He stared silently ahead at the orb of stars for a moment, then turned and looked sadly into Patra’s silver eyes. “We tasted blood for the first time in Montreal. We walked over the piles of Seventh Assault’s bodies that covered the streets and we retook the city from the French by walking into their bunkers and killing them. Nothing they had could stop us. The images of the peace accords, the videos of your father signing the Containment Line agreement with the French Premier, all of it was faked. There were no Quebs left when we were through cleaning out the city. We made sure of that.
“You want to know what happened in Chicago? I’ll tell you. We were sent in to contain the rioting after all those churches were bombed. We were sent in to protect the First-Amendment rights of the New White party when they held their reactionary rally. What Milicom didn’t anticipate was the arrival of half a million protesters who started tearing the city apart to get at those racist bastards. We were given the authority to end the riots using any means necessary. Well, some of the Styx felt that using deadly force was the only option, and they opened fire on the crowds, going through the city and killing thousands. We chased after them, tried to save as many civilians as we could.
“It was that taste of blood, the mission to Montreal… The earlier levels of Styx weren’t the safest people to be around in the first place. Convicts, mental patients, people with a history of violence. People who wouldn’t be missed if they didn’t make it back from the light. It wasn’t until level H that Milicom felt confident enough in the orb entry process to send regular soldiers in.
“There were so many wounded and dead in Chicago that day. The Styx who’d opened fire realized what they’d done and fled into the city, trying to escape from Milicom. Those of us who’d stopped them from killing more people were sent after them, since we were the only soldiers capable of bringing them back in. Most of them had to be killed. Some were sent to Santa Fosca. Three of us were hidden.
“It was that taste of blood that woke up their desire to kill again. Eventually, the Milicom Damage Control department had to mindwipe most of the people in Chicago. Subliminal programming on the radio, television, weblink. Most people forgot the Chicago incident. I never did, and I never will.”
Patra had listened in silence, eyes half-closed and staring out blankly from her head. She reached out without looking and took West’s large rough hand in her own small, silver hand. She spoke, looking into the light lazily illuminating their faces.
“Where did you come from? And why’d they have to use you as a weapon?”
West looked over at Patra, not sure if she was addressing the orb or him.
The orb did not answer her questions. They sat in the darkness of the orb chamber, waiting for everything and nothing and the end of the world. West eventually leaned over and he was met halfway by Patra. They held each other in the dim light of the orb until a dull thud from above and a sudden flare-up from within the sphere brightened the room for the briefest of moments.
Patra looked into West’s eyes, which began to shimmer with an inner silver fire. He touched the left side of her face and gently kissed her right cheek.
“It’s beginning.”
a disturbance. the silence is broken.
THE CONTAGION ARRIVES. THE VIRUS APPROACHES.
THE STAR((?))
IT IS FINISHED. THE UPLOAD IS COMPLETE. WE AWAKEN FROM THE STILLNESS.
DIVERT FORCES TO VIRAL INTERCEPT.
WE WILL ERADICATE THE CONTAGION. WE WILL END THE JUDAS VIRUS FOREVER.
PURPOSE BE.
Three miles outside of Diablo.
“Simon?”
He turned, looked up in the direction of Maggie’s lifted arm and pointed finger. “Is it an eclipse?” Their shadows elongated on the frost-covered ground. In the sky, the gray veil had melted from the atmosphere, and for an instant, the sun flashed with its former brilliance.
“I don’t know…”
The sun flashed as it had before, but now it faded, a black pinpoint at its center. The stars came out. Simon was somehow relieved that stars still filled the sky. They had been absent from the heavens for over a month year? decade?.
The points of starlight stretched toward the sun, became white lines of fire. Light was being pulled into the sun.
“Jesus… They’ve made a black hole.” Hayes calmly concluded. “We’re being pulled in.”
The sky was becoming darker. The chill was gone from the air. In fact, it was becoming unpleasantly warm. What will it feel like to die in the sun?
They ran.
Richter basked in the cold light.
He had expected this development. He knew not why.
There would be no more whistling in this lifetime. He would have to leave soon.
Fourteen miles.
