6: Tomb
Alexia Tune, her daughters, and the first two expeditionary squads sat in uncomfortable silence as the SOL shuttle Foehammer closed the distance between the portal and the moonbase. With signs of only primitive technology from the planet, and the shipyard still dark, the biggest threat remained the possibility of an AI on the base.
The crew compartment of the shuttle was a roomy affair, and yet still managed to feel cramped with over twenty soldiers and their equipment stashed within. While there were no windows, there were several viewscreens scattered along the gunmetal grey walls to give the troops some idea of what was out there. Everyone, save Alexia, was strapped to their seats due to the absence of gravity.
Alexia was plastered in front of a viewscreen as the moonbase loomed ever larger on the display. The moon itself was a pale beige with craters both old and fresh carpeting its surface. Alexia heard Violet’s suit thrusters as she came up along her side to view the screen with her. “Anything new?”
Alexia zoomed in and scrutinized the facility. It was a series of domes that appeared to be entirely separated from each other. Most of the domes had been completely blown to pieces while others were damaged enough to be exposed to the vacuum of space. “Nothing yet. There is a weak artificial electromagnetic field in place.” Alexia sent a mental command via the headset wrapped around her horn to switch the screen’s feed. “Nothing that would interfere with the ship, but we’re keeping the teleporter active just in case we set off any dormant defense weapons.”
“Think we can teleport ourselves in?”
“I’m not willing to risk it,” Alexia replied evenly. “If the Herald was any indication, the Koridost didn’t know anything about magic. However magic is still just a form of energy, and the AI that Silent Witness was talking about may have some means of disrupting it. We’re going to find a quiet entry point and see if we can’t sneak our way in. Our goal is to find a way to the center.”
Alexia moved the camera to focus on the central facility. It was the only non-dome structure and resembled the Pentagon more than anything else. It was flat and squat, taking up a large surface area roughly three times the size of a city block. “That’s the source of the EM field, and has the most functional lights. Most of the side structures are dark.”
Violet had heard it all time and time again in the planning briefing, but she liked hearing it again to minimize the risk of foul ups. It was a trait Alexia had long since learned to work with.
Aurora called in from the cockpit. “Momma, we’ve found a possible entry point, we’re going in quiet as soon as we hit the EM field.”
The tension within the troop compartment jumped a little as the lights went out and the engines noisily spooled down. A number of soldiers took out photos of loved ones, prayer beads, or other personal icons to calm themselves and prepare for the worst. While none save for the alicorns were alive at the time of the Mion plague, the media had hyped the lethality and gruesomeness of it to such a profound degree that it permeated the entire world’s culture and imagination.
The next hour was spent in near darkness as the shuttle drifted silently towards the unknown. Alexia reclaimed her seat towards the front of the cabin. With little more than an Estimated Time to Arrival counter interposed on her vision Alexia was left to watch over the brooding soldiers. There were only a scant few engaging in small talk. Most were trying to distract themselves by rechecking their kit, weapons, or reading information on their personal heads up display.
Her eyes quickly fell on Slim Shady who, like most of the ponies present, was occasionally stealing glances at the alicorns. Alexia’s keen eyes spotted the ankh painted onto his suit’s left foreleg. Ah hell, with my luck he’ll be a zealot. Getting him to see me as more than some unapproachable demi-goddess will be a real pain in the ass.
Alexia took the time to meditate and practice molding her alicorn magic. The act was always difficult due to it not acting like any other form of magic. It permeated her body so thoroughly she often wondered if she actually was living magic in semi-mortal form. I’ve been shot enough times to know there’s more than just flesh and bone about me, but the Equestrian princesses are either purposely vague or have no idea.
Every time she pulled on it, it fell like she was using a piece of her physical being, rather than a reserve of power like normal magic. Living magic or not, a good steak always makes me feel better.
She didn’t get much of a chance to shape much of anything before a sudden deceleration pulled her attention back to the waking world. “We’re almost at the entry point,” Aurora’s voice called out over the PA. “Prepare your zero atmosphere kits.”
