The Shadow Among The Stars

by Dylan Sanchez

  Kirby’s actuators shifted her stance. Such motions were not necessary when she operated the Marduk, able as she was to shift various parts of the exosuit from imitative tracking to more traditional control methods. Regardless, she had adopted a number of forms of outward expression due both to the elongated periods she spent within the suit, and her intimate psychological connection to its metallic confines.

  “The Big One, maybe? These things have to be comin’ from somewhere, and if they can go chasin’ people ’cross galaxies, it’d make sense if they came out of somethin’ mobile.”

  “Possibilities like this are what makes recovering unknown tech so nerve-wracking.” The Operative stated. “It could be anything from a planet-killing bomb set to trigger based on an unknown form of external stimulus, to a big bundle of cute family photos. There’s no way to tell until we can get some specialized equipment here. That just leaves us with these ’pictures’ on the back wall.”

  The team looked at the images above them. Bryluen immediately felt her head pulled toward the top-right picture, as if someone had grabbed her chin and turned her gaze. The images were far more than decorations or illustrations. As she looked, they swam and changed. Their colors and motions intensified, and the image somehow grew to occupy her field of vision before engaging the entirety of her other senses. The all-encompassing “image”’ told, or rather showed her a story. The tale they spun was not a simple retelling of events—rather it was an experiential narrative buoyed upon an overwhelming sensation of bottomless, mournful grief. This sensation of total loss caused tears to begin streaming down her face as she began to witness the fall of the “gods”. What was symbolic and what was literal, she could not say.

  She first witnessed a golden city stretching further than the eye could see, utterly alien in aspect and astoundingly beautiful. Plants beyond description flourished among graceful spires and sweeping arches. This “City of the Gods” was splendorous beyond all the dreams of mortals such as she. Even at first glance she knew the city was the lifeblood of the stars, and had stood for ages beyond reckoning. The “gods” themselves—whatever ancient beings created this monument—she witnessed as towering creatures of light in glittering robes of silver, their countenances so bright they were unbearable to her eyes. They strode the city at the head of thousand-strong entourages of mortal beings, both cowering in fear and glowing with honor to be in the presence of the undisputed masters of the cosmos.

  But a strange unease began to suffuse the city, paired with a dimming of the distant lights that illuminated the far reaches of this golden paradise. Suddenly a billion eyes turned skyward, and even the attention of the luminescent “gods” strayed from their mighty tasks to gaze toward the subject of such a commotion. With horror, Bryluen realized there was a texture to the sky; It was no longer smooth and clear.

  The sight was so obscene it took Bryluen a moment to understand what she was actually looking at: it was as if something so unspeakably vast was passing the world that the texture of its surface was visible across the entire horizon. She had little time to dwell on this before the sight went from mind-bending, to outright abhorrent. A vast orb whose color and detail defied description appeared among the texture in the sky, recalling the final and chilling image in the catacombs. The scene instantly burst into frigid nothingness. A horrid, wailing shriek made its way to her ears as if from a great distance.

  After a moment, she realized the shriek was the accumulation of endless screams from alien throats of every description. The notion arrived in her mind that she was listening to the death rattle of cities, the fearful outcries of entire worlds being wiped out, the gasping desperation of entire civilizations drowning in fear and fire as the creatures Humanity dubbed ’The Dreaded’ slew them all without mercy.

  So real, and so total was the sensation of suffering and loss that Bryluen immediately doubled over and wretched, the omnicidal shriek ending as she did so. Her stomach burned with involuntary contractions as its contents were forcibly ejected from her. Her helmet immediately vented what she coughed forth with a whirring sound, compartmentalizing and ejecting it in a way that maintained the suit’s airtight seal. When she stopped, her guts continued to clench painfully as the helmet sprayed an antibacterial solution onto its inner surface.

  She realized after a moment that her time in the vision had not ended. Obviously she had looked away from the enrapturing images, but the experience continued around her. She felt herself whisked away to a time some mere millennia before the present moment. She saw the growth of the grave complex she stood in, it’s form simply summoned into existence from the surrounding plant life and imprinted with the form it was to maintain for eternity. The last of the ’Gods’ etched its final message across the surface of the great tower with a thought. At immense cost—the sacrifice of their own realm—they thought they had ceased the Dissolution, but The Dreaded nonetheless pursued them.

