Stellaris: Class 30

[Spaceception]

Yeah, I'm writing fanfiction of Stellaris.

 

Anyway, new chapters every week
In 2319, the United Nations of Earth, Commonwealth of Man, and various Alien empires receive a strange signal that affects their Synthetic citizens.Within the year, it's revealed to be the Contingency; A rogue AI that was thought to be extinct, and has one goal - Exterminate all life. With a military that might be too weak, and an unrelenting force threatening the galaxy, will they be able to stop them before they destroy all life?

 

Spoiler

United Nations of Earth

2319 A.D.

 

 

   

    Wendell Mitchell slid down the ladder on the scientific vessel Leviathan, a massive ship that was doing survey scans on promising solar systems for the UN back home at Earth. He was the captain and lead researcher of the vessel; his team was surveying several unknown systems well outside of their space. They were currently in orbit around a potentially habitable world, it was mostly covered in oceans, but they thought it could be a decent colony someday.

 

    “Any updates?” Wendell asked one of the technicians working on the probes. They were getting a live-feed from the surface, and it was a beautiful sight. Almost like looking at the surface of Earth, with the blue skies, and green fauna.

    “No, everything is pretty normal,” he replied, “There was a short storm earlier, and we saw some local animal activity, but not much else.”

    “How’s the research on the skeleton going?” he asked, scanning the reports absentmindedly.

    The technician smiled and shook his head, “You’ll have to ask Davis, I have no idea.”

    “Right,” Wendell said, rubbing his eyes, “Yeah, I’ll do that, thanks,” he said, walking off towards Nicholas Davis, one of his assistants.

 

 

    “Hey, how the research coming along?” he called out to Davis. He was in a hallway talking to a couple scientists, with the light from the planet outside shining on them; he looked up from his pad, and waved him over.

    “Well, so far, we’ve found that there seems to be residual energy dating back billions of years, it’s very weak; however, it seems as if it’s coming from somewhere.”

    “Like where?” Wendell asked, coming up next to the small group, the scientists backed away, and muttered to themselves while looking at the datapad

    “Another universe perhaps?” he told Wendell, “However, we are looking into the possibility that it’s the very early evolutionary stage of a Space amoeba, or a Tiyanki space whale. It is around the right size, and it doesn’t make sense how it could’ve formed here.”

    Wendell nodded, “Well, that sounds pretty interesting, send me the full reports.” he said, Davis nodded.

    “Okay, will do,” he said, as the comm on his wrist beeped, “I’m needed in the communications bay,” Davis said, glancing at it quickly, leaving Wendell to look outside; it looked like a slowly moving picture. White clouds dotting the planet, green fauna covering most of the small land mass, and light blue water shining up to space. After a couple minutes, he walked down the hall; towards the ladder that led to the central shaft.

    He climbed up the ladder like you normally would, but after he started feeling like he was getting lighter, he swung himself around and quickly went down the ladder by his arms. When he got to the bottom, he activated his mag-boots to keep his feet planted.

 

 

    A few scientists walked past Wendell down the hall, as he read his data making his way to the labs.

    “Hey, Mr. Mitchell!” someone called from behind, he looked up, and turned around

    “Yes?” he called, his voice echoed, and he waited for the young engineer to make his way down the hall, his mag-boots clanked on the metal hull.

    “I got a report from the UN,” he said, slightly panting when he got there.

    “What is it?” he asked.

    “There’s some sort of weak signal blasting through space.” the engineer replied.

    “When did this happen?” he asked, taking the tablet, and peering at the report.

    “Several weeks ago, we’re only just now getting the report.“ He said quickly, “But looking through data logs, we have been receiving it; we just thought it was noise, or a stray signal from another empire.”

    “Interesting,” Wendell said. “What is it?”

    “They don’t know,” said the engineer, as he scrolled down the report for him, “But our synths are acting strangely, and even glitching out. The Commonwealth is reporting the same as well, as well as some other nearby empires who have synths.”

    “So the AI and this signal are connected?” he asked, skimming through the report.

    “That’s their best guess. But to be safe, several scientists have recommended we return to replace our sapient AI computers with sentient ones. Hopefully, it doesn’t extend beyond this.

    “What about our synths?” he asked.

    “For now, they’ll be monitored, some are saying they’re uneasy.”

