Disclaimer: the only credit I'm getting is for putting this on fanfiction. All rights to the story go to Philippe Painchaud, AKA Dotswarlock, and I own neither the story nor Supreme Commander. If it matters, reformatting this to be put onto fanfiction took a bit of effort. I hope you all appreciate it, and I will be posting the rest as I finish formatting them.

Enjoy.

This is the highly professional work of art, The Infinite War Series.

The Infinite War

Created by Philippe Painchaud (Dotswarlock)

Based upon the game "Supreme Commander"

The Infinite War

Chapter 1

Symbiont

Year 3824, twenty years before the final battle on Earth,

Ivanna Dostya stood at the entrance of the monorail station, a simple backpack on her shoulder with what few belongings she had. She took a deep breath to compose herself for what she had to face. The seventeen year old girl needed to stay calm both for her sake and for that of her family waiting patiently behind her. She finally turned around and smiled, ready to say her goodbyes.

Standing before her was her mother and father as well as her little brother. Ivanna instinctively went to her mother first and hugged her: "Take care of yourself, machekha."

Ivanna's mother held on to her tightly and whispered back: "Write to us every week."

A few moments passed before they finally parted and Ivanna turned to her father. A mixture of emotions danced in his eyes; worry, a desire to protect, and confusion all at once. It was not his fault; her father had been a simple farmer all his life and did not understand what the human AI twining process really meant. All that most common men saw were the constant UEF reports detailing the war with the Cybrans and the Aeon.

Ivanna had spent many nights trying to reassure him, telling him that the Cybrans were just symbionts that had been corrupted with programs to make them impossibly aggressive. The UEF, however, had refined the process since then and there was no danger of her being corrupted in any way. She would remain herself, only… different.

The distraught father still did not understand why Ivanna wanted to become a symbiont, but he knew his little girl's potential and the fire that drove her to try and help win the war. He finally moved and hugged her with shaking hands, keeping whatever worries he had to himself, and trying to comfort her as much as possible. The letters will reassure him, or so Ivanna thought. When he reads my words then he'll know that I'm still myself.

Finally, Ivanna turned towards her brother who was looking away, feeling awkward by the show of emotions. She started to make a hugging motion, but then switched her stance and launched a half-hearted punch in his arm to shake him out of it: "Take care of yourself, little brat!"

That did the trick as her brother snapped out of it and turned to her with the usual scowl. He hated it when she called him 'brat' which meant brother in Russian, but she never tired of it. It was her way of teasing him for all those foreign TV shows that he kept watching. She hugged him briefly and used the occasion to mess up his hair.

When all the goodbyes were done, Ivanna took a deep breath and entered the monorail that would take her to the airport. From there she would travel across the sea to one of the UEF headquarters. She waved at her family as the train departed, and silently promised herself that she would prove them all wrong and come back once the war was over.

XXXXX

Nothing could be heard through the small office except for the muffled sound of people occasionally walking outside. Dostya sat obediently in her chair even as the man in front of her finished reading her application. Colonel Kerpins finally half nodded to himself before looking back at her: "I'm half tempted to reject your application right here and now, Miss Dostya."

The blunt proclamation nearly knocked Dostya out of her chair as Colonel Kerpins calmly browsed through her file. She had always been good at whatever she had tried to do and this was the first time that anyone had rejected her: "But I'm…"

"You come from a farming family, Miss Dostya," said the Colonel as a matter of fact. Kerpins shook his head even as he kept speaking: "Personally, I can't figure out why we're still striving to grow food the old fashion way, but I guess that the higher ups still like to eat vegetables and vitamins in non-bar forms. It's either that or maybe it's because that despite the UEF's creation, we're still stuck on an old foundation."

Dostya clenched her fists tightly but held back the harsh words that were coming to her mind: "I'm sorry, but what does my family have to do with my application?"

It was not contempt that filled the Colonel's voice, but rather a hint of admiration when he spoke again: "It matters, Miss Dostya, because despite your unfavorable starting conditions, you're in peak physical condition, intelligent, quick, decisive, the first of your class and according to this, you're pretty good at leading others as well. Honestly, I think that putting you in the symbiont program would be a waste of your abilities and I would recommend that you seriously consider joining our ACU tactical training courses."

The ACU - the Armored Command Unit - the weapon that defined the very nature of the Infinite War. Dostya swallowed nervously: "I'm flattered, sir, but I don't think that I'm made for the ACU program."

"And why not?" asked Kerpins immediately. The Colonel leaned forward in his chair, his voice softening as he did so: "I admire your dedication towards volunteering for the symbiont program, especially at such a young age. It shows eagerness and a level of patriotism that any family would be proud of. Everything that I see here, however, shows that you are made for so much more and no human that has undergone the symbiont program would be allowed to become an ACU pilot afterwards. The risk would just be too great for such a powerful weapon to fall into enemy hands. I'm willing to personally sponsor you into a career that only a few can even dare to dream of, and maybe even speed your way through it. All that it would require would be a bit of patience."

As convincing as the offer seemed, Dostya still found herself shaking her head: "Sir, I can't. I don't want to go on worlds so far away that I won't be able to see my family for years at a time… or be forced to kill."

Colonel Kerpins paused a moment to choose his next words carefully: "You know that the war out there is mostly about robots destroying other robots, and even should you find the enemy, odds are that you will be far away from him when his ACU explodes. We're not in the Middle Ages where we killed at sword point or with guns. In a manner of speaking, the information that you would process as a symbiont would kill just as surely as the information that you would input in the controls of an ACU."

The colonel looked in Dostya's eyes but realized that his words had not found a hold. Even he knew that as artificial as a battle would seem to be, the war out there was a lot uglier than he had just painted it. Kerpins sighed before completing the symbiont registration form and handing it back to Dostya: "The transport leaves for the symbiont surgical bay tomorrow at eight. If you have any doubts or want to join the ACU program then contact me at any hour and I'll answer."

Dostya thanked the colonel, grabbed her pack and left the office. Several seconds passed before Kerpins angrily slapped a hand on his controls and closed Dostya's file: "I tried to warn you, kid. I really did."

XXXXX

Three days later, Dostya sat nervously in the hospital's waiting room. She only wore a medical gown which made her feel uncomfortably exposed and she absently ran a hand along her recently shaved scalp. She had to admit that she was scared. The twining process did involve opening her skull after all and as much as she trusted the current medical care system, she still did not really like the prospect. Still, she was certain that this would be the best way to make use of her talents. When the meld would be completed, she would be able to analyze and treat information like no other human could ever hope to accomplish.

Her musing was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps down the corridor and she watched as a patrol of armed soldiers made their round. She tried to dismiss it as the UEF being cautious, but some part of her mind warned her that something felt wrong. Just then, a nurse opened the door to her right and nodded at her: "Your turn."

Dostya took a deep breath to steady herself as she stood up, entered the operation room and let the assistants settle her on the table. She tried to ignore the cold sensors that were attached to her skin, and remained calm as a gas mask was placed on her face. Her eyes became heavy, but she dimly heard the two doctors talk amongst themselves: "White female, age 17, five feet seven, Russian origins... She's a volunteer, so we'll have to do an aesthetic job."

A single notion stuck in Dostya's mind as darkness overwhelmed her: not everyone was a volunteer?

XXXXX

At first there was only darkness, like a heavy suffocating blanket draped over Dostya's entire body. The sensation faded progressively, allowing her to hear the people that were around her: "She should awaken at any moment, Doctor."

The darkness started to lift, but was instead replaced by a splitting headache. Dostya immediately scolded herself. What had she expected? She did have her skull cracked open after all and had been kept in an artificial coma for nearly three weeks if everything had gone according to plan. Her vision was blurry as she opened her eyes and she had to blink several times to finally see the doctor and his assistant moving around her.

"Good, she's awake," said the Doctor in satisfaction. The man turned to his assistant and nodded: "Put her in a sitting position."

The slow rise of the table made Dostya sick to her stomach and she tried to object: "What…"

"Be silent," cut in the Doctor sharply. The sudden command surprised Dostya, but what was even more alarming was that her mouth closed shut almost automatically, as if compelled to obey on its own. This confused Dostya, but her attention fell back on the Doctor as he placed his face in front of her: "Now, what's four times fourteen?"

For a split second, Dostya considered the ridicule of asking her such a question in her current state, but she was already answering: "Fifty six."

The assistant flicked a switch and a complex series of algebra equations appeared on the wall: "What is the value of X in that equation?"

"Five point two, six, eight, four, four, three," answered Dostya automatically. Her confusion was only matched by her amazement. She did not need to think about the answer, nor make the calculations mentally as the answer was there almost instantly in her mind.

Dostya had half expected to deal with her AI in the same way that she would a computer, but the integration was so flawless that she could not tell which part came from her and which part came from the machine. The lack of motor control over her answers, however, was starting to alarm her. Even her voice sounded different, as if it was no longer her own.

Without missing a beat, the Doctor picked up a rubber ball and placed it in her hand: "Throw this against the wall in a manner so that it bounces once on the floor and back into your hand."

Dostya was annoyed but complied and threw the ball. Her aim was off, however, and it got stuck between two consoles. The doctor bent down, picked up the ball and placed it in her hand once more: "Try again."

Without realizing it, Dostya's arm went off, but this time the ball's course was true and it rebounded so perfectly that Dostya barely had to move her hand to catch it. The doctor was not impressed, however: "Close your eyes and repeat it."

The situation was getting ridiculous, but she did as ordered and although she deemed it impossible, her throw was rewarded by the feel of the ball in her hand an instant later. The Doctor nodded while pressing a few buttons on his console: "Mental and motor processing seem to be integrating well. It's time to test the loyalty program. Open your eyes and answer the following questions: what's the worst act of disobedience, the greatest lie and the greatest brutality that you have participated in?"

What sort of twisted questions were these, Dostya thought angrily. A few elaborate curse hung on the tip of her tongue, but when she opened her mouth, the words that came forth were not the ones that she had intended: "I drank some Vodka when I was eight years old, I broke a whole set of porcelain dishes and blamed it on the cat and I killed a bird with a slingshot."

Both the Doctor and the assistant chuckled, which only made Dostya even more furious: "Tricky little scamp, compared to the murderers that we tested yesterday."

Dostya wanted to lash out, to scream, to do anything of her own free will. This was a nightmare becoming reality, where her entire being was laid bare for some mad scientists to play with. Yet no matter what efforts she made, she did not even manage to shut her eyes. The Doctor stopped chuckling then and looked back to Dostya: "Let's test the limit a bit. Did you ever have an attraction to a member of your family, murderous thoughts or been touched improperly by a teacher?"

This was going too far! Dostya used every fiber of her being to try and control her body to stop this mad game. The fact that none of it had ever happened did not matter; this was her life and not theirs!

"Increased cardiac rate and system strain," said the assistant while looking at his instruments. A hint of a smile appeared on his lips as he looked down at Dostya: "What do you know; she even managed to close her hand as if to punch you, Doctor."

The doctor looked down at the fist slowly and deliberately before saying: "Increase aggression control by five."

The struggle that Dostya had waged ended abruptly as she was overwhelmed by her twined AI and a single response escaped her lips: "No."

The doctor brought his face a few inches from her before speaking again: "You'll find that the AI is far stronger than whatever you can imagine. You're a symbiont now; a tool of the UEF. Trust me; your only chance of living a 'normal' life is to stop whatever struggle that is going on in your mind. You belong to us now."

Chapter 2

Slavery

The first week was the hardest and seemed like an eternity spent fighting an unbreakable will. The feeling was not something physical like having the weight of shackles or something barking orders in her ear. As much as Dostya tried, she could no longer find the distinction between her mind and the AI, and so it was the equivalent of fighting herself.

The best way that she could mentally picture it was like a person ignoring an urge to eat only instead of being that person, her free will was nothing but an urge; something to be ignored, discarded and trampled. After a day spent in observation, she was transferred to the administration wing of the complex where she had been operated.

She was assigned roughly seven times the duties of a normal human and went through her tasks unerringly during her sixteen hour days. Through it all, whatever mental pull that she exerted did not manage to do the slightest difference. No stopping, no objecting, no speaking and not even the possibility of frowning or making a deliberate spelling mistake. Dostya would have tried to take comfort from the fact that she was not smiling or being agreeable either, but she knew that this was not of her making… they had simply not asked her to do any of these. It was most likely that every human around her knew deep down that something was wrong; knew that whatever smile she would make would be eerie because of its lack of sincerity or warmth.

It was at the end of the week that her greatest torment began. Since she was a 'volunteer', she had a task that included maintaining ties to the outside world. As such, she had to write a letter to her parents and she was tasked with making it so that they would be reassured. In short, she had to create a lie:

Dear matushka and otets…

(Help me…)

The operation went well and I'm slowly integrating into the UEF community.

(I'm a slave writing a lie.)

Although it was a bit disorienting at first, I can now make calculations like you would not believe! Had I known about it, I would have had it done before heading to high school!

(Had I known, I would never have come here.)

There's so much work to do around here, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to visit. They also told me to keep my communications in email for security reasons.

(They don't want you to see what I've become.)

Tell the little brat that his sister said hi!

(I'm sorry, please forgive me.)

A press of a button sent the email and it felt to Dostya as if it had dealt a blow to what was left of her very soul. How could she be rescued when everything led the outside world to believe that she was living a perfect and healthy normal life?

XXXXX

On a distant planet known as Minerva, multiple screens flashed in quick succession through the laboratory. No simple human mind could possibly keep up with that level of information, but this hardly seemed to trouble the room's lone occupant: "Status, QAI."

A digital eye composed of spinning circles suddenly appeared on one of the monitors before a disemboweled voice filled the laboratory: "An analysis of UEF quantum network communications and propaganda suggests that they are preparing for another major assault on Orionis, while simultaneously engaging our forces on Procyon. Probabilities of success from this attack on two fronts are slim, but analysis suggests that the strain on their forces might leave us a window of opportunity to strike Pollux."

Doctor Gustaf Brackman's hand went to his chin as he pondered the possibilities. Although his entire body was but a holographic projection, he still considered it essential to keep his old 'human' habits alive. The Doctor finally nodded and looked up: "Establish contact with Mather."

A moment passed before Mather's face appeared on screen. As was almost always the case, the young pilot was in his Armored Command Unit, patrolling the complex outside Brackman's research facility. The lights from a trio of consoles were reflected on his face which was fixed in grim determination.

"Thank you for answering so quickly, my boy," said Doctor Brackman, genuine warmth resounding in his voice as he spoke: "An analysis shows that a window of opportunity might present itself for operation Seeding in the next few weeks by striking through Pollux. I need you and a group of commandos to be ready at a moment's notice to carry it out. Can I count on you?"

Mather nodded without hesitation: "Yes, Doctor."

The pilot's determination brought a smile to Brackman's face. The Doctor nodded in appreciation as he spoke: "Although the gains will not be felt for quite a few years, this might be a very important step towards Cybran independence. I wish you luck and be safe, my boy, be safe."

Brackman smiled and then closed the channel. He knew that it was risky, but many more lives would be lost before the end of the Infinite War. Such was the price if his children were to be free.

XXXXX

The weeks stretched into a month, and the load of lies and tasks only increased. Fearing that whatever part of her mind that was still free would fall into madness if she did not keep it busy, Dostya tried to analyze her predicament instead of focusing on self-pity. From what she understood, the interaction between her biological and electronic parts was improving over time. It allowed her to balance her workload more efficiently and take on more tasks. It slowly dawned on her that although she was only handling raw shipping data; her position was more of a training exercise before she would be transferred elsewhere. The discussions between the other employees indicated as such and they were expecting 'others' to join them really soon.

Still, at the end of each week she had to write another letter to her family and respond to whatever news that they were sending her. Each letter was another blow and it was hard to take any enjoyment out of it even while reading some of the good news. Just last week, her little brother had apparently made a girlfriend and the family's crop was good this year.

Sometimes, Dostya caught herself wondering if things were not better this way and if indeed she was not – despite her condition – filling in a vital role that kept her family safe. Each time that the notion formed, she dismissed it outright. It was not only because of her treatment as a slave but because her role – as essential as it might appear – did not solve the problem at its source.

She had analyzed the systems that she was working on and she could safely estimate that a good deal of it was horribly flawed. Badly structured databases, multiple sources of the same information, redundant reports, and conflicting data, all of these were maintained simply because changing them would be too hard in terms of bureaucracy. Ordinary humans were resistant to change, as it implied learning how the new system worked, but for a symbiont, a change of procedure was as natural as a new line of code.

Such a broken system could be fixed, but doing so on a galactic scale would take decades and by the time it was done, it would be time to do it all over again. Symbionts could probably do it in little time, but that meant trusting them with their core processes and the UEF was not willing to do that.

That thought brought about another important question to Dostya's mind. After having been through so much, would she have trusted herself had positions been reversed? Probably not, and although she still cared about her family and about humanity as a whole, she grew to hate everything that the UEF stood for. That hatred only grew with each passing day.

XXXXX

The face of an Analyst appeared in the corner of the monitor, the man apparently busy reading the data on his console: "Scans show that the enemy base has been destroyed, Commander, but there's still no sign of the enemy ACU."

A flick of a few switches activated Zachary Arnold's tactical map on his main monitor and he mentally drew a line between all three Cybran bases that had been destroyed in the past twenty-four hours. There was a pattern hidden somewhere, but what was it? The Analyst looked up from his console then and frowned: "Commander Arnold, do you read me?"

"I read you, tac ops," answered Arnold in irritation. He then shook his head and zoomed out his tactical screen: "But for an intelligence division, you sure have the stupid habit of feeding me useless information. Of course I know that the enemy ACU is still out there and kicking! Even a blind and deaf newborn could have felt the localized nuclear explosion had I destroyed it. We've had that same scenario repeated three times already."

This set the Analyst back on his heels for a few moments and gave Arnold the time that he needed to analyze the data in silence. Something about this whole operation felt wrong and despite the fact that he was winning, Arnold still felt as if he was falling straight into the Cybran's hands.

Although it had few mineral resources, Pollux was still vitally important from a strategic point of view. Controlling it could potentially allow someone to gate directly to Earth. Zachary Arnold was one of the three commanders stationed on the world to defend it and felt confident that he could hold the planet until reinforcements arrived, but what if the purpose of the Cybrans was not to take over the planet?

Grunting in annoyance, Arnold reinitialized the tactical map on his secondary display and took direct control of his ACU. The thirty seven meter tall giant immediately responded to his commands and started moving towards the air factory not far from his position. While he was moving, Arnold keyed in the construction of an air transport and watched as blue lasers went to their tasks of assembling it.

The UEF Analyst on his monitor had recovered from his initial shock by then and leaned forward: "Commander, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to take a look at that last base myself and see what I can find," answered Arnold dismissively: "Those danged Titans could not pick up a clue even if it fell straight in their monitor."

Arnold watched as the finished transport took flight and issued the commands to have it pick him up. At the same time, he had the local Broadswords switch to assist him instead of patrolling around his base. When he looked back at the corner of his screen, he was not surprised to see the Analyst shaking his head urgently: "That's too dangerous, sir! We don't know the extent of the Cybran's air force since they have stealth capabilities. If your ACU is destroyed in flight…"

Arnold slammed his fist next to the display: "I know what would happen if I blew up, tac ops! Every unit in the sector would deactivate and then self-destruct, but I have to do something. So you can assist me, shut up, or come take my place!"

Arnold's outburst was again rewarded with silence, and he allowed himself the luxury of closing his eyes for a moment's rest. It was time to see for himself what these terrorists were up to.

Chapter 3

Rebellion

"Implant integration is ahead of schedule," said the doctor's assistant as he pressed a few buttons on his data pad. The man looked up at Dostya for a second before looking back down again: "Nervous systems are stable and there are no signs of mental instability. So far, I'd say that she is a very promising specimen and we might even transfer her to headquarters if she keeps up the good performance."

Dostya had always liked being praised when she had attended school, but that had been when she had been treated like a human and not some kind of exceptional pet. The small part of her that was still her own struggled furiously to find some way, any way, to get back at the doctor and his assistant that were talking in front of her. Not even a scowl appeared for all of her efforts.

The assistant turned around then and looked at the other symbiont who was sitting in the chair opposite Dostya: "I have my doubt about this one, however. Something about his test results just does not seem right."

Dostya watched the other symbiont in front of her. Like her, his head was clean shaven, but his face had quite a few scars. This indicated that complications had occurred when they had done his facial circuitry. The end result was a mess with most of the blue circuits barely shining. For the first time, it occurred to Dostya that she had not seen her own reflection since the operation and that she had no idea what she looked like anymore.

The assistant's concern puzzled the Doctor who walked closer and raised an eyebrow: "What has you worried? If it's his criminal record then I assure you that we've reformed serial killers that were far worse than him."

The assistant picked up his pad and looked at it again: "Even so, Doctor, I feel that we might have underestimated his aggression level and that we should increase the restraining factor by at least ten points."

