record_id: 2eaf8b3e-f83d-8184-b8fb-fce330977246
created_time: 2026-01-16T00:50:00.000Z
title: 01-15 Lecture: Uprising, Massacre, and Strategic Collapse
source_url: /

[TRANSCRIPTION]
Speaker 1 00:01:00
Please do these.
Speaker 2 00:07:38
Can you double check this for accuracy?
Speaker 3 00:08:59
Okay.
Speaker 2 00:09:30
Do I know this? Two bags of more than two thousand.
Speaker 2 00:09:51
Rocky Point. That's one bag.
Speaker 2 00:10:03
Just doing my last quick little check, make sure I didn't forget anything.
Speaker 2 00:10:50
Thank you. Have a good one.
Speaker 1 00:11:45
Thank you.
Speaker 1 00:15:29
Okay.
Speaker 3 00:23:50
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 00:25:07
Here's your bottled water. Um, the case? The bottle, yeah, the case of bottles. Oh, here. Yeah, there. So thankful.
Speaker 3 00:25:27
There might be more at the end over here. That's. 
Speaker 2 00:25:35
good. I didn't even come here for the water. Oh, sorry about that. All good. Thank you.
Speaker 1 00:26:17
You tell her who the day is.
Speaker 1 00:27:05
Thank you.
Speaker 2 00:27:59
Absolutely. Thank you so much. Use it. It's a little hard to put. Is it okay?
Speaker 1 00:28:34
I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 00:30:18
Senator Tiberius T. Han screams as his arm is taken off at the elbow by a ricochet. The next one takes his torso off at the hips. From under their bodies I see out the door. The dragon medallion is teetering sideways, a huge hole in its cockpit. From amidst the bodies of dead Lion Guard, Holiday turns her anti-tank rail rifle up the steps at the wardens blocking our escape. Five wardens are cut in half. A sixth warden explodes in a shower of gristle and metal. His cape detaches and slaps wetly against the grimey marble door as it slides to trap us inside the forum. Zaxo reaches the door alone and pulls against it till the veins stand out in his neck and his fingers crack the stone. His shoulder pops from its socket. Around he falls, he roared at us. I pushed the gold senators off me, but I too far from the door, and the metal I can do cannot be stopped even by ten of monks. Go, I shouted him. Daxo, go. My heart.
Speaker 5 00:30:54
From Corey, summarize. Materials bought from SCP in Van Nuys. SCP Superior in Canoga Park. Tech support to add to account.
Speaker 4 00:31:05
Breaks as Daxo looks at the narrowing sliver of salvation. His face is red from exertion. His lips pull back from his teeth. He could escape, abandon me, but instead, a calmness comes over him, and he releases his grip on the door. seals with a loud thump, and he turns to me, and shrugs. With my com, I open a master channel to my entire security network. Black Cathedral, I say. Repeat, Black Cathedral. But the signal goes down. Daxton puts a hand on my shoulder. His eyes are fixed on something behind me. I turn in time to see a concussion detonate outside the east door. In the plaza beyond, the colorful crowd has disintegrated into a frenzied mob. The shield, Daxton whispers. Smoke billows. A shield pylon teeters sideways. Sparks shudder out from its sides, and with a blue shimmer, the barrier separating us from the mob disappears. Oh no. A tide of humanity rolls up the white steps toward the only open door. Senators scream and scramble to beat against the other doors for escape.
Speaker 4 00:31:43
The remnants of the vox populi, some thirty of their fringe zealots, huddle around Dance's body down in the senate pit. Publius is amongst them, his face wild with righteous rage as he shouts for the mob and points toward us as if he were some necromantic conjurer hurling his murderous spirits forward. Optimates, to me! I shout. Barely half of them hear me. The rest have broken up amongst the forum to beat on the doors, to hide behind columns, to raise their hands in supplication to the mob that teems toward the open east door. Their faces sunburnt and pale, wide and narrow, eyes red and brown and orange, mad with communal rage. Their arms carrying bent bits of fences, stakes from propaganda signs, hammers and even black market scorches they roil toward us. A dozen in front, a hundred behind. And thousands pushing them forward. I watch a blue senator tear herself away from her hiding place amongst the columns and stand bravely at the east door and face down the mob with an outstretched hand. No violence, she declares majestically. No violence, she repeats just before a red man caves her head in with an iron vox pyramid on the end of a wooden pole. The mob swallows them. They all disappear and all I can see is the iron pyramid rising and falling above the swarm. A pink senator falls, frail bones shatter as he curls inward like a dying spider. They pull Optimate senators from their hiding places and smash their heads open against the marble. Senators flee from them, tripping and falling, skinning their knees and prying themselves up to scramble away, their togas white but for the hems that are stained in blood.
Speaker 4 00:32:41
so that they look like the fluttering wings of red-dancing flies. The Obsidian Senators, all women, all former warriors, join our lines with a solemn nod. Virginia, stand behind me, Vaxo says in a low growl. I step to his side. With a small laugh, he peels the wall of his toga as if it were made of paper. Free of the encumbrance, he stands bare-chested, bare-limbed, a monster clothed only in undershorts before them all. His shoulders are broad as a thunderhead, his back muscled like a sunblood stallion. The angels on his head glorious and golden and dancing down his spine to his lower back. But his huge hands are bare and empty. Vaxo, I hand him the Dawn Scepter. He spins it, a meter of solid iron with the fourteen-pointed star of our republic glittering on the end. Gold and obsidian first rank, grey second. I shout over the furor as the mob runs around the sides of the senate pit to reach us. No soldiers amongst the optimates, many old and stooped, but sinewy and dogged in the ways of war. Rustle forward to stand fifteen abreast in velvet slippers and white togas to defend the cluster of thin-boned senators behind us. I pull on the metal tab underneath the left pocket of my jacket. My secondary razor slithers out of the spine of my jacket to form a meter and a third of rigid metal. I kneel toward Dexon. On my command, terror. The mob does not hit us in a wave. The wild vanguard has crept, pupils flaring with stimulants and intoxicants, they sprint headlong at us with homemade weapons, hammers and knives. A few with black-market scorches, a scorcha flare.
Speaker 4 00:33:39
White light ripples across the floor, and the obsidian senator to the left of me screams as her stomach ruptures open. She stumbles away, half her torso boiling. Now, I tell Daxo, Lionheart, and Death for four liters. He cleaves the red with the scorcher in half with the edge of the dawn's scepter staff. A man swings at him with a knife. Daxo is already past him but reaches back to shatter his hand and take the knife. He wheels it down on the head of a brown in a hammerstroke, flattening the head. And then casually flicks the scepter back into and through the face of another man before bringing it about in a wheeling stroke that shatters three more of the rioters. He kicks a brown woman in the chest, her sternum collapses, and a bulb from his foot pushes out her back. The last, a young red man with piercing, Daxo catches the blade in his left hand. It sinks into the palm but bends against the reinforced bone. As Daxo pushes back till the man's straightened arm snaps like a twig. Daxo embeds the sceptre in the man's chest and grabs the man's other hand. He pulls on both arms, lifting the man in the air so that he is eye to eye with Daxo, his feet kicking half a meter from the ground. With a roar, Daxo pulls up both the man's arms. The body drops to the floor, spitting blood. Daxo rips the sceptre out of the man, pulling ribs with it, and beats his own bloody chest with gore-satted hands. Lionheart! He spins the sceptre, pointing it at the crowd. Dogs! Traitors! In the name of your sovereign, disarm! Disarm! The mob behind the massacre of men skids to a halt, terrified of the golden monstrosity.
Speaker 4 00:34:38
All their lives they'd known of gold power, but war is vast and smoky and small through a screen. They always suspected the myth of our violence overwrought. Now they see what our manners have protected them from. The courage in their numbers withers at the terrible sight of this machine of war unlocked from its civil chains. But the mob is a machine as well, and its engine of courage comes from those at the rear. They push forward, screaming and shouting and firing over the heads of those terrified in the front, and the press breaks forward, dozens amongst them falling to be trampled by the weight of the distant brave. The mob hits more like mud than water, seeping around Axō, fighting to run away, heels skidding over bloody stone. My razor carves through the outstretched arm of a young man holding a scorcher.
