Witch of the Eighty-Sixth

by contrastellar

There is no such thing as a clean war, and for those who know the secrets of this battlefield — what else could this life be, than a Curse?

6. Chapter 5

August 28, SY 2149 — 09:21 RCT

When the Witch woke up, she had no recollection of what had happened for her to end up where she was. She wasn't even sure what way was 'up' anymore. Her head hurt, and her tongue felt dry and heavy in her mouth. She opened her eyes slightly, to find her Juggernaut's canopy slightly ajar, and that alone was enough to completely rouse her. She scrambled for her gun, well before her eyesight focused and saw that it wasn't being pried open, but rather had been splayed open when the Juggernaut lost power, and lost the ability to mechanically keep the canopy closed.
Her heart raced in her ears, and her hands shook as she kept the gun leveled at the clearing beyond her canopy.
It took several minutes of sitting there, in silence, before she realized that she didn't hear anything. Not in a 'ears ringing' way, but in a way that she could only hear her breathing, and her heartbeat in her ears. Not anything else. No breeze, no footsteps. Nothing at all indicating that there was movement outside.
She gulped, before sliding her sidearm back into its holster on her leg, and undoing the harness that kept her in the seat of her Juggernaut. She was sitting upright, somehow, but felt like she wasn't — half expecting to slouch against part of the insides of her Juggernaut, and have to half-crawl out of it. But that wasn't necessary. She instead, simply moved forward, her body aching as she did, and shoved the canopy of her Juggernaut wide, only to face the eastern sun, as it was early in its ascent into the sky. She shielded her eyes from it, before looking around at the meadow that she was in, that her Juggernaut was splayed out in. She wasn't sure where she was — the forest surrounding this meadow wasn't clear at all, nor was it filled with Legion carcasses from the battle.
It was then, that she panicked once again.
She reached for her ear, only for her hand to touch something slightly sticky. She looked at her hand, only to find that it had come away stained red. It wasn't wet with blood, but merely had touched the parts that had started to scab over. She felt her ear again, feeling for the Para-RAID that should've been attached to it, only to find that it wasn't there.
She turned around in the cockpit of her Juggernaut, looking around the inside of it, to try and find the pieces of it. She looked on both sides of the seat where she had been strapped in, and then looked under the seat, only to find the fragments of metal and crystal, shimmering softly against the floor of the Juggernaut.
She sighed at that, before standing back up, and turning around to face the sun again, her eyes better adjusted now. She wondered, again, where she was — and where her Squadron was, before realizing that she had probably been blown away by the impact of one of the ultra-long-range rounds, and in the midst of that, her Squadron had made the right decision to leave her behind. She didn't blame them for that, but she did wish she knew where she was. She sat back down inside the Juggernaut, and fiddled around with one of the pouches on the inside, coming away with a canteen, and a spare energy ration. She stored the ration again, not feeling particularly hungry — but realized her canteen was empty. She wanted to swear, but didn't. She stood up again, and listened, cupping her un-bloodied ear, and listened for some indication of water, or anything nearby that she could use for it. She turned her head around, until she had to lean out of the Juggernaut to continue listening. Sure enough, in the still air, there were the distant sounds of water running not that far away. She stepped foot out of her Juggernaut, and appraised it for a moment, her canteen tucked between her arm and her chest. She looked over it — there were no hydrlaulic leaks from the legs, and the external readouts from the power packs just simply indicated that they had come disconnected, not that they had been damaged.
All in all, she considered herself lucky for a moment, before walking away from her Juggernaut, and followed the sound of running water into the forest surrounding the meadow. It wasn't a far walk at all, and she could quite easily keep her Juggernaut in sight as she came across the creek that she had heard. She supposed that this was another thing that she was lucky for. Having landed so close to a water supply that she could use.
She filled up her canteen, and took a tenuous sip from it. The water was cool, and beyond refreshing, despite the fact that it was just a natural source of unfiltered water. She didn't care. It was water, and it made her tongue feel less heavy, and her mouth less dry. So she was lucky, again.
She returned to her Juggernaut, sitting down again on the inside, and tucking away the canteen after taking another drink, and then pulling out the energy ration. It tasted a bit like chalk, and she didn't enjoy it, but it's what she had.
She sat, and thought about her situation… She didn't know where she was, she didn't know where to go, she had no reinforcements — and after a quick check of the magazine in her sidearm; she only had about thirteen bullets on her personal sidearm, and whatever was left in her Juggernaut's 57mm canon magazine. Not a lot to go meandering around Legion-held territory with… But it was, alas, better than going without her Juggernaut at all… At least she still had the high-frequency blades.
