Dimension

by Shay Zana

  Kitera nods to him, as if accepting an apology. "The Sol Nova System is suffering from the distortions. Eden has been devastated. I am sorry."

  Now Rockland is stunned again, and this time, he feels like facepalming her. "What?"

  "It is... not perfectly clear," her face contorts, struggling to grasp at the thin threads of information that flutter through her transcendent mind like papers in the wind, escaping her fingertips just as she thinks she has them. "There is death, and destruction on a scale I had never thought possible and... by the stars..."

  "What? What is it!"

  She squints her eyes, the silver irises growing sharper. "It is gone."

  Rockland takes a step toward her, making the Paragons tense up. "Gone? What's gone? What happened to it? What happened to Eden!?"

  Kitera knows that Eden is like Earth to the Universal Eden Union. It is their home, their heart, the place that is kept hidden from the knowledge of Serenity and where civilians can dwell in peace, away from the rule of the Zodiacs. Until now, the Zodiacs would not reveal the UEU's home system or home planet to the Ciphers, they did not believe it necessary for Serenity to know its location. Although the UEU goes against them and destroys their nature, the Zodiacs respect their choice for finding their own path in the universe. They have always tried to guide the conflict of Serenity and the UEU down a gentler path, but some actions against the UEU have been necessary, such as ceasing their operations that bring further harm to the universe and the human race.

  But now, Kitera has been given this forbidden knowledge, only too late. The planet is gone. Vanished.

  Rockland grows hysterical in her silent concentration, veering closer, his mind vague to the increasing tension of the beasts behind her. As he grasps for a handhold of her shoulder, her eyes snap up from their trance and her hand reaches his first. She twists his wrist and forces him down, staying the Paragons from leaping to her defence with a feral command.

  Rockland cries out in pain and clutches for his wrist in her grasp, feeling it on the verge of snapping. The next few moments are a rushing cascade to him. One of his crew rushes to his aid, only to be met halfway by one of the Paragons. The snap of gunfire and a struggled growl of hopelessness are realised before motions cease and he is able to read the situation.

  As Kann had rushed forward, the Paragon with the angry eyes had offset his pistol aim, wrapped a hand around his neck and thrust him back up against the wall, boots paddling for solid ground. All weapons are drawn with their own designated targets, and nobody is moving.

  Kitera releases Rockland, his wrist flinging back to a natural angle, but weapons do not lower.

  “Deo,” Mazayus growls at the man as he slowly chokes Kann to death.

  Deo hesitates a moment, seeming to relish the idea of crushing the life out of Kann before finally releasing him, letting him slump harshly beneath him and heaving in a breath to his inflated lungs.

  Weapons finally lower, but the tension has returned.

  “What happened to Eden?” Rockland pleads up at the Cipher, his voice quivering in anxiety. She stares blankly down at him, eyes glazed by absence. He sees the concentration on her face and manages to hold his tongue from spitting any harsh words at her, though his tongue is burning with the fires of language, and he will soon need to spit.

  She comes back to him, and her features transform fluidly into sorrow. “I am so sorry. Eden is lost. The Zodiacs lost their grip. It fell into shadow.”

  "What does that even mean?"

  "It is unclear to me, also."

  "How many have been killed?"

  "I do not know."

  "Why don't you know anything! You're a Cipher! You should know everything!"

  Once again, Deo tenses in preparation, earning a stern look from Mazayus. Kitera takes a sharp breath through her nostrils, her chin lowering and her eyes sharpening on Rockland. "Eden is distorted, Jaron.”

  Rockland swears at her and rises from her feet, pacing away, frantic. "So this is why the admirals attacked Kronos. Because Eden is gone. They think Serenity is responsible."

  Deo nods. "It’s desperation, insanity. They attacked because they had nothing left to lose. This whole galaxy has gone to hell."

  "So how do we stop this war?" Boone asks no one in particular.

  It is Rockland who answers. "I don't think we can."

  THE BATTLE OF KRONOS

  The Elysian Fields await, harbouring the terror of war. The cold smoke of the nebula blossoms in its indigo shimmer, cradling the swarm of stars within.

