Ragnarok: Colonization, intrigue and betrayal. (Humanity Ascendant Book 4) by Andrew Claymore & A.G. Claymore

Author:Andrew Claymore & A.G. Claymore [Claymore, Andrew & Claymore, A.G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-16T06:00:00+00:00

By the River of Babilim

Babilim Station

“I don’t think it was like this when the builders lived here.” Gabriella tossed a bundle of vines off the balcony and a machine that had been following their activity since they’d arrived let out a subtle warbling noise.

A larger collector unit appeared and the vines were gathered. “I haven’t seen any deadfall around here,” she explained to her mother. “The fields are pristine, even though most of the produce ends up composted by the collector units. The wild growth comes up to the barricade but it doesn’t set a single cell over a certain limit. I think some park areas just ran wild because there was no staff to direct the machines.”

“You rock, Jeeves!” she shouted down to the robot, which seemed to consider itself their personal assistant.

“Shut up, baby, I know it,” the small orb insisted. It floated off to inspect the rear of the house they’d moved into.

The damned thing had scared the hell out of them when they’d first met it. The house they’d chosen was in one of the millions of natural areas, this one less than three hundred kilometers from the main base. Several others were living out here in the heavy masonry houses that were spread throughout the dense jungle areas between the fields.

There was a clear boundary between inside and outside. The jungle growth encroached as far as the pavers surrounding the house and there they stopped. The path out to the main road was also perfectly maintained, waiting for the first footsteps in more than a hundred thousand years.

Inside needed work, though. Some kind of ornamental indoor plant had grown wild and then died out, probably unable to reproduce on its own. There were a lot of dead vines to pull out before the place could be put in order. A lot of work, maybe, but they both loved the place too much to settle for some other home which, let’s face it, would have its own problems after all the time it had sat idle.

Clearly, the automated army working outside was not allowed to change anything inside the house.

On their first day, Gabriella had been trying to pull down a wall of vines from the vaulted stone ceiling. She’d finally remembered how, even though her armor’s bionetic muscles could make her feel lighter, the suit was actually pretty heavy.

She’d put it on and returned to the main room, grabbing the tangle of long-dead plant material and giving it a mighty heave. The vines ripped loose so easily, they might have been a veil of facial tissue. She fell on her butt with a squawk, covered in a net of vines.

She threw them off, muttering a few curses under her breath, the sort she figured her mom could ignore if she’d overheard. She froze.

A collection of lights in the dark room she’d just made accessible flickered to life. The constellation was dominated by two large red slits that looked like eyes. They began moving, in concert, clearly all attached to the same object.

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