Ronin knew he’d hit the front lines when he heard the snarls of the lizards, and the sounds of bullets smashing into bodies and stones. The battlefield inside the tunnels was an ever shifting one, depending on who was pushing harder, so the front wasn’t always in the same place. Dropping the bag he’d carried to the ground, he turned to O54.
“O54, I need your team to distribute these weapons ASAP. Remember, ammunition is limited, so whoever gets them needs to focus on enforcers only. Understood?” They’d been through this already, so Ronin was only feeding his insecurities by repeating himself. Still, it made him feel better to ask.
“Understood, my lord.” O54 said, saluting him with a fist against her chest before grabbing a Pair of rifles and motioning for the rest of her team to follow suit. Ronin already had two of his own. Though he didn’t plan on handing them out. Each Rifle held thirty rounds, and if Ronin was a betting man, he’d assume they held enough power to shoot that many, and no more. That meant he had close to sixty rounds of ammo between the two weapons, and he planned to make good use of it.
“What are you doing here?” A familiar voice asked, as Elyria landed on his shoulder. “You look like hell, why aren’t you back at the base, getting yourself patched up?” Ronin popped his helmet off, this new armor design actually exposing his head when he did that. Yet every time he had so far, he couldn’t help replaying the vision of Staz, ripping Grybellus’s head from his shoulders.
“Good, you’re here.” He said, ignoring her questions. “I need you to go back to base… no. Just listen before you throw a fit.” Too focused on the job at hand to worry about her reaction. “You said many times you’re a moon elf, right?”
“You know I am,” Elyria said, leaping off his shoulder and buzzing down to hover at eye level with him. “You’d better be going somewhere with this, unless you want your ass kicked.” She added, raising a fist over her head. Ronin idly noticed how she instinctively moved both her wings and her arm to avoid a collision, it was impressive, but not relevant at the moment.
“You’ve said more than once politics is where you shine. Well, I need you to shine for me now, Elyria.” He reached out and grabbed her by the arms and pulled her towards himself. The body sleeve letting him experience sensation against his palms, helping him not to over tighten his grip, if not actually constituting feeling. “We’re running out of time. We need the cube ships we aren’t using stripped down, and the material piled into the one we’re going to use. If we…”
“Why are you…” Elyria said, with a frown on her face as she looked into his eyes. Ronin kept talking, not wanting to let her sidetrack him.
“… don’t hurry up, then we are going to be stuck here. There are hundreds of refugees in the camp, just sitting on their collective ass and waiting to be saved. We need to put them to work on…”
“Seriously, what are…” She tried again, but again, he wouldn’t let her distract him.
“… the ship or it’s going to get…” this time, she cut him off with her lips pressing against his. Ronin flinched in shock, only then realizing that he’d been slowly pulling her towards himself as he spoke, until they were almost nose to nose. Blinking in confusion, Ronin hesitated for only a moment, before he returned the kiss. Heat moving through his body and settling in places he hadn’t experienced very often.
“…time out,” Elyria said, breaking off the kiss and shoving herself away from him. In the suit, he could have kept her there as easily as holding a fly, but Ronin let her go as soon as she pushed against him. “What in the hell was that?”
“Um… it was a kiss?” Ronin replied, suddenly self-conscious. He’d only ever kissed someone once before. That time too it had been instigated by the other party. He refused to think about Lily, and thankfully, his mind seemed to get the message and the thoughts shut themselves off.
“I know that moron.” Elyria snapped, touching her fingers to her lips. “What I was asking is why we were kissing at all?”
“Hey, you kissed me first.” Ronin said somewhat defensively.
“And you kissed me right back, you… gahh, hold on.” Turning away from him, she spun around in the air before settling down on a stone some ten feet away. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this right now, channel fifty-two.” She said, as she started speaking rapid-fire into her comm. Confused, Ronin nevertheless turned his comm to channel fifty-two and waited.
