Zero Star

by Chad Huskins

  Her Vac Hound was quick at her heels, and when it looked at Kalder, it first growled, then tucked its tail and half hid behind its master’s legs.

  “Ah, Miss Holdengard. What a pleasant surprise, I didn’t expect to be seeing you today. I hope my putting in a word through the Office of Traffic Affairs expedited your search for a new hangar bay?”

  “I guess it finally went through, thanks,” she said. “But while I was waiting I did a little searching on LOG, and I found some interesting things.”

  “Oh? I would enjoy hearing the insights of a stellarpath.” He waved her to a seat, and took one across from her. “So, tell me.”

  Moira snapped her fingers and pointed next to her, and the Vac Hound took a seat beside her. As she talked, she scratched his snout. “I’ve been looking into the history of the Eaton System,” she said. “Not much to find, but what I did find was curious.”

  “Yes?”

  Julian handed her a glass of water.

  “Thank you. Before I tell you what I found, I actually have one question. I was just in the Forum, and there was a man standing atop a stall shouting your name. He was shouting for people to follow your Crusade. Is this your propaganda?”

  “It is,” Kalder admitted. “It was actually Julian’s idea. I had merely said we ought to disperse some ads on LOG, or at a few holo-projector stations in the Forum’s shops. But he claims that the Faith 6A polls show that across the Republic, the theatrics of zealotry are showing clear upticks in influencing people’s hearts and minds. Monarch especially appears to be an attractant for zealots, and the people are desperate to hear them.”

  “The speaker also said you were three thousand years old,” Moira said, lifting a quizzical brow.

  Kalder waved a hand. “The man is a Christer,” he said. “We paid him and others to spread the message, and they agreed they would as long as it did not contradict the core values of their religion. Everybody wins.”

  “But you want people to think you’re three thousand years old?”

  “That is the Christer’s own flourish, and Christers believe in long-lived people. Methuselah, Seth, Kenan, and Adam. His flock will believe or not believe, it is their choice. Simple minds draw enormous conclusions to fill in small gaps.”

  Moira nodded slowly, then changed the subject. “I found out that Eaton was probably the site of a battle during the Ninth Unknowns War,” she said. “And that a large ship was destroyed there, over Dwimer, all souls aboard were lost. Did you know about this?”

  As a Zeroist, Kalder had been taught to abhor obfuscation and prevarication. Therefore, he would not sidestep, yet he also did not feel it was right to be overly forthcoming with all that he knew. He had to be careful here, so very careful, for if he was too forthcoming he might divulge a key piece of information that the stellarpath was better off not knowing, yet if he erred too far on the side of caution he would be blatantly lying to her.

  “I knew about Eaton’s history during the Ninth Unknowns War,” he finally said. “But that isn’t why I wanted to make it our first stop on the Crusade. My interest in Eaton has nothing to do with the Unknowns. But,” he added, “if I’m right, there may be a few ghosts still waiting there in Eaton, around Dwimer specifically.”

  Moira lifted both eyebrows now. “Ghosts,” she said. “You mean like old machines that are still working? Like ancient security systems still intact on the planet? Those kinds of ghosts?”

  “No.”

  Moira blinked.

  “So…when you say ghosts, you mean…”

  “I mean the restless spirits of the dead, Miss Holdengard.”

  : SDFA Lord Ishimoto

  At 0600 Zulu, Lyokh met the others in Lord Ishimoto’s War Room, which was down the hall from from the ship’s main CIC. Ulfdrak Donovan, Lord Ishimoto’s captain, stood with his hands clasped behind his back at one end of the room. The long compristeel table that dominated the center of the room had almost enough seats for everyone. The Visquain were all in attendance, naturally, in their official capacity as War Council. Reyes was there representing the Wyrm Tamers. Primacy Intelligence was represented by an officer named Kalik Ruhne, a surly man with a thick black beard and both eyes replaced by oculators.

