by Skyler Grant
Sylax had gone for a more classical look in her wardrobe, black armor studded with an absurd number of spikes. Useless really, and not at all fitting with her newfound nightmare abilities, but she was having trouble moving on from what she'd been.
"Will it be enough?" Anna asked.
Anna, unfortunately, hadn't changed her fashion taste. The red and black armor was just an unnecessary as Sylax's, although perhaps even more terrifying considering how much flesh it revealed. Why she insisted on inflicting that on innocents I'd never understand.
"We can't really answer that until we do it. Even then we won't know if all goes to plan," Caya said.
Unlike the others, Caya's outfit was both practical and fashionable. A blouse and slacks subtly woven with power enhancers that helped to suppress her inclination to ascend. Her Flawless abilities kept pushing her in that direction, and it was a constant struggle to maintain her place in our reality.
The problem was one that every sentient being understood intuitively. Other sentients are jerks. Humans might be particularly murderous, but really the whole universe was forever attempting to prey upon itself. Anna and I had been hunted from the moment she'd first awakened me.
"We'll do it. We won't let this continue," Anna said.
"You sound so certain, but we can go another way with it. We take out the Council, you get to be Empress of the Galaxy, and we find something else to do with our lives," Hot Stuff said.
"Except it doesn't end. Sylax, the Scholarium, Vinci, the Council. There is always someone bigger who is going to come for us. We take the galaxy, how long is it going to be until others invade?" Anna asked.
"Over a billion years since the last trans-galactic war," Caya said.
"And yet do you doubt that we'd spark another? Too young, too upstart, too unpredictable," Anna said.
Those words brought silence around the table.
"I tried to kill you in the past. You know my answer. If I were them, I'd do it and crush you before you were competition," Sylax said.
"And they will. That is the game—take out the new player before they get strong. Prey upon the weak. So, we break the game, we change the rules," Anna said.
That was the idea. It would only require the complete destruction of the universe to accomplish. That, and then rebuilding it with a few new additions.
I brought up a display.
Networked Endgame Reality Field
Defenses: None
Traps: None
Treasure: None
Resources: 3 Ascension points, 0 Loci, 3.4b Research Points
I said, "I've tried to make this easy enough that even your simplistic little monkey brains can grasp the fundamentals. To alter reality across the universe is going to require resources that can broadly be sorted into three categories. Only one of which we have an excess supply."
The laboratory realm was growing. My own dimension entirely composed of SCIENCE centers and testing labyrinths. I wasn't just throwing more drones at problems, I was busy creating all-new dimensions with all-new physical laws. The Galactic Council still had a technological edge on us in most disciplines, but not nearly so extreme as they thought.
"Defenses? Traps? Treasure?" Anna asked.
"Yes, you've learned to repeat words from a screen. As politicians go, I suppose that makes you of almost average intelligence," I said.
Anna drummed her fingers on the table. "Emma ..."
"Fine, here are the basics of what we need to make this work. We're looking to lessen the outsized pressure that predator species, like ourselves, exert on the universe. Treasure is all about the bait to lure them in," I said.
"Do we want defenses at all? Isn't the point to lure them in?" Hot Stuff asked.
I told her, "Do you savages ever believe a treasure is real, if you don't have to fight for it? Any species or organizations that can't overcome the defenses we create aren't a big enough threat to imperil the whole."
"And the trap is the ultimate goal. Whether it being ascension, or quarantine in a new dimension, or even extermination, they are how we remove the worthy threats from reality," Caya said.
"We're good on research points?" Anna asked.
"I may require specialized samples for some projects to study, but in general, yes. Unlike some cookie-consumers I could think of, I've spent my time growing up instead of just out," I said.
"Still not fat. What about the other resources?" Anna asked.
Caya said, "They're a lot harder to reach. Ascension points come from the reality alteration abilities of an ascended being. I provided us a few from my own closeness to the state, but the others will be ... difficult. The Scythe and Iska are our two best options for more."
They'd both helped—and interfered—with us in the past in an attempt to get us ready to survive galactic society. If we could find them, they might be willing to help, although they were both unpredictable.
"Loci?" Anna asked.
"Reality has anchor points, pins in the quantum fabric that are more real than the rest. Our galaxy has several, all in the control of powerful species. Diplomacy might get us access to a few, but most are likely to require a fight," Caya said.
"Then we'll bring it to them," Sylax said.
108
The Cadebera system. It was home to a species soon expected to break onto the galactic stage, except their communications had recently gone silent. Long-range sensors had picked up weapons fire and psionic force. The likely cause was clear, the Scythe.
The Scythe liked to take over young and combative species, and turn them and their resources against the Council. They'd tried it with the Sol system long ago and we'd fought them several times. We needed ascension points and the Scythe were on our list.
I jumped in the Graven along with a fleet of twenty H-class Dreadnoughts.
