Bulletfoot One

by Marshall Rust

  Windchime was one of the few who appeared to not share the same state of mind as the rest. He had withdrawn himself from the others and now moved to where Hammerhand stood and communicated with other members of the Knights to coordinate everything so they could head on out into combat again. They obviously wouldn’t have much rest, even though night was falling.

  Jessica13 doubted that any of them would want to sleep anyway. The day was the kind that would lead to nightmares.

  "Hammerhand, if I might have a word?" Windchime asked, stepped forward in front of the leader, and spoke clearly enough to be heard.

  "Of course." Hammerhand sounded a little hoarse.

  "I feel like I am responsible for what happened here," the other man said. "There were a great many factors involved, of course, but I feel as though it was my responsibility since we acted on what happened in Auburn, which in turn caused Athena to exact her revenge on the innocents of this town. If you would allow it, I would like to regain my honor."

  A shocked silence settled over the group of Knights around her, but Jessica13 wasn't sure what he was talking about. She knew honor was something that was considered rather important to the people she had been with, but there had never been a mention of regaining that honor if it had been lost. It seemed to her that the best way to do that was to simply keep fighting.

  But whatever it was Windchime had referenced was something far more important to those around her. She sensed that they felt it needed to be addressed out in the open and in the presence of the rest of the Knights like some kind of group action would allow him to regain his honor. None of it made sense to her at all.

  "Mini, do you know what he's talking about?" she asked.

  "Nothing in my files provides any indication of what this might mean," he said. "There are a handful of elements in past human civilizations that would allow honor-based soldiers to regain honor if lost, but there are too many for anything other than broad speculation."

  She turned to Tinker, who was already beside her. He appeared to know what her question was before she even asked it.

  "Windchime feels responsible for what happened to the people in this town," he explained. "He feels that he lost his honor through the choices he made and their consequences and would therefore like the chance to regain that honor by…" He trailed off, his expression grim.

  She scowled. "How?" she demanded.

  "He wants to donate his parts to his brothers," he explained. "And once his mech is gone, he will take himself into exile with nothing left to his name to die either from the elements or the dangers of the Wild."

  "What?" She stared at him in shock for a moment. "Why would he do that? Why wouldn't he simply earn that honor back by fighting harder than ever? Why kill himself like that?"

  "To his mind, his failure is so great that he would never be able to overcome it," Tinker continued. "He would rather give the parts to those who need it as a final gift to his brothers and leave the Knights to avoid ever making a mistake like that again."

  "No, he can't do that," she protested. "It wasn't his fault. He followed his orders. If anything, I was responsible for heading into the town and putting myself at risk. He wouldn't have bothered to try to retake Auburn if I hadn't insisted on it. If anyone needs to be punished or dishonored for what happened here, it should be me."

  Her companion shook his head. "Wrong again."

  "What?"

  He didn't reply and instead, he pushed forward through the other knights and stepped in front of the group, his thick brows furrowed.

  "Windchime misplaces the blame," Tinker said loudly and made sure that all present, including Windchime himself, could hear it. "If there is responsibility over what happened here today and if it belongs to any of us, I feel it lies squarely on my shoulders."

  "What are you doing?" Windchime asked and placed one of his mech's hands on the other man’s shoulder. "You don't have to do this for me. I know what I've done."

  "I was the superior officer on the scouting mission and I certainly outranked you," Tinker said firmly. "If there was danger in our actions to be considered, I should have done so. As I have said, if there is any responsibility, it lies squarely on my shoulders. It was my decision and I made it."

  Jessica13's eyes narrowed. Was Tinker suggesting that he would be the one to head out in what felt like a ritualistic suicide?

  "Besides," the man continued," if I had stood my ground when we were still on the road and insisted that we continued to move without pausing to help anyone, Athena would have made her collections and moved through the land without so much as a blink. There would still be the dead from the burning of the church and they would have been a little the worse for wear after having dealt with the collections, but they would have been alive here."

  Hammerhand turned to face Tinker. He looked like he wasn't sure where the man was going with what he was saying and wasn't sure if he liked it either.

  The group of Knights assembled around them appeared to choose one side or the other and began to argue over the valid points each of the men had raised. Jessica13 lowered her head and moved back a few steps, not wanting to be caught in this argument as she felt both the outsider and way out of her depth.

  "Enough!" Hammerhand commanded sharply, his speakers very easily heard in their small area. "We are clearly in a position that requires you all to listen to reason, and here is the reason I give you. No one will restore honor through killing themselves. If any want to earn their honor back for whatever reason you feel it's needed, you will fare better in the effort by staying alive, do you understand?"

  Tinker and Windchime still looked less than convinced.

  "Do you understand?" their leader snapped and took a step toward them.

  There were few things in the world more intimidating than the sight of an Excalibur staring at you and expecting some kind of answer. The two men weren't affected the same way Jessica13 would have been, however. They didn't take a step back from the man, but their heads lowered and what looked like dejection settled over them as far as she could see.

