Secrets of the Ancients - Conclusion

The Crew prevents the resurrection of a god and begins a new journey, one that could last centuries.

This final chapter is based on Kay’s and Carl’s notes from our December 10, 2023 session. Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: The Dark Gate, Part 2

Location: On the planet Zoe in the Uthe Subsector, Vargr Extents
Date: 078-1111

1400
We made it to Zoe, and sank down to Seven's archival area, and hoped to stop his reappearance in the universe. We had arrived on the main floor of the Church of the Chosen One’s starport. Interestingly enough, there were two spacecraft here with church markings, encouraging us in the hopes of getting out again.

Yaskoydray’s personality surfaced and took over Fig again, and talked to us.  He said that Seven’s family archive is somewhere nearby. The identity transfer is nearly instantaneous, but there will be a window of opportunity to interrupt it. Look for a machine near the dormant alien cybernetic monstrosity. “Stealth is preferable to get through his servants”, he said. Yaskoydray will only emerge when necessary in case they have a way to detect his presence.

A train pulled into the station and the door opened.

After a short discussion, we got onto the train and a friendly voice greeted us with a welcome to the First City. “The future capital of the galaxy, home of the Church of the Chosen.” Oh wow....

A friendly AI recognized us as newcomers, and asked where we wanted to go.  “Which stop? Are you newcomers with the church, or…?” It questioned us to try to help. We asked for a map and PRESTO, a hologram of the place appeared before us. The train pulled out as we were looking at the map.  It was a straight line to the first stop, so no choice there. The train was grav-lev and didn’t ride on a track. We noticed what looked like a service road below running between the city and starport.

As we pulled out of the starport we could see up in the sky. It was like being inside a hollow planet with the sun in the center. There was a bright red star, 2 km in diameter overhead. We could see the outside was a shell with towns and factories, but mostly a landscape of grey rock.  There were platforms floating above the city, and a massive ship, Seven’s new body, 90% constructed.  One of the platforms nearby would be the family archive, unfortunately not labeled on the map. The train AI was intelligent but single-minded as it asked us questions.

Map of the First City

Fig asked the train if we could ride around the triangular area between the sectors. It could do that. It informed us that the houses are intelligent and can move on their own. There are teleportals linking the city’s sections. The teleportals are for authorized personnel only, mostly the Droyne who live and work there. They have a chip in their heads that let them use it.  Apparently peons like us walk or take public transportation (none go to the platforms).

There are five sections: The Droyne District, Public Quarter, Quarter of the Heroes, Quarter of the Chosen, and the Starport. The population now is a few hundred thousand but it has the space to hold millions.

The priests are mostly Vargr and live in the Quarter of the Chosen. There is no suffering here (The train is being a travel guide by this time).

It tells us that the Public quarter has zoos, genetic archives, and psy zones where even non-telepaths can converse telepathically. Kipenzi asked, “Are there a lot of psy’s here?”

The train replied, “Yes”, and showed us a map showing the location of the psy parks.

A hundred thousand Droyne live here, all followers of Seven since the Ancient’s war. Most are immortal and some are heavily modified.

The Quarter of Heroes is the home of immortal Agents of Seven’s, there are hundreds of agents but only a handful are out in the galaxy at any one time. Here, they lie low between missions.

Above the city are floating platforms for various functions, mostly servicing Seven’s new robotic body, the huge ship under construction. Kipenzi asked for more info on those functions but the train didn’t have any more information.

Outside the city, the landscape was dull, no tourist interest there

One of the parks in the Heroes quarter looked a LOT like the jungle on Alell around Uncle Vlen's cabin. According to the train, there are about one hundred heroes, but only a handful are out in the galaxy at any one time. We felt like heroes too, so we got off the train at that point.

This was an estate area, rather than just housing.  Micro-climates for many of them, it was quite a nice-looking setup.

