The way out of the bunker hangs overhead.
When I see it, I laugh. "Forgot I tied it like that."
"Fucking ominous, isn't it?" Zen chuckles, nudging the noose with his assault rifle as he passes it. "Just another minute to scope out what else is here."
"Don't have to convince me. Let's take a quick look around and I'll update the map."
We mostly stick to the confines of the cafeteria itself, and I'm happy to find a small library off to the side and a commissary too. Ditching some of the lead batteries I was carrying, I load up the last of my cubes with as many books as will fit in each one. It comes out weighing about the same as carrying those lead batteries. But I know Zoya will be happy, and so will I with all those L-Credits.
I catch up with Zen and find him by a directory sign near one of the other tunnels that leads from the cafeteria. With an actual map now handy, I snap a picture and start populating the digital scan with all my notes and observations, along with Nep-67's. If any Neps end up here in the future, just like Nep-67 was doing, I want them to be prepared and know where I've already cleared.
Zen slides a finger down the listing and stops at one near the bottom. "Frame Division. Might check there for some way to improve your Tech capabilities. I wonder if they'd have the machinery required. Or spare hardware."
I check out its location on the map in front of us and highlight it on mine. "Worth a second trip back here, that's for sure."
"Agreed. Not just for you, but the three of us Frames. Colossal parts are not common. If we can find any for Henna, that'd be a huge help. That's all I wanted to do for now. It's time to head home. We've gathered more than our share."
"I'm right behind you. And thanks, Zen. For coming with me. We got through some good conversations that I think needed to be had. And… I couldn't have done this without you. Not to mention that you're carrying Nep-67 back for me."
He turns and looks down at me, expression hard to read. I think that's something we Pursuers share, a blank slate to our vacant faces, revealing nothing. "It was much needed. I haven't stretched my legs like this in a long time. Thank you for having me. Let's get out of here."
"After you."
"No. You're going first. I'm…" He stares up at the toprope. "Call it a trauma and a response, but I'm not putting us in any position where I might have to leave you behind again."
"Then I'll go first. I don't mind. That's kind of you. And I'm certain Ace would appreciate the thought and care that comes with it."
ACE> 1, 1, whatever…
"Tune, please monitor and alert down here with Zenith, and come up after he does."
"Affirmative."
"Taser, you're always with me."
"Doot-doooo!"
Checking the rope, making sure its tensile strength can handle me and the weight of my pack, I find it satisfactory. It's not going to be an easy climb weighed down like this, but I know I can manage it.
"Alert!" Tune's eyes turn yellow. "Machine Intelligence signatures detected! Alert! Multiple potential hostiles inbound! Analysis shows a swarm of ten SRC-AB98s led by a single MCDU-TP6888. I strongly advise against separating the group until the threat has been dealt with."
ACE> Wtf are those???
I draw my new sword, dropping my backpack on the floor. "Zen?"
He chambers the first round in the assault rifle. "Ready yourself. The AB98s are anklebiters. The other one? That's a headsmasher."
"Bring it."
ACE> I'll look that up for you and advise!
From the north they come.
The clicking clacking of the anklebiters is audible first, then a couple come into view. They're cutting across the cafeteria in front of us on the far side, passing from left to right. More come along behind them, snapping mandibles and pincers as they clamber over one another.
Behind them lumbers a huge bulky machine. Each step is long and slow, and heavy when it lands, making the body shudder. It's bipedal, with one arm tipped in a sledgehammer the size of my skull, the other with an excavator claw.
The rusty metal of its chassis gives a warped, burned look to it, and from the head shines one white light, extending like a cone out ahead of it. Wires and cables drag behind as it struggles on–it looks like it tore the front panel of an outdated Regen Station right out of a wall and brought it along.
I trade a silent nod with Zenith. I'm not the type to let the enemy have the first move. Thumbing the switch cover on my sword's hilt, I activate my Suppression Field GrayTech. Then I cut wide to the left and circle around with the aim to blindside the headsmasher. Clicking the plasma blade to life when I get near, I leap at the heavy machine.
And the fight begins.
