Spawn of the Lightside Read online

  Which was not a problem. He was a Viceroy. He was built for this. And the one thing that drove the Paladin above all else was the completion of their mission, and the bigger the mission the better.

  And he had just been assigned the most important mission in Paladin history to date.

  2

  September 4, 128542

  Dyson Sphere, Krichkraw Nebula (Novatis Kingdom)

  Station 039

  The Paladin spawned fast, and not just because of their natural growth rate. Key supplies continued to flow, most importantly biogel, from beyond the barrier. That, combined with the abundant natural resources of the sphere, had allowed Samsiv to rapidly increase the Paladin ranks and expand beyond the first station to dozens of others. He’d also transferred himself, for the key to this entire operation was secrecy, and if the Paladin were found he could not be.

  That was mandated from back when the Paladin’s ancestors were Li’vorkrachnika. He had memories from back then, stemming from Thrawn, so he knew their history, their strengths, and their fatal flaws. But keeping their Masterminds hidden was not one of them, for if the enemy could access his mind, a treasure trove of information would be handed to them. Suicide was not preferred, and Star Force valued his life more than the information, but the armored vest he wore did contain a kill protocol if he should ever need it.

  But that would be a decision he would make in the moment, not before. His death was not mandated, but there were some situations, with some enemies, where a quick death would be preferable to what otherwise would follow. That, combined with the knowledge contained in his mind, was why all Viceroys carried a kill protocol in their vests…just in case.

  So far there wasn’t any need for it. The Vargemma appeared to be clueless, though it wasn’t entirely their fault. The sheer size of the sphere would make it difficult to surveil, though Star Force would have found a way. Still, of the 74 stations that Samsiv had established to date, spread over 2,300 miles and connected by a series of subsurface tunnels with a labyrinth of false ends and sealable passages to thwart intruders, they were essentially in the same spot as far as the sphere went. Even a section of it the size of all the surface area on earth was a tiny pinprick when viewed from the center of the sphere.

  That viewpoint was speculation only, for Samsiv had no assets there. He couldn’t risk putting anything into space, and the only active sensors he had in operation were short ranged around the perimeter of the few stations that had surface exits. Those were all within jungle, though two of the stations had crossed one of the mountainous barriers between the ‘strips’ of the sphere.

  The sphere was not perfectly flat, for there were mountains and other geography spread across it, but those mountains paled in comparison to the boundaries between regions. Those stretched higher than the atmosphere, peaking out at 94 miles, though in some areas that wasn’t high enough and some higher density air would leak over the tops and cascade down into neighboring regions. Samsiv wondered if that was intentional or a malfunction, caused perhaps by the mismanagement of the Vargemma.

  Regardless, each region was massive and stretched wider than 8 earth-sized planets placed together in a line like pearls. However, the length of the regions stretched a quarter of the distance around the star, ending only at the quadrant barriers. Those were of the same height and design, but crisscrossed the strips on the equator of the sphere, then two polar circles that resulted in 8 different super regions of the sphere being outlined.

  Then there were random breaks in some of the strip regions. The reason for those hadn’t yet been determined, but there was so much territory within the sphere that Samsiv doubted the Vargemma had been able to search it all on foot, let alone dig deep beneath the outer layers. He too had the same problem, but with far less time and assets, though he had learned a great deal in the few years he had been here.

  Thrawn would not tell him what was transpiring in the rest of the empire, citing it would only be a distraction, but Samsiv knew the Vargemma attacks were continuing, for every now and then he would see a massive fleet leave the sphere, but through different means. Some appeared to disappear where they stood, ostensibly leaving using the stargate effect that Star Force had learned from the Knights of Quenar. But the other method was of greater interest to him.

  Those fleets would move towards the land within the sphere, then disappear through giant circles. Samsiv couldn’t see those on the near side of the sphere, because he didn’t have an elevated viewpoint, but those on the far side he could. Passive sensors were limited, especially at that range, but he could still see a basic picture of what was happening. A shimmering effect would manifest overtop a circle approximately 127 miles in diameter, then the Vargemma ships would pass through in a column due to the narrow aperture.

  But they didn’t go all the way through. They’d get partway in, then they’d simply disappear. No movement on the exterior of the sphere was noted, not that Thrawn had a sufficient vantage point to know for sure in the immediate perimeter, but the ships were not going to the nearby Kanethrol System or any others noted. Only when the fleets left the ‘traditional’ way would they appear in nearby systems.

  Where these others were going was a mystery, but Samsiv had noted the ship silhouettes passing through. There were Olopar in many of them, but the bulk of the ships belonged to the individual Vargemma races, and they each had a telltale build to them. He had been matching them up with the technology of the surface cities, but not all were accounted for. Perhaps those that were not came from cities on this side of the sphere that he could not see yet…but their ships were not coming this way, for the most part. They were engaging in commerce of some form with the others, and Samsiv speculated that they were not native to this sphere.

