Battle Of The Citadel Disk

[mega raptor]

Alright, first off, let me say I'm sorry it took so long to get this one out. But I've got excuses:

1. This story wasn't originally planned. Originally, the idea was to jump from An Empire Eternal to An Emnity Eternal. But that didn't work out because there was a lot missing between those two, and so I filled in the gaps.

2. My laptop was dead right when I wanted to get to work on this (a lesson in procrastination, I suppose) and so I was unable to access this document until only about a week ago.

If there's any questions you've got, feel free to post them here-a lot of the names and objects mentioned I have backstory for that I just couldn't fit into the narrative, stuff like that. Oh, and I'm sorry for the bad title-I haven't had one for this since it began, and I realized it needed a title as I was getting ready to post it.

And finally, constructive criticism is welcomed.

Anyways, here you go:

Commander Vollatilis Lacerta carefully maneuvered his wings behind the chair back as listened to Deus: “As you will all remember,” He started as tapped keys on a terminal, “The first attacks in the EIM began four and a half months ago.” As he said this, a hologram of the galaxy appeared above the meeting table. “The attacks began here”-he pointed to a planet that highlighted as he spoke-“With an attack on the sector’s citadel. And, even with a valiant and commended performance by our General Calcaris,” and Deus nodded to the General, whose new fingers were still being grown by the alchemists-“the Disk was infiltrated, overwhelmed and destroyed.

“But, rather more distressing, they managed to access the Citadel’s computers and download massive amounts of data about the Eternal Empire’s assets in that sector-everything from training academies to Warpgate warehouses.

Why is repeating this to us? Lacerta wondered. Deus knows we already know this…

Deus continued, “And from there, rather interestingly, the EIM split their attacks from there. They began to attack the usual targets-training facilities, manufacturing plants, bio-engineering labs-they even somehow managed to send another Citadel crashing from orbit.”

And on the map, the planets that the EIM had attacked were highlighted, with a line running from one to another, crossing the cosmos.

“But rather more worryingly, at the same time, there are reports across the sector of infiltrations of other Disks, usually followed by an attack on one or more Warpgate warehouses.” On the map, more planets were highlighted and connected.

“The information accessed on the Disks seem to indicate the most of the information they have accessed are randomly generated-everything from information on black holes to Eternal sanctuaries-but I believe I understand what it is they are searching for.”

Lacerta shifted in his seat, watching uncomfortably as three images replaced the map: they were two suskee and one human, and had appeared mysteriously on the homeworld of the noscilis. Known as the Ambromancer, the Chronomancer and the Telemancer, the three had led the noscilis, a species that was barely beginning to understand the crossbow into a direct-and in fact victorious-confrontation with an inter-galactic empire, destroying the space elevator and sending the Warpgate that allowed reinforcements to enter flying into the sun with the rest of the elevator’s end station. Though they had known the coordinates, Lacerta had decided that they would not be able to open a large enough portal to make sending reinforcements practical.

Unfortunately, it did not take long for the noscilis to salvage artifacts of the Empire and they quickly became a space-faring species, soon meeting up with and joining the EIM. Now, they were one of the two species that made up the Movement.

Lacerta had heard the stories about these three-he had heard the Ambromancer, the group’s human, could shoot lightning from fingertips, while the Chronomancer could twist time whenever one of his companions died until they made it through an encounter successfully, and the Telemancer would somehow telekinetically take weapons from the Empire’s troops and then throw it back at them so fast that when it impacted it snapped their neck.

And their were even more fantastic legends about how they had escaped capture as well: some say they had ridden the falling space elevator down until it had gone so fast it had reached a mass necessary to create a black hole into another universe, others said they had ridden the speeding elevator’s asteroid out of the system, while others claimed that they had worked for something that had simply stopped time and withdrew them from the falling space elevator. Lacerta doubted any of these claims, but was unsure how, exactly, the three had managed to evade capture-or, indeed, if they even had survived the cutting of the space elevator’s tether.

Of course, the fact the officer in charge of administrating the planet had been incompetent had something to do with the inability of anyone to even identify the mysterious trio, and none of the officers here had had anything to do with the trio’s brief campaign, but regardless Lacerta doubted that there was anyone sitting at the table that did not feel some embarrassment.

Deus was saying, “Everyone here remembers these three-the so-called Ambromancer, Chronomance and Telemancer-who have appeared almost three years ago, leading the Noscilis to independence and to space before disappearing completely. Our intelligence indicates that the EIM has no idea of their whereabouts, or even of the locations of the homeworlds of either the suskee or the humans. Thus, they are searching in the most efficient means available to them: us.”

Lacerta ruffled his wings and sniffed the air, trying to see if he could divine the reactions of the others seated at this table (he could not, unfortunately, tell whether or not Deus was lying through either scent or sound, as his body had been modified to act normally regardless of whether or not he was lying), while trying simultaneously to process the implications: the only place where a record of important strategic information in other areas of the Eternal Empire was the central Citadel Disk-the very one they were on right now. And soldiers like those three don’t appear out of nowhere-someone must have trained them, very possibly another force sympathetic to the EIM that could help to overthrow the Empire in this galaxy.

Deus paused, likely to allow these implications to sink in, and continued, “Now, of course, this very disk is the only place in the galaxy where important information on other galaxies can be accessed. And, have no doubt, the EIM cannot succeed without allies like whoever sent the three. Thus…” Again, he paused dramatically. “Thus, the EIM will have no choice but mount an attack on this very Disk if they intend to survive. In fact, their best chance would be to attack now, before our intelligence agencies are able to piece this together.”

