Twelve

Pretoria Test Base

Val-kyrie Home World

18 September 2017

"I don't know which of you is crazier," Queen Mother Silvara commented, reading the report of the battle in the Etherian star system for the third time.

"That means a lot coming from you," Commander Fontaine said, a knowing smile on her lips.

The third woman seated at the massive circular table grinned, saying, "As I recall, you were quite the hellraiser when we were growing up." Commander Harana, the base commander, was the one responsible for the upgrades to the six Guardian battlesuits, as well as the most recent refit of the Ladyhawke.

The fourth woman seated at the table was the commander of the Battlestar Defiant and the recipient of the Queen Mother's statement. "Some of the things you pulled while commanding a battlestar are still the stuff of legend."

The data pad slipped from Silvara's hands, clattering on the table's surface. "There is a reason why most sane commanders won't execute the ramming attack anymore."

"Ah, but that was before the invention of the pinpoint barrier system. A system that has been expanded to cover the entire ship instead of specific parts," Mundu pointed out. Her eyes met Harana's. "And your tech team has had a standing request to test out the enhanced barrier under extreme conditions. Doesn't get much more extreme than ramming another warship." Mundu leaned back, taking a sip from her glass.

Silvara shook her head. "Fontaine broadsides Captain Dragnar's battleship. Harana goes into battle against Bregata's rogue security robots and Bladewing pilots with War Wing. Mundu rams her way through Hordak's battleship line. I repeat, I don't know which of you is crazier."

Harana sighed. "Well, you were always up for the game of one-upmanship. What have you got in mind?"

"She's just mad she didn't get to go into battle with one or more of the Guardians first," Mundu said.

Frowning, Fontaine looked sideways at her ebony-skinned friend. "You sure you're not talking about yourself?"

"Says the woman who only got to bail them out of trouble rather than carry them into battle and support their actions," Mundu countered.

Silvara tapped the tabletop with a fingernail. "As scintillating as this banter is, we need to get back on track. For every high profile attack we know of, the sensor net has picked up possibly two dozen more that could be our mysterious enemy. General Rongar has transmitted what he has been able to dig up, and that information adds another six attacks to the list."

Some of the attacks no one knew about had been military targets. Listening posts. Small garrisons. Nothing terribly formidable in terms of military power, but those engagements did provide valuable data with regards to military power. More important would be the databases likely taken intact.

The four women intently studied the details of all the attacks. It had been Fontaine who hit on the idea of someone old seeking to get a handle on the current state of galactic events. Just the sort of information one would need before commencing with a major military operation.

And then there was the civilian side of the equation. The strikes against transfer stations, assaulting shipping routes and general commerce raiding were putting spacefaring civilizations on edge. Most believed it was some new pirate organization powerful enough to pull off the attacks. They figured either the Val-kyrie, the Horde or both would soon put the pirates out of action. Permanently.

Except they still had no idea who or what they were dealing with. The piece of robot Adrian and his crew had arrived with was yielding some data about the nature of the enemy, but the complete machine would have been better. The group still awaited the tech teams' initial report.

"Transfer Station 437 was a complete loss," Mundu said. "Just like Station 321. The observations of both Adrian and General Rongar have been confirmed. Any transport containing valuable cargo was disabled and ransacked. All the others were blown apart." She had been appalled at the loss of life on the ships as well as the station.

Defiant had been tasked with evaluating the station on her way home. Mundu remembered the crew being sickened at the brutality of the attack. None of the transports could fight back. Even the defenses of the station were geared more toward fending off pirate attacks than holding out against a powerful military assault.

Despite the images the crime families had of what appeared to be a Mark V battlestar, an antique to say the least, the residual energy readings did not come from a Mark V. Those readings indicated a confusing blend of technology from Horde, Val-kyrie and a third source of unknown origin. The potential power the warship had could possibly rival a Mark XX battlestar. With the vacuum energy tap installed.

Not a pleasing thought.