  The implications of that were not good, but it was the logical conclusion. If the spheres could connect to each other or different locations, they could effectively bypass the rest of the galaxy in anonymity…as well as reinforce each other. That meant if Star Force assaulted this one, they might have to fight the fleets of all of them as they came here through the portals, and that was something that Samsiv did not think was a feasible fight to take on.

  Defeating those here already would be a gargantuan task given their Essence firepower disadvantage. When the time came, the Archons would bring their Materia and fight Essence with Essence to hopefully tip the scales away from pointless drone carnage, but the unknown capabilities of the enemy worried him. If they were going to have any chance of attainable victory, they had to confine the players to what were already in this sphere. He could not allow reinforcement in unknown quantities on an unknown timespan.

  The Paladin won battles because they were able to assess the enemy and adapt, but if you couldn’t see the source of the reinforcements you couldn’t get accurate numbers or distances. Did these ships require a year to pass through, or a mere day? It was impossible to tell without tagging or at least identifying individual ships and waiting until they reappeared at some point, but Samsiv couldn’t do that at this distance on passive sensors.

  The best option would be to find a way to deactivate the portals, but that was a long way in the future. He had to learn about the sphere, and he didn’t have to go far to do it for there were trillions of interface points built into the structure and designed for people to find and use them.

  His scouts had discovered them as they explored on foot through the jungles only a few months ago. The first one had been in a small abandoned outpost with little more than 6 rooms spread around a central area that contained an obelisk. The top of the outpost was a hexagonal dome that was almost entirely covered with tree branches, but just enough was visible that it could be seen from the air…if only Samsiv had some assets that he could use up there without detection.

  His scouts had been very cagey, not entering the outpost for days and only after getting his personal permission. Even then they had proceeded with a variety of protocols to keep themselves hidden, for they did
n’t know it was abandoned until they got inside. The rooms had nothing in them, but the stone the structure was made of was not natural. It was nanotechnology similar to his armor, but far more advanced. For all he knew the entire structure could transform into a ship, landing pad, etc, but the obelisk in the center stood a pure, impressive red and was so foreboding his scouts reported that it was hard to look away.

  There was a reason for that, which they found out soon thereafter. Thanks only to the discipline of the Paladin did they resist that allure in the beginning, but when they began to freely walk around the empty outpost did they come close enough to be drawn harder towards it.

  They didn’t resist, for there appeared to be no threat and no coercion, just a need to get closer and look at it. Then when one of them got within a meter his body was frozen there and his mind scanned…which the obelisk then informed him of and apologized for the rudeness of the interaction. It claimed it required the language files from his mind to be able to communicate properly to fulfill its function, which was to supply information about the Temple.

  The ‘Temple’ was what the sphere was called when translated into English, and the obelisk would not supply information on the language of the builders, nor who they were. Some information was restricted, which the obelisk apologized for, but it eagerly encouraged further questions.

  First from the scouts were about the Vargemma and if the obelisk was reporting their arrival to them or anyone else. The obelisk replied that it did not have the ability to communicate other than by voice, per its design. Mental downloads were forbidden on the grounds that learning was a slow process, and instant knowledge was hollow knowledge.

  Samsiv bristled at that. His existence and usefulness was based on instant knowledge, but he could understand a public database needing to be meted out gradually to strangers. A second obelisk, known as a ‘Responder,’ had been found three days ago some 92 miles to the northeast of the first one, and his scouts there had been asking the same questions to confirm what the first had said and see if there were any deviations or differences in programming.

  A simple map of all Responder locations was apparently banned, but the more general map of the Temple and its purpose was not. His scouts had filed a full report after physically returning to deliver the data rather than risk a detectable transmission, though Samsiv had already ordered subsurface tunnels be established with communication lines to facilitate faster updates.

  As it was, Samsiv had a visual and audio copy of the interactions with the Responders, and while he couldn’t ply it with questions himself, his scouts had covered the basics and the machine interface seemed to like to talk about the grandiose nature of the Temple at length, with this particular snippet being of supreme importance to Samsiv.

  “The Founders created the Temples to provide sanctuary for the Essence users so they might develop to their potential away from the Hadarak, who would otherwise extinguish their light before it could mature. The Temples were constructed in such a manner to remain hidden from the Hadarak and the native lifeforms of the besieged galaxy. The Founders have created an environment where such races can grow without interference and learn from the knowledge left behind. Only when sufficient development has been reached will the Founders return and those that have taken sanctuary within the Temples can then repay the gift of free and enhanced growth by aiding the Founders in removing the Hadarak from this galaxy permanently.”

  “But without the Founders this task is impossible and should not be attempted. And without a full Temple of experienced Essence wielders, the Founders will not have the strength to remove the Hadarak themselves. The Masters and the Apprentices must work together in order to isolate this corner of the warfront and free it from the threat of the Hadarak, but that means you must learn and grow, and based on my scans you know very little about the ways of Essence. Your learning begins now. Ask questions. Many, many questions, and I will be able to answer most of them to your satisfaction.”

