Lily
Lily coughed violently, as the whirlwind of dust the explosion kicked up entered her lungs. She couldn’t breathe, thanks to all the dust in the air, neither could she see anything. She could hear though, and the crunching sound of giant metal boots on rubble got through just fine. Fighting through her stinging eyes and closed throat, she forced herself to move. Crawling forward with the still limp body of Andessa cradled between herself and Tupelo. The man was strong, for a wood elf, but that didn’t help much when they had to drag several hundred pounds of unconscious, armored, bugbear through a rubble strewn cave.
“Get a move on,” Staz said, appearing out of nowhere and scooping Andessa up in the arm not busy holding Unyielding Oak. “Grab on, we’re running out of time.” Lily wrapped her arms around the giant’s arm, he waited a second, presumably to let Tupelo latch onto his other arm. A second in which the Anthropos knights opened fire into the cave. Thankfully, the destroyed trucks were between where they’d reached and the new entrance, now blown into the cave wall. Lily looked back as the oni dragged them forward, and as her eyes disappeared below the level of the floor, she saw several knight silhouettes, backlit by the sunlight streaming in from outside, as they fired the rifles Lily hadn’t even known they’d had at them. No sooner had they dropped below the level of the floor, than the stairwell, hidden below the workbench, closed.
“That won’t fool them for long, we need to hurry.” Staz said, and Lily noticed for the first time Rachel and Robert were also clinging to the giant, arms and legs wrapped around his legs, like children riding their father’s shoe. He didn’t wait for them to disentangle themselves, instead the oni rushed down the tunnel, with all six of them hanging off his limbs. Owl Two was right in front of them, leading the way. Lily didn’t know how he was able to move at all, let alone run, with all the holes that now littered his body. He looked like one of Benjamin’s target dummies, after a long day of practice.
They ran through the complex, once again ignoring all the closed doors, until they reached the vat room. Staz’s boots sounded like thunder, as the noise they made ricocheted off the filled glass vats. This place still gave Lily the creeps, but at least she wasn’t alone, Rachel and Robert were cursing quietly, talking to each other in hushed tones as they took in the embryo filled tanks. She could sympathize, but now hardly seemed like the best time for moral outrage to Lily. They could damn well wait to dish out moral justice on the android until after his vat grown soldiers saved them from the invaders. Clearing the final doorway, they entered the laboratory where Lily listened to Owl Two finish his conversation with the White Flame. To find over seventy-mark VIII’s pointed at them.
The yokai quickly pointed the railguns away from them as they cleared a path through the group, closing ranks around them as they came to a stop next to the table. The Oni gently set them all down as Lily took in the yokai. There were several types represented here, oni, kaldarr, hobgoblin, human and even a few wood elf hybrids. Not to mention the pure-blooded hobgoblins, wood elves and a handful of bugbear women from her old clan. Each, armored in thick body armor, and holding a mark VIII.
The Mark VIII was bulkier, heavier, less powerful, and held fewer rounds than the mark V. The only advantage to the railgun was the fact Owl Two could produce large quantities of them cheaply. At least, compared to the more advanced mark V. They were ludicrously material intensive compared to one of the original modified kaldarr rifles they’d wielded back in the day.
“I’ve just received word from the seven technologist I sent over earlier.” Owl Two said, raising his voice to be heard by everyone present. “They are ready to begin growing the bodies for you all. Before you go, I would like to remind you when you arrive, the situation will likely be dire. So, eat all the pink fluid you can, and be ready to go directly into combat. Any questions?” He didn’t even wait for anyone to respond, before continuing. “Good, off you go then, good luck, and keep our lord safe.” With those final words, thirty-six of those present faded from view to the gasped astonishment of Rachel and Robert.
“What the… what just happened?” Rachel asked, looking around wildly. She might not have bothered speaking at all, for all the attention the yokai paid to her.
