Black Swarm

by Ivan Kal

  To the side of the hangar were the Havoc fighters. They too were big, almost twenty meters wide, ten meters long, and eight tall. Clearly designed for space rather than atmosphere, they had four wing-like extensions from the core of the ship which housed their maneuvering thrusters. The core of the fighters was a spherical body that was in the middle with two ‘wings’ on each side, one above the other, set at an angle. The entire half sphere that was the front of the fighter was clear and the cockpit could be seen inside. It was made of some pretty powerful materials and reinforced by magic, but it was still not designed to take any punishment. If a fighter couldn’t move out of the way of an attack, they would most likely die anyway. The inner side of the cockpit was smart glass and various data could be projected on it. But it could also project screens that showed the zoomed in picture from the visual sensors. Their cockpit allowed the pilots to see most anything in front, and the sensors would show them anything outside of their visual range.

  The mech-frames by contrast had no clear cockpit, but instead had massive screens that surrounded the pilot once inside and projected what the visual sensors saw. However a mech-frame pilot could ‘see’ through the mech-frame’s ‘eyes’ when using the control spell. But that sight had the same limitation as that of humans, it was not suited for looking at things that were thousands of kilometers away.

  The fighters were much more streamlined, their weapons mounted all around the sphere. Racks could be placed on the wings as well for added weapons or ammo, but that slowed them down too much.

  The mech-frames’ weapons, on the other hand, could be mounted on the mech-frames themselves, but there were also scaled up versions of handheld weapons. The mech-frames had hands, and could use them in that way as well.

  Kane turned around and was immediately accosted by a short, stocky man wearing black coveralls adorned with a single patch—a wrench and a wand crossed on a field of stars, making him a part of the UEF’s magitech department.

  “Well?” Chief Gene Randor snapped at Kane.

  “The maneuvering thrusters aren’t firing in sync, the spellscript is working fine, it’s the mechanical triggers, and the targeting system is acting up again,” Kane responded.

  Chief rumbled a few curses in his beard and marched past Kane toward one of the magi-techs that had just plugged a diagnostic tab into the mech-frame’s access point on one of its legs. Shaking his head, Kane turned and walked away as Chief started ordering the poor magi-tech around.

  Kane didn’t manage more than three steps before someone called out to him.

  “Commander, a word if you please,” the thickly accented and gravelly voice called from his left. Kane turned and looked at the tall, green-skinned woman. She had quite prominent tusks peeking from her lower jaw, she was wearing an UEF uniform, and even though outwardly she did have vaguely human features, there was no mistaking the fact that she was not.

  “Of course, Specialist,” Kane told her. She gestured and led him away toward one of the adjoining rooms.

  There were few of her kind in the hangar, and a few more in the compound that surrounded the portal to Earth. They were natives of Ethorria and called themselves the Wanderers. But no human could ever look at them and not be reminded of the fantasy race in the Earth books and stories. Someone had even made the mistake of calling them that name once, which had upset the Wanderers immensely, as it did sound close to what their former name had been. Later they had learned that the Wanderers had done something in the past that had resulted in them losing their homeland and their name. And in Ethorria, names held power.

  But the fact that they did look almost exactly like they had been portrayed in human works had sparked quite a debate. In fact, most of the races and wildlife that the human expedition force had encountered when they first stepped through were familiar to them from human myths, legends, and fictional works. The prevailing theory was that the barrier between universes had been thin on Earth and Ethorria, which resulted in some kind of awareness passing through, ingraining itself in people’s subconscious memory. After all, people on Ethorria had stories and myths about things that existed only on Earth. And it was only natural that there were similarities. Ethorria was an alternate version of Earth, one in a parallel universe.

  But while enough awareness passed through for people on both sides to unconsciously imagine what inhabitants of the other side looked like, they got most everything else wrong. The Wanderers for example were nothing like the people of Earth imagined them, but were instead courteous, timid, and preferred to avoid violence.

  Specialist O’nga Uhra led him inside the small meeting room and closed the doors behind them.

  “What is it?” Kane asked.

  O’nga fidgeted for a moment but then took a breath and spoke. “I’ve been asked by your command people to deliver a report, to tell them if in my opinion the battle-golems are ready for deployment.”

  Kane’s eyes widened at that. He knew that she meant the mech-frames, as they were based on the Wanderers’ battle-golem spellscript combined with Earth technology, but he had not been aware that the command was looking to actually deploy them. They had been testing and improving on the designs for a decade, the mech-frames were the final incarnation of years of work by the Earth’s best engineers and m-techs, and the Wanderers’ scripters. And the fact that they had asked O’nga for her opinion meant that they were seriously thinking about using them.

  “That is… interesting,” Kane said.

  “I was hoping to ask for your advice, if it is not too forward of me.”

  “It is no problem, Specialist.”

  She sighed in relief. Her tribe had been working with UEF for over two decades now, and still the Wanderers worried about offending.