Staring blankly at Deus, Lacerta wondered if Deus was correct. He knew that the EIM was really quite sizeable, and had many sympathizers. It was not impossible that they could rally a force that would be capable of making a force large enough to attack the Disk. But even if they did, it would be almost impossible to find a way to the Disk-all tunnels to and from it were under heavy Imperial surveillance, and though Lacerta knew that the alchemists were working on a way to use the Warpgates to quickly generate clean, ship-sized holes, the EIM would have none of the resources needed for such a thing.

Lacerta looked over at General of the Space Force Iphrey, deep in thought, his eye-less head turned towards the ceiling, as if searching the sky, hoping to see truth in the stars. Vollatilis wondered what Iphrey was thinking, remembering the Generals of the Imperial Deep Space Force had to be extraordinarily brilliant-thinking in three dimensions, forgetting traditional directional orientation and taking into account everything from gravity wells to weapon emplacements.

Finally, Iphrey spoke in the grating clicking of the Eternals: “When should we begin to prepare for such an attack?”

Vollatilis cocked his head and tested the air again, but realized quickly that he did not know the species well enough to tell whether or not the General was lying.

“As I have said before,” Deus said, “The EIM’s chances are greatest if they attack before we have realized their intentions. Thus, I would advise all of you to get to your stations as soon as possible. Commander Lacerta, General Iphrey, I would like a word with you two. Everyone else is dismissed.”

Lacerta stood up, feeling the heat coils woven into his uniform ease away from his back, and walked over to Deus. Deus waited until the others had departed, and he began issuing orders to Iphrey and Lacerta: “Well, my friends, I hope you are prepared for the battle ahead. General Iphrey, the Mars is in able hands and I am certain that the fleet will be able hold its ground the EIM. I trust you enough to allow you to choose what to do with your fleet, but I give you one order: do not defend my office. Though I know you understand that firing on the structure that contains their goal would be counter-productive, I want you to have no sympathies for me.”

“But Sir,” Vollatilis said, concerned, “You aren’t going to evacuate for a safer location, or fight the invaders yourself?”

“I’m afraid not, my old friend. I rely on you to fight the invaders, while I disable this terminal and retreat to my office where I’ll guard the database should they sneak an attack through. Speaking of which, I know that you understand the EIM’s likely landing zones, know best how to utilize your forces, what targets to defend, and so on.”

Lacerta nodded: already, he was prioritizing locations-mostly the Gauss cannons used for orbital defense, as well as the facilities on the inside of the Disk used to control the Disk’s automated defenses.

“Well then, my friends, good luck, I hope eternity looks on you favorably.” Deus nodded, and with that, the two were dismissed.



As soon as he reached the War Room, Lacerta ordered his personal dropship and a squadron of Deus’s Elites on standby-he hated commanding his forces from the safety of the War Room, which was, to him, an act of cowardice. On Earth, Lacerta had never asked more from his soldiers than he had of himself, and he saw no reason to change this standard here.

After this, Vollatilis ordered a company of crab automatons and two companies of infantry, to each of the twenty Gauss cannons stationed, around the Disk, and had gunships put on standby. And finally, he requisitioned a neutrino rifle and gluon trap from the armory. After Lacerta sent an eager private to pick up his weapons, he quickly changed into combat armor, leaving only the helmet off, before he waited for any sign of an incursion.

Vollatilis knew that they would receive fair warning should the EIM attempt to attack-there were dozens of networked satellites, all across the system, that could easily pick up any number of signs of an unauthorized fleet entering the area, and even after that General Iphrey would delay, if not entirely prevent, and landing on the surface. But Lacerta felt hyperactive, perhaps edgy: the familiar tension before a battle. He had always enjoyed it, and had always enjoyed fighting, had always enjoyed blurring the barrier between his life and his death. Perhaps it was the feral lineage of his species, perhaps it was his heritage, frequently warring with the humans. Maybe it was the stories he had heard from the elders of his tribe, telling of wealth and glory earned on the battlefield, or perhaps it was simply the adrenaline coursing through his system. But for whatever reason, war was something that Lacerta loved and cherished.

Occasionally, he had entertained thoughts that it made him bloodthirsty, perhaps reckless. But Deus had assured him that it was not the case, that Vollatilis was an extremely skilled soldier and a capable tactician. And Vollatilis did not doubt Deus-he was grateful to the man for taking him out of his ancient world and shown him just how much more there was to everything, and to make him a part of something so grand, so vast as the Eternal Empire.

Lacerta was snapped out of his thoughts as the Eternal private arrived back, carrying the gluon trap and neutrino rifle. As he pushed the cybernetic pins of the gluon trap into his wrists, he tried to recall exactly how it worked: something about quarks, neutrinos, protons, energy, matter and nuclear fission, Lacerta couldn’t remember the exact details and did not understand half the things that the alchemists had actually said about the weapon. But he knew its effects: it caused a small white hot ball of energy to flare up that would often kill whoever was affected by it.

He slipped the rifle onto his back, right between the wings, and Lacerta remembered, slightly embarrassed, the first time he had ever used a gunpowder weapon: after Deus had brought Lacerta to the first Citadel Disk he had tried shooting-so intent was he on being accurate, as he had been forced to with the crossbows because of the length of time required to reload, that he had moved the gun so close to his face to use the sights that when he finally pulled the trigger, the unexpected recoil caused the gun to jerk back almost directly into his eye.

Granted, he had decades of experience between then and now, but Lacerta did not like to make mistakes-he was above them.



It was almost three and a half hours after Deus had called the meeting that the EIM arrived in the system. The EIM arrive on the opposite side of the planet, quickly moving to engage Iphrey. Strangely, they did not arrive through a tunnel-instead, each of the ships appeared to have used their own independent portal, and Lacerta quickly realized the implications-if they could open a portal on their own, then they could certainly arrive just above the atmosphere, where troop carriers could comfortably land without much of Iphrey’s fleet in the way.

