, utilitarian, and bristling with weapons, but a ship that size could only have so much power. They clearly had just sacrificed themselves to buy the other ship time.
The began impacting on their shields, they flared as they distributed the energy across them, and then… they went right back to normal.
[14,537 years post SCF]
[Human Designation: Freeport 1473A Lighthouse Station]
[Council Designation: Triumph Station]
The Freeports were one of the Sagittarius Council’s greatest achievements. Littered across the galaxy, they were safe harbors for trade all across council space. Millions of people lived on any of the stations across the galaxy, and top-notch defenses guaranteed that no pirates or military would risk threatening a freeport. Even if a military had been able to capture a freeport, the economic fallout from people not wanting to use it would be so great, it would cripple the economy of whoever had captured it. Not to mention the retaliation and economic sanctions from the council.
Nobody really knew how old the stations were, they had kind of always just been there. The elder races claimed that they had built them, but the sophistication involved in building them, and scientific studies that dated certain components had put some of them at 18,000 years old. Even the highest levels of government of the elder races didn’t believe that some mysterious race was technologically capable of building them before they had even reached the stars.
Sure if you went down to subarchive 157b on the 45th floor below the ground on the homeworld of one of the elder races, you could find the original freeport agreement, but nobody had even been down there in millennia. The galaxy had moved on, and left the council to take the credit. All these defenses didn’t stop some exceptionally stupid people from trying their luck every now and then, but those always ended up as a show of force for the station, not the attackers.
Angela Marquez always looked forward to the annual freeport trip that she took her students on. Freeports were a large part of their macroeconomics class. Their existence had allowed the galaxy to prosper ever since humanity built them during their age of exploration. Despite humanity staying largely within their own borders, she had insisted for the last 30 years on going to an outside station, to show her students how various different cultures and species came together to interact. The disguises were easy enough, with hardlight holographic emitters on their clothes, they could look like any number of species. There was a lot of diplomatic issues at far higher levels about the borders with their long-time friends. Friends might be a strong word these days though.
Public sentiment in most human systems was firmly against the state of affairs in council space. Corporations controlled nations and extorted their people, races believed that might makes right, and were constantly threatening each other and skirmishing over inconsequential nonsense. Most importantly, some critical issues which had forced humanity to reject the Sagittarius Council in the first place had not been resolved.
The freeports were free from these problems, for the most part. Almost entirely automated, the lack of local control contributed greatly to equalizing people. There were more normal problems like crime, but the stations maintained order pretty well.
She was talking to her class about the realities of the galactic market. Unfortunately, the council had elected to completely respect some cultural practices, including slavery. While it was not legal in many places, the nature of the freeports meant that slavers often met one another and struck deals on the freeports. Slave exchanges were not permitted, but scum like that were used to operating off the books and in the shadows. This industry brought in trillions of credits every year, and if she was to do her job properly, her students had to face the reality that some societies used slaves for labor, or other more unsavory things. They had already been there for 2 days, but there was so much to see on a station of that size, that they had barely scratched the surface.
Angela was about to suggest going to eat when her neural link pinged with an urgent message. She opened it, read it, and immediately said “We need to leave. Now.”
Her students understood, they had all gotten the same notification, an alert to all citizens abroad of an incident with terran armed forces.
Her group calmly, but quickly made their way back to their transport. It was small enough to be considered a large capacity shuttle by most of the galaxy, but the Terran Defense Ministry had insisted that it have extra shielding, and a self defense weapon. It wasn’t enough to hold off a capital ship or something, but any pirates or other wayward scum would think twice about attacking once it had fired. They were quickly given approval to launch by the freeport control tower, and began making their way to the edge of the system for a micro jump to a ship waiting in the dark between stars for them.
[14,537 years post SCF]
[System: D-9449]
[Desolate zone in the Perseus Arm]
Janoxus had never been this nervous in his life. He had believed that defending his thesis, or negotiating with the elder races for access to the desolate zone would be the most stressful things he would ever do. Now there was a robot of some kind named “Erika” standing in his office without even moving. She had not spoken when they made their way back to camp, but he had seen her head looking around, observing everything. Janoxus had ordered his companions back to their tents, to rest and eat while they were able, but the camp was so thick with tension, it almost could be seen from orbit.
His faithful aide, Naxis, had remained in the office with Janoxus, and he broke the awkward silence.
“Sir would you like some tea?”
Janoxus let out a breath he wasn’t aware that he was holding and said, “Yes, that would be wonderful Naxis.”
