4 Days Later

— Tuesday, January 10, AD 2130 —

“And here I am, playing the goddamn ferryman for CSF-1 again. You lot had better be happy!”

“Oh, I’m ecstatic,” Colonel Saito replied, side-eying Chief Captain Krick of the ESC Genesis before glancing toward Major Hackett at his side and shaking his head. The three officers — accompanied by Kirstin, Mote, Kate, and Danielle — were currently on board Genesis’s bridge, awaiting their arrival at the next Dreadnought coordinate to investigate. As was often the case, CSF-1 and the Eximius Vir were already dressed in their powered armor with all of their equipment, including the Aldredian Armor for Mote.

“We’ve almost arrived, sir…” Captain Tang, Executive Officer of Genesis, declared from her seat a little farther up the bridge. “We’re coordinating with Origin. I’ve taken the liberty of putting our shielding engineers on alert, just in case — as well as priming the ACS.”

“Good idea, Tang,” Krick replied. “I’d like not to lose this ship to some goddamn satellites…”

“Satellites?” Danielle questioned.

“The last time we went out to investigate one of those goddamn coordinates, we ran into a planet dressed to the fucking nines in anti-spacecraft weaponry,” Krick declared while scowling at CSF-1. “They chewed through our shields like they were wet paper! We almost goddamn died out there, and for what? Nothing!”

“Don’t worry, Krick,” Saito responded airily. “If you go down this time, at least you’ll be taking us with you!”

“Har har. Very funny.”

“Still, it certainly is possible that we’ll run into another highly-fortified planet,” Hackett pointed out. “Are we prepared to deal with that?”

“That is why I set the shielding engineers on alert,” Captain Tang stated.

“And Mendoza is way more cautious than I am,” Krick asserted. “If we run into another goddamn trap again, we’ll be fine. We’d have to fuck off with our tails between our legs, of course, but at least we’d have our goddamn ships and our lives.”

“No fucking way,” Kate retorted. “I’ve already been sitting on my ass for six straight days on the way here, and I’m already dreading the boring week back. And you’re saying we might have to do it after learning fucking nothing?”

“You should be thankful it’s only six days one-way,” Mote pointed out. “On a regular ship with a Chaos Drive, this trip would easily have been sixty days.”

“Bullshit. We’re out in the uncolonized arm, sure, but there’s still fucking Transpaces here.”

“T-Transpaces, um… t-take a while to, uh, r-reconnect,” Kirstin meekly said.

“The wilting flower’s right,” Krick asserted. “Even with the goddamn Transpaces, a Chaos Drive-equipped ship would take at least a month to get to where we’re going. So suck it up, Lieutenant.”

“Hmm… makes you wonder…” Hackett glanced between Saito and Krick. “…EA’s out here, right? Somewhere in the uncolonized arm of the galaxy?”

“EA’s Cruiser had a Subspace Drive,” Mote replied. “I saw the Subspace window, myself. He won’t be restricted to the Transpaces.”

“Which I’ve heard is giving the eggheads back at the EIIC a real hard time,” Krick said. “Just how the hell did that bastard get a whole goddamn Cruiser, huh? And with a Subspace Drive, at that! He could be fucking anywhere.”

“Well, he still only has one ship, right?” Danielle questioned.

“Did you already forget the second fucking ship we ran into a while back? Over that planet with the fighting Drakkars?” Kate responded, “so the fuckin’ dweeb has at least two.”

“It does seem beyond belief, but we’ve seen the evidence, ourselves. And if he has two ships, then he might have even more,” Mote stated before looking to Saito. “Do we really have no idea where EA’s base of operations is, or who he’s working with?”

“I’m afraid not,” the Colonel replied. “All’s been quiet from him since that kidnapping he pulled on the recruits. SERRCom’s received word that he’s mucking about with PMC operations in this part of the galaxy, but from what I’ve heard, the EIIC is still investigating.”

“I can’t tell what’s more goddamn insulting — that our intel guys are too stupid to track down the clone of an immature child, or that said immature child has enough resources to evade us,” Krick muttered.

