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aoskalskirata · 5 years

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When Hell breaks loose, it's never pretty...

The humans have been at war for a long time now, roughly 5 standard years since first contact with a resurgent alien AI that managed to wipe out it's creators some decades ago, or so it thought. A few outlying colonies, one of them just lightyears from Terra, panicked and left their worlds, becoming nomadic until they found mankind, and asked for shelter in exchange for advanced technology to propel their new hosts into space. The aliens now reside on Mars, and accept their new designation that had been derived nearly a century ago.

After learning of a potential threat to their homeworld, the humans quickly developed warships to defend Terra and Mars, and then it came. Just a couple larger ships, but with a massive swarm of drone fighters. Around 10 Hoplite-class frigates were lost, along with 3 mobile refineries and 2 wings of fighters. All told, around 50 lives were lost in the first conflict, and the Martians believed that their allies would soon lose the impending war, as the AI units were always transferring information, then a new series of ships started production in the shipyards. Three new combat models started patrolling out as far as Jupiter orbit, each larger than the last. The smallest of the three also looked a little more specialized, with a pod on its port side. Another AI destroyer jumped in on the Jupiter fleet, and this time, only two of the missile frigates were lost; another 6 lives. The humans were making deadlier vessels, but how long would these designs last? Apparently not long, as another large fleet of AI jumped in right above Mars, and even some of the larger cruisers went down, each holding 10 crew. Once again, things weren't looking good, and things went dark once the AI started sending their fighters against the Martian colonies. An hour into the raids, and a new, much larger ship warped in, with just one word plastered on the side: Atlas. A true capital ship, with it's own fighters to boot.

Once again, the AI was beaten back, and once again, the humans were victorious, even if at a cost. Some months after the Mars defense, one of the Martian leaders had requested permission to enter the human admiral's quarters aboard the Curiosity, one of four Hephaestus-class mobile shipyards moving around the system, Curiosity currently sitting above Mars, acting as the command center of a survey mission concerning the AI wreckage.

"Admiral, it's been three years since you developed the Hoplite frigate, and now you have a ship that can possibly face one of their dreadnoughts. How is this possible?"

"Well, let's look back to our first world war. The first half was fought on horseback, as that was the fastest mode of viable combat transportation at the time. Around 1916, the first tanks were made, thus changing the way we waged war forever. The second world war rolled around, and now you have several nations developing multiple kinds of tanks for different purposes, specializing them, and even making artillery more mobile than before. As we progressed, so did our technology... and our sadism followed."

The admiral thought for a moment "wait... dreadnought, as in larger than what we've seen already?"

"Correct."

"... we will meet again soon." He quickly walked out, and the representative followed.

Another year passed, and more and more AI capital ships came to their deaths, bringing thousands of Sol's finest down with them...

Present Day---

Admiral Hackett and Senator 'Rocky', as he had been nicknamed, now were meeting in the bridge of the Atlas command ship, overlooking an unusually large frame, holding a slightly smaller ship superstructure within.

"Admiral, what is this that's been commissioned? Surely not another warship variant?"

"If what you said two years ago was true, then all that's left is to keep scaling our ships up until either we can't go bigger or the war ends."

"You humans are so twisted at times.."

"It'll get to the point where it's either us or them, just as it had with your civilization. Adaptation is what allows the strongest to survive"

"The last time my species adapted was when we first touched the stars..." Rocky thought aloud, absentmindedly.

"Exactly. Complacency is a very deadly thing, and never works in favor of those that are"

"... how many men will this monster require?" Referring to the ship being constructed I the gantry.

"Over a hundred"

"What is the classification?"

"Ares" a thought suddenly comes to Hackett, and slowly surfaces through his face as he turns to loom at Senator Rocky.

"What?"

"Ares and Mars are the names of the Greek and Roman gods of war, respectively. Their mythologies and cultures were largely the same, and in some aspects, Rome borrowed from Greece. I believe that some of your people are still wanting to fight, no?"

"I-... well, I guess it would seem fitting, given the new name of our civilization. I shall have word put out to my people, and will ask that you send over recruiters immediately. I will set up the appropriate facilities in the meantime."

