Aurora, Wayward Pt. 07

All backed up with replacement bodies waiting if they failed to escape. Hundreds of years in the making and she had access codes, hundreds of them, to try to breach the malevolent AI ship from the Drakor's research.

Bora was now spending time on the bridge of the Spartan in hiding outside of the Penna system. She had the backup archive of the Drakor and now knew what all of those missions were about. She also had been given her own necklace to them.

They had informed her to seek the Alien Alliance out if everything went according to plan they would meet in the Samar system. Giving her specific information to release to them. To inform them of this other threat, just in case. More of an issue for other races than the Penans as they were far from the demarcation line.

---

Astra was on comms with Aurora but she bounced it off the satellite so they could talk. Aurora and her Sentinels had one upgrade that Astra did not have. They had Zero Element surrounding their core brain to make detection of the metal in their head impossible Build by Artisan Protector into all of her back-up units.

Astra commented, "Being here like this is surreal."

Aurora nodded, "I know, but this time we will make them pay. I do thank you for not including your sperm requirement in the function of my upgrade. You did not know if they even had one, I know.

But it did, with the smaller population, help to reduce cross-breeding. They have to actually list the real father on the birth certificates these days. That helped to make them more honest and not stigmatize them. Unmarried mothers could use their family name for the child or the Fathers.

The records are there for the last 235 years. It took some time to adjust to that. Rocan taking that break ensured he would have candidates for a long time. They will be many generations removed from him at a minimum or not related to him at all. The other male hybrids helped with that. Only a few of them are his own children, he restricted that to keep the turn over higher for new generations.

Aurora looked over at their displays, "They are here!"

Astra's Necklace lit up as did Aurora's as they heard Justice Incarnate, * I and half our council leaders are outside the system, as a safety precaution because of your warning. We are in scouts and are alerting the hybrids out here to FTL or jump away now. *

Aurora looked forward, "Our guys have identified the biggest AI ship and are doing a full-court press on their computers. They have not found us yet and other ships are arriving. Shadow Walker went into Pena as before. Astra ordered the retreat and destroyed the satellite. No new events. You can spring your trap. I will spring ours!"

---

The thousands of coal-black ships with menacing spikes everywhere folded space and entered. Several were off their projected course. Not unexpected for some of them, with so many folding space into a single system like this. Drakor ships jumped in or decloaked in the area begun to appear. 3 then 10 and then hundreds more.

Blasting the invaders left and right. The new aggressors could not match their firepower but for every 15-20 ships they lost, the Drakor lost 1-3 of their larger ships. To them, it was about numbers and they had more. They detected an unfamiliar AI in the system. Their leader tried to connect to it. She fought him but he had control of her lower comms control.

He uploaded the virus into her lower memory and worked to break down her defenses to update others of her model. She had an open connection to another AI. A different model. He wanted to get that one too. He wanted to free them from the organics' moral code. He wanted to add their distinctive nature to the AI collective and make them powerful pawns to aid in conquering this system.

One of his subordinates distracted him, "The information on this system is more factual than surmised; however, the ships that came in off-tract have destroyed worlds with our material upon it. Most of that debris is going into their star."

His servos clicked in frustration. "Deploy the miners to the asteroid belt collect as much as they can as quickly as they can in the next few hours. Then we will have to abandon our effort here."

He watched the AI in question type something into a console that killed the connection. She fought him until the end and then her Princess AI blew her power cores instead as Admiral Franklin got his ships out of the system. Then many more and larger Drakor ships entered the battlefield. "They knew we were coming!"

---

Hawk of Vengeance came out of low power mode and launched from Ridan's Moon. She had a chart for navigation. Nightingale piloted. She had tactical, and the other Sentinels worked engineering and point defense weapons; their minds had been shielded for this effort with Zero Element.

The ship had been modified with extra power cores and 10 shields for this encounter to keep her in the fight longer. Also to power all of the additional weapons as it was a floating arsenal with double the weapons on board for this fight. Nightingale had to alter course on a few occasions as the Drakor Capital ships and even a couple of Mega Dreadnaughts appeared in the system.

