A young boy ran playfully through the huge field of sweetfern, letting the wind blow through his hair. He gazed off into the distance as he ran, watching Z9-77, the star his homeworld of Karia orbited sink beneath the horizon, happy to see it was almost dark. The boy plopped down into the swaying fronds, picking off a piece of the plant his father cultivated for a living and sucking the sugary juice from the center.
A few stars were already visible overhead. The boy looked upward, patiently awaiting a view of the space station. Karia was known throughout the sector not only as the home of sweetfern, but also as the largest fleet base for a hundred parsecs. Flaring exhaust plumes from launching warships began to shine through the atmosphere, slowly growing brighter as the night sky grew black.
Suddenly, there was an explosion at the station. The boy looked on in mixed awe and terror as bright, flashing explosions lit up the sky. What is going on up there? he wondered. His dream had always been to serve in the fleet at Karia Naval Base, and now someone had the audacity to destroy it? How dare they!
The boy suddenly spotted a cloud of bright specks growing larger, lighting up as they did. He'd seen it before, the last time the space station's orbit had passed it over his father's farm. It was a group of ships entering the atmosphere . . . and one of them seemed to be directly overhead. It continued to grow larger, dimming to gray as it slowed, decreasing the friction with the planet's atmosphere. It was soon flying low overhead, heading toward Brocktown, the boy's home village.
Unsure of what to do, the boy hid, only about one hundred meters from the town. The space craft landing in the center of Brocktown, it's shields deflecting what weak resistance the city police could fire at it.
The minutes passed as the terrified boy sat listening to the panicked screams of the townspeople. His family, his friends were in trouble, and there was nothing he could do about it. Suddenly, a eerie silence swept over the village. A few seconds later the boy heard a chanting. It started out soft, then grew louder as more voices joined in. People were pouring out into the streets, like rats following a piper, all the while chanting in unison. "Kruhara veisara Rat'chatkan!"
The boy spotted his parents in crowd at the edge of the town. The crowd began to move slowly out into the field, chanting even louder now. The boy remained perfectly still, holding his breath.
"Kruhara veisara Rat'chatkan! Power and life to the True Ones!"
The crowd was now so close the boy could see their faces. All of them were the familiar faces of his friends and family, but they looked somehow drained of life. The crowd was moving faster now, and the boy could see they were all looking directly at him.
With a scream of total, overpowering terror and sadness, the boy ran further out into the field as fast as his little legs could carry him, the gruesome horde right at his heels.
--Bald Locust ( kunra@usa.net )
The boy crouched low try to quieten his loud gulps for air. Sweat trickled down his dark face stinging his eyes. He could hear what had once been his friends and neighbors shuffling through the field. Just when he was was sure he was going to be found, a dirty smelly hand was clamped over his mouth. He looked into the white eyes of the blind beggar girl, Cable.
She shook her head and took her hand from his mouth. She put her finger to her lips in the sign of silence then motioned for him to follow her. They crawled on their knees out through the field. Slowly the sounds of the others vanished, and the girl stood up. She pointed towards the mountains. "The mountains will offer us cover, until our ride arrives."
As the boy followed, his head was full of a million questions, but he
dared not speak for fear of being overheard.
--Whisper Mckee
The same scenes played out on several more worlds, both Human and
Kalpurnian. Neither government noticed the loss of contact, simply because
each world taken was a small agricultural colony. Most worlds like that
simply couldn't afford new communication equipment, and it wasn't unheard
of for a planet to go for months without interstellar contact. In fact, it
would be several more months before a ship was even dispatched to see what
the problem was, which of course would be too late to do anything but warn
of the incoming danger.
--MHal9000
Jessica was Psi linked to the ship scanning data at an inhuman rate when
Rook walked back onto the bridge. Blitz had bagged then crawled off and she
was still mentally cursing herself that she had let him off so easy.
If there was information to be had, she needed it badly.
--Whisper
So badly that she was willing to return to the planet where she had "died".
Something must've played across her face, for Rook looked at her with some concern in his eyes. It was a nice change from the open hostility he had been displaying for the flight so far.
