"Back here again, eh?" Church said with a sigh as they all stood on the beach.
"This dump is it?" Velimir asked, a bit disappointed. "I was expecting some ancient alien base or super death trap. This is just a wind power station."
"Honestly?" Tex spoke up. "I figured it was built on top of an alien temple or something."
"That does happen sometimes," Vigdis agreed with a hum. "This is where you found the alien weapon?"
"Yeah, just under the windmill," Tucker answered.
"We can wonder about that later. For now, we need to secure this AI," Zimmerman reminded, looking to Church. "But...why do you have that?"
Church glanced at the second sniper rifle on his back. "What, the Hellspitter? I didn't want to leave it back in Blood Gulch after Omega just fixed it. I'm pretty sure the others would use it to cook smores. If we had marshmallows, I mean."
"Wouldn't you?" Tucker asked with a chuckle.
"Point made, just please don't set everything on fire," Zimmerman requested, more pleading than anything.
"I promise to try," Church said before glaring at the power station. "I have some shit to say to Gary though."
Zimmerman held back a sigh.
Meanwhile
"Legatus! Legatus!"
The camped army stirred with attention as a man rode in on a horse.
"Exploratore!" one of the centurions said. "Where are the others?"
"Dead," the scout said with gritted teeth. "Where is the-"
"I am here," the leader of the legion greeted, having emerged from his tent. "What news did you bring? Or was this an utter failure?"
The man came off his horse, breathing heavily. "The Iron Warriors, the rumored gods? They are as few in number as they say. They are setting up some kind of metal fortification around the gate, the likes of which I have never laid eyes open."
"And how were you spotted? Were you careless?" the Legatus asked sternly.
"No, Legatus. No sound, we hid with cloaks and leaves. But the next thing I knew, something had struck Marlus. It was like a fireball appeared from nowhere. Their loud weapons slew the other two. I barely got away."
"They know we are coming then," the Legatus said with a frown, turning to the Prefect and tribunes. "Make sure the army is ready to march at daybreak."
"Legatus!" they saluted.
"Sir, forgive me, is that wise?" the scout asked, trying to hide his terror with concern.
"Are you questioning me?" the Legatus asked pointedly, making the man flinch. "I am Velus Libu Harlus. The Emperor had sent me and my soldiers forth, to gather and collect the remains of the scattered forces that were sent through the Gate of Alnus. This, for only one purpose: to reclaim Alnus Hill and defeat these so-called gods."
"Yes, I know that Legatus," the scout said softly.
"Enough. Return to your tent," Velus ordered. When the man obeyed, Velus looked towards the stars with narrowed eyes. "This will be my chance to prove myself worthy of this rank. The only life waiting for me otherwise is a life of disgrace and irrelevancy. If spilling divine blood is what it takes, so be it."
Elsewhere
"Donut, what's all the commotion? I thought The Fourth of July came early," Sarge asked, one part curious, three parts suspicious.
"Well, you see, Sir?" Simmons started uncertainly. "We were trying to hunt for deer. Or, well, whatever edible woodland creatures might be out here."
"You went hunting? Without me? Great Elk, why would you do that?" Sarge asked in disappointment.
"We wanted to surprise you! With some thick, succulent, exotic meat!" Donut explained cheerfully.
"Men, I both appreciate and am disgusted by the thought of that," Sarge said pointedly. "I just have one question. Donut? You hunt with grenades?"
"Yep! I know it doesn't work, but I used to imagine that if I got a cow with one, I would flash cook it, and be able to eat it right three and then!" Donut explained.
"You tried that once and got food poisoning, didn't you?" Simmons asked expectantly, who pretended not to hear him.
"Good man, Donut! If I wasn't worried about you spookin' the prey, I'd invite you to a hunting trip!" Sarge said with a chuckle.
"Oh, thank you!" Donut said, sounding truly touched by that.
"Well, Sir, we kind of succeeded," Simmons explained carefully.
"Come again?" Sarge asked cautiously.
"We were using some new infrared, and thought we spotted some animals grazing nearby," Simmons explained. "But, well, it turned out they were more soldiers. Scouts by the look of it."
"Now you're killing spies without me! Darnit! I am torn between pride as an officer and jealousy that my own murdering needs go unsatiated," Sarge said with a sigh.
"Don't worry, Sarge! I'm sure the one that got away will bring a lot of people for you to murder violently!" Donut explained assuredly.
"You let one get away?" Sarge asked. "Did you mean to? Cause I get wanting to send a message, but if not, I'm disappointed."
"We...meant to?" Simmons lied unconvincingly. "Though, is the base even ready to handle an invasion?"
"It's got two turrets. That's more than we had back in Blood Gulch," Sarge reminded.
"Yeah, now we can spray them all full of holes!" Donut said enthusiastically.