“Huh? Austin isn’t a child,” Danielle replied.

“20-year-olds might as well be kids, for all I care. Anyways, we’re here. Activate the ACS! All hands, prepare for arrival!”

The chatter on the bridge died down as the fuzzy grayscale gradient outside Genesis’s bridge windows disappeared, giving way to the speckled darkness of real space — and the contours of a planet nearby. Various bridge displays and holograms promptly appeared, reading out a variety of surface-level information on the planet, such as the fact that it was approximately the same size as Earth and featured a habitable climate. As the displays continued reading out information, however, the most prominent aspect of the planet was distinctly visual, even from Genesis’s position in high orbit: vast scars stretched across the planet’s surface, dividing its seas and leaving its continents in ruins. Spots of green could be seen here and there — signs of nature beginning to reclaim the planet — but on the whole, the planet appeared to have been victim to some massive catastrophe.

“…That’s discouraging,” Hackett remarked as she looked out over the scarred planet.

“Those scars… no way those are natural,” Krick stated with a scowl. “Looks like some kind of massive bombardment from space, with goddamn lasers or something. No natural disaster I know of could create scars like that!”

“Even if the whole place is in fucking ruins, there has to be something left behind,” Kate insisted. “You can’t tell me we’re going to leave here empty-handed!”

“We might have to — we’re being targeted!” Captain Tang shouted. “Sir, there’s heavy satellites in orbit! They’re targeting us!”

“What? Isn’t the ACS active?!” Kate exclaimed incredulously.

“This goddamn Aldredian shit can see through it — damn it, I am not going to sit in dry-dock for another fucking month!” Krick declared irately. “Captain, get us the hell—!”

Before the Captain could finish his command, crimson ridges in Mote’s armor began to glow. He looked down at himself in surprise, only to then shift his attention to a hologram that manifested a meter in front of him, projected from the Aldredian Armor. The hologram was about the size of a human head, but took the shape of the frame of a triangular pyramid in gold, with a glowing crimson orb in the center. The orb moved independently of the pyramidal frame around it, almost as if it were some kind of eye as it swept across everyone present before focusing on Mote. «Descendant of Raen detected,» declared a female voice. «…However… you aren’t Maenisaren.»

Mote stared at the hologram in abject confusion — the female voice seemed to be coming from it. “…Maenisaren?” he echoed.

“Captain… the planet’s defenses are powering down,” Tang declared, though her voice carried in it the same confusion Mote was showing on his face.

“The hell’s going on here?” Krick questioned, his attention switching back-and-forth between Mote, the hologram, and Genesis’s own bridge displays. “Emerson, what is that thing? More importantly, how the hell can it detect us—?”

The hologram zipped through the air to stare Krick in the face, startling him enough to cut off his own words. It then rose slightly into the air, its pyramidal frame rapidly yet rigidly rotating as its crimson orb zipped around, as if thoroughly inspecting its surroundings. The hologram then returned to Mote, declaring, «you keep interesting company, descendant of Raen. How do you understand them?»

“What?” Mote stared back at the hologram. “…Of course I can understand them. We’re all Earthian, here.”

«…Hmm. You are not speaking Raenarian,» the hologram declared. «Neither are you Maenisaren. Yet, you wear her armor, and possess her fightercraft. …Excuse me for a moment.»

With no warning, the hologram disappeared into thin air.

“…What just happened?” Danielle questioned.

“A hologram of sorts showed up and started speaking Aldredian to us, that’s what happened,” Saito remarked. “Good thing we all have the Aldredian cipher, eh?”

“I want to know what the fuck it’s doing,” Krick retorted. “Someone, anyone — do we know where the hologram is being transmitted from? Who’s behind it? And while we’re at it, someone let Mendoza know to hold position for now—”

«Apologies, descendant of Raen. I have returned.»

