The commander quickly entered the order over the Battle-Net that instantly fed the data to the Fleet. The laser beacon flashed the order by Morse code to the eighteen Viper patrol boats who lost their COM-Sats in the skirmish that seemed an old and distant memory.
The hologram above the table in the center of the bridge showed slight movements while nine Cruisers and three Dreadnought class boats adjusted their positions, creating space and maximizing their weapons firing lines in relation to the asteroid field.
“All vessels are in position, Admiral.”
“Connect the Battle-Nets to our command ship.” If vastly outnumbered, and looking at the approaching black wall Chen was betting they would be, precision would decide their fate.
“Yes, Admiral.” Lee sent the order and within seconds eleven lines shown bright on the screen of the Battle-Net. Each thin streak ran from a single vessel to the command ship, Chen’s dreadnought, the Qing Long.
“Sir, what of the patrol boats? They cannot link without a COM-Sat.”
They are our wolves, Chen thought, they protect the den at all cost. “Keep to their battle-groups and guard the main fleet.”
“Yes, sir.” Lonely flashes spat from the laser beacon. The order was received a letter at a time by eighteen matte black vessels, each one in full control of its own Battle-Net.
“Lieutenant Bai, take over the primary scanner station.” Admiral Chen adjusted in his command chair and engaged his harness.
“Battle Stations,” he took a deep breath, “Level Three.” Chen tasted the steel on his tongue, swallowed hard. The crewman of the Qing Long strapped in. The click and snap of harnesses filled the bridge then all fell silent.
“Lieutenant Bai, begin deep field scan.”
59
Aris the Chosen One
the Darkness – the Hunters
Swimming through the Darkness, Aris the Chosen One pushed on while the pack followed in line, one after the other. It’s thick, oily mass, gently pressing against her hardened carapace, providing just enough resistance that the webbing on each of her eight fins could push through at a quick pace. Cool and seductive, it washed over each locked plate as she sliced through, each fin moving in powerful harmony. Aris adjusted the angle of her skull plate, letting the pointed ridge cut through the current.
The oldest of the hunting pack, the ancient Prox, was too close to her. Each thrust from her tail ended with a brushing-grit scraping the rough top of its head. Even her skull plate feels different, Aris thought on her private thought-stream. We are changing with each new clan, each new generation. We are still evolving, but who is applying the force that makes us change? Creators or Darkness? Or both?
The hunting pack was getting close to the enemy vessel’s last estimated position. It seemed even the Darkness could not find the adversary that entered her mass. Or she chose to allow the pack to hunt without her aid – a test.
A ‘memory’ slid into her systems. A vision of Aris the student, curled into a ball, frozen in fear as the invaders destroyed her mentor.
I will continue on in the Darkness. If fear of traveling to the Realm of Warriors gives me more time in the Darkness, then I embrace this ‘fear,’ as I do not seek a ‘realm’ that may be an end without a beginning.
Eight powerful fins locked against the current, creating immense drag. Aris slowed, straightened her carapace. Each of the four remaining Prox forming the snaking progression followed suit and the pack came to a halt, the ancient one’s fins grazing the four Seekers lining Aris’s back.
Aris opened a thought-stream for the pack. The Darkness’ mass, directly in front of her churned violently generating currents pushing towards the territory boundaries, pushing towards the Veil and the Void beyond.
The shared thought-stream filled with a chaotic spattering of sounds. Each Prox fought against the pull of the current running in front of them, pushing their fins in quick bursts. Aris shared part of the Creators’ plan over the thought-stream to ease their apprehension. The stress started the warrior's rage dripping into their systems. Aris detected the pungent iron scent carried on the current of the Darkness. Now knowing this was part of the Creators’ plan, calm returned to the pack. The Darkness began to thin and dissolve into a vast opaque area that flowed before them.
