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He began ticking off items. “We’ve increased patrols. Fortified key entry points. Implemented stricter screening processes for anyone trying to get in. Those who do make it through our barriers and prove they’re not a threat—we offer them a choice: they can stay and contribute, or we give them supplies and send them on their way. But we cannot and will not risk the safety of our people by allowing anyone in unchecked.”
Bishop’s gaze swept the room again. “We’ve got teams monitoring these situations as closely as they can, but we need to be prepared for the worst. Making damn sure our water sources are secure, our food supplies are uncontaminated, and that we have contingencies in place if we need to move people to safer ground.”
He crossed his arms now. “We need to talk reconnaissance. We’re gonna need eyes and ears out there. Particularly intel on these factions, on potential allies, and anything that could give us an edge. I’m proposing we put together a six-man team for this. I nominate the triplets, Kaphas, Seer, and Zodak. They’ll be our first line of defense in gathering vitalinformation and staying ahead of whatever’s coming. We cannot afford to be caught off guard.”
Bishop snatched up his paper, reading again. “Yeah,” he nodded, tossing the list back on the table. “All the datastillpoints to this being a systematic takedown. Coordinated. Deliberate. And executed with a very disturbing precision. Whoever’s behind this knows exactly what they’re doing, and they’re doing it with ruthless efficiency. Why are they doing this? We’re digging with all hands and feet to learn that still.”
He raised a finger. “Final thing,” he said, looking around. “We need to ensure that everyone—soldiers and civilians alike—are prepared for whatever the hell is coming. Ongoing training, emergency drills, self-defense education—whatever it takes to make sure that if the time comes, they’re ready to respond quickly and effectively.” He nodded at The Revelator, seated on his left. “I believe Seer was a hundred percent right when he said God provided us with these new brothers because what’s coming requires things we don’t have. But for the full-blooded humans in this room?” He scanned them all real good. “Any kind of weakness? We need to strengthen it. And I don’t just mean physical strength, I mean all the things that make you a man, make you a husband, a father, brother, uncle, or cousin. If you’ve got any problem, fix it. You need help, throwyour pride in the fucking marsh and ask for it, beg, grovel, whatever you gotta do, do it.”
His hard gaze made a pressing pass before he shifted gears. “Now my wife, she’s a few steps ahead of us on probably the most critical thing—our marital bonds. She’s putting together training that will give us the knowledge and power to create what’s needed or build on what’s already there. As soon as I have that, so will you. And to be sure, these classes will be mandatory for all who are in a relationship with a woman.” His gaze hit like a gavel on his men especially before he announced, “That’s it for me. Any questions or suggestions?”
Spar was suddenly torn between envy and joy over having no wife. As for questions, he had plenty, and most would hopefully get answered by whoever was going to update for Quantum King. He assumed Dr. Harlow.
After a few seconds of looking for hands, Bishop gave the floor to Nidev who sat at the head of the end table, opposite Bishop. He gave a single nod. “Good evening gentlemen,” he began, his deep voice and sophisticated dialect cutting the air. Spar searched his brain for his details. From… Vienna Austria. No, Mongolia. With the badass Genghis Khan. Educated from the age of nine in Vienna, something related to his gifts. Hence the manicured words delivered through battering ram vocals.
“I’ll make this quick,” the King said. “Our position in the North Swamps remains secure. We’ve enhanced the concealment of our entrances. Supplies are ample. Our farms are thriving. Our defenses are fortified. We’ve always prepared for the worst, and that preparation is serving us well. We’ve adjusted training schedules with the students, focusing on survival skills, combat readiness, and strategic thinking. Their academic studies remain important, but we’ve placed a stronger emphasis on practical applications that will be essential in the coming months. Morale remains high, but we’re keeping a close watch on any signs of stress or fear. Intelligence networks are functioning effectively. Reports are received regularly from strategic posts and shared with our Marsh Kings.”
He paused briefly, and Spar realized King Nidev had not once looked at a list. “I agree with all that the Marsh King has spoken, including his selection for the recon team and his mandatory marital classes.” He turned and gestured to Harlow. “After Dr. Harlow delivers his portion of the update, I’ll be making one final announcement.” He turned to Bishop now. “It will require Maggie, King Spook’s wife.”
Spar pushed down his laughter at the King Spook bit, finding his brothers also holding back snickers. Wonder what Ole Nidev was bringing to the table. Another coin? He hoped and yet hoped not.Spar eyed the other Creole Kings for signs of what this announcement might be, finding their usual killer poker faces.
