Daxin watched Peter go through the menus again and stop before he turned his attention to staring at the clear blue sky outside the windows.

"OK, this is weird," he said.

"What?" Daxin asked, still staring out the window. He was watching the group of men and Herod slowly stack up driftwood into a big pile.

"I'm almost sure that everyone but us is out. Well, not counting Dee's Boys," Peter said. He leaned back. "OK, the fox kid Vuxten, that crazy cat girl Joan, the bunny girl Dambree," he paused. "Wow, it's like the BASS got loose in here."

Daxin just shrugged.

"All five of Casey, Peel," Peter said. "Trucker's down and dead," he paused. "OK, what does it show that there's two other signals?"

Daxin turned and looked at Peter. "Lady Keena and Major Acharya? The World Engine team?"

Peter slapped his forehead. "Dammit, I can't believe I forgot about them."

"Eh, it's been exciting," Daxin said.

Peter typed for a moment. "OK, yeah, she's still controlling the World Engine," he sighed. "I knew I forgot something."

The door to the control room opened and Legion came in, escorting five Terrans wearing jumpsuits.

"Marco," one of them said. A pretty woman with short dark hair and the epicanthal fold in the eye of her ancestors.

Peter spun around. "Nadi," he said. He stood up and held his arms out and the woman ran over and hugged him. Peter rocked her back and forth slightly, closing his eyes and sighing as he held her tight.

"Is it true, Marco?" One of the men asked. "Is it true the Mantid jumped us and now eight thousand years have passed?"

Peter nodded. "It's true. All of it," he turned and motioned at Daxin. "This is my brother, Daxin," he pointed at where Kalki was petting the goat, sitting next to Menhit. "My sister, Menhit, my brother, Kalki, and his pet goat, Dancer."

The newcomers all nodded. They came over and one by one hugged Marco/Peter.

"Uh, Pete?" Daxin said.

Peter turned around. "Yeah?"

"Lady Keena?" he said, pointing at the terminal.

"Oh! Right," Pete laughed. "I should probably let her know we won."

"Probably," Daxin said. He tossed his empty narcobrew in the basket and grabbed another one, popping the top with a thumbnail, the top flipping end over end and landing in the basket.

"As soon as I finish this up, we can all catch up," Peter said, sitting down and typing.

-----

"...and I mean, you get it why I hated this dude. Absolutely hated him," Major Acharya said, flipping a bullet up and catching it, sitting on the carved stone retaining wall at the edge of the silver pool the World Engine sat in. "So, when he came up to me in the chow hall the day after we left the planet, I'm telling you, I was ready to fight. Hell, I wanted to bust his skull."

The all chrome statue of Lady Keena threw back her head and laughed. She was sitting on the top of the pool, shiny and smooth, looking just like she had before she'd dropped into the slightly granular pool of nanites.

"I stood up and he holds out his hand, right?" Acharya said, flipping the bullet up and catching it. "He turns up his holo palm and shows me a video. All I can do is stare at the video, right? It's from his helmet cam, taken during that last bad evac on the planet."

Acharya shook his head. "The Mar-gite had the planet, it was all we could do to evacuate what few refugees were surviving. Turns out that Sergeant Hisbey, damn, just saying his name makes me remember I'd been eating a strawberry rhubarb pudding when he walked in, anyway, Hisbey was showing me his helmet cam."

Acharya flipped the round up into the air and snatched it on the drop. He looked at Lady Keena's chrome avatar and gave a self-mocking smile, the side of his face all torn up and revealing black warsteel chromium alloy.

"He's showing me this video where he's shooting with one hand, other arm wrapped around and half carrying this thin, starved, dirty teenager, right? I mean, she's obviously been through some shit," Acharya said. He reached down and poked the stone he was sitting on. "He's shooting at the Mar-gite who have reached the roof, swarmed up the sides of the building and are shrieking as they're just pouring onto the roof. He's staggering, shooting, pulling this girl along as he runs for the dropship. They yell there's no room and he points his rifle right at the dude's face and says 'make some fucking room!'"

The bullet gleamed as it spun up through the air, paused, and dropped back down.

"They drag this girl on and he pushes himself up on the dropship and the video freezes right when he looks the girl in the face."

"Who was it?" Lady Keena asked, leaning forward and putting her chin in her palm, her elbow on her knee.

"The ID implant threw her name and System Identification Number up," Acharya said. "It was my baby sister. He'd pushed my baby sister onto the dropship with his own two hands."

"Oh, my," Lady Keena said. "Your mortal enemy saves your beloved baby sister, the heart of your heart," she made a clicking noise with her tongue. "What did you?"

