Chapter 374 (1/2)

ASPEN RESTRICTED ZONE

HAMBURGER KINGDOM, TERRA PRIME, TERRASOL

TWO YEARS INTO CASE OMAHA - LOCAL TIME

TWO MONTHS - EXTERNAL TIME

The parking garage had been ancient before the Mantid attacked. Abandoned prior to the Extinction Agenda Attack, then used as a penal colony pitting prisoners against the plants, then for much darker purposes, the Mantid Attack had missed the area, and thus, the parking garage.

The cars that were parked in the multi-story duracrete structure were scattered through the different eras. From Age of Consumption heavy duty steel ground vehicles with combustion engines and sweeping lines and fins to Age of Exhaustion polyceramic electric vehicles that looked like misshapen soap bubbles.

The cars each had their own silent stories, but each of them had a common theme.

Vagas Industries was on stickers, or parking plaques, or window hangings. Listed on the stock market as a vaccine production company, it had gone through 'bankruptcy restructurizations' and much more, always ever shifting, always changing, but the core of it never changing.

Despite its simple appearance, the parking garage was an offshoot of something terrible. Something dark, something twisted, something that would have shocked any of Terra's allies but not surprised them.

After all, Terrans would willingly submit themselves to any hardship, any suffering, any struggle, if it meant perceived victory.

But it was here that something had happened. Something strange, something unheard of. A first, something unique.

It had been a bright spark in the darkness puddled within the timeless moment the parking garage was locked in.

The man sat on the rock, holding the bottle of whiskey in his hand, staring at the fire. He kept rotating his wrist, making the whiskey swirl in the bottle, petting the massive warsteel frame of the warboi next to him. He had been present, had been the only one present, when the spark had appeared before it had ignited a conflagration that had rekindled the fire in mankind's soul.

He had also been present when the darkness ruled supreme.

He could remember being bound, being held in restaints, unable to move, as he was taken to the building of concrete. There he had been tortured, rent and sundered, and remade. He could remember it all.

The man took a long drink off the bottle, noting that the level hadn't changed even as he swallowed the mouthful of whiskey.

Footsteps crunched in the unchanging gravel and the man sighed.

”Whoever it is, I know you're there,” the man said. His voice was deep, rumbled, and sounded tired.

”It's just me, brother,” a woman's voice said. It was soft, lilting, with a slight accent that almost seemed as a soft counterpoint to the man's rough rumble.

”Come sit, Menhit,” the man said, scooting over slightly.

The woman who came out had on a long red dress with plentiful gold patterns. Her skin was dark brown, her hair braided in careful rows that hid datacables and superconductor wires. Her eyes were solid black cybereyes of warm warsteel. She had a glittering gem set into her forehead with a tattoo around it to make it look like the teardrop pupil of an eye.

”Brother Daxin, Eldest and Most Wrathful,” she said, pressing her hands together in front of her and bowing at the waist. ”Last of the Immortals, First of the Disciples, Enraged One, Liberator, Unbowed One...”

”If you go through everything everyone calls me, we're going to be here for a long time, Menhit,” Daxin said.

The woman gave a soft chuckle. ”As you say, elder brother,” she said softly. She moved to the other side of the fire and sat down on the flat rock that had been smoothed by decades of people sitting on it over and over.

”What brings you here?” Daxin asked, taking another swig. When he saw the woman was holding out her hand, he handed her the whiskey bottle.

She took a long drink, then smacked her lips in appreciation. ”Thick as oil. Guess that happens when you hide the bottle in the fender of a car for eight thousand years.”

”Yup,” Daxin said.

The woman sighed. ”I came back to see if I could still feel him in this place, where he first revealed himself.”

There was silence for a moment.

”And can you?” Daxin asked.

The woman nodded slowly. ”Yes. Like a loved one who has just left the room, his presence lingers.”

There was a long moment of silence before the woman broke it.

”Sister Bellona is going to attempt to take the Black Fleet to the outside,” she said softly. ”She plans on sailing the Dead Seas with her dark armada, following the Melody.”

”I told her, it's Telkan broodcarriers she's hearing,” Daxin grumbled. ”I was on Telkan with her, she knows that.”

”Case Omaha had reverted her to the Ninsianna side of her being,” Menhit said. ”She seeks to bring the storms to others,” Menhit shivered. ”A great evil was done unto us, brother.”

