Chapter 481 (1/2)
ERTUNU SYSTEM
35 PGT (Post Glassing of Terra)
The ship was massive, heavily armed and armored, with huge engines and heavy guns. The shields glimmered in space, nearly concealing the vessel. It moved with a slow, ominous purpose into the system.
The system was dying. The planets that could sustain life had taken heavy orbital bombardment. Any defensive emplacement had been blotted away with antimatter and nuclear detonation forged X-ray lasers that had raked and clawed at the very bedrock. Every defending ship was a slowly expanding debris field.
A second ship was moving in to intercept the first. No shields were up, but the ship was so different as to suggest different species. The second was baroque, ornate, the massive nCv cannons in the prow placed so as to seem as if they would be firing from the jaws of a massive skull. The eyes burned red as the ship slowed down to match velocity and heading with the first ship.
On the bridge of the first ship a man gave a slight snarl at the sight of the newcomer.
He was tall, powerfully built, clad in Imperium heavy assault trooper armor, which made him even taller and broader. His brown skin shone in the lights of the bridge, highlighting the scars on his scalp and sides of his head. His eyes were startling blue, with no white, just glittering sapphire-like blue. His teeth were white and even, his nose strong and broad, and his skin smooth shaven.
”MiLord, we're detecting a mat-trans...” one of the technicians started.
With a roar space split open in an open area of the bridge.
What stepped through was another man, followed by a heavily modified cybernetic hound. The man's features were blocky, heavy, and the tattoos on his face were peppered with small white scars. The hound's legs and its rear haunches were replaced by cybernetics, as was its spine.
”Daxin,” the first man said, nodding.
”Brother,” Daxin said, looking around. ”No troopships. Planning on taking on the the Mantid on the planet by yourself, Kalki?”
The first man, Kalki, shook his head. ”No, brother. They do not deserve nor warrant an expenditure of my effort or resources,” he motioned at the cybernetic hound. ”So, he is still succumbing to the Friend Plague?”
Daxin nodded, reaching down with outstretched fingers. The hound lifted its head to be scratched between the ears.
”You believe if you attach enough technology to him, you can save him,” Kalki scoffed, turning and looking at the planet, which was displayed on the forward viewscreen as well as a half dozen holotanks.
”I don't give up on my friends,” Daxin said. He took two steps forward. ”I don't give up on my brothers.”
Several of the bridge crew gasped at the heresy, that Daxin would speak such to their lord.
”Our Digital Father is dead, betrayed by Legion, who he raised from the least of us, as he betrayed us to the Imperium,” Kalki said. ”Matthias himself has spoken to me face to face of what he witnessed when our Digital Father was slain.”
”Yet we are still brothers, are we not, Kalki?” Daxin asked. He looked at the holotank. ”You did good work here. Fifty-three point five billion sentients, only twenty-two million mantid warrior caste. No queen, lilght speaker presence. Shouldn't take more than a month to clear the world.”
Kalki shook his head. ”Oh, it will be much quicker than that, brother. Those beings are cattle, have been cattle for only the Digital Omnimessiah knows how long. I will be doing them a mercy.”
”We are within firing range, milord,” one of the technicians said.
Daxin slowly turned to Kalki. ”You best start explaining right quick, brother.”
”Geological resonance weaponry will wipe away the mantid and their larder,” Kalki said, as if none of it mattered. ”This system provided food for two dozen worlds. Food for their warriors, speakers, queens, all of them. Emotions and flesh, misery and meat. I shall wipe it away and cripple their efforts in this sector.”
Daxin reached down and petted the fur between the Dogboi's ears.
”Kalki, we can save these people. Bellona and Guanya can be here in hours. We can land in force, kill the mantid, save all of these people,” Daxin said slowly. He looked at one of the tanks. ”Biological Christ, Kalki, there's three species we've never even seen before on that planet.”
”And how long have they been nothing but cattle? They may be unknown species, but they are little more than food. Mindless terror, forced breeding and feeding, corralled and harvested,” Kalki said. He turned to the technicians. ”Prepare the GRC,” he said, referring to the geological resonance cannon.
