by Tony Corden
“A: Why did you speak so kindly to it?”
“Because it is to be pitied. I despise the creatures on one level, but on another, I can understand their anger and pain. They are so enslaved by their loss and are unable to be freed. While I will kill them and even use them to attack the tunnel, I understand the Julgon desire to remain enlightened. But enough talk, here come those we’ve called.”
As she finished talking, Leah began jogging away from one group that had just come into view and toward another. As the second group spied Leah and her companions, Leah angled herself away from them but continued in the general direction of the tunnel. Leah began weaving back and forth through the ever-increasing sparseness of the city’s outer limits as she sought to collect enough of the Ja’mar.
As the numbers increased, Leah could sense that the new additions healed faster than the first ones. The developers had ensured that even the weakest Ja’mar to join a group that was actively chasing a player would be able to keep up. As they ran, it was also evident that one or two of the creatures became energised much faster than the rest and began to pull away from the growing horde.
The day before when this happened, Leah had sped up slightly, but this time she kept her steady pace and let them get close enough to kill easily and quickly. The first couple of times, she spun and fired. Then, feeling more confident, she started firing over her shoulder. This was harder, as Leah had to take account of her gait and movement. Still, even though the first few took multiple shots, she found she was soon able to judge the shot accurately.
After doing this several times, she gave the others warning and told them she wanted them to deal with the next couple to get close. They could slow down and engage when they approached, they could shoot from a distance, they could use an edged weapon, but they were not to pass Leah who would be setting the pace. A pace that had slowly increased as the average health of the herd had improved.
The first couple of times, Nasidfor and Adelia took multiple shots, and the mob got close enough that Leah had to shoot a few extra to help with the getaway. Both times Leah had to increase the pace faster than she’d intended as it seemed the parameters changed when Ja’mar in the peloton were killed, or maybe it was when they got close enough to their prey.
Leah changed her instructions slightly, and Nasidfor and Adelia took turns to kill the front Ja’mar, then she would take out the following one or two. Even with being so careful with the pace she set, Leah and the others were getting close to Adelia’s limit for speed and Nasidfor’s for endurance by the time they were a thousand paces from the tunnel. Behind them, in a line almost three hundred paces long were five or six hundred Ja’mar.
This was more than Leah had intended but she’d not fully understood how far their cries travelled. Behind these were another thousand who’d started to follow but never got close enough to the horde to get the full health benefit. Although they moved in the general direction, they’d lost their connection with what had called them in the first place. Over the next few days they would spread out randomly, though several hundred would still pass close to the tunnel entrance.
When they were five hundred paces out, the internal timer Leah had set for the three hours hit zero. She used her hands to indicate that Nasidfor should sprint ahead and give warning while she dealt with the three Ja’mar who were only ten paces behind, hissing and screaming as they reached out for their prey. She signed that Adelia should maintain the steady pace and Leah would join her soon.
As Nasidfor pulled ahead, she could feel the front runner increase its pace. Leah aimed over her shoulder and fired into the female’s head. Drawing both blades and using a knee-high rock as a stepping stone, Leah launched herself high into a forward flip. Her body was still travelling forward, but the change in momentum to give her the height had slowed her velocity enough that as her feet travelled over her body, her arms were in the right place to bring the blades through at an angle to remove both the remaining Ja’mar’s heads.
As she landed, she stumbled and had to turn it into a roll. She lost several magazines in the fall but soon caught up with Adelia. She knew she’d been reckless, but in the end, she’d convinced herself it was a game and simply going through the motions mechanically would soon become dull. She’d always loved the fancy moves in the old Chinese martial arts movies and was pretty sure it was something Edison would like.
At the edge of her awareness, she could feel three distinct groups. One was the thirty Resistance fighters who were dressed as guards. Takobi, Rundar, Jamaree and Kimtora were with them, and Nasidfor was fast approaching. To one side and well-hidden were several hundred more Resistance fighters who would follow the Ja’mar into the tunnel. Behind them were most of the slaves who Purtinfors had promised would be taken to the Resistance base.
