Story #2
Cold steam hisses through your pod as you awake from your deep slumber. Your whole body feels numb, dead, needing to be revived. With your eyelids heavy, you can only make out strange silhouettes beyond the fogged glass—red lights. There’s a moment you can’t breathe. Two. Your lungs don’t work. Two needles shoot up your spine. The sharp penetration, cold liquid forcing itself up your back. The soft embrace of deep slumber.
***
“Sir, we’ve lost EES Unity” The cold statement pierced through the chaos of the control center. Men and women of Earth’s Expansion Initiative, the finest officers of the world, momentarily halt their activities. All had family on board.
Admiral Tora stood up, an old man groaning underneath the weight of his accomplishments. “Last signal?”
“Just outside Perseus Sector. Data is coming in as we speak… Yes, the ship’s control system sent us this.”
The hologram appeared before the admiral, showing him first their exact location, just six jumps beyond the human frontier in the Pleiades. Its mission was to cross the deep dark and venture to the rich stars in the Rosette Nebula, a grand voyage that would entrench humanity in another arm in the galaxy.
“These are the thermal sensors of the Unity. Multiple contacts at two-sixty.”
The hologram showed the ship as it traversed deep space at near lightspeed. The three-kilometer-long bow with its six thousand seedships underneath. They held all personnel in cryostasis, ready to be dropped at any planet. Then it turned, looking over the ship in the specified direction. Five trails of emission were visible, speeding at the ship at impossible speeds.
“EM overlay available. At this point, Unity tried to ping the unknown contacts and the essential crew was awoken.”
The view became richer, showing the contours of the approaching ships. Each perfectly spherical save the exhaust of their propulsion systems. As the Unity’s ping approached, the surface broke into a half-moon shape, pieces of the ship reassembling at light-speeds. The hologram visualized the ping breaking off the ship’s surface, refracting in ways that never reached back the Unity.
Then the enigmas started to board.
***
You awake in shock. You’re still in your pod. It opens, blue liquid flowing out and into the multiple drains, dragging you with it. To your left and right you see rows of your comrades undergoing the same, falling to their hands and knees, some retch, empty bile mixing with the blue, others faint. Recent memories are vague, but their effects weigh harsh on your mind.
“Welcome to your destination, colonist.” A soothing woman’s voice comes out of the speakers, its tone just even enough to tell it’s artificial. “You’re in IS876AX, an until recently undiscovered star system in the Rosette Nebula. Its sixth planet has shown to be habitable to your species. Please familiarise yourself as we will make planetfall in six hours.”
You force yourself up. Your muscles feel weak, far weaker than in any simulation you’ve been through. You look up. The man in front of you simply kneels. You just can’t place his face, but you feel as haggard as he looks. There are deep holes in his chest where cybernetics had been taken out for cryosleep.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asks you.
“No clue,” you reply. “Hey, remember the red lights?”
“Of course I remember the fucking red lights.” He spits out more blue bile. “Can’t forget dying so easily. Name’s Clyde by the way.”
***
“We need to send in our fleet immediately!” The voice came from the left, where all the EEI marines were seated. Captain Brent bellowed his declaration with the same fury he boarded pirate ships.
“No, we don’t know what happened! Can’t go in blind.” Opposing him sat Chief Officer Drobi. The man had made his career surveying and planning mining operations beyond the frontier. His corner was one of the few who remained seated, but his voice still soared above the shouting.
“Easy to say when your daughter ain’t on board,” the Captain replied quieter, well-compensated by the increased vehemence. The remark emblazed the table.
“Silence!” Admiral Tora cut through the discord. “Chief Officer Drobi is right. We can’t follow the beacon blind, knowing fully their technological capabilities far exceeds ours. Petty Officer Kadan, what is your conclusion?”
Everyone’s gaze fell upon a man at the far right. Kadan looked more comfortable in his books than among company, especially military. “First contact team has multiple hypotheses,” he started...
“Give me the most likely one.”
“Very well, it’s a lure. They know as little of us as we do of them. I expect them to be fully aware of the civilian nature of our ships. If we were to send in our military, the chance is high our ships will be destroyed just as easily, allowing them to invade our systems with ease.”
“And if we don’t?”
“They’ll retrace our ship’s steps. Poke us until we have to respond. These guys aren’t friendly.”
