What did you expect? What did you honestly expect?

We learn in the creche that our lives are short, meaningless, and we will leave behind nothing.

All of us. Every male in the creche.

The majority of us will have no mate, have no family, have only roommates and maybe coworkers to emotionally bond with, if we are even capable of it after the creche.

When we die, we will cease to exist.

So why am I willing to help you destroy all of this? To bring it down into wreckage?

I learned a saying: It is better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.

Only, it wasn't Heaven for us. It was Hell.

We were born into Hell. We lived in Hell. We served in Hell. We died in Hell.

And nobody knew our name.

We help because we hope that on the other side of the fire there is redemption and maybe something better for those who come after. - Dra.Falten Civil War

Nav felt her gut clench as she looked over at the tactical and warfare sections. They were leaned forward, staring at their screens, which were still flickering as they went through the bootup. She looked around, noticing that none of the Immortals seemed concerned.

It's easy for you to be relaxed, you won't die if those battlescreens don't come up, she thought to herself.

"Battlescreens holding!" came the voice from the Damage Control Center station. "Multiple impacts, all in the megaton range. Standard bomb pumped X-ray lasers."

The Lord Captain didn't say anything, just nodded, staring at the back of the Detainee's head and frowning slightly.

"Panel green," came from the assistant DCC monitor.

One by one the other panels reported green.

"Hits steady in the megaton range for explosives, gigawatt range for the energy lasers," tactical called out. "No brilliant pebbles. Nuclear detonation pumped x-ray laser only."

"Knights ready to deploy on your orders," Nav heard.

She looked at the Immortals, who were staring off into space, staring at something only they could see.

"That's definitely phasic. Almost like the old greenie network but not quite," Legion was saying.

"It shifts and coalesces. That's something down there," Menhit said. She shook her head. "It's being created by something that is alive."

"Phasic networks don't matter. You Katy-Bound Strike the planet and it'll go away," Kalki said. "Each of those networks are around a Speaker level power spike that is shifting and moving. Five on this planet alone, yet we are not being subject to a Speaker's psychic attack."

"Boots on the ground or just take it out from orbit?" Menhit mused.

"Orbit," Kalki said.

"Ground recon. Recon and intelligence gathering is why we're here," Legion stated.

"Can you get us to the ground?" Menhit asked Legion.

The tall, muscular bald Immortal ran one hand down his chest armor as if he was stroking his thick bushy beard. "I can. I should probably staircase it so we don't come out half in the ground."

The Detainee rolled her eyes, standing up. "I'll take you," she turned to the Lord Captain. "If I have your permission, as your hostage."

The Lord Captain sat perfectly still for a moment, then nodded.

"I'll be taking her," the Detainee said, pointing at Nav.

"Me? Why me?" Nav squeaked.

"Because it will amuse me to do so," the Detainee smiled. She looked over at the three Immortals. "Ready?"

Legion just shrugged. Kalki nodded.

"I am ready, evil one," Menhit said.

"Spare me the melodrama," the Detainee snarled.

She lifted up one hand and snapped her fingers.

Nav felt like she was being turned inside out. She knew she was screaming in pain and agony but couldn't stop, couldn't feel her body. Her screams rang around her and doubled, tripled, until they were mocking her for screaming.

She hit the ground hard, driving the breath out of her. Her armored vac-suit was reporting massive errors that suddenly cleared up. The auto-systems cleared the vomit off the inside of the helmet and got rid of the blood.

The tactile feedback system let her feel the toe of the shoe that nudged her side.

"You're alive. Get up. Stop being a wussy," the Detainee's voice was just as cruel as Nav knew it would be.

She closed her eyes and let her body shudder and shiver in reflexive response to what had just happened. Her nerve endings felt abraded and her nerve-cords felt stretched.

"Standard atmosphere," she heard Legion say.

"Get up," the Detainee said again, this time her voice closer to a growl. "Last warning."

Nav groaned and pushed herself up with fists in the ground and then pulling her knees almost to her chest before standing up. She wobbled, reached out toward the Detainee to steady herself, and almost fell when the short Terran stepped away from her.

