Chương 163: Nova Wars - Chapter 133

Each day is a struggle to ensure I live on. I struggle next to others, all of us ensuring we live on. Together we move forward in the wreckage of our civilization. No, in the wreckage of their civilization. Our civilization is the one we forge each day. Can I interest you in some cherry cobbler? Fresh from the oven just this morning! - Dra. Falten merchant, Post Dra. Falten Civil War.

"Stand by me and physically you'll be fine," the short stocky looking Terran woman said. Commodore Navelu'uee stood up from where she'd been sit-leaning against the rock, hurrying over to stand next to the dark gray dress wearing Terran. On the horizon it looked like clouds rising up. Thick gray clouds.""Two million and rising," Kalki said. He unlimbered a heavy gun that had suddenly appeared on the back of the armor. Nav had watched it flow up like water and then solidify into the big gun.

"Analyzing the bug now," Legion said, standing up. He looked down at the crushed beetles.

"No signature of mine," his eyes opened wide and he looked up.

"It's a silicon-flourine based XNA strand paired via halogen bonding," he closed his eyes again.

"It's a mess, genetically. Dumb as fuck too. They will literally hold still while another one is eating them from behind." Kalki snickered and Legion glared at him.

"Man, it's a wonder this thing even survived hatching," Legion said.

"It's a perfect eating machine. It eats, breeds, dies. It's perfect," he shook his head.

"The universe's perfect idiot."

"You gonna help?" Kalki asked. Legion glanced at Menhit.

"Need my help?" Menhit shook her head.

"Probably not," she said. A gold glow started at her feet.

"Kalki and I should be able to handle it." Legion nodded.

"I want to see what happens when you start cracking off phasic power around our chrome friend here," he looked back down.

"It's an amazing little creature. Flourine and perfluorocarbons. Its ichor slash blood is pretty complex but breaks down about anything short of warsteel." Legion knelt down and a half dozen of him suddenly rose up from the ground, all looking at the beetle.

"It's insanely tough and adaptable."

"Might want to pay attention," Dee stated. The cannon on Kalki's back started firing. The little capering animals had become clad in armor and had small launchers on their backs as well as small rotating dishes on their heads between their horns. They had ran almost fifteen meters away, give or take a few feet, and Nav had a feeling it was to provide triangulation for the gun systems. She looked over in time to see huge explosions fill the sky.

White fire with a bluish-purple snap to them as the globes expanded and the tops ruptured to form a mushroom cloud. Menhit shook her head.

"At this rate you will not need me."

"Could be worse," Nav heard Dee state over her radio.

"We could need you and you could not be here." Menhit nodded slowly.

"That feeling when the worst person you know makes a good point." Dee just laughed. Nav watched, her armor's visor's flare compensation blotting out the white antimatter flares from Kalki's cannon.

"This seems really easy," she said softly.

"It always does in the beginning," Came Dee's voice. Nav looked over and saw the short woman was kneeling down, staring at a crushed beetle that was surrounded by its glittering, mercury-looking ichor.

"Xerxes invasion of Greasy Boot, Napolean into Vodkatrog, The Nam, Mantid Invasion of Terra, the Iron Chalice Conflict that led to Clownface. All of them looked easy in the beginning and ended badly," she looked around.

"But you're right."

"The phasic levels aren't even too much. There's some separation and recombination as the groups move closer or further from one another," Menhit said. Dee slowly turned around.

"This feels off to me," she paused.

"The numbers aren't adding up." Nav heard the crackle of the communication's system.

"Phasic levels are peaking around your area. Just over the curvature of the planet. Not sure why yet," came a voice.

"Roger. Keep me posted. I want a multi-level phasic scan, do not run it against Mantid or Atrekna templates," Dee said. She slowly turned around.

"This is off." Kalki kept firing. The explosions were getting closer as the drones sped forward. Menhit turned and looked.

"Odd. That's a phasic lure, but I'm not sure what it's..." Nav turned just in time to see it. Several of the groups of beetles scurried a little closer to one another. Stolen novel; please report. A tear suddenly appeared in mid-air. Beyond was a hellscape. Crystals jutted up from chrome sand like glittering trees, the razor sharp protrusions 'grown' acting like branches. The sky was green, a blue-white star burning in the distance.

Oily, rainbow-slicked pond surface rippled, dotted with masses of crystalline and flourine 'weeds' decaying as gas bubbled up from the depths of the oily chrome liquids. The heat blasted out, her armor wailing. The ground was covered with the starfish that stood on their hind legs. More tears appeared. More hellscapes. More Mar-gite that charged through the portals.

"WE'RE LEAVING NOW!" Dee snapped, snapping her fingers. Nav felt herself grabbed and yanked through a shattering mirror. The pieces cut and slashed at her brain, ripped and tore at her psyche. She saw thousands of shards where there was just a starfish covering something on the ground, in the corridor of a ship. In the streets of her home. For a second there was the harsh light of a sun, dust of an airless planetoid. She vomited inside her own skull as everything shattered again.

Her whiskers were pulled by her own glutes as her head was pulled from her nether regions with a hard yank. Nav rolled on her side, vomiting inside her helmet. The emergency system kicked in and pushed an O2 line up her nose even as it pinched her nostrils shut. She vomited again, this time little plastic bricks filling her mouth. Her suit worked overtime to clear her helmet and faceshield of her vomit. She rolled onto her back and looked up. The lights of a vehicle bay shone down on her.

"Dhruv, get out of there!" she heard Dee shout.

"Almost. Almost."

"That portal closes, you'll be too far to rejoin. You'll lose the data," Dee yelled.