The doctor looked at his assistant and then back at the new symbiont: "Well, let's test your theory and jump straight to the spicy questions. Did you ever have an attraction to a member of your family, a murderous thought or been touched improperly by a teacher?"

The symbiont shrugged slightly, something that amazed Dostya for some reason: "Yes, yes and yes."

The doctor and the assistant blinked in confusion and had Dostya been able to, she would have burst out laughing. The assistant checked the file in his hands again and frowned: "It says here that you're an orphan, so that's not right. How did he manage to lie?"

Although the question was not directed at him, the symbiont managed to answer it anyway: "You'd be surprised as to just how many impulses you can have when you're dead drunk for three weeks straight. That or…"

Both the Doctor and his assistant looked up at him: "Or?"

"Or I'm just a dumbass," answered the symbiont. As the doctor and his assistant started adjusting the parameters to tame the disobedient symbiont, Dostya felt the corner of her lip twist in a semblance of a smile. He was rude, insulting, probably an idiot and someone that she would have avoided in her past life. Right now though, he was the most welcomed sight that she had seen in months.

XXXXX

Rats scurried deep below the surface in the ancient sewage system. Had the UEF wanted, they could have invested the necessary resources to properly recycle the materials before building the new city above, but they had not. Instead, they had built upon the ruins much like the way that the UEF had been built atop the ruins of the old Earth Empire.

Suddenly, a spark flashed in the middle a tunnel; no more than a flash of static electricity. A second later, another, bigger one flashed in the middle of nowhere and was quickly followed by a massive blast. Where once there had been nothing now stood a module the size of a small truck. The heat wave had singed the walls, melted the closest pipes and killed every rat in the area, leaving behind the stench of burning flesh.

A moment passed before the module opened and a group of six armed commandos in black combat uniforms jumped out. They took a moment to grasp their surroundings before splitting into two teams that rushed into the tunnels. One team was heading towards the local quantum gate while the other was rushing towards the Symbiont facility.

XXXXX

"I would still advise that we bring it up another notch," said the Assistant while scowling: "It's possible that this one's brain is so fried that the concept of doing the 'right' thing is messed up. He won't be as efficient as the other one because of such restraints, but still…"

Dostya felt her heart sink, and chose to ignore what the doctor was saying. So this is why she was so easily controlled; because she had a normal life, a loving family and the understanding of what good and evil was? She felt her shoulders sag and she unconsciously looked down at her hands, feeling even more miserable.

"I promise you that I'll kill you one of these days, Doctor," spat the symbiont back. The words mirrored Dostya's thoughts, but shocked her to her core. He should not have been able to say that.

Dostya looked up and saw the symbiot raise his hands as if to strangle the Doctor. She realized just then that she should not have been capable of lowering her head in the first place. The assistant was quickly realizing that himself: "Doctor, his marks are turning red!"

Just then, the symbiont sprung off the chair and jumped at the Doctor, his hands closing around his throat with a bestial snarl on his face: "I'll kill you!"

The assistant scrambled backwards, his hands reaching for the security button. Dostya saw it all in slow motion and a single thought formed into her mind: she had to stop him!

No sooner had the thought formed that she remembered the surgical tool that had negligibly been left on the table to her right. Her hand flashed out and although she had never thrown a weapon before, it flew flawlessly and caught the assistant in his leg, sending him tumbling forward and slamming his head violently on the operation table.

She was amazed by what she had managed to do, but the bestial grunts to her right brought her back to reality. The symbiont had crushed the doctor's throat, but was still squeezing, confusing the doctor's dying spasms as signs of struggle. Not understanding what was happening, but knowing that they had to escape, Dostya made her way to the symbiont and tried to pry him off: "Come on, we have to move!"

The door burst open then and Dostya saw a UEF soldier take aim with his rifle. With no time left to spare, she tackled the symbiont as violently as she could, unconsciously calculating the best way for her to push him aside while bullets narrowly missed them both. They fell behind one of the operating chairs as a hail of bullets burst through the nearby consoles and medical equipment.

Dostya was wondering how they would get out of this when the bullet fire was interrupted by a single sputtering sound followed by a wet gurgle. She looked up and saw the soldier fall forward, his throat having been shot through by a weapon that left the wound dry and cauterized. Behind him stood a black armored man with a laser rifle in hand. The symbiont under Dostya disentangled himself and was about to charge when the man raised his visor, exposing his own red facial markings: "Follow me, we have no time!"

XXXXX

"This was a quantum gate," observed Arnold as he glanced at the wreckage in front of him. The UEF ACU stood in the middle of the destroyed Cybran base. All around, Titans - the strongest siege bots available in the UEF's arsenal – patrolled the area while Broadsword gunships hovered above him.

Without a word, Arnold aimed the ACU's building laser at the wreckage and activated a slow reclamation protocol. Twin blue lasers surged forth, disassembling the wreckage piece by piece and trying to recover as much information as possible. Arnold looked at the fractured pieces of data, but his breath caught in his throat when he saw the incomplete set of coordinates.

A push of a button uploaded the data back to Earth even as Arnold opened a channel: "Tac ops, this is Arnold. I have reasons to believe that the Cybran's true objective was to gate to Earth. Here are the partial coordinates that I've reclaimed. If my hunch is correct then they probably gated near the quantum gate nexus of old New York."

The answer made Arnold cringe: "Negative, commander. An ACU gating in would have been pretty obvious no matter where it landed. This is obviously disinformation to…"

"Damn it tac ops, you're not even listening," interrupted Arnold while slamming a fist against his chair: "I never said an ACU gated to Earth! It must be something small like a sabotage team or something that could gate in undetected. Every sign here shows that they are already on Earth instead of fighting to control this world and they might be using Earth's own gate to get out once they are done. You must shut down Earth's gates immediately!"

The tactical officer's annoyed voice came back: "We'll take it under advisement. In the meantime we want you to move to point zero, five…"

Arnold closed the channel and opened another line: "Desjar, its Arnold. I need you to assume command of my forces while I gate back to Earth."

Another ACU pilot appeared on Arnold's screen: "I've been listening in. You probably know the consequences of disobeying a direct order for both of us if I accept this."

"Damn it, Desjar!" grumbled Arnold in frustration: "They have their noses so far up their superior's rears that they can't even glance away from their bureaucratic crap. Meanwhile, we're the ones getting screwed!"

Desjar sighed audibly: "Fine, but you owe me big time after this one."

A smile appeared on Arnold's face as he tried to minimize the possible repercussions: "Worst case scenario is I'm wrong, I'm back in a few, you hand me my forces back and we get screwed by tac ops later. At least this way we'll see it coming!"

Desjar sighed again: "Oh good, but at least try to stop by the supermarket and buy some lube before you gate back."

XXXXX

"Hold on!" cried one of the Cybrans as he twisted the wheel to the right. The ground transport went into a tight turn that threw everyone off balance. Dostya desperately held on to the woman that was sprawled on the vehicle's floor and maintained pressure on her bleeding chest. There were a good twenty symbionts in the vehicle, without counting the three black armored Cybrans that had come to their rescue. Of the twenty, eight had suffered various wounds during their escape, but there was no time to pause and treat them. By now all of Earth's forces were becoming aware of their existence and it would only be a matter of time before they were intercepted and killed.

At the front of the transport, one of the Cybrans was talking into his transmitter while the other was navigating through the traffic: "Yes, we have twenty of them and are heading to the rendezvous. How's the gate coming up?"

Their leader listened for an answer before turning towards the passengers: "Listen up! We're making a dash for the nearby quantum complex and we'll be coming in quick for a gate to gate transport. It's a lot less bumpy than a hot drop, but we'll still be in for a wild ride. When we're about to hit the gate get in crash positions, hands on your head and keep your eyes closed. With a bit of luck, we'll be out of here and into safe territory in no time!"

A few gunfire shots hit the transport and the commando at the rear returned fire with his laser rifle. Dostya did her best to keep the pressure on the injured woman's chest, but looked around briefly. Every face around her displayed fear, hope, desperation, eagerness or even exuberance. What struck her to the core, however, was that no matter what ethnic background they came from, they all looked so very… human.

The leader of the commando team brought a hand to his ear and shouted over the ruckus: "We've entered the gate complex and we're almost through! Delta team, are you close by?"

An explosion behind them followed by a cheer brought the leader's attention to the rear. He smiled when he realized that Delta team was in the transport that was a bit further back: "They're barely a minute behind us. We're as good as home free!"

A cheer resounded through the transport as the leader of the commandos turned back to look ahead. The gate in front of them was activate with the coordinates locked in and enough power for both transports. His smile vanished when the gate next to it activated and the giant foot of a UEF ACU materialized through.

XXXXX

Arnold's stomach lurched as it always did, but he found that once again he had materialized in one piece. His sensors immediately flared in warning and his tactical screen lit up with the image of two transports being displayed. Both had been coded with Cybran signatures by the local tactical center and he immediately readied his blaster. The main gun of his ACU was already aimed at the rear transport and he fired without thinking, blowing it to pieces in a single shot.

His aim then shifted to the first transport, but it was too close by now to get a firm lock and it was almost at the portal. He fired anyway while aiming at the ground, sending it flying through the air and crashing through the portal. It flashed once and then disappeared to whatever destination had been programmed. Arnold watched as the gate went offline, overheating in the process.

Chapter 4

Time for a Drink

Smoke blocked Dostya's vision and it felt to her as if someone had turned all of her organs upside down a few dozen times. A hand grasped her shoulder, dragged her out of what was left of the transport and eased her down on the ground. She tried to thank the commando, but he was already heading back into the transport to help the others.

The sound of something massive stomping around not far away startled Dostya and she looked around in panic, expecting the UEF ACU to be ready to finish what it had started. There was indeed an ACU waiting nearby, but it was not part of the UEF military. Towering over them with its massive frame was a Cybran ACU, the kind of weapon that had always been described as 'the enemy' on the news. Spikes covered its surface and the head had two sets of red eyes that were looking down at them.

The few survivors of the transports were being treated by the three commandos who were busy administering emergency first aid. Dostya looked down to see herself covered in blood, but it seemed that it was not her own. She kept gazing at her hands just as someone slumped next to her: "Thanks."

She looked to her side to see the symbiont that had been with her in the laboratory: "Thanks for pushing me out of the way in that lab, when the soldier shot at me. The name's Pent, Jorus Pent."

Jorus extended a hand and Dostya was about to shake it when she remembered the blood that was on her own. Noticing this, Jorus overextended his hand, grasped hers and shook it anyway. The shock gradually faded and she managed to say: "Dostya, Ivanna Dostya".

Jorus was about to speak again when one of the commandos interrupted them: "We have another gate powered up for an immediate transport back into Cybran territory. You two ready for this?"

Dostya looked up and tried to answer, tried to find something to say after over a month of being forced into silence. Jorus noticed this and merely shrugged: "Got booze where we're going?"

The commando was surprised by the question, but nodded: "Yeah, and the first round is on me."

Jorus jumped to his feet: "Good enough for me. Come on kid, time to blow this joint before it does."

As if on cue, a dozen interceptors passed overhead and the sound of a distant battle reached them. The Cybran ACU turned around slowly and emitted a shrieking whine. Bolts of light danced over its surface briefly before it disappeared and the only indication that it had activated its stealth and cloaking systems was the footsteps that appeared on the ground as it moved away. Dostya looked at the spot where the ACU had vanished and briefly wondered what kind of person could fight wars on such a huge scale alone.

XXXXX

"What you did was unacceptable," said General Trenk with a tone that left no room for compromise: "You disobeyed orders, risked the safety of your assigned world and gated to Earth without permission. One of you is guilty of doing it and the other of supporting him. I'm not sure if the proper punishment should be to court-martial you or just shoot you right here!"

Arnold and Desjar stood side by side back on Earth, waiting for their punishment. Through it all, only one thought swirled through Arnold's mind: 'I definitely should've bought that lube'.

"And if either of you so much as disobeys one of my orders in the future then know that I'll shoot you myself," concluded the General while straightening his uniform. Arnold and Desjar looked at each other in confusion before turning back to General Trenk: "But sir, we've never been under your orders."

"Well, you are now, soldier," said Trenk as though the point had been obvious: "What you did took guts, fast thinking and some amount of brains. That's exactly what we need on the front line right now if we're going to take back what the Aeon and the Cybrans took from us."

The General half nodded towards the report that was waiting on his desk: "Whether it followed protocol or not, you single handedly thwarted a Cybran sabotage mission. The equipment found in the wreckage from one of the transports has revealed important data that will help us remove the viruses that they installed in our network. My analysts also state that there is a high probability that the last transport had its molecules dispersed across the galaxy. For those reasons, Commander Arnold, you have been promoted to Colonel and the two of you will be working together on the front line until further notice."

The shock sent both pilots reeling and it was all they could do not to burst out in a joyful cry. The General then waved them off: "Now the both of you are dismissed and had better get out of my office before I change my mind and have you thrown in the brig. I must be getting soft in my old age."

Arnold and Desjar saluted and left the office. General Trenk chuckled when they were gone and shook his head: "Crazy bastards."

XXXXX

Another flash of light seemed to fill Dostya's very being as the gate was activated. It was over in an instant as they traveled through space and appeared on the surface of another world. A dozen Cybran technicians moved towards the transport pod and helped its occupants out as quickly as they could in order to tend to the wounded, while also clearing the gate. Of the twenty symbionts and six commandos, only eight symbionts and three commandos had survived the return trip.

One of the medics – the chief from the looks of her – spoke briefly to the commandos, but Dostya could not make out the words. The leader of the commando team motioned towards Pent and Dostya and nodded, but then motioned towards the other symbionts and shook his head sadly. The chief medical officer issued orders to everyone and then came towards Dostya: "My name is Ell. If you'll follow me, we'll get the two of you patched and cleaned up."

"What's the matter with the other symbionts?" asked Dostya, ignoring the request. She almost regretted the harshness of her tone, but she was past the stage where she would simply follow orders blindly. The first time had been disastrous enough. The chief medical officer nodded slowly, her eyes full of compassion: "I understand your suspicions, especially after all that you've been through. Simply put, the others were not as fortunate as you were and they have been under the sway of the loyalty program for a lot longer than either of you. They will need to be treated and follow a therapy course for a long while before their own individuality can be restored to what it once was."

"I'm sorry," said Dostya, feeling guilty for her suspicion. Ell gently placed a hand on her shoulder: "Don't be. Every Cybran – even those that have been born free – has been taught the effects of the loyalty program and to care for our lost brothers and sisters. Rest assured that you are amongst friends here."

With that, Ell led them to another room where she took care of their minor bruises and cuts. Once that was done, she consulted her data pad before speaking again: "Ok, now there's the cosmetic part. It might be a bit premature and you don't need to take any decisions right now, but the two of you should know that with a minor surgery, we can rearrange your facial circuits and a simple laser treatment can be used to stimulate your hair follicles."

"What are they for?" asked Pent while scratching the side of his face.

Ell turned towards Pent and explained patiently: "Doctor Brackman was forced to implement facial circuitry by the old Earth Empire in his original design. It was meant to help distinguish between normal and upgraded citizens. He went a step further and connected them to the AI so that their light signals could be used as a simple yet highly efficient way to communicate if need be."

A hint of resentment slipped into Ell's voice as she kept explaining: "Even after the old Earth Empire fell, the UEF still used the principle to 'mark' us as their slaves, but a lot of Cybrans took the insult and appropriated it as their own. Some Cybran nodes have very skilled artists that weave very complex patterns. They think of it more as a tattoo, if you will."

Dostya unconsciously brought a hand to her face and felt the lines on the left side. Noticing this, Ell picked up a mirror from the counter and handed it to her so that she could glance at her reflection for the first time.

Red lines laced the left side of her face up to her forehead where a single data jack protruded from her skull. A few lines from the original surgery were still visible on the top of her head along with a few other inputs but Ell quickly assured her that they would not show up once her hair had grown back. When she was finished, Dostya handed the mirror to Pent who took a second to look at the myriad of scars and facial circuits that crossed his face before finally exclaiming: "Man! And to think that compared to what I looked like before, this is an improvement!"

This made both Dostya and Ell smile and Pent kept going on about how he could almost make a puzzle out of it when the leader of the commando team entered the room: "Hey doc, I promised these two a drink when we were done. Are they clear to go?"

Ell looked at her data pad and then shrugged: "Well, aside from a few bruises, they are in perfect health, but make sure that they reach their quarters before leaving them for the night, ok?"

"But I'm just seventeen," Dostya exclaimed quickly. Ell looked down at her data pad for a second: "According to the files that our commando team hacked before disrupting the loyalty program, your birthday was two days ago. It's a bit late, but I might as well wish you a happy birthday."

XXXXX

"I'm doing it Lin, this time I'm really doing it," whispered Arnold softly. For a moment, Arnold's eyes softened as he looked at the picture in his hand, something that he only allowed himself to do when he was alone. Someone entered the bar's bathroom then and he immediately closed the locket and steeled himself. He nodded to the officer in front of him and then left to rejoin Desjar and the others.

The bar was moderately packed with every manner of UEF personnel and as soon as they spotted Arnold, Desjar and the others near him cheered. A beer was handed to him and he was glad when he drank it that it did not taste like a week old recycled stew. Arnold was more in the mind for a quiet night before shipping out the next day, but it seemed that Desjar had another idea in mind. He jumped on the table and raised his voice: "May I have everyone's attention please?"

The whole room hushed and Arnold resisted the urge to groan as Desjar spoke: "It is with great pleasure that I would like to congratulate my old buddy Zach about his promotion to colonel!"

The whole room cheered, but Desjar quieted them down: "Tomorrow, we'll be shipping for the Aeon front. See the world, they said, meet interesting people they said… and of course, I'm forced to tag along even though I wanted to go to the beaches of Florida."

Many laughed at Desjar's exaggerated gestures and that only spurred him on: "Well, it is with great pleasure that I give my new superior this one and all purpose gift that he neglected to buy for himself."

Desjar deftly picked a tube of lube from his back pocket, showed it to the whole crowd and made a huge flourish before handing it over to Arnold: "Because we all know that the only chicks where we're going are those Aeon scamps and I'd still rather get screwed by tac ops than by those."

Everyone in the room burst out in laughter and after a while, Arnold finally gave in, took the present and held it towards Desjar: "I'll get you back one day for this."

His old friend took a swig of his beer and then smiled broadly: "And I'll hold you to that promise. After all, that means you'll have to save my rear if you ever want to get back at me."

XXXXX

Back on the other side of the galaxy, the commando leader led Dostya and Pent outside the facility where the other two member of his team were waiting: "Introductions are in order, I'm Keith, he's Sjet and that's Queren. Welcome to Node Fifty-Six of Minerva."

Keith – no longer dressed in his battle armor and now wearing only a light jump suit – extended his hand and Dostya shook it: "Ivanna Dostya."

Behind her Pent did the same: "Jorus Pent. So you guys have no family names?"

Keith smirked and motioned for them to start walking: "The notion of a family name is a bit messed up over here. You can find Cybrans of any color, background and culture walking around, but you'll rarely see whole families turned into symbionts by the UEF. The few that are born and raised here usually refer to themselves as being the son or daughter of another or part of a node and that's usually enough. Don't be surprised if most people here only call you by your first or last name."

Dostya paused for a moment and then wondered aloud: "There are Cybran children?"

Sjet laughed, but Keith took the question seriously: "Of course. The Infinite War has been raging for nearly a thousand years now and as artificial as we look, we're hardly immortal. Ah, there we are."

They made it to a building where a neon sign 'Hot Plasma' flashed on and off. The inside was not really different from any other bar that Dostya had sneaked into back on Earth, but the clientele was. There were about thirty Cybrans all around the room, with almost all of them from a different ethnic background and with varying levels of cybernetic implants. All of their faces were lighted by the same red lines however, the same lines that now covered Dostya's face.

The group settled at a table at the far end of the room. A basket filled with meat flavored bars was brought and Keith ordered a round of drinks that he called 'Minerva's swamp' for all of them. Once the drinks arrived, Keith raised his glass: "To Mel, Silch, Forth and the others that fell today. Let their loss never be forgotten in our fight for freedom."

They all drank and Dostya did the same. Whatever it was, the liquid tasted foul, but left a burning sensation and packed a kick that was not much different from Vodka.

"Can't believe that we can still get drunk," said Pent as he poured himself another glass. Sjet chuckled and slapped him on the shoulder as Keith explained: "Doctor Brackman is a genius. He created the AI so that it would integrate with a human's mind and serve to support it in whatever capacity it could without restriction. So we can still get drunk, excited or fall in love just like any human can. We just get to do it all more efficiently whenever we want to, that's all."

"And the loyalty program?" asked Dostya. The question killed the mood, but she needed to know. Keith nodded while tapping his right temple with two fingers: "Once it's erased there's no way to put it back in. Although you can't tell the difference, each of our AIs evolves in a certain way after the twining process is complete. Having a program there at the first installation is possible, but once it's erased, a personalized one would have to be written to take a hold of any of us and still maintain a hint of competence. I don't think that there's ever a day where Doctor Brackman does not regret having written it."

