Chapter 17: Breaking and Entering (And Shitting on the Floor)

Looking up at the ceiling above me, I tried to let my mind stop working and just sleep, but I couldn't calm down with how close the operation loomed. The predawn light was forcing itself through the material of the window that said soon we'd be moving. The slight smell of salt in the air a reminder that the next part of this was taking place over open water.

I was being forced back out on the battlefield, where my allies barely trusted me and my enemies thought me a traitor. It wasn't like any of the fights I'd been in back home, but here death was a very possible outcome.

I ground my teeth together as I scrunched my eyes shut.

I didn't want to die.

Back home, I'd considered joining up with the armed forces and such, more to use them to pay for my schooling, but I'd always stopped short. My own fear of dying meeting with my dislike for certain practices driving me away from them.

My hands came up and covered my eyes.

Why couldn't this have been easier?

Why couldn't any of this be easier? Why was it that nothing seemed to go right?

There was a slight whooshing sound which was my only warning before a pile of papers attempted to bury themselves in my face. "I know you're awake, defect. You might like to know that recent reports sighted Karma Dragon and Maelstrom making violence on the southern coast of Dark Zone, so we won't have any surprise storms from those two to deal with."

"Fucking kill yourself, dude," I grumbled, not bothering to open my eyes under the reports. The hell did the Maelstroms matter now? Hell, they were on the other side of the country we were headed to, it'd make more sense to hear about Luquier's movements!

Finished with that, I rolled on my side. "What about the other Яeversed? You know, the ones who could actually effect this operation with their presence. Like Luquier, Amon, or the someone from the Dragon Empire?"

"Secondary Target, Primary Target, and the only one from the Empire we are aware of other than the one you messed with is a Ninja. If we know where he is, someone fucked up."

I rolled onto my front, trying to burrow into the pillow as I replied, "What, are the Яeversed all concentrated amongst the Star Gate and Dark Zone right now? Here I'd expect the Clown to have tried to spread the despair around as best he could."

"Statement: Targets were outlined amongst the clans. Those among the Dark Zone and Star Gate were dictated to be the most likely to fall to Яeversal the fastest," The Colony Maker chimed in from where she was sitting, staring at a wall. "Additionally, lack of communication with other Nations and Continents have left much of the situation unknown."

"So we don't know exactly where the other Яeversed are, just that they're probably not going to be involved in this mission."

"Oh boy," I murmured, still trying to sink into my pillow. After a moment, I turned to glare at the Gravity Ball. "Why the hell are we doing this now, anyway?"

The tiny dragon tilted his head before he replied. "Inevitability would be my guess. If the Craians do nothing major the Star-vaders have inevitability. They'll win if things stay as a stalemate. So if tomorrow is just as bleak as today… Why not now?"

"No, I meant, why the hell did you invade my room to do this now, at this moment? It feels like you did it just to piss me off," I murmured as I glared balefully at the dragon. Was it trying to be positive? What a joke.

"Well, it's not like you were asleep or anything," the dragon dismissed. "Might as well get this out of the way when the organics aren't fully active. Some efficiency can be useful."

I blew a paper out of my face, "You say that like I wasn't trying to sleep. Holy shit, was I trying to sleep. Damn insomnia."

"You're an Infiltration type, scrap-for-brains," the Cyber Dragon sighed. "How many times do I have to say it? Sleep isn't necessary. You can fake it well enough, but you don't actually do it. Same with eating. Not necessary, but since you were made to infiltrate other species you can fake it and actually get something from those chemical reactions."

"Wow, it's like I'm a person, who has psychological needs that sleeping and eating help satisfy," I snark back. "It's like having my humanity stripped away is stressing me out. It's like I'm panicking because I fucking hate all of this and want to go home, you fucking shitty Tay AI!"

I was shouting, my chest heaving despite not needing air. I had leapt from the bed at some point, looming over the dracokid while my hands clenched and unclenched.

"You act like I'm doing this out of some sort of misplaced idea that acting like a human will help me fit in! It's not for them! It's for me! So I can feel human, so I don't forget what it was like! What I was like!"

