W00p, lucky thirteen. Yes, I realize it's been more than a month since I've last updated, but since no one's really been paying attention anyway, I doubt that affects anything.

Anyway. Enjoy. Comments and details are in the next post.

Chapter 13: The Eschaton

The enormous pull on Buster’s center of gravity faded, as he rested on hands and knees where he landed on the metal floor. He was breathing heavily, and was gasping and coughing, as if he had gotten the wind knocked out of him. Buster’s metal, spiked shell reflected the white lights above him as he eventually stood up, his previously laboured breaths slowly returning to normal. Looking around the small room for signs of life or anything of interest, he stepped off the small dais on which he stood. As soon as his foot touched the lower floor, his brother, flanked by a single yellow lizard, entered the room.
Slicer opened his arms in a greeting gesture. “Ah, welcome, brother! You made it!”
Buster scratched his head. “Where am I?”
“Why, you don’t recognize it already? This is your brainchild, your ambition! Your greatest masterpiece to date!”
“Slicer, stop talking in circles or I’ll cave in your skull.”
Slicer gulped visibly, and fell silent, staring at the floor. Which was another bad idea, as Buster was still waiting for an answer to his previous question. “Well? Where am I?”
Slicer looked back up to Buster’s toneless eyes. “This is your super-weapon, the satellite Eschaton. Ready to begin charging, as you requested.”
Buster smiled maliciously. “Good. Those rabbits have interfered with my plans long enough. They’ve foiled my capture of their little friend, destroyed my airship, and generally gotten on my nerves. Slicer, have the weapon ready to fire as soon after it finishes charging as possible. I will not tolerate the rabbits’ meddling any longer.”
Slicer nodded, then turned to the lizard beside him. The lizard quickly saluted to the turtles, then left.
Slicer turned back to his brother. “I suppose I’ll give you the grand tour. Follow me.”
“One question, first. Why did you refer to this satellite as ‘my ambition’ earlier?”
Slicer hesitated. “Remember when we were soldiers under Devan Shell’s rule?”
Buster winced, and rubbed the back of his neck. There were several ridge-like welts there, a direct result of a clash between Buster’s and Devan’s unyielding dispositions, just after Buster’s older brother Ripper’s defeat at the Jackrabbits’ hands, with Devan’s superiority emerging the victor. Buster was punished brutally for insubordination, and Devan stood by, advising Buster that he was lucky to still have his life, let alone his original rank in Devan’s army.
Slicer lowered his eyes to the ground again when he saw his brother examining the welts Devan had administered to him, more than a year ago. “I… I’m sorry…”
Buster dropped his hand from the back of his neck calmly. “Never mind. It’s long past, and Devan’s dead, so I don’t have to worry about it ever happening again. Now, if you would continue…?”
Slicer’s head rose level again. “I recall you telling me that if and when Devan died, you’d take over his army and wipe the rabbits out forever. Where he had failed, you would succeed. I simply took your ambitions and turned them into a physical reality: this satellite.”
“And you did all this because…?”
“Because I’m a better brother, and a better soldier, than that blunt idiot Ripper was. I’m smarter than him, more quick-thinking than him, and most importantly, I’m far more loyal to my superiors. Who is, at the moment, you.”
“So you did this all for me?”
“I wanted to get rid of Devan as bad as you did. Your viewpoint only fueled my will to do something about his overconfidence. When you took command of his army, I set to work on the Eschaton. So, yes, in a way I did do this for you. In another, I did it for myself.”
“In any case, you did it. And it’s readying to destroy Carrotus, I presume.”
“If Tokivi has gotten to the control panel to activate the charging, yes, it’s readying to destroy Carrotus.”
“Tokivi?”
“The lizard I sent on his way.”
“Excellent. Now you can show me around if you wish.”
There seemed to be strips of patterns of lights lining the walls of the long corridors within the Eschaton; here was blue, green, red, and somewhere else was yellow, yellow, green, and somewhere else again would be blue, green, blue, yellow, red, green… Buster lost track of the patterns after the fourth glowing light. He shook his head bemusedly, amazed at what he still didn’t know about what was, apparently, the embodiment of his own ambitions.
After a few turns left and right, Buster began to notice the constant appearance of a blue-blue-red pattern. He was about to finally ask Slicer where they were going, when Slicer spoke first.
“I take it you’ve noticed those patterns of lights along the walls?”
Buster nodded, then realizing Slicer could not hear him nodding, nor see him nodding from behind, replied, “Yes. And they are…?”
