COLONIAL MASSACRE!

The entire town of Schucksmannsburg on the Primordial colony of Dinosaurier 18 was found butchered by Security Forces last week. All 800 inhabitants were found in various states of decay with their heads removed or destroyed. A single Mechanese Biofem was the perpetrator. The vile murderer was put down by Consortium Security Forces. They stated it was a flaw in her genetic programming that was brought on by stress. Mechanon has assured the League that that flaw will be removed in all its people’s latest gene therapy updates. This will not happen again.

XDL Group Reality News

2154-07-10

From: Group 95, 8 Battalion, 2 Company, 1 Platoon

Special Kraft Recon

To: Command Central

Dinosauerier to Erde Prime

Report Most Secret:

2154-07-01

Biofem unit Calista 8592 turned herself in after checking out the Consortium rescue team. All colonists were in advanced states of decay before they were beheaded or had their nervous system torn out. A crude microwave weapon was in use by Unit Calista 8592. Evidence of Psychic Entity involvement.

A: Settlers were murdered over three days before Unit Calista 8592 arrived. A recently dead miner walked into the town from the cemetery and past the sonic fence that keeps out the local wildlife. It appears to have been a zombified corpse. Once it began killing settlers, the other corpses were reanimated and used to kill the rest of the colony. Once the colony was completely Undead, the corpses began building a crude Gate.

B: Calista 8592 reported that she had been out of town on an extended hunting sabbatical for several months. Videos and sensors indicate that this is true. Additionally, she was notified that there had been a “Lî Chasse infestation” at the colony. It took her three days to get there from where she was based.

B1 : Lî Chasse Infestation refers to the psychic entity that Mechanon has informed us about. The burnt synapses and advanced entropic pitting around the spinal cords indicate this form of zombification. There is no Necromantic signature here.

C: Calista 8592 dispatched all infested colonists and searched the surrounding area, blowing up the mine where she stated an old power suit had been found. It had apparently killed the miner, infested him, and then waited until the miner’s body was recovered to get itself into a population center. She stated that microwave weapons are best against the black globes that rest in the brains and spines of the victims

D: Calista 8592 destroyed the crude Gate saying it was an effort to call back to bring more of the entity into the Reality. She then set off the rescue beacons herself. Then she waited for the Consortium Rescue Team to check us to not be infected.

From: Command Central

To: Group 95, 8 Battalion, 2 Company, 1 Platoon

Special Kraft Recon

2154-07-02

Biofem unit shall be returned to Mechanon per protocol. The false story was circulated as a coverup. Mechanon doesn’t care about any blowback his people get as they can care for themselves. Member nations have been informed of the events and will watch for this dangerous psychic entity. However, public dissemination of this info is considered highly dangerous. Best to let the public think that the Mechanese are religious fanatics and not actually hunting something.

Seattle/Tacoma Airport

Seattle, Washington State

United States of America

Reality of NewHome

February 8, 2187, ESC Erde Standard Calendar

Althea looked at the ship she would be traveling on today. The “Euphoric Zenith,” was a civilian transport that used the Sky Hurricane: the quasi-dimension that was the second way to travel to other realities. The Sky Hurricane was how the GmbH originally had found out about inter-Reality travel in the first place as the Kondarrians had arrived that way. For the first decade, it was how the GmbH had discovered other realities and conducted war against the Sky raiding Tigre from Rowrashaoh. The interdimensional nowhere took a while to traverse. The transport had to have a skilled Navigator to guide it through the treacherous skylanes to the right cloud, or you would end up in the wrong Reality. You could be waylaid by interdimensional sky pirates or occasionally get lost.

The main advantage over the Gates was that The Sky Hurricane was much cheaper than using a gate that used several Fusion plants to power up and transit. As a result, only worlds such as hers and the Federacy, which didn’t care much about budgetary concerns, used Gates a great deal. Only the Military and some valuable trade partners used Gates regularly on other worlds. NewHome would soon figure out they had been sold a costly method of travel.

