Teerstadt
Reality of Edelweiss
December 19th, 2188 ESC
Explosions startled Althea as the sky lit up with flashes of orange and red. Soon the sounds of 15mm machine guns and the peculiar whine of high-energy weapons discharging began to start close to the city center. Small spherical objects darted in the night sky, visible to some of the drones in her battle net. Under the sounds were the sounds of cattle and wolves dying and running in the opposite direction.
A bolt of ice shot up into the sky near her. One of the silent spherical drones fell to the street and rolled under a sidewalk, exploding. It turned the wooden sidewalk into shrapnel that killed several Aurochs. She winced. If the Sidhe kept shooting the drones like this, there was a chance that civilian bystanders could be hit. A group of wolves ran past her hiding place, one skidding in the dirt street as it was skewered by a laser which made its back explode in a pop of steam, chunks, and blood.
I guess Tiki managed to get the automated defenses up, Althea thought. It was time to change tactics. She was no good at this attrition game she was playing with the Sidhe. It was time to take the fight to them and clear out the soldiers. The last time she fired the NewHomian rifle, it flashed 8, so she had maybe that many shots left. The other rifle had failed earlier, showing the NewHomian weapons needed better quality controls, at least to Althea’s thinking. After that, she would have to steal a weapon or maybe grab control of some drones that just had been released by Tiki.
Althea reached out with her mind and tried to control one of the spherical drones floating by. Unfortunately, its architecture was archaic and had none of the Mechanese commands embedded in the newer devices. It also had no connection to the Network. However, it apparently did have anti-intrusion software and immediately exploded in the air.
“Tîla,” she swore softly. Well, that won’t work, she thought. Althea looked at the position of the remaining eight Sidhe in the area and the locations of the flying drones. “Hmmm. Maybe?”
###
Second Lieutenant el-Siddiqui was trying to control the base he was nominally in control of. Their computer equipment had started freaking out several hours ago, and they had determined that there was some kind of Infowarrior inside their systems. So they concentrated on trying to eliminate the threat from local communication systems. This became compounded by an animal attack from the local wildlife.
“Maybe I should have taken that corporal’s warnings more seriously?” el-Siddiqui mused. d’Argus had warned that there might be more beast attacks, and the one that had attacked her was covered by a spell. However, after reading her psyche profile, the base doctor had waved it off as delusions. If she saw and interacted with things that weren’t there previously, what were the chances that she just made up the spell that was supposedly on a sabertoothed cat?
Now he was thinking that maybe she had been right. There were multiple sabertoothed cats and dire wolves around the base, acting to keep people trapped in the buildings. Exactly like they had done at the outpost two days earlier. Now there were reports that there were explosions in the city of Teerstadt and gunfire.
“Have you isolated the Infowarrior yet?” el-Siddiqui asked one of the Technical Sergeants.
He was met by shakes of the head. “We can’t figure out where he is coming from. We’ve even unplugged the connections from the main Network node here.” The man checked several different screens, “We’ve even been cut off from the radio, but the electronics seem to be physically fine.”
el-Siddiqui placed his hand on his chin and thought for a while. He wasn’t well versed in the Infowar side of combat as the League never had to deal with anyone that was technologically similar to them so far. The Sidhe had shunned technology and only disrupted their communication with mana bombs that fried their equipment.
“Can we still communicate with the main Network Node on Erde?” he asked suddenly.
The tech sergeant nodded, “It’s slow, but we can get some data through.” He checked again, “There is a massive lag, and no one seems to answer from the base.”
“Cut it,” el-Siddiqui said suddenly.
“Excuse me, Sir?” the man replied, looking stunned. “Cut the network node?”
el-Siddiqui nodded emphatically, “Try to cut the connection with the software. We can reboot it if this isn’t it.”
The tech sergeant began to work on the coding, getting through the menus to cut the node. “I can’t, Sir. The option won’t even let me touch it.”
Smiling, el-Siddiqui said, “I’ve got you now.” Quickly he looked at the map of the base. “Send out an assault unit and destroy the inter-reality Network relay. We’re being attacked from off-Reality.” Then, at the look of fear from his subordinates, he replied, “Do it now, or we’re probably going to all die.”
###
Xi Yong was in the middle of getting the troops together when his dataslate beeped softly with the tone that he had picked for the human infowarrior. The human was easily manipulated and had turned out to have fallen for his “Carolyn” personality. It was easy to get them to take more risks for less price if his eyes were batted at a prospective patsy and the camera was at certain angles. Internally he groaned as he had been warned not to contact “Carolyn” if it wasn’t an emergency.
Shooing a few of his subordinates away, he picked up the dataslate. He schooled his face into the happy-looking bimbo that Qiángdà de mǎyǐ was expecting and turned on the device. He dropped the act as soon as he saw it was a message. Playing it, his left eye twitched.
“Hey, Carolyn,” the audio message began. “You’re getting this if my connection failed or I’ve been compromised at my location. So you guys are on your own now. I’ve planted as much malware as possible in the systems, so hopefully, you can escape. Nice working with you again.”