She stood up after a while of chewing on the energy ration, and went to reconnect the power packs to the Juggernaut, which immediately hummed to life. She tapped the HUD that was still wrapped around her ear, and it sprung to life as well, sensing a connection from the Juggernaut — it projected its state to her retina. The legs were all fine, as she suspected, the armor was minimally damaged, the blades were still in working order, and the cannon had two rounds left. That was all she had to make it… Wherever she was going.
Which was the next, and more difficult portion of all of this — figuring out where she was going.
Without her Para-RAID, she wasn't beholden to anyone in the Eighty-Five districts, she was essentially a free woman. There was no way to track her, no way to talk to her, or to know where she went or was going. But conversely, there was no way for her to get supplies if she continued east. When her Juggernaut's power packs went dry, that was it. End of the road. And she didn't have much as far as food went either, considering she had just eaten the only energy ration in her Juggernaut. She'd have to scavenge between abandoned settlements as best as she could — and with no map, no way of telling where they were, she wouldn't have much luck if she got stuck out in the open without her Juggernaut.
On the other hand, however, there was the option of heading towards the Gran Mur — where she would undoubtedly run into the Legion, would undoubtedly find the remains of Eighty-Six and Alba, and would have to fight in order to survive. But she wouldn't be alone. There would be other Processors there, right? Ones who thought the same way she did about fighting in order to survive. Ones who had made it this far, and would continue the whole way. That surely would be better than waiting for death to come by running away, wouldn't it?
She chewed on the remnants of the ration bar that was still in her mouth, and closed the canopy of her Juggernaut. At the very least, if she died fighting to save the facilities inside the Gran Mur, it would mean someone else would live… If it was a White Pig, then that wasn't ideal, but it could certainly be worse — she supposed so, at least — better than dying alone and in service to no one. Besides, there was the chance that she'd finally get to meet her Handler, if she had survived this long at least. There was no promise of that either. Hell, there was no promise of anything as far as either of her options went. But, she also supposed, that fighting was better than running.
She sighed as her Juggernaut's canopy sealed, and she turned around towards the west — the direction the Gran Mur was, and started her walk in a low-cruise mode.
The battlefield was quiet, and as she continued her hike westward, she trudged through forest and meadow alike, crossing several streams, and yet, despite the distance she had covered by noon, had yet to come across the battlefield she had been thrown from, or anywhere at all that was familiar. Part of her figured that if she could return to the place where she had been thrown from, she could at least return to the LFRITH base and restock on food and supplies — but alas, in her march, she didn't find it, or anywhere that was at all in her memory, or that had the traces of a battle at all.
She stopped when the sun had just started its western fall towards the horizon, and stretched. Stepping foot outside her cockpit for nothing more than to stretch her legs, and to look around at the unfamiliar terrain around her. There wasn't much as far as signposts went, or anything discernible as indications of where settlements were or weren't. Just the simple, open plains and dense woodlands that dotted this part of the old Republic's territory. She did a little bit of stretching, before re-embarking into her Juggernaut, and continuing her march west. She didn't know how far it was to the Gran Mur's walls, but had an idea that it would be a couple days march at least. It would've been nice if she had some idea of where she was though.
Closer to evening, she came across railroad tracks. Tracks that were running at least somewhat inclement in the direction that she wanted to go. This was the first symbol of human inhabitation that she had come across, and it came almost as a shock to her to find it. She wasn't entirely sure she was on the same planet as before — but knew that logically she was. It was just that the whole world seemed so empty in spite of the fact that she was still in it — that she was living proof of the evils that the world could muster up.
She followed the railroad tracks along the meandering path towards the west, before sunset began to creep into her vision, and the blinding light of the sun as it crept ever closer to the horizon settled into her view — blinding enough as it was, viewed through the sensors of the Juggernaut. She stopped as the blazing sun continued to burn itself into her vision, and shut down her Juggernaut. It was better to rest for a bit now, then try and work against the sun as she went forward.