As one, everyone within the cabin double tapped a small holographic button on the side of their neck. Their helmet visors closed and sealed around their faces, leaving their features obscured. Everyone’s suit hissed and gave faint machine whirrs for a few brief moments before sending both the shuttle and Alexia the green light.
Once the onboard computer registered everyone had complied, the atmosphere in the cabin was quickly drained away before the large bay doors above opened up to expose them all to the alien system. The moon’s weak gravity gave everyone a sense of up and down, but it wasn’t strong enough to defeat their suit thrusters.
Alexia was the first to leap towards the exit. “Move it, marines!”
The troops quickly departed the shuttle with Alexia and Violet leading the charge. Aurora joined them a few moments later after leaving the pilots to tend to their ship.
The expeditionary party found themselves in one of the more intact domes. Alexia looked up at the gaping hole that the shuttle had passed through. The ground beneath her hooves was soft and loose. Light from the system’s star was harsh, but illuminated the three structures that the ship had landed near. They were intact, yet short, and arranged in an L formation with the center structure being somewhere between two and three stories tall. The material looked akin to plastic with shattered windows at regular intervals. No one missed the irregularly placed carbon scoring and telltale pockmarks of battle. The only thing missing are the bodies, Alexia brooded worryingly. “Violet, Aurora, take Bravo and Charlie teams to investigate the two side buildings, Alpha and I will go for the center.”
“Roger that.”
“On it.”
Thanks to the weak gravity and powered exosuits, everyone sprinted the distance without breaking a sweat. “Foehammer, send the scouting drones. We’ll let them go in first to check for traps or alarms,” Violet commanded after reaching the halfway mark.
A panel opened near the stern of the shuttle and released over two dozen small spherical drones. Speeding away on thrusters similar to the suits, the drones raced ahead of the marines and quickly started scanning the buildings inside and out. Most of the drones found their way inside the three buildings. The soldiers took up positions around the most obvious entry points, waiting for the drones to finish mapping the interiors.
Alexia watched the progress of her set of drones as the map of her building was compiling. Her heart thundered in her chest as each room on the HUD map was built piece by piece. Will they trip the AI, or some trap that alerts it by accident? Will the AI be hostile at all? At the very least it’ll see us as unknown intruders. Maybe it’s gone mad from isolation.
There were so many potential outcomes and possibilities, Alexia almost missed the notification from the drones that their task was complete and they were returning to the ship. “We’re all clear?” she asked aloud.
“Seems that way, ma’am,” the marine behind her stated with a modest level of disbelief.
“Right…” Alexia briefly thanked the fact she was still frightened a little, making her naturally more cautious. “In we go!”
Keeping her horn ready, Alexia charged through the broken door and into the first room. She swept her magical senses over everything, looking for any threats that the drones might have missed. Captain Koss filed in right behind her with her mana-rifle raised, ready, and began searching the left side while Alexia took the right. Slim Shady was next into the room with a heavy scanner suite hefted on his back while various close range sensors followed his gaze, looking for anything Alexia wouldn’t be able to detect.
The room’s floor looked like something akin to concrete with the walls and ceiling sporting only a scant few signs of weapons fire. To what she believed were desks, couches, and chairs were mostly broken and shoved away from the center of the room, blocking many doorways. Her attention went to those same doors last, and garnered an inquisitive hum out of her due to the complete lack of actual doors. There’s a thin discolored line in the center of the doorframes… maybe some kind of energy door? Seems wasteful of power.
Seeing the coast was clear for the moment, Alexia used her wings to signal the rest of the soldiers to spread out and check every door and window. The remaining four soldiers filed in with the last one staying outside to keep watch. Slim Shady studied the readouts constantly scrolling over his eyes, yet quickly lost the strained tension. “I’m not picking up anything other than background radiation, and no identifiable biological matter, viruses or otherwise.” A brief wave of relief passed through the marines, yet none of them were really expecting any biological threats in the vacuum of space.
