Unipsi, lovely entity

chapter 58: weakness

That morning was quite. Idra was usually never talkative, yet that day she was even less incline to speak. She kept looking away from Scilla ashamed of her weakness. All her replies were sorry. Scilla kept trying for probably half an hour before it got to her nerves.

“IRIS! LOOK AT ME!” shouted Scilla.

Iris looked away once again and so Scilla forced her to a face to face discussion.

“I SAID LOOK AT ME!”

“...sorry” she replied.

“STOP IT! I don’t want to hear your apologies, you have nothing to be sorry or ashamed of”

Once again no reply, just a look of sorrow.

“you don’t want to speak? Ok, I’ll speak for both of us. Stop being sorry, stop saying that you are sorry. Having fears is more than normal. Being afraid of the dark is even more common and logical than what you probably believe. You can’t see in the dark, so you are afraid of potential predators lurking in it…”

still nothing.

“I understand that you feel like a burned to me. Yet you have done a lot for me and my species. I know that you now believe that since I know your weakness I’m going to abuse it or leave cause of it. But it won’t happen and never will. Like you are serious with me, I’m serious with you. A relationship is based on thrust, mutual respect, mutual aid and love. When we can’t overcome our enemies alone we should unite and fight back together. Isn’t it also what you and your Founder believed? Fight together, die together. No?”

Iris smiled. Her colours returned to her face, she was back.

“fight as one. Overcome as one. Those were his words. There is no message of death as dying is not contemplated. Thank you Scilla…”

“no problem, I just wish to always see you smile. Not crying on yourself.”

“thanks you, for all you did and keep doing for me”

“no problem. I’m here for you, and I hope you will keep helping me or my friends as you already did”

“you don’t have to hope. Can I add some old wisdom?”

“a new Founder quote?”

“sort of. His wording was longer”

“sure. You seems really fond of him”

“he was a brilliant man. He never said to die together, but he said something similar. Death is inevitable. But it doesn’t mean that we shall perish all together. If you truly cherish someone you will be ready to fight even death for that special person.”

“so it means to be ready to die for your lover? It’s nothing new”

“I think I butchered his words, but it was a long conference and I’m not that good with my words”

“well about butchering, don’t kill me but I kinda never told you of something… important”

“after my screaming and kicking all night you can tell me everything… except breaking up, telling me that you are a woman or mentally ill”

“why is mentally ill there?” asked Scilla to be faced with a smirk.

“oohh, that kind of mentally ill. Nah, I may be crazy in lve with you, but nothing more”

Iris smiled. They had similar view after all.

“so… I kinda saw your dreams a few times and in other cases an alien showed me some part of your memories I think. Or in any case something related to your life as a kid…”

“son of a bitch!”

Iris jumped on her seat and immediately Scilla got defensive.

“sorry I didn’t mean…”

“what? It was not for you. The Whispers had detected a fucking mosquito that kept meddling in my business. So it was true. I’m gonna kill that fucker… did you saw my… nightmare?”

“yes… but…”

“it’s ok. At least… well it makes more sense now that you tell me that you understand how I feel. Anyway I don’t think it was our external intruder. I think it was me… unconsciously…”

Scilla was trying to understand what Iris was saying and so she explained better.

“I mean… all the space around me is filled with Whispers… sort of… they are like machines but smaller than electrons. So I think that with enough precision I could possibly modify electrical signals in people’s brains that are round me. Telepathy, or likely path projection but it’s the same shit.”

“well it makes sense because it was different from the one that were shown to me before”

Scilla then proceeded to tell all she had seen and her encounter with the phanonma Uligar. She thought that Iris was going to get mad, but strangely she was far more understanding than expected. She was calm and reassured Scilla to tell all the details she could recall. At the end she was happy of the new informations and reassure Scilla that she was going to find a way to remove Uligar from their equation.

“thanks Scilla. But for now forget about Uligar. Focus on the incoming expedition. This will be a hard one. I have made you an armour and also a weapon.”

“thanks you. Can I see it?”

“sure”

Iris walked Scilla to the armoury. A similar power suit like hers was standing ready to be wore. Beside on a workbench an electromagnetic rifle.

“before testing the suit I’ll tell you about the weapon. It’s a FEAR-V-8/16. (fucile eletromagnetico a rotaia-variabile-8/16. (Electromagnetic rail rifle-variable-8/16)). It’s a freshly developed model. Accept bullets from 8 to 16mm. The rail is self regulating. In particular you are going to be shooting this…”

Iris opened a box to reveal a series of strange metallic rods with stages and a double tip. The outer and bigger layer was a crystalline structure. They were clearly not just electromagnetic bullets.

“they look awesome, what are they?” asked Scilla. Iris lit up with joy, she loved to explain her creations.

