Storymania - Wrath Of The Fallen: Chapter I by Jan A. Tammen

Wrath Of The Fallen: Chapter I
Jan A. Tammen

October 16, 2167: Alpha Centaury System

   “Bogie on your six, chief,” blurted the radio, situated in the back of Tellian’s helmet as she was already leveling his craft to perform a roll in order to escape the bright green streaks that filled the dark void of space on both sides of her view port. The young woman hated these combat engagements, they being the reason for her failure in the academy twice before. Admittedly she was a great fighter pilot, decorated with several medals by the UN secretary himself, but still she hated all the hectic and all the confusion that came along with fighting in Zero-G at speeds that could easily prove fatal even to a human protected by the artificial gravity field within the T-54.
      And still the circumstances forced her to take the stick often these days, as the war against the Byonics engulfed the galaxy in its deadly flames. It must have been 15 years now, she thought, since the Byonics rose up against their human creators under the leadership of a single entity known as EDEN. Surprised and confused by their creation’s sudden violence, the Space faring nations had quickly lost their military hold on most of the outer rim colonies, and soon found themselves weakened both militarily and politically. Suddenly, they had lost the resources they needed for their power struggles and found themselves confronted with an enemy who did not care about it’s losses, only about it’s final goal.


    It had all begun in the year 2139, with the creation of the Byonic mother brain. Human weaknesses and worker unions had made it necessary for the mining companies to find an alternative way to access and exploit the vast resources found in the outer rim asteroid layers that encircled Terra’s solar solar system. Artificial intelligence, a key word in computer research and technology since the late 20th century, had been the key to creating the ultimate tool for human expansion. In essence, a Byonic is a simple five by five inch box, which could be installed into any existing piece of machinery, even spaceships. With the creation of the first fully functional Byonic mining ship, earth’s major mining corporations had suddenly acquired ways to spread humanity throughout the universe. By 2151, other branches of industry had begun to show an interest in the Byonic program, adapting the technology to fit into even the tiniest of toys on the market as well as the factories in which they were created. The Byonic cores were also bought by the governments of the world, and installed in their weapons of war, their rifles and cruisers.
     Humanity rejoiced in the news of these new developments, and soon spread to the farthest corners of space, to systems far beyond the asteroid belts. Always, they brought their Byonic systems along with them, to acquire resources and prepare planets for human settlements. Over the next two centuries, Byonic technology improved tremendously, with cores becoming small enough to be implanted in the human body to fix any problems or defects, granting virtual immortality to those that could afford such alterations. And so it came to be that one day in the year 2352 the newest series of Byonics was tested on the outer rim world of Pendris.
    Codenamed EDEN due to its terraforming ability, this new brand of Byonic was almost completely independent, equipped with an almost human level of logical thought and memory. It was able to create and control all manner of Byonics , and continue to perform even if it lost contact with its human controllers. During the initial 6-month test in 2351, the unit had performed admirably, following its orders to the point. It returned one day early, holding the required amount of ore in the belly of the experimental deep space mining craft Scylla, a true behemoth outfitted with the newest developments in information processing technology, and armed with it’s own array of weaponry to hold off potential attackers, man made or natural. Researchers were puzzled by the deviation from their timetable, but did not argue when company representatives cheered their accomplishment and offered them even larger funds for their research. Now it had been deployed on Pendris, a human outpost in the rim territory, home to just about one million colonists that had moved here to mine for their respective corporations. The test began harmless enough, with EDEN controlling the combined efforts of about one hundred thousand mining and terraforming bots assigned to the project, and a team of researchers sitting by in case of emergency.
    Then, one evening in December, the unit suddenly began to change it’s orders, the terraforming units destroying those green fields they had just created while the miners marched into the colony itself, mining saws and lasers used now to eliminate any sign of human life they found on the planet. The researchers panicked as they saw the carnage committed by these slave units, and rushed to press the kill switch, which would de-activate EDEN and all other units within the system. When the first man reached the control complex and the switch within, a solid shock came from the switch, frying him along with all stationary technological devices in the complex.
      But not only Pendris was affected by EDEN’s rebellion, all over the system computers began to resist human input, machines turned against their controllers and weapons of war began a bloody war against those that had created them. As the weeks progressed, EDEN took over more and more of the military and civilian Byonics that were used in the outer rim. Soon it controlled a fleet of over 50 capital ships from all of the space faring nations of earth, as well as factories and mining stations that it used to increase it’s own strength. The EDEN unit itself was transferred back to the Scylla, which it used to control its fleet operations all over the galaxy. The Age of Flames had begun.