Cursing, he lifted his wrist to his lips and said the command to connect directly to Commander Song. “Commander, we’ve lost our data mercenary. They may begin coordinating soon.”
A ping, then a reply, “This was always a possibility,” Wuying replied through the communication stone. “The animals are stowed in the hold?”
“Yes,” Xi Yong replied. “Some cats, a pack of wolves, mammoths, and some bears, they are under sleep spells as ordered.” He looked about the hold at the cages with the sleeping animals.
“Good,” Wuying replied. “We’ll be using them for breeding along with some experimentation for Xifeng.” Then, he paused, “Is everyone aboard?”
Looking around the hold and checking the magical signatures with his Divination spells, Xi Yong replied, “Yes, Commander. Where shall we have the soldiers in the city rendevous?”
“Where do you think we should pick them up?” Wuying replied.
He’s testing me, Xi Yong thought. Then, remembering the city layout and where the men were, he said, “Close to the city center if they can get past that bitch.” Then, after a moment, he added, “And if they can’t, we can just blow the shit out of her with the cannons on the ship, I guess.”
A chuckle came from the communication stone, “That’s my girl… er….” He coughed and cleared his throat a bit. “Anyway, we’ll pick up what’s left of the distraction team, and the bombs should start up as we get closer to the rendezvous point. Get up here and ready the navigation stones.”
Xi Yong hit the buttons that closed the hatchway to their skyship. “Aye, Commander,” he replied. Internally Xi Yong cheered. He called me his girl! he thought happily.
###
Stand down? Are you sure that’s what they ordered, Tiki? Althea asked over the battle net.
She was hiding in an alley between an old truck and some trash bins. Althea had ambushed two more Sidhe spellcasters and stolen their pistols as they didn’t need them anymore. The streets were filled with the dead bodies of Aurochs and various predators, thanks to the drones effectively clearing out the animals. Three-meter-long flattened drones on treads rolled up and over the carcasses, shooting anything that didn’t have a humanoid silhouette with rather large fifteen-millimeter bullets.
Yeah, they said to stand down over the radio, Ticualtzin replied over the same ad-hoc network they were using to communicate. They said to meet up with me and keep any Sidhe out of the Drone center as we’re just a couple of technicians. It’s vital now that the entire Network on Eidelweiss is corrupted by that Infowarrior. A pause and uncertain emojis began to fill the battle net. The order was also to wait for rescue, and they would be sending the gunships out.
Althea sent a disgusted emoji back to Ticualtzin. So are we allowed to fight back at least? She got up and held her purloined ten-shot revolver at the ready as she moved through the carnage of the streets.
Worried emoji and sad emoji. Positive identification before engagement. Contact the next in command at the base if you are not sure.
POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION? By whose standards? Althea shot back with angry and frustrated emojis bubbling up. This force is dressed like civilians. I only have been able to figure out who they are by engagement and being attacked.
Calming emojis from Ticualtzin floated to her. It sucks, mia novia, but if they attack first, you can fire back, she sent back. Also, if they attack the Drone center or any civilians. You’re also supposed to stop engagement if they surrender or cannot fight due to incapacitation.
Althea ran closer to the city center, crossing streets and alleys in a zig-zag pattern to avoid the few animals that remained. She saw that the Sidhe had stopped shooting at the drones as they only shot back if they were shot at first. They’re treating me like a drone, Althea thought bitterly. I will follow orders, she sent back flatly.
Soon, the city center’s central plaza came into view. Several dozen smaller, treaded Kitten Mark 3 drones surrounded and protected the three bulkier Pregnant Bug drone carriers. Two of the meter and a-half-high and three-meter-long Kitten tanks rolled up to Althea. Threatening her with their guns, they blocked her forward momentum. Holding out her tags in front of herself, Althea stood still. Then, after a brief scan, they beeped softly and moved out of her way.
The Pregnant Bug carriers launched more of the rounded drones and accepted others back into their launch tubes. As Althea walked past them, she heard the sounds of reloading mechanisms in the carrier as batteries and bullets were swapped out. Then the smaller sphere drones shot out again to do more. The warehouse also opened small hatches that seemed to do the same with the Kitten tank drones and the flying ones.
At least it’s efficient, she thought.
Ticualtzin met her at the open door, limping and holding herself up with a crutch. Her right pant leg was soaked through with blood and looked shredded, with scrapes and bruises all over her. Althea rushed to Ticualtzin, ice in her veins as she looked her over. “Are you all right?” she asked flatly, belying her emotional state.
“Wolf bite,” Ticualtzin replied and pointed to the corpse that had been since pulverized by the Kitten tank drones. “He came out of it worse than me.” Ticualtzin smiled slightly, and Althea thought she had never looked more beautiful.
Althea gave her a genuine smile of relief and brushed her hand on Ticualtzin’s cheek. “I am glad, ba mebî,” Althea replied, her blush lost in the cat coloring of combat. Her face went back to its neutral expression. “Let us discuss the situation and get our wounds cleaned,” she said, picking up Ticualtzin in her arms in a princess carry.
