Yutu knocked another metal penguin away with his spear. It tumbled into the surrounding horde, dissipating into a cloud of gray dust, only to be replaced by another. How many had that made? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? He didn’t know; he had lost track long ago. Time mattered little in this place. Sometimes it felt like he had been here forever, like he had known no other place but this dark, cold void, surrounded by an endless army of metal penguins. At other times, he could recall memories from various parts of his life as clearly as if he had just stepped out of them.
He couldn’t even remember why he was fighting, what this endless, pointless struggle was for. Yet he knew he had to keep fighting. He knew that if he stopped, then the surrounding horde would utterly consume him. So he fought and fought and fought. Until his arms burned like they were on fire. Until his lungs shuttered with each breath. Until his body felt hollow and dry, and every drop had been wrung from him.
Yet, he knew he was fighting a losing battle. Each swing of his spear came a little harder. Every penguin he tossed aside was a little heavier. Every moment, the horde closed in around him a little tighter. In time, Yutu would have nothing left to give, and the end would come.
“So, why do you keep fighting?”
The feminine voice was smooth and sweet. Kind, but firm in a way that reminded him of his mother. It wasn’t judging him or scolding him, simply asking why.
Like a dream, Yutu never questioned where the voice had come from or what it was asking, just as he never questioned the horde or where he was. Nonetheless, he answered it, knocking away another penguin, his voice dry and raspy.
“Because I have to?”
Again, the feminine voice asked from just out of view.
“Why? What do you gain from it? What is it you desire from all of this?”
Yutu faltered, his swing coming short as a penguin slammed into his chest. He stumbled back a few steps but brought his spear up in time to deflect the next metal creature.
Why was he fighting? Yutu wasn’t a spearman! He wasn’t a Guardian! He was a Scriptor, a trapper! Why was he here?
“Because… Because I…”
Two more penguins leaped at him, metal maws opened wide. He couldn’t deflect both. Time seemed to slow, and a memory flashed through his mind. Yutu, barely 10 years old, and a slightly older boy stood in a field, long staffs clutched in their hands. The larger boy lecturing Yutu, his back straight and chin held high as if ready to deliver some grand secret. Even if his voice cracked like a young man’s tended to when not quite finished with puberty.
“See here! The spear isn’t just a stick with a pointy end! You’ve got to treat the whole thing as a weapon!”
The young boy twirled his staff in a demonstration, stabbing out at an imaginary enemy with one end of the spear, only to pull back at the last second and strike at another foe coming from a different direction with the butt end. Young Yutu laughed and smiled at the sloppy display. After all, Yutu had already watched him practice the move a hundred times after he’d delivered the lunch his mother had made him take to his father at the training grounds.
That same smile mirrored on an older face as Yutu drove the spear tip into the first penguin, then slammed the butt end into the others with a twist of his hips. Both went flying, but a third erupted from the ground under him.
Again, a vivid memory flashed through his mind. This time, a slightly older Yutu stood in a grassy field with a young woman. The young woman lashed out with an open palm, catching young Yutu in the chest. He fell to the ground with an oof and rubbed his lower back. The young woman looked down at him and shook her head, her voice stern as she scolded him.
“Yutu! How do you expect the other boys to take you seriously if you can’t even get the Slatewalker footwork down?! Do you want to always be a target? Now get up and watch me again!”
She raised her hand to the young Yutu, pulling him to his feet. She showed him the basic footwork for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. Like a dancer on ice, or more accurately, a piece of charcoal on a stone slab, the young woman’s feet glided across the grass in an intricate pattern.
An older Yutu smiled at the memory and mimicked those same patterns in a fluid movement, nimbly dodging an attacking penguin before countering with an upward swing. The third penguin soared through the air before poofing away like those before it.
Yutu considered the question the voice asked again. When he spoke, his words were no longer a question to himself.
“Because I have to.”
He breathed out and lowered his spear, only vaguely aware in that dream-like way that the metal penguins were no longer attacking. He turned to face the voice and, instead of empty space, met the gaze of a beautiful young woman, her eyes a mesmerizing display of alternating white and black rings. Yutu spoke again, his eyes firm.
“Because I have people waiting for me. Because if I don’t fight, then the people who worked so hard to make me smile won’t be able to themselves.”
The woman stared at Yutu and sighed, casting her eyes down and shaking her head. Her voice, though still soft, felt tired.
“Naïve and cliché. Still, it’s better than some other fools. You would be surprised how many rants I’ve heard about standing on top or ‘defying the heavens.’”