Aris the Chosen One relaxed her carapace. Each armored plate softened within its muscled, fluid-filled pocket, allowing her long torso to soften and bulge in the center where her key organs and systems were located. The other four followed suit.
Not only was the Darkness allowing them a rare opportunity to see within her mass, she was also offering a vision never recorded in the history of the clans. The Shields being pushed by the Movoo would soon fill their sensor field and Aris and her pack of hunters would be the first of all the clans to document the site and add it to the clans’ history.
According to the Creators chronicle, passed on to all the Clans, the Movoo had never been used in battle. Nor had the moon-like creatures ever traveled through the Darkness. Movoo lived and worked in the open space where the twelve worlds revolved around their two fiery stars. They existed in that which the Darkness and the clans protect, that which I, Aris the Chosen One, have never seen or ever will.
Silence cut the chattering that had consumed the hunting packs shared thought-stream. Aris had mistakenly allowed her private thoughts to enter the shared-stream. It was too late. Her contemplations of ‘the one’ rather than the ‘clans,’ revealed her continuing evolution, a change that was not wanted or needed by the Creators.
Aris switched back to her private thought-stream. The Creators may already know what I am becoming or they will know if the other Four divulge my thoughts. Our mission is not over and opportunities will arise to travel to the Realm of Warriors.
Eight dark plates came into optical sensor range. The Darkness allowed the five Prox to see the shapes, textures and layers of the massive Shields moving towards the enemies that waited in the Void.
The Darkness had thinned her mass to allow their passage with relative ease. So why have you not aided us in finding the enemy lost within you – or can you? The shields continued to press towards the pack. Aris thought she understood the answer. The enemy vessel lays motionless, frozen in fear as I once did, hiding in the Darkness. For a moment, she saw an intimate connection to their enemy.
We share fear. If we share fear, we might also share… Something purged the thought from her systems. A complete loss consumed her, lasting for a fraction of a cycle. Aris was at peace. A violent jolt and her systems came on, a thought already running through her. Fear is only the beginning. We will crush the beast you hide in and send you to the cowardice dominion from which you were spawned. The warrior’s rage coursed through Aris, engorged her organs to the point of pain. As fast as it consumed her, the rage abated.
The pack quickly swam in various directions, honing their optical sensors for the first time within the Darkness, seeing, hearing and feeling the shields rising up and beyond their positions. The closest shield was bright red, the top layer of the husks covering its vast skull-plate, rippled with the flow of its life preserving essence.
As it continued to ascend toward the Void, the side of the shield showed the age of the creature. Each layer took a full cycle to cure, harden and the next soft layer would begin, always filling in the cracks from growth, and even wounds from battles fought long before Aris came into existence. Layer after layer rose above her until the thick, skull plate passed by. Based on her calculations, Aris believed the nearest shield to be just over a billion cycles since creation.
Swirling currents sucked and dragged at their carapaces. The current was strong. Each Prox pushed hard to adjust in the churning flow. Aris felt the Seekers expand in their pouches; her back ached from the pressure they exerted. The last of the mammoth shields passed and the current subsided. Aris studied the eight quivering stalks attached to the underside of the skull-plates. Each stalk held hundreds of clustered stronghold sacs safeg
uarding warriors of the Darkness. Each sac, sized for the warrior it protected. Warruqs and Krell filled most of the strongholds. Compared to the shield, the mighty Krell looked tiny, weak and insignificant. And what of the Movoo?
They were far below the eight rising stalks, eight formidable creatures pushing the clans to battle with all their might. The Darkness pulsed and vibrated with the coming force, each ripple bouncing off Aris’s carapace.
On the far side of the opaque flow, Aris detected something at the edge of the field, a shadow within shadows almost hidden in the full mass of the Darkness. Aris sent the coordinates to the hunting pack and they returned to their original positions. Again, the ancient Prox brushed against her, another attempted show of domination. Aris thickened her back plates, locked them and in one powerful push of her fins, slammed into the ancient one, sending her floundering toward the rest of the pack where she remained.
