The problem with humanity is it's full of people. - Unknown

The door to the relaxation room opened with a swoosh sound that came from speakers rather than any mechanism of the door, showing again that humanity preferred things that made noise to things that were silent.

Legion stepped into the room, in his slender and androgynous form rather than any other. He smiled at the smell of pipe smoke as he walked around the couch and sat down next to the woman who sat there, wrapped in a kanga and wearing a colorful kaftan, smoking a pipe as she watched a hologram in front of her.

On the hologram was visible a crater, beyond the lip of it was a city that had smoke coming off of the buildings. Some buildings were still collapsing, the ones at the edge of the crater were burning, and heat distortion rippled the air in the crater. A short stubby magac was lifted up, the HUD showed it was at 100% ammo and charge, as well as the armor at 90% and the operator health was at max. The stubber opened fire on the buildings as the viewpoint began moving forward. Huge holes were ripped in the walls as the impacts flashed with the bluish-white actinic snap of antimatter.

"What are we watching, Menhit?" Legion asked.

"Our eldest brother's battle-worms," she said, referring to the Write-One-Read-Many system used in armor and cybernetics to record what went on during the battle.

The viewpoint shifted as the recorder rotated smoothly and suddenly, a horde of Dwellerspawn erupting from a partially collapsed building that looked a partially crushed hornet's nest. The magac fired one long burst, raking the front of the Dwellerspawn, which exploded into rags of flesh.

"Why?" Legion asked, looking down at the can of fizzybrew in his hands even as he opened it.

"I love watching him work," Menhit said simply. "There is a purity, a clarity, in watching our Eldest Brother work at what the universe itself crafted him to do."

Legion shrugged. "It's always the same. Daxin shows up, kills everyone, pets his dog, bitches about how he wants to be left alone, blows up and burns down everything, leaves."

Menhit smiled coyly. "If you say so, elder brother."

Legion took a long drink off of the can. "Little sister, I've known 'The Walking War Crime' since I was touched by Our Father in the ruins of Udaipur. I've seen this. Taken part in it," he leaned back against the back of the couch, putting one arm on the back so he could touch Menhit's back with his fingertips. "Seen it coming straight at me."

Menhit nodded as she watched a building start to collapse even as the view turned to more Dwellerspawn which were quickly reduced to gobbets and rags of flesh.

Legion just shook his head and shifted his arm slightly as Menhit leaned back onto the couch. Legion put his arm around her and squeezed slightly for a second, which brought a smile to Menhit's face. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back to rest on the couch.

The door whooshed open again and heavy footsteps moved in. There was the thudding of a four legged creature with the heavy bipedal footsteps.

"Hey, Dax," Legions said, without opening his eyes. "Hey, FIDO."

**Hi Legion**

"TG-875," Daxin said, moving around the couch. He sat down, the other edge of the couch lifting slightly. FIDO sat down next to Daxin's feet, got up, moved in a circle three times, then laid down, closing his eyes.

"Yes," Menhit said. She reached out and touched Daxin's shoulder. "Just watching you work."

"Fortress system," Daxin said. He reached into a pocket, dug around, and pulled out a large can of fizzybrew. He cracked it open. "Crusade came in hard, Martial Orders landed the Praetorian on the Atrekna fortress worlds and took them out. Singers of Agony tracked fleeing Atrekna to other systems. Soon as the ships are ready, we'll be heading out again."

Menhit nodded.

"How's things on your end, Dhruv?" Daxin asked.

"OK. Just shutting down the Black Box project," he said. "Letting people know they have to be quiet about some things and putting the whole thing in storage mode."

Daxin just nodded. "The kid."

Legion sighed. "Yeah. The kid."

"At least you cured the Friend Plague," Menhit said. She turned off the hologram, reverting it to the main video menu.

"Speaking of which," Legion said. "Dax?"

"No," Daxin said.

"FIDO?" Legion said.

**FIDO like clanky body** the cybernetic canine replied. **clanky clanky**

Legion just sighed. "Thought I should ask."

"You asked. Drop it," Daxin said.

