The Giant
Author: Uriel Paradisi Anteovnuecci
Original post: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IBvU6bwVLEB-XD236Q98F_A2pafAZqNnwRUcqE0Dh5U/edit
Entry for the YC116 Pod and Planet Fiction Contest in the Eight Thousand Suns in New Eden category.
Bending through the half-filled glass, the sun’s light danced brightly on the counter while the band played a relaxing jazz tune. Though the Guristas were a band of pirates, everyone appreciated the good life: this pub was one of many places where the more privileged members could have a taste of luxury on occasion. Aarin took another sip of his drink and replaced his glass on the table, reclining into the lounge chair. He had come a long way within this ‘infamous organization’. The recruiter had not lied when he said he had potential, those four years ago; he had fulfilled it and had gone beyond even what his original superiors had anticipated. Aarin chuckled when he spotted one such ‘superior’ chatting up an attractive young waitress across the room; he had blown past him in rank in less time than it had taken the man to move up just once.
“Funny, ain’t he?”, grinned Beikk, a good friend and fellow pilot of his. He was relaxing on the couch across the counter from Aarin with a smoky-eyed Achura girl clinging to his arm.
“The man’s hopeless with women - but he never gives up. It’s fun to watch him put ‘the moves’ on the waitresses here”.
“I see what you’re saying - that was quite a slap she just gave him!” Aarin chucked at the sight.
“Again, eh? I told ya, he really is hopeless!” The Brutor laughed and took a swig from the bottle in his hand; the girl sighed contentedly and moved even closer to him . “But still, he’s one of the best drone techs I’ve ever met - the only reason he’s still in his position is the attitude he gives his boss!”
But as they watched the offended waitress hastily walk back into the kitchen, a hand came down on Beikk’s left shoulder.
“Who’s the best drone tech?”, a playfully irritated voice inquired.
“Well of course you’re the best - he’s one of the best, Ilna - and anyhow, he can’t do his job and fly a ship at the same time!”
Ilna was an attractive Sebiestor girl with ivory skin, hazel eyes and bleached white hair that was naturally jet-black. Aarin had met her within the first few weeks of his service in the Guristas, and they had cultivated a strong bond ever since.
“You’re damn right he can’t!”, she laughed; grabbing a bottle from the table, she laid across the chair next to Aarin and put her head on his armrest. The bartender frowned at her, but she stuck her tongue out at him. Aarin shrugged at the irritated man, who sighed and returned to his work.
“So what’ve you guys been up to? I haven’t seen much of either of you today.”
“Beikk and I had to go out and inspect an anomaly earlier - rogue drones again.” Ilna scrunched up her face and looked at Aarin’s eyes quizzically - “What kind of anomaly? they sent me out about a week ago to take a look at a few big ones; the bugs didn’t even pay attention to us! It was more like they were keeping an eye out for something...”
“Well ours weren’t quite like that, but there was definitely something up with them.” Beikk spoke up, suddenly looking much more serious.
“When we came close to them, we started getting interference from a massive signal - we couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from, but…” Aarin turned his head towards the deep-set window “there’s something out there: I can feel it.”
Ilna tried to stifle a laugh, but she couldn’t contain it - after she let it out, turning the heads of every person in the lounge, she looked back at Aarin:
“You looked so serious all of a- are you rehearsing for a holo or somethin’?”
“Wellll, I could be famous if I wanted to be - but this life is much more comfortable. I mean, honestly! People always tracking you down, wanting to know everything you do, what you eat, what you watch, when you like to relieve yourself - everything! Who would want that?”
“I could deal with it for you” she said: “Just tell me who’s botherin’ you and bang! Just a little blood to clean up after.” They all laughed; Beikk responded:
“Y’know, I’ve never met a pair as in-sync as you two - not everyone’s lucky enough to meet their match- much less twice”, he said while looking at Aarin.