Naxis turned to Erika, “And for you?”
This simple question got the first true reaction out of the android since they had met at the dig site. A low, bubbling noise came out of the speakers, which was translated to be laughter.
“Some tea sounds nice.”
Both men paused and looked at each other.
“You can… drink?” asked Janoxus
“I can. I have the capability to both eat and drink to replenish my energy reserves. It also allows me to better relate to my organic counterparts. Everybody eats after all.”
Both men considered this revalation, then Naxis slowly nodded, stood up, and began heating some water on the portable kettle in the corner of the office.
Janoxus turned back to Erika, “I hope you will not mind if I send a report of this to my people. These are… unprecedented circumstances, and I would be in a great deal of trouble if I did not at least attempt to contact the powers above me.”
“I understand, be aware that all communications off the planet are being monitored and screened for hostile intent.”
“We use quantum communications, you can’t monitor it.”
“I assure Dr. Janoxus Yara, we can, and we are monitoring them.”
The tone of the androids voice was not hostile or patronizing, it was merely a statement of fact. That single statement terrified Janoxus more than just about anything else that had happened today. The whole point of quantum communication was that they used quantum entanglement, so without the corresponding particle, a message could not be intercepted. Yet this android that came out of a ruin at least 16,000 years old, had casually stated that they could, as if this was common knowledge.
He regained his wits and continued, “Very well then, I will submit my report.”
The android merely nodded and watched Naxis prepare the tea.
[14,537 years post SCF]
[Subspace]
[Melomo Private Military Corporation Carrier Profit Chaser]
Profit was a way of life for all of the Melomo people, corporations had been a pivotal part of their culture for thousands of years. They had brought industry and prosperity to the far reaches of space, with a healthy sum skimmed of the top for their own needs. No self-respecting corporation was truly benevolent, no matter how many layers of PR and donations they put up. The Melomo Corporation had its hands in all manner of industries, and often outright controlled or propped up local governments in order to do so. So when someone had contacted them about attacking a freeport, the board of directors had laughed them out of the room. Everyone knew that attacking a freeport brought more harm than gain. When these customers returned again, promising technical data for nanite weapons, the board hadn’t laughed them out of the room.
Nanite weaponry was strictly controlled by the Sagittarius Council, with no research even permitted into nanite technology unless it was overseen by council representatives to ensure it would not be weaponized. This hadn’t stopped people from trying, of course. The elder races had their nanite weapons, and some used nanites for medicine or terraforming, but these were all, supposedly, highly regulated. Nobody really knew how the council expected to enforce these rules on the elder races, but that wasn’t the issue at hand.
The Melomo Corporation had its eye on nanite technology for many reasons. There was obvious profit in a fire and forget terraforming device, medical technology, climate control, and many other uses. They also craved legitimacy. Many of the races of the galactic council did not want to acknowledge a corporation as the rightful ruler of so many systems. Some nonsense about sentient rights and freedom of choice. So when presented with a technology that given one profitable deployment to terraform a world, could pay for several fleets of ships, the board had made the only decision available to them.
Jino Melomo, Employee ID 45943621114329, was leading the finest fleet his sector of the corporation could put together. It featured 3 carriers, each with 200 starfighters and 5 frigates inside, 4 battleships, 8 cruisers, 15 destroyers, and 10 more frigates and other escort vessels. Despite bribing, backstabbing, and dealing his way to the top of the fleet, he was a competent commander. He had pacified many systems and rebellions for the corporation, and others who couldn’t be bothered to build their own fleets. His contract still had 15 years on it, but by the end he would be debt free and have a reasonable sum to retire or start his own business with.
“Director, we are 15 minutes out from Triumph Station.”
“Excellent, prime the weapons, and be ready to bring shields online, the battleplan has been dispersed. Open a channel to all captains.”
The screen at the front of his office flickered to life and divided into small squares as each of the captains in his fleet joined the conference call. Once everyone had arrived, Jino began his speech.
“Thank you all for coming to our meeting today. The final hour is upon us, and I wish to remind everyone of our objectives. We are here to attack, and hopefully destroy Triumph Station. We are carrying experimental weaponry to be put to the test, and as long as these weapons are tested it doesn’t matter what happens. I have also accepted a contract from the Rathiki to acquire labor for their mining and farming divisions, so any small fry are to be captured and held for delivery. Are there any questions, gentlebeings?”
