Ravens of Eternity

206 Frigid Aftermath

The Prophets’ Security Intelligence slowed to a crawl as it launched its attack on Miko’s Prime Mirror Ghost. It had bared all of its available weapons and prepared to eviscerate her to pieces.

But it couldn’t even budge. Or rather, it barely budged.

Deprived of precious system resources, the circuit could hardly handle SecInt’s multiple concurrent functions. And so while things were slowed to a crawl, Miko got a great view of all its code.

Everything was all laid out for her to read and edit and recompile.

Her Mirror reached out and invaded SecInt with ridiculous ease. She outright removed swaths of code while she replaced it with her own. Quick, simple rewrites that ensured its loyalty belonged to her, and not to the Prophets.

Miko gutted their Security Intelligence and replaced every line of code with incredible speed. She was so fast that she was all but done in the blink of an eye.

SecInt spasmed as she withdrew her Mirror. Violent arcs of electricity coursed all around as its cloudy body swelled. Inside, storms of light blue electrical explosions flashed, one after another. It was as though some great fireworks show was happening deep inside.

It ended with one great big finale, a single light blue glow that threatened to cause the cloud to break open. It stretched out further and further, but right when it seemed to be at its bursting point, it all quickly receded back down to normal.

Except now, all its red energies and electrical storms were now light blue.

.....

And once SecInt was fully under her control, she realized she could do anything she wanted now. She had full read/write/execute access to every intelligence within the settlement’s logic circuits, and could modify their directives with whatever command she wanted, whenever she wanted.

With that amount of freedom, she created herself a full-access root account, and logged in properly. From there, she moved around with absolute ease.

Miko peered down at a tiny slice of autonomous code, shrunk herself down to its size, then petted it like a cat. She could almost feel the code under her hand, like it was soft as fur. Then she increased her size greatly, went up to the largest data structure, and opened it up like a treasure chest.

She looked through all of its contents and pored through them like the library was going out of business. One in particular caught her eye, so she pulled it out and projected it up into the digital sky above her.

There, the schematics and 3-dimensional blueprints for a mecha chassis and its core filled her vision.

The core was an A-ranked Hrothgar Tyr “ARC-5” Alpha Response Core, Model 5. It was far superior to anything she had piloted herself. Then again, all she had ever experienced were the D-ranked Federal Shipyards basic cores.

In comparison, the ARC-5 had far greater power output, advanced logic circuits, and faster targeting algorithms. It was orders of magnitude more powerful. She estimated that by itself, it was probably worth somewhere between 1 or 2 million credits.

Next to it was a mecha chassis. It looked supremely sleek and deadly. According to its brief description, it was designed specifically to assault hardened positions.

Miko noted that in comparison to her D-ranked Federal Shipyards mecha chassis, this was also orders of magnitude more powerful. She found its thrusters were more responsive, that its sensors could see farther, and its armor plating both lighter and more durable.

It also came with a small loadout of weaponry that matched its devastating nature.

The only thing that utterly disappointed Miko were the intelligences that the Prophets had installed on it. Her digital avatar frowned deeply as she pored through its code, line by line.

And sighed.

How did the same people who produced that robust SecInt, she thought, also produce such utter trash? All of this looks like it was slapped together out of random slabs of unoptimized code.

She shook her head as she saved a copy of all of it, mostly so she could laugh at it later. Then she wiped its intelligences and reset it to factory default.

~

Inside the gathering hall at the mayor’s mansion, Eva watched as Miko hovered over a mecha, as the girl performed what she called her Machine Trance. She could only wonder in awe as Miko traversed lines of code through her biological consciousness.

Her mind could hardly wrap around the concept, but she figured it was something like her Ascendant Form – a sort of deep awareness that encompassed everything.

The mansion’s gathering hall had been completely cleared of whatever it used to have inside, and a makeshift mecha bay had been installed on the floor. There, the mecha was laid out on its back but had been mostly dismantled.

Eva assumed it was because the Prophets were in the process of fine-tuning it, but she wasn’t sure.

Many of its armor plates had been removed, and its limbs were separated from each other. Some of its components and modules had been removed and were strewn about.

And while Miko was engaged in her Machine Trance, two of her drones worked hard to put the mecha back together. One of them slid its primary sensor suite back inside its open head, and bolted it down in its socket. Once it was secure, they closed up its structure and armor around it.

And as the drones reassembled the mecha, Eva realized that it was one of the thousands that Mia and her brother had stolen from the Naval Academy on Mars. She quickly recognized the dangerous curves of its armor plating, only now it was painted a gaudy white and gold.

Then she salivated at the promise of piloting it.

She quickly darkened when it dawned on her that there were a couple thousand more of it out there, likely across multiple settlements. All of them under the Prophets’ control.

The thought disrupted her for some time until Amal came up next to her, and spoke.

“How are you holding up?” she asked.

Eva nodded in response and gave her a weak smile on top of it.

Beyond what the Prophets had done to this settlement, she still had her grandparents on her mind. Both of them collided for time and space in her heart and in her mind.

