Juno
For dozens of years now I had wandered the remnants of this world. No matter where I had gone nobody had been able to answer my questions. In between the fighting for survival and scavenging for resources most of the people had been too occupied to even care about me. Well, that was when they didn’t think me a salvageable resource in the first place. More than once I had been the target of violence and greed. Even if they didn’t know what I was, some groups even saw normal people as a resource.
Slavery... I would never understand why so many humans thought it a good idea. If history had told me one thing then that the suppression of a group until they have nothing left to lose will always lead to rebellion. In ancient Egypt the Jews rebelled against their masters, the same happened in the Roman Empire at some point and even in the United States of America with people of colour. All in all, slavery was too high risk to consider in the long run.
Then why, by all the gods, had I ended up as a prisoner for the eleventh time already?
Here I was, shackled once more to a cart all because I hadn’t wished to fight for my freedom. Humans were so fragile and short-lived that it was hard to really be angry with them. They simply did what they deemed the best for them at the given moment. Unlike me, they didn’t have the experience or reasons to take future consequences into account. It had been what ended their world and it still persisted in these days.
Obviously one had to wonder if slavery was such a bad business model, then why had it held on? Unlike with the animals of the wastes, human flesh was even after the fall of most civilizations, not a good resource. Instead, most of the slavers went for either potential work- or sex-slaves. This time I had again been my physical beauty that had done me in for. To anyone seeing me without my bandages I appeared at a first glance as a woman of not only good health but almost impossible beauty.
Well, I said woman but for someone like me, gender had more meaning than actual sex. In fact, my first mistress had been a fan of hermaphrodites. Her ideas had went into my first modifications. A later owner had been awfully interested in anything with tentacles. Both of them were long dead but even decades after I was still running around with custom made hardware. I had recently thought about changing out the tentacles and multi clitted vagina, sadly the lack of manufacturers around didn’t make this task easy.
Alas, it was at least one way of getting out of this situation. Most people were wary of the strange and unknown; and unlike the time of my creation, being different and special was mostly not a good thing anymore. Instead, it was often simply a way to get shanked in a dark alley by bigots. And by the looks of the gentlemen that had captured me, they seemed to be just that. Yet, even while their bearings and attitude had rather prominent markers for being racist, they in fact did not seem to be the smartest or most skilled individuals. For if my eyes were not mistaken, one of the “prisoners” with me in the cart was not a human at all. The illusion they had spun was, by all means, impressive but the ECM-Core in my body allowed me to see tight through it.
I was just about to study the true nature of the Magical-Beast in front of me when something else drew my attention. There was something in the air... had I not activated my core I would have probably not even noticed. But now that I was looking at it, I could have sworn that the threads of mana around the area seemed to almost be growing foul. My eyes were drawn back to the man I had been studying before. The grin on his face was decidedly less than friendly. Suddenly he looked straight at me and a melodious voice spoke.
“Impressive, I can feel no Magic from you but by the look on your face you noticed the same that I did.”
“I did... and I know enough that I can’t say it is a reason to be happy.”
“Oh... maybe not for you. Or for the other humans around us, but for me? For me it will be a fun little ride.”
“Yeah... sorry but no.” Instead of resuming my talk with the man, I leaned my head against the metal bars of the cage.
“Hey!”, I shouted at one of the guards. “I don’t wish to tell you how to run your slave operations but I think you should really hurry up.”
“Watcha want, shelter wench?”, the man slurred and I could almost count his rotting teeth from here.
“I simply wish to inform you that there seems to be a storm brewing. For your and my fellow prisoners' safety, I would advise you to immediately seek shelter. The threat to both life and safety should not be ignored.” Despite trying my best to be diplomatic it didn’t have quite the impact I had hoped for.
“Fuck, you are talking all fancy aren’t cha? Gonna fetch a good price soon I bet. And don’t cha worry ye pretty little head girly, there are no storms this far south. The mage-a-magik-cabal-thing down in Vodootown are taken care of that.”
“Right... is that where this convoy is headed?”
“What? You a bit dumb? There has been talk of demons and shit in the area of late. Nothing you’d wanta tangle with. Nay... we be taking one of the old highways, there is some shelter commune up there apparently... but don’t get your hopes up girl. Ain’t none gonna save you, those people rarely leave they bunkers. We’ll be in an out of the pass before the night is over. And then you get sold in Ol' Dresden. Envy the fucker that is gonna have the pleasure of tasting ye. Now go back to sleep, and you fucker in the back. Stop grinning or you’ll lose your teeth!”