“Nothing on my end either,” Alexia added, although she was reluctant to lower her guard. Too easy, but that’s exactly why we chose to land here. “Alright, start sweeping the building. Loot only important looking technology, once we clear the place out we can let the xenologists get a crack at everything else.”
Breaking into pairs, the troopers spread out to search the rest of the structure while Alexia continued to survey the trashed room. It didn’t take her long to follow the cleared path between the furniture to locate a large badly mangled bulkhead on the far end of the room. When nothing else drew her interest for very long, she cantered over to investigate. The strong looking bulkhead was completely slagged around the frame, creating more than enough room for a small car to drive through. Alexia was about to shine her light into the nearly pitch black passage beyond when Violet called over the radio on the three alicorns’ shared channel. “Momma, this place just looks like a storehouse. it’s full of some funky crates stacked from floor to ceiling. I have Sergeant Boulder trying to scan them, but so far the material is hampering his sensor suite.”
Alexia didn’t get a chance to think on it when Aurora called in a moment later. “I think we found ourselves in a workshop. There are small… I guess drone-like machines,” she said with obvious mild dissatisfaction.
“Any idea as to their function?” Alexia asked almost reflexively as she carefully probed the heavy door with her magic. Ruined or not, she wasn’t taking chances for any redundant defenses being in place.
“If I had to guess, I’d think they are farm equipment.” The disappointment in Violet’s tone matched that of her sister.
“Well that’s going to look great in the history books. The first close look we get at the space boogeymen that’ve haunted us for a hundred years is joe shmo’s turnip farm.”
Alexia found the bulkhead well and truly inert, thankfully, and started to cast her light down the passage. She stayed on her side of the bulkhead for the moment. “As I said before, we picked this LZ because it looked quiet, not interesting.” I swear, those girls, it’s almost as if eternal youth has put a terminal halt to their mental aging as well. Alexia rubbed a migraine that always picked moments like these to pop in and say hello before she banished it with a touch of alicorn magic.
The passage beyond the bulkhead was very short, yet had a large opening to the left with more signs of battle marring the walls and floor. Violet sighed quietly into the radio before speaking again. “I’ll see if any of these drones still have an active power supply, and get Silent Witness to link up to them.”
“And if we can’t scan the crates, I’ll bust a few of them open instead. If they contain food, we can glean some biological data on what the Koridost might be like,” Aurora added with rebounding interest
“Good thinking. Stay in touch.” Alexia cut the radio and crept forward to the bend in the passageway. Alexia gasped at what she saw beyond before grinning widely. “Now this is more like it.”
The path angled underground towards what she assumed was a basement, yet it was the thin glowing membrane right at the next bend in the ramp that focused her attention. The membrane cast the only light within the dark expanse beyond. “Alpha team, have you found anything?” she called over the radio.
“Nothing ma’am,” Captain Koss responded quickly. “At least nothing that can’t wait for the lab coats.” The rest of alpha squad gave similar answers.
“Alright then. I need everyone to report to my location, I’ve found some active tech.”
Slim Shady knew that was his cue and abandoned his search far quicker than anyone else. Despite being on the top floor, Shady was the first to reach Alexia, ever thankful of his suit for hiding his panting breath. “Specialist Slim Shady reporting, Demi-goddess!” he managed to say without sounding winded.
Alexia gave him a curt nod before seeing Koss leaving the stairs along with the rest of the squad. “Good, start scanning the barrier here,” she jabbed behind her at the membrane. “I want to know what it is and what’s behind it.”
“Roger!” Slim replied with pride and immediately ordered his suit’s sensors to go to work while Koss approached Alexia with her heavy rifle resting on her shoulder.
“What do you think it is, Princess?” Koss inquired while giving the membrane a critical and suspicious eye.
“Looks like an energy barrier, feels similar to the ones that Gunsight’s militia used back in ‘14.”
Koss sucked on her teeth at the memory. “I remember those. Nasty business that.”
As Shady took his readings, the rest of Alpha squad lined up along the walls. Thanks to the touch sensors on their gloves, the walls and floor felt eerie to them, being too slick and yet sticky when rubbing them too quickly. Most chose to try and ignore it while keeping watch.