We wandered a bit, and found a trail leading to a well-maintained version of the cabin we visited on Alell.  Stepping onto the porch, we found that the door was locked, and Fig was not granted access by the AI, sadly.

The place had no instructions about Fig, or anyone else.  We left a message asking for assistance to get to the floating platforms. The AI responded that it had recorded the message.

Walking around the home, we noticed a group of Vargr on another of the trails nearby. They were in Church garb, talking in Gvegh; they saw us and started talking excitedly among themselves.

“Are those some heroes here?”

“Should we approach?”

They came up to talk to us, and asked for our blessings, charisma, and wisdom. They thought we were Heroes. Kipenzi told them about Gvorr in depth; they took it as gospel. We gave them our blessings and discussed taking them on a tour of the floating platforms.

Fig tried using his new psy power on them, and found they’re here for training that has no access to the platforms.

“Maybe another day,” he told them.

Sam noted that it seemed that security here was pretty lame, no real precautions. They’re not expecting an attack from within, they’re overconfident. Probably the main security is keeping unauthorized folks out, but once you are in, you are pretty good. Sam decided to look for security systems, anyway.

We asked the door of Vlen’s house about teleport platforms nearby, and got directions.

There is an office in the Public Quarter that provides chips, but going someplace like that could be really hanging it out.

We walked toward the Droyne District, ambling along.  In the process we found a 200-ton Vargr Trader ship on a platform. It was blocked in by buildings, maybe empty or someone is using it as a residence. Maybe we could steal it. Again, it would be really sending up a red flag to the defense.

1600
Watching life go by, we noticed that there were recurring deliveries to the platforms, either supplies or visitors, another possible way to get up there.  Grav belts, which we are wearing, would work, too, but would probably draw a lot of unwanted attention.

The deliveries come and go from someplace in the Droyne District, but we could not get a real good idea of exactly where. We got within a few hundred meters, but no closer than that as buildings blocked our view.

We found a large hall, with holographic displays of local sectors, a giant map room. A pair of Aslan, one male and one female with a grav platform topped with luggage, were bringing up maps and chatting to each other. They’re likely agents; they glanced up at us but were not paying attention; we nodded and waved vaguely and kept moving. People accepted our presence here; they assumed we had a right to be here, because otherwise how did we get here? There were enough ships coming and going from the port to explain the presence of strangers.

In the Droyne district, we found a medical facility, which could well be the place to get a chip installed.  Fig could try to pass as a replacement body that did not get chipped.  Our presence in the Droyne district was a curiosity.

As we approached the facility building, it grew a face and said, “Can I help you?”

We explained to it that Fig doesn’t have a chip due to regeneration at a non-standard facility. It informed us of a facility short walk away where they implant chips.

We got there, and spoke with the Droyne behind the counter.  Kipenzi, the silver-tongued, persuaded the Droyne that Fig had been regenerated at a non-standard facility and we needed access to the teleporter network, a temporary fix until he had time to get an implant.

Truth here is assumed being that there are so many telepaths here, so the Droyne took her at her word.

Keycard and code in hand, we headed off.

Kipenzi asked for directions for flyers to platforms and got it. We found the place for the distribution center where robots were loading supplies onto grav trucks delivering to Seven’s robot body, a battleship-sized ship hanging almost over our heads.

Some of them had Droyne drivers; most are unoccupied, piloted by AI’s.

Somewhere up there was the Archive that was our real target.

Fig suggested finding the Vargr and offering to give them a tour. Kipenzi nixes it; they are priests, not techs and may not have permission to be there; it’s too much of a risk if it brings up red flags.

We learned about the teleporter network, and got a diagram of the platforms (6 of them). We asked about the one we had seen the trucks deliver to, and got the code for it.

1700
We reached a teleporter.  These, while a bit different, were close enough to ones we have used before to be usable now.  We could not get anything like a map of our destination platform, but we went through anyway.

