The Chittering Dark (FT|Closed)

[Anacharants]

Darkness dominates the galaxy, an endless sea of black the has commanded the galaxy for eons, and will continue to command it for eons more. In the this immeasurable ocean of darkness there are beacons of light that shine brightly against the blackness. These small ilands of light sometimes shine brightly against the darkness. In some rare occasions these islands of light the keys to life are held in the planets that spin around the stars, some teaming with life, other waiting for the right amount of circumstances to bloom into existence. On even more rare occasions these world’s life would evolve into beings of higher intelligence, slowly they drag themselves from the primitive chains that bind them until they can reach above and grasp ahold of the stars and ascend, thinking they have freed themselves from the constraint of their planets they are confronted with nothing more than the infinite dark


From the darkness it came, it's outward appearance seemed benign and innocuous like the countless other rocks that float endlessly through space. Unlike the others though this asteroid seemed to have a mind of own. It avoided collisions with other asteroids, it's speed seemed to change when necessary as well. A close observer would notice the asteroid didn't have craters from countless impacts with others, in fact the surface looked smoother than any asteroid's surface rightly should.

The interior of this particular "asteroid" is what truly defined it however, its true nature revealed to be nefarious. If one were to make it to this particular rock unnoticed and they were to gaze upon it's insides it's true essence would be known. Inside past the countless catacombs that snaked through the rock was a thriving hive of life.

Numerous creatures moved about the asteroid seemingly mindless about their tasks, their only purpose for being was what they had designed to do from birth. A large portion of the hive’s population was made up of workers who diligently tended to everything that made sure the hive survived and even thrived as soared through space towards it’s destination. Some of the workers expanded into areas of the hive that had been unutilized as of yet or other areas that needed their operations expanded.

Others carried large rocks harvested from asteroids that had been rich in resources towards the hive's forge area, here in the forges specialized workers designed to survive against the heat from the melting vats would pull the materials they needed and cast them into parts needed to make equipment for agricultural or construction as well as creating starships that either assisted in the collection of resources or were used to defend the hive should it come under attack.

Nursery workers that were specially engineered to attending to the eggs and pupae of the hive slowly worked their way ensuring each youngling was properly taken care in a nurturing manner that would make any mother proud of their efforts. Inside the hive a massive food growing operation was conducted as well, soft artificial light could be seen over large fields of fungus that were tenderly cared for by the workers.

Tirelessly the workers went about their tasks, feats of labor that would break other species in matter of hours if not minutes. There was no playful chatter around the water cooler, no assigned break for eating or sleeping, no plans to be made for after work was finished. Rarely did they tire, rarely did they falter, rarely did they stop, there was only work for the horde of beings that filled the hive, their life was their task day in and day out until they finally died and a new worker took their place to continue the endless cycle of caring for their hive.

Alongside the workers larger warrior bugs moved about in tireless fashion, each worker was quickly checked by the warrior bugs for the correct scent to ensure no predators or anything else tried sneaking into the hive and causing havoc. Constantly they patrolled the numerous tunnels and caverns of the hive to make certain no harm came to the hive. There was no camaraderie amongst the warriors, no honor or sense of pride for nation, their only reason for life was the defend the hive no matter the cost. Without a pause or question they would fly to their deaths in the ultimate sacrifice without a second thought as long they died defending their home.

At the center of the hive she sat, her large bloated form constantly tended to by a team of blind handmaiden workers whose only purpose in life was to ensure every need of the Queen was taken care of. Her only purpose was to keep the hive supplied with more workers and warriors to ensure the hive served its purpose. Laboriously she laid eggs that were quickly taken away to the nursery where they would nurtured until they developed into an adult that would help serve the hive. The longer she lived and the more she laid the more her mind eroded, the more she became nothing more than an organic machine that served the hive that revered her

Around the Queen in her throne room were her elite guard, five warriors that towered over any other warrior in the hive. None were allowed to approach the Queen with the exception of her handmaidens. As far as any of the denizens of the hive was concerned they were nothing but more servants of the Queen, in truth however the Queen was nothing more than a powerless figurehead to the hive, she truly was nothing more than a producer of eggs for the hive. The Elites were the true rulers of the hive, their decisions guiding everything in the hive secretly, unknown to the other residents within the asteroid.

The hive's destination was near though, a seemingly unknown system that has been identified by scouts, this one in particular had been identified some time ago, how long ago was of little concern to the hive's inhabitants, only that it was suitable for their needs and desires.

As it arrived in system the hive changed course and headed towards the nearest planetary body, a large gas giant with a small number of mind orbiting around it, here they start there purpose for being in the system.

