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Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.53
🕑 Added 2024-07-18 08:00:04 +0000 UTCChapter 53
This far, but no further.
“STOP!” Lucy screamed in her ear, but Nellie ignored her as she reached out to the nanites in the Bly. They responded in their millions, responding to her call.
One word echoed in her mind as she prepared to unleash them all.
Consume.
“Stop!” Lucy said again as the world faded away and was replaced by a white room.
“What’s happening?” Nellie whirled, feeling a wall between her and the swarm.
“You can’t do this!” Lucy appeared in front of her, anger twisting her features.
“What?” Nellie scowled. “They deserve it! They all need to die!”
“They will. But not this way. Not like this!” Lucy set herself and glared back.
“You can’t hold me forever, Lucy!” Nellie pushed, and the walls shuddered.
“I am stronger than you, at least, at this!” Lucy clicked her fingers, and the walls settled.
“They killed him!” Nellie roared. “They killed Banjo!”
“I know,” Lucy said softly. “I feel it too; you know I do. I promise, Nell. We’ll kill them all, just don’t make the nanites a weapon. Please!”
Nellie opened her mouth to ask why not and paled.
“What am I doing?” Nellie gasped as realization hit. “Ostie, I almost….”
“I won’t let it happen again.” Lucy was crying. “I love you, but I can’t let you do that.”
“I didn’t think,” Nellie gasped. “I almost did it.”
The last time someone used nanites that way, the sectors fought a genocidal war to get rid of the nanite AIs. Nellie collapsed to her knees and wept.
Banjo, Vey, little Cix-El. Maybe Salem and Paren as well. It was too much.
“I want to kill them,” Nellie spat as she cried. “But I won’t do that. Never that.”
“Promise me, Nellie,” Lucy said severely. “Promise me. No matter what, not even if they killed me. Not even if they killed us all.”
Nellie looked at the love of her life, and promised.
Time flowed again, the emergency sirens wailing as the bridge tilted wildly.
“We have a ship approaching from the moon!” Remy warned.
“What?” Nellie checked the scan and saw the ID beacon. Last Hope.
The comm line lit, and Dar looked over at her.
“Put it up on the main screen,” Nellie commanded, glaring as Brenda’s sneering face filled the central monitor.
“Well, well, well, look how the mighty have fallen,” Brenda laughed. “I’ve been looking forward to this, just so you know.”
“As have I, Brenda,” Nellie snarled. “Remember, you had a chance to run away. I gave you that.”
“Oooh, scary,” Brenda laughed. “I’m scared.”
“Remy?” Nellie looked over to her weapons officer. “Now.”
Brenda’s face froze as the line cut out.
“The nanites have severed the main and backup generators,” Remy smiled grimly. “They are dead in space.”
“Nellie, I’m in the shuttle and on the way to the Bly,” Lucy called over comms.
“What about the Talon?” Nellie asked, seeing the final Imperial Line cruiser closing on it as laser arrays raked the stricken ship.
“She’s done,” Lucy called. “Right about….now.”
The Talon detonated suddenly, debris from a complete core breach tearing the Imperial Line cruiser apart. The lights faded, and the cruiser began to spin, gasses venting into the void from dozens of places.
“You blew up your ship?” Nellie asked.
“Well, I would have rammed it into the other cruiser, but you already did that in the Bly,” Lucy laughed. “Coming into the shuttle bay now.”
“Good, wait there,” Nellie stood from her chair. “We’re going to go see Brenda.”
By the time Nellie reached the shuttle bay, Lucy was unloading a dozen Cent units from the shuttle. There must have barely been standing room in that thing. Bringing every last one of her Cent units with her was a very Lucy thing to do.
To her, no one was disposable.
“We will need Centrum units,” Lucy told her.
“No,” Nellie walked on board. “We do this personally.”
“Fine, but I’m bringing some Cents with us, just in case.” Lucy sighed.
“They can pick up the pieces afterward—” Nellie stopped as her HUD flashed with an incoming message.
Staring at the flashing icon, Nellie swallowed hard and then activated it.
Salem: Bly’s Rest clear of intruders. All secure.
Paren: The capital ship is cleared.
Salem: It is not clear; it’s a mess.
Paren: Okay, so it could use a mop, but there are no Imperial Line people on it.
Salem: Technically, they are still on it; they are just not alive.
Paren: Do you have to be so pedantic, Salem?
Salem: No, but it irritates you, which makes me happy.
