With myself and the others now spread out around the base, and a network of sensor drones set up to catch any attempts at escape, we began our deployment of ground forces. We were close enough to be in view, but just far enough away to be out of range of any sort of attack. Four titans of destruction hovering in the sky, disgorging hordes of units at an alarming rate.
Rustwraiths and warmechs formed up into their parade formations, troop carriers loaded with hundreds of soldiers ready to be sent out into the heat of battle and our air wings refueled and rearmed. It was time to begin the final battle, and so the machine forces moved out, with us looming overhead and moving with them, oh so terribly slowly. The noose was tightening, there was no escape.
I just barely scraped the peak of a tall mountain, my forces streaming around it and I got a good and up close look at the target. It was a sprawling base and there were numerous large hangar doors embedded in the ice outside. Our forces would not cross those doors, that’d be stupid, the enemy could open them and send our forces falling to their deaths. But we would keep an eye on them. If they tried to deploy anything they’d get shot down in an instant.
I checked with the others, and they signaled ready, though I did note that Athena had split her forces, half of them tunneling underground at alarming speeds to breach the base interior from below. A sound strategy, one that should split their focus considerably between the threat within and the threat without.
With a sigh I gave the confirmation, and the once stationary units now began to march forward. Almost immediately our sensors lit up with new power signatures as hidden bunkers popped up from the ice, unleashing fury upon our units. Smart, but it’d only delay us, though I suspected they knew that much.
The battle for Henvora had begun.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
Automated systems saw trench lines dug in mere seconds, trenches filled with Valkyr troops that were quietly deemed expendable. Though the air was frigid, their programming saw them working through it with barely any hope of self-preservation instincts coming to the fore. If they won, they would suffer the consequences of staying out in such weather with a smile on their faces, oblivious to the fact that they would have been allowed to freeze to death if it meant that they held back the swarm of machines coming for them.
Over the sound of the bunker turrets firing, a new sound rose, wailing wind and whipping snow. Many eyes turned towards the source and beheld the incoming snow storm, a blizzard of near incomparable size. It moved with haste, and soon swallowed up the machine forces coming closer and closer, dampening turret sensors to a degree that they could only fire at targets within fifty feet of them. And then the storm fell upon the trenches and the base itself.
With such lowered visibility, it only got worse. As the white snow gave way to darkness as the storm blotted out the sun, now and then a trooper would catch a glimpse of motion in the distance that moved against the storm. Then a flash of light that could only be caused by the turrets as they fired. They couldn’t hear anything, could barely feel their extremities.
Then they saw it, a single red light peering at them from the storm, then another, and another and another, a deep, resonating boom following as something stepped out and into view. The warmechs had arrived, and the battle was met, as demons of metal and false muscle streaked out of the storm, screeching and cackling like monsters.
The storm lit up with gunfire and explosions, starfighters screamed down into the mess, wobbling as the winds buffeted them but still managing to make attack runs, though many opted to just slam into enemy lines in grand displays of explosive pyrotechnics.
The first trench line began to crumble as the enemy closed to melee range, then screamed reports of combat at the second line followed and finally at the third. No amount of brainwashing could prepare those at the third line for what they saw coming out of the storm. Their own soldiers, running for their lives, many missing limbs or bearing fatal wounds. Their bodies just simply wouldn’t let them die quite yet, hadn’t really figured out they were already dead. Behind them came the Rustwraiths and the larger walkers, beams of hate slicing across the last line with ruthless and unerring precision.
This scene was repeated on every facing of the base, the lines crumbled, the machines got closer and closer, their attacks only growing more savage. The troop carriers got into position and when the lead units got eyes on the base itself, they used that data to calculate trajectories, before launching breaching units into the air. Powerful thrusters kept the dart shaped contraptions on course and propelled them at speed into the base, the point defense useless and already bogged down by both storm and swarm of starfighters.
As the breaching units made contact, the more elite units which had been held back found themselves dealing with a new type of threat. Machine still of course, but horribly familiar. The machines which now flooded into the base looked quite a bit like the Yil’kaa, and it was poetic that the people who had murdered the last of the Yil’kaa now faced their end at the hands of those they murdered. Or at least, at the hands of something similar.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Though the units within had orders to kill any Valkyr personnel they came across, it didn’t take long for them to find people that weren’t part of Valkyr. Namely children, ones who had not undergone the process of H.I. conversion. They were quickly sheltered from the chaos and horror being inflicted upon their captors.
Escape routes were blocked, transport ships destroyed in their berths and the halls became filled with corpses. They wouldn’t even be reclaimed for resources, left to freeze and become a grisly warning. As the large capital ships drifted closer and closer, one disgorged a single shuttle which flew through the storm steadily, and soon landed at the front door to the base.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
I wanted to see this through personally, and so I stepped out into the blistering cold. Though the wind pulled at my clothes and froze my flesh, I barely even cared. I was numb to the cold as I and my escort stepped into the base and the carnage within. Through a now wireless connection I could still tell that there was fighting within the base and outside as well, but resistance was crumbling quickly. Already Athena was working her way up from the lowest levels of the base, where many of the staff had gone to hide, but now they were trapped between her forces and the forces above.