  Two vessels burst to life, speed piercing through layers of mass.

  The Marauding Exile is free from the cyber prison of Altair, the UEU crew regaining full control, allowing the ikamanu to carry them. Zee, of course, insisted that he was fully able to helm the ship, and despite Doctor Colton's concerns, Rockland knew that Zee was the only helmsman aboard who could pilot the ship unscathed through the battlefield that lies ahead.

  "Battle stations! Get the ship up to full combat alert and have only crucial terminals operational. I want everyone doing something! All available hands on the command deck! Charge shields and force-shards to maximum power! And if everyone does their jobs, no one else will die today! Not on my damn ship! Double time it people!" Rockland's voice booms loudly with authority throughout the intercoms of the ship, directing what is left of his crew to ready the ship for naval combat.

  Their plan to stop the battle of Kronos is a longshot. The Paragons will board the guardian station and secure its orbital functions, allowing them to safely enter the planet's atmosphere and extract King Anzac. The Marauding Exile will create a diversion, taking any attention away from the already wounded Altair and give the Paragons a straight shot at docking. Rockland then agreed to dock with the UEU Titan and attempt to talk down the admiral.

  The swathe of entity dissipates from around the Marauding Exile, releasing it as they exit star shift and whirl into real space, amidst the shrill terror of the zero gravity battlefield. Their connected docks separate, and the two break apart rapidly, veering in separate directions through the heat of explosive firepower and vicious combat.

  Many more ships have taken damage, utterly torn apart, debris left to hover in Krono's gravity field, remnants of this battle for a thousand years in time. The distance of space separates the clutter, but streams of fire stitch together the gaps fluidly.

  Gladiators skim across the hulls of enemy Olympians, terrorising automated turrets, while others barge through explosions and venting atmosphere, charging after enemies and seeking a lock-on.

  Wolf-packs of Spartans cruise across the guardian station, scanning for docked vessels. Amidst dogfights, Spartans are designed to charge head on at foes, playing chicken to test confidence levels. Passing by mere metres, Spartan will morph their forms, technology automatically reforming to dodge incoming collisions. Spartan battles are as much brute force as they are cyber warfare. A breathtaking spectacle in training exercises, but in the heat of live combat, it is not a game of fun, but a game of death.

  Rockland knows Spartan tactics all too well, despising the exchanges, but thankful for Zee’s talent at it. He watches as an exchange ends in an explosive eruption, two vessels failing to dodge each other. Usually, only one of the charging vessels would be worse off, with the other hitting the sweet spot with a morphed wing used as a jousting lance. But this time, both warships miss their targets and collide head-on, bow to bow, crunching together beneath the rupturing fire that engulfs them. The other Spartans disperse and regroup, preparing for ranged combat.

  The Olympians glide over these smaller quarrels, utilising their powerful heavy shards and taking hungry chunks from kinetic shields. One Serenity Olympian makes a sharp turn on its starboard, angling its primary cannon right between two advancing UEU Olympians. Going head-on against two opponents like this is usually considered suicide and just plain not attempted, but there are always the outcasts. The defiant Olympian separates its dispatch of fire into tw
o streams, half on the Olympian to the left, and half on the Olympian to the right. As soon as the heavy rounds are fired, the Olympian makes a steep dive beneath the two foes, managing to slip past the brunt of their counter attacks and only taking damage to the upper stern, the shields able to absorb the concentrated damage.

  The two Titans remain at the back ranks, providing heavy fire support, and acting as enormous mobile bases for each faction.

  Altair breaks off from the thick of the battle and swoops in a wide circle, careful to stay clear from as much enemy fire as possible until the Marauding Exile can create a diversion. Its star energy thrusters stream out astern, and its entity absorbs any shards that collide with it, Gladiators adjusting their focus to the ikamanu.

  The Marauding Exile dives ahead, pushing right through the centre of the Gladiators and forcing them to break formation to avoid impact. The pilots check their tactical screens, seeing the vessel clearly tagged as the Marauding Exile of the UEU. They engage in a clipped discussion over their comms channel.

