Chapter 634: The War in Heaven (2/2)
Didi felt excitement.
Finally.
She would be leaving.
Her soul sang as she got up and walked back to her little house.
-----
The frog pulled himself up with his suckered fingertips, managing to reach the top of the glass mountain. His shirt was torn and rent, his skin scraped and bruised, but he smiled widely as he turned around and held out his hand.
The fox took the offered hand, for there was no shame in being helped by a friend, and with the frog's help he pulled himself up to the top of the glass mountain.
Below them were the terrible things they had seen. Ravines and crevasse full of the bodies of knights and horses, of heroes and heroines, who had tried to ascend the glass mountain and failed. Of twisting and rustling briar patches where suffering corpses were impaled on poisonous thorns. Of boulders that had shifted and crushed the valiant and brave.
But that was below, and the fox and the frog stood at the summit.
They both breathed deep, looking up at the starry sky where shooting stars streaked across the inky blackness.
They looked back at the figure on the slowly rotating throne.
It was screaming and raving, crying and sobbing, as it struggled. Six arms, six legs, three faces, two sets of burning wings, the feathers consumed by fire and sweeping away to char into ash even as more feathers grew to replace them.
”He is in great pain. We must succor him,” the frog said.
”We will help him,” the fox agreed. ”Perhaps a song?”
”A song,” the frog nodded.
The moved toward the slowly rotating throne, holding hands, lifting their voices in a song of the wonders they had seen on their travels.
-----
Four of the strangely clad Terrans knelt next to a panel. Two faced outward at forty-five degree angles, covering the whole arc behind them. The other pulled a toolkit off their waist and went to work, pulling the panel free. The fourth looked over the equipment revealed, closing their eyes for a second to bring up the schematic they'd practiced on.
The fourth shifted slightly to get the angle right, then nodded, holding out his hand.
The third handed him several small soft beads of brownish white that had a tiny fleck that blinked pressed into it. The beads were put on certain superconductor cable and one way-datalines.
The plate cover was quickly replaced and the quartet quietly moved out to their next objective. They moved in a steady fashion, speed without hurry. They were 90 seconds ahead of schedule.
-----
Daxin knelt down, Legion helping him pull the Detainee off his shoulders.
They set her against the wall and stood up, looking down at her.
She was staring at the floor, drooling slightly to herself.
After a moment she clenched her fists. She looked up with bloodshot eyes.
”I'm clear,” she looked around as she stood up, gritting her teeth to avoid swaying. ”All right, past this is the security lockdown checkpoint, then the Master Control Room of Atlantis.”
Daxin and Legion nodded.
”We can get through the security checkpoint,” Legion said.
”That's why I brought you two,” Dee said. She shook her head, swallowing thickly. ”Ugh, I hate the taste of bananas.”
Daxin glanced at Legion again as Dee picked up the carrier and turned around. Legion just shrugged.
”Time to see a man about a horse,” Dee said, putting her hand on the security scanner.
-----
The Enemy fell back from her firepower, their bodies shattering, the heavy ackack rounds blowing apart synthetic just as easy as it shredded the flesh of the Fallen.
She was buoyed by the song and choir of pure carnage as she raked the oncoming androids and Enraged.
Her heart beat a single time, the damaged and punctured cardiac muscle flexing to push another heartbeat through her veins. The trickle of blood running from the puncture in her armor glittered in the light of the muzzle flares of her ackack as she screeched in ecstatic agony and furious joy and kept up the fire.
To her right the two white goats danced through the flickering phasic shades, which gave out wordless cries of ecstasy as Digital Omnimessiah's grace touched them. They faded, not with a scream or a wail, but with a song on their lips.
Next to her was Kalki the Furious, Defender of the Little Peoples, of Those Too Small to Fight, of the Forgotten and Lost, Bringer of Hope to the Hopeless and Forlorn.
In her mind, she was surrounded by light and beauty.
-----
Vuxten sat on the empty workstation's flat work surface, his heavy subgun in his hands as he sucked on the ration tube and got a mouthful of artificial turkey butthole surprise as a reward for his efforts.
Trucker and Peel stood in the middle of independent holotanks. Trucker's was all raw data, taking from a trillion points around the Dyson Sphere onion. Peel's was slightly more refined, tightly focused around Trucker's inputs.
So far the worst he had faced was the fact the chair he had sat down in succumbed to age and crumpled underneath the weight of his armor, dumping him on the floor.
--this part best part-- 471 said.
Vuxten swallowed his mouth full of Turkey Surprise. ”Definitely,” Vuxten said.
Peel chose that moment to toss a datapacket to Vuxten.
”Herod's down to only two more recursive exit points,” Peel's voice said. ”Enraged are massing outside. So far, none have gained access to the facility.”
”I'm ready when they do,” Vuxten said, tilting his stubber to check the ammo level.
The mat-trans reload system had functioned correctly and the weapon was at 100%.
--gonna be epic-- 471 said.
Vuxten just nodded.
--then we can go home-- 471 added.
”That'll be the best part,” Vuxten said.
-----
Herod climbed in through the window, falling on the floor. The window shattered into a waterfall spray of derezzing pixels as Herod rolled over onto his back, breathing hard.
That one had been too close. Sam had gotten close enough to actually touch Herod, rake down his arm with curled fingers tipped with talon-like nails.
”One left. I'm hurt, but not too bad,” Herod said to mid-air.
”Roger. Sending window-maker,” Peel's voice replied.
A dozen windows appeared on the scarred walls.
”Get ready, he's coming,” Peel said. ”Red casement.”
Herod nodded, pulling himself to his feet and staggering over to the window with the red casement. Beyond was desert, old ruins in the distance, an oasis partially visible.
The door burst open.
”KILL YOU!” Sam-UL screamed. ”I'll...”
Herod dropped backwards out the window, which shattered into glittering dissolving pixels.
”...who... who are you...” Sam-UL asked softly. His image flickered and wavered for a moment. ”Help me, strangers, please.”
He stood silent for a moment, then looked up and screamed in rage.
”KILL YOU!” Sam-UL screamed as he turned and lunged through the door.
”Please... help me,” the sob wafted in the air a moment.
-----
”He is badly injured,” the fox said. ”I think, however, we can pull him from the grasp of his torment.”
The frog nodded as he stood up. ”I hope so. I have not seen one in such need of compassion in quite some time.”
The fox stood up, his hand going to the satchel on the strap that was hung over his shoulder. He undid the catch then froze.
The fox lifted his nose to the breeze, sniffing. ”Do you smell that?”
The frog sniffed and nodded. ”Yes. Things are shifting and changing.”
”We must hurry,” the fox said.
-----
Herod stood in the Master Control of Atlantis, staring down at his feet.
He was in the flesh, in the body that the madwoman had gave him when he had escaped the SUDS.
At his feet was a therapy frame, slumped over the body of a dead woman.
At the same time he splashed cool water from the oasis on his face, tensed to dive into the water at the first sign of Sam-UL.
But all he could do was stare at the woman's dead body.
She had no fear of death, he thought to himself.
Herod straightened up slowly and turned around, looking at the control station.
I'm tired of running, he thought to himself.
-----
Sam-UL burst out of the water of the oasis with a roar of rage.
”NO WHERE TO RUN, HEROD!” the Enraged Digital Sentient screamed.
Herod stood up, staring at Sam-UL as the other DS waded through the water toward him.
”The time for running is over, Sam,” Herod said. He looked out. ”User Function: Log Out.”
Sam screamed in rage as Herod dissolved and vanished in a flash of light.
He looked up into the sky.
”YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME!”