Ian Douglas - Galactic Corps: Book Two of the Inheritance Trilogy

G ALACTIC C ORPS

B OOK T WO OF THE I NHERITANCE T RILOGY

Ian Douglas

v1.0 (2011.05)

C ONTENTS

They were not omnipotent.

Gunnery Sergeant Aiden Garroway wiggled a bit deeper into the

Enemy targets bearing ahead and behind, Smedley reported in maddeningly

Lieutenant General Martin Alexander, CO of the 1st Marine Interstellar

In General Alexanders mind, 1MIEFs battle array resembled a kind

Minus three two one mark! The AIs voice in Alexanders mind said, counting

The first wave of Penetrators is away, General.

From General Alexanders electronic viewpoint on board the Hermes, it

Garroway stepped out onto the open concourse, enjoying the rush

Just less than two hours after their arrival at Freeport,

So where is the lost city of Atlantis? Nikki Armandez

A week later, under a dazzlingly star-filled night sky, Garroway

Hey! Garroway said, startled as the realization hit him. Do

A probes coming back through, General, a technician reported. The

What the hell is a Dyson sphere? Garroway wanted to

It was the second time a vessel named Intrepid had

The flight of AV-110 Tarantulas dropped to within scant meters

Garroway led an ad hoc section of twenty Marines forward

The way I heard it, Lance Corporal Phil Chaffee said,

Shes gone! a young naval officer seated at one of the

Hermes is ready in all respects for Alcubierre Drive, Captain

Fire lit up the night.

The astrogation department just checked in, Taggart told Alexander. They

In close formation, Hermes and the light carrier Cunningham fell

Sir! a Navy rating called from the comm board. Weve

There werent many of them left.

In the outlying regions of the Galaxys Perseus Arm, within

T IMELINE OF THE I NHERITANCE U NIVERSE

Years before present

50,000,000-30,000,000: Galaxy dominated by the One Mind, sentient organic superconductors with hive mentality. They create the network of stargates across the Galaxy, and build the Encyclopedia Galactica Node at the Galactic Core.

30,000,000-10,000,000: Dominance of Children of the Night, nocturnal psychovores. They replace the One Mind, which may have transcended material instrumentality.

10,000,000 to present: Dominance of the Xul, also known as the Hunters of the Dawn. Originally polyspecific pantovores, they eventually exist solely as downloaded mentalities within artificial cybernetic complexes.

Circa 500,000 b.c.e.: Advanced polyspecific machine intelligence, later called variously the Ancients or the Builders, extends a high-technology empire across a volume of space several thousand light years in extent. Extensive planoforming of Chiron, at Alpha Centauri A, of Mars in the nearby Sol System, and of numerous other worlds. QCC networks provide instantaneous communications across the entire empire. Ultimately, the Builder civilization is destroyed by the Xul. Asteroid impacts strip away the newly generated Martian atmosphere and seas, but Earth, with no technological presence, is ignored. A Xul huntership is badly damaged in the battle over Mars; it later crashes into the Europan world-sea and is frozen beneath the ice. Survivors of the Martian holocaust migrate to Earth and upload themselves into gene-tailored primates that later will be known as Homo sapiens.

10,000 b.c.e.-7500 b.c.e.: Earth and Earths Moon colonized by the Ahannu, or An, who are later remembered as the gods of ancient Sumeria. Around 7500 b.c.e., asteroid strikes by the Xul destroy An colonies across their empire. Earth is devastated by asteroid strikes. One colony, at Lalande 21185, survives.

Circa 6000 b.c.e.: Amphibious Nmah visit Earth and help human survivors of Xul attack develop civilization. They are later remembered as the Nommo of the Dogon tribe of Africa, and as civilizing/agricultural gods by other cultures in the Mideast and the Americas.

Circa 6000-5000 b.c.e.: Nmah starfaring culture destroyed by the Xul. Survivors exist in low-technology communities within the Sirius Stargate and, possibly, elsewhere.

1200 b.c.e. [Speculative]: The Xul revisit Earth and discover an advanced Bronze Age culture. Asteroid impacts cause devastating floods worldwide, and may be the root of the Atlantis myth.

700 c.e.: The deep abyssal intelligence later named the Eulers fight the Xul to a standstill by detonating their own stars. The astronomical conflagration of artificial novae is seen in the skies of Earth, in the constellation Aquila, some 1,200 years later.

The Heritage Trilogy

2039-2042:Semper Mars

2040: 1st UN War. March by Sands of Mars Garroway. Battle of Cydonia. Discovery of the Cydonian Cave of Wonders.

2040-2042:Luna Marine

2042: Battle of Tsiolkovsky. Discovery of An base on the Moon.

2067:Europa Strike

2067: Sino-American War. Discovery of the Singer under the Europan ice.

The Legacy Trilogy

2138-2148:Star Corps

2148: Battle of Ishtar. Treaty with An of Lalande 21185. Earth survey vessel The Wings of Isis destroyed while approaching the Sirius Stargate.

2148-2170:Battlespace

2170: Battle of Sirius Gate. Contact with the Nmah, an amphibious species living inside the gate structure. Data collected electronically fills in some information about the Xul, and leads to a Xul node in Cluster Space, 30,000 light years from Sol. A Marine assault force uses the gate to enter Cluster Space and destroy this gate.

2314-2333:Star Marines

2314: Armageddonfall

2323: Battle of Nights Edge. Destruction of Xul fleet and world in Nights Edge Space.

The Inheritance Trilogy

2877:Star Strike

2877 [1102 m.e.]: 1MIEF departs for Puller 659. Battle of Puller 659 against Pan-Europeans. Contact with Eulers in Cygni Space. Battle of Cygni Space. Destruction of star in Starwall Space, eliminating local Xul node.

2886:Galactic Corps

2886 [1111 m.e.]: Raid on Cluster Space by 1MIEF. Discovery of stargate path to major Xul node at Galactic Core.

2887 [1112 m.e.]: Operation Heartfire. Assault on the Galactic Core.

P ROLOGUE

They were not omnipotent.

Throughout their multi-million-year period of galactic dominance, theyd been known by many names. The Destroyers. The Hunters of the Dawn. The Enemy. The Xul. They called themselves by a thought symbol that might translate as We Who Are.

Perhaps ten million years ago, give or take some few hundreds of thousands of years, We Who Are had possessed organic bodies; as such, theyd been a species, like all heirs of flesh, shaped and constrained by the impersonal forces of evolution. In common with all products of the evolutionary process, theyd possessed a marked will to survive.

What most clearly distinguished We Who Are from most other species was simply the extremes to which that will carried them.

Early in their history, theyd survivedbarelya traumatic encounter with another species upon their home planet. That encounter left them shaken, brutalized, and monomaniacally mistrustful of the motives of anything Other.

It left the other species extinct.

That ancient struggle for dominance, ultimately for survival, imprinted itself upon the psyche of We Who Are. When, in due time, they began moving out into the Galaxy, they carried that imprint with them. No other species posing a threat, however remote, to We Who Are could be permitted to survive.