Rising Titans – Chapter 17

Jikse, Bravo rally Point


As she glided quickly towards the ground, Diana looked around for some place to land. Unfortunately, only large trees and dense foliage were directly beneath her – none of which would offer anything close to a soft landing. She closed her eyes as she began to break through the upper branches of the trees. After surviving a dive from orbit, supersonic speeds, an EMP pulse, and ripping her helmet off at high altitude, it would be just her luck that some random branch would manage to poke an eye out.

Dropping below the tree line as she flew towards the ground, the parachute suddenly got caught on a thick branch. Diana cried out in pain as she was jerked to a stop, the straps digging into her shoulders. She hung for several moments, waiting to fall to the ground.

After realizing the branch wasn’t going to break, she opened her eyes to find herself dangling eight meters above the ground. It was quite a drop, but her enhanced musculature and bone structure would help take the impact. With no other options, she pressed the release on her parachute and fell towards the ground like a rock.

Growing up in orbit of Mars and then on Bellona, both of which were artificial environments, the only plants she had ever seen had been foodstuffs and ordered in neat rows. The bush around her were wild though, and so was the ground they grew on. As she hit the uneven terrain, Diana’s ankle rolled out under her and she collapsed onto the ground.

Laying on the ground for a moment, only one word came to mind.

“Fuck!”

Diana carefully got to her feet, wincing from the shooting pains in her ankle. Glancing at her Link to check her position, she found she had landed almost directly on target at Bravo point. Her encrypted beacon and communication systems had been fried though. She wouldn’t be able to communicate with the Canada if it came back, although that wasn’t likely to happen any time soon anyway. She would have to wait for someone else to show up. A quick diagnostic check found several other Link systems not functioning as well, fried by the EMP, although it wasn’t completely useless.

Growling in frustration, Diana grabbed at one of the trees next to her and lifted herself up off the ground with one hand, trying to keep the weight off of her injured foot. After resting a few moments, she climbed up the rest of the tree, her good foot braced against the trunk, jumping higher as she pulled herself up among the branches. She climbed up into the foliage until she was hidden from view. It was a basic tactic – she wouldn’t be hidden from any scans – but it was better than simply standing on the ground.

Leaning against the trunk of the tree, Diana looked down, examining what was left of the HALO suit she wore. The front panels had taken the brunt of the exposure like they were designed to and they were scorched black. Otherwise it appeared mostly undamaged. The artificial muscle lattice that had helped to hold her in place during the fall was still operating for the most part, although it appeared the leg control circuitry had also been damaged by the EMP. Other small systems which had been less protected were also gone; all of the personal media on her Link was gone, although the main operating system was still working, as were the tactical data systems inside the suit.

That was good news. She called it up and found that the tactical data from the Canada had been streaming to her beacon’s black box. It had continued up until the ship had performed a tachyon FTL jump out of the system where it then went dead. If they had made an FTL jump, then they had survived. Diana allowed herself a small smile. The data also included tracking for her companions up until the EMP flash.

Looking at the tracking information, Diana winced. Everyone else had drifted towards the east, most likely not compensating for the strong crosswinds in the upper atmosphere. Even if they had corrected after the EMP burst they would still be hours away.

Sighing, Diana went back to the task at hand dealing with her armor. The atmospheric regulation systems had been taken out by the EMP as well, so she was already hot as hell in the forest. She disengaged the outer, ablative tile layer of her suit, stood up on the branch of the tree she had been resting on, and shucked the hot things over the tree branch next to her. That would help a bit with the temperature.

out a small ration and bit into it, closing her eyes. She slowly began to process everything as she rested.

The Ace had worked, meaning the Empire would now be looking for a way to negate that particular advantage. It would be foolish to assume the enemy flagship had been destroyed. As devastating as the Canada’s attack had been, the engines of the massive kilometer-long ship were likely still operational, meaning they had most likely performed a jump to avoid the nuke.

The ship would be back, no doubt. There was no way they would have missed the shuttle careening back into the atmosphere; even primitive detection systems from two hundred years ago would have picked that up.

All of this combined with the fact that the Canada wasn’t coming back meant that they were going to have to hide, and the best place to do so would be back in that alien cesspool of a city. Attempting to survive in the wilderness of an unknown alien planet was fraught with too many dangers.

Continuing to calculate her options and think about possible future scenarios, Diana only registered that she was exhausted and falling asleep a moment before she slipped off into her dreams.


Diana was startled into wakefulness as a deep, bass-like whirr dominated her hearing. She had been out like a light, and hadn’t woken until whatever was producing the sound was hovering directly over her. Cursing, she made sure all of her suit’s systems were powered down, save for the thermal retention systems which would hopefully camouflage her to any IR scan. Although the system was designed to help retain heat in colder environments, it should do the same now and erase most of her heat signature. The fact that she was missing her helmet meant that her head would still show up, but hopefully the scanner would think it was some large animal. There was nothing else she could do about it now, anyway.

