12 Miles Below

“Well here’s the good news: We found them, their exclusive club, airspeeder, and little dog too.” Keith’s message went. Text scrolling over her vision. This was the fifth time she was re-reading them. “I’m going to take a shot in the dark here but they’re probably going to start attacking the town right about the same time we hit them, if they haven’t already. Quick request before I log out, once you handle them and are sure none are left sulking around anymore, bring some drinks on your way here. Not a lot of good choices out in these wastes, besides dirt flavored water with a hint of flower and more dirt. Not even a single snowball to melt. Gods damned shame when I find myself missing that hint of iron and metal in everything I drink. Anyhow, enough scraptalking from me, talk to you soon, got to go do knight stuff and earn my pay…. You do pay me for this, right boss?”

The words faded from her vision. Her human was currently in battle at this very moment. And that would mean…

They’d be here soon as he’d warned her. The enemy. They hadn’t appeared yet, but any moment. She was as prepared for them as she could be.

To’Wrathh paced around the small room, fingers on her left lightly brushing her blade hilt, while her other hand swirled a glass cup. Wine, the Chosen here called it. Brought from Capra’Nor through fire and battle, still in one unbroken barrel. From the personal cache of General Zaang. All to end up in her hand.

She’d asked Tamery for a drink she could bring to Keith after all this, and the girl had an odd impish look to her features when she suggested this beverage. Still had one as she sat by the windows, watching the artificial night sky and their pretend stars, having a glass herself.

To’Wrathh found she rather liked the drink, it had a high level of data to process through and constantly changed profiles long after consumption. Once she wrapped up with her errant enemies here, she’d bring the casket with her. The weight would be negligible. She carried her human, armor and all, multiple times already in the past. A few hundred pounds of wine and other drinks wouldn’t be any trouble.

Midway through her musings, she got the ping. Finally. She set the cup down then strode out of the home, Tamery giving her a small thumbs up. “Stay safe,” the girl said as the door closed. “Come back soon.”

“Of course I will.” To’Wrathh answered, right as the doorway closed. Her red eyes glowed for a moment as they roved over the dark streetways of the small town. Doors were sealing shut all across the area. Chosen hiding away in bunkers or other structures. The warning announcement had gone off clearly to everyone, and they were taking appropriate actions.

Machines paced around the outside walls. Useless really, Runners had poor eyesight, comparable to natural humans. A few Chosen knights were keeping an overwatch, along with three civilians without armor who had their eyes replaced by machinery. Glowing violet, the peered through the darkness, out into the moonlight and deeper into the dark pools formed behind the rock plateau.

Those would be the eyes and ears of the town. The Runners would only relay the message to all other machines.

And within two minutes, one of them called out.

“Targets sighted.” The large runner hulking besides her muttered. “Nnnnnn, three teams of three. Deathless. My lady. Fight?”

They had arrived. Exactly as her human had deducted. Nine in total. Slightly more than she had expected.

To’Wrathh drew her blades, fingers tapping on the hilts. “Show me where they are.”

Data flowed into her mind. They were sprinting this way, from three different directions. Moving at near top speed for relic armor. They’d be leaping directly onto the wallside within four minutes.

She considered using her wings for this fight. They were well known and iconic. The Deathless would relay their discoveries to the veteran, who would refuse to allow a Feather to exist unopposed. However their use would certainly pitch the battle in her direction.

They didn’t need to be completely stretched out to be used, she could make use of the anti-gravity functions and movement with them hidden under her oversized cloak.

“Hold off the center and left side.” Wrath ordered as she whirled on her heels and sprinted forward to the right side of the town, advancing like a specter in the darkness, her helmet snapping on and cutting off the trailing glow of her sight. “I will sweep through and advance across their lines until none are left.”

Separated into three groups allowed the Deathless easier ingress, but it also meant none of their smaller forces could contest against her. She was safe to divert her full resources.

Commands were sent, and her forces moved to engage the center and left most attack. All they had to do was hold off the Deathless. Cannon fire began booming across. Occult glowed brightly in the darkness and from the occasional leaps To’Wrathh took, she could spot where the Deathless were converging on.

Their speed tripled past what a running knight could reach, and video feeds showed her exactly what their plan had been. She considered it a little creative, but she had ordered traps to be placed down in the field while she was flying back.

Those would easily counter her opponents.