“Whoah, whoah, whoah,” Ticualtzin said, blushing over her face as she was carried. “You SMILED!”
“I did not,” Althea said flatly.
“Oh yes, you did!”
“It was a trick of the light, I assure you,” Althea said, carrying her in. “Where is the infirmary? I need to treat our wounds.”
“You’re not getting off that easily, missy. We will be talking about this,” Ticualtzin said with a pouting smile. “Go to the control room. I need to monitor the drones. They are dumb as bricks.”
“Yes, princess.”
“H…HEY!”
###
The Brisbane slid through the night towards the center of Teerstadt. It was a newer, standard Vernian tramp freighter with liftstones and landing gear. They had chosen this one because it was the least grating to their senses as a steamship with mechanical parts. The few electrical systems on board were powered off, and parallel ones that ran on Magic replaced their functions. This was just in case the ship was ever inspected. Then, they could switch the electrical systems back on with no one the wiser. The skyship had two bridges, one amidship near the steam stacks and one in the front closer to the deck.
This was the one Wuying, his brother, and Xi Yong were currently in, along with some of the bridge crew. The city below looked small, with most of the lights out. There were fires here and there lighting up piles of animal carcasses and small tanks that crawled over the dead bodies and hunted down any living thing, not on two legs.
“Take a look at what they would do to every world that doesn’t match their whims,” Wuying said to his crew. Most of the crew nodded along. Xi Yong looked at Wuying like his words were prophetic, a weird smile of fanaticism on his feminine face.
Xifeng looked at his brother with slitted eyes. It’s only like this because we sent in the animals, brother, he thought.
They started circling the city center. There were three large buildings there, of which two looked like civic buildings. The last one was alive with hundreds of spheres and the small wedge-shaped drones guarding the perimeter. Three larger boxy vehicles seemed to be directing the flow of combat, launching and recovering spherical drones as they did so. The remainder of his men waited to the side of the plaza as the drones wouldn’t allow them entry, even using warning shots to make them back off.
“Xi Yong?” Wuying’s words made the slight man straighten up. They had all changed from restricting human clothing and were back in traditional Jinyiwei uniforms.
“Yes, commander,” Xi Yong said, smoothing his uniform over his feminine curves to look more professional.
Pointing to the building, Wuying asked, “These drones are centrally operated, yes?” The other man nodded, his hair falling fetchingly across his eyelashes. “If we destroy the golems on the ground of the plaza, they will just be replaced, yes?”
Xi Yong nodded and looked at the building for long seconds. They all felt the odd sensation of divination magic at work from the more petite man. “There are two beings in the building. I cannot get a read on them well, but they are probably the technicians running it. The amount of electricity in the room they are in is muddying my scrying.”
“How easily can a strike team disable that so we can set the Brisbane down without interference?”
Thinking for a moment or two, Xi Yong said, “Give me a strike team, and we’ll have it destroyed.”
“Man the guns and prepare for combat,” Wuying barked into the speaking tubes that transmitted his voice through the ship. Then, to Xi Yong, “Five men, Don’t take too long. We’re setting down when the golems are destroyed and will take up the men as soon as possible. This is a combat operation.”
Xifeng coughed and then interjected. “Bring their mounts, brother.”
Wuying snarled at the younger man, “Why would we do that?”
Shrugging, Xifeng said, “They are used to battle, plus two of them are bull mammoths. So they will prove useful in the future.”
Shaking his head, Wuying replied, “They can be replaced.”
“No, they can’t,” his brother shot back. “They are spell trained and are calm in battle. They will be perfect for training the younger ones we have in the hold.”
Wuying looked to Xi Yong, and the feminine man smiled prettily before shrugging, “Good mounts are hard to find. Plus, he’s been training them for months.”
Wuying’s expression softened, and then he looked back at his brother, “Fine, I will give you ten minutes to get them all onboard. After that, if the landing zone gets dangerous, we leave them. I am prioritizing my men first.”
“I only ask that you try, brother,” Xifeng said before staring out the window again.
The ship circled the central plaza, drones buzzing around but not interfering with its movements. A side hatch opened up once they were over the drone maintenance center. Xi Yong and his commandos dropped out, landing lightly on the roof of the building. The Brisbane turned and moved over the square as hatches along its side opened up, and crystal-enhanced muzzles slid out. Xi Yong waved at his men as they made their way towards one of the hatches on the roof.
Several things happened at once. First, the night sky lit up orange from the direction of the port as the first of the bombs blew up. Then, lightning and fire erupted from the muzzles of the spell cannons along the side of the ship, tearing into the drones, engulfing them in flames, or making them blow up from the plasma of the lightning. Finally, a pressure wave shook the building from the port explosion, causing the Brisbane to waver in the air and knocking about the small spherical drones that had started to attack it.
Taking that as his signal, Xi Yong unlocked the hatch of the maintenance facility and popped it open. Then, attaching ropes, he and his five men rappelled into the brightly lit warehouse. Machinery was everywhere, moving, grasping, and constructing. There were huge racks everywhere that had partially assembled and completed golems with arms that cleverly assembled them and placed the completed machines on launch rails to send them out into the night.
