One

Varad

“Who do you think they were?” He asked, facing the

cafeteria window. It was dark outside, as ever, thousands of
little white pinpricks plastered upon the void.
“Who?” Varad asked. Outside seemed just as lonely as in –
they were alone, the rest of the seats deserted.
“The Cerberus.”
They ate, and the lights thrummed, and one of the stars
flickered out. He wondered if it had been one of those stars,
gone supernova thousands or years ago, the light only
reaching them now. He wondered what it had destroyed in
the aftermath of its collapse, what had been lost that would
never be recovered.
“Builders,” he answered, after much thought. “You’ve seen
their ships, and their systems. We still stand in their
technological shadow. Every system we find stands as a
monument to their race.”
“I meant,” Jaykub said, bringing the food to his mouth, “who
were they? The average life of a Cerberus. Mothers and
fathers, their morals codes, what they believes in. They must
have lived, right? Not as machines, but as people. Like us.”
Varad chewed. It was a strange question to ask, after all this
time. He’d had plenty of chances, over the years, but as far
back as he could remember, it was the first time he’d asked,
rather than just talked.

1
“Do we even know if they were people? I mean, look at
them.” He imagined the metal husks drifting outside the
window, firing listlessly at their hulls, never retreating, never
preserving their own lives when defeat was certain. They
trailed across the cosmos without thought of self. “They
don’t have a sense of self preservation. That’s one of the
fundamentals of being alive, right?”
“I think they were more than people. I’m sure you’re right –
whatever became of them, they’ve left behind machines. I
doubt they’re alive in those ships. But when they were alive, I
think they were more human than humans. Higher
intelligence, and all that.” He smiled. “But where’s the fun in
knowing everything? If we knew it all now, we’d have no
mysteries left to solve.”
Just then, a great object crawled across the canvas of the
outside, and Varad shivered, despite himself. No shadow was
cast across the cafeteria – the lighting came down from
overhead, not outside. They didn’t even orbit a star – Aurum
station was a standalone metal jewel sitting silently in the
middle of, as it happened, nowhere. The only other object
nearby, beside the occasional space debris, was the
jumpgate, and that was out of sight, visible only from the
other side of the station.
The side facing them was black, with no star to illuminate it,
but it was speckled with dozens of yellow-white lights, not
too dissimilar from the actual sky. Varad wondered if people
watched looked out towards the station from inside,
wondering if anyone was looking back. The ship was
soundless – an obvious fact, when you considered there was
no way for sound to travel through space. He felt somewhat
uneasy to see the dark, colossal thing drift silently by.
“The last to arrive, then.” Jaykub said. “The Pheonix?”

2
Varad nodded, remembering himself. He’d seen ships arrive
at the station countless times, and although he couldn’t
make out the shape from the window, he knew well what
they looked like. They were wider at the back and slender at
the front, the whole ship narrowing as you travelled from
back to front, much like an arrowhead. The engines at the
back glowed blue, fading like a flame dying out as the ship
slowed, moving past.
“We should call for a holo-meeting.” Jaykub announced. His
meal had been long finished, the knife and fork lined neatly
beside each other, plate pushed to the middle of the table.
“No.” Varad’s eyes trailed after the ship until it vanished from
view. “This will be the last time I can see their faces before
we embark. It would do well for us to say goodbye in
person.”
Jaykub frowned, gesturing to the ship gone only a few
moments ago.
“Fitts has only just arrived, give him a chance to settle.
Besides, many of us have a good distance to walk, Fitts
included. We wouldn’t suffer from a few hours rest. The
whole station is practically an anthill, everyone’s running
about all over the place. We would do better to meet when
its calmer.”
“Fitts will make it to us in good time, or he can find another
corporation to work for.” Varad smiled slightly, waving off
the inbound protests. “Relax, Jaykub. That’s an order, or I’ll
have you disband from the corp as well.”
“You’re cruel.”
“I’m hilarious.”
“Cruel.” He repeated. “A tyrannical First Officer. Curse the
day I named you commander.”
3
“That was your mistake. I won’t repeat it – my successor will
be kind, dutiful,”
“Humble?”
“Absolutely not.” He stood to leave. “Besides, command is
only for this white star. After the campaign, I’m back in your
hands.”
“My thanks to that.” He grumbled.
Later, in one of the various conference rooms across the
station, Varad watched Fitts walk through door, and eyed
him for signs of exhaust.
“He looks to have made it in one piece.”
“Hardly,” Jaykub answered, “breath in his direction, and he’ll
topple right over.”
“He’s not that old, and I thought I was the cruel First Officer.”
Jaykub only grinned at that.
They were eleven in all – Varad at the head of the room,
around a circular table, black but for a metal rim, with a blue
grid running across it. To his right, Jaykub, Diablo, Apolo, SGT
and Sairaj, and his left, Salvor, Reaper, Tater, Neitsabes, and
lastly Fitts who took his seat at the far side.
All familiar faces, he thought, some I may not see again. He
rejected the thought, and welcomed Fitts to join them – yes,
his journey had been pleasant, no, the trek had not been too
long. Many had not seen each other for an age, and the
catching up had been pleasant, but was hushed when the
image of the system appeared in the centre of the table.

4
“I hope your ship explodes.”
“I’m honoured to be here too.” Varad smiled. “Besides, my
ship is our flagship, and you’d hate to see it burn. A ship you
paid for, in part, if I remember correctly.”
“We all did. The flagship is a corporation contribution.”
“True.” Varad had his own battleship, one that was crafted by
the hands of his own star system, but who else would man
the flagship but the First Officer himself? Without an officer
to man it, the Zirconia was flagship only in name.

“The other Jumpgate has activated.” He said. “We believe it’s

another corporation.
They all knew what that meant. Diplomacy was plausible in
theory – they could divide the star system in half. There were
many planets – ten in total, but it could not be said the state
of those planets. Some were in better condition than others,
and both would want the best to salvage and produce relics
from the dying system. Borders could be agreed upon, given
time, but time was among the thing they lacked. The pulsing
star at the centre was bound for supernova. The system
would be obliterated, destroying everything inside, all traces
of the Cerberus.