"And-assuming your delusional world actually exists in more than a short-circuiting neuron somewhere in that head of yours-if you were human, how likely is it that you would still be alive right now?" the dracokid asked without flinching "Without magic, how likely is it that you'd have survived the fights you've found yourself in? Whatever you were, that's not what you are. If you keep pretending to be something your not, your survival chances are in the negatives."

"I'm not pretending to be someone I'm not! This is who I am and was! This personality, these actions, these memories!" I snarled, even as I felt like punching the Cyber Dragon. "I'd be dead without this body, but I'll resent it every day for not being mine! I've had to so many times remember that I don't need glasses in this body, that the features that are mine are gone!"

"You'll resent it because it's faster, stronger, more resilient, senses more acute than what you are used to?" the Grade 1 asked snarling. "And here I thought most humans dreamed of that sort of thing. Being the fastest, strongest, smartest. Just because it doesn't look like you think it should, it's alright to go and deny everything you have? Some of us lost those things!"

"Humans are hypocrites," I spat back. "We want to be the greatest, but we want it on our terms. We want everything, but we don't want to give anything up. Besides, I never cared about those things, I was perfectly happy with who I was and what I was like."

There were sounds of boots on dirt outside of the room. Chances are they'd heard us but were either pretending they didn't or had orders that made them not care.

I collapsed back onto the bed, my knees folding as I scrubbed my hands over my face. I was so done, just so done with this day. Which is of course when Ashlei walked in and told us that we were moving out for Dark Zone's Northern Shore.

My baleful gaze turned to her, and all I could manage was a groan.

"Of course, now it all starts dominoing into this."

{~}{~}

"Scouts are reporting an ambush squad 50m to the Southeast… Just as expected," one of the Shadow Paladins reported to Chiron and the rest of our little War Tent.

"And so… It begins," Mordred murmured, the rest of the assembled Paladins nodding in agreement with him.

When we got to the battlefield, the fighting had already started. Scattered black orbs with void rings surrounding them told that some of the Shadow Paladins had already been Locked. But there were also scattered bodies in white jumpsuits. Both sides were giving as good as they got. There were also some very familiar bodies on the edges.

"Damn Ezzel, if it weren't for whatever the hell he did with Maelstrom I wouldn't have had the distance issues and could have just gotten to a body out here," Gravity Ball muttered, kicking one of his replicant bodies. "Fucking anomalous planet… And they can't even be bothered to use my strategies!" he whined. "Look at this! Basic swarm tactics! I could be doing so much better!"

"If you could, would you be able to take control of one of the larger bodies?" Junos asked with an almost predatory glint in his eye.

"Read access only," Gravity Ball spat. "Even if I physically accessed the Network Terminal Nodes, I wouldn't be able to push my consciousness into one of them. This is what I'm stuck as."

"Wünderbar as that is," I began, staring out at the killing fields, my eyes glossing over the bodies uncomfortably. "Can we address the fact that we're still waiting on the Spike Brothers? I thought they were experts on mobilization and blitz tactics."

"Barsaive is about 20 kilometers from this position. The Spike Brothers contribution to this fight will be the prevention of more of these things from reinforcing and allowing them to really get entrenched," Charon stated calmly. "This fight is ours."

"…And here I thought I could just hang out back here with you guys and lame it out like Cross Tekken," I grumbled acidicly, feeling entirely unhappy with this situation. I'd thought that the Spikes were to be our meatshields.

"You forget," Junos said as he passed me with a sinister gleam in his eye. "We want to give our Revenge. Not fighting? It's an emotional weight." Then he leapt at one of the Star-vaders with a yell of, "HAVE AT YOU!"

Watching the knight charge into the fray, I couldn't help but wonder, "…Was he just waiting for that chance? Or was he trying to be inspiring? Well, whatever…"

I looked up to Raging Form and shrugged, "If you want to go in and get stuck in, feel free to go wild. I'll be back here, laming it out."

The dragon gave me a look that I could only decipher as bland before wading into battle, his arm and glaive swinging out with savage force as it pulped a number of Star-vaders. His eyes gleamed with an infernal light as he roared, "Come Star-vaders! Face me! Let me tear my Revenge from your corpses!"

"Statement: There are six grade 2's approaching from our left," Colony Maker mentioned.

