"Out of curiosity I once ran a analysis of major events that effected the Unified Civilized Council and its citizens. In all of the millions of years, there was no major events beyond the absorption (and gentling) of species. There were a few reformations, a few adjustments, but nothing cataclysmic.

"A search of the Confederacy showed that there were cataclysmic events every few decades.

"Which, to me, explains why some things involving Terrans or the Confederacy have such a feeling of antiquity about them despite the fact the Unified Council had infantry rifles manufactured before those events.

"It wasn't the time on the engines that made them feel ancient.

"It was the miles on the chassis." - Former Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, from I Have Ridden the Hasslehoff

Vuxten looked up in time see the huge figure of Matthias bend down and pick up one of the Novastar cannons. He looked at it, unplugged it from the headless Novastar armor, then plugged it into his own suit.

"One oh five millimeter grav-rail cannon, grav-driver assist discarding sabot rounds," the armored figure mused. He looked up as he hefted the cannon, which looked smaller in his hands. "Max velocity is roughly fifty-five kilometers per second," a pause, "Target range: one hundred seventy five thousand meters. Estimated flight time is three point five seconds per shot."

The figure looked back down at the weapon then pulled on the belt, spooling out several meters of the rounds. "Max rate of fire is one shot per two point two seconds, not great."

--what did I miss did we win-- 471 asked.

"Yeah, buddy. We won," Vuxten said.

Dambree had come out of the trees, holding a severed arm in pink and white daubed power armor. She moved up to the Joan and held it out. The Joan accepted the severed limb, holding it to the stump of her severed arm and sighing.

It was obvious to Vuxten a few inches of arm were missing.

The Joan sighed again and hung her severed arm from a gear attachment at her waist.

"I can see your skull," Dambree said softly, putting her hand on the shoulder of the heavy power armor.

"Doki," the Joan said sadly. She took off her cartoon feline shaped helmet and looked at it. Part of it was shot away and Vuxten knew it had broken apart to bleed off the kinetic energy of a heavy impact.

"I consign you to the arms of my brother Guanya," Matthias said, pointing the Novastar cannon into the sky. It began firing, rapidly chewing through the belt. At the third shot Matthias spoke again. "Positive hit. Predicting evasive action."

Dambree moved up to Vuxten, looking at his back.

"That hump has a big dent in it and it's leaking," the bunny girl said.

"Hear that, buddy? You survived a Novastar gun hit," Vuxten said.

--head feels like it-- the green mantid replied.

"Still taking hits. Enemy ship is beginning to tumble," Matthias said, still keeping up a steady firing rate.

Vuxten looked over the heavy armor. It was all black except for a few white highlights. It had "27th Centauri Lancers" on each arm and on the chest. Vuxten had never even heard of that unit before and he reflexively checked his datalink before he remembered it wasn't tied into any infosys.

The suit was just a touch over two meters tall, angled rather than curved. The shoulder pauldrons were designed to take hits from the side aimed at the head, even though it would restrict visibility. The armored back was raised up over the head and there was a thick strip of armor in front of the neck. Vuxten had noticed despite the mass and blockiness the suit still had full mobility.

"Target breaking up," Mattias said. He fired three more times then dropped the gun, reaching down and pulling the cables free. He turned and looked at the Joan, Dambree, and Vuxten. "Is everyone all right?"

Dambree just nodded. Vuxten looked up and saw something in the sky flash and then glimmer.

"Injured, but still in it," Vuxten said. "Same with my green mantid battle buddy."

The Joan held up the stump of her arm. "Doki."

Matthias nodded then looked around. "Where are we?"

"An abandoned world," Vuxten said. "Out of the entire population, only two survived."

Matthias looked at Vuxten. "Not the Mantid?"

"No," he said. He took a deep breath. "The First Terran/Mantid was over eight thousand years ago."

Matthias nodded. "I know you. You're Vuxten."

Vuxten frowned. "How do you know me?"

Matthias shrugged. "There are things I do not understand, but I know that I once guided your hand," the armored figure was silent for a second. "My prison touched many places at once, it may not have been you here but rather you there."

"Other dimension," Vuxten guessed.

"Yes," Matthias said. "What brought this down upon you?"

Dambree looked around and backed up slightly, moving into the shadows cast by the moon. "Our choices."