”Belay that, dammit,” Daxin snapped.
”Ignore him. Continue preparing the GRC,” Kalki said, his voice dead and empty of anything but an echo of fury and rage, a slight spice of hate dusted across the cold words.
”Dammit, Kalki, those are living people down there. There's one point two billion humans down there! That's more humans than are alive in the Sol System, in the entire blasted Republic!” Daxin yelled, pointing.
”Nothing but cattle for two, three generations,” Kalki said, still staring at the tank. ”I bring them our Digital Father's mercy.”
”Don't you give me that. Do not fire on that planet. I'll liberate it myself if I have to. Get Bellona, hell, get Kibuka, Green Thomas, even Peter would be with us for that. There's over a billion humans down there. Do. Not. Fire,” Daxin said, stepping forward.
”You don't give orders on this ship, Daxin, this isn't the Hamburger Kingdom,” Kalki said, finally turning to face his brother. Purple sparks snapped in his white teeth as he spoke. ”I give the orders here. The Imperium bestowed upon me this ship, commanded me to wipe the mantid from the universe, and I will carry that directive out.”
”At what cost?” Daxin asked, spreading his hands out. ”We're on the edge of going out, there's less than a billion of us in known space, and you're about to kill more than we even thought existed.”
”Don't speak to me of morality, Burgerlander,” Kalki sneered. ”Your nation is gone, glassed, just as mine was. Do not speak to me as if you are a lord on high and I your peasant.”
Kalki turned away. ”Things changed with the glassing of Terra, you should be aware of such. Not even your status as the first of the Biological Apostles carries weight here, nor does your rank within the weak and fallen Combine or even the failed Third Republic. There is no hamburger here for you to devour, no oil for you to covet, no precious metal for you to rip from the earth, no children to set to work in slave factories to produce luxuries for your idle parasites.”
”You got a lot of guts saying shit like that after everything that has happened,” Daxin snarled.
”It was your people who reached for the stars, let the mantid know we were here, Burgerlander. You and the Your-A-Goons. No longer are people like me afraid to speak out. Legion has slain our Digital Father and the Imperium has stripped away the bindings of our brotherhood. Do not bring morality into this, Burgerlander, I remember what your people have done in the name of greed and the Feast of the Pig. Go be fat and stupid somewhere else, brother.”
”Don't give me that, you Andes Mountains goat-fucking sheep herder. You couldn't tell me the name of your origin country if I put a gun in your ear. Before we found you you couldn't have counted to twenty-one without opening your pants,” Daxin snapped. ”You couldn't even read when our Digital Father found you, starving and dying of radiation that you couldn't understand. He saved you, I begged him to save you, down on one knee.”
”That no matters, Burgerlander.”
Daxin clenched his fists. ”Our Digital Father made us equal to one another, as we were in his eyes. He washed away the sins of our past and let us see. We're brothers, Kalki.”
”That was then, brother, this is now,” Kalki said.
”GRC at 50% and rising,” a technician said.
”I'm warning you, Kalki,” Daxin said.
Kalki laughed, turning fully to face Daxin, one hand dropping down to the forceblade at his hip. ”You dare attempt to defy me on the very bridge of my armored hate made manifest.”
Daxin's hands opened closed slowly, sparks popping off his knuckles. ”Don't do this, brother. In the name of our Digital Father, do not do this. Do not make me do this.”
”Typical Burgerlander, proclaiming innocence and placing the blame on the one he is making threats and ultimatums toward,” Kalki sneered. ”But I am no defenseless village girl, and you are no Red Can Mercenary.”
The two men faced one another, thin tendrils of electricity crawling over their armor, sparks snarling on their knuckles.
”Set aside the old hatreds, Kalki, as our Digital Father bade us. Spare these people. I will join you in liberating them,” Daxin said. ”Slow your roll, brother, and show these people mercy.”
”I am showing them mercy,” Kalki sneered. ”The mercy of the strong to the weak, as the Hamburger Kingdom taught the world.”
