The Ops Commander digital version of Bill snapped the fusion drives off the second they safely cleared the Shadow Gate. He activated all his stealth countermeasures while launching the decoy.

The decoy was built around a TinyTok™ fusion jet and not much else. The "ship" expanded like a pufferfish to mimic its mother's size, and its smaller jet burned dirty and loud. It took off fast as the Shadow Gate snapped shut.

The Valkyrie did the opposite of the decoy. Its torpedo shape morphed into an oblong integrated wing. Its fusion jets were silenced, and power was limited to a diffuse ion drive. The energy levels were depressed to avoid luminosity and signaling in the high EM bands, trying to replicate the background noise of the Big Bang microwave hash.

Ops Bill was grumpy. The broken twins were screaming. Their last biological recruit to the MindBridge was screaming. Their connection goddamn group mind had been fragmented when the Shadow Gate cut them off. The sitrep was less than optimal.

Sensors! What do you see? He thought aloud.

Bogies launching from the moon, vectoring at 045 degrees azimuth, 30 degrees elevation. They're taking the bait and tracking the decoy. What the fuck? Dragons? Be advised, the bogies are fucking space dragons, Ops. Signals Bill yelled over the link.

Keep the humor down, Bills. Ops Bill sent out. Signals Bill countered with imagery of the bogies, a twisted mix of draconic grace mixed with H.M. Geiger in a mechanorganic fusion.

Fuck. Sorry. Here be dragons, sorry. Ops Bill apologized. Medical Officer! What's up with our bio bros? The screaming is getting on my last nerve!

Within projections, Ops. M-O said tightly. The uplift virus is responding to the trauma. We need to let it run its course.

Fuck. Ops replied. Recon? Give me an update.

Lidar Link Drones are dropped. Going in passive. We have the insertion point for the first scout team. If we get a positive ping, you'll be the first to know. Recon Bill answered.

Yo, Op! Tacking toward the equatorial with the ion jets. When we drop, wherever we drop, we'll need some planetary spin to help. Plus, I want us off the drift line in case we see any beasties with brains. Nav Bill interrupted. Sensors answered before Ops could.

Good idea. The fucking space dragons have already caught the decoy. If they're smart, they'll realize it wasn't the real deal. He sent.

The ship adjusted its orbit, maintaining a close watch on the Dark Luna Shadow Dragons as they ripped the drone to pieces. The crew cheered when the TinyTok™ went into buster mode and detonated. The blast wave annihilated the attacking dragons, but the spreading EMP caused wave after wave to kick up off the swarming ball of monsters that made up the bulk of the shadow moon.

The fuck! Steering is horrible. Where the hell is the magnetic field? Our wings are designed to use it for zero emission steerage by alternating current through the wing spars. NAV Bill cursed. Science Officer Bill answered.

Unfathomable! Either these creatures laid down a global superconducting suppression shell or the bastards did something to cause the core to stop spinning. Judging by the energy-depleting screen masking what little light is showing from the sun, it could be either option. These things seem intent on draining every last erg of power, even if it kills them.

The three biological Bills had been screaming their heads off for almost twenty minutes. The digital Bills manning the Valkyrie tried to filter the sound out of their perception with only Med Officer Bill paying them attention. His sudden announcement was therefore surprising.

Hey Gang, the meat crew readings are changing! Heart rates are dropping. I wish I knew if that was a good sign. He signaled.

The last Bill to join the mind hive was the first to show efforts to wake up from their nightmare. His expanded and still-expanding dendrite layers finally managed to filter out the intrusive signals coming in.

Bill struggled to understand. When the pain had hit, he had shut off all his signal receivers and senses, but the intrusive murmuring had only intensified. The answer popped into his head almost fully formed.

All his designs; biological, mechanical, electrical, and even software were based upon only the standard three dimensions. He was picking up bled-through effects from the extra dimension that only the shadow verse possessed.

God damn it. I've been blind…and we still are! But I can fix that. His higher functions ramped up even before his augmentations could catch up. He could already hypothesize appropriate modifications to expand both his own and the ship's sensorium to understand the missing pieces.