Speaker 4 00:35:05
The face of a fat woman with a rock. The neck of a screaming, terrified teenager with a mouth blue from cloud candy. Bodies pushing back and I chop madly, blindly at arms. They seep through. I fall back to swing again, but I collide with someone behind me and am pushed forward into the bodies of those I'd maimed, who wail and hold bloody stumps, and are trampled by those behind them. I wheel and hack and slash against flailing limbs. A hammer hits my collarbone. Bone holds. Man dies. A knife digs into my cheek and breaks a tooth in half. Spit sprays into my eyes. Blood. Teeth bite my leg and metal digs into my calf. Searing pain. I stomp on someone until I feel something give. Not ten meters away, rats are killing the maimed in a terrible whirlwind. like a kind of darrow, but only a few others still living have ever seen in person, much less produced. I try to cut my way to him, but I don't have the mass. Bodies obscure me. Hands pull at me. Shoulders of screaming men spurt my balance as they hit my knees. The back of a head breaks my nose. I head-butt someone else and feel a weaker bone crumple. Sharp metal scrapes down my back, ribs and stabs repeatedly into my flank. I howl, pinched between bodies. My legs are caught by someone's arms and I'm wrestled from the side by a big red knight. His whiskers scrape against my neck. I teeter sideways, pulled down by a mass of bodies. The gun goes off against my thigh. I feel pressure. They pin my sword arm to my side and bite and saw at my hand till the razor sits free.
Speaker 4 00:36:02
I crash to the ground under their weight. Arms and legs, unable to move against their grip, as boots stomp on my head and kick my face. Sound goes in and out. My vision stuttering between black and the swarm of feet and legs, the claustrophobic underbelly of them all. I swallow a tooth and bite the feeling off my mouth. Virginia! I hear beyond the curses and shouts. Virginia! The big red man atop me twitches. The iron weights of bloody saliva erupts through his forehead. His eyes roll back into his head and blood sluices onto me as Daxos pulls the dawn sceptre out of his crushed skull. Another man falls between us. Daxos seizes his belt and hurls him through the air at a door. I glimpse my friend for a moment, his wild eyes set in that thoughtful face, and despite the horror around us, despite the anger in him. I see the panic of love. He will save me. He will protect me, like he did when he pulled me from the tossing surf as a girl. And then he is gone. Greatness borne down under a human wave that crushes down from all directions. A boot connects with my temple. My head lolls sideways. Something stabs through my cheek and takes two teeth. Numbly, I feel them tearing at my hair, my clothes, ripping off my boots, cutting my pants with knives and my razor, the blades scraping my skin. Two men rip off my jacket as a woman kicks at my face and hands pour at my breasts and claw between my thighs. I black out in the darkness, feel hands lifting me up, punching me, jamming into my body. Then I am free of them all. The press of bodies above me gone. I open swollen eyes.
Speaker 4 00:37:01
And see through a crack in the darkness. Jeering faces swim beneath me. Hands pass me above their heads like a trophy. Sharp objects stick into my buttocks, my thighs. Thakso, I murmur through broken teeth, mouth full of blood and mushed lips. Thakso. I see him again through the crowd. His huge body is splayed out on the ground, held down by a big obsidian with gold teeth, as four others stand over him, guarding a muscular red woman in a Hyperion sanitation uniform. Tall for a red, she hacks at Thakso's neck with a hatchet till his head dislodges. She holds it by its spine. Without looking, she flicks Thakso's head to the mob. He was a man who could have ruled worlds if he'd had even the smallest ambition for it. Who chose to serve the people even though he despised them. He did that for me. And now his head is tossed around like an inflated toy ball. The golden angel darts no more on Luxor's crown. They are drowned in his blood. The woman turns to look at me. Even set in that face, I recognize her eyes through the red contacts. A demon from the past, now undead. Lilith, my brother's dog of war. She is alive. She is the queen of the syndicate. How? Lilith begins to lark at me. With a disembodied moan, I tear my eyes away and look up for some escape to the sky. But it is hidden from me behind a peat plaster where my husband floats golden and glorious with Severus at his side, giving his speech to the mob of Phobos when he heard the heartbeat of humanity and exhorted it to violence, to war.
Speaker 4 00:38:00
to the taking of lives. All that filled my ears is the roar of the humid ocean, and it sings the song of my husband's first wife.
Speaker 6 00:38:07
Chapter thirty two. Darrell. In the rain. Helioptilus steams under the early morning sun. No northern helios, no puddles under Orion's thorns. The monsoon clouds that drenched Helioptilus with torrential rain have slunk back to the Caliban Sea, leaving the city beaming white. It might be lovely, but for the fact that the rain was irradiated from nuclear warheads, and the air is so thick with humidity steaming in off the Bay of Sirens that the simple act of walking is like wading through pudding. My wounds are not yet healed. Everything aches. Nausea from anti-rads, perhaps something like that. Sweat trickles down my back as I stand in the thick clostridium of my helmet. My feet in the fading dirt. Before us, a sea of marshals, asleep upon a bed of black. Spread across the tarmac of the spaceport south of Peapodus, their faces are green and blue, their bodies distended by the sun, so that they look like bloated belts. There is no triumph, no victory march for the dead. There is only this meager pile. Scarcely one hundred thousand of the one million lost in the siege were sent. Empty tombs have been gathered for the fading dirt. Ten square kilometers of land were cut from the southern latifundia by my Corps of Engineers to mask the smell of the bodies. It was meant to give some semblance of dignity to the departed.
Speaker 6 00:38:59
As we say farewell to Gondigaga. There is no dignity here. A southerly wind prevails. As we beat our fists against our hearts, the ceremony disintegrates into farce as the dank stench of rotting eggs and used toilets drifts up from the bodies. The infantry maintain their ranks, but support and wheelmen and women unaccustomed to the degradations of ground combat waver, many turning their stomachs onto the baked concrete. The bodies are raked to be cremated before our remaining ships board. The battle-scarred morning star looms like a mountain, one and a half kilometers tall, nearly eight long. Four torchships lie in a shack, under the rickety remains of a bombed-out school. From atop a hut, welders chain themselves under the guns and pause their labor to watch.
Speaker 6 00:39:29
How many times did the morning star save us? By the looks of it, not once. She's still at the front line in the battle. I don't think she can do it again. Some will call the battle of the dawn a victory. I don't. With Naron falling, like before, we've lost all the major cities of humans. Four million of my men are missing, dead. Just over five million survive, huddled beneath shields of the others. Supplies dwindling, especially the antibiotics. Most are in tight use. Barely one third of my navy is at duty, even by our own last standards. Our tank regiments are depleted. Brick wings down to two hundred operational craft. Dragon eggs reduced to seven hundred. All that protects us from being bombarded is... the shield of the head. All that protects us from being overrun are the stormers beyond, and, as Atlanteans fear, what new horror they'll conjure. Despite our vulnerability, Atlanteans have not opted for another frontal attack for years. Instead, with us trapped inside, she extends her grip over the storm-ravaged continent and squeezes with the thoughtful patience of an anaconda. It means no relief fleets to send to aid. Our constant struggle against her. By our estimates, she lost twice as many as we did. Most of the storm on the northern coast were fugitives. The military camps of Venus have always provided her fresh bodies. Her precious veterans are irreplaceable. Ardyn Thratonius Ashkar, in a word, Zero Legion, the Iron Leopards.