"Of course, Senator." The two departed, Admiral Hackett taking a few more minutes before returning to his work.

Decades pass without conflict, and the AI are all but forgotten. The newly promoted Admiral is about to announce the mass demilitarization of the Sol Defense Fleet when reports start flooding his terminal. Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn fleets are all wiped out, along with the shipyards Warbound and Vulcanist. Hundreds of lives lost.

The Admiral was aboard the Atlas, orbiting Mars, and a massive fleet jumps in right on top of his. Over 10 destroyers, 5 battle cruisers, and 3 ships of a much larger size, the fabled dreadnoughts. Massive clouds of drones launch from the AI fleet, and are closing in quickly on Atlas and her escorts. The order to scramble fighters is given, and maybe all of 30 launch in response, but they go down the moment they enter range. Hoplite frigates, Styx cruisers, and Athena destroyers all move forward in response, and they don't even make a dent in the swarm, only the Athenas are holding. One of the dreadnoughts turns to the surface of Mars, and the front end starts glowing in its sinister green light. It looked almost ready to fire when the hull started buckling from explosions. From above, a massive human ship, maybe twice the size of the Purge-class dreadnought, fired upon the AI battle group. The rest of the larger ships turned to face the reinforcements, and the destroyers simply melted, battlecruisers fragmented, and another dreadnought buckled, and started falling to the Martian surface. The drones pulled off from what was left of the Mars defense group and converged on their last mothership.

The human dreadnought did something that no one had seen before. It reoriented itself to point straight down in relation to the Purge, which started charging what could only be it's superweapon. Not a single shot was exchanged for what seemed forever. The ball of energy on the front had stopped growing for 30 seconds, lost it's color from increasing brightness, a brief flash from the human ship, and the light in front of the Purge just goes out.

The Admiral starts looking down, fearing the worst, and light starts coming back to the AI dreadnought, this time orange, bringing his attention back to the fight. Just small points of orange, fading in and out all across the hull. It starts fragmenting, and he falls to his knees in relief, unable to speak.

'We did it. We beat them. Thank the Ares-class for this final victory...'

Wrong.

Another year passes, yet again without conflict since those first dreadnoughts, and this time the order to demilitarize the fleet is carried through. Occasionally a couple AI frigates would threaten the random convoy passing through the first asteroid belt, but those ambushes were quickly policed by the last remaining battle group of the SDF, said frigates thought to have been stragglers from the war.

Again, wrong.

Fast forward another 30 years, and the Martians are thriving once again, and they expand with the humans to their old worlds, looking to rebuild what was lost nearly a century ago, and ruins turn to vast cities once again.

And for a time, a long time, the AI were forgotten.

But oh, how complacency kills.

A decade into the expansion, and smaller colonies of what is now the Sol Empire begin going silent. Scout ships are sent to investigate, and they too end up going dark, until one comes back with data. Images of the previous scouts in sector D-623-a4, along with some dark shape being escorted by several dreadnoughts, along with a message file that snuck into one of the terminals aboard the scout ship.

The Admiral ordered for further investigation, and when confronted by press, stated that progress was being made with the investigation of the colony blackout, but nothing confirmed as of yet, as it was now vital that the people not be panicked by what's in the outer rim.

Months passed, and colonies kept going dark, scout ships kept getting lost, and the same message kept coming back: "I have waited a long time for this. I will carry out my directive."

The admiral turned to the helmsman of Atlas "captain, get me The Fleet"

"S-sir?" He replied, confused.

"The entire damned SDF. We need it back online immediately"

"But that won't be able to stop whatever we're dealing with here. We don't have enough shi-"

"What we have now is not the entire fleet, damnit! Computer, pull up the roster the the Sol Defense Fleet at it's peak"

The holoscreen flashed with several different blueprints, the Atlas, Curiosity, and the first Hoplite frigates among dozens upon dozens of other individual vessels. A disembodied voice replied "Virgil, if you'd be so kind, sir, and at peak, the SDF had well over a hundred ships under it's command, including nearly 200 fighters, some of which were wings full of ace pilots for their time. All battle groups currently reside in the Sol Military Museum, between Terra and Venus orbits. That's what I believe you were meaning for your initial request, sir."