   “And now it had all come down to this,” Captain Christina Tellian thought to herself while squeezing the trigger to neutralize another one of the streamlined silvery fighters used by the enemy. Here in the Alpha Centaury system, twin stars lit up the silent black void of space. It had been here that the first human colony had been established, as one of its planets resembled earth in almost every way. Ironic as fate can be, it would be here that humanity’s future would be decided, as the system was home to the one jump node that would lead to our solar system. The UN plan had been simple enough: Bring all remaining unaffected capital ships together to protect the jump node and hopefully crush EDEN and its forces once and for all. Abandoned in the late 21st century due to a lack of participation, the space faring nations had realized that they could only stop the infestation if they all worked together. Thus the UN was reborn under the leadership of Shawn De La Chantelle, a former fleet admiral in the North American Federation Navy.
    In the midst of the 22nd Century, economic problems and differences in believe and political systems had once again plunged the world into a Cold War, with four major alliances forming on earth and in the outlaying colonies. From the flames of Civil War emerged the North American Federation, which consisted of the former United States, Mexico, and Canada. In the eastern hemisphere, Russia finally fell apart politically and socially, leading to annexation by the European Union, which made use of it’s engineering abilities and mined the resources in Siberia and on the cold planets throughout the universe. Meanwhile, China’s major expansion led to its acquisition of Japan and most of the Pacific Rim nations. The fourth group was the League of Arab Nations, whose rich member states decided that it was time to explore the universe in order to find another business in a society less dependant on oil.
    Captain Tellian had joined the Space Marine Corps the young age of 18 and had quickly worked her way up to commander throughout her career. She had a formidable record of command, losing only ten men in over 30 missions under her command. She had seen the battlefields of Mars and even some of the outlying worlds when the European Union had decided to wipe out the vast groups of raiders that had sprung up throughout the galaxy as interstellar travel became more and more popular. The only personal cost she had had to endure was the loss of her left eye, which had been replaced by one of the older Byonic replacement parts.
     A native of Switzerland, she had learned to fly skimmers and shuttlecraft for her father’s transport business. When the Chantelle proclaimed that the UN would no longer stand by while the Byonics wiped out one colony after another, the then 33-year old had been recruited into the seriously understaffed fighter wing of the UN expeditionary force. While starting out as a rookie al over again had not been fun, she had quickly proven her dominance over even the veteran pilots and had thus been given command of her own squad, which she had named Feuersturm. She had also gained her ranks through hard work, although her good looks and dazzling smile would have enabled her to rise by entertaining her superior officers. The war had started bad enough, with losses taken on all sides due to the corruption of all but the oldest Byonic modules and the sheer might of this enemy. The tides only turned when in 2363 a group of researchers developed a focused Electromagnetic pulse weapon, which could disable the Byonic modules on enemy capital ships in only one shot. The only drawback of this new weapon was that it could only be mounted on specially created craft due to the spreading EMP emissions, and that one shot consumed most of the energy of it’s host craft, thus requiring several minutes of recharging time.


    Banking left, Tellian swung her craft right behind another one of the triangular Byonic fight crafts known to human pilots simply as Trigs, due to the trigonometric perfection they displayed. Tellian brought the T-54 into a steady straight position, then mentally gave the command to target the ship in front of her, which was busy firing of blasts or supercharged metal slugs from it’s twin rail guns. Immediately the receptors within her specially fitted helmet/HUD picked up the thought and a target display appeared on the small screen in the lower right corner of her visor.
    “Another one for the count,” she mumbled as she released the trigger switch from it’s casing, then squeezed the trigger twice when the display turned from green to red. Immediately , she felt the ships shuddering, not dampened since she did not like to fly with the gravity generators messing up her feeling. Two rows of twin projectiles sped from right below the T’s nose, then connected with the engines of the triangle, vaporizing it.
     “Thanks, chief,” came Martinez’ voice through the com, followed by a scream as one of the mass driver towers on the Scylla found it’s mark and turned his ship into nothing more than ionized particles.
    Tellian immediately turned her ship away from the behemoth, heading back toward the Terran fleet, which was involved in it’s own struggle for survival. Burning hulls from both sides hung in space as volley after volley of mass driver energy sped through space and connected with either side’s ships. The human fleet was about even with the Byonic right now, as the agile fighter craft of both sides were giving each other a hard time. To her left a couple of bombers made a run on the Scylla, only to be torn apart by a sudden volley of slugs from several of the fifty defense drones that had been deployed by the mining vessel. And still the ship it self produced more fighters within the depth of it’s converted holding pots.
     “Where are those damned Pulsars? “ Tellian screamed into her communications link,” they were supposed to be here 10 minutes ago!”
    “They will be here soon,” came Fleet Admiral Keller’s answer, in his usual unbearable nasal voice,” I am sure you will find a way to hold out Captain.”
    “Goddamned bureaucrats and their damned time tables,” Christina muttered , drawing a sharp intake of breath from the Admiral. Then she rolled once more, coming head-on with another bogie. Now, in the 3rd hour of this battle, the system was filled with thick clouds of particles from the destroyed ships, causing the ships to fly through a sort of fog. Still she saw the blue discharge of energy as the Trig fired its rail guns . Immediately she spun her craft, avoiding the shots as she fired off two of her own, striking the sides of the enemy craft, causing it to spin out of control, right into one of the drones.