A crowd of a few hundred well-heeled humans and Celari were waiting for boarding the skyship, which could be seen looming through the transparent ceiling. A few employees of the skyship-line upfront quietly talked to the people waiting to board. There seemed to be an argument in the making. A rather fat human female with brown skin and dark hair spoke to one of the employees. Horrid fake floral scents wafted from her as she grew more perturbed by the second. A more petite, thin man with paler skin and hair stood meekly by her side.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am,” the male worker began. “You cannot board earlier than everyone else...”

This set off the human female, who began screeching at a level that hurt Althea’s ears, “I paid for a first-class ticket. I expect to get first-class service!” She snorted, “This is ridiculous! Who do I have to talk to to get service?” She pointed her finger at the poor man. “Do you like your job? If you want it, you’ll get me on board that ship right now!”

The man began again, “Ma’am, we’ve been over this. There are fifty other people with the same ticket who are patiently waiting….”

“NO!” she screeched. “This is such poor customer service! If I had known I was going to be treated like the,” she made a disgusted face, “Rabble... I would never have purchased this ticket!”

The biofem had walked up behind the couple and patiently waited, her skin growing more and more cat-colored as she heard this woman carry on and on. Please shut up, she thought. I just want to check-in and go to the berth my command bought me.

“I want to see your manager!” the large woman concluded.

The man looked tired and defeated at dealing with such unreasoning entitlement. He typed a few words on a keyboard and said, “Over to the side Ma’am. He’ll be coming now.”

“Serves you right,” the fat woman and her silent partner moved to the side. She kept making snide comments about the primitives running the skyship line.

Sighing slightly, Althea waited until the man had composed himself and called her. Her skin was still flushed with emotion. It was controlled, but at the moment, she wished for nothing more than an order to detain and damage that human female. At his call, she walked up and handed him her boarding ticket. He had his head down as he called her and only looked up once he had scanned her boarding pass.

“I’ve never seen Arbeit class before, Miss…” his face turned pale as he looked at her and his following words died on his lips. He gave Althea a tight fearful smile and said in GmbH German. “I shall get the boss now,” his voice was shaky with terror. He turned and fled down the umbilical corridor linking the skyship with the terminal. A local woman smoothly took his place, not knowing why he had left.

“Please wait over here,” she said and pointed

Althea let out a little snort and nodded. She could smell the fear on him over the horrid floral scent the woman was emitting and see the sheer terror as he fled. That sometimes happened when civilians saw her out and about in the GmbH for some reason. The woman next to her started eyeing her and making snide comments.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Why the fuck did he run off? Who the hell is this bitch?” the fat woman muttered. The man next to her said something noncommittal and looked up at Althea. He backed up against the fat woman and started trembling. “Howard, what are you doing?” The woman started. She looked at him and followed his eyes to look at the tall woman in the grey uniform. She hadn’t moved, except for turning her eyes to sidelong stare at the two. Those pale bluish-purple eyes were looking at them dispassionately like they were slabs of meat or something like a bug.

A tall humanoid cat with Grey and black striped fur and a mane of white hair that merged into a large muttonchop mustache came out. He was wearing the white uniform with black piping that was the livery of a senior airman onboard the skyship. “What’s all the trouble…” he started, then shut up as he saw the biofem staring very focused at a pair of humans from NewHome. Better diffuse this before someone gets seriously hurt, he thought. He plastered a big fake smile on his face and thundered, “Ah, Technical Sergeant d’Argus! Good to see you made it here intact!” Her eyes switched to him, and he sighed in relief inwardly. “We have your berth with the guards in the back of the ship. Arbeit class. A working passage.”

Althea looked away from the noisy human and towards the Humanocat. No, that’s wrong. She sniffed the air and looked at his name badge. “Senior Airman Wilson. Thank you. You are from Verne?” Her skin lessened its coloration as he nodded.

“Yes, Sergeant,” he began, somewhat relieved to see that the Biofem seemed to be calming down with her coloration fading. “Come with me. We’ll get you situa….”