She stepped foot outside her Juggernaut, and stretched, her body aching still from having been thrown the distance she had, and sore from sitting in her cramped Juggernaut all day. She looked around at the terrain around her — somewhat of a valley between two hills, with the railroad track running between them. She picked one of the hills, reached into her Juggernaut for her canteen, and then set forth up the decided hill, in hopes that she'd get a better look at what was around her, and to see if there was anywhere suitable to hunker down for the night. She made it to the top of the hill with relative ease, and started looking about, starting by facing west, and shielding her eyes from the sun, and looking from the closest point to her, to the farthest point on the horizon. By this point, the sun was already nearly half-eclipsed by the horizon, and it made it hard to see anything in that particular direction, but she thought, for a moment, that she could see the shimmer of something on that horizon. When she blinked, however, it was gone.
She turned clockwise, facing south-west, and started her search again, starting from the closest point, to the furthest. Nothing, not even a glint.
It was when she finally turned to face south-east — almost the exact way she had come from, did she notice a trail of smoke floating up towards the sky, like a gentle gray ribbon trailing to the heavens. She followed it back to the ground, and noticed there was no fire, but a point on the ground that was obfuscated by trees, that the smoke seemed to come from. She stared at that point for a moment, and swore that she saw something moving nearby it. She looked down the hill at her Juggernaut, that looked almost like it was resting on the railroad tracks, and then back to the point where the smoke was, before setting out on foot, rather than taking her Juggernaut to figure out what it was that the smoke was. If she was just on foot, she would have an easier time slipping away if the smoke was, for whatever reason, coming from some Legion activity, compared to all the noise that her Juggernaut would make if she took it instead.
She made it to the trees edge, before she got a good look at what it was that causing the smoke — behind some brushes, ones that looked almost artificially placed there — there was a fire pit, with embers still hot. She inexplicably, drew her sidearm — maybe out of caution, or a warrior's instinct that made her do so. She moved closer to the brush, and cleared it away, looking around for any indication of the humans who had made this fire. The Legion had no purpose for making fire… But real people? Other Processors? They did. So they had to have been nearby.
She crouched down to the fire pit, and held the back of her hand towards the center of the pit, still feeling the heat that came off of it — whoever it was that had made this fire had put it out in just as much of a hurry, and didn't have time or resources to put it out with water… But had left it still smoking, almost like they wanted someone to find it… And come to think of it — there were no Juggernauts around, so maybe they had abandoned this spot for whatever reason?
It was when she stood up again, did she feel the cold press of steel against her upper neck. She raised her hands to the air as soon as she felt it, and realized that it wasn't cutting her, but rather was a statement to be made that she had been found by someone who didn't think that she was friendly.
"Make any funny moves, or make any noise that isn't answering my questions, and I'll shoot." A deep, feminine voice ordered her in hushed tones. "Let go of your weapon." The Witch flicked it to safe and then dropped the magazine, and then finally the gun itself to the ground. "Now, who are you?"
"I'm the Witch, Captain of the Second Ward's First Defensive Squadron — LFRITH." The Witch responded. "Personal Name: Aerial."
"Oh? Is that so?" A different voice, from a different spot behind The Witch said. This voice was masculine, and sounded more like silk than it did any other descriptor that she could assign to it.
"Prince!" A different, higher pitched girl's voice said in hushed tones.
"Oh there's no need for that. I know who this is. Put your gun down, Bluebird." The voice that the Witch identified as belonging to "Prince", said. The steel against her neck didn't move.
"Sir, she may be somehow working for the Legion, or may be one herself."
"And if she is, she'd already have alerted the nearby Legion, of which there are none. So put your gun down, Sabina." The Prince said, calmly. It was only then, after using the girl's real name, did the steel against the Witch's neck withdrawal, and it wasn't for a few moments after, did the Witch turn around, her hands still in the air — unsure of when it was that she should drop them.
"Now now, there's no need to act like you're our hostage, Witch." The man with the voice belonging to the Prince said. He was a tall man, with the light hair of a Jade, but the cool eyes of a Sapphira, and dark, sun-kissed skin, that the Witch wasn't sure was his natural shade or not. His uniform top was neatly done up, giving him the impression of a proper soldier, rather than a conscript. The girl standing closest to the Witch, was busy putting her gun back into its holster on her leg, but had the features of a pureblood Iola — purple hair and light eyes. The Witch assumed this was the girl named Sabina. The Witch looked at the Prince, and then back at Sabina, before crouching down to pick up her firearm, brushing dirt off of the magazine, before inserting it into the grip of the pistol, and then stowing it on her leg holster.
"Who are you?" The Witch asked as she stood back up, half expecting Sabina to have drawn on her again, since she had gone for her sidearm first.
