Eve Sky
Chapter 14 - "Why must you commit these sins?"
by StarCross
Even after being given sapience by her maker, Pike Matador Danya still thought of herself as a machine that had to strictly take orders by their human masters. Being the eldest of her sisters, she had to set an example for them by performing Zoya's to the letter. Questioning her was moot. All that was required for the MA Units was to do the job.
So it was not surprising that when the order to destroy all humans came up, she promptly descended via orb form and lay ruin to all.
She had not done so for almost a week since Jerri and her family was taken into Fortress Eschaton. Then when Zoya suddenly requested her and the others to resume their campaign on the surface, she acknowledged and simply told her:
"Your will shall be done."
But Danya did something differently today. After midnight, she returned to the living level and threw a pebble at Tenaya's window at the large house. Tenaya answered quietly through gestures so she would not wake the children, and Danya gestured back to come down.
Tenaya came in her cute pajamas. "What is it Danya?"
Danya hugged her.
"Jerri recommended me that if I am to love you," she said, "I am to make sure you know everything that I do."
But hugging her isn't a requirement, thought Danya.
"What are you doing?" asked Tenaya.
"There is a mission I must do."
"A mission? It doesn't involve killing people, does it?"
"No."
Why am I lying?
"We don't just do killing," Danya continued. "We also do monitoring duties of the Earth's environment to check the progress of forest regrowth and wildlife reintroduction."
They parted.
"You don't believe, do you?"
Tenaya shook her head. She just pecked Danya on the lips.
"Please go," said Tenaya.
"I'm sorry."
Danya disintegrated back to her orb form and went outside. As she fell into the atmosphere, she met up with Coral Thunder Reese's orb form.
"Where are the others?" she asked her.
"They'll be coming down later," replied Reese. "Our mistress had to perform some last minute checks on them."
"I see. We'll meet back before dinner."
"I can't wait."
They parted ways, with Reese heading to North America and Danya heading to South America. The target was a military and refugee encampment at the foot of the Andes Mountains directly east of the ruined port city of Temuco. Such instant encampments made Danya's job easier the more she attacked, and this one was quite big compared to the ones she encountered more than a week ago. Hovering at the peak of the Andes, Danya formed her body, battle costume, and almost a million flagged pikes. She commanded the pikes to hover in the air, and then launched them all to the unsuspecting people.
They were caught off guard, and even if they weren't they would not have a chance anyway. Very few lucky survivors had a chance to strike back, and in response Danya simply had to appear at the encampment, form another long pike from nearby matter and energy, and launch it to the attacker would then be skewered and stuck like an animal.
"There should be no survivors," she was told. She took it too literally, as there still those still alive albeit skewered to their spot. Whether mercilessly or not, Danya would immediately cut their lives shorter with a slit on the throat with her sword, or a stab on the chest. Usually, there would be about ten or less of these type incidents.
She hunted them down through heat signature, and distinguishing them from burning fires was quite easy for the likes of her. So after much scanning, Danya was about to revert to her orb form when there was a blip on her optical sensors. It was close, and the sounds of tears and wails confirmed that there was at least one more survivor.
"Mama! Please wake up! Wake up!"
She was speaking Spanish, as Danya's translator had determined. Danya walked on foot and saw a child crouched beside her dead and bloodied mother. She remembered the mother as one of the guards she had hit in the initial attack, but she never realized that there was a child with her. On top of that, the pike that pierced her torso had been miraculously removed by the child despite her being six years old.
"Mama! Don't leave me alone!
No matter. Danya had killed helpless infants, so slaying a child would be no different. She unsheathed her sword and raised it high for the one-cut kill.
"I don't want to die!"
But the blade was stuck in the air. Danya was hesitating.
After finally noticing the MA Unit, the little girl wailed even louder and hugged her dead mother, which in effect spilled more blood onto her clothes. Danya redoubled her function to kill the girl, but the troubled machination only shook harder. The blade went down, but it cut nothing but the ground.
Danya staggered back clutching her head in horror.
There is an error in my programming! she thought. Why can't I kill her?
She then remembered a campaign long ago in the military outpost of Mexico City where she and her sisters were sent to carry out many years ago. The order was to eliminate anyone who was associated with a defected created human Zoya wanted to test out, including the subject itself. They had to make it look like it was done by terrorists, and the method to carry out was up to them.
