HOMEWORLD2: WRATH OF THE GODS
CHAPTER 16: VOID
The Progenitors acquired the power to jump wherever they wished, thanks to the far jumping capabilities of Sajuuk and the Three Cores. However, the Elders soon realised the impracticalities of having to use the Great Maker for their every transportation requirement. There was simply no way to design an AI program reliable enough to process the hyperspatial requests of a civilisation spanning an entire galactic cluster.
As the Sajuuk was pushed to its software processing boundaries, a committee of scientists commissioned by the Elders to solve the problem came up with a radical idea. They would lighten the load of the Great Maker by diverting traffic to an alternative mode of transport – a hyperspace gate network.
The Progenitors worked hard to innovate upon their far jumping hypertechnology in a bid to make this project a reality. Problems with power generation were quickly overcome with energy sources easily accommodated by the vast sizes of the gates, and further developments since the forging of the Three Cores meant that they could implement lesser versions of the Cores in each gate.
After decades of research and construction, the prototype Eye of Aaraan system was completed. It spanned an entire galaxy, and linked it to several others. All that was needed now was a powerful burst of energy to run the network for the next few centuries. Relative to their previous hurdles, this was nothing. The Progenitors had known for eons that synchronising hyperdrives generated quantum energy exceeding the standard combined output of the two drives. With that in mind, the Progenitor scientists merely synchronised the Three Cores themselves, and channelled that energy into the Eye of Aaraan
The success of the Eye of Aaraan meant that more networks would be built, with the final goal of linking every galaxy in the Progenitor cluster with trans-galactic hypergates, and allowing far jumping within galaxies by using intra-galactic hypergates. Unfortunately, the Eye of Aaraan was the last great project of this massive civilisation, before it ruptured under the strain of civil war.
Onboard the Gatekeeper of Sajuuk, high orbit over Gozan IV:
Captain Soban now knew the torture of running a ship on manual. With engineers from the Legacy of Kharak still working to restore computer controls, sending messages from Command to Engineering involved sending an athlete sprinting down the corridors with some papers. In their current condition, there was no way at all to make hyperspace jumps.
Thankfully, they managed to jump here simply because the Grand Core didn't need the consent of the ship it was jumping. It just pulled the ship into hyperspace whether the ship was capable of doing so or not. Still, restoration of jump capabilities was important if the Gatekeeper was to remain a combat-capable vessel.
"How the hell did you manage to disable the inner workings of a super advanced Progenitor ship?" the Legacy's Chief Engineer had asked.
"We were desperate to stop the thing from firing that gun on the Mothership, so we just rerouted some wires…"
"Rerouted wires?"
"You know the ones that were supposed to feed power into the Phased Cannon Array? Well, we rerouted them to supply the computer systems."
The Chief Engineer had gone ballistic when he heard about what Soban had ordered his crews to do. He was literally screaming into Soban's face about the potential dangers, including phasing themselves out without hyperspacing back in, and the list went on.
Soban's crews were not used to doing work without their computers. For instance, the Sensors Officers now worked by looking out through viewports located around the ship (viewscreens were offline) and making notes of ships surrounding them, and the relative position of the Gatekeeper from the rest of the fleet.
The only light in all this darkness (emergency lighting since standard automatic lights were offline) was the fact that life support ran on a perfectly independent system that was not hacked or damaged by their manual disabling. Soban was grateful they didn't have to carry oxygen tanks around with them.
It was then that the main lighting flickered softly. Soban and his crew looked up in anticipation, all clinging to the hope that main computer control was fixed. Sadly, emergency lighting remained on as the main lights died out again. There was a collective sigh as everyone went back to their manual chores.
Soban decided to return to his quarters. It had been a long time since he'd last updated his log. Walking down the dimly lit corridors, he caught a glimpse of the very sweaty Sensors Officers running off to another viewport to continue their relative position calculations. Stepping into his private room, he flicked the switch of his electronic log computer.
To his dismay, the screen showed garbled text. He swore and banged the console hard. Their power surge had most definitely wiped out months' worth of logging. Soban was about to turn the annoying thing off when the garbled text was replaced by a series of numbers in a certain sequence. Surprised by the sudden change, Soban studied the numbers for a few minutes, eventually concluding that this was probably something for the Mothership's tech teams to figure out.
Soban copied the sequence, about a page long, onto a sheet of paper. Then he took the sheet to the marine frigate docked to the Gatekeeper's hull. After all, the communications systems had gone down in the surge too.
Onboard the Legacy of Kharak, high orbit over Gozan IV:
The rerouting would take considerable time, the medics had promised, so Yuno took the chance to give Kiir a virtual tour of the Legacy. She had shown him the communications systems and construction algorithms. Now she was taking him to view the databanks. Kiir stared in awe at the size of the place.
"So, this is where all information collected since the Homeworld War is stored?" he gasped.