  Lyokh stood against the wall with twenty other wing captains, all dressed in their STACsuits and with their helmets removed. Their attention was on Quoden, who stood at the head of the table with three separate holographic tactical maps hovering in front of him: a map of the whole Phanes System and its key ordnance and installations; a map of the Widden-Suns system, with the key defenses shown at the Lagrange points; and a rotating three-dimensional map of Widden itself, with about thirty key defensive points shown around the four megalopolises, poles, and vast farmlands, the latter of which were completely automated by bots and drones.

  “Take a look, boys and girls,” said Quoden. “This may be the last time you lay your eyes on a garden world for a long time.” He waved his hands, and all his gestures were picked up by the natural-user interface, enabling him to rotate all the maps, summon greater detail, and shrink and enlarge them.

  “I shouldn’t have to tell anyone why this is critical,” Quoden continued. “Widden has been isolationist for some time now, with only marginal shipments of ice to some regions of Republic space, but if we can reestablish good relations with a garden world this lush, the farming could help alleviate hunger in some systems that are struggling.

  “That’s the key that the Primacy wants us all to remember. We are here to protect and to show what great allies we can be. Almost thirty percent of the planet is untapped wildlands, perfect for farming, and perhaps some industry, if the High Priestess allows. The Corporate Arm would love that. But all that comes only if things go well.

  “So, stage one, we insert into the system here, at more or less the same orbit as the system’s farthest planet, Belgruum. Second Fleet will break apart into three separate task forces. Task Force One will be led by Ishimoto, and will move immediately in-system and secure a perimeter around Phanes. We will deploy starscreamers to patrol in LEO, send troops to the ground, skyrakes and wyrm flocks in-atmo, and begin patrolling. Task Force Two will be led by Ecclesiastes and will go in-system, as well, but only so far as the asteroid belt here,” he said, pointing to a ring between the seventh and eighth planets, both gas giants.

  That was a good choice. As a Greatwyrm-class dragonship, Ecclesiastes had one of Second Fleet’s two greatwyrms, Nuerthanc, a veteran and eager killer once, when he had been verpens-sized, but now he was too large for heavy maneuvers, yet his thick hide made excellent extra cover, and both his head and tail were swift enough to bat away starfighters like gnats.

  “Two will secure the mining facilities,” Quoden went on, “and sweep for any mines that might have been left by Ascendancy scoutships before they left. And finally, Task Force Three, led by Vaultimyr, will remain at the outer edge of the system and perform sensor sweeps, searching for spacetime distortions that could signal incoming Ascendancy vessels. Yes, Captain Stuling?”

  Stuling, captain of Swift Wing, had raised his hand. “Has there been any contact with planetary leadership?”

  “There has, but it’s flaky at best. The transmissions have been short, just incomplete requests for help from Zane, incomplete reports of how their evacuations are going, and warnings not to overstep our bounds once we’re there. It’s a complex issue, involving the rigidity of the ruling class and the higher members of the Vastill leadership, which is led by a collection of thanes, who in turn defer to the religious order of Mahl. Also, there are radio hiccups, which may suggest the Ascendancy is employing jamming technologies.”

  He looked at them all seriously. “Things could be far worse once we arrive.”

  Everyone sat with that a moment, absorbing the full implications.

  Quoden turned back to his maps. “Now, securing the city of Vastill is crucial, for there is a governing infrastructure there that cannot be upset. So, once all wings are deployed
from Ishimoto, a contingent will be left within its walls. The Vastill government did a lot to fortify its walls, but as far as anti-air turrets, it has precious little. Therefore, Mantis weapons platforms will be deployed from Ishimoto at low orbit, and take up defensive positions around the city, supporting all ground troops.”

  The Mantis VIIs were huge machine beasts with retractable legs that could cling to nearly any surface, for their claws were both magnetic and sharp. They looked almost exactly like praying mantises, with a giant railgun in place of their heads. Deploying them from orbit was a smart move, Lyokh thought, because it would quickly give IX Legion a leg up in defending the city.

