Styx

To UFS Phoenix, or machine-race, or Table of Contents or Spiral history

Concept Art

Big Red Eye

generated with AI imaging software via text inputs

Styx in battle armor, concept art

Styx first appeared briefly in Renegade. She is a major character in Drysine Legacy, Kantovan Vault, Defiance, Croma Venture, Rando Splicer, Qalea Drop, Ceephay Queen, Homecoming…

Descriptions

Styx described in Defiance

Styx is an ancient Machine-race synthetic being, a drysine command unit, often discussed as a drysine queen by humans, Parren, Tavalai and other species

on Phoenix

• In book 1, Renegade, the outlawed UFS Phoenix sought refuge behind an asteroid in Argitori system, in human space (R-11)
• They realized the asteroid had been excavated and suspected krim might be nesting inside
• Obeying Fleet’s "Order Four" —- supposedly to kill any surviving krim — Phoenix Company found a hacksaw nest in the asteroid, and killed the drones
• Major Thakur killed the queen

— but she wasn’t quite dead

• Phoenix took all the metallic corpses aboard, to deliver to Fleet and/or utilize the parts

• The queen’s head self-repaired on Phoenix, with help from nanos and Professor Stan Romki, in order to lead battle at TK55, in Drysine Legacy. She freed reprogrammed drysine drones from deepynine control at Tartarus. She helped Phoenix infiltrate the Vault of Secrets in Kantovan Vault. Phoenix engineers helped her build a new body from drone parts and fabrication machines, in Defiance.
• Her goal has been to rebuild her vanishing race with help from a data-core
• Styx knew Drakhil of parren House Harmony, Tahrae Denomination, 23,000 years ago
• She displays some anger /contempt for the tavalai, including the Drobuta
• The machine-race of deepynines hunt Styx and UFS Phoenix relentlessly, to kill her and steal the data core
• Aboard UFS Phoenix she first called herself a slave, then a servant, then a member of the crew
  • Finally, she named herself the leader of an allied race, the drysines (CV)

Styx, Peanut, Marines

• spherical head with one large offset red eye
• flared carapace around head
• reticulated neck
• rotary canon mounted on shoulder
• vibroblades on shins
• weapons mount on thorax (when standing upright, more like belt area)
• towering above the marines

Data Core

see Data Core

Who /What is she??

• a member of the machine-race
• a drysine, one of the last of her kind
• variously dubbed Styx, Halgolam, Delvak Nine
• Romki named her Styx, her human designation, from Greek mythology
• The parren call her Halgolam, a god:

“What kind of god was this Halgolam?” “The literal translation in the old tongue was ‘the wings of the night’,” said Romki. “Halgolam was the goddess of violent retribution, sent by the creator to wreak terrible justice upon the wicked.” He took a deep breath. “We might call her the Angel of Death.” (DL-39)

• Deepynines call her Delvak Nine:

“This is Delvak Nine. She is the culmination of technologies spanning the Spiral. All the synthetic races, the hundreds and thousands of civilisations within the great civilisation. Thriving, creating, destroying and rebuilding. These glories produced technologies beyond imagination, and the drysines stole them all . “Delvak Nine is the culmination of these. There were twelve. Only she, and two others, survived the process of creation. She is older than she claims. She defeated synthetic fleets single-handed. She slaughtered organic worlds without remorse. She is the worst of your fears. (D-17)

• Styx tells Hannachium the truth:

“These humans call me Styx,” said Styx. “The parren called me Halgolam Karesan. For two hundred parren years I was a primary strategic advisor to the Empire in the Great War. For three hundred more years, I rose, with sentient modification, to effective command of the Empire’s First Fleet, making me first among all drysine active commanders. At my command, billions died. I failed in my duties, and died at these humans’ hands, yet to be reborn, like the mythical Phoenix for which they name their ship. And I am here before you so that my people, our people, can do the same .” (D-29)

Her drysines

Styx Drysine Commander

drones cannot speak unless noted below

• Kid -- drone; see Kantovan Vault
• Liala -- young queen, loyal to Gesul (Parren) and ultimately to Styx
• Liala’s drones — Dse-Pa (can speak) and Dse-Ran (see Croma Venture)
• Bucket -- drone built from a bucket of bolts, responds well to Rolande
• Peanut -- drone, sociable, named for his relatively small brain, but he grows smarter (see Qalea Drop)
• Wowser -- drone, manifests xenophobia against organics
• A-1 — drone division leader, can speak, coordinated with Major Thakur at Tartarus (Drysine Legacy)
• tens of thousands more drysine units, either freed from reprogramming, awoken from sleep, or rebuilt.

“I predict a squadron rather than a fleet, but they will be advanced and capable. Drones in the tens of thousands.” (CV-10)