The Legion of Nothing

Then he started laughing. I'm pretty sure I even heard a "Mwha-ha-ha" somewhere in there. Then the communication ended, leaving me to hope that it was an ironic "Mwha-ha-ha," because an unironic "Mwha-ha-ha" would be a cliche.

It called up mad scientist vibes at best and at the most horribly wrong end, it reminded me of how Artificer technology had been designed to destroy civilizations either through madness or temptation and runaway self-interest.

On the other hand, we'd come up with nuclear weapons entirely on our own, according to Lee. He'd checked in on it during World War 2. "It wasn't our design," he'd said. "You came up with a civilization-destroying idea on your own, and you're still here. It's one of a few things that makes me optimistic about you guys. You might be resistant to our usual tactics."

Rachel, though, who'd apparently spent her time with the Ghosts fighting Artificer tech, seemed to be thinking along my lines because her response when the PA clicked off was, "Oh, fuck. That's not good news."

"Yeah," I glanced over at the remaining set of black, double doors, the ones that lead deeper into the complex.

"So," I continued, "assuming that clairvoyance isn't an option—"

"It isn't," Daniel said, staring at the doors.

I sent him a ping of sympathy through our shared telepathic connection and was relieved to sense that he received it. "Then we either send Ghost, Shift, or my spybots ahead. I'm voting spybots, but Rook's probably accounted for them."

Rachel used her implant, saying, "He might have accounted for us as well," but then said, "On it," and flew forward through the doors.

"Good news," she reported back. "No one's waiting for us. The bad news is… Well, you'll figure it out when you step inside."

"You're leaving us with a cliffhanger?" Vaughn stepped toward the doors and turned the doorknob. "Hey, it's unlocked."

Then he pulled the doors open. "Oh, man. That's bad."

We crowded behind him and stared through the doors. Jaclyn spoke before anyone else, "Yeah. It is bad."

Amy hadn't been around when we'd fought the True and Higher Ground, but she'd seen Dr. Mind's setup upstairs through Jaclyn and Izzy's feeds. She said, "What's that—," followed by, "Oh. Those."

The room was massive, but unlike the room upstairs, it wasn't devoted to teleportation; instead, birthing chambers ran the length of the room. They weren't Abominator birthing chambers either. Like the one upstairs, they used the Abominator design, but materials you could create on Earth—gleaming metal, glass (or something clear), and ceramics.

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They differed from Abominator birthing chambers most obviously by the big computer screens and run-of-the-mill PCs, keyboards, and mice on each platform.

Each one of the human-sized chambers on the platforms contained a human in various stages of development. I'd spent enough time with Tara to recognize her features on every one of them, male and female.

Vaughn looked over to Daniel, "I thought we'd prevented that future."

Behind them, Marcus said, "Nope. Always in motion is the future."

Daniel laughed, "Yoda's right. If there's enough momentum, elements of bad futures reappear, and the Nine need soldiers. Interestingly, they've ditched Captain Commando clones for the True."

Stepping into the room and looking up at the nearest birthing chamber platform and the half-grown humans suspended in liquid, Cassie looked up. "I'd like to think it's Dad's rebellious streak. What's her face? The original True? I hung out with her and Ronin a couple of times. She was nice. I think her clones would be more compliant."

"Emmy," both Vaughn and I said.

"Right," Cassie said, "She needs to be more of an asshole."

I thought about it and pointed out, "In most universes where they exist, the True do destroy their masters and then humanity, basically anyone that isn't one of them."

Apparently listening in from the Control Center, Tara added, "She's correct, though. Until then, we are compliant. Afterwards, it gets a little out of hand."

"Whoa," Sean stared at the rows upon rows of True. "They destroy the world? You guys thought you destroyed them, but you didn't? Does everybody know this but me?"

Haley looked over at him, "Railgun didn't tell you? She helped in that fight."

"No," Sean's jaw dropped as he continued to stare at the birthing chambers. "How do they do it? Did everyone but me know?"

Dayton looked over at him and held up his hands, "I didn't know. And don't be hard on Railgun for it. It's the kind of thing you should keep quiet about. Tell everyone, and you're causing panic for no good reason."

"Exactly," Rachel turned to face Sean. "It's not something that we need to spread, but here's how they do it—they're like Ronin. They use ordinary weapons, but they predict what you'll do based on information too small for most people to notice."

"And there are a bunch of them," Sean said, pointing at the birthing chambers. "This can't be the first batch."

"No," Tara said over the connection. "They were up here in the powered armor."

Jaclyn nodded, "That's why they were tough."

"We're not going to destroy them now, are we?" I asked.

"No," Haley peered down one of the rows. "We don't have time for all of it, and I don't feel right about destroying them. They could be decent people if they didn't have to serve the Nine."

No one said anything for a moment after that. You could argue that they might not be decent people, but Haley was right. We didn't have time.

I asked, "Does anyone know where the exit is? It's not obvious."

It wasn't. The rows of birthing platforms ran lengthwise all the way to the other side of the room. So if it were to the right, we'd have to run all the way there, and if it were on the other side of the room, we'd have to find a row that gave us a direct view. This wasn't the end of the world, but it was a big room.

"Give me a second," Jaclyn said.

Already hard to see from her armor, she disappeared in a burst of speed. I was still trying to follow her down the side of the room when she ran around the corner to our right and stopped next to us.

"It's on the far end," she said, "but further to the right."