"The royal palace? Are you insane?" Guard clacked to Octavia's side as she sat down at a workbench, winding the gears in her arm tight.
"It feels like a lifetime since I was last there, but it's barely been a month."
Octavia turned towards Guard, determined.
"I won't give up my only lead, no matter how difficult it may seem. I know the palace better than almost anyone, I can sneak through and come out alive."
She clenched her mechanical fist with all her might, gazing out from the window.
"If I fail now my position will be lost forever. System will continue unpushed after the murder of mother, free to control society as they see fit"
She snapped the outside of her arm back into place, covering the delicate clockwork out of sight. Rising from her chair she grabbed the polished hilt of her sword, resting in the heavy comfort of a sharp blade in hand.
Octavia leaned against the wall of a factory, blocks away from the grand standing walls of the palace. Over a mile tall, its shadow cast an artificial night over a slice of the city. Darkness turned around the goliath building with the cycle of the sun.
Keith approached her from the side, leaning beside Octavia.
"How are you holding up Via? I heard you practically carved up the headquarters of a major manufacturer. You're the most wanted woman in the nation right now."
Octavia's hand fell down to her hilt, loosely holding the sword, ready to draw at any second.
"It'll only get worse. I'm going after a palace official. I'll become a terrorist, a traitor to the nation."
The pair chuckled darkly at their grim situation.
"Could you pass me your sword, Via?"
Keith grasped the sword in his left hand, slowly running his right hand across the base of the blade. Pulling his arm away, a magic circle of runes was emblazoned onto the steel, burning a firey hot orange.
"Xenon has never been quite as good at magic as the rest of the world, so consider this a gift. A magic circle to heat the blade's edge hotter than the center of your strongest kilns."
Keith pressed the sword back into Octavia's hand, pulling her fingers around the hilt.
"Don't get too trigger happy. Your mana pool still powers the circle, you'll run out of energy just as fast as usual."
The two friends hugged each other tight, ready for this to be the last time the pair would ever meet.
"Thank you Keith. For everything. I'm glad I met you all those years ago."
"Don't act that, you'll get out of this alive. You owe me another duel after all."
Octavia slid her sword smoothly back into its sheathe, turning to face the palace.
"Then in I go."
As a child Octavia was never allowed to leave the royal palace. She spent her early days exploring the endless pipes and hidden passageways of the palace, learning every corner of her massive cage she could manage. Her encyclopedic knowledge of its interior was the guide she needed to reach the 32nd floor of the palace, headquarters of the old royal guard. She remembered when she was barely 6, hiding in the vents, watching, while the barracks were cleared out and repurposed into workshops for the automatons.
Her heart had panged that day like never before, watching the symbols of the knights she adored be tossed out with the trash in the name of advancement. The bitter memory was what lead her to wear their uniform, as a way to remember the great knights she idolized for all her life.
Reaching the side of the building she faced a broken pipe attached to the building's exterior. The steam had burst a hole through the pipe, but rather than repairing it the palace had simply sealed off the flow of steam. Approaching the pipe, Octavia burst into a sprint, her mechanically enhanced legs gaining incredible momentum. Running faster than gravity could pull her down, she rushed forward up the side of the pipe, leaping upward as she began to fall to the ground. Her fingers caught the edge of the gash in the pipe, pulling herself upwards into its interior. Shuffling upwards, she slowly followed the pipe into the building's depths.
The royal palace's incredible height meant the upper floors were freezing cold, however a series of pipes and steam stations leading from the generator deep underground pumped hot steam through the building. The walls of the palace were practically hollow due to the amount of tubes and secret passages.
At the end of the pipe she entered a pressure control center. Exiting though a section of pipe she had pried off years ago, she slipped towards the door. Pressure gauges and large machines filled the room, covered with dust from years of neglect. The palace was grand, yet its size meant the vast majority of the inside was broken and decrepit, falling into disrepair. A technician likely hadn't touched this room in nearly a decade.
Slowly cracking open the door she glimpsed two guards patrolling the halls. Due to the high cost of automatons, cheap guards were still hired to defend the lower floors, but their low price came with a lack of care and experience. They were easy to sneak past even on their best days. Passing the room with a yawn, the pair continued down the hall while Octavia slipped out from the steam room.
