Star Force: Hamoriti (SF62) Read online

  The main shaft didn’t lead directly to the artifact, but rather to a small city they’d built adjacent to it. There they kept a permanent staff ensuring that any minute twitch from either the machinery or the beast would be measured and an alarm sounded, but in all the recorded history of the Trinx guarding this Hamoriti there had not been one such occurrence. The Ancients had constructed their prisons well, and so long as the Trinx kept outsiders from interfering it was believed that the beast could be kept safely sedated for all of time.

  As the Prefect walked through the monitoring facility he got reports of no activity from this shell. That shouldn’t have surprised him, but he half-expected this one to be waking up too. He didn’t know why, because they were completely disconnected from one another and spread out across different star systems with no interlinking communication functions, but never in recorded history had anything like this happened aside from the initial incident with the Sety’s Hamoriti. They’d barely been able to contain it then, and it hadn’t so much as twitched.

  Now there was one free of its prison and doing battle with the Li’vorkrachnika that had awoken it…but it shouldn’t have even existed. Everything the Oracle had told them indicated that there were 7 Hamoriti. The only possible explanation was that one of the two that The Nine didn’t have guardianship over had been moved, but even that wasn’t possible. The descriptions of all of them were vivid in the Prefect’s memory, and the newly discovered one was unlike any of the others.

  Nesfa didn’t know what was going on, and fearing the doomsday warned against he was going to the only source of knowledge on the Hamoriti that The Nine had ever had. That being the Oracles.

  The quartet walked through guard station after guard station, with a formidable amount of weaponry set up should any outsider make it this far underground in the unlikely circumstance that someone got by their surface defenses. A direct attack had been unlikely, but what had worried the Trinx more was an infiltrator sneaking past and gaining access to the artifact, with these weapons emplacements, troops, and sealed doors intending to deny them even sight of the Ancient prison.

  There were a number of procedures to pass through, time locks and such that prevented any quick access, with Nesfa waiting patiently while the Regents handled all that was required. Once the last measure had been passed the doors behind them closed, obscuring the final defensive emplacements from view, before the much smaller opposite single hatch pulled open revealing one of the actual entrances on the shell’s surface. Initially they had been nearly impossible to find, but after the Sety had unwittingly damaged theirs when trying to cut their way in the Trinx had made sure not to make that mistake again and had spent many centuries looking for a proper way inside before finally finding one.

  Two of the Regents stayed in the defense cupola while Nesfa and the other walked inside, transitioning off of Trinx infrastructure to the floor built by the Ancients so long ago. In all this time no one had learned what had happened to them, and the Oracles only possessed knowledge regarding the Hamoriti and their imprisonment. They had not tried to directly access the Ancient computer systems for fear of unwittingly releasing the creature, so it was possible that the Oracles knew more than they said. Nesfa wasn’t going to risk unleashing this monster, but he was going to try and get whatever shreds of an answer he could out of this one.

  A short hallway led to a series of maintenance shafts that spurred off a central command area, with other redundant structures spread around the gap between shells. The Oracle could be accessed at any of them and many other smaller stations, and as the pair of Trinx approached its hologram appeared in the center of the chamber and ‘flew’ towards them, speaking in the native Trinx language that it had deciphered long ago.

  “Greetings, Regent and guest,” the tri-tipped icon said aloud, with all three spurs spinning around their focal point and looking like an eviscerated pyramid. “This facility’s status remains unchanged since your last visit.”

  “I am Prefect of the Trinx,” Nesfa identified himself, “and I have questions.”

  “You may ask.”

  “How many Hamoriti are there?”

  “Seven. All were neutralized and imprisoned in separate facilities,” it said, flashing up a slice of the galactic map beneath it with seven pinpricks pulsing with a pink glow. “This one is known as Rigall and is unique from the others. They are called…”

  “Only seven?” Nesfa repeated, cutting off the long spiel that they’d heard many times before.

  “Correct in number, but not significance. A single Hamoriti is powerful enough to decimate the galaxy if unchecked.”

  “We have discovered another, and it has been released from its shell. How is this possible?”

  “Location please,” the Oracle said, creating a solid holographic control board in front of Nesfa for him to manipulate the map with.

  The Trinx set its two-fingered hands onto the energy-based floating panels and worked the Ancient coordinate system, first identifying the local region and scaling the map down to it, then manually picking out the correct system by sight rather than imputing the long numerical code.

  “There is no facility located in this system, nor is it a possession of the Ancients.”

  “Mere months ago a Hamoriti was released from a prison built akin to this one, though of smaller size. The Hamoriti is also smaller and of a shape unlike the seven you have shown us.”

  “There are no other Hamoriti beyond the seven.”

  Nesfa glanced at the Regent, who took the data device he was carrying and walked it over to a station in the command center. It had taken a very long time to be able to build a device that could interact directly with the Ancient technology, but the Oracle program had been designed to be intuitive regarding new races and had accepted data in many other forms previously, but at a slow and often tedious pace.

  The device the Regent plugged in delivered the full intelligence packet within a tenth of a second and the Oracle updated the map accordingly.