Paren: Oh. Well, you do you, I guess.
Nellie watched the two argue as tears of relief rolled down her cheeks. They were alive and apparently unharmed.
Nellie: I am so glad you are both alright.
Salem: We lost Cix-El, I am sorry. Also, Robot may have suffered a psychotic break, and the girl is possibly traumatized. It is difficult to tell.
Paren: She’s fine. The last time I saw her, she was laughing while helping Robot.
Salem: She was laughing while stabbing an Imperial Line officer to death.
Paren: Still counts.
Salem: It really doesn’t.
Paren: She seemed happy; that was all I was saying.
Salem: She fed one of the boarders to sub-drone Per-Chi.
Paren: See, she’s helping as well.
Lucy: How soon can you have the Indomitable ready to launch?
Salem: I can have it and two others ready in twenty minutes.
Lucy: Have them loaded with Centrum units, or Cents, and ready to go.
Paren: Are you going to the moon?
Lucy: Yes.
Paren: I am coming. I want to recover Banjo’s body.
Nellie: We will do that.
Paren: I AM COMING!
Nellie: Fine, but you will need armor.
Salem: She has that covered. She led the boarding of the docked capital ship.
Nellie: SHE WHAT????
Paren: I can explain everything!
===<<<>>>===
Duke landed his Walker just inside the walls of the Colony and stalked through the streets and into the hangar. Inside, he saw the other walker—also without its weapons—lying abandoned on the floor.
That was all there was. The shuttle was gone.
Immediately, Duke felt anxiety twist his insides. If Carter had already gone up to report to the fleet, it was possible he would try and renege on their deal. It was vital that the Imperial Line knew how much he had sacrificed to aid them.
Especially now.
He opened the rig and climbed out, reveling in the breeze. Still, if both frames were still here, perhaps he could hide them somewhere. If he sent teams out to recover the other parts, it would be a definite boon for his people.
Speaking of his people, why was it so quiet?
He hadn’t expected a parade, but the least someone could do was come to meet him.
Duke huffed and left the hangar, stalking through the streets and seeing no more than people peeking out from behind hatchways.
The battle must still be on; that was what must have happened.
That thought and the realization his sister had flown off to join it, put a hurry in his steps. Turning away from the council room, Duke hurried for the comm room instead.
Hadrian was sitting in the comm room, head in his hands, when Duke entered.
“There you are!” Duke yelled, making the man jump. “Why is everyone hiding away all of a sudden? This is our victory as much as theirs!”
“Sir?” Hadrian seemed to gather himself a little. “The attack on the other colony? Did you call it off?”
“No,” Duke sighed. “There was an incident, and they started firing. We were forced to kill most of them as they fled. I even had to put down that Ambassador of Bea’s in the process. It was a mess, but it had to be done.”
“Ah,” Hadrian collapsed back into his chair. “That makes things simple then.”
“It does,” Duke grinned. “How goes the battle? Did Brenda mess things up again?”
Hadrian waved wordlessly at the scan equipment.
Duke walked over and punched up the replay, watching mutely as, one after another, the Imperial Line ships fell.
Pausing it at several spots, Duke noted the signature readings of beam weaponry—big ones.
“She had beam weapons,” Duke sighed.
The more the battle raged, the more certain he was that the Bly would fail. Surely, it would fail. He blinked as it rammed a cruiser, and the cruiser vanished from the scope.
Finally, it lay in space, severely damaged. All other ships were destroyed except the Bly and his own ship, which was closing.
“Brenda can finish it,” Duke said grimly before seeing it come to a stop, all power readings vanishing. It drifted on, nothing but its residual velocity powering it until the Bly’s Grav Tow caught it.
The last reading they had showed a shuttle launching from the Bly and moving toward Brenda’s ship.
“What does this mean?” Duke growled, slapping the side of the screen as if he expected the readouts to change. “What happened to the power on my ship? What’s going on up there?”
No one answered, and Duke rounded on Hadrian.
“Well?” He snapped. “What does it mean?”
“What it means,” Hadrian said, turning blank eyes up at him, “Is that we backed the wrong side, you inbred, spoilt, useless, noble-born prick!”
Comments
Clayton Danvers
You won't have to wait long to find out.
Mech Bagienny
Wonderful chapter. Personally, I would like them not to kill Brenda, but to turn her into a drone and kill her only when she catches Duke too. This is another person who escaped her, I wonder if she will find them again.
