Locking her fingers into the erzalis’ command rings, Heaven booted up Yemaya in short order. In a shower of lights, the machine came to life, greeting Heaven with its usual parlance. “Welcome back, boss. I trust we’re happy today,” it said.

“For the amount of take we’re about to get, oh you can bet your sweet auhs we’re happy,” Heaven replied.

“Understood.”

“Really? Not even a hint of enthusiasm?”

“I’d crack a smile if it made you feel better, boss,” it said. Yemaya made very little inflection when it spoke, leaving Heaven to imagine when it was being serious or in this case, full of sass.

Heaven smiled wryly, shaking her head.

Yemaya was the embodiment of all of Heaven’s work. She wasn’t much of a gearhead back on Earth but wanted to try something other than fighting when she came over. This culminated in Yemaya bearing all of her latest improvements and augmentations.

Improvements that drove the point home that she was, nevertheless, very good at fighting.

“Maya, have I ever fought a bimble before?” she said.

“Checking,” Yemaya replied, “I’ve recorded only a single instance, but not against an alpha.”

“Oh? An apex? Got the stats for it?”

“Checking… Confirmed. Displaying in Vision now.”

Bimblegratia (Alpha)(Mutated)

Behavior: Normally docile, the bimblegratia’s only distinguishing trait

is her overarching need to protect her cubs. When enraged, thus, her

normally granite colored plating turns into a deep black, and defying

conventional wisdom, her eyes become a stark red that trails crimson

light as she moves.

Might: 155

Reflexes: 87

Durability: 185

Intellect: 55

Will: 90

Threat: Moderate - Dangerous

Heaven noted the affix on the bimblegratia’s name and said, “Mutated, huh? Is that why it’s covered in Elemental markings? Are we sure this is female?”

“Conjecture: Common behavior and physiological patterns point to it being a variant, but to wit, only female bimblegratia have ever displayed the ability to biologically shift its entire physiological make-up when enraged. If the markings are anything to go by, this one may be imbued with Steel affinity,” Yemaya replied.

“Guess that would explain the increased durability,” Heaven said. “Hope it’s still fallible to the same tricks, or this could get rough.”

With a motion, Heaven reached her arms into the operating rings of the Erzelis and within a second, each arm was covered in a brilliant silver white and crystalline blue light, a reflection of her Torrent and Luminescence affinities. In one fluid motion, Yemaya shifted from its resting position in a prone on, where it pulled out a sniper rifle from its void space.

Heaven had checked her æther reserves during boot up, noting she was dangerously low from channeling her Cloak of the Sky. She was close to bottoming out. Hovering over the icon, she read the spell description out of habit.

Cloak of the Sky. Duration: variable*. Range: Touch. *very minor æther consumption (stationary), moderate æther consumption (moving)

Light bends around you, rendering you invisible to all forms of vision beyond a 5 arl radius. This effect can be maintained so long as you have æther to sustain it or until you make a sudden sound or movement, such as an attack.

“Yeah, can’t have that,” she said while reaching for an æther ampoule.

She breathed a sigh of relief, as a mana headache she’d been ignoring quickly subsided. Next, she eyed her rifle, watching as her Frame mimicked her every movement.

Heaven’s Vision was now relegated to the expanded screen of her Erzelis Frame. Sighting down the bimblegratia, she made her preparations to kill the armored behemoth.

On second thought, maybe killing it wasn’t the right move, Heaven thought. “Maya, run that description by me again? You said it only changes color when defending its young?”

“Affirmative.”

“Well skat, this is a no go, but that rider is chowder if we don’t do something.”

“Do you want me to inform the headmaster that we’re cancelling the contract?”

“What? Falsh, no. We’re getting that take, but umm… keep an eye out for papa bear, would you?”

“Understood, boss.”

With practiced ease, Heaven shifted back into a kneeling position. She accessed her Vision, pulling up a menu of items she had stored in her void space, selecting a set of reconnaissance drones.

Four distortions appeared above her, as the selected drones emerged with an energetic buzz before zooming off in the cardinal directions. Heaven confirmed their trajectory in a minimap that she placed in the upper right corner of her peripheral before turning her attention back to her scope.

Having now assumed control of the Frame, Heaven reached into her StoCar and grabbed a couple more ampoules and placed them into a compartment in the center console of the dash.

“That should do it,” she said.

Shifting herself back into the prone position, Heaven raised her arms, watching all the while, as her erzelis mimicked her movements in near perfect synchronicity. Her movements raised the sniper rifle, Ever’Nasche, to eye level, changing her direct view in her Vision to that of her scope’s.

She sighted the bimblegratia and the rider as they continued to engage one another. The rider’s left arm had become useless now that his erzelis was missing the requisite arm. “Fool can’t even return to Drive mode now,” she said.

