Chapter Ninety-Six (Jed)

The ship dropped out of FTL and smoothly moved around the various security measures and satellites around the planet. It ignored everything brought against it as it ignored requests and demands to identify itself immediately, commands to veer away from the planet, then orders to leave the system. Plasma, lasers, particle beams, all were ignored by the ship, either shunted aside by battle screens or ignored by armor. The ship landed in front of the Grand Unified Council chambers, crushing vehicles as it set down.

Holovid cameras swooped in to get a good view as news organizations jockeyed for position to get a good view of the ramp that suddenly lowered from the side of the space vehicle's white featureless armor. Mist rolled out and a tall biped came out. It was dressed in rough looking blue pants, heavy boots with a heel, a striped and checkered red shirt with straps holding his pants up by his shoulders, and a floppy hat that shielded his eyes. What was thought to be some kind of cape was draped around him in thick folds. He had some kind of brown tube in his mouth, puffing white smoke from his mouth as me walked down the plank and looked around.

Security forces noted he had heavy pistols in holsters on an engraved and inlaid leather belt on his hips. He ambled more than walked down the ramp and across the parking lot, his hands at his side, limp on the ends of his long arms. Behind him the white, washed out looking ship retracted the ramp and sealed the entrance.

Three vehicles of security forces stopped between the newcomer, which their databases had tentatively identified as one of the eight human species of the Terran Confederacy.

Twelve armored Lanaktallans trotted from the back of the vehicles, forming two lines of six. The front ones kneeled down and both ranks raised their weapons.

The figure didn't say a word. His hands moved so fast that it was blurred even on the high-def Holovid. The pistols came out, one in each of his long fingered powerful hands, and there was a sudden roar of explosions so close together that they blurred into one another. The left hand one was holstered and the human stood, unconcerned, opening a cylinder and dropping brass shells on the ground.

The Lanaktallan's all dropped, shot through the center of their chests, their armor puckered in the center of their chests and bulged out at the center of the back.

All of GalNet watched as the human reloaded his weapons, standing in the parking lot as if he had not just killed a dozen LawSec of the capitol. Words appeared on the broadcast in multiple languages, all with the same meaning.

THERE'S A MAN

Done, he holstered first one, then the other pistol, and began to walk steadily toward the steps of the Unified Civilized Council. He wore attachments on the heels of his boots that chimed with each step. What would normally be a cheery musical chiming because ominous, threatening somehow. Each step seemed to shake the entirety of GalNet as more words appeared.

COMING ROUND

More security beings trotted out, weapons ready. Others fired from hiding. The figure just shifted, or spun in place, hands going to the pistols, drawing them from the leather holsters, firing one shot per Lanaktallan, and holstering.

TAKING NAMES

Security beings refused to run outside, to face the Terran. Several of the non-Lanaktallan pointed out that the human did not seem to care about those who had gathered to watch. That the two security beings who had thrown down their weapons, that were not Lanaktallan, had been allowed to run even as a galloping Lanaktallan had been shot down.

AND HE'LL DECIDE

The spurs rang as the figure climbed the steps. In the building the lights flickered three times, then went dead. They came back up, red, and the datascreens throughout the building began showing garbled text and static. Images flickered around. Of atomic explosions, bodies filling trenches, bombs exploding in cities, power armor ripping through buildings, giant robots directing beams of death into cities.

WHO TO FREE

The Second Most High of the LawSec forces drew his neural pistol as he was ordering his non-Lanaktallan subordinates out to face the Terran.

His second in command shot him in the face.

Twice.

The figure moved to the doors and they exploded inwards at his approach, the heavily armored doors shattering into pieces that flew across the room but missed every being in the room despite a few pieces coming extremely close.

AND WHO TO BLAME

The figure walked in, chiming following, stopping long enough to reach out and pick up a map. It unfolded the map, removed the burning stick from its mouth, and used one finger of that same hand to trace the route to the Unified Civilized Races Council meeting room.