  “This is indeed a Hamoriti. Like the others it is of unique composition and therefore I have no records of it or its abilities, but I can deduce a fair amount given the recordings you have made of it.”

  “How can there be an 8th that you didn’t know about?” Nesfa asked. “We could have safeguarded it easily if we’d only known of its existence!”

  “I have no data regarding this Hamoriti. Speculation indicates that either the seven Hamoriti imprisoned were able to reproduce another in secret before their capture or that there were other Hamoriti not accounted for when these facilities were created.”

  “This one was contained within an Ancient shell. How could you not know of it?”

  “Confirmed. The prisoner structure that previously held this Hamoriti is of Ancient design, but specifications are not identical. Speculation suggests that this prison facility was built in a time period after the original 7 and that this program was not updated with such knowledge.”

  “Is this new one weaker than the others?”

  “Speculation again, but no. Not in terms of ability strength, however if this one is younger than the others it may not have the battle experience to fully utilize its strengths. The more you fight it however, the quicker it will learn.”

  “Why is it so much smaller?”

  “Size of Hamoriti is due to developmental choice. They can grow to any given size, but if nutrients are scarce such size will require weaker bodily structures. If this is a younger Hamoriti it may not yet have gathered the necessary elements to achieve greater size.”

  “But it is weaker because of its smaller size? How could it not be?”

  “Capabilities of Hamoriti are judged by external observation. The truth behind their inner workings are unknown. The combat data you have provided is minimal. No such judgements as to capabilities can be made, and as prudence dictates we do not risk understatement.”

  “Is there a way we can recapture this one? And if we can, can you show us ho
w to build or repair the existing shell?”

  “Doubtful and no. If the damage to the other shell is not critical the Oracle, if it has one, should be able to make repairs if provided with the necessary raw materials. Based off the data you have supplied, I estimate a 6% probability of the Oracle maintaining sufficient machinery to execute such repairs.”

  “Speculate on the odds of us being able to destroy it if it is young and weaker than the others.”

  “None. Your technology is inferior to that of the Ancients. If they could have destroyed it they would not have imprisoned it.”

  “Could it be weaker from the imprisonment itself?” Nesfa asked, grasping at straws.

  “The Hamoriti will not have an army of minions, but the creature itself will not be weakened. The prison facilities are constructed to supply it with necessary nutrients, else any such withering effect will cause a reflexive awakening. No amount of sedative will counteract this. Assuming this undocumented prison functions under the same principles, this Hamoriti will have emerged at the full strength that it was captured at.”

  “What can we do then?”

  “Maintain the dormancy of the Hamoriti here. The undocumented Hamoriti is beyond your control.”

  “We have to do something,” Nesfa insisted.

  “Unless the Ancients can be located, or another race with equal or greater power, all you can hope to do is delay the Hamoriti’s expansion. You cannot stop it.”

  18 days later a massive Trinx fleet arrived in the Haphchap System and moved to the planet that was ground zero for the Hamoriti’s emergence. There they found a much smaller Li’vorkrachnika fleet in middle orbit and the scattered remains of the rest showing up in pieces on the surface. Not wasting any time the Trinx attacked and destroyed the Li’vorkrachnika, securing the system against further outside influence and establishing a loose blockade/monitoring spherical formation around the planet.

  On the surface the Hamoriti had moved off from the much more shallower shell and the crude conduit that the Li’vorkrachnika had dug down to it. That hallow had been expanded upon when the Hamoriti had came up, but it was still within 1000 kilometers of the Hamoriti’s present location and it being deemed too dangerous to attempt an insertion. The Trinx doubted enough would be left of the shredded Ancient facility, but given they had no hope of victory they were going to press every lead they had.

  While they waited for the Hamoriti to move further off around the curvature of the planet before attempting an orbital insertion, they monitored closely what was happening, seeing several large holes in the path the creature had taken. Presently it was walking across the forested landscape leaving lake-sized footprints in a trail easily visible from orbit. The large holes, however, had burrowed down into the bedrock and were now covered at the base by formerly molten rock that had resolidified.

  Though it wasn’t doing so now, the Trinx knew from the Oracle that the Hamoriti had the ability to externally digest rock in its molten state, essentially soaking in the various elements they required while leaving the excess material outside its body. Each of the big holes in the ground were burrowing points where it had been going after something it sensed below the surface, possibly corovon or other raw materials that it required.

  As such, any potential physical restraints on the beast would likewise melt off when it activated this ability, with it also possessing the means to disrupt any energy based alternatives. The Hamoriti were mountain-sized juggernauts that you couldn’t stop no matter how hard you tried…and they contained biological anti-grav, meaning they could fly across terrain if needed, and even through space.

  The Trinx knew that they couldn’t keep the Hamoriti on planet or even in the system if it wanted to leave, so their mission here was to observe and then attack any minions it produced before they could snowball out of control. Those minions were biological technology that the Hamoriti produced, and even now there were a few sites along the Hamoriti’s trail that were showing positive contacts on the Trinx sensors.