He ran.
Just beyond reality, the Enemy converged.
THE PURPOSE WILL BE COMPLETED. THE VIRUS WILL BE ELIMINATED. ETERNITY WILL BE OURS.
The Judas erupted into the When.
They could see it, like an accusing finger jutting into the fading sky, blemishing the southern horizon.
“Diablo,” Flynn intoned.
STAR COLLAPSE INITIATED.
HARVEST OF THIS WHEN IS THEREFORE COMPLETED. THE LOSS OF THE UPLOAD GENERATOR IS A BEARABLE LOSS NOW, BUT THE JUDAS HAVE SHOWN THEIR PRESENCE. THIS SITUATION MUST BE DEALT WITH.
YES.
WEB BREACH INITIATED BY THE JUDAS CAUSED CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO THE PRIMARY PATTERN.
NECESSARY FORCES WILL BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE PATTERN TO COMBAT THE THREAT AND GUARANTEE OUR CARGO’S SAFE TRANSPORT.
HOW LONG((?))
STAR COLLAPSE TOTALITY IN POINT EIGHT DECEMS.
ANOTHER WHEN HOLE WE WILL THEN HOLD. ANOTHER REALITY WILL BE RETURNED TO ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THE OMEGA PATTERN. ANOTHER STEP TOWARD ERADICATING THE JUDAS VIRUS WILL BE SUCCESSFUL.
THE PURPOSE COMES UPON US WITH GREAT SPEED.
PURPOSE BE.
They walked through the dead town, finding no one.
The mine elevator was still functional. They descended.
“It’s down there,” Flynn whispered. “And something else…I can feel it…”
((the enemy is upon us, michael.))
“Yes, Simon.” Zero-Four calmly thrust his arms into the interface gauntlets, felt the reassuring lock that fused his mind to Simon’s.
((malachi and shiva signal their arrival.))
Zero-Four uneasily released his pressure from the interface gauntlets. He contemplated…
“Let’s hold our fire for now, Simon. Let’s see what they can do. Let’s see if they do anything at all.”
((yes, michael.))
They waited.
Richter looked into the shadows.
Two elevators, one already closed. He thought he heard something deep below him, perhaps felt a vibration from within the earth, but dismissed it as his imagination.
He entered the open elevator and began his descent.
“What is it?” Patra was concerned.
“Something…I can feel them. They’re here.”
“The last of the Styx?”
“They’re here.”
The sun died.
The Enemy had changed it, forced it to consume itself, to expand and collapse upon its own core. The phase space trigger placed on one side of the star erupted with a silent white fury and an entire hemisphere of the sphere sickly folded inward, falling forever upon itself. Almost instantly, the bastard child Mercury was sucked in, grotesquely elongated into a conical form as it compressed into the quantum singularity. The sun became a hole in the stream of existence.
A black hole.
A When hole.
Like wolves falling upon an injured ewe, the freshly-downloaded Enemy flew at Simon, ravenous, animal, alien.
{malachi to simon.}
((simon receives.))
{prepare to engage enemy.}
((affirmative, malachi.))
A horde of Enemy vessels converged from all
directions upon Simon, floating alone in the night.
Surely it was unfair, a farce, an Alamo, so many Black surrounding a single Judas vessel.
Surely it was unfair, at least until a—
—FLASH OF LIGHT, STEADY SOMEHOW PURE SOMEHOW SOMEHOW HELL TORE ALL OF TIME EXISTENCE REASON APART A STREAM OF WHITE THAT STRUCK OUT LASHED OUT AT THE ENEMY CUTTING THE DAMNED IN A GREAT SWATHE OF LIGHT COMING FROM NOWHERE UNTIL THEY REALIZED—
—the gunships had arrived, one on each side of Simon. They had not simply faded from the Whenstream but seemed to bring all the fires of hell with them in a sudden, painful burst of brilliant silver.
In the great path of destruction, Enemy vessels were torn from existence in whole or in part. Large dead pieces of the Enemy pirouetted through the void. The great silver slivers of Enemy blackened and turned to dust in the wake of the Judas fury.
