SAMPLE CHAPTERS, DELETED CHAPTER, AND MORE ABOUT IMPERILED
I M P E R I L E D
A S C I E N C E F I C T I O N A D V E N T U R E
ALEXANDER HANS SCHMITT
WITH VONNIE GENE SCHMITT
SAMPLE COPY
CHAPTER I
“Plotting new rift routes and building rift transit fold zones were common occurrences throughout the universe during many thousands of years of expansionism. At the onset of this era, the cargo hauler listed as the Jeweled Starlight was built by Alpharan Industries in the Centrum System of the Origin Division. For most of the Starlight’s lengthy existence, it transited from rift to rift until its vector eventually intersected with the Terminating Edge of the Known Void. There the Starlight remained as the Edge grew beyond those volumes and expanded into the Unlooked Places. While its history is of interest, it was the destruction of the Starlight in an unprovoked attack and the cargo that it carried on its final voyage that set in motion a progression of circumstances consequential for the future of humanity.”
Tellar Quintan; The Forgiving: An Exploration of their Origin.
In a place long forgotten by all but the Forgiving, the Watcher of the Day pondered the fate of worlds. To him, it was routine, but others with limited minds would be incapable of his cool calculations.
The data feeds that often filled the chamber with light, sound, and motion were still. The Watcher realized that the time had come for his deliberations to end. He needed the progress report of the Grasp who waited. He ordered the Grasp to enter, and a shape moved through the bluish light of the portal. It made its way across the bridge that connected to the central span. As the newcomer approached the place where the Watcher waited, its active concealment field masked all but the most abrupt movements. To an outside observer, it would seem as if that field contained a restrained liquid instead of a solid being.
The Watcher waited to speak until the Grasp stood before him. “What information do you have for me?”
“The subject is under our influence. The promise of monetary gain was sufficient to ensure his cooperation.” The Grasp’s voice was bland and devoid of identifying qualities.
“Is the precipitating incident ready to be put into effect?”
“Yes.”
“The response?”
“Imprinted,” the Grasp said. “Deviation is within acceptable limits.”
“What is the timing?”
The Grasp activated a discreet personal display, examined it, and forwarded the desired information to the Watcher.
It was acceptable. “Your departure is allowed. Inform the next that they may enter.”
The Watcher of the Day waited impatiently until another glided through the bluish light. There was much to do, and time was fleeting.
***
In the Centrum System of the Origin Division, the space habitat Frost Station orbited Centrum XII. The planet glistened in the faint, reddish starlight. Scattered across the frozen expanse of its surface were the vast entry and exit points of the core mines. Farther down, far beyond the sight and reach of any but the most developed sensor array, synthetics swarmed under the supervision of the luckless organic criminals condemned to spend a portion, or perhaps the whole, of their remaining lives deep in the mines.
Once, a torrent of raw material had flowed from the core mines. When converted to elemental feedstock, it had provided much of the resources that had sustained the ship-building facilities of Alpharan Industries as well as other production centers. Now, many millennia later, the nearly exhausted mines produced a mere trickle of material.
On Frost Station, the cold was held back, and the occupants of the space habitat led a sheltered existence. The habitat accommodated a system patrol force, the Outer Zone Patrol, and had everything that a watch station required: a center of operations, offices for command staff, residential zones, entertainment districts, docking areas, and places to store cargoes.
Inside Frost’s command pod, Junior Commander Anaiya Sonra worked alongside her subordinate, Toove Esp. Suddenly, there was a blaring alarm followed by a message on Anaiya’s display.
“Emergency Alert Notification. Fourteen survival craft have been detected in the Uninhabited Zone. All appear undamaged and are accelerating away from an area thick with debris and superheated gases. It is possible that a ship entered from the rift transit fold zone and that it was subsequently destroyed. Data revealing the origin point are limited because the sensor grid in that sectoral volume has been shut down pending a routine system check-and-repair protocol.”
Esp was surveying the outgoing plots on a couple of luxury tourist transports that were well outside the zone that was under the station’s control. Anaiya assumed that he was pretending to be busy and that he had read the alert. He turned to Anaiya. “The repair cycle. You issued the notice for it. If it wasn’t received properly by that ship …” An apologetic look crossed Esp’s face. “Just saying, you might want to get a story in order.”
“I have one. I was following orders. Zarlais’s orders. An alert was issued. Stop speculating. Do your job, and I’ll do mine.”
“Ouch. Point taken.”
Anaiya sent a message. “From Emergency Coordinator Sonra, Junior Commander of the Fifth Rank. To Dispatch Coordinator Malik Jeffries. Special priority. Immediate response required.” Nearly three minutes passed before the shimmering simulacrum of Jeffries appeared. “There’s been an Emergency Alert Notification. I need the immediate dispatch of an Outer Zone Patrol vessel to retrieve fourteen survival pods.”
“I can divert the Nebular Skein.”
Paz Aldanouri’s ship. “Tell them to keep watch in case whatever destroyed the ship was external and to collect samples of the debris field.”
“Orders for the disposition of survivors, if any?”
“Clear them and lodge them in the clearance holding area of Customs. If interrogation is necessary, I’ll supervise it personally,” Anaiya said.
“I’ll notify Interim Chief Zarlais and issue a general alert for the entire volume of that sector.”
Anaiya thought that might be a mistake. “Not yet. The outer scans show no dangerous conditions in the area, and no potentially hostile ships. A general alert isn’t necessary. At least, not yet. If those conditions change, I’ll deal with the consequences.”
“That’s risky.”
“It’s mine to take,” Anaiya said.
***
Paz Aldanouri struggled against the boredom he felt. In the beginning, his current assignment had carried the promise of some action, but so far all he had accomplished was staring at displays until his vision blurred as he scanned for unauthorized ship movements that might indicate the location of forbidden rift transit fold zones. He had detected nothing but ordinary haulers whose automated systems had allowed them to drift beyond normal vector curves. Or haulers that did not know which paths to follow and could not be bothered to check the mandatory transit maps. He welcomed anything that would put the monotony of the fifteen-month Uninhabited Zone cruise behind him.
“Got anything?” he asked his second in command.
“It’s the remnants of a ship, a small one,” Serys Yurom said. “Fragments indicate it was armed, but there’s no sign of serious spatial or temporal distortion, so it wasn’t carrying heavy weapons. Just laze turrets.”
Identifying the ship as a cargo hauler was the obvious conclusion, considering the minimal number of life pods drifting in the void around them. A passenger liner, or another more populated vessel, would have had more survivors.
“It was built from composites that aren’t in the general database,” Yurom said. “When we scanned a piece of the ship’s central span, we found matches to a type that was last fabricated nearly twelve millennia ago. We’re reasonably confident it was built from materials that came from this system.”
“Why was it here?” The thought of an ancient hauler returning to the Origin Division was a strange one to Aldanouri.
“I’d guess it was owned by an independent, given how small it was. A combine wouldn’t maintain anything like that. The costs of running it …”
“The only place where a ship like that could recover its costs would be out on the Edge running high-value cargoes between small systems.” Aldanouri frowned. “Consider the fact that it didn’t respond to a transit warning or transited despite it.”
“A smuggler?”
“Mark it down as a possibility. And continue the scans.”
Yurom nodded. “That still leaves the question of what destroyed it.”
“Is there anything about the composition of the exotic matter debris that would provide answers?” Aldanouri asked.
“There is nothing there that indicates a containment failure. If there was one, it would have left more outer hull sections. And the fragments don’t show any signs of the distortion that usually comes with that.”
“So, they were attacked.” Aldanouri liked this less and less. “The attacker could still be out there beyond the detection range of the regular system net.”
“Or, nearer, if they can conceal their visual signature and energy emissions.”
“Raiders?” The idea was absurd, but Aldanouri wanted to cover all the possibilities.
“Not a chance. They don’t destroy ships. That is, until they’ve gotten all they can from them. We did find a focusing crystal that was big enough to direct the main array of a system-class incursion vessel.”
“Weapons with power enough to blast a midsized planet into a ruined shell or disintegrate a large, unprotected space habitat with a single hit. And this ship just happened to pop out while monitoring had been disabled. End destination?”
“There’s no way to trace it forward, even assuming it was using a pre-guided deceleration curve.” Yurom glanced at him. “What do I report?”
“Tell them it was smugglers.” That much was obvious. “If someone in the Origin Division is trying to build weaponry like that with or without authorization from a Recognized Governing Authority … Who’s managing the investigation?”
“Junior Commander Sonra.” Yurom’s voice was carefully devoid of emotion. “As part of her regular duties as Emergency Coordinator. It’s an odd coincidence that Commander Sonra also issued the order that closed the monitoring net.”
For a moment, Aldanouri wondered. Then he dismissed his thought as idle speculation. The simultaneous events were, he was certain, merely a coincidence. “Now, about the status of those beings in the survival pods …”
***
Vazantar Jaeron drew a deep breath. And immediately wished he had not, as the accumulated stench of eight days inside the survival pod overwhelmed him. He could not stop retching. His whole body shook with the violence of it. He gasped for air, wishing with desperate futility for the return of that time when he had had nothing more on his mind than the final delivery payment and the question of whether it would come through. And, if it did, what he would do with it.
Jaeron knew that he must accept that he was done. Without the Starlight, without anything but the contents of his personal dizie, he had no hope. The down payment for transporting the cargo had not been recorded. It had been paid in untraceable Standard Monetary Exchange Equivalent (SMEE) hard printout wafers. That hoard, along with all his other personal possessions, had been left behind.
He had been wiped in the blink of a bad laze. Nz-Crantz, the Vo who had co-captained and co-owned the Starlight with him … He had remained seated in his conform, muttering the religious nonsense instilled in him since the time of his hatching, and refused to leave the ship. Jaeron had left him to die alone. None of this was new. He had tortured himself with his regrets, over and over, throughout the eight days in the pod. He had agonized over questions. Why didn’t the vessel that had attacked his ship finish what it had started? Why was he still alive? Perhaps the cargo he was carrying was of even more consequence than he had suspected when he had been offered the enormous payout.
The walls around Jaeron shook and shuddered. Warning lights appeared. The feeling of weightlessness vanished and was replaced by an unpleasant sensation that told Jaeron the pod had been hoisted onto an internal conveyor system. He heard an amplified voice.
“Pressure equalized. The atmosphere is within your tolerances. Unseal your hatch and prepare for the inspection team.”
Jaeron gestured toward the release, and the hatch popped open. Bluish-green light washed inside.
“Retract your restraints, stand, and step out. Any failure to comply will be taken as a sign of hostility.”
Jaeron obeyed the command. Beside his pod was an orderly row of the other thirteen pods. All were open. All were deserted. He hoped that meant that his crew had survived.
Four power-armored figures stood in front of him. Their armor sparkled with impact deflection and energy dissipation fields. Jaeron was sure that the yawning apertures in each suit held weapons ready for use. One of the welcoming party stepped forward and addressed him.
“You will be subjected to a general scan for controlled and prohibited items. Your bion-code will be match-scanned against our database. This system’s Recognized Governing Authority, as a full Constituent of the Concordium, enforces the Long Arm Statutes. If you have committed crimes in other Constituents of the Concordium, you are liable to arrest, detention, and trial under the procedures adopted for the disposal of such offenses by the Centrum Over-Commission.”
That must mean that he was under suspicion. Jaeron could not blame them, but it puzzled him. The cargo that he had carried was gone. He had watched the crew from the attacking vessel remove it. There was nothing else … was there?
“Prepare for scan.” After a few moments, the leader nodded. “You are cleared.”
Jaeron allowed what he hoped was an ordinary smile to cross his face, turned, and walked toward the waiting medical team.
***
“Provisional clearance granted.” The tone of Esp’s voice revealed his irritation. “Clear the approach before I change my mind.”
A challenging string of sounds from the translation matrix was the only reply.
Anaiya Sonra watched as Esp handled it or attempted to.
“That is irrelevant. If you attempt to enter this volume without first installing a functional translation matrix interlock, your ship will be impounded and held until you obtain, install, and fully test an authorized system.”
The sounds that came back registered as aggressive disagreement. Anaiya decided it was time to intervene. She summoned her best commander voice. “This is Junior Commander Sonra. The Deputy Controller’s statement is correct. Your ship is in violation of several of the safety regulations of the Habitable Zone, not limited to those just discussed. You have a time window in which to depart. Do so before it ends.”
A warbling sound that ended in a screech ensued.
“I’ve marked your ship as a communications risk and entered that data into the divisional skein. If you try this in another Recognized Governing Authority, or even in an unaffiliated system, you won’t get as far as you did here.”
Buzzes and squawks were the only response. The translation matrix scrolled a “NOT UNDERSTOOD” warning across the top of Anaiya’s vision. She heard sizzling sounds that resembled drops of liquid evaporating as they struck a hot surface. Finally, the tiny boxy hauler exited its external slip connector and maneuvered toward the outgoing traffic stream. At that exact moment, an in-system shuttle abruptly rose. It would converge with the troublesome hauler’s trajectory.
“Protocol Seven,” Anaiya ordered. Alarms sounded, emergency collision and guidance fields were suddenly enabled, and gobs of exponentially expanding and fast-coalescing, collision-absorbent gel blasted out of Frost’s external dispensers. In seconds, the narrowing space between the two craft clogged with protective tendrils of the substance that expanded to thousands of times their original size and spiraled outward until it looked as if the space station itself were casting a vast web in which to trap its prey.
Once that was done, Anaiya reestablished the direct link. “You might not want a full ban, but you’ve got one. It’s what you get when you veer onto a protected arrival/departure heading that’s clearly marked on the guidance path data outputs. I will allow you to depart, but if you attempt to come back, your ship will be subject to immediate seizure and destruction.”
The pilot of the craft did not respond, but instead increased acceleration until the craft tore itself free of the already weakening grip of the safety tendrils. It continued to increase its momentum until it was traveling at a speed barely within the limits of ordinary safety protocols.
Esp sighed as he scrutinized the exit of the rapidly moving craft. “They aren’t listening. Pulse jammers?”
“The last thing we need is more scrap for the collection ships. If that ship leaves, it will no longer be our concern.”
“But what if—”
“It isn’t my problem.” Anaiya decided she did not want to discuss this, as much as Esp might desire it. “Report to me about the retrieval of the survival pods.”
“All are safe. The owner was among those retrieved. It was an ancient hauler that was delivering a small consignment to an auto-dock among the Centrum IV orbitals. The owner says that he took the ship’s consignment sealed, on a contract that didn’t allow knowledge of the contents. Also, claims to have performed the required scans, and that they didn’t show anything in violation of Concordium haulage or transit regulations. But a crystal was retrieved from the wreckage, large and refined enough to focus the main power curves of a system-bombardment-class beam cannon.”
Anaiya knew that the Origin Division’s use for such things was long in the past. No one was building ships on that scale. Not within a limit of three or four divisions out along any inhabited route.
“We could have a smuggler. The owner is awaiting your interrogation.” Esp raised a single expressive eyebrow. “Better not delay. You know how Customs gets about these things. Even when there’s not a smuggler involved.”
“Then that is a problem for them, isn’t it.”
CHAPTER II
“Order, like chaos, is a matter of perspective.”
From the collected memories of Quarlenon Quaves.
On Centrum IV, magenta-tinged purple shadows lay across the cloud tops. The meso-towers that cast these shadows were nearly submerged in the sea of vermillion mist that concealed their bases. Transports, most sized to hold one individual, crowded the sky and cluttered the mag-ways.
Casniir Mallox’s transport carried him toward a structure that rose like a mountain bracketed on either side by less imposing ranges. When Mallox reached his destination, his transport swooped low and passed through the cloud bank. Then a side-dock opened, and his transport slipped inside. He carefully extricated himself. His transport had been designed to accommodate beings that were perhaps a full meter less in height and a hundred or so kilograms lighter than he in this gravity. Vehicles that were designed for the comfort of larger beings were out of his price range.
Mallox stepped onto a people-mover that swept him toward the personal tube banks. As he approached his destination, he received a message.
“Ninth Rank Auditor Casniir Mallox. Your associate, Auditor Dalatarn, is still here.”
