Upon Dust (Part 3)

Upon Dust (Part 3)

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Commissioned by quiteadapperlass

Word Count: 2288

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The Scavengers that once lived within the Outpost were no more. Drawing the ire of Himejima and Ioseva, deserved due to their raids on nearby settlements, they were cast down to the last man. The two are plainly superhuman, capable of feats that would leave whole military battalions envious, as they are capable of clearing a thousand-strong, regional fortress with utmost ease, while I could only herd those who flee into prepared positions.  Not only were they able to take in stride the Strategist’s machinations, while I could only tremble and question my abilities, they pacified a major source of unrest in a whole reason with utmost ease. It took a mere three hours for a thousand men to be dealt with, their prisoners given routes back to their homes, and the base’s mainframe to be rebooted for our primary objective.

My decision to reveal all of this information to Mr. Song is almost laughable.

I was sure that between my two companions, and the Strategist, the rogue nation could be disposed of within the span of a month.

If not less.

“It’s a whole application. My Communicator didn’t have the spare processing power to execute it, so it shut it down.” Ioseva displayed amazing alacrity with the regional base’s mainframe. I could only surmise that a smuggler needed to be a talented hacker, in order to succeed. Still, I couldn’t help but struggle with the thought. The Reincarnation of Michael was not merely a young woman, and a warrior of unprecedented ability, but a smuggler of good renown. “I’ve isolated this base’s computer system, and manually destroyed the transceivers and receivers, but it’ll take days to fully examine for any faults.”

“The physical defenses will have to do. Execute the file, Ioseva.” Miss Himejima strode into the room, idly taking off a suit of armor straight of legend. None of her earlier, sultry smiles were on her features anymore. However, I was glad for it. Not only was she a young woman who had intentions for another, but she’d just finished dispatching all those who fled. Seeing a smile on her face, after she did such a thing, would have been profoundly worrying. “Let’s see what our target has to say.”

The only affirmation to Miss Himejima’s command was a nod and the screen turning from code, to a simple interface screen.

“Command prompt only. I’ll navigate. Just say where.” Ioseva was correct. The system was nearly a century old. A far cry from the holographic motion sensing interfaces we had now. It wasn’t even capable of interfacing with the crude tracking pad utilized by the rugged, military computer. Though, I supposed, with such a plain interface, it could theoretically work on any system with enough spare power. “I recommend going from top to bottom.”

Himejima’s teeth grit lightly at the suggestion.

The reason why was simple: it read “why you won’t find me.”

The Strategist didn’t sound nearly as terrible as the Trickster, according to Mr. Song’s memo, but they were undoubtedly not appealing to Himejima in any way.

“Fine, do it.”

The information we received was mostly in the form of text, though there were several moments where we could choose from a variety of questions… and ask a few of our own. While I’d wondered how a Communicator wouldn’t be capable of executing an application, I received my answer quickly. It was a Virtual Intelligence, a limited AI. It had immense stores of information that only it could access, through utilizing key phrases and interpretation of the interlinked puzzle that composed its memory.

The Strategist, as we should’ve expected, was ingenious at the transfer of information. Given how communications, and how orders are integral to any battle, the Concept with the most Gods of War should be expected to have such abilities at their disposal.

However, as magnificent the delivery system for the information was, it was the information itself that was troubling.

The Strategist was born to Scavengers, and raised to lead. When their tribe was defeated, they and the other children were judged innocent, and given a chance to integrate into the village that defeated them. The village they spoke of was what I expected of those who left behind the Arcologies in favor of freedom. A martial, courageous people supplemented by robust technology and goodwill from the rest of humanity, capable of holding their strategic locations, and capable of fleeing what they could not defeat. Not the small, dilapidated shanties that we’d investigated.

However, that changed as time passed, by the hand of the very village that the Strategist found themselves rescued by. It was a marauding, mobile village based around a retrofitted land crawler, modified and carefully tinkered by its inhabitants. The schematics provided to us were very specific, but none of us had the technical knowledge to interpret it. However, I was able to see its abilities. With its weapons removed, and its fabricators altered, it became mobile base capable of manufacturing light vehicles and drone aircraft.

The Strategist witnessed it grow from a simple, mobile village into a lumbering powerhouse hunting Chimera, processing them, and augmenting a fleet of support craft, as they were taught, raised, and trained by the inhabitants. As times grew harsher, with Scavenger and Chimera assaults increasing, the weight of the massive force gradually turned towards the future… and what could ensure their longevity upon Earth, for centuries to come.

Vassals.

Now, ten years after that decision came to pass, a nation without borders exists across the world. It is composed of dozens of land crawlers, each one employing stealth and holographic technology, to trek through the vast, uninhabited reaches of Earth. Even with mankind’s immense satellite network, capable of predicting Chimera attacks accurately the world over, such a feat was only possible due to the system  focusing on watching the perimeters of Arcologies and cities… and for massive swarms of enemies composed of flesh and bone. The whole breadth and width of the Earth, of course, cannot be scoured for great machines designed to be hidden.

Over their decade of hunting down Chimera, scavenging ruins, and becoming empowered with every wreckage they found, ruin they plundered, and victory they won, they have become what humanity would’ve fallen to, if not for the development of Arcologies. Groups of a few thousand, traveling upon mobile cities, living through stealth, speed, and subterfuge, who are all allied with one another, and protect their vassals solely because they have been tithed. A rugged group, focused on survival for the decades to come, and focused on finding a means to finding another Earth… and then onward to another and another, to flee until they’ve ravaged enough to match the Chimera.

