Chapter 171: (Historical Archive) (2/2)
”That doesn't count the fact he planet-cracked the Dunston Colony on Sharver's World,” Dhruv said, shaking his head.
”What does he want with us?” Razak wondered.
”We should send in the fleet, there's only one of him,” Nilitza suggested. ”He can't take on our entire navy.”
”Are you forgetting the hundreds, thousands of ships that came with him?” Razak said, shaking his head. ”Sure, we could kill him but...”
”No, we couldn't,” Dhruv said. When everyone looked at him he shook his head. ”Believe me, a lot of beings have tried. Hell, the entire Mantid race tried. Anthill tried. The Combine tried. By burning Mars, even the Imperium tried.”
Dhruv stood up, moving over to touch the screen. ”See that? Now we know where the Martial Orders of the Imperium disappeared to. That's them. Right there. Everyone one of the Enraged Ones, following the biggest mass of rage and hatred the universe ever spawned.”
Dhruv turned away from the screen, moving toward his chair. ”All of you are too young, were decanted too late, to know just how terrifying it is that he's here.”
Dhruv sat down and wiped his brow with a kerchief. ”He's a walking goddamn war crime.
”And he's here.”
Nilitza scoffed. ”He's one man. Blow him out of space when he reaches orbit and activate the system defense arrays.”
Dhruv turned and stared at him. ”I didn't enhance your intelligence for you to fart out useless idiotic shit.”
Nilitza colored and looked down. ”It's just one man.”
”That's not a man!” Dhruv yelled, coming to his feet and pointing at Daxin's picture. ”He's the last of the Immortals. The first and the fucking last! Does that get it through your misbegotten head?”
Nilitza stood up. ”You may be my creator but I don't have to listen to this.”
”Yes, you do,” Dhruv snarled, clenching a fist.
Nilitza opened his mouth then looked at the clenched fist. It was wreathed in purple energy, dark and light, a crackling mass that crawled up and down Dhruv's forearm. Black mist seemed to drift off of Dhruv's fist, disappearing a few inches from the floor. Nilitza sat down slowly, his forehead beading with sweat.
”He'll land at the spaceport. It would be best if I met him there,” Dhruv said, standing up. ”Keep everyone in the shelters.”
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The shuttle that landed looked like it had been through a war, which Dhruv felt probably wasn't too far off. It was battered and scorched, the skull motif late Combine/early Imperium, the coloration all black with red streaks.
The craft landed, steam hissing out from underneath, smelling of rusting iron and the sharp acrid smell of Mantid blood. The door hissed down, steam or mist, Dhruv wasn't sure which, poured out for a moment and then he moved down the gangplank.
Part of Dhruv wanted to run away screaming.
Daxin Freeborn thudded down the gangplank, heavy pistons wheezing, chains rattling, gears grinding. His eyes still burned with madness, his head was still scarred and shaved, purple pskyer lightning still crackled across his heavy armor, and that massive warboi he called a 'hellhound' bounded out after him, liquid warsteel pouring from the massive cybernetic hound's jaws.
The day seemed to get chillier as Daxin walked across the tarmac, leaving burning footprints behind him, getting closer and closer to Dhruv until he stopped in front of him, looking down at the much smaller man.
”You look like a fool without your armor,” Daxin rumbled. Dhruv jerked slightly. The massive soldier was speaking Hindi as if he had born to it. Dhruv could even recognize which region.
”Times change, Colonel,” Dhruv said, giving a slow bow.
”Don't bow to me. I'm nobody's ruler,” Daxin said.
Dhruv stood up and stared. He should have known the day his spies had intercepted the report that Daxin had somehow broken out of the Titan mines that this day, this scene right here, would come to pass.
”You sold me out to Imperium Intelligence,” Daxin rumbled. He looked around slowly. ”Sold me out to them for all of this.”
He leaned forward, eclipsing the sun.
”I hope it was worth it, Major Deshmuhk,” Daxin growled. It wasn't just the growl that made the hairs on the back of Dhruv's neck stand up, but the Old India accent that Daxin emulated perfectly. The slight tilt the words of a superior addressing one of the untouchables. ”I could take it all from you.”
Dhruv nodded slowly, swallowing thickly.
”Take it all away, break your legs, rip this planet down to nothing but rad blasted sand and rock, ram a prybary through your guts, leave you exactly like I found you,” Daxin rumbled.
Dhruv kept nodding, his stomach suddenly clenching in remembered pain.
”You know. I know it,” the Terran said. He slowly straightened up. ”I hope it was worth it.”
”I won't know for some time yet,” Dhruv admitted, shaking his head. ”Right now, as I'm sure you noticed, I'm not really strong enough to resist any attack by the Imperium or any of their allies.”
The big human looked up at the sky as if he could see all the starships in orbit. ”Hmph. Easily remedied.”
”How? The Imperium and Cybo shipyards are keeping pretty good track of who's buying ships,” Dhruv said. ”They know I'm trying to buy warships.”
Daxin made a tossing noises and Dhruv's datalink gave a squeal of pain as the datapack slammed into the firewall, shattered it, and crashed into Dhruv's onboard memory. The weight of the it practically drove Dhruv to the ground.
”There. The access codes to the ships. Registry codes, AI passphrases, everything you'd need to use those ships once you printed off the crews in your genejack vats,” Daxin said, still staring up.
”That doesn't do me any good if... oh...” Dhruv saw it. Astrogation codes, satellite transponder codes, everything he would need.
The Imperium had mothballed its fleet around four brown dwarf stars. Thousands of warships just orbiting the dead star like an artificial asteroid belt.
”They're there. I did a scan personally,” Daxin said. To Dhruv his voice sounded like grinding metal. ”Just sitting there, like there won't be another war for ever and ever bless all the cookies and puppies and rainbows shit out by the Digital Omnimessiah.”
”Is it true?” Dhruv asked the question that had been burning on everyone's mind for the last two years.
”Many things are true, Major,” Daxin said.
”Is it true about what happened between you and the...” Dhruv started to ask.
Daxin turned and stared at Dhruv. ”What do you care? You betrayed me. You have no place at my right hand, Major,” he made a motion out to the sky. ”I'm still here. They aren't.”
//should bite legs off leave staring at sun with no eyelids traitor traitor// the massive hellhound broadcast to Dhruv's implant.
Dhruv swallowed again, feeling his stomach fill with acid.
”What do you want, Colonel?” Dhruv asked, trying to gain some sense of control.
Daxin leaned down, putting Dhruv in shadow again.
”You know exactly what I'm here for,” he growled.
Dhruv shook his head to deny the truth.
”You owe me.”
Dhruv closed his eyes, knowing what was coming next.
”You will pay me back. Won't you...”
Dhruv nodded slowly.
”Legion.”