"We're the remnants of VALKYRIE Squadron of the Seventh Defensive Ward." The Prince said with a smile, crossing from the tree that he stood at, to stand closer to the Witch, offering his hand. "Apologies for baiting you, but we had to be sure that what our scouts saw wasn't a Legion… It was your Juggernaut, wasn't it?"
The Witch nodded as she shook his hand. "Yeah… There's more of you, though?"
"Oh, yeah. Come out everyone!" The Prince called, and there were murmurs as the others of VALKYRIE came out from around the fire-pit, all in various stages of disarray from being told to conceal themselves. "I'm Shaddiq Zeneli, Personal Name: Mastermind. But you can call me whatever you wish, miss Witch." He smiled, warmly, and it stirred something inside the Witch. She could tell, almost instantly, that this was a man deserving of the name Mastermind. "The nice young lady who has just put her pistol away is Sabina Fardin, my second-in-command. Personal Name: Bluebird."
"Y-you know who I am?" The Witch asks, taking a half step away from the charismatic Captain of the Squadron.
"Of course! Namebearers are already legends in of themselves, but when it comes to those who have names in addition to the ones earned from surviving?" Shaddiq chuckles, "Well, I can't imagine that someone like you would lie about being the mythical Witch. Besides, you've survived whatever hell that the Legion have put us through now, it's unlikely someone who wasn't already a legend among the Eighty-Six would survive. That and your story about being from LFRITH lines up with what I already knew... And for the rest of us? I suppose time will tell if our legends live on."
Behind her, some of the members of VALKYRIE squadron began to stoke the fire again, trying to get it back to its warm glow, rather than dim embers as the night continued to grow more and more dark as time went on. "I-I'm sorry Mister Zenelli… But I don't know if I'm really deserving of being called a legend."
Shaddiq motioned at the fire, and stepped forward, sitting down closer to it, smiling all the while. He sat cross-legged, and poked at the fire with a nearby stick, helping to stoke it back into proper form. "Oh, Miss Witch, haven't you heard? We're all legends now, for surviving this long at least. The Legion are performing the biggest attack on the Republic that anyone's ever heard of, and we're the ones who didn't die in those first few waves of it." He chuckled again, setting the stick down.
"B-but…"
"It's okay if you don't believe me. Everyone here has heard of two people in the Eastern Theater, even if we never met them; and those are the Reaper, and the Witch." He explained. "And last anyone heard of the Reaper, he'd been told to take a long hike off a short cliff." Shaddiq shrugged. "Suppose that as far as us Eighty-Six go, we're discarded as soon as we're done being useful."
The Witch stayed silent, only moving to sit down next to him after a moment of silence. Those members of VALKYRIE that weren't involved in this conversation — namely those who weren't Sabina, conversed quietly among themselves. "D-don't you think that's a bit…"
"Unfair? Perhaps… But after all, we're the ones who have been fighting out here for the last several years, not the White Pigs." Shaddiq shrugged. "Besides, it's not like they are getting their just desserts with this attack by the Legion." He shrugged again, putting his palms forward, towards the fire, to warm them up.
"B-but not all Alba are bad people!" The Witch protested.
"Oh? What makes you think that?" Shaddiq said, looking back at the Witch.
"I…" The Witch says, looking down at her lap, not sure of what it is that exactly makes her think the way that she does, but knows that deep down, Alba can't all be bad people. "I don't think that all Eighty-Six are good people, so not all Alba can be bad people." She says, her voice more confident and certain than it had been up until that point.
"I suppose. But I think that the fact that the Alba were able to round us all up into concentration camps, and force us to fight a war that we had no say in, makes them probably worse, in the long run." Shaddiq says, turning back to the fire, the light of it reflected in his eyes. His face is neutral, not expressing any emotion at all. "Sabina?"
The purple-haired girl who sat on Shaddiq's left, opened her mouth to speak. "When the Colorata were being first rounded up, my parents, who were still United Kingdom of Roa Gracia citizens, went to the Consulate in District One, to try and get passage for myself and them, back to the Kingdom as citizens. On the way, they were stopped by the Republic's military. It was a routine traffic stop, that turned into a lethal incident. They killed my father, and then my mother in the middle of the streets of the city." She explained, her own eyes dancing with the fire's light in front of her. Her face was stone cold as she spoke, not bearing any emotion. The Witch recognized such a display — it was a look that came with years of oppression by something that Sabina couldn't face, not alone, but had been forced to. A warrior's façade. Something that came to her naturally now, more so than any personality she'd had before — and it was a tool that she used, sharpened as it had been through years on the battlefield against the Legion, to survive.