The vision of the rising Movoo would be another’s to record for the clans. Aris had her orders.
The hunting pack had found the invaders.
60
Captain Yue Fei
the Black Field and the Hunted
The Virtual Surround System (VSV) seems more of a curse at the moment, thought Captain Fei. The last massive, shadowy-disk pushed by the Kwan Yin. Captain Yue Fei and the rest of the officers and crewman in the bridge sat in stunned silence. More disturbing than the eight fleshy discs larger than Station Pluto, were the endless, sinewy umbilical cords attached to their flat undersides. Hundreds of distorted, reddish eggs in varying sizes clung in shiny clusters to each cord, in an endless parade of the macabre. The sinewy structure of the cord and sacs resembled a skinned cadaver.
How much longer would the Kwan Yin’s Battle-Net sensors be able to pull readings off the portside? The sensors were barely pulling shapes, but the VSV allowed Fei to zoom in. The result was a close-up shown like a movie on the entire portside of the Kwan Yin. If their sensors and VSV system were able to see at all in this newly thinned area of the black field, chances were that the Kwan Yin could also be seen or detected. The only thing Fei was sure of, is the longer they remained within the field, the less chance they would ever leave it alive.
Gently he pushed up from the captain’s chair and moved toward his commander. “Systems?” Captain Fei spoke the word softly. “They home in on our ships systems, our computers possibly? Even the Battle-Net itself, all push signals outside of the Kwan Yin to measure, search and update. Conceivably, our voices could give us away?”
“If the Battle-Net’s closest comparison is accurate, and the system is virtually perfect…” Commander Zhu paused, “on Earth. Then we may very well be in an ocean-like environment,” the commander lowered his voice, “a type of ‘hydrodynamics’ are the rules we are now playing by?”
“Sonar?” Caption Fei thought of the sample they took of the black field and the way the ‘things’ they had just witnessed moved through it. “Maybe their detection systems share some of the principles of sonar. Sound propagation?” Fei pondered the obvious black hole that sucked much of the confidence from his sonar theory. “Then how are they locking onto our vessels in open space?” Fei conceded, “and why leave our battle-group in the open, yet surround us with the field if they cannot detect us within it? We need out,” Fei concluded and pointed towards the portside and the eight umbilical's climbing through the lightened mist of the dark field, carrying their endless clusters of disfigured egg sacs. “That must be the direction of 10th Fleet. Their movement is our compass and our path back to Station Pluto. Whatever is in those… is not going to be pleasant.”
The stout umbilicals picked up speed, rising faster through the field, more and more clusters of sacs disappearing in the swirling black only for new clusters to emerge in the gray area and take their place. The realization that humanity was not alone finally took hold and Captain Fei believed it was not ready for an ancient alien civilization. Whether they shielded themselves purposely from human technology and chose to live peacefully outside of its reach, no longer mattered.
Fei believed life and resources had been taken on a large enough scale that based on human history, war would ensue. The door out of this hell had to be above them, where the vast shadows towed the umbilical's and their contents. And all we have to do, Captain Fei thought, was follow them.
61
Admiral Chen – 10th Fleet
Nearing the Oortian Field
10th Fleet held its position off the asteroid field while the linked Battle-Net of the command ship Qing Long continued its scan. Admiral Chen waited while Commander Lee and Lieutenant Bai studied the data flowing across the Battle-Net screen.
“Nothing. Not a single match,” the commander stated.
Commander Lee shot Admiral Chen a questioning look and turned to Lieutenant Bai who had finished her assessment of incoming data.
“Commander, the range of our debris sensors from our current position, reaches only fifty percent of the asteroid field,” she reported.
Admiral Chen felt uneasy. The location of the asteroid field was perfect for an ambush. Almost as if it was recently placed there, and what if the sensor pack wasn’t working? “Lieutenant Bai, suggestions?”
