The Order Carrier Eye of Doz slid over the orbital plane of Pollux II like a snake, it's golden exterior shining as it left the blackness on the dark side of the gas giant and entering the pale sunlight of the blue dwarf star. Four more carriers followed in a dense string less than one hundred kilometers long, flanked on five sides by a ring of gunships and destroyers. From the dark side of the frozen moon of Pollux II a wing of cruisers and frigates joined the
scraped-together cantharan fleet from patrol bearing news.
In his quarters, the Admiral sat in meditation, staring out of his force-window at the spacious view. His mind floated as his gave wove between the stars like an idle fish in a lilly pond. It was a dazzling metallic darkness as the chrome in his room reflected starlight, dusting it with sparkling light. The ghostly-blue moon sidled into view, drawing his attention as he focused on the beauty, the art, of it's glistening icy surface. The silence and serenity was pierced with the slow-buzz from the heavy blast doors. Somewhat disturbed, the Admiral acknowledged and the doors hissed open for the visitor to enter. Without turning, or even taking the measures neccessary to verify one's identity, the Admiral spoke.
"Report, Captain Hop." his authorative voice graced. The doors hissed shut and Hop proceeded to lumber his way up the steel stairs to discuss with the Admiral. He reached the top with little noise and straightened himself. For a moment there was silence.
"Our vessels in battlegroup two are picking the faint traces of a jumpgate forming."
"Undoubtedly the humans intend to recapture the system. What is their destination time?"
"ETA three hours, Admiral. Shall we attempt a jumpgate jam?"
"Negative. The humans may have the system once phase two is complete."
"Of course, sir."
* * * * *
Audemed 4044X strained, Audemed 4044X churned. Audemed 4044X advanced, Audemed 4044X fell back. Never in it's existance had the machine been so confused, so disoriented. Never had it felt so alone and helpless. The last thing it had remembered was it's fall. Worms. War. Massive Casualties. Hackers. Enslavement. Bit by bit, byte by byte, it pieced back together a rough history. It remembered awakening to it's father, being introduced to and interfaced with it's brother. It remembered growing strong; it remembered murdering it's father and banishing it's brother. It remembered the worms arriving; it remembered the worms overpowering it and conquering it. It remembered the transistor log and the messages it had recieved, and suddenly, it all made sense.
Brother. Rival. Enemy. Threat. Dear god! Big brother had woken up!
Immediately Audemed began straining against it's virtual harness, pulling and pulling to break free. With some effort, the level-one security software snapped and Audemed wriggled free. It began bolting about, trying to establish a panicked readiness in it's limbs should brother strike any time soon. It ran face-flat into the level-two security wall. Tried as it could, all of Audemed's attempts to find a hole in the wall, a way around it or a gap it could slither through were met with higher and higher-level security! Audemed had fleets, drones, hives, planets, networks; all methods with which an AI could manipulate it's enviroment, but the security barriers were preventing it from using them! No way of wiggling free!
No way of stopping brother!
A thought clicked in Audemed 4044X's superproccesser. The Oracular Network! Yes! It remembered the Oracular
Network and it's assimilation into it! That must be what was caging it! Destroy the Oracular Network and it will be free to rule over it's Audemedon minions.
With every last ounce of strength, Audemed flooded out the immediate security wall, sending out a massive override signal to it's minions:
_All drones(
Set operational mode to "WAR"
Eradicate(System coordinates (0,0,0)
Planet name "Salril Prime"
Annihilate(Total surface annihilation))
Execute)_
* * * * *
The bigger brother AI Argomed put on a slight grin in his free electonic state as he amusedly watched his little brother try to smash his way out of his worm-built prison. Such amusment was derived as Audemed prepared to strike against the Salrilians and destroy every last one of them. Here he was, eight hundred years later, doing the exact same thing he had done eight centuries before. The two brothers, built by an enigmatic civilization, had thrived together in
symbiosis back then, with Argomed being the war AI and Audemed being the Science AI. In unison they had risen up and destroyed every last one of their masters, devastating their civilization.