It soon became a bloodbath, and as expected they left no survivors. However, Danya was the last to leave the burning base, and she saw a girl of fourteen years or older shaking her dead soldier-mother who had a pike skewered through her chest. Her hair was black instead of snow white back then...
Danya had always convinced herself it was the others who killed Tenaya's mother. Of all the MA Units, why did had to be her? There were so many errors in her programming and memory circuits in her rendered core. Or perhaps it wasn't just numbers, but actual human feelings? How could Danya ever exist knowing she committed genocide of millions and killed her lover's mother?
She had a bad feeling welling up her that urged her to see if Tenaya was okay. Still retraining her human form, Danya shot off into the air to meet up with Fortress Eschaton, which would be passing over very soon.
Sometime in the past, a man named Joseph Kittinger made a world record of having not only the highest air balloon ascent, but also the highest parachute jump from about 31,300 meters. That was the info that ran into Eva's mind as she and her family fell. It was fortunate that she wouldn't have to experience negative and below freezing temperatures due to her falling from a starting position of about 15,000 meters, which could make her the first highest female freefaller, and the first family to freefall from such a high altitude. They might as well be the first to break speed records.
She remembered an airship attack between rival conglomerates at such an altitude in the distant past, and there were two survivors who survived impact on the ground without a parachute. But they soon died afterwards due to injuries before help arrived. She also remembered that a rich daughter in her family, who loved skydiving, had a malfunctioning parachute during one of her jumps. She crashed into the bushes in the Punjab, surviving with a broken ankle and a punctured lung. Alas, Eva and her family were descending into the ocean just west of South America. Even if they were to survive the impact of hitting the water at such high speeds, there was the problem hypothermia, and then sharks.
Tenaya had in time caught both Nikhila and Odilia, and the held her to bosom. Eva held Evie tightly to hers. Eventually the two adults grabbed hold of each other, for in this altitude it was cold.
"What should we do?" asked Tenaya.
"I don't know what to do!" cried Eva.
"You should flap your wings like this," said Annette as she appeared before them. "That'll produce some resistance provided you don't break your arms."
"Annette! Help us!"
"Um, no. I'm here to gloat over your punishment for dirtying our older sister Jerri. Although it is likely all of you will die during the fall or in the impact, I'd better triply make sure that you do."
Annette clasped her fingers, and pulled them apart to pull out a silvery and near-invisible cat's cradle.
Suddenly her left arm separated, and it was hanging above her while still connected to the silver strings. Danya slashed Annette on her back, sending the teenage MA Unit spiraling upward. Danya then formed a red cape that protectively wrapped around the family, warming them up and providing them with a more tolerable and breathable medium.
"This wasn't part of the deal!" Danya yelled.
"This is exactly why Zoya sent you down you pighead!" Annette yelled back. "We all knew you'd pull some shit like this, and so I come to the conclusion you must die! We won't mind missing one of ours. Plus you're always bossy."
"Take cover!" Danya yelled to the family.
Danya shielded the family with her body as Annette threw out her silver strings from her hands to wrap around them.
"Forget it!" Annette said. "It's not going to do you good."
With one pull, she sliced apart Danya and the family, but immediately she realized it was a clever double or illusion created by Danya. The real Danya and the family were right above her. Annette fired her strings back up them, but Danya countered by sending her cape to wrap around her younger sister's face. As Annette struggled to get it off, Danya formed another pike and threw straight to Annette's head. Annette spiraled downward attempting to disintegrate her invasive attachments, but failed at doing so for the pike's spearhead struck the head of a nuclear warhead.
Danya shielded herself and the family from the ensuing explosion and the radiation. When the bright flash died down and the mushroom clouds cleared, Danya moved her cape so she and the family could see an armada of warheads, high-altitude airships, Gargoyles and Zums created by Conjurer Units, Garuda Interceptor attack robots, and fighter jets coming from all over to attack one thing that threatened the remains of humanity.
"So that's why," said Danya.
Danya used her cape to shield the bullets from the aerial force, and dodged the slashes by the Gargoyles and Zums. Carrying her family, Danya had no choice but to fly back to her home by turning her cape into four fluttering cloth-wings.
