While part of his awareness was overseeing the route, he devoted his greater thought range to the strategic overview. And his earlier assessment concerning the disparity between the technological level of the Warcage and the technical abilities of the dominant Shuskar authority was now deeper and undeniable. From what the shimmership had gleaned from the few archives linked to Armag’s rudimentary dataweb, the Shuskar homeworld had been a later addition, brought into the Great Harbour of Benevolent Harmony, as the Warcage was then known.
They played only a small part in the schisms and clashes of those times but over the following centuries and millennia their stature grew. As the Great Harbour journeyed among the civilisations of the Andromeda galaxy, fostering tyrannies and chaos along the way, the rivalries and enmities between its own worlds provided a stairway of strife which the Shuskar eagerly took advantage of. Eventually they ascended to the leadership of a fractious alliance large and strong enough to compel those worlds still ruled by the Builders’ descendants to surrender or face obliteration. Other crises came along in the centuries that ensued, the most significant being the struggle against some kind of machine intelligence called the Apparatarch, and a comparatively more recent one called the Beshephis Uprising, a workers’ rebellion which spread across several worlds until it was put down with ruthless brutality.
Then, as now, the Shuskar’s battlefield strength was derived from militarised cadres that drew their members from the underclasses on almost all the occupied worlds of the Warcage. The Grand Escalade tournament was an early development, with considerable resources devoted to fostering and popularising a competitive culture, even to the point of concocting grudges and feuds based on minor or imagined slights and insults. The bouts themselves were shown all across a network of community screens, either as livecasts of real-time battle bouts or as repeats of past encounters.
And it was abundantly clear that the Shuskar, by now long accustomed to their position of supreme dominance, had allowed their command hierarchy to ossify into habit and tradition. Outweighing that, however, was the adaptive tactical edge of the bout armies, battle-hardened by centuries of competition against a range of opponents in a wide variety of locales. Combine this with the high tech-level of Warcage ships, many possessing self-repair systems devised by the original Builders, and the result was a fearsome assault force capable of breaking through the defences of almost any planet in this part of the galaxy.
Three worlds in the Warcage were key to the Shuskar military pre-eminence: Dushkel, Venstak and Nagolger–the fleetworlds. In addition to huge repair yards and semi-automated component factories, there were also vast underground ship arsenals, thousands of vessels stored and ready to be woken to battle by specific codes. Unfortunately, due to the rudimentary nature of onboard smart systems these ships required sizeable, well-trained crews, something that the underpopulated Warcage worlds, hamstrung by low levels of education, were unable to provide.
The drone Rensik was musing on the three fleetworlds and speculating on how forces of Chainer insurgents could overcome their large garrisons when an exterior problem wrenched his attention away. The autonav was steering the shimmership along a laboured, more tortuous route in response to the fine, multilayered forcefield barriers that were being generated directly ahead.
And behind, the succession of huge mesh barricades springing up all along the ship’s course put paid to any notion of deceleration. Yet the current dodging and twisting was becoming increasingly hazardous.
Very cunning. A counter-ingress system designed to trap and capture any intruder sneaking in from hyperspace, perhaps even crush and destroy them. I could slip down to a lower level of hyperspace but that would hamper my plans. Back to normal space, then, and resume on reaction drive…
The shimmership’s hyperdrive disengaged its field matrix and the enclosing forcefield meshes melted into the inky black of space within the Warcage. All the worlds bound to that encircling grid gleamed like shiny beads in the harsh light of its sun. Long-range sensors had located the Shuskar flotilla and the drone’s ship was under way, intercept course laid in, reaction drive output ramping up. Stealth counterdetects were running and drive-emission masking agents were being released. In a matter of six minutes the shimmership would be matching course and velocity with that command vessel, then Rensik could commence hacking.
An alarm spiked across Rensik’s extended awareness. The autonav took evasive actions even as the sensor feed showed the drone the kilometres-long meshed forcefield structure that scythed through the patch of space through which the shimmership had been passing the briefest of moments ago. Its shape was part wing, part stretched-out scoop, with a fringe of spikes and tentacles. It seemed to protrude from what the sensors identified as an unstable hyperspace aperture and indeed, having failed to ensnare the shimmership, it suddenly shrank back into the aperture, which then vanished.
Then more apertures began appearing directly ahead, scattered all along Rensik’s intercept course.
How annoyingly persistent, the drone thought. And effective.
Rensik had to divert considerable cognitive-processing resources to the autonav, now switching to combat evasion imperatives. The shimmership threw itself into tight dodging coils, series of sharp turns, sideslips and jinks as massive forcefield wings proliferated and closed in. And steadily, with every lurch in this crazed, whirling, hurtling pursuit, the shimmership’s intercept course slipped behind the flotilla’s true position. A swift appraisal made it clear that only a daring ploy could counteract the mazy trap that was drawing in closer and tighter. So the drone Rensik took direct control of the shimmership and sent it spiralling down the thirty-kilometre length of one immense, snaring forcefield wing, streaking towards the unstable aperture at its root. At the same time Rensik fed the parameters of a hyperspace microjump into the navigationals, triggering it a mere 1.8 seconds before impact. The unleashed transboundary forces shattered the aperture and caused a radiating burst of variable-state energy which disrupted the welter of forcefield structures cluttering the vicinity of hyperspace on the other side of the aperture.