Slim Shady was finally getting some appreciable information from his suit when Violet and Aurora arrived with their squads. With Koss present, he refrained from addressing Alexia by what he felt was her true title. “Ma’am, it looks like this barrier is only designed to keep the atmosphere on the other side from escaping. We should be able to pass through it without much difficulty, let alone harm.”
“Are you saying there’s atmosphere back there?” Koss half demanded in disbelief.
Slim pulled his probe arms back into his suit and turned out. “Yes, ma’am. 70% nitrogen, with only 9% oxygen, and several other gasses that wouldn’t look out of place on Earth… if you’re walking through a burnt out building at least. I’d say it’d normally be breathable,” he added with a disapproving scoff, “but I don’t recommend it without a filter for the ash and soot. I’m guessing the Oh two is low because the air system was probably knocked out in the attack.”
Alexia relayed the conversation to her daughters as they cantered over to join her. “That might explain why the Koridost were interested in Earth. No need to spend the effort in terraforming a ripe and ready planet.”
“I guess the plague was less effort than terraforming,” Koss stated bittery. “What’s your call, Princess?”
Alexia briefly glanced at her daughters, sensing excitement and trepidation in equal measure, before returning to Slim Shady. “Is the membrane attached to an alarm?”
“None I can see,” he replied after cycling through the data. “Seems to run on an independent power supply. Makes sense if this was an emergency device. No idea how long it’ll last without knowing the actual power plant or batteries' specs though.”
“Alright,” Alexia stated on the primary platoon channel. “We’re going in. Charlie squad, stay here to keep watch over the entry point and the shuttle, the rest of you follow me.”
Aurora hoped her mother didn’t mean to leave her behind with her squad, and followed after her sister.
Passing through the membrane was like walking through taffy. The energy seemed to cling very tightly to every nook and cranny of their armor as if every atom of atmosphere was to be preserved. The membrane was especially annoying on the ponies’ wings, doubly so for the alicorns, given how large they were. Aurora was happy to see Alexia made no reaction to seeing she was still present, and pushed through to join her mother.
The passage beyond was revealed by horn and flashlights as it sloped downward a short distance before turning to the left.
The party explored carefully, fearful that Koridost technology had ways of going undetected. The memories of The Herald and it’s plague ran circles within Alexia’s mind. The calculated slaughter, the ease that the alien AI industrialized speciocide, and how it manipulated so many ponies against humanity was something that refused to be ignored by her mind’s eye. And that was just with what human tech he could find, this AI has an admittedly broken facility, but there’s gotta be some defense systems online if it’s still active.
Her mounting fears allowed her subconscious to twist the shadows of the team behind her into specters. Keep it together, ‘ol girl, it’s not like we’re walking into a tomb of the greatest war criminals the Earth has ever known or anything. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Alexia kept pressing forward as the spiraling ramp led them down down several meters. She finally got her fear under control by the time the group saw lights coming up from below. Alexia raised her left wing up in a halting gesture, making everyone freeze and shut off their lights.
The marines’ training kicked in, and the group went radio silent. They crept after Alexia as she silently made her way forward.
Aurora and Violet were quick to flank their mother as she continued down the steadily brightening path. The dim lights moved at regular intervals, making the shadows play against everyone’s nerves. The last curve in the ramp revealed a straight run into a chamber roughly the size of a large metro station.
The marshalling area had several overturned cargo crates blanketing the chamber with various oscillating red lights scattered between the broken majority. Yet the most striking thing that stole the mares’ breath were the bodies. Spread as if they were fleeing to the now defunct monorail at the back of the chamber, nearly a hundred figures were crowded so tightly around the train that they were piled on top of each other three high. The emergency lighting only served to highlight the carnage.
A faint sense of relief twirled around the collective trepidation. So long as the troops were in their environment suits, the dead were no threat. So long as they don’t become space zombies, Aurora tried to joke.
If Alexia had any desire to test the air, the expected reek of death dissuaded her completely. Taking it slow, she led the team closer to the scene of carnage. Pockmarks and carbon scoring practically carpeted the whole area with the last few meters on the walls of the spiral ramp completely stained black.
