12 Miles Below-Chapter 40Book 8 - - What Relinquished hid

Another whale-looking machine crashed against the snow, crushing a few hundred machines that had the misfortune not to be situationally aware.

My heart goes out for them, truly. Getting crushed was a terrible way to go. Compared to getting lasered.

Speaking of, a good rotation was set up among the knights, allowing for one or two To’Sefit beams to be blasted downrange every ten seconds, and kept some reserve blasts for emergency issues.

I expected to hold out for a good half hour in this airspeeder, possibly getting forced back into the city if the power cells here got overloaded. We’d burned through three so far, the airspeeder shields still oddly functional for a multi century frozen derelict.

Superior returned much sooner.

Got them. He said, first thing. Spear trick worked.

How was it?

He gave a wiggle of a hand. Doable if I really focus hard on it. I think with a bit more practice, I could call and create one on the fly. But in the meantime, ready to figure out what’s on the other end of the miteseeker?

What have you found? What are we looking at?

He shrugged. There really is just a single coordinate. But I know the biome is sealed off. As in, there’s no way in or out of that thing besides a portal. I also know another thing: It was a deadzone - to Tsuya. She couldn’t see it or tell it existed. So the only way to find it was to have the mites circumvent whatever deal they’d done to keep that spot hidden away.

Relinquished. I hissed out. She’s hiding something there.

Yeah. Something big if she went all this way. That the mites had to do this entire song just to find the location, meant the coordinates here were too expensive to directly sell. Relinquished paid a huge amount to keep this out of everyone’s view.

We’ll find out what kind of weapon she was trying to hide from view. Any other details?

No. Nothing more. Also, I’m not sure the miteseeker is going to work anymore. I, uh, did a slight amount of possible criminal activity to get these coordinates out.

Is there a portal near the objective? The idea of showing up to the nearest portal being a few miles away would be a problem.

Apparently it’s straight ahead of the nearest portal, over what they say is a bridge. We’ll be fine.

“Incoming. Backup firepower on my targets.” Father called out over the comms, having run into more enemies than he could deal with in one swing. I saw on the video camera footage over my HUD what was going on over there, when I swapped to Father’s feed: More airspeeder-sized floating machines were showing, and they were not only shooting drake beams out, they also deployed some sort of flying locus swarm. Which made our To’Sefit laser sweeps a lot less useful.

“Knights, fall back to the portal, we’re getting out.” I said.

Superior, boot it up. I’ll keep power flowing on my end here. Does Relinquished know where we’re going?

That’s the great part. She shouldn’t. Wrath’s got her unity fractal removed, permanently. And Father tore it out as soon as he could if I remember your memories right. She shouldn’t know where we are unless a machine reports it to her.

“Captain Sagrius will go in first.” Father called, and I could see the logic.

Out of all of us here, even including Father, Sagrius was just flat unkillable using the occult. His depth of willpower made him able to take on even To’Sefit’s lasers all converging on him.

Sending him first to secure a beachhead against whatever was on the other side was the best use case.

“All other knights, prepare a fighting retreat back to the airspeeder the moment we cross into parameter.”

I stared at my HUD, watching the location markers sprint as fast as they could. Father and Sagrius were breaking through the enemy lines, back onto our turf.

Problem with this: Without them on the frontlines disrupting everything, the rest of the airspeeder sized machines started opening fire on our own. Only To’Sefit’s plates were cutting that number down, and it wouldn’t be enough. Potshots against our immobilized fortress here were starting to pile up.

Airspeeder shields showed three power cells left keeping things together. I debated making a run for the engineering room, I could swap out the cells again, put in new ones. But we’d be depleting our reserves, and we’d need them for where we’re going.

Two more lasers got a hit off on the airspeeder, and the system pinged my helmet another power cell had been drained.

“Come on, come on.” I hissed under my breath, watching the two green dots on my map fighting their way back.