A screeching interrupted him, “You have got to be kidding me! You are here to serve me, not this cunt! I’m a paying passenger!” The fat woman was nearly apoplectic. Her husband tried to shush her, but she just wasn’t having it. “How dare you ignore me and help this bitch!”

The Vernian waved his hands at the humans, his eyes growing wide in panic. “Madam, we will help you as soon as things have calmed down. But, first, let me get her out….”

“NO!” screamed the woman. She whirled at Althea, staring at her again, just having moved her head a little. Finally, she pointed one fat finger at her and began jabbing it at her. “Don’t you DARE look at me that way! I am important! I will have you fired! Just you wait!”

Senior Airman Wilson’s jaw dropped. Oh Lord, he gibbered in his mind. There is going to be a slaughter on my watch. She’s going to kill them both and go berserk and kill everyone else here! He looked at the Biofem that started to color up again and switched to German. “This aborigine is crazy. Please don’t kill her,” he said quickly, holding his hands up in a plea for calm.

Replying smoothly in the same language, Althea said, “Unless someone ordered it, I would not have. She is rather noisy. Shall I subdue her?”

The Vernian cat shook his head and ignored the human. Then, continuing in German, he said, “We’ll get you to your berth. It’s small and private though you’ll have to share a shower and a toilet.” He turned to head back when the other human from earlier reappeared. “Follow me. We’ll get you away from all this commotion.”

Althea nodded and turned to follow him. She saw something about to shove at her from the side and chose to not dodge it.

The fat woman had pushed Althea and was screaming at her, “Don’t you fucking ignore me!” She grabbed the taller woman’s arm in what she thought was a death grip.

Althea looked at the Senior Airman, and he nodded. She shot her other hand out and grabbed the woman’s wrist in a vicelike grip. As the woman wailed, she wrenched her wrist off her jacket and yanked her face to face. Then, baring her fangs and staring directly into the woman’s eyes, she said flatly in Texican, “Duu naht disrespesto mah yuneeform, Mah’am.” There was a smell of urine as the woman voided herself. She pushed the civilian away without force, and the fat woman meekly backed up into her companion’s arms.

“I’m sorry,” her companion said quietly. Althea nodded in response and followed Senior Airman Wilson into the umbilical. She heard him order the ticket taker to get a crew to clean up things, refund the woman’s ticket, and then remove her from the premises.

The umbilical corridor led up towards the massive skyship. It was at least 300 meters long, half that wide, and about 60 meters tall. The bottom half of it looked like an inverted cruise ship so passengers could see the ground as they passed over it. The top half was reserved for cargo, which she could see was being loaded via containers and a long ramp that trucks constantly went in and out of. On the corners, she could see the massive housings for the liftstone that kept such a colossal structure aloft. Surrounding it was the gigantic electrical system that controlled the liftstone and thruster engines that moved the ship in three dimensions.

Liftstones weren’t magic. They were an extremely odd rock that reacted both to magic and electricity. They were native to several Realities and mined in the eastern part of the Afrikan continent from deep in the gorge most worlds had. Their unique property was that if you ran a current through them, they floated and would stay floating for a while after the flow was cut off. Another of their properties was that they absorbed radar and suppressed heat signatures. Most skyships had to be spotted visually. Commercial vessels all had a particular ArkaMakina beacon for air traffic control to guide them. Their worse trait was that if a liftstone ever exploded, it would block all signals for miles for a few days. The powdered rock was a bane when searching for downed skyships. You often had to do that manually.

They reached the main entrance of the ship with its massive chandelier and circular Edwardian stairways that linked the different tiers of the skyship like an inverted wedding cake. The bottom was an open dome that would afford panoramic views of the ground below. SA Wilson nodded to her and said in German, “Level 18, near the rear of the ship. It’s all written down on the maps, but I’m sure you’ll find it.” He sighed and said, “I’m sorry that that primitive showed you such disrespect, Sergeant. They don’t know any better, but they’ll learn just like we on Verne learned about the heroics performed in the Sidhe War for us all.” He nodded towards her campaign ribbons and medals. If the Sidhe hadn’t been stopped, the insane Emperor Wang Hei Mei Lung would have tried to exterminate all non-elves in every reality he could reach.

