The clouds had been moving in all afternoon, and as full darkness set in, thunder rolled. Lightning danced between the peaks. "I don't like this," Eva said. "Something's not right."

Tamara looked up from her soup bowl. "What do you mean?” The victory earlier had her in a good mood. Their Hungarian sentries had pulled supplies out of their packs and managed a pretty decent supper. They used entirely too much spicy paprika in their soup, but it was hot and had bits of vegetables in it and Tamara was starving.

Eva shook her head. "It's just a feeling. There's a bad air out tonight. The mountains are telling me enemies are near."

Tamara frowned at her. Most of the time, the younger girl was easy-going and friendly and spoke in a down-to-earth fashion, but every now and then, she got all weird and mystical. Despite how much of the magic and supernatural Tamara had seen, and her own beliefs in the spirits of the steppes, she still wasn't comfortable talking about mumbo-jumbo. "We have sentries out. They'll warn us if anything's coming."

Eva shook her head again. "I don't know if that'll be enough.”

“Is this about Angelica's message earlier? You know we didn't catch the whole thing.”

“I don't think she was really talking about an airship up here in the peaks. Airships don't get this high."

“Captain Lewis told me, if you're willing to give up the weight, you can make them go as high as you want.”

Tamara frowned. Eva was only sort of wrong. "Yeah, but I don't think they would." Was she trying to reassure Eva or to convince herself?

Lightning crashed startlingly close, and Eva jumped. "It's only..." Tamara started to reassure her, but then her brain caught up with her eyes. In the flash of lightning, she had seen a golem standing at the edge of the woods across the clearing. It hadn’t been their sergeant. It had a strange look about it and wore drab gray clothing, not a Polish uniform.

Tamara leaped to her feet. She snatched up a burning branch from the fire and held it up. The light was feeble, throwing shadows across the clearing. She saw nothing like a golem. She threw the branch back into the fire with a shower of sparks and scrambled for her pack. Digging a flashlight out of a side pocket, she clicked it on, and shone it at the edge of the woods. Nothing. She played the beam all around the clearing, heart hammering in her chest.

"Turn that thing out!" one of the sentries called from above.

Reluctantly, Tamara clicked the beam off.

"What is it? Did you see something?" Eva asked in the sudden darkness. The glow of the fire was almost invisible now, and the coals hissed as rain fell into it.

"It's nothing. My mind playing tricks on me," Tamara said, but she wasn't sure she believed it. Her greatcoat had fallen open in the sudden excitement, and she buttoned it up securely now. Big drops of rain bounced off her poncho with dull pops. She left the middle button of her coat undone and slipped a hand through to reassuringly grasp the handle of her saber.

Both the girls looked up at a sharp crack. "That wasn't lightning."

Someone had fired a rifle. Two more shots rang out. They were answered by the heavy throb of a machine gun. Neither of their sentries had been armed with machine guns.

Tamara leapt up. Snatching up her pack, she dashed for her mech. Even in an emergency, she took the time to lash her pack on its back securely. Rather than jump in the dark, Tamara climbed up using the handholds.

The shoulder armor plate was damp with rain, but the grip surface remained. It did its job and gave her boots good purchase. When she had her stance the way she wanted it, she lashed her feet to the robot with strands of istota. One hand holding the handle on the side of the machine's head, she urged it into motion. As Eva followed close behind, they slipped into the trees.

Tamara was an experienced woodsman, but this took all her concentration. She stared hard into the darkness. Every time the lightning flashed, it burned the landscape ahead of her into her memory. She used the images to guide her mech forward in the blackness that followed. Twice she stumbled into tall saplings, showering her and her machine with water and a cacophony of breaking branches. She swore under her breath but pushed on. They made their way along the slope, away from where the Russian attack had come.

She needed to known what they were dealing with. Stumbling around in the dark, running away from phantoms would not do. They circled around, swinging upslope to get above and beside where the fighting had taken place.

The lightning flashed again and suddenly there was a mech in front of them. The hulking Russian mech carried a cannon across its body. Tamara threw her machine into motion, diving to one side and swinging its cannon up. The long-barreled cannon roared, its muzzle flash lighting up the clearing.

In the instant of light, Tamara could see she had missed. She edged her mech sideways, dodged, and then threw it flat to the ground, diving off its shoulder in the same moment. The Russian’s own gun roared. Tamara replied instantly, even as she landed and slipped on wet pine needles. She fell to the ground. The Russian shell whooshed over her head, and her own struck home in the center of her enemy's torso.

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At that moment, Eva opened fire with three rapid blasts. The muzzle flash lit up their falling enemy like frames of a movie frozen in time. Tamara saw the mech stricken and starting to fall as each shot hit home. It landed with a crash, trailing a cloud of blue smoke from its chest. Its desh engine had been breached. In the faint light, they could see a human-sized figure staggering away into the darkness. The rider, stunned by the loss of its bond, would not be much of a threat.

Tamara picked herself up and brushed herself off. She stepped over to her mech and grabbed the handles before commanding it to stand. With a deft shifting of her weight, she rode its movement, first standing on the back of its shoulder blades, and then shifting herself forward to end up on top of its shoulder.

