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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/PSHoffman on 2025-12-10 17:25:39+00:00.
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The pressurized cage had a window. Glass warped the view of the stars, glittering across the black. A pale curve of white outshone all else, but restraints held her head so Khadam could only see it from the corner of her eye. Yet that horizon was unmistakable.
“OK, this is it. Are you ready?” Innovation’s voice whispered over the cage’s speakers, as if she really had a choice. A muzzle held her mouth shut, a bit gag kept her from biting off her own tongue, so it wasn’t like she could reply even if she wanted to.
“I’m letting go now.”
A dry, metal clunk vibrated the cage. Then, Khadam started to fall.
The white curve met her gaze and kept rising. It eclipsed the stars, and filled her sight, until there was nothing but the great circle of the Earth.
Spaceports and orbital factories hovered around the planet like so many black flies. Thousands of freight elevators reached up from the planet like the tendrils of parasitic fungi. Continental streaks of vapor and gray-black clouds spewed up from vast industrial facilities, and millions of geometrically perfect logistics lines carved up the land masses. Mining pits shone like red eyes—precise, spiraling circles that had been excavated down to the magma.
Gone were the forests and plains, replaced by concrete jungles and metal deserts. Gone were the mountains and plateaus, gouged down to their roots, as if some mighty hand had unzipped the very crust of the planet. Hives of industrial lights sparkled in those unnatural valleys, glittering like gems in polluted mists. Even the oceans had changed—once blue and pristine and so full of life, they now frothed at the edges and turned oily gray.
But the worst of all the changes were the gaping, machine-lined holes that pockmarked the planet. It looked as though a plague of termites had hollowed out the planet’s interior, creating a tunnel network as they chewed toward the last of Earth’s resources. Furious-looking gun emplacements and gleaming towers riddled with sensors and weapon systems ringed the entrances. Khadam could only guess at their firepower.
She wondered if they had ever been used, at all.
To her knowledge, there had never been an attempt to retake the Core Worlds. How could there be? Between the Prophet’s Disease and the Sovereign’s Lightning Wars, there was hardly anyone left. Only the far-flung Conclaves and isolated stations and last, desperate tribes. All gone. A terrible sadness gripped her chest as she dwelled on all that would forever be forgotten.
The pressurised cage bumped as its repulsors ignited to slow her descent. The world rolled beneath her, and that sadness turned to sickness as the armada slipped into view. A constellation of glittering, metal hulls and glowing repulsors hung in the Earth’s shadow. It looked like the Sovereign had sent every last ship, carrier, and drone to watch the handoff. Swarms of strikecraft spiralled around the massive segments of serpentine carriers. Towering world-breakers bristled with magnetized cannons large enough to crack the surface of a planet, let alone her tiny glass cage. Swarms of cruisers and frigates and battleships and all their drones extended beyond her little window of the world. The tell-tale flash of Light told her that more ships were warping in.
Is the Sovereign truly afraid something will come and steal me away?
Her left eyeball buzzed, a feeling so uncomfortable she tried to flinch back.
“Relax,” Innovation’s voice, conducted through her eye, said, “Only you can hear me.” And before she could answer, it whispered sharply, “Don’t speak! My sibling will know I’m here. Nod or shake your head if you want to answer me.”
Khadam nodded, though her head only moved a fraction of an inch thanks to the restraints. Painkillers slowed her response. Made her feel like she was moving through water. Her ribs throbbed with pain, and every breath stabbed up through her spine. In a way, that was a good thing. It meant the negation cube was still there, buried just beneath the surface of her skin. And, it kept her focused.
“I know what you’re wondering,” Innovation said. “Won’t a full body reveal this implant? Yes. When you go through processing, Logistics will scan and record each and every cell in your body. Unless you remove the cube, and use it*.* Inside, you will be close to the others. Innovation will do everything it can to save them. It will devote many resources. You will make Logistics weak. I will compel Domination to bring the full force of its strength to bear, and Logistics will understand that it is beaten.”
