Rough stairs had been carved out of the black snow and scattered over with broken rocks for traction, forming a crude entryway to the partially excavated bunker serving as the base’s main door. Jesri followed the small group of guards down the stairs with Erlir setting his slow pace at the front. The ancient Ysleli leaned heavily on Leral as he moved down, and it struck Jesri how much of an effort it must have been for him to walk unaided through the ashfall to confront Tarl.
She caught some of the guards shooting distrustful glances back up the stairway where Tiln and Neryn stood watch with their squads and one increasingly miserable Ralik. The troops hadn’t really seemed to grasp why they weren’t allowed in the base, but once Anja gave the order they simply shrugged and took their posts. As much as they were trying to move their squads past their fear of questioning orders they didn’t understand, Jesri had to admit that there were times when it came in handy.
As they finally reached the darkened foot of the stairs one of the guards rushed to open the heavy metal door for Leral and Erlir. Dim reddish lighting peeked through the crack, and as the door opened fully Jesri felt a rush of warm air infiltrate the tiny gaps in her environment suit. They stepped across the threshold and were momentarily lost in darkness as the door rattled shut behind them.
As her eyes adjusted Jesri could see the guards around her unwinding the thick cloth wrappings from their faces and slinging their rifles on their backs. They were all women, Jesri saw, the red light from the emergency lamps glinting dully from their golden scales. She wondered how many men had survived the raiders aside from Erlir and Ralik.
She reached up to remove her respirator, sniffing tentatively at the warm, humid air. The oddly spicy scent of densely packed Ysleli bodies hit her in a wave, followed by other notes - fire smoke, cooking food, burning plastics, stagnant water. Complex, not entirely pleasant, but clean air compared to the choking miasma from outside.
Dim red emergency lighting cast an ominous glow across the room, but for all that it was dark and foreboding it was still functional electric light. She exchanged a look with Anja, who nodded.
“Hardened installation,” Anja said approvingly. “Positive pressure filtered air, independent power supply. This place was designed right.”
Leral looked over at her, black eyes glinting in the darkness. “It has saved our lives,” she said, “but I don’t believe it was meant to hold so many people. The power and water are limited and we must use very little of each or risk running out. The water merely runs dry, but if we overtax the power then the air stops. That is why the lights are off.”
Jesri nodded. That made sense, as hardened systems were usually designed for reliability and longevity rather than luxury. “Have you found the generator?”, she asked. “We might be able to take a look at it for you after we’re done.”
“No, we don’t know where the power or the water comes from,” Leral said. “There are many tunnels that run a long distance away from this part of the base, and we think some of them go deep under the mountain. Hard to say for sure, they’re unlit and the few handlights we found here died months ago.” She made an indifferent gesture, then indicated the rest of the base with a sweep of her hand. “Limited as the services are, they have been working so far. There were other priorities.”
“Right,” Jesri said, reaching into her pack. “Well, we’ll see what we can do for you. It shouldn’t be too hard to get a couple of generators in the first supply run, at least. For the time being-”
She fished two flashlights from a compartment in her pack and tossed them to Leral and one of the guards, who caught them out of surprised reflex. The guard gave the thumb-switch on her light a tentative press and sent a dazzling white beam lancing straight into her face. She dropped it with a muttered curse, swiping at her eyes. The light shone cheerfully from the floor to light up the foyer and throw sharp shadows across the faces of the unmasked Ysleli.
“Thank you,” Leral said, real gratitude in her voice. “These will be a huge help. We’ve been living in the dark for so long that even the outside seems bright. I worry about what it does to the children. Even if it’s just for a few days, it will be wonderful to have real light again.”
“Days?”, Jesri grinned. “Leral, the cells in those things will run for months. They won’t need to, since we’ll get you something more permanent before too long, but you don’t need to ration them.”
Leral blinked and opened her mouth, then closed it again without speaking. “I… thank you,” she said after a moment.
The guard that had received the second flashlight pocketed hers and glared dazedly at Jesri. “Why?”, she asked accusingly, ignoring Leral’s glare. “Why would you give us these? It won’t buy Tarl our loyalty, if that was your intent.”
Leral gave Jesri a stricken look, but she responded with a dismissive gesture. “It’s a fair question, Leral,” she sighed. “Look, just to be clear - we don’t work for Tarl. We’re allies. Whether you continue to deal with him after this is your decision.”