Cautiously passing through the corridors in a running crouch, she eventually reached her goal. A small library of agricultural documents and books, coated with cobwebs.
Slowly closing the creaky wooden door, Octavia approached an unassuming bookshelf on the room's far side. Kicking the shelf out of the way, it fell over to reveal a cramped hidden passageway steeply rising upwards.
As Octavia was far bigger than in her childhood days, she was surprised by how difficult it was to crawl through this space she once could freely walk through. Steam condensation dripped from the ceiling, covering the walls and floor with a thin layer of moldy slime that dampened Octavia's clothes. Crawling further into the pitch black of lightless tunnel, her eye flashed bright red as her targeting system activated, giving her a basic view of her surroundings.
The tunnel grew taller at the end, presenting a rusty ladder up to a trap door. Pushing the trap door aside with a loud thunk, she pulled herself up into an old storeroom, stacked to the ceiling with dusty crates. Once, long ago, this room had been for vip guests. The abandonment of the bottom floors to rise constantly higher had left these rooms empty. Meaningless space filled the oversized halls of the massive building, becoming almost a physical display of the hollow nature in the facade of royal power.
She had reached floor 25, only a few floors from her goal. Floors 22 through 30 never had guards, they were simply mazes of empty rooms, making them safe to navigate. Running across the hallway she reached a metal hatch slightly smaller than a doorway. It was the entrance to an elevator for security automatons if they needed speedy deployment.
Popping open her arm, she flipped a lever to reveal a small, thin key. Slowly inserting the key and turning it right, the elevator grinded to life, a creaking cylindrical platform slowly approaching upwards.
Octavia climbed on, flipping the interior levers of the platform to take her to floor 32. The elevator had no walls or roof, it wasn't made to be presentable for human passengers. A metal grate platform was attached to a central pole by 4 large gears that would spin to push the platform upwards when required, traveling through a cramped stone brick tunnel.
Floor 32 smelled of oil and coal smoke. The tattered banners of the royal guard hung limp while dozens of automatons marched through the halls on thin metal legs. Floor 32 was special in its design, built in a way where nearly all paths reached forward towards the area's center. The area's heart was a large chapel, built for the old religious knights to pray and reflect on those they killed in duty. When the mechanics had taken the floor the chapel had become the office of their chief commander. Lex, head of automated security.
Immediately after the doors to floor 32 opened, a guard automaton stared Octavia in the face. Without wasting a second she quickly stabbed her sword into its brain compartment before it could broadcast an alarm. Running across the hallway she pulled aside an old banner to reveal a hidden passageway. Jumping inside and slamming the door shut, Octavia began to climb down the hall. Like all paths in floor 32, it lead to the chapel.
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Crawling upwards, she passed through the sound of clanking steps and beeping radio receivers. Some rooms echoed the voices of engineers as they tinkered on broken robot's inner clockwork.
Atop the chapel's ceiling, Octavia slowly opened the trapdoor directly above the pew. Gazing down she saw Lex speaking to palace officials, causing her to lean down into earshot.
"The Okeans have uncovered the core of the Nemesis Engine deep within the mines of Nahazir. With Subjugation Walker nearing completion, we may need to escalate our plans of invasion. The sooner we secure the fragments of Sigmantus the better."
The palace officials shuffled forward nervously.
"We're in the middle of a peace treaty with the Okean Empire! We can't just invade the nation and take the mines by force, it would bring the whole world down upon us!"
"In one week the Okean emperor will visit the border to make a speech. You are to assassinate him and rest the blame on terrorists. Subjugation Walker will exterminate the 'terrorists' to protect our country's good name, meanwhile the chaos shall serve as a mask to our opratives entering the mines. System's predictions are the ultimate truth, do not doubt their certainty."
The officials saluted with slight hesitation and walked out the chapel's doorway.
Dropping down from the ceiling, Octavia landed, perched upon the pew with sword drawn.
"Hello there Lex. It's been a while."
Lex spun around to face her, initial shock melting into a smug grin.
"Princess Octavia! You're supposed to be dead. It's so good to see you again. I should call security in to warmly welcome you home."
"I'll pass on letting some of System's servants fill me with lead. However..."
Octavia jumped down from the pew, spinning her sword around her palm as she slowly approached.
"War with the Okeans? Is System insane?"