5
Two
Fitts

He gasped, and the world vanished. A gush of fresh, rich air

escaped his lungs, and the breath back in was plain,
flavourless, dull by comparison. The device lifted from his
face and fell away, suspended by a thick chord, like a
muscular, pulsating neck. His eyes rolled forward and he
blinked – gone were the green grasses and rolling hills, and
he feared for a moment, as he had many times before, that
he had gone blind. He clenched his fists, for the sensation of
sunshine had dissipated, and he was plunged into
undeniable, inexorable reality.
Fitts leaned forwards, rubbing his eyes, then tracing the faint,
but visible semi-circles under them. They looked like crescent
moons the colour of pencil shavings. Not that pencil shavings
were common – most of the time, information would be
stored digitally, and when that was unfeasible, a pen would
suffice. EMP’s could render a ship useless for hours, if not
days.
He shivered, goosebumps rising from his skin, as the world
felt cold and distant outside the Somnius. Late spring was
replaced by the seasonless time of space, and the revelation

6
sickened him. He would feel like this for a while, and then he
would be ok, he told himself, returned to normal. Whatever
normal was.
“We aren’t meant to live like this.” He whispered, muttering,
staring at the soft walls of the chamber. They were soft,
fabric, like you’d see one of those insane asylums. I’m not
insane, he thought, but isn’t this close enough? Behind the
fabric walls, there was metal, and beyond that, more metal,
and so it repeated until the colder-still vacuum of space.
“We are drifting through an ocean, Ollie.” He said. “Pioneers
upon the Pacific. The difference between us and them, is that
the waters aren’t living beneath us. This ocean is just as cold
as theirs, but this one has no kelp nor coral nor fish. Just
death, and cold.”
Ollie frowned. “Did you ever fish, Colonel?”
“No.” He said. He hated killing living things. As more and
more of humanity separated from their planets, animals
became scarcer, a novelty only enjoyed by those bound to
balls of rock. Many ships and stations had neither the space
nor resources to host them, and when meat could be
produced synthetically, there was little need to kill. The meat
that came from what had once been real, breathing
creatures was only taken for the novelty, as pioneers from
hundreds of years ago had done, when confined to only a
single planet.
Pioneers, pioneers, pioneers. Fitts thought as he walked.
Always with the fucking pioneers. The whole of human
civilisation that had followed the first scout ships into the
unknown had fancied themselves as explorers, the first
settlers of new lands, pursing their own manifest destiny
that, unlike in history, was not driven by a powerful few, but
the lust of the many. They sought fields of hydrogen
asteroids to fuel their ships, or gold and iron and other
7
minerals rich amongst space debris, or the sprawling
possibility of adventure, to be the first in the new world, as
many of their ancestors had been generations ago. Fitts
thought of the shock on their faces when they had arrived,
just as their ancestors did, and discovered they were not the
first at all.
Ollie left him in his personal office. It was not the bridge of
the Pheonix – that was for formal meetings, and Fitts felt
decisively informal. He sighed, rubbed the tiredness from his
eyes, and dragged himself to the far side of the hexagonal
chamber. Jutting out like an upscaled bay window, the view
from the room provided nearly one hundred and eighty
degrees of vision, facing directly outwards, in line with the
front of the ship, and an angled view to the left and right.
Like a flock of birds, he thought, as he spied the other ships in
formation, like grey metal arrowheads in. They formed a
diamond between the four of them – Varad in front, in the
flagship, Luke and SGT to behind, to the right and left
respectively. Harbinger and Maelstrom’s engines glowed
blue, like the roaring flame of a blow torch. Sairaj formed the
far right, and Fitts the fair left, completing the “V” shape.
Between the two wings, a column of miners and transports
followed, massed together. Battleships were massive things,
largely self-sufficient, massive cells to power weapon and
shield system, as well as a plethora of other technology
besides. With so much crammed into such space, other ships
were needed for the collection of hydrogen, specifically
designed for that role, whilst others had the chambers with
the necessary protection to store and seal the relics of the
long-dead civilisation within their vaults.
Fitts looked to his right, as if expecting the others to be in
view. Diablo, Tater, and Apolo had moved towards
Modburne, equidistant from Danute, but another candidate,

8
should the one planet prove inadequate. Modburne was
trickier, within range of Cerberus ships from the Nest, but if
Danute was compromised, they had few alternatives so close
to their jumpgate.
Already, the group of three was far out of view, visible only
on hologram maps, should he care to bring them up. He’d
watched the three of them grow smaller against the black
abyss, until they were as small as three stars in a
constellation, then disappear altogether.
And then there were the last three. Salvor and Neitsabes had
stayed at the jump gate, available to dispatch as needed.
Reaper had stayed far back, advancing just past the jump
gate to the first asteroid belt advancing outwards. He’d
named it “Styx”, after his callsign. Fitts had smiled at that.
He sat, lowering himself slower than he would have liked to.
His seat was green, soft, like jungle moss, with thin, dark
wood pillars separating the first tree walls into panels. He’d
read, once, and the bookshelf still lingered as a reminder of
that time. What else was there to do in space, besides read,
and stare longingly out the window? After a certain point of
either of those activities, you went quite mad, however. That
was when Fitts had discovered the Somnius.
The signal did not take long to reach the Jumpgate sector. Of
course, the signal then had to travel back, and Fitts hardly felt
any better after they waiting.
“Hello.” A voice came. Fitts opened his eyes. “You look like
shit.”
“Liar.” Fitts called back.
“I can see bags under your eyes through a hologram. You
look like shit.”

9
Fitts grumbled. The blue figure of SGT smiled at him. He was
also sitting, wherever he was aboard the Maelstrom.
“You should take it easy on that thing.” He said. Fitts new
what he was referring to. “Have you been sleeping?”
“Sure.”
SGT frowned.
“That’s not an answer.”
“We aren’t meant to live like this.” It was the second time
he’d said it today, but far from the second time he’d thought.
“I need to feel the sun on my back. I need to go home, but
instead we’re two days out from our Jumpgate, and drifting
further every second.”
Fitts rubbed his temple.
“We have planets,” SGT said slowly, “but home is long ways
away. Unreachable in ships. If we can power up a jumpgate
enough to make the distance…”
“Yes, I know. Home.”
“Do you think much has changed?” He asked. “Home, I
mean.”
“It’s the same ball of rock, isn’t it?”
“Sure. But don’t you think those that stayed feel just as bad,
wondering what they missed out on?” Now that the gate is
closed, Fitts imagined him saying. Maybe forever. “Wouldn’t
you rather know, be here now, than stay and wonder for the
rest of your life?”
Eventually, he sighed, and SGT played with a pen.