“But a gift of such value-” protested the guard.
“Saril, you embarrass yourself,” Erlir said from behind, the harsh shadows of the light playing strangely over the drooping skin of his face. “Show your gratitude for the gift and be silent.”
“Father Erlir,” Saril muttered, bowing in deference.
Erlir turned to Jesri and Anja and inclined his head. “Thank you for the gifts. Please forgive us if some are suspicious of outsiders, especially those who travel with the warfather. His soldiers are not well-loved among those who survived them to flee here.”
“Not at all,” Jesri said, returning the gesture. “We will try to be minimally disruptive while we’re here. Once we’ve retrieved what we came for, you will only have to deal with the soldiers to receive supply shipments.”
“We look forward to it,” Erlir said wryly. “If I may ask, what is it you came to find?”
“The body of a monster,” Anja said grimly. “One you will be better off without.”
The guards shifted nervously, and Jesri punched Anja lightly on the shoulder. “Stop making it sound scary,” she chided. “It’s just a body.” She reached into her pack and came out with her hovering lamp, which zipped upward to float above her head. The Ysleli stared as it hung motionless and began to glow with its amber light, dispelling the hard shadows from the flashlight on the ground.
She turned to the guards. “Ready?”, she asked. Saril nodded mutely, still staring at the light ball. Jesri turned back to Erlir and inclined her head again. “Erlir, Leral, we’ll find you when we’ve finished.”
“Wait!”, Leral protested, shaking off her astonishment at the hovering lamp. “I’m coming along as well.”
Erlir gave her a disapproving look and rested his hand on her arm. “Leral, this is a matter for the guards,” he said quietly. “Let them escort our guests.”
Leral’s face fell, but she did not object. Jesri felt a pang of sympathy for her as she exchanged a glance with Anja; the young woman clearly had a curious mind. The corners of Anja’s mouth twitched and she shrugged out of her pack to rummage around inside of it.
“Did you forget something?”, Jesri asked, deciding to play along.
“No, but it occurred to me that the areas near Trelir’s office had quite a lot of useful material stockpiled in those storage rooms,” Anja said impishly. “We will not be able to take it all back, but we can at least have someone in the group note down our path and take inventory so that it can be collected on future trips.” She pulled out an old field pad and stylus, the thin, waterproof pages bent around the edges but otherwise in good form.
“That’s a good thought, but neither of us knows Ysleli script,” Jesri said, catching on and turning to the guards. “Can one of you take notes on our route and mark any items of interest we come across?”
The four guards looked askance at the pad as Anja held it out to them, confirming Jesri’s suspicions. “Our sires were farmers,” Saril said quietly. “I do not know speechmarks.”
“I know them!”, Leral piped up excitedly. “I can take notes!”
“Well, then,” Anja said, walking over to hand her the pad and stylus. “If that is all right, Erlir?”
The elderly Ysleli shot her an irritated look, but merely harrumphed tiredly and gestured Leral towards the group. She skipped over happily to stand by the guards, who seemed less put off by Jesri drawing attention to their illiteracy now that they saw the reason behind it.
“Right, well,” Jesri said, rubbing her hands together. “No point in wasting time. Can anyone lead the way to the hallways where you found dead soldiers?”, she asked, looking expectantly at the guards.
Saril nodded sharply, grabbing her rifle by its carry strap. “I know the way,” she said. “Follow me.”
The group turned and, with a nodded farewell to Erlir, they set off into the dark.
----------------------------------------
It took longer than Jesri had expected for the group to wend their way through the bunker’s tunnels to the site of their previous assault on the base. The tunnel itself was damp and cold, with ice infiltrating through tiny cracks in the concrete and accreting in dangerous-looking stalactites from the ceiling. Within a year they could have serious trouble walking through some of these passages, she judged, although after that much time they’d have more pressing problems than ice buildup without serious outside aid.
Saril led them through several junctions and rooms, disused hallways stretching endlessly into the black around them. “I didn’t know you had wandered this far,” Leral commented, her voice echoing dimly against the damp stone walls.
Saril winced at the noise, waiting a moment to reply. Jesri understood - she knew it was deserted here, but it was the sort of space that seemed to demand quiet from those passing through its confines. “I came through here when we were still looking for food,” Saril said quietly. “One of the storehouses with provisions was down a tunnel we passed a while ago. I thought there might be more if I kept looking, so I walked further.”