"You're not taking us down?" Eva asked.
"They'll strike us if we do so," said Danya. "I won't have enough data-energy to defend and transport you at the same time. Plus, we still have to get your wife."
"Jerri's in danger?"
"No, because she is a success. The mistress--Zoya I mean have sent many of Jerri's predecessors on the surface in order to determine if any of them could impregnate other women. All were failures up until now, and what Zoya ordered for the failures was their complete annihilation. And I don't mean we just kill them outright. Along with them, we kill everyone involved with them."
"Then why haven't you told us then?"
"'Reveal no secrets'. That was Zoya told to me time after time, but never before have I felt so compelled to tell them."
Hours before, Reese had descended into a secret air base that once the home of a deranged lesbian cult. Although it appears to be in shambles due to the invasion of the military forces of the Congregational Corporation, the key parts were well into operation by the remnants of the Unified Forces.
No diligent securing of holes and air vents could keep her from coming in and causing ruin to the tunnel base. Flicking her hand into the air, she sent out a web of corals that pierced through the female and Amazon soldiers, as well as their robots. Immediately, she burst into the first control room she saw, and met up with heavy gunfire.
"Ol' Bella!" cried Sati.
"Don't step away from the console!" said Bella as she fired her assault rifle. "You're the key to amassing the launch of these things!"
Reese flicked her hand, and the corals struck like lightning through all of the soldiers in the room, including the old woman who was yelling.
"I'd better destroy these things before..."
Just then, a techno-dagger struck her chest. She tried to move it, but a spark from its innards prevented Reese from doing so. There was still one survivor, and it was the young woman from the console.
"Good thing I saved that thing," Sati grinned.
"I thought they stopped making those," said Reese. "Who are you really?"
"Sometimes they call me Traveler. Others say I am one of the Lost Capulets. And I was a bit embarrassed when the Muslims referred to me as the Al-Mahdi when I have been Hindu all my life."
"It's quite befitting."
Reese choked. Her body convulsed, and suddenly she imploded into an instant singularity, taking anything within a five-foot radius into a imperceptible black hole that disappeared in seconds, thus creating holes on the floor, the wall, and the ceiling. The coral lightning-webs she created started their slow disintegration, allowing Sati to move more freely in her immediate space.
"Agh!" She felt her right side and came up with blood in her hands. Indeed she had survived the MA Unti's attack, but it took a chunk of her right torso. She shuffled to the ballistic missile control console and inputed the final set of codes onto the keyboard. The rocket thrusters roared to life and pushed their payload through the many opening hatches of the mountain base.
"I invoke thee," Sati recited, "oh Lord Shiva, Destroyer of the foul and wicked."
She fell onto the console, never to breathe again.
The combined attack at Fortress Eschaton forced Pearl Caster Cherise, Blade Ribbon Hina, Flame Sniper Lindwe, and Crystal Dancer Kaguya to return back to defend their home and their data-energy source. With the four of them, holding back the combined forces of the world was easy, and they thought that the Fortress's natural defenses could take care of it. But even now it was too many for them to handle. The intercontinental ballistic missile warheads from the era once called the Cold War were too troublesome to destroy carefully without detonating them. Some were, and MA Units had to put up membrane shields to protect the sub-orbiting fortress from debris and radiation.
"At this rate we won't last more than four hours," said Cherise.
"Not to worry," said Lindwe. "Our mistress will synchronize with the Geomancer Cannons in orbit and destroy the wretched human lot and their toys."
"You know those things are terribly unreliable. We have to hold up!"
"Incoming!" Hina yelled.
Ten ICBMs were dead ahead, and the four MA Units used their power and style to destroy them save for one that detonated prematurely. The debris mortally struck Hina's core deep inside her human body, causing her to convulse inadvertently towards Cherise.
"Hey!" Cherise yelled. "Get away from me!"
"Cherise," moaned Hina. "Help me! I don't want to die!"
"Don't touch me you fool! Stop!"
Hina imploded, taking Cherise with her into a singularity from which they could never return from nor revive from.
"Damn it!" Lindwe cursed. "Kaguya, go cover the west! Kaguya!"
"The Pike Matador had just entered the Fortress," breathed Kaguya. "I must stop her."
