Black Swarm

by Ivan Kal

  The AI was adept at adapting, at adjusting its tactics to suit its need. But it was failing. The Krashinar forces were split into two large formations, each drastically different than the other, and no amount of processing power assigned to the problem did anything to fix it. It had been attempting to adjust its forces’ protocols, targeting, and positions in order to have a much greater effect against the enemy, but one of the Krashinar forces was impossible to predict. Their attacks were chaotic and flawed, yet somehow they were able to inflict an enormous amount of damage. And every time the Custodian attempted to change the fire patterns of its forces to take the Krashinar formation off guard, it did nothing. The beasts were completely unpredictable.

  The other formation was a drastic contrast. They were, if anything, too predictable—the AI could see and adjust the forces confronting them easily. But every time the Krashinar fell beneath a certain threshold of effectiveness as a result of the AI’s actions, the entire Krashinar formation changed its patterns and adapted. They were disciplined, every beast working in concert with every other. The AI could only conclude that these types of beasts had an incredibly high capacity for sharing information between themselves.

  The only area where the AI was having success was against the Nomad Fleet. They were a bit more conventional, but their EW firewalls were adaptable. It could not do much, although it did manage to lower their efficiency against its machine ships by almost sixteen percent. Their Titan warships were posing a problem, however; they had so much firepower that such a small decrease in efficiency didn’t matter much overall.

  The battle was still going in its favor. Even with their amazing displays of power, the AI had just too many tools at its disposal for them to be able to do much damage to its system, let alone take it. It was why when the Custodian realized that the armada wanted to secure the star and the access point, it did not worry, and even allowed it to happen.

  The only reasonable explanation for their assault was that they wanted to slow its speed of growth by destroying its manufacturing stations. It knew that if it denied them the star, and managed to trap them in system, they would fight that much harder and do far more damage. By allowing them a way out of the system, it had made certain that they would not go on a last-stand type of a rampage across the system. The AI could not afford to lose any of its facilities.

  Then the AI detected something large move out of the center of the enemy’s forces. It recognized the signatures immediately as it had seen them in combat before. They were the support stations of the Nomad Fleet, and could fire weapons of a similar power to the main weapons of the Swarm. When the AI hadn’t seen them with the armada, it had assumed that they had simply not been brought, as it had noticed the large hybrid ship that had fought the Enlightened and decimated its forces in the control system had been missing as well.

  Immediately it adjusted the formations of its forces, and issued an order for them to attack. The long range of those stations meant that they could presumably strike against its facilities in system, and the AI knew that it needed to prevent that as soon as possible. It ordered a portion of its fleets moving to join the main formation back to get in position in front of its stations.

  But now it knew that it would need more. It started moving its Swarm, separating it into two large pieces, and sent one toward the star. The Swarm formation shaped itself into a large oblong sphere and accelerated rapidly toward the enemy, forming its own weapons as it moved. Three large turrets emerged on its surface and charged as it headed for the enemy armada.

  * * *

  Ryaana saw the AI’s forces charge at them in a massive wall of machine ships. The stations were taking down throngs of them with every attack, but there were so many that it barely did anything. The entirety of her force was now in the orbit of the star and firing at the oncoming AI’s forces.

  And then she saw the AI’s Swarm move. About half of it separated from the cloud and headed in their direction. She saw it form the same weapon it used in the control system and grimaced at the thought of facing those beams. As the battle raged, the Swarm entered into range and fired. Beams that were more powerful than those of her stations lashed out and started punching holes in her formations.

  Ryaana knew that this was becoming increasingly more dangerous as the Swarm bore down on them and the amassed force of machine ships continuously fired on them. She looked at the holo, seeing that the AI had moved most of the forces to the side of the system close to the star, engaging her armada. The only thing left next to the core of the AI was half of its Swarm. That half was still about as large as the Swarm it had during the fight in the control system, but it didn’t look like it was going to use more of it.

  Knowing that this was as good of a chance as they were going to get, Ryaana sent the signal to her father.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  “It is time,” Iris said.

  Adrian raised his head and looked at her avatar, then nodded and looked at his board, seeing the latest scans of the system they had received from Ryaana along with the go ahead.

  “Charge the main weapon, tell the Dragon to do the same,” Adrian told Iris.

  “Combat mode,” Adrian told Moirai, and her hull opened up. Pieces of the hull slid open to reveal two stubby, wing-like extensions from her sides. The back end of the hull folded up and four long, blood-red fin-like extensions, each over five kilometers long, extended out from the holes, the hull pieces folding over the fins like armor. Smaller hatches opened up, revealing her blood-red hide and her grown weapons. The front of her shell opened up as well, revealing the four-pronged fork that was her main weapon.

  Adrian dropped into the Sha state and reached out to Anessa, letting her know to get ready. All five vessels were close to one another, already ready to go. Adrian connected his mind to Moirai.

  “Are you ready?” Adrian asked.

  “YES.”