"Yes, every single scrap of ship and stellar phenomenon data, not to mention encounters and various mission logs. In fact, every bit of data collected by the Hiigaran Navy to this date can be found here."
"That is amazing… So, what's new around here?"
"The latest data we have is this," Yuno replied while bringing up the repaired Grand Core data, "I got this from the Grand Core, and this is all that can be repaired and read."
Kiir scanned through the information quickly, and was astounded.
"Wow, who would've thought that Koshiir Ra was a ship too?"
"I was just as surprised when I found the data. Now there's a big problem. I can't find any uncorrupted data regarding the actual position of the Koshiir Ra. All I know right now is that the ship is hidden in a very complex quantum anomaly."
"Something like the Grand Core?"
"Only this time, we either access it via the Eye of Aaraan or by using a specific algorithm for the Grand Core to follow."
"Hyperspace Physics, my pet subject. Mind giving me all you have so I can work on this?"
"Huh? Kiir, with all due respect, we're talking advanced Progenitor Physics here. Are you sure you can handle this?"
"My research halted because I had insufficient data to work from. The information in the databanks regarding the Progenitors would be very helpful."
"Well then, I guess there's no harm in giving you free access." Yuno beamed.
At that point in time, Admiral Eefrit's voice came booming through the computer systems.
"Yuno, if you're there, there's some new data that came in from the Gatekeeper. You might want to take a look at it."
"I'll check it out immediately. Kiir, feel free to access whatever data you want here." Yuno said before warping off to analyse the new information. Kiir waved goodbye, then set off to find the information he wanted.
"These numbers don't seem to make any sense…" Yuno muttered under her breath as she summoned up various programs to run searches and match the numbers with anything in the database. The results came back negative.
She stopped for a moment to think. Perhaps the sequence had something to do with what the numbers meant. Yuno stared hard at the way the numbers were arranged, trying to match it with something she saw before…
Onboard the Sajuuk, hyperspace transit:
The lights throughout the mighty vessel were dim from the lack of power. Many computer systems had been shut down in an effort to divert every last ounce of power from the Sajuuk's reactors to the Three Cores. Even then, total energy drain would be inevitable.
Karan monitored their progress, and was dismayed that the Progenitors had not given up their pursuit. Though the speeds of their hyperdrives could not match the Sajuuk's, they compensated by their sheer numbers. Ships were sent to pursue in shifts, ensuring that at least one vessel would track the final exit point of the Sajuuk.
Her Unbound senses were starting to lose their sharpness as even more sensor systems were taken offline. Now they had barely enough energy to exit this jump safely, and initiate a final one immediately after.
Moments later, the great ship emerged from hyperspace on the Northern Galactic Fringe. What lay beyond was uncharted territory, and the path to another galaxy.
As the red blips approached their position, Karan gave the ship's computers just enough energy to access the navigational files. She saw her destination and mentally sent a command to the Three Cores. With that, the main lighting flickered out and everything was dark save for the dim blips of light on barely functional viewscreens.
The Sajuuk entered hyperspace one last time.
Onboard the Faal Corum, high orbit over Gozan IV:
The elite astronavigational crews worked feverishly to decode the strange string of numbers. Yuno had correctly guessed that the sequence of digits represented some form of galactic coordinates, passing the data to the famous navigational teams of the Faal Corum.
From the number sequence, the crews had already narrowed down their search to a sector of space in the Shining Hinterlands just a few light years from Karos. Still, the area involved was several dozen light years in diameter. Much refining was left to be done.
Suddenly, a tap on a computer console made it all fall into place and a precise location was found – the Eye of Aaraan Gate 34C. However, the sequence of numbers still went on for several lines, and it was clearly nothing navigational in nature.
The crews had done their best, and this was what they could come up with. The coordinates were sent to the Legacy of Kharak without delay.
Onboard the Legacy of Kharak, high orbit over Gozan IV:
Yuno regarded the decoded data with great interest. Much as she was tempted to load the entire string into the Grand Core, Yuno remained cautious about the last few lines of indecipherable digits.
Meanwhile, Kiir Sjet's physical body had been successfully transferred to a bunk, the neural interfaces rerouted via a neurohelmet now mounted on his head. Their arduous task complete, the medics retired for their much-needed rest.
Admiral Eefrit was back at the bridge, overseeing fleet operations in Yuno's absence. After all, she had to make sure that Kiir didn't meet with any cyberspace mishap. Thanks to the various automatic algorithms, running an entire fleet was made far easier for Eefrit. It was then that Yuno suddenly materialised on her bridge holoprojector.
"The crews of the Faal Corum have successfully decoded Captain Soban's data." Yuno reported.
"I see, and what did they find?" Eefrit enquired curiously.
"Coordinates corresponding to the location of the Eye of Aaraan Gate 34C. Unfortunately, the crews were unable to make sense of the data that came after the coordinates."
