My eyes were focused on a bench, a vise grip, and a very stubborn piece of paint-peeled first-tier mech gauntlet. The hand just didn’t want to close no matter how I calibrated it. Some of the joints were creaking and sparks flew all around the workshop when I tried to force it close.
“Why are you being so difficult!” I yelled, throwing my arms up in protest and almost knocking an old warped ResTech sword from its place on the wall. “A five-credit job...yeah, right! Next time I’ll tell him to go—”
A shrill wail of sirens coming from outside cut through my curse and stopped my train of thought. It was enough of a surprise that I jerked away from the robotic hand and hit my head on the hanging rack above. Luckily, there was a small monster corpse swinging in the chains or I could have had a very nasty headache.
Waaaaaa, the siren screeched with its full-throated blare, and it didn’t do much to cut through the momentary pain that shot through my skull.
“Could have been worse,” I grunted and looked around the shop to see the result of my blunder.
Several tools had fallen to the ground when I jerked away from the mech hand. An inner war raged within me for a split second as I didn’t want to miss the monster attack, yet I’d promised myself to always keep a clean workshop.
With a deep sigh, I hurriedly grabbed them off the floor and started sliding them into their slots and spaces, dodging the gel-filled canister of ungrown crystals and shredded organics, before hurriedly tap-dancing around the rest of the workspace.
I looked around the workshop one more time, and once I was satisfied that everything was in place, headed out the door. The sun’s position told me it was already noon, so the pickings were bound to be good if the monster didn’t get too badly damaged.
Across my workshop, other craftsmen were shuttering their stores and locking their doors, quickly stowing the symbols of their trade within until the monster event had passed.
I smiled, happy for my location. Other scavengers didn’t have workshop real estate, for one thing, living out in the quick-build hovels of the Scavenger District. And secondly, most of them would be out for lunch during this time, which gave me an obvious advantage in securing a scavenging spot.
I chuckled, picturing faces I knew scampering about and desperately cramming half-eaten lunches into carry bags and travel sacks from where they’d been sitting under ragged prewar billboards showing oddities like SmartTime Travel and Queen Burger Deluxe.
“What are you just standing there for, Alaric?” a sweetly annoying voice said from behind. “Want to join this beauty on the wall and see some monsters getting smashed?”
I turned, already knowing who’d spoken. Ellinor stood there in her white overalls and gray leather engineering apron. Her face was blackened by grease and her black hair pulled back into a wispy half-cocked ponytail. She’d obviously been in the thick of some mechanical tick-tock going from her looks, as she always tried to keep up appearances. Even while working on machines and mechs.
Behind her steamed the stone-metal mess of her parts shop, an ever-growing part-time monstrosity that she frequently decorated with old-world signs and scavenge. The newest find was a gaudy pinup poster, its laminated half-clad woman still in pristine condition despite the hundreds of years that had passed.
Elli gave me a saucy grin as she noticed where I was looking.
“Good, right?” she asked with a wink.
I nodded. Wasn’t bad to look at for sure. And it helped set off the fact that most of it was a multi-colored, ugly monstrosity of a building that jutted at weird angles. An old rusting vending machine marked Ride the Wide — WideTaste Cola held up one corner of her shop, and I wondered what would happen when it finally toppled.
She spent a lot of time there, only leaving it vacant when she had a mech order to fill in her uptown bays. I hated to think she might be inside that place when it gave in.
I took a deep breath, ready to tell her that the place needed to be broken down and started anew when she put a finger to my lips to silence me. Her crooked grin told me she was happy for the break, and that this wasn’t the time for nagging. Looking at her beaming face, I realized I was happy about it too.
I shot her a grin and crooked my elbow.
“My lady. May I have the honor?” I asked.
“Oh, stuff a second-tier helmet on that business,” she scowled, though her eyes glittered playfully in the light of the blazing sun. “I ain’t no lady, and you know that.”
“That remains to be seen,” I said, winking. “I still haven’t been in your bed chamber.”
