Raylah

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

@Kale19 also, you could join the Discord, if you can and want to. There is usually someone online to answer any questions you might have.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

_{Aboard the Meeting Place station
sort of mentioning @Irredeemable}

_{Credit: Vladimir Manzenko artstation.com/artwork/8LBNQ}

Someone was banging on the door. What door? Kelsie squinted, but it was too dark to see much, just a dim light coming from a lamp on the other side of the room. Still, she had to close her eyes immediately, groaning and rolling over. Bad idea. Her stomach growled violently, threatening to evacuate its contents on the floor. Fucking hell. What the hell happened? How did she even get here? How long was she out? And why the fuck was someone banging a hammer INSIDE HER HEAD? So many questions, no answers.

She tried opening her eyes again, noticing some glasses on the nightstand. One was filled with water, another one with what looked like some juice. And, a miracle, a couple of pink pills were lying there too. Kelsie grabbed them and put them in her mouth, concentrating with her sheer will to not throw up. A little sip of water and when her stomach started protesting again, she laid back down. Insane that in all those centuries no one had come up with some miraculous hangover cure.

Her mind was busy trying to put the pieces of last night together but failing spectacularly. She remembered hearing about the Horizon, sending the squads to invade the ECU bar, and then holding the bottle of that horrible liquor they left behind. Then there were some vague images of hugging a lamp, glass shattering, and a loud bang. Huh. That probably explains the sharp pain in her elbow. And the knee. And the bump on the back of her head that was pulsing painfully. When was the last time she got this drunk? Kelsie already knew the answer - never. She rarely ever drank. A toast to fallen comrades, a sip here and there when someone passed the bottle, but that was it. “No training,” she croaked.

“Indeed.” A quiet voice answered her from a dark corner. Kelsie’s first instinct was to jump up and reach for her gun, but her body refused to cooperate and she stumbled and fell down, one big pile of bruised limbs.

“Dammit, Kelsie.” David got up, collected her from the ground, and helped her back to bed.

“David, I think I said…,” she hesitated, wishing she would forget that part of the evening.

“Forget it,” he waved his hand. “I know you, talk first, think later. Perfect diplomatic material.” He grinned.

“Shut up.” Talking made the headache worse.

“Wish I could. But, there has been sort of an incident. The guys got really wasted in the ECU bar.”

“Oh fuck,” Kelsie sat up, trying to ignore the world spinning and whirling around her. “How bad? Please tell me they didn’t actually attack the Zetans?”

“Calm down, it’s not that bad. All that the official sources are saying is that ‘someone’ vandalized the walls around the Zetan embassy. Unfortunately, the cameras had a mysterious malfunction, so they couldn’t find out who did it.”

“Mysterious malfunction?” Kelsie closed her eyes, relieved that nothing worse happened.

David smiled. “Yes, very mysterious. You can ask Julianna about it, those things happen from time to time.”

“Oh, I’m gonna rip those bastards a new one.”

“Already ordered them to go through all our supplies, armory, and storage rooms and run a full inventory checkup. They look about as well as you do, so it’s gonna take them some time. You can yell at them all you want though. If you can,” he chuckled.

“Maybe later,” she rolled her eyes, collapsing back on the bed. “Thank you.”

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

_{Aboard the Undefeated flagship - the Thorsten}

The ECU was already sending ships to scout the Zeta-5 surface, but the Grand General decided for a more cautious approach. Even though the battle was a clear victory and the hostile space forces were completely destroyed, losing a Battleship has deeply shaken all the Undefeated. The fleet was now positioned around the Gateway, ready to deter any arriving ships, and, if necessary, destroy them. They were ready to disable and capture the incoming Xandalian ship, but the ECU decided to take a more diplomatic approach. Maybe it was for the better, it wouldn’t be smart to antagonize a strong nation.

Captains from all the remaining ships have now gathered on the Thorsten, awaiting new orders.

“We have received news from the ECU. Their scouts managed to capture and interrogate one of the Zetans.” Although it was hardly an interrogation - the half-robot gave them all the information right away, basically inviting them into their underground city. That itself was extremely suspicious. Or maybe the machines were just physically incapable of lying? Who knows what algorithms drove their twisted minds. “The captured scientist is in the Zetan main underground city, in a place they call Alpha-Elysium. We don’t know the exact coordinates yet, but we have approximated the location of the Elysium sector and we will begin our scans there. The problem is,” General sighed, “that the conditions on the ground are extremely hostile. We know for sure that at least one of the ECU scout parties was destroyed by weather alone, before even encountering enemy units.”

Quiet whispers spread across the room. “So, what are our plans, General?”