As it altered its direction, numerous small vessels began to emerge from the hive. Slowly like a plague of locusts they emerged from the hive and headed for the gas giant's moons.

[Imperial and Federal Union of States]

Heathsport
Commonwealth of Albrechtshire
Rourke’s Bane

---

To call Heathsport a city was to do disservice to the name. She was a small collection of metal grey prefabs clustered nestled in a vale near the coast line of Rourke’s Bane’s largest continent. Great mountains struck up on either side of her, jagged peaks so young that the howling winds and pounding surf had yet to bring them to heel. The vale itself began small, but as it neared the coast, it spread and mellowed before merging with the narrow coastal plain. Simple roadways and rail lines snuck westwards through the vale towards the grand plateau that dominated the interior of the continent. Rourke’s Bane was a young world, and its all too recent birth had left rich deposits of ore near the surface, ready to be exploited. Even as the star rose to begin another cycle, convoys of trucks and trains plyed the roads, some heading in to the city, laden with ore, while others left, carrying food and luxuries for the distant mining towns.

Overlooking the city, perched on a small basalt outcropping, the Lord Protector’s palace gazed down. The morning mist had begun to lift, burned away by the rising sun, leaving Heathsport exposed as the city came to life. From his office balcony Lord Protector Henri Quayman gazed out over the city, as he took the first deep sip of his morning tea. A dull roar echoed out, drawing his attention east to the spaceport complex that let Heathsport take the name ‘city’. Compared to the great ports of the Imperial Main, or even Duskendale, Heathsport was a modest facility, but it was what let a settlement like Heathsport be the main centre of economic, political, and what little cultural life there was on Rourke’s Bane.

Already, several lighters were lifting off from the tarmac, their impellers screaming with flares of blue light as they wrestled themselves skyward. Each was little more than a set of engines and maneuvering thrusters welded to a massive cargo hold, and each wobbled in the air as their engines fought against the mass of their cargo. Tracking them by the electric blue glow of their impellers, Henri watched the lighters rise higher and higher, reaching towards the blurry shape of their mother freighter high above the clouds.

“Lord Protector?”

“Ah, good morning Myranda,” Henri said, turning about and stepping back inside his office. The doors automatically swung shut behind him, the insulation cutting off almost all the sound right away. “Any new updates?” he asked, settling into his seat, and taking a long draw of tea.

Myranda smiled and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “The standard reports, Sir,” she said, laying a scroll on his desk. Henri rolled his eye as he drew it to him, and unrolled it, blinking as the material flickered to life before his eyes, ink sketching out charts and spreadsheets of material prices and shipping costs.

“I presume the Miner’s Guild has said this all in order?” he asked, his eyes already glazing over as they passed over a five page section dedicated to the possibility of orichalcum deposits in the plateau east of Heathsport.

“When I spoke to them, they were quite excited. The local Chymetics Academy has expressed its ‘great interest’ in these resources as well.”

“Well, of course...” he said, shaking his head as he continued to read down the parchment. “Though, what is this?”

“Sir?”

“This asteroid,” he explained, passing the scroll back to her. “The one that has recently appeared around Rourke-VII,” he said. “It’s located along one of the main outbound lanes.”

“It does appear so,” she agreed.

“Dispatch a cutter,” he ordered. “We have a freighter from the Ostend Company loading up in orbit right now. The last thing we need is her captain reporting back to Pfalz that the shipping lanes at Rourke’s Bane aren’t taking care of their local infrastructure. We’d be the laughing stock of the Loop.”

“At once, sir,” Myranda replied, taking a quick bow, before she turned to leave. As she strode out, Henri, took another long sip of his now lukewarm tea. If he were lucky, that cutter would clear that obstruction long before the freighter left orbit.

[Anacharants]

Most systems that they had entered where either uninhabited or the civilization that existed was far too primitive to do anything but watch as their planet was sucked dry by the demons from the skies.

All five of them stood in a circle in a room that was built specifically for them off from the throne room of the hive. None were allowed to enter except these five, the praetorian guard of the Queen, the true masters of the hive. None of them had a name, such things were unnecessary for them, each knew each other from their creation, their smells, their actions, and their appearance was enough for each to know each other without a name being necessary.

Their language was complex and intricate, a series of chittering, pheromones, subtle movements and color changes, anyone observing it couldn't comprehend that a language could be made from several different things. And yet they communicated as easily as two humans conversing about the weather.

The appearance of a civilization as advanced as ours is unprecedented, there are no protocols in place for such an event " communicated the first praetorian.

