Chapter 98 – Interlude A & H
Interlude A
Admiral Adelina Hirsch stood at the center of the Horizon Ascendant’s bridge, her eyes scanning the data streaming across the main screen. The officers at their posts murmured quietly, their voices blending into a low hum.
A lieutenant approached and handed her a tablet. “Admiral, sensors confirm a matching FTL exit signature still dissipating. It’s in the expected place and is less than three months old.”
Adelina nodded and dismissed him, reviewing the data herself.
The system scan was thorough, as expected. Their FTL arrival had been smooth, but the unexplored frontier system demanded meticulous attention to detail.
The screen displayed a crowded system, teeming with planetary bodies. Dozens of potential hiding spots and points of interest.
This wasn’t going to be a quick mission. Adelina’s lips pressed into a thin line. A smaller vessel could have handled the exploration at a fraction of the cost. Sending the Horizon Ascendant was overkill.
But exploration wasn’t their primary objective.
They were on a ‘search and rescue’ mission, though Adelina knew it was more accurately a government-sanctioned kidnapping. Fremont Enterprises wanted its heiress back, or its CEO did at any rate. His legitimacy had been called into question. That wasn’t a surprise when it was suspected he had killed his wife and then vanished his daughter some years later after solidifying power.
She glanced down at her tablet, the image of their target staring back at her—blue eyes, black hair. A younger version of her mother. The resemblance made her wince.
No one really cared, except those who wanted to see Mr. ‘Fremont’ tugged away from the reins of power. Not out of any interests but their own.
Oh, and herself of course.
Liliana had been one of her few friends. Until she had married Richard.
Adelina let out a sigh and stared at the bridge’s mainscreen, highlighting the various planets and moons. She had made her feelings on the marriage, and the man, a bit too well-known and they had cut ties.
It was a major regret.
She’d be damned if she let that bastard get away with taking Lily’s daughter, too.
What the girl was thinking, though, she had no idea. Probably not thinking at all, actually. They seldom did at such a young age.
The amount of corporate overreach that had allowed Mr. Fremont to commandeer her ship grated. She wasn’t even sure if he had realized just who had been in command of the battlecruiser and its escort flotilla.
Adelina glanced at the report again. The girl had been missing for some time. Tracking her steps had been a challenge, but they’d managed to piece together her movements after she left the inner systems.
Talia’s reliance on Cortex hardware had been her undoing. They’d manhandled a Cortex manager into handing over the tracking data. The flight plan hadn’t exactly included the unexplored system, but the ad-tracking software had reported back her navigation computer’s coordinates. Which lead them to the system.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Commander Naomi Li’s approach. “Admiral,” Naomi said, standing at attention. “We’ve determined that the 16th planet in the system is habitable.”
Adelina’s eyes flicked to the system view and zoomed the main screen onto the planet. It was blue, green, and yellow. A mix of vast deserts and jungle, surrounded by massive oceans.
A habitable world in the middle of nowhere. The kind of place someone might go to disappear. They needed more information.
“Commander,” she said, “what do we have on it? Any signs of civilization or industrialization?”
Naomi handed her a tablet. “Nothing shows up so far, ma’am. Preliminary scans show it’s within the habitable zone. Atmosphere is breathable, gravity is Earth-like. There’s a significant amount of flora and fauna. Technology and optical scans don’t reveal any widespread cities. We’ll need more time.”
Adelina’s fingers tightened around the tablet. “Initiate detailed scans. I want high-resolution imagery and thermal readings. Enter high orbit and prepare to search for surface settlements. Don’t neglect the other system bodies, either. We need all eyes open.”
Naomi nodded, turning to relay the orders. Another officer stepped forward and Adelina nodded to him.
“Admiral, it could be an illicit colony. Smugglers. They might bolt on seeing us, or try to lay an ambush,” Captain Xavier Holt said.
Adelina frowned. “We don’t know that there is anyone there, except maybe the girl. If she made landfall we’ll likely pick up the location of the ship on the way in. If she’s flying dark somewhere, we might be here a while. There were no outbound FTL signatures detected, and we have the trace that she did arrive.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Xavier nodded. “I suggest we keep a ready rotation of pilots, just to be on the safe side. Maybe detach some of the escorts to examine the other system bodies as well.”
She waved at a lieutenant to come over while still looking at the Captain. “Agreed. I doubt there is a waiting military threat. Splitting up the search would speed things up. Let’s split them in groups of two and give them each their own search area.”
