My head panned from side to side as I ducked under a fallen tree, moving towards my sniper nest.
“This is BLUE 1–2, I’m in position now. Over.” I spoke into my helmet mic.
“BLUE 1-2, this is BLUE 1-1, copy.” A voice spoke in my helmet, “We need over-watch in grid L-3. Over.”
“BLUE 1-1, copy that.” I said back.
I laid prone on the ground and retrieved my M-99 sniper rifle from my back and set up.
“This is BLUE 1-2, ready for contact.” I said as my HUD made the land in front of me jump forward. A small circle showed where my round would fall.
“BLUE 1-2, take out their commander.”
“Copy 1-1, firing…” My scopes ridicule scanned the enemy, my AI tagged one person in particular. Five miles away, behind a foot of instacrete, stood Commander Jake L. Mendoza. “Now.”
I felt the M-99 bite into my shoulder as the dust around me kicked up with a deafening bang as the rifle sent a hyper velocity round screaming down towards its target.
Jake's armor took control as the round impacted the wall. It attempted to dodge the round and save its wearer, but the round auto corrected for that and curved to meet just on his shoulder, turning the appendage into a cloud of red. Just as his body hit the ground I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I was violently rolled over to see a HLF commando standing over me, holding a wicked twelve-inch combat knife. The commando raised his blade a sent it down towards my visor. I used my M-99 to bat the combat knife aside, then slammed it into the commandos head sending him sprawling to the ground. I jumped to my feet as he jumped at me. He slammed into my chest and I rolled with the force. He landed on top of me. I pulled my knife out of its sheath on my left padron and plunged it towards his faceplate. Just before impact, he grabbed my wrist. I, in return, slammed my helmet into his, disorientating him. I ripped my wrist out of his grip and slammed the knife down to the grip into his visor.
I felt something slam into my side, throwing me to the ground. I looked to see another HLF commando fade into my vision as his camo-system deactivated, a shotgun cradled in his hands pointing at my head.
The world slowed down as he pulled the trigger, there was a flash.
“This is the CIC, all hands prepare for transit. Repeat: all hands prepare of wormhole transit.” A voice boomed over the SHIP-COM.
My eyes snapped open as a Plexiglas covering came off my pod.
I groaned and rubbed my temples as my head throbbed. A hand invaded my field of vision and I grabbed it as it pulled me out of my pod.
“ Headache?” A voice asked me.
“Ya.” I said back.
I looked around as the person walked away. I was in the ‘War Room’ of the UEG Destroyer ‘Damascus’. The ‘War Room’ was a system of ‘Hyper-real’ training simulation pods that allowed the soldiers and pilots of warships like the ‘Damascus’ to train without using up resources or having the risk of injuring one another. It works by feeding the brain false input making everything you see, feel, hear, or taste in the simulation ‘real’ to your mind.
“This is the CIC, all hands report to stations. Wormhole transit in ten minutes.”
Our CO made her voice known, “Alright you heard the man, report the barracks and get suited up!”
The ship's complement of three hundred warriors was currently seated in the ships barracks, waiting for the ship to arrive at its, to us, unknown destination. There were rumors running amuck around the ship of its intended destination, but as of yet the captain has not spoken of the subject. Most assembled here were busy with various things; cleaning weapons and armor, reading, training their bodies, and other things.
I was currently watching two marines spar, their movements much too fast for a un-augmented human to track. The two were taking and giving punches that would kill a normal human in a single hit. A punch stopped mid-swing as the captain came over SHIP-COM.
“This is the Captain, hold fast for return to normal-space”
I closed my eyes as I felt the nauseating feeling of the move to normal space.
“ Transit compleat, ships company, report to the war room.”
“Alright, move out.” Our Commander called out as she walked towards the door.
I was about to get up as a message appeared in my HI.
'Report to the hangar Corporal'.-CMDR Jane S.
I looked to her place near the door and she nodded at me.
I looked out of the hangar of the ‘Damascus’ looking out at something I thought I would never see.
The cradle, our home world.
Terra, Sol.
It truly was a sight to see, the planet was awe inspiring. With its many launch arks, orbital elevators, the orbital ring. The entirety of its surface covered in cityscape.
The most amazing thing about the homeworld was its defenses.
Hundreds of warships laid in wait for anything foolish enough to come. Dreadnoughts maxing out at fifty kilometers long, hid behind clouds of multi-kilometer Destroyers and Cruisers. dozens of Frigates traveling in packs of hundreds. Trillions of automated drones lay in wait for the order to attack.
A hand on my shoulder brought me out of my daze.
“ Amazing, isn't it?” A voice asked.
“ Indescribable” I answered. Turning to face whoever had asked the question, when I saw who had my legs almost failed me.
Behind me, flanked on each side by two massive Praetorian Guards, was the most powerful human alive.
“Chairman Prescott.” I said, giving the most respectful salute a could manage. This man was the De-facto leader of the UEG, a man with unimaginable power and control. This man could make entire worlds vanish without a trace if he wanted too. Not to mention that the two Praetorian Guards could rip me in half like wet tissue paper, with-or-without armor. The Chairman had a power about him that demanded respect. His words carried such a weight that would break a lesser mans jaw. This man had made humanity what it is today.
“At ease, Corporal. I have a very important job for you.”
UEG - United Human Governments, established in 3245, Population 2.5 trillion living on 10,000 worlds and numerous installations
Firearms - Most standard military firearms are 'rail-gun' type projectile weapons. There are three classes.
Small arms - Small arms are weapons like pistols, and submachine guns.
Medium arms - Medium arms are weapons like Battle rifles, assault rifles, light machine guns, Sniper rifles.
Heavy arms - Heavy arms are weapons like most Man portable explosives.
There are some DEW in main line service like Ion beams, plasma, and lasers.
Government - The UEG is a form of Representative democracy. (In order of hierarchy)
World- each world elects a representative for themselves.
System - Out of each planetary system, a system wide representative is chosen.
Sectors - In each cluster of planetary systems, a system wide representative.
The Sector representatives are elected into the UEG council, who vote on anything that affects humanity as a whole.
Chairman - out of the Sector representatives a Chairman is chosen. The Chairman has the power to declare war, move the fleet, and direct and control colonization and human expansion. The current Chairman is Richard Prescott.
The Assembly - Humanities AI's gained Rights in 2046, they created the Assembly in response to the UN. It is made up of two 'parties' the Minority and the Majority. They both work for the betterment of humanity as a whole.
Military - The UEG military is made up of three branches.
Navy - The UEG Navy is the space borne forces, ships number in the high millions.
Ground Forces - The UEGs ground forces, Numbers of active duty forces are in the high Billions
Special Forces - The UEGs special forces are made up of various groups. Noted are the Praetorian Guards.
All UEG forces are augmented physically and mentally. Normal Augs are grafting onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable, Protein complex is injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactate recovery time, human growth hormone catalyst is implanted to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues, a nervous system Aug that gives a 300% increase in subject reflexes.
Praetorian Guards - A group of Hyper-Augmented veterans, numbers are in the tens-of-thousands. Things like reaction times are impossible to chart and have been theorized to be instantaneous. The only documented use of Praetorian Guards in battle was in the occupation of Decon IV, in which two Praetorian Guards effectively eliminated a colony of HLF members(2 million est.) with the use of captured weapons. Due to the Hyper-Augs the are around nine to ten feet tall, and weigh around six-hundred pounds without armor.
HLF- Human Liberation Front, the largest rebel group in human controlled space.
Tech - The UEG is home to many aspects of advanced technology.
FTL - Faster-Than-Light, FTL was made possible by the use of Worm Holes, Using aspects of M and string theory, the Wormhole drive (Called a 'Drive') as created in 2259. The main drawback is the power needed to use the drive. This was circumvented using "Star Skimmers', which use drones to form a Dyson swarm around a local star to collect its energy, which is in turn used to power a Drive.
Astroengineering - The UEG is fully capable of the creation of ringworlds, Dyson spheres, and even things like entire planets and stars.
Nano-Forge - the Nano - Forge (N-F) is a biological implant that is 'installed' after childbirth, it provides things like communication, a computer and rudimentary AI, and the ability to flash forge a suit of 'Under-Armor' this armor is Ill-suited for combat but it will protect the wearer from extremes of temperature and the vacuum of space. The forge can also produce small arms and simple bladed weapons for military personnel, although all forges will protect the wearer of ne-be.
HI - Human Interface, the HI is a small chip that is injected into the spinal column that allows the user to interface with technology without the use of holograms or other types of displays. To anyone but the user it looks like they are making odd hand gestures. Based on the H+ system developed in 2025.
First Contact - first contact is the hypothetical contact between humans and another sentient race, the closest humans have come too this is the discovery of Fallmore V, a planet that showed signs of an intelligent race that killed itself in a nuclear war. The 'Contract' was made after this event.
The Contract - the code that if ordered, would entail the complete subjection of an intelligent race if they were to be a danger to themselves. Humanity would place the race under a type of Martial law until the are taken care of. The Contract entails the use of violence if necessary.
Pods - Pods are anything that use the HI to make a 'world'. The pods make a Hyper-real simulation that is almost indistinguishable to the real world. The system is only limited to the power of the computer that it is operating on. Pods are used for things like training in militaries, or entertainment. Everything from pain to pleasure feels real to the user, you can 'die' in the simulation but your actual body just 'wakes up'.
/Terra, Sol -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
I was currently looking out of one of the many 'windows' of the Corvette "Icarus". The 'window' was actually a holographic display that showed the space outside using the ships cameras. The "Icarus" was a small but lavish ship, at a length of just over five hundred meters. I watched as we climbed through the upper atmosphere of the home world, we had just picked up someone by the name of Dr. James Keyes, the man was to my knowledge one of the greatest minds of the last thousand years. To pull him away from his work here, whatever we're doing must be important. But as far as I know my job is provide protection to the assembled personnel. I could hear someone approaching as a voice made itself known.
"Have you ever been to Terra, Corporal?" I heard James say, a hint of animosity in his voice.
"No, this is my first time here" I said back.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"It's .... amazing." I said, 'The hell is this guys problem' I thought to myself. "What about you? I mean you lived here for years."
He looked almost surprised that I asked, "It's humbling"
I raised an eyebrow, "Humbling?"
He looked towards the ground below arms spread wide, "Whatever other life may be, all the humans in the all the universe came from here. Look at how vulnerable the repository of all our potential once was, how perilous our infancy, how humble our beginnings. I wonder how many rivers we had to cross before we found our way. We could have easily blown ourselves up, just like the race on Fallmore V. We could have killed ourselves with pollution. There were so many ways all of this could have came tumbling down on us, and yet, here we are."
I looked out as well, "Big things have small beginnings." I said with a small chuckle.
He gave me a odd look, "True. I have to go see the Chairman, We'll be working together for a while Corporal. So-" He held out a hand.
I gripped his hand and shook it , "See you around Doctor."
I looked towards Sol's worm station, the twirling maw of the portal about to consume the ship.
'Time to get some sleep' I thought to myself as I headed towards my small room.
I walked towards the ships conference room the doors sliding into the walls as I neared, at the other end of the large room was the Chairman and his two....guards. He appeared to be caught up in his HI so I took a seat and waited for him to acknowledge that I had entered the room.
He turned around after a couple of minutes and spoke up, "Ah Doctor, It's good you're here."
I gave a nod, "Chairman Prescott. What do you need so bad that you tore me away from my work?" Crossing by arms to make sure he knew I was not pleased.