"I won't regale you with all our sob stories, Witch. But just know, that we've all got stories alike. Either we lost our families through battle, or from the relocation to the camps. Either way, they were killed in front of our eyes, with nothing that we could do to stop it. And I don't think there's a single person here, yourself included, who doesn't harbor some kind of resentment for the White Pigs for what they've done."
"I understand that... But then, why are you headed towards the Gran Mur if you hate the Alba so much?" The Witch asked, her voice still retaining the composure that she had found.
Shaddiq laughed, a hearty laugh that he threw to the heavens above. As if The Witch had just told him a joke that was satisfying yet humorous at the same time — "Oh, I haven't really decided yet." He said, after regaining his composure. "Maybe its because that Bloody Regina is a legend among the Eighty-Six herself, despite being an Alba. Or maybe its because I don't think we can survive without the Republic, and we most certainly can't survive by moving further into Legion territory… But then, the logical question is — why are you?"
The Witch blinks at this question, before finding her own answer, that comes far easier than she expected it to. "Because that's where my Squadron should've gone. Because that's where I would've gone if I had lost contact with my Captain."
"Oh so you're not out here as some lone wolf. You're looking for you pack." Shaddiq commented.
The Witch nods. "They were with me when we got ambushed by some kind of ultra-long-range artillery. I got blown away by it, but somehow survived." The Witch looks down at her lap again, "I guess you haven't seen them since you left your base…"
Shaddiq shrugged. "I suppose there's a whole lot of us Eighty-Six scrambling about trying to figure out what the heck to do now. But you're right, we've not come across your Squadron." He looked back at the Witch, "Although, I figure that you got blown a hell of a ways away to almost end up in the Seventh Ward... Your Juggernaut, it's intact after all that?"
The Witch nods, looking back up at Shaddiq. "All the legs were fine and didn't report anything when I started moving today. Somehow..."
"I suppose that is a small miracle. Do you want one of our Mechanics to take a look before you set off in the morning?"
"Oh, no, you don't need to…" The Witch started to say, before Shaddiq gave another smile, indicating that she wasn't really being given a choice. "B-but if you have a mechanic with you, I wouldn't mind."
Shaddiq pointed across the fire to a young man across from him, who is scrawny, but looked like he had the temperament befitting one of the Eighty-Six. "That's Carnivore. He's our lead mechanic and one of the deputies for my third platoon. He can take a look in the morning, when the sun comes back out again."
"Th-thank you."
"There's no need to thank me, miss Witch. I think that you'd do the same if our roles were swapped." Shaddiq smiles once again, but not a smile that seems as cunning as before. A more genuine smile, indicating that this is something that he genuinely believes.
The Witch nods, before looking back at the fire, and away from Shaddiq.
They sit in silence, listening to the conversations around them — the fire in its pit dancing in hues of red as more sticks were piled onto it, to keep the fire warm.
It's a while before someone broke out the Meals-Ready-to-Eat, and sets them up around the fire to warm, rather than use the chemical warmers inside of them. The Witch recognized this trick. It was often times during the Winter, that someone would set up a fire outside the barracks of LFRITH, and use the fire to warm up meals, including the things that passed as food inside the MRE packets that arrived every so often from beyond the Gran Mur. She watched as the soup inside some of the packets began to bubble, and others wafted scents that were more appetizing than the actual contents of the packet. But for now, that was all they had.
"Miss Witch?" Shaddiq asked after the MREs are passed out to all those present, including the Witch herself.
"Y-Yes?" She stammers, almost dropping the plastic spoon of her soup packet.
"I know we've just met, but I do have a favor to ask of you." He said, poking at the fleshy-looking MRE contents that he holds. He doesn't look at her, nor is he looking exactly at the MRE itself. To the Witch, it looks almost more like he's looking somewhere beyond what's in front of him — looking off into space.
The Witch doesn't respond. Letting her silence be the prompt for him to continue.
"I hate to bother you with this, but you're heading for the Gran Mur, and alas… I don't think I can bring myself to head that way." Shaddiq half-heartedly poked at his meal in front of him his eyes still locked to that distant, unseen place. "Would you be willing to take my Valkyries with you, into the walls?"
The Witch looks down at her own soup that she's holding. "Why won't you go?" She asked.
