Two Aliens, One Planet (Open FT (Within reason!), Intro)

[Allanea]

At this point, the Boy-President tilts his head, as if listening to a hidden comm-bead in his ear – quite likely to be actually the case, really. Then he speaks.

“Reckless Audacity. Open a broad-spectrum broadcast channel. I want to make sure that this thing hears what I have to say.”

There is a pause.

“Pardon me, my dear friend Telissat. I have a small message to deliver,” - he tells his guest. And in a second, the ship-voice sounds – a deep, booming male voice:

Comms channel opened.

Those with a video reception ability will not only hear it – they will see it too. The Boy-President's eyes, gleaming now with anticipation. His face, split in a wide grin, as he begins to speak:

Welcome to the Milky Way Galaxy, Generational Hive 2562. I hear you will not tolerate threats against yourself. My, my, isn't that cute. Let me introduce myself. I am Alexander Kazansky. In Edolia, they call me the Butcher of Yurka. In the Holy Marsh – the Wind that Flenses Flesh from the Bones. I have seen the very daemons of Chaos flee in terror, for they would not dare to face even my junior disciples in open battle. You say that you do not tolerate threats against you. Let me make this clear: you will not slay these people, nor will you take their world. This is not a threat, but a promise.

This, on the other hand, is a threat: if you continue trying, I will not merely help my allies in slaying you. I will track down Generational Hive 2561, and 2560, and work my way down the list, and do my best to hunt your brothers like wild animals are hunted. Even if you destroy this ship here, the message will be sent out. You and your brethren will become prey species.

You have twenty-four hours to decide whether you want to live.

Also...” – the Boy-President's voice shifted to a bestial growl – "YOUR MOTHER SUCKS COCKS IN HELL."

[The Ctan]

The avatar with Kazansky... facepalmed.

That he did so was a form of communication, expressing his unenviable frustration with the profoundly unhelpful statement, "I hope you enjoyed that?" he said, "Because it just shat in six of my plans."

[Kentauroi]

"As you wish," Simonides nodded, thanking the avatar once more for the information it was providing him. "Centaurus should displace some command and control equipment down to me once she is awakened, so you will be able to give your arm a rest!"

***

Ambrosius and Dianthe galloped across the plain, now followed by almost fifty assorted men and women whom the Archon had woken in their homes as they moved out of the city and instructed to follow them. The noise of so many Kentauroi careering across the sodden grass was akin to a stampede, sending vibrations out across the ground for quite some distance. It was a thunderous sound, one of haste, one of determination.

They approached the half-buried cruiser, the sleek, pearlescent lines of which still towered above them like a city skyscape, and once they got close they were immediately displaced aboard one after the other by Palinouros in quick swirls of sparking white light. Palinouros, unlike the orbiting Centaurus, was merely 'resting', not slumbering soundly, and was quite aware of everything that transpired around him. He kept a watchful eye out for any Kentauroi who seemed intent on boarding him, though usually it was merely a single volunteer looking to keep an eye on sensor readings, not a horde all at once. Under normal circumstances he would be glad to receive so much company, but these were not normal circumstances.

Archon Ambrosius and Dianthe were displaced directly to the control centre, and found themselves surrounded by technology once more. It was disheartening for them, when they had been so enjoying the rural lifestyle they were now accustomed to, particularly for Dianthe who had found it particularly rewarding, but it was for the greater good. It was for Asulo. And that was a cause worthy of some discomfort.

"Good day to you, Archon, and welcome back Dianthe," an ethereal voice spoke to them, soft yet wise, and surprisingly emotive. "Am I to assume I have so many visitors due to the object that threatens us?"

"That is correct, Palinouros," Archon Ambrosius said. He, much like the Basileus, had a stern face, but his features were more rugged, and his voice much more soothing. He still commanded authority, but... it always seemed less urgent when he spoke. "How are you?"

He asked the question out of concern that being grounded for so long, and now partially buried in the soil, might have had an impact on the cruiser's systems, but he already knew the answer.

"I am perfectly fine, thank you Archon," the ethereal voice responded. "Are we to rejoin Centaurus now?"

"We are, yes," Ambrosius nodded. "Are you ready to depart?"

"I look forward to speaking to her after all this time," Palinouros responded eagerly. "Bringing all primary systems online now."

Dianthe looked around as lights began to blink on, more monitors flashed to life, and felt the faint thrum of power generation begin to reverberate around the ship. She had almost forgotten how reassuring it felt.

***

The ground around the cruiser began to shake, and he seemed to start lifting upwards slightly. Sod began to break away from the cruiser's hull as his reactionless engines easily started to remove him from the hole he now found himself in. Slowly he rose up, grass and vegetation tumbling away, revealing more of the cruiser's sweeping, organic curves. The pearlescent, green-purple hull glistened in the morning sunlight despite the moist dirt that stubbornly refused to fall to the ground below, and finally, for the first time in two decades, Palinouros was floating above the ground. Once he was at a sufficient altitude his hull, nearly half a kilometre long from bow to stern, tilted upwards slightly, and then, without warning, rapidly accelerated into the sky. The sudden force of such a large object accelerating so rapidly caused the trees beneath, tiny in comparison, to sway wildy as air rushed from all around to replace the missing mass.

Within moments, Palinouros was back where he belonged - in space. He easily found Centaurus with his sensors, and adjusted his course to head straight for her.

***

The object resigned itself to answering questions. It was all these aliens seemed to do. Ask, ask, ask. Enquire, enquire, enquire. If they spent more time evacuating the target planet instead of asking questions, things would all go more swimmingly.

"My primary function is to maintain the primary systems of Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two. Auxiliary functions include: support the extraneous mission parameters of the inhabitants of Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two; facilitate the automated completion of the continuation process; maintain communications links with other Generational Hives.

