Zarfa placed his hands on Sofronio
’
s face and jerked hard. He snapped his neck, fracturing and disjointing the cervical one vertebrae from the cervical two vertebrae. Sofronio fell to the floor like a limp doll.
“
Good work
,
puppet, will you dance if I ask you to?
”
Badger invaded his mind.
“
Shut up
,
Badger
.
I
’
ll kill you tomorrow and get my friend back,
”
Zarfa thought powerfully enough for Badger to hear loud and clear.
“
About that, he proved to be more trouble than he was worth.
”
“
What do you mean by that?
”
Zarfa questioned
. E
ven in telepathic communication
,
he sounded panic
k
ed.
“
Oh, you
’
ll see,
”
Badger responded
,
as cryptic as possible.
“
Okay, I am heading home, Sarah,
”
Zarfa
said over the com-link.
“
I will heat your food back up, brother!
”
she exclaimed over the connection.
“
Don
’
t be alarmed, but my clothes have blood on them… It isn
’
t mine.
”
“
Okay, brother, I won
’
t… Whose?
”
“
A loud mouth coward, it
’
s okay. Tell her
,
Zarfa.
”
“
Shut up.
”
“
It
’
s best I don
’
t tell you,
”
he said coldly
to her
,
and disconnected.
*
*
*
*
Seven hours until the battle of Ilyeion
Max jumped out of the chair in a hurry. The leads attached to his chest popped off and fell to the floor. His head was aching from the scanner. Luther had tried to explain to Max why it hurt so badly when the waves passed through, but he couldn
’
t really recall all the details of his design with his limited memory.
“
You got it from here?
”
Max asked as he shoved his head through his shirt and pulled it over his chest.
“
You can trust me. I remember this part. It is really
only
a few simple commands with the interface and a waiting period… It won
’
t be ready for…well, three days.
”
“
Okay, damn,
”
Max said with a sigh, slightly disappointed.
“
Three days, Max, for something this marvelous? You really are the sort with little patience, aren
’
t you?
”
Max huffed again as he shrugged at Luther, who was staring at him with his cold, robotic eyes.
“
All right, well, there isn
’
t anything I can do. I
’
ve got to get to Crimson fast. It sounded like something was really going on.
”
“
Leave the rest here to me
,
Max
.
I promise it will all work out.
”
At that, Max sprinted out the door and made his way for Crimson
’
s place. By the time he
arrived
, there would only be seven hours left until the war was to begin in Ilyeion. Max had intended to sleep prior to this in case any of his services were needed. He wanted to be on the top of his game.
It
’
s funny how life never works out how you intend for it to
, he thought to himself.
He dug around in his pocket as he ran toward the main base where Crimson was no doubt eagerly awaiting his return. He felt a few energy boosts in his pocket, pulled one out, and injected it into his neck without breaking pace. The vial shattered behind him as he ran with a new vigor toward his goal.
By the time he reached Crimson
’
s, he was panting and sweating like a junkie going
through withdrawals. He squeezed
through the door
of the elevator before it had even opened. He had
crammed
himself through the tiny opening
so hard and loud Crimson jumped. She was laying on the couch holding her data-pad in her hands.
“
It
’
s about time!
”
she shouted at him as she leapt up from the couch.
“
I
’
m sorry,
”
he said sincerely.
“
Whatever! Power up your bots!
”
“
What? Now? But…
”
“
No talking! Get in there
! P
ower them up! They can fly, right?
”
“
Yes,
”
he said as he moved swiftly to the lab.
“
Good, power them up and let them swarm outside,
”
she said firmly.
“
Okay, but where to outside? They
’
re supposed to track people who have the Psyker Scream augmentation. There is no telling where they are right now. We don
’
t want them out free floating in nowhereville. Then we would have wasted that weapon entirely.
”
“
Don
’
t worry, there aren
’
t any in the city, Max. They
’
re all camped out twenty miles north of the battleground of Ilyeion! Something you would have known hours ago if you had bothered getting here!
”
“
What? Shit! Ilyeion! They can
’
t fly that far!
”
Max exclaimed as he entered the protocols to activate the nanobots.
“
I figured they couldn
’
t, but I have to show my ace now. Seven hours early shouldn
’
t make too much of a difference. You fly them to this location. All of them, in a swarm, cloud, whatever! Get them here!