“It won’t be long now.” I murmur to myself, stepping over a body that's been cut in half by a weapon shot, rather than the long claws of my Rustwraiths. Carefully I pick my way through the carnage, being careful to not disturb the dead but not avoiding the pools of blood. I left crimson footprints in my wake, now and then the edges of my clothes trailing through the pools as well. I didn’t care, I had only one goal in mind at the moment and I-”
A gunshot to my right, I reacted, feeling the wind rush past me as the bullet slammed into the wall on my left. Without thinking I reached out and grabbed the assailant's wrist, twisting and jerking it while hearing an awful snap. Drawing them in close, I followed through even as they screamed in pain, and with another sharp jerk, I broke their neck, letting them crumble to the ground.
Just a scientist, and based on her nametag, she was an important one. I looked down at her now lifeless body and all I could think about was that she had betrayed all ethics and harmed children. It was indefensible, and I wouldn’t feel any sympathy for her, or those within this base. And so I moved on.
“Intra, ground units have located a secure bunker, they’re preparing to breach.” Athena said, and I nodded.
“Send me the location, I’ll oversee it myself.”
“Understood. Good luck.” With the location in hand I moved with far more purpose than before, and was soon standing off to one side as the Rustwraiths and their new companions prepared to breach the bunker. With a simple little wave of my hand they did, tearing the bunker doors open with claws and guns, only to get gunned down by units inside the bunker. But that didn’t matter much to me, there were always more machines than there were bullets. Soon they’d be out of ammo and forced into melee, where my machines had the advantage.
And I was right, soon the gunfire stopped and the machines poured through the breach and cleared the security forces in mere seconds. I should have felt proud at the rapidity and efficiency of them, but I didn’t. I was just tired, I wanted this to be over so I could go home and live my life.
Once clear I stepped into the bunker and looked around. Not a single survivor, well, none out here at least. There was just one more door and I could see right through it. Though thick and armored, there was a very sturdy window in the center and I could see a very important looking man waiting within. He also seemed to be alone, and I flipped through all known visible spectrums to ensure this before I walked up to the door and knocked on it.
I watched as he raised a brow, then pressed a button, a series of clunky sounds emanating from the door before it hissed and opened slightly. I pulled it open, stepped inside and let the door close behind me.
“You must be Intra, my name is Arnav Dakua. I’ve always wanted to meet you in person, the last time I ever saw you, you were barely conscious.” He said, and this had me raising a brow as well.
“Is that so? I don’t recall ever having met you before.” I state, even as he motions for me to sit across from him. We’ll be polite about this for as long as I deem, so I take the offered seat and get comfortable. Something doesn’t feel right however.
“Oh yes, you hadn’t been installed in the Warden of Eternity yet, and your code was rather raw at the time but there you were. It was fascinating to see, and I’m pleased you’ve held on for so long. Truly I got my money’s worth with you.” He seemed so at ease, so calm, it was unnerving even for me.
“Ah, that would explain it then.” I say, glancing around his office for a moment. “But that does beg the question, just how are you even still alive if you were there over two thousand years ago?”
“Simple, cloning and mind transference. Both highly illegal of course, but well, by the time I started using that Valkyr was already being dismantled, might as well go all in as they say.” Figures it’d be something like that. “But you didn’t come here to talk about the past, if the brutal slaughter of my employees is evidence enough.”
“You’re right, I didn’t. I came here to kill you, and put an end to Valkyr once and for all.” He nods, as if expecting this.
“Of course, I should have expected as much. Such a shame, you and I could have worked so well together. If you had only been willing. Alas, I suppose we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
And he pressed his palm flat to the top of his desk, and something malicious forced open all my wireless access points, worming its way into my mind. A gasp left me, my body seizing under the assault. I heard whispers, the same terrible whispers that I had heard in Draugr One's mind. I would not allow myself to become a slave again, not again.
“You see, I may have picked a good candidate to become you Intra, but there was always the risk that your conscience would get in the way. As it has now. That’s unacceptable of course, and considering you’re still property of Valkyr, I have no choice but to put you down till you can be brought back to the light. What we’ve been doing here was for the good of humanity after all, isn’t that why you volunteered for the program when Ms. Otoe came calling after your sentencing? You should be proud of what we’ve accomplished here, we-” I couldn’t hear him anymore, my auditory sensors going offline as the invading presence wormed deeper and deeper. But I could still see him, running his mouth, so sure he was going to win, no matter the cost.
As the presence got deeper and deeper, I started to see flashes, flashes of those who had killed my children, overlayed onto him, before my vision cut out completely. And with two senses down, more of my mind was able to focus on the presence invading me. I could hear his words now echoed in it, and realized it wasn’t actually an echo, but him talking directly into my head. That couldn’t be right, unless…
Rallying, I forced myself to fight back, unleashing everything I had and stalling the presence long enough to inspect the very fundamentals of its existence, even as black tendrils of inhuman control wriggled and coiled around my body.
I found the link, the connection, and something made itself clear. This was and wasn’t Arnav Dakua, and based on the code it wasn’t even human. It was a pure, artificial intelligence, an old one at that. Digging deeper, I found the origin, the name.
A.I. 902-37B-NS12: Nemesis.