Once more, the pyramidal hologram appeared in the air near Mote. Its crimson eye swept across the bridge before focusing again on Mote. «A most curious language,» came the female voice, «’English’… it bears some of the patterns found in Raenarian, but does not seem to be derived from it. How odd.»

“English? Wait, can you understand us now?” Mote questioned.

«It was a trivial solution,» the hologram replied. «Raenaros has already constructed a Raenarian-to-English database. I merely needed to copy it.»

“You can interface with that Corvette, then?” Kate replied, “so you’re Aldredian?”

«Of course. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Maenikad, an Ikad-class Intelligence in charge of the Sadrenos Ark, under the ownership of the Raen Empire — the Aldredas people.» The hologram’s eye shifted towards Mote. «I have long awaited your arrival. You are very late, descendant of Raen — and you have much to explain.»

“I think we’re the ones who should be saying that,” Krick interjected irately. “What are you, some kind of AI? How can you detect us?”

«AI?» Maenikad moved towards Krick in a straight line before suddenly stopping right in front of his face. «…Ah. ‘Artificial Intelligence’. Yes, my existence falls within that definition. Now, a question for you: you, quite plainly, are not Aldredas. Who are you?» Maenikad moved back to Mote to stare him in the face. «Where has the rest of the Empire disappeared to?»

“I… what?” Mote stared back at Maenikad, dumbfounded, before shifting his gaze to look helplessly at everyone else.

“I-if ‘Empire’ refers to, um, th-the Raen Empire, uh…” Kirstin spoke up, “th-they, um… they’ve been gone. F-for a while…”

«Gone?» Maenikad zipped over to Kirstin. «Define ‘gone’. Define ‘while’.»

“They’re fuckin’ dead,” Kate declared. “For a hundred thousand years!”

«A hundred thousand years?» Maenikad echoed, her eye focusing on Kate. «…Accounting for your definition of ‘year’… that would put ‘a hundred thousand years ago’ during the Apocalypse War, at around the time this Ark was established. So the Empire did not survive? But how? There is a descendant of Raen right here!»

“Isn’t it theorized that the Aldredas interbred with the modern races of the galaxy?” Hackett pointed out. “That would explain you being able to pick up Aldredian genes off of Mote.”

«Aldredas? With inferior races? Impossible. No respectable member of the Empire would debase themselves in such a manner.»

“Well aren’t you a peach,” Saito retorted.

“Either way, suck it up, you stupid AI,” Krick stated. “The goddamn Aldredas are gone. Dead. Dust. Hell, until you, I don’t think anyone in the galaxy has found a living remnant of the Aldredas — and now that you’re here, I want a goddamn answer! How did you detect this ship?”

«Your cloaking systems are quite superior, indeed,» Maenikad replied. «On par with Morikai, Prior, or Raen technology, even. But Raen technology knows Raen technology. Any Ikad-class Intelligence would be able to detect the personal armor, fightercraft, and signature of Maenisaren Raen, no matter how well you attempt to hide them.»

“Who the hell is Maenisaren?” Kate questioned.

«You do not recognize the name ‘Maenisaren’? This is a travesty! Even you, descendant of Raen!» Maenikad moved over to Mote once more. «You can activate her armor, her fightercraft! Yet you know not who she is? Where did you acquire these items?!»

“Alright, everybody, calm down,” Saito insisted. “We’re just hitting each other with question after question, and it feels like we’re getting nowhere fast. Maenikad — that’s your name, right?”

«Correct.»

“How about you just explain things from the beginning? Particularly about why you’re here, and what happened to this planet.”

Maenikad remained silent for a moment, her eye lingering on Saito while her pyramidal frame continued rotating. Eventually, her eye turned toward Mote. «…Is this what you wish, descendant of Raen?»

“Uh… yes,” Mote responded uneasily. “Tell us everything.”

