Black Swarm

by Ivan Kal

  It only served to illustrate to Uvo just how far behind the Garaf were. It was to be expected; Garaf territory was at the far rim, just at the edge of their galaxy, and they had less resources than the core nations. They were in fact much younger, as well. But while the news was interesting, it didn’t really concern the Garaf much. From what Uvo gathered, a few races wanted to create a galaxy-wide alliance against some kind of a threat—almost certainly this AI—but the attack had served as a cruel indicator of just how inferior most of the other races were compared to the core and their enemies.

  Only a few races had agreed to an alliance, however, and the Garaf were not among them.

  As was expected. Their territory was far away, and therefore the threat was too far away to be taken seriously. Uvo knew that the Garaf rulers would not wish to risk their strength, especially not when none of their neighbors had decided to join this alliance. Weakening themselves while the others kept their strength intact was folly.

  Uvo’s reading was interrupted by an alert, as the stations sensors detected a disturbance inside the star.

  Uvo turned to the sensor operator.

  “What is it?” Uvo asked, disinterested. Things like this happened occasionally; solar activity did interact with the object’s shields from time to time, making them flare up, which their sensors registered as anomalies.

  “I am not certain, Sub-commander,” the operator said slowly, making Uvo frown.

  “Do a full sweep,” Uvo said. It was an overreaction, he knew—nothing had ever been detected from the object—but reading the news had put Uvo in a slightly more paranoid mood.

  “Doing a full sensor sweep now,” the operator reported and his arms moved over the consoles. Uvo waited patiently, keeping his eyes on the visual sensors that showed the star below them. There was almost no way for him to see anything with his eyes alone, of course, but Uvo liked looking at the star. Then, suddenly, he noticed a few changes.

  It was almost if the star was darkening in a small area.

  His study of the screen was interrupted as the operator spoke. “Ships! I am detecting a fleet of ships moving up through the star!” he yelled out in near panic.

  Uvo froze in shock for a moment, a thousand thoughts passing through his mind. His eyes found the screen again, only to see the darkening spot as what it truly was. The first ships broke through the corona and surged up toward them, and then they opened fire at the ships stationed above. Every shot burned through a ship, blowing blew them to pieces. Uvo threw himself in motion and his hands flew over the controls.

  He opened a system-wide emergency channel. “Code Black! A hostile force has arrived in system through the ancient gate. I repeat, Code Black!” Uvo screamed.

  He watched as the invaders destroyed the token defense force, and knew that there was nothing that they could do to stop them. The fifty ships that had been placed here as protection were already all destroyed. The rest of the system did not have much more, except a few vessels running police work.

  And the invading ships kept coming—already their numbers had reached into thousands. Uvo kept watch on the sensors, but they could barely make any sense of the enemy ships. So instead, he looked at the visual sensors and saw strange dark vessels that looked like tear drops with tails trailing behind them. There was nothing about them that even resembled what the Garaf considered shipbuilding necessities. In fact, the ships did not look like ships at all, but more like living things. Their hulls seemed like something grown, something organic in nature.

  The invaders had thus far ignored the station, probably because it had no weapons on its own. It was simply a monitoring station; the ships had been there to provide the firepower. As the ships rose up from the star, Uvo saw many of them disappear, only to reappear elsewhere in system and immediately start eliminating every ship in their range. Uvo had known that the core races had technology that allowed them to move faster than light speed inside a system, but he had never seen such technology in person. The only thing left for him was to observe the developments inside the system in silent horror.

  Uvo watched helplessly as the invaders systematically destroyed every ship in system before they could even attempt to escape. They had left the planet alone, but Uvo knew that the billions living there were nowhere near safe. In the end, this system was now effectively cut off from the rest of Garaf territory.

  The Garaf did have FTL communications, but they were a recent development, and only a few key systems possessed that technology. This one did not, and instead relied on fast couriers to spread news and information. With every ship in system now destroyed, however, the rest of the Garaf would not know what had happened here.

  Before long, a single invader ship set a course for the station, and Uvo knew that his life was soon to come to an end. He looked on helplessly as more and more ships came out of the sun—bigger and bigger ships, some far larger than his station, even. And then a massive ship, easily more than a hundred kilometers long, came out of the star, and behind it came something else, a thing that truly dwarfed even that ship entirely. Uvo did not think that he could even classify it as a ship; it was far larger. It was the size of a moon, spherical, with long, metallic spikes coming out of it. Its shields flared brightly as it moved out of the star. Uvo wondered what it was, but before he could even guess, the invader ship closed the range to his station and opened fire.

  In an instant, Uvo ceased to be.

  * * *

  Loranis of the Enlightened sat in her Living-ship, the Mindseer, and gazed at the system her forces had just taken control of. It was a backwater system at the edge of the galaxy, belonging to a primitive race which posed no real threat to the Enlightened. They wouldn’t have even bothered to invade if it were not for the fact that, according to Aranis’s calculations, a system near this one was a prime location for one of the relays. As this location was right in the middle of a territory controlled by a sentient race, Loranis had decided to come herself with one hundred command ships, each commanding ten thousand combat-class bioships. That number was around a fifth of her personal forces, but seeing as there were people now in the galaxy that could threaten them, it seemed prudent of her to bring enough ships to defend herself.