Lightly landing on the warehouse’s concrete floor, Xi Yong directed his underlings to place the charges in areas that looked like the assembly arms were concentrated. As they were leaving, a rounded cylinder rolled up and started to unfold into various weapons as it beeped at him. Raising his hand, he controlled his Magic to envelop and get within the golem. He snapped his fingers. The golem erupted in flames, melting within moments from the inside. A piercing alarm began to wail.
A familiar foreboding hit him, and he twisted to the side. The bitch! He thought. She’s here! Smiling, foxlike, he looked around the warehouse. A flash of grey that wasn’t a golem flitted about here and there. She was fighting one of his men, who wasn’t going down as easily as last time. He gathered Magic within himself and enhanced his physical attributes, emphasizing speed, strength, and physical shielding. Further, he enhanced himself mentally with the divination spells that would speed up his mental reflexes and reactions.
This is for revenge, you bitch! Xi Yong thought. Wuying will reward me for this. I know exactly what to ask for. Thoughts of the nights in the future made him shiver in delight.
###
The building had rocked with an explosion shaking Althea and Ticualtzin inside the control room. Banks of monitor cameras had flashed white in the port’s direction, then again in the direction of the plaza.
“Chingada!” Ticualtzin yelled as Althea held her. There were sounds inside the warehouse, and the security alarm began wailing. Althea looked at the warehouse cameras and saw several figures dashing about, either destroying or avoiding the security robots. They started to attack the drone assembly mechanisms.
“I believe this counts as defending vital assets,” Althea said as she rose up, grabbed her sword, and shoved the stolen 10-shot revolver into her empty holster. Ticualtzin had determined the Plasma rifle had turned out to be faulty, so she would leave it behind. She started to the door of the small room. Ticuatlzin grabbed her gun and started to head to the door with her. Althea blinked and held out a hand to stop her.
Letting out a snort, Ticualtzin looked Althea in the eyes. “I’m coming, too,” she said with determination.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Althea looked at her and shook her head with greater force of will than she had expected it to require. She noted that part of it was protectiveness, something she shouldn’t be obsessing over. She would have let one of her sisters join without hesitation. Just thinking of Ticualtzin out there and fighting made her ... fearful. Yes, that was the word.
But she reminded herself that her sisters were supersoldiers with perfectly unified battlefield awareness, and her precious Tiki could barely walk. Besides, it could go poorly if they left the control room empty and someone got past her.
“I assure you, ba mebî, I do not believe you too weak to stand beside me. On the contrary, you are too fierce to deserve such thoughts. But you are injured, and it impedes your movement. I can move much faster on my own. Further, your injury will not impede you in defending this room should it be breached. We must think of the entire city, not just one another.”
Ticualtzin’s head dropped in dejection, but the woman recovered nearly instantly, delivering a lopsided smile that made the biofem’s stomach fill with butterflies. “And here, I thought you just wanted to treat me like I’m your princess.”
At that, Althea blushed and clamped her mouth shut, her cloud leopard coloring hiding it almost immediately.
Ticualtzin patted her on the cheek. “Go into battle, my brave and courageous knight, and tonight, this princess will make you cry and mew for her.”
Turning abruptly in embarrassment, Althea sent over the battle net, I shall keep you to this promise. She ran off towards the left. Ticualtzin locked herself in the control room and a newly assembled drone floated off the rack with her icon in it. She turned right to go between the racks and almost ran head first into one of the people in the warehouse. He was dressed in a black outfit of a belted tunic with embroidered gold dragons over the shoulders and down the sleeves. Under it was a very functional bodysuit, bloused pants with red highlights were tucked into black boots. Emperor’s Guard, she thought and sent the information to the battle net, tagging him for Ticualtzin.
His short chopping sword glowed with electricity as she twisted and leaped over him to avoid it. The sword was moving impossibly fast for a Sidhe, so she guessed he was enhanced magically. Her feet hit the large metal rack bolted to the floor. Using it as a springboard, she kicked off towards him, her leaf blade slicing through his and carrying through to his torso. It was turned by a shield formed of impossibly solid electricity. Electrical sparks ran up her blade to her arm, making it lose feeling. Instantly, combat hormones flared up and returned control to her, even though she couldn’t feel her arm anymore.
That’s new, she thought. Althea had never fought the Emperor’s Guard before, but she had heard they were skilled and strong. She quickly pulled the ten-shot revolver in her other hand and fired three shots at him. He tried to dodge but couldn’t move faster than her. A halo of light lit up around the barrel, and all three shots connected, breaking his shield spell with the first one.
Althea registered surprise as the man fell dead. A spellgun shouldn’t be able to be used by someone like her. She turned and ran towards a light flare as one of the assembly machines suddenly broke. Standing near a piece of sparking and smashed machinery covered in ice was another man dressed in the same uniform as the one she had just killed. She fired one bullet into his back, and a brown shield made of earth appeared and shattered. He started turning towards her just before she ran him through with her sword.