“Yemaya, calculate trajectories for concussion rounds and high penetration. I don’t want to kill it if I don’t have to. So let’s see if we can get away with just knocking it out. Have you had any luck finding papa bear?”

“Understood, boss. And negative on finding papa bear, though I believe I may have found their nest,” it answered.

“Oh, that’s even better. Now I’ll know where to deposit her before I go looking for the big guy. Highlight it on the map for me?”

“Right away, boss.”

A yellow circle appeared in her minimap along with everything surveyed by the four recon drones.

Heaven put a pin on the location, orienting it as her home point, should she move out of range of it. With her extremely wide field of view within her cradle, her minimap looked more like a twenty-four-inch TV than a five-inch square. It gave her a crystal-clear bird’s-eye view of the area directly around her, complete with the location of local flora and fauna in the area.

With each passing second, Heaven was getting a clearer picture of her surroundings, and what she had to work with or look out for. The rider didn’t have long for her to finish setting up though, and she needed to deal with either him or the raging bear with haste.

Loading a concussion round into Ever’Nasche, she checked her trajectory and fired the first shot.

A moment later the bimblegratia teetered as it swiped wide of the rider. The rider instinctively looked in the opposite direction, as he began to back off. As he did, another round blasted the bear, sending it sideways again and again until it finally toppled over its own legs. Seeing this, the rider seemed to have regained some of his confidence, firming his grip on his sword before moving to deliver the finishing blow.

Just as he went to strike, it seemed like time had fallen into freeze-frame. One moment he was standing over the bimblgratia, getting ready to strike, and the next, his erzerlis was split at the torso, just below his cradle, and he was falling. Then the bimblegratia’s enormous razor-sharp paw was raised, aiming right at him. The last thing the rider saw was a small spatter of blood and brain as a bullet had gone right through the bimble’s eye, where it died instantly.

The rider lay on his back, trapped in his cradle, staring fearfully into the sky. He hadn’t even registered that the repair protocol on his erzelis had kicked in, his ears trained solely on the encroaching feeling that the bear might get up again and finish him off.

In the eternity of two adrenaline filled minutes of silence, panic gripped him once more when he heard footsteps crunching among the scorched dry dirt. A moment later the footsteps stopped. His heart began to pound in his eardrums before he a shimmer appear in front of him. Embers of light began to peel away, revealing Heaven’s sundress laden form above him. It had been long enough that his erzelis had managed to put itself back together enough that he could stand again. Reflexively, however, he jumped back, reaching for a sword he no longer had.

“Yeah. You’re welcome by the way,” she said, putting her goggles back on her forehead.

He looked like a kid, dressed like he was planning to go hiking, or mountain climbing. He looked so generic, she was certain she wouldn’t remember him tomorrow, let alone in the next five minutes.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“What? Sorry. I’m sorry. You really saved me back there. Thank you. If you hadn’t…” He stopped, realization dawning on him. “Wait. No. No no no no way. No way! It’s you. It’s really you! You’re the Valkyrie of the Lumen. Heaven,” he said reverently.

Heaven flinched at the mention of the nickname.

Instead of answering, she reached into her void pocket and pulled out a series of tethers and began to hook them around her prey. Once she was done, she looked at the nameless rider and decided to take a mental snapshot of his face. With a wink and a nod, she gave a yank on the cables and hauled the bimble onto her back and said, “In duratua, lu’naa. Maru kishina.” Which, translated from elven meant, Look not to us in the light. But from within.

In the next instant, a shimmer passed over her, and she was gone.

She wasn’t too thrilled about killing the bimble, but in the end a job was a job. Whoever put out the contract for it made her skin crawl. She remembered bimbles were said to taste absolutely divine, and so hunting them was an incredibly lucrative, if not extremely dangerous business.

Finding a competent hunter that could kill one was rare and finding one that could bring one back that wasn’t full of holes was even rarer. Whoever contracted her for this nasty business was clearly loaded and willing to put out top dollar, though judging by the other Rider, she decided they probably weren’t all that keen on doing their homework before hiring them.

It reminded her that even here, people were capable of absolute atrocities in the name of greed. Bimbles were basically foragers and herbivores. So long as you didn’t mess with them, they largely left you alone. She understood the hypocrisy immediately when she thought about all of the deer hunting she did as a child back home. Of course, this was different.

As she dwelt on the whole business, she soon realized why. It wasn’t the mothers who went for a premium, it was their cubs. Which only meant one thing; there was a cleanup crew coming to kill them.

That was a line too far. Heat began to flush her cheeks so hot she could almost feel the steam rushing out of the back of her skull. Everett wasn’t due to arrive for a few more hours, and all she wanted to do was spend time with him and show him what he had been missing. Even with how she was feelings towards this particular job, she still really loved it here.

