Part 1 (1/2)

INFINITE REQUIEM.

by Daniel Blythe.

Prologue.

The Wanderers We are three.

No, we are one.

No the She the He the Other. I feel the loss of the He first and then the breaking of the Other.

The splintering, the unimaginable pain, is both now and a distant memory.

The same thought is in our Unity, our mind, as it becomes minds minds; something is happening. This is not how it was meant to be. I am conscious of it happening in what might be described as a millisecond, and yet I am allowing these thoughts to carry me through that shaft of time To drift, and finally to master our path through this whirl of possibilities, was the choice we took. The choice we made when faced with the unknown, or death, was to become voyagers.

And now it seems we are to die after all.

I feel them slipping away from me.

I am Kelzen.

I am KelzenJirenalShanstra.

Like fragments of flotsam, they are gone and I am alone, and now the reality, the mere three-dimensional, h.e.l.lish being, is constraining me again.

I am Kelzen.

I am falling falling.

Part One

A PHOENIX HOUR.

The 'Plan' of Nature I detest.

Compet.i.tion, and struggle, the survival of the strongest and of those with the sharpest claws and longest teeth. Life feeding on life with ravenous, merciless hunger every leaf a battlefield war everywhere.

Robert Ingersoll (1893) You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters, and yet other waters, go ever flowing on.

Herac.l.i.tus (6th century BCE)

1.

Dreams Burn Down.

Gadrell Major Dominion Common Era 2387.

When the final wave of flamers climbed the rise, Captain Cheynor knew he had to be running or dead.

Silver tanks, like giant woodlice, sparkled in the battle-fires, living machines lit by the destruction they had wrought. From across the devastation there was a deep and animal roar. In the battlefield twilight, a tide of liquid flame ate up the mud and poured into the city ruins.

They must all have fired at once. He rolled again and again as the thought kicked in like a stimulant. Monstrous heat scalded his back and there was a noise just a hundred metres from him of spectacular demolition.

Behind the wall of what had been the government building, Darius Kieran Cheynor slammed a new cartridge into his pistol, and faced for the thousandth time his own bewilderment that he had ever returned to front-line colonial service.

And he saw the city, the intact city, laid out before him to touch, what seemed like an eternity ago. like an eternity ago.

The hologram had glittered in front of Captain Cheynor, turning on its axis.

The general clicked her pointer here and there on the image, making streets and buildings glint in relief as if under moonlight. buildings glint in relief as if under moonlight.

The general, her face impa.s.sive, had told Cheynor his Survey Corps experience would be highly valuable in this kind of a.s.signment. would be highly valuable in this kind of a.s.signment.

'In any case,' she had said, 'there's talk of harmonizing the Earth-controlled inst.i.tutions more. Lots of you chaps working with the Office of External Operations. And naturally, the Colonial Office was full of praise for you, Darius.' inst.i.tutions more. Lots of you chaps working with the Office of External Operations. And naturally, the Colonial Office was full of praise for you, Darius.'

Cheynor, who had wondered whether 42 might be late for such a career swerve, had started to feel rather more optimistic. In the six years since taking command had started to feel rather more optimistic. In the six years since taking command of his own s.h.i.+p, the of his own s.h.i.+p, the Phoenix Phoenix , he had come up against ever more situations requiring the logistical skills of a battle commander. In the end, he had realized it , he had come up against ever more situations requiring the logistical skills of a battle commander. In the end, he had realized it was what he was best at, and a transfer to s.p.a.cefleet had been forthcoming. was what he was best at, and a transfer to s.p.a.cefleet had been forthcoming.

5.Gadrell Major, a still uncertain colony, had been facing repeated threats due to its uncanny richness in minerals, including especially large deposits of porizium. its uncanny richness in minerals, including especially large deposits of porizium.

It seemed the medicinal ore was needed by more than just humans.

And this only got through to the Colonial Office, Cheynor had noted wryly, when the first advance fleet of Phractons had been detected. when the first advance fleet of Phractons had been detected.

'You did a good job,' said the general, 'convincing them we had to go.'

'Yes,' he said. 'I hope it's not too late.'

It was, of course.

'Cheynor to base.'

They had only gone to monitor the situation, having detected vast energy output from the citadel of Banksburgh. Just before all the sensors on board had gone well, he was still not quite sure what had happened to them.

Halfway across the plain, Cheynor's skimmer had encountered the globe of an airborne Phracton unit: s.h.i.+mmering, two metres across, packed with circuitry at the heart of which crouched, like a demon, the cyborg creature itself.

The first blast brought them to a cras.h.i.+ng halt on the red dunes, sending up great fountains of sand into the air. Cheynor yelled an order and they scattered.

The Phracton attacker had banked and wheeled before doing the run again.

The globe had soared high above them twice, dissecting the skimmer with its fire, and Cheynor glimpsed, within the unit, a blur of the part-organic warrior, shrouded in cables, hunched over its controls.