First Contact

Chapter 960: The Setting Sun

No matter how terrible a weapon the Terrans have produced to use upon you, know this: They've got something worse they didn't want to use. - Wemterran analyst

Desperate times call for desperate measures. - Codex of Forbidden Truth

That's the worst thing I've ever seen. - Everyone, sooner or later.

The worst you've seen so far. - The smartass next to them.

Magnus hummed to himself as he reached up and plucked a lemon from the tree.

The day was pleasant. A warm breeze, the artificial sun was shining, and the orchard park smelled of plants, growing things, fruit, and the faint scent of water from the lake.

He heard the sounds of power armor behind him and sighed.

Of course you have to ruin my day, he thought.

Outwardly, nothing changed.

Inside, Magnus activated his combat systems, putting them on either standby or low power.

"I can hear you," Magnus said, starting to peel the lemon as he turned around slowly.

The two Sword Knights stood facing him, blaze rifles leveled, roughly a hundred meters away.

"We have to secure the SUDS facility," Sword One stated.

"Mommy said so," the second one said.

Magnus nodded. "And we should always do what our mothers tell us to do," he said agreeably. He nodded down toward the lemon he was peeling. "Want a bite?"

"No," Sword Two said.

"Enough with the fruit!" Sword One said.

"What? I like fruit," Magnus said. He held up the lemon. "This one in particular. It has certain acids that I need. The vitamins and minerals in it are crucial to a healthy and happy life."

"If swear to God, if you say one more word about fruit..." Sword One said, letting the threat hang in the air.

Magnus smiled, taking a bite out of the lemon and slowly chewing it, enjoying the sour acidic taste.

"We have to kill you. You aren't authorized to be here," Sword One said.

"And your mother told you to," Magnus said, swallowing the bite. He smiled. "You sent the Tome Knight to kill my sister and the Rose Knight to kill my Captain."

Sword Two nodded. "By now, your sister is dead and the Captain has killed that alien."

Magnus chuckled, taking another bite and chewing slowly.

"What's so funny?" Sword One asked.

Magnus kept chewing and smiling.

"ANSWER ME!" Sword One shouted.

Magnus held up his hand, making a show of chewing and then swallowing.

"That you think my sister is dead," Magnus said. He chuckled again. "Archaic armor. Out of date weaponry I wouldn't use for home defense. Against us. The Twins."

Magnus gave no clue that he had read Captain Nakteti's messages on his retinal link.

"You have a sword. We have guns," Sword Two sneered.

"And a lemon," Magnus held up the half-eaten peeled lemon.

"THAT'S IT!" Sword One screamed.

For Magnus everything suddenly slowed down as his mind and body went into overdrive. He let go of the lemon and it seemed to hang in mid-air as he moved forward, drawing his sword. He could feel the 'sleeper' implants in his muscles go offline, feel his full strength flowing into his body as his muscle tissue purged the ATP-blockers that normally filled his muscle tissue.

The two armored figures were stock still to Magnus as he moved up to them, came to a stop, his foot throwing up dirt as he skidded sideways, sword back behind his head.

One stroke and he pivoted smoothly, turning and making another stroke.

The sparks were just starting to flash. The lemon was only a few inches lower than it was.

Magnus stepped behind them, the tip of his sword biting deeply into the backs of the knees on first the right legs, then the left legs of both armored men.

He felt the crunch of metal and circuitry.

But no soft spongy feeling of flesh.

He finished up with running back to the lemon, which had dropped a foot, sheathing his blade, and grabbing the lemon out of mid-air.

Sparks hadn't even shot from the backs of the Chronotronic Knight's knees. Their hands were just starting to drop from the wrists, the rifles just starting to fall into two pieces.

His systems went back to standby.

The hands dropped to the ground, still holding the rifle. Sparks shot from the backs of the knees and the amputated wrists.

Both Chronotronic Knights screamed.

Magnus took a bite of the lemon, chewing slowly as he walked forward.

"You know," he said conversationally, "If you're going to pick a fight with someone, you really shouldn't drop your hands before you pull the trigger."

He stopped and looked down at them. "You might want to be sure you can stand and fight too."

Sword Two looked up. "You cheated," he said.

Magnus frowned. It sounded like the armored man was crying.

"All's fair," Magnus shrugged. "You tried punching way out of your weight class."

"Mommy's going to be mad my hands fell off," the other one said.

To Magnus it sounded like he was weeping. He frowned as he popped the last of the lemon into his mouth and moved around behind Sword One.

