Chapter Twenty-Three

  Blue Segment

  “Are you sure this will work?” Nellie asked Lucy nervously.

  “There is no reason why it wouldn’t,” Lucy beamed, clearly proud of herself. “Although this was built by nanites, it doesn’t have a single one left inside.” She reached out and patted the inert form. “It is completely identical to the synthetics in every way that matters. The internal brain is identical to the one in Baz, and the iris at Blue opened for him.”

  “And if we encounter something that cuts the signal like Cheape’s team did in Red?” Nellie asked. It was something that was playing on her mind more than a little, especially with the missing segments of the recording. “What happens to this body then?” Nellie waved at herself.

  “You wake up, and there will be two of you until the system reconnects,” Lucy said nervously. “It’s no different from when I separate myself.”

  “Which is something you can naturally do,” Nellie said wryly. “The human brain isn’t built that way.”

  “You don’t have a human brain anymore, babe,” Lucy pointed out.

  It was true. The last vestiges of human brain matter in Nellie’s head had been lost when Lucy separated to go through the egg. If Nellie ever got her hands on whoever put copy protection on that nanite orb, they were going to have a very long, painful death.

  Lucy being right didn’t stop Nellie feeling the way she did about this, though. It just felt wrong in some way. She supposed it was similar to how Cheape felt about things, but there was another aspect to all this…

  Could she sit back and watch another team go through hell in one of these Segments? One that included Dar, Salem, and Baz?

  Nope. Not happening.

  “Where’s the throne?” Nellie groaned.

  “Salem set one up in the command center,” Lucy smirked, knowing she had won this argument before it even began.

  There was no way Nellie wasn’t going into that Segment, and they both knew it.

  So, Nellie quit wriggling and got on with it.

  Connecting to the small network was easier than she expected. It was basically no different than what she had done a hundred times before, but for some reason, Nellie had expected there to be some resistance.

  There wasn’t.

  Instead, she slid out of her body as easily as if she were born to it. In moments, she was funneling into the synthetic body Lucy had built for her. It was a weird feeling, opening eyes that weren’t hers.

  Worse still, she didn’t feel any nanites at all. It freaked Nellie out; she was just too used to the steady feel of them. Ever since she unlocked the ability to sense them, they had been there.

  Sitting up, she looked around and was hit with a jarring wrongness that almost made her pull away from the body before she realized where Lucy had made the mistake.

  This synthetic body was an exact recreation of Nellie’s. Her default body, that is.

  She had been rocking around with metal legs and arms for so long that having legs that felt like flesh was actually creepy. How did she ever stand walking around on something so… breakable?

  “Nellie?” Lucy asked, looking worried.

  “Why is this thing so weak?” Nellie asked.

  “Ask Salem,” Lucy laughed and pointed off to one side.

  Looking over, Nellie saw the rest of her party groaning and complaining as they got dressed.

  “Salem?” Nellie asked.

  “No nanites in our systems,” Salem said, looking like she was sucking a lemon. “Feels like I’m made of glass.”

  “It really does,” Nellie sighed, glad to have found the words for what she was feeling. “I’m so…” she poked her legs, “Squishy.”

  “Which is why you will all be going into that place in full power armor exosuits.” Lucy pointed out. “And remember, it’s just until we can unlock an area with nanites.”

  “Assuming they got that far,” Nellie countered, walking gingerly over to the table that held the parts to her suit. “They might not have ever found them.”

  “They must have,” Lucy shrugged. “In order to know to block them.”

  “Makes you wonder what’s in the rest of those Segments, right?” Baz grinned. “Something juicy, I hope.”

  “What, the new ship drive wasn’t enough for you?” Nellie joked.

  “Hey, hey!” Baz raised his hands. “Can’t a guy be greedy all of a sudden?” He winked at Salem. “I like to have something for both hands, you know.”

  “I’d slap you, but I haven’t got my gloves on yet,” Salem flipped him off.

  Getting into the exosuit was a relief. Something about being covered in hardened metal plates of Haven steel, complete with structural reinforcement fields and a power core glowing on her back just felt…right.

  “These use Haven Cores?” Nellie asked, recognizing the humm. She couldn’t see energy waves as much as with her own eyes, but the humming was pretty unique.

  “Smaller versions,” Lucy said proudly. “Tank helped me with the process a little. That man is a genius with anything technical.”

  “Eww,” Baz sniffed his suit. “Who used this before me?”

  “No one,” Lucy frowned. “That’s just how it smells.”

  “Eww,” Baz repeated. “New suit smell. Gross.”

