Utopia War

Chapter 15 - The Battle of Proxima (i)

<The U.F.O. has passed the agreed upon hypersphere of demarcation. All attempts at communication or redirection have failed. From this point forward the matter falls under my complete jurisdiction,> signaled Proxima.

<Acknowledged and ratified,> replied the Human Consensus.

<This is a sad day,> Proxima signaled, including within her broadcast every citizen of Proxima Ring, physical and digital. Over one trillion sapient beings in countless forms and permutations shared the same thought for one brief moment.

The U.F.O. continued it's relentless cruise towards Proxima Ring. Hundreds of thousands of starships were spread out around the ringworld like a thin halo of dust, waiting for a signal from Proxima.

The alien construct was well within the range of Proxima's most powerful field generators, and so first she attempted to simply pull apart the molecular bonds of the U.F.O. and scatter the resulting atomic dust.

She was able to get no better purchase on the thing than the Mother of Irregular Objects had. This was expected.

"The time has come," she said, choosing to incarnate as a hologram within the pilot's chamber of the starship Paleocosmic Relic "Deploy the first genius missile cluster. I've already given each of them a final chance to become citizens and they have declined."

The pilot Keen Magnitude.1.1.1 brought the first genius-missile cluster online, and each of the suicidal AIs signaled confirmation of their intention to go through with the mission.

"They're not interested in another way of life," said Keen "They have a construct's honor."

"There are parts of me that can never give up hope," said Proxima "And at times like these they're as vital as the parts that recognize such hopes as irrational."

"You are a human consensus, after all," said Keen.

It launched the first cluster. The pencil-sized rocket shot out of the elongated ellipsoid shaped starship before exploding into a million tiny missiles that moved like a swarm of intelligent insects.

A powerful alien field erupted from the U.F.O., engulfing the swarm of genius missiles.

"What is..." began Keen.

One-by-one their mind-states were rewritten to switch their loyalty to the U.F.O. The tactic was so simple and yet so abhorrent it had never even occurred to the consensus.

"...that field constituted..."

A few hundred of the genius missiles formed up and en-hypersphered the Paleocosmic Relic, forming the 6th dimensional shape necessary to prevent any means of hyperspatial escape.

"...of?"

The missiles struck all at once, sliding through the Paleocosmic Relic's layers of defense fields and delivering their antimatter payloads. The Paleocosmic Relic appeared to rot away into a husk as hundreds of antimatter explosions tore it apart.

The rest of the genius missiles formed up into groups of 100, each choosing their own targets. The U.F.O. began to construct spherical objects from the debris from the Paleocosmic Relic.

<Destroy all genius missiles!> Proxima signaled to every starship <Do not deploy, jettison then atomize!>

"We can't-" started Qinggong Xanadu, co-pilot of the Just On The Tip Of Your Tongue, from within the pilot's chamber.

<I'm certain Proxima has weighed all the options...> began Artful Select.0, the pilot.

"They're sapient entities!" Qinggong nearly shouted, close to tears "How can we-"

The rapidly widening field of the U.F.O. engulfed the Just On The Tip Of Your Tongue and the genius missiles began to launch themselves, blowing the trillion-cut gem apart from the inside. All around them other ships shared their fate.

<Pull back!> signaled Proxima.

The groupings of genius missiles began to reach their targets, and dozens of the closest consensus ships began to virtually disintegrate in rapid succession. The ships further back scattered away from the encroaching field.

<I've seen enough,> signaled the secret shard of Proxima <We're taking over.>

A few dozen of the best starship teams in the Proxima Consensus launched from their hidden-in-plain-sight secret base and took up positions. They had divided the hundreds of thousands of consensus craft amongst themselves and were prepared to take command.

<If this isn't something you can handle, now is the time to run. There is more shame in what we're about to do than in fleeing,> signaled TheBestAtJumping to her assigned group of ships <To everyone receiving this who plans to stay: you've all been chosen for Team Jumping. If you want to meaningfully contribute to our one shot at victory you're going to have to do exactly as I say.>