by Ivan Kal
“Still unresponsive.”
Adrian started walking toward the throne, Iris’s robot keeping pace and helping him along. He reached the throne and dropped into it. He had never before drained himself so much. He felt physically fine, but his mind seemed as if it had been submerged in water. Every time he tried to move, it was as if moving underwater. He knew that it was mental exhaustion and would get better with time, but he didn’t have time now.
“Adrian, I am detecting movement from the machine fleets,” Iris reported.
Adrian glanced at the holo, a part of him relieved that they had finally started moving.
Until Iris spoke again.
“Power buildup from the defense stations. They are targeting us!” Iris said.
Adrian didn’t really comprehend her words until it was too late. The defense stations around Moirai opened fire. Thankfully, Iris and Moirai had been paying attention. The AI’s attacks hit the shields and were stopped.
The AI had ordered every asset in the system to attack—and all of their fire was focused at Anessa’s ships. It was immediately obvious that the AI was ignoring the Enlightened completely.
“Damn it! Why would it side with them?”
“What should we do?” Iris asked.
Moirai had already reached out with her gravity weapons and crushed the defense platforms closest to her, but there were much more across the system.
The situation had changed in an instant. Before, they’d had a chance against the Enlightened, if a small one—but now they had none. Anessa was losing ships at a faster rate now, and he saw her try to regroup and try to move up above the system’s plane, to try and put some distance between the defense platforms and her ships. The Enlightened would follow and it would be done before they managed to reach the hyperspace barrier. There was only one trans-lane in system, but only a small number of ships could pass through that, and they had no idea where it led.
They were trapped in the system.
* * *
Anessa watched as the AI’s forces opened fire on her ships. There was nothing that she could do other than try and move away from them, even if that was only delaying the inevitable. They couldn’t survive the Enlightened and the AI.
“Battle Master, we are getting strange readings from the asteroid belt,” one of her officers reported.
Anessa looked at the holo, focusing on the asteroid belt which surrounded the system. She had their sensors focus there, and a moment later she saw what was happening. Three truly massive spherical ships had opened up, and from them flew out…something. She couldn’t really identify it, so she had their long-range sensors take a closer look. It looked like waves of smaller ships. From the estimates, each was only several meters across, and looked like two six-legged spiders merged together back to back. All of them were moving in unison.
“That,” one of her sensor officers started, “looks almost like a nanite cloud.”
Anessa realized that the man was right; it did look like a nanite cloud, only one built out of larger machines. There were three such clouds, and in the middle of each was a large black sphere almost the size of a Hephaestus mobile station. Then, before her eyes, she saw the cloud rearrange itself and the individual ships clicked together into what looked like a large and long barrel, the black sphere being engulfed inside the cloud at the base of the barrel. A moment later energy started to crackle around the barrel and then a pale blue light shone from it. Then it fired from across the system, and directly into her forces. Thousands of ships disappeared in an instant.
“What was that?” Anessa asked.
“We have a match for the weapon’s signature, Battle Master. It’s the People’s molecular disintegration beam.”
Anessa cursed. It was the same weapon as what the Star-guard stations used, as well as what her Hephaestus stations could use—only her mobile stations needed power from a sun in order to use them. The enemy seemed to be capable of firing it without it.
“The weapon reads as fifty percent more powerful than the version on our Star-guard stations,” an officer reported.
Anessa grimaced. A Titan would be able to survive one strike, but the enemy wasn’t targeting Titans or the Sovereigns. Instead, it was going after her smaller ships. She saw the two other clouds forming into the same configurations. The first one still hadn’t fired again; already its fire rate was slower than that of a Hephaestus, but they had the advantage of not needing to be tied to a sun.
She felt a sharp cold grip her heart. They couldn’t win, not now. And there was no way for them to escape. They were all going to die in this system.
* * *
No! Adrian told himself. He was not going to die here—he still had greater heights to climb to. He told Moirai to set a course toward Anessa’s fleet, which was inside the orbit of the first planet and moving up. Moirai complied, all the way firing on the defense platforms, which tried to take her shields down with little success.
The long-range MD cannons that the AI had just deployed were taking big chunks of Anessa’s fleet every time that they fired. Their fire rate was slow, thankfully, but combined with the defense platforms, the machine ships closing the range, and the Enlightened… It didn’t look good at all.
Adrian thought furiously, making his head hurt. He knew that there had to be a way out. Something. He looked at the holo, noting all the enemy positions in system. He noted a lot of defense platforms around the system’s sun in high orbit above the plane of the system. There were defense platforms all over, but there it seemed like there was an unusually high concentration of them.
Adrian’s eyes widened and he reached out to Moirai’s amplifier, forcing himself to enter the Sha state and reach out toward the sun. He searched, his head nearly splitting apart from the pain. There. He dropped out of the Sha state and immediately had Iris open a channel to Anessa.
“Anessa, change course. Go here.”
“What? You want us to fight against the sun, with no room to maneuver?” Anessa asked incredulously.
“No, we are getting out of here. There is an access point there.”
“An access…” Anessa’s shock was clear in her voice. “But the maps don’t show one here!”
