Into the Black

(BSS Nyarlathotep, Unknown Space)

“Entering the system now, Captain.”

Captain Chase Leonard shook his head. ‘Captain’, indeed. He only had that title because he was the one commanding this little two-person and one AI ship. Still, there were only ten of the Starhunters in existence, so at least he was part of a pretty exclusive club.

“All right, Jaycee. What do we have?”

Today’s target was a bit of a long-shot, but apparently the targeting data came from the databanks of a space hulk another Starhunter had found. The Black Star Marines had investigated, found some creepy crawlies, and fought their way off the ship, carrying a data core. The Navy had then used ‘extreme prejudice’ in ensuring that the ship no longer posed any kind of a threat.

Apparently, they finally managed to figure out how to turn the databank on, and translate enough of the data, to figure out where the hulk had come from, before it was made into a derelict. Part of the data they had acquired indicated that the ship had performed some kind of emergency jump from this system to the Beta Darconyx system. Apparently, whatever drive the hulk had used allowed some of the bioform ships to follow through, which is how the final battle between the two forces happened there.

Of course, this wasn’t the system that the probe found the bioforms in, originally. That system was apparently extragalactic, which was something that blew his fucking mind to even think about. No, this system was simply where the ship had made the first of its emergency jumps to, right on the very edge of the Milky Way galaxy.

According to the logs, the bioforms had followed. Not all of them, but enough that the ship was still in danger. There was a battle, and the ship did another emergency jump, ending up in Beta Darconyx. The rest, as they said, was ancient history.

“We are currently maintaining stealth insertion. The system has seven planets. Three gas giants, and four rocky planets. Planets Three and Four are located in the Habitable zone, though Planet Four is at the very edge, and could be considered an ice world. However, it does retain an atmosphere, and the possibility of life.”

“Any sign of bugs, or whatever?”

“Negative. However, it is likely that, in the tens of thousands of years that have passed since the Probe made its way through this system, the evidence of any destroyed organic vessels would likely have found their way into one of the gravity wells in the system, or been set on a course that took them outside the system.”

“Fair point. What about that third planet? What can you tell me about it?”

“Long-range data suggests life-bearing world, with most of the planet being covered in rain forests.”

“All right. Who won the right to name this system?”

“Slave-Engineer Balroris holds that right after last night’s contest.”

He nodded, and hit the intercom. “Yo, Eirina! If the engines can spare you for a bit, Jaycee informs me that you won the right to name the system in last night’s poker match. So, get up here and we can start.”

“On my way! But you can go ahead and mark the name as Sotha. I promised my little brother that, if I got to name something out here, the first thing I named would be named after the pet tibar he had on Jagloth, before it got wiped out.”

“Right, then. Sotha, it is. Jaycee, if you would please forward the system’s name, and our initial findings to Starhunter Control? And then plot us a course inward. I want to check the two potentially habitable planets more closely. At the very least, we might be able to detect any signs of civilization.”

“Understood, Captain. Do you want me to engage passive scans for known xeno-sapient energy signatures?”

“Yes, go ahead. Inform me if you find anything.”

(BSS Nyarlathotep, Orbiting Sotha 3, Sotha System)

Eirina looked over the scans, with interest. “All right, looks like the world is completely jungle, like the initial scans indicated.”

“Anything interesting down there?”

“Well, there’s definitely a flourishing biosphere, but there aren’t any kaiju, unless they are hiding in one of the oceans, and those are the only kind of individual life-signs we’d be able to detect at this range, without some kind of beacon to know where to look. I can say, however, that there doesn’t look to be any kind of civilization down there. The world looks to be completely feral, with no intelligent life to speak of.”

“While that is true for the current state of the world, I am compelled to point out that, if there was a civilization that had fallen and become extinct even five thousand years ago, the likelihood that we could detect signs of it from cursory scans in orbit are negligible, at best, unless there were some kind of active beacon. The ‘Enrichment Center’ on Star’s Reach was a Lost Tech facility, but if it weren’t for energy readings that could be detected from orbit, like a beacon, it may well have been months before specialized scans detected it. And it is known tha the Ihm did not know what was under their feet at Thraki until it started waking up, and that world had been settled for over a thousand years.”

Chase nodded, thoughtfully. “Right. Well, have we detected any energy beacons or whatever?”

“Not at this time, no. There are no traces of any energy readings of known or unknown origin. If there are any ruins that are still intact or functional, they likely would not be found until individuals on the ground began in depth survey efforts.”

“Survey efforts,” chuckled Eirina. “As if they’d be surveying much of anything in that jungle. Unless someone decides to start turning stuff on, then I don’t think we are going to find anything here, not until the jungle gets tamed a bit.”

“So, what odds are there that some of the beasties that the Marines found on the derelict hulk managed to make their way to the surface of one of these worlds?”

“Unable to calculate. However, given the lack of any organized colony structure that we can see, even that of a hive or some such, it is possible that any surviving organisms have devolved or went feral. While this would cause problems for individuals on the ground, it is highly doubtful that they could provide an organized threat enough that they could damage ships in orbit.”

“But anyone on the ground would likely be in for jungle fighting against creatures that could cut through Marine armor like tissue paper. Hell, even building a basic outpost would require burning out sections of the jungle so that you could actually build. And we haven’t even seen if the air or water are safe. More importantly, we haven’t seen any resources here that would warrant large-scale colony efforts.”