Primary goal: sustainment of the Iksthan species through the continuation process.

Enquiry: continuation process cannot be halted. Continuation process can be amended by unanimous vote of the Iksthan Royal Advisory Council. Possible amendments include: altering target planet; altering projected number of Generational Hive Ships produced by multiplication protocol; postponement of multiplication protocol due to untennable power levels; delay of planetary condensing procedure; cancelling storage of biomass or atmosphere due to surplus stock."

Unusually, this transmission included a number of log entries related to past amendments to the continuation process. For the most part they were mundane, until one entry, the final entry - a unanimous vote of the Iksthan Royal Advisory Council was verified, and the primary control system was instructed to locate a new target planet, but the amendment was never carried out. Shortly thereafter, a log indicates that the environmental systems across the ship were deactivated.

Various other logs indicated various levels of corruption in several areas of the control system's protocols.

[The Fedral Union]

The Cairo, had been stationary whilst mattes involving the unknown ship were being thrown back and forth as if it were a ball of some sort. The Terran's had no intention of getting involved in that unless they were contacted directly, they had the situation with the planet to deal with and that was more than enough. Jose was in the CIC, he took a moment to think, contemplate on his next mode of action. How ironic was it that all three factions had bumped in to this unforeseen event. He thought to himself, he stood from his chair waving to Jennifer.”You've got the CIC, make sure all needed crew is on alert and keep me up to date on the situation at hand commander.” Jenifer nodded responding before the captain departed. ”Sir, we've got an uplink established so we'll be able to keep up to date more quickly.”Jose nodded, and gave a salute to the commander who saluted back at attention. He put on his black and gold naval cap with a symbol of the fleet and the nation. An eagle perched like a sentry on a star surrounded by smaller stars. From there on he departed, he walked to through the bulkhead door in the aft section of the CIC, down a straight coordinator in the depths of the frigates interior, the mundane white light beat upon his uniform.


-The Reckless-

The captain stepped in to the large cylindrical container like device the telepad under him glowing and seemingly throbbing with energy. He didn't like being moved to one place from another this way even if it was a tested method of travel. Phobias of such devices were still not uncommon amongst some people who preferred the simplicity of a shuttle trip. The room began to spin the pad stationary, it was winding up with a charge a hum then a higher pitched noise could be heard. In the final moments of his trip he could only hear a crackle and then suddenly he would find himself on the Reckless where the other two had been standing. He appeared in a mere shimmer as if he faded in to existence. For a second or two he stood coming back in to phase with reality a few feet away from the Telissat 's avatar and the Allanean leader. He adjusted his uniform slightly still somewhat dazed from transport.


”I hope I'm not intruding, there wasn't exactly a clear reply to our queries on this matter. Nonetheless I am Jose Suarez of the Cairo.” Jose gave a snap brisk salute to the two as a show of respect. Any sailor or solider for that matter would have done so, at least to allied or friendly national dignitaries. He as he said before many time wasn't a diplomat in his mind. He raised his wrist to his face and used his other hands fingers to tap on the holo computer implanted within. It projected a three dimensional image of the situation in the system. Then it zoomed out and in a picturesque fashion displayed the galaxy and their location relative to the hivers that were seemingly on their way. He still had wonders in his mind about what was on its way, unanswered questions and speculation were rampant amongst the crew and for good reason.

-TAS Cairo-
The ship was now on alert status 2 or A2 as it was coined, the second highest possible for any ship before general quarters. Medi drones and staff were preparing for casualties in the ships infirmary with all due haste, repair teams with drones and other equipment began to move supplies throughout the ship. Jenifer sunk in to the command chair , she wasn't enthused that they had decided to stay but it wasn't her decision , it was the captains. It was going to be a long day she thought, and it would either end in heavy bloodshed or in one quick blow. It was obvious to her at least that these hostile aliens were not just going to abandon their plans. With each message the ships were painted on the holographic command table displaying the galaxy as drawing closer and closer. And ETA was posted at consoles through out the ship in small corners of the screen or in large numbers. This was to remind the crew of when the worst or best was to come....

[Kentauroi]

For the first time since appearing at the edge of the galaxy, the object exhibited some changes. Powerful sensor beams began probing everything in the vicinity, digging out every last nugget of information they could from every object they could find. At the same time, some kind of energy field began forming around it, propagating into space at a radius of several hundred metres and increasing with each passing minute, with vast energy readings. As the field's propagation began to slow, several thousand tiny objects materialised all around the ship, which began flying around like insects. They exhibited emergent behaviour, swarming around in complex formations but not achieving a great deal individually.

Suddenly, these 'drones' broke off into groups, an equal number for each alien ship, and flew at high velocities towards each one.

The first group rapidly approached the dormant Kentauroi cityship that orbited Asulo. The enormous vessel, a magnificent spectacle of pearlescent greens and purples, appeared to be completely inactive, and did not react to the approaching 'wasps'. Several of the drones acted like missiles, performing kamikaze runs at the defenceless craft. Each time a drone exploded against the ship, another materialised nearby the hive and sped off to replace it. Other drones flew in packs, weaving around the superstructure of Centaurus and lancing into its hull with moderately-powered exotic particle weapons. Her hull appeared to withstand the assaults well on its own, but soon damage began to show.

Palinouros suddenly found himself desperately increasing his own velocity, trying to come to the rescue of his slumbering friend. As soon as he was in range he began firing a multitude of his own weapons into the swarms, destroying a number of the drones and, for a time, temporarily redirecting their attention. But each time he destroyed some, an equal number materialised near the hive once again and flew back into the fray.

Quickly he lowered his own defences and displaced Dianthe and Ambrosius, along with half of the other Kentauroi, onto Centaurus so that they could work on reawakening her, while he worked on keeping the drones away from her.