”
she said, tapping a spot on the map two blocks away from where they were.
“
Fly them up as high as you can, okay, Max?
”
“
Okay, got it,
”
he said calmly as he entered the commands to do so.
“
So what
’
s the plan?
”
he questioned.
“
Gale force winds, time to really test the Pilvikones,
”
she said.
“
I only hope they can transport quick enough…and precise… It
’
s sort of an experiment. You see, I didn
’
t want to get detected so I haven
’
t tested what all of the machines working together can do, but by my calculations…I can get a wind going about four hundred miles per hour. They sh
ould arrive in two
hours, fifty-three minutes. How long do the bots take to be fatal?
”
“
Four
hours?
”
Max asked rhetorically, shrugging his shoulders.
“
You designed them, Max!
”
“
Never tested
‘
em.
”
“
You…you are…
”
“
Ready! Let
’
s
let down the barriers that are holding them back
.
”
Max pressed the final button to execute the commands he entered and a giant
S
alvariantium
container opened up. The bots had been replicating inside of a tank roughly eight hundred gallons in size, and it was filled to capacity.
“
This swarm may not look like a lot, barely a small cloud in the sky… But considering how small they are…there are more bots in that swarm than you could count in a lifetime,
”
Max stated, in awe of his own work.
“
Shouldn
’
t we open the windows or something to let them out, Max?
”
Crimson questioned nervously.
Max chuckled and let out a little snort.
“
Ha! No. Why would we do that? They
’
re nano-particles.
”
“
Yeah?
”
she questioned as she watched an ominous cloud of bots pass through the solid wall into the outside.
“
Nano-particles are small enough to pass in between molecules. Solid matter is of no problem to those little guys. In fact, they hunt out people with the Psyker Scream nanobot augmentation, however, they don
’
t even need to breathe these guys in.
One
just has to come close to them. The bots will do the rest, drilling through their victim
’
s skin and bone if they have to… Though drilling may not be the best word for it
, more like squeezing
.
”
“
So why did the Psykers have to inject their bots? The serum you made for Zarfa? He had to inject that too.
”
“
Well, you see, those bots we wanted to go directly to the blood to administer to the brain and to pass through the brain-blood barrier. In short, I really didn
’
t want my bots passing through his muscle, just going to his brain as fast as possible. A shot right into one of the ventricles of the brain would have been safer and more effective, however, intra-venous should work fine as well.
“
As for Synaptix design… Well, pure theatrics. Also, if you looked at how they were constructed, the way they were programmed to affect the nervous system, there is no way you would want them coming into contact with peripheral nerves. It would
get…ugly. Oh, and muscles, blah. Anyhow, the way they were programmed was to work from the blood to the brain-blood barrier and finally into only the nervous system of the brain. It could have been done
simpler;
however, Synaptix did it that way.
However
,
I wont lie, I am a theatrical guy myself. I only wish that you would be there in person to see it.
”
Crimson had blanked out as Max went about trying to explain to her in
simple
terms the way that the bots worked
. S
he shrugged and asked,
“
Oh
,
what kind of theatrics
?
”
“
I added to the bots a gene from plan
kton that will cause them to be
bioluminescent. The rain will be red as they fall and the bots will appear like a fine red dust to the eyes. I figured it would be a fitting weapon for the leader of the
Crimson Crusade.
”
“
You are too funny
,
Max, and it is a shame I won
’
t be able to see them work in person,
”
she said with a grin.
“
It is going to be cutting it close. Seven minutes before the swarm comes out of the ground is when the Psyker army will begin to feel your bots. I certainly hope this works. It will be too late for Zarfa to retreat. Oh, and Max,
”
Crimson said with a grin as she finished commanding the Pilvikones to send forth her storm of destruction.
“
Yes?
”
he said as a strong wind shook the building they were in.
Being at the top of a sky rise apartment during an unprecedented storm certainly was an awe
-
striking experience as he feared that the building would collapse.
“
While I assist Zarfa here, directing the weather to turn the tides of his battle, I need you to go to Synaptix headquarters and purge them of whoever is behind everything. Think you can do that?
”
she asked in a playfully innocent tone.