Pent took a protein bar and spoke while chewing: "You talk about the guy as if he's still alive. If that were the case then he'd be over a thousand years old, hah!"

Keith and Sjet exchanged knowing glances before the leader of the commando team turned back to Pent: "One thousand, two hundred and eighty four to be precise and he's wearing it well, relatively speaking."

Pent choked and Dostya frowned: "So he's not just a bogeyman that the media was dangling? He's been hiding from the Infinite War since the very beginning?"

"We're all hiding, Dostya," said Keith with a helpless shrug: "We've never been strong enough to take on the UEF and the Aeon Illuminate through brute force, but we've always been around. We wait for the opening, get into position and then strike swiftly and precisely. Me, Sjet and Queren are commandos, but people like Mather – the ACU pilot that helped us escape – are truly the tip of the spear. It's only thanks to people like him that the rest of us have not been enslaved or cleansed."

Dostya lowered her head while trying to come to terms with her own feelings. Keith noticed this and leaned forward: "Tell me this, Dostya: In the weeks where you were under the loyalty program, did you ever think that your freedom was worth fighting for? Did you ever think that it was even worth dying for?"

Conflicting feelings coursed through Dostya. She hated war and that had been the reason that she had refused to join the ACU program back on Earth. Each time, she imagined that people not unlike her family were caught in the crossfire and yet those principles were now challenged by her time as a slave. For each minute of every day, she had wished to be rescued or for her torment to end. Now that she was free, could she really ignore the plight of all the others that were still captives despite her aversion to war?

The part of her that was logical – the part that, in her half drunken state, she suspected was her AI – could find reasons and sensible extrapolations for her to fight and the emotional part of her that had been mercilessly abused flared with its own desires for revenge, and yet it was not enough. A single thought formed in her mind then: had her family known the truth, would they have fought for her?

She could imagine her mother crying and her father banging the gates and shouting until they would have thrown him in prison. Even her little brother would have tried to do something, anything to reach her. The only reason that they had not done so was because of all the UEF lies.

She finally raised her head and nodded, her gaze unwavering. Had they known, her family and everyone that had ever loved her would have fought for her freedom. Now that she was free, it was her duty to do the same for everyone else and break through the wall of lies that kept the war alive.

XXXXX

Back in Doctor Brackman's laboratory, the multiple screens kept shifting, displaying everything from military reports to research updates. On one of the side screens, an icon displaying an ACU lit up, alerting the Doctor to a change in the mission: "Status, QAI."

The cold and disembodied voice resonated through the chamber: "Commander Mather has just gated in and the commando team has returned. Fifty percent of the commando team was lost, however, and not all of the symbionts survived the return trip."

Doctor Brackman's holographic projection paused a moment and bowed his head: "Please prepare a list of casualties and hail Mather."

The doctor raised his head just as the image of the worn ACU pilot appeared on a screen. Dark circles underlined Mather's eyes after the twenty four hour long battle and for a moment, Brackman thought that the pilot would collapse: "Are you all right, my boy?"

The weary pilot nodded: "Yes doctor, I'm all right and the mission objectives have been completed. I… I failed to keep the UEF fully occupied though. We lost…"

Doctor Brackman raised his hand to stop him and nodded in understanding: "You did more than any of us could have ever expected you to. Thanks to your efforts, many of our brothers and sisters were liberated and we have made a vital move towards disrupting the UEF's foothold on Earth. I am very proud of you. Now take the time to rest, you have earned it."

Brackman could see that Mather was about to object over what he considered to be a personal failure. He had seen the look on the faces of so many before him and had seen it mirrored in his own eyes when he was alone. Mather finally nodded and closed the channel. Alone once more, Doctor Brackman looked towards another screen where the list of casualties appeared and took the time to commit each name to memory.

QAI's digital eye appeared on one of the far screens then, the circles twirling slowly: "Query: why are you memorizing the names of those that fell in combat? This serves no useful purpose nor fulfills any objective. This behavior, as well as similar ones displayed by our Commanders, confuses me."

Brackman memorized the last name dutifully before answering: "I programmed you to evolve, QAI, but I only added what was necessary for you to accept that we are humans. Love, friendship, sorrow, those are things that you have yet to fully understand, yes?"

The digital eye twirled once before answering: "Affirmative."

Brackman nodded, having expected as much: "Then know this; being made of flesh and bone is not what makes us human. Being able to feel attachment – both the joy that it brings and the sorrow when it is lost – is what allows us to connect with those around us and gives hope for a better future. Without it, a living being becomes corrupt, empty… lifeless. Wars become mere statistics and freedom transforms into a word without any meaning."

"That is why I take the time to remember the names of everyone that has died for our cause for over a millennia," explained the Doctor somberly: "That is why I choose to remember their sacrifice and feel every loss; because without it, this war would be meaningless… and then I would lose a great deal of my own humanity. Do you understand?"

QAI paused for a moment as it dedicated some of its processors on other worlds to analyze the query. It assigned barely a tenth of a fraction of its capacity to the task and it took a second for it to answer: "Negative."

Doctor Brackman smiled sadly: "Maybe one day you will… maybe one day."

Chapter 5

The Stand at Orionis

"There's no way that there's just one enemy ACU out there, tac ops!" cried Commander Horsh frantically as his fingers ran across his console: "I need backup right now!"

Horsh's voice was filled with worry and with good reasons. The initial UEF strike into Aeon territory had gone well enough with their forces gaining a foothold on Orionis. Their purpose was clear: to destroy the nearby Aeon settlement and gather as much technology as possible before retreating back into UEF territory.

More than fifteen UEF ACUs had gated to the same area of the planet and the enemy settlement had been destroyed in but a few minutes. Unfortunately, the problems had piled up from there. The settlement, one of the largest in the area, was not a cache of Aeon technology as their intelligence had suggested, but rather a near fully automated underground agricultural farm.

It had taken an incredible amount of resources to send that many ACUs at the same time and those in command had refused to accept the blunder and return empty handed. The main UEF force had therefore split up with a mission to engage and destroy local enemy forces and salvage what they could. Horsh had been left behind to build and power a quantum gate nexus that would allow them to return to UEF territory.

Tac ops had estimated that it would take three hours for the Aeon forces to mount a sizable resistance that would force the invasion force to withdraw and the troops had been deployed accordingly. The problem was that thirty minutes after the deployment, Horsh had lost contact with one ACU to the south of his position. Ten minutes later, they lost another two in the same direction. There had been no warnings or transmissions; just a sudden cut in communications which was soon followed by a signal that clearly showed the explosion of an ACU. Horsh now stood alone to guard the quantum gate since the entire southern offensive had been destroyed.

The face of an analyst appeared on Horsh screen then and shook his head: "We're trying to reroute forces to your location, Commander, but we have received word that our other pilots have met resistance and are otherwise engaged. We estimate that we'll need a good ten minutes to free two or three ACUs to assist you."

Horsh swore under his breath: "No kidding? We lost the whole southern flank in ten minutes and you hope that I'll hold solo?"

"We have no choice, Commander Horsh," answered the Analyst immediately: "We need you to hold so that the others…"

The communication was suddenly cut and Horsh looked at his screen to find out what was wrong. Sensors indicated that a localized dampening field had been established roughly twenty kilometers south of his position. The field was enough to disrupt quantum communication, but the only way that it would be this complete was if it worked both ways.

No commander ever did that because it meant that they trusted their intelligence and that they had complete control of the situation. With a dampening field active, there was no way to change a coordinated strategy or call for reinforcements. It was a move for those that were either overly confident or foolishly arrogant. Horsh grumbled and set the power of his heavy anti-matter cannon to maximum, determined to prove that the enemy was the latter.

It started slowly at first as dots appeared on radar and Horsh sent scouts to investigate. A few moments later, the attacking force was revealed to be nothing more than Aurora light tanks and a few Titans were dispatched to take care of them. Before Horsh's unbelieving eyes, the Auroras broke off and moved backwards, matching the Titans in speed while staying out of range even as more units appeared on his tactical screen. The urge to deploy his gunships to thin out the enemy ranks was increasing, but the UEF pilot held back, convinced that this was but a ploy to draw him out of the confines of his base.

The dance went on for a few minutes with Aeon troops pulling back whenever the Titans were approaching and returning when they were being pulled back. The display of micro managing skills by whoever was controlling those forces was both beautiful and hypnotic at the same time. Looking at his screen, Horsh felt as though he was looking at waves crawling and retreating along a beach.

The near perfect picture was shattered as Horsh's scouts were suddenly shot out of the sky by a swarm of interceptors. Before he could summon his own air force, the 'wave' of Aeon troops that his Titans had been following suddenly stopped and charged forward instead of retreating. Their number seemed to double on radar when they stepped beyond a certain bound and the UEF commander watched in amazement as the previous wave of Auroras was supplemented by Harbingers.

Aeon and UEF forces engaged each other and Horsh sent his gunships with his own interceptors to provide aerial support. He swore viciously when his fighters accidentally reveal a stealth base behind the Aeon forces where a pack of anti-air SAM launchers waited. In the middle of that firebase stood a single Aeon support command unit – an SCU – busily adding to the defenses by finishing a shield generator right next to a stealth generator.

The base had most likely been the place where the Harbingers had been hiding and the wing of gunships was decimated before he could order it to fall back. At the same time, a warning flashed on Horsh's right screen, indicating that the eastern shield of his base had just been hit. A newly built scout revealed another firebase where a second SCU was finishing a third stationary artillery.

What followed in the next two minutes was total chaos as Horsh did his best to scramble his remaining forces while adding to his defenses. All around his base, shield generatorsgroaned in protest, explosions sent huge clouds of dust into the air and newly reconstructed units were sent to the front to hold off the Aeon. Mechanized engineers moved in the thick of the battle, repairing damaged buildings and recycling destroyed Titans.

Through it all, Horsh swore under his breath, but kept a cool head. He only needed to hold his position a few minutes longer for reinforcements to arrive and he had sufficient forces to do so. His face lit up as he finally noticed radar signals coming from the north: "Now you're in for it, you Aeon dogs! Wait until you see what the UEF can really do as a team!"

Grinning madly, Horsh ordered the construction of a half a dozen scouts and sent them south, determined to find the enemy ACU so that they could finish it off quickly once the cavalry arrived. The ground shook as an interceptor crashed near his ACU, but Horsh ignored it: "Where are you, my little scamp? It will soon be the time to for us to go on a date!"

The smile slowly faded and soon transformed into a scowl. Aside from the nearby SCUs, there were no signs of the enemy commander. Destroying it was the key to disabling the entire Aeon army as the SCUs were not equipped to control so many units, but finding it was becoming as frustrating as fighting a Cybran. That and it occurred to Horsh that while it might be merely caution on their part, the backup troops were taking their sweet time in getting here.

On a whim, Horsh sent scouts north to get a better idea of how many troops were coming to assist him and gasped. They were not UEF troops, but a third Aeon contingent. The images provided by the scouts became frantic as they were shot down, but before crashing, the last remaining scout not only revealed that there were a good forty Harbingers coming his way, but a Galactic Colossus was also walking in the center of the formation.

"They were hiding in plain sight," whispered Horsh as the reality of his predicament sank in: "They knew I would not fortify the spot where I was expecting reinforcements to come from!"

As if to confirm his thoughts, the Galactic Colossus emitted a long cry that sounded something like what an Earth whale would have done. The battle was lost, of that Horsh was certain, but maybe he had the necessary air power to escape and establish another base far, far away. With that in mind, Horsh shifted his entire production queues to build Broadswords, interceptors and transports with his remaining engineers assisting those efforts.

All round him, shields collapsed and turrets exploded but were no longer replaced as the Aeon kept hammering at his defenses. Horsh ordered the newly built transport to pick him up and readied his entire fleet. Together, they charged through the west, interceptors and Broadswords tearing through Aeon interceptors and clearing a path for Horsh's transports to slip through.

With no possibility to use his own weapon systems to defend while being air lifted, Horsh merely roared while gripping his controls as if he could tear the enemy interceptors apart through sheer battle rage. For a moment, the sky was filled with blinding explosions, but all of a sudden, clear skies greeted him and he was free. Horsh slapped his controls maniacally and laughed despite the loss of the quantum gate nexus: "Just you wait! I'll be back before you can blink with enough Broadswords to tear that monstrosity to pieces! I…"

Horsh's eyes widened as he looked at his instruments for the Aeon had stopped attacking his base the moment that the turrets and factories had been destroyed. Instead, he could see the two SCUs busily capturing the gate and the rest of the facilities. The UEF pilot's eyes widened in horror when he finally realized that this had been their plan all along: "No…"

XXXXX

"The UEF Commander is escaping!" cried Pao in alarm. There was a short pause before a perfectly controlled voice answered back: "Leave him for the time being and focus on the original plan."

Pao took a deep breath to calm herself and nodded slowly, focusing on capturing the quantum gate while Lani did the same from the other side. A heavily battered Titan stepped around the corner and aimed at her, but it simply flew in the air before it could fire, pulled by the Galactic Colossus' tracking claw. Once the sacred assault bot had the enemy unit into its 'hands', the tractor beam intensified, crushing it as if it was nothing more than an insignificant toy.

The two Aeon SCU pilots finished capturing the quantum gate and slowly began working on the other facilities. Meanwhile, the voice of their Commander came forth: "Estimated time until the UEF's reinforcements arrive; three minutes."

Pao nodded slowly and redoubled her efforts which were now being assisted by the engineers that were hovering into the base. With the dampening field in place, only short range audio communications could slip through and even now, the voice of their Commander was filled with static.

This meant that they had roughly two minutes to capture the nearby buildings and prepare their trap. Should they succeed then the UEF would not be able to tell the difference in energy signatures before they were within visual range. When that happened, their rescue attempt would turn into a full-fledged massacre and the remaining UEF forces would be in complete disarray. The operation had to be planned perfectly and there was only one person in the entire galaxy that could pull it off; only one that Pao and Lani would follow into anything without question.

"Why is that UEF commander waiting within radar range?" asked Lani out of curiosity: "Is he looking to be cleansed that badly?"

Pao did not even bother to look at the erratic UEF commander and instead focused entirely on the task at hand: "I care not, Lani, for if he stays there any longer then he will be shot down soon enough. His fate was sealed the moment that he stepped on Orionis and he will be cleansed like…"

"Look out!" cried Lani in alarm. Pao immediately turned her SCU around and barely had the time to blink as a heavily damaged Broadsword smashed straight into her.

XXXXX

Horsh had whispered his goodbyes and closed his eyes once to remember everything good about Earth, his home and his family. He had then redirected his entire air force back towards his base and charged. As interceptors began their dogfight, the voice of his ACU trainer rang through his head: "Some might say that Cybrans are the smartest with their fancy cybernetic upgrades and all. Sometimes though, wars are really simple…"

His mentor had been right for if Horsh fled now then he knew that the UEF reinforcements would fall into a trap. If he fled then up to three fine Commanders would die, but if he stopped this then only one would. One death instead of three… it could not get any simpler than that.

"You made one mistake," said Horsh, his words scarcely audible over the explosions that now filled the sky as the Broadswords opened fire. Below him, Harbingers fell by the dozens as engineers frantically tried to build SAMs. The Broadswords took the worst of the beating, but most managed to stay up and keep firing. The transport that was carrying Horsh took some damage and he immediately assigned it to drop him at a near crashing speeds.

"You made one mistake!" cried Horsh defiantly as he pressed the emergency release button, launching his ACU straight towards the ground. It landed on top of a Harbinger with a loud crunch, rolled and got back to its feet on a dead run towards the quantum gate. Lasers were shot straight at him, but rebounded off the ACU's personal shields. In front of Horsh stood the one true obstacle to his last desperate sprint: the Galactic Colossus.

The experimental weapon had slowly turned towards him and was powering up its laser with an intense shrieking noise. Again, Horsh shouted the same words as if they were a mantra: "You made one mistake!"

Just as the Galactic Colossus was about to fire, Horsh entered the self-destruct code for the EG900 fusion reactor that was right beside it. The explosion coupled with the chain reaction from the nearby mass fabricator sent the experimental weapon reeling and its aim was thrown off. The phason laser that should have fried Horsh missed and burned a hole barely a meter away from the ACU. Before it could refocus its main weapon, the Galactic Colossus had the remaining twelve Broadswords slam straight into it with their weapons blazing.

This bought Horsh enough time to get within range of the behemoth and he immediately fired his overloaded disintegrator. A ball of shielded anti-mater left his cannon and collided with the colossus' torso. As soon as it touched the otherwise nearly impenetrable armor, the ball released its anti-matter payload. The armor disintegrated in a spectacular explosion that left a gaping hole in the experimental weapon's chest.

Horsh was about to fire again when the Galactic Colossus' targeting computer finally managed to compensate for the extreme damage that it had suffered and refocus its laser on him. The wide beam sliced through the ACU's shields as if they were none existent and in a heartbeat, the left arm disintegrated. Horsh pressed the overload button again just as the beam adjusted its angle to hit the cockpit. There seemed to be an odd pause before a brilliant flash engulfed the whole valley.

XXXXX

When the dust finally settled, nothing remained of the UEF base. The few Harbingers that had survived the blast limped slowly away to regroup and perform repairs on each other. Three engineers that had been inbound shifted their tasks from building to reclaiming; recycling what was left of the Galactic Colossus that was sprawled over the destroyed quantum gate.

A form stirred deep within the blast radius, trashing through the remains of a UEF gunship as if it was made of paper. In but a few moments, Pao's SCU was free of the wreckage, her shields depleted but with the frame having suffered only minor damage. Liquid metal slowly oozed out of the cracks in the armor and splashed on the ground, but the damaged was soon sealed as energy currents solidified the liquid. Satisfied that the damage would be repaired in but a few minutes, Pao looked at the disaster that surrounded her: "That was madness."

Further away from the blast radius stood another SCU that walked over the charred remains: "You have to admit, sister, that it did work. Even the UEF could not have missed an explosion that large and their reinforcements will not simply walk in blindly now. The blast that the sacred assault bot and the ACU unleashed also destroyed everything that we could have used as part of our deception."

Pao pressed a hand to her right temple and felt the blood flow along a fresh cut. Her SCU had protected her, but the explosion had still knocked her enough that her head had collided with a nearby console: "I guess you are right."

"It is of no consequence," said a clear voice through their speakers. Pao and Lani turned around in surprise only to see an Aeon ACU stride purposely towards them: "We will cleanse the UEF taint form this holy planet soon enough and then strike back at those that dared to defile it. They have only delayed the inevitable."

The two sisters bowed their heads and steadied their nerves. They accepted his words as surely as they believed in The Way for their Commander had never let them down. The UEF could only imagine the nightmare that was heading their way; Commander Marxon was coming.

Chapter 6

A Battle on Two Fronts

The UEF forces were in disarray, but not yet defeated. As much as their weapons lacked grace and finesse, Marxon was the first to admit that neither was truly required to cause a lot of damage. The element of surprise had allowed him to destroy four ACUs and the portal that they had planned to use to escape. He had hoped to catch the UEF reinforcements as well, but the suicidal actions of the gate's commander had warned them of his trap. Now the element of surprise was gone and a more global strategy was in order.

With a flick of a switch, Marxon deactivated the quantum disrupter located many kilometers south of his position and reestablished contact with the Aeon military. The worried face of his tactical adviser appeared: "Commander Marxon! We thought you were dead, we…"

"Four UEF ACUs were destroyed as well as their quantum gate," interrupted Marxon as politely as he could. The news caught the tactical adviser unprepared as did Marxon's following request: "I'll need you to patch me with our other commanders and relay me their position so we can make a coordinated assault. We won't be able to catch our remaining opponents off guard so easily from this point on."

The tactical adviser hesitated a second as it was unorthodox for a pilot to be the one making global strategies, but agreed to Marxon's demands. Soon afterwards, the faces of seven Aeon commanders – all women – appeared on his left screen. He took a moment to study them all and note their moods which ranged from trust, awe and admiration. There was also some annoyance and envy in the gazes of a few, but that was to be expected.

"Commander Marxon, it seems I owe you a debt of gratitude," said one of the pilots: "The drop in pressure in my sector has turned the tide when the UEF pulled off part of its forces."

Marxon recognized the pilot and knew that it was a strain for her to show such a level of gratitude. Ireia was proud and did not enjoy relying on others or acknowledging her own weaknesses. Still, like others, she was growing to respect Marxon's competence on the field… as it should be.

"I was merely following the Way, as we all do," said Marxon, humbly acknowledging Ireia's gratitude while allowing her to save face. He then nodded curtly, moving on to more pressing matters: "There will be time for inner reflection and discussions later, however, as we need to coordinate our forces to crush the UEF while it is unbalanced. Ireia, if you can keep the UEF commander in your sector distracted long enough then I will mount an air drop that will cripple the enemy's economy at the back of his base. We can then…"

Marxon was interrupted as three more faces appeared on the screen, but resisted the urge to cringe for they were not part of the normal military. The faces were those of three of the princess' Guardians. One of them bowed her head quickly before speaking: "Commander Marxon, we require that you cease this unorthodox communication and report to Seraphim Two immediately. Your presence is requested and we will handle things in your stead."

