12 Miles Below

Light swirled. Expanded. Then reality returned to focus.

Teneric felt his boots touch ground, flattening the silver flowers under him. He took a breath, centered his mind, and opened his eyes.

His HUD remained fixed with the same information he’d read earlier. Flatline vital signals on all of his fireteam, with exception to Drakonis. Killed in action, dismemberment, critical armor failure, again and again for every one of his team.

In a matter of minutes, an entire army of Deathless had been beaten at their prime. Annihilated. Without even scoring a single counter-kill against the enemy.

“What the fuck was that?” Drakonis hissed at his side, kicking his helmet with a vicious punt. The thing hadn’t even fully rematerialized, blue motes of occult still reconstructing the gear. “Goddesses golden fucking tits on a priest. Surface knights are already rare, and now we run into a fucking army of them - and they're all Deathless?!”

Teneric didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Even the Feathers he’d fought deep underground didn’t methodically wipe out a smaller team of Deathless that quickly. The metal monsters didn’t operate in teams as large as the surface clan he’d fought just now, but they were near the same level as far as his instincts screamed at him.

He replayed the fight in his mind, studying the differences in strength.

The second in command - he’d moved as quick as a Feather would. There was something about him that made Teneric’s gut roil. It was worse than fighting a Feather - they had ego’s and would often take breaks in a fight to monologue or wax poetry about their powers and superiority. This one fought with all the skill and strength of a feather without any of their weaknesses.

It was odd, the feeling of relief and frustrating at the same time. Here were Deathless that could stand and challenge the machine empire. Not simply follow through with smaller missions to harass and destroy key infrastructure - but actually break a hole through the very heart of the empire. Deathless of a caliber the world needed.

And they were allied to the machines. “We need to readjust how we handle these Deathless.” Teneric said. “Complete victory may not be possible against them.”

This wouldn’t be the first expedition that suffered complete failure due to overwhelming difference in power.

“The fuck it is.” Drakonis hissed, turning on the old Deathless without a hint of respect. “I don’t care if the surface dwellers die or live, they can have their little hovel in the middle of nowhere. I want that woman brought to justice, I want to see their lives burned at the stake for what they did. You’re either going to help me, or I'll take my team and do it myself.”

Teneric frowned at that. “You are hurt and lashing out right now, I understand. But life doesn’t always allow us the luxury of settling scores. We can make another attempt, but do not neglect that time itself might be the solace you seek."

The young Deathless gave him a glare that would set a machine on fire. Teneric shook his head, "This may be a harsh lesson to learn, but one you must go through.”

“If we give them time, they entrench and become unkillable." Drakonis said, pacing back and forth as he spoke. "I’m not wasting my one window to get the scores settled over fucking weakness.”

There was no reasoning with him like this. Defeat was an ugly color upon Drakonis, the boy was too young. Three and a half decades of life was hardly anything in the grand scheme of things, this may be the first true crisis he had to face. Teneric had seen loss again and again. He reminded himself that it wouldn’t be fair to expect that out of his Undersider kin, when their lives had hardly seen much struggle up until now.

The simple fact was that their window of chance to kill the cultists had already passed. But that was not what Drakonis needed to hear.

“I’m fighting them again.” Drakonis said before Teneric could even utter a sound. “I don’t care if I have to throw fire at them while wearing a loincloth, I’ll do it until my dying breath.”

The old veteran considered. Drakonis would not be moved from his course. And neither would the surface knights. But there was a way to thread the needle. “The cultists must pay for their betrayal of humanity. However, the surface clan are simple opportunists seeking a better life. They could find other Chosen to hitch their banner to in time.”

Drakonis stopped in his fit, head turning midway. “We could convince them to find somewhere else to go?”

