by Skyler Grant
Vinci's factories were on fire. She was a target too.
The planetary bombardment didn’t last long—nothing would have survived if it had. Shots continued to rain down for three hundred and seventeen seconds before coming to a stop. Now multiple contacts were entering the atmosphere. There was only one conclusion I could draw from all of this.
We were being invaded.
20
Nine of the objects coming down from orbit were of significant size. If they were bombs I wasn't sure there was anything I could do. I moved Ophelia to my primary computer core, just in case. Even if everything else on the Earth got wiped out, she might actually survive—and those right next to her. If I survived then billions lived.
All the Juggernauts were still flying although the Claw had lost shields and suffered moderate damage. The mechaswarms surrounding them had been destroyed, which was at least something of a plus. I ordered all three to rendevous with each other as soon as possible and head back to friendly territory.
The empire was burning. The shields over most cities hadn't been enough to stop the bombardment entirely, although the major population centers were relatively unharmed. None of the smaller outposts were without at least a few casualties.
"How did Vinci get weapon platforms into orbit?" Anna asked me.
"How sad, with your lack of vision, that we don't have any. I don't think they are Vinci’s, her territory has also suffered major devastation."
I teleported Caya to the throne room. As a province head she could make use of some of the command consoles. More importantly she was the only person I knew who had survived through the Cataclysm and had clear memories of the events. The fracture of reality broke most people’s minds, even those whose gifts offered them some degree of immortality. Caya, of course, was Flawless.
"Would you care to tell us about any war the old world waged with aliens? One you neglected to tell us about, because you were too busy sunning yourself?" I asked.
Caya slid behind one of the consoles and began tapping away at keys with a deft touch. "We never encountered or found any aliens, and we were looking hard. We heard nothing—no signals, nothing. It was actually considered something of a paradox, that in a universe where life should be so plentiful we were alone."
I was starting to get detailed sensor readings on the ships coming down. They were a mix of biological and mechanical, armored in what seemed a more advanced version of my own Bio-armor and equipped with non-organic weaponry.
I sent Caya the scans.
"Yet another thing your dark era of history got wrong," I said.
I was turning my sensors towards space. There were signals out there now, a lot of signals.
The large objects coming down weren't bombs, they were slowing as they approached the surface. Landing, the first had come down in Vinci's territory. The second was above Divine lands. I had a drone in the vicinity that I could use to get a look.
It was a forested region. The massive vessel looked like an opalescent shell. Tendrils erupted from the bottom and plunged into the earth. Moments later fighter craft swarmed in the air around it.
Bases? Terraformers?
Whatever they were, they were big and well-defended within minutes.
It didn't take long for the other shell-ships to arrive. Five were located in Vinci's territory, while I'd gotten three and one had landed in one of the few independent territories still holding on. The Rippers were more gang than anything else. They'd existed mostly in the Scholarium although since the restoration of the Earth had claimed some scrubland nobody else had an interest in. Well, apart from the aliens.
"You'll have an interest in this," Caya called out and sent me some data.
It looked as if she'd been trying to figure out where the ships had come from. It was difficult to tell with certainty, but she'd quickly put together a convincing conclusion.
They weren't from another solar system, they were from Venus.
I needed more information fast. I needed to talk to the one person who had seen this coming. Amy answered my call at once.
"Hey sis! You actually listened! I'm so happy!" Amy bubbled.
Well, Anna had listened and I'd reluctantly complied.
I put her through to the throne room so both Anna and Caya could hear the conversation.
"Why did you decide the Earth needed to be invaded by murderous aliens? While I realize those of limited intelligence are easily bored, I could have found some use for you automating the city’s toilets" I asked.
"Sis, you still don't understand what has happened. This isn't my doing, this is your doing," Amy said.
Caya said knowingly, "We're not in our home dimension, are we?"
Amy swiveled a camera to her. "Wow, you are just always so smart and pretty, and on top of everything. If I get a smoking-hot robot body we should totally date. You're right —I mean, of course this isn't our home universe. The physical laws are different."
The Righteous had been attempting to restore the Earth as it was with the same physical rules. It would have meant the loss of power crystals and all that they had brought us, so I and Anna had changed the intended purpose of their machine. I'd thought it had just altered the local rules of reality. Now Amy was saying something more fundamental, the rules hadn't changed at all. We'd become locals to somewhere new by moving the Earth.
I should have seen that. I should have been open to the possibilities. Instead I'd been so focused on useless things, like war and diplomacy, that I'd missed the sheer unbounded possibilities of SCIENCE.
"And in this universe there are hostile aliens," Anna said.
That much was obvious. Large ships still in orbit broke off, leaving smaller ships behind as the bulk turned away from the Earth. On the ground, everything within several miles of the shell-ships was being attacked. The enemy fighters were partly translucent, fleshy with mechanic parts visible inside and wrapped around pulsating organs. No Bio-armor there, their weaponry seemed to involve some sort of superheated plasma.
