First Contact

Chapter 821: Ultimis Diebus Hominum

They don't know why they want in. They just want in. It was important to them in life, so they have come here in death. - Unknown, Second Zombie War, TerraSol

He turned away from the other servitors, moving back to the edge of the roof, leaning against the retaining wall. He brought the tentacles from the back of the armor, wove them together, and set them on the wall, looking out at the open space.

Thousands of lemurs were out there.

All of them were moaning, screeching, the noise combining into one horrific roar that made his fur try to stand on end.

The one that had reminded him of his past lives moved up next to him.

"They are eating the transportation slavespawn," they said. "I can feel their pain from here."

He nodded.

"We should do something," the other said.

"I know what to do," he said. He closed his suit, felt the systems lock into his nervous system, and looked at the transportation slavespawn.

Four lemurs used leverage to rip away a section of biologically extruded battlesteel to gain access to the living tissue below. Other around them threw themselves face down, pressing their faces into the flesh.

He could see them chewing.

He deployed the explosive launcher, aiming at the transportation slavespawn, and began firing.

The first few hit, throwing lemurs away from the slavespawn, and it took until the fifth hit before the slavespawn was killed.

He moved through all five of the other slavespawn, which were stuck in place by the Master's orders to remain in that spot despite the agony of dozens, scores of jaws gnawing on their flesh.

When the lost one was killed he put the explosive launcher in storage mode and unpeeled his suit, panting with the heat.

"That was... good? Caring? I do not know, but it was something that should have been done," one of the other said.

He nodded.

He could see that the burning flesh and mechanical parts kept having lemurs try to attack them. All eyes down there were looking at the fires. Some of the lemurs staggered into fiery pools of acid or biofluid, not seeming to care about the fact they caught on fire.

"The lemurs, they do not perform correctly," one of the others said.

"No, they do not," he said. He took a deep breath and managed not to gag on the stench of rotting meat. "That smell," he said. He leaned forward, looking down the front of the huge building. "I think it's coming from the lemurs."

"That is the smell of ongoing corruption, necrotic tissue," one of the others said, showing confusion. "Do the lemurs often have necrotic tissue issues?"

He shook his head. "I do not know, but there is just something strange about the lemurs."

"I cut one's arm off. It did not bleed. Just black ooze," another one stated.

He nodded. "I ripped the flesh from one's skull. It did not bleed, it did not react to pain stimulus, as if the injury brought no pain."

The servitors all looked at one another.

"What does it mean?" one asked.

He signified confusion. "I do not know," he looked back over the edge. "I believe the masters did not know about the condition of the lemurs."

He raised his rifle, looking through the scope, until he saw a lemur standing under the light post, just standing there, its jaws clacking. He called it out to the others, who either closed their suits to watch or looked through their own scopes.

The lemur was basically the same temperature through the whole body, roughly the same temperature as the lamp post. He frowned at that. It had a dim psychic aura and phasic signature, not much, mostly around the mouth and hands, but it was still strange.

"Left leg," he stated and touched the firing nerve on his rifle. The rifle made a FWEEP! sound as the crystal went hypersonic.

The lemurs leg splashed apart and the lemur felt over. The round kept going, hit the tarmac, and exploded in a bright flash.

He watched through the scope as it raised itself up and looked around, its eyes empty and covered with a white film.

"No pain response," one of the other said.

"Some of the ones on the outside of the mob are turning to look at that area," another other stated.

"Arm," he said, tapping the firing nerve.

The lower arm flew away, the upper arm liquefied by the hypervelocity dart. The crystal shard exploded when it impacted the tarmac, only a foot or so away from the lemur, obviously having deflected off the bone but not enough of an impact to make it explode.

The lemur turned and looked toward where the lower arm had landed, lifting up its head and obviously making a screeching sound.

Its eyes started to burn a cold amber.

"Lower abdomen," he said.

FWEEP!

The legs didn't fly off. The round punched through and exploded on the tarmac, throwing the lemur on its back.

The lemur rolled over agilely, the hips twisting weirdly so that the legs were still knees pointing up. It looked around, the amber color brighter in the eyes.

"No pain response. Doesn't seem to bother it," one of the others stated.

"Small group leaving the crowd, heading toward the target," another other said. "Random individuals are noticing the small group and heading for or following the group. These ones are stumbling, appear uncoordinated, and are slow moving, unlike the ones that attacked us inside the building."

"What color are their eyes?" he asked.

"Uh... white. Some kind of film or nictitating membrane perhaps," the same other said.

He nodded. "Upper torso," he stated. A touch on the firing nerve and the weapon fired. The impact and the explosion from the tarmac flipped the lemur over. The explosion had torn away the flesh of the chest.