He gave a smile, "Now now Doctor, no need to get testy. I think you'll enjoy this much more than your prior.... projects."
I narrowed my eyes at the Chaiman, "Just what am I going to be doing Chairman? I distain being in the dark."
He made no sign of caring, "Well Doctor you'll have to put up with it for a little longer, but I'll give you a candle so you can see a little better." He said with a flick of his hand in my direction.
A small window appeared on my HI called, "Project Prometheus?" I asked him.
He gave a small smile, "Are you familiar with the tale of Prometheus Doctor?"
"I have no time for dead gods Chairman, my work is much too important." I said back.
"Well you had better read up Doctor, but for the sake of this conversation I'll give you the short version. Prometheus was a titan, he gave the gift of fire to man; stealing it from the gods. For this he was chained to a rock and a bird ate his liver day after day. All because he have us fire, gave us life."
"I fail to see the point Chairman." I said.
"Look at what we can do Doctor. We can create planets, We can create stars, fire in its most primal form." He made his way to the door. "We are the gods now Doctor, gods without a flock." He gave a passing look over his shoulder. "I aim to change that."
The door closed behind him. Leaving me to my thoughts.
"This is the Captain, wormhole transit complete." The voice of of the Captain said over SHIP-COM as I came out of my room.
We have been in transit for almost twenty-four hours, meaning that we must have traveled a incredible distance. I headed towards the ships conference room to receive my orders for today.
As I need the doors Dr. James appeared at my side.
"John." He said with a nod.
"James." I nodded back, "You get any sleep?"
He shook his head, "No, the 'Chairman' had me working on something."
"Care to tell me what it is?" I asked.
"Sorry John, can't say. But I think you'll find out soon enough."
The way he said 'Chairman' gave me the feeling that the two of them did not get along, "You got a problem with the Chairman?"
He stopped for a second before continuing on,"I have the utmost respect for the man, he is doing his best to hold the UEG together. Without him the UEG would have broken long ago. I just find it insufferable that he pulls me away from my work on Terra and then has the audacity to not even tell me what's going on."
"I thought you said he gave you a job last night?" I said.
We stopped at the door to the conference room, "I'm in the dark as much as you are John." With that we walked through the door.
The conference room was not any different from the last time, except for the fact that the table had a hologram of a garden world hovering a foot off of it.
"Ah, Corporal, Doctor." He nodded at us both."I'm glad you two arrived in time."
"Chairman, Sir" I said with a salute.
"Prescott." The Doctor said.
"I cut to the chase gentlemen, this" He gestured to the planet," is why we are here."
The Doctor looked none too pleased, "A garden world? You pulled me away for a simple garden world?"
"Not just a garden world Doctor, as you can see there is life here doctor. That much is easy to see, the reason you are here is this." The planet changed to show a small cone shaped metal object, with what looked like what used to be a large dish on the side.
"A probe?" I asked.
"Yes, but it is not ours," The Doctor looked closer."is it Chairman?"
"We found it crashed on one of the moons of the systems outermost gas giant. The small glyphs you can see on it are not of any Human language system, and it was emitting this radio signal." What sounded like a series of chirps and hisses came over the speakers. "This is what we believe to be a spoken version of the language that is inscribed in the probe. Our best estimates puts the impact sight at around a hundred years, as for the probe, we don't know."
"Do we know where it came from?" The Doctor asked.
"No, not yet anyway. But the most obvious place to start it here. Corporal, I want you to go down there and look for any signs of civilization." The Chairman said.
"Why him?Why not send a scientist? " The Doctor said.
"Two reasons doctor, One: I need YOU here analyzing the probe. Two: Whatever , if anything, is down there may not be friendly; and I would rather not lose someone of your importance. No offense Corporal."
"None taken sir."
The image of the garden world appeared again, this time a dot appeared on the world located in the middle of what appeared to be a mountain range. "You'll be landing here, hot drop. You'll recon the surrounding areas and make sure it safe for the scientists to land, understand?"
I gave a salute, "Sir yes sir."
"Good, get to the "Atlas" and get suited up." The Chairman waved me out.
I walked into the ship's armory. I spied my armor laying on a table.
I turned to the requisitions officer, "Hey can you give me a hand?"
She looked at me with a smile and nodded.
I commanded my N-F to forge my undersuit, I felt the forge heat up and the small panels on the forge lines along my arms, legs, and spine opened up. Bands of overlapping metal plates spread themselves over my body until I was covered head to toe in the under armor. Then the connection points from my Battle suit formed themselves.
I turned around as she lifted the 'backpack' portion of my armor on. The was a slight jab of pain as the system interfaced with my N-F. I watched as the synthetic muscle weaved its way down my arms and legs like dozens of snakes finally stopping at my wrists. Then she lifted the best plate onto me and locked it into place. Then I extended my arms so the armors other components could extend themselves, namely the arm and leg portions.
Now that I was armored up I grabbed my two weapons I was going to take. A standard AR-548 assault rifle, and a MOR-94 sidearm. With that I headed to my drop pod.
I climbed into one of the many drop pods spaced around the room, putting my weapons in their respective racks.
I took my place in my pod and the hatch closed. A small window appeared on my HI showing a ten second countdown.
Ten
Nine
Eight
Seven
Six
Five
Four
Three
Two
One
I felt a moment of nausea before the pods inertial dampeners kicked in. The pod began to fall faster and faster as my fall to the earth below began. I looked up to see the ship pull away and speed off.
I was watching the ground steadily getting closer and closer.
"15,000 feet, deploying air-brakes.'
"Ugh" I let out an audible grunt as the pod decelerated.
"5,000 feet Deploying chute "
My pod decelerated even more. Then I heard a sickening snap, the cord attaching the chute had snapped.
"GODDAMN SON OF A BITCH" I screamed as the pod began to accelerate back to terminal velocity.
"500 feet" I looked down just into to see the ground coming at me at mach two. There was a bone crushing impact, but instead of being turned into a pile of rubble on the side of a mountain something interesting happened.
The pod punched right through the ground, there was another bone crushing impact as something else attempted in vain to stop the still supersonic drop pod, and then a splash.
I stayed conscious just long enough to see water begin to trickle into the pod.
Worm Stations- Every system controlled by the UEG has a Worm Station. Because most ships lack the necessary power gathering tools to create wormholes on their own worm stations are needed to make a 'highway' of sorts through the UEG. Without them a trip to another start could take tens of thousands of years.
Armor-The UEG readily makes use of powered exoskeletons for combat purposes. They provide increased strength for the wearer and increased damage resistance.
STANDARD ARMOR
AR-548- The AR-548 is the standard assault rifle of the UEG armed forces. It fires a 15x45mm armor-piercing rail slug, in a Full-Automatic, Semi-Automatic, or Three-round burst. It Has a capacity of 900 rounds.
MOR-94- The MOR-94 is the standard sidearm of all UEG armed forces. It fires a .75 caliber slug.
My mind was a haze of pain and confusion, the only thing making it through to me was the blaring warnings on my HUD. I silenced the alarms as I opened my eyes.
The first thing I found out was that I was under water. The glass windows on my pod had scattered and water had poured into the pod. I silently thanked the fact that my armor had prevented me from drowning. I activated my helmets low-light mode and took inventory of my things, finding that luckily nothing had been lost.
I had landed hatch down in the water, I would have to lift the drop pod off of me. I planted my feet on the hatch and heaved the destroyed pod away.
"Must have landed in an underground lake" I thought as I looked up.
I rolled my shoulder and a small ANGLE drone released itself, I commanded it to see just where I had landed. It shoot up through the water, eventually breaking the surface. A small window appeared on my HUD showing what the drone was seeing. I had indeed landed in a underground lake, a look through the hole in the ceiling told me that I had smashed through a second layer of rock before stopping in the lake. My drone plotted the quickest route out of the lake, as my armor prevented me from swimming.
After a hour long trek I final breached the surface of the water, as I came up the rock shore my drone landed in its compartment on my shoulder blade. I moved towards the only route out of this area of the cave.
"This is BLUE 1-1, Can anyone read me. Over." I spoke into my COM, only static greeted me. "Damn"
I found the tunnel out of the cave, but something cut my eye, I walked over to the wall and ran my hand over the stone.
"Tool marks." I said. After checking that my recorder was active I continued on, looking for any other signs of life.
After a time of walking I heard something that sounded like a extremely loud cricket call, long and drawn out, my ecolocater pointed me to where it had come from.
I was confused by what I found, dozens of large insectoid creatures, sprawled across the floor of the cave, all of them were dead. The look like they were all torn apart by some large predator most missing limbs or the horn like protrusions on their heads. I examined at one of the more 'put-together' corpses Its exoskeleton was a deep black in color it even had deep green hair like protrusions coming from its head and neck almost making it resemble a mane of a horse. I looked at its back to find a pair of insectoid wings, one of them being torn in half. Its bright fluorescent green blood leaking out. I moved its hair with a finger and nearly froze with shock.
It was wearing a necklace, a incredibly crude thing of a lump of crystal but a necklace still.
Animals don't make or wear necklaces. That left only two options.
This... insect was intelligent.
Or something on this planet was.
"Oh my god...." I said in awe. My mind was snapped back into place when my motion sensor detected movement around the next bend.
Something large.
I took the necklace off of the corps and pocketed it, running towards the large blip on my radar.
I rounded the corner and found what had made the huge blip. What looked like a giant cave spider, covered in the glowing green blood of the insectoids, was currently tearing at a small divot in the cave wall; obviously trying to get at something hiding in it.
Now I had a dilemma, first contact protocol forbids the killing of any creature because of the chance that it was intelligent.
The loudest screech I had ever heard suddenly assaulted my eardrums, my helmet saving me from losing my hearing. The monster of a cave spider was not so lucky, It stumbled back on its six legs disorientated. As it moved I caught sight of what it was trying to get at, one of the insectoid creatures had survived and was hiding in the divot.
I quickly weighed the chances in my mind and decided what to do.
"Oi! Ugly!" I shouted over my helmets external speakers.
The massive creature snapped towards me, its two arm like pincers snapping at me.
I raised my AR-548, centering the ridicule on my HUD right on the middle of its midsection. I pulled the trigger three times and the rifle sent three of its massive rounds into the spider like creature.
All that seemed to do was make it angry.
It pounced at me as I jumped to the side, firing all the way. Just as I finished my roll it jumped on top of me, its fangs swiping and scraping at my helmet. So I did the first thing I could think of.
I punched it in the face. Hard.
Then I activated my plasma gauntlet blades.
It let loose what could be actuated to a scream and fell to the floor, the fire spreading across its fur covered exoskeleton. I stood up and just five rounds into it to make sure it stayed down.
After standing there for a moment soft clicking brought me out of my stupor.
I looked at what was making the sound, finding that it was the insectoid, one of its wings was trapped under a rock, its eyes looked on my visor.
I took the time to get a good look at it.
It looked like the others that I has found, only smaller.... much smaller. The one that was wearing the necklace would have come up to my chin, horn included. This one on the other hand would barely make it to my kneecaps. That told me that this one was a child, or whatever was equivalent to that for this species. It also had a dark cerulean colored mane, and a pair of bright green eyes.
The question remind though, was it intelligent?
Fortunately I have a way to find out.