«Hmm. Very well.» The hologram backed away from Mote, as if she were attempting to get a better view of the entire group on the bridge. «As I have mentioned previously, I am Maenikad, the Ikad-class Intelligence in charge of the Sadrenos Ark. The Ark Project was an Imperial initiative to preserve Aldredian life past the end of the Apocalypse War, the unofficial yet widely-used name for the galaxy-spanning conflict between the Raen Empire, the United Drakkar League, the Morikai invaders, and the Morenal — or as you would know them, the Nanocreatures. Maenisaren Raen was the Ayas Imperium of our time, and in that capacity, she led the Empire’s efforts in fighting off the Drakkars, Ikirom, and Morcii.»

“Ayas Imperium…” Mote muttered under his breath. That was the title applied to Austin… and now I hear it here? Preposterous…

“So the Aldredas actually took the ‘Oraculm’ seriously?” Kate snorted in derision. “Fucking, really?”

«So you know of the Oraculm. Interesting,» Maenikad replied. «It would seem that aspects of our great Empire survived to the present day. There is small pleasure to be derived from that.»

“Is the ‘Apocalypse War’ the explanation for the state of the planet down there, then?” Saito questioned.

«Indeed. The planet below us was once known as Sadrenos, one of the Empire’s most esteemed Fortress Worlds. Sadrenos’s resources and facilities gave birth to vast swaths of the Imperial Fleet, and was once key in protecting this sector from the Drakkars. However, the Morikai succeeded in breaking through Sadrenos’s defenses and bombed the planet’s surface into oblivion before moving on. This bombardment is what drove the Empire to begin the Ark Project.»

“It sounds like there’s multiple Arks?” Hackett questioned.

“And more importantly,” Kate interjected, eagerly leaning towards Maenikad, “you say there’s an Ark down there — does that mean there’s real, living Aldredas here?!”

«Such is the purpose of the Ark Project,» Maenikad declared. «The Imperial government predicted that the Empire, as it existed at that time, may not survive the Apocalypse War. The Drakkars, Morikai, and Nanocreatures alike were far too interested in exterminating us down to the last individual. Thus, the Empire set up the Arks — vast, secret underground facilities outfitted with stasis devices. Our most valuable scientists, military commanders, nobles, Chaotics, and other individuals of importance were transported to these Arks under utmost secrecy; we even used husk worlds, such as Sadrenos below us, to hide our Arks — as our enemies had little reason to suspect that we would return here. In the Arks, our people were to wait out the end of the Apocalypse War — they were to await a signal from a descendant of Raen, at which point we may rise again to reclaim our glorious place amongst the stars!»

“I’m getting the impression that I wouldn’t like these Aldredas very much,” Krick retorted.

«Your opinion holds no value to us,» Maenikad declared. «The unfortunate reality before me, however, suggests that the Sadrenos Ark is now at your mercy. If there truly are not any Aldredas in the present day galaxy, then that must mean that the Empire suffered a more thorough defeat than we expected; else at least one of the Arks would have awoken by now. This means that the Aldredas are on the verge of complete extinction!»

“Until this moment, we thought they were extinct,” Mote countered. “To us, nothing much will change.”

«How dare a descendant of Raen speak such blasphemies! Have you no care for your brethren? If you refuse to help today, if you refuse to awaken the Aldredas sleeping within the Sadrenos Ark, then you would condemn our entire race to extinction! Would you end an entire race?!»

“This is well above our paygrade,” Krick asserted as he passed Saito a glance. “Awaking a dead race from sleep? And the goddamn Aldredas, no less! Even I can see how this would shake the entire goddamn galaxy!”

“Sure, but imagine all the fucking tech we could get from them!” Kate exclaimed. “The shit we’ve been finding in Aldredas ruins is already super advanced, now imagine what we could learn from actual fucking Aldredas!”

“Aldredas that, quite evidently, see themselves as a ‘superior race’,” Hackett countered. “I can’t say that I hold much sympathy for them. Besides, how can we know they won’t try to conquer us all?”

«Your opinions are irrelevant!» Maenikad declared, her eye erratically shifting between everyone else before coming to rest on Mote. «All that matters is the opinion of the descendant of Raen!»

“Why do you care so much about what I think?” Mote questioned, “I have nothing to do with the Aldredas.”