Meanwhile, the other swarms flew towards the other alien ships.

[Allanea]

“Saneling!” - the Boy-President laughed - “Have you perchance considered negotiating with this creature?”

With that, he spoke once more to the ship:

“Computer! Evasive maneuvers! Deploy fighters!”

The massive ship begins to turn, its motion unnoticeable on board the vessel itself. It's own packs of drones begin spilling like scattered marbles from openings along the top of the vessel, speeding to engage the pack of enemy drones most immediately concerning the Audacity. Then, and only then, its engines flare.

[The Ctan]

Reckless Audacity

"It has replied in your other favourite languages Alexander. To arms! Do you require detoxification?" The ship mind cringed without any emotion showing on its avatar's face at the idea of having to do that, as it carried no means of doing that with it, aside from its drug glands, which were primarily used by its organic cousins with sexual partners. That Alexander was a male didn't bother it though, it had no qualms about such things, but rather it cringed at the idea that its actual love might hear that it had kissed Alexander Kazansky. All in all, it rather hoped he'd use his own methods or fight the battle inebriated.

Orbit

The Telissat broke off, aligning itself with the inbound ships, its own drones surging around it, thousands, nay, millions of insect-like scarab drones swarming across its hull and through the space surrounding it to intercept, while close in weapons prepared to fire.

++ Intermediate Range Comms ++

Telissat → Royal Iksthan Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two (Intermediate Range Collimated C-Beam)

Your primary goal cannot be accomplished by the means you have; the continuation process against this world will not further the sustainment of the Iksthan species. You do not carry any members of the Iksthan species. The only possible outcome of successfully initiating the continuation process here is to create resentment toward the Iksthan species. This could mean the loss of Iksthan lives elsewhere if certain elements over-react to this situation. Solution; terminate continuation process here. Do you have the ability to terminate or pause the continuation process if there is a danger to Iksthan lives?

Related query; are you presently in contact with any other Generational Hives? What is their status?

[Allanea]

The Adolescent Emperor laughs raucously. Clearly he is enjoying this.

“Detoxification? Ha, not a chance. Indeed I plan to get even more drunk. But first things first.” - the Allanean points to a gravbike parked among the many pleasure vehicles. - “I will be headed to the bridge. Follow me.”

What happens next can only be qualified as insanity.

A pair of gravitic bikes, moving at a speed fit for a race track, corridor after corridor, turn after turn – until it halts outside the door of a small room.

The room is uninteresting in almost every way – except for a variety of screens and dashboards and a single control chair.

It does not need to be explained that the Emperor sits down in it. A small piece of metal appears from the chair behind the back of his head, clamping neatly to the skin on his neck.

"This is going to be... awesome."

[The Fedral Union]

-TAS Cairo-

The shields surrounding the frigate were slammed in to by several drones a glow of incandescent light rippled across the surface of the ship. As it was rocked the crew inside could feel it. Meanwhile in the CIC . -Beep beep beep- Rang the sensor warning indicator, suddenly as red dots began appearing in a zoomed in view of the system. Jennifer said ”Ah shit.” Quickly she pressed the armrest computer and to all decks started calling out her voice clam but urgent at the same time. ”All hands this is the commander , I repeat all hands. General quarters, general quarters.“ Crew members in the mess hall who were enjoying a tense but rather enjoyable dinner dropped their spoons put down their plates , some gulped down what they had been chewing, one nearly choked as they began to rush from every deck, every room to battle stations. Klaxons beeped men women and drone alike passed on another in the hallways. ”Report?” Jennifer said to Cairo who by now had completed preliminary scans of everything around them. ”I don't know what the hell these things are, but they're not friends. They just jumped in on us I have yet to figure out how. Might I suggest moving the ship out of the swarm or attempting to?”

Jenifer nodded to the AI she grasped the armrests of the chair her fingers digging in to them in furstration of the new situation. The engines of the ship roared to life particle streams lighting the aft section with an eerie glow of white and blue. The frigate began to accelerate, the order had also been given to fire upon the swarming drones. With flashes of light around several points of the small ships hull beams of white G-laser fire lanced forth with pin-point accuracy. The beams would fire several times each beam lasing a second or two as the ship accelerated to any possible opening. The frigate began erratic maneuvers, hoping to avoid too many hits upon its shield grids. It rolled to the port side using its ventral and dorsal arrays to fire short bursts of beams against oncoming drones.

Aboard the reckless

Jose was dumbfounded at the reaction before suddenly things went haywire. He tapped his wrist linking to the Cairo. ”What the hell is going on?” He was clam collective tone. The voice of the AI came through the comns. ”They've just jumped in on us Skipper, they're swarming us with missiles.” Jose sighed a bit he closed his eyes for a moment before responding with haste.”So I'm trapped here I assume?. The AI gave a simple ”yes”. This was an annoying situation for him being off of his own ship, and now he couldn't even get back to it. He mulled over how vexing this all seemed. He turned around to face the two his gaze averting between them.”Does this ship have an armory?” he asked in a plain tone as the battle started to rage outside. The only thing he had on him was his volt blade, thinking he had no need for a disruptor pistol at that particular juncture. He was wrong on one account but right on the account that bringing any weapon like that to a meeting would prove undesirable.

-The Cairo-

With several more hits the ship was jolted inside. Marines barely had time before the attack to suit up, the armory was still open handing out rifles to each marine;pistols were also issued to each member of the crew that lacked one in their rush out. The engine room was filled with a flurry of activity consoles beeped indicators blinked. Staff and drone alike worked everything furiously as the shielding on the ship was put to the test. a few beam arrays were aimed outward towards The Reckless to down a few drones that were around it.

