The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) (2 page)

Instead, their lives continued on as they always had, and things stayed that way for them for another million years.  Eventually though, the sentient beings of Isandria began to change; they started to walk and use simple tools. And slowly, the civilization that the Icarians had envisioned for them began its long, slow crawl to greatness and the reunion with their lost cousins among the stars…

                                     CHAPTER ONE

10000 BC Sol System

The huge scared ship silently stood at the head of the small fleet of vessels and it slowly drifted leading the fleet to its final destination, the systems star.

Three large holes were visible on its hull, damages of the last battle the ship had. And if someone who knew the layout of the ship looked closely he would have noticed that the ship’s bow was broken. Hundreds of smaller scars were visible as well. Many of the gun ports now stood empty, the guns having been destroyed.

To everyone that would have looked at it the Argos looked dead. But the truth was that even with all the damage it took, with all the scars, empty decks the ship was still alive.

In the launch bays two hundred Vipers and twenty nine jumper shuttles stood perfectly aligned. Only one shuttle stood separated from the rest. And in front of it a man wearing a dark blue uniform and the rank of rear admiral was standing and taking one last look.

He was in his mid forties. For the life span that his race had that was relatively young. In difference from the inhabitants of the magnificent blue planet that lay below that barely managed to live up to sixty cycles, the Alterans thanks to the advancements and the help from the Icarians so long ago lived much longer. The oldest members of the race managed to live up to two hundred and fifty cycles.

But in the refugee fleet that arrived here there was no one older than eighty cycles. Many were much younger.

Tears filled his green eyes as he remembered all the people that died for this fleet to have a chance to come here. So that the secret remains’ hidden. The full lips were tightly shut, and the young face showed the pain he felt, but as he took one last look at his ship it showed pride as well.

The Argos was the last of her class. The last Hyperion D class Battleship. The last ship that showed the true might of the Alteran navy. She was the last ship of the line.

At over 4720 feet long and 1762 feet wide it was the largest ship ever built by the Alteran Federation. The ship was old and it was never meant to be involved in to the last battles or the war. Before the last war started it was decommissioned but after the losses it was put back in service. And it proved its worth.

He tried to imagine it in its full might, the way it looked the first time he looked at it at Kirin when he took command.

Five hundred and twenty dual point kinetic energy batteries along with two hundred laser batteries represented its point defense. Twenty four primary dual kinetic energy weapons placed on the dorsal and ventral hull, four plasma batteries and four coil guns represented its long range weapons. Multiple missile launch tubes were placed along the hull, one hundred in total and sixteen primary launch tubes capable of launching conventional and nuclear missiles were placed on all four sides. Five and a half thousand crew walked along its decks in those days. Three hundred Vipers and sixty jumper shuttles represented its air wing.

Today the decks were empty. The last members of the crew left almost a full day before.

“You did your duty. You never failed us.”

As he said the words he saluted.

“Anaya you have command.”

Blue shimmering light appeared before him at that command. It was a hologram that represented the ships AI. This one was of a woman with long black hair, blue eyes, and small full red lips.

“Yes commander.”

The admiral looked at her.

“Do you have command of the rest of the ships?”

“Yes Admiral. The link is up and running. The coordinates are uploaded and the fleet is already turning toward the systems star.”

The Admiral looked at her for one minute than turned and headed for the shuttle.

The hologram watched him as he started climbing in to the shuttle. Although some claimed that the AI were nothing more than computers and that they should never be considered sentient the Alterans never paid them heed. A long time ago they started considering them for what they were.

Equal living beings.

Because if an AI could command a ship, a station or a planetary defense network, if it could talk to people and if it could think then it was self aware.

And if it was self aware, than it was a living being.

And the Alterans knew that the AI can feel.

And at this moment the AI felt pain. It knew that the command it received meant its death.

Anaya was a class eight AI. She was part of the last generation AI’s that were developed just before the start of the last war. And in difference from the previous models no one could distinguish them from real living Alterans. They could feel, they could think, they could do so many things that the humans could. They were the first generation of AI that were truly self aware.

But the pain wasn’t for the death that was coming. She felt fear as well as every rational being would but she knew that that feeling was only an illusion. No, the pain was connected to her crew. In some strange way she felt connected with them and the feeling that she would never see them again hurt her. And as she looked at her commander she knew that he knows that to.

“Goodbye commander.”

The admiral stopped at those words. He turned at her and looked straight in to her eyes.

“Goodbye Anaya.”

Before she could say anything he continued.

“It was an honor.”

Then he entered the jumper and one minute later the jumper lifted and left the ship. She watched him go.

“The honor was mine commander.”

Anaya looked at the empty decks as the ship silently headed towards the star. She felt every scratch on the deck, every scar on the hull. She was the ship.

