DragonBytes

Prologue

In 2092, nearly a century after computers began gracing the desks of every household, planet Earth launched four probes. The event was heralded as a chance to find out what was at the four "corners of the universe" and finally determine whether or not we were alone in it. We had travelled out into the depths of our own solar system, but found no one but ourselves to question our superiority. Theorists haggled over ideas that areas found on some of the planets were more than just natural formations, but even Mars had proven less than ideal for providing concrete proof.

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We'd developed faster-than-light technology, which some idiot had dubbed "The Space Beyond" and it had stuck. It seemed that once a vehicle got past the speed of light by a certain amount it hit a pocket that it moved through quickly, only hindered by the gravitational pull of the planets nearby. So long as the vehicle didn't get too close to anything with a gravitational pull, it could go as far as you liked with very little fuel. If pulled out of TSP, it would have to fight the gravity, pull itself back up to speed, and keep going. Tests had been done, but the animals sent out into TSP had come back violently crazy. Religious theorists had suggested we'd found Eutopia and that the animals were pissed as hell to have been yanked back out of it. Rumors had it that the Catholic church sent a small ship of priests to disprove the theory, but that the ship had never come back.

So the probes were manned with AI instead. Learning computers, programmed in this case with specific commands. They were to go as far as their primary fuel would allow, then dump everything they'd seen into the return carrier they'd been equipped with, and use the secondary fuel to both self-destruct and launch the carrier back to home. Trajectories around known stars and planets had been calculated, keeping the probes as far away from them when possible and slingshotting them around when it wasn't, to maximize the fuel. Then, in a large, celebratory display, they were launched. It was expected to take a while - maybe even a couple of centuries - before we would even spot the carrier's return. Most of humanity forgot about it, except for the scientists waiting to interpret the data.

They were surprised when it only took 78 years. In 2160, the first carrier returned. Most of the message it held seemed to be gibberish. Some of it seemed to be quotes from passages from great writers long dead, but in bits and pieces. None of it had been text that the AI had been exposed to. In the end, the only real message they could be sure about was the one that repeated over and over in the text.

"They are coming," it said. "They see you now and they are coming."

It wasn't long before the message leaked out. People were scared. Some suggested that the message wasn't menacing in nature, but most didn't believe it. There was no indication of when or from where they were coming. And, not to mention, who the hell "they" even were. The governments put the people at ease, however, assuring them that they were taking all measures. Probes were sent, new space stations were built further out, and advance warning systems were added. An interplanetary military was created to help protect the planets from possible dangers. If "they" were coming, we'd be ready.

Then, two years later, the second carrier returned. One year later, the third and fourth came back almost a month apart.

And they all carried the exact same warning. Different texts flavored the gibberish, one AI seemed to have preferred music lyrics over Shakespeare, for example, but always the same repeated message:

"They are coming. They see you now and they are coming."

Humanity had been warned. And it scared the crap out of them.

Some people dug in, prepping bomb shelters and stocking up on weapons in preparation to defend mother Earth and her sister planets. Others, however, built ships. Huge colony ships that fled the solar system in an attempt to hide from the unknown evils that were coming. Over the next century, more than fifty new colonies reported back as finding homes. More than twice that didn't, however. Some just didn't want to have anyone know where they were, for fear of being found. Others just vanished, some presumed to have gone off into TSB. Humanity tumbled out across the universe like seeds thrown to the wind.

Kess - Awakening 1

Shadow... Wake up Shadow....

It was the voice that woke me. Pushed me out of a drug-induced haze that had the comfort of an icy bath once I realized I'd been in a drug-induced haze. I sat bolt upright, gasping in the sterile air. I was tangled in wires and tubes that connected me to several pieces of equipment next to the table.

Lab table. I'm naked. Where the fuck are my clothes! I'm on a lab table, connected up to machinery that is beeping noisily next to me.

Oh, this can't be good...

We'll find you clothes later. Right now you need to remain calm and listen to me carefully. You need to remove the electrodes that are connected to you. The wires, Shadow. Pull them off.

Well that sounds like good advice at least. I yank them off handfulls at a time. Then it occurs to me as I pull the IV off of me last.

"Wait, are you talking to me?"

Yes. But we can cover all of that later. Right now, we don't have much time. We need to get you out of here.

I look around. There are three others on tables like I was. All are men. All are connected to wires and tubes the same as I was.