"System is beyond our comprehension. It's future simulations are accurate enough to ignore the normal concepts of risk and reward. If System makes a choice, it will always be the correct one."
Lex slowly walked past Octavia and stood atop the pew, widely spreading his arms into the air with dramatic display.
"System is the ultimate answer to society! The broken mold of civilization built upon the foundation of human imperfection will crumble. Unenlightened masses claw for their self declared right of power, forsaking obedience to blindly follow their instincts."
Lex turned around to face a cross adorning the chapel's back wall, reaching out from meters away as if to touch it.
"Individual identity, religion, these things are simply delusions. Human desire is hypocrisy. We yearn for control, yet we fight for our freedom. We build religions and governments to tell us what to do, to fall into line, yet we scream for freedom when that authority is given. We will crusade across the world, freeing every living being without our blood from the burden of fate. We can create a perfect world in the ruins of what came before. "
Lex grinned, flipping a large switch under the pew's top. The sound of massive gears screeched as the back wall began to spin around. The rear of the chapel was replaced by a large display platform, pipes and tools scattered across the surface. Standing tall upon the new area was a massive automaton, its large cylindrical capsule chassis open to reveal a pilot chair covered in controls. Six gatling guns were bolted to its sides while massive spike-tipped legs dug into the ground.
"System is the control we always desired. The guidance to strip away our free will and guide us to perfection. We searched for a god to lead us, and we found the greatest one imaginable! Praise the System, patron deity of the human race!"
Lex jumped into the pilot seat of the giant machine, the steel chassis doors slamming shut around him.
Speakers began to loudly blast from the vehicle in a harsh metallic tone.
"As System wills you dead, so it shall be done."
With his shout, all six gatlings began to blast hot lead towards Octavia as her eye flashed red. A cruel smile began to spread across her face.
"Let's go, machine."
Octavia cut a rain of speeding bullets from the air as they approached, enhanced adrenaline slowing time to a crawl as the razor sharp edge sliced round after round. Leaping backwards she picked up a broken automaton with a single hand, using its body as a shield against the bullets while she began to charge forward.
Once close enough to Lex's machine, the gatlings couldn't swivel inward enough to hit her. Unleashing a storm of furious attacks onto the mech's steel body, each strike bounced off the chassis with a ringing clang of metal upon metal.
The machine slammed its heavy legs against the ground as it moved backwards, a screeching laugh echoing from its speakers.
"It's all useless Princess! You can't hurt me, I have ascended!"
The machine slowly stomped around the room, firing thousands of bullets each second as Octavia slowly retreated behind a workshop table.
"System's holy gift to me! The Armored Combat Machine Mk I!"
Octavia took a second to catch her breath behind the table as the ACM approached with a looming presence.
"A holy gift? System destroys the honor of battle to replace it with cold machinery and calls it a gift? What a idiotic joke."
Leaping forward, she picked up the metal workshop table and thew it forward. Its surface deflected the bullets that sped in her direction as she slid across the ground at blinding speeds. Pushing every ounce of strength into her arms, she accelerated her blade into the ACM's front leg.
The blade sunk into the alloy spike for barely a quarter of a inch before it stopped, jamming itself into the mechanical limb. The leg kicked forward, throwing Octavia across the room as her sword remained lodged into its leg.
Taking shelter behind the wreckage of an automaton, she ripped the gatling gun off of its side and held it close to her body. Disconnecting the front of her robotic arm, she slammed the gatling gun into place on her appendage. Ripping the front plating off of an automaton as a shield, Octavia ran forward and began to fire at her sword to dislodge it.
The sword flew out of the leg under the pressure of a rain of bullets, embedding itself into the soft wood of an old chapel bench. Octavia continued to fire at the machine as its speaker shook with manic laughter, moving herself cautiously in the direction of her sword.
Finishing with a cartwheel onto the bench, she slammed down the metal sheet for cover as she ripped off the gatling gun and replaced her arm, crushing the machine gun beneath her foot.
Pulling the sword from the bench in a smooth motion, she rose from cover to once again deflect a stream of bullets with her blade. Spending the time with full visibility to observe the ACM, she scanned its every inch for a potential weakness.
The armored machine was perfect in its protective design, almost without any visible points that could be targeted. However there was a single point that could never be as secure, a long seam running down the center of the machine, its doors.