[Mount-Olympus]

The Hermes and Apollo sat there while the swarms moved toward them, scanning them. The lead objects began smashing against the ship and exploding but not causing much damage against the Apollo. The Hermes however lost it's multispecies communications channel.

The Commander of the Apollo, Adrias, ordered shields up and prepared for battle. Instantly a brilliantly bright green and white forcefield appeared around both the Apollo and the Hermes. The Apollos massive armaments one by one came on line and began pointing at the ship identified as Hive Number 2562.

The Hermes and the Apollo began communicating back and forth. The other ships in the area would have detected a strong subspace signal from the Hermes to Planet Olympus billions of miles away.

After the communications, both ships went silent as the Apollo prepared to assault the alien vessel in retaliation. Adrias would have fired the weapons already except the commander of the Hermes reminded him they were not yet authorized to interfere. They had to wait for consent from Zeus.

Meantime the Hermes brought its own weapons systems online, though they were not as powerful as those of the Hermes, or any of the other ships in the area, includig the alien vessel. This was because the Hermes was not a war ship but a messenger ship. Though it did have the capacity to evacuate some refugees from worlds under attack or threatened by natural disasters such as supernova explosions.

The forcefield cut the speed of the swarms by 3/4 but it did not stop them. The Apollo had no choice but open fire on the swarms with its auxilliary weaponry, laying down broad fire against the incoming objects, but not firing on the alien ship itself.

Using the Apollo's interspecies communication antenna, the Hermes sent a message to Hive Number 2562: If you value your continued existence you will halt fire against all Olympian ships. We are here to observe and collect data as to your intentions. Nothing more. At the moment we are only destroying those missile objects you have fired at us. We have not opened fire on you which, among other members of this galaxy would be our right under the self defense doctrine.

You may interact with these others as you see fit, but nothing that attacks Olympians may live to tell the tale. Since you are new to this galaxy I am giving this one chance to cease fire on our vessels.

Suddenly a subspace communications beam appeared out of wormhole and headed straight for the Hermes.
Zeus appeared on the ship's comm screen.
"You are to order the object to stop firing at you. If it does, you are to leave the area and let the lesser beings fend forthemselves. It is necessary they fight this battle on their own for the sake of their evolution and to make them better and stronger peoples.
But if the ship continues hostilities against you, you are to annihilate it as a message to everyone in the galaxy it came from and to all in our own galaxy. Further you are to relay my decision to the other ships and to the target planet.

The beam shut down and the Hermes, now broadcasted Zeus's message to Hive Number 2562. It then began broadcasting to the other vessels:

"We cannot interfere in this matter as this conflict is important to the development and betterment of your respective species and peoples. Those who win this conflict will emerge better and stronger than they were at the start of this conflict. If Hive Number 2562 ceases its hostilities against Olympus we will be leaving. However, if it refuses to cease hostilities with us, we will be turning Hive Number 2562 into a parable warning to all others in this galaxy as well as in 2562's home galaxy. "

[The Ctan]

Jose was wrong, in fact, though orthodoxy may have suggested otherwise, bringing a live weapon to a diplomatic meeting in general may have been unwise, but an incident coordination meeting with Allaneans and C’tani, on the other hand, it was almost expected; both were universally armed societies, whose adult citizens (freemen and freewomen in the case of Allanea) rarely went without arms, open or concealed.

Upon its person, the Avatar of Telissat wore no sword (it got in the way on the jetbike), but a dagger-like knife missile and a glistening pistol that sat in a shoulder holster concealed between its robe the cloak it wore over it, this thing was generally issued to scout teams riding such bikes, and popular among the Atun Dynasty of necrons, a glistening kinetic pistol, the black metal of which shone like slick water, studded with control devices that looked like gemstones. Beyond that, the bike he rode contained a gauss cannon, a powerful weapon that could essentially be considered the equivalent of a machine gun, and stowed in the bike was a gauss flayer rifle. Above and beyond that, the avatar itself was armed with integrated laser webs, lightning arc projectors, micro-missiles, and gravity pulsers.

And this level of armament was probably nothing compared to the munitions available aboard the Reckless Audacity.

Following the boy-president in his utterly insane journey to the bridge, the Avatar frowned in disapproval, glancing at Kazansky, at the prospect of being drunk in battle, but he wasn’t exactly complaining, but it did seem to be needlessly courting death.

Disembarking, the Avatar of Telissat walked over to one of the tactical screens, watching carefully.

Telissat’s true body meanwhile, altered its orbit, changing angle and vector to close in on the centaur city ship to offer supporting fire.

[Allanea]

At the mention of an armory, the ship seemed to have quieted down for a brief second – and then, the deck around Jose came alive with action. Several dozen service droids rolled, wheeled, and slithered towards the ambassador. Before he could make a single move, a droid closed a belt around his mid-section. Three large pistols gleamed on the belt.

And then it began. A rifle sling on one shoulder burdened the ambassador with a bolt-gun. Another sling on the other shoulder – and a submachinegun. Spiderbots, moving gingerly along his back, attached two shoulder holsters. A rolling, tracked robots moved under Jose, attaching a knife in a sheath to one of his ankles. And, finally, before the foreigner could say a word, a large vest, not unlike these worn by photographers, was already hanging off his body – how the robots got it under the rifle slings was a mystery. Its dozens of pockets were stuffed with grenades, spare magazines, knives and pistols. As a final movement, a servant droid attached a combat tomahawk to the rear of the vest.

From the appearance of the pistol belt to the last movement of the droids it took barely more than ten seconds.

“Would you require additional assistance, Sir?” - one of the droids intoned. It was merely a subsapient machine, but some basic learned phrases were implanted on its memory chips – or perhaps it was simply remotely-commanded by the ship's pilot. You never know with these things.

[Kentauroi]

OOC: Sorry folks, presently celebrating a friend's birthday. I'll get it rolling again tomorrow!