  The “gods” had fled through the stars in the aftermath of the fall of their empire, each possessing something their enemy desired and bearing it far away. The last “god” had arrived here on Gru’Thiall, realizing it’s age-long flight was futile. The “god” resolved to end its life by its own accord. By its mere will, the luminous creature ceased to be in a flash of white light at the center of the complex. Plants for miles around instantly bloomed and grew as the light touched them. With this last image, the vision finally broke its hold over Bryluen.

  Looking around she saw that Bel’Wa, Kirby, Runner, and Vort fared just as poorly as she, all of them bent and equally betrayed by their bodies. Nicadzim however stood straight, a curious expression briefly dancing across his face. The brevity of the motion was such that it was possible even Nicadzim himself hadn’t noticed, but Bryluen deciphered the look in the short instant it was present: Nicadzim’s face had betrayed a brief flash of shame.

  Bryluen considered how to broach the subject for an instant, when she noticed their communication equipment was suddenly restored to full functionality. Comm chatter immediately burst forth as the garrison reacted to the restoration of sensors and communications. The color of the light from the spheroid shifted from gold to a white tone as if its mode of operation had changed.

  Bryluen took a breath and straightened her back. Nicadzim stepped forward and abruptly put a hand on the spheroid. Bryluen twitched, about to rebuke him before stopping herself. Clearly he had vastly more insight than the rest of them, given his ability to interface with the ancient language and his earlier warning about the massive Stone. The being he had mentioned encountering combined with his reaction to the Fall of the “gods” set Bryluen on edge. She trusted Nicadzim’s judgment, but the possibility of his having been tampered with by an unknown presence was concerning.

  Gru’Thiall had already aptly demonstrated how much they had to learn of the threat they faced; who knew what other dangers lay in wait? She concluded it best to keep a close eye on him for other incongruous behavior in the future.

  “Sh- … This knows we will discover it. I suppose it has only to conceal the tomb from The Dreaded?” Nicadzim kept his hand on the pod for another moment or so.

  “That seems somewhat rude, given that it just took away the only reason The Dreaded can’t fin—” Bryluen cut herself off, a terrible certainty forming in her head. “—because it no longer matters that they can’t see us. God dammit, they never left orbit! They just had to watch where we ended up gathering! Bel’Wa and Nicadzim, you’re accompanying me to the main gate. Vort, join the Lancers on the perimeter; the Sentinels recently made contact with some sort of Dreaded able to shoot them down, so they’ll appreciate the help. Kirby, get onto the rear wall and tell the Atet to ascend to low orbit. Runner? There’s a sniper post erected out front of the main tower; you’ll join the Rangers there. Now move!”

  She switched channels rapidly as Dread Naught sprinted down the ramp. “This is Operative Branok. Full alert, Dreaded attack will be imminent. Combat readiness, now. Sjorthursars are
already in orbit!”

  27. The Trial of the Tomb

  Though most starship captains would discuss battles as being “long-term” or “short-term”, in truth space combat was incredibly quick compared to terrestrial battles. Few realities of life for a ground trooper, or even atmospheric combat vehicles, applied to starships. Almost all weapons fire took place far beyond visual range, on the order of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Famously, the Qixing Dreadnought-class vessel Qor’thon’s Fist once flashed a smuggling vessel out of existence from the other side of a planetary system; complex gravitic calculations and in-system sensor relays allowed what was previously thought to be a deliriously impractical shot to attempt.

