Foundation of All

Sean paced nervously in the ship, wearing a groove in the floor as he walked in a circle. He had categorized everything in the ship, there was nothing that could be used to create any weapons that would be useful. But that would have been fine. But there also wasn’t enough material to give Ash a new body, no matter how simple.

Sean had run the numbers multiple times and the truth was that even if he had the right components he didn’t have any of the right equipment to actually build the thing. The shuttle was designed for two purposes only. Transporting them in and out of the atmosphere, and second blowing up enemy ships that got in its way of trying to do that with its inbuilt weapons.

The shuttle could take two, maybe even three of the ships surrounding him long enough to escape to orbit and the main ship. But there were fifteen, he would be shot down before he made even a single hostile move. And for all that time Lira and Roger would have who knows what happening to them right now.

“Call from the planetary government.”

Sean went up to the front. “Ship, answer call.”

The line opened and the person on the other side immediately began speaking, “Hello. This is the sector Immortal Council Enforcer Team on the line. We’ve just arrived in the system. The planetary government has already told us their side of the story. What do you have to say to defend yourself?”

“My two friends, who are also Immortals, were captured by the swarm of massive beetles that created a massive tunnel system underneath the point where I bombed. One was already too deep, but, I… I had hoped that the other might be caught in the blast so I could rescue her. I failed and I’ve been stuck here unable to help them as the swarm has time to do whatever it wants with them. They dragged us down as soon as they realized that we were Immortals.”

“A likely story. Like the Endless Flesh would have a colony this far into the galaxy without anyone knowing about it.”

“What? The Endless what?”

“Many people make the mistake, but most beasts are just hungry. They don’t know how to handle endlessly regenerating food, but they try to eat it anyway. But those beetles were not targeting you because you were Immortals but simply because you were nearby and were confused on what to do with you.”

“They didn’t seem that confused when they worked together to drag my friends underground to the center of their nest.”

“An understandable mistake. Simple behaviors can look rather complex when you aren’t paying close attention,” the Enforcer said condescendingly.

“Alright, fine,” Sean snapped, “Why don’t you go down there and see just how simple their behavior is for yourselves?”

“Well, that was the plan. Pretty simple case. We drop in, retrieve your friends, and then decide what to do about you dropping that antimatter bomb.”

“Fine. But don’t forget to save my friends while you’re at it. Can you get the local government to let me fly up to my real ship? I’m…”

Best to not say anything that might make them refuse.

“...Bored stiff in this tiny shuttle. I need a distraction to keep my mind off of things.”

“Well, I don’t see why not,” the Enforcer said, “But if we detect you moving out of the system we’ll catch you and destroy your whole precious ship before you can make it out. Then you’ll be in real trouble when we drag you back for sentencing. It will still take us a few days to arrive at the planet, so don’t think we won’t see you running. You get it?”

“Perfectly. Can I go?”

“Yes, we’ll clear it with them. Just wait an hour or two first and then go. Better for everyone if you’re off planet to help calm down the local mortals anyway. You’ve whipped them up into quite the frenzy after dropping that bomb.”

Well, I should expect so. Sean thought silently before eventually replying.

“Understood. Just be careful down there and good luck on saving my friends.”

The comms clicked as the Enforcer ended the call.

Sean finally was able to lift off his shuttle and return to the main ship after the local government gave him the all clear. At least he had something to do now rather than worrying about his friends.

He immediately started working on creating a new body for Ash. It wouldn’t be the same as his old one, but it would make do. It would have to use an oversized bank of batteries that ended up looking like an bulky backpack on the robotic frame.

The only thing that Sean took extra care to install was the nanite factory. That was essential in making sure that Ash could repair his brain and make sure he could stay up and running.

The new frame was bulky, didn’t have any weapons, and its grip strength would be just barely above that of most normal humans. But it should be good enough for now until the emergency was over and Sean could help Ash make a better one. He should bring in Lira and Roger to help them next time, it would be a good group activity…

Sean shook his head. They would be fine. He had to focus on this next part. He tightened the screws and slowly fastened Ash’s old head to the new frame that he had built over the last few days. If he messed this up, then Ash wouldn’t be able to properly control his new body.

Sean finalized everything and waited as the body started twitching and performing a diagnostic. Ash’s eyes lit up and he looked around the room before slowly standing to his feet with the whir of motors.

“This body is subpar,” Ash stated flatly, “What is the situation? What is the plan to retrieve Roger? Where is Lira?”

Sean quickly explained what had happened, and Ash’s eye flickered for a moment as he processed everything.

“This is not ideal.”