[Kentauroi]

Palinouros was fighting a battle of attrition. No matter how many of the drones he destroyed, more of them came. His powerful shields were holding under the assault, but it was like being pecked to death by birds - they kept gnawing at him like thousands of mosquitoes, and it was getting on his nerves. Well, his circuitry anyway. He didn't have nerves.

He had successfully drawn away most of them from Centaurus, who was still being hit but largely ignored by all but a few passing drones now, but no matter how much more powerful he was than these drones, it wasn't enough. There was a constant stream of them coming from the hive ship now, adding greater and greater numbers of targets for him to pick up, and eventually, no matter how powerful his shields, no matter how effective his weapons, if this kept up he would be defeated. The reawakening of Centaurus would tip the odds in their favour, assuming she hadn't taken too much damage from the drones by the time her shields were deployed, but he postulated that the hive would simply respond by sending even more drones.

And he had noticed that the drones were adapting to their targets. He'd been watching the other battles on sensors; Palinouros, and the ship that seemed to be called Cairo, were facing greater numbers of the missile-like drones, which seemed more effective against their shielding than the ones armed with particle weapons. Meanwhile the armed drones seemed to have suddenly been equipped with weak shields which, while they went down after only a single shot, meant they took twice as many shots to destroy than before. Meanwhile, the Reckless Audacity and Telissat, which had both deployed some kind of drones of their own against the swarm, were being faced with more of the armed drones. These armed drones were not shielded and seemed to have less powerful weapons than the ones Palinouros and Cairo were fighting, but they could fire them more rapidly and the drones themselves seemed to be far faster and more agile, and seemed purpose-built to destroy other drones. The Hermes and Apollo apparently hadn't reacted to the drones yet, so the swarm engaging them seemed to be the original 'model'.

As if the constant stream of the things wasn't bad enough, they were improving themselves with each 'generation'. Palinouros assumed, based on the new knowledge that the enemy ship was abandoned, that his rudimentary counterpart aboard the hive had access to sophisticated matter replication technology, and while it appeared to have only a basic overall intelligence, it could at least learn from and adapt to its adversaries during a battle.

But the worst part of this was that while they were all busy fighting these drones, none of them were able to direct any attention to the hive itself, which had accelerated greatly on its course to Asulo. Apparently, triggering its defence protocols had forfeited the deadline it had given them. It would be at their planet in an hour at least now, and Palinouros didn't like the hive's description of its plans for the world.

Palinouros shared his findings, on the adapting drones and the increased speed of the hive, with the other ships present in the area, and continued firing, hoping that his mothership would reawaken soon.

***

Ambrosius and Dianthe, accompanied by some twenty other Kentauroi, appeared on board Centaurus. Dianthe nearly threw up, as they appeared on a ship with no gravity at all and the transition was too sudden for her. She quickly got used to it; in her long life, she had been in zero-gravity conditions more times than she could remember, and it was just like riding a bike - not that she had the capability to do so.

While the Archon immediately began dispatching his men to various parts of the ship to perform emergency damage control until Centaurus' automatic repair systems kicked in, Dianthe looked around. Palinouros had displaced them into one of the main promenades, a wide corridor that, when the cityship was populated, served as a central recreational and social area for many Kentauroi. It was dark now, except for the flashlights they carried, but even in the darkness it was a beautiful place - sweeping, asymmetrical archways extended right across the high ceiling, from one side of the promenade to the other, and it was all painted white with golden decorations across it.

She forgot how much she missed the place.

The environmental systems weren't functioning, but they wore magnetic 'boots' over their hooves to keep them grounded, and the air - which was stale and smelled unpleasant - was the same air they had been breathing when they left twenty years ago. It was still breathable, but it wasn't exactly the fresh, open air they had grown used to. In the distance Dianthe could hear the sounds of weapons impacting bare hull; the ship didn't rock or shake, though she could feel the vibrations in the deck plating beneath her, for it was far too large, and the weapons impacting too far away from them, to do that. But it still sounded ominous, like a distant thunderstorm, and with no systems currently generating a noise, it seemed louder than it was.

"Dianthe, come with me to the central chamber," Ambrosius said in a hurried tone, indicative of his urgent need to reawaken their millennia-old home. "We don't have much time."

It was difficult to walk in magnetic boots, and one certainly couldn't trot or gallop. Each step seemed twice as hard as usual, and walking whilst weightless was completely counter-intuitive. Worse still none of the elevators were powered up, so they had to take the ramps. But after a good ten minutes of walking they finally passed through the archway to the central chamber. The control room. The heart of Centaurus. And it was glorious.

A massive, multi-tiered room, it was round and not especially wide, but very tall, and grew narrower towards the top. Each tier was like a doughnut, with a hole in the middle surrounded by a minimalist-esque railing, allowing one to look down on lower tiers or up at higher ones. It was made from the same distinctive pearlescent metal that the hull of the ship was made from, and lined with holographic interfaces - all of which were dormant and dark, except for one at the very top. They both made their way up the circular ramp to the top tier and stood next to the console, which had a single green light indicating that it had power.

Ambrosius passed a hand over the top of the console and the interface burst into life, glowing green and illuminating much of the upper half of the chamber. He entered what appeared to be a password, and Dianthe looked at him afterwards.

"I hope I still remember mine," she said, slightly jokingly. In order to reawaken Centaurus two Kentauroi of officer rank had to input their security code. After she had done this, just about remembering it first time, only an Archon could complete the process.

"Great Centaurus, our provider, our protector, our friend, this is Archon Ambrosius," the Archon said in a serious tone. "The Kentauroi people once more request that you awaken from your great slumber and lend us your aid, as you have always done."

