Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill. - The Daywalker, Third Vampire War, Age of Paranoia

Whatever I lost, I lost a long time ago. - Barbara, Third Zombie War, Age of Paranoia

This is the dumbest shit we've ever done. - Everyone everywhere.

The dumbest shit so far. - The smartass next to them.

"Captain," Chuck's voice was quiet, barely audible to her ear. "Don't react, just lay there."

Nakteti held still, able to tell by the slight tingling that Chuck was using her mastoid implant to talk to her over a secure channel.

She brought up the visual keyboard and rapidly typed out on her retinal link. "Sit-rep."

"Our four guests are talking. They think with Magnus and Surscee out in the park picking apples and you asleep, that the simple act of moving away from the computers will keep me from listening in," Chuck said.

"Patch me in," Nakteti typed.

There was a slight sound of static.

"...we knew this was a one-way trip when we left Darkside," the Rose Knight was saying.

"Well, duh, the Mantid glassed Earth and the colonies. We knew that," Sword Knight One said. Nakteti could see his face, that he was chewing on something. He swallowed. "Momma already told us that."

"The mission objectives are still unchanged. Get the SUDS back online or figure out a way to start repairs," the Rose Knight said. "Momma gave us the orders, we follow them."

"Which we are doing," the Tome Knight stated, her voice cold and remote. Nakteti noted that her face was deliberately held expressionless, but her chin was slightly tilted up, and she was looking at the internal camera of her helmet down the length of her nose. "Without the help of the alien, that AI, and those twins, we would still be stuck with our equipment malfunctioning and leaving us stuck at the center of a layered time distortion."

"Do you really trust her? Trust their story? That it's been nine thousand years since the Glassing. That there was something called the Digital Omnimessiah and the Twelve Biological Apostles?" the Rose Knight asked, a slight sneer in his voice. "That just curiosity and luck led her here?"

"Then what, she's a Mantid slave race spy? Come here to... I don't know, repair the SUDS so we get back our manpower edge?" the Tome Knight asked. This time she was the one sneering. "The stupid bullshit of reducing military manpower to bare minimum with the excuse of 'oh, we can just pull them from the SUDS and force-growth clones for them, that way their cybernetics are modern and they can be put in the SUDS at the height of their skills instead of suffering skill degradation' came back to bite us on the ass."

"Armistice agreements mandated everyone have only a quarter-million troops, outside of the United Nations of Sol," the Rose Knight said. "It kept the peace."

"Yeah, that and vegetation that would eat you if you sat in one place for too long," Sword Knight Two snorted. He chewed on something for a moment, swallowed, the continued, "Face it, we're on the edge of extinction. If the Mantid don't get us, the plants will."

"Theoretically, glassing Earth would take care of the Extinction Agenda attack," the Tome Knight said.

"We're getting side-tracked," Sword Knight Two said. "That dude, Magnus,"

"Gods above, he's fucking annoying," Sword Knight One said, chewing at the end of his sentence.

"If I hear his sister bitch about not having any fruit to eat one more time, I swear, I'm going to go completely ape shit," Sword Knight Two added. "Anyway, that dude, Magnus, he said that the next temporal dissonance layer is about to be peeled off. That leaves two more layers."

"And there's the problem. Once they peel off the last layer, they'll have full access to the SUDS facility," the Rose Knight said. "Which is in direct conflict to our mission orders to secure possession of the SUDS facility."

"Except our orders are nine thousand years out of date," the Tome Knight said. "The Combine is gone, replaced by the Imperium. I read that part. I know the guy who founded the Imperium, well, I served under him. He's some United Nations of Sol representative's son and a complete douche."

"And the Imperium was replaced by the Confederacy," Sword Knight Two said, swallowing whatever he was chewing on.

"Yeah, five thousand years after the Imperium got its skull kicked in by someone with the goofy ass name of Daxin Freeborn," Sword Knight One said. "Sounds like some hab block ganger bullshit name to me."

"And 'Martial Orders'? Like the Templars? For who? Christianity? Islam? Hinduism? Scientology?" Sword Knight Two sneered. "The whole thing sounds like bullshit to me."

"But the evidence is clear," The Tome Knight broke in.

"What evidence? A file on a computer? I can write you one that states those stupid characters from the Gorilla Girls tri-vee show took over the universe and we all have to wear gorilla costumes now," the Rose Knight said.

The Tome Knight made a disgusted noise. "The tech, dumbass."

"Watch your words and tone with me," the Rose Knight snapped.

"The technology," the Tome Knight said.

"Better."

"Our armor has the best in miniaturization tech, and we've only got a nine q-bit system. That Surscee woman has a computer embedded in her forearm that's running at least ten-twenty-four q-bits. A computer only a little bigger than a piece of gum," the Tome Knight stated. "Those temporal charges are light years ahead of anything we have."

"Mantid technology?" Sword Knight One guessed.

"If the Mantid are that advanced, we've already lost the war," the Tome Knight said. She lifted her chin again. "We must take into account the fact that nine thousand years have passed since we entered the mat-trans at the Darkside Facility to get here," she stated coldly. "The team waiting for us to return is long dead."