Another volley of lasers shoot out of the next monster to portal into the biome, turrets on its side not even bothering to lock on properly before firing. Most of the lasers slashed through the ground, melting snow and punching a hole into the dirt for a few feet.

We were fortunate that the mite portal was in the hangar bay, and teetering off the side of a cliff over the roadway, it meant there was an entire hill between the mite portal and the incoming lasers. I’d be safe here, but the rest of the ship anywhere a few feet above my helmet was open season.

Of which was being tested right this moment.

Red warning messages appeared over my HUD, status updates. The airspeeder starting to panic. Emergency red lights began flashing all over the ship; we were on our last cell.

The two green dots finally broke free from the mass of red ones, and I exhaled some pent up stress. Speed on their approach rapidly increased as the few red dots chasing after Father and Sagrius vanished. Covering fire from the airspeeder was taking care of stragglers now, since the To’Sefit knights were dedicated on shooting down the artillery ships in the back.

The swarm of micro-machines on the other hand were still on approach, just far slower about it. Moving like a giant silver cloud in the distance.

“All knights, begin extraction.” Father called out, just as his marker passed the green zone on the HUD. “Fighting retreat, pairs of two.”

The pair of green dots separated. Sagrius advanced straight for the airspeeder, while the other green dots surrounding the ship equally disengaged.

Superior also took the cue to start the portal process. Occult pulsed out of the alien looking tech carried within the hangar, and I stared down as the maw of the portal opened up, a whirlpool leading somewhere other.

It will close when you pass it. Superior sent. Make sure you jump in last.

I let the team know, while they organized their movements, finding the most optimal way to return fire while also marshaling back to the portal.

“Setting weapons to autofire.” Comms called out as the gunner knights all withdrew from their stations. In moments, I could hear the sound of them landing hard on metal railings behind me.

They ran through the airspeeder doorways, until they reached the tilted hangar bay, watching the open portal.

Sagrius gave zero attention to anything and flew right in on jets, by the open roadway, turning on his heel, then jumping up, directly into the portal.

The other knights immediately moved after, “Go go go! Secure perimeter behind the Captain!”

Three knights vanished into the portal, feet first as they leapt from behind me, and fell through. Other knights started appearing under the open bay doors like the captain had, taking turns to open fire at a distant enemy before the hillside obstructed their firepath.

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Only Father remained behind on my map, still by the parameter of the airspeeder. “Father, get over here!”

“I am drawing their ire. I will retreat last. Go ahead.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re planning something stupid like staying behind?”

“I am not, boy.” He said in a tone that clearly found the idea ridiculous.

“Tenisent means that it would be a tactical blunder to remain behind, he has no plans to do such a thing.” Wrath said. “There is greater chance of danger on the other end of the portal. He would only remain behind to defend a retreat point if it was advantageous to do so.”

“Right.” I said, “Trust in that over his word is what you’re saying.”

The Winterscar knights rapidly retreating below the bay doors all jumped up one at a time, a few landing a foot on the tilted hangar to push themselves further up, but most simply flew straight through the open portal, same as Sagrius.

And with each knight vanishing into the portal, there were less To’Sefit plates to go around. The number of hostile enemies the airspeeder sensors were reporting were greatly overwhelming how fast we could take them out. Now the swarm of machines itself was gaining ground, the auto firing solutions from the turrets occasionally spazzing out and failing to lock onto targets.

Three more knights passed through the portal, leaving just Father, myself, Wrath and five other knights.

And then the inevitable happened. The airspeeder’s lights flickered for a moment as the system transferred from power cell energy to emergency backup for cabin support.

The last power cell had been spent.

The next drake laser tore straight through the center hull. Another slashed through the lower engine, and a third stabbed right into the cockpit. Melted metal and bent fragments spilled out the other side.

Two more Winterscars passed by under, and jumped straight through the portal.

The automated gun turrets began failing one after another until the the last one was silenced by a direct laser beam through the hull.

