Lost To Nebulas

1//Fallen Killer Fallen Oracle
   The hyberchamber cast him out, sent him hard into the ground. It was unfortunate that the Di-Wolf had been scavenging in the area. The struggle was quick, it should have known not to attack him.
   Killian ripped the Di-Wolf's double hinged face in half, until he could see either side of it's inner jaw.
   It squirmed, ever-growling until it's vocal cords frayed, and then it made a sound like straining string music. Like wires split. Like death.
   The Di-Wolf stopped moving, only after Killian's hands were soaked red. Killian let it fall to the ground. He wiped his hands on his pants legs.
   Above him there were pockets of broken ozone where stars shimmered through thin atmosphere and abruptly disappeared. The sun was alive, albeit low in the sky.
    "You were created to be a killer, this I can see, but why did they send you?" The child's voice caught Killian off guard. Killian could not smell her with his advanced olfactory system, or identify where exactly her voice was coming from with his genetically enhanced, dagger curved ears. He knew only the voice belonged to a child, a little girl.
"Where are you?" He called, turning, drawing the kinetic-knife from its sheath on his forearm.
   "What am I, you were not created to create, to question. But to kill as I said. You scare me, but you are also safe."
   In front of Killian a ethereal figure materialized. Pale light flickered into a singular shape, a small girl with vaguely distinguishable features tapped her foot impatiently as Killian returned his knife to it's sheath.
"Fine, what are you?"
   "I am a cerebreform. And I know how you were made, I know every centrosome and gene of your DNA. I know who and what you are, and what you must do."
   Killian's eyebrows knit. He snarled.
"What. Are. You!?"
   "You cannot kill me like the beast," the cerebreform said.
"Answer my question!"
   "Cerebreform, is a collective being existing on a single plane within the empathetic connection of ADA military."
   The word ADA sent riveted spikes flashing deep through his skull. Killian fell to the ground and beat the earth with his fists.
"Raaa-aagh! Fu-UUUCCKKK!"
   He held his head, screamed again. "Wh-hAAAHHT did you DO brain witch!?"
   "I've given you a tool from a higher plane, a chance of gratis vobis, et memoria."
"This is PAAA-AIIAAAIIN!!!"
   "You do not know the truth of pain."
"What is ADA!?" Killian struggled.
   "ADA is your master, ADA is your maker, ADA is your reason."
"That is not an answer!"
   "Perhaps this will help you more, you have a brother,"
Killian's head throbbed harder, a cannon beat drummed between his ears.
"Ferax." He murmured.
   "Yes. Your war-brother. You must find him."
"Where is he?"
   "Close. There will be another hyberchamber falling from the sky as yours did, when you see it, you must go to it. I would suggest finding a vantage point. Find your war-brother, begin what has to be started." The cerebreform said, and then disappeared in a whisper of ghost light.
   Killian surveyed the contours of the scorched land around him. There was the crest of a hill not far away.
   He wrenched the storage capsule out of his hyperchamber and opened it.  He pulled a single scoped rifle from the storage capsule, a Ren 45. all purpose survival sniper. There was a box of ammunition that had been shattered in the crash, most of the magazines were cracked and useless. There was one intact and Killian loaded the Ren.
   A cell-torch was stored in the bottom of the capsule, a pair of injectable combat enhancers, and a rangefinder.
   Killian stuffed them into a backpack folded tightly in the capsule and shouldered the rifle.
   Then he walked.
ADA. What was ADA? Killian couldn't answer the question, and thinking about it made his head hurt.
   Wherever he was, wherever he'd landed, had been a warzone. The grass was unhealthy and patched, most of the earth was red or charred. Shrapnel and metal and bent steel was scattered on the ground. The only living things were scavengers, skirting small hills and clumps of rubbish;
   Lone Di-Wolves like the one Killian had killed, crows, vultures, and giant dragon lizards.
   Killian climbed the tallest hill, the Di-Wolves avoided him, he smelled like their blood. But the dragon lizards seemed attracted to the scent, and were brazen with sluggish reptilian hunger.
   Halfway up the cragged hill a large dragon lizard slipped from a burrow and leapt high at Killian's throat. He raised his arm, teeth caught his flesh and sunk. Killian cursed and shook the dragon lizard off, it fell, stocky legs skittering for purchase. Killian drew his knife, the bitten sheath breaking off his arm as he did so.
   The dragon lizard hissed and leapt again. Killian lunged forward and caught the lizard in the air, his knife slashing through it's neck in gore splattering atonement.  
   "At least everything wants to kill me." Killian muttered to himself, before he could reach the top of the ridge the hyberchamber fell. A blazing skyborn streak.