“Doctor Mycroft here, what do you want?”
“This is the Chief Technologist, what can I do for you lady Elyria? But can you make it quick. I am very busy at…”
“It’s a four-way call, between the White Flame, myself, Mycroft and the chief. Everyone hear me?” Elyria asked, waiting until everyone answered before she went on. Ronin, who was starting to understand what she was after, wished she’d have waited until there was more time before she interrupted two of the most important people on the ship reconstruction project.
“I just kissed the White Flame.” Elyria said, not mincing words. “I haven’t been burdened with guilt over the death of my husband, and the White Flame and K3 have both indicated their able to think critically while setting empathy aside. I want to know why, and I want to know right now.” There was silence on the other side of the line before the chief spoke.
“Owl Two wanted the new bodies empathy dialed down, so sentiment wouldn’t get in the way of decision making. Nothing else was altered, everything else was already there previously.” He added, causing Ronin to wonder what he meant by that.
“Dialed down my empathy?” Elyria asked with clear disbelief. “I just kissed him, and I can tell you right now I was feeling something for him while I did it. But, when I thought of my late husband, the guilt didn’t come. So, I ask again, what is going on?” Ronin wanted to feel bad about her dead husband, he knew he should, but the only thing that popped into his head was the words ‘I was feeling something for him while I did it,’ and wondered if she was feeling the heat that he had.
“I’m unsure what to tell you, my lady.” The chief said, confusion clear in his voice. “I read over the changes carefully, there was nothing done that should cause you to do anything apart from think clearly and more logically. If you decided to kiss our lord, well, that must have been the logical thing to do in the situation.” Ronin could almost hear the chief asking why someone wouldn’t want to kiss their leader, but he smothered the chuckle that wanted to escape his lips. Since he didn’t really find the situation funny either.
“Logical to kiss him? I’m a moon elf, who had a husband, he’s a human who has two wives. How is that logical?”
“Not anymore,” Ronin muttered. He wished he’d kept his mouth shut an instant later when Elyria’s eyes darted to him.
“What was that?” She asked sharply. Having been caught, Ronin took a breath, and told her.
“I haven’t told you, but Owl Two left me detailed recordings of the last ten years at home.” Elyria’s eyes bulged and Ronin rushed to finish before she could sidetrack the conversation. “Your sister is fine, but Lily lost the baby.” He said quickly, causing her to freeze. Ronin continued as quickly as he could after that, spilling everything on her. “…then Hunter invited the Anthropos knights in to kill the syndicate members while the Undercity blockaded the tunnel… So, no matter what else happened. I’m no longer married, that contract was null and void when Undercity turned on my people.” He watched her processing his words, saw her lips form the words, ‘she had two kids,’ before her eyes, now devoid of anger, looked into his, searchingly.
“If I might say something,” Doctor Mycroft said. The words caused both of them to jump, since they hadn’t realized the line was still open. The Doctor continued before they had a chance to say anything either way. “I read the change sheet too. The chief’s right that he didn’t add anything now, apart from dampening your empathy down. Something I can help fix for you when you come back. There was another change however, one that has nothing to do with your brains…” she trailed off suggestively, and Ronin shared a confused look with Elyria, before the elf snapped.
“Well, what is it?” When the line was silent too long.
“He took my research on reproduction, and advanced it by several centuries.” The Doc said, words hitting them both like a ton of bricks. Ronin could tell just from looking at her, Elyria hadn’t considered what Mycroft was implying either. “I don’t think he actually cracked the code, but he was close, very close. The pair of you have been living without sexual drives for months. Oh, emotional desire was still there, we could all see the way you two flirted, but the hormones that drive a human, or elf I suppose to want to engage in sexual activity exclusive of conscious thought? Those were absent. All that’s really happened here is you had your inhibitions lowered, and the emotional baggage that kept you distant from each other was suppressed.” Ronin almost heard the busty woman shrugging over the comm. “You like each other, on both an emotional and physical level. So, quit acting like children and admit it to yourselves already. Now, the chief and I have to get back to work. If you want, I can dial your empathy back up either a few notches, or all the way. But until then, this ship isn’t going to fix itself.” With that final declaration, the line went dead, the Doc killing the connection for the chief too.