He reached to the matter compiler. The digital Bill dubbed "Systems Bill" tried to block him, but he slipped past his efforts leaving behind an avatar to explain as he dove into the machine and started it up.

The compact sensor block build happened with the maximum possible speed. The uplifted Bill took on the process of orchestrating the feedstock assembly to build up the design he was still creating in real-time. With an afterthought, he created a plug to power it, utilizing the power of the compiler without even removing it from the assembly chamber.

The true picture of the Shadowverse bloomed in Bill's mind as he comprehended the massively expanded space around the Valkyrie, exposing the massive hidden interstitial spaces belonging to the fourth dimension.

His body was still waking up, but his mind blazed with power. His dendrites layer expansion hadn't limited itself to only three dimensions. The fractal power of its expansion into the extra-dimensional space amplified…. everything!

Even though he could now perceive the new dimension, he anticipated that the others needed to see it too. He directed a portion of his mind to shunt the new sensor feed to the Valkyrie and even designed the software to parse the signals for 3-D minds.

As his own picture expanded, he noticed his damaged clones and their budding nascent mentality into the extra dimension. His extradimensional neuronal contact had created a sort of EM effect in that layer. He could see they were getting there, but the fluxing field lines from the powerful distant creatures in this realm were still trying to pry into their heads!

He focused and found that he could extend his mind in a similar manner. He expanded his mental space and encompassed the pair. Connection! He guided them in finalizing their growth, forming an ad hoc mind bridge using the properties of the foreign realm.

Bill relaxed. He wrapped his mind around his vulnerable biological brothers and shielded them as best he could. His own body had finally begun to respond, as his augmentations rebooted. Bill felt like he had run a marathon even though only 2.3 minutes had elapsed since his return to awareness.

The new sensor's expanding map caught upon a massive object, hidden in that sideways dimensions the others couldn't see. The Valkyrie was flying right at it! Bill struggled to grab hold of the navigation systems, but it was hard locked to Nav Bill's instance. In a panic, he wrenched his body systems to full function before the reboot could finish.

"DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!" He screamed, forcing the new sensors to feed onto the ship's shared OverLayer world map.

The crew of the Valkyrie experienced a shocking number of emotions within milliseconds. Concern with their biological brother's mental struggled. Elation as the latest recruit became cognizant again. Confusion as he co-opted the matter compiler.

Their emotional state despite being fully digital was already tight as bowstrings. The command to dive was stunning, but then the sensorium remapped with a new picture. A gargantuan satellite loomed in front of them, looking like a squid with oversized tentacles wrapped around it within the larger shifted dimensional space. Even now, they could see only a little bit of it beginning to unfurl into visible space.

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Nav Bill was the first to react. He pulsed the craft's surface ion jet emitters. The Valkyrie pivoted and pushed into a lower orbit even as the creature's tentacles started to reach out.

The weapons system Bill, who insisted upon the name "Gunny", despite the still firm order of stealth protocol, triggered the primed and charged Maser central cannons. The Valkyrie's main weapon fired with all the power of its idled fusion powerplant along with the stored energy of the nanocapacitors lining the wing struts.

The beam that shot out would be overkill in the Earth's system, capable of slicing completely through even the most massive of asteroids. The dark skies over the shadow Earth lit up as the energetic beam slashed into the ambushing orbital Octopoid. The creature detonated as energy poured into it, severing limbs and vaporizing entire sections of its main body.

The Valkyrie rumbled as it descended using its weak ion thrusters. Its hull rattled as EMP crashed across it. The debris from the explosion was still a kilometer away, but several large sections were incoming.

Sensors Bill cursed as his personal VZ monitor feeds began to surge. An exponential number of alien signals poured in. Lidar scans across the entire EM spectrum painted the hull of the Valkyrie. He struggled to maintain the adaptive cloak. It wasn't designed for broad-spectrum deception.

Fuck! The entire planet knows we are here, guys! We just got hit with thousands of independent scans. Sensors Bill screamed. Nav Bill answered.