10
“Well, for the meantime, you’re here, and you’re alive, and
that’s more than many can hope for.” He pointed, and Fitts
followed him. “Look at that.”
They glittered like dust on the abyss, grey and gold and
purple, with the promise of hydrogen. It was small by star-
system standards, but it was the first thing he’d seen besides
the grey of metallic ships and space itself. It was something,
and he reminded himself it was more real than the Somnius,
that it was real, and that counted for something. He felt
unconvinced, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking.
“You should name it.” SGT said. “Reaper named his, and you
might not get many chances.”
“Hmm.” Fitts made a noise, following the lines of the rocks as
the gradually grew nearer. “Something do with birds. We’re
flying like a flock of them.”
“Sparrow?” SGT hmm’d similarly. “The Sparrow Asteroid
Field.” He frowned.
“Avian.” Fitts smiled.
“Sure.” SGT smiled. “Sounds futuristic enough.”
“The Avian Asteroid Field. We should call it in before anyone
gets any better ideas.”
“We’ll be halfway to Danute by the time we’re through it.

11
Three
Diablo

The Cerberus met them in force, ships existing as shadows of

their civilisation. Metal like his own ship, with a red hue,
almost. They had looked almost like a small belt of asteroids
at first, they way that they appeared like a cloud of dust.
Then, as they grew closer, you could make them out.
“Sentinels.” Diablo had said, so close to the glass of his office
that his nose was almost pressed against it. He liked to be as
close as he could, and so the window had been made
especially to prevent condensation from his breath. “And a
Guardian behind them.”
Tater had been the first. Diablo had watched with
anticipation as the first bolt of energy was fired, shooting
across space with enough power to shake the air around
them, had they been grounded. Instead, there was silence,
just a light show as the swarm exchanged fire with the
battleship.
The Artimus had multiple batteries, rather than a single,
concentrated one, and was able to fire on many of the ships
at once. Each Sentinel was perhaps an eight the size of the
battleship, small, fast, flittering around in a swarm. Diablo
12
had watched a half dozen torn to shreds, shrapnel flung into
the cosmos. Diablo covered his mouth with his knuckle,
watching with steel and they returned fire.
“They don’t have shields.” He realised aloud. The Artimus
repelled most of the blows, and Diablo was amazed at just
how many could be concentrated against a single shield, as
still hold with little more than chips and cracks.
“Pheonix’s have them.” Tyria responded. She lounged behind
him, sprawled out across a red-cushioned couch. She
watched the lightshow outside too, but with more of a mild
fascination than his own gripping desire to keep watching.
“But not for themselves. Pheonix shields protect other ships
over a wide range, but it leave the original ships vulnerable.”
“A phoenix is basically a mothership. Its plating it thick
enough that it hardly needs a shield for itself.”
“Still…” Diablo wondered as a sentinel wretched its metallic
bowels upon the stygian ocean, a metal shred hurling past
the bridge. “All of our shield technology, we get from the
Cerberus. Artifacts of their civilisation. And yet, next to none
of them use the shields themselves.”
Tyria pressed her lips together thoughtfully. “Maybe it was a
taboo. Like smoking, Somnius machines, heroin, Phanes
chambers, you know. It might’ve been seen as weak. There’s
a lot we don’t know.”
“Hmm.”
She snapped her fingers.
“Cerberus bases. They use shields to protect themselves,
before you can break through to the hull.” She frowned. “Is it
even considered a hull anymore, if it’s a station?”

13
“What’s the point of having things like impulse shields if they
aren’t even used? I can understand basic shields – omega,
regenerating, ally shield, to protect their bases and to protect
swarms of sentinels. Smaller ships were probably too small,
so that makes sense. But why even have technology like
impulse or blast shields if you wouldn’t use them?”
“Like I said, there’s a lot we don’t know – and a lot we can’t
see. Who’s to say they didn’t have ships that used those, but
there aren’t any left? The Cerberus aren’t alive anymore, and
they’re hardly making new tech or conquering new systems.
We don’t even know what’s keeping their ships running.”
Apolo pulled into range, and his ship’s weapons system
joined the fray. It was mass battery, as with Tater’s, as with
Diablo’s own. The Star Devil fired simultaneously on a half
dozen sentinels at once.
“They can’t be alive.” He announced, not for the first time.
“They’re being shredded, and still happily fight on. I don’t
believe that the instinct to want to live is unique only to
humans.”
“Humans self-sacrifice too. Kamikaze strikes? Fight till the last
man? All that stuff. We’re not much different sometimes.”
“It’s more than that. They don’t even make an attempt to
leave dying systems. They sit idly by in the sectors we found
them in, when supernova is within minutes. They could
follow us to our jumpgates. They could send communiques,
but nothing. They’re mindless.”
“Let it rest.” She grinned.
“I ought to demote you.” He sighed. “You’re still my
subordinate.”
“Whatever you say.” She rolled her eyes dramatically. Diablo
was the commander of his own ship, and Tyria only an officer
14
aboard it, but they treated each other like equals. She shared
the bridge with him when she liked, and he allowed it, for the
sake of company. He could do what he liked on his ship, so it
didn’t matter regardless, but he’d felt strange, the first few
times, feeling like two teenagers hanging out in a dorm,
rather than officers of a battleship. It was the people that
made the situation, he decided, not the place.
There were now only a few sentinels buzzing about when the
guardian came, insistent wasps flitting about a bear. Only the
bear could shoot beams of plasma and incinerate entire hives
of wasps, should they so please. One sentinel zipped under
the hull of the Artimus, out of view for a moment, but Diablo
did not see it emerge the other side.
Then the guardian came into shape, and the discharge from
its cannon crashed into the side of Apolo’s shield. It was
larger, three quarters the size of a battleship. Its battery
made more of a mark than any single sentinel, but the
sentinels combined did more damage, on account of their
being a dozen or more per swarm. With most of the sentinels
destroyed, attention was shifted to the swiftly approaching
guardian.
It fared much better than the sentinels, which almost
evaporated after sometimes only a single hit. Three
battleships directed their fire against it, and although
withering fast, it weathered the hits well.
“I should call the others.” Diablo announced. “They won’t
want you in the room for this. It’s between officers only.”
“Do you care that much?”
“I don’t. They will. There’s a code to this.”
Tyria shrugged, removing herself languidly from the couch.
She shuffled over the glass, wrinkled her nose, and after a
moment put her finger against the glass.
15
“Rockets.” She said simply.
“I know.” He replied. “They started heading towards us as
soon as we entered the sector.”
“You can shoot them down?”
“Yes.”
“Is Modburne in range of the bomber?”
Diablo nodded. Cerberus bombers had a range far beyond
what lasers and batteries could achieve, but their rockets
could be shot down if their weapons were fast enough. If
not…
“It won’t be an issue, though. Varad has accounted for it.”
That is what he’d been told, at least. If they planned to land
at the planet, the bomber would fire down at them
periodically from what they’d dubbed The Cerberus Nest. It
was full of Sentinels and Guardians, which always stayed in
their sectors, and posed little threat unless moved directly
towards. There were Interceptors too, and those could move
freely throughout the system, but seemed to keep to specific
lanes. They had spotted one on a holomap, departing from
the nest in five hours, and from there would set off for
Guana, passing through the asteroid field they were currently
stationed at. It struck Diablo then that he had forgotten to
name it.
And then there was the Bomber. Another class of Cerberus
ship, remarkable with no close-range weapons to its name.
They had an ecosystem of dependency – sentinels were
needed for the masses of damage they could do when
battleships were distracted. Guardians were needed to do
said distracting, and Bombers were needed both in close and
short range, doing massive damage to both shield and hull.
Phoenixes could be independent, but were needed to
16
provide shielding to smaller ships, and the cycle went on.
They’d yet to identify any Colossuses in the system, but the
Nest was large, and their scanners could only detect so far.
Diablo realised he had drifted into a trance. Tyria had left
long ago, the door closing automatically behind her, and the
Guardian was reduced to a trembling wreck. It shuddered
once, as if giving its last breath to the world, and suddenly it
was no longer one mass, but three, the blasts of mass battery
firing right through where its centre had been.
He paced over to the desk, hardly taking his eyes off the
glinting metal shapes that fast approached. He ordered to
switch fire to the rockets, as soon as they came into firing
distance. Then, he called for them, and it wasn’t long before
the flickering image of Tater, then Apolo was born upon the
air.
“Be careful,” he told them, eyes already back to the rockets.
He did not need to tell them to fire, they had seen it before.
They awed him, like a dozen comets soaring across a night
sky, watched from Earth’s surface. Instead, the comets were
hurling towards him, towards the three of them.
A tiny vibration rippled across the ship as the battery
sounded off again, hardly enough to disturb anyone at all,
but he picked it up in the silence of the bridge, waiting,
watching. The first rocket was ripped to pieces, and then, as
the others added their voices, a second and third exploded
far off. A few bolts of energy soared off into space, passed
them, and Diablo’s eye twitched. A fourth and fifth rocket
upended their bowels into the cosmos, and the sixth and
seventh closer still.
“Easy,” he whispered to himself, “steady, now.”
The rockets were close now, a few more seconds and they
would smash themselves against their shields. It won’t be