The Queen Mother turned to Commander Fontaine. "How soon can your ship be ready for action?"

Fontaine blinked. Blinked again. Was she serious? "The crew should have the new hyperdrive installed later today. The heat sinks should all be disconnected by late tomorrow. They're due to be replaced with armor facsimiles in the next week or so. The main problem will be getting the hull plates put back into place over the hyperdrive bay. Yard commander predicts Logoss could be ready for trials by the first of next month."

"We don't have that kind of time. And I am going to need my best commanders for this. Get your ship back together in two days. Whatever you need. However, many people it takes. Get her ready." Silvara held up a hand to forestall the coming argument. "I know. You won't be able to take much punishment in that area, but you won't be out there alone."

To back up her point, the Queen Mother tapped the comm pad on the tabletop. When the tech came on the line, she requested a connection to the yard commander. The conversation was quick and to the point. Logoss, Defiant and any other battlestar close to completing repair work were to be rushed back into service for a high priority mission in the next two to three days. Such orders directly from the Queen Mother herself did happen from time to time; Silvara had a reputation of never asking unless a dangerous situation was imminent. To her credit, the yard commander simply nodded and said she would forward a copy of the list of personnel and material she would need diverted. Getting authorization to recall the battlestar crews to help complete the work would help. Who knew the quirks of the ships better than the those who crewed them?

That settled, Silvara dismissed the battlestar commanders to tend to their warships. When the pair had gone, the Queen Mother leaned back in in chair, sighed, and cast a sidelong glance at Commander Harana. The next topic was only to be discussed between the two of them, and it was not going to be pleasant.

"So, it's true, then," Silvara stated, getting to the point.

"So it would seem," Harana sighed. "We scoured the entire memory core and what higher functions we were comfortable with for fear of damaging something. We found nothing."

"And yet, it still exists," Silvara pointed out. She glanced at the telemetry data sent from the battlesuits to the Defiant during the mission to Etheria.

The operators had been unaware of it, which Silvara had issues with. Harana had made a good argument for temporarily monitoring the suits to make sure the upgrades did not have any glitches. That data clearly showed the changeover that Adrian Cobretti and War Wing had no recollection of. The statement of the configuration not being complete was still a mystery, but the results of the battle with the Monstroids was not.

"What are we missing?" Silvara prodded.

Harana shook her head. "At this point, I would have to theorize that the program has been integrated with the AI so deeply that if we did find it a remove it, that action would likely destroy the AI."

"But how did Adrian activate it in the first place?"

Here, the theories turned a little more into the realm of conjecture. "Well, based on the after-action reports, the emotional response to the group of civilians being killed by the Monstroid may have triggered the program."

The Queen Mother frowned. "His response can't have triggered it alone no matter how strong it was."

"Maybe the two of them."

"What?"

Harana lifted her own data pad. "There is an indication that the AI became similarly distressed. Remember, the project was to create an AI, and that both operator and AI work together."

"'Always two acting as one,'" Silvara whispered. "Is it possible that the two did it together? Activated the system?"

"It would make a strong enough emotional response. They even managed to fire off a missile armed with the program War Wing developed to take over other robots."

The Queen Mother grunted. "So, they had some control after all. But without knowing what was happening, they turned on the others."

Harana nodded. "The configuration must have changed just enough to alert the program when the Sorceress and Falcon tried to use the backdoor to shut AI and operator down."

"They must be told," Silvara said. "They have a right to know why the maneuver didn't work. Why things nearly went very badly that day."

"I am against this. They will be angry at the subterfuge. They already suspect that we are holding back information."

The Queen Mother nodded. The red-eyed females that had been spotted on Val-kyre. An ancient enemy thought to have died out long ago. "Our relations with General Hammond's command will be damaged, but it can be mended in time. What's important is preparing them for the fight ahead. We completely rebuilt those suits with upgraded systems. Systems that had been on the verge of failure."