The two women quietly watched Miko and her drones for a while. All that could be heard was the sound of the drones’ antigrav modules, hard at work. It was another couple of minutes before Eva broke the silence.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should’ve been here from the start. But I was too caught up in my own bullshit.”

“It’s not BS,” countered Amal. “You’re grieving, and it’s normal to need time. And besides, you were here, and you did what you could. Just like everyone else, you know?”

She nudged Eva lightly with an elbow.

“Alright then,” said Eva. “I’m sorry I didn’t agree to a break. We shoulda stopped like you advised. If we did, no-one would’ve gotten hurt. Things could’ve ended up much worse than they did.”

“Sure,” said Amal, “but then we wouldn’t have learned about these people. About what the Prophets are doing. If things didn’t go the way they did, we might never have found them. None of them would be able to find any peace.”

“If that’s what you’re calling death...”

“What’s the difference? Peace during our lives... it’s fleeting.”

Eva turned towards Amal, a grimace etched on her face.

“So the answer is death?” she asked. “Is that all life is about? It only exists as payment for death? As a price for peace?”

“Maybe, yeah, life and death, suffering and peace, they kinda balance each other out a bit,” answered Amal. “I like to think of eternal peace as the reward for a lifetime of suffering. But both have little meaning without the other, no matter what. Well, that’s kinda how I see it anyway.”

Eva wiped a tear from her eye as memories of her grandparents hit her like an incoming tide.

Like everyone at this settlement, she realized that the last moments of their lives were filled with suffering. Happiness, too, but a great deal of suffering. Their bodies aged, but they fought on despite their pain and their loss.

And it dawned on her that it was because they were still looking out for her. That they fought hard so that her life was easier. After all, they were all she had. And she was all they had in return.

They suffered so she could live.

She recalled how proud her grandma was with her, the last time they talked. How happy she was, and how she seemed like her suffering had eased greatly. Even though her pain increased. The words came tumbling down when Eva uncovered their true meaning.

That her finding happiness was their ability to find peace.

Now that she was becoming who she was meant to become allowed them to open up those doors to eternal peace, and forgo the suffering in their lives. Her grandma was telling her goodbye, in her own way.

In that moment, Eva discovered Amal’s vision of death, and the beauty of it. Her heart felt impossibly heavy and swollen at the same time.

She cleared off the last of her tears and strengthened herself from within.

“I think I’m okay now,” she said. “Thanks. For putting up with me. And everything.”

She reached over and brought Amal in for a tight hug.

“You’re welcome, I guess?” said Amal.

Eva sighed deeply after they let go of each other. Her thoughts quickly turned to the murderous synths.

“Now, what do we do about these Prophets?” she asked. “No way can I overlook this. No goddamn way.”

“I agree,” said Amal. “We can’t just let them off the hook. And we definitely can’t let them turn more settlements into... this. The question is, like you said, what do we do?”

“Maybe it’s the anger talking, but I think we need to wipe ’em out. I’ve kinda always thought that about them, ever since the academy. I gave some of my friends there a promise a long time ago, that I’d take care of these people. I think it’s time I fulfilled that promise. I think it’s the only way to save them, and any who they’ve victimized.”

Amal looked down at her feet, sadness filled both her eyes and her voice.

“You know, honestly,” she began, “I thought I was able to save the Hallowed. Even when they were practically on top of us, I thought they could be brought back. Like, to the way they were before they were... mangled.

“But when Miko stopped them, I... I felt this wave of relief. Of a collective peace after all that pointless suffering they endured. In the end, once they were free, their minds and bodies gave up and gave in. All I can hope now is that they really did find peace in death.”

“They did,” Eva replied. “And it’s thanks to us. Which is why we’ve gotta do this.”

Amal nodded slowly.

“I know, I know,” she said. “Us against thousands of Prophets and their Hallowed. Not sure I like those odds, but we can’t let them do what they want. Not to all those people. We need to put them to rest ourselves.”

“Yeah, we can’t expect the Federation to do that for us, or anyone, really,” said Eva.

“No matter what, it’s gonna be a lot of work. Even if we take them on one settlement at a time... it’s all overwhelming.”

“I’ll make a few calls. Maybe to those academy friends. And maybe also get the Seven to ride again.”

Off to the side, Claire nudged Max excitedly with her elbow. Max looked a bit annoyed and puzzled at the same time at her exuberance.

“You hear that?” she asked. “We’re gonna get to hang out with the Seven!”

“What’s a seven?” he retorted.

“Hey, Just Max,” Eva interrupted.

She and Amal had turned towards them after their discussion.

“We’re gonna need to drop you off somewhere, asap,” she continued. “We’re about to get into a big ass fight, and it’s best if you don’t get in the way.”

“The hell you say?” said Max. “I’m sticking with you all and helping with this. I mean... just look at what that person did to these people!”

“Well, that’s not what I expected... I mean, I thought you hated the Federation. Figured you seeing it eat itself would’ve made you happy as hell.”

.....

“Yeah, well, as much as I might hate the Feds, I can’t stand what happened to these people. If you’re going after them, I’m with you all the way.”