(BSS Starborn, Star’s Reach orbit)

Slave-Captain Jaez Thozka looked at the ten members of her crew, her tail twitching in excitement. A total crew of eleven for a ship the size of the Starborn was, frankly, absolutely insane under normal circumstances. However, this was a colony ship, not a bulk freighter or a warship. And there were plenty of other ships guarding them that she could call on if there were problems her ten crewmen couldn’t handle.

The Ihm female took a breath, and then said, “All right, the Master has given us our orders. The scientists on the fleet took a while, but they’ve decided on the best location for the new colony. As you all ought to know by now, this colony will be called Star’s Reach, and the city of Starborn will be its capitol. But for that to happen, we have to get the sections on the ground without anything going wrong.”

“Some of you may be wondering why we should bother doing our best work since we’re slaves and all. Well, you’re all slaves, and nothing anytime soon will be changing that. However, I’ve talked with some of the other slaves in the fleet and the company, and I can tell you that this is the best owner we could have. Black Stars are Black Stars, whether slaves or free. There are free men and women who treat their enslaved commanders with respect in Black Star.”

She paused, to make sure that everyone understood the meaning of what she just said. “When we get down to the colony, some of us are going to be in positions of power, heading departments as we chart the course of this new colony, until things get established. But if we do a good job, and get this baby on the ground without anything screwing up? We might get to make that permanent. So let’s do this right, and we’ll all be having the good life!”

Her crew all nodded, cheered, or responded in other ways that made her know she’d be getting their best from them. “All right, then. Everyone to your positions, and prepare for separation. Your section computers should have the flight data in them, so once everyone is ready, we’ll separate and begin our de-orbit burns.”

(BSS Starlight Raven, Star’s Reach Orbit)

I watched from the Raven’s cockpit as the Starborn began breaking up into her eleven primary sections, dropping from the skeletal frame that held them. These sections would provide the backbone of what any starting colony would need. Food, shelter, power, manufacturing… anything they didn’t carry, they could make. Of course, the two most important sections were the massive stasis chambers holding the five thousand individual pods used for the new colonists. If those went boom, then the colony would be missing its main population, and the part of the ship that was to be broken down and turned into housing.

Of course, the skeleton of the Starborn wasn’t going to go to waste. While not up to the capabilities of an actual shipyard, the skeleton was capable of serving as a temporary yard until proper facilities could be built. In fact, part of the mass not going down to the planet was designed to be converted into small mining and processing ships to supply the raw materials needed to start some space-based industry, and start work on a basic space station.

That process would go along much faster once I brought the Nightforge and her group here. The Nuevo Edoan Navy were starting to get up to speed, and Fifth Group for the Black Star Navy was already starting to get up to speed. Sending the Nightforge and Third Group to Star’s Reach would keep the locals from getting too antsy about our power, while keeping our people there safe. Black Star was now officially based in four different systems, in two arms of the galaxy, so having ships protecting different areas was within our purview.

“Captain, the shuttles from Artemis, Reliant, and Simo Hayha have launched, and are descending alongside the sections of Starborn. All ships on course, and the shuttles are ready to set up a perimeter around the colony site until initial defenses come online. The shuttles from Shadowdancer and Wisteria are coming alongside. Both shuttles report ready for descent.”

I looked over to Raven, and said, “Anything new on the energy source?”

“Negative, Captain. I’m monitoring sensors, but the energy signature has not changed. It may be in some kind of standby.”

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“Understood. Beginning our descent. Catspaw and Valkyrie are to follow our lead. Keep scanning with the sensors, I want to find someplace we can land near the site. No one is to overfly the energy signature until I say otherwise. I don’t want to discover this thing is some kind of defensive system the hard way.”

“Understood, Captain. Orders going out to the fleet. I have a potential landing that will fit the Raven and the two shuttles. It is a small clearing two kilometers from the energy source.”

“Give me coordinates, and pass them on to the shuttles. All teams are to go in with full contamination protocols in place. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, so maximum prudent safety measures. I would rather go slow than lose a squad due to carelessness.”

“Course entered, Captain. Catspaw and Valkyrie acknowledge orders. No change in the energy signature.”

I took a breath, and then led the way, as the two shuttles followed my freighter into the atmosphere. This wasn’t the first combat mission we’d done, but there was something different about this, that had me getting excited. We were here, on a planet that no one other than the possible servants of Deus, the mad AI, had been to in who knows how long, and now we were going to start checking for what could very well be Lost Tech just waiting to be found. The possibilities of what we could find were mind boggling. I was just glad that the possible ‘dungeon’ was on a completely different continent, and would be the responsibility of the Marines. With the reports that some of the dungeons were getting abominations in them, I didn’t want to press my luck while we were in the initial exploration stage.