The thrumming base grew louder, to the point where Diana wanted to reach up and cover her ears. It was crawling into her skull like some sort of vicious insect. The source of the noise suddenly came into view; a large, grey-black vessel, which was unmistakably from the alien flagship she had seen in the data logs that the Canada had managed to transmit before it had left. Smaller, of course, but it still possessed a sinuous and animal-like flow, and once again it was devoid of even the slightest scratch.

The sound of gunfire – human gunfire – suddenly rang out through the night air.

Startled, Diana turned towards the sound just in time to see Young, Minerva, and Bruno tumble out of the underbrush. They looked completely worn out, the artificial muscle layer of their suits steaming as they vented excess heat, and even so they were all out of breath.

Turning, Bruno laid down another burst of fire from his rifle. The bullets tore through the undergrowth at whatever was chasing them. Compressed plasma energy bolts answered his attack, and even as he turned to continue running a bolt struck him in the leg, and another sailed past him and struck Young in the back of his helmet.

The three untested soldiers stared in horror as their commander collapsed. The entire back portion of his helmet was gone, as was most of his head; what was left of his brain was exposed to the elements as it slowly bubbled.

Diana had been about to jump down from her perch and join them in their flight, but she now froze, her limbs locked in place she stared at what unfolded.

Minerva and Bruno both hesitated for a moment too long. They knew just as well as Diana that he was dead, and that under combat conditions there was nothing more they could do but survive. Untested, though, they didn’t follow protocol. They paused.

The Empire’s troops stormed out of the underbrush where the three had just emerged, and quickly surrounded the two remaining Human officers on the ground, guns still raised.

Bruno raised his weapon for a half moment as if to fire again, but grimacing at the number of alien troops and guns in front of him, dropped it. Minerva followed suit, dropping the small handgun she had out and slowly reaching up to her shoulder to unstrap the sniper rifle.

Bruno moved until he was back to back with Minerva, his large frame blocking her from the view of most of the imposing men around them, all of whom still had their weapons raised and were shouting in the alien language. Concentrating on her companions, Diana didn’t translate what they were saying directly, but the intent was well enough communicated.

Surrender.

Humanity had no standard doctrine for surrender to the aliens. Their treatment of prisoners was an unknown, and their terms were unknown. However, considering that they had mercilessly wiped all life off a single planet in the blink of an eye, the bet was that a military prisoner would simply be used for information and then discarded.

Diana remained perfectly still, watching with bated breath. Hesitantly, she raised her rifle, setting the barrel to her shoulder like she had a thousand times before, and carefully lined up the sights. She had an easy shot on at least half of the aliens. Easier than most of her training. Picking off at least three of them before they had time to react would be simple; her enhanced reflexes would have made it laughable.

Still, after the three or so shots that were guaranteed to hit, she would be pinpointed, and given the number of guns remaining she would at the very least be severely injured, if not killed, in the barrage.

Logically, her most advantageous action was to remain still. Stay hidden, avoid discovery, and survive. Wait for extraction, perhaps even claim she had no idea what happened to the rest of her team.

For the first time in her life, Diana was truly and utterly conflicted. The genetic enhancements had made everything in her life easy. When she had started military training, the other children in her squadron were working to run the five mile track, while she was doing it without losing her breath. When she had to learn the physics and mathematics of planetary ballistic combat, all she had to do was read the text once, and she aced the test. She was proficient with every weapon Humanity had on hand. The only field where she was still lacking was ship-to-ship combat. Even so, as a mere graduate, she had nearly bested commanders who had decades of experience. Everything had been easy.

Here, though, the logical choice was simple and effective. One that any military commander would endorse. Hide and fight another day.

The half of Diana that was still Human, and not some amalgamation of genetic perfection, balked at the idea. The very thought of remaining silent and allowing people she called friends to be captured was terrible. Consequences be damned. Logical analysis of the situation be damned. Her own life be damned!

She was afraid. For the first time in her life, the logical choice wasn’t the right one. The right choice was to get herself killed! Her hands, still holding the rifle aloft, began to shake, disturbing the perfect shot she had lined up. Lowering the rifle, she told herself she would re-aquire the target in a moment.

Instead, Diana lowered her rifle completely, hating herself even as she did so.

She tried desperately to move her legs, but they remained frozen in fear of her own death or capture.

An Imperial soldier, a woman, stepped forward from the mass of soldiers and, apparently unconcerned, holstered her plasma weapon on her back.

“Surrender, Human!” she shouted in a stunted accent. “Down. Ground!”

Minerva and Bruno glanced at one another and then at the woman.

Angriff?” Bruno asked as he slowly moved his hand back towards Minerva.

Angriff,” Minerva confirmed, speaking in German as well, although with much more proficiency.

The alien woman looked confused for a moment. Whatever device she had that might have translated the words was plainly not picking up what the two had just said.

Bruno moved, his arm a blur as he pulled the single grenade he had off of his belt. For a moment Diana thought he was moving quickly enough that he might actually be able to remove the pin.

