“Stand in position, hands bare, up and to the front. Now!”

Behind the Toxotai mechs came the disheartening sight of five Vangers, a design specifically made for capture rather than destruction. They were smaller than the Toxotai, but still towered over us at about fifteen feet of metallic height with feet that could crush us as easily as we could a bug. Their bodies were covered in reflective, gun-metal gray and they had shields hanging off their left arms, shock rods for weapons, catcher bolts to trap people or even other mech, depending on the nets they used, and several other tools that allowed them to go toe to toe with more destructive opponents.

They were a familiar sight to any serf who’d tried to escape for a year and a day, the legal amount of time it took to win freedom from the land they’d been tied to.

I shook my head and gritted my teeth – it was as if the gods above us opposed what we were trying to do. Every single time I thought I saw a way out, something or someone would crash down and take it away from me.

I felt a hand land on my shoulder, and a tingle of reassurance rolled through me. Elli was here so it wasn’t a total loss. We could maybe bluff our way out, get back to town, and find a different way forward with all of this. If I didn’t end up in jail and her citizenship was revoked.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Elli would have saved my ass, and I was more than thankful to her. But she knew that very well.

The mechs seemed to stare down at us while the pilots almost certainly debated our fate over short-wire old tech. After a few moments, a single Toxotai hatch cracked open, and an armored knight auxiliary pulled himself out of his cockpit, dropping a rope ladder and climbing it to ground level. We had our hands raised all the while and were looking on nervously.

One of the Vanger constables broke the nervous silence, his voice crackling through a loudspeaker.

“Place your packs and any weapons you have on the ground, then take several steps behind and sit!” he commanded, authority and menace lacing his words. He was either in charge or a battle-happy fool who was just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on us.

We complied, of course, albeit with stuttered and reluctant movements. A shared look with Elli suggested that we were both wondering the same thing – were these knight auxiliaries about to gank us and take our things? Despite our recent experiences. there were tales and stories. Within the confines of the walls, many of the knights and auxiliaries were arrogant and prideful heroes, and they mostly followed the law, but beyond it and outside in the wilderness, the things people whispered were horrifying.

“What are we going to do?” I whispered anxiously, even as our packs thudded softly against the ground. We stepped back as instructed, cracked soil mashing beneath our feet. The ground was cold and lightly wet with dew, so I didn’t want to sit and let it soak into my clothes.

The auxiliary who’d left his cockpit was at our level now, and as he approached, he removed an orange-striped helmet from his head. Underneath was the scarred visage of a military veteran who’d seen more than a few rough battles in his time. His steps were heavy as he approached, suggesting a resigned tiredness that almost certainly wasn’t going to help our case one iota. I could already imagine what was going through his mind.

Why me? Why tonight? Couldn’t someone else have caught a bunch of wannabe scavengers?

He stopped before Elli, eyeing her curiously. Words began to spill out of her mouth as her hands flew into explaining gestures. Her quick attempt at friendly diplomacy was short-lived, however, as the auxiliary snarled and slugged her in the face, then swept her legs out from under her in a display of superhuman strength and agility.

“You approach me again, and I’ll tear your jaw out from that pretty face of yours,” he snapped.

Elli sobbed and I made to stand, but her hand shot out so fast that I couldn’t move. She squeezed and shot me a look that said, ‘please don’t’.

I growled softly, staring into the auxiliary’s shadowed face and memorizing his sky-blue eyes and balding, brushed up hair that peaked almost like a pyramid in an attempt to cover his bald spot. He was big and augmented, but I was rather sure I could take him.

Still, I wouldn’t do anything to endanger Elli or myself. There were too many other soldiers here with him. However, he was now a marked man, and one day, I would make him pay.

Assuming we lived through the night.

Elli got herself back to her feet, tears rolling down her cheeks and mixing with the sudden stream of nose blood that had cascaded down her chin.

I opened my mouth to speak, but she squeezed my hand again, and I turned to watch the hateful auxiliary in sullen silence.

“What,” he asked, drawing the word out like jellied mon-taff, “could a couple of peasants be doing in a place like this in the middle of the Witch Hour? Are you wizards? Were you slipping off to make a séance with the darklings?”

His eyes twinkled as he talked, pacing now from left to right, clearly enjoying the look in my eyes and Elli’s misery.

“Now, I don’t take to the legends of the monster-human cominglings. I don’t think there even is such a thing as witches, but, there is one thing I do believe in. And that’s tech poachers. Oh, and rebels.” He stopped and stared at Elli’s bloodied face. “You look like a tech poacher to me if I’ve ever seen one.” He turned and locked eyes with my own. “Woah, boy. And you, all that hate and violence there, you look like a likely rebel. Thinking of killing the Duke, rebel boy?” he asked.