“K2,” Owl Two said next, waiting for the eight-foot tall, nanite enhanced Kaldarr to jog over before he continued speaking. “I have an hour to flush all the dropships and get my core into lord Ronin’s hands. After that, the backup power will fade, and this world will irrevocably change. I’d hoped to do a test flight with one of the least valuable ships, but it can’t be helped now. I’ll have to get it right on the first try… point is, I need you and yokai teams ten through fifteen to buy me that hour. The enemy is strong, so your best bet will be to get them lost in the labs and keep them busy, rather than attack directly. Remember, you don’t have to kill them, only delay them an hour. Understood?” He asked, eyeing K2 through a cracked visor, that exposed gears, wires, and only one red light, blinking in and out at around where a human’s left eye would be. The other side was damaged beyond repair, with several holes smashed through his visor where his right eye might have been.
“Understood, Owl Two. For the White Flame,” K2 said, crashing his fist into his chest. The move was mirrored by the remaining yokai teams, and the words, ‘For the White Flame’ echoed through the room. Then, they all gathered up their rifles and filed out from the door Lily’s group had just entered from. Turning to the remaining yokai, the ones who’d stayed behind before. Owl Two addressed them as well.
“Go to all the hidden laboratories and set the self-destructs. We can’t afford to let any of our more creative experiments fall into anyone else’s hands.” Lily wondered what the android had been doing down here that was so bad he didn’t want anyone uncovering it, then decided she really didn’t want to know. “Set the timers for an hour from now. If it takes me longer than that to finish my mission than we’ve already failed anyway.” Finally, as the yokai filed out of the room to follow their orders, he turned to Staz and Unyielding Oak, who was now awake, if still recovering.
“Here,” he said, handing Staz a tablet from the table after he’d keyed a code into the touch panel. “I’ve unlocked this device for anyone to use. It will only last for an hour before going dead. There is a list of items and a map of the complex in there, I need you to collect them, and hold them for our lord’s return. The most important things are going to be the fabrication unit, and our lords pod I left attached to it, the locust queen, and the armored suits we just captured. The other items will be useful, but are not worth sacrificing any of those three for, understand?” Lily frowned and couldn’t hold back the question that bubbled up to her lips.
“Why are the suits so important? We only just met the Anthropos knights, and the White Flame won’t have ever seen them before.”
“Because lord Ronin has been wearing a very similar suit on the outside,” Owl Two answered, turning to her. “He’s gotten used to fighting in one, and he will be much safer in one of the Anthropos knight suits than outside of it. Since, he is still needed if we’re to save this world.”
“He’s wearing something similar to them, and they showed up here just in time for you to collect a few for him? That seems a little too convenient, doesn’t it?” She asked, not being able to hold back, and trying to distract herself from the gunfire already drifting down from above.
“Not at all,” Owl Two said simply. “This world is a reflection of lord Ronin’s will. He may not understand yet, or how to consciously use his will to affect changes here, but his unconscious can manage just fine. He wanted armored suits, so they came. It was just our poor luck how they ended up getting here.” Lily stared at Owl two, and she wasn’t the only one either, everyone in the room was staring at that revelation.
“Are you telling me, that the entire reason our home is being destroyed right now, is that spoiled White Flame wanted a new toy?” Rachel shrieked, gripping her hair by the roots, and clearly having a hard time holding herself back from pulling it out by the handful.
“It wouldn’t have mattered.” Owl Two said with a dismissive wave. “This world will end in an hour, along with much of lord Ronin’s influence over it. When it restarts again, it will be different, and any influence lord Ronin wishes to have over the new world will have to be hard won from the enemies who are coming.” He raised a hand which was missing two fingers and part of a palm to interrupt the torrent of questions that were now flooding towards him from all those who were left.
“Enough, you will find out in an hour. Now, go and get the things on that list. When you’re done, follow the map to the secret escape tunnel below the compound. Once inside get as far away from here as you can. I have things to do, and I can’t be distracted anymore from them.” After that, it was like the android had turned his ability to hear off, because no matter what anyone said or did to him, all the machine did was tap furiously away at the tablet that remained on the table.
“Let’s go,” Staz said handing the tablet to Unyielding Oak, who promptly dropped it. It looked like her broken arm wasn’t done healing yet.