«A patently false denial. The blood of Raen flows through your veins! You wear, right now, the armor of Maenisaren Raen!»

Mote stared back at Maenikad, a mixture of frustration and confusion on his face. Eventually, he turned to look at Saito. “…Sir?”

“Awakening living Aldredas from sleep… Krick’s right, I don’t think we’re equipped to handle that,” Saito replied. “This has the makings of a political and social disaster, if we don’t handle it carefully. This is basically first contact, after all. That said… I think it would be prudent to at least scout out this Ark before we report back to Earth.”

“You really want a reason to get your goddamn boots on the ground, huh?” Krick retorted. “Fine. Colonel, get your team together. You stupid AI thing, give us the coordinates of your goddamn Ark so we can check it out.”

«Unwise!» Maenikad declared. «The Ark possesses automated defenses that even I cannot tamper with. If someone without the blood of Raen walks the Ark’s halls prior to its awakening, then they will be destroyed!»

“Well that sure is goddamn convenient, now, isn’t it?”

“There’s gotta be some way around it,” Kate pressed. “Tell us about the Ark’s systems! Maybe I can hack in and shut that shit off.”

«I have already divulged the limit of what I am allowed,» Maenikad replied. «If you agree to awaken the Ark, then I will be able to share with you some of our technology and knowledge. But I will not give anything to opportunists who refuse to help!»

“What a belligerent…! Ngh.” Krick growled in disapproval as he glared at Maenikad.

“We can’t send just Mote down there,” Hackett mused. “Who knows what’s in the Ark?”

«I assure you, the Ark will be quite safe, for a descendant of Raen,» Maenikad declared.

“Assuming we can even trust you,” Krick retorted.

“I’m inclined to agree with Krick…” Saito muttered. “There are too many unknowns, here—“

“I can handle myself, sirs,” Mote spoke up.

Krick and Saito both turned to look at Mote in surprise.

“…You serious?” Krick responded incredulously.

“Of course I am,” Mote replied. “If the AI will only allow one of us to enter the Ark, then so be it — I volunteer. If I can investigate the Ark myself, then it will save us time in the future, after all.”

“That’s true…” Saito said, “but are you sure, Mote? We don’t know what’s down there.”

“We don’t, but I’m confident I can handle whatever I find,” Mote insisted. “Between this armor and my own abilities, I’m sure I’ll be safe.”

“He did fight off Telregina, after all!” Danielle exclaimed.

«You fought a Drakkar Faction Leader? And survived?» Maenikad questioned, her eye focused on Mote. «Most impressive! Even more proof as to the power of Raen’s progeny!»

Mote passed Maenikad an annoyed glance before looking to Saito again. “…Well, sir?”

“I still think we should wait,” Krick stated.

«My patience is already stretched thin!» Maenikad countered. «If you do not agree to help now, then I will find someone else who will — and they will benefit from the Aldredas’s grace, not you!»

“You’re awfully impatient for someone who’s already waited a hundred thousand goddamn years.”

«It is because of that timespan that I am impatient! The Ark’s power supplies are vast, but they are not infinite! If the Ark does not awaken soon, it may never awaken at all!»

“Then we don’t have much time,” Hackett said. “…Assuming you’re telling the truth, that is.”

“Whether it is or isn’t, I’ll be able to tell,” Mote asserted. “I am an Electrotechnic, after all.”

“…Alright.” Saito offered Mote a curt nod. “If you’re confident you can handle this, Mote, then I’ll give you permission to investigate. But don’t awaken anything without contacting us first, understood?”

“Understood, sir!” Mote replied with a salute.

«So disrespectful. So distrustful,» Maenikad remarked. «But so be it. For a descendant of Raen, I shall overlook these transgressions. For now.»

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Krick muttered. “Colonel, Lieutenant, if this goes sideways — it’s your asses! Now, you AI, give me the coords of the Ark! And Lieutenant, prepare yourself for beaming. As soon as I get those coords, we’re kicking this thing off!”