by Ivan Kal
“We received our knowledge from the Union ship, and are now learning from what Axull Darr left us,” Seo-yun pointed out.
Tomas nodded. “Yes. We were given a lot, but we were more mature than them. In our time bound to our homeworld, we have experienced many things, seen many horrors and misuses of power. That is why we have a responsibility. Both because of the trust our ancestor put in us, and because we know what the price for careless and incompetent use of such power is.”
Seo-yun started walking without responding, but Tomas knew that deep down she agreed with him; that was why she argued with him about it constantly. It had taken both of them a long time to come to terms with the fact that they had power and influence, and that they were the ones making the choices that could affect and dictate the lives of many.
Tomas hastened to catch up to her, and then matched her pace as she walked deeper into the cave. Behind him, their escorts kept out of hearing distance. Tomas looked around as they walked, seeing all the different crystal colors and the countless different shapes and forms they grew in. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke again.
“The Furvor are doing very good. They have implemented every change we asked of them,” Tomas said.
“They had also attacked and killed many Trivaxians,” Seo-yun added.
“And they will suffer penalties for that. But eventually they too will be a part of the Empire.”
“It will be a nightmare trying to convince and explain that to the Trivaxians.”
“By the time they complete their own conditions, years will have passed. And if I allow them in, it will be after they have completely adopted our ways. And if they are truly a part of the Empire, they will understand,” Tomas explained.
Seo-yun was about to respond when one of their escorts approached.
“Apologies, but you are needed back at the palace. Doctor Singh has urgent news.”
Tomas cast one more glance to the glowing forest stretching in front of him, then turned to the man.
“Let’s go.”
***
“I don’t know how long I will be able to keep this under wraps, but it will get out sooner or later. That’s why I need to see how you want to handle this as soon as possible,” Doctor Singh said as she paced in front of Tomas’s desk.
“And what exactly is ‘it’?” Seo-yun asked from the couch where she was sitting.
Singh paused and looked at Seo-yun before responding. “We are going to have the first interspecies child,” she said excitingly.
“The first what?” Tomas asked.
“A couple came to the Olympus City hospital this morning, because the woman was feeling ill. After a couple of tests, it was confirmed that she was in fact two and a half months pregnant. She is human, but the father is Nel,” Singh said.
“That’s possible?” Tomas asked, surprised. It had never really crossed his mind before.
“Before today, we had believed that it was not, in fact, possible,” Singh said. “Our DNA is too different, even with our common ancestry. Both ours and Nel experts had agreed that it wasn’t possible. Until today. After it was confirmed, I called our best geneticists and doctors to try and figure out how it happened and what we can do to help the process along,” she said energetically. “What the geneticists determined was that apparently there are markers and triggers inside both Nel and human bodies—or more precisely, our reproductive organs—that facilitate interspecies breeding.”
“Axull Darr…” Seo-yun said, grabbing the attention of both Tomas and Singh. “He knew that eventually the races he fathered would meet. He must have made sure that no matter how much of a different path we evolved on, we would always be able to reproduce with each other.”
“We think so as well,” Singh said. “The fetus is undergoing changes that are not normal in either Nel or human pregnancies. It is molding and changing the genetic information from both of its parents to create a stable being. We believe that the pregnancy will last a bit longer, maybe around a full year, to accommodate this phase in the development.”
“That is amazing, and interesting. And while I am surprised that this hasn’t happened sooner—with how close our peoples became—I don’t see how it will really change anything,” Tomas said.
“Oh, but it will,” Singh said. “Now, or rather after the baby is born, and if it is whole and healthy, we will need to reevaluate the entire progeny program.”
“You want to mix human and Nel programs,” Seo-yun guessed.
Singh nodded. “If everything goes well. There is no reason not to do it; we are currently randomly matching seeds and eggs, but are keeping Nel and human separate. What we need to decide is whether we want to have a rule that matches a human with a Nel, or just keep the randomness and only merge the programs,” Singh said.
“If we use one of each, we will eventually see only people with mixed heritages, no pure humans or pure Nel. We will see that anyways in the long run, once it comes out that it is possible, no matter what we do,” Seo-yun said.
Tomas raised his head to the ceiling. His life was so much stranger than what he’d imagined it would be when he had created Olympus. He turned to Singh.
“Alright, tell me everything…”
Chapter Thirteen
February; Guxaxac – Seven days later
Platoon Leader Mira Johannes stepped on a Sowir tool-soldier with her mech as she entered the platform carved into the side of the former Guxcacul city. Her turrets were constantly firing at the waves of enemies charging the broken gate of the city, killing them in such numbers that soon a wall of the dead was formed some twenty meters in front of her and her troops. The tool-soldiers were climbing their dead and charging to their deaths while they fired the turrets on their backs that did nothing to falter the slowly moving line of mechs. From time to time, one or two would get close enough to try and use their melee weapons, but they were always either killed by a mech stepping on them, or by soldiers that had taken cover behind the mechs.