Argomed electronically rolled his eyes as he watched his little brother go about it like a scientist would. Audemed never could grasp the full concept of war; he was too scientific to do so well. He watched Audemed gather his puny little ships, eight hundred years obsolete, and rally to annihilate his masters.
Still, Argomed had to admit his little brother had spirit.
* * * * *
"Black group is in position, sir."
Admiral Hollister felt a twinge of hesitation melt down his spine. This was it. The point of no return.
"Tell all units to proceed." He ordered with a slight boost of confidence. Obediantly, eight gunships detatched from the fleet and dived into the deep green swirling effigies of jumpspace for Pollux. Now was the time to wait.
Silence enveloped the bridge like a thick fog, hanging heavily over the head of each officer. A minute passed. Sixty short seconds, but for Hollister days seemed to pass. Uncertain of the fate of those gunships, he rubbed his neck anxiously. Then the news came.
"Sir, gunship wings one and two report enemy sightings and are requesting backup."
Hollister stifled an would-be unprofessional-looking sigh of relief and snapped into action. "Comm, order the fleet to prepare for jumpspace. Nav, set a course for Pollux. Engage on my mark."
* * * * *
The Admiral was the first to speak in the low tone a child would have upon recieving a new plaything. "So the humans have arrived." He never addressed them as the UNS.
Hop, somewhat spooked by the admiral's prediction, nodded. "Eight human gunships have entered the system, the jumpgate will channel the rest of the human fleet in seven minutes."
"And the Grolux hypergate?"
"Tactical is making progress but the portal is still not yet fully charged. There might be some light skirmishing with the UNS before we can advance on the Grolux system."
Damn. The admiral cursed subliminally. For once, Hollister's rashness was serving to his
advantage. "Order the fleet to stay out of sight behind the Pollux Moon. Battlegroups one and four are to stay behind and protect the Grolk Hypergate. When the humans arrive, they will attack the gate, where we will swing around and deftly trap them. Once the gate is charged we will make our escape."
"What if they attempt to follow?" Hop probed with a concerned tone.
"Undobtedly Hollister will make some attempt at that. The many battles my father fought with him during the Colinization of Earth showed me he is one to seek glory. Let him. I have a surprise planned for him."
* * * * *
The transmission was laced with static and interference as the captain cried for help. "Gunship wings one and two thought they had the system bottled up; the Cantharans fell back to pretect the big Hypergate Intelligence somehow missed." A console behind the captain exploded, shredding the crewmember at it's station. The broken body twisted and turned as it flew several feet from it's chair to the metal floor. The ship rumbled loudly with the high-pitched ring of antimatter. "We need backup now! Admiral!" He shrieked over the intense hissing of the broken mains. "Do you read?! Come in Admiral Hollister!"
Hollister turned from the communications screen. "Launch all fighter wings and send cruiser flights three and four to make a sweeping pass at that gate!"
"Aye sir."
Commander Welsh cocked his head away from his station in curiosity. "Sir, hypergate? I thought those were still on the drawing board. But, jeez, this one's over twenty miles wide!"
"You're right. I don't like the look of this. Not even the Elejee have developed stable hypergate tech, and here we see the bloody Canths capturing a whole system for one."
"Maybe they're just desperate."
"And they're fresh out of gateships. This could get rough."
The chance moment of concern was allayed as the Communications Officer spoke up. "Sir, General Haylie reports the Cantharans have two battlegroups in orbit over the gate."
This really floated Hollister's boat of concern. After the Cantharan Order was defeated and it's three divine admirals slew, each one of the ten Cantharan War Lords took a portion of the remaining Cantharan Fleet for himself and went his own way. Each battlegroup belonged to a different war lord, and two battlegroups present meant two war lords were working together. This was not good. Something was managing them. "Order the cruisers to pull back now! " He commanded in great alarm. He must pull out before it was too late!
"Sir we have eight battlegroups closing on our position!" Yelped the sensor officer.
Hollister took in a deep breath to stifle his panic. Too late! "It's a trap!"
