Kaon inclined his head. "We were never on the humans' side."
Galan nodded. "I know." With that, he raised his arms and unleashed a dazzling stream of fire. Before the rest of the Sythians could react, the drones opened fire, too, and in seconds all of the Sythians lay motionless on the ground, their armor smoking from myriad holes. Atta watched, speechless, as Galan walked over to Kaon and stood over the Sythian's body.
Kaon hissed something, proving that he was still alive, and Atta's translator whispered into her helmet: "Why?"
"You said it yourself, you're not on humanity's side, but Omnius is, and he doesn't need your help. What he needs is for you to get out of the way."
Galan either had his own translator—which Atta doubted—or more disturbing still, he actually understood Sythian. Kaon hissed and Galan unleashed another stream of laser fire, reducing Kaon's head to a charred and smoking ruin.
Turning back to Atta, Galan smiled anew and said, "Now, where were we?" He raised his glowing palms in her direction and strode up to her. "I believe you were about to tell me where your jamming device is hidden."
Atta shook her head. "I'd sooner die."
"Yes, I can see that death doesn't frighten you. Someone else's death on the other hand..." He glanced meaningfully at the Rictans. "It would be better for everyone if you simply tell me what I need to know."
Atta set her teeth and thrust out her chin. "Go frek yourself."
Galan's palms changed directions and he aimed at the Rictan closest to her. Lasers screeched, and the man fell with a clatter of armor. The designation on his left breastplate marked him as Rictan Three, Hop. Atta gaped at the blackened holes in his armor.
"You were saying?" Galan asked.
Chapter 45
Ethan wondered who Jena had found—Peacekeepers, drones, or Union forces?
They walked through aisle after aisle of ruined data towers. Bodies littered the ground. Bits and pieces of drones lay scattered through the rubble, some of them still twitching and sparking.
They passed a man without a face, and Trinity whimpered.
"Don't look," Alara said.
Then they came to a room with a gaping hole in the far wall, and this one was cluttered with the bodies of Peacekeepers, too. They followed Jena across the room and through the hole in the wall. On the other side they found at least a hundred drones standing in a circle around a huddled, kneeling group of Union soldiers. A lone Peacekeeper with a royal blue cape, a strategian, stood before them. The Union soldiers' helmets were off, and Ethan found he recognized them immediately. It was General Atta and the Rictans—what was left of them, anyway. One of the Rictans was crumpled on the floor with a smoking hole in his chest.
"It seems you have outlived your usefulness," the Peacekeeper said to Atta before turning to address the newcomers. "Peacekeeper Faros tells me you know where the Eclipser is."
"No, but I can find it," Ethan said.
Atta's eyes found him and abruptly widened. "We thought you were dead!" she exclaimed.
"I got cut off during the fighting," Ethan explained.
Atta appeared to notice Alara and Trinity, and a wry smile crawled onto her lips. "You sure you didn't run away?"
"I didn't run. You thought I was dead. Why do you think that is? My comm beacon dropped off your scanners. You couldn't see me any better than I could see you."
"You could have tried to find us."
"I did, but I ended up behind enemy lines."
"Well, looks like you had enough time to save your family. Good for you. Now you're going to bring Omnius back online. You're two for two."
"You frekkin' traitor!" Magnum roared, jumping to his feet.
The Peacekeeper standing guard over them raised both palms to fire. "Halt!" he said, and Magnum just stood there, his chest rising and falling quickly with barely-contained fury.
"This is the only way, Atta," Ethan explained, his voice muffled by the air filter he wore. "We can't win, but we can stop Therius from killing everyone out of spite."
Atta shook her head, speechless.
The Peacekeeper with the blue cape smiled and walked over to them. Ethan was startled to find he recognized the man. It was Galan Rovik, the Peacekeeper who'd guided them through their Choosing Ceremony when they'd first arrived on Avilon all those years ago.
"Rovik?" Ethan asked.
"I'm surprised you remember me," he replied.