“We scan the surface from space and send smaller ships to investigate suspicious areas. No troops will be landing on the surface. Their ground structures do not concern us. We need to find a suitable entry point to the underground levels and transport our troops there directly to avoid the surface dangers.”

The men nodded and some of them looked at each other hesitantly. Finally, one of the Cruiser captains stood up. “Sir, I’m gonna say what everyone else is thinking. We all want to get revenge for Horizon. So why don’t we just find a hole into these tunnels and start pumping gas inside to flush the clankers out like rats?” The crowd cheered.

“I wish it were that simple. I appreciate the initiative, but without knowing more about the tunnel layout and how their ventilation and filtration systems work, this kind of attack would probably be very inefficient. After all, we don’t even know if their bodies won’t be immune to our chemical and biological weapons.”

---

It was a gate. Not a huge gate, just a regular-size gate in the mountainside, probably just a maintenance access or something like that. The troop transport could probably fit through, but it was decided they weren’t going to try. From here on, they would go on foot. Ten squads through this gate, sixty heavily armed men wearing protective exoskeletons, all battle hardened veterans that went through the endless conflicts back home on Ellara. Other gates were discovered and other troop transports were hovering near them, all waiting for the go-to signal. Their orders were quite simple - go inside and kill anything that moves, be it a person, robot or a fuckin’ automatic can opener.

Finally they could do what they were good at. The best at. Lieutenant Maya Mayers, the leader of the 2-A-2 squad, grinned. The waiting time was over, they were done sitting inside a spaceship, praying that someone doesn’t blow it up like they did to the Horizon. So many good men died there. Maya served with a lot of them, they went through bloody skirmishes, long recons and boring days at the base together. And now, puff, they are gone. The troopers were angry. No, they were beyond angry. They were pissed off and furious and ready to take it on the first enemy they saw.

“All right people, it's time, watch the light show.” The transporter pilot pointed towards the gate. A Cruiser that was hovering above the thin atmosphere, so far that it was barely more than a small dot on the sky, fired from its plasma cannon several times and the gate just vaporized. There was no loud explosion, no debris flying through the air, as it would be if they tried to blow the thing up with conventional explosives.

“Wow, neat.” The men and women in the transporter cheered, eager to finally get into action. The way was open. At the same time the same scene happened in several other places in the Elysium sector. The transporters landed and soldiers swarmed out, heading towards the dark holes, entering the Zetan underground system.

The tunnel went straight on for a while and they haven’t come across any resistance. When they reached a junction, the assault leader ordered them to split up to cover more ground. Maya’s squad, the Yoyos, and another one, nicknamed the Butchers, were assigned to take one of the side tunnels. Others might have mocked the Yoyos for picking such a name which certainly stood out of the crowd of Reapers, Reavers, Destroyers or Killers. But Maya and the others felt it fitting. It was what they did best - go in, get shit done, go out. No holdups, no problems, and, most importantly, no casualties on their side.

It felt like they had been walking for hours, occasionally putting a mark on the tunnel wall. Adrenaline coursed through their veins, making them see an enemy in every shadow and behind every corner, but everything was silent, it seemed that the enemy had retreated deeper into the tunnel system. Eventually, the tunnel had led them to a large open space, a junction of some sorts, apparently used to load cargo on some bigger vehicles. The place looked deserted hastily, some of the cranes still held boxes mid-air. There was some abandoned vehicle in the corner and Maya gestured to two of her men to go check it out. It would certainly help not having to move through these tunnels on foot.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

_{Meanwhile aboard the Meeting Place}

Kelsie was too nervous to sit in her office and listen to the sparse messages they occasionally got from the Zetan system. She had no doubts they were going to win the battle, the Zetans could not have possibly put together a fleet that could match the joined forces of the ECU and the Undefeated. Mostly the Undefeated though; as far as Kelsie knew, the ECU fleet consisted of a ton of small spacecraft, which were hastily put together from old Earth designs and some alien materials found on New Hollywood. That was not the biggest problem. The biggest problem was the pilots. Dumb brutes whose biggest life achievement was smacking people with sticks. Hardly even trained. They would be great as targets for practice but in a real battle? The Zetans will have some defenses at least, and a lot of those men will never return home.

She walked around the station, knowing very well people were looking at her. Some tried to hide it, some just stared bluntly, most turned away when she looked them in the eyes. Conversations went silent as she walked by, only to begin again when she left, irritated whispers buzzing all around. She sure wasn’t popular. The entrance to the ECU embassy was right next to her and she briefly considered stopping there for a drink, their bar was stocked incredibly well. But that would mean a risk of running into Tanaka and having to withstand his theatrical laments. What an incompetent child. Kelsie wished that they made Abadi the main diplomat on the Meeting Place, but the ECU politics were mysteriously complicated. And probably very corrupt, like any politics.