“Tell me about it. Even if the Enforcers save them I’ll still end up going to the Immortal Council prison. And they don’t even know who I am yet. We are probably wanted for our escape from Immortus Station…”

“It seems we have no chance of saving Roger and Lira directly. We must instead prepare for our escape when they are finally retrieved. I’m sure that the Enforcers are well versed in combat and will be able to save them quickly.”

“Yes… Yes, they must be. You’re right as always, Ash. I’ve been too focused on rebuilding you to focus on that part.”

“Well now that it is done we can begin planning,” Ash declared, “We must make the most efficient use of our time. I will focus on planning ideal escape routes to the edge of the system while you attempt to manufacture as much ammunition as possible for our weapons in the time we have left.”

“Yes, Ash,” Sean said as the worry within him slowly started dying down. Ash’s calm voice was soothing him, always focused on solutions. “That sounds good. That’s exactly what we need to do. Then all of us can escape together and forget that this ever happened.”

The local Enforcer team for the Immortal Council finally reached the planet itself where the incident had occurred. From the information they had received it seems likely that the Immortal had simply panicked after his companions were taken and deployed weapons that he shouldn’t have.

Not that their leader Frederick cared all too much. It hadn’t been dropped on a civilized area so he didn’t see any reason to do anything but give him and his companions a firm lecture on responsibility. These mortals always got upset whenever an Immortal was involved no matter what they did, especially this planet. It was always so tiring.

After detaining the Immortals, Frederick decided he would scan them to see if they were wanted for any other crimes. If not he would let them off with a warning for next time. Frederick thought it over. Yes, that should tie this thing up nice and in a bow as long as nothing else changed in the meantime. Another easy mission, much less paperwork that way too.

“The Immortal’s ship remains in orbit, no sign of movement?” Frederick confirmed.

“Yes, sir. Nothing suspicious so far.”

“Excellent. Hopefully he doesn’t do anything stupid. Satiana, you stay on the ship for now. The rest of us will go down to get the other two from the nest.”

“Yes, sir!” The rest called out before moving to suit up, including Frederick. Only Satiana remained behind to monitor the ship and make sure the other Immortal didn’t make a run for it.

They all stepped into their power armor and made their way down to the surface. Frederick was fully relaxed as they entered the tunnels with their headlamps on. Their suits created a holographic map that generated a view of their surroundings and a few of their surroundings so they were unlikely to get lost on their way back.

The group of five made their way downward, the tunnels silent around them. Frederick wondered idly if the whole colony of insects had been killed by the radiation from the anti-matter bomb. That would make their job a lot easier. But their suits were machines of war, there was no way for any colony of normal insects to take them on.

Frederick thought about the Immortal’s attempt to exaggerate by implying that this was a colony of the Endless Flesh. Clearly an attempt for him to get out of trouble. Things were peaceful in this sector and Frederick kept it that way. There was no way a colony would be able to establish itself without at least a few of the mortals knowing about it first and alerting him.

They continued through the tunnels deeper into the ground. Still no sign of the swarm. They were far from the point of the deadly radiation by now, and Frederick made a signal to the rest of the squad. These beasts might just be smart enough to set up an ambush.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the attack came. Skittering legs and churning dirt from all sides as the swarm descended on them all at once.

Frederick raised his weapon connected by a cable to his arm and power armor battery supply.

“Fire at will,” he said, “Hold your ground until the beasts exhaust themselves.”

The rest of the squad nodded. Some oversized bugs wouldn’t scare them after everything they’d been through together.

The massive emerald backed beetles rounded the corner, jaws clicking and their round bodies charging full speed towards them, so thick that Frederick couldn’t see the tunnel ground below them.

Frederick opened his gun and opened fire. If these bugs thought they could outlast his squad then they had another thing coming. They could go for days.

And they did.

Days later, Frederick was growing worried. They were still pushing ever downwards in search of the two missing Immortals. It all wasn’t steady going, often they got turned around or took a dead end path, until backtracking to find a tunnel that led farther down.

But despite his initial expectations, the assault by the swarm didn’t let up for a single moment for the entire time they descended. Their armor was scratched and had a few dented plates, but other than that they were mostly unharmed. Even now Frederick fired again to clear the path forward from more of their charred bodies. He checked his energy levels. Sixty percent power left. The rest of his squad was likely the same.

Their scanners were still mapping the maze of tunnels, and a few hours ago had detected a large chamber far below them that they had been making their way towards. If the Immortals were anywhere then they would be there.

They continued fighting their way down, slaughtering every insect that dared stand in their way even as the bugs kept rushing in on them from all sides. This was far beyond the numbers of a nest from even the most aggressive beasts you would usually see.

But it was still possible that it was natural, so Frederick kept them pushing onwards. It couldn’t be the Endless Flesh. Someone would have noticed before now if it was that.