Val-kyrie scientists had speculated that despite having been stored in a kind of stasis for the AIs to develop and be ready for when the time came for their re-emergence, there would still be system damage and degradation.

When the suits were revived and taken into battle, degradation had occurred. It continued to grow as they went into battle again and again. The automatic repair system each suit was equipped with stemmed the tide, but it was a losing battle. Coming to Val-kyre and undergoing a total upgrade had been fortuitous because the damage had been on the verge of becoming evident. Now, they were even more powerful than ever. But one suit had a deadly flaw. One no person in over a thousand years had been able to overcome.

"Everyone who has tried to tame that system since before the end of the war has died trying. I lost two ace test pilots to that abomination," Harana hissed. "I refuse to watch anyone else die because of that program."

"Then explain Miriam," Silvara said, pointedly. Harana's head snapped around, eyes wide with shock. "You once theorized that operator and AI might be able to do what no one else has been able to. Tame a program that by its nature is barely controllable. You have been trying to create an AI that might help a pilot do just that. Am I right?"

"All I got for my trouble is a homicidal AI."

"One that Cobretti and the Sorceress seem to be managing. The virtual equivalent of a near-death experience seems to have helped a bit," Silvara pointed out. "Why else would you put the AI into one of the test ships? But the Ladyhawke has not been uploaded with the program, has it?"

Harana shook her head. "It's still too dangerous."

"Whatever is moving out there is even more dangerous. Dangerous enough that Cobretti and War Wing may have to make the attempt."

"We have been friends for a long time, Silvara. You are the Queen Mother. If you choose to inform them, that is your prerogative."

"Your objection is duly noted. I haven't decided, as yet. It will depend upon what happens in the next few days. But sooner or later, they will have to told. Warned about the program." Silvara shoved herself out of the chair and walked over to the observation window. She down upon the main floor, where much could be accomplished in an area approximately the same dimensions as two football fields combined.

Currently, War Wing and Falcon stood in battle mode. A control station had been placed in front of each suit. Cables snaked across the floor and up into the open operators' compartments. Gabriel Burns and a host of Val-kyrie technicians swarmed around the suits, checking systems, examining components, and struggling to adapt the MASC energy signature cloaking program to conceal the power signature of the suits, making them invisible to the new enemy slowly gathering strength in the galaxy.

"Do you really think Adrian Cobretti and War Wing can dominate that program?" Harana asked.

Silvara regarded her childhood friend for long moments, turned back to the scene on the floor below. "Adrian accomplished what few have done. Completed the no-win scenario by whatever means necessary. And such a unique fashion, no less. The first male to do so." She faced Harana again. "I believe any man who can accomplish such a feat can do anything he and War Wing put their minds to."

Further debate was stalled when Adrian Cobretti and the Sorceress entered the conference chamber. Both were still dressed as the bounty hunter Cobra and his traveling companion. Cobretti did not look happy. Even the Sorceress looked a little disturbed.

Neither had been sleeping well of late. Something about dreams of a battle neither had fought from long ago. Colonel Markson had indicated that all six Guardians were having similar dreams. All seemed to revolve around the battle that took place when the six battlesuits were interred behind the barrier composed of technology and magic. The battle where all six of the original Guardian operators had been lost.

Something about that battle continued to haunt the successors for those original six people. Could it have anything to do with this new enemy slowly emerging in the galaxy? There was a solid argument in that line of reasoning; the dreams had begun around the time of the first attacks. Evidently, someone was trying to speak to the six Guardians, but the purpose of the message still eluded them.

"Are we set?" Adrian asked as he gazed out the observation window at the activity below.

"Just a couple adjustments to make," Harana said. She rose and walked over to the control station along the front wall, close to the commander's office. Leaning over the controls, she set up a secure link to the meeting hall the crime families use on Wayfarer. She adjusted the camera movements so it would stay in close on Adrian and follow him so as not to reveal his location to the people on the other end of the channel. Straightening, she nodded to the pair.