  “Quit bitching,” Salem sighed. “At least we get to do something.”

  “Let’s hope it isn’t die,” Baz chuckled at the looks. “What? It could happen.”

  “No,” Nellie said with absolute conviction. “No one dies in there. Consider that an order.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Baz saluted. “So, do we have weapons, or are we using harsh language and cutting remarks?”

  “You’re taking in plasma pistols and combined fire rifles,” Lucy flipped open a crate and started handing them out. “No slugs in this version of the rifle. They just take up too much room, but I did what I could.”

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  “I really miss Nanite Pulse Rifles,” Dar said. “Not to mention the nanites themselves.”

  “We all do,” Nellie nodded.

  “So, Cap,” Baz gestured at Nellie. “What do you think about being a synthetic?”

  “Not bad,” Nellie grinned. “But too squishy for full-time wear.”

  “It’s better when you get nanites,” Dar nodded sagely.

  “And the squishy isn’t entirely bad,” Salem said with a smirk. “At times.”

  “Is this all you’re taking?” A voice called.

  Nellie looked over to see Cheape standing by the door.

  “Yes,” Nellie confirmed. “Just the four of us this time.”

  “Take more,” Cheape said severely. “Trust me.”

  “This is all the synthetics that could make it at short notice,” Lucy told the young officer. “We know what we’re doing, don’t worry.”

  “Respectfully, no, you don’t.” Cheape pressed, stepping into the room. “These Segments are not to be taken lightly.”

  “We have a little more experience with things than you, kid,” Baz nodded to her. “We aren’t taking it lightly.”

  “Let me send some Wardens with you at least,” Cheape said, looking angry.

  “Haven has lost enough,” Lucy said gently. “Cheape, stand down.”

  Cheape clenched her fists for a moment before nodding and walking away.

  “She’s not doing great, is she?” Nellie asked Lucy.

  “Not great,” Lucy agreed. “But good enough for now.”

  Nellie sighed. Sometimes, good enough for now was all you could do.

  /====<<<>>>====\

  The hallway beyond the iris looked identical to the others she had seen the team go through, but it felt different to walk it herself.

  Nellie didn’t have a heart to beat faster in this body or her original and hadn’t for a long time, but she still remembered what it felt like when her body was flooded with adrenaline, and it felt like the world was a bit brighter, a little more insistent.

  That was the feeling she got now.

  Mentally, she reviewed what they had seen in the last two Segments, readying herself to step out onto a grimy street or perhaps a clean and shining utopia. They had advanced between the previous two Segments, so if things kept to the same formula, Blue would contain an even more gentrified version of the last two.

  So, as her booted feet stepped out onto something other than stone or asphalt, it came as a bit of a shock.

  “Wow,” Salem said, and Baz whistled at the sight.

  Nellie blinked a couple of times, straining with her synthetic eyes to pierce the low fog and mist that was as present here as it had been at the edge of the last Segments.

  “This metal grass is as weird as you described it,” Dar reported, running his hand over the short, manicured lawn. “Was it this short in Red?”

  “Yup, a perfect lawn,” Nellie nodded. “As long as you like silver.”

  “The trees look wrong,” Salem pointed out as they moved away from the hallway. “More like drawings or art pieces than actual trees.”

  The trees in question were solitary structures sitting at the crest or base of the rolling hills. There were no buildings anywhere that they could see. Instead, there were these strange hills. Nothing about them looked even remotely normal. They were too uniform in shape and size. High enough to block off their line of sight, it just made sense to climb one.

  The only problem was that there wasn’t a person in the group who didn’t smell a trap.

  “They are just waiting for us to step on those things, aren’t they?” Baz asked.

  “Pretty much,” Salem nodded. “Anyone seeing anything?”

  “Nothing yet,” Dar nodded toward the nearest hill. “I think closest is best.”

  “More likely to be a trap,” Salem said solemnly. “Remember that showroom.”

  The whole group had watched the recordings of both of the other sectors via microburst before they stepped into this place, so everyone was up to speed on the Builders and their tricks.

  “Remember how every other building in that ring was basically the same?” Dar countered. “I don’t think it makes any difference.”

  “Then why this one?” Nellie asked.

  “The closest one gives them less time to prepare,” Dar said with a shrug.

  “So, if we are doing this, do it fast?” Nellie smirked.

  “Yes,” Dar racked the slide on his rifle and turned to the hill again. “Exactly.”

  “Well, you heard him, people,” Nellie shrugged. “Let’s do this.”