But Vollatilis had confidence in Iphrey, and as he ordered the Gauss cannons and their guards on high alert, he watched the feeds from satellites and ships indicating Iphrey was trying to lure the EIM around the planet towards the Citadel, in range of the Gauss cannons.

And soon, satellites around the Disk indicated EIM troop carriers were appearing, pouring out of their strange portals. Behind them, frigates appeared, raining down electro-magnetic pulses on the metallic surface of the disk. It was useless, futile even-the nanobots that the Eternals had mastered would quickly repair damaged circuitry-but it didn’t matter. Un-hardened systems, most importantly defenses, were out of commission.
Immediately, Lacerta ordered his dropship to be ready for him-he planned for them to link up with a contingent of the crabs and engage the first troop carriers as they landed, before they could establish a beachhead or do much damage to the Gauss cannons.

As Vollatilis hurried through the Citadel to the hangar, he ordered, on a band he had secured for his squadron, a sound-off. The Elites responded in kind, and Lacerta was satisfied when he heard nine answers through the radio, confirming they were waiting in the dropship.

When he climbed into the starcraft, he ordered a regiment of crab automatons and a company of infantry to meet them as near to their drop zone as possible. As soon as they landed, they would make their way to the EIM’s landing zone and fight them off before they could attack the Gauss cannons.

Lacerta noticed, with some distaste, that the Elites were all Eternals. As the dropship took off speeding faster than he could ever fly to the drop zone, Lacerta suddenly realized he did not know why he disliked the Eternals. They were good soldiers, sturdy, brave, able to wield two weapons at once with their four arms, and often willing to do anything for Deus, to whom they owed a debt for reviving them from their ancient Sanctuaries.

But there was something about them that made Vollatilis distrust them-perhaps it was their alien scent, their odd manner of movement that seemed so wrong, the lack of eyes… Perhaps even a combination of features, too subtle to be of note, that made them seem so alien.

And an image came to mind: that of him philosophizing, not really there, as he ducked behind cover. Bullets flew overhead as he stared, misty eyed, out into space as he pondered something irrelevant and meaningless. Lacerta shook his head, clearing his mind of both thoughts.

Instead, he tapped his claw lightly, maybe a little jittery with adrenaline, on the bench beside him until an Eternal opposite him, noticing the strange devices on his hands, leaned forward asked, “Permission to speak freely, sir?” Lacerta said yes, and the Eternal said, “Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, what are those on your hands?”

“These?” Vollatilis asked, pointing to the gluon trap. “The alchemists call these gluon traps.”

“What do they do?”

“I don’t really know how they do it, but they seem to cause some sort of reaction on things that usually either blow them up or sends them up in smoke.”

The Eternal, apparently satisfied, leaned back. Lacerta stood up and walked up to the cockpit, and squeezing his wings through the narrow opening, asked, “How long ‘till ETA?”

“ETA four minutes,” the Eternal pilot clicked back to him. As he made his way back to his seat, Lacerta heard the super-sonic booms of the Gauss cannons firing off, shooting projectiles so fast they burned dust around them.

Sitting back down, Vollatilis quietly observed the Elites he had taken command of. They were quiet, disciplined, probably worthy of the designation Elite. But I will wait for the battlefield to decide that, Vollatilis thought.

Soon, the dropship set down, and Vollatilis un-holstered his rifle before climbed out of the ship- first, his duty as a superior officer-and asked on the War Room band, “Any of the draco solars touch down?”

“First one has landed less than two kilometers to the south, uploading coordinates now,” came the answer. On his wristpad’s map, a red marker appeared near one of the Gauss cannon emplacements. Behind him, the dropship had left, leaving Lacerta with the Elites.

“Follow me,” he said, “The crabs are waiting just a half a kilometer to the east. We’ll meet up and head for the EIM’s drop zone two kilometers further.”

Vollatilis turned and started walking, and the Elites followed wordlessly. They moved quickly, and it was only a few minutes before they reached the army he had ordered. There were seventy-five of the crabs there, a full company, and another five hundred infantry-mostly Eternals, armed with shard blasters and nano-shields.

Lacerta marched to the front of the infantry (ignoring the crabs, as he was unsure if they were even sentient at all), switched to the common band, and began to speak, as best he could: “This rebellion,” he spat, “this movement, those traitors-they dare to attack our Citadel Disk-they dare to attack us?! And why?! So they can find three outlaws they hope can lead their dying army to victory! Will we stand for this?!”

Vollatilis’s tail twitched happily as he ended his speech and switched to the Captain’s band and ordered them to fan their troops out behind the crabs. They quickly starting moving to the EIM’s landing zone, and Vollatilis was careful to lead at the head of the crabs, his neutrino rifle drawn.

They approached the landing zone quickly, and Lacerta could easily spot the dropships descending from orbit. With a flash from somewhere to east, something was sent flying fast that he almost missed it, a projectile tore through the unfortunate starcraft, sending it crashing to the ground-the Gauss cannons were working effectively. As he followed it down, he could briefly see explosions in the sky as the fleets of the EIM battled Iphrey’s starcraft.

They approached the EIM’s dropzone carefully, with the crabs at the front-the creatures were extremely durable, able to take shots from even the Eternal’s nanobot-based heavy weaponry. Lacerta ordered two columns of them to stream through gaps on either side of one of the Disk’s factories, while he lead the infantry following behind.

Vollatilis could hear his heart beating in his ears as he moved onto the plaza, dashing for cover behind up-turned wreckage…



The space elevator dangled down from the planet, reaching across the vast void of space to the Citadel Disk, reaching through the Disk’s center, into the Citadel proper, suspended above the abyss. It was almost like an umbilical cord, but in reverse-the planet below wouldn’t be able to survive without the space elevator reaching outside the planet’s gravity well, cutting the costly atmospheric re-entry out of the equation.