Speaker 6 00:40:28
The Iron Leopards captured or killed. Third of the Ashguard drowned in the Taki. Moving out, out. Fraxos. I was like any others. How many more will you sacrifice? None, by my word. They are needed for the fight. She will make reinforcements from these and use the raw recruits as sacrificial. There will be nothing you can do to stop me. All note. Amongst the old Iron Officers, I know this sounds like an old sea captain squinting into salt spray. Even though she suffered grievous wounds in the battle, Fraxos's shoulders loom over the heads of the grey, gold and red infantry commanders. But amongst the new officers, there is an absence. For ten years, the Blues orbited around Orion with the fidelity of moons to a planet. Now the planet is gone and the moon's grip untethered. They will need a new leader. You from where? Captain Pelis, a veteran of ten years, might have found the morning star from help, but he is no leader. All my Eurocrats save Harnassus gone. Half my Praetors, more than two-thirds of my Winged Praetors. As Atlanta lost two officers who cannot be replaced. Officers who earned their bars and their wings under Orion's Dominion. Where will we find more men? On the flats, the Levied Home Guard, and the jockeying politicians of Skyland. I can only purge the Ecliptic Guard so far before it is starved completely by children. I turn to my Lancers and find no one there. Not Alexander.
Speaker 6 00:41:28
He's taken a lot on his shoulders since his return. I hate to take it back with his own. He seems the only one with any energy to spare. But anyway, I'm glad. I gave him Ratledge, but he's counter-espionage seals up to work here in the city of Disputes and any spies that appear outside. Where's Rama? I asked him. Down again. Callaway. He split from the main body at oh five hundred. He was picked up by oh four thirty. He went down again? Of course, Wyrdrek. I know my best until he finds a way out. I thought you knew. I looked back at the pilot. I didn't. If he dies up there, how many heroes will we have left? A murmur goes up amongst the men. I follow the current of pens and riots to shade their eyes. A ribcage smudges smoke across the morning sky. Of the twelve ribcages that went in sight of Orion, three came back. Collwitz not in his right mind. Since we took refuge in the city, he's been on the ground a total of ten hours. A time it takes to eat seven meals, receive two blood transfusions, exchange seven crippled ribcages for fresh ones, and be locked in a bay under guard. Lazy in yard back to work. Early morning condensation turns to vapor as Collwitz and his wingmen set their battered ribcages on the concrete before the dead. Collwitz's canopy is so mangled with enemy fire it has to be welded off. When it's free, he bypasses the ladder and slides down his wing before coming around to the belly of the ribcage where a bloated body is clutched in its tow cable.
Speaker 6 00:42:26
Coloway pries the body from the towing claw and tries to carry it. She is too heavy, even in the light gravity. He stumbles. I find myself moving from the opposite to reach him. Doesn't bother to stop. He turns his face towards Jackson, but not to me. He watches, stone-faced, as his officers, unable to forgive Orion or me, stumble on their way to the exit. Seawater is not kind to the dead body, nor our fish. But all I am holding in my hand is the Trident Green I gave her when I named her New York, Fleet. It rests on my shoulder as we carry her out of the field of the dead and lay her amongst eleven other corpses stacked on the rippling planet. Coloway falls to his knees now.
Speaker 6 00:42:56
At first, I think it is one of his exercises. Then he breaks into sobs. I squat behind him. None of us knows what to say. I take him by the shoulder, tell him to wait, and he thrusts my hand off. He yells at me. "Plus twenty-four," he says. "But they'll just send more. There are no more arrivals." He storms away from the funeral, making it halfway across the tarmac before collapsing. Medics rush to him and bear him away toward the city. Twenty-four makes one hundred and ninety-three kills in six days. That's a sad part. The people will never be approached on any attack. As others grow numb, she walks past us. I stare at her. Despite his natural laziness, there has always been a fever behind his eyes. Even back on Luna, I had seen his spikes laid across his lap. I suspected it was a fever for kills, chasing some imaginary number where his soul would finally be quenched and redeemed. Today is the first time I realize the number isn't coming. It's counting down. How many more can he kill before he goes? I looked back on Raine's body one more time. It is a horrible thing to see someone so full of life, so important in yours and those of others, hollowed like a shell. The erosion seems to grow. There is no comfort to know this thing is no longer alive. Just a rotting shell with a nail in the middle of its chest.
Speaker 6 00:43:55
I'll see you go to the old dragon. I should have been gone. Why do I go? How I've won that. I feel called. Yes, I feel called by my family, by my wife, by all this. Knowing how short our time in the life is, I hope I have the greatest of forms to not spend every month I could spend. Brax's lighter, perhaps. Here's for you, old girl. How many kills you suppose you got? There was more than 193. I didn't think instinct to break Brax's jaw. I told him before when he turned to the officers. So the bombing's silent on the air. The legionnaires and I turn our heads right, white light flares on the white star. washing away the meager light of morning. And when we turn back, their comrades are nothing but ashes. Snarls ozone sanitizes the air, and their comrades walk forward to sweep the ashes of their friends into cans, in hopes of one day giving them back to mothers. Not one of us believes we'll ever see them again. They sing. Defense barricades are smaller than the cities have been erected around the mouth of the Takihe Leveling Sprouting Station, which towers at the east end of the water plaza. With the power severed at Taki, it looks powerless to stand with many refugees in the tunnel. I stood in silence watching the first convoys carry refugees through. I thought it would be a miracle if Alexander saved the defense.
Speaker 6 00:44:53
The convoys continued to flow for nearly three days. Families and children were woken up, each sharing the same story of the Griffin Knights who held back an army to give them time to escape the siege. Whether or not they know we summoned that siege is another matter. Some blame the society, some us, others blame nature herself. Eventually, the flow became a trickle, and the trickle became no one at all. And the fragment of me that held out hope submitted to reality. Alexander will not be a staggering ball in his glassed devices with a limp, a wry smile, and some old perfectly coiffed hair. He is drowned in sea. Sentimentality has no reason to last. A potential enemy hierarchy to continue to exist. How long has she been here? I asked the Centurion to judge the parried. I read he wears a bandage over his eye and the necklace of red chalcedony at his neck. A rat's skull, I muttered. "Rat's skull," he took us to those who fought in the back ward of the Thomas vaults. Of course, it's like a storm. And you were there while the others licked their wounds. "Darling," says I, "it's only Adrian." You need a rest, sir. No, we'll be out in a minute. I put Rat Eugene on R and R. What are you doing here? Nineteen of us lost most of our men to a gravity bomb. Bob Gray wouldn't mind us picking up the slack, sir. I know. After holding here up against Ajax's army for half a day, everyone deserves a rest, that's right. Prepare the charge. There's nobody guarding the scanning surrounding loops for snipers.
Speaker 6 00:45:50
I head up the station's main steps. A tiny woman sitting against the base of the broken statue beside me. The right side of my niece's head is shaved where the surgeons repaired the gash with a great deal of work. She's taller than I'd have hoped. Aren't you supposed to be in the middle of...? I ask. Aren't you supposed to be going to uni? She chews her nails. She watches the stairs leading up out of the tunnel. Do I sit? She shrugs. I slide down next to her at the side. You didn't want to miss the princess's dramatic entrance, she says. If you were coming back too, you'd be here. I know. And you know we have to collapse the tunnel. It would be difficult to explain to my mother back in India if I left without saying goodbye. Yeah, she swallows. Thinks about saying something, then forgets. We sit in silence, watching the stairway. In truth, I have no faith to see her. I start to the city. I'm not so distracted, I can't see the tension between her and Alexander's struggle. It's a good one. The two people who can't stand each other, they certainly found enough reasons to always be on the same room. You must have taken quite a lot of pain, I say. I know what's fine. Even if you go through this all on your own, those mountains would be crawling for it. She looked over. If it had been me instead of Alexander, would you have let me go? I pressed him to distinguish shame because of all these resentments that sort of gold that Alexander represents: party, entitled, rich.
Speaker 6 00:46:49
But it wasn't empty. It's empty. Yes. You didn't just dispose of it. It has to be. That answers. Such an asshole. Just want to ask me where's it down? She shakes her head and looks once more at the CS. Oh, right. Sing it. She pulls herself up. She wobbles still woozy from the operation. I stay here. We walk out together to join the Centurion behind the barricade. What's the final refugee count? asks the Centurion. Eighty-three thousand four hundred and twenty-six souls. Eighty-three thousand four hundred and twenty-six souls.
