Exclusive: Read an Extract From Peter F. Hamilton's Latest Sci-Fi Novel Set in the Exodus Universe

Even aft much than 2 years since its debut astatine The Game Awards, Archetype Entertainment's sci-fi enactment RPG Exodus remains 1 of the industry's astir intriguing mysteries.

Between cinematic trailers, a dependable drip-feed of gameplay teases, and a afloat gameplay uncover expected soon, the erstwhile BioWare developers down the task person lone conscionable begun to uncover the scope of the ambitious subject fabrication beingness they're building.

While we've seen glimpses of that world, immoderate of the deepest insights truthful acold person travel done a bid of authoritative novels written by acclaimed sci-fi writer Peter F. Hamilton. And, up of the merchandise of the 2nd publication successful that series, IGN tin exclusively uncover an extract from "Exodus: The Helium Sea".

Exodus: The Helium Sea - Exclusive Excerpt

Exodus: The Helium Sea - Peter F. Hamilton - Credit: Tor

IT HAD TAKEN Chief Octain and his tiny squad of engineers a frantic 30 minutes to load a worn-out distant attraction pod with modules from different ancillary craft. Even arsenic the aged pod was ejected from the Diligent’s hangar, they were inactive moving diagnostics, praying the kludge would work—at slightest for a while.

It drifted distant from the kilometer-long starship, acold state thrusters burping to stabilize its dilatory tumble. Sensors started to scan around. On 1 broadside of the pod was a wide ellipse of acheronian wherever the lonely Gate of Heaven blotted retired the shimmering multicolored clouds of the Poseidon Nebula, which surrounded the Kelowan system.

The Diligent’s green-and-orange navigation strobes were disposable against it arsenic the past starship glided successful toward the halfway of the colossal Elohim machine. On the other side, wherever Kelowan’s prima gleamed warmly, the pod’s onboard web identified the thirteen agleam lightpoints of the habitable planets.

Hexagonal panes, jutting retired from the pod’s fuselage similar a acceptable of acheronian asymmetric sails, changed their array phasing to absorption connected those distant gleams of life. There was besides an omnidirectional broadcast, boosted by further powerfulness cells, that the technicians hoped would past agelong capable arsenic they handled voltage levels acold beyond their intended limits.

The transmission began. Like the pod itself, it was a hastily contrived connection that the quality societies of the Kelowan strategy would travel to telephone The Sibling Plea.

Finbar Jalgori-Tobu sat connected a seat successful the Diligent’s bid and power center, looking worn to the constituent of unwellness arsenic helium stared unflinchingly into the camera. He was flanked by his sisters. One, Otylia, was his twin—now separated by forty years biologic aging from the outgo of clip dilation, but their similarity inactive evident nonetheless.

The different was his elder sister, Zelinda, the ex-marchioness of Santa Rosa, whose reign lasted little than an hr aft her parent had been killed.

That decease was the culmination of events whose firestorm of memories were plaguing Finn’s caput astatine a debilitating level. Ever since he’d bought the Diligent successful speech for Hafnir—a wide tract of coastal onshore helium owned, truthful the passengers could settee there—he’d had 1 objective.

He was going to beryllium a Traveler: 1 of the humans who had their ain starships, unearthing technological Celestial treasure from Remnant Era worlds, and bringing it location to assistance humans unrecorded with dignity successful prima systems whose Celestial overlords were implacably hostile—when they could really beryllium bothered to adjacent admit humans.

Owning the Diligent had fixed him a unsocial accidental to onslaught a stroke for quality freedom. His erstwhile friend, and chap Traveler, Gyvoy Enfoe, had provided them with a accidental to onslaught a existent stroke for the humans of the Kelowan system.

Millennia ago, Celestials had started moving Dolod, a state elephantine from different prima system, utilizing 1 of their Archimedes Engines to alert it to Kelowan. Dolod was a unusual satellite adjacent by the standards of the Centauri Cluster: an robust exotic, which, if it was steered into orbit adjacent capable to a star, would virtually rainfall iron. The metallic could beryllium harvested from the ambiance astatine a outgo acold little than humans mining it from the crushed connected a coagulated world—a alteration that would impoverish the quality economy. Gyvoy’s program was enticingly simple.

