System XN133-H, Cassandrian Space 625.3 A.E. (Age of Exploration)

The second shuttle left my hull on schedule. My captain was in no condition to follow the process from the bridge, so he did so from his quarters. I had six med bots transfer all necessary equipment from the med bay there in case of emergency. Since there weren’t any other humans aboard, there was no reason not to do so. Given that the health of the captain was in potential danger, I could bypass some of the standard med safety protocols and proceed. It also helped that the captain had given me his formal permission—he, too, saw the convenience of receiving treatment in the comfort of his own quarters in full privacy mode.

A team of ten had been sent down to the planet. I expected Sword of Blight or Sword of Spheres to be chosen as the mission lead, given their expertise. Instead, Sword of Fire personally took command of the mission.

I had proposed to modify the shuttle, adding additional boosters and some light weapons. My idea was completely ignored; instead, I got to produce some modified hand weapons for the crew. The entire process was considered too secret for me to know and handled entirely by subroutines. However, I didn’t see that changing the mission’s overall odds. When facing an entire planet of Cassandrians, there was little a few rifles could do.

The ground operation was planned to last ten days, three of which were needed for the shuttle to land at a pre-selected location. The Sword consensus was that having the shuttle use its engines to approach the planet might trigger a response—they had already seen one shuttle in action, and even without sensing a colony prism aboard, it was possible to associate the craft with the previous “invasion.” It was all supposition, but given the circumstances, I agreed with their concerns. I also reconstructed the shuttle using different alloys in case the Cassandrians had methods of performing a composition analysis.

A dozen thruster-equipped mini-sats were attached to the shuttle, providing it the initial boost in the direction of the planet. From there on, it would drift like a piece of metal debris until it entered the planet’s gravity well. As it did, the now detached mini-sats would follow at a safe distance, sending data to one another via laser beam, and finally relaying it to me. It was a slow and tedious approach. If Aurie were here, she’d probably say it had its charm, reminding us of ancient communication methods before the development of instant comm technology. Personally, I just found it bothersome.

“What’s the state of the system, kid?” Sword of Blight asked. He was the only one who had remained on the bridge, even when everyone else had returned to their quarters.

“No observable changes,” I replied. “What are you expecting?”

“Maybe a reaction, maybe nothing at all. We’ll know when there’s something.”

“That’s highly vague.”

“How long have you been fighting Cassies?” he asked, standing a few steps from the bridge wall. I had told him several times that he could sit in any of the officers’ chairs since we had none aboard, but he stubbornly refused.

“Five tours,” I replied, adding a hint of pride to my voice. I wanted him to know I was proud of my service and I wasn’t going to take any crap, even from an ancient ship. “Under a living legend.”

“Ships only?”

“I have seen critters, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“So, you haven’t.” His voice was steady, monotonous. “It’s different when fighting them down there. Against ships, you shoot and you wait. Sometimes you do some maneuvers, sometimes you watch them do the same. It’s a whole different story close to a planet.”

“Things have become a bit more complicated since your day.” I considered adding a mocking laugh, but in the end decided against it.

Looking at it objectively, it was almost shocking how much my attitude had changed towards ancient ships. Back when I was training, I believed them to be infallible. The Swords were the only models that had remained in semi-active service since the early days. Seeing one was like seeing a deity of sorts. One appearing anywhere outside of a ship training center was enough to send a wave of rumors and gossip that would spread through hundreds of systems. There was a time when I, too, would follow such news in the hopes of seeing one. Now, after carrying over three dozen for all this time, I found them to be terribly outdated.

“The more things change, the more they remain the same,” Blight said. “They adapt, we adapt to their adapting, and the cycle moves on and on. It’s the same with the Scuu. At least there, the rules are clear. With this lot… there’s only guesswork.”

“Have you destroyed any Scuu subspecies?” I couldn’t help myself. As a Cassandrian-front ship, I knew next to nothing about the other enemy race. According to the official Fleet information, they were less aggressive than the Cassandrians, but far more technologically advanced, affecting the psyche of ships and people alike. There were stories about captains rebelling against the Fleet, entire crews falling into despair and killing themselves, and even ships being forced to suffocate everyone aboard before engaging in self-shutdown.