  “Gold Wing will be leading the patrols in and around Vastill. For all emergencies in the field, report directly to the doyen.” Quoden nodded at Lyokh. “We will send small contingents to the other three megalopolises to see if there’s any civilian leadership that still needs evacuating, but Vastill is key.

  “Vastill is built in giant concentric rings, most buildings in each ring are stepped pyramids made of stone, sometimes compristeel. The city has its own trained guard, and, as you all read in the report, their city guard will provide protection at the outer walls. For what it’s worth,” he added.

  There were a few grim chuckles. Guarding city walls wouldn’t mean much when the enemy would probably be deploying from the sky.

  “But at least we’ll have some help from people with roots in the city,” Quoden went on. “It always helps to have allies. Which brings us to the enforcement of the Dexannonhold, which is what they call the place where the High Pristess lives, here,” he said, pointing to a spot on the city map that zoomed in to show a giant spire. It was a silver dagger stabbing into the sky, with ornate stone structures that fanned out like blades, giving the Dexannonhold the illusion of being a rock-and-chrome flower in bloom.

  Quoden zoomed out to look at the north and south poles of Widden.

  “Widden’s poles are also crucial, since what little trade they have is the export of ice and water. We know in the past the Ascendancy has gone after infrastructure, attempting to debilitate their enemies with a combination of sheer force and a dismantling of an economy. We know that they did this with the human colony on Xiria, by fabricating ungodly amounts of counterfeit money and dropping it all over the planet over a month’s time. People found the money everywhere—mountaintops, streets, in forests, on rooftops, everywhere. They spent it, flooding the market with too much currency, which caused the Xirian currency to crash. In combination with other attacks, the Ascendancy has so defeated their enemies.”

  “They’re tricky bastards,” Rear Admiral Vickers put in.

  Now Quoden pointed to the map of the Widden-Suns system, which included the four moons orbiting the planet. “The moons all have drone military craft, lightly armed, but they move fast because they don’t have to worry about any crew—they can make snap turns at incredible speeds, so as interceptors they ought to work well. But besides those drones and a few heaviliy armed craft at their Lagrange points, there’s really not much to Widden’s navy.

  “Now, let’s talk about the enemy.”

  General Quoden waved his hand, and made a few other gestures that removed all three of the maps and replaced them with four holopanes, each one showing a different aspect of the Machinist Ascendancy’s military might.

  The starkest image, perhaps, was a collective profile on the Machinists themselves, who were offshoots of humanity. Vaguely humanoid in appearance, but with cybernetic augmentations that sometimes protruded from their bodies. Some of the upper-class Machinists had more natural-looking pieces, prosthetic arms and legs with thin lines dividing the place between natural and synthetic flesh. Lower-class persons had a crueler appearance, with crude cybernetics jutting out of their spines—the most common augmentation being exterior spinal supports, which allowed for wicked mobility. Random arms and legs were missing from these sorts, replaced by generic fleshless prosthetics. All eyes had been removed and replaced by their own kind of oculators, jagged bits that appeared to have been stabbed into the skull rather than surgically implanted.

  “Here, we have our cousins,” Quoden said. “Or rather some amalgamation of genealogical divergence coupled with almost a thousand years of technological revolutions, brought about by the Church of the Singularity who were destroyed three hundred years ago, but nevertheless whose principles remain embedded in the Ascendancy.

  “As most of you are aware, the Machinists are what’s left of a thread of humanity that branched off some ages ago when the Church of the Singularity reached its height. It’s not clear exactly how far back their history stretches. We know that they abandoned the forming Republic completely when the Senate passed strict laws against artificial intelligence, following the Usurper War. For those of you who forgot your history, that was when a few planets had adopted an AI model that networked all satellites, computer networks, and human augmentations into DESIGN. The Usurper program, as the rogue AI element became known, forced a war that caused the greatest loss of human life in any single war to date.

  “After DESIGN’s collapse and the destruction of Usurper, many disaffected people still holding true to the Church’s principles fled. Clusters of refugees. Millions of them. They set out in all directions, heading into uncharted space. Small pockets of them were found here and there by stellarpaths, who stumbled upon dead worlds, where only a few survivors remained wandering rocky wastelands.