“And you never will at this rate! All you do is deny me the pleasure of bedding you, crazy man. Anyway, let’s go. I want a spot on the gate before it gets too crowded.”
“Considering how late we are, I don’t think we’ll be as lucky.”
“Race you!”
“That’s so unlady-like!” I yelled after her as she bolted off up the street.
I rushed after her, tearing over old tech pavement patched with cracked cobblestone and through the thickening street crowds, trying to keep up. Despite being built like a noble with a pale complexion and delicate features, she was a devil in all ways that mattered.
We raced past food vendors and street hawkers, jumping over an old-cloaked beggar, and twirled past a whole gaggle of mothers with their tots.
The city around us buzzed with excitement, a chaotic symphony of sounds and movements, old tech and new whistling and grinding as machines were shut down in obeisance to the coming confrontation. The sun, high in the sky, cast sharp shadows that danced around them, adding to the frenzied energy of the moment.
The streets were filled with people of all sorts, most quite dirty and poorly-dressed, others wearing craft attire and the appropriate stains, and even a single plutocrat was there. He was a man in a fine blue gentleman’s coat with white ruffles, daintily making his way to a rickshaw cab to presumably see the action from the first row.
Vendors shouted over each other, trying to hawk their wares to the excited crowd. The smell of roasting meat and fresh bread mingled with the dusty air, and as I watched, Ellinor grabbed a loaf from one merchant’s hand, while handing her credit chip with the other. The man caught it deftly, ran it across a scanner, and handed it back to her, flashing her a thumbs-up.
Running and dodging, we made our way around a group of children being scooted together by an elderly nanny in the plain white-and-black clothes of a childminder, their excitement and laughter ringing in my ears almost as loud as the blaring sirens from earlier.
Ellinor, now a few steps behind, skillfully maneuvered past a cart laden with fruits, the vendor barely glancing up as she whizzed by him and into the grass and trees of Worker Park. We swung past its ancient, lettered free-standing gates, past where the fences would have once been, and through sparsely-forested lawns.
“How are you so fast while still eating?” I yelled after her as she kept slightly ahead of me.
She skidded to a halt, and I almost bumped into her as we turned hard around the corner and into the denser, more eager crowd standing around the gate. Spectators jostled for position, trying to secure a spot with a clear view of the upcoming battle.
A group of knights passed by us, their massive forms towering several feet above us like ogres from children's stories. The crowd jostled and shoved, hurriedly moving out of their way. They all wore plated armor and helmets aside from the White Knight, as people called him. Leopold Bassewitz was his name, and he marched helmetless. His blue eyes and long golden hair shone lovingly in the rays of the cloudless sky.
The knight headed straight for his mech, a heavy 50-ton Cataphract that jingled chain barding off its broad old-tech chassis. It didn’t look much different than he did, a knight in heavy armor wearing a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, only many times larger.
“Come on, this way!” Ellinor shouted over the din, grabbing my hand and pulling me through a narrow gap between two groups of onlookers standing on the sidewalk. They moved out of the way seeing she was an engineer by her clothes and the cap narrowly hanging on atop her head.
We reached the base of the city wall as the mechs started moving within the barracks and made their way out onto the main road further leading out through the gate. With quick steps, we ascended the stairs leading to the top of the gate. The steps were worn and hundreds of years old, yet stronger than anything the people could make today. Their worn edges made them daring to climb fast-footed, so not many would follow after us.
At the top, we were greeted by a wall of bodies, spectators who had arrived earlier as if they’d known there would be a monster incursion. Ellinor pushed forward, her elbows creating a path for us.
One man made a turn, saw Ellinor, took in her large frame and greasy leather mechanic’s apron and cap, then backed out of her way.
I chuckled, knowing that her position certainly came with its privileges.
After some more pushing around, we emerged at the edge of the gate, a tiny sliver of edge to plop down on and dangle our legs from while taking in the battlefield before us. The vast expanse beyond the city walls stretched out, a stark contrast to the cramped streets we just navigated.
“This is gonna be a good day, Al,” Ellinor wheezed, trying to breathe through her nose and mouth at the same time.