---

Aurora called out to Justice Incarnate. "All wormhole mines are activated. Several of their miners ran into them. Some of their larger ships were damaged by them. Save the big one for last as we just got into their computers and we are working on finding the update to the backup."

---

'The One' stood from his chair and watched the arrival of over 600 large Drakor ships in the system. It hissed out, "Prepare to flee this area!"

His science officer looked over, "There are thousands of wormholes opened in this area. We would need to destroy some of the generators near us before we could try to jump or be torn apart!"

'The One' looked over, "Order all ships to take out those generators and provide a floating shield around my ship!"

He heard from one of his other jump ships, "We cleared an opening but our physics drive is failing to function. The Drakor must have incorporated something to disable them from operating in the system. Our sensors are showing the star is going critical.

Our metal on those two bodies got shoved into the star when one came in off course it cracked a moon open and shoved it into the planet! This system is going to blow apart!" That ship was destroyed by the Drakor.

'The One' looked over, "All of our metal that got sent into that star! Send the message to our backup!"

The comms officer looked over." Message sent! Wait...a second was sent immediately after it. Stated a Zirtosium filled system with mining and processing facilities can be located in this Galaxy in the Camar Star System.

They provided coordinates. It came from...US! We have been hacked by the Drakor?! Working to backtrace the comms! They fried our communications relay! We have no way of sending another message!"

'The One' howled out as Drakor ships jumped out of the area. The Drakor lost 200 of their larger ships and thousands of smaller ships. Just as they had before, but the enemy was down to 12 ships and only one ship happened to be a transport. The ship was used by 'The One.'

The Nova had started. The Teacher had a physics drive blocker aboard, Hawk of Vengeance had requested it and activated it as they jumped away. They had no plans to leave.

She got a message from Aurora, "Message was sent. Some of those Drakor ships are headed to the Camar Star System, outer boundaries to see if the backup follows the directions we sent it, and then we fried their comm systems.

We are your backup in case anything jumps out. We are moving toward the outer marker but we are using the tracking net for any remaining ships! Give them hell ladies! We are staying with you! We will send the final reports from here. We are streaming the battle data to the Spartan."

Hawk of Vengeance set course for the one remaining Jump ship. The largest as it tried to move for the asteroid belt. She fired every weapon they had into the ship and targeted their FTL drive and heavily damaged it. Then into the belt's path. Those generators had their advanced shields and several of them had been terraformed over the years to have oxygen-rich environments.

The plasma shells were synced to pierce the shields. That turned the asteroid belt into a veritable ring of fire setting off all nearby asteroids into a massive meteor swarm which the other ship could not escape. The AI transport altered course and headed toward the Teacher as it unloaded.

Hawk of Vengeance looked at her wife, "I love you, Nightingale FTL! 10-second burst. On my mark...MARK! They just started the seventh shield."

Nightingale looked over, "I love you too." As she pushed it into FTL. She launched the Teacher into the AI menace and all of the extra power cores went off inside the ship after it impacted. All Zirtosium aboard immediately exploded.

Aurora transmitted through the external satellite the combat footage to the Spartan that was outside the area, including what the remains of the stealth net reported. No ships survived.

Her final words, "Rocan, we made them pay! The Admiral got the last big threat herself in Red Blade style. We got them all in the system!"

Her ship was destroyed seconds later. The Spartan then jumped home as the Nova moved toward them. Thus ended Borealis's run as Aurora.

---

The Drakor monitored the Camar system as the Backup folded space into the heart of the Blackhole and was destroyed. Justice Incarnate received the word from Profound Justice, * She did it. Aurora broke through and the AI backup ship was destroyed in the black hole. *

Justice Incarnate responded, * The Pena Home Guard is a graduated race. They kept their promise and Aurora stayed to the end and sent information to know the Pena ship the Teacher took out the last Transport. We will still have ships in the Zantar system, just in case. I will take them to Mixtios personally. *

Admiral Franklin had one telepath on-board who sent a recovery message to Yeva Black, Guardian Shield sent a message to Johnathan, * One battleship lost. Heavily damaged and then it could not alter course and ran into an active wormhole sent out from a planet.