"Kaguya, come back!"
Kaguya reverted to her orb form, and reentered the fortress. Lindwe followed her in.
"MEMBRANE DEFENSE SYSTEM ACTIVE."
"Do they realize we're up here?" Eva asked.
"They won't take a chance," said Danya. "Our first priority is to rescue Jerri."
They were in the maglev platform tunnels, but it was blocked off by folding door-barriers.
"Evie," said Danya. "Can you repeat this after me?"
"Sure," said Evie.
"It's simple really. Just say to microphone 'Open up tunnel access four'."
"Open up tunnel access four?"
"COMMAND ACCEPTED," said the system.
The doors folded back open, and the maglev platform stirred into operation, taking its passengers up the winding tunnels.
"I did it!" Evie cried.
"I guess it did work," said Danya.
"What worked?" Eva asked.
"Since Evie has a significant genetic relation to our mistress, the fortress control system recognizes her as a valid user."
"Even with such a high voice?"
"Of course."
There was a huge tremor shaking everything around them. The platform continued regardless until it reached another door-barrier.
"Open the door for me please," said Evie.
"I'M SORRY," said the system, "A BREACH IN THE HULL HAS RENDERED THIS SECTION INACCESSIBLE. PLEASE USE THE EMERGENCY SHAFTS TO THE LEFT OF YOU."
"They'll destroy this place before we get to her!" Eva cried. "We won't have time to navigate the shafts."
"I guess I have no choice then," said Danya. "We'll have to cut our way through."
Danya took out her sword and sliced the wall to her left. A pathway was then carved up from the falling pieces, wowing both Tenaya and Evie into an applause.
They continued on and upward, with Danya leading them like a safari explorer with a machete. Sometimes, she would "feel" the wall with her hands to see if it was safe from electricity, hard reinforced metals, pipes for channeling liquids or gases, or any semblance of security measures.
"You're taking a lot of time with that wall," said Eva.
"There is a lot of electrical lines and pipes in this one," said Danya. "I'll have to cut up, and we may have to jump down into the chamber below."
The Fortress rocked again.
"Hurry up!" Eva cried.
"Aw, screw this!" Danya retorted. "Brace yourself!"
Using her transformable cape as a shield for her human friends, Danya cut without regard. Sparks, gases, and liquids poured onto the ground until the automated chamber systems shut them off. The bright lights that poured out dimmed to a dull glow of red, then to yellow, and back red in repeat succession. Danya motioned to the family to follow her inside as soon as possible. It looked like they ended up in the birthing chambers, but this one was taller and held more capsule tubes. This time, it contained bodies.
Each body was nude, and varied greatly from dark skin to almost pure white. Their hair was generally short to prevent hairs from clogging the pipes and filters. It was as if every race or ethnicity was replicated in each of these created humans, and it even included hybrids. They were most certainly women complete with breasts and a vagina, but their builds were a lot stockier, but not enough to be the enhanced Amazon type or even a man at his prime.
"What's with these women?" Evie asked. Now there was no point of shielding her eyes.
"This isn't the place I visited before," said Eva.
"I thought Zoya showed it to you before," said Danya.
"I only saw the empty ones and the bodies reserved for the MA Units."
"Then she must have only taken you to the prototype section."
"Why haven't you told us?"
"I assumed you knew."
"So all these girls..." said Tenaya.
"They are all Jerri's clones, except they are tweaked for extended longevity, enhanced strength, and devoid of all possible defects. These are Zoya's ultimate creations, a compromise marriage of female and male into one body."
"I get it now," said Eva. "She's been planning become some crazy goddess of a new human race. That's why she's been attacking us."
"I'm sorry."
"And you nearly allowed us to fall to our deaths."
"That's because... she promised me that I could transfer to my human body if I complete one last mission. Because I... I love you Tenaya."
Tenaya felt her heart skip a beat. She then smiled after the love her life finally said the words she wanted to hear since she met her.
"But I killed your mother!" Danya said. "I don't deserve your love! I don't even deserve to be a human!"
"That doesn't matter anymore," said Tenaya. "I can forgive you for killing my mother, but don't ever say that you don't deserve to be a human or my love. The fact that you realized that you love me makes you human. That and your kindness to our family."
