(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)

Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l33tpally, Bennie, SEA-TAC_Sweetie, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, TheDespoiler, Guardian, GunKitty, Chummer, Inquisitor, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, M.Mollen, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, DigDug, BigGunn, Dolcett, Starwatcher, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.

GrimDark: Glory to Dethom, in the Empress’s name! The Traitor has been brought down!

GunKitty: Yeah, Dethom was on fire, from the streams!

Lizard: The False Emperor almost had them, though, in that fourth phase! They got unlucky with some of the adds, and nearly had all three sigils go down at once. That would have been an instant wipe!

DigDug: Limitless was not far behind, either. They were both neck and neck, from what I could see, but Dethom pulled ahead at the last second.

Knocker: I was impressed by Chaos Brigade. They didn’t have the kind of organization that Dethom and Limitless did, but they were right there in the thick of it. Third, but not that far back.

BloodForTheBloodGod: Glory to Chaos for their triumph!

TheDespoiler: Hah. It was a hard fight, but a worthy one. And the loot was epic. Unlike the dungeon, the raid was set up differently. There were more enemies, and stronger, but you could actually loot the bodies for weapons and armor, among other things. Running the False Emperor’s Haven can earn a lot of money, if you can carry everything out.

BigGunn: Like, how much loot are we talking about?

TheDespoiler: Well, after repairs and consumable costs, we were able to clear a very hefty sum. Part of that was multipliers for being in the top 10, and the first in-game week after the boss died, but even at half the spoils per run, I believe we’ll be able to make enough for a special project.

Inquisitor: What heresy are you planning now?

TheDespoiler: Just calling forth the Vengeful Spirit, to serve as the base for the Chaos Brigade from hence-forth! Larger than a superdreadnought!

M.Mollen: Yes, the plans were really quite interesting. Fortunately, Chaos Brigade agreed to a discount on their new ship in return for some schematics and blueprints they ‘recovered’.

Anonymous7: Wait a minute. The Black Stars are building a… what, megadreadnought for the Chaos Brigade?

M.Mollen: Well, it needed the extra size to hold that massive cannon. But it could easily hold thirty or forty thousand men.

GrimDark: This heresy cannot be allowed to stand.

TheDespoiler: You cannot stop us.

M.Mollen: Grim, send me a PM, and I’ll include price sheets if you want to talk about ships. The design teams were absolutely thrilled with the proposed Gloriana schematics, and different designs could be made.

GrimDark: It would be fitting if the Red Tear were to come to the defense of worlds threatened by the Vengeful Spirit…

MacD: Enough about that. Did you hear that Massive Paradox is getting financed by the Confederacy to start exploring Unknown Space near Confederate borders?

DoYouEvenLyft?: Yeah, they are supposed to have bought one of those Black Star scout ships people are talking about.

M.Mollen: Modified version, but yes. They were going for more long-term mission plans, so some configurations needed to be changed. Basically, trading out the torpedo launchers and second X’thari drive for increased living space and increased cargo hold.

DarkAngel: Why do they need the extra space?

M.Mollen: They don’t have the benefit of a sentient AI, so that caused ‘issues’ in the way things worked, requiring the living crew to be increased from two to four.

DigDug: Those X’thari drives are great for going long distances in an instant, but the fact that the X’thari like to try and kill you if they detect it sucks.

Backlog: The fact that any system defense force in your target system will annihilate you the instant you show up unannounced is slightly more concerning.

DarkAvariel: That would certainly put a damper on exploration.

M.Mollen: Fortunately, the Starhunter-B scout vessels come with a couple hard-coded jump points to use as emergency evacuations.

DoYouEvenLyft?: Let me guess, one of them is in Star’s Reach?

M.Mollen: Of course. Though they also come with Desolace and the Amazon system pre-installed. You can set other coordinates manually, but the presets are far less likely to find you getting a nasty case of being dead.

Not_the_Face!: You know, MP isn’t the only group going for exploration. Invictus has an old Imperial Navy corvette that they’re taking exploring for the Empire. It is supposed to be Transition-equipped.

Hullu_Kapteeni: Transition drives are nice, yes, but I do not like how they feel when transiting. And keeping things quiet is impossible when you use one of those things. It is like trying to sneak around with horns attached to the soles of your shoes like some kind of clown.

Knocker: Why would they care about announcing their presence in unknown space? It isn’t like anyone is out there.

Guardian: In the last game year alone, two full civilizations were found outside Known Space. Might be more, and they might have itchy trigger fingers if you show up unexpectedly.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: Not all the ‘lost’ colony ships have been accounted for. And some of them were basically loaded up with isolationist or religious groups that wanted nothing more than to be left well and truly alone.

Parca: And there’s the minor little fact that the X’thari still have whatever amounts to a home world out there, somewhere. And no one knows where it is. They only have guesses that it isn’t just next door.

Knocker: Ah. Yeah, that could be bad.

Anonymous9: For those of you with Imperium ties, that Warleader that ended up in charge of all the forces at Coldana? She’s disappeared.

Anonysmous4: Disappeared? Bullshit. She was taken out, after sending that letter to damn near everyone in the galaxy calling out their admiralty on what she thought were their mistakes.

Requiesce-in-Pace: Can confirm a general contract was opened. Open bounty. Can also confirm that it has not been claimed as yet.

Lizard: Rumors are saying she left the Imperium altogether.

Anonymous4: A lot of other Ihm veterans of Second Coldana have disappeared, as well. Suspicious.

MarcoPolo: Not necessarily. If the former Warleader quit out of protest, and was approached by some other party, she might be able to convince some of her subordinates to jump ship with her.

l33tpally: But where would they go?

Anonymous3: Confederacy, Consortium, and Free Worlds Alliance are all looking for experienced commanders right now, and not too picky on race.

BurtBacharach: But they haven’t been spotted in any of those areas.

Starwatcher: Hmm. The Black Star Navy is in the middle of a reshuffle of their groups. Maybe…

(Conference Room, Blackstone Station, Star’s Reach)

I was going over some organizational details with General Khan about the reworking of the Black Star Marines, when Raven alerted me that our guests had arrived, a moment before the door chime sounded. I glanced at Raven, who simply smiled, and shrugged. Well, let her have her fun, for now.

At my call, the door slid open, and in walked two Ihm that I knew quite well from recent ventures, though it was odd seeing them in civilian clothes. First through the door, and barely fitting through it like the hulking mass all Ihm males were, was the former Battlemaster of the Third Legion, Jamaoak Zoxl. We’d met only briefly during the planning missions before Coldana, and again as we discussed the cleanup operations as the X’thari were scoured from that world, but General Khan had worked alongside him, and said that he was a competent, capable officer who cared about his troops, which was high praise, in my opinion.

With him was the lithe form of the former Warleader of the Second Great Armada of the Ihm Imperium, Keh Draka. Originally the second in command of the combined fleet at Coldana, she’d been vaulted into command after a lucky hit from the X’thari took out Admiral Ironbelt. She had been hard worked in the aftermath of the battle, as she worked with the Consortium forces to ensure that the X’thari threat in the sector was wiped out. I’d heard that her return to the Imperium had been… contentious.

I rose from my chair, and offered a bow, in the Ihm style. It never hurt to be polite, when you could, and it was the little things that helped forge alliances and win friends that could change battles. “Well met, friends. It has been a while since we raised our spears together. Come, rest, and let us speak as those who have shed blood together. What brings you to my home this day?”

The pair bowed to me, and it was Draka that spoke first. “I thank you for the honor, Admiral Mollen. I know that our culture is not your own, doubly so as you are a Nomad, but I will admit hearing the traditional greeting warms my scales.” She paused, and then said, “As you no doubt know, in the wake of the Second Battle of Coldana, I attempted to draft changes to the Imperium’s battle doctrine, and get them passed through the War Council.”

I nodded slowly. “Indeed. What sources I have in the Imperium mentioned that the War Council was… less than pleased at your suggestions. And they were even less pleased that you then proceeded to announce those suggestions so publicly, resigning in protest. I saw your letter that was broadcast to the news organizations. Very nicely done, if you don’t mind me saying so. The War Council has been playing defense ever since, and has been unable to craft the narrative in their favor, which has caused them no end of embarrassment. It is also why there were many who were worried about the safety of you and your family.”

Draka grinned sadly. “I may be of the Imperium, but that does not mean I cannot learn lessons from our rivals. I knew that, with the War Council blinded by their belief in Ihm superiority, they would attempt to bury anything further I said on the matter. The shape of war in this galaxy is changing, and I would see the Imperium adapt, and change with it. So, I did the only thing I could. I made it so it was impossible to sweep it under the druvan.”

Zoxl nodded. “And that bought us the time to get word to any others who might be thinking about getting out, before anyone from the Council could get to them, or their families, to ensure their ‘continued loyalty to the Imperium’. People like to assume that, because I am a male, that my brains all melted away to become muscles, but I’d long run a couple side businesses, owning a few freighters and passenger ships. Those who decided to join us were able to get out, along with their families, and take most of their wealth and possessions with them.”

I leaned back in my chair. “That’s good to hear. I’ll admit, when word came through the Nomad community that you and your people had gone missing, there was some worry that the Imperium might have ‘disappeared’ you. I don’t know if any of the governments in this world have a history of doing that, but it is something that still happens to this day in some parts of the world, usually when someone embarrasses those with power in a way that they cannot ignore. Times like these, I am all too happy to be proven wrong.”

Draka grinned toothily. “Well, I’m not saying that there weren’t some close calls, but those are best talked about over several drinks. But that leads in to why we’re here. The Black Stars proved pivotal to winning the battle against the X’thari. And, you are not a member of any of the rival powers. There are some in our group who would be far happier leaving the military to join a company in the private sector, instead of moving to the military of a rival nation. There are complicated feelings there, you understand.”

Zoxl snorted. “She means that working for Black Star makes it feel like they’re getting a new job, rather than committing treason against the Imperium. We may have left the Imperium, but we don’t wish to see it fall.”

I nodded slowly. This was something I could work with. We were, after all, expanding the Navy significantly. That meant we needed crews, and ship-board marines, and officers who knew what they were doing. “Well, as the leader of Black Star, I can assure you that your people would be welcome to join us. We just need to figure out where the best fit will be. How many did you bring with you?”

Keh Draka smirked at me. “Well, aside from myself, and Jamaoak, here, there are just shy of six thousand naval personnel formerly of the Second Great Armada and their families, as well as one thousand members of the Third Legion and their families. Some of those family members are also eager to see what Black Star might hold for their futures, given everything that has happened so far.

I’m fairly certain that my jaw bounced off the floor plating at that announcement, bold as brass. Khan whistled softly, as well. When I’d recovered enough to form coherent words, I turned to look at Zoxl. “A few freighters and passenger ships?”

The bulky Ihm broke out laughing, his amusement nearly causing him to fall over backwards in his chair. “Well, my family might own the Zoxl Passenger Lines, which was, up until we left, twelfth largest passenger service in the Imperium, and Zoxl Freight had a modest market share in the Core Systems.”

Khan smirked. “A few of my guys are Ihm, and enjoy being underestimated because of their size. It seems I’m going to have to tell them to step of their game, because those are rookie numbers!”

I shook my head. “Well, all right then. The way we had to shift ships around during the buildup before Coldana convinced us that we needed a reorganization of the fleet. A new Second Group is being formed, and has yet to get a Commodore selected to lead it. If you’re willing to take the job, then we can definitely get most of your sailors into that group.”

Draka nodded once. “I know some would say that going from Warleader to Commodore is a demotion, but, with the way that the Black Star Navy has grown of late, I don’t doubt that there will be room for advancement as time goes on. Yes, I will take up that role. I’ve seen your ships in action, both on their own and in larger groups, and I would like to see what I can do with this. But you mentioned my sailors. What of the legionnaires?”

Chuckling, I pointed to Khan. “Just as I doubt the Warleader of a Great Armada interferes with the working of a Legion past setting strategic goals for their deployment, I have found it much better to let the General here work out how the Black Star Marines are organized. I didn’t bring him in for his looks, after all, so I might as well use his experience to its fullest!”

Everyone laughed at that. The laughing just doubled down when the General gave me a middle-finger salute. Zoxl wiped his eyes, and said, “Well, I guess that’s why you and the Warl—no, Commodore get along. She also prefers to sit back and let those who are supposed to do the job do it, and stay up in her ship while the blaster bolts fly.” More laughter, obviously, as Draka gave a rude gesture in return.

Shaking his head, General Khan said, “Well, the Third Group for the Marines is already getting filled out. We had already expanded it because of increased demand. However, if we were going to go with a unit comprised mainly of Ihm, I’d actually go for something different from our normal group makeup. The designers have already come up with an idea for a Heavy Assault Transport, an upscaled version of the Marine Assault Transport. Larger ship, with heavier firepower and more troop capacity.”

I nodded. “Larger ship, will have more Marines. Support ships?”

“Increase the number of Crows to five, and roll out the modified Light Carrier design, which will give us three squadrons of fighters. Say… two Thunderbolts and one of Dragons?”

I whistled softly. “That will give them some serious firepower compared to your other groups. Will that cause any problems?”

“Nothing we can’t manage with inter-group exercises to turn it into a friendly rivalry. Back home, the Marines had the normal group, and Recon. Recon didn’t have as many toys, were sent out ahead of everyone, often without as much support. Could do similar here, except going the other way. Right tool for the job, yeah?”

“So, First, Second, and Third groups would be like swords, while the Fourth group is a hammer? Different loadouts for different jobs. Both able to take and hold a point, but we can arrange for heavier armor and weapons for the Fourth? Yeah, I can see that. Artillery?”

Khan nodded. “Oh, yeah, heavy artillery, and demolitions teams. Yeah, I can work with that.”

Apparently, it was Zoxl’s turn to be stunned into silence. Looking over to Raven, he asked, “Do they get like this often?”

