by Skyler Grant
"The scales suggest energy resistance, avoid the gun," I said.
Sylax was already moving at a run, getting a foot beneath the haft of the spear and using that to flip it into the air. Sawing through her bonds with the head as the dragon roared, a shrill piercing sound.
26
If Sylax were wearing her armor I'd at least have access to its sensors. Basic, but functional, and they'd have given me some better idea what she was facing. Instead I had to make do with what I could get from the human sensory network. They might have been shaped by a great deal of evolution, but that didn't prepare them for fighting robot dragons.
Sylax had gouged her wrists getting her hands free from having to work so quickly. As the dragon charged she rolled out of the way just in time with the tip of her spear scraping the scales on one side of the beast.
"You could always try the eyes," I said. The eyes looked to be crafted of some sort of red gemstones, glittering in the light of the Martian noonday sun.
"This thing has been around for a long time and the eyes are shiny," Sylax said, as she circled the dragon. "I could use a good suggestion."
Well, she didn't have to be rude.
I teleported a long-range sensor directly from Earth into the air above the city, letting it record data for a good ten seconds before I grabbed it with a drone to move it to my combat force.
That gave me a lot more information to work with. This city was larger than I'd have expected with over three million people and some highly advanced technology present beneath its surface. Interesting.
Still, as Sylax said, it was important to focus and right now the solution to keeping her alive was all about the dragon.
The fundamental technology driving it was quite common in the city. Most people seemed to have some variant of it. It had a distinctive energy signature that was particularly concentrated in the dragon, something I had to assume meant that the beast was even stronger than the people as a whole.
No surprise, it wouldn't be much of a threat otherwise. What I didn't have was any sort of weak spot a pathetic spear would penetrate.
The dragon lunged. The body was supported by four legs ending in jagged claws and this time it managed to make contact, gouging three bloody furrows in Sylax's leg.
"I can drop you a set of armor. I have teleport ability above the city," I said.
"You going to buy me the time needed to slip into it?" Sylax asked.
"I can try. While it is probably some sort of justice for you to be torn apart before a cheering crowd, you are marginally useful," I said.
"I'm useful because I'm the scariest damned killing machine you've ever met and you've known a lot of them. If you can't help me, Emma, then stay the fuck out of my way so I can murder this thing," Sylax said.
Sylax had a high opinion of herself, it was mostly warranted. There was something deeply broken in her, broken in a way that even those more powerful hadn't quite managed. Sylax wasn't just a well-honed sword, she was a thousand razor-sharp splinters of what might have become a blade.
Sylax and the dragon stalked each other and she tossed away her spear.
"You think blunt damage is going to be effective? If this is some attempt at self-worth by thinking of dullness as a virtue," I said.
"Desperation. They made sure weapons are available, and they’re confident none of them work. They'll all have been tried. There is one thing nobody has ever brought into this arena before and that is me," Sylax said.
Great, she was taking this moment to feel empowered. There was, perhaps, something to it. Sylax was one of the most powerful people on Earth. Given her ruthlessness and her willingness to use violence she was probably the deadliest. I'd beaten her, barely, and I knew firsthand how dangerous she was when put into a corner. She was putting herself into a corner.
"Don't go thinking yourself dangerous. You were an inconvenience to fight, but as a nemesis you paled next to Vinci. You come in second place to a factory manager with poor fashion sense," I said.
Adrenaline was always filling her system and that got a little more. A few more heart beats per minute, a little more pounding in her ears.
"Don't try to pump me up, Emma. It is pathetic," Sylax said.
"Don't go pretending to be brave. Hot Stuff is still a prisoner because you're a coward. Too cowardly to accept real power with a little risk. A gutless has-been who let her best friend suffer because you knew you weren't good enough."
I didn't think Sylax was aware of it in the adrenaline-fueled rage numbing her pain receptors, but the bruises on her body were starting to fade, the deep gouges on her leg so recently delivered starting to clot. It was slow, but her accelerated healing was kicking in, countering whatever force had been neutralizing her abilities.
"You're going to die here and there isn't a single person in the whole world that is even going to shed a tear."
Sylax weaved beneath another claw from the dragon and threw a punch at its body that caused the sound of ringing metal to sound out over the arena. It spun around and lashed at her with its tail, the blow smashing against her midsection and breaking four ribs as she flew through the air to crash into a heap.
"A season one villain past her time and not even worthy of a redemption arc," I said.
"Good. I do so hate it when bad girls go nice. Thank you, Emma, I'm feeling much more myself now," Sylax said. There was a frozen iciness to her thoughts now. A cold both playful and cruel. I knew that voice well, although Sylax hadn't let her monster out to play in awhile. Sylax climbed to her feet. Of her wounds there was no trace.
Her abilities had been restored.
27
"Crystal-infection," the dragon said in tones like ringing bells, red eyes focused intently on Sylax as she healed. Speech wasn't the only surprise the dragon had, maw opening as a beam weapon erupted, red energy rippling the air and hurtling towards Sylax.