It does not matter, we continue as we always do, once we have our gate constructed we can bring in reinforcements from the main colony and we can cleanse the system of these nuisances before we complete our work." said the second as her chitin flushed a bright orange that conveyed her annoyance at the inconvenience of other beings inhabiting a system they intended to harvest from.

A preemptive strike would be wise, if we can overwhelm them before they can call for help we would be able to more easily secure the system without raising any more suspicion than is required." the third said as a slightly sweet smell could be detected from her excitement at getting a chance to go to war. The scent was intoxicating to the others as well, it's very smell bringing thoughts of war to the others until the fifth spoke up. Her chitin turning dark purple in disapproval towards the others.

If we have underestimated their strength and attack now they could easily destroy us, such an action is rash and foolish, we wait until we can finish with the construction of the gate, if however they venture too close to the hive were have no choice but to few it as a hostile action, extra warriors and ships should be put on alert in case they do become too curious.

”Then we might as well strike now, because once they become curious and get near us they’ll know our intentions are not beneficial to their continued survival.” communicated the fourth finally as her chitin flushed a deep red.

”Nay, caution is what we shall exercise here.” said the first as a bitter soothing scent wafted amongst the praetorian, its smell causing a sense of calm to come over the others.

”Very well, but we shall be more vigilant than usual, such a meeting with a species who can travel the stars is concerning and we should exercise as much caution as possible to ensure we do not doom the hive, but we will wait until the gate is constructed and then we will purge them from our system.” communicated the third.

Each praetorian’s chitin flushed into a bright green as they came to a compromise and the meeting was adjourned.

[Imperial and Federal Union of States]

LS-A Maidstone
En Route to Rogue Asteroid
Rourke’s Bane

---

Distant points of light drifted lazily past the revenue cutter Maidstone’s bridge windows. Her duck trembled with the constant hum of the reactor, and the even more distant thrum from her impellers, twisting invisibly in the void. On her bridge, Frigate Captain Markus Bishop gazed out at the stars, and idly toyed with his half empty cup of tea. His dark officer’s coat hung off the back of his chair, along with his peaked cap. His tie was already loose before he tugged it looser still, before trying to stifle a yawn as space continued to steam endlessly by.

“Captain, we’ve got a small anomaly on aetheric scopes,” his navigation officer called out. She was one of the new settlers from the Mininoan Frontier, anhe strange feline ears poking out on either side of her service cap

“Captain, we’ve got a small anomaly on aetheric scopes,” his navigation officer called out, turning slightly in her chair to face him. Feline ears peeked out on either side of her service cap , and twitched as she spoke.

“Must be a remnant of that squall from a few weeks ago,” Markus said, running a hand through his messy hair. “Alter course to avoid. No reason to be brave today.”

“Aye, Captain,” she replied, a slight smile on her face providing a momentary glimpse of the canines beneath, before she turned back to her console. “Helm, adjust course to three mark two seven. Engines, stand by for all ahead half,” she spoke aloud, as she typed into her console.

The helmsman began his standard reply, but “ Navigation, bringing us to--” was all he could say, before the crash of porcelain on veneered floor cut him off.

“Brace! Brace!”

The lights switched from their normal white to a dull red in an instant. An alarm blared in the back of the bridge, as the whole ship shuddered. Metal groaned, and the stars blurred as the Maidstone battered its way through the surge. The impellers surged with power as the miasmic cloud drifted over them in the aether, and their roar echoed through the hull.

“Reduce speed! All ahead slow,” Markus ordered.

“Ahead slow, aye,” came the reply, followed almost immediately by the classic ring of a bell. An instant later, it rung again as the engine room acknowledged, and the vibrations slowed beneath their feet.

“Coming out of the squall, sir,” the helmsman reported a few moments later, as the last of the shudders passed through the vessel.

The bridge was deathly silent for a moment, even the standard sounds of activity dying away as the hull finally calmed beneath them. Navy men had been superstitious since they sailed on water, and the old traditions--and some new ones--carried on to the voidships plying the stars.

“Confirm, we’re past the squall, sir,” Sensors called in a few moments later.

“Bring us to ahead dead slow,” Marcus said, even as another cup of tea was laid at his side. “Keep us there till we can get a full damage report.”

“Aye, sir,” came the reply, and the bridge came back to life. Outside, the stars seemed to hang where once they had streamed past, and the sound from below decks was eerily quiet, with only the slightest thrum of the impellers twisting, driving the ship forward at little more than a gentle drift.