Finally, they were almost in the chamber when suddenly things changed. Pinpricks of green light began fluttering towards them and Frederick heard the rush of wings. One landed on his shoulder before he could react and exploded into a small burst of sizzling liquid. Frederick saw the metal on his shoulder pit and warp slightly where the strong acid ate slightly into its surface. It didn’t do much damage with just one, but if the whole swarm managed to hit them…

He didn’t hesitate for a second and adjusted his weapon for a wide spray.

“Small flyer swarm! Acid release on impact,” He called out, “Jack and I’ll go wide to take them out, everyone else keep on the larger beetles. I think I have to call it. This is an Endless Flesh swarm.”

“Sir? Are you sure? You know the consequences of being wrong,” Jack said as he fired a wide spray of plasma almost like fire into the green specs flying towards them from an adjoining tunnel.

Frederick hesitated, “We’ll keep pushing forward. If one more variant appears, we retreat. We’ve trained for this, we can handle them if they only have this much.”

“Understood.”

Frederick blasted the green specks in front while Jack covered their sides. The other three kept taking out the ones they had been fighting ever since reaching the surface.

They fought, one of the small bugs occasionally slipping through and exploding and causing even more damage to their armor. Frederick wasn’t worried yet, but if this went on for a few more hours then one of them might be in trouble for when they had to fight their way back to the surface.

They reached the large chamber and went inside, and oddly they weren’t attacked, the swarm melting away as soon they reached it. Suspicious.

“Weapons at the ready,” Frederick called, “Make sure to watch the ceiling for anything dropping from above.”

But as they kept going inwards, there was nothing except a flat expanse and an empty chamber.

“Seems like a dud,” Frederick said, “Anything else on the scans? Maybe there’s…”

The floor rumbled and before Frederick could realize what was happening they were all falling downwards. He tried to engage his thrusters, but they were already sputtering and sparking as the massive vat of acid he had fallen into ate away at them.

It had all been a trap, the damn bugs had set a collapsing floor trap over the acid below… Frederick could only try to swim towards the wall as his power armor’s systems began to fail one by one. He was bombarded by damage alerts, but before he could reach the side, his armor froze as the acid finally reached the battery and started eating through it.

Frederick began to sink, but his body twisted around before he went under. He managed to see that Jack and Rana had managed to activate their thrusters in time and were fighting off the swarm that had come back to attack even more furiously than before.

He got on the comms and spoke to them as he started slipping into the acid.

“Jack, Rana. Retreat and get reinforcements. We need to alert the Council.”

“But sir!”

Frederick’s display began to fizz as acid started pouring from a hole it had eaten in the neck of the suit.

“Do it. That’s an order.”

“Understood, We’ll beeeee baaaaaaaa-”

The comms stuttered as acid started flowing in and eating away at the suit internals. Frederick sighed. He would be in so much shit when his superiors heard about this…

“...No, Roger. We shouldn’t give Ash a wig. That would be taking the decision of who she wants to be away from her! If she wants a wig then we should wait until she asks for one. Whatever style we give her would be the person she thought we wanted her to be!”

“Well, you have to admit it would be pretty funny and help you win over Sean for their— Wait, did you hear that?”

Lira strained her ears, but only heard the snick of blades and usual gurgling of the inside of the creature.

“No, what is it?” she whispered.

“I thought I heard— Wait, there! I heard it again. I think more of those big bugs are coming.”

“What do you think they want?” Lira whispered back.

“I don’t know, but let’s try being quiet. Maybe if we don’t say anything they’ll pass right by us.”

“Okay.”

They waited for a few minutes and heard deep male shouting and what sounded like someone being carried towards them by more of the beetles.

And it wasn’t just one, there were at least two or three people all fighting together against the large beetles dragging them in.

“Don’t speak,” Roger whispered so softly so Lira could barely hear him, “See what they say when they think they’re alone.”

“Okay,” She said back.

They waited as the shouting people were presumably put in their places in the fleshy walls.

There was a moment of silence before a deep male voice spoke.

“Call out. Everyone here?”

“Ratul,” a man called out from the darkness

“Listri,” a woman called out as well.

“All right, all in one chamber,” the original man said, “I think we can firmly say that this is a colony of the Endless Flesh.”

“You think, sir?” Listri said sarcastically, “I couldn’t tell by the fleshy walls and being stuck in this wall like a Shadow damned fly on a web.”

“Well, it’s not all bad,” Ratul said positively, “This far in the interior it has no support. I’m sure we’ll make it out of here in no time. Frederick, you saw Jack and Rana escape right? I’m sure they’ll get the word out.”

“That’s right, Ratul,” the original man said, “They’ll make sure that— FUCK!”

The other two shouted in concern, but the original man, Frederick, quickly spoke again to calm them down.

“Wait, wait. I’m fine, both of you. One of those damn bugs just ran by and hit my junk as it went. I was just surprised.”