That was all it took. Dianthe looked over the railing at the lower tiers as lights and consoles burst to life, the bright lights momentarily blinding her. Gravity immediately began to tug at her organs again, and her hair fell down again. A deep, almost unnoticeable thrumming symbolised the return of main power, coursing through Centaurus' powerful veins and touching every system, every light, every switch. To an outside observer, the great ship would appear to glow slightly, effervescently, despite the absence of any exterior lighting or windows. Power readings skyrocketed, and her powerful shields were deployed around her hull. The occasional potshot by the drones ceased to be a threat, their weapons splashing harmlessly against the forcefield.

"I awaken," a female voice, omnipresent and soothing, announced. It was a voice that inspired confidence, allayed fears, and sounded so wise that one would believe it even if it said that space was purple and planets were made from cheese. "Welcome, Archon Ambrosius and Chiliarch Dianthe. It was been too long."

"It has old friend," Ambrosius nodded, patting the metal arch near to him. "But we will have to catch-up later - we are in grave peril."

"Palinouros has just informed me of the situation," Centaurus said. "He is happy to speak to me again and wishes to re-embark."

"We need his weapons for now, it will have to wait," Ambrosius said. "Are you alright?"

"I have sustained superficial damage to my outer-hull. Repair systems engaged," she informed him. "Tactical alert: unknown mass detected on intercept course; E.T.A. 1.19 standard Asulo hour. Tactical alert: unknown ships detected near planet designated 'Asulo'. Tactical alert: we are under attack. I shall defend myself."

"I couldn't agree more," Dianthe nodded with approval.

With that, the great city-ship suddenly lit up, as hundreds of bright green beams of light lanced out from her hull in various directions. Immediately, she was surrounded by tiny explosions as a multitude of drones were destroyed simultaneously. Palinouros breathed a virtual sigh of relief that his friend was alright, and that her vastly superior armament was making a more significant dent in the number of drones. Unfortunately, the hive merely responded by ramping up the number of drones it sent to them. As quickly as they seemed to be making headway, they were swarmed once again. Even with the hundreds of weapons Centaurus lent to the fight, the swarm didn't seem to shrink.

***

The object didn't appear to have any trouble talking to its targets while it worked to destroy them, or at least keep them occupied. The energy field that propagated around it continued to increase in intensity, the purposes of which remained unclear, and it maintained production of drones at pace. It responded to the Necron transmission as though nothing were happening around them. Most of its reply seemed to be a repeat of things it had already said; but it did so deliberately.

"Alert: Threats against Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two, or the continuation process, shall not be tolerated. Threat removal protocols have been engaged. The target planet was identified as suitable, and the continuation process cannot be halted. Threats against the continuation process shall not be tolerated. The continuation process is rated as the Primary Goal of this system; the Iksthan species were a threat to the continuation process. They were removed.

The simple intelligence of the primary control system, either as a result of the extensive corruption to its protocols or a simple programming error, had terminated life support across the entire hive after the governing body of the Iksthar aboard this hive had tried to amend the continuation process. On scrutinising the logs the object had sent previously, it appeared that they wished to change the target planet (listed as being several galaxies away from the Milky Way) after discovering it harboured sentient life, but the primary control system deemed that there was insufficient power available to the hive to locate and travel to another suitable planet and still be able to complete the process. Deeming them a threat to the process, it had killed its own people millions of years before, and had been replicating itself ever since - only, without a crew, the new Generational Hives it had created served no purpose other than creating other, also abandoned, Generational Hives.

"Query: no contact with any other Generational Hives for twelve million, seven-hundred and thirty-two thousand, four-hundred and twelve years. Hypothesis: all remaining Generational Hives have been decommissioned, destroyed, or left the maximum range of this ship’s communications equipment."

To the Hermes, it merely repeated more of the same.

"Development and bettermend of species is not relevant to the continuation process. Alert: Threats against Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two, or the continuation process, shall not be tolerated. Threat removal protocols engaged. Termination of threat removal protocols shall occur when threats against Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two, or the continuation process, have been removed. Your statement is in error; you cannot convert Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two into a 'parable warning'."

[The Fedral Union]

-TAS Cairo-
Jennifer was was vexed at the situation somewhat whole hardheartedly, her chair shook from the strikes of the drones . Missiles struck the ships forward and port sections, the shielding around the vessel regardless of the strikes held , but it wouldn't hold forever nothing could.” Report all stations...” Spoke the commander her voice stern not at all hinting that she was shaken even though down in her core she was slightly frightened at the situation and the odds that were against them.”We've got more drones incoming, they're headed right for us ma'am” Spoke the AI, this was hardly convenient. The more missiles were destroyed the more appeared, it was getting hard to attack them all. The frigate would now have to use its speed. ”I'm going to suggest we attack the source and try to out maneuver enemy missiles, its our only chance commander.” The AI said with a confident voice, her avatar was still offline. Jennifer had a choice. They could stick around and try to cover the yacht or they could gamble on attacking the enemy directly. She had mulled over this quickly, her mind making itself up they had to get rid of the source. She knew otherwise would be suicide even if they had a slim chance of doing damage to that “thing” hanging outside.


”Allright, send our plan through the up-link we're going to need cover fire, If we can aim our torpedo shots correctly we could probably hurt them.” The ships AI did so, the up link of a plan was sent to both friendly ships. First the Cairo itself would close on the enemy position hoping to avoid anti ship fire by erratic maneuvers. Second it would require cover fire from all friendly ships. -Transmission Sent-. The Small Frigate Banked to one side its engines roaring like beasts with raw power behind them, the fading blue and white particle streams seemed to trail and fade behind the ship even as it turned, it began to accelerate the engines glowing brighter and brighter , as the frigate was struck by oncoming missiles several of its dorsal sections trialled a bit of mist from the metal fragments left behind. ”Missile tubes three though six and six through twelve both ventral and dorsal fire at your discretion.. Jennifer said her voice plain clam and collective even as she rocked in her chair the result of the ship being struck. Consoles flickered off and on around her,the top and bottom missile silos of the ship had opened up with a mechanical whirr heard inside of the ship.

