Mitar Astralis - The War People

The War People
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-88-354-5306-2
Verlag: Tektime
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 379 Seiten

In the era of the first intergalactic expansion, human species cannot tolerate dark times in their history. The Astralis Empire will stumble upon a mystery that will undermine its very foundations. It must defend itself against a powerful enemy that has emerged from the depths of Andromeda and whose goal is the complete annihilation of humanity. The greatest human epic is shattered, the imperial power is on its knees. The fate of the human race lies in the hands of a handful of men on a mission designed to unravel secrets of which all knowledge has been lost. But what is the identity of the enemy? Why does he seek to erase all traces of humanity from known space? Will thirteen men be able to turn the tide of war? Climb aboard the O-Imperium. The most advanced starship in the Imperial fleet is departing!

Two millennia have passed since the discovery of Vanobi (the first exoplanet inhabited by a civilization of extraterrestrial sapiens) and two hundred years since the discovery of Estyr (the second). Millions of superluminal probes have explored Galaxia Nostrum (new name for the Milky Way) in the vain search for other human civilizations. Recent discoveries of the lost city of Aknuchia and the Way of the Sapiens have cast more shadows on the origins of humanity. The entire Galaxia Nostrum is under the protectorate of the greatest human civilization in known history: the Astralis Empire, the only power to possess the technology for intergalactic travel. When humanity is ready for great expansion in the Andromeda galaxy, the appearance of the alsiers will disrupt imperial expansionist plans. What is the true identity of the alsiers? Why are they so determined to erase all traces of humanity from the universe? The Imperial Grand Council is convinced that the attack by that powerful new enemy is linked to the mystery of pre-astralis civilizations. The nectunt mission has the task of investigating the ancestralis, the ancient sapiens people who sowed the seed of the human race. Will thirteen men be able to acquire the knowledge to turn the tide of war? The O-Imperium, the most advanced starship in the Imperial fleet, is departing.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mitar, A.J.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Burnett, Maria

Leseproben

1

The ancient mystery

Under the rays of a dusky sun, small, tapering hands crashed against the colonel's chest.

The man fell backward over a pleasant turf to lie on it; the rustle of wings was heard, and, in the distance, shadows rose with effort. On that wild planet, ornithomorphs were the dominant species.

Lying down, the colonel became intoxicated at the sight of some feminine graces that instantly stirred his manhood.

But he winced in pain. "No! Stop!" He begged, "Please get your foot out of there; how will I satisfy you if you damage it."

"I am the one there to decide the fate of your little one!" She had a ruthless or excited expression. "He must be limp now!"

"But I-"

"I'm your mistress, soak him or I'll kick him!"

He unleashed a warning kick.

"No, stop! Stop, I got it!"

Evolution had given the astralis control of their penis, and the colonel could comply.

But the despot was moody. "Now I want it hard, forked, and black. Now!"

"Your every wish is an order."

"I like it when you obey without objection."

She loosened her long black hair, perched on top of him. "Come on Bugor, don't just stand there."

The colonel breathed voluptuously into her skin, so magnetic and desirable.

With brutality, he pinched her nipples.

"Yes! Yes!" She screamed like a demoniac. "Good Bugor...keep it up."

He allowed few to call him by his battle nickname: Bugor (the shark).

A nickname they had irreverently stuck on him because of the large dissipation ridge on the back of his head; it was made of nanotek and retractable fabric; to the colonel it had nothing to do with a shark fin.

Something nearby emitted high-pitched screams and flew away in a flicker of color.

Bugor closed his eyes and gasped as the woman found what she was looking for and essayed its double turgidity.

"You are mine!" He told her. "Without a chance."

The colonel's nuchal filaments came alive to embody themselves in her nerve plexuses all along her spine.

The woman arched, after a little cry of pleasure or pain. A muscle spasm spread from the cusp of her belly to the phalanges of her feet.

When the bio-synchro surged, they shared the same frantic breathing, the same quivers.

But Hugin IAS broke the idyll with a crescendo of Chopin's Nocturne.

He restored enlightenment. "Mission nectunt. AA 345 30.04 07:00:00 SIC, Awakening procedure. End of dream stasis process in ten seconds - nine - eight -.... -zero."

Hugin's voice had never been so annoying. "Starting standard waking mode for Colonel Alexander Aleinikov."

Swarms of nanotech-destroyers dissolved the hydrating membrane on the colonel's face. Through flickering eyelids, green light penetrated his head like an electrified biblade.

The colonel's EOS self-diagnosed his vital parameters, showing little sensory dips.

The man rotated his head with an amplitude limited by the numb joint. "Shit!"

He stood on deck number two in the control room. "Why now? I was almost there." He would have gladly enjoyed the shapeliness of his virtual lover, in the CVI (virtual induced construct).

The other space marines were floating in midair, a foot above the floor, each in their respective anti-inertial stations; despite their yellowed moisturizing membranes, one could make out their facial features.