Arriving on the platform, Fig had a good feeling about this being the right way to go. Looking over the platform’s edge, we could look down at the city, a long way down and there was no railing. For safety, Kipenzi put on her grav belt and the others followed suit.

There were two doors, both unlocked. We felt a slight vibration; there was machinery and equipment here.

Our first room was definitely medical-ish, and the 'sense' led us to a room of consoles.  Yaskoydray stepped into Fig's forebrain and basically took over.  He did a bunch of stuff on one of the consoles and a nearby cloning tank opened up. When that happened, Yaskoydray vanished from his mind.

Out of the tank stepped Yaskoydray, and said, “There we are, good as new. A perfect fit,” he said, referring to the body; “we are all clones of each other, after all. Now, one last adjustment and we can depart.”

Grandfather went to another console and started doing stuff.  We by then had attracted some attention. Two security drones showed up, hovering next to the platform where Arisa, Sam, and Leon were still waiting. Arisa saw the drones coming in; she reacted immediately, shooting one of the drones with the gauntlet and missed. Sam went through the opened door for cover. Leon took cover on the open platform and opened the top door, shot one drone, and stepped through the door. Disintegrator pistols are really fine things... when they hit.

Yaskoydray was blocking the transfer of Seven (the transfer had already started). He was shutting down the transfer in the small window of time that it could be done.

This was also a good time to have shimmersuits, soaking up some phenomenal damage.  However, all the stuff Sam and Arisa were carrying in their packs got vaporized by each shot.

Yaskoydray said, “It’s just started, 1% downloaded, don’t let them in here.” Kipenzi went out the door, moving to intercept.

Medicus asked Yaskoydray, “Should I lock the doors?” Yaskoydray ignored him and he checked for locks and found that there were none that he could find. Medicus went back to guard Yaskoydray.

Suddenly there was a FLASH in our heads, and everything went dark.  Maybe a security system?  Maybe a massive telepathic assault? 

We awoke in familiar surroundings, appearing to be in Uncle Vlen's lodge on Alell.  Uncle Vlen was there, Yaskoydray was there, Arisa was there, we were all there.  All together again for the first time...

We still had our shimmersuits and our remaining equipment.

It was somewhat disorienting seeing Vlen Backett again, he looked remarkably healthy for a man whose body we brought home for burial all those months ago. We noted that he had a gauss pistol on his belt.

Uncle Vlen had a bottle of spacer’s rum and some glasses. Grandfather was there in the body he took over, but he had a device resembling a black metal spider clamped to his head and appeared to be unconscious or frozen.

Vlen told us that we were knocked out by an emergency defense system.  He offered us a drink.

Fig accepted the offered drink; Leon asked if he had any Scotch. The rest of us passed.

“They rebuilt this place from my memories. It makes the transition to a new body easier. Dying’s not easy, not even for me.”

“And it’ll be a lot harder for you. The others wanted to kill you for helping Yaskoydray. I’ve convinced them to hold off until our master returns. He’ll be reborn soon – your tampering wasn’t enough to stop his rebirth.”

“Which means we’ve got about 15 minutes to save your lives.”

He told us:

For more than 1,000 years, he has been a servant of the entity that the you call Seven.

By the way, Yaskoydray has been lying to you all along. Yaskoydray did not build their civilization single-handedly or clone Sons from his own genetic material. Seven was never a Droyne. The Droyne were just another experiment in creating a slave race, like the Vargr or humans.

All this time, his duty has been to watch for signs of Ancients tampering with Humaniti. He has lived hundreds of lives. Part of his role includes recruiting other agents for his master. He had his eye on Fig for years and intended to recruit them one day.

He was killed back on Regina by his own servants to avoid Imperial investigation.

Seven’s mind has survived the collapse of the pocket universe and will soon be reassembled in the Family Archive. Yaskoydray’s tampering has been undone.

We were knocked unconscious by an emergency defense system that was keyed to detect advanced beings like Yaskoydray.

He offered us a way to live, but we have to trust him.  He told us Seven's goals, and his own beliefs.

