Chapter 442 (2/2)
”So why are they all dying?” Herod asked.
Dee shrugged. ”Dunno, don't care.”
Legion managed not to call her out on the lie, instead leaning forward to look at Herod. ”Because the SUDS itself is killing them.”
Herod looked at Dee. ”Did you activate the kill switch?”
She shook her head. ”Nope,” she grinned, a savage, primal, insane thing. ”You dipshits did it to yourselves.”
Herod frowned. ”What do you mean?”
”In the oh so moralistic rush to prevent people from hurting each other, you decided to prevent those with psychic abilities from emerging,” she said. She shrugged. ”Rather than invest time, effort, pain, blood, and treasure into fully understanding phasic energy and human interaction, you just prevented it from happening.”
Herod shook his head. ”That's not true.”
”It is,” Legion said. He snorted. ”I should know.”
Herod looked at him. ”You're sure?”
Legion shrugged. ”When Daxin left the Imperium with the Martial Orders, he asked me to apply a package to his troops. Asked me for the old Combine Psychic Warrior package,” Legion shrugged again., ”After what the Imperium did, I said sure.”
Legion laughed bitterly. ”That was enough for them to start attacking me, forcing me to go on the defensive in what's now called the Second Clone War or Legion's War,” he shook his head. ”I was young, excitable, angry about the assassination of the Digital Omnimessiah. I was going to forcibly pacify the Imperium, the Digital Sentience Systems, the Biomod Systems, even the Cybernetic Coalition, hammer them down, teach them to never touch me again.”
He laughed. ”Instead, I got planet cracked.”
”Nicely done,” Dee laughed. ”All that was missing from that story is an underground bunker, a teenage wife who poisons herself, and a single gunshot wound to the temple to complete your loser trifecta.”
”Um, thanks?” Legion said, frowning, trying to place the reference.
”Nevermind, you philistine,” Dee snapped. She shook her head. ”God damn I'm old.”
”So what did you need?” Legion asked.
”Well, I had an idea,” Herod said.
Dee looked up, baring her teeth and blowing smoke through them. ”It's going to be something stupid, I'm sure,” she gritted.
”Can we adapt the SUDS recording to Pre-Glassing era cerebral layout?” he asked.
Legion closed his eyes for a second. ”Maybe. On a case by case basis, sure. But you're talking about doing a batch file workup, and that would be trickier.”
”Ninety percent of people sixteen and below are surviving,” Herod threw out there. ”A lot of children without their parents.”
”Probably better off,” Dee mumbled.
”Makes sense,” Legion said. ”They've got pubescent or adolescent or prepubescent cyberware and bioware, not adult versions,” Legion tapped his finger against his temple. ”Since a child and teenager's brain and spinal cord are still maturing, the cyberware for children is designed to adapt with them.”
”Meaning that their 'ware compensated for the difference between whatever's happening to their brains and how the 'ware was laid out,” Herod mused.
”What's happening? You mean you still didn't figure it out?” Dee asked.
Herod frowned. ”We've been a bit busy trying to deal with the hundreds of billions of people dying,” he said.
”This happened two years ago. Then it moved up and down the genetic lines,” Dee snapped. ”Then there was a sudden influx of temporal energy into it when it hit the furthest back and most recent,” she stood up, taking two steps forward, her fists clenched and her gun-metal gray eyes burning with anger. ”Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is ENEMY FUCKING ACTION, you hopped up scientific calculator.”
”No enemy has that capability,” Herod said.
”So far,” Dee snapped.
”So now Space Force Intelligence is giving you morning briefings, Herod?” Legion asked mildly.
Herod just stared, then slapped his head. ”We thought it was a problem with the SUDS software fragmenting.
”It is, but it is being caused by an enemy attack,” Legion said. He was standing up, hundreds of himself around himself, stretching off into eternity. ”We'd started out looking at the Telkan broodcarrier song.”
”God, that's annoying,” Dee muttered.
”Thinking that was what was causing the instability,” he lifted his head. ”Sam, I need timestamp records for any anomalies starting two years ago.”
”Uh, OK,” a puppet in a cowboy outfit with bright red hair said, flailing its limbs.
Dee snickered and Herod glared at her.
Legion looked over. ”It started in the Hesstla system. We have seventy five years of SUDS updates, five years of SUDS updates, from the same time period,” he said. ”Neural abnormalities started spreading up and down genetic lines. Not just maternal, but all genetic providers,” he shook his head. ”Which means that it jumped around quite a bit as some genetic tweaks are from the same original genetic stock.”