Having nowhere else to go, she returned to the Undefeated section. When she was leaving, the large meeting room was filled with excited people, laughter, and cheering, as the news of successful takedowns was coming in. Now the atmosphere has changed rapidly, her team was sitting in solemn silence, passing a bottle around. “What happened?”

Janice handed her the bottle. “They took a Battleship down.”

Kelsie exhaled sharply. “Shit. The Thorsten?”

Parker shook his head. “No, the Grand General is safe. It was the Horizon.”

Yes, the Grand General, that’s why she was worried about the Thorsten. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that her treacherous mother was on board. Absolutely nothing. Still, an entire Battleship gone. So many people. Kelsie wondered how many of them she knew. They weren’t from her division, the parts of 9th chosen for the invasion were aboard the Eclipse, but still, they were her brothers and sisters in arms. And now, they are gone. “Well, shit,” she repeated, no idea what to say. She took a big gulp from the bottle, trying not to start coughing. It tasted like crude liquor. It always tasted like crude liquor. The horrible taste was a good reason to have some tears in your eyes. “How?”

“They just kept coming right into them. Ramming their ships into our shields, their engines exploding. The shields held on for a while, but…” Parker shrugged.

“We should get them.” Rodriguez, leader of the Reapers squad, gritted his teeth. The rest of his squad, along with the Hawks, second squad stationed on the Meeting Place as guards, chimed in, whistling and clapping their hands. “There aren’t that many of them, we can take them down easily.”

“No,” Kelsie said loudly so everyone in the room would hear her.

“But…”

“I said NO! Calm down, Lieutenant. I understand you are angry, hell, I’m pissed off too. But we have direct orders from the Grand General himself. This is a neutral space, we can’t just start killing foreign diplomats, no matter how much they deserve it. We will have to leave it to our brothers and sisters in the invasion teams to get our revenge. We just have to sit and wait.” Men and women went silent, aside from an occasional quiet growl. “Yes, I know it sucks. But we are soldiers, and we have our orders. Does anyone have a problem with that?” She stared into their eyes to make sure they got the message.

Rodriguez sighed. “No, ma’am. I’m sorry.”

“Forget it. In fact, why don’t you guys go visit the ECU embassy? Our allies have a non-stop bar, so go get a few drinks,” Kelsie smiled, imagining the look on Tanaka’s face as a dozen angry soldiers invade his bar. “But I want one thing to be perfectly clear,” she leaned against the table, her tone deadly serious. “If any of you drunken assholes will have some ideas about taking justice into your own hands, I will deal with you personally and kick your ass out of an airlock. Now get lost.”

She sat down, resting her head in her hands. Looking up, she realized one of the men didn’t leave. David Parker was sitting across the room, watching her. “You should probably go too. I’m sorry, I’m not really in the mood for sex right now.” There weren’t many ways to have fun on this station and the ‘entertainment of the poor’ was a good way to kill time. They were really good at it together.

He raised one eyebrow, looking offended. “Wow. I’m glad to hear that is the only thing I’m good for around here.” He turned to leave.

“What? Wait, that is not what I…,” Kelsie started, but he was already gone. Fuck. She banged her forehead on the table. This day was just getting better and better. At least they left the bottle here.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

@Sep Basically, we had some first encounters when the Gateways reopened and there was some friction between the Zetans, which are heavily augmented, and the ECU and the Undefeated, which don't consider them human anymore because of that.
Then we made a timeskip - 6 months later, there is a new neutral station in the Sol system, where all nations can have their embassies and representatives. The Zetans were kicked out of the ECU space station, and while leaving, they took one of the ECU scientists with them, which has led to an open war. Currently, the Zetan navy has been destroyed and the ECU and Undefeated are preparing to launch a ground invasion on their homeworld. There are some diplomatic actions by other nations trying to stop the war.

I think that pretty much sums up the important parts. Feel free to join the Discord server, some people here apparently don't need to sleep at all, so there is always someone online to answer any questions.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

@Dark Cloud join us on discord for brainstorming, if you want :)

Star Wars: Legacies Recruitment Drive

Are you continuing some storyline or starting a new one? Any list of which of the countless characters in the CS are active?

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

Collab Between @Tortoise, @Raylah and @Irredeemable

Finally, the show is about to begin.

The Cultural Union can do nothing without pomp. Without pizazz. And so it’s no surprise that this will not be a quiet war; this will be a loud, screaming, shouting, cheering one, projected across all of New Hollywood on screens mounted to buildings, in private viewing galleries, in holo-suites, and famously, into the office of the Savant Heralds himself. Every citizen of the ECU will witness this. Win or lose- but they’re sure to win.