Violet spotted several bodies were on their backs, fallen as if they had been facing the ramp. Yet what really set her fur on end was the complete lack of clothing, armor, tools, or weapons. The bodies themselves looked mummified, shriveled and pale. In addition, the corpses that were not piled by the monorail were folded up in what Violet assumed was a sleeping or meditative posture. “Whatever killed them, must have hit hard and fast.”
Aurora scowled at the throng of naked bodies towards the back. “Why would they strip everyone and then fold up only some of them?” Since the warning lights were not enough, she recast her horn light, prompting everyone else to do the same.
Captain Koss carefully approached the nearest and most intact body, a prospect made difficult given how mutilated the alleged defender was. The creature was covered in pale green skin with four arms that ended in eight thick fingered hands which possessed long digits. Koss’ already dismal mood soured even further when she noticed the fingers were long enough to easily wrap around her neck with room to spare. We’re better off with them dead.
The alien had two claw tipped legs with a heavy tail that looked sturdy enough to lean back on comfortably. The head had a snout roughly half as long as a mare, and after pulling back the taut lips, Koss discovered the flat teeth of a herbivore. “You think these things are the Koridost? Don’t seem as tough as ‘When the Terror Returns’ made it out to be.”
With no apparent threat, the marines filtered throughout the chamber looking for items of interest, with most of them pointedly ignoring the bodies. Aurora found what looked like a display panel on the wall near the train tunnel’s left exit. She tried scanning and tapping it, but the panel remained dead and unresponsive. “Could be a slave race. Maybe the Mions 1.0?”
Corporal Bukov, shouldered his heavy laser repeater, a weapon normally wielded by two men, and tried to find a way to the monorail without having to climb over the dead. The rest of the marines checked the room, and poked at anything of interest. “I think we should respect the dead and do not linger long. It could be sacrilege to even be here.”
“I think they owe us for virus bombing our planet,” Slim Shady replied tersely.
Bukov switched to a private channel after Koss glared at him, impressive given the helmet hiding her face.
On the far back end of the monorail, Bukov found some oddly glass-less windows nearly the size of his chest. He leaned a hand on the side and leaned forward to peek inside. “You ponies have it easy, da? A goddess who sets no rules outside of secular laws. You stomp in places better left to rest.” Any retort Slim had lined up died in his throat when five musical notes resounded throughout the chamber, causing everyone to ready their weapons and rapidly search for targets.
Two bright motes of light appeared at the center of the chamber, drawing everyone’s weapon to them. Within moments, the light coalesced into an approximation of Aurora’s anthropomorphic form complete with her exosuit.
The activity focused every weapon and horn directly at the hologram, with several marines firing several shots. The spells and solid bullets passed through the holographic Aurora with only brief destabilization from some of the spells. When the hologram made no reaction to nether the attack, nor any of the terrans’ presence, Alexia flared her wings while shouting for everyone to hold fire.
Oblivious to everything around it, the hologram started speaking in an alien tongue while staring straight ahead towards the ramp. The language was a series of clicks and guttural words that no human or pony could hope to replicate.
Violet eased the tension in her bones a bit and ribbed her sister with a wing. “Looks like even the aliens know your singing voice is garbage.”
I think I should have been more adamant about peaceful first contact training, but too late for that now. Alexia missed Aurora’s reply as she focused on Koss. “We must have triggered something, keep an eye out from something more threatening if the computer sees us as intruders.”
Nodding in response, Koss started giving orders while Alexia adjusted her radio. “Silent Witness, This is Princess Alexia Tune.”
There was a brief pause. “Logging you in, Princess.”
“Any changes in the moonbase’s AI?” she asked while keeping an eye on the hologram of her daughter.
“...Confirmed. There was a small spike in power in your general location. Energy readings from the believed command structure is rising steadily. The likelihood of the AI taking notice of you is near absolute certainty.”
“Gear up people,” she yelled aloud, “We might have company sooner than we hoped.” She switched back to Silent Witness. “Tell Foehammer to send the mapping drones, I don’t trust that railcar.”