Eventually, they cleared the platform and moved to its edge, with the mechs firing on targets in the distance. The mechs themselves were ill-equipped for fighting in the cities—they were too heavy and wrongly built to move on the Guxcacal pillar-bridges—so aside from clearing the gates, their job was to fire on targets of opportunity with their long-range weapons.
Mira targeted a group of enemy tool-soldiers that were just exiting one of the buildings suspended in the air in the center of the city. She fired three missiles and blew it apart, along with any other enemy tool-soldiers and hopefully some Sowir.
The fighting had been hellish; there was no end to the numbers that the Sowir could throw at them. And they had started pulling back before the Empire troops could get to them, choosing to sacrifice large numbers of their tools for escape and time. And every time the Empire’s troops tried to follow them, they ran into traps and ambushes that often ended in the Sowir’s favor.
The Sowir might have had inferior technology, but there was not a lot that the Empire’s troops could do when their enemy placed hidden explosives and collapsed several tons of rocks on their heads, or when they sent a hundred times the Empire’s numbers to confront them.
Mira and her other mechs stood at the edge of the platform, covering the rest of their troops as they moved into the city. To date, the Empire had taken five Sowir bases, while the Guxcacul had taken two, with this one being the one that they had coordinated to attack together and join the two forces, as this one was deep enough that the Guxcacul could reach it from their last city.
As Mira provided covering fire with her mech, her battle map updated with signals from the Guxcacul, who had just breached the gate on the other side of the city. She used her visual sensors to magnify and watch as the Guxcacul troops attacked.
They went in with their counterpart to human tanks, their combat walkers, which they had designed and built during the Sowir invasion, but too late to actually help. The combat walkers cleared the platform and
Guxcacul troops in their armor suits entered with their transport walkers.
She knew that it would be easier for the Guxcacul to fight. This was their home turf; everything inside the city was designed and built to accommodate Guxcacul and their tech. The Sowir had adapted a lot, but there was no way that they could change the entire structure of the city.
As another target presented itself, Mira changed focus and fired on the group of tool-soldiers moving over one of the pillar-bridges. It would be a long couple of days as they cleared all the Sowir from the city.
***
Sahib held on to Riss’s back as he raced up one of the city pillars, and then into one of the buildings suspended in the air. As soon as they entered, Sahib dropped down and readied his weapon as the two of them moved through the building in pursuit of two Sowir. They knew that the only reason the Sowir would run to this building was if they had some of their tool-soldiers stashed and waiting on orders.
And as the two of them moved through the first chamber into the second, three tool-soldiers dropped from the ceiling onto Riss’s back. Sahib immediately dropped his plasma weapon, as it would be useless in the situation, and extended the two mono-blades on his forearms, which were much more effective in close quarters. He jumped onto the first enemy, slashing and stabbing as Riss tried to shake them off. The big arthropod’s build and combat suit made it very hard for him to turn and take care of his attackers.
Sahib took care of the first enemy with a quick stab and slash into the main body, then moved towards the second, who had already noticed him and moved towards Sahib in an attempt to stab at him with his own melee weapon. But Sahib was faster. He raised his left hand to block and prepared to stab with his right when he froze. He knew instinctively what had happened, and shook it off immediately. The Sowir telepathy was not as effective on intelligent beings as it was on their tools, and Sahib had fought against them before and could recognize when they were making an attempt on his mind.
But the slight moment gave the Sowir tool-soldier a precious moment to move out of the way of Sahib’s blade. It wrapped one of its limbs around his right hand, then pulled him forward to where it could wrap a few more limbs around him. Sahib managed to bring his left hand and cut into one of the limbs that it used as a foot, but he didn’t have enough strength to push through and cut it off.
Just as he was about to try once more, his opponent pulled him closer, and then in an impressive effort threw him into the side wall. Momentarily stunned, Sahib raised his head, only to see the enemy rushing at him with two of its limbs—which carried their versions of Empire’s mono-blades—raised high. Sahib reached to his thigh and pulled out his pistol, angling it from his hip upwards towards the tool that was mid-jump towards him, aiming carefully towards the ceiling so as not to hit Riss by accident.
Three bullets flew and punched through the enemy, and Sahib noticed a slight shiver that probably meant that he had hit one of its brains. Then, as it was coming down, he raised his hands and let it impale itself on his blades. The enemy struggled for a moment or two before Sahib turned the blades and widened his arms, cutting into it. Once it stopped moving, he pushed the heavy thing off of himself and looked around the room.
Riss had dispatched his enemy as well and was moving into the next chamber. Sahib stood and moved quickly to follow him. The next room was empty, as was the one after that.
“They got away,” Riss said regrettably.
“Yes,” Sahib agreed, “but they will never escape the city, not with two forces hunting them.”
Riss remained silent, and simply moved to the small terrace and another pillar-bridge. He waited until Sahib jumped on his back, and then started moving back to the action.
***
“The reinforcements won’t make it in time,” Dayo stated.
“No, sir,” one of his aides said.