Mallox winced. He had been hoping …
“According to her posted duty phase activity logs, she is clearing the last batch of accounts. Is that a cause for worry?”
“No. Not if Auditor Dalatarn doesn’t go near the level where the Trade Office liaison is located.” Mallox cut the connection and wondered why he cared so much. Even if Fiara Naz-Esta Dalatarn discovered that all was not as he claimed, it would not make any difference. An order was an order, even if it came from the Trade Office liaison and not from their direct chain of command. Getting this assignment might be difficult, but it would only be the first step on a long path to … But all that lay in the future. As he often had before, Mallox banished those discordant thoughts and focused on the now.
After he had finished his appointment, Mallox stepped out of a different set of tube banks. Frigid air lashed across his relatively unprotected face, accompanied by a gust of frozen precipitation that bounced off his tunic’s nuisance dispersion field. As it transformed and cloaked Mallox in rapidly thickening mist, some of his recently acquired good mood dissipated. Once again, this block’s maintenance crew had left the wind and temperature selection on automatic, despite his specific request to leave the thing on manual. The continuing presence of the near arctic wind and the battering volleys of frozen water that cascaded off his shoulders and back was a deliberate insult.
Mallox amplified his voice so it could be heard over the keening wind that swept up and down the corridor. “Atmosphere simulation. Increase relative ambient by thirty-five and cancel all induced precipitation. Retain this setting for future use.” Almost immediately, the freezing gusts died, and a glowing heat replaced the chill.
Mallox stomped through the fast-disappearing, still-icy puddles. In the replicated late twilight illumination, he could not see more than a few meters ahead.
“You’re looking cheerful this evening. Is the weather simulation the only reason?” Fiara Naz-Esta Dalatarn squinted up at him. “In retrospect, I think that threatening the maintenance staff with an internal investigation was a bad idea, don’t you?”
“They deserved it.”
“I didn’t say that. I just said it was a mistake to threaten them.”
“I only did that last time because of the ice—the stuff was tens of centimeters thick in places. I had to thaw ice for an hour before my conform would deploy.”
“Back to the main point. What’s the new assignment? I expect that some persuasion was involved. Perhaps a few favors called in?”
“More than a few.” Mallox did not think it would hurt to admit that much.
“Special assignment. The Trade Office needs someone to investigate those rift disruptions.”
“Couldn’t they just divert responsibility to the Over-Commission?”
“That’s where the favors came in.” Mallox gestured at the frost-flecked walls. “Let’s not pretend that certain interests won’t be sorry to see us depart. I argued that it would look better if the Trade Office were seen to be responding, no matter how pointless it was. Besides, resolving an unannounced closure is within the authority of the Trade Office.”
“What exactly was this incident?”
“That smuggler … Didn’t you hear about it? If we make a success of it … permanent reassignment to the Trade Office with the title of General Auditor.”
“You planned this. Everything you’ve done over the last few months has been to achieve one objective: getting us off this planet and doing something useful for a change.”
“I guaranteed that if the assignment went through, we’d be willing to take on a few things on the side. Nothing important.”
“That’s what you said the last time.” Fiara frowned as she activated her dizie and looked through the dense paragraphs of text that scrolled across her forearm display. “This sounds almost trivial. Smugglers, and a local Q-cast and monitoring issue? Most of it is being handled by local authorities. Not promising.”
“You’ll just have to trust me.”
Fiara frowned slightly. “What’s the first stop on this journey toward mutual self-improvement?”
“Place is called Frost Station. It’s a space habitat that orbits Centrum XII.”
“Oh yes, the place where they send prisoners to die in the mines. We’re probably the first of our type that they’ve seen in a few decades. Who are we contacting?”
“It’s the headquarters of the Over-Commission’s Outer Zone Patrol. The local in charge is Vice-Admiral Plack Zarlais. In temporary command only. An accident destroyed the permanent commander’s current body, and he’s had to undergo a full resurrection from encoded backup only. It’ll be a few years before he can resume command. We’ll talk to Zarlais, look around, bang on a few bulkheads, and see what scurries out into the light.”
“No one there will object to that or try anything that might destroy our permanent bodies?” Fiara asked.
“This is a local administrative post. We can handle that kind of opposition.”
***
“Update received.” Clovis Jeets, a member of Frost Station’s Customs and Enforcement section, was not particularly pleased to receive the data. She closed the connection and listed the prisoner for immediate adjudication. Just as she accessed the display and scrolled down to the next task, a priority message notification flashed.
“From Acting Station Commander Vice-Admiral Plack Zarlais. Immediate Response.”
Jeets suppressed a desire to swear, but instead hastily surveyed her uniform for any visible fault, straightened to full attention, and accepted the message.
The simulacrum shimmered. “You have received a recommendation regarding an Adjudication Board proceeding.”
“Yes, Provisional Supervisor Zarlais.” Something about Zarlais’s manner seemed off, but as she had only seen him in person a handful of times, and a few more via simulacra, Jeets could not be sure what exactly was wrong.
“Several important aspects are not contained in the report,” Zarlais continued. “There is new, confidential data about Vazantar Jaeron. He is a highly dangerous individual and has several accomplices. One is on this habitat. Do not allow Junior Commander Sonra access to the prisoner Jaeron. Beyond that, no further action on your part is necessary. The Adjudication Board has already been informed and will act accordingly.”
“Orders received.”
***
“This is odd,” Esp said. “See it?”
Arrival and departure data flowed across the edge of Anaiya Sonra’s display. What she found there grabbed her full attention. A Corrections transport, listed as the Shadow River Ferry, had arrived and departed. The craft had made a brief atmosphere connection, though it had not docked with the connector to the surface below and had not discharged any of its current occupants. Its in-system destination was a rift that linked to one of the most remote Prime Exploitation Zones. It was a place that only transport and mining ships ever visited, and those with increasing rarity, as all but a few remnant locations had been fully depleted millennia ago.
“That’s a big ship. Who did they make a special stop to pick up?” Esp asked.
“You think that maybe that smuggler—”
“That’s not our concern,” Anaiya said.
“But I thought you would interrogate him—”
“
Not your concern.”
“Got it. Keep quiet, mind the plots.”
“Exactly.” The warning that Anaiya had received from Clovis Jeets as well as this current information made her realize that the life she had built for herself had come to an end. She scrutinized the ships on Frost Station’s registry. The ship she selected possessed a full AI command and control net that would allow her to pilot the ship without a crew. And it met her need for a ship with enough power to deter casual attacks while attracting minimal attention.
Anaiya knew what she had to do.
Safely inside her personal quarters, Anaiya flicked her thumb and felt the last closure of her dress uniform click into place. Then she stowed the final item into her hover case. Everything necessary was in it, and she had permanently dissolved the remainder of her possessions into fabricant bases. She had spent years of her life in this place. Soon, it would be nothing but a memory. When the door irised closed behind her, she made sure that entry permissions were set to her personal bion-code interlink only. That would not stop those who would follow, but it would delay them.
Anaiya entered an area of the space habitat that was as silent as a long-abandoned funerary complex buried beneath the crust of a forgotten world. Far away, beneath the tapering forward section of the ship, was a single security watch station. The name of the ship was theRifter’s Express. Its functions and capabilities were familiar to her, for she had had occasion to use similar starships.
Ordinarily, the security watch station would have held at least two beings, one organic and one fully, or partially, synthetic, and sometimes as many as six. Now it held only one. That was Anaiya’s doing, the result of several adjustments in duty phases and schedules that she had been able to make using her, surprisingly, still-current emergency authority.
The watch station’s single occupant rose to his feet as Anaiya walked toward him. Her demeanor was calm. Just another standard assignment at the end of another long duty phase.
The ship itself would help her. It must undergo a final review before it could be released from the repair and refitting schedule. That had not yet occurred, and this would lend credence to the story she was about to tell. If not … well, there were ways of dealing with that problem if it arose.
“Commander,” the guard said. “We weren’t informed about a visit from command staff. If we had been, we would have ensured that you received a proper welcome. In fact, just before you arrived, they changed the regular duty phase so that—”
“This is a surprise inspection. I do not want to delay the departure of this vessel, and I am sure that you do not either.” Anaiya had reached the security enclosure. “I need full access to the Express and, if we are to adhere to pre-established schedules, I need it now.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Did I give you permission to question my orders?” Anaiya asked.
“No, Commander, but will you be boarding the ship? Regular maintenance procedure, as you know, is to keep it sealed until the crew are cleared for final—”
“I am aware of that,” Anaiya said. “Are you aware of the consequences of interfering with an active internal investigation?”
“Yes, Commander,” the guard said. “Access approved. I will base it on your emergency access authority, but if you are specifically cleared for inspection duty, the system isn’t revealing it.”
“As designed. Wouldn’t want to draw attention, would we?”
“Procedure requires that I log each visit and ship access attempt, no matter the reason.” The guard glanced past Anaiya to the twin cases that trailed behind her. “Do those hold monitoring equipment? They’ll need to be registered, and a complete list of the contents submitted before I can allow them on board.”
“Standard monitoring gear. You do not need to examine them. I told you, I’m in a hurry. I have no time for unnecessary delay.”
“Orders from Provisional Commander Zarlais insist on an inspection.”
It seemed that the guard was going to be stubborn. Anaiya nodded. “Fine.” She waved him over. “Take a look.”
For a moment, it looked as if the guard would refuse. Then he nodded, the fields vanished, and he stepped down from the raised platform and approached Anaiya. He extended his hand toward the nearest hover container and frowned when it did not move up in response to his summoning motion.
“Commander, there seems to be something wrong with this one’s—” The guard’s voice descended into an incoherent gargle.
Anaiya reached out and caught his body as it crumpled to the floor. She withdrew her other hand from his elbow, the hand that had been equipped with the skin simulation gauntlet that had carried the charge. The charge was contained so closely within its miniature power cell that all but the most closely attuned security system would mistake it for a mere data tool, rather than recognizing it as the discreetly concealed weapon it was. The energy pulse it had emitted had illuminated the guard’s bone structure with a brief, brilliant glow that seemed to pulse from the eye sockets of his skin armor. Then, the pulse had blanked out.
The guard groaned and tried to move his limbs. The result was a twitching motion. He desperately flailed for a few long moments until, finally, he went limp.
Anaiya did not linger. First, she disabled the bay’s monitoring system. Then she retracted the clamps that bound the Express in place and used the same emergency access that the guard had just unlocked to seal the bay’s access points. She ordered the still-attached umbilical feeds to retract. Anaiya authorized the crew’s main transport plate, watched as the underside access point opened, and waited as it descended to her in a shaft of glimmering light. Fate awaited her. To Anaiya it felt as if the Express herself had issued an invitation, one reserved for her alone. Acceptance was the only way forward. Anaiya stepped on the transport plate. Her journey had begun.
CHAPTER III
“Nothing is more terrifying than the monster within. That is, until the monster without begins to resemble it.”
Elpick Triysis; The Star Keeper’s Annals.
The bridge of the Rifter’s Express seemed nearly as devoid of sound as the surrounding void. Apart from the soft noise made by air circulators, and the slightly louder sounds of Anaiya Sonra’s breath, nothing disturbed the stillness. Around her, data displays were crowded with power curves, direction parabolas, and acceleration factors.
The rift transit fold zone where she was heading provided a connection to an area designated as Exploitation Zone Ten. Unfortunately, that route was indirect. The Shadow River Ferry would arrive in its targeted system long before the Express could reach it to intercept. When Anaiya did arrive, she would have to persuade the Ferry’s captain to hand Jaeron over to her. She must interrogate him to learn why she had been set up. If it came to violence, the armaments carried by the Rifter’s Express were more than a match for the Ferry’s minimal, and purely defensive, weapons. Anaiya decided she would deal with that challenge if and when it came.
“Departure control. This is Rifter’s Express, out on a pre-certification inspection loop. An estimated time of arrival is not available. Further updates once I have completed testing.”
“Commander?”
Anaiya’s mouth tightened. The last thing she needed was Esp’s curiosity getting in the way.
“What’s going on?” Esp asked.
“A last-of-phase assignment. A personal request from Zarlais.” Anaiya kept her voice casual. “Some problems came up that need to be explored before they finish certification. While I’m out, I’ll take a closer look at that debris field.”
“Ah. And you swung the assignment to do that.”
“Right.” Anaiya nodded impassively and ended the message. One challenge down. She watched the simulation displays as the space habitat, and Centrum XII, receded behind her. She watched as the flickering cones that indicated the maximum range of the weapons systems of Frost Station faded into invisibility. Good.Anaiya scanned the expanse that separated her from the rift transit fold zone where she was headed. Almost immediately, she spotted the only thing that might cause trouble. If …
Before she could decide what she might do about Aldanouri’s ship, if it became a factor, a message notification appeared. Anaiya thought about ignoring it but saw the sender’s listed identity. If she were to avoid active conflict before she reached the rift, she would have to make this convincing. Very convincing.
“Yes, Provisional Commander?”
“Junior Commander Sonra.” Unexpectedly, charm oozed from Zarlais’s voice. “I see you are still receiving messages. How’s that ship handling?”
“Very well. So far,” Anaiya said. “It will all be included in my pre-certification report.”
“I know what you’re doing. Owning up to it might prevent you from being sent to the core mines. Lying will not save you or your career.”
“I know what you’re up to. I am leaving this system, and soon, the entire volume in this division. Once I do, your false accusations will be irrelevant.”
“Will they? I am ordering you to cease forward acceleration. Hand over the data that reveals the identities of the ones who backed your conspiracy with Jaeron. If you do that, you can get out of this with a minimum of personal inconvenience. Otherwise …”
“Request denied.”
“That wasn’t a request!” Zarlais bellowed. “It was an order!”
“Perhaps it isn’t one you are entitled to give, Provisional Commander.”
“I have no choice. You heard what she said. Senior Lieutenant Aldanouri, respond.”
Things had just gotten more complicated. Without Aldanouri, she might have found a way out of all this without violence. Now, that hope was on the next orbit to impossible. Before this was over, beings were going to die. For those with personality insurance, death would be temporary. Others would permanently cease to exist. Accepting that, Anaiya’s resolve was clear. Losses were inevitable; she would not be one of them.
“Agree to surrender now, and we can make a deal. Last chance,” Zarlais said.
“No. Aldanouri’s ship is no match for this one. The Express was just overhauled.” Blunt, but Anaiya had no patience for anything else.
“Come, those claims are empty, and we both know it.”
Before this, Anaiya had taken Zarlais for many things, but stupid had not been one. “I suggest looking at the maximum power output of the weapons of both ships before you do anything else.”
“But you are only one being. Even with Artificial Intelligence-assisted attack profiles, you won’t be able to defeat a ship that is fully crewed.”
That thought had also occurred to Anaiya. She pushed it aside. “Do you want to risk two Patrol starships fighting? It won’t look good on your future performance assessments.”
“Enough,” Zarlais said. “Senior Lieutenant Aldanouri, this is a direct order. If Anaiya Sonra does not obey my command within the time parameters I have specified, she will be declared a hostile force, and you will be required to undertake all actions to neutralize that threat.”
“Wait.” Aldanouri’s face appeared. “I am sure we can work something out—”
“This traitor is determined to escape the consequences of her treason against the Over-Commission. She must not be allowed to transit. You, Aldanouri, are going to stop her.”
Aldanouri’s voice resumed. “This is all a misunderstanding of some kind. It can be corrected. If she agrees, I am willing to bring Commander Sonra on board the—”
“Listen closely,” Zarlais nearly snarled. “She is no longer a commander. She is a traitor, a mutineer, a smuggler, a terrorist conspirator. If I suspect that you might be involved in this … in the slightest part of it, in any capacity, you will share her fate.”
“Commander, you heard Provisional Commander Zarlais,” Aldanouri said. “I have no choice. Surrender, and I promise you will not be harmed.”
“That is an empty pledge. I am innocent. I am leaving this system. You know that your ship isn’t a match for the Express, regardless of the opinion of Zarlais. There is nothing more to discuss.”