As soon as Nasidfor approached, the group with Takobi started moving toward the tunnel mouth at a fast jog. Leah hoped most of them were warmed up because they’d need to run faster than that to escape the horde she was bringing after them. Leah came into sight as the guards entered the tunnel and the leaders in the horde behind her became incensed as they saw more prey. They could also smell the hundreds of others, but the visual effect of the prey running away meant each and every Ja’mar headed into the tunnel after Leah and Adelia.
64
December 26 2073 - 5
PNEUMATICA - GRAH
The tunnel was only five or six paces wide and unlit. The first checkpoint was placed almost a hundred paces inside so that no noise or light would be detectable by any Ja’mar who wandered outside. Purtinfors had arranged for some lights, and although Leah didn’t need them, she knew the others would. Leah wasn’t sure what Purtinfors was yelling or saying, but she could see the soldiers at the checkpoint leaving the tunnel unblocked as they turned to run back down the tunnel followed by Purtinfors, Jamaree and most of his soldiers.
Takobi, Rundar, Kimora and four of Purtinfors fighters had slid to a stop just before the barrier, leaving a small gap for Adelia and Leah to run through. As Adelia went through, Leah turned and together with the others who held the shardguns, she fired a whole magazine at the lower half of the creatures chasing them. The first fifteen or so crashed as everything below their knees was shredded by the shards. The next fifty were cut to pieces in various places as they crashed into the leaders. Behind them, the main body of Ja’mar piled into each other, crushing and mangling one another.
None of the eight stopped to watch what happened, but as one they turned and rushed down the tunnel. Before they’d gone even fifty paces the first Ja’mar had pulled themselves through the pileup and was racing after Leah and the others. The rage it displayed was a notch even higher than anything Leah had felt before, and she could sense that rage rebuilding its shredded flesh. Twice more along the tunnel, Leah called the eight with shardguns to turn and slow the horde. Each time, it was less effective as the horde had spread out enough that most of the Ja’mar weren’t brought down by the shards but ran over the downed creatures without any real pause.
What did slow them down more was the barriers every quarter of a league. These barriers weren’t designed to stop Ja’mar but to stop the Resistance. With the Resistance in the leading group, all Purtinfors had to do was to ensure the defence was compromised. At each station he left a fighter who opened the barrier as Takobi, Leah and the others approached and then slammed it shut as they passed through.
The crazed creatures had to tear through the metal and wooden barriers, but this only gave Leah and the others at most a hundred paces before they could hear, or in Leah's case, sense, the Ja’mar continuing to advance. After that, it became an endurance race. A race that some of the tunnel guards lost. Whatever their everyday tasks were, it was clear that many weren’t anywhere in the right physical condition to run several leagues chased by a horde of Ja’mar.
These guards weren’t killed by the Resistance or the Ja’mar but by their own. If one of the Ma’nav tunnel guards looked close to f
lagging, one of those near them would fire into the back of their head or remove it with a sword. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Leah could feel a far more substantial barrier approaching with what she assumed was solid hanji bars and panels. The lead group with Purtinfors and Jamaree passed through easily. Then, even as several hundred tunnel guards were still in the tunnel and with Leah two hundred paces further back, she felt the doors begin to close.
Leah had to slow slightly to quickly type a message, “Takobi, they’re closing the door. We won’t make it. Take command.”
Takobi made a hand signal for ‘why?’. Leah touched her ears. Takobi simply nodded, then increased his pace to try and prepare a defence. Leah palmed both her pistols and slowed slightly, then spun and fired ten shots, five from each pistol. The leading ten Ja’mar crashed to the ground almost thirty paces further down the tunnel. Leah turned and sprinted after the others who had pulled ahead. She could feel a pack of eighty or so gaining on her.