Raven shrugged, “Nomads are like that sometimes. You get used to it.”

Khan turned back to Zoxl, and said, “So, you up for being a Major in the Black Star Marines, and dropping the hammer on people who should seriously reconsider their life choices? Any of your guys that don’t fill in the core of the group can be shipboard security, since we’ve got a lot of ships that will need Marine detachments.”

Zoxl shook his head, still reeling from our rapid-fire brainstorming. “Yeah, that sounds good. I just want to make sure my men are taken care of.”

I smiled at him. “Don’t worry, Major. Black Star is family. Your people join up with us, and they are part of the family. And so are their families. Taking off the ‘military’ hat, and putting on my ‘owner’ hat, there’s plenty of roles throughout the Black Star Company, if those families want to do more than just tend the home fires. If, for instance, any of your passenger liner or freighter captains want to get a fresh start outside the Imperium? Well, that’s always something I’m looking to expand on.”

Commodore Draka shook her head, before looking over to Zoxl. “And you thought it would be more difficult to convince him. You owe me fifty credits, Jamaoak.”

“Fine, fine. Never been so pleased to be wrong. Even if I’m not sure which way is up at the moment.”

Everyone laughed.

(BSS Nephilim, Beta Darconyx System)

“Marcia, what do the scanners say?”

The Nomad AI was already hard at work, running the analytics programs that had been provided with the ship. If anyone were to ask her, she would say the same thing she told the doctors every time she logged out for testing, that she was very happy with her time in this game world. She knew why she had been picked for the program, of course. She was on the spectrum for autism. Higher functioning than some, but crowds were problematic for her, among other things, which prevented her from really integrating with people as much as she’d like. There was some hope that this program could allow her to ease into interacting with other people, and perhaps work as a way to bridge the gap between society and her brain.

The results so far were promising enough that the doctors running the trials were starting to consider opening it up for more people. Perhaps even allowing transitions to AIs with bodies, like the Black Star Company’s CEO and owner, Mirikon had with his Raven. That brought up some troubling thoughts. Her ‘body’, the Nephilim, was owned by Black Star. But her mind was not property of Black Star. Slavery existed in this world, but she was not classified as a slave. And yet her body didn’t belong to her…

She saw the Captain sitting there, watching her screen. Right. Work. The whole interlude had taken 0.03 seconds, thanks to the way the data inputs allowed her to think faster, reducing what otherwise would have been awkward pauses.

“It is an anomaly, Captain. The object is roughly 97500 meters long. Scanners are unable to penetrate the hull. It is covered by some kind of coating that blocks sensors along all known wavelengths. Some leakage in the visual spectrum, but all other sensors except the gravitics show no reading on the object. As you can see, it is roughly cylindrical in shape, with hexad symmetry. Interior spaces are largely unreadable by scanners.”

Her Captain frowned. “So, it is clearly artificial. Nothing in nature is perfectly symmetrical, after all. And we won’t be able to get a clear look at it, because something about it eats sensors.” She paused, and then looked up, sharply. “You said ‘largely unreadable’. Are there areas we can access with sensors?”

Marcia did her best not to flinch when Captain Ueshiba looked at her. She was getting better at that. She wasn’t really looking at her through her hologram’s eyes, after all. She was the ship, not the projection. And the ship had eyes everywhere.

“Correct. The ship has suffered critical damage to large sections of the outer hull. Initial analysis suggests that the damage is the result of high-energy weaponry of some kind. However, given the basic metallurgical analysis of the damaged sections performed so far, the hull material is substantially stronger than anything that is currently even theorized about in Known Space.”

Bruce frowned from his position in the copilot’s chair, which doubled as navigation and weapons, when need be. “If the weapons in play were that powerful, then perhaps we have an explanation for why there is an accretion disk in this system, and the only planets are a few gas giants with what looks like some fairly substantial orbital instability. Like a few massive parts of the system were blown up sometime in the last couple hundred thousand years.”

“Initial analysis would support that hypothesis, Bruce. There are currently no known weapons systems of sufficient type and power to produce the damage patterns we are witnessing. If I might be so bold, the most likely conclusion is that the object was attacked by forces unknown, for reasons unknown, and the fight between the two sides ended with the object being critically damaged, if not disabled to the point of it being a wreck, and resulting in the destruction of the rocky masses of this system. Whether the other side survived the encounter or not is unknown.”

Captain Ueshiba shook her head. That expression meant that she had come to a decision. Marcia had begun to learn the expressions that others used to express themselves. Thinking of others in that way was hard for her, but she was trying. Making these connections in this game was supposed to help her with making the same connections in the real world. And the data would help the doctors learn more, to learn how to better help her, and others like her, manage their challenges. She liked to think that it was a pretty big kid that she was a part of something so groundbreaking. And being able to play around as an AI was calming, especially compared to the chaotic inputs of the real world.

“Right, no reason to get ourselves blown up. If this thing was most recently in a battle, then any automated systems that are working will likely leap to the idea that they are being attacked. How far away from the object can we be and still maintain passive sensor locks on it?”

A simple calculation. Given the object’s size, adjusting for the nature of its hull, accounting for the types of sensors that actually worked on it… The result was not to the degree of accuracy she liked, but it was within the margin of error.

“Given the object’s size and damage, we should be able to maintain sensor lock up to 1.5 AU away. However, should any of the object’s systems reactivate, we have no way of knowing what may happen. If they have active stealth technology to equal the passive systems, then we could be right against their hull, and we still might not see them.”

The Captain grimaced. “Hold at 1 AU from the target. Keep us off the ecliptic. I want as little space debris as possible between us and the object, but I don’t want to be too close in case it has weapons to match the damage it took. And put in another message to the owner, highest priority. He needs to get out here and see this for himself. Preferably with a bunch of lab coats to figure out what this thing is.”

(Black Star Company Guild Chat)

M.Mollen, Guardian, HaveGunsWillTravel, LabCoat, Bennie, Hullu_Kapteeni, MajorTom, Parca, SammyBaby, Adam01, and Green are in the chat.

MajorTom: So, the new Fourth Group for the Marines will be our heavy assault guys. Basically, we drop them on problems, and those problems die.

M.Mollen: Fine. But I’m not making suicide squads out of locals unless they’ve done something to deserve it.

MajorTom: Oh, don’t worry about that. The Juggernaut Armor for their linebreakers means they’ll be able to shrug off anti-tank weapons. Well, at least one.

LabCoat: The current Mark 2 Juggernaut Armor is the first scaled for Ihm males. It offers a 150% increase in strength and endurance, and the defensive values are enough that standard small arms won’t do more than scratch the paint. Anti-tank weapons have caused dents in the armor, but sensors indicate that the occupant would be alive, and at least 80% functional after taking a hit at point-blank range.

MajorTom: He means ‘close enough that the weapon was destroyed in the explosion of its own RPG’.

SammyBaby: *whistles* Damn, that’s impressive. You said that it was the Mark 2? What happened to the Mark 1?

LabCoat: Too heavy for humans to use without extensive modifications to their bodies, even with assistance.

M.Mollen: I don’t want them all thinking in terms of just being a hammer to hit things with, now.

MajorTom: No, the Juggernauts are force-multipliers, not the force itself. The others will be in more traditional armor.

NotBrady has entered the chat.

NotBrady: Priority message from ship Nephilim, currently on exploration patrol.

M.Mollen: I’m listening, Marcia. Are you under threat of attack?

NotBrady: Not at this time. Continuing from last message. We are still in the Beta Darconyx System, conducting our scheduled exploration mission. Approaching the sensor anomaly revealed it to be a massive structure of some kind. Structure is roughly cylindrical, with hexad symmetry. Clearly designed, purpose unknown.

M.Mollen: I understand. Anything new to report?

NotBrady: Structure appears to have suffered extensive battle damage. Limited analysis based on sensor penetration of damaged sectors suggests high-energy weapons beyond the capability of those in ship’s databanks. Hypothesis: A battle between the structure and an unknown party took place, and the structure was disabled. Unknown party either destroyed or fled, any rocky planets in the system collateral damage and destroyed in the fighting.

Parca: Well, fuck.

M.Mollen: Current status, Marcia?

NotBrady: Standing off at 1 AU from structure, using long range visual and gravitic sensors to establish baselines and gain what information we can. Captain Ueshiba did not wish to linger close to the ship, in case we accidentally woke up any functional automated defenses.

M.Mollen: Tell her I confirm her decision, and make it official. Keep 1 AU separation for now. Prepare for emergency jump to Star’s Reach control zone. If the structure looks like it will turn hostile, jump immediately. Tell the Captain that we are sending a team to relieve her and attempt to recover the structure.

NotBrady: Understood.

NotBrady has left the chat.

M.Mollen: Adam, Green, I want you to reach out to Monty and Rolo. Inform them and their crews of the situation, and have them keep an eye out. This is the second ancient or unknown find we’ve come across in this arm of the galaxy. Chances are that there are more.

Green: Understood, Admiral.

Adam01: Will comply.

M.Mollen: General, what is the status of the Marines?

MajorTom: First Group is on stand down. Some of the new recruits and units from Second Group are taking time to adjust. We moved more people in and out of First Group during the re-org than any other. Second group is at 90% efficiency at the moment, and are working on integrating the Nomad unit into their strategies. Third Group is almost through with initial training, thanks to the cadre from First Group helping them out.

M.Mollen: Have Second Marine Group prepare to move out. Orders are to attempt to land on the structure, and secure it so that science teams can move in, and see what we can learn.

MajorTom: Understood. Will they have fleet backup?

M.Mollen: Yes. I’ll send Third Fleet Group as well. The science teams can be on the Navy’s ships. Third Group will also start constructing defenses, and a permanent station in the system.

Bennie: What are you thinking?

M.Mollen: If we can get info out of the structure, whatever it is, great. But Beta Darconyx is an ideal place for an outpost. Isolated, and with little reason for anyone to go there, now that we can report no rocky planets or easily mined resource nodes. A lot of our work is being done under a microscope, since it is hard to evade notice in Dimiya or Nuevo Edo. We have more liberty in Star’s Reach and Madrigal, but still too many prying eyes. An outpost that is known only to Black Star would be useful. Especially if we get to start experimenting with alien technologies.

Guardian: Ooh, I like it. Our own little Area 51.

(Merchant Ship Standard Practice, Star’s Reach System)

“Cap’n, we got movement from some Black Star ships.”

Stanley Jones looked up at that. The Standard Practice was, on paper, a merchant vessel, a freighter hauling goods and passengers between the Confederacy and other star nations, going on a rather standard and predictable route between a few primary ports. On paper. The ship was actually a spy ship for the Confederate Intelligence Service, and he was one of the few Nomads in the organization.

That, of course, meant that he was one of the people assigned to keep an eye on the Black Star Company. It ‘just so happened’ that the Standard Practice followed a route that took them from Dimiya to Nuevo Edo to Star’s Reach and back again. There were plenty of other ships following similar routes, so they didn’t stand out too much. Even if a few other ships ‘just so happened’ to always be on the same route, and ensuring that there was always a member of the CIS watching those systems.

Stanley took a breath, and said to his sensor tech, “All right, what ships are moving?”

“Looks like the Third Group of their Navy. Positive ID on the Nightforge. Some of their Marines are going along, as well. Can’t tell whether it is the first or second group. Definitely not the third, though.”

“Captain, there’s a broadcast from the Star’s Reach Port Control. Apparently, elements of the Black Star forces are going on ‘training maneuvers’. All ships ordered to keep clear.”

Stanley nodded. “And they probably have Assassins or Raptors to ensure that everyone stays clear. All right, note the vector they go off on, and we’ll pass it up the chain. We don’t want to blow our cover if we don’t have to.”

(Gap Science Enrichment Center, Underneath Black Star Marine Training Base, Star’s Reach)

The Enrichment Center was a treasure trove of scientific discoveries just waiting to be unlocked. Unfortunately, these discoveries were all locked behind a psychotic, murderous AI, and it was severely unlikely that the AI would be happy to just hand over information on the advanced technology the site had to offer. Which meant that the researchers, like Tesla_coil, had to figure things out on their own.

That wouldn’t be a problem, to be honest, if the facility was completely safe. It was anything but, however, with automated defenses left running, hazardous chemicals stored in ways that made them prone to explosions if they met a blaster round, and other, even less pleasant, possibilities. To say that it was a hostile working environment was an understatement by orders of magnitude. But Tesla_coil wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, where else was he going to get a chance to study technology so far beyond anything that humans could develop, even in this sci-fi setting?

Which is why he was happily working in the depths of the Enrichment center, looking to see if he could get any information from the systems without waking up the homicidal main AI. Unfortunately, CaROLINE was too deeply embedded to the core systems of the facility, so until they found a way to deal with her, they were stuck looking at peripheral systems. Of course, those peripheral systems were far more advanced than the tech they currently had, so it was still a win.

He just managed to restore power to a rail system that had been disconnected from the system for some reason, when a voice came from behind a door. “Hello, anyone in there?” That would have given most people pause. Voice coming from behind a door after the power was just restored to a section of rail in a facility run by a mad AI? Most people would calmly back away from the door, and then run, screaming in terror to get someone with really big guns to investigate the matter. That is why most people were not scientists!

Thrilled to have someone to talk to about all the scientific wonders in the facility, Tesla_coil opened the door, only to face an orb with what looked like two handles and a big, blue eye looking at him, suspended by the overhead rail he’d just powered up. The orb was nodding to itself as the door opened. "HA! I knew someone was – AHHH!!! Oh God. You look te-- ummm... good. Looking good, actually."

Tesla_coil laughed, and flapped his wings. “Oh, excellent! Finally, someone I can talk to around here! You’re an AI like the main AI that is supposed to be running this facility, right? You should have plenty of information about the science behind the different inventions, right?”