“Well… I don’t know how my life would’ve gone if the both of us hadn’t left Couster back then, but-”
“Hey, hey! This is a strictly professional relationship” Ilna smirked at Beikk as she poked Aarin’s face repeatedly. “We’re partners before anything else.”
He grinned at her: that chapter of his life had ended when he joined the Guristas - if not before that. He had put that all behind him - and he was more than happy with where he was now. Suddenly, Ilna’s comm band lit up:
“Ah, shit - they need me down at the conference hangar for somethin’. I’ll-”
At that moment, Aarin’s lit up as well, followed by Beikk’s.
“Well it looks like we’re all headed down- let’s go see what this is all about” said Beikk with a smile as they began to leave. “See you soon, doll!” he called to his “friend”. She blew a kiss back to him before reclining and grabbing another drink.
After a short ride across the station, the trio arrived in the pilots’ area of the conference hangar. The room was sparse, save for a meeting table, the door, and an exit into the ship hangar. They sat in the chairs around the rather long table, along with Ghernald Halkos, another friend of theirs. Just as they sat, the other door opened, revealing Guristas Officer Thon Eney - the highest-ranking pilot aboard the station, and a capsuleer at that. She stepped calmly and coldly into the room and stood at the end of the table, commanding the immediate attention of all in the room without saying so much as a word.
“Pilots…” she started; “it has come to the attention of the leadership that very strange behavior has been observed in rogue drones in the surrounding area. They ignore our ships unless fired upon: a behavior inconsistent with their previous actions of trying to rip anything that comes near them to shreds. We have traced the location of a large number of drones through transmitters applied by our research teams; now, we have located a “point of origin”, or so to speak.”
“Ma’am, a hive?” spoke Gehrnald. “With all due respect, a drone hive is never an significant discovery; we’ve found instances where the drones around that sort of structure have been more powerful or aggressive, but they have never proven too much of a threat.”
Smiling with a frightening aura of fraudulent kindness, the Officer resumed her speech:
“Good captain, this is no normal hive. These drones are crowding together around a point: a single structure composed of what seems to be millions upon millions of drones. It exceeds the size of a Titan. This is no normal drone hive, captain.”
Stepping to the end of the table, she turned and spoke:
“That is where you all come in. The four of you have proven yourselves to be valuable and skilled pilots in the past; you, a seasoned tactician and strong leader” she said as she looked at Ghernald; “you, the highest ranked of our prototype vessel pilots”, turning to Beikk; “and you two, our most coordinated cooperators.
“The four of you will investigate the drone structure and return to me for debriefing; you are to tell no one else of this mission or what you see; this is of the utmost importance. All of the information you need is being sent to your ships as we speak. Fly safely, and return promptly.”
She left the room, striding with a professional confidence; the four pilots looked to each other and made their way to their ships.
...
“I wonder what the meaning of this is…” said Ghernald lowly.
“We have no way to know what we’re going to find out there; this is an unprecedented situation.” Beikk frowned onboard his modified fighter vessel: “A ‘massive structure’ covered head to toe in rogues: we have no idea what we’re up against.”
“And the structure’s over 2000 AU out from the target star!” Aarin interjected.
“Interstellar space… this’ll be exciting; that is, if it isn’t a complete warzone once we enter.”
Ghernald added:
“I certainly hope that we will not lose each other on such a strange mission”
“Well you’re no one to talk, you old egger: you’re just along for the ride! You’ll be fine no matter what happens to us” laughed Ilna; she was never one to be afraid, as they had all come to notice.
The pilots began the undocking procedure; the crew of Ghernald’s Rattlesnake-class battleship took care of the smaller processes while the man himself moved the giant ship towards the undock. Beikk remained in his fighter, onboard the Rattlesnake.
Ilna and Aarin followed in their cruisers; the Gila-class was a uniquely exciting ship for the both of them to pilot; the vessel operated at a lower crew capacity than others of its size, with between 10 and 17 members needed at any given time to maintain functions.
Aligning to the first stargate on their path, they shot off into the darkness of space.
...