“Were there?”, Leral asked.
“Not that I found,” Saril replied. “I stopped looking after I started finding bodies.” She shuddered, her steps catching slightly. “We’re close,” she muttered.
They walked for only a few minutes more before she was proven right. The corpse of a Ysleli soldier lay slumped against the wall with its hands still clutched tightly to its darkly-stained abdomen. It had bloated a bit before the cold set in, giving it a particularly grotesque look under the sheen of frost coating its face.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Leral turned her face away as they passed, as did two of the guards. Saril and another guard paid it no mind, leading them onward through the tunnel. They passed several more corpses as they progressed, their wounds growing progressively more severe - these were the ones that had not made it as far before dying.
Finally, their pool of amber light revealed icy chunks of rubble strewn over the floor and scattered among bodies that were not so much wounded as disassembled. Jesri could see the remains of the doorframe that had shattered as Anja bulled through it in her armor, and on the other side of the room the hole made by her exit was also readily apparent.
“This is it,” Jesri confirmed. Leral looked around her, wide-eyed, her hands clasped to her face in horror.
“Blackened breath,” Saril whispered, making a warding gesture and gripping her weapon tightly. “What monster did this? These men have been torn to pieces.”
Anja and Jesri exchanged a look, then both glanced at Leral. The girl stared back at them with petrified terror etched into every line of her face. She knew who was responsible. Tarl had told her back on the Subtle Blade.
“No monsters you have to worry about,” Jesri said softly, keeping her eyes locked on Leral. “You’ve got us on your side.” Leral said nothing, her eyes still locked on Jesri.
Saril snorted derisively. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’ll trust my rifle,” she said, a quaver in her voice under the sheen of bravado.
“Worked out for these guys well enough,” Anja muttered, glancing pointedly at a severed arm still clasping a rifle tightly with its finger frozen to the trigger. Leral looked faint.
“Stop it,” Jesri said, punching Anja on the shoulder. “Don’t wind them up. We’ve still got a while left to go.” She moved forward down the hall, forcing the others to follow if they wanted to stay in the light. The Ysleli hastened after her, scrambling over the icy rubble to keep up with her pace.
It wasn’t long before they reached the stockrooms with their neatly arrayed samples of human salvage stacked on shelf after shelf, the tidy rows broken only by the occasional toppled rack left over from their assault. Leral stared around her, the strange artifacts momentarily overwhelming her horror at the bodies still periodically scattered in their path.
“What is all this?”, she asked wonderingly. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Jesri considered for a moment how best to answer her, then shrugged. “This was a research facility,” she replied. “It was primarily dedicated to studying items left by our people.”
Leral walked over to one of the shelves, peering at the dusty collection. In front of her was half of an autoclave and the heat exchanger from a refrigeration unit. “What does all of it do?”, she inquired.
“Mostly nothing,” Jesri replied. “They’ve collected a bunch of half-functional appliances and spare parts which are really only useful for study and reverse-engineering. I thought we might give the shelves a once-over on our way back through here, see if there’s anything that might help you out until the supply run comes in.”
Anja paced by the room’s exit, an odd tension in her shoulders. “We should keep moving,” she said brusquely. “We can do inventory once we’ve secured Trelir.”
Jesri wondered at her sister’s mood for a moment before making the connection. It would be odd for her to get this worked up over Trelir, but he wasn’t the only body in their path. In the rush of activity since they’d landed she had forgotten about seeing Sophia laid out on the table, staring in mute horror at Violet’s preserved form... With a shudder, Jesri motioned for Leral and the others to continue on, moving through the dusty stacks to the next storage room.
By the time they were at the end of the warehouses even the Ysleli had picked up on Anja’s distracted behavior and were keeping close to Jesri. The final steps to the lab were hushed and quiet save for a soft gasp from Leral when she saw Sophia’s body still lying on the gurney.
The room was untouched from their previous visit, with the bodies of the lab techs still bearing the marks of Anja’s wrath lying scattered around their sister’s half-dissected body. Ice had grown in feathery tendrils over her corpse, wrapping the dry skin in sparkling white filigree. The guards shifted nervously as they entered the room, keeping to the edges to stay as far away from the dead scientists as they could. Leral, however, was staring at Sophia with wide eyes.
“She’s… like you,” Leral said hesitantly, looking to Jesri for confirmation.