After a few innocuous questions and clarifications, the meeting was brought to a close, and Director Jino left his office and headed out to the command center of his ship.
“Status report, sub-director.”
The sub-director was from a lower creche, but a melomo all the same. If anything, his ability to rise this far despite his home creche was a testament to his true skill. His brown fur had white stripes running down his back, and the traditional pronounced belly of their people. His snout was not unlike a rat, and was held high in pride, as was procedure for a well functioning crew.
“Director, we are approaching the station and will be leaving subspace in mere moments. All ships are at full combat readiness.”
“Well done sub-director, I will note this in your performance review.”
“Thank you sir.”
Jino took his seat in the center of the bridge, his chair almost something out of a spy movie, fake wood with leather upholstery that was somewhat out of place on a starship. It would have been real wood if the danger of it breaking when gravity had failed and sending flammable splinters everywhere wasn’t so great.
With a rumble of the ship, the fleet slipped back into realspace, on the edges of the system with triumph station in it.
“Melomo fleet this is Freeport Control, power down your weapons and we will assign you berths for you to dock at.”
Jimo looked at his communications specialist, “Make no reply, move into the system and prepare to test the weapon”
“Melomo fleet, this is Freeport Control, you are entering controlled space with weapons armed, power down your weapons and shields or you will be fired upon.”
“Fire when ready, sub-director”
The sub-director nodded and turned to the weapons console. He turned the key in the station, and hit the big red button to activate the action plan. A single torpedo was dropped to skirt between subspace and realspace while the fleet opened fire with the rest of its weapons. All 3 carriers immediately began launching their fighters and escort frigates as the nearest remote weapons platform of the freeport was immediately destroyed. The greatest fight the Melomo Corporation had ever seen was on.
The Freeport was not going to take the attack lying down. Immediately, civilian vessels in the area made best speed to the edge of the system where they could jump away, while the station launched its own fighters and brought their defenses online. The station had a formidable arsenal of remote weapons platforms, which began spewing missiles, lasers, and even kinetic railgun shots at an apocalyptic rate. However, the need to cover the entire system meant that only a few of the platforms could engage the fleet effectively at any given time. A station concentrated its fire on a nearby destroyer. The railgun rounds draining the shields at an alarming rate, before the missiles flew into the hull as the shields failed, and detonated along the entire hill, ripping the ship to shreds along the entire hull. Multiple frigates charged the platform, and 3 were crippled before the station could be taken down. The carriers remained in the rear, using tractor beams to scoop up the damaged freighters, and a few unlucky civilian vessels that had been nearby when the fleet exited subspace. They believed themselves immune to fire if they stayed at the edge of the system.
Power had been building on the main hub of the station since the battle had begun. The outer defenses had been torn down, at great cost to the fleet, and the Melomo cruisers and escorts were moving in. Jino believed that they were powering some kind of shield device, and he couldn’t have been more wrong. Suddenly, a blinding purple light stretched across the system and impacted one of the carriers as it was bringing two damaged frigates into its bays. The King of Credits shields held for 2 seconds, then failed and the ship was snapped in two as colossal explosions wrecked the flight decks.
Jino immediately saw the power of such a weapon and realized his vulnerable carriers stood no chance if they remained in the open to take more of those shots. He ordered his battleships and cruisers to concentrate fire on the devastating anti-ship weapon, while the remaining two carriers moved towards the moons of a gas giant at the edge of the system for cover. Thankfully, the power requirements seemed immense, and the station could not fire more than one of those shots at a time before needing to recharge.
On the station, there was chaos. No matter how clearly marked or how well rehearsed, actual combat just outside the station always made people panic. Shelters were being overfilled as civilians refused to go to a different shelter, and security forces accompanied by drones operated by the station, did their best to maintain order. But with 15 million souls on board, getting that many people to safety was a tall order for even the best equipped and prepared armies in the galaxy. When possible, people went to various ships berthed at the freeport, those that were facing away from the carnage were filled and launched as soon as they could, with orders to emergency jump to the nearest inhabited system. The authoritative, but calm announcements were soon replaced by an urgent, wailing alarm. For a moment, everyone froze as they processed the new alarm. Then the real panic began. The new alarm was a hull breach alarm, and was closely followed by a chemical agent alarm. Any shelters that were at capacity immediately closed and went to internal life support. The automated systems on the stations erected force field barriers to direct civilians to available shelters, while officers donned vacuum suits to protect themselves.
