Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

might have said to that was lost in the sudden blaring of alarm sirens. Everyone stared about them, thrown off balance. The general alarm was never sounded for anything less than imminent planet-wide peril. Or worse. A
    loud computer-generated voice said, Attention! Attention! Urgent information arriving! The great viewscreen lit up again, and a grim face stared out at the House.
    "This is Captain Xhang, of the Dreadstar, on patrol on the Rim, observing the Darkvoid. The Recreated are there. They're breaking out. We can't stop them; hell, they're smashing through us like we're not even here! I'm switching to exterior sensors, so you can see what we're seeing!"
    The Captain's desperate face vanished, replaced by Humanity's first view of the Recreated. Their ships were huge and awful, given a sense of scale by the tiny specks that were the patrolling Imperial ships. The Recreated's vessels made no sense, and it hurt to look at them, as though the ships existed in more than three dimensions at once. The ships were bigger than mountains, and there seemed no end to their numbers as they streamed implacably out of the Darkvoid, across the Rim and into Human space. The handful of Imperial ships were firing every gun they had, to no avail. The Empire ships were just ignored, like ants at the feet of conquering giants.
    Random suddenly became aware of energies spitting and crackling beside him, and a strong smell of ionized air, and a quiet voice said, "It's them. They're back." Random looked around, and there was Half A Man, staring with his one horrified eye at the ships on the viewscreen. The aliens who had abducted him, tortured him, and finally returned only half his body, bound eternally to a living energy construct for his other half; the aliens whose coming the Empire had feared for centuries; the aliens who would treat Humanity the way Humanity had always treated aliens; the great nightmare of all Humanity had finally come out of the endless night to destroy them all.
    A sound came out of the viewscreen, though they shouldn't have been able to hear
    anything. It was like a never-ending scream, an endless howl of agony and joy and horror, at a volume no human throat could produce, going on and on and on, long after human lungs would have collapsed. It was vile and horrible, a jagged, abrasive sound, almost too much to bear. People in the House put their hands over their ears, but couldn't shut it out. The few espers present were crying tears of blood. Diana Vertue was baring her teeth in a snarl that was pure Jenny Psycho. Jack Random clutched at his head as a fierce pain beat in his temples, as though his brain were trying to force its way out of his skull. Ruby Journey had her eyes squeezed shut, her mouth stretched in a cry of hate or pain or fear no one could hear. The sound from the screen grew louder, intolerably loud, the distilled essence of horror.
    On the viewscreen, the Imperial ships were exploding, one by one. The scene cut back to the Dreadstar's bridge, and Captain Xhang. Blood was coursing down his face, from where he'd torn out his own eyes. Behind him, his maddened crew were killing one another. Xhang was trying to say something, but he couldn't be heard over the endless, maddening howl. And then the viewscreen suddenly went blank, and the awful sound was shut off. People in the packed House began to cautiously lower their hands from their ears. Many were panting heavily, fighting for breath, as though they'd been fighting some physical enemy. Some had passed out.
    Some of the espers were dead. The computer voice said, Communication from the Rim has ceased. Contact cannot be established with any of the ships. Awaiting further instructions.
    "They're back," said Half A Man. "The Recreated have finally come out of the dark, to destroy us all."
    The House was quiet. No one knew what to say. Half A Man's alien abductors had
    been the nightmare boogeyman of all Humanity for centuries, only really half believed in, but still passed down from generation to generation as an awful warning. And now here they were, at last. As though the monsters from under a child's bed had waited till the child had grown up, and then come hammering on his front door. Even Jack Random and Ruby Journey were silent, their courage and confidence stripped away by long forgotten childhood fears. And then Elias Gutman stood up, and everyone turned to look at him.
    "General Beckett will undoubtedly be gathering together every ship he