“Rush in!” I called out, as the last pairs of knights each leapt through the portal. The airspeeder groaned, and I recognized that sound. Deep down inside my heart there was still an engineer there, and all engineers instinctively knew what that kind of groan was.

A deathrattle.

“Come on, hold it together for a little longer.” I hissed, holding onto the portal side. Another groan came from the ship and I saw a blue glow deep within the hold, reflecting off the open doorway.

It was trying to hold together, struggling. But now laser after laser were punching through the internal hull. I saw the connection feed between my armor and the airspeeder cut. The subsystems were now offline. The cockpit must have been punched through in one of those lasers.

Another cut through the hull and finally severed the airspeeder’s spine. It fractured into two halves, the engines and tail section breaking down, while the hangar bay near the nose where I hung out finally began to collapse, falling down the final few feet until it hit ground.

A pair of white hands stabbed through the floor plating, and Wrath pried her way in, climbing through the wreckage, before making a direct jump into the portal.

It was still powered, I don’t know how, but the lights in the airspeeder section here remained working still.

Father’s green dot raced directly at me. And he barreled through the hole Wrath had pried open, quickly jumping with extreme agility, vanishing straight through the portal.

I swung in, feet first, falling directly down at it. I could hear the engine tail section explode. Probably something hit a critical point. The lights finally flickered off, as the airspeeder exhaled its last breath of life, just as I crossed the barrier threshold.

To’Iridia waited still, eyes watching the sealed portal before them. Mother had personally told her and eight others here to guard the mite containment cube behind them.

Personally demanded them to assemble here. And personally passed down the command, from her own shell. Whatever was within this cube, it was important.

To’Regis commanded them all, brooding up front of the formation. A second-generation Feather like the rest of them. All nine here had fought against protofeathers and outlived them.

There wasn’t anything in this world that could stand against nine of the best second-generation Feathers.

Nothing except a protofeather. To’Iridia licked her lips. Seven hundred years, and not a single fight against the human Deathless had come close to the thrill of fighting a protofeather.

Nine of them would be just about the size of a scout party, made to harass one and keep them pinned while further reinforcements came. To’Iridia could understand Mother’s plans.

And if nine of them had been dispatched here, then the coming fight would be legendary.

The white marble bridge before them was wide, and could easily fit several thousand humans marching forward. It made the perfect battleground to pitch against a demi-god. Slightly arching upwards from the base of the portal, regally ending to the slanted dark containment cube waiting behind. That was the only part of this biome that was unappealing, the containment cube looked completely out of place, hold light slowly traveling through the groves on the surface, while the rest remained pitch black.

Even the placement seemed off center from the bridge, as if it were thrown into here haphazardly and crashed on the apex of the bridge itself, ending in this half-tilted unappealing rotation.

But if that was what Mother wished to guard…

Outside this biome, an army of machines unlike any had been assembled, so that anyone making the attempt to break into this vault would have to fight through them first. With the machine network down, the nine here had no information on if there was a fight there or not.

For all they knew, the protofeather may be currently slaughtering their way to the portal right this moment.

And nothing happened. For hours now, the Feathers remained at attention. Mother had told them to guard this place, so they would.

They were not told they couldn’t gossip with each other in the meantime. Theories and plans flew wild between the nine stoically waiting Feathers. Entire speeches were prepared, rated and judged by their peers.

And then the moment finally came a few days later.

The portal opened up. So the surrounding forces must have been wiped out. That meant the protofeather coming through here would be battle scared, possibly exhausted, believing they were at the end of the journey and it was all over.

To’Iridia couldn’t wait to see the look on their face, when they found themselves up against nine second-generation Feathers.

A figure dove through the portal, rolled on the ground and got back on his feet.

And To’Iridia felt all her hope crumble away.

“A Deathless?” To’Trion said, sounding the exact despair the rest of them thought.

It was. A single Deathless, in human power armor.