Dayo watched on the holo as his troops attacking one of the Sowir underground bases were overwhelmed from all sides and killed to the last man and woman. The Sowir had sacrificed two other bases with almost no struggle in order to decimate one of his taskforces. And the thing that made Dayo angry the most was that it gained the Sowir nothing. They had only accelerated their deaths. The defeat his forces suffered was a strategic win.
“I want group seven rerouted to this position here,” Dayo said, pointing on the holo. His aides moved in a flurry of activity to execute and relay his orders. “And group five here. And I want a calculation on what we need to do in order to collapse that city. We don’t have enough troops close by to take it intact with so many Sowir forces present.”
“Guxcacul built their cities well; it will be a difficult,” someone said.
“I want that Sowir force buried alive,” he said through his teeth.
“I’ll let the teams know,” his aide said.
“Get someone from the Guxcacul command on the comms, let them know that we plan on collapsing one of their cities. I doubt that they will mind, and they might have an idea on how to do it,” Dayo said, then put the whole thing aside and focused on other battles throughout the planet.
***
Mira sat on the foot of her mech, dressed only in her skin-suit as she ate her meal. There was no longer any danger; they had defeated the Sowir forces in this city and taken it. Now she watched as the Guxcacal troops moved around; the two forces had worked together to clear the city.
As she was relaxing and eating her gray goop, she saw a human soldier jump off the back of a Guxcacal and start walking straight for her. She frowned at him as he waved at her. Then when he came close enough for her implant to identify him, she read his name on her HUD.
“Oh no,” she said out loud.
The man removed his helmet, and Mira saw the irritating face of Sahib Adin. He grinned with that stupid face of his and called out to her, “Mira, love! It has been too long.”
Mira looked around, but she knew that there were no weapons close enough. And none of her team were anywhere near her. She glanced up, towards her mech’s cockpit, and tried to figure out if she had the time to get into it before he reached her.
She must’ve taken too much time debating, because before she knew it, he was standing in front of her.
“Mira, it is so good to finally be able to see your beautiful face. I must admit that over the years I had almost forgotten what you look like. But it was the only thing that got me through my time here, underground, with no light of a sun. It would have been better if you had responded to my messages, but I know that you are a busy lady,” Sahib said, and somehow managed to look hurt.
Mira looked at him as he gave her his puppy eyes look, and fought against giving in to him. He did look kind of cute like that, if only he didn’t talk as much. She tried to say something, but Sahib continued speaking.
Mira tried to give him a look that said she had no time for his antics, but he either didn’t see it or he ignored it. She did admit that he was attractive enough; she had never really given in to him because of the age difference between them. But now, after so much time had passed and he still pursued her, she admitted to herself that he wasn’t really as annoying as she’d thought initially. She sighed, and resigned herself to listening to him talk.
Chapter Fourteen
March; Harbinger – Sowir home system
Adrian floated inside the Watchtower interface as his fleet exited hyperspace. In front of him was the Sowir home system, with the positions of planets and moons as they believed they would be based on the Consortium data. Then his ships went active with their FTL scanners. The system had six planets in total, with about a dozen moons. The three planets closest to the sun were the smallest, and uninhabitable, as they had no atmosphere. The fourth was a planet with a toxic atmosphere, also uninhabitable, but at the time that the Consortium had last entered this system, it had had stations and facilities on its surface. The fifth planet was an inhabitable one, the Sowir homeworld. It was an ocean planet, with most of it covered in water and only a few
small islands speckled about. The sixth was the gas giant, about ten percent larger than Jupiter.
As the Empire’s fleet’s sensors sent a tachyon ping, the space started to fill up from the edge of the system inwards. The fleet had come out of hyperspace on the side of the system where the gas giant and the Sowir homeworld were, as their orbits ran very close to each other and Adrian wanted the shortest route to the Sowir homeworld. He had several plans that included the gas giant, but as the interface started to fill up, he realized that his plans wouldn’t work.
Hundreds of stations started appearing around the gas giant, surrounding it completely, at least on the side that he could see, as the sensors were not that effective in seeing through planets. But he could tell that there was something on the other side of the gas giant. Then there was the number of ships, thousands upon thousands, all moving around the system and its many stations.
He noticed the area where the trans-station was supposed to be, and saw that one of the Sowir’s massive stations was there. He also saw that it was missing pieces, and had a debris cloud and dozens of ships around it. The probes they had sent had probably caused the damage as they’d entered the system. It was extremely unlikely that the Sowir station just happened to be there, so the most likely explanation was they were able to detect the trans-particles but couldn’t yet utilize them. But as they knew that his ship could, they’d moved something there to block the passage, which would have been a herculean task judging by the size of the station.
Adrian continued watching as he got a clearer picture of the system, seeing many Sowir military ships popping up in space in front of him. Numbers started appearing above the representation of the system, but he didn’t really need them; the interface poured all that information directly into his brain.
By his count, there were at least two and a half thousand Sowir warships throughout the system, and he assumed that number would climb to three thousand as some must be obscured by the planets. There were rings of shipyards around the moons of the third and fourth planets in the system, with massive towers reaching from the planets’ surfaces to the rings. Those shipyards themselves were equal to all the shipbuilding capacity the former Consortium worlds had.