The blade punches through the headsmasher's rusty chassis, plasma coat cooking it red hot in a split second. I tear it diagonally downward using my full weight, cutting to the left. The machine staggers and groans, caught completely off guard. At the same time, Taser zaps two of the nearby anklebiters and hits one so perfectly that its acid canister pops, dissolving a third.
"Yeah, Taser!" I whoop, flourishing my sword and backing off.
She blares a congratulatory flare, hovering at my shoulder like always.
ACE> That's my girl!
Wait, me or Taser? I don't know! But I'm blushing!
The Headsmasher lurches as it recovers, turning on us. The conical light from its head shifts to an angry red, nearly blinding me as its pistons flare to life and hiss with hydraulics.
ACE> Watch that hammer, Razor!!
RAZOR> GREAT FUCKING ADVICE ACE
Shots rip through the air as Zenith clears the distance after us, firing his pistol as he moves to quickly get rid of as many biters as possible. Five die with whining shrieks, writhing before going still. His aim rapidly shifts and a sixth bullet fires toward me but whizzes past.
Dangerously close.
I scream, "What the fuck, Zen?"
"Sorry!" he shouts pointedly. "I don't know what happened!"
"You just couldn't let that go, could you? It was a malfunction!"
"Let's focus on fighting instead of talking!"
"You shot at me, asshole!"
Tune ends up right next to me, eyes red as she stares at him, her voice's cheer juxtaposed with, "This is your one and only warning! Have a wonderful day!"
ACE> HEADS UP HEADS UP
The headsmasher's body groans as it moves, kicking out heat. It lifts the arm with the sledgehammer and the pistons fire. Deceptively fast, it clears the distance between us and the hammer's head swings like a rocket. The horizontal blur comes straight toward, yes, my head.
Tune throws herself in its path, saying, "I will die in your stead!"
The hammer clangs against her frozen mercury chassis and the momentum sends her back toward me. I'm able to dodge the attack that would have otherwise killed me in one hit, but Tune gets launched into the wall by the force. The concrete smashes to pieces and I wail her name as the dust clouds.
Only the light of her eyes is visible through it, blinking orange.
"Ouch!"
The headsmasher emits a cantankerous din of mechanical grating. Its vocalization module must be completely corroded by now. It isn't even vaguely reminiscent of speech. The red conical light narrows as its eyepiece rotates, zeroing in on Zenith. The remaining anklebiters, only two of them, launch right at him as if on command.
Their pincers hit his blue Overshield's pale blue energy and bounce right off, completely ineffective. Zenith shrugs, then shoots them both.
"That takes care of that."
I make another slash at the machine but it slips out of the way by taking a half step back out of reach so I only cut air, leaving an arc of plasma and fire in the blade's path.
Even though I whiffed, it still looks so cool.
Taser has managed to retract her pins and spits them both in its face but they plink off and she emits a high pitched scream. From behind me I hear Tune say she's waiting for an order.
"I don't know, hit it!"
"Affirmative!"
She slips past me and slams a fist to its chest with a cross punch. A cavitational implosion force like an Air Burst collapses where she hit it, with a clap that bangs in my chest. The impact knocks the machine off its rotors, sending it sliding across the floor, trailing sparks.
I stand frozen and shocked.
ACE> UH? HELLO???
"Attack successful! Damage report: inconsequential. The target appears resistant to ClearTech and bludgeoning force."
Zenith casts her a sideways look of awe as he breaks away from us. "Where the hell did Ace find this thing?"
"I don't know! Let's kill the headsmasher while it's down!"
ACE> WAIT WAIT WAIT DON'T GET CLOSE
I'm already moving toward it and the red eye locks onto me. Still on the floor and struggling to regain its footing, the excavator claw raises. Some mechanism locks into place on its forearm, then something the size of a brick beams toward my head. I just barely manage to tilt left and it whips past me, flipping my white hair.
When the object hits the wall behind me it explodes. The fiery blast rocks the floor beneath me and splinters shards of stone like fragmentation. The shockwave hits me hard but I hold my footing and Tune does too, but poor Taser screams again as she's swatted out of the air like a fly, hitting the ground hard enough to dent her chassis. Stone and concrete rains down on Tune and I, so she shields me with her arms as I do the same for Taser.
ACE> That was C-4!