It was nearly twenty minutes before all the reports were compiled, and brought to the bridge. Twenty minutes of rapid movement as officers travelled to and from, different divisions comparing their records to determine exactly where the faults lay, but soon enough, Marcus sat in his ready room, having a small sandwich as his executive officer read the damage report to him.

“Overall, minor damage sir,” the Executive officer said, before snapping his scroll off and folding it beneath his arms. “A few injuries in engineering and the gunnery divisions, but nothing we can’t handle out here.”

“And the engines?”

“Minor stress to the port impeller bank, but she’ll hold at all ahead three fourths until we get back. Engineering promises we can make full speed if needed, but she can’t say when the impeller will overload.”

“So, we should avoid it, unless we’re about to die then?” Marcus said, a small smirk on his face.

“I would think so, sir.”

“Anything else?”

“Communications says whatever hit us fried some of our long range arrays,” the executive office continued, folding his hands over behind his back as he popped the scroll on again. “We can’t reach Heathsport without a relay.”

“Damn...” Marcus muttered, his smirk fading into a frown. “How far are we from the asteroid?”

“Less than a few hours, sir.”

“It’d take far too long to travel back for this...” Marcus said under his breath. “Right. We go on, take care of this asteroid, and make our way back for repairs then. I won’t have my first command be labeled a failure,” he continued, rising from his chair, and placing his peaked cap on his ahead.

“Sir, I do have to remind you that to proceed now is potentially endangering the ship,” his executive officer spoke up, a worried frown creasing his old tanned face. “We can’t guarantee there’ll be a ship to relay for us.”

“I trust that this vessel can handle a simple rogue asteroid, Miles,” Marcus replied, already striding for the bridge. “Make sure the gunnery crews are ready in case we need to destroy it.”

Miles only gave a weary sigh, before he snapped the scroll off again and moved to follow his captain.

[Anacharants]

The situation was unprecedented, never before had they dealt with something able to sail the stars like them before. Long had they existed but until now they had only dealt with species far below them in technology Natives of worlds that could only watch helplessly as they descended from space like great locusts and harvester every drop of water until nothing was left and the planet died. Some had been farther along than others, having just been able to barely to escape the gravity of their worlds. These ones had only offered a rudimentary defense against the much more advanced creatures that destroyed their star's system and taken it as their own.

This single object headed towards their hive concerned the patriarchs greatly. They had hoped that progress with the gate construction would be farther along. Circumstances were sometimes not one's friend however. Despite this they were glad they had prepared extra warriors and ships to defend their hive.

The hive that didn't seem to stop moving suddenly became furious in its actions as thousands upon thousands of warriors moved towards the enormous hangers inside the hive. Inside the hangars hung the tools for the defense of the hive. Rows upon rows of ships began to light up as bugs crawled over them. Some were much larger than others and streams of bugs crawled inside these. Other than the large "shuttles" two other ship types sat as a single bug crawled into them. Quickly the ships began exiting the hive into space. Surprisingly none of the ships impacted each other, a testament to either the bugs piloting skills or sheer luck. Once outside squadrons of the smaller two ship types quickly formed up. There was no radio chatter between the ships, no joking or exclamations of excitement. None of the pilots were nervous that they might die in the battle that loomed ahead. Nothing at all. They had been trained from their birth, programmed by genetics and virtual training that their purpose in life, their only reason for existence was to defend their hive or die trying.

As soon as most of the smaller ships that were assigned to attack the strange ship headed for hive had exited the hive, they streaked off towards the attacker. They were followed shortly after by the slightly larger ships and the bigger shuttles, another cloud of the smaller ships seemed to hang around the shuttles acting as escorts for the bigger ships.

Swiftly the cloud of bug ships screamed through the darkness towards the unsuspecting ship that headed towards their home.

[Imperial and Federal Union of States]

LS-A Maidstone
En Route to Rogue Asteroid
Rourke’s Bane

---

“We have the asteroid on fire control sensors, sir,” the sensors office called out. “We…it’s an off signal, sir. It’s not what I would have expected,” the sensor officer continued, as he tapped another series of commands, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“Off?” Marcus asked, as he rose from his seat in the centre of the Maidstone’s bridge, and walked to the small series of stations off to his right hand side, where the ships sensor and weapons officers sat, keeping information flowing from the cutter’s extensive sensor package. “Give me some detail, Mr. Takeya.”

“Initial scans suggested it was just an asteroid, but now that I can use our close range scanners, its profile doesn’t seem like one,” Takeya said, tapping past a series of pictures and graphs on his screens. “Gravitics showed it’s definitely much less dense than I would have expected a deep space rock to be, but I thought nothing of it till now,” he continued as he finally stopped on one picture, that depicted the asteroid in much greater detail.