“Let me,” Lily said, grabbing the tablet and looking at the map with its location markers. “Wow, the android got a lot done in the last ten years.” She muttered, scrolling around until she found the fabricator in a room three levels below. “There it is, looks like we have to head back two rooms over from the vat room and through a stairwell hidden in that room… what?” She asked, when she’d lifted her head to find everyone staring at her, well, everyone but Andessa, who was still asleep.
“You took to that tablet quickly enough,” Rachel said, suspicion clear in her voice. “How did you know how to find it so quickly?” Lily scowled at the young woman, wondering why Owl Two had saved them at all for a moment, before her face flushed with shame, and she remembered that until just a little while ago, she’d have thought the same thing. Glancing at Robert, she saw similar suspicion in his eyes.
“I’m sorry you two.” Lily said spontaneously, looking at the hate written all across the faces of the younger generation. Hate she’d done more than her fair share of instilling in them while they were young.
“For what?” Rachel asked, eyeing her angrily. “Are you admitting to betraying Undercity right now? Because I swear…”
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“I’m sorry my personal hatred, and that of the queen led our entire city to the state we’re now in. I’m sorry that you all hate the syndicate so much because of us. Despite how it was the White Flame who saved all our lives and promised us the Undercity, and Owl Two who maintained that promise, even after we’d turned away.”
“As touching as your revelation is, traitor, it’s ten years too late to do you any good now. So, if you’re going to lead with that tablet, get a move on, because we’re running out of time.” Unyielding Oak said, staggering to her feet. “Thanks,” she added to Staz, who’d produced a walking stick from the storage ring and handed it to her.
“You’re right,” Lily said with a nod. “I’m sorry to you two as well, I know my behavior has been inexcusable…” She trailed off at the glare the wood elf sent her and clearing her throat she continued. “It’s this way, come on now, let’s go.” Even as she led the way out of the room, Lily’s mind was firmly settled on her lover and their two children. She didn’t know Hunter had been planning on bringing their troops up to blockade the tunnel before she’d come here. Had Halikor been drafted into the blockading force? Who was watching her kids? She didn’t know if she could take losing another child, the pain might tear her apart from the inside out. She took a steadying breath and kept walking. She’d never survive the trip to the tunnel, so all she could do was follow Owl Two’s instructions and help prepare for the White Flame’s return.
“Is this it?” She asked, some twenty minutes later, after they’d crawled down two hidden stairwells, and between two floors of technological wonders, and biological horrors she’d just as soon she’d never seen at all. They were standing in what looked like an engine room, with the stripped-down drop pod at its center. The teardrop shape it had once held was gone, stripped away with five of the six pods and all the armor. Now it looked like a giant battery, with the fabricator and its various tanks of materials resting beside it, with one lone pod still bolted into place on the other side.
“That’s it.” Staz said, placing his hand on the drop pod, and frowning when it failed to disappear. “Damn, the material tanks must have too much in them. The ring won’t let me take the unit until I drop some weight. Or rather, if I take anymore, it will break my finger under the weight.” He corrected with a grim chuckle. “Hold on a moment.” Backtracking into an empty room nearby, the giant began pulling random junk from thin air.
Lily watched, along with Andessa, Tupelo, Robert, and Rachel, as the giant worked. Producing first the three four wheeled bikes, before taking the weapons and the robot crates from them. Next, a stack of stone carver rat alloy ingots rained down into three piles. Each pile contained a stack of ingots at various levels of refinement. The metal was refined by feeding the raw ore to the rats, they’d assimilate the metals into their armor, and it was naturally refined. To refine it further, the rat would be killed, and the metal armor would be fed to another rat, who would refine it more, while adding it to their own armor. Lily blinked at the massive pile of many times refined metal. She’d worked closely with Vasylia for years and knew that what she was looking at was a mountain of wealth. The three piles were divided by quality of metal, and even the worst pile had been refined no less than three times. Something the Undercity smiths could only dream about since they’d kicked the syndicate out.