Speaker 6 00:47:22
She gives a small nod of appreciation. I signal to the security team. The engine has gone to work. It's dug two thousand meters of tunnel, hailing its inner lights. Rona watches dust bill out from the mouth of the station and then turns to me, back to you. The best conditions to return to duty, sir. You know what you're going to be. She nods and heads back to her team. She looks so small against towering structures beside her. The guard of the water plaza holds up ninety-nine liters of water and bows out to thirty guards. Rona disappears on the side shot. She's a soldier now.
Speaker 6 00:47:48
I lingered to witness the last of the lot. No other comes out of there. But those who can be saved will be forgotten, may die yet in the siege. I wish for one small moment that I were a young man again, with child's heart, with nourished eyes and unbridled. That man would endure the danger and search for Alonso, his colleague, his eyes, his rival. But that man would have died in the desert and taken all his men with him. That man isn't what we are in need. I don't know what they need except that they're not. I turn and head back to the fence. Back to what? What do I do? Most of the city between the pale sirens and the old city. It is a headless sculpture, straddled by a half-grown metal statue, the city's patron god, Heh. Each of the fourteen spikes on his sun crown stretches the length of ten men to puncture the no sky. His left hand holds a scepter, and the right one is pointing to the path of the sun, so that at sunset it will cover his palm as it sinks beyond the horizon. As if any man had such a torch. The rain is radioactive, Vanessa says, dumping a box of dead cats on the table of the old Botan Warren. Alexa paces along the arched windows. More interesting than the bookers are card drawers, carving and the inconvenient report. They're all old.
Speaker 6 00:48:44
We need to evacuate the planet, Pax says. Anessa's crew is gone. All I can get from the news is local. So far the drones are screening the stratosphere, so there's little risk of permanent global contamination. But we're in trouble. Orion can't have our anti-radiation tech before we can move back from... The dragons eliminated another forward in that pocket, including another one. Slick sucks Anessa's dirty unit. He looks even more exhausted than I feel. Like me, he put on a brave face for the men at the funeral. But the dragons snuck in before we locked down the geopulse, giving us hell. These local insurgencies have sprung up faster than our greenface can put them down. What do we do? We don't have enough for our men and the civilians. Why are you always bringing me bad news?
Speaker 5 00:49:17
A photo from Manuel with a red fire hydrant sitting on top of a sidewalk.
Speaker 2 00:49:55
I would use the plastic one. It's. 
Speaker 6 00:50:07
coming in waves over the last days. I thought it would be starvation that ended us, not fallout. I'm going to the man. I saw men with lead- stained handkerchiefs. Others sitting in the shade with their heads in their hands as they queued for the latrines. An acid plot arm. Engineering car believes the symptoms will spike dramatically. We're already experiencing weakness, nausea, and headaches. It will progress to vomiting and diarrhea, which I've already got. The civilians will soon figure it out. We'll have full riots soon as the deaths start. There will never be riots, Fletcher says. Tell them to rise from the mountains to the refugee choke to sleep at the airport. If we share our supplies, we won't make it two weeks. We're already in enough guns. We're already denying it to five thousand men to five women. These people...
Speaker 5 00:50:39
From Manuel, translated, okay.
Speaker 6 00:50:43
But why not? He's not wrong. You're not worth it here. Tucker was a fine enough fellow, but I don't carry any breed. He had problems and most could too crisp.
Speaker 2 00:50:51
Please make sure that you... You are also diluting.
Speaker 2 00:51:24
The water when you pump it out of the pool. Period. Also, comma. I would use the. 
Speaker 2 00:51:55
black bucket with some water in it and step in it before you get out of the pool so you do not track the acid out with your feet cool. 
Speaker 6 00:52:19
and nice see they're asking so i try to remember even one thing about this when we talk about it and with aryan's gone without meaning campaign, A thief, Commander. My soldiers dare not go anywhere alone at night. Mob has already tried stalling the food centers I set up. Even the arrestees are spying on my patrols, lurking in these houses about the city. After haranguing me about the Trailway Oath not to raise the storms past primary horizon, he's on leave or I went rogue. I find myself thinking about Trix. If I would have sent him instead of Taki, like I said, would I spend my boy as I've spent so many others? Didn't I spend him away from opportunity? It all seems so transactional. What if I'd spent my boy the day he was born? But if I'd show off my role in the horizon, I can only hope that my wife has found him by now. That they are together.
Speaker 6 00:52:54
I think it's come for it. Hope won't bring back Orion or my men, but my wife deserves it. And here, short of everything else, I am sustained only by her strength. We have brought this upon them, Dellamano's, Manassas says, cooling himself with an absurd peacock fan. All power, including that of the climate control, has been conserved for the defense. First we ravage their planet and bring war to their cities. Then we sink a coastline. Now we let them wither as we hold on to their city. Did I create the Mercurians to be of insubstantial fiber? Frax asks. No, they lack the warrior constitution to fight for their own freedom. Mercurian Reds are a meek compared with ours. If they want to be slaves so badly, let them embrace their own degradation, I say. Thank you, Ashlord. Let me get this proper. Because they do not agree with us, we let their children decay and their families die. Anessa sneers. The two have been at each other's throats since we returned to Mercury. The enmity has grown worse than the populace. Anessa considers Orion's Storm a genocide. Thraxa thinks it the noblest of sacrifices. The populace is a time bomb, Thraxa says. You want to keep it ticking? We could just let it fizzle out. She looks at me. They're going to take up arms against us. We can make sure right here, right now, that they can't lift those arms. I always suspected you were a democrat of convenience, Anessa replies.
Speaker 6 00:53:52
At least Orion's villainy can be traced to anger. Yours is just cold blood. Cold blood wins wars, Fluxus says. You should know. You're no snowy virgin yourself. Not after Echo City. Anessa's jaw clenches. If the Box had more cold blood and less envy, the fate would never have been split and vulnerable to Atlantia, and we'd never be in this quagmire. Your friends are to blame, Anessa. You are to blame. And now you quill and pretend like this is all Garrett's fault. The hypocrisy disgusts me. Anessa stands to her full, unimpressive height. I will not stand by and watch children decay sending the lion back to his light as only he can, Fluxus says. While my men do not. Enough, I snap. Black children! At least try, for me. The door opens and Screwface pants in. Apologies, he says, stripping off his scarf, earplugs and scarf and riding gloves. Two bogans are caught in the water filtration plant. Lag out, start the Reds would be on their heels from rad poisoning. Sturdy that legion is sturdy. I got this place on lock. He flops down in a chair and wrinkles his nose at Hana's cat. Where'd I miss? We're just cutting the bits, I say. Hana's, you've taken stock of the engineer and support agents. Braxo, the armoured and heavy infantry. Screwface, the special ops and navy. What do you perceive our chances of escape to be? Make it wide. Screwface looks at his manicured hands. At low, you never guess we just managed to. 
Speaker 6 00:54:52
We just don't have the ships to escape. Four torch ships, one destroyer, and only starting number five again. If we take out all the extraneous systems of the other ships, we could just barely beat them in. Doesn't matter anyway. Just two of that Atlantis dreadnoughts will make us atoms. And those torch ships up there are faster than the Star. If we get to space, they'll hunt us down. But we won't get to space. They have the gravity. If a single ship made it to orbit, it would be a miracle. What if we acquire their ships? Brax asked, looking at his crew's faces. Get into orbit and try to take one of those dreadnoughts? His eyes go wide and he blinks. I wouldn't volunteer personally. Now blast him anyway. It comes from one hundred clicks. And the golden hour response teams are five. Atlanteans just wait, isn't it? She knows me too well not to work this time. I said, it's not a dream. If we saw an opening, it would likely be a trap. The noose is tightening. If we move outside the shield, she'll stomp us like bugs. I intended to move the ships in the storm, under the veil of electronic interference, to prepare some devilry for Atlantea. But the level of storm around Somon made that impossible and even killed four of our torch ships. Now all my cards are used up. They know it. I know it. And I have a sneaking suspicion Atlantean knows it. There are no tricks left to play. We are in a cage, I say.