Heralds raises his hands to the display in front of him. With a sweeping motion, like a conductor with a baton, he orders a swarm of ships to move in unison. It’s like watching an angry colony of ants; little true formation, but everyone seems to know where everyone else is going. These ECU ships are mostly small, single-pilot little things, expecting to overwhelm their enemy by numbers rather than strength. There are only a few large cruisers among them; sadly, the single battleship was too incomplete to join this august war.

Across the planet, fireworks are launched. Crowds cheer, announcers speak to their audiences faster than auctioneers, and the first wave of fighters venture into the Gateway. Destination: Zeta.

They’re coming.

Like a thought across neurons, the message was conveyed through the Collective. Repeated, iterated, screamed, whispered and said. Just over a hundred craft stood ready to defend, along with the few defenses the Aegis had to offer. There were no dramatic speeches, or cultural posturing: Zeta was fighting to survive.

When the first enemy ships came, they unleashed everything they had. The void was lit up with pinpricks of light as missiles and flak guns unloaded their payloads. The Aegis core’s battery of rail cannons joined in as well, volleys of electromagnetically accelerated steel sent hurtling through space. To the Zetans, it was the most firepower their nation had ever put out at one time.

And it tore through the makeshift ECU ships. At least, the first ones; when they fell, upwards of one hundred more came through the Gateway behind them. They had little strategy except what Heralds gave them, and by his remote commands, a third of the ships broke off and headed for the Aegis. The rest tried splitting the Zetan fleet in two, driving a wedge between it.

If any of the Zetans were listening to their comms, they could hear protectors screeching insults and cries of vengeance. The crowds on New Hollywood were, likewise, taken aback by the ferocity of the cyborg's defense, but when the music swelled again, and the ECU fighters continued on, they cheered as before. Both for the show their own ships put on, and occasionally, for the worthy performances of the villains.

There was something beautiful about the way the Zetan ships moved. Something smooth and sinuous and perhaps even a little seductive. Although junkers, although retrofitted and slapdash, the Collective’s power came from their togetherness. Thirty ships slid away from the main body, intricately weaving between the fire of their fellows, to try to protect the Aegis as best they could. In response, the Aegis itself unleashed its missile pods. In retrospect, the Collective would acknowledge these were fired too early, but in the moment, the blue glow of their propellant in the void spoke of a beauty born of science.

The remaining sixty or so ships started to spread out. With the initial barrage eaten up by the invaders, they needed to switch to their less powerful weaponry. More flak guns opened up, clouds of weaponised detritus sent hurtling towards the Hollywoodite ships, their whoops and jeers ignored by the fighters within.

But the protectors laughed when the Aegis’s missiles missed. “Hey toasters, all those gizmos and ya can’t shoot straight?” That particular man was shot down a moment later, but his brother in an adjacent fighter fired torpedoes of revenge. They were aiming for the Aegis now, dodging around its defending ships by Herald’s commands. They swooped and dipped, spun and showed off. Even when one fell, their painted hulls made for sparkling debris not unlike confetti.

But nearer to the Gateway, the ECU was feeling overwhelmed. The sixty Zetan defenders were matched almost one-for-one by Hollywood’s protectors, who could not coordinate nearly as well. They jolted and thrusted randomly, hit their targets by luck or anger, and when they ran out of fuel or ammunition, crashed themselves haphazardly into the enemy and took out as many of the 'toasters' as they could. The resulting debris was now transforming the war zone into a nightmare to fly through.

This, finally, is when the first Old Earth Cruiser made it through the Gateway. It was an odd sight to anyone in the Collective who knew their history, being an ancient design simply painted over in bright new colors. Two dozen more golden fighters danced around it in the void, weapons flaring like a light show. If it didn’t mean death and destruction, it would be dazzling.

This is near to the end of the Cultural Union's available fleet, but the Zetans didn’t need to know this. Herald's voice was projected through the second cruiser to enter the battlefield: “We have countless more warriors on the way. If you surrender now, we will show mercy.” Both of these statements were lies. In his office, Heralds was sweating.

“Where are they?” one of the protectors cries out as two Zetans converge on him. “I thought the Undefeated were coming!”

Although he couldn’t know it, on the end side of a Gateway, they were. “Deflector shields at maximum. We are going through.” Oscar Pawlowski glanced at the fleet status screen one last time and sent a quick prayer to whoever was out there. The Undefeated had long lost beliefs in any of the old Earth gods, but saying things like ‘God help us’ was too deeply rooted in the daily language of the soldiers to just disappear. How could there be any god? They were literally above the sky and there was just one big nothing. The Grand General shook those thoughts away as the ship was passing through the Gateway. He needed to concentrate.