   Killian slung the rifle into his hands and scoped it, assured that it was a pod. It was. Killian hoped his war-brother had more bullets.
"What the fuck," Killian whispered in a low grumble as the chamber veered far  off, a plume of dust and smoke rising from where it landed. He took the rangefinder and turned it on, scoped the chamber.
   492 yards. It had landed 492 yards away.  Killian ran. He was tall and his legs were strong. He moved quickly. It took him less than a minute probably.
   His war-brother was hunched over his own supply capsule, rummaging through gear. It was only as Killian neared that his brother realized.
   Ferox spun around on his knee, his hand drawn back to throw, knife blade glowing, eyes wide.
   "Ferox."
Ferox's jaw dropped.
"Kil," his voice had a familiar tremble "I know you. Killian. Kil. My...brother."
   Killian nodded. Ferox's face was blank with confusion, he stopped kneeling and sat down. "How do I know? How do you know? What is this place?"
"I don't know." Killian responded. Ferox nodded.
   "I know we are brothers." He said, rubbing a delta symbol tattooed to his forehead. Ferox lifted his chin,
"Brother, what is ADA?"
   Killian shrugged. "The reason we're here."
Ferox nodded. "What do we do now-"
   Ferox stopped, froze, he trembled. The delta tattoo glowed at five seperate points, like stars on a traced constellation.
   Killian took a step forward and caught Ferox before he could slump face first into the ground.
"Look at me Ferox, Ferox, what's happening? What's happening?"
   Ferox's eyes were glazed with bright, hot blue light, like violet flame. He was shaking uncontrollably, in an almost constant seizure. Then his muscles locked with a hard shake. Ferox spoke but his voice was not his.
   "The cohort."
"What cohort, what are you talking about?"
   "The tower, you, I, we must go to the tower. Summon the cohort, let them fall to fight with us. This is the only way."
   The light of the tattoo, in Ferox's eyes, went away. Ferox collapsed and started to sob. His voice was back, it was him again.
"Killian. Killian. Killian. What...where...everything was gone, Killian...everything...and...I don't know what this is, where this is, but horrible things happened here...horrible...horribu-" Ferox vomited.
   Killian leaned away, Ferox stumbled to a stand. "What the hell, oh god, what the fuck? What are they doing with us Killian...I shouldn't be like this, I shouldn't be..." Ferox trailed off, Killian's eyebrows knit.
"Ferox,"
   "What?"
"There's something in your vomit."
   "Yeah, I know, vomit,"
"No. Metal."
   "Metal..."
Killian wrinkled his nose as he picked up a small sphere with a cyclopic camera lens eye in it's center. Ferox had not vomited anything natural. It was all clear and blue shaded synthetic liquid.
   Killian tried to wipe the stuff away but it wouldn't leave the sphere. Killian inspected the thing again, and then it went super-hot in his hand. He cursed and dropped it back into the liquid. It shook, absorbed and crystallized what it could, snowballing fresh layers of new-forged metal over itself until it had quadrupled in size.
"Shit...that was just liquid material Kil." Ferox said.
   "It almost burned me." Killian shook his hand out and rubbed his palm.
Ferox laughed.
   The sphere's now-indented camera eye came to life, the same blue glow, Ferox winced automatically, Killian wasn't sure if Ferox was aware of what had happened to his eyes, or if it was subconscious.
"It's a drone." Killian said. Ferox shook his head.
   "A map."
The drone rose and hovered, it's eye blinked, projected light swirled from it's center and a holographic picture of a tower in relativity to whatever planet they were on flickered in and out of focus. Above the tower, suspended in high sub-orbit was a marked relay satellite. The tower flashed orange against the green-blue light scape of everything else.
"The tower." Killian said.
   "What?"
"You talked about a tower."
   "Oh...are we supposed to..."
"Yes. To, 'awaken the cohort'. What does that mean?"
   "Others."
"Others," Killian echoed uncomfortably.
   The drone's map shifted and rearranged to an overhead view, marking a path to the tower along rough terrain. Ferox traced the path with his finger.
   "Three miles," Ferox said. Killian crossed his arms.
"Three miles, you aren't like me."
   Ferox looked at Killian, who stood a head taller, with long, muscular arms and legs, a lean sprinter's body. Killian seemed to be designed for hostile environments, with his claws and his speed.
   Then Ferox looked at himself, he was shorter, stockier, very human, his hands had no useful retractable claws, just fingernails. He could already feel the low sun boring into him, turning endurance into sweat.
   "No, I am not brother. We'll have to walk, at least most of the way."
The drone made a swinging motion, and veered into a leading course. The sky-fallen brother's followed.