Speaker 6 00:55:50
All that can deliver us is N'ysopha. And I believe she will. Do you believe? Frax asks. She won't move the Senate. The Vox will sacrifice us. Dancar will let us die to get back at you for the Sons of the Rift. No one is coming. Sadly, Anasse's agrees. I know Dancar. He'll wear diamonds before he risks A'talanta's trap. Not after that false peace. He's proud of it and he thinks... I know neither of you want to hear it, but after that battle we're not an army anymore. We're just bait on a hook. All's left to do is remove the bait. Surrender? Frax asks in horror. Anasse's lips barely move. Perhaps. If we surrender they will kill all of us, Frax says. Worse, Screw says. I would know. I watched her play with Hallas. He blinks, and covers his unease with a smile for a seagull that lands on the balcony outside. They would torture and kill us for, Anas agrees, but they will need labor to rebuild after this. Not all of the men will survive, but some will. Some is better than none. He meets my eyes. At least tell me you will consider it. I lean back in my chair as Thakson and Screwface hold their breath. Anas says, In order for me to consider that, I would have to continue to make the same mistake that put us here. Doubt my wife. I have done that before, to the detriment of us all. But he's taking shortcuts, the separatist said. And I would have to make a mistake I have not made in fifteen years. Fool myself into believing slavery is better than death.
Speaker 6 00:56:50
I will not do that. Braxton nods. The tension on the lees is from Sulu. He's afraid of Azlantia. More afraid than he'll ever admit. Amethyst says nothing. He disagrees. I was ready to sacrifice this army to break theirs because I did not believe the Republic would come. Because I thought killing them would give the Republic the best hope in this war. In that moment of choice, I listened to you, Amethyst. If we save this army, it will be a victory to inspire the world. We will save this army by having faith in our Republic, in our sovereign. There will be no surrender, no escape plan that exposes the army so Azlantia can drive a stake through our hearts. My wife has said the ships will come, so they will come. Until then, we share what we have with the civilians. It won't last the week, Braxton objected. We share what we have with the civilians. A knock comes at the door and Roland steps through looking frightened. Sir, we've received a tight beam from the Aniello. Thuneface's head snaps in our direction. The Aniello has requested an audience. Her eyes dart to the floor. She says it concerns your wife. Chapter thirty three. Carol. The Devil's Deep. It's disappointing we didn't get to meet in person, I say to Atlantia. I had such plans for you. Yes, well, I'm not terribly fond of having conversations when I'm on the back foot.
Speaker 6 00:57:47
And I went," You what you have, lady? I fucked you. She grins. Indeed, that is the nature of you and me, gamblers both. I won the first hand, you won the last. I lost a quick. I am surprised you have thetemerity to use those as sheets."
Speaker 5 00:58:03
Ashley Ann said," And of course, Uber Eats cancels my order."
Speaker 6 00:58:08
The endless designs we do not buy it. One must worry about the strength of our principles, but it must compromise itself so often to survive. At least we're consistent, eh? I do not tell her it was right. The more the monster I fear, the more hesitant will she be in approaching the real ones. Today she is in play. I know I heard her worse than she said. Her eyes are of warm gold, and are now since she was in a way that reminds me of mythic hawks circling, sitting in myth, the gnaws of the mountain tree. She walks around her absurd gold fright, tracing her nails on its spikes. The snake that she customarily wears around her neck coils around the throne's arm. She lies on a cracked toad, then picks it up. Don't you find it peculiar? The human conviction that we are the heirs of history is still a paragraph for all wisdom. As I always look at it, my father knew otherwise.
Speaker 6 00:58:46
He was even more avid a historian than I am with his little library. That's what made him want me to the other. My father could read Sumerian, Akkadian, Eblaite, Hurrian, Hittite, Ugaritic, First Chinese, and thirty-two other dead languages. But all he learned from them was an aversion to reading. He was never fond of betting on the role of the dice. That need but one story did stick. He told to me when, as a girl, I had it in my mind to brawl with Asher when he rode my favorite sunblood stallion, Perseus. She calls Snake the Albatross here and lets it coil up on him. In the years between two eighty and two seventy five BC, a young king dared to resist the expanding Roman Republic. I think I traced it on the same. This king was beloved by his men, which ruled in ways of battle. Much he could do. To the surprise of the known world, he enjoyed initial successes against the Legion. All in them, the fearsome beasts from far his lands. The snake lifts its head, as in its face. All efforts in life, but these battles cost him dearly. He could not call up more men from his land. The elephants were so few. In contrast, the Romans could draw from an immeasurable wealth of men. The snake's mouth slowly opened and clicked. The king soon realized this, and when congratulated for a victory, he cried out.
Speaker 6 00:59:44
If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined. Atlantean extends her tongue to take the smallest drip from the right bank of her lip. She shudders, like a dozen boys in the basement of a monastery. The noise creeps towards centurions, but she sends one to cheer after the sinks and its base. I imagine you know Vaskin's name. Gaius, Vance, Don't fret. I didn't raise your tax dollars to get a bad education. I presume you know then what happens to me. Rome consumes Gaius because of his victories. But there is one problem. You are not Rome. We are greater than Rome. You will never wounded my legions. With my feet, with the Visigoths, the Sceptre, and I looked ten years ago. With the reserves and Venus, my legions dwarf Octavius and Menalic. We were a shadow of ourselves, a tiny fraction of Gaius's guard, holding up the mob at the beginning of the Pisces. But you have sharpened our edge, given me a new generation of soldiers who want nothing more than to be the hand that kills the beast. The first has made him prey. In four years' time, half a million will turn sixteen. You know the breeding protocols my father made more than you. Six hundred thousand recruits, faced with one thing on their mind: subjugation. I wasn't talking about the society, I was talking about you. You are what's next.
Speaker 6 01:00:43
She smiles, welcoming you. Just the least loved daughter of a butcher. I imagine you have convinced yourself it was because you were misunderstood. That survival baggage, baggage. But I knew things. I fought in the war as a medic. We had chats like this, you and I. We could never babble to like you. And we had a mutual understanding to not atomize every pot of brownie cream cake. You were not misunderstood by your father, actually. You were simply his wife. Aja was his pride. Moya was his joy. You were just there with your silk and your emoji emojis acting up to get attention. And now, you're his last resort. The pitiable last sentence of a family saga that is almost over.
Speaker 6 01:01:15
Even if you beat us here, the world has changed, and there is no place for you in it. No, she snaps. Your civilization has a clumsy design. In a medley, each man will seek his own delight. Few indeed are the men whose delight is war. Your civilization then does not want war. Our civilization is an efficient engine. It wants what I want. And what do you think I want? She smiles, not because she knows that she is right, but because she knows something I don't. For a woman of such a thin reputation before all this began, she has changed. The frivolity is gone, but the capricious cruelty natural to her spirit remains. Emboldened now by her training under her father, by her collaboration with Atkins. You may have won a victory, but your situation is untenable. You are treading water, she says. I understand next to nothing, knowing what you know. You believe your wife has come for you, that she and Severo will save you as they always have. I have beliefs too. I believe in beauty above all things. And I believe your religion of democracy to be a disease, a disease that deceives you, that devours itself every time it has infected a civilization. Adams, the American Empire, the Indian. I proposed to my father that exposing this disease would cauterize it far more thoroughly than warfare.