“That doesn’t change what I must do. I have no choice,” Aldanouri said.
“Neither do I.”
Displays flickered as Anaiya prepared power loops, firing arcs, acceleration and relative position curves, and automated defensive and offensive patterns. Finally, she was done, and the last display input switched to wait-mode. Her mind, recently crowded with contending plans and strategies, was now as blank as she could make it. She watched and waited for what was to come.
***
Paz Aldanouri turned away from the display. “What’s she doing?”
“Vector and acceleration curve haven’t changed. She’s heading straight for the departure point. The way acceleration is building, it won’t take her long before she attains superluminal,” Yurom said.
Even if he attempted to use the same route, the chances of passing at superluminal and looping around to catch the Express once it began its peak deceleration were next to nothing. No, they had exactly one chance at this, and it involved disabling the Express before it hit the top of the curve. Disabling, or …
“We need to do this on one pass,” Yurom said. “I don’t think we’ll get a second chance. Unless we bite through and rupture the main chamber, or interrupt the central power feeds, it won’t matter.”
With an effort, Aldanouri kept himself from responding. He had not realized how close to the edge all this had pushed him. It was not the thought of the broken ships and the broken bodies that did it. It was the betrayal of the being he loved. Why had Anaiya not told him … But she had not. The thought was as cold as a pulsating cryo-fragment, stabbing deep into his brain. There must be a way out, a way to avoid all of what was to come … something, anything that might …
Yurom interrupted. “Orders? Path’s narrowing.”
“How long to intercept at maximum?”
Yurom told him. It was not much, but it would have to do. “Here.” Aldanouri swiped the Express’s profile into the simulation bubble in front of him and pointed to a spot on its hull. “Make sure our optimum intersect will hit there. I want it down, and I want all the flash points at that location fully disrupted.”
“By itself—”
“It won’t do much, but it will cause the systems to draw power as they compensate, and it will decrease acceleration until they do,” Aldanouri said.
“If it works?” Yurom asked.
“I want a boarding party ready. Light weapons. She won’t be able to put up much resistance. Take her alive.”
Yurom coughed discreetly. “I think, from the way Zarlais was talking, it would be better if we—”
“Is he standing here, or am I?”
Yurom looked away for a moment, and then back. “No argument.”
“Select the boarding party and adjust allocation until all external cyclic weapons are powered to full.”
***
Before the most recent overhaul, the vessels that would soon clash had been nearly identical, differing only in the date of their manufacture and in a few other inconsequential ways. Both starships had been manufactured to the best standards available. Over time each had been repeatedly overhauled and altered. The Express was slightly more maneuverable and held a slightly larger power reserve than its soon-to-be-enemy. That difference might seem minor, but in void combat even miniscule advantages were sometimes enough to enable those that commanded them to prevail.
Anaiya Sonra scrutinized the small representation of both vessels on the plot in front of her. Each vessel had a roughly conical profile circled at intervals by hull traversing rings that held turret slots. The turrets held a mix of weapons: plasma emitters, particle beam cannons, sub-light missiles, drone bays, point defense weapons, lazes, and multiple-snouted bolt throwers, which could use a wide variety of solid, explosive, implosive, separating, and energetically charged types of ammunition.
The missiles, though sufficient to disable minimally protected craft, could do little against the Skein. Similarly, the lazes, though effective at carving through standard inert matter, would be nearly helpless against standard dissipation fields. And the particle beams, though effective against those dissipation fields, would be nearly useless when employed against even thinly armored hull sections. Despite their individual weaknesses, when those weapons were used in combination and to their full potential, they could cause complete bodily destruction to the targeted vessel, as well as to the organic or synthetic crew within.
Anaiya’s time of contemplation ended. With less than a minute before estimated first contact, she queued one of several combat maneuvers that she had input into the interface of the Express. She hoped she would not have to use the missiles. If things went as planned, the plasma emitters and particle cannon would be enough.
It was time. “Initiate Combat Sequence A-3. Proximity and vector settings marked,” Anaiya ordered.
The ship’s interface responded. “Acknowledged. Full-power mode for weapons has been selected. Does the captain of this vessel wish to adjust this choice before the initiation of combat operations?”
“Negative.”
“Fatal force use authorized,” the interface replied. “Weapon sets are fully powered and prepared for use. Offensive pattern spread commencing.”
On the simulation inside the bridge, the gleaming, silvered form that represented the Skein angled in and down.
“Modify.” That approach angle by Aldanouri was risky for both of them. “Reduce acceleration to limit 4 and adopt special sequence 9.” The bridge quivered, as the Express sliced its acceleration factor from near maximum to less than a third of that.
To their credit, the Skein’s crew detected Anaiya’s attempt to counter and immediately shifted their acceleration to compensate, but the response, swift as it was, was insufficient. The Skein, moving faster than the Express, drifted past. Its weapons, already arrayed along the traversing rings for a side pass, were now nearly useless until they could be moved back along the rings to offset the unexpected maneuver by the Express.
As Anaiya watched, the automated systems of both vessels expended power, and the turrets raced along the traversing rings. Each ship struggled to get the full turret set into the optimal angular position before the other could do the same.
Plasma and energetically boosted particles tore across the void, turning the paths they followed white-hot and leaving behind glowing trails. Fields came to life, glowing red, before being dispersed as their energy absorption capacity blasted past the maximum safe point. Lazes and bolts followed, pounding against the weakened places in the fields of the Skein. One by one, they ripped deep, while the Skein’s own weapons were still curving around and refocusing on the place where the Express was not supposed to be, and now was.
The space between the ships lit up, again and again, as the exchange of destructive potential continued.
***
Paz Aldanouri suppressed a cry of shock as bolts tore through a fluctuating field and smashed against the Skein’s outer armor. The bolts penetrated deep before repair and damage mitigation could respond. Chain explosions hammered even deeper, shattering the Insta-solve, even as it formed and flowed from the inner storage tanks and expanded into the breaches where it hardened and temporarily shielded the endangered zones from further damage.
“Get those fields down. I authorized full power, didn’t I?” Aldanouri was aware that his voice was ragged but, with what they faced, he could not afford to care.
“I don’t think we can,” Yurom said. “The recent upgrades of the Express make it more powerful than we anticipated. Comparative assessment says they’re capable of taking half again as much as ours—maybe more.”
“Concentrate the attack on one part of the hull. We must punch through and get inside.”
“What good will that do?” Yurom asked.
“When we overwhelm the local recharge and blow out the nearest flash points that sustain it, she’ll have to divert power from weapons to the shield. If she does, we’ll cut the amount of incoming we’re taking and give our automated repair systems a chance to catch up.”
Moments passed. “It’s working, but not to the extent we need,” Yurom said. “We’re nearly at maximum acceleration factor. If we don’t hit that ship hard in the meantime, we’re not going to be able to stop it.”
Aldanouri nodded grimly. He had done what he could to avoid the consequence that he now faced, but Anaiya Sonra, for reasons that likely only she would ever know, had prevented it. “Get those fields down. Full missile and bolt spread authorized. Maximum explosive yield.”
“Target?”
“The bridge. I want that hull bored through … and everything along the path is to be disintegrated.”
“Lieutenant, if we pull this off, Commander Sonra won’t survive. A hit that powerful will hollow out the bridge like a meteor ripping into a planetary crust.”
“She made her choice,” Aldanouri said.
***
The Express and the Skein rapidly closed the distance separating them. The level of acceleration was far beyond what was recommended for any maneuver except one that built toward superluminal transition. It was something that should never be attempted while actions that might drain the ship’s main power generators and reserves were ongoing. Both ships were nearing the limit beyond which they would experience serious malfunctions and threaten the bodily integrity of the organics aboard them.
For a moment, Anaiya Sonra wished that fate could be changed, could somehow be manipulated to prevent what was about to occur. What must occur. Then the missile launchers and bolt throwers of the Skein pivoted to an optimal firing angle, and Anaiya knew that Aldanouri had abandoned the idea of merely disabling the Express. She was left with only one response.
“Offensive parameter modification.” Anaiya’s voice did not waver or fade as she issued the new instruction set. “Target section D7 upon achievement of optimum range. Use of all weapons is authorized.”
“Objective?” The interface’s voice was as cool and collected as Anaiya’s own.
“Total destruction of targeted section before the same is achieved against this vessel.”
“Adjusting. Adjustment complete. Parameters ready for execution. Range convergence imminent.”
“Implement.”
***
Live simulation displays blazed bright when plasma and bolts ripped deep into the central section of the Skein. Shock wave upon shock wave, blast after blast, tore deeper into its already wounded side. The shattered protective armor and the reddish puffs of solidified Insta-solve liquefied and then transformed into gas as the superheated and super-accelerated weapon payloads of the Express found their targets.
“Return fire!” Paz Aldanouri yelled, over the raging din that had erupted on the bridge. “Focus, focus!”
“We’re doing that,” Yurom said. “I’m reading insufficient power in mounts A1, A2, B3, C3.” A roaring alarm blasted across the bridge. “Primary dispersion field overload critical. Terminating field power flow to avoid generator kickback. Attempting to adjust armor for increased—”
Violent vibrations ripped through the bridge, shaking the walls so violently that the simulation displays threw out random color spots and shifting blank spaces. Then, data feeds failed and monitors stopped sending. Aldanouri knew that the layers of armor that protected the bridge had been ruptured. He opened his mouth.
But Yurom spoke first. “Get out!” Pure panic altered his first officer’s voice; it was nearly unrecognizable. “Critical breach! Unsafe—”
A terrible sound drowned the rest. Desperately, Aldanouri clung to his conform, but he knew it would do nothing to save him. Failed simulation displays broke apart and revealed the barren, curved bulkheads behind them. All around him, there were cries of panic and terror, lurching bodies, and pounding footsteps.
Heat as if from a fabrication installation’s superheated core poured from the walls and from those ghastly wounds. A still-existing simulation pane revealed the gash that had been torn in the Skein’s center section. It spouted molten material, and the ship’s exterior was shrouded with plumes of superheated gas. The gash extended down to the curved section of outer compartments that covered the bridge’s outer spin surface.
Aldanouri sat and stared at the simulation pane, at the pair of massive multi-spiked objects as they bored into his ship. He watched as his crew launched drones to halt the in-vectoring projectiles. He watched as those countermeasures failed. He felt the deep trembling as implosive and explosive charges blasted away the last layers of his ship’s protective armor, compressing and then fracturing them past their failure points. He watched as explosive detonations filled the air with chunks of disintegrated composite that had once been bulkheads, and with the remains of what had once been sapient beings. After that, Paz Aldanouri saw nothing at all.
***
Filled with despair, Anaiya Sonra watched as organic life ended. It was the least she could do, and yet it was not enough. She watched as the pair of Balefires imploded against the Skein’s last layers of protection. As those protective layers disintegrated, one by one, defying the best attempts of the ship’s repair systems and Insta-solve. As the final barrier that separated those weapons from the goal they sought was swept aside. As the final missile, as if directed by the hand of some cruel, revenge-minded deity, sprang into bright, unrelenting life, and washed the bridge—and all it had once protected—with existence-ending fire.
Anaiya continued to watch as the Skein drifted, aimless and out of control, its ravaged side still glowing as flammable gas vented from its wounds. She watched as the conveyor of the Express activated, as acceleration built past critical, as the slight visual distortion and ever-present hum produced by the time variance rectifier of the Expressjoined those other sensations. Finally, she watched as her ship slipped beyond the reach of ordinary reality, surging forward into that place that lay beyond, beside, and within it.
Anaiya hoped that some of those on board had survived. Some could have had current personality insurance and, in three or four years, after proof of the destruction of their bodies had been properly reviewed and certified, after those backups had been properly reconstituted, after their newly localized bodies had been certified by those responsible for such things … After all these things were accomplished, they would be returned to regular existence with no memory of the terrible event that had destroyed their previous organic manifestations.
Regardless, it mattered. Anaiya thought of those to whom she had been forced to lie. She thought of those she had left behind. She thought especially of the man she had loved for more than a decade, Paz Aldanouri. Grief gripped her as she embraced the magnitude of her loss. Finally she thought of those who had fought alongside him to stop a being that they believed was a traitor, a smuggler, and worse. Whatever the truth, their journeys were swallowed by a void that would never remember why they had fought or why they had died.
THE HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ORIGIN DIVISION
Combines were originally created to settle and exploit the area beyond Earth’s solar system. It was recognized that individual corporations, no matter how large, had insufficient resources, means, and willingness to attempt projects of the magnitude required. The intent went beyond establishing small colonies to transforming the entire solar system into a profit-producing entity and using the subsequent engineering developments and inventions that would flow from that, and are produced in concurrence with it, to establish large, permanent settlements on planets, moons, asteroids, and gas giant orbital stations.
The first colonies were not developed by the combines but by governments, quasi-governmental entities, and associations between multiple nations. First was the Russian, Chinese and Korean Consortium who established a colony on Mars. As a result of the development of high- and low-temperature-tolerant materials, this consortium established the first extreme environment mining and extraction zones on Mercury. The United States was next, claiming Saturn and most of its moons. After this, in quick succession, a coalition of South American nations established colonies on both Martian moons and placed a station in orbit around Jupiter. Following this, an expedition launched by Indo-Pakistan, attempted to expand their influence near Jupiter, but it experienced mysterious accidents and was destroyed. No one survived, and no record of the catastrophe’s cause was recovered.
This left an opening for the Republican Commonwealth comprised of England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Nigeria, and Belize. Launching nearly four years before a public announcement, this group was able to establish its own colony on Jupiter. After this, Indo-Pakistan accused the Republican Commonwealth of deliberately sabotaging their exploration craft. The resulting dispute led to armed conflict in the area around Jupiter. It was the first instance of armed human conflict that occurred outside of Earth’s orbit, but it was far from the last.
Full scale war was prevented by a last-ditch diplomatic push. In exchange for recognition of the Commonwealth’s colony, Indo-Pakistan was given the rights to exploit Uranus. The situations of Neptune and Pluto were left temporarily unresolved because it was believed that the extreme distances involved, and the deleterious conditions, would prevent settlement for at least several centuries.
In 2230, the United Nations was dissolved and replaced by a Council of Associations consisting of the space-faring nations. Disputes arose among the space powers over the disposition of remaining assets in the solar system. While this dispute was still in progress, an association called the Unified Faction and consisting of Algeria, Egyptopia, the North African Republic, South Africa, and the Central African Confederation secretly formed their own exploration program, with the intent of colonizing Neptune before either the rival powers or the New Southern Paradigm (Catalonia, Asturias, Basquia, Italy, Corsica, France, and Bulgaria) could complete this same objective.
The Unified Faction won and established three stations in orbit around Neptune. They also colonized several of Neptune’s moons. This left only Pluto, the Out-Planets (the area formerly known as the “Kuiper Belt”), and Planet X or Nibiru as tempting objects for exploration. After some consideration, colonization of Planet X was postponed. It was considered too difficult to reach, and communication nets were not yet advanced enough to insure regular, reliable communication with a colony or spacecraft located near it.
As a consolation prize, the Unified Faction agreed to give up its claims to the unclaimed asteroid belt sectors, leaving the new Southern Paradigm in control of several, and the United States in control of the rest.
Pluto was the next target. All the space-faring nations were simultaneously preparing craft. But, unknown to them, The Federated Aryan Peoples of the Persian Gulf had already launched an expedition several years before. Barely a year after the final, most punishing phase of the Second Race commenced, the other powers discovered they’d been beaten, as a successful transmission from Pluto’s surface announced that it had been claimed.
The remaining powers, left with no targets for their new expeditions, redirected them to promising out-planets. Indo-Pakistan was desperate to elevate its status. It redirected its exploration fleet mid-flight toward Nibiru. After a ten-year period, communication with the craft ceased, and all were presumed lost. The reason for this, unknown until nearly a century later when First Contact was finally established, was the existence of an intelligent, newly space-faring race that inhabited the planet.
