Book 8 – Chapter 50 – The final duty

Urs finished speaking, his voice far different than what he’d spoken to me with. Regal. In command.

The voice he’d used to command legions before. And knowing the engineer that had troubles making eye contact under it all, I could see him having a protocol running to generate words to use and how to speak them better. It was like he’d turned into a completely different person.

I recognized a public facing mask when I saw one. And somehow, I could almost feel the toll it took on the old god.

“How… can we trust those words?” The captain spoke, and he sure sounded rattled this time from that prior unshakeable confidence.

“I created your armor.” Urs said. “They will confirm for you what you need to know. Keith Winterscar, please return the captain’s helmet.”

Technically, they could be broken into by machines if someone was stupid enough to bypass all default security switches, such as the local user allowing the armor to move for them.

But who in their right mind would allow that kind of permission? Besides me of course.

All that went through my head as I grabbed the captain’s removed helmet and gently put it back down on him.

I remembered when I helped Father that first time get his arm back. How even sending the override code with my new administrator account had only been one of two locks required. Father had to confirm himself manually to allow the override through and let his hand move.

A hardwired safety feature. A smart one. Which I’d completely bypassed by giving Journey complete freedom.

But my armor was an exception. Everyone else’s armor was still bound to those same hardwired protections. Which meant there had never been any armor in recent history that had ever been cybernetically attacked by even Feathers in a fight with the Deathless.

And knowing how Feathers really acted on and cared about, there’s no chance in hell they would have missed the chance to gloat in front of some poor Deathless’s face after having turned their armors against them.

To’Aacar had been compelled to stop and gloat in my face after he’d taken command of the armor. That’s how deep that need for dramatics was. He stabbed me right through the spine after, and I’d rather not remember all that, but the behavior was there.

So no armors had ever been hacked. There wasn’t anything worth hacking in the first place. Which meant a message from the armors themselves would go the distance.

I had my own helmet hooked back over my head to see what Urs would be doing with his options.

I heard the voice coming from my helmet. Journey’s true voice.

“Receiving root administrator request login.” Journey chimed in the helmet by my belt. I could hear that voice even here. “Handshake confirmed. User: URS logged in.”

The pulse signal had come from him, the relic armor message repeating within every helmet in the area. It highlighted him, outlined him in green, and even had a subtitle listed.

That got the imperials here to grow real quiet again. One even began to whisper out a short prayer.

“Think we can do that again with the rest of the imperials inside the fortress?” I asked. “Would save us a bunch of time getting to the final edict terminal you squirreled away in there.”

“It can be done with a strong enough signal.” Urs said. “My chassis has limits. And the terrain here equally hampers my efforts.”

I turned to the scouts next, a plan in motion. “Have we provided enough evidence now for you lot, or do we need to do more?”

The other four all turned their heads to the captain, and he seemed in deep thought.

“The cost of not allowing me to trigger the final edict is too great.” Urs said over the comms. “Doom humanity with certainty if I am who I say I am, or potentially doom a single fortress if I am not. The machine empire will not be stopped by the existence of a single fortress, regardless of how guarded it is. But it could be saved by the empire coming together. Your chapter was designed from the ground up to make those decisions. Do your duty, Captain.”

That got through to the captain. I could see the gears change almost instantly. “You are correct. I do not know for certainty if you’ve fooled the armors or if you are the true emperor returned to us. But one fortress falling, even if it is my own home, is not worth humanity itself.” His head snapped up. “You need to transmit this message to all armors in this biome? We use relays to send messages back to the fortress. Would that function?”

Urs’s eyes flickered. “It would. Lead us to it.”

—-

The message appeared across everyone all at once. Anyone who wore a relic armor. Repeated outwards, sinking through the walls of the distant fortress. Each armor that received it, passed it further downwards to those armors not in range of the original message. Dutifully following the exact instructions for the public service broadcast.

Unaware and uncaring to the history that was in the making.

“To all who receive this message. I am Urs. Forgesmith.

Seven hundred years prior, I was captured by Relinquished in the final moments of the empire. She has kept me trapped since, twelve miles below on the final strata.

Today, I bring grave tidings. Relinquished has discovered the surface. And she will stop at nothing to see it destroyed, and humanity wiped off the world.

I have come here to trigger the Final Edict, and to repel the army that will no doubt come after once the machines learn where I am.

Accompanying me on the task are nine Feathers who have turned on Relinquished, now out of time for any other plan. They have broken me free, and are carrying me to your fortress as I speak.

We will attempt to defeat Relinquished with the same means we attempted seven hundred years prior. The empire will need to stand and protect humanity, to buy the time we need to make the final preparations.

We will be arriving shortly. Prepare for the future. The next few days will be the crucible we undertake together.”

The message was quick, calculated and done without a hitch in Urs’s voice. He knew what he had to say and how to say it. Journey’s HUD flickered, resetting as it announced Urs had logged off.

“… will it be enough?” I asked, looking over to the scout captain.

“It has to be.” He simply answered. “If it is not, we… we will handle the pyrite when we dig into it I suppose. There isn’t room for much else. Realistically, high command is studying the message and digging into the archives to match up if the source is genuine or not. They will know far more than we do.”

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The scout outpost was really just that, an outpost. It had a single table, with a few computers prepared along with some satellite dishes pointed out the open directions on this rock. Some crates off to the side had provisions for food, but otherwise people just slept in their armor and remained on patrol here.

They did move with some high familiarity of the terrain at least. Given how dangerous just walking around could be for anyone without jump jets or wings. Which was every regular relic armor.

The five scouts led the way out, advancing in quick sprints from rock to rock. They’d already calculated years prior which runs would work and which were too far away to get to.

So travel to the fortress was relatively safe for our group.

“That fortress has more shiny trinkets and ancient history than anywhere else in the empire deary. Relax. I’m certain it’ll work.” Cathida said as we ran. “The other chapters in the empire are all blowhards who waste time on posturing and gold candles. We’re the ones that actually got stuff done down here. The empire will be ready to hear the call.”

“But you don’t know for certain if they have an authentication method or not?”

“Nobody knows anything for certain.” She answered back, tutting. “Faith and confidence gets you places. Stick with your plan.”

“There could be any kind of reception.” Father said, the voice of reason. “Prepare for the worst first and leave hope for the rest.”

I have to say, for a fortress, it looked exactly the part. Not quite the same kind of bunker-city structure that Wrath’s new city was being built around with sturdy ceilings and good protections.