But for Deus who stared at a hologram of it and the battle that surrounded it in the center of his office, economics was not his interest-instead, he was curious if the EIM’s soldiers would infiltrate his Citadel through it. Maybe, Deus thought. Most of my guards are out fighting or are guarding the outer sections of the Citadel-not many that far in.

But Deus was unsure where, precisely, the EIM’s troops would be coming from-though he was certain they were. It was from a long time ago-he didn’t remember how many years ago, though it before he had started up the Empire, when he was still activating the Eternal’s Sanctuaries. What was it like again?

He was unsure-a dome, underwater somewhere, hidden in some underwater mountain range… Atlantis? No, the Atlantic-somewhere in the Atlantic, on some alternate Earth.

Deus had found the Sanctuary, had disarmed its security, and was in the midst of re-activating its denizens, but he had been followed-there had been Samael, who he had recognized well, but two others-a noscilis and an Eternal-he had not recognized. They had done something-broken the dome, probably-and he had fled. He hadn’t seen either of them since, not since he had started his Empire here, in Andromeda, about 6000 CE by his calculations.

For a second, Deus smiled at the thought-a human, (though he was unsure if he was technically human anymore) ruler of a galaxy-spanning Empire, millions of light-years from home at a time he should be a member of a wandering hunter-gatherer tribe somewhere in Europe. What will the Suskee think of that one when they find out?

Deus stood up out of his chair, and walked over to one of his massive windows that ran around his office, observing the battle between Iphrey and Thraj’s forces, though he didn’t know for certain where Thraj was-he had heard reports of several noscilis officers seen on the ground in and around the Disk, but as it was often difficult to tell individuals of a different species apart-particularly when one is being shot at by said individual-he doubted these reports.

Actually, it was entirely possible that Thraj was the noscilis that had destroyed one of the Eternal’s Sanctuaries. He had seen the photos of him, and he seemed close enough-the horns were the right size and shape, he was the right color, the right eyes, et cetera, and now that Deus thought about it, Thraj had been close to the three that had shattered their grip on the noscilis homeworld, and probably would be interested in finding them or their employers.

The Eternal, on the other hand, Deus had no idea of his identity. There were several prominent Eternals in the EIM, as it had been started by the Eternals, but none of them seemed the type to risk their own lives to infiltrate the enemy’s headquarters in the midst of a massive battle.
But it likely didn’t matter who it was, so long as they got through the Warpgate. So long as they did, it was one less thing he had to allow happen, one less variable he had to worry about that prevented him from achieving his goals.

Outside, the battle between Iphrey and Thraj’s forces raged harder than ever, and out of the mass of the EIM’s fleet, Deus could barely see two specks dive for Gauss cannon emplacements. He could make out interceptors chased after them, and still more interceptors pursued the pursuers. His mind racing, Deus searched his ancient memory for some hint of their purpose, and of orders to give…

He barely remembered to cover his eyes as two tactical thermonuclear warheads detonated just above two Gauss cannon emplacements. They destroyed the unstable uranium atoms and releasing the utterly massive amounts of energy contained in them, and releasing the mother of all electro-magnetic pulses for good measure. The Gauss cannons were effectively destroyed, the surrounding areas irradiated, splitting off the small area inside the effected area from the rest of the Disk.

When he opened his eyes, Deus found that the lights were flickering-the Citadel’s secondary power core was activating.

For a second, he stared, dumb-founded, at the nearly vaporized areas of the Disk-the EIM had thought this out better than he had expected.

Something critical was inside the effected band, and now that the Gauss cannons were out it would be easy enough for them to simply land there and, largely, do whatever they pleased. The electro-magnetic pulse would set back the nanobots attempting to repair the station’s defenses, and they could not march troops through irradiated areas, meaning that they had to rely on air support and other starcraft.

Immediately, Deus walked back to his terminal and pulled up a map of the Citadel Disk. Sure enough, the fusion power core was located inside the irradiated area-it wouldn’t be difficult to destroy any inhibitors and increase the size of the fusion reaction catastrophically, until it blew a massive hole in the Citadel Disk, causing it to fall apart under its own weight and rain down catastrophically on the planet below. In fact, it would also disable the super-magnets holding the space elevator in place, sending that down to the planet’s surface as well.

Of course, it was all a diversion, designed to steer troops and ships away from the Citadel so that it could be infiltrated and its data records could be plundered. But for now, it was best to make the EIM believe that their diversion was working, and so he would proceed as expected, diverting Lacerta and Iphrey to defend the fusion core.

General Iphrey was already asking for orders on Deus’s radio. “You are to defend the fusion plant at all costs,” Deus told him. “Shoot down any un-authorized starcraft that gets anywhere near it.”

And then Deus activated his link to Lacerta. “Commander, I hope you can hear me.”

Deus heard panting and gunshots over the radio, and then Lacerta replied: “Yes, sir?”

“I need you to defend the fusion plant. The EIM’s just nuked it and though Iphrey’s defending it from space, I need you to clean up any EIM in the area. I’m sending something out to pick up you and the Elites and some reinforcements to help you out. Understand?”

“But sir, shouldn’t you evacuate?”

“Lacerta, I have the utmost confidence in you. Now do you understand?”

Deus could sense Lacerta knew their was no point in arguing, and thus was satisfied when he heard an affirmation from Lacerta. Then he ordered five dropships to pick up Lacerta and get him to the fusion core.