Dee turned and snapped her finger. ”Tommy.”
The ground cracked open and a lean man with blond hair rose up out of the ground. ”Yes, momma?”
”Get together six of your brothers for a direct action covert operation,” she snapped. ”Set your string for neural disruption as well as standard.”
”Yes, mother,” the man said, sinking back into the ground.
”Uh,” Herod said.
”Don't worry, it's just my son,” Dee said. She smiled. ”He's momma's good boy.”
I used fake maternal affection to get the maximum performance out of him and all of his siblings, Herod heard Dee's dying voice.
Legion sat down. ”It was a temporal attack that will bypass every safeguard but those on Fortress Sol.”
Herod frowned. ”Why will Fortress Sol be exempt?”
Dee leaned forward, putting her elbows on her widely separated knees, her cigarette in her teeth, giving a tooth bared smile as she watched with interest.
Legion shook his head. ”After the Mantid attacks, Sol has its own backups. Add in the time dilatation effects of The Bag, and by the time it starts effecting people they'll have figure out a workaround.”
”I have to ask,” Herod said. ”What do we do about the fact we're at war and just lost ninety percent of our people?” He pointed up. ”The Confederate military is 80% Terran Descent Human.”
Legion shook his head. ”Unless you can lift the Case Omaha, I can't help you.”
Herod shook his head. ”It's an automatic system,” he sighed. ”As far as I've been able to tell, and Sam can tell monitoring Sol-Net and Terra-Net traffic, nobody knows where the system is.”
Legion saw a slight twitch to Dee's mouth.
”Is it called Whopper by any chance?” Dee asked.
”Yes. Prince Whopper, Son the Burger King, ruler of the Hamburger Kingdom,” Herod said. ”That's the most the records say. Why? Did you know him?”
”No,” Dee said. ”Just curious.”
”Oh,” Herod turned back to Legion, still feeling off balance. ”We'll be hanging our allies out to dry, we're at war and we're running the risk of losing.”
”Then enact the draft,” Dee shrugged. ”Good enough for my father and my little brother, good enough for the mewling milk sops you've turned humanity into.”
”Conscription has to be voted on by the Senate,” Herod said.
”You know, we aren't the rulers of the Confederacy,” Dee said, standing up. ”They're mortals. This is the SUDS system. We need to stop trying to solve their problems for them,” She climbed up the pile of skulls and sat back in the demons lap.
”Let the mortals figure it out. We will simply collect their misbegotten souls for judgement,” The demon intoned.
Herod sighed, rubbing his temple in frustration. ”I have to go,” he said.
”What's stopping you?” the demon rumbled.
Herod vanished.
”You are very good at winding him up,” Legion said, sitting down.
The demon shrugged. ”He annoys me with his holier than thou attitude.”
”Everything annoys you,” Legion laughed.
Dee nodded. ”Very true,” she looked at Legion. ”Nobody's built mat-trans beacons since the Mantid War, right? Nobody but what you called 'The Idiots', right?”
Legion shook his head. ”No. If mat-trans is used, it's Type-II. I think even the Idiots use Type-II.”
Dee made a face. ”Someone is pinging a Gen-Zero beacon.”
Legion looked at her. ”Who?”
Dee shook her head. ”I have no idea,” she looked down. ”That's what the boys are going to check out.”
Legion nodded. ”What do you think Herod really wanted?”
Dee exhaled brimstone smoke. ”He had a monstrous idea, one that I disagree with.”
Legion frowned. ”What?”
”The problem right now is that clones have their neural tissue shift to Pre-Glassing within ninety seconds of being baked up,” Dee said.
”Right,” Legion said. ”I figured that out.”
”So, he and that sobbing idiot want to put Pre-Glassing military templates into those clones,” Dee said. ”No matter what the military personnel want.”
Legion raised an eyebrow.
Dee looked down. ”So tell me, Dalit Six Nine Seven Two, what do you think of those two wanting to create short-bake throw away military clones with the neural template of eight thousand years dead soldiers without bothering for consent because the Combined Military Authority mandated it in contracts?”
Legion's expensive suit exploded as wings of hammered bronze tore free from his back, as hammered bronze loricated plate appeared, and a burning sword appeared in his hand.
”That's what I thought,” Dee said.