Redeemer: A Military Space Opera Series (War Undying Book 2)

by N. D. Redding

  I placed my hand on its back and concentrated. For years I thought about doing something about my bots and trying to revive them, but I never had the chance to. Now, with a full stack of nanite cells and my relatively stable control of H-Nan cells which coursed through my veins, I had the perfect opportunity to make it happen.

  I sent another whole batch of cells into the bot’s body and began spreading them throughout Beast’s systems. I increased the mass of the torso significantly and by extension his four legs so they could carry the weight. I could sense the body growing but not its mind. Beast slowly but surely became as large as a stallion; his back was at the same height as my shoulders. But then it shuddered, and its front legs suddenly gave in.

  Damn it, I thought. I had to approach this differently. I sent nanites toward the simplistic brain and started to enhance its control over motoric functions at the same time as I grew its body. This way the bot would be able to grow both physically and mentally.

  Beast propped itself back up on his legs as it regained control of its body. It took several tries of readjusting and fine-tuning, but I was finished before I knew it. I was now looking at a horse-sized bot armed to the teeth. Just big enough for a technomancer with a cowboy flair to ride it. I grinned and jumped on top of Beast. I ordered him to walk and he did. It worked just as I wanted.

  “You’re riding your own nanites, boss. That’s very impressive,” Mitto said.

  “Yeh,” I nodded but I wasn’t too satisfied with this. I had seen other technomancers ride their bots. True, they’ve got their patents from the CFF and I seemed to be able to change it at will but still, I should be able to come up with something better than turning my assault bot into a freaking horse.

  “You don’t sound excited, boss.”

  “I’m not. There must be other ways to use this power.”

  “Your nanites are your weapons and shield, boss. I only see you using them as a weapon.”

  “What are you talking about? I have used and abused my Blade Shield in more ways than anyone could even imagine.”

  “Maybe, but you spend valuable resources in controlling and maintaining it. Why not create a solid shield?”

  “And carry it around like a medieval soldier? How is that useful.”

  “Not literally a shield, boss. Something like a shield. Something permanent that you don’t have to constantly control.”

  “I really don’t know where you’re going with this.”

  “I have found something interesting in the databases of the Tanaree. It's a certain weapon the FCC employs in battles against greater enemies like the Templars. They called it a mech. Perhaps you could do something about that?”

  “A mech? You want me to create a mech out of nanites? Or just a suit?”

  “A real mech.”

  “You might as well ask me to recreate a person. A mech is a giant contraption that requires insane skill to create and operate. It would take years to make one and—”

  “But you already have most of it. Look, Beast is already fully under your control. You can change its size and shape almost any way you want to, so why not make it go upright, and instead of riding it like a horse, you’d control it like an extended suit. It would be something between a mech and a power armor.”

  I can’t say the idea wasn’t intriguing. When you downloaded a bot pattern from the FCC, it didn’t just show the blueprint, it etched itself into your INAS and your permanent memory. The sub-mind, or the subconscious second processing mind as most had called it officially, usually took care of keeping things in line with memory and things that were familiar to the user. So it only made sense that the reason why you didn’t need to be constantly consciously aware of your bot was that the sub mind had the pattern and kept reinforcing it.

  It wasn’t true to things that the user made up by themselves. The best comparison would be the extended Blade Shield where the pattern was ever-changing and needed to be consciously operated at all times draining energy and, of course, the user’s concentration.

  What Mitto wanted me to do was to create a solid piece of machinery out of my own imagination and then carve the pattern deeply enough into my mind that I didn’t need to constantly be aware of the nanites holding the machinery together.

  Even the best Technomancers in the galaxy couldn’t develop that skill; those who managed to come close could barely hold their constructs for longer than a couple of minutes. The problem wasn’t so much with the nanites as it was with how we utilized our minds.

