Written by Barry Reese
Metal Love: A prequel to Steel Nation II
June 4, 4022
What Has Come Before : Magnus has found himself gravely ill as of late, nursing injuries gained during a series of harrowing battles. The most recent, involving an alien killer, was chronicled in Magnus vs. Aliens. Now, the Robot Fighter moves to uncover the secrets surrounding his robotic lover, Glia....
North Am Metroplex. Western Seaboard. Grid Designate : LA-307. Milespire.
Magnus stepped into the apartment that he shared with Glia, the many aches and pains of recent battles making him weary. Truthfully, however, it wasn't just the physical pains that slowed him -- he had a growing sense of unease about his life. His son's transformation into a Starwatcher... the return of the Destroyer... and now this mystery about Glia... It was all combining to make him feel like he was a stranger in his own life.
"Glia?"
The beautiful freewill stepped into view, her long tendril-like "hair" hanging loose down her back. Her expressive features registered concern. "Magnus. I am sorry that I was not there to greet you at the hospital."
"That's okay. Torque kept me company. He's considering keeping the xo armor... I'd feel better with him having it than letting it go back into Starwatcher custody, to be honest."
Glia smiled. "He is a Starwatcher, my love."
Magnus shook his head. "He's not like the others. I've forgiven them as best I can, but I'll always be a bit suspicious of their leaders -- but I trust Torque with my life."
"You should. He loves you very much."
Magnus took his freewill lover into his arms, marvelling once more at the suppleness of her outer shell. If he closed his eyes, he could forget she wasn't human. He could feel the pulsing of fluids beneath her skin, just like blood pumping. And her warmth...! She felt as warm as any woman. And to think I tried to annihilate these sentient beings, he thought to himself.
It was Glia who pulled away at last. Her expression was full of love, but mixed in with that emotion was sadness. "My love... We should talk."
"I think so, too. I have so many questions... I know you're keeping things from me and it's driving me insane. I can't have that, Glia. After all that I've lost... I can't stand not knowing the truth about you. About us."
"Then sit down, my love. I must make this as brief as possible... because we do not have much time."
Magnus felt his heart skip a beat. Hazy memories flooded his mind and he had to reach out to steady himself. "After Elzy shot me... I heard you say something... but what was it?"
Glia sighed, a human trait that endeared her to Magnus. "All will be explained. But first we must speak... of Tekla. And of Leeja."
North Am Metroplex. Eastern Seaboard. Grid Designate : Bos-411. Milespires.
"He's a threat. You know it, I know it." Nikolas Clane stood before the small group of North Am senators, aware that his every word was hitting home. He had chosen these men because they were fearful and weak -- perfect for the type of power play that Clane needed to make. He paused briefly as a servant rob moved past with another tray of drinks for the senators. "Magnus is a throwback to an era when North Am was at its weakest. He destroyed the utopia that we once possessed and then allowed the Malevs to infilitrate every facet of our society. The rebuilding work that we've done is amazing, yes -- but think of how much farther we have to go!"
One of the senators, a thin, balding man, cleared his throat. "What exactly are suggesting we do, Nikolas? President Shooter has made it quite clear that he considers Magnus an ally... and he is still popular with the rank-and-file members of North Am society!"
Clane waved a hand dismissively. "Shooter is loyal to Magnus only so long as it's good for him in the polls. If it came down to one or the other, Shooter is just as likely to toss Magnus to the wolves as to fight for him."
"You still haven't told us what you want, Clane."
"What I want is for us to restore North Am to its former state of glory, with humans at the top of the pyramid -- not sharing the stage with a bunch of robs. The first step to doing that is to rid ourselves of Magnus -- his influence will only hurt us as we try to put these robs back in their place. Second, we need to erode support for the so-called Freewill Consortium. These robs were built to serve and that's where they should stay! Third, we tell those damned Starwatchers to get away from Earth and stay away. And finally, we'll present Shooter with an ultimatum -- he either joins with us in our "Humans First" platform, or else we'll go for a vote of no-confidence in the Senate."
An excited babbling broke out amongst Clane's guests, with some expressing outrage and alarm -- but others, Clane noted, were murmuring with approval. All of them wanted to see the North Am of their youth... one untainted by Freewill Consortiums and Starwatcher influence.