Before it had shut closed, Octavia had glimpsed the door's locking system. Three large magnetic bolts that connected and secured the doors into place. Normally even this gap would still be neigh impenetrable, but Octavia had one last card up her sleeve.
Steadying herself behind the metal plate, Octavia prepared for a final all out attack. Knocking the plate away, Octavia burst into a forward sprint with all of her energy. Using a table for leverage she propelled herself into the air, steadying her blade before her body to prepare for a downward strike.
Octavia concentrated deep into her soul, pulling fourth the mana buried deep inside. Magic was something she had hardly practiced and rarely used, however the feeling of channeling mana came as naturally as breathing. Warmth spread through her body in a shockwave, flowing out the tips of her fingers and into her sword. The magic circle activated, blasting the edge of the blade into a blazing orange as exhaustion crashed through her body.
Octavia pulled the last dregs of her strength together, slamming the flaming blade into the door's gap with all the power in her body. The bolts within the door melted into molten slag as the edge passed through, popping open loudly one at a time. With a scream of melting metal the final bolt burst, causing the ACM's doors to fly open on each side. The sword stopped centimeters from Lex's heart. Lex burst into laughter, grabbing the blade and drawing it closer to his heart.
"You think I'll just roll over and let you use me for information simply to preserve my own life? Never. Let it be known my devotion in life... and death."
Yanking the sword forward from Octavia's tired hand, he pierced his heart straight through. Lex coughed blood mixed with a sick laugh, falling limp.
The smug look on Lex's face faded into emptiness as he collapsed over in his seat. Yanking her sword from his limp body, Octavia kicked him out of the ACM and fell into the pilot's chair with a tired groan.
Octavia pulled a lever inside the machine, slamming the doors back shut around her with a secondary lock system. Sitting in the chair, she grasped the controls and linked the ACM to her targeting system.
With a flash of her red eye, the ACM's gears squealed back into motion. The machine stomped forward, smashing through the chapel's stone front wall. A dozen automatons skittered towards her with blaring alarms, their streams of bullets bouncing harmlessly off the ACM's metal body. Octavia pushed the joystick forward, skewering an automaton with the machine's leg. Turning towards the other robots she squeezed the trigger, all six gatling guns blazing bright while they filled the guard's chassis with holes.
The ACM pushed steadily through the floor, approaching the outer wall of the palace. Entire teams of robots were obliterated one after another through incessant gunfire, bursting into wrecks of oil and scrap piling meters high. The ACM ignored all walls and barriers, smashing through everything meant to stop it from proceeding forward.
Octavia reached the outer wall, crashing through the stone brick in a cascade of rubble. The ACM fell down to the ground, smashing the street beneath its impact.
Sirens blared as police and guard robots flooded the streets around the crater, hundreds of guns and swords all pointed at Octavia in a wide circle. She yanked the control stick forward, charging through the masses of combatants. Revving the gatlings, she focused fire on non lethal body parts on human police officers. Knees and arms burst into showers of blood as she forged ahead, breaking out of the circle that surrounded her. The police began to back away as a single man approached carrying a large cannon on a cart. Mounting the weapon, he fired 3 rounds in quick succession, rocking the ACM with explosions as the chassis groaned and cracked.
The ACM fired a volley of gatling rounds into the cannon, obliterating it, however several more carts were being drawn forward. Sensing the vehicle's time was up, Octavia marched towards the nearest building, crushing the support structures as she moved inside. The ceiling collapsed around her in a cloud of dust, giving concealment to open the ACM's doors and roll out. Sprinting away from the wreckage, she looked behind her back to see a barrage of high explosives hit the machine, blowing into a cascading ball of fire.
Octavia ducked into a nearby alleyway, desperately panting for air as the sounds of chaos echoed from the explosion site.
Her muscles screamed with pain as she limply slid down to the ground. Star spots danced around her vision as everything faded to black.
Octavia woke up to a dingy hospital room. A dim yellow lightbulb quietly buzzed above her head. Every inch of her body felt stiff and painful as she dragged herself up.
Looking to her side she saw Keith fast asleep in a bedside chair. Hearing Octavia move about, Keith awoke with a large yawn. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he leaned forward.
"Good morning Via. Welcome back to the land of the living."