First Contact

Chapter 753: The Inheritor's War

I regret nothing because if I was forced to do it all again I would do it exactly the way I did it the first time.

No, it would make no difference that I would know how it all turned out.

I did what I did. It is what it is because I did what I did.

There is no point in apologizing, because I'm not sorry. Sorry is for those that regret the things they did.

It is what it is and I did what I did.

Anything else is weak minded childish fantasy. - The Detainee

Marco was sitting in a break room off to the side of the main control rooms of Atlantis. He was tapping his knee nervously, his nails clacking on the black anodized chrome of his cybernetics even through his pants. He wiped his brow and settled into the chair, staring at the can of soda he had pulled from a broken vending machine.

He would have preferred a Liquid Hate, but it seemed like the entire vending machine system of Atlantis had been stripped of them.

He reached up and ruffled his hair, then looked at his hand, making a face at the slight sheen of grease on his skin.

I need to shower, probably shave. I need to stop letting myself get like this when I get to involved in my work, he thought to himself as he took a long drink off of the warm soda.

The door beeped and slid open, Legion sauntering through in his Vat Grown Luke persona, lean of body and intent of feature.

"You wanted to see me, Pete?" Legion asked.

Marco/Pete nodded. "I need to talk to someone about it and I don't think anyone else would be calm at all about what I want to talk about."

Legion nodded, sitting down and crossing his legs, putting one ankle on the opposing knee. "You said you were going to start going through the Imperium Immortals system, try to make sure we don't get grabbed by it again somehow."

Marco/Pete nodded jerkily, taking another convulsive drink off of the soda.

"You know they made me do it, right?" he asked, swallowing.

Legion nodded. "We know, Pete. We know."

"I didn't have a choice. They'd torture me till I died, then respawn me. Over and over again," Pete said. His fingers clacked against the cloth of his pants, the synthetic threads starting to flatten out. "I held out. I tried to hold out."

"Until the Bound One cut off your legs and fed them to you," Legion said, nodding. He shook his head. "They made us watch. They made all of us watch them break you and everyone else."

"Everyone except everyone's favorite walking war crime," Marco said. He rubbed his face. "They never broke him, Luke. Not like they broke us."

Legion heaved a big sigh. "No. No, they didn't. They broke him another way, Pete. Trust me, they broke the Walking War Crime too."

Marco wiped his face, took another drink, and went back to tapping his knee. "How? I watched them torture him, he never broke."

Legion got up, walking slowly over to the vending machine that someone had chopped open. He pulled out a soda and walked back slowly, cracking the can open.

"Luke?" Pete/Marco asked.

"You won't believe it, but I'll tell you anyway," Legion said, sitting down. He took a drink and looked around. "The Imperium broke the Walking War Crime like a stick over their knee. Not with the Bound One, not with torture like us, but a much much worse way that he still carries with him."

Pete swallowed, the tapping on his knee getting louder as the fibers started to part. "How?"

Legion looked at the wall, at the motivational poster, staying silent a long moment. "They broke him in the worst way possible, Pete."

Peter swallowed, wiped his forehead again, and went back to tapping. "How?"

Legion kept staring at the wall.

"They told him that if he agreed to submit to the Immortals Program, if he followed their commands," Legion paused for a long moment. "They'd stop torturing all of us."

"And he agreed?" Pete shook his head. "Daxin? Daxin Freeborn? That Daxin?"

Legion nodded. "Oh, yes. They made him watch every moment of our torture, our implantations, our modifications. Then they told him that if he submitted, if he voluntarily gave in, our torment would stop, but only if he agreed to lead us during those dark years we worked for the Imperium."

Legion tapped the top of his soda can with one finger, staying silent for a long moment.

"They broke him right there, Pete," Legion said softly. "They walked him through the observation bays, where he could see all of us in torment. You, me, Bellona, Matty, Menhit, Wee-Jay, even Kalki. Told him that unless he gave in, they would torture us to death over and over just to prove the system worked. They would let the Bound One eat Menhit and Bellona, would make Kalki watch his goats slaughtered by the Bound One."

Legion looked at Peter. "Told him that only he could stop our torment."

Legion looked away again. "Then the Lord Knight executed us all with a single bullet," Legion pointed one finger at his crotch. "Right here, up through the body. Blew us apart like a balloon full of blood and gore."

He took a drink. "Then the Immortals system brought us right back."

Legion shook his head slightly, still staring at the wall. "Daxin held out until the third execution string, then broke," Legion sighed. "They taught him, Daxin that is, that when all else fails and you're about to give in to your captors, when you're a prisoner of war, you can always kill yourself to keep yourself from being used by the enemy."