Eirina grinned at him. “So, what are you thinking, Captain?”

He chuckled, and said, “Well, I say we get some nice, detailed maps and scans of this, and the ice world, and then we’ll send it all back to Control. After that, decisions are above my pay grade, and we’ll have a new system to chart, one that actually has a Gateway.”

“That’s fair enough. So, then I’ll—”

Whatever the knelfi girl’s bright idea was, it was cut off by a sudden alarm, complete with flashing lights. Reacting on instinct and training, Chase slapped the button to silence the alarm, and looked towards where the Nomad AI preferred projecting her holographic avatar. “Jaycee, report!”

“Exotic energy pulse detected. High band. Checking archives. Energy signature similar to that detected inside the Thraki Anomaly. Hellspace shields activated.”

“Source?”

“Unknown. Extrasolar. Impossible to pinpoint without triangulation. The pulse was actually a static wavefront, however. Roughly emanating from Known Space. Actual cause unknown.”

“Well, shit. Better get on the Nomad network and let the Owner know directly. That isn’t something to play around with, or go through channels.”

“Affirmative. Wait. New information coming in.”

The display in front of him, that had been showing the initial scans of the jungle world, shifted, rotating to center upon a mountain. “What are we looking at, Jaycee?”

“A facility of unknown origin has activated at this location. I am detecting energy like that of the Thraki Anomaly. The energy is also bleeding over into that commonly associated with Hellspace and psy powers, suggesting a psychic component. Steady source, not pulsing.”

“Any ideas?”

“Possibility of this being a beacon of some sort. It is unknown how strong the beacon is, or for how far it can be detected. I can detect a large facility within the mountain, however.”

“Right. Send all of that to the Owner, now. If the pulse just woke up this beacon, then it is probably doing similar things all over the galaxy!”

“Done.”

“Good, now drop a probe to monitor things, and get us out of here! We’re an exploration ship, and I’m not getting anywhere close to something that might go shredding our souls, like that Thraki place!”

(Admiralty War Room, Blackstone Station, Star’s Reach)

The mood was grim in the war room. Of course, that wasn’t new. The reason was in the name itself. If this room was being used, then there was a good chance that the Black Star Company and the Black Star Navy was either at war, or about to be going to war. And, despite all the movies to the contrary, there was nothing glamorous about war.

If the people in this room had our way, well, there would be no more wars. But the universe didn’t care about what we wanted, and there was always someone who decided that your stuff would look better if it was their stuff, and was willing to put you in the ground to make that switch. So, the company prepared for people to be asshats, and the navy made sure it was ready to make people pay if they decided they wanted a piece of Black Star.

“How many?”

The analyst looked at me, and said, “Twenty-four confirmed locations in Known Space. Each site was a previously unknown alien facility that had been kept hidden through means we have yet to identify. So far, though, the only ‘beacon’ is the one that the Nyarlathotep found in the mountain they named Mount Pharos.”

“Any idea about the purpose of this Sotha Beacon, or the other sites?”

“Unclear. The beacon’s energy signature extends into several related dimensions, including Hellspace. But we would have to actually land people on Sotha and begin exploring the ruins to have any idea of how they work. That would be an endeavor at least on the scale of the Enrichment Center project.”

“Fine. What about the other facilities? Where are they located?”

“Scattered throughout Known Space, sir. No discernable pattern that we’ve been able to detect, so far. Of the sites that we have identified, there are five that are either on Black Star controlled worlds, or on worlds that Black Star has political or corporate access to.”

“Show me.”

There were, indeed, five sites that we controlled, or that we could access. Physically accessing them, however, was not possible for some of them. Maccara, the Amazon planet, and Jagloth had all been subject to Exterminatus orders. Of the three, only Jagloth was worth considering as a potential site to investigate. Greenwave clearly hadn’t harmed the sites on the other planets, but there was no way our ships would be able to operate there. Of course, on Jagloth the risk of picking up the Legion Virus did not make things any better.

Nuevo Edo also sported a site. Or, more properly, their moon did. They’d never detected any valuable mineral or metal deposits on the moon, so had never gone about mining or exploring it, not when they were constantly trying to prepare for the next ‘Demon’ invasion. Now, it seemed, there’d be a chance for some interesting developments.

“Contact Nuevo Edo, and offer the Prime Minister the help of Black Star’s corporate side to investigate the facility.” The aide nodded, but looked inquisitive. I grinned, and said, “They have military forces that can be used to secure and hold the place, but they haven’t had a chance to develop some of the science types that we’ve acquired. This way, both of us get access, and they have a morale boost for their military and their populace.”

Looking back at the list, I saw the final site that we could access without going through political or corporate shenanigans. Tsk’neth III. The mining colony had detected the existence of a facility deep beneath one of their mining centers. That could be problematic.

“Have the Marines’ Third Company deploy with their ships to Tsk’neth, and secure the facility. And check with Third Group. The base at Beta Darconyx has been built, and they’ve got all the defenses in place. Might be good to rotate them over to Tsk’neth, so that there is some extra firepower in the system, while they reinforce the defenses.”

“As you command, sir.”