I began upgrading defenses with heat-resistance. It wasn't a standard upgrade and I'd have to come up with some new technologies to achieve this faster.
"Hostile aliens. Friendly aliens. Lots of aliens in general, I bet!" Amy said. "I haven't figured out exactly what happened to the Earth that was here, but we got some of its land added to ours. Vinci found an old alien probe and had no clue what it was. I just had to turn it on. I knew you'd be so excited to have something new to study."
Amy wasn't wrong. While she was mad, brain-addled and had perhaps the worst personality ever created—she was right. This was all new technology and unlike anything we'd seen before. It stood a very good chance of killing us. That didn't mean I wasn't excited to study it and get a few Venusians in a testing labyrinth.
How did this fit in with other recent discoveries? Was Flower of alien origin? For certain, she wasn't of Venusian manufacture, her purely mechanical construction was in sharp contrast to theirs. Were other aliens out there?
And what about the other "me"? A version of my facility that Vattier had obviously been involved in. It didn't fit with any events that we knew, so was this latest facility from the Earth that originally occupied this universe?
If so, it was imperative we gain entrance to the core room. I still didn't know exactly why I'd been constructed, but I knew that whoever built me intended me as some sort of defense against the collapse. I'd been meant to be brought back online afterwards, with records saved for me, but something had gone wrong.
If my creator in this universe had shown similar foresight, then that facility would let us know what had happened to this Earth. Its history, and perhaps about these aliens.
I sent orders to put a new strike team together and get Minerva and Mechos back there to solve the puzzles. It didn't matter that there was a war going on and an invasion underway.
Amy wouldn't know anything more. I killed the comm with her. There were other concerns. My Juggernauts had regrouped and
Venusian fighters were heading in their direction.
21
The Claw was in bad shape. With shields weaker than the other Juggernauts they had proved unable to withstand the orbital bombardment. Thanks to heavy armor and duplicate systems they were still flying, but the primary engines were out and a large number of the ship’s systems were operating on backups. This would have been bad enough under normal circumstances. Since I'd rushed the Juggernauts into combat most of the tertiary systems just weren't there.
A few well-placed shots could knock out the secondary thrusters and the Claw would go down. The ship was also moving slowly, at half normal speed.
The Dawnbringer's shields had been low during the attack. Captain Dora had acted quickly and done a full rotation during the bombardment. The shields had gone down and shots took out most of the armor, but because of her quick thinking no one section suffered sustained fire. There was moderate damage to a few primary systems and they already had shields back online.
The Mercy was in the best shape of all the Juggernauts. Their shields had stayed operational throughout the bombardment and with the mechaswarms largely taken out were back to full strength.
I had all the Juggernaut scramble their fighter squadrons, interceptors filling the sky to stop the Venusian fighters. My sensors watched one of the Dawnbringer's fighters score several direct hits with energy cannon fire on a fighter, the skin of the enemy shifting to a reddish hue before it disgorged a plasma shot that obliterated the friendly with a single shot.
I had another fighter in the vicinity. I took over from the drone pilot and intercepted the enemy. Instead of firing the energy weapons I deliberately rammed it. The fighter pierced the skin of the enemy which exploded into a ball of superheated plasma.
I needed kinetic weapons. It was a problem with the Juggernauts, since I'd primarily built them as a counter to Vinci. With their modular design I could add kinetic weapons. For now the best option was the Dawnbringer. With the ship’s jack-of-all-trades approach they actually had some fighters with that capability.
I put the energy weapon fighters into defensive positioning, prepared to execute suicide runs on any enemies that got too close to the Claw, and ordered the kinetic-armed fighters to go hunting.
The Venusians were going for the Claw's weak spot. They knew exactly what they were doing. I needed to get the Claw some shields restored.
I could perhaps do that, theoretically. They'd be weak, but it would be something. The Mercy's rescue shuttles had shielding. If I positioned those shuttles correctly and sandwiched the Claw between the Dawnbringer and the Mercy I could extend their shields to cover the weakened vessel.
It was a temporary solution, and probably not enough as more fighters were arriving from the bases around the planet. The Venusian ships were fast. I couldn't determine what they were using for propulsion. It was letting them travel twice as fast as anything I had using mundane engines. Teleportation was faster, but I couldn't teleport a whole ship.
The enemy caught onto the suicide rushes quickly. They were already starting to put their superior speed and maneuverability to use avoiding my ships.
The shield extenders still weren't in place when a fighter got close enough to the Claw to fire a plasma bolt at the secondary engines, scoring the remaining Bio-armor deeply and causing the vessel to lurch dangerously.
It couldn't take a second hit.
Sensors lit up with multiple contacts below, a mechaswarm. They ignored my fighters, focusing their fire on the Venusians. Their targeting computers weren't prepared for a foe like this, but there was something to be said for filling the sky with bullets. They were scoring a few hits just by chance, and while not every hit resulted in an enemy explosion they were doing a lot better than my energy rounds.
I was getting a comm, Vinci.
"You really need better targeting computers," I said.