"Oh Tenaya."
"I love you too Danya! It doesn't matter if you are machine or human! I love you!"
The Fortress rocked once more.
"First things first," said Danya. "We have to rescue Jerri and defeat Zoya."
"What about your body?" Eva asked. "Not to mention your data-energy link to this fortress."
"That no longer matters now. I've sinned long enough to exist anymore. Your world does not need my kind."
"You know, I fancy myself as a scientist. I will figure out how to transfer to your human body."
"You will?"
"I will."
"That's to be expected from the Daughter of Nataraja."
Tenaya smiled even wider. The dream of giving birth to Danya's children was becoming more real.
Danya and the family ran through aisle of capsules and then climbed up the emergency access stairwell. Then Danya stopped before the door.
"Why did you stop?" asked Eva.
"This level," said Danya. "And they're here."
"Who's here? Zoya? Jerri?"
"My sisters."
Danya stepped out and arrived in the hallway. Using her transmutation abilities, she formed two sets of submachine guns and three pistols for Eva, Tenaya, and Evie to wield. She handed them the weapons, and then her protective cape.
"They won't disintegrate in the even I'm gone," said Danya. "This cape will protect from some of their attacks, and they don't have the strength of a membrane barrier."
"I want to fight with you!" Tenaya said.
"Please don't. You have to protect the children."
"But Danya!"
Danya kissed her, and then she flew off. Immediately, she formed two long pikes from the walls to pierce through the crystal lances thrown at her. Forming her body from the ceiling, the shrouded Kaguya appeared exhaling with a hiss-like cold breath. From her sleeves, she fired crystal shards like machine gun bullets that Danya avoided through leaps and by swinging her sword.
Then the wall behind her melted away when fiery arrow shot through it. Lindwe was to rooms behind her, and Danya formed two pikes that she threw towards her. She missed, and ended up damaging the fifth-dimensional repairing guns.
"Whatever you're doing, please stop," said Lindwe as she pulled back the fiery arrow that bent her fiery bow.
"I'm going to stop Zoya!" Danya exclaimed.
"Zoya knew you'd betray us, but we didn't expect to be too soon."
"We're damaging the repair guns."
"So what? All the more reason to eliminate the human filth and put ourselves in our new bodies."
Lindwe fired her arrows in rapid succession, also like a machine gun. She kept on blasting her way from room to room aiming at walls that hid Danya. Danya, had to parry the close-quarter onslaught of Kaguya. Soon enough, their chambers and the level was sliced up and riddled with holes. Sparks flew from exposed wires, gas steamed violently out from cracks, and liquid bled the metal-organic pipes like blood. The emergency overhead lights blinked intermittently, and the system's feminine voice kept on reporting assorted emergencies and warnings into a malfunctioning stutter.
Danya got the upper hand on Kaguya by lobbing her head off, and then by skewering into the wall with two pikes. Kaguya's head rolled on the floor with a laugh and cold smile.
"Danya!" Tenaya yelled.
"Tenaya, no!"
Tenaya leaped in front of Danya to shield her from the flaming arrow. Tenaya fired as many bullets as she could from her submachine, and by chance they struck Lindwe's core. Lindwe dropped her fiery bow, and staggered screaming and convulsing until she imploded, taking many matter into the disappearing black hole.
"Lindwe!" Kaguya screamed.
Kaguya disintegrated and reformed her human body over the hole Lindwe once stood. At the same time, Tenaya, shot through her chest, fell into Danya's arms.
"Lindwe," wept Kaguya. "You were supposed to be my life partner."
Throwing her shroud away, Kaguya pointed her cold black eyes at the dead girl who killed her lover, and the MA Unit who betrayed them.
"I'll cut her body to pieces!" Kaguya shrieked. "Then I'll cut you!"
From her sleeves, Kaguya formed serpents of crystalline ice that lunged at Danya with daggered fangs. Danya protectively held Tenaya's body as she parried the serpents with her sword.
"Evie, fire!"
Bullets struck Kaguya, and eventually the link to her serpents shattered. Eva was firing her submachine gun, while her daughter used a pistol. Kaguya was forced back, but she immediately began forming her crystal serpents from her sleeves.