Several dark blue pulses of energy hit Bruno directly in the chest, and he collapsed to the ground. An errant blast clipped Minerva and she too collapsed.

For a moment the clearing in the woods was silent. Diana hadn’t taken a breath in nearly three minutes and she was beginning to feel the effects of the oxygen deprivation, but she didn’t dare take a breath.

The woman shouted something, and the troops quickly moved forward and collected the bodies of the three. The massive transport that had been hovering above them slowly descended onto the ground, crushing trees and underbrush beneath it.

Diana watched as her friends and the corpse of her commander were pulled onto the ship. She watched still as the gigantic ramp to the ship closed and the ship slowly ascended back up into the air.

Diana remained frozen for a full minute, then leaned over on her perch and retched, emptying her stomach.

She was a coward. She should have tried to save them.

Again she retched, and completely unconcerned with her own well-being, rolled off of the branch. The armor and her own physically enhanced body protected her even as she began to sob.

She was abandoned, her friends were dead, and she was a coward.

She was supposed to be perfect. Her Mother had designed her to be perfect, and up until this moment she had been. Now she faced a terrifying realization.

She was still human.


As night began to fall over the planet, Diana slowly began to pull herself together.

Crying, vomiting, and in general just feeling miserable about her current predicament would not help her. Sitting and waiting for rescue was out of the question; the Canada would not likely be coming back any time soon.

Her best chance at survival was to acquire an alien ship and attempt to rendezvous with the Canada. How she was going to find it, Diana had no idea – the Canada had no set flight path except for a tachyon jump back to Bellona when they finished in Empire space.

Locking onto that signal was the only guarantee she would make it back, in the meantime though she would be able to complete the mission objective even if she wasn’t on the Canada.

Acquire information about the Alien culture and any technology that Humanity might find useful. The guidelines for what was acceptable to meet those objectives had been purposefully left vague, politics were after all still in play.

Pushing herself up from the cold ground and away from the bile ejected from her stomach Diana got her bearings on the direction of the decaying city, which was actually fairly easy. The noise and light were being projected up into the sky to such a degree that someone would have to be blind and completely deaf to not find it.

Nodding to herself Diana set out through the underbrush of the forest moving towards the light of the city. The Bravo point had been chosen to be isolated enough but still within easy access distance, although even for her it took the better part of an hour at a fast trot to make it to the decaying wall that surrounded the city.

“What the hell happened to you?” asked a man leaning against a crumbling portion of the wall, some sort of device in his hand that contained what looked like smoke. A drug of some sort, Diana had seen plenty of men like him while she had shadowed her mother as a child. His face was also a vibrant green and his eye were dilated almost too completely black. If Diana had to guess those attributes were not part of what classified him at the B level.

“And what’s with the weird clothes?” he peering down at the armor and attachment points for the thermal tiles.

Diana smiled, “Lost a bet.”

The stoned man looked at her for a moment and then nodding to her took another hit of whatever it was in the device.

Stepping past him and into the city Diana strode forwards with a false sense of purpose, she stuck out enough as it was and while that had been advantageous to distinguish herself while investigating the city and she had backup doing so now was deadly.

The first thing she had to do was ditch the Human garments, and then find a way to make a reliable amount or find a way to hijack a ship. From the vibe the city gave off she had no doubt that crossing the wrong individuals would end in death, so learning the power structure of the city would be important as well.

So focused on what she should do next Diana almost didn’t notice the aliens behind her or why they were so familiar. It took her a moment and she had to dredge backwards through her memories to when she was a child. They were pickpockets, and judging by the looks they were giving her she was their next mark.

Diana had to hide her grin, they were amateurs certainly. She had done it back on the Station in orbit of Mars, where it had been a little more difficult considering that there was zero-g to contend with. Still she didn’t feel like dealing with them at the moment.

With a sigh Diana ducked into the first shop on her right that looked like it had clothing, it was a dingy place and appeared almost empty. The clerk, a woman with small completely black eyes and only four fingers on each hand looked up as she entered.

“Hello,” said the woman somewhat warily.

Diana nodded, “hello.”

The two looked at one another for a moment and then with a huff the woman turned back to her Link and continued to tap away at it.

Looking around the store Diana noticed that everything was covered in a thin layer of dust almost like everything hadn’t been touched in months. Still it would do for now.

Going to the nearest mismatched rack of clothing Diana rifled through it. Their hadn’t been any predominant fashion out on the street, although everyone had been dressed in a utilitarian manner. Picking a dark grey jacket off of the rack and what could only be described as cargo pants to match Diana took the clothing to the counter and the woman.

Taking the mass of clothes in hand Diana went and set it all down on the counter.

“How much for all this?”

The Clerk looked up at her again surprised, and then glanced down at the clothes.

“120 credits I guess.”

Diana knew something was off, but at the moment she didn’t care.

