Chapter thirty six

Humanity has a very strange belief; they believe that the universe wants to kill them, or “is out to get them” in their words. Its probably just a primitive belief that has carried over from their religious days, but they seem to believe it fully. – extract from “Human psychology – A Fear of the Unknown”

There was a flash of bright light, then several faceless, hooded figures veiled in black mist appeared. One of them spoke.

“I hereby start this HYDRA meeting. First, Science, report on the progress with the alloy we have been given.”

One of the figures stepped forwards and spoke. “We have been having trouble with examining the material due to its sheer strength, but we so far have found that it contains graphene, steel, titanium and cobalt, as well as two unknown substances. We think that one comes from the Between, due to emissions that match Between Rifts. The other one is still a mystery.”

“Continue working on it. If we could make even an inferior version of it, we could make ships far beyond anyone else. What about the other projects?”

“We are working on antimatter weaponry, but the containment required is too bulky to use as weapons for now. We have a prototype particle accelerator that can fire a stream of antimatter, but it is extremely volatile. We are working on replacing our antimatter reactors with singularity generators, but we cannot generate a stable singularity yet. The Stellar Lifter is being tested, and I predict we could be able to build megastructures in a few decades. Finally, infantry particle beam weapons are being tested.”

“Good. Now, let us talk about the more sensitive projects. Lockdown Code Alpha-Delta-Gamma-2-34-5-74552-OMEGA.” Shutters and doors slammed shut, various disruptors and jammers started up, and the figures felt a faint headache and a tingling sensation.

“Give me a report on Ultra-Project RESURGENCE.”

“The Sowers are nearing completion and will be upgraded with Between Rifts when they become operational. The Seeds will be ready at the same time as the Sowers. The Travellers are being built, and we will launch the first one soon. while Dandelion has already been deployed. Web is being prototyped. Shield, Cloak and Remnant are all still in the planning stage.”

“Good. Have we detected any other remnants? Any sign of Between travel?”

“Not yet, but they’re bound to be out there. We think that right now they’re keeping a low profile and doing the same thing as us- laying low and building up their forces.”

“Then we need any advantage we can get. Restart some of the biomod and cybermod projects and restart the Upload project. Humanity will take its rightful place among the stars, even if we must build a staircase of skulls to get there. For Humanity.”

“For Humanity.” The other figures replied. There was a flash of light, then the room was silent once more.