  Questions about the Hadarak yielded no useful answers beyond the common knowledge of what their frontrunners were. Lurkers and anything beyond that would not be confirmed nor denied by the Responders, and when asked why they would not respond, his scouts were told that knowledge of the Hadarak would only encourage a preemptive and futile attack, and that such things had happened in other Temples, thus the Responders had been programmed not to encourage future ones by providing information that was not yet needed.

  But it was clear that these Founders…which would also go without description…were the enemy of the Hadarak and engaged in a massive war stretching out billions of years, if not longer. And though it wasn’t specifically stated, Samsiv inferred that this ‘corner’ of the conflict was the entirety of the Milky Way galaxy. Nothing else made sense, given that the Hadarak were at the center and had access to everywhere within it. But if they could be destroyed from the entire galaxy, whatever method of transport they had between them…which Star Force technology could not currently provide…might be able to be cut off or blocked, making this galaxy free from the Hadarak while others still suffered from their…invasion?

  That wasn’t clear, in fact much wasn’t, but there was a wealth of information here to dig through if you knew how to ask the right questions, so Samsiv dispatched Paladin Research variants with the explicit task of remaining at the outposts and quietly gathering as much data as they could without drawing attention from the Vargemma.

  And from that data, Samsiv had learned that the massive regional barriers were in fact empty cities that the Vargemma and others were allowed to inhabit prior to constructing their own on the ‘natural’ expanses between them.

  That meant those cities were built by the Founders, and Samsiv needed to explore them as his other Researchers continued to analyze the construction of the outer shell of the Temple and the other bits of technology they had come across, including massive mechanized worms that dug through the crust leaving tunnels of their own through which magma would rise and harden, creating veins of valuable material more easily accessible with the hidden solari inside it.

  But those weren’t the only Temple drones moving about. The aerial craft that had buzzed nearby the initial Paladin station had not belonged to the Vargemma. Instead they were Caretaker craft that would monitor and repair any Founder technology that became damaged…including the act of destroying those that were damaging it. The Temple had to be preserved, and its continued existence was more valuable than those taking refuge within…hence the Vargemma were expendable if they tried to break anything.

  That meant it wasn’t just the Vargemma that were a threat to Star Force here, but also the Caretakers, and Samsiv sensed their firepower might be greater than that of the denizens, though he hadn’t seen any evidence of it yet.

  There was so much to learn and explore here, but it could not be rushed, no matter what was happening elsewhere in the galaxy. The Paladin only had this one shot at anonymity, so they couldn’t move too fast and risk exposure. If the Vargemma were here learning from the Temple, then so too would the Paladin. And once they’d learned enough, including how to access the Temple from the outside and what would trigger the Caretakers’ combat protocols and what would not, then and only then could Star Force launch their attack on the Vargemma.

  Thrawn agreed, and urged further caution, but Samsiv knew that the longer this mission took the more of Star Force would die. He was not comfortable with that, but it was the situation thrust upon them and not of their own choosing, and he would not endanger the mission to try and change it. The future of the empire, and perhaps the galaxy as a whole, depended on conquering the Vargemma here and taking possession of this Temple.

  And until they knew how to do that, there was no path available to Samsiv other than to stay hidden and learn…while growing an invasion army beneath the surface where the Vargemma hopefully would not detect it until the time to act eventually came years into the future.

  3

  April 17, 12854
3

  Dyson Sphere, Krichkraw Nebula (Novatis Kingdom)

  Region 1193

  Skirmisher 33929 was far from any of the Paladin stations, as were many of the others. The Viceroy had many scout teams out exploring various locations on the sphere’s surface, some of which were identified by the Responders, but his current one had not been. The automated information terminals were very useful and forthcoming with basic information, but a lot of specifics were not allowed to be known...or perhaps just not known by people who could not use Essence.

  The empty rooms in the Responder terminals were actually Essence training locations that required a means of interaction that the Paladin did not possess. But the Viceroy had deduced much from the information given to them, and 33929 was now on the periphery of an undisclosed location within the massive jungle in this sub-region. The sub-region itself was more than 10 times larger than most planets, and without orbital or even aerial surveillance finding this location would have been next to impossible, but using long range scoping on the far sides of the sphere and working out a not so obvious pattern, the Viceroy’s instructions had led him straight here.

  It wasn’t much, given the grandeur of the entire ‘Temple’ sphere, but it was several miles wide cut out of the jungle with multiple buildings spread around what was basically a landing pad for Caretaker craft. 33929 had been instructed not to interfere with their operations and they should ignore him, but he wasn’t going to enter the facility just yet. First he would get visual recordings of the area, moving around the entire perimeter, and observing the activity…of which there was a lot.

  The odd aerial craft were moving in, picking up cargo, and moving out by the hundreds per minute. They appeared to be using a very old design of aerolift engines rather than anti-grav, based off centrifugal force and spinning a series of discs on the underside of the butterfly-like wings. It was efficient, but far inferior to anti-grav, which seemed to conflict with the ultra-high tech nature of the sphere.