RAZOR> WARN ME SOONER ASSHOLE
ACE> Is Taser okay???
RAZOR> 1. She's tough.
Zenith lets a barrage loose, firing the assault rifle in a three round burst. The bullets clang the machine's head like a dinner bell, nearly knocking it off its feet again as it reels. Taser is back in the air and she flies in to target its eye with a vengeance. The pins break the convex glass and sink somewhere into the wiring inside. The zap sounds like an arc of Tesla's coil and the headsmasher seizes up.
"Nice, Taser!" I shout, advancing in unison with Tune.
ACE> WAIT BACK UP BACK UP IT'S MAD
The machine belts out a series of enraged electrical roars, grating and piercing like flipping through radio stations at max volume.
Tune extends an arm and holds me back, eyes flashing yellow. "Reinforcements are inbound! I recommend retreating to reassess our approach!"
I nod, barely able to hear her over the noise. "Taser! Zen! Let's back up!"
We put some distance between us and the haywire headsmasher while its enraged fit goes on. The sledgehammer and excavator claw pound the concrete floor over and over again. The broken glass eye spits out a disconnected and fragmented red light, and its head rotates back and forth like a searchlight looking for us. When it finds us, it points its claw arm and roars, the channels peaking as whatever speakers it's using blow out.
From behind it a shadow slinks into view, dashing like a cat to leap three meters up onto its shoulders. Another mono-red eye locks onto us, the glass rotating as it focuses in. The newcomer is a smaller, more agile machine with a slim build and unsettlingly sharp rusted claws. It balances perfectly on the raging headsmasher, hunched over at the hip with its arms dangling in front of it, head tilted at an angle.
ACE> Uhhh ;;O __O
The mere sight of it makes me shiver. "What… What is that? Tune? Zen?"
"That is an MCDU-ED4938."
"An armripper. Do not let it out of your sight."
"I miss fighting anklebiters already…
"We can handle this."
"I think I'm–I'm afraid of it."
"Keep steady, soldier."
ACE> Your blade is sharper, Razor.
"Right." I grit my teeth and attempt to fight it off. "How do we do this?"
"I'll keep the headsmasher busy. You and Tune engage the armripper. We'll draw them apart. Once the two of you destroy it, we collapse on the headsmasher."
I rotate my shoulders, taking a two handed guard grip on the sword. I'm afraid, but I'm not letting it stop me. With a sharp nod to Zen I dash forward, facing the pair head on. The armripper dives off its perch and rushes forth to meet me. Taser tries to zap it ahead of time but hits rusty plating and the pins bounce off. The armripper swipes its claws at me faster than I can swing, but I slip low under the attack.
Planting a leg point deep, I pivot my weight off it and slice up to the left, aiming for the legs. The machine attempts to dodge backward but I catch it regardless. The tip of my plasma sword takes a bite out of its torso, leaving a superheated gash. Before I can blink, Tune follows up with a full force punch to the armripper's metal chassis. The implosive rupture booms and knocks the machine flat on the ground.
It slides a few meters, scraping on the floor, then hooks its claws and recovers, flipping to its feet. Metal fingers click and clack as it stares at me, then the armripper slowly walks left, circling us. Tune and I do the same to our right, and I watch for any sign of lapse in its attention. Zenith fires on the headsmasher on the other side of the room, and I catch sight of him taking a heavy hit from the sledgehammer swing.
He needs help. I need to hurry.
ACE> RAZOR LOOK OUT
I took my eyes off it.
The armripper appears next to me, latching onto my forearm and bicep. I barely hear Tune say she failed me. The machine pulls so hard it rips my arm off at the shoulder.
There's a beat of nothing, and then it hurts.
I drop my sword and grasp what's left of my arm as transmitter fluid bursts from the wound, and I scream in agony as the pain overrides my every other process.
Tune attacks and takes over but misses and the fight goes on without me. I can't breathe. It hurts so much I think I'm going to die. I think I'm going to die. My TFC is already half gone and I'm rapidly losing more fluid from the arterial bleed. I feel like crying but I'm incapable. The pain is unbearable. Unbelievable. It's the first time I've been hurt at all.
ACE> Fight through it. You need to stop the bleed. NOW.
