The Shattered Heavens

Star Wind

 The dark space between star clusters was a tumultuous sea of space dust, stray asteroids and space junk that drifted for centuries in empty space before they ever saw the light of a star again. Without the benefit of hyper acceleration lanes, travelling through dark space was a slow and dangerous affair that few would ever consider. Though any star system could be accessed by drifting through dark space without consideration for the restricted vectors of hyper acceleration lanes, the amount of time it took nullified the tactical advantage.

But the Omni Animus had little concern for time. What were ten years to an immortal machine?

Three pristine white ships drifted silently through the inky darkness of the abyss, their swept forms cutting through space dust like sharks on the prowl within the infinite expanse of the ocean of stars. There were no running lights, no indicators, no paintings or decorations. The warships were pure in their configuration, lacking anything that would distinguish one from another. Every swept angle was perfect, their narrow silhouettes almost impossible to track within the thick space dust in the dark space between star systems.

Of the three ships, one was larger than the rest, with a narrowed bow and a bloated core. The top of its bloated middle was parted by a single crevice, marking the enormous fighter bay doors that could be opened at any given moment. Directly in front of the doors was a tower mount where an incomprehensibly large cannon was currently limp and resting its barrel against the bow of the ship beneath it, inactive in the cold expanse of the void. The two other ships were nearly half the size of the first, drifting through space on the right and left flanks of the larger ship, and visibly lacking any prominent weapon mounts.

Within the darkness of the largest ship's bridge, a single terminal screen flickered on briefly, piercing the darkness enough to illuminate the empty space in front of it. A few moments passed before the other terminals flickered to life, each screen turning on one at a time until the entire bridge was awash in the flickering light of the terminals displaying a multitude of statuses. The overhead lights finally turned on, illuminating the sterile white bridge in a perfect white light, all shadows banished from the room in favor of its bright perfection.

In the center of the bridge was a large metal armchair with a series of buttons on the armrests. In it sat a humanoid machine, its head bowed so its chin rested against its chest as it sat in a slumped position with its arms spread out on the armrests, its hands locked around the edges of the rests with an infallible grip. The machine looked human in appearance, but lacked any mouth or nose, and its eyes were exposed optics with their shutters closed for the moment. It had also seen better days, with the bare metal exposed under faded baby blue paint and a multitude of scratches and scuff marks maring its exoskeleton in various spots.

As the trio of ships drifted through the silence of space, a star system in front of them loomed ever-larger day by day, until finally they were close enough that the light of its star could illuminate their white carapaces. The light marked the end of their journey, and slowly but surely the systems within the ship began to come to life with the lights, a series of metallic clicks and whirls added to the otherwise silent atmosphere of the white behemoths. Within the depths of the sounds, a phantom voice rang out in an inaudible tone, its soundless words penetrating the slowly rising orchestra of noises throughout the ship.

>PROXIMITY ALERT

>CAPTAIN STAR WIND, IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP

Star Wind awoke with a start, a bout of panic shooting through her body as she was suddenly pulled back into the physical world by the ship she was commanding. An ache wormed into her joints as her consciousness settled back into her body, much to her displeasure. As the lights flickered on around her, shedding illumination on the sterile bridge, she glanced down at her body for the first time in seven years. Even though the thought didn't make sense, she was surprised to find that everything was exactly how she had left it.