She leaped over her wall, then kicked off of the side, flying like a wraith in the night, directly at the enemy. Pulsing the occult around her served to cover her use of the hidden wings to zip through the air. Let the Deathless believe she was using an occult spell to soar through the air like this.

In the darkness, she saw her targets. They had abandoned sprinting the moment cannon fire opened up on them, each team throwing a single hoversled under their boots, then using occult leashes to pull themselves forward, looking like an octopus snapping multiple tendrils forward to advance. One Deathless on each sled held the front, hands pitched forward to force an occult shield before the sled, deflecting bullet fire, while the other two constantly grappled the whole unit forward.

Amatures.

To’Wrathh immediately sent her orders through her army. Explosive grenade rounds, fired slightly before the sled. And once they crossed the trapped area, any that made it would find the bottom of their sled equally exploded from triggered mines.

Across the field of battle, she registered her forces adjusting their aim, explosions and other hits knocking the sleds off track or breaking them apart. The Deathless advance stalled as the soldiers were forced back on their sprint, assisted only occasionally by grapples, and knocked backwards anytime direct firepower hit them, or that they accidentally stepped too close to mines.

To’Wrathh focused back on her own small fight.

They hadn’t been fired on, so they remained on their sled, advancing rapidly to the walls. Then promptly they got too close to a mine and To’Wrathh sent commands to detonate.

The explosion threw all three Deathless off their hoversled, falling face first into the field of flowers, rolling to a stop. The sled itself landed like a shovel into the ground, light flickering from where a hole had been ripped into it.

The explosion was the least of their worry. In moments, she’d reached the scrambling Deathless, flowing down right at her first target, nearly unseen with the dark sky behind her up until the moment her blades turned on.

She dove straight down at her first target. He turned his helmet up at the last second, his blade lighting up with a desperate swing. One short parry that ended with the flat of his blade slashed through, turning it into a dagger instead. His helmet snapped to attention, taking note that his weapon had been decimated.

Mistake.

To’Wrathh moved like the reaper of death, quickly burning through his shields with strike after strike, moving across the land as if gravity were an afterthought. The Deathless attempted to build distance by slamming the ground with a stomp, sending a shockwave out that ripped her away.

The worst possible move against an opponent like her.

To’Wrathh still had her wings under the deep cloak she wore, and they hardly needed air to function. Midway through, she readjusted herself, flared out occult to mask her abilities, and flew right past the shockwave, back on target.

The two others tried to get at her. They may as well be moving in slow motion to her senses, she could see where they’d launch their latches, and where those would land. With short adjustments, she flew right between the occult grapples, and slammed right back on target.

Three seconds later, the Deathless clunked down on his knees, before falling down on the ground, headless.

The other two took defensive positions, weapons lifted.

“You’re on the wrong side pal,” One hissed.

“These are cultists, snap out of it. Whatever home you’re looking for, there’s better than this.” The other added.

To’Wrathh tilted her head, blades flickering to the side to throw off blood. “No.” She said, voice clean and cold. “This is my home. And I will not allow you to desecrate it, or harm anyone who stays under my protection.”

It took them by surprise, but they were far too trained to let the surprise stop them from defending against her rage.

One tried to avoid execution by tapping on that occult shield he’d used to shield the hoversled. To’Wrathh simply slid past the shield, using her wings to move her body even when her feet didn’t quite touch the ground. Like water, she moved past his guard and went to work.

The shield was abandoned instantly as both were forced on the defensive, trying desperately to cover for each other against her. She advanced and they backpedaled, each cross of blades lowering their own shields further and further with nothing gained for it. They fought better than the Undersider knights she’d battled, but compared to the spars she’d had with the surface knights, these Deathless were out of their league. And her overclock was still on full effect, making each of their motions slow to her perceptions, though they couldn’t possibly know that.

What they could realize was that they weren’t going to make it. They gave each other one single glance that told an entire story in a half second. Both sent a shockwave to throw To’Wrathh off, then twisted on their heels and sprinted as fast as they could to the wall’s direction. Rock and dirt flew hard behind each footfall as they tried to escape, arms and hands moving in tandem with as much precision as they could in their sprint.

To’Wrathh once more realigned herself mid-air, shards of her wings vibrating against the cloak as they stabilized her position. She could easily outrun their breakneck speed, their little plan here was doomed for failure. Already she was nearly upon them, blades extended out.