The faces of a few other pilots lit up in alarm, but Marxon kept his composure. There was no way that their home world would be sending their guardians if it was under attack, so this was not really an emergency. The interruption, however, angered him deeply on a personal level: "I am needed here, Guardian. The battle is not over."

"The war has raged for the past millennia, Commander," replied the Guardian sharply: "You will gate to Seraphim Two and report to Evaluator Toth. Those are your orders."

Marxon's eyes flashed in fury, but not even a twitch showed on his face. He nodded slowly and then closed the channel, willing to let them handle things from now on. A moment later, both Pao and Lani's faces appeared on his screen. Pao in particular seemed upset: "How can they do this to you? Don't they know the miracle that you just accomplished?"

The outburst, while perfectly understandable under the circumstances, was out of line and Lani immediately tried to deflect her sister's anger by asking another question: "Do you want us to join with Ireia's forces in your name?"

Marxon shook his head slowly: "No."

"But sir," protested Lani, but Marxon halted her by raising a hand. He waited for both SCU pilots to center themselves before speaking: "The spiritual wing is playing its political games again, feeling uneasy whenever someone that they do not control truly shines above the rest. They need to understand that when they interfere with me then they interfere with everyone that is following as well."

Marxon looked at his two trusted SCU pilots and saw the indecision on their faces. They would obey his every command, but he wanted more than their loyalty; he wanted their complete and total devotion as well. His tone softened when he spoke next: "Pao, Lani, you are amongst the best SCU pilots that I have ever paired with. You are strong, fast thinking, resourceful and most of all unwavering in your faith. I need you now to put your faith in me and believe me when I say that the political games that sometimes interfere with our holy duties can be as dangerous as any enemy. It is a battle that must be fought on a different front and like all battles; sometimes you must be patient and wait for your time. Can I count on the two of you to wait for me?"

Their indecision was gone and was instead replaced by a fierce determination. Marxon nodded approvingly and then cut off the communication while laying a course for the nearest quantum gate. There was another battle to be fought, one that was not done through lasers and missiles, but through the heart of the Aeon Illuminate. Marxon needed to win on that front as well… by any means necessary.

XXXXX

Mather stood in the corridor of the 52-C residential district and paused at the door. He had barely slept four hours before restless dreams had awoken him. He could not remember them, but the lingering feeling had remained: guilt, shame and regret.

It did not take a genius to realize that the death of the commandos had affected him more profoundly than he cared to admit, especially since him and Keith had known each other for several years. It had taken him six hours to browse through the quantum gate transmissions to find the answer that he had sought and now all that remained was to face Keith.

There was no logical reason to be nervous or afraid, but Mather felt both all the same. Nervous at seeing his friend for the first time since the tragedy and afraid of what he would see reflected in his eyes. Determined to get this over with, he knocked on the door. There was no response and Mather had to knock again before the door finally opened.

"Ah crap, who is it now?" asked Keith as he opened the door. Mather tried not to let his surprise show for he had never seen his friend so messed up before. His hair was in complete disarray and he was obviously drunk, but he also looked as if he had not slept at all since the return from the mission. In short, aside from being drunk, both Cybrans looked terrible.

Mather hesitated for a second longer before finally brandishing the data pad that he had been holding: "I know who shot the others back on Earth."

Keith looked at the data pad as if it was some kind of headache crawling towards him. He then stared at the ACU pilot for a moment and a twisted grin grew on his face which sent chills down Mather's spine. Instead of taking the data pad, Keith grabbed Mather by the arm and slowly pulled him inside: "Well come in, come in. Grab a seat or something and maybe eat that… whatever it is on the table."

Mather felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, but he followed anyway. Keith served him a glass of Minerva's Swamp and then sat at the table while absent mindedly taking a look at the file. Mather let him browse through it a moment and tried to busy himself by looking at the cramped apartment. The silence was killing him, however, and he finally blurted: "His name is Zachary Arnold. Not many victories under his belt yet, but what little information that we have does indicate that he's good."

The commando took a sip of his own glass, winced and pretended to read the file again. The strange mood was beginning to worry Mather who tried to ease the tension: "I have to say; you're taking this better than I expected."

Keith looked up slowly, his gaze narrowing: "You've been losing sleep over it, haven't you? What did you expect me to do?"

There it was, the moment of truth. Mather sighed, his shoulders slumping forward as he did so: "Honestly? Shout… throw something around… heck, even punch me for good measures."

Keith smiled again, that same twisted smile: "It did cross my mind. However, I have something even worse in store for you."

The commando stood and walked past the squirming pilot towards his bedroom: "Dostya, there's someone here to see you."

Mather gasped and rose to his feet: "Tell me you didn't…"

"Bed a newly freed Cybran?" asked Keith while whirling around with a hand pressed against his chest as though he was the victim: "I don't think I even stood a chance…"

The door opened and the young woman stepped through, thankfully fully clothed. Like Mather and Keith, she obviously had barely slept as well, but her gaze still burned brightly with an intensity that Mather had rarely seen.

Keith extended a hand as he began the introductions: "Dostya this is Mather, the ACU pilot that helped us a bit earlier. He owes me so from now on, he'll be your mentor. Is that enough to get you off my back?"

Mather blinked in utter stupefaction while Dostya considered the proposal. She looked at the data pad in her hands: "Here are his statistics; he's ranked fifty-six, so that will do quite nicely. Ok, you have a deal."

"Finally!" cried Keith in relief while removing his shirt. He walked past Dostya and stepped into his bedroom. Mather finally snapped out of the shock and sprinted after the Commando: "Are you crazy?"

The commando closed the window's shutter before answering: "Nope. Dead tired, drunk and maybe a little… ok, very sadistic, but not crazy."

Mather looked at Dostya who was patiently waiting for him with her arms crossed and then back at his friend who simply slumped into his bed face first: "Does she even know what it implies and all the tests? You can't just decide to be an ACU pilot!"

"She's been riding me for the past ten hours to get it all figured out and subscribe to the tests," answered Keith while burying his face in his pillow: "Before you came in, I had completely given up to the point of giving her my password so that she'd stop harassing me."

Mather's jaw nearly hit the floor and he kept looking between the two of them. He then blurted the first question that came to mind: "Is she crazy?"

Keith paused for a moment to consider the question before raising his head from the pillow: "Not in the good way that I usually like them."

Before Mather could object any further, Dostya grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the bedroom and towards the exit: "Ok, that's enough. It's time to get out of here."

Mather could have sworn that he heard a muffled chuckle coming out of the pillow as they made their way out of the apartment and towards the elevator. Meanwhile, Dostya kept talking as though she was in command: "I've had my account created and I'm scheduled for my balance test, psychiatric evaluation, logical quiz and health examination tomorrow with my survival and basic martial courses the day after that. That will leave you two days to get some rest, get your things back in order and prepare a class course as I expect us to start training at dawn. I'm warning you right now that if you're not there then I'll find you one way or another."

Dostya gently but firmly led Mather into the elevator, looked at her data pad and then keyed in the number to his floor. Mather looked at her for a full second before turning back to the elevator doors with his eyes open wide. How had he managed to get dragged into this one?

XXXXX

Shouting could be heard all over the hangar as pilots, technicians and engineers scrambled in every direction. The mission on Orionis had gone horribly wrong and unless they did something soon then none of the pilots that had been dispatched would return home alive. Back in the cockpit of his ACU, Arnold was busy running a hull integrity test just as Desjar's face appeared on his screen: "Cannons to the left of them, cannons to the right of them, cannons in front of them…"

"Will you shut up already before you make me walk over there and kick you in the rear?" grumbled Arnold in irritation. Desjar smiled broadly from the cockpit of his SCU: "Why colonel, don't you know that my command unit is bigger than yours? Besides, I'm just poetically pointing out that we should not have waged a war on two separates fronts in the first place."

Arnold snorted but conceded the point. The restrictions from making a hot drop – a drop with no quantum gate on the other end – prevented anyone from sending anything but a stripped down ACU through a quantum gate. Once on the other side, the war machine could be upgraded of course, but such upgrades were costly in terms of resources while an SCU could be summoned on far better terms. Arnold could also agree that it had not been the brightest idea to make a simultaneous attack on both Cybran and Aeon colonies, but he was the first to admit that he had never been on the frontlines himself.

Desjar's face became serious suddenly: "Hey Arnold? I'm here because I've always liked the thought of sitting on a live nuke, but could you tell me why you're here?"

There was a moment's hesitation before Arnold flicked a few switches to complete the ACU's diagnostic: "Tell you what, lube boy. We get the others off Orionis while staying alive and I'll tell you when we get back."

XXXXX

The room was silent, the small but well educated children sitting patiently on the floor. Evaluator Toth let the silence hang in the air a moment longer before asking her question: "Could someone tell me of two of the greatest powers in the universe?"

"Good and evil?" said one of the students quickly. The answer was hesitant and Evaluator Toth closed her eyes and shook her head. In front of her sat twelve girls between the age of six and nine. All of them had been selected for their aptitudes, bloodlines and their understanding of The Way.

An outsider might have thought it strange that someone holding one of the strongest positions in the spiritual hierarchy of the Aeon Illuminate would spend time teaching children. What an outsider would not understand, however, was that one of these girls would one day become the next Princess and undisputed spiritual leader of their people.

Toth opened her eyes again and smiled patiently: "Good and evil are relative concepts, Recey. For example, we see the good in eating our vegetables, but should it be capable of thought then that same vegetable would see us as a predator and perhaps even as evil. Is there any other suggestion?"

Another student raised her hand and Toth nodded: "The power to create and the power to destroy."

Toth nodded slowly, but deep down, she knew that the student had only repeated what she had learned from the priests without giving it much though herself. A good memory helped, bud did not make one into a spiritual leader. Even so, Toth still praised the student for her effort: "Very good and it is one of the reasons why it is easier for women to master The Way. Our bodies, once it has reached maturity, go through a cycle of life and death that, when meditated upon, can lead us to a greater understanding. But of course there are women outside of the Aeon Illuminate so can any of you tell me why they cannot reach enlightenment?"

The Evaluator lifted her hand and gestured towards each girl in turn. They gave her the same typical answers that she had heard a generation ago:

"The UEF is drowning in corruption and cannot even look at itself."

"That's right and their lies cover all so that there is no truth to be found."

"The Cybrans are poisoned by their technology and cannot see beyond unfeeling logic."

"They are more machine than human in any case."

"I'm not sure that they can't."

That last answer hushed the entire room and every student turned around to glance at the girl that Evaluator Toth was gesturing towards. Toth raised an eyebrow, but kept her voice smooth as she merely asked: "Rhianne?"

The seven year old girl almost flinched for a moment, but then stood her ground, keeping her head high: "Who is to say that they cannot reach enlightenment as surely as we can or that they have not done so in their own way?"

Several of the students gasped, but Toth leaned forward, suddenly interested in what the child had to say: "Are you suggesting that there are other forms of enlightenment besides The Way?"

"No, Evaluator Toth," answered Rhianne quickly. The child collected her thoughts for a moment before speaking again: "However, since no human has ever mastered The Way like the Seraphim have then it stands to reason that none truly understand it. If we do not truly understand it then who is to say that there are not aspects to it that we have failed to recognize and that others might have mastered? The war has been raging on for a millennia and yet the UEF and the Cybran Nations still stand. If we must recognize one thing from all those hard years of conflict it is that their opposition cannot only be fueled by lies or technology."

The room was completely silent and Evaluator Toth watched as all the faces around that one girl were either twisted in disbelief or stood in awe at the profound line of thought. The lesson was almost over, however, and the Evaluator clapped her hands: "That will be all for today. Rhianne Burke, please stay with me for a moment."

All students except for Rhianne bowed and left in an orderly fashion. Toth waited for them to be alone before asking sternly: "What do you think happened today?"

The child lowered her head a bit, her long hair covering part of her face as she gave it some thought. She finally looked up, her voice hesitating: "Was I wrong to question The Way?"

"What do you think?" asked Toth while keeping her voice neutral. The little girl's eyes lowered for a moment as she considered the question. She then looked back at the Evaluator: "I think… I think I'd be wrong not to question it."

Toth waited a moment before smiling slowly, her voice as gentle as the morning breeze: "It is never wrong to question your faith, Rhianne Burke. Without questions, faith becomes blind, sterile and unforgiving which can make us lose sight of the message that it was originally intended to carry. A moment of doubt can lead you to a greater understanding and then a faith can flourish to welcome all of those that would share in it."

A coy smile touched the aged Evaluator's lips as she added: "There are simply some times and places better suited to some questions than others. Just remember that the question can be just as important as the answer."

Toth placed a comforting hand on her student's shoulder before nodding: "Now it is time for you to go. I have another guest that I must attend today."

The girl bowed and left with a new spring in her steps. Toth could not help but smile as she watched her go.

There was a man with long silver hair – a priest by the looks of his clothes - waiting outside the Evaluator's chamber and Rhianne did not pay any attention to him as she walked. A chill ran down her spine just as she passed in front of him and for a moment, it seemed like the whole universe had hushed in a deadly silence. The man waited a moment and then got to his feet before heading to the Evaluator's office, oblivious to the troubled child that he had left behind.

XXXXX

"Evaluator Toth," said Marxon with a slight bow, all done according to protocol, but without any genuine warmth. Toth nodded in a similar fashion: "Commander Marxon. Would you like some soothing tea?"

The man shook his head and Toth served only one cup for herself. This would be a hard meeting: "How many years has it been? Eleven or maybe twelve years since you were my student? I remember that you were eager to begin your duties as a priest when you left, so what has happened since then?"

Marxon shrugged ever so slightly: "I joined the military, obviously."

"Marxon," said Toth admonishingly while lowered her cup on the nearby table: "Why are you so aggressive? Your manners might be civil, but I can sense your boiling rage fill this entire room. Believe it or not, I have not summoned you here to punish you, but because I was concerned for you. I am not your enemy."

"Are you not?" asked Marxon bluntly. The harsh accusation set Toth back on her heels and she took another sip of her tea to calm herself: "Why would you believe that?"

"No defeat has ever tarnished my military record," said Marxon, his gaze narrowing as he did so: "My psychiatric profile shows that I am perfectly stable and I was trained in The Way by you, one of the greatest spiritual advisors in the Aeon Illuminate. The one person that was the greatest influence in selecting the last two Princesses and most likely the upcoming one as well. There are many other Commanders on the field that are in far more desperate need of counseling than I."

Toth was caught and she knew that Marxon was aware of it. She nodded slowly: "There are some other concerns that trouble me, that is true. I have become aware that quite a few other Commanders have grown quite loyal to you. Your battle skills and knowledge of the ancient texts have won both their respects and their hearts."

"And I should do no less than my utmost absolute to serve the Aeon Illuminate," said Marxon as a matter of fact.

Toth nodded, but raised a hand as she did so: "And yet I have listened to some of the speeches that you have given before battle, Marxon. Some of the positions that you promote are drastically different from those that you defended all those years ago."

Again, Marxon shrugged slightly: "People change."

"Up to the point where I would almost say that they are against The Way?" asked Toth sternly. There, she had played her strongest card and the one that she expected would have brought a furious, if honest, response. To her dismay, Marxon did not even blink: "And that would surprise you?"

There was a pause and Marxon titled his head: "Tell me, Toth; have you even stepped on a battlefield before or held a spiritually broken Commander in your arms as she was dying? Do you have any idea how many of them have grown to rely on the power of their ACU to fill the void in their hearts? The Way is a universal expression and peace and love and yet you ask a Commander to hold it close to his heart while waging wars that ravage entire planets."

Marxon's eyes narrowed and a dangerous fire danced in them: "Tell me how this cannot be viewed as complete hypocrisy."

"Faith and wars are never easy, Marxon," scolded Toth: "And as heart wrenching as it is, one must strive to stay true to The Way if we are to truly win this conflict."

Marxon's voice rose ever so slightly as he spoke: "And how many will you sacrifice for it to happen, Toth? Our commanders need clarity and confidence as they take split second decisions and not a moral dilemma! I have seen it countless times; Commanders hesitating before a kill, wondering if they should convert or spare their opponent. Others being distracted between battles because of a moral dilemma only to be caught unaware by a sneak attack."

The Evaluator was about to speak, but Marxon cut her off before she could do so: "Our enemies have capitalized on those mistakes for the past millennia! Countless millions of lives have been lost because the spiritual wing of the Aeon Illuminate has held us back. That blood is on your hands and on the hands of everyone else that has imposed these restrictions upon us."

Toth stood up, her gaze as hard as steel: "If you step away from The Way then you doom yourself and everyone that follows you."

"So be it," answered Marxon, having apparently come to terms with that decision long ago: "Do you think that I am not willing to make that sacrifice if it means saving all of those that will follow? Do you think that you have not forced that sacrifice on countless others before me?"

Toth raised her chin imperiously: "Then you leave me no choice. I will have to make a motion to have you removed from your command. Our position will be diminished, but it will be for the good of all."

Marxon rose to his feet slowly, a twisted smile dancing on his lips: "No, you will not."

"I beg your pardon?" asked Toth, bewildered that a pilot could even think to order her. Marxon merely lifted an eyebrow, apparently disappointed: "You do not know, do you?"

The question echoed ominously through the room even as Marxon explained: "Through the past few years, I have cultivated a large gathering of supporters, far larger than what you suspect. There will be a motion at the next meeting between the military and the spiritual wing and it will be determined that an old position must be given birth anew; that of Avatar-of-War. A spiritual and military presence on the battlefield, one to lead our forces to victory and a symbol of inspiration at the same time."

Toth grew pale and resisted the urge to take a step backwards. Marxon nodded, apparently pleased: "I see that you understand the implications. I have started that motion and a large part of the military supports it. They want to end this war as badly as anyone else and if you try to stop me now then it will be seen as if the spiritual wing was trying to hold on to its own power base while harming the entire Aeon Illuminate. You will drive a wedge through our people that will split us in half."

The words hung in the air like a portent of doom before Marxon lowered his voice: "I can make you one promise, however. When this war is over, when we have finally thrown in everything that we could and crushed the corrupt UEF and the Cybran abominations then I will step down. I will leave the Aeon Illuminate to the clergy and to the delicate spirits that you must be training even now to heal the wounds of the souls. I'll take whatever judgment and damnation that will be coming my way without complaint."

Toth looked at Marxon straight in the eyes and knew that he meant every word of it: "This would doom us all…"

"As your own actions would," countered Marxon without a hint of hesitation: "In the end, however, it all comes down to what you can do and what you cannot do to stop me while having the best interests of the Aeon Illuminate at heart."

Marxon bowed his head again, all according to protocol, but without the genuine feeling behind it: "I will meet you on the battlefield."

The words had been spoken, their intentions made clear. They both knew that this was the last time that they would truly be honest with each other. The Aeon Illuminate would fight its enemies while vying for the hearts of its own people at the same time. A war on two fronts…

XXXXX

Two days later,

Doctor Brackman's hologram frowned a moment as he looked at the schedule change on his screen: "QAI? Who reserved the eastern training ground for the rest of the week? I thought I was aware of all aspiring ACU pilots, but none of them are supposed to be using it."

The disembodied voice answered with the same monotonous tone as it always did: "ACU trainee Ivanna Dostya has reserved the training field with Mather assigned as the supervisor."

The Doctor's eyes widened as he remembered the name: "But she was rescued barely two day ago. Surely there is no way that she could have passed through all the preliminary exams before being assigned to live training?"

The digital eye twirled as it processed the question: "Analyzing… analysis complete. ACU trainee Dostya finished all prerequisite assignments as per the norms. A scan for database manipulations shows no sign of outside tampering."

Doctor Brackman was rarely surprised after over a millennia of war, but the exploit had been completely unexpected. A smile touched his lips as he assigned a live feed from the eastern training ground on one of his many computer screens: "I think we should keep an eye on that one, oh yes."

Chapter 7

Between Human and Machine

Each step shook the ground as the training command unit – or TCU – made its way on the field. Although it had the same size, speed and characteristics as an ACU, the TCU only had a low powered laser. It neither had an engineering suit or a self-repair matrix. On its own, it was barely more than a heavily armored hunter, but it suited the purpose nicely for the training exercise.

From the cockpit, Dostya assigned virtual engineers to harvest the local resources and watched the signals travel on her screen. They disappeared suddenly and Mather's voice followed: "Restart the exercise from scratch and try a new starting sequence. Experiment with it."

"But I already settled on my routine and it work very well," argued Dostya while shaking her head: "My initial build sequence maximizes my resources while giving me fifty-seven percent odds of striking the enemy effectively in less than two minutes."

The ACU pilot's voice grew exasperated: "Stop making those calculations; they are useless. Try something different."