With this, it seemed that the conversation was over and no amount of prodding seemed to get him to spare me any attention again. At least I had gotten quite a bit of information out of the man. Dresden... it was a township I was familiar with from the old maps but oftentimes they ended up less reliable than not. What I had seen of the haunted ruins of Prague a few weeks ago had solidified that idea even more. I had actually hoped to go further west but apparently I was going to take a detour... again. With a heavy sigh, I closed my eyes and put my body into standby. If the humans did not wish to listen to my warnings I wasn’t going to go against my last orders. After all, a chaos-storm couldn’t really hurt me and the chances of escape during one were greatly enhanced.
Coral
“Calling Outpost Gamma, this is Ranger Scout White.”
“...”
“Outpost Gamma, do you read?”
“...”
“I repeat. Calling Outpost Gamma, this is Ranger Scout White. Do you copy?”
“...”
“FOR FUCKS SAKE! CORAL!”
The sudden voice startled me enough that I jerked backward... and right into the impractically placed desk. Biting my lip I barely managed to stifle the cry that would have otherwise echoed out. I wasn’t going to give the Rangers another reason to laugh at me. Unlikely that there was one of them around at the moment but better be safe than sorry. Their last laugh at my expense hadn’t been all that nice. ‘Oh, look at Coral. Didn’t make it into the outside teams. Hahaha! Yeah, well fuck you, people! Without me and the other technicians, this place would fall apart!’ And White was the worst! She was my damned friend she shouldn’t always tease me like this! Peeved and with a rather painful bump forming on my head I hit the answer button on the com-console.
“Ugh... I a-am he-here! Wha-at is it?” By the dead gods, I hated my stuttering! It made me sound like an imbecile! Something that I was not, thank you very much! I had been in fact one of the best students in my class! Not that this had stopped the other children from relentlessly mocking me... ‘No! Bad thoughts Coral! Only another year and you can apply for one of the scavenging teams again! You have all the qualifications and a perfect record! If one oversaw the few times where I had gone feral on another bunker dweller for being a frickin dick. Wait where was I?’
“...currently eyes on about six guards and about eight prisoners. The last wagon is empty. If we want to take them out without casualties I need ground support. Do you copy?”
“Uhm... no-no? Gu-Guards? P-Prisoners?”
“By the dead Gods! Coral! Focus! Go message the other ranger team. They know my location. Tell them: Caravan. Six hostiles. Eight or more Prisoners. Got that?”
“Ye-Yes! Ca-Caravan. Si-...”
“Good! Do so fast! And try not to stutter.”
‘How rude! It’s not like I stutter on purpose! I just have a problem properly forming the words and under stress, it gets worse! I mean it is like sweating really... and I never heard anyone order somebody to stop sweating! Ugh... I wish I could get rid of it for good. I would honestly give next to everything for it. My firstborn? Here have it! Murder? Well, just depends on whom, right? Both my pinkies? I better hope that knife is sharp!’ I really didn’t understand why work as a technician also came with mandatory radio operating duties. The only upside to it was that once a week one of us got around to checking the equipment in the old outpost tower. I was certain that if we were to leave the rangers to it the tower would break down in less than a month. Already the Mana-Counter was going haywire and because of White, I hadn’t even gotten to properly fixing it yet! I threw the com-console another dirty glare in the hope that she could feel my anger before I entered the other Ranger team's frequency. Taking a deep breath to focus myself, I hit the sending button.
“Ra-Ranger Team Three. This i-is Outpo-post Gam-mma. Do you re-read?” ‘Hey, will you look at that! That went better than expected! I’ll get that stutter under control soon enough. I am most certain of it! Now I just have to sit and wait until they answer. What was it again? Caravan. Six Hostiles. Eight prisoners?’ Several minutes passed in which I could see the readings of the mana-counter grow to absolutely improbable values. And despite my having called them, still, no one responded. It slowly dawned on me that something was wrong. After another call to the team gave me once more nothing but static I called White only to not be able to reach her either! And still, that counter was showing values that seemed most unlikely... after the fourth try I finally decided on what to do. I was the only one close enough to reach them, and so I had to go find them!
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Having made up my mind I grabbed one of the ranger's hazmat masks from the shelf and put on a bulletproof vest. It was a bit of a snug fit this one, squishing both my breasts and slightly chubby sides – damned baby fat – uncomfortably but it would have to do. The mask actually was worse, it pressed almost painfully on the rim of my glasses. It was annoying enough that I would have almost ripped it off again, hadn’t I known about the dangers the wastes could hold for someone like me! Making do with the gear I had, I turned to the landline connection with the bunker and typed a quick message. “This is Outpost Gamma. Lost radio connection with both Ranger Scout White and Ranger Team Three. Possibly technical interference. Mana-Counter is going haywire. Going to find Ranger Scout White's signal beacon. Might need a rescue team soon. Technician Tinker off.” With not another glance at the screen, I huffed and climbed down the emergency hatch.