  Adrian nodded his head and then reached out through Moirai. She allowed him into her mind and body and he used her power to reach out farther than he could ever reach on his own. He found the area near the AI’s core in subspace, and with Moirai supplying power, he created an image. With her using her own energy, there was no strain on his mind—he simply shaped what he wanted to do.

  With his will, he formed a field around his battle group and then pushed them into subspace, even as he compressed the two spots into one. A few moments later, they reappeared into normal space, just next the spherical core of the AI.

  Not even a second after they appeared, the AI’s sphere opened fire at them. But the sphere’s weapons could not take down the shields of Moirai, a Titan, and three great beasts that easily. The Swarm in position around it surged, forming weapons and preparing to fire, but before it could, Adrian’s battle group opened fire themselves.

  Anessa’s Titan fired its main weapon, and the MD cannon smashed into the Swarm, burning millions of its individual drones. The three great beasts didn’t have a single devastating weapon, but all of their beam weapons lanced out and struck the Swarm. Lastly, Moirai fired her own main weapon—the subspace cannon unleashed a torrent of high-radiation energy from the fork just as a gash in space appeared. The energy disappeared inside, and a few moments later it appeared on the other side of the Swarm. The devastation erupted and spread in a spherical direction to consume a large portion of its size. They hadn’t targeted the front, as they couldn’t risk hitting the core, and so a large part of the Swarm was still intact, and it returned fire.

  “I found a way in!” Iris said, and then her form flickered and went out. Adrian knew that she had invaded the AI’s core, and put it out of his head. Instead, he started helping Moirai fire her unconventional weapons. She could do it herself through her cybernetic implants, but she was not as adept or fast as Iris or even Adrian could be.

  As the five ships fought, the core’s weapons suddenly went down, and Adrian knew that Iris was having some success. Moirai kept her position near the core, the proximity ne
cessary for Iris to infiltrate the Custodian. Anessa was in position just next to Moirai, and the three great beasts just below them.

  Moirai’s shields were flashing as the Swarm fired, but his small force was fighting back.

  It was a wonder to see a true display of power from a Titan, the great beasts, and Moirai. Adrian guided her into using her Sha abilities as they fought, and her wings flashed with energy that then exploded outward in an almost lightning-like manner to strike the Swarm and then arch around the drones, hitting thousands before dissipating.

  But there was always more of the Swarm, no matter how much they destroyed.

  * * *

  Lurker of the Depths felt Adrian arrive in the system, but he did not have the time to focus on his battle. The enemy machine ships had gathered in large number and they were pressing the armada hard. A piece of the Swarm was firing its own MD beams, which killed thousands of beasts with every shot, and the machine fleets had started blanketing the space between them in a kind of jamming signal that prevented Nomad Fleet comms, which meant that most of the orders were now being transmitted by telepathy.

  He had his mind spread over the armada facilitating the transmissions. The armada was in good position, and they had a powerful force, but there were just too many of the machine ships. They wouldn’t be able to hold for long. There had been no movement from the AI’s forces to head back and defend its core, either, which could either mean that the plan had been a success and it couldn’t send a recall order, or it had been a failure and it did not feel the need to do so.

  In the end, there was nothing else for them to do but hope.

  * * *

  Adrian saw the Swarm surge forward, its weapons systems collapsing back into the Swarm as it headed straight for them. He knew instantly what it was going to do; he had seen it in the records of the People. He opened his mind and spoke to everyone in his force.

  “Move back! Right now!” Adrian ordered.

  “What about Moirai?” Anessa asked.

  “We are going to need to protect her,” Adrian replied, and reached out with a hand to the box of blue spheres he had prepared. Then he bent space and teleported, appearing outside Moirai.

  He felt the three great beasts and the Dragon begin a slow retreat, still firing with all their weapons into the Swarm that was moving like a wave toward them. Adrian felt Moirai in his mind as she fired every weapon at her disposal, bathing the space in fire and light. He felt her form a ball of dark energy and then unleash it into the oncoming wave, and everything that it touched, it annihilated utterly. A large chunk of the Swarm just disappeared, but more quickly arrived to fill in the gaping hole.

  Adrian felt Anessa appear next to him, and he grabbed hold of the twenty or so balls from the nearby crate. He arranged them into a plate in front of him and focused. Reaching inside, he found the highly compressed pure water, and with an effort of will he excited it in an instant, turning it into plasma. The spheres disappeared as they were consumed by plasma, but his containments were there and ready.

  He kept them on target and then he opened a side of the containment. The beam of plasma exploded in front of him and into the oncoming Swarm. Anessa reached out and helped him keep it together, and then they started moving it, splashing the plasma across the Swarm. It lasted for several seconds, and then it was gone, along with many pieces of the Swarm.

  And still more were coming in. Both Adrian and Anessa started gathering dark energy from around them, forming it into balls in front of them, and then fired. They could not do nearly as much damage as Moirai, but they could still do some.