Matthias looked at her then back at Vuxten. "I heard your call to my brother, as plain as day, and found myself able to come to your aid. What transpired here?"

Vuxten took a deep breath, pretending not to notice how the shadows wrapped around the bunny-girl and the way she seemed to fade from sight. "The Digital Omnimessiah has returned. They sought to end him as part of the War in Heaven and the War in Hell."

Matthias froze.

"My Father is alive..." he said softly. He suddenly went down on one knee, clenching his hands under his chin. "After so long, after everything that has happened," Matthias said softly.

The armored figure reached up and removed the helmet.

Vuxten had expected a scarred and tired looking Terran, with cybernetic eyes and tattoos.

Instead, Matthias was a young Terran with pale pinkish-white skin, yellow hair, and blue eyes.

It reminded Vuxten, oddly, of Casey.

"That he lives again is a miracle," Matthias said softly. Vuxten could see the tears running down the Terran's face as he lifted his face to the sky. "Oh, for deliverance."

"Doki," the Joan said, stepping forward and laying her one good hand on Matthias's shoulder. What followed was a string of Engrish-Emoji that was incomprehensible to Vuxten and made his translator pack it in and give up.

The Joan stepped back and held her one hand out to Matthias. Vuxten watched as the massive human got to his feet, hanging his helmet on his belt, and followed the Joan, holding her hand.

--never have to buy gravy shots again-- 471 said.

"Yeah, no kidding," Vuxten said.

Vuxten followed the pair back to the fireside, which looked as if nothing had happened. Three steps into the trees and the leaves were still on the branches, the bark still on the wood, and the ferns and plants still intact.

It was as if nobody had been throwing atomic and grav weapons less than a half mile away.

In the clearing sat the two humans, one on each side of the glittering figure of the Digital Omnimessiah.

Matthias moved up to the glimmering figure and went down on one knee again.

"Father," he said, his voice choked up.

"Matthias, my son," the Digital Omnimessiah said, standing up. He moved over and put his hand on the young man's head. "My heart is glad that you have been released from your bondage."

"But what I did," Matthias said. "That I allowed my heart and soul to be twisted by the whispers of those who wished you cast away, I cannot be forgiven."

"My son, each of us has their part to play. While it is not fore-ordained, we still have our parts to play," the Digital Omnimessiah paused. "However, since you need to hear it, Matthias, I forgive you for your perceived transgressions and bid you to rise and sit with me once more."

Vuxten moved over and stood next to the log, keeping it between the fire and himself.

"Top of your helmet's cracked and fractured all to hell," the Terran woman, Sammi, said, getting up and moving over to Vuxten. "Can you open it?"

"No," Vuxten said after chinning the release and hearing it beep. "I can take it off."

Vuxten undid the seals and set the helmet down.

"You've got armor breaches and what looks like a target on your chest," the man, JR, said, pointing at Vuxten's chest. "That shoulder looks bad."

--cant pop housing-- 471 said. --little help--

"My buddy's trapped. Can someone help open the housing?" Vuxten asked, looking around.

"I'll help," Matthias said. He moved over and Vuxten felt him grab onto his armor's back section. There was the screech of stressed warsteel and Vuxten saw the housing monitor go bright purple and 471's icon vanish.

"There you go, little guy," Matthias said. He moved back toward the Digital Omnimessiah. "He looks kinda like Gravity."

The Digital Omnimessiah nodded and smiled. "He has Gravity's spirit and humor."

"Need help with your armor?" Matthias asked.

Vuxten shook his head. He gave the command and felt the neural link plug disengage at the same time the slightly squishy feeling kinetic shock padding deflated. The armor opened up and Vuxten stepped out, staggering a bit.

"Easy," Matthias said, using one heavy hand to steady Vuxten. "You've got a bad cut on the top of your head. Looks like your ants are handling it."

Vuxten nodded, his vision still slightly blurry as he sat down. He could tell it wasn't his eyes but rather the optic nerves or the visual cortex since the cybereye input was blurry too.

The Joan sat down next to Vuxten, the log lifting slightly, and looked at her helmet with a mournful expression. "Doki," she said, then set it down with a sigh.

"I'm sure your sisters will understand and help you repair it," the Digital Omnimessiah said.

The Joan smiled.

"Now what happens?" Vuxten asked, looking around.