Pulling out her Link Diana was about to hand it to the woman when the door to the shop banged open, a man with dark red skin, darker than anything she had seen on the Dorvakian’s as well as a mat of dirty black hair stumbled forward and collapsed on the ground.

“[Hal]!” the woman behind the counter shot forward waving he hand at the door Diana heard a heavy lock move into place. Diana heard a hum as well and glancing at the window of the shop she saw a faint shimmer that had to be from some low powered shield.

“Sorry, it went bad.”

The man rolled over onto his back and Diana spotted a green stain on his shirt, the woman gasped and put her hands to it pressing down like one would on a wound. Which was exactly what the man had, a huge slash across his front that was bleeding green.

“I thought he was trustworthy!” said the woman.

“So did I.” growled [Hal] and he winced clutching at his chest.

“You need a doctor!”

The bleeding man shook his head, “I do that and He finds out I was injured. I’m already on probation, he’s goanna be mad enough the deal went bad. If he hears I’m out of commission for a while he’s going to.” The man swallowed and shook his head grimacing.

Diana weighed her options, this was a little quick considering everything but it was also an opportunity.

“I have something that might help,” said Diana speaking up.

The two aliens froze, and the man slowly turned his head to look at her.

“Who the hell are you? A customer?”

The woman chuckled, “Our what, third customer?” she asked.

The man nodded, and wincing put his head down on the floor.

Leaving the clothes on the counter Diana walked over and reaching into the pocket on her right thigh extracted one of the three remaining nano-machine injections. Carefully she weighed it in her hand, the man whose face was turning a lighter shade of red every moment looked up at her with one eyes while the woman examined her with a little more scrutiny.

“What is that?” asked the woman eyeing it.

“Expensive,” growled Diana.

The woman’s eyes narrowed, “then what’s it going to cost us?”

“Those clothes and a pointer of where to get a job.”

Before the woman could respond Diana placed the vial on the man’s chest directly on top of the wound and pressed the plunger injecting the tiny robots into the man.

He groaned and his hand flew to his chest, and let out a shout.

“What the hell did you do!” shouted the woman, a small pistol was suddenly in her hand produced from where Diana wasn’t sure she had moved so quickly that even with her enhanced reflexes she hadn’t been able to see it.

“Fixed him, look.” Reaching down Diana grabbed at his shirt and pulled it to the side. It was still slick with greenish blood but unbroken red skin was now the only feature of the man’s chest. The skin had been easy, but fixing the internal damage would be a little more difficult for the nano-machines especially with the alien anatomy.

The woman blinked and slowly lowered her pistol.

“What the hell was that?” she breathed.

“So we square on what that cost?” asked Diana.

Absentmindedly the woman nodded, and [Hal] slowly sat up and groaned.

“It’s going to take a little while for the internal stuff to be fixed. A few hours at most,” said Diana.

Getting to her feet the woman went over to the counter and grabbing the pile of clothes, “Put those on, if you want to find a job you can start by not looking like someone who was caught in a firefight.”

“I was.”

The woman considered her for a moment, “Well you look like you lost.”

Diana smiled slightly, “I’m still here aren’t I?”

The woman snorted and tossed the clothes to Diana.

“For now.”

END ACT ONE

Writer:
Weerdo5255
Series:
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Date Point: 16y3m5d AV Hierarchy/Cabal Joint Communications session #1772 ++0010++: Proximal’s continued absence is a source of concern, and investigating has been forced to take a low priority by other operations. His last known activity was in an Irujzen-1-adjacent sub-lucid volume. ++0004++: Irujzen? Why was he all the way out there? That’s a backwater! ++0022++:

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Henosis – Chapter 2

The mess hall on the station was a cavernous space on one of the mid-decks in the core, overlooking the long central shaft. It was a temporary arrangement… once the station was near-complete, a merchant or restaurateur would be enticed into setting up a proper dining area, whereupon the space would be converted in whatever

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 55: Reinvention Part 5

Date Point: 16y3m5d AV Planet Rauwryhr, The Rauwryhr Republic, Perseus Arm Ambassador Sir Patrick Knight Rauwran Great Trees were… They were quite a thing to behold. Each one was as thick around at the base as a cricket ground, and soared up and up and up until their canopy was an invisible dark haze high

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Henosis – Chapter 1

[2yr 1m AV] Trrkitzzkt L’tr’brtrk’tr quietly filed away the video files of the interviews he’d completed, queuing a copy to be sent via the station’s normal data exchange to his personal archive, in addition to the backup copy he kept on his personal data tablet. Both were encrypted with the strongest algorithms the investigator had

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Causal Results – Chapter 1

Dorvakian Home World 4 Years 3 months 8 days Before C1764 FTL Jump Looking across the grounds for several moment’s Silnersalkara tapped the table in front of her. The data controls embedded in the device quickly shut off and the hologram above its surface died. “Kermarcus, I’m aware of the situation. The opposition’s been attempting