Gunshots echoed through the warehouse, and she noted happily that Tiki had taken out one of the Emperor’s Guards on the other side of the warehouse with a drone she had seized control of. Tiki take their weapons. They break the shields.
Got it, Thea! Ticualtzin sent back.
Althea turned and ran towards the center of the warehouse near the main assembly system. She leaped into the air, barely avoiding the gout of flame that would have roasted her alive if she hadn’t jumped.
“Tch,” came from the direction of where the flame had originated. Althea looked and saw another Emperor’s Guard, but this one was in red with black dragons on her outfit. She didn’t have a sword or pistol. Nevertheless, she stood there confidently, meeting Althea’s gaze, and screamed at her in Sidhe, “Face me, you monster!” Her hand made a gesture, and spears of flame formed around her to shoot at Althea.
Predicting where they were headed, Althea dodged and leaped, using the warehouse racks as hand and footholds for leverage. She fired at the woman using the spell pistol, and it hit the shield: this one made of flames. Instead of breaking, it held and melted the bullet. Althea was countered, and a fist of solid flame appeared in front of her. It hit her, knocking her end over end into the rack.
Rolling to the side, she missed being hit by a flamethrower effect that turned the rack cherry red. I might not be making it back this time, she thought. I better try to take her out with me, so Tiki can escape. She launched herself at the woman and went to hit her with the pommel of her blade, expecting the shield to flare up. Instead, the woman dodged her and smacked her in the back with a fist empowered with flames.
Oh crap, she’s a physical mage and spellcaster, Althea thought as she hit the ground, sliding on the concrete. Her face and torso stiffened up where she hit, the calcium armor registering the impact and trying to mitigate the damage. She rolled with the impact and got back up to face the woman. Althea started to numb as her pain limiters kicked in to keep her functional. A notification helpfully let her know that her nose and one of her cheeks were broken. Also, her shoulder had taken enough damage that it would soon be nonfunctional. Unnoticed by Althea, two more Emperor’s Guards icons appeared in the battle net. One had the red X of elimination over it.
The Sidhe stood there with a crescent-shaped smile, “Oh, this isn’t going like last time at all, is it, bitch?” she gloated. “Killing my friends,” she hissed, her eyes flaring red from within. “Embarrassing the Commander!” A flame spear appeared next to the Sidhe and launched itself at Althea. The warehouse lights began to pop and break as the Magic overwhelmed them, and the drones began to fall from the air.
Althea dodged to the side and was hit by another one that had appeared on her left side. This one burned her clothing and went into her side, breaking several ribs. Red blood spurted out of the wound and sizzled, cauterizing almost immediately. The silver of her nanites bubbled to cover the wound as the woman sauntered over to stand out of reach as Althea looked at her.
“You aren’t even pig dung to us now,” she said, her evil smile growing wider as Althea picked herself up. “Oh yes, struggle, suffer! I want you to know pain!” her hand gestured, and a gout of flame engulfed the spot where Althea was. Except she wasn’t there anymore. Leaping to the side, she kicked off the rack and launched herself towards the Sidhe woman, who dodged easily. Then, a hand made of flame appeared and smacked Althea, slamming her into the racks face first and making her scream in pain for the first time as the limiters hit their top levels.
“Yes! Scream for me, you bitch!” the Sidhe yelled. “I’m better than you!”
Althea pushed against the ground and rolled to her side. Tiki, get out , she sent. I can’t stop her. I’ll buy you some time. Blood was streaming from her face, and her internals were screaming that her face, ribs, and forearms were broken.
The woman walked over and grabbed Althea by the neck, much like the Mechanese had done with the other man when the battle had begun. “Xi Yong has defeated you, you fucking metal demon.”
“Like Hell, I’m running away!” Ticualtzin yelled from Althea’s left as gunfire erupted. Althea was thrown against the rack by Xi Yong and fell to the ground. The Sidhe woman was engulfed in the flames of her shield as bullet after bullet hit her and was deflected. “Get away from my girlfriend, you cunt!”
“Tiki, no,” Althea croaked as she looked at her. “Get away.” She had a look of fear and pain on her face as she gestured weakly. “You’re supposed to be in the control room!”
Ticualtzin’s face was streaked with tears as she fired, a discarded Sidhe spellpistol in each hand. “I’m not losing you after I found you. You’re mine, Althea!”
Althea swallowed and began to shake her head as tears fell from her eyes, “Save yourself, Tiki.”
The shield flared up and became a solid, flat surface. Bullets impacted with flashes and dripped as they melted and fell off the surface. “How touching,” Xi Yong said sarcastically as she calmly stood there with her right hand outstretched.
The words for further gloating evaporated from her tongue when her gaze fell on the metal demon’s face. Xi Yong knew, from countless battles, that Mechanese were emotionless killer drones, more clever than the ones that belched acrid smoke around them, but fundamentally the same. Autonomous weapons that were unleashed and allowed to select their own targets by an equally remorseless techno-demon.
