I have been kinda busy for a while. Not so much that I could not have updated this story, but enough that I felt like taking a small break. But then I pulled myself together and finished this chapter.
Chaos is the Prize Chapter 51
"Just because I'm a murdering, thieving, cowardly, traitorous sort doesn't mean I can't do my job properly."
-James A. Owen
"The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first, last, and always!"
-Jago Sevatarion of the Night Lords
Ceruleon peaked around the corner again, snap firing a shot from his new pulse pistol. He did not have the time to see if the shot actually hit anything, since the androids were keeping up their own fire, scouring the corner and the corridor with their own weapons.
Azuhrius went down into prone by the opposite corner, leaning out to shoot with Stalker at the approaching drones. He too had to pull back into cover after a couple of shots.
"We are not getting through," Azuhrius vocalized the situation.
Ceruleon nodded in agreement. There were simply too many Atlesian machines guarding the north side weapon control station.
"Could we try another station?" Ceruleon asked, but he already knew it was unlikely they could do that. The floor was too high, the Atlesians reinforcements were pushing in every moment. They had specifically picked north weapon station because it was the furthest away from the enemy front. It was pretty clear now they were too late.
"No, we cannot do this by ourselves," Azuhrius replied.
And he was of course right. Neither of them were frontline fighters, and the Aura-less operatives were even frailer. The close quarters allowed the superior numbers and volume of firepower of the Atlesians to bridge the gap between Aura wielding Venatores by forcing them to fight in the narrow corridors.
"What do we do?" Ceruleon asked. If they could not eliminate at least one side of the Aegis station\s heavy guns, the Atlesians would shoot them down as soon as they tried to escape.
"There is no other choice, we have to fall back to the docking level while we still can. This objective is not achievable."
Ceruleon heard the words, and a chill ran through fact that they had just failed to take out the anti-air weapons might have just sealed their fate.
Kaltrina came along the corridor behind Axuhrius, and he and Ceruleon turned to look at the operative. "It is really bad. B and C stairs are under their control, and we were unable to confirm D," She said.
"Okay, the weapons station is officially lost," Ceruleon snarled. "Shall we make for the A stairs before they box us in? Time for plan B?"
"No, I just got a better idea. If we are lucky it could disrupt the weapon station even as we make a shortcut." Azurhius said as he beckoned the rest of the operatives. "I think we should go with plan C4."
"Well frak, that way is out of question," Tsagaan said as the rightmost corridor started spilling more drones.
Fionn scanned the situation one last time before he ducked back into cover by one of the heavy lifting machines of the docking area. Around him were Smurfus, whom he and Tsagaan had run into as they made their way to the docking level, and later Flavius had stumbled from somewhere, followed by Grollo. Further out, their meager cover position was surrounded from all sides by either metal walls or metal androids. The suppressive fire from all those pulse weapons would have been excessive, even if Smurfus still had ammo in his weapon.
The androids had cornered them from two directions, and before they could figure out they needed to stop fighting and run, the Atlesian forces had blocked off any escape routes. There were so many guns pointed at them that Fionn would not dare to pop up his head without someone else popping up first and drawing the fire.
Flavius was in a really bad shape. "You are bleeding," Fionn said in a monotone as he watched blood dripping down from the crouching Legionnaire. That level of bleeding indicated severe Aura depletion. Flavius was probably a goner.
"It… is a sacrifice willingly paid..." Flavius growled in pain. "All blood is welcome…"
"Well cousins, I am starting to feel like this might be it for us," Tsagaan said. "Those machines are pressing on."
"We are going to kill them," Grollo growled.
"No Grollo, don't charge!" Smurfus said in a voice that said he was totally hoping Grollo would rush out as a distraction.
"I am not going out there alone," Grollo snarled back.
"You are not?" Everyone asked with surprise.
"Of course not! I am not insane."
"You are not?!"
There was a large crash from somewhere far away. Fionn wondered if it was one of those Paladins the Atlesians had mobilizedd in the spacier parts of the docking floors.
"You know, I never thought I would meet my end side by side with White Scars or Iron Hands," Flavius said as he spat blood, reaching for his broken sword, probably for the last time.
"How about side by side with a friend?" Tsagaan asked with a faint grin.
"Maybe." Flavius said as he rose to his knees "Too bad there are no friends around…".
"Yes. too bad." Tsagaan said as he gripped his sword more firmly.
Flavius turned to Fionn. "Can you make that thing ready to go off?" he asked as he pointed at the machine Fionn nad Tsagaan had carried all the way here to secure their escape, only to get bogged down by Atlesians couple of sections away from the airship. "Might as well take as many of these Atlesian fuckers with us as we can."
Fionn looked at Flavius for a moment, and then turned to the machine. He reached out with his hand and wordlessly started the priming sequence.
"I say we make a one last charge!" Flavius roared as some last embers ignited within him. "Everyone, get up!"