“It’s not that the asteroid isn’t dense, sir. It’s honeycombed with caves,” he said, his tone growing worried. “Looking at its flightpath, I’m convinced it’s not just an asteroid. It’s not following a sensible path, but it seems to be acting more like a vessel than anything else.”

“What are you saying?” Marcus asked, as he stared at the sensor print outs. Takeya was right. Nothing about this asteroid made any sense for a random deep space rock. Something was deeply wrong, and it was abundantly clear that he had lost his gamble to proceed with a damaged communications array.

“Sir, I believe this asteroid is in some way a vessel, and we should not approach in our current state.”

“I happen to agree, Mr. Takeya,” Marcus said, his breath quickening as he straightened up, and turned back to his seat. Thoughts raced through his mind, as he considered possibility after possibility.

“Bring us to general quarters. Navigation, plot us a course that will bring us within communications range of Heathsport in the shortest amount of time,” he ordered. “Engineering, I want all ahead full as soon as we are able, and keep that sustained for as long as possible,” he continued, pacing back and forth across the bridge as it grew hectic again. The lights dimmed to read, and officers spoke into headsets, and the gentle thrum from below decks picked up its pace as the reactor raised its output to feed the new demand. Through the bridge viewport, the distant stars seemed to shimmer and distort for a moment as the ravelins came to full power.

“Course plotted, sir,” navigation called out.

“Helm, follow—,” Marcus began, before a warbling siren cut him off.

“Contact! Contact! Multiple signatures detaching from the asteroid!”

“How many?” Marcus demanded, wheeling in his seat.

“I…fire control sensors have lost count, sir. It’s off the scale,” Takeya replied, as the colour drained from his face.

The alarms continued to blare as the bridge fell silent. Marcus took a deep breath before he gave an order.

“Weapons free. Open fire.”

---

In another life, the Maidstone was a Blenheim class frigate. In that life, she bristled with weaponry all built around destroying small craft like the ones streaming from the faux asteroid. Yet, when she was sold to Albrechtshire as part of the local revenue service, most of her weapons had been stripped to make room for a small boarding shuttle and to cut costs. All that remained of her once impressive armament was a single lasbolt turret on her dorsal side, and a few flak cannons on her flanks.

Yet, even as the swarm rushed towards her, the Maidstone opened fire with all the fury she could muster. Tongues of flame shout out of her flak guns as they fired again and again, filling the void with flashes of fire and shrapnel. Her lasbolt cannon let loose as well, leaving a trail of burning miasma as its shells arced deep into the heart of the swarm before detonating in a rapidly expanding cloud of shimmering fire.

All the while, her impellers grew blight blue as they left a wake of drifting particles as they surged with power, striving to drive the Maidstone away from the strange asteroid as fast as they could.

The chase was on.

[Anacharants]

Rage rippled through the swarm as the vessel opened fire upon them. They were clustered too closely together as bullets and energy pulses ripped through the veritable cloud of insectoid ships. Never before had they encountered something that could fight them on their terms, that so many had been cut down in short order was shocking even for the mostly emotionless bugs that were attacking.

Shock was quickly replaced with anger as the first of the smaller ships closed within range of their own weapons. Green energy pulses spat out from cannon like openings on the smaller ships as the swarm attempted to hurt that which had attacked them. Even though their numbers were so high their attacks seemed to have little effect on the behemoth of a ship before them, this only seemed to anger them more however as the fighter ships doubled their efforts in attacking. Still they were cut down mercilessly, parts of ships scattered across the battlespace as the fighters left flew amongst the wreckage trying to dodge the enemy fighters. Those pilots that survived their ship destruction however now flew through space trying the reach the rapidly accelerating ship that was trying to escape.

And then the larger insect ships arrived.

The smaller of the two types, something the humans would likely consider a bomber, surged forth in front of the largest ships. Again the flak and laser fire cut through their ranks but still they came, focused in their desire to slay the great beast that had killed so many of their brethren. Instead of the annoying green pulses of the fighter ships though, large purple orbs of energy shot out from the bomber ships as they closed to within knife fighting distance and continued their relentless assault.

As quickly as their attack began though the fighter and bombers suddenly stopped firing upon their prey. With the lull in gunfire the largest of the bug ships surged forward towards the enemy ship. The las cannon still cut through the larger ships but the flak cannons had more trouble tearing them up.

As they neared the ship though swarms of warrior bugs launched from the ships and descended towards their target, eager to bring the fight to their enemy.