With the number of Ja’mar and the number of prey, each of those in the pack was faster and healthier by at least a factor of two from those she’d fought before. Leah had been counting her discs and had five more in each magazine. Doing the spinning jump again, she fired another ten discs. This time only seven Ja’mar were stopped. Somehow, three of them had seen the discs coming and moved out of the way. For the first time since she’d arrived in Grah five hours previously, her heart beat faster from fear, not exertion.
Takobi had reached the frightened guards near the blocked tunnel twenty seconds ahead of Leah. Even in that time, he'd managed to turn them around and prepare to fire. As Leah approached, she saw him make a hand motion for her to drop and then he opened his mouth in a yell as he dropped his other hand in a signal for the guards to fire. As his mouth opened, Leah dove forward and fifty pistols and shardguns fired above her head with most of the guards emptying their magazines.
Fortunately for Leah, by the time they were all empty Takobi had another group ready. Leah used her elbows to shuffle her way forward as she could feel Ja’mar clawing their way through the pile of dead that had filled the tunnel. They were simply shredding those in front of them, their claws tearing through flesh and bone with seeming ease. By the time Leah could stand, the pile of dead was only thirty paces away, and the volume of fire had more than halved.
Takobi stepped up beside her and said, “T: Finally, this begins to get interesting. Can you feel what happens behind the barrier?”
“No, the hanji blocks my senses.”
“T: How many survive?”
“Perhaps eighty headed in this direction. Those at the back have turned toward the soldiers who followed them in.”
“T: Will the soldiers survive?”
“They should, but I doubt they’ll stay for when the door opens.”
“T: How long before the eighty break through?”
“Thirty seconds, they’ll be coming through in ones or twos. They are much faster and stronger than yesterday. I thought you found that a little boring so you might enjoy this.”
“T: Leave the first few for Rundar and I. Kimtora has a few magazines saved for you.”
“OK, be careful, they are fast enough to dodge the spinning discs.”
Before Takobi could respond, Leah felt the first Ja’mar tear its way through the mass of corpses. It took one look at the crowd of living Ma’nav and opened its maw in a screech which made several of the tunnel guards turn away in terror to bang on the barrier. It then leapt toward them, only to run into the chainsaw which Takobi had taken from one of the dead Ja’mar. He brought it down on top of the Ja’mar, cutting its skull in two.
Rundar stepped up beside his brother with a sword in each hand. For the next few minutes, Leah stood and watched the two brothers fight at a pace and with a skill she hadn’t yet achieved. Kimtora came alongside and handed Leah two full magazines. Leah loaded them, then started to shoot every second creature that shredded its way through the pile of dead.
Rundar made the first mistake. He missed a raking claw which tore into his right side. The claws slid off his ribs and sliced through the abdominal muscles, but he was saved by a shot from Leah. As Kimora stepped into the breach, Leah pulled Rundar out of the fight zone. One of the guards lifted a sword to give Rundar peace but found himself pushed back against the tunnel wall with Leah’s knife to his throat.
With her empty hand, she typed, “Kill your own if you want, but you kill one of mine, and I will feed you to the Ja’mar piece by piece.”
The four fighters Purtinfors had left with Takobi were in a group. Leah pointed at them, then at Rundar, and said, “Stop his bleeding.”
Without waiting for a reply, she used her senses to check all the firearms for ammunition. Almost everything was empty except for one full magazine someone had dropped and a shardgun with two cartridges caught behind a blockage. Leah dived for the magazine and killed the next five creatures to come through the pile, giving Takobi and Kimtora time to finish off their opponents.
Leah grabbed a sword and brought it down on the blocked shardgun, breaking it in half. She pulled the two cartridges free and loaded one of the other empty shardguns before turning back and shooting two Ja’mar. There were eight still alive, three fighting the two Pyranthians and five almost through. Kimtora killed hers and turned to help Takobi when one broke through just beside her.