“Status?” he asked right as they emerged on the Zetan side.

His XO studied the screens for a second. “Our fleet passed through unharmed, however the shields seem to be only at 70%, there must be some interference in the wormhole that drains them.” Oscar frowned, that was not good. Still, shields at 70% were better than no shields. “The battle isn’t going well, looks like the ECU has already lost a large number of ships.”

“They are getting their asses kicked,” Oscar scoffed. No surprise there. You could tell at first sight that these people were no warriors. “Time to turn the tide.” He activated the channel shared with our vessel commanders. “Spread out a bit. Thorsten stays in the middle, Eclipse goes left, Horizon takes the right flank. Sonne, what is the status of the fighters?”

“All ready to go.”

“Aright, launch all fighters, but don’t let them go too far in, concentrate on protecting the fleet. Send some to protect the ECU cruisers as well.” He watched the 3D tactical model of the battlefield as dozens of small dots emerged from one of the bigger dots. "Cruisers and Destroyers spread out between the Battleships. What about the new plasma cannons?" He turned to an officer at the weapons station.

"Sir, the enemy ships are too small and fast to target them efficiently without significant friendly fire on the engaged ECU fighters."

"Damn, what a shame. Conventional weapons then, projectiles and guided missiles, fire at will." He walked to the bridge window, watching as the space around the Gateway filled with even more ships, rockets and, eventually, more debris.

In all this chaos, it wasn’t just Union ships that were destroyed- the Consciousness’ own vessels were taking a hammering too. The missiles that were loosed at the Aegis found their mark: it was, of course, near impossible to miss a stationary target, and although the vacuum of space robbed the ECU of the bright explosions they no doubt desired, a portion of the Aegis buckled and crumpled, the rail cannons falling silent as targeting systems and crew were removed from the equation.

Several of the Zetan fighters too, now spiralled out of control or had been blown into shrapnel. The Collective welcomed mind after mind, the shipsmen who perished watching the conflict through their comrades’ eyes.

Then the cruiser came through, and with the cruiser, its message. The response to the message was quite firm, and utterly unmistakeable. One of the largest of the Zetan’s ships had pointed itself directly towards the golden bow of this ghost from the past. As the corvette ploughed forwards, the crew prepared their fireship’s payload… Its uranium-enriched engines.

The protectors were not the kind to recognize this strategy. They fired at the suicidal corvette as it darted past, but made no real effort to stop it; they were certain it couldn’t hurt a big, tough ship like the cruiser. So they were understandably shocked when the ship erupted in a blossom of blinding light, and half that glorious shining cruiser burst inwards, the void of space rushing in while their air rushed out.

On New Hollywood, the holo-screens cut away from this sight.

Within an Undefeated ship, Claire was sitting in one of the auxiliary control rooms, monitoring the shield status as the battle went on, also going over the data from the Gateway passage. So far it seemed that the shields reacted to the wormhole passage as to a hostile environment and tried to protect the ship from it, depleting a part of their capacity. Claire wondered whether a simple change in the programming would help prevent it in the future.

It felt strange, sitting here in a comfortable armchair while a battle raged outside. One of the other scientists was even sipping hot coffee from a regular open mug. Bad idea, Claire thought but didn't comment on it. The man would quickly find out himself when the ship suddenly shook violently. He screamed in pain as the boiling beverage splashed on his hand, but nobody paid any attention to him.

“Status report!” Claire yelled, looking at the screen.

“Shields are at 25% percent!”

“I can see that myself. What the hell happened?”

“WE ARE GOING TO DIE!”

Claire jumped up and moved to the hysterical technician, grabbing him by his collar and throwing him to the ground. “Get out of here! Call the bridge.” She tried to move back to her station but got knocked to the wall by a second impact. This time the ship took longer to stabilize, lights were flickering and all the screens turned red with numerous warnings.

“Claire! We … the shields .... NOW!” Oscar’s voice came through the intercom, almost unintelligible due to interference.

Claire glanced at the monitor and cursed. 3%. She finally got to the table, wiped the blood off her forehead, and pressed the button to respond. “What the fuck are they shooting at us?” she shouted. “Meteorites? The shields weren’t designed for this.” Even at 70%, they should be able to withstand attacks from every weapon they could think of, be it based on plasma, electricity, antimatter, explosive missiles, or simple projectiles. At least for a while. This must have been something with much greater mass or power.

“They … suicide … . I repeat, they … suicide ships … with tons of explosives.” The transmission was getting better, but that was the only good news.