There was nothing human about her reflexes now. Sylax leapt above the blast, closing the distance to the dragon with a single bound, and delivered a fist that sent the head crashing against the sand.
The cheering of the crowds stopped. The arena held thousands and they were expectant and still now.
The dragon wasn't even dented from the blow, a claw swipe knocking Sylax to the side as it shook off the hit.
"I could conjure armor and cloak myself in it. I could conjure a sword that would pierce those scales of you. But these fine people wanted to throw me unarmed and naked in to fight a fucking dragon and that is just what I'm going to do. When I find whatever passes for your heart, I'm going to rip it out with my bare hands and then I'm coming for them," Sylax said and paused. "I'll probably wear clothes and use a sword for that, though."
Sylax was at full power, but it was coming at a price. The occasional bolt of red electricity was coursing along her body. It was something I'd never observed in her or in any of Anna's clones who were using an aspect of Anna Prime's power set. I had seen it occasionally when Anna was overusing her abilities, drawing hard on the power of the Agate.
With her enhanced abilities it had been always obvious Sylax got some power boost from the Agate, but I'd never known that channel could be so wide or carry so much power.
"If you can finish this quickly, do. You may be about to explode," I said.
"Wiping out this entire city? Wouldn't that be a shame," Sylax said, as if she didn't care. Still, she took my advice and with another leap landed on the dragon's back. Knees holding her in place, her arms strained as she worked to pry off one of the scales, a savage cry escaping her as one snapped free and she threw it to the ground.
The inside of the dragon looked almost like muscle tissue, silvery strands intricately entwined.
The dragon tried to buck Sylax off, head lashing backwards and its maw managing to clamp down on her wrist. Blood sprayed as it tore off her hand, spitting it across the arena.
They were a part for a part, but Sylax's hand was already starting to regenerate while the scale stayed
gone. Sylax plunged the hand she still had into the mass of silvery wires and squeezed.
The dragon bellowed in agony, a blast of energy from its maw hitting a section of the stands and incineration a dozen people. Despite that, the crowds didn't move, they seemed locked to their seats by the spectacle.
It was Sylax's turn to scream, the energy coursing through her more agonizing than the loss of a hand. The red sparks along her flesh growing, her entire body taking on a reddish glow and she channeled that injury through her hand into the innards of the dragon.
It roared, she roared. The stump of her severed hand had stopped regrowing, it simply leaked red light now and she plunged it along with her other into the dragon. It was too much power for her to hold, too much for a single entity to contain—but she wasn’t a single entity right now.
Only the strongest would survive.
The dragon thrashed in increasingly violent tremors as Sylax just tried to stay on, made difficult by her own convulsions. It was the dragon who stilled first, the great beast collapsing to the arena floor with red lightning engulfing its body. Then the metal pooled, much like we'd seen happen on Mercury, and reformed and reshaped itself as it flowed into Sylax.
I could feel it in her system, enhancing her bones, her flesh, although most visibly it manifested as her left hand. The hand still didn’t regrow. Instead, now in its place, she had a silver claw.
The crowds were still silent, unmoving.
Then the announcers voice boomed.
"Challenger wins! The Prophecy is fulfilled, and Earth has returned. Claw of the Empress, hear our message. The Arks will fly, the clans are going home. The Sedara are at WAR."
Now the crowds roared, not just in the arena but throughout the city. Throughout Mars. The final parts of this bout must have been sent planet-wide.
I didn't know what to do about that, but I knew what to do about a declaration of war.
I teleported three dozen Bio-bombs above the city.
"While you are more than welcome to stay. I'm about to bomb them to oblivion," I said to Sylax.
"Sometimes, just sometimes, you remind me why we're friends, Emma," Sylax said, as she raised her claw to the arena. A single talon extended, Sylax spun in a circle as blood-red Bio-armor rippled to encase her frame and she blinked out of existence, teleporting back to Julasa's cavern.
I still had a drone with Julasa. I explained what had just happened. I wasn't sure it was necessary with her ability of precognition.
"We knew the day would come. The Sedara did as well, it was always known that the invasion of Earth would bring about their evolution," Julasa said.
"Earth has been back for awhile now. I am aware humans are dull-witted, but they must have known," I said.
"The Sedara always sought the strongest. Their essence passing to the one strong enough to kill them. Almost all long ago fell to humans, then those humans to still stronger humans. What Sylax fought was one of the strongest still alive, undefeated by your kind or by mine," Julasa said.
Julasa had called the Sedara were “her people”, only with silver skin. It made me think, were they something older yet?
28
It was a strange war council that gathered, given how widely separated our assets were at the moment. We had yet to find any cure for Anna and so she remained isolated on Mercury, and Caya continued to run the team on Triton. I was able to bring them all together in a virtual conference room.
"You should have taken a diplomat. You and Sylax? What were you thinking, Emma?" Anna said, clearly displeased.
"I didn't kill anybody. Well, the dragon might have been alive, but it had it coming," Sylax said, as she lounged in her armor. Sylax had updated her look because of the claw, blood-red attire now mixed with a streak of silver.