Ronin and Elyria stared at each other after that. Until a stray shot ricocheted off the cave wall nearby and pinged off Ronin’s chest plate. Cursing, they both ducked to avoid any more random fire. When they felt safe again, the pair exchanged a look, and cracked identical grins. They brought themselves back under control quickly, but for just a moment, Ronin felt like he was truly close to the elf for the first time since she’d held him in his old home cave while he cried for the life he’d lived. A life that didn’t seem so bad now.
“Listen,” he said at last, not wanting to break the silence, but knowing they were out of time. “I really do need you to go back. You heard Doctor Mycroft; they can’t do it before we’re overrun. I need you to convince the Priest to get all those worthless… I mean, underutilized, refugees over into the cube hangar, to lend a hand. Otherwise…”
“I get it,” Elyria said, placing a finger against his lips. “You need me to go sweet talk that old man into helping us save their lives. I can do that, I’ll use every trick I have at my disposal until I have everyone who isn’t here fighting carrying scrap metal or gluing on new panels… just, don’t die on me while I’m gone, ok?” The last words were said with more vulnerability than Ronin had ever heard from the elf, and he pulled her close again for another quick kiss. It was brief, and he let her go before she could even think to struggle, but it made him feel better. Her too if the expression on her face was any indication.
“Thank you,” he said, as they both blushed. “Now, get back to Temple city. I’ve got an invasion to fight off.” He smirked, and she fluttered her wings in a move that looked almost bashful.
“You’d better,” she said, flying away down the tunnel. “I’m going to do my part, so you’d damned well better do yours.” Ronin watched her disappear out of sight, and as he lifted his helmet, he heard her wings buzzing at full speed down the tunnel towards him. He looked up, worried trouble had found them, only to be greeted with a kiss, deeper than the one he’d dared steal from her. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her lips against his. Much too soon, that feeling was gone, and thanks to the buzzing in his ears, he knew she’d left before he even opened his eyes.
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“Ok then,” he said, snapping his helmet, which looked like a goat’s head, back onto the suit. Brushing his hands over the new goat hide cloak Owl Two had made for him to go with the new armor, Ronin climbed back to his feet and hefted his new weapons. “Time to go kill some lizards I guess.”
That was the last time he had more than five minutes in a row to just sit still for the following three weeks. He didn’t leave the battlefield, in fact, no one did, not alive anyway. Volunteers from the city would come once a day to bring them new ammunition and nutrient fluid, they also dragged away the bodies of the fallen from both sides. There had to be half the lizard ships on the planet parked above them, sending troops down now, but every little bit of biological matter kept from them helped reduce their numbers.
Ian Hill’s teams were the stars of the show at the start, when the scouts were the only threat they faced. Drawing their attention and bullets while the rest of those gathered delt with them in relative safety. As the soldiers arrived, and their numbers slowly rose to rival the scouts, the SWAT teams were no longer as important to the war effort, being replaced by the red and blue Hellenes teams. Who’s group dynamic and fighting style were a good counter to the larger and more heavily armored soldier lizards. Now, after weeks of enforcer pairs being the main units to enter the battlefield, the twilight court, along with Whisper, Stone, and Dandelion took center stage. There were others with similar skillsets, but it was the assassins among them who got the most enforcer kills. Since, they were able to get right up close and personal to stab a knife or fire a weapon into the only real weak spot on their suits, the opening on their bearded helms.
