Lanced steel bolts of lightning pierced the atmosphere as the raid ships rained down an ungodly torrent of death and destruction. Haamal watched as the city she once knew was turned to rubble, distant

The latest novella in the Cryptogee Chronicles, Metal Rain is a dark exploration into the subject of von Neuman Probes. The idea for these probes were first proposed by physicist and mathematician John

Gryp-Saddah admired the young diplomat sitting opposite him, for giving him an opportunity to save face, not that he needed it of course. If Saddah so wanted he could throw this little pipsqueak out of

“You have to let us down there, you’re killing us if you don’t.” “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” “You’re afraid? No it is us who are afraid Colonel! You are condemning over seventy five thousand people to

Once every two hundred years the planet of Razziek deviates from its standard orbit around the two stars in its binary system. Instead the position of both stars in relation to the planet, means that the

Earth. Large parts of the planet were now covered by this metallic sludge, the machines had found the best way to spread themselves over the surface was to create huge replicating factories on land and

The probe had begun its deceleration burns as they crossed the heliopause of the local star, a mere 16 light hours from the centre. “So you’re going to stick around then?” “Yes, among other things I want

From the probe and its child’s positions, exactly 478.23 lightyears, anti-spinward toward the galactic centre, along the western spiral arm of the Milky Way. Two beings who would consider themselves rivals,

The probe was no longer a perfect cube, its underside at one of the front corners had been peeled back to reveal its internal structure. A thin scaffold of graphene cables and nanoplastic rods held within

Colonel William Mellor sat alone in the dark, he needed space to think and there was precious little of that on the arkship Hope. He sat in what he assumed had been used as a laundry room but seemed now

“Do you think it worked?” Jabool looked at the Minister of the Interior, his face perfectly reflected the internal pain the man was obviously going through. His breathing flaps had somehow drooped low

Distance left till contact. *0 year(s) 0 month(s) 0 week(s) 24 hour(s) 17 minute(s) 18.5942943 second(s) The probe was approaching the heliosphere for the local star, the bubble of plasma blown from its

The drone approached the small craft with some excitement and trepidation, there was exactly one light minute between them. The drone moved at a speed of 18 kilometres per second just slightly faster than

Subjective time left till contact. 3 month(s) 0 week(s) 19 day(s) 0 hour(s) 44 minute(s) 22.38256521 second(s). It took a full ten seconds trying to decide and as it launched the drone from its surface,

It had spent exactly 42 day(s) 0 hour(s) 0 minute(s) 0 second(s) of the 58 day(s) 14 hour(s) 6 minute(s) 47.642992828758 second(s) building a recon drone and bringing it to its surface. It had no idea

“Oh. What now?” It was now just a matter of light months distance from the edge of the local star’s heliosphere, 5 month(s) 0 week(s) 0 day(s) 0 hour(s) 44 minute(s) 32.38256521 second(s) to be exact.

At first the attacks were random, however within a few thousand nanoseconds they became more coordinated. The machines focused their efforts in one particular area, on the probe’s top surface around 300

“Huh? Who said that?” The probe had woken up earlier than scheduled, it had picked up a weak signal that differed from the ones that had originally caused its course change. It analysed the signal that

Streaking across the inky black expanse, a mere mote of dust against the obsidian background of interstellar space, its cubed metal surface pocked with a multitude of micro dents caused by the varying