Broken Stars (Universe on Fire Book 1), page 2
“What you ask is impossible, the fact that you ask just shows how much you are not ready,” Ajiha said.
Anthony bowed his head. “Very well. May I leave, Dahrar?”
“Of course, liaison.”
***
Anthony looked out of his limousine as they pulled up to the United Earth Council Hall in Geneva, and saw a throng of people just beyond the fence. The guards were standing almost motionlessly watching the protesters. There weren’t any problems, the protests were almost always peaceful, but he steeled himself nevertheless as one of his bodyguards opened the doors for him and the sound of the crowd washed over him.
The protesters were chanting, thousands of voices heard as one.
“The blood remembers! The blood remembers! The blood remembers!” they chanted, banners with writing rising up and down with their voices.
Anthony didn’t need to see to know what was written, he had read it all before. There would be banners and placards with the names of those killed by the aliens. A few would bear pictures of the Humanity’s Gift, others would call the people to action. But most would bear the phrase ‘the blood remembers’.
It was eerie how such large numbers could gather and keep the protest peaceful, especially considering what they were asking for. He wondered if perhaps it was because of what they were calling for. The blood remembers movement had proponents all over the world, and their numbers grew daily. People might not be willing to say so publicly, but a vast majority agreed with the protesters, they watched their vidscreens and thought to themselves that it had been enough. That it was time for them to take back their world.
The movement had started almost three years ago, and it had started with a whisper. An anonymous blog post on one of the more obscure discussion forums on the web, a reflection on human history. A look back on the past humanity had tried so hard to leave behind, a time before the Earth united under a single banner, before they had ended their wars, before they had turned their eyes to the stars. Human history was not peaceful. It was filled with bloodshed, oppression, corruption, power-mongering, and it was something that had been a part of them for as long as humanity existed in this evolutionary form. The author of the blog did not care for the enlightened masses, did not care that the vast majority of the Earth had moved past nations, past matters of race, past the petty desires of the past. The author’s words attacked the new form of humanity—as he had called it—the ones that had looked toward peace and the exploration of the stars. Not because their belief was wrong, but because they had taken it to the extreme.
The author believed that they were fooling themselves, that their desire to be something that they were not was what had gotten them trapped on their own world. That the world that existed before our unification would have never allowed the aliens to do what they had done. That humanity would’ve fought despite the harsh responses of the aliens, that they would’ve never stopped until they’d either fought them off or died trying. Then the author dissected the current society, the Kingdom of Meek and Frail he had called it. The compliant leaders that accepted the reality where they would never be allowed off Earth, who were too afraid to fight back, who had given the people into bondage—an apparently easy bondage—because they had started to believe that humanity was the ideal that it was striving to become. And that in doing so they had denied the human race one thing it had always looked up to—the stars. From the moment the first caveman came to be, to the old kings and queens, and the pioneers that had taken the first steps to grasp the one thing that was ingrained in every human mind from the moment they took their first look at the stars, humanity had always strived to reach beyond the horizon.
They had always wondered what secrets and wonders the shining lights in their night’s sky held. And just as they were about to find out, they were slapped down, and they stayed down afraid to fight for their freedom. The words of the author were simple, but they did stir the soul, even Anthony could admit that. And the author’s closing thoughts cemented what was now a world-wide movement. The belief that they should fight against humanity’s oppressors, that their blood would remember even after such a long period of peace had taken root in the hearts of the people of Earth. And slowly they were waking up from the stupor, from the depressed state that they had been in for half a century.
And the United Earth Council would not be able to stop it once it blossomed.
Anthony turned his back to the voices, and walked into the building. You’ll get what you want soon enough, he thought at the protesters, I only hope that the price we pay is something that we can survive.
***
The staff of the UEC hall escorted him through the maze of hallways to the council chamber, and Anthony stepped inside. The full council was already there waiting for him. The fifteen councilors that ran the United Earth sat in a semi-circle divided into three long tables each with five people. The system that governed the UEC was based on the old national senates, with three different blocs being represented.
Five councilors were elected politicians, five were military officers of the United Earth Forces, and five were scholars, intellectuals, and academics appointed by an assembly of their peers. All served for twelve years. Together they were the guiding force of the United Earth. And now they were waiting on him, waiting to hear his words, his recommendations.
“Mr. Smith, welcome,” Councilor Isabella Rodriguez said, taking the lead for the council, as Anthony took his place at the table in front of them.
“Councilors.” Anthony nodded at them.
“It is time, what did the Dahrar say?” she asked.
“The answer was the same. I tried to get him to give us something, anything, but…”
She nodded grimly. “And in your opinion, will their stance change anytime soon?”
Anthony lowered his head, looking down at the table and his hands. He knew that this question was coming, and he knew what the answer would mean. A single word from his mouth was about to change everything. He released a long breath and met the councilor’s eyes.
