#the unbidden

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Unbidden - Pyramid - 1975 (cover illustration by George Ziel)

[ocherednoe-dno]

necron tomb world that enthusiastically uses a transdimensional beamer to get rid of whatever they don't need, thereby gifting all kinds of things to the Unbidden

[theironwarsmith]

"The war was going poorly for us. These alien machines; the 'Harrowing' we called them but gods know what they called themselves, were slaughtering our fleets and burning our worlds. We put up a good fight, like we did against the Qin'Xarar Consortium but the Harrowing pushed us back further and further, not even Earth was spared.

I saw those pyres, the ancient cities of my homeworld ignited by those genocidal toasters. Billions dead. They terraformed Earth into one giant machine city. No birds, trees nor, hell, even grass was built over. One giant power generator of a city. Almost airless too.

We, the survivors that is, fled into the depths of space. Some fled to the remaining colonies, others to other alien empires. Organic aliens that is, most of us survivors distrust AI nowadays.

However, it wasn't long after the Fall of Earth that the machines sent a message to whatever passed for leadership. A white peace it said, they were halting their relentless advance. No explanation, just a message. Of course, it was happily accepted and we began to peace our lives back together, the few hundred thousand that we now were.

It seemed odd that they suddenly stopped but it wasn't long until we found out why. Somewhere across the galaxy, an extradimensional rift had formed and creatures, known as the Unbidden, seemingly made of energy had begun to pour through, intent on devouring us. So we did what we always do, readied our weapons, begun building more ships and prepared to put up another good fight. Our last we thought.

It was then we hear that even the machines were suffering loses to these beings. Known fleets of theirs that had utterly destroyed our greatest fleets were being scattered, with a huge battle being fought at a wormhole exit deep in their own territory. We didn't know whether to cheer or to cry. What chance did we have if they were losing? We hoped the bots would be destroyed, or they'd destroy each other.

We, the organics remaining in the galaxy, banded together and held the hyperspace routes, wormholes and even the gateways of damned near half the galaxy against the extra dimensional threat. Held them at bay. It didn't take long for us to work out that kinetic and explosive weapons worked better against them than the energy weapons we has become used to, so we began our slow counter attack.

However, the Harrowing had worked that out long before us. Our scouts, well sentinels really, spotted colossal ships of Harrowing design firing incredibly accurate kinetic rounds in battles far behind the frontline we had established and they were carving a path towards the rift with brutal efficiency. They systemically destroyed the Anchors that these beings used to tether themselves to our plane of existence, even fighting alongside a small fleet of those Qin'Xarar.

The Battle of the Rift was started by us organics, when our fleets managed to calculate and fight a route through the Unbidden's territory to it. We began trying to destroy the creatures and the rift, it was a tremendous struggle. We were losing ships every few minutes, disintegration is a horrible sight. Just when things were at their darkest, when hope was about to fail, the Harrowing fleets arrived.

In a few short years, they had quadrupled the number of ships they had when fighting us. Their Titans were a sight to behold, glittering noticeably in the void. They open fire, a storm of kinetic slugs and missiles shredding the Unbidden and damaging the rift. It broke them. The rift was sealed that day and the Harrowing disappeared without a word.

Of course, we didn't know those robots had taken half the galaxy in the wake of the Unbidden's demise."

Excerpt of interrogation of Terran survivor 1056837. Subject exterminated.

So I've been playing Stellaris, as a genocidal machine race. It is pretty fun.

[booklung]

[ocherednoe-dno]

necron have a concerning amount of dimentional weaponry, including technology that banishes things to other dimensions. the Unbidden must have a complicated relationship with them

[ocherednoe-dno]

unbidden, unwanted, unrestrained

[ocherednoe-dno]

dimensional portal

[argocitycosplay]

The Unbidden

The unbidden starts with a long walk by the camera down a dark suburban Street. It finally rests in old historical looking house that’s been decked out for Halloween. Inside a woman sleeps, her covers are pulled back, and a hand reaches out… Is it a dream? It’s disturbing enough that she’s getting pills and mimosas for breakfast. She sits down to work, and suddenly loses track of time… It’s night…

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