"Look at those ribs," one of the others said.

"Bone," another other stated.

The lemur lifted itself up on one hand and the stump of the other arm, looking around.

"Responsive enough to stimuli to look for its attacker, not intelligent enough to realize the attacker is not close by," he said. "No pain response. No response to massive physical trauma."

The eyes were still a hot amber.

"Phasic aura just came up. Looks like its looking for its attacker. Conical shaped aura in front of the face," another other said. "OK, it's pulling back, dimming."

He noted the amber glow in the eyes was fading.

"Back to barely registering," the other said.

The amber glow was cold.

"Head," he said. A tap on the nerve and the biological accel-coils flashed as the crystal went FWEEP and hit the lemur in the forehead. There was a flash as the crystal detonated.

The entire front of the lemur's forehead was gone as the lemur collapsed.

He waited a long moment but the lemur didn't move. He thought about when he had been trying to clear them off the Master's protective globe. None of them had cared about injuries until they had been struck in the head, then they had simply gone limp and fallen away.

"A hit to the head is the only way to kill them," he said.

"Hey, look at this," one of the others said from where they were standing by the hole. The alarms could still faintly be heard.

Curious, he moved over and looked down.

Robots were grabbing lemurs with pressor/tractor beams and whisking them away. He could faintly hear the robots shouting something as they did so. On the shoulders of each of the robots was a light that rotated, flashing blue and red, and it was painted blue with white edging.

"Where are they taking them?" an other wondered.

"I do not know. Perhaps they are taking them somewhere to be processed into nutrients for the rest, like rule breakers within our warrens?" another suggested.

"Move back, our presence is agitating the ones below us," he said, pointing out at how the lemurs below them were all screeching and pawing at the air, their jaws clacking when they weren't howling.

The others nodded.

"Sweep the roof. Make sure there are no hidden lemurs," he said. He lifted up his rifle and folded his armor up until only his face was visible. "Be careful."

-----

The sun was high in the sky, pounding down on the roof of the massive structure. According to the suits they wore, it was over 300 Kelvin, with low humidity. It was hotter by the edges, where the stench from the lemurs below was so thick as to make the suits go on internal atmosphere.

The servitors had taken off their armors, clustered up around two large metal ducts that were cold to the touch, next to machinery that hummed along. They were lying in the shade, panting from the heat, shifting now and then as the sun climbed higher and higher, until they were actually taking shelter underneath the cool to the touch ducts.

He got up and moved to the edge, staying low, so the sight of him did not agitate the lemurs below.

Several long streams of them were slowly moving away from the building, back to the city.

He watched for a while then returned, stopping briefly by his suit to get a drink of water. He flopped down next to one of the others, in the shade beneath the cool ducting.

"The lemurs are leaving. Not all of them, but some, and slowly," he said. "Perhaps tomorrow they will have all left."

"Why would the lemurs want to live here?" one asked.

He shrugged. "Perhaps they like the heat?"

"They are truly insane," another said.

One of the others stepped out of his suit, wiping his mouth. "The water tastes terrible. Not much humidity for it to process moisture from the air."

He nodded. "We cannot stay here too long. No food. No water. No shelter."

The others nodded.

"Night will come soon. We will make our decisions then," he said.

The others just panted and nodded.

-----

The clouds rolled in late in the day, when the sun was low on the horizon. Thick, gray clouds that seemed to be clouds piled on top of clouds. The shade brought a welcome relief, the breeze cooled off and carried the smell and taste of water.

The servitors on the roof sighed in pleasure and drank from their suits distilled water supply, then moved over to sit next to one another.

"Lemur worlds are extreme," one said.

"Yes," he said.

The sun slipped below the edge of the horizon and all of the servitors were startled at how quickly it got dark, how complete the darkness was.

Out in the wide open area some lights came on.

Together the servitors moved over to the edge, gagging on the smell from below, and looked out over the tarmac area.

There was noticeably less of the lemurs crowded around the building. Long tendrils of lemurs were staggering away from the main mass around the building, all heading back into the city. The crowd had spread out, no longer pressed against the side of the building, but now standing a few feet from one another, swaying back and forth, only responding to shove another one away when it got to close. Here and there small groups stumbled through the crowd, shoved at by others.

"They are aggressive toward one another," one of the others said.

He nodded. "It is as if, even in death, they do not like on another."

"The masters said they were cooperative enough to develop space flight. We have faced their armies, their soldiers, who are cooperative," another said softly, leaning against the retaining wall.

He shrugged. "Perhaps. We see them, now, only in death. We do not know what they were like in life."

"That they are dead yet still move, still are aggressive, still kill intruders, is strange and goes beyond what I know of death," another said.

