"Explain yourself, from the beginning" He demanded.
"I'm in a rough spot right now. So no, I don't have time for tales. I'll give you my logs" Liera presented him the extracted data cluster. He absorbed it and his face twisted.
"You killed him!?" He looked at her, anger brimming up from the depths of his calm demeanor. Calan squeaked at his sudden change of tone. The only other man he met with vent lines on skin tried to beat him to a pulp.
"He wanted that fight. You parsed the logs, you saw the sequence of events. I can do without your theatrics" Liera told him sternly. "For the first time in three hundred years you have the best clue you ever got about your brother. Do you want to waste more time hating me?"
Varul stared at her indignantly. "I have no personal vendetta against you. I was wondering why you couldn't capture him instead. Wouldn't that have been more valuable?"
"You want me to somehow restrain a corrupted base frame with my current configuration?" She pointed at the spacesuit inside her battle-frame. "I'm flattered. This is high praise you're giving me"
Varul frowned. Scan and analysis wouldn't work in direct presence communication. He did notice her suboptimal condition. She had no hands and a space suit inside the battle-frame. He hadn't paid close attention to what was inside the spacesuit. He assumed for some reason she put her base frame in it. The Red Sect operated in varied conditions. He didn't have reason to question it until she brought his attention to it.
"Show me your configuration"
Liera played along, releasing Calan from the grip of the battle-frame. He stared awkwardly at Varul. The man was intense and his heart skipped beats whenever his sharp orange eyes stared directly into his.
"Is this your biologics!?" Varul thundered. "What in God's name are you doing you insolent girl! Didn't you fail reintegration?" Calan shook with each of his words.
"I stole it" Liera's voice came from the battle-frame. Varul frowned for a split second, his eyes bouncing back to Calan. He was confused why her biologics remained in a permanent state of shock.
"And you admit to it so casually?" He asked, his anger audible in his tone.
"This is mine to take, whether I can reintegrate with it or not"
Varul's eyes settled on the battle-frame after concluding something was odd with her biologics.
"It was supposed to be in the temple for safekeeping. Here you are, carrying it with you, putting it in danger! What is wrong with you!?" Varul's sharp eyes narrowed at her. "And somehow, you defeated my brother using this?" he couldn't hide that he was indeed impressed with that feat.
"There's a small boy inside it right now" She blurted out, she wanted to get everything out of the way while Varul was still impressed.
He stared back at her puzzled. The words didn't immediately make sense and they bounced off his brain. "Can you repeat that?"
"I soul split a child. Didn't have a body for him. He's in mine for now"
Varul's eyes widened in shock. He quickly went from impressed to outraged.
"What-You-" He paused and calmed himself down. "What exactly happened to your base frame?"
"I died. This is a soul backup from 12 years ago" She told him casually. "Here's how all of that happened" She had to keep their matters separate. Varul's priority was his brother. She had to lead with that. The new data cluster contained several times more information to process and Varul went through it for nearly one minute.
"Is this your friend?" Calan whispered, curious. This man was almost twice her size when she had her robot body. He really didn't want to get beaten by this one.
"Kind of. We worked together on things, a long time ago" Liera whispered back.
Varul sighed when he finished processing the cluster. It was a lot to come to terms with. He made the connection between his brother and the parasite immediately and he arrived at the most important matter at hand without wasting any more time with this conversation.
"You declared war on AUM?"
"Yes, You can see exactly why" Liera told him. "They're acting against their own charter, they have something no one else has"
"You didn't think to discuss this with any of us before making that decision?"
"I declare war of my choosing. You're free to stay out of it. I won't stop until I win, doesn't matter to me how long it takes or how hard it is"
"Even if it dooms billions of others?"
"Trillions of others have died to build what we have. We quelled 1270 years of war for it"
Liera made sure her anger came through in her words. "If they reward us with another version of the same empire that led us there, what did we really accomplish? This isn't God's will. No one is allowed dominion over time, those Materium must be vanquished"
"For all your talk about war, you still need my help to get you out of the bind you put yourself in" Varul looked away.
"I'll find a way out of it, with or without your help" Liera told him coldly. "But someone on Earth knows what happened to your brother. Possibly the same ones that can create time loops at will. I'm here to see what you're going to do about it and how I can exploit it"
"That's honest at least" Varul looked at her with a softer expression. "He liked you when he was around. You reminded him of our sister. I always thought you were too chaotic. I'm proven right, time and time again"
"I only met him once. I won't comment on him as a person"
"He helped Red make you. He was there when the creators blueprinted your base frame"
"That's new information to me" It was also a long forgotten event. The way Varul used 'Red' as a name resurfaced the memories of an old man that she loved and hated. He was the one that made every Red Sect Sovereign. Without him, there was nothing. He called himself Red, a man that embodied the bold hubris of the golden era. It was widely known in the Red Sect how she was his hardest project. She was his youngest subject and Red wasn't a man of compromise. He needed each of his Sovereign to be made equal. Constraints like her immature soul, her smaller stature complicated everything. She took decades of his most refined Materium art. It made sense why he sought help from the first priest he created. They knew each other long before she opened her eyes as L98.