I kneeled in front of the small insectoid and a little holo projector popped out of my shoulder pauldron. It jumped when a rectangle appeared between us, about a foot from it. A large spinning square appeared in the lower left of the display, capturing its attention. It stopped and left a red square in its place and made a single chime, then repeated, this time leaving two, one red and one blue, and made two chimes. Then it repeated again making three , red, blue, green, and made three chimes. The purpose of the test was to see if the organism could conceptualize and was therefore intelligent. The test would repeat and if it began to copy the test it would stop, and it it continued the series that meant it was probably intelligent. This process repeated itself over and over, I decided to let it run one more time before shutting it off.
The small square left a red square and make a chime.
BIZZ
My eyes snapped to its one wing, The test made two chimes.
BIZZ BIZZ
Then three
BIZZ BIZZ BIZZ
I watched as the creature tilted its head is the square stopped then it looked at me, and I waited.
BIZZ BIZZ BIZZ BIZZ
Four...
I watched it count all the way up to ten before I stood up, making it stop. Its eyes closed shut as I reached out towards it. I gently moved the large rock off of its wing. It opened its eyes and scooted back as fair as possible into the divot. Something glinted in the light, it was wearing a necklace. Almost a copy of the one in my pocket.
I fished the trinket out of my pocket and showed it to the small insectoid. It saw it and let loose a symphony of chirps and scratches, judging from its face it knew where I had gotten it from. I held it out in front of me, baiting the child out.
It worked, the small insectoid slowly came out and stopped in-front of me, head down, I held the necklace out to it but it did not take it. I sighed and out the trinket back in my pocket.
My attention was brought to its broken wing, I slowly reached out and grabbed one off the insectoids legs keeping it in place. It wiggled in my grip but stopped after a short time. I brushed my hand over its broken wing, spreading a medical gel over its wounds, the gel would stop the bleeding and numb the pain. After the gel absorbed into its body the insectoid looked its wing then to me. It let out a cry of clicks and squeaks and jumped closer. I have a hidden smile at its actions. It began to move towards back the way I had come, it got to the bend and I assumed saw the bloodbath that was back there.
There was a....flash in its eyes, almost like they grew brighter for a moment and it took off like a shot. I got up to follow it. As I rounded the corner I found that it was nudging and poking at the body that I had gotten the necklace from. It caught sight of me and pointed at me, then its wing, then to the body. I got the gist of the message.
Help.
I kneeled next to the body and activated my medi-scanner, and found something interesting. It was still alive, barely, but I could save it.
I put my hand over one of its many wounds, and watched as the medical gel seeped into its body. The gel would take time to fix the damage done but it would most likely live. I looked at the small Insectoid and nodded, although if it understood the gesture was unclear as it just tilted its head at me. I pulled the necklace out of my pocket and replaced it around the creature's neck, Then backed up to the wall as not to startle the being.
After nearly an hour of the gel working on the creature, it’s eyes slowly opened. The moment they did the smaller one practically tackled the larger being, making odd clicks and buzzing noises to which the larger responded in kind.
Then the larger one finally noticed the the eight foot tall human standing ten feet away, needless to say it froze in what I assumed was shock. The smaller one took note of this and did something odd. It walked up to the larger one and touched its horn to the others, then both of their eyes lit up.
It stayed like this for a while then it stopped, the larger of the two looked at me then back to the smaller one. After a moment of the two making clicking noises at each other the larger one stood up shakingly.
Using one of its 'hooves' it pointed at me then to the other bodies, a quick medical scan confirmed what I thought. The others were dead.
I looked at the larger one and shook my head, to which the being repeated the motion.
"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do." I told the creature, for it to only repeat the motion. It walked towards one of the bodies, its eyes lighting up again. It did this to each of the bodies until I assumed it realized there was nothing anyone could do.
It looked towards the smaller one then to me, it then walked up to me and then it did something.....odd. Its horn glowed and it touched my head. Its eyes glowed.
I bolted up from my prone position with a scream, "AH!" I closed my eyes as soon as I opened them. It felt like my body was ripping itself to shreds from the inside out, like someone had poured lava into my veins. I rolled over and off of...something, what it was I could not tell through my pain filled daze, and retracted my helmet and voided my stomach onto the floor. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around as my helmet reconstructed itself around my head once again.
I was in a dark room, and was still underground if the obsidian like walls were any indication. I looked at my HUDs clock and saw that only thirty minutes had passed. I forced the pain into the back of my mind as I stood up, I looked at what I had fallen off of and found it to be what looked like a crude bed. I held my head as a headache came crashing into my head, it felt...wrong. I turned to face the 'door' of the room which was little more than a curtain, I could hear something coming.
I looked around and found that my AR-548 had been placed in the corner, and my MOR-94 was still on my waist. I quickly realised that I was not being held as a prisoner, the little one had seen me use the AR-548 so they at least knew that was dangerous. Yet there it was, and even if I was being held I doubt they would use a curtain to keep me in this room.
At that another thought entered my mind, 'How did they get me in here?'. In full combat gear I weigh just under a ton and a half, and those....bugs don't look that strong.
I shoved my thoughts to the back of my mind as the curtain was drawn back, to reveal the same insectoid as before. The little one that I had saved riding on its back.
The little one caught sight of me, its eyes glowed with the same fluorescent green as before and a wave of nausea hit me like a wall.
Along with a feeling of.....relief? It felt wrong though, like an echo of the feeling. The bigger ones horn glowed again and I tensed up and reached for my MOR, but something happen that I did not expect.
The small insectoid was surrounded in a green...energy and lifted up and placed back on the larger ones back. I stared at the larger one for what seemed like hours, trying to figure out what had just happened. I was brought out of my thoughts when the bigger one began to approach me, each step it took I took a half step back, it was making clicking and whistling noises all the way, obviously trying to tell me something. Deciding that the insectoid was of no threat I stopped backing up and left it approach. Then its horn glowed again as another necklace floated into view, this one being the same as the ones they were wearing. It pointed at the necklace then to me.
I looked at the large insectoid for a moment and then to the necklace it was....holding, it was a near perfect copy of the one the larger one was wearing. Same stone, same shape, same metal. The thought of accepting the necklace unsettled me, as I had no idea that they were used for or what they meant. I shook my head in refusal. The large insectoid recoiled as if I had struck it. It let loose a hiss and waved the trinket at me.
I let out a grumble as I snached the necklace from the insectoid. I looked at it in my hand for a moment before slipping it around my neck.
The large insectoid looked almost happy as it waved me out of the room, with nothing else to do I followed it out. Hoping I had not just agreed to some awkward alien social contract.
We had been walking through a maze of tunnels and chambers for nearly an hour. Every so often we would walk by a group of the insectoids, some of which looked almost like a copy of the larger one but with subtle differences. Some of which were wearing necklaces, the ones that did were always in groups according to their necklaces.
'the necklaces definitely signify something, what they signify though is what I want to know.' I thought to myself.
Another odd thing is that none of them have batted an eye at the eight foot tall alien walking around their...hive.
My AI told me that we were coming up on a huge chamber, at least a hundred feet tall.
What could be called a door was flanked by two massive insectoids, they had a weak resemblance to the others but where their wings were supposed to be was replaced with massive claw like appendages. The two of them caught sight of me and hissed loudly, and in response I raised my AR-548 to my shoulder. The insectoid that was leading me did not do anything when they had hissed but the moment my rifle was pointed at them it gained a panicked expression and jumped in between us. When it did this the massive one razed a claw but before it could do anything I fired my rifle once making a huge hole right next to its head. The one that was trying to stop the fighting just stared at my rifle, then its eyes flashed green, as did the massive insectoids. It stayed like that for a moment before the glow in their eyes dimmed and the large creature stepped aside and did something....odd.
Using one of its claw like appendages it gave itself a small cut on the neck, just enough to draw blood. It then let the blood pool on its claw before offering it to my escort, to which it lapped up. All the while the smaller one danced around my leg.
With that strange ritual done the two massive beasts stepped aside. Then the massive doors opened, and we stepped inside.
I was treated to the sight of something I could only describe as a throne room.
The room was as wide and long as it was high, the roof held up by massive twisting onyx pillars. Hanging from the roof were huge gemstones, each the same color of the necklace hanging around my neck. My motion, and more prudently the shaking floor, tracker told me something massive was making its way slowly towards us. I look over to my escort and saw that it had not moved, in fact it had taken what looked like a bow.
'Why is it do-' The rest of my thought was cut off as the lumbering beast final showed itself, I took a step back in surprise.
"What the fuck!" I said under my breath as I took another step back.
This new creature was truly massive, it had to be just over forty feet tall. It payed my escort no mind as it lumbered over to me. It finally stopped a short distance away and used its long neck to get a better look at me. I Stayed perfectly still as it looked my up and down. It gave me an sniff and a odd look. Its massive head shifted to my escort and the small insectoid, I could feel the air shift and rumble as it talked to my escort, its own responses seaming weak and meager in comparison. Its horn glowed and it touched it to my escorts head. I felt something brush up against my leg, I looked down to see the little one practically clinging to my leg. I knelt down and put a hand on the little ones head, lightly petting its green 'hair'.
I failed to see that the massive insectoid was staring at me intently now, at least until it let loose a low hiss. My head snapped up to meets it gaze it looked at the little one still next to my leg then to me and it..... smiled. Its eyes flashed green and I cringed in pain as a feeling of gratitude entered my mind. I finally made the connection of what was happening.
Those were not my emotions.
They were theirs.
I shook my head to clear the haze of emotions from it.
"You're welcome" I said in a vain attempt at communication.
It gave no indication of understanding, what it did do though I wish it didn't.
Memories came unbridled into my mind, coming and going in flashes. Thousands of images were flashing by in seconds.
It almost felt like something was.... surrounding me, something old, something powerful.
I could feel it stretch on for what felt like miles. I saw a image flash by, I could see myself at the UEG training facility in the Epsilon Eridani system. Then the image changed to the battle of Curia VI, my first deployment. I watched my self killing HLF forces, with my rifle, my sidearm, even my bare hands. I watched myself pick up cars and toss them around like toys.
All the while a sense of pure awe was bombarding my mind.
Along with a mounting sense of fear.
The memories changed again and I was now looking at the bridge of the UEG dreadnought 'Hades Gate' watching a blue-green planet slowly turn on the main view screen. This was the Destruction of GW - 245, a HLF staging base.
The Captain of the 'Hades Gate' finally spoke a single word.
"Fire"
With that I watched as a small line shoot out towards the green-blue ball, after a moment of nothing there was a bright flash. I watched as a wave of fire ringed its way around the doomed world. I watched was the oceans were boiled away. Finally the world itself cracked under the stress and broke apart.
At that moment I felt the sense of awe was completely replaced with an indescribable primal fear.
I gasped as a flash of white brought me back into the real world, I wobbled on my feet for a moment before falling to a knee. I looked up to see the massive insectoid franticly backing away, my escort looking between myself and the gigantic insectoid. I looked towards the massive creature in front of me, its wide eyes locked on me.
'What the hell did that thing do to me?!' I thought as I gripped my rifle tighter.
After a sort stare off between the two of us the huge creature looked towards my escort as spoke with it for a moment. I watched as its face ran through many alien expressions before its head snapped to me.
After a short time it did an odd bow to the larger insectoid, the turned around and walked out beckoning me to follow.
I gave the large creature one last look, then walked out.
We had been walking at a brisk pace for the last two hours and had come to the conclusion that we were heading to the exit of the cave. My suspicions were confirmed as a voice crackled over my COM.
"-negative sir I thin- we lost him" I recognised the voice of the ships AI, "WAIT- I ha- I'm reading som-"
"Gaia, this is BLUE 1-1, can you read me? Over." I said back.