The holographic emitter over the table came alive, a sphere forming in the air between tabletop and ceiling. The image of the council chamber on Wayfarer resolved in the field. Bosses Marina and Nash stared back.

Cobra continued to stare out the window at the activity below. "I thought we had an arrangement. You don't take any aggressive actions, and we share whatever we find out about this unknown enemy."

"Yes," Boss Nash confirmed. His voice sounded a bit hollow coming through the secure channel. "Why do you ask?"

Cobra turned and pegged Maria with a glare that would have melted Etherium alloy. "Are you deficient?"

The question threw the boss. She shook her head and frowned, not comprehending. "I don't know what you mean."

"Either stupidity runs in your family, or someone was standing in line to get brains holding a thimble instead of bucket," Cobra growled, menacingly. "After retrieving evidence from the wreckage of Transfer Station 321, we received a general distress call from Transfer Station 437. We diverted and went in under cloak to see what we could discover. Somehow this enemy can detect ships under cloak. We barely escaped with our lives. After taking several jumps to mislead any pursuit, we dropped out in open space on the last leg. Several freighters and a shabby-looking destroyer were not far off. Apparently, they were forming a small fleet to go into the system to Station 437. The destroyer captain got jittery and opened fire on my ship."

Marina nodded. "I was so informed of the mistake. It was kind of you to leave the ships with functioning life support systems."

Cobra walked up to the table, rested his fists on the tabletop and leaned forward. Boss Marina actually flinched. She could not meet his penetrating stare for more than a fleeting second or two. "We are supposed to be on the same side, temporary as that may be, sharing information. United against a common enemy. Right?"

Maria swallowed hard. Nodded.

"You get the word out. I have a starship capable of laying waste to each and every one of your families. It would make me smile to take a few of you sleazy parasites out. And I want to smile, Marina. Believe that. Anytime your ships come across mine, they are to give it a wide berth. The next time some captain takes a shot at me, they will make a sudden career move from starship captain to debris field. Got it?" Cobra's voice was low, controlled and ice cold. "I can't hear you," he snapped when the boss did not respond.

Teelana stepping into the receptor field so the bosses could see her. "Perhaps hearing loss runs in the family as well?" she suggested.

"I understand, Cobra," Boss Marina finally answered, bristling at Teelana's insult.

"See that you do," Cobra said. To Boss Nash, he added, "The Val-kyrie are examining the evidence we retrieved. As soon as I have the report, a copy will be forwarded to you."

Boss Nash nodded his thanks. "I'll be waiting."

Cobra made a slashing motion to Harana, who promptly cut the link. The holo-sphere quickly faded away. Cobra sank into a chair and leaned back, swiveling himself parallel to the table. In his best impression of Jerome Irons, he said to no one in particular, "I'm surrounded by idiots." Catching the Sorceress staring with a bemused look on her face, he added, "That's from-"

"The Lion King. I know. General Hammond's granddaughter's favorite movie."

"You've met her?"

Sorceress nodded.

"Can't wait to hear it."

"You already have." When Adrian's confused frown deepened, Sorceress helped his memory block. "Remember when I told you about General Hammond getting me added to his granddaughter's swimming lessons?"

The light bulb finally illuminated. "Ah."

"Swimming lessons? You?" Harana asked lightly.

"I originally come from a village deep in the Sands of Time desert. Not many opportunities to swim there."

"I would think not." An insistent beeping from the console diverted the commander's attention. "Incoming signal," she reported. Frowning, she doublechecked the source. "That's odd. It's from General Rongar."

"Hi, folks," Colonel Markson said from the left-hand door. As he entered, he was followed into the room by Gunny Apone. "Did we miss anything?"

"Nothing important. Just Adrian putting the fear of the Cobra into Boss Marina," Sorceress informed him.

"Damn! That was going to be the highlight of my day." Dejected, the colonel dropped into an empty chair. Apone sat done in the one immediately to the colonel's right.