Anja answered instead. “Our sister, Sophia,” she whispered softly, setting her pack down on the floor of the lab and sorting through its contents. Jesri felt an ache in her chest as she watched her work. It was half for her lost sister and half for seeing Anja in this state, as her sister had always seemed to feel the loss of their other siblings more keenly. Mixed threads of guilt and pity twisted in Jesri’s gut as she reflected on it, but in the end she could only feel as she felt.
Leral’s attention flitted between the three Valkyries and it was easy for Jesri to read the question behind her eyes. Sophia’s corpse was unquestionably ancient, twisted and dessicated by years of lying neglected in whatever disused installation she had been found. Mercifully, Leral restrained her curiosity as Anja withdrew a thin body bag from her backpack and shook it out on the floor. The guards were still too focused on the mutilated bodies of the scientists to have processed the implications of Anja’s answer.
Jesri moved to her sister’s feet as Anja took Sophia’s shoulders, gently lifting the corpse into the bag on the floor. She was so, so light, her papery skin rough and cold. Her intricately plaited blonde hair hung down in a dull mess, and Jesri was struck by the incongruous thought that Sophia would have hated seeing it so disheveled. The hair passed into the open zipper of the bag, followed by the rest of her body as they lowered her delicately down to the floor.
Anja gave her frost-limned cheek a gentle caress, then zipped the bag closed before straightening up. Jesri rose slowly and met her eyes, her chest aching with a moment of shared grief for their lost sister. The last time they had seen her body Anja had been an avatar of rage and hatred, exacting misplaced revenge on the scientists unlucky enough to be caught near Sophia’s corpse.
Today, she simply closed her eyes for a long moment, then reopened them and stalked towards the next doorway. Jesri moved to follow, with the Ysleli following along hesitantly.
“Will you not take her with you?”, Leral asked quietly.
Jesri shook her head. “On the way back,” she answered, her voice rough. “Trelir takes priority.”
They moved in silence through the remainder of the administrative area, the hallways shifting from utilitarian rock-hewn passageways to luxurious corridors before finally ending at the charred ruin of Trelir’s office. The explosion had blown out several of the nearby doors and coated the entire area with layers of fine white dust that stirred into choking clouds as their feet disturbed it.
Of Violet’s body, there was no trace. The explosion had destroyed everything that wasn’t metal in the room, twisting and warping most of what was - but only most. They found Trelir more or less where he had fallen, covered only by some thin sheets of heat-warped laminate that had been torn from the wall by the force of the blast.
Saril hissed in alarm and shrunk back as they lifted the debris to expose him. His thin cosmetic covering and soft artificial musculature had not survived the blast well, hanging in tatters from bones that were silver and gleaming where the dust lay thin. Beneath them lay blackened and twisted panels, housings for Trelir’s internal components. They looked severely distorted by the heat of the explosion, but there were no obvious breaches - they would have to see how well they had protected their precious contents back on Elpis.
“What is it?”, Saril asked tremulously, her false bravado forgotten. She seemed more disturbed by the grinning metal skull gripped tightly in Trelir’s spidery fingers than by the complex of dead soldiers they had just passed, not that Jesri could judge her for it. The pristine finish of the skeleton lent it an odd vitality amid the dusty, ice-gripped rubble. The dark sockets of the skull seemed to track one’s movements as if it was moments from rising to take vengeance for its fall. Given what it truly was, Jesri couldn’t entirely rule the idea out.
Anja had unclipped a small scanner from her belt and was running it over the body thoroughly, scanning for any trace of activity within its half-melted interior. After reaching the feet, she straightened up and shook her head. “It’s dead,” Anja said, half-answering Saril’s question. “No activity that I can detect, although we should give it another thorough scan on the Blade before we bring it to Elpis.” She gave Jesri a grave look, pursing her lips in thought. “Can we risk taking it there?”
Jesri shrugged helplessly. “Can we risk leaving it here? Helene and David need access to Gestalt hardware if they’re ever going to make progress on their plans. Without it, Elpis dies within a century. It is a definite risk and we’ll have to be careful, but there’s just no other path forward.”
“I suppose,” Anja said, shrugging out of her pack to retrieve another body bag. Jesri bent to grab one of the body’s legs and was immediately struck by the sheer weight of it - not much heavier than a standard Ysleli, but the metal and charred circuitry did not shed mass after death. Compared to her sister’s whisper-light body, Trelir felt much more real and substantial. The cold bones immediately leached the heat from her fingers, leaving her hands numb even after she and Anja had lowered him into the bag with his leering skull resting on his chest.