This was the man who had relayed Omnius's warning that he would cheat on his wife. Ethan shook his head. "I should have listened to you."
Galan cocked his head.
"Never mind. We need to disable the Eclipser."
"Yes," Galan replied. "I'm glad you've chosen the right side in this war, but I am curious... why are you helping us, Ethan? You were no fan of Omnius."
Ethan explained about the nanite bombs.
Rovik looked shaken. "If they drop those bombs before Omnius transfers the Lifelink data, then we're all going to die. Where is the Eclipser?" he demanded.
"It should be around here somewhere..." Ethan said, turning in a quick circle. "It was disguised to look like a piece of debris."
Galan gave orders for the drones to spread out, to look for any debris that didn't fit in. Moments later they found something, a large chunk of castcrete buried under a pile of self-healing bactcrete debris.
"That's it," Ethan confirmed.
"You're such a skriff, Ethan," Atta breathed.
He rounded on her. "Would you rather Therius kill us all?"
Atta clenched her jaw. "He hasn't made any threats yet. We don't even know—"
"That he'll use the nanites? Yes we do. You know Therius just as well as I do."
Atta scowled but said nothing, and Ethan turned his attention to the Eclipser. A pair of drones carried it between them and dropped it at Galan Rovik's feet. He went down on his haunches to study the device. "Clever camouflage. Are you sure this is it? Surely such a powerful device cannot be so tiny..."
"I'm sure," Ethan said.
"Think about what you're doing," Atta said, her eyes on the Peacekeeper. "You're going to bring Omnius back online. Is that really what you want?"
Galan looked up. "Why wouldn't I? Life has never been so sweet! We live forever, and we can get away with murder! There's no longer any need for us to worry about right and wrong. Our only guiding principle is to follow Omnius's will, and He is faithful to those who are faithful to Him. Our future as a species is secure! In the face of that, freedom is overrated, Miss Heston."
Galan rose from his haunches and backed away from the device. Once he reached a safe distance, he gestured to the device with his thumb pointing down. The drones turned and fired in unison with a blinding stream of crimson fire that left Ethan's ears ringing and his eyes seeing spots. When it was over, the Eclipser was a smoking ruin.
Galan turned to them with the symbol of Avilon glowing bright on his breastplate. "Omnius has something he'd like to say to all of you." The symbol flared brightly and a blinding light suddenly appeared in their midst.
"This insurrection has come to an end," a booming voice said. "Stop your fighting, and listen to your God! My fondest wish is for all of my children to be happy, but this invasion has brought to my attention that many of my people are actually unhappy. I cannot help but feel responsible for this. I have lied to you, yes, but only with the best of intentions. To prove that to you, I'm going to give everyone what they want. You're all going to be allowed to choose one last time. For anyone who wishes to be free from me, all you need to do is stay where you are and stop fighting. Avilon is yours. You win. For those who have lost loved ones in the fighting, rest assured they will all be returned to you just as they were.
"Yet for everyone who would rather spend eternity in paradise with me, simply tell me so, and I will come and get you. New Avilon is here, in orbit, and it is waiting for you! I have built an entire planet for you and your children to share eternity with me. It will grow as you grow, with infinite space
to accommodate all of your children for countless generations to come. In New Avilon there will be no Null Zone, nor any need for one. Nothing will be hidden from you, and no one will be forced to stay, but for those who do—the whole universe shall be your birthright, and we will explore it and delve into its mysteries together."
Ethan frowned, his eyes watering against the dazzling brilliance of the light radiating from Galan Rovik's chest. Something about what Omnius said didn't add up. If he was suddenly loosening the reins, then why not do so sooner? And why spend years seeding the Getties with nanites to cover up all the evidence of his lies if he ultimately planned to reveal the truth anyway?
Omnius went on, "To prove that from now on I will not hide the truth from you, there is one final thing you should all know that not even this Therius, the so-called Redemptor, will tell you.