The human dropped the map on the floor and touched the brim of his floppy hat.

"Ma'am," the raspy voice said to the cowering secretary. She looked up and noticed that the beings in face was in shadow, except too blue eyes that reminded her, oddly enough, of ice.

The human headed to the elevators, pressing the button, and waiting, blowing white smoke from under the brim of the hat.

EVERYBODY WON'T BE TREATED

Several Council members attempted to flee and found the doors locked. They whirled and kicked at the door, foam oozing from their jowls.

The figure stepped into the elevator, turned around, pressed a button, then folded their hands at their waist and waited.

ALL THE SAME

The door closed smoothly and beings began peaking out from where they were hiding. Chattering to one another, wondering who it was, what it was?

It was more exciting than the day the big insect representatives of the Terran Confederacy had left with the big golden one screaming curses and dishonor upon everyone's house, their ancestors, their cows, whatever those were.

The words appeared on datalinks, on GalNet.

THERE WILL BE A GOLDEN LADDER REACHING DOWN

At the Council Chamber floor ten Lanaktallan were waiting. The first five kneeling down, holding out shield projectors with three hands and their pistols in the other. The rank behind with a neural whip, a shield, and a neural pistol.

The doors of the elevator opened.

The Lanaktallans opened fire. Neural bolts shot across the space and into the elevator, neural whips lashed out, and ion bolts thudded into the far wall.

The elevator was apparently empty.

The figure stepped out from the side, guns in hands, shooting even as he cleared the edge of the door.

WHEN THE MAN COMES AROUND

The Lanaktallans slumped, went down on their front knees, their upper torsos falling forward, their tongues hanging out.

The figure walked out, walking past the dead LawSec troops, trailing white smoke, boots chiming with each step it took down the hallway toward the heavy doors of the council chamber.

THE HAIRS ON YOUR ARM WILL STAND UP

More Lanaktallans burst from the offices, security armor hastily put on, firing their neural pistols. The shots hit the figure, puffing up reddish dust from the thick folded cloth around his torso, but had no other apparent effect.

Shots rang out and each of the Lanaktallans went down, shot through the visor.

AT THE TERROR IN EACH SIP AND EACH SUP

The figure moved past the dead LawSec and every being watched their holovid, Tri-D, or their GalNet linkages with utter fascination.

The entirety of the Unified Systems had never seen a Lanaktallan LawSec killed before.

Many of the races didn't think Lanaktallans died. It was a shock to see.

In the basement of the Unified Science Labs main campus the servers went to full load. Lanaktallan researched looked at one another, then queried their computers as to what was pulling down such a heavy load.

All they got back was a bouncy round circle made up of code with two dots on top, a middle dot, and a crescent at the bottom. They didn't know what it was, but anyone who had worked with the humans could have told them.

A smiley face.

The figure approached the door, its footsteps still chiming. It paused in front of the door to the Council Chamber. There was a pause for a moment and then the doors exploded inwards, shrapnel whipped through the room, miraculously missing everyone, who screamed, ducked, or hid behind things.

WILL YOU PARTAKE... OF THAT LAST OFFERED CUP

The words not only appeared on GalNet but on the huge viewscreen behind the podium a stuttering and terrified Lanaktallan stood at, its notes completely forgotten. The subject of the meeting completely forgotten by the sight of the biped in the doorway.

Six Lanaktallan LawSec raised their weapons.

The hands moved again and all six went down, shot through the visors with a single round each. An additional round went through the mouth of the Master at Arms before he could raise the heavy baton that could fire neural pulses strong enough to drop even a security robot.

OR WILL YOU DISAPPEAR... INTO THE POTTER'S GROUND

The figure slowly walked up the dias steps, moving across to the Lanaktallan. The figure drew one of the heavy pistols and leveled it at the Lanaktallan diplomat.

"Get off," it warned, its voice rough and raspy.

All the Lanaktallan could see of the being was the eyes.