He sighed again. "They took that from him. Took from him his ability to quietly kill us to end our torment."

"Oh," Peter said after a long moment of silence. "I didn't know that."

Legion shook his head. "No. They'd reprogrammed you by that time. The famous Chromium Saint Peter on Anthill," Legion chuckled, the sound bitter and ashen. "That didn't work all that well."

Peter nodded. "I was screaming the whole time. Eventually, not even the psychic surgery could keep me from screaming, so they brain wiped me and moved me to R&D."

Legion nodded. "Yeah."

There was another long moment of silence before Legion looked at Pete, straightening up and slapping his hands together. "All right, what did you want to see me about?"

"I was going through the Imperium Immortals System, just double checking," Peter said.

Legion nodded. "You said that."

"You know I was the project lead, right? At least, on our end," Peter said.

Legion nodded. "They made you design the whole system, made you turn us into the Immortals. Made you turn us into their slaves."

Peter looked away. "That's... not exactly true." The tapping got harder, the threads parting far enough for the carbon fiber fingernails of Peter's hand to clack against the black chrome of his knee.

Legion stiffened then visibly relaxed. "All right. Keep talking."

"Well, I led the project, yes. Where we were at."

"Titan," Legion said.

Peter nodded. "The Titan labs escaped largely unscathed, except for everyone, you know, getting slaughtered by the Mantid strike teams. They didn't have time to destroy the mainframes, the ansible, the gen-two hypercom, or the labs."

"Which is why they moved us there even though the Sol System was still fighting," Legion said. He frowned. "What are you saying, Pete?"

Peter took a deep breath and told him.

Legion stared at his friend for a long time.

"Oh, shit," was all he said.

-----

Legion walked in the recreation room, stopping and staring.

Daxin and Matthias were sitting on a couch, FIDO between them on the floor, beer and chips between them on the couch. They each had a controller in their hands as they shifted their bodies side to side, their hands out in front of them.

"Hey, no fair!" Matthias protested.

"First past the post, baby!" Daxin said.

On the screen a pair of lean robots with oversize leg pistons were lining up. A giant pneumatic fist started crushing the losers until only one remained.

"You tripped me," Matthias said.

"You got too close to my lane and I had a blue shell tattoo I hadn't used yet," Daxin said. He shoved Matthias. "Seven-Five, loser gets to choose the next event!"

"Pole vaulting, five million budget, custom bots," Matthias said.

Legion leaned against the wall.

"Stop looking at my robot," Daxin said at one point, grabbing a hand full of chips and jamming them in his mouth.

"I'm not," Matthias said.

"Izzat whu oo swish'd ractors?" Daxin mumbled around the chips before grabbing a beer and taking a drink.

**it is funny because Matty is lying** FIDO said.

"See, you are too looking at my robot," Daxin said.

Legion shook his head and smiled as Daxin suddenly spraypainted "Stop looking at my robot dick, Matty" on the abdomen of his robot.

"Hey, Daxin," Legion said.

Daxin turned around. "What? I'm finally beating the kid. What do you want?"

Legion motioned at the door. "I need to talk to you. Just you and me."

"Am I in trouble?" Matthias asked as Daxin stood up.

"No," Legion said.

"Naw, we're OK now, kid. Our Father forgave you, I can boot up mercy dot ee-ex-ee for you," Daxin said, smiling and ruffling Matthias's hair.

"Hey, quit that!" Matthias said.

"Don't cheat while I'm gone," Daxin said. He followed Legion out the door.

**I will make sure he cheats only slightly** FIDO said. **Matty is funny**

Legion led Daxin to the elevators, then outside, walking out onto the tile recovered from ancient Bronze Age ruins and then moved to the SUDS Shell for decoration around a fountain.

"I need you to be calm," Legion said.

Daxin looked around at the flower bushes, the bees, the statuary, and the fountain. "Hell of place to tell me that. Whatever it is, I'll try to stay calm."

Legion nodded, moving up and looking down at the water in the fountain.

"Pete's been going through the Immortals system, making sure we don't get nabbed by it again," Legion said.

Daxin moved up next to him. "Yeah."

"I told him how Dee just opened a couple of files and then deleted our names from it," Legion said. "At the time, with everything going on, I didn't really think about it."

Daxin shrugged. "So?"

"Think, Dax," Legion said. "Think and see if you can realize what I missed when it was right in front of me."

"You're overly impressed with your own intellect," Daxin said, thudding his shoulder against Legion's. He frowned. "Let's see. We were in Crying Anne after we walked up there from the Fire Pit. She'd talked about disabling Prince Whopper."