Ronin hadn’t seen Elyria since she’d kissed him goodbye and left to help hurry the ship reconstruction along. He’d talked to her a few times over comms though, and it sounded like they were making much better headway than they had been before. Not many of the refugees wanted to do ‘slave labor’ as they put it. Since nearly everyone who’d once lived on the ship had been a ruler in their own personal realms, they had a hard time subjugating themselves to another’s will, even when it was to save their own lives. Ronin couldn’t honestly care less. They’d help, or they’d say behind. As it stood, he was planning on sending them into the ship world, the new word he’d come up with to replace pocket world, as soon as he could, and repurpose their bodies for syndicate members who would actually help him repair the ship in space. Assuming they even lived that long.
Ronin, who’d found he could multitask much better now than he ever had before, didn’t bother shaking the thoughts away as the group, consisting of himself, K3, and yokai team 01, ran down tunnels now so familiar, they could run them blindfolded. He could reminisce and fight at the same time, now that they’d stopped trying to push the lizards back. Instead, they’d chosen this section of tunnels as a natural choke point and were making their last stand here.
“Vaira, right.” Dandelion said over group comms. “Boss, second cave on the left, Liana, third cave on the right.” Dandelion was running overwatch for them. A trick Ronin had learned from Karr, back on that tree climb when he’d assumed command. Her main job in the group was to be their eyes, calling out short instructions while the others went about the business of killing the enemy. She knew who among them carried what weapon, so she’d tailor her instructions so as not to waste the valuable rounds. No point wasting an enforcer railgun round, something they hadn’t figured out a reliable way to reload yet, on a scout, when a PCP .25 round, carried by the bugbears Vaira and Liana, could put them down just fine. The reverse was also true, since it would be a waste of air pressure to fire anything smaller than a PCP 1.0 or one of their own weapons at an enforcer.
Karr had a pair of his people rotating on cleanup duty, Ronin had lost track who was behind them now, but he thought it was Jaya and Lori in their armored suits. They were tasked with following behind and picking up all the weapons they could from the soldiers and enforcers, there was little point in the weak scout weaponry, so they didn’t bother with it. When there was time, they’d gather the enforcer’s corpses too. Their armor was incredibly resilient, and although it wasn’t worth much now, eventually, there’d be time to melt it down and reuse it somewhere else.
“White Flame, you still out there?” Ronin heard Elyria’s voice through the earpiece for the first time in days, and it made him smile, despite how desperate their situation was. “Hey, White Flame, you didn’t die on me now did you?”
“I hear you, Elyria.” He answered before she could start worrying. “What can I do for you?” He asked, simultaneously following directions given by Dandelion and shooting a pair of enforcers, who’d thought to take advantage of a quartet of soldier’s surprise attack on their group. Unfortunately, Dandelion had spotted them. The lizards were dead before the first round was even fired; they just hadn’t known it yet.
“You can get your butt back here ASAP, that’s what you can do. I’ve got a drop ship waiting for you near the cavern entrance, so hurry up and move it.” Ronin frowned, not understanding what she meant.
“Elyria, my shift doesn’t end, well ever,” Ronin said with a snort. It had become clear that only those whose bodies were government issue, or were made to Owl Two’s special recipe, could keep going all the time. That had made Ronin’s people, and Ian’s, indispensable in the field. While the others cycled out for food, rest, and repairs they had to stay out there, constantly killing in order to prevent the flood of lizards from washing over them all, in a wave of earth-colored scales and black, white, and grey armor.
“I know.” Elyria shot back, clearly exasperated with how slow he was being. “You can’t quit the field until the ship is ready to go… Well, the ship is ready to go. At least, we’re ready to give the engines a test run. Trouble is the ship won’t start without the captain on board. So, move your butt captain, unless you’d rather fight the lizards for the rest of your very short life?”
Ronin didn’t understand what she was saying at first. He had to replay the words in his mind several times before their meaning sunk into his exhaustion fried brain. When he did finally understand what she was saying, he struggled to believe it. How long had it been, six weeks, longer? He didn’t even remember anymore. It seemed like a lifetime, running through these tunnels, killing lizards by the thousands. Yet, at the same time, it didn’t seem like long enough for them to finish repairing the hundreds of millions of years old ship.