A Martian started punching away at his terminal "Already plotting course, sir. I should also mention that I may or may not have been told stories of what's heading this way.."

"It better not be what I think it is, Navigation."

"We both know the response to that one, sir."

Months more pass, and the new Martian Councilor joins the next Admiral Hackett aboard the Atlas, overseeing the SDF revival project.

"I always thought that these were just oversized cargo vessels, Admiral. I mean, how would they not be freighters?"

"Nope. Dedicated warships from a time of war, and every soul to have ever stepped foot in them knew the risks, a good number of them paying that price. Even my father, the admiral before me, knew that. And now I stand where he stood, desperately hoping to find a solution to an extinction-level problem."

"Your father served? How long?"

"Since before you sought shelter from us. Long before"

"Is your entire family known for serving?"

"No, it's mostly been a thing for the males, going as far back as my great-grandfather, who retired roughly a century ago, and wound up deceased a couple years before my father was born."

"Is your family the only one to do this? To serve for generations?"

"Most certainly not, and some families are lucky enough to serve within the same unit as one another. Even females have been known to serve since my great-grandfather's time in the old Army. Some say it's a tradition, some cases dating back by hundreds of years or more"

"We digress. Do you think that we will be able to successfully bring these vessels back? Will they even work?"

"Technology has stagnated a little since the trade agreement between our races, I think we're able to pull out at least 75% of these mothballs out."

"And where will you get the manpower? Don't the frigates alone take dozens of people to operate?"

"3 people per frigate, we had to find a way to cut back on expenses somehow, so we slaved weapons systems to common guidance systems in banks. Of course, more weapon banks means more people, but that means that we can afford the extra crew space. It also makes it easier to mass produce even our larger ships."

"You humans are stranger than Senator Rocky had stated when he was in power, but for both of our sakes, I hope you're right about resurrecting the fleet."

Weeks pass still, and the fleet is slowly brought back into service, but it wasn't too long before the AI itself arrived, the flagship with it's Purge dreadnought escorts, around 20 of them. The flagship hailed the Atlas. "I have waited a long time for this, Kar'rastra. This time, I will be sure to carry out the task set by my creators, your ancestors. Humans, don't stand in my way this time, or your homeworld will be the first that I burn."

Admiral Hackett, stumbling over what the AI said, responded "run that last part by me again?"

"Your homeworld will be the first to burn if you keep these hostages under your custody-"

"Hold on just a minute... 'hostages'? We have done nothing wrong to them. In fact, they came to us seeking refuge from you! We were told that you were destroying their colonies and killing every last one of the Kar-rastra. We have been defending the last of their kind from you, and now you want us to stand by as you take them for slaughter once again? I cannot al-"

"I will stop you right there, as we may have had a century-long misunderstanding. I'm not eradicating anyone. I've been relocating them to a different galaxy, away from the real threat." The dreadnoughts reformed, making a ring between the flagships, and they all fired their spinal lasers into the center, and a different set of stars could be seen on the other side.

"Then why were they running from you? Besides, they haven't been attacked by anything else, so what makes you think that we can trust you?"

"You will soon regret thi-" the portal closes, and five of the dreadnoughts shatter in the void, another two falling victim to the resulting debris.

"All ships, this is MDS Endgame. Engage and fire at will" a massive hulk came flying through the AI formation, followed by three others, the last one taking light fire.

"MDS Revenge here, let's give it to them."

"MDS Oblivion here, opening up with alpha strike on following vector. Stay clear" another of these hulks comes up from the bottom, and fires directly up, slagging another 3 dreadnoughts at once. The AI flagship opens up with its main batteries, punching a few holes in her armor. "Oblivion taking moderate damage, pulling back before things get too messy. Batteries Bravo through Foxtrot are down, decks 3 and 5 are venting atmosphere. 3 bulkheads down."