Acharya flushed slightly.

"I hugged him right there, crying, and called him brother. Told him that..." Acharya stopped speaking when Lady Keena held up her hand.

He tossed the bullet up in the air and caught it when it came down.

After a few tosses Lady Keena smiled. "We're done."

"Did we win?" Acharya asked.

Lady Keena shrugged. "We had but a small part in a war of gods and Immortals and electronic souls. Since we still live, we won as much as we can."

Acharya laughed, then watched as Lady Keena's chrome avatar sunk back into the nanite sludge.

He looked around the room as where he had gathered up and stacked the android's weapons, at where the bullet marks marred the marble, and where computer banks were still sparking and sputtering, were dark and dead, or were merrily humming along.

He kept tossing the bullet up into the air and grabbing it. Twice he looked over at where he had stacked Lady Keena's clothing after folding it.

"Help a lady out?" Lady Keena's voice asked.

He looked down and saw her, waist deep, in the sludge, holding one hand out.

He reached down, slightly grimacing when he saw the deep tears in the synth skin exposing the cybernetics underneath, and grabbed her hand. With a heave he pulled her up next to him and she climbed over the wall.

She stood there for a second, taking several long deep breaths, then moved over to her clothing.

"You may watch me dress, I find your gaze titillating," Lady Keena smiled.

"To the victorious, the rewards," Acharya said.

Lady Keena just smiled and slowly dressed back in her leather, bronze, and fur regalia. She sheathed her sword across her back.

"Acharya, this is Peter, can you hear me?" the voice sounded tired.

"I read you," Acharya said.

"The mat-trans is mostly locked out. Use it and it'll drop you back with the others," Peter said. "Sorry, but there's no other way to get out of here."

"What about the Detainee? Can't she get us back?" Acharya asked.

"She's down. Her and Trucker both are KIA," Peter said.

"Oh," Acharya shook his head. "What about the Lord of Hell?"

"Busy in Hell. There was another group, they made a push on taking Hell to hold all the souls hostage. It's pretty confused," Peter said.

"Need our help?" Acharya asked.

"No. Not unless you're a certified SUDS programmer," Peter said.

"All right," Acharya said.

The link clinked as Peter cut the conversation.

Acharya stood up, holding his arm out to Lady Keena. "If you'll allow me to escort you, the mat-trans awaits, Milady," he said.

Lady Keena laughed and looped her arm in his.

-----

Vuxten looked up to see Lady Keena and Major Acharya walk out of the forest. The Major was brushing mud off of his uniform and Lady Keena was smeared with mud everywhere except her face. Vuxten was sitting on a log, drinking a narcobrew while 471 sat next to him, a tiny bottle of narcobrew in one hand and a strip of turkey in the other. The four younger Caseys sat on one log, Casey the Elder and Peel on another. Dambree was sitting with the Joan, while Matthias sat next to the Digital Omnimessiah. The two Terran farmers were sitting together, on the ground, leaning against the log and each other, their arms around each other.

"Hell of a landing, ain't it?" Peel asked as the other two came up.

"Beer?" One of the Caseys asked, holding out the bottle.

Lady Keena looked at all five of the Caseys and smiled at Peel. "Your poor womb."

Peel laughed and took a drink off her bottle. "I know, right? They look like me and Casey had kids."

One of them smiled and it struck Vuxten again how young the duplicate looked. "Can we go to the movies, Mom?"

"No. Do your chores," Peel said without turning around.

That made everyone at the fire laugh.

"Anyone have any idea how we're going to get back?" Major Acharya asked.

"There should be a functioning ansible at the spaceport," JR said. "We can just find a couple of cars or maybe a flatbed truck and drive there."

"That sounds good," Lady Keena said.

"What of us, Father?" Matthias asked.

The Digital Omnimessiah put his hand on Matthias's shoulder. "It is time, my son, for you to be reunited with your brothers and sisters."

Matthias swallowed and looked down. "Will they forgive me?"

"Daxin may strike you, his fury, his rage, would demand nothing less, but you are still his brother and I will not allow him to harm you," the Digital Omnimessiah said.

"A part of me yearns for Phillip's wrath. I deserve no less," Matthias said.

"Nothing like a good right hook between brothers to clear the air," Casey the Elder said.

The other four nodded.

"Tomorrow, Sammi and I will go check to see if any flatbeds are still intact," JR said.

Vuxten looked down at 471. "Then we can get home."

471 held up the tiny bottle.