Harlow stood up from his spot at the middle table and headed to the far end of the room. “Just want to make sure everybody can see me, and I can see them. Now, for some fun stuff,” he said, shoving up the sleeves of his black fitted shirt. Out of the new ones, he ranked second on Spar’s list. The Kult dude took first place. For now. That could change as he got to know them more. These two were clear leaders. As was Handy.
“Please forgive me ahead of time if I’m not as quick as our two esteemed Kings here. Especially King Nidev. Quantum would’ve been impressed but since he’s not here, I’m impressed for him.” He gave a single clap and glanced around. “I know everybody is ready to learn about our soldiers, but before that, an update on Quantum’s status. He’s still in recovery, and we expect him to wake up around midnight tonight at which point I’ll run a full set of diagnostics. Once he’s fully back online, we’ll begin creating soldiers, thanks to the Creole Kings Delta Nexus Core energy source which is basically a big ass battery the size of your empire state building—metaphorically speaking.”
The unsuspecting genius copped a wide stance and crossed his arms. “So, to make this simple to understand, I’m gonna use our adorable triplets here,Fetch, Fathom and Fin to explain the soldier creating process. Basically, there’s two steps in making a soldier.” He held up a thumb. “One is obtaining a mind to control the soldier, and the second,” he said with his pointer finger, “is using that mind to define how that soldier’s body is built. All credit for that goes to the Neuromancer, or our Advanced Mechanical Module that Quantum designed. You feed the data or the mind’s data into it and it builds the body so that it aligns with the strengths embedded in that mind’s data.”
Bishop raised his hand and Harlow pointed at him. “And how do you get this mind?” he asked.
“In the case of the triplets, Quantum’s AI mapped Kult’s brain and identified the region that had developed cognitive control over his body. He then copied the neural data using a process of quantum replication, which produces a mirror image. We then short-circuited the actual neural pathways and returned full cognitive control to Kult while retaining the replica of the triplets.”
All eyes followed his slow stroll at the head of the room. “Once we had that, we input this collected neural data into the Neuromancer. It read the data and determined what sort of body would best serve the mind, then entered an error state, requesting more bio-material. How much more material? Two bodies more. Because the machine identified the data as three distinct and separate entities. So, we fed it morematerial, and it produced three distinct soldiers. Fetch’s body was crafted to support his ability to gather information, Fathom’s was tailored for his deep processing and understanding capabilities, and Fin’s was built to bring solutions to fruition.” He used both hands to present the triplets at their table. “Fetch, Fathom, and Fin—each uniquely designed to embody the distinct problem-solving functions of Kult’s mind.”
Spar was sure he wasn’t the only one dying to know what the fuck kind of trauma happened to the dude to bring about such a thing. He added it to the growing list of need-to-knows.
“Now, once our puzzle soldiers were created, they immediately began fulfilling the obedience protocol hardwired into them, which is find their human link and begin the process of evolving.”
“Are they angels?” Spook asked, getting all eyes on him. “Maggie wanted to know.”
Harlow considered then gave a big shrug. “That’s beyond my intellectual jurisdiction, brother.”
“We are spirit,” the triplets said in that freaky unison.
This seemed to surprise and impress Harlow. “There you have it. Not sure if that qualifies as angels, but they do make straight A’s in everything, including conduct. Unless you’re on the wrong side of their directive. Then you’ll know the force of theirloyalty down to the molecules in every hair on your head.” Harlow gave a giddy chuckle. “You guys have any advice to our brothers here?” he asked the triplets.
Everybody waited before the first triplet muttered, “Play nice.”
8-Bit raised his hand and Harlow pointed at him. “What you got?”
“Was wondering exactly how long it takes to create a soldier?”
“From the genetic blueprint to a fully functional soldier ready for deployment, twenty-four to forty-eight hours.” Harlow nodded at the astonished round of holy-fuck expressions. “So, with ourfourmachines, we’re looking at twelve soldiers within seven days.”
8-Bit wondered, “How exactly does this evolution into humanity happen?”
Perfect. It had to be the Twelve’s hottest topic.
Harlow began to slowly pace as he locked his gaze on 8-Bit. “What we’re dealing with here is a form of epigenetic activation. Essentially, specific genes within the soldier’s DNA are kept inactive or ‘dormant’ by default, much like how certain traits in humans might not express themselves unless triggered by environmental factors.