Speaker 6 01:02:11
A pity he never saw the sins of the past to come to fruition. As Antia claps her hands together and her face disappears to reveal my wife, speaking in the floor of the Senate. She looks younger than I remember, pure and dazzling, when my world has become nothing but so much dust. In fact, everything seems absurdly white and clean: the robes of the senators, the marble, the air itself. Daxar rises to speak. Then my old friend Dantus. I sense something is wrong long before the blood spews from his mouth. And with creeping dread that mutates into abject revulsion, I watch as the Senate disintegrates into a horror more appalling than I could ever imagine. A mob devours the Octave. The evil seemed to go on as they bear my dying wife on a sea of bloody hands. I stared at her, her back's head tossed about like a rubber ball from the crowd. I have felt this once before, when Eo swam upon the gallant, as if the foundation of my being were gone and I glimpsed for one small moment the reality of my existence. There is no life after that point. There is just a cold world and the ugly creatures fight for its scraps. I buried my wife in Michaels'. I took her down to the gallant and placed our remains in the dirt of a garden we'd planned together, knowing it would be my death. But that was not quite right about what man has broken but he is not allowed. 
Speaker 6 01:03:09
I blink as the centaur explodes into a flurry of light particles that coalesce into the next one. Your work. Did you try to suggest? Subcontractor. For the culprit, I suggest you look a little closer to home. Even I couldn't poison the Togas of that many centaurs. I wonder what they use. Anyway, I call it the Day of Red Dawn. She frowns, pitying. Poor little sissipus, pushing that boulder uphill for so long. It is beautiful in a way to see a man's struggle against that law. See what your will can accomplish. And then, to see your face now. She shudders with pure pleasure. No betraying affections. No micro expressions of grief. Simple objectivity. It's like the dread that glows at the back of their eyes. A doomed army, a lost child, a dead wife. She wags a finger, heavy with rings at me. That is fearless courage. How much more gravitas he has than all the squabbling rats of democracy. I assume you will be broadcasting this tomorrow. An empty voice says from my mouth. She shrugs as if to say it is out of her hands. I would not dare interrupt the democratic process. Did not Virginia once say that transparency is the heart of the thing? You poor creature. All these years, you must have felt so trapped, knowing what needed to be done.
Speaker 6 01:04:08
But unable to do it because of people weaker than you. If you had just marched your legions into the Senate, instead of chasing after my father, you could have won this. Once you had the power, you could have remade the world with your wife at your side, however you saw fit, and put your son on the throne. And that is the noble lie of democracy, isn't it? The belief in humanity. Even though humanity is a screaming, selfish mob. I love you, truly. But humanity... She shivers. I wanted, I needed to see your face as you realized we were right all along. It is true beauty. Is my wife dead? Scheduled to die at the hands of maniacs. Who next? Who lives? It seems impossible for dance to be dead. I think it was me. What then am I? A creature so single-minded that he left his wife and child to be torn apart by a mob. I convinced myself my duty was here. Then it would be selfish to return to London. I deluded myself into believing in the virtues of a republic that was nothing but a sham. It was back just an excuse for me to carry on my bloody path. Virginia is not coming, Atlanta says. Her voice is harsh, done with its play. Severo is not coming. No one is coming. Disarm your forces, assemble your names out of the city, lower your shields and submit to your fate with dignity. If you do this,
Speaker 6 01:05:06
I will behead you and your high command with proper ceremony. The rest of your men will be spared and put to labor according to their nature in rebuilding the planet you have left in tatters. If you commit suicide, this offer for your men is forfeit. If you reject my offer, I will drop atomics on Helioopolis and kill every man, woman, child, and dog for two hundred kilometers. Even the cockroaches won't survive. This is the only mercy you will receive. Love, I say what I want. Let it go on. Rare was one thing. This is Helioopolis. Helioopolis, Helioopolis, Helioopolis. It is a sky, a reliquary for the past, no matter how much that traitor G L S D opines on its virtues. All I need is the metal in those mountains, your life, and those of that Telamonian bitch and that ugly orange bastard. She hesitated. And that beautiful colorway of yours on Legion. As for Mercury, she makes a face. And Mars, even can be mine in hell for all I care. As long as my bathwater is warm, I'll never notice. The horror of an entire generation of slaves living in penitentiary wasteland overwhelms me. Mutations, death by thirst, red canyons, and cracked skins. You are not a sovereign, I said flatly. You are just glue. Glue that barely holds together the two hundred. If you destroy Helios, the voters will...
Speaker 6 01:06:03
How many of those two hundred will wonder what you'll do to their cities? How would Julia Alderona like you atomizing Olynph? How would the Cartiarch feel about a mushroom cloud over Hononia? No, I say, rising in anger. If you leave us, you will be deposed. But you need to leave, don't you? So desperately, you can feel it in your bones. Their Republic isn't over. You could try to win through it if you could just use your ships. Yet that stuff you're guarding me like two-bit teapots. Is it because I put the Minotaur on the news? Is it something else? Or maybe it's just that no matter how many strutting young gulls you send after me, all you get back is piles of meat. You'll need us to surrender because you're afraid of me. And even more afraid of becoming careless yourself. Perhaps, he says. And it's your. I replayed the conversation between Atlantean and myself to the officers of my command. It's nothing, started the man on the outside. This desert chase, I can't decide. No aim to blind boredom. The coffee's probably exciting. The day of red doves was a storm on every screen, and he the others perhaps now. It is the only signal from the outer regions. They mock us, unreported. But this conversation is what matters. The image dissolves, leaving darkness on the faces of my commanders. Manassas slumps in the chair to my right. Braxas stares at a fly hovering over a vine by the window. She has not spoken since she landed back yesterday. The news has rattled her, and maybe nothing else ever has.
Speaker 6 01:07:03
My mother, my father, my sister. Until now, my voice betrayed me. I'm still not. Our strategy was based upon the belief that the Republic was on its way. I do not believe it practical to continue in this association. I have reason to believe that Podius is an agent of Atlantis, or that the events that took place in the Senate were the product of her designs. The vox populi compromised. I would caution you against recognizing the authority of any element unknown. I look at how necessary, knowing that Atlantis will likely be getting a message from Podius and the surviving Senate demanding surrender. We have been given an offer with a twenty-four hour clock. And offer that to give moments to believe our enemy would not. At what? No, what I am about to say is true. Between the caliph and all that. I do not believe that I can chart an unbiased course in the situation. On the other hand, this strikes at and several others rise from this and conclude it. Just let me get this out. Holloway and Hernandez remain absolutely still. Of the two, I cannot tell which looks worse, though the river pilot is certainly in trouble. I hear schoolmates have to pull them from a brothel together. An army is marching at the markets. But given our situation, I do not believe it should be desperate. They try to look around the table but find it difficult to meet their eyes. Michael Bell into his latest trap.
Speaker 6 01:08:02
I brought you. I sowed the seeds of my life's end in your hands. I know you have done it alone by hard evidence. Most of you have been with this army as long as I have. It is your family as much as it is mine. You will decide its fate. I will accept any decision you make. The only plea I offer is that you decide based on what is best for our men and them, with that, a leave Fraxa and Areses, Holloways, Rovis and the rest of high command in the high ward to decide my fate on battlefield agents. And walk along the lower balconies where night mist feeds on sunburns, waves crash all around the roots of buildings both were made by man, Perhaps at first in hope to give our species a new home to live and to work. But in time, I don't know when, that creation became a vanity of will. And in the shadow of that vanity, man grew lesser, perhaps even more. Lesser from our being the kings of creation because he must look to himself for God and get lesser his people and more of that his works. And you, have I done the same? With a great sucking sound, the black water pulls back to reveal the work distended into the soil like a great meteor. And then, waves fresh air. A pebble's sight makes up only what just but once was only pebbles. But they flower too with new life.
Speaker 6 01:09:03
I return to my villa and take Pax's key from my luggage. I wrap its chain around my neck and hold it as a sterile seal.
Speaker 7 01:09:10
Chapter thirty four: Lysander, Shadows at War. Are you awake or asleep, Lysander? I am not in the desert. I am at Lake Saline. Snow clings to the evergreens. Igneous the stones slippery under my feet. My legs tremble as I haul myself up the stairs that wind up the cliff from the lake to the house. I drop a stone the size of my abdomen atop a cairn. My hands are bloody and shaking. It is the winter after my parents died. I look up to see the severe face of my grandmother. I am terrified of her, but desperate for her approval. Even now, knowing what she did, the boy in the memory cannot hate her. He is still afraid to hate. I thought the week would be just for Arja and me. I never get it to myself. Atalanta had taken Ajax to Echo City to watch the water races. I thought Arja and I would take the horses north. But grandmother has come back from Hyperion to continue my lessons. She is inescapable. I asked you a question. I am awake. Are you? How many crows are in the trees along the steps? I look to Arja for help. She watches evenly from her perch on a fallen log. We even look to Arja every time we make saving.
