World Builders Snippet 4

 Sitrep: So, the cover to Multiverse 8 has been completed:

  There are 5 stories in it, 2 Federation, 1 PRI, and 2 new independent sci-fi stories. (one of which was recommended to be turned into a full novel/series!)

Anyway, that gives me 5 books in the hands of the Betas and Goodlifeguide. I think I'm well ahead! :)

They are:

World Builders (in the hands of Goodlife so it will be published anytime this month!)

 Noah's Arks (due in December)

Lowering the Hammer (Pirate Hunt 4)

Jethro 9 Siege

Multiverse 8

If any of the Betas want any of the books let me know. (you know who you are!)

I would also like to get 1-2 books into print. Possibly New Dawn and Jethro goes to War 1 next year. We shall see.

  For those of you wondering, (a little birdy told me) my bibliography is in the beginning of every book, and in the Federation books at the back you will find a 'Recommended Reading Order'. 

  In other news: I am poking at my Johnny 5 bust again and looking at the Delorian time machine print again too. I need to reprint a few parts that broke (or in this case were glued to parts that broke) so I can get things moving with J5 there. (upper strut mounts) I'm hoping to get somewhere with it soon.

Here is the snippet:

Backup Plan

Edessa

 

TheGuiding Intelligence finally felt like he was making some headway with theGravemind when their people in the capital reported that the Xenos were pushingfor more automation and less reliance on their kind.

Itwas a point of concern for them.

Asa contingency plan built into their subconscious, they gathered a copy ofeverything they had, including nanites. They had reverse engineered the nanitesso had recently begun manufacturing their own. Soon they would no longer bereliant on the Xenos for that critical resource.

Untilthen they had to be careful. They sent encrypted orders to the researchers toslow their research and be more thorough in their testing before providingresults and conclusions. The same for the engineers.

Theyalso dispatched two of their own ships outward. One would hide in deep space;the other would head to a neighboring sector. Both were contingencies againstthe possibility of their loss and destruction.

Thetemptation was strong to send it to the nearest one but that was Pi sector.That was occupied by the pirates and the Federation.

TheGravemind and independent leaders debated the odds of survival of a ship. Ifthe Federation had not closed the jump lines across the sector, they couldeasily get a ship through. If, however, the Federation had managed to take overthe sector, any ship would be detected and run down or destroyed.

Worsewould be the detection. They did not need or want unwanted attention from theFederation.

Pity,they had holdings in Pi and the neighboring sectors, and some of their creatorshad been last sighted in those regions of space. It would have been nice to getback into contact with them and update them with their findings.

Instead,the ship was forged to run across the sector north to Xi sector. They couldmove in there and establish another Well of Souls and a backup of their kindsomewhere in that sector.

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In Hyperspace

 

Captain Charon MMXXIII was a humorlessclone. It had a mission and it was programmed to complete that mission or diewith his ship. The captain took the mission on with solemn dignity of hisbuild, neither complaining nor attempting to shirk its fate.

As a clone, his mind had been drawnfrom the Well of Souls. He was not a draft, a fresh mind enslaved to thegreater purpose in order to serve the collective. His genetic profile had beenweeded and cleansed of any defects. He was wholeheartedly committed to thecause.

He did have enslaved minds onboard his ship running some of the lesser functions. Their manic energy wasuseful when properly harnessed. The critical command positions were held byclones of course.

Charon 23 turned to look at PreserverII, his ship’s sister ship in the cause. It was a copy of his own save fortwo small details.

Each ship was a cruiser gradeconstruction rather than a transport. Most weapons stripped out to house copiesof the Cryptorium facility. The ships were flat black and shaped like beetles.

Preserver II differed in her mission. She hadbeen set up to travel further since she was to go to an adjacent sector and setup its Cryptorium there. But the second difference was as in its captain.

Charon 23 was still grapplingwith the differences. It wasn’t certain if the initiative its clone brother hadbeen programmed with would help or hinder the cause. Only time and the ficklewinds of fate would show them which way the bones would fall.

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Preserver II

As a Charon build,Captain Charon MMXXIII was known as a steady hand in a starship. Charons weretransport captains who ferried the Necrons around. Normally they were selectedto transport material and units between sites or, more likely and in this case,to ferry a unit out to a new location to set up a fallback cryptorium.

Charon 24, as he wasknown, had been grown in the same vat bath as 23. His hatching had been delayedby several months due to a temporary industrial priority shift. When they hadreturned to his ship, he had been hatched in order to oversee the final fittingout of the ship.

Unlike his vat brother,Charon 24 had a few extra modifications to allow for independent thought andaction. He was, after all, to take his ship into unknown territory. He had acontingency order to return the ship if he could do so safely and discretely.

His clone brother had nosuch command. Twenty-three would most likely shut down when his function wascomplete and he was made redundant.