  "I'm gonna regret this in the morning," Zee moans at the helm as he brings the Exile hard to port, swerving up beside a UEU Olympian and targeting a line of her turrets on her outer hull. The heavy plasma shards rip at the turrets, utterly destroying them with a chain of cerulean explosions. This instantly draws the attention of the Gladiators, and they change their course after the Exile. Their discussion concludes on the solution that the Spartan has been hijacked by Serenity forces.

  "Diversion successful. We'll draw them away from the guardian station. Get to it, Paragons!" Rockland orders over their shared communications link, not caring that they are not under his command at all, and neither does he care that he will probably get court-martialled for this.

  Aboard Altair, the Paragons nod in success after receiving Rockland's transmission and explode toward the airlock, weapons already drawn, helmets sealed over their heads, their nikita armour plating morphed over their bodies, and their entities sparking through their nervous systems and blood like electrical currents flowing through power lines.

  "Kitera, take us in!" Mazayus barks steadily to the Cipher as he sends a waypoint via his datakey, readying his weapons at the airlock door. The other Paragons join him in unison.

  Kitera awaits their departure in navigation, her eyes glued to the display of the battle that her datakey is showing, but her ears fixed on the sounds of the Paragons down the hall as they seal the airlock door behind them. She guides Altair on Mazayus’ nav point.

  Altair swoops and threads its way toward the majestic guardian station, weaving through many battling Spartans and several lumbering Olympians. The shuddering film of the distortion echoes through the battlefield, appearing innocent, but they know better.

  As the ikamanu nears the halo of the guardian station, it angles itself laterally, narrowly dodging a train of multiple shards. The next volley fired makes an impact, but its entity replies wildly by reflecting them with an explosive flash, and now a warping implosion, as if swallowing the last shards.

  The Paragons brace themselves against the walls of the small airlock door, seeing Altair's entity pulsing in use throughout its insides. The pulsing pauses in a continuous cyan glow, and a soft creak and a hiss is heard as the ikamanu docks with the guardian station. Its entity flows around it like a protective cocoon while it sits stationary, repelling any energy particles and projectiles fired at it from UEU forces, mainly just passing Gladiators or Spartans who have their main focuses on more threatening vessels, like the rogue Marauding Exile, for instance.

  The pressure begins to equalize inside the airlock, slow hissing conjoined with the suction of vacuum. The Paragons’ vitasuits automatically seal and rouse internal life support. As the doors slide open, they pull themselves out cautiously, bodies suddenly whipped off the ground in the weightlessness of zero gravity. This section of the guardian station has lost artificial gravity. Expecting this, they proceed in turns, weapons raised and scanning for any movement aside floating equipment and furniture. The soundless vibe of vacuum whistles in them, captured in their environmental suits, and the lethargy of their movements in zero-g will hinder their combat capabilities. They balance themselves out and push their boots to the ground via small thruster nodes in their suits, activating their magnetic soles that will allow them to walk along the grounds.

  There is no sign of life. They pass through sector A1, the unmanned customs and reception wing, forcing their way through many destroyed biometric readers and terminals. The eerie calm is disrupted by the clinking of glass against their armour, not audible in the vacuum, but felt as their biological plating vibrates.

  The inside of the guardian station is magnificent, despite the damage. The entire station is just one long, tedious hall, with sectors separated by bulkheads in a circular frame as the station curves around the planet. Millions of people can live aboard, due to its colossal size. Large towering pillars adorn the walls in an awesome and grand manner, contrasting with the mechanistic hues of glowing data siphons, terminals, and access points. It almost looks too grand to be human, as if alien or godly.

  The Paragons can hear only their breathing inside their helmets, their beating hearts, and the thud thud thud of their heavy footsteps as their mag-boots connect with the metal panelling. The office they are passing through now is nearly devoid of activity, save for the automatic diagnostics that several terminals run.