Smurfus did not say anything, he just spun his axe casually and rose up as much the cover afforded. Grollo was up and ready without needing to be asked twice. Tsagaan was the last one up.
"Come on!" Favius said. "They can't kill all of us!"
"Why can't they?" Tsagaan asked a valid question.
Flavius graped the White Scare by the front of his tunic. "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND CHARGE!"
And so they did. Fionn slammed a button to start the machine's countdown, and then he followed as his cousins charged in one final act of defiance.
The androids reacted rather slowly to their sudden frontal charge, earning the Venatores couple of free second in the open. Then the pulse weapons started flaring.
Blood splattered on Fionn's metal arm as Flavius fell. Fionn did not even glance at him as he pushed onwards, a stun javelin ready. He was about half way across the the chamber when the whole Aegis station shook violently, throwing everyone off their feet.
"What the hell was that?!" Fionn heard someone cry, but he did not waste time to figure out who it was. He was on his feet again in an instant. Unlike all of the androids.
The Ventores adapted to the incredible stroke of luck as fast as they could. They closed the distance between them and the downed androids and fell on them.
The battle was short and brutal. The androids could not fight properly with the Legionnaires among them, losing many of their own to friendly fire, and missing many shot because of machine brain hesitation. When one group of androids fell, another was not too far, and consecutive engagement was not a problem.
Grollo was unstoppable, trashing his way through everything on his path, the drones helpless against him in melee. Tsagaan jinked around faster than the drones could react to effectively, taking them down with precise slashed of his sword. Smurfus' axe fell and fell, reaping a heavy tally. Fionn did his part, crushing metal and circuitty in his iron grasp and rending enemies apart.
The fight was over soon. The Atlesian droids that had outnumbered them ten to one were all in pieces. All of the Venatores were low on Aura, but they were alive. Fionn found it very acceptable.
"What the fuck was that tremor?" Grollo asked as he finally ran out of things to break.
"It seem the Alpha Legion guys blew up part of the station couple floors up," Tsagaan said as he listened to his scroll.
"Tell Azuhrius he should have done it way earlier!" Smurfus vocalized his gratitude.
"Still more drones on the way. Let's get the hell out of here!" Grollow growled as he ran towards the airship docking area, not waiting for anybody else. "Get to the shippaaa!"
Tsagaan was not far behind him.
Fionn did not run after them. He needed to do something before he could go. He ran into the opposite direction and jumped over the cover they had been bunkering behind a moment ago. He catched a glimpse of Smurfus picking up Flavius, who was still somehow alive.
Fionn kneeled next to the machine and started tinkering. He added more time to the countdown, and made some final checks. He synchronized the timer of his scroll to match the time remaining, before he hurried after Smurfus and Flavius, leaving the ticking Warp core module behind.
"What was that?" Cerin asked from behind Nox.
"Someone blew something up." Nox replied as his claws cut the metal before him. "Things are probably starting to get really hot for those guys on the docking floors."
"They are probably getting a lot of action there," Cerin mused.
"Probably," Nox said as he tossed a sizable plate of metal aside. "Let them fight the enemy head on. Just focus on what we are doing."
"Let the others do the grinding part of fighting."
"Yes, that is not our way," Nox said with a smile. "As an almost fine man once said: the Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness."
Nox was satisfied with his cutting work and turned towards Cerin. "Hand me the meat."
Azuhrius pulled himself to his feet and looked up at the hole they had just made into the superstructure. He had anticipated that such an explosion would cause a lot of damage, but he was still surprised by the devastation caused by the blast. The superstructure of Aegis was made to be light, it was a flying fortress after all and did not require same theatrical firmness as the heavy and impressive Amity Colosseum. That is why when there was a large explosion inside, the metal structure in near vicinity was totally torn back into a metal ruin. Including the floor Alpha Legionnaires and their operatives had been standing on.
"Ceruleon?" Azuhrius called out, since he did not see anyone in his near vicinity. He had intended to make a way to the floor below. Instead the explosion had sent him down three floors. It was not a dangerous fall for an Aura wielder by any means. "Can you hear me?"
There was no reply. It seems the Ceruleon had been thrown by the explosion far enough that there was enough wreckage between them to block them from hearing each other, or he had already moved on. "Any operative that can hear me, respond."
"Seryy here!" came a shout from the whole in the roof, from the upper floor that had been torn open. There were no other replies, so Azuhrius checked his equipment and jumped towards the voice.
Seryy was leaning against the wall of the torn corridor that was tilting out of place. Azuhrius could see blood, and noticed one of her legs was bent into unnatural direction. After making these observations, he noticed the Atlesian drones at the other end of the corridor.
"Enemy contact," Seryy said as she tried to make her shelf a smaller target against the wall. Azuhrius threw himself into a prone position against the floor and brought his new pistol up.