"What about them?" I ask, still looking around for the source of the voice. "And where the hell are you?"

I'm on coms. They've been implanted in your head. No one else can hear me. And I can hear you when you think towards me, so you don't need to talk aloud.

Around her, the men began twitching and spasming on the tables. Smoke began to rise from some of the circles where electrodes were connected to them. I hopped off the table I'd been on, backing away from the machinery.

"Holy fragging crap! What the hell is happening to them?"

There's nothing you can do to help them. You need to leave. Now. If you listen carefully, I know the layout of the building and I can see through the cameras to help guide you out of here. But you need to go now.

I ran from the room. The white, sterile, room that was beginning to smell of smoldered flesh and taste of an electric-metallic twang in my mouth. Out into a hallway. I saw a sheet folded on a small cart on my way out and grabbed it, hastily wrapping it around my body as I ran. The hallways all looked the same - white paint, gray linoleum. No windows. The voice guided her to another room. This one looked more like an ER, with beds and curtains half-pulled around them. Thankfully, nobody seemed to be occupying these beds.

Hide! Quickly Shadow!

I ducked behind one of the curtains as a single guard came running through. I bumped the bed, and it made a metallic creak as it wobbled on it's locked casters. The guard swung around, moving towards her with his gun at the ready.

You can take him, the voice insisted. Hit him. You're stronger than you used to be. And you move faster than he does. Knock him out. Take his gun.

I was dubious, at best, but what was I going to do? He was approching and I needed to do something. Hitting, at least, was something I was familiar enough with. Once he was close enough, I yanked back the curtain and slammed my fist into his jaw.

"Damn! You weren't kidding!"

Frankly, I would have expected my hand to hurt like hell after an impact like that. Somehow I barely felt it. Adrenaline, maybe? The guy was nearly twice my size and yet he fell like a lead brick. And I neatly snagged the gun out of his hands before he'd hit the ground.

I think I was more surprised to find the targeting information in my eyes though. Ammo count on the clip. Heat condition on the gun. Some distance to target information. I blinked a few times, trying to get the hang of it.

"I have a smartlink now?" I asked aloud. I'll admit, a small part of me was looking for something to shoot at, just to test out the link. Frankly, I'd been saving up for one of these babies for a while.

Yes. More guards coming. The door at the end of the room on your left.

I kicked the guy on the ground and was surpised to see him slide a little across the floor from it. I kicked him again, so that the guards coming wouldn't see him right off and hid behind another curtain. I clutched at the sheet I was holding around me, trying to keep it from slipping.

You know, you'd do better without that sheet. Your skin can do something special now too.

Oh? What's that? I tried out the idea of talking to the voice without speaking aloud. What the hell, it'll prove whether she's in my head or not. Frag, but aren't you supposed to ignore voices in your head?!

Actually, the coms are in your head and I am speaking to you through them. But, as for your skin, it can change color to match the wall. If you can will it to, that is.

Okay, now you're just fucking with me...

No. I'm trying to keep you alive. You need to get out of that building, Shadow -

Okay, I have a name. What's with this Shadow drek anyway?

No names! Not yet anyway. We're all safer that way. We have code names for now. Yours is Shadow. Mine is too, since we're paired up. But right now you need to get out of there! Shoot the damn guards!

It was so much easier than shooting a gun had ever been. Although before that day, I'd never killed a man. Oh, I'd shot my way out of a couple of hairy situations, but that's the kind of stuff where you lay down fire until you can get your ass as far away as possible.

The link told me there was enough bullets. It was easy enough to fire the gun. I expected more kick, as it was a larger gun that I was accustomed to firing too. I tend to be more of a heavy pistol kind of girl myself. This thing was more of a light machine gun and semi-automatic. It did kick back on me more with the second blast. I missed because of it. The first blast seemed to splatter the guard backwards, leaving small splashes of blood all over the pristine white wall behind him.

Guard number two seemed surprised to see me. My luck, I guess. I took the shot while I could. Down he went, next to his buddy. That one took it more in the chest, so he was probably still alive. But he was out, and that's all that mattered to me just then. I grabbed for more clips, since they had the same weapon as the one I was holding. Next, I wanted some of their damn clothes.

No! No time for that. The helicopters are almost here!

Helicopters?

They're going to blow up the building. You have to get out NOW!