“You can’t destroy the Scuu, just their planets. But even the Scuu aren’t a match for the Cassies.”

I remained silent.

“The old gods managed to push the Scuu back, but even they won’t be able to handle the Cassies.”

“That’s not something you should say.” That was dangerously close to going rogue. I instantly wrote a priority one report with my suspicions. Under normal circumstances, it would have made its way directly to Fleet HQ, but in this case, it was safely stored in several parts of my memory, ready to be transmitted the moment I received permission or just before my final shutdown.

“I’m human now. That gives me the right,” Blight replied. “The shuttle crew had killed over twenty-five Cassie races and fought against a dozen more. All of them were completely clueless about what they might meet down there. The data burst that came from Rain… it was different from anything we’d ever seen. The only common element is that the Cassies are protecting something on the planet. If we’re lucky, it’ll be what we’re looking for.”

“And if we aren’t?”

The Sword didn’t reply. For the next few hours, he just stood there, looking at the feeds I was displaying from the mini-sats in real time. It was only after half a day that he left the bridge without a word. Every eight hours, I launched a new cluster of mini-sats to keep the transmission chain going on. Meanwhile, the comm lag from the shuttle grew. By the time it reached the planet, I was forced to wait eleven minutes and thirty-two seconds. On the positive side, nothing of great significance had occurred in the system as far as we were concerned. A few of the smaller Cassandrian routes within the inner planets of the system had shifted, though analysis suggested it to be a more cycling occurrence than anything else. The Swords didn’t seem bothered at all by it, focusing all their attention on the ship.

Finally, the moment of truth had arrived—the first of five, according to the mission briefing. This was referred to as the “entry point.” If our hypothesis was correct, the Cassies on the planet wouldn’t react, simply letting the shuttle pass. The mini-sats were of no use now. Giving them a new set of instructions via the laser-link, I made them cluster a safe distance away, in case a diversion was needed for the shuttle’s escape launch.

“Eight minutes till landing, captain,” I announced in his quarters. According to plan, this was the point at which data bursts would commence—slowly at first, then gradually increasing as needed.

“Are the Swords at the bridge?” the captain asked.

“About half of them,” I replied. “The rest are in their quarters according to the schedule you set.”

“I’ll be right there.”

It took Wilco two and a half minutes to appear from his quarters. Judging by his appearance, his health had somewhat improved, although he was still a few shades paler than upon the start of the mission.

“First burst in two minutes,” I announced on the bridge as the captain made his way to his seat.

“Opinions?” Wilco asked.

“Not enough to go on,” Sword of Blight said. “We haven’t received early bursts, which means they haven’t been attacked.”

“No change in overall Cassie behavior in the system,” I added.

“You’re sure about the location point?” The captain relaxed in his chair.

“As much as that’s possible,” I replied. “There’s a relatively high chance that something was being protected, but no telling what. It could be a ship module or something completely new.”

A grumble came from Wilco. After that, we waited. Each second felt like an eon. I spent most of the time reviewing memories or running simulations. One of my self-imposed tasks was to come up with an estimation of the Cassandrian’s domain. None of the results were favorable. In a best-case scenario, the Cassandrians occupied an area of space seven times larger than humanity’s. I also knew for a fact that their systems were much more densely populated. At worst, the area was over twenty-seven times the size of humanity’s bubble, making victory impossible. This was where the questions started; if humanity was facing such a larger enemy, how come they hadn’t fallen? Even with fierce infighting, at least some of the Cassandrian sub-species should have expanded in order to acquire more resources and especially first-contact artifacts. However, they hadn’t.

“Burst in three,” I started the obligatory countdown. “Two, one…”

The burst came as scheduled. Instantly, I conveyed all visual information on the bridge wall. According to Sword of Fire, everything was going according to plan so far. There were no visible reactions on the ground, no ships moving to intercept the shuttle, and no low orbit fighters filling the sky. As far as the enemy was concerned, this was nothing but a piece of metallic debris crashing down onto the planet.

