Tye and John fell to their knees as both struggled with severe disorientation.
As John shrugged off the various packs and weaponry he was carrying, Tye, soaked in sweat, helped him to his feet.
"I have temporality released the Amhrán and Turas Luath," she said weakly. "The transit nearly depleted them and they need time to recover."
"About time, someone showed up," Flint said from behind them in the observation deck.
"Micah!" Tye cried rushing to embrace him.
"I'm fine Middle Sister," he said hugging her and then, releasing her as her sobs lessened, he embraced John. "Brother, it is good to see you, too."
John just shook his head in disbelief that Flint was alive.
"Where are we?" Tye asked wiping the last violet tears from her cheeks. "I can't believe the entities came to you not the ringlet."
"Clever of both you and the entities," Flint said. "And we are in a machine ship called Wrath in the W3 cloud of the Perseus Arm," he added looking up through the dome before picking up and inspecting one of the entropy weapons.
"W3," Tye said thoughtfully. "I think there is something weird about this area of space, but what is it?"
"I've got our exact coordinates," John said studying the tricorder.
"Good. You've come well prepared," Flint said leaning the weapon against the nearest bulkhead and then opening one of the VFA containers to unfold and inspect a flat ring. "But we should be safe here for now."
"Agrona!" Tye said looking out the dome at the ship surrounding them.
"How long?" Flint asked looking at John.
"Over eight years has elapsed," John replied. "And it's 16,951 BC,"
he added looking at the tricorder after holding it up inside the dome briefly.
"Could have been a lot worse, I suppose," Flint said, shaking his head. "I assume you saw my message?"
"The Vulcans saw it first," John said. "And you can tell me over a beer how you pulled that off."
"Brother," Tye said to Flint, "finding you is not the only reason we are here. The machines are destabilizing our fractime's mass field to a point of apocalypse at a location above Sol over two and a half parsecs above the galactic plane."
"I know about the Higgs field," he admitted worriedly.
"We must destroy the signal's source," she said. "It may already be too late."
"The source is onboard Wrath. However, where is the problem," he said gazing out the dome. "The tricorder should pinpoint it."
John handed him the device then retrieved a power cell from a nearby pack for his rifle. He fought a feeling of dread as he locked the cell into the weapon and took a deep breath.
Flint shook his head studying the tricorder. "I have determined the location of the broadcast unit responsible for the signal, but it has been unreachable for some time. And there is another problem."
Tye looked up from retrieving power cells to store in a belt around her waist.
"Life signs," he said. "The machines must have picked up more badlife along the way."
"Stopping the broadcast must be the priority," John said.
"I agree," Flint said. "But we will need help to reach the unit," he added while brushing a control panel on the bulkhead. "We have an ally of sorts on board," he added pushing John's weapon barrel downward.
Tye gasped when the cyno commander appeared on the inter-ship transporter platform and John could not repress a shiver, remembering the creature on the other side of the lifeboat portal near the Lár.
The cyborg menacingly raised four of her mechanical appendages in front of her as more sprouted from her waistband.
"It is okay, Vejay," Flint said soothingly. "These are some of the organic family I told you about."
She cautiously lowered her defenses and then scuttled off the platform to get a closer look at Tye and John.
"Does this one need treatment?" she asked pointing a delicate finger at John causing Tye to laugh.
"No," Flint said with a smirk, "family pigments can vary widely.
Like your red skin and the chess pieces. They will help us save our family and the other organics on board."
Tye looked at Flint with a raised eyebrow, but he ignored her.
"The other organics remain badlife," Vejay said sadly. "Maker has discontinued all conversions. Most have been culled."
"We will do what we can," Flint said with a sigh.
"I have increased the lifeboat's capacity as you have requested,"
Vejay said. "And the instantaneous broadcast will end soon as it nears the required duration."
"I think that's good news," John said to Flint, "as we weren't sure if the threshold had already been reached."
"Still," Tye said, "if the broadcast to the transmitters finishes, there will be no way to stop the mass field going critical in just over ten thousand years."
"Maker's captives are not far from our route to the broadcast unit,"
Flint said while studying the tricorder.
"Wrath's AI," Flint replied.
John shuddered as he wrapped and then fastened a full power-cell belt around his waist remembering the voice of the Navis and then quickly handed another full belt to Flint.