“Damn, I really don’t want to leave this, especially now that I’ll have the fabricator.” She heard Staz muttering, before a small hill of weapons and armor appeared. Much of it was locust lamellar, but there were examples of all types of weapons and armor visible in the pile as well. “Sorry boss, but you’ll need this ore to improve those suits, more than you’ll need that armor gallery.” Lily blinked, realizing that it wasn’t only Guts who’d been collecting armor for the White Flame. The mountain of ingots disappeared again and was replaced by two trucks, almost identical to the pair they’d driven through the wall. Then, they were followed by a third, and this one surprised Lily since it was Ronin’s personal armored truck.
“I guess with the trucks gone, I don’t need this ammo anymore either," Staz grumbled, now dropping several crates of large rounds, specially crafted for the truck’s heavy tank gun. “What a waste, still, might as well make the best out of it.” Having finished speaking, a pair of stone carver rats appeared, surrounded by several smaller versions of themselves. Who all began eating their way through the piles of weapons and armor, as Staz moved back to the stripped-down drop pod to try again.
“Are you carrying around an entire litter of stone carver rats in your ring?” Robert asked with surprise as the rats chewed through the refined metal arms and armor faster than one could believe possible before seeing the beasts at work.
“Of course,” Staz said, as the drop pod disappeared, taking a huge chunk of the room with it. “Wow, that explains it, didn’t realize all that was raw material… need to drop some more stuff.” Staz muttered as he moved back into the empty room, rubbing his hand the whole time, to drop more random gear on the floor. “How else are we supposed to feed the fabricator with the best alloys we can get our hands on? Owl Two modified generations of these things until he arrived at these two, their chock full of nanites, and should live forever, ready to eat through whatever we give them and grow. Their kids, who nibble at their armor, their version of breast feeding, will be harvested for their metal.” He smiled, clearly impressed with the genetic manipulations that had changed the rats from racoon sized beasts into these horse sized monsters.
“That’s barbaric.” Rachel said, spitting to the side. “How can you live with yourself, knowing every single member of the syndicate, apart from those at the very top, were bred to be your servants?”
“That’s pretty rich, coming from someone wearing stone carver alloy armor.” Unyielding Oak said, jabbing her walking stick into Rachel’s chest plate. “You’re no different from my ungrateful kin, happy to supp from the table that the blood and sacrifice of others prepared for you, all the while cursing the methods that put that meal before you. Like eating the fruits of our labor, while condemning us as sinners, somehow makes you better than those who came before… I don’t know why Owl Two saved you, but if you don’t shut up, I’ll teach you a lesson in respect that you won’t live long enough to appreciate.”
“Who do you thin…” Rachel snapped, before a green hand covered her mouth, and Lily’s sharp ears caught the words Robert whispered into her ear.
“You saw the recordings, same as I did Rach. Unyielding Oak slaughtered hundreds of hobgoblins in the attack on Undercity. Even injured you’re no match, so shut up, and let’s try and live through the day. If we’re still alive tomorrow then you can get yourself killed, while leaving me out of it.” Unyielding Oak smirked, clearly having heard as well, but didn’t respond as the human woman settled back down.
“Fine,” she said, words coming out barely above a whisper. “But what are we supposed to do now?” She asked, clearly fear had been driving most of her criticisms.
“I can’t store anymore,” Staz said, now standing in front of a mountain of abandoned gear the oni had likely been stockpiling for years. Among the mountain of cast offs, Lily saw a massive pile of hobat fur, there must have been two hundred pelts in that pile. They’d have been worth a fortune in Undercity, and she wondered how long the oni had planned to hold them before cashing in on the ever-increasing demand as the stock from the battle slowly dried up. She also spotted several corpses, two of which belonged to the pair of knights who’d killed themselves. Others, she didn’t look too closely at, fearing she might recognize them. “There were ten years’ worth of stockpiled materials in this room, and it weighs a lot. Is there anything light enough on the list that makes it worth going for, but still get to the escape tunnel before our hour is up?”
Lily looked over the map again, seeing several interesting things listed, like genetically modified tyrannosaurus rex eggs, the description on them made her long to hatch one for herself, but they were too far away, and since the map updated in real time, she could tell the path to them was cut off by the fighting already. The tablet was keeping a tally of the fight in the margins, so far K2 and the yokai teams had managed to kill three of the armored knights, at the cost of eleven of their own.