"Because I hate the White Pigs. I don't think that it'd be a great idea for me to go into the proverbial nest of vipers, and see what the world without Colorata in it, looks like… Even if it's going to practically be in ruins by the time you get there." Shaddiq said, before he tossed the remnants of the plastic MRE package into the fire, having had his fill of the meal that had been inside. His eyes flickered as the light of the fire danced with the disruption to its fuel. The MRE package didn't burn, it simply shriveled. The Witch watched Shaddiq's face, only somewhat beginning to poke at her own soup again. "I don't think I could bring myself to fight for them, so I'm not going to… But the rest of my Squadron? They very well might follow you if I ordered them… Better than walking into the viper's nest by yourself, too, I suppose."
The Witch nods.
"So what about it Witch? Willing to take my Valkyries with you to the promised land?"
The Witch thought about shrugging for a moment. She didn't. It felt too rude to just shrug off someone asking a favor like this. She didn't shrug. She instead thought about what had been asked of her, and whether or not it would be at all possible for her to really operate with the dozen or so Valkyries, without her Para-RAID. It would be hard to coordinate if they ended up in some sort of Combat, and nearly impossible to try and find one another if they got separated. Needless to say, she would be more of a liability to them, rather than being a determent to her.
"I don't have a Para-RAID anymore." The Witch observed.
"I know, but that won't stop them from following your orders when and where you give them."
"It's going to be a few days before we make it to the Gran Mur, and even then, there's no guarantee that they'll all make it there with me… There's a chance that I might not even make it there myself."
"I know that. But it's better than staying outside the walls, where there's more Legion than inside them."
"What are you going to do without them?"
Shaddiq smiled at this, his eyes still fixated on the fire. "I think I'll do some soul searching, try and find other Processors, convince them to go towards the walls. I can't imagine that everyone is as fixated on going to the walls as you are, Miss Witch." His smile fades. "Like me, for instance."
The Witch sighs. "I suppose you're right, Mister Zenelli." The Witch raised her soup to her lips, finishing it, before she continues. "I'll lead your Valkyries, but I won't take anyone who doesn't actually want to come with. Anyone who would prefer to not come, will stay with you, or set off on their own. I don't want to force anyone to come with if they don't want to." She herself, tossed her empty soup packet into the fire — the flames flickering in much the same way that they had when Shaddiq had thrown his into the fire. "I don't want to bring anyone to a place where they might die, when they don't want to be there."
"Fair enough." Shaddiq said, placing his hands against his knees, and standing up in a smooth motion from the ground. "Everyone!" He says, garnering his Squadron's attention — interrupting the conversations that they were having. "I've got good news. For those of you who are willing — the Witch has offered to take you along, into the walls. I won't be joining her. Instead, I'll be staying outside the walls, and traveling to the different wards, to try and convince those Squadrons who don't want to go, to go into the walls themselves, to try and save what remains of the White Pigs."
Everyone was silent at this. None sure how to respond to what their Squadron Captain was saying.
"For those of you that go, you'll be following the Witch here, into the walls. She doesn't have a Para-RAID anymore, but she's still willing to take you along, as long as you follow her lead."
"What if we don't want to go?" A young man's voice asked.
"Then I'd ask that you either stay with me, or go your own way." Shaddiq said solemnly. "No matter what you decide, there's a level of risk by going to the walls, or by going on your own, or by following me. Nothing is a sure-shot safety net. But I figure that those of you that band together, will have a better time surviving than just going off on your lonesome."
"I don't want to take along anyone who doesn't want to be going into the walls… We'll be saving the White Pigs, or whatever is left of them, no matter what's left in the walls. We're probably going to face losses along the way, and I don't want to force anyone who doesn't want to stick their neck out for a White Pig to come along." The Witch added on. "This is the biggest Legion offensive we've ever seen, and I wouldn't blame any of you for not wanting to stick your neck out for a White Pig." There were words left unsaid here, things that she couldn't bring herself to say on the matter. Possibly her own reason for going into the walls herself. She wasn't sure if anyone picked up on them, and she wasn't sure if she could even admit it to herself.
"I won't make you decide tonight… But please decide before the Witch leaves in the morning… Carnivore, if you'd be so kind as to look at the Witch's Juggernaut before she leaves in the morning?" The young man that Shaddiq had pointed out earlier, gave a thumbs-up in response to the question, rather than an articulated answer. "Sabina, I hate to ask this of you, but would you be willing to go with the Witch?"
She was silent for a moment, looking down at the fire in front of her for a moment, before looking back up at Shaddiq with no visible emotion on her face. "If that's what you want, Prince."
He smiled at this, before sitting back down in front of the fire.