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 55: Reinvention Part 4

Date Point: 16y3m AV Planet Akyawentuo, Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Yan Given-Man “I like these Core-tie.” “You do? Why the change of heart?” When the ‘del-a-gay-shun’ had returned, there was of course much eagerness to learn the news. Yan was very happy to tell everyone they would be getting vack-seens from the Core-tie as

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Good Training – Survival Part 6

Date point: 14y 8m AV Residence of the Great Father of the Gao, Folctha, Cimbrean Sister Naydra The months on Cimbrean had been…therapeutic. She found herse lf greatly appreciating the Female presence on the Human’s first colony world, and everything it stood for: stability, acceptance. Survival. The Humans had done so much to support the

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 55: Reinvention Part 3

Date Point: 16y3m AV USS Robert A. Heinlein, Akyawentuo Orbit, the Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Third Director Tran Some of the other Directors had expressed reservations when Tran had informed them he was taking Nofl along to the meeting with the Ten’Gewek. He’d invested some of their trust and patience by reassuring them that

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 55: Reinvention Part 2

Date Point: 16y2m3w AV Hierarchy/Cabal Joint Communications session #1722 ++0008++: In summary, the infiltration of Sol means the operation was a success, though not an unqualified one. We have four Injunctors on Earth, and a further two in the outer system, but the new Arutech biodrones appear to be an abject failure. The Cimbrean infiltration

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Rising Titans – Chapter 51 (End)

9 Years, 7 Months, 2 Days After Eridani Landing Chront Leaning down and putting her head to the table Stagg yawned. “Try the tea,” repeated Derrick sounding just as exhausted as she felt. The Captain turned to look at the engineer and then at the small pot on the table. “I did. Taste’s like mold.”

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 55: Reinvention Part 1

Date Point: 16y2m3w AV Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Daar, Great Father of the Gao “Hey, this ain’t a bad little house at all!!” Daar followed in behind Gorku, who was carrying a completely exhausted Leemu on his back and had to mind his steps. “Humans know how to build houses arright,” he agreed. “Maybe

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 54: Here Be Dragons Part 6

Date Point: 16y2m2w1d AV Planet Akyawentuo, Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Vemik Sky-Thinker One of the Human archaeologists was a metallurgist. Tilly was a strange and delicate name that didn’t suit her at all, Vemik thought. She had a sharp face full of metal piercings, skin full of bright pictures, and a half-shaven crest of

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Good Training – Survival Part 5

Date point: 14y 2m 3w 4d AV SOR barracks, HMS Sharman, Folctha, Cimbrean, The Far Reaches Meanwhile… Brother Faarek (Southpaw) of Clan Whitecrest–SOR “Are you sure you want to do this, Brother?” “Yes,” Thurrsto said with absolute conviction. “She’s the most beautiful Female I’ve ever seen and she’s hurting. I can’t bear doing nothing.” Faarek

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 54: Here Be Dragons Part 5

ESNN Magazine article: “Prisons In Their Head- an interview at Camp Tebbutt” Author and photographer: Ava Magdalena Ríos [Cover image: two men seated on a bench in front of a chain-link fence, with a stunning Alaskan vista behind them. On the left is a scruffy bearded white man with shaggy salt-and-pepper hair, and next to

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Rising Titans – Chapter 50

+15 Minutes The Canada “Can this thing fly?” Shouted Pankin as a rattling howl began to echo through the ship, the crew members on what was now the ceiling tightening their straps as objects that had been floating began to rattle on the floor as the ship dove deeper into the atmosphere of the planet.

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 54: Here Be Dragons Part 4

Date Point: 16y2m2w AV Weaver dropship, Rich Plains contact volume, Kwmbwrw Great Houses TSgt Timothy “Tiny” Walsh All throughout the ordeal of becoming HEAT and finally earning the Mass, the one thing running through Walsh’s head was that one day, he too would serve at their level. Do the mission like none other. Walk through

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 54: Here Be Dragons Part 3

Date Point: 16y2m1w5d AV Camp Tebbutt Biodrone Internment Facility, Yukon-Koyukuk, Alaska, USA, Earth Ava Ríos “You ever rode a helicopter before, Ava?” Ava jumped, and looked away from the window. She’d been enjoying the view. It was her first trip to Alaska, and the thing that struck her as she’d watched the landscape rolling by

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 54: Here Be Dragons Part 2

Date Point: 16y2m1w2d AV Gaoian embassy, Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Daar, Great Father of the Gao There was shit to catch up with. Stuff to read, stuff to make decisions on, stuff to be briefed on in case he had to make a decision later… At first Daar did his best to

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Good Training – Survival Part 4

Date point: 14y 2m 1w AV Planet Akyawentuo, The Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Singer “So, if we salt the roots in boiling water with some herbs, and use a very tight…what was the word?” [“Jar,”] Julian said encouragingly. “—And then we boil the whole jar with the lid on loose, so the bad spirits