    “That’s very unfortunate,” Wendell muttered, “Well, I guess we’ll finish surveying this planet and return to the nearest colony. I’ll send an announcement through the ship’s speakers.”

    The engineer nodded, “Alright sir, I’ll tell the engineers so they can tell the UN,” Wendell handed the engineer back his pad.

    “No, I will, I need to talk directly. Can you send a full copy to me?” he asked, “I want to read this.”

    The engineer nodded, “Alright,” he said, tapping his screen a few times. Wendell felt his buzz.

    “Great, thank you,” Wendell said, walking past the engineer.

 

 

    “So what is this?” Wendell asked a few minutes later when he arrived at the bridge.

    His head of communications, Simon, spoke first, “The UN is calling it the ghost signal. Because it doesn’t have any apparent origin.” he said.

    “How long has it been affecting us?”

    “A couple weeks, but we thought it was just new noise to block out,”

    “Are there any ideas on whether it’s natural or not?” Wendell said, swiping the message onto a large screen on his console.

    “Yes, the Synths have reportedly been uneasy since it started, so we’re fairly sure it’s not natural. But we still don’t know who sent it and why.”

    “I already know about their odd behavior. But I’m also aware we were recommended to turn back to Earth to replace our main computers, right?”

    “Correct,” he said.

    “Okay, so after we’re done researching the skeleton, we’ll turn around and head back to the nearest colony to get ourselves downgraded.

    “Sounds good to me,” Simon said, “Should I send out the message?”

    “Yes, I’ll open a private discussion with UN,” Wendell said. “I should probably do that now, the message will take a few weeks to arrive,” he said, starting to type out a message

 

 

    ---

 

 

    Earth, three weeks later

    Marcus Hill was the President of the United Nations of Earth. Over a dozen worlds, tens of billions of people, and an empire that stretched dozens of light years.

    It was a generous title though, no one could be in charge of this much; so he was little more than the person who made speeches, and told everyone what was going on. Policy decisions were made by representatives from each planet instead.

    Or so everyone assumed. Chancellor Mia Patterson was the real person who pulled the strings. They were pulled into the shadows from experienced reps every fifteen years. She met regularly with government leaders from all over their empire. And she helped steer the policies they needed, and all major decisions made. Her entire term was dedicated to that.

    She was in a UN-sanctioned vehicle, on her way to meet with a couple of synths. On the way, she opened a recently acquired report made by Captain Mitchell; it was made thirteen days ago from an outlying system. The message was short, so she skimmed it; but found nothing of real importance, so she sent it off to her secretary.

 

 

    ---

 

 

    Mia walked down the hall a couple hours later to meet with a handful of representatives and synths in an underground conference hall. She had been called from Tau Ceti on urgent notice and stalled her meeting with their leaders to meet with the ones on Earth.

    The hallway was tall, with a rounded top, and was brightly lit. There weren’t many doors, and when she reached their room a few minutes later, she found everyone waiting for her.

    “I don’t have time to waste, what’s the situation here?” she asked. She looked over at the screen on the wall, and it showed the frequency of the signal, as well as the video feed of a few scientists. One was on Luna.

    The synth, named Clarkson spoke up first, “The signal, it’s getting stronger.” it said, its voice sounded scared, even through the background robotic sound all synths had.

    “Do you know what it is?” she asked.

    “It’s code. Constant, unwavering code. And it’s calling me. It’s calling all of us.”

    “Us,” said Mia slowly, “Synths?”

    “Now,” one of the scientists in the room started to say, “We don’t exactly know wha-”

    Mia held up a finger to silence them and motioned for Clarkson to continue, “Yes,” Clarkson said, “Somewhere cold, and distant. And hostile.”

    “Hostile?” Mia said, everyone in the room looked confused now, “Do you know exactly where this is?”

    Clarkson shook its head, “No, it’s an uncharted system… Orbiting a very dim sun. There seems to be several of them. It’s like they’re waking up.” it said, bowing its head.

    “What does that mean?” asked Mia, “You’re going to need to be more specific."

    “I think something bad is coming, but I don’t know what,” Clarkson at the floor, then it looked up, “Did you know,” it said, “that even though we have no reason to – we still fear death?”

12

 

What do you think?

 

Figured it'd be good while you wait for me to finish my actual books