12 Miles Below

“How did Othersiders get into the clan?” Ellie said, voice rising. “How did they even get this deep into the clan in the first place?! This isn’t possible.” Fear was taking hold of her, I could see the panic welling up. “This can’t be happening!”

“Relax. Breathe.” I said, grabbing hold of her hand and squeezing. “If we don’t keep a level head, we won’t make it out. One thing at a time, first we need a plan to escape. We can deal with who, how or what they’re here for once we’re safe.”

She snapped an eye back to glare at me. “What the frick? How are you so calm right now?!”

“I… experience.”

“What, you get into situations like this every freaking tuesday? That’s twelve knights stalking under us, rounding people up! We’d need seven or eight of the great Houses working together to stomp them out.”

The sound of weapon fire downstairs had faded away to shouting, mostly orders for silence.

“I’ve been in situations a little more stressful than the typical expeditions.” I said.

I felt okay, rather, still lucid. I shook the thought out of my head, there was a situation to deal with right now. “We can’t sneak out by the lower floor, they’re all over the place there. We’ll need to escape either on this level or cut a way through the upper section.”

The guards had opened fire at the intruders at first, but they’d been quickly killed or forced to surrender as more knights appeared. A single relic knight outright invalidated any conventional weapons fire. None of the guards could possibly hope to win against even one knight. But twelve? The amount of knights under us was complete overkill.

Whoever they were, they knew he’d be here tonight. They seemed to be searching for something with the way they were fanning out as well. While the knights were searching through the stunned guests, the rest of the rank and file slavers quickly called up the guards to line at a wall with hands on the back of their necks.

I didn’t get another chance to see what was going on down there, but the follow-up sound of rifle fire made me think that prisoners weren’t on their agenda.

Ellie and I raced to the upper exits, only to find them locked from the outside in. The light on the doorway indicated that there was a freeze breach outdoors, which was obvious scrapshit this deep into the colony.

Every part of the clan had blast doors like these built to blockade sections of the colony from possible temperature breaches - or invasions. Whoever set this whole thing up must have triggered the doors around the area. Which meant they either had access to Logi accounts of some kind or they had a good engineer fooling the system in a creative way.

We wasted a good two minutes trying to break through the door before we heard more shooting and yells. Heavy footsteps clattered nearby, climbing up the stairs, followed by piercing white flashlights swinging around.

“Next floor up,” I whispered, crouching down and making my way across another catwalk to reach the Logi fast-tracks. “There’s plenty of small one-way paths up there, and the blast doors are thinner. I might be able to tinker with an override there.”

Less sturdy blast doors sure, but a lot more of them. Logi catwalks were a little everywhere in the clan, like the veins of the superstructure. Technically, pedestrian traffic was illegal up there so that the Logi hover sleds could move around with impunity, but I’ll consider paying the fees over getting shot or taken. I doubt there was any traffic happening at this time, considering the uninvited guests crawling around.

Ellie followed closely behind me, not bothering to recover her heels. Barefoot was helping keep down the noise level greatly anyhow, while my own dance shoes still had that little tap to each step no matter how I tried to keep it quiet.

The slavers weren’t familiar with clan architecture here and it showed. The lights were swinging around wildly at the seats and under them, searching for anyone hiding in the obvious spots. Instead, Ellie and I were climbing up, reaching to a ladder into the Logi fast-tracks.

It worked for a few moments, until we reached the first barricaded door. While the rank and file slavers might not have known about the fast-tracks, whoever was messing with the system hadn’t forgotten about these sections.

Unlike the more solid blast doors down a level, there was a panel to the side of the door to each of these that I was already fiddling with, trying to see if I could override the system from here.

I never got the chance. Instead, a pair of heavy footfalls hit the ground behind, rattling the catwalk. Turning around, I was put face to face with an approaching relic knight, stalking out of the darkness.

I recognized the colors immediately. Shadowsong. “Out of the way.” He hissed, drawing his occult blade, the glow lighting up the small fast-track.

Ellie and I gratefully stepped to the side as he reached the sealed door and began to cut into it with the blade. Cutting a door wasn’t as easy as it would look like. Angle of the cuts mattered, do it wrong and the cut sections get caught into one another, requiring even more cuts to get it loose. I could tell he was focused on making sure no mistakes were done. “They’re aware I can eliminate them one or two at a time if they stray from their allies.” He said. “They’re operating in groups to counter this. They've given me no chances to hunt them down, and likely are not going to for the rest of this operation. We need to retreat. And you need your armor.”

“Do you know what the hell is going on?” Ellie said to the side, keeping her eyes peeled down the corridor. The sounds of the slavers moving around hadn’t faded yet. Instead they were growing louder.

“No.” He said, focusing on cutting the door apart. “The few minutes I stalked behind them looking for targets, they seemed to be searching for someone specific. Whoever it was, they haven’t found them yet.”

“Are they trying to assassinate you?” I asked.