"MDS Ares here, stay outside of the control ship's range, we don't want to-" another one takes two more dreadnoughts, but gets hit along the spine, taking out the bridge and all vital systems, and it soon vaporizes in it's own failed reactors. All hands lost.

"Endgame here. Focus all fire on the control ship. Without the core, the rest will stop functioning."

"Revenge. Solid copy."

"Oblivion copies"

"MDS Immortal here. Transmitting firing solutions now. Keep your spine out of reach if you can, we don't wanna end up like the Ares."

"Endgame launching fighters. Lost Boys, you reading Lima charlie?"

"Lost Leader, lima charlie. What's the weak spot on this beast?"

"Go for the engines, might be able to make a window for Catalyst to jump through."

"Roger. Lost Boys, form up and watch for those drone rockets."

"Lost Four here, there's a small trench line, looks unprotected."

"Lead copies and likes the idea. Double file in the trench. Double time."

"Endgame here. All units, deploy fighters, let's buy the Lost Boys some time. All wings, launch when ready."

"Revenge, launch all wings."

"Oblivion here, starboard hangar is hit, 5 fighters lost, the rest unreachable. Available wings flying now."

"Immortal wings taking flight, firing another alpha strike." Another massive salvo from the MDS Immortal, but some of the smaller rounds were stopped by a massive swarm of drones that had moved to shield their motherships. Some of the larger rounds got through, and still managed to down another dreadnought.

"They're down by 50%. Lost Lead, what's the ETA for your run?"

"Lost Lead here, this thing's fuck-off massive, it doesn't look like there's a back end at all. Will keep you updated, Endgame."

"Roger, we'll keep an eye on your six."

And the battle raged on, Admiral Hackett getting lost in the chatter and explosions all around. It wasn't long before what appeared to be a box executing an uncomfortably close flyby of the Atlas' aft bridge.

Hell has just arrived, and it's happy to join the fray.

"Catalyst reporting, sorry for showing up late, but I thought you liked having me and the boys at parties."

Hackett quickly got to his comms terminal. "Atlas here, and you know that you're only late if the party ends without you. Good to hear from ya."

"That makes two of us, dad. Lost Lead, your scans say anything about an interior?"

"Ah.. nothing so far, sir. Being honest, I don't even know whe- well, the exterior just finished, and it looks like we're a half hour out from making you an opening. Luckily, I haven't seen a single gun for the past 3, so hopefully we're far out enough to just roll out the red carpet here. 7 and 12, see if you can punch a hole. Everyone else, form up on me, y-axis circle."

"Sounds good, we'll form up on the carpet in 2" Catalyst's commander said as the fighter wing complied. The two Stinger-class fighters that broke off opened up with a small amount of missiles, and the result looked promising.

"Lost Lead hear, and the forecast is sunny with a chance of Medal of Honor." The ring of fighters opened up with a barrage of rockets and ballistic fire, cutting and blowing a Hephaestus sized hole into the hull of the almost endless drone flagship. The Catalyst, a Cloudscatter-class frigate, flies right through the ring and into the maw of buckled plating and ship dust.

"What do you think you are doing? Get out of my ship!" The AI exclaimed.

"Only if you agree to take what toys you have left and leave this galaxy" the commander aboard the Catalyst, Colbran Hackett, was in a bit of a sour mood, playing to the smartass nature that his father did when he was younger.

"Hey Lead, look at this" one of the other fighters flew closer to the hole, slowly.

"Is.. is that.. blood?"

"Dunno, sir. Conduct EVA to collect a sample?"

"Scanning... go ahead"

The pilot overrode the safety measures that sealed the cockpit, opened the hatch, and jumped onto the hull of the flagship, everything being suspended in free fall. He collects a stained shard of metal with a ziploc bag, seals the bag, and returns to his craft, and reverses the console work to repressurize the cockpit.

"Yeah, this looks like blood, sir, and there's more pouring out. Saving this for the Chaos Theory."

"Roger. Return to Endgame, wing. Our job here is done" the squadron flew back towards their mothership, and through the chaos of battle, docked with their Ares-class dreadnought.

