Now, Threnosh World
“Honor, you must exit my field,” Frequency repeated for the third time.
To their consternation, Honor shook his head and implored them to proceed.
Did he not know that he would share Mother Madrigal’s death?
Despite the two beings enhanced durability the evidence of damage was already visible.
Both Honor and Mother Madrigal developed oozing, bloody wounds all over their bodies as Frequency’s sound slowly disintegrated their biological matter.
Frequency didn’t want this. Not after all their efforts to locate Honor. They didn’t want to be responsible for his death.
But what could they do?
They were safe inside Honor’s makeshift defensive fortification.
The battle inside the transport tunnel had shifted in their favor. The corrupted numbers had dwindled to a handful still fighting the remaining combat drones at the far end of the tunnel, near the exit.
The drones closer to Frequency’s side had all been destroyed, but they had allowed the Threnosh to kill most of the corrupted.
Not without cost.
A corrupted had managed to reach through the firing slot and tear off an arm from one of the E.W.S. Soldiers. They had bled out in seconds. There was nothing Frequency and the remaining soldier could’ve done to save their comrade.
Frequency racked their brain, while the remaining soldier continued to fire at the corrupted.
The monsters tried to come to the Mother’s aid, but the moment they reached into Frequency’s field their bodies disintegrated in seconds.
The sound.
It was all tied to the sound.
Frequency’s. The Mother’s.
The Threnosh focused on the latter through their power armor’s specialized systems.
They hadn’t noticed during the frantic battle, but now they realized that they could track it.
Hope. Faint, but present, bloomed in Frequency.
They traced the source of Mother Madrigal’s sound to within a centimeter.
It was located right inside the invasive organism’s hooded head. In the black void that defied Frequency’s visual sensors.
They had planned to engulf the Mother’s entire body in the field to be sure of her destruction.
Perhaps that wasn’t necessary.
But the risk?
Frequency made up their mind.
Honor was wrong on this account.
They just needed to destroy the source of the Mother’s sound. Frequency was certain that would be enough.
“Soldier, what is your designation?”
“E.W.S. Soldier Radiant Canyon 7.”
“I need you to hold back the corrupted at the end of the tunnel. They must not reach either Honor or myself.”
“Acknowledged.” E.W.S. Soldier Radiant Canyon 7 unhooked the dead soldier’s sonic weapon and attached power pack, replacing their own empty one. They then opened the door and stepped out.
A corrupted sprang, but the soldier burned a whole through its forehead with a precise laser shot.
E.W.S. Soldier Radiant Canyon 7 ran past Honor and Mother Madrigal locked in their death struggle. The two were slowly being consumed by Frequency’s sound field. The soldier wielded a sonic weapon in one hand and a laser weapon in the other. They took up position a dozen meters and awaited the corrupted. With luck the combat drones would take care of the majority.
Frequency directed her two most powerful emitters with cybernetic thoughts.
They didn’t need to enclose the entirety of Mother Madrigal. Just her head.
“What? No… what’re you doing, Frequency?” Honor shouted, his voice clear despite the blood dribbling out of his mouth.
“Completing the Task,” Frequency said as they increased the intensity.
Honor screamed.
His hands were still within the field.
Mother Madrigal screeched out a sound that had red alerts flashing in Frequency’s helmet.
Blood poured out of Honor’s ears, but he held on and kept Mother Madrigal in place.
Frequency hoped their emitters could keep it up long enough. Their readings weren’t good. They were her newest and most powerful emitters, recently purchased from the spire marketplace and modified by their own hands.
They were untested with this particular sound. The only one powerful enough to possibly end an invasive organism of Mother Madrigal’s caliber.
The emitters vibrated as they hovered on either side of the Mother’s head.
Smoke began to waft out of them, to Frequency’s dismay.
It wasn’t going to be enough.
Frequency routed the sound through the rest of the emitters on their power armor. They aimed them at the Mother’s head to join with the two already there.
They were willing to blow out everything they had to end the Mother.
That was Honor’s plan.
It couldn’t be allowed to fail.
Frequency silenced the blaring alerts in their helmet.