  Since space combat took place in a vacuum, the only real limitations on a vessel’s movement speed were relativity, its acceleration rate, and its ability to shift momentum in order to change course. This was something Human craft used in great, sweeping maneuvers on the order of tens of thousands of kilometers per hour. This also extended to the speed of projectiles, which in larger vessels could reach such velocities that they were unsafe for use against planets and necessitated automated defense grids on most any world to prevent an instant tragedy. Additionally since all aiming was done via targeting computers, there was almost no delay in firing upon new targets. These two factors of stellar ballistics meant weapons fire could almost never be dodged unless a craft was already in motion, and individual fire fights were blisteringly fast. The average duel to the death between individual starships, from engagement to incapacitation, lasted a little under six minutes. Ships engaged, disengaged, and re-engaged in roughly one to four minute increments to assess damage and attempt to reacquire tactical advantage. The longest recorded continuous starship battle was the Siege of Xurruth Kkel, at an hour and twelve minutes of non-stop weapons fire. Therefore when the captains of the Human and Qixing vessels would later describe the battle over Gru’Thiall as being grueling and long, they were referring to two combined time periods: the first about three minutes, and the second almost nine. During each of those two separate firefights, the assembled craft fired a combined force of munitions capable of scrubbing a city off the map.

  The first vessel to respond to a sensor blip over Gru’Thiall was the Qixing ship Spear of Li-an’Teyah Q.G.S.D. The first Sjorthursar had materialized, its dark and sinuous form unfurling from the blackness of space as if squeezing itself through a pinhole in a theater backdrop. Within roughly a quarter second, the Spear adjusted course and unleashed three-quarters of its total weapon systems upon the beast. A tenth of a second later, the H.S.S.D. Huángdì’s Decree lent its forward and starboard batteries to the task. At that same instant, the second and third Sjorthursars appeared, attracting the ire of Monarch’s Eye Q.G.S.F. And H.S.S.D. Passchendaele. The next quarter second a fourth, fifth, and sixth Sjorthursar engaged, resulting in multi-directional fire from every Qixing and Human ship present.

  Through the dark clouds and pounding rain on Gru’Thiall, the battle above manifested as rapid arcs and pulses of light like a fireworks show during a lightning storm. As with all void combat the battle was dreadfully silent, each ship experiencing only the faint vibration of their own insulated weapons fire and the dull reverberation and muffled hisses of impacts on the outer hull. The Sjorthursars were carefully coordinated: five of them engaged the defending craft while the sixth offloaded its cargo in a rapid, black stream downward. Then that craft would move back in toward the main battle as another took its turn deploying its own cargo. Rays and dart-like projectiles lashed out from The Dreaded in rapid volleys and targeted strikes aimed at sub-systems and weapon mounts. In return, the Human and Qixing craft unleashed bursts of slugs, twirling particle beams, clusters of missiles, and slashing lasers. Drones and point defense mounts filled the space between each ship with needling projectiles and flak bursts, every opposing shot forced through a gauntlet of thousands and thousands of rounds and shrapnel clouds intended to deflect, detonate, or disperse attacks.

  After about three minutes of furious weapons fire, the Sjorthursars completed their task and rapidly vanished from sight. All of them had sustained damage—three appeared fairly injured, flowing clouds of black ichor left in their wake. The Marine and Sentinel craft loosed additional shots and rounds toward the last known locations of The Dreaded, but struck nothing.

  The brief initial fight left long scars and ragged wounds in the hulls of the Qixing and Human craft, as well as a number of damaged turrets. The Destroyers fared well, though two of the Qixing frigates had experienced notable system damage. Starship armor was complex, consisting of various layers of advanced materials for the purposes of thermal and kinetic diffusion, magnetic dispersion, and various other means of preventing damage from the varied weapons a warship could expect to face. Sub-Systems on human craft, such as communication and scanner arrays, were cowled in armor as much as possible and placed where they could be easily defended. Within seconds of the all-clear, repair drones and vacuum crews immediately deployed to the surface of the craft, swarming over them like ants as they repaired minor breaches and cleared debris. The craft resumed their watch within a minute or so, ready for a second round of combat during the inevitable return of the Sjorthursars. Unfortunately, the ever-present threat of an invisible enemy would make stopping to deliver an orbital bombardment a potentially lethal mistake.