"Exfiling. Exfiling," Legion said. There was a retch followed by the splatter of liquid on metal tiling.

"Easy, brother, easy," Kalki's voice. Nav just gagged on the taste, staring at the ceiling.

"If there was a doubt those beetles are behind the Mar-gite, that alone shall dispel it," Menhit said.

"Get up," Nav heard. Strong fingers grabbed her collar and she was pulled to her feet, held out at arms length from the Detainee for a moment.

"Let's go."

"Where are you going?" Menhit asked. Dee didn't answer, just pulled Nav behind her to the elevator. When the door closed, Nav watched as Dee punched in the code for the bridge.

"What happened?" Nav asked. Her bruised brain was having trouble putting it all together.

"We got a look at one of the Beetle worlds. A Mar-gite breeding world," Dee said. Her voice started harsh but gentled by the end of the second sentence.

"I kept squishing the Beetles, watching the Phasic energy shift around," she shook her head.

"So the phasic construct defended itself. It gated in Mar-gite and more beetles. I bounced us through a moon in case there was any contaminating organisms on us." Nav just nodded.

"But why did you take us out. Surely the Immortals could have kept us safe?" Dee stood silent a moment.

"They could have. But you couldn't see what I saw on the other side of those portals," she shook her head.

"The complexity made the Atrekna phasic constructs look like children's fingerpaints." She reached out and ran one gloved finger down the wall of the elevator.

"It's why I run unsuited when I can, just use the ol' Mark-One Eyeball and a skin tight forcefield and a few other tricks. I can see stuff that armor might cut out."

"I did not know you were using a force field," Nav said.

"Only fifteen micrometers thick, and its got flex in it so I have tactile," Dee said. She gave a dark chuckle and looked at Nav.

"I'm not a villain."

"You're not?" Nav asked. Dee shook her head.

"No. I'm a super-villain." Nav frowned.

"OK..."

"The difference is presentation," Dee smiled, showing lots of meat tearing teeth.

"A super-villain would not consent to be a mere god. A genie bound by arcane forces," she looked back at the metal wall, running her finger down it again.

"A super-villain understands presentation and is bound only by that which they consent to."

"Oh," Nav considered it for a long moment, standing silently next to Dee. The door whooshed open and Dee strode onto the bridge like she was in command. Nav hustled after her, her boots clomping on the floor. The screens showed massive constructs made up solely of Mar-gite rising from the gas giants or heading toward the ship. Spaceships were heading toward the massive ship, which was still orbiting the planet.

"Did you enjoy your jaunt?" the Lord Captain asked.

"You got a Nova Spark on this tub?" Dee asked. The Lord Captain nodded slowly.

"I don't mean templates. I mean one you can load into the guns," Dee snarled.

"Yes," the Lord Captain said.

"Planet crackers?" she snapped.

"Missile launches detected from the planet. Additional drone swarms are entering the upper atmosphere, still on course to intercept us," came various voices from various stations. Nav was busy paying attention to the Detainee.

"Crack this one, move toward the next one. I want to see what they'll do," Dee said.

"We are not in the habit of tossing around planet cracker..." the Lord Captain started to say.

"You can crack that ball of dirt or I can. If I do, you won't like it," she snapped.

"I won't bother with anything else, I'll suncrack this place and move on." The Lord Captain leaned back in his chair.

"If you have the means," he waved at the screen where the planet was sitting in space.

"By all means, it is at your discretion." Dee snarled. She closed her eyes and then opened them. Nav could see the fire in them for a moment.

"I should," she started to say, lifting one hand to snap her fingers. She suddenly stopped. She cocked her head slightly.

"What are you doing here?" she asked softly.

"What is who doing where, Madame?" the Lord Captain asked.

"Shhh," Dee made a fluttering motion with her hand and closed her eyes. Her lips moved silently. The Lord Captain looked at Legion, who had just stepped out of the elevator.

"Do you know who she is referring to, Lord Deshmuhk?" Legion cocked his head.

"No, but I can hear her talking."

"What is she saying?" the Lord Captain asked. Legion got a sly look on his face, then opened his mouth by just letting his jaw drop down. What came out of his mouth was static, chirps, and almost musical beeping. Nav stumbled back when most of the bridge crew, including the Lord Captain, stood up. Those who were armed drew their sidearms. Legion closed his mouth.

"That's what they're saying," Legion said. He frowned slightly.

"You may be the Lord Captain, this may be your vessel, but you are not privileged to our communications."

"What... what was that?" Nav asked. Legion turned and looked at the Dra. Falten officer.

"How old Terran AI and VI used to speak to each other. Think of it as a purely digital language."

"It is obscene," the Lord Captain said, sitting down slowly.

"If that's the language whatever this is speaks, then she must speak it," Legion stated. He frowned.

"That's odd. That sounds like..." He turned and looked at the main view screen.

"Do you have the old Avenge-Me dot Dee-oh-see in your database?"

"No. Why?" the Lord Captain asked.

"Because, I want to cross reference where we are to how far Terra gensis-gek'd this part of the galactic arm," he said.

"I'm too far to ask Wee how far her people got." Dee suddenly opened her eyes.

"That complicates things," she said.

"What?" Legion and the Lord Captain asked at the same time.

"There's an Elven Court in hiding here," she closed her eyes, sighed, then opened them.

"I'm going to extract them, then," she paused for a second, turning to look at the screen.

"Then I'm going to start work."

"And what will you be doing? You are still my hostage," the Lord Captain said.

"I'll be replacing their atmosphere," Dee said softly. She turned away from the screen.

"With FOOF."