“No, nothing worth risking our lives over anyway. let’s get to the tunnel… come on, it’s this way.” It took them ten minutes to reach the escape tunnel, hidden cleverly behind a row of growth vats. The creatures growing in these did not look humanoid at all. In fact, they almost looked like thorn covered octopuses, with syringe tipped tentacles and multicolored sacks covering their body. Lily shuddered, wondering what kind of mind was twisted enough to dream up a nightmare like that, as she told Staz were to push to move them out of the way.
“Smart hiding place,” Robert, who’d been mostly silent up until now said. “The devilfish are so unnerving that anyone coming by this way would be too busy staring into the tanks to notice the hidden entrance to the tunnel. I imagine my mother could have found it, but very few besides her would have the skills.” Lily saw Unyielding Oak smirking at the momma’s boy, but she wasn’t so sure he wasn’t right. Owl Five was one of the single most deadly people she’d ever met. She’d assassinated several thorns in her lord’s side, and disposed of the bodies before he’d ever even realized they posed a threat. Lily doubted Eric would have had the guts to launch his coup attempt if she’d stayed behind all those years ago.
“Stop daydreaming and get in the tunnel,” Unyielding Oak snapped, giving her a jab with her stick. Tupelo moved to interpose himself between them, but Lily held him back. He was a wood elf, one who’d seen several centuries of life, which meant he’d known Unyielding Oak when she was still known as Petal dancer. Lily didn’t want to be the cause of friction between two of the oldest living beings to survive the locust war on the middle continent.
“It’s fine,” she said, shooing her bodyguard, who’d been fiercely loyal to her, ever since she’d stopped Owl Two from killing them after Eric and Andona’s coup had failed. “Just help Andessa along.” She added, looking at the shaggy bugbear, who’d regained consciousness, but must have taken a blow to the head during the crash, because she was having a hard time focusing and walking straight.
“Let me see the tablet,” Robert said, once they’d been running down the tunnel for five minutes. “I’d like to check on Undercity.” Looking at the goblin, who’d reached an equivalent age of thirty in the ten years he’d been alive, Lily sighed. Wishing things hadn’t turned out the way they had, because if he had been given nanites, he could have expected to live much longer.
“I’ll do it,” she said at last, pulling up the camera feeds from the tunnel. What she saw caused her to stumble, and she’d have fallen, if it wasn’t for Staz, who was bringing up the rear, in case they were followed. His bulk and toughness would take a bullet much better than any of them would.
“What’s the matter, what’s happening down there?” Robert asked, reaching for the tablet, before Lily snatched it away and switched the feed over to Owl two, still typing madly away on the tablet.
“Nothing, it’s fine.” She said, not wanting the goblin to see the massacre that was taking place in the tunnels to Undercity. The Anthropos knights had breached the defensive wall Owl Two had put up, and unlike the syndicate, Undercity hadn’t maintained a standing army. The knights were cutting through their numbers like a scythe through wheat.
“I want to see what’s happening.” He snapped again, making another grab for the tablet that Unyielding Oak blocked with her stick. “Our parents are in that tunnel; our queen is in that tunnel. We have the right to know what’s happening to them.”
“The right?” Unyielding Oak asked, huffing a little as she ran due to her injury. “Your girl here admitted it at the end. You came here fully intending to wipe us out, after stealing my kin away with promises of safety. How do you think the elves faired in this? What was left of them, rushing to the tunnel, that’s being overrun by fanatical humans with too much technology and not enough compassion. If they aren’t already dead, then they soon will be. And it’s the Undercity’s fault. So, you can take your rights and shove them up your…”
“It’s done.” Owl Two’s voice said through the tablet, causing the elf to stop mid insult. “The yokai I’d spread throughout the dropships have reached the planet, and my core has successfully reached Ronin. I hope that naive boy who dreamed of honor and adventure can live up to the responsibility I’ve laid on his shoulders. Because every life sealed inside my core is counting on him now.” Lily, and the others had slowed down, coming to a stop as the android spoke. None of them knew what he was talking about, but before they had a chance to ask, he reached out and pressed a button on the tablet, and the world powered down.