Elli snorted, which only made her look even less ladylike, and more like another me. She ruffled my hair as I grinned at her, knowing very well I hated it. A smudge of sticky sludge caught on my forehead, which I promptly wiped off and smeared across her cheek.
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“That is just plain nasty, Al. You don’t do that to a lady!”
“Lady? Where? I thought you said you were no lady and I should know better. Just minutes ago you offered to bed me,” I protested.
“Yes, but that’s when we’re alone! There are other people here and if they see my dirty face, I’ll never get a cute husband! Or a lover!”
I sighed and shook my head, only to get hit in the shoulder yet again.
“Just teasing ya. I don’t need no cute man, I got you. Well, if you stop being a little bitch and hook up with me one day before I get old.”
“Not interested in the slightest to marry up, your ladyship. Also, you’re too much of a tomboy and not cute at all with all that grease on your face.”
“B—but that was your fault!”
“Hush already, we’re gonna miss the battle and you’re annoying the people.”
“What people?” she asked and looked past me. Nobody paid us any attention. “No wonder you’re still single, you fool,” she mumbled and settled in next to me, leaning her shoulder against mine.
I ignored her, not interested in the slightest in hooking up with anyone. At least not for now. There were far more important things I needed to do before even thinking about connecting with someone on an emotional level. Maybe down the line as we’d been friends for years, but I meant what I said. I wouldn’t use anyone to get ahead in life, even if it was just a small step. I wanted to be the one to pull others up alongside me, no matter how stupid it sounded.
The barracks were a hive of activity, with support staff uncoupling the fighting mechs and helping the knights up the long ladders that led to the loading platforms. The stylish and highly polished pearl-white of their armor gleamed wildly in the bright sun. It made it hard to watch them directly, yet no one looked away as the White Knight moved his mech.
These were some of the champions of Alnda, the great heroes of the fields and waters of the Principality of Erondas, and the digits and fingers of Duke Harold Merseburg himself. When they rode out, everyone knew we were in trouble.
As the knights entered their towering Cataphracts, five in total, with a dozen smaller 30-ton Toxotai ballistic support mechs already saddled and standing at the ready, attention turned to the newcomers. They were massive monstrosities pushing into the fighting field that separated the farms to one side, and the forests and ruins to the other. The only thing worth protecting just as much as the nobility were the farms as there was no life without crops. Entire cities had fallen after leaving their farms to be overrun by monsters.
“Boo to the scratch-feeders!” Ellinor called, her hands cupped to the sides of her mouth.
More jeers and catcalls joined hers, with the people of the city crying their own hate for the creatures from beyond. They had caused death on an unprecedented scale, destroying entire cities and killing millions across the world. Or so the stories went.
I stared at them as I usually did, lost in the alienness of their being. The monsters lumbering across the fields had been the stuff of nightmares when I’d first seen them as a toddler, huddled between the knees of my mother. That was before they died, and before I’d been taken in and given food, lodging, and tutelage by the Scavenger’s Guild. It was only thanks to them that I retained the workshop of my dead parents.
The three monsters were colossal, easily dwarfing the city’s wall. It was a wonder that they were even able to move given how much weight their armor and massive muscles added to their figures. But that was part of their whole strangeness, how they could step lightly across the plains without leaving nary a footprint, how they could sidestep attacks with very little effort.
“This one’s worth watching for sure,” Ellinor said excitedly, and I had to agree. Not only because of the battle but because of what would come afterward. The scavenging. That’s why we’d come, after all.
“Can’t wait to dig in,” I said, patting her knee.
She raised an eyebrow at me and smirked.
“Getting a bit too grabby with your hands, Loverboy.”
“Shut it, you with your smudged face. Who would even want you?” I shot back with a grin.
I turned back to the monsters. Today was an interesting day as creatures that big usually didn’t come in packs or even smaller groups. They came alone.
We eyed the trio. Though all three of them had the distinctive crop-eating shovel snouts, their bodies couldn’t be more different.