  "Accessing station-wide network," Natheus announces quietly over the comms link, voice damp in his helmet. His left palm glows electric blue, but the interface of his datakey does not appear. He is using it telepathically. "I have access... searching for functioning camera footage and personnel locaters."

  The other Paragons listen to him silently, linking their datakeys to his to share feeds.

  After a moment, Natheus speaks again. "The station's biometric readings have been deactivated. There is no way we can locate any Serenity personnel without the S.I online... Scanning for available footage..." He stops, kneels to one knee, slings his Parallel, and opens the semi-holographic, semi-solidgraphic interface of his datakey and scans through the video footage from the cameras active throughout the station. It shows live images of several sectors. No movement or activity from what he can tell, and all the other cameras have either been destroyed or deactivated as the image only shows a white blur and pours static into his earchip. The others form a defensive perimeter around him, taking advantage of his kneel that allows their fields of sight to be free of friendly fire. They glance back occasionally to see the images on Natheus' datakey.

  "Anything?" Mazayus asks.

  "Negative. Many camera domes have been disabled."

  "See if you can access the data logs and view previous footage."

  Natheus nods. "One moment."

  As Natheus has no better luck with accessing the footage, he tries something else, though it is a longshot. "I will attempt to bring the station's S.I back online. It may be able to assist us."

  An S.I, Shard Intellect, is a very basic artificial intelligence program, though not self aware and unable to evolve. S.I's exist within a shard, and can be uploaded to anything that will compensate for a shard or that operates from a star shard, such as weaponry, vehicles, combat suits, stations, cities, and vessels. They are useful as their calculations and reaction times are far ahead of the human brain, and are used as assistants, receptionists, onboard managers for warships, or in the case of a guardian station, an all-round attendant and operator. S.I’s are scarce, however, as many people do not trust any form of artificial intelligence, whether it has the capability to rebel or not. The largest markets for S.I’s are through black market dealers.

  Natheus allows his datakey to float freely as he uses both hands to interact with it, trying to access the station's fail-safe and trigger an emergency boot of the S.I, which has obviously been overwritten.

  "Ah..." he mutters to himself in a curious moment of success. At this moment, the intercoms throughout the stat
ion give a slight sigh, as if released from a life of prison.

  "Serenity Kronos Guardian Station Shard Intellect Serial Number-Zero-Zero-Dash-Zero-Nine-Alpha. Ranity online. I detect fatal damage throughout the interior and exterior of the guardian station. Artificial gravity is offline in all A sectors. Hull breaches in sectors C12 to F5. Active ventilation in sector J19. Life support systems failing in all sectors. Two thousand five hundred and fifty three Serenity life signs identified as deceased. UEU life signs detected... Paragon presence detected. Greetings, Paragon Natheus, Paragon Mazayus, Paragon Deo, Paragon Boone, Paragon Rahna, Paragon... error. Paragon Ecahl is listed as deceased as of four seconds from now. How may I be of assistance?"

  The Paragons relax and automatically look to the small domes on the walls, where the S.I can observe. They ignore her basic and unemotional manner.

  "Greetings, Ranity," Natheus says guardedly to the dome closest to him, standing again and grasping his sniper rifle. "There are other Paragons on this station?"

  "Yes. I detect one other active Paragon in sub-sector A6. Paragon Rahna. She is directing a unit of soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Tomek." Ranity's voice is smooth and calm, wrapped in a subtle English accent. "Her other Paragon companion, Paragon Ecahl, has unfortunately fallen to UEU forces."

  The Paragons look to each other. They had not expected to encounter other Paragons, though Kronos is the heart of Serenity in Scattered Planet, and it is logical to expect Paragons to assist in this battle. There may be many more on the planet’s surface.

  "Please inform Rahna of our presence, we will be aiding her in retaking this station from UEU forces," Mazayus says steadily to the S.I.

  "She is already alerted, Paragon Mazayus. Is there anything more I can do for you?" Ranity replies just as steadily, seeming to be oblivious of the on-going destruction of the station. In her case, it is not ignorance she holds, but basic programming. Basic programming is bliss...

  "Please give us access to the security footage throughout the station," Mazayus now asks.