A very likely scenario suddenly forced its way into my mind. These kinds of assholes had the power to kill first and ask questions later, and if they said I was a rebel or a scavenger, no one would doubt he acted in the best interest of our glorious city.

I could see by the crinkling of his face that he took this as fear. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I could feel a seething rage burning my skin, screaming at my muscles to move and give this guy the thrashing that he deserved.

My brain protested and held me back, however, as did Elli’s firm grip. It was close, though. Even with his super-enhancements, I figured I could do enough damage to make him regret what he’d done to Elli. At least for a good night.

The auxiliary stared at me, looking all the world as if he could read my mind.

“You wanna hit me, don’t you, boy?” he said, his smile frozen and teeth bared. “Do it. Punch me in my nose like I did your girlfriend. Show me what big dick peasant boys are like. Go on. No one will interfere. Just do it. Show her you’re every bit the man she hopes you pretend to be.”

“Please, sir, I am a free woman merchant, with old-tech to sell within the city walls. I was trying to reach the gates by dawn for an early and productive stall opening,” she lied.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

As she spoke, her voice grew steadier, the liquid in her gaze drying.

“Bullshit,” the auxiliary responded. “You got some travel papers? Some way to prove your story? I don’t think so, right? Now let me tell you something; here’s what I’m thinking. See, I figure you were digging in that hole behind you, picking out old tech parts that you were going to sell at the black market. I don’t know how you knew where to find them, but I think you knew and you came and you tried to steal from your betters, rather than file the paperwork and give us our tithe. Which is another matter entirely. If someone tipped you off, now that’s going to get a whole lot of people hurt, little girl.”

“No, sir. We were going to rest in this dip, and when my servant Almic lay to rest, his back pressed against something sharp and mechanical. We dug through to see what it was, and there was an old tech item in the ground and a piece of steel. We were going to report it.”

“Is that true, boy?” the auxiliary asked, standing over me and pushing his face close to mine.

“Yes, sir,” I answered, my body just rearing to headbutt him and tear out his eyes.

He nodded and grunted, obviously unimpressed.

“I don’t think so. Stay as you are,” he snapped, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.

The auxiliary began to rummage through our bags, his movements rough and devoid of care. My rucksack was the first to suffer his scrutiny. With a swift kick, he sent it tumbling open, its contents spilling out onto the ground and, to my horror, the cube bounced once, but just enough for the cloth to fall away and reveal its unique design.

“What in the—” the auxiliary started, his sentence never finishing as the cube activated, blasting beams of bright light in every direction.

The auxiliary swore, his surprise evident. But before any of us could react, the night itself seemed to lash out. A boulder, massive and unforgiving, flew out of the darkness, striking the back of the auxiliary’s unpiloted mech with the force of a vengeful god. The impact sent the mech staggering forward, balance lost and its imposing form now careening towards us.

Time slowed as the mech fell, its shadow engulfing us. In that instant I took the opportunity to donkey-kick the knight auxiliary in the back of both knees, taking satisfaction in the sudden bellow of pain as he fell.

Elli squeezed my hand tightly and pulled me to the side with a strength I never knew she had. We rolled away, just as the mech crashed into the ground where we had been standing moments before. The auxiliary screamed as his right leg was obliterated into jellied flesh and bone where the mech had struck it. The other two Toxotais spread out, evidently moving to fight with a new, unseen enemy, while the Vangers moved forward to act as the ranged mechs’ infantry front line. Dust and debris filled the air, and Elli took in a wrong breath, doubling over and coughing hard.

“Get that shit out your throat and let’s go,” I said, sweeping as much as I could back into our packs and recovering the cube. Without any input from her, I slid her pack on her back as she stopped coughing, and we started back off towards home.

“Save me, you little bastards,” the auxiliary called from the ground, his voice laced with pain and fear.

I spit on his face and turned away from him, pulling Elli after me and up to the nearest hill. We needed to hide and get an understanding of what was going on.

Elli and I pumped our feet as we hurried up the tallest rise in our vicinity, gaze falling back upon the mechs. Their searchlights illuminated the forest around them as they spun around, dodging attacks, and deflecting blows.

The battle was lit up by the moons above us, showing me five Vangers fighting a number of those mystery mechs we’d seen before, the one with the tubes and red visors. They were battle bots that looked for all the world like stilt-walkers. They moved with an eerie zombie-like stagger, their long legs carrying them disjointedly across the uneven and sparsely forested ground.