As they landed in the target system, Ghernald brought up the coordinates of the structure and dragged Aarin and Ilna into warp with his ship. Ghernald’s Rattlesnake was fitted with an experimental warp coordination engine, designed to keep a group of ships clustered together in the same warp bubble.
“Damn that thing’s slow!” shouted Ilna over the comm systems. “If we were warping on our own we’d be there in half the time”.
“Yeeeeess, but then you’d have to wait for our help if anything happened” Beikk grinned through the speakers. “And we wouldn’t want that, doll.”
“Well this doll’s gonna catch you off-guard one of these days, buddy.”
Aarin laughed at his partner in crime:
“Watch your back - she means it!”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but we had really best analyze what we were given; we have a while before we land, and I would prefer that you are all prepared” spoke Ghernald.
The three of them sighed collectively and got to work, the crew members laughing quietly on the bridges.
…
“We’re arriving… everyone get to your positions.” Aarin brought his ship’s mixed weapons systems to life and fired up the shield emitter. “we have no idea what we’re up against, so prepare for the worst and hope for the best!”
As they landed, all four of them, even Ghernald, sat in silence looking at the structure. It stood vertically, and was easily over 18 kilometers from top to bottom; the entire surface of it bristled with activity.
“Well shit”, Beikk muttered. “There’s no way we’d be able to handle all of these on our own. Should we request backup?”
“No, the drones have not attacked in the past: let us move closer and observe them.” Ghernald pointed a path for them to follow, and Aarin and Ilna followed it, with the Rattlesnake trailing behind.
…
Safe?
No.
…
As they orbited the construct, their ships ran scans and tests as well as they could on it: but to their confusion, all that could be detected was the signs of rogue drone signals - until Ilna spoke up:
“Hey, there’s an anomaly - there’s a disruptive signal coming from the-” she stopped speaking as the propulsion systems of all three ships ceased to function.
“Well shit”, Beikk said again.
The drones began to move: those on the body of the structure took off, leaving a dark metallic carapace beneath, and joined the rest around it - the swarm picked up speed, going faster and faster around the structure. They passed by and around the three ships many times, emitting a “voice” that reminded Aarin of a threatened animal, then shot upwards towards the top of the behemoth, then sharply descended into the top of it.
“Did… did they get scared of us or something?”
Suddenly, a deafening digital scream blew through their systems. Not one of them could speak as they looked again to the structure.
It began to light up, with orange and red flashes and streaks appearing across its surface. “Small” components the size of houses started shifting and twitching as a bottomless sound began to rise: the construct was coming to life.
“Get us out of here! Right now!!”
“Our systems are still shot - we can’t move!”
The construct began to move - its titanic body began to articulate, bending forwards then backwards: the sound became louder and louder, manifesting through their ships communication relays.
“There’s no way…”
“That isn’t a construct” whispered Ilna:
“That’s a drone.”
As the sound reached its apex, the beast let out another deafening “roar”: the space out in front of its head began to distort, twisting and undulating: the pilots’ ships began to shake as the titanic drone began to initiate a jump.
“Where’s it going??” yelled Beikk: “It’s not headed toward any star system!”
“Then we have no way to follow it: keep watching, and don’t miss one detail. This is an unprecedented event - this drone is a Titan of its own kind; and we are the first to witness its power.”
A light brighter than a sun blinded them all; the giant disappeared into the void, leaving no trace but a ripple in the space where it had slept. The pilots, still in awe, began their trek home: their engines were working again as if they had never stopped.
…
Safe?
Yes.
The drone dropped back into space. Its sensors reassured it that it was now among its own, far from those who would destroy it. It turned itself back to its previous position, pointing directly upwards; the drones within it entered open space, lingering in a flat layer resembling the surface of a celestial ocean at the tip of the titan. They began to mingle, then extended their reach into the surface created by the others around them.
As it felt the familiar digital touch of the dozens of other slumbering giants, the titan prepared to do the same.
Safe?
Yes.
Sleep?
Yes.