Yutu stumbled, feeling like he could spit blood. He furrowed his brow and stuttered.
“What — I — ?”
The woman held up a hand, cutting him off as she continued.
“But that’s neither here nor there. This is about you and what you want. So, young Yutu, what is it you really want? What is it you desire in your heart of hearts?”
Yutu closed his mouth and paused, considering. What did he want?
After a long minute, he spoke.
“I want to be useful. Not just be used….”
The woman raised a brow, motioning for him to continue, so he did.
“I want to be someone that people can rely on. Someone who can return all the happiness and goodwill given to me. Someone who can do the same for others that has been done for me.”
The woman frowned, her voice cold and blank as she responded.
“You understand that is not the world we live in. The strong eat the weak, and those with power make the rules. Even in the largest and most prosperous cities, the law of the jungle reigns. Tell me, how would a man like you ever survive in this world alone?”
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Yutu looked down at the woman’s scolding, but the grip around his spear grew tighter as he looked back up, staring into her eyes.
“You're right. The strong will eat the weak. But there is more than one definition of power. We don’t have to challenge the heavens alone. We don’t have to bear the weight of the world ourselves. You ask me, how does a man like me survive on my own? We don’t have to. I’ll pull others up with me. I’ll challenge the world with an army at my side if I have to. Even ants may feast on tiger flesh when they work together.”
Yutu’s last words hung heavy in the silence before the woman threw her head back and laughed. The young man’s face grew cherry red.
She clutched her stomach and wiped away a diamond tear as she spoke.
“I was right. Naïve and foolish — ”
Yutu opened his mouth, but again, she raised a hand, cutting him off.
“ — but… you remind me of him… So, I’ll ask you once more…”
She looked up at him, all laughter gone from her eyes. In its place, Yutu felt as if he was looking at the very foundations of the world, an unmovable cornerstone on which all others were set.
“Yutu of the Slatewalkers, would you like to make a contract?”
— — — — — — -
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!”
Alpha’s laughter was drowned out by the rat-a-tat-tat of both quad barrel railguns on either side. Strictly speaking, they shouldn’t have made much noise as railguns. But Alpha always found a little… showmanship was needed in situations like this, as it made for more “impact.” After all, he didn’t get to use Siege Mode every day.
Mostly that was because of the [Munition Compression Drills], Alpha’s personal addition to the TAWP that answered the question, “What if we just had ALL the bullets?”
Simple in concept, the MCD used the same principles found in nanite mining to burrow deep into the ground, then use the stone, soil, and trace metals it dug up to create super compressed, hyper-dense rail ammunition.
Who didn’t love infinite ammo?
That being said, it came with some limitations, the most obvious of which was it locked Alpha in place as the MCDs spread out like tree roots. He could abandon the drills and silo in a pinch, but that would represent a tremendous loss of resources and time. It was also something that took time to deploy properly. Often it was far quicker to take out the enemy with more conventional munitions.
There was also the issue of Alpha’s “dirt cheap bullets” (the first time he made that pun, Si’dia locked him in a high-security cell for a week) didn’t really do much against even outdated armor, or at least Federation standards of “outdated.”
But against a ravenous horde of squishy biologicals intent on throwing themselves at him by the dozens? Well, it gave a new meaning to “paint the town (ruins) red.”
Actually, on second thought, that brought up an interesting question. Why were they so intent on getting past him? Alpha knew a few had slipped through alternate means, so killing him wasn’t their goal. Then why were they just throwing bodies into the meat-grinder? Was it to distract him? Or tie his hands?
He had [Wasps] scouting the ruins, looking for any signs of suspicious behavior, but they’d yet to find anything other than the growing army.
The strange woman who suddenly appeared in the middle of the group of humans was worrying, but other than showing some surprise, the humans hadn’t reacted negatively. Alpha found the consequences of her timely appearance… suspicious, as did her ability to slide through the ground like the penguins. He didn’t have enough information to act on but kept a turret barrel trained on her figure, just in case.
A brief discussion saw Kallik move away from the unconscious young man and the stranger take her place. Then she just… stood there? Several minutes passed like that as the army of penguins grew, despite the small lake of gore forming in front of Alpha. At least they’d stopped throwing themselves mindlessly at him, their natural survival instincts overriding whatever compulsion drove them into the meat-grinder.
Alpha switched from continual fire to more controlled bursts, targeting penguins that peeked out from behind cover his compressed soil bullets couldn’t quite pierce.