Having dreaded the endless steps down into the overgrown green mess that was the wastes, I finally got my first real look at the proper outside away from the compound. Obviously I had looked out over it from the safety of the Outpost, but actually being down on the ground was quite a different experience. There were plants and trees everywhere and all around I could hear the noise of birds and other animals. It was almost like being in a massively overgrown garden. If gardens had roads, rusty cars, a burned-out road tanker, and... were those... skeletons? ‘Ahhh, nope. I’m not going to gawk at the burned and contorted remnants of people that perished in the God's-Fall... okay, maybe just a quick look? Uhh, yeah those be dead people... dead Gods, broken steering wheel trough the head, well at least this one died quickly. Not like their friend/partner/lover... one half of the body burned, the other not. Tried to climb out and got stuck it seems... yikes. Okay, enough corpse watching! There is a job to do! And only I can do it, haha!’
Once I had reached a bigger clearing on the road and gotten a view over the hillside I slipped off my backpack... or at least I tried, for that damnable bulletproof vest was making this far too hard! Another minute of pulling and tugging I finally had gotten out the handheld tracking device. These didn’t rely on magic to encode them and so whatever was fucking with the Mana-Counter and Com shouldn’t affect them. The only problem I faced now was that this stupid hazmat mask was completely fogging up my glasses. I couldn’t see shit, for the dead Gods' sake! As far as I could tell there wasn’t anything even remotely dangerous around me, so why was I still wearing this dumb thing? With a totally appropriate and not at all childish cry I ripped off the annoying thing and chucked it away.
Before I could even form a curse word the damned contraption was already flying away from me in a high arc... right over the crash barrier and down the side of the highway. I stood there for a few seconds before a quietly mumbled “Oh shit.” escaped my lips and I pointedly ignored the fact that this had ever happened. ‘Out of sight, out of mind, am I right? Hahaha! What mask? I don’t know about any mask! What about my own safety? Well, I obviously forgot to put one on. Silly me! Onwards and upwards! So apparently White is Down this slope somewhere. No time like the present!’ I made a single step forward and immediately regretted getting out of bed this morning. The second my foot hit the grass, the muddy ground gave in and I began barrelling downwards at breakneck speed!
Not even a few seconds later my tumble down the hill came to a pain full stop as I impacted one of the trees further down. With a wince I sat up and much to my surprise I found my glasses intact and the hazmat mask I had chucked away, right on the ground next to me! Untangling myself from the tree that had so graciously stopped my fall I picked up the mask with a smile.
“G-Guess I am lu-lucky!”
“Ah... I wouldn’t say it quite like that.” Confused by the voice I turned around, only to stare straight into the barrel of a firearm. But even more worrying was that behind the unkempt and questionably dressed man I could spy the silhouette of White
“Now that you made your way down here, how about you raise those soft arms a bit? I am sure we can still find a place for two sheltered sluts. Might put a shock collar on your friend though... put down one of my men before our mage got her...”
Despite him talking I couldn’t help but glance behind him. Right next to White stood a man in the same dress as the others... the only difference being that he was currently foaming out of his mouth and bleeding from his eye sockets. It was such a grotesque moment that I simply kept staring even as the air around us grew heavy and pungent. A split second after the man had collapsed another one of the raiders called out in fear.
“Sir! The sky!”
“What do yo-"
A loud cracking thunder interrupted any and all things he could have said in the moment. As if I was a mere straw puppet my body was thrown through the air by the force of the impact. Not long after taking to the air, another tree stopped my path, only this time I could feel my ribs crack. Lying there on the ground with my vision half gone and replaced with a purple after image, I really wished that I had wings or tougher skin... anything really that would have stopped my body from being squashed like an insect. As the pain from bone splinters digging into my lungs grew, I could begin to make out something that took away my breath completely. Where White had been before was now a small crater surrounded by scorched corpses. Yet, in the middle stood a singular glowing entity, howling like a banshee in a far too familiar voice.
I would have crawled towards her. I would have tried to help her. No matter what she was now she was still my friend. I would have... but before two heartbeats were even over my own body was wrecked by grotesque spasms. I could feel my bones shift and change and my skin harden and stiffen; my spine elongated beyond my legs and a singular thought crossed my mind. ‘Feed.’
Juno
I was ripped out of my slumber by several systems blearing failure warnings into my mind. Quickly I filed them and dismissed the ones that could be ignored. The one that stood out though was also the one that was most problematic: “Danger. ECM-Core leaking. Shielding defect. Immediate repairs are needed.” ‘Ugh... yes thank you, ME! I know that a damaged component needs to be repaired. I should really get around to rewriting some of my subsystems... or I could just push it in front of me for the next fifty years as I have done till now. Bothersome. Replacement parts for Core shielding are hard to come by these days. No matter. I will manage... or at least there is a feasible chance that I will.’ I opened my eyes and came face to face with a corpse.