No wait - perhaps a protofeather had used one of these armors to hide within? She sent a few scanning probes an- nope.

Human armors always constantly relayed their operator’s vital signs. Some hardlocked features in their creation, so that an external team would know the moment something went wrong in the operator. Dreadfully useless, given Deathless came back from anything.

And unfortunately, the vitals showed fully human, a heart beat, blood pressure and all the boring items.

An order was sent from their silent captain at the forefront.

To’Phyno sighed next to her, “Fine, I’ll go handle this one.” He said, pulling out only a single one of his chakrams. No flourish to it even, just annoyed at having to sweep the floor of dirt.

Internally she was pleased he’d been ordered to do the cleanup. She hated him. Hated that he’d come up with the idea of a black blindfold before she had. Her weapon set would benefit far more compared to his chakrams. She was the one with thrown daggers, and occult blades in her heel and hands. Strike with martial might hand to hand, and then eradicate their attempt to run at a distance when they believed themselves just about to escape. A blindfold was a perfect juxtaposition for this combat style.

But of course, she hadn’t been quick enough and that idea had been stolen away.

“Hopefully this was a fluke.” To’Aerty said. “Please tell me Mother expected us to defend this cube against more than simple Deathless.”

Three more armored human knights rolled out of the gateway, coming to stand next to the single human who’d led forward. They stood at the very base of the bridge, watching intently as To’Phyno made his way for cleanup duty. Silly humans, if they had any sense, they’d turn around and run for it back through the portal before To’Phyno finished his walk.

“There’s nine of us here.” To’Iridia said, attempting to reassure herself as well as To’Aerty. “This has to be a fluke. A lucky expedition team of Deathless. They may even be here by mistake.”

More human Deathless passed through the gate, proving her theory right. “Perhaps they were sent here as a practical joke by the mites?” To’Phyno asked, looking behind him halfway to the incoming Deathless party. “Least it’ll be slightly more fair on them. Less boring than standing here for days.”

A dozen Deathless now, and two more appeared soon after.

One drew a lot of raised brows. That… was a Feather. With wings and everything.

No doubts about it. Even To’Phyno paused, confused as to why a Feather was following the portal behind them.

Another Feather appeared not even a moment later. Two Feathers then.

“Ah, they were giving chase to these Deathless.” To’Iridia said and the rest of the Feathers began to chuckle as they realized what was going on.

The humans really did have the worst luck, trying to flee two Feathers only to be sent by the mites up against nine of the best Relinquished had to offer.

To’Phyno came to a stop at the middle of the bridge, “Little brother, Little sister. Do you need help hunting these Deathless down? Or do you have it in hand?”

The male one stepped forward. “We have it in hand.” He said.

Odd features. Sensors pinged him as To’Avalis, a generic younger generation Feather. And yet his face and features weren’t bleach white, but instead looked like actual human flesh. Odd design choice on Mother’s part.

Well. She couldn’t probe further information with the network down, and she didn’t quite care what a younger upstart might think or do. Mother was free to experiment as she wished, To’Iridia would always be among the greatest generation of Feathers already.

What was even more strange were the human Deathless who remained watching them all, instead of the two enemy Feathers right behind them. To’Iridia would have expected the humans to form up into a ball, back to back, so that they could keep both sides covered.

They didn’t. Perhaps they understood the real threat was indeed walking up to them from the bridge, To’Phyno alone would be five times the danger of the two Feathers standing behind the group. That made some amount of sense.

A final knight barreled through the gateway, rolling to a stop, and the portal sealed shut behind them, locking all means of escape out of this biome.

“That’s it? A handful of Deathless? How anti-climactic.” To’Phyno said, pulling his blindfold slightly up to verify with one eye that the portal had indeed shut.

The final knight didn’t so much as say a word to them, but instead issued orders the instant he spotted the nine.

“We don’t have time to deal with mooks. All knights, draw experimental weapons.”