17
enough to break them, he told himself, as an eight and nine
exploded, metal viscera rebounding against his shield. The
final three were each repelled, their explosion range scraping
against the Cycnus’s defences. It does not look damaged, he
thought in hope. When the inside the ship felt settled, Diablo
tore his eyes away from the outside.
“Are we all ok?” He sounded off into the desk. Sensors picked
up his voice, and it was sent off to the ships besides him.
Conversation was a luxury enjoyed by ships that stayed close
by – the jumpgate was an hour’s journey, to light, one way,
just for his voice to reach them. Easier to send a message,
and wait for a reply in turn. Like messenger pigeons, he
thought.
“All good.” Apolo reported with a crackle. “Some minor
shield damage, still at eighty percent. Should regenerate
within a few hours.”
“Same here. Minimal damage to shield. Will be up to full
integrity in a matter of minutes.”
Diablo sighed. It was hard to notice, with no passing markers
to judge, but they were still moving. He only remembered it
now as some light space rock knocking against his shield,
bouncing off with newfound speed, destined to stop only
when colliding with another object. Space was large, larger
than he could imagine, and the chance of that were slim.
They needed the gravity of such masses to guide them,
however. They could not just pick a point in space and travel
there. A gravity well was needed to head towards, else travel
was not possible. Asteroid fields worked just as well as
planets, and once reached, it was possible to stop, rest, and
choose another destination, some other gravity well,
whatever it may be. Jump gates and stations also worked just
fine. Some were fitted with extra gravity plates to make the
docking easier.
18
“What should we name it?” Apolo asked.
“Bombshell.” Diablo said. “Its appropriate. The rockets were
damn close to your shield.”
“It would have held.”
“Still.”
“Bombshell it is.”
The custom was for the first ships to name the asteroid fields
they came across, for easier navigation. It mattered little
anyway, or the system would be supernova in fifty days’
time, and whatever they’d called it after that would be
irrelevant.
“Where to now?”
It was a good question. They drifted much slower now,
hovering over the top of the asteroid belt, lest they brave its
centre, risking damaging the shield.
“As for you,” he said, finally, with his back turned to the
stygian outside, “Varad will tell you. No doubt he’ll want you
doing one thing or another. Myself…” Diablo picked up a
piece of metal, lying on his desk. It had been salvaged from
the wreck of Cerberus guardian, a rare thing, since most of
the wreckages were completely obliterated. It was about the
size of his finger, thin, reddish, metallic, almost liked rusted
iron. “I have a mind to go to Modburne.”

19
Four
Varad

He watched them all, little green dots flittering about like

fireflies. On the holomap, his ship was blue, his fellow
commanders’ green, and the Cerberus pink. Asteroid fields
were a purplish-gold, and planets were white. And then there
were the red.
Here, like a claw grasping out across the system, the little red
dots and their trajectory lines. They are reaching out for us,
Varad thought, us, and the relics, the heart of the Cerberus
and their worlds. The furthest of them were settling on their
closest planet, crippled, decayed, a ball of dust and bones
upon which a few scraps could be salvaged. Two lanes moved
up towards Lispvin and its belt, rich is hydrogen, appropriate
for feeding the machines that churned the ashes into
tangible, rich energy. Two final lanes encroached upon Nari,
forming the last two fingers of the hand. The claw of the
civilised world, come to take.
Of course, there had been no word from the other
corporation. They both knew that the other would be
unwilling to yield, that the prize was of too much value. Each
was capable of tearing the other to shreds, given they played
well, tactically, and had a healthy amount of luck on their
side. And perhaps, Varad thought, they do not fear death so
much now. It was a disturbing thought. He thought of the
Cerberus, and switched his attention the Nest.
Diablo had moved past Bombshell, fast approaching on
Modburne. Two days past, the three of them had cleared the
asteroid belt – Apolo had stayed, Tater had moved to join the
main group on their way to Danute. Diablo was moving away,
bound of the far corner of the system. Varad watched his

20
progress warily, his right eye shifting. Sometimes, he could
feel it moving, as if it had been made half a millimetre too
large, and ground against his skull.
He'd ordered Salvor to meet them, once the sector had been
cleared. If Diablo’s mission proved fatal, Apolo would need
the help, and there was no point in leaving three battleships
by the jumpgate idle. Neitsabes had moved too, towards
Avian, and would arrive within the hour. And lastly there was
Varad himself.