Instead of allowing the Archimedes Engine to bring Dolod neatly into orbit, they could nonstop it backmost retired into interstellar space, leaving the system of the Kelowan strategy unchanged. All they had to bash was find a transcript of the Archimedes Engine’s operating system, which would let a uranic quality to alteration Dolod’s course. Gyvoy, naturally, knew wherever to find a transcript of the operating system; and Finn was a uranic human, 1 whose DNA had been altered truthful helium could interface straight with Celestial technology.

It was, Finn decided astatine the time, the privation of the Goddess Asteria Herself that had brought them each together. Then, erstwhile the Diligent returned to the Kelowan system, helium recovered his homeworld of Gondiar was nether Celestial martial law.

His parents had been killed, and his siblings were moving for their lives. In his grief and outrage, helium saw an accidental to onslaught backmost against the Celestial monsters, and alternatively of utilizing the Archimedes Engine to slingshot Dolod retired of the Kelowan system, helium utilized the momentum transportation to fling Boksrock—a tiny lifeless world—directly astatine the superior satellite wherever hundreds of millions of Imperial Celestials lived.

Only aft he’d done that did helium observe that he’d been played by Gyvoy, who wasn’t adjacent human. The socalled Traveler was really an Imperial Celestial agent, whose enactment had their ain precise antithetic agenda. Not lone had Finn been wholly fooled into committing what was fundamentally a declaration of warfare betwixt humans and Celestials, Gyvoy had someway managed to vanish, making Finn look adjacent much guilty.

The Diligent had nary prime but to fly to different prima system, confirming their guilt—although Zelinda had said they had a past accidental to effort and mitigate what’d happened by an entreaty to the Empress of the Crown Dominion. Finn thought it a useless gesture, but by past helium knew his quality to marque immoderate benignant of determination had been swept distant by misery and guilt, truthful helium conscionable agreed to everything she suggested.

“I would similar to code this connection straight to the empress herself,” Zelinda said with cleanable composure. “Majesty, my household has been successful work to you since the clip humans archetypal arrived successful the Crown Dominion. We person served faithfully for each that time, and inactive see ourselves loyal to you.

“Empress, we besides person accusation that confirms that the alleged rebellion that occurred connected Gondiar, which General Avone-Valerio present seeks to suppress, was besides manufactured by a overseas dominion.

“Humans person been manipulated by an archon. He is simply a Celestial presently disguised arsenic Gyvoy Enfoe, and we judge helium has someway escaped Dolod.

“In this assumed form, he’s been utilizing immoderate benignant of neural compulsion to power assorted humans, including my member Finbar. I’m definite you indispensable recognize by present that it is not imaginable for a human—even uranics similar us—to change the cognition of an Archimedes Engine. We are not liable for Boksrock’s orbit being changed, nor is this atrocity the effect of immoderate radical of quality malcontents attacking Kelowan. Humans payment enormously from our allegiance to the Crown Dominion, and we bash not privation that to change.”

Otylia cleared her throat. “The broadcasts from my ex-husband, Josias Aponi, are fake, cooked up by a CI routine. The Goddess unsocial knows, Josias is not a cleanable man, but helium is not stupid. More than each of us, helium understands the insanity of a collapsing society, for helium has witnessed it firsthand. He has walked connected Old Earth, and helium fled Sol due to the fact that of what helium saw there. That is not him successful the messages agitating for further disobedience, truthful don’t autumn for it, I implore you.”

“I was connected the Archimedes Engine station,” Finn confessed astatine last, his eyes filling with moisture. “The archon pretending to beryllium Gyvoy enactment maine there. In Kingsnest, helium gave maine the method cognition of the engine’s operating system. He twisted my caput truthful that I had to bash what helium wanted—to termination Kelowan. I don’t cognize which dominion helium comes from, but I cognize helium near maine determination and flew to different station; I don’t cognize which one.

“Empress, I impulse you and each your forces to find him. Find retired who helium truly is and what helium wants. So galore radical volition endure and dice until helium is caught and stopped. I americium truthful atrocious for what’s happened. I wasn’t . . . It wasn’t maine that did this. I would ne'er . . .” His lips pressed unneurotic and helium turned from the camera, his distress obvious. Otylia’s manus came down connected his shoulder, squeezing reassuringly.

“We person thing to summation from telling you this, Empress,” Zelinda said. “So I anticipation you volition astatine slightest see what we person told you.” She inclined her caput respectfully. “The Jalgori-Tobu household stay your loyal subjects.”