She worked with Varul multiple times in the past. Their relationship could've been interpreted by outsiders as 'friends' or 'close' as far as two Red Sect Sovereigns could be. But he never once spoke about Anarul this way.
"I'm not sold on your war" Varul told her. "But I have to be there for my own reasons. Do with that as you please"
He counted 367 Interceptors. Sineul no longer had the 1 second lead. The Vellek had to navigate through very small gaps in the conquest fleet's defense and he nearly got slapped twice with shield pulses as he weaved through them. They were plugging these holes in their defense with loitering drones faster than he could exploit them.
> L98 Vellek: transmission sent
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
- I can’t hold out for much longer
> L98 Vellek: transmission received
- L98 BFrame: We’re at the landing pad
He noticed the carrier ships orient themselves towards the resonator as soon as he received it. Energy signatures spiked as they ramped up their reactors.
> L98 Vellek: transmission sent
- They’re going to wipe that resonator out!
> L98 Vellek: transmission received
- L98 BFrame: Taking off, now
His priestess did the logical. She disengaged the mag pads pinning her to the resonator and she pushed off to the vacuum of space with all that she had left. He had to catch her before the carriers filled that general direction with explosions as large as asteroids. The furthest carrier unloaded eight void missiles, arrayed menacingly in front of it. Interceptors fell in line to defend them from anything SIneul could to sabotage them. He only had one drastic solution.
He deployed invisibility again, peeled out of the chase in an extreme maneuver that nearly bent the Vellek from the middle. The interceptors streaked past him as he slowly targeted the coordinates of his priestess. This had to be precise, leaving him with no margin for error. He turned the slip drive off and charged the main drive, the one meant for hopping interstellar distances.
The carriers fired 24 missiles at ER-Madec by the time he finished his calculations. Wasting no time, he turned invisibility off and let go of the main drive. In a fraction of a millisecond, he was at the ER-Madec. He saw the first missile approaching and he destroyed it with a klin beam.
Liera propelled herself forward on to the Vellek and used the mag pads to anchor herself. Sineul got rid of the second missile but two escorting interceptors were closing in on his position, firing their long range lasers to erode the klin shield. He quickly opened the cargo bay for his priestess to get in and deflected all lasers that came close to her. The first missile hit ER-Madec before the cargo door closed. The second and third landed in quick succession. The Interceptors detected him by this point, and seeing that they missed the purpose of their bombardment, all missiles were called off. The swarm of interceptors made their way to surround them, firing barrages of lasers and missiles.
Sineul used the remaining power to hop a shorter distance towards Ephistome III but the strained rector couldn't keep the main drive up. It fizzled out by 4000km, leaving them with no power even for slip drive. The ship’s lights turned off as it entered recovery, an inevitable break for its reactors to cool down again.
Liera made it to the command bridge just in time to see hundreds of tiny dots zooming towards them from the conquest fleet in the distance. The Vellek had no power for anything, it was a brick in space, having spent all of its energy on Sineul’s previous maneuvers.
“Please tell me you negotiated something” Sineul nearly begged her.
“I didn’t. But he’s coming”
“Anytime soon?” he nudged towards the approaching swarm of interceptors. Some of the lasers were already melting the armor plates from 2000km away. “We have less than a minute left”
“Let’s hope for the best”
“Can I get out?” Calan asked, visibly tired and drained from all that happened to him.
“No, you’re safer with my shield” the battle-frame still had a layer of klin shield left. It could protect him if the Vellek was to explode.
“0.2% operational” Sineul announced desperately as the laser barrage from the interceptors managed to pierce the armor plating.
“Jump, there’s no time to wait” Liera ordered him. Sineul poured all of the energy into the slip drive and let go, dashing above the interceptor swarm. They had nowhere else left to run. Any direction that pointed away from the swarm was good. It was a meager dash of 300m but the lasers caught up with them in the next second.
“This is about it” Sineul announced, his voice full of regret. They couldn’t move at all anymore.
Space wobbled beyond the swarm of interceptors. The emerging shape was visible from their location. Liera zoomed in with the battle-frame optics.
Varul was here.
His ship emerged from the gravity well behind the 177th fleet. It loomed behind them like a mountain. This was V2 Darnek, a Behemoth class planet buster from the Golden age. It was large enough to carry a fleet hundred times larger than the 177th. The first klin shield pulse that came from it swatted the nearest carrier like a fly, causing it to spin uncontrollably. It fired its thrusters desperately to recover, failed it and fell out of formation. Other two carriers were swept away by the shield pulse, pushed back by 100km, breaking their internal mechanisms in various ways. The interceptors froze and peeled away from their onslaught towards the Vellek.
