Saturday, August 10, 2024

Extremus: Year 76

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Jaunemus, as Lilac told everyone it was called, is more oblong than Earth’s moon, Luna. It is made up of different elements in different ratios, and is believed to have formed via co-accretion, which is to say that it coalesced at roughly the same time as Verdemus, using a shared accretion disk at the dawn of this star system’s creation. This is relatively rare in the galaxy as most co-accretion events will happen for icy or gas giants, but not as easily for terrestrials. Luna, for instance, was formed due to an impact event instead. Due to its less spheroidal shape, its high centrifugal forces from rapid spin, and its significantly shorter distance to its host planet, the surface gravity of Jaunemus is extremely varied. All in all, however, an object will never be greater than seventy-five percent as heavy as it would be on Luna, which is already 16.6% its weight on Earth. Once the Kamala Khan scanned the entire surface of the planet, the Verdemusians agreed that the logical next step was to scan the Jaunemus too. It quickly found an anomaly. The sensors could detect no energy readings, but it picked up on a spot that was sitting at exactly the same gravity of Earth. That would be impossible naturally. The camera didn’t see any visible signs of human intervention, but there has to be something here, likely hidden below the regolith.
Eagan is maintaining his duties in the hock building, watching Ilias Tamm, having taken over for Lilac, who has better things to do with her life now. She and everyone else are landing the Kamala Khan now for a new mission, to investigate the Jaunemusian gravity anomaly. Belahkay will remain on the shuttle in case something happens. The rest have each put on the armor modules and helmets of their Integrated Multipurpose Suits to begin the search. “You good?” Lilac asks him.
He holds up the a-okay sign. “Yes, but I should be asking you that.”
Lilac returns the sign, and swings it around to get the group’s response. One might assume that Spirit would have become Tinaya’s second in command, but she didn’t want the job. “Okay. We go out two at a time, since that’s the maximum number of people who can fit in the airlock. I’ll go first with Niobe. Spirit and Totle will be next.”
I’ll go first,” Tinaya insists. Without bothering to wait for a response, she phase-shifts right through the hull of the shuttle, and gently drifts down to the ground. She holds the a-okay sign back up so others can see her through the window. Then she begins to walk around on her own.
Following their airlock procedures, the rest of them follow suit, though on their own vectors. It’s not particularly organized, but this is a search party, on the hunt for something unnatural, like a trapdoor, or even just a small sensor array.
“Naya, where are you? Where did you go?” Spirit questions.
Tinaya turns around. “I’m right here!” She starts to wave her arm.
“Can’t see you.”
“I’m waving!”
“No. You’re not.” Spirit starts to point. “One, two, three...four, including myself.”
Tinaya points to her own self. “Five.”
“Tinaya! What are you talking about? Are you invisible?”
“I don’t think so.” She was looking down as she was walking, but now she looks up as she’s turning around again, away from the group. Before her is a large structure, obviously built from the same stuff that the moon is made of. It’s several stories high. There is no way they would have missed this. She is invisible, as is whatever this place is. Niobe is even further along than her. She’s closer to the structure. “Niobe, you don’t see the building in front of you? You’re about to run into it.”
Niobe stops. “I am? I don’t see a thing.”
“Walk forward slowly,” Tinaya suggests. “Hold out your hand, and feel for it.”
Niobe does this. Her hand ends up passing right through the building, and then the rest of her.
“Are you inside of a building?” Tinaya asks.
“No. I’m...it’s...there’s nothing here.”
“It’s your glass,” Lilac guesses. “You walked through a dimensional barrier, and didn’t even realize it. Anyone else who tries is just going to miss it entirely.”
“Okay. I’ll investigate, and report back.”
“No, you won’t,” Lilac argues.
“Yes. I will. I’m in charge.”
“You may as well be on another planet,” Lilac goes on. “We can’t help you. Come back out, and we’ll have Belahkay build a magic door for us.”
On it,” Belahkay agrees.
