Their caravan continued throughout the day. They passed by several different small towns, but as Evie explained, they weren't planning on stopping any time soon, especially since Kayla's father was at risk. And so they'd all kept riding along, only stopping in a small clearing just outside another town when night had fully fallen.

"That's enough for one day," Evie said, bringing her wagon to a stop. "You two need some bedrolls? I've got extra. I figure we can all cram into the back of the wagon if we're smart about it, that way we're not sleeping under the stars."

"You two rest up for now," Pale said. "I'll take the first watch."

"That's not necessary," Evie insisted. "We have caravan guards for that."

"Be that as it may, I would be much more at-ease if I was able to help them keep watch for a bit." Pale shifted a bit, unslinging her shotgun. "I will join you both in a few hours."

Slowly, Evie nodded. "Very well."

"Wake me when it's my turn," Kayla said.

Pale waved her off. "Not necessary, thanks to the guards; this is more for my own peace of mind than anything."

Kayla hesitated. "If you're sure…"

"I am positive. Get some sleep."

Kayla nodded, and as she laid down, Pale climbed out of the back of the wagon and stood just outside it, her weapon held at a patrol carry. She looked around, trying to get a read on her surroundings. They were back in a field again, with a thicket of trees nearby. A short ways away, she saw a small village populated with houses made of wood. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary with anything, but that didn't mean they were completely in the clear.

They were getting farther north, Pale knew. And the farther along they got, the more likely it was that they were going to run into more bandits. She wanted to be prepared for that, just in case.

Of course, that was the problem – if she wanted to keep her true nature a secret from Evie, then she wouldn't be able to use her drop pods. The thought made her scowl. She was being forced to deliberately handicap herself if she didn't want people to start asking questions. Evie and her group weren't bad people, at least as far as Pale could tell, but the last thing she needed was for word to get around about her.

Of course, that only mattered if things weren't escalating. If it came to preserving her avatar's life or revealing her secrets, Pale knew there was really no debate to be had. And in that case, the gloves would come off.

She was still a warship, after all, and if her internal diagnostics were correct, most of her weapons systems were still online. The majority of her armament was designed for ship-to-ship combat, but if push came to shove, it would be trivial to repurpose some of it for air-to-ground combat. The only problem there was collateral damage.

Pale let out a small huff. Coming planetside was an inevitability, given the state of her true form, but the longer she stayed here, the more complicated things seemed to be getting. Idly, she ran through her inventory, looking for something useful, only to find nothing but a few distress beacons. Given the sheer vastness of space and the fact that this solar system was completely unknown even to her, the odds of someone coming across the beacons were so small as to be almost non-existent, but that was no excuse for not trying.

And so, Pale snapped her fingers, and several distress beacons were ejected from the ship. They would be completely invisible to anyone not using her military's IFF codes, unless the Caatex had somehow managed to crack their codes in the time she'd been gone. But if that was the case, then the war was already lost, and all she'd be doing was speeding up the inevitable.

Pale leaned against the wagon, peering out into the forest, a scowl crossing her face. Her thoughts had been a mess ever since her earlier talk with Evie about family, and she wasn't sure why. Everything Evie had told her had gone against all the protocols that had been drilled into her mind since awakening on that operating table, and yet she couldn't help but dwell on her words nonetheless.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Humans had always been naturally curious, and apparently, that curiosity had spread to her, courtesy of the brain mapping. It was rare that she came across a problem that couldn't be solved immediately, but philosophical discussions like the one she'd had with Evie were a bit more complex than something like a mathematical equation, at least in terms of the steps needed to solve them. Still, in time, Pale was confident she'd find the answers she was looking for.

Pale's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by something out of the peripheral of her vision. Through the darkness, she was barely able to make out a figure approaching from the forest, breaking out from the trees and stealthily moving over to the caravan. Without missing a beat, Pale raised her shotgun and activated the weapon-mounted light attached to it. The light cut through the darkness like a knife through butter, illuminating a large man clad in furs and carrying a pair of miniature axes in his hands.

Pale didn't hesitate. She pulled the trigger; the man's head exploded in a shower of gore, and all hell broke loose.

From the forest, arrows and magic began to fly, impacting against the wagons. Pale ducked back behind Evie's wagon, thumbing a shell into her gun as she did so. All around her, arrows embedded themselves into the ground.

"Evie, Kayla!" she called. "We're under attack!"

From inside the wagon, she heard the two other girls scramble to their feet, then jump out of the back. Kayla was already conjuring lightning in her hands, while Evie had grabbed a longbow and quiver from somewhere and was busy nocking an arrow. They both ran over to her, crouching down alongside her.