"With that out of the way…" He said, "Will your Juggernaut be safe?"
The Witch looked up at the sky above for a moment, before looking back down at the fire. "If the Legion find us, it'll probably be because of this fire, rather than an abandoned Juggernaut."
Shaddiq laughed at this. "How true that is… We should probably put it out before they do find us from it."
It was a few minutes before the flames were extinguished, and the embers were all that remained, smoldering in the make-shift fire-pit. The Witch laid, propped up against a tree, in the underbrush, facing the direction of the fire, watching as VALKYRIE decided who was on first watch for the night. The role was quickly decided, and the rest of the Squadron settled down to sleep. The Witch, not for lack of trying, was one of the last to fall asleep, unsure of how it was that she would be able to fall asleep, sleeping on the ground in the forest like this. But she managed to anyways.
She didn't dream much that night. What she did dream about, she wouldn't and couldn't remember come morning. But when morning came, she was one of the first to wake up — her neck stiff from sleeping against a tree. It was gathering light in the pre-dawn moments that became fewer and fewer as she looked to the East, standing up and stretching out her neck, back and shoulder as she did. Her legs felt surprisingly limber all things considered, and she didn't have much explanation for that either.
As dawn started to break, the young man who she had identified as Carnivore the night before, came up to her. "Ready?" He asked in a hoarse voice. When he was closer like this, she was able to get a better look at him, and saw a deep scar in his throat — likely the reason for his hoarse voice and quiet demeanor. She led the way to her Juggernaut, and made sure that Sabina, who was awake as well, knew where they were going. She nodded in acknowledgement at this. The walk to her Juggernaut felt just as quick, if not faster than her walk from it to begin with — going over the gentler gradient of the hill was easier than the steeper climb she had taken initially. Descending the hill was just faster.
Once back at her Juggernaut, the Witch watched as Carnivore looked over it, starting with the armor, then looking over the joins on the legs — before climbing onto one of the legs, and starting to look at the firing mechanism for her 57mm cannon. He didn't speak once during the whole process. And the Witch simply sat on the side of the hill while he looked it over, her eyes examining the legs of her Juggernaut, still wondering how it was that she had managed to survive almost being hit by that ultra-long-range artillery. It was several minutes of Carnivore examining every part of the Juggernaut, before he stepped down from the leg that he had been standing on — and giving the Witch a thumbs up. A signal that she interpreted as her Juggernaut being fine to operate further. He started to hike back up the hill, back towards the makeshift camp that VALKYRIE had made, leaving the Witch by herself. She, however, mounted her Juggernaut, powered it on, and then took it around the hill, towards the camp, to be better situated nearby when it was time to leave.
Her Juggernaut came to a humming stop just outside the trees of the Forest, and by this point in the morning, the sun was already well on its climb towards high noon. The rest of Valkyrie was awake, and either in the midst of breakfast, or absent — having gone to check on their own hidden Juggernauts. The Witch dismounted from her Juggernaut, and switched it off as she did, her retinal projector still around her ear.
"So I see Carnivore cleared you for a while longer." Shaddiq said, leaning against a nearby tree.
"Hopefully this will last me until I get to the Walls… And hopefully they have more power packs there." Shaddiq shrugged at her statements.
"Maybe they will, either way, our Scavenger still has some packs and ammo… I think we've even got a couple spare blades for when yours eventually go dull." Shaddiq said. "I got a headcount for who's willing to go with you. My squad captains, the one deputy of E-Platoon, and then six others, including Carnivore."
"So that's what, twelve people?"
"Twelve of the thirteen of VALKYRIE."
"T-That's a lot more than I expected from our conversation last night…" The Witch stammered out.
Shaddiq shrugged, pushing off from the tree that he leaned against. "It's not like there's a lot of us left, and I don't think anyone wants to spend more time out here without supplies than they have to… Speaking of supplies, I've decided to take enough to make it to another ward, and see if I can find any leftover supplies… The rest I'm sending with you. You should be able to find water and things like that along your route, but I did include some of the fresh water supplies for you all, minus whatever I think I'll need. For the time being, at least." Shaddiq explained.
"Th-thank you." The Witch said.
"With that said, my Valkyries are headed towards their Juggernauts, and will be back soon. So once they're back, you all can get started on your way towards the Gran Mur."
The Witch nodded at this.
Shaddiq instead, left the Witch alone, and moved away, heading towards where his own Juggernaut was shrouded, to keep it and the rest of the VALKYRIE squadron's Juggernauts away from any prying eyes of the Legion.