“No,” he said, the word echoing slightly in the large room. Silence followed, and he could see it in their eyes. They knew that there was no other choice now. The people were not going to stay quiet for much longer. A storm was brewing and the council had to act.
“Thank you, Mr. Smith, we will think hard on your words,” she told him.
Recognizing the dismissal, he stood and half-bowed to the councilors then turned and left the room. Once outside he leaned against the wall and tried to calm his shaking hands. He was not a person who had access to many top secrets of the UEC, but he had been privy to some. He was one of the few who was aware of the existence of another universe, and the portal that led to it. As well as its nature. He knew that thirty-three years ago they’d broken through by accident, and he knew that magic existed here now. And he was aware that children with the ability to wield magic had started being born as of thirty-one years ago.
He had heard rumors, whispers that the UEF had been experimenting with magic and technology, that they were looking for an edge against the aliens. And now, based on his word the council would act. They were about to take a step from which there would be no coming back. The people would not accept another surrender, not now. The blood remembers, he thought to himself, I guess that we will see the truth of that soon enough.
CHAPTER TWO
Kane Reinhart’s hands flew over the controls in front of him as he adjusted the sensors of his mech-frame, even as he used his mind to fly. His mech-frame—codenamed the Leviathan—accelerated and he took care to keep his trajectory straight. The faint and brief blip on his sensor board made him suspect that his opponents were hiding in the planet’s ring. A good strategy, especially since he had noticed the blip only because he had been expecting something like this. But then he knew his opponents very well. Then two signatures showed up on his board, coming up on his six from the belt. Two fighters at almost max acceleration. Soon they would be right on top of him and he would be in range of their weapons. That would be bad, he knew the pilots and they would not miss such a chance. The mech-frame’s specs were overall worse than those of their fighters in most areas, and he did not want to be caught between the two of them.
He watched them closely, waiting. And then just as the fighters came within range of their missiles they fired. Four missiles, two from each fighter, left their launchers and started closing the distance between them. Kane maneuvered, making it harder for them to lock on with their other weapons. He waited for the right moment, keeping his thrust at max, then as the missiles got close enough he pressed the trigger, firing the countermeasures from the Leviathan’s back. The missiles suddenly changed directions as the large fist-sized orbs that were the countermeasures pointed their lasers directly at the missiles’ guidance and tracking sensors and made them swerve to the side.
Then he used his mind to move, using the spell that allowed him to control the mech-frame’s movements. He cut his main thrust, and used his maneuvering thrusters to turn around just as he pushed a slider to the left of him down, in order to decrease the distance of the spell he prepared to trigger. Then as soon as he was pointed toward the fighters coming up on him, he triggered the teleportation spell. His mech-frame was suddenly several hundred meters behind the fighters. There was no sensation as he disappeared and appeared almost instantly, but he knew that the pilots of the fighters would’ve seen the faint blue flash as he used the spell to “blink” across space, as they called it.
Leviathan was still hurling through space, his previous momentum still carrying over and now taking him toward the fighters’ backs. They were faster than him, but they weren’t fast enough to get out of range so quickly. He swiftly turned his mech-frame back around, now facing the fighters. He targeted one of them with the rail-gun turret mounted on one of his mech-frame’s forearms, and he fired even as he launched missiles from the shoulder-mounted launchers. Eight missiles flew out toward the fighters. His laser struck one of the fighters and it disappeared from his sensors, and he saw it move aside on the monitors in front of him that projected the outside. The missiles sped toward the other fighter, and just a few moments later the fighter disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving the missiles flying aimlessly on their previous course.
Kane tsked to himself and sent the shutdown code from the board in front of him to the missiles, shutting them down. His sensors searched for the fighter on its previous course, knowing it could only blink in the direction it was pointed to, just like the mech-frames. Finding it was simple, and adjusting the slider Kane blinked forward as well.
He came out just on top of the fighter, but its pilot had known that Kane was coming, and she had maneuvered her fighter around and was facing toward him waiting as its former momentum carried it backwards. He had nearly no time to react before the fighter fired on the mech-frame with its weapons. But he was piloting a mech-frame, and that came with its own advantages over the fighter. The mental spellscript that gave him control of the mech-frame’s maneuvering allowed him to react nearly instantaneously. His thrusters fired and he slid to the side just as the fighter started firing, and he brought his own weapons to bear and fired. It was over in seconds.
Kane grimaced in annoyance as he read the damage list that the computer was showing him. He had destroyed the fighter, but his mech-frame had been so damaged that he would certainly be unable to get back to base. Or rather, he would’ve been unable, had this not been a mock battle.
His comm came to life and the voice of Lieutenant Commander Wang Shu Jiang came through.
“Damn, I almost had you there,” she said with amusement in her voice.
“You might as well have. If this was a real battle I doubt that I would’ve survived you for long.”
“You certainly would be dead if you had been piloting a Havoc,” she said with just a tad of envy. “I would give anything to have the mech-frame’s control spellscript for my fighter.”