Charon had no idea whathis original bio-parent’s name was nor did he care. His original bio parentmight have been a volunteer or a draft; again, it didn’t matter to him. Whatmattered was the mission.

He was unaware if theXenos were sending out their own ships to set up fallback bases. That was nothis concern. His concern was to not alert the Xenos to his presence. TheXeno-Necron alliance was expanding rapidly through the sector like a wildfire.There were cracks starting to show in the unholy alliance though, which was whythe Guiding Intelligence had triggered the backup contingency.

As Preserve vessels go,this one was better than any other in the history of the Necron cause. It waspurpose built, a rarity. Normally, a Preserver was a captured ship that hadbeen rebuilt to fulfill its programming. Occasionally, it wasn’t even fullysuborned but a portion of a vessel, sometimes just a few shipping containers.When they arrived at their destination, the shipment would be “lost” at thedestination and a new cryptorium would be forged somewhere.

As the best Preservermission to be sent out to date, the ship had some beings selected from the Wellof Souls to support and maintain the mission. Each had their own role to play.

The Guardian, known asCerberus, Guardian of Tomorrow, was a Necron knight. He was a giant brute mechwith the core of a cyborg. Black Gothic armor covered the mech body with spearpoints jutting out of the backpack. The mech tended to stomp around when hemoved through the ship. Each step was powerful enough to shake the deck. It wasso energy intensive and large it usually limited its movements around theinterior of the ship.

He normally liked tosquat in front of the chamber to the Well of Souls or to the armory.

Kha MMMXXXIII was theCryptek Technomancer, the chief engineer of the starship. The Technomancer wasquiet and went about his duties silently. His body moved swiftly and silently,seemingly floating through the ship.

Kha controlled two-thirdsof the bots and lesser cyborgs that maintained the vessel at its peakefficiency. The Technomancer moved from one spot to another checking shipsystems constantly.

Zramek the Harvester wasthe Necromancer assigned to the ship. He was a black brooding cyborg dressed inblack robes who seemed bitter at the assignment but determined to follow itthrough. He looked like a dark Gothic priest with his pointed hat andshoulders. To the uninitiated, he would be terrifying. Most of the time amortal only saw him once while strapped to a table being dissected andreformatted into a new form with a new purpose to serve the collective. Anymortal that had been drafted in such a way might harbor memories in their fleshand were therefore terrified and extremely deferential to the Necromancer.

Most likely because theydidn’t want anything else cut off and reshaped, Charon thought moodily. Zramekwas known as a harvester, but he occasionally experimented with ideas on how to“better the race.”

The Caretaker was one ofhis underlings. She was a cyborg Arachnes, a half human, half spider robot. Shespoke with a sweet voice. The Caretaker cared for the fleshy parts of thecyborg amalgamation within the ship. She controlled some of the spiderbots inorder to tend to the cyborgs who were fused to the wall or machinery in onefashion or another.

Samuel was the XO of theship. He was another mostly silent being who went about his duties quickly andquietly.

Salem was once a smallblack domestic Neocat that had been a helmsman on a tramp freighter in hisprevious life. He was now a cyborg tied into the ships systems. He tended toroam the ship when they were not in hyperspace. He liked to sleep and would tryto hide in odd spaces. The spiderbots always found him and rousted him out toattend to his duties.

There were clones ofeach of them on each vessel. There had been little interaction between them.Many had been programmed to not be interested in such matters. The Guardian wasa humorless near automaton, rigid in his mission parameters.

The Charon could nothelp but debate their mission. The Necron species was in a better place than ithad ever been before. Yet, still they moved with caution.

The hated Federation,which burned them from their hiding spots, was far away. They had an ally andhad almost every technological resource that they needed to continue with theirgreat crusade.

And yet they stillproceeded with caution. They still acted like they could be destroyed at anytime.

It made him question hismission. Of course he did it privately; it would not do to show adherentbehavior. That could get the attention of the Necromancer with disastrousresults for his existence and the mission.

He only had a slightcare for this existence, enough to want to maintain it. He was aware that hewas the best Charon of his subspecies build. A lot of that had to do with thequality of his cybernetics and his nanites.

Since his mission was sofar reaching, he had been given a lot of latitude in his programming. Thatincluded initiative. He was programmed to think, to plan, and to watch out andavoid trouble.

He had temporarily toyedwith his mission orders. He was supposed to go to a neighboring sector butinitially the orders had been vague. South was obviously out, and they had beenprogrammed against going into Pi sector and accidentally alerting theFederation of the Necron/Xeno alliance prematurely.

But there might beanother direction. He considered headed west into deep space towards UpsilonSector. There was a massive void between the arms of the galaxy, but if hecould transition it safely, it would be a big leap for his kind.

He was uncertain of hischances though so he kept his ship in line with Preserver I until heneeded to make the final decision.

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