“As you order, Princess.”
With little to do but worry and wait, Alexia tried to ignore the large pile of bodies and flew over to land on top of the monorail. With Aurora trying to find any kind of wall mounted console, Violet joined her mother on the roof the train. “Something up?”
Alexia noticed the monorail’s track ran along the ceiling, but didn’t have any obvious connection to the train itself. Could be magnetic or some other fancy hover tech. “I don’t trust this AI to keep watching us passively. Since we need to use this tunnel to get to the command center, I don’t want it using this car to kill us.”
Violet gave her mother a flat look, not that Alexia noticed as she went about looking for how the monorail attached to the rail. “As much of a good idea as that sounds, I highly doubt this is the only train car this place has,” she added with thick sarcasm.
Alexia paused in her search just long enough for Violet to register her mother’s embarrassment. She covered it up quickly and resumed her search. “Well then there will be one less train it can throw at us.
Besides, it’s giving me something to do until the mapping drones chart the tunnel.”
Not exactly sure how to respond to that, Violet simply kept her mouth shut and looked into the cylindrical tunnel bathed in shadow. The edges of the walls had faint cracks running along the edges only visible thanks to her suit’s sensors. “I hope the tunnels are sound.”
Alexia hummed in agreement as she struggled to find her well concealed target. “If I wasn’t worried the AI might have some tech to disrupt the teleport mid-cast I would just have us port straight there.” She waved a hoof at the hologram still spouting alien gibberish. “It’s got to know we’re here by now.”
With the hologram active, Violet could tell there was no mana involved in it’s formation. Hardly surprising. The documentaries of the war always said the Herald and Mions knew nothing of magic before arriving at Earth. ...Wait a minute.
Violet almost slapped herself at the realization. “If the Koridost, and the AI, know nothing of magic, then we can test it by building up a large amount of mana!”
Alexia halted her search, only just noticing the drones flying into the station and through both ends of the tunnel. “To see if the AI reacts?”
“Exactly,” Violet half cheered. “The whole reason we landed so far away was to avoid attention. Since it probably already knows we’re here thanks to blundering into the hologram, it’s worth trying.”
Before either of them could announce the plan to the rest of the platoon, the hologram briefly fizzled to static before looking around the room and squealing with a tone of intense relief. “Meat-sacks? Here at long last!? Oh what- yiiee!”
Fully expecting an attack, several marines fired several snap shots at the now reactive hologram, although all but one of them were wise enough to try firing at the walls where the projectors were located.
Alexia was perplexed by the hologram waving at everyone to stop shooting it’s projectors. “Peace, organic mmmm -zzz- meat sacks, I only ask for ppppEEEeeeace!” it yelled with it’s voice malfunctioning with each hit.
Every destroyed one either forced the holographic Aurora to shift to a different part of the room, shrink or temporarily become a mass of static. The hologram shrunk down to human size and was near the monorail when she gave the order. “Hold your fire, marines!”
The hologram fell on its rump when the firing stopped, but it’s relief was short lived when Alexia and the real Aurora flew over to it. The AI looked to Aurora, assuming she was the leader, and fizzled for a moment and reformed into a bowing stance with its arms out placatingly. “Please, organics, I only wish for some company. No neeEeedd to destroy my aaa-aa-vatar.”
Koss used hand gestures to keep the marines spread out and alert while Violet joined her family by the hologram. “How are you speaking our language?” Alexia asked in what she hoped the AI would perceive as a calming tone.
It seemed to work, while the AI didn’t alter its stance, its tone of voice was less jittery. However there was a thread of confusion by the pony speaking before the hybrid. “That would be the Felt’naught translator, organic. It’d be rather di -di- difficULt to run a nation of a thousand worlds without one.” It didn’t need to look up to see the terrans’ faces, but felt it was worth the risk to look up regardless. “Might I - I inquire as to who you are? Your species isn’t on my aaaaadmittedly admittedly admittedly admittedly limited database.”