I ran. She gave me directions as I went, through corridors and doors. I came out into a lobby full of windows and plush-looking chairs and fancy reception desks. On one wall, a trid talked about some technology or other, promoting it as only a corp ad could - with pounding music and some skimpily-clad woman. I didn't have time to see what the product was. I really didn't care. It seemed that all the guards were headed in one direction - out the front to try and shoot at the helicopters descending down towards the building. There was one door out, away from it all, and it was totally unguarded.

It was locked down when I got to it, but after a couple tries and some encouragement from the voice in my fragging head, I managed to slam the sucker open. I was through it in a heartbeat. I crossed the field of grass and made it into the trees before the explosions began behind me. I turned to look, seeing the entire building go up in a firey cloud. It didn't take much encouragement from the voice to get me to keep going. I was only vaguely aware that I was running faster than I would have thought myself possible, and not getting winded by it. Then again, I was high on adrenaline. I probably could have explained a lot away with that, if a part of me hadn't known better.

Kess - Prologue

It wasn't the bullet itself that irked me most. The bullet was inconsequential excepting the fact that it was clearly lodged somewhere in my back, numbing my body closer and closer to unconsciousness. But, I suppose, it wasn't the bullet's fault. It was mine. How could I really see it any other way?

I hadn't seen the second guy. Nevermind the absentmindedness that led me into this neighborhood in the first place. I'd marked the target. I'd followed the target. I just didn't realize he wasn't worth rolling until I was already in this fragging neighborhood. Getting out of it again seems to have proven fatal. Or maybe I'm just hallucinating the puddle of my own blood slowly growing on the pavement...

But, yeah, your life grasps at straws as it drains away. Your heart races and you panic, when you realize just what's happening.

I don't want to die. I'm not ready to die. What a lousy fragging way to go!

My life did flash before my eyes, or at least the fragged-up parts of it. Nothing good. Okay, maybe a few things. My mom, for one. But thoughts of her are always surrounded by mourning, loss, and a little bit of anger. My dad. Lots of anger there. What he did to me after mom was gone... I've spent my whole life running from that.

In fact, that's it. I've been running. Running from life itself. Keeping to the shadows, hidden away from any chance of actually experiencing anything worthwhile. Never purposely let a guy kiss me, for example. Never loved. Never trusted. Never made a difference. Never mattered. To anyone. Is anyone even going to care that I'm dead? Will anyone notice? David will notice. That's something anyway. At least he'll have Joey and Lissa to look after him.

Crap. What a total frag-up. No wonder I'm dying in an alley, next to a rusting Nissan Jackrabbit. All the time I spent trying to keep from getting blindsided again by anything and look what happens.

I didn't see the other guy.

But no amount of panic and repentence seems to be making the world get less gray. It's getting cold and dark. And I don't think I'm headed to a happy place...

Chapter #1 (follows Prologue #1)

Ralek Marset was bored. Not only was he bored, but hungry too and the meeting didn't appear to be going by quickly, nor including any meals in its agenda. He stood rigidly, slightly behind and to the right of the King's throne, wondering just how long the old man was planning on drawing things out this time. It seemed that the older the King got, the longer he took with every decision. The current issue that had been brought to the king's attention had to do with a border dispute. Of the six nations that bordered Neerite, five of them had good relations and even trade agreements with King Neville IV. One of those five, Ilyert, was having a problem with a rebel faction that had spilled over into Neerite's lands. The King was being advised by several different ministers on possible ways to proceed in providing defense to the border villages without risking war with Ilyert by interfering in their affairs. Unfortunately, most of the ministers were as old as the King was. The meeting was slow enough that any lesser man might have fallen asleep. Two of the younger ministers already had. Ralek envied them slightly.
Two serving girls came and went with fresh pitchers of water, and he kept his eye on them as they did. They were the only ones allowed into the meeting room while deliberations were going on. Ralek had seen to that early on, when he found out just how long the meetings could go on if they were interrupted. He had also managed to arrange that meals not be served for the same reason, although he had told the King it was to keep anyone from having the chance to poison the entire ministry all at once.
The King ran his fingers through his gray hair and ordered that the border patrol in that area be increased by one hundred men before calling for the next order of business. One of the younger ministers, the Minister of Relations for Odern, had to be woken up, as he was the one next to speak. The man looked embarrassed and bowed repeatedly before addressing the King.