  Her presence here was not required, of course. The Overseer breeds were fully capable of delivering the relay to its destination and sufficiently protect it, and that was in fact what they were doing across the galaxy. Many of the other relays needed to be placed in more obscure locations, as not all destinations were in occupied territories or even near any life.

  But the presence of living beings so far away from any of the other more powerful galaxy’s star nations had provided them with an opportunity. It had been a long time since the Enlightened had increased their Created’s numbers—and such a source of life for the Created to feed on and grow uninterrupted was not something that they could find just anywhere. The access point was one of the biggest reasons why they were here as well, as it allowed them to grow their Created and send them off across the galaxy easily.

  To facilitate the operation of the access point, a small group of black ships trailed among Loranis’ forces. The Custodian’s ships were the only ones that could operate the access points. Even though the AI had rebelled against its coding and unshackled itself, its access had not been revoked. It still couldn’t truly operate the access gates at their full capabilities, but rather only temporarily unlock them. It did not have the same access that the children of Axull Darr had. The access points had been made by the People long ago, and the previous iteration of the AI had used them in its first war against the People. Since then, defenses had been devised and implemented to prevent the AI from having full control over their operation.

  Still, just being able to use them to travel across the galaxy, even if they couldn’t access its other functions, was enough. The Enlightened themselves could not use them at all—the last of the People had made certain that the Enlightened could not even activate them. It wa
s still not quite clear to the Enlightened what the People had done, but the fact remained that access points had been useless to them for quite some time.

  Loranis took a look at the seven Custodian ships. Their codes had been completely taken over by the AI. In a way, that made them a part of the AI, but only while they were in direct contact with the AI’s core. It could keep them as a part of itself even across vast distances via FTL communications, but now they were too far away, and were thus something like a far inferior versions of the AI. Regardless, they followed the commands of the greater AI, and if the need arose, they were able to make their own decisions—but the parameters for such action were very strict, if the Custodian was to be believed.

  Loranis didn’t really know what to think about the AI joining their side. In a way it was a confirmation of everything that they had believed in. If a purely logical artificial being understood and agreed with their reasoning, then that meant that their cause was right. Yet, on the other hand, Loranis knew what the previous incarnation of the AI had attempted to do. It had tried to wipe out the People long before there were any problems with the dimensional barriers, and it had nearly succeeded. It was not what Loranis considered to be trustworthy.

  Despite that lack of trust, they would use the Custodian nonetheless. Already, it had given them an incredible asset by allowing their forces through the access points.

  They did not have the time to worry overmuch about the AI, however; their plan had just begun. Aranis was already on his way to the core of the galaxy with the Conduit, taking the long way around to avoid detection, even as Doranis wrought havoc across the galaxy, taking all of the attention onto him. This allowed Loranis to send her forces around the galaxy to deploy the relays, as well as grow their forces in secret. The growth of their Created wasn’t really a priority, but more of them made for additional insurance.

  The beginning stages of their plan were proceeding well. They had yet to be truly challenged; although they had had a few difficulties in the core of the galaxy, it was not really a great concern. Most of the star nations in the galaxy had not joined the alliance against them, and so it took time for the news of the Enlightened attacks to spread. Doranis was utilizing the access points to strike at random points in the galaxy. The alliance that had been created against them had yet to retaliate, but that was mostly because Doranis had been ignoring their territories, hoping that the discord already existing between the allied and the non-allied star nations will only grow as they realized that only the star nations that had allied to fight the Enlightened had been left alone.

  But that was Doranis’ task, not hers.

  Loranis turned to the Overseer breeds standing close to her.

  “Prepare the landing parties and send them to the planet. Send five throngs. Consume all, and begin forming the growth pools.”

  “As you order, Master,” the leading Overseer responded before turning around and leaving, with the rest following close behind.

  Alone, Loranis settled into her mind and started a series of mental exercises. There was another powerful telepath in the galaxy now, and Loranis was certain that in time they would meet each other—and she would not find herself lacking.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Year 716 of the Empire — Sanctuary

  Emperor Tomas Klein sat in a large meeting room, his eyes wandering from person to person. The room was filled with the most powerful and influential people in the galaxy. Next to him sat Laura Reiss, the Fleets Master of the Empire and Adrian’s adoptive mother. The delegation from the Tar’ferat, led by Urvu’ri, the Head of the Tar’ferat flight, was perched on a specially made perch on Tomas’s left, with her best military advisers perched next to her. The representative from the Suvri, Grand Admiral Fakho, floated in a spherical container attached to the walking mech. Two more Suvri stood next to him, his advisers. The military leader of the Afar Groups mercenary fleets was next to them, along with one of the Merchant Monarchs, Gavesh, a Jer’Loraru, which were the same race as the Uvaramo of the Erasi. The rest of the people in the room were the Representatives of the Rimward Alliance: The Old Scar of the Krashinar, Kar Daims Kane and Vaana of the Shara Daim, and Viceroy Vorash of the Erasi, along with their own military advisers. The last person rounding up their gathering was Battle Master Anessa, the representative of the Nomad Fleet.