Despite their slightly smaller size compared to the Vangers, the sheer number of them threatened to overwhelm the constables, and the ominous glow of their visors made them look like otherworldly demons coming to claim our souls. Their arms, though stubby, were far from harmless, each having an integrated ballistae system that launched bolts. The projectiles were powerful enough that they could easily tear through most armor and harm the mech frames within. The glowing tubes that adorned their mechs made them seem almost as if they were awash in flame.

The Vangers were impressive to watch in this predicament. Rather than fleeing, they closed ranks and put their shields up, launching both a net at the approaching enemy and pinning them to the ground. There were too many for them to disable without a fight, but every movement was precise and calculated, even as they covered their fallen comrade.

It was easy to see, though, that the Toxotais were the true queens of this battlefield. First firing, then entering directly into melee range as more and more of the enemy reinforcements poured in, they punched and kicked in-between point-blank volleys, each step and strike blasting and cracking the enemy mechs. As we watched, dumbstruck, one stiltwalker lost an arm and another was hobbled at its knees. They dodged, kicked, and blasted, with yet another stiltwalker dropping during the fight as a Vanger swung in behind it, its electric rod frying the systems before smashing its armor.

More of the attacking mechs pushed out of the forest, and their combined attacks brought two of the Vangers to their knees, their weaker armor crumbling under the onslaught. The other Vangers broke, fleeing from a battle that they hadn’t been trained for. But the stiltwalkers gave chase, cutting them off from the direction of the city and chasing them farther into the Wilds.

Despite now being desperately outnumbered, the Toxotais continued to fight, their superior combat skills well evident. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe at how calm they’d been throughout this engagement.

The remaining mechs’ intent was clear: to delay and cull the enemy as they made their way back to the city. Their only chance was to call in reinforcements, and ours was to run even if we had to dump our backpacks.

“We need to warn the city. What if this is an invasion or something? Whoever these guys are, they’re definitely not out here looking to have a picnic!” I hissed under my breath.

Elli nodded.

“Fuck these auxiliaries, constables, knights, all of them, but the last thing we need is people pillaging the city. Come on. We need to secure CD.”

“Oh? Worried about that little shit?”

Elli shrugged and pushed to her feet, turning toward the city.

“No, I’m worried about our future.”

The plains behind us echoed with the clash of metal and electrical discharges, the hiss of ballistae releasing their deadly payload, and a crash as another boulder struck home next to the damaged Vanger, showering him in chunks of stone, soil, and debris.

I stopped just before I passed the peak of the hill and looked down one last time to see the damaged mech still fighting. Emerging from the shadow of the woods, though, was a four-legged mech, its design more akin to a siege engine than a standard fighter mech. Upon its back sat a catapult-like extension, connected to a long tube that sucked up dirt from the ground, rattling back and forth as it was seemingly condensing the rough soil into a siege ball.

Elli and I shared a look, one that showed just how we felt. Fear.

“That thing could probably take the walls down with ease,” she muttered. “Imagine a line of Cataphracts shielding a second line of those things. They would turn our wall into dust.”

“And quickly at that, too. Shit, we need to hurry. If those Toxotais don’t make it back, we’ll have to risk it and alert the guard ourselves.”

My mind raced through a slew of ideas as we started running downhill, rucksacks jigging on our backs. This was a situation I really didn’t want to find myself in. Sure, I had some loyalty to the city, but it didn’t outweigh my own life. Other ideas sprang to mind, though, as my legs burned and the steel plating we dug out cut into my back and side as it moved.

“The sirens,” I whispered to myself, nodding as a grin spread across my face. We could always activate one of the monster sirens and just hope that they would take the warning seriously.

“-damn dirtyass loincloth wearing tribals! I demand you answer me!” CD's voice cut in all at once. We shared a surprised look.

“CD, what happened? Where were you?” Elli panted.

“Yeah, CD, a hell of a time to leave us to ourselves.”

“I didn't -- I mean, you cave apes did something. Our comms shouldn't have broken like that. What did you do?”

“Got ourselves caught by mechs,” I replied. “Who in turn got themselves caught by other mechs still. It was a mess.”

“A mess?” CD asked.

“A battle. And not a good one. There's an army out there, and they're heading for the city.”

CD was quiet for a few extra moments. “I find the mixed barbarity of this time confusing and displeasing. I believe we were jammed. It would explain the failure of my attempts to scan before. But it is so unexpected. That's technology of my time.”

“Old tech lasts long, CD,” Elli panted. “You've seen it. It's all over, varied, and often very powerful.”

On that note, our conversation ended. There was a lot to think about.

The walls of the city came into view a while later as the sky began to turn gray with scattered rays of predawn. And there, alongside us but some two hundred yards off to the side, was a single damaged Toxotai, racing home on cracked legs. My gut formed into a knot as I had no idea what to even feel. Elation, or fear that we might get reported, even if we made it back.