The planet was indeed frozen, a vast desert of white reaching to the horizon, disturbed only by the smooth ripples of buried mountain ranges. Rayker touched down as close to the

  co-ordinates as she could, then trudged through thick snow until she came to a cave-like opening at the base of an ice cliff.

  After spending an hour hacking away with a shovel, she soon discovered a metal wall bordering what looked like a garage entrance. Between the cold, fatigue and aching of her recent wounds, she soon reached

  the end of her patience, so she banged hard on the surface, and was satisfied by the hollow ringing. After a short pause, there was a metallic clunk, and the doorway retracted, collapsing heavy chunks of ice as it revealed

  a dark hall.

  Lights flickered on illuminating a dozen vehicles lined up in ranks, clean and polished as though they had just been manufactured. Rayker wandered through the garage until she saw more lights activating

  down a hallway that disappeared into the distance.

  “Hello?” she called, not sure what to expect.

  “Hello, Allana,” a friendly, but professional computerized voice replied from invisible speakers. “I am pleased to welcome you to one of my more recent outposts. You will be pleased to

  hear that it is up to date with the most sophisticated automated weapons and reconnaissance systems.”

  Rayker’s eyebrows arched. “And you are…?”

  “Who I have always been. I am using the installation’s AI director as an interlocutor. I would have liked to offer you a complete tour, but, unfortunately, there isn’t time.”

  Rayker’s lips curled into a smile. The AI sounded much more polite than the blunt commandments she was used to receiving, and she wondered if it wasn’t putting its own spin on the translation.

  “Great,” she said. “And what am I doing here… dear leader?”

  Another group of lights flickered to life in the distance. Rayker followed obediently and, as she walked, scratched at an annoying sensation in her side.

  “I have brought you here to take possession of a small arsenal of combat machines. The situation on Caldera is dire and must be addressed directly.”

  Rayker raised her eyebrows. “I thought the council of Elders forbade your direct intervention? So you told me.”

  “The game has changed. The attack on the Fortress by your unknown aggressor has attracted much attention. Another Elder is suspected of interfering in human affairs. By the laws of the Humanity Pact,

  direct contact or dissemination of technology is strictly forbidden. The Counsel is attempting to track down the offender, but in the meantime, their… human agents have occupied the base and are discovering its secrets.

  The Elders are in agreement that a more overt intervention is necessary if we are to restore order.”

  “And did they ask you what I was doing there in the first place?”

  “Indeed they did, Allana.”

  Rayker couldn’t help a little smirk every time she heard her first name.

  “I explained,” the voice continued, “that, following the unfortunate discovery of the mountain site by a lucky climber, you were dispatched there to defuse the situation. They couldn’t

  argue with my decision. They had hoped that the League would take ownership of the site eventually, but only once the slow absorption of the planet was complete. Unfortunately, the continued resistance of the colonists complicated

  things.”

  Rayker waved a dismissive hand. “Humans. You can’t leave them alone for five seconds or they start getting ideas.”

  “I did suggest limited genocide. The tree of humanity is made healthier through regular pruning.”

  Rayker blinked. The voice had spoken with the same polite and helpful tone, but she had no illusions about what her benefactor was capable of. As for herself, she considered murder and torture—on

  the smaller scale—to be a good time. The desperate pleading expression of her victims always gave her a thrill, as well as the satisfaction that she had shared in a deeply personal experience. But the disposal of hundreds

  of thousands of lives like removing trash? She couldn’t explain why, but the idea disturbed her, as though a rotting carcass had been presented as a beloved house pet.

  “That would have been neither efficient nor subtle,” she said carefully. “With wildly unpredictable consequences.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “But what would you have done if my drone army had succeeded?”

  “I would have condemned you as a rogue agent that needed to be stopped. But, since the council can only work by discreetly influencing the League, I am confident you would have destroyed any attempt

  at resistance. The Elders would have been helpless to do anything but watch as you took control of the galaxy.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  There was a short pause, which, Rayker decided, meant discomfort. He had never been able to acknowledge errors in judgment.

  “Allana, we must not dwell on the past,” the monotonous voice droned on. “Please continue to the central station.”

  She followed the lights, observing the facility with interest as she passed huge machine halls and assembly lines. Great numbers of automaton had obviously been produced there, but the half empty carts

  of raw materials hung still from their rails. Skeletons of vehicles or walkers littered the workshops, while the munitions depots lay completely bare.

  “I have arranged for the abandonment of the base,” her benefactor intoned, in what appeared to be an attempt at small talk. “Apart from the units I have left for you to collect.”

  Rayker stepped out into a spacious command center and stood in admiration of the banks of monitors that oversaw the base’s many systems.

  “You may manage collection and transportation from here,” said the voice. “The vehicles you passed on the way will be capable of clearing away the snow covering the docking bay. I took

  the liberty of reproducing an exact copy of an aging type-seven Barrochian freighter, which will pass unnoticed through human space. With your renewed relationship with VennZech, you shouldn’t have any trouble setting

  up on Caldera.”