What the hell is wrong with it’s voice? Did we jack it up too much with the gunfire? Aurora grumbled that the AI was still using her image. “Those of us on four legs are ponies, and the others are humans, but collectively we call ourselves Terrans.”
The AI started to give more reverence towards Aurora, and briefly prostrated itself towards her in particular. “Well then, I wa-wa-welcome you TerrrrrrrAans to…” It hesitated a moment before speaking. “If I’m judging yourrrrr language correctly I don’t think you can pronounce the station’s reeeeeeeaaaaallll name. So why don’t we just call it… Sugar Station? That sounds good better best, right? Organics loves-craves-demands sugars.”
We never heard the actual name first, Violet brooded with an unamused snort.
I don’t think that was a general consensus, Aurora thought darkly as she gazed back upon the pile of corpses in the corner of her eye.
“What is your purpose…?” Alexia inquired with carefully neutral diplomacy. Universal translator or not, there was no telling what would insult the monitor.
The silent request for a name didn’t translate, but the AI brightened at the question. “So few ever ask about my purpose, eeeeven in Sugaaaaar’s pri-pri-priiime. I am a Monitor. I tend to the day-to-day day-to-day day-to-day day-to-day operations of Sugar and make sure the mining efforts run smoothly. I don’t really pay attention to what happens beyond my little slice of the universe.”
Aurora thanked her long years of life giving her the patience to keep talking. “What did the Koridost do here? Do or… did they make biological weapons and pack them into asteroids here?”
The monitor stared at Aurora for an instant longer than was comfortable for anyone before averting its gaze. “I - I wouldn’t rightly know it is classified to slippery sloshy meat.” The monitor tried to discover the Terran’s body language, but sadly that was not part of the translator. “You have have to forgive me, please forgive meTerrans, I looked after the farming and mining caaaastes. Anything the creators -masters- -perfection of flesh- did here was under Bell C-C-Chime’s purvieeeeew, but she never visits anymore, not since…” The hologram made a show of looking around at the devastation and loss of life. “The Crusade passed through. All burned alive!”
Alexia was a bit surprised to detect such fear in the monitor’s broken voice. Either it… she? Is genuine, gone insane, or we’re getting played. Could be all the above. She tried her damnedest to keep the malfunctioning voice from causing a shiver to run down her spine. “Monitor, can you take us to the station’s command center?” I better not mention we were actually attacked by the Herald. “Our people came across a derelict biological weapon buried inside an asteroid which we tracked back here. We want information, I’d prefer to be diplomatic with you on that.”
“Ooooh myyyy, I’ve heard some sooommmee of the -slaves- servants and traaAAaders talk of such weapons.” The monitor made a series of chittering clicks which came across as bug-like to the listening Terrans. Much of the static in its voice faded along with the errors. “I’d say I’m glad to be a cogitator entity, but there are some dreadful diseases for us too. I would be happy to show you what I can, but I have to ask for something in return.”
“You already have something in mind?” Violet inquired with more surprise in the voice correction than the request, already guessing what the monitor wanted.
The monitor fidgeted with it’s wings, much to Aurora’s continued irritation. “The creators have been gone for too long, if you decide to pursue them, I wish to go with you.”
Koss looked to Alexia who was thankful the helmet shielded her worried face. That’s going to be a problem.
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Did you change the name of this story? I don't remember it being called The Stars. Just curious
6383483
My editors have slowly prodded me into expanding the story so much that calling it a short story doesn't fit anymore.
6383518 Makes sense. Kind of what I thought might have been the reason.
Well, that AI's voice is nightmare fuel even in text. Also the things in small typing... yeah
6383695
Eagerly awaiting more here.
Twitchy finger there eh?
I can't get over his name... Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?
This caught my eye. If Earth gets into a full-scale war, well, they are fucked. Better tech, more resources, and a mastery of FTL travel it seems. Their only hope is some type of massive magical defense, because offence seems hopeless against such odds. Maybe a giant invisibility spell powered by the sun?
Anyways, I enjoyed this chapter, and I am looking forward to the next installment!
