“That...” Arthris whispered softly. “That was cruel.”
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“I know. Sometimes, in my darker moments, I hate them for what they did. Forcing me to survive without my consent while they all died. I wept when I was first told, I mourned, I raged... It was weeks before I was in my right mind again and by that point I was healed enough to don my armor once more. Without proper facilities or personnel it took me months to make proper repairs but once I did so I was eager to join the fight once more. You might say I was... suicidal, but the civilians I was with, next to no military personnel had been evacuated with them and at every point I tried to leave they would point this out to me. My leaving them to go fight in a war with no hope of victory was as much a death sentence to them as it was to me. So, I decided to stay with them till I could get them somewhere with at least a modicum of safety, but after that I would seek out the war and I made that clear to them.”
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Arthris was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. “I'm surprised you cared about them so much, after all that had happened. I think even a Dakirin would have difficulty adhering to their code of protecting civilians under such circumstances, if they were really quite possibly the last of their Sect.”
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“Dakirin?” I asked, turning to look at her.
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“One of the most honored and revered of branches of the Judicator Military, the Dakirin aren’t just our most fearsome soldiers, they are lauded for saving more lives, both civilian and fellow soldier alike, than any other branch times two, and they aren’t even the largest branch of our military.”
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I whistled. “They sound like warriors I would wish to fight alongside.”
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“I agree you would, but they’d be the first to correct you on what you just said, they are soldiers, not warriors.” Her tone was strangely solemn as she spoke and I turned my helmed head to stare at her and she simply shrugged. “The creed of the Dakirin is that the way of the warrior is one they deny themselves, for they seek no personal honor, no glory except that of the Dakirin, the Judicators and humanity itself. To them, the title of warrior is a self aggrandising accolade that they refuse to use.”
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I blinked as I looked back toward my path before slowly nodding. “I’d never thought of that before.” I admitted. “Gonna have to think that one over.”
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She nodded. “I’m still mulling it over to be honest, and I grew up with it.” She replied.
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As we made our way down the other side of the mound something about it seemed off to me. I stopped and turned back towards it and tuned up my sensors, probing at the mound and scanning within it when I made a chilling realization.
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“This is a nest.”
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“More like a den.” The little girl said as she stopped and came back to us, not quite so excited now. “But long abandoned. You needn't worry.”
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I turned back to look at her. “Needn't I? The fact that this thing exists at all is terrifying.” The little girl just stared at me, indecisive when Arthris spoke.
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“Why would the existence of some nest be terrifying?” She asked. “Surely whatever lived here is something we can handle.”
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“Hardly.” I answered. “I'm standing on the dead of some of the most elite troops to ever guard these halls and judging by their bones, armor and weapons I have a very good idea of how they died. Couple that with proximity to this nest and I think I know what made it.” I turned to look at Arthris. “Remember when I said the enemy had elite foes they only used on us during the last battles after the Arendelft had left? When the Banishment Protocol was enacted they were stranded here along with any and all others who were still alive. We knew that for our forces that would be nothing but a horrible death sentence and we believed the same of all our foes still trapped on the planet as well. Yet... somehow... they have survived, that much I surmised when we first came here. What I did not expect is that somehow, they aren't just surviving... but thriving and... reproducing.”
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“Reproducing?” Arthris said, looking down at the mound we stood on.
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“Yes... why else build a nest and indeed when I scanned it internally I found not just signs of adult habitation of some kind of nightmarish creature, but of young as well. Droppings, small teeth marks on bones and armor, broken egg fragments...” I now walked down the hill, staring directly at the little girl as I did so till I stood just above her. “How can they, without an adequate food source, possibly be surviving? Let alone thriving? I figured when we first arrived that they must be in some kind of hibernation but I'm starting to see signs that that is not the case.”
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“The den is abandoned.” The little girl said again, as though that answered everything.
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“But only a few years abandoned.” I said. “And this planet underwent the Banishment Protocol thousands of years ago. If factoring in time traversing at a different speed here and assuming it was much slower in this place, that still is hundreds of years at minimum. Even hibernating, these creatures should have struggled to survive after they culled off the population. So tell me, how are they not only surviving, but thriving?” I stared down at the artificially generated image of a little girl only to watch as she blinked out of existence to be replaced by the image of a full grown woman in the warrior robes of the Alvä’Rok, a Warrior Order now long extinct.