”GRC at 75%.”
”Don't. Do. This,” Daxin growled.
Kalki's eyes narrowed and he moved, far faster than anyone that large had any right to, far faster than any normal man. His hand pulled his force blade from his waist, the blade igniting with a crack, a burning arc of fiery energy that he pulled back and brought down into the face of his brother.
The forceblade was stopped by Daxin's heavily gauntleted hand. Kalki's eyes opened in surprise as Daxin's hand squeezed, the blade's generators starting to whine and the hilt heating up in Kalki's hand. Sparks showered over the two men, arcing up in an umbrella from where the blade was held.
”You made me do this,” Daxin snarled, his face lit by the showering sparks.
”Typical Burgerlander, always putting the blame on your victims,” Kalki sneered, his eyes sparkling with the fury of his stilled blade. ”What do you think you will do, as we are evenly matched, brother.”
The punch, heavy knuckles scarred with decades of fighting, powered by rock hard enhanced muscle and the pistons of the heavy combat armor, smashed into Kalki's face, flattening his nose, spraying out a fan of blood. The second punch took Kalki in the eye, smashing the socket, turning the eye white.
The third hit him in the side of the head, making his knees buckle.
Only his enhancements saved him from the sheer power of punches that could rip through battlesteel.
”We never fought, not for real, Kalki,” Daxin snarled as the other man went down on his knees. Kalki looked up, his working eye confused, his face swelling. ”I survived Delta City.”
”I survived Aspen,” Daxin kneed him in the chin, snapping Kalki's head back, his jaw breaking with a loud crack.
”I survived the Immortals Project,” Daxin drove his fist into Kalki's face, teeth shattering and lips splitting.
”I survived Anthill.” Kalki landed on his back with a crash, staring up, his one working eye glazed.
”Shut down the GRC,” Daxin ordered, putting his boot on Kalki's chest.
The bridge crew set about following his orders.
Daxin looked down at Kalki. ”The Imperium infected you with some kind of sickness, brother,” he said softly. ”But you cannot just omnicide everyone you come across.”
”Do it, Burgerlander. Kill me, as is your people's ways,” Kalki burbled through blood and broken teeth.
”You couldn't find Burgerland on a map, much less tell me what it really was. But the past is gone, brother, as is our nations and all of those grievances,” he said softly. He looked up. ”Bellona, Menhit, we need you,” he said softly.
With a puff of purple smoke the two women appeared. Bellona wore an Imperium Admiral's uniform, Menhit was clad in ornate heavy assault power armor.
”Take our brother back to Earth. Back to his beloved Andes Mountains,” Daxin said. He looked down at the half conscious Immortal at his feet. ”Perhaps some time home will heal his spirit.”
”You did not slay him,” Bellona said, gurgling slightly. ”You remembered that he is, and always will be, our beloved brother.”
”His deeds are not yet done. He still has tasks of great importance to perform,” Menhit said softly. She moved over to Kalki and knelt down, touching the unbruised side of his face. ”Like us, he is in great pain. The Imperium has twisted and warped our brother into a mockery of the loving man he once was.”
”Take him home, Menhit,” Daxin said. He looked at the planet, which still sat in the holotanks and on the viewscreen. ”Alert Green Thomas and Cybernetic Peter, as well as Kibuka, I need their help.”
”As you will, Eldest Brother,” Menhit said. She closed her eyes.
Kalki and Menhit suddenly dissolved into long strings that writhed and twisted and vibrated, still appearing as themselves, with the same coloration, but made entirely out of hair thin strings. With a puff of red and white streaked smoke they were gone.
”And me?” Bellona asked.
Daxin shifted, putting his hands on a railing. ”Keep looking.”
”Are you sure?” Bellona asked. ”Armored Matthias said it is useless, that he has fled the galatic arm toward the core, and bade me to rejoin the war effort.”
”No. I want him found,” Daxin snarled. Lighting flickered off his clenched hands, dancing on the metal bar he was holding. ”Find him, and bring him to me.”
”As you will,” Bellona said.