Ghost of an Empire (Sentinel Series Book 3)

by Richard Flunker

  Deespa tried to reach out, but the being stopped her.

  “You will watch as this system must be sacrificed. Far too much sacrilege has been committed here, in this collection of worlds. Three pearls of utmost beauty, flying peacefully with life, each unique. Your primate has polluted my custodies with their own creations, with animals from this Earth. Your primate change the course of life within their own bodies. I feel that perversion within you, twisted and abnormal.

  And for this, my keepsake must burn and perish. The fires will consume everything, and then I will come for Earth.”

  As the being spoke, memories flowed forth from within the swirls of light inside of the being. Deespa saw a group of men, tall and noble, standing deep in the vaults. She saw their DNA, and saw herself in them. Ahead of them was the small black diamond she had once encountered in the same vaults. One of the men stepped forward and lay his hand on the ancient being. She felt a connection to him, pulled from deep within her genes. She could hear him speak.

  “I did not believe in demons, but I have encountered you,” the ghost from the past spoke. “Dark secrets we have learned from you, only to uncover the wrath of your creation. You cannot have our world, though yours you claim it to be. So we have taken your greatest secret, and I have come forth to end you, for now.”

  She saw the luminous figure that was the ancient being, and it lashed out in anger. It screamed and thrashed, but the men stood valiant. With his hand on the diamond, the man sent his soul into it, and there the two engaged in combat that could not be explained to mortal men. But the man was of flesh, and the being could not control him. But the noble had a foreign spirit in him as well, and Deespa recognized it in herself. That spirit reached out while the two fought each other, and attached itself to the ancient being. In an explosion of light, the spirit drew the ancient being out and into the man.

  The black diamond lost its power. Somehow, the man had taken a part of the being into himself, and thus made it dormant again.

  “So you see how I was defeated?” the voice lashed out, sending shards of pain through her mind. “That is why you must live.”

  Then, he was gone. She was left alone in the dark, but the memories of that man, tall and strong, were etched into her mind. It was a curious thing, for Deespa, to have such strong memories of a tie that her soul couldn’t understand. The saying that blood ran thicker than water took on new meanings with her. The familial urge of biology now revealed to her. That man was her ancestor, in the Dominion way, of course. The same pattern her physical brain held that allowed her soul to enter the body was the same that the man used to draw out the ancient being.

  She could sense there was a price to be paid for such an action.

  “Deespa,” a small voice whispered quietly in the dark.

  Her eyes sprung open, and her eyes saw nothing. But now it was her soul that recognized her brother.

  “Stargazer?” she said faintly.

  “Found you.”

  All the attachments that held her in place snapped loose. She dropped to the ground, limp and lifeless.

  “Deespa, get up. Help is coming, but you have to move.”

  “I know how to defeat it,” she cried out in the darkness.

  “Not this day. I have discovered how it talks, and am using it against him. It won’t be long though. Billions depend on you living today.”

  “I can’t see,” she said.

  “I will be your eyes today, sister.”

  Suddenly, she could see the walls, from above her. A spirit hovered above her, saintly; a guardian like the stories of old. She could see the way out. There was confusion everywhere she looked, and somewhere, deep within the creature, it shouted out in rage.

  “Run!”

  Energy surged through her limbs once more, and Deespa felt her muscles burst to life. She sprinted down the hallway, past machines that stood there, sleeping or bumping into the walls. With every step she took, she gained more speed, and with every breath she took, her mind cleared. She followed the eyes that floated behind her, heading towards an exit until, at least, she burst through the light and gasped for air.

  She was thousands of feet above the ground. The large being had lifted off and was slowly heading out into orbit.

  “Now what?” she shouted out into the gusts of wind blowing her dirty silver hair back.

  “Right here,” he said.

  The DGX materialized suddenly in front of her, and Hosha was standing at its hatch. Deespa checked the distance, and backed up. With a running start, she leapt out of the ancient being, a rat fleeing a sinking ship, and landed in Hosha’s arms, crushing him. She cried out in joy, then laughed.

  “We got her,” Hosha whimpered out from underneath her much larger frame.

  The DGX vanished again and turned towards the sky, blasting upwards. Deespa stood up gingerly, and tried walking towards the cabin, but collapsed. Hosha caught her and held her up as best as he could, despite the large size difference. He managed to set her down on the couch.

  “Stargazer, the weapon. It’s going to use it. We have to stop it, now.”

  “We cannot. The weapons will be fired. I have to get you to the Harmoa, only then do we stand a chance at defeating the ancient one.”

  “That won’t matter if the weapon hits the Coran sun,” Deespa cried out, wiping grime and filth from her face.

  “It’s ok. Two of your best men are on it,” Stargazer replied.

  3127 – Ruins of the Holy Seat Temple, Coran

  There was a point, nearly a year ago, when Fangix ran across one of his former agents. This former agent was on a spying mission for the old Dominion, tasked with getting as much dirt on the Queen as he could. He was good, one of the best, and likely why he was given the mission. Fangix was good too, though, and after finding traces of him, was able to ferret him out on a moon base around Tinginika. The confrontation would have been epic, as far as fights go, but if there was one thing Fangix had above all others was the killer skill. As the agent lay dying in a pool of blood, he managed to gargle up one last gust of anger.