"Which she never did, interestingly enough," Legion said.

Daxin frowned. "Huh, you're right. That's what we went there for and she never disabled it."

"Keep going."

"Then we were arguing, talking about the Immortals System. She tapped on the keyboard, the hologram complained at her, then she undid the restraints on us and we could answer prayers again," Daxin said. "Got a little sidetracked after she restored what Our Father originally wanted us to do."

Legion sat on the fountain edge, reaching down and trailing his fingers through the water.

"And then the rest happened," Legion said softly. "Do you see what I missed?"

Daxin shrugged. "Um, she didn't shut down Prince Whopper?"

Legion shook his head. "No," he sighed. "Do you remember what happened after Matthias killed Our Father?"

"After the Council of Humanity whispered in his ear till he went crazy and helped Matthias the Elder kill him? Kind of hard to forget. You ran, I chased you. I gave up, went back, gathered up the code bullets, gathered up what was left of his code made flesh and hid it."

Legion nodded. "And then?"

"And then I went to my daughter's grave," Daxin looked away. "Where the Imperium took me after you dimed me out."

Legion shook his head. "No. I didn't. Dax, I helped you find what was left of her body. I helped you bury her with my own two hands in the night. I would have never sent them there. Not there, not to that place where I planted that bedraggled rosebush."

"Matthias the Elder," Dax snarled. "I shoulda taken more time with him."

"Then what happened?" Legion asked.

"Then they took us to Crying Anne, then Titan, and warped us from the Biological Apostles to the Immortals," Daxin said. He sighed. "Dhruv, what? Spit it out."

"Pete was part of the team that made us into the Immortals," Legion said.

"Dhruv, I know what they did to him. Over and over. I know, I'm not holding any grudges," he sighed. "I'm too old and tired to hold grudges now. It's just... useless."

Legion made a slow circular ripple in the water.

"Dax, he was part of the team," Legion said. "Ever notice, we don't use the SUDS to respawn?"

Daxin nodded. "Right. Nobody's sure what we use."

"And it's been right in front of our faces," Legion said. He pointed at the ocean that lapped at the beach at the base of the mountain they were halfway up. "In a way, we're the Mark Two version. We've seen the Mark-One."

Daxin frowned. "Dhruv, you know I hate it when you speak in riddles."

Legion heaved a sigh. "All right. Fine. Pete was looking in the files and found a couple of files written in plain text files. We're talking actual files, not polymorphic coding, not object emulation coding, but actual file files."

"Don't bother explaining that. Found what?" Daxin asked.

"All right, it turns out that someone left some messages in the files. Pete checked the files, and realized something," Legion said.

After a moment Daxin gave a long suffering sigh. "Dhruv, just say it."

"All right. Pete worked on the SUDS recording replication system along with the various Immortals abilities that cross linked and worked in tandem, support, and off of our powers bestowed upon us by Our Father's touch," Legion said.

"All right."

"Now, other teams did things like wire us into ships, craft our armor and weapons, stuff like that," Legion said. "Which is all well and good, but the real backbone of the Immortals system was making us Immortal," he looked down at the water. "I missed it. It was right in front of me and I missed it."

"Dhruv," Daxin snapped. "What?"

Legion looked up. "Despite the fact some of us use Hellspace, some of us use Deadspace, and some of us use some places I'm not even sure about, we all do one thing."

"Respawn. Exactly as we were. Right down to equipment and ammunition count," Daxin said softly. He looked up. "Son of a bitch. You're right," he stood up and walked to the edge of the small relaxation area, looking over the side of the mountain and down to the beach.

"We stood right next to the Gen-One versions of us and didn't even realize it," Daxin said softly. He shook his head. "That's why she ran."

Legion nodded. "Yeah. That's why she ran."

Daxin was silent for a long moment. "What they must have done to her to force her to submit, to work for them," he said softly.

"They forced her to use her baby, the mat-trans, to make us Immortal," Legion said, putting his hands on the wall and leaning forward slightly. "It was right there in front us the whole time."

"That's how she knew how to unhook us from the system," Daxin gave a short, sharp, self-mocking bark of a laugh. "It was right there, she did it right in front of us, and we fucking missed it."

The two men were silent for a long time.

"Are you going to go after her?" Legion asked, his voice carefully neutral.

Daxin shook his head. "No. Let her run. I wouldn't care anyway."

"It is what it is," Legion said softly.

"I've done what I've done," Daxin finished the saying.

Beyond the two men the sand of the beach met the waves in an endless, timeless dance.