"Ye- but the sig- is weak, can you boost the - somehow?"
I could see the mouth of the tunnel so I sprinted to the opening and deployed a marker.
"This is BLUE 1-1, I have deployed a marker."
"Good, I'm piggybacking on the signal, Wait one..... the Chairman would like to speak with you 1-1."
"Copy"
"Corporal, can you hear me?"
"He doesn't sound happy' I thought to myself, "Yes sir, loud and clear."
"Good then do you mind telling me to why you failed to report in!?"
I looked at my escort and the little one on its back, "Sir, I've made contact."
The line was silent to a full ten minutes before he spoke again, " I see.... I'm sending a dropship to your position, are they near you?"
"Two of them sir, their docile enough."
"Good, We'll be following the protocols to the letter from now on, you'll report back to my ship for debrief. We can talk on the way back to the ship."
"Copy that." I said and I closed the COM.
I found a place to sit near my rock and took a seat, the little one jumping onto my lap immediately after. My escort also took a seat near by, keeping an eye on me.
After about half an hour I heard the telltale sound of a sonic boom as a drop ship came into view.
The little one jumped off my lap as I stood up and walked towards the drop ship. Its ramp opening up to show the Chairman and his two Praetorian Guards.
As the Chairman walked out I gave a crisp salute, out of the corner of my eye I could see my escort backing up wide-eyed.
"Chairman, Sir"
"Stand down Corporal. Come on, we have to get back to the ship."
I began walking to the ship and the chairman let out a chuckle and pointed to my leg.
"It seems you've made a friend John."
I looked to see the little insectoid following me to the ship, I pointed to it then to the other insectoid. In response it just jumped closer. I looked to my escort and it also shook its head, then pointed to the little one then to me.
I looked to the Chairman and shrugged. He simply chucked again.
"It would seem it wants the small one to go with you, and I would rather not offend them. I don't think one guest will be much of a problem." The Chairman said walking to the ship.
I took a seat and the little one jumped into the seat next to me and looked around in wonder.
The Chairman looked at the small creature for a moment before voicing a question to me.
"Does it have a name?"
"Not one I know of sir." I answered.
"Well it needs something we can call it."
I looked at the small creature for a moment before my gaze fell on the necklace it was still wearing.
Its eyes glowed green, and small bit of happiness filed my mind.
I felt the dropship slow as it entered the small docking bay of the UEG "Icarus". I looked over to see Chrysalis sleeping in the seat next to me.
It least I think it was sleeping.
"Corporal, the ships doctors and xenobiologist need to take a look at you and.... Chrysalis" Said the Chairman.
"Of course Chairman, I Know the protocols." I said back giving Chrysalis a light tap to wake it up.
The Chairman pointed at me, "Keep it on a short leash Corporal, we do not know what its capable of."
"Yes, sir" I said as I gave a two finger salute.
Chrysalis jumped down and stood at side, looking at me. I pointed at it then to me, trying to tell it to stay close. It seemingly understood as it moved closer.
The ramp at the other end of the ship opened up and the Chairman and his two guards stepped out.
Then Chrysalis hid behind my leg as a host of men in lab coats came into the ship.
One of them spoke up, "Corporal, we need to screen the both of you. Please follow us."
I recognised the voice of James, "Alright."
I began walking only to stop as I felt something hit my shoulder. I looked over my shoulder to see Chrysalis holding on, its insect like wings fluttering lightly.
It was a short walk to the ships med-bay as the ship had been cleared of all non essential crew.
"Come on lets get that armor off." James said to me.
I nodded my head as I put Chrysalis down on one of the medical beds in the room. I felt the armor begin to recede, freeing me from its protective shell. The synthetic muscle retreated back into the armor and I hosted the remaining pieces off. Setting the necklace down on the bed.
All the while I could feel a sense of awe from Chrysalis.
Then the N-F retreated back into the lines across my body, leaving only the skin tight under suit. I rolled my shoulders comfortably. I turn to face James and when I did he stepped back whispering.
'Thats not good.' I thought. "What's wrong?"
"John aren't your eyes blue?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Yes. Why?"
He pointed to the mirror on the wall and hurried out of the room.
I turned to the mirror and looked at my eyes. What I saw formed a pit in my stomach.
My normally blue eyes had turned a green color, wisps of blue lightly spaced about.
My head snapped to Chrysalis, all I could do is stare into its green eyes.
A voice over the SHIP-COM rained out, "WARNING WARNING, A CLASS ONE BIOHAZARD ALERT HAS BEEN DECLARED. SHIPS CREW REPORT TO STATIONS"
I had been looking at my eyes for a hour, trying to figure out what was going on. My body should not be doing this. Every Human with a N-F has nanites in their bloodstream that eradicates any invading microbes or parasites that enter the body. I am immune to every disease or infection possible, alien or otherwise.
Should be immune at least.
James had come in and had taken a blood sample from Chrysalis and I for testing. Chrysalis was currently asleep once more at the edge of the bed.
My head turned when the med-bays door opens to reveal James, who was clad in his civilian N-F protective suit.
"John." he said with a nod.
"James, you find out what's wrong with me?"
He nodded, "Yes. Although we don't know everything right now, what I can tell you is that you'll be fine."
"Fine?"
"Yes, it would seem that. We found something....odd in your blood."
"What did you find?" I asked.
"We found what seems to be a microorganism in your blood, a parasite, we assume it came from them" He said pointing to Chrysalis.
"How? I've had no contact with them outside of my armor."
"That we do not know as of yet, but I don't think you need to worry about it harming you."
"I thought you said it was a parasite?"
"It is not exactly a parasite, its exhibiting signs of mutualism. Its not 'harming' you as of yet. In fact it would be detrimental to your health if it was removed, though not lethal, that is why the nanites in your body refused to remove it themselves." James explained.
"What exactly is it doing to me Doctor?" I asked.
"That is where it gets strange. It has moved to your brain and its doing....something, nothing harmful yet. You mentioned feeling 'emotions' in your report," He pointed to the insectoid, "from them, correct?"
I nodded, "Yes, as strange as it sounds."
"Well we believe that the microorganisms are to blame, they appear to release chemicals into your body that make you feel what they are feeling. How they command the microorganisms to do this, we do not know as of yet. Among the ability to do that we believe that they can also, in higher concentrations, can cause hallucinations."
"They can make me see things?" I asked.
"Maybe, we are working on so little data right now its nearly impossible to tell, thats why I have a proposition for you."
I crossed my arms, "What kind of proposition?"
"I want you to keep the microorganisms in your body, to see what they do. This would give us the chance to study them and the ability to develop a more effective counter measure. Before you ask, yes it was approved by the Chairman."
I gave myself a moment to think. "Are you positive they won't hurt me?"
"I can not guarantee that Corporal, but as of yet, they're harmless."
I closed my eyes for a moment.
"Allright."
He nodded, "Good, now I have to look over the reports the xenobiologist sent over. I'm sorry Corporal but you and...... Chrysalis was it? Will have to stay here until we have an effective counter measure. That won't be a problem will it?"
I looked over at the still sleeping Chrysalis, "I don't think that'll be a problem, its been tame so far. How long do you think it will take to make a counter measure?"
He shrugged, "Not long, a day or two at the most."
"What if it gets hungry?"
"Don't worry about that, the xenobiologist will find out what it needs."
I remembered something, " Speaking of xenos did you find out what the probe was, or what it was from?"
He shook his head, "Sorry Corporal, its classified."
"This is Doctor James Keyes, I will now catalog everything we currently know about the xenosophont named 'Chrysalis' as it will from now on be called. We are currently in orbit around GW-420-1, system 5929-A, sector S-478-BA-9. 420-1 is a Terra class garden world, 68% water 32% land. Its geography is very mountainous, with wide rolling plains, with what could be called rainforests in some areas. Its atmosphere is safe for unprotected humans."
"Its plant life is diverse, as with its animals. Alas I am getting off topic, the xenosophont know as 'Chrysalis' is insectoid in appearance and is quadrupedal in posture. It has what could be likened to a chitinous exoskeleton and is black in color and a green section on its barrel (Equine anatomy) and back, it also possesses a pair of wings. It has a 'horn' as well, the purpose of said horn is still under debate, but Corporal John Maxwell said that was the focal point of some kind of 'energy' but that could be a result of his 'infection', but after reviewing his helmet cam footage I am inclined to believe him. It possesses a 'crown' made up of bioluminescent protrusions coming from it head that will grow in later if it follows the aging process of its 'mother'. Its 'hair' is a dark blue color, and it eyes are a green color."
"Its age is undetermined but it can be assumed that it is a child or near adult. It is female in gender, and given its insect like nature, so is most of the rest of its race. It has appeared to have imprinted on John as it becomes near combative when we attempt to separate the two. 'Chrysalis' is extremely intelligent, most of the time only needing to be shown once how something works. Its diet is one of hematophagy, as show when early today when it bit John on the hand and lapped up the blood, local prey animals have been gathered to observe hunting practices. Their main prey item appears to be another race of near sapient horse like quadrupeds, given the fact that they have evolved to appear similar."
"The xenobiologist has begun trying to develop a translation device for use by us. Their language is make up of clicks, whistles, and screeches, similar to Terran crickets, we are making fast progress in that respect. John has reported that Chrysalis has started to 'Imitate some of the crew' but to us it has not changed any of its observed processes. He says that when someone enters the room Chrysalis 'changes into them' I believe that this is a effect of the microorganisms in his body. This would make sense though given their food source, they infect a prey item with the microorganisms then use them to get close enough to kill as the prey item would not see them as a threat. The microorganisms appear to be both transmitted by touch or are airborne (most likely both), thankfully it was easy to develop a countermeasure and infection it no longer a risk. An unintended side effect is that because of their nature Gaia has taken to calling them 'Púca' the name comes from a shape shifting back horse from Irish mythology. The name stuck."
Chrysalis
"We are heading back down sometime in the coming days, returning to the 'hive' that John had crashed into, to attempt to make actual diplomatic progress. Although I don't expect much headway to be made. From the looks of it they are very primitive, they'll probably just mistake us for something were not."
"On a related note, we have finished our analysis of the alien probe. It appears to be a Von Neumann a self-replicating spacecraft designed to investigate its target system and transmit information about it back to its system of origin, the technology on the probe is laughably primitive by today's standards. On a more unsettling note it possessed a nuclear payload and one of the warheads is missing, it has been handed off to ONI for further study."
"Gaia, end recording."
"Yes James."
I closed the window on my HI and looked out at the planet spinning below. I turned when I heard the door open behind me.
"Chairman." I said.
"James, you wanted to talk?" Prescott asked.
"Yes, I did. You have read the recon reports correct?"
"Yes."
"I wanted to ask, how much jurisdiction do I have on this project?"
He crossed his arms, "It depends, what do you want to do."
I gestured to the planet below, "You've read about the near-sapient species correct?"
"Yes."
"Its a little 'pet-project' I had in mind, they are on the cusp of intelligence, maybe a couple thousand years away. A instant in the evolutionary perspective, I wish to speed up the process. They will gain Sapience sooner or later, it just a matter of how much time it will take."
"I will have to think on it Doctor." The Chairman said as he left the room.
Hours later just about as I was about to go to sleep, a line of text appeared on my HI.
I have diverted funding to your little project Doctor. Do what you must, just don't go over the allocated budget.