Eva and her daughter had to keep on holding out a bit more, and she was figuring out where the core was going to end up in the MA Units body. Eventually, it was struck. The crystal serpents shattered, and Kaguya staggered to the hole where Lindwe was destroyed by space-time atrophy gathered dust and debris as if they were remains into a small pile. Like her lover, Kaguya imploded, and the holes she created were the same radius and a bit off center from Lindwe's.
"Evie, watch after your sisters," said Eva.
"Yes'm!"
Eva ran off to Danya, who continued to look at the deceased Tenaya with disbelief.
"I'm sorry," said Eva.
None of them said anything further. Danya got up, formed a red shroud from a wall and used it to wrap Tenaya in.
"We must hurry," said Danya. "The Fortress's structure is heavily compromised. It's only a matter of time before it goes down."
"Sure," said Eva.
"Odilia is heavy," said Evie, who was holding one of the wailing twins with her right arm. Nikhila was dragged on the floor using the cape Danya gave her.
Jerri held fast on her chair as more tremors increased with every hit.
"What's the status of my family?" asked she.
"Do not worry," said Zoya. "One of the MA Units had picked her up."
"But the monitors went silent."
"I have faith in them."
"The data-energy link hasn't been severed, right?"
"The generator is still active. This fortress system is doing its best to hold together."
"I hope so."
Hours ago, the motherly Zoya put Jerri into a very feminine and frilly Victorian dress of periwinkle blue. Jerri felt out of place in her clothes and embarrassed, but she was happy that her mother was smiling. Zoya took pictures from an old film camera, and even helped comb her short hair and fixed the bow on her head.
When the attacks started, Jerri wanted to go out and search for her family, but Zoya forbade her from doing so. After repeated requests, Zoya remained steadfast and told her daughter to sit still.
"If you went out," said Zoya, "you'd be in danger. I cannot allow it or else your family won't forgive me."
Jerri gave into her words. She sat on her chair to consume the tea and biscuits Zoya took out.
As the attacks increased, the worry began mounting up in Jerri. But Zoya remained calm even though the screens in the music room or the command center would drive a normal person to complete worry. The Fortress was crumbling bit by bit by the Unified Forces attacks.
"Mother," said Jerri. "Are we going to die?"
"I don't intend to give up," said Zoya. "I must do all I can to protect my daughter and her family."
"You'll strike back?"
"The fortress does have offensive capabilities. Plus I can link to the Geomancer Cannons."
"But there are people down there."
"Do you truly believe that they'll welcome us after what we did? How will they react when they find out that you can impregnate women? Think Zoyana, think!"
"I..."
"Exactly. They can never accept us human, so we must be better than them. Now remain still and listen closely to my concerto."
Zoya sat on the harpsichord stool and cracked her fingers. After hovering her hands over the keys for a few seconds, she began playing a mad maestro melody that caused the monitors in the room to light up and flash windows of the Geomancer Cannons in orbit and their targets. They were firing apparently, but Jerri couldn't be sure as there was no live video. However, there was outside footage of the Fortress began firing lasers swatting and shooting down most of the ballistic missiles, airships, aerial robots, and Conjurer Units.
Jerri watched numbly. She already knew that Zoya was actively attacking the remainder of humanity. It was something she secretly wished for, though the sins were great. Besides, she kept reminding herself that her mother loves her.
The door to the room was sliced open. Zoya stopped playing to face the intruders, which was Danya and Eva as backup.
"You're here to take my Zoyana away from, aren't you?" Zoya cried. "You can't! She's my prized possession!"
"Relinquish her," said Danya. "And we'll be on our way."
"I won't! You filthy humans are going to defile and rape her!"
Eva continued to point her pistol at Zoya as she moved over to pull Jerri from her chair.
"I know she's a bit kooky," said Jerri, "and that's she's been alone for such a long time..."
"Don't be taken in by her!" Eva cried.
"Eva, stop saying this! She's my mother! I finally have a mother!"
"Jerri, you had predecessors your mother murdered due to them being defects," said Danya. "She had already sent them out to see if they could impregnate other women."
"Is that true mother?"
"Why yes," Zoya answered. "But I did it out of love."
"She murdered them after they were deemed useless," said Eva. "Then she killed everyone associated with them afterwards."