Tye gave Flint a flexible VMA collar. Sliding another over John's head to rest on his shoulders, she then connected it to a feed from his power-cell belt. "The armor will recharge quicker and modulate faster against variable-cycle energy weapons when there is a power cell remaining in the belt," she said. "And the activator is to the left, below your chin."
"We can use the inter-ship transporter," Flint said stepping on the platform along with Vejay, who delicately nudged against him to make room for Tye and John.
They cautiously stepped off the receiving platform into a large compartment fed by several passageways. Numerous mechs, totally engrossed in their own assignments, paid them no attention.
"Do not be anxious. I am transmitting a goodlife cipher," Vejay said reassuringly. "We should be safe as long as Maker does not compute your excess organic mass."
"Don’t worry about me," John said gripping his rifle tighter as he watched a large mech stalk past him.
"The life signs are down there, to the right," Flint said nodding at the throng of mechs in front of them.
They followed Vejay, avoiding scores of machines of numerous sizes and shapes, until they reached a closed hatch.
"You stay here," Flint told John and Tye as the hatch opened. "Vejay and I will assess the life signs."
John quickly glanced over his shoulder at Flint and the cyborg as they disappeared into the compartment. "You okay?" he asked Tye.
"Fairly creeped out would be an understatement," she replied as a tiny mech bumped her foot then continued on its way.
"Just how does this entropy rifle work?" John asked, realizing he had no idea as to the specifications of the weapon.
"It will produce a very thin beam that will last a couple of seconds, so sweep across targets in close quarters combat," Tye replied. "But because the beam is so thin, it can go straight through a target without much damage if does not hit anything vital. Precise aiming or a timed sweep across critical target points is crucial to its effectiveness."
John frowned at the highly specialized weapon.
"Do not worry," Tye said. "Just think of it as a big, water gun that squirts faster."
"Thanks," John said studying the weapon and somewhat more reassured.
"And you should set the optics to a 1X mil dot and disable the laser aim-assist," she added reaching over and making the necessary adjustments for him just as several nearby mechs became inactive.
"How's it going in there," Tye called to Flint as more mechs slowed then stopped in their tracks.
"This is not good," John said, releasing the rifle's safety. "Maybe we should just ease back into this compartment," he added slowly letting his back feel the way, and Tye did similarity.
There was no mechanism to operate the hatch, so they just backed against the interior bulkhead surrounding the opening.
John took a deep breath then looked into the compartment and nearly puked. Flint and Vejay were at the far end out of earshot. A least a hundred tables, arrayed randomly in the space, held dissected bodies of strange aliens. Several small mechs vacuumed multi-colored fluids covering most of the deck as numerous other larger mechs and mechanical appendages suspended from the overhead, probed and manipulated the dying as well as corpses.
"Agrona," Tye whispered turning her head.
Flint glanced up and waved to them to join Vejay and him.
"Let's go," John said, trying to keep his eyes on Flint.
Tye followed him through the carnage. They had to use tables for balance to prevent slipping on the deck covered in organic tissue and fluids. Several weak moans came from restrained bodies as they jostled the tables until they reached Flint next to Vejay cradling a small shape in her organic arms.
"We cannot do anything for these poor souls," Flint said obviously distraught.
"The mechs in the outer compartment are becoming inactive," Tye said.
"Vejay," Flint said softly, touching the cyborg's shoulder. "Vejay,"
he repeated.
She looked up at him with tear-streaked cheeks as she gently laid an infant down on the table; it had mechanical arms and legs.
"Maker has discovered us," she whispered.
"So where's the nearest transporter platform?" John asked looking nervously at the closest mech that had stopped probing a small, furry alien corpse beside them.
"Back where we came from," Flint replied. "Vejay," he said turning to the cyborg, "we must proceed to the broadcast unit. We need an alternate route."
The cyno commander, obviously distraught and lost in grief, retracted her appendages to collapse to the deck. As she reached out to touch a drip of brown fluid falling from the table, the nearby mech reactivated and turned menacing at them.
Tye quickly swept an entropy beam across its body, dropping the resulting two pieces to the deck, splattering them all with the bits of gore.
John saw more nearby mechs turn, taking notice of the live organics.
He tried to release his weapon's safety but discovered he had already done
so. He fired at the nearest mech, shook his head, and then swept the beam across it as more advanced at them.
Tye and Flint joined in the assault, firing at both advancing mechs and ones reaching at them from the overhead.