It was all or nothing, like Honor had once said.
----------------------------------------
The pain had given way to shock.
Cal didn’t truly feel the weeping wounds all over his body from the sound field that had started the process of turning his body into goo.
He didn’t feel the pressure around his head as the Mother tried to crush it like a grape in her super strong hands.
Fair is foul and foul is fair or something like that.
He vaguely remembered someone saying that. It was getting harder to focus on anything beyond keeping his hands tight around the Mother’s neck and his knee and weight on her chest to keep her from getting up and away.
Why did Frequency move her emitters to focus on the Mother’s head?
Cal opened his mouth to ask, but he got the impression that nothing coherent had come out, judging by the way Frequency ignored him and kept their focus on the Mother.
He tried again and again.
Nothing.
He tried to shake his head free, but the Mother’s grip was too strong.
Fair.
His was just as implacable.
The Mother’s flesh hood slowly disintegrated in the field. Bloody wounds started to appear, then disappeared into nothing, less than ash.
She vainly fought against Cal’s hold. Thrashing her head from side to side in a frenzy.
He held on with all his might.
Somehow the black void kept her face hidden.
Cal made the mistake of looking at his hands.
They weren’t spared the sound field’s effect.
His brown skin disintegrated, blood flowed, but vanished just as quickly. Muscle and tendons slowly disappeared, as if peeled away, layer by layer. The white of bone slowly became visible.
There was no pain, mercifully, Cal was beyond that.
He screwed his eyes shut and grit his teeth. He would hold on for as long as it was physically possible.
Release me! Please!
No. Never. I know what you intend.
I have lived millennia. Think of the knowledge I can bestow.
Not worth what you’d do to everyone I care about.
I guarantee their safety! Name them and I will keep them safe! I can teach you so much about the spires, about many worlds. If I die, then all is lost.
You forget, I’m in your head too. You can’t lie to me.
A curse! A curse on you and your line!
Cal opened his eyes and ignored the rest.
He found himself standing inside the same bland, off-white room. Empty and featureless.
Not exactly what he expected to see in his last moments.
Where was his childhood bedroom or favorite brewery?
Ghostly figures materialized in front of him.
Some walked, some stood. None spoke.
His parents.
Remy, Megan, Tessa and Veronica.
Eron.
Rayna.
And finally, Nila.
She smiled at Cal. Her face was clear, less ethereal than the others had been.
“Worth it,” Cal whispered as he reached out for Nila’s face with a trembling hand.
Nila disappeared along with the room and Cal was face to face with the Mother.
Her face was surprisingly… human.
Beautiful, even, if not for the ugly snarl of pain and bloody, weeping wounds as she disintegrated.
“You’ve not won,” Mother Madrigal rasped. “I’ve taken from you. Caused you to destroy your own. To betray your own.”
Cal barely heard her words with the damage to his ears.
“You’re dead,” Cal managed to get out.
“No… my legacy will remain… it is legion.”
And thus the last image of Mother Madrigal was a hate-filled snarl, before Frequency’s sound field disintegrated her head.
Cal fell back holding his skeletal hands up in his face with shock.
“It’s… bone…” he managed.
“Honor, do not move!” Frequency’s voice was filled with surprising urgency.
The Threnosh hurried over as Cal collapsed to his back.
He had given everything. He had nothing left.
“Frequency… don’t for… t… take Mo… cor… un… was… head…”
He dimly heard a laser and sonic weapons going off. Snarling monsters. A raging fire and chaos beyond.
Cal closed his eyes. His hands dropped to the metallic floor. His bones clanged heavily.
“Honor! Honor! Honor! Do not die!” Frequency wailed.
----------------------------------------
Aerial combat drones zipped down beneath the ruined bridge surface that currently housed the T-Men’s main base camp outside Orchestral Meridian.
The drones hovered out of reach and poured projectile fire into the backs of the enhanced corrupted climbing the thick, metallic pillars.
The corrupted were an easy target, but it took dozens of projectiles to bring a single one down.
Telatrine guessed that the increased size was strictly in muscle mass, which meant a greater ability to absorb damage before death. The normal corrupted were already capable of taking more damage than their physical appearance suggested.