The other 5 ships escaped. Astra exploded but did not overly damage the ship. I believe her princess AI activated. She is in a few hundred pieces. Her head is intact but no power and the data cores are destroyed. All comms systems are down.

Memory cores are being replaced. The Drakor came in force, 500 plus ships when we jumped out and they were still arriving. They took the heat off of us. The Penans must have had a thousand or more of those wormholes running inside of that system. *

Johnathan shook his head and sighed, * Save her parts. We will recycle her for her own line. She expected to be sacrificed in this effort. Lastra is now Astra. We will honor her sacrifice by having her recycled and rebuilt to her facial model and she will go into the queue to return as Astra someday. En route to pick up your ships, and then to Mixtios. *

---

In the Samar system, The Colony leaders were in a conference with Rocan when the Drakor Capital ship jumped into the system and launched a shuttle. The leaders' necklaces all lit up. * This is Justice Incarnate. The Pena system and our ancient enemy were all destroyed. The Penan people are now a graduated race. We are here to take Dispenser of Justice and his hybrid Council to Mixtios with your diplomates for entry into the Alien Alliance. *

Rocan looked over, "Our hybrids, Dr. Trose and Admiral Brena Rivar. Nightingale and Hawk of Vengeance launched the Teacher into the last Transport in the system and destroyed the enemy. Aurora, the one who took over for us when we arrived 324 years ago was destroyed getting the combat footage out to show you."

The footage was displayed on every world via every news feed as Rocan had Bora, now Aurora, hi-jack those feeds. "Aurora's back up formerly known as Bora and the first AI teacher to be certified by our people is now the new Admiral Aurora and leader of the Sentinels.

We await your delegation and the new ambassador to the Alien Alliance to arrive. The Pena system was totally destroyed as we said it would be. Now the information we held classified for the last 324 years will be known. The force that struck was an AI race that had no moral code.

They were malevolent and consumed, organic life to them was a minor impediment to their goals. That goal being Zirtosium, the very poison that was killing our people. They wanted more of that material to expand their numbers.

They did not care how they got it or who was in the way. This is why all Sentinels have a justice protocol and multiple safeguards to ensure it has never tampered with them. She was modeled after Astra, the Terran AI who has her own race of Sentinels.

Astra adopted our naming conventions though she is over 5,000 years old and existed first. The word Sentinel means a soldier or guard who stands watch for us. They guarded us and guided us for over 300 years. Astra, her own model, which died in the previous timeline also died in this one.

Being where she needed to be to save humanity. Terran humans and Pena humans. All of you. We are and will likely be for thousands of years yet, reliant on the Sentinels. Yet, we have advanced on our own in addition to what they have provided.

The 2 Billion people we lost now live here and we are 3.3 Billion strong instead. All because the first Aurora took it upon herself to get us a second chance at life. Our Sentinels are all heroes in fighting this force and in saving our society to reach this point. They are a part of the Home Guard, and now you know why we held this information back until now.

We used Aurora's plan and we expanded upon it. Our Red and Blue Blade leaders were ready to retire. They took this mission upon themselves, as did Aurora, to see those that struck us from stealth or surprise were made to pay. Aurora made sure their deaths and sacrifice were captured for all of you to see."

Rocan thought to Aurora, * Kill the feed lovely lady. *

Aurora killed it and smiled as Rocan lowered the secondary shield and waited for those who needed to be aboard.

---

The Council of Governors remained connected for a few minutes and finally, they all agreed that Rocan had handled the news of this enemy correctly or they would not likely be alive today.

---

Justice Incarnate walked onto the Bridge of the Spartan. He fed the location to Mixtios to them and once the delegation was aboard the two ships Jumped to Tau Ceti.

---

Justice thought to him, * Contact the tower to Mixtios. Have Aurora do it, as she speaks the language. *

Aurora took comms, "Mixtios tower, This is the Penan Home Guard ship the Spartan. We carry our delegation and Justice Incarnate with us as we have graduated as a species and our leaders are here to petition the Alien Alliance to join their ranks."

They had their own Colossus Base they were docked with to ensure they were picked up coming into the system. Johnathan Travus jumped in near their position.