The first resembled a gargantuan serpent, its body rippling beneath dark, iridescent blue scales that shimmered with a rainbow gleam as it shifted position to tear new tracts in the soil. Its scales were so densely packed that they appeared impenetrable. Almost like a shield forged from the night sky itself. Its eyes were large and glowed an electric green. They held a depth of intelligence that was unsettling even from this far out.
The second monster was more ambulatory, its body supported by four thick, tree-trunk-like legs. Its skin was a patchwork of rough hide and bony plates, each a different hue of earthy brown and moss green, creating a natural camouflage against the backdrop of the forests and fields. The creature, however, stood out against the azure blue of the horizon, head dipped down into the waving stalks of wild grain. A crest of jagged spikes rose like a crown from the top of its skull. The eyes of this monster glowed the same electric green but with a wild, uncontrolled ferocity.
The third was the most alien of them all, insect-like with a multitude of legs that clicked loudly as it moved. Despite the sharp spear-like endings of its appendage, only its shovel-mouth left any trace that it had even been there. The monster’s body was covered in an oversized scale that was translucent and shimmering, occasionally giving all of us a direct view of its ugly black and gray pulsing innards as it shifted from patch to patch, trying to get any food into its maw. The head resembled a long beak with eyes and shark teeth, which made it look even more unsettling. The last pair of eyes were just as green as those of the other monsters, and it only made sense.
Greens worked with greens, reds with reds, and yellows with yellows. Monsters never packed with other colors, even when they were the same body type.
“I’ve never seen these kinds before,” I admitted, nudging Elli with my shoulder. “You know that I’ve never gone out to scavenge the big ones, right?”
Elli whistled.
“Those monsters out there, they’re in a whole lot of trouble,” she joked. “They’re all greenies, and the snake is a Slythra, while the four-legger is a Terrabrax and the insect is a Glimmerhusk. All of them are tough as nails out in the wild, but our guys’ll get ‘em easy. Or we’re all dead anyway, so not much to worry about.”
“Greens. Yeah, they’re among the more feral types, I know. It’s just that I don’t recognize their species. Which makes me wonder if I should write some kind of guide for idiots like myself.”
Each monster emitted a low, resonant sound, a mix of growls, clicks, and hisses that echoed across the long distance.
The mechs thundered out of the city, making their way through the gate and heading along the single road that allowed something as heavy as a Cataphract to move without issues. The Toxotai joined them and just then the air around the monsters began to shimmer, almost like the air above hot pavement on an incredibly hot summer’s day.
“It’s too early,” Elli said with a hushed hiss. “The monsters shouldn’t have even noticed them yet! Or have they? Why are they all aggressive? Maybe it’s—”
Cheers began to rise on all sides of the battlements and from the ground below and behind us, drowning our thoughts. Stomping forward and leaving heavy footprints in their wake, the Cataphracts marched first. Towering at an impressive height, these mechs were a blend of new-tech and old, the sort of thing only the nobles and plutocrats could afford, and rare enough to have fantastic specials in combat.
Their broad, old-tech chassis were wrapped in thick links of chain, mimicking the chainmail worn by foot soldiers. Unlike the new-tech mechs, the Cataphracts moved without whining gears or grinding driveshafts, their joints expertly articulated for taking abuse from monsters, but they were still quick enough to outmaneuver lumbering monstrosities. The shoulder plates were engraved with heraldic symbols, reflecting the noble lineage of the knight inside each of the machines.
The five Cataphracts clutched a massive blade in their right hand, and an equally massive shield in their left. Three of them wore axes on their backs, one a mace, and the White Knight had a battle hammer as a secondary weapon. Their helmet-shaped heads, with narrow slits for visual sensors, locked onto the monsters, watching them for their reaction as they marched.
Behind them came the Toxotai. They were leaner, smaller, and more agile, and usually piloted by lesser nobles or those lucky enough to get their hands on a growth core. They were equally white but wore ballista and chain sickles on their backs so they could trap and attack monsters from afar. Toxotai were the ones who would usually drive the monsters into place, allowing the Cataphracts to corner and kill their opponents.