Earth had taken many strides towards becoming better, but she’d been on the wrong end of their failings that made logging out harder and harder.

This world wasn’t exactly winning any contests in the all-saints department, but at least here she wasn’t stuck doing mindless work for the sake of some fake economy. Here she had power. Here she could act on her desires to make things better and not worry about seven li’arl of red tape in the aftermath. Here she didn’t have to watch innocents die for other’s greed.

No sooner that the thought occurred to her, did she stop in her tracks. Glancing at the dead bimble strapped behind her, she could feel the full weight of her own hypocrisy resting on her back. Maru kishina, she had told that rider. It was a phrase she liked to say often. A mantra to do what she felt her heart was telling her to. And right now, her heart was telling her a death squad was coming to kill this creature’s children. Unlike her, their armor wasn’t nearly as thick, and their lower intelligence made them much less dangerous. It was going to be a slaughter.

Heaven’s anger flared as she whipped around and headed back. Her skin turned to gooseflesh as the heat of her rage was buffeted by the whipping winds. Pushing it down, she dumped the bimblegratia mother and changed to Drive form as she sped back into the Hilifincher Valley. It didn’t take much effort to follow her map back to the bimbles’ nest. The ring of branches piled high inside of a small hill like a bird’s nest was a dead giveaway. Returning to Assault form, Heaven took up a defensive position a few arl in front of the nest and cast Cloak of the Sky.

All that was left to do now was wait. “Guess I’ll give Striga the bad news,” she sighed. She scanned the horizon, checking to see if the hunters had arrived yet. She took a little solace that the Rider she had saved earlier was long gone.

Looking behind her, she saw the group of cubs milling about silently while they waited for their parents. No doubt, the father would’ve noticed by now that his mate was missing and would go searching for her, abandoning the kids until she was found.

“Sorry Striga, but I’m going to have to bail on this contract,” she said through her comms. Aside from the ambient sounds of the wind rushing by her and the surrounding fauna, Heaven sat in relative silence for what felt a little too long in her opinion. There was a window displayed on the ætheric shield of her cradle, showing audio only. She stared patiently as she waited for a reply.

“This is rare, Heaven. Shall I tell the client you were unable to kill it?” Striga eventually reported back.

“No. No, I killed it, but I guess I’m feeling a little emotional today. Killing innocents has never sat well with me, and this job kind of makes me feel like I’m doing just that. In either case, the blame lies solely with me. You don’t need to say anything. I’ll deal with the client mys-,”

“Negative. You might be a Civilian, but you’re still a Reaper, and bound by the same rules as the rest of us. Failing contracts is unacceptable. When you get back, you’ll-.”

“Striga, shut up. I’m being serious. If you really want it so bad, I dumped the body close to the Hilifincher Valley. I’ll ping its location, but I’m about to R I P the hunters he sent to kill its young. So be a dear and don’t tell him that part, eh?”

“You vex me, Oya. But I’ll send in the retrieval. Any word from your husband?”

“Fiancé, but close enough. And no, he only logged in a few minutes before I did, so he’ll be a while yet.”

“Understood. Just keep me informed. Happy hunting.”

There was an audible pop as the connection ended and with a sigh, Heaven slumped her shoulders. Unless these hunters showed up soon, this was going to be a boring stakeout.

In fields of rock and dead trees, Heaven sat in silence, waiting for the arrival of her intended targets. She fed her attention into the two combat drones she had sent out in her stead. They were powered by their own internal AI, and in turn connected to her mobile turret system.

In her Assault form, Yemaya moved as she moved. In her hands she cradled an imaginary gun, while Yemaya cradled the real thing. The machine’s feedback interface let her feel the sensation of touch and weight in each hand. Her hands cradled the imaginary weapon as it were real, the feedback from Yemaya telling her not to squeeze any harder lest she damage her own handmade creation.

Her drones indicated an area not far from the bimble’s nest, where a large fissure broke through the rocky terrain. The smooth bore lines indicated the fissure wasn’t natural but a leftover remnant from the Caomhnóir’s run-in with a destroyer. The memory of that event left a lasting impression of Heaven of what kind of creatures awaited them outside of the domed city’s walls.

Heaven selected a spot on either side of the fissure for the mobile turrets to take position. The little platforms scurried to their positions before dropping into standby, looking like nothing more than two large circles that changed their appearance to match the coloration of the surrounding terrain.

The drones continued their sweep. Heaven continued to look about, knowing that once the action started, she would be outnumbered, outgunned, and to no surprise to her, feeling completely normal. In the end, she could rely on the fact that, at the end of the day, this was the thing she was good at. This was why she became a reaper in the first place.

Another ten minutes passed before the drones updated her minimap, pinging several spots a couple hundred arl in the distance. Switching to Live, Heaven trained each drone in the general vicinity of the indicated spots and caught movement coming through patches of tall grass directly ahead of her and to her right.

