Misbegotten Memories

Chapter 290

The Users found them as they were exiting the protection of the Stronghold’s rune wall.  They were a ragtag group who eyed Hector for a bit before one of them asked if he was Mister Stalwart.  After a few seconds of confused blinking, he recalled that the kids he brought to Stronghold Alpha had called him that after he gained his second insight.  When he indicated he was the person in question, the Users grew awkward.

He was wondering what stories were told about him by this new variety of human when a human body bounced through the air to land beside him.  “Hey, Hector!”

“Leroy?  What are you doing here?”  Of all the people who didn’t belong on this operation, the leaping idiot had to be towards the top of the list.  Hector didn’t even know if the man had the intellectual capacity to understand he was risking his life.

“I volunteered!”

“Leroy, this is a very dangerous mission.”

The simple man beamed at him.  “I know.  My pa says I’m gonna get killed.  Every time I go war he says that.  Always I say I want to be a hero not a zero.”

Hector sighed, already deciding to take care of Leroy as much as he was able to without jeopardizing the overall mission.  “You realize your dad is right about the risks?”

“I know.  Leaping isn’t a very good super power for a war.  Sure is fun, though.”

“So you understand… this is probably going to get you killed?”

Leroy laughed.  “I ain’t scared of dying.  I died in my dreams already and wasn’t scared then.  Hector!  I told my pa about you.  I said I don’t hate Xian no more, even though one killed my dream mama.  He said why you change your mind.  And I said because my friend Hector is a Xian.  We fought monsters on Eden together.  Saved the Alfar.  Breadfruit village.  And remember the girls liked me there?  That was a good mission.  My pa didn’t even believe me about those girls.”

“Those Alfar girls really liked you.”  Their favor was due to the influence of a Strigoi, but there was no reason to shatter Leroy’s illusions.

“Sometimes heroes get girls, Hector.  Not on Aes though.”

“Not on Aes,” he agreed.

Leroy patted Hector on the back.  “But we don’t be heroes for the girls.”

Rover Fred increased his speed, forcing their escort to run to keep up.  Hector, Leroy, and the User contingent rode at the front of the wave of soldiers emerging from the Stronghold.  He put the fate of Leroy from his mind.  The man appeared cognizant that the odds of dying in service were high.  He had a naive desire to be a hero.  Possibly another victim of Union Central propaganda.

Though… was Leroy any different from Hector in terms of motivations?  It would be arrogant to assume that his own beliefs were too special to be shared by someone with an intellectual disability.  In many ways the moral code of Hector wasn’t all that complicated.  Do right and be a good person.  It might be a challenge to uphold, but it wasn’t hard to understand.  Maybe having less brain power to justify toxic behavior even made it easier to be a good person.

Their frantic pace soon brought the enemy into sight.  The tank was several miles away still, yet its outline was obvious even among the swirling miasma.  The Users began whispering conversations among themselves.  Suddenly, a levitating platform zoomed ahead of them on gravitonics.  A beam of brilliant white shot forth to strike at the tank.  Either Stronghold Epsilon received better equipment than Gamma or the Reconquest recently bought fancy new weapons with the System’s money.

The monster continued to roll forward on its immense treads.

The mobile schism beam fired again.

And then the tank’s gun began to move.  It turned to a specific bearing.  Then lowered ominously.  Hector jumped to his feet and extended his domain.  “Fred!  Incoming!”

Another blast of the schism beam struck the tank.

Still it ignored the provocation.  A dark vehicle the size of a mountain rocked as it fired, sending a projectile of liquid miasma through the air.  As the fell missile entered range, Hector threw everything he had into defending.  The miasma exploded into light just as it struck Fred, throwing every passenger free.

Hector tumbled across the ground before coming to a stop.  Blinking up at the cloudy sky, he realized that he came quite close to tearing his domain apart with his drastic last second effort.  Silver lances shot past his field of view, announcing the arrival of the Users to the battlefield.

A sudden thud next to him was all the warning Hector had before hands were on him.

He didn’t react immediately.  Which was for the best, because a moment later he was sailing through the air as a liquid projectile of miasma hit where he’d just been.  Hector shook his head clear as Leroy landed with him in a clear patch of ground.