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“You have no idea...” She said, now almost on eye level with me but looking directly ahead into my breastplate rather than my eye lenses. “You have no idea, what it is, to watch everyone and everything you ever cared about die... screaming... to actually watch it, helpless to do anything. You were able to actually fight side by side with them.”
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“You control vast defenses, even now.” I said. “You could defend them.”
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“But I wasn't able to!” She said through gritted teeth. “They all died despite all my efforts! I thought, maybe, after the Banishment Protocol I could rally the remaining defenders, keep them alive along with the civilians of which there were still billions and wipe out our enemies before they could kill them all... but I couldn't, those creatures... they slaughtered them all and I couldn't stop them OR... die with them. I was forced to survive... like you were... but unlike you, I never had a choice! They never left me an off switch! They never thought I would need one... and this place...” She gestured around at it, trails of beautifully stitched fabric hanging from her arms. “This place was built to last. It could be countless millennia more before my systems fail, even more than that... please don't judge me.” She closed her eyes as she spoke the last words, shivering.
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“After they wiped out everyone, including their own forces, they started to die out, didn't they.” I said.
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“Yes...” She whispered. “They were the last living things here, even the plant life had died out without a sun to nourish it except in the vast underground hydroponic farms whose systems had remained undamaged, of which there were very few. I was so alone...” She opened her eyes and looked at me now, a crystalline blue with a white frost around the edges of the irises, I'd seen that before somewhere... “They had signs of sentience, they weren't just animals... killers, yes, but not just animals. When, despite their hibernation, they started to die out...”
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“You used the Aqueducts.” I said. She nodded.
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“Aqueducts?” Arthris said, a question in her voice.
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“The Aqueducts were the latest and among the greatest creations our civilization ever made before the end.” I said. “They enabled us to literally create matter out of energy. Perpetuity, eternal resources, we had the very stars in our grasp then... and when the end did come, when we turned on ourselves and the galaxy burned the Aqueducts are what gave us the means to make the Arkanarius ships. Without them that dream would have been only a dream. But... in this instance, the Aqueducts can be used to create food and water. They can sustain populations almost indefinitely, so long as there is energy.”
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Arthris put two and two together as she and her squad stepped around me, her visor facing the image of the AI's form. “You kept these monsters... alive?” She said, incredulity in her voice.
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The woman... slowly nodded, her face towards the ground. “I tried numerous forms of communication, I tried to educate them, to teach them civilization and what's more is, I think... I think they actually understood me. They just... I just don't think they cared. They only used everything I taught them to refine their killing ability. I only made them...”
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“Better killers.” I finished for her. She nodded again.
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Arthris pointed one condemning finger at the image of the woman. “This...” She said, “This is why. This is why artificial intelligence is condemned, they have no morals, no voice inside telling them when to stop, they are abominations.” I could see some of the tension in the body language of her squad easing. She was speaking what they were all feeling. “Things like you...” Arthris said, now drawing her weapon, a power weapon of some kind with the blunt end of a mace on its end that spat with energy as she thumbed it on and pointed it at the woman who now looked at her. “Should never exist! You claim to have cared for those you were designed to protect but in the end you nurture their murderers when anyone else would have gladly watched them die!”
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“Keep... your voice... down.” I whispered. The General had almost shouted the last word and I felt just how far the sound traveled and... something... stirred.
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The AI noticed it too, her eyes widening. “They are... aware, that something is different now.” She whispered. “Some of them are, stirring, moving... coming out of hibernation.”
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“Hibernation?” I said, looking sharply at her. “Why would they need hibernation when they have food?” I asked.
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“I...” She whispered. “I stopped feeding them. When I realized my efforts would never civilize this species that was bred for nothing more than death and destruction I... shut down the Aqueducts and sentenced them all to die.”
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“Not soon enough.” I whispered, my sensors picking up growing movements in the depths beneath us.
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“What do we do?” Arthris hissed, her squad forming a protective ring around us, shotguns pointed out into the darkness.