“I can’t get hurt, I’m made of glass,” Tinaya jokes ironically.
“Don’t do it,” Spirit says.
“Come stop me. I’m already through the wall.” She’s standing in a dimly lit hallway now. There appears to be a dead end to her right, so she shrugs, and heads for the left. As she walks, she reports to the group what she’s seeing, as boring and nondescript as it is. Walls standing on the floor, holding up the ceiling. There’s nothing interesting here, until there is. She finds herself in what looks like a giant’s library, except inside of storing books on the shelves, it’s artificial gestation pods. Thousands and thousands of gestation pods. It looks like that one scene in The Matrix.
Are they occupied?” Belahkay asks.
“Hold on, let me get closer.” Tinaya approaches the nearest stack, and looks through the view window. “It’s...it’s Omega Strong.”
Really.” Spirit says, not sounding much like a question.
“This one is Omega too. And also this one. They’re all Omega.”
Maybe they’re not really Omega,” Niobe offers. “Maybe they’re Anglos, from Project Stargate.
Does it matter which?” Aristotle questions.
Yes, it does,” Niobe contends.
“I found a terminal. I’ll research what’s going on here.” Tinaya steps over to it, and starts browsing. None of these systems is secure. As secretive as these operations are obviously meant to be, you would think that someone would at least password protect it, even if it’s not quantum encrypted. “I found the main systems,” she says. “Life support...now on. Dimensional veil...off.” As she’s looking through more of the data, which mostly includes health and quality tracking information for each of the Omega clones, her friends walk through the front door, and meet up with her. By the time they arrive, the atmospheric generators have finished making this chamber breathable.
They remove their helmets. “Find anything else?” Spirit asks.
“Yeah, I was just about to talk to the little virtual assistant.” She presses the button, and says, “bloop,” at the same time.
An Omega hologram appears next to her. He sizes her up, as well as the group. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Neither are you,” Tinaya points out.
“Yes, I am,” Hol!Omega volleys.
Tinaya breathes deeply. “Report.”
“I don’t know your security clearance,” Hol!Omega replies.
“Clearance Level Crystal,” she replies, phasing her hand through the nearest pod, then pulling it back out again.
“Interesting. I still can’t tell you anything,” Hol!Omega says apologetically.
“Okay.” Tinaya claps her hands. “Belahkay, prepare the warhead. We’re blowing this place to smithereens.”
“No, don’t do that,” Hol!Omega begs. “Fine, I’ll tell you. Just stop threatening violence. Jesus.” He throws up a second hologram, this one showing the Anatol Klugman, which is waiting in its hangar under the surface of Verdemus. “After years of debate, the council of Extremus finally decided to build a warship to deal with the threat of the True Extremists, who have been discovered to be the descendants of a time travel event that seeded life in a region of the galaxy known as the Goldilocks Corridor. Here, they have built what is now known to be the oldest self-sustaining civilization in this reality of the universe. At first, we believed them to be isolationists, who were only on-board Extremus to divert the ship to a new vector, away from their dozens of worlds. We have since learned that an ever-growing faction of purists are building an army with the intention of destroying Earth, and the rest of the stellar neighborhood. To our knowledge, they currently intend to leave Extremus alone, but that’s obviously not good enough for us. We can’t just sit by and watch our brethren die in a holocaust.
“My original self, Saxon Parker attempted to broker a peace treaty, but he was ultimately killed for his efforts, along with a number of my Anglo brothers, who were originally put in place to operate the Project Stargate colonization ships. Since the Anglos are not equipped to fight a war, they have returned to their responsibilities. It is up to us to put a stop to the Ex Wars.”
“I thought that it was called The Bears War,” Tinaya points out.
Hol!Omega frowns. “If someone called it that, they’re either an Exin themselves, or heard it from an Exin spy. It is their term for it.”
Tinaya looks over at Spirit, who begins to seethe. “Thank you for telling me that. Now I know who in the Bridger section cannot be trusted.”
