Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

  Tane checked his overhead map, but Jed’s indicator had already moved on.

  “I really need to get me that invisibility Branchwork,” Tane muttered.

  The intersection far ahead filled as dark shapes rushed in from both sides. At first Tane thought they were more TSN troops, or their mechs, cutting him off. Tane recalled his lifeline so that he was viewing the world through his own eyes, and adjusted the magnification level on his faceplate to zoom in.

  These weren’t robots or troops. They were far too real for that, their edges sharp and well-defined, their bodies a crisp gray-black. No, these were kraals of some kind: large, six-legged, scaly bodies. Broad, sweeping tails tipped by spiked bulbs. Long necks with gills in the sides, and ending in huge heads with sideways-opening jaws that were lined with big, serrated teeth. Other than those mouths, the heads were oddly featureless, like large worms with teeth.

  He had the impression they were bigger than the kraals he had met the first time he came to the Umbra, but he wasn’t sure, as the street on that side didn’t have any vehicles or other fixtures he could use for comparison.

  But as he got closer, he got a better sense of scale, and realized just how big they really were. Most were roughly the same size as the pursuing mechs. Many were bigger.

  And they blocked all advancement forward. He had to wonder if the TSN had sent troops ahead to herd them this way.

  “Time to divert!” Jed said.

  Tane agreed.

  He swerved to the side and rushed up the stairs of one of the skyscrapers. Floor-to-ceiling windows bordered a pair of glass doors. Tane cut his energy ax into the door, breaking through, and leaped past the broken glass.

  Permanently flickering into view, Jed joined him inside.

  The pair were in a concourse of some kind. Gravalators led up to the next floor, while sealed lifts beside them offered a path to the higher levels.

  “Take the gravalator!” Jed said. “No time to wait for the lifts!”

  Tane and Jed raced onto the gravalator and rapidly floated up toward the second floor. A third of the way to the top, all the floor-to-ceiling glass windows forming the front facade of the building behind them shattered.

  It was the kraals. About ten of the six-legged reptiles broke inside at the same time. There were a few mechs dispersed within their ranks, but they weren’t working in unison: the big robots alternately bashed their way through the kraals and fired into them at point blank range. A larger kraal wrapped its sideways teeth around the torso area of one mech, and the energy shield surrounding that unit abruptly blinked off; the kraal hoisted the mech into the air and crushed the cockpit before tossing the ruined machine into another mech, weakening that one’s shield in turn.

  Tane reached the top of the gravalator and stepped off.

  A big kraal arced over the railing beside him and landed squarely in front of Tane. It opened the mouth at the end of that long neck and roared.

  Tane unleashed an Essence Missile and swung his ax at the same time. The missile slammed into the open mouth, while Tane’s weapon sliced through the gills of its neck, turning that roar into a gurgle. Jed meanwhile stabbed the beast in the chest with his Chrysalium sword.

  The combined effect of all three blows caused the creature to topple where it stood. Black blood oozed from the wounds in its throat and chest.

  Jed withdrew his sword and Tane and the Volur raced onward across a walkway that overlooked the concourse below. On the other side of them, restaurants, cafes, and shops lined the wall.

  More of the six-legged kraals leaped onto the walkway behind Tane and Jed. As did a mech. Tane was forced to cut away an energy net launched his way before a kraal occupied the machine.

  Up ahead, more floor-to-ceiling windows offered a view of the street outside. Jed’s glowing weapon had returned to the size of a pistol by then, and he fired it into the glass from twenty meters away and melted several large holes into the panes. Before the pair could get any closer, three human-sized distortion tunnels appeared halfway to the breached windows, and four combat robots emerged per tunnel before the distortions closed.

  “Don’t slow down!” Jed said.

  Tane tried an Essence Missile as he ran, but it failed. Jed unleashed his pistol, taking down two of the robots.

  The robots fired nets in rapid succession. Jed managed to switch to his Chrysalium sword, and he helped Tane cut through the nets. Tane was hard-pressed to get them all, and he missed one.