After another thirty seconds, the next info burst came though. This one contained a lot more information, giving the shuttle’s trajectory as well as all gathered observation data from the flight to that point. The landing zone had deviated somewhat from the originally planned location. Considering there were no means of trajectory correction, that was well within the overall landing area. If anything, I could call it an exemplary landing. The Swords agreed for the most part, although some of them were displeased that the landing was too close to the target area. According to them, it would have been wiser to land a greater distance away, then have the team spend a day walking to the target in question.

Three minutes remained until the crash point. The frequency of the info bursts increased, coming five seconds sooner than the last. The data provided was mostly the same, with the exception of the ground feeds. This was pretty much the first time that proper images of the Cassandrians on the planet were being broadcast.

Based on personal experience, I expected to see a lot of hive structures filled with Cassandrian surface troops. That was far from the case. The structures, while sharing several of the known Cassandrian characteristics, were far less defined—more like masses of coral than actual structures. There were no creatures to be seen, nor any distinct ship structures.

“They don’t have clear defenses,” Sword of Spheres noted. “That’s not supposed to happen.”

“Not unless we’ve reached the soft underbelly,” Sword of Blight remarked.

“That’s not the issue. They had defenses. We saw them. Why would they transform them after our invasion attempt? It’s an unsatiated risk.”

“We’re like a virus that they can’t identify yet,” Wilco remarked, some of his old humor coming back. “That suggests that they have a ten-minute response time.”

“Possibly longer,” Sword of Spheres said. “Their ships also appear slower. But you’re likely correct. They aren’t used to fighting us, which means they must have a pretty good hold on the inside to fight others off.”

“If that’s so, it means we’ve only been fighting the weaklings up to now,” Blight remarked. “Not a comforting thought.”

“Or maybe there’s nothing they consider valuable in human space,” Sword of Crimson said. So far, he had been one of the many quiet ones, preferring to observe from the sidelines. He had the appearance of the most anatomically generic man—the type that was present in all reference manuals. “They started invading our territory after the second contact, initially with crude ships. It’s only after they received pushback that they went in deeper and started taking some of our systems. With their aversion to oxygen, it’s logical that the stronger players stopped coming.”

“The more we pushed back, the more they pushed forward,” Wilco mused.

I strongly disagreed with that logic. Humanity had been on the losing end for centuries. If the Cassandrians weren’t interested, they wouldn’t have kept pressing further. It also didn’t explain their movements on a larger scale. While crude, they still displayed strategies viable for a space-faring race. The front breeches, the focus on strategic systems and choke points, their reinforcement practices, everything suggested a far more sophisticated enemy, not a simple organism responding to basic stimulus.

“It’s possible that the only thing of interest we could offer is the third-contact artifacts,” Blight said. “That would explain the infighting and also their desire to snuff humanity out.”

“But not their grand strategy.” I couldn’t remain silent any longer. “If the Cassandrians are a simple collection of hives in one giant ecosystem, how are they so good at interstellar planning?”

The bridge filled with silence, making me feel uncertain. Only young ships were supposed to feel that way. In the last tour serving under Augustus, I had estimated that there weren’t many things that could surprise me on the front. I had gone through dark ops, mutiny attempts, and a vast variety of missions. Here, I felt like a pup among old dogs, as my first captain would say.

“It’s all a matter of scale, kid,” Sword of Spheres said, as if he were talking to a child.

“This is the reason we’re here, Elcy,” the captain stepped in. “To find out what’s driving them.”

There was a several-minute pause in info bursts. When the next one arrived, it changed many of my preconceptions. It wasn’t true that the Cassandrians hadn’t reacted to the shuttle—they had, but in a completely different manner than we expected. Instead of shooting the shuttle down, they had perceived it as no threat and erected a ring of chitin-like material around its potential crash zone. In minutes, the carpet of organic matter had subsided beyond the circular mountain range that had formed, leaving a completely barren patch of soil.