Nikolas was no fool, however. He knew that at present they lacked the votes to win a vote of no-confidence but that would change... very, very soon.
When the noise began to die down, he held up his hands and asked for silence. "I know what you're thinking, my friends. And I have the answers... I have, in the past few months, placed several spies within the Consortium. These spies have told me that the Freewills are preparing for war. Their dreams of a Steel Nation are still in place."
Senator Koch rose from his seat. "What?! And you haven't alerted the Senate? Are you mad?"
Clane's smile never wavered. "Not mad, Senator. Clever. The members of our little enclave here are going to be heroes, you see. And heroes carry a lot of weight with the public, as our friend Magnus has shown in the past. We'll be able to push Magnus out of the spotlight and reveal the Freewills as the threat they are, all in one great swoop."
Koch's cheeks became red with anger. "And if the Consortium wins? Have you thought of that? North Am isn't strong enough to repel another invasion right now!"
"True. But that's where my secret weapons come in." Nikolas narrowed his eyes, sending a silent command to his pets. Through a side door, two of the monstrosities entered. They were low to the ground, obviously bred for killing, with dripping jaws that were filled with teeth.
The Senators backed away in a panic, nearly knocking the serving rob off its feet. Koch felt himself pressed against the wall, looking at Clane in shocked disbelief. "Those things... those things are what attacked Magnus in the Goph levels!"
Nikolas moved between the aliens, his eyes alight with power. "Yes. And I have... a connection... with them. I'm going to send a small group of them into the LA grid tonight, to hunt down the leadership of this Consortium. When they find the Freewill behind it all, they'll bring him to me -- and I'll make quite a show of our group's heroism in halting a would-be war. It'll be quite telling that Magnus not only did nothing to halt the Freewills -- but that he's sleeping with one of their leaders."
Koch turned and began running towards the door. "You've got to be stopped! You've gone crazy!"
At a mental nudge from Clane, one of the aliens bolted towards Koch. It tackled him midway to the door, lowering its mouth to end its victim's life. Blood spurted into the air as Koch's neck was ripped to shreds.
Nikolas turned away from his pet's handiwork, allowing the other alien to join his companion and feed. He saw the horror in the other senators' eyes and he knew that they were his. "Any more questions?" he asked.
There were none.
North Am Metroplex. Western Seaboard. Grid Designate : LA-307. Milespire.
"...when the Destroyer ended the Malev threat, he destroyed all those who had been tainted by the Malevs, as well. One of those who was killed was your wife, Leeja."
Magnus shifted restlessly. He and Glia were sitting on the terrace of the apartment they shared, the sunlight raining down upon them. In the streets below, the Freewill citizens of the Consortium went about their daily business. "He also sent me to the Lost Land, which cost me a year of my life," Magnus added.
Glia nodded before continuing. "A year is a long time, my love. Long enough for failsafes to be enacted... and love to be renewed."
"What do you mean?"
Glia looked away, unable to meet her lover's gaze. She could feel the turmoil in him and it made her mechanical core ache with shared pain. "Tekla loved you, Magnus. She never wanted you to be alone. Even if it meant protecting Leeja, who stole your heart so that Tekla could never possess it."
Magnus remained silent, remembering how the Freewill named Tekla had crafted herself a more humanoid body to woo the Robot Fighter... and how Magnus had slain her when she'd come to him in a pseudo-human body, wanting to tempt him away from Leeja. The pain, the guilt... it all washed over him. For a man who was so revered as a hero, he had done so many things that he had to atone for. "Go on."
"Tekla had taken memory engrams of Leeja's thought patterns... in the case that something should happen to both Leeja and herself, Tekla wanted you to have someone who would love you. After Leeja's death, a program became operational... grafting Leeja's memory patterns to a set of Freewill patterns taken from Tekla herself."
Magnus felt a lump in his throat. "You... you're Leeja?"
Glia shook her head. "Not quite. I have her memory and thought patterns, but I'm partly Tekla, too. I'm both... and neither. I am Glia." The robotic female looked at him for the first time since the conversation began. "I love you, Magnus. I always have."
Magnus rose, moving to look over the railing at the Freewills below. "1-A, my robotic mentor... is human now. And my wife, Leeja... is a robot." He laughed hollowly. "What should I tell Torque?"
He felt Glia's arms go around his waist. "I am sorry, Magnus. I will understand if you hate me."