First Contact was an unexpected shock. Many religions rose and fell in the aftermath, the Republican Commonwealth fell apart, dissolving into a series of warring entities. The Southern Paradigm abandoned its exploration program, and the independent Exo-Planetary Entities formed a coalition. Fortunately for future peace, the Nibirans did not prove to be warlike and were largely content to settle into a peaceful trading and exploration role with the already human-settled Origin System.
Meanwhile, many of the colonies were struggling. Recognizing this, the first combines were formed. Initially, they were charged with the task of exploiting the surrounding environments. The existing colonies were draining trillions of standardized monetary units annually from Earth and Mars for their maintenance. The combines were tasked with remaking these colonies into semi-independent, entirely self-sustaining, profit-producing entities.
This effort proved even more successful than the original planners had anticipated. In less than twenty years, most of the solar system’s gross economic product was produced outside Earth’s orbit. Another two decades passed and the combined output of the outer planets exceeded that of the inner planets.
Then, a technical collaboration of the Nibirans and seven of the largest combines developed superluminal speed technologies that facilitated expansion beyond the solar system. A bidding system was rapidly developed. The newly powerful, newly influential combines were charged with exploiting extra-solar systems. In return, the associations of the various countries of Earth would provide initial start-up capital, technology, and ships, with the understanding that after the combines had successfully colonized extra-solar systems, they would return a portion of the profits to the associations.
This led to a spike in tensions between the newly surgent colonies and the associations of Earth that nominally controlled them. Especially problematic was the transition from heavy monetary support to heavy, ever-increasing taxation and various forms of corporate rent and monetary transfer from the colonies to Earth and Mars. Tensions came to a boil. One by one, the outer planets, moons, and the asteroid belts all declared independence from the associations. In a matter of months after the first declarations of independence had been received on Earth, the First Inter-Solar War began.
Decades of war passed, and the associations of the Earth were forced to accept the inevitable. All the colonies were acknowledged as sovereign, independent entities, and a new All-Solar council was formed. A new phase of human (and soon, Nibiran), expansion began.
The combines were now the most powerful force in the system except for the Nibirans. Following the decline of the associations on Earth, the Nibirans pulled out of most of their trade and tech sharing treaties and launched a limited exploration program. That effort established nearly a dozen out-system colonies before it was terminated after achieving independent contact with extra-solar, non-human races. This was designed as a guard against what the Nibirans greatly feared might be the consequences of a newly aggressive, expansionist humanity which now lacked the earlier constraints that the lack of superluminal travel had imposed on it. Soon, a mutual defensive association was formed with several of these non-human races.
As the power of the combines grew so did the feuding among them. They intruded on each other’s assigned systems, and at times resorted to open conflict. The combines took control of the governmental entities. A new era of corporate control was born. The Second Inter-Solar War began. This war was relatively limited and involved few casualties. After its conclusion, the combines were recognized as the paramount authorities in the outer planets, the participation of the governments of Earth in the Solar Council ended, and the combines assumed the vacated seats. The various combines were assigned defined, extra solar territories which they could explore and exploit without limit. Existing border disputes were rationalized, and the next great wave of human expansion began.
This continued for a few centuries, but eventually the combines strained against the exploration zones each had been assigned, coveting especially valuable areas in each other’s territory. Resources were now so common that there was virtually no value left in further exploration and expansion. Material scarcity vanished. That development benefited humanity but drove every combine into devastating debt.
Simultaneously, one of the combines (in secret association with the Nibirans), developed a weapon of terrible and devastating power. This weapon, commonly called a bubble dissipation mine, was capable of counter warping the protective field used in superluminal travel and destroying the ship using it. Adding to the difficulty, the mines could not be detected by any currently known means. Even the survey ships responsible for establishing rift transit routes and initial scouting of promising systems could not warn craft of the presence of the mines before they were destroyed.
At first, SiGan Propulsion (a division of the Seti Combine that developed the weapons) used them sparingly. A few rift routes, here and there. A few commodity prices, and derivative indexes, were cunningly manipulated and Seti Combine’s debt was erased and the Seti Combine became the wealthiest of all the combines. Many analysts expected the combine would soon seize and liquidate the other combines and assume total control over the Outer and Out planets.
This didn’t last. Soon, two other combines discovered the same principles that underlay the development of the bubble dissipation mines. Another stole the designs, which in turn were stolen again. In the space of three years, each combine gained access and began a crash course in the production of the mines.
Rift routes were soon filled with mines; commodity prices increased. Each combine tried to exploit the situation, and the entire Outer System/Out Planet Zone collapsed into near anarchy. Full scale war began, combines mobilized the space fleets that had been designed to prevent raids by pirates or potential aggression by alien civilizations and went on the attack. The most valuable systems, one by one, were targeted. Rift routes were clogged by automated mine layers that couldn’t be detected and couldn’t be stopped. Bases of operations within the solar system were attacked.
The war expanded. The associations of Earth sensed an opportunity to re-conquer the lost colonies. They marshaled their own forces and launched a full-scale attack. Their aim was to overwhelm and take control of the entire Outer System before defenses could be organized.
Meanwhile, the combines, undone by their own greed, began to collapse as both their raw material supplies and their sources of hard currency were severed. Finally, the last rift routes were mined, and extra-solar trade and transits ceased. Despite that, the combines, drawing on the last remnants of their reserves, were able to beat back the inner planetary assault, and an uneasy peace settled over the solar system.
It didn’t last. Ten years later, conflict flared again, as the combines and the various associations of Earth vied for a share of the now rapidly dwindling resources that could still be exploited within the solar system. So began the Fourth Inter-Solar War. It was the most bitter of all the solar wars. No restraint was practiced, each major power acted with the declared intent of total conquest, and, if that was not possible, of eradicating all life on moons, planets, and stations. That tactic was designed to allow the seizure of remaining resources by the victors without worry of future opposition.
Among other atrocities, Mars lost nearly forty percent of its population, dozens of asteroids were cut off, their starving populations reduced to cannibalism in a desperate, and ultimately doomed, struggle to survive. Earth became the object of several of the Fourth Inter-Solar War’s most deadly offensives. Nibiru was also attacked.
The solar system, on the brink of mutual annihilation, stepped back. A mutual ceasefire was reached and negotiations continued for nearly thirty years. Finally, a new, extra-solar colonization plan was developed. A System Patrol Force, to which all combines were required to contribute, was formed to police it. A signing ceremony, to be attended by more than eight thousand leaders of the solar system and two hundred Nibiran observers, was scheduled. It didn’t happen. Before the official signatures were placed, the entire assembly hall was destroyed by a nuclear blast, leaving no survivors.
Amid the chaos, a man who had previously acted as the Deputy Administrator for Planning and Society on Ceres as well as holding the position as Vice President in one of the smaller combines, had not been present. In a matter of days, all the surviving remnants agreed that he, as the designated survivor, would assume control of a newly formed, interim, emergency government that would last only so long as was necessary to restore order. His name was Quarlenon Quaves. His efforts led to the founding of the Concordium of Worlds and a plan that saved humanity from eventual extinction.
When superluminal travel was first achieved and the different cultures of the Origin Division were brought together, it was discovered that each “alien” race was in fact human and was divided only by minor physical differences. There were substantial cultural differences between the races.
The systems that held each of the twenty or so branches of humanity were within the Origin Division and had been separated from each other by at least one uninhabited system. Those once isolated systems united in a new collective whose purpose was to expand outwards from the Origin Division and fulfill humanity’s full potential. It was called the Reformation.
The Edge expanded as more surveys were completed, and as combines pushed colonies to non-sapient-inhabited planets for settlement and exploitation. Moving toward the Edge from the Origin Division were: the Near Reach, the Astro Planes, the Outlands, the Boundary, the Meld, the Edge, the Last Expanse, the Traveling Edge, the Unlisted Volumes, and the Untamed Places.
It is the year 8,973 of the Concordium of Worlds. The known galaxy is dominated by humanity, in all its diversity and complexity. But it was not always so. Once, humanity teetered on the verge of extinction, fearing desperately that the fragile spark of intelligent life it embodied would be extinguished forever. So, a plan was made to ensure survival. Humanity must become so powerful that it can never be destroyed. Somewhere, no matter the circumstances, the flame would burn, ready to spring up again and overwhelm the galaxy.
The details of the plan were secret. If the truth were known, few individuals would willingly participate in the colonization projects, combines would refuse to risk investing in them, and humanity would gradually retreat to the Earth’s solar system. Many promises were made. The colonies would have unending support, and help would be provided in the event of an emergency. But the reality was entirely different. No assistance would be given, under any circumstances. Once the vast crèche ships left the confines of the solar system and entered the interstellar medium, nothing would shield them.
Colonization was successful. Most colonies grew beyond their creators’ wildest dreams. Of thousands of ships, only a few hundred were lost in the void. Of those that landed and founded settlements, less than a hundred were lost to disease, natural events, the depredations of alien races and the natural animosities that resulted in civil wars.
When an appeal for help was sent, an excuse was ready. Most believed the official pronouncements. Some did not. But no one found enough proof to support their speculations, and their arguments were dismissed as the ravings of deranged lunatics, unwilling to accept the dangers inherent in space travel. As a result, nothing challenged the policy or revealed the truth. Eventually the damaged colonies vanished, succumbing to the inevitable, and leaving little trace. But in a very few instances, some colonists survived and unintentionally proved that the original policy had been sound. Even in the most desperate circumstances, humanity would survive and could thrive again.
On one world, a series of internal conflicts sparked by limited access to resources, ideological differences, and a hostile environment led to the eruption of a full-scale civil war. The colonists sent requests for aid. With increasing desperation, as the planetary population dwindled, and resources vanished, they pleaded. None of their cries for help were answered. Eventually, they despaired and stopped trying. This process took only a few local months, but the consequences that followed would echo down the millennia and influence the destiny of the rest of the galaxy.
For the calls for aid were preserved. Thousands of years later, when the ensuing generations raised themselves from barbarism and savagery and discovered records of the appeals, they wondered why they had been ignored. First rage, and then hate, grew and flowered. Gradually, with the discovery of the records, they regained the technologies of space travel. But that wasn’t all. During the long dark ages, other things had been created and built, things which the rest of the galaxy could not imagine. Mind bending was foremost among them, but there were others: human directed control systems, brain links. The descendants of the abandoned colony remained hidden, but they secretly observed the rest of the galaxy. They realized the potential of their technologies.
If they were careful, what had happened to them need never occur again. Their actions were not motivated by revenge, or the heedless desire to destroy. They wanted to give a gift to the rest of the galaxy. A gift that would safeguard the future of humanity and ensure its eternal dominion over the whole galaxy, and perhaps, beyond. They called themselves the Forgiving.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWELED STARLIGHT
As the ancient hauler, the Jeweled Starlight, approached the rift route transition fold zone, monitoring displays on the bridge showed stripes of orange and white. Then, bright bluish white light flooded Vazantar Jaeron’s vision. The displays blanked, a safety feature to alert those on the bridge whenever the ship’s deceleration or acceleration from or to superluminal caused it to enter or leave a rift fold zone.
Although the bridge’s original specifications were designed to accommodate as many as ten beings, only one other shared it with Jaeron and observed the eruption of light. That being co-owned and co-captained the Starlight with Jaeron.
“Precision is always better,” Nz-Crantz, the old Vo said.
“As long as we watch out for other ships, we shouldn’t have a problem. The system’s giving an error message, but that doesn’t mean anything. I’m picking up mass shadows that suggest that they’ve got an old physical monitoring network around the edges of the Inhabited Zone. The part around here is down, for some reason. Maybe repairs or maybe they don’t care enough to scrap it, so they left it out here unpowered.”
“This is surprising, considering this location.”
Jaeron nodded and changed the monitoring displays from the standard configuration to a spherical bubble that revealed what the Starlight’s sensors detected: the normal gravimetric and energetic profiles of transit route entry and exit vector monitoring arrays, scattered natural exo-objects, and outer habitation zone monitoring clusters, as well as the more compact shapes of Centrum’s local Q-com connection, generator, and booster arrays. The best that could be said was that the Starlightwas receiving a Q-com acceptance code. Though this system might appear to be deserted, it was not, and their arrival here was not a result of a scrambled rift-destination-matrix scan point.
As the Starlight shifted into a new destination curve, Jaeron thought about how ironic it was that such a system—well known in the myths and legends of the Boundary places—would be all but deserted when, finally, he was able to visit it. Upon learning that the end destination of their cargo was the semi-legendary first founding system of the Concordium (and the place where many of its governing bodies and rival interest groups maintained a formal, physical presence), he had not expected it to be like this.
“I guess the legends aren’t true,” Jaeron muttered.
“This one perceives disappointment. It may be that the vacancy of other craft is a cause for concern. Does the other that is present share this pre-feeling?” Nz-Crantz asked.
“Maybe no one comes here. That could explain why we’re delivering our cargo to one of the inner worlds. Less likely to attract attention that way. Maybe.” Even as Jaeron said it, he knew that was wrong. Anyone with experience in such things knew the opposite to be true. Of course, that did not mean the entity sending the cargo, and the ones that would receive it, shared that assessment or that knowledge.
“The vector is confirmed?”
“We are in the right system.” Jaeron ignored an icy probe of doubt. The emptiness of the sector they had dropped into could be normal. “No signs of a natural disaster, and these old divisions haven’t seen a full-scale conflict for millennia.”
“There is something you wish to tell.”
“This is the oldest system there ever was. Before the Refoundation, before the Discovery.”
“It is the energy source that powers the great life form that became the Concordium of Worlds, to use a base biological comparative.”
Jaeron glanced over the monitors. “If the section we’re traversing is any guide, this beast’s heart is close to dead.”
“If so, this death is not felt.”
“I see what you mean. We don’t need to worry. All we need to do is reach that auto-dock, drop our cargo, collect our final payment, and get out.”
“Perhaps the ship that is approaching will reveal something of this mystery.”
Jaeron scrutinized the display and then enhanced it. The worry he had felt earlier intensified. The small cargo that the ship carried was not enough to land him in any trouble—he had taken the cargo sealed and, as all independent operators knew, the Concordium transit regulations that governed mass haulage between systems placed liability for local customs violations with the owner of the cargo and the end recipient, rather than the hauler contracted to carry it. Still …
“That ship’s carrying weapons.” The power curves alone substantiated that assessment. “Powerful ones.” And yet, the mass readings did not support that conclusion. According to those, the ship was small, a mere fraction of the Starlight’ssize, but capable of extreme acceleration and maneuvering. It was too small to be a warship of any system’s protection force, or even to be an inspection vessel. The Starlight’s on-board database informed Jaeron that no such craft was known to it.
“The primary power curves. It is … wrong … for a ship of that size to possess such motivating force. One might call it a transgression of normal parameters.” Nz-Crantz paused before continuing, “A notification has not been received, and none are expected. The schedule is irregular, the variance extreme. One should have been informed.”
Jaeron half listened as Nz-Crantz expounded on his personal religious observations, that each individual’s life should follow a certain path which changed radically at predefined intervals. This concept was central to Nz-Crantz’s faith and had been ingrained in him from the moment of his hatching.
Jaeron linked to the local skein to see if the rapidly approaching ship was a little-known local type. He frowned as error messages multiplied. It looked as if something was blocking the connection to the local system, something apart from the condition of the aged hauler that he piloted. There had been no warning or pre-transit notification during the Starlight’s last scheduled repairs. There had been no malfunctions that might have caused it. Which left a single option, but it could not be.
“I hope this system hasn’t been taken over by raiders.” Even as he said it, Jaeron knew his fear was irrational. If that were the case, the information would have been released over the divisional transit alert feeds. And yet, if such an attack had just occurred … No. It was impossible. The Concordium, even as it was now, would never allow its home system, and the separate Recognized Governing Authority that controlled it, to be taken like that. The mysterious vessel’s rapid approach did not resolve his doubts, but neither did it confirm them. With less than one minute to outer visual range, Jaeron realized he would have to wait.
“One’s expectation is that this is a ship that may be concerning,” Nz-Crantz said. “Perhaps an inquiry should be sent to the object.”
“Hold up,” Jaeron said. With the bunch they had on board, a much larger crew than the small cargo required, he would rather avoid anything that might cause problems. “No need to start trouble until we know it’s coming.”