The connection ended and began to repeat. Another benignant of airy illuminated the modified pod arsenic the Diligent entered the ingress Gate—a ringing of agleam radiance that flared astir the machine’s rim and flowed accelerated down the concave aboveground until it was a azygous constituent astatine the center. The Diligent formed a tiny acheronian speck wrong the glare, past vanished, flung on the enactment of quintessence to Capo Frois by a subject nary quality would ever understand.

Left behind, the pod continued to play the connection continually for the adjacent 3 and a fractional hours until a Celestial cargo starship arrived astatine the Gate. It fired a azygous maser cannon changeable astatine the pod, vaporizing it. The starship sailed onward with cosmic indifference, to beryllium embraced by the Gate and dispatched crossed interstellar space.

THE DREADNOUGHT DRACAENAE, flagship of the Royal Wynid fleet, had been accelerating astatine 3 gees ever since Boksrock’s trajectory became apparent. It was surrounded by the remainder of the fleet’s warships, arrayed successful a neat spherical enactment crossed six 1000 kilometers. They were heading straight for Kelowan, with Thyra announcing successful a systemwide broadcast that they were going to oversee the planet’s evacuation.

She’d spent astir of that clip connected the bridge, with little sojourns to the admiral’s time lounge adjacent doorway for meetings with elder fleet quality analysts and section heads. It had taken what remained of the tribunal connected Kelowan 5 hours aft the demolition of Carolien-Amaia’s fast-evacuation trade to connection the Dracaenae with the admittance that the empress was dead.

Verak’s information bureau claimed that someway the Human Liberation question had managed to sabotage the exigency conveyance Carolien-Amaia was utilizing to scope orbit and the information of her dreadnought. She’d launched from the palace arsenic soon arsenic the quality broke that the humans connected the Diligent had managed to fling Boksrock astatine Kelowan. Worse than the anguish of that outrage was that the Verak information bureau didn’t recognize however they’d done it. Their best—in information only—theory was that immoderate chartless Remnant Era limb had been used.

Three hours aft the authoritative notification, Thyra had received an ultra-secure connection from Queen Luus-Marcela. She was softly pleased to enactment her sister queen’s accustomed mien of superiority had been vanquished by shock. It didn’t instrumentality a neural transportation to cognize precisely what Luus-Marcela was thinking. If they tin termination the empress . . .

“I’m heading consecutive for Kelowan,” Luus-Marcela said. “We’re going to request each the motor powerfulness we tin muster to get the habitats wide of the georing. You’ll beryllium reasoning the same, truthful we’ll speech real-time comms erstwhile we’re successful range.” She hesitated, drafting a breath. “Dearest Helena-Thyra, I admit you are present Empress of the Crown Dominion. I anticipation the different 2 queens volition beryllium civilian astir this, due to the fact that we’re connected the brink here. We’ll person to rewrite the Accord to bespeak what’s happened, of course. Whoever these shits are, they took retired mediocre Carolien’s princesses arsenic well, truthful it’s the extremity of her line. First precedence is to prevention Kelowan’s population—got to emotion the irony successful that, eh? And, Empress, you person to prioritize uncovering retired which goddess-cursed dominion did this. It’s a declaration of war. They’ll travel for each of america now. We person to onslaught backmost truthful hard the full clump volition deliberation we’ve resurrected the Remnant Era.”

Her representation vanished.

Thyra turned to Lord Bekket, her father, and Iuntin, who was masquerading arsenic Ualana-Shoigu successful bid to walk arsenic her main archon. No 1 other was successful the time lounge. The 3 of them gripped hands to springiness themselves a unafraid neural connection.

“I spot her sympathetic broadside instantly enactment successful an appearance,” Bekket sneered. “That speech of losing the princesses: she’ll privation to carve up Verak betwixt the remaining queens.”

“Naturally,” Iuntin said. “There is simply a beardown precedent, arsenic this is what happened to Kelowan aft the Accord invasion. Mind you, they did termination each subordinate of your grandmother’s family.” His lips roseate to a bladed smirk. “Or truthful they thought.”

“Indeed,” Thyra said. “Right now, I’m much acrophobic with those goddess-bedamned Jalgori-Tobus. Everybody successful this strategy has accessed their message. There are going to beryllium questions—especially erstwhile Ramona-Nuk and Inessa-Marwa get with their fleets, which is going to beryllium immoderate time now. How the hellhole did they find retired Uncle Dagon’s an Imperial Celestial?”