Pure, raw emotion grotesquely stretched this demon’s face in every direction she was fairly sure it wasn’t supposed to go. For a heartbeat, Xi Yong saw herself in it. She saw it on her face as a Mechanese assassin prepared to murder Wuying and she was too broken by the metal demon to save him. For two beats, the time measured painfully by her own pumping, loud in her ears like a golden mallet, their hearts were one.
Her concentration collapsed. One of the bullets went through the shield, and Xi Yong jerked back to avoid it. “We’ll be having none of that,” the Sidhe officer said curtly. Althea saw her pull a small arrow-shaped weighted blade out of her tunic. It glowed with red, flame-like characters at her touch.
But the pistols ran dry in the dusky-skinned woman’s hands, clicking through several empty rotations before she realized they weren’t firing anymore. Xi Yong found her own hand hesitating.
“Go, woman, do as your unholy mate bids you. My fù chóu is not with you.”
But the dark woman with fierce eyes just threw the empty guns aside, and for a moment, Xi Yong admired her determination; the bitch had brought spares.
“Fuck you!” she screamed at the top of her lungs as she began unloading again.
“Tch,” Xi Yong scowled as she raised her barrier again. What was she doing? This was an enemy. And the consort to a metal demon, no less. This was not the appropriate behavior of an officer of the Jinyiwei. What would Wuying think of such hesitation? The runes on the winged dagger flared brighter.
Time stopped for Althea as she screamed. She wasn’t sure what she screamed, only that her throat burned with the force of it. She screamed so hard that it was distorted by an electronic warble as her very cyberware felt the strain. Was it a warning? Pleading? Denial? She couldn’t say. Her body refused to obey her. Every attempt at movement caused more red lights to explode onto her vision, though she could no longer understand what they said. She only knew her body was arguing with her, protesting, and she argued back with all of her will. More and more red filled her vision until there was nothing else.
MOVE, DAMN YOU, ALTHEA, YOU BROKEN HUSK!!! IF YOU NEVER MOVE AGAIN, MOVE NOW!!!
All of her being, wielding every memory of Ticualtzin like a cudgel, every emotion she held for the woman, she threw all of it against her own body in one titanic push.
Every red light suddenly ran gold in a rippling wave across her vision, and she moved.
The blade was only just leaving Xi Yong’s fingers as a yellow-gold blur slammed into her side and tackled her, ignoring the barrier’s flames that tried and failed to stop it. The elf-shot lost track and went wide, burying into the dark woman’s stomach with enough force to take her off her feet instead of the perfect between-the-eyes headshot she had intended.
The impact sent both of them rolling. Xi Yong caught herself with the grace of an Olympic gymnast. The metal demon rolled and recovered like a rabid feline. Golden light lit up her eyes and emanated from her mouth. Circuit lines traced across her body in that light, crisscrossing her injuries as if holding her together as her chest rose and fell in great, feral breaths.
Was this some Mechanese combat mode she hadn’t seen before? Well, it didn’t matter. It didn’t change the power gap between them.
Xi Yong smiled and said calmly, “Tapped into one more go, did you, demon? Fine, don’t let it be said I cleansed this world of you without you giving it your all.”
As Xi Yong stepped away, she morphed the ball of fire she was forming into a translucent shield. Althea’s fist collided with it, burning her hand. Not that the berserk demon seemed to notice.
Xi Yong laughed at her. “Fists? This isn’t a schoolyard.” But she jerked back again as Althea’s fist lit up in gold and shattered the shield, forcing her to parry it with a flame-wreathed arm.
“NOT! TIKI!” Althea screamed as she began to pummel Xi Yong, Althea's fists and feet wreathed in golden light. The Sidhe woman parried and struck back, but Althea blocked her with speed she hadn’t previously possessed. Then, kicking to force the commando to defend against it, Althea turned the momentum into a flip over Xi Yong to punch at the back of her head.
Quickly, the Sidhe officer crossed her arms and blocked with her wrists. She went to counter with a flame kick, but the demon leaped away from her. Flame spears appeared and lanced to Althea’s position, but they struck the racks’ sides and the robots within.
Althea launched herself at Xi Yong, kicking her in the arms and chest several times and driving her back.
“Enough of this,” Xi Yong spat back, and a sword of flames erupted from her hand.
In one smooth movement, she stepped forward to thrust it into the metal demon, but the other woman countered with a leaf-shaped blade made of the same golden light. Surprise lit Xi Yong’s face as they began to stab and parry one another with the blades, the duel suddenly becoming an unexpected sword fight.
“You shouldn’t be able to do that,” Xi Yong snarled as their blades locked together, energy crackling between them.
Althea said nothing coherent, twisting and dropping away, only to stab up at her. Her face was a rictus of pain and hate, fangs out as she screamed wordlessly at the Sidhe. The blade was parried, and Althea rolled to the side, kicking out to sweep the Sidhe’s legs out from under her.
The other woman hopped, and Althea spun her legs back under herself to kick off the ground. A flame blade stabbed where Althea was and cracked the concrete through the heat. Twisting in the air, Althea kicked the closest rack, causing a partially assembled robot to fall to the ground between them.