“glad you asked. Those are gravron micro-fusion double stage bullets. The rod inside is an electrically inert material. So magnetic fields can’t stop them. However in this way I can’t accelerate them. So the second stage, the one at the bottom is there just to give speed. It allows the primary bullet to be accelerate and is discharged upon leaving the barrel. Then the most importation part. The tip is made with a perfectly engineered stable gravron charge. Only at high speed impact it reacts with the inert material and basically makes a micro fusion explosion. BUT, as said it is gravron. So it behaves like an implosion and attract to itself everything in a 3 to 9 cm radius with a force… well I don’t know the exact value cause it eat away my sensors. Still it can destroy everything. It eats away everything in that small ball. So as long as the armour is less than 9 cm deep which is always the case you will rip out the organs of your enemies. Now against machines you need a bit more aim but you can basically rip out their computational core. Isn’t it amazing?”

Scilla was overwhelmed by the absurd amount of words coming from Iris. She was probably going to explain for hours if asked. Scilla saw the happiness radiating from Iris. She didn’t really need more details, but she wanted to ask more just to keep looking at her.

“it’s amazing, but why did you choose a double stage? Couldn’t you encapsulate the primary part into a metallic cylinder that opens upon shooting like in tanks?”

They kept going for hours and hours. It was a moment of pure joy in the simplicity of a “mundane” conversation. Nothing could beat it.

Several days later they were approaching a new planet. Xeroling-1. As always the planet looked promising for a civilization to strive on, fortunately this time no living sentient species was present. They landed at the base of a steep mountain. Inside there were going to find a massive structure that supposedly was a massive military base. They had prepared for months and now all their experience had to be tested. Idra predicted a fierce resistance because for what she could understand from the AI she stole, inside there was something worth defending even when your creators have disappeared. The machines were trying to reconnect and regroup on Xeroling-1. The structure had 2 entrances or at least Idra located only two. Their plan was to divide and go in separately as supposedly they were going to be able to meet in the middle forcing the enemy into a small spot to then be totally annihilated.

So on one side Scilla with the armour and weapon provided by Idra and all she could bring inside. 200 soldiers ready for battle. Surely she could have stayed on the Sheridan but she was an infantry leader, she had to be in the front lines. On the other side Idra was going in with her walkers and androids. They were 32 machines in total. Before entering they met to discuss the final plan. Scilla was left alone to discuss. Her soldiers all kept at least 20 metres from Idra.

“even with all the upgrades, you are not immortal. Don’t do anything stupid Scilla”

“I’ll be careful. I promise that tonight we will eat something special. So be careful as well.”

“sure. It’s time to go. May the Founder guide us!”

Scilla was growing accustomed to Esterian’s and in particular Idra’s ways.

“may the Founder guide us!”

their operation started. Scilla and her army went in. They are immediately welcomed by enemy machines. But the resistance is soon overcome. They push forward through a series of small battles. The machine constantly fled and regrouped trying to ambush the Leans. The absurdly confusing configuration of the place didn’t help Scilla and her team. They had few casualties and some injured but they kept pushing, they had to meet in the middle or so they thought. As they fight through it became evident that the building was not a military factory or some shit akin to it. It was full of instrumentation. It was a massive research facility but it was unclear what they were studying that required such effort and defences. They more they dived deeper the more things made less sense. The structure was built with several containment measures, one more advanced than the other. But from the location of all the switches, emergency panels and so on it was clear that all those doors, confusing geometry and literally traps were meant to keep something inside. Soon they reached a bigger room. To enter it they had to pass into 100 meters of doors. Not a big issue if they weren’t all destroyed from inside. They had to line up and proceed one by one into the hole. The containment had failed and whatever was inside had escaped. It must have been bigger than a Lean as they could walk in the hole it had left behind.

What the fucking fuck is this shit. If something can go through so much… alloy of whatever they used, where the fuck is it now? Did it left the planet? Is it still inside the building? I hope not.

Inside the main containment chamber there was not much. Or to be more precise not much was left behind. A spherical construct was completely tore into pieces and the rest of the room was totally trashed. It didn’t looked too old nor it looked too fresh. It was alarming, that thing could still be around or maybe death by old age, who knows. So Scilla tried to connect with Idra. It was hard to have signal inside the facility but it was possible.

“Idra, we found something alarming. This place was meant to contain something and it clearly failed. Whatever it is could still be around”

“perfect, great great news. I’m kinda of busy. Stick to the plan.”

She was gasping. She had never been out of breath. The combat sound in the background were brutal. We must go to assist.

Scilla was not wrong. Idra was facing immense resistance. They understood that she was the real enemy so most of the machines went after her. Believing that she could help, Scilla once reached the middle of the structure decided to push toward Idra hoping to flank the enemies and assist her lover. They advanced with no resistance and as the corridors grew taller and wider they started hearing the battle.