  They had barely taken a dozen steps up the hill before a light spilled out to their left. Baz spun and fired, but the plasma bolt hit nothing but a metal wall revealed as some kind of door slid aside.

  “Look at the tree,” Salem called.

  Looking over, Nellie saw the tree radiating radio waves. It was communicating with something, and if she squinted…

  “It’s a sensor tower,” Nellie confirmed. “The branches are all different sensors.”

  “What are the leaves?” Baz asked a moment before the dozens of small metal leaves started to shudder.

  “I really wish you hadn’t asked that,” Dar grumbled as they started to fall from the tree, catching themselves in mid-air and blitzing toward Nellie’s group.

  “Oh, yeah,” Baz smirked as he pulled his pistol and Salem’s at the same time. “This is totally my fault.”

  Nellie chuckled as they raised their weapons and started to fire. Her synthetic body might not have been up to the speed and standards of her real body, but it was miles faster than a human one.

  The four synths were able to target, fire, and target the next in fractions of a second, and they tore through the attacking leaves in short order, only a couple making it far enough to impact their armor.

  One that did make it landed on Nellie, and she ripped it off her and scanned it quickly before crushing it with her power-assisted gauntlet.

  “Swarm drones,” Nellie told them. The scan showed the six tiny metal legs and nasty little cutting torches on the little buggers. “Not a threat to our armor unless there are a LOT of them.”

  “There are more trees,” Salem nodded toward the door. “Shall we head inside?”

  “That feels like the point of the leaves, right?” Baz quipped. “Get us into the creepy-ass hill?”

  “I’m sensing movement from the surrounding trees,” Nellie groaned. “I don’t think we have much choice.”

  “Fuck!” Dar snapped up his rifle. “I’ll go first.”

  “No, I’ll—” Nellie stopped when she realized she didn’t have the nanite boost anymore than they did.

  “Yeah, it sucks to be basic,” Salem said with a chuckle. “Dar, lead the way.”

  The interior of the hill was a lot less industrial and a lot more Hobbit hole than Nellie had expected. True, the circular tunnels were all metal and stone, and the doors weren’t doors so much as irises like the ones leading to the segments, but it definitely had the Hobbit touch to it.

  There were even intricate carvings of flowers and vines on the walls. Nellie didn’t recognize any of the plants, but that wasn’t a surprise. It would have been more surprising if she had, to be honest.

  Light came from glowing crystals recessed into the walls, and Nellie gave each and every one of them the side eye as they passed. Crystals sucked ass, and she was dedicated to destroying the damn things once and for all.

  It was one bit of tech she agreed with Cheape about.

  No crystals in the Imperium.

  “Heads up, we have organic signatures ahead,” Dar subvocalized to the group. “Fifty meters up on the left.”

  Organic signatures were something they had never encountered before on this moon. It might have only been about three weeks so far, but it felt a hell of a lot longer than that.

  “What in the stars could have survived this long?” Salem muttered. “I mean, on the timescale we are talking about here…”

  “I’m more worried about why we are suddenly finding something organic here,” Nellie replied. “What putain tech needs organics to run?”

  “Maybe they wanted real flowers?” Baz asked hopefully. “Or something like pets?”

  The sound of claws clicking against stone and metal sounded from ahead.

  “I vote Baz gets muzzled until we get out of here,” Dar groaned.

  “Seconded,” Salem said, shooting her paramour a look.

  “You too, babe?” Baz faked looking hurt. “You too?”

  “Me too,” Salem said, wrinkling her nose as the organic signal appeared around the corner. “Oh shit, that looks like something Paren would make.”

  The creature approached, holding itself low to the ground as it started to growl. Its emaciated form was clearly canine, but the skin stretched over the bones, making it look almost ratlike. Hairless and mottled skin without a single patch of fur bunched and stretched as it moved. The long metal teeth in its mouth glistened with drool as the metal clamped over its spine, and its back legs shone in the crystals’ light.

  “Watch the tail,” Dar called.

  The tail was much longer than it should have been, closer to a cable than an actual tail, and ended in a sparking hook that arced with a strange energy. It wasn’t one any of them recognized, which was enough reason to be wary, even if it wasn’t curling around to point their way.

  “Nail it,” Nellie ordered, and Dar unleashed plasma from his rifle.

  The dog-like creature dodged aside, and the tail spat a wave of energy that the team dove aside.

  Dar tracked the beast as he fell, the laser from his rifle nailing it between the eyes mid-lunge.

  A flash of light from behind the eyes, and it fell dead, a rancid smoke curling from the small hole in its head.

  “I have only one question,” Baz said as he climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. “Why is it wet?”