"Well, let's get a look at you," he said, reaching out and feeling under the edge of the helmet.

"No. Don't. You're not supposed to look at us," Sword One said, trying to move forward on his knees.

"Mommy doesn't want people to look at us," Sword Two said.

Magnus stepped back, his frown deepening.

He hadn't felt any emergency catches or any other way to remove the helmet.

It felt more like a robot's head than a power armor helmet.

"Magnus! Don't! Don't kill them!" Nakteti's voice rang in his ear.

"Why not?" Magnus asked, looking at where both of the armored men were pushing around their hands with the stumps of their wrists.

When she told him, his eyes opened wide and he stared at the two weeping Knights with horrified eyes.

"Menhit redeem us," he whispered.

-----

The cherry broke free of the branch with an almost inaudible snap, the fruit bright red and full of sweet juice filled pulp.

Surscee lowered her hand and looked at the cherry, smiling.

To her, fruit was better tasting then the scientifically designed to appeal to the broadest palates nutri-forge template driven foods.

True, it had a small bee-kiss on one side, but that little brown imperfection made her smile.

She used a thumbnail to split the cherry at the seam and shuck the pit out, sucking the juice off of the pit before tucking it into a pocket on her leather skirt. She popped the cherry in her mouth and slowly turned around.

"Sooner or later, you have to make a decision," Surscee said, smiling. "You can stand in the bushes until the anomaly burns out if you want, but you might get bored."

"The final two SUDS layers are separating," came the synthesized male voice of the Tome Knight.

"Indeed," Surscee said. "That is why we can pick the fruit now. Before, the overlapping temporal zones made it impossible to pick them. This," she hefted the stem in her hand. "Means that we were successful."

"I cannot permit unauthorized access to this facility. It's mankind's one edge against a universe that Momma says wants nothing more than to destroy us," the Tome Knight said.

"I could say the same," Surscee said. "An archaic violent relic of a time nine thousand years in our past. Scarred by the Glassing and riven by The Scream. Out of time, your people dead and gone, the war you are fighting taught to children in school with all the passion of a bread recipe, your enemy now one of our most valued allies."

"That changes nothing!" the Tome Knight said.

The voice suddenly changed to that of a little girl.

"I'll kill her mommy. I won't let her get away," the Tome Knight said.

"That voice isn't your mommy," Surscee said, turning away.

"Yes it is," the Tome Knight's voice was male again.

"Your mommy isn't here," Surscee said. "Just as my mother is not here," she reached up and plucked another cherry.

"She won't get away, mommy," the little girl voice.

"Did it hurt?" Surscee asked, pitting the cherry with her thumbnail.

"Did what hurt?" the male voice again.

"What they did to you. Before they sealed you in that armor. When they sealed you in that armor. Did it hurt?" Surscee reached up and plucked a trio of cherries touching each other. She turned around, pitting them with her thumbnail.

"Does it hurt now?" she asked.

The Tome Knight was holding still.

"Your head hurts. Your angry," Surscee said softly, walking forward slowly. "What are you, Knight of the Tome? In that armor, what are you?"

"Mommy says not to tell," the Tome Knight said. The blaze rifle was leveled at Surscee. "I'm sorry, but mommy says you have to die."

Surscee brought her hand up, rings of light filled with glowing runes around her hand, wrist, and forearm.

The Tome Knight pulled the trigger.

The golden-white beam hit something in front of Surscee's palm, a rippling field full of runic script appearing.

Surscee kept walking forward, chewing on the cherry in her mouth. Still holding the cherries in her hand, she used her thumb and forefinger to release the catches on the front of her leather bustier, the exposed top slope of her breasts already glimmering with sweat.

The Tome Knight screamed in rage and pulled the trigger again.

Surscee held her hand out, wrist cocked, the beam hitting the field in front of her palm, as she kept walking slowly forward. She held out two fingers from the hand she was holding the cherries with, making a quick set of runes.

The rifle started to dissolve.

"MOMMY SAYS CHOP YOU UP!" the Tome Knight screamed, dropping the crumbling rifle and reaching for the force blade on their waist.

Surscee used her thumb to pop another cherry in her mouth as she took another step forward. She drew a quick rune with her cherry juice stained fingers, stepping through the glowing rune as she did so, sweat running down her back, her shoulders steaming as the sweat evaporated.

The Tome Knight held out the force blade handle and thumbed the trigger.

Nothing happened.

They clicked it again.