Now she was alone for a moment, taking the time to look at the legs of her Juggernaut, and to look at the quality of the armor of her constant companion in battle, and even inspect her Personal Mark — the marking of a Witch's broom, with a wide-brimmed hat resting atop it, as if propped against some invisible wall. It was something that had been given to her by one of her previous compatriots, in a previous squadron — a Squadron that she still remembered having euthanizing most of — one of whom was an artist, and had given everyone in that Squadron a Personal Mark. They had all been painted to give some kind of message, and those messages had to do with a Processor's Personal Name. So of course the Witch had been given something that had been described as "witchy". When the VALKYRIEs returned to the campsite, the Witch saw that all of the other units had their own Personal Marks as well. A pair of jaws, a planet and its moon, two halves of a circle in different colors, a bluebird — just those that she saw initially.
The twelve Processors assembled themselves in a half-circle around Aerial — all but Shaddiq's own Mastermind.
She stood against her Juggernaut, until those Valkyries all dismounted their Juggernauts, and turned their attention to her.
The Witch tried finding words to say, something to assure these new companions about her intentions, about their own chances of survival, something at all to try and assure them that they were going to make it through what was to come. She couldn't find anything in this moment.
Shaddiq eventually returned with his own Juggernaut, and dismounted, looking between the twelve Valkyries and the Witch herself. "Well, I see we're all getting along well." He said, shrugging, but with a smile on his face. "Listen up, everyone. You've all agreed to go with the Witch on her march towards the Walls of the Republic. And that means that you're all going to follow her orders, as if they were my own… Sabina, Renee, Henao, Maisie, Ireesha, everyone at all, please lend the Witch your strength as you move into the walls. She doesn't have a Para-RAID anymore, so follow her lead to the best of your judgement… And if you get separated, continue westward, towards the walls. Asides from that. Trust one another, and her, and you'll make it through this. We all will."
Sabina raised her hand. "What about you, Prince?"
He shrugged again, a pleasant smile still on his face. "I'm going to travel from ward to ward, trying to find those who haven't already headed towards the Gran Mur, and try and convince them to do what I've chosen not to."
She didn't continue prying.
"With that, everyone — please, do your best, and fight the best you can. That's all I ask, at the least."
There were some murmurs, a couple processors gave one another high-fives, and the rest seemed to nod in acknowledgement. But asides from that, everyone was quiet, at the least. The only real noise that was louder than the high-fives and the murmurs was the noise of VALKYRIE's Scavenger, hauling itself and its cargo towards them all.
"We'll move single-file along the railroad tracks on the other side of this hill. We'll continue until noon, take a break, and then continue for another few hours, take another break, and we'll make camp just after sunset…" The Witch explained, confidence seeping back into her voice. "I'll be towards the front, if Sabina would like to lead, just because if she stops, I'll notice. If you notice something odd, or see any Legion, order us to stop, and point out their direction and we'll all survey them. If we get ambushed, scatter as best you can, and fight back, if we start losing units, retreat westward, along the railroad… Hopefully we won't need to do that, but if we do, it'd be better if we were all on the same page for what to do." There were nods of acknowledgement. "Alright, lets get started everyone."
The Valkyries started to re-mount their Juggernauts, the hums of the engines starting up one after another. The Witch was the last to crawl back into her Juggernaut, instead facing Shaddiq. "Thank you, Mister Zenelli." She said with confidence in her voice.
"Not at all, Miss Witch. Thank you for taking my Valkyries under your care." He smiled. "Try and keep them alive as best you can."
There was a small smile that crossed the Witch's face, before she looked down at the ground between them. "I'll do my best…"
"I know you will, now go. You're burning daylight."
Shaddiq turned away, towards his own Juggernaut, and embarked into it. The Witch followed suit, putting back on her harness, and starting up her Juggernaut's engine. She looked at the Processors who were sitting inside their machines, looking at her expectantly, and she gave a thumbs up to all of them, but made eye contact with the purple-haired Sabina, who immediately closed her Juggernaut's canopy, and turned towards the crest of the hill that led to the railroad tracks. The Witch followed suit, and then followed after her — her Juggernaut in a low cruise output mode, matching Sabina's speed.
Shaddiq watched from the inside of his Juggernaut, his Canopy closed, as the last of his Valkyries crested the hill, and disappeared behind it. The polished-ivory not even glinting in the sun as they went.
Then he himself turned northward, towards where he suspected the next ward's base would be, and started his own march.