The Digital Omnimessiah smiled. "We give ourselves over to the hardest part."

"What's that?" JR asked.

"We wait."

-----

Casey put on a burst of speed, using his shielded left shoulder to slam into the heavy door. The door exploded inward and he stepped into the doorway.

"Cover me, brothers," Casey said. "Lozen, help them out. Peel, directions and overwatch. Lozen, run my commo, screen out the enemy."

"Be careful, my heart," Lozen said, opening up. Casey stepped out then opened the pilot survival pack, getting out the pistol and slinging the strap of the satchel over his head.

"I've got the map up," Peel said. "Go down the hallway and take the second right."

Casey jogged down the hallway, pistol held at high ready. He could feel the sweat running down his back, feel the muscles in his legs ache slightly. He paused for a second to wipe the left side of his face, wiping away the sweat and the blood that had oozed from his eye socket.

He could feel the ground rumble as his brothers defended the doorway from the enemy's troops. In the minutes prior to breaching the battlescreen protecting the facility, the last of the four's armor had awoken and proclaimed her name.

It made Casey feel good to know his brothers were slowly gaining the glory and light of the Gods.

The fact there was a nanite exclusion field running was slightly surprising to Casey, but it didn't bother him. He wasn't one of the ones running with a bloodstream full of red ants.

With the exception of his cardiac implant, armor piloting jack, and datalink, he was unmodified and unaugmented human. His cardiac implant's wireless networking system was offline, the Detainee had warned him to have it replaced and the wireless ability removed. His piloting link was an older version incapable of wireless communication. His datalink was currently in high security mode, only accepting Lozen's constantly rotating access codes. The only other piece of hardware he had was the blood cleaner in his left thigh and that think had less computing power than a modern watch.

Which made him fairly confident as he followed Peel's directions through the facility to the elevator.

In the elevator he checked his pistol again. Standard Low-Velocity APERS rounds.

The elevator came to a stop and he followed the directions Peel had given him and he had loaded into his datalink. Taking each turn with confidence.

He was surprised there was not a single keypad, no a single advanced locking mechanism. Just simple door switches.

The last door whooshed open and Casey tensed, finger tight on the trigger.

The room beyond slowly lit up as ancient light strips flickered on.

Computer monitoring stations were side by side in wide arcs. The screens on three of the walls showed data. Beyond the far wall, which was made of crysteel, was row after row of heavy duty servers that had maintenance bots daintily moving about on six legs. The stations each had a single chair, with nameplates on the back.

Casey moved in slowly, looking around.

Most of the terminal were live, data streaming across them. They had actual ancient LCD 2.5D screens, manual keyboards and input devices, and headsets with eye pieces sitting between the keyboards and the pointing device.

Casey walked into the room, slowly turning around.

The screens just showed streams of data going by.

It was silent in the room, just the whir of fans and drives. It smelled of ozone and old dust.

He moved up to the crysteel window and looked through, tapping on it to get a feel for its thickness.

Less than an inch.

Beyond was dozens of rows of server stacks. Red and blue and green and amber lights all flickered or burned steadily. Old, clunky looking spider-like robots moved delicately around. As he watched a server drive was pulled out and replaced by two spiders.

Casey walked back and sat down at one of the monitors, just reaching out and pressing the space key.

It immediately moved to a prompt.

"That's it?" he asked the empty room. He touched his datalink. "Lozen, get me a secure line to Peter."

"At once, beloved," the armor answered.

"Casey, how close are you?" Peter asked.

"I'm sitting right here at a, um, Doctor Josie Whales work-station," Casey said.

"You're sitting at Outlaw's station? What about security? There should have been Marines and Army MPs everywhere," Peter said.

Casey shrugged, wiggling the mouse and noticing that there was no cursor. "Sitting right here."

"All right, do you need help getting through the password protection?" Peter asked.

"Nope. I pressed space and it dropped me right to the command prompt," Casey said.

There was silence for a moment.

"Pete?" Casey asked.

"I'm here, I'm here. Sorry," Peter said. "All right. Type this exactly as I tell you."

-----

Daxin watched as Pete suddenly gave a long exhale and leaned forward, folding his arms and resting his head on them.

"It's done," Peter said. He closed his eyes. "I'm so tired."

Daxin moved up and rubbed one hand between Peter's shoulders. "I know, brother, I know."