"If you ask me, we should play it safe and download only the coordinate data into the Grand Core. Who knows what the rest of the Progenitor data is designed to do."
"Of course. I'm afraid you'll have to manage the jump preparations. I still have Kiir to look after."
"No problem. We can handle everything here."
The databank access was a godsend for Kiir. Many of his questions had been answered, and many variables accounted for. This was making his research far easier, giving him a chance to refine his Sync Jump and Quantum Distortion algorithms to function better.
It had taken some practice, but now Kiir had gotten the hang of summoning programs at the wave of a hand. Sometimes he summoned the wrong things, but he was getting better with each attempt. This time, he brought up a calculation utility to aid in the solving of his equations. He slipped in the new variables and prayed for a lucky break.
As expected, he got an undefined result. He sighed and went back to his work, pondering over where to go from here. It would only be a matter of time before he reached the limit of extending jump ranges using hyperdrive synchronisation, but true far jumping still remained an impossibility.
Yuno warped in beside him and was awe-struck by the lists of calculations, variables and equations he had put out.
"Looks like you've been working hard at it."
"Well, we won't be building Far Jumpers of our own anytime soon I'm afraid."
"But these formulae… unless I'm mistaken, they appear to be revised versions of your famous Sync Jump Algorithm."
"Yeah, but there's a limit to how far fleets can jump using this method. Anyway, I haven't got a clue what your Grand Core data means, Yuno."
"I'm not surprised. Take your time with it. By the way, we'll be making a jump to Gate 34C in the next few minutes. Hopefully you can find some answers there."
"Hopefully… well, I'll upload these updated Sync Jump and Quantum Distortion algorithms into the fleet databanks so that every ship is equipped with them…"
It was then that Kiir vanished from Yuno's sight.
Kiir Sjet awoke abruptly in his bunk, banging his head hard against the neurohelmet suspended over his head. He groaned as he felt the fresh bump on his forehead, rubbing it to dissipate the pain.
Yuno quickly appeared on the nearest console screen.
"Kiir! How did you just leave the system?"
"Gee… I have absolutely no idea… but I'm never touching loose wires again for that matter…" he muttered while the throbbing pain slowly faded away.
Outskirts of Balcora:
The Sajuuk warped back into realspace after a trying journey across one of the most hyperspatially-resistant areas in the Galaxy. Its energy reserves were finally drained, and the ship dropped into a near-powerless mode for the reactors to begin the arduous recharging.
Karan somehow managed to reroute power from some remaining non-essential systems to get some basic sensor capability. As she squinted across the vast distances with her significantly reduced Unbound senses, she quickly determined that they had misjumped by a few kilometres. Nonetheless, they were still well within range of their final destination.
Minutes later, the reactors restored enough power to give the Sajuuk's conventional drives a kick of energy. With a mighty roar, the vessel began trudging towards the massive derelict looming in the distance.
As the ship approached the structure, various mechanisms began activating to welcome the arrival of the Great Maker. Spikes of pure quantum energy began arcing across external conduits, which began glowing with ever-increasing intensity. At the same time, the radial gate in the centre began to turn and glow with dazzling blue light.
Karan Sjet sent a mental command, and the gate responded. A shimmering window of hyperspace pierced through the empty void and consumed the Sajuuk entirely as it plunged through the Eye of Aaraan. Then the window vanished promptly as the structure began shutting down. The Eye ceased to turn and the conduits dimmed rapidly.
Moments later, several hyperspace windows began opening in the vicinity of the Eye. They slid back to reveal several Progenitor Keepers and battlecruisers, their officers regarding the Eye of Aaraan with great interest.
Onboard the Divina, Sarum System:
The high priest walked around, supervising his officers as they did their work. Various harvesters had been released to collect resources from the rich asteroid belts in the area, and the needleships were now hard at work replacing their lost squadrons of swarmers and multibeam frigates.
The clockwork monotony was broken by the sudden loss of a harvester. The bridge officers quickly focused the needleship's sensors on the area, but found nothing. Despite their many years of sensor calibration in the Great Nebula, Sarum's unique dust clouds provided interference that they had yet to encounter before.
"Your holiness, we have dispatched a squadron of swarmers to investigate the loss."
"I see. We must make sure that this is not the prelude to a surprise attack. Put all fleet assets to the fullest alert, we cannot let the Unclean take another victory."
The officers watched the sensor screens as the fighters approached their destinations. Suddenly, shrieks cut through the communications channels before they ended abruptly. The officers were shocked, and the high priest alarmed by the sudden outburst.
But more was yet to come. Ships began emerging from the cover of the dust clouds. Before the Kadeshi could respond, brilliant crimson beams shot out from the vessels, impacting the frigates closest to the dust clouds.
"Your holiness! We are losing contact with ships in the fleet!"