Faced with a spike of impending doom, Hector launched himself skyward with his aching domain.  The tank attempted to track his path, firing several more missiles that failed to connect.  Though mechanical in form, the monster radiated an animalistic hatred.  Hector flew in wild figure eights, drawing fire to give the others time to safely approach.

The ambient miasma levels were climbing fast, causing the sky to darken moment by moment.

Brilliant white schism beams and silver lances traced lines across the scene.  On occasion, they even pitted the surface of the distant tank, causing portions of the armor to flake off.  The damage was nowhere near enough.

Hector had been slowly maneuvering himself in the southwest direction.  He began to flee in that direction, pausing at intervals to observe the tank’s response.  The main gun fired in his direction several times.  The tank even slowed a bit.

Then, with the air of a decision made, the tank turned its gun away from Hector and resumed its journey.  Hector swore and began to pursue.  He saw a massive explosion go off beneath one of the treads.  Black metal went flying, but the damage was limited to only one plate of a single track.

From his position, Hector saw one of the levitating platforms arrive next to the tank.  Its intensely bright schism beam shot out to cut at the barrel of the gun.  With his heart in his throat, Hector watched a blast of exhaust shoot from the back of the tank and then swirl through the air with ill intent to wash over the platform.  Obscured from sight, the levitating platform died.  Its pieces tumbled from the air, dissolving before they reached the ground.

As he neared the tank from the other direction, the mechanical monster fired its gun at a Jinn Rover.  In slow motion, Hector saw the uploaded human explode into a sphere of shrapnel.  Without thought, he redirected his flight path.

He hit the ground running, cutting his domain to avoid drawing any more attention.  It wasn’t until he stood before a portion of the chassis that Hector could take a full breath once more.  The serial number wasn’t the one he had memorized.  This wasn’t Fred.

All around, there were human voices moaning, crying, and begging for help.

It was what he imagined the last gasps of humanity would sound like if nothing turned the impossible war around.  Hector struggled to shut out the sound.  He struggled and failed, his ears instead homing in on one voice among the many.  A familiar voice.

He was there in seconds, looking down at an immense human body impaled through the chest by a length of steel half-melted from miasma.  The Titan Nestor was coughing and calling desperately for his brother Ajax in a low rumble.

“Nestor, stay still.  I’ll decontaminate your wound.”  He brought his domain to bear on the piece of metal piercing the sternum and part of the lung.  Destroying the miasma infecting it caused the substance to fall apart entirely, allowing blood to flow free.

Nestor reached out his hand to Hector.  “My brother!  Where is Ajax?”

The sheer desperation in the Titan’s eyes inspired a lie to leave Hector’s lips.  “He’s over there, charging the enemy.”

Nestor’s lips twitched.  “Good.  He survives me.”

“Nestor….”

The Titan chuckled, causing flecks of blood to fly from his mouth.  “First day I met you, Xian, you broke my fist in a game of bloody knuckles.  We fought side by side.  Remember the cave?  And then the Reconquest together.”

Nestor wheezed in a breath, winded from speaking.  Yet he didn’t stop, the words coming faster as if he were terrified he wouldn’t get to say everything before his expiration.  “Tell Ajax to never stop.  Go till the end.  You too, Hector.  Avenge Aes.”

“I swear I will, Nestor.  Can you stop the bleeding with substantial energy?”

The Titan’s eyes were glazing over.  “No good.  Miasma cracked my soul.  Keep fighting.  Fighting.  Keep….”

Hector felt the end of his friend.  It came suddenly, a soul shattering apart.  Unlike with a Xian, no core formed.  Instead, Nestor’s entire body was cast into stone, leaving behind a statue.  Yet he knew this memorial of his friend would not last, infested with particles of miasma as it was.  He could try to purge the stone corpse to preserve it.

But he wouldn’t.  That wasn’t part of the mission parameters.  This tank had to die.  Hector knew that for an absolute fact.  Reconquest leadership made that an order.  The strategic facts made it a necessity.  Nestor’s death made it a vibrant desire.  And his insight burning within him, a counter to the fell miasma, promised it as an unassailable truth.  The evil had to be purged.