"Are you well Hunter?" He sat in a flight chair across from her, crossing his legs in a classic budhist fashion.
"We are going to a place I have not been for some time. I associate it with a very unpleasant occurance in my life. The trip is neccessary, to understand these crystals, and to answer some questions which have recently arisen."
"Hmmph" He looked about the ship for some time, turning back when he had decided on an answer.
"For what it is worth, I apologize for my behavior on the planet earlier. I propose a partnership between us, to answer our questions on the crystals and the other concerns you need an answer for."
"If it was just between us I could be persuaded to, but I cannot trust your companion. Blitz is simply too dangerous to keep around, and as soon as I glean some information from him he won't be around anymore."
Rook shot her a harsh glance, startled by Jessica's antagonistic statement.
"You are going to kill him?" It was more than a question, more than a test. It was meant to sound out basic core principles. Rook had formed some early opinions of Hunter, and the answer to this could change his outlook on her radically.
"After what he tried to do I should. A simple rescue pod will get him back to civilization once he has told me a few things."
"I'm telling this to you now Hunter! The secrets you hold including this ship will be mine!"
Jessica and Rook casually looked over at the outburst. Blitz stood in the doorway, brandishing a large caliber burner. He still looked woozy from the beatings and the odd time-shift, and it didn't lend itself to the air of menace he was attempting to give off. At first he didn't notice the others indifference, but the adrenaline that coursed through his system began to burn off the daze he had been in.
"Are you two that stupid?! This thing can cut you in half!........I'll use it!!.........Dammit!.... what's going on?! You're acting like nothing's going on!"
Jessica allowed the smallest of smirks to play across her face in response. She got up and started toward Blitz at a nice leisurely pace.
"Stand back! I'll shoot you!!"
"I don't think you will Blitz, you don't have the sacks for it." A look of pure menace fell over Jessica's face, causing Blitz much discomfort. He began to shuffle backwards, fully aware of what Hunter could do at close range.
"You're giving me no choice!.....I'll do it!.......RRRAAAHHHHH!!!" Blitz pulled the trigger, anticipating the deep hum which signified the small sun which was about to spill out of the barrel. Instead he got silence, followed by a very loud thump which he really didn't hear since it was Jessica's boot conecting to his face. Nor did he hear the equally loud thump that was brought on by his body hitting the floor.
"Dampening fields, you'd think he'd never heard of them before."
--MHal9000
"Nor Self-aware Starships that have no intention of allowing high powered energy weapons to be discharged within itself, thank you. If I may interject on the matter of partnerships, I would like to hear what you have in mind."
If Pegasus had a way of showing any satisfaction, it was unappearant.
--Dansing_Raven
Somewhere, another one had been found. The conclusion was instant but, unknown to the ancient circuits, very wrong. It continued to track the new ship with slight interest. More than one could mean others and others could mean opposition. The later conclusion was over ridden. The true ones will conquer all that defy them. A small process was given the job of tracking the first and second ships. The second ship was smaller than the first. It moved toward the sensors for a while, then it turned away as if snapped back by a leash. A moment later it changed it's course once more. Its actions were logged but no conclusions were drawn, no such resources were given to the process, it was only to warn if the signals came too close.
"Sir, message for you." The computer casually informed Riconis.
"If it's from her, politely say no." Riconis shot back. It was bad enough that the forces would contact him this far out, but to demand his help because of loyalty was too much.
"How politely?" The computer asked. Riconis blinked, he had not actually expected her to get involved. He looked down from the HUD (Heads Up Display) and pulled back the visor on his helmet. The message was displayed on the main console. Riconis read the ancient characters he had once been taught. His pulse quickened, and palms grew wet. The message explained far more then he wanted to know. She pleaded to him to help. He was the only hunter this far out. Unfortunately the only one of his people this far out as well. It was up to him to find out what was truly happening and hopefully stop it. If he failed, "the bones of ancient warriors shall rise and put fire to all that the darkness touches." Riconis muttered the last words to himself but the computer caught it.