“Axull Darr had built two access points for us; Ullax Darr obviously had the same capability. And there is no sense in picking this system as a control without the ability to move quickly from and to here,” Adrian said.
Anessa didn’t respond to him. Instead, he heard her yelling out orders for a course change. “Adrian,” Anessa said slowly. “We won’t make it.”
“I’ll take care of those MD cannons, you just get to the sun,” Adrian said, and closed the comms.
“Adrian,” Iris said. “I know what you are planning, but you are too weak and she can’t do it on her own.”
“There is no choice,” Adrian said. “Get me the NX.”
He knew that she wanted to argue, but she did as he asked, and a slit on the throne opened up bringing up a small cartridge with a needle: the NX-13, the evolution of the drug that replenished one’s energy. He had used it before, in times when he had been in tough situations. This wouldn’t heal his weariness; his mind would still be tired. It would, however, fill him with power, and make him not care about the state of his mind. He would not be able to use his Sha powers at 100%, but he didn’t need to use them, he only needed to help Moirai. She would do most of the heavy lifting. He took the cartridge and punched the needle in his neck, releasing the liquid inside. Almost immediately, he felt better, stronger than he ever had.
He entered the Sha state, a sharp pain passing through his mind, pain that he ignored completely.
“Moirai, it is time,” Adrian said.
“EVERYTHING?” Moirai asked.
“Yes, show them everything,” Adrian said.
He watched both with his mind and on the holo as Moirai released the seals on her shell. Pieces slid open, revealing her tissue bellow. The back end of the shell folded up and four lar
ge blood-red fin-like extensions, each over five kilometers long, extended from her insides, the shell pieces folding over the fins almost like armor. The front of the ship opened up, revealing her main weapon, which began charging. The sides of the ship slid out as she extended another two stubby, wing-like extensions. As she finished her transformation, Moirai looked far different. Now there was no hiding the fact that she was not just a ship. Now all could see that the hull was just a shell hiding something inside. Pieces of the hull had opened up, revealing her grown weapons. Spiny, bone-like weapons could now be seen peeking out of the gray hull over the entire length of the ship. Her wings had nodules all over them and the large fins at the end of her shell started emitting a red glow.
“Are you ready?” Adrian asked. Moirai already knew what he wanted.
“READY.”
Adrian nodded and used his Sha state to guide Moirai’s power. A moment later, the red glow from her fins extended to surround Moirai as they created a disruptive field of Sha around them. Then they entered the skim.
The Sha was everything; even the skim-nullifying field was made out of it. Disrupting it was not easy, but Moirai and Adrian could manage it. Moirai dropped out of the skim right on top of the three MD cannons.
From so close Adrian recognized what they truly were. This was the swarm, the tool that the AI had used before, when it had been created by the People as an aid—the tool that it had used to almost wipe the People out. And these looked like the weaponized versions of that swarm. Far more dangerous.
Before the swarm could react, Moirai opened fire at all three of the cannons. Energy bathed her shell as both her conventional and her grown weapons fired. The swarm crumpled and burned as her fire overwhelmed its shields. The cannons dissolved as they lost a large number of their ships.
Then Iris fired their main weapon. The subspace cannon unleashed a torrent of high-radiation energy, which disappeared into subspace, only to reappear again in the middle of the swarm.
The devastation spread out and consumed a large portion of the swarm, destroying almost a third of it. Then Adrian saw other parts of the swarm rearrange in weapon platforms and begin firing even as a large chunk of the swarm was speeding toward Moirai, intent on colliding. Adrian had seen enough records to know what the AI planned. The swarm could disassemble nearly anything in minutes.
Moirai skimmed away. In an instant, she was far from the nullifying field and over the hyperspace barrier. Adrian released their disruptor field for a moment, catching his breath as Moirai reoriented herself. Then when she did so, he helped her create the field again, and then they skimmed to Anessa’s forces.
Moirai exited the skim just above the Enlighteneds’ formations and unleashed hell down on them. A field of fire rained on the Enlighteneds’ ships, battering down their shields and blowing them apart. Adrian reached out to the space around Moirai. Most people thought that vacuum was empty, but it wasn’t. Sha was everywhere; somewhere thicker, some places thinner, but it was there. In the vacuum, it was a part of what most called dark matter, dark energy, and Adrian pulled on that energy, biting his teeth through the pain that flashed through his mind.
Moirai took what Adrian was pushing at her, and she shaped it.
Then Adrian released his hold and Moirai fired the energy that they had built up. Invisible force expanded from Moirai’s body downward toward the Enlightened ships. Each ship that it touched just crumbled. Thousands of ships were destroyed in an instant. Still, the Enlightened had more, and their ships started enveloping Moirai and tasking her shields.
Seeing a large fleet of machine fleets about to enter range of Anessa’s forces, Adrian and Moirai skimmed away.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system
The Old Scar guided Araxi as it supported the Nomad Fleet’s Titans. Araxi had grown much since the Krashinar’s first meeting with the Empire; it was larger now than even the Titans and the Sovereigns, but smaller than its progeny, Moirai.