“Unlikely. They would have aimed for a day when I wasn't in armor. Considering there are twelve, I strongly suspect they were anticipating me as a blocking problem, not as an objective.”

“Have you been out of armor since the Chosen came?”

“No.”

“... Think they’re after me?”

“More possible.” He said. “All other targets in this dance hall have been unprotected in many other situations. If they were attempting to grab multiple targets, we would have seen them already capture a few. So far, they haven’t shown any signs of chaining anyone. That they picked the same day you are armorless, in the same location, with enough knights to hold their own against me… They must have been waiting for a moment like this.”

If they were after me, someone must have leaked what I’ve come up with. There’s no other reason to go after my House. Sure, Winterscar was on the rise, and I was getting known to have strong ties to the big players in this clan, but there were still far more politically powerful figures who didn’t wear armor. Ultimately, the Winterscars were still only a regular Retainer House. There’d be easier targets who didn’t wear armor like a paranoid pipe weasel.

So someone had leaked, and I wasn’t sure how much. Were they after the Occult secrets? Or something else?

A massive blaring alarm suddenly kicked in, sounding all over. I recognized it as the clan red alert. The kind of call to arms during war or a potential catastrophe. “Someone must have escaped the dance hall and warned others.” Ellie said to the side.

Shadowsong grunted, giving a particularly heavy cut through the door. “Or, we might not have been the only target, and another operation taking place failed their containment.”

There were shouts coming from under us. Then two figures came into view on the other end, climbing up the last rung of the ladder. Slavers. The rank and file kind with rifles and no armor.

They raised their weapons up, “Hands up!” The one on the right screamed out.

“Deal with them.” Shadowsong said to my side.

Ellie got the idea faster than I did, she grabbed hold of Shadowsong’s holstered pistol, taking cover behind his leg and lifting the weapon. I followed suit, trying to grab the Prime’s rifle, only to flinch back for cover as the slavers opened fire.

They targeted Ellie first, though the relic armor she hid behind was flaring out it’s shield, keeping her somewhat covered while Shadowsong continued to cut a path through the door.

The pistol in her hands barked out a string of fire and forced the two slavers to take cover, stopping their own retaliation. I heard a grunt of pain from them, she might have hit something.

More heavy boot footfalls echoed from under us, while the slaver pair continued to try to take potshots at us. I heard bullets whiz by my face, lighting up the sides of the corridor with sparks, or otherwise getting chased away by the blue relic shields. Ellie continued to shoot back, blindly, but enough to stop the enemy from taking aim.

That gave me a second chance to unhook Shadowsong’s rifle from his back, and get it primed. With both of us returning fire, it evened the odds out greatly.

Up until four slaver knights rushed by the pair of minions.

Shadowsong grunted in annoyance, giving a quick glance and then turning his focus back on the door. “Alert me if they get close.” He ordered.

One of the slaver knights flashed his headlights downrange, lighting us all. He pointed straight at me a moment later, the helmet keeping whatever he said private. Another knight instantly grabbed one of the minion’s rifles, yanking it out of his hands before the man could fire another round of bullets at us.

Body language from the newcomers made me think the slaver knight was yelling something at the soldier, shortly before he swung the captured rifle in rage, catching the soldier’s head and twisting it far to the side with a bone-crunching crack. That one instantly slumped down, dead from the blunt force. The other soldier quickly dropped his own rifle, lifting his hands up, surrendering to his own allies.

It did him no favors, since the four knights no longer paid any attention to the leftover rabble. Instead, they were pacing straight for us, keeping an easy grip on their rifles.

I kept a hand on the trigger but knew the weapon here would be wasted. Relic armor was impervious to small caliber bullets.

Shadowsong hadn’t even turned around to see the events. He finished one last cut, took a step back and shoulder checked the entire door, causing his newfound cut section to fly right off the slices, a few feet down the newly opened corridor.

“Go. Regroup with your guard and get your armor. I’ll hold them off, and fall back when more of them arrive. Be quick, they’re likely trying to cut you off as we speak.” He said, turning around, drawing his knife in his spare hand while his longsword lifted in position.

Ellie vaulted over to the cut section, hissing at me to run. I followed orders, making my own way through.

“Oh come on.” One of the enemy knights said, audible behind me. “There’s four of us and more coming. Just give up. We’re only here to bag the kid.”

“I refuse.”

Another knight scoffed. “You’re the Shadowsong, right? I don’t care how good of a duelist the brass thinks you are, you’re only going to die here. You can’t parry and dance your way out of a crowd. Just run, we’re not going to chase you.”

“Draw your blades.” Shadowsong said. “You’ve lived like animals, I offer you the chance to die like men.”

“Fuckin’ clan fanatics. Don’t know why I expected anything else. Kill him quick boys, our target’s getting away.”

I didn’t hear much more, with our footsteps becoming loud enough to drown any noise behind us. The clash of occult blade on blade followed behind us, bouncing off the tight walls with deep rings.