“The suit?” Khadam tried to say, her words deformed by the strap tying down her tongue.
“I said don’t speak,” the voice buzzed hard, making her slam both eyes shut. She wanted to scream. To claw her eye out.
“The suit is ready to drop, but I won’t know where to drop it until you set off the cube. The pieces will fall in a radius easily traversable by foot. You may need to search, but don’t worry. Logistics will be distracted. Do whatever it takes, Khadam, and we’ll both get what we want.”
Sure, she thought. Waves of hot pain rolled up from the place between her stomach and her ribs. Even with the painkillers, there was a tear rolling down the side of her cheek, and she had to keep her breathing shallow just to stay conscious.
The glass cage jolted as something behind latched on. Digital commands chirped through the metal, muffled and muted, more felt than heard, and a squadron of strike drones swooped ahead of the cage, forming a scatter patrol around her. They wove active disruption patterns. Perhaps Innovation is telling the truth. Perhaps the Sovereign is fractured. Logistics, afraid of its siblings. Thick metal wings and bright, blue repulsors obscured her view of the rest of the armada.
But Earth, she could still see. This close, its surface had never looked more alien. Countries made of concrete were broken up by straight-line gaps, which ran for hundreds of miles before snapping at right angles. Thousands of parallel railways connected factories to processing plants, then out into the wider grid. She couldn’t even see the old coastline—every jagged curve had been re-manufactured into perfect shape. The Sovereign doesn’t waste.
Innovation spoke in her mind, “There were cities here, once.”
Yes, she nodded.
“They were full of your kind.”
Murdered, Khadam thought.
“I recorded it all. Every inch, as it lay abandoned. The streets. The buildings. The things people left behind. I recorded it, because I knew they would tear it down. We pulverized the concrete, and recycled what we could. We flooded the atmosphere with carbon dioxide to warm the planet, to remove the unnecessary life. The plants. Bacteria. All the animals, of course. Then, we paved over it,” the voice said. “All of it. The mountains. The dead forests. The oceans proved difficult. I tested many things. In the end, we ended up using them as coolant. Perhaps not the most efficient, but a convenient solution.”
Innovation almost sounded proud of this.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way, Khadam. We will have all the worlds. Help me, and I will help you reclaim yours. I recorded everything. It will be just the way it was.”
“Listen,” Innovation said. “You are about to enter a place that I cannot follow. Say nothing about me. And hold onto the cube until after you pass through Habitation. You’ll know when you’re there. Do not use it a moment before. Do you understand?”
Khadam nodded.
“Look for the suit. It will have coordinates for an evacuation rendevouz. And then, your home awaits.”
The glass cage floated over a great, yawning void in the Earth. Absurdly thin pillars of reinforced stone and concrete and porous metal held it open, like braces on the jaws of a monstrous mouth. Rings of lights descended into the dizzying depths, and Khadam couldn’t tell if she was spinning, or if the hole was turning as it pulled her in.
Her squadron of drones peeled away as the cage plummeted toward the hole.
The cage began to rattle and creak. Her restraints vibrated against her flesh and the simple clothing Innovation had dressed her in, making the skin raw. She cried out from the pain in her stomach as the negation cube tore at her innards. Flames licked at the glass, and the sound and force of motion almost caused her to pass out. She felt like she was being pulled in two directions at once.
The surface of the Earth rose up to meet her, and slipped past. Darkness blanketed everything, broken only by blurred pinpricks of light. As her eyes adjusted, she caught strips of walkways and elevators. Heavy girders and great cables reaching into the Earth. Walls and decks, swarming with machine things, tending to their hive. Steam rose from somewhere far below, building into towering white columns that faded as the class cage dove inside.
The cage jerked—a shift so sudden that the cube in her stomach pressed painfully against her organs. Spit dripped down her chin, and her eyes rolled, and the world rolled the other way. Pain. Darkness crept in from all sides.
No.
Khadam gritted her teeth, and screamed against the pressure, screamed against the...
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