"Ancient:
The Hour of Retribution" by Sergei Tarmashev, summary

This book is a 2012 science fiction novel. The novel’s central theme is the inevitable collapse of any parasitic system that consumes resources without creating anything. It is part of the "Ancient" literary cycle, number 7. This series consists of the preceding novels: "Catastrophe," "Corporation," "War," "Invasion," "Payback," and "Rebirth." The text explores large-scale space battles and subtle political intrigues, uniting numerous civilizations in a deadly battle for the galaxy.

Intelligence and preparation for war

The Commonwealth of Man, the Delphi Empire, and the Rhyul Synod are conducting a massive reconnaissance operation. Numerous squadrons of spy ships are stealthily penetrating deep into the hostile Alliance’s living space. Rhyul pilot Ioacaris, in a tiny vessel, collects data in the Sh’Urosank system on the border of the T’Hassmoa civilization. He records the wholesale militarization of society and the recruitment of underdeveloped amphibians of the Krazizu race. An Imperial officer observes a similar picture in the devastated Yile Eea system. The populations of enemy planets demonstrate a fanatical thirst for war without apparent coercion.

Union Command convenes a War Council aboard the cruiser Russkiy in the Death Nebula’s safe zone. Commander Thirteen and the virtual scientist Andrei Serebryakov meticulously analyze the reports. They make an extremely harsh prediction: the Perfect Parasite is enslaving sentient beings en masse. It plans to assemble a trillion-strong army to completely destroy the Milky Way.

Serebryakov discovers a reliable way to combat the Enemy’s energy essence. The multidimensional radiation of symbiotic lem bats sends the Parasite’s indivisible particles into a lethargic coma. The dormant clots immediately destroy the giant mechanical crystals of the Merhn civilization. These machines continuously monitor the cosmic balance. The scientist proposes building enormous radiation generators from simple stone. They will be able to project protective fields across entire solar systems.

The Human Battlefleet begins the sudden liberation of captured planets. The Thirteenth applies massive psychological pressure on small enemy garrisons through information channels. Alliance soldiers are terrified of the myths of the extreme cruelty of humans. The enemy, terrified, abandons their fortified defenses. Liberated allied worlds are cleared of the remnants of the occupiers. Commonwealth engineering brigades erect fortification networks of heavy orbital fortresses. The forces continuously train millions of recruits in numerous flight schools.

Growing threat

The situation behind Alliance lines is heating up. Former biologist Hass’Tonar is serving in the remote JSH-9 system. He notices alarming changes in the behavior of his wealthy comrades. Cowardly rearguards suddenly become obsessed with warmongering. They collapse and convulse, then demand the immediate death of all dissenters. The pilot secretly collects human consciousness-preserving capsules from the sites of old orbital battles.

Hass’Tonar realizes the scale of the impending global disaster. He cunningly sabotages his partner’s navigation and steals his fighter from his garrison. In orbit of a dead star, the fugitive is ambushed by his own counterintelligence agency. Thirteen, on the gigantic battleship Obereg, saves the pilot from certain death. At the exchange base, Hass’Tonar begs for shelter. His life is spared and he is sent to a safe rear sector under the supervision of civilian specialists.

Gredrinian Raftulah tests a stone prototype generator on the planet Uumiitu. It was once home to a large Imperial prisoner-of-war camp. The Perfect Parasite has long enslaved all the inhabitants of the gloomy ruins. Puppets are attempting to hijack Raftulah’s heavy assault ship. The enemy is simulating radio calls for help in the voices of choking women. The stone’s radiation onboard the vessel reliably protects the young pilot from a hidden mental attack.

A crowd of enemies falls unconscious at the very edge of the boarding ramp. The experiment proves the increased speed of enslavement. The enemy changes its combat tactics and accelerates the capture of new victims by entire legions. Meanwhile, Keeper Eauuris utilizes Serebryakov’s precise navigational clues. The horned giant finds the First Sacred Tablet of the Riuls in an escape pod abandoned millennia ago. The ancient artifact restores the priests’ forgotten intergalactic communication technologies.