Long shipboard seconds crawled by, and then a message appeared. It held the formality that usually accompanied official messages from a Recognized Governing Authority.
“Attention: Vessel entering Outer Inhabited Zone. The sensor net is down for routine maintenance. All ships entering this segment from listed rift routes must use their inherent guidance. Be advised: Any emergency messages sent from you may not be received until you exit this segment. To ensure proper inspection of your cargo, all craft entering this zone are notified that they must adjust their vector plots onto a heading to be supplied. All craft are required to dock at a Control and Inspection station. Until you receive this data, do not deviate from your current vector plot.”
A roughly conical blue shadow appeared on the spherical display, showing the extent of the area covered by the alert. It extended from the rift route transition fold zone inward to the orbit of the system’s outer planet, Centrum Gamma XII.
“Well, that explains some of this, but not the presence of that other ship, and why it hasn’t sent a location and vector confirmation back at us,” Jaeron said.
Then the visual on the approaching ship appeared, and everything else suddenly seemed unimportant. The thing was small, as the mass readings had suggested, but the minimum estimate of the Starlight’s database had been several times larger than the reality that now moved on a convergence vector toward them, and whose acceleration factor was rapidly increasing. Its power output told of a massive weapons capacity. In shape, it resembled a standard human fist, if that fist had eight evenly sized fingers, if that fist was clenched in preparation to strike, and if that fist was made of material so light cancelling that it seemed to absorb every sub-particle of illumination as it transited the void around it.
“This is a transgression,” Nz-Crantz said. “Some parameters must not be violated.”
“I’m going to try a bounce and see if they respond. If they don’t … we might have a problem.” The message was sent, and it was received. It was not returned. The other ship’s approach did not change. It continued to close with the Starlight at a rate that would soon bring the Starlightwithin range of its weapons. Part of Jaeron’s mind told him they had nothing to fear, that the thing was too small to be a threat. One of the Starlight’s holding bays would have swallowed it. But his rising apprehension contradicted his reasoning.
“This one believed we had more time. This one was mistaken.”
Before Jaeron could ask the Vo what that meant, the message system flashed an error report. As soon as he saw it, he knew that what he had worried about had manifested as unpleasant reality. All doubt vanished. “They’re shattering our signal.”
“That vessel carries danger to this one, to the other, and to the delivery fee.”
“That’s something we can’t have.” The size of that fee was more than Jaeron had earned in his lifetime.
“This one believes resistance is futile. The cessation of existence will occur. Struggling against such a force is as pointless as challenging the powers that underlie it.” Nz-Crantz’s prehensile head tendrils wove a new and more elaborate pattern as he turned to face Jaeron.
“I don’t register that.” The small part of Jaeron that wanted to cry out in shock vanished as he struggled to decide how he would face what was to come. “We won’t go without a fight.”
“Some believe that all physical existence is madness. This one always wondered.”
Jaeron activated his audio feed. “All crew, this is a priority alert. Urgent Danger. We’ve got an unknown, almost certainly hostile ship closing their relative vector with ours. Matched acceleration intercept will occur in approximately thirty minutes. Review defensive plan, deploy to weapons, and prepare for possibly lethal contact at any time after maximum weapons range is achieved by hostile.”
Jaeron’s audio and video feeds filled with noise and confused motion. He heard recommendations to abandon ship as well as many other things. He ignored them all.
“Silence.” Jaeron kept his tone calm, though it took every fraction of resolve that he possessed to do so. “Each of you contracted to this ship until successful cargo delivery, and you will fulfill your contracts.” That stilled some of the cacophony, though a few voices kept jabbering until he killed the incoming internal message feeds. “If I need status reports, I will request them. Otherwise, follow the plan. Remember, weapons control is mine. Just in case any of you are tempted to run in the face of this threat, know that I will put that on your local skein listing. You’ll never work cargo for the remainder of your first lives.”
Jaeron watched the monitors as the power counters on system after system built toward maximum. The lazes cycled ever higher. The fields expanded and filled the void around the Starlight with an invisible force capable of slowing or turning back physical objects, and of absorbing some percentage of the emissions of beam cannons as well as other energy sources. The fields afforded no protection against more complex or exotic weaponry. Once their fields heated beyond the safe overload zone and shut down, the beings within would have no protection beyond that which the Starlight’s aged and never-particularly-reliable outer hull could provide. If they were lucky, it would not come to that. Though as power curves flashed, alarms sounded, and optimal firing arcs appeared between the two craft, Jaeron thought that they would have to be very lucky indeed.
“It will not happen,” Nz-Crantz said.
Jaeron spun in his conform and looked at the being that, for all his oddity, was the only true friend he had ever had. “I don’t understand. You want to give up? This ship is ours, yours, and mine. It’s all we have.”
“I am petitioning for the avoidance of pain that comes from a failed effort. Old friend, you cannot stop that ship any more than you can stop the motion of a star. Destiny has come sooner than it should, but it has come. Attempting to stop it will only result in the other’s destruction.”
If he went for the pods … if they all did … No, he would not. If this were a normal run, maybe. If the cargo was only scrap, or a shipment of fabricant-material blocks or any one of a thousand other types of cargo that the Starlight had carried during its long existence … But not this time. Not with what the tiny mass riding in the Starlight’s best protected hold was going to win for him if he delivered it to its destination.
“No. I’m not giving up. You should make for the pods, though. If we get through this, I’ll make sure you get your share.” It was an offer Jaeron would make to no one else.
“The funds will not be received. Both individual expressions will cease to exist.”
“Cut that. We’re not going to die. Not even temporarily.”
The lazes of the Starlight spiked toward their maximum power level; the fields surged to their peak. And all the while the light-drinking ship came closer and closer, like the disembodied fist of some gigantic being, angry for a reason that none but it understood.
“The final change. For a time, this one followed the direction of greater purpose. This one was loyal throughout the alterations that fall upon us all. Now, the last eye closes, and this one will not flee from that failing gaze.”
“Save the religion for later,” Jaeron said.
“No time is better. The other has chosen the journey of pain, and of regret. But that way will not be long.”
Before Jaeron could think of a response to that, a simulacrum flickered to life.
“Report,” Jaeron said.
“Crew’s broken into teams, like you ordered. We’re ready.”
“Cease contact until a breach happens, if it happens.”
At Jaeron’s command, the firing system for the lazes sprouted up from the floor and extended toward his outstretched hands. Contact alarms boomed. His hands tightened on the grips. He had used them before, but never under circumstances like these.
Targeting cones and bars flashed into existence and showed how the combined energy output of twenty laze clusters might be focused most effectively against a single target. Those same sensors told Jaeron that the enemy was close, so close that the most accurate visual receptors on the Starlight’shull were updating its relative motion and vector adjustments by millisecond breaks. No running lights marred that light-drinking surface; no visible external hatches, or other gaps, disfigured the deadly beauty of its smooth and unbroken form.
“Outer contact range,” the alarm boomed. “Comparative match will occur in twenty-six dot seven seconds.”
Jaeron’s hands tightened convulsively. “Give it every particle of power that we have.” He felt the Starlightshudder, deep and bone vibrating, even though the bridge was suspended in gravity retardant gel and buried within three concentric layers of rotation-capable and gravity-dampening hull sections.
On the monitor, he observed the tiny blip that represented the Starlightas it began to turn, adjusting its course so that, if nothing changed, the smaller ship was now diving toward the Starlight’s mid-section. The ancient hauler and its enemy were connected by simulated beams. Points of light flared into existence along the enemy’s hull, tracing across it as if long, probing fingers were carving a fiery path. Light, once yellow, quickly turned orange, and was in turn replaced by a deeper red, before finally spiking toward blinding white.
Pouring across the intervening void was enough energy to shred the fields of a lesser vessel and carve through its hull. It flowed until seventeen distinct points glowed with all the fury the Starlight’s weapons could create. Then it flared and, suddenly, snapped out.
Jaeron nodded. The other ship’s fields were down. He glanced at the scrolling power displays. Good, they still had about thirty percent until forced shutdown and recharge.
“Give me all you’ve got.” The firing grips tingled in response and glowed to alert him that if he kept firing like this, he soon would not have anything left.
As the Starlight’s lazes probed the target once again, Jaeron wondered if his earlier assumption had been mistaken. Could the ship, sinister as it seemed, be nothing more than a malfunctioning synthetic monitoring craft or system surveillance device? Perhaps it had deviated from its normal parameters and inadvertently blocked the Starlight’sexternal messaging system. But he could take no chances. Not with all that was at stake. Not with what he would lose if his worst fears proved true. His hands ground down on the firing triggers, and the Starlight’s lazes continued to flow across the void, striking the might-be enemy.
The simulacrum of that black hull glowed, brighter and brighter.
Then a warning. “Heat dissipation critical. Full shutdown and recharge in six point seven seconds.”
A moment later, tightness coiled around Jaeron’s chest and reached down into his stomach. For the enemy’s armor still glittered and warded off the increasingly desperate pulses from the Starlight’s lazes as they attempted, and failed, to slice through it.
Then something terrible happened. The enemy ship suddenly split open. Where there had been nothing but a smooth hull, eight ports gaped wide.
“Main generator overrun type seven. Main power distribution node network overrun type twenty. Multiple flashpoint overload type nine. Emergency protocol exceeded. Shutting down.”
Eight tongues of orange flame shot out from the smaller vessel and joined into a single, combined beam whose power exceeded the abilities of the Starlight’sflickering sensor net. It ripped straight into the Starlight’s mid-section.
“General alert!” Jaeron bellowed. “All crew. Visitors incoming. Move to your defensive stations!” While he shouted, the enemy’s single beam carved through the Starlight’s fields, through the outer hull and deep into its aged, internal hull sections.
The alarms were endless now, and Jaeron was sure he could feel the savage beam bite deep. It swept across the Starlight’s hull, turning its laze turrets and the traversing rings that held them into a collection of expanding, superheated gas and molten scrap. The Starlight’slast functioning sensors showed plumes of dissolved composite erupting with each hit, trailing in the hauler’s wake like the smoldering gas cloud that trailed a comet as it plunged toward a planetary surface.
Then the alarms ceased. The spherical display vanished, and all the active control interfaces flashed into static and disappeared.
The bridge shuddered. Jaeron felt the impacts as the enemy blasted deep into the now-defenseless hull and destroyed entire portions of it.
“We’re done.” Jaeron could not identify the voice of the crew member who spoke over the audio. “Give the order or I’ll unlock general access from one of the auxiliary control points.”
Deeper rumbling came from the hull surrounding the bridge. First, the attacking beam had etched a shallow channel across the surface. Now it was gouging deep. Jaeron was sure that the enemy would be seeking the primary power distribution nodes, and then the main generators that powered them. As the last functional displays flickered out of existence, accompanied by a last, desperate warning tone, Jaeron’s intuition told him that his guess had been right.
Darkness surrounded him, as the Starlight’s last backup power system shut down. A moment later, the sensations of his body weight went with it. He was drifting, tumbling within the small, confined space until he felt a sudden collision. His right arm encountered hard matter so violently that the deep pain he felt made him wonder if one of the bones in his arm had shattered.
Then light flared back as bridge’s emergency flashpoints drew the last of their power supply. Another deep, thrumming impact rippled across the bridge as generated, synthetic gravity returned.
“Status.” Jaeron did the only thing he could think to do. “All remaining crew respond.”
No one did.
“This is a direct order. Go to defensive stations and prepare to repel boarders.” Wild hate surged through his mind, sweeping aside the last fragments of reason that could have restrained him. He was not going to let that piece of space debris out there destroy his ship. Not without—
A crackling audio feed penetrated the bridge. “Attention: All surviving crew. The captain isn’t rational. I am exercising my authority and ordering all of you to abandon ship. The pods are unlocked and ready for you.”
“Mutineer.” Jaeron took one last look around the bridge. Somehow, Nz-Crantz was still upright, though his conform had collapsed back into its surface-mounted projector. He realized that he could not save the Starlight, but he had to survive. He would hunt down and destroy each and every being who had done this to him. He would ensure that each one of them experienced a subtly prolonged, painful, and permanent death. And to do that … he glanced at Nz-Crantz. “You coming?”
“Go.”
“We can both make it out. It’ll be a few more minutes before that thing finishes the Starlight.”
“The other has chosen one way. This one cannot share that journey.”
As Jaeron stamped his foot on the emergency access tube, a few last displays suddenly reappeared. The images he saw there … frantically running shapes scrambling in different directions as they negotiated grotesquely twisted and fragmented corridors. Weapons either lying where they had been dropped, or floating as the ship’s internal gravity plating progressively failed. Jaeron imagined he could feel the tremors in the ship as the pods accelerated away. For a moment, he saw all this from the perspective of one of the pods as it blasted away from the doomed, dying place that had once been its home. It was the only true home that Jaeron had ever known, and he was abandoning it in its moment of greatest need.
The emergency interface still worked. Jaeron stepped over the edge of the open emergency access tube and dropped down into the sealed passageways that led to a cluster of escape pods. His survival depended upon the passageways not being severed, blocked, or blasted out of alignment by the relentless assault. It also depended on the continued functionality of the pressurized transport system that allowed access to the pods.
As Jaeron made his way to the pods, he experienced weightlessness as the outer skin of the ship tore wide, as bulkheads disintegrated. He realized that the enemy ship had come for the cargo … there could be no other explanation. No surprise: the cargo was valuable. But the location chosen for the attack, the sudden swiftness with which it had been carried out, and the capabilities of the ship involved, shocked him.
Jaeron activated his personal dizie. He watched as armored figures—probably synthetics—poured into the hold that he had ordered to be protected at all costs. They moved with the efficient swiftness displayed by those either directed or fully controlled by automated systems.
The air current tossed and turned, pulling Jaeron’s body along. Meanwhile, in the hold, the synthetics assembled a device that appeared to be a short-range cargo beam. The beam activated and, one by one, detached the individual containers from the auto-clamps that locked them to the cargo storage areas. For the briefest moment, the beginnings of a smile appeared on Jaeron’s face. If he had to lose the cargo, then at least—
Jaeron’s smile vanished. Nothing disturbed the ordered removal of the crates. Somehow, the crates’ self-destruct system (whose existence he had individually checked and verified) had been disabled. Before he could observe further, the monitor feed flickered out and left him with the unpleasant, unshielded, electric discharge-like, snapping sensation that always accompanied an improperly terminated dizie connection.
The travel tube jerked open, and a great whoosh of air dumped Jaeron in the center of the survival pod cluster’s entry zone. Only three pods remained, and of those, at least one had been damaged. To Jaeron, it seemed that a few lifetimes passed as one of the undamaged pods scanned him and finally unlocked. An eon elapsed as the hatch irised open. He scrambled inside and sealed the hatch. His pod spiraled away from the ship. With external sensors, Jaeron watched as the attacker gradually, and methodically, reduced the Starlightto an expanding cloud of scrap. Beam emitters, only now using what Jaeron realized had been their full potential, sliced deep into the now dead, silent hulk, as if the millennia old and void-resistance substance from which it was made was no more durable than unprotected organic tissue yielding before the wild slashes of a fusion cutter.
SPECIFICATIONS FOR VESSEL CLASS: PINNACLE STARSHIP
SETI CORPORATION
SiGan Propulsion: Special Research Projects Division
Alpharan Industries: WE FABRICATE THE FUTURE
SPECIFICATIONS FOR VESSEL CLASS: PINNACLE STARSHIP
VESSEL TYPE: Ultra Long-Range Starship. Medium capacity for organic crew.
PROTECTION PACKAGE: Standard.
FIELD TYPE: High Tolerance Electro-Magnetic.
RECHARGE CAPACITY: Inherent, Unlimited.
ARMOR: Quad Protective Layering, Liquid Capacity Layer space provided. Single Layer Downgrade available, but liquid armor voids must be filled by the customer. Variable or shift protective material is not included in the purchase package and must be provided separately.