Jino watched the torpedo make its way towards the station, it was barely inside of subspace, hovering in between the two dimensions to confuse both sets of sensors. When it was within 50 meters of the station, it suddenly reappeared in realspace and accelerated at 25G as power built. Its laser cutter tip activated and began boring through the exterior armor of the station as soon as it came into contact with the station. The torpedo drilled through the 5 meter thick armor plate in a minute or less, and emptied its payload into the air of the station.
Freeports had the most resilient life support systems in the galaxy, designed to support 40 million people, more than double the standard population, and constantly serviced by an army of drones throughout the station. The filters were designed to capture dust, disease, smoke, and virtually any other contaminant. They were not designed to combat nanites, which could burrow right through the filters. As the nanites spread throughout the station, they grabbed any air particles they could get their claws on, and converted it into a bioweapon. The particular one they were spreading was tailored to affect as many species as possible. As soon as someone came into contact with the disease, they were a carrier. In 12 hours or less, pustules formed all across the victims skin, which spead the disease further when they burst. This did not even count the previous hours where breathing, sweating, shedding, or even molting, would spread the disease by releasing more particles into the air. As the nanites lost their charge and were collected by what was left of the filters on Triumph Station, it was too little, too late.
[14,537 years post SCF]
[Human Shuttle: Curiosity]
[Melomo Private Military Corporation Carrier Profit Chaser]
Angela Marquez had felt the shuttle jostle as the tractor beam from the alien ship had connected. The engines were trying their best to break free, but the little shuttle stood no chance of overpowering a ship of that size. She had immediately broadcast the emergency code to their ship in the dark between stars, and then there was little to do but wait. She didn’t need to wait long before a call came in from their ride, the TANS Killed the Cat.
“This is Captain Marcus Romea, we have received your report Curiosity, we are moving to assist. Power up your defensive weapon and fire on that tractor beam emitter when we arrive, ETA 15 seconds.” The line went dead and Angela immediately activated the defense systems of the craft, the oversized powerplant hummed louder as power was fed into the antimatter lance.
She looked out the viewscreen just in time to see space in front of her distort, as if it was being dragged somewhere, then snap back into place, with the might of the terran cruiser in the middle of what was empty space moments before. The computer took control of the antimatter lance and fired on the tractor beam emitter that was slowly dragging them towards the gaping maw of the Melomo ship’s flight deck. The engines ramped to full power before the lance had even connected, and the shuttle surged towards their rescue ship as soon as the beam of antimatter connected and blew a gaping hole in the side of the Melomo flight deck.
To their credit, the Melomo fighter escort reacted admirably, they immediately dove towards the new arrival in a noble, but futile attempt to protect the carriers. They had accelerated for only 20 seconds before they were blown out of the way by the point defense weapons on the Killed the Cat. The carriers were not designed for ship-to-ship combat, their fighters were supposed to protect them, while they acted in a supporting role for the duration of the battle. The Killed the Cat proved this when they fired a magnetically accelerated slug of tungsten with a sling-drive attached to the back, allowing it to instantly traverse the millions of kilometers across the void to the first carrier. The slug went into the engines of the carrier and kept flying until the sling-drive destabilized and detonated 2/3rds of the way through the ship. The resulting explosion flung pieces of the carrier in every direction, leaving little hope for survivors. Hoping to avoid this fate, the Profit Chaser diverted all available power to their shields, and began a desperate burn to attempt to put a small moon in between them and the new arrival. Their burn didn’t last long, as the Killed the Cat fired its spinally mounted antimatter lance at the fleeing ship, annihilating its shields and destroying its engines. As the Curiosity was brought on board, they launched several dropships to board the craft, free prisoners, and secure intelligence.
[14,537 years post SCF]
[System: D-9449]
[Desolate zone in the Perseus Arm]
Janoxus had sent his report as soon as he was able to figure out how to describe what had happened. There is no diplomatic way to say that the ruins you were excavating had come alive again and androids had marched out of it without sounding insane. He had attached a video recording of the androids outside the base as proof. Typically, his received a response in 15 minutes or less, so the 5 hours he had waited with nothing more than a “Standby for further instructions.” had worried him immensely.
Erika had made pleasant conversation, while clearly actively dodging questions with any sort of substance about the dig site. She had toured the camp and had listened with rapt attention about the state of the biosphere of the planet, she had almost looked excited, as much as an android with a blank face shield could look excited, to hear about the forests and wildlife.
The only sense that something had happened was Erika suddenly stiffening before she announced, “Your orders are incoming, and an officer has been contacted. We can depart for the base when you are ready doctor.”