This shit's about to get real, no sense in dragging ass with ion jets. I'm lighting up the fusion jets. Recon! Give me a vector!

God damn it! Here. This is the landing site for our landing team! Go! I don't know if they're still there, but how far could they have gone on foot? Recon answered.

The Valkyrie's main drive fired, and the large ship accelerated hard into the upper atmosphere of the ruinous planet.

Bravo, the last survivor of the recon insertion team comprised of digital Bills riding mech frames, picked his way along the blasted ruins. He knew his current status was only a temporary respite.

The last battle had ended with both his twin Delta and the enemy Shoggoth shredded with their body parts blasted apart. Bravo had assembled the fragmented shell pieces of the shoggoth into a cloak, covering himself almost completely in the monster's corpse.

At least I've managed to recover everyone's neural cores. Bravo Bill thought to himself. I should refresh my own backup while I still have a break. The little Mi-Go and rabid Shadari were fooled, but the larger and smarter monsters would see right through the ruse.

Bravo created a sandbox partition to check his sensors while his backup was updated. It was a delicate effort as he tried to gain a sense of the larger area around him. Despite the partition, the memetic corruption would chew through his defenses. He purged the sandbox quickly with only a partial scan of the surroundings.

This fucking place is a death trap. I don't know how we are supposed to find any leverage here. The enemy intrusion capability is so much more advanced than our own.

Bravo relocked his sensors as he reformatted the partition and saved his backup. His partial scan had shown one of the massive mantis creatures to the south, so he would go north. He grimaced, that direction elevated into a massive mountain with no ruins. He would be more exposed, but the masses of the enemy seemed less dense. Bravo was about to move when a series of flashes bloomed in the upper atmosphere.

Thank God! That must be the calvary. The mountaintop is definitely the right choice now. I need to time my distress beacon though. I don't want to attract the monsters until I know rescue is close. Bravo Bill thought as he started running. He calculated scenarios while keeping alert for signs of the enemy. Mi-go scattered at his approach, too dumb to realize the shoggoth carcass was hiding potential prey.

He was making excellent progress and had just commented to himself about the fact. The comment must have been bad luck, as a shoggoth crashed through the last ruined buildings before the landscape began to open. Bill cursed as he shrugged off his gross camouflage. This thing wouldn't care, they attacked everything that moved.

Bill broke into a run. Even if a fight was inevitable, he wouldn't allow it to slow him down. He'd prepared a surprise that he'd never use on Earth. Bill was one of the few people on Earth with functional designs of replicating nano disassemblers or RND. It was the modern-day bogeyman replacing the dreaded WMD or weapons of mass destruction.

It was considered a war crime to fabricate them on Earth. He had personally terminated too many warlords and terrorists in the OughtFifties who'd figured out how to bypass the matter compiler fail safes to fabricate the deadly things. Here on this hellscape, an exponentially proliferating mat of grey goo would be an improvement.

Bravo extruded the finished grenade from his microfabrication chamber in the mech frame's lower abdomen and lobbed it as the chasing form that oscillated between a solid serpentine shape and a gaseous cloud.

He cursed as the creature turned to billowing fog and the grenade overshot it. It exploded behind the beast peppering its lagging tail with active nano. It turned screeching and twisted back toward the glittering cloud of nano. It expanded into its cloud-like form swirling around the sparkling motes.

Bravo's mech body had no eyebrow to raise in surprise, but he chuckled as he kept running. It seemed that the creature liked the deadly meal. He mused that perhaps this creature had been a designed defense mechanism to protect this world from rampant nano.

Either way, he might now have the tools to reach the top of the mountain alive. Wasting no more time, he doubled his speed and activated his beacon. His gut fab churned as he compiled more grenades.

He climbed fast as a tumultuous storm rolled in. Even with the RND grenades, he had a long train of monsters streaming up the slope after him. Bravo reached the summit, a box canyon below him roiled with swarms of grotesque creatures.