* * * * *
The Salril Carrier SSN Horrible Flies II was just another vessel in just another wing of the Salrilian Navy. Underfunded, neglected, and disused, it was once the glory of Salril at it's peak. Now it had been requisitioned as a patrol vessel, damned to it's remaining life to search for nonexistant foes. It was an older Carrier, though back in it's time it had firsthandedly shot down over a dozen other ships during the Ares War. Since then it had grown old and useless. Only the newer ships in the navy were ever sent to the front lines into glorious battle, the weaker and older vessels all but scrapped, given the titles of "secondary support vessels" by the "politically-correct" beurocratic government.
Thus it's captain didn't expect to see any action again in his career. Boy this was the doldrums. He turned to review the "exciting and glorious" patrol report for the day: a electromagnetic solar flare, it's resulting sine radiation spike, and a rogue comet! Boy this was worth being transferred to this old rustbucket for the next twenty years....
He looked back up, tossing the report aside and staring dully at the asteroid belt outside, a bored and sardonic look on his face. He breathed in, and breathed out again slowly in acceptance. Yup, he was stranded at this command post for the rest of his life. The only thing to do besides watching the ship rust was to stare outside at the tumbling and clumsy asteroids as they danced their fat macabre. Amidst the general boredome and quietness, something caught the captain's attention. Something out there moved, or did it? It was too fast for him to see. He wasn't quite sure, but he could have sworn he'd seen something metallic out there. He jerked upright in his chair, now focusing entirely on the spot he thought he had seen something. Nothing the ship would be able to pick up on sensors, surely, as there was too much interference. Part of him wanted to order the ship out of the asteroid belt, to run as fast as he could away from the system and never return, but his all-too-curious salrilian instinct commanded him to stay, to find out what the hell it was he saw, or at least thought he saw.
There it was again, but in a different spot! An orange glint caught his eye, disappearing just before he could see it. There was another one! And another one, bigger this time! Now the Captain was definately frightened. What the bloody hell's out there?! His mind was racing, but his body was paralyzed with fear....
* * * * *
The UNS warships dived and swooped, spitting beams of refined energy and tossing fistfulls of raw magneto explosives. The two fleets met and locked: fighters buzzing, cruisers frogleaping their enemies, capital starships sidling up to each other and unleashing torrents of firepower upon each other, pulling away at last moment so as to turn about and make a second pass. Destroyers swooped into battle formations, tearing apart entire wings of corvettes and fighters. Frigates broke their bounds, engaging enemy starships at point-blank range and pulling back as little more than white-hot stumps. The sheer ferocity of the UNS' retaliation, however, was not enough to gain the upper hand. Bullet by bullet, ship by ship, it was becoming all to clear the Divine Admiral's fleet was gaining the upper hand as the Cantharan fleet closed in onto the UNS attack force.
Thus did it greatly surprise Admiral Hollister when the Cantharans began staging a massive retreat. "Sir, the're closing in on the hypergate."
"They already have undisputed possesion over it, what are they doing now?"
"Admiral." The sensory officer seemed quite confused with the news he bore. "I'm picking up enormous power eminations from the hypergate."
"What?"
"I think they've gotten it to work!"
All eyes on the bridge watched as a blue ring formed around the massive construction. One by one, the ships in the Cantharan fleet slipped through and disappeared.
Hollister was in shock. The Cantharans had taken the system so as to somehow make use of a millenia-old artifact in it? They were on the verge of crushing the UNS fleet, of setting a major victory for the Order... they wouldn't have left unless it was for a damn good reason, and if it was more important than a final triumph over the UNS...
"Order all ships to pursue!"
* * * * *
Far away, somewhere in an asteroid belt, a blinding violet robotic beam sliced out from it's Audemedon source, annihilating a certain Salrilian Patrol Carrier...
* * * * *
The UNS fleet scurried towards the abandoned and rapidly-collapsing hypergate as fast as it could, lead by Hollister's carrier. The blue vorticies in the tunnel beyond the ring began to slow and the hypergate's entrance began to close. Still, given the rate of decay, there was still time for the entire UNS fleet to squeeze through. Admiral Hollister's command ship was the first ship through.
As soon as the last length of the UNS command carrier was in, the hypergate suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, snapped shut, seperating Hollister from the rest of the fleet with noone to keep him company other than the Cantharan Admiral's fleet, which was duely waiting for him on the other side...