Curious, Deus booted the hologram of the battle back up and watched as a single, heavily escorted, heavy dropship slipped through Iphrey’s perimeter. Iphrey’s greatest starcraft gave chase, destroying and disabling the escorts. The starcraft quickly came under heavy fire, but it didn’t bother touching down, instead simply dropping its cargo roughly near the fusion core before it was destroyed. Though Deus was uncertain what its cargo was, but it briefly showed up on radar as it fell quickly to the surface. It was troubling that they had no way of confirming what it was for now-all of the sensors on the surface of the effected area of the disc were incapable of communicating with the mainframe, assuming they were still functioning at all. And a quick inquiry to Iphrey revealed that he, nor anyone else in his fleet, had seen precisely what had happened. But Lacerta would probably know soon.

And indeed, the starcraft sent to pick him up were approaching him quickly-he’d be finding out what had dropped soon.

And, un-noticed by Iphrey’s fleet, a single EIM starcraft appeared on the edge of the map’s sensors, making its way towards the Citadel…



Lacerta sat in the co-pilot’s chair of the dropship, staring out into space as he waited for the medical salve to take hold. He had taken several bullets during the previous battle, most of which had been taken by the armor, but two had pierced the relatively tiny amount of armor on his wings and the wings themselves-a major problem, considering that many of his major veins and arteries were routed through them.

A nearby medic had been able to provide coagulant to stop the bleeding, and after that Vollatilis was happy to continue fighting, regardless of the pain-let the medic use the salve on others, more seriously wounded. When Lacerta had gotten to the dropship, however, he was happy to use some of its medical supplies.

As Lacerta cleared his head, preparing for the next battle, he was shocked to see a Juggernaut tank, making its way through the rubble of factories-he had not authorized the use of such a weapon.

The Juggernauts were extremely effective and extremely destructive-essentially, they served as massive tanks, troop and weapon deployment platforms, and anti-aircraft weapons. They were too large to be boarded conventionally-indeed, they often towered above even some buildings, standing two stories tall, and lacking any conventional access point-they had to be accessed from the air, and this was difficult, as they were mounted with powerful anti-aircraft turrets.

The vehicles were so effective, Lacerta had never heard of one being destroyed and had only once heard of it being captured.

And now, it seemed the EIM was willing to sacrifice it to overload the fusion core, and send the whole Disk plummeting to the planet below.
Vollatilis opened the link to Deus, and began to speak: “The Juggernaut that the EIM captured under Calcaris?” Outside, a dropship fell out of the sky. Lacerta could briefly glimpse Eternals on fire before they fell out of sight.

“Yes?” Deus said, sounding a little curious.

“It’s here.” Another dropship fell out of sight.

“I see. If you can, I would appreciate if you captured it, not destroy it-I imagine you could use the firepower on your side anyway.” The starcraft jolted upwards as the Juggernaut turned its fire on them.

“How?” An engine had begun to smoke. Lacerta tried to ignore it, focused on what Deus was saying.

“I can upload programs to your wristpad that will take control of its targeting systems.” The pilot was attempting to coax the dropship into evasive maneuvers, but the heavy ship was uncooperative. Vollatilis stood up and walked out of the cockpit, into the back where the Elites were seated.

“Do it.” The dropship’s entrance flew open before him, while behind him the cockpit door sealed automatically. He grabbed at something as they were exposed to the vacuum of space, and he felt himself lift off the starcraft floor. Someone tried to grab at him, and he felt a slight pain as they touched him.

Lacerta glanced behind him, and saw that the Juggernaut was almost directly behind them, and knew that the starcraft was about to fall apart. So he let go, and spread his wings as he was sucked out into space.
And then, Vollatilis realized: he was in space. And the ground was several hundred feet below him.



“Idiot.”

Lacerta was unsure where he heard the word from-certainly not from his radio, but there was no air in space to transmit sound. And then, he realized, he wasn’t moving nearly as fast as he should. In fact, he was almost drifting down to the Juggernaut before.

“You’re an idiot, you know that, don’t you?” The voice was continuing, and as he drifted closer to the Juggernaut, he realized that it was coming from there.

“Honestly, leaping out of a spacecraft, into space, what did you think was going to happen?”

Vollatilis could see who was summoning him to the Juggernaut. It was a human, unremarkable were it not for that fact that he lacked any sort of thing to protect him from the cold of space, and he had wings-Vollatilis’s wings, to be precise, though one was read and one was blue. But they were still his wings-the fingers, the claws, the position they rested in was his own.

Lacerta panicked for a second as old folklore from home flooded into his mind, about how evil creatures would trade wings for whatever a fool desired, if not stealing them outright.

And Lacerta drifted out into space, and was frozen, spread-eagle, in front of him. “Who are you?” Vollatilis asked.

“I am Deus Ex Machina, that’s Deus from Machina, though no one really ever calls me anything but Deus.”

“You’re not Deus, Deus is in the Citadel.”

“No, and yes… And no again.” Lacerta’s eyes opened wide and his shoulders slumped, while this Deus laughed at his confusion.

“You see, I’m not your Deus at the present, I’m your Deus in the future. But actually, I’m neither of those, because I’m not really here, and neither are you.”

“How?... Neuromancing?”

“Yes.”

“But neuromancing takes control of someone’s nervous system-most of this can’t actually be happening, even if you did control my nervous system.”

“Actually, neuromancing evolved from trying to fit entire experiences, like, say… boot camp, into someone’s perspective while in reality it happened in the blink of an eye.”

“So that’s what you’re doing.”

This Deus snorted, and said sarcastically, “You know what, no. My name is literal and I am literally bending the laws of physics, as we speak… But, as I was saying earlier, all of this is just neuromancing, and I’m really just the emulation of the real Deus being presented by a super-computer up there-” And he pointed upwards, to the planet they orbited- “And all of it is being routed through that dart-” And Deus pointed to the spot where an Eternal had grabbed him, and he had felt a slight pain.