The smaller mech were without barding and instead of heraldry, their shoulders sported the badge of the Duke, and the Principality of Erondas. The plate armor of their design was noticeably thinner and weaker, and I’d seen more than once just how weak it was when meeting oversized monsters.
The ballista they carried was large enough that they needed both hands to wield it properly. All four eyes on every Toxotai locked onto the monsters in the same way the Cataphracts had, then began to fan out to the flanks, seven going to each side.
“This is going to be so good!” Elli squealed. “Want to make a bet? I’ll be your girlfriend for a week if you win, and you will have to be—what?” she asked as I shot her a confused look, but then turned back toward the battle.
The Cataphracts had drawn their swords and were ready to strike and bring tons of monster bone and steel down on the three creatures.
“Focus, Elli. You’re losing it.”
“Ahh, yes,” she muttered, leaning back into me yet again.
With a sudden burst of speed, the lead Cataphract charged, its shield raised high. The ground trembled beneath its weight, and we could feel it even from where we sat, our legs and feet dangling off the gate.
The mechs’ blades flared, yellow-orange heat rippling through them as the first monster, the serpent, reared back as if preparing to dart forward again. The other monsters stopped their grazing, regarding the incoming mechs with bared, sharpened teeth.
Pounding forward, the squad of Cataphracts barreled in a V-formation. Despite being monsters of the same coloring, their more basic and feral instincts told them to fight by themselves. They began to spread out instead of bunching up together, just as the Cataphracts fired volleys of sparking electric lances. Ballista bolts started hammering down on the insect-like monster then, every Toxotai targeted the same creature. One of the bolts managed to pierce its chitinous head; it staggered and fell, but was still far from dead.
The lead Cataphract swung his blade, aiming for the serpentine monster next to keep it away. The beast reared back, its iridescent scales glinting, and let out a hissing roar. The blade struck home, a deafening clang echoing as metal met scale. Sparks flew in all directions as the blade superheated and dug into its flesh, burning it.
The battlefield erupted into a chaotic dance of metal giants and monstrous beasts with the four-legged monster charging at a Cataphract, its bony plates rattling. The mech braced for impact, angling its shield slightly and away from itself. It absorbed the brunt of the collision, the monster's jaws snapped shut inches from the mech's visor, the sound like a crack of thunder.
The Cataphract’s blade flashed and came down on the monster’s neck, but bounced off as there hadn’t been enough power behind the blow. What it did, though, was put the creature on the defensive and create an opening for the smaller mechs.
A Toxotai, seizing the opportunity, darted in and released a bolt at close range. The projectile embedded itself in the creature's flank, causing it to bellow in rage and pain as surges of electricity paralyzed it in place. The mech retreated just as quickly, narrowly avoiding a swipe of the beast's massive claw as more Toxotai threw their chained sickles at the creature to try and root it in place.
Above the fray and with our feet dangling from the gate, we watched with genuine awe. There was a clear and rather large difference between the usual knights and The Whites.
Three Toxotai drew the snake-like monster away, leaving the insect to deal with three Cataphracts and four other Toxotai. The larger mechs used their shields to box it in from three sides, almost in a loose crescent, while the support mechs delivered constant ranged attacks that disabled both hind legs. The slightly larger lead Cataphract surged forward, bringing his blade up and through the monster’s chin. It was just long enough to pass through bone and into the brain.
“There goes the first! And what a clean kill!” Elli cried, imitating arena announcers. She got to her feet and offered me a hand. I took it and stood as she danced in place.
The first monster was dead, and by the time the larger group could even round on the second monster, the four-legged creature with a ballista bolt stuck in its skull was held by three other Toxotai. Their chain sickles were stuck in the ground and kept the monster in place. A moment later, it fell to the other two Cata’s as they brought their blades down on the neck and cut the head off. The crowd around us erupted into another victorious cheer and a knowing look passed between us.
“Scavenging time!” we said in unison and hurried back down to the gate.
Neither of us saw how the snake monster fell, but that didn’t matter. The only thing more important than living through an attack was to get out and scavenge the creatures to earn some credits and junk no one else needed.