"I recorded it. I'll play it back for you later," Harana promised. Turning to the Queen Mother, she added, "The general is waiting."

Silvara gestured for her to accept it.

Instead of using the holo-projector, Harana sent the signal to the large rectangular wall screen. In moments, the grim visage of General Rongar filled the screen. His eyes surveyed the people seated at the table, settling on Cobra. "I thought we agreed you would drop the disguise when we talked in the future."

Somewhat sheepishly, Adrian pulled off the eyepatch. "Sorry. I was having a little chat with our 'friends' in the syndicate."

Having stepped out of the visual field on their side, the Sorceress took the opportunity to use a bit of magic to transform back into the falcon costume. She walked back into the visual field and sat down between Apone and Adrian.

"General," Sorceress greeted Rongar warmly.

The man nodded. "Sorceress." To Adrian, he asked, "What did you discuss with our 'friends?'"

Adrian summarized what had happened, from the investigation of Transfer Nexus 321, the recovery of a piece of a large robot, to receiving the distress call from Nexus 437. At this point, Adrian went into more detail about the run in, the enemy's apparent ability to 'see' cloaked starships, and the battle inside the atmosphere of the gas giant.

"Impressive. Using the planet's gravity to destroy the battlecruisers was brilliant. Extremely dangerous, but brilliant. I'm impressed you made it back out."

"We almost didn't," Adrian confessed. "But the enemy gave us some help."

"Oh?"

"In its death throes, the second battlecruiser lobbed a couple torpedoes at us. The shockwaves from the proximity detonations gave us the extra energy needed to climb back out."

Queen Mother Silvara walked out of Commander Harana's office, crossed to the table and sat down. The commander joined her.

"Queen Mother. Commander," the general greeted each in turn. "Been a while since we last spoke."

Silvara replied, "Several years, I believe. About the last time Captain Dragnar and I butted heads. How is he, by the way?"

"Growing eager to take out his new battleship with each passing day. Commander Fontaine really beat us up in our last meeting," the general answered, a slight smile on his face. "In fact, he commented that you never beat on him that much in our past dealings."

The Queen Mother shrugged dismissively. "You never gave me a reason to." Silvara's smile took a bit of the sting out of her reply.

"So, what's on your mind, general? Find out anything interesting?" Colonel Markson asked.

"Gets right to the point. I like that." The view on Rongar's end expanded to include a thin, wiry man with a tangled mop of dark brown hair, fair features and signs of high intelligence in his eyes. "Sagan and I went to the source, on Horde World. The only place left with archives going back far enough for research."

"Unfortunately, we did not find anything of use," Sagan added. "It would appear that a lot of records were lost from the war."

Silvara nodded. "We have a similar problem. Although I suspect that some of the loss was intentional."

"In this case, descriptions of the attackers helped a little, but we found no exact matches," Rongar said. "The closest we could come was the older machine design used during the war."

"Troopers? As I understand it, they have been changed very little since you people started using them," the colonel pointed out. "In fact, rumor has it that Hordak's version is the most advanced."

"They certainly gave us a problem on Etheria," Apone added.

"Would that be before or after you blew up his planetary cannon?" Rongar inquired.

"Yes," Adrian answered, only half joking.

Sagan leaned a little closer to the pickup. "I'd like to know how you managed that."

"We're still waiting to hear about that, too," Harana added, casting a sidelong glance at Adrian and the Sorceress.

"If we could stay on track," Adrian suggested. "After all," he and the Sorceress shared a knowing look, "we have to have some trade secrets. Now, we recovered a robot, well, part of one, anyway. Total size is a little over three meters in height. A Guardian battlesuit is five meters in height. The thing is all black with a large head studded with all sorts of sensors."

Harana read off the dimensions, plus some of the devices imbedded in the head that the techs had been able to identify. If the estimations of size and power were even remotely accurate, the machine would be very formidable.