Before she could respond, Leah crashed into her legs, bringing her down as the Ja’mar leapt at her. As it flew over the two of them, Leah raised the shard gun and shredded the head. Leah then turned the gun toward Kimtora, who dropped to the ground just as Leah fired at the head that appeared. There were five left. Leah killed two with her pistol, Takobi killed two with his sword and claws, and Kimtora killed the last one.
Takobi looked over at Leah, who said, “That’s it. There are a few still alive, but they are in so many pieces it will be hours before they can get through. The tunnel is empty as far as I can sense.”
Blood was dripping from two or three cuts on Takobi’s arms and legs. Leah said, “I have a spare cloth I would normally use for waste if you need it.”
“T: Am I supposed to thank you for the offer?”
“It would be the civilised thing to do.”
“T: It is clear your definition of civilisation and mine describe two different things. I will, however, thank you for that fight. It was challenging. You can take the command back now. If I keep it I suspect life would get boring again.”
As Takobi went to help Rundar, Leah kept an eye on the tunnel guards who were all bunched up near the barrier and watching the four Ma’nav, the three Pyranthians, and Leah. There was nothing they could do as the tunnel was blocked both ways, in one direction by the hanji barrier and in the other by a pile of several hundred dead Ja’mar.
Nothing happened for almost twenty minutes, then there was a movement in the centre of the hanji barrier. A door opened, and there was a loud and insistent hissing. One of Purtinfors’ soldiers said, “We are being ordered to exit one by one. Our hands must be free of weapons.”
Leah waited until all the guards had stepped through and then indicated that Purtinfors’s soldiers should go next just in case they could escape capture. Finally, only the three Pyranthians and Leah were left. As Takobi and Kimtora helped Rundar to his feet, Leah stepped through into the Sanctuary.
She found herself in the centre of a half-circle of heavily armed Ma’nav. All of them were immaculately dressed with armour that shone and was inlaid with gold, and a silver metal she guessed was hanji. The facial horns of one of the soldiers were inlaid with hanji and precious gems. He hissed at her.
She said, “Please stop hissing like an angry Ja’mar. I haven't yet learned your language. Does anyone here speak the human tongue?”
The same ma'nav said, “I can speak your foul primitive language. How dare you compare my words to that of the Ja'mar. Place all your weapons on the ground then join the other slaves.”
As he finished speak
ing, he pointed to a nearby large wagon enclosed with bars. Jamaree and Adelia were inside, as were the four ma'nav who'd helped Rundar at the end. There was no sign of Purtinfors, Nasidfor, or any of the other Resistance fighters.
Leah shrugged and unsheathing her swords dropped them, then the pistols and shardgun. She then started pulling knives from all the various sheaths. As she dropped the last, she started toward the wagon but stopped when she sensed his mouth moving.
“All mechanical, clockwork or hydraulic mechanisms must be inspected to ensure they are not weapons.”
As he finished talking a smaller, less well-dressed Ma’nav stepped forward. He had a prosthetic eye common to watchmakers and a toolkit. As he checked Leah’s eye and ear, Takobi and the others made their way out of the tunnel. The officer in command issued the same order, and after they had dropped their weapons, Takobi and Kimtora moved toward the wagon with Rundar.
The officer said, “Leave your wounded. He is of no value in that state. We will dispose of him.”
Before Takobi could respond, Leah said, “He comes with us, or we don’t go.”
“There is nothing to discuss and nothing you can do about it.”
Leah did nothing except turn and began to walk back toward Rundar. The officer hissed something, and two of the soldiers holstered their weapons and stepped toward Leah, reaching to grab her. As the first one reached her, he grabbed her arm. Expecting resistance, he was surprised when Leah fell toward him as if stumbling. His claws dug into her arm to push her away, but as she fell she hooked one hand behind the armoured plate at his elbow and lifting her feet to push against his ankles, she made him topple on top of her.