"Maybe we can go back and help them?" Sword Knight One asked. He frowned, then broke into a big smile.

"No. They'll have their hands full re-activating the facility from the damage from when half the staff went crazy," the Tome Knight said. She shook her head. "Losing the engineering and scientific staff means the facility is little more than a habitat orbiting an anomaly."

"We can't just leave them. We need to do something," Sword Knight Two said.

"They're dead. You can't go back in time. You'll hit the energy limit or get the worst possible outcome, or you'll spaghetti," the Tome Knight said. "I've told you that before. I stated it during the mission briefing."

"What about Momma?" Sword Knight One said, his voice wistful.

"We all knew this might be a one way trip," the Rose Knight repeated. There was silence for a moment. "I'll consider what each of you have stated and decide if the mission parameters should be adjusted," he paused. "Get some sleep."

"Not tired," Sword Knight Two said.

"Don't wanna," Sword Knight One said.

"I have research I must continue," the Tome Knight said.

"Doesn't matter. We don't have to worry about an ambush. Set reflex triggers," the Rose Knight said.

One by one they confirmed they'd set their reflex triggers.

"Nunc me dormiam," the Rose Knight said, his voice replaced by a woman's voice that was accompanied by a quick series of tones.

Nakteti watched as all of their eyes closed and they moved almost immediately into REM sleep.

"Mnemonic triggers," Chuck said. "I got the tones. In case it requires that female voice, I've got a high fidelty multi-tonal recording."

"Good," Nakteti said. "I don't want to kill them if I don't have to."

"And if they force it?" Chuck asked.

"Then I'll kill them."

-----

Nakteti spooled out the superconductor cable carefully, moving between one temporal disruptor/stabilizer and the other. She stopped, plugged it into the repeater, then ran another cable.

She was going over the discussion again in her head.

The four had still never taken off their armor, and Nakteti kept chewing over that fact, over and over.

She looked around, realized she was the only living thing for a couple thousand miles, and touched her implant.

"Chuck, do you read?" she asked.

"I read you, Captain," Chuck said. "Line is secure."

"Good," she said. "Do we have any visuals on who is inside that armor and what they look like?"

"Internal helmet cam," Chuck said.

"Anything besides that?" Nakteti asked.

"No. It's live feed," Chuck said.

"Is it?" Nakteti asked. "Seriously. Is it? Could it be computer overlay?"

"You mean, they're using digital avatars?" Chuck said.

"It's just something about the feed. Something about them that I keep chewing over," Nakteti said. "Can Surscee get a better read on them?"

"No. Their armor is sealed. It's a closed system with memory metal joints," Chuck said. "Internal power systems. The only thing that armor gives off is their suit telemetry, communications, radiation, and visual light reflection."

Nakteti sat down on a bench, pulling out her water flask and taking a long drink.

"Something's not right. We've been doing this for months, maybe a year or more, it's hard to tell with the temporal disruptions," Nakteti said. "We know virtually nothing about them. If anything, they'll withdrawing more and more."

She took another drink and put away the flask. "See if you can hack their armor systems further, but be subtle."

"The only input their systems allow is that one single encrypted channel, and then only compressed bursts," Chuck said. "They aren't even using a frequency agile system."

Chuck made a slight static noise. "You're right. That is odd. We don't really have any schematics for Combine Era power armor in our database, but the fact it's completely sealed is weird."

Nakteti thought for a long moment. "You record their conversations, right?"

"I record all of it. The one thing I've managed to do is break their telemetry feed," Chuck said. "Let me look at the feed better."

"Show me that last conversation, only give me an hour or so before that, just visual, on fast forward," Nakteti said.

"What are you looking for?" Chuck asked.

"I don't know," Nakteti admitted.

She watched it through twice.

Something about it was bugging her.

She reached in her pocket and pulled out a Goody Yum-Yum Bar, unwrapping it and chewing on it while she watched it through a third time.

She was halfway through the fourth watch when it dawned on her.

They were chewing on nothing. She never saw them put anything in their mouths. They never had food in their mouths when they talked.

"Chuck?" she asked.

"Here, Captain," the DS answered.

"I need you to run a fast forward. Check to see if you ever see them take a pull of nutripaste or water. Especially around the time they start chewing," she said.

"Checking," Chuck said.

Nakteti finished off her Goody Yum-Yum bar before Chuck got back to her.

"I've checked all the telemetry, and no, they never take a drink of water or any nutripaste nor do they ever appear to have something in their mouths when they talk," Chuck paused. "It points at your idea that what we're seeing is being generated by their suit computers."

"See what you can do about getting me a look at them," Nakteti said.

"I'll be careful," Chuck promised.

Nakteti looked up at where the 'sun' was frozen in the magnetic guidance tube. It had several others just off of it, making it look like a cluster of three stars.

There's something going on, and I don't like it, she thought.

-----

"Anything?" Nakteti asked.

"No. It's really weird. I should be able to cut through archaic code like a hot knife through butter, but it's more than just the code. There's weird hardware safety interlocks. Everything is extremely partitioned, more than even Atrekna War combat armor," Chuck said. "One thing I did get, is that the armors definitely have chronotron leakage. Not much, but enough to tell me that they're using chronotron for something inside the suit."