Well, I said face to face, but there was not a lot of the face left. A bend metal pole had loosened from the cage and punctured the man's skull. And much to my chagrin, the same pole had somehow managed to pierce my lower abdomen. Whatever had happened, there had been enough force to kill everyone in the wagon but me. What was left of their bodies hung in pieces between the destroyed cage structure. It wasn’t a kind death, but at least it must have been over quickly. Unlike... ‘No. Quarantine memories. First-order is sufficiently to repair the chassis. Emotional responses down to a minimum.’ I spared not another glance to the corpses, their fates were their own. Instead, I looked down at my damaged components and ran a quick analysis. Having calculated the perfect angle for removal of the metal pole I began to twist and push.
Soon enough I had freed my body from the prison of twisted steel that was trapping it. The leakage of raw mana from my core was problematic but nothing I could fix without either replacement parts or the necessary components. If I had the raw resources it should be possible for my Nano hive to build rudimentary shielding but a quick sweep showed neither lead nor titanium around me. And so instead the next thing I did was crawling out. Another few minutes of careful application of force had me finally out in the open. I was just about to get up and search for other survivors when a raspy voice made me look up in shock.
“Sssssurrrvivorrr... pretty one too. Mine!”
I had to adjust my sight to actually see the speaker in the low light environment but when I did so I was immediately on alert. A tall feminine draconic looking humanoid was nonchalantly resting on one of the trees ahead. Her body alone must have been easily three-meter but the long tail wrapped around the tree trunk must have at least added the same length if not more. Looking closer I could see an almost human face save for a snake-like nose but that was also basically where any resemblance to a human stopped. Her body was fully covered in dark grey and coral scales and from her head down the entire length of the spine grew a short mane of red hair. To complete the inhuman look, instead of arms she had massive bat-like wings and the legs currently dangling from the branch sported vicious claws for grabbing prey and rending flesh. Though the thing raising my hackles the most was the fact that in the flesh just beneath her generous breasts sat a large gently pulsing dark gem, a mana crystal. This was not a magical beast, an emerged human or any of the other sentient races, this was a monster. Or more specifically, a Wyvern.
I could have sworn that she looked amused when I let the combat carbine slide out of its compartment in my arm. There was an almost wicked intelligence in her golden eyes, something I would never have expected from a monster. But even when I leveled the muzzle at her, she merely looked down at me with a wicked smile. Had my emotions been enabled it would have unnerved me deeply but instead I simply barked out my standard phrase when encountering a potentially dangerous entity.
“Attention! You are currently facing a combat able Protector-Android. I have been programmed to exterminate any and all threats to meta-human existence. As of the Canada-Protocols of 2267 all Monsters have been classified as threat level Orange. Any and all hostile actions will be met with lethal force. Retreat immediately and I will not be beholden to pursue.”
Instead of fleeing, as I had hoped she would, she instead simply flopped her body from the branch and dangled around upside down before frowning at something behind me. Apparently what she saw wasn’t making her happy because all of a sudden she threateningly spread her wings and roared at.... not me but something behind me! ‘Shit!’ Quickly I turned around and just barely avoided a claw of pure energy slicing through my chassis. ‘What is the threat?... An elemental Sprite!? Considered threat level... red! It's going for my core!’ A warning shot towards the Sprite had it step back. It almost questioningly looked between me and the Wyvern.
“HuuuUunNgrY.” It’s voice echoed through the night air like a ghost. But the Wyvern seemed to care little. With but two beats of those massive wings she already stood before the ethereal being growling menacingly. Her tail raked the earth with every threatening slap onto the ground.
“No, White. Mine. I saw her firrrrsssst!” At those words, the Sprite seemed to look around almost as if lost or confused.
“White... me? Yes... White. Huuuungryyyy.... want... need mana. Cooore in her... suuuuch pooower.”
The Wyvern looked back to me, uncaring that she was presenting a possible opening to the Sprite. A long, black, snake-like tongue shot out a few times almost as if in thought. Her head cocked to the side as she looked me over and suddenly she nodded.
“Deal. You get core I take resssst.”
‘Wait what? Shit!’ I had just enough time to raise my gun arm but the two beings were terrifyingly fast! In the beat of a heart, I aimed and fired, only for the Sprite to interrupt the bullet mid-flight with the flick of its hand. Next thing I knew, a scaled tail was coiling around my arms and fingers both cold and hot ripped through my mechanical insides. Like a grip of steel, they closed around it and I could actually feel the mana drain out from my body. ‘Critical Loss of main power source. Shutting off all auxiliary systems. Data core: Intact. Main Drives: Intact. Secondary Power source: 10% active. Reboot possible in 4 Days 7 hours and 3 minutes.’ The last thing I could hear before I had to go into manual stasis was the same raspy voice from before.
“Ssssuch a prrrretty toy. Mine now~”