//: OPAL
>> Halfway to Halerquinn
Thirty minutes later, Reaper-1 was in the Area of Operation. It was at the height of its effective camera range. Opal didn’t want the already paranoid humans to fall into chaos. She wanted them to feel safe and secure within their territory, allowing her to move unhindered. Unfortunately, that meant Opal would have to depend on Omega’s onboard processors to map the region.
It started from the Frontier town and was mapped to Harlequin. Its offshoot led to what Opal assumed was Ironside, given the geography and a large number of industrial-shaped buildings. The main road continued south to a large, sprawling seaside city. Tens of smaller farming settlements dotted the road between. Of this scan, it became apparent that the Frontier town was rather isolated as several abandoned villages lay between it and Harlequinn. Evident of its long-since abandonment by how the forest had mostly swallowed them.
If not for the processing power of the Omega, the AI wouldn’t have made out the patterns in the forest growth that turned out to be paths.
Rather than hinder, Opal believed that its current height became a strong suit now.
The difference in processing power between a Reaper and the Omega was like comparing a tributary river to the Mississippi River. They had water in them, but it was clear that the Mississippi would outclass it. That was the difference between the Reaper and Omega. That being stated, it also meant that it took Opal nearly twenty minutes to process and receive the telemetry needed to navigate the region.
Despite that she was working from the Omega, the android itself still needed the map data in the event the line was cut. In theory, allow it to find its way back into the range of Radiowalker.
It took a whole hour, twenty minutes short of BINGO. Another 30 minutes to sync the android to the Battle-net as the caravan moved further away. By that time, the sun had begun to set, and Opal said she needed to rest her eyes as an excuse to pretend to sleep. She disconnected and leaped into her original frame.
Her eyes opened only to be greeted by a concerned Oki who held Lily. A child Opal hadn’t personally seen in a while. The Spyders had taken a liking to this one. An affinity for the machines as Syfa mentioned once some time ago.
“Ms. Lily.” Opal greeted her.
Lily only stared – her eyes filled with unknown determination she knew all humans got. The AI dismissed it and moved onto the next person in the room. Syfa. The woman lay on a clean white bed. Monitors display various data points that she knew already but left the worried Oki nervous.
“Forgive me if bringing this one was overstepping,” Oki said while his expression showed he wasn’t sorry if he had. “Lily refused to go back and fought with her guardian. I thought to bring her —”
Opal held a hand up to stop him. “It doesn’t matter. Lily displays enough maturity and sense to be here. She can stay.”
Oki let out a sigh, but stiffened once Opal spoke up again.
“Rather, I require your men to assist me on the next mission.” Opal said as she got to her feet.
Her short heels clicked against the clean metal floors. Oki’s ears laid back, but he showed his deference with a bow to his head. One that Lily watched and then copied as silently as she always did. “We will obey…”
Opal watched for a moment, and decided to scan his body language. After a moment, she found it was better to speak of her plans now rather than when it became pertinent. \
“Combat is not expected,” Opal explained. “I obtained information on a possible iron mine. I already scouted it from above. Its abandoned, but I require your men to scout the mines. I expect connection issues for my units and wasting resources on crafting signal repeaters for a dead mine is not ideal. Syfa had talked about integrating your tribe into my operations. Consider this your first chance to do so.”
“Would not your…. Units… be far better to mine?” Oki asked.
“Yes, but only once it’s confirmed there is enough material to at least warrant the building of facilities to allow them to do so,” Opal said as she turned to Lily. “Lily, would you like to be a part of this?”
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Night fell as the Sea-King HALO deployed into the forest northwest of the identified abandoned mining town. Tonight was a partial moon that was no different than a moonless night. Thus, only a brief silhouette of the parachutes to dampen floor impacts would be the only sign that something had been there – as well as hide Reaper-2 as it flew lower to provide overwatch.
A hissing hatch broke the silence of the dark forest. Opal’s eyes glowed a soft prismatic color as they scanned her surroundings. Several seconds later, twenty more hatches hissed open as the LFs filed out and secured their parachutes in the pods.
They moved like phantoms through the forest. Energy rifles at the ready.
Sixty degrees. A cool summer night. Humid.