Telatrine studied the live holographic projections. They couldn’t find any hints of the Inheritor, Hylhon, amongst the gray horde.
Hundreds of them, all with a similar appearance.
The aerial drones quickly depleted their ammunition and zoomed back up to reload.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Not enough time,” Telatrine said.
Once the corrupted completed their ascent then they’d only have to get past the automated turrets at the walled-perimeter of the base. Past that initial layer of defense were a relatively small number of tracked combat drones.
“Begin evacuation to secondary command site in City Section 115,” Telatrine commanded.
“All aerial transports are currently in operation as rapid deployment and close fire support platforms,” Communicator Dreylox 7193 said.
“Recall the transport carrying Subcommander Solemn Coast 963’s reinforcements as soon as it has dropped them off. Instruct all personnel to gather at the transport landing zone. Communicators will join them last,” Telatrine said.
The landing zone was in the center of the base, which would give the evacuation the maximum amount of time possible. The operation was light on personnel. One transport was enough to take them all in one trip. With one exception.
“I will engage the enemy,” Telatrine said. They ripped their chainsword from the charging station as they strode to the door. They kept the feed from the surveillance drones in their faceplate.
Telatrine watched the corrupted climb on underside of the bridge like skittering insects while they ran to the armory.
The Threnosh hurried. They had to get to the wall in advance of the corrupted.
The corrupted had made it up to the bridge surface and immediately came under fire from the automated turrets on top of the walls. It was the same outcome as the aerial drones’ efforts. It took so many projectiles to bring one corrupted down.
Telatrine bounded up to the wall in a single leap. They set the weapon in their right hand down and drew their chainsword from the side of their waist.
They raised the bolter in their left hand and fired.
The linked targeting system between the weapon and their helmet meant a perfectly placed shot.
The explosive projectile struck deep into an enhanced corrupted’s chest before exploding a split-second later.
The other corrupted were showered in a mix of blood, guts and shrapnel.
Not nearly enough to even slow them down.
Telatrine changed track. They fired again, but this time they had the projectile explode in close proximity right above the heads of the first rank of the charging corrupted.
Hot shards of metal and explosive force rained down on the corrupted.
They slowed and stumbled, but none died.
The rest of the gray tide continued on their mad rush to gain the walls.
Here and there one or two would finally fall after being riddled with projectiles from the automated turrets along the wall.
Telatrine emptied the rest of their magazine. Targeting a corrupted each time. Each one a kill.
If the Threnosh had more time and ammunition they could’ve cleared much of the enemy on their own.
Unfortunately, the weapon was experimental and ammunition was in short supply so far away from the T-Men’s main base. It was taking time to adapt the fabrication facilities in Orchestral Meridian to produce the new weapons and ammunition. The mobile facilities they brought with them weren’t enough to keep up with expenditures, especially with the sudden all out assault from the corrupted.
The enhanced corrupted slammed into the metallic wall with a deafening crash that actually caused Telatrine to almost fall off.
The Threnosh dropped the empty bolter weapon and picked up the other weapon they had taken from the armory.
They pressed the button to ignite the flame right before squeezing the trigger to bathe the corrupted in liquid fire.
Again, ammunition was in short supply.
Telatrine only had enough for less than ten seconds of sustained fire, so they tried to be impactful with its use. They sprayed fire on as broad a swath of corrupted as possible.
The enhanced corrupted climbed and tore at the wall despite their flesh being on fire.
The flame weapon weakly sputtered its last as Telatrine desperately squeezed the trigger.
The corrupted gained the top of the wall.
The automated turrets continued to fire even as the corrupted swarmed them and tore them apart.
Telatrine punched a snarling corrupted in the face and knocked it back off the wall to fall five meters down to the rest of its kind.
The Threnosh swung their chainsword through the thick torso of another corrupted. The motor roared with the effort, but cleaved clear through.
The enhanced corrupted were several times stronger than the standard version.
Telatrine was stronger still.
They hacked, punched and kicked as they kept the space around them clear.
