Chapter 410 (1/2)
The three female Terrans all nodded at my words. Two began attaching the last of the armor, beginning to pray, the other put her hands to either side of her fallen sister's head, on the thick, heavy shoulder pauldrons. I watched as the face began to change, becoming rounder, softer, the fur changing color to white with streaks of pink.
The burning bird of prey on her chest slowly faded and went out.
I felt a cold wind go through the tent, with a faint moan of suffering.
It was strange. I was not a religious being. I had not begun following the Terran's digital religion. I had no belief in superstition or magic or mythical events.
But standing there, watching, I felt a chill down both of my spines.
The armor, formerly white with red markings, began to change colors. Pink and white, smeared in a strange amateurish way. The woman's face began to look more youthful, more innocent, more childish.
Her lips parted, showing sharp interlocking carnivore teeth had replaced the even white squares of omnivore dentation. She drew in a shuddering breath.
The monitor displaying her neural function gave a hiccup as on line spiked and the others twitched.
”doki” the fallen one whispered.
I don't know why, but I swallowed thickly, feeling a trickle of fear.
I could see her datalink on the side of her head. There was white and pink enamel crawling across it, covering the black warsteel. It began to look more ornate, gold and silver inlay starting to form on it like frost on a window.
Beep.
'doki'
I watched fur crawl down her arms from her shoulders. White with pink stripes and swirls and blotches. I could see circuitry spreading on and under the flesh right before the soft looking fur covered the pale bloodless flesh. The two sisters covered the fallen one's arms with her armor, locking the heavy plates in place. The white and pink enamel and paint started spreading from the armpit and shoulder, again reminding me of frost spreading on a window.
beep
'doki'
She shifted slightly, the power armor hissing and clattering. I reached out, picking up one hand, and was startled at how light her arm was. I took her hand and placed it on her cutting bar where it rested on her torso, the handle beneath her chin. The Sister of Wrath on the other side lifted her arm, her power armor hissing and her face hardening with effort.
Her hand and arm were as light as a child's as I put her hand on the hilt of her blade, folding them over one another.
beep
'doki'
Shuddering and tremlbing, I picked up the thick plate for her thigh and lifted it into place. The Sister of Wrath beside me lifted the woman's leg by her knee, letting me put the armor beneath her leg. I saw spikes erupt from the armor, long thin barbed spikes.
A part of me didn't want to place the woman's leg into the armor, but I did so anyway.
Fur started moving down from beneath the groin armor. I picked up the front of the leg armor and set it into place, hearing it click and lock into place. I could hear internal systems start to click as I knelt down and picked up the piece to go under her lower leg. I wasn't sure what the Terrans called it. I doubted they called it a fetlock.
”You do her honor, dressing her,” Sister Dargetta told me, her hands still on the heavy shoulder plates. ”The last suit she shall ever wear.”
”It is good that she be clad,” I said. I locked her foreleg into the armor.
beep - - - - beep
'doki doki'
I heard another song start but could not hear the worlds, just the melancholy tones of the woodwind and the words.
One of the Sisters handed me her heavy weapon, but it was lighter than I thought it would be. The bird of prey on either side was dark, no longer blazing fire. The weapon was dark, black and dark green, looking heavier, bulkier somehow.
At the Sister's motioned instructions I took one of her hands and carefully wrapped her fingers around the grip.
The pink and white smears and daubs spread from her hand up the weapon. A round circle with eyes and an upturned mouth appeared where the bird of prey had once been.
beep beep beep
'doki doki doki'
The words were still soft, more breathed than spoken, but sounded to me as if they were a lot stronger than they had been initially. There was more spikes in all six of the lines on the monitor that was displaying her neural functions.
I moved around to the other side, putting her armor on her arms and legs with my own two hands.
While I did not believe in magic or superstition, knew that the Terrans used nanotechnology in dangerous ways and that could account for what I was seeing, I still felt as if I was caught up in something I did not quite understand.
The Sisters of Wrath removed the torches from their fallen sister's armor and motioned at me.
”Carry her outside, beneath the sky, so she can hear the voice of her sisters,” Sister Dargetta said.
Part of me knew she was too heavy for me, that she weighed literal tons of armor and dense lemur muscular-skeletal structure.
She was as light as feather in my arms. One hand holding tight to her weapon, the other to the hilt of her cutting bar.
She kept whispering to herself, her lips moving over sharp teeth, as I carried her outside. She should have been too heavy, I should never have been able to carry her.
But she was as light as a feather.