  “I thought you were loyal.”

  And that was the thing about loyalty. All bred men of the Dominion, the super soldiers, nobles, and all the left-overs, like he was, were all branded with loyalty from the very beginning. It was the Dominar, your family, then yourself, in that order. The few that weren’t able to display such loyalty were rarely heard of again. It is why the abhorrently corrupt system of the Dominion was able to stand strong for so long and over countless of systems.

  And Fangix was loyal. The deeds he had done proved it. What he had put himself through to become the killing machine he was were the proof anyone needed. But, there were two kinds of loyalty, and Fangix now knew that. He was loyal to the old Dominion, to that crony the Dominar, because he had no choice. He knew no other choice. It was loyalty, undying and unflinching, but only in as much as a slave is loyal to his owner, when there is no other choice.

  But the Queen had come along. She didn’t demand his loyalty, she asked for it. And this after healing him of that dark corner of his mind that left him weak. There was no debt, just a choice. ‘Follow me if you want, be loyal if you want, but you are free’. More so than ever, there was no doubt in his mind he was loyal to the Queen, because that was his choice. There was no doubt he had chosen the best kind of loyalty.

  And he was willing to die for it.

  The AI had guided him through a maze of hastily built warehouses and the giant parking lot that the miles of land around the old ruins had become. Blindly he followed the machine, only because of this loyalty to his Queen. And true to his word, the AI had taken him from power source to power source, with just enough boost to give his personal stealth field good charges. And now he sat there, next to a large mobile power unit, plugged in, his suit on permanent stealth. He was invisible, waiting for the right moment.

  He came across the transports the Queen had arrived in, and confirmed the bodies of the First s
oldiers who had likely fought desperately to save their Queen. In so many stories, of the old machine wars, men had been torn to shreds by the machines that so desperately hated life. There was none of that there. Instead, the men had cut throats and broken necks. The fact that they had been left where they had died showed there was little interest in this ancient one for the dead.

  He caught out of the corner of his eye his DGX speeding past. It was invisible, but he knew what to look for, and the tech in his eyes could track it. Miles ahead of him, the ancient one in its grotesquely immense shell were moving slowly up into the sky. It blotted out the sun, casting a shadow across the entire valley. Never before had he seen anything like it, and he had seen much, for when it came to the old Dominion, larger was always better. He had that feeling, deep down, that this being before them was far beyond what they were capable of dealing with. It was like being given a mission that you knew you just weren’t going to survive.

  But that wasn’t his mission.

  There were some machines moving about, small lift drones and hauler mechs, ambling around moving cargo from trucks. There was no chaos to it, no randomness. It was beyond just military exercise and precision. It was a completely controlled environment. He watched it go on for nearly twenty minutes, waiting as patiently as he could. He knew something was up when they all stopped still.

  “Found her,” the voice chirped into his ear.

  His eye burst to life with a signal blinking red on a map. It was time for him to move. A quick look at his stealth suit showed that it was holding on to a four minute charge. That was an eternity for him. He unhooked from the small power outlet, and began a dash forward. He leapt through the hauler mechs, frozen mid loading and unloading.

  He followed the path of the signal down and out of the parking lot, as he referred to it, and into a series of also hastily built bunkers. The map led him past the bunkers to a larger object past them, so he dashed through, passing by several Doomguard, the Queen’s hijacked robotic bodyguards, standing guard on some of the bunkers. In any other time and place, he would have checked the bunkers to see just what was being guarded, but there was no more time and place.

  Beyond the small complex of bunkers he came across a large pit and had his first startling moment. Men, women, children, animals, all filled the pit, which had to be at least a hundred feet wide. There was no way of knowing how deep it was with all the bodies piled in. Fangix slowed down a bit, looking around. His charger showed two minutes. On the far side of the pit were several loader drones, bodies draped over their lift arms, also frozen in inaction.

  Bending over, he took a closer look at the bodies. Some were missing eyes, some ears. Many were missing limbs of various kinds while others were without heads. Even the animals were mutilated this way. None showed other forms of harm. Standing back up, he saw the pattern among the bodies. These people, and animals, had been harvested for their parts. Without too much time to spare, Fangix started taking as many pictures as possible. There was no way of knowing for sure, but this could be important. Then again, it could just be another part of war.

  As he took pictures, scanning back and forth across the ocean of mutilated bodies, one quickly jumped out at him. The large giant stuck out among a sea of normally sized people. He was at the feet of one of the drone lifters, not too far around the pit. Keeping a close eye on the time, he ran as fast as he could around the pit, jumping easily over the arms or legs sticking out of the pit.

  Fangix reached the body. His timer read just over a minute of stealth time left. He knelt over the body and turned it over. It must have been in the arms of the drone, and fallen when all the rest had gone dormant. It was Ogho. The right side of his face was badly burn and torn up, but it was him. His Queen would want to see this, and get record of the brave man. He took him by the arm, and began to drag him out of the pit, when he felt it. Weak, but there. A pulse.