  They felt ashamed. Hammerhand had a point, and they knew it. Windchime had looked for an easy way out, wracked by guilt as he was, and felt he couldn't look any of his brothers in the eye after what he perceived as a lapse in judgment. Tinker felt similarly disappointed with himself.

  But this was not the moment for guilt or self-recrimination. They had a job to see through and trying to get themselves killed any other way wouldn’t do anyone any good. The only way they could make up for whatever foul deeds they believed they were to blame for was if they powered through the battles ahead and emerged at the end having rid the world of the likes of Athena.

  "We can't afford the waste of losing either of our finest members," Hammerhand continued in a softer tone. "We are all to blame to some extent or another for this. That is what being in the Knights Mechanica means. We are all brothers, and our problems belong to the group, not only to one or the other. None of us could have anticipated that Athena would do what she did, and in that, I am to blame. No matter how unhinged she was before, I would never have thought she had fallen this far. The three of you did the correct thing in liberating the town of Auburn from Athena's grasp. You could not have weighed the lives of the one against those of the other."

  Jessica13 lowered her head, drew deep breaths, and tried to pull away from the memories of the bodies she'd seen burned in the buildings around them.

  "I need every last one of you to steel yourselves and clear your minds," Hammerhand said and addressed the Knights as a group. "The responsibility for what happened here belongs on the shoulders of Athena and no one else. It was her choice, and all we can do is make her pay for her wanton destruction and her cruel decisions."

  The Knights raised their hands and a cheer came from them. Windchime and Tinker did as well, even if they did appear to still be despondent over what they'd seen.

  "Now, we still need to find a way to engage Athena that won't all
ow her to destroy another city like this," Hammerhand said. "She would be insane to repeat the carnage, given that they are the ones supporting her and her people. But if there is anything we've learned from this town, it's that we know we can't expect her to do the right thing or even the logical thing. Her actions prove only that she needs to be stopped."

  Another cheer erupted from the group, who already felt a little more lighthearted when they saw their leader with a better attitude than before. Jessica13 couldn't help a small smile. She knew she wouldn't be able to help them much with planning their attack on Athena, but there was still collecting and packing the parts and pieces they had scavenged. That did appear to be the one thing she could do while the others began to formulate a battle plan.

  Something crackled and sparked in the sky above her and she looked up as she made her way to the Beast. Curious, she tilted her head and squinted in an effort to make out what hung above them in the growing darkness. Not only had the sun already begun to set as the smoke cleared slowly, but heavy, dark clouds gathered and flashes of lightning arced through them to illuminate something that wasn't a cloud.

  "What the hell?” Despite her best efforts, she simply couldn’t make it out. "Mini, can you see what is up there?"

  A couple of scans ran across the HUD. "All scans are inconclusive. You could look through the scope of your rifle for a better view."

  She did as the AI suggested, took her rifle from her back, and peered through the scope. It provided a breath-taking sight of the massive clouds above her head as they darkened and surged with streaks of lightning quickly followed by a crack of thunder. As she’d suspected, there was definitely something else there. It was hard to tell what it was, exactly, until she zoomed in closer and realized that the lightning reflected off something made of steel.

  Finally, she discerned the outline and realized they were balloons. They seemed identical to those she had seen tethered at the top of Auburn's bunker, but these moved in and ahead of the clouds. Fascinated, she fiddled with the zoom for a clearer image and noticed small, metal nets extending from the front. The lightning either moved from the nets into the clouds or they collected the lightning from the clouds. Unfortunately, they moved too quickly for her to confirm which it was.

  "Tinker!" she shouted and turned to locate him. The older man was still with Hammerhand and in discussion about their plans for an attack. "Tinker, you might want to see this."

  He turned to her and looked a little annoyed that she had interrupted him but also heard the alarm in her voice. She wasn't sure what those balloons were supposed to do, why they weren't tethered to a bunker, or how they were able to move freely like they were propelled by something.

  "What's the matter, Jessie?" Windchime asked and she handed him the rifle and pointed to the place ahead of the clouds where the balloons were.

  "What the fuck?" he asked and handed the rifle to Tinker who immediately trained it on the area in question.

  "Those are the same as the weather balloons tethered on top of the Auburn bunker, aren't they?" Jessica13 asked.

  "These aren't tethered," he said. "And they are what's causing the weather to turn sour, or I'll eat my mech's nuclear power core."

  "Imagine shitting that out," one of the Knights commented.

  "Given that it weighs half a ton and is about a half-meter square, I'd say I'd have many more problems before I had to deal with shitting it out," Tinker said without moving his gaze from the vessels. "My question, however, is trying to determine what they're doing up there and why they're moving. Or where they are going."

  Hammerhand looked up and Jessica13 assumed he had the software to see that far without needing a scope. "They're moving to Auburn. And if they aren't a vanguard for another of Athena's invasions, I'm a fucking pirate."

  "That might be true," Tinker said. "Or they could be a distraction—a way to punish Auburn while she burns more towns to distract us. She wants to draw us out and stretch our resources thin, which would allow her superior numbers to take us on piecemeal."