After fifteen minutes, the frames reached the edge of the town. Dilapidated palisades rimmed it. More than ten large openings presented ingress, but only one to their left presented smooth entry. It appeared as if it had become an animal path.
Opal took point as she crept through the chosen path. Her maid outfit was replaced by a skin-tight black stealth suit. The frames themselves only gave off a soft whirr that could reasonably be considered similar to a breeze.
[ONYX: Warning. A Stormfront is beginning to brew to your east over the ocean. Sea-king sensors picked up strong wins and fast-forming clouds. A new return route has been selected.]
[OPAL: There were no storms on the sensors previously.]
[ONYX: Correct, however, we do not have weather data for this season. Oki does not have any reference for weather beyond the valley.]
[OPAL: Ask our prisoner. Show her a live feed from Reaper-2.]
[ONYX: Wilco.]
Opal turned and stopped short of a half-collapsed building’s corner. Her attention was caught by what appeared to be a broken spear and a fifteen-foot radius of disturbed ground. She scanned it. Bits of dried flesh were fought along with a blood trail that led into the town. Opal updated the mission status and continued forward.
The AI swung tight on the corner into a kneeling position, rifle pointed to her eleven o’clock to cover her sector while half the team crossed the overgrown street. Several young trees had grown tall and their canopy covered the majority of the town from here on out. The drone would only see bits and pieces of what transpired. Even its thermals struggled to see through it.
Opal returned to the trail once the frames completed their formation. It cut through the knee-high grass. She judged by the way the grass grew back that many had passed through, but enough time had passed that the grass had begun to mend itself. Like a parting in a hair, only the unnatural way lines parted through did it create the scene for her. Slowly, like a wraith, she pursued the single line that was the blood trail.
Her frames collapsing in behind her. Like a wolf pack, they followed the lines, keeping low to not stick out too much.
[ONYX: Walker on scene. Awaiting ALL-CLEAR.]
[Opal: Status on weather information.]
[ONYX: Prisoner requested more information. We further restrained her, and are in the process of showering her to the conference room.]
[OPAL: Acknowledged.]
The conference room was, rather than its namesake, a hastily created command room to allow observation by Syfa and the others. Unlike the real Command Room, no way to take control of any frame or communications was present.
Her attention was taken as several internal instruments began to be set off. Radiation. EMI. Some distortion in the data link began to become present.
They all stopped in their tracks. Rifles on several crevices around them. No movement. Each sensor was hit enough to keep them at a constant without moving. An anomaly that confused Opal. But she pushed onward. She didn’t think it was a broken instrument. That was a human way of thinking. No, this meant that something was going on here that needed a full investigation.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
[OPAL: Sending new data. Prepare another drop.]
[ONYX: Received. 30-minute ETA. Preparing new pods and backup battery for Sea-King. Reaper-2 weapons primed. Reaper-1 deployed to protect your second frame.]
[OPAL: Acknowledged.]
The Warmind pushed forward, focusing all her processors on her situation now as the next street looked to have been an abandoned camp. A familiar flag of what Opal learned was the Kingdom Tress hung from a hanging balcony rail. Tattered tents had been pitched and a mess area had been torn apart. The blood ended just before the camp where a half-ripped-apart human male lay.
Decay patterns suggested more than a month had passed since his death.
Opal pushed forward with that in mind. Her frames fanned out and picked through the destroyed camp. She had questioned why in the middle of the camp, but the buildings themselves answered her as they went deeper in.
None of them were inhabitable. Most were partially collapsed with some fully. Only one or two were good enough to live in and they had been. At least until what attacked them had come through. Very few bodies had been left behind despite the camp’s disarray. Further scrutiny suggested they may have been dragged off closer to the forest.
[ONYX: The mage explained that this is not normal weather for this time of year. She also expressed that the weather in the last three years has become more unstable and extreme. Flash hurricanes have become a common occurrence for this time of year.]
[OPAL: Acknowledged. Sending new data.]
[ONYX: She also expressed she wishes to watch the situation…. And just expressed she wishes to help… If we allow her access to our technology.]
[OPAL: Access to our technology denied.]
[ONYX: She requests to still watch and help. “Im fascinated by these strange picture frames” she states.]
