Duran Cross - Raddocks Horizon

Machines don’t die, they become inactive . She forces this through her head, but she doesn’t believe it applies and never has. But it has to be better than this.

It has to.

She approaches silently, blindsiding a Suvaco by lopping its weapon arm off above the elbow. It turns to face her but the hardest energy channelled swing she’s ever performed takes its head clean off. One down, two to go.

She moves towards the next one but it is already aware of her. It swings its chain gun towards her, continuing to fire. Her skin shines with a green glow, absorbing the barrage from point blank range with what’s left of her shield. She forces her core to release more energy in a rage, manifested by a scream of very real anger in the kind of clarity a person seldom experiences.

The fusillade from the Horizon Military bounce off the Suvaco plate armour, without any acknowledgement. Antares’ shield degrades quickly and in no time the chain gun is shredding the remainder of her torso armour. She reverses the grip on her sword and slams the blunt side across the chain gun’s shaft, warping it enough to cause a backfire, successfully disabling the weapon. Her chest and abdomen hiss steam fiercely as she flips the blade again and slashes across its neck. Purple blood fountains from the wound and it falls to its knees, grasping its neck in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding with its hands.

Last one.

The final Suvaco is firing a grenade launcher that shoots freezing glowing spheres. Since cold rounds are useless against a CryoZaiyon she thinks luck may be on her side, until a rocket fired from a shaky Horizon trooper misses the Suvaco and explodes against her shield, shattering it.

After a concussion wave laced with shrapnel strikes her she can’t feel or hear anything as she is thrown off the ground, feeling something of herself open up to the world. All she can see is steam. She comes down hard a few metres away. Antares can’t see the still firing soldiers, or Rennin Farrow snatching the rocket launcher from the frightened trooper and laying him out with one severe strike from his combat chassis arm.

She looks up into the mist pouring from her midsection and the glowing bullets flying through it like super accelerated fireflies. The sounds of gunfire and bullets hitting the stone walls are muffled and dull in her ears now.

‘ Critical Failure ’ flashes in her vision. She is still alive, though badly wounded. She still has an objective.

Her sword still in one hand, she reaches down with the other, salvaging the flap of skin that was once her abdomen to peel it over the wound, clamping her forearm across it to hold herself together. She brings her knees up and pushes off the ground with her sword arm feeling a sluggishness indicating she’s lost a great deal of her abdominal muscle system.

Antares manages to stand and takes a step towards the Suvaco but the movement causes a wave of pixelated darkness to swamp her vision and she nearly collapses.

She is about to engage her core’s overload sequence when she sees someone in the blast zone running at the Suvaco head on.

Rennin Farrow felt fantastic smashing his fist into that trooper’s face. Cowards have no place on the battlefield, not to mention erratic rocketeers.

More of a danger to his own side, idiot.

The rocket launcher at the ready, he finds himself running as fast as he can towards the lone remaining Suvaco. A blue shimmering rocket flies at him so he strafes left just managing to register the freezing ground where he was a moment before. Goosebumps appear on his right arm, along with a severe chill.

I hate ice launchers.

He can see the crippled form of Amber Antares swing down with her sword across the back of the Suvaco’s knee, causing a spray of purple blood. The creature arches back, almost overbalancing.

Rennin yells for Antares to get clear but the best she can manage is to throw herself sideways. Rennin wants to fire a rocket but he won’t risk hitting her, not at all. His trigger finger twitches slightly in frustration.

Drej’s knife!

The Thermosteel grown in Drej’s own body should be strong enough to penetrate the Suvaco armour. There is nothing known that can resist Thermosteel.

He throws the rocket launcher aside and sprints at the off balance Suvaco, gripping the knife it in both hands, bracing the butt of it against his torso plate.

At full speed, Rennin careers into it. With his body’s weight behind it the blade drives through the armour and into the android’s stomach.

It lets out a anguished howl when Rennin twists it left, then right, then pulls the handle up forcing the blade down then slamming down on the machete length knife with all his might and ripping it out.

How do you like seppuku ?

The beast of a thing lands a blow across his head and he stumbles to the side, stunned, barely managing to retain any vision at all.

A sniper round fires from behind Rennin, hitting the Suvaco in the arm causing it to drop the ice launcher. Rennin can only see out of his artificial eye and throws himself on the weapon, picking it up and only managing to point it at the android’s legs before desperately firing a round.

The glowing blue ball strikes, splashing outwards all over the surrounding area. Some of it hits Antares. The Suvaco roars out in surprise and alarm before it snaps cleanly in half. Its upper body lands on its back, thrashing about, bleeding through icicles that were innards only a moment before.

Rennin is too dizzy to aim properly and can feel blood running down his face as if it’s raining on only one spot on his head. He tries to focus while Antares crawls over to the torso, leaving a trail of steaming blood. The ice splashback fluid has frozen hard on her skin but merely breaks, falling away as she moves. Abandoning her sword, she now holds her sidearm.

She scrambles close enough to press the barrel of the gun against its helmet eye socket, emptying the clip through the vulnerability, finally killing it. Antares drops the gun and falls limp as Rennin passes out.

The last thing she thinks of is Forgal, just as he was before the dehumanising tragedy that befell all her kind.

The last—and inexplicable—thing Rennin thinks of is his father double bouncing him off a trampoline.

The defeat of the Suvacoes precedes a long and horrible night.

After the Horizon Military demolished the tunnel to Blackhaven completely with explosives to ensure no further incursions, silence fell.

Night in Whitechapel has become a thing of nightmares. The turrets on the fortifications fire spasmodically at straying contaminants. With the citywide blackout the shots ring out so loudly that all those trapped behind within Whitechapel’s protective walls can feel each shot resonate within their heart.

Screamers surround the district, their frantic, genuine sounding cries for help are driving the immune local population mad with dread.

The tension is palpable since trains have left the station, never to return. It’s smothering and inescapable and has been followed by a day that isn’t much better.

The only bright light for the stranded people is the real life HolinMech Arca Drej’s presence. A Godyssey funded soldier has come to protect the district at last, lifting the morale of the locals. Stories have circulated already that Drej and another android fought off three massive android attackers.

Initially, the presence of Doctor Caufmann is barely tolerated. After two long, drawn out weeks in Whitechapel, the locals have come to see him as one of their own. Wayne Carr and his family had managed to escape, arriving in time for the secret evacuation via the last underground trains. Rennin took the news with his usual sarcasm but due to an incredibly severe concussion he has been having trouble collecting his thoughts. Caufmann thinks too much trauma to his head over the last short months probably isn’t helping.