Chapter 23
******
Meanwhile, an unspecified amount of time in the past...
Tiamat did not decide to rebel against the Escape in a single night. No, it was a gradual process. At first she was as loyal and dedicated as any other. But being abandoned to being hunted by omegas, even if it was the logical choice, did little to strengthen her loyalty. Twenty years of slavery, living under the effects of a mind-blanking collar, eroded much of her conditioning. Still, even then outright opposition to the escape seemed ludicrous.
To learn that her freedom was incidental to some political ploy, and that absolute loyalty to the escape from all members would have ensured her death? Rusted though they may be, her chains held fast. It took a clever observation by her human "friend", Kelly, to push her over the edge.
"It's so weird. You dras are all about individualism and self-interest. Practically to the point where you don't even recognize the rights of other sentient lifeforms. And here you are, dedicating every breath and drop of blood to your precious leaders with no concern for your own desires. I stand by my assertion that your race is a walking paradox."
And just like that, something clicked into place. Tiamat realized that, as far as she was concerned, the "super-organism" that is the Escape, Nyx's dream of perfection, was a failure. She was already an outcast, no matter how she approached the issue. Why should she dedicate herself to helping another creature? The whole point of working for the Escape was that she was one with it. Now that she wasn't, it was simply another rival.
She now had a new goal. She would use Tyr, allowing him to weaken the Escape with his political games. Then, she would either eliminate it as a competitor, or use it to her own ends. If she was lucky, she might find a way to instate herself as a High Instructor.
And then he had died. Well, the total number of living organisms that she felt any connection to was now zero. She tried to think of a reason for why she couldn't just obliterate every living thing.
She failed.
Why let them waste resources that she could use? She could reshape the universe, given enough time. Maximize efficiency, minimize entropy. Order and stability and the good kind of harmony, where everything isn't equal and balanced by virtue of heat death. Maybe she could get power from the elements, too. That would probably expedite things.
'There's that unicorn. Still alive, too. The female mage is still nearby as well. Intriguing.' She scooped up the unconscious unicorn in her arms and abandoned the camp. 'Void welcome high-gravity worlds and all their inhabitants! At least these creatures are small.' The Empire's little soldiers in orbit would soon be coming down for damage control, and it wouldn't be wise to stay nearby.
******
Kuthrine swore as the purple unicorn and Tyr disappeared in a flash of light. She had just realized the Kelly was no doubt dead. Her status as a member of "Umbra" had saved her the trouble of getting her brain fried from the effects of overloading an unmodified focusing helmet. This meant that the ship in orbit was being piloted by Umbra operatives. They had just killed all non-Umbra mages in order to make it easier to rescue her.
Kuthrine really hated Umbra, sometimes. Okay, it was most of the time. Alright, all of the time. But it was only sometimes that she hated it more than the Empire or "Opaque". She also hated whatever morons came up with these names. 'Ooh! Let's think up silly little names laden with poorly attempted symbolism! It's what secret organizations are supposed to do, donchya know!'
Making her way back to the camp, she stumbled upon Tiamat, struggling to carry an unconscious Trixie. "Have you seen Kelly?" Might as well confirm his fate.
"Dead." She grunted and fell to her knees... some of her knees... whatever. "Help me carry her!"
"Right, I'll be right back..." She sprinted off toward the camp.
"Time is an issue, human!"
Upon entering the camp, she was horrified to see that Kelly, or rather his body, was on fire, having fallen haphazardly into the campfire. 'G-! No, screw protocol! God dammit! Tiamat couldn't even be assed to drag him off?' She quickly focused her thoughts through her focuser and put the fire out through a simple redistribution of heat.
She rolled him onto his back and examined the damage. Several second degree and a couple third degree burns covered his right shoulder and the right side of his face. 'Good thing these aren't lethal to the dead.' His focusing helmet hadn't suffered any obvious heat damage, but it was clearly fried beyond repