Remember the Starfighter (6 page)

HAVEN UNITED GOVERMENT/SPACECORE DEFENSE FORCE

CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENT -- PRIORITY ALPHA CODE

TITLE:
A study of the Endervar threat. (Summary, updated 8.1.314)

ORIGINS: Still unknown. Earliest records show their emergence in year PRE 5139. Speculation points to the Endervar threat originating from outside the galaxy. No indications of a homeworld have been found. All attempts at communication have failed. (SEE: THEORIES)

AIMS: Endervar ships prioritize the search for intelligent organic life above all else.  Habitable masses including planets, moons, and even artificial space stations have been targeted for subjugation. The reasons are unclear, but systems devoid of sentient life have never been under threat. Ongoing studies monitoring the Endervar activity estimate that between 800 to over 3000 sentient races have already been conquered.

TECHNOLOGY: Endervar ships are built from an exotic form of matter, which has been observed to operate under different physical laws. The matter has been shown capable of warping space for sub-light propulsion and extended periods of faster-than-light travel. The matter can also accelerate particles to create defensive fields, and emit extremely powerful beam blasts as a form of weaponry. All attempts for closer study, however, have failed; the Endervar ships will instantly disintegrate upon critical damage or destruction. (SEE: DETAILED MATTER ANALYSIS)

METHOD OF OPERATION: Lone Endervar ships have been observed scouting systems for intelligent life, only to summon companion ships to begin a full-scale invasion. Group attacks typically number between 100 and 700 ships, depending on the scale of activity within the system. Endervar vessels will only engage in hostile attack if a threat is perceived, or their approach is impeded.

SUBJUGATION: Upon securing the targeted world, Endervar ships will generally orbit and emit disruptive force fields above the atmosphere, blocking any attempts to communicate or travel to the planet. The ships will then begin cannibalizing themselves, forming a physical barrier around the planet, enshrouding the world in exotic matter. Once completed, the barrier is impenetrable and immune to all forms of attack, including anti-matter and transphasic weaponry. Conversely, no one has been known to ever escape the barrier. (SEE: ENDERVAR SHIELD) 

EXPANSION: Subjugated worlds have been shown to indefinitely spawn new Endervar ships from the shell of the created barrier. Total Endervar ship numbers are impossible to calculate, but their presence has been found to extend to less than half of the galaxy, primarily in the Sagittarius and Perseus Arms.

WEAKNESSES: Although subjugated worlds remain impervious to attack, Endervar ships are still susceptible to most forms of energy-based weaponry. The latest class of N-beams have been shown to be particularly effective. In addition, no Endervar ships have ever been observed traveling within hyperspace, a disadvantage that has limited their movement to warping through normal space at FTL-speeds.

STRATEGY: Militaries from various galactic governments have tried to contain the Endervar threat by intercepting the ships before they can assemble and invade. The most successful attempt was a strategy by the Alliance in 8892 A.F., which deployed what was then the largest machine fleets to patrol around so-called “containment zones.” But subsequent attempts to control the Endervars have failed, due to their rising numbers, and the emergence of the new enemy Overlord ship. (SEE: ERADICTION INTIATIVES, BATTLE OF ZORA)

CONCLUSIONS: Despite ongoing efforts, much about the Endervars continues to remain a mystery. The Alliance’s containment strategy is also no longer effective, and has essentially failed. Total galactic subjugation by the Endervars is inevitable under current conditions.

RECOMMENDATIONS: (SEE EXPERIMENTAL WEAPONRY. ULTRA-CLASSIFIED).

Julian pressed his fingers under his nostrils, and began rubbing the scarlet away. The specialist handed him a cloth from the table.

“I’m sorry,” he said, dabbing at his face with the napkin. “It’s just from an old injury.”

As the nosebleed passed, Julian sat there awkwardly. The New Terran commander had invited him to dinner, insisting they get to know each other better.

Julian reached for the glass of water, which he drank from to wash down his food, a meal made out of actual meat. Engineered chicken if he wasn’t mistaken, sautéed in a pink sauce. The specialist sat across from him at the mess hall’s table, presumably enjoying the dinner before them.

“Yes, discharged a few years back with SpaceCore.”

He paused on the details, the traces of blood still on his nostrils.

“I was injured,” he said. “Then underwent a rejuvenation, before returning to civilian life.”

ou survived and that’s what matters.>

Survived
, he thought. “I guess,” he added. “Thanks to medical science.”

<
The SpaceCore will need a pilot like you.>

It was a simple remark, meant to be polite, even optimistic. But Julian wasn’t so sure.

“I don’t know. Things didn’t end well last time.”

Julian said it like a self-deprecating joke, as he thought back further to the past. “I was trained, starting since the age of 12 or 13. For a time, it was my life.”

<
Was it an honor?>

“No, I was just one among the many. Drafted to serve.”

Julian let out a long gasp, his mind trying to comb through the tattered memories, when he felt his heart jump.  

“What I saw just days prior. Trying to escape the Endervars... It happened so fast, just like before. The combat and the losses. Enemy ships. Particle beam fire. We were there, fighting. And then... ”

Julian no longer wished to say anymore, feeling the memories curdle. Nor did he have to, the commander reaching across the table to touch his hand.

<
I completely understand. I too have seen enough of this war.>
             

She let go and brandished a wide smile on her seemingly innocent face.               

<
It may not seem like it, but I’ve had a long life, and seen many things. Far too much of it witnessing conflict, whether it be from the Endervars or even from within.>

Julian looked at her, skeptical. To him, he was staring at a young woman just entering the adulthood of her life. But in his mind, he sensed the sophistication.

“I have to ask, how old are you really?” he said.