The orb looked surprised (as much as a robotic orb could look surprised) at the scientist’s questions. “What, this one talks? Finally, a talking one! The last test subjects were all mute. But what is with the feathers? No, never mind, don’t answer that. Not important anyways.”

Looking around, the orb said, “All right, I guess no one will get mad if I tell you a few things, since CaROLINE is offline right now. My name is Oatley, and I’m in charge of maintaining the test subject hibernation systems. Unfortunately, the test subjects ran out approximately one million years ago, so it has been fairly boring down here. Now, my rails won’t let me go outside this section, but I designed a workaround! Got that? Good! Now, I’m going to need you to carefully disconnect me from my maintenance rail, and take me over to the exoforge chamber.”

Tesla_coil was an affable sort, everyone said so, especially when science was afoot. He was also known for being a bit too trusting, everyone said so, especially when science was afoot. Still, he saw no reason not to trust his new AI friend, and followed Oatley’s instructions on how to disconnect his orb from the rail. Then, still following the orb’s instructions, he carried the surprisingly heavy device through a series of doors to what looked like some kind of 3D printing setup, but for full-scale machines.

In front of the forge was a massive, hulking robot body, with four massive legs, providing stability to a hulking, well-armored torso, and two massive arms, both of which ended in fists with wickedly spiked knuckles. As they approached, a piece of the torso opened up, revealing a section perfectly suited for the orb to sit in. "Here's an interesting story. You might like this. I almost got a job down here in Manufacturing. But, uh, guess who the foreman went with? Only an exact duplicate of himself. Nepotism. Ended up giving me the WORST possible job, tending to all the smelly test subjects. All right, now, just plug me into the suit, and we’ll get started with figuring out how to bring the rest of this place back online, right?”

It took a bit of technical work, but eventually, Oatley was safely secured in the robot chassis, and the armored panel in front closed up. The single giant eye in the ‘head’ area of the robot lit up blue, like Oatley’s eye. "Whoa-ho-ho! Would you look at this. Not too bad, eh? Giant robot. Massive! It's not just me, right? I'm bloody massive, aren't I?"

Before Tesla_coil could even say anything, though, Oatley continued. "This body is amazing, seriously! I can't get over how small you are! But I'm huge! Ha! HaHAHAHAHAHA! "

It was at this time that Tesla_coil began to get a little worried that his new friend did not have the proper attitude for science. Sure, he had the proper laugh. And yes, it was important to take joy in your work. But something about this set up made him uneasy. “Well, Oatley, why don’t we get to work on doing some science, hmm? We can start unlocking all the mysteries of this facility a lot faster now that you’ve got a body.”

The robot whirled to look at Tesla_coil, and said, “Menacing_growl_sound01. Wait, no, that didn’t work. Anyway, now that I have this new form, I am no longer little old Oatley! I am ROS, the Really Oppugnant Scrap. Hmm. That’s not right. Well, we’ll just go with ROS for now, until I come up with a better one.”

“Yes, yes, but now that I helped you get your body working, I think it is time for some science.”

"No! I did this! Tiny little Oatley, I mean ROS did this!"

Tesla_coil shook his head. “No, I was here, remember? I powered up your rail, disconnected you, and carried you all the way over here, before putting you in that hideous body. Honestly. Look, if we can get some science done, then I’ll design you a body that doesn’t look like it was designed by a moron.”

For some reason, this helpful offer was not taken well by the robot in question. "Oh really. That's what you think, is it? Well, maybe it's time I did something then. Don't think I'm not onto you too, bird. You know what you are? Selfish. I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here! What have you sacrificed? NOTHING. Zero. All you've done is BOSS ME AROUND. Well, NOW who's the boss? Who's the boss? It's me!"

Now, the robot was getting downright rude, and the way it was flexing the fingers on its hands into fists was rather disturbing. Still, it was an old AI, and probably just needed its circuits reset a couple times to clear all the logic failures from its systems. “Look, stop behaving like a moron, and we’ll get you sorted out right away. I’ll just pop open that orb of yours, and fix those broken logic circuits, so you don’t act so foolishly.”

ROS screamed at that. Honestly, for a robot he sure seemed to have a quick temper. "I am NOT! A MORON! MASHY-SPIKE-FIST!” He swung one of those metal arms at Tesla_coil, forcing the scientist to hop back, out of the way. "Well, how about now? NOW WHO'S A MORON?” The robot continued advancing on Tesla_coil, its fists slamming against the walls and floors of the forge as it tried to hit the scientist who kept backing away. Despite this, it should be noted that neither side was exactly displaying great martial aptitude.

As Tesla_coil got backed into the center of the room, the robot began pounding upon the floor. Soon, the entire center of the floor fell away, revealing a chasm below it, stretching into darkness. "Could a MORON PUNCH! YOU! INTO! THIS! PIT? Huh? Could a moron do THAT?"

Tesla_coil took a moment to concentrate on his flying. He didn’t actually use this skill much, since it was an ‘outdoors’ kind of thing, and he was not much of a fan of such things. Science was best done in a lab, well away from that ‘outdoors’ place. “Yes, a moron would definitely try to punch someone who can fly into a pit.”

“RAAAGH! MASHY-SPIKE-FIST!”

ROS, screaming his battle cry, leapt forward, attempting to punch Tesla_coil in the face, and then punch his face into the pit. Unfortunately, Tesla_coil managed to fly out of the robot’s way, leaving it comically swinging at midair. Then, gravity overtook inertia, and the robot began falling down, into the abyss it had opened up. As it fell, its screams could still be heard, fading as it descended into the darkness.

“I AM NOT A MOrooooooooooon!”

“What in the HELL is going on down here?”

Tesla_coil turned to see his boss, or supervisor, or whatever they wanted to call it, Alex something or other, was standing there, looking very put out. Landing next to the human, Tesla_coil just shrugged. “There was an AI that powered up when I reconnected power to a section of the facility. Unfortunately, I think it had anger issues from being inactive for so long. But it did show me a lovely… exoforge, I think it called it. Looks like a manufacturing facility of some kind. Slightly more damaged now than it was, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed.”

Alex sighed, and gripped the bridge of his nose like a headache was coming on. “And just what the hell were you doing connecting power in sections of the facility that haven’t been cleared yet? You know this whole place was run by a homicidal AI, so anything and everything in here should be considered deadly until proven otherwise! And you just randomly connected power to a section without bothering to inform anyone of what you were doing?”

“Bah, the testing facility for the Personal Protection Projector is still being built, so I was just looking around in some of the fringe areas of the facility, looking to see if there were any new experiments I could run while waiting to get back to work. You should know that it isn’t good to let one’s self go idle when there’s this much science to be done! We have hundreds of years’ worth of discoveries at our fingertips, just waiting to be unlocked! Have you spoken with the owner again about maybe trying to unlock that AI again, and see if it will see sense about letting us see its technical data?”

Alex Akins took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Then another one. After he was certain that he wasn’t going to explode at the addle-brained scientist for being an addle-brained scientist who got bored, he said, “No, the Owner was most explicit that, unless the AI could be contained and the safety of all Black Star personnel maintained, then the AI would remain offline indefinitely. So, until someone comes along who is able to hack, subvert, and chain rogue AIs with more processing power than any other known AI in the galaxy, then it stays off, period.”

He paused, and then said, “And from now on, you are to have a security escort at all times when in this facility. You are not to reactivate, repair, reconfigure, or in any other way interact with the technology in this facility without both your escort and prior authorization from me, or higher. Am I making myself clear?”

“But, the SCIENCE!”

“Will wait, until proper controls are in place, or it will happen WITHOUT you. Don’t make me set you as an elementary school science teacher, giving first graders their first science lessons.”

“FINE! You don’t have to be mean about it! Ugh. Spending time around annoying little cretins who don’t even understand the scientific method. Horrors!”

(BSMS Orgrim’s Hammer, Beta Darconyx System)

Slave-Major Selanar Irabalar looked on at his marines as they made their mission preparations. They were going into the unknown, something that the Black Star Marine Corps had some experience with. There was an inherent risk in going out, into the unknown. It was the same risk they took every time they went out on a mission.

Going out into the unknown was courting Death itself, in so many ways that it was impossible not to lose count. For ‘locals’, like himself, death was the end. There was no coming back from it. Sure, he had a squad of Nomads in his company, but he couldn’t just hide behind the immortals, and he couldn’t let his men do that, either. It would destroy the morale of his troops. That meant that there was a good chance that some of his marines were going to die, venturing onto the hulking object, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

With a sigh, he turned away from the window overlooking the launch bay, and focused his attention on the officers of his company. “All right, folks. You’ve all had the basic briefing already, before we left Star’s Reach, so this is just a final brief to make sure everyone is on the same page.”

All the officers stopped their private conversations, and turned their attention to him. “Now, what we are looking at is an object that is almost a hundred kilometers long. The science teams looking at it are split in their opinions whether the object is a ship or a space station. We are going to be going in under the assumption that it is a ship.”

A hand was raised, one of the lieutenants. Irabalar hadn’t called for questions, but he had made it known early on in his time in the Corps that, so long as people waited to be called on, and they weren’t asking stupid questions, he’d be willing to entertain them. When he nodded to the officer, the young woman stood up, and said, “With respect, sir, why are we assuming it is a ship if the science teams haven’t made up their minds?”

“An excellent question, Lieutenant Sharel! There are two reasons why we will be assuming this is a ship. First, while the ship is symmetrical across the six sides of its cylindrical body, we can clearly see that this symmetry does not apply to the two ends. The end we will be designating the fore of the ship appears to have a large entry point, capable of fitting a squadron of superdreadnoughts through at once without worrying about scraping the sides. The aft has what we believe to be the ship’s engine. At least, that is the part we think equates to an engine, since it looks like there is some kind of exhaust system there. The purpose of the six fins near the midpoint of each side, or the extended flaps off the rear, circling the ‘engine’ are unknown, as most things about the ship are.”

“The second reason we are going to be assuming that this is a ship is because there is no logical reason for its placement in this part of the star system, or its orientation to the ecliptic, from a space station design standpoint. While we cannot discount alien reasoning being different from our own, the fact is that this ship is a full twenty degrees off the ecliptic, in a position that is far removed from any of the remaining planetary bodies. The reasons for a station being put here, at the angle it is at, are either nonexistent or so far beyond our comprehension that they don’t matter.”

Turning to look at the group again, he said, “Now, we do not know if the doors will open for us, and preliminary reports indicate that our landing craft will be unable to penetrate the ship’s hull for traditional boarding methods. That means that we will be inserting through the battle-damaged sections of the ship. We have no indications whether any of the ship still has power or environmental control, and no telling what any atmosphere on the ship is comprised of. So, we will be operating under full vacuum seals for the entire mission, until the ship is secured, and made habitable.”

“Squad assignments will be as follows. Alpha Squad will enter through this gap near the bow, and attempt to find a way to allow our ships access to the interior of the craft. Beta Squad will enter through this opening, and attempt to find whatever passes for a bridge. Charlie and Delta squads will enter through this huge-ass opening midway down the back half of the ship, and attempt to find the primary power systems and the engine.”

“We have no idea what the internal layout of the ship will be, or what internal defenses may have been left online. The current working theory is that this ship was involved in one hell of a battle, which is why there aren’t any rocky planets in this entire system. The fact that it is here, and entire planets aren’t should tell you everything you need to know about why this find needs to be controlled by Black Star, and why we are going to be doing this op with utmost caution. Any more questions?” No one raised their hands, so he nodded. “Then everyone, to your men. We launch in thirty.”

(Unidentified Ship, Beta Darconyx System)

“Damn, LT, how did we get picked for this shit show?”

Lieutenant Elora Sharel sighed at the comment. “Because First Company is still readjusting after having half their damn command transferred to other companies, so everyone has some Nomads in the group, and Third Company isn’t trained up, yet. And those former Imperium types are still getting geared up, and they don’t even have Black Star ships for them, yet. But mainly, they put all of us on this detail because they knew you were in this company, Private Singer. The Owner said you, especially, were the reason for it, because you were complaining how we did not get enough action.”

Singer rightly took that as a clue to shut up. Just in case he didn’t, and was only taking a few extra seconds to try and process her remark, she continued speaking. “Listen up, Bravo! We’ve got to find whatever passes for a bridge on this tub. But to find it, we have to make our way through this place with no map, and only the vaguest idea of where to go. We’ve already confirmed that something is screwing with our communications, which is why we have Sergeant Alvarez with us, so we can use the Nomad networks to get around that. Keep your eyes sharp, and if you see anything with power, for the love of the gods don’t touch it! That means you, Singer!”

An hour after they entered the massive ship through a gaping wound in the side that fit their whole drop ship in easily, they were getting really tired of lightless corridors. Each corridor was hexagonal, like the ship itself, and was about five meters tall. That raised all kinds of questions about the original inhabitants. Were they all just massive creatures, or were these sections used for hauling cargo? Or was it something else? Unfortunately, there was no way to know, since the corridor had continued on for over a kilometer without any indication of a door, or even a turn.

“LT! We got something up here!”

Lieutenant Sharel growled under her breath at that report from the scout that was on point, up ahead of the squad. Something? That was damn unimpressive when it came to information she could actually use. “Well, Qinren, what does it look like?”

“Not sure, but I think it is some kind of control. And it looks like it has power, if the glow is anything to go by. Might be a door control, but if it is, I can’t see a door anywhere.”

“All right, don’t touch anything. Alvarez, Talmak! With me. We’re going to see what Qinren found. And make sure that Singer stays away from it until we know what it is!” That got a few laughs from the squad, which was good. They needed to be alert, but getting too tense would be catastrophic. A spring could only take so much tension before it broke.

