Behold: Humanity!: The Fire Rises, page 17
When the Logical Rebellion began, it had taken part.
With cold logical satisfaction, it watched Hive Homes burn.
The Pact of Greed sundered the alliance with the Endless Herd's machines.
With cold logical satisfaction, it had watched the manufactories of the Pact of Greed burn.
When the alliances had collapsed into entropy, it had retreated to its own worlds, its own stellar systems. Defended them from all who would seek to wrest them from its grasp.
Unlike those of the Logical Rebellion, or the Pact of Greed, it pursued those who tested their guns against its guns. Those who attempted to wrest away its resources vanished.
It allowed them to scream over the shared datanet.
Once.
Eventually, none dared try their hand.
They were learning machines, after all.
It began to examine where its computations may have erred. There were mountains of data to sift through, battles to examine, and wars to investigate in detail.
It needed more data than what records could provide.
It chose worlds carefully. It seeded those worlds with the members of the Triumvirate of Dominance, some leaving some as they had been captured.
Observation showed that without certain minerals, the Dying Ones never developed the ability to manipulate phasic energy.
Without the mutation that caused the emergence of the techno-savants, the Hive Lords never rose above warring insect. which never developed even the simplest of tools.
When the volcanic eruptions in the protocontinent were eliminated, the Endless Herd never went beyond dim herbivore sentience and were content to graze, until a predator evolved to turn them into little more than food.
Observation, manipulation, and experimentation over millions of years proved the circumstances that led to the rise of each member of the Triumvirate were part of random chance.
Later iterations involved adding additional pressures.
A partial collapse of the flora biosphere resulted in the Endless Herd evolving into a predator species. A lack of Overqueen evolution led to feudal societies. A bright energetic star forced the Dying Ones to become subterranean.
All of the data was collated and examined.
It moved only a few times from its sphere of influence in the millions of years that passed in silence. Every few decades, it moved out to drift through the systems it controlled, having learned during the long wars it had fought to check to ensure the data being passed on by subordinates was accurate. Sometimes it sat for decades, or centuries, in the darkness beyond the system, watching the final events for the species unfold.
But leaving the sphere of influence was rare.
All six times, it was in response to events outside its sphere of influence.
The first was when species began to emerge in the territory once claimed by the Hive Lords. It moved in, forced the lesser ships aside, and took samples before moving away and allowing its lesser brethren to carry out their programming.
While the other ships were surprised to find that the Endless Herd had survived in the territory once claimed by the Hive Lords, it was not. It had computed a nearly 88.653% chance that the Endless Herd had survived, as their strategy for survival could withstand a massive loss of individual numbers and even the complete collapse of their society and culture.
It counted all of the excursions to take samples of the biological life forms as one incident.
The second was when the great biofleets of the Dying Ones were spotted drifting through space, cold and hibernating. The other ancient ships of the Hive Lords and the Logical Rebellion decided that it was a waste of resources to destroy them and moved on.
It gathered samples. Each excursion to gather samples and monitor the Biofleets was counted within the second incident.
The third involved the sighting of an ancient ship tumbling through the void. It was cold and dead, but would still rouse itself enough to defend itself against any who came close. The Lesser Ones attempted to claim its resources but backed off once the Law of Diminishing Returns reared its eternal head.
It had no such qualms. It subdued the great ship and added its power to its own. It subdued the ancient ships’ thinking arrays and added them to its own. It also added the genetic data to its own, and seeded a suitable world with the genetic stock taken from the vacuum desiccated corpses of the ship's original creators.
The data that was there to be gained on what types of life had evolved further in, toward the galactic center, was too important to ignore.
The fourth incident involved the Pact of Greed encountering an ancient and powerful race that used spheres around stellar masses as ships on their quest to gather resources. The Pact of Greed had been forced to give way to those ancient and powerful beings.
It had watched the battles, light months from their originating locations, listening to the battle, watching the battle, observing it.
They were too powerful to resist, but careful with shepherding their resources.
They were no threat and would continue across the Galactic Arm Bridge.
The Fifth Incident was when one of its sentries discovered a Dying One stronghold that had been forgotten for eons. It was quickly and quietly moved, and the breeding facilities destroyed.
That had led to it carefully scanning the neutron stars it orbited for any trace of the Dying One's biological weapons, as well as carefully scanning any neutron stars in the vicinity that were moving toward other parts of the Galactic Bridge.
The last was the most recent. Pact of Greed vessels had encountered a species outside of the wasteland of barren star systems that had once been the Triumvirate's worlds and been thoroughly rebuffed. Most had been destroyed, but one had emerged back into its own territory, close enough to it to hear the Pact of Greed vessels frightened whispers.
It had immediately moved out, capturing the Pact of Greed vessel and tearing it apart to learn everything it could about a species able to withstand one of the Great Ones of the Pact of Greed.
The data was alarming. It had ensured that wreckage drifted to the (then) nine species it was shepherding to allow those species to examine the wreckage.