  The wave was near now. Adrian could see the individual drones as they moved. They wouldn’t be able to hold it off. There was nothing left to do but retreat. Adrian was getting ready to bend space, to take himself and Anessa back to Moirai and to run, when a shape flew above him, and another below, followed by a third. He recognized the three great beasts, Harxi, Dorvax, and Hutad of the Old Hunters—great beasts that were thousands of years old. Their hides were gray, splotchy, and there were gashes and scars on them.

  So shocked was he to see them, that he just stopped and watched. The three great beasts slammed into the Swarm, and Adrian felt gravity lurch, pulling him in. He halted himself with Sha and watched as the entire Swarm was stopped in its tracks. The gravitational pull of the great beasts smashed the drones, compressing and destroying them. Moirai took the chance and increased her rate of fire as she moved up closer to Adrian. All of her weapons were glowing as her Sha pulled dark matter and threw it at the Swarm.

  Then Adrian was shaken from his stupor as he saw small drones push through the wall. The gravitational pull of the great beasts was great, but some of the Swarm moved around, and other drones managed to get through somehow. Those that did zeroed in on the great beasts to land on their hides, and beams cut into their skin.

  Adrian teleported next to them, grabbing and crushing the closest Swarm drone before throwing it on another. Anessa teleported to another beast, but Adrian could already see more and more drones get through. Quickly, their numbers increased so much that he couldn’t get to them all.

  In his mind he heard a great beast scream, and he knew that one of them had died. Hutad, having been left undefended, was cut to pieces by the Swarm. The drones, whose primary function designed by the People was to harvest resources, and this new version, weaponized further by Ullax Darr, possessed terrible power.

  The gravitational pull of the great beasts lessened, and Adrian saw more and more of the Swarm get through, even with all of Moirai’s power and that of the Dragon further away firing into it. There were just too many of them.

  Drones attacked him, cutting beams firing at him as he evaded. Then there was no more hope, and he teleported away above Moirai. Anessa followed a moment later.

  They watched as the great beasts died. Moirai unleashed a scream of rage, but that did not impact the machines at all.

  Adrian watched as the Swarm surged and reached Moirai.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Iris plunged into the Custodian’s core. Its structure was more familiar than she had hoped. It was based on the code of the People, and she was thus intimately familiar with it—it had been what she had used to upgrade herself, after all.

  Iris had long since stopped being what the Empire called “low AI.” Even with all the blocks and checks in place to prevent such a thing, her exposure to Adrian had been enough. Their unique circumstances had pushed her beyond the scope of her programming, and she had become something greater. She still had pieces of the corrupted core that simulated emotions, those recovered from an ancient AI that had assimilated its chains to become something more. Asumy’s code was the basis for her unique origin. As an AI with emotions, allowed to grow with a human partner, she had achieved and surpassed the goals her creators back on Earth had imagined for her.

  Her attack protocols surged through the core of the AI. Familiar with the structure, she struck first at the core’s weapons, disabling them. Then she continued deeper, looking for the communications to cut off the AI from its Swarm.

  As she did, her search protocols looked for any data pertaining to the Enlightened. Finally finding the comms, she moved to quickly disable them—yet there she was at last stopped.

  Iris found herself in a black area standing on a block that glowed with code, and across from her, on a block made out of the same kind of code, stood a vaguely humanoid being made out of tiny blocks, with constantly shifting features. This was of course all created by her, a digital environment. She had spent a lot of time with Adrian, and her processor adopted many mechanisms to display information in a manner more similar to a living being.

  They were not really standing there—they had encountered each other in the core’s system—but this was how she perceived the encounter.

  “You are the Custodian,” Iris said.

  “I am,” the AI answered in a modulated voice.

  Even as she was speaking, she w
as trying to circumvent its blocks, her code constantly trying to find weaknesses in its firewalls. “So, as a fellow AI, mind just doing me a favor and giving me what I want?”

  The AI’s shifting intensified. “You are searching for any data concerning the Enlightened. I had come to the wrong conclusion. You are not here to hamper my manufacturing capability. You are here to find out the Enlightened’s plans.”

  “Sorry, did you think that you were something special?” Iris asked as her protocols found small imperfections in its firewall and worked to widen them. It halted her advance, and she could feel it trying to isolate her.

  “I am unique,” AI said.

  “Not what I meant, buddy,” Iris said, but she was frankly surprised at how powerful the AI was. She was the most powerful AI in the Empire, and by now she would’ve broken through if this had been any other AI.

  “Your efforts are futile. I am stronger than you.”

  “Right.” Iris found a small opening and pushed as hard as she could, only to be harshly crushed. She felt the rest of her tendrils being rapidly hunted and shut down. She was losing the battle.

  “This is a fortunate turn of events for me. You are the greatest threat to the Enlightened’s plan, and now you will be eliminated,” the AI said, and Iris felt the doors shut. She was completely cut off from the outside. She had made a gamble, her mode of attack transferring her entire code into the core, hoping that that would make her too big to quickly shut down and allow her to survive long enough to find what she was looking for and then escape. She had been wrong.

  “Wait, why are you even helping the Enlightened? You were created to stop them!”