  “I have learned much about the way you people do things, but I am still baffled at times. I do not know why your superiors had asked me if I believe the battle-golems are combat ready.” She scratched at her chin as she thought about it again, the confusion clear in her eyes. “I have been telling them from the start that there are no problems with the golem spellscript, nor with any autonomous spellscript we have laid in its frame. Magic and spellscript do not work in the same manner as your technology, there are no bugs or malfunctions possible. If the spellscript is laid down properly, it will always work as intended as long as it is not damaged. And the golems have been capable of battle since the moment we awakened them.”

  Kane nodded his head in solidarity. The command from Earth did not understand, of course—they might have clearance to know about Ethorria, but the only thing they knew about magic was from reading reports on their desks. It was the people living in the compound on Ethorria, and those from Earth who had dedicated their lives to understanding and learning about magic, who had the understanding to know how hard it had been to integrate magic and technology. The magitech profession was a young one, still evolving and improving almost daily.

  And he knew why O’nga had come to him. He was technically the Commander of the fighter group. The UEF had twenty Havoc class fighters—a pinnacle in magitech, capable of feats fighters using only Earth tech would never be able to achieve. A fighter utilizing magic which did not need someone with magical ability to fly it. But the four mech-frames that he and his squad piloted were something else. The decision to develop the fighters came after the UEF realized that they would never be able to build a starship capable of taking on the aliens in Earth orbit. Not only because they knew very little about the aliens’ technology, but also because there was no way for them to get the starship in orbit unnoticed. The aliens might have only one starship in Earth orbit, but they had many satellites watching the ground. And there was no way for the UEF to hide the development of something large enough to take on their ship from the aliens’ inspections.

  The fighters were the next idea, one that had been abandoned for a long time. The greatest problem had been that they had no way of building anything fast enough to be a threat to the alien warship. The mi
ssiles that Earth defense fired when the aliens first arrived posed no threat to the ship. But even if they could make something fast enough, there was no way that the pilots could survive the g-forces required for maneuvering at those speeds. And then they broke through to Ethorria, and discovered magic. Combining magic with their technology allowed them to solve those problems, as well as to get a few other advantages.

  The Havoc fighters were the latest designs, the third class of fighters that the UEF had built in the last thirty years. The first had been more of a learning experience, but once the deal with the Wanderers had been made, and they came on board with the UEF and shared their magical knowledge, things progressed faster. The second class of fighters had been a good step but the five prototypes that had been made still left room for improvement. And as people with magic from Earth grew up and started studying both Earth tech and magic, new ideas and solutions showed themselves. The Havoc fighters were the culmination of that, and the UEF, confident in their capabilities, had ordered twenty fighters to be made.

  The mech-frames, on the other hand, were even more experimental. The fighters were always supposed to be proven Earth tech augmented with magical spellscript. The mech-frames were something else, a true hybrid of technology and magic. Designed to utilize as much of the advantages that magic gave them in order to compensate for the Earth technology’s weaknesses. And that required pilots that had magical ability, like Kane himself.

  And it looked like the UEC was finally ready to challenge the aliens.

  “The mech-frames are battle capable,” Kane said to O’nga. “If you trust my opinion you may tell the command that they are ready.”

  “Thank you, Commander, I will tell them so,” O’nga said and then left the room, leaving him alone. After a minute, once he had allowed the reality to truly seep in, he left the room heading to Admiral Villanueva’s office.

  ***

  Kane walked out of the hangar and into the sun. The sky was blue just like on Earth, but the ring surrounding the planet—the remnants of Ethorria’s moon—made it instantly clear that he was not on Earth. He walked across the paved street. The compound was more like a small compact city. Buildings surrounded him, even though most were built from large repurposed cargo containers. The compound was in an old crater at the base of a tall mountain surrounded by rock on three sides. A part of the mountain itself loomed over the compound, obscuring almost half the sky. Whatever had made the crater had taken a chunk out of the mountain’s side. But its creation had been long in the past, so much so that it had been reclaimed by nature and much of the crater’s sides were eroded.

  The compound itself was surrounded by a wall four meters tall, with guard towers and turret emplacements at set distances along its length. UEC might have a deal with their closest neighbors, but Ethorria was nowhere near as united as Earth was, they didn’t even have large states. Most were powerful city states or areas owned and ruled by the powerful. There were no borders nor joint governing bodies. And there had been attacks on the compound before. But not any in recent years. Ethorrians might have magic, but Earth’s military technology was powerful as well, and it was something that they had never seen before. In the end it had been more profitable for the Ethorrians to allow the visitors from Earth a foothold.

  Kane made his way through the streets until he reached a blocky four-story building made out of reinforced concrete. The two guards at the entrance saluted as he approached and he nodded as he walked inside. He had no problem walking up to the top floor, the staff simply let him through. Once he reached his destination, the Admiral’s secretary announced him and he was allowed inside.

  Kane walked inside and saluted. The Admiral looked up from his computer and waved his hand at him.

  “At ease, Commander, take a seat,” Rear Admiral Leon Villanueva said, returning his eyes to the monitor.

  Kane took a seat and waited. About a minute later the Admiral nodded to himself and then turned to look at Kane.

  “I assume that the tests went well?” the Admiral asked.