Three more ships emerged from behind the V2 Darnek, each one as large as ten carriers. They idled in formation, creating a unified klin shield to push everything away. Varul’s voice came through a system wide broadcast.
“Red Sect lays claim to this system. From this moment, all who oppose will be vanquished. Surrender and you will gain safe passage to the nearest stable system as refugees”
A small ship the size of Vellek departed from Darnek after the announcement. It docked in each of the super carrier ships behind it and leapt to the Vellek’s location. They already figured out the Vellek’s dire condition and came with a supply arm extended. Once linked, the Vellek’s reactors sprang back to life, draining stored power from the new ship. Both ships linked their docks to allow their passengers to reach each other.
Liera walked with Calan still in the battle-frame. She couldn’t trust Varul that easily. She had to see which form he came in. If they weren’t risking equally in a meeting like this, it signaled danger and conflict of ideas. He already didn’t approve of her declaration of war.
That was not to be taken lightly.
Upon closer inspection however, she saw that he thoughtfully equalized their playing fields. Varul himself was in his biologics. He left his formidable base frame behind on the Darnek. This signaled the correct amount of mutual respect. If they were to fight here, they both stood to lose their invaluable biologics.
“Greetings, Priestess Liera, It has been a long time since we last met” The first of second bowed at her broken battle-frame.
“Greetings, Priestess” The third of second bowed slowly.
“It pains me to see you in this terrible way, my priestess” The fifth of second remarked, his tone full of worry. He was the sweet one, she remembered that much.
”Greetings, all. It’s a pleasure to see you in person after however many years it has been” She used her sweetest voice. It worked on some, like the fifth that fawned over her at every opportunity. It didn’t work on Varul himself. He hadn’t greeted nor spoken a word yet. He just stared at her.
“Lira can I take off the helmet now?” Calan asked her. He was spooked by this large crowd of red haired orange eyed manly men. It was three times as trouble as he faced on the resonator.
“Yes, It’s safe now”
“May I?” Varul pointed at Calan.
“Sure, but don't be rough with him. He's only six years old"
"Look, friends. She cares about somebody" Varul chuckled and walked up to Calan. He was busy trying to pull his head off before the strange, intense man could help him. He was a bit shorter in this body without black lines but he wasn't any less intimidating. He was almost twice the size of Liera’s body. If Calan had his original body this man was as good as a giant.
"Don't worry, my child. I won't hurt you" He smiled pleasantly. It was creepy how fast his intense face warped to a reassuring one. He messed with something behind Calan, digging his hand into the thick back panel of the spacesuit. All the fluid drained from the ankles, spilling all over the ground in a thick growing puddle. Calan coughed without the fluid, he was suddenly back to breathing air, but all his orifices were still filled with stable fluid. The man quickly pulled his helmet off and slapped him on the back until he spurt out thick streams of fluid from his nose and mouth.
"There you go, Calm down. Slow breaths"
"Is everything fine Calan?" Liera asked him, noticing him struggling to breathe properly without the fluid. He wasn't trained for any of it. There was no time.
"Um fine" he croaked, spilling more stable fluid from his mouth. He was as sticky, slimy and disgusting as he was when he slipped on the stasis fluid.
Varul went on to unlock the rest of the suit and he lifted Calan off it with ease. He handled Liera's body like it was a doll. Calan felt exhausted as soon as he was out of the supporting exoskeleton of the spacesuit. His hip hurt. his limbs hurt, his head hurt. Varul opened the zipper at his back and let his drenched hair loose. He messed with it to spread it and then he stared at his face. His expression was strange and sad.
"I don't even remember when I last saw you alive in this body" Varul spoke, it wasn't aimed at Calan. "I remember thinking how ridiculous it was, the way Red always kept calling you beautiful. I always thought it was just to boost your self image, he wasn't very good at showing it but he had a soft spot for the young"
"He wasn't talking about my appearance, I don't think"
"No, he saw something else in you" Varul wiped fluid off her cheeks with his thumbs. "But I'm sure your appearance helped it, rather than hinder it. Ah, this takes me back so far"
While Calan thought this man extremely creepy, Liera knew where he came from. Every Red Sect Sovereign came from a forgotten time. They had no safe ways to revisit them. They couldn't relive an experience that far back without suffering neurobit damage. Little things like this, a face, a body could take them back in time much more safely and naturally. The past was all they really had to talk so fondly about.
"None of you have ever seen her have you?" Varul showed Calan to other priests. "This is what she used to be, look at how precious she was"
All other priests gathered around, their sharp orange eyes looking at Calan curiously. They looked at him like they were inspecting a pet. Calan squirmed shyly away from them. This was way too much attention to receive all at once.
"We can do this later" Liera interrupted them, noticing Calan's discomfort. They didn't mean to be rude. The replication of priests happened centuries after she was created and since the replicants never met her biologics, they found her fascinating.
"We have much to discuss" Varul lifted Calan off the ground as easily as grabbing a pillow from a bed. "And this child needs a bath, and sleep"