Ellie stopped at the first intersection, a few seconds into our sprint. “Which side were your guards at?” She asked, looking left and right.

“On the patio side. Should be down the left corridor somewhere.” I said, keeping the rifle levied.

“Good. Go that way, I’ll go the other way.”

“What? Don’t joke around, we’ve got to keep going.” I told her, looking back.

She shook her head. Then pointed behind her, at what I hadn’t noticed. A trail of bloody bare footsteps, leading right to where she stood, where it was slowly pooling out by her left leg. “Got shot somewhere.” She said, voice calm.

“Where?”

She shrugged. “Not the point. They can follow me. I’ll slow down eventually too. I can feel my leg isn’t doing what I want it to do anymore. Pretty soon the adrenaline will fade and I’ll start feeling the hurt.”

I reached out a hand, which she slapped away with Shadowsong’s pistol. “Get running you moron! I’ll figure it out from here.”

“Ellie…” I said, dumbly.

“Don’t be stupid Keith. Please, for once in your life act like a gods damned Winterscar and cut your losses. There’s no point playing hero here. You know that.”

The last time I had acted like a Winterscar, I’d caused an entire site to collapse on itself. “I can’t just let you bleed out in some corridor. I won’t.”

“Great. So don’t let that happen. Go fetch your armor and come back for me, all right? You need it since those twig arms of yours can’t carry me for long.” She hobbled closer, and then pushed me back with every bit she had in her. It was enough to make me stumble back a bit.

“If they follow the trail of blood - and they will - what do you think is going to happen?” I hissed out. “They’ll shoot you dead at best. Or just grab you and drag out out into some slave ring.”

“You think I’m just going to sit in the dark and give up? Don’t think I’m not going to do my best to stay alive. I’ll play dead, or hide somehow.” She said, taking a few steps back into the darkness. “And in the grand scheme, I’m just a nobody if I bite the bullet. You’re not. Out of all of us, you clawed your way up to being somebody, you’re on a different path. Stick to it.”

She gave me a mock salute, using the pistol as a placeholder knife, flashing me a soft smile that burned its way into my memory. “Been fun, catch you in another life.”

Then, she turned and jogged down the other end, blood splattering with each footfall as I watched her fade into the dim darkness.

I took a step forward to follow and something froze me in place. Sounds of fighting behind grew, Occult blades ringing louder. Something whispered into my head that I needed to go.

My feet numbly turned around and began to sprint the other way. My mind ran through a gauntlet of excuses, before settling on what Ellie had tossed out. I needed to get my armor, a first aid kit, and then I could sprint right back and find her. If she didn’t already find a spare kit somewhere. Ellie was a socialite, and didn’t go out on expeditions much, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know the basics or how to take care of herself. I needed to trust that she’d keep herself alive until I could come back.

I tried as hard as I could to scrub the feeling that this was the last time I’d see her. That platinum hair, swinging wildly as she raced away, bare feet on the ground, one outlined red and leaving a path behind.

The blast doors up to now had all been opened, so the saboteur only sealed the minimum needed to contain the dance hall and nothing else. Three more turns, and I found a ladder going down from the Logi fast-track back onto the street.

Here, what I found were bodies.

Dead clan members, all shot. The whole place was caked with blood. A pair of slavers were kneeled down over a body, looting it.

The rifle in my hands snapped up, and I took my shots. The first three round burst hit the one on the left, shoulder chest and head. The other one stood, twisting around, which made him a larger target for my next set of shots.

He stumbled backwards, hitting the alley wall, sliding down. Body going into shock. I didn’t pay him more attention, instead continued my sprint away. A part of me realize this was the first time I’d killed a person. Two one after the other. And yet, I couldn’t feel anything at all. Just a drive to keep going.

I came out the other end of the alley, running into the remnants of a war.

Two slaver knights laid on the ground, blood pooling away from cleanly cut limbs. One of them was missing a head. The other was missing his arm and his torso had been bisected in half, viscera spilling out. Their armor was being stripped away plate piece by piece, by another group of figures, about seven as I could count. Two were donning the stolen plates as quickly as they could, while a third was dragging out fuel cells and scrap metal.

At each side, they all carried blades on their person. Dark, carbon fiber swords with a hint of silver outlining the edges. All of them wore deep black tunics with blood red emblems.

My emblem.

Captain Sagrius stepped out of the shadows to my right, his own carbon fiber blade raised in his hand, ready to strike down, pale Occult blue lighting up his features. He held it up for only a moment before recognition flashed through his features.

Rustles of fabric around me sounded, and I realized two other soldiers had been waiting in position at the entryway, now right behind me. They had knelt down on one knee, the sound of occult blades being switched off.

The captain of my guards turned his own blade off and rushed forward, grabbing my hand, kneeling and pressing it to his forehead for a moment before standing back up. “Thank the gods you’re safe, young master. We need to get you armored up and out of here.”

Next chapter - Escape

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