Crap. That’s why the power in the shields went down so fast, trying to stop the sheer mass of a ship ramming into them as well as containing the blasts. “You need to stop them, the shields can’t take another hit.”

Laughter came through the intercom, distortion making it sound even scarier. “The fuck you think we are trying to do?!”

Claire took a deep breath, wiping more blood from her face. She vaguely remembered that with head wounds there is always a lot of blood, but wasn’t this too much? It didn’t really matter though, if they can’t recharge the shields, it will be the last of her problems. The main issue was that the shields were designed to recharge slowly over time, with safe moderated increments. There were several balancing and safety buffers preventing dangerous spikes. The buffers. Of course.

“Discharge all power from the auxiliary buffers to the shields.”

The other people stopped moving and stared at her. “We… we can’t do that. Those buffers are there for a reason, if we pour too much power to the shield generators at once, it could damage other ship’s systems.”

“As opposed to getting blown up to pieces by a suicide bomber?” Claire hissed. “I’ll take that.”

“But there are security protocols…”

“OVERRIDE THEM! Start fuckin moving you incompetent jerks or we will indeed all die here, as the idiot before said.”

It took them four long minutes to create a program that bypassed the security measures and rerouted almost all available power to the shield generators. As they ran it, the lights began flickering and sparks came out from some of the equipment, followed by a strange, weightless feeling.

“We fried the artificial gravity control, but… the shields are coming up. 20, 40, 58%. That’s all the power from the buffers,” one of the men reported.

“We can live without gravity, plus the backup system should kick in soon. But the shields… Send the program to the other ships right away.” Claire turned around after hearing a high-pitched scream. The scientist who was holding the coffee before was now helplessly spinning mid-air, trying to escape a big bubble of still very hot beverage. She reached to him, pulling his leg towards the floor. “Idiots.”

“Ma’am, I have received confirmation from Eclipse, Sonne, and most of the smaller ships, but Horizon is not responding.”

Claire shivered. “Bridge? We have sent the shield recharge procedure to the rest of the fleet, but Horizon didn’t return confirmation. Is there a problem with their communication?”

The solemn silence confirmed what she already expected. “It was too late, the Zetans got to them first. The Horizon is gone.”

The Hollywoodite protectors witnessed the massive Horizon ship burst open just like their own, and for a moment, even these simple men almost lost heart. They are brutes, men of intimidation. What could they do against an enemy so fearless that they’ll kill themselves just to hit back at you?

But at last, the Gateway opened again, and the third and final Old Earth cruiser entered the fray, bringing with it the last of the ECU invasion force. With the Undefeated still intact, they now heavily outnumbered their targets. The protectors have slowly ceased to cheer and jive, but grim-faced, they know what needs to be done.

Beckoning their friends to join them, the two cruisers took on command roles: they cast off to either side, bringing with them half the fighters each, and began mopping up the battlefield as two massive navies. The smaller ships spun in circles around their commanding cruisers, fanatically shooting down any further cyborg vessels that got to close. They were not going to allow a repeat of that little tragedy.

One by one, the Zetan vessels fell under withering firepower. The Aegis quietened- a small plume of scrap metal and bodies floating free from a particularly nasty breach, making it look like smoke from a burning fortress.

Eventually, all resistance halted. Not a single Zetan fighter remained in one piece, nor were there any signs of escape pods. The ECU and their ally, of course, would not know that not one life had been lost in this battle, the minds of each and every ‘dead’ soldier safely returned to Zeta thanks to their new, accelerated transcendence protocols, but the cost for the Consciousness was still dire. Their navy was gone, the infant Aegis shattered and rent.

“We got ‘em, boys.” The protector chief called out across the system, although it doesn’t sound nearly as joyful as he meant it. “Someone get the troop carriers ready. Oh, and send the Undefeated a damn cake!”

The path to Zeta-5 lay open.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

Some music

Kelsie tried to remain calm, as the ECU embassy around her turned into chaos. Why would the Zetans do that? They must have realized that kidnapping someone would be considered a hostile action and would directly lead to war. Or were they just so far from human beings they didn’t care anymore? Then the debates around her revealed that the man was in fact a scientist. That made much more sense. Kelsie shivered. Poor man, what are they going to do to him to get to ECU secrets?

She used the time to inform everyone of the current situation, both her associates here on the station and the high command back on Ellara. So far she received about eight angry texts from the Reapers Squad members and other military personnel stationed on the Meeting Place, asking if they could go and kick the clankers’ asses. She gave a strict order on no hostile actions on the diplomatic grounds and recalled everyone back to their section of the station, just to be safe. There was no response from Ellara yet other than a message received confirmation.