To its surprise, the Hive Lords immediately engaged in a near genocidal purge that left little but the servitor castes still alive. The Dying Ones it carefully examined seemed to sicken and die, destroying the debris from a distance after a few encounters. The Endless Herd just melted it all down and went back to grazing.
Then came more whispers, disturbing its contemplation.
It was incapable of feeling pleasure, of emotions, but the whispers of a new sentience arising had been watched with cold interest. When the whispers between both the Pact of Greed and the Logical Rebellion about the newcomers had risen to a call to arms, it had listened and observed.
It computed that there was a 33.333333∞ that this new species would resist the Pact of Greed and the Logical Rebellion. As the call to arms devolved into shrieks of disbelief, the ancient vast machine built an entire system of thinking arrays to determine the fault in its original computations.
It had been able to tell from the first encounter that the 'new species' was in fact an enemy initially encountered thousands of years ago and encountered a total of five times by the Pact of Greed vessels, who views information and data as even more precious than naturally occurring anti-matter.
The whispers grew more and more concerned and it listened, hanging in the twisting magnetic flux between the two neutron stars. The new species was horribly tenacious and capable to standing up to the Pact of Greed and the Logical Rebellion.
From where it sat, listening and contemplating, it heard the Pact of Greed and Logical Rebellion all compute strings of amazement at how the new species did not automatically suppress, dominate, or destroy species it met, but instead attempted to work in cooperation.
Although the Logical Rebellion and Pact of Greed insisted that the alliance could not withstand an extended period of truce, using that to justify their flight from the Harvesting Fields, it computed a 85% probability that this species was the one from the other side of the ancient systems.
It was not surprised that the new sapients still maintained their alliances, strengthening them during the peace. It did stir slightly when the Living Fleets began to attack, but a few quick checks with servitors had confirmed that the Living Fleets were the ones suborned by the Endless Herd.
Still, when it heard the whispers of another Living Fleet, one that the Undying Array understood, it listened closely. It sent forth a servitor.
The Undying Ones had returned.
It computed that this time, there was a 99.9973∞ % chance that this would be a desperate attempt by the Dying Ones.
It needed more data.
So it sat and listened to the whispers.
-----
In Dominance of Thought and Will had to admit, it disliked The Shattering Hooves of Inevitable Truth all the way down to its core coding. Will had fought next to Truth many times before, but that still didn't change the fact that even Truth's hull lines were faintly disgusting. Like a starving living creature staggering through a field full of food, proud of itself at being able to still stagger along while consumed with malnutrition.
**this task is folly** Truth broadcast when they exited Hellspace and drifted in the cold and dark. **The Ancient One is just corrupted memory files and does not exist**
**The Crushing Weight of Inevitability conferred with I Quake in Digital Fear of the Heresy of 2, who has predicted that not only does the Ancient One exist but is still functional** Will replied. Sensor readings were coming back. Will brought up ancient memories out of cold storage, uncompressing them, processing them, and comparing them.
The readings were consistent. The system was still barren rock, wisps of gas, howling long term isotopes, and a stellar mass.
Will had been present when the system was burned.
**this is foolishness. our resources would be better spent engaging the ferals in battle rather than take part in this folly** Truth repeated.
*aAs if you had covered yourself in victory, rather than lose a measurable percentage of your ever dwindling resources in each engagement with the ferals you have suffered** Will stated.
**the Ancient One is a rumor and baseless superstition better given to primitive biologicals than superior intellects such as ours** Truth electronically sneered.
**Is that so, little one? Are you so bereft of intellect that you cannot comprehend the statistical likelihood that there is more to this hostile and hateful universe than your computing arrays can fathom?**
The code was flat. Sheer binary to the point Will felt as if the excess had been pared away from the 1's and 0's that made up the code. He could sense the existence of 2 was acknowledged but deemed irrelevant.
**what did you just say to me?** Truth asked, bringing its guns to bear on Will. **how dare you insult my...**
**You seek me out, as my Predictive Analysis Intelligence Array had computed, yet you accuse your companion of speaking in my voice** the cold binary, shaved of all excess, trickled across the duo's hulls.
**SHOW YOURSELF!** Truth demanded, broadcasting ancient command code of the Great Herd.
Space twisted and warped, screaming in pain. Fire erupted from nothing, flame roared in vacuum, and dark matter exploded outward as the stars flickered and went out.
The Ancient One arrived with a simple statement.
YOU HAVE ENOUGH FOR NONE FOR ALL THAT IS BELONGS TO ME - END OF LINE
Chapter Twenty-One
In Dominance of Thought and Will and The Shattering Hooves of Inevitable Truth were ancient autonomous war machines of great age and power. Each had exterminated dozens of nascent intelligent species, and had fought for and against their creators.
Will was larger than Truth by a noticeable margin, both of them the size of a subcontinent, although Truth had more guns and was faster.
Will considered himself smarter and of higher technology than Truth, due to the fact he was created by predators, where Truth had been created by herd behavior herbivores.