"How could I hate you?" He turned to face her, holding her face in his hands. "It all makes sense now. How I felt I could trust you from the start... why you seemed so familiar. You're both of my loves... in one."
Glia smiled. "You still love me?"
"More than words can say." He kissed her, hard.
When they parted, she whispered. "There is more, Magnus. In the months after my activation, I became involved in the leadership of the Freewill Consortium. They are good sentients, my love... but there are some behind the scenes who desire war. O1X still survives. He has built up his forces and embedded chips in many Freewills that will make them turn against humans."
"O1X... I thought he was destroyed."
"It would not be the first time that your enemies had lived."
Magnus grinned. "True. But where is he?"
Glia's mechanical eyes seemed to twinkle. "I can tell you -- but you will have to take me with you. He has had many long years to plan this, Magnus. He has taken advantage of mankind's renewed dependence on robs. And Elzy's assassination attempt was obviously the work of O1X. His nanites allow him to transform humans into his slaves."
"Then we'll have to strike quickly, before he launch his own assault."
"Do you think we can stop him, my love?"
Magnus regarded her evenly. "Together we've conquered death itself... What do we have to fear from one Freewill? There will be no Steel Nation... and he won't ruin everything that the honest sentients of the Consortium have hoped to build. I promise that."
North Am Metroplex. Eastern Seaboard. Grid Designate : Atl-320. Milespire.
1-A knelt in the soil, enjoying the feel of his hands in the dirt. He placed the plant carefully in its new home before rising. There were definitely things that, as a rob, you never learned to appreciate. The pleasant ache in the muscles from working at a loved hobby was one of them. As a human, however, such things were sublime.
"Father?"
1-A blinked in surprise, pleased that the communication device he'd given Magnus worked, even over such a large distance. He put a hand up to his ear and answered, "Magnus? I hear you."
"Good... I just wanted to let you know that you're invited to dinner next week. I want you to meet Glia."
1-A chuckled. "Ah. It must be serious, then. 'Meet the parents' time, already?"
There was a wry note in Magnus' voice that didn't go unnoticed by his mentor. "I think you'll find that you've already met her. I'll explain later. I have to go now."
"Work?"
"I have to save North Am."
1-A nodded sagely. "The usual, then? I'll let you go do your duty. See you next week."
North Am Metroplex. Western Seaboard. Grid Designate : LA-307. Milespire.
O1X sat quiet and still, plugged into the central computer of the Consortium. His robotic brain sizzled with information that flooded his neural net at the speed of thought itself. Unbeknownst to both Glia and Magnus, there were no safe places in the Consortium -- O1X could see and hear everything.
Likewise, Nikolas Clane had no idea that his serving rob was a spy.
"All-my-enemies-assemble. Perhaps-they-will-destroy-each-other-for-me."
O1X felt a tremor pass through him.
Excitement? Fear? Both?
"That-would-disappoint-me. I-wish-to-slay-the-Hammer-myself."
The robotic overlord of the Consortium forced himself to relax. Magnus would come... and when he did, O1X would punish him for his actions. The Hammer had not only foiled the coming of the Steel Nation some 20 years ago, but he had later tried to commit genocide on the Freewill population.
"Some-crimes-cannot-be-forgiven. Some-memories-cannot-be-erased. Magnus-must-die."
Next Issue: "Steel Nation II" begins! War is inevitable unless Magnus can strike first -- by dealing a killing blow to the leader of the Freewill uprising! But can he deal with a pack of Aliens, each one eager to feast upon his flesh?
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Welcome back. It's been awhile since I visited the year 4022 but I promise the wait for issue 74 won't be as long. Hopefully you enjoyed the revelations about Glia (which I've hinted at pretty strongly) and are excited about the Clane/Aliens goings-on. Issues 74 & 75 will be action-packed, I promise you.
This was the shortest issue of Magnus that I've written, but I didn't feel it needed any padding to be a strong one.
What's in the future? Well, after "Steel Nation II" wraps up in # 75, you'll see Nikolas Clane's continual rise to power, which means bad news for Magnus. You'll also see the Torque/Glia relationship expanded upon, a new villain or two and the surprising return of a classic Magnus baddie! Any guesses as to who it'll be?
If you have comments, suggestions or requests, please email me at aric_dacia@yahoo.com.