Surscee shook her head. "It will avail you not. I disabled it as soon as you raised the rifle," she said.

A halo of light appeared around the Tome Knight's clenched fist, shining edges with runes moving in a circle in the middle of the halo.

The Tome Knight stared at the force blade as Surscee took another pair of steps forward.

"You face a sorceress, whose knowledge far exceeds your own, child," Surscee said, the words more habit than thought through.

"I'M NOT YOUR CHILD!" the Tome Knight screamed, distortion filling the voice, throwing away the force blade handle and shaking their hand.

Surscee frowned.

"I can hit you to death!" the Tome Knight said, raising their arms and preparing to rush forward.

Surscee made quick motions and chains of burning blue fire leapt up from the ground, going around the Tome Knight's waist, their wrists, their ankles, their chest, around their neck. The chains clattered as they tightened.

The Tome Knight went over backwards with a cry of rage, screaming louder when they were pulled spread-eagle.

Surscee tossed the last cherry up in the air, opening her mouth and catching it, before walking up and stopping next to the Tome Knight.

"No. Mommy says I have to kill you," the Tome Knight said.

Surscee frowned at how it sounded like the Tome Knight was weeping behind the synthesized voice.

"What are you in there?" she asked softly. "Ion bonded warsteel laminate. Nanite protective layer in the laminate," she touched the chest.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" the Tome Knight screamed. "MOMMY! HELP ME, MOMMY!"

Surscee leaned forward to look into the optics of the helmet, uncaring that her breasts dropped from her loosened bustier beyond the fact that she could feel the heat rush off of her.

She froze at the odd noise the Tome Knight started making.

The Tome Knight was stock still, staring at Surscee's exposed breasts.

And making a lip smacking sucking sound.

"Oh, by the dark and fell fallen Titans Fyzar and Monstersano," Surscee said, her hand going to her mouth with shock. "Bellona protect me from such evil."

-----

Nakteti looked away from where Surscee was standing at the head of the medical bed, gently stroking the helmeted forehead of the Tome Knight.

"They're what?" she asked Chuck.

"It's hard to explain. I don't even know how it was done," Chuck said.

"Try," Nakteti said.

"They're children," Surscee said softly. "No, they're infants," she stroked the forehead of the helmet. "Enraged infants."

"But I thought the Digital Omnimessiah cured that," Nakteti said. "The Second Miracle."

"These... these..." Chuck said.

"People," Magnus said, his voice hard and brooking no argument. "Call them people, if nothing else for what they could have been."

"These people," Chuck's shoulders slumped. "Are enraged infants impressed with SUDS recordings of trained Combine troops. Who knows what else was done to them."

"But we've been working for years," Nakteti protested.

"Chronotrons keep them from changing too much. They're basically frozen like that," Chuck said. "This... this is monstrous."

"Are he in pain?" Magnus asked, looking up from the Knight of the Sword his hand was resting on.

"He was, till I overrode the suit interface," Chuck said. "They feel damage to the suit as if you had done it to their bodies," he gave a defeated sounding sigh. "They're young enough that their brains never discerned the difference between their own bodies and the armor. To their brains, they're one and the same."

"Can you do anything?" Surscee asked.

Chuck shook his head. "I wouldn't know where to even start. I barely understand what was done to them, much less how it was done. Without that, I have no idea how to undo it."

"The Old Gods preserve us," Nakteti said, shaking her head.

"It might be more merciful just to kill them," Chuck said.

Magnus looked around the room in the empty medical center, saw everyone's face, and gave a sigh of frustration.

"I'll do it," he said, drawing the knife from his belt. He looked at the others. "Why don't you go outside."

"I will stay," Surscee said, her voice soft and gentle. "I will not leave my brother alone to perform such a terrible task."

"As your liege, I will stay to witness what was done by my will," Nakteti said.

"Well, that means I can't leave. I'm not going to be the guy who leaves," Chuck said.

"Digital Omnimessiah grant me the strength to carry the burden of what I must do," Magnus said solemnly, placing his hand on the left side of the Sword Knight's chest, lowering the dagger to aim at the side of the armor. "Give me the guidance to do what is right, what is merciful, no matter how heavy the task is."

There was a light buzzing sound, like bees.

"Stay thy hand, Magnus."

Nakteti turned and stared.

The Digital Omnimessiah stood at the doorway, made up of flowing blue code with splotches of silver here and there.

"I am with you. Let me guide you along this dark path."

Nakteti went down on one knee.