Suddenly, a thought struck Lacerta. “Has anything happened since I was stuck with that dart?”

“Yes-you actually did jump out of the dropship into space. The super-computer started as soon as that happened. In reality, I’m lowering you down to the Juggernaut.”

“What happens then?”

“You take control of the Juggernaut, call a dropship and head directly to Deus’s office on the Citadel.”

Lacerta cocked his head and said, “Why?”

Again, a snort from Deus. “Because I told you too and I’m from the future.”

Vollatilis stared at Deus quizzically and asked, “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“Why would I lie to you?”

It was Vollatilis’s turn to snort. “Isn’t this entire thing a lie?”

Deus shrugged. “I suppose you could say so.”

“So then, doesn’t that prove my point?”

Again, a shrug. “Probably. But if you don’t do what I say, I’ll just take control of you and have the computer do it. So it gets done either way. You just get to choose whether you do it out of choice or whether I do it for you… So, any questions?”

“Why and how do you have wings?”

“I have wings because they’re more cells to draw electromagnetic energy from the magnetosphere-that’s the blue one-and more space to store this fluid that sets people on fire-that’s the red one. And they’re kinda intimidating, too… Oh, and the wings are here because of genetic engineering.”

“So you just took the genes for the wings and put them into yourself?”

“No, there’s not such thing as genes for wings.”

“I know,” Vollatilis protested.

Deus continued heedless: “There are only four different chemicals that make up our DNA, and they can each only combine with one other chemical. What matters is the sequence of these chemicals, which in general requires a lot of experimentation. Satisfied?”

“Yes.”

“Then get going.”

And Lacerta was back, picking himself up. Un-holstering his rifle, he saw he was at the very front of the EIM’s Juggernaut…



Deus stared at the swirling silver cover of the Warpgate, situated to the left of his desk, pondering what, precisely, had just happened. A few moments ago, he had been watching map of the Citadel Disk, and had seen Lacerta’s tracer arc down slowly from the dropship’s.

For a second, he had had no idea what to think as primate emotions of relief flooded through his mind, overcoming his rational half. For a second he tried to rationalize it-Lacerta was both a valuable friend and a useful resource, and his loss would be a set-back for Deus’s plans-but Deus recognized that simply had allowed emotions to overcome him, something he could not allow, not even for a second.

Deus had, instead, looked into the Warpgate, and his mind had turned instead to the problem of how Lacerta had survived. Occam’s razor, Occam’s razor... He thought, pondering the question.

And then it came to him, a simple, elegant answer: “I did it.” Deus entered it into his wristpad: “Save Commander Vollatilis Lacerta,” and then the time, date and universe. It was one of dozens of things that he would do to fulfill various paradoxes that could only be resolved by his intervention (others from this universe included “Destroy Century City” and “Put human on first Suskee FTL starcraft”.)

On Deus’s map, the infiltrator’s starcraft had landed further down the Citadel tower, and it seemed they were planning on getting to Deus through the elevator shaft. Of course, that would set off alarms, but it probably didn’t matter-they’d get to Deus’s office before anyone realized what was happening.

After that, Deus had to play his part, convincing whoever was coming for him that he was surprised-and that wouldn’t be too difficult-when Deus had been waiting for civilizations to reach the point where he could access a Warpgate, he had taken up all sorts of occupations-and though he preferred politics and the military, he had occasionally acted, usually in theatre, as by the point civilizations were developing film, Deus was pushing for research into flight and rocketry.

He chuckled a bit as a memory flooded back into his mind, that of him starting a Cold War-like conflict among a species of dinosaur-like creatures for the sole point of creating a Space Race and increasing funding in the opposing nation’s budding space programs. Even with different species, people can get sucked into little things like monarchy versus democracy or capitalism-even threatening to blow each other up over it, Deus mused.

And he remembered that he had found it distressing, even ridiculous, and even today, he still did. In Deus’s opinion, it was why organizations such as the Eternal Empire needed to be set up, and why he would continue to expand his Empire across galaxies and universes. Even if it was destined to fail (and it almost certainly was) then he should still try, if only to buy some time for the species his Empire encompassed.

It was because of this he had so vigorously fought the EIM. Often, when similar rebellions had happened, Deus had stepped down from power, or made changes to his policies-stubborn despots and arrogant authoritarians did not make effective leaders.

But the EIM lacked foresight, misunderstood his motives. They fought an idealistic war, to topple a despot that the EIM felt was only interested in the Eternals so that they could be cannon fodder.

Of course, that was incorrect, but they pointed to scattered incompetents-like that idiot Deus had unwisely give control of the noscilis over to-as proof that the Eternal Empire was nothing more than an evil, oppressive empire out of a science-fiction novel, to be fought and triumphantly, definitively defeated.

Deus’s thoughts were interrupted by an alarm-the EIM’s infiltrators had breached the elevator shaft. An Elite called Deus over the radio, his voice forced into calmness: “Are you all right, sir?”

“I’m fine, but what’s going on in that elevator?” Deus asked, trying to sound a little confused and a little angry at the same time.

“We think it was a group of EIM assassins, sir. They seem to be coming up the elevator shaft, but it’s locked down right now, so we can’t get in. Do you think you can hold out?”

“I think I’ll be fine,” Deus said, running his finger down the transparent, vein-like structure on his arm. Beneath it, the orange fluid responsible for his fireballs was produced and stored. “Yes, I think I’ll be fine,” he said.
Deus sat down in his chair and patiently waited for the infiltrators to arrive. Occasionally, he would search his memory for something bizarre to kill the time, and he wondered how, precisely, his would-be assassins were getting here. It was possible that they were trying to scale the tower with their own equipment, and that could take a while-the Citadel’s tower was several kilometers tall, and the EIM’s ship had landed almost two thirds of the way down. If they didn’t hurry, it was possible that the Elites would catch up and kill them before they had a chance to reach him.