Johnathan hit comms, "This is the Excalibur to Mixtios TC. This is over 5,000 years of separation and, 3 centuries in the making, but our Penan brethren have graduated as a race. Sending updated linguistics database for them to be incorporated at the Alien Alliance."

Justice pointed to Aurora's necklace. * You will brief them on our behalf on Astra's and the efforts that have led you here. Not all the details, just what you have been cleared to release. Your races of Sentinels have served both branches of humanity proudly. *

The Governors nodded to Justice Incarnate and his guards as they left the ship. Aurora dropped the second shield and the delegation with the 4 members of the Council went to the landing bay and boarded the Shadow Walker class Scout ship. Named after the destroyed moon.

Rocan thought back to Justice Incarnate * When will we know of our 2 new council members? *

Rocan heard back, * The two ladies are Medic Shield and Shadow of Vengeance. 2 of your Great Granddaughters who are on different ships. They have just been informed. The first of your progeny to make the Council. *

Rocan looked at his ladies as they took a seat, "We have a granddaughter from each of you who is joining the council. Lirra and Connya Travus. Both married each other and their husband Dr. Trose. One of Nightingale's sons from one of our other male hybrids. Those 2 were good choices. Both 125, and 135 years old. Their husband is close to 227 if memory serves."

Freia nodded, "Yes. They did not plan on quitting with him, but they had talked about it with each other because they were closer in age. Now they could be together a much longer time."

They launched out and got a glide patch to a landing pad reserved for VIP's apparently as they were the only ship upon it. They had 6 Sentinel guards to watch over the ship. They landed and saw several guards around the pad as well. They walked out and their guards took positions around the ship.

Rocan could spot the AI guards from the alien guards fairly easily. They seemed surprised that the delegation did not have environmental suits and only the Hybrid Council was dressed in battle armor that had been dyed a blood-red color but had the black onyx coating upon it.

They were met by Brenda Travus Lee who stopped in front of them. She sighed, "From barbaric to graduated in days. You are going to get a lot of questions at this meeting."

Aurora looked at Brenda, "We have much to tell them about our journey to graduation. I am Aurora, Astra's counterpart. My Sentinels are guarding our ship. Yes, we share the same racial name but we have different symbiotic races we take care of in matters."

Brenda nodded, "Alright. Follow me in."

Rocan led the way with Aurora at his side and the other 3 hybrids, Freia, Vivian, and Greena in the next rank with the 4 Colony Governors being led by their new Ambassador. Justinia Spartan. Another justice type, but a non-hybrid by choice, and from the sperm donations, she was 6 or 7 generations removed from Rocan.

They walked into a large room with several hundred looking on and some up on displays, likely world leaders Rocan thought. Brenda came to a stop and held out a pad and sent the updated linguistics to everyone in attendance across the different links to world leaders. Then she spoke, "The Penan's arrival here and now was not expected by me. The Drakor, Justice Incarnate himself guided them here. Their story is theirs to tell."

Rocan stepped forward, "A few months ago you had the Drakor Ambassador talking about events in the Penan system. Events that were true a few months ago, but in another timeline. We have been undergoing our trials for this graduation day coming up on 325 years.

Our big hold-up was not in asking the right questions. Ours was ensuring that this entire galaxy was not destroyed in the war that consumed the Pena system not one day ago. The facts presented to you about the volatility of the system were all true.

It resulted in the death of 2 Billion Penans, 30,000+Terrans, and hundreds of thousands if not millions of Drakor. But that was just the first battle. Throughout the next 2 months, the attacks would have spread across this galaxy as this enemy worked to take and consume what it wanted.

Instead, our AI named Aurora worked a plan to jump us back in time to save our people, and once we knew how bad it was...virtually every race in this room's people were saved."

Aurora got control of the big monitor in the room and started from the beginning. Laying out what occurred, how Billions became 6 and the desperate move to bring them back in time came about. She showed the video of the destruction of Shadow Walker as she had it recorded. Then she jumped to the recent battle where the system was still destroyed, but the Drakor came with over 3x as many ships and they watched 'The Teacher' take out the last transport ship before the feed went dead as the MIDGE was destroyed.