[OPAL: Allow her to watch. If she proves useful, we may ask for her assistance in the further. Under captivity that is.]
[ONYX: Roger.]
Opal didn’t have time to waste on processing that.
Movements on thermals from Reaper-2 picked up movement to their 4 o’clock. Something the size of a human child.
[OPAL: Make that mage watch Reaper-2’s feed.]
[ONYX: Wilco.]
The AI returned to her rifle sights. Triangulating the position by her location, Reaper-2’s and the map telemetry – placed the movement on the other side of the camp.
Her team moved forward, their steps picked with lock-step precision as they focused to their front fully. Opal began –
Several frames screamed their attack alarms over the local Battlenet. The street flashes blue several times as their energy weapons go off in an attempt to fight back. Blue plasma bolts burned ripped through the rotten wooden buildings, and into the floor around them. Child-size entities had attacked from the remnants of the tents; somewhere Opal had not considered.
The first frame attacked had been flung backward. It caught sight of the thing before it had, but only briefly. Its energy rifle let off a slow chug of bolts arcing into the air before the energy holding it together dissolved around fifty meters away. The second frame reacted to the first, and managed to sent one bolt into its own attacker. Its body had exploded, but the frame was sent forward as another pounced on its back. Its servos were unable to correct for the shift in weight in time.
[! CONTACT !] Warning rippled through the local battlenet and global one at large. Opal’s surprise was evident that she wasn’t able to properly cordon off the channels mid-transition.
One leaped off the frame before Opal – using it as a purchase to target Opal. Her rifle went off. The blue bolt gave a soft hiss as the electricity encasing the plasma contacted the air. That brief moment illuminated the attacker. Both recording and taking snapshots for later as its head exploded. She did not bother to analyze the data, but continued with the fight.
Another was flung past her front and was followed by a barrage of bolts from two frames. Opal raised her rifle and sent two into one that had attempted to attack their backs from a broken pillar. She turned just in time to see three of them latched onto a frame’s back. She didn’t fire because she’d most likely destory her asset in the process.
Opal moved in on them. The three of them tore at whatever they could. Sparks began to fly as she saw a critical power cord be tripped out. The frame locked up, and the three began to fall forward. The AI reached there just as they hit the ground. Rifle barking blue. Its upper body disappeared. Android’s free hand jutted forward and speared the monster through its chest. It was at this time the Warmind was able to stare into its beady little eyes.
Its face was slightly saggy and slightly wrinkly. Small beady brown eyes stared up at her with hate. Its face and most of its scalp were bald. Two small discolored tusks slightly perturbed from its lower jaw as it let out some sort of cry, the android’s arm narrowly missing its heart and lungs by three inches given its clear primate build. It swung a broken dagger at Opal’s throat and sliced the face skin at the base. It almost looked pleased, but cried out when Opal turned the rifle on it; turning its head into that of its fallen friend, and that was cinders.
The monster was similar to Uakari monkeys on earth. But unlike them, their large bottom teeth jutted out like reverse sabertooth tigers. Their bodies seemed to have lost most of their fur from how inconsistent the furs were. Blackish splots blotted their bodies… Opal turned her eyes to the south as hooting howls could be hurt.
The encounter ended as fast as it’d happened. But it seemed that battle was not over as Reaper-2 pinged with more contacts, along with Reaper-1.
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Screams filled the air as Opal took over her Secondary. She’d been in the wagon with the rest of the women who’d taken up with them. Constance cowered by the entrance, but her face showed determination to defend them as she held a short sword in one hand and her staff in the other.
“What’s happening?” Opal asked as she pulled her back closer to her.
It hadn’t been tampered with, and she put it on, sure to unlatch the quick-draw safety on top.
“O my gods, Opal!” Constance squeaked. “I was trying to wake you! I thought you were dead!”
“What’s the situation?” Opal repeated in a monotone voice.
Constance appeared to become mentally locked, but the elderly woman from earlier stepped in. “Something is attacking us! Alarms from the rear sounded, and the soldiers started to guard us, but now it seems everyone is fighting!”
Opal nodded and leaped out of the wagon. The girls cried out for her to return, but the AI ignored them. Several of the animals she’d been fighting earlier were dead at her feet. One soldier was dead and two of the soldiers were bringing back one injured one.
