by Luigi Robles
In addition to the high-capacity scramblers, all ships had to be physically tethered to each other for communication. It was the only way they stood a fighting chance against the Immortals’ superior control of machines.
“Begin tethering the ships,” Saavan said.
Spools of fibers unfurled and stretched from ship to ship, interlocking all the ships in the fleet in one giant web.
Saavan knew that tethering the ships to one another would severely limit the fleet’s maneuverability, but it was a necessary sacrifice. Other war tactics would have to compensate for this handicap.
“The scouts have made contact with the enemy,” Galeah said, “and are now engaged in battle. There appear to be thousands of them. I have yet to get a clear number.”
“Instruct the scouts to get back into formation if possible,” Saavan said. “Don’t wait for the exact number.”
“Engaging signal scramblers now,” Galeah said as her hands glided across the many battle screens.
Small shuttles all over the soon-to-be battlefield were heading towards the signal scramblers. Dozens and hundreds of scramblers began to light up with red lights.
“Scramblers fully engaged,” Galeah said as she closed two windows. “We’ve lost all detection instruments. The enemy is not in sight.”
“They will be here soon, and they will come at us with everything they’ve got. Have the rest of the Nobles and High Acram switch to manual instruments, and advise our subspecies to do the same. Engage at will, detether at will. Do not hold back. Ready the Iveria’s weapons as well.”
Saavan couldn’t remember the last time the Iveria had fired a single shot during a conflict.
“All ships have confirmed switching to manual,” Galeah said as her hands slowed down while working the different screens. “There’s still no sign of the enemy or of our scout ships.”
Then, in the distance, Saavan saw a handful of scout ships flying over and under the fleet’s formation. He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead. If this was any other enemy, he would be looking out in every direction, but this wasn’t any other enemy. They would come, and when they did so, they would do it head-on. Saavan knew that much, for the Immortals feared nothing.
“A scout ship has managed to tether itself to the fleet,” Galeah said. “They are reporting tens of thousands of Immortals.”
Saavan said nothing.
“Noble?”
“It changes nothing, regardless of the number. We stay put. They will not pass.”
“Understood.”
In silence, they waited until a faint gray glow appeared in the distance. Their calm and casual formation sent chills through Saavan. There was no strategy to their formation; they were wide open, almost as if they wanted to be attacked.
The many thousands of dreadnoughts in the fleet, the ships with the longest weapons range, began to fire their weapons, lighting up the space before them. Soon their accumulative fire formed a type of sphere around the enemy.
Slowly, all the ships that were in range of the incoming enemy began to join in; even the Iveria had the chance to join. The torrent of firepower increased exponentially, but the enemy kept coming. Then Saavan saw what was happening. It wasn’t a shield holding back the firepower; they were warping the space immediately around them, sending the hot plasma beams and lasers around and behind them with ease.
“Cease fire,” Saavan said, in the hopes of further understanding what was going on.
It was too late. In the blink of an eye, the machines were already among them, causing carnage amongst the fleet left and right. The fleet’s energy shields turned out to be no match for the sentient beings. After a few moments in front of a ship’s shield, a machine would simply glide in and begin attacking the ship, destroying it within seconds. Some of the machines went straight for the scramblers, and although they were heavily protected, they were quickly destroyed.
It was as if the enemy knew exactly what to do to counter the fleet. Saavan had expected as much; after all, they had been around as sentient beings since the first time life had formed in the galaxy.
“Noble, the enemy is hitting us hard,” Galeah said as she began to breathe harder. “Our fleet is being destroyed at an outstanding rate. What are your orders?”
“Do you see any big ships? Any massive weapon?”
“I do not.”
“Then there is nothing immediate to worry about,” Saavan said, unmoving from his position. “Unless a superior weapon shows up, the battle is just getting started. Keep your composure.”
“I understand. My trust is in you, Noble Saavan.”
“Your trust should be in yourself, but enough of this. Let’s show them that we too can fight back. Engage at will.”
Words of consolation, Saavan half-believed. He knew that without a true understanding of the enemy, the chances of coming out of this alive were nil.
“At once,” Galeah said, sounding surer of herself.
“Magnify view screen; focus on the nearest set of machines.”
Moments later, the main view screen zoomed in on a small group of machines heavily engaged with destroyer-class ships.
Ever observant, Saavan saw something different this time around. The machines were no longer warping space as a means of evading the fire. Now they were using their smaller size and greater speed to their advantage. The fire the fleet directed at them was vast, but the machines didn’t seem afraid to take some of the hits head-on. The direct hits turned their wing-like satellites red hot, and parts of their pointy bodies were also searing hot. That could only mean one thing: the space warping could only be done with the combined effort of many Immortals together. How many? Saavan didn’t know.
“Instruct the fleet to keep them separated by any means possible.”
“At once.”
Separated or not, it almost didn’t seem to matter, as the machines were not taking any visible damage, while the ships around the Immortals were going up in flames.