"Stabilization? Like Confederate armor during the Atrekna war?" Nakteti asked.

Chuck just shrugged. "I'm not sure. You're right, there's something hinky about them. After you noticed that they don't eat I took a better look. There's something weird with their telemetry."

"Like what?" Nakteti asked.

"Like, according to their brain waves, right now, the two Sword Knights are asleep. High activity REM sleep," Chuck said. "Yet, they're out there helping Magnus lay down the last of the control cabling."

"That is strange," Nakteti said. She sighed. "I wish I knew more about Terran combat systems."

"Same here," Chuck said. He looked up suddenly as Nakteti heard the door swoosh open behind her. "Captain!"

She was already lunging forward, landing on her catching hands, using her feet and gripping hands to push herself into a roll that took her behind an unpowered console.

"You might as well come out, xeno," the Rose Knight said. "You brought a sword to a blaze rifle fight."

"Do not do this. We are allies," Chuck tried.

"Silence, AI," the Rose Knight said. "You are an amalgamation of circuits and code, I am a flesh and blood being, touched by the creator himself. You have no right to speak to me, much less attempt to command me."

Nakteti used the time the Rose Knight was monologuing to draw her sword as well as to reach down and activate her personal protective field. She sent off a quick set of emojis to let Surscee and Magnus know they were about to be attacked by the Chronotronic Knights.

"I am blessed by the Digital Omnimessiah," Chuck started to say.

"BLASPHEME!" the Rose Knight shouted.

Nakteti winced at the blaze rifle fired. It made a high pitched screaming sound as the gold/white beam of energy lanced out, bisecting Chuck.

"Please," Chuck said. "As if."

Nakteti pulled a device out of her pouch and slid it across the floor, behind another console. It winked on and Chuck was crouched down behind the console, a blaster pistol in his hand. He looked at Nakteti and nodded.

"Don't make me kill you, Rose Knight," Nakteti said.

"SILENCE, XENO!" the Rose Knight screamed partway through Nakteti's plea.

Nakteti could smell it suddenly. Ozone, scorched copper, rusted iron.

Wrath.

She looked at Chuck and mouthed "Enraged" at him.

Chuck gave an 'of course' slump to his head and shoulders, shaking his head at the same time.

"Come out. You're only prolonging the inevitable," the Rose Knight said. "Your friends are dead or will be soon. They are armed with only swords and are not even wearing armor."

"Take off a limb or two, take them alive," Nakteti ordered over her retinal link.

"Let me try something," Chuck said. He raised his face to the ceiling. ""Nunc me dormiam," he said in a woman's voice.

"YOU'RE NOT MOMMY!" the Rose Knight shrieked.

"Worth a try," Chuck put on Nakteti's retinal link.

Nakteti shrugged, waiting.

The Rose Knight was ranting about xenos, Earth, the Mantid.

Magnus and Surscee both flashed emojis back, Chuck just nodded.

"Ready?" Nakteti asked Chuck over the retinal link.

Chuck nodded.

Nakteti ended up curling up as the Rose Knight started screaming and shooting the walls, the ceiling, random computers.

"I WANT MY MOMMY!" he screamed, his voice crackling with distortion. "MOMMY! DADDY! WHERE ARE YOU?" The sound of the rifle being used to smash things was loud in the sudden silence.

Nakteti blinked and looked at Chuck, who shrugged and mouthed "enraged".

The Rose Knight stopped screaming and Chuck stood up, leveling the blaster pistol.

The Rose Knight was punching and kicking chairs, consoles, computer equipment.

Aiming, the hard-light manifested Chuck fired, hitting the Rose Knight in the knee.

Nakteti rolled out from behind the console, running on four limbs, using her legs and catching hands, holding her sword tight with her gripping hands.

The Rose Knight screamed, his words incoherent.

The Rose Knight's lower leg blew off in a shower of sparks and fluids. The armored Terran went down on one knee, still screaming.

Nakteti came in, standing up, hacking one, twice with the nanite sharpened blade.

The limbs came off in a shower of sparks, showering Nakteti with hydraulic fluids.

Nakteti ignored it.

She'd been splattered with worse.

Chuck stepped up and kicked the Rose Knight onto his back, putting on foot on the armored man's chest.

"I want my mommy," the Rose Knight said.

Nakteti realized that he was weeping.

She held out her hand. "Why? Why did you attack us?"

"Mission. The mission," the Rose Knight said. He started crying again. "I want my mommy."

"That panel. Open it," Chuck said, pointing at a seemless patch on the armor. "Just press against it and let go."

Nakteti did so. The panel slid open, revealing an induction port. Nakteti held up her finger where she had an implanted induction link. Chuck nodded.

Nakteti pressed her finger against the induction jack.

"Let's get a look at you," Chuck said.

"No. You're not supposed to. Don't," the Rose Knight wept. "Mommy."

"Digital Omnimessiah preserve us," Chuck whispered, his eyes going wide with horror. He looked down.

"Have mercy upon us for what we have done," Chuck said.