-Thunk, Thunk, Thunk- 24 missiles streamed out one after another from the various silos warheads armed with high yield antimatter warheads and laser boosted warheads turned particle streams did so with them fading behind their lit aft sections giving the appearance of mist like contrails traveling from the ship. Some of the lasing warheads supplemented the already furious fire of point defense lasers. The frigate was putting up a variable plethora of fire against on coming drones, secondary arrays lit points of the hull up with blue white laser fire using beams to strafe the maneuvering enemy drones and destroy more than one at a time before they hit the ship the laser boosted warheads added their fire in to the mix as some exploded unleashing star bursts as bright for a split second as any of the stars in the night sky. The rest of the missiles guided true at high speeds towards the large ship creating the ghastly spawns.

Jennifer grit her teeth it was a matter of time to see if her gamble would pay off or not hopefully some of the drones from the other ships would follow the frigate as it reached its max maneuvering speed of .45c, indicators began to blink the consoles that monitored the force shielding bleeped as strikes were recorded but the crew had already known they were being hit due to the light shaking of the ship. Indicators put port and dorsal shielding at light green indicating they were still at least at 75% capacity. Jennifer rested her arms along the armrest of the chair watching as crew rushed from station to station in the CIC.


-The Reckless-

”What the hell is going on there!” Jose would bark through the interlink with his ship, he was frustrated that he couldn't be there but he was also worried about his crew mates and their safety after all, he had served such a long time with the crew he had gotten to know nearly everyone on the ship and met every new recruit with the same welcoming warm attitude, he wasn't about to loose a ship.”We're plotting at intercept course to the drone spawning ship sir.” Jose's eyes widened.”Whats the idea behind all o- He received the plan from the up link on his wrist mounted holocomputer. It showed a map with the frigate doing all sorts of maneuvers closer to the source of the drones. But we're gonna take a beating. ”I see, your hoping to draw fire away from us and the other ships... You realize if this works you'll be target number one for every single thing that's out there right now. the ships response was plain logical with nearly no emotion to it. ”I know, and the crew knows.” Jose sighed he was about to say something before the drone rolled up to him giving him all sorts of gear. He could only at this time give a slight nod of thanks, then a shake of his head at the question.

He was still taken aback by the plan his XO had executed but he understood the reasons behind it. He looked over at Telissat for a brief moment and asked. ”Our ship is sending both this one and you a plan to get rid of the source of those drones, They are going to try to get the enemy to focus on them, despite how unlikely it might be with so many of them it's, still our only chance otherwise theses drones will endlessly come at us if we don't do some thing.” He walked over to the control consoles looking at everything for a moment he had to help some how he couldn't be standing around doing nothing what so ever.” Can I up load my ships interlink to your main computer?” His gaze averted from the many consoles to the young president. ”We're interlinked with Telissat, we need to coordinate our fire. Otherwise my ship is toast.”. He spoke in frank clear terms but he wasn't abrasive about it.

The Cairo
Every ship on their sensors could see the ship was it passed under the yacht at high speeds zigzagging strafing and pitching its nose up to catch up with the other ship heading towards the city, the heat signature from the ship was now triple what it was before denoting its active weapons and increased engine output. Jennifer began to spout orders out with a clam tone of voice."All main arrays charge up, target main arrays and forward tubes on that ship. "-Beep, Beep, Beep..- The sensor indicators would sound, a red circular target formed around the large mass getting closer and closer around it as sensors locked on the weapon system of the ship towards a set of subsystems or what they thought were sub systems."We're going to fire on their weapons systems or shoot to kill?" Asked the AI Jennifer responded waving a hand to the AI's visual sensors, at a console next to her. "Both, fire". The ship was a quarter of a light second away a high pitched noise could be heard in the ship at first then several of its main arrays discharged multiple white hot phased beams of antimatter in hopes of getting attention; hopefully wounding the drone spawning ship as they lanced forth through the darkness. Again and again they charged and discharged fire lighting sections along the hull where the main array's were began to glow with an an aura of white. As it did so the frigate preformed a displacement roll shifting its body nearly instantly on to a new path. Sensor warning receivers were beeping loudly, the frigate had came from bellow in front of the hive ship crisscrossing its flight path.

[Mount-Olympus]

The Apollo sent one more warning as it was joined by another equally massive warship,the Agamemnon. The ship had just exited a wormhole and had already opened fire on the drone like missiles.

The commanders of the Apollo and the Agamemnon began communicating on open frequency. The Agamemon's commander, Pike, recieved an update from the Apollo's commander Boozer.

Boozer: "We have ascertained the object is not connected to the Demonoids and does not pose a threat to us."
Pike: "Then why is it firing on you"
Boozer: "It would appear to be the result of a computer malfunction. The ship is empty, having kiled the colonists it was carrying long ago."
Pike " Have you tried to communicate with it."
Boozer: "Affirmative. There have been several attempts at communication. The ship appears to harbor artificial intelligence. We have been monitoring communications between it and the other ships in the area. Attempts to persuade it to change course have failed. There is concern for the people on the planet in it's path. However, Zeus has ordered us not to interfere in the interactions between it and the other species in the area. However, I would note it would set a bad precedent to allow attacks on Olympic vessels to go unchallenged therefore I have gave it a message to halt fire or face destruction."
Pike: "Have you tried reasoning with it?"
Boozer: "It does not appear to respond to reason."

Pike the directed a message to the vessel.