In what had to be a move of desperation from one of the higher ranking Acram, Saavan saw an entire destroyer detether and crash into a group of machines, crushing them against a carrier-class ship. Luckily for the carrier-class ship, its shields were able to hold back the destroyer. The situation wasn’t as fortunate for the destroyer, as its front was severely damaged. Moments later, the damaged destroyer began to open fire, unleashing powerful attacks against the fleet. Luckily for most of the fleet, those attacks were stopped in their tracks by the ships’ shields.
“Point the Iveria’s weapon at that rogue ship and destroy it.”
“Sir, it appears not to be able to penetrate the other ships’ shields, sir.”
Galeah’s heart was her greatest weakness, as well as her greatest strength. She would make a great leader if not a great tactician. Saavan understood her reasoning in giving him additional information about the rogue destroyer. It was kindhearted of her to try to prolong the lives of one or two Acram on board that ship. But Saavan’s lifelong and firsthand experience on the battlefield told him better. He suspected that the few Acram that were still alive aboard the rogue destroyer would die long and painful deaths at the hands of the machines or the vacuum of space.
“The way to end that sentence correctly is by using the word ‘yet,’” Saavan said calmly. “The ship isn’t able to penetrate any of the other ships’ shields yet.”
“There could be Acram still alive on that ship.”
“Galeah, there’s no telling what exactly the Immortals can do with one of our ships. It’s too much of a risk to take.”
“Is there no other way?” Galeah pleaded. “Please just tell me that, otherwise I won’t be able to live with myself.”
War wasn’t pretty; war wasn’t nice. War was a mechanism of pure destruction for all parties involved. The only difference between winning and losing was how many would get to live, but both sides had to pay a terrible cost. It was time to show Galeah both sides of war.
“Fine,” Saavan said
as he half-turned towards Galeah for the first time since the machines were spotted. “Communications are down for all untethered ships. You can send out a scout ship and try to search for any survivors. But whose lives do you value more—those you want to rescue or those who you’re sending on what could be a one-way mission?” He turned back to face the battle, arms crossed. “Furthermore, what will happen if more of the scramblers are destroyed and the machines are able to communicate freely? And let’s say they perform that little trick they do and open our ships’ shields. How many shots do you think it would take from the rogue destroyer’s main cannons to destroy one of our ships? Not very many. We’ll soon have a perfectly synchronized extermination on our hands.”
“Ordering the destruction of the rogue ship, Noble,” Galeah barely managed to say. She looked saddened and shocked by the whole thing.
But that wasn’t enough to make Saavan waver in the true greatness and potential he saw in her. She would be the end of all Acram wars.
The Iveria was the one to fire on the rogue Acram ship, and it took a lot more firepower than expected. It looked like the machine usurpers were pushing the destroyer to its limits, but in the end, Saavan’s legendary ship prevailed.
“Send a message to all ships in the fleet,” Saavan said. “Let them know that if the Immortals so much as touch one of our ships, they can take control of it. Take all precautions necessary not to let that happen.”
Saavan watched as the rogue destroyer drifted away into the battlefield, flames consuming the remaining oxygen. There were many explosions inside the downed destroyer, but no sign of emerging Immortals.
Have the machines been destroyed? Saavan thought. Perhaps not their bodies, but what if their minds were destroyed when the Iveria’s firepower punched through to the rogue ship’s computers? Not so immortal after all.
As Saavan began to see a way out of the battle at hand, a faint possibility of not letting Galeah get killed, he also saw the fleet being destroyed at a fast pace.
One by one, the ships in front of the Iveria began to fall to the small group of Immortals. Something about how the machines carried themselves through the battlefield made them look as if they were enjoying themselves. Their movements were bold and arrogant, moving from ship to ship, taunting them, daring them to fire. This infuriated Saavan, turning his insides hot, but instead of raging, he decided to hit back at the Immortals.
“Coordinate the fleet,” Saavan said as he let out a long breath to calm down. “Have twenty or more ships combine their firepower on one of those machines. Have forty or more ships cover the first twenty as they attack and engage any other machines that might retaliate. Have one hundred or more ships cover those forty. Take out one Immortal at a time; do not let them group together. We’ll see just how much they literary live up to their name.”
“I understand,” Galeah said as she worked the screens. “Synchronizing the fleet now.”
The fleet’s ships complied, and the battlefield began to look a lot different. Instead of chaos, there began to emerge a semblance of order. One by one, the Immortal machines began to fall. It took a lot of firepower to take one of them down, but Saavan’s plan was working nonetheless. Then Saavan saw the only thing that could possibly spoil their newfound strategy: the machines were trying to group together. Saavan knew that if he allowed that to happen, it would be game over for the fleet.
“Instruct the fleet to form a physical barrier.”
“Right away, Noble.”
Large sections of the fleet began to detether and move to form physical barriers between groups of Immortals.