  They were defensive growths, essentially a turret covering seeds that would begin harvesting surrounding resources and producing the mobile minions. If they were allowed to continue unchecked they’d become a huge problem even if the Hamoriti didn’t spawn any more. The problem was they were still within the firing radius of the Hamoriti, and unless it got very sloppy it wouldn’t move off until they’d developed further.

  That meant the Trinx had a choice to make. Sit and watch while their long held nightmare’s forces took root and began to multiply…or go in to eliminate them and hope to weather the Hamoriti’s firepower long enough to accomplish their mission, at which point the monster would begin spawning new seeds again, starting an endless war that they could never win.

  If for no other reason than to buy time they made the strike, sending a portion of their fleet into extreme weapons range where they began firing down on the planet from low orbit with pinpoint accurate energy beams, hitting and vaporizing the growing biomatter in all the various locations simultaneously as patches on the Hamoriti began to form on its ‘skin’ and charge with energy. As they did the Trinx, knowing they were going to have to sacrifice themselves to take out their targets, held position and continued firing with their helmsmen ready to make an emergency jump out the moment they had the word that the targets had been destroyed.

  But they weren’t even close to achieving that when the spherical burst came, rushing out so fast from the Hamoriti that the atmosphere around it literally caught on fire. The binary pulse came first with an invisible field that almost instantaneously reached out and rendered all the ships inert, disrupting their internal mechanisms in an almost magical fashion and leaving the ships falling from orbit when the physical disruptions hit them, dragging the burning atmosphere behind it.

  The Trinx ships were destroyed within a second, but what was left of the biological seeds on the surface partially survived, though the forest they were in did not. Now visually exposed amongst the instantaneous char, they rode out the hurricane of atmospheric restabilization as another group of Trinx ships made microjumps down into the plume of atmosphere bulging up into lower orbit.

  Their shields nearly collapsed under the physical strain as they braked into firing position, then as the Hamoriti took a moment to recharge they continued the orbital bombardment that their fellow ships had started, barely finishing in time before the second blast wave came. Better than half of them managed to jump out in time, with the rest succumbing to the disabling wave and being left helpless as the next fire plume visibly reached up to devour them.

  The Trinx had accomplished their mission, but at a cost. Then, as if in spite to their sacrificial actions, the Hamoriti was seen spawning another seed at its current location. First forming as a tiny pinprick of a lump on its body, then dropping off onto the ground where it dug roots into the charred soil and began to grow like a plant on the devastated landscape.

  The Trinx had bought some time, though not much, and they’d have to do the same thing again and again else let the Hamoriti’s minions grow to consume the planet, then transition out into the galaxy.

  4

  September 22, 2723

  Prenthor System (Sety capitol)

  Qitor

  “We have to have your assistance,” Nesfa said, pounding his angular fist on the railing before him in the council chamber. “You know the strength of the Hamoriti as well as any of us, and if we are to have a chance of accomplishing anything it is in this moment, when the beast is at its weakest. My people are dying to preserve this window of opportunity and I will not let you or the others waste it through speculation or diplomacy.”

  “It is not that simple,” Ivvit said, being the only other representative from The Nine that had been able to make the trip to Prenthor before the Trinx arrived. “We must develop a plan of action before we start sending troops. I will not sacrifice my people against the Hamoriti to buy time unless that time is of value. We have no known means of defeatin
g them, and according to the Oracles we also do not have the ability to return them to their confinement…so I ask you, what choice do we have besides dying now and dying later?”

  “I do not know,” Nesfa answered the cyborg honestly, “but I do know, what we all know, is that the Hamoriti’s minions will grow and spread. They are formidable enough without the Hamoriti’s presence and they will begin claiming worlds on their own. I do not suggest assaulting the beast, but in containing the minions before they grow and spread out of control.”

  “The Hamoriti can build up the minions around it, then leave to do the same elsewhere,” one of the six Sety in the chamber pointed out. “In order to strike at the minions to prevent their growth we must strike near the Hamoriti, and we cannot do that without massive casualties.”

  “I know that,” Nesfa growled, frustrated. “But I also know that if we devise a way to combat the Hamoriti down the road that we will look back on this moment in regret if we did not deal with the threat when it was at its weakest. I will not allow this to become a lost opportunity. My people are presently dying to preserve it, and while I do not expect us to devise a solution overnight, we must have your help to contain the spread before it truly begins.”

  “To what end?” Ivvit reiterated. “Even the Ancients could not kill them.”

  “Despite what the Oracles say, this one is smaller and must be lesser in some degree. We need to learn about it before the minions spread out of control.”

  “How?” another of the Sety asked, standing on a pedestal and looking like a leafless tree rooted in place with its 4 legs twisted about one another forming a pseudo trunk.

  “With blood,” Nesfa said, his mind going dark at the sacrifices that would be required. “We attack with multiple weapons and defenses, each time trying to adapt and provoke different responses. As we die we will learn the capabilities and limitations of this Hamoriti…and with luck we will find a weakness to exploit.”