Two-point-seven seconds later, he once again emerged from hyperspace. This time the shimmership was a mere ninety-three kilometres away from the Shuskar flagship. The Construct drone swerved his little vessel round and on a tail of blue plasma energy it leaped forward… even as more twisting apertures began to appear, leaking silver-grey radiance for a moment before pale forcefield stalks began to protrude and unfurl.
Rensik studied the scans of the flagship, still sketchy as details were gleaned instant by instant. The rest of the flotilla were now too far away so the safest place to be was either inside or right up close to the flagship, and that was his goal. Seconds passed in a blizzard of data flux and flow, the fine detail of micro-balanced power manoeuvring, and infopackets from the sensors as they probed the Shuskar flagship’s interior.
And exterior, narrowing down unmonitored locations safe enough for a makeshift mooring and close to possible entry points. In microseconds alternatives were considered and discarded and an optimal selection made, instantly followed by course corrections and finely assessed thrust curves. The flagship’s crude vicinity sensors were sidestepped and 14.7 seconds later the shimmership was settling into position on the vessel’s midsection underhull, between a pair of bulky fulcral housings. Even though the original Builders’ designs were sophisticated, in some respects there were curious gaps in their knowledge, like ship shielding. There were rudimentary anti-energy shields which seemed to rely on some complex and obsessively clumsy method of rechargeable banks, thus it was the physical structure of the hull on which the crew depended for protection. Layers of heavy alloys and fibre-crystal analogues which were designed to absorb weaponry punishment, and it was the inevitable gaps and holes which Rensik knew would allow him access to the ship’s interior.
A paraprobe had already been prepared and deep-scans had found a suitable point of entry on the hull. Rensik was
syncing his awareness with the paraprobe even as it was nudged forth from its finger-sized recess–tiny beads swivelled and expelled thready jets which pushed it towards the buckled edge of a hull plate. The drone’s awareness was a multilayered data flow, the visual feed from the probe overlaid with basic schemata drawn from the scans, and further overlaid with a powergrid map highlighting problematic areas. The probe burrowed through the hull, using tiny cutters to penetrate seals or gain access to pipes. The deeper in it went, the larger the gaps and channels, the faster the progress and before long Rensik’s probe was weaving along subsupply conduits between the command deck and what seemed to be estate cabins, heading swiftly towards the bridge. All the control systems on the flagship were hardwired so it wasn’t long until the probe discovered a high-level data routing hub which opened the door to all the bridge systems.
A growing familiarity with Builder design allowed Rensik quickly to shuffle through the operational arrays. Finding out how to program the autopilots of the entire flotilla, he then set the directives with an encrypted lockout but kept them prepped to engage only on his command, once his business aboard the Shuskar vessel was complete.
As he winnowed down the streams of Shuskar data he came across reference to prisoners and their transfer to detention. There were also some data from crude medical tests but untranslatable terminology obscured the ultimate intention. Then he uncovered a vidfile archive subsystem and seeing them for himself heightened an already piqued curiosity. The two prisoners were clearly Human females, which prompted various questions and speculations, chief being the possibility that they were part of this Pyke’s crew, or perhaps passengers that had been captured. And why would these Shuskar techs be so interested in human biology? Something enigmatic was going on here–the Humans would need to be examined and questioned. The drone quickly located the detention cells in question and calculated the quickest route by which he could wend his way through the decks, while compiling a list of all the hatches that would have to be sealed to ensure safe passage.
If I were watching some sweaty organic performing such an infiltration I would without hesitation call it an act of insane bravado, he thought as he edged out of the shimmership’s hatch. This is what happens when you spend too much time in their company…
A service port irised open to let him inside the hull, contracting shut behind him and cutting off the meagre light of the stars and the Warcage’s array of worlds. Such a brazen intrusion could not go unnoticed by the flagship’s security net and alarms began sounding throughout the decks. Via several emergency venting ducts the Construct drone was able to gain access to an interdeck maintenance shaft that took him down three levels to a rotary storage unit along the corridor from the detention cell. With a range of protective and interventioner fields at the ready, Rensik floated out into the corridor.
Light levels were subdued but his sensors still registered the decorative patterns on the bulkheads, strings of interlocking hooked symbols, some in different shades. Small nodules on the ceiling flashed while a harsh squawking reverberated along the passageways. A helmeted Shuskar appeared at a junction just up ahead, saw the drone and reached for a hand weapon but Rensik was quicker. A solid field projection slapped the guard off its feet while a finely tuned energy jolt put it to sleep. But from the thudding coming from some other junction hatches it was clear that others were working hard at forcing them open.