"Atttention Generational Hive Number 2562 this is the Agamemnon. Please state your primary mission. What are you current coordinates and what is your current trajectory. Compute estimated time of arrival. Understand the Agamemnon is not blocking you from carrying out mission. We want to know why you are firing on the other ships. "

[Kentauroi]

The reaction of the hive to Cairo's new offensive was predictable; as the vessel approached the object, the already-rapid creation of drones increased further, with the excess being directed towards the approaching aggressor. Many of the drones already attacking the Terran ship re-directed their attention to the missiles, either firing on them with their particle weapons or simply colliding with them in kamikaze runs. As a single unit, the swarm seemed to form a reasonable point-defence system.

The hull of the object itself didn't seem to mind the initial assaults it received. The missiles fired by the Terran ship, the handful that got through anyway, left slight craters or scorching, but otherwise it seemed to remain intact. Against the antimatter weapons, the heavy elements that were densely packed to form the hull lost a corresponding number of particles relevant to how many antiparticles were fired at it, but the resultant energy releases didn't seem to cause massive amounts of damage to the surrounding area - it was simply too sturdy. Impact areas distorted and were super-heated, but there were no apparent breaches. The now-massive energy field surrounding the object had no effect on the incoming weapons. With no visible external systems, the super-dense hull of the object appeared well-suited to defending itself without any active defence systems to assist it.

But the object did react to the incoming craft once it was close enough, quite decisively. The powerful energy field that had propagated around it was suddenly directed forwards, all of its energy suddenly being projected as a focussed wave at the incoming ship. Missiles still heading towards the object were instantly destroyed by the wave, along with many of the hive's own drones - which were recreated quickly - and the energy wave zipped quickly across the short distance between the object and the Cairo.

Immediately after projecting the energy field, the object began to recharge it. If it took as long as it had before, it would be five or ten minutes before it reached a similar intensity.

The hive was now less than forty minutes away from Asulo.

***

It was happier now. The cluster of three alien ships - one of which had identified itself as the Hermes, the other as the Agamemnon, not that it cared about such things - had begun to combat the drones. Which meant that the threat removal protocols would begin adapting the drones to their combat tactics as well, expediating their removal. While they had been sitting there doing nothing, the drones would remain in their original configurations and would be less effective. It had been frustrating. Already the drones it was creating had begun to integrate new tactics and technologies to better fight those particular alien ships - particularly, more powerful particle guns and more randomised and distanced swarming behaviour for better weapons evasion.

But despite that, they were still asking it questions. Even faced with removal, these aliens wanted to ask questions! It didn't understand their persistence. And it still hadn't bothered to determine whether the various alien ships in the region were from the same species on the planet or not - it didn't care. They either left the area, watched the continuation process without interfering, or became a threat. They had chosen the latter. It had no control over its reaction to that choice, it only knew that it was pleased they had chosen it.

"Primary goal: sustainment of the Iksthan species through the continuation process. Our current coordinates are here. Our current trajectory is the target planet. Estimated time of arrival is thirty-nine minutes. Understood - remove your ships from effective combat range to be exempted from threat removal protocols. Threat removal protocols engaged due to repeated threats against Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two, or the continuation process, from alien ships in effective combat range. Alert: Threats against Generational Hive Number Two-Thousand Five-Hundred and Sixty-Two, or the continuation process, shall not be tolerated."

[Mount-Olympus]

Commander Pike spoke via conferencing vidlink to Commander Boozer of the Apollo and Commander Herte of the Hermes.

"It is apparently reacting on instinct in an environment it has no experience with." said Herte.
"I would concur, it may not know that it is attacking innocents." said Boozer.
"Then we should cease fire and move out of it's defensive combat range." replied Pike. "Let's move back 2 astronomical units. That should put us out of its defense range and still allow us to communicate with it to determine its true purpose."

The 3 ships ceased firing, and quadrupled power to their shielding as they began moving away from the area.


Having read the update given him by Boozer, Pike again messaged the alien ship, "How many members of the Ikthan species are on board your ship? If your purpose is to promote the survival of the Ikthan then how do accomplish your primary goal if you have terminated all of them? Would it be illogical to continue sustainment of the Ikthan species if there are no Ikthans on your vessel?"
"If Hive Number 2562 terminated all the Ikthans onboard, then surely Generational Hive Number 2562 is a threat to the continuation process." said Herte, also directing his message at the alien vessel.

[The Ctan]

Telissat had lost interest in trying to communicate, in fact, it had concluded that there was only the single task left here. It had considered attempting several 'Kirk Gambit' efforts to get the enemy vessel to recognise its own failings, but the Iksthans had designed their AIs with a flawed goal system in the first place, and it ould continue to see its goal system as the one to follow, barring a major reprogramming.

The Generational Hive presented Telissat with a task for which it was created. It shot out of orbit at last, its preparation complete, like a weapon fired from the planet itself, some kind of discus thrown from it. Space folded as it translocated two dozen hyperspatial compressed anti-matter mines into its pathway, their movement relative to the planet negligible (meaning the enemy vessel would have to either approach them at full speed or, in a ring with a diameter of three kilometres, these were directly in the enemy vessel's craft; unlike many other weapons antimatter was preferred for this role because when an enemy vessel's shields were down, it mattered little what kind of speed the mine impacted the debris field, or even if it was shot down by close in systems; it would create a fine mist that would burn against armour; it also had a tendency to "fail on" which limited the use of close in weapons against it.

As it did this, an object detached from it, surrounded by a dense cloud of scarab drones, the ornate insectile creations of every size concealing it in a coiling double-helixed swarm that made the projectile seem like a string of genetic code.

The ship was not silent though for these were a fraction of its arsenal, and long range green energy stabbed and fickered at the enemy craft, keeping its guns off, primarily, as the object headed roughly for the indicated centre of mass revealed by mass sensors. It had a plan.