  The glowing grid formed a hemisphere a half-meter in front of him as it wrapped around his energy shield. Tane attempted to cut into it, but his already weakened shield depleted to zero so rapidly that before he knew what was happening the net closed the gap and enveloped his chest assembly, securing his arms to his side. Tane was forced to deactivate the beam hilt, otherwise he would have cut off his leg.

  Some of the net had also bound his upper thighs, and he stumbled and fell because of the restricted motion of his legs. He landed so that he was facing the concourse behind him, and he saw the giant kraals racing toward him.

  He heard the sound of a Chrysalium sword crashing repeatedly into metal and polycarbonate skin, and then someone was dragging him away from the kraals. Fast.

  Tane glanced between his feet, and was relieved to find Jed there, hanging onto the ankle of one of his boots.

  The wreckages of combat robots passed by, littering the floor on either side. Tane shut down his shield, because keeping it active with the energy grid wrapped around him was only depleting the battery. He started preparing a fresh Fingers of Ruin Essencework.

  Before Jed reached the melted floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side of the hallway, he scooped up Tane and balanced him easily on one shoulder, then he leaped through and down into the street below. TSN mechs and infantry troops were already streaming in from both sides of the avenue, and Jed was forced to carry Tane across to the building immediately opposite. Jed deflected the energy nets that the troops fired at him from both flanks.

  Meanwhile, Tane had a view of the kraals behind him as they vaulted down into the street to pursue; their big feet created small craters where they landed, and cracks spidered outward a short distance across the asphalt.

  A TSN missile struck underneath one of them, and the kraal was sent flying into the air to land in a bloody heap. More missiles pounded the remaining kraals, so that soon they were lost in the dust and debris that filled the air. Tane occasionally saw gory body parts flung away from that mess.

  The building door that Jed was heading toward abruptly exploded, hit by a missile.

  Jed stumbled backward as the shockwave swept past, but stayed on his feet.

  “Saves me from having to cut through the door myself,” Jed commented.

  The warrior hurried through the remains of the doorway and into the building foyer. Then he lowered Tane to the carpeted floor. Tane had just completed the Fingers of Ruin work, and let the fiery globe of darkness float above him, where it would wait for release.

  Jed wedged the Chrysalium sword underneath the energy net that bound Tane and slid the weapon upward, cutting through the binds.

  Jed started suddenly. He had been careful not to place his back to the door the whole time, so he would have spotted any intruders immediately.

  Tane threw out his Essence Sight lifeline and positioned his third-person perspective to the side.

  A huge kraal had burst through the doorway just behind him. Its scales were covered in shrapnel and blood. Its sideways-oriented jaws were wide open, ready to crunch into Tane.

  He released Fingers of Ruin immediately, slamming it into the creature’s throat.

  The kraal halted, and wobbled slightly. A dark vein appeared along the outside of its long neck. That vein cracked open above the gills, spewing blood. Jed leaped over Tane and rammed his sword into the head to seal the deal. The kraal fell over.

  Tane clambered to his feet and reactivated his energy shield.

  “Nice one, Engineer,” J
ed said, withdrawing his sword from the head and hurrying deeper into the foyer. “You were quicker on the draw than even me.”

  “Sometimes I have to be,” Tane said, falling in just behind. He snapped his perspective back inside himself.

  Tane was growing weary of holding both Essences, so he stepped out of the White and released the Dark, then secured the beam hilt to his waist. When he unequipped the hilt he felt the stamina drain instantly, but it wasn’t enough to do more than momentarily stagger him. He slid down the D18 from his shoulder and continued to follow Jed.

  The building seemed to be a residential tower of some kind, because the foyer quickly ended in a hallway containing two elevators and two stairwells.

  TSN shock troops were already dashing into the foyer behind them.

  There was no time to take the elevator, so Jed and Tane dashed toward the nearest stairwell. Jed kicked open the door and Tane followed before it closed: there was just enough clearance for him to pass inside without his energy shield clipping the edges.