“Then we have to do it,” Admiral Tora declared. “Chief Drobi, I want our best routes by next week. Captain Brent, go to Earth. We’ll need reinforcements. Captains, ready your crew for deep space operations. Our fleet needs to be blue within a month. All dismissed.”
***
Only half of the colonists recall the red lights, with fewer still remembering anything beyond them. It’s dismissed as a cryostasis nightmare, a short power outage allowing the depths of your unconscious to momentarily awaken. But you’re here now and there is a job to do.
In the first hours, you find your shift, a group of thirty explorers to find the best location to start the settlement. You don your suit and look at the readings one last time.
Isaac 5, as you’ve started calling it, is a pangea planet. One large continent that spans from pole to pole. It’s humid, with increased temperatures and heavy rainfall stimulating native plant growth. Sensors have deemed the atmosphere breathable, and many rivers provide opportunities for freshwater. Your seedship had been chosen to settle in the east, where arid swathes interrupt the sea of green.
“Don’t forget your filters, last sucker to fully trust a scan lies ten feet under the dirt of god knows what planet,” Clyde yells.
“Clyde, got your weapons locked and loaded?” Chief Jonah shouts, eyes following the checklist one last time.
“Chief, there ain’t any on the whole goddamn ship,” Clyde responds.
“Manual must be outdated then. Got any intel on the fauna?”
“None our scans picked up. Must be still microscopic-”
“Or extinct,” Clyde interrupts grimly.
“Alright, we’ll see them up close soon enough anyway, supplies?”
“Enough to last a month.”
“Shuttle?”
“She’s roaring for a ride, the missus missed us!”
“Hey, you,” Clyde pokes you in the ribs. “Easy there, it ain’t my first rodeo. Something always goes haywire. Still,” he pauses, showing his scars.”I’m here, only missing a few bits and pieces. I’ll pull you through whatever. Just cover my back.”
“Healed nicely. Still, can’t shake the feeling something’s real fucked,” you respond.
“Yeah me too, but there’s no way back but forward. What a dumb fucking name, Isaac.”
“Got anything better?
“Nah.”
***
The shuttle shakes and stirs through the atmosphere. You’re strapped in your seat, clenching the straps that hold you in place. Looking outside the window, you see only bright red flames flaring across the glass, obscuring the planet from any preview. You still have to trust those damn scans.
Then the ground pushes up against you. Your stomach flips over as the boosters slow your descent. It isn’t long before you’re halted completely, the glass obscured by brown sand.
“Alright, let’s get a move on people,” Jonah orders. “I need some eyes. People, wait for the all-clear. Clyde, take point.“
He takes you to the front of the hangar, past the gear, the vehicles, and the groups of explorers caring for them.
“Trust me, it’s better to be first. Put on your filter.”
He hands you a helmet, green with a dark visor, and walks on, his boots on metal leaving a decided pace to the front.
“Alright.” You hear Jonah’s voice somewhat smothered through the speakers of your helmet. “Test 1-2-3. Do you copy?”
“Move to another frequency, this one’s jamming,” Clyde responds.
“Copy that.” The voice comes through much more clearly now. “We landed on a relatively open plateau, good view from here. I need you to clear the ground and air before we can move in. We got hip height fern-like flora and several trees. The site’s clear of fauna, but remember containment protocol. You’ll be cleared in five minutes. Good luck out there.”
“Roger, keep the shuttle steady for our return.”
The containment doors open as you approach. One nod to Clyde and you enter the room. The room goes dark and the pressure drops, activating your suit. The muffled hiss of the room is coupled with the rhythmic pumps of your tank.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
The floor lowers, sucking in air and light from the outside. It’s bright, far brighter than earth. Jonah did not lie about the plateau. You stand atop a massive mountain, with the western ridge dropping down 10 kilometers to a green sea of trees, plants, and grass.
The plateau itself is large enough to fit a city. A dark green from ferns, with a few trees standing tall and proud above all clouds.
“It’s beautiful,” you mutter. “Alright let’s get working. Let’s see… temperature 24 degrees, Jesus, it must be scorching hot down there, air as indicated safe a few trace molecules. I’ll send them in for further study later… you alright Clyde?”
Clyde hadn’t moved a hair since the descent. “Yeah, I just need a few moments to reorientate myself. Where’s the sand?”
“Sand?” you ask.
“Obscured the windows,” Clyde replies. “Thought we’d be landing in the arids.”