The survivors slowed their mad charge, pondered the consequences, halted. Silent thoughts flickered between them through the vast web mind. Most of the Enemy began to Shadow away while the others began their assault on the Judas once more, attempting a diversion.
((malachi, shadow on enemy contrail coordinates.))
{but i have orders to—}
((i’m giving you new orders. follow them.))
{commander kilbourne specifically said—}
((follow them. do you want them to escape? they’re in the fucking stream! they’re trying to throw us off their trail, and we can’t let them track us back to command or get away. we need to know when the next upload target is and that means i need you to follow them into the tube. shiva and i will follow you as soon as we’re done here.))
{…yes, simon.}
((shiva? they’re being generated near the star. i need you to knock out their download capability. prepare to engage the rest of them.))
[understood.]
They set about the hunt.
The mineshaft ended abruptly in a metal bulkhead that opened into the internal excavation, an area that had static dust suppressors and a sophisticated airflow system to preserve the integrity of the dig site. The outer door led into an airlock of sorts where clean suits were stored.
Flynn and Hayes looked at the massive metal bulkhead. Hayes pointed down, indicating the perhaps-freshly-made boot tracks that led to and from the airlock.
“Well, Ms. Flynn, shall we go in?” Hayes inquired, studying the face of his traveling companion as memories from years past flooded her senses.
“Call me Maggie,” she said, distracted. Her hand shifted as she reached for the lock. “We’ve come this far—” She paused, alerted.
A noise from behind them. The other elevator creaked to a halt.
“Someone’s back there.” She turned from the door, shifting both of her arms…
“Are you sure it’s not—”
“I’m sure.”
She flashed into the shift. Hayes followed her example. They would be ready.
Malachi reluctantly faded from view to track the fleeing Enemy. Shiva departed to round up any of the Black who had remained in solar orbit, where sensors showed a rather large disturbance of phase space as the Enemy frantically gathered every last bit of energy from the system they could before they departed. Simon was left alone in the midst of several dozen Enemy.
Simon did not fear the Enemy. These were the creatures that had killed Maggie. These were the creatures upon which he would release the fury of centuries.
He watched the departure of his gunship escorts with a mixture of trepidation and admiration. Where had Command gotten that level of wartech? The gunships were of a prototype class, unnamed as of yet. With such a new generation of vessels, perhaps the Judas could yet retake eternity. But still…
{commander kilbourne specifically said…….
Kilbourne would have some questions to answer if Simon ever made it out of this. Now down to business.
The fearless Enemy began their charge once again. Simon almost pitied these mindless slaves of the web mind-essence, determined to carry out their orders even if it meant certain death. Purpose be. Who had they been before they had been uploaded? He wondered if he had known any of the people he was about to kill in the past, and he forced the thought quickly from his mind. They were not people. They were the Enemy.
This Enemy and their damned Purpose.
Simon remembered the countless dead.
He remembered his dear, sweet Maggie.
In an ecstasy of the purest rage, he began the kill.
Ember.
Hayes looked at her stony, determined eyes.
They had fallen in love while traveling through the wastes of a dead America. There could be no more denial. He knew that he would gladly give his life for her. She stood, her eyes suddenly burning with an inner, mercurial fire.
“Who’s there?”
A man emerged from the shadows, shifting from the darkness.
Hayes stood silently. Ember’s face brightened in recognition.
“Richter,” she said, almost inaudibly. “I didn’t know if you would make it.”
Richter came closer, gazed at them with eyes that were completely silver. Chillingly silver.
“Ember Flynn.” A voice like darkness. “It’s been a long time.”
Michael Zero-Four floated in the virtual reality battle chamber, seemingly suspended in the midst of the battle. From various ports along the spherical expanse wires snaked from the walls and attached to his flesh. He thrust his arms into the interface gauntlets that merged his essence with Simon’s. He felt Simon access his bioneural energy to focus the fury of the Shadow. He began to shift…
Zero-Four became one with Simon, and he was lost in the game of eternity, the bliss of the kill.
The power of the neural attachments tore through his being, and he fought to contain the control of the massive Golgotha warship.