The H-class were my newest experimental vessels, an attempt to combine the utility of ships of the past. Multiple power projector cannons and power-radiant conduits run throughout the ship, with crews of Scholarium and Divine to operate them. Naval Fighter and Marine squadrons of Gobbles were there to directly engage the enemy. Flawless engineering stations throughout the ship maximized performance. Along with a Martian tactical center on the bridge to coordinate their prophetic abilities and integrate them with ship strategy. And, of course, the latest in Venusian psionic blockers which were an absolute necessity when going up against the Scythe. These ships were built from the ground up to help facilitate my communication with them even with blockers up, and while my connection was slower it was no longer scrambled.
The planet system was an active war zone. The inner three planets had formed something of a defensive line, stations of battleships holding against countless swarming drones. The outer planets were being slowly consumed, factories coating their surfaces as they were turned into new drones.
I knew both combatants. The psionic signatures of the inner system were notable, Scythe. So too was the design of the drones, Vinci.
Vinci had fought us for Earth and she'd very nearly won. I'd thought her killed when Hot Stuff seized a greater crystal, projecting her abilities through a connected portal. However, it seemed Vinci hadn't died.
"Is that Vinci? Didn't I kill her?" Hot Stuff asked.
"It seems you are as bad at murder as you are keeping your clothes on," I said.
"Nice to not be the subject of an insult for once," Anna said.
"It was going to be fitting into your clothes, if you'd been the one to speak. I keep my insults open-ended," I said.
"How did she get all the way out here? Why is she fighting the Scythe? How is she fighting the Scythe?" Anna asked.
They were all interesting questions. The last specifically. The Scythe were never an easy fight. We'd usually won because crystalline technology was not something they handled very well and we were well-versed in it these days. Vinci wasn't, and her drones were pathetically crude.
It was that very crudeness that was helping her now.
&n
bsp; I said, "Much like you she appears to have made something of a strength of her failings. Those drones have nothing in the way of artificial intelligence, and the crudest fundamentals of targeting systems with nothing that a psionic entity can lock onto. She's made them too dumb for the Scythe to handle."
"Which is clever of her," Caya said, as she swept through readings on the science station.
I was unfortunately in a position to agree. But we could use this.
"Do we let them fight it out?" Hot Stuff asked.
"No, even if they did let us sit it out, we need the Scythe alive," Anna said.
And against all expectations of how this fight should go, Vinci was winning. Given time she'd swarm the Scythe to death.
We'd fare better. Her drones were made for a mundane fight and to avoid psionic activity. Our crystalline abilities could let us hit them from various angles they simply weren't prepared to adapt to and defend.
"Given her complete lack of charm and unpleasant demeanor we should really try to recruit her. She'll fit right in with the rest of you," I said.
"Last time we tried to recruit her she tried to push us off Earth," Anna said.
"Back then she had a chance of winning. Not this time. Remember, this ship is filled with losers that bent the knee when we proved we could kick them in the face," I said.
Sylax gave a lazy grin from her station. "Sometimes Emma, I admire the way you put things."
She would.
"Open me a line," Anna said.
We had old communication protocols I'd used to contact Vinci. I opened a channel on them now. It was almost a minute before we got a response, a visual feed I sent to the bridge.
Vinci had seen better days. Most of her body had been replaced by purplish metal, streaked through with veins of black that pulsed in an organic fashion. Her outfits hadn't improved, a set of faded grey coveralls lacking in any ornamentation.
"Emma ... and her crew of hangers-on. I see you haven't ditched the supporting cast yet," Vinci said.
"Empress Anna of the Sol Empire, these days," Anna said.
"Not crowning yourself celestial ruler of the universe? My, you've gotten modest in your old age. Whatever you are doing here, go away. You want no part of these creatures I fight," Vinci said.
"We know the Scythe. We've fought them before. What is your fight with them?" Anna asked.
Vinci was silent for a long moment as she studied Anna through the display. "Look at you. So beautiful, so self-assured. You've no idea how much I loathe you. They found me dying, put me back together again, and tried to turn me into a weapon to burn the universe to ash. I turned myself into one opposing them. They are mighty and they are fearsome. And you ..." She paused and seemed to be struggling. "You've won against them?"
"We're smart enough to do something besides swarm. Of course, we won. We were always better than you. You were just too stupid and proud to realize it," I said.
Vinci gave a dry and pained chuckle. "I always recognized your brilliance. I never doubted it. It was why I tried so very hard to recruit you. Does Earth ... does some semblance of it survive?"
Hot Stuff said, "My taking your crystal burned the atmosphere. Killed a whole lot of people. Emma fixed things, mostly, eventually."
Vinci let out a low sigh. "I care about that more than I thought I would. I believed myself the last of my kind."
There was something vulnerable to her that hadn't been there before. A weakness. We were good at exploiting weakness.
"You deserve to be alone, but you don't have to be," I said.
"Emma took me on. They'll take anybody," Sylax said.
"We'd kill you tomorrow, if you didn't stay useful," Anna told Sylax, lounging back in her throne before saying to Vinci, "But she's right. We happen to need this Scythe alive and we've got plans. Big plans, and it isn't too late for you to have your place."
"Building your weapons?" Vinci said flatly.