Bill's hopes had been dashed. He knew his rescue must be close, but he had run out of room. He had a legion of monsters on every side. He pulled his last pair of grenades and overcharged his power core. He steeled himself, debating whether to throw himself down into the box canyon in order to destroy as many creatures as he could. Bill couldn't bring himself to do it. His survival instinct was too much.

The dark cloud above parted and massive tentacles descended. A bulbous creature floated amidst the clouds, its many eyes focusing on Bill. He decided right then that this behemoth would be his final stand and had started an appropriate battle cry, when a beam of energy as thick as a tree trunk lanced through the beast.

Bill lacked the tears he felt he would be shedding as the Valkyrie descended. Missiles, kinetic rail guns fire, and lasers raked the slopes of the mountain. Fire bloomed and rolled across the mountain. Bill's augmented eyes caught the shape of the open door and snapped out his wings.

Its small jets had only enough energy for limited propulsion, but more than enough to get him to the ship. He leaped and activated the jets. As he ascended, he saw his biological counterpart standing in the doorway. He grabbed hold of Bravo and pulled him in.

"Good timing! I thought I was a goner." Bravo yelled over the whipping wind and fusion jets.

"I'm sorry we took so long. I'm glad we found you. Your timing with the beacon was perfect. Are there any other survivors?" The other Bill asked.

"No, sorry. It's just me, Bravo from the recon team. But I've got the neural core backups of the entire recon team except for Cappa. Poor sod self-detonated as a pack of shoggoth swarmed him." Bill looked distracted and his expression grew grim. He yelled to Bravo.

"Better buckle up." He pointed out the open door. Bravo's eyes almost didn't register the sight. A wall of water was rolling across the plain, tentacles and large monsters riding within the frothing wave.

"Hey, Bravo. Get ready for a ride. We've just decided the Orion maneuver is our only chance to ascend before that fucking tsunami hits." Bill said as the hatch slammed closed and locked.

Bravo sat down hurriedly on the crash couch. The smart seat belts unfurled and lashed his frame down. He took a beat to understand. Orion was a theoretical spacecraft design that used an absurd method for propulsion.

The craft was supposed to sit on a massive shield with shock absorbers and kick out nuclear bombs. The bombs would explode under the shield and the massive explosion would kick against the shield and propel the ship.

Orion proposed to send a continuous stream of nuclear bombs, timed to keep kicking the ship forward. It was considered a thought experiment. No one would risk such ridiculous explosions, with its radioactive fallout, anywhere near civilized worlds.

Bravo wished he could smile like his crazy biological copy. All of those concerns were moot on this cursed planet. Bravo's scream was drowned out by the eruption of the first nuclear bomb beneath the hefty hull of the Valkyrie.

"Orion! Fuck yeah!"

The landscape beneath was baptized in flames as the rescue ship shot up, riding the mushroom cloud. The swarms of creatures were blasted apart even as the wall of crashing water slammed into the mountain.

The uplifted trio of Bills felt the waves of anger percolating through the fourth-dimensional spaces. The Valkyrie sped into orbit. They had no time to waste. One full orbit, shifting altitudes, and using the maser with abandon to destroy any of the dark space dragons that got too close.

The crew of digital Bills were elated as the timer counted down. The biological Bills sense of dread only increased as the alien voices, that only they could hear, slowly melded together and resonated into a more powerful whole.

An impossibly loud thought rippled through the dimensional pathways and crashed into their minds. Only the skill Max had shared with the Bills enabled them to resist.

{{{ Zodameta, lap zirdo, olixof dovors epha. }}}

{{{ Phalek! Od dazug chirel, Chthulhu!}}}

The Shadow Gate opened, right on schedule. The Valkyrie transited at dangerous speeds. The uplifted Bill sent an emergency comm to the Bills minding the gate to shut it down immediately. They monitored tensely for the enemy creature's that dogged their rapid flight into orbit, but fortunately the gate closed without any incursions.

The trio of uplifted Bills shared the same ominous foreboding that Apex's vision may be far too accurate and his manipulation of Bill to investigate it may have become the trigger to make it happen.

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