The lieutenant arrived and looked at her for direction.
“Lieutenant, get me a detailed list of every system body big enough to hide a ship behind. Including the asteroids,” she ordered.
He zoomed off to make it happen.
The bridge buzzed with activity as the crew executed her commands. The main screen blinked and showed the progress bars for the various scans that had come to life. She’d have orders for the other captains soon.
Her thoughts drifted back to Talia’s mother. She had been brilliant as she was troubled.
Adelina wondered if her daughter had inherited the same spark. She couldn’t help but feel another pang of regret. The girl probably felt like the entire world was against her—that she was alone.
She had good reason to, and Adelina hadn’t done anything to help with that. She had put it out of her mind and locked away.
At the very least, she should have tried to check in. She owed that to Lily, at the very least.
“I’m sorry,” Adelina whispered under her breath. She hoped the girl would understand. Hoped she would find the girl first.
Help was on the way.
***
Interlude H
Paladin Harlax stood in the command center of World 416’s new military hub. The air was thick with tension and the hum of activity.
Veteran Ferroin manned their posts, eyes flicking over holographic displays, processing reports, and preparing for ‘the surge.’ An entire legion had been summoned. The enemy’s combat capability had proven much stronger than expected.
He had avoided a direct confrontation in order to probe their abilities, and had found them in excess of what the simple cohort that had been deployed was capable of handling. Even if they were veteran warriors.
He scanned the room, noting the efficiency with which they operated. Despite that, they seemed on edge.
The fool Verrrox had nearly cost them everything. His selfish attempt to secret away the resources he had found, and then destroy the connection to the world entirely when he had been found out, gnawed.
The edges of the empire frayed dangerously. It was easy to imagine others in the same rank and position doing the same. There were ultimately not enough higher posts, and the lesser clawed their way toward the top.
But Verrrox’s blatant act had crossed a line. Harlax’s grip tightened on the hilt of his suit’s vibro blade.
Reports on the blue hologram crystal streamed in, detailing the enemy’s movements and fortifications. The massive area the critical HEM deposit was highlighted in magenta. It was of unimaginable purity and size. Enough to solidify the Emperor’s position among the growing restlessness of the prefectures.
The holy order would restore order.
A young officer approached, saluting crisply. “Paladin, the latest reconnaissance data is ready for your review.”
He nodded, taking the proffered crystal and inserting it into his forearm. The information churned in his mind as a series of lists.
Formidable defenses, a fully integrated multi-arms approach to warfare, a massive super machine rolling toward the gate. Autonomous robots chewing up valuable resource lodes and churning the material into new machines to fight.
It was a nightmare. Autonomous machines were anathema. Verrrox was not wrong to fear. If the machines had swarmed across the world already, then there would be no choice but to lock out the gate.
But it hadn’t happened yet.
They were still in the fledgling state, only beginning to expand their operations.
The legion would arrive, and they would root it out before it could damn World 416 forever.
Harlax’s eyes narrowed as he examined the holographic map. The enemy’s contact points glowed red, each representing a skirmish where scouts had been struck. Blue for various locations where they had been spotted, but their scouts had remained hidden.
His gaze traced the faint lines of spark energy, pulsing with a rhythm that felt natural. The enemy had begun to use the servants. A concentrated line of them had formed from inside one of the recycler jungles that the ancients had so loved.
What it led to was obvious—they were reacting and approaching the HEM, no doubt to try and revitalize the aging infrastructure of the world. Whether on their own, or with help of the enemy, it did not matter.
Rebellious subjects would be put down. The church had need of their spark to maintain control of the gate network.
The vision flipped to the scene of the major battle that had set Verrrox so on edge. A blackened and charred crater was all that remained, other than scattered metal and the remains of an enemy structure that had been investigated. The blackened scar on the landscape was decorated with the cleanser worm’s corpse.
To the frontiersmen, the world’s lifeforms were an enigma.
Harlax knew what they were. Sacred texts brought to life.
The autonomous units had defiled the place with nuclear rage, burning what they couldn’t control.
The jungle, and the servants, would be key. A smile tugged at Harlax’s lips as his eyes traced the line of sparks flowing outward. They had unwittingly revealed the location of their lair.
“Prepare a strike company,” he commanded, his cutting through the hum.
How closely the enemy and the servants were working together wasn’t known, but that didn’t matter. One would be dealt with, just like the other. It was time to strike back with precision and fury.