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Semper Human
Ian Douglas
The final conflict has arrived…Chaos has erupted throughout the known galaxy, threatening countless colonies and orbital habitats—as the Associative struggles vainly to keep the peace. Extreme measures are called for in these times of dire crisis, and the Star Marines are awakened from their voluntary 850-year cybe-hibe sleep. But General Trevor Garroway and his warriors are about to discover that the old rules of engagement have drastically changed . . .The end begins with an old-style assault on rebels at the Tarantula Stargate. But true terror looms at the edges of known reality. Humankind's eternal enemy—the brutal, unstoppable Xul—approaches, wielding a weapon monstrous beyond imagining. Suddenly not only is the future in jeopardy, but the past is as well—and if the Marines fail to eliminate their relentless xenophobic foe once and for all, the Great Annihilator will obliterate every last trace of human existence.
For Brea, as always, my patient and loving muse
Table of Contents
Title Page (#u4cf0ebcc-c730-5f44-876f-381e0c4df03b)
Dedication (#u4db3ad54-3a68-54da-8e0f-8bfa2fa0a302)
Timeline of the Inheritance Universe (#ud10dd4bb-f068-5fdc-9c19-63aec550726b)
Stranded … (#u38405f66-055d-52d6-89b8-9fb2b1cadd25)
Prologue (#u97c2a099-732c-5d0b-a91a-d7ce299c1fc8)
Chapter 1 (#u58c4f933-c1af-54e8-814a-b779508d8924)
Chapter 2 (#uff5a5cd4-9cdb-5357-b1e6-4877e4c46a5a)
Chapter 3 (#udd2f5420-8704-5e69-8c1a-daeeee748824)
Chapter 4 (#ue0b56790-d079-5e78-b2b5-3fcc9e78ef6c)
Chapter 5 (#u969346a3-31c9-5a4d-a8c9-f13a2623e944)
Chapter 6 (#u4c6e3dfa-2e7a-5142-8f1d-033e9b900d1c)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
By Ian Douglas (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Timeline of the Inheritance Universe
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 Earth’s 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 N’mah 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.: N’mah 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. This astronomical conflagration of artificial novae is seen in the skies of Earth, in the constellation Aquila, some one thousand two hundred 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 Wings of Isis destroyed while approaching the Sirius Stargate.
2148–2170: Battlespace
2170: Battle of Sirius Gate. Contact with the N’mah, 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, thirty thousand 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 Night’s Edge. Destruction of Xul Fleet and world in Night’s Edge Space.
The Inheritance Trilogy
2877: Star Strike
2877 [1102 M.E..]: 1MIEF departs for Puller 695. Battle of Puller 695 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.
4004: Semper Human
3152: Volunteer elements of the Marine third Division enter extended cybernetic hibernation.
3214: Formation of the Galactic Associative.
4004 [2229 A.M.]: Dahl Incursion. Contact with the Tarantulae. Attack on Xul presence within the Quantum Sea. Xenophobe Collapse.
4005 [2230 A.M.] Re-establishment of the United States Marine Corps.
Stranded …
Behind him, the Samuel Nicholas was fast dwindling to a lopsided disk as Garwe and fifteen other War Dogs hurtled toward Objective Reality. Fusion bursts and antimatter warheads, positron beams, gravitics disruptors, and lasers at x-ray and gamma frequencies crisscrossed the gulf of space between worldlet and asteroid-sized starship, eliciting dazzling flashes and twinkles of light, expanding clouds of dust and white-hot plasma on the surfaces of both. Chunks of molten rock and hull metal boiled off into hard vacuum. The Nicholas wouldn’t be able to take that kind of point-blank bombardment for long.
Which was why, several long seconds later, the Samuel Nicholas vanished, rotating back up into normal four-D space.
And the cloud of Marine fighters, strikepods, and twelve heavy naval vessels were left alone to confront the Xul world.
“Bastards!” Dravis Mortin said over the squadron channel.
“Belay that,” Captain Xander’s voice snapped. “Pay attention to your approach!”
Garroway knew, with the Samuel Nicholas gone, none of the Marines of 1MarDiv would be going home.
We are now on our own …
Prologue
Some three hundred fifty light years from the exact center of the Milky Way Galaxy, the Marine OM-27 Eavesdropper Major Dion Williams forced its way through the howling storm.
The howl, in this case, was purely electronic in the vacuum of space, a shrill screech caused by the flux of dust particles interacting with the Williams’ magnetic shields. But since the tiny vessel’s crew consisted of uploaded t-Human minds and a powerful Artificial Intelligence named Luther, all of them resident within the Williams’ electronic circuitry, they “heard” the interference as a shrieking roar. The tiny vessel shuddered as it plowed through the deadly wavefront of charged particles.
“Sir! There it is again!” Lieutenant (u/l) Miek Vrellit indicated a pulse of coherent energy coming through the primary scanner. “Do you see it?”
“Yeah,” Captain (u/l) Foress Talendiaminh replied. “Looks like a gravitational lensing effect.”
“Yeah, but it’s not noise! There’s real data in there!”
“What do you make of it, Luther?”
“Lieutenant Vrellit is correct,” the AI replied, as the data sang across the ship’s circuitry. “There is data content. I cannot, however, read it. This appears to be a new type of encryption.”
“But the signal’s coming from inside the event horizon!” Talendiaminh said. “That’s impossible!”
“I suggest, sir,” the AI said, “that we record what we can and transmit it to HQ. Let them determine what is or is not possible.”
“Agreed.”
But then, as seconds passed, Vrellit sensed something else. “Wait a second! Anyone feel that?”
“What?”
“Something like …”
And then circuitry flared into a white-hot mist, followed half a second later by a fast-expanding cloud of gas as the Williams began to dissolve.
The monitor’s faster-than-light QCC signals were already being received some twenty-six thousand light years away, on the remote outskirts of Earth’s solar system. The last transmission received was Lieutenant Vrellit’s electronic voice, a shriek louder than the storm of radiation.
“Get! Them! Out! Of! My! Mind! …”
“Star Lord, you are needed.”