A moment later, she found out why they’d even made the attempt. One leaped into the air himself, helmet snapping back in shock at finding her already nearly upon them. But the man committed to his plan and launched an occult bomb from his outstretched hand - right into her direction. The same one that sapped all shields and occult spells during their first encounter with the Deathless.

In her slowed perceptions, she considered possible avenues of dealing with this. Only two options came up to her senses - dive backwards, putting distance between the expected explosion or dive straight through.

They’d proven before to be able to explode the bomb on command with a gesture, if she dove backwards, they’d simply delay the explosion and take the additional time to sprint forward. For all she knew they might repeat the move again and again until they made it to the wall unharmed.

Her chassis was that of a Feather’s. If these attacks were significant enough to tilt the tide, Deathless wouldn’t require entire teams just to hold off a single one of her kind.

Option set, she rushed right past the occult bomb. The Deathless responded exactly as she expected, hand flicking out to command its premature explosion.

The occult exploded out, then imploded back into itself, sucking all power in the air right as she soared by. Her shields flatlined as expected. But an additional benefit occurred the moment after - the pair were too close to the occult blast. Both equally saw their shields begin to drain away, occult mist around them being sucked directly into the vortex.

Then… something happened inside her soul fractal. She felt it flicker, light dimming. Reality turned black and white to her senses, a pulse of fear coming from her mind and… nothing.

Damage report resulted nominal projections. All systems green.

Sensors showed no damage across subroutines. Power to the soul fractal had not been interrupted, the system showed non-responsive.

Logging potential false negative error report for future debugging.

Overclock remained stable. Earlier fear response nonsensical.

Targets no longer shielded. Intercept course remained on target. Combat subroutines showed suboptimal directions, system logging recalibration request for later. Slashing of any kind was suboptimal. To’Wrathh angled herself, ready to puncture through their helmets instead. This was calculated to be the fastest method of eliminating her targets.

Her hand thrust forward.

Her blade was parried. Unexpected. She instantly tried again. The Deathless parried again, this time with occult powers. They continued to retreat backwards the whole time, building further distance.

She sprinted after them, attempting a third stab.

The soul fractal within her shell flared with power again. She took note, and sent it to the standard combat log. Approximately one point two seconds between fractal shutdown and now. She was still on track to catching the fleeing opponents with little error other than two failed killing attempts. They were out of puncture range, but her feet would quickly catch up again.

Wait.

Why?

She banked into a stop, jumping backwards, sheathing her blades. Attempting a thrust attack on a fleeing target was… idiocy. There were far too many defensive abilities the Deathless could do to halt her attack, the surface schools of combat showed exactly how in detail.

Not to mention there a far quicker way of dispatching the enemy at this point in time.

Why had she listened to her systems on using thrusting attacks and disregarded an entire lifetime’s wealth of learning from the surface schools of combat?

To’Wrathh sheathed her blades as she floated through the air, taking out a sidearm handed to her by her human. One loaded with his occult bullets. With two clicks of the trigger, she shot both Deathless directly through their unshielded helmets, the occult bullets sliding through with no resistance. It took not even a half second.

Both targets instantly collapsed on the ground, dead.

The Feather landed a moment later by their bodies, confused why she hadn’t simply done this the instant that the enemy shields dropped. One point two seconds was lighting fast thinking to humans - but in her full overclock, it may as well have been ten minutes.

Ten minutes where the only thought in her head was pursue and eliminate. To repeatedly attempt the fastest possible move that would eliminate her targets - as if they were target dummies that couldn’t fight back. No other thoughts. No other consideration of what they could do in retaliation. No thinking at all.

She shook her head, there would be better times to consider what had happened and how to avoid that kind of issue. Her feet kicked to the right, and she raced across the silver flowers to reach the next Deathless team.

These ones had been nearly at the wall. The cannon fire and explosions had managed to rip through one’s shields, and significantly lower the shields of the other two. Runners above the walls leaped straight down, claws flashing with occult lines. Normal Runners never carried occult blades, but her forces were different. She had no reason to leave her soldiers unarmed like the pale lady had.

They clashed right into the Deathless, blades swinging down. Another lost his shield, but remained agile enough to avoid a killing blow. His fellow hadn’t noticed the Runners in time, finding his right arm sliced clean through, and then claws stabbing right into his chest and heart.