“Where’s Sargeant Marlon?” She asked.
The injured soldier was the one who answered. “He’s at the rear! Fucking monsters are attacking the civilians after we repelled them!”
Opal nodded as she pulled up Reaper-1’s view. It had moved closer to offer a clearer overhead picture of all creatures nearby. It only took her ten seconds with the help of the drone to know that the attack was centered on the rear, less protected civilian wagons. Strange lights floated above them, which Opal could see from her position. They were like flares, but instead of falling, they hoovered over a stationary spot just above the wagons.
It was nearly blinding to look at with night vision, but she would have to make due. The monsters were pouring through the undefended wagons at the rear where it seems several soldiers were only three wagons down from her. They were holding the more ambitious monsters back, and Reaper-1 confirmed that more of the soldiers were coming from the front, at least those who hadn’t taken up defensive positions for their own wagons.
SMG safely at the ready in her bag, she decided to keep to the sword. Drawing it, she didn’t know any techniques, nor held any information on martial weapons outside of knife fighting. But the sword was sharpened carbon steel. She just needed to cut things with it.
The first target was a civilian wagon parked fifty feet away from them. Several soldiers held off two of the monsters. While she was not impressed with their training, she saw how deft and agile they were. She calculated the trajectory needed to cut them in half at once. A diagonal slice at max running speed. Speed up her swinging arm last second.
Opal followed through using her right, the monsters on her left. The sword cut cleanly through the first but only got one arm off the second as it dove to the ground mid-attack. She didn’t stop to finish it off assuming the soldiers could take it from there.
The next wagon had set up its own campsite on the side of the road. Someone fell out of the wagon with a monster ripping at their clothes. They rolled into their campfire and were set ablaze. Both the person and the monster broke apart as the man's clothes and the monster's fur caught fire. The human dropped to the ground and began to put it out. The monsters, on the other hand, screamed in agony as it bounced around.
It crashed into the wagon, crawled up it, and onto its cloth canopy. Its burning fur lit the cloth before it leaped into the adjacent tree. Embers followed its path, setting the dry forest floor ablaze.
Opal was ready to pull her firearm, but it slowed seconds later before it dropped out of the tree. The human, now identified as a man, pulled his family out of the wagon and hobbled their way towards the front. The AI deemed them unneeded of her help and pushed forward. During this, Reaper-2 spotted more of the monkey creatures slowly beginning to circle the soldiers. But as the fire began to spread, they became spoked and began to move to the opposite side of the wide road.
“They’re trying to get around!” Someone called out.
“Were’s our reinforcements!?” Another screamed.
The AI moved faster, no longer worried about tipping her hand. The light cast a shadow over the opposite side of the road. Suggesting whoever had put it up was not on the wagon but on the side of it.
“Fuck! Cast Firelight again!”
“Im out of mana!”
“You cast it!”
“I can't use magic!”
The remaining soldiers began to fall apart as they saw how dark it was.
As if sensing their apprehension, the monsters became more bold. They hooted and howled. Several evaded but circled the wagon, only to be caught by Opal as she pulled up the front.
That brace primate lost its head as Opal’s sword carved the road below. Another saw, but couldn’t react in time as Opal used the darkness to her advantage. The sword wouldn’t reach in time as her arm had just passed her thigh. Instead, she grabbed its head and bent her wrist. It clicked and a short five-inch blade inserted itself into its frontal lobe. Before it stopped moving, she twisted her body – pivoting on her right foot, and used its now dead body as a hammer to slam down the following monkey would lunged for her.
Off-balance, two of the monkeys bite into each of her calves. Only, they released just as fast, blood dripping off their lips along with pieces of their tusks. The fake skin there showed not artificial muscle but plating.
With both of them shocked, Opal swung the sword and sliced the left one from the left shoulder to the right hip. She used the momentum to kick backward into the other monster. It caved in its chest from the force and it slammed into the front wagon wheel – shattering it.
Terrified howls came from the darkness where eight more remained. They had been more timid. Neither fighting nor running, but observing from the sidelines as if looking for an opportune moment to strike. Smart, but from what she could see, what made their attack fail. But it didn’t matter as they were routed. They turned and ran into the forest in the direction of the abandoned mining town.