  As the duo made their way up the zigzagging flights of stairs, Tane kept expecting troops to appear in front of them. Not via distortion tunnels, of course, because jump points had to be within line of sight: one couldn’t jump where one couldn’t see, unless of course a beacon stone had been placed. No, he worried that troops might have deployed on the rooftop and were making their way down to intercept.

  “If you haven’t already, turn off data sharing with Sinive and Lyra,” Jed said. “And reduce your transmission range to five meters.”

  Tane disabled data sharing with the pair as Jed asked. Just because Sinive and Lyra had stopped sharing data, didn’t mean that Tane wasn’t still broadcasting, after all.

  But before he could reduce his transmission range, Nebb suddenly showed up on the overhead map. The Red Grizzly was airborne, just above the residential building. Trying to rescue them? Or participating in their capture?

  Tane suspected the latter, given that a rescue attempt was essentially impossible with that TSN battle cruiser blotting the skies out there.

  “The TSN never really let you go, did they?” Tane sent the smuggler.

  “Kid, just surrender if you know what’s good for you,” Nebb replied over the comm.

  Well, at least Nebb hadn’t tried to trick Tane into making his way to the rooftop for a rescue that would never happen.

  Tane quickly decreased his range to five meters, and also disabled sharing with Nebb for good measure.

  “I told you to turn down your transmission intensity,” Jed scolded.

  “Done,” Tane said.

  He heard a bang two flights below and knew the TSN forces had arrived. The heavy clomps of polycarbonate feet echoed from the walls, growing louder. The footfalls were so rapid that they sounded almost like a continuous tone.

  At the top of the fourth flight, Jed allowed Tane to squeeze past and take the lead.

  Tane continued upward. He heard shooting behind him. Glancing back, he saw Jed firing at robots that had clambered into view.

  A grenade detonated. The stairwell clogged with smoke so that he could no longer see anything. He tripped and quickly clambered to his feet before his shield became too depleted from cushioning the fall.

  “Switching to multi-echo LIDAR and echolocation,” Jed said.

  A prompt appeared on Tane’s HUD.

  Jed wants to share LIDAR and echolocation map data with you. Do you accept? Y/N.

  Tane accepted and the blackness around him was replaced with white, three-dimensional wireframes representing the walls, ceiling, and flights of stairs. The robots, too, appeared to be made of polygonal meshes. Even though the vectors were computer-generated, they still seemed insubstantial in this universe.

  Tane selected the auto “smart targeting” feature of the D18, and excluded Jed. Then he held the weapon behind him as he continued upwards and squeezed the trigger. The stock vibrated as the muzzle rotated independently to target the pursuers. A glance in his rear view mirror feed—which also showed wireframes—told him that he had downed three of them.

  “Careful when you rely on smart targeting,” Jed said over the comm. “Especially when fighting the TSN. Masking can defeat it. You’re piggybacking on my LIDAR feed, so you’re fine for now. But keep that in mind in the future.”

  “Noted,” Tane said, rushing up the stairs.

  He emerged from the smoke and dismissed the LIDAR feed. Up ahead, a robot suddenly appeared. It fired an energy net at Tane.

  It struck his shield.

  This time, Tane didn’t attempt to do anything physically to remove the grid-like hemisphere that wrapped around his energy shield. Instead, he stepped into the White and formed an Essence Missile just as the shield failed. He released it, cutting through the net. The Missile continued onward, ripping into the stairs in front of him and carving away a nice chunk.

  He swung his rifle forward and sure enough, the D18 didn’t fire, though it was on smart targeting mode, just like Jed had warned.

  Shouldn’t have dismissed the LIDAR.

  Tane quickly lined up the target and squeezed the trigger, but the robot leaped to the side. Another rifle appeared past the edge of the next flight of stairs ahead, and Tane leaped backward as an energy net emerged; the trap bounced harmlessly from the wall beside him.

  “Back!” Jed said.

  Tane grabbed one of the incendiary grenades he kept in his harness and tossed it toward the top of the stairs, then he backtracked with Jed. The grenade detonated above him and the steps shook.