---

Oscar Pawlowski was enjoying his morning swim. It was too early and the pool was still closed to the public, but being the Grand General did have some perks. Along with a huge pile of responsibilities. But he was trying to not think about those now, his body moving in a steady rhythm, his head clear at least for these few precious minutes. He didn’t bring any communication devices with him. No messages, reports, debates, and speeches, this was his time of the day and his subordinates knew very well not to disturb him unless a disaster was on the way. That’s why he winced a bit seeing a nervous soldier on the side of the pool, just enough to kick him out of his rhythm.

“What?” he barked at the soldier, treading water.

“Sir, there is an urgent message from Guardian Blackwood.”

Oscar frowned. It must have been something serious, otherwise they wouldn’t dare to bother him at this time of day. He swam to the side of the pool, jumped out, and grabbed a towel. “So?”

“Apparently the negotiations with the ECU went very well, they seemed to be open to forming a defensive pact.” The man paused and the Grand General gritted his teeth. If this is all that he came with, he is getting his ass demoted to dust. “But during the talks, the ECU representative received a message,” the soldier quickly continued, seeing the look on Oscar’s face. “Apparently the Zetans have kidnapped an ECU citizen, a scientist.”

Oscar closed his eyes for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts, thinking about everything that needed to be done now. “Call all available Guardians to an emergency meeting. All personnel assigned to the ships will report on board immediately. Finish the resupply and get every available vessel to the Gateway. Code red, battle-ready. We are at war now.”

“Sir, no war has been declared yet, we…”

“There is no other possible action that the ECU can take in response to this,” Oscar replied, vigorously scrubbing his short hair with a towel. “Message Blackwood to tell the ECU we will stand by their side if they decide to take actions against the Zetans. Go! And bring me some clothes!”

---

Claire was sitting on the ground near a shield generator installed on the Thorsten, running tests for what felt like the millionth time. Everything seemed to be in order, but will it actually hold in a real battle? She wished it wouldn’t come to that but already knew that those wishes won’t come true. It would be a miracle if the Undefeated didn’t get themselves involved in some conflict. If only they gave her enough time to figure out how to get the shield generators onto the smaller ships, like the one Kelsie had on the Meeting Place. Claire wanted nothing more than to protect her daughter. Not that Kelsie cared for it.


She almost didn’t recognize her. Her little girl had grown into an adult woman. Guardian uniform, short military haircut, and a stern look on Kelsie’s face, all those things tore Claire’s heart apart, although she did her best not to let it show.

“Kelsie, I…” She spent years preparing for this moment, yet still didn’t know what to say.

“I thought you were dead.” Kelsie interrupted her. “When Hamonga told me that they stopped you from blowing up the Citadel, I just assumed they executed you right on the spot. Maybe it would have been better.” Kelsie’s voice was cold. “Seriously, mom? After all that bullshit about saving lives?”

Claire’s eyes sank. “I… I wasn’t in a good place after your father died.”

“Don’t you dare to talk about him!” Kelsie leaped to Claire, hissing right into her face. “It was all your fault, you poisoned his mind with your insane ideas! Peace and love, we could all hold hands and hug the Screechers,” she snorted, pausing for a bit and stepping back to regain composure. “Only reason I am here is that the Grand General ordered me to, since you won’t finish your research until you see me. Well, you have seen me, mother, so get back to work. And do not contact me again.” Kelsie turned away and left, slamming the door behind her, leaving Claire alone in her world of remorse.

The datapad on her lap beeped, signaling yet another successful simulation and mercifully pulling her out of the painful memory. Claire rested her head against the cold metal. It will work. It has to. Maybe if we put smaller converters in parallel? But how to deal with the feedback loop? There is no way to safely discharge the capacitors on a smaller ship, unless...

The sound of the ship's alarm interrupted her thoughts. The signal lights started blinking red and a voice came out of the shipwide intercom. “Attention, all personnel. Code red. All assigned crewmembers will report to their battle stations. I repeat. Code red.”

So they did it. Code red. War. Six months since meeting other humans, other civilizations. And there is a war already. Guess we should be grateful it didn’t come earlier. Claire hoped that the Meeting Place would remain neutral ground and Kelsie would be safe there, but she couldn’t be sure. Nobody really shared any tactical information with her. She was here just to keep the shields and new weapons operational.

---

“Captain on deck!” one of the officers yelled as Oscar entered the bridge of the Thorsten.

“At ease, people. So, how are we doing?” He turned to his Executive Officer, a young man named Alex Cooper.

“All crew members are on board and everything is ready. We only managed to load about half of the designated food supplies, but our ammunition stocks are at 95%.”