**FIDO happy** the cyberhound answered without opening his eyes. He projected a sleeping emoji over his head, between his floppy flexsteel ears, stopping the discussion.

"Anything anyone want to watch?" Menhit asked, making a flicking motion with her middle finger and the thumb to scroll through the menu.

"Deep Space Salvagers," Daxin said.

"Girlz Und Lankyz," Legion suggested with a smirk, his eyes still closed.

"You two have horrible taste," Menhit said, shaking her head. She straightened up and put on an expression of aloof superiority, flicking quickly through the menu. "We will watch something fun, enlightening, with a good moral message and an understandable set of motivations for the characters."

"Oh, Digital Omnimessiah preserve us," Legion groaned.

On the screen a young Terran girl, missing her top and a significant portion of her pants, was running through the jungle, panting.

"Oh, come on," Daxin groaned.

The female Terran turned to look at the camera, lifted an arm to protect herself, and screamed. The image froze.

PSYCHO KILLER JUNGLE CAT XIV - MATANZA RETURNS!

Both men groaned as if they were in pain even as Menhit leaned forward to watch eagerly, puffing on her pipe.

-----

Vuxten walked into the meeting room, his JAG lawyer on his left. He took a seat at the small table exactly five paces from the big table where nine high ranking staff officers sat, adjusted his dress uniform, and looked at the two manila folders in front of him, adjusted the bottle of water and then the microphone, then looked up. He knew the manila folders only contained a half dozen pieces of smart paper and were mostly there due to ritual.

"This is an unofficial inquiry, Major," the leader of the board, on Vice Admiral (Lower Decks) Prawlgrath said, the spines on the back of his neck clacking as he looked to either side. "We're merely interested in your previous testimony regarding what you referred to as 'The Assault on Heaven' and 'The War In Hell' during a period of time you were Absent Without Leave."

The lawyer cleared his throat. "The Telkan Marine Corps authorized Major Vuxten's excursion under Ecclesiastical Leave prior to him being deployed to the operation in question," he said.

The Admiral tilted his head slightly. "The Telkan Marine Corps operates under the Confederate Uniform Code of Military Justice. His detached duty was not cleared with PERSCOM."

The lawyer shrugged. "The Telkan Marine Corps, at that time, was an allied military force, not yet included in the Confederate Armed Services Table of Equipment and Organization. Seeing as the vote to include the Telkan Marine Corps was taken by an illegitimate governing body, there is still some debate as to whether or not the Telkan Marine Corps is part of the Confederate Armed Services or merely a foreign military service allowed to operate within Confederate Armed Services' area of operations."

The Admiral frowned slightly.

"I request, officially and on the record, that the accusation that Major Vuxten was Absent Without Leave be stricken from the record, whether or not this inquiry is supposedly unofficial."

A Rigellian General nodded. "So noted."

A Treana'ad Admiral nodded. "Accepted."

Admiral Prawlgrath sighed. "All right. Recently Lance Corporal Casey of the Telkan Marine Corps has returned from AWOL status..."

The lawyer again cleared his throat. "Lance Corporal Casey, on loan from the Confederate Armed Services, has not yet been taken off of Temporary Duty to the Chaplain Corps. Again, I must insist that the accusation of Absent Without Leave be stricken from the record."

Admiral Prawlgrath sighed. "Very well. Recently, Lance Corporal Casey of the Telkan Marine Corps has returned from Temporary Duty to report on both the status of the effort to reclaim the SUDS system as well as what is being called The Temporal Crusade by the Martial Orders."

The lawyer consulted some notes. "TDY orders for Lance Corporal Casey were cut prior to his leaving to join the Temporal Crusade."

The Admiral continued as if he had not been interrupted. "Lance Corporal Casey testified, under oath, that during the War On Heaven, he was cloned four times and those clones given Novastar VI suits, with the intent on neutralizing Lance Corporal Casey.

"Lance Corporal Casey testified that he persuaded those clones, through, and I quote: religious doctrine discussion, to join him in assaulting has been labeled the Council of Eternity.