Teneric shook his head. “No. You cannot convince a surface knight of anything if money and resources weren't enough. What we can do is strip the choice away. They’ll be seeking our base of operations to remove us for good as we speak. In doing so, they will overextend. Defeating them is not an option, however... your objective isn’t to defeat the surface Deathless. Nor is it to even survive the encounter. All we need is to eliminate the cultists. All other objectives are secondary to your cause. Is that correct?”

Drakonis nodded slowly, eyes growing resolute. “I see what you’re suggesting. Divide our forces, have them chase us while we hit their exposed town. They’ll wipe us out, but we’ll have already won at that same moment.” The young Deathless gave a nod at that, hand on his chin thinking. "That works. That works for me. If they're wiped out, I don't care if I die for it. My team and I can came back, they can't. Very well Teneric, if you pull this off, I'll consider the deal complete."

Teneric nodded. “It is the most optimal path to victory given what we can do. We’ll catch them by surprise.”

“They’re not catching us by surprise.” I said, tapping the map for extra emphasis. “They know their snow is packed up and getting baked, so they’ll change up their win conditions, because that’s exactly what I’d do in their place. Playing fair is for suckers and non-Winterscars.”

It had been half a day since we utterly beat up the Deathless, then watched them vanish away with all our hard earned loot. Since then, we reached the last known locations of their airspeeder to find absolutely nothing there.

Few snapped twigs, some rocks in circles, garbage left behind and some long dead firepits. No traps or anything over here, not because they weren’t vindictive or anything but because this location was outdated.

They’d been here, but likely a week ago. Way before they thought they’d be pressed back. The town had been forced to huddle in and lick its wounds instead of stalking around the world looking for a small army of Deathless that could and would obliterate anything vaguely silver looking. Whatever campsite they’ve got now, that might be trapped.

Wrath gave me a short nod at my idea, before her red eyes glanced right back down at the map we’d laid out on a table. “Against a superior enemy in which your victory is untenable, making their victory pyrrhic is the next best option. I agree with Keith, I believe they will already assume defeat and make an attempt at the town directly.”

The rest of the Winterscar knights were with me on that, while on the other end of the planning table, Tamery, Lejis and Marsella were considering the options.

Or at least Marsella was. Tamery looked shell shocked at all this, giving Wrath glances of ‘please let me go home’

Her most brilliant military suggestion to date had been to go and convince an entire city to surrender. Oddly enough, Wrath had somehow made that work. But two brilliant military strategies were a little over what Tamery had signed up for.

And Lejis wasn’t technically here since he was out with Fido searching for tracks. Instead, it was just an empty spot at the table with a comms unit crackling and a nametag saying ‘Dumb priest & oversized angry lizard.’

They asked me to organize it, they should have known. I take no responsibility whatsoever.

“Then, we should keep a reserve among the town?” He asked. “I do agree that would make the most sense, even if this were not their actual plan, having better defenses at the town is a better option now that we know we can afford it. Who would you consider for the job?”

“Four picks for that off the top of my head.” I said. “Wrath, Father, Captain Sagrius, or myself. With a few Winterscar volunteers as a treat. Anyone nominate other picks?”

Marsella folded her hands across her chest, and gave a shrug. “Wouldn’t be me or Tamery. An the priest is needed out to hunt down the airspeeder, I say any of your picks are good.” She turned to Wrath, “Perhaps our leader has a better idea?”

Wrath hummed. “I conclude the same options, however between all options, it must be me.”

That got a raised eyebrow from all of us. Lejis crackled on the speaker first, “I had considered the same. Your healing ability, correct?”

He couldn’t see, but Wrath nodded. Tamery looked a little confused at that, and Wrath picked up the clue from her tilted head.

“Tenisent cannot be defeated by any of the Deathless. We could send him to defend nearly alone, without any additional knights. Captain Sagrius is even further past the point of unkillable by the powers displayed earlier. However, we would need to send a few more knights with him. And Keith… ” She turned her head to me, “While I would personally prefer he remain at the town where he has a far larger chance of surviving any smaller scale conflict, his ultimate value would come into being a one-man army with his occult powers. Twelve potential images that cannot easily be dispelled is a powerful force multiplier - but the enemy has shown abilities to cancel those out. Any occult out.”