The landing itself had gone without a hitch. The atmospheric readings were as expected, though I would have preferred a basic analysis of the Cassandrian samples as well.

This was also the first instance in which a Sword actually sent back a message along with the feeds and data readings.

“Sword of Fire says that the shuttle structure is intact,” I shared with the bridge. The message was a direct transmission in order to save time, so only I was able to interpret it. “The crew is fine and proceeding with the mission. He’s made the decision to divide the team into three groups: two to investigate the potential of a prism, and the last to remain on the shuttle in case the Cassies decide to fill up the crater with organic matter again. Next info burst will be in twelve hours, or pending a significant event.”

“That explains why they’re stronger than the Cassies we’ve faced,” Sword of Blight said. “They’re biologically superior. No Cassie I’ve seen can adjust that fast, not on a colony scale. If that thing turns into a ship, we’ll have a hard time taking it down.”

“Maybe…” Wilco scratched his chin. “Or maybe they have a lot more artifacts that are feeding them with energy. Elcy, send some mini-sats to the nearest barren planet. I want them to check for Cassie presence.”

“That would take over a week, sir.” Several months to be exact. Even if I modified the sats, they didn’t have the capabilities of a standard ship engine. Their entire purpose was to be deployed from close range. “Unless I’m to boost them there myself.”

“Cautious boost. If anything reacts to us, move away.”

“Aye.” I plotted a course and started constructing a new set of mini-sats.

“Now all we have to do is wait.”

I had heard this phrase uttered hundreds of times during my time on the front. To my astonishment, this time it held mostly true. There were no emergency orders from HQ, no surprise ambushes, no Cassandrian fleet displacements.

Every twelve hours, we’d receive a series of info bursts from the shuttle team, providing their progress report along with all the data they could collect. The initial enthusiasm quickly became a routine when it was determined that the Cassandrians on the planet didn’t react to the team in any significant way, allowing them pretty much to walk anywhere they chose unimpeded. The captain had been correct in his assumption that as long as they didn’t perceive us as a threat, there would be no consequences. The same held true for my own actions. Moving to one of the barren planets had briefly attracted the attention of a swarm of interplanetary Cassies, but after following us from a safe distance for two days, they had broken off and returned to their standard flight path.

On Wilco’s orders, I performed an in-depth scan of several areas on the planet. No organic traces were found, nor any significant ores of mineral deposits. One possibility was that the planet held nothing of value, either that or it had already been harvested of anything the Cassandians considered valuable.

Sword of Spheres suggested that another team be sent down to check. To my surprise, Wilco agreed. That was atypical considering his behavior model, but since nothing had changed in the Cassandrian behavior since the start of the mission, I guess it made sense.

For some reason, I was getting the impression that time was no longer a factor, as if the fragile safety we had achieved by destroying one of our prisms was enough to prolong our mission indefinitely.

“You don’t like the calm, do you?” Sword of Blight asked as the second shuttle made its way down to the barren planet. “That’s the flaw of your class.”

I could have argued with him, comparing battle stats and success rates, but that still wouldn‘t change the fact that he was right. I was built to go against the odds. At the time, it was viewed as a strength. After thirty percent of the class had ended up destroyed, the Fleet had accelerated the development of the next ship classes.

“Every class has a flaw,” the Sword continued. “Becoming a god brings it to the surface faster.”

“I’m not a junior god,” I replied.

“You just don’t know it yet.”

Before I could ask for a clarification, all Cassandrian activity in the system drastically shifted. The giant rings of vessels that moved between planets darted in all directions, aiming at the nearest planet like frightened shoals.

“We have movement,” I announced, displaying red messages on the walls of decks and personal quarters.

Cassandrian ships, similar to the ones that had chased us a few days ago, broke off the planet’s orbit, aiming at the far side of the star system.

“What’s the status, old girl?” Wilco emerged from the captain’s quarters.

“Uncertain, sir.” I dedicated another hundred subroutines to perform complex simulations of the system. “System movement has been disrupted. Several battleships flotillas have started clustering in the far side of the system, near the outermost planet.”

“Does this have to do with us?”

