The Judgment of Sutekh (audio story)

 was the sixth and final audio drama in Magic Bullet Productions' The True History of Faction Paradox range.

Publisher's summary
Trapped on Mars, two explorers find themselves pawns in a deadly power game between Faction Paradox and Lolita...

The final battle between Sutekh and Horus threatens to tear the fabric of space and time to shreds...

At the end of the day, one side will be victorious... but which will it be?

Battlefield One: Earth
Lolita and Corwyn Marne jump to the end of the great battle between the two armies in Egypt. Sutekh's war barge arrives, and he confronts Nephthys and the wounded Horus in the Temple of Geb. Horus begs Sutekh to kill him, saying he's tired of fighting and he's terribly bored. Sutekh angrily complies, then begins to gloat about his plans to wipe Horus' name from the universe. However, Nephthys says Faction Paradox will never forget, and though she doesn't know where Justine il-Isis was hidden, Sutekh pulls from her mind the fact that the Faction has allies in the 18th century, where he immediately goes and finds John Pennerton on 16 October 1764. Sutekh forces him to direct the Society of Sigis Mondo di Rimoni to declare war on Faction Paradox and search for Cousin Justine.

Meanwhile, Nephthys' servants are bring Horus' body out of the temple into their barge. Horrified that Faction Paradox has apparently changed the outcome of the battle, Lolita rushes down in disbelief to check that Horus is actually dead; she then takes Marne back to Mars to survey the new timeline.

Battlefield Two: Mars
Geb buries Sutekh's body in a pyramid as over a thousand Osirians watch. Lolita and Marne quietly watch, but when Abelard Finton and Justine's simulacrum appear in Horus' barge, Marne begins yelling warnings to Finton about Lolita. Though Justine and Finton heed Marne's advice, his shouting has drawn attention to Lolita, who Geb recognises as the person who gave him his scars. With the combined power of the entire Osirian Court assembled there, Geb is able to shut down Lolita's transduction field so she wouldn't be able to dematerialise or navigate away. They then began to burn her alive. However, Lolita unfolded into her horrific true body, used her status as War Queen to open a connection to the Homeworld, and escaped through said channel.

Marne told Geb that Sutekh was headed to attack 18th century Earth, and though Geb initially didn't believe him, he saw the truth in Marne's memory. He set off to investigate, abandoning Marne on Mars.

Battlefield Three: Earth, later
By 8 November, 1764, the Society still has found no trace of Justine. However, Sutekh has regardless detected an intrusion and found Finton at Volanto on the Italian coast. Sutekh's agents torture Finton until he reveals Justine's location and the location of her timeship. Then, the agents dump Finton on Pennerton's doorstep. He shortly thereafter dies in Pennerton's arms.

In the Mediterranean Sea, Geb arrived to investigate a temporal disturbance in his search for Sutekh on Earth. A modified timeship was hidden there, and Horus were there with Nephthys and over 700 fellow warriors, preparing for the battle in Egypt against Sutekh's followers.

Just after Horus and Nephthys leave, Sutekh arrives, given the location of their timeship by Finton. Instead, he finds Geb, who cries that this is impossible: he earlier found Sutekh in the sand on Mars, half-dead, and trapped him in the pyramid. How could Sutekh then be alive?

Enraged, Sutekh psychically attacked Geb and dumped his body on the floor of the Temple of Geb just in time to watch Sutekh tear our Horus' heart.

Battlefield Four: Osirian Court
Justine's simulacrum and Finton left Sutekh's funeral on Mars and entered the Ship of a Billion Years. There they met Nephthys, who was transporting Horus' corpse; Nephthys passes on a final message from Horus: "Be afraid."

In the throne room, Sutekh began psychically attacking Justine's simulacrum when Finton began to compulsively recite one of his poems. The poem broke down Justine's bio-filter just as Sutekh opened a direct channel between their two minds; this connection allowed Justine to lash out with her shadow-weapon and sever some of Sutekh's nervous connections. She then dumped his body on Mars.

Battlefield Five: The Homeworld
Instead of going to the battle in Egypt, Horus surprises Nephthys by travelling down a time link to the Homeworld, then "dealing with" Lolita.

Cast

 * Cousin Justine - Wanda Opalinska
 * Horus - Jane Lesley
 * Sutekh - Gabriel Woolf
 * Lolita - Jet Tattersall
 * Geb - Edward de Souza
 * Nephthys - Tracy Russell
 * Abelard Finton - David Bickerstaff
 * Corwyn Marne - Robert Lock
 * Attendant - Bruce McGillan

Worldbuilding
to be added

Story notes
to be added

Continuity

 * Sutekh is trapped in a pyramid on Earth. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)