Battleships were self-sufficient enough to last all of them till

the end of the campaign – just over forty days, at most. By
then, the star would go supernova, and the system
destroyed, an entire history destroyed saved for what they
could salvage. How much more could be excavated from the
husks of planets if they cooperated, Varad thought, if the
great species of humanity could put aside their instinct of
genocide and competition. How much more advanced we
could be, if it we were not bound by that.
The Cerberus must have competed too. They were never any
account of Cerberus ships firing on each other, but it must
have happened – why else have so many warships? The
Cerberus had been extinct a long time before the first of the
settlers had emerged into the galaxy. A long time. And yet,
the ships still fired upon them, hundreds of thousands of
hives awakening after slumber. Dormant for longer than
humans had existed, some said.
Now there’s a thought, Varad frowned, shivering – the bridge
suddenly felt a great deal colder. What if there was some
civilisation? The Cerberus seemed not to fight each other, and
if it were not themselves they were fighting…

21
He shook his head. Any civilisation the Cerberus had been
fighting would’ve been long dead also. Perhaps the Cerberus
never fought because no ships of different sector interacted
with ships of other sectors, let alone star system. Yes,
thought, that must be it.
He looked outside, imagining the Cerberus – Colossuses,
Guardians, Sentinels, the likes – battling some greater force,
even more alien than the minds of apes could ever conceive.
He pictured their ships, whether they needed ships at all, if
they dwelled in vacuum, or were bound to dwell in great
metal cages also. The images did not come. He did not want
to picture it. Perhaps that was a blessing. Any civilisation
powerful enough to eradicate all life in a galaxy is surely
powerful enough to cloak itself against us. We wouldn’t be
able to detect them. Varad’s stomach churned. But if even
they are hiding…
He thrust the thought away. Countless stars blinked at him,
making him feel as though he were watched, some miniscule
spectacle. He felt like a newly born cub, blind and innocent,
feeling the eyes of a dozen unseen, unimaged beings that he
did not know wished him good or evil. Perhaps they do not
wish anything upon me at all. Perhaps they wish only to
observe, as if their interference would disrupt our unique
ecosystem, that even the most fragile touch would thrust us
into imbalance, shatter us into a billion fragments.
Or maybe that has already happened, Varad thought. The
tear in space had led them to a strange new world, as of then
unseen by Earth’s most powerful telescopes. We have been
split into two fragments, one the old world, and one the new
– although in a way, the new world was a billion individual
fragments of its own. They were thrust into an isolated world
with no rules, and the result had been a humanity returned
to its most basic instincts. A race for resources, a world of
death and competition, and galaxy connected shakily at best,
22
with the constant anxiety of some unseen predator lurking
into the darkness.
“No.” He said aloud. “This place is making me mad.” He put
in a request to be heard, and in a short time later, he was
accepted by one officer, then another, and another, until all
five of his group appeared.
They all look haggard to some degree – too long aboard any
ship did that to you. Luke appeared, and SGT, Sairaj and Fitts,
whose sunken eyes could be seen even through the
holograms. He nodded to them all. Tater was still too far off
to be included – that was a shame, he’d been wanting to
hear about the encounter face to face – as close to that as
you could get when separated by the void of space, besides.
“I wanted to let you know that we’re approaching fast on
Danute.” He told them. “The sector seems clear of Cerberus,
and of the Italis corporation, but nobody should rest easy..”
He paused. “That’s their name. Italis.”
One corporation or another, it made little difference. They
fought, they killed, and they sought relics, just like every
other corporation the galaxy. It was what defined them.
“Could be that they’re keep to themselves.” Sairaj said.
“Alter, Lispvin, Makbu, Diamard, Nari – that should be
enough, right? They don’t need out planets too.”
“Sure,” Luke said, “but we may come back to haunt them
later. Competitors on the galaxy market.”
“Predators have to be careful not to take fights they can’t
win.” SGT scratched his chin. “They hunt to survive, so they
can’t risk taking an injury, else they must wait to heal, and
cannot hunt until they have done so. We can hope for the
same logic.”

23
“Modern humans don’t have such sense. They’re fight
whatever they feel like.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Varad said. “Check you holo-maps. Two
battleships at Nari and two just below it have made a course
for an asteroid belt between Danute and Guana. They don’t
mean to mine it. They don’t even have an escort tailing them.
A convoy of purely battleships means nothing expect battle.”
“And it is unlikely they are asking for embassy.” Luke joined
it. “They may wish for a holo-meeting, as terms would be
easier to discuss, but a single battleship would have sent a
better message. And they could have sent a signal ahead,
regardless.”
“Diablo is approaching Modburne as we speak. From there,
he can head to Makbu and harass enemy mining operations.
It may deter them from making any moves against us, else it
should serve to pay them back in kind for their aggression.”
Varad exhaled, through his nostrils, lips sealed tight. “It is
better if it does not come to battle at all. Lives are lost,
sometimes, but that does not excuse
“We could send an envoy.” Sairaj suggested. “A single
battleship, with an inactive shield, as they should have done.”
“It would be eviscerated before we got the chance to request
a holo-meeting, let alone a docking.”
“Then we have no choice.”