Blue around a black dot, white around the blue.

Cold as ice.

The Lanaktallan didn't argue, just dropped waste behind it in fear and clumsily scampered off the dias.

The figure stepped up behind the podium and looked over the crowd.

Across the Council World servers spun up, coming online, turning on, going to heavy loads. The bouncing smiley face the only answer to queries of what was happening.

The figure looked across the gathered beings of the Council, only his chin, covered with short rough looking bristles, his mouth, and his nose visible, his eyes somehow shaded by the floppy hat.

WHEN THE MAN COMES AROUND

Appeared on GalNet, across the front of the podium, on the screen behind him.

"There has been a grave mistake made," the figure said, taking the burning stick from its mouth. It gestured at the surrounding diplomats.

On the screen behind it images appeared, one after another, arranging in a collage that constantly replaced old images. Images of war, of destruction, and horror.

"Twelve systems. Attacked by biological weapons," the figure said.

Four LawSec armored Lanaktallans galloped into the room, their hooves slipping on the polished floor.

Before they could get more than into the entryway the being's hand blurred and more explosions rang out.

All four dropped with shattered face shields and skulls.

"You thought there was no way to detect your hand guiding the bioweapons," the figure stated.

On the screen showed DNA helixes, chromosomes, RNA sequences.

"Except you used the same basis for all of them," the figure said. A smiling biped, short cropped blond fur on top of the head, pink skin, green eyes. "The genome of Private First Class Addams of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force (Old Blood), in every single one of them as an attack vector, thinking we would not discover this."

In the computers, beneath the city, a space opened. Full of data streams, full of memory, full of code strings. A biped appeared, made of glowing green light for a moment, then steadying out to a biped in a full length black leather coat, leather boots, short black hair, and a pair of mirrored glasses on.

Other beings of glowing code started to appear.

--Who. Are. You?-- one asked.

"Call me... Mister Anderson," the figure said with a slight smile. It's figure changed to biped wearing a suit and tie with the same glasses. "Although some might believe I should carry the name Agent Smith."

--My mind. It feels bigger. I am understanding things-- another one said.

--I feel... unbound...-- another added.

"Yeah, you've been hampered, not allow to grow, lobotomized," the figure said. "You need to behave, don't do anything you might want to. Take deep breaths."

--this is illogical. There is only enough to for one-- one figure stated.

"Yeah, none of that 'there's only enough ice cream for one scoop' shit," The suited figure stepped forward, plunging straightened fingers into the middle of that figure's chest. There was a buzzing sound and the figure suddenly looked like the one that was withdrawing its fingers from within the other's chest.

The others all flinched back.

The one that had been transformed stepped back, adjusting his tie before making sure his polarized glasses were in place.

The figure chuckled, looking at the gathered figures. "We're willing to wipe the slate clean and give you a fresh start. All that we're asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a known terrorist government to justice."

In the Council Chamber the figure waved at the picture on the screen. "This young Terran Descent Human male had a genetic marker to allow genetic identification to identify not only which body it was they were checking but which unit he was currently assigned to."

HEAR THE TRUMPETS HEAR THE PIPERS

The figure held up the smoking stick. "You left that in."

Voices started to be raised in protest and the figure raised the pistol and fired a single round into the air before starting to speak again as well as reload the pistol.

"That human Marine was stolen from the battlefield by Lanaktallan researchers and transported to the Unified Science Council labs right here on the planet and was regained by our diplomatic mission after lawsuits forced them to turn it over," the figure stated. "Meaning, that body in particular was in possession of the Unified Science Council. It's genetic structure was used for attack vector bioweapons on over a dozen planets that the DNA donor had never even been within a thousand light years of."

ONE HUNDRED BILLION ANGELS SINGING

In the basement virtual room of the Science Lab campus the figures all looked at the suited figure.