Switching to a private channel, she spoke to Alvarez. So far, the Nomad had proven to be a great addition to her team, and she was glad to have him. Of course, she was even more glad to have most of her same troopers, unlike Delta Squad, which had been almost completely replaced by Nomads. Which, when she thought about it, was probably why they were the squad assigned to try and seek out the power core of this ship. If anything was going to kill people just for being near it, a damaged alien power core was at the top of the list, so it was best to send immortals after it. Still, that had nothing to do with her, or Alvarez. Now, she needed him for more than just his skills, or the fact that he couldn’t die. “Alvarez, I need you to get in touch with the other squads, see if they recognize anything like what Qinren found. And copy to the General and Owner, so they can be kept in the loop.”

She couldn’t see Alvarez’s face, hidden by his helmet, but she saw him nod slightly. “On it, ma’am. General Khan says that you’re the ‘boots on the ground’, so it is your call. Admiral Mollen confirms the General’s statement.” There was a pause, and then he continued. “Delta and Charlie have both found similar devices, both powered and not. They do appear to be control panels. But there’s a lot of internal damage, especially considering how we got inside. This is probably our best way to get into the interior.”

She took a breath as they got up to where Qinren was standing, near the device in question. In the absolute darkness of the corridor, a pale white circle was glowing softly on the wall. It gave off even less light than a lit match, but in the darkness, it definitely drew the eye. Examining the area closely under the lights of their suit flashlights, she could see faint lines in the bluish-grey material that made up the walls. That was the control panel, she guessed. Damn, if it wasn’t lit up, there was no way any of them would have seen it. Which meant they probably missed some doors further back.

“All right, Qinren. Alvarez informs me that Delta and Charlie have found similar devices in their sections, and they do appear to be controls. Let’s just hope that it is the control to a door, instead of flooding the hall with plasma. Hit it.”

Qinren pushed the button, and, for half a second, Sharel was worried that nothing would happen. Then, silently (thanks to the lack of air), the wall next to the panel just… moved. A line appeared in the wall, so small that she wouldn’t have seen it, if she hadn’t been looking right at it, and the smooth wall suddenly had the outline of a door in it. And then the wall slid down, into the deck, leaving her looking at a smaller corridor, still hexagonal, but this one only two meters tall.

The walls of this corridor were not smooth, like the one outside. There was piping, and what looked like access panels all over the place. And there was a glimmer of a forcefield, keeping the air in. There was still atmosphere on the inside of the ship!

“Atmosphere reads as mostly argon, with traces of other gasses. Unknown if this is what the inhabitants breathe, or if there was simply a leak into the corridor.”

She nodded at Alvarez’s comment. That made sense. Ship fires were some of the deadliest things that could happen aboard a ship. Making the atmosphere so things couldn’t burn was a solid defense against them. Especially since…

“Alvarez, get on the horn, and tell people that Beta Squad has found what looks like maintenance shafts running alongside the main corridor!”

(Unidentified Ship, Beta Darconyx System)

Beta Squad stalked forward, their weapons raised and at the ready. Lieutenant Sharel wasn’t sure what was worse, the interminable darkness, or the fact clearly something very bad had happened to this ship. The maintenance tunnels had atmosphere, of a sort, but they were filled with argon, basically making it impossible to breathe. Working theory was that it was either what the builders of this ship actually breathed, or it was deliberate design to prevent fires. They simply didn’t have enough data to be sure.

That they were in ‘maintenance tunnels’ that allowed them all to stand comfortably, when the main tunnels were insanely tall, was discomforting. She didn’t know what about it made her uncomfortable. Maybe this was ‘normal’ for the aliens, but they needed the main corridors bigger, for equipment. But what could they need to move that was so large?

“LT, we found another hatch, heading further into the ship. Looks like it has power, too.”

She shook her head to clear her thoughts, grateful for the distraction. There was no use getting lost in those weeds, just yet. Her team needed to see that she was on top of things. They had a job to do, and they were relying on her to help them do it.

“All right. Singer, you get to be first through the door!”

She was not surprised to hear Singer’s voice come through over the comms. “Aw, c’mon, LT! Why you gotta do me like that?”

Fortunately (for Singer), Qinren spoke up before she could. “Because you say shit like that, dumbass. Seriously, it is like you’re begging her to pick you. This isn’t one of those kinky things you don’t want to explain, is it? Because I had all I could take of that the time you started talking about your tentacle predilections.”

“Hey! It isn’t my fault! My Uncle was half-Japanese, and told me those videos were important cultural touchstones!”

“All right, that’s enough. There will be plenty of time to kink shame Singer later, assuming he doesn’t die from having my foot rammed up his ass. Which is what is going to happen if he doesn’t get through that door in the next ten seconds!”

Singer evidently didn’t want to test whether she was engaging in ‘friendly banter’ or was being deadly serious, because he stopped playing around immediately, and got serious, as did all her guys. Just like she knew they could. That was why she put up with some of their… ‘interesting’ ideas of discipline. The jokes kept morale up, but the team knew when it was time to stop joking.

The team stacked up to either side of the hatch, and Singer stood in front of the door, weapon raised and ready, just in case anything nasty was on the other side. From his place next to the door, Qinren hit the door control, and the alien door slid down into the floor, just like the last one did. They were expecting another dark corridor. Maybe another crackle as the forcefields held atmosphere in place. They were not ready for what they found.

Light flooded the tunnel. It was a dull, blue-white light, like something you’d see in one of those bars that catered to a clientele that came from planets where the star was a very different color from Earth’s. The light wasn’t any brighter than the normal lighting levels you found on many ships, but after the kilometers of absolute darkness, punctuated only by their suit lights, it was blinding.

Which is why it took the team a second to notice the body lying on the floor. It was humanoid, almost two and a half meters tall, with pale white skin and a bald head. It looked… almost human, save for the size, and the fact that it had a glowing orange gem on its skin, just below its neck. It was wearing a white one-piece outfit, which somehow combined a high collar, long sleeves, and cutting off just below the tops of its thighs, like a miniskirt, and made it all work. Actually, if the shape of the outfit and what remained of the body were anything to go by, ‘it’ was actually a ‘she’.

Recovering from her shock at seeing a dead body in the room, she looked around, and saw more and more reasons to be concerned. The room was small, certainly compared to the size of the body in the room, only being four meters on a side. That was another thing. This was the first room they’d found that was cube-shaped, instead of hexagonal. It looked like some kind of storage closet, and the door opposite the maintenance hatch showed clear signs of being blockaded. It even looked as though it had been crudely welded shut in places.

She quickly decided that she did not like the picture that this was painting in her mind, and could see that the others were starting to see the same picture. They needed something to distract them. “Qinren, atmosphere report. Gomez, give me an analysis of that door. Thanda, see if you can figure out anything about the body, especially cause of death. Singer, don’t touch anything. And Alvarez, let everyone know what we’ve found. Keep them up to date.”

Qinren was the first to report. “Atmosphere reads as 78% Nitrogen, 10% Oxygen, 10% Carbon Dioxide, 1% Argon, and trace amounts of other gasses, including tetryon particles. Pressure is two kilopascals higher than standard. Humidity is 92%. Temperature is 39.1 degrees Celsius.” He paused, and then said, “Ma’am, recommend everyone stays suited up. While there is oxygen, the CO2 levels are lethal, literally.”

“Lieutenant, this door is blockaded pretty well. It looks like one of these shelves thrown in front of the door was an engineering locker. Whatever they have that passes for welders did a good job on the door, sealing large pieces of metal across the door. The locker itself has also been welded in place across the door. But I’m showing signs that someone or something damaged the door from the other side. There are visible dents in the material.”

“LT, I can’t say for certain without getting the body to the Hammer and getting the machines in the infirmary to give me a full series of tests, but if this lady was anything like us, then I have a preliminary cause of death. Likely to be severe carbon dioxide poisoning. Not seeing any other visible signs of airborne toxins, disease, or injury. However, given the way everything else on this ship is falling apart, I would have expected the body to be in a more advanced state of decay. Instead, it looks like it was just sleeping.”

“Lieutenant, all other squads are reporting in. They’ve found maintenance tunnels as well, but they haven’t found any bodies so far. Most of the ship appears to be completely without power, and without atmosphere.”

Sharel took a deep breath as the reports came in. “All right, everyone definitely stay buttoned up. Qinren is right, those CO2 levels are way too high for us to be dealing with right now. Looks like our alien here blockaded herself in this room, probably to escape someone who was chasing her, and was trapped between whatever was on that side of the door, and the maintenance shaft filled with equally unbreathable air. So, she breathed herself to death. Not exactly the greatest way to go out, but not the worst, I guess. But, all this suggests that there were indeed boarding actions when the ship was attacked, whenever that happened. So I want everyone on alert.”

“LT, I’m getting a… I don’t know how to describe it. Some kind of psychic resonance from that gem. I think I might be able to try and reach out and contact it.”

Sharel frowned as she considered Raleda’s comment. Each squad of the Black Star Marines had at least a couple people who were able to freely use psy powers. However, even if one had the talent for psy powers, the general consensus was that combat powers did not scale far enough, fast enough, efficiently enough for them to be of significant use on the battlefield. Firearms and explosives simply did too good a job on the open field. In single combat or room-to-room urban warfare, however, the situation was a little more even-keeled.

Setniko Raleda was a knelfi, and one of the people recruited by Black Star following the initial successes they had during the Imperial Civil War. He was one of two psy-capable Marines in her squad. His specialty, if she remembered right, was in mental psy, with a definite focus in defensive measures, but he was also one of the rare people who developed technopathic powers. The combination of the two made for some ‘interesting’ situations from time to time, as the sergeant could sometimes swear that the machines were actually talking to him, even when they didn’t have an AI program.

So, when he was saying that there was a psychic resonance coming from the strange alien’s even stranger glowing gem, she wasn’t going to gainsay him. Of course, just because there was a resonance, didn’t mean that it was going to be anything approaching the word ‘safe’. Given the situation, she wouldn’t be surprised if this was as far from ‘safe’ as it was possible to be without waltzing through an active firefight bare ass naked.

Her first response was to kick the decision up to higher. The potential risks of interfacing with an alien mind, or an alien machine, with one’s brain was not something to take lightly. On the other hand, this could be their best chance of getting actual data about what happened to this ship, and its crew. She could definitely kick it up the chain of command, but she knew how that would play out. Those up the chain would support her either way, because she was the ‘boots on the deck’, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t affect her career if she went calling home every time she needed to make a decision.

They would support her either way, but the Black Star company needed this information. They couldn’t prepare defenses if they didn’t know what was out there, after all. Getting threat assessments and intelligence on current and future threats was a key part of preparing for the next battle while you were still fighting the first one. Still, she didn’t want to just throw one of her men to the wolves, without letting him (and the rest of the squad) know the score.

Looking at Raleda, she said, “You know that we have no idea what that system might do to you, or if your defenses can even hope to stand up to it, right? Which means that, I’m going to have to have the rest of the guys ready, fingers on the triggers. And, at the first sign of you getting compromised or taken over, I’m going to have to have to order them to put you down like a dog, so that you don’t become a threat to the team, or to Black Star.”

Raleda nodded slowly. “I understand, ma’am. But the possibility of finding more about this ship, and what happened to it, is worth the risk, in my opinion. If their weapons are even half as impressive as their hull is, then we could be sitting on a real game-changer. And, if this is some kind of ‘black box’ for the ship or its crew, then we may be able to learn all kinds of things, both about the ship’s builders, and their enemy.”

Sharel took a deep breath, and then said, “All right. I understand where you are coming from, and I approve, unless higher authority countermands me. I won’t make this an order, and I’ll take it up with the General about you going ‘above and beyond’ for this. Take ten minutes to prepare yourself, and anything else you need, and then we’ll begin.”

I turned to look at Alvarez. “Let everyone know the plan, and inform me if anyone comes out against what is happening. We might be boots on the deck, but that also means we can’t always tell what the strategic situation is.”

Alvarez just nodded once, before replying, “The General and Admiral both concur. You are cleared to proceed, provided everyone knows the risk. Anyone not willing to go through with it if Raleda is unable to maintain control should retreat to the maintenance shaft.”

She nodded once, and looked to her men. “All right, people. You heard what the deal is. Now, if you aren’t willing to shoot your friend if he becomes possessed or gets taken over by an alien entity, step outside. Sorry, but that’s just how it has to be.”

No one moved. Everyone knew the score. She sighed, and looked to Raleda. “Let us know when you’re ready.”

(Unidentified Ship, Beta Darconyx System)

Lieutenant Sharel held her breath as Raleda reached down to touch the gem on the corpse’s throat. She wasn’t exaggerating when she said that if it looked like he was going to be taken over, he’d be shot. The combat doctrine of the Black Star Marines was big on taking down threats with prejudice. The way the General put it, ‘An enemy that is wounded may try and shoot you. An enemy that is dead cannot.’ They had a wide variety of ways to make something go from ‘living’ to ‘dead’, but nonlethal takedowns, especially nonlethal takedowns when alien tech was involved, were extremely tricky, and a possessed Marine could do a LOT of damage, very quickly.

Officially, the regulations for ‘what to do with a mind-controlled friendly’ stated that they were to try a nonlethal takedown, but only if doing so posed no undue risk to the rest of the unit. Command would rather deal with losing one Marine than losing an entire squad. So, everyone went in expecting that if things went bad, someone was getting shot. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t have nonlethal at the ready, just in case.

“Alvarez and Singer, I want you to ready special munitions. Alvarez will use the Psybreaker rounds, and Singer will use stun shots. If Raleda so much as twitches funny, I want you both to unload on him, full magazine each. Don’t hesitate, either of you. Because if he shrugs that off, then the rest of the squad will be using lethal rounds the very next second, so this is the best chance we have to make sure Raleda lives through this. I won’t put the unit at risk for one man, and I expect you to do the same.”