  I laid my hands on Beast’s back and began shifting nanites again. Slowly but surely, the horse-like creature was being deconstructed like a sandcastle collapsing in on itself. I began enveloping my legs in another layer of nanites trying to recreate a mech pattern that I had downloaded from the FCC years ago. It was a very basic design, but that’s how one started: from zero.

  Beast’s torso slung up vertically, turning into my chest piece. Bands of nanites enveloped my ribs and connected behind my back. At the same time, my Fyre Armor established intricate connections with the outer layer and I already felt I had control over the bottom part.

  As I moved toward creating the visor in which my head would be encased, I noticed the lower part of my body weakening. I constantly had to reinforce the pattern while at the same time create new parts and connect them to the body, starting with the small motors, processors, sensors, and dozens of other intricate designs that would leave the best of engineers gawking. I was juggling several thought processes at once and felt the strain catch up with me as sweat broke out across my brow, and then on my nape.

  I suddenly dropped to the floor as my nanites dismantled and returned into my Fyre Armor leaving nothing behind. I had been so close that I could have almost touched it! I wasn’t sticking to the FCC mech pattern entirely because it didn’t apply to my armor. Instead, I was cherry-picking the parts I liked and discarding the rest, yet I couldn’t keep the improvised pattern up.

  As I sat on the ground, it seemed virtually impossible to make your own nanite power armor so I stopped fiddling with it, judging it a waste of time, but somehow, I also knew that if I kept trying there could be results. Maybe not exactly what I wanted them to be, but there was potential and merit in Mitto’s suggestion and I vowed to take my time when I could to see if I could make any improvements.

  Nevertheless, there was another matter I wanted to address. I went down to McGill’s holding cell to ask her about Leo the Hollowed and his Redeemer ship to see whether she knew anything of it.

  I can’t say I was too shocked to find out that Leo was well-known within the Dusk Ascendancy, moreover many of his ship’s crew were from Primitea, the DA’s home planet. Funny that I thought the name of their planet would be New Earth. I didn’t want to reveal that the Redeemer was parked next to our ship, but McGill must have caught air somehow, or maybe she just connected the dots.

  “Is the Hallowed coming? Is that why you’re asking me these questions?”

  “And what of it? What is the Hallowed to you?”

  She immediately curbed her enthusiasm, realizing she was giving away too much.

  “The Shattered Light and the Dusk Ascendancy have many things in common such as principles by which we live. Something a Partak pirate knows nothing about.”

  “I have principles!” I snapped somewhat offended by the notion that my whole life could be reduced to two years of piracy.

  “Why do you ask me about the Hallowed?” she insisted, steering the conversation back to Leo.

  “What are these grand principles that you live by?”

  “Read a book, I’m not going to give you free lectures.”

  “Life forbids you’d give any information,” I muttered angrily and was about to get up. I couldn’t bear another fruitless conversation with Captain McGill that deteriorated into her insulting me over everything I was. Just to spite her, I turned around and said something to piss her off.

  “I’m going back to the Redeemer. The Hallowed will
tell me whatever I want to know anyway. I have him chained to his own throne.”

  “You lie! You son of a bitch, you’re lying!” Without turning my head, I grinned and started walking away. “Wait!” she yelled after me. “Wait! I will tell you what you want! Let the Hallowed go, you pirate scum!”

  “So, you do believe me?” She stared me down trying to figure out whether I was lying or not and eventually concluded that it wasn’t worth the risk.

  “The Hallowed is an icon on Primitea. He has shown us what we already knew: that Earth and its colonies were on a path of self-destruction. He confirmed what we had known from the Aloi but it was different when another human told those things. A face that had traveled the galaxy, that had fought in unimaginable wars, a face that saw what the Ka were like firsthand.”

  “Yes, he truly is unique,” I said.

  “You can’t even imagine what he went true. He stands for something. A fight that must always be fought, a fight of the righteous, of those who deserve to live.”

  “Some of the worst things in this galaxy happened because someone thought they knew who deserved to live.”

  She stopped for a second and pondered my remark. I was right, we both knew it, but it wasn’t easy to change someone’s mind. Especially if they were programmed to believe the world was only of one color.

  “There are those who don’t deserve life, you know who I speak of. The Ka don’t deserve to exist. It’s either them or us. The Hallowed knows this, the DA knows this, only self-important pirates like you don’t want to know this.”

  “Are there many believers in the Hallowed words on Primitea?” I asked, not wanting to reveal anything yet. It was going to be a hell of a show when she found everything out.

  “All of us. We all believe in the unity of humankind and the struggle against the Ka.”

  “Big words from the people who have completely cut themselves off from anything going on in the galaxy. You’re pacifists, dreamers, and most of all fools if you think that way of life can be preserved without war. Nobody will fight your battles for you, McGill. Your sophisticated ideology, if you want to call it that, works only as long as other races do your heavy lifting. Do you want to unite the galaxy? You first have to break it apart and, by doing it, get some real blood on your hands.”

  “And what do you do? You’re not one to lecture me on principles. You have no principles at all! I’ve seen your work. Killing, torture, stealing, and letting insane aliens rampage through your victim’s lives! That’s you, Bloodmancer, an icon of fear and terror, nothing else.”

  An icon of fear and terror? Now that was a mouthful. I didn’t get angry; I knew that’s what people saw in me and I wasn’t trying to convince McGill otherwise. She was a prisoner aboard a pirate ship; I couldn’t hold it against her that she didn’t know my history.

  “What is it the Ka want?”

  “The Ka want the eradication of all life in the galaxy. That is what they always wanted, that is what they’ll always strive for.”

  I laughed out loud at her last words. They seemed so ridiculously dramatic.

  “Destroy all life? Really? What about the Federation? What about them sharing their technology? Is that all part of their apparent destruction of life?”

  “You’re too blind to see,” she said angrily. I was laughing in her face so that might have triggered her.

  “Not even Leo believes that.”

  “Leo? Leo the Hallowed? So, you… He is here? You have him?”

  Damn it, I thought, I wasn’t going to reveal any of that, not yet at least. Must have slipped my tongue. I needed to practice self-control when I had the chance.

  “Don’t harm him! Please, I’ll tell you everything you need to know. I’ll do everything. I mean it. Just let the Hallowed go, he is innocent.”

  Leo hadn’t been innocent for a long time now. The statement was almost offensive. My INAS rang up a second after her plead. It was Leo.

  “Rick, we have a problem.”

  McGill watched me as I sat silently talking to Leo over my INAS. She kept begging me to release Leo, but I ignored her words.

  “What is it, Leo?”

  “We have several incoming ships. Federation markings. This could get ugly very quickly. I need you on your bridge and your crew ready. I want to make a stand.”

  “A stand? Against whom? A Federation fleet?”

  “Yes.”

  Before I could answer, I felt McGill’s hands wrap around my throat. She thought I would be oblivious to her attack while I talked over the INAS, so she used the situation to come at me. I just kept sitting in the same position watching her as she tried to choke me.

  There was no way her feeble hands could even begin harming me through a layer of Fyre Armor and then another layer of nanite-reinforced skin. After several long seconds, she gave up and jumped away realizing she just might have thrown her life away.

  “I’ll give you points for bravery,” I said and stood up. She put her hands up as if ready for a fistfight. I loved the fire in her eyes. For a second, she reminded me of Layla.

  “Come,” I said, reaching out my hand out to her. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

  19

  “What the fuck is she doing on the bridge?” Vogron snapped as he almost crashed through the door. He was incredibly intoxicated and barely able to control his massive, four-armed body. Fars and Arthur came in right behind him, both drunk but in much better shape. They immediately took up a spot in between us and the drunken sailor.

  “The Jareet is a disappointment!” Fars cried out laughing.

  “Vogron, you need to learn something from this master,” Arthur said, leaning into his face and poking the Jareet’s chest with his finger. Vogron smacked it out of the way. He then pulled out his own index finger, pointed it at Arthur, and snapped a retort.