"That sounds like her." It said nonchalantly. Then it added in a deeper tone. "And it sounds dangerously foreboding. Your not actually going to take orders from them once again, are you?" The computer questioned Riconis's resolution.
"It's not them who's asking." Riconis answered as he began checking up old reports of a star system.
"We're not actually going there, are we?" The computer asked.
"For a warship you definitely sound hesitant at the idea of battle." Riconis edged his words with sarcasm.
"After freelancing with you in your new occupation for the past ten years I've seen some pretty ugly conflicts." The computer defended itself. "Even when you flew me in the forces I don't think I ever saw that much combat. But I'm not sure I can handle this planet and what going there might entail."
"Here," Riconis said, sounding as if he had not heard the computers whining. "Reference the information about this system with what we got from the TFC (Terran Federal Commonwealth)data base on our last job."
"I though you deleted that information once your employer paid you, as per your contract." The computer said as it finished the operation.
"That's right, I did. The memory cell was cleaned just as he ordered. True it was an external, decoy unit I used in case I was caught, but still. I did exactly what I was told."
"If I performed functions like you follow orders, I wouldn't get off the ground."
"That's why you're the computer." Riconis said as he looked over the results. "Hmmm.." Riconis mussed the terran data said it was a dead world, no inhabitants, no life forms. A special T.A.C. team was sent to investigate but was listed as failed due to a communication failure. No other information." Riconis leaned back into is seat as the ship guided itself. What was on that planet? The T.A.C. had confronted him before. He knew they were looking for Rat'chatkan remnants on the planet. Why else would the report be so short. It was a botched job and the orders came from higher up. So instead of going to see what happened they just put the lid on it to save face.
Rat'chatkan. Riconis grew cold. In a time before, they had written a dark chapter in his people's history. He shook his head. No. They were not always his people. Once Sol 3 (earth) had been home. Once, a long time ago, he had looked into the sky and never turned away.
"So are we going there?" The computer's voice pulled Riconis from his memories.
"It's not dangerous any more." Riconis offered as he manually plotted the course.
"Then why did she ask you to go?" Riconis had no answer for the computer. "And why did I just get a tactical down load from Forces headquarters?"
Riconis's heart froze at the computer's remark. With shaking hands he looked over the new message. Each line spoke of doom and terror as he read it. Weapons and tactics that had caused so much death and destruction were laid out before him. At the end of the report was a short message. Riconis read it out loud. "...and in all hopes we await a report of a false alarm. If however such good fortune is not to be had, then by all power of the ancients, we pray you can halt the alternative before we must confront the evil once more."
"Am I to assume this data is still correct?" The computer asked. Riconis nodded. "Then I will close communications with home until this is done. They may already be tracking us."
"C3?"
"Yes?" The ship's computer asked.
"Take those K4-58 high yield proton launchers in the wing pods that we got as payment from the Holrod job and begin altering them to serve as C5 class rails.
"Yes sir. I'll need 2 days and a stop for metals."
"You can get what you need at the asteroid field on our way."
"That asteroid field is in Kalpurnian space, sir." The computer informed Riconis.
"Your point?" Riconis asked coldly. The computer sensed that Riconis was focused on the new mission.
"I'll warm up the energy gauss cannons." The computer responded. "I won't be done with the rails by the time we arrive."
"I know, but you will be by the time we have to get the hell out of there." Riconis said as he warmed up the four Starburst engines for the spatial flux wave.
"One more thing."
"What?" Riconis asked.
"I only know that the planet is connected with something extremely dangerous but my memory data does not say why. What are we heading into?" The computer asked.
"Do you know why the Cordjial one was made?" "Yes. I see." The computer answered, Riconis set his jaw. "You know we're not getting paid for this."
"She asked." Riconis answered softly. The ship adjusted its direction and released the energy build up. With a flash of blue and white the Cordjial Three class attack craft vanished from normal space.
Scanners reported the loss of contact of the second ship and the process was
about to warn of a danger but stopped as the sensors showed that it was once
again detected. The event was logged but the position remained unknown.