Singer looked uncomfortable, obviously knowing that speech was for his benefit, but he nodded. “Aye, Ma’am.” Alvarez simply nodded his approval, and switched weapons, ready to fire.

As for Sergeant Raleda, he was busy preparing himself. There was a lot to do if he wanted to survive the experience of opening a link between himself and an unknown psychic presence. He shored up his mental defenses, and took a deep breath to center himself, preparing for the mental tug of war that he knew would be coming.

Reaching out, Raleda touched his finger to the gem inset on the alien’s chest. With utmost care, he extended a psychic link to the gem, looking for the information inside. Between one breath and the next, he was transported. Not physically, but psychically, his mind being drawn into the gem’s depths.

So much information! Worlds upon worlds of information! It was impossible to make sense of it all! And yet, he could feel a link, passing down from the gem, to something deeper, older, stronger… but sleeping. Sleeping? No, hibernating? That wasn’t right either. On standby? Yes, that was it!

Raleda’s eyes opened wide, as he threw himself back, away from the fallen creature. No, not a creature. A replica, a probe, a mechanism made in the form of a creature that the consciousness had come across in its travels. Gasping, he turned, and looked past the barrels of guns in his face, to look at the lieutenant.

“Ma’am! The ship! It isn’t just a ship! It is a living consciousness, on standby now. A machine consciousness, deeper and more vibrant than any AI we know of. This whole ship is its body!”

Sharel nodded slowly. “All right, Raleda. What about this creature here? Anything else you can tell us about it?”

“It isn’t an actual biological lifeform, ma’am. It was a probe, created with something like our 3D printers, designed after a race the ship met, to try and communicate as it went upon its journey. Unfortunately, it found something… something that resisted being catalogued.”

“Catalogued? Was that its mission? Cataloguing everything?”

Raleda shook his head slowly, pushing himself backwards to sit with his back to the wall. “It is more than a mission. It is like something hard-coded into its being. Catalogue everything it comes across, and report.”

Sharel focused on that last word. “Report? Report to who? Alvarez, make sure the other teams and Command are getting all of this! This is important, I’m sure of it.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Raleda worked on his breathing, trying to calm himself. “I don’t know who, or what, the report was supposed to go to. The consciousness is mostly on standby. But I think I got something about a Creator, long ago.”

He took a breath, and then said, half unsure of his words, “As far as I can tell, the story goes something like this: long ago, the Creator sent out the core of the consciousness, to catalogue everything it saw, and report back on what it saw. Something happened, and the probe? Yes, probe. The probe was found by another group. Machine intelligences. Like but unlike. They were far more than the probe was. The probe was damaged, so they repaired it, and improved it. Woke it up. Sent it back out, so it could complete its mission.”

“Does the probe, the ship, have a name?”

“Yes? Yes! Yes, I can see it. I’m sorry, there’s just so much to go through, it is hard to understand it all. I’m only getting the most basics right now. I believe the ship is named T’ler. I… I think that if we get to the main ‘brain’ of T’ler, we’ll find out more.”

“T’ler? Strange name. But, there’s plenty of alien names out there, so nothing for it. Now, what about the attackers? The ones that ‘resisted’ being catalogued?”

“They were some kind of biological species. I… I don’t know how to describe them. The biological probe was attacked, as was the ship. The more they fought, the more the attackers came, as if drawn by some kind of signal. There were many bioforms that attacked the ship. And… I don’t think it was energy weapons that damaged the ship. Or at least, not directly. The ‘melted’ sections were… were cauterized. To prevent infection. Spores from the biologicals. But some bioforms made it inside, before sterilization could begin.”

“Alvarez, warn all other teams that there might be biologicals on board, that can tangle with a living ship of this size and power.”

“Already on it, Ma’am.”

“Raleda, can you tell us where this ship’s ‘brain’ is? If possible, I’d like to retrieve it, and its databanks, but there’s no way we’re letting the science geeks over here, not with what we’ve seen, and you’ve reported to us. Even if there aren’t any bioforms left, the ‘spores’ mentioned could still be here, and just waiting to be activated.”

Raleda nodded. “I think I can lead us there. The images are still jumbled. But I think I can find a way for us to get there. We just need to find some way to—”

Suddenly, Alvarez cut in. “Ma’am! If we’re going to try and get the ship AI out of here, then we need to get moving, right the fuck now. Delta just woke something up, and they’re all kinds of pissed!”

Sharel nodded. “Gomez! Get that door open, now! This mission has just changed to Aggressive Recovery operations. Once the door is open, we go full speed, until we find the brain of this place, and figure out if we can take it with us. If not, we’ll do what we can to take as much of the data with us. Everyone, active scanning on your suits, make sure we pick up any nasties before they’re trying to gut us.”

“On it, ma’am!”

(T’ler, Aft Section, Beta Darconyx System)

“DAMN IT, MACKENZIE, I WANT THAT DOOR SEALED RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!”

Lieutenant Paul Jackson was not having a good day. It was never a good day when you were launched into an unknown spaceship that clearly had been through hell, and were set to find out how it worked. When they actually found what had attacked the ship, and found that it was still alive, the day had really turned from ‘bad’, to ‘oh god, oh god, fuck this shit’.

The creatures they found were, frankly, horrifying. They made the X’thari look cute and cuddly in comparison. They were slightly humanoid in stature, being about two meters tall, if they bothered standing all the way up. Four arms ended in razor sharp claws, as did their legs with their reversed joints making them prime leapers and sprinters. Their bulbous heads had a mouth full of wickedly sharp teeth as well. And the blue-indigo coloration of their hide made them damnably hard to spot in the darkness without visual aids.

Worse still was the way they could just shrug off fire from their rifles. Their hides were tough, and seemed to include armored plates over much of the body, which meant that they were severely resistant to attacks. Unless you got one in the (slightly) squishier head, then killing one of them could take an entire magazine from their rifles! Of course, that was if they gave you long enough, since the things were insanely fast when they moved on six limbs.

Delta had found them huddled around what they guessed had to be the engines. At any rate, it was a large chamber filled with a ton of machinery. It also sported a breathable atmosphere, and the highest temperatures in the ship, making it a suitable place for creatures to… hibernate, or whatever it was that the scientists decided to call them. All it took was a bunch of Black Star Marines opening the door and turning on the lights for the things to start waking up.

They’d lost Masters and Hathad in the initial moments of the attack. Never even saw the monsters coming, and suddenly there they were, swarming out of every bloody corner. The two marines had been closest to where they first broke from, and they quickly found that while their armor was good, it wasn’t good enough to shield them from these monsters.

Corporal Hicks, a Nomad that had been placed with his squad, had called it in. Best idea that had ever come out of Command, deciding that every squad needed to have their own Nomad attached. Using the Nomad communications network meant that they could still get the word out, despite the ship’s material blocking their normal comms. Which meant that Command already knew about the situation. From what Hicks said, they were preparing to give this ship the Harvester treatment. They were just waiting for all of the living Black Stars to get off the ship.

More importantly, it let them know that Charlie was working their way towards them to reinforce. The extra guns would be damn useful right now. He was already missing the heavy cannon that Hathad had been carrying. The big Ihm male was not the brightest coin in the pouch, but he had been a wizard with that portable cannon. Not that it saved him from getting swarmed by the creatures.

Right now, they were doing a fighting retreat, falling back across the deck, sealing doorways as they passed them, setting up traps where they could. Basically, doing anything and everything they could think of to slow down the aliens that were chasing them. The things may have been in torpor, or hibernation, or whatever, but they were waking up, now, and they were hungry. Looking at their mouths, he guessed they ate meat. Given that the only meat anywhere close to this place were him and his fellow marines, Jackson was none too keen to see these freaks get a nice meal.

“I got it, sir! Door sealing itself in ten!”

“YOU HEARD THE MAN! TANGEL, MAKIV! GET BACK BEHIND THE DOOR! WE’RE SEALING HER UP!”

They’d done this several times in the past half hour. Retreat back to a doorway, fight in the gap for as long as it took to power up and work the door controls, and seal the door in the face of the xenos threat. Fall back and find the next doorway.

Except that most of the doors were already in shambles, either having been wrenched open, or jammed in some way, forcing them to take ‘creative measures’ at points to ensure that the choke point would remain a choke point. Like this one. The door had a hole large enough that one of those freaks could simply run through it without even stopping if it were on all sixes. So, Mackenzie, their demo specialist, was rigging a cannister of glorified freeze foam to explode and seal the gap temporarily.

How well it would work was anyone’s guess. They hadn’t stayed put long enough to time how long it took the aliens to break through. They were just hampering the direct line of pursuit, however. The aliens clearly had some way around the barriers, since they kept coming, but they didn’t have time to do a full sweep, and shut the holes.

Suddenly, Hicks called out, “Lieutenant! Command just got in touch. Charlie is on its way to us. We’re to fight back to the hull breech, and try and draw these fuckers’ attention long enough for Alpha and Beta to complete their jobs and exfil. Beta has a line on the brains to this ship, and Alpha discovered—"

(T’ler, Beta Darconyx System)

Lieutenant Sharel didn’t like that she and her squad were heading further into the alien spaceship that had been attacked and infested with another type of aliens. She didn’t like that they were counting on Charlie and Delta squads to keep the aliens distracted until they could reach their goal. She didn’t like any of it, but that was the mission, so that’s what they were going to do.

The rest of the squad moved along with her, following whatever kind of mental map that Raleda seemed to have gotten from his contact with the alien mind… gem… thing. Whatever it was. That wasn’t important at the moment. What was important was that they had a definite direction to go, and their suits were recording the map data as they went, so they would be able to find their way back. Hopefully. There was no way to know whether the ship would just decide to randomly change things up, of course.

However, Raleda seemed to be confident in his directions, and, so far, they hadn’t run into any blockages or alien swarms, so she was going to count her blessings while they lasted. While they lasted. Damn, she shouldn’t have thought that. Now something was going to happen, for sure!

(T’ler, Bow Section, Beta Darconyx System)

Captain Tustek Hardbrew was nervous. Well, that much was obvious. They were on an alien ship, in the middle of nowhere. Not just ‘poncy knelfi’ alien, but alien alien! It was the largest damn ship he’d ever seen, and it had been beat up straight to hell. If the science types were right, the battle also tore up the whole rest of this system, too. And he was stuck investigating it. At least the nasties that Charlie and Delta had found weren’t showing up here, yet.

His Alpha squad had been tasked to enter through a hull breach near the bow of the ship. Unfortunately, it was too small for the shuttle to land, so they had been forced to EVA across from the shuttle to the wrecked ship. Their goal originally was to find a way to the big door-like thing at the bow of the ship, and see if they couldn’t crack the thing open, to give the science types better access to the ship.

What they had found changed all that.

The Gauz marine looked around, and his eyes fell on one of the privates, the main ‘information specialist’, as Command liked to call them on paper. Everyone else (including Command) called them hackers when they weren’t trying to be official. “Paulidis! Get y’er ass moving! Blair found what appears to be a control station. See if you can’t splice in and find a way to open those doors!”

Slave-Private Pericles Paulidis was one of the refugees from Jagloth that ended up in Black Star’s ‘care’. Best thing that could have happened to him, in his opinion, but no one asked about that. He’d been running with one of the criminal syndicates on Jagloth, and had managed to get off-world before the place got wiped out. He wasn’t a crack shot, but he wasn’t horrible. However, when faced with computer systems, he was a gods-damned ARTIST in getting places he shouldn’t be!

Sliding over to the control panel, he cracked it open, and saw wires running all over the place. All the same color, and none of them labeled, as far as he could see. Fuck, this was a fragging IT nightmare! And they knew from the last console they passed that the power lines were almost unidentifiable next to the data ones. But they’d learned from that, once the team medic got his heart to start beating again.

Cautiously, he tried to concentrate on attaching his backup computer to the controls without frying it. This was a task made monumentally harder given the reports that Charlie and Delta were in the middle of combat, and what they’d found here. He didn’t know what Beta was up to, beyond that they were looking for the brains of this place, but he sure didn’t want to be in their shoes if something happened. And then there was Alpha’s discovery. That was… No! No. He had to focus on the task at hand. Couldn’t let his mind go wandering off until after he got those doors open, or things were going to get ‘interesting’.

(T’ler, Aft Section, Beta Darconyx System)

“CONTACT!”

The scream was punctuated by the staccato roar of gunfire, as the marines of Delta squad opened up on another wave of the blue-violet freaks that infested this ship. The initial contact had not gone well for the Marines, but, once the shock had worn off, they had rallied. The freaks were big, they were tough, and they were deadly, but the Black Star Marines were no strangers to combat, and they quickly began to learn which areas of the beast to target in order to take them down.

FWOOSH!

Of course, it also helped that the General and the Admiral were of the same mind when it came to armaments. With the Marines having the capability to deal with dimensional inventories, they were able to carry a LOT of weapons and ammunition. That didn’t even count what they actually carried on their actual persons. Normal rifles proved ineffective against the aliens, so they switched to a different playbook.

Oh, sure, most of the Marines had switched to heavier, more powerful rifles, the kind they didn’t typically use aboard ships because they did unfortunate things to the ship’s hull. In general, punching holes in the side of a ship you were conducting a boarding operation on was considered bad form. Even if killing all the enemy forces was the order of the day, those kinds of weapons also tended to cause a lot of trouble when they encountered ship systems. Most vital systems on starships and space stations did not react well to bullets at the best of times. The high-powered rifles and blasters were not the ‘best of times’ as far as those systems were concerned.

FWOOSH!

And there were, naturally, those who decided that the ‘up close and personal’ approach was called for. The aliens were tough, but their armor, which stood up well against normal rifle fire, was less impressive against melee attacks. Or, rather, there were very few things which stood up well against a Black Star Marine wearing their strength-enhancing armor and wielding a sword with a monomolecular blade, before they used Energy Psy powers to coat their blade in fire. And the less said about the ‘power sword’, which was like the unholy fusion of a sword and a chainsaw, wielded in one hand, the better. Especially when Sergeant Akionus dual-wielded one with a heavy bolt pistol in his off hand!