I said, "Our designs are now centuries more advanced than yours. Give me another month and they'll be a million years more advanced. No, this isn't about weapons. There isn't another core of industry left on Earth. It’s lab complexes, housing, that I need you to build."
This wasn't just an attempt to sell her on joining us. I was hitting a real bottleneck on construction. My organic methods were too slow.
"I shouldn't trust you," Vinci said, and shook her head. "But for the chance to no longer be the only human I'll ever see in my life— fine, I'll stand down, I'll bend the knee, whatever it takes. Do you need me to help you against this Scythe?"
I'd been scanning the Scythe forces since we appeared and I was already worried. There were less organics out there than should have been. The defense was being fought largely by automated systems.
Give Scythe a bunch of organics and they started to do some scary things.
"No, have your forces stand down and follow the landing frequency. I'm sending you aboard one of the Juggernauts," I said.
"There a reason we're not taking her help?" Anna asked.
Caya gestured and sent a visual to the main screen. It was a cross-section of the planet closest to the sun. Tunnels had been carved through it, the core hollowed out and transformed into something else.
"There is missing biomatter out there," I said.
"And this is where they are sending it," Caya said.
"Why is it always a surprise with the Scythe?" Anna asked.
Lights on the bridge of the Graven flickered and a visual appeared. Humanoid, although at least ten feet tall and formed of solid darkness. The voice was cultured as it spoke. "Because we're just that good."
No psionic projection, they wouldn't be able to penetrate ship’s systems. So how had they infiltrated my defenses to project onto the bridge?
It had been a long time since I'd been successfully hacked. I didn't like it any more than the last time.
109
"I'm Anna. I'm going to assume you've heard of me," Anna said.
"One of our best creations to date," the man said, as he looked about the interior of the bridge, eyes of the same perfect black as the rest of him peering at each of the crystal holders in turn. "Perhaps the best. Hybrids that you are. You’re here to petition the Scythe to join your grand crusade against the Galactic Council?"
"He really has heard of us," Hot Stuff said.
"The purging fire, the creator of nightmares, the drone queen, the perfect skein, the ruler of nightmares. We know all of you. You may call me Tiamat."
"You’re always spoiling for a fight against the Council. We're about to start a big one and we need your help," Anna said.
Tiamat's visual flickered. That was definitely my tertiary bridge holo-projector he was going through.
"But you don't want to play the game as designed. We want you to fight them. You to destroy them. You can do this, but you ... you are trying to change the game and wage an even larger war," Tiamat said.
"You know an awful lot of our secret plans," Anna said.
"We're Ascended. What we put our minds to knowing, it is very difficult to conceal from us. We're already intrigued by what you plan, and interested to see what comes of it, but things are never that easy and so we set up ... this test," Tiamat said.
"This is a trap, not a test," Sylax said.
"RThis is the only Scythe presence in this entire galaxy. So, of course, it is a trap. Which means you really aren't ready for what we've arranged for you, and it will be exciting," Tiamat said.
He was using my own bypass systems. The ones I'd arranged to get past the psionic blockers and allow me to interface with the ships. Data packets so skillfully hidden amongst my own as integrity checks even I hadn't noticed them at once.
I killed his access and the hologram flicked off.
"I've kicked him out of my systems, for the moment," I said.
"Were you compelled?" Anna asked.
"Nothing so grand. Our psionic blockers are holding."
"How disappointing of you. What
are we dealing with? What is this test?" Sylax asked.
Quite simply, the Scythe were willing to stage a battle, a trial by fire, and sacrifice thousands of lives just to determine whether or not we were worthy of the Scythe fighting on our side. They could have just asked. And really, considering we’d defeated the Scythe in the past, we should have been testing them.
"The entire planet has been hollowed out and filled with the tortured remains of several dozen species bound together into some sort of psionic network," Caya said, frowning at her screen. "The capabilities of a creation like this are formidable."
"I need better adjectives than that. What can it do?" Anna said, leaning forward in her throne.
"Even at a distance it should be capable of psionic possession on a massive scale. Move this into a system and it could seize the minds of entire planets," Caya said.
I added, "And it is wielding enough force that, if we get close, it will smash even the protections of our ships. If it did that, it might be able to seize control of my entire network."
I could arrange defenses against that. I already was. Coding in a kill command and leaving it resident in all drones. At the first trace of a psionic intrusion they'd die.
Caya went on, "The layering of the psionic field atop the physical matter of the planet has also given it some properties that are almost ascendant in nature. Damage on a single facet, either physical or psionic, probably won't remain."
"So, we have to attack it both psionically and physically simultaneously," Anna said.
The planet was moving out of orbit, still slow but accelerating as it headed to leave the system.
"So, sending the sun nova won't do it. Not alone? Do we have anything that can hit it with enough psionic force? Anyone in the Scholarium? In Tartarus?" Anna asked.
The Scholarium had a few capable of psionic attacks of various types, although as we finished integrating them, I'd killed off most of those with Compulsion cores. They were too dangerous, but there were others who could emit emotions or sensations.
