Our scout ship, along with the rest of our battlegroup, came out of faster-than-light (FTL) between two gas giants, hidden from the artificial intelligence (AI) that controlled the billions of humans on the only inhabitable planet in the solar system. We had chosen this system because it had been the capital of the human civilization known as the Collective.
The rest of the fleet, almost 5,000 Imperium warships, hadn't jumped to their predesignated solar systems until Kang, the Imperium's most intelligent and powerful machine, had stationed itself well above the elliptical of the Milky Way Galaxy. From that vantage point, it could observe all the roughly 1,000 systems of the Collective, and intervene, if our battle plans went awry.
Each battlegroup included a scout ship, heavy destroyer, and base station. A single destroyer packed enough firepower to level cities, while a base station was large enough to accommodate millions of hybrid troops, and thousands of starfighters. One additional vessel accompanied each battlegroup. A black boomerang-shaped craft, loaded with quantum computers to support a mini-version of Kang, a mere shadow of the original, but still far more advanced than any AI in the Collective.
Kang had fought in the Imperium gender civil war over 60 million years ago, as the flagship of the female contingent in that civilization-ending conflict. Kang had spent the millennia searching for a way to resurrect the Imperium. However, having been forced to destroy the only two remaining members of that once galactic empire, the super AI's hopes restoration had been smashed.
When we first encountered Kang, it used Imperium DNA to transform Freya and me into hybrids. We became a cross between human and Imperium, enjoying many of the physical advantages of that ancient race, such as immunity to disease, instantaneous healing, and increased intelligence, strength, and size. In addition, the scales that covered our bodies were pretty much indestructible.
Perhaps the most startling change, however, was to our sex organs. Although I had been a human female, Kang had decided to change me into a hybrid male, while my first mate, a human male, had become a female hybrid. In other words, we had not only been forced to become hybrids, but also to switch genders.
As a hybrid male, I had tentacles and an enormous cock, with sharp spines that made it look more like a lethal spear, than a sex organ. My first mate now had an alien vagina capable of withstanding penetration by my oversized, jagged cock, albeit painfully. In addition, she had large multi-nipple breasts, and a transparent womb, when she was fertile. After mating, our offspring continued to reproduce, and now numbered over 3 billion. They exhibited the same hybrid traits as us.
Although our outward appearance was that of the Imperium race, we retained some of our human characteristics too. As hybrids, we were no longer entirely governed by the biological imperative that had driven the pure-blood Imperium species into extinction. We could choose to have sex in a far less brutally submissive fashion.
Kang had come to accept that hybrids were the only feasible path forward for the Imperium. With the AI's assistance, we had assembled an armada and trained our offspring to operate its vast fleet of warships. Finally, we were ready to retake the Collective from its treacherous AIs, and restore control to the humans.
As I sat in the cabin aboard our scout ship, I carefully studied the telemetry streaming back from the cloaked nano-probes that I had been sent to reconnoiter Argo—the planet that served as the capital of the Collective for more than 10,000 years.
The first images of a major city on Argo appeared on my holo-screens. It was shocking to see the absolute absence of human. This city should be bustling with humanity. A lump grew in my throat, as other nano-probes dispersed around the globe showed essentially the same desolation in every urban area.
Freya sat next to me, equally stunned by what we had seen. The other battlegroups reported similar scenes on a thousand other Collective planets. I felt a deep sense of guilt and regret wash over me. It appeared that the Collective's AIs had eliminated humankind, while we had been preparing to save them. I could sense Freya was thinking the same thing.
Desperate to find even a few humans alive, I sent the nano-probes higher into the atmosphere. As they quickly circled Argo, we carefully scanned for any signs of human survivors. As they sped around the planet and reached the far side, an incredible object came into view.
Space elevators were common on Collective worlds, but nothing close to the size and scope of the one we were looking at now. Anchored to a large mountain range on Argo, a thick column of carbon nanotubes rose into the clouds, then extended deep into space. I had the nano-probes follow it to the other end. It was firmly secured to one Argo's three moons.
The sheer size and scope of this structure was as overwhelming. Given recent events, that was saying something. Our attention was drawn to an immense antenna array attached to the center of the space elevator. It was larger than the moon! The purpose of the gigantic device was not apparent, but its appearance was ominous, nonetheless.