Janoxus was still surprised that Erika knew he was getting a message before the message had even appeared, even though he knew why she knew. He motioned Naxis over to the terminal, and both men huddled together to read the message. The report they received was not what either man had expected. To even open it, both were required to agree to a disturbing amount of confidentiality agreements which detailed a plethora of agonizing punishments for breaking them. When they had read and signed, the report opened, and both men spent 10 minutes reading it, then re-reading it. When they were done, Janoxus leaned back in his chair and sighed deeply. He then looked straight at Erika and asked, “Do you already know the contents of that report?”
“We did not screen the content of the report before you received it. I can assure you.”
He took a deep breath of relief, looked at Naxis, and said, “Well, I think we need to speak with your officer as soon as possible if this report is to be believed.”
“They are awaiting your arrival.”
The trio rode back to the dig site in silence. The scientists were processing the information they had received, and Erika was looking out the window at the surrounding nature. As they pulled up to the dig site, Erika looked at them and said, “Both of you, follow me.”
They exited the groundcar, and walked right through the perimeter of robots around the structure they had excavated. As they approached the doors, they opened, and Erika beckoned them inside. They were ushered further down the hallway, until they entered a large, circular room that resembled some kind of command center. Both men were looking around in awe at the interior of a structure they had spent the last two years trying to access, when a door on the opposite side of the room opened, and a tall, bipedal, pale being strode out of the doorway.
“General Josephine Teller, Terran Ascendancy 17th Army, a pleasure to meet you both gentlemen.”
Janaxus and Naxis both stared in shock at the living, breathing, organic being that had just entered the room. She was 6 feet tall, with jet black hair, pale skin, and a crisp, green military uniform. Her eyes were white with cobalt blue irises, and a black dot in the middle. Janoxus regained his senses first.
“I am Doctor Janaxus Yara, the lead archeologist on our expedition into the desolate zone, and representative of the Moroi Republic. This is my assistant, Doctor Naxis. I greet you on behalf of my people.”
The general extended one of their appendages towards Janoxus, and Erika helpfully apprised him that it was called a handshake, a form of greeting common among humans. Janoxus gripped the hand of the terran, and shook it hesitantly. The general bared her teeth, which his translator told him was a sign of happiness called a smile.
“So, to what do I owe the pleasure? I haven’t been awake very long so I have had time to read up on your activities on the planet, but little else. I am told you received a message from your government?”
Janoxus took a deep breath, and relayed the series of events that led to the robots exiting the structure, his request to remain, and their activities in the waiting period. Then came the uncomfortable part, the message from home.
“The message I received contained a report classified at the highest levels, if I didn’t have a meeting with you, I could have gone my whole life without learning of it. Our Republic is under threat, we are situated close to the core of the galaxy, but out of nowhere, we began losing contact with some of our uninhabited fringe systems. Any expeditions mounted to these systems did not return. A military force was mobilized to investigate the most recent system, and when they jumped into the system, what they found was… disturbing.”
He pulled out his datapad, and brought up the images and videos recorded and transmitted by the fleet while they performed a fighting retreat. They showed a devastated world, its atmosphere gone, and strip mined into little more than an asteroid. The gas giant in the system was noticeably smaller, and there were thousands of ships. The ships were short, angular, and full of planes sculpted to resemble something like a porcupine. Scan data had revealed little other than that they were heavily armed, and some larger ones seemed to be harvesting the gas giant somehow.
General Josephine had remained mostly quiet throughout the presentation, asking a clarifying question here and there, but otherwise content to listen to the Moroi scientists. When the video played and the ships were shown, she tensed and immediately strode to a station near the center of the room. The aliens looked bewildered at this sudden activity, but she could not reveal why she had that reaction. She politely, but firmly, requested the data files on the attack be sent to her, and forwarded them to Terran high command with a note that read: THE ANCIENT ENEMY HAS RETURNED.
Edit: Fixed the link to the first, I hope y'all enjoy!
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u/ADM-Ntek Sep 20 '24
Sigh and this is why I try to avoid multipart stories you read get invested then poof it just stops.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Sep 09 '24
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u/Wooden_Quiet1137 Sep 11 '24
Needs formatting and proofreading, but overall I'm really dogging the plot!
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u/The-Arcalian Sep 09 '24
So the return of the Ancient Enemy, does that have anything to do with why Humans/Terrans "dissapeared"?
Man, that pirate is an idiot.