That’s when the rumbling started. The entire building complex began shaking violently, throwing up thick dust clouds. All that could be seen through the obstruction was the soft blue glow emanating from the designs decorating the obelisk and the black-white glow in the woman’s eyes.
The dust hung in the air for a moment before coming to a sudden halt, falling to the ground as if pushed by some unseen hand. Once the air was free of dust, Alpha had to do a double take as he noticed the obelisk had vanished.
No, wait, not vanished. Rather, it was compressed to the size of a small stake made of some dark gemstone, vibrant blue lines pulsing along its length, forming intricate patterns. The gemstone stake floated silently over the woman’s outstretched hands as if suspended by an anti-gravity field. Then, in one smooth motion, it floated over the unconscious man’s chest and flipped over, sharp point down.
Alpha took the shot. Three military-grade rounds slammed into the woman at Mach 3. Part of the woman’s head and upper chest vanished in a spray of moss and stone but seemed to have little effect. The group of humans yelled and scrambled for cover, but the strange woman only turned to Alpha and smiled. She waved in his direction once before crumbling to dust.
The gemstone stake, however, remained floating in place. Then, in one swift motion, it plunged toward the young man’s chest. The group of humans gasped, but instead of the expected spray of blood, space rippled as it came in contact, and like a stone dropping into a still lake, the stake vanished.
All was still for a silent moment, and then the air centered on the young man’s still form pulsed like the beating of a heart starting back up after centuries of laying still. Again, the air pulsed, this time stronger, and the young man gasped, his back arching and eyes wide open. Eyes now ringed with a dual black-and-white pattern.
A torrent of writhing copper vines, far more than should have been there, erupted from his back, poured onto, then burrowed into the hard ground beneath him.
Alpha tracked the strange phenomena with his own nanoroots, watching as the copper vines burrowed towards the temple breech, “swimming” around the MCD roots like they had a mind of their own. The army of gathered penguins seeming to sense something was wrong, scattered, but it was too late.
At that same time, hundreds of copper vines burst forth from the ground under each penguin, skewering them through various vital points. In mere seconds, what was once a ruined town was turned into a copper forest, penguin bodies decorating their branches like morbid fruits.
Alpha watched the scene from various angles provided by his [Wasps] and could confirm the same was happening all across the ruins.
[Huh… Neat.]
That was all the AI could think.
More interesting to Alpha was what the copper vines had dug up near the back of the ruins. More than a thousand meters away from the primary temple complex, near one of the pit walls, a large penguin with a twisted flipper struggled against dozens of copper vines. Unlike its lesser minions, the creature had avoided most of the damage, though several broken metal spears wedged in its feathery hide said it hadn’t come away unscathed. It was putting up a good fight, however, and the vines couldn’t seem to finish it off.
With a pulse of power, the large penguin pushed the surrounding vines away and yelled out loud enough to be heard, even from that distance. Alpha’s Lexicon was still a work in progress, but it was coming along well enough he could make out most of what the creature was saying.
“ENOUGH! You couldn’t just die peacefully, could you?! You insects forced me to do this! Remember that while you burn in the pits!”
With that, it pulled a small black orb from nowhere. The strange orb bubbled and swirled like black oil, or maybe tar, and gave Alpha a creepy feeling, even through the [Wasp].
The penguin gave the orb a look of hesitation before tossing it into its mouth and biting down. At that moment, the air around the creature seemed to explode, pushing the vines and rubble away from it for dozens of meters. The creature itself screamed soundlessly toward the sky as thick black veins spread across its body. Then, the stone and rubble surrounding it began floating, pulled almost magnetically towards the creature until the large penguin was buried under a small mountain of debris.
Rather than that being the end, the mountain of debris then started to shift and twist, flowing like water to take on a new shape. A second later, the mountain of debris was no longer debris, and a thirty-meter-tall stone penguin stood in its place. The gargantuan stone penguin gave a mindless roar that shook the air and charged toward the temple, sliding on its stone belly at surprising speeds.
Alpha watched the approaching stone titan and mentally frowned.
“… Ya, screw that. We’re not playing this game again. Time for the gloves to come off….”
The TAWP’s back swirled and shifted, and in only a moment, something new had formed.
The 10-meter-long square barrel, four sparking electromagnetic rails running down its length at each corner, gave off a slightly industrial feel unlike much of Alpha’s other equipment.
Despite the less refined appearance, the sight would have sent many smaller pirate factions in the Third Federation running for the hills.
A single name was carved into the side of the barrel in bold letters for all the world to see.
[M8-223-Railjack].