The corrupted milled on top of the wall as they pressed against each other in an attempt to reach Telatrine. Many fell down into the base where tracked combat drones engaged.
The Threnosh continued to fight. They needed to provide as much time as possible for the evacuation to complete.
Eventually, greater numbers showed.
Telatrine’s chainsword got caught in a corrupted, which allowed the rest to swarm them and knock them off the wall.
The impact jarred Telatrine’s grip from their chainsword.
The corrupted tore and bit at the extra armor plates the Threnosh wore over their power armor.
“Command Override: Direct fire on my location. Ignore safety restrictions,” Telatrine said.
The combat drones advanced and opened up on the ball of corrupted all over the Threnosh.
Damage alerts flashed in their faceplate. Projectile damage joined the ones being inflicted by corrupted’s teeth and claws.
The drones created a small window for the Threnosh.
Telatrine scrambled to their feet and grabbed their chainsword.
They fought on the back foot.
Their chainsword roared in response to all the corrupted grasping for them as they retreated toward the line of combat drones several dozen meters away from the wall.
The fight was as intense as anything Telatrine had experienced, seconds felt like minutes.
The combat drones didn’t last long and Telatrine found themselves surrounded once again.
They swept their chainsword in front of them with wide swings in an attempt to keep the corrupted from swarming over them. They were caught in the open. Their base didn’t have many structures to use against their back or to funnel the corrupted.
Soon, they were encircled.
A corrupted swiped a massive clawed hand a the back of Telatrine’s leg. The blow knocked them down and the corrupted pounced.
Teeth and claws was all Telatrine could see and feel.
They struck out with their chainsword, but for every corrupted they felled, more took its place.
Telatrine’s armor was torn asunder and the damage started to reach the surface of their power armor.
An unfortunate aspect of their unique power armor was that the metallic surface, the artificial musculature was synced to their nervous system. It meant tactile sensations and responses for their power armor was just the same as their biological body. It enhanced operations. The power armor responded to their thoughts like it was their body, not merely a suit they wore.
This meant that pain surrounded Telatrine. Without the mundane armor to protect them, they felt each slash, each bite.
Their helmet blared warnings and their faceplate flashed red.
“Aerial transport has arrived, proceeding to evacuation,” Communicator Dreylox 7193 said over the comms.
Telatrine caught the overhead views of the base from one of the aerial surveillance drones.
Aside from the corrupted savaging them, the rest were spreading out throughout the base.
The grotesquely muscled corrupted were destroying the combat drones as they rampaged toward the landing zone and the Threnosh quickly boarding the just landed transport.
“Move faster,” Telatrine said into the comms. through the pain.
They had tried, but it appeared that they had failed in their task.
Telatrine felt regret. They had found the fight they had wanted, but was on the verge of defeat. They had failed to see their personnel to safety and endangered the rest of the operation.
They continued to punch, kick and slash, but there were just too many of the enhanced corrupted.
The Inheritor responsible for their creation had never made an appearance.
Telatrine’s chainsword suddenly died. The comforting rumble in their hand fell silent and still. The fight had been too intense. Too much corrupted flesh had been hewn and chewed through. The weapon had run out of power.
Telatrine bludgeoned the inert chainsword into a corrupted’s face.
Weaponless, Telatrine could’ve handled one, two, maybe three of the enhanced corrupted. Not the dozens all around them.
They were truly doomed now.
Until, they weren’t.
Without warning the corrupted suddenly roared out in pain as they clutched at their heads and fell to their knees.
The corrupted stopped and stood just as quickly.
Telatrine gripped their inert chainsword tightly.
This was it.
The corrupted snarled and attacked.
Telatrine braced themselves. They would fight till the end for Honor and what he had shown them was possible. For he had shown them that they were strong. That they were not Defective.
The corrupted attacked—
Telatrine blinked.
—each other.
The grossly muscled corrupted bit and tore at each other.
It seemed that they were attacking the closest things in reach.
Telatrine suddenly found themselves in the middle of a maelstrom of bloody rage.
“This is Telatrine to anyone listening,” they said into the comms, “are any of you witnessing what I am witnessing?”