Kalki reached out and steadied Nav before she went face first into the ground.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Thank you," Nav said, straightening up. She wobbled again for a second and got her feet under her. "That was discombobulating."

"You can say it was terrible, horrible, and like being dragged through hell. It's all right," Legion said from where he was standing by a rock, looking around slowly, every once in a while looking at the hologram projected from his forearm.

"Don't you ever shut up?" the Detainee asked.

"Nope," Legion said. He checked his forearm again. "This is almost exactly Terra normal," he made a face behind his faceshield. "Dammit, that pretty much matches what I was afraid of."

"Sacajawea's legacy?" Kalki asked.

"I believe so," Legion said. He sighed and looked around. "It's about as close to a utopian Terra as you could get."

"Seasons?" Menhit asked.

Legion laughed. "You remember her. She hated anything that wasn't early spring - late summer," his face got serious. "I'm actually out of range of myself."

Kalki stopped trying to convince his goats not to graze on the grass and looked up. "What? What do you mean: out of range of yourself."

Legion bent down and ran an armored palm over the grass. "I mean, I'm past the unified mind. A lot past it. It means I'm over a thousand light years from myself," he looked at Menhit and Nav could see his face as he broke into a large smile. "So, right now, I'm kind of on my own. I'll be a little different when we recombine, which means we'll be mashed together."

"Do you ever had the urge to just run, not get melded back?" Menhit asked.

"No," Legion said. Nav noticed the look of anger that flashed across the Detainee's face at that admittance. Legion didn't notice, looking at the grass. He looked at the hologram off his forearm. "Huh."

"What?" Kalki asked. "Dancer, stop headbutting your brother."

"This is molecularly, biologically, genetically the same as Kentucky bluegrass, fine fescue, and perennial ryegrass," he said. He gave a grunt. "There it is."

"What?" Menhit asked.

Nav moved over and sat down on the rock.

"My signature. I made this for her," he looked up and Nav could see a slight bit of embarrassment on his face. "I made these grasses for her, before she left. In secret," he looked down. "Only Dax knew what I had done."

"He never mentioned it. Until you told me otherwise, I had assumed that the Sacajawea that left on the Dandelion Fleet was the same one we found in that gift shop," Menhit said.

Kalki shrugged. "I avoided her when possible," he said.

"She couldn't understand why," Legion said. He barked a laugh that gave Nav goosebumps. "She had no idea that slavishly begging you for knowledge, for how your people lived, and apologizing for being born was irritating you."

"The flash of Mantid orbital weapons made everything else seem trivial," Menhit said, shaking her head.

"She's an annoying little racist and I should rip her spinal column out," Dee snarled. "She's the worst kind of racist, and that's coming from me."

"She was just ignorant, Dee," Legion said, standing up.

"And now?" The Detainee asked.

Legion just turned away, moving over to a bush and extending his hand to scan it.

"That's what I thought. Keep walking," the Detainee snarled.

"My signature. Again," Legion said, moving to the next bush. "And again."

Menhit looked around. "I don't see any creatures that could be creating the network of phasic energy I can feel around us."

Kalki just nodded, shading his eyes and looking off into the horizon. "We've got company coming."

"What?" Legion asked, not looking away from the bush at the edge of the clearing that he was scanning.

"Looks like unmanned drones, unless the intelligence manning them is extremely small or has been surgically/genetically altered to just be the consciousness," Kalki said. His hand went down to his waist and he unsnapped the restraining snap on his pistol. "Four of them, look armed and armored, coming in fast."

Nav looked over to see the Detainee just lighting a cigarette, as if there wasn't killer drones on the way. Menhit had her eyes closed, lowering her arms as she spread them out from her body, her palms flat.

Looking at the sky, Nav couldn't even see any dots. She tried magnifying her visor and didn't see anything at first. She missed it twice, then saw it and had to look back, missed it, then had to look back again.

It looks like a bird, with two grav-pods glowing with purple energy.

"Purple. Atrekna?" Kalki asked.

"No. Old early Gen-1 Terran grav pods," Menhit asked, her eyes still closed.

The drones suddenly seemed to leap forward, going from tiny dots a few fingerwidths above the horizon to up high and diving in fast.

Nav grabbed at her belt as Menhit held out one hand.