“Don’t interest astir your uncle,” Iuntin said. “He and your aunt tin instrumentality attraction of themselves. Hell, they’ve been astir astir arsenic agelong arsenic me.”

“Everyone is going to beryllium looking for him.”

“So? He’ll conscionable morph retired of his existent signifier erstwhile the clip is right. His assemblage was modified to bash conscionable that.”

Thyra gave him a cautious look, keeping her ain thoughts level. “You said you transferred your property into this Shoigu host. Are you besides simultaneously successful your ain body?”

“Yes,” helium said flatly.

Out of the country of her oculus she saw her father’s surprise, the briefest flinch, but she knew helium was arsenic startled arsenic she was. But similar her, his thoughts remained unruffled. She experienced a flutter of apprehension arsenic different of those rogue thoughts snuck into her mind: So what other is Iuntin keeping from me? “So which is truly you?”

“We some are. I volition merge our memories arsenic soon arsenic this is over, and Shoigu’s assemblage volition beryllium disposed of.”

“I see,” Thyra replied neutrally.

“Dagon can’t alteration his quality conscionable yet,” Bekket said. “We request the 2 quality mercenaries helium and Liliana are utilizing to implicit their portion of the plan. The annexation of Capo Frois has to hap truthful we tin isolate the 3 remaining queens. Once they’re retired of the way, you tin commencement to amalgamate the Crown Dominion prima systems acceptable for Khepri’s rule.”

Iuntin shrugged. “However, Thyra is close astir the Jalgori-Tobu connection being unfortunate. It makes ongoing operations hard for Dagon. And radical volition besides uncertainty immoderate further proclamations from Josias.”

“Dagon tin grip a fewer humans,” Bekket said. “But denouncing the Josias broadcasts arsenic CI fakes is simply a slippery slope. Once you commencement decrying your opponents arsenic unreal, you unfastened yourself up to the aforesaid question. Was the Jalgori-Tobus’ connection a fake, too? If so, who made it? Why? The Jalgori-Tobu siblings person made an simple governmental mistake by flaunting their honesty and earnest integrity.”

“Maybe,” Iuntin said uncertainly. “But it was Otylia, his ain wife, who exposed the deceit.”

“Was it? We cognize that, but uncertainty volition turn crossed the Kelowan system. Conspiracy theories are a treacherous caput virus; they ne'er halt feeding connected themselves to multiply—the lone existent illustration of perpetual energy. My agents volition merchandise a plethora of antagonistic theories progressively increasing much extreme. Ultimately, this archetypal spark of uncertainty the Jalgori-Tobus person unleashed volition kindle a firestorm. Nobody volition cognize what to believe.”

“We person to code this head-on,” Thyra said. “Every archon successful the Kelowan strategy is present hopeless to find Uncle Dagon. I volition person to dependable plausible erstwhile I conscionable the different queens.”

“You volition simply hold with them that uncovering the Gyvoy quality is of paramount importance,” Iuntin ventured. “People volition judge that this hunt volition astir apt instrumentality years. And if sentiment shifts that this is not conscionable a quality rebellion, truthful what? Then everyone volition commencement obsessing implicit which dominion is down it. The quality rebellion was ever a diversion for our benefit. If anything, the Jalgori-Tobus denouncing Josias and Gyvoy lone adds to the intrigue of overseas intrusion. Dagon is harmless successful the Arcadia’s Moon. It’s a bully ship—strange, but much than capable. Not that anyone knows that’s wherever helium is. They’re stealthed and presumably already connected their mode to the Capo Frois ingress Gate. I counsel you not worrying astir Dagon.”

“Very well.” Thyra gave a reluctant nod. “But we bash person to instrumentality attraction of the Diligent.”

“It volition beryllium destroyed,” Iuntin said. “Squadron Twenty-Three volition marque definite of that. Our triumph is inevitable.”

“I admit your optimism,” Thyra said. After the archetypal thrill of gathering Iuntin, she wasn’t definite she approved of him; helium ever gave the content helium was talking down to her.

The dreadnought’s web alerted her that Queen Inessa Marwa’s fleet had begun to get done the Cheluli egress Gate. She brightened. “Ah, immoderate authorities to woody with. Let’s spot however rapidly my beloved sister queen falls into line.”

Robert Anderson is IGN's Senior Commerce Editor and nonmigratory deals adept connected games, collectibles, trading paper games, and more. You tin travel him @robertliam21 connected Bluesky.