“Alright kiddos,” she said, facing the cubs, “Auntie Heaven is about to go beat up some bad guys. Sit tight, ok?”

In preparation for the battle, Heaven began casting her go-to spells, beginning with her signature spell, Railgun.

Railgun. Duration: 10 minutes. Range: Touch.

For the duration of railgun, all ranged weapon damage is converted to lightning. On impact, residual lightning damage is spread in a 30 ewl radius.

Casting another Cloak of the Sky on herself, she made her way towards the fissure, positioning her drones in plain view of pinged Riders. She sent her mobile turrets to either side of the fissure, placing them on standby mode once they were in place. The two turrets collapsed on themselves, appearing as little more than two simple discs.

After another minute, the Riders came out of a patch of tall grass, sweeping the surrounding area in search of the bimble’s nest. Now that she could see her target’s clearly, she lowered her goggles back over her eyes and let her Godseye go to work.

Godseye (racial trait). Your eyes are trained to pick up the most minute details with unfailing accuracy. While observing a target, you can learn relevant information such as its inherent strengths and weaknesses, which increases the accuracy and potency of any movements made to interact with the target.

Heaven hadn’t started with the skill, so it came as a surprise when she gained the ability after a fit of pounding away at the gun that she now bore in her hands. It came to her in a shock of frigid clarity. She was setting the rifling of the barrel when her eyes lit up like a kaleidoscope and she instantly knew what she was doing wrong and what needed to be fixed. It also made her vision terrible as it all appeared as a fog and took extreme concentrate to filter out.

She later created her now signature goggles to do the filtering for her, adding a UI to tag and categorize what her eyes were seeing. Much to her surprise, she later learned that it wasn’t limited to crafting, but to people as well. It was the greatest day of her life.

Sending the drones down to eye level with the two lead Riders, Heaven opened up her comms and said, “Don’t supposed I can convince you to walk away now, can I?”

Each Rider stopped immediately, their weapons trained on the drones floating above them. Heaven smiled, her Godseye noting each of their reaction times. One of the riders stepped forward. Heaven watched intently, seeing the shift in his body language as he let the tension out of his shoulders, trading it for a more self-assured, cocky stance. To reinforce his position, he casually held the enormous minigun he was carrying against his shoulder.

Godseye missed nothing. It was currently showing the amount of stress on the socket and joints of his Frame. Even for a titan, the gun was just too bulky to be handled so carelessly. The rider stuck to his act, however, looking at the drone and saying, “I’m flattered, Reaper. Really. But I know who you are.”

Heaven gave him a little credit. Even with the bravado, the Rider had the presence of mind to keep a physical shield over his torso, a magical shield erected over his body, in addition to the natural shield over his cradle. Even so, Godseye was doing its job picking out the chinks in his armor.

Heaven didn’t bother to respond, however, letting the silence loom over them as her drone faced him, silently, watching.

Seemingly aggravated by the lack of a reaction, he scowled pointing and saying, “Just wait until we find you, princess. Harphin made it clear that if we find you, to silence you. Full stop. You understand what that means, right yautshi? Real death you falshing calker.”

That was almost comical, Heaven thought with a smile. Her Godseye sent a report: Neutral. The lead rider didn’t have any elemental weaknesses, but his shoulders and knees were flaring a bright red.

Titan

Class – Warden

Elemental Weaknesses: None

Appendicular stress in the left and right shoulder socket.

Joint rotors in the knee are equally overtaxed due to excessive weapon loadout.

Excessive mana consumption detected. Rider does not appear to have high ætheric stores. Recommend wearing down magical shield beforehand.

Minigun is low-caliber masterwork. Recommend getting a new buyer.

Heaven covered her mouth as she stifled a laugh. She knew exactly what she was going to do to this guy. Her Godseye had given her a similar report for the other warden. The scouts, however, had a different reading.

Scout

Class – Outrider

Elemental Weaknesses: Fire and Earth

Lightweight Frames reinforced by support magic.

Head and chest lack reinforcement, pointing to an over reliance on ætheric output.

No weapons currently visible.

“Hmm,” Heaven said contemplatively. “Probably here to harass the Bimble in the event it showed up, and to support the wardens. So they’re priority one.”

Heaven called the drones away, moving them towards the fissure.

“So, judging by all of that bumskat that just came out of your mouth, I’m guessing that you’re probably new to the club,” Heaven teased. “I’m not sure why they sent a bunch of rookies like you, but what I can tell you is one way or another, I’m going to find out.”

Heaven started making her way towards the fissure as well. Under the cover of her cloak, she passed by them undetected. They continue to hold a defensive position as they watched her drones float away. None of them made a move to respond.

Heaven, however, had one more thing to say.

“Now, if you would be so kind, would you care to join me for a dance?”