Star Warden Book 2.5: The Dragon's Song
By
Donavan F. Walker
Copyright©2022 by Donavan F. Walker
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
One Little Planet
1
“This is a curious development,” said Daimos as he looked at the little planet on his screen.
At
least in the atmosphere of Aetherium, it appeared small. Satellite
imagery told a different story. It was as large as your standard
moon. Grasslands covered the surface broken up by mountains with
large lakes acting as oceans. It was slightly larger than the green
moon of Aurora. Electronic signals were detected moving across the
planet.
A perfectly average developing world, that somehow materialized out
of the blue.
“You don't think the rebels are setting some kind of trap or illusion,” asked Nightshade perched on Daimos's shoulder.
“The rebels possess neither the manpower nor resources for such an enterprise and it would serve no purpose even if they did. This is indeed a real world. The question remains why is it here?”
“And the other question is are we going to conquer it?”
“We? Planning to go to the front lines are you?”
“You know what I meant.”
Before that conversation began and elapsed. Daimos was searching his data banks. Simultaneously he deployed a tractor beam from an orbital satellite to hold the planet in place. An invisible chain now bound this little planet to Aetherium and would ensure it could not escape.
“Very Interesting. Yesss.” He had found what he was looking for.
Nightshade smiled. “I like the sound of that of Yes. What is it?”
The AI ignored her question and moved his walking throne to another part
of his headquarters. Entering a room filled with three quantum
computers in the form of large black cubes. These devices were the
servers for Project Praetorian. Originally known as Project Archon.
It was discontinued when the Star Warden defeated its first product
Vicious. But instead of the soul returning to the server as planned, it was freed and left for the Celestial Realm. This unexpected event
caused Daimos to put the project on hold.
While in the
intervening days he had not discovered how the Warden had
accomplished said feat he did make several improvements. These
improvements were reason enough to end Archon and replace it with
Praetorian. One improvement was turning Souls into Wraiths.
Instead of controlling or suppressing a soul with the Soul Matrix, it
was completely re-written into an electromagnetic spectral entity.
That would be easier to recall and not be at risk of being freed to
the Celestial Realm.
Daimos
waved his hand causing the black cube to open revealing a bright red
core in the middle. A black specter of binary code came forth and
began to take shape. Polygons quickly turned into a full wireframe
model until finally filling out. No more liquid metal, Praetorians
would be fully digital warriors.
The Praetorian completed its
rendering and took up an image of a Samurai from the Summer Empire
with a bleached white Oni's skull for a face. Green sparks of
electricity hovered in its eye sockets. It knelled to Daimos.
“Master. Your servant most humble heads your summons. What
is thy will?”
Before he could issue orders Sonia alerted him to a security breach at processing center 003. Its low number indicated that it was located in the Stygian Islands. The Star Warden was also reported in the area.
“How bold of them. What warranted such actions?”
Samurai action vs the Star Warden. Yes.
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