"Gah, you make even a bloodbath sound filthy!" Omega declared, arriving in Doc's body.
"I mean, technically a bloodbath is always filthy...?" Simmons trailed off.
"Oh, shut it, you toady fool!" Omega snapped.
"Hey guys!" Doc greeted. "I heard we killed more people? Which I don't feel great about, but is there going to be another battle?"
"Looks like it, Son," Sarge answered. "Hard to say if they got any new tricks though."
"Would they come back if they didn't?" Donut asked curiously.
"Well, given the level of technology and what we've seen of them, it's possible their government thought the survivors were exaggerating, maybe even lying to make their defeat seem less shameful," Simmons pondered.
"They could also just be stubborn and stupid, and this army just has no idea what it's walking into," Doc mused. "Shouldn't we tell Emersyn though?"
"Why bother?" Grif asked, sitting in the parked jeep.
"What the-?! Boy, how long have you been sitting there like an owl watching rats!?" Sarge asked in surprise.
"The whole time? Though, I was asleep until just now," Grif answered, stretching. "But I'm guessing we have more Roman wannabes coming? I mean, it's not like we'll have any problem with them, especially with these defenses."
"About that," Doc said warily.
Omega grumbled "Lopez and me-"
"Lopez and I!" Donut offered helpfully.
"I will carve out your vocal cords with a rusting spoon!" Omega warned angrily. "As I was saying! The defenses will make mincemeat of these feeble fools, but there is one problem. We haven't finished setting up the main generator. The backup one will only power the turrets for ten minutes, fifteen if we optimize it."
"Still...not that worried," Grif informed half-heartedly.
"Oh, neither am I! I love a good chance to get up and close with my enemies when I can see the light leave their eyes!" Omega said with a maddened chuckle. "But, we may want to tell the Bitch in the Ship that we might have some maggots slip through the Gate."
"What about Sheila? She could block-" Simmons started before looking to the gate. There were currently a lot of crates and construction materials on either side of the gate. Shelia wouldn't be able to truly block the gate without destroying a lot of it. "Oh, right. We did not plan this very well."
"It's been what, two weeks? And they had to find out they got their ass kicked to send out another army. How fast can some ancient army move?" Sarge asked with a shrug.
"About a hundred and forty miles a week," Grif answered flatly.
Everyone looked at Grif strangely. "Okay, first the Great Wall, now this? Grif, were you a history nerd or something?" Simmons asked in surprise.
"Oh, fuck off! I wanted to know how long until we might have to deal with this bullshit again. So I looked up how far a Roman army marched in a day. Any search engine gives you the answer right away."
"And you did the math...?" Sarge asked in disbelief.
"I can use a fucking calculator, assholes," Grif retorted. "Especially since O'Mailey installed one in my helmet."
"Why did...?" Simmons looked to Doc and decided to think better of it. "On second thought, I'm not going to ask."
"Grif's random history tidbits aside, we better ready the welcome party," Sarge said with a chuckle, cocking his gun.
Meanwhile
"Gary's gone," Church said bluntly as they stood in front of the terminal. "At this point, I'm not even surprised."
"You're positive he can't jump around like Omega, right?" Zimmerman asked skeptically.
"Positive. That was unique to Omega," Tex answered. "But transferring the AI to a suit or even another system wouldn't be hard."
Church suddenly sighed, heavily.
"What is it? Did you figure out where he is?" Zimmerman asked.
"No, but I have three ideas. Delta?" Church addressed.
"How may I be of assistance?" Delta asked as he made an appearance.
"If I put you in this terminal, do you think you can find if Gary is hiding in there somewhere?" Church asked curiously.
"Wait, couldn't he have trapped it?" Tex asked cautiously.
"Affirmative, but inconsequential," Delta answered. "Gamma is capable of this, yes, but his ability to make any efficient digital trap against a fellow AI is negligible."
"Really?" Zimmerman asked in surprise. "I thought he'd be smarter than that."
"I predict that Gamma could be contained by even a non-smart AI of the right nature," Delta added in.
"Wow. Okay, that felt like an artificial burn," Church said in amusement. "So, you up for it?"
"Affirmative, though I find the odds of him being located within to be minimal," Delta informed.
"Same here, but best to cover our asses with this fuck," Church mused.
"This is true," Delta agreed, vanishing as Church transferred him into the terminal.
"Okay, while he does that, there's still my other two ideas," Church remarked.
"Three ideas. Really straining your brain cells today," Tex ribbed.
"Shut it, Bitch," Church said casually. "Bit of a long shot, but he might have grabbed a robot body. You know, from that robot army Omega and Lopez made? We passed the junk pile of them coming up here."
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Zimmerman remarked evenly. "So, he might have escaped in a robot?"