My eyes widened at the amount, the Chairman could build a Dreadnought with this amount or start a colony, how he moved this many credits around without anyone knowing was beyond me.
A/N : Hello everybody just wanted to say that I might not update for a while because of hurricane sandy(I live in VA). And also a long overdue thanks to Maverick Frond for pre-reading my stuff.
I felt my mind begin to pull away from the fog of a waking dream as I pulled myself out of my bed, a pounding headache raging. I heard Chrysalis jump of the bed and land on the hard deck plating that made up the floor as I made my way into the small bathroom. She jumped up onto the small table next to the sink as I splashed water on my face. I looked unto the water for a while before I heard Chrysalis make a small cry, about the same time a drop of red landed in the water.
I looked into the mirror on the wall to find that I was bleeding from the nose, along with a small line coming out of my right eye. I was unsurprised as James had told me to expect a small amount of hemorrhaging from the nanites removing the majority of the microorganisms from my body.
Chrysalis let out another squeal and a series of clicks, a second later my HI AIs voice spoke in my head, "You you, give me red, give me warm. Hungry."
I let out a chuckle, "Fine fine." Another series of clicks and whistles, this time coming from me, followed some seconds later.
I wiped a little blood onto my finger and offered it to her, which she happily licked up.
"Thank......you"
There was a long pause as the translation software attempted to find the right word. The translation software was far from complete, or one hundred percent perfect. Some of their language does not translate, one word could have hundreds of meanings, and most of the time was very contextual, and some things they just did not have words for, but we had managed to get the basics down pat. The xenolinguistics told the Chairman though that even though the system was imperfect, we could get our meaning across without causing a interspecies incident.
My thoughts were interrupted by a notification appearing on my HI.
'Corporal, get yourself down to the hanger. - CHRM Prescott'
I sent a reply as I walked out. Beckoning Chrysalis to follow.
"Where.....go?"
I passed by a 'window' giving a quick look at the planet below.
"You're going home, come on."
She gave a buzz and followed.
Out in the darkness of space a black shape moved, then with a flash, it vanished.
I rolled my now armored shoulders as I walked into the ships small hanger, Chrysalis giving a annoyed hiss as I knocked her off balance on my shoulder.
"Sorry kid, you need to get off now." I said as I spied the Chairman and...... one of his guards. Wordlessly she jumped off but I could feel a twinge of annoyance from the small insectoid.
"Chairman." I said with a salute.
"John, it's good to see you are making a fast recovery." He said.
I nodded, "I won't complain, sir."
"We’re ready to go as soon as the recon reports a all green." He said nodding to the place the missing Praetorian normally occupied. Then walked into the 'formal' transport we were now using.
I looked to Chrysalis, "Come on." I said as I walked into the transport.
'It had been four days since that.....thing took daughter.
Where did it take daughter.
Why did it take daughter.
Is daughter alright? Daughters spark is gone.
Is daughter dead? Daughters spark is cold, Daughter's gone.
Queen said it would not hurt Daughter, Queen was wrong, it did hurt Daughter.
It killed daughter.'
The insectoid felt a rage pore through its mind, that rage had no target. It indiscriminately tore through the Hive prompting the other Matriarchs to fall into a similar state of depressed rage. Only to be violently put down as a crushing force slammed down on all of their minds.
'BE SILENT MY CHILDREN.'
That singular thought spread like a wall of water through the Hive, hussing all other thoughts.
'We feel something'
The Matriarch felt the Queens dominion envelop her mind, making her body an extension of the Queens.
The Queen could feel....something near the entrance to her Hive, using the Matriarchs body, she went to investigate.
'Lend me your minds children.'
The Queen extended her influence over her Hive, she would not let anything hurt anymore over her children, she could feel the vibrations in the ground that told that something was making its way slowly down the entrance to her Hive.
'Theres nothing there.'
'I feel it.'
'Something heavy'
The whole of the Hive, hundreds of thousands of minds, all looking for the same thing through a single pair of eyes. As the 'Queen' slowly looked around a uproar of thoughts came flooding through.
'It stopped!'
'Its not moving'
'It knows we're looking for it.'
'We're looking right at it, why else would it stop?'
'Theres nothing there.'
'It has to be there, we just can't see it.'
Another series of soft vibrations came through the ground, each coming closer.
'THE SAND, LOOK!'
The thousands of thoughts cut off as the 'Queen' looked at the ground and saw.....
'Hoofprints'
'But theres nothing there.'
In the thousands of raging thoughts a hatchling thought of something.
'Its invisible'
That gave the Hive a pause, the Hive then began to study the spot.
'Sand, throw sand at it.'
'Yes, throw sand.'
'Do it'
The Queen complied and picked up a large ball of sand, the tossed it at the pair of Hoofprints.
The ball of sand dispersed through the air like a fine mist and settled back down, most of it did anyway, some of the sand however stuck to something.
'THERE!' The entirety of the Hive cried out at once.
The 'Queen' grabbed a bolder two times the size of the Matriarch with her spark and hurled it at the spot.
About half way through the boulders flight to its intended target, the Hive saw a flash of blue/white light. Then the large rock simply was cut in two.
The two pieces hit the ground, the rock bubbling and melting away where it was 'cut'.
The Hive then looked at what had cut the huge rock.
What appeared to be a sliver of the sun was floating in the air, the heat it was casting off causing distortions in the air. The Hive heard a low growl like sound. Then the air wavered intensely and a form began to reveal itself.
'Its the hollow'
The large beast had completely revealed itself, and did something the Hive did not expect.
It let out a couple of bark like noises, then the sliver of sun attached to its arm lost its shape and turned to a gas, coiled up its arm and dispersed through the air. It stared at her for some time before letting out a long string of barks and grunts.
'Thats not the same hollow.'
'What does it want.'
Anymore thoughts were interrupted by the creature again.
"Can you ......understand.....me" The Hollow spoke brokenly.
'It....speaks?'
'But its hollow, its dead, how does it speak?'
The Queen drowned out the other thousands of voices and responded.
"Yes"
It stared at her for a moment before nodding, "Good.....follow."
The Queen, not wanting to anger the Hollow, followed.
A/N Well here you go, ya I know its a exposition chapter. I wanted to get something out before the 6th, all my gamer bronies know what's going down. You wanna play with me, PM me, one discrepancy If you scream and holler like a 10 year old I won't play with you, sorry.
The Queen had long since severed the connection to the other members of her hive, opting to simply gaze through the eyes of the Matriarch, her mind the only other one she wanted input from at the moment. She simply looked at the hollow before her, taking in everything she could about it.
It gave her a look and stood up, after a couple of barks and grunts a understandable voice reached 'her' ears.
"Move......back." It said as it stepped back.
The Queen was about to ask why when a annoying sound reached 'her' ears. She looked up and caught sight of a tiny black dot falling from the sky, the sound getting progressively louder as the dot grew.
' Matriarch, what is that?'
'It is making the same sound the thing the hollow left on, maybe it's coming back.
As the black speck began to grow, along with the sound it was making, the Matriarch jolted in surprise.
'Daughters spark! It's back!'
'There is another as well, faint as it is.'
The Matriarch focused in on the weaker of the two.
I looked down as Chrysalis began hopping around the transport, a feeling of elation snaking its way into my mind.
I taped the deck-plating with the heel of my foot, catching her attention for the moment, "What's up kid, you ok?"
She gave a buzz and only one word made it through the translator unmolested, "Mom!"
James leaned over, "Mom? Is she talking about the one from your report, John?"
I gave a shrug, "Most likely the Púca was exhibiting the tell tail signs of parental activity, although I could have been wrong in my assessment. We still know next to nothing about them."
He nodded, "I admit we could know more, but we have to take this slow. This is a very fragile situation, and I would rather not enact the 'contract'."
"That makes two of us," The chairman said, throwing his two cents in, "you may not take me for a..... agreeable man Doctor, but I want what's best for both of our species."
"You almost sound sentimental, care to tell why?", The Doctor rebuked.
The Chairman whipped around fast enough to make me think he was augmented, a finger in James face, "I am indeed 'sentimental' Doctor but not for any misguided pity for these primitives, I AM sentimental to the threat they pose to humanity."
It was James turn to get angry, "Threat?! Chairman what 'threat' could these, as you so well put it, 'primitives' could possibly be?!"
"Not them, its what they represent. Make no mistake Doctor the UEG is on the edge, ready to fall off at any time. I have held the UEG together for the past thousand years! All it would take is One. Little. Push." He said, making his point by jabbing his finger at Chrysalis, "To send it all over the edge! If they got out to the public, or god forbid, into the hands HLF the balance of power would come tumbling down so hard the UEG would shatter worse than during the Fall, and humanity barely survived that! I will NOT let that happen, and I will do anything to assure it doesn't. Do you understand, Doctor?"
The Doctor stood for a moment, "Yes......sir." He said with a nod.
I was taken aback by the Chairman’s outburst. No one had, to my knowledge, had ever seen the Chairman lose his temper like that.
My thoughts were interrupted as a blaring migraine barged its way into my mind unceremoniously, it was powerful enough to make me take a knee in pain.
“Ugh, what the hell?” I said through gritted teeth, while I forced myself to stand. James came to my side, pushing Chrysalis out of the way gently.
“John, whats happening?”
“I don’t know, feel like someone was beating on my head with a car, and that’s happened to me before.” I lamented.
I closed my eyes as a droning buzz filled my head, it was like thousands of wasps were flying around in my head. Then as if that was not enough thousands of different emotions hit me at once, washing away any form of thought in my mind, before all of them were silenced.
"-alright?" I heard James say.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts, "I'm sorry, what?"
"I asked if you were alright." He said.
"I'll be fine."
"Like hell... Another episode like that and you're going back to the ship." He said.
"I said, I'm fine." I repeated.
His response was cut off as the pilot came over our HIs, "Thirty seconds to dirt."
"You had better be, you are our only liaison for the time being." The Chairman said as he gave his suit a once over.
I rolled my shoulders, " Never been much of a negotiator......Sir."
"We'll have to make due." He said as the transport’s ramp descended.
As the ramp hit the ground Chrysalis bounded out of the ship towards what looked to be her mother. The larger insectoid closing the gap and musseling her affectionately before looking at us. I took a breath and walked down the ramp, James, Prescott, and his guards falling in behind me.
Chrysalis's mother assumed a defensive stance and gave a couple of buzzes, "What do you want.....hollow?"
I pushed the odd diction to the back of my mind for later, "We want to......talk, to your.....Queen." A small window appearing on my HI telling me what she was hearing.
She simply stared at me for a time, "Why?"
"We want to know more about you.... We want to.....share."
Another long pause, "Fine, but those two cannot follow. She said pointing to the two Praetorians.
After nearly two hours of walking down the dark winding tunnels that made up the Hive I was greeted by the pair of massive doors from before. The two giant guards from before were missing, which I was thankful for as I was only armed with my MOR-94 on my hip.
I heard James mumble something likened to 'Amazing' as the giant doors were bathed in a bright green light as Chrysalis's mothers horn glowed.
A message appeared in my HI, 'WARNING, UNKNOWN RADIATION DETECTED........ UNHARMFUL TO HUMAN ANATOMY.'
I sent a message to James, 'What do you think?'
'We’re learning more, still have no idea how she's doing that though.' He sent back.
'Well learn faster, I don't wanna think what she could do to an unarmored human.'
'Hmph, look at it this way. If they kill the Chairman we'll just glass the plant....after we gather samples of course.'
'Or send in the Praetorians.'