Rensik sped along to the detention cell, forced the electronic lock and glided inside. As he had already seen, there were two inclined couches, both enclosed by transparent shells. In one was the prone, naked figure of a sedated human female, just as the basic medical data suggested, but the Human in the other capsule had undergone some kind of drastic partition. Instead of one body there were a number of small pale forms which vaguely resembled new-born creatures, their skin waxy and gleaming, tiny clutching hands making slow random motions. One reasonable hypothesis was that these prisoners were the subjects of some kind of exotic genetic experiment, but without detailed study further speculation was pointless. Rensik unsealed the couch holding the intact Human, deployed gripping fields and left the detention cell, carrying the woman beneath him.
Updates from the paraprobe and the shimmership let him know that the attempts to break into his secure area were going poorly, but that it was only a matter of not much time before one of the hatches gave way. Rensik already knew that the way out would be different from the way in and swiftly flew along to what looked like a gathering room, hovered over a particular spot on the floor, deposited the Human nearby, then proceeded to tear up the decking with dense hardfield tools. Directly underneath was a small chamber with a single lockable door, as there was on the deck below that from which there was a short, fairly direct route via a maintenance booth to an airlock. He was just pushing aside sliced sections of the ceiling beneath when a voice came over on the crew address system.
“Who… or what are you? You have abducted one of my personal assets, much to my irritation. I surmise that you are a stranger, some box of outlandish parts stirred in with a brute capacity for tactics and despatched to unleash villainy. Know then that you have earned the blood-sharp enmity of the Gun-Lord Xra-Huld–if ever we meet in battle, you will learn exactly what that means.”
What? That your nefarious boring powers only work at close range? Rensik thought as he lowered the human female down through the gaping hole. The room below was long and narrow, its walls covered in racks that looped from top to bottom. With the Human lying unconscious off to the side, Rensik first closed up the hole above, fast-welding what metal components were available, before starting on the deck, cutting aside plastic matting and ripping out linked tiling, digging into the underdeck cabling and meshes, chopping and widening, then punching through to the next chamber.
Minutes later he was down in a low-lit stretch of passageway, working on the lock for a maintenance booth with the human luggage hanging beneath him. The lock was proving a little more demanding than others, and he had to fake a recognition signal signifying that the scanner had received a stored and approved dermal pattern. As the heavy hatch began to open, his defensive sensors picked up an object racing towards him–it was one of the ship’s lowly repair bots retasked to attack with its laser welder burning bright and hot. Rensik snatched it with a longer extensor field, exerted some focused pressure and snapped off the welding prong. But amusement turned to surprise when more repair bots started pouring out of their floor-level hutch slots. The Construct drone tossed the broken bot at the new arrivals, swung the Human through the half-open hatch, then swiftly closed it behind him.
Once in the booth he used codes extracted earlier by the probe to switch the airlock into its maintenance mode, which locked out the main inner hatch and activated the emergency access panel, a heavy section of the main lock which had to be physically opened. Rensik again deployed fields for bracing and for gripping the manual lever. A sharp banging commenced from the inner hatch, along with the whine of power tools, but he was reasonably sure that he would be back outside the ship before his pursuers made it through.
Communicating via the paraprobe, he had instructed the shimmership to engage the full range of stealth measures on its way across the flagship’s uneven, protrusion-profuse hull. So when the Construct drone emerged from the service hatch with his still-insensible human passenger enclosed in an atmosphere-tasked forcefield pod, the ship was just arriving. In moments, handler fields deployed by the shimmership pulled them both inside, slid and sealed the entryway, and quickly repressurised the compartment to the human optimum.
Well, that’s a relief, Rensik thought. I’ve not had cause to use up that amount of cell capacity since–well, since Darien. But at least I got talked at by one of the fabled Shuskar Gun-Lords. Sounded as if he has a very high opinion of himself, but I’m sure we can do something about that.
The Construct ordered the shimmership cognitives to lay in a mid-short hyperjump outwith the Warcage, followed by a
return to the preset rendezvous coordinates on the planet Armag. Then he turned his attention to his guest, preparing his analytic nanolabs for a battery of extensive biomedical tests.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Even before the planet Armag grew to fill the main bridge view-screen, Akreen had been monitoring the planetside combat comm-streams. Initially there had been only a couple of weak support-satellite signals until the Urtesh was close enough to pick up the shorter-range ground-unit senders. By narrowing unit positions down to the vicinity of a specific set of coordinates Akreen was able to assemble a detailed summary of what was happening there. And it did not inspire confidence.
Armag Garrison is under blockade by Chainer forces, he thought inwardly. The armour-wall has been sealed from sub-basement to flier deck. Nothing is getting in or out.
So, no way of getting to that portal gate, said his precursor, Gredaz. What about the other one?
Taking time out from my duties to cross half a world would very likely arouse suspicion, Akreen pointed out. Unless a senior Chainer leader suddenly decided to head for it in force, a somewhat improbable scenario.
Then we must find another portal gate that can take us to the Ashen World, Gatuzna, Gredaz said. On another world, perhaps, like Drevaul! Once this operation is over, a return to the holdworld for resupply would surely be in line with military necessity.
Ancestral Machines Page 23