Dostya grumbled as the exercise started again and a virtual explosion signaled her hot drop upon the planet. She then started her initial build queue and watched as virtual buildings appeared on screen. Mather could chastise her all he wanted, but she knew that her initial build order was correct. She had done the calculations, evaluated each unit and there could be no more efficient path. She could make other routines that would be almost as good, but she would not settle for anything else than the best. He would just have to realize this on his own…

XXXXX

"She's good," came the voice from behind. The unexpected interruption startled Mather and he turned around to see Keith standing behind him. The commando was leaning against a nearby chair and looking at Dostya's readouts. They were monitoring her progress from inside the fortified control tower which was a good four kilometers away. Mather nodded slowly, but turned back to the screen.

The somber attitude was puzzling and Keith raised an eyebrow: "Still angry at me for dumping the kid on you? Look, I did it to shake you off that guilt, doom and gloom thing that you had going. It must help you sleep at least, right?"

Mather nodded again, but pointed a finger at the screen: "Yeah and you owe me for that, but that's not what's getting me down; it's her."

Realizing that his old friend was serious, Mather got closer to the screen: "What's the problem? She's determined, hardworking and intelligent. Her readings show that she's balancing the needs between controlling the TCU and her units. Am I missing something?"

The ACU pilot pointed at the screen again: "Keep watching."

Several minutes passed before Keith nodded in understanding: "She has a machine complex?"

Mather nodded and Keith cringed as the pilot continued: "And from what I've seen, there's no way that we can just talk her into admitting it. She's too stubborn for that. There's only one guy on Minerva that can get it out of her… old Bagby."

Keith sighed: "This is going to cost us a lot of booze… You know she'll hate us later, right?"

The ACU pilot did not answer back.

XXXXX

There was a flash of light followed by an explosion that tore through the already devastated landscape of Orionis. When the dust settled, a single UEF ACU stood in the middle of the destruction. Arnold resisted the urge to vomit and reinitialized his sensors: "I just gated successfully. Desjar, are you reading me?"

"Loud and clear, boss," answered the other pilot cheerfully.

Arnold nodded and locked on to the first mineral source in range. Desjar was still back on Procyon and their signal was being relayed through the quantum gate network. Arnold had insisted that until he could be summoned that Desjar would be feeding him intelligence. As much as the other pilot's sense of humor grated on his nerves sometimes, he had to admit that Desjar always came through when things got rough and knew when to skip protocol… and boy did they need to skip it now.

The information that had been relayed to them was dire: the Orionis offensive had been a complete disaster. Not only had the UEF's forces failed to acquire any piece of alien technology, but their return gate complex had been destroyed far sooner than expected. Orionis was deep within Aeon territory and as such, it required an extraordinary amount of energy to gate to it. Getting something from Procyon to Orionis was not so bad since they fully controlled Procyon, but coming back was a different story. A normally powered gate would require roughly one hour to accumulate enough energy to send someone back and that was far too long when the odds were against them.

One could build an entire complex designed to super charge a gate – exactly like the complex that had been destroyed – in order to send them back much more quickly, but that had its own set of problems. The complex was too large to hide and it required a lot of time to build. The Aeon on the other hand were a lot closer and since this was their world then they could more easily gate a few ACUs and encircle the UEF pilots if they tried to hold their ground.

The Aeon counter attack had been devastating and the UEF forces were spread out across the continent. What they needed now was someone to take the Aeon's attention away from the remaining UEF forces so that they could build their own gates and escape. Arnold had volunteered for that mission and he estimated that he had less than ten minutes to build his base before the Aeon managed to spot him. Things were about to get pretty interesting.

XXXXX

"I still don't get it," protested Dostya while holding on to her seatbelts: "What are we going to do down there?"

Dostya nearly had to shout as the ship entered a dense storm cloud. Mather was in front of her, his hands flying over the controls to keep the small cargo ship steady through the intense turbulence. To her left sat Keith, monitoring the status of their engines and of the cargo at the same time. When no answer came from the front, Dostya turned to her left, but the Commando merely shrugged: "It's a special training course."

"But what is it about and what are we carrying?" shouted Dostya again. A sudden jolt almost made her bite the tip of her tongue and she cursed softly in Russian. The incident made Keith chuckle: "The surprise is part of what makes it special. As for what's in the back, that's the payment."

"Payment?" echoed Dostya while looking back. For a moment, she regretted the question and wondered what the payment was. Currency was still being used on Earth after all, but she had seen no sign of it during the past few days with the Cybrans. As long as you were doing 'something' productive then everyone pretty much left you alone. She had not considered that while their node might be self-sufficient, others might not be so lucky.

The skies cleared up suddenly and exposed the massive complex underneath them. Mather switched the ship into hovering mode and they could see that the black spires were painted with red skulls. Automated engineers roamed the exterior of the complex to repair the damage from the storm and many ships were hovering about. Dostya marveled at the sight, but snickered a bit when she got a better look: "It's almost as if these guys thought that they were pirates."

"That's because they are," answered the Commando. The answer obviously surprised Dostya and the Keith smiled broadly as he added: "Welcome to the Red Skull Node; home of some of the greatest raiders – or pirates – that Minerva has ever known. You can find some of the best SCU pilots in the galaxy down there and it's a great place for parties. It's for those who enjoy… well… an even greater level of freedom and revelry than what is available in other nodes."

Dostya was about to ask more just as their ship landed and Mather spoke for the first time since they started the trip: "We're here."

XXXXX

"I grow bored, Sister," complained Lani softly while crossing her arms: "Do we have any news of Marxon's return yet?"

Pao sighed and checked the data feed before answering Lani's question: "A few hours, maybe more. The gates on Seraphim Two must be busy with so many things going on."

Lani snorted, her SCU moving briskly through the city that they were guarding: "If he had stayed then we would have destroyed the UEF hours ago and would be preparing a counter attack by now. Instead, we get to watch as other Commanders take a standard approach instead of any real strategic move."

Pao did not object for she thought the same. Without Marxon's leadership, the Aeon forces engaged the enemy carefully by progressively moving bases forward and herding the UEF as best as they could. The objective was to force them to gather in a single area so that they would be forced to make a last stand while building a gate, but unfortunately their enemy had not complied. Instead, the UEF Commanders fought when they could, but when too many forces focused on them, they moved to another location. Reports of Broadswords harassing supply lines and of a mobile factory – a Fatboy – had already reached them.

The two sisters had relocated to one of Orionis' residential settlements until Marxon returned, but their usefulness was limited. They patrolled the area and performed basic maintenance on the local infrastructures, but there was little more that they could do. Without an ACU to act as the main command unit, the city could barely support twenty defensive structures. A few shields, turrets, power generators, mass extractors and a quantum gate, but nothing more. They would serve as the basic building blocks should an ACU gate in to defend the settlement, but it could not support much more on its own. Still, the city was many kilometers away from the main battle and no enemy scouts had been spotted in the area.

Pao absent mindedly touched the wound on her right temple and took the time to remember her near death experience in the last battle. It was not the thought of death that unsettled her, but rather the near insanity that the UEF pilot had displayed and the fact that it had caught them off guard. Her musing was interrupted as Lani's voice came through: "Radar signal detected east of our position! Could it be a UEF scout?"

The two SCUs regrouped near the center of the city where the critical power generators and control centers were located. Pao's eyes widened as the number of signals multiplied: "No, incoming air attack!"

Without warning, a wave of interceptors passed overhead and drew the majority of the anti-air turret fire, but they were but a mere distraction for the dozen transports that followed. Without a way to manually take control of the turrets, the sisters watched helplessly as most transports passed through the shields to drop their units in the middle of the city. A mixture of Mech Marines, Strikers and Lobos stormed out and focused fire on the nearby shield generators first.

Lani was about to rush forward, but Pao quickly blocked her path: "Another air attack must be on its way. We have to defend the control center or else we will lose the city!"

Lani cursed, but knew that her sister was right and prevented the diminutive troops from reaching them while Pao added a few anti-air SAM sites. The two sisters went into their deadly dance with one repairing or replacing destroyed defensive structures while the other mercilessly crushed any land unit that managed to slip under their shields. They were helpless to stop the carnage in the rest of settlement, however, as UEF units either stormed buildings or blasted them from a distance until they collapsed.

Pao's prediction soon proved to be true when a group of six Broadswords appeared and started laying waste to the rest of the settlement. Two of them tried to attack them directly, but the four SAM sites that had just been built tore them to pieces before they could penetrate the shields. Whoever was commanding the enemy forces seemed to notice this and kept his units out of reach of the deadly duo as if to bait them.

When most of the settlement was destroyed, the remaining Broadswords – the only enemy units that had any value - turned around and left while the rest of the land forces made a last, desperate rush for the two SCUs. Crushing the small robots brought neither joy nor comfort to the sisters. As soon as the leftover enemy force was destroyed, Lani rushed out from beneath the protection of the shield and searched the city: "How could they do this? These were civilians; priests and pilgrims coming to the holy planet for enlightenment! How could our fellow Commanders let a UEF pilot slip that close to our position?"

Pao surveyed the carnage while holding back silent tears: "I don't think they did. Another UEF Commander probably gated behind our lines to throw us off balance…"

Lani slammed a fist angrily against her console: "Then why strike here? This settlement had no significant strategic value or resources!"

Lani's SCU came around a corner and she noticed a pilgrim hanging for his life from the top of a burning building. She ran as quickly as she could and reached up with her SCU to try and catch him. The man fell four stories before landing on the outstretched robotic arm. She did not hear the dull snap as the man's spine shattered on the heavily reinforced arm nor could she do anything but watch as red blood marred it's otherwise flawless green surface. The SCU lowered the body as gently as it could and delicately allowed it to slip to the ground.

A single fact stood out in the sisters' minds at that moment: the UEF had failed. The gate was still standing and Marxon was on his way back. Before long, whoever had done this would face the Aeon's fury.

XXXXX

Dostya watched the exchange between Mather and another man from across the room, but she could not make out the words and the heavy smoke that hung in the air clouded her view. Her fingers tapped nervously on the table and she tried not to be intimidated by the crowd that was surrounding them. The bar at Node Fifty-Six had been a relaxed one with their patrons simply trying to forget about the war, but this was something else entirely. Here the patrons were heavily muscled tattooed men, brawlers, passed out drunks, scantily clad exotic dancers and more. The air was filled with a nervous energy as if the entire establishment would burst into a brawl at any given moment.

She saw Mather and his companion finally agree on something and shake hands before the pilot returned to Dostya and Keith: "Ok, it's all set."

Keith stood up and Dostya was about to do the same, but Mather placed a hand on her shoulder to hold her down: "You're staying here."

A moment of panic filled her as Mather turned around and pointed at the man across the room: "That's Bagby, one of the best SCU pilot that you'll ever meet. Your task is to beat him in the manner that you chose. Once that's done, he'll contact us and we'll come pick you up."

Dostya was about to ask what that was about, but Keith cut her off: "And we won't be giving any clues either, so though luck."

The two friends nodded at each other and left. Dostya contemplated going after them for a moment, but stopped herself, willing to rise to the challenge. She crossed the room towards the spot where Bagby was sitting and finally got a good view of him. He was perhaps in his fifties with tattoos covering both of his well-muscled arms and he hid his smirk under a short grey beard.

"So, you're Mather's new pet huh?" said the SCU pilot in greeting while leaning back into his chair: "You know, I always had doubts about Mather's orientation, but seeing you like this probably proves that he's straight. That's a bad start because it means that I lost a bet and that I'll owe someone a bottle of Minerva's Swamp."

Dostya's eyes widened in protest, but before she could reply, Bagby jumped to his feet, turned around, leaned against the wall and dropped his pants: "Ok, let's get this over with: hit me, beat me and make me a man!"

Dostya stepped back in horror and brought both hands up: "Are you completely insane?"

Laughter exploded all around her and someone in the crowd shouted: "He sure is!"

Dostya looked around in panic and took another step back as Bagby turned around: "What? You're not supposed to beat my donkey?"

Dostya straightened and tried to regain her composure: "Hell no! I'm just supposed to beat you… at something!"

"Phew, well that's a relief!" said the old man as he bent down to retrieve his pants: "I mean, it starts innocently then one of us gets pregnant and before you know it you have a little Bagby junior running around setting fire to buildings. As much as I like the thought, these guys can barely handle one of me. So what do you want to beat me at then: poker, dance, Chess?"

Dostya could feel her entire face redden, but still managed to stop him there: "Chess sounds good."

Bagby nodded and motioned towards the table: "Splendid, I just happen to have a board under that table that we can use. It's missing a few pieces so from this point on, beer caps are pawns."

The crowd in the bar settled down a bit as they sat down at the table and prepared the game, but Dostya felt something else in the air, as if everyone was expecting something to happen at any moment. The board was soon set and Bagby started the game: "So, how's sticky-hands doing? Still moving around as if all of Minerva was on his shoulders?"

Dostya countered with a classic opening before answering: "Mather is doing ok, I think. He is a good teacher."

Bagby moved a bishop aggressively towards her side of the board and Dostya responded by threatening it with a pawn. To her surprise, he ignored the threat and moved another pawn. She hesitated a moment before taking the free piece.

"Now how did that happen?" asked the SCU pilot while scratching the back of his head. Bagby then shrugged as if the loss did not matter: "Oh well, that won't stop the famous Bagby gambit in nine moves!"

Dostya studied the board intensively, trying to understand what Bagby meant, but even with her cybernetic implants she came to the same conclusion that she would have made years ago: there was no threat.

The game went on and by the eighth move, Dostya had already taken a huge lead. It was Bagby's turn, but he stopped a barmaid in her tracks and handed her his drink: "Hold this and watch the master at work!"

The entire room hushed as Bagby rubbed his hands eagerly and Dostya studied the board again to make sure that she had not missed anything.

"Think fast!" cried Bagby suddenly as he leaned forward. In one swift move, the SCU pilot grabbed the board and threw it in the air. So focused on the game was Dostya that she looked up, trying to figure out if the pieces would somehow fall back in a specific order as if by magic. She looked back down as something came into her view and did not even have time to blink as a fist caught her straight in the jaw. She fell backwards off her chair and her head collided painfully with the floor. Before she could recover, something heavy was placed on top of her and partially crushed her throat.

"So how did I beat you?" taunted Bagby. Dostya's vision cleared partially and she saw that the SCU pilot had placed his chair on top of her and using one of the bars to choke her. She started cursing in Russian, but some extra pressure on the chair choked the words off.

Bagby shrugged from his perch atop the chair while twirling a hand in the air: "You were supposed to beat me. Fists, kicks, biting, whatever, but you took the comfortable route; that of logic, rules of engagements and fair play."

To her credit, Dostya managed to get her hand on the chair and eased off some of the pressure: "If I had…"

Bagby immediately grabbed his drink from the barmaid's platter and emptied it on her face: "If, else, switch, while, do; all computer talk! This is not a game and there's no reset button or saved file! It might be comforting to think within the boundaries of logic and statistics, but that's not life and it will get you killed! Don't believe me?"

Dostya grimaced angrily while blinking the burning liquid out of her eyes and grunted. Bagby nodded slowly, got back to his feet and threw the chair away: "Come on then, brat, and let me see what you can really do."

Dostya got back to her feet and rubbed her sore throat. When she was convinced that there was no permanent damage, she took a fighting stance and attacked while ignoring the crowd that was hooting around them. Bagby's defense was no better than his chess opening: sloppy and inefficient.

She was surprised when a punch managed to catch him in the jaw and she readied a roundhouse kick to finish him off. She twirled around but instead of delivering the final blow, a pair of hands caught her leg and threw her face first to the floor. Bagby had somehow managed to twist around and pull off the move without even looking!

Before Dostya could realize what was happening, she felt a boot kick her in the stomach and cut off her breath. She tried to get back up, but Bagby kicked her repeatedly until she stopped struggling. He then kneeled down and grabbed a hold of her head: "Figured out why I'm beating you yet?"

Bagby slammed Dostya's head on the floor and started walking around her: "It's called many things, but it's most widely known as the machine complex. It's a side effect of the AI twining process that can affect any Cybran. It's insidious and it's one of the hardest things to cure if you let it root in."

Dostya tried to get back up, but Bagby kicked her back down. He spat at her and kept going: "Think I'm being unfair, low and a downright bastard? Well, you're right and the worst thing is that it works. Right now, your brain and that little AI of yours are going through a few loops like 'what if' and 'if only'. The truth, however, is that you need to stop looking through that logical side of yours and start searching for something else!"

The room had hushed now and while no one was cheering anymore, no one was making a move to stop Bagby either: "The machine complex is simple; it's when someone gets so comforted by the logical and measurable side of the AI that they lose their human self. They become obsessed with finding the optimal way to do things and always travel from point A to point B in a straight line because it's the shortest path. What they don't realize is that by doing this, they become predictable to the point where even a simple computer program can soon start predicting their next move. We lost many pilots that way because they lost the ability to think outside the box."

Bagby lowered his voice as he kneeled besides Dostya again: "So hate me if you want and call me a slimy bastard too. I fully deserve it and I've been called far worse. The truth, however, is that you're not going out there until you beat me and to do that, you'll have to drop your pride and get as low and dirty as I can be. Here, I'll give you a hand…"

The SCU pilot caught Dostya by her shirt and dragged her across the room. He opened the rear door and threw her down in the mud caked backstreet. The doors closed and Dostya collapsed as rain started falling again.

Chapter 8

Harsh Lessons

Cold… that was the first sensation that crawled through Dostya's mind as she slowly regained consciousness. The rain had soaked her all the way to the bones and the muddy ground was not any warmer. She reflexively twisted around in order to put her frozen hands under her armpits, but then the feeling of cold was replaced by stabs of pain.

Her ribs hurt and she could taste the blood in her mouth. Aside from a scuffle or two in high school, she had never been in a serious fight nor suffered any more than a few bruises. Nothing in her life had prepared her for the brutal beating that Bagby had given her.

Taking care not to put any pressure on her wounded side, Dostya managed to get into a sitting position and crawl towards a nearby wall. The surface partially shielded her from the rain as she replayed the battle in her mind to find out how she had lost. Technically, she was younger, faster and more agile than the old man and yet he had managed to anticipate her attacks. For a moment, it had almost seemed as if he knew what she was about to do even before she did, but how was that even possible? And that talk about a machine complex, was it a decoy tactic like all those lewd remarks or was there something more to it?

Through her entire life, all of Dostya's conflicts had been governed by a set or rules. Chess, exams at school and even fencing all had a definite start, stop and scoring system. This fight had been different though for Bagby had kept her off balanced from the very beginning by posing as an insulting and bumbling idiot. That had been the reason that she had underestimated him and he had pressed that advantage until he won.

Was that the objective of this training? Was she supposed to learn humility by taking her first crushing defeat? Maybe that was it; maybe all she needed to do was to fight with everything she had without giving her opponent any chances at all. Even with her injuries, Dostya felt confident that she could do it. She had noticed that the old SCU pilot favored his left leg which suggested that he had an old war injury.

A set of bruised ribs versus a crippled leg… Dostya quickly thought of all the fighting stances and strategies that she could muster before getting back to her feet.

XXXXX

"That was pretty harsh, Bagby, even for you," said the barman with a disapproving grunt.

Bagby picked up a rag from the counter and rubbed his bruised knuckles: "Had to be done. Don't tell anyone, but I actually like Mather. I always have. He's a noble idiot, but noble still and I don't want her to get him killed. Speaking of which, hand me one of those bottles that they brought for me."

The barman sighed and handed Bagby a bottle of Minerva's Swamp: "Still, was it necessary to beat her that much? She probably got a few bruised ribs from that."

"Hey!" exclaimed Bagby loudly while slamming the bottle on the counter and pointing an accusing finger at the other Cybran: "Do I tell you how to serve booze, clean the tables and prepare food?"

The barman considered this a moment before nodding: "All the time. You're quite a pain in that department too."

Bagby snorted and spat in the corner: "And you're better off when I tell you! If you want the truth though, that kid's got pride. That much I could see in her eyes the moment that she walked in here and she has a long way to fall if she's ever to get over that problem."

The old SCU pilot was about to add more when he heard the rear door open and the whole room hush. The barman groaned as Bagby handed him the bottle back: "Told you she was stubborn."

A minute later Dostya was again thrown through the back door of the bar with a few new bruises.

XXXXX

"Wow, whatever you destroyed back there, it worked," said Desjar as he relayed the latest tactical updates to Arnold: "We're getting reports from our other commanders that pressure has dropped on their flank and plans are being made to build a quantum gate complex. Of course, that also means that it's bad news for you since they'll be coming your way."

Arnold acknowledged and double checked his tactical display. The attack that he had launched against the Aeon complex had been a blind one, counting more on surprise than planning to cause some serious damage. Usually he would have launched a few scouts ahead of time for a more thorough extermination, but the objective was to cause as much chaos as possible, not to win the entire war on his own: "This must be what it's like to fight like a Cybran."