Unfortunately they miscalculated the direction of the gun shots as they echoed in the multitude of corridors. Instead of flaking from behind they popped from the side of a main corridor were Idra was facing against an army of robots. Even if outnumbered Idra was still fighting. She was taking cover behind a barrier on the other side on the corridor. But so far everything was under control. She knew that she was going to win. One by one, a little mistake at the time, Idra was decimating the robots. She was perfect against imperfect machines. She had no weakness, not until that instant. Be it fate, be it an unfortunate event, but in that moment. When Scilla got out of her corridor to take cover behind the barrier on her side, she became Idra’s only weakness.

--friendly unit detected--

Idra turned to see Scilla and her troops walking in at the worst possible moment. On the other side of the corridor a walker was about to shoot its particle cannon. It was going to hit Scilla. For Idra time almost froze. She pushed her brain to the limit to find a solution, to save all she ever loved. Even if it meant death.

“Scilla’s survival probability if I jump in”

|/100%|/

“mine?”

|/minimal|/

“other options with same survival rate for Scilla?”

|/none|/

“I liked being your host. So do me just one last favour. Save her, no matter what”

Understandably the Whispers were in turmoil. They knew that their host was about to die. They didn’t want it. They wanted to oppose. They had just found her. It was just short of a year. They were suppose to be eternal with her. But they couldn’t oppose. Their friend last wish.

Idra jumped in to push Scilla back into the smaller corridor. Time almost froze also for Scilla. She saw Idra jumping toward her. Her goo and armour relocating to stop the incoming energy beam. The Whispers also screamed in agony, pushing themselves to the limit to protect Idra.

The beam of light crushed Idra. Pieces of armour were thrown around and so was Idra’s left arm that took the impact. Her body landed 10 meters away and soon a pond of red and grey blood formed below her.

“IDRA!” scream Scilla. She was already crying.

Their brain couldn’t process what had just happened that Idra’s body started convulsing on the ground. Her blood started boiling and soon regrouped into tentacles that reconnected to the missing arm. The machines were caught off guard too. Nobody ever saw something like that. While the blood reconnected Idra’s body, her shadows started to expand, closed eyes stated forming and popped out of the layer of darkness. After 20 seconds Idra stood back up. Her left arm connected by tentacles was still about 5 meters away from the main body. Realised that she was still “alive” the machine resumed firing.

Words can only partially describe the absolute destruction that unfolded.

As the first bullets were about to reach Idra a scream so strong to shake the ground echoed in the corridors. Those were not so quite whispers. The shadow had expanded instantaneously and all what was behind Idra was eaten away by it. The bullets dissolved into a grey mist that was expanding and rapidly thickening. Idra was still standing in the middle of all of it. The AMS-388 was slowly being consumed into a grey flickering human shaped figure. Freaked out the machine started firing all they had while Scilla’s soldier grabbed their commander and started pulling her away with for their retreat. Scilla was clearly in shock and unable to do anything. She just stood there.

The Lean’s retreat however was cut short. The robot who fired the first particle beam fired a second one. This triggered the Whispers and hell broke loose. Darkness expanded everywhere. Where Idra’s shadow couldn’t reach your own would. Eyes, eyes in every bit of darkness. Even those small cracks of their suits. They all opened with screams so brutal and terrifying that even the braves of all the Leans couldn’t avoid fearing them. Tentacles of dark and constantly clashing matter jumped out of those eyes attacking everything in sight. Didn’t matter if those were Leans or machines. Nothing was safe. Uligar, believing that he could do something to save his subject appeared for a fraction of second. As soon as the grey mist reached his body he was consumed. Scream and death rattle overflowed the communication channels but it was too late to do anything. Massive tentacles and hands made of Whispers literally crushed the mountain and grabbed onto anything that was alive in a 30 km radius. Sheridan included.

In all that chaos Scilla bravely or maybe moved by pure despair pushed toward Idra. She had been converted in a vague body made of small particles. The Whispers let her get closer. They were saving her after all. She pushed her hand toward Idra, to touch her, but it went through.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It’s all my fault…” started Scilla.

Idra replied slowly. It was clear that her consciousness was fading and that she was pushing herself to her limit to say her last words.

“we… are… one… it… is… all… for… you… I… LOVE… YOU”

The figure disappeared into the mist. Scilla desperate tried to catch as much as she could but it was all pointless. She had nothing left, not even dust. All that was left was her ear piercing desperate cry.

The outcome of such violent outburst of just 98 seconds was terrifying. The mountain was destroyed with all that was inside. The Sheridan taken down and cut in 3 different pieces. All the ruin’s machine were destroyed but so were the Leans. The Whispers didn’t recognise most of them. In their fury only 23 people were left alive. 23 people that had witnessed their comrades being eaten alive as painfully as possible by their own shadows. Other than them Scilla was safe and now in a rocky plain as the Whispers eat even the dirt around her. Idra’s mechanical autonomous soldiers, those that were alive before the outburst were still standing and so was the NDU.