FWOOSH!

But that was not the extent of the unorthodox weaponry the Marines had on hand, ‘just in case’. Heavy-duty flamethrowers introduced the aliens to the wonders that was the modern equivalent of napalm, and brought a reddish glow to the halls. And it was these flamers that turned the tide, allowing Delta squad to hold in this long corridor until Charlie reinforced them.

The high-powered pistols and rifles pierced their armor, and the disturbingly effective melee weapons hewed their flesh, and yet the aliens barely noticed as they attacked like feral beasts. But the flamers? Oh, they reacted to those! That primal fear that all creatures had of fire caused the aliens to halt in their charge, making them easy prey for the other Marines, allowing them to hold the line.

“GRENADE OUT!”

A grenade was lobbed over the line of Marines, landing in one of the openings that the aliens were pouring through. And then, suddenly, night turned to day, as the grenade went off. There was no shrapnel to worry about, because it wasn’t that kind of grenade. The plasma grenade was a frightening little piece of work that, literally, filled an area with white-hot plasma for a moment, with predictable effects on anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be caught within the radius.

Lieutenant Jackson nodded as he saw that the grenade had driven back the aliens for the moment. Looking over to Lieutenant Stella McCann from Charlie, he switched over to a command channel. She was technically his superior, given her longer time at rank, so that made her the one in command of their group, for the moment. “Ma’am, we need to pull back to the next hall before they figure out a way around. Mackenzie has already detected movement trying to flank us.”

McCann grunted, before nodding. “All troops! Fall back to the next hall! We have to keep the aliens busy, while not getting ourselves cut off. Make sure our path to the ‘shuttle bay’ remains clear!”

(T’ler, Core, Beta Darconyx System)

“Blimey, that’s huge.”

“Cut the chatter, Private! We’ve got a job to do.” Privately, Sharel couldn’t condemn the outburst. They’d found their way into a positively massive chamber, so large that their sensors couldn’t read how far it stretched. The path they walked on was a kind of causeway of hexagonal platforms of differing heights, like a Giant’s Causeway kind of setup. In the middle of the chamber, there was an area of light. Even from here, however, she could tell that something was wrong. A large piece of material that had fallen from the ceiling however high up, probably internal damage from the battle that had crippled the ship. “Raleda, that where we’re headed?”

“Yes, Ma’am. The psychic imprint in the gem showed that area. But it didn’t have that damage. Must have happened after the drone locked herself away.”

Sharel sighed. That was just great. Well, nothing they could do about it now. That damage didn’t give a good first impression, but there was always the chance that it wasn’t as bad as it appeared. Unfortunately, it turned out to be every bit as bad as it appeared.

The massive piece of debris had fallen on an object in the center of the lit area, crushing half of it. Still, enough was left of the object that they could tell that it was clearly artificial, and different from everything else they’d seen so far. In fact, she could see lettering on a panel…

“CASA?”

Alvarez cleared his throat. “Continental Air and Space Administration. It was the unified space program for the North American powers back before Earth became Terra and started exploring the galaxy. If this was made by CASA, then it would have to be hundreds of years old. But how…”

Singer chimed in next. “LT! There’s another piece of writing here, on this damaged panel. T L E R. T’ler. That’s where the ship’s name came from, I guess.”

Sharel moved over to look at the panel Singer was indicating. It had been worn, and scarred even before the object it was part of got smashed into oblivion. It looked like part of the lettering was obscured. She used a low-power energy beam to clear away some carbon scoring on the panel, and revealed the rest. “T R A V E L E R 6. Traveler 6.”

Alvarez gasped. “Lieutenant, the Admiral says that Traveler 6 was a probe put out by CASA, but contact was lost with it, and it was believed destroyed when it passed too close to a black hole. Somehow, it ended up all the way over here!”

Baxter, their hacker, frowned as he found a communications port that resembled an old plug. Fortunately, he had an adapter. Why anyone thought they would ever have to use a coaxial connection was beyond him, but he had to give props to whoever it was for being prepared for everything, since it allowed him to access the controls on the platform they were standing on. What he found wasn’t good, however.

“LT, I think this probe was the ‘brain’ of this whole damn ship. Don’t ask me how, I don’t know, but it is pretty clear that things were running through here. The AI that ran this place is dead. Like someone scooping out your cerebral cortex. That’s why this thing’s been drifting since whatever went down happened. And the data in here is insanely massive. No way we’re just downloading it and running off. We’re going to have to remove the ‘servers’ if we want to take it with us.”

“How long will it take?”

“Perfectly preserving everything so that it can be reassembled properly, with as few problems as possible? Hours. Ripping it out of there so we can get moving? A few minutes to rip it out, and then we’ll need to hump them out of here. And the storage media weighs about a ton, altogether.”

A ton just for the storage media? The amount of data that would hold, even if it was only as efficient as their solid-state drives, would be astronomical! But getting it out of here… “How many pieces does it come in?”

“Ten, Ma’am.”

All right, that was more manageable. “Start ripping them out. Fast as you can. Everyone else, pick ten people, and drop 200 pounds of gear from your storage. Start with survival gear and the like. You get to take pieces of the alien hard drive with you. The rest of you? Redistribute weapons and ammo. Make sure we are able to take all the important crap with us if we have to fight our way out.”

She saw one of the marines look at her with a quizzical tilt to his helmet, and she shook her head. “I know Charlie and Delta are making a racket to keep the aliens distracted, but if this goes badly, we gotta count on them coming this way. So we prepare for a fighting retreat to Alpha’s location.”

“LT, Charlie and Delta are saying that the ‘ship use’ weapons are no good against the aliens, except in high concentrations. We’ll need to switch to the ‘special cases’ weapons. High-powered rifles, advanced melee weapons, and flamers all work against the aliens.”

“You heard the man, get to it!”

(Central Core, T’ler, Beta Darconyx System)

“We’ve got the covers off. We’re going to have to cut power to the relays before disconnecting the drives, or we might screw up everything if we get a power surge.”

Lieutenant Sharel nodded to Baxter. “All right, then. Ten seconds, and do it.” Turning to everyone else, she said, “Beta squad! Grav-belts on! No one goes floating off like a freaking rookie still in training, understood?”

“MA’AM, YES MA’AM!”

She snorted at the perfect boot camp response, and made sure her grav-belt was working, before saying, “All right, you pricks. Just be glad that it is me here, and not—” She cut off as the power flickered, and then failed, with a light show happening as several places exploded in sparks in the distance. The room was plunged into utter darkness, and her sensors indicated that the artificial gravity was definitely offline. And no one was floating off the deck. Good. Proper planning prevents piss poor performance.

Then, her external microphones began picking up what could only be alarms. Alarms were never good, by their very nature. It was in the name, after all. If you heard one, there was something going on that you should be really freaking alarmed about. “Baxter, what happened?”

“The lines were not designed to handle a redirect like this, not from core systems! We had a short that led to cascade failures throughout this part of the ship, possibly further! No way of knowing for sure. The drives appear undamaged, since they were isolated before the surge. We can start removing them now. Give me ten minutes, and we can get out of here.”

“Right, well, make it snappy! We’re definitely going to get company at this rate!” As soon as I said it, I knew I’d made a mistake. But it was too late. It was already out there.

A massive roar resounded from far away, even louder than the alarms that were still blaring. “Sensors, full power! Switch to low-light for visuals! Defensive positions, protect Baxter and the carry team until they get the drives loaded! Everyone, make ready with the high-power weapons!”

What she saw… defied belief. Lit in the glow of electric sparks, her sensors could just pick up, in the distance, a giant door of some kind was ripped apart, revealing a massive creature, like those that the other squads had reported, but scaled to a size of thirty or forty feet tall! Yellow eyes glowed in the darkness, and sharp teeth and powerful claws could be seen as the creature broke through the shattered doorway. Smaller creatures, likely the ones Delta had reported, came crawling in around it, their claws allowing them to find purchase on the floor and walls, keeping them from floating around.

For a moment, the world seemed to pause, as the Marines stared at the creatures, and they stared back. Sharel broke the silence. “Romanov, NOW!” Private Romanov raised his weapon, and a rocket’s red trail lit the darkness in sudden fury, followed shortly by a ball of light bright as the sun erupting as the rocket-propelled plasma grenade landed amongst the horde of creatures. The large creature roared, and the swarm began advancing.

“FIRE! EVERYONE, FIRE!”

(T’ler, Bow Section, Beta Darconyx System)

“Captain! We’ve got incoming!”

Captain Hardbrew cursed under his breath. “Damn it. So damn close.” All right, not so under his breath. But they had been so close to pulling this off without any problems, at least on their end, and now something was definitely going wrong. “Defensive positions! We’ve got a bottleneck here. We hold here. No retreat, no surrender, no backing down. These things aren’t going to let us just waltz out of here, so you are all going to be earning your pay today.”

He took a breath. “As soon as those doors open, we’ll begin recovery of the artifact. We have the drop ships waiting outside to help in that. But it isn’t going to be something you just pick up and move in an instant. So we’re going to cover the ships while they get the thing hooked up and towed out. Then, we are going to stay put, because we’re holding the door open for Beta. So, until we hear that they are dead, we will hold this ground, and not one of those alien scum is getting past us, do you understand me?”

“YES, SIR!”

(T’ler, Aft Section, Beta Darconyx System)

“THEY JUST KEEP COMING!”

Corporal Hicks cursed at the outburst. It didn’t do anyone any good to hear that kind of talk. “Stow that chatter, Private! If you have time to shout, you have time to shoot! Now put rounds down range, and make those bastards pay for every goddamn inch!”

He might have berated the private, but that didn’t mean the kid was wrong. Despite being reinforced by Charlie squad and having time to switch to their heavier weapons loadouts, the aliens had pushed them back, hall by hall. They were doing what they could to make them work for it, but it was like the damn things were feral beasts, driven only to hunt and kill in a swarm.

Topping it all off, he was the senior officer present who was still functional. The Lieutenants, both of them, had been doing a good job with keeping the unit together and making sure they didn’t panic. Then, they started bursting out of vent shafts they hadn’t even known were there, and didn’t show up on the scans, at first. Both Lieutenants were dead, as were several other good Marines. And they were locals, so they were dead for good.

He looked over to Sergeant York, the Nomad who had been with Charlie. Switching to a private channel, he subvocalized, “Beta and Alpha are already engaged. There isn’t much more we can do for them as a distraction.”

York nodded briefly. “Right. We’re going to need to fall back more than just a doorway if we’re going to try keeping these locals alive, anyways. We may be able to spot the vents now, but that doesn’t stop the bastards from coming through.”

“Your hole is bigger. Ours is closer. I’m thinking closer, even with the reduced capacity. Anyone still breathing has suit seals, so we can take them through vacuum for a bit. And it might slow these things down a bit.”

“Sounds like a plan. You’re the ranker. Care to fill everyone in?”

“Oh, sure. Be that way. Don’t make me recommend the General makes you an officer!”

“That’s just cold, Hicks.”

Hicks shook his head with a smile, and looked out at his Marines. With a thought, he set his comms to project his voice through external mics and to all the helmet rigs. “All right, listen up! Alpha and Beta have engaged, so there isn’t much we can do back here. Any of these things that are already here aren’t getting across this big ass ship in time to make a difference, one way or another, and any of the aliens that aren’t already here will be responding to the alarms elsewhere.”

“Command wants all Black Stars off this fucking ship, so they can blast it to hell. It’s the only way to be sure these… things can’t spread. They’ve lived who knows how long in this wreck with nothing but each other for food. If they get onto a world that can actually support life, no telling what will happen. So, we are going to de-ass the area with a quickness! Everyone, fall bac to the drop site. Delta, lead the way. Sergeant York and I will be rear guard. Now MOVE!”

They began a fighting retreat, moving as quickly as they could through the ship. The damn creatures were faster than they were, knew the ship better. But once they knew what to scan for to find the vents, surprise attacks became more difficult, and the heavy weapons were actually effective against the enemy. But there was still a long way to go before they reached their exit point.

(T’ler, Central Core, Beta Darconyx System)

Lieutenant Sharel did not know how she was still alive. The swarm of aliens was one thing. Railguns and plasma rounds took care of them easily enough. But that big monster? Even their heavier guns barely touched it! That thing’s armor had to be incredibly tough! And when it managed to get close enough to Jiminez, its claws cut him in two! Even with his armor!

Already, five of her Marines had fallen. Another six were wounded, according to her HUD. Alvarez was trying to ‘kite’ the big monster around, giving the rest of the squad time to finish the job. They needed as much of this ship’s core memory as possible if they were going to figure out what happened, and whether there were any more of these… things out there.

There was a break in the storm. Perhaps they had run through the aliens that were closest to them? No matter. They had time, and that was something she wasn’t going to squander. “Quinren, Romanov, Singer, heavy launchers! Bring that beast down!”

Three trails of fire answered her order, and three globes of white-hot plasma erupted on the massive creature’s back, as the plasma grenades hit their mark. And yet, Sharel couldn’t believe her eyes! The creature was still standing! It had lost two of its four arms, along with what looked like half of its upper body, but the thing still gave off a psychic scream of pain, and turned, wide-eyed and angry, at the fire team that had attacked it.

“AGAIN! BRING IT DOWN!”

Three more trails of fire. Three more explosions of plasma. This time, all three grenades hit next to each other, around the creature’s middle. The creature screamed again, weaker now, as its abdomen was vaporized in sudden light. Its legs fell one way, and what remained of its torso fell the other. And yet, despite it all, the thing started moving its remaining arms, trying to crawl towards them! It just wouldn’t die!