The colonel looked up at deck number three; he recognized Dr. Liukai Ugolini through the translucent ceiling and was annoyed to find himself five meters lower.

He would have awakened all his space marines, but protocol called for the awakening of only two officers, before re-entry into Einsteinian space.

"Welcome back Colonel Aleinikov!" Said Hugin.

"Thank you. You may be one of the smartest artificial intelligences in the Empire, but you don't seem to be awake when it comes to awakenings." And an audible laughter erupted, rousing the space marine at the nearest anti-inertial station, toward the ship's bow.

It was Lieutenant Loganach, who seemed in muscle spasms.

"Excuse me! Did I wake you up?" Said the colonel under a grin.

[You were next on the list anyway; it was your turn.] He sent the joke into telepat, but exploded a vowel laugh.

Then, he pars-concentrated on two sensorial shared by Hugin: a report of the crew's physical condition, and an update of the ship's log.

Before the nano-destroyers' arrival, Loganach had shredded the hydration membrane with his fingernails. He occupied the fusion station, which was more complex than the others. To be an Imperial Navy pilot he had to be an astralis with special sync skills.

His eyes relaxed after the EOS stabilized.

He wanted to loosen his tongue. "Have a nice life, Colonel Aleinikov."

"Good life, lieutenant, I will not bring you coffee, but I urge you to initiate protocol in return. Immediately!"

Loganach nodded, and the colonel took sadistic pleasure in being unbearable.

The antigravity beam laid the lieutenant down and then dissolved.

The man lay down on top of a mass of nanotek that looked alive. "Initiating fusion mode!" He said that substance was first absorbed by his body, then rejected by every pore of his skin. The limbs liquefied and flowed out.

[Fusion successfully completed,] Loganach communicated.

Billions of the lieutenant's cells and nanobiotes had poured into the fusion conduits of the O-Imperium.

Pilots like Loganach achieved awareness of every single nanotek module of which their ships were composed. But advanced sensing was useless; the laws of sensor physics did not apply in subspace.

"I love subspace, but I hate it." Said the lieutenant; he must have felt in a cage prison, blacked out to the outside world.

On the large holographic screen, subspace flowcharts, probability-route diagrams and re-entry point distributions came alive.

In Colonel Aleinikov's mind, dozens of perspective images of the O-Imperium occupied an entire channel of thought. What magnificence, what grace. He thought.

He felt a chill rise from his gut. The ship reminded him of a sea manta ray, but swimming through the billows of space-time.

Would it withstand the impact of a battle with that invincible enemy?

He snapped his lips and said:

"Sorry, honey, for neglecting you all these months for that virtual whore."

The O-Imperium slid between the super-chaotic strings of subspace.

Lt. Loganach was tracking the probability course thanks to Hugin's computing power. It was the IAS's job to intersect the re-entry curves.

Every detail had been planned on Enceladus-1, but as a far-sighted astrophysicist, Colonel Aleinikov knew the dangers of the dimensional transition. "Lieutenant! Report."

[Reentry coordinates, elaborating.] Communicated Loganach.

Colonel Aleinikov was heartened by the etymology of the word Hugin, thought, in an ancient Earth language.

[Come on Hugin, show us what you can do.]

[Trust me,] replied the IAS, but colored the bulkheads a faint orange of danger.

"After you truncated me with a double synchronic orgasm? How could I trust you?" He held back a snort because he had to remain totally concentrated. After the transition, the O-Imperium would be like a boulder thrown into a body of water. He worried about gravitational ripples, which could be located hundreds of light-years away.

For prudence, the point of re-entry into Einsteinian space had to be chosen in areas of interstellar wilderness, far from the first target, the Gynsian sector, and from the routes taken by the Xentinel and Andronis-1 colonists.

[Graviter ready for gravitational pulse.]

[Transition. now!]

A slight vibration preceded the stillness.

Aleinikov instantly sensed cosmic rays, the radiation of dim stars.

He had the reassuring feeling that O-Imperium was where it was supposed to be: in a space of low stellar density, between the outermost arms of the great Andromeda spiral.

"We are in the Merangolo Desert, fifteen thousand light-years from the Salis system," said the lieutenant. According to the navigation code, not everything was to be communicated via sensorial, or telepat, and the vowel was a reminiscence of the past to be preserved.

The O-Imperium adapted to Einsteinian space, regaining a more compact and monolithic form.

Inside the ship, the nanotek bulkheads flowed into each other, or disappeared by merging with different structures; at the control room they thinned to translucence. The large observation portholes reappeared.

The ship continued its course by inertia. Then, it slowed with uniformly decelerated motion.

"Prepare the long-range sensors," said Colonel Aleinikov. "EMCON5."

It was necessary to ascertain that the Ginsian sector was clear of danger.

Lt. Loganach shared the feeling of distant space that translated into a gentle breeze on Aleinikov's skin.

"I am not detecting any...