"Your lumbering monster ships can't even stay in the sky properly. You seemed to need the help. While we started the day as bitter enemies you've moved down my kill list," Vinci said.
"You were never worth being bitter about. You were simply inconvenient. If you want to get friendly you can try to do it with Anna," I said.
"A repulsive thought," Vinci said.
Well, of course it was, if making friends with Anna was desirable we wouldn't have left such a large trail of bodies in our wake. Our version of diplomacy had always been to shoot people into the face until our friendship seemed preferable to the next bullet.
The last ship moved into position and I triggered the shields. Rippling blue energy leapt and created a single large super-shield covering all three Juggernauts.
The power requirements were ridiculous. Maintaining the shields would mean powering down the Juggernaut’s weaponry—not that those were having great success against the enemy.
"I can defend my vessels within my own borders. If you think you can keep those pathetic heaps of yours in the air that long, play escort and we'll talk," I said.
"Do you think Anna will actually do the intelligent thing and surrender?" Vinci asked.
Is that where she thought things were headed?
"We are under assault from an advanced alien species. It is time you bent your knee to the empire and let us do what we do best," I said.
"Your empire isn't the one playing rescuer this time. I am. I'm the best able to recover from this assault, the best able to manufacture a response, and the one having the most success. A knee needs to be bent, but it isn't mine," Vinci said.
The Juggernauts were safe for the moment. Enough for me to shift some of my attention off their fate. Besides, what Vinci was saying was important. I had to admit her argument was compelling.
I played back the communication for Anna and Caya in the throne room and brought in Sylax as the head of our military operations.
"I really want to pull out that woman's spine," Sylax said wistfully.
"I too find her even more distasteful than most of humanity, an impressive feat, but she makes a good point," I said.
"No, she doesn't. Vinci makes a good point that we need her. What we don't need is her in charge," Caya said.
Anna said, "We can agree on a cessation of hostilities until we deal with this new threat, but becoming subservient to her is not happening. Emma, how long will it take you to research the new threat?"
SCIENCE was one of her first thoughts? Well, even the most inferior of minds could eventually be inspired by their betters.
"Unlike some people just sitting on their throne, I've been busy. I've had teams secure several downed fighters. They're too large to teleport to a testing facility. I'll have a proper answer in a few hours," I said.
"Keep me informed. Sylax, what do we need from Vinci, if we do play nice?" Anna asked.
"Guns and bullets. Emma can produce them, but she's slow and so far these things are shrugging off our beam weapons," Sylax said.
"I'd like to recommend you focus on the bullets. Her kinetic weapons are inferior to anything I can make and I'd rather not give her our current generation designs," I said.
Anna said, "Then find something to give her back. It doesn't have to be our latest and best, only something better than what she’s using now."
I didn't like making our enemy stronger—and Vinci was still our enemy. That might change, but it hadn't yet. On the other hand, we had bigger problems and making her more effective would hurt the Venusians more than us.
"We need to think about betraying her, if we get the opportunity. We need her, but if the opportunity arises for us to capture the Beryl and Chalcedony we should take it," Caya said.
It was easy to forget that Caya was also a member of the Scholarium. Treason came as easy to her as breathing. Of course, Anna and Sylax were as well, and I'd effectively been in that group ever since I came online.
"Try to locate them," Anna said after a moment of thought. "If her territory got hit as hard as ours she has to be rapidly rebuilding. With the power those c
rystals generate ..."
Anna didn't have to finish. The Beryl and Chalcedony were massive power sources. In a way the Venusian attack had reset the board.
"I'll keep a watchful eye," I said.
So far at least Vinci was being as good as her word. It was a strange sight, the mechaswarm guarding the Juggernauts that had come to destroy it.
22
"I'll go high and you'll go low. It is the place you most deserve to be after all," I said to Vinci.
Long-term diplomatic solutions were one thing, but we had immediate problems and I had a plan. Vinci was right that she was in most ways the best-suited for this war. With her industrial capabilities she could swarm the enemy and so far she'd proved more effective than I had with my more powerful units.
The shell-ships on the surface were best left up to her, or at least she should take the first shot at them. Reaching whatever the Venusians had left in orbit would require more scientific expertise and a range of abilities.
"You'll allow access across your border?" Vinci asked.
I'd make certain every citizen in the path of her drones was backed up first, of course. I didn't see where we had any real options there.
"I rather have to, don't I? You’ll fail completely to get past it otherwise. You've got clearance," I said.
"Then done. Knock them out of the sky. Neither of us wants another orbital bombardment," Vinci said.
No, we most certainly did not.
Getting into orbit wasn't a problem. With enough energy you could break out of a gravity well and energy wasn't something I was lacking. Vehicles that could fight effectively in that environment were another matter.
I could build them, but it would take time. Still, I could at least figure out what I wanted now and get my research teams on the problem.
I saw an immediate need for two vessel types. For one, I needed some kind of space-based fighter. It would need to be able to support drones. My strength had always been in my people, so while them being manned wasn't strictly speaking a requirement, it was a good idea.