He spun in the blackness, his eyes blazing with the fire of the Shadow, and his hand, encompassed by miniscule neurowires, thrust outward at the virtual image of an approaching Enemy.
The kill was good.
Hayes looked warily at Flynn. “You know him?”
“James Richter. We were deployed to Quebec and Chicago together.”
Richter looked from Ember to Hayes, judging him.
“He’s the only L-level Styx left.”
“Why?”
“…In Chicago,” she chose her words carefully, “something happened. Several Styx went—Several Styx got out of control. We had to—”
“We killed them.” Richter whispered. “They started killing civilians, so we hunted them down and killed them. I eliminated the other L.” His voice echoed in the darkness.
The locking mechanism of the inner door activated, and it began to swing outward. Flynn and Hayes spun around, ready to confront anything. Richter stood calmly.
West.
Flynn shifted back down, solidified.
“Flynn. Richter.” West looked from one to the other. “It’s good to see you, given the circumstances. Who’s this?”
“Simon Hayes,” Flynn answered. “He’s with me. He’s one of us now.”
Richter shook his head. “That explosion, a few weeks ago. You shifted into him to save him? Jesus Christ, Flynn, you know we aren’t supposed to—”
“Stay the hell out of my mind, Richter.” She regarded him with a raw fury.
The earth shook below them.
“What was that?” Flynn braced herself on the airlock.
“They’ve collapsed the sun.” Richter spoke gravely. “The planet’s being pulled in. Everything’s being pulled in…We have to get out of here.”
“How do you—”
“Can’t you hear them? They’re so close… West, the orb?”
“It’s still there.”
A woman stood within the vessel, a woman who was not entirely a woman. From under the fatigue jacket she wore, a metallic mesh stretched across her skin, encompassing parts of her body completely. She gazed upon them with si
lver eyes.
Flynn gasped in disbelief. “Patra Jennings?”
They entered the vessel in the earth.
Zero-Four worked in silence in the battle chamber of Judas Golgotha Simon, aided by his neural links into the vessel’s weapon system. Simon targeted each Enemy vessel, harnessed it and drew it intimately close before puncturing its hull with focused Shadow energy, releasing the phase energy and killing that particular extension of the Enemy mind-essence, erasing that particular line of code from the Omega pattern. From all directions, Simon’s prey flew at him, and he snared them mercilessly. Simon passed judgment on the damned. After all of the eternities lost, after all of the friends he had seen killed, after all of the impossibilities had been realized, the time had come to loose his wrath upon the Enemy.
They followed West down the slightly canted corridor, weaving in and out of destroyed areas and remnants of the military team’s equipment left from the initial investigation, so long ago.
“It’s fading, but it’s still operating.” West motioned.
They entered the spherical orb chamber. It hung in the center of the room, a dying onyx jewel.
THEY WILL PAY FOR THIS.
THE INTERCEPTION TEAM((?))
MASSACRED. A TRAP. THE VERMIN UTILIZE NEW, POWERFUL WEAPONS. THEY HAVE ACQUIRED NEW CODE FROM SOMEWHERE. THEY HAVE HARNESSED UNBELIEVABLE POWERS—
IT DOES NOT MATTER. THAT WHEN HAS ALREADY BEEN HARVESTED. WHAT MATTERS NOW IS THE NEXT WHEN. WE WILL JUMP FURTHER THIS TIME. WE WILL THROW THEM OFF OUR TRAIL.
DON’T YOU SEE((?)) THEY WILL COME—
SILENCE. WE WILL OVERCOME. THE VIRUS WILL BE CONTAINED AND PURGED FROM THE SYSTEM. OMEGA WILL BE COMPLETED. WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS.
WILL WE((?))
fury, tempered with the inception of fear. the black closes
The vessel around them was shaking disturbingly.
“Not long now,” Richter whispered.
West had informed them about how he and Patra had arrived. Ever since, Richter had been studying the orb, thinking to himself. Contemplating.
He looked at Patra. “What was it like, to be one with them?”
“It was hell. Billions of souls, trapped in hell.”
“When you two went in, it hurt the aliens. Badly.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s eternity in there. It’s heaven in there.”
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