"The Unclean have set a trap! Engage the enemy at once!"
The Kadeshi fleet recovered quickly from the surprise assault and began firing their advanced ionic weaponry on the incoming infected ships. But their resistance was futile. For every infected ship they brought down, several more Kadeshi vessels were subverted.
"Your holiness, the Unclean are using some kind of techno-organic entity to subvert all ships in range! We have already lost the Aeterna needleship to the infection!"
"Bring all needleships to the rear and let the primary strike forces engage the Unclean while we escape to hyperspace. We cannot allow our race to become extinct!"
The remaining four needleships quickly assembled in a parade formation, and hyperspace windows opened before them. Unfortunately, the windows collapsed promptly as the infected needleship reconfigured its inhibitors to trap the fleeing ships.
Now a mothership-class vessel moved out of the dust clouds to watch the ensuing slaughter. The Kadeshi caught a glimpse of the thing and froze in terror. Several hundred metres of hull were warped in grotesque directions to form a ship shaped like a needleship, but with a massive manufacturing module in its centre and eight minor needles jutting out from the sides of its disc.
The minor needles glowed with increasing intensity, then let loose several long range infection beams that rained down upon the survivors. Within seconds, the remnants of the Kadeshi were completely assimilated.
Eye of Aaraan Gate 34C, Southern Outer Rim:
The Exodus Fleet slid out of hyperspace and initiated resourcing operations immediately. As the collectors and workers swarmed towards the nearest asteroid pockets, the fleet began moving on conventional drives towards the large hypergate.
As expected, sensor sweeps revealed nothing special. There was no Progenitor superweapon or legendary ship.
"Well, it seems we came here for nothing Yuno," Eefrit commented, taking readings of the nearby region.
"Of course it can't be that easy to find the Koshiir Ra. Chances are we'll need to jump through the gate, but first we had better take the chance to harvest resources and build up the fleet. Who knows what we'll encounter next?"
"True. We still have the Vaygr to contend with, on top of those Progenitor zealots. By the way, have you any idea where this gate leads to?"
"If I'm not mistaken, it's the gate Karan was exploring the other time. According to the exploration logs, the gate led the Sajuuk to an inaccessible region to the south of the Galaxy. The place was sort of sealed off from normal ships due to the presence of several strong gravity wells."
"Gravity wells?"
"Yes. The Southern Fringe has many supergiant stars and several black holes, possibly remnants of a previous galactic collision. That was why Karan was keen on exploring that region first, since it had never been accessed by any sentient race in all our history since the First Time."
"What did she find there?"
"Nothing notable, except a Progenitor derelict with traces of the Beast variant currently in use by the Progenitor zealots. Then she was forced to withdraw to Hiigaran space when the Turanics and Imperials started moving."
"If the place is sealed off by gravs, why can't we just jump in with the Grand Core?"
"Well, we could do that. Only problem is that we do not have the necessary targeting data for such a jump. Karan didn't get a chance to survey the area properly, remember?"
"Great. Guess we'll have to go in and make our own starcharts…"
"May I propose something?" Kiir asked as he stepped onto the bridge.
"Kiir? Wow, so you finally managed to get out?" Eefrit asked.
"I don't know how I did it, but I'll figure that out another day. Anyway, I'm here to ask if I could resume work on the Light Sword project."
"Project Light Sword? Isn't that the Super Acolyte research programme?"
"That's the one. You see, during the Bentusi encounter, we were able to conduct several close range deep scans of the Bentusi Super Acolytes. This new data should allow me to come up with a possible Acolyte III design."
"An Acolyte III?"
"The current generation of Acolyte II fighters are equipped with high speed autocannons and energy cannons. My goal is to incorporate the Bentusi ion cannons in the design somehow. Hopefully this will help even out our battles against the Progenitors."
"But from the past records, you have met with failure due to the crystal conduits malfunctioning." the doubtful Eefrit uttered.
"I understand that, but the data from the Bentusi scans will solve that problem. All I need is access to one of the fighter production lines, and a research lab. Can you spare that?"
"Hmm, Legacy doesn't have any spare facilities for you. However, I think the Pride of Hiigara's Advanced Research Module might have a spare lab. I do believe they also have a spare production line not in use currently." Yuno mentioned.
"And I'll send you over in my shuttle," Eefrit quipped, "When will you be free for the transfer?"
"Anytime! I can't thank you both enough… rest assured it'll work this time!" Kiir exclaimed.
The shuttle glided out of the Legacy of Kharak's docking bays and headed for the Pride of Hiigara. As the other massive mothership loomed bigger in their approach, Kiir silently reflected on the past tragedies of the project. This time, he would make sure that no more lives were lost.
Meanwhile, the fleet busied itself over the resourcing operations, building more strike craft and frigates. In all their activity, no one noticed the miniscule quantum distortion building up within the gate…