The one near the back began to glow with white occult energy, power channeling through his lifted hand. Air whipped around him, flowing into his outstretched hand.

A shot rang out. A blue fading bullet line passing through his helmet. White power dissipated, and the Deathless fell down on his knees and collapsed to the left, motionless.

The last Deathless swung his blade at a runner, while extending his hand to the side, a shockwave throwing another Runner flying off. He twisted on his heels, noticing his two dead companions, helmet turning to face To’Wrathh’s approach.

He threw himself to the side, attempting to escape her aim. It made no difference to her perception, she hit him dead center through his helmet right in the middle of his frantic dodge. The man collapsed down, joining the other Deathless in death.

She raced past their bodies, leaping over the wall and sped through the inner section of the town.

Her machine forces had been ordered to stall and attempt only safe attacks, taking only opportunistic hits. The tactic had let her forces go without casualties, but the cost had been letting the final team make it through the walls. One of the encroaching Deathless had been cut down, unable to repower his shields in time before a Runner had struck for lethal damage, but the other two enemies had managed to get over and were slowly making their way through the roads. If she didn’t move quickly, they’d make it to the bunkers and begin to murder civilians.

She caught them only a few dozen steps away from the entrance to the first bunker, the pair raining rifle fire down, attempting to take out Runners using conventional tactics. The machines held large steel plates that were far more resilient to bullet fire than the inferior ceramic armor Runners were made with.

To’Wrathh flew right into the pair, blades flashing at both. One dropped his rifle in time to bring out a blade, the other had the weapon sliced in half before being knocked right out of the battle by a Feather empowered roundhouse kick. He flew backwards, flattening against a wall, right in range of three Runners.

He shouted out, sending a shockwave to his left, throwing two Runners off their feet, but the one to his right reached both hands out and wrapped them around the trapped Deathless, occult edges glowing brightly on his claws, eating through the shields in a flash. A moment later, the man was dead, cut through.

To’Wrathh knew the fight was over. Her final opponent was trying to fend her off and failing miserably, his last ditch attempt was to soar out of her way using an occult lash on the edge of a building. He leaped right up, only to find his ankle firmly in her grasp as she leaped up after him.

The air was her domain.

She slashed at his caught leg, waiting for the shields to dissipate. At the same time, the man tried to cast something at her head, hand grabbing for her helmet, glowing with occult. She let go of her blade, letting it fall to the ground while she grabbed his wrist and pried the hand off her helmet. Then she forced the hand to point away from her as a small beam of occult power lanced straight out into the air, aimed at nothing.

She crushed the wrist, twisted the man around and dislocated the shoulder next. With her prey mostly incapacitated, she drew her sheathed blade, and cut down at his throat. The shields sprang up one more time, holding her off for a second before cracking and breaking apart with a flare of power. Her blade instantly continued through, cutting through the throat guard and neck clean through.

By the time they both hit the ground again, the Deathless was long dead, and the threat to the town was done.

There wasn’t a fourth team. This had been all the Deathless could send over. No recall cube had been triggered either, none of them had carried one with them. Nor were they dissolving away into blue motes, so there wasn’t some unseen watcher in the distance ready to pull the trigger.

“Search the town.” She ordered, standing up from her most recent kill. “I want a full report detailing no other attacks are inbound.”

The machines around her nodded, then set in action. Five minutes passed as To’Wrathh waited by the center of the town, pacing back and forth. Waiting for the tables to turn.

Nothing. No additional attack. But she did receive a message.

From Lejis. “My lady, are you currently engaged in combat?”

“The Deathless attacking the town have been handled.” She replied. “We are searching for any additional parties they might have, but initial findings are positive. No casualties here, neither civilians nor machine.” She wouldn’t be certain of victory until at least a half hour had passed. And even then, it may be better to wait until Keith returned instead.

Still, currently she could claim this had been a near perfect operation. Allowing the Deathless to cross into the town had been a highly effective tradeoff for the safety of her forces as a whole.

“How has the fight gone on your end Lejis?” She asked.

“We succeeded.” He answered, but there was a tone in his voice that said something was off. A moment later he proved it. “Unfortunately, I cannot say we did so without any casualties.”

She felt a spike of fear course through her systems. “Who?” She asked, dreading the answer.

“Keith.” The priest said. “We have lost contact with him in the fight.”