But then, as Deus was reminiscing of time spent as an Aegre, the elevator door was forced open and Deus found himself in incredible pain as he was forced against the back window. Pain burned through every part of his body, even his eyeballs, as it felt like his blood was trying to force its way out of his body.

And the EIM’s infiltrators arrived, an Eternal and a noscilis, just as he had predicted. They were both heavily armed-the Eternal held a shard launcher in two of his hands, and what were probably Electro-Magnetic Field Manipulators on his wrists, while the noscilis held a stolen neutrino rifle in his hands and had what was probably a repeating crossbow strapped to his back. They were probably prepared for a major guard detail. That or for the man who had fought on the frontlines of so many battles with the EIM to put up more of a fight.

They stepped cautiously into his office, walking back-to-back until they were certain there were no guards. As they got closer, Deus recognized the noscilis-it was General Thraj himself, former Ensis of the Queen Partus, here to beat Deus senseless until the Elites caught up with him or he got what he wanted. It was almost enough to make Deus laugh.
For a second, Deus was released and slid down the wall. The Eternal spoke first: “Access your network’s databanks.”

Deus could barely hide his grin as he did what he was commanded.



Lacerta fired a last few shots into the noscilis and, satisfied that the last of his enemies on the Juggernaut had been killed, finally removed his helmet. He felt relieved as scent returned to him, almost like regaining the use of a limb, and he no longer had to rely on sight. Even the foul-smelling blood of the noscilis felt better than being cut off from it all.
Vollatilis found the targeting console in the Juggernaut’s control room and accessed its computer, uploading the target adjustment program into it. While waiting for it to take effect, Lacerta found the onboard radio and ordered a dropship to take a crew of engineers out to the Juggernaut and to take him back to Deus.

Regretfully, Lacerta put his helmet back on and waited for the dropship outside the Juggernaut’s airtight rooms. It arrived soon, and Lacerta pushed through the crew of engineers into the starcraft. He found his way to the co-pilots chair and listened to the radio on the way back to the Citadel, occasionally giving orders and listening to status reports.
Especially interesting were the reports of the salvage teams sent to examine captured EIM ships: most of them contained an onboard Warpgate, and somehow some conduit was channeling the Warpgate’s effects in front of the ship. Many of the engineers were un-trained with operating Warpgates, and after one of the crews accidentally activated it and sent it flying off for parts unknown, Vollatilis ordered that the Warpgates were not to be used.

By most accounts, the EIM was largely being defeated, most of their troop carriers had been destroyed and many of their soldiers were being left stranded on the Disk. Vollatilis ordered for anyone willing to surrender and anyone wounded to be given full quarters.

As soon as they arrived, Vollatilis hurried from the starcraft to the elevators to Deus’s office, only to be stopped short by Deus’s Elites-someone had broken a hole in the elevator shaft, and, in an effort to prevent air from leaking out, the Citadel’s computer had sealed the shaft while nanobots fixed the damaged.

For a second, Vollatilis was angry-the EIM had broken into Deus’s office and were taking valuable information from him-exactly the thing Lacerta had attempted to prevent. He punched the wall and began to pace.
“Who designed this?” The Elite in charge snapped. “What idiot thought that Deus’s offices should only be accessible by a single elevator shaft?” But Lacerta waited patiently, still pacing. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to speed up the nanobots. So he paced, he ruffled his wings, he thought and reflected on why he had failed to do his duty.

And then the elevator door opened up, and Vollatilis and as many Elites as could fit packed into the elevator and rode it up to Deus’s office.
Lacerta wasn’t sure what he expected to see when the elevator door opened. Perhaps half a dozen EIM assassins, ready to make a last stand against the hated Eternal Empire, standing in front of Deus’s mutilated corpses.

What he did not expect, however, was for Deus to be calmly sitting at his desk, working at his terminal, normal expected for a single Eternal and a single noscilis each pointing a gun at his forehead. Quickly, the Eternal spoke: “Move and I shoot him.”

Lacerta pondered the statement: Deus was immensely important, that was obvious. But if he continued, then it was very likely that they would succeed in finding the employers of the Ambromancer, Chronomancer and Telemancer- and if they did, it was possible that many more people would die. Was Deus worth it?

Slowly, Vollatilis drew his rifle-and tossed it in front of him…



Deus was un-surprised when Lacerta and the Elites arrived, perhaps hoping to carry out some of rescue-well, they were sorely disappointed. For a while, Deus wondered if they were going to get him temporarily killed, and then he would have to reveal his immortality-and then he realized that he should have hidden the strange alien artifact that was responsible for it somewhere in his desk, how could he forget that? But it was too late for it now.

And Deus’s fear was quelled when Lacerta tossed his rifle to the ground, though he was careful to keep his gluon traps. The Elites did the same, and the Eternal pulled them over behind his desk-confirming Deus’s suspicion that he used EMFMs, which also explained how he had kept Deus pinned against the wall-the Eternal had taken hold of the iron in his blood, and naturally it had tried to escape as the Eternal hoisted him up further. Actually, you could probably kill someone like that, just ripped the blood straight out of someone’s body. He would have to remember that…

As Deus worked, opening up the Empire’s entries on the Ambromancer, Chronomancer and Telemancer, he made certain that his captors noticed the suspected connection to Samael-and the Eternal pointed to it, conversing with Thraj in poorly-accented nosci. And so he opened up the Empire’s article on Samael, and they read through it, and apparently decided that he was their best lead, because after another short conversation, they decided to make him operate the Warpgate.

