Arendi then pointed to the giant shadow. Before Alysdeon was a crater in the ground. It was what the enemy had pulled from the earth apparently a mile-long facility hidden from view. Now it was gone, its whereabouts and contents still unknown.
***
All Arendi had was her own speculation, but the assumption seemed valid.
This was the mother ship we encountered, she said, pointing to the sensor reading. It measured over ten miles in size. I’m guessing this was Farcia’s vessel.
As the elevator descended into the orbiting medical carrier, she raised her wrist and displayed the holoimage. The fog of light surfaced from her arm and blotted out the air with a neon-green disk.
It hung overhead. The mysterious ship was opaque and bereft of any detail.
The scans lasted only for a moment. Then the giant ship disappeared.
Alysdeon stood by her side and watched as the green light beamed. She imagined the actual scale and realized what it suggested.
I know. It shouldn’t be possible. They must be using a new energy source. Endervar matter or something we haven’t seen before.
But that wasn’t the worst part. The massive ship had arrived, not through hyperspace but via a spatial gateway one that perhaps offered instantaneous travel.
The Alliance science teams were still trying to understand the phenomenon. For them, such technology was still confined to theory, than anything real. But to Arendi, it was another display of Farcia’s power. The energy needed to fuel such technologies was likely astronomical and beyond anything that the Alliance possessed.
It will make finding Farcia difficult, Arendi explained. Endervar forces keep attacking other star systems, but there’s been no sign of this cloaked ship.
She lowered her wrist, turning off the holoimage. The green light dissipated, drifting away into the air.
Eventually, the elevator slowed and arrived at the designated floor. Stepping out of the lift, they entered the hangar bay. Arendi followed Alysdeon to the other end of the cavernous room. They passed by several medical transports before reaching the craft.
Alysdeon blushed at the diminutive size of her ship as she pointed to it.
It certainly paled in comparison with any warship, let alone the enemy’s ten-mile-long craft. But the vessel was born for battle.
Arendi saw the starfighter. This one was specifically designed for human pilots. The mechanical ship sat in the corner of the hangar bay, carrying the gold symbols of the Terran Hegemony. It was clamped down on the floor, as a low-tech ladder ran down the vessel’s side. It was small, with no cabin and only a single cockpit. Through the glass, Arendi saw the two seats positioned one behind the other. As for the rest, the craft was elongated like a sword and flanked by an array of weapons.
Alysdeon explained.
Arendi came to it and placed her fingers on the black armored hide. She read the designation and felt the blast scars etched into the metal.
Valkyrie class, she replied. It’s more than enough.
Arendi was glad to see the ship. Given the circumstances, they were lucky to have it.
Outside, the medical carrier orbited Vellanar, along with the heaps of wreckage. All existing military craft had either been destroyed in the fighting or had been forced to flee. Anything left was confined to simple passenger shuttles.
As for the Alliance, the various fleets were preoccupied with engaging the enemy threat. The fighting had moved far beyond to the Arcenian Empire, and thousands of Endervar ships had been detected moving throughout the region.
It would be days or weeks before a viable Alliance vessel might arrive, and the remaining force at Vellanar was few in number and devoted solely to salvage.
Alysdeon said, gazing at the ship.
She was momentarily silent, trying to embrace the fighter craft. It was just a ship, and they were fortunate to have it. But in a way it was another sad reminder of all that they had lost.
Her original vessel, the Au-O’sanah, was long gone. It was among those that had been declared missing twenty-one years ago. Before its disappearance, the bioship had come under Julian’s command and was well known for its speed and service during the Great War.
Alysdeon could only hope that, wherever it was now, it was still safe. She had nurtured the living vessel in its youth and would always miss it.
Alysdeon fitted on her piloting gloves and then motioned with one hand. The fighter sensed her presence and automatically opened the hood to the cockpit. The only question now was where to go. Arendi was attempting to follow the tracks. Days ago the white-haired woman had not only bombarded Vellanar, but she had stripped an entire facility from the planet.
Apparently, she had done so twice. Once at Vellanar and again at the planet’s largest moon. Two underground bases had been ripped from the ground with no explanation as to why. Arendi had been trying to uncover information about the two facilities, but the Arcenian military network was still down. The central databases on the planet had been completely destroyed.
Arendi could only suspect that it had something to do with G. Kozanis, a name that now lingered in her thoughts. The reclusive scientist had died over fifty years ago, but his work had been heavily involved with the Arcenian military. Data relating to the man, however, was at times surprisingly sparse or secret.
G. Kozanis, she said. That’s all I have at the moment.
Arendi said the name desperately and explained his significance. Do you know anything about him?
Alysdeon’s eyes sparkled, violet. Indeed, she knew something of the man, along with the mystery surrounding him.
she said instinctively.
Arendi was caught by surprise. The tragedy?