The Ancient is going to take over Charted Space. The only thing stopping him doing so was the threat of other Ancients, and Yaskoydray should be the last of them. “In the next two decades”, he says, “The master will conquer every system from the coreward reaches of the Consulate to the borders of the Solomani Sphere. Soon after that, he will conquer the other major races.”

“None of the races have the technology to stop the Ancients. This is right and proper. The Ancients are a higher form of life. Humans and the other races are like pets to them. We are made to serve them. There is no shame in bowing to them, as a child must obey its parents.”

“There are other threats in the galaxy and beyond. The Dyabyuse, for instance, are still out there. The master’s instruments have detected a slow-moving psionic wave emanating from the heart of the galaxy, which might be their doing, or the work of the Primordials, a race that preceded even the Ancients.”

“Life under the Ancient is not slavery; he’ll rule justly and wisely, but there will be no dissent.”

No more suffering, war, poverty, or any bad stuff, but no dissent allowed. He told us Yaskoydray is only interested in his own research.  Yaskoydray was obviously paralyzed by the thing on his head and said nothing.

Kipenzi asked, “What are the Ancients, if they aren’t the Droyne?”

Vlen replied, “They were pure energy beings that took over sophonts’ bodies.”

Suddenly, the ground shook, the lights flickered and there is a ghastly groaning noise from the surrounding buildings.

Taking advantage of Vlen’s distraction, Leon punched the spider thing on Yaskoydray’s head but failed to dislodge it, only knocking him over backwards. Some of us tried to fire at Vlen but our disintegrators did not work. Medicus tapped Vlen on the head. Vlen shook off the blow and brought up a screen showing the outside, several huge flares were coming off the sun in the center of this inside-out world. There was now a force field above the city, protecting it, but some of the factories were outside it and were exploding, one by one.

Medicus walked up behind Vlen and snapped his neck, which put him down with extreme prejudice.

Leon checked out the spider thing on Yaskoydray, found a catch, and released it. Yaskoydray came back aware and told us that he set a dead-man switch on the Star Trigger to go off on its own if things went badly. Apparently, Yaskoydray had been in contact with it after we arrived.

We headed off in search of a way out of there.  The sun outside was flickering and it was quite hot.  The city was in a panic, as you might expect when your sun was gonna go nova.

Fig grabbed Vlen’s body, for the chip.

We needed to get out of there. Sam, Arisa and Yaskoydray didn’t have grav belts, so flying back to the starport wasn’t an option.

Arisa suggested looking for a trap door under the rug in Vlen's cabin, and yahoo, it was the same as on Alell; we went down the ladder, just like on Alell. Ah, this trip down memory lane is a good one. 

We dropped Vlen’s body down, and climbed down the ladder to a hanger.

We got into the basement, and found a different ship, but at least we found a ship. It was an ovoid ship, but a potential way out of here. Medicus got into the pilot’s seat and found it had telepathic controls and was surprisingly easy to fly.

Medicus flew the ship down the tunnel to the starport where the tunnel exited a hanger.

Outside, radiation was bad, but the ship’s radiation shielding was working against the sun’s flares.

It looked like the shields protecting the city were failing.

Fig asked, “Has Seven been stopped?”

Looping around, we could see that while heavily armored, the battleship body was glowing white hot and there were many open panels and hatches and the interior of the ship was melting, destroying critical systems.

Grav plates were failing in places, leaving streams of lava flowing skyward.

Medicus dived the ship, who had introduced itself as the Dart, through a hole in the flooding starport’s roof and into the deep pool. We shot up the shaft and out of the ocean, straight up into the upper atmosphere.

A large section of the ocean’s crust collapsed behind us and a tsunami was spreading out. It would hit the Zoe starport in a few hours. We called them to warn them to evacuate.

In orbit, the Vargr corvette hailed us and we recognized Commander Rrurrkho’s voice, “Unidentified ship, ID yourselves.”

