A Weapon’s Serenade

It was a little disappointing for the girls that their trip to Germany had to be postponed but it was for a good reason. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon when the chariots were ready for launch.

Kuria, Melody and Anne snapped into existence on a metal platform above a bay on the island of Tehom. This harsh bay, surrounded by sharp cliffs, was home to one of Hell’s few shipyards. While it hadn’t seen the construction of a ship for a while, it had been refitted to facilitate the construction of chariots shortly before Hell’s military was dissolved. As such, this massive airship drydock had never been used for its purpose, until now.

Four years ago, the inquisitorium had decided to start the construction of the chariots that had been originally planned by then General Apollyon during the second war in heaven.

Sitting in the air above the bay, held in place by remarkably delicate scaffolding, were two monolithic airships, like obelisks carved from shiny black stone flanked by floating stylized facsimiles of wings, swept backwards from the central body. These were two distinct styles of chariot, a larger one with two separate wing parts on each flank and a smaller, shorter chariot with only one wing segment on each side.

On the far side of the bay sat another drydock not occupied by a chariot but two large glass domes and two massive metal rings.

After taking it all in, the girls noticed the demon waiting for them to approach. They didn’t know this one but she wore a uniform similar to the old black and gold military garb.

“So, you’re the bunch who got us rushing to deployment. Not that I am complaining about getting to save the sirens. Executor Focalor, nice to meet you all.”

“I’m Melody, this is Anne and that’s Kuria.”

“The two humans who are the talk of the town and the future of demon procreation, what a group you are. I’m genuinely happy to share this day with someone who isn’t side eyeing us for reviving a military project. Would you like a tour?”

“Yes please!”

“Good, follow me.” Focalor led the group further along the scaffolding. “I will just assume that you vaguely know what a chariot is and why the prototype was made.”

Anne made a thinking noise. “One demon is not imposing enough when fighting entire nations, you need something bigger and visually nastier than just a person if you want humans and angels to take you seriously.”

“Exactly. The prototype was deployed twice. Once in the second war in an attack against the angelic capital city of Celestis and a second time threatening another attack four years ago. That was an entire conspiracy thing, just ask the librarians. After the prototype did well, Apollyon tasked the group of engineers who designed it to create more specialized variations. Before the military was dissolved, the designs for three version were finished and ready to be built. The large one you can see over there, designed as a direct improvement on the prototype, essentially the production version of it, and this smaller, faster version made not to besiege a city but to support, for example, a team of inquisitors. The third version was planned to be a command vessel, a mobile base of sorts. Obviously, we don’t need such a thing anymore so we left those plans in the archive where they belong.”

“And we are using the larger one for our trip to the sirens?”

“No, we are actually using the smaller chariot. That one is designed to land, which the larger one isn’t. We are going to set it down on the water surface and use it to anchor this little research dome over there and the portal frame that is attached to it. The plan is to keep the chariot, named the Nemesis, above water to protect the portal while anyone actually dealing with the sirens gets to go into the underwater dome. Umbria will setup a connection between the two portals, one here just a few kilometres outside the bay and the one under the Nemesis.”

“I have met Nemesis, was the chariot named after her or was she also named after the same thing the chariot was?” Anne looked over at the smaller but still massive of the two chariots.

Focalor smiled. “You will find out once we board her, I think you will like what happened to get her that name.”

“Alright, I will savour that anticipation then.”

“Very good. Now, we can’t expect you, or anyone else for that matter, to stay on the Nemesis for the entire time she is just sitting there. If nothing goes wrong, we will stay there for months at the very least if not years. So, we have made sure you can teleport to the chariot and the underwater dome with your tools. Very lovely idea those things, almost jealous I didn’t come up with them.”

The group stopped right at the airlock leading inside the Nemesis. Melody looked out to the ocean along the stone bow of the chariot. “Even at this smaller size, the internal technology is still the same, right?”

“If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to put it together in just four years. But we did include some of the upgrades that were developed since the prototype. The non-magical jump engines transition the chariot from place to place almost ten times faster than the original. The hull plating can absorb most human weaponry without activating the extra shields, magical or otherwise. Explosive and piercing non-magical weapons were integrated into a single system too, based on the advances with the particle accelerators that you also based your thesis on, if I am informed correctly. The toaster was a clever baseline.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. One system that also got a very interesting upgrade was the, well, you would call it the computer core. With this degree of automation, you either need highly complex enchantments or some sort of central processing unit. Since simple silicon-based processors are far too… simple, we opted for something we have used before but this time with a slight variation. The chariot is controlled by a biological nervous system and a very rudimentary brain. Unlike the weapon from which you grew, Kuria, this brain was not programmed with a mind, no matter how basic. The chariot brain cannot make decisions, it cannot remember outside of accessing specialized memory storage, all it can do is act reflexively. It will keep all the functions of the chariot running and follow the orders of whoever is in charge of it. In the prototype, that was it. Here, we tried something more. Kuria, I am sure you are well aware of the issues we are facing in replicating what happened to you.”

Kuria nodded. “You need non-demonic minds. The weapons are incompatible with demons and without a host, they won’t grow a personality.”

“Almost. After you got your body, a team of researchers took a look at every weapon we retrieved. The evolution that led to you also happens when not implanted but a lot slower and not as complete. There are aspects the newly growing mind needs to learn from having a form and being able to communicate with or through others. The next best non-demonic nervous system capable of joining with a weapon and complex enough to allow it to develop properly is right here.”

“You implanted a weapon into the chariot?”

“Precisely. Here we picked the two weapons furthest along in their development. Both are far enough to talk to people, to pick their own appearance and project an image of themselves anywhere aboard the chariots and to essentially run the chariots on their own. They have proven to possess ethics and morality and personalities, even though they are not as complex as yours yet. That’s also how these two chariots were named. The weapons picked the names Nemesis and Discordia, after the strategist who coordinated the first siege of Celestis and the inventor of the neuron-based control system for the chariots respectively. If you hadn’t been involved in all this already, I would have asked for you personally. Nemesis has voiced her desire to work with you and to learn from you while Discordia… She is a bit shy about it all.”

“Shy? How?”

“She idolizes and fears disappointing you. The high inquisitor managed to at least convince her that you’d be quite impressed if she helped Azazel as best she could.”

“I almost want to go talk to her now and tell her that she doesn’t need to do all that, but I understand. I had my own problems accepting what I had become and what it all meant and if I was worthy. I don’t want to just crash into her new life but it would be nice if someone told her that I am here whenever she feels ready to talk.”

“I’ll make sure she gets that message. Now, shall we head inside and hand over the tour to Nemesis?”

“Yes please. I am very eager to meet her.”