Her four-hundred-year-old friend thought back to what she remembered. She had lived as a member of the Alliance for centuries, so her connections were far and wide.
Arendi herself had become well acquainted with the man’s accomplishments. Kozanis’s work had ranged from cosmological theories and spatial mechanics to new propulsion systems for interstellar travel. But his most important research had involved weapons tech, specifically a means to defeat the Endervars.
Weeks before, Arendi had received a list of those confidential projects. Alliance Archives had granted her request and provided access to historical documents that only top leadership had ever seen.
That, too, however, was sparse. There was little detail about any of the man’s clandestine research.
I assume Farcia wants to revive his work. She was probably targeting people who knew about it, Arendi said. But for what purpose, I still don’t know.
To find out more, Arendi had tried seeking out the remaining colleagues who had been close to the man, but most were either dead or had fallen out of touch with Kozanis later in his life.
Apparently he was quite paranoid. He deliberately avoided attention.
Why?
Arendi could imagine why. According to the records, the Arcenian scientist was a key contributor to the Ouryan collapser, a weapon capable of destroying entire stars. Thirty years prior the technology had nearly been deployed in an effort to defeat the Endervars.
Yes tragic, Arendi said. Officially his d
eath had been declared an accident. But other sources they tell me he was killed. Assassinated.
Alysdeon leaned against the fighter craft, somber in her assessment. She was right. Whatever Kozanis knew, it was dangerous. So dangerous that even the Endervars an enemy with their own vast technologies sought to use it. Arendi vowed to prevent that. They may have been several steps behind the enemy, but she was intent on catching up.
Looking down at her right hand, Arendi raised it to her eyes and wondered.
She felt the machine mechanics in her palm, in addition to the slight change in weight. Days before, prior to the bombardment, this very hand had touched a control console inside Arcenian government headquarters and initiated the extensive hack. It had all been done in secret but with the implicit support of Onatagias. Before his death, he had provided the overriding command codes.
Closing her hand, Arendi remained determined to obtain access. On some level maybe she or rather her ally already had it.
She quickly set aside the thought, however. Inside Arendi’s artificial mind, an alert went off.
It was brief, but the threat was grave.
The Endervars, she said. They’ve begun attacking Alliance Command.
They had no idea how many ships were involved, but the enemy had traveled to that destination, seeking to annihilate the pillar of peace in the region.
Chapter 18
The targets were many, and still the killing continued. Her kin, the Endervar ships, were everywhere. From the smallest colonies to the home worlds of key races, they were there, always seeking to obey. It could be as simple as one vessel or an entire fleet. But her army would arrive. Their mission: to destroy all that lived. And so they did, discarding the old protocols and preserving nothing.
The result was a new devastation. Something pure and brutal.
Already, her forces had repeatedly committed genocide. It was five days after the initial assault, and there was almost no end in sight. The death toll was countless. Planets and moons had been obliterated, along with any man-made station or ship. And yet, there was still more. Still more to kill and burn. While the various governments and their militaries sought to protect their most precious habitats, they could not safeguard it all. The process would persist.
Her kin while finite and without empire remained abundant at over five thousand in number, and increasingly, they were diffuse. She cared little for tactical cohesion. All that mattered was havoc.
Your forces have arrived.
The words were brief, but they droned into the shadows. The Enforcer was ever present, watching the chaos unfold.
Like her, he was also the last of his kind. A remnant of a former power the Unity. The machine was powerful, and he knew much. His creators had helped found the region’s supergovernment, the so-called Alliance. So he was well aware of the locations of nearly every colony or base in the region. It was how they could operate with ease. Nothing could hide from them, not even this symbol of the Alliance.
The attack begins.
The machine had described it before. The base was apparently the largest structure in the quadrant. A place they called Alliance Command.
It was ancient and was not surrounded by a star. In fact, it was a nomad planet, retrofitted for life. The free people of this galaxy had always congregated there. But more important, so did their leaders. Now it was time to end them. The Enforcer was focused on the base’s destruction. While the Alliance was likely unaware of their plans, the group was still a threat. He sought to cripple it. So did she the leader of the Endervars.
Stepping out from the shadows, Farcia walked into the light. She raised her ashen face and gazed at the image. It was a map of the quadrant. Or better yet, a map of all that they had destroyed. The areas with the most casualties glowed the brightest. So many places, almost none of which she had heard of, were dead with the neon glow. In that respect, they had succeeded. Farcia and the Unity’s Enforcer had both demanded revenge, and they had achieved it. The Alliance, however, was resisting the destruction. The group had been quick to marshal its forces, devoting all its might to its defense. At every turn, Alliance ships had fought her kin, desperate to avoid the inevitable. It was too late. Farcia’s armies were expendable. What they assaulted was not.
