Astrid stood at the doorway and entered her code as the door refused to open. "I was in here not even an hour ago, why can't it work now?" She sighed as Murphy popped up.
"We don't trust the other one." He was standing directly in Astrid's face as she waved the AI away.
"I was chosen by Adam and Astral, give me some credit." the man bowed down. "This mask along my face can bind me to certain vows if I make them, if I ever tell anyone about this room, I will become mute never to speak again. Is that fair?" Cali knew what he would get into if he dared.
The door clicked open. Astrid and Cali entered as they shut the door behind them. Looking across the warehouse as Cali was mainly filled with shock. "This is all of the deceased from the battle?" He got to his knees and started to pray.
"But what is worse, they were in the same state as Adam and Jaimie. No pulse, no breathing, the finding of Wolf is proof that even if they were disintegrated, they came back." Astrid pointed to one box with a laser pointer as she showed the name to Cali.
"What is eerily creepier isn't that fact. What's that name?" Astrid shined the laser to a new name, Cali read it and was startled beyond belief. "Utah died long before this battle. Which is why we think Astral used a lot of stored power in order to pull off essentially what is a giant wish."
"He asked for everyone to be alive again, between that and asking for their safety, it is safe to assume he burned all the energy he had inside of him. Hence the explosion at the end." Alexa held herself on Astrid shoulder as Cali sat down.
"Well, how would they come back to life?" Cali asked as Alexa shrugged.
"I still have no answers for that." Alexa highlighted all the boxes. "The worst part is that there are trillions of bodies we need to keep secret from the rest." Alexa looked over to Cali then to the boxes. "Every unconfirmed and confirmed killed in action stemming from the defense of earth all the way to that battle. Is in this room."
"Are you sure?" Cali asked gently as he didn't want to be pushy with his tone.
"The reason why we took so long is because we are locking down Astral's entire sector of the station." Alexa showed a hologram of the layout. "Between his workshop vault, his and the kids rooms, and the other storage room filled with things he wants on hand. We have shut it all down outside of access for three codes, Astrid's and Zeta's shared code, Anders code, and May's code. May is safe inside of the core. So between you two, you must keep the doctor safe."
"I call dibs." Astrid smiled as she would rather work next to Anders than anyone else. "I will be by her side at all times after I leave this room. So that means you will be the main sheep herder between Achilles, Airsoft, and Indiana." Cali rolled his eyes as the Ai's smiled for the first time today.
"Well if that's the case, I better study up on everything more. Thank you three so much for all that you have done." Cali twisted his body around and bowed. "I wish to be nothing more than a helping hand in this life."
"Shiro will help you on the north bridge with the programming and development of resources. Despite the high pace of creation we were at, we still have half of our resources." Alexa smiled as Cali stood up, both of them exited the room as the AI's stayed inside.
"You don't want to help us with the rebuilding?" Astrid asked them as they nodded no.
"We still have a lot of trauma to purge, once we are ready, we can return to help." Kayla spoke as the other two nodded. The failure of this fight still weighed heavy on them.
"This is where we split paths but for a moment." Cali started walking to the northern bridge as Astrid walked in the opposite direction. The two of them had their roles and made sure that they were successful.
A few years passed as the facilities became lucid, they moved along and were fine, it was working well as the robotics were fluid, and the armored units were working well. Astrid couldn't replicate Adam's vehicles and mechs no matter how many schematics she made. The overall quality was not the same as when Astral and Adam were designing the equipment.
As for the clones, Zane came back to health as he became the main overseer of the program, with Ander's doing the calculations on it all. Their defective clones went up from one in a million, to one in every one thousand, the defects would not always be helpful. Some made them stronger, or quicker. Others became so deformed that euthanization became the best solution to end their pain. Others with less desirable traits were put into simple roles across the station.
The increase of mutation across the generations of clones was alarming to Achilles, who kept his society shut off from the others, a self governing body across a third of the station as they worked on creating a galaxy full of Polemistis people. Their safe haven. A truly fool's errand for someone who knew their part.
Indy becoming governor kept the people at ease with the presence of Airsoft and himself. Many of the human heroes from the war went into memoriam as Indy still kept the very harsh five year window for everyone to learn about combat from twenty to twenty five. Considering the youngest someone died would be one hundred by natural causes. The civilian population understood the history of war and bloodshed, and would be honored and proud being centered around the new identity post Astral.
The elite of the elite from the civilian army and trainee's were adapted into the higher programs, rebuilding elite fireteams with them at the peak ages before being put into cryostasis. As well as the billions of clones who would be preserved when Astral arrives. Astrid tracked the numbers as she was able to pull things around the galaxy and harvest many goods to pass the point they were at before the battle.
One thing troubled all of them as the years passed, would he ever return. For two thousand years they sat in silence before anything changed. Everything was closely monitored and tracked. One day, something used Astral's code and grabbed two things. Before flashing away like if it was Astral himself.
Astrid went to the scene to find Cali wounded beyond saving as she tried anyways. Looking up she saw two of the pods emptied, the ones he was protecting as she had no time to hesitate, putting him in there as he became lifeless. Astrid isolated herself into the bridge with him and prayed that this was the time he would return.
In a peaceful meadow covered by a willow tree. A man laid in a field of astrids, sleeping peacefully as the birds chirped around him. The mountains hid the early sun as the river ran behind him. He looked to the sky as his eyes opened up. The clouds were drifting across the sky, filled with soft golden yellows and light purples as he looked around.
Everything felt hazy as he stretched his arms out. Looking around it all felt artificial, and empty. He ran his hands around in the grass around him. Cutting the tip of one of his fingers open as he looked at it. The blood ran down it as he pressed his thumb on the wound to stop the bleeding.
As he looked at himself. He saw a ring on his finger, not remembering why he left it on as he looked at his chest, his clothes were tattered and there was no other jewelry. He stood up and looked behind him as his jacket was on the ground. He picked it up and folded it neatly and put it on his side. Looping it around a belt as he touched his right side.
His sword felt similar and different. The air around it was different, it felt familiar and foreign. He looked forward as he cracked his neck. All that was left to do was start walking. He took two steps as he felt so worn. He checked the ground one last time as there was a shoulder pad on the ground. Marked with a weird pattern he faintly recognized as he put it on his left shoulder.
He started walking down a trampled path of earthen ground and dirt, wanting one thing. A quest for food and knowledge. Grayness filled the sky as he traveled down the path. Rain slowly dripping down.