She nodded at him. “I am sorry that I caused such trouble for you, Senior Airman,” she said blandly and shook his proffered hand. “I will protect you to the best of my ability on this trip.”

He gave a laugh and a genuine smile. “I feel sorry for any pirates we run across.” He really did. Films of The Sidhe War that were shown heavily featured the Mechanese Infantry. His native Reality of Verne had massive multi-turreted steam tanks and smaller power suits as the latest inventions. The remains of what the Mechanese Legions had done to enemy units were highly frightening. Even to a former British soldier like him who had fought from the Crimea to India. The sheer butchery…

She looked at him thoughtfully. “I shall not,” she replied and turned on her heel and walked away.

He shook his head and watched her walk away, body swaying smoothly feminine. Body of a Death Goddess, the personality of a brick. What a waste, he thought before he headed back towards his duties.

The berths for the small Marine force were up near the top of the skyship but lower than the enclosed Observation deck that housed a restaurant. They were in the section just above the cargo. The corridors were cramped in this section as they were fitted between the hold and the top decks. This ship was relatively new, and although the passenger area was fitted out like a Vernian dream, the upper levels were pure Consortium efficiency. All sectors of the ship were clearly marked. There were signs denoting each section posted at the top of the bulkheads. She saw that computer screens and interfaces were here and there, showing the ship’s status between snippets of news and advertisements. The floors were laminate plastic, and the walls cheap fitted metal with small doorways crammed together.

She found the duty sergeant at a small desk built into one of the side rooms. He was a human but didn’t seem to be from Erde. Handing him her ticket, he looked confused then checked it against one of the computers.

“Ah one ‘o these,” he said knowingly, his German-accented by Texican. “We get one ‘o you Security Force types once in a blue moon. You’re my first.” The name label on his blue digital camouflage uniform said, McNab.

Not seeing a rank, she just outright asked him. He laughed, “We’re just Security Officers here, Ma’am.” He paused when she gave him an even flatter look. “Umm, Sergeant.”

She nodded at that and said, “Protocol dictates I do not take honors not earned.” Then, “Where are my berth and temporary uniform, Security Officer?”

He scanned the ticket and then turned a bit paler than before. “Oh … umm... It’s back there, unit 9. It’s the only single room.” He jerked his shaking thumb indicating a branching corridor. “Quarter Master has the temp uniform,” he said with a squeak. He handed her a small packet, “Codes to get onto the intranet and check your duties.”

She gave him a curt nod and walked off. Her sensitive ears heard him say under his breath in Texican, “A fuckin biofem? Lord Jeshua have mercy… Don’t go nuts and kill everyone.” Her skin flashed catlike again, and her ears turned red in embarrassment. Her people would never live that incident down, would they?

She got her duty uniform, blue digital camouflage, boots and belt, and a small nametape. It was made for her on-demand after the Quartermaster got the ticket number. Apparently, the SLSF had attached her measurements to her ticket. She’d have to turn it all in after the skyship docked at her destination, but it would spare her own uniform the wear of the trip. The Quartermaster was a Kondarrian, and he didn’t seem to care much about what she was. He didn’t even glance at her ribbons which gave her a little relief and letdown.

The duty cabin was smaller than her hospital room. Still, it contained a bed big enough for her built into the wall with a pull-out drawer under it where she could store her meager belongings. She stripped and changed to the temporary uniform while looking at the packet describing her duties and the password to the local intranet. Her inbuilt computer logged in, letting data stream into her synapses while internal data scrubbers removed malicious code. She breathed out in pleasure; not being connected to the ever-present Net had made her feel like she was on a Mission this entire time.