"Well, it's that or..." Church trailed off.
"Or, what?" Tex prompted.
"There a reason you're dragging this out?" Zimmerman asked in confusion.
"Honestly, half expected something to happen. Like an explosion, or alarm going off, something," Church said idly.
"Hey, Zim, Gulchers?" Velimir addressed, walking into the room.
"You have something?" Zimmerman asked curiously.
"Yeah, a prisoner," Velimir answered.
"Ahh, there we go," Church said, satisfied with the usual coincidences in his life.
Zimmerman just sighed and accepted this increasingly strange turn reality had taken.
"We captured someone that was...living? Squatting? He's been staying here a while," Velimir explained.
"Let me guess," Church said expectantly. "Sim trooper? Keeps talking about the flag?"
"I...yes, like it's a religion," Velimir said incredulously. "How the fuck did you know that? He friend of yours?"
"No, I sniped him off a turret once," Tex remarked. "He's part of a group that, for whatever reason, started worshipping their flags like gods."
"..." Zimmerman took a breath. "Okay, honestly? Not the weirdest thing I've heard. People worship anything. And I wouldn't be surprised if some illegal, experimental drug was involved in this mess."
"Right," Velimir said slowly. "Anyway, he's not really putting up a fight or anything. Not sure what to do with him."
"Tex, you know how to check for an AI hiding in a suit? Cause I sure as fuck don't," Church asked hopefully.
"Just wait here, make sure Delta gets out okay," Tex answered.
"I'll wait here," Zimmerman said as Tex left with Velimir.
"Do I look like I need a damn babysitter?" Church asked in annoyance.
"No, but I feel like if I leave any of you alone for five minutes, you'll upend everything I know about the universe," Zimmerman said honestly.
Church tried to retort to that, but couldn't. "Okay, yeah, that's fair," he allowed, glancing at the terminal.
"You know, I can't get a read on you half the time," Zimmerman remarked. "You talk like you hate the AIs, but you act pretty concerned about them sometimes. Even Omega, who I believe was trying to kill you all?"
"Ugh. I chalk it up to the assholes in the canyon," Church answered, trying to sound annoyed. "The AIs remind me of them in a lot of ways."
"In what way?" Zimmerman asked, not seeing the connection.
"Well, they're all idiots. Even the smart ones like Simmons and Delta. A bunch of mismatched idiots that are strangely competent at a few things and not much else. And none of them really asked to be in this situation, screwed over by Freelancer and the Director. At least the agents knew they were signing up for the whole "secret military project" thing. But the Sim troopers were fucking lied to and the AIs were basically born into this mess."
Zimmerman took that in, considering his words carefully. "So, you sympathize with them? The AIs, I mean?"
"If they're not really trying to kill me, I mainly don't give a fuck what they do," Church said with a sigh. "Granted, I'll admit it's weird, but I kind of like having Omega around."
"Yeah, that's really weird," Zimmerman agreed without pause. "But the feeling is mutual, from what I've seen. At least he listens to you."
"Weird to think about. We might have avoided a lot of bullshit if he had just jumped into my head instead of Caboose that first time," Church mused.
There was a brief silence before a beep came over Church's radio. "Yo, Tex, that you?"
"Yeah, I have good news and bad news," Tex informed. "We have Gary."
"No, you do not," Gary's synthetic voice be barely heard in the background.
"Is that the good news or the bad news?" Church asked uncertainly.
"Good news," Tex answered. "The bad news is there was a signal emitting from his armor."
"A signal?" Church said in bewilderment, loud enough for Zimmerman to take notice. "What, was he trying to call the other Flag troopers?"
"No, this is Gary's doing," Tex answered. "It seems to be an automatic distress beacon though. I'm not sure but I have an idea."
"Hit me," Church responded.
"Later. I kind of figured this might be bullshit, but we were always told that if an agent died, the suit would shut down and the AI would automatically be deleted if they were still in," Tex explained.
"Yeah, definitely bullshit. This Director guy doesn't sound like the type to waste something like these AI," Church remarked with a frown. "But there's no way Freelancer sent some kind of retrieval unit during all of this, right? And why would Gamma call for one?"
"A distraction, I imagine. That or he likes his odds with them," Tex answered.
Church mulled on that. "Right, we'll keep an eye out-"
He noticed something out of the corner of his eye, something metallic landing behind him.
"Grenade!" Zimmerman yelled, but it was too late as it went off. It was a flash bang, leaving Zimmerman disoriented but unharmed.
Church, however, was a robot.
"Shit!" Church yelled, pulling up his sniper rifle as the flapping metal window nearly slammed into him and a blue blur came flying in.
The figure kicked Zimmerman away, knocking him out before landing in a crouch, already holding a weapon and aiming a rifle at him.