We answered, “Commander Rrurrkho, it’s us.”

We left a message with the Vargr; we’re leaving the Far Hunter there. The Corvette will evacuate sophonts on the planet and warn the sea slugs to head for cover. The tsunami was 1,000 km away and coming fast; it’ll take 6 hrs. to hit the starport. They should be able to rescue a large number if they start right away.

They asked us about Ancient tech; we’re kinda evasive and leaving the world fast, accelerating at 6G’s.

078-1111  1900
We jumped for Ghisaersae.

We were off to Imperial space, in a JUMP-SIX ship!!!!

Arisa, reasonably enough, wanted to go to the nearest Imperial Naval Base.

From Ghisaersae, we planned to go to Kinorb in Imperial space. The Dart is a jump-6 ship with a teleportal power plant; that means it teleports energy from another dimension, making it unnecessary to refuel at all.  We can jump into a system and then immediately jump again, no waiting or cool down time. We now have TL25 tech.

The ship didn’t appear to have a med bay, autodoc or low berths, however. Medicus used his hand tools to remove Vlen’s chip from his head. This prevented any prospect of him coming back to life with his memories intact.

We spent our time in hyperspace talking with Yaskoydray. Kipenzi asked what will happen to Seven’s organization now that he’s gone? It’s been operating on automatic and will continue through inertia at the least. Yaskoydray offered to let us work with him if we wanted; we do. Fig asked about Arisa, she has a strong allegiance to the Empire. She said that working to remove Seven’s organization would be in the Imperial interest. Yaskoydray will contact us in the future; all of us will be augmented to make us equal to Seven’s agents, when we go hunting Seven’s organizations.

081-1111 2030
Sam was on duty on the bridge when he got an alarm.  There was a bizarre distortion in the jump bubble as ANOTHER SHIP passed inside our jump bubble, defying everything that we understand about how jump drives work as it came alongside the Dart.

Yaskoydray said, “this is where I get off,” and bid us farewell. “I intend to vanish into legend once more.”

The ship extended a walkway to the Dart.  Yaskoydray walked over to the ship and left, taking Vlen’s body with him.  The ship undocked and vanished through the wall of the jump bubble.

088-1111 2000
We arrived in the Ghisaersae system uneventfully and then jumped again to Kinorb back in Imperial space.

096-1111 04:51
Out of jump in the Kinorb system.

We picked up the news feed from the TNS. While we were saving the universe, events in the Imperium continued on.

LANTH/LANTH (1719 A879533-B) 004-1111

In a report made available today by usually reliable sources inside the Imperial government, it was revealed that, in the last weeks before the signing of a separate peace between the Imperium and the Sword Worlds, several deep penetration raids on the industrial worlds of Gram and Sacnoth severely damaged major naval installations and manufacturing capacity.

The Imperial government is reported to have rejected requests from Sword World negotiators for financial and technical assistance in rebuilding the ruined facilities.

With the ending of the Sword Worlds’ front of the 5^th Frontier War, the Sword Worlds territory held by the 3^rd Imperium would be split off into a separate client state to be called the Border Worlds. The Entropic Worlds on the border of Querion Subsector would be ceded to the Darian Confederation.

Weeks later we were contacted by another agent of Yaskoydray and we went to a secret base where we received our new augments.  Over the next few weeks, we all got boosts to our strength, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, education and psy. Subdermal armor made us resistant to damage and we got rapid healing to take care of what damage we did receive. We received a ‘cure’ for natural aging.

Our upgrades were concealed from detection; to most scans, we would appear completely normal.

Speaking of appearing completely normal, while we were the secret agents of a demigod holding the lives of trillions, we should still look like a scruffy band of free traders. The Dart is going to draw some attention; maybe we should go back to Alell and pick up the Skylark 2. The last we heard was that it was sitting in a hanger, partially disassembled. Maybe Arisa could help us get it back.

 

The End