News had been updated a few days ago before the “Euphoric Zenith” entered this reality. She quickly went through all the flagged metadata on stories she watched. A list of lost ships scrolled by, thankfully small. Mechanon hadn’t issued any new code updates for her series of neural nets. Ah, there were her orders. She scanned them, and they matched what was written on paper. The only personal mail she got was advertisements and information about her duty post.

She read the papers about her temporary duty post here in the ship: Ship’s Marine, General Marine. Defensive only. Stay to back areas away from guests. Eliminate pirates and threats to the vessel when called upon. Her duty hours and the briefing room location were listed, times to report, exercise times, and allowable shore leave. There was a one-day layover at Neu Holmgaard, where the Fess-T-Burger complex was located. The floating rock also had a small theme park, the small town, Neu Holmgaard itself, and Storm League base all floating within the Sky Hurricane.

It was rumored to be the biggest Fess T-Burger in all the Realities, and she had always wanted to go. It was rumored that they had an exclusive menu and unique plush dolls of their Mascot, a ratty old orange and white tabby named Festus. She would want both the food and the plush if she had enough time. She put in for shore leave now and would work another shift. She wanted those exclusives. She checked in electronically with her commander and found out her shift wasn’t until morning. That would give her enough time to see the launch.

Several hours later, she heard the claxons and announcement that the skyship was underway. The odd feeling of the liftstone being charged went through her, similar to magic’s effects. Next, a strange quiet hit inner ears like your ears were about to pop. Then pressure on her face around the sinuses like someone gently pressed the skin to either side of her nose. Then the aftereffect hit. The artificial sweeteners in the protein bar that she had eaten a half-hour earlier turned horribly bitter.

Smacking her lips, trying to remove the offending taste, she made her way to the top of the cargo area. Climbing several tall skinny staircases, she moved to the side when the other sailors needed to pass her. The elevator rising feeling hit her as she reached the small crew observation room below the guest observation deck. The room had a wall of windows shaded from the sky above by the overhanging guest’s observation deck, but it gave a great view of the port and front of the ship. Inside, rows of bolted-down cheap seats with foam cushions covered in orange vinyl.

The city turned before her as the ship turned and rose into the sky. She found a chair and leaped into it, ignoring the startled glances of the other crew members there. The lights glittered like jewels as the Euphoric Zenith climbed in an arc that would take them over the ocean. A very tall building almost two hundred years old had a fat observation deck near the top under its pointy antennae. Then the scenery turned away from it. They were starting to move slowly towards the ocean, and the blackness of the water took over except for the lights of several NewHome ocean-going vessels.

She watched the scene with inner fascination, only her skin patterning showing her emotions. Several of the other crew moved away from her, but she didn’t seem to even notice. The ship thrummed with power, and they climbed to just under the clouds. Within minutes they were out of the standard air lanes, the occasional running lights of NewHomean aircraft seen in the distance. Finally, a klaxon sounded, and an announcement for the crew came over the speakers. “All hands! All hands! Prepare for Reality transition to The Sky Hurricane!” Althea gripped the arms of her cheap chair with just enough force to hold onto it.

The air pressure in the cabin dropped suddenly, making her ears pop. Storm clouds formed quickly in front of the skyship, their surfaces lit by searchlights that suddenly stabbed out. Rain began lashing the hull and windows. Green lightning arced about the clouds and pointed towards the hull only to ground out in large lightning rods placed seemingly at random about the ship. The storm grew in intensity, buffeting the skyship and making it shake.

Althea began grinning like a fool, her catlike fangs visible to everyone. Her eyes were focused entirely ahead of the ship as she watched for the transition event. Lightning sparked green at faster and faster intervals in increasing intensity, coalescing into a single point in front of the enormous vessel. Then, with a large crack, it shot out to the ship and danced along the lightning rods, lighting them up one after the other. Then the sky changed completely, and they were somewhere else.

The darkness was replaced by the golden orange light of a sunset. They were in a sea of clouds above and below that were so fluffy that it looked like you could step out onto them. Water from the storm that had surrounded them only moments before streamed off the hull, forming clouds around the ship. The loudspeakers announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the Sky Hurricane.”