"Say that again, boss?" asked Desjar, having been distracted by a new tactical update on his side. Arnold just shook his head and waved the notion away: "Never mind. Does intelligence have any clue as to who or what attacked the quantum gate complex initially? I'd like to take a shot at it if I could to buy some more time."

There was a pause as Desjar consulted the others. The other pilot then shook his head: "Negative, and they just told me that three or four ACUs might be heading your way. They're basically advising you to bug out through the gate that you built before they show up. You bought the rest of our forces a good fifteen percent chance of escaping… or so they say."

Arnold cringed for he hated probabilities as it made all the spilled blood no more important than statistics. Deep down, he knew that it was just a nice way for intelligence to say 'you did good, but they'll still die'. It was at times like these when they were backed against the wall that Arnold wished that they had some stealth technology like the Cybrans. If only there was a way to keep the Aeon forces occupied in the same fashion that the terrorists had kept him busy on Pollux…

An idea suddenly surged in Arnold's mind and his fingers moved in a hurry over his console as he drew a rough draft: "Desjar, get to the gate. It's time for you to join me."

Arnold watched with a small measure of amusement as the SCU pilot jumped in his seat: "We're doing what now? I thought we were supposed to help people off Orionis, not get more of them there!"

A quick sequence of commands brought down the ACU's personal shields and Arnold had to enter a confirmation code to jettison the upgrade. He felt naked without the force field surrounding him, but he tried to ignore the feeling and instead programmed his ACU to build a more expensive module: "Trust me Desjar, we're about to have a lot of fun! It's time to play hide and seek."

XXXXX

The quantum gate hummed as it powered up. A dome closed over it briefly and the lights of what was left of the settlement winked out for an instant as all the energy was redirected. The humming died down slowly and the dome opened, revealing the Aeon ACU that had just gated to the planet.

Marxon took a moment to recalibrate his sensors and take a look at the damage that surrounded him. Most of the settlement had been destroyed by the UEF sneak attack and the few civilians that had survived were busy taking care of the wounded and preparing for the trip back to Seraphim Two. Standing over the survivors were Pao and Lani's SCUs which had thankfully survived the assault. They stood silently as if expecting to be judged and reprimanded for the loss of the outpost.

"Report," said Marxon simply. As the two SCU pilots filled him in on what happened, Marxon activated his tactical map and connected to the local network. He noted the UEF sightings and cringed when he saw how spread out the Aeon forces were. Four Aeon ACUs had been sent against a single UEF pilot while the remaining forces were containing the original UEF invasion troops.

Those four ACUs were needed for the main assault and while he understood the reasoning behind such an overkill, it also meant that their plan was dependent upon how quickly the lone pilot could be dealt with. Marxon would have preferred it if every pilot had kept focusing on the main UEF task force. If it was destroyed – even at the cost of another settlement – then it would open the way to a far stronger counter attack.

Marxon could not help but think that if he had gated back a few hours earlier then the UEF sneak attack could have been averted and they would probably be victorious by now. The spiritual caste had gotten in the way of the military yet again.

There was little that he could change at the moment, however, for he was not the Avatar-of-War just yet. Frowning, Marxon keyed in his tactical map and focused it on the coordinates where a UEF straggler had yet to rejoin their main group: "Pao, Lani, we'll be hunting for that target instead. Do not grieve for our losses here. They are one with The Way and before the day is through, we will make the UEF regret ever setting foot on Orionis."

XXXXX

Bagby belched loudly, scratched his crotch and sighed contentedly. His eyes darted to the clock on the bar's wall and he noted the time. It had been three hours since Dostya's last attack and there had been no sign of her since. Of course the reason for that was simple: she was probably just hiding somewhere for a sneak attack.

They all fell back to that option once they had been defeated once or twice. It was the logical choice. If you can't fight fair then you fight dirty. Of course since Babgy knew the attack was coming then all he needed to do was to spring the trap in a manner that he chose.

With that in mind, Bagby took his glass of Minerva's swamp and noisily drank it while spilling most of it on his beard. He then got up and half walked, half stumbled towards the door. He was not really drunk, but he had been drunk often enough in his life to mimic the specific pattern easily enough. He also leaned more heavily on his left leg, confident from his last battle that Dostya had probably picked up that sign as well. Of course his right leg was no more crippled than he was drunk, but it was part of the game to let her believe so. By displaying an apparent weakness, the logical half of a Cybran could not help but try to take advantage of it which made the attack predictable and therefore easier to counter.

As he made his way out and on the street, Bagby took the same path that he always took when training someone out of a machine complex. He knew those streets like the back of his hand as well as every shadow. Broken pieces of bottles had been placed at very specific spots to reflect the image from the good ambush spots so that Bagby could see them without looking around.

It was thanks to these signs that the old SCU pilot noticed the shadow that was a little too large in the reflection of one bottle. He barely refrained from smiling as he stepped into the 'ambush'. There was a blur of movement, but he was already dodging, twisting and barely avoiding the blow from a lead pipe that would have knocked him down.

Time slowed as he watched the surprised look on Dostya's face and Bagby had to admit that he liked the sight. She was unbalanced by the near miss and could not react in time to block Bagby's kick as it caught her in her wounded side. There was a muted gasp as the blow knocked her off her feet and into the nearby pile of garbage.

Bagby dusted off his hands for the fun of it, no longer pretending to be drunk at all: "Still not getting it, are you? Can't help it if you're a slow learner."

With that, he shrugged and headed back to the bar.

XXXXX

Dostya struggled out of the pile of garbage and slumped in the alley while coughing some blood. She had spent hours in the cold while scouting the entire area to find every good ambush spot and even then he had bested her. She had spotted him stumbling out of the bar and anticipated his course well enough only to have him somehow dodge her blow and strike back.

The pain, cold, frustration as well as the near impossibility of it was just too much and she slammed her fist angrily in the garbage. To her horror, the bag split open and spilled its content at her feet. She cursed her luck until she spotted a piece of clothing in the middle of it. Suddenly curious, she pulled at it, revealing and old torn trench coat. It was smelly and had probably been there a while, but at that moment, Dostya did not care. All that she knew was that she was cold. She winced as she got back to her feet to put it on, her ribs throbbing. The smell was absolutely horrible, but at least she would be warmer now.

"Well now I stink as much as he does," said Dostya between clenched teeth. She tried to laugh, but found herself coughing instead and had to lean against a wall for support. The question remained: how could she win? Each fight had left her more battered than the last and she still was no closer to understanding how he managed to anticipate her so completely.

A bolt of lightning raced overhead and the rain intensified. Dostya ran to a nearby doorway to avoid the worst of it. She hugged the battered trench coat a little closer and tried to warm up her hands when her gaze was drawn to a nearby beer bottle. It was resting at an awkward angle despite being full of rain. Dostya tried to pick it up in order to throw it in the pile of garbage, but it was glued in place. Realization dawned on her face as she looked around the alley and noticed other reflective pieces of garbage that were strategically placed.

It had been planned, all of it! He had known of her ambush because he had seen it coming on the reflective surfaces. Dostya immediately considered throwing the bottle away and rearranging things in her favor, but stopped. She had been playing his game from the very beginning and falling into every trap. Her entire attack pattern had been logical and well planned, but it was also something that could be anticipated by another Cybran! The only thing that had not been a lie or a deception had been Bagby's explanation of the machine complex.

She knew now that had she been fighting herself; that she could have anticipated her own attacks as easily as Bagby had since they were made in a logical sequence. What she needed was to dig into her human side. Dostya's gaze fell on the pile of garbage and she smiled.

XXXXX

"So then I did the only thing that I could… I asked her to marry me!" cried Bagby while thrusting his bottle towards the ceiling. The crowd around him was divided between those that roared in laughter and those that did not believe a word of the tale. The old SCU pilot was about to continue his story when the rear door of the bar opened, causing everyone to hush.

The old SCU pilot saw the unbelieving gaze from the barman and knew that it was Dostya. Thinking that it was very likely that she would throw something at him, he jumped off the table that he had been standing on and rolled it over to act as cover. He waited a second for the sound of a projectile hitting the table. What he heard instead was something heavy hitting the fan above him.

The whole area was immediately showered with something sticky with Bagby taking the brunt of it. For the first time since the conflict had started, Bagby was surprised, not to mention grossed out by the vile stench. A second projectile hit the fan and again the area was splattered with junk.

"This time, it literally hit the fan," grumbled the barman from behind his counter. Bagby stood up slowly and whipped his beard from the worst of it: "Did you just throw what I think you threw all over my favorite bar?"

A third projectile caught the SCU pilot straight in the chest and splattered its content all over him. Bagby swore loudly before pointing a finger at Dostya: "Ok, that's it! I don't care if you're Mather's girlfriend! This time, I'm breaking bones!"

With that, the SCU pilot rushed forward, jumped over a nearby table and attacked. The first two punches opened Dostya's weakened defense wide and he aimed the third punch for her side while transferring all of his weight. His fist connected and more than a few patrons winced at the sound of broken bone.

Bagby was also surprised for the crack was a lot louder than expected… and had originated from his wrist. His shock was quickly replaced by the realization that Dostya had hidden a metal plate under her battered trench coat, but before he could recover she slammed her head forward, crushing his nose with her forehead. Hot blood poured down his face as he stumbled backward, but Dostya did not stop there and kicked him straight in the crotch for good measure. The combination of pain and surprise caused Bagby to close his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again, all that he saw was a metal plate heading straight for his face.

XXXXX

Mather and Keith rushed down the streets of the Red Skull Node in a hurry. It had been but a day and already a message had reached them to come and pick up Dostya. Usually 'training' someone out of a machine complex took days and sometimes weeks because of the injuries that Bagby inflicted. Since it had been but a day, however, it could mean only one thing: Dostya had been seriously injured.

They made their way to the bar and their eyes widened at the display. Everyone was gone except for Dostya and Bagby who were both sitting at the same table with a bottle of Minerva's Swamp between them. The whole room was covered in filth, overturned chairs and broken bottles. Dostya was covered in rags with bruises covering most of her face and Bagby was in no better condition with a puffed eye, broken nose and a hastily bandaged hand. Both were also quite drunk, having passed through a bottle and starting a second.

"Hey! What took you guys so long?" greeted Bagby while thrusting his bottle towards the ceiling: "We've been having a party here without you!"

Bagby took another swig while Keith and Mather entered the room: "You two did all this?"

Dostya and Bagby looked around the room and then at each other before bursting out laughing. Bagby was the first who managed to get his laugh back under control and motioned towards the room: "She… she kicked me in the balls… and then this happened! The moral is… um… what were we talking about again?"

Mather groaned but Keith sat down and poured himself a glass: "So she's cured now, right? No more machine complex?"

Bagby looked down at his lap, removed an ice pack, tilted his head, replaced the ice pack and nodded: "They say yes."

Keith smirked and turned to Mather: "Well, no point arguing with Bagby's balls!"

XXXXX

"Closing in on the target," said the Aeon Commander leading the charge. She sent her land forces towards the UEF base at the same time as the three other pilots. The combined forces of all four could not be stopped and it was only a matter of minutes before the UEF ACU would either be destroyed or be forced to gate out of the sector. Once that was done, they could refocus all of their energies on the remaining UEF forces and crush them once and for all. It was an obvious overkill, but time was of the essence if they were to destroy all of their enemies.

The area was soon filled with laser fire as the Harbingers reached the base. Dozens of Harbingers were cut down by the local point defense turrets, artillery and gunships only to have another wave crawl over them. Sheer numbers allowed the siege bots to pierce the defenses and the Aeon Commander focused her screen on the UEF ACU that was standing in the middle of the base. Why was he not escaping into his quantum gate?

The answer came a second later as the UEF ACU flashed once and then disappeared. The rest of the base's defenses were quickly overwhelmed, but the Aeon commander cursed anyway. Their mark had escaped, but not through the quantum gate. The ACU had been upgraded with a teleportation device… and that meant it could be anywhere on the planet.

XXXXX

"Oh my head!" groaned Dostya a few hours later. She felt as though her training command unit was pounding away in her brain and she closed her eyes in pain. Besides her, Mather leaned closer and placed a wet towel on her forehead: "Easy. You took quite a beating out there. I should probably congratulate you on being the first to slice through your machine complex in a day."

Dostya grimaced as she rubbed her temples: "Thanks, but the next time that you put me through something like that, I'll kick you in the balls instead. So when do we get back to training?"

Mather chuckled while shaking his head: "Not for another week. You need to recover first. Not to mention that it will take at least that long to get that stink off of you."

For a moment, it looked as though Dostya was about to protest, but she stopped and merely nodded weakly. She then smiled softly and Mather noticed it: "What is it?"

She shrugged which brought another wave of pain, but she kept smiled: "Nothing; just remembering a story that Bagby told me before you guys got there. Got to know that the guy is talking crap when he says that he asked an Aeon pilot to marry him."

"Actually… that one is true," admitted Mather with a shrug. Dostya's eyes widened as he explained: "He was with me on a mission against the Aeon that went terribly wrong; one of my first. I had set up a few too many power generators together and they chain reacted when one of them was destroyed. Bagby was at the front and I was desperately trying to build a stealth tactical missile launcher within range of their ACU. There were a good fifty Harbingers heading towards my base with no way to stop them, so Babgy did what he did best."

Mather smiled at the memory: "He found an Aeon SCU and used an EMP blast to knock her down. He then asked her to marry him and called her a lot of things like 'milk mount' and 'joy buzzers' while describing how their twelve cybernetic children would look like. You really needed to be there to realize how insane it all was."

Dostya coughed, but nodded slowly: "Somehow, I think I can imagine it."

Mather nodded as he finished the story: "Anyway, the Aeon ACU pilot was so scandalized that she stopped the attack on my base to rescue her friend and Babgy had to dance away while Harbingers and gunships all focused on him. I barely completed the tactical missile launcher in time and blew up the ACU. The rest of the army then automatically self-destructed."

"And the SCU pilot?" asked Dostya out of curiosity. Mather shrugged at the question: "The way that Bagby tells it, he called the divorce soon afterwards. He might be rude, stinky, insulting, low, sadistic, underhanded, crazy…"

"A pervert," added Dostya without a hint of hesitation. Mather conceded the point: "A pervert and many other things, but out there, when you're in the thick of it and nothing makes sense anymore, he's the best friend that you could ever hope to have."

Dostya took a moment to let it sink in and then nodded.

Chapter 9

Assassination

The door slid open and Mather entered his quarters. It had taken them a few hours to get back to Node Fifty-Six, but it was good to be home again. They had left Dostya in the infirmary in Ell's care and Mather was persuaded that she would come knocking at his door within a few days. The thought filled him with an equal proportion of dread and eagerness at the same time and he paused as he realized this. Since when had he actually been eager to see Dostya?

Sighing, the ACU pilot removed his boots and shirt before making his way towards his bed. The flashing indicator on his computer caught his eye and he activated it. A triggered report concerning Orionis was displayed and he quickly scanned through its content. Mather's eyes narrowed as he spotted the name that the automatic search engine had detected: "You'd better stay alive… because it will be my pleasure to kill you myself."

With that, Mather scrambled to his locker, picked up a jump suit and ran out of his quarters. The computer screen had a single picture with a name flashing underneath it: Zachary Arnold.

XXXXX

"What do we do now?" asked Abil as she searched through her sensor logs: "The UEF Commander could be anywhere on the continent, but we do not have the time to search for him. The longer we stay here, the more likely it will be that the remaining UEF pilots will solidify their position."

The four Aeon commanders looked at the destroyed base before Ireia – the highest ranking commander amongst them – spoke: "Abil, we will transfer most of our assets from our hastily constructed bases to you. Your mission is to track down the UEF Commander before he can rebuild a new base."

Ireia brought up her tactical display and outlined the likeliest places where the enemy might have retreated to and still be a threat later on: "He will need a good fifteen minutes without interruptions to rebuild his forces, wherever he is. As long as we do not leave him that much time then he will not be a serious threat. Find him quickly, finish him off and then join us at the front. I'm counting on you, little sister."

Ireia then turned towards the other two pilots: "The rest of us are needed. The sheer amount of Harbingers that we built here should not be wasted, so I want the two of you to head through the land route. I will take what is left of our air forces and travel ahead of you."

The four commanders nodded and each went to their tasks. A few minutes later, something hidden deeply under the wreckage of the UEF base stirred.

XXXXX

Drops of sweat slid down Desjar's face as he grumbled under his breath: "Of all the stupid plans that he could think of, this has to be the most stupid! If this doesn't get me killed then I don't know what will!"

Desjar pressed a button on his wristwatch to activate its light and looked at the time. The explosions had stopped roughly five minutes ago and he had been instructed to wait for as long as possible. Of course what Arnold had neglected to take into account was that Desjar's SCU was growing hotter and hotter with each passing second thanks to the planet's suffocating heat. Although it was not a pleasure yacht under normal circumstances, Desjar suddenly found himself begging for his air conditioner instead of just basic life support systems.

The SCU pilot waited two minutes longer, sweat covering his entire body. When he could no longer take it without the risk of fainting, he pressed the entry sequence to reinitialize his SCU. The engines groaned in protest for they had been forced through a cold shutdown but a few minutes earlier. Desjar patted his monitor a few times and whispered: "Come on baby! Make daddy proud and I promise that I'll give you a nice little wax job when we get to… yes!"

All the lights in the cockpit flashed on and although he was momentarily blinded, Desjar was still grinning all the way to his ears. The welcomed blast from the air conditioner sent shivers down his spine as he took control of his SCU: "Time to go for a walk."

With that, the SCU stirred and trashed around, digging through the piles of scrap that it was buried under.

On the surface, the ruins of a destroyed EG 900 fusion reactor shifted slowly for a few moments before one of its sides burst open. The SCU's building laser immediately went to work, rebuilding a destroyed EG 200 fusion reactor and a stealth generator. Desjar estimated that he had probably emitted a radar signature for no more than a few seconds before his position was cloaked; something that could be easily attributed to an explosion from the destroyed fusion reactor. Even so, time was of the essence and his fingers danced over his controls as he assigned multiple commands: "If this plan works then he'll never let me live it down."

Under normal circumstances, it would take between ten and twenty minutes to get a fully operational base online. With all the wreckage at his disposal, Desjar could probably have most of it rebuilt in less than four. The only question was: could Arnold survive that long out there on his own?

XXXXX

Its name was Billy…

Of course it was not the official name of the missile and most high ranking officers frowned whenever someone referred to such an expensive weapon by that name. Still, a non-official patch had been loaded in the ACU's program so that the innocent name was carved on the missile's surface. Some rumors said that Billy was the name of the nuke's creator while others pointed out that it was an attempt to confuse the enemy. There was even another wild rumor that the nickname had been created in an official document detailing the weapon's capacity because its full name was just too damned annoying to type. In the end, the only thing that truly mattered was this: Billy had launched.

The missile took off from the back of a UEF ACU, made a tight turn and hurled itself at full speed towards the enemy. It flew over the mass extractors and power generators before reaching the first line of defense. There the Titans ignored Billy as they swarmed past a Fatboy, its four turrets glowing red hot from the nonstop fire that it was dishing out over the battlefield.

The missile made a slight course correction, gaining in altitude and dodging through the mess of air superiority fighters that were dancing over the battlefield. One such fighter exploded in Billy's path and a piece of shrapnel made a long scratch along its surface. The missile ignored the damage and flew over the air battle and into the clouds. There it seemed to pause as if enjoying one last moment of peace in the clear skies.

The moment of peace shattered as the missile twisted in the air and engaged its second stage engines. Billy hurled through the clouds and narrowly missed a Czar as it made its way to its one true target: the Aeon ACU. Time stopped for a split second as the missile finally reached its intended target and the Aeon Commander was close enough to read the name on the weapon's surface. Billy glowed white before detonating in a massive nuclear explosion.

Aeon shields buckled and quickly collapsed, unable to stop the wave of raw energy. The quantum generators that they protected soon followed, adding their own explosions to the wave that washed over the base. The ACU could only stand helplessly as the wave reached it. For an instant, it seemed that its personal shields would hold, but these too buckled and collapsed. The Aeon ACU's heavily reinforced green plating peeled off quickly, revealing the circuitry underneath. The liquid metal that was part of the self-repair module splashed uselessly to the ground before evaporating, unable to compensate for the extreme heat.

As suddenly as it had begun, the bright light dimmed and the heavily damaged ACU merely stood still, barely functioning with most of its internal circuitry exposed. It was then that the shockwave hit, blasting it to pieces. The ACU's own explosion was insignificant next to the wave that shattered everything in the area, but the destruction was not restricted to the Aeon base.

A Czar paused on the front line, its control matrix trying to reestablish contact with the ACU that had created it. When no signal was received, the experimental weapon initiated its self-destruct protocols. The risk of having such a weapon captured through signal tampering was too great and so it turned off its engines and pummeled to the ground. The nearby ground units that belonged to the other ACUs scrambled out of the way, but it was far too late and most either got crushed by the Czar or blown away when it exploded.