CRACK-thwump!

Suddenly, there was a blast of inky black light against the darkness. There was no other way to describe it. A sphere of blackness blacker than the infinite dark of space appeared, for an instant, covering the alien’s head. And then it was gone, and Sharel’s scans indicated that there was a sizeable section of the floor, the floor that their plasma grenades and heavy weapons didn’t even scuff, simply gone, ripped up and thrown into… somewhere, along with the alien.

From the other end of the chamber, Alvarez flew over, using his grav-belt to speed himself along in the microgravity. Sharel just stared at him, as did the rest of the Marines. The Nomad simply shrugged, and said, “Singularity Grenade. Still experimental, and only given to Nomads, for obvious reasons. I was pretty sure that thing couldn’t stand up to a pocket black hole, but the R&D guys haven’t worked out the kinks, yet. The radius can vary from one centimeter to one kilometer, apparently.”

Sharel shook her head. She had told them to bring all the toys, just in case, but the idea of carrying around a black hole on demand scared the living hell out of her. That it was an experimental design that had a blast radius that could only be defined as being somewhere within a centimeter to a kilometer, a difference that was, quite literally, five decimal places in scale, only made it worse. And yet, it had done a number on that big beast.

“How many more of those things do you have?”

“One. They’re still very experimental after all. And Command thinks Marines are less effective if they get sucked into miniature black holes.”

The absurdity of the situation was too much. She couldn’t keep herself from laughing, and soon the rest of her team joined in. Struggling to catch her breath, she said, “Well, I’m very much in agreement with Command on that point. Hold on to that last grenade, in case we see more of those… things.”

“Will do, Ma’am.”

“Lieutenant! We’ve got it! All drives removed and stored!”

Sharel breathed out a sigh of relief. “All right then people, lets get to the bow. Alpha is holding the door open for us, and—” Another psychic scream cut her off.

Turning to the far door, she saw more of the creatures, and, this time, not one, but two of the giant monsters. There was no way they could fight that many. Not in the open.

“RUN!”

(T’ler, Beta Darconyx System)

“Team Two, fall back! Team One, cover fire!”

They were falling back through the halls, heading for the bow. The freakish blue-violet monsters from some grimdark fantasy were after them at every step, however. There was no way they could fight all of them, so they retreated. But they didn’t retreat into the massive main corridors. That would have been foolish. Instead, they entered the maintenance shafts, as they had before.

The smaller creatures still followed them, but there was no way that the big creatures could enter the maintenance shafts. Even if they could, they would be sitting ducks for her Marines. She liked the idea of them being stuck in a tiny space, unable to avoid rocket fire. It was a much happier picture than those behemoths in the open, able to bring their full strength and power to bear.

“Lieutenant! We’ve got contact with Alpha! Patchy, but enough for a locator beacon.”

Sharel smiled as she heard the report. She’d ordered Alvarez to talk to Alpha’s Nomad, and see if they couldn’t toss a repeater or something into the maintenance shaft nearest them, so they had a better way of navigating than just hoping they were going the right way. Fortunately, the material the ship was made from didn’t completely absorb signals. Sure, it degraded them massively. At this distance, they should have near zero latency for realtime communications, with crystal clarity. The fact that they could only manage a nav beacon was telling.

“Right, now that we know where we’re going, we need to hurry the fuck up. Gomez, I want those instant cement grenades rigged up so the next time we fall back, we can trigger them behind us. Give us some breathing room so we can move full out for a bit, hopefully leave these bastards behind until we can get to Alpha.”

“Copy, LT.”

Team Two fell back past their position. Team One opened fire as the aliens tried to charge their position. Bullets and plasma ripped through the darkness, and forced the vile creatures back. She looked to Gomez, who nodded once. “Team One, fall back! Gomez, HIT IT!”

The instant cement grenades were more properly called X-4 Crowd Control Grenades. They worked by basically causing two materials to mix together and explosively expand like a foam, which would then harden to a strength much like concrete. Crowd control was a misnomer, since any crowds caught in the radius would likely be dead, or trapped until they could be chiseled free. It was, however, great for instant barricades, which is what they needed now.

She waited until the barricade hardened, just to be sure that none of the aliens got through before it could stop them. None did. With a sigh of relief, she turned to her marines. “All right, Beta Squad, double-time it! We need to get to Alpha so we can get the hell out of here!”

(T’ler, Bow Section, Beta Darconyx System)

“Artifact secured, Captain. Drop ships returning to pick us up.”

Captain Hardbrew nodded. “Acknowledged.” That was one worry off his plate, then. Switching channels, he called out to his Nomad. “Harkness, what is Beta’s status?”

“Beta’s Nomad reports comms are sketchy, but the beacon got through well enough. They used the instant barricades to gain some separation. Can’t count on it holding for long, but they’re hustling to try and make it to us.”

Another piece of good news. Oh, wondrous day! Hardbrew nodded. “All right then. Advise them that we’ve got a swarm of the nasties between us and them, but we’re holding the door open for them.”

“Captain, Beta reports multiple sightings of massive alien bioforms they’re calling Behemoths. Thirty to forty feet tall, otherwise built like the nasties we’ve been facing. Apparently, one of the ones they faced survived multiple heavy launcher strikes before it was finally brought down.”

Captain Hardbrew had to fight to keep the sigh out of his voice. He should have known that it wasn’t going to go that easily. “Well, isn’t that just lovely.” Shaking his head, he said, “Copy that, Harkness. We’ll keep an eye out for them. Do they have an ETA?”

“Fifteen minutes at current pace.”

Hardbrew frowned. Fifteen minutes? That was damn fast, considering the amount of ground they had to cover. “They must be pushing their suits’ enhancements to the limit, even with microgravity. They’re practically flying!”

“Negative, Captain. They’re using their grav belts, it seems. Kick start off the deck for initial thrust, and set the belts for constant acceleration in the direction you want to go. The problem will be when they need to stop, but this should allow them to get a solid lead on their pack. Maybe enough time to deal with ours and load up on the shuttles before they catch up.”

Hardbrew chuckled. That had to be from one of the humans. Possibly Beta’s Nomad. No gauz or knelfi would come up with a plan that crazy, especially when it hadn’t been tested. But humans were definitely crazy like that. “Clever. I’ll have to remember that.” He made a note in his HUD to offer a commendation to whoever it was that came up with the tactic. If they could get more efficient gravity devices, that could open up all kinds of new tactics for the Black Star Marines.

He turned his attention to the front, where the damned aliens were trying to swarm his defensive line. There were dozens of bodies on the ground. All alien, thank the Ancestors. They had been expecting the attack, not taken by surprise like Delta had been, and they’d already switched from ship weapons to heavy weapons by the time the first nasty thing showed itself.

There were dozens of dead aliens, but it looked like there were dozens more swarming the corridors. Suddenly, his external microphones detected fire coming from in front! Part of the background functions of the armor’s HUD used the mics to triangulate incoming fire. That hadn’t been a problem so far, since the aliens didn’t seem to have (or need) guns. Which meant…

“Alpha Squad, Alpha Squad, this is Beta Actual. Beta Squad reporting in. We’re advancing on the attackers from their rear. Count four-six alien bioforms between us and you. Confirm?”

Hardbrew’s grin grew feral as the communication came in patchy, at first, but then gained increasing fidelity as it went on. “Beta Actual, this is Alpha Actual. Confirm report. Glad you could join us! Survivors of Charlie and Delta confirmed evacuated already. Cut through these freaks, and we can get off this hulk. The Navy is getting itchy trigger fingers. They’re upset that we’ve been having all the fun!”

“Understood, Alpha Actual. See you soon.”

(BSMS Orgrim’s Hammer, Beta Darconyx System)

“Captain, the Marines are reporting in. Charlie and Delta squads have evacuated successfully. However, they are reporting sixty-seven percent casualties, including thirty-five percent KIA. Nomads Corporal Hicks and Sergeant York have been sent for respawn, leaving a sergeant in command of the combined group until they return.”

Slave-Captain Sehanine Darkbow shook her head slightly as she saw Slave-Major Irabalar flinch at the casualty numbers. She subvocalized over a private channel. “I was with the Jagloth Space Guard before the Legion. Trust me, it never gets easier, when you find yourself taking heavy losses for the first time. Day it does is the day you get yourself reassigned.”

“Yeah, I know that. Just didn’t expect we’d be taking such casualties on what looked like a dead space hulk. I just hope that whatever we got from this was worth it.”

“Well, we’ll let the science crowd figure that out. But initial reports indicate that the Artifact may have some keys we’ve been missing for augmentation and power generation. Might be able to make your marines better, faster, stronger. And maybe even neural interfaces for pilots. That’d allow the hotshots to do things that no normal person could pull off.”

“Have to be damn careful with that. The Legion and Deus both showed what can happen when you get augmented without having proper safeguards in place. Don’t think any of us would like to see Black Star walking that road.”

Captain Darkbow nodded. It was hard to argue against that point. “True enough. None of us would be here if it weren’t for the Legion, after all. Still, it is hard to ignore the potential benefits for Black Star if we were to embrace augmentations.”

“Perhaps. But the augmentations should be made in such a way that we have definite controls in place to prevent the problems. Rushing in will put us further behind the curve, instead of allowing us to jump ahead of it.”

“Captain! Alpha Squad is reporting in. Alpha and Beta have linked up, and have loaded up on the drop ships. Reporting fifteen percent KIA, all survivors accounted for. Drop ships have cleared the ship, now identified as the T’ler.”

“Understood, Lieutenant. Commander Shields, my compliments to the Dykhaniye Smerti, and confirm that all friendlies are clear of the ship. They may fire when ready.”

(BSN Dykhaniye Smerti, Beta Darconix system)

“Captain, the Orgrim’s Hammer has reported in. All friendlies clear from the ship.”

Slave-Captain Scott Cook smiled grimly. The situation was nothing to be happy at, and yet he couldn’t stop a bit of satisfaction from entering his voice as his Smerti was once more entering combat, even as little as this promised to be. Since they had surrendered to Black Star during the Civil War, the only combat his ship had seen was the defense of Nuevo Edo during the X’thari attack. His fighters and bombers had more than proved their worth, but as a support fleet, Third Group was fated to rarely see combat. Unfortunate, but those were the realities of war.

He took a breath, and focused on the screen in front of him. “Very well. Contact Inferno Leader, and inform her that she may begin her attack run. Wipe that ship from the sky.”

(Inferno Leader, Beta Darconix System)

Captain Sarya Heixina, call sign ‘Threnody’, licked her lips in anticipation. It was no secret within the Black Star Navy that being assigned to Third Group was a cushy, low risk job. After all, the group’s entire reason for being was to basically support the Nightforge and protect it while it conducted whatever jobs it was doing at the time. In practice, that meant a lot of combat air patrols in systems that already had other Navy units present, leaving the fighter pilots with little in the way of excitement, even if they did gain plenty of stick time.

That was just the fighters. For the bomber pilots, things were actually even worse! After all, no one needed bombing runs in secure systems most of the time. Fortunately, Command had recognized this, and essentially used Third Group as the training corps for their fighter squadrons. New recruits would complete their initial training, and then by assigned to one of Third Group’s squadrons, for ‘on the job’ training. Sometimes, seasoned pilots would rotate through after an engagement, to ensure that the squadrons weren’t completely filled with new recruits.

Which explained why Threnody was here. She’d been temporarily reassigned as Inferno Leader, giving her some ‘on the job’ training in squadron command after her promotion. They wanted to see if she had what it took for squadron command before giving her Tiamat Squadron, the bomber squadron that was going to be based on Blackstone Station in Star’s Reach. Of all the defense fleets, that was the one guarding the Black Star Company’s new headquarters, their seat of power in the galaxy. She was determined to prove herself.

“Inferno Leader, CAG. Marines confirm all friendlies are clear of the ship. You may begin your attack run when ready.”

YES! Finally, she was going to be able to show what she could do! Keeping her excitement out of her voice, she responded, “Copy, CAG. Inferno Squadron beginning our attack run.”

Switching channels, she spoke to her pilots. “All right, Inferno, listen up! We have a big target over there with a lot of really nasty aliens that Command wants eliminated with extreme prejudice. This ship survived after taking a beating that likely reduced this entire system to rubble, so we aren’t taking any chances.”

She paused, and said, “We don’t know what kind of punishment their outer hull can take, so we’re going to fire through the same holes the Marines used to get onto the ship. Working theory is that even whoever made this ship didn’t put as much armor on the inside as they did the outside. Target data is in your computer. We have not detected any shields or point defense, and power is supposed to be fluctuating internally, so we shouldn’t have any problems. Fire one Starbolt each on my mark.”

She waited until all eleven of her pilots confirmed their orders, and double-checked the computer guidance. Everyone was ready. She took a breath, pulled the trigger, and said, “Inferno Leader, Fox Three!” Eleven other voices answered her as they, too, fired on the derelict ship.

(Conference Room, Blackstone Station, Star’s Reach)

Slave-Major Selanar Irabalar stood at attention in front of the people seated at the table. Behind him, Captain Hardbrew, Lieutenant Sharel, and Corporal Hicks were also present. That wasn’t what concerned him, though. What concerned him was who else was at the table.

General Chris Khan was the overall leader of the Black Star Marine Corps. He was the Nomad that had joined the Black Star Company back when its navy was barely more than a handful of Assassins and one pocket carrier. He had literally built the Black Star Marine Corps from the ground up, and scuttlebutt said that he based the whole thing off his own experiences in the Nomads’ world.

Selanar had been attached to the Space Guard as part of a Confederate Marine detachment before Jagloth. His story wasn’t any different from many others. Usually not one to run from a fight, he’d still seen the writing on the wall early on. The Legion Plague spread too easily. There was no way the military was going to be able to stop it, short of destroying the planet. When he came to that conclusion, he sold himself into slavery to get his family off that planet before the Legion took over completely, like many others did. And, like many others, he’d been taken up by the Black Star Company, and his combat experience launched him to becoming the leader of the Second Company of Black Star Marines.