“Expand our range, Admiral.” Bai released her harness, stood and moved toward the hologram floating in the middle of the bridge. “Her finger pointed at the asteroid field on the portside, “We have scanned to this point, roughly half of the area. It’s a relatively small field.”
Chen moved forward in his chair. “I’m listening, Lieutenant.”
“If you were going to hide weapons or units in an asteroid field,” Bai raised an eyebrow, “where would you place them?”
“On the edges,” Commander Lee offered. “Reduce chances of collisions.”
“Precisely and if you did not know the strength of your enemy, you might also—”
“Position your forces on the stern-side, use the asteroid field as a protective buffer,” Chen answered. “Or simply to increase your chances of not being detected.”
The admiral motioned towards Bai, pointing toward her station. “You better strap in, Lieutenant. The cruiser Lie Gong is closest to the asteroid field. She could initiate a full burn and once in position, we can use her senor array to scan the total field and relay the findings to our command ship.”
Commander Lee moved uncomfortably in his chair. “Sir, you want to send a cruiser out there on its own?”
“No, Commander. We’ll send a Viper battle group ahead of her.” Admiral Chen also liked the simple fact that the cruiser Lie Gong was designed similar to a gunboat, fitted with rail guns instead of missile launchers. If hell opened its doors, the Lie Gong could answer faster than a missile-based vessel.
“Commander, once Lieutenant Bai gives you the coordinates, send the orders to Viper group Alpha and the captain of the Lei Gong.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Commander…” the admiral’s face was grave, “make sure they are prepared to initiate a full burn to the coordinates and back to the Fleet the second the scan is complete. The Lie Gong’s Battle-Net will be disconnected from the rest of the Fleet to ensure she can react with utmost haste. She has full authorization to fire if necessary, as does the Viper group.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Coordinates are set,” Lieutenant Bai confirmed.
“Received,” stated Commander Lee. “Admiral, this will place the battle group and cruiser closer than the standard safety distance from the asteroid field.”
“Lieutenant Bai?” Chen waited.
“If we are going to get a full scan,” Lieutenant Bai reviewed her calculations one more time, “those are the coordinates the Lie Gong must reach.”
“Worth the risk. Send the orders, Commander.”
“Coordinates and orders sent Admiral.” Commander Lee paused. “Lie Gong acknowledged orders, charging her rail guns via protocol. Viper battle-group Alpha is ready to go, Admiral, and will keep pace in front of the Lie Go
ng.”
Admiral Chen tapped on his data-pad. The hologram in the center of the bridge blurred. Seconds later a crystal-clear image of five Viper class patrol boats and a lone cruiser appeared with the asteroid field a distant backdrop. Soon the video would be of distant shadows, but for now the vessels were impressive to look at.
The officers and the crewman on the bridge watched the Star class cruiser Lie Gong fire her starboard and stern thrusters and she moved away from 10th Fleet in preparation for a full burn. Five Viper's covered her flanks and bow, moving almost in sync, their matte black finish rendering them virtually invisible to the human eye.
The thrusters faded and for a few seconds, were replaced by the bright glowing burn of the main engines. Abruptly they hurdled away from 10th Fleet.
Admiral Chen followed their progress. Six vessels powered closer to the asteroid field and further from the protection of the other vessels.
“Two minutes to coordinates, Admiral.” Beads of sweat ran down the sides of Lieutenant Bai’s face. “Thirty seconds to coordinates.”
The group’s main engines simultaneously went dark. Two bright bursts appeared on the bow of each boat. Thrusters continued to fire to slow their forward progress. The Vipers adjusted their positions, gliding into a protective arc around the bow and flanks of the Lie Gong. The arc hung fifty meters below the cruiser’s firing line. The battle group and cruiser came to a full stop.
“The Lie Gong has begun debris field scan Admiral.” Tension tore at Commander Lee’s every word.
Darkness: Book One of the Oortian Wars Page 27