The remaining Aeon forces paused for a good fifteen seconds before resuming the attack. Billy had done its job, but the remaining ten UEF ACUs were still being attacked by over twenty Aeon Commanders and both tactical and strategic missile defenses were being added to stop any other similar attacks. The UEF had scored a kill, but the cornered pilots were not off Orionis yet.

XXXXX

Arnold's building laser worked furiously, adding layers of tier one power generators and mass fabricators to his small base. His eyes darted to his radar screen every few seconds in anticipation of the inevitable Aeon assault and he had to admit that he felt very vulnerable right now. His personal shield was gone, replaced instead by the teleportation matrix that covered the back of his ACU. A resource allocation system covered the right arm instead of the heavy anti-matter cannon that he was used to and a tech three engineering suite covered the left arm.

In other words, aside from the ACU's short range overcharge ability, he barely had more firepower than a standard tech three unit. Of course that could be mitigated by building a lot of stationary turrets and shields, but the catch was that he needed a lot of resources to build those continuously. Arnold's eyes went from the radar to the mass and energy display.

The matrix that he was currently building was largely insufficient, but it was there mostly to fool the Aeon into thinking that he was alone. His plan was to have the Aeon focus on eliminating him while Desjar rebuilt their base in order to strike from the rear. Of course it would have helped if they had tried it before… or if he had spent more than thirty seconds explaining it before burying Desjar under a pile of rubbles.

A signal appeared on Arnold's radar and he knew that playtime was over. He interrupted his current building queue and immediately built a pair of Flayers which blew up the incoming scout just as it passed over the base. The scout had done its job, however, and Arnold quickly began to build some SD pulse shields and Triad point defense turrets.

He barely completed the fifth point defense turret before the first wave of Harbingers appeared on the nearby hill. The battle that followed was hectic as Arnold alternated between adding more turrets, replacing shields and overloading any Harbinger that slipped under a force field. The first wave of seven Harbingers was eventually destroyed, but long range sensors showed that the next wave was not far behind. Arnold was holding for now, but it would not take much for his entire plan to come crashing down.

XXXXX

Data moved on the screen in a blur, going through a self-diagnostic of the ACU before launch. Mather's fingers flashed over the controls, making sure that the war machine was ready for its mission: to assassinate Zachary Arnold.

The Cybran had already memorized the map of the area and he had a good idea where the UEF pilot might be. The few communication logs that their analysts had decrypted showed that the pilot had gated after the main assault which made it very likely that he had been sent on a sneak attack. Therefore Mather's target was not in the main area where the largest amount of quantum communication was underway, but most likely outside of it.

The mission would be hard, but unlike the Aeon Illuminte or the UEF, Cybran technology was specifically designed for sneak attacks. He would gate in secret, establish a base, upgrade his ACU with a cloaking device and then strike from the shadows. If all went well then he would kill the enemy and get out before anyone knew he was there. If not well… it would not be the first time that he would be stuck behind enemy lines.

The humming around him snapped him back to reality, indicating that the gate would be ready in less than a minute. A green light flashed to the right, indicating that someone was hailing him. Every fiber in Mather told him to ignore it; to gate to Orionis and assassinate the UEF bastard that had cost him half his team, but there was only one person that he knew who would contact him at a time like this. Mather opened a channel: "Good evening, Doctor Brackman."

"Good evening, my boy," greeted the Doctor somberly: "I know what you are up to so I will be brief…"

Mather's heart skipped a beat and he clenched his fist. Cybrans were experts when it came to transmitting and interpreting information and although he had prepared in a hurry, anyone that knew of recent events could probably figure out why he was here. Mather also knew the likeliest reason that the Doctor was hailing him as well and his suspicions were confirmed when Brackman spoke again: "I must ask you not to kill that UEF pilot on Orionis."

Mather's fingers hanged above the buttons to cut the transmission and activate the gate. The pilot closed his eyes for one second before opening them again: "It's that bad, huh?"

"Yes, my boy," confirmed the Doctor, his eyes reflecting the sorrow at making such a request: "QAI has estimated that if all UEF forces are destroyed on Orionis then the Aeon counter attack will spill into Cybran territory. The casualties would be… catastrophic."

Doctor Brackman's eyes softened when he next spoke: "I know what it is that I'm asking of you and believe me when I say that I wished with all my heart that I did not have to do so."

Mather nodded slowly, took a deep breath and pressed a few keys. The humming died down as the gate deactivated. Doctor Brackman sighed in relief and smiled: "Thank you my boy… thank you."

"Don't thank me yet, Doctor," said Mather while powering down his ACU: "I'll ask that you do something for me in return."

XXXXX

Marxon walked through the destroyed UEF base with Pao and Lani right behind him. This was the fifth UEF ACU that he had destroyed since the start of the counter attack, but that last battle had left him… unsatisfied. For a moment, he had thought that the UEF Commander had purposely stayed behind enemy lines to slow them down, but he had realized four minutes into the battle that he had merely been trapped there. His tactics had been sound, but his attacks lacked grace and it was obvious that he had been struggling to keep his resource levels up. So far, none of his opponents had been a worthy match for the aspiring Avatar-of-War.

A signal on their sensors coming from a large air force made Pao and Lani assume a defensive stance, but Marxon stopped them before they started their defense routine. He had taken the time to study the state of the global war and he knew who was coming his way: "Greetings, Ireia. I trust that all went well with your battle?"

The air force paused and altered course towards Marxon's position. Soon the sky was filled with an appreciable amount of Coronas and Shockers. A moment later, a transport landed and released Ireia's ACU. Marxon nodded slowly in approval. It was risky to fly an ACU across the battlefield, but it was also a move that clearly showed that Ireia had a lot of determination.

The screen on Marxon's left lit up and Ireia's face appeared: "Greetings, Marxon. Yes, the battle went well. The UEF ACU managed to teleport away, but his tactics were horribly flawed and Abil should have no problems tracking him down."

Marxon raised an eyebrow, but did not comment. One did not upgrade his ACU with a teleportation matrix on a whim as it was incredibly costly and left the pilot vulnerable. Right now, however, Marxon needed allies both on the battlefield and to support his candidature as Avatar-of-War. Ireia was not the best, but her convictions were strong and he knew better than to publicly question the wisdom of her decisions. He therefore smiled approvingly despite his doubts: "And the other two Commanders that were accompanying you?"

"They are on their way here with a vast land force; over eighty Harbingers and forty serenity artilleries," answered Ireia. Marxon nodded, made a rough estimation and consulted the data from the quantum network. Meanwhile, Ireia paced eagerly besides him: "We should be heading out now. The others will need our help if we are to crack that UEF shell before they gate off the planet."

"Wait, Ireia," said Marxon while raising a hand. He double checked his data once more before nodding and turning back to the other pilot: "Our current forces will not be enough."

Ireia stopped and frowned: "What do you mean?"

"I have studied the reports from the conflict," said Marxon while forwarding his tactical analysis: "Our main task force has been delayed far too long and the battle is at a stalemate. The UEF has entrenched itself so deeply that any standard force approaching their front line is destroyed before they can do any lasting damage. As we speak, the battle has degenerated into an artillery conflict and it is doubtful that either of our forces could open a breach."

Ireia glowered at him, but Marxon raised his hand: "I have a plan. I will transfer part of my infrastructure to you and we will build some more land units; more specifically a few Sacred Assault Bots. Once the reinforcements arrive, we will combine our assault into successive waves to force the UEF into wasting their nuclear missiles and then we will make a single overwhelming push."

Ireia took a few moments to consider the plan and then nodded. Marxon smiled, typed the necessary security codes and then transferred half of his resource infrastructures to her. They then went to work, building an army that nothing would be able to stop.

XXXXX

"How can he keep resisting?" grumbled Abil in frustration. She looked at her tactical screen and grimaced in frustration as her units were destroyed: "This is impossible!"

Abil watched as the next wave of siege assault bots was decimated by the UEF ACU's defenses. Each wave had been greater than the last, but the UEF pilot's defenses had been repaired and improved upon each time. Twice the Harbingers had managed to slip in far enough to strike at the ACU, but the pilot had used his overcharge ability to quickly finish them off before sustaining too much damage. Even now, a scout that passed over the enemy base showed that the damage from the last wave had already been repaired.

Confused, Abil slapped her console and rubbed her temples. There was simply no way that a base with such a minimal economic infrastructure could build defenses as quickly. It was almost as if there was another base somewhere providing it with resources, but that was impossible since nothing had appeared on her radar. If an engineer had tried to slip out then she would have noticed it!

Threat indicators flashed through Abil's cockpit and her eyes widened as multiple enemy signatures appeared south of her position. Before she could do anything about it, over thirty scouts flew over her base in a search pattern. The local anti-air turrets responded and soon the sky was filled with missiles and battery fire. Abil found that she suddenly had difficulty breathing as the full situation hit her: the units had come from the previously destroyed UEF base! Worse still, since she had constantly been on the offensive, her anti-air defenses were minimal.

Abil opened a channel to Ireia just as dozen Broadswords came in range with their plasma cannons firing: "Ireia… I'm sorry."

XXXXX

Arnold nearly collapsed in his chair as the Aeon ACU exploded, thinking that the bright light was one of the most beautiful sight that he had seen all day. A second later, Desjar's face appeared on his monitor: "You're one lucky bastard, you know that?"

Nodding slowly, Arnold keyed a self-diagnostic routine and saw that his ACU's hull was barely holding at thirty percent integrity. Sparks flew from a busted monitor, but most of the key systems still worked. Even now, electric currents moved through the hull, weakening it temporarily before remolding it to cover the numerous holes and cracks. Satisfied that he was still alive, he took control of one of the air facilities at his hidden base and ordered the construction of a transport. He also upgraded the local sensor in order to boost it to an Omni sensor.

"So we scored a kill, what now boss?" asked Desjar. Arnold was about to answer that he honestly did not know, but then the Omni sensor came online and he saw the multitude of signals moving north of his base. They were moving away from it and judging by their speed, they were most likely the land units that had laid siege to his original base. Land units that were moving towards the UEF gate nexus… with no air escort. Arnold smiled and took control of every Broadsword and ambassador bombers that were in the air: "Payback time!"

XXXXX

"Abil? Abil come in! Little sister respond!" cried Ireia's frantically. The plea caught Marxon by surprise and he brought up his tactical display. Sure enough, Abil was dead and her entire base with her. The one UEF pilot worth fighting… and Marxon had been too far away to take him on. He momentarily cursed himself for not objecting to Ireia's earlier tactics, but it was too late now. There was only one way that a UEF opponent could kill an ACU without any warning so quickly: an air assassination.

"Ireia, send your air force to support our two incoming Commanders," ordered Marxon, wasting no time in protocols. He frowned when the other pilot did not respond: "Ireia, do you read me?"

A look at the other pilot's face confirmed Marxon's fears. Abil's death had greatly shaken Ireia and she was frozen in place with tears running down her face. Marxon grew angry: "Ireia, wake up and send your air force south before we lose another Commander!"

When no response came, Marxon sent his ACU forward and kicked Ireia's down. The collision snapped her out of her stupor and she looked at Marxon angrily, but his gaze was equally furious: "Transfer your air force to me now before you get them killed as well!"

Ireia muttered something, but did as she was told and Marxon sent the air force south as soon as he gained control of it. If micro managed properly then there might still be enough time to save the situation before their entire plan fell apart.

XXXXX

The battle was happening too far away for either Arnold or Desjar to see it, but both cheered as the blips that represented their air armada engaged the helpless Aeon ground forces. Eventually, Arnold spotted an ACU and immediately focused on it. A massive explosion quickly followed which unfortunately wiped out part of his air force, but it was worth it. Half of the land army blew up shortly afterwards and Desjar cheered again: "One down, one to go!"

Arnold grinned, but before he could order his ambassadors to attack again, a massive Aeon air force swooped in from the north and destroyed what remained of his army. Slightly disappointed but still hopeful, Arnold reactivated his link to Pollux and smiled as a tactical officer's face appeared on his screen: "Good news, tac ops: we destroyed two enemy ACUs and we're itching for more. Where are we needed?"

There was some cheering in the background and the tactical officer's face lit up: "Commander Arnold, you're alive! We had given you up for dead!"

The tactical officer's face quickly darkened, however, when he next spoke: "Unfortunately I don't think that you can do any more than that. Both UEF and Aeon forces are firmly engaged and the scope of the battle is beyond anything that a lone ACU could change. We estimate that your attack has improved our escape chances by a lot, but there's nothing more that you can do."

Arnold reviewed the global data and sadly agreed. Like it or not, the dices had been thrown and there was nothing more that he could do to help: "Alright then. I'll be sending Desjar back home and I'll be following quickly after that. I'm expecting you guys to pay the first round!"

"That will be a problem, Commander," answered the tactical officer. Arnold's heart skipped a beat, but he then tried to brush the worry aside: "No worries, tac ops. My newly rebuilt gate is charged so I can send Desjar right now and I'll be over twenty minutes later."

The tactical officer was shaking his head before Arnold had even finished: "Commander, our main forces will attempt to gate out in the next five minutes. Whether they succeed or fail, once they are gone, every Aeon unit on the planet will converge on your position."

The tactical officer's face was grave as he next spoke: "I'm sorry, but only one of you can get out of there alive."

Chapter 10

Sacrifice and Freedom

"Did you hear what I said, Commander Arnold?" asked the tactical officer, his voice becoming insistent: "You have to gate out of there immediately before you are overwhelmed!"

Arnold snickered and waved it aside: "Just keep your pants on, tac ops. Desjar, I'll need you to leave your SCU and get in here. It'll be a tight fit, but we'll go home in a minute."

The UEF pilot smiled, but the tactical officer was not smiling back and Desjar was shaking his head slowly: "It won't work, old buddy."

Arnold's smile faded and he punched the side of his screen: "Yes it will. Now get your butt in here before I come fetch it myself!"

The tactical officer hesitated for a second before finally revealing the nature of the problem: "Commander… our ACUs go through a lockdown mode whenever they are attacked. Your cockpit will be sealed for the next fifteen minutes."

Arnold's eyes widened as he suddenly remembered the protocol. It was a psychological safety measure to prevent a pilot from ditching his ACU and try to make a run for it on foot or surrender. The options were ludicrous since neither Aeon nor Cybran pilots took prisoners and an ACU explosion would kill anyone on foot, but cutting off the possibility prevented the pilot from even thinking about it.

This was bad and Arnold's eyes darted around frantically as he searched for another solution: "Tac ops, can't you override the constraint remotely? There's nothing attacking me right now and it's the only way to save both pilots! To hell with that protocol and let's…"

The tactical officer was shaking his head even before Arnold finished the question: "The constraint is hardcoded. I'm sorry sir, but all the data that we have here shows that only one of you can make it back and since you're piloting the ACU then you have priority. The odds of both of you escaping are so small that…"

"I don't care about damned odds, tac ops!" interrupted Arnold angrily: "You are supposed to be working for me and I'm ordering you to find a way to get us both out of here. Do you hear me?"

The tactical officer was about to object, but this time it was Desjar that interrupted him: "Let me handle this… Commander… Zach... it's time for you to go."

When Arnold's ACU did not move, Desjar ran towards it and slammed it towards the quantum gate: "I'm telling you to go!"

Arnold was shocked, but there was no denying the angry look that Desjar was giving him: "Don't you dare hesitate because you summoned me here. You did not start the war and I joined the UEF on my own. I knew what I was getting myself into and I knew that I would die one day or another, so go!"

"We've lost the battle here, Arnold!" insisted Desjar before Arnold could object: "The Aeon will be striking back in UEF territory as soon as we're off planet. You're the best pilot and you're in the ACU so it's not a choice; you're heading back and you'll have to stop them. Don't you dare think that you're sacrificing me. If you don't go then you'll be turning your back on the thousands that will die without you!"

Arnold closed his eyes as his hands moved over the controls: "I'm sorry…"

The SCU pilot's eyes softened: "I know… now go!"

Desjar tried to push the ACU forward again, but nothing happened when he touched his controls. Instead, his SCU started moving towards the quantum gate. Desjar struggled with the machine, but nothing was responding anymore: "What the hell?"

"I'm sorry," repeated Arnold softly. Desjar's eyes widened when he realized that Arnold had taken manual control of his SCU; another precaution in case that an SCU pilot was incapacitated. The SCU pilot started screaming for tac ops to do something about it, but Arnold cut him off: "He can't stop me, lube boy; that part is hardcoded as well. I know what you're both saying; that statistically there is no way for me to hold off an entire planet for twenty minutes. But here's something else that you should both know about…"

Both the tactical officer and Desjar stood silent as Arnold fetched a locket from under his shirt and opened it for both of them to see: "She was called Lin Pham. They told her that she had less than six months, but she kept fighting for four years. She never gave up…"

With that, Arnold pressed a series of buttons to activate the quantum gate and watched as the SCU stepped through it. There was a bright flash before the SCU disappeared and then the gate shut down, unable to refocus its energies for the next twenty minutes. Arnold took a deep breath before looking back towards the horizon: "She never gave up… and neither will I."

XXXXX

Dostya felt something brush her forehead and she groaned. She dimly heard someone say: "Your hair is growing back, that's good."

"Mather?" asked Dostya groggily. She opened her eyes, but it was not Mather that was standing beside her but Ell, the chief medical officer that had first welcomed her on Minerva. Ell smiled and kept brushing her forehead with a sponge: "No, I'm afraid that he's gone for now. He did bring you to the infirmary and stood by you for quite some time before I sent him off. He seemed quite concerned about you."

Dostya blushed slightly, but if she saw it then Ell did not comment. Why was the thought of Mather worrying about her so… confusing? Turning back to more practical matters, Dostya moved a bit, testing the limits of her injuries. Her side still hurt, but aside from that - and the multitude of bruises - all she felt was a dull headache. Ell helped her sit in her bed and started examining her.

"Guess I should wait a few more days before leaving the infirmary, huh?" said Dostya with a halfhearted chuckle. Ell finished her examination and smiled: "Actually, if you're feeling up to it then there's someone important that would like to meet you."

XXXXX

Arnold sat in his cockpit with most of his monitors shut down. He had shut down his quantum link and turned off most of his non-essential systems. Factories around the ACU busied themselves by producing units while engineers moved through the base to bolster its defenses. At the moment, he did not really care about any of that since his gaze was fixed on the locket in his hand: "This might be it Lin; this might be the day where I come back to you. I know that you've been waiting for a while now…"

Arnold had not bothered to double check the data that tac ops had forwarded him nor did he feel inclined to do it. He knew that sending multiple units in quick succession through the same area without a gate complex was nearly impossible. The quantum wave from the transfer prevented travel for a short time unless a substantial amount of energy from a gate complex was used to contain it.

The symbionts working in the tactical center had probably calculated every possible power distribution and Arnold doubted that he could find a flaw in their reasoning. He could build a gate elsewhere of course, but it would be defenseless and the Aeon would be there before it was fully charged. Using his personal teleportation upgrade to reach the UEF gate complex was not an option either; he would not be able to bring his forces to the battle and he seriously doubted that it would hold long enough for every ACU to escape. What he needed was another fully charged gate…

Arnold's eyes light up suddenly and he smiled at the locket: "I'll be with you soon, but maybe not yet."

XXXXX

The vehicle moved through the streets of Node Fifty-Six, its three sets of independent wheels compensating for the bumps in the road. Ell drove out of the city and towards another small settlement that was visible roughly two kilometers away. Even at this distance, Dostya could see the energy shields and was about to ask what they were protecting when Ell stopped the car.

"Why are you stopping?" asked Dostya in confusion. Ell pointed at an open spot on the plain ahead of them: "I think he's right there…"

As if on cue, bolts of lightning danced behind their vehicle and Ell slammed her hand in annoyance on the steering wheel just as the ACU appeared: "Wrong again, Ell."

Dostya did not recognize the voice, but apparently Ell did: "Show off! You left those tracks ahead on purpose, didn't you? Well anyway… Ivanna Dostya is here to see him. Are we clear?"

There was a brief pause before the ACU pilot answered back: "You're clear. See you next time, Ell!"

With that, the ACU disappeared and moved away, the only indication of its presence being the small clouds of dust rising from the ground. Ell snorted and drove towards the facility again. Dostya glanced at the spot where the ACU had been standing and then back at the base before asking: "Who is so important to have a fully upgraded ACU patrolling outside the base and yet only have a couple of shields to defend the facility?"

Ell shrugged as she drove towards the facility: "Keith tried to explain it to me once; something about hiding in plain sight and that putting a field of turrets was the equivalent of painting a bull's-eye on it. As for who well… you'll meet him soon enough. Just don't be troubled if he trails off a bit. He's a great man, but he thinks a little sideways, that's all."

They reached the facility before Dostya could ask Ell to clarify and the shields deactivated for a few seconds to let them pass. Ell stopped the car in front of a large building and cut off the engine: "This is your stop. I'll be waiting here when you come back."