PRIMARY CONTROL SYSTEM: Full available AI interface as part of standard package. AI may be configured according to customer satisfaction. It may be deactivated and replaced by a text- or crew-based monitoring and control system, or by a non-intrusive computational management system that does not maintain personality interactivity checks or predictive behavioral abilities, or by a combination of the above.
ALPHARAN INDUSTRIES does not guarantee critical system performance to specifications if AI is disabled. Full SR control interfaces, masking control interfaces, and direct-Mind to matter control sub-sets are fully supported and may be AI integration enabled at the customer’s request.
INDEPENDENT TRANSPORT: Two, each sufficient for twenty organics in standard pod configuration or eight for long term, living, non-cryo travel. Food and stored water capacity space without re-processing is sufficient for two weeks at full capacity, or one month at reduced capacity. Food must be standard emergency type, insta-prepare prepackaged format only. No transport cooking facilities are provided in Standard Package. Luxury Packages include expanded transport space, synthetic full size cooking facility, and tripled range. See your authorized Alpharan dealer for further details.
ARMAMENT TYPE: Turret, fully ring mobile, mixed internal/external power supply. Power is sufficient for discharge of turret’s entire onboard solid projectile store under normal combat conditions at maximum cylinder rotation speed. Estimated power capability for energy weapons at full power and spread: 12.4 to 48.7 seconds. Timing, power, and yield per turret will vary in actual battle space conditions and are subject to varying weapons manufacturer specifications that cannot be fully predicted or estimated by ALPHARAN INDUSTRIES APPLIED PRODUCTS DIVISION before final weapons system installation and testing.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINABLE, SIMULTANEOUS TURRET NUMBER CAPACITY SUSTAINED BY SHIP-BASED POWER SOURCES AND FLASH POINT FEEDS: Thirty.
MAXIMUM RECOMMENDED NUMBER: Twenty.
TURRET TYPES AVAILABLE: Light Missile; Heavy Missile; Light Solid; Heavy Solid; Focused Light, four; Focused Light, eight; Focused Light, Ten; Plasma four, eight, twelve, twenty (Not recommended for your selected hull type.); Cannon (Beam), One; Cannon (Beam), Two; Cannon (Beam), Four; Cannon--Solid Projectile, Super Heavy Type, 1, 2, 4, and 8 (Not recommended for hull type); Rapid--Solid Cyclic Projectile Launcher, 1, 2, 4, 8 (Linkage and independent guidance systems can be linked to main ship systems, but are not inherent, and are dependent on individualized unit specification.); Torpedo, Anti-Ship Type, 1, 2, 4 (FTL Capacity is not included and not available for your selected hull type.); Torpedo, Anti-Ground Type, 1; Torpedo, Anti Facility Type, 1, 2; Explosive Cyclic Projectile Launcher, 1,2,4,6,8.
SPECIAL ATTACHMENTS: Dual tow cables, One Million KM max range.
MASS TOWAGE CAPACITY: Up to 15% of ship mass at 100% of Max Sub-SL acceleration factors.
MAXIMUM CAPTURE CAPACITY: 500% of targeted ship mass to 10% of Max Sub-SL acceleration factors.
MAXIMUM DRAW-TO-TARGET CAPACITY: One Million KM at no more than 2.3% Counter Thrust from target orientation, with vector positioning at no more than 5% deviation in any single arc in contrary orientation to prime vector heading. Auto break away is enabled by default, cannot be disabled without voiding warranty, and will occur if safe mass or acceleration limits are exceeded.
CARGO BEAM: Maximum registered power. Effective to 100,000 KM, to maximum of 2% of Ship Mass at matching acceleration to object being retrieved. Attempts to re-direct field or weapon power to increase cargo beam range or mass of objects retrieved will void warranty on all systems used in capture attempt and may cause catastrophic energy over-run in Main Power Generation Source.
ORGANIC CREW PERSONAL SPACE PROVIDED: 3% of Ship Maximum Capacity.
BAY NUMBERS: Two.
MAGAZINE AVAILABILITY: Yes. All magazine spaces are provided with additional Quad Protective Layering as part of the Standard Package. Downgrading to single layer available upon request. Specifics of Magazine location and layout provided upon selection of final Turret and Offensive Technology Mix package.
TOTAL SYNTHETIC STORAGE AND RE-CHARGE UNITS PROVIDED: Ten. Additional units are available, for an added cost to a maximum of forty. Higher unit numbers are not recommended for standard configuration offensive, organic-oriented offensive and defensive operations. Further, all additional Synthetic Storage units will decrease magazine capacity, armor, hull thickness, or power reserve system banks. Please be aware of these trade-offs before making your selection, as ALPHARAN INDUSTRIES assumes no liability for non-optimal, customer-selected configurations.
INDIVIDUAL SYNTHETIC CAPACITY: Varies according to design of synthetics used and power requirement for each individual, autonomous or remotely managed synthetic. Please see your Product Manual Attachment for complete details, and a listing of general types that may be safely stored and recharged.
ACCELERATION FACTOR TO SL: 234.44 Relative.
BEYOND SL CAPABLE: Yes.
BEYOND HL CAPABLE: Yes.
HL SOFT/HARD LIMIT: Yes.
MAXIMUM SL ACCELERATION FACTOR TO HL HARD LIMIT POTENTIAL: 923.99 Absolute.
SAFE FACTOR: 790 Absolute.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL REPAIR CAPACITY: Yes.
PICOIDIC MATERIAL BASED: Yes. System Full Response on damage percentage without additional resource input of two-by-two-by-two meter cube of damaged material at fifteen minutes. Supply of appropriate physical raw materials or composites by system is assumed by the following calculations. 80% hull average, 64% armor average, 50% Segregated Power Internal average, 32% Turret Surface average, 30% Turret Internal Power and Turret Control average, 27% Complex system. All values are base averages and do not include additional inputs, outputs, invader picotidic system mapping and counter mapping, or the use of exotic weapons systems that may interfere with normal repair operations.
LIFE SUSTAINMENT: Exposure to non-toxic gaseous mixes and corrosive additives must be limited to specified values.
GRAVITICS: Variable between no effect and 4Gs living. Long term, the gradual adjustment system is not included in the standard package, but is available for an additional cost.
GRAVITIC AND ACCELERATION DAMPENING AND COUNTER DAMPENING: Included.
CENTRAL RADIATION AND POWER GENERATOR MAIN VESSEL REPAIR CAPACITY ON EMERGENCY BREACK OR EROSION: No. (Vessel uses complex composites to achieve maximum potential radiation output in minimal space. Repair by picotidic material is not possible without chain fabrication technology. Attempts to repair critical systems outside of an ALPHARAN INDUSTRIES registered facility will immediately void all warranty guarantees and existing repair agreements.)
CENTRAL POWER VESSEL MAIN FEED LINE REPAIR: Sealant and Re-Route to 70% of max radiation flow.
FLASH POINT TRANSMISSION WITH NO LOSS: 97% of max power flow.
DRIVE TYPE: Contained Void (Four) with Overflow and Dissipation Capacity to allow point deceleration, relative positional maneuvering and speed adjustment within acceleration factor error variation bands.
HEAT DISPERSION SYSTEM: Physical Distributed Vane Type Four (System is proprietary to hull type. May not be substituted, replaced, or modified without special license from FIRST TRI-OPTIMUM/CINQUE-OPTI-TRIUN CORPORATION, AN ALPHARAN INDUSTRIES COMBINE.) Attempted or successful replacement of vanes with non-compatible designs risk the possibility of catastrophic incidents that threaten organic crew with serious injury, loss of bodily integrity, or death, critical ship system failures, power system overloads and other consequences up to and including destruction of ship hull. See product manual for further details. Vanes are independently powered and fully deployable during sustained combat operations at void and at no more than 1% of listed atmospheric density tolerance.
WARNING: This vessel is not cleared for atmospheric combat operations. Attempts to engage in combat maneuvering, discharge of weapons, and other mission critical activities within an atmosphere will result in critical malfunctions, up to and including total craft destruction. ALPHARAN INDUSTRIES will not honor warranty repairs to damage resulting from combat atmospheric maneuvering and will not be liable for failure of ship critical systems to meet ALPHARAN INDUSTRIES fabrication specifications.
Imperiled Glossary
ALL ACCESS WAY: Uses variable gravity and changing gravity to allow for 360-degree movement within space stations, habitats, moon and asteroid structures. This enables increased efficiency of interior space, as all parts of a station can be used by its inhabitants. The usual “lost space” of traditional ceilings, floors, and walls is eliminated. A properly configured space habitat allows for all way traffic, using all the available surfaces as travel points from different areas of the station, and all hatches conform to the shape of the corridors. In a six-sided corridor, beings can change between surfaces by simply drifting to the center, which is gravity free, reorienting themselves, and drifting into the appropriate “lane” or pathway/surface. Common areas are designed with shops and consoles positioned in the approximate spatial center of the chamber. Not all habitats use this design principle. Some, especially in wealthier and older systems, find it more convenient and more comfortable to adhere to traditional design principles. The loss of efficiency is an acceptable trade-off for a wealthier system or combine.
ALPHARAN INDUSTRIES: A conglomeration of space-faring builders varying in size from a company with a single assembly line creating small products to vast ship fabrication facilities that span star systems to companies that perform nebular mining or create turn-key planetary colonization or create Alpharan product lines or construct and maintain habitats.
ARMOR, Glide membranes: Created by the Shift Armor when needed. When unpowered, they can only assist in maneuvering and slow descent (by a small margin if descending from high to low atmosphere at significant speed). Powered armor sets come with their own set of deployable wings in varying configurations, but those wings won’t prevent damage on impact. Also, glide membranes can’t be used near magnetized areas (near a magnetic conveyer or powered plate system) as they will malfunction.
BION-CODES: The regenerative geometric combinations that, when combined with an individual’s DNA, are used as a unique identifier/data set that distinguishes that organic individual person of a sapient species (usually, a human or human hybrid individual). Different species have different types of codes and combinations.
CITIZEN: A recognized, properly registered, sapient individual (excluding group consciousness and split, shared, or combined personalities) of an Acknowledged Governing Constituent Authority (AGCA) is referred to as a Citizen, regardless of their planet, system, or habitat of origin. Such a being must meet all applicable requirements imposed by the AGCA that has authority over their place of residence, dwelling, or ship registration. In cases of multiple residencies, a Citizen will have the ability to choose which AGCA they will use as the basis of the right or privilege they are claiming. In some cases, the decision is entirely arbitrary. In others, the decision is dependent upon review by a judicial or administrative decision-making body. By contrast, those individual, sapient beings that do not reside in the Delimited Territorial Volume of an AGCA or otherwise claim to be under the rightful authority of an AGCA are known as an INDIP, a shortening and portmanteau of the full term used to describe them: Independently Administered Being that is Resident or claims Residency in an Unacknowledged Governing Authority or for which no Governing Authority is registered or can be found. In almost all cases, there is no distinction between a fully non-human being who qualifies as a Citizen of INDIP and a human, quasi-human, augmented human, base human hybrid, diversified hybrid, or minimum trait sapient.
COLLIMATED LIGHT BEAM FABRICATION: This produces a variety of crystalline substances that can be used to retain data, serve as structural components, or be used as clothing. These substances are not as resistant to damage as composites but are much stronger and more versatile than ordinary plastics, metals, most kinds of material derived from organic substances, and basic alloys. Their crystal lattices can retain data while being bent, re-formed, torn apart, and subjected to cold, heat, and pressure that would destroy ordinary electronics.
CORE GENERATOR: The heart of a ship. It provides power to all ship systems with independent reaction chambers that generate it. (Fuel is usually used for this purpose, but also used are: zero-point energy, and hydrogen capture.) This generated energy powers a ship’s life support systems and its flash point arrays and modulates the reaction that creates the radiation that drives the ship’s main propulsion units and fields. It also provides an initial power surge that is necessary to activate weapons systems. However, when the systems are so activated, they often provide their own power through rechargeable, internally located, specialized and isolated systems.
DATA BEAM IMPRINTING: This is the normal procedure by which data is transferred over extremely short ranges (planetary scale and below). Data beams require no connecting cables or other devices to channel them and can use standard flash point arrays as bounce points. They require no special facilities or quantum resonators to operate. The beams operate in a variety of ways. Some are light based, and in these cases, data transmission is limited to the speed of light. In others, electromagnetic fields, graviton fluctuation devices, and molecular realignment methods (known as “slip transfer conduits”) are used and allow instantaneous local transmission of data. Although, like intergalactic quantum flux transfer tech, the higher power requirements these technologies impose limit their use to planetary and local systems.
DEATH CLOUDS:A method of countering drop ship assaults by using drones. A drone swarm targets an area of a planetary atmosphere through which a formation of armored drop troopers or drop ships are passing. Upon reaching optimal range, the drones detonate, releasing a deadly cloud of extremely fast-moving filaments or other solid objects that can overheat fields, weaken and pierce armor, and kill the life-form the armor protects. Such clouds can be intensely focused into areas of a few cubic kilometers or spread more widely. The lighter the spread, the greater the chance that significant portions of the attacking force will survive the bombardment and reach their targets with intact offensive capability. Such clouds are not effective against most heavy assaults, and the use of more substantial, or more exotic, weapons. In these circumstances, the projectiles the clouds use are simply not capable of inflicting damage severe enough to destroy or halt the targeted objects.
DECOHERENCE DEVICES AND FIELDS: These devices (through picoidic tech) attack the molecular and sub-molecular structure of physical objects to destroy, weaken, or change their basic composition and function. For example, an atmosphere could be changed from harmless to deadly poison or could be solidified by freezing. An innocuous transport could become a deadly killing machine, or a battle synthetic could transform into something entirely different, or an inorganic substance could be transformed into living flesh. This process usually kills the life-form. As it relies on picoidic tech, these devices can also be defended against. More recent experiments have focused on using fields of energy or on using simple molecules that do not contain picoids.
DESIGN, STRUCTURAL: Spin Scales or Ferris Constructs are circular, spherical, and geometric ring-shaped structures that rotate around a central axis. They can move up and down, relatively closer to and farther away from the spin axis or point and can also tilt their relative axis of rotation and periodicity. This allows for variations in gravity within the structures. But there can be other, more aesthetic reasons. Some spin slowly so certain areas are permanently exposed to sunlight/darkness. Sometimes the reason is to vary the length of day, night, altitude, temperature and humidity of different points, sides, and levels.
These structures are used in residential applications but are especially popular when employed as on-planet fabrication centers. The variable gravity they allow greatly aids the process of material transfer and adjustment necessary to produce all but the most basic goods and products. When such structures are positioned in a low or high orbit, or outside of the primary influence of an ordinary gravitationally active object, they are referred to as “Loose wheels, Spinners, or Free-Zones.”
DREAM TECHNOLOGY OF THE FORGIVING: A type of telepathic communication developed by the Forgiving that requires entering a dream-like state. Only those who can successfully control this state can control others. Mastery of the dream state allows more direct control but also makes future attempts at control harder. In the dream state, the target mind becomes more resistant to attempts of control that use violence. Chemical imbalances are also used to actuate and facilitate the desired attitudes, thoughts, and emotions that must occur before the operator can establish an acceptable degree of control over the targeted mind.
This dream-like state often has a negative effect on the controlling mind as well. If the operation is performed too frequently, the controlling mind will have trouble distinguishing itself from the minds it has controlled. It can manifest signs of split personality and might lose its own sense of individuality and identity, essentially becoming one with the remnant fragments of the minds it has controlled. In most cases, the controlling being dies very shortly after the mind-shatter.
FIELDS: Fields don’t fail, they overheat or reach a point at which they can’t contain the amount of heat being directed at them. This heat may come from solid projectiles, plasma heat sources, explosions, and other impacts. When this happens, the field shuts off. A field can be set to ignore safety parameters, but this is almost never done. When a field exceeds the maximum power allocation of the power source that powers it, it causes an overload, which leads to the destruction of the power source. On a ship, this is the Core generator system.
FLASH POINTS: Power transmission.