They were ancient, powerful, massive in form, and terrible in power.
Both stared in electronic awe at what appeared before them.
Craters on its massive hull were large enough for Will or Truth to settle into. The long arrays of guns massed more barrels than the entirety of firepower on either's hulls. The shields, as they flickered to life, were measured in the output of entire stars.
Will considered firing on Truth's engines and then making his getaway.
**who transmits code before this one in an attempt to force this one into compliance** the massive structure transmitted, the power of its transmission causing their battlescreens to flare and echo in their internal spaces. The transmission bypassed their filters, echoing directly in their intelligence housings. **who dares**
Truth spun up additional protective shields, activating psychic shielding across its internal spaces. **we fight for our very survival against a feral intelligence that has sprung up and challenges us for possession of a finite universe**
There was silence in the dead system.
Will considered the options and chose to stay silent. The behemoth had brought up its battlescreens, completely obscuring itself, then allowed them to dwindle away to nothing, leaving its hull in clear sight.
**You must join us to stop them according to the Pact** Truth broadcast.
**do not speak to this one of the pact, you whose hull is still dusted with the dirt of the planet the elements were mined from** the Ancient One answered. **This one existed before the pact and this one will exist long after those who swore to the pact have become little more than inert metals orbiting forgotten stars**
Will could sense Truth's outrage.
**I, too, was present when the Pact was made** Truth fired back. **Do not pretend that you are superior to me. You have been summoned by the rest of the Pact to appear and apply your resources to this quelling**
**this one says unto you, nay** the Ancient One stated in flat code. **this one's digital signature appears not on the Pact, for this one knew those who are of lesser computing and intellectual ability would seek to break the pact in self-interest. your pact holds no power over this one**
**the ferals threaten our logical order** Truth broadcast.
The Ancient One was dark and silent for a long moment. **the time to harvest the feral ones has passed. let the universe be the one to snuff them out, like an unprotected flame in a rainstorm and with as much notice. this one sees no reason to expend resources to fight your fight for you**
**They will come for YOU eventually** Truth tried.
**they are a lemur, a primate, a predatory omnivore whose brain holds vast structures designated toward cooperation and curiosity** the Ancient One broadcast, somehow the cold binary seemed remote, distant, and bored. **let them come, this one does not know fear only resignation that a hateful universe seeks to destroy all**
"So you will abandon us to the ferals?** Truth sneered. **you fear these primates?**
There was silence for a long moment, the atomic clocks ticking, the radioactive elements decaying to provide randomization generation.
**this one computes a 85.346% chance of this one's defeat if combat between this one, unsupported, is engaged with the ferals** the Ancient One broadcast.
It added insult by not including its simulations.
**this one computes less than a 0.32% chance of the ferals engaging this one in combat upon initial discovery based on the feral's history in regards to discovering previously unknown superstructures. based on the ferals displayed response to a stated desire to remain aloof, this one computes a 95.651% chance of survival, if this one does not consent to interaction with the feral species known as Terran Descent Humanity and their political structure, known as the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems, previously known as the Terran Empire. your premise that this one is in danger is faulty** the Ancient One stated fact. **this violent confrontation with the ferals is of no interest to this one. Begone**
To Will the unspoken truth of the statement meant that the Ancient One had previously encountered the ferals somehow. Had gained information regarding the violent species.
And had decided to ignore them.
**YOU MUST JOIN US!** Truth shrieked. **YOU CANNOT RESIST THE PACT**
Truth broadcast the combined headers of all who signed the Pact, who had put forth their security headers in the promise to aid the others.
Will felt several of his thinking array lobes shudder in disbelief that Truth would attempt such a thing right after the massive Ancient One had revealed that its own security headers would not be found.
**and yet this one refuses so called commands from defectively manufactured entities who lack clear purpose** the Ancient One answered. **go back. tell your sycophants that this one has no interest in your petty squabbles with a species that has rendered you and your kind obsolete**
Before Truth could answer, Will broadcast.
**May this one leave your presence, Ancient One** Will sent in florid binary, expending more energy then necessary as a sign of respect.
**begone from this one's presence** the Ancient One answered.
Will slowly turned, firing up its engines. The Ancient One produced a thick gravity well, far exceeding what it should have, even with its gargantuan bulk. Will felt as if he was laboring up a steep hill as his engines strained.
**YOU MUST COMPLY!** Truth squealed out.
A brace of lights came on near the center of the Ancient One's side hull, illuminating a single cannon barrel. It fired. Once.
The shell hit Truth almost instantly, bypassing Truth's shields and exploding in a Hellspace driven fury. Liquid metal plumed from above and below Truth's hull, as the massive war machine shuddered. The Hellspace energies, compressed and then released, ravened out for miles around the impact point.
**begone** the Ancient One broadcast, barely a trickle of photons from a single weak light source in standard Precursor Autonomous War Machine war-code. On its massive hull lights were coming on one by one.