  “Yes, sir. The mech-frame’s control spellscript is still too much of an advantage even with the software upgrade. In duels or close to equal matches, the frames are better,” Kane answered.

  “Of course, instinctive control of the machine is superior, especially when seconds mean the difference between the life and death.”

  “The fighters are still superior when acting as a part of an attack squadron. I doubt that the mech-frames could take a full squadron acting in unison, even if all four frames acted together.”

  The Admiral nodded. “As it should be. The fighters were designed as straightforward offensive weapons, the mech-frames are more versatile. They were designed to be able to take on a wide range of missions, both in space and on the ground. As well as to act as squad leaders and hubs for the fighters away from their carriers.”

  “If we ever figure out a way to have enough mech-frames for full attack squadrons, and with a few more upgrades… we could abandon the fighters altogether,” Kane said.

  “It’ll never happen.” The Admiral shook his head sadly. “There are too few people capable of magic on Earth, and if what the scientists are telling us is true, we will never have the same amount of people with magic in our universe as there are here. Nor will our magic users be as powerful, not for a long, long time at least.”

  Kane nodded. He was one of the few that had the magical ability, and he had trained with magic for almost twenty years. He was not even equal to an average Ethorrian mage. But then again, his magical knowledge and training was focused on combat. Kane had been recruited for a secret project designed to make him a true super-soldier.

  Learning how to use magic in Ethorria was hard, as magical knowledge was hoarded and guarded fiercely. And the few scraps that the UEF could obtain were nothing compared to what a fully trained Ethorrian mage knew. There was no point in training Kane and the other candidates in how to cast spells by themselves, especially because by the time magic manifested in children on Earth, the UEF already had a deal with the Wanderers.

  The Wanderers had, for a reason in their distant past, abandoned active use of magic, but they still had a lot to offer. They taught Earth the script, the language that allowed for them to “craft” spellscripts. It was in many ways like a programing language, one written inside crafting circles which could be engraved into all manner of surfaces and activated by providing energy from a mage. Kane was taught the basics, but it had become apparent that humans with magical potential were far too weak to cast more than a couple of spells without a written spellscript before collapsing from exhaustion.

  “We will need to be content with the current status of our magitech, the integrated spellscripts have given us the chance to do something we had almost given up on,” the Admiral added.

  A laid down spellscript was different than casting from one’s mind. Kane himself never managed more than five casts with just his mind before collapsing, and he was the most powerful human with magic born so far. But nowadays he didn’t need to cast with his mind alone.

  The spellscripts that drained a person’s inner energy do existed, but the drain was far smaller. Something about the spellscript mitigated the energy drain. One such was used in the mech-frames to allow Kane to pilot it with his mind. It was an adapted spellscript, which in itself was very dangerous thing to attempt without knowing a lot more about spellscripts than humanity currently did. Thankfully, the Wanderers were masters of it. It was how their clans survived on Ethorria, by selling their knowledge and crafting spellscripts for villages and cities as they roamed the land.

  The spellscript was adapted by using human ideas and knowledge. The control spellscript for the battle-golems was a simple and old spell in Ethorria that allowed the caster to directly control a golem with their mind. It was considered a weak and mostly useless spell, even though battle-golems were the main parts of Ethorrian armies, primarily because a caster could directly control only one golem
at a time and was extremely vulnerable while he controlled it. It was far easier to give them simple commands and let them loose. They would continue to fight for as long as they had magical energy inside the gems that powered them.

  The mech-frame could be utilized that way as well, it was technically an awakened battle-golem and could be given simple instructions. Although the only one that could give it commands was Kane, as he was the one who was keyed to it. But the control spellscript used in the mech-frames was an adapted version which allowed the pilots to not only control the mech-frame’s limbs but also the maneuvering thrusters. Adding the spellscript triggers and integrating them with the mechanical parts that actually fired the thrusters had been the real challenge. But the UEF had three decades’ worth of experience attempting to integrate magic and technology.

  In fact the mech-frame couldn’t be operated without that spellscript at all. It had joints and limbs just like a human had, but there were no mechanisms for it to move other than by magic. The only purely technology-based systems in the mech-frame were the sensors, targeting computers, and communication and weapon systems.

  The control spellscript drew on the mech-frame’s own energy supplies so the drain on the pilot was very low, but it could still be felt if it was used for an extended period of time. It was one of the reasons why the control spellscript couldn’t be put in the fighters: the fact that it required someone who could use magic would eliminate too many people as potential pilots, there were just too few humans with the capability. But there was also the fact that the control spellscript’s other limitation was that it only worked if it was cast on something that had roughly the same proportions as the caster. If the mech-frame had been built to have four legs and four limbs it wouldn’t have worked at all. It was mind magic, allowing the user’s mind to assume control of an awakened golem. If it was something too alien for the caster’s mind to understand, it just didn’t work. Nor could a fighter be awakened and made autonomous. One could add relatively small adjustments, like the addition of the ability to activate maneuvering thrusters as long as the target was a simulacrum of the caster, but it couldn’t be cast on something that wasn’t even closely proportionate to the caster. And every attempt to modify it for the fighters had failed.