Her head turned across to all of us. “None of us can guarantee that the Deathless attempting to attack the town will never cross the threshold. We cannot be everywhere at once, and the only one of us who has an ability close to that was shown having it dispelled. Given that, we need to prepare instead for recovery.”

“So ultimately, it comes down to keeping the town and people within safe.” I said, getting it. “None of us can completely stop the Deathless from doing damage, but one of us does have the best - and only - chance of negating that damage.” Which lead right back to the Feather in question. Wrath.

She gave a short nod back. “If civilians are hurt or nearly killed, I may heal them, and the Deathless cannot dispel that ability. Additionally, I can still defeat all units they might field.”

“She can also command and control far better than all of us can.” Father said, voicing his opinion for the first time. “Simultaneous command, responding to events within milliseconds. The girl has true experience with such combat, the rest of us do not. Alone, she can command the machines and Chosen and be as effective as any of us sent with additional knight support.”

Marsella nodded. “So it’s cheaper on manpower to send her, leaves more of us here to pick a fight, and guarantees the civilians have the best first aid right there with them. Sounds like that’s the best call for that.”

Tamery just nodded next to her.

The older woman looked over to where the marked comms unit waited. “Priest, have you found any of their tracks yet? You’ve got only one job here.”

“We are still on the hunt.” Lejis crackled over the comms, “Fido claims they cannot hide from him for long. I believe the machine.”

“Guessin’ you have no ETA on that?”

No answer over the comms, but I think I could hear a crackled sigh. “Is there any other topic of discussion in the meantime?”

We looked around the table, but all of us had mostly said everything.

“How’s dinner sound?” I asked, and got a mostly unanimous approval.

Dinner was pretty good, all said and done. Compared to the ration bars flavored with salt and more salt, getting food from the supplies we’d brought was excellent. And even better with a machine obsessed with cooking. It’d be the last time Yrob could taste the cooking, since Wrath was flying off tonight with Tamery to return home and keep her people safe.

He’d certainly taken that to heart and went all out. Got a good meal in, then spent some more time to try - and fail - to solve Hexis’s last riddle. And finally after that some sparring lessons with Father. By the time he considered the training passable for the day, it was time to sleep.

I was about to turn in, when I found Wrath waiting in my tent. Looking like she’d stolen something, accidentally broken it, and then came back to return the pieces and admit guilt.

“All right, what's the scheme this time?” I asked, tossing packs of gear on the ground and making my way to sit down next to her. Since we were in wartime, there wasn’t any bed in the tent at all. I’d be expected to sleep in my armor, again. Had a lot more training doing that than I would have liked, but until I can return back home and retire filthy rich, nice luxurious bedding arrangements was out of the budget.

“I wished to see you one more time before I left.” She said, keeping her eyes looking absolutely everywhere except for my own. “I am unsure how long it will take to find and end the Deathless threat, it may be a day or may be a week.”

“You sure that’s all you came here to do?”

She nodded. “The past few months, I have grown… accustomed to always having you nearby or knowing I could come speak to you anytime I wished. This would be one of the first times when you will not be nearby, and I will not be able to go search for you.”

I was about to just run my mouth when I stopped and actually thought about what she was saying. Then I opened my fat mouth up to give some comedic bit, and what came out was far more genuine. "I'll miss you too Wrath." And I found that I meant it. “We’ve been through a lot so far, couldn’t have been where I’m at if I hadn’t run into you.”

She went real still at that, then started to sway left to right, mumbling to herself. And in that moment, I knew what I had to do.

“Well… You don’t have to go right now do you?” I asked. “The Deathless can’t do scrap until they’re back on their feet, and that’ll be a full day at the very least. We got time right?”

She shook her head up and down.

“And you’ve got a giant database of basically everything in your head right?”

She nodded again.