"Let's go!" she called to Eva. She turned to look where her friend was. The lightning flashed again. In the clearing in front of her, there were golems. Dozens of them.

Terror and panic shot through her. The Russian mech had been an expected enemy. What the hell was this?

Desperately, she flipped open the panel on the side of her mech’s head and slammed it on the switch for the shoulder-mounted floodlights. They blazed on, filling the clearing. Eva screamed. The golems were really there, only now they were charging directly for her. Panic gripped her. Tamara tore at her coat, frantically trying to draw her saber.

The first of the strange golems reached her, leaping into the air and stretching out with grasping arms. They were the same size as the Sergeant, but mass-produced though they were, the golems' faces were subtly different. Their own Sergeant, Sam, had an expressive face that expressed human emotions, even when he was glaring at junior enlisted. These ones had a disturbingly blank gaze, even as they charged aggressively at her.

Her saber came out of its sheath. It tore her coat as it slashed out. Three yards from her mech, the golems leaped. They soared inhumanly high, but even still, her machine was five meters tall. Three of them hit her mech in the chest and arms at the same time. It staggered backwards. In her panic, Tamara flooded her link to the mech with panic and shock. It flailed its arms, knocking one golem flying and then another.

The last golem had found purchase with its grasping hands on the armor plates of her chest, somehow gripping seams and pulling itself up higher. Its hands reached for her ankles. Tamara lashed out with her sword. The monster registered no shock or pain as she severed both of its forearms, only the faintest look of surprise as it toppled away.

More golems were coming. Tamara leapt her mech to the side trying to avoid them. The sloped mountain clearing was soaked with rain and her robot's feet slipped in the mud. As she fought through her link to regain its balance, something clanged into the back of it, throwing them even more off-kilter. Grasping hands closed about her right calf like a steel vice. Desperately she turned, slashing backwards. The grip weakened and then gave way as she slashed again.

The forward floodlights did not light up behind her mech. All was darkness and shadow. Tamara spun desperately, trying to get a better look at her attackers. The floodlights flashed around and she could see golems in almost every direction.

Where was Eva?

Boom! The cannon shot was close. She thought it came from downslope. The golems were closing in all around and she couldn't even see the ones behind her. Tamara lunged her mech forward, aiming for the nearest.

What were these? Why were they hostile? Where did they come from? There weren’t enough rounds in the magazine of her autocannon to shoot them all, even if she made all her shots. Instead, she ordered the mech to swing the weapon like a staff, knocking the ones in front of her aside. She swung her sword at another. She missed, but the golem clanged into the chest armor and fell away without grabbing on.

Her mech staggered as another grasped onto its arm, pulling them to the side. Now she was getting mad and her panic was starting to fade. Tamara held tight to the handholds and plunged herself deeper into the bond with her mech. Together, they were one. They spun to her left, swinging the arm and the golem with it. They pirouetted completely around and swatted away several more, using the golem at her wrist as a weapon. Somehow it still hung on through the impacts.

She danced ahead, feeling others grabbing her legs, then falling away. She brought her mech’s forearms together and flesh crunched between them.

Tamara danced ahead again, spinning like a Cossack dancer. Grasping hands and flailing bodies were again knocked away.

They weren't using weapons. That thought came as a surprise. They all had holsters belted on, but they weren't using weapons. Were they trying to take her alive? Where did they come from and why would they be doing that?

Her mech had rear floodlights as well and Tamara took an instant to flip those on. The forward floodlights dimmed as the rear ones came on. There was only so much electricity her machine could provide. The light still danced crazily as she spun but now she could see in all directions.

Golems lay scattered around the clearing. Some of them were pulling themselves together and standing. Others had obvious injuries, favoring a leg or an arm. The most terrifying was the one that staggered towards her with both arms severed at the elbow. It weaved drunkenly and sprayed blood on its compatriots.

She felt panicky fear clutch at her heart but pushed it away. She wanted to run down slope and find Eva, but these things were fast. She didn't want the mass of them chasing her in the dark and wet, as she navigated uncertain footing. Better to face them here as quickly as possible.

She rushed forward, stabbing with the barrel of her autocannon as if it were a spear. It caught the first golem in front of her in the chest, and sunk deep with a crunch. Tamara swung the gun sideways, carrying the golem with it into its compatriot. Both bodies went flying into the dark.

The move threw her off stride and she staggered, then staggered again as more golems slammed into her from both sides. She swept down with her free left arm, spinning. At the same time, she swung the sword still grasped in her right hand down towards the back of the mech. Her blind swing caught something and passed through it as she kept the mech swinging the heavy barrel of the weapon. It struck hard and then caught. Two and then three Golems grabbed onto the weapon itself, another onto her right forearm.

The last dregs of her fear were gone. All she felt was rage. Tamara's machine dropped the gun and fell into a crouched fighting stance. It lashed out furiously with both hands, punched a Golem away with one and grasped another's arm with the other. Using the golem as a club, it flailed in all directions.

It was time for her sword to dance. For that, she needed to stand on her own feet. Tamara launched herself from her mech’s shoulder and landed a dozen yards away, falling into a knot of Golems.

Her sword flashed in all directions. Blood fell like the rain.