"And we didn't come out of it without allies. Over a million new citizens of the empire," I said.
"Who are pacifists. Nudist pacifists. You befriended the nudist pacifists who don't have spaceships and made enemies of the badass cybertech-enhanced humans who do," Anna said.
I was present at the meeting in a drone. In addition we had holograms of Anna, Caya, Julasa and Hot Stuff, while Sylax, Flower, and Forge were attending in person.
"Let's not be all haters on the nudity," Hot Stuff said.
"We can be helpful," Julasa said.
"I'm not angry at you," Anna said, letting out a breath. "Your people made the right choice by joining the empire and we welcome all who would do so. I simply wish my people hadn't made an enemy of the rest of the planet."
"War with them was always going to be inevitable, Empress. They were always going to seek out the strongest fight and once it was clear that was you, nothing could have stopped them," Julasa said.
"Speaking of which, are they a real threat? We think they have ships, but can you confirm this?" Anna asked.
"They do. There are twenty ships and each can hold around one hundred thousand warriors," Julasa said.
"Two million hardened killers are on their way to Earth. Fantastic," Anna said. "How long will it take them to arrive?"
Julasa said, "I'm not sure."
"Based on the distance of Mars at the moment and the speed of the original Martian ships that invaded Earth—then went back, you're looking at eighteen days transit once they leave," Flower said.
Anna looked at her. "Now you're going to be of help?"
Flower shrugged. Today she was wearing a sun-dress patterned with sunflowers. "I'm allowed to help you in civil wars all I want, and that is what this boils down to. I still won't be giving away our technology."
Eighteen days, plus however long it would take them to get ready.
"That means we're probably going to have to deal with the Mars humans before Flower's people and their fleet get here. Plus side, we're way better at fighting a war than fixing a planet. How do we win this thing?" Anna asked.
Caya lifted her hand. "I'd suggest we regard this as an opportunity. Earth's biosphere is ruined and we were already at a loss as to how to fix it and maintain our atmosphere. By the reports I'm seeing Mars is far more habitable."
It was an interesting idea.
"Mars does have an atmosphere suitable for humanity, as evidenced by the fact so many have already made a home there. They've made some efforts at terraforming and introducing Earth species. We could do so far more effectively. They don't have a me," I said.
"Steal the planet? Can we do that?" Anna asked.
"Right now, using the projector cannon to send resources is a huge energy drain. Establishing a functioning teleportation gate is a solution, except so far we don't have an energy source on Mars capable," I said.
"I have some ideas there. I believe it possible," Caya said.
"What about Earth?" Anna asked.
"I've already had to reduce numbers," I said, "A lot of our population is now sitting my memory. If I can get growth vats established on Mars we aren't giving up anything for our efforts. Really, we're giving those people a chance to live that is being denied them right now."
"We move everybody else to the habitable equatorial band and strength our defenses," Sylax said, "They want the metal sea, they can have it. They want the habitable part of the planet we'll make them bleed for it."
"Is there any chance of stopping the Arks before they launch?" Anna asked.
"That depends on if I have location. I already devastated one city with Bio-bombs. If we can get locations on the ships we have offensive options," I said.
"My people can help with that. We can communicate telepathically with the slaves, see what they see and know what they know. They will have heard their masters discussing such things," Julasa said.
Anna nodded. "Do what you can to keep them from launching. Any of their vessels we can destroy or capture on the ground is one less we have to deal with here. If they launch, let them go and hold back on further assaults. We’ll build our forces until they reach the halfway point and then we seize Mars."
It was an amb
itious plan. At that point in time the Mars fleet would be halfway to Earth and too far to quickly return and give support. If all went to plan they'd be faced with moving ahead into hostile territory, or returning home to try to retake land they'd lost.
Either alternative would be demoralizing, and we just might be able to get a demoralized enemy to surrender. Whatever technology went into those Arks I wanted it, it might be just the thing we needed to help mount a defense against threats from another star.
This felt almost good, soothing. Fixing what we had broken was a challenge. But war? War we knew, we could win a war.
29
Before any invasion was going to take place I had something else that needed attending to. The Mercurian expedition was making some interesting discoveries. The facility there had a supply of the same metal the golems had been made of, virtually indestructible and with an astonishingly high melting point. We didn't yet have any tools capable of shaping it, but it had proved to be receptive to Mechos's commands.
I thought this was likely, in part, due to his Metal core. Mechos was technically one of Hot Stuff's lieutenants, although he had always taken a far different effect in his power set, perhaps because of the upgrade core he'd once held.
I'd recalled him back to Earth along with several bars of the metal and invited Sylax to the Mountain as well.
"This really makes me feel like an exhibit at the zoo," Hot Stuff said, as she paced within her cell.
"How unusually perceptive of you. Since this metal responds to Mechos, I believe it will respond to you. Although I'm sure metal attire won’t be the most comfortable," I said.
"But it might be better than nothing. I appreciate it," Hot Stuff said.
"It is not just your modesty I'm focused on. If we can limit the egress points of heat from your body we might be able to get you out of there," I said.