“What about everyone else?” He asked, coming back to reality at last. “Should I bring everyone back now?” Ronin struggled to think of how they could logistically get everyone back without being overrun once they reached an opening. He wasn’t able too. If they all pulled back now, whoever took up the rear would die. Simple as that.
“Not yet,” Elyria said, clearly knowing that as well as he did. “We aren’t sure if the ship will even lift off yet. We’ve got the lights on, and all the readouts look good, but we won’t know anything until you get here. We’re running off the temporary core Owl Two built for us, since we aren’t supposed to connect the AI cores together, or to the ship, until we hit space.” Ronin nodded, though he knew she couldn’t see it.
Owl Two’s notes had been clear, almost excessively so, they weren’t to hook the lizard ship’s AI core to power, nor were they to hook Owl Two’s AI core to anything, until they’d hit space and were ready to reenter the ship world. Instead, they had to rely on Sam, and a temporary AI core Owl Two had grown with a reduced copy of himself on it, to get them out of the atmosphere.
Now that it was time, he needed to get back to the ship. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to abandon the people he’d spent so long fighting besides, to save himself, and hundreds of people who’d had to be bullied into helping at all. His mind flashed pictures of Unyielding oak, and he couldn’t fault her logic anymore. How could he leave the strong to die, while he ran away with the weak?
“Listen, Elyria,” he said, his mind made up. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to come back just now. Not without the people who’ve been fighting by my side for a month. I just can’t do it. You know as well as I do that leaving isn’t going to be possible. Once they start to pull back, they’ll be overrun. You need to send…” He was interrupted before he could tell her to send in some of the refugees to cover their escape.
“I was hoping to hear you say something like that.” The wizened, old voice of the Priest interrupted his refusal, startling Ronin, who hadn’t known he was on the line.
“Priest, I didn’t know you were there, pardon my rudeness.” Ronin said, covering his confusion with politeness. He’d met people, like Aurex, who covered up their confusion with anger, those people weren’t fun to be around, so Ronin avoided it as often as possible.
“I know young man.” The Priest said calmly, “that was by design. I wanted to hear what your response would be when told you could leave, without you knowing I was listening.”
“Sorry White Flame, but the old man insisted.” Elyria said, and actually sounded like she meant it.
“I don’t understand?” Ronin said, still running the tunnels with his team, killing uncounted numbers of lizards. Their bodies were starting to pile up, and they would have to move soon or risk getting their feet tangled in bloody limbs. It seemed the old man had gotten the wrong idea about his intentions.
“That’s fine son, you don’t have too.” The Priest said, a smile clear in his voice. “Clear all your people out of the tunnels. They will have cover; you have my word on it. But you need to hurry, the distraction I have won’t hold up as well as you did, these last weeks.” Confused, Ronin nevertheless took the old man at his word.
“Very well, I’m pulling everyone out now. I hope whatever you have planned buys us enough time to get back to the city.” Cutting off the line with Elyria and the Priest, Ronin contacted Ian, Amaris, and her husband Orpheus, Bartholomew, and his wife Genevieve, Red and Blue, and all the yokai teams that were still in the field. He let them know they were to retreat as soon as possible, and the retreat would be covered. With a final, ‘see you at the ship’ he disengaged and led his team on a dead sprint back towards the cavern.
Ronin didn’t see anything that resembled a distraction as he ran, but he trusted the old man to keep his word. Not stopping at all when he entered the giant cavern, Ronin saw the ship flying near the tunnel exit, ramp open halfway, ready to receive them. Leaping off the ground, Ronin felt his feet slam into the ramp, followed a moment later by the rest of yokai team 01, and K3. The twilight court was already here, and it didn’t take long for Red and Blue to arrive with their own people, and the clockwork couple with their two remaining guardians. Lastly, the yokai teams rushed from the tunnels, jumping on board, and giving Ronin a nod.