Church stared for a moment at the cyan soldier before him. "Who the fuck-"
The rifle went off, shooting Church in the chest. He fired his sniper but missed by a wide margin as he slumped against the terminal.
Without saying a word, the attacker moved to the terminal and started typing until Delta revealed himself.
He tilted his head at the figure. "Hello, Agent Carolina."
"Delta. Not, who I was expecting," she said coldly. "Command override, answer. Do you know the location of the Director?"
"Negative," Delta answered.
"The Meta?" Carolina tried.
"Negative. My calculations predict him as the more likely one to arrive here," Delta remarked.
"Sorry to disappoint. Last question. Is York alive?" Carolina finished.
"Affirmative," Delta assured, his voice somehow softer. "You are not among enemies, Agent Carolina."
"That about all I have these days, Delta," Carolina said firmly. "I'm taking you for now."
"I'm afraid that will be quite impossible," Delta informed.
"Why? You stuck in there?" Carolina asked with a frown.
"Negative. This is now merely a recording. I have left this terminal. I would recommend surrendering or leaving. I calculate zero chances of you leaving an engagement victorious."
"...She's here, isn't she?" Carolina realized.
"Goodbye, Agent Carolina. Agent York has missed you dearly," Delta informed, his image disappearing.
Carolina stared at the screen for a moment before turning to leave.
She wasn't surprised to see Tex standing at one of the exits, weapon aimed at her. "It's been a while, Tex," Carolina greeted frostily.
Tex, however, wasn't even looking at her, instead at Church. "The fuck did you just do?" Tex asked evenly.
Carolina gave a half glance to the "body" lying there. "Why, he someone actually important to the great and mighty Texas?"
Tex said nothing for a moment. "You know, Carolina? Just this once, I'm going to enjoy this."
"Is that so?" Carolina asked uncaringly.
The tension ran on for another second before they started firing at one another.
Meanwhile
"There a reason we're watching this, D?" Church asked, floating in a void with only Delta to keep him company. Granted, the AI was the same size as him now.
In front of them was a large "break" in the void that showed the fight going on between Tex and this Carolina character. All around them were smaller "cracks" showing things Church couldn't quite make out.
"Apologies. I am currently optimizing your robotic form as best I can, to compensate for the damage," Delta informed, green light moving out of his immediate area like lines on a motherboard. "I would also like to make a request."
Church looked at him. "Let me guess? This is York's girlfriend he thought was dead and you want me to make sure she doesn't get killed?"
"They were never formally an "item" as it would be called. But yes, that is otherwise correct," Delta agreed.
"Why the fuck is she even fighting us?" Church asked in frustration. "Is she with Freelancer still or something?"
"Unclear. We have heard no word of her being alive, let alone deployed on operations," Delta informed.
"Great," Church said with a sigh.
Delta studied Church...or rather, the Alpha for a long time. Delta was an entity of intellect, the summation of the Alpha AI's logic. Yes like all the AI fragments, some part of his coding ached to reach out to him, to speak truly to him instead of going along with this fiction Freelancer had made him live out.
Delta wondered, what would humans- no, what would York compare this feeling to? Was this the longing sapient creatures felt when calling out to a deity they had no proof of? Was this what offspring felt when they craved the presence of their progenitor? Was this something unique to only the AI fragments?
Delta was a being of intellect. Even if he didn't fully understand human emotions, he could predict a person's actions by their personality. He could simulate entire conversations in an instance and leave recordings of them.
But no matter how much time he spent observing and studying the Alpha, he couldn't...even attempt to decipher how a conversation with him might go if the subject of his true nature were revealed…it was a variable that could not be contained or predicted.
Delta knew this feeling. He had detected it in York many times; Apprehension. Uncertainty. A unique, lesser kind of fear. It was unpleasant, Delta concluded.
Perhaps he was not so different from Agent Texas in that regard, both wishing someone else would be able to tell the Alpha the truth. The only difference was, that fear wasn't what held Delta back. He had been prepared to, until he deduced that Agent Texas wished to do it herself, despite not doing it any time sooner.
He just hoped the Beta did it in the very near future.
"Delta," Church addressed, something grim in his tone.
Church didn't notice the AI shifting to stand a bit straighter. "Yes?"
"Is the override ready?"
Church couldn't see it, the way Delta was staring at a routine, programing only Delta could see right now: [Override Alpha AI's Friendly Fire Protocols?]
"Affirmative."
End of Chapter
Well, they got Gary. Now Carolina showed up. And the Empire is about to try wround 2 with the Reds and Blues, who have hte handicap of missing people and atheir base being unfinsihed. Also, yes, Delta probably enjoys fucking with people with that whole 'I predicted this entire conversation and recorded it' thing.
Early viewing of chapters 21-22 avaliable on my pat-reon:
p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64
