Chapter 329: (The Immortals) (2/2)

Dhruv moved up by the fire, putting his hands out to warm them.

”Kalki was upset,” Dhruv said, conversationally.

”He's always felt that you should kill POW's, not coddle them,” Daxin chuckled. He reached up and touched the slight swelling under his eye, all that was left from his orbital socket getting smashed in by a fist swung by an enraged Immortal. ”Every time he brings up that if the Mantid had just killed me, I wouldn't have ripped off the Omni-Queen's head, and every time I get pissed and punch him in the mouth.”

”And every time Bellona steals the last of your whiskey,” Dhruv said.

”We meet here, and we repeat our last meeting,” Daxin said.

”Right down to me coming back,” Dhruv replied. ”We can't move on, can we?”

Daxin shook his head. ”No. We repeat ourselves over and over every time we get together. We're drawn to this place.”

”Indeed we are,” the rough voice came from the shadows.

Daxin's hand went down to his thigh as the cybernetic limb opened up and a heavy pistol whirred out, the butt fitting smoothly into his hand, the compartment closing as Daxin brought up the pistol, thumbing the safety even as the pistol recognized his DNA.

Dhruv blurred and four of him separated out, two rolling backwards, one with a pistol, one with a rifle, all four armored up. Lasers speared into the shadows from underneath the weapons as the targeting systems were brought online.

”Easy, my brothers, easy,” the voice said.

A shadow detached from the darkness, moving forward. Three legs, soft curly dark brown hair, big wide eyes with large pupils, one arm on either side and one on the front, upraised ears. It walked forward, the middle leg moving out, taking the figure's weight as the first one then the other leg came forward.

”It always looks like you're walking on your dick, Bputun” Daxin snorted, the compartment on his leg opening back up.

”That's why the ladies love me,” the Pubvian said, baring its meat eating teeth in a smile as Daxin smoothly put the pistol away.

The four extra Dhruv's puffed and vanished into dust that swirled down around his feet and seemed to suck into the bottom of his shoes.

”You've never come back here after our meeting before,” Dhruv said. He looked at Daxin. ”This is new.”

”It is,” Daxin said, watching as the Pubvian moved up and began warming all three hands over the fire.

”I noticed that Matthias didn't make it to our meeting,” the Pubvian said. He looked at Daxin. ”Did you two finally have it out?”

Daxin nodded as Dhruv moved up and handed the Pubvian a bottle of whiskey that the label had faded and tattered.

”Yeah,” Daxin admitted. ”We fought before the face of Crying Anne,” he said, watching the Pubvian take a long swig off the bottle of whiskey that they had shared for over 8,000 years.

”Another legend for the mortals,” the Pubvian said, smacking his lips at the taste of the whiskey. He handed the bottle to Daxin. ”It sounds so epic, when it was just two old men fighting in front of a huge metal door.”

Dhruv chuckled.

”I bring news, brothers,” the Pubvian said as Daxin took a long drink off the bottle.

When he handed it to Dhruv, the level had not dropped.

”The Legion of the Damned has fallen,” the Pubvian said. He reached up with his third arm and rubbed his face. ”They were wiped out to the last man.”

”So? That's not the first time it's happen. They'll make inspection by dawn,” Daxin said as Dhruv lifted the bottle to his mouth.

”They've been dead nearly a year. They aren't coming back. They died on Mercury, but they held until Mercury's defenses could rally,” the Pubvian said.

Dhruv choked on his mouthful of whiskey, spitting the alcohol into the fire, which roared up the fuel.

”Holy shit, the kid did it,” Dhruv said.

Daxin turned and looked at Dhruv at the same time as Bputun. ”Did what?” they both asked.

”Before the Case Omaha, I was Black Boxed. One of the Daughters caught me, put me in charge of figuring out why the SUDS was red dotting across the galactic arm,” Dhruv said. He took a long pull off the bottle and handed it to Bputun. ”We spent months, making no headway, until I grabbed a kid.”

When Daxin growled Dhruv shook his head. ”No, not a child soldier, Dax. A hacker. A good one. The kid hacked Nebula-Steam and some really high security stuff before he got caught. I told him I wanted him to break into the system.”

Bputun shook his head. ”I thought backtracking the signal was a dead end.”

The Pubvian accepted the bottle.

The level had dropped slightly.

”It was. At least, I thought so. The kid came at it sideways, I mean, like Bellona sneaking up on a pile of butterscotch candy,” Dhruv said.

Both of the other men chuckled at the joke.

”He figured out what the signal was. Figured out that everyone had spent all their time basically trying to hack into cloud storage, where what we needed was the find out the access point to the servers the cloud storage was on,” Dhruv said.

Daxin grinned. ”So SUDS was stored on a cloud system?” he laughed. ”The jokes write themselves.”

Dhruv nodded, taking the bottle and taking a drink. ”He must have got in.”

”Which means he processed the Legion's SUDS records,” Daxin said. He rubbed the side of his face before accepting the bottle. ”So you're kid's in the system, messing with stuff, and didn't know to not interfere with the Legion of the Damned?”

Bputun made a sound that was a mixture of a belch and a laugh. ”Dax, they died on Mercury. Let it go. They fulfilled their oaths.”

Daxin sighed and looked at the fire.

”We should... I don't know... figure out some way to let the galaxy, mankind, go on without us,” he said.

”You tried that,” Dhruv said. ”And here we are again.”

Bputun nodded. ”Here we are. But I stand here with you, where I haven't stood before.”

”So things are changing,” Daxin said slowly. ”Even in this unchanging place, things are...”

Bputun suddenly jerked, standing straight up, bringing his middle hand up to wrap it around his own throat in a protective gesture.

Two Dhruv's peeled off the original, looking around, pistols in hand, even as the compartment on Daxin's thigh opened.

Bputun's eyes were wide and his hand came up, shaking, to touch his implant. His other hand came out, palm up, the holo-emitter in his hand gleaming.

A Pubvian female's face appeared.

”Talinvan, my love, I am back. Your children and I are back. Our clan is back. Your people have returned to you. When the Case Omaha is released, please, come home,” the female said. Tears began to wet the fur beneath her eyes. ”It has been so long for you, my love. Come home. Come home to your children.

Her hands came up, reaching out to her husband, who she knew as Talinvan, from before the Digital Omnimessiah had touched his brow and renamed him.

”Come home to me, beloved. Come home to Pubvia.”