"It sounds like something from our past, but that's impossible because they no longer exist," the commander said when Harana had finished her short brief. It was all the techs had come up with so far. Of course, they wanted a complete machine to work on next time.

"They?" Markson prodded.

"She's talking about the shadowdemon robots," Rongar supplied. "And she's right. They no longer exist. The last of them were destroyed around the end of the war, if not soon after."

"Could someone have found a cache of them hidden away somewhere?" Apone asked.

Rongar shook his head. "None were ever hidden away for future use. Every machine that came off the assembly line went straight out to the front lines."

"Origin Point," Silvara said.

"What's Origin Point?" Adrian inquired.

Taking a deep breath, letting it out, the Queen Mother answered, "We heard rumors of the factory called Origin Point where the demons were fabricated. It was the only place, so the facilities had to be quite extensive. But it was never located."

"Talk about a best kept secret," the colonel commented.

"Indeed. The Queen Mother at the time commented in her official journal that they had no idea if it was a massive facility somewhere in space, or if it was a subterranean facility on a remote planet."

Rongar kept an impassive mask in place. Inwardly, however, he was shaken. He knew the rumors about Origin Point. Most military officers, and enlisted, whose hobby was historical events like the war, knew about the shadowdemon army and those who commanded the legions of deadly machines. Could the planet he had sent the destroyer to investigate really be the lost factory? Could that uncharted world be what the Val-kyrie had sought for so long and hard during the war? If so, who knew of it? They would have to have the ancient access codes to enter the facility and power it up. Rongar shoved that thought aside. It was more likely that the solar system had nothing more than a standard Horde base from that era and was using it as a staging base to launch their attacks. That location being the lost Origin Point was too terrible to imagine, if true.

Legends of the shadowdemons still circulated today. May races, including the Val-kyrie, used threats of them returning to keep unruly children in line. Sometimes it even worked on adults.

"As much as I hate to say this, I don't think the head brought back is that of a true shadowdemon," Silvara said, cautiously. "While Origin Point was never discovered, I find it hard to believe someone discovered what we could not. It's more likely someone tried to copy the machine the best way they knew how. They have an army of machines and are obviously willing to use them."

"No one living could have discovered Origin Point," Rongar agreed. "Someone probably discovered an ancient fleet of intact warships, perhaps in several locations, and has built a sizeable force."

Adrian wasn't buying the disclaimers. "Then explain the power levels we recorded. Power plants using tech not available a thousand years ago."

No one could.

More information was needed on this new enemy. The recovered robot head was not enough. And then there the dreams all six Guardians were experiencing. There was a reason all this was happening now. Someone was moving against the races of the galaxy. Whether it was someone ancient or a newly risen force was unknown. Regardless, they were a clear and present danger that must be addressed.

"Sensor readings can be misled, using modifications to a starship's power emanations to make it appear more powerful than it actually is," Sagan said. He held up a hand to stall Adrian's coming protest. "I have no doubt about your observations concerning your engagement with those battlecruisers. Putting a larger power core into smaller hulls has been done in the past. That could be the case here. If the ship were altered to incorporate a larger degree of automation than normal, a smaller crew would be needed to operate it. That would place less of a strain on life support systems."

Rongar chimed in. "If the modified warship was crewed entirely by machines, then no life support or environmental controls would be needed. That would make more power available for other systems. Also making the ship appear stronger and more powerful than normal."

Harana summed up the meeting. "Bottom line is we need more information to go on. I will transmit our findings to you shortly. Anything else will be sent along as it comes in." She confirmed with Sagan a good secure channel to use for future communiques.

"And in the meantime, we wait," Colonel Markson stated to no one in particular.

Sagan frowned, confused. "For what?"

"For it to happen again," Apone answered, grimly.

No one at the meeting had any idea of just how soon that next attack would come. Or just how powerful and targeted that strike would be. Within two days, they would finally have their answers. And all of them would be left wishing they had remained ignorant of the true danger they all faced.

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