She was not at all surprised by the question.

Julian had known other New Terrans before. They were humans like him. Only different. Very different.

Haven was not the only colony mankind had settled following the fall of Old Earth.  Historical records claim there were six seed ships that had escaped. Each one traveled in different directions to ensure humanity’s survival.

One of those seed ships had founded the colony that would be known as New Terra. Unlike Haven, its history would follow a different path. The New Terrans would be the first to initiate contact with the powerful Ula race, and then with the Alliance itself. Early on, the New Terrans would involve themselves with the Endervar wars years before the people of Haven had even found their new home.

That involvement had led to many technological breakthroughs for the New Terrans, some of it to extremes the people of Haven had only dabbled in. Not only could they build living bio-ships, but they had even genetically altered themselves to include alien DNA along with their techno-organic implants. People like the specialist Alysdeon were practically immortal and could speak to anyone solely using their mind. They used those abilities to communicate with alien races, as well as their own starships.

Julian toured the commander’s vessel, expecting to find other crew members. But he saw none, the grand hallways all eerily vacant.

The commander explained that there was really no need for any personnel to operate the ship. Like any organism, the vessel could sustain itself. Specialist Alysdeon, however, was constantly linked to the ship’s so-called consciousness. This allowed her to “guide” the vessel with her every thought.

She had taken Julian to the ship’s central core, and half-expected to find a standard energy reactor, built from machinery and quantum particles. But instead, he confronted what was a living organ, contained within a vat of liquid.

He peered at it through a crystalline wall, the so-called brain housed inside the large tank. Julian could hear the organ rumble, and noted the thick veins and tentacles across its shimmering white shell.

The commander fondly touched the crystalline wall. Julian initially thought nothing of it, only to see that her hand had begun to fall into the wall. Eventually, her whole arm sank through. In another step, she was on the other side, immersed in the chamber of alien fluid.

The commander swam through the liquid, and waved back at Julian. Not once did she gasp for air. 

Julian was about to place his own hand on the crystalline wall, before he pulled back, afraid of what might happen.

“I envy you,” he said, unsure if she could hear him. “I always wished I had my own ship, to travel the stars.”

The commander nodded, her hair lifted in the lagoon-like water.

<
Yes. I am lucky. Unfortunately, I fear that things are changing. Soon, the stars themselves may no longer be safe.>

She placed her hand on the vital core, and caressed it. The vessel responded, the echo of an alien child cooing throughout the ship.

Waking up in his quarters, Julian saw blackness outside the window — the ship had returned to normal space.

Orbiting nearby trolled a gas giant, streams of cumulous white streaking across its vapor shell. The vessel’s destination was the fourth moon, a globular crumb of rock in the face of its mammoth companion.

A fleet had stationed themselves around it, forming a churning moving mass of ships. As they flew closer, Julian could see vessels of all kinds, dotting the space in different shapes and colors. Military cruisers lurked in the cold open as giant shadows standing watch. Floating about were the dozens of cargo craft and transport ships, blazing in the night with a rainbow of electronic lights. The outpost itself was entrenched on an airless low gravity planetoid, pocketed by meteors and sheets of ice that looked like lesions. The vessel carrying Julian gradually ascended down, flying toward the camouflaged base, its color granite like the moon itself. Bydandia military base is what it had been called. The structure was divided among five different wings, with a central spherical core. Like a mechanical spider clamped to the ground, the base opened a hanger bay door at its abdomen, with the bio-ship swooping in and then landing.

He stepped off the landing bridge protruding out from the underbelly of the vessel. While the walkway itself was a mechanical construction, built out of metal, Julian could look and see the outer hull of the ship was not. It was entirely black, and seemed to be made out of space itself, the surface like a liquid ooze filled with the glitter of stars. He marveled at it, and thought for a moment that he saw a towering dragon. The head of the vessel was shaped like a pointed beast, with a long neck connecting to the rest of its body. Two wings drooped from the side, the craft both fierce and imposing as it perched above Julian.

The hanger bay he now found himself in was a vast dome, the sounds of machinery echoing within the airy structure. Smaller and tightly-built cargo vessels surrounded him, each one unloaded by human dock workers.

The New Terran commander walked down, still behind him.

<
You will be debriefed by your government’s officials soon now. I am confident they will work hard to help you.>

Placing his two feet on the outpost base, Julian turned around and stared at the specialist, her unnaturally young face smiling once again.

<
I’ve contacted medical staff to begin the transfer. They should arrive shortly. Your friend Nalia will no doubt be fine.>

“Thanks,” he said. “Thanks again for saving us.”
             

<
You would have done the same for me.>

He could see the sincerity in her face. Strange, he thought, to be looking at someone who was more than three centuries older than him, yet had not aged in skin and body. There were others like her, those who had lived one lifetime after another, even among his own people. But she had never technically ever said a word to him. The New Terrans had always been so different. He saw her gaze, in awe at how supremely calm she was.

“Will I see you again?” he asked.

The commander paused.

<
I do not know. I will be returning to the main New Terran fleet. We will continue assisting with Haven’s government. But the Endervars have endangered this entire region of space. I hate to provide assurances with this war spreading.>

War. No one could escape it. And for all he knew, this might be last time Julian would see this woman.

“Hopefully our luck doesn’t run out. So far, you and me both have been hard to kill,” he said.

<
I’ve enjoyed our time together, even though it was brief.>

Her right hand then rose.

They shook, a firm grip from both their hands.

As the commander left to return to her vessel, Julian walked onward. Nearby in the hanger, he saw a man not much older than him, dressed in a brown military uniform.

“Hey,” Julian said to the officer, carrying nothing but the clothes he wore. “I guess I’m a refugee.”