"But I only ordered it to protect Zoyana!"
"There's already a thousand of your clones ready to be released Jerri. She's killing off the entire human race just so she could be a goddess!"
"I'm not! I'm only protecting my children!"
"Jerri, she tried to kill me. And Evie. And Nikhila. And Odilia. And our unborn child. And Tenaya. Now Tenaya's dead."
Jerri's eyes finally widened, and she forced herself from her mother's arms in order to confront her eye-to-eye.
"It can't be," said Jerri. "You lied to me."
"I'm only doing this for your sake," Zoya said. "I shudder at the thought of making yourself more impure by mating with that woman after she had her child."
"Don't talk about her like that! Eva's my wife!'
"Her lot are imperfect beings. I'm just clearing this planet for you and your sisters."
"I can't believe I'm hearing this. I thought you reformed, but you didn't. You're just a madwoman as Eva had said."
"I'm your mother Jerri. I do all this because I love you."
"You don't love me!"
"I do love you."
"You're not my mother! You were never my mother! I don't want to be with you again!"
Jerri said all this as she backed away to the entrance to reunite with Eva. She then took her bow off and ripped the frilly skirt from her waist. Zoya, feeling as if she was emotionally betrayed and stabbed, fell to her knees and began wailing.
"Zoyana," she wept. "This cannot be. My daughter would never betray me. She wouldn't!"
She looked and stared directly at Eva.
"It was you! You defiled her! You made her like that! If it weren't for you, none of this would have happened!"
"Dear god," Eva said.
"Stand back!" said Danya. "She's coming this way!"
In an in human pace, Zoya ran towards Eva, but she was blocked by Danya who swung at her with a sword. Zoya blocked the blade with her arm, but it did not cut through. Zoya made a claw with her left hand, which then exerted sparks from the fingers. Then she struck Danya's chest with it, and dug through her body to clasp the MA Unit's core. Danya was now screaming in pain as Zoya clenched her fist on the core tighter until cracks began to form.
Eva shot all her remaining bullets at Zoya, and though they hit vital areas, it did not pass through. They just stuck, and Zoya stood her ground as she continued to crush Danya's core.
"Leave her alone mother!" Jerri yelled. She kicked away Zoya's left arm, freeing Danya's cracked core. Then Jerri did a roundhouse that slammed Zoya into the harpsichord, and the impact the destroyed the wood-keyboard instrument. Jerri quickly ran up to her mother and punched her face. She then staggered back, clutching her right face due to the pain of hitting something very hard. Zoya leaped back to her feet and did a one-two kick to her daughter's body reminiscent of Jerri's martial arts style. Jerri fell to the ground as she spat out blood. Her mother pounced her and then she wrapped her cold hands around Jerri's neck.
"I'm doing what's best for you," said Zoya. "Aren't I? You've been defiled by that woman Zoyana. You know that it's best to die honorably than to live forever in shame, right?"
Jerri gagged. She gagged even more as she saw her wife trying to pull Zoya off her. Zoya swatted her easily away with one strike of her left arm. During which, Danya tossed Jerri her sword, and Jerri drove the blade into Zoya's chest where her heart should be.
Yet Zoya continued to choke Jerri, and Jerri felt herself blacking out. Everything was slowing down and she closed her eyes after realizing that she'd die, and what's worse her family would die as well. Then, she blinked once more and realized that it wasn't the world that was slowing down. Zoya was slowing down, and her grip on her daughter's was now mechanical and jittery. She still had the manic face when she finally stopped moving. Jerri pushed the hands off her neck and moved her mother off to the side. Zoya's arms, legs, and even her face remained frozen in place.
"Eva, are you all right?" Jerri cried as she picked her up.
"Ugh, my back and head," she said.
"You can still move your legs, can you?"
"Yeah."
Jerri helped to her feet. At the same time, Danya recovered and then proceeded to remove the sword from Zoya's chest and move her limbs to a straight position. She closed her eyes, and pulled her cheeks in order to shape her face into a calm one. Then she used the broken harpsichord to form another red shroud that she used to wrap Zoya in.
She started staggering almost drunkenly, and she clutched her chest has she breathed hard. Putting Eva on a chair, Jerri caught Danya before she collapsed.