Unable to extrapolate the meaning of this, the process did not alert the
main system. The system was not concerned with the two ships at the moment.
Right now the rebirth of the true ones was at hand.
--Realm Scribe Shadren
Hundreds of light years away, a small group of TFC warships moved to dock at Firebase 331, the largest terran military depot in the quadrant. All the normal procedures were followed, and authorizations given, over audio channels only. No explanations were asked for, and the five ships docked without any complications.
The support crews were met at the airlocks by dozens of bioformers, and even more transformed Kalpurnian warrior hosts. Over 50% of the base fell before a concerted defense perimeter was secured on the human side, but it soon began to be whittled away by the brutal attacks. At 2100 hours CMST, FB-331 fell without even being able to send an emergency transmission. Thousands of True ones were born that night, and the screams of their hosts rang throughout the halls of the captured base. From this point they were only several days from one of the outer core systems, heavily populated and rich with resources.
"Begin to retrofit the base and captured ships! We will need to upgrade this pitiful technology quickly if we are to complete our task on schedule!"
The former Capt. Wright, now known as Queel-Thaar barked orders at his subordinates. They rushed off, anxious to please the new Thaar, and hoping their actions would grant them promotion into the royal caste. That meant special neurochemical baths, mating privileges, dozens of perks and honors. Such as was befitting of the highest of the high.
--MHal9000
With a bright flash the Cordjial three came out of the spatial flux. Its nose pulled up and it rapidly decelerated as it flew belly first. Leveling out, Riconis began to scan the asteroid field for ore.
"Find a good one yet?" Riconis asked the computer.
"Half a moment." The system responded. Riconis looked around the floating rocks and debris of a planet long dead. His eyes fell on an object not 80 meters away. "Yes I saw that to. Its only a piece, I'm a little more worried about making those rails."
"I'm going to check it out." Riconis said reaching for his helmet. "Advise me against it later."
"I found a rock with enough ore in it."
"Good." Riconis said as his helmet locked with a click.
"It just so happens to be near that wreckage."
"Perfect."
The Cordjial craft moved over and caught the slowly moving asteroid in a kinetic lock and landed. In a moment several arms came out from the belly of the craft and began mining. The cockpit opened and Riconis floated out, his energy gauss riffle over his shoulder. Reacting to his thoughts his flight suit moved him toward the wreckage.
"Its still warm." The computer remarked over the com link.
"What do you mean?"
"That wreckage, it's still emanating traces of energy. Very weak, but I would say that it was destroyed only a day or two ago."
"Its Kalpurnian by the look of it."
"Transport."
"Mm…" Riconis muttered as he began to explore the exposed deck.
"Going in?"
"You need to ask?" Riconis began to inspect the wreckage. The edges looked to be torn rather than cut by weapons fire. Passing through the charred corridors he saw a few blackened Kalpurnian remains floating around. Finding a closed door, he tried to open it, but it stuck. With a sneer he pointed his rifle at the wall a few feet away and fired a few rounds. The bulkhead held for a moment as the smoke drifted away. Then it tore open, releasing the air trapped inside. Several more bodies were sucked out, along with more limbs and entrails. Riconis looked inside and his heart nearly froze. "By the high lords." He whispered. Attached to the far wall was a Kalpurnian warrior, his head was gone and stomach ripped open. "Link up with me." The computer responded. Riconis paused for a moment, he could feel the Cordjial computer link up telepathically and look through his eyes. "Wow." The computer remarked. "Carnage." Riconis looked around and found other bodies attached to the walls or floors all with similar or worse fates. Some were floating. Some were still normal.
Someone managed to stop this ship. Riconis shuttered. So this is what must be stopped. What's one ship going to do if they've got this far? "Scan the sector. Charge the EPP system."
"Way ahead of you."
"And get out of my head." He could feel the computer break the connection. It always unnerved him when some one else was hearing his thoughts.
"I see three ships. Two Kalpurnian destroyers, and a Terran frigate."