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“We keep moving.” I said. “As quickly and quietly as we can. Any other noise or sign of our presence will further help them pinpoint our location and it has been a very long time since these creatures have tasted fresh meat and...” I looked over at the nest. “In the case of some of them, they have never tasted it, and will be most eager to try it.”
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I turned back toward the image of the woman who stared up at me once more. “Will you continue to guide us?” I asked.
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She hesitated before nodding. “Yes.” She said.
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“And if we are attacked, will you defend us against your pets?” Arthris asked her, venom in her voice.
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The image flinched, pain showing on her features before she nodded. “Yes.” She said, “I will most certainly defend you.”
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“If you do not.” I said. “We will die. Even one of these creatures is terrifyingly deadly, let alone however many survived and then spawned since then.”
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She nodded, before turning away and passing directly through two of the Judicators forming a ring around us. They shivered but remained blessedly silent. Noting their hatred for the AI, I was impressed by their discipline. Normally those with such hatred in their hearts could not sustain that level of discipline in the face of that which they so hated. They were good soldiers, not that that would save them here...
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We moved on, quickly, and quietly. The AI no longer projected its image to move without regard to our limitations and while we pushed on as quickly as we could, we made as much effort as possible to avoid making noise, including skirting around the huge mounds of rubble where it would be almost inevitable to make serious noise despite the time it took to do so.
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As we traveled on I constantly monitored all the sensors my armor had at its disposal. Watching, waiting and seeing if anything closed in on us but thus far, nothing had. Thus far. But within my mind, with my other senses... I could feel a growing hunger. Something had definitely become aware of us, if not our location, then at least our existence and I could feel its awakening. Its revitalization as long unused limbs stirred once more, muscles twitched and spasmed before coming under control and... I felt dread and shock claw at me as with its very mind's eye the creature looked right at me. It saw me even as I monitored it. They had grown to become psychically aware, an ability they most assuredly had not had before. I cut off the connection before it could use it to pinpoint my location and then quickly cast a psychic net over our group, to shield them from detection as well in case it could use that sense to hunt with.
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They all felt it and Arthris shivered as she came to a stop. “Something is wrong!” She said.
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“Very.” I said, nodding. “But what you just felt was me.” She glanced sharply up at me.
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“What do you mean?” She asked. “I felt something... around my mind... You are a cognitive?!”
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“I... a what?” I said, cocking my helmeted head to one side.
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“You... draw power from the maw and can use that power to fight your foes and you have the ability to tap into the minds of others.”
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I stared at her for a moment before asking, “What, exactly, is the maw? And to be blunt, no, whatever it is, I don't draw power from it, I draw power only from myself. I have ever only in very rare circumstances drawn power from any other source besides myself and only very cautiously as such things can corrupt your mind and body and leave you as nothing more than a puppet for other things.”
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She stared at me for awhile longer before speaking. “The maw is a place where creatures, evil, vile creatures exist, it is their plane of existence, their... dimension. And in that place the laws that make our dimension do not exist and pure chaos reigns.”
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“Ah...” I said, nodding. “I can see why you would be alarmed if I drew my power from such a place, but let me assure you, I'd rather shoot myself in the face than do so and besides, my most lethal talents do not lay in my psychic abilities. My skill in that arena is knowing how to defend my mind and the minds of others, when I kill, it is with steel and rage, as it should be for any warrior.”
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“But, you can tap into the minds of others.” She said uncertainty.
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“Only on a surface level. I can hear… loud thoughts, for lack of a better word. If you think something with passion, with emotion, it’s like speaking loudly if not outright yelling and while I’m trained to tune that out, I do have to tune it out.”12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ30LIYE2l5
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“Interesting.” She replied. “Have you heard any of our thoughts?”12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhXO0H2vhsP
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“A few, but only a few, to be honest, the discipline of you and your men is actually quite admirable, even when confronted with things you obviously detest if not outright hate.”12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHv3ORA4xrL
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“Thank you.” She said, “Based off of what I’ve learned of you thus far, that means much.”12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkeIRkmmnJr
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“You’re welcome. Now, we must move.” I said. “We have dawdled to long talking about this. Any objections?”
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“None.” She stated and we moved on, continuing to move as quickly as we could along the edge of a knife, one mistake and ruin would find us.
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