Disclaimer: I don't own the characters and settings within the novels of 'Legends of Dune'. The trilogy of books were made by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Credit goes to them, as well as Frank Herbert, the original creator of 'Dune'. No money is being made out of this.
THE ARRAKEEN JIHAD
PROLOGUE
It has been decades since the atomic annihilation of Earth, the former capital world of the Thinking Machines. The loss of the Earth Omnius was indeed great, but since they are cold, heartless mockeries of intelligent life, they felt no concern for it whatsoever. Omnius' closest machine confidant, Erasmus, might be perplexed by the loss of any information stored within it's artificial intelligence core. However, knowing the robot's penchance for indulging in his curiousity, he would most probably immerse himself in his so called "human research".
These matters, however, do not concern the former Titan Agammemnon. What worries him though, is the fact that the hrethgir have been fighting back. And fighting back hard. The great cymek attributed these victories to that of his blood. His son, Vorian Atreides. The young man possessed the cunning that he -Agamemnon himself- possessed during the Time of the Titans. Trained in the art of war by his fellow Titans, most especially by himself!
His thoughts enraged by this act of betrayal, Agamemnon's walker form pounded against the flagstones with enough force to crack it. His destination is a 'Data and Tactical' room, one of many that could be found within the Central Spire of the evermind. Thinking machines, and even cymeks, can extract and input information within these rooms. The cymek general plans to oversee any progress made by their scouts, armies, and fleets. Relevant data will be addressed and used to plan for future conquests.
His hulking metal body entered the huge domed room, littered with cables and wires that seem to gyrate in time with the currents of data moving from one place to another. The former Titan shed his walker form, in favor of the stationary, cylindrical data terminal. Thoughtrodes attached to his brain, and Agamemnon began to sift through the multitudes of streaming data. Most of them were either irrelevant, or can be easily solved by a regular thinking machine. He did, however, noticed a pattern from the probes sent out before. League Planets were the most obvious threat, thus most of those probes never reached their destination, or were promptly destroyed at land fall. The outer fringes of the League planets -these so called 'Unallied Worlds'- were, however, beyond their protection.
Agamemnon began to earnestly study the information gathered by the probes. Most of these planets have little human population, compared to the League worlds. Some were rich in resources -human or otherwise. They can be taken over very easily providing a foothold for a direct assault on the League of Nobles. Plan are already formulating on the former Titan's mind for the best solution in conquering the feral humans. Conquer the fringe planets and surround the League within a web the human would be hard pressed to fight back, or escape from.
Satisfied, the cymek general almost neglected a single strand of data. Almost.
There wasn't anything surprising about this minor fact. It was merely a destroyed probe. However, after cross referencing this data with the others, he noticed that this probe was deployed within Unallied territory. If there is no presence of Jihad fighters in that area, then how could that scout be destroyed almost as soon as it landed? This perplexing question nagged at his mind. Perhaps an investigation is in order. A boon must once again be requested to the evermind.
In the meantime, Agamemnon studied the planet much more closely, from what data was recovered. It is located out of any trade routes from the League worlds, arid landscape with harsh atmospheric weather, practically absent of any source of water, and sparse population. Trade ships, however, were sometimes detected moving to and fro.
Indeed, it is a very odd mystery why these hrethgir would want this planet. Though it might conflict with orders from Omnius, the cymek thought it would be best observe this planet himself.
Agammemnon soon left the room, but not without etching those relevant data in his mind. The one thing that sprang up from his thought was the name of the planet.
Arrakis.
Author's Notes: I should tell you first and foremost that the 'Legends of Dune' novels were a good read. It felt great to see the formation of the Dune universe, how the Atreides-Harkonnen feud started, the origins of the Bene Gesserit, the Mentats, the Guild, Fremen, etc. Thus, it would seem contradictory for me to write an altaverse of an already good novel.
However, I had a personal disappointment that the climax between thinking machines and humans didn't occur in the sands of Arrakis (In fact, there is no serious conflict bet. the two staged in Arrakis). So for me, this is a way making that closet fantasy happen. I mean, c'mon! Who doesn't want to see Sand Worms devouring scores of thinking machines? Who doesn't want to see Ginaz mercs fighting along side Fremen and Jihadists? Who doesn't want to see Gilbertus Albans addicted to melange? (Ooops, spoiler...) Anyway, that's why I wrote this. It's a little too short for my taste, and it's a bit on the ideas stages, or it can be considered an anti-writer's block story, but please leave comments, ideas, suggestions on this story, if it should be continued.
Thanks!