Something had changed.
----------------------------------------
“Acknowledged,” Subcommander Tioga Blue 635 said into the comms to respond to Telatrine. “Corrupted appear to be attacking each other. Require further confirmation from other locations.”
One by one the word poured into the subcommander’s ear holes.
It was happening everywhere.
Surveillance drones displayed the corrupted fighting amongst themselves with startlingly ferocity.
In City Section 93 a much diminished squad of soldiers watched from a hovering transport as the corrupted that had just forced them to flee from the fabrication facility turned on each other. Thousands of gray-skinned figures down below in the streets and visible through the gaping holes in facility’s wall tore into each other. The Threnosh they had been desperate to tear apart had been apparently forgotten.”
“This is Unseen. I can confirm that the corrupted are fighting each other. I am currently hiding within a structure. Be warned the corrupted will attack anyone in reach.”
“Acknowledged,” Subcommander Tioga Blue 635 said.
In another projection Maul stood on the roof of a structure just outside the security station that the subcommander was in. Their large and bulky power armor was backed up to the edge of the roof. The corrupted dead were piled up in front of Maul as they continued to fire with all their remaining weaponry.
The corrupted turning on each other was timely for Maul as they had run out of space to retreat.
Maul took the opportunity to mow down the corrupted as they fought each other.
“This is Adahn. The corrupted are fighting each other, but some continue to attack our position, ammunition is running low.”
Adahn, Winding Myriad, Rodinian, Drega Tali and the remaining soldiers, along with reinforcements from Subcommander Solemn Coast 963 and their E.W.S. soldiers were in scattered defensive positions inside the security station. The overwhelming numbers of corrupted had suddenly pushed forward like a rogue wave and forced them to hastily retreat inside to continue the defense.
The corrupted had torn great, gaping holes in the thin metallic walls on the first level with their claws and frenzied strength.
Rodinian’s traps had blunted and slowed the initial rush, but there were always more of the corrupted to continue the rush.
The sudden change in the corrupted’s behavior was a fortunate turn of events.
“To all inside the security station,” Subcommander Tioga Blue 635 began, “retreat to my level and set up defensive positions.” They needed to protect the command and control chamber at all costs. City Section 75 couldn’t fall to the corrupted. “To all available aerial transports, I task you with ammunition and energy resupply until further notice. We will utilize the roof as a temporary unloading zone.”
The subcommander studied the holographic projections closely.
The sudden turn didn’t mean victory.
The corrupted attacked anything in sight, which meant that the survivors would eventually need to be dealt with.
“To all personnel outside this security station. We will let the enemy destroy themselves. If capable, return to your nearest facility for repair, recharge and reload. If you are not, provide your location and a transport will be dispatched to your location.” Subcommander Tioga Blue 635 listened to the acknowledgments come in one by one. Then they had a thought. “Communicators, when you establish secondary station establish communications with Frequency’s team.”
With their orders dispersed, the subcommander continued to watch the holographic projections.
Whether this was a temporary reprieve or the battle had turned in their favor was still undetermined.
The corrupted continued to go berserk across the wide front in their assault.
Thousands of them fighting and killing each other without restraint.
Some of the T-Men took advantage of the situation to escape.
Unseen’s camouflage blended them in with the gray, metallic color of the structures as they ran past tangled knots of corrupted in search of a place to await an aerial transport for evac.
Other T-Men used the reprieve to help the corrupted kill themselves.
Maul had cleared the rooftop. Now, they swept their weapons down to the street below.
Whoosh, with an eye toward gaining more Universal Points, glided through the throngs of corrupted. Outside of an occasional swipe, the corrupted ignored the Threnosh.
Whoosh slashed out with their blade weapons, never slowing down enough for the corrupted’s focus to fall on them.
Back at the main base, Telatrine finally reached the armory.
They placed their chainsword in a recharging station and went in search of more weaponry. It would only take a few minutes to get their favored weapon up to a sufficient amount of power.
There were still a hundred or so enhanced corrupted left, fighting each other.
Plenty for Telatrine to kill.