  Their leader nodded. "Shit, I should have thought of that. Athena has always been a crafty bitch. This is her land and she controls a great deal about it. We should keep that in mind while moving forward."

  "Would her power over the weather be a threat to us?" Jessica13 asked.

  "The only threat would be the lightning, and I don't think she would be able to control that, not with a hundred of those balloons," Tinker said. "Even then, it would take tremendous power to destroy even a Watson, much less a combat mech. They've been designed for that. Still, the weather could slow us. The Beast doesn't move too well in mud but it still moves. We'll merely be slowed a great deal."

  "And that's enough for her, I suppose," Windchime said. "What is our plan?"

  Hammerhand paused and looked pensive for a moment before he turned to face the younger Knight.

  "You asked for a way in which to regain your honor," he said and his voice boomed across the group and immediately captured their attention. "I offer this to you now. Choose two of your brothers in combat mechs. Go to the next town on the map and protect them there. Keep Athena away from them."

  Windchime nodded and took a deep breath. Protecting the people of the town would be a good way to make up for whatever it was he believed had cost him his honor, and if there was a good deal of fighting to clear them of Athena's influence, so much the better. Jessica13 still wasn't sure why he felt he owed something for helping the people of Auburn, though.

  Still, if this would clear his conscience and keep all those thoughts about killing himself out of his mind, she was all for it.

  "As for the rest of us," Hammerhand said and addressed the group as Windchime selected his team, “Auburn appears to be next in our enemy's sights. You saw the destruction she caused here. This I swear—as long as I breathe, I will not allow another town to be murdered in such a manner. I invite you to take the same oath. Fight with me with that oath in mind."

  Another roar issued from those gathered and they began to prepare for the march. Every one of them was still exhausted from the previous trek and the battle they had so recently been a part of. Hopefully, like Jessica13, some would be able to rest in their mechs while the AI controlled it during the night’s march. Others would try to take turns to rest in the Beast when they could. They didn’t, unfortunately, have the luxury of taking adequate time to rest and would have to snatch what they could without slowing the march. Lives were at stake, and they had more important matters to attend to. When the need was great, people somehow found the reserves to do what they must.

  Tinker moved to where she stood and handed her rifle to her. "Are you all right, girl? You do understand that none of what happened here was our fault, yes? You don't have any silly ideas of sacrificing yourself?"

  She took the weapon and slung it onto her back. "Athena's actions are her own, and we're as responsible for them as much as we are for the weather or the attack of the Invaders. We have already begun to end her oppression of the town of Auburn, and if she chose to retaliate by oppressing even more people to the point of killing them, that is her guilt. Our only problem is not having destroyed her sooner."

  Tinker nodded. "Good. I wanted to make sure you weren't having the same thoughts as Windchime."

  "I know and I wasn't," she said and tried to force a smile, but there was no happiness in it. "I only want to make sure that Athena pays for the lives she took today. I think Hammerhand will want to exact that price from her, but after what I saw… Well, I wouldn't mind a piece of her myself. I want to send the kind of message that would make anyone of a similar mind think twice."

  "Agreed," he said. "Use that anger but don't let it consume you."

  "How do I do that?" Jessica13 asked.

  He shrugged. "Fuck if I know. But you'll know the anger that consumes when you see it once you've seen it before."

  "And where have you seen it before?" she asked, even though she knew the answer.

  "A wo
man we call Athena," he stated coldly. "Or Lady Hoot. Whichever you prefer."

  Chapter Thirty

  Night had fallen and shrouded the land in the kind of darkness that was practically palpable. There was no moonlight and the stars were hidden by the cloud cover that draped the entire landscape in what felt like a blanket. The air felt thick, even through the filters of the mech.

  The flickers of lightning were all that illuminated the area for the first few hours of their march. Jessica13 wasn't sure if she liked it better than what began to cast light across the horizon they were approaching. She'd had her fill of fire for the day.

  But at least that was enough warning for them to know that Athena had sent mechs to slow them. When she looked through the scope of her rifle, she identified a group of Cinders that used their flame throwers to set fire to the dry grasses. The wind had picked up and the flames spread fairly quickly, driven by the gusts.

  "It could be they're trying to burn Auburn," Tinker said when she pointed it out to him.

  "Or it could be that they're trying to build something of a wall of fire to keep us away,” she suggested. “Either way, she knows where we're going. I think she might not expect us to split our forces, though, so if she has a mind to corral us, we would be able to call Windchime to help us. I…hope it won't come to that, however."

  "Hammerhand has a talent for tearing out of holes we manage to get into," he agreed and motioned at the combat mechs that began to take a V-formation in response to their leader’s orders.

  They expected an attack from the Cinders that hung back but the Knights didn’t let the possibility deter them and pushed forward once they chose a path through the places that had already been burned. The speed at which the grass caught spread the fire effectively but it didn't last very long in places, which resulted in open patches of burned grass that posed little risk. There were a few places where it was obvious the fire had grown a little too intense and the sandy earth had been scorched and even crystallized. It crunched underfoot as she moved forward.