Five

24
Diablo

He breathed the air – rich, fresh, the smell of soil and

moisture – and wondered. The green around him was
calming, vestiges of the old world, tomato and potato
planets, bushes and leaves and light that made his skin tingle.
It feels like sunlight, he thought. Did they ever stand in such
fields of life, revelling at the light of their star?
Did they harvest from the ground, like we did? He picked off a
small red shape off one of the green limbs, rolling in between
his fingers. Like we still do. Only now, the ground was of their
own making, the plants not of some natural process, but
birthed through purposeful and meticulous engineering. The
work done to make such things grow in space… he did not
understand it. He remembered the days were travelling to
the nearest planet, or even nearest moon, was a challenging
task. Look where we are now, he thought.
He brought the tomato to his mouth and ate. Some of the
ship found that strange – they held eating habits from the old
world, and picked and chose what they ate. Diablo called
them stationers, as the great floating storage units held food
in abundance that you could have nearly anything your
mouth desired. Aboard the ships, that was different – only so
much could be stored, produced, and rationed off. People
learned to eat what was available, and leave nothing to
waste. Fruits and vegetables were what was most common,
so one learned to enjoy salads and greens like sweets.
The hall was windowless, lit by overhead lights that provided
what the sun ought to have. Much the ship was covered in
panels that drew energy from the sun – windows were
specially tinted to prevent intense light from blinding people
aboard, so it would not have worked to provide lighting to
the plants.
25
You are the thing which keeps us alive, he thought as he
walked, sighing out the taste of mineral soil and life. You,
who emerge from the ground, give us life through your
breath and body. You, who let us live, to evolve to sentience.
And where are we now? Another part of him, the spiteful half
of any soul, the
Look what sentience has achieved us. Are we any happier
now, that we have broken out of our boundaries, and dared
upon a world we were never meant to inhabit? He wondered
if expansion across worlds was possible without a conscious
mind. Would animals not seek to populate other planets too,
if they could? Do they not live to reproduce, not unlike us?
The difference is in the awareness, he thought, but he did not
like the sound of that. Surely he was not separated from a
bug, or a bear, or a bird, or a tree, only by the simple fact
that he was aware. There was more than that, surely.
He was unique, in the way all humans were. He was different.
Other life existed, but not in the same way he did. They were
something fundamentally other about homo-sapiens, the ape
that had reached out towards infinity.
Give us the chance, the planets seemed to say, and we would
expand too. Spread out seeds into the soil of the new world,
and we would grow, populate the surface and the
underground with our roots and foliage. How then, are you
any different to us?
He turned from them, and did not wish to answer. He
entered the airlock, designed so that the internal
environments of the long, continuous chamber were not
disturbed by anything foreign that might corrupt the crop. A
light dusting of soil clung to his footwear, but it was washed
off quickly.

26
He stripped off the suit as he concluded his visit – there was
no helmet to wear, but clothes could carry contaminants
easily enough, so the white fabric had to go on top. Outside
the airlock, he passed through and out into the gardens –
different so, because anyone could visit them. Into the
growing chambers, where food was actually produced, only a
few could visit, but the gardens when open to anyone in the
ship.
As time went by trapped in a metal box drifting through
space, in a world so alien to the fresh, green earth that so
many remembered, the mental strain became apparent. The
cure, agreed upon by many psychologists, was a dose of the
old world – greenery, gardens, the feeling of sun on your
back and the sounds of birds chirping. The latter two were
artificially created – lighting and pre-recorded chirping, but
the gardens were real. Those that meditated would meditate
here, those who did not would walk when they had nothing
else occupying their time.
Of course, work played a key role in distracting one’s self
from the reality of being alive, and not only alive, but alive in
a strange world that was not their own. However enigmatic
their own evolution to human beings, at least it was the
world that had raised them. This world was dead, and cold,
and loved them not. When not working, many read, or gave
their minds over to Somnium machines, or socialised with
others. Passing of time was up to the individual.
He left the gardens, spying a few others he knew sitting
calmly, almost serenely, pleased to forget themselves for a
few hours. He reached the foyer, and looked up.
The growing chambers had trees, but none were allowed to
grow very tall. The one in the foyer was different – it
towered, caring not for ceilings and limitations. It was a
great, green sentinel, smelling of earth, a great circular

27
elevation waist high holding the roots and soil. Engineers of
the ship had considered putting a fake tree in its stead – real
ones wilted, died, spew their leaves upon the ground and
grew in unintended ways that ruined the image of perfection
that many expected when visiting a vestige of their home
world.
Diablo had heard none of it. He would have a tree on his ship,
alive, breathing, and real, in full view of anyone passing to
any of the four walkways it connected to. He watched it now,
as he moved past. He smiled slightly at the people
undertaking the monstrous task of removing the tree, once it
inevitably died. But that would not happen for a good many
years, he hoped.
He reached the canteen – thriving with life, buzzing with
activity, all excited children waiting to see the new toys for
Christmas. Remembering the holiday, Diablo reminded
himself to see the decorations. There were no seasons in
space, but special occasions were needed to break the
monotony of ever-moving time. The halls would be
decorated, and the tree too – he had not admitted it to
anyone, but it was one of the reasons he had advocated for
its installation.
“Like a little blue marble.” She said when he approached.
“Looks almost like home.”
It did, somewhat. The blue was undeniable – it stood out
against the blackness of space, no wider than a grain of rice,
yet, but slowly growing larger. A little longer, and it would
grow to the size of a pea, and they would be able to make
out how the little ball of rock and gas differed from Earth.
“If we could touch down to the surface, I might take a fishing
pole with me.”
She rolled her eyes at that.

28
“What are you going to catch, space rocks? They have
oceans, but nothing in them.”
“I’ll catch a Cerberus kraken.” He grinned. “Is there a Greek
name for kraken?”
“Cetus.” She said, pressing her lips together to think.
“Basically the same thing, and it’ll do. Did you know its
actually a constellation too?”
Diablo shook his head.
“Too bad the planet has a name. Cetus would’ve been a good
name for it.”
“What about the asteroid belt?”
Diablo frowned, taking a bite.
“We haven’t approached it. Usually you have to make
contact to -
"Who actually cares? The system will die anyway. This isn’t
Black Star Order. The star will go supernova, and nobody will
care if we did or didn’t reach an asteroid belt because it will
be one amongst millions of systems.”
“Fine.” He sighed, throwing his eyes to the back of his head.
“Cetus asteroid belt.”
They ate for a while, and when they’d finished, Diablo wiped
his mouth clean.
“It’s a shame we can’t go down.”
“Why? Want to catch yourself a sea monster?”
Diablo smiled sadly.
“We’re the only ones out this far. The others are all at
Danute, or headed there. We shouldn’t hedge all our bets on

29
one planet. Varad says he’ll move to Guana too, and maybe
Adlinda if they can spare the time, but Modburne is just as
close as Danute, and we’re not even allowed to stop and
visit.”
He shouldn’t be so childish, he thought. He wondered if she
thought it too.
“You’ll have other chances.” She promised.”
“Maybe. But maybe not. It’s a deathtrap.”
“You don’t know that.”
But he did. Varad had told him. He was to approach the
enemy lines, in case of an attack. Modburne had been an
initial objective, but before he’d even reached it, the word
had come that he was to move swiftly past, without ever
landing on its surface. He would’ve loved to holo-call him, so
that Varad could deny him to his face, at least. But that
wasn’t possible. In fact, all the battleships of the Foundation
fleet were now out of range – light would take too long to
travel. He felt more alone than ever, surrounded by a whole
cafeteria’s worth of his own people.