"Furthermore, while those four clones did return to Telkan space, they then deployed with the Imperium of Wrath forces and the Martial Orders," the Admiral looked up from the paper. "However, your statement makes no mention of those four clones. Is there a reason?"

Vuxten sighed and closed his eyes. He could remember that time. The savage fighting against Enraged Terrans, phasic shades, and worse. The thundering detonation of Casey's gun, the heavy roar of Daxin's stubber, the steady singing of Madame-318 in his fists. The screams as Menhit reduced thousands of Enraged Terrans into pink mist with a wave of her hand.

The lawyer leaned over and whispered in Vuxten's ear. Vuxten nodded.

"Events were confusing. I was subject to multiple matter transmissions, under assault by tens of thousands of Enraged Terrans, as well as phasic shades, battlefield clones, and androids," Vuxten said. "We were fighting to save a being with the powers of an ancient God. My recollections can be a bit fractured and disjointed at times."

"Your armor battle-worms were badly degraded. Is there a reason?" the Admiral asked.

"My armor doesn't like people to touch it?" Vuxten guessed.

"Major, now is not the time for levity," the Admiral snapped.

Vuxten cocked his head slightly and twitched one cybernetic ear. His cybereyes clicked as he blinked twice.

"I assure you, sir, that my statement was not said in levity," Vuxten said firmly. "My armor has felt the touch of the Digital Omnimessiah at multiple times. It has been exposed to the wrath of Enraged Phillip, has heard the celestial voice of Menhit the Singer, felt the cold dead touch of Bellona the Grave Bound Beauty," Vuxten leaned forward to the microphone. "When I stated that my armor and weapons do not like others to touch them, it is not levity, it is a statement of fact, sirs."

"I can bring up statements made by members of the Confederate Armed Services and the Telkan Marine Corps regarding the repair and maintenance of Major Vuxten's weapons and those war materiel's intransigence," the lawyer said.

"Very well. I withdraw my accusation," the Admiral said. "However, these is still several discrepancies between your statements and Lance Corporal Casey's. that this board wishes clarified."

Vuxten sighed and readied himself for a long meeting.

-----

It was the beeping that woke him up. That steady, metronome beeping that wouldn't stop.

That and the dry mouth.

Yrler tried to blink several times before he realized that his eyes were covered with soft pads and his eyelids were taped shut. When he tried to groan he realized he had tubes up his nose and down his throat.

He gurgled and tightened his fists, trying to move his arms.

The pad was suddenly moved from his eyes and the tape released. A gold mantid nurse looked down at him and Yrler was proud that he didn't scream at the sudden appearance of a big ass bug.

"Hello, Yrler. Are you awake?" the gold mantid asked.

Yrler managed to nod his head slightly, even as he blinked rapidly to get the gummy feeling out of his eye.

"You are currently in patient recovery," the gold mantid said. "You're safe, on a Confederate military base."

Yrler nodded again and tried to speak around the tubes.

"We'll get those out in a minute," the gold mantid said.

Yrler held still as they pulled the long tubes out of his nose and mouth.

"Water," he rasped.

One of the nurses, a big Rigellian female, held out the cup with the straw and he began to greedily suck on it. After two pulls the nurse pulled it away.

"We don't want you to get sick," the nurse said.

"515?" Yrler asked.

"Awake. Recovering," the gold mantid said.

Yrler closed his eyes. "The Atrekna?"

"The ones who captured you?" the gold mantid asked.

Yrler nodded.

"They got away. They dropped you off with a SAR platoon and took off," the Rigellian said. "You're safe now."

Yrler swallowed thickly and nodded.

He sighed deeply.

His head hurt, the back of his neck ached, but his injuries no longer hurt.

"How long?" he asked.

"Two months," the gold mantid stated. "You've been here two months."

Yrler nodded.

"Get some rest, soldier," the Rigellian said. She put a remote in his hand. "Just press the button if you need anything."

Yrler just silently nodded again.

want. some. candy? he heard whispered from the shadows in the corner.

He ignored it, just staring at the ceiling.

We made it, he thought. We fucking made it.