The Rhyul Synod intercepts an endless distress signal from the lost galaxy of Vuzei. The peaceful Illiua race begs its descendants to save their gas giant from destruction in the Parasite’s stomach. The Commander’s wife, Alisa, holds a press conference. She attributes the loss of unique abilities among female pilots to a simple fear of being beautiful.

General battle

The Ideal Parasite is enraged by the collective audacity of the rebellious food. It assembles a massive fleet and sends it on an all-out offensive. The Alliance armada numbers billions of armed pennants. Part of its forces attack worlds of the Commonwealth and the Empire simultaneously. The remaining maneuverable squadrons head for the artificial planet "Freedom-1." A powerful planetary generator of life-saving radiation has been installed there. Hundreds of millions of Alliance deserters are gathering around the lifeless star. The Thirteenth converges all combined allied forces on the planet. A brutal pitched space battle begins.

Experimental Delphic fortresses are crumbling under the focused fire of heavy battleships. The Sol, Sirius, and Alpha Centauri systems are desperately defending themselves with their last remaining strength. Human special forces suffer colossal losses in bloody positional skirmishes. Engineer Miill rescues workers in the Sirius system during a spider raid. Chief Fatno leads exhausted fire brigades on the blazing Mars Orbital Ring. Emperor Oeaoo commands the defense, surrounded by a retinue of curious Lems on his flagship. Delphic missile stations continuously spew out millions of homing charges.

The Thirteenth personally leads a covert boarding operation of unprecedented scale. Human landing craft, under powerful camouflage fields, make their way toward the Insectorate flagships. Special forces, in fierce battles, fight their way through dense crowds of enemy warriors to the command compartments. The commander loses contact and is seriously wounded in hand-to-hand combat with the spiders. Human officers successfully hack the closed self-destruct systems of the red-colored heavy battleships. Hundreds of super-powerful quark charges detonate simultaneously in the very depths of the enemy formation.

A vast expanse of space collapses in a poisonous pink haze of localized catastrophes. The Parasite’s vanguard loses fire support and chaotically disintegrates. Delphi Empire missile cruisers strike into the resulting wide breach. The Battle Fleet retreats in an orderly fashion under the reliable protection of the planetary emitter. The enemy armada prepares to launch a final, massive strike against the rebellious worlds. At this moment, the Thirteenth removes the cloaking fields from the gigantic, sealed facility. It is hidden behind the fleet’s positions.

The Queen’s Return and Triumph

A colossal ship, 48 kilometers in diameter, appears in the battlefield. On board is the true Queen Mother of the Insectorate. Thirteen and Serebryakov secretly rescued her from the parasitic entity’s mental control. The Queen emits a piercing, inviting chirp across all available communication channels. Billions of Ins instantly emerge from the Parasite’s influence thanks to the awakening of a powerful ancestral instinct.

The Spiders gain the long-awaited mental connection with their race and attack their former allies. Insectorate ships tear apart the scattered squadrons of enslaved puppets. The remnants of the Alliance fleet capitulate and surrender. The remaining fugitives hide under the radiation of the planetary generator. Merkhn’s battle crystals methodically fire at the exposed Parasite particles in outer space. The Union forces celebrate a great military victory.

Eight long years pass. The allied forces are systematically clearing the galaxy of the remnants of fleets destroyed by the enemy. Peaceful worlds are rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure of orbital rings and hydropolises. The Council of Leaders debates the new political threat posed by the strengthened spiders. The Thirteenth artificially incites a local military conflict over the neutral nebula of Sheskha-Ignatiev. He does this deliberately. This will force future generations of Humans to undergo military service and not degenerate in comfort. Soon, the Thirteenth saves the original race of Illiua. The Commander teleports their gas giant from the dead zone to the safety of a red dwarf star.

The Perfect Parasite remains trapped in empty space within the decayed Vuzei Galaxy. The Thirteenth deceives the putrefied energy entity. He contacts the Enemy and threatens instant destruction by Merkhn patrol vehicles. The terrified Parasite burns away the lion’s share of himself to achieve hyperspeed escape. He is carried into the endless black void on a single photon. His final death from inevitable energy exhaustion becomes a matter of time. The brilliant scientist Serebryakov receives a young biological body. Saved Humanity prepares to ignite new stars and build a thriving galaxy.