John discovered sweeping the beam in a circle at a mech, the resulting hole would kill it and significantly damage any others lucky enough to be in the line of fire behind it.
They soon neared the hatchway with Vejay scuttling behind.
"We have got to get to the transporter in the outer compartment,"
Flint said firing as he advanced towards the hatchway, "before the battle mechs arrive."
"Great," John said disabling three mechs with one beam trying to gain access to the vivisection compartment. "I don’t think we'll be able to get out of here," he added as more dead mechs filled the doorway making escape impossible.
"We are in check, Vejay," Flint said touching her bare shoulder gently as Tye and John continued to fire at mechs pulling disabled and dismembered machines from the hatchway.
She extended her appendages to stand incrementally taller. She pointed to a spot on a bulkhead slightly behind them.
Flint swept a beam in a circle at the bulkhead creating an opening.
"Through there," he said and they all backed towards it still firing pencil-thin beams into the hatchway.
Vejay was waiting for them as they entered the hole. "We must run,"
she said and accelerated into the dark passageway before them, her appendages clicking the deck in an offbeat rhythm.
"Activate your armor," Tye said. "Its ambient light should help."
John fought to keep up with the tireless cyborg while focusing on a ghostly outline of Flint's armor in front of him. He ran into his back as he turned to ensure Tye was still behind them.
"There are too many waiting for us at all possible exit points leading to the broadcast unit," Vejay said. "Maker had deduced our strategy, and he sees us even in darkness."
"Great, mechs can see in the dark," John scoffed hearing faint clicking sounds becoming louder behind them.
"The entities have not yet recovered," Tye said. "We cannot yet use them tactically or for escape."
"I feel their weakness as well," Flint said, still catching his breath.
"We can’t stay here," John said.
"Only I can destroy the unit before it completes its broadcast in almost three Sol hours," Vejay said in the dim glow from Flint's armor.
"They will ignore my organics," she added pointing into the darkness behind them.
John, instantly repulsed by the cyborg's offer, knew their situation was awful. "So what's our plan?" he asked kneeling while aiming his rifle back into the darkness.
"If you egress here, below us," Vejay said. "The passage will lead to a hatch used to access specialty shuttles. Maker's surveillance is slightly limited outside the ship."
"Slightly," John muttered as a blue beam from Tye's rifle ended with a thud some distance behind them.
"Tye, the dark-antimatter mines," Flint said reaching past John.
"I'm glad I trust you, brother," Tye said as she passed her pack to him.
Clicking behind them had resumed and John forced himself to take a blind shot in the dark only to see in the flash mechs filling the passageway, grappling to climb over two dead machines.
"Now Flint!" John said.
Flint cut a circle in the deck with his weapon.
John reckoned the plating fell to way too long before clattering below.
"I will topple the black king," Vejay said with conviction as Flint handed her the pack and Tye fired repeatedly into the darkness at the advancing mechs.
He kissed Vejay's forehead. "You are very brave," he told her and then pushed John into light emanating from the hole in the deck.
John winced at what seemed like several seconds of falling but his armor gently buffered the impact, bouncing him to one side. Tye followed, landing on her feet, and then Flint, also landing on his feet as well as holding the tricorder.
"This way," Flint shouted running for a hatchway in the distance.
They only covered a short distance when numerous energy beams passed them. John felt and saw hits on his armor as a heads-up display appeared to the left of his left eye and indicated the armor's decreasing strength as more mech beams continued to make contact.
"We have to deal with these mechs," Flint yelled as he turned with Tye to fire at their pursuers.
John saw a stream of battle mechs dropping from the hole in the overhead. He concentrated fire at those easy targets while Flint and Tye took aim the mechs advancing on them across the deck from beneath the hole.
"Their shielding is not effective against entropy weaponry," Tye said sweeping her beam, in small arcs across advancing mechs.
"Let us hope it stays that way," Flint said while firing.
"Mine's low," John said as a beam hit him in the chest knocking him to the deck.
Flint rushed in front of him, continuously firing and letting John's armor regain full capacity.
Tye knelt to provide a smaller target for the mechs, many now forced to clamor over fallen machines.
Catching his breath, John saw Tye move behind Flint to exchange her rifle's power cell. John resumed firing while still prone as Flint ducked behind Tye to load a new cell into his weapon.
"Flyers!" Tye yelled as a swarm of small mechs exited the hole then flew over their heads scoring hits with pulsating energy beams causing their armor to buzz piercingly.