Six
Fitts

“Open your eyes.” The doctor said, shining a torch directly at

him that made him want to do the exact opposite.
30
Oxygen was had by electrolysis too, separating the two parts
of water into breathable air and fuel for the ship itself. Water
could be recycled, of course, but would run out eventually.
Miner ships could collect ice from asteroids, and other raw
materials besides, and whilst not self sufficient themselves,
had the

1 – (V) Meeting + jump into WS, enemy JG detected.

2 – (SW) status on main group moving south towards
asteroid belt, mapping + naming.
3 – (SDO) south west group, interceptors moving, (SDO,
Tater, Apolo), Reaver at asteroid belt, Salvor + Neit at JG.
First contact with a Cerberus sentinel then guardian, destroys
rockets from bomber.
4 – (V) Tater moves south to join main group, SDO moves to
Modburne – still in range of Cerberus bomber. Apolo stays,
Salvor moves to join SW, Neit moved to join S. S reaches
Danute, ponder about planet. Exploration?
5 – (SDO) reaches Modburne, shame not able to stay – alone.

31
6 – (SW) Mining operations begin - Genisis + enrich, flagship +
Luke guard Guana belt. 5 enemy bs’s reach Nari, plan on
attacking midway asteroid belt. Cappuccetto impulse towards
Guana.
7 – (SDO) activates drone, Orloch engages interceptor bound
for Adlinda. Enemy mining operations + Alter extraction.
8 – (V) Cappuccetto impulses past main defence line, bound
for miners. SGT, SW + Sairaj destroy an interceptor. Zero +
Maledetto engage teleport to Guana – activation delay. DI +
Jade move to Midway asteroid field, 3 move to intercept.
Enemy barrier.
9 – (Sairaj) DI laser SW, SW mass batt + rocket drone. EMP
ships, rocket sent to teleporters as Midway too close range.
Fighting, enemy emp back. Enemy alpha shield, but destroy
Jade’s shield. Weapon amplifier.
10 – (SDO) reaches Makbu, drone destroyed, but over 30%
damage – teleport to Nari + barrier. Enemy mining operation,
genesis + enrich. Decide to move to engage enemy miners.
11 – (Luke) Cappuccetto caught in barrier, mass bat against
Luke and ally shield miner. Impulse shield soon destroyed,
Cappu’s R-drone activated, caught in barrier so rockets can’t
move. Miners continue operation.
12 – (SW) Emp wears off, Jade’s shield regenerates to 20%,
enemy EMP’d again, DI’s alpha shield almost runs out. Jade
destroyed, blast shields activated, DI’s hull runs out swiftly
then destroyed. Barrier broken, word received that Cappu
killed. Ships have teleported to Guana. Move bs’s.
13 – (SDO) storms through 3 enemy ships, impulse damages
them + mass bat, kills a miner, with 135 hydro, then another
with 50 coming from Nari belt – doesn’t want to be bombed,
safety etc. Reaches transport at Lispvin but it is stealth’d,
Wonder bond’s and pulls away.
32
14 – (Luke) reports on dead Cappu, broken barrier, rockets +
drone destroyed, shield at 20% integrity, but miners safe.
Maledetto impulses away to Adlinda – Cerberus filled sector,
take heavy losses. Zero jumps in and Cerberus interceptor
attacks. Neit, Luke, Flag, SW and Sairaj move to attack,
caught in barrier. Zero realises defeat and destiny’s away,
outside of range.
15 – (SDO) is bonded further away, 3 bs’s destroy his hull.
Chain ray turret destroys Cimmo’s shield but will regenerate,
negligible damage to hull. Orloch teleported to Nari, joined
by Ensign towards midway. Yattaman’s chain ray has longer
reach, can hardly hit him. 20% damage to shield, then death.
Question why the systems are dying so fast.
16 – (SW) sees Zero destiny away, Neit takes damage on
blast, Maledettos escapes Cerberus sectors having taken 75%
damage to impulse shield. Zero’s barrier keeps SGT, Salvor
and Tater stuck, Zero stuck in Tater’s barrier (much weaker).
Cerberus interceptor stuck as well. News of SDO’s death, two
incoming ships from Nari, enemy dispatch and flagship
headed to Lispvin. Zero alpha shield. Miners prevented from
offloading due to barrier. Interceptor destroyed.
17 – (Luke) reaches lvl 10, miners offload at Guana, miners
offload at Danute. Flagship immolates in case of secondary
drop off zone. Zero’s barrier wears off, Maledetto moves to
Danute to target miners returning home. Think of Reaver at
JG.
18 – (Tater) SGT caught in Ensign’s barrier. Ensign and Orloch
attack SGT. Switched from one barrier to another. Repair
drone activated on both sides, Tater kept out of battle,
attacking Zero, by now at less than 50% hull. Three miners
killed in Maledetto’s rocket barrage. Tater’s barrier wears off,
Zero escapes towards Herrut with 7% integrity – should be
dead. Funerals held, Salvor and Tater try to aid, but barrier