I laid her down on a pallet of expended rocket tubes, stepping back as the clouds seemed to part just enough for a silver ray of sunlight to pierce the clouds and illuminate her face.
The sisters put banners of blank cloth, held up by cruel iron rods, on her back. They replaced the torches, now unlit, on her shoulders. The round smiling emoji on her chest suddenly had hearts replace the eyes, the hearts beating slowly.
”She nears wakefullness,” Sister Dargetta said.
”Will she be confused?” I asked.
”She has fallen from grace and is now Enraged, knowing nothing more than Wrath,” one of the other sisters said. ”She will seek out combat, seek out war, know nothing more than carnage and fury.”
I stared at her innocent looking face, now completely covered with fur. ”Will she be in pain?”
Sister Dargetta shook her head. ”She will dwell in fury and ecstasy, surrounded by beauty and carnage, beyond such things as pain or doubt,” she said softly.
”Why is this happening to her?” I asked, watching as her eyelids fluttered. For a moment I could see her eyes. They were feline pupiled, but bright pink, as if she was an albino. Then the eyes seemed to fill with a pink glow and the eyelids closed again.
”She is the fate that awaits all of us, all of the Sisters of Wrath, should we fall from the Digital Omnimessiah's grace and embrace the wrath that fills us all,” one said.
”But... why?” I asked.
”She, and we, are bound to Murdered TerraSol,” Sister Dargetta said. ”Soldiers of the Combine and Imperium, led by Daxin the Unfeeling who became Osiris of the Warsteel Flame, touched and reborn by Vat Grown Luke who became Legion, nurtured and guided by Bellona the Grave Bound Beauty, shown the way of truth and beauty.”
The names, although they meant nothing to me, still made my skin crawl as a cold breeze played over my skin despite the Terran armor I wore.
”But our children, the Kawaii Neko Marines, are the youngest of us, the oldest of us, and they await, with open loving arms, all of us who fall from the Digital Omnimessiah's grace,” she finished.
doki doki doki
”When she awakens, she will seek out the enemy, consumed with rage, and seek to wipe them from the universe,” another sister said.
To the side of me the tank sat silently, ”GREAT HERD EMERGENCY SERVICES” written on it with blue paintstick.
”She will be the champion of those without hope consumed with wrath and fury,” the other said.
I realized that the Terran female may have been sentenced to a life of horror and I wondered for a moment if I should have just let her die.
”Will she remember who she was? Will she be full of sorrow for what she has lost, what I have consigned her to?” I asked. ”Would she have been better off dead?”
They all three looked at one another for a long moment.
”Concern yourself not with such things,” Sister Dargetta said. She put her hand on the pink and white hair on top of the fallen one's head. ”She will burn with a light of her own.”
Her eyes suddenly opened. Bright pink, a low malevolent growl came from her mouth then she smiled wildly. A sweet, innocent, naive smile that made me start to smile back. She struggled to her feet, still smiling, her power armor hissing and whirring. She held her cutting bar in one hand, what I had been told was a heavy magac submachine gun in the other.
The torches on her back erupted in flame, white cored with pink edging. The banners unfurled, showing crude drawings on them.
”Come, sister,” Sister Dargetta said, holding out her hand. ”Joan Mentissa wishes to bless you.”
The furry faced fallen Sister attached her submachine gun to her waist and took Sister Dargetta's hand.
There was a strange fzzzt on my back teeth as all four of the Sisters vanished.
I just stared at where they had been standing, feeling the hair rise up on my spines.
”Most High Ha'almo'or,” a voice said.
I focused my attention on my rear eyes, seeing a small Telkan female in white paper clothing waiting patiently for me to see her.
”Yes, little one?” I asked.
She motioned back at the tent. ”The Matron wishes to see you. She says it is quite urgent.”
”By all means, lead the way,” I said. I took two steps and almost went down on my knees, the strength suddenly leaving my body. I stumbled, almost fell, but managed to stay on my feet as I staggered into the medical tent.
The Matron and the doctor were waiting for me.
”Your wounded have been treated, Most High Ha'almo'or,” the Matron said, staring at me with a weight of authority that made me want to duck my head in shame. She patted a medical sling. ”This sling is for you.”
I sighed, allowing the Telkan female to walk me over to the sling and help wrap it around me. The doctor and his assistants removed parts of my armor, stopping when several pieces were stuck to me.
”See you on the other side,” the Telkan female said, her face hidden by a sterifield mask.
She pressed a button and darkness took me.