"Do they see us yet?" Riconis asked as he quickly made his way out of the wreckage.
"They just did. They are altering their course to intercept. Receiving the standard hails to stand down."
"How long until you're done?"
"Three minuets." The computer chimed. "They will intercept up in four."
"That should be enough time." Riconis drifted toward his ship. The arms below it worked vigorously inside the rock. Once in, he closed he cockpit and stowed his rifle behind his seat. Air hissed in as the cockpit pressurized. The lead Kalpurnian ship began to fire, taking out the asteroids in its way.
"That is not standard Kalpurnian weapons." The ship informed.
"Keep charging the EPP."
"How much more, the charge is reaching maximum."
"Let it out when it's at maximum."
"The ship will have us in weapons rang in two minutes." The computer informed. Riconis looked over the information displayed in the cockpit window as the ship grew nearer. The Terran ship was staying back while the other two advanced in line.
Weapons range. Riconis thought. Kalpurnian weapons. Those aren't Kalpurnian ships any more.
"Pull out now. Were getting out of here!" The arms pulled out of the fissure in the rock and the ship pulled away. Just then an energy beam from the lead ship vaporized the rock. Debris flew in all directions. Several hit the Cordjial but were stopped in the kinetic field of the ship.
"Full charge." With that the small ship disappeared into a ball of light then let lose the energy in a narrow shaft of death at the lead Kalpurnian ship. The shields on the Kalpurnian ship held for a brief moment, then the beam tore through hull. The Kalpurnian ship was gutted and the hollow hulk began to burn. "Not bad for my secondary weapon system."
"Now for the fun part." Riconis said swinging his ship into combat, powering up his forward nose canon. With a blast of blue light the small attack craft screamed toward the second ship. The Kalpurnian ship opened fire on the small craft but only succeeded in destroying more asteroids. Riconis flew his ship like a humming bird, diving, stopping and changing direction in an instant. In a moment he was on top of the ship. The nose canon opened up and cut two decks deep, seemingly ignoring all armor and shields. Still pointed at the Kalpurnian ship the Cordjial flew past and continued toward the last ship. Firing one last time into the engines, Riconis swung his ship back around. His wings blazed with fire as four energy gauss cannons fired a burst of half-ton yield energy-mass rounds. With engines screaming he dove into the fireball as the ship exploded. The second modified Kalpurnian ship saw the destruction of the true ones ship. It's once Kalpurnian commander knew that he was to die for letting it be destroyed. As the sensors found nothing, his only consolation was that the enemy had been destroyed as well.
"Well that was a fine mess." The computer complained. "I think I have a hole in my wing from that last stunt."
"Just get to work on the rails. We'll be there in three hours." Riconis didn't care too much about his last stunt. It had worked. Cloaking before jumping to an FTL (Faster Than Light) fight mode was normal in combat. Only he had done it in the middle of an exploding ship.
"By the way. Those were both bad ideas." The computer advised.
"Run Jessica!" screamed David, "Get out of here now!"
"No!" Jessica screamed. She ran to his side. "It's not going to take you away from me" She took hold of him and tried to pull him a way.
"Kill me" ran faintly through Jessica's head, but it was not David's mind. She turned to look at his face. She froze in terror as she saw that it was her own. The face became the one from the time hop. It twisted and changed into something else. Suddenly the horror caught hold of her. She could feel her own face change. She could see her reflection in her helmet as circuits seamed to cover her skin. She could feel old parts coming to life after a long sleep. A voice began to pull her to safety. Just then her body was ripped open.
"Gaa!" Jessica gasped as she woke up grasping her throat where the link to the Pegasus seamed to be choking her. Taking it off, she leaned forward on the controls, breathing heavily. Sweat dripped down her face and neck, she was flush and hot.
"I tried to wake you," the ship offered, "but the nightmare was to deep."
Jessica didn't answer. The dream had been too real and too close to her true fears.
"I need a shower." She said as she stood up, then she remembered Rook.
"Damn!" She cursed. She still had not answered his proposition.
--Realm Scribe Shadren