Still, Araxi was a force to be reckoned with—and as their allied force retreated toward the sun, Araxi kept firing its energy sacks, depleting them as fast as they could fill. Araxi sniped one more of the Enlighteneds’ warships and sent the Old Scar feelings of smugness and pride.
The Old Scar indulged it. The actions Araxi had performed this day warranted far more. The Krashinar had suffered many losses, but still they fought, as did the other members of the alliance. Their combined forces had been reduced to half of what they’d had at the beginning of the battle. Still, the Old Scar was glad to see that they had inflicted just as much damage to their opponents—the Enlightened fleet had lost around half of its force as well.
The Old Scar knew that it was unlikely for them to survive with the machine fleets bearing down on them. Soon enough, the alliance forces would be overwhelmed. The Enlighteneds’ long-range weapons were taking a lot of ships with each of their attacks.
And then the Old Scar saw through Araxi’s eyes as Moirai revealed herself and joined the fight. Moirai skimmed to the machine’s long-range weapons and attacked. Araxi rejoiced at its kin’s power and Old Scar joined her. They watched as Moirai returned and joined in the fight.
Araxi, emboldened by Moirai’s attacks, surged forward, reaching out with its gravity weapons to crush the life out of the Enlightened ships. Old Scar could feel life in them, but they were not like the great beasts. They seemed more like plants; things that, while alive, had no will of their own.
Then, as the forward part of the allied formation struck at the defenses placed at the sun, the machine fleets entered range and opened fire.
* * *
Ryaana used her c-board to command her Titan and its escorts. She had lost one of the Dreadnought-class nanoships. It had turned out that her nanoships’ advanced systems were almost useless against the Enlightened. Their biological nature prevented their EW suits from entering their systems and altering data. Still, they had no choice, and they fought on.
The Tar’ferat and the Suvri were faring better than most, but then again the Rimward Alliance’s Titans and Sovereigns were shielding them as much as possible. The Afar weren’t so lucky—they had been the targets of the AI’s long-range MD cannons, which had devastated their forces. Out of their two fleets, only half of one remained.
Thankfully her father had managed to destroy the cannons. She wasn’t sure what his ship was; she had thought that it was something akin to a Titan, but now she could see that there was some kind of a creature inside, something like the great beasts of the Krashinar. She didn’t have the time to think on it, however, as the Enlightened kept the pressure up.
Then as they neared the star and started firing kinetic weapons at the stationary defenses in the orbit of the sun, the AI’s force of two hundred thousand ships entered into range.
Then new orders from her mother arrived. She was ordering half of the Titans and all nanoships to move up the formation to meet the machine forces. Ryaana saw that her Titan was in the formation that was to meet the new threat and she gave out orders immediately. She agreed with her mother’s decision. The nanoships hadn’t done much against the Enlightened, but their systems would be of use against the computer-controlled machine ships.
As her taskforce retreated and redeployed, the Enlightened attempted to take advantage, and they managed to destroy another six Titans in the process—but the battle line quickly settled and they returned to pounding each other from afar.
Ryaana’s task force reached the front line and immediately opened fire at the enemy ships. Their nanoships begun their EW attacks, interfering with the machine ships’ systems, making them miss shots, and bringing their shields down in sections.
They were getting closer to the sun with every moment, and Ryaana knew that they just needed to survive long enough to get inside the corona.
But the machine fleets were relentless; the nanoships’ EW wasn’t as effective as they would’ve liked, and as a
result the allied forces were stuck between two forces.
Then Moirai arrived, attacking the machine fleets. It fired its main weapon and a ball of fire and radiation blossomed inside their formation.
“All ships,” her mother’s voice yelled out over the comms, “full thrust ahead!” She ordered them to abandon their attacks and focus on getting through. Ryaana knew that she had done it to capitalize on the opening her father had just created, but she also knew that the Enlightened would ravage their back line as they retreated without rear guard. However, Ryaana knew that it was the only way to save some, at least.
As her Titan surged forward, she couldn’t help but wonder where Vas was.
* * *
“What is that thing?” Doranis asked as he watched a massive ship that looked like it was alive attack and destroy many of his and the AI’s ships.
“Adrian used it against me, boosting his own power to match my own. It must be something like the Krashinar great beasts,” Aranis answered.
Doranis didn’t know all the details, but he knew that that thing had to be destroyed. It was a threat, just like Aranis said. He tried to order his ships to fire on it, but it just skimmed away. Doranis growled at that. He could do the same, disrupt the nullifying field to enter the skim, but he could do it only for a few ships. There would be no point. For a moment he wondered if it would be better if he asked the AI to take the field down, but he immediately dismissed the thought. It would only give his opponents more options.
Currently both the Custodian AI’s and Doranis’s forces were in combat, keeping the enemy forces in a crossfire which was taking down their numbers quickly.
Then that ship exited the skim above the AI fleets and opened fire, nearly obliterating the entire formation. The rest of the enemy ships took that opportunity to charge for the sun, leaving their backs open. Doranis smiled as he saw the opening and ordered his forces forward to attack.