"Do we know who they are?" Evie asked.

"Bandits," Pale reported."I was expecting we'd find more of them as we made it further north."

One of the nearby wagons suddenly went up in flames. Evie stared at it, a scowl creeping her face.

"We can discuss that later," she emphasized. "For now, come with me. We need to beat these guys back before the entire caravan is destroyed."

"You're right. Kayla, go with her." At Kayla's pointed glance, Pale added, "I'll be fine. Go!"

Kayla still seemed hesitant to leave her behind, but ultimately did as she was told, taking off after Evie as she ran towards the rest of the caravan. Pale, meanwhile, turned her attention towards the forest nearby, where spells were still being launched towards the caravan. Without a moment of pause, Pale ran for the forest, taking care to keep herself out of sight as she did so.

After a brief sprint, Pale reached the thicket of trees, dropping into a crouch as she moved towards the rays of light being fired at the caravan. She slung her shotgun, instead drawing her pistol in one hand and her knife in the other. Creeping along, she looked for one of the nearby mages, and eventually found one. He was midway through casting a spell when she pounced on him, driving her knife into the base of his skull and severing his brain stem. Immediately, the man fell like a puppet with its strings cut; Pale scrambled off him, flicking her knife to clean some of the gore off, then continued on her way.

The bandit mages, it turned out, were so heavily focused on the caravan that none of the others noticed her approaching them. She was able to take out two more in much the same way she killed the first. However, that was when the other bandits, having noticed they were no longer being provided with covering fire, decided to investigate.

Pale was midway through climbing off the last dead mage when two men wielding greatswords emerged from the trees ahead. She rounded on them, her .45 in hand, and began to fire. Hollow point rounds ripped through both men, and they jerked as the bullets struck flesh and bone, both of them eventually succumbing to a final headshot. Pale flicked the empty magazine out of her gun and replaced it with a fresh one, then holstered the weapon and shouldered her shotgun.

She was just in time, as two more bandits came sprinting after her. The first one was taken down by a spray of buckshot that tore his right leg off at the knee; he collapsed, screaming in agony as the second man advanced upon her, his sword raised high and glinting in the moonlight. Pale rolled to the side just as it was about to impact and split her in two, then began to pour shell after shell into her opponent, ending with a final shot to his chest that ripped his ribcage open and exposed his heart.

To her dismay, however, that red aura enveloped him, and he gave her a manic grin as he stomped towards her, hefting his sword. Pale's shotgun clicked empty, and she let it hang from its sling as she unholstered her pistol. Just before she could get a shot off, however, the bandit did something unexpected – he reached for a knife on his belt and threw it at her. Pale's eyes widened, but she had no time to avoid the throwing dagger before it embedded itself into her shoulder.

Pale bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, the sudden pain a new sensation to her. Her vision blurred; the knife was scraping against bone with every movement she made, she could feel it. Her left arm hung limply at her side, forcing her to retreat deeper into the forest. Behind her, she heard the bandit continue to advance, looking for her.

"I can smell your blood, little one," he said. "You can't hide forever."

Pale grimaced as the blood dripped down her arm and onto the ground below. He was certainly right about that – she couldn't hide forever. Running was also out of the question; she wasn't about to abandon Kayla and Evie.

She was going to have to fight.

Pale's gaze fell to her shotgun, still hanging from its sling with its action left open. Carefully, she dropped a single shell into its chamber, then rode the slide forward. The bandit heard the click of the weapon being loaded, then charged after her. She beat him to the punch, however, spinning out from around the tree with her .45 raised. The bandit closed in on her, his sword raised high, but she got there first – her .45 barked twelve times in the night before the slide locked to the rear, and each time, another chunk was torn out of the man's heart. He stumbled back with every shot, his eyes widening in disbelief. The greatsword came clattering to the ground, but he still wasn't dead – instead of lying down and accepting his fate, he ripped two daggers from his belt and charged her once more, a feral yell erupting from his throat.

Pale dropped her handgun, and with one hand, raised her shotgun, tucking the stock under her arm. She took careful aim, waiting for the right moment, and then fired. What was left of the bandit's heart exploded, and he immediately paused, his eyes widening for just a moment before glassing over. His body fell to the ground, lifeless, the knives he'd drawn embedding themselves blade-first in the ground beside him.

Pale slumped to the ground, breathing heavily. It only lasted for a moment before she shook off the pain and adrenaline, however. Hurriedly, she gathered her weapons and began to head back to the caravan, only to pause when she saw something sticking out of the bandit's pocket – a letter of some sort.

With nary a second thought, she grabbed the letter and stowed it in her backpack, then took off back towards Evie and Kayla.