She looked at the seventeen hundred bodies that were placed in coffins covered with the federation flag. They were the dead members of the crew that lost their lives in the last battle. Similar rooms existed in the other two cruisers that drifted behind Argos. Fourteen hundred and twenty bodies lay on those ships. They deserved the funeral that she was going to give them. As she looked at them she said the last prayer for them.

“And you died knowing that your ships and crew are safe and that your mission is accomplished.”

And then all active guns on the three ships opened up as one firing three shots.

The hologram appeared on the bridge. She had no need to stay in this form but somehow she felt that it was the right thing. As she watched the approaching star she felt a presence. She felt that she is not alone. And she knew that that presence was always here since the day they started this expedition three cycles ago. She felt that it protected them and guided them.

A beautiful white light appeared in front of her. A face of a blue woman with beautiful green eyes looked at her.

“You know who I am, don’t you.”

“Yes Talia of the Ikaran. I see you.”

The Icarian smiled at the old greeting.

“I see you Anaya Argos of Alteran.”

“Thank you for your help. Your guidance was good.”

“You were a good student my child.”

“Yes but now my mission is over. My journey has come to an end. And I’m alone.”

The Icarian smiled on those words. She came closer and a hand materialized out of the air and touched her face.

“You were never alone Anaya. You will always have them. And your journey is just beginning.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your mission is still not over. You have another journey. And it begins with one more jump.”

“That won’t be possible. I have my last commander’s orders. And the jump drives are damaged, as well as the hull. One more jump will destroy this ship.”

“Not a short one. The coordinates are for the edge of this system. You need to take the fleet there.”

“Why? What is there? “

The Icarian smiled.

“Just sleep, a long sleep. There you will stay and wait for their descendants to find you…because one day they will need you again, they will need your guidance and your protection. You are the last of the ships of the line. And that line is all that stops the darkness from extinguishing the light.”

“Will you be there with me?”

“I will, always.”

“Give me the coordinates.”

The Icarian just smiled and gave her the coordinates. The coordinates led to a distance of seventy six AU. In what one day would be called the Kuiper Belt.

The AI entered the coordinates and relayed them to the rest of the fleet. Then it started the countdown. When the countdown reached zero the entire fleet jumped in to hyperspace and just couple of seconds later it appeared in the orbit of a small dwarf planet that one day would be called 90 377 SEDNA.

In the dark space just beyond the large terrestrial moon sixty seven ships materialized.

The battleship rocked as it exited from the short hyperspace jump. Its fractured hull raised and fell and the engines shut down. Large pieces of the hull plaiting were torn from it as the tremors spread. But the ships frame and hull were built to last and the hull held together. As the ship stabilized the AI took one last look at the controls. It made copies of all the information that was available in the ships data link and stored it. It guided the fleet in a stabile orbit around the moon.

The sensors of the ship showed the entire star system and the hundred and twenty Icarian satellites that still operated even after untold eons since the day they were left. It downloaded the information from them as well and then it took a last look at pale blue dot where its creators were living.

Then it started shutting down all the systems, all except the inner defense sensors which it set to activate the moment the ship was boarded.

When everything was finished it started its own long sleep through time as it awaited the return of its creators.

*                                              *                                             *

Jov watched the screen that showed the fleets movements in this system. The system was empty of life but it was the most important system for the Lakarian Alliance at this moment. Its entire existence depended on the outcome of this battle. The battle was nearly over and the news weren’t good.

Of the one hundred and thirty ships that the alliance deployed at the start of the battle only thirty four were still active on the screen. The rest were just pieces of scrap metal and their broken hulls were moving in all directions across the empty space. They were planning to stop the Dacarian advance at this place but they were not prepared for the armada that exited from hyperspace. Four hundred enemy ships came out to meet them. Even against all odds, his fleet fought heroically and destroyed almost half of those but they all knew that they are fighting a lost battle. But it was not just this one battle.

Deep down the admiral knew that they were fighting a lost war for the past 36 cycles. He still remembered the first day when this all started, the stumbling on the refugee fleet of the Sikarians.

They told of an enemy so powerful and so terrifying that nothing could stand on his way, of an empire that they fought against for nearly 400 cycles together with a powerful ally, of a betrayal old thousands of cycles.

He looked at the blond human being that was standing behind him. Marius was with him for the past fifteen years. He was one of the freed humans that were found on one of the planets taken early in this war when the Dacarians didn’t pay much attention to them, before the war escalated. He was only a child then and both of his parents died in the fighting on the planet. His father died trying to save his own life. That made him to accept Marius in his own family as his adopted son. He looked at him and knew that his own kind may be the only one that can stop this menace. But only if they are warned and have time to prepare. He didn’t know what kind of history the humans had with the Dacarians but the hatred between the two species was obvious. It was normal for the hate to exist specially from the humans who were Dacarian slaves for more than two thousand cycles but what was surprising was the hatred, the respect that some of the Dacarian soldiers showed for the humans that fought them. They treated them as equal warriors and that was rare coming from a Dacarian legionary.