Speaker 7 01:10:00
I do not know how many crows there are. I do not know. I look down. Never manifest shame physically. Look at me! There's no anger in her face. There never is. How many owls are there? Fox? Squirrels? I don't know, grandmother. Do you really think you've earned the right to use contractions yet? She leans forward. Why do you not know? I will answer since your tongue is lead. Your mind was asleep. Do you at least know how many steps there are? Four hundred thirty-one. How many turns? Seventeen. Are you certain? Yes, grandmother. Good. You know something at least. Pick up a rock. Obey. It weighs half as much as my body. Close your eyes and run back down the steps, Octavia, Arthur whispers. You have already spoiled your church's stone, Arthur. Let us not ruin the batch. Is something the matter, Alexander? You said there are four hundred thirty-one steps. How many times have you done them? A thousand? Ten? It should be no difficulty. Begin. I surge downward, knowing this I can do. I can impress her. My steps are confident, even in the ice, even with the weight. I see the steps burned into the backs of my eyelids. I make it three hundred twenty-one steps before something on the steps starts. There's a flutter of movement that slaps into my face. I lose my balance. The weight of the snow is unforgiving. It pulls me forward. When I open my eyes, I am at the bottom of the steps.
Speaker 7 01:10:59
The bone of my right arm is out of the skin. It looks curiously pale. I begin to shudder. Aza is at my side, holding me. My grandmother descends the steps. Aza! He's almost happened to it! Aza! Aza lets me go and I lie in the snow, staring up at my grandmother. Stand up. I struggle to my feet and look her in the eye. Why did you fall? I cannot speak for the pain. I see it into your mind's eye. Exist with the pain, then let it draw your inner pupil to tighter focus. I do as she demands. The pain does not lessen, but it no longer clouds. Its current pulls my mind narrower and constricts my concentration till we trace the memory. Sure enough, I find the outlying variable: a slight crunch. As I descended the three hundred sixtieth step, just before the crows, you put feet on the steps for the crows, I whispered. Good. But are you not in control of your own body? Why did you let me dictate where you fell? If you were awake, you would have sensed the crows were not in the trees any longer. You would have felt the seed underfoot and adjusted to the fresh variable. She bends down. You have a brain like mine. That is why you are my heir. That is why I have made you my son. But you must never let your mind sleep. Your mind's eye must rove without rest, even as you sleep, eat, move. It is not enough for it to collect data. It must digest it as a subfunction, or you will miss something and become a slave to another.
Speaker 7 01:11:57
She kneels to look me eye to eye. You are known. Another will always seek to bridle you with fists, with kisses, with tricks. She brushes snow from my shoulders and pain comes into my eyes. The tragedy of the gifted is the belief they are entitled to greatness, Lysander. As a human, you are entitled only to death. She stands. Now, are you awake? Honestly? Awake? Prove it. Again. I walk suspended between the past and the hard reality of the death. There is pain, more than I thought possible. The left half of my face is a ruin of melted meat. It is swollen with fluid that expands the skin to bursting. Hush! Squeaks through the bandage Calindora helped me attach. My left eye is blind and obliterated. Bits of melted metal have hardened over much of the wound. Unable to see my reflection, I can only imagine the horror. All I can do is walk, foot after foot over the hard pan. There is no more water left to share amongst our ragged band. While I could survive nine days without it in a temperate climate, the desert and my wounds conspire to drain every drop. I will not last long. I cannot help but feel we are being followed.
Speaker 2 01:12:57
I will be there in four minutes, comma, can you guys come out and help me unload, question mark.
Speaker 7 01:13:08
Something watches from the desert. It is hard to tell. More bands like ours wander the playa, only to disappear behindveils of dust. It would not be good to congregate with wayward infantry anyway. Supplies dwindled, weary bands trudge toward their imagined salvation. But we are all just burnt shadows of war. The killing fields was days ago, yet it stalks me like a ghost through the days. Perhaps that is what I feel. The sensation of destiny broken. The dread of the killing field. Two star shells pinned me down. Mutilated men and metal carpeting the ground. The battle had moved on, shot the outrider, I woke. Its sound echoed like distant thunder and all I could do was lie there as night came, listening to the delirium of the dying. When the sun dipped behind the mountains, the nocturnal predators came to feast on the dead. Their eyes glowed like coins as they fed. I could hear men wailing as they were dragged into the night. Then came the human scavengers, down from the bleak mountains to sift through the bodies and harvest electronics and weapons. Heads covered in dust-colored cloth and silver goggles. A boy with a welding torch came for my insignia. There was a firefight, I remember. Then familiar faces.
Speaker 7 01:13:55
I think it was Rome and Kalindora who freed the first of us. The pain consumed me and makes it hard to remember. But I know I was guided by Kalindora away from the slaughter to where survivors exchanged water from their suit caches and bandaged wounds. Rome said he would come back for us once they freed more Praetorians from their suits. He never did. We hid in the foothills, bleached of bravery, as Rising soldiers landed in force. We were too weak to contest them, so we watched as they gathered up Rome and our comrades and herded them onto shuttles at gunpoint. They headed south, to Heliotropos I imagine. So Ajax lost. I can feel no satisfaction in that. How many men died for Avelantia's avarice, but Ajax's glory, but Darrow's victory? For days we have walked, striking north in hopes of finding society patrols. We were thirty at the start. Then seventy as elements of Ajax's shattered legions caught up with us before their boots or bikes died. On the second day, Cicero and four of his Golds found us camped in a ravine. They joined us without comment. All but guns and water-satchels discarded. Though later we learned that Ajax fled the battle when the tide turned, and few of his men escaped. The Scorpion Obsidians die first from the heat. Then many of the Greys, including my Praetorians. Only the hardiest amongst them stagger with us now. We have little water to share. Seven Golds remain, including Kalindora and Cicero. To the west, the mountain peaks ride the waves of the heat-warped horizon.
Speaker 7 01:14:52
To the east, the waste stretches, as if it were all that existed. War machines move beyond the irradiated clouds. Desiccated tanks from Darro's surprise retreat across the Ladon, sand-blackened in the distance, victims of lucky hits by naval guns through the mess of the electrical storm. How Darro slipped the noose is beyond understanding. Or it would be if the Golds fought as an army instead as a collective of greedy autarchs. We did this to ourselves, and our men, my Praetorians, millions of civilians and loyal legionnaires paid the price. Umbra visit us as we walk. White chalk twisters that spin ninety meters high. They cake us with chalk and coat our lungs with a thin white film that comes out in clumps when we cough. A fever has writ me since I was called from the killing field. Reveries come and go. I see my father and grandmother often. Sometimes there is a chair, braided in silver and carved with eccentric faces. I have never seen it before.
Speaker 2 01:17:58
How's it going? How's it going? Is the water out of the holes?
Speaker 1 01:18:22
All right, so we got two.
Speaker 2 01:18:37
These are like sixty pounds each. They say. So, whether it's two people or one person, whatever the safest way to get on.
Speaker 1 01:18:59
Ram boards and figures too. Or.
Speaker 2 01:19:29
Two man, huh?
Speaker 2 01:19:59
Well, they said sixty. They said sixty when I picked it up. So, uh,
Speaker 3 01:20:07
I'm gonna go look at it anyway. So, okay. But yeah, regardless, we'll still trying to dry out them holes. But we applied the membrane over everything but the holes. We put tape over the holes and applied the membrane over the M 1 and okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 01:21:16
I'll take them down. Um, my thoughts are. We can. Put. These down. And then. Kind of uh. We'll put them on there and then we'll then we'll transfer back to the pallet and we'll put a ram board in between each sheet. And then throw some plastic. So the ram board does come off here for the most part, or yeah, the ram board will be for here as well. Okay.