By becoming them, through science and metal.

The information provided to us by the Strategist demanded nothing less. They had launch capability, nuclear deterrents, and fleets of support craft. They focused on becoming self-sufficient, to the point where they merely needed ruins, or Chimeric bodies, to build or repair their ships, and their combined population is in the low millions. However, they were a true nation, a fledgling one with lesser technology, but they were a effective, capable, and ruthless people, who are battering themselves headfirst into the secrets of the arcane to invade another Earth. Truly, they are a portion of humanity that intended to survive, no matter what became of the Cradle.

Naturally, my first thought was to call upon Li Song, to see him bring them low.

But, both my companions merely looked at me with gazes filled with surprise and apprehension.

“They’ve done nothing to warrant direct action, Santiago.” Those words struck me with the force of a train. Ms. Himejima’s gaze was narrowed and her lips pursed. I felt like a child being scolded by his parent. “These people have not acted against the UN, groundside or on the Cradle.” I looked back upon the report we’d all been reading together. Indeed, the rogue nation took the aid sent to those unaffiliated to the UN, but that is what they were. Unaffiliated. They hid, had deterrents, and pursued a separate path… but were not enemies. Just threats. “It’s only the extremists that need to be dealt with.”

“No need to kill them all.”

Ioseva’s chosen phrase was shorter, but infinitely more harsh.

I barely managed to keep myself reading.

My loyalty is to the North American Coalition, followed by my family, then the Europeans and the Soviets. No. That is the loyalty engraved onto to me after all my years in the military. For my family, I fought with my nation. Thus, my nation and its allies protected my family. The people I saw, no matter how terrible their conditions, was not of my nation, or even an ally of my nation. What was done to them was cruel and unjust, but the assault I’d envisioned, carried out by Mr. Song, would’ve killed millions. So, despite how my spirit raged, I bit my tongue and read further.

They were a threat, but not the Cradle.

Only the extremists, whom the Strategist hunted.

And, who she wished for us to aid in destroying, because she lacked a means to track them down reliably.

“We’ll do it. Pick one of the rendezvous points, and we’ll head there tomorrow.”

Only at Miss Himejima’s words, so deep was I in my brooding, did I realize that tracking down the land crawler… and the reasons of its crew’s deaths would be me.

Those who’ll die will die because of me.

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Only a wreckage was left of the vehicle I’d feared. With my gaze as a soldier and a mere human, the schematics portrayed a weapon of war that was terrifying in all its abilities, yet my two companions tore it apart in less than five minutes. Fifty thousand tons capable of speeds of fifty kilometers per hour, evasion of less-than-state-of-the-art surveillance systems, and with armaments and support craft capable of dissuading Chimera hunting packs… undone by two walking weapons of mass destruction shaped like young women.

Again, I could only feel foolish about my earlier thoughts.

Li Song?

Li Song would’ve swung his blade once and destroyed it in half-a-heartbeat. If told that a threat to humanity like this existed, a rival tribe to the humans on the Cradle, what terrors would he have inflicted in a day? In half a day? In an hour?

I understood why this wasn’t yet reported to him, nor the rest of the Preservers.

Our knowledge was limited. The facts come from a singular source. No. Two. But one was now ruin, with all its survivors fleeing into the unknown. What if all the crawlers responded to him as this one did to us? With tactical, nuclear weapons, and a hail of laser fire, to inquiries to their purpose? Even if Li Song could put all of them to sleep, through arcane means, where would they go? What would become of them, since they have no place in the Cradle, besides being gathered together in a singular place, where their anger and hatred can fester, while they retain all their technological expertise?

So engrossed was I in my thoughts, that I nearly didn’t notice the suit-clad being, which appeared by my side.

“Tell Li Song to search for me on his own.  Allow him to learn about my people, and take their measure, through his own eyes.” There was a depth to the being’s voice that threatened to make me fall to my knees. Barely, I was able to breathe and hear the faraway words of my companions. “Do this and I’ll find all who’ve fled, find their allies, and destroy all those who want for war between us and the Cradle.”

Struggling, I told the Concept, which was born of all the gods of War, that it wasn’t my place to accept such a demand.

“Do not fret, warrior. Your leader shall accept. You are merely a vessel for my message.” Concerns regarding the Concepts came to the forefront of my mind, but one stood out amongst the others: what if the gods within overcame the person without? I believed that the answer lay before me now. “So, warrior, relay my message, conspire sorrowfully against your glorious champion, and hide your shame deep within your heart, lest you wish for humanity to fracture and fall from the grace.”

Like mist, the Strategist faded before my gaze, caring not for the blows can crush armies with ease.

“My word is true. Do as I demand, lie as I say, and you and your people have everything to gain.” The words rang within my mind, even as my companions pulled me behind them. The slight protections did nothing. I knew that the words will ring within my mind for the days to come, whenever I wished to tell the truth. “Accept our mutual victory, or let us all burn in defeat. Choose well and wisely, Preservers of Reality. You have impressed me, so do not disappoint me.”

As I tried to recover, to breathe, I knew that, without a shred of doubt, we’ve played exactly into the Strategist’s hands from the very start. Everything we’ve been told, was meant for us to hear. Every fear we’d felt, we were meant feel. Every action we made, was meant for us to do. Never were we  in control, the moment the three of us began to chase after the Strategist.

We were only fortunate that we’d found it, and been considered worthy as a piece to captured.

Still, I knew one thing.

If Li Song did take up arms against the Strategist, I’d would support him through every inch of that bloody path.

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