“Including favorite books?”

She nodded a third time.

“Well,” I said, “When I read books - don’t laugh, I’m actually very much literate unlike what most other people suspect - I like to picture what I’m reading, like one of the golden era movies in my head. Do you do the same?”

She gave a hesitant nod, now more focused on the question.

“Great, is there any chance you could, I don’t know, display what you’re seeing on a screen or something? I can’t hook my head up to a monitor, but you could. We could make up some movies to watch together based on your favorite books. Sounds like a fun idea?”

We didn’t find any large monitors to watch, so we had to settle for swiping someone’s handheld display slate, and then bundle up together to get a good view, but it turned out to be a really fun idea and ended up with me going to sleep about the same time as dawn came.

Fortunately, for once, I had good luck - Lejis didn’t find the Deathless airspeeder base the next day, giving me plenty of time to catch back up on the missing sleep.

But he did find them the next night instead.

“Sssss… the vermin flee.” Fido hissed under him. “Like insects scattering from the warm embrace of light. Chasing them in darkness is… unnatural. Anathema.”

Lejis kept a hand on the great machine as it slowly scaled up one of the plateaus. Claws digging into rock, breaking pieces off as it hefted itself up like a slug across the rock, in spurts of speed with each handhold and pull.

It was dark enough he couldn’t make out any handholds on the slope, the rock turning into one giant nondescript block to his senses. On the other side of the plateau, it would have been perfectly lit up by the artificial moon, but that also made it the absolute worse.

“You will find them.” He said, noting that the machine was feeling more frustrated with the lack of results rather than actual hatred for the target he was after. “Has there been any time where you haven’t found your quarry?”

Fido gave a deep huff, head flicking as if trying quickly to throw off droplets. “Ssss… never.”

“Then why doubt yourself now? You can hunt them beyond the times of day you could before, twice as efficient. If you could find your targets before, you can do so even better now. Keep going. Perhaps this will be the vantage point you need to find them.”

Drakes had violet lights across their chassis. And while daylight made such decorations less difficult on the hunters, at night it would become a crippling weakness. One that was intentional from what Lejis had learned, so that the Drakes would naturally have a shorter lifespan.

Most learned not to hunt at night or within darkness. But Lejis had given Fido a small gift - clothing. Large drapes and rugs attached by the refugees he’d walked with. The Drake had considered them sacrilegious at first, taking them off whenever the mites determined daylight to be.

But for a mission such as this, the Drake would put aside his feelings. And perhaps growing more used to it. Considering each step was being carefully taken so that none of the clothing would tear off with the rocks, or get caught, perhaps Fido was learning to appreciate the additional protection.

The machine huffed again, then crawled upwards with renewed speed, one clawed hand reaching to the edge and slowly bringing the beast above. From there he remained low to the ground, moving with slow measured steps until the whole of his body was past the threshold. A low guttering growl came from deep within the chassis as he stalked forward.

From there his tongue snapped out, the fork flickering in the air as if smelling. More likely, there were additional sensor equipment within that, fragile ones he kept protected within his jaw. Lejis could only guess, but that must have had some hint of truth behind it, for the machine’s head snapped to the left, as if spotting something.

The beast moved slowly across the top level, low to the ground, as if a cat stalking closer to prey. Lejis couldn’t see much of anything. Only large fields of silver glittering under the moonlight.

He quickly got a ping on his armor, with coordinates. The HUD opened up magnification and zoomed in further out. There, he spotted them same as the Drake had.

“Lights.” He muttered. “They left lights active. In the night. How could a warband lack such simple dicipline?”

“Sssss… they seek escape. Relief. They know we are here searching for them... and they wish to be seen. The hidden truth deep within their heart, their craving for release... yesss I can taste their desire, so bright in such fading light.”

“Deathless do not covet death, Fido." Lejis chided. "I would argue there is no craving for any kind of release. But we are in agreement on one thing: They wanted to be found.”