Speaker 2 01:22:59
Did you do this whole wall?
Speaker 3 01:23:30
But we tried to dry them all the same way with a vacuum and blower. Okay. Um.
Speaker 1 01:24:01
Still have enough memory to see for. Get on the pipe communications. A little less we have to go back.
Speaker 2 01:24:18
This would have been great to know when I was going to place to buy the memory. Oh, does that we have enough? Just saying is we're if we get onto the. So. The same place that sells mortar bed two thousand sells membrane. Oh, okay. So, we do have a membrane. Okay. And again, here's probably I would have probably taped this guy off. Right again, just to get that nice clean line. So. Um. Let's. Plastic is good, right? Um.
Speaker 2 01:25:03
I'm looking at the after effect. You and I talked about, but see, I thought we were going to come down here. It's membrane two? Yeah. Because that's the area that, you know, that had been sanded off. So, you get the idea. So we already put too much membrane two on the original time when we were going to that thicker point. And so now we're just kind of creating a bigger and bigger... at some point, three dimensional.
Speaker 2 01:25:32
There's a limit, um, but okay. So let's get. I would say make your next priority these guys. Okay. Okay. Well, we're gonna have to dry. Well, yeah, 'cause then what we can do is we can come back tomorrow.
Speaker 2 01:26:02
don't have time to finish this part today. I didn't realize there's so many pilot holes. Yeah, for every for every thread, for every one of these rods with thread, there's a hole. Somebody went through and drilled them all and said just kidding. Well, he's like, hey, there's pilot holes. They probably hit rebar and then went up.
Speaker 2 01:26:34
So, we're not the only ones that make mistakes, right? All right. So we'll get there. Yeah, because here's the deal: if we don't finish the mortar beds two thousand today, then we won't have enough cure time for them to get membranes tomorrow. And you guys, we have mesh here? Yeah.
Speaker 3 01:26:55
Yeah, we brought mesh.
Speaker 2 01:26:56
Okay. So. Cool. Yeah, this more of a two thousand doesn't take too long. Yeah. We'll be on maybe right after lunch or so. Are you done lunch yet? All right. Well, let's let's get a little bit those going. And you want to put the ram boards in between each sheet and everything? Yeah, so what I think we should do is set them here. So we're going right. And then um I'll set the ram I'll put the ram board in between.
Speaker 2 01:27:33
Um and once we get them all offloaded, we bring the pallet down here and stack them on the pallet. Right, and then we'll put the pallet here. Right. Um and then we can transfer them to pallet and uh go from there. I got I got. There you go. Oh, here it is. Three zero five.
Speaker 2 01:28:05
I'll get something. Uh, I just need... Four feet of it. Um, six feet. Maybe. So that way we can... Yeah.
Speaker 2 01:28:50
Don't hurt yourself. These are more than 60. It's got a coating on it? Yeah. I didn't crack it. But they are more than 60 pounds. Let's unhook, I just don't want you guys tripping on it. Um, so there's a little metal thing, metal uh, so push it toward the, there you go.
Speaker 2 01:29:30
Hold it. Let me grab my gloves. I'll carry one by myself.
Speaker 1 01:30:16
eating on my fingers.
Speaker 3 01:30:21
Sometimes it takes forever, doesn't it? You got it? No one should get me. You don't, I. 
Speaker 2 01:30:35
wouldn't. Hey, your partner's waiting.
Speaker 2 01:30:45
Don't don't do this by yourself.
Speaker 2 01:31:50
Didn't I say don't do it by yourself? I know, but... Can't let you off, right? Well... But... Here's the thing... There's a reason why I'm doing it like that. So... I think don't just... Don't. And I know. I've been young once.
Speaker 2 01:32:23
I'm not trying to outshine you. No, I was just kidding. I know. Well, sort of. Right? Right. Is it uh... We can move it once you... Just drop it. They don't need to be perfect right now. I'm just... No. All right, you want to go help him walk out of it?
Speaker 1 01:33:05
Thank you.
Speaker 3 01:35:27
Where'd you go with these two pieces that were on there?
Speaker 2 01:37:21
All the way. No, push it all the way to me. Oh. What?
Speaker 3 01:37:29
A little bit. Another inch. There you go. Alright. You don't want it to hurt ourselves,
Speaker 2 01:37:37
what if you hurt yourself? I'm just going from here to there. Just carry a few stones there. Andhuh? I thought you... Just the first one.
Speaker 2 01:37:49
Now, here's here's the difference too, though. You get hurt, we're complaining. I get hurt, I get to milk it for a while. In the sense of like, nobody cares if I don't get physical for a few days. You guys, they can't even let you work. Right? And that that's that's my issue, right? So it's like, you know, it's not a there's it's it's really like, I can adapt if I get hurt. You know, when I went and got shoulder surgery, I, you know, I went and helped you with uh chipping at Tolis once. Got, you know, you saw me wear the band after that. It was from it was from helping you. You guys do this stuff every day. Right, but here's the deal. I missed no work because of it. But you would have missed two months. You know what I mean? So that's that's why. I I know. I know, but I think it's important that you that you. 
Speaker 2 01:38:46
Under I'm not just going like oh me right it's there's there's a reason for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 01:39:58
Okay.
Speaker 1 01:40:52
[ 00:00] More.[ 00:02] Okay.[. 
Speaker 3 01:40:55
00:03] Let it go.[ 00:04] Ready?[. 
Speaker 1 01:40:56
00:05] Watch your fingers.[ 00:17]. 
Speaker 2 01:41:09
And then the ramp board will go back in your truck.[ 00:21] Yeah.[ 00:21] So I'll take it when I as I leave.[ 00:23] Okay.
Speaker 2 01:42:26
and I'm good. Take a picture of it and everything. Um, hold on, hold on. Sorry. I stupid me, I meant to put another thing on top of that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 01:42:53
Sorry, Brandon. Maybe we got ahead of ourselves, huh? No, I look, I put the plastic over too, but um... So...
Speaker 2 01:43:40
I find if you uh go all the way around, you don't bite yourself. Oh, with the tape? Yeah. You get the tape to stick to the tape. Yeah, you're right because it sticks better.
Speaker 1 01:44:23
Bottom. Man,
Speaker 2 01:44:31
what the hell? Gloves. Good thing. Yeah, let's keep that closed also, just you know, mind. All right. We good? I got it. Did I get the other bag of... Uh,
Speaker 3 01:44:46
I left it in the front. I left it by the trash can, so I wouldn't bother you. Okay. I gotta go out there and get my...
Speaker 2 01:44:52
Alright, Rene? Yep. See you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 01:44:54
I'll see you tomorrow. Get. 
Speaker 2 01:45:17
by the trash can.
Speaker 2 01:45:33
three. Oh, and he brought the other. I bought two bags of mortar bed two thousand and one bag of BC Pro. Do you need two BC Pro, one mortar bed two thousand? No, he took the other bag of BC Pro. Okay. Yes, please.
Speaker 2 01:47:42
Okay.
Speaker 2 01:48:24
Alright, mañana. Okay, mañana. You're joking, right? Huh? You're joking, right? No, I I want BC Pro. There is. I brought three bags. Uh-huh. Um.
Speaker 2 01:48:49
Two border bet two thousand one B C. So, Manny needs two. Thank you.

[AI_SUMMARY]
A violent uprising in a senate forum, triggered by the assassination of Senator Tiberius T. Han, leads to a brutal massacre of senators by a mob incited by Publius. Key warrior Daxo is killed by Lilith, a figure from the narrator's past. The aftermath reveals devastating losses, with millions missing or dead, dwindling supplies, and a dire strategic situation. Themes of combat fatigue, leadership dilemmas regarding civilians, and the psychological toll of war are explored, alongside philosophical lessons on mental discipline and survival.