'Now that's just mean.'
I stopped the two way banter as the massive doors thudded open.
'Time to make history' I thought to myself as I walked into the room.
I could see the 'Queen' in the center of the room, atop what could be called a throne, which took the form of a massive crystal that was the same color of the one around my neck.
Another message from James appeared on my HI, 'Well....hope it isn't hungry'
Its eyes flashed green as a familial overpowering presence snaked its way into my mind, a feeling of animosity following close behind.
It descended from its 'throne', letting out a couple of clicks along the way.
"What is your purpose in my Hive hollow. Why have you returned?"
"We just want to talk. We mean no harm."
The presence in my mind intensified for a moment before reseeding, "Yes the Matriarch said you wish to talk, but first, I want to know some things."
"Ask away."
"You resemble the ones who came before, but your mind is less..... chaotic, yet you come from falling stars as they did. What are you."
I voiced my confusion to the Queen, "The ones who came before..... what are you talking about?"
The Queen gave what could have been a sigh were she human and lowered herself to the ground, "My memory is long hollow, but some has been lost to time. My mother told a tale of a star that fell from the sky, a time later a hollow came to a neighboring hive. The members of the Hive attacked the hollow, and in return the hollow called forth a fire so powerful it turned everything to glass, entire forests were leveled from the force."
A message appeared from James, 'Sounds like a nuke....this is bad. We did detect high background radiation in an area to the south, given the about it had to have been over a hundred years ago.'
The Queen continued, "The hollow then disappeared. My mother used it as a cautionary tale to teach patience, to think of the consequences of your actions. I always thought it a silly story."
'One hell of a Bogeyman.' I thought. "We do not want to hurt you."
She nodded, "Yes...The return of the hatchling states that much. I ask again, what are you, where are you from."
"We call ourselves Humans, we come from.......up." I cursed the translators limited pool of words. "Your language is......limited, you lack the words to properly express what I mean, lets just say we are from far away."
"How far?"
I had a hidden smirk from behind my helmet, "Very far."
"What do you want with my Hive?"
"Tell me, have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered 'What's up there?', have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered what those points of light in the sky are? Have you ever looked at the world around you and wondered how it all came to be? You are a young race, a race that knows next to nothing about the world it lives in.... All we are offering is knowledge, nothing more....nothing less."
I called up a holographic image of their world, "This is your world," The image zoomed out past everything to show the solar system as a whole, "this is your.....home, your Hive. You have never seen the outside of your own home."
I then showed a cascade of images, Terra, multiple colony worlds, fleets of ships, ring-worlds before finally stopping on Zeus Station. At one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand kilometers in diameter it is the largest thing ever built by human hands. It took the form of a massive wheel with series of 'arms' coming off of it.
"We have done much better, and we want to share all of this with your kind."
The Queen and the other assembled Púca in the room simply stared dumbly at me and the others, they most likely had no understanding of what the images really were but they had no doubt served their intended purpose.
"I....I do not know of the other Queens and their Hives, but I accept your offer.....Human."
I held out a hand, after a full minute of awkward silence the Queen used one of her claws and reached out. I gripped it tight and gave it a shake.
"Good."
As my hand dropped as transmission came over my COM, "Sorry to interrupt but I have something......large inbound, it's airborne at ten klicks out. Closing fast. Please advise." Said the voice of the transport pilot.
The Chairman responded, "Hold fast pilot, we on the way up. The Praetorians will cover you."
The Queen got up and looked at me, "What's going on human?"
"Something is flying here, something big, at least your size."
She let out a deep growl making the cave floor shake lightly, "Damned Wyvern."
"Wyvern?" I asked.
"Your flying.....thing, probably flew over what they consider 'their' territory."
"Their territory?"
"Yes, the nearby Wyvern outcast clans are not as......diplomatic as the others."
"Wait, their intelligent?"
She looked at me, "Most of the time they are very intelligent, the outcasts though are more like animals."
We turned to head back to the transport, "What happens if these..... Wyvern, are hostile?"
"Then we kill them, the other clans are honor bound to hunt any outcasts down, we would be doing them a favor."
We heard a gut wrenching roar as we neared the mouth of the cave, one of the Praetorians coming over the COMs, "We've been engaged. The transport has been damaged." He said in a calm voice.
As we passed through the mouth of the cave we were treated to an odd sight. One of the Praetorians was having a stare down with what could only be described as a dragon. The two of them circling each other, the other Praetorian tending to the wounded pilot, the one having the stare down with the 'Wyvern' no doubt providing a distraction.
The Queen looked at the human and Wyvern gaze at each other. After a short time the Wyvern finally let out a roar and jumped at the human.
At the same time the human just....vanished, leaving behind a small plume of dust where it once was. It moved with such speed that to her all she could see was a dull grey blur. The Wyvern whipped around trying to find where the human had gone, letting loose a flame from its gullet when it found the human. She cringed as the flames enveloped the human, that attack could have easily killed her with its heat, and the human had just taken the brunt of it.
Her eyes snapped open as a shape slammed into the Wyverns neck, the human had instead of jumping away, jumped right at the Wyvern. There was so much force behind the attack that the Wyvern was thrown onto its back. The human then savagely ripped of one of the many spikes along the Wyvern’s head crest and slammed it into its skull, the Wyvern twitched once and laid still.
She could feel the entire Hive wilt away as the human jumped off the corpse and walked to the other humans, not a scratch or burn on it, the entire Hive could hardly believe that the most powerful hunter on the planet had just been killed so....easily. She caught sight of another Wyvern take wing and fly off, no doubt off to tell the rest of its clan.
I was honestly unsurprised at how the Praetorian had killed that dragon, I had seen the Decon IV videos after all, so that show of force was pretty tame. The Queen on the other hand appeared to be have been taken aback by the display.
"I'll take care of that. UEG Frigate "Atlas" I need a KEW strike, sending targeting data now, super light round ten percent charge."
There was a pause before the round could be seen hitting the dragon, turning it into a red mist. The round then slammed into the ground the shockwave was enough to send all the insectoids except the Queen to the ground.
ZEUS Station - Zeus Station serves as the beating heart of all of the UEGs military endeavors. It serves as the main shipyard, navy training facility, it is also the training facility for all of the UEGs special forces programs ( Praetorians ). It is also a research station for ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) operations. It is defended by a fleet only second to the Terra deference fleet. The fleets flagship is the Super Dreadnought 'The Light of Zeus'
I looked out of one of the many windows aboard the 'Sagan' watching ships move about above the pale blue dot spinning below, waiting for the results for a certain 'project' of mine.
In the couple of months that we had been here the fleet had been reinforced, now consisting of one Dreadnought, two Cruisers, five Destroyers, and a dosen Heavy Frigates. We had been very busy in the past couple of months, in that time we have documented nearly all of the species on the planet.
I looked to three reports laying on my desk in-particular, picking up the one closest to me, looking it over one last time.
'Púca'
- The 'Púca' are a insectoid race of quadrupeds native to the planet GW-420-1 ( Code Named Eden ), in system 5929-A, sector S-478-BA-9. They are, as I wrote in my earlier report ( See Report 001 ), they have a black chitinous exoskeleton, and pair of wings that are capable of flight. Instead of re-stating what I wrote in Report 001, I will write what we have learned about the culture and mannerisms of the 'Púca'. If I could sum up all I have learned about them in one word, that word would be 'alien'.
They have no art, no music, not even names, yet when I think about it I understand why. We humans have the odd urge to force our nature, onto nature. Why would they have names, why would they have music, those things, while seeming normal to us are when you get to the meat of it, human inventions. Taking music for example, it has been widely accepted that humankind uses music primarily to express and convey feelings and to develop a feeling of togetherness, in this respect the 'Púca' have no use for music as they can directly express what they are feeling to their peers. Although they have shown a interest in music when we showed it to them.
As for names, the best explanation I can come up with stems from their insect like nature. The 'Púca' posses a 'hive mind' and because of that they have a lesser understanding of individuality, with only the 'Púca' higher up on the chain having any real sense of self. They appear to use small crystals for identification, small markings in the crystal appear to differentiate between individuals.
-The 'Púca' are divided into a cast system with three main levels.
The Queen
At the top is the Queen. The Queen stands in at an average of forty feet tall. She is the 'main' mind of the hive, the one guiding influence that all members of the hive move too. She can take over the mind and body of any member of her hive, using them as if they were her own, also she can take more of a 'back seat' in their minds ( I believe she does this at all times ) mealy acting as an observer. She has the power to use the minds of her 'subjects' to bolster her own thinking power and knowledge as well. John had described it similar to being under water, as a force pushing in from all sides, he said that it was not particularly painful just 'different'. The other members of the hive have an undying loyalty to the Queen, and will follow any command given. The most interesting fact about them is that we believe them to have negligible senescence maybe even biological immortality.
The Matriarch
The Matriarchs appear to be the main cast within in the Hive. They posses a skewed sense of individuality when within the confines of the hive mind, but on their own are comparable to a baseline human in terms of sapience. Chrysalis and her Mother would be considered Matriarchs. They about six feet from 'hoof' to horn when fully grown. We believe that a Matriarch has the ability to mutate into a full fledged Queen if the need arises.
The Drone
The Drones appear similar to the Matriarchs externally, but in fact are quite different internally. They can be more likened to animals then their more intelligent relatives. They serve as the all around 'cannon fodder' of the Hive, doing the majority of the redundant or menial tasks.
Arcaneium
Arcaneium is the tentative name of the 'power' that all casts of the 'Púca' posses. This 'power' appears to be natural produced in their own bodies, as Chrysalis (Specimen 001) was still able to harness her power while aboard the "Icarus". Testing has concluded that this power gives 001 the ability to lift objects many times its own size, and it has been documented that the other members of it race are able to do other things. Their power can not be used constantly as they require a resting period before their power can be used again. Further testing is scheduled, I have submitted requests for tests to see if this power can be used by humans, but the tests have not been approved as of yet.
I shut off the pad and picked up the next one.
Wyvern
The Wyvern are a sapient race of flight capable reptiles native to the more monotonous regions of GW-420-1. They vary in size from something that could perch on my shoulder to something that could eat a dropship whole, but they are an average of fifty feet from the tip of their snot to their tail.
(A Wyvern atop a Púca tower)
The Wyvern are just as intelligent as the Púca, but of the two Wyvern are the more 'cultured' of the two races. They do not have cities or infrastructure (mainly because of their size) but they do have a rich culture. They posses a form of music, some art, and even a written language. The Queens words were true when she said that they were 'Honorable', apparently a member of one of the clans had seen what we did to the two outcasts and we were 'rewarded' for our 'troubles' with a large amount of what appears to be gold and precious gems (samples were recorded and left overs were dispersed amongst the crew). They appear to live around a complex system of codes and rituals that are exclusive to their own peoples, that said we are exempt from their codes, although we do not have a free pass according to the clan leader 'Ehecatl' and must show ourselves as good guests.( the Chairman has already touched on the subject of 'out of regulation activity' in that he said if anyone steps out of bounds their contract will be 'liquidated'.)
They appear to view us with a mix of superstitious awe and respect. They do not understand everything we have showed them but they are progressing fast in that respect. They have given us many names so far but the most prevalent appears to be 'Wahl-Do-Lein', the best translation we can come up with is 'Maker-Of-Life/World', I believe that it is fitting given what we have shown them. The appear to be strongly religious and believe in a single god, 'Dein-Do-Yol' or as it translates 'Keeper-Of-The-Flame', a Wyvern the size of the world and made from fire. The clans that we have encountered are generally indifferent about integration but their are many outliers that wish to do so.