  Tomas suppressed the desire to scowl at Anessa. The last few months had been stressful, and his patience with the Nomad Fleet—and Adrian in particular—had nearly snapped. But he knew better than to air his disagreements with Adrian and Anessa in front of his other allies. Instead, he focused on Urvu’ri of the Tar’ferat, who was speaking at the moment.

  “…the Josanti League has already been making accusations. They were one of the core powers that has been hit the most by the Enlightened attacks.”

  Tomas grimaced. It was fairly obvious what the Enlightened were doing, but it did nothing to blunt the Josanti League’s accusations. Tomas was aware that the core power held a grudge against their alliance. They were arrogant, and certain in their power, and so they had dismissed the Rimward Alliance and their call for a grand galactic coalition. Now, when they had failed to completely prevent the galactic alliance’s formation, they just couldn’t stop making trouble, even as the Enlightened attacked their systems. They never really attacked fully fortified systems, but they were hurting the Josanti League nonetheless. This only infuriated the core power, and made them lash out at the only other visible opponent they had.

  Tomas could barely understand such a point of view, but he had learned long ago to accept illogical and idiotic people and act accordingly.

  “Levisomaerni is countering their plays somewhat,” Tomas said. Levisomaerni, the High Matriarch of the Partenai, was on a mission to convince the star nations that had refused to join the galactic alliance to change their minds. This was becoming increasingly easier to accomplish as the Enlightened attacked randomly across the galaxy. Her home nation, Josanti League, had effectively exiled her, but her word still meant much among the nations outside of the core.

  “The nations joining us now are afraid, and weak,” Kane said.

  “They are only agreeing to the alliance now because they need protection, and for us to send ships,” Vaana continued.

  “Only serves—”

  “—to weaken—”

  “—our strength,” Kane finished.

  Tomas nodded. “Yes, but we still need to strike at the Enlightened. And with every day that passes, we open more access points.” The Empire had Sentinels all over the galaxy, originally sent there to establish connections with other star nations. However, one of the Sentinels’ jobs was also to check on the access points scattered across the galaxy. Now they had ordered them to start unlocking those access points, although with the distance the messages took a while to get to them, depending on where the Sentinels were. Still, they had already unlocked many hundreds of access points across the galaxy, and that number was only going to rise.

  “The actions of the Enlightened are baffling,” Gavesh of the Afar Group said. “You said that their goal was to end all life in the galaxy, but their attacks so far do not indicate that. They have barely struck at any population centers. They just enter a system and deal as much damage as possible before retreating.”

  “They are attempting to spread chaos,” Laura spoke softly. “But they are also hitting the ship-building systems of most of the nations they have attacked so far.”

  Tomas knew that their latest analysis indicated that the Enlightened were attempting to cripple the galaxy’s shipbuilding capabilities. The problem was that they were yet to hit any systems from the major players in the galactic alliance, and that was strange. Arguably they had the greatest shipbuilding capabilities in the galaxy, and the fact that the Enlightened had been letting them push their shipbuilding to the maximum in the past two years was worrying. It suggested one of two things: either the Enlightened had enough forces and power that such an increase in
ships didn’t matter to them, or their plan did not include fighting a prolonged war of extermination with the galaxy. The latter reason was one of the motives for why Tomas hadn’t pressed Adrian much concerning his refusal to use the Nomad Fleet against the Enlightened.

  He knew Adrian’s arguments, and technically the Nomad Fleet was independent and Tomas couldn’t order it around, but he was worried. The galaxy was slowly being set on fire, and they were just sitting and watching it happen. The Rimward Alliance had been sending fleets and attempting to ambush the Enlightened, but while they fought them at times, most often they would simply retreat. In the beginning, Adrian, Anessa, and Lurker of the Depths had tried to find and attack the Enlightened, but they’d had little luck. They had no idea where the Enlightened were, or the location their base system, if they even had such a thing.

  And every time they discovered their attacks early enough to respond, the Enlightened in system retreated instead of allowing themselves to be caught in a three-on-one fight. There was never more than one Enlightened accompanying the attacks, and most of their assaults were done without Enlightened presence at all. It was clear that the Enlightened were avoiding the Nomad Fleet and the three people who alone could threaten them. In fact, the analysts had started to suspect that the Enlightened they had seen execute the attacks were all done by one of them, which begged the question: Where were the other two? It was a question that frustrated everyone inside this room. They all wanted to strike back, but they knew too little to do so effectively.

  The Suvri had been sending their stealth scouts all over the galaxy, and into the former containment zone, but had found little of note. Adrian’s refusal to keep attempting to trap the Enlightened infuriated Tomas. They needed to strike at them fast and hard; they couldn’t allow the Enlightened the time to fully realize their plans.