“We’ll ask Jonah when we’ll get back. Come on, need to clear the ground first.”
After a few more tests, the platform comes to a halt. The ground was rocky, solid enough to build a base. You both move to clear the plateau, both hoping to be back by nightfall.
***
The human combined second and third fleet jumped towards the Nebula from a wide angle. The combined might counted fifty battleships and forty battlecruisers each one escorted by thirty destroyers and five cruisers. A reserve of ten carriers and a hundred auxiliary ships brought the total amount of manpower up to a million. At its head stood admiral Tora, racing full speed towards IS876AX.
“We’ll be leaving hyperspace in two hours, Sir.”
“Thank you, cadet. Are all ships in position?”
“Yessir.
“And have our scouts returned?”
“We’ve heard nothing. Both ships and probes were destroyed immediately.”
“Very well, finish it as blind as our fathers that started the journey. Mobilize all ships in an hour. We’ll be dead or victorious by the end of it.”
***
The familiar drop in pressure makes you lower your guard, letting out a sigh that had been stuck for the past hours. The clear had gone smoothly, with no adversities.
After an extensive protocol, you’re allowed entry into the ship, immediately greeted by extensive applause from your crew. You feel hands clap on your back and you’re bombarded by questions, the main one being how it was.
“Absolutely fantastic, you should’ve seen it. A peak as high as Saturn’s spacestation, a sea of plants, fucking three moons. We’re going to put a lot of resorts out of commission once our job is done,” you tell every detail, which continues with ever grander statements until dinner.
There you spot Clyde in a heated but hushed discussion with Chief Jonah. Clyde seems twitchy, ready to jump at every small sound. Jonah acts cold and distant, quite obvious in wanting as much distance between the two as possible.
“Tell us about the ridge again man, does it go all the way down the planet’s core?”
“Not now, I got to go,” you quickly dismiss, leaving towards the two.
There Jonah turns towards you. “Thank god, you’re here. Can you please tell him to calm down and that nothing happened.”
“I’m telling you, fucking everything happened. It shouldn’t this hot or this green. How the fuck do you explain the dust? Nothing fucking adds up.”
You watch Clyde intently. His left eye rapidly twitches and as he continues his tirade, something behind it bulges upwards towards his forehead. He stammers a few more words, takes a step forwards, and pukes up a slithering mass.
You yell, jumping back as you watch him shake uncontrollably on the ground.
***
The fleet popped out of the bubble and for a moment everything was dark. Then massive explosions illuminated the system. The sun had been encompassed in metal, and every planet was turned a porous ball of massive installations. The Enigmas were ready, hundreds of thousands perfect spheres surrounded the fleet.
Screams of casualties and damage reports filled the control center. Tora blocked them out, the bigger picture required to get out of the killzone.
“Every ship full speed ahead! Plan Delta-Three-One. Leave all our mines behind us.
At that moment, Tora could only watch his display as the Enigmas worked inwards from the flanks. The destroyers stood no chance as piercing lightbeams ripped through their armor at ease. At any moment, dozens unlucky to have their reactor hit exploded in a fiery ball. Others simply went dark, desperately limping behind the main force before being subsumed into the masses of pursuers.
The battleships held, thick shields deterring most of the attacks. Their heavy armament whined into motion, shooting back until their coils overheated. Tora felt deep satisfaction at every destroyed sphere.
“Formation Armadillo!”
With the high speeds, the ships were less maneuverable. But the battleships came to the sides, forming a wall of steel that guarded the lighter ships inside. The battlecruisers moved up front, spearheading a gap in the besiegers, their deadly guns making them perfect for the task. Meanwhile, the carriers had ejected their full fighter taskgroups, skirmishing the Enigmas at the very back with limited casualties at both sides.
***
“The ship’s infected. We have to run!” you roar the few survivors towards the front.
The mass had spread quickly, filling the air with sour spores that activated a hidden sickness. Half of the survivors fell almost instantly, another dozen were lost soon thereafter. With only five remaining you run towards the doors, smashing them open.
There’s no time to get any protective suit. So you have to hold your breath during the decontainment. The floor lowers only too slowly.
***
“Sir, we have lost our rearguard!”
The situation had become dire. As the fleet moved throughout the system, the speed of the enigmas became only too obvious. Tora had only one option left.
“Ram that star!”
***
The sky became filled with explosions. The floor barely halted as huge dark shapes approached. Then the world turned fire.
***