GEL, HEAL: Heal gel is a mixture of antibodies and temporarily imprinted replacement tissue. It detects and monitors wounds and can replace blood vessels, blood, skin, and certain major organs. In organ replacement, the organ it creates will fail and dissolve after a week. More permanent organs must already be available or be grown from base organic essence within that period. Heal gel can increase the basic tissue regeneration factor. It can purge the body of many types of infections and can also act as a pain killer, stimulant or depressant, and blood pressure regulator. Also, it can harden and be formed into casts that protect limbs and aid the healing process of the affected body part. Heal gel is not a substitute for cryo suspension and more advanced medical technology.
GEL, REACTION: Reaction gel can be used as a weapon or as a device. It can melt rock or minerals that prevent access to deposits of useful ores. It can shape planetary terrain to prepare it for habitat or other construction. It can adjust structures once they’ve been built to correct design flaws or to improve the general design. It can dispose of waste. The gel reacts immediately on contact with any substance, generating heat so intense that the substance melts, disintegrates, or can be disassembled into its constituent elements.
When used in combat, reaction gel is useless against fields. Fields can easily deflect it, as they can any solid substance that doesn’t exceed their mass limit. It is exceptionally deadly against armor, except for certain types of specialized power armor that have been designed to dissipate the heat that reaction gel generates and dispel the substance through use of offensive nanitic tech. Also notorious for being dangerous and unreliable, it is very difficult to store safely and tends to start a reaction inside its storage container, potentially injuring or killing the being that intended to use it.
GRAVITIC DISTORTIONS: These are the ionic disturbances, electromagnetic interactions, and the acceleration-induced agitation of the strong and weak nuclear forces, and the more subtle interplay of quantum interaction that only becomes relevant at superluminal speeds. Every void-traveling race must learn to respect these forces, and they must possess the mental discipline required to survive superluminal speeds with their sanity and their previous perspective still intact. Races that do not possess these qualities are seldom remembered because they are long since extinct.
MAGNETIC FLEXION TECH: This tech uses a series of directionally magnetized fields that are maintained by small, distributed generators fed from already existing flash point power delivery systems. With the addition of a small device that is attached directly to the physical substance that wants or needs to be moved, it can improve short and medium range local transfer speeds.
MAGNETIC TUBE WAYS:These tube ways can be circular and can twist or turn in any direction. They can also be hexagonal, octagonal or square shaped. The surface of the tube’s interior and its exterior is used by magnetic vehicles which can freely maneuver across the surface. Feeder tubes lead into them and can also connect from magnetic vehicle parking and storage areas. In these areas, the vehicle is re-positioned in a magnetic locking chamber, which attaches it to the exterior or interior tube surface.
Other methods of vehicle placement include robotic arms that pick up vehicles and move them from one surface to another.
MATERIALS, COMPOSITE: A range of materials that are produced using feedstocks that have been created from chemical formulas of basic elemental combinations. The feedstocks have been created under conditions of extreme heat, cold, pressure, or vacuum. Once created, these feedstocks are referred to as prime material, bases, or constructs. These are often given “elemental” names, but they are not elements in the traditional sense.
The creation of the feedstock is the first step in the process of creating a composite material. The next stage involves the combination of materials or the creation of additional materials. These are added to the feedstock until the desired end state is reached. Once this occurs, the material is Final Fabrication Ready. It can then be used in whatever application it has been designed to perform.
Some composites are highly advanced and retain properties of liquids, solids, and gases, either at the same time or shifting from one state to another. Examples of this are: modulated picotidic shielding, Liquid-Solid armor, and personal shift armor and suits.
Composites are stronger, more resistant, more malleable, more ductile, more flexible, more dispersive, and more heat/cold resistant than compounds or alloys that are made from natural elements. They are analogous to plastics, but function like advanced metals. They are the most common class of substances used in galactic materials fabrication and construction. They are used as component substances in the manufacture of nanites, parts for advanced types of machinery, in- and out-system ships, and extra-planetary habitats.
MATERIALS, SHAPING, ALIEN: This type of material uses an inherent energy field that it generates. It can act as a power conduit capable of conveying immense volumes of electricity and other types of energy that are far more than that which can be transmitted by ordinary flash point array tech. The stuff itself is made of exotic materials. Its energy potential also limits it. Unlike most shaping material, this remains in a liquid state. Thus, to transmit power, it must either run in a conduit or within a formed energy field that it creates. The substance must be held in huge liquid reservoirs until its use is required. As a part of its basic design, it has an inherent potential to generate energy that cannot be limited or dissipated by any known means. To use it, it must be activated by an appropriate control mechanism. Once activated, the substance can form its own field, allowing it to flow to the given object or location that requires power.
The substance is also used to manufacture semi-autonomous bots. So long as these bots are connected to the main reservoir through the appropriate field connections, they have an unlimited source of power and there is no necessity to link to a remote flash point net or an onboard power generation or storage and recharge device. If the current is severed, the synthetic will cease to function. However, to re-enable it, the power flow need only be resumed. (As the synthetics themselves lack any power reception or storage capacity, there is no possibility of this degrading with time or use or of being damaged from malfunctions.)
MOLECULAR DISSEMBLERS:These are devices that target a particular region or volume of material, and, by means of electrical, electromagnetic, chemical, or invader (picotidic) nanite insertion, these devices can alter its basic composition at the molecular, atomic, sub atomic, and quantum flux levels. At its most basic, these devices cause the targeted material to become more brittle and less resistant to heat, pressure, impacts, radiation, and other forms of stress. At the most advanced, the material may be altered so that the alteration triggers catastrophic changes, either completely transforming parts of the targeted substance volume or triggering fission or fusion based atomic reactions. This essentially converts the substance, no matter its basic constituent atoms, into a propagating chain of nuclear explosive devices that have the potential to severely damage or destroy the surrounding area as well as the thing the substance was protecting or shielding.
These devices are even rarer than they are destructive. Immense power reserves are required to trigger them, and the recharge factor generally makes them of limited use in prolonged battles. In addition, the alteration process takes time, and may be halted or reversed by countermeasures, among these are picotidic technologies that are programmed to re-adjust the volume of substance that is being attacked, thus allowing that substance to retain its original composition.
MUNITIONS, BLADE, SPHERE, SPIN, SPIKE PROJECTILES: These projectiles use shapes that differ from conventional bolt-type ammo. A “Blade” is a long, thin, pointed projectile to which the firing mechanism imparts a rotational spin as it leaves the firing chamber. This aids the projectile in penetrating physical substances, greatly increasing its damage potential. However, its effectiveness against fields and certain types of Nanite armor is decreased as the projectile itself is usually less massive than more conventional projectiles.
Spheres are round projectiles whose interior is divided into layers. As this projectile type impacts the target, the layers detonate, one after the other, until the final stage (which usually contains a miniature missile or similar device) blows and the mini- missile is released against the now weakened protective substance that it was directed against.
Spinners resemble gyroscopes but with more complexity. These projectile types have any number of individually spinning, curved rings set around a detonation, cryo- snap, or shatter-capable core. Once the projectile hits the target, the multiple layers strike it and inflict multiple layers of damage. It slices away the physical substance it contacts before the final inner charge device is triggered. These projectiles aren’t especially useful against fields and their penetration capability against power armor is only average, but they are deadly when used against any kind of nanite substance.
Spike projectiles are asymmetrically shaped solids that are covered by miniscule cutting surfaces. Their purpose is to directly attack nanite armor and systems so abruptly and comprehensively that, if enough projectiles are employed, the base substance of the nanite (picodic) is damaged so thoroughly that it loses internal power and repair capacity and ceases to function.
These projectiles can come in any variety and are used by every conceivable type of weapon, from the smallest pistol to the largest heavy vessel and ground-mounted mass planetary bombardment and crust crusher cannons, to even larger area void and transit route combat interdiction devices.
MUNITIONS, BOUNCE ROUNDS: A projectile that is fired at an angle. Depending on a target’s distance and relative location, once it reaches the apex of a triangular cross-section that separates the weapon from the target, the individual projectile initiates its second stage. This stage causes the projectile’s warhead to fire down against the target below, using the final angle of the triangle that separates the target from the weapon that has fired it. Usually, these projectiles are only available to specialized military units because their dangers render them unfit for use by most civilian populations.
MUNITIONS, NEEDLES: These are very long, extremely thin (to a molecular scale) projectiles made of hundreds or thousands of discrete sections. When the projectile strikes its target, these sections separate and trigger until the “end block” in the chain is finally reached. Often, these are used to punch through heavy armor, including power armor, or to create cracks and small gouges that can then be exploited by more powerful ammo types such as blades, spinners, conventional bolts, poison and composite rot injectors, and nanite invader carriers. Generally, needles are completely useless against fields. They are mostly used by experienced assassins whose services have been hired to eliminate poorly protected or civilian targets and by experienced combat specialists (both organic and synthetic) who have extensive experience in the use of many types of weapons and their various projectiles.
MUNITIONS, SHADOW ROUNDS: Rounds of ammunition that are coated with an ablative material that decreases the amount of heat they admit and their kinetic energy. They also act as a sound cancelling and refracting material. The resulting projectiles are much harder to detect than ordinary bolts but they aren’t as powerful. They are used to assassinate weakly protected targets, not in full scale conflicts or other military contexts.
NANITE SHIELD OF SPACECRAFT: Nanite shields are replenished from shield replenishment holding areas. Concentrated fire against part of the shield allows breakthroughs, which can be exploited by armed assault groups. A common tactic is to contaminate the nanite “soup” with invader nanites that will propagate and break down the shield material. This is rarely done, as nanites are programmed to resist such attempts, and the input nanites are usually destroyed and consumed before they can propagate sufficiently to threaten the entire shield.
NANITE SHIELD FOR PLANETS: The same basic tech used in shift armor but used on a planetary scale. The shield will deflect and redistribute the kinetic energy of impacting bodies, just as it does in the case of personal or vehicular armor and dissipate the heat of impact by transforming it into radiation and dispersing it. More sophisticated types can be made transparent or translucent to allow light to penetrate. Less sophisticated but stronger types are opaque, rendering its long-term use in photosynthesis- dependent biospheres problematic.
NANITE SHIELD PIERCING TACTICS: A continuous bombardment against a fixed point on the shield is designed to heat the material in one place and inflict more damage than can be handled by auto repair or undamaged material transfer from unaffected portions of the shield. If the assault is properly coordinated, this allows weapons systems to be used to penetrate the shield at that point of damage. The time window is often tiny because self-repair systems will immediately start repairing the damage and material flow from undamaged areas will prevent further penetration of the shield until the tactic is repeated.
NANITE SHIELD DEFENSE TACTICS: This requires coordination with ground based and out planetary sensor nets. Since planet- or satellite-based weapons cannot fire up through the shield, the shield must be “thinned” in a particular point to allow this. This makes that particular point vulnerable to enemy attack. This danger is minimized by lowering the shield for a moment, then raising it, then dropping it in another randomly determined location. This tactic allows centrally controlled ground fire to continue, using a different location while maintaining targeting against a particular enemy vessel or other object. If the strategy works, it allows maximum destructive force or energy to be concentrated, while minimizing the exposure of vulnerable ground installations.
THE PERFECTION:A device that can end life and then establish the conditions that create life. The civilization that created The Perfection intended to use it to destroy others, but instead it destroyed them and established the conditions for the creation and evolution of future life. The existence of such a device threatens the existence of humanity.
PERSONALITY TRANSFER: There is a telepathic component, but that isn’t the only element. This tech uses nanites and allows a properly trained and enhanced individual to conduct an “on the spot” personality transfer. Prior to this, personality transfers must be done on top of a blank brain using a clone that has been cryo frozen and developmentally inhibited.
“On the spot” transfer will impress certain thoughts or emotions on the mind that is being targeted. All but the most well developed and enhanced transference technicians must use already existing emotions, exploiting them and using them to bend the targeted mind. The result is that individual will do things they wouldn’t otherwise be capable of. Side effects of the “on the spot” transfer involve forgetfulness as the intruding mind supplants those thoughts and emotions with its own to control the targeted mind. This control is limited. After weeks or months of no contact, the implanted ideas and the emotions that underpin them may fade, leading to a series of side effects in the targeted mind: confusion, extreme depression, and extreme memory loss.
The process is dangerous. If the transference tech is not in control, and the targeted mind may overwhelm the intruding mind. This can cause severe mental damage, personality and memory loss, and death. External symptoms of this will resemble strokes, bleeding in the brain, cessation of brain electric activity, total loss of conscious ability to reason or think, loss of emotional capacity, and loss of the ability to form coherent thoughts.
Additional requirements: Multiple sessions are usually required before a sufficient level of emotional manipulation and compulsion to undertake the desired action is implanted. This usually requires proximity to the target; it cannot be done via messages or other means. The exception to this occurs after firm control has been established. In those cases, longer distance control is possible, using a carefully developed system of sounds and images that are designed to trigger the desired thoughts or emotions. This can be a remote process that does not involve direct control of the targeted mind by the transfer tech. Or it can involve direct control of the mind. If it does, the bending ability will be much cruder, and the range of actions that can be implanted will be more limited than is allowed by direct contact.
PICOTIDIC MATERIALS: The next level of engineering smaller than nano. Engineers and designers who work at this level are called atomists or atomic engineers. Those who develop on even smaller levels are called quant engineers or sub-atomic engineers, or simply quantifiers.
QUANTUM VIBRATION COMMUNICATIONS: This allows galactic communications. Hypothetically and theoretically, instantaneous communication is possible. Vibration in quantum strings is induced by electro-magnetic power input flow. It is mediated through nearly instantaneous propagation into radioactive elements whose transformation, in turn, alters the basic structure of quantum wave forms and causes them to vibrate at different frequencies and resonances. This allows data to be transmitted that is then resolved into the appropriate output forms by local receiving stations and sub-solar transmission arrays. However, such instantaneous communication would require a disproportionately huge amount of power that increases logarithmically. So, vibration is used mainly with short range communications.
Data transmission on an intra-galactic scale takes time because slower vibration transmits data at a slower rate, and time is required before the message is fully resolved, de-crypted, re-crypted, transferred to the receiving solar system’s sub-space transmission arrays, and finally delivered to the intended recipient. This means that days, weeks, or even months may pass before a message sent from one location reaches the distant Edge.
REGENERATIVE POWER FUEL: Physical fuel can be recycled through an on-board, picotidic system. Once the fuel is rendered into waste product, that product can be re-processed into new fuel, which in turn is redirected to the relevant power core or other power producing device. By design, only part of the core’s power is directed towards the ship or other applications, the remainder is channeled into the reprocessing system. Repetition of the process is limited. After about ten or fifteen full cycles (depending upon the nature of the fuel and the power core’s design), the recycling system’s product will start to lose energetic potential at an exponentially increasing rate. At that time, the fuel will no longer be usable and must be jettisoned, or stored until the ship reaches a facility capable of more comprehensive reprocessing and reuse.
SCRAMMING ENTANGLERS: This is a common jamming method. The idea is to confuse the signal return by initiating many times the usual number of variations in the below quantic states of the transmission medium. When the signal is received, the true signal/state cannot be distinguished from the quadrillions of false states generated by the jamming method. However, the intensity of this method means it only works for a limited period, unless the jamming initiator has access to an ultra-power source with full, continuous flow recharge capacity (such as can be mounted on larger ships/warships). Otherwise, the jamming will only last for a set period, varying with the relative power of the device, the quantity of messages that must be jammed, and the area which is covered by the device. On a system scale, the maximum time to burnout is a few days, and often less.
SHIP DESIGN, COIL: Coil Ships are designed to split into parts, penetrate an enemy’s field and latch around the movable turrets that make up the target ship’s offensive armament. The turrets are prevented from moving as well as from targeting either the coil ship or other attacking forces. Coil ships can also cut into a ship’s hull. They often carry troops and bots used in boarding actions and capture missions.
The shape of a coil ship can be basic: a simple circular or oval configuration with one or several loops. Or they can be complex with confetti like twists and curves or bizarre, multi-angled constructions that resemble strange, alien architecture. The more elaborate types have tens, or hundreds, of differently configured sections. Each of these individual sections can separate from the main ship and attach to an enemy vessel. Each can accomplish its objectives outside the control of the other ship sections. Ideally, a coil ship will separate into parts before an attack. During the attack, it will either try to reform and create a complete lock or fully disable the targeted vessel’s offensive armament. If this does not occur, the coil ship will attempt to recover whatever intact portions of itself that remain and recombine, stage another attack, or flee.