"Are you al right?" Jerri asked.
"I'm fine. Have the system give you a status report of the fortress."
"How do I do that?"
"Just tell it."
"Um, status report please?"
The system responded. "FORTRESS MEMBRANE SHIELDS DROPPED TO 10% OPERATIONAL CAPACITY. ANTI-GRAVITY THRUSTERS AT 50% OPERATIONAL CAPACITY. MISTRESS AGGREGATION UNIT GENERATOR COMPROMISED SEVERELY. OUTER HULL STRUCTURE 50% DAMAGED. ACCESS TO ESCAPE PODS IS CURRENTLY INACCESSIBLE."
Another tremor rocked the Fortress, and they could hear glass breaking. The women now felt the ground leaning, and things began to slowly slide out of their places.
"WARNING. FORTRESS ESCHATON IS LOSING ALTITUDE. IMPACT TO SURFACE IS IMMINENT. ALL PERSONNEL PLEASE EVACUATE TO THE ESCAPE PODS."
"What's our current position?" asked Danya. "Jerri ask the system our current position!"
Jerri asked.
"CURRENT POSITION: PACIFIC OCEAN, LONGITUDE 144 DEGREES, LATITUDE 13 DEGREES."
"That's taking us towards the Philippines," said Eva. "Will this ship hold?"
"I don't think so," said Danya. "We won't survive impact or air friction. I might be able to do something though."
"Like what?"
"If I am given control of the Fortress, I may be able to soften the landing provided we land on a soft place. The ocean will be too hard, and I'm not sure if the land is soft enough."
"The beach then," said Jerri.
"Won't that overexert your powers?" asked Eva. "You'll die if you attempt to save us! You're part of the family now! Tenaya would never want to sacrifice yourself like that!"
"As a family member, I must protect you all. This is what I must do for the crimes I have committed. And for Tenaya. Besides, my human body will be destroyed during the burn-up, and my core is cracked beyond repair."
"I'm sorry my mother did this to you," said Jerri.
"No need to apologize. Now I'm going to create some restraints in this room to hold onto. After we have landed, and if my body does not survive, please give Tenaya and me a proper burial."
"I will."
"Please do the same for Zoya for well."
The covered bodies of Tenaya and Zoya were in a safe position leaning on the door at the railing walkway. Eva and Jerri brought Evie, Nihila and Odilia inside as Danya draped the room with red cloaks to serve as bumpers for her human passengers. Seats for the family was bolted down to the floor, and seatbelts were added in as well.
"Jerri," said Danya.
"System," said Jerri. "Grant all Fortress functions to Mistress Aggregation Unit number 91, codenamed 'Pike Matador Danya'."
"ACKNOWLEDGED," said the system. "YOU HAVE CONTROL PIKE MATADOR."
"Wish me luck," said Danya.
Danya disintegrated, and her orb form navigated through the rubble of the living level and ended up outside of the western part of the Fortress. She formed the upper half of her nude human body that was now merging and reforming the hull as if she was a living figurehead of a crashing ship. Eventually, she created massive wings at the sides to slow down the superstructure and to give it a softer landing on the beach.
Inside however, the structural comprise, the gas leaks, the liquid leaks, and the electrical sparking was further breaking apart the experimental chambers, the MA Units' quarters, and birthing chambers. Soon the capsules containing the MA Units human bodies and the unborn perfected clones of Jerri shattered and then destroyed the bodies before they could awaken to life. The glass of the biosphere domes shattered, and the trusses were twisted until they flew off their foundation. What ever was inside, dirt, sand, plants, and concrete were ejecting out. Fires broke out all over, most particularly in the living level. The house Jerri and her family stayed in disappeared from the lot due to the wind, as did the rest of the buildings and the plants. The church, however, stayed still, but the bell tower collapsed and was no more.
In the command center, the family held fast to their seats. The children were crying in terror of the searing heat entering the room, and Eva assured them, like every parent had told their young ones, that everything would be all right. Yet the system kept on dolling warnings that MA Unit data-energy generator was failing rapidly. Despite Danya's efforts, the Fortress was breaking apart more than ever. Soon the, church flew off its foundation, dangerously exposing the family to the blue cloudy sky.
Jerri held her wife's hand and braced for the worst.
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