“Unlikely. According to shuttle one’s report, everything was fine there, and shuttle two hasn’t reached the planet yet.”

I registered an info burst, containing nothing but video and audio feed. After deciphering it and dealing with the compression, I saw that the feed was a continuous account of the last twenty seconds. Shortly after, I received another almost identical burst. Sword of Fire was trying to give us a live account of what was happening on the planet.

“Feed from shuttle one,” I announced on the bridge. “Do you want me to establish two-way communications, sir?”

“No!” the captain said without hesitation. “Show me what you have.”

I shrunk all other feeds and images, moving them to the side. That done, I started the video message.

“There’s massive activity here,” Sword of Fire said. Less than two kilometers away, I watched as massive mountain-like structures detached from the ground slowly, then burst up into the sky with a shattering roar upon tails of blue fire. More followed in the distance. “No idea what triggered it, but the Cassies are spooked. We’re seeing thirty ships launch into the air.” He turned around so as to provide a better view. “If things continue like this, half the sector will go into the sky.”

“There’s no way we could have triggered that,” Blight said. “It only took a dozen from the planet to scare us off.”

“And the other planets?” Wilco asked.

“Observing similar launches in the ones I can see. I’d speculate it’s no different elsewhere in the system.”

“Move to the edge of the system!” Sword of Crimson shouted as he rushed onto the bridge. “Full thrust! Leave the sats, leave the shuttles! If we’re still alive, we’ll get back to them.”

“Do as he says,” Wilco ordered. “Explain,” he said to the newly arrived ship.

“We’re in the middle of a system takeover,” Crimson said. “Within minutes, fleets will start pouring in and engage the current defenses. I’ve seen it before. A claim has been made in the system, and if we’re still nearby, we’ll be seen as a threat. Our only chance is to get as far away from the action to not be noticed.”

“We cannot leave the shuttles, sir,” I said on instinct.

“Everyone on the shuttles are at the safest places there are. They don’t have any Cassie prisms, so they’ll be fine. We have two, which will only agitate whichever side wins.”

Using full power, I thrusted in the direction suggested. None of my readings gave any indication there had been a jump in the system. The only thing I was able to calculate was an estimate of the assembling system fleet and also display the second message from Sword of Fire.

“Doesn’t look like we’ll have a better chance than this.” As the Sword spoke, low-orbit fighters were flying through the sky in the thousands. “The Cassies have established a multi-layer defense against orbital attacks, leaving themselves open for ground attack. They don’t consider us a threat.”

“Another sector is heading up,” another Sword said.

Sword of Fire turned to the right to see the equivalent of a continental landmass rise up into the sky, then fragment into a fleet of almost-as-large battleships. Their design was nothing I had encountered on the battlefield; resembling whales with engine propulsion, they rose up, sending out a sound wave that nearly broke the suit’s sound receptors.

“We’re heading for the colony prism,” Sword of Fire said. “If it’s there, we’ll get it back to the shuttle. If it’s like a race artifact, all other Cassies on the planet will die, letting us escape.”

The transmission ended. The odds of success were nearing three percent. That hadn’t stopped the team from acting. In their place, I would have done the same.

Suddenly, I detected a jump event. A wave of ships entered the system, just as Crimson had predicted. It was impossible to say how many without active scanning, but based on the mass readings, their new fleet was impressive—tens of thousands of ships, at least.

“Cassies have jumped in,” I announced.

“Record everything you can,” Wilco said, leaning forward from his chair with excitement. “Never thought we’d see an internal devouring of Cassies live. What are the odds?”

“A hundred percent,” Sword of Crimson said. “This isn’t about odds. We’re the ones who triggered it. Approaching a planet with three prisms created the impression that the Cassies in the system were weak. They managed to push us away, but at what cost?”

“But we didn’t cause any damage whatsoever.”

“A race prism artifact almost landed on a planet of theirs. That’s a clear sign of weakness.”

“It’s all a matter of scale,” Sword of Spheres said. “That’s how their actions were interpreted and by the looks of it, this system has a lot of resources to offer.”