Lira froze and resisted the urge to laugh.

“Anyway, as I was saying, SHADOW DAMN IT!”

Lira let out a suppressed whine, barely able to hold herself back as the man shouted again.

“By the Shadow I wish I could stomp these little things,” Frederick grumbled, “Rana and Jack better come back qui— GAHHHH! STOP IT YOU DAMN INSECTS, I’ve—”

Lira couldn’t hold herself back anymore and burst out laughing, tears rolling down her face as she laughed at Frederick. She could hear Roger howling along with her in the background, each of them feeding off of each other and making them each laughing even harder.

“Damn, he must be a stud,” Roger said just as they both calmed down slightly, sending them both erupting into laughter again, each of them gasping for breath as they laughed.

“HEY WHAT’S THIS—”

Lira ignored Frederick and couldn’t control herself as she just kept laughing and laughing hysterically, tears coming from her eyes. The bugs started stabbing them again in the meantime, but Lira and Roger barely even noticed. But eventually the two of them calmed down enough that they could register what this Frederick was saying.

“Stop laughing you two, this isn’t funny! I’m an enforcer, you can’t treat me with this kind of disrespect!” Frederick said angrily, grunting a bit as one of those bugs presumably hit his junk again as it made its way by.

“Uhm, the bugs aren’t hitting my junk sir,” Ratul said, “It seems to only be you.”

“Yea-Yeah,” Roger gasped, “He’s— he’s probably too— Big! Hahahahaha.”

“Hahahahaha All- Allright, Roger. That’s, hehehe. Enough,” Lira managed to say with only a little giggle in the middle there, “He’s suffering enough already.”

“Damn right I am,” Frederick grumbled, “It’s bothering me more than these blades at this point.”

Lira couldn’t stop herself from giggling again as he grumbled.

“Yeah laugh it up, you two,” Frederick said, “That’s the thanks we get for coming down to save your asses.”

“Great job you did there,” Roger piped in, sounding a little more serious now, “Getting trapped in here with us is real helpful.”

“Well, don’t worry,” Frederick said, “In a few weeks the Immortal Council will arrive and bomb these things until they are in tiny little pieces. Our companions definitely made it to the surface and will tell them to come.”

“Well, there’s that at least,” Lira said encouragingly to Roger, “After the first team was captured, I’m sure they’ll take it more seriously next time and really save us.”

“With how they treated you, who knows,” Roger grumbled, “Maybe this is just more kiddie shit that they won’t take seriously. Part of being Immortal and whatnot.”

Lira frowned, “Don’t you dare bring that up, Roger. Especially around strangers.”

“Er, Sorry,” Roger said, sounding suddenly guilty, “I didn’t mean it like that. Really, that’s… Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Forgot they were here. Lira, I never…”

“It’s fine,” Lira said even though it wasn’t. She could chew him out later after they were in private when they got out of this place. He should know better than to talk about what had happened on Immortus Station around her. Around strangers. Now her good mood was ruined because he had let his tongue slip.

The three enforcers were silent as they listened in on them.

“You don’t approve of the Immortal Council?” Frederick asked in an odd, almost confused tone after the two of them were silent for a moment.

“No,” Lira said, “We don’t.” No point in denying it now.

“Why?” Frederick asked again as if genuinely wondering.

“None of your business,” Roger said harshly, “Enforcer.”

“Well, it's sort of my job to manage our reputation in the sector. Among other things,” Frederick said, “I’ve never met an Immortal with such a negative opinion of us. Besides people being arrested of course. But usually that's more annoyance than actual dislike of the Immortal Council as a whole. The Council does so much for the galaxy and to fight off the Plaguebringers. That’s why I joined up. Why would you dislike them?”

“What about none of your business don’t you get?” Roger replied, “Back. Off.”

“But…”

“Sir, I’d leave it be,” Listri said, “I understand you’re new to this, but not everyone loves the Immortal Council for all sorts of reasons. We’re all stuck here, may as well play nice.”

“Not love,” Frederick argued, “But to actively dislike them when they…”

“Sir, I’d give it up,” Ratul added, “You’re only on your first tour. We’ve both been on at least five. Trust us when we say it's not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to them.”

Frederick paused for a moment, leaving all of them relatively silent besides the sound of blades in flesh and the plop of guts on the floor.

“Fine. Sorry you two— Roger and Lira. I’ll trust my squadmates on this, I suppose. Agree to disagree?”

Roger waited in silence, and Lira realized that he was waiting for her to answer.

“Fine,” She eventually said shortly.

“Yeah,” Roger added a second later.

Eventually, Lira and Roger began talking with the Enforcers a little. But it felt forced and their conversations were strained compared to the easy comfort that Lira and Roger had from before.