I turned to look at her, fear pulling at my features before turning my gaze in the direction that she'd indicated. And lo, there was a squad of Star-vaders charging us, no form to their formation as they closed. I did some quick mental math. It was myself, the Colony Maker, the Gravity Ball, and Ashlei against the six Star-vaders.

"How many of them do you think you can handle, Ashlei?" I inquired as my hands balled into fists. It wasn't like I had any weapon to use…

"Better question is if we can stop their Lock, Scrap-head. Between a tag-team we should be able to get two down… But three Lockers make this trouble." The dracokid pointed out, stirring my memories of the Star-vaders charging us.

Three dragons, the lot of them with white scales and red and black embellishments, their heads smoothed out and elongated like Xenomorphs except for a set of horns jutting from them, their wings encircled by a single black ring. Star-vader Mobius Breath Dragon. Supporting them was a trio Niobiums, the feminine cyberoids flanking the Cyber Dragons with their claw-like extensions, Void Magic carving trails in the air behind each tip.

"The main thing we have to do is dodge the Mobius Breaths' attacks, they're the ones who can do the Locking amongst the enemy force. The real issue will be taking care of the Niobiums, they'll be the ones trying to force us into the line of fire," I advised as I squared my shoulders and pulled at the Void energy from the various Locks scattered across the battlefield.

"Our odds are worse if we don't take some of them down right away," Gravity Ball stated, moving behind Colony Maker. The two began running at the rightmost Mobius Breath Dragon, Gravity Ball creating a namesake and tossing it at the larger Cyber Dragon to slow it's motion enough for Colony Maker to send a high intensity blast of Void Magic at the dragon before it could retaliate. The right Niobium threw itself in the way with it's claws grinding against the blast, even as it was affected by the high gravity bubble.

I hung back even as Ashlei darted past me, her weapon flashing out as she disarmed one of the Niobiums. I caught sight of a Mobius Breath looming up behind her, its mouth filled with crimson light as it prepared to launch an attack on her. Pushing out with the Void energy, I formed a shield in front of the dragon's maw. I could feel a noise pounding in my ears as I pushed the shield forward, the Star-vader's attack splashing against it even as it was forced back into its throat. With the opening I presented, Ashlei cut down the Niobium she was engaged with.

Two other beams of Void flashed out. One from the untouched Mobius Breath and the other slower and more jerky from the one that had been under Gravity's spell. Colony Maker and Gravity Ball scattered and were able to dodge the second, but the first one stuck Gravity Ball and Locked him down. And shit… Niobiums got more powerful if there was a Locked unit on your side, didn't they?

With no other option, I expanded the shield I had in the one Star-vader's mouth, the red translucent shield cutting open its head as its attack fizzled in the remnants of its throat. Letting the shield dissipate, I formed another one above the already hurt Niobium and slammed down on it, forcing it to remain stationary as it struggled against the shield pushing down on it.

Colony Maker floated higher in the air as the remaining Niobium pressed the attack against her.

Ashlei was currently focusing on the Mobius Dragon that Colony Maker had previously been fighting. The black breath splashed across her rapier. Alone that wouldn't be enough to stop her, but the other one was lining up an attack. As the untouched Mobius Breath began to exhale- "That's enough from you." -a pair of black rings flew from behind me and ensnared it, breaking its attack and forcing it to wail as it was Locked. "Learn to Lock properly, trash," Gravity Ball snapped at the Locked Dragon. "Stealing that Lock from the inside was so easy, it was insulting."

Now without the second attack, Ashlei was able to charge the remaining dragon and skewer it's head and heart with a pair of deadly quick thrusts. I could feel my shield hit the ground and tried not to think too hard on what that meant. Gravity Ball threw another ball at the remaining Niobium and with the power boost from the Lock gone and sphere pinning it down, Colony Maker was able to launch an attack that overcame its defenses.

Leaning back, I sighed heavily. I looked around at the others, "We're all still here? All alive? All membered?"

"What an interesting way to ask," Ashlei stated. "However, I do not think any of us have suffered lasting injuries."

"Good, always good to know that we've still got legs," I snarked. "There's always an awful lot of running to do."

Gravity Ball pointed to the corpses and asked, "This stuff is ours right?"

"If it is, it's probably getting confiscated," I replied as I gazed at the wreckage.

Ashlei nodded, "Very much confiscated after the battle."

"We're going to need the converters eventually…"