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Rising Titans – Chapter 49

+10 Minutes The Singer [Vann] stood in the center of the bridge the three-dimensional hologram showing the entirety of his fleet as well as the surrounding space. The cubic formation was going to be tested now, up to this point the only gauge of effectiveness was how [Charles] had reacted to it in simulations. He

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 54: Here Be Dragons Part 1

Date Point: 16y2m5d AV Planet Akyawentuo, Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Xiù Chang Yan was having to explain himself. It wasn’t that the men who’d come out to hunt the Brown One were disappointed, exactly. None of them had been looking forward to the battle at all. They all knew the stories of how many

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 53: The Wild Hunt Part 6

Date Point: 16y2m4d AV Planet Akyawentuo, the Ten’gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Julian Etsicitty Daar caught up with them about an hour after Xiù called ahead to let them know he was coming. A lot had happened in that hour. Yan had laid out his bibtaws in a kind of scent lure, some distance out

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 53: The Wild Hunt Part 5

Date Point: 16y2m3d AV Gaoian embassy, Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Daar, Great Father of the Gao People who didn’t know Daar all that well thought he had a pathological aversion to Civilized pursuits. Not true at all! Daar had always enjoyed history, writing, and the more subtle arts of courtship, and he

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 53: The Wild Hunt Part 4

Date point: 16y2m3d AV Planet Akyawentuo, the Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Daniel “Chimp” Hoeff Julian had a habit of singing in the woods. Not loud, exactly, and Hoeff wasn’t even sure he was totally conscious he was doing it, but loud enough to hear. Apparently it kept critters from blundering into them that might

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Rising Titans – Chapter 48

+ 7 Minutes 38 Seconds The Canada “Captain, your message?” asked Arik as her Avatar superimposed itself over the main monitor. “Surrender now, call off the fighters and we’ll let you live. Then we can begin to negotiate for an end to this pointless violence.” “That’s it?” asked Arik after a moment. “Unless anyone else

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Good Training – Survival Part 3

Date point: 14y 1m 2w AV “Clan Young Glory,” western unincorporated territories, Gao Sister Naydra Naydra and her fellow Sisters were slowly dying. The “Clan” that had “liberated” them from the clutches of what they now knew were biodrones had decided their honored guests needed “protection.” Their so-called protection consisted of imprisonment. Their “protection fees”

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 53: The Wild Hunt Part 3

Date point: 16y2m3d AV Planet Akyawentuo, the Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Professor Daniel Hurt “What exactly did he say he’s fetching, anyway?” “An M107.” Daniel frowned. Although he’d learned more about firearms in general over the past few years than he’d ever imagined he would, there were times that the people who really “got”

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 53: The Wild Hunt Part 2

Date Point: 16y2m1d AV Chiune Station, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Allison Buehler Allison hadn’t slept well in a couple of nights. It wasn’t that she begrudged Julian and Xiù going offworld, not at all, but it did disrupt the sense of familiarity that made home, well… Home. If she didn’t have her brothers to

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Rising Titans – Chapter 47

+ 30 Seconds The Canada “The Empire ships are now in range of the ACE field!” reported Arik. Stagg grimaced as the ship shook “Activate,” “New contact!” shouted Arik interrupting. “What?” “IFF is identifying the vessel as the HSB Russia, they just exited a spatial rupture directly between us and the Empire fleet!” “Open communications!”

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 53: The Wild Hunt Part 1

Date Point: 16y2m1d AV personal sanctum, Dataspace. Cynosure/Six Data sophonts did not sleep, and thus did not dream. Nevertheless, Cynosure had a recurring nightmare of sorts. When his attention wandered, he found that it almost inevitably alighted on a handful of disturbing subjects. The details varied, as he worried at different aspects of the problems

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Good Training – Survival Part 2

Date point: 14y 7d AV Planet Akyawentuo, The Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Later that day Julian Etsicitty It was approaching mid-day and the day’s morning work had been taken care of. The scouts had come back and reported that the nearby werne had just calved and would need to be left alone for a

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 52: Autoimmune Part 6

Date Point: 16y2m AV Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Daar, Great Father of the Gao “Poor bugger hardly knew which way is up…” Powell grunted, once Wagner was gone. “Who can blame him? His whole crew going violently psychotic on him with no warning, only to be stasis-hopped right into a Corti’s lab being sniffed

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Rising Titans – Chapter 46

9 Years, 6 Months, 14 Days After Eridani Landing Jikse Diana blinked in surprise as the jungle was suddenly lit up by a fantastic reddish glow, glancing behind her towards the city Diana watched as another blast of energy, identical in color to the flash fell from the sky. Unable to see from her vantage

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 52: Autoimmune Part 5

Date Point: 16y2m AV Folctha, Cimbrean, The Far Reaches Julian Etsicitty The house was a mess when Julian got back, which was rare. Nobody in their household was naturally untidy—living on Misfit had driven Allison, Xiù and himself into an ingrained habit of orderliness, and the boys had lived in fear of their father’s belt