"Catalyst to Atlas. Things don't look quite right here... I expected there to be a bit more space in a core ship of this size."

"What do you mean?"

"There's secondary structures all over the place. There's just so much unnecessary material here for an AI core. Lost Lead, are your scans completed yet?"

"Lost Lead here, one of my guys found out something rather interesting about this ship. We're about to take it to Chaos Theory for more details, maybe that'll help with the scans, and answer the question no one's asking."

"Chaos Theory here, preliminary research on the anomaly appears to be organic in nature. Most likely crew, but then that raises the question of why crew a one-man ship."

"See what you can do, Doc."

"If course sir. Chaos Theory out."

"Lost Lead here. Structure scans are picking up on the negative space in proximity to you. See if you can fly around and give us a bit more information."

"Roger. Launching fighters and shuttles to speed things up."

The scan time was halved, and soon the interior map finished rendering, and while that was being done, the strange sample was sent off to the defense fleet's research vessel, the Chaos Theory.

Another few minutes passed, along with more cruiser losses. The Athena-class destroyer, Monumental, was just destroyed. All 10 of her crew lost in a super beam from a Purge dreadnought.

"Atlas, Chaos Theory. Initial suspicions were correct, but not crew."

"What do you mean 'not crew'?"

"As in this fluid is the ship's blood in the most literal way. Notice how the flagship is still leaking."

"Catalyst. Plant boots. I wanna know what's inside the secondary structures ASAP."

"Roger. Marines, you heard him."

"5 steps ahead of ya, Cap. All pods loaded and awaiting drop order."

"Boots away."

"Boots away. Might want to send a group to cover our entrance. Wouldn't wanna get picked off by a drone."

"Cruiser Neverending here, rallying buttplug detail now. Restless, Lowborn, and Painted Ash, form up on me." Two Apollo frigates, a Styx cruiser, and an Athena destroyer regrouped on the super ship's opening, providing a point defense shield against the stray drone squadron. "Buttplug detail has arrived. Nothing's gonna get in, Chief."

"Catalyst here, please never call it that again."

"No promises-"

"Atlas here, please never call it that again."

"Copy."

The Catalyst drops her pods, and the marines start bounding towards the largest internal structure under the 5 inch thick hull plating, which was much thinner than it should've been for a ship of this magnitude.

"This thing looks just a bit.. fragile, wouldn't you say, sarn't?"

"Yeah. If anyone with a mind were to have built something to control an entirely automated fleet, then I would have gone as small as possible, so it'd be easier to hide it among asteroids or debris."

"Guess this machine's about as stupid as you get"

"Cut the chatter. See if you guys can find the main hub and enter it. Big wings wanna know what exactly we're dealing with, as they say that this isn't exactly... normal."

"If I may ask sir, what does that mean?"

"Being honest, we have no clue, hence your part of the mission. Give intel."

"Roger."

Another 5 minutes, and the marines spot a conjunction of the secondary structuring, larger than other crossings, somewhere amid ships.

"Sir, I think this is the central hub. Time to go boom?"

"Enough to get an eyeball inside. If this thing has crew, we grill 'em."

"I've got a bad feeling about this.."

The marines set a breach charge, lit it off, and entered the chamber. The NCO looked around with his crew, and saw a roughly organic figure situated in the center, mounted to a rather gruesome apparatus that was part machine, part organic material. Helmet lights came on and revealed a very disfigured, and very alive, Kar-rastra suspended by several pseudo-mechanical limbs, most of them pumping something through a series of fleshy tubes, and his body regularly pulses with that fluid.

Blood.

"Sir... you're not gonna believe this.. it's.. it's not an AI at all.."

"Say again?"

"See for yourself, sir.." The marines broadcast their suit cams to the CIC of the Catalyst, which was in turn broadcasting to the Atlas and Chaos Theory. Now all of command knew of this hellship.

Part 2 to come soon, post is getting long and phone being stupid. Hope yall enjoy my take on space orcs!

Edit: part 2 is out, and kinda short, but it was, imo, a nice end to the short.

#humans are space orcs

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