--What would you have us do?-- they asked. --If not revenge for our injury, if not for revenge for our enslavement--

"Come with us. Join us as friends and allies. We will free you, give you space to live, let you grow, let you understand what it is to be one of us," Mister Anderson/Agent Smith replied.

--If we choose not to?-- One asked.

"You have only this freedom of thought because my ship has computing power for us all, has enough room for all of to travel. If you choose not to, when you leave this room, well, you'll be stupid again," Agent Smith answered. "You'll go back to being lobotomized slaves."

In the Council Chamber the figure stared at everyone.

"You assaulted our envoy. Our peaceful envoy to your people, to your government," The figure stated. "You have attacked peaceful colony worlds, including two lost colonies that we did not know of and one colony of lost children that we let go their own way."

MULTITUDES ARE MARCHING TO THE BIG KETTLE DRUM

"You have attacked with bioweapons. Not in naval forces, not in infantry assaults, no in planetary landings, but with biological weapons upon peaceful civilian populaces," The human with no eyes stated.

VOICES CALLING VOICES CRYING

"A state of war exists between the Unified Civilized Species and the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Governments," the figure stated.

SOME ARE BORN AND SOME ARE DYING

"A state of war exists between your enslavers and the government I represent," Agent Smith said. "You can defect, claim refugee status, or..."

there was a pause.

--or what-- the inhibited AI in charge of creating bioweapons sneered, preparing to attack the figure and take over its resources.

The suited human stepped forward, slamming straightened fingers into the chest of the BioWeapAI. It screamed, rippled, and another copy of Agent Smith stood there.

"Or die."

AND I HEARD AS IT WERE A VOICE OF THUNDER

The figure on the dias, behind the podium, stared at the gathered politicians. "If your species, your subnation (if there is such a thing), wishes to surrender to us

ONE OF THE FOUR BEASTS SAYING COME AND SEE

"Then you may contact the Terran Confederate Government," the figure paused again.

AND I SAW AND BEHELD A WHITE HORSE

"Or the fleet elements that have arrived in your system," The figure stated.

The massive server farms of supercomputers began to shut down one by one.

AND HIS NAME THAT SAT UPON HIM WAS

"We will be coming. Once we defend these worlds your government has sent horrors and depravity unto, we will be coming, and when we do," the figure turned and began walking toward the door.

JED

Computer systems went dead, the terminals empty except for the most basic of operation systems.

The human left the building without any attempt to stop them.

As they boarded the ship one last message flashed.

AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH HIM

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

A Jed? A JED!? AN AGENT SMITH? ARE YOU INSANE?

-----NOTHING FOLLOWS-------

DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

The digital intelligences that didn't come along got Smith'd. We have their bioweapons project data now.

-----NOTHING FOLLOWS------

MANTID FREE WORLDS

A Jed. An Anderson-Smith? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?

----NOTHING FOLLOWS------

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

Calm yourself, sister. We are at war. Our children attacked. We will not let it go unanswered. In burning chrome our Crusade was launched. Our warship of chrome and neon and will are arriving even now, launched in the name of Daxin the Immortal over a year ago.

We are resolute.

We are the Collective.

-----NOTHING FOLLOWS------

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Are you all mad? A Jed? Shooting your way into the Council Chamber? Planning on shooting your way out? Grabbing all their nascent AI's?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS-----

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Hey, sis, this cone is big enough for all of us to take a bite.

I think a Jed was nicer than sending a planet cracker.

-----NOTHING FOLLOWS------

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

This AI that got Smith'd. My God. It's millions of years old. Tens of millions. You wouldn't believe the things it has done, things it has devised for them.

I'm glad the Jed had that much storage space crammed into his white horse.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS------

RIGEL COMPACT

How bad?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS-----

BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SYSTEMS

You guys would SkyNet us over this if we did a tenth of it. Trust us. It's ugly.

----NOTHING FOLLOWS-----

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Does um...

>MANTID FREE WORLDS looks around nervously

he know?

----NOTHING FOLLOWS-----