Tinaya is choosing to trust that Spirit is being honest about that, and isn’t the Exin spy that they should be worried about. She nods. “Go on, Omega.”
“The Anatol Klugman was designed for an army of clones.” Hol!Omega looks down at a line of pods. “My clones. As you know, I was created as any other Anglo, but I renounced my calling, and struck out on my own. Saxon took my place, and his reward for this was a horrific and painful death at the hands of an enemy who knows no honor. I vowed to donate myself to the cause in the most literal and profound sense. I will pilot the AK to the Goldilocks Corridor, and wage war with them to keep them away from Earth. The way I see it, it’s the least I could do.”
“The Klugman,” Belahkay begins, using Tinaya’s helmet’s speaker to stay in the conversation, “it doesn’t have a reframe engine. Why waste the time moving at only relativistic speeds?”
“A number of reasons,” Hol!Omega responds. I wanted to maximize the real estate in the ship so that more Omega soldiers could fit. Secondly, a reframe engine poses a safety risk. It’s honestly a wonder the one on Extremus wasn’t damaged by the micrometeorite strike that took out our engineering section decades ago. It’s a very delicate piece of machinery, which requires constant maintenance at scale. This need would be disadvantageous during a battle when every fighter counts. Lastly, a reframe engine is unnecessary to accomplish our goals. Using data from the future, we know when the Exin army will launch their assault on the stellar neighborhood. Before they do this, their soldiers will be scattered on various worlds populated by innocents. We wish to contain the theatre of war to their staging planet, and they will only be at that location during a relatively short window.”
“You speak as if you are Omega Proper. Are you not but a copied version of him, while the original remains on the Extremus?” Spirit asks him.
“I am the uploaded consciousness of the original Omega...not a copy. There is no other on the ship at the moment. As I’ve said, I have dedicated myself to this. No mission matters if this one is not seen through.”
Spirit closes her eyes respectfully, and nods once.
“Your plan,” Aristotle begins to say. “It will fail.”
“I’m sorry?” Hol!Omega questions.
“I know the campaign of which you speak,” Aristotle goes on. “The Exin army overwhelms your ship in days, and moves on to their goal with barely a second thought.”
“How is that possible?” Tinaya asks him. You’re only from about eighty years in the future. It will take much longer for the Klugman to arrive, and begin this campaign.”
Aristotle stands fast, and says nothing for a moment. Everyone waits for his answer. “I was not always in the time period where Team Matic found me. I do not speak of it for the dangers of intervening in the timeline, but I believe that I can stand by no longer. Omega, your warship will fall, and your clones will be annihilated. I urge you to reconsider your strategy.”
“What would you have us do?” Hol!Omega asks him.
Aristotle breathes deeply. “Your choice to protect innocent lives by localizing the battlegrounds is a noble one, but by allowing your enemy to concentrate its forces, you also allow them to maintain their home field advantage while limiting your own access to resources. They will be exhausted in the midst of a bombardment of fighters that you cannot hope to stave off. You may be underestimating their ground weapons.”
“I didn’t think that they would have any ground weapons,” Hol!Omega admits. “They never planned on fighting so close to home.”
“They are more prepared than you realize. They have been planning a defensive for millennia, fearing the wrath that the stellar neighborhood may descend upon them one day. That’s why they’re so pissy and violent,” Aristotle explains. “A more effective approach would be to pick them off where they live, while they are off-guard and not expecting hostilities. But I understand that you would never do this—I would not either—so I instead suggest taking your resources with you. I can aid in this effort, and will agree to do so.”
“What do you mean?” Hol!Omega asks.
Tinaya is very worried, especially since Aristotle just rather casually suggested putting civilians at risk. They still don’t know how old he is, and they have clearly not heard everything he has been up to. “Yeah, what do you mean?”
Aristotle hesitates to answer again. But he does. Boy, does he? “They have a staging planet…so take one of your own with you.”

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