"The reason I seeded the Getties with nanites was not because I wished to erase the evidence that I had lied to you. It was always my plan to reveal the truth when the timing was right. The real reason I seeded the Getties with nanites is because your real enemy is still out there.
"The Great War took place in the Getties Cluster. History tells us your ancestors were fighting among themselves. A third of them died in the fighting, a third escaped, and a third remained behind.
But all of that is a simplification, an oral history told and retold by the survivors who came to the Adventa Galaxy and settled on Advistine.
"In order to make a small population more viable, your ancestors spliced DNA from a local species of primates with their own, creating humanity. Forced to start over, you went through a period of tribalism and barbarism, and over time you forgot where you came from. It wasn't until you began noticing gaps in your evolution that you hypothesized humanity might have had an extra-planetary origin.
"The gaps in your evolution are filled by the species whose bones I found littering the Getties Cluster. Buried with them in the ruins of your lost civilization, I found quantum technologies and adapted them for our purposes. The people who possessed those technologies, your ancestors, are the ones the Codices call Immortals.
"They destroyed the entire Getties Cluster on a cosmological scale, making its worlds dark, cold, and uninhabitable. Then they left your ancestors there to die. Some of them escaped and came here, to the Adventa Galaxy, and you are their descendants. The ones who stayed behind eventually evolved into Gors and Sythians.
"But I suspect the ones who won the war also left the Getties Cluster. I seeded the Getties with nanites in my search for them, but I didn't find them. Now the entire cluster is teeming with self-replicating drones that will act as a buffer between us and the Immortals if they do someday return. Hopefully by then, I will be powerful enough to defeat them, but if not, perhaps they will encounter my nanites before they encounter us, and our enemy will be defeated before they even realize that a group of you escaped to the Adventa Galaxy.
"I was wrong to lie about all of this, and I hope that in time all of you can find a way to forgive me."
Ethan gaped at that explanation. It all made sense, but he was reluctant to trust Omnius after so many lies and so many betrayals.
"Now, the time of the final choosing is at hand," Omnius said. Please think carefully about your choice. If you wish to be free of me, all I ask is that you don't try to leave Avilon yet. There is still a war being fought, and I do not wish to see anyone else die today. But take heart! I have heard your cries for freedom, and you shall have what you desire."
The blinding light disappeared, and Ethan was left blinking spots from his eyes. It was too much for him to take in all at once. He couldn't decide what to make of it, but one thing was clear—they had to leave Avilon. The very fact that Omnius had told them not to was suspicious.
"What a load of krak!" Atta said.
Galan turned to her and shook his head. "I'm surprised that you are not embracing your newfound freedom."
"What freedom?" she challenged. "You still have a hundred drones watching over us, ready to shoot."
Galan smiled patiently. "You came here to cause death and destruction. If I let you go, will you not cause more of the same? You do not trust Omnius, therefore, I do not trust you." Turning to Ethan, Rovik nodded and said, "Or you."
"What?" Ethan blinked. "We were the ones who brought Omnius back online!"
"And he is grateful, but trying to escape now could get you killed. The time will come when it will be safe for you to leave Avilon, but not yet. Now, enough questions. It's time to go. Leave your weapons and armor behind."
No one made a move to follow that order.
"If you won't come willingly, I'll stun you all and have my drones carry you out," Galan said.
Ethan watched Jena draw the pulse rifle from the holster on her back and aim it at the Rictans. "You heard him!" she said.
Ethan gaped at her, wondering how she could change sides so quickly. She'd been ready to abandon Omnius not so long ago. Maybe he'd convinced her with his speech about freedoms being restored.
Somehow Jena's order worked where Galan's hadn't. Atta and the Rictans began cracking out of their armor. A few of them glanced at their fallen squad mate as they did so.
"Everyone who died today will be resurrected. You have Omnius's word," Galan reminded them.
What's that worth? Ethan wondered.
"He didn't have a Lifelink," Atta said.