“Designed to aid our crew in getting from one place in the satellite to another. Each pattern corresponds to a particular location in the Eschaton. This blue-red-blue one that we’re following leads to the command center on the bridge deck.”
“Ah. Okay then.”
About one half kilometer of walking and a short elevator ride later, Buster and Slicer arrived at the command center. Monitors, keyboards, and all matter of technological paraphernalia occupied the periphery of the room that was the command center, and at each terminal was a turtle or reptile soldier, who suddenly started doing whatever they had been doing before just a bit faster on the Tanks’ arrival. At the center of the room, there was a metallic pillar, and a holographic image floated inside a gap in the pillar. The image appeared to be a multi-hued object, resembling a long, edged staff, with a navy blue ball, with what appeared to be short pipes sticking out in all directions, at one end, and a brightly glowing, neon yellow nub at the other. Five arrowhead-shaped protrusions, each about two thirds as long as the object itself, extended in a star shape from the main part of the object, a short distance downward from the ball top. Buster examined the image for a short while, enthralled with the hologram. Trying to identify the various parts of the mystery object, he walked slowly around the pillar.
Suddenly, the ball at the top of the image turned from navy-blue to grayish-white. Several numbers and values appeared, hovering in front of the image, detailing hull interity, surrounding shield strength, approximate energy usage, and other things so complex Buster knew to ignore them. While the numbers appeared, a computerized voice spoke from somewhere above Buster’s head. “Launch bay.”
Buster saw his brother’s grinning face on the other side of the pillar, and circled around towards him. Slicer stepped away, indicating with a gesture the pad of buttons attached to the pillar with which he had highlighted the launch bay.
Buster began studying the layout and aspects of the satellite at the holographic pillar, while Slicer went about to some of the turtles and lizards at the consoles, checking up on the progress of several issues regarding the satellite.
To one turtle, he asked, “Has your crew finished building the Megalith reactor?”
“Yes, sir. We completed construction just after your brother arrived. It will be up and running full power in about three and a half hours.”
“Good.”
He progressed to a lizard who had just sat down in his chair. “How much has the MEW charged yet, Tokivi?”
“Surprisingly little, sir; only about three percent. I don’t understand why.”
Slicer watched over Tokivi’s shoulder as the lizard tapped away at the keypad in front of him. A screen came up, detailing the amount the MEW had charged, along with an approximation of the time left until it was fully charged. The large red progress bar displayed 4%, and the smaller text below it said, “Time Remaining: 15:59:24”
Tokivi turned around to face Slicer. “Okay, four percent. Nevertheless, sixteen hours is a long time to spend waiting.”
“Well, don’t tell me this! Can you fix the problem?”
“It depends on what the problem is. Let me check something.”
After a moment of searching, the solution came up on the screen, in the form of a reactor diagnostic.
“There’s the problem! Only two of the reactors are actually running!”
“What?!”
“Well, the Caduceus reactor is still undergoing repairs from that burnout, and whoever was assigned to power up the other four only activated the Titan and Moebius reactors. The Colossus and Apollo reactors are still inactive.”
“Holy drat!” Slicer exclaimed quietly. “Is it exceedingly difficult to get those two reactors running again?”
Tokivi picked up a handheld intercom and spoke into it. “Rodar.”
A harsh voice spoke back. “Sir?”
“Are you anywhere near either the Colossus or Apollo reactors’ control units?”
“Me’n Garnas are on the war down to the branch hub anyway, sir. D’you want we should turn ‘em on?”
“Please.”
“Will do, sir.”
A minute or so later, the status for the two reactors switched from Inactive to Active, and several numbers began showing approximate values for efficiency and total output, among others.
Tokivi switched back to the MEW’s charge meter. The progress bar had increased to 5%, and the text below displayed “Time Remaining: 3:57:18”
Slicer nodded. “Much better.”
Tokivi smiled slightly. “Indeed. Twelve hours worth of charging, accomplished in about half as many minutes.”
Buster, after deciding he had learned enough from the holograms, was now standing behind Slicer and Tokivi. He rubbed his hands with malicious glee. “Good. At this rate, the weapon should be fully charged just after this Megalith reactor is running at full, correct?”
“Correct, sir.”
Buster grinned evilly. “Excellent. Today is a dark day for Carrotus and its inhabitants… for today is the day of the Eschaton!”