SHIP DESIGN, CORE OR LINKED SHIPS: These ships are designed to attach to a large propulsion or power core by the dozens or by the hundreds. The central core is superluminal-capable, and the core ship can move between inhabited systems. When the linked ships reach an inhabited system, they detach and use either residual acceleration or their own limited drives to decelerate and maneuver to their destination. This tech is used by very large, multi-division combines which transport bulk goods between systems, mainly raw materials. Such tech is also used by large system defense forces to deposit ships outside of a zone they will attack. Once the battle is concluded, the core ship moves in and retrieves the ships. This is risky. If the ships are defeated, the core will not be able to recover them, and the core itself runs the risk of being attacked and destroyed.
SHIP DESIGN, SPINNERS: These ships are configured like a saucer. They have a concentric ring design—smaller ships have three or four rings; larger ships can have as many as thirty.
The advantage such a configuration offers is that it allows for heavier, fixed weapons emplacements. With the rotation of the inner sections, many of the rings (each holding individually mounted weapons) can direct heavy, continuous fire against many faster and more maneuverable targets. At the same time, the ship can maintain full defensive integrity and prevent one part of the ship being vulnerable to enemy fire when most or all of its weapons-bearing turrets are oriented in another axis. But the central sections are also vulnerable, as the ships must maintain a fully powered central section to properly operate. Also, their fixed weapon mount positions and the inherent limitations of the saucer design prevent a single ship from bringing more than one quarter of its total combat potential to bear against a single target. This increases the vulnerability of these designs in single or low number multiple ship engagements against equally armed (or more heavily armed and capable) opponents.
SHIP MECHANICS, PROPULSION: Many different types of radiation are used and there are a variety of methods used to generate it. In electromagnetic or (EM) drive, a ship can generate enough power through use of its onboard generators and reactors to propel the ship, to accelerate and decelerate it, and to maneuver within ordinary constraints. However, when acceleration must be greatly increased, an additional source of power is necessary, as on-board sources are not sufficient to push a ship to superluminal.
The super luminal bubble is produced by a dedicated system that, ordinarily, does not draw on the ship’s power source. Creation of the bubble not only requires additional energy, but the energetic particles (combined into a highly dangerous set of substances called the mix) that generate the necessary radiation are volatile and unstable. The mix must continuously generate the necessary radiation. Without it, the ship will immediately lose acceleration and drop below superluminal, although it will continue to move forward.
The volatile components that constitute the mix are toxic and corrosive to both organic and synthetic entities and components. The mix may only take place in an area that has been shielded with an exotic matter alloy capable of withstanding toxicity and corrosiveness. If the mix is unbalanced, it may become too energetic, generate excess radiation or generate less than necessary radiation, or experience unexpected transformations that will change the type of radiation being generated. Also, if the mix becomes unstable, it endangers the integrity of the containment area. If the imbalance is not corrected, the mix may eat away the containment shielding more quickly than it can be repaired by automatic systems. The ship is endangered if the mix penetrates through the shielded area and spreads into the rest of the ship. In extreme cases, a mix containment breach has resulted in the destruction of the affected ship within minutes.
SMEE: The standard monetary exchange equivalent is the accepted currency used throughout the Concordium by many Independent Affiliations and by System- Controlling Combines. The SMEE, and the currency systems that underlie it, share a common element. All are divided into base units and a series of fractional units, to the power of ten. Usually, only prime units are used for ordinary purchase and exchange. Fractal units are used in cross system financial and futures trading, and they underlie currency exchange rate trading. The currency system is supported by a system of commodity trading. The SMEE is designed as an interchangeable unit. It can purchase any one of a pre-specified list of commodities and is never limited to a single commodity type or futures contract linked to it. Though strictly speaking, the SMEE is only used by the Concordium (the use being encouraged, though not required, by the Foundation Agreement), many Independent Affiliations have found it advantageous to adopt a version of it as well.
SPHERICAL FIGHTING UNITS:These are used for ground and sub-crustal warfare. They have equidistantly positioned legs that allow them to maneuver 360 degrees in all directions. Different models have different numbers of legs and different configurations. Each type has a variety of mounted weapons, and often carry more powerful weapons than conventionally armed power armor wearing troopers.
The legs of some types can retract, allowing them to convert into a ball that can traverse terrain at tremendous speed. More advanced models will automatically switch to the ball configuration when they are in travel mode, deploying limbs to maneuver around obstacles when necessary. They can use their limbs when more complex maneuvers are necessary--attacking, making a breakthrough, protecting a fixed position or a defensive line, or pursuing an enemy. Each separate tactic and situation require different leg configurations and the use of different types of weapons.
STRATO AND MESO TOWERS: Some have internal elevators that allow direct access to the thermosphere and docked space craft. As a result of this, all must be equipped with pressure equalization equipment.
SUPERLUMINAL SPEED: Superluminal speed or faster-than-light speed is modulated by a variety of methods and propulsion power sources. The most common involves a central generator that is powered by an energy producing reaction. The generator distributes power to a secondary containment chamber that consumes a ship’s secondary fuel to produce an exotic matter reaction. That in turn produces the necessary quantities of radiation required to accelerate the ship until it reaches the desired peak speed. In addition, a conveyer is used to assist the ship’s transition from subluminal speed to superluminal speed by generating a protective bubble that allows the ship to transition while minimizing the harmful effects upon it or its surroundings. All ship acceleration to superluminal, as well as deceleration from superluminal, must take place at the sparsely inhabited edges of systems. It cannot take place near a planet or other inhabited area.
To protect their system from attack, many systems have seeded open space around them with bubble dissipation mines. These mines maintain their own bubbles, which allow them to interact with an approaching ship’s bubble and to destroy the ship if necessary. This, in addition to the requirement that a traveling craft not experience harmful disruptions caused by electromagnetic force or gravity distortions, has necessitated the establishment and maintenance of rift transit routes. All legitimate extra-system craft use these rift routes. Official rift routes are those listed and maintained by the Concordium Route Office. Unofficial or illegal rift routes are those that are developed by smugglers and raiders.
In cases of long journeys, highly advanced computer programs predict the likely flow of future traffic, and set course, acceleration curves, and destinations accordingly. In certain cases, a ship may have to limit the height of its acceleration curve to allow for unexpectedly high arrivals and departures from the desired system ingress point. This could mean that journeys take more time. The existence of many transit points in each system minimizes the potential for catastrophic incidents and simplifies the process of managing incoming and outgoing traffic flow.
This process is facilitated and streamlined by the monitoring systems that sit on each discrete transit route. These are responsible for monitoring these routes, issuing alerts if superluminal mass flow through a given region becomes excessive, or if other complicating factors such as gravitational and magnetic disturbances, ion storms, dimensional fluxes, exotic or null matter intrusion, and similar universal hazards make travel through a particular section of a transit route dangerous or difficult. In extreme cases, the transit route will be closed to all outgoing and incoming traffic. Any vessels enroute will normally be allowed, as regular communication with superluminal vessels is not possible. If this occurs, no vessel or remotely directed pod may use that transit route until the danger is resolved or the route is redirected.
TROOPERS,BORE: These are used to attack underground facilities and operate beneath the surface of planets. Some are drill-like, some are segmented, some are in a rope or snake-like configuration, and others are modified battle-spheres with installed fusion cutters. The vehicles that carry them are equipped with pressure sealed hulls, high resistance to high heat and gravity environments, advanced heat dissipation, energy harvesting, reuse and generation systems. They can travel through many miles of minerals, rocks.
TROOPERS,BUZZ: These use a flight system design based on insect flight patterns.
TROOPERS,CHROMA: Individuals or mechanized units that use light-based weapons, defensive systems, armor, and devices to the exclusion of all others. For offensive use: lasers, lazes, and amplified or focused beams. Defensive: self-repairing, refractive and light-absorbing crystalline-based armor that uses light fabrication tech, rather than nanites, as a self-repair system. This is more fragile than shift or power armor. Fractured and damaged material must be repaired, it cannot shift mass from undamaged areas to damaged ones to mitigate future damage to that area.
Light based power sources, in which ambient light is collected and filtered to generate energy, are preferred, but more ordinary electromagnetic sources can also be used if the Chroma troopers are fighting in low- or no-light conditions.
The armor can be set to absorb light, thus giving it a capability similar to concealment suits. The camouflage ability is integral to crystalline armor. The armor can also be set to reflect or refract light, creating an intense energy and heat source designed to confuse and blind sensors, as well as natural and enhanced eyesight.
TROOPERS,COLD AND LAVA: These use cryo and plasma-based weaponry with highly advanced cooling and heat-dissipation systems, and heat collection and retention systems.
TROOPERS,COMPOSITE: These rely on hard protection: metallic composite, layered armor, interspersed with ceramics, instant transform liquid-solid, and active projectile interception systems combined with sensor jammers, rather than Chroma or nanitic tech combined with a layer of fields. May have some nanitic protective systems but use the bare minimum necessary to function and don’t rely on them. They tend to use hard projectiles, often complex, smart EMG throwers, whose projectiles can be configured for many trajectories, enemy types, and ranges. Troopers of this specialization are almost always known as archaic. It’s a reputation they embrace with pride.
TROOPERS,HEAVY: This type deploys and uses heavy weapons in conjunction with power armor, battle spheres, and other mechanized means of transport/defense/attack devices and vehicles. They are frequently equipped with adjustable yield, short-range to mid-range hyper velocity solid projectile weapons. These are called punchers or blasters, and their function is to weaken and demolish defensive structures, punch through defensive lines, and destroy heavy vehicles.
TROOPERS,INFILTRATION: This type uses a variety of concealment methods to evade all types of sensors, monitors, and detection systems. They are usually, but not always, lightly armed.
TROOPERS,JUMP: These use suits equipped to amplify their physical attributes. With the suits, they can run incredibly fast, jump vast distances, climb vertical, horizontal, and tilted surfaces, and lift huge weights. These suits are specially designed and offer a great advantage over ordinary shift armor, and most types of power armor.
TROOPERS,LIGHT: These are equipped with the bare minimum and are used in scouting and reconnaissance, especially in urban environments, or on underdeveloped worlds where settlements are separated by large areas of wilderness or agricultural land.
TROOPERS,POWER: This speciality uses power armor.
TROOPERS,SHIFT: Basic infantry who are equipped with shift armor, neuro targeting and focus systems, basic sensory enhancements, silent message transmit capability, and broad-spectrum weapons.
TROOPERS,TECH: This type of trooper uses nanitic systems and other devices that can cause malfunctions in enemy equipment and systems. They are hackers. The most experienced and best equipped can take control of enemy defenses, including armor suits, and use them for their own purposes.
WEAPONS,COIL GUNS: These devices use projectiles of varying shapes. The most common are circular, but also triangles, hexagons, and jagged and irregular shapes are available. By using ammunition that consists of a framed shape that surrounds an empty center, the impact exerts a shearing or cutting force instead of the blunt force produced by common solid types—either straight or curved flying.
The weapon is called a coil gun because the ammunition tumbles as it fires, creating a pattern that, when viewed in slow motion, resembles an ever-extending coil until the round strikes its target. Most coil guns are large, military devices, as the forces involved are more effective when used on a larger scale. However, hand weapon variants do exist, and civilian applications have been developed. These are used by smaller security operations.
WEAPONS, COOROSTIN GAS: Developed to destroy shift armor and other nanitic tech by eating through the nanite infused materials before they can self-repair. Most common weaponized gas types can be deployed in different forms and concentrations: heavier or lighter than air, dispersive, longer or faster dissipating. There are also types designed for use in artificial gravity, low gravity, and zero G conditions.
WEAPONS,FILAMENT TORPEDOES: These are used to capture ships and also to rescue those ships too far away to be affected by cargo beams and magnetic attraction. There are various designs. Some have adhesive material that, when deployed, attaches to the ship’s hull. Then the ship is reeled in by a trailing filament. Also, filament torpedoes are used in combat to penetrate smaller craft and either sweep them away or hold them in place so they can be targeted with other weapons. They are used to penetrate hulls and thus facilitate boarding operations. A common tactic is for a filament to pierce the relatively weak field of a fighter, attach to it, and then engage in maneuvers that will cause the fighter to collide with a larger vessel and be destroyed.
WEAPONS,HAIL GUNS: These weapons, unlike conventional electromagnetic bolt throwers, use solid or magnetically constrained projectiles that come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes: round and oval projectiles, cubes, trapezoids, double and triple spheres, double helix, and triangular shapes. In most instances, individual rounds are hollow and will explode, implode, or shatter on impact. They are used for penetrating impact absorbent or flexible armor that requires the application of large amounts of explosives, corrosive gel, or freeze gel and for which the use of other, more common weapons is less effective. The larger variants of the hail guns are used in a ground defense artillery configuration but are also mounted on exo-planetary ships.
WEAPONS,LARGE GUNS: Weight is from 10 to 50 tons. These can be used by hard-suited troopers and mounted on various vehicles and bots of various kinds. They can also be used in small defensive turrets. The gun is constructed of an extremely dense material which allows a slug or bolt to be accelerated to a significant fraction of superluminal speed. The resulting strike can vary from the force of a mid-size nuclear weapon down to the equivalent of several thousand tons of conventional explosive. Recoil is partially dealt with by a plasma-operated blowback system where it is partially absorbed by the hard suit material that shields the operator. On some models, this plasma blowback is retained and stored in a separate chamber, allowing the ignited and constrained plasma to be used as a secondary weapon.
WEAPONS, PARTICLE SPLITTERS, ENTANGLERS, MESHERS, JUGGLERS, MASHERS, RE-ARRANGERS, RECOMBINERS: A variety of devices, all capable of producing an extremely large, extremely destructive release of energy, accompanied by radiation and other effects. These other effects are often called leak through and involve localized, short-, medium-, or long-term destabilization and variance that affects mass, gravity, electromagnetism, magnetic fields, weak and strong nuclear forces, and Brownian motion. In extreme cases, matter may transition to an energy state, and back again, in unpredictable patterns. Tech exists that allows cleanup of areas exposed to these effects if the area of disruption is not particularly severe or if it is not likely to expand. On less developed worlds and spatial regions, the exposed volume is often abandoned.
There are rumors of more deadly developments: the creation of point singularities, of matter compression or expansion that rivals that of the most massive stellar objects, and of time flickering. However, these rumors remain just that and, as far as the civilized galaxy knows, remain firmly fixed in the realm of science fiction rather than observed fact.
WEAPONS, PLANE: These weapons form a plane of deadly energy or of matter. The ones of matter are capable of slashing through many surfaces. In addition, the angles, shape, and configuration of the plane can often be altered, both in and out of combat, by using the picotidic substances from which they are often formed. Energy planes, by contrast, are designed to disintegrate matter. Unless they have a very powerful, portable power source, they are extremely vulnerable to unanticipated malfunctions and overloads that can both destroy the device and seriously injure or kill the operator. For this reason, energy planes are seldom used by regular military forces or experienced groups. They are used by gangs, poorly organized security contractors, lightly armed planetary defense forces, and poorly equipped raiders. However, the weapons do offer a reliable way of engaging in close combat and are occasionally used as a fallback weapon by individual units if discreet energy cells and physical projectiles are exhausted. In some cases, the stuff of shift armor may be formed into basic versions of these weapons, but the resulting improvisations are significantly less powerful than purpose-designed planes and are less capable of penetrating armored or fielded enemies, or of aiding an attack on a fortified location.
WEAPONS,SMART GUNS: These are keyed to a particular biological or synthetic form. These weapons offer advantages, but also disadvantages. A skilled tangler can hack into the gun’s interface, prevent it from firing, cause its power source to overload, explode grenades or other vulnerable materials in it (if it is a projectile based weapon), and cancel its vision enhancement integration protocols. Most personal weapons are smart.
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