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 52: Autoimmune Part 4

Date Point: 16y2m AV Hierarchy/Cabal Joint Communications session #1536 ++Asymptote++: I have bad news. It would seem our new drones are detectable. ++0004++: <Dismay> you’re certain? ++Asymptote++: The force I sent to Cimbrean was captured immediately upon arrival. ++0007++: How? ++Asymptote++: Unclear. The Arutech drones don’t report as concisely as conventional biodrones. The connection is…

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 52: Autoimmune Part 3

Date Point: 16y2m AV The Thinghall, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Gabriel Arés Every civilization needed its icon of executive power. The UK had the black door of Number Ten Downing Street and, somewhere behind it, the Cabinet Room; the USA had the White House, and the Oval Office; Folctha had the Alien Palace. The

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Good Training – Survival Part 1

You may also want to read Pyrophytes in The Deathworlders series. Same story, different angles. Date point: 14y 7d AV Planet Akyawentuo, The Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Professor Daniel Hurt “You want me to read it by next week?” Julian mopped the sweat from his face and bounced loosely in place. “What was it

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Rising Titans – Chapter 45

-7 Hours CHRONT THE CANADA “More contacts!” said Arik as she flashed every monitor on the bridge a bright red. Stagg glanced up at the monitor, “How many more?” “I’m counting!” “You’re counting!?” A grainy image of the approaching Empire patrol vessel was quickly displayed, a small box around it. Additional boxes quickly filled the

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 52: Autoimmune Part 2

Date Point: 16y2m AV Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Nofl Leemu had become unresponsive. Nofl’s quarantine facility had alerted him after the patient had been anomalously still for twenty minutes, and the reason why became obvious upon a quick inspection of the cell: Leemu was sprawled on his back, staring blissfully up at

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Good Training – April Fool’s

13y 3m 29d AV One-Fang workhouse, Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Sergeant Regaari (Dexter) of Clan SOR One of the best things about the humans was that they had a springtime holiday dedicated to mischief. Before them, only the Gao could claim to celebrate such a thing and it was one of the

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 52: Autoimmune Part 1

Date Point: 16y2m AV Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Nofl Nofl’s lab was spacious, but inevitably finite. When it contained an alarming number of alarmed Humans, not to mention one particularly sculpted canine and a Gaoian brownie who was doing his best not to loom at everyone… well, there were times when Nofl

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 5

Date Point: 16y2m AV Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Allison Buehler After a lifetime of helicopter parenting, Tristan and Ramsey seemed addicted to every opportunity they could find to do something their mother would have scooted them away from. And who could blame them? Amanda had never managed to get her head around the idea

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Rising Titans – Chapter 44

9 Years, 6 Months, 28 Days After Eridani Landing Deep Space The Russia shuddered again as the engines slowly powered down and the ship slid out of the red blue haze that was the tachyon FTL corridor. James blinked several times trying to clear the haze from his eyes as the regular black background of

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 4

Date Point: 16y1m AV Dataspace adjacent to Mrwrki Station Entity The Entity understood the concept of boredom in an academic, abstract way. It could even vaguely summon up Ava’s memories of being bored. But understanding the idea and actually feeling the emotion were two different things. The closest it could get was the sensation of

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 3

Date Point: 16y2w AV Air Force One, somewhere over Asia, Earth President Arthur Sartori “…You want to give us a Farthrow generator.” Daar’s image was janky and low-resolution thanks to the vagaries of current wormhole comms, but the audio was a lot clearer now. Technology marched onwards. “It’s loaded up on a train and ready

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Good Training – Pecking Order

13y, 8m AV Operator’s Barracks, HMS Sharman, Folctha, Cimbrean Officer Regaari (Dexter) of Clan Whitecrest “I got an idea, Regaari.” Regaari flicked his ears forward in annoyance. “This again?” “Well, yeah. I gotta win that bet, Cousin!” Regaari duck-nodded wearily. Not long after Daar had received the SACRED STRANGER briefing, he’d sulked off to think

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Good Training – The Champions – Tidying Up

Messier 24 Mission day: 3 Sergeant Daar (Tigger) The third day was always when things settled into routine. Daar didn’t really know why, ‘cuz that was prol’ly some complicated psychology stuff (maybe he should read up?) but he did know how it worked, practically speaking. Daar always pondered morning thoughts like that when he was

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 2

Date Point: 16y2w AV Weaver dropship, Gaoian space Sergeant Ian “Hillfoot” Wilde “So in all the excitement, we clean forgot about these things. That’s what you’re telling me.” Champion Meereo made a sound that was half a sigh and half a chitter. “…That’s more-or-less exactly right, yes. We had… well, bigger priorities.” Wilde had to

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Rising Titans – Chapter 43

9 Years, 6 Months, 28 Days After Eridani Landing Bellona “Ready?” asked Alpha from where he sat on top of the Captain’s chair. “I’m good!” said Red from where he sat at the controls for the ship. It hadn’t taken much to convince him to pilot the vessel. James glanced down at his own console

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 1

Date Point: 16y AV Yukon–Koyukuk, Alaska, USA, Earth Zane Reid The cold didn’t hurt anymore. At first, it had been like forcing his way through a wall made of knives that cut through his clothes. Zane’s every breath had blinded him as it billowed and steamed in the air, and when he’d experimentally licked his

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Trigger Part 5

Date Point: 16y AV Camp Tebbutt Biodrone Internment Facility, Yukon–Koyukuk, Alaska, USA, Earth Hugh Johnson Snow. Of course, snow in January in Alaska was hardly surprising, and this one threatened to be heavy. At first, Hugh had thought it was probably just an seasonable dusting that’d add a couple of inches to the foot or

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Fight!