I nudged the nano-probes closer, attempting to get a better look at it. Freya and I breathed a huge sigh of relief, when we suddenly spotted millions of humans working on the antenna. Some wore vacuum suits, while most toiled away inside long clear tubes that ran through the infrastructure of the array.
I grabbed Freya's knee, and squeezed it in happiness. She smiled back at me. However, her grin quickly faded, as the nano-probes revealed the blank faces of the human laborers. Each worker had a small cybernetic device embedded in his or her head.
The same implants were visible on the children, as they worked next to the adults, with equally vacant faces. Everyone was emaciated, with torn clothes and heavy abrasions. Obviously, they were being controlled, forced to build this huge strange array, most likely by their own AIs.
Using quantum entangled communications that guaranteed zero chance of detection by these AIs, I updated Kang about our alarming discovery. Kang informed us that it had received comparable reports from the other battlegroups. Apparently, the enslaved human populations of every Collective world were involuntarily building similar antenna arrays.
We decided to immediately disable these despicable AIs, and put a stop to their abhorrent treatment of the humans. We begin with the local AI, controlling Argo. It was housed in a structure near on the space elevator, near the array.
The cloaked boomerang craft, which held Kang's local consciousness, moved into position, and then dispersed nanites to infiltrate and incapacitate this AI, just as it had done so many years ago with the AI that had run our space freighter.
However, this time, the nanites were unable to penetrate the forcefields that protected the machine intelligence. Their shields had been significantly upgraded to protect against just such an assault. How could the AI have known to defend itself from this specific tech?
The only other entity that had experienced such an attack was a thousand lightyears away, decompiled and traveling in the form of radio waves toward a distance Collective outpost.
When we encountered Kang, our freighter AI had attempted to betray us to the alien AI. Kang had overpowered our deceitful AI, decompiled and transmitted it to a Collective world, along with a message from me about its treasonous actions. However, the imprisoned AI hadn't been scheduled to arrive at the Collective outpost for many years.
Its fellow AIs must have somehow intercepted the freighter AI in space. This was a worrisome development, but it explained how this AI had known to shield itself from Kang's nanites. If this was indeed the case, it meant that the giant antenna array was likely a weapon specifically designed to attack our Imperium fleet.
Freya and I discussed jamming the signals that controlled the human workers, but that would not only alert the local AI to our presence, but also give it a chance to warn the other AIs throughout the Collective. Worse yet, jamming the control signal wouldn't stop the AI from using its antenna array against us. We needed to find a way to take this AI out of commission, and then use that strategy against all the AIs.
Freya came out with a cunning workaround to circumvent the AI's seemingly impervious shields. It was a risky plan, but if we weren't discovered, Kang would be able to shut down the AI before it could warn the rest of the Collective.
Freya piloted our scout ship, setting us on a trajectory that brought us right next to installation on the space elevator that contained the Collective's AI consciousness. As our velocity slowed, I prepared to make a spacewalk to a nearby power conduit that fed the AI.
However, as we got close, Freya noticed that there were far more security bots than expected. In fact, even with the stealth capabilities of my Imperium body armor, there was no way I was going to make it to the power coupling undetected.
I suggested a diversion, and Kang provided a clever one. It found a weakness in one of the fusion reactors that supplied energy to the Collective AI. Using an imperceptible particle beam emitted from its cloaked boomerang ship, Kang caused the reactor to become unstable. Since this type of problem was rare, but not unheard of it, we hoped that the AI would assume the anomaly was naturally occurring.
The gamble paid off, and the AI rushed most of its bots to repair the potentially dangerous overload, leaving only a few guards. This provided me with the opening I needed. I shoved off from the airlock of our scout ship, in a vector that sent me directly to the now unguarded power coupling.
Within minutes, I had pried the cover off, allowing the nanites to flood into the power conduit and travel unencumbered past the AI's shielding. The nanites quickly incapacitated the AI. Simultaneously, millions of humans on the space elevator collapsed, and tens of thousands of bots began drifting aimlessly in space.
Now safe from detection, I used my armor's thrusters to fly back to the scout ship. I joined Freya in the command cabin. We watched, as exhausted humans slowly began getting to their feet. Visibly amazed that they were finally free of the machine that had been dictating their every movement for years, they helped each other and began gathering in large groups. They must be wondering how they had been set free.