“They might still figure it out,” Kane told her, even though he doubted it. The laws of magic were strange but they couldn’t be changed. And the spellscript laid down in the mech-frame required a person with magic to operate it. And none of the Havoc fighter pilots had magic. “Comm the shuttle crew, tell them that they are free to recover the blank missiles. And we should get back to the base.” He checked his sensors and noted that the beacons were still active. They couldn’t leave Earth tech in Ethorria, even though it was doubtful that the Ethorrians could find and recover it in the orbit of the planet. But then again, they did have a much greater mastery of magic than humans did. And they were very interested in getting their hands on any Earth technology.
“Right away, Commander,” Lieutenant Commander Jiang said.
He turned the Leviathan toward the planet and set a course.
***
A while later, Kane shut down the Leviathan’s systems and opened the cockpit. A section of its chest slid open and he climbed out into a large hangar. People were moving around securing the mech-frame in its berth and moving in to replace its power cells and do tests. All around the hangar, techs and magi-techs could be seen running around working on the fighters and the other three mech-frames. Kane climbed down the stairs that the support crew attached to his unit. Once down on the ground he turned his eyes to the mech-frame, taking its massive form in.
It was a large machine, almost twenty-eight meters tall, wide and bulky. The plates covering it were made mostly out of kotarium and a few of its alloys. Kotarium being a metal not present on Earth, but abundant on Ethorria. A metal that was widely considered useless by the Ethorrians. They preferred materials that had magical properties, and kotarium had none. It was however the strongest metal humankind had ever come in contact with. It was uniquely suited for building spaceships. And as the Ethorrians cared little about it, they could obtain it relatively cheaply. The hull was also covered in a special obfuscation nanite-mesh that could be activated to make the vehicle harder to see on scanners. The composition of the hull gave the mech-frame a silvery color tinted with just a bit of green, but if the nanite-mesh—or silent mode— was activated it turned all black. It was an impressive weapon.
To the side of the hangar were the Havoc fighters. They too were big, almost twenty meters wide, ten meters long, and eight tall. Clearly designed for space rather than atmosphere, they had four wing-like extensions from the core of the ship which housed their maneuvering thrusters. The core of the fighters was a spherical body that was in the middle with two ‘wings’ on each side, one above the other, set at an angle. The entire half sphere that was the front of the fighter was clear and the cockpit could be seen inside. It was made of some pretty powerful materials and reinforced by magic, but it was still not designed to take any punishment. If a fighter couldn’t move out of the way of an attack, they would most likely die anyway. The inner side of the cockpit was smart glass and various data could be projected on it. But it could also project screens that showed the zoomed in picture from the visual sensors. Their cockpit allowed the pilots to see most anything in front, and the sensors would show them anything outside of their visual range.
The mech-frames by contrast had no clear cockpit, but instead had massive screens that surrounded the pilot once inside and projected what the visual sensors saw. However a mech-frame pilot could ‘see’ through the mech-frame’s ‘eyes’ when using the control spell. But that sight had the same limitation as that of humans, it was not suited for looking at things that were thousands of kilometers away.
The fighters were much more streamlined, their weapons mounted all around the sphere. Racks could be placed on the wings as well for added weapons or ammo, but that slowed them down too much.
The mech-frames’ weapons, on the other hand, could be mounted on the mech-frames themselves, but there were also scaled up versions of handheld weapons. The mech-frames had hands, and could use them in that way as well.
Kane turned around and was immediately accosted by a short, stocky man wearing black coveralls adorned with a single patch—a wrench and a wand crossed on a field of stars, making him a part of the UEF’s magitech department.
“Well?” Chief Gene Randor snapped at Kane.
“The maneuvering thrusters aren’t firing in sync, the spellscript is working fine, it’s the mechanical triggers, and the targeting system is acting up again,” Kane responded.
Chief rumbled a few curses in his beard and marched past Kane toward one of the magi-techs that had just plugged a diagnostic tab into the mech-frame’s access point on one of its legs. Shaking his head, Kane turned and walked away as Chief started ordering the poor magi-tech around.
Kane didn’t manage more than three steps before someone called out to him.
“Commander, a word if you please,” the thickly accented and gravelly voice called from his left. Kane turned and looked at the tall, green-skinned woman. She had quite prominent tusks peeking from her lower jaw, she was wearing an UEF uniform, and even though outwardly she did have vaguely human features, there was no mistaking the fact that she was not.
“Of course, Specialist,” Kane told her. She gestured and led him away toward one of the adjoining rooms.
There were few of her kind in the hangar, and a few more in the compound that surrounded the portal to Earth. They were natives of Ethorria and called themselves the Wanderers. But no human could ever look at them and not be reminded of the fantasy race in the Earth books and stories. Someone had even made the mistake of calling them that name once, which had upset the Wanderers immensely, as it did sound close to what their former name had been. Later they had learned that the Wanderers had done something in the past that had resulted in them losing their homeland and their name. And in Ethorria, names held power.