“We’re all on board,” Ronin said into the line Elyria had called him on. “I don’t see the distraction though, I hope you hurry, because they are going to be right behind us.” He was actually surprised the lizards hadn’t already boiled out of the tunnel.
“Don’t you worry about that, young man.” The Priest said, his voice horse and the sounds of gunfire in the background. “We’ve got you covered, just get off this planet, and live.” Ronin gaped in shock. Was the old man in the tunnels?
“Priest, what are you doing? You need to get back here before it’s too late.” Ronin said, the ramp closing even as he spoke.
“Don’t worry about us,” the old man said with a forced chuckle. “We, the last of earth’s natural humans, have outlived our usefulness. It seems only right we go out protecting the future of our race… if you wish to show gratitude, I’ve left a book on the path with your elf companion for you. Please, read it, and if you find its lessons valuable, pass them on. That is all I could ask. Now, get out of here, earth might have ended, but humanity can still survive.” After that, the line went dead, and only silence met his shouts for the old man to come back.
Looking around the dropship’s troop compartment, Ronin counted those who were present. It was a sobering number. Both the red and blue forces had been cut in half, and the twilight court were also missing several of their people. The SWAT teams under Ian were missing an entire team. Even among those who remained, none of them were without injury.
“The Daoist priests have covered our withdrawal.” Ronin said, wanting to answer the questions he saw in their eyes. “We think we’ve got the ship running and are going back to check. If we do, we can finally leave these caves, and the lizards, behind… I want to thank each and every one of you, for the hard work and sacrifice you put into the defense of the Temple city, and the cube hangar while my people worked on the ship. You went the extra mile when many others didn’t. I won’t forget that.” Ronin wasn’t sure why he’d decided to give a speech just then, but it felt like the right thing to do.
“The twilight court dances to its own music, White Flame.” Amaris said, blood splattering her face, creating red tear tracks to go along with the black ones painted there.
“Heck, I wasn’t about to let that pretend sergeant major over there out due the real deal, besides, my kill streak is like over nine thousand now, if you know what I’m saying.” Red said, getting a nod of agreement, and a scowl from Blue. Ronin didn’t know, but he read the looks on their faces, and those of the clockwork couple and the twilight court. Despite their words, they appreciated his thanks.
“Thank you anyway,” he said with a grin. “Now, who’s ready to get out of here?” He asked, pumping his fist into the air. All the yokai teams, along with K3 and the scouts, threw their fists into the air and roared their approval. Slowly, the other groups raised their own fists and voices along with the others, until the entire ship shook with their cry. “First rounds on me guys.” Ronin added, with another punch to the air. That redoubled the shouting, and he smiled. He was sure they had enough enhanced nutrient fluid for everyone to get some of the good stuff, and besides, he’d always wanted to say that, since he heard the captain say it in a book… Thinking of the Captain took Ronin off guard for a second, since he was a captain now himself. At least, he would be, assuming the ship was able to take off.
“Ready to get back home?” K3 asked, slapping Ronin on the back. He felt the impact against his body sleeve, and the suit rocked a little under the giant’s enhanced strength. Ronin hadn’t been the only one who’d seen massive improvements with the fresh body, the kaldarr was once again as strong compared to Ronin as he was back home in the pocket… ship world.
“You know what?” Ronin asked, as he took in the blood splattered men and women around him. They’d fought with him, they’d bled with him, and not one of them had turned away, no matter how many lizards rushed their lines. K3 stepped back as the wicked grin split his face. He thought about the people in the Valley. Lily, Hunter, Benjamin, and the Anthropos knights, to name a few, were waiting for him back home. Stanly might have slipped his grasp, but there was no escape for the people who’d betrayed him in Undercity. “I think I am,” he finished, words filled with anticipation for what would happen next.