The pad winked off as I set it down to pick up the largest of the three-
A knock at my door got my attention.
"Doctor, sorry for disturbing but I thought you said to notify you personally when the specimen woke up."
"Thank you."
I put the pad down and walked out the door, making my way to the research wing.
The specimen she was referring too was a part of the 'Uplift Program', and as of now she was the most promising one in a string of failures. Uplifting the Equine like race to sapience was easy enough, aside from the 'side effects', a gruesome combination of mutations that came about as they aged, and as of yet had been fatal every time.
Out of the four iterations of gene lines code named: PHOBOS, BOREAS, HARPAGOS, and finally ALICORN, ALICORN appeared to be the most likely to produce viable subjects.
As I passed through the doors to the research wing a familiar old song reached my ears, "Beethoven's 9th? Really?" I asked to no-one inparticlar.
I rounded the corner to see something that did not make me very happy.
The one way window to subjects 01A and B's room had a small crowed of my scientists bunched up around it.
"Alright! Anyone who is not on the project had better be out of my sight before they see what the other side of an airlock looks like!" I yelled as loud as I could.
After shuffle of movement left two scientist behind, one who were actually meant to be here, I looked into the cell.
Subject 01A, a almost pure white 'Alicorn', was messing with a hologram of a sun; using the tips of her primary feathers on her wings to twist and turn the hologram, casting light and shadows about the room. Meanwhile subject 01B, a dark sapphire blue 'Alicorn', was laying on her back looking up at the ceiling of her end of the room which had been replaced with a hologram of the space outside of the ship.
"Who gave them access to the mainframe?" I asked slight agitated about not being told.
"I did" The AI whose name took after the ships, his avatar appearing at my side.
"Why did you give them access, Carl?" I asked the AI
"Because they have exhausted the curriculum you gave them, James. I could not just let them sit there." He said back, a smug look on his face.
That was a good sign, "No mental denigration? That's good."
He nodded, "Yes.... well there was a small problem. Subject 01B has sown a predisposition for schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, but it is easily treatable with medication."
I narrowed my eyes at 01B, watching her point at the stars calling out to her 'sister', "If it gets any worse I want it terminated, we cannot allow the gene pool to be contaminated this early on. Understand?"
Carl nodded, "I understand, Doctor." Then he vanished.
I looked to my two associates, "They have names?"
The one who answered was looking at a data pad and waved dismissively, "Carl had two names he liked; Subject 01A is 'Celestia' and 01B is 'Luna'."
"Hmm," I shrugged, " It's better calling them 01A or 01B."
"Ya, it is."
"Keep monitoring them, I have to got talk to the chairman."
"Chairman, its good to see you." I said as I sat down.
"Likewise Doctor, I assume you've sent me the relevant files on our scheduled updates?"
"Yes, I wanted to talk about our progress here." I asked.
"We have made great strides here Doctor." He said back.
"Yes I know, I want to know that we are not subjugating them here Chairman."
"This is about 'Alexandria' isn't not? The purpose of the cities construction is so that we can have a 'melting pot' of sorts, a test if you will to see if the Púca, Wyvern, and your.... Equines, can interact and live stably in an environment with us."
"I believe we can Chairman, they're peaceful enough. It's us that's going to be the problem."
"Maybe.....maybe, we'll have to give it time Doctor, move slowly, carefully."
"I saw that the amount of warships here has gone up, something I should be worried about Chairman?"
He turned his back, "Just an..... insurance policy, Doctor. Nothing you need to worry about."
'Hmmp, his way of saying 'none of your damned business'.' I thought.
"I hope we don't need it." I said as I left the room.
The chairman looked at a datapad, a familiare outline of a HLF recon vessel on the screen.
'Never hurts to be prepared.' he thought to himself.
I looked out on the sprawling City as I pulled on a shirt. 'Alexandria' as it was called was the largest city on Eden, more of an experiment by the Chairman and Doctor James, it had a combined population of just over a million. The city’s purpose was to see if we could all peacefully coexist in one area before we reveal this to the public at large.
I was currently on leave from a deployment fighting the HLF, they had become..... sparse in these last twenty years. Almost no activity had come out of their territory. Which is good, the UEG is..... tired, we've been fighting nonstop for nearly two thousand years. Things are not looking good for humanity, the UEG is on the edge of falling apart, even more so than before.
I don't think we even know what peace is anymore.
No, I know we don't, but we can start again here.
The other races here are used to us now, they know what we really are. The Hives have been united under a single banner, as with the Wyvern. The Equines have also come far, their population is growing steadily from what James says. He was.... ecstatic when they began producing offspring on their own. Even if they are not exactly what we intended. Apparently the genes get scrambled, and they either are born with a horn, wings, or both, and in some cases neither.
A spotted a black dot hanging in the air and my HI magnified the image, revealing something odd.
'A Ark-ship? What the hell...' I thought to myself.
My confusion grew as three more appeared in the air.
Standing in at one hundred and fifty kilometers, Ark-ships are the biggest ships in the UEG fleet. Despite their massive size they never served in direct engagements, they were only used to transport huge numbers of ground troops and supplies, although they did hold six Frigates each in their hangers that could be called on to protect the ship.
'Maybe the Chairman had decided to go through with the reveal.'
A knock on my door interrupted my musings, it opened a second later to reveal something I was not expecting.
"Chrysalis!?" I said, 'Oh crap, she doesn't look happy.'
She moved slowly into the room, her wings flaring, eyeing me the whole way, "Three weeks....Three! I had to learn that you were here from James!"
I had not seen her in eighteen years, so I guess her anger was justified, though she looked more happy than angry. She had grown well, she looked exactly like her mother, as did the rest of the Matriarchs. The only way I knew it was her was the crystal hanging around her neck.
"I've been in system for three weeks, yes, but I've only been planetside for two days. Sorry." I said to my friend, hoping to calm her down.
A angry Púca is a bad thing, one the size of her could rip a baseline human in half with their powers. She couldn't kill me, but she could do some damage.
After hearing that her wings came back to their normal resting places, "Oh..... well its good to see you again John." She said. "sorry about that."
I waved her off, "It's alright. Hey I was heading out to a meeting with the Chairman, wanna come?"
She did the Púca version of a smile, a slight twitch of the wings, "That would be nice."
I brushed passed a rainbow maned pegasus, making my way to the orbital elevator.
"What do you think the Chairman wants John?" She asked me.
"I don't know, but I've got a bad feeling about all of this." I said back.
"I know, I can feel it, the whole Hive can." She said, "John, I'm scared."
We stopped as we reached the doors to the orbital elevator, "Don't worry, we won't let anything happen to any of you." I said as I placed a hand on her shoulder.
With a nod we walked into the complex, only to be greeted by a Praetorian, "Corporal, the chairman needs to speak with you." He looked at Chrysalis, who was practically hiding behind me, "You too Ma'am. He's on the orbital." He said pointing up. "Come with me."
We followed the Praetorian into the tram, feeling the Gs as it accelerated up the tether.
The Praetorian stopped at a set of doors, "The Chairman is waiting for you." We walked in but the Praetorian stopped Chrysalis, "Ma'am you are coming with me, Chairman's orders."
"Where are you taking me?" She asked.
"That's classified, Ma'am, I'm authorized to use force if you do not comply." He said back.
She looked at me and I nodded, "It's ok."
"Be safe." She said.
"Ya.... you too." I said back as the Praetorian took her away.
I walked through the doors finding myself looking at the back of the Chairman.
"Chairman, Sir." I said with a salute.
"John.. Take a seat."
'He sounds......off.'
"You wanted to see me?" I said.
He turned around to face me, "Yes, I have some..... bad news."
'Oh crap...' I thought, "Sir?"
"Three days ago a ONI scout ship found this," A hologram appeared in the rooms center, a recording from the ships cameras. It showed a planet with a dozen HLF ships orbiting it. " an HLF staging base. A ONI team found their target, I'll give you one guess at what it is."
"Here." I said grimly, "Sir that we have a massive fleet here, I doubt they can do much harm."
"Normally yes but..." The image sped up then slowed when a Wormhole opened, from it dozens of HLF warships pored through. Then another Wormhole opened and a massive dreadnought appeared. My stomach dropped.
"How... how many?" I asked.
"One hundred and fifty, including that Dreadnought. From what we can tell this is what they have been doing all these years, amassing this fleet. How could I have been so foolish, thinking them defeated." The Chairman said solemnly
"They outnumber us three-to-one." I said, still not believing what I was seeing.
"John, we both know what's going to happen, they're going to crush this fleet, then the planet. There's no other outcome, reinforcements are too far away." He said.
My mind went back to the Ark-ships, "The Ark-ships?"
"We're leaving John. The Ark-ships are already being prepared. I am getting everything off Eden that I can....but many are going to be left behind. We have a limited space on the Ark-ships, only the most..... valuable are going to go." He said.
" I....understand, Sir."
"Their main objective is the capture of the planet and the majority of the populace. You'll be ground side, organising a defence, the fleet will hold them off for as long as they can. Your objective is to protect the Ark-ship 'Odyssey'. You'll exfil to the 'Odyssey' and jump to Terra, from there the population will be redistributed to heavily defend positions on the garden world 'Iroquois'." He said.
"What happens to you? Where will you be?"
"I will be aboard the Fleet's Flagship, the Super Dreadnought 'Badb'." He responded.
"If I may how do you plan to pull this off when we so outnumbered?" I asked.
He took in a deep breath, "Sometimes the only way to win is to make sure your enemy will fail in his objective."
"Chairman there has to be-" I started.
"That will be all Corporal."
In the back of my head I knew he was right, "Yes.....Yes, Sir."
I turned to walk out, before the Chairman spoke up, stopping me.
"Corporal, your friend, Chrysalis, will be on the 'Odyssey'. I suggest you do your job well."
UEG Ships. Tagged United Earth Government Vessel (UEGV)
Super Dreadnought (UEGV-SD) - Super Dreadnoughts are the largest ships of the line in the UEG, standing in at fifty kilometers. Their main gun fires a round that impacts with a force of 5.5K megatons of energy. A small number of these warships exist, with most at Terra.
Dreadnought (UEGV-D) - The normal flagship of a fleet, Dreadnoughts stand in at twenty-eight kilometers.
Cruiser (UEGV-C) - Cruisers make up the bulk of the UEG fleet, they stand in at fifteen kilometers used in fleet-to-fleet engagements.
Destroyer (UEGV-D) - Used primarily for ship-to-ship engagements, they stand in at eight kilometers.
Frigate (UEGV-F) - Used for preliminary attacks against small fleets, used in packs of ten to fifteen. They stand in at one-and-a-half kilometers.
"Th- UEGV-De- 1- massiv- damage, main reactor overloa-"
"This is UEGV 'Badb', De-125 is dust, battle group 2-5, move to fill that hole."
The radio ran through a symphony of voices before I found the frequency I needed.
"This is the Ark-ship 'Odyssey' we are away." The voice of the ships Captain said.
"This is the Chairman to all ground units, move to your exfil positions."
I winced slightly as a round knocked a chip out of the cover I was behind.
"Sniper, fifth floor, right window." One of my squad mates said.
"1-2, launcher, on my mark." I said.
I waited a moment before popping out of cover, and letting loose a hail of gunfire on said building, the rest of the squad following my lead.
"Now!"