33
prevents. Another miner and a transport with 2 relics killed
by rocket, too morose to mourn. Prepare, then death.
19 – (Varad) on planet, flagship, relic drone, Neit guards.
Explore Cerberus planet.
20 – (Sair) Apolo kills drone, Sairaj bonds Maledetto to
prevent escape and get revenge. Also activates an R-drone
but first rocket destroyed. Detect Zero fleeing, but too far
away. Ensign’s barrier wears away, Tater activates drone to
help Sairaj, mass bat against ensign and Orloch. All emp,
shield destroyed, rocket deployed. Sairaj brings Maledetto
down into firing range, but explosion.
21 – (Luke) sees enemy dispatch damages 25% of Apollo’s
hull, after Maledetto destroys shield. Transport flees towards
Danute. Luke approaches with area shield, takes damage
from there, also protects miner from mass batt. SW moves to
JG to destroy to prevent reinforcements coming. Destroy
Maledetto + get revenge. Arrive at Danute. Varad leaves
Guana in Flag. SGT destroyed.
22 – (Tater) breaks out of emp, kills Orloch, leaves Ensign on
20% while escaping with 5%. SGT will regenerate, Ensign
won’t – blast shield. Salvor arrives as escort. Enemy flagship
begins to recoil between Danute and Guana. Contemplate
death. Orloch move to protect transport?
23 – (Reaper) watches as his drone’s rocket kills Zero, having
moved towards Herrut. Contemplate survivor’s guilt. Miners
have successfully reached warp gate, transports sent in
convoy to pick up relics.
24 – (Luke) bonded by ensign, who is damaged by tater’s
rocket – only on 10%, nearly dead. Weapons not in range of
each other. Ensign targets Tater’s drone but it is covered by
ally shield at 30%.

34
25 – (SW) near enemy JG, four enemy bs’s there. Yattaman’s
chain ray attack first, bonds and moves south before any
contact. SW watches New DI move towards Nari – possibly to
defend, possibly to kill Tater, whose shield has already
regenerated to nearly halfway. (26) Shield depleted before
he has chance to do much with mass battery. Dispatch
arrives on jump gate. Manges to destroy shield of new Cappu
but negligible hull damage. Dies cursing the jump gate. Some
damage perhaps.
26 – (Tater) Reach Nari but must rebound because low.
27 – (Varad) encounters enemy recoil, initiates his own recoil
to Diamard belt. Superior tech. Neit helps as relic drone
passes by. Enemy flagship destroyed.
28 – (Reaver) sees convoys stealth to avoid laser, Ensign
destroyed by new SDO. Escape pod tires to flee but is
destroyed swiftly. Luke’s hull now at 40%, decided to head
back to station with miner. Transports of dispatch have
escaped, passing by Modburne. Another dispatch soaked up
by Salvor’s blast shield, cracking 33%. Tater fled Nari to
Midway belt. Reaver destroys enemy hydro rocket.
29 – (Luke) appears back at Aurum station for repairs,
module fitting, etc. Dauntless appearance? Interceptor
moves to Guana but Salvor intercept, new DI reaches Nari,
move to Guana belt. Friendly dispatches.
30 – (Sairaj) shows relic collection at Danute, New DI
teleports to Danute, activation delay. Apolo moves to meet
him. New DI activated R-drone and Neit activates barrier at
Guana (still no relic collection there, but it is being
dispatched to. (30)
31 - (Salvor) Apolo gets bombed, shield destroyed, but emp’s
new DI, destroys shield, regenerates briefly but then
destroyed. Varad returns in Flag. Recoil drones destroy

35
wonder’s shield, negligible damage to hull, made some
transports stealth. Apolo destroyed, new DI at 50%.
32 – (Luke) arrives at Danute, new DI teleport into barrier
and explodes. Salvor destroys rocket drone. Refer to new
Orloch and new zero gathering at Nari for counter offensive,
and new Jade past it towards Adlinda west belt. Dispatches
send transport. Two columns.
33 – (Salvor) moves to jump gate to destroy, delays bs’s, 30%
hull destroyed by impulse and batt or new Orloch. Orloch
slowed by barrier. New Maledetto moves north towards star.
New Zero moves south to jumpgate. Jade turns back after
reaching asteroid belt – distraction working. Orloch moves
north, realises enemy bs’s have moved from Lispvin to
Modburne.
34 – (Sairaj) on Danute surface collecting relics. Wonder
Yattaman, New Maledetto at Modburne to attack, new
Cappu following behind with Orloch moving nothing too,
passing by Midway. New enemy dispatch. Salvor.
35 – (Salvor) reaches enemy jump gate belt, met by new
ensign, zero close behind, activated drone, quickly destroyed,
ensign barrier’s but destroyed, destroyed by Zero close to
jump gate – wonders about grave. Flagship recoil to Lispvin.
36 – (Tater) reports new SGT and Neit leaving Guana as a big
convoy. Scouts Wonder + Yattaman is over halfway to jump
gate.
37 – (Reaper)/ SW catch Wonder + Yatta in barrier, Yatta
reaches because of chain ray, no one else can. Also chain ray.
Sairaj + Tater move to kill new Orloch, but Sairaj EMP’d and
escapes north to asteroid by JG. New Jade passes by Midway
asteroids. Rocket drone sent by Reaver to JG belt. Maledetto
headed there. Rockets hit 2 attackers, minor damage to
shield, drone reduced to 60%. Enemy barrier begins. Sairaj

36
catches new Orloch in barrier. Maledetto impulses to clear
Cerberus at belt, Orloch tries to teleport but killed by Tater
(low hull but full shield). Cappu reaches barrier + rocket
drones. Maledetto also R-drone. Enter system behind them.
38 – (Sair) New SDO jumps in from Aurum station, sets up
laser turret, remote bomb, sees rockets everywhere. New
SW shield depleted. Miner + transport makes it out. New
SDO brings chain ray turret. SW killed, barrier shattered.
39 – (Luke) says goodbye to Danute as convoy from Guana
arrives from south, new Jade + repair drone arrives from
west. Ally shield deployed. Jade stopped by barrier as all
leave for JG.
40 – (Reaver’s) shield destroyed by a series of unending
rocket barrages, laser turret also destroyed. 3x bs now target
him. All 4 EMP’d, transport escapes, reaver almost escapes
through jump gate, but rocket kills him. EMP will wear off.
41 – (Tater) New SDO jumps in to Reaver’s death, all in view
of jumpgate. EMP’s enemy. Bomb explodes, obliterates all
four battleships, rocket drone. All cheer, enemies almost
cleared. Last of rockets cleared. Tater sees last drone killed
by guardian, decides to leave the Cerberus alone.
42 – (Varad) in flagship kills new Jade, recoil drones to enemy
jump gate. Reflect on journey.
43 – (Any)Watching as convoys arrive at jumpgate. Last look
at WS. Meet in person at Aurum Station.
44 – (Any) All meet on planet, sunset, close.

37