John, getting to his knees, fired at the swarm knocking several to the deck. He tracked them as they circled the compartment for another run at the defenders now back-to-back firing at the swarm.
"Tye," John yelled, "you and Flint direct fire at the ground mechs.
These fuckers don’t pack much punch." He hit three more flyers sending them to explode against a bulkhead.
"My armor is low," Tye said, and they rotated in unison to put her in cover from the still advancing ground mechs.
John heard another power cell clatter on the deck as he let the last of the flyers swooped through his beam to crash behind him.
"They've stopped dropping through the hole," Tye said slicing the nearest mech into three sections.
"They are getting too close. Peel back!" Flint yelled.
John dropped a dead cell and reloaded as they all backed toward the hatch while cutting large chunks off several mechs just meters away.
Still retreating, Flint's armor flickered as he stepped quickly behind John still firing at a large mech.
John took aim at one of the last three mechs, but his rifle's power cell failed. Tye cut two in half with a single sweep. Flint turned and sliced vertically through the last.
As they reached the hatch, John felt his belt as he kept his rifle pointed at the heaps of convulsing or dead mechs behind them. He had one power cell left that he quickly loaded.
He turned, looking at Flint and Tye who appeared to be just as apprehensive about opening the hatch as he was.
"Only one way to find out," John said taking a deep breath and then pushing what he guessed was the hatch's activator. It flung open as atmosphere raged past them carrying them as well as many small nearby mech fragments into the compartment beyond.
They tumbled to a stop before several large mechs attending to what John figured had to be shuttles. The deck stretched into the distance towards a small opening revealing the gas and dust of W3.
"Fuck," John yelled firing at the nearest mech that had swiftly turned toward him severing all six of its legs. He just managed to roll away as it nearly fell on him.
Tye rapidly finished slicing it in half as a large container bounced off the deck next to John.
Tye and Flint began firing at the other mechs who were throwing various equipment and shuttle parts at them. John was not sure just how his armor would cope with a blow from such massive projectiles that he repeatedly had to dodge in order to avoid an impact.
The mechs instantly stopped their assault; changing their strategy, they started to damage the shuttles.
"Quickly," Flint yelled, "before they can destroy all the shuttles."
They split up to find and destroy any mechs bashing the remaining shuttles.
As the last maintenance mech fell, John's remaining power cell failed, and his armor beeped an alarm.
"Are there any still in working order?" Tye asked as they met next to a sparking, incapacitated shuttle while surveying the destruction around them. "Our armor only provides a few minutes of air," she added.
John noticed a new indicator within the armors heads-up was in the red.
"That one," Flint said pointing across the bay to a shuttle with a large dent in its side, but otherwise it looked operational.
John grabbed Tye by her arm. He felt dizzy and dropped his rifle as Flint and Tye pulled him across the bay to the shuttle.
They lifted him inside and then Flint shut the hatch.
From the deck of the cramped shuttle, John saw his armor's blurry indicator change from red to yellow to blue, sharpen and then vanish.
"One atmosphere," Flint said tricorder in hand.
"Do you think Vejay knew?" Tye said as she studied the shuttle's controls.
"There cannot be too many of these equipped for organics aboard Wrath," Flint said looking out the shuttle's large, front viewports.
Flint turned to John and asked, "Are you okay?"
John nodded and gave him a thumb up.
"Hold on to something," Tye said nervously as she lightly brushed a control, and the tiny ship gently lifted off the deck.
"Okay," she said cautiously brushing another control and rotating the ship to face the distant opening.
"More mechs," Flint said pointing at a side passage.
John saw several battle mechs stride through the passage on the other side of the bay and start firing their energy weapons at the nearest bashed shuttle.
"This is tricky," Tye whispered, intently studying the controls.
"Anytime, Middle Sister," Flint said just as she decided on which control to touch next.
The shuttle instantly accelerated at an incredible rate, flinging them all aft against the closed hatch.
Over Tye's shoulder, John saw through the front viewports the distant opening race at them and closed his eyes.
"Well done," Flint said as they all tried to untangle, weightless, surrounded by the magnificence of W3.
"Deactivate your VFA," Tye told John and then as she gently lifted off the collar, the Turas Luath appeared around him.
"Is it time?" she asked as the Amhrán appeared around her.
Flint, who had rotated the shuttle 180 degrees and was staring back the Wrath receding slowly behind them, nodded.