  Three years ago, he wouldn’t have thought twice about it. The soldier had done his duty and deserved nothing else. There was always a mission, and the mission came first. His mission was still there, as the timer in his eye clearly showed him, and it was extremely important. But there was something about this new loyalty his Queen had shown him. The actions he took while achieving the mission were just as important as the mission. His stealth would run out, and his job would be exponentially tougher, but, this soldier had earned his respect, and the loyalty of the Queen.

  He reached into his belt and removed two small capsule pods. He slipped off each cover, revealing a tiny needle, and then jabbed both into the muscular arms of the First Tennant. The first was a powerful pain inhibitor. Even super soldiers go into shock after a certain amount of damage, and pain would be his biggest barrier. The second was a combination heart booster/genetic repair sample. It was enhanced speed. Most people wouldn’t live through the two, but Ogho, like himself, was not like most people.

  Within seconds of injecting the two pods into his blood, Ogho gasped for air. Fangix slapped a small bracelet onto his wrist, and began getting bio readings in his eye. The soldier sat up and looked around with his one good eye, the other hiding behind a mangled mess of flesh. He looked around quickly, in shock, his heartbeat through the roof.

  Fangix tapped his stealth off, and was greeted by a shocked look of recognition.

  “You?”

  “Yeah,” Fangix smiled coyly, “Not the paradise you expected.”

  Ogho looked down at his arm. “Did you boost me?”

  Fangix nodded. The soldier looked back across the pit and the bodies, confused.

  “No time to explain. You think you can move?” Fangix asked. A quick check of his timer showed that he had seventeen seconds of stealth left. He would save it for when it was needed most.

  Ogho stood up, and flexed his muscles, opening and closing his hands.

  “Don’t feel anything broken. We need to find the Queen,” he said in a panic, suddenly remembering.

  “Not the mission,” Fangix said, checking the map on display in his eye. “The machine is on it. We need to find something else.”

  “What?” the soldier asked, wondering what could be more important than the Queen’s life.

  “That star bomb the AI made,” Fangix pointed out. He pointed the way and began running. The giant, feeling the power of the boost, easily kept up with him.

  “We knew it was a trap, but,” Ogho explained, as they moved past the pit and into a new section of bunkers, “we thought we could out fight them. She was there, she couldn’t be defeated.”

  But they were, Ogho explained. He, himself, was hit by a powerful plasma blast, hence the half burnt face and body, and missed everything else. Fangix told him what he’d seen regarding his fellow soldiers, and Ogho didn’t reply.

  They came around one of the bunkers into plain view of a building that apparently was there in existence before the machine had arrived. It was the entrance to one of the planetary orbital batteries, with the large cannons just tipping through the ground behind it like four short silos. Right in front of the door stood two Doomguard, and Fangix was no longer stealthed. For a moment, the spy prepared to react defensively, but the two robots stood still at the doorway. Whatever Stargazer had done was still working. Fangix ran out, and Ogho followed, although with a bit more caution.

  “They,” the soldier said apprehensively, as they walked past the two mechs, “aren’t attacking?”

  “Stargazer is doing something. Waging a battle. AI vs. AI.”

  As Fangix opened the door, one of the mechs hissed, making them both jump. The torso on one of the Doomguard suddenly swung open, revealing the suit on the inside. A small blinking message appeared in Fangix’ eye.

  - Weapon for First Tennant Ogho. He may need it.-

  Fangix relayed the message. “Eyes in the sky wants you to have it. We weren’t expecting to find you, but we may need you.”

  “Odd day to fulfill your dream of becoming a Doomguard. Of course, that’s when I thought actual men
were inside of them.”

  “They were made for men like you,” Fangix said, holding the door open. “I just don’t think the Queen had found her men yet. Maybe she finally has.”

  The soldiers stepped into the suit, and Fangix slid the leg covers shut, and the rest of the suit closed up automatically. Once closed, there was a brief moment where Fangix wondered what would happen once the ancient one came back from whatever is was doing with the AI on the Harmoa. Maybe it wouldn’t matter. Besides, they were all dead already.

  Ogho cried out briefly from inside.

  “I’m not used to these drugs,” he shouted through the closed helmet before it powered up. The suit had its own cocktail of self-medication built into it, and once Ogho was in the mech, it had started to automatically tend to its pilot. The Doomguard completely its powerup, and Ogho looked down over his arms. He then looked across at the other Doomguard mech, and it one motion, reached up and ripped its head off.

  “You know,” Ogho assured, “just in case.”

  They followed a small hallway that led underground and into a small control room with several consoles and screens. There was one large window overhead. The giant shell of the ancient one was looming higher over the valley than before. There were several more windows directly ahead of them, with only darkness coming through. A small hatch led down into the artillery guns deeper underground. Fangix reached down and opened the hatch and noticed that it was too small for Ogho.

  “The weapon is down there?” the soldier asked.

  “Signal comes in real clear now,” Fangix replied, lowering himself down onto the ladder.