She looks up into the mist pouring from her midsection and the glowing bullets flying through it like super accelerated fireflies. The sounds of gunfire and bullets hitting the stone walls are muffled and dull in her ears now.
‘Critical Failure’ flashes in her vision. She is still alive, though badly wounded. She still has an objective.
Her sword still in one hand, she reaches down with the other, salvaging the flap of skin that was once her abdomen to peel it over the wound, clamping her forearm across it to hold herself together. She brings her knees up and pushes off the ground with her sword arm feeling a sluggishness indicating she’s lost a great deal of her abdominal muscle system.
Antares manages to stand and takes a step towards the Suvaco but the movement causes a wave of pixelated darkness to swamp her vision and she nearly collapses.
She is about to engage her core’s overload sequence when she sees someone in the blast zone running at the Suvaco head on.
Rennin Farrow felt fantastic smashing his fist into that trooper’s face. Cowards have no place on the battlefield, not to mention erratic rocketeers.
More of a danger to his own side, idiot.
The rocket launcher at the ready, he finds himself running as fast as he can towards the lone remaining Suvaco. A blue shimmering rocket flies at him so he strafes left just managing to register the freezing ground where he was a moment before. Goosebumps appear on his right arm, along with a severe chill.
I hate ice launchers.
He can see the crippled form of Amber Antares swing down with her sword across the back of the Suvaco’s knee, causing a spray of purple blood. The creature arches back, almost overbalancing.
Rennin yells for Antares to get clear but the best she can manage is to throw herself sideways. Rennin wants to fire a rocket but he won’t risk hitting her, not at all. His trigger finger twitches slightly in frustration.
Drej’s knife!
The Thermosteel grown in Drej’s own body should be strong enough to penetrate the Suvaco armour. There is nothing known that can resist Thermosteel.
He throws the rocket launcher aside and sprints at the off balance Suvaco, gripping the knife it in both hands, bracing the butt of it against his torso plate.
At full speed, Rennin careers into it. With his body’s weight behind it the blade drives through the armour and into the android’s stomach.
It lets out a anguished howl when Rennin twists it left, then right, then pulls the handle up forcing the blade down then slamming down on the machete length knife with all his might and ripping it out.
How do you like seppuku?
The beast of a thing lands a blow across his head and he stumbles to the side, stunned, barely managing to retain any vision at all.
A sniper round fires from behind Rennin, hitting the Suvaco in the arm causing it to drop the ice launcher. Rennin can only see out of his artificial eye and throws himself on the weapon, picking it up and only managing to point it at the android’s legs before desperately firing a round.
The glowing blue ball strikes, splashing outwards all over the surrounding area. Some of it hits Antares. The Suvaco roars out in surprise and alarm before it snaps cleanly in half. Its upper body lands on its back, thrashing about, bleeding through icicles that were innards only a moment before.
Rennin is too dizzy to aim properly and can feel blood running down his face as if it’s raining on only one spot on his head. He tries to focus while Antares crawls over to the torso, leaving a trail of steaming blood. The ice splashback fluid has frozen hard on her skin but merely breaks, falling away as she moves. Abandoning her sword, she now holds her sidearm.
She scrambles close enough to press the barrel of the gun against its helmet eye socket, emptying the clip through the vulnerability, finally killing it. Antares drops the gun and falls limp as Rennin passes out.
The last thing she thinks of is Forgal, just as he was before the dehumanising tragedy that befell all her kind.
The last—and inexplicable—thing Rennin thinks of is his father double bouncing him off a trampoline.
16.
Arrival
The defeat of the Suvacoes precedes a long and horrible night.
After the Horizon Military demolished the tunnel to Blackhaven completely with explosives to ensure no further incursions, silence fell.
Night in Whitechapel has become a thing of nightmares. The turrets on the fortifications fire spasmodically at straying contaminants. With the citywide blackout the shots ring out so loudly that all those trapped behind within Whitechapel’s protective walls can feel each shot resonate within their heart.
Screamers surround the district, their frantic, genuine sounding cries for help are driving the immune local population mad with dread.
The tension is palpable since trains have left the station, never to return. It’s smothering and inescapable and has been followed by a day that isn’t much better.
The only bright light for the stranded people is the real life HolinMech Arca Drej’s presence. A Godyssey funded soldier has come to protect the district at last, lifting the morale of the locals. Stories have circulated already that Drej and another android fought off three massive android attackers.
Initially, the presence of Doctor Caufmann is barely tolerated. After two long, drawn out weeks in Whitechapel, the locals have come to see him as one of their own. Wayne Carr and his family had managed to escape, arriving in time for the secret evacuation via the last underground trains. Rennin took the news with his usual sarcasm but due to an incredibly severe concussion he has been having trouble collecting his thoughts. Caufmann thinks too much trauma to his head over the last short months probably isn’t helping.
The Suvaco’s hit to Rennin’s head caused a severe cerebral contusion, and ruptured his organic eye. Caufmann managed to save the eye, though it has been bound and will have to remain so for quite a while.
Sindaris Tessol has not been welcomed due to his extreme case of infection. The poor man was instantly confined and was left there almost a week before Caufmann could convince the locals into releasing him. Allowing people to see Sindaris and talk to him might show them that this man poses no threat.
The overriding fear that the survivors harbour for the infected was unable to be alleviated, despite Sindaris not being contagious. Many people who saw him could not see past his reptilian binary pupils.
In the end Sindaris volunteered to be incarcerated to ease the public unrest. There were a few that made an effort to speak with him, overcoming their fear, who now visit regularly to keep him company. A little girl plays chess with him, he is teaching a young boy to paint, an elderly teacher enjoys their verbal sparring sessions, where both act like curmudgeonly old coots. Any who come to treat him as a circus sideshow, or some object of peculiarity, are not allowed to return.
Rennin walks around the streets of Whitechapel near to the fortified walls when the electrified top of the fence blasts to life, cracking loudly and making him jump. Another climbing contaminant has been burned alive by the generators.
His scattered thoughts turn to food, so he wanders towards the main food hall, where the remaining immune trapped in Whitechapel dine each night at 7pm. The large tables are set close, the diners accommodating each other like one massive family with everyone bonding over a meal. This has helped build a sense of community amongst all these people that were left behind. All they have left is each other, so they keep close. Rennin initially thought they’d all keep to themselves, looking after number one, but most of them are families and have learned to value others above themselves. Rennin still cannot believe this catastrophe, this crisis, has birthed something Rennin feels himself mentally retch at the thought of.