The Atlesian drones fired at him, but their shot went far wide. Azuhrius started firing his weapon, emptying the magazine in a couple of seconds. There were only four of the drones, and the shots of his pulse pistol made short work of them. He downed the first with sheer number of center mass shots, after which he adjusted his aim towards the neck and head area. He took the rest of the machines down with well aimed shots.
Azuhrius rose up from the floor. It seemed like the drones were already on this floor. He needed to move fast. He produced a new magazine for his pistol as he turned to Seryy. "We need to go. What is your status? Can you run?"
Seryy made a small unnecessary move with her leg that visible caused her great pain. "No. I am not operating capable," she gasped.
"Understood," Azuhrius said as he reloaded his pistol and moved towards Seryy. He moved his gun to his belt and bend down to pick Seryy up. He hurled her body over his shoulders with little effort and soon he was on the move.
Azuhrius pulled forth his scroll as he went. "Ceruleon, Seryy is wounded," he said as he ran through the corridors with the Hydra Network operative on his shoulders and a gun in the other hand. "We are retreating for the airship. Get anyone else you can and navigate your own way to the extraction area. We will meet you there." Azuhrius closed the link switched for another channel. "Orchid? Where are you?"
Lieutenant Colonel Schwarz would have very much wanted to figure out what the explosion had been about. There was no great disruption in any of the station's systems, and the tremor waves had not been overly forceful, so it could not have been any serious detonation that would compromise the whole station. But at the moment, he was rather preoccupied by the sounds coming from the ceiling.
The remaining Fire Warriors were aiming upwards with their weapons, and the entire command center was listening to the sound echoing through the metal plating. There was no doubt about it, something was moving beyond the ceiling plates, the dull metal sounds were far to spontaneous to be anything else.
"What is the situation with those drones?" Schwarz asked a nearby console operator.
"They said they will be here in maybe five minutes," the man replied, his nervousness caused by the unseen thread clearly visible on his pale face.
How anything had managed to get into the superstructure of the ceiling above, Schwarz could only guess. Maybe the explosion's tremors had torn something off, or maybe the enemy above had some serious cutting equipment. Anyway, Schwarz only had a half a dozen Fire Warriors, and side arm armed command center personnel. The numbers were not bad, but he was afraid that they might not be enough if the enemy above the ceiling was the same that had terrorized the command floors.
Suddenly there was a metallic screech that drew every pair of eyes into the center of the room. One of the metal plates near the center of the ceiling was violently torn off, after which the twisted piece of metal fell down to the floor with a crashing sound.
Two of the closest and most spooked Fire Warriors yelped back and fired a couple of shots at the dark hole that had been torn into the ceiling.
"Hold your fire!" Schwarz barked, and the soldiers regained their composure and carefully made their way from the hole towards the edges of the room where most of the personnel had moved to, abandoning their consoles.
The Atlesian soldiers aimed at the hole in the ceiling, but for a long drawn out minute, nothing happened. The sounds above had also stopped. The tension in the air was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.
Eventually, Schwarz decided that he needed to do something, at least play time until the reinforcements arrived.
"I speak with the authority of Atlesian military," Schwarz said loudly, directing his voice towards the hole. "I am surrounded by armed soldiers, and so are you. This whole station is filled with Atlesian soldiers and androids. Surrender now! Drop your weapons, and slowly descent down through the whole with your hands visible. You will be taking into custody and not be harmed."
Nothing. There was no reaction of any kind to Schwarz's words.
"I repeat, surrender now, or we will use lethal force against you. You have no way out, you are surrounded!"
There was a faint sound of metal scratching under something sharp. Then the darkness above the ceiling spoke through the hole.
"All I am surrounded by… is fear… Soon I will be surrounded by fresh bodies…"
Suddenly there was a violent metallic sound in the corner of the room. Schwarz spun around, and saw another metal plate crash into the floor from the ceiling. After the plate came a severed upper torso of a human being, without head or limbs.
There were fearful screams, and one of the Fire Warriors took aim with his pulse carbine and rained the torso with with pulse shots.
Schwarz had just enough time to hear something behind him and turn around, when something small and fast slipped down from the original hole in the center of the room, taking advantage of the distraction caused by the mutilated corpse. Schwarz had no time to see what exactly it was, before it had swiftly made its way to the door. And smashed the light controls.
Darkness fell instantly, pierced only by the faint lights of computers screens, and the pulse shots that were fired in panic. The screaming started a moment later, followed by one final sound of the ceiling being torn open as something dropped down. The screams of fear were suddenly mixed with screams of pain in the darkness of the room.
"WE ARE THE LORDS OF NIGHT!"
"SCREAMS FOR THE NIGHT HAUNTER!"
There are maybe 5 more chapters left in volume 2.5. I hope the next chapter gets writte sooner than this one.