  The pair reentered the smoke area and the LIDAR kicked in.

  They reached the previous landing between flights. Jed fired his pistol at the wireframes of two robots leading the next vanguard up stairs, while Tane deactivated his shield to kick open the door leading off that landing.

  He entered the hallway beyond and reengaged his shield. Smoke drifted inside, but otherwise he could see everything around him. He kept Jed’s LIDAR feed active: it would remain online as long as he stayed within the reduced five-meter transmission range.

  Tane stepped out of the Essence, as he was feeling close to exhaustion, and wanted to save that power for when he really needed it.

  Jed followed behind him, slamming the door shut. He held a gloved hand to the surface for a moment.

  “I’ve placed an Essence Trap,” Jed said, removing his glove. “It might take down a few of them. This way!”

  Jed hurried past.

  The hallway was lined with locked doors. Jed drew his sword and shattered one of them. He stepped inside, with Tane on his heels.

  Tane heard an explosion behind him that told him the robots had detonated the trap.

  Tane stood within some sort of single bedroom apartment. There was a kitchen in the foyer, and a family room beyond the countertop. Jed hurried to the balcony window on the far side of the family room.

  A drone darted past outside that window, and Jed tried to duck, but it was too late: the drone doubled back and sounded an alarm.

  Jed aimed at the drone and fired his pistol. The glass melted in his path and the plasma bolt impacted the drone, which promptly dropped from view.

  Jed led Tane into the bedroom that adjoined the family room. There was a small window on the far side.

  “Well, Engineer, I’ll make my stand here,” Jed closed the door, leaving it open a crack. He knelt and aimed his pistol through the opening into the main room. Without looking at Tane, he said: “Kick the mattress aside. Aim that rifle of yours at the floor. Escape to the room below. I’ll replaced the mattress once you’re gone and keep them occupied for as long as I can.”

  “But—”

  “No buts,” Jed said. “You have to escape. Everyone else is expendable. Including me. Now carve a hole in the floor with your rifle!”

  Tane disabled his shield to kick the mattress. The blow knocked the bed at an angle to its frame, revealing the carpet underneath. He fired a full thirty-round burst from his rifle into the flo
or, cutting through the carpet and concrete to form a tiny hole leading to the room below. Not big enough to fit through. He’d have to wait twenty seconds before he could fire again.

  Should have rotated the weapon as I fired.

  Jed stood up and unleashed his pistol at the hole Tane had formed, rotating his weapon as he did so. He enlarged the gap just enough for Tane to squeeze through. “Now go!”

  There wasn’t enough clearance for his shield, so Tane kept it deactivated; he took a quick peek into the hole and confirmed that the area below was clear, and then he slid his legs inside and squeezed his bulky suit through, dropping to the floor.

  Above him, Jed slid the mattress into place.

  As Tane left the room, he heard the firefight begin upstairs. Someone had launched a grenade. Two.

  Tane tried not to imagine Jed fighting to the death for him. He told himself that they’d capture the warrior, because they weren’t sure whether it was Tane who was firing at them. But of course he couldn’t know just what the TSN would do.

  This apartment had a similar layout to the one above, and he passed the family room to the kitchen and went to the front door. He tried to access the remote interface for the camera that was built into the outside of the door, but he couldn’t get anything, not in the Umbra. He’d just have to check what was out there the old-fashioned way.

  Tane still had his shield deactivated, so he was able to open the door a crack and peer into the hallway outside.

  He hadn’t been expecting them to be searching this floor already, but he spotted scepter combat robots moving from door to door. They were kicking them in to fan out inside the rooms. They were currently two doors down from his.

  Thorough bastards.

  Tane shut the door, laid his helmet against the wall beside it, and considered his options.

  Across from him, he spotted a stealth drone lurking past the balcony outside. He had no doubts that it had spotted him, because it was hovering there with its external camera pointed directly at him.

  Tane retrieved an incendiary grenade from his harness and opened the door. He tossed the grenade toward the robots, enabled his shield, and ran into the hall in the opposite direction.