On my knees with my eyes jammed shut, jaw clenched so tight it aches, I try to breathe through the pain by biting for air. She's right, I need to stop this. The artery will keep draining otherwise. I'm losing so much transmitter fluid by the second. I really am going to die if I don't do something fast.
"I don't… I don't know what to do!" I gasp, losing myself to panic. "I don't know what to do!"
ACE> Give me the controls.
I have to trust her. I do. I trust her.
I grant Ace total permission to operate my systems.
The instant she has it, she shoots through my onboard, flips through selection pages to my hardware, and darts into the ejection procedures. Before my very mindscape, I watch her eject my arm like we're swapping parts.
The bleed stops on a dime.
The pain is gone too. It's gone. All I feel is its ghost. My shoulder is still attached to my torso, but only physically. I can't move it or do anything with it. I can't even feel it. It may as well not even be there. Just a useless chunk of metal attached to me.
RAZOR> I don't understand.
ACE> Ejection cuts the whole thing off at the connection. The port where your arm meets your torso is now sealed off like a bulkhead, more or less. You're down an arm and a lot of TF but you're not dying. You're okay, Razor. Get back in the fight.
RAZOR> Ace. Thank you. You saved me.
ACE> I told you I've got your back. Go kill that fucking thing.
The pain of it all has taken its toll on my body as a whole, not just where I was injured. I feel sluggish and dazed. But I can't stay here. I have to get up. I have to fight and save myself. I won't let another Nep die, not if I can help it. And Zenith needs my help too.
Ace saved me. I won't waste this second chance.
It takes all my willpower to lift myself off my knees and struggle to my points. Collecting my sword, only able to wield it now with one hand, I find my posture bent and weary but my legs are no less steady. No, I'm wrong–My suspension is trembling.
But I have my balance, and that's what matters.
Zen and the headsmasher are still going at it. He's a serpent and it's an oaf. Tune and the armripper are going head to head. Both of them are swinging, swiping, attacking, defending, dodging, but neither of them seem to be capable of hitting the other. My blade is still coursing with power.
The beautiful indigo plasma coating sings to me.
The armripper has now taken its sensors off me.
I'm a Blitz Phantom, built to seize opportunities like this.
My turn.
Cloaking myself, I sprint toward them, staying low as I move and using Tune's body as an obstacle. There's a moment where I realize she knows I'm coming. It comes in the form of her throwing her arms out wide and standing stock still to let the machine hit her. The armripper's claws slash and tear a chunk out of her mercury coating.
I jump once and then again off her shoulder.
My weight crashes into the armripper as the driving force behind my plasma blade stabbing clean through its chest. We both hit the ground and I finish the job by ripping the blade up and out, then rising to my points and delivering a downward slash that bisects the fucking thing at the waist.
The machine goes still and doesn't try to get up. I've eliminated it as a threat. There's a kind of justice to it, I think, and a feeling of relief far off in Nep-67's Failsafe.
"Now who's cut in half? Justice for Sixty-Seven."
ACE> Good. Good kill. I'm impressed. Keep going.
Swiping my sword through the air, I turn away from my kill to briefly check on Tune. She's still standing, but not with ease. The quicksilver skin is attempting to reform itself. As I pass, she softly places a hand on my back.
Her CyanTech hits like a second wind. I feel damn near good as new. "Thank you, Tune. I owe you one."
"No, you do not." Her eyes shine green for a moment, then return to orange. "Zenith requires our assistance. Are you able to continue fighting?"
I meet Taser's little blue sensor. She's injured, but not terribly. The two of us nod. "Yeah. Let's go, you two. It's time to finish this."
Taser whirs and chirps, while Tune simply says, "Affirmative."
The three of us clear the distance.
Zenith fires two bursts and one shreds the headsmasher's torso but the second flies wide as he tries to reposition before it can swing on him. The sledgehammer blurs and hits him in the ribs, tossing him against the far wall like a ragdoll. The headsmasher advances, totally focused on him.
He sees us coming and smirks, setting his rifle down and choosing to remain seated to watch the spectacle.
