Semper Human

Semper Human
Ian Douglas

The final conflict has arrived…Chaos has erupted throughout the known galaxy, threatening countless colonies and orbital habitats—as the Associative struggles vainly to keep the peace. Extreme measures are called for in these times of dire crisis, and the Star Marines are awakened from their voluntary 850-year cybe-hibe sleep. But General Trevor Garroway and his warriors are about to discover that the old rules of engagement have drastically changed . . .The end begins with an old-style assault on rebels at the Tarantula Stargate. But true terror looms at the edges of known reality. Humankind's eternal enemy—the brutal, unstoppable Xul—approaches, wielding a weapon monstrous beyond imagining. Suddenly not only is the future in jeopardy, but the past is as well—and if the Marines fail to eliminate their relentless xenophobic foe once and for all, the Great Annihilator will obliterate every last trace of human existence.

For Brea, as always, my patient and loving muse

Table of Contents

Title Page (#u4cf0ebcc-c730-5f44-876f-381e0c4df03b)

Dedication (#u4db3ad54-3a68-54da-8e0f-8bfa2fa0a302)

Timeline of the Inheritance Universe (#ud10dd4bb-f068-5fdc-9c19-63aec550726b)

Stranded … (#u38405f66-055d-52d6-89b8-9fb2b1cadd25)

Prologue (#u97c2a099-732c-5d0b-a91a-d7ce299c1fc8)

Chapter 1 (#u58c4f933-c1af-54e8-814a-b779508d8924)

Chapter 2 (#uff5a5cd4-9cdb-5357-b1e6-4877e4c46a5a)

Chapter 3 (#udd2f5420-8704-5e69-8c1a-daeeee748824)

Chapter 4 (#ue0b56790-d079-5e78-b2b5-3fcc9e78ef6c)

Chapter 5 (#u969346a3-31c9-5a4d-a8c9-f13a2623e944)

Chapter 6 (#u4c6e3dfa-2e7a-5142-8f1d-033e9b900d1c)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

By Ian Douglas (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Timeline of the Inheritance Universe

Years before present

50,000,000–30,000,000: Galaxy dominated by the One Mind, sentient organic superconductors with hive mentality. They create the network of stargates across the Galaxy, and build the Encyclopedia Galactica Node at the Galactic Core.

30,000,000–10,000,000: Dominance of Children of the Night, nocturnal psychovores. They replace the One Mind, which may have transcended material instrumentality.

10,000,000 TO PRESENT: Dominance of the Xul, also known as the Hunters of the Dawn. Originally polyspecific pantovores, they eventually exist solely as downloaded mentalities within artificial cybernetic complexes.

Circa 500,000 B.C.E.: Advanced polyspecific machine intelligence later called variously the Ancients or the Builders extends a high-technology empire across a volume of space several thousand light years in extent. Extensive planoforming of Chiron, at Alpha Centauri A, of Mars in the nearby Sol System, and of numerous other worlds. QCC networks provide instantaneous communications across the entire empire. Ultimately, the Builder civilization is destroyed by the Xul. Asteroid impacts strip away the newly generated Martian atmosphere and seas, but Earth, with no technological presence, is ignored. A Xul huntership is badly damaged in the battle over Mars; it later crashes into the Europan world-sea and is frozen beneath the ice. Survivors of the Martian holocaust migrate to Earth and upload themselves into gene-tailored primates that later will be known as Homo sapiens.

10,000 B.C.E.–7500 B.C.E.: Earth and Earth’s Moon colonized by the Ahannu, or An, who are later remembered as the gods of ancient Sumeria. Around 7500 B.C.E., asteroid strikes by the Xul destroy An colonies across their empire. Earth is devastated by asteroid strikes. One colony, at Lalande 21185, survives.

Circa 6000 B.C.E.: Amphibious N’mah visit Earth and help human survivors of Xul attack develop civilization. They are later remembered as the Nommo of the Dogon tribe of Africa, and as civilizing/agricultural gods by other cultures in the Mideast and the Americas.

Circa 6000–5000 B.C.E.: N’mah starfaring culture destroyed by the Xul. Survivors exist in low-technology communities within the Sirius Stargate and, possibly, elsewhere.

1200 B.C.E. [SPECULATIVE]: The Xul revisit Earth and discover an advanced Bronze Age culture. Asteroid impacts cause devastating floods worldwide, and may be the root of the Atlantis myth.

700 C.E.: The deep abyssal intelligence later named the Eulers fight the Xul to a standstill by detonating their own stars. This astronomical conflagration of artificial novae is seen in the skies of Earth, in the constellation Aquila, some one thousand two hundred years later.

The Heritage Trilogy

2039–2042: Semper Mars