There was a thump followed by an explosion as the launcher set its payload down range.
"Clear?" I asked.
"Clear." Responded the rest of my group.
"Come on, we have got to move, civvies in the middle." I ordered.
We surrounded the group of six ponies and began moving to the drop-ships.
The battle over all was not going well. Our fleet got decimated right out of the gate, the Chairman made it clear that this was a 'no win' situation early on in the fight when he used half of our fleet in a suicide run on the HLF Dreadnought. They used a FENRIS warhead, a device with a yield of one and a half Petatons, to wipe out the majority of the HLF fleet.....and the small planet they were hiding behind.
But we were still outnumbered two to one in space, and the moment we lose up there the ground operations are over.
He had made it clear that we were just a delaying action for the Ark-ships.
Now that they were away, my group was tasked with clearing this section of the city of VIPs that had not made it to the Ark-ship due to the HLF forces that had made it through the orbital defences. Sadly we had to turn a blind eye to anyone that wasn't on the list, there just was not enough space on the ships to bring everyone, some had to be left behind.
I shifted the weight of my AR - 548 in my arms, giving the weapon a look over.
I wouldn't leave anyone to the HLF, that would be cruel... inhumane.
Least they didn't feel anything my way.
At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
A blip on my radar made me hold my fist up, signaling everyone to stop. The red dot was about ten meters away on the other side of a wall, and it was in our way. I activated my HUDs advanced detection mode, the HUD greyshifted a second later a red line shot out and swept across the battlefield. It passed through the wall and the wave bounced off what was revealed to be a baseline human. It then identified the many weapons that the baseline was carrying.
“HLF scout, we can’t sneak passed, can’t risk it with the civvies. I’ll take him out, be right behind me and get across the street, his buddies will come running when his bios go dark.” I ordered.
After a combination of “Copy that” from my squadmates and nods of affirmation from the ponies I put my AR - 548 in my back and ran at the wall.
Just before I reached the wall I jumped at it hands out. My body slammed through it and into the baseline, I impacted him in the shoulder and I could feel it disconnect, then his shoulder blade shattered as he was thrown the the ground, his weapon flying through the air and landing a couple of feet away. I did a small flip so I could land on all fours, then I jumped at him as he tried to crawl to his assault rifle. He let out a gnarled scream as I landed on his back, crushing and breaking the bones in his ribcage with my weight, before I silenced him by grabbing him by his armored collar and pulling up, snapping his spine in multiple places before slamming his head down, turning it into a bloody divot in the ground.
“Move, move, move!” I called into the hole I made in the wall before taking my AR - 548 of my back.
The assembled about group made it about half way across before a round slammed into my shoulder, my shields flared up and rippled like water as more rounds began hitting me and the ground around me.
I spun on my heel and began firing at the HLF squad that had rounded the corner, “MOVE!” I yelled over the hail of gunfire.
One of the HLF appeared from his cover with a launcher and fired it right at me, “Fuck!” I said as I dived out of the way, the projectile hitting the building behind me. I got up just in time to see another coming at me, this one much too close to evade. I shifted my arms in an attempt to shield myself from the majority of the damage and pumped as much energy as a could into my shields.
The missile suddenly jerked left as the missiles nose was bathed in a magenta glow, before slamming into a wall, giving me the chance to jump back to cover. My head whipped around to see one of the unicorns, a fairly young female with a purple coat and two tone mane. Her horn stopped glowing and she gave me a quick nod before jumping into the building that the others were in.
“Come on sir, lets take the rest of these fuckers out.” One of my squad members said.
“Grenades on my mark......mark!” I said as the explosive left my hand.
A couple of thumps reverberated through the ground and I swung out of cover.
After an hour of bobbing and weaving through buildings four short firefights we made it to the exfil location, a small clearing near the edge of the city.
“This is Blue 1-1, requesting exfil of six VIPs, over.” I said into my helmets mic.
“Blue 1-1, this is Phoenix Five, ETA to your location.... Ten minutes, over.” The pilot said back.
I looked around and rested my eyes on an strong looking building, “Blue 1-3, move the civvies into that building, into the basement if it has one, then get to a window and set up. Blue 1-4, I want you on top of that two-story proved sniper support. Blue 1-2, you're with me.”
As the others ran off to their positions as Blue 1-2 and I began setting up defensive positions.
Just as I moved the last car into our makeshift barrier, Blue 1-4 spoke up, “I have multiple heat signatures, at least fifty, all coming down on this position.”
“Thats it?” 1-3 quipped.
“Looks like they’ve got a tank and CAS as well.” 1-4 said.
“ You just had to open your mouth, didn't you?” I said back.
“Piss poor odds for them.” 1-3 said.
I chuckled as a round impacted the wall I was hiding behind, the mirth slowly spreading to the rest of the squad.
“Thats twenty!” 1-4 called out as another body hit the ground with a new hole in its head.
“Cover that flank! Over by the black car!” I called.
It took a moment to aim before squeezing the trigger in my rifle, hearing a scream as a HLF trooper dropped.
A round impacted my helmet, making my head jerk back and my shields ripple, “Damnit!” I screamed as I ducked behind my potholed peace of cover.
They had brought in their CAS, a drone the size of a small car, and it was proving to be a nuisance. We had long since run out of anything strong enough to take it down, and under its cover the HLF forces were able to slowly advance.
“This is Blue 1-1 I need support now! I’ve got six VIPs here with an HLF drone bearing down on our position, someone, anyone please respond.” I called into my COM.
“Blue 1-1, this is Hellbound 1-1, I’ve received your targeting data, payload in ten.” A voice said.
“Hellbound 1-1, this is Blue 1-1, copy that. Everyone get to cover!” I yelled out as I ran to the building the VIPs were in.
I jumped through a window and turned around just in time to see a joint strike fighter flyover the battlefield at a hypersonic speed, its roar coming a second later punctuated by the CAS drone turning into a ball of fire and crashing into the ground.
“Their pulling back!” I called, “Open up!”
From my vantage point I could see them retreating back from our position, taking casualties all the way.
“Blue 1-1, this is Phoenix Five, ETA to your location thirty seconds.”
“Copy that Phoenix Five. Blue squad move up!” I called.
We slowly fanned out of the building, make sure to cover all possible ambush positions. I waved Phoenix Five down as the civilians came out of the building, filling into the dropship.
“This is Blue 1-1 VIPs are secured. Can anyone hear me? Over.” I said into my COMs.
“Don’t waste your breath Blue, fleet’s in shambles. Ark-ships are already out system except for the 'Odyssey'.”
“Get us there Pilot.”
As we lifted off just as a fifty kilometer fireball tore across the sky.
“Holy shit..... it’s the 'Badb'! How in the hell did they take it down?!”
I watched as the ship plowed into the ground, cutting a multi-kilometer trench across Edens surface before coming to a rest.
“Pilot get is to that crash sight now!”
“Sir?”
“The Chairman was on that ship and according to his N-F feed he’s still alive.”
I was close to the Chairman now, according to this his N-F feed was just passed this bulkhead.
I looked up and read the words above the door.
‘ARMORY’
I forced open the doors, and quickly found the Chairman, who had a piece of metal through his shoulder, pinning him to the wall.
“Chairman, sir!” I said as I ran up to him, he grunted in pain as I ripped the piece of metal out.
“John......”
“Don’t talk.” I said.
He was losing blood fast, I popped a can of medical nanites onto the wound and thankfully the bleeding stopped.
“Lets get you out of here sir.” I said as I bent down to pick him up, but before I could he rested a hand on my shoulder, stopping me.
“No..... not this time.” He said.
“What..... what are you talking about sir?”
“I’m not coming with you....... my place is here. Its started John, the second Fall. I did everything I could to stop it..... but I didn't...... There's been a coup, the.....council is in shambles. The fleet is tearing itself apart..... I’ve failed......everyone. The least I can do is give you....them, a fighting chance. There is still a FENRIS warhead in this armory..... I need you to arm it for me, and link it to my lifesigns. Then you get off world and find somewhere safe. I told everything to Captain Del Marco, he knows what to do, he can keep them safe. They are...all of them, our children, make sure they're safe...... no matter what.”
“Dammit Sir, we need you-”
“No.....no you don’t.”
“I........ Yes, sir.”
I got up only to be stopped by his hand grabbing my wrist, “John..... would you be so kind as to leave me your sidearm.”
“Captain, Blue 1-1 in onboard, the Chairman..... didn't make it. Blue 1-1 says there's a FENRIS warhead about to detonate planetside any minute now!” My COMs officer said.
“Helm, spin up the drives, get us out of here.”
“Yes, Captain.”
The Ship speed away from the planet, orbiting away so that they were on the dark side.
“Sir, drives are spun up, but we’ve got HLF ships inbound.”
“Jump now!”
Just as the ship jumped a round impacted the ship, and due to the ships power being drawn by the drive, the shields had nowhere near the energy needed to stop the round, and the round struck the ship. The space around the ship warped and twisted, then unseen by the humans, but the ships AI saw it plain as day, the universe seemed to fall into itself and then ..... tare, there was a brighter than normal flash and the 'Odyssey' vanished.
A second later a new sun appeared on Eden, the oceans boiled away, the ground turned to glass before shattering. Then, unable to take the stress, the planet itself shattered. Taking the remains of the HLF fleet with it.
I sighed deeply as I attempted to rub the sleepiness out of my eyes as I walked to my cryopod, failing missibly.
Being awake for a week strate would do that to a baseline like myself.
We could quite honestly not be an a worse position.
The ship had been hit just before we jumped, now wormhole physics are not my strong suit, but I know that kind of a force on the ship should have collapsed the wormhole and turned the ship, and everyone in it, into free floating particles.
Yet, we're still here.
Well even that's an objective point of view, we don’t even know where ‘here’ is. For right now all we know is that we are in a ‘dead zone’, a region of space with no stars, with the nearest being hundreds or even thousands of years away.
The ship itself was damaged as well, whatever had happened fryed the drive, making it impossible to jump the ship, and we do not have the necessary tools to repair it.
Leading us into our next problem.
The three hundred and six thousand, three hundred and four individual VIPs, a mixed bag of unicorns, pegasi, Alicorns, and ‘baselines’ along with a couple thousand wyvern and púca, were a missive draw on our resources. Normally they would be placed into cryo with the rest of us to preserve resources, the problem being was time. With a trip with a potential time scale of thousands of years, we had to take wetwear degradation into account, cryo over long periods of time, could destroy the nerve connections in the brain, leading to mental retardation, loss of muscle control and death.
So a plan was made.
Over the past week we had been making modifications to the ships PODs, using them, we could preserve the VIPs and in turn monitor them for mental degradation while they eventually ‘live’ in the simulation for the duration of the trip. The main problem was the power draw that the POD mainframe had, so to save every Amp we could the simulation was..... simplified. Things like colors were changed, removing most hues, making them almost pop. Physics were greatly simplified to cut down the load on the CPU. It went from the hyper-real simulation that it normally was to something that looked like a damned cartoon.
Not the perfect plan.... but it was the best we could do with what we have.
With a another sigh I climbed into my Cryo-pod.
Just before the blackness claimed my mind, on last thing shot through my mind.
Zeus Station serves as the beating heart of all of the UEGs military endeavors. It serves as the main shipyard, navy training facility, it is also the training facility for all of the UEGs special forces programs ( Praetorians ). It is also a research station for ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) operations. It is defended by a fleet only second to the Terra deference fleet. The fleets flagship is the Super Dreadnought '