Oscar nodded and moved to one of the screens that showed the positions of the entire fleet. It was an impressive sight, especially given the fact that six months ago the only spacecraft they had were a few small space shuttles. Now, after a relentless effort of thousands of people, eight large battleships were floating near the Gateway, accompanied by a number of smaller vessels. Since several of the battleships still needed some more work to be done on them and the Gateway would still need to be protected against possible intruders, it was decided that only half of the fleet would go to support the ECU attack.

Four Battleships equipped with the new deflector shields. Three of them were armed with a combination of projectile weapons, missile launchers, and new plasma cannons. The fourth ship, the Sonne, was designed as a fleet carrier, harboring dozens of small fighters. Several Destroyers, smaller ships carrying immense firepower but very vulnerable to attacks especially from enemy fighters, were safely hidden in the middle of the formation, protected by the Battleships and a number of Cruisers. Cruisers were essentially smaller versions of the Battleships, having decent shields as well as an arsenal of weapons.

“They are all ready to go, waiting for your orders, General.”

“Good. It shouldn’t take long now.”

---

_{(Addressing: @Tortoise)}

Kelsie stood up as Abadi returned to the office. She still couldn’t get used to the woman’s appearance, but the situation was too grave for her to start laughing. Still. Metal armor? That had to be incredibly uncomfortable. Not talking about the tall fluffy hat, clinging dangerously from side to side as Abadi moved.

She nodded as Abadi gave her the news. An expected development. Still the word sent shivers down her spine. War. And this time not against some primitive creatures armed with spears.

“I have already talked to my government and the decision was unanimous. We will support you. Our fleet is ready for a coordinated attack on Zeta-5.”

God help us.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

_{(Addressing: @Tortoise)}

It seemed that whatever the ECU did, they did it with style. Or at least with a chaotic mixup that was apparently considered stylish on New Hollywood. Kelsie was standing at the entrance to the ECU section of the Meeting Place, trying to take in all those things in front of her. Golden drapes. Red carpets. Fancy signs and letters hovering in the air. And of course, people dressed in the most ridiculous outfits. Even though she was invited, she felt like an intruder here. Regardless, she took a step inside and nearly had a heart attack, as a male figure appeared in front of her out of thin air.

“Guardian Blackwood, welcome, you are expected. Please allow me to lead you to Oligarch Abadi’s office,” he told her.

Kelsie realized she was instinctively reaching for her sidearm, or at least when the gun would be under normal circumstances. But these weren’t normal circumstances, so she was unarmed and alone. She forced herself to calm down, taking a closer look. The hologram was a middle-aged man that appeared to be balding, dressed in sort of a uniform that included a tailcoat, with a slightly disturbing smile on his face. “Ehm. Yes. Thank you.”

He bowed and gestured her to follow, walking over one of the fancy red carpets. Kelsie stopped after a few seconds, looking around curiously. “Please follow me,” the hologram said in the same tone as before, but somehow sounding impatient now.

“Sure, sure. So, you are a hologram?”

The man stood up straight. “I am a holo-butler, part of the new diplomatic holosuite collection. I was programmed to serve the embassy employees and fulfill their and their guests’ wishes.”

“Interesting. Can I touch you?” Kelsie hesitated a bit but then decided that a computed program probably wouldn’t get offended.

“I was programmed to serve the embassy employees and fulfill their and their guests’ wishes,” he repeated.

Kelsie took it as a yes and slowly poked the man’s hand. It felt strange, like a hard surface, not at all soft and warm as you would expect from touching someone’s skin. Still, creating something solid with just projected light seemed almost like magic to her. She smiled, thinking she should have brought Julianna with her. Her new personal assistant would be thrilled about the technology. “Can you fight?” The soldier in her was always interested in the practical side of things. “Hurt someone?” Could that thing kill a trained soldier?

Butler frowned a bit. “I was programmed to…” he started again.

“To serve, yes I heard. But what if there was an intruder? An attack on Oligarch’s life?” Kelsie interrupted him.

The hologram was silent for a second. “I have no combat procedures. Please follow me.” He turned and started walking away, apparently considering the debate closed. So there were some combat procedures? Kelsie quickly followed, thinking about how those things could be incredibly useful in training.

“Oligarch Abadi,” she smiled at the woman, entering the spacious office. “Allow me to congratulate,” she said and really meant it, the memories of the day she got promoted to the Guardian running through her head. Finally, a reward for the years of hard work. “I am glad that we could meet again and that our governments seem to share a similar… attitude towards the Zetans.” Kelsie was just guessing, but given the fact that Abadi got promoted and not fired, the ECU probably agreed with what she said. “I think we can find more common ground in that matter. Also, I have to say that your holographic technology is just…,” she paused, looking for the right word, “... incredible.”