After being trained on the map, her gaze suddenly fell back to the darkened floor. She said nothing and turned away. Although the Enforcer continued to report their progress, Farcia remained silent. The destruction in all its magnitude continued, but by now she had lost all interest.
Why she whispered. Why did you leave me?
She mumbled the words inside the massive craft, alone in their central lair. No one but her could hear them. Scratching her cheek, Farcia quietly wrestled with the anguish.
Red, she said. I didn’t know
She wept, cupping her face. Although she tried to deny it, in the end she couldn’t help but mourn.
Red, she whispered, searching in the dark. But the man was dead. In her rage, she had killed him. Farcia felt it now. The moment when she had eradicated his mind. She had clutched his thoughts, only to squeeze and pull. The result had ripped his psyche apart and left him cold on the desert floor.
It was an accident, she thought. Or was it? Her original pleas to him had easily morphed into revenge. Farcia had grown so used to killing now. Part of her even condemned her attachment to Red a man who was not of her world. Her true world. Red had no ties to the Endervars. He was like all the others. This whole universe was rife with them. Cultures and peoples of every kind, all expanding outward, no matter the consequence.
In truth, she was the outsider. She was the invader. So Farcia tried to ignore her feelings for Red.
None of this matters, she repeated in a whisper. Focus focus
Secretly, however, Farcia wondered: was she still sane?
She was dying. Or at the very least, changing. Every now and then, Farcia could feel it. This faint, vague, pestering sensation. It came from within. Maybe it was a remnant of the original woman she had been.
Farcia nearly hurled at the thought.
No, she whispered, wiping the spit from her gills. Not yet this body is still mine.
Although her physical body had been born to this realm, the Endervar inside endured. The transfer might have been chaotic and jarring, but at least the entity was there, in one form or another.
Farcia coughed from her cheeks and felt the pain in her belly. She was sick of these tears from her face. If she was dying, then so be it. The goal was near.
Status? she asked, impatient. Is the technology secure?
The assault on the Alliance continued, but Farcia’s attention shifted elsewhere. Their vessel, a legacy of machine power, was light-years away from the battles, deep in space. Presently the massive craft was consumed in another, far more vital, task.
The Enforcer answered, cold and without emotion.
The examination commences.
He offered no timetable, but they had acquired it the apparent means to save her people.
After months of searching, the two confidential facilities were now theirs. Farcia went to her sleeve and accessed the real-time images. She saw the pair of structures as they clung to the base of their vessel. During the bombardment of Vellanar, the mother ship had come, generating a tractor beam to pull both facilities from the rock.
The two structures now lay wrapped against the hull. Neither had been built to endure space, but no matter. The Enforcer and his vessel were quick to embrace both, letting the machine tendrils sink into each facility.
Anything defending the two facilities had been crushed. Now it was a simply a matter of extracting the secrets. Farcia had waited for this moment for months. It was the culmination of all their efforts. They had killed many to find it, locating anyone who possibly knew. For a time, it had even been un
certain whether it still existed.
As the Enforcer had suspected, however, the technology was real. Farcia stared at the images and felt the bloom from the holofield. The structures were clusters of bunker and manmade building. But soon the technology inside would be used to create something more. Much more.
We will return, she vowed.
It was the sole consolation. The sense that this was almost over. Briefly, she forgot all the death and loss. The sensation, however, wouldn’t last.
The Enforcer alerted her to change. It came from light-years away. To the great battle taking place.
Your forces have stopped.
Although the tone was cold, the Enforcer was obviously concerned. Farcia struggled to understand. What do you mean? she asked, turning back to the galactic map.
The image shattered into shards of light. The data then reassembled and morphed into a focused image. The Enforcer had sent out his own long-range probes to monitor the attacks, and they now displayed what they had found. It was her fleet, at over six hundred ships, circling the symbolic base. Alliance Command was seemingly under siege, just as she had ordered. But now all of that had ended. Her army was motionless against the night, and still they stagnated, regardless of the Alliance and its oncoming counterattack. Farcia had no idea why. They needed to investigate.
Take us there, now.
The Enforcer activated the ship’s central power core. It charged, bursting with energy from a former universe. In moments, their gateway would open.
***
In reality, her so-called kin were not alive. They had simply been servants, for her and her people, attempting to save what was left. That goal was now dead and irrelevant. The priorities had irrevocably changed, and now Farcia was their sole master. Or so she thought.
They had arrived not far from the battle, cloaked in the darkness. In the space ahead, her army was there, along with the ancient base. Despite her orders, Alliance Command still stood, practically unharmed. She saw the galactic seat of power in all its glory. The station was exceptionally large. Its heritage as a former rogue planet quickly became obvious. The colossal exterior shell, while altered, had been preserved, and shone, gleaming white. According to the Enforcer, the station’s radius measured over twelve hundred kilometers. As a result, her own vessels were but a glimmer against this structure a place that had been spared.
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