Taser's pins are more symbolic at this point, announcing our presence but failing to do much more than that. Tune brings up a knee and folds the huge construct in half at the middle, the absurd implosion force clapping in my chest. I step wide around her then pivot, cutting northwest once more.
The headsmasher doesn't even have the chance to turn around. Like nothing is there, the plasma blade slices through, severing the ugly thing diagonally at the torso. The two halves crumple, and again I wonder if Nep-67 is pleased with the results.
Cutting things in two seems to suit me well.
In the sudden silence, my ragged breaths ring in my ears.
ACE> You did it. You won. It's over.
"Good fighting, solider." Zen evaluates me, expressionless. "How's it feel?"
I can't answer right away, the adrenaline still pumping through my circuits. My heart is pounding in my chest. "It feels… It feels good. To be standing. Alive. I'm… alive. They're not."
"You took a beating."
"So did you. So did all of us. But we're intact. Nothing…" I feel a deranged grin creep across my lips. "Nothing a night of repairs back home can't fix. I'm already looking forward to the next fight. Tune, will you help him up?"
As she does so, he says, "Just wait until the rush wears off. This was your first real taste of combat, wasn't it?"
"It was," I wheeze, giving my sword a twirl before sheathing it at my hip.
We Frames are all ambidextrous, but if I had to pick an arm to lose it would in fact be my left. Which is good, because that's the one I'm missing. With a heavy sigh, I close my eyes and let my head fall back, shoulders hanging.
"Ohh, everything hurts. I'm not looking forward to the walk back."
He scans the wreckage of our dead foes, a twinkle in his eye as I read his mind–he's eager to come back and collect the materials. Not a fucking chance we're doing it this trip. "You sure you're not about to fall out on me? Can you even make it back?"
"I'll make it back. We have to. Henna said."
"Can't make Henna worry, can we?"
"Absolutely not. I just need… a second."
Limping over to my cube case, I uncube some of the TFIs and jam one into the port on my left side, just at my ribs. The injection is a blissful relief and a welcome feeling of warmth. I did it. I survived. I killed them. I won.
There's no triumph in me. But there is a little satisfaction…
Taking another second for the TFI to set in, I ask Zen, "How are you holding up? You took some big hits from that hammer."
"I'm fine," he shrugs, already cubing up anklebiters. "TFC is a bit above half and stable. My automated CyanTech procedures are underway. Don't worry about me. You're the worst off. There's no contest."
I slowly nod, using an L1 Charge to cast Repair, which boosts me back up a little more. Then I laugh a little. "Ohh, Turing. How am I going to climb the rope?"
"We'll think of something. Let me gather up some of this scrap and then we'll figure it out. You take a breather. This won't take long."
I don't argue, sitting down and holding my head in one hand. Ten biters, a headsmasher, and an armripper. Quite the step up from when Ace was just fighting biters. But she didn't have Tune and Zen fighting alongside her.
Or someone flying copilot to save her life…
RAZOR> I owe you. I'd be dead without you.
ACE> 0. Your survival is compensation enough.
RAZOR> Still. I've decided. I trust you fully, Ace. With my life, my being, even my body. Do you want to dual merge? Share my body with me?
ACE> 0. I don't. I'm more than happy with the way things are. Emergency access to the controls, sure, but I don't want anything more than that.
I decide to take a risk.
RAZOR> What about more with me?
ACE> What? What do you mean? I just said I don't.
Damn it. She's so clueless
RAZOR> Nevermind… The offer stands regardless so give it some thought. And thank you again for helping me.
ACE> Uh no worries, but I'm confused.
RAZOR> I'm sure you are.
"Ready?" Zenith asks, coming over to offer a hand up. When I accept his help to my points, he brushes me off and nods. "Let's get home. I'll carry you up. Get on my back and hold on."
"But your cube case…"
"Could you ask Tune to carry it up? Otherwise, I'll just make two trips."
"Tune, do you mind?"
"I can only manage to carry yours, Nep."
"Two trips," he shrugs. "Come on."
I swallow my pride and do it, latching onto him with my legs hooked around his middle and my one arm clinging tight to his upper body. As he climbs and we leave the bunker behind for now, my memory core activates on its own and decides to show me visuals from the fight.
I'll remember that pain for the rest of my life.
However short it may be…