Besides, the Marines would be all kinds of upset if I stole their fun.

(BNS Thunderfury, Star’s Reach orbit)

Major Khan looked at his marines, assembled on the flight deck of the Thunderfury. The atmosphere, gravity, and humidity in Marine Country had been adjusted to the planet below’s ‘normal’ giving his people at least a little time acclimate to local conditions. Assuming that they were ever out of armor on this pass, which they shouldn’t be. Because that was just stupid, unless things went really, really badly. And because they were Marines, they were going to just assume that things were going to go badly, and prepare, so that they could adapt and overcome.

“All right, you maggots, listen up!” The deck went silent as a flight deck ever got as the marines stopped talking and snapped to attention. “We have ourselves a mission, as you all know. The southern continent of the planet we just found shows signs that it has been hit with a ship crashing from orbit, just like has been reported in all those places the damned AI, Deus, ran to hide and put all those dungeons up. We still don’t know where Deus itself went to run, but even if this isn’t one of the AI’s core sites, it has still had almost a year to prepare to receive visitors since the battle for Sol System finished the Imperial Civil War. Naturally, we can expect the ‘dungeon’, if there is one, to be fully formed, and ready to receive us.”

“You all know what the AI’s defenses were like the last time we fought it someplace where it had had plenty of time to prepare for unwanted guests. Going by reports from Nomads who have ventured into other dungeons, the AI not only has access to drones and cloned slaves, but also creatures like the ones we fought in that weapons lab. And we probably haven’t seen the end of its possible tricks. So we’re going down in full contamination gear, assuming all kinds of attack. This AI has already shown itself willing to use nanites and augmentations to enslave and control people, and it is likely that these things could work on Nomads as well, as it was a derivative of the Legion Plague.”

“I’m not going to lie to you. This is going to be our most dangerous drop to date. There is a very good chance that there are challenges in this place that could be ‘permadeath’ events if you get sloppy, or take things for granted. I want you all to remember that this AI likes to think that it is a god, and that anything that isn’t it is simply a tool to advance its own survival. We kicked its ass hard in Sol, hard enough that it had to flee all across the galaxy in order to escape, but the parts of it that live are damned dangerous still, and you will respect that fact. Assume that everything down there is willing, able, and eager to kill you and wear you like a cheap suit afterwards.”

Major Khan took a breath, and said, “Questions?” One hand went up. “Yes, Lieutenant Xiler?”

“Sir, why aren’t we just nuking the thing from orbit, or dropping Greenwave on it?”

The Major nodded once. “An excellent question, Xiler. The reason we’re not nuking this bastard from orbit is because we don’t know if that will allow the nasties to spread beyond the dungeon. Everywhere else that there is a dungeon, the nasties seem confined to its halls. Nuke the dungeon, and anything that survives might escape.”

“As for Greenwave? We don’t know the layout of this complex. Even if we drop a fence around the entrance to keep things contained, that means nothing if the beasties get outside the fence because the dungeon went on outside the perimeter. And we want to be using this planet more than just a few isolated sanctuaries inside fences, like they’ve been reduced to on Earth.”

He took a breath, and said, “We cannot simply wipe this threat off the face of the planet until we know the extent of the complex, and how dangerous it might be. Also, there is the very real danger of adaptation. The AI is smart, people, and it learns. We don’t want to expose it to Greenwave too much, or it might learn how to adapt and defeat it, perhaps by becoming technorganic like the X’thari. And I think we can all agree that we don’t want the AI being like those bastards.” That got a round of chuckles from the company.

“So, our mission is to go down there, see what kind of enemies are in this dungeon, kick their ass, and map out the extent of the dungeon. If possible, we will determine if we can destroy this infestation without things spreading all over the planet. We don’t know whether we’ll need to do that or whether we’ll actually be able to set this place up for farming unless we go in and check it out. Best case scenario? This place provides a nice, profitable training ground for new recruits to give them some live combat experience as we bring them up to Black Star levels.”

“Any more questions? No? Well then load up, and let’s move out! We’ve got a dungeon to explore, Marines!”

(Elsewhere, Star’s Reach)

Beneath the ground, something stirred. Sensors that had been quiet now detected disturbances. The sleeping consciousness that had waited for this moment slowly began wakening from its slumber. And it began to prepare.