As she straightened up, Jesri looked back towards the five Ysleli women. They looked petrified once more, the guards no longer bothering to hide their distress for Leral’s sake. Jesri shook her head. “I know this is strange,” she said soothingly, “but I can answer any questions you have when we get back. You’re in no danger from these bodies. We just need you to help us carry them outside.”
“I will not touch that,” Saril said emphatically, looking at the sealed bag with trepidation. “Whatever that is, it is an abomination. It is evil.” The other guards murmured their assent, although Leral merely looked troubled.
“Fine,” Anja said curtly. “We will carry him. You,” she continued, moving to fix Saril with a withering stare, “will carry our sister’s body in our stead. You will treat her with the respect you would show the bones of your own family.” She leaned in closer, a mere handspan from Saril’s face. “Am I understood?”
Poor Saril was too out-of-sorts to reply coherently, but she eventually stammered out enough of an affirmation to satisfy Anja. Jesri pressed the body bag’s activation toggle and watched as slats became rigid and locked into place along the sides. Once the process was complete the bag could be carried in the same manner as a stretcher, allowing Jesri and Anja to easily bear the metal skeleton’s awkward bulk.
While the bag worked under Anja’s watchful glower, Jesri walked over to the huddle of frightened Ysleli. “I know this isn’t easy,” she said, making eye contact mostly with Leral, “but it is important. This will save your people as surely as food, water and air. You won’t come to harm while we’re with you.”
Leral, at least, seemed to find some resolve, returning her gaze with a slight dip of her head. “We will carry her,” she affirmed.
“Good girl,” Jesri said, smiling back. “The rest of you can take back some of the stuff from the storeroom. It’s mostly junk, but I’m pretty sure I saw some survival gear you could use. We’ll take a look at it, and I’ll help you mark the stuff we can’t carry for later. Deal?”
She got acknowledgments back from most of the guards this time, with looks of frightened resolve from Saril and Leral. Jesri supposed it would have to do.
----------------------------------------
The way back was long and hard, with Jesri and Anja carrying Trelir’s body and the other guards carrying a portable water purifier, a stack of thermoreflective sheeting and a few other odds and ends that could prove useful. Saril and Leral brought up the rear with Sophia’s body, the latter having insisted on doing her fair share for the trip back.
Eventually, with arms aching and shoulders feeling nearly stretched out of joint, they made it back to the foyer. The six of them slumped against the cold walls to let the chill soak into their aching muscles.
After some time passed, Jesri cracked an eye open and looked over at Leral. The girl wasn’t out of shape, but Ysleli shoulders evidently weren’t designed for the sort of constant load-bearing pressure that the stretcher exerted. She looked ragged and tired, and unlike Saril she wasn’t doing her utmost to feign good health.
“So,” Jesri said conversationally, “I know how you feel about soldiers in the base…”
“They can come in to help carry,” Leral wheezed. “My blackened arms feel like they’re about to drop off.”
“Language,” Jesri deadpanned, reaching up to her earpiece. “Neryn, this is Jesri.”
“Captain Jesri!”, Neryn said immediately, his voice wavering with cold as the wind howled in the background. “Very glad to hear you, sir. Are we clear to depart?”
“Just about,” Jesri replied. “We’ve got authorization for four of you to come into the base to help move some items, then we can head back.”
“Copy, sir,” Neryn said enthusiastically. “We’ll be right down.”
Jesri gave him a double-click over the comm and toggled her transmitter, slumping back against the cool wall once more. “They’re coming,” she told the curious Ysleli. “Seems like it’s cold out there.”
“Hah,” Saril barked, the other guards breaking out into exhausted giggles. “It’s not even nighttime,” she protested. “Your men are soft.”
Anja looked over at her and grinned lazily. “Perhaps so,” she drawled, “but this trip has given me all sorts of ideas about their next training sessions…”
The guards and Leral dissolved into giggles again, but Jesri merely gave a wan smile. Now that she had recuperated somewhat from their forced march, she found her focus sliding back to the two ominously silent body bags sitting before them. One for family lost to her ages ago, another for the enemy who took her - although as the two sealed bags slumped against each other she couldn’t tell which was which.
She didn’t have the faintest clue what to do with either one.