Xi Yong found herself panting at the sudden break in the engagement. Whatever the metal demon had done to overcharge herself surely couldn’t be maintained. But between her own enhancements and the pitched exchange, she was also burning through mana too fast. Her one-sided victory had turned into a grueling battle of attrition, and she wasn’t liking where it was heading.
Her gaze snapped to the demon’s lover. She hated the idea of taking a hostage, but for the mission ... for Wuying, she told herself.
Althea leaped in front of her when she started moving, holding her sword toward the Sidhe. “I’ll fucking kill you!” she shouted in Sidhe.
They leaped at each other again, swords flashing, parrying, and making sparks of light and flame as they fought.
Xi Yong feinted left and went under Althea’s guard to the right as the Mechanese tried to block her. She smiled as she felt her blade connect with her hated enemy. The next instant, pain flooded her chest as the ground suddenly fled from her feet. The palm strike sent her back into another assembly with enough force to bring it down on top of her.
She coughed as she felt the concussion stealing away the light around her, her blade flickering out even as she tried to hold onto it. At least I killed her, too, Xi Yong thought as she looked to where her sword had struck the demon. The flameblade, however, hadn’t penetrated her side. Instead, a thin barrier of golden light had blocked it from going any deeper.
“I can’t...” Xi Yong denied quietly as the metal demon stalked toward her. “I won ...” She looked past Althea, as if past the very walls of the control tower as light left her eyes. “Wuying ...”
Althea’s sensors said the woman was unconscious, and she drew the golden blade back over her shoulder to finish the job.
And didn’t move further. Some part of her, through the berserker haze, recalled that flash of synchronicity, and her arm refused to descend as if it were under the control of another.
Thea, mia novia, the orders . Ticualtzin’s message came across their ad-hoc network like a weak whisper. You’re supposed to stop if they’re incapacitated. It was like she knew Althea needed a reason to listen to her body.
Tiki, you’re alive?! Dozens of worried emojis flooded the channel before she could stop it, and Ticualtzin’s pained chuckle came across as a tired one.
Somehow, thanks to you. We may need to put a rain check on that mewing, though.
Althea rushed over to Ticualtzin, the unconscious Sidhe forgotten. Pain flooded her mind and body, but she was somehow still moving. The blade was still stuck in the woman’s gut, the smell of cooked meat reflecting the cauterizing effect of the arcane flames.
“Oh Mechanon,” she cried, cradling Ticualtzin to herself. “You brave, foolish woman.”
“Ow. Grip, golden kitty.” When Althea relaxed the pressure, Ticualtzin raised her good hand waveringly toward her cheek. “You’re the one who said I was too fierce. Up to one last princess carry? This place stinks like burning Sidhe.”
She carried her out of the burning warehouse, leaving the Sidhe where she had fallen. Outside there was a skyship on the ground among the wreckage of drones. She placed Ticualtzin against a dead Kitten drone, propping her up in a sitting position.
“I can’t feel my legs, Thea,” Ticualtzin started.
She kissed Ticualtzin’s lips, “We’ll get you fixed up once we get back to base, ba mebî.”
Nodding, Ticuatlzin said with a pained smile, “What’s one more visit to the doc?” Then she pointed back to the warehouse. “Go pick up that bitch before she gets cooked. Orders.”
Althea stroked her lover’s face and nodded. She soon returned with the Sidhe in the red uniform, zip ties holding her hands and feet together. Then, handing Ticualtzing a pistol that she had dropped, she said, “If she tries to move, shoot her.”
She looked around the plaza at the destruction and wondered aloud when the gunships from the base would arrive.
“Too late as usual,” Ticualtzin replied.
Her skin still had odd yellow patterns all over it, but the sword of light had dissipated. When I get back, she thought. I’ll ask Lord Mechanon what these yellow lights are . I should be dead. She looked at her status readings. Almost everything was red. Oh…. I guess I am dead. Why am I still moving?
Looking over at the skyship, Althea saw an occasional spell shoot into the air or at the ground drones. She thought she saw small yellow lights in the shapes of humanoids and animals through the hull. What in the world? she thought. Why can I see through the hull?
Pain hit her mind, and she staggered, stumbling around. NULL INFESTED HUMANOID DETECTED screamed inside her head. It was in a language she had never heard before but was instantly understood. She shivered and went stiff as her body forced her to look towards the front of the ship, and she saw another humanoid-shaped shimmer of weak yellow light laced with black and purple veins.
“Baby, are you ok?” Ticualtzin said in a panic.
Twisting her head stiffly and shuddering, Althea looked back at her with fear. “I.. I… I…” she began to stutter like a machine.
COMBAT MODE 5 INITIALIZED – EXTERMINATION PROTOCOLS ENACTED rolled through her. She felt her mind receding as her body was taken over. Turning away from Ticualtzin, she sprinted towards the ship at full speed.
“Althea! Where are you going?!” Ticualtzin screamed after her.