Daxin just nodded. ”Yup.”

**FIDO is goodboi** the warboi said.

”Yes, yes you are,” Menhit laughed, reaching over and patting the head of the massive warboi.

There was silence again, broken only by the rustling of the plants competing with one another in the darkness.

”Are you planning on just sitting her till the sun burns out?” Menhit asked.

Daxin shrugged. ”I don't see why not. Only my family visits me here. I can be left alone.”

”That's all you've ever wanted, isn't it, brother?” Menhit took another pull off the bottle and handed it back as Daxin nodded. ”Then why did you help the Tnvaru Matron Nakteti?”

”The Immortal Code of Conduct,” Daxin grumbled.

Menhit just raised an eyebrow. ”As the last of the Immortals, who would know if you did not?”

”I would,” Daxin said, staring at the fire. ”I would have known. I'm almost nine thousand years old, Menhit. I was an Immortal before you were born,” he looked out into the darkness. ”I was here, on this world, before the Mantid attacked, before the Combine was born.”

”You are the eldest of us, brother,” the woman said, her voice full of respect. ”You are the last of the original Immortals.”

Daxin bent down, picking up a pebble, and flicked it into the darkness. It bounced off of rusted car frames before clattering to a stop.

”You know, it was human longevity programs that led to the Extinction Agenda Attack,” Daxin said softly.

Menhit stayed silent, just slowly pulled out a clay pipe and began tamping down tobacco into it.

”Ten billion people on Terra. Choking on smog, poison air, factory runoff polluted water,” Daxin said quietly. ”Yet the life-spans kept lengthening even as automation eliminated more and more employment positions,” he flicked the pebble again then looked at Menhit. ”I've never blamed her, you know?”

”Who?” Menhit asked, puffing out smoke.

”My mother, whoever she was,” Daxin said. He sighed. ”She gave me over to the creche when I was a baby. She couldn't have known what they would do to me and the other kids.”

Menhit just stayed silent, puffing on her pipe.

”But it all led here. I guess, in some ways, the good outweighs the bad,” Daxin said, shaking his head. He took a pull off the bottle and handed it Menhit.

”Will you join Bellona in trying to escape this confinement?” Menhit asked.

”Will you?” Daxin shot back.

Menhit shook her head. ”And leave the fields of Nubia? Leave my small farm and my neighbors?” She shook her head again. ”No, eldest brother, village life is enough for me.”

Daxin just made a non-commital noise. ”You love your neo-primitivism.”

”I'm a simple person, eldest brother,” Menhit said softly. ”I was prepared for death when you found me in the remains of the colony dome.”

”You were singing,” Daxin said, nodding. ”FIDO heard you.”

**FIDO help** the armored canine signaled.

”The Digital Omnimessiah himself brought me back to Terra, to the land of my ancestors, to heal me, to bring me peace,” Menhit said. ”Before Armored Matthias betrayed us to the Combine. Such hatred he harbored in his heart for us all.”

”Doesn't matter any more,” Daxin said.

**Matty gone** FIDO said.

”Yup,” Daxin scratched between the warboi's 'ears', tickling the petting nerve.

”There is a question I have for you,” Menhit said softly.

”No. I wiped the code,” Daxin said.

Menhit smiled, a slow sly smile. ”As you say, Eldest Brother,” she bowed her head slightly. ”But it is not I who is asking.”

”Think very carefully about your next words, little sister,” Daxin said, transferring the whiskey bottle to his right hand.

”And he said: come and see,” Menhit said softly, quoting ancient words. ”And I saw.”

The air rippled between them, over the fire, distorting the flames. They appeared to vanish into the distortion only to be rendered into poorly pixelated versions of themselves. A whining noise started, followed by squealing and static, then a series of 'bong' noises.

Daxin's hand stopped, his fingertips millimeters from the butt of the pistol that sat in the housing that had popped out of his left thigh. His mouth was open in shock, his eyes wide, as he stared at the fire.

A flickering appeared in it. A young man, with coarse hair, entirely of detailed streaming code. He looked around.

”Hello? Hello?” he asked. ”Can you hear me? Are you there?”

The FIDO barked happily as the young man stepped out of the distortion, a body made entirely out of streaming code, his digital feet crunching in the gravel. He seemed to burst into flame, more a fiery nimbus than actual fire.

”Is this access port working?” the young man asked. He turned slowly, squinting. ”Are you there?”