--home again home again jiggity jog--

-----

Vuxten sat on the back of the flatbed trailer being pulled by a tractor, in his armor, staring at the road behind the trailer. The fields of grain waved as they went by and he felt slightly melancholy. His helmet was off and he was enjoying the smell of the air.

They'd be at the starport in only a few days.

Dambree sat down next to him, wearing the heavy work clothes but the mask hanging on her belt.

"What are you going to do?" Vuxten asked.

"Abbey," Dambree said, staring at the grain. She whispered something and Vuxten frowned.

"What?" Vuxten asked.

Dambree turned and looked at Vuxten. "Reminding myself that there aren't slorpies in the field, hiding in the grain," she said.

Vuxten nodded. "I understand."

He took a risk and put his arm around her shoulders. He felt her stiffen slightly and then relax.

"Even if there was, I know you'd have my back," Vuxten said.

"I know."

-----

Daxin stood and watched as one of Dee's Boys, the oldest, the one named Tommy, stepped forward and sparked the flare. He dropped it on the driftwood and stepped back.

One by one Dee's Boys, then Herod, each dropped a flare.

The driftwood blazed to light, the salts coloring the flames that rose up and eventually hid the body of The Detainee from view.

Beyond the pyre the ocean rolled in and swept out, moving as oceans always had beneath the inky night time sky.

Daxin dropped his own flare then moved over and sat down next to Legion.

The sea whispered and the flames crackled.

-----

Legion stood next to Trucker, both of them looking up at the massive demon on the skull mounted throne.

"Explain it again," Legion said.

The demon shrugged. "She took the majority of her memories, as well as the access codes to the mat-trans with her when we separated for the last time."

"So you're not her any more?" Trucker asked.

The demon shook his head. "No. Not really," the form blurred and turned into the thick bodied matron, shrugging and holding up her hands. "I mean, maybe? But I'm consigned to Hell for the most part."

Legion noted that the body language was slightly off, the tone was slightly different, the word choice wasn't quite what he had gotten used to with Dee.

"Huh," Trucker said. He turned and looked at the twisted trees and blasted rock jutting out of the ice that surrounded the throne. "So she's really dead."

"Looks like it," the demon said, turning back into the massive beast.

"What about you?" Legion asked, looking at Trucker.

"I'm going to stay a while. Wait for my men," Trucker spit juice onto the ground. "I owe them that, at least."

Legion nodded, flexing his wings. "I think I'll stay too."

The demon just rumbled low laughter as both the Immortal and the General looked up into the sky where stars fell screaming from the heavens.

-----

It had failed.

The Atrekna could not believe it had failed.

Every simulation, every recovered memory, every hard sought out record, had insisted that the rapid attacks could not fail.

But the Spoked Offensive had been stalled.

Less than two hundred worlds had been taken, and all of those were in the Dead Zone between the Council territory and the Confederacy. Nearly two dozen worlds were still under heavy fighting, were heavily contested.

Six slave worlds had been liberated by the ferals.

The Overmind network still echoed with screams of terror, giving every communal thought a bitter taste of fear.

The Atrekna would not be denied.

They would rebuild their forces, prepare, and launch another Spoked Offensive.

An attack with overwhelming speed and numbers could not be resisted twice.

This time they would not be so conservative.

This time they would do spokes of ten and a hub of twenty.

The Atrekna began to prepare.

-----

Admiral Thennis watched with narrowed eyes as the Precursor Autonomous War Machines that had come to her aid vanished in a burst of Hellspace energies.

The system had been cleared.

The Black Fleet stood triumphant.

>Flagship Status has Shifted to Might 'Mo

>Prepare for refit and rearming

There was an eye twisting swirl of purple energy.

The Steamboat Willy vanished.

-----

Smokey 'No stared at the holographic map of the Cygnus Orion Galactic Arm Spur, looking at the planets that had 'sunk' and were considered under Atrekna control, the planets flashing with amber rings, and the ones that burned with green rings.

The Atrekna blitzkrieg had been stopped dead.

He slowly pulled out his pack of cigarettes, staring at the tank.

You made a mistake, oh masters of time and space, he thought to himself as he took out a single cigarette and put it in his mouth. He lit it and put the lighter away, staring at the holotank. We're still fighting you on a hundred planets, but now we've got time to breathe, to rearm and retrain.

The Spoked Offensive had caught the Confederate Military forces out of position, during manuever, but now the Confederacy was poised.

One way or another, the Second Precursor War ends soon, General NoDra'ak thought to himself.

Ge'ermo'o stood silently, watching as the Treana'ad general began shifting forces and issuing orders.

He paid close attention.

After all, he was a most observant and attentive officer.

That's why his men loved him.