I had made my way through the tournament, but most of my matches had been won by the skin of my teeth, and I had only the advantage of being evolved from a pursuit predator to thank for it. Our great endurance had been the one boon that had kept me going, and I was

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Trigger Part 4

Date Point: 15y 10m 1w AV HMS Violent, Rvzrk System, Domain Space The ground battle churned on for days. That was the problem with Hunters. There was no surrender involved, it was a kill-or-be-killed fight where smashing their will to engage in war simply didn’t achieve enough. Any Hunter left alive would just keep murdering

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Good Training – The Champions – Doom and Gloom Part 4

He awoke to a pleasant smell. “…Eggs?” Hoeff detangled himself from Natalie and the sheets and stumbled towards the kitchen. Daar was busy in front of the comparatively little stove and fridge, humming some terrible Gaoian tune to himself. Seriously, their music was like Chinese opera with extra pain. Some Humans liked it, though…but “atonal”

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Rising Titans – Chapter 42

9 Years, 6 Months, 15 Days After Eridani Landing The [Singer] The explosion hit and [Vann] watched at the lights on the main hologram and different panels flashed a blinding white light, before dying and plunging the entire bridge of the [Singer] into darkness. “What were we supposed to do?” asked someone near the weapons

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Infestation

Day 1. I’ve made it on board the human trading vessel! They didn’t detect my presence, and I’ve managed to smuggle myself into their engineering bay, and disguised myself within a cluster of cables! My small, serpentine body makes me indistinguishable from a thin, grayish cable, and the Humans won’t notice my existence until it

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Trigger Part 1

Date Point: 15y 10m AV Camp Tebbutt Biodrone Internment Facility, Yukon–Koyukuk, Alaska, USA, Earth Hugh Johnson Camp Tebbutt wasn’t actually a bad place to live, if you didn’t count the fact that it was essentially a prison for innocent victims. Hugh understood why he was there, and why he couldn’t leave… but after eleven years,

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Good Training – The Champions – Doom and Gloom Part 3

Firth Regaari chittered, “It is difficult to imagine you ‘humbled,’ Righteous.” “Heh,” Firth chuckled. “You do know most of my attitude is straight fuckin’ bullshit, right? Adam and John know why.” Regaari looked over at John, who shrugged massively. “He’s a scary dude. Being ridiculous kinda takes the edge off, y’know?” Regaari duck-nodded. He was

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Rising Titans – Chapter 41

9 Years, 6 Months, 13 Days After Eridani Landing Jikse Moving down the hallway Diana paused at the double doors, carefully she moved forwards into it’s threshold and they slid open. A woman in an orange smock looked up from her Comm for a moment, and then going back to look at it did a

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The Good Samaritan

I felt a white-hot pain in my back as I was stabbed. Once, twice and then three times. I fell to the ground clutching my new openings, and for a moment I couldn’t grasp what had just happened. I had walked through an alley as a shortcut back home, and then suddenly someone had grabbed

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Homefront Part 6

Date Point: 15y9m3w AV Mrwrki Station, Erebor System, Unexplored Space Darcy “Does it seem… different to you lately?” “What?” “The Entity. It’s actin’ different, dude, I swear it is.” Darcy sighed and set aside her work as Lewis sat down. She was sitting drinking a Moroccan Mint tea in the station’s rec lounge, with its

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Rising Titans – Chapter 40

9 Years, 6 Months, 13 Days After Eridani Landing Jikse Popping the restraints off of her legs Diana swung herself off of the table, the two class A’s still in their isolation suits were pounding at the door of the room the three of them were in. “It’s out! Open the door!” shouted the man

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Good Training – The Champions – Doom and Gloom Part 2

Master Sergeant Christian (Righteous) Firth The end of the movie came and the ladies were fast asleep and prolly too tired to head home with any comfort. The other bros were asleep, too, and Firth was tangled up with them pretty good. Oh well, both ‘Base and ‘Horse were heavy-ass sleepers and only danger or

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Hell

Hell. It’s a completely Human concept. The concept of a realm of eternal torture, to which you are sent depending on the whims of one deity or another, is something only found in Human fiction. And it’s not an isolated occurrence. Almost every human culture since the dawn of humanity itself has had it in

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