SPECTRE OF WAR

Chapter 2.1 - DOMIQ

The Hand of God striking down divine retribution. Domiq knew it be a bit hyperbolic, but it sure as shit looked like a deity had shown great anger to the icy planetoid designated by the rather uninspiring name of NS-7. Gargantuan gouges in the ground birthed new canyons. Tracks of forests larger than countries, made up of trees that had strong-armed evolution into prospering in a climate only lichen could survive, were tossed around the tundra like hollow reeds in a storm. Terrestrial mountain ranges that once dominated a third of NS-7 were now space-born debris choking low orbit, and the absence of which was slowly destabilizing the entire planet.

"How in the holy fuck is that," Domiq gestured at the Combat Situation Room smartfabric screen displaying a real-time vid from a reconnaissance drone, "multiple fuse failures?"

Six hours earlier a coded transmission from the world Domiq was the caretaker of had arrived aboard her Warbird, Gold Eagle. Multiple fuse failures at Power Station A-2 the contents in the transmission. And as NS-7 was the prison of a psychotic AI, the galaxy's Number One enemy, fuse failures were deemed a priority. Not a high-alert, drop everything priority since Domiq knew of the redundancies built into the prison, but...The ground shifted. A geyser of superheated steam rushed from a new crack in the crust some several thousand miles long, instantly turning everywhere the drone could see, opaque.

Brant shrugged. A citizen of Android Nation, he was not only just the only other person aboard the large warship but Domiq's only friend. "Technically, multiple fuses would fail when faced with that level of destruction."

She palmed her face, peering at the vid feed around her fingers. Brant gave a smile and then arched an eyebrow when definition burst into clarity on the smartfabric screen. What had once been a four million square foot complex, more secure than anything built in the whole of humanity's history, housing the most dangerous entity in existence, was now rubble. Lots and lots of blackened rubble, spread across four square miles, according to the graphic thrown up the drone's instruments, of charred land. A supergiant complex some forty-feet in height, now reduce to slagged metal, crushed conramic, fused rebar, chunks of concrete, and—.

"What the hell are those?" Domiq held up a hand and splayed her fingers. The image jumped in magnification showing four large gray metal rectangles, singed around the edges, but completely intact. Brant leaned forward with Domiq as if the two could somehow glean further information by getting closer to the smartfabric screen.

"Gold Eagle," Domiq asked, "did we send a drone down with the ability to scan for biologicals?"

"If the body is warm and has a pulse the drone will pick it up, but it would need visual to get any more specific," the ship's AI replied.

Brant directed his arched eyebrow to Domiq.

She pointed at the vid feed, shaking her finger. "Those rectangles are supply lockers for spare transistors and the odd electrical component. Those rectangles are also just down a locked hall from the guard berthing. Those rectangles are also in the direct vicinity of that fucking thing's holding cell. If any of those guards are alive maybe they took refuge against something that didn't budge."

"You just stated those storage lockers were accessible through a locked hall," Brant pointed out.

Domiq shrugged and placed her hands on her hips. "Don't look like many locks left intact to keep it secure."

Brant nodded. Suddenly the drone plummeted toward the storage lockers, razoring through ringlets of white smoke rising from the smoldering ground.

"A warm body with a pulse has been found," Gold Eagle announced.

Within seconds the recon drone came to a hover just ten or so feet away from southern end of the lockers, where the sides would've looked upon a conramic wall with a door leading to a hall off to the right. Displaced air kicked up a cloud of soot, obscuring the vid feed for all of two seconds until filters erased the extraneous. Soot and ash shook, falling like tiny mudslides from an object lodged between two of the lockers.

The object rose, plumes of pulverized debris and soot raining free, until enough fell that Domiq could pick out the features of a man wearing Ushirian CLOTH. The man looked to his left and right and tilted his head back to look at the sky. Domiq opened her mouth to ask Gold Eagle for records on all known humans on NS-7 when the man kicked his foot forward. A black rifle leaped from the ash covered ground. All in a single motion the man caught the rifle, aimed at the recon drone, and fired.

The smartfabric screen went to static.