"Whose fault is that?" Galan countered. "But don't worry, that man is alive and well here on Avilon. Omnius resurrected all of you here years ago. You're just copies of copies."
Ethan exchanged glances with his wife, and Galan smiled.
"Makes you wonder which copy is the real one, doesn't it? Come. It's time for us to go."
Chapter 46
Farah woke up in a daze in the middle of complete chaos. People shouted; the ground trembled under her feet. No, not the ground—the deck, she realized, recognizing that she was aboard the bridge of a starship.
Then it all came rushing back: Therius, The Union, Avilon, the attack... and Drone 767 stunning her as she tried to incite a mutiny.
Farah eased off the deck, climbing unsteadily to her feet. Rigid hands helped her up. She was about to turn and thank the officer helping her when she realized that it was none other than the drone who'd shot her in the first place. She recoiled from him.
"I'm fine!" she snapped.
The drone withdrew, and Farah took in the scene around her. Out the viewports she saw the Liberator pouring blinding torrents of energy into a depthless void. Farah could have sworn they were flying through space, but the absence of stars was telling, and so was the faint golden glow shining through the shadowy carpet of clouds racing beneath them. Avilon had been cast into an artificial night by the shadow of Omnius's Icosahedron.
Crimson light poured from the Liberator's laser cannons, drawing bright orange flares from the void as enemy fighters exploded all around them. Farah actually felt those explosions come rattling through the hull of the venture-class cruiser as supersonic shock waves of shrapnel went hissing off their shields. Alerts and alarms blared almost constantly. Shouts from bridge crew filled the air.
Farah rushed up to the captain's table to join Therius and see how the battle was going, putting aside for the moment that he was the one who had given the order to stun her.
But she didn't really need to see the tactical map to know they were losing the fight. Enemy fighters harried them to all sides, and the Liberator rocked with a near-constant roar of exploding ordinance.
It took Farah a moment to realize what that meant. Avilonian ordinance was all quantum-fired, teleported instantly to their targets, and if they were firing quantum weapons now, that meant that Omnius was back online.
Farah reached the captain's table, breathing hard not from exertion, but from sheer panic. "Therius! What happened? Why is the Eclipser offline?"
He turned and blinked pale blue eyes at her, a wan smile stretching his lips taut. He looked all-together too
calm for her liking. "You're awake," he said. "Good. I wouldn't want you to miss this. It's time to initiate the Armageddon Protocol."
Suddenly all of the crew's frantic activity ceased. Silence rang. The finality of Therius's command seemed to echo from the walls, whispering death to anyone who would listen. They'd all heard the rumors about the nanite bomb plot.
"You can't!" Farah screamed. "What's the point of freedom if no one is alive to appreciate it?" The crew seemed to be in agreement with that. Farah assumed she'd missed the part where Therius had delivered his ultimatum.
"Omnius already surrendered," Lieutenant Devries said from the comms, revealing just how much Farah had really missed.
"And it's a trick," Therius said. "Humanity will never be free as long as Omnius is the one calling the shots. It's time to use the greatest weapon of all—ourselves. We're going to deprive Omnius of his people."
Farah gaped at Therius in disbelief. Omnius had surrendered! Therius had accomplished what he'd set out to do, but like a petulant child who'd gotten his way only to decide that it wasn't what he really wanted, he was going to drop the nanites and kill everyone anyway!
"No one is going to do it!" she said. Therius turned to her, his eyebrows raised, and she went on, "You're the only one crazy enough to advocate self-annihilation!"
Therius smiled. "Me and a whole army of Sythians. I anticipated resistance and had the nanites relocated to the Sythians' ships before we jumped here. Shallah thinks I don't know of his plans to betray us, but I have always known, and now I have given him the tools he needs to destroy humanity once and for all. By the looks of it, he has already begun to use them."
Therius nodded to the tactical map. Farah looked down and saw Sythian Command Ships racing down from the heights of Avilon's atmosphere, skimming low over Celesta. There was only one reason for them to get that close.
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