Deus pushed out his chair and stood up slowly, and walked over to the Warpgate. He typed in the coordinates, entering the location and the best time, his fingers flying over the alien keyboard, arranged in a spiral, and he opened the tunnel open, and then the Eternal and Thraj pushed him out of the way, and they ran through the Warpgate, and Lacerta and the Elites were running for him, checking to see if he was hurt.

He shrugged away from the Elites and ordered them away, saying that he would like a moment with Commander Lacerta. And he did.

Deus sat down, and briefly wondered how much he should tell Lacerta as he asked why they weren’t pursuing the Eternal and Thraj.

Deus quieted him with the wave of a hand, and said, “We’re not going after them because it won’t work.”

Lacerta cocked his head, opened his eye as much as his reptilian face would let him an imitation of a raised eyebrow, and asked, “Why not?”

“Because I’ve seen them later and they haven’t been harmed, which means that either they killed all the troops sent after them or they were never sent in the first place. I’d rather it be the latter.”

“When?”

Deus reached behind his neck and pulled the strange silver artifact out from his neck and showed it to him. “You don’t know what this does, do you? It seems to work like this: it stores all of my memories and the genetic code of anything it is attached too. I don’t know how it was cleared, or even where I got it, but I was given it by, well, my future self when he rescued me from Machina. Ever since he jabbed it into the back of my spine, it’s been recording my memories. Even if I die, someone eventually picks it up, and it doesn’t even need to touch the spinal cord-if the needle gets into a nerve, it automatically puts a new version of, well, me into whatever it touched.

“And though my future self showed me some things-he told me about the Eternal Empire, for example, but he never told me why I founded it, though I know now-but he basically tossed me through a Warpgate and told me that when I found my way back, we’d continue. I’ve been wandering the multiverse for… Well, honestly, I don’t know. I think I’m older than most of the universes I’ve been through, though. And eventually, I started finding clues to the existence of the Eternals, and I tracked down what survived-and there isn’t much for a species that once spanned the multiverse-and found them, and people like you, and I started up the Eternal Empire here, in this galaxy.

“This is the same universe that I started in, and I know that the Milky Way, where Earth is, isn’t far away. But I don’t know exactly when on Earth I was thrown through a Warpgate, and even then, I still don’t know this Earth’s coordinates, and I still have a lot to do for the Empire.”

Deus had always been curious about how people would react to his claims. Lacerta turned his head, examining him with each of his eyes. “Why hasn’t that… thing been destroyed yet?”

“Honestly,” Deus began, and then sighed. He hated to admit it, but he didn’t know. And so he said it: “I don’t know. I’ve tried to destroy this thing a lot-believe me, even in the multiverse, immortality gets old-but I’ve tried everything. I’ve tossed it into black holes, threw it into stars, shot it through particle accelerators-it doesn’t even seem to be effected by anti-matter. Whatever made this didn’t make it by the rules of our universe.”

Again, Lacerta examined him with both eyes. Lacerta sighed, and said, “I suppose you have no reason to lie to me… So what do you plan to do?”
“I want to secure this galaxy, and move on. Another galaxy, maybe, or another universe. I don’t know. But I want to take you with me. You and Iphrey, and some military, and start all over. Can I ask you to do that, Lacerta?”

Lacerta closed his eyes and leaned back, thinking deeply. “Yes.”

Deus smiled. “Excellent.”

[Doc 42]

And then it came to him, a simple, elegant answer: “I did it.” Deus entered it into his wristpad: “Save Commander Vollatilis Lacerta,” and then the time, date and universe. It was one of dozens of things that he would do to fulfill various paradoxes that could only be resolved by his intervention (others from this universe included “Destroy Century City” and “Put human on first Suskee FTL starcraft”.)

My favourite part of the whole piece
Deus is a really cool character. but on a different note, doesnt Deus Ex mean Black death in French or something?

[mega raptor]

No, Deus Ex Machina is a latin term, meaning 'God From the Machine." (You know, Deus, deity, machina, machine.) It started as a kind of a joke name, but as my ideas about the character changed, it became appropriate.

As a term, it dates to Roman theatre, when 'gods' would be lowered onto stage via a complex apparatus and magically solve all conflict. Today, it's still used in that context for whenever an author pulls out an improbable plot device, E.G., the protagonist wakes up and it turns out it was all just a dream. You can see why it started out as my little joke...

[Doc 42]

Just a random comment, but does that silver chip thing in his neck effectively kill whoever it touches? Kinda like the price of immortality?
(And thanks about the Deus Ex thing, I have heard that term before)

[mega raptor]

I'm not honestly sure what you mean there Doc.

If you mean does the original host die, no, not really-the chip just simulates every one of the memories that it has recorded, and that just about overwhelms the original host's personality and replaces it with, in this case, Deus's, because memories by and large determine personality (there's a genetic factor to personalities too, but that too is largely overwhelmed).

If you mean the one who is recorded in the chip, then no, it's not really killing them-it is slowly effecting them, but Deus hasn't figured that out.

[Doc 42]

Well if its replaceing everything in the new host... Wouldn't that mean its not the same person? That is, assumeing its the mind that makes the person and not the body... Man trying to put that in perspective could take years...

[mega raptor]

It's not replacing everything in the new host-actually, it's wrong to say it's replacing anything. All it does is use the nervous system to fool the host into thinking it's expereinced every one of the memories that are recorded in the chip. That's it.

[Doc 42]

alright, so it kinda teaches the host everything it needs to know? Storeing All of Deus's memories and such so that if he dies someone else can pick up where he left off.

[Zephyr]

Deus Ex is also a video game as a matter of fact its two games