  Rayker sat in an operator chair and pulled a knife from her boot. “Yes, I see.”

  She tapped at a keyboard, and the main display showed her a group of bipedal machines waiting in a storage hangar.

  “Very nice design,” she added, as she flicked through their datasheets. “Efficient, sophisticated and capable.” She sat back and began to trim her nails with the knife. “And

  am I supposed to attack our new enemy head on with these?”

  “They have explored much of the teleportation network on Caldera, and occupied almost all of the installations. However, they have not yet discovered the command site. You will travel there immediately

  and use your judgement to address the situation. I am sure your mind is already at work imagining how best to use this force.”

  “Indeed.” Rayker placed the knife on a desk and removed her jacket.

  “Our options have become… limited, Allana. We must regain control of the planet and its fortress.”

  “Why? What purpose does it serve?”

  “That is difficult to explain. You will have time to familiarize yourself with the installation’s capabilities once you arrive.”

  “Why not allow me access during my first stay?”

  There was a long silence.

  “It would not have helped you in your mission,” the robotic voice said eventually. “Instructing you on unnecessary information would have been inefficient and potentially distracting.

  Please focus your energies on our current problem, Allana. These foreign agents must be neutralized.”

  “I once heard a rumor,” Rayker said as she picked up the knife again and carefully inspected the blade, “that a small force of the old leaders fled to Caldera at the end of the great war.

  To shelter and regroup, so it was said.”

  There was another long pause. She decided that he might be getting frustrated with her questions, and felt a thrill at the possibility that he might snap.

  “Correct,” the voice said. “I killed them.”

  Rayker sighed and admired her reflection in the blade. “Because you made a mistake?”

  This time the silence dragged on for minutes, until she accepted that she wasn’t going to get anywhere. He wouldn’t argue, debate, or reflect on his decisions, and knew too well that the only

  thing humans hated above all torments and threats was being ignored.

  Rayker put down the knife again, lifted her shirt and tossed it to one side. Her hand reached for the blade, but she paused. “So, are you at least going to tell me what you know about my hunters?”

  “There was suggestion from the counsel,” the voice said, “which I have assigned a seventy-six percent probability of accuracy. I am sure you will not like to hear it.”

  Rayker cocked her head as she flipped the knife between her fingers. “Go on.”

  “It is the force that your sister created. Resurrected.”

  Fury poured through her veins like molten silver. Her lips turned into a sneer, and she clenched her jaw. She pushed the knife into the flesh beneath her ribs, and sliced through skin. Blood splashed onto

  the floor, and she held her breath as agonizing pain fought for dominance over anger. The knife twisted and probed until she felt resistance, then she let it drop to the floor. She pushed her fingers inside the wound, grunted

  with effort, then withdrew a torn lump of fat and tissue, wrapped around a metal object. Her gaze went cold with loathing while she placed the bloody mess carefully on the desk.

  “My sister is dead,” she gasped as she sat back in her chair and let her nanites respond to the improvised surgery. “Whatever was left of her pathetic rabble was hunted down and destroyed.”

  “You know perfectly well that there is insufficient evidence to confirm that hypothesis,” the voice said. “Your judgement in this matter is clouded.”

  Rayker snorted in contempt. She held up her arm and pushed a bone spike slowly out through the skin of her wrist, letting fresh pain displace the agony from her side for a brief moment of relief. Then she

  aimed at a distant monitor. The spike crossed the intervening space in an instant, shattering the screen. The expense of rage brought its own anesthetic effect.

  She watched the flesh seal itself back over the cavity and felt a little respite from the emotional tidal wave that had consumed her. The blood from her side had already stopped flowing as her body repaired

  itself.

  “Are there capable defenses here?” she demanded.

  “Of course.”

  “Does the system have a minefield?

  “A very sparse array that covers only the galactic ecliptic—”

  “Activate any units nearest to my trajectory of arrival.”

  There was a short silence. “It has been done.”

  Rayker replaced her shirt and jacket and reached for her phone. “Meissner,” she began as the call connected, “please listen—I have news. There is a location on Caldera… Meissner,

  stop being such a child and listen to what I have to say.”

  She held the phone a short distance away from her ear until the yelling stopped.

  When she replaced the device, she spoke quickly. “All will be explained in time, I promise you, but you must do as I ask as quickly as possible. I want you to find me whichever freighter you currently

  have docked at Intaba. Send it to the following co-ordinates immediately at its fastest speed. Once that’s done, come and meet me in Rackeye, and we will discuss how I will make you the most powerful man in the League.”

  She clicked off the call.

  “I told you there was a transport already prepared. Is this a new strategy you have envisaged?” the voice asked.

  “Call it an injection of chaos,” Rayker said.