  “The Ascendancy first appeared on our scopes in their current form about seven hundred years ago, caused a bit of trouble in a few random parts of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, then disappeared into the Vejas Cluster and did not come out again until eighty-one years ago. They’ve been busy. Using drones and nanite swarms, it seems they’ve gathered resources from a hundred worlds, and built up a navy of unknown size. It could be as big as the Grennal Navy for all we know.”

  That was a sobering thought for everyone in the room, including Lyokh. None besides the Brood currently had a navy as big as the Grennal, who were locked away in their home system, unable to leave for Brood interference. If Lord Ishimoto and all of Second Fleet were confronted with a navy of that size, they would be annihilated in less than a day, without question.

  General Quoden said, “For a review of known weapons and armament, I’m going to defer to Specialist Prefect Kalik Ruhne here. Prefect Ruhne?”

  The bearded man with the oculators stood slowly, and hove a heavy sigh. “Thank you, General. You all should have had a chance to look at what we know of the Ascendancy’s armament, so I will hit on the more salient points that you need to remember if you encounter these bastards.” He waved his hand at the holograms, changing one of the panes to a slideshow of weaponry, vehicles, and naval ships.

  The Ascendancy soldiers, called mechanicae, were men and women infused with large augmetics. They were generally hairless, garbed in heavy armor, with electrodes stabbing crueling into the base of their skulls, feeding neural impulses to limbs. Their faces generally looked pale, but were handsome. If it wasn’t for the random pieces of tech jutting out of their flesh, they would have been ideal specimens of the human race.

  “Most of you have never encountered the Ascendancy,” said Prefect Ruhne. “So, what you’ve seen is mostly of the vids taken from the HUDs of dead soldiers decades ago. You’ve seen the speed of the mechanicae. You know they move fast. Their limbs are multijointed, and their movement has been described as incectile. If they make it to Widden’s surface, they’ll be deployed in drop pods.”

  A wave of his hand brought up a detailed look at a long, black rifle that looked to be cast iron. It was bulky, with a single barrel that was about as long as a man’s arm but skinny as his finger.

  “These are their tinzer rifles,” Ruhne said. “The bulk of the rifle is a particle accelerator. Highly destructive. One or two hits will punch through a STACsuit’s plasma shield, no problem.

  “Their castleships are larger than anything we’ve got in Secon
d Fleet, but also slower and less maneuverable, and without the technology to make a proper Pacifier like ours. That’s lucky for us. Naval battles will therefore probably be fought at extremely long range, we’re talking millions of miles apart, so that they can keep away from Second’s Pacifiers. For close-in fighting, they’ll use their fast-attack ships, what we call daggerships, on account of their blade shape.”

  Lyokh raised his hand.

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “Sir, what does PI think is the primary reason for the Ascendancy moving into Phanes?”

  “What else? Resources. We think they’ve been gobbling up several worlds, and had a few internecine wars, one government taking out the other. The Ascendancy is not monolithic, just like any society there are lots of variations of belief systems, religions, politics, and territorial claims. We don’t know all the details, or how many factions within the Ascendancy might be at war with one another, but we think this latest incarnation of the Ascendancy is an attempt to unify and expand. We may be looking at the Ascendancy resurgent.”

  There were a few exasperated sighs as people came to terms with yet another enemy on the rise. Was there no end to it? Would humanity fight until its last days, all the way to its last man?

  “And have the Ascendancy attacked Phanes at all since the first distress call came from Widden?” asked Lyokh.

  “No,” said Ruhne.

  “Have they sent any emissaries?”

  “None at all.”

  Lyokh thought that was strange. Why had a militarily superior force attacked a system with so few defenses, then backed off, without sending any emissaries? It didn’t make sense.

  What are they waiting for?

  Tsuyoshi, captain of Devastator Wing, raised his hand, “Prefect, sir, since they are so reliant on cyber augmetics, is there any chance of using EMP bombs to disable them?”