###
The Brisbane began lifting off. Wuying had inexplicably felt Xi Yong’s defeat, and he had hurried up the take-off procedures. The ship rose above the government buildings and began to head towards the coast. As they turned, another one of the bombs in the harbor went off. The entire oil terminal and attached tank farm were burning a dull orange with pillars of black smoke rising into the night sky, blotting out the stars.
“Plot a course for the nearest ocean and open a Gate. Then, we’re going home,” Wuying said with a growl.
Xifeng leaned back in his seat and looked out the window. “You’re just leaving your girlfriend back there?”
“No choice, Xi Yong knew the….” Wuying stopped, stalked over to his brother, and grabbed him by the collar, dragging him face to face. “HE is not my girlfriend! I do not like what you’re implying.”
Xifeng smiled weakly and held his hands up, “Right, brother. I am sorry. I am under a lot of stress keeping all the animals calm. I think their personalities are affecting mine.”
Wuying threw him back to the chair, snarling, “Keep a civil tongue, or you’ll spend the rest of the voyage tied to your bunk!”
Making calming gestures, Xifeng nodded, “Sure, sure.”
“Commander!” a voice yelled. “Lookout says we’re being followed by a League gunship.”
“How far back?” Wuying inquired.
He yelled the command back and got the range, “About three hundred meters.”
“Shoot it out of the sky,” he said viciously.
Within seconds a lance of flame fired at the wedge-shaped League gunship. It made evasive maneuvers and fired back, only for its guns to rake buildings and the sky. So they fired again, this time with lightning, and it began to trail smoke and fall towards the ground. Moments later, it hit a group of oil derricks and exploded. This was punctuated by one of the last bombs going off in the port, this one on the main pipeline. If luck was with them, it would burn down most of the operation, and the League would spend years recovering from this attack.
“How close are we to a navigation point?” he asked the small woman in glasses who was the backup Navigator now that Xi Yong was dead. He sat back in the captain’s chair and tried to relax.
“No more than five minutes,” she replied, sweat pouring off her face and making her glasses steam up. “Commander,” she added hastily.
He nodded and looked out the window at the night sky. At least Xi Yong took that bitch with him. Now, we won’t have to deal with her again.
“Commander!” the same man exclaimed.
“Another ship?” Wuying said calmly. Waving his hand, he said, “Shoot it down.”
The man swallowed and said slowly, “No, there is a Jimo in the ship’s hold….”
Wuying leaped up and grabbed his sword. “I will take care of this myself.
The hold was about twenty meters long and about half that wide. Most of it was taken up by cages full of animals, with many of them sleeping, held that way by Xifen’s spells. Wuying slid down the ladder that connected the crew’s quarters with the hold and looked upon a face he had seen before.
The female Jimo was worse for wear, blood streaking her skin and a pale golden light in odd patterns all over her body. Her uniform had been burnt and shredded, and there were wounds all over her. He smirked, “Well, you came to me to die in person?”
The woman’s head turned towards his like a puppet’s, and she ran towards him at full speed. Then, hands outstretched with golden claws of light, she went towards his throat. He blocked her with his sword, a black aura covering his body and weapon.
The woman stopped and tilted her head, unseeing as her eyes focused on his weapon. A weird sound that might have been language came from her throat. It immediately infuriated him, and he kicked her off him with more force than he knew his spells were capable of. “You dare to take that tone with ME,” he heard himself saying as he launched himself at her.
They met in the middle of the hold and traded blows, gold and black flying in sparks. Claw and sword evenly matched despite the woman’s wounds. A cacophony of sounds erupted from the animals as they fought. Missing her, Wuying sliced through the bars of one of the cages, killing the sleeping bear within it. She flipped up, landed on his shoulders, and tried to break his neck. Pitching backward, Wuying slammed her into another cage and stabbed over his head, making her let go and land on her hands. She flipped and got back on her feet for another rush at him when a blue light enveloped her, and she was gone with a soft *pop.*
Infuriated at the disappearance of his prey Wuying looked about the hold. “Graaaarh, where is SHE?”
Xifeng stood there, his face pale and a hand outstretched, blue light fading on his fingertips. “Oh thank the gods,” Xifeng said softly. “You’re alive.”
Wuying stalked over to him, snarling with black wisps coming off of him. “What did you do!” he screamed.
Wincing, Xifeng said, “We’re a couple of hundred feet up.”
“AND??!?!?!”
“I teleported her under the hull,” he answered, clearly scared.
Wuying blinked and snarled for a few moments at his brother as reason reasserted itself. Then, he threw Xifeng to the ground and sheathed his sword. The black energy around him faded and went away. “Good,” Wuying simply stated as he felt the transition through the gate. “At least our Navigator knows her job. Tend to the animals. I killed one by mistake.”
###
Althea fell through the air, looking up at the storm that swallowed the skyship as green lightning forked across the night. INFESTED HUMANOID HAS LEFT THIS REALITY – RETURNING CONTROL. COMBAT MODE DEACTIVATED.
Pain flooded her all over as the pain limiters shut off. Tears streaming out of her eyes, she screamed before she hit the ocean.
Darkness engulfed her.