Rockets were launched from the drones, exploding only a few meters from the drones.

Which blew apart almost immediately after.

"Your reflexes are getting dull, brother," Legion said. He was holstering a pistol. "You missed the third one behind the left hand one."

Kalki just nodded, holstering his own pistol.

"Too much time petting goats and raising crops, not enough time fighting killer robots beyond the stars," Kalki said slowly.

Nav shook her head. She'd never seen anyone react so quickly, so confidently.

"Rockets are standard Terran make. High explosive only. Two point seven five inch rockets with a forty-millimeter solid fuel engine," Menhit said.

"Same kind of thing the Terran military still uses," Legion said. He moved over to another bush. "More of my signature."

Nav looked down in time to see a bunch of little beetles wiggle out from under the rock. There was almost a dozen of them, they all had what looked like tiny crystals, almost gems, on their shells at the back. The moved forward, spreading out into a line, and began munching on the grass.

Menhit suddenly turned and stared at Nav, her eyes opening. Orange phasic energy leaked from the corners of her eyes as she stared at Nav.

"Where did that come from?" Menhit asked.

The Detainee had moved up and was now crouched down looking at the beetles.

"Um, under the rock after I sat down on it," Nav said.

"More drones coming in," Kalki said. "Fifty, maybe sixty."

"Then handle them," Menhit snapped. She poked one of the beetles. "What? What are you?"

The Detainee started laughing. A wild, mad thing. She began rocking back and forth on her heels, her arms across her stomach, laughing loudly enough it echoed off the trees not too far away.

"You're like a little cluster of neurons. Not many, but a few," Menhit said. She poked the nearest beetle.

It ignored her except to move back to where it had been, still munching away on the grass.

"You all connect to each other," Menhit said softly.

The Detainee slowly stood up, still laughing, but wiping her face from the tears that had spilled from her eyes.

Menhit stood up as the Detainee's laughter moved to just chuckling.

"What is so funny, evil one?" Menhit asked.

"Them. They're what's funny," the Detainee said. She held up one hand to stop Menhit from speaking. "The Mar-gite, quadrillions of deaths, tens of thousands of burning planets, the ships full of weird aliens, all it, is because of a bunch of beetles God decorated with a Bedazzler when he was drunk."

Nav looked down. "It's just a beetle."

The Detainee laughed again, her laughter crazed and making Nav shiver in fear.

Gunfire roared out as Kalki began shooting drones out of the sky. Nav noted that when she wasn't looking Kalki had gone from a shabby and scuffed armored vac-suit to a well maintained and glossy black suit of heavy power armor. There was a gun on the shoulder that was firing bursts then reorienting. Her armor's eVI reported it as a 10mm magnetic accelerator system.

Nav knew enough about ground operations to know the weapon was in point defense mode and was eliminating the drones.

"NavInt reporting that there's huge amounts of drone launches around us," Legion said. He moved over to the beetle and crouched down, running a palm over it. "Watch this be something I made. Be just my luck."

"Combine the beetles in a large enough group, you get a phasic AI," Menhit said, her voice hushed. "It's like the greenie network, but not quite. Closer to how the Queens or the Speakers did it."

"And unless you've seen a Speaker or a Queen at work, you'll just think it's a normal phasic network that just happens to cover half a planet," Kalki said.

"Well, let's see what happens when I do this," the Detainee said.

Before anyone could say anything she took two steps forward and crushed several of the beetles underfoot. Nav could hear their shells crunch, thanks to her armor editing out the roar of the point defense gun on Kalki's shoulder.

She stepped on more of them.

"Oh. Um, NavInt says that we've got incoming," Legion said. He looked out to the sky. "Yeah."

Nav looked over.

There were twisting dark patches swirling up into the sky.

"Can I trust you idiots to kill those?" the Detainee asked. "We need to see whose behind them," she looked down. "Or if the Incredible Bedazzled Beetle is behind it all."

"Can't anything be easy around you?" Legion grumbled. "Of course we can kill them."

The Detainee nodded, moving over by Nav. She looked down at the Dra.Falten naval officer.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you," the Detainee smiled. The smile got bigger. "Mostly."