“Noble, would I be correct in saying that we are actually winning the battle? The machines are falling.”
“You’d be wrong.”
“I don’t understand,” Galeah replied, turning to look intently at the battle outside. “Did they just give up?”
“We’ve been thinking about these machines in the wrong way this whole time. You see, we’ve long feared them. We thought the reason they were called Immortals was because of their formidable and indestructible machine bodies. We thought of them as unbeatable on a battlefield. But as you can see, that is simply not the case. Perhaps we’re catching up to them and they feel threatened by the fact that biological beings can wield technology that surpasses their own. We are obviously not there yet, but who’s to say that we won’t get there? But I digress. Regardless of their motive, the real reason they are called Immortals, and the real reason they won’t die, is their digital mind.”
“So, you’re saying that even though we are watching their bodies die right in front of us, their mind is still alive somewhere else?”
So Galeah was paying attention after all? Saavan was pleased at the leap her logic had taken.
“Exactly,” Saavan said. “Though I’ve yet to confirm it, I strongly suspect that is the case.”
“But doesn’t that put us at high risk of being attacked from a different direction? The fleet is no longer in formation.”
“It does. But until we destroy every last one of them, we cannot risk falling back into formation and turning off the disruptors. It may be the only real reason we’re apparently winning this fight. And there’s one more thing.”
“And what is that, Noble?”
“I believe that if these machines’ minds are engrossed in the heat of battle and death comes suddenly to their surrogate bodies, their minds will also die. I think that’s what happened to the machines that took over one of our ships.”
“How do you know that, Noble?”
“Pay attention to how the machines act after the fleet surrounds them. They go wild for a moment and then they seemingly give up once the firepower becomes overwhelming. I believe that wild mind is the true nature of these machine carcasses. Meanwhile, don’t you think the machines that took over the high-ranking Acram ship should’ve survived the destruction of a mere destroyer ship?”
“That does sound like it should happen, but it didn’t.”
“Correct; it did not.”
The battle between the fleet and the Immortals went on for some time, with only minor casualties on the fleet’s side—though Saavan suspected that perhaps the defeat of the enemy only appeared to be so on the surface.
“The last remaining Immortal has been destroyed,” Galeah said.
“Check that again,” Saavan said. “Signal for retether if necessary.”
A long moment passed as Galeah worked her command screens.
“All fire has ceased, Noble.”
“Recall the fleet back into formation,” Saavan said. “Have them ready for a second attack. Something tells me that we’re far from finished here. Send out repair crews to every damaged scrambler and turn off the rest for now. We need to widen our visible range.”
“Right away.”
Soon after the last scrambler was turned off, the enemy flooded the field with firepower from above, destroying all the scramblers.
“Find out where that came from,” Saavan said, still sounding calm. “Recall the repair crews. If there are any scramblers left, turn them on once we locate the enemy.”
Galeah gasped.
“What is it?” Saavan asked, halfway turning towards Galeah.
“I’m calibrating our instruments for accuracy. This doesn’t seem possible; they are coming at us from all angles. A lot more of them, and this time they’ve brought bigger machines with them.”
That was when he saw the large mass of a machine approaching from a distance. It was a sphere-like machine with many partial rings circling around it. Smaller machines were grouped in formation above, below and to the sides of the larger machine.
This was it; this was what Saavan had been expecting all along—an undeniable show of force from the beings that had earned the name of Immortals. Saavan smirked.
“Noble?” Galeah asked, perhaps confused by his expression.
“They’re finally not holding back,” Saavan said, encouraged but fully expecting to lose.
“It means we’re a worthy opponent and that our purpose has been met.”
“What are your orders now?”
“We stand our ground. This won’t be an easy fight for either side,” Saavan said as he began walking away from the main viewer screen.
“Noble?”
“I need to connect via node anchor with the only other being that can change the course of battle.”
14
Goodbye
Fain had been ready to venture into the Immortals’ homeworld ever since the preparations on board Sodenia were finished. The ship’s cargo bay was full to the brim of mechanical EMP disruptor devices, and the ship itself was emptied of more than half of its minimum crew. There were only one hundred and fifty people on board the ship, and there were more than enough shuttles in the docks to carry all of them if necessary.
The only reason they hadn’t left was because everyone else, including Kya, was apprehensive about leaving due to the deafening silence. As far as Earth was concerned, the Immortal threat had vanished.
To make matters worse, Truman had been taking a lot of heat from politicians who wanted ESAF activity to cease because of the lack of proof. There were many conspiracy theories circulating out there, such as that ESAF was staging all the alien attacks in order to secure funding.
Fain could only shake his head at those matters; he didn’t want to waste too much time thinking about things that were irrelevant to the survival of humanity. Though he had been focusing on just that for such a long time that all the inaction was beginning to burn him out.
Then the very thing Fain had been waiting for happened.
“Fain?” Kya asked as she walked onto the bridge with a worried expression.