  “I’m—” and then he wavered, leaned on the wall, and puked his guts out on the bridge.

  “Vogron, sit this one out, yeah?” I said, my tone telling him not to question me.

  “No! There is a war… I’m—”

  “Just let him sit there, he isn’t a threat,” Fars said and nodded at the Jareet who slumped into his own puke.

  “He isn’t much use to me either and he smells godawful,” I said with a sigh.

  McGill looked at me in wonder. I knew that her military training would never allow for such a situation under her command, but then again, she didn’t command an interspecies clusterfuck of a crew, so her opinion wasn’t worth a damn to me. At least not regarding that matter.

  “Be ready to jump out of the system and get Leo on the screen.”

  The holographic emitter popped Leo’s face into everyone’s view. He was wearing the same over-the-top garments he wore when we had met. McGill held her breath as Leo spoke.

  “Are you ready, Richard?”

  “We’re stocked on fuel and ammo and ready to jump. I’m sending you the coordinates of another abandoned sector four jumps away. Do we meet there?”

  Leo looked at me in silence for several seconds and I immediately realized what was going on through that thick head of his.

  “I’m not—sure that—”

  “Leo, there’s no reason to fight this battle,” I said, interrupting him. “We can get out of here and lose them with ease.”

  “Do you believe my words, Richard? Do you believe that the Federation is our enemy?”

  “Whatever I believe doesn’t matter right now, Leo. Either way, this is a fight we don’t have to fight. I’m reading a Star-Eater battleship, two destroyers, six frigates, and who knows how many fighters. You don’t want to take this fleet on.”

  “Is that a Dusk Ascendancy captain at your side, Richard?”

  McGill stepped forward.

  “My name is Sivila McGill, Captain of the Dusk Ascendancy Forces. I’ve been kept prisoner on this ship. Please let my superiors know,” she rambled on.

  “Enough, Captain. This is not the time. And trust me, he won’t do
anything to you. Stavos is a good man, a better man than any I’ve ever met.”

  “Your holiness? I’m not sure that I follow. Can you—no, it’s a great honor to meet you, your Holiness. Please forgive my lack of respect earlier.”

  Leo scanned the woman’s face with interest and looked back at me judgingly.

  “I’m honored to meet a captain of the Dusk Ascendancy and I’m saddened it is under such circumstances.”

  “Your Holiness, may I request transportation to your ship?” she asked, adding insult to injury.

  I turned to McGill with an open mouth.

  “Is that woman your prisoner, Richard?”

  “Well—kind of?”

  “We all make mistakes and we all must ask for redemption. A transfer is out of the question at this point, Captain. We must prepare for war with the enemy.”

  I turned to McGill and gave her a told-you-so look that pissed her off endlessly. I then felt bad about it, but only for a damn second. Her expression was somber, sad even. She probably thought her only chance at escaping this place was gone and that I’d do... unspeakable things to her.

  “You don’t want to push it,” I whispered to her.

  “You have a good captain in charge, Sivila McGill,” Leo added hurriedly.

  “Your holiness? This man is a savage and a murderer! He cares for nothing but himself. Please, Hallowed one, save me from this man and his crew!”

  Leo never lost his smile.

  “Eight years ago, that man commanded me in battle and I followed every single one of his words. Without him, there wouldn’t have been a Hallowed one. Trust this man as I trust him, and you will see yourself on Primitea in no time.”

  McGill shot me a surprised look. I can’t imagine how it must have felt to realize your jailor was your savior’s teacher. I’m not that bad, McGill. I just had a two-decade-long rough patch.

  She wouldn’t have it, though. In her mind I was a monster; not even the Hallowed could prove her wrong. She pleaded again to be transferred but Leo ignored her. She remained standing and biting her lip. There was such fury on her face, caged, suppressed anger that promised to burst any second.