... A mad machine with an intense need to have company to give it purpose once more. A monitor that probably has been reporting to its creators for an incredibly long time, yet received no orders or contacts or even new entities to enable it to serve its purpose. Shove it into a flash drive and don't plug it into anything, and technically you will be keeping your end of the deal.
As always, I'm so glad to see this continue. Though I've no idea where you are taking this story, it doesn't seem like this will wrap up nicely anytime soon, but just keeps expanding into something fascinating. I'm pretty sure the AI is lying about some things, just trying to get more information, but that it's also a small fry as well. Not like Herald was.
I can never remember if Glamdring or Orcrist was the Foehammer...but I caught that reference.
I feel really bad for that AI.
Used and discarded by monsters that didn't even care enough about her to metaphorically slit her throat once done, but just left her with the corpses once her purpose was done and left to rot among the other corpses.
So broken and maimed she haven't been able to do anything but lay, watch and wait for millenia.
Still, I do hope mercy is tempered with caution. Even if she had a metaphorical shotgun to her head it does sound like she had some 'hand' in creating The Herald. Even if she's as bent and broken as she sounds, there might be both some vital info and nasty traps left in her data-banks.
Still, I'm willing to bet that 'thousand world empire' she talked about got run over —at least partially, by the Koridost. That barely industrial society on the planet what little survived of the original culture once their strain of 'Mion' had run its course and done that culture erasure thing we saw glimpses of in the last story.
6384722 The one thing I wonder, is if this used to be someone. Given the nature of what we have seen of the type. Wasting a mind seems something they wouldn't do if they had a better place to use it. And with the right 'programming' you have a perfectly 'sane' AI by most standards that you can ensure is bound to your will, instead of having to make it from scratch, just some executive editing.
The one may be Stark Raving Sane, in a bit of twist.
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Keep in mind, the Koridost seems to be mono-cultured religious fanatics that consider technology a useful tool, but not even nearly as important as mastery over flesh.
That one town we saw dismantled in the last story, for example. The Mions spent a lot of time and energy on unmaking it, despite a war going on.
My personal bet is that Sugar has/had some type of three laws analogue that forced her to listen to infected aliens enough to be forced into making Spheres, only to be scuttled when she ran out of materials. The dismantling job so half-backed due to the space thing, otherwise she'd been just as erased bolt by bolt as that town I mentioned.
It looks like you're upgrading into a full story with this. It may be advisable to republish the as CTH3 and publish the earlier chapters as their own thing set between 2 and 3. That might be best saved until you have a good idea of what this story is going to be and where it will end, though.
6383518 Yes, us editor-types do that.
6385552 I could just end up renaming those early chapters as a prologue instead of making it a whole different book.
No.
Also, update faster D:
For whatever reason, I read the AI's voice in that of 343 Guilty Spark's voice. The creepiness of the situation, my guard, and the wrongness of the situation jumped dramatically because of it.
Finally caught up on this one!
Well all kinds of Halo vibes here.
This AI certainly checks the whole list of bad things... And this Bell Chime? Guilty Spark and a Cortana?
Can't tell if its Crazy, Evil, Evil Crazy, or just plain broken and lonely...
I get the feeling an AI was running on auto, scrubbing worlds for masters that aren't alive to collect anymore.
This Sugar Station seems to be a trade hub, which may have been the reason it got glassed... VERY unsatisfied customers.
Not sure about the shipyard, perhaps they realized they were in BIG trouble and were consolidating in a fallback position?
Perhaps the Herald was not even a proper representative of the Koridost...
OR the Koridost simply scavenged the tech first and made bold empty claims...
And where IS Miss Bell Chime?
6383695 Pff, only 120,000 words? Casual.
Aaaand I'm finally caught up after two days of binge reading from the start to now. I've got to say, you've got quite the knack for storytelling.
Alright, really nice story so far.
When is next chapter coming?
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Soon™
Quick and satisfying respone :)
I saw what you bucking did there
PLEASE STAND UP!
6388300 Too much 343 GS vibes here man,I got my MA5D next to me...