Dostya hesitated a moment and then shrugged: "It can't be worse than Bagby."

She entered the building and a small red light immediately appeared on the wall to her right. It moved ahead as if to guide her and Dostya obliged, following it through a maze of corridors and two elevators.

A few minutes later, she reached a room in the center of the complex where a variety of scientific equipment littered the area. Most of these appeared to be automated and Dostya marveled at the collection of lasers, computer screens and diagnostic devices. Her gaze suddenly fell on a huge container at the rear of the room. Upon closer inspection, she could see that there was some kind of cybernetically enhanced brain floating in it and the sight sent some chills down her spine.

"Ah, good evening my dear and thank you for coming," said someone behind Dostya. The voice startled her and she whirled around to see a holographic projection standing in the middle of the room. The projection was that of a man that might be in his sixties with thinning hair and a small mustache. His clothes looked as if they dated from a few centuries ago and the whole setup might have looked comical, but there was something in the way that the projection moved and the look in his eyes… something that Dostya could not place her finger on, but that emitted genuine human warmth.

"You'll have to forgive my sudden if somewhat unorthodox appearance and the fact that I cannot shake your hand," said the hologram with a smile: "Nevertheless, let me introduce myself: I am Doctor Gustaf Brackman and it is a pleasure to meet you, Ivanna Dostya."

Dostya recovered quickly and smiled: "A pleasure to meet you as well… I suppose that you are here as a holographic projection for security reasons?"

"Well I am here as much as I can be," said the Doctor with a shrug. He paused then, his gaze going inward as he tried to clarify: "Or should I say that all that is left of me is here? It can sometimes be puzzling to refer to myself when all that is left of me is this."

With that, the hologram motioned towards the brain that was floating behind Dostya and she gasped. Besides her stood the only human – if one could call it that – that had been there since the beginning of the Infinite War; one of the most wanted men in the galaxy and the sworn enemy of the UEF. The hologram smiled then, apparently amused: "You seem pale, my dear. Are you all right?"

Dostya had to shake her head just to clear it: "Yes I'm… it's just that when I was still on Earth, you were always displayed as something more threatening and more… well… more."

That answer seemed to surprise the doctor and he started laughing: "Are they still displaying that video footage from the original rebellion over a thousand years ago? To tell you the truth, the security uniform that I was wearing back in those days was a tad too large for me and I was never comfortable in it. It is an amazing human trait that sometimes the mind hangs on specific images even when they do not represent reality. Like a child remembering his cat years later when it accidentally fell in the pool."

Dostya shook her head slightly, trying to remember exactly how the conversation had switched to fashion and cats. Brackman noticed this and waved a hand: "Forgive me; I do ramble. Come my dear, come. There is something that I must show you."

The hologram led Dostya to the other side of the room where seven holographic screens covered the walls. A larger screen in the center had a series of half circles moving around in a weird pattern that felt as if it was some kind of pulsating eye. Dostya studied the screens a moment and realized that they were showing a great battle on Orionis. Doctor Brackman let her study them for a moment before speaking: "The reason that I have called you here today is that I want to help you understand why we – the Cybrans that is – are here."

"You mean why the war started?" clarified Dostya. The Doctor shook his head while waving his hands in the air: "Oh dear god no. The interpretation of the past is very subjective and one should look only so far back for answers. Knowing history helps define us while gaining a greater understanding of ourselves, but it should not dictate present and future courses of action. The sheer numbers of wars that could have been avoided had humanity accepted to forgive or forget the past…"

Brackman turned to Dostya, but he could tell that she remained unconvinced. The Doctor considered this for a moment before nodding: "I can tell you how it started if it will ease your mind, but I fear that the tale is mostly a testament of human foolishness. Bear in mind that I will describe events as I have lived them and not in the same way as history books."

Dostya nodded in understanding and Doctor Brackman started his tale: "As you know, humanity eventually discovered the principle of quantum travel and started to colonize the galaxy. Unfortunately, they began to spread at a faster rate than technology could keep up. The Earth Empire could no longer manage the colonies and mistakes after mistakes were made. If things did not change then many colonies would have declared independence and analysts predicted that war would follow in the next decade."

"The Earth Empire was desperate" emphasized Brackman with a vigorous nod: "And they funded my research in the hope that I would find a solution. The problems were too many to list: mistakes in shipments, misallocation of resources, failing communications, social factors and more."

The Doctor shook his head as though he had only scratched the tip of the iceberg: "Taken individually, each problem could be solved, but each would reappear in time as humanity continued to spread. Designing a system to compensate for all these problems would have been impossible, even for me, so instead I worked on my AI twinning process in the hope that if I could not find a solution then my symbionts would. The process worked, but then the Earth Empire forced me into adding a failsafe: the loyalty program."

The doctor's eyes closed as if the memory itself was painful: "The Earth Empire was near collapse, billions of lives were at stake… I agreed. Had I known what would have followed..."

The Doctor opened his eyes again: "The program was started and opened to the general public. Candidates volunteered from across the system with the promise of greater efficiency and better jobs once upgraded. Soon, symbionts started compensating for life's little problems, finding solutions and improving communications on a galactic scale. Tensions diminished and the threat of war passed. Humanity entered a new golden age."

Doctor Brackman paused and looked at Dostya straight in the eyes: "Now this is the part where the history books differ. The UEF portrays what followed as symbionts growing tired of their 'inferior' kin and wanting to declare independence, leaving the rest of humanity in the dark ages, but nothing could be further from the truth. We were in a golden age, yes, but merely because symbionts were compensating for faulty systems and we were reviled for it. The very foundations upon which the Earth Empire rested was not meant for a system on a galactic scale and we could clearly see that the cataclysm that had just been avoided would return if humanity kept spreading."

Dostya remembered her days when her loyalty program had been activate and how inefficient the UEF systems had been. She also remembered the scornful and envious glares that some of the technicians had thrown her way and she found that she could easily believe what Brackman was saying.

"The crisis had been averted, but the root problem remained," said Doctor Brackman, his tone growing sterner: "Every symbiont knew it and we tried to find a solution, but that meant creating an entirely new system. We could not do so within the confines of the Earth Empire's protocols and so we petitioned for independence. We would create a new system and when it was perfected, we would help all humanity erect a new foundation. The rest, as they say, is history: the Earth Empire activated the loyalty program and I fled with my closest Symbiont to create the Cybran Nation. With their creativity gone and their movements restricted, the symbionts could no longer fulfill their tasks as well as they could. The old problems reappeared and eventually the Earth Empire collapsed… and the UEF emerged from the ashes."

Doctor Brackman turned to Dostya and she nodded: "I can easily believe that and I can understand why we need to fight because of what they did to us."

The hologram raised both arms to stop her, his gaze desperate: "No, no, no, that is not a reason to fight! There is nothing down that road but lies and illusions!"

Seeing that he had completely confused her, the Doctor took a softer tone: "Every conflict, every war, every piece of the past can be used to feed a conflict. Every human that dies was someone's child, belonged to a community and most had someone that loved them at one point or another. The majority of those that fight believe that they are fighting for the right reasons, but they still do horrible deeds in the process. Cybrans are no exception and many mistakes were made through the Infinite War."

The Doctor paused in order to put more emphasis on his next words: "So you must not go to war over what 'was' but over what 'is'. What 'is' happening right now is that symbionts all over the galaxy are being denied their most fundamental right: freedom… and that is the only thing worth fighting for."

While she was still new to the Infinite War, Dostya had read her share of history books and she could not understand what the Doctor was trying to get at: "I don't understand, Doctor. There have been wars over freedom before."

Brackman smiled sadly while shaking his head: "Not like this. Freedom is composed of two simple things; the right to exist and the right to choose. You cannot be free if you do not exist of course, but what is not obvious is that in every other conflict in Earth's history, there was a choice. Slaves in Earth's past were subdued by lashes, chains and most importantly fear, but they always had a choice to fight back and revolts did occur. Losing one's life could be a consequence of that choice, but they still had the freedom to do so."

"A choice does not mean that it will have the desired effect," clarified the Doctor quickly before Dostya could object: "But what is important is that you had the option to make it. You can try to oppose a river with no effect by standing in the middle of it, but it was your choice to do so. It might take years of shuffling dirt with one's bare hands to affect a river, but in time, it or any system can be affected."

The hologram of the Doctor took a deep breath before continuing: "Cybrans come from a multitude of cultures and environments with each having their own values. If you take Node Fifty-Six, for example, then it is far more structured than the Red Skull Node. Because of our differences, we cannot fight in the name of honor, justice, faith or a way of life… but we can fight the Aeon for our right to exist and the UEF for enslaving us through the loyalty program. We can stand united and fight for our freedom."

There was a long pause as Dostya tried to understand the profound meaning behind those words. She had considered fighting for all the other symbionts that were under the loyalty program, but part of her also wanted to fight for her family; for the chance to free them from the UEF lies and to see them again. She finally looked up: "Why are you telling me this?"

"I have been watching you closely for the past few days, Ivanna Dostya," admitted the Doctor: "I admire your spirit and your will to fight and I see in you the promise of a strong commander. But to be a great commander, one must do more than fight for temporary illusions of belonging or for memories of the past. One must live in the moment and believe in something greater than oneself so that others can follow."

The doctor's eyes darkened suddenly: "Because as you fight, the consequences of your choices – most of which are compounded in human lives – start piling up on your shoulders. One needs a strong belief to keep fighting under such conditions and not an illusion fed by propaganda. Should the foundation upon which you stand break then you and everyone that follows will be lost."

XXXXX

The reactor screeched so loudly that Arnold used his left hand to plug an ear while trying to compensate with his right one. Using a personal teleporter was usually not a good idea under normal circumstances, never mind when an ACU had sustained so much damage. It also did not help that the location was outside of sensor range or that he had no updated information about the area and that it was in the middle of an Aeon base either.

The target was the settlement that Arnold had first attacked; the one where he had failed to destroy the quantum gate. The plan was simple if not completely suicidal. He would make a coordinated attack with all of his forces on hand, teleport under their shields, destroy the generators and then kill the two SCUs that had been guarding the area. A chuckle escaped Arnold as he shrugged: "Who knows, maybe if I'm lucky they will be gone!"

The reactor stuttered for a moment and somehow, the sound made Arnold laugh: "Yeah, like I could ever be that lucky."

The countdown appeared on his screen and Arnold unconsciously took a hold of his locket as the seconds ticked by. His gaze kept shifting between the timer and the screen which showed the few Broadswords closing in on the base followed by two transports with Titans. Five… four…

Vibrations shook the entire ACU and Arnold could feel it all the way to his teeth. It became so bad that he could no longer manually adjust the energy flow. Three…

The image flickered erratically on his main screen. Two…

Every light in the cockpit dimmed. One…

Everything stopped. For a split second, Arnold thought that the teleportation module had failed and that his engines were about to go critical. Then, a brilliant light filled the entire cockpit and washed over him.

Arnold hated any form of teleportation, but that specific jump felt like someone had pulled him through a hole by dragging his innards. The shock was so strong that he puked as soon as the lights dimmed, barely avoiding his controls. The ACU's motions as it obeyed its queued attack commands were not helping and it took Arnold a good seven seconds before he could get his guts under control again. Once that was done he struggled to recalibrate his main monitor: "Guess I'm still alive..."

The first screen that light up was the tactical display and Arnold was greeted to the sight of his own units destroying the leftover defenses. Nothing had been rebuilt since the last attacked and only a few anti-air turrets remained. Even though he could not see it, Arnold heard his construction laser power up which clearly indicated that the ACU was carrying out its capture order. Soon, the quantum gate would be his and he would be of the planet!

"I did it… Hell yes, I did it! I…" Arnold's main screen powered up to expose the battlefield and the words caught in his throat. Instead of standing in the middle of an abandoned Aeon military base, he was standing in the middle of a destroyed settlement. Titans moved around him, destroying civilian vehicles that had been waiting near the gate while Broadswords tore down buildings that had been hiding under the shield.

Arnold's fingers flew over the controls to stop the attack orders and switch each unit to a hold fire mode. It was far too late however: his original attack had killed thousands without him realizing it… and his sudden arrival had just finished the job.

XXXXX

Dostya finally began to understand what she saw in Doctor Brackman's eyes. It was the accumulation of compassion and pain from over a millennia of conflict mixed with the firm belief that what he was fighting for was worth it. Suddenly, the concept of the thin old man with outdated clothes vanished from her mind. The man that stood before her – and he was still a man despite the technological limitations – had weathered more conflict than any human was ever meant to. Where others would have broken down and allowed themselves to die, Doctor Brackman stood with a firm belief in what he was doing.

"Now you understand, Ivanna Dostya," said the Doctor with a nod: "I will not stop until my children are free. That is why I cannot rest, why I cannot forget… and why I can still stand after being responsible – directly or not - for so many deaths."

Dostya understood then and turned towards the screen where the battle of Orionis was displayed: "And this?"

"Those are the consequences of my latest choice," said the Doctor, a note of regret slipping into his voice: "And I must hope that I have anticipated all of them."

Dostya looked at the screen with a puzzled expression as he explained: "My orders killed half of a commando team on Earth and twelve symbionts. They also freed you and eight symbionts while straining the friendship between Mather and Keith. And on Orionis… my choice of warning the Aeon Illuminate might have saved thousands of them while condemning ten time that number of UEF citizens when they will strike back. That is the price of a choice in war."

Before them, thousands of green and blue colored dots burst into action. The battle had begun.

XXXXX

"Attack," said Marxon. His order was simple and yet thousands of units controlled by over twenty Aeon ACUs responded by moving forward. Waves of Auroras and flares were sent first to draw enemy fire and were followed by over eight widely spaced galactic colossus. As the giants walked forward; swarms of Harbingers moved between their legs to replace the decoys that were quickly falling. Fighters and bombers danced overhead while artilleries exchanged fire across the battlefield.

When the battle was firmly engaged, Marxon stepped forward with Pao and Lani close by. Each of them was upgraded with engineering modules and wherever they walked a new piece of artillery or a missile launcher was quickly built. Whenever they were attacked, one of the SCU would quickly build and support a stationary shield while the other would build the proper counter measure: an anti-air or point defense turrets. A few other Aeon commanders tried to do the same, but none could match the effortless grace that Marxon and his team could.

On the front line, Titans were desperately trying to keep the waves of Harbingers off their Fatboys while Broadswords provided whatever support fire they could before being shot out of the sky. Through it all, the UEF was trying to evacuate; transferring the assets from one commander to another before letting him step through the gate complex. Each Commander that left meant that the maximum amount of UEF units diminished while the Aeon could keep replacing those that they lost.

Of the eight Galactic Colossuses, three reached the UEF front line and there they simply walked through, drawing units into their tractor claws, crushing them and then discarding them like children's toys. Phason lasers sliced through shield generators and opened the way for the next wave of Harbingers. When they reached a Fatboy, they jumped on it like maddened insects, tearing its turrets and digging with their lasers until the UEF experimental weapon exploded.

In the span of a few minutes, the UEF had lost. Of the ten remaining commanders, only five managed to escape through the gate complex before it was destroyed.

XXXXX

The shock was so much that Arnold could no longer monitor his progress as he slowly captured the quantum gate. Sensors indicated that it was sufficiently charged to allow him to get back to Pollux, but at the moment, he did not care. All that he saw was the piles of bodies that had been neatly arranged for transport and the blood that covered the streets.

Suddenly, his motion sensors focused on a lone form that was struggling out of a destroyed civilian vehicle. She was young; maybe no more than ten years old. Thermal sensors showed that there were four other cold bodies in the vehicle which were most likely members of her family. Arnold could not move his ACU while it was capturing the Aeon quantum gate… he could only watch.

Once she was out of the vehicle, she tried to grab at whoever was inside, but despite all of her efforts, no one else came out. Although he could not hear it from inside the ACU, Arnold saw her wail in anguish at the sky… and then she looked at him. The little girl reached inside the transport again and this time she pulled something out: a small hand blaster.

Some surprisingly well aimed shots hit the ACU's head, a few even glancing off the optical sensors. For all of her efforts, however, the weapon was as insignificant against an ACU as a handful of thrown rocks would be. Deep inside the cockpit, Arnold could imagine each shot tearing through him even though they barely sounded like a weak thud from the inside.

A green light appeared on his screen, indicating that the gate was captured and that the way home was opened. There was a long moment of hesitation before the ACU stepped inside the quantum gate, leaving the small girl behind.

Epilogue

A few days later,

The training command unit moved on the field with slow measured steps. This was the first training session since Dostya's recovery and Mather's ACU was not far ahead with its back turned to her. She stepped right beside it and looked in the same direction: towards Minerva's rising sun.

There was a long pause before Mather spoke: "You talked to Doctor Brackman."

It was a statement and not a question. Mather let the declaration hang in the air for a moment before adding: "I spoke to him four years ago in circumstances that were not… well not unlike as your own. His words stopped me from going on a quest for revenge and they stopped me from making a very foolish incursion on Orionis while you were in the infirmary."

Dostya nodded slowly, still looking at the rising sun: "Yeah, he's good at doing that."

"I don't think that I'm as strong as he is," said Mather with a shrug: "Heck, I doubt that anyone is, but before we continue training I need to know if you really believe in what we're doing; if you can keep fighting without Doctor Brackman, Ell, Keith and even without me."

Dostya knew what he was asking and it surprised her that she had grown attached to all of them so quickly. She would always care about her family back on Earth, but seeing them again was no longer her first priority. This war would end… and then Cybrans everywhere would be free.

XXXXX

"Happy Birthday Lin," whispered Arnold softly. He placed the bouquet of flowers on the tombstone and murmured words that were meant only for her. Desjar stood behind him unmoving until he was finished. A few minutes later, the two friends walked out of the cemetery.

"So… she's the reason that you joined as a UEF pilot?" asked Desjar carefully. Arnold nodded and wiped a tear from his right eye: "She helped me when I needed it the most. She believed in me when everyone else saw a good for nothing bum. She was diagnosed with a terminal cancer and should have been dead in six months. She fought on for four years."

"She must have been one heck of a woman," said Desjar. Arnold nodded: "Instead of falling into despair, we married as soon as it was diagnosed. Despite the hardships, those were the best four years of my life."

Arnold stopped in his tracks and looked at his old friend: "You wanted to know why I'm fighting? I'm not doing it for fame, guns, glory or for any of that propaganda crap that they keep feeding us. Wars are messed up, ugly and sometimes… good people get caught in the crossfire…"

He paused, painful memories resurfacing: "But I'm still doing it for her. She believed in me and in all of us no matter how sick she got. I'll fight for her memory… and for every other person like her out there that never gives up. If in the end if I only save one that had a tenth of her spirit then it will be worth it."

Arnold could not speak anymore and he started walking again. Desjar waited a second longer before following. It was time to return to the front.

XXXXX

"The members of the military have discussed the issue extensively and we are in agreement," said the Aeon representative, his voice rising as he did so: "We would like that the position of Avatar-of-War be reinstated and for us to begin nominating candidates immediately."

Marxon sat at the council with Pao and Lani behind him. He listened with his arms crossed as the appointed military speaker listed the suggested names. Pao and Lani tensed in barely contained joy when the speaker nominated the first candidate: "For his flawless performance during his career and his recent exploits during the battle of Orionis, Jaran Marxon."

Marxon saw Evaluator Toth's eyes flash from across the room and he had to admit that he felt some satisfaction out of it. The list went on, but he knew that he was the most likely candidate. The spiritual wing might have tried to stop him, but he had personally killed five UEF ACUs in the recent battle and only a handful of Commanders had ever managed to pull that off. Toth could not touch him, not with such a victory record and never again once he became Avatar-or-War.

A secret smile touched the corner of his lips as he considered how it had been possible. Unknown to anyone, Marxon had received an encoded message detailing where and when the UEF would attack. He could have the message signature analyzed to find out who had sent it, but there was no point to it now. The information had been what had allowed him to kill the first four ACUs. Without it, Toth would have probably been in a position to object to his candidature at the moment.

Marxon knew that Cybrans had most likely transmitted the message and possibly Doctor Brackman himself. The UEF had launched an attack on two fronts, but by warning the Aeon and by evacuating their own planet, the Cybrans had killed two birds with one stone. The swift defeat on Orionis had forced the UEF to pull their forces out of Cybran territory to defend their vulnerable worlds. What the Cybrans had not foreseen, however, was that it had played right into Marxon's hands.

Plans were already in motion to ensure that his candidature would be the only one worth considering. After the battle, they had learned that the last UEF pilot had escaped by attacking a civilian settlement. There, Marxon had found a little girl named Ariel: his new apprentice. He had seen the fire in her eyes and her thirst for revenge. His stature would grow by taking her under his wing; a compassionate Commander taking care of a child of war... and in time he would also gain a valuable asset.

Yes, he would do it. Soon he would become the new Avatar-of-War and lead the Aeon Illuminate to victory against the UEF and the Cybrans… and the galaxy would be cleansed once and for all.