He nodded. "They move in groups," he looked out. "I don't see any of the fast ones with the red eyes," he frowned slightly. "No ones with amber eyes either."

"Perhaps they all left?" another suggested.

He shook his head. "Or... and bear with my, brothers, this is their passive mode, amber means they're more aggressive and ready to attack, and crimson is full assault mode," he looked down at the crowd. "Our evidence suggests that lemurs had a warrior caste, but..." he furrowed his brows, feeling his head start to ache, trying to wrap his mind around something he had almost no concept for. "what if they are like us and they have no castes, just those who have been chosen to be warriors. So all lemurs are capable of violence."

He ducked his head and rubbed his temples.

Such thought, such contemplation, was for the Masters, not for a lowly servitor like him.

He opened his mouth to continue to speak when a bright flash lit up the night. Purple lightning snaked across the clouds for almost three seconds.

The thunder shook their bones.

As if it was a signal, rain began pouring down.

He looked up at the clouds, holding out a hand to shield his wide eyes from the rain, as the cool water soaked his fur.

The others ran for their suits, climbing in and sealing them up for a long moment. All of them panting. They turned on all the systems, preparing themselves for any attack. Tentacles extended out and then curled up behind the suits, the bladearms extended out then folded back into the torso.

"It's rain. Just rain," he said to the others.

He looked down and noted that the crowd of lemurs had stopped meandering and had turned to face the building.

A few amber glows started.

Then more.

Then it spread out like a wave from right in front of him, the eyes going amber.

All staring up.

His head pounding from the effort of thinking, he realized why.

"Shut down your suits," he said. "Shut them down! The lemurs can sense it!"

He heard the wet sticky sound of the suits unfolding.

He watched as the lemurs slowly stumbled forward, pressing against the building again.

Lightning flashed and the lemurs looked up at the sky, their mouths open, rain bouncing off of their dead faces.

He realized he could see lemur young in the crowd.

He squinted, bringing his vision into better focus.

The majority of the lemurs had bite marks on them. In some places, it looked as if they had been partially eaten. Their chests, their necks, their shoulders, their arms, their legs. All like an animal had bitten them.

He rubbed his temples as he stared.

No, not animals.

Other lemurs.

The epiphany came at the same time as the lightning flashed and the thunder from the previous lightning stroke rattled his bones.

The dead ones had attacked living ones and those ones had died but then come back to attack others!

He turned around and slid down the wall.

He rubbed his face.

Bioweapons? Natural disease? Maybe a function of the lemurs?

He didn't know.

And his head was pounding.

Too much thought.

The others came over and sat by him. They huddled together, using the retaining wall to stay out of the worst of the wind. They all lifted their heads, collecting rainwater in their mouths, swallowing to quench the thirst of the day.

He peeked over the wall.

The amber lights were going out. More and more rapidly as he watched, the amber lights vanished and the lemurs began shoving at each other.

He got up and slowly walked through the roof area, looking down through skylights. The lemurs were largely cleared out.

He wondered when the alarm had stopped. They'd moved far enough away from the big hole that the alarm had been faint, now it was silent.

Several skylights showed the inside of stores. He pressed his face against the macroplas and stared inside.

The sheer amount of goods were mind boggling. He had no idea what most of them were even for.

One of the windows was open and he sniffed. He couldn't smell the stench of rotting meat too badly, but it was still there.

He wasn't sure if it was from the crowd around the building or not.

The lights were dim, mostly toward the center of the building.

As he watched a little round flat robot went by, a flashing red light on it, and he noted that it was sweeping up the dust and polishing the tile floor at the same time.

The shelves and racks and stands were full of clothing.

He shivered, soaking wet and staring down into the store. The warm air coming up through the window made him close his eyes for a moment.

Nobody will care if we take those clothes, he thought. The Masters are gone. There's nobody to tell us no.

Another thought occurred to him.

All we have to do is fight the lemurs for it and the lemurs die if you hit them in the head!

He moved back over to the others.

"Put on your suits far enough for basic function, brothers," he ordered. "Load your rifles, remember your training for fighting inside a building," he said. He moved over and stepped into his armor, feeling the sticky rubbery suit adhere to his fur and wrap around him. He closed it until just his face could be seen.

"What are we doing?" one asked.

He led them back to the skylight, pointing down.

"We're going to go in. We'll be quiet, not using our stealth systems, which the lemurs might sense, and we'll make sure the doors are closed and the windows are opaque," he said. His head was hurting, but he could feel his suit injecting him with something to ease the headache.

"Why?" another asked.

He opened the window all the way.

"We cannot survive on the rooftop, brothers," he said.

"We might be able to survive inside."

He stepped into air and dropped inside.