  The black streams of Dreaded powder were already well within the atmosphere, and took a trajectory not dissimilar from that the Atet had used to avoid anti-air fire. The black streams kept low, winding among the towering trees before slipping up onto the edge of the plateau and rapidly forming into a screeching horde. From all directions, The Dreaded began to charge toward the tomb. The Qixing Lancers spotted them, and were ordered to pull back to the safety of supporting fire. Even from the complex wall, numerous fireballs could be seen bursting through the tree line after the Lancers. Among those fireballs were sharp yellow bolts, each accompanied by a reverberating pop. These projectiles were apparently the doing of the new form of Dreaded the Lancers had fallen afoul of previously. The newest type of creature was a segmented, centipede-like thing about three and a half meters long, a dozen three-toed legs carrying its armored bulk. Feelers were draped around the entire underside of its carapace like shaggy hair. Each of the three body segments held a pair of antennae that quivered and ranged about in search of targets. On top of the front and rear segment was a rotating protrusion, blunt and hollow, from which the creature fired its payload. For all intents and purposes, they were weapons batteries with the aim and firepower to threaten vehicles.

  The rest of the horde spotted by the Lancers consisted of all of the previously encountered forms of Dreaded, including a number of Ur-Rabisus. Estimates of their total force numbered upward of twelve thousand, and that was only assuming they had all materialized. Arrayed against them were approximately five hundred Astral Marines and two hundred sixty Gate Sentinels. The Qixing brought not only twenty Lancers, but an entire column of battle tanks, while the Marines had sixteen total walkers: four Ninurta Heavy Walkers, four Hadad Siege Armatures, and eight Shala Light Walkers divided into four squads. Though badly outnumbered, the defenders had the advantage of fortifications, height, and foreknowledge. The complex's main gate was secured by weighty cargo blocks arranged by Combat Engineers to prevent it from opening. Regardless of the advantageous position, the sheer mass of the enemy force would prove a challenge—especially as it meant the soldiers on the wall would undoubtedly be forced into melee combat.

  Estimations indicated they only had a few scant minutes before The Dreaded first reached the outer edge of the defenders’ firing range. The Rangers and the Hadad armatures possessed the height and range to engage at a substantial distance, but the density of the jungle complicated matters. Dread Naught burst out the front of the main tower, dispersing to obey Bryluen’s orders. The sniper tower was a modular framework structure almost eight meters tall, its legs spanning the large door of the tower
. Runner almost immediately left the ground as he burst through the door, his grapple snatching him up the the sniper’s perch. He landed inside the shielded sniper nest, getting his bearings and taking his long rifle in hand as the Rangers came up the ladders to either side. Captain Wongsawat nodded wordlessly as he and his soldiers unslung their sharpshooter rifles and began to pan for targets. From their position they could provide fire support for a roughly two hundred ten degree angle centered on the main gate.

  The Walker squadrons, designated Vasuki, Padmavati, Karkotaka, and Ulupi, each arrayed themselves behind one of the complex walls. The opening stages of the conflict would only involve the Ninurtas or Shalas in the event of a wall breach. The Hadad Siege Armatures, however, were built for situations such as this. Each was a four-legged, somewhat gangly construct crewed by three soldiers. The turret of the walker could telescope upwards, allowing its weaponry to aim over obstructions and increase its effective range. The fearsome weapons of the Hadad were normally a pair of large-caliber cannons, with a missile launcher or high-yield energy weapon above them. The majority of the armature’s bulk was taken up by these large-scale weapons, requiring a four-legged design for stability. While not quite as precise as dedicated weapon platforms, the maneuverability and adjustable height of the Hadad made it a fearsome and adaptable addition to the Marine arsenal.

  Each Hadad planted its feet at the center of its respective wall, extended its weaponry to comfortably fire over the heads of the soldiers in front of it, and began to track back and forth across the tree line. Kirby jogged between the legs of squad Ulupi’s Hadad, clomping up the stairs the combat engineers had been forced to erect—more evidence if it were needed that the complex wall had not been intended for defensive purposes. Finding a short barrier devoid of soldiery, she stopped and engaged her cannon. The barrel was segmented, and at her command extended from the top of her chassis, sealed itself into one unbroken shape, and rotated to lay flat against the top of the Marduk.