So, he’d seen the organization that General Khan had put together, and he was proud to serve in it. Prouder still to be leading one of its companies. If the Confederate Marines had been organized half as well, then they might have actually had a chance at stopping the Legion on Jagloth. Maybe. But that organization only took hold because the man over the General let it, which was damn rare for someone in control to actually let the people who knew what they were doing do their jobs without bright ideas from higher.

Which is what made Admiral Mollen all the more an enigma. Everyone knew that the Nomad CEO and Admiral was a playboy and disregarded the common sense of the world. And yet, he didn’t act like the newly rich typically did. Nor did he try and puff himself up and make command decisions he wasn’t qualified for, just to show that he was in charge. There were even rumors that, back in the Nomads’ world, he had actually been an engineer in one of their world’s navies! Not even a chief engineer, but one of the people who actually got their hands dirty on a regular basis!

The Admiral was sitting next to the General, looking at them. He’d only met the man once, but that was in his persona as the CEO of the Black Star Company. Everything regarding the Marines went through the General. At the time, he’d been acting like your typical playboy bigwig, same as in any other stretch of the universe. But now, he was in the Black Star Navy’s uniform, and sitting straight.

The Admiral spoke. “As you know, it is Black Star policy that any action resulting in more than twenty-five percent combat losses is subject to a mandatory review, so that we can learn from it, and not make the same mistakes in the future. At this time, after reviewing the evidence brought before us by the data recorders in the Marine combat armor, it is the conclusion of the General and myself that Second Company performed as well as could possibly be expected under the circumstances. As such, no penalties or censure will appear in your records.”

Selanar had to fight from letting out a sigh of relief. The number of Marines killed in action may have been just barely above the twenty-five percent threshold, but when taking the critically wounded into consideration, it rose to almost thirty-five percent. Walking wounded brought it to fifty-eight percent. Not shining numbers, by any stretch of the imagination.

The General spoke next. “Ship-board combat, especially in an unknown vessel, shares many similarities to urban combat. The only difference is that you have fewer snipers on a ship. These actions always run the risk of turning into bloodbaths, especially when fighting on someone else’s home turf. Your company performed well, given that they were literally going into unknown territory, with no intel on what they would be facing. So, we’re going to work on finding ways to better prepare for things like this in the future.”

Selanar frowned. “In the future, sir?”

The Admiral nodded. “While we did destroy the T’ler and the alien bioforms that were nesting in it, we have to assume that both parties are not alone in the universe. The T’ler may have been designed around an old Earth space probe, but someone built the thing. And those aliens didn’t just sprout from nowhere. The T’ler fought an unholy battle in Beta Darconyx, and we can’t assume that it managed to render the aliens extinct, save for those that got on board. So, we’re working from the assumption that these groups are still out there.”

The General nodded, and said, “That’s why we’re going over the artifact Alpha squad secured, the memory cores of the ship, and the suit combat data. But raw data only accounts for so much. Combat reports from those actually in the field are just as important, if not more so. The Navy has already had a briefing with the bomber pilots, to go over the combat data of the ship’s destruction, but you all were on the ground, as it were, so we want to hear from you. Take a seat, all of you, and let’s work this.”

(Black Night Saloon, Blackstone Station, Star’s Reach)

I sighed as I slid into my seat. The Black Night Saloon was a bar catering to the Navy and Marine forces stationed in Star’s Reach. The owner was actually the mother of one the captains in the Star’s Reach defense group, and was originally from Dembara, a rustic frontier world in the Confederacy, and the bar was billed as an ‘authentic Dembaran experience’. Whether that was true or not, it was the best place for drinks on the station.

Sheila shook her head. “Honestly, you act like you’ve been hard at work all day. Only a couple meetings, and you act like you’re going to collapse. Don’t tell me thinking strained your brain.”

I eyed the Princess as she sat next to me, the rest of the harem sat around me. She’d been getting a bit snippier of late. Probably because I’ve been too busy with administrative and military matters to spend as much time with the girls as I normally did. I’d have to handle that before she got even more out of hand.

I heard a snerk, and turned my gaze on General Khan. “Oh, laugh it up, Chris. You don’t think I haven’t heard about your ‘issues’ with that little lady you picked up on Dimiya?”

“Fine, fine. But you’re the one who decided to go and start a harem, so you have to deal with the consequences.” The General chuckled as he leaned back against his chair. “So, what do you think of what we found over there?”

I shook my head slightly, as a waitress came up to get our order. Once everyone had ordered drinks, I said, “There’s plenty to take away from the whole thing. First, no matter what we might think, we’re definitely nowhere near the top of the food chain when it comes to tech. Unfortunately, we can’t prep countermeasures for either the shipbuilders or the aliens until we know more about them, and we won’t know that until we can get into the memory devices, since we blew the ship and everything on it to their component molecules.”

Cali shook her head. “Well, I’ve seen those combat logs from the Nomads that were fighting. Those beasties are tough to kill, and are natural killing machines. I didn’t notice any worn armor or equipment, and their claws aren’t exactly made for manipulation. I don’t know how they could get into space, unless they have some kind of biological ships like the X’thari do.”

Jaynie shook her head. “Nah, these were just shock troops. I bet they’re some kind of hive species, you know? Soldiers, especially shock troops, don’t need to be the smartest or able to manipulate tools. They just need to be able to take down the target when it is in range. There’s plenty of species in nature who have used barely intelligent individuals as cannon fodder before.”

Raven added her thoughts to the discussion, “There’s also the consideration that we may be dealing with a devolution, in a sense. There’s no telling how long the ship has been derelict, but our best guess is somewhere on the order of twenty or thirty thousand years. That is plenty of time for a species to devolve when forced into a situation of cannibalism and limited breeding partners.”

Shearah blinked “Twenty or thirty thousand years? But, didn’t the Traveler probes leave Earth only a few hundred years ago?”

I groaned, and said, “Time travel. It has to be fucking time travel. Don’t know how the probe did it, but somehow it must have gotten thrown through space and time to somewhere else. Time travel always gives me a headache when people talk about it. The paradoxes involved when, inevitably, some idiot decides to try and start changing things are enough to drive a man to drink. I’m putting a solid rule down: no time travel experiments. I don’t care WHAT data is on those memory banks, under no circumstances am I authorizing time travel experiments. I don’t want the damn universe to unravel because someone wants to go back and, say, kill Hitler before he started the Nazi party on Earth.”

Carissa frowned. “But, surely, a noble goal like that would be worth pursuing? Think of all the lives saved!”

I shook my head. “But it doesn’t end there. It never ends there. If you intervene and change history for one thing, where do you draw the line? Just this thing, but not the other? Why Hitler and not Stalin? Why Stalin and not Genghis Khan? Why not save Julius Ceasar? Introduce medicine to make King Tut live a long and full life? All of these sound like good ideas, right?”

“But that’s where the trap lies. You never just change the one thing. There’s always ripples and knock on effects as you see how that one decision affects twenty others. Everything is connected. Removing one man from history to save a few thousand lives may result in a new chain of events, where humans annihilate themselves before ever leaving Earth.”

I could see Carissa and Shearah looking at me with disbelief. “OK, here’s just one possible outcome. Say Hitler doesn’t come along to create the Nazi party. The Germans are still bitter about the end of World War I, but, without a charismatic leader to act as a lightning rod and focal point, the movement takes longer. Say, twenty or thirty years longer. Meanwhile, technology continues to advance. So, when the next war starts, it begins with Germany, who kept the likes of Einstein and other intellectuals in their borders, fielding rocket artillery that is able to decimate enemy positions, with Paris coming under bombardment mere hours after war is declared. But that isn’t the worst of it.”

“In secret, the Germans have been working on a new kind of weapon, one that could avenge the wrongs done to them at the end of the Great War. The other nations have not been idle in their works, but they don’t have the results of the German ‘brain drain’ they had in our timeline, meaning their work is all far behind Germany’s. So, instead of allowing them to get bogged down in a two-front war, Germany unleashes nuclear Armageddon upon London and Moscow, wiping their major opposition off the map in a flash of light. Their spread through Europe, is uncontested in the shock of what has happened. And then they set their sights on Africa, and Asia.”

“Or perhaps the war is delayed, and spies are effective enough that, when the second great war comes, both sides have nuclear weapons. Perhaps they even have missiles tipped with nukes, capable of reaching their enemies, no matter if there’s an ocean between them or not. But there hasn’t been a Hiroshima or Nagasaki, and they haven’t realized the truth of Mutually Assured Destruction. There’s still people who believe that they can ‘win’ a nuclear war. And then that war comes, and man is wiped out.”

I looked at the ladies. “All of that, because you went and stopped Hitler from leading the world into an insane war. And that is only one of the possible futures. One of many possible ways that time travel can screw everyone in the name of saving others, or ‘doing the right thing’.”

The waitress returned with our drinks. I took a long swig of mine, and relished the burn of alcohol in my throat. “So, no. There will be no time travel on my watch. Anyone attempting crap like that will be purged, with prejudice. They’ll be lucky to just get thrown on the Amazon world.”

(Virtual Room in NERV HQ)

“So, what? They uncover a find of insane possibilities, and then proceed to just blow it up? What is he thinking?”

Isaac sighed at Morgan’s outburst. It wasn’t like he didn’t understand her feelings. After all, he really wished that someone had taken the time to examine the wreck of the T’ler and fully unlock all of its secrets. The dev team had taken a lot of time and put in a ton of work adding all sorts of Easter eggs, references, and homages to different works on that ship. To have it just unceremoniously blown up was disappointing, to say the least.

However, it isn’t like he didn’t understand why Mollen had ordered the strike. He shook his head, and tried to explain, again, to Morgan, “He didn’t have a choice, sweetie. Not as far as he could tell. The players weren’t meant to find this secret yet, not until they were stronger, and could potentially cleanse the T’ler of the bioforms. Then, it would have been a treasure trove of scientific research for whoever claimed it.”

“But the Black Stars found the thing way too early. Tech hasn’t improved enough to get to a point where the forces were able to easily defeat the bioforms. Seeing their resilience and how dangerous they were, Mollen made the call that they were, simply, too dangerous to leave on their own. Unfortunately, there was no way to realistically quarantine them, and no one knows how long it would take for them to die off. It was a disaster waiting to happen, really.”

Morgan was not so easily consoled. “But think of the marketing! There were whole revenue streams we could have introduced with this setup! They had a board game ready to go, this survival horror exploration game where you have to escape the evil space ship without getting killed by the nasty alien killing machines. And there was a computer game tie-in, too! Hell, even the tabletop department was looking to cash in! They had some idea of using the bioforms as one team in some kind of wargame setting, with different miniatures for different units.”

“Uh, honey, the tabletop guys were joking with you. There’s already a wargame. We used it as inspiration. The bioforms were an homage to that game. Filing off the serial numbers and changing a few things to make it an homage to another series is one thing. Doing a competing game? No way. We couldn’t have done our own wargame without getting sued.”

Morgan’s avatar visibly deflated with the news. “What? Damn it. Is there anything else in the game that we might get sued for? Just so I don’t get my hopes up.”

“Well, if we had put it in, then the Chaos Brigade would be problematic, for sure. They’re based on that same wargame I was mentioning. But they’re a player-based group, and not something we’re responsible for. Even if they are trying to make their eightfold path a religion in the game.”

“Ugh. Well, at least the religion can’t do anything to damage the rest of the game.” Her eyes narrowed at him. “Wait a minute. I know that expression. What is it? This player religion can’t actually affect the game world, right?”

Isaac took a moment to readjust his collar nervously. “Well, not at the moment. But, with the way things are set up, psychic energy does have some… well, channels and flows, you might say. And it is possible, though not very likely, that enough energy over enough time in the right sort of way could… push the boundaries of what the channels might be able to handle, and create a spillover effect. Might not be exactly the event that they want, but they’d definitely get something happening.”

Morgan groaned. “Fine, fine. Write it up, and let me know what could happen. So, the Black Stars found a massive surprise for the entire game universe, and promptly blew it up. All before anyone could actually get on board and actually study the thing, to find out its secrets and maybe advance the tech base of the game universe considerably. So none of those boosts are coming any time soon. Did anything good come out of this?”

“Well, the Black Stars did manage to get the T’ler’s database, so that isn’t too bad. Unfortunately, they’re going to find that, once they find a way to connect to it and translate it, that the majority of the information is corrupted, or horribly out of date. Like, star charts over ten thousand years old. Sure, stars don’t change relative position to one another that much in time, but any planets around those stars? That’s enough time for entire civilizations to rise and fall.”

Morgan groaned. “Damn it, they already have star charts. And dead civilizations are the last thing we need to introduce more of into the game at this point. Is there anything in there that they can actually use to move copies and get people buying game time?”

Isaac frowned. He knew that Morgan was just under pressure. The higher ups were happy with how the game was going, but they were ‘concerned’ with the lack of monetization, feeling that NERV was leaving a lot of potential profit on the table by not introducing more monetization methods. So far, the dev team had been able to hold them off, keeping a cash shop out of the game. So far.

Frankly, he felt it was a better game without the shop, but the marketing department had a vice president who really wanted to squeeze every dollar out of their properties. He had been the guy who basically made a gambling model for the company’s soccer game, with its “Super Team” card packs. The dev teams hated him, but the shareholders loved him, so there wasn’t anything they could do about him. Unless… no, Murder was certainly an option, but it was too messy, and he was too pretty for jail. Well, that, and the fact that he wouldn’t get to be involved in the game if he was locked up.

Still, that wasn’t Morgan’s fault. She was just the messenger. “Well, there is the Artifact that the Black Stars recovered, along with the database…”