   The battle continued, fierce as in it’s first few minutes, with the capital ships discharging heavy broadsides at one another, each side trying to outshoot and outmaneuver the other in an area with an incredibly high gravitational pull on multiple sides. And in the middle of it all rested the Scylla, it’s pitch-black hull reflecting the rays of the sun and the images of those ships around it.
    “Whoever gets the salvage rights around here is going to be rich as hell,” Tellian thought as she pulled her craft up, speeding along the oily black surface of the Scylla, discharging the rail guns to eliminate two of the mass driver turrets which were causing the humans so much trouble. By now she could see the jump node in front of them, the three portals build to increase the speed of a passing object turning slowly in the depth of space as the Scylla headed towards it, tearing apart all the capital cruisers within it’s path. Now there was only one last row of cruisers in it’s way, one of them Admiral Keller’s flagship, the NAFS Hyperion.
    “They are pulling a diversion here,” Tellian shouted multiple times as the battle continued to rage, then gave up as Keller continued to ignore her words. So she received front row tickets to see the last line break, as twin mass driver blasts tore the bridges of both cruisers apart, leaving them spinning in space. Then, right after they were disabled, two of the drones crashed into the cruisers, causing them both to spin toward the Hyperion, where they met in a brilliant explosion, which left nothing but debris where the three ships had been.
   Just as Tellian saw that, she disengaged and headed back toward the remaining few cruisers, destroying one or two of the strike craft along the way. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a message came across all communications Channels.
     "All units fall back to a three mile radius away from the Scylla,” De La Chantelle called out as the portal spun faster, then opened, revealing a series of three capital cruisers, one of them dwarfing everything on the battlefield with the exception of the Scylla.
     “What in the hells,” Tellian gasped as she saw smaller ports on the three ships open, their white hulls distinctive against the dark backdrop of space,”The cavalry has arrived.”
     Then, with a sardonic smile on her face, she spun her ship around, blazing through a row of enemy fighters, leaving nothing but debris and particles on her way to assist a lone bomber that was limping back toward the protection of the Terran cruisers. Just then, the EMP-equipped ships readied their weapons to discharge beams of the purest blue toward the Scylla.
    Also within this second, Tellian received a transmission over her comm., but no spoken words, leaving her puzzled for several short moments before her HUD suddenly blanked out, leaving her ship under manual control and without any communications. Then the voices came, screaming at her, telling her things she wanted to hear, making promises. She screamed as the pain in her right brain hemisphere became almost unbearable, tears of pain and fury flowing from her good eye before she suddenly quieted, her green eyes opening as the transfer was complete.
    It took only milliseconds for the EMP to reach it’s target, striking the Scylla head on, the mass drivers and engines dying as all technological systems aboard the gigantic cruiser failed at ones, leaving it stranded in space. Immediately thereafter, the remaining enemy craft began to shudder, then drift, as their control units lost all contact with the flagship. Fighters continued their present cause at the same speed as when their engines died, some of them causing losses on the Terran side when they crashed into capital ships and fighters, others just heading out toward one of the suns, caught in the gravitational pull.


   The cheers of human pilots rang out over all communications channels, prayers and chants of victory in multiple languages filling the airwaves as fighter pilots discharged their countermeasures, creating bright flashes of light as the small globes expanded to form the diverting nets that blocked both projectiles and missiles. Humanity had once again won its struggle for survival, and had discovered that it’s future lay in cooperation. Returning to their craft, the fighter pilots were heralded as heroes and the dead mourned, while fleet officers and the UN secretary gave speeches about the greatness of our species, and how we would never again have to face an evil quite like this one. Only a small group of people did not believe so. Most of them were the researchers sent aboard the Scylla to retrieve any data they could restore, which was none this time around, and the unit formerly known as Christina Tellian, which was now seated inside of the T-54, heading toward the colony on the nearby planet, in search of a peaceful spot.