Unholy Star, Beyond Faith

The first victims of the Reformation

The Skyean Kingdom was built upon contradiction: on the one side, the Pioneers developed some of the highest technology of the day, science that launched them to the orange star, Cian and allowed them to be the first to colonise her planetary gems. But they also marvelled at the natural, untouched beauty of the worlds they had discovered and vowed to reject all technology that could aid in man's propensity to corrupt their natural environment; thus the spiritual heart of the Kingdom was born, the druids of the Tuath Dé.

Over the centuries, while various forms of corruption did make its way to the planet, what did remain of that initial vow was a compromise between the extreme positions of high-tech and no-tech, where, in space, advanced technology had become the economic life-blood of the Kingdom--on the ground, technology was frowned upon and in on some planets, forbidden. One side effect of this love-hate relationship with tech was a law that related to the idea that the human body was to remain pure and without integration with machine--a condition that meant no member of the Tuath Dé may become an auger. But, without an auger's inbuilt ability to interface with a ship's information system the Skyean fleet would have been thrown into great disadvantage on the stage of battle. So, while every other civilisation embraced the augers, the Skyeans developed their own interfacing technology that some argued exceeded auger capabilities in P2S communications.

Such it was for the crew the of the Duilleag where the real-world command deck consisted of nothing other  than a series of baths filled with a viscous silica-areon liquid compound containing trillions of superconductive nanoparticles. The immersion pool provided a specific virtual environment and allowed for a local coupling between thought and system. In the pools, command officers and pilots would float, becoming a part of the ship they commanded (in mind if not body).

Most high-end Skyean battleships would not contain more than a few interface baths, where tactical officers would submerge in specialised suits where the fluid became the conduit between the ship and the environment from where they would carry out their operations, often externally surveying the battle scenes. However, the Duilleag contained over one hundred such pools, several for the carrier's command crew, including Captain Vulpini and one for each of the starwing pilots.

Death Squad 8 walked uncontested to the heart of the great ship where the command deck was silent, save for the popping sound of air being pumped through thick liquid. The lights had been dimmed, and there was no sign of people, the only activity was by a few maintenance routines that darted around the pools aligned in a grid pattern.

"Congratulations. You have won. I guess you're here to claim your prize."

The voice was projected by the SIS directly to the autex implants of the three Churchmen, the tone was distant and non-emotive and could have been from a machine had such sentience not been outlawed ages ago. "Welcome to my ship. I am sorry that there was no one to greet you as you boarded, but my marines have been otherwise occupied."

Sam replied, "Captain Vulpini, I presume. On behalf of the Church Reformation Movement--" Honi threw her a quizzical look, to which she raised an eyebrow and shrugged, "--I hereby take control of the Duilleag and direct you to order your fleet to stand down in surrender."

"The church reformation movement, eh? Well, if history has anything to tell us, it's that the Church doesn't respond kindly to new offshoots."

Sam wasn't interested in engaging in a political conversation and repeated, "Order your fleet to stand down. Don't make me take further action."

Lucas and Honi had been walking around the grid to attempt to identify the captain's pool. At the centre front, Lucas stoped and motioned the others over. She had found a pool with four fully-suited crewmembers floating in a milky white liquid with one person at each corner. There were faint flickers of rainbow coloured energy through the substance. One individual supported the Skyean Command signal and also that of the Golden Druid on their chest.

The admiral responded as Sam stopped, tapping a foot in front of her immersion unit, "You do realise that there's a whole unit of Royal Marines about to dock with this ship. Three against eighty of the Kingdom's finest. Not good odds for you."

"Let's not play games Admiral. Your problem is that your Marines aren't here to protect you now, and to be honest, I can't believe the arrogance that would lead to one of the Kingdom's flagships to be left completely unguarded against a boarding assault. " Sam's tone firmed as she produced a small vial from the utility pouch at her belt, "Now, I will not ask again, stand down and surrender or I'll release a drop of caesium from this vial into your pool. We both know that the shock to your neural interfaces, while not enough to kill you, will likely revoke your ability to control bowel movements from this day forward. None would want to see such an esteemed officer as you made a vegetable."

"Like I said, Churchman. You have won. On behalf of His Royal Highness, The King of Skye, I at this moment surrender the Duilleag and her fleet to the Church Reformation Movement. As per Galactic protocol, I request that you take good care of our crews."

"Thank you, Admiral."

"Harris, did you get that?" Sam asked via an already opened stream to her first officer.

"Yes Captain, crystal clear." confirmed the auger who had been listening on.

"Great, now use that brain of yours to work out how to remote this monster." Sam looked over to Lucas and ordered, "Find a way to drain the pools, we have a lot to do."