The Inheritor, Hylhon, hadn’t yet appeared, perhaps it was still out there.
----------------------------------------
The Deep Azure’s voice was incomprehensible.
It made everyone with mortal ears, save for the fishmen and the cultists wince in pain.
Some unfortunate people doubled over in pain and allowed the fishmen or cultists to strike deadly blows.
Hanna swung her greatsword in wide, sweeping arcs in an effort to keep them away from her stricken comrades.
Bastien’s voice rose to a fevered pitch as he screamed out his prayer.
A light seemed to shine from his raised halberd as those gathered close to him felt the pain and the despair lift enough for them to find the inner will to raise their weapons and keep fighting.
Naturally, the young man became the focus of their enemy’s attacks.
His friends defended him with renewed desperation.
“On me!” Olo cried.
Dozens of attacks, spines, bolts, tentacles struck his shield and armored body, dealing wounds, but keeping the lighter-armored Bastien safe for the moment.
Bang!
Mads blew a fishman’s brains out. She couldn’t miss at this range. Her only problem was that she was down to a handful of rounds. After which she’d be useless in the fight.
“It’s at twenty! Twenty!” the young woman soldier from Sacramento, Jimenez, cried out as she cowered behind Keisha.
“The hell you on about?” Keisha grunted as she blocked a fishman’s spear thrust with her shield, then hammered it on the side of the head with her two-handed sledgehammer.
The fishman staggered and dropped it’s spear, but didn’t go down. It reached for the spear, only to notice that it was gone.
Keisha itched to follow up, but had to raise her shield to block a clubbing lash from a cultist’s tentacle arm.
Johnny suddenly appeared in the middle of the formation with the fishman’s spear in his hand. “Here! Who want’s this?” The young man’s eyes were wide and he was on the edge of hyperventilating.
“I’ll take it,” Captain Hamill grabbed the spear out of Johnny’s hands. The big man rushed to join the front line fighters tanking for the few currently capable of ranged attacks. “We need to fall back to the tunnel, funnel them to us.”
“We’re not abandoning them,” Hanna frowned as she took in the sight of Tessa down on the first level, struggling to get up from being hammered into a stone pillar by the Deep Azure. Nila was on the other side of a lot of fishmen and cultists. Megan and Veronica on the completely opposite side of the obscene temple they had stumbled upon.
“You heard Jimenez, we can’t take that thing,” Captain Hamill said as he grabbed a lashing tentacle and pulled the cultist in to spear her in the throat. The move suggested a level of enhanced strength.
“Sgt. Slaughter is right,” Del yelled back. “My Danger Sense is going crazy.”
“Mine too,” Johnny added.
“I was feeling pumped, in a rage, ready to fight with my bare hands,” Captain Hamill said. “Now, I’m not. Something about this place is messing with our minds and I’m thinking it’s that thing down there,” he gestured to the towering Deep Azure.
The figure was content to stand like a statue and watch as the desperate battle unfolded.
“We need—” Hanna began.
A loud scream from the other side of the temple interrupted her.
“Veronica, no! Get back here! That didn’t work for your sister!” Megan shouted in vain.
On the opposite side of the temple, Nila had somehow heard. She cursed and turned, trusting Hanna and the others to keep the fishmen and cultists busy and off her back. She sprinted toward the towering avatar of the Deep Azure down one level below.
Veronica hurdled the railing in a couple of strides. She was so fast. Almost a blur to Megan’s normal human eyes.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Veronica hit the Deep Azure with electromagnetic pulses as strong as she could manage under the circumstances and in quick succession.
The Deep Azure shivered, but that was the only visible effect.
Veronica gave her best battle cry and brought her metal staff down with a two-handed, overhead smash as the arc of her jump brought her to the Deep Azure.
The hit echoed like a gunshot inside the confined space.
The Deep Azure didn’t bother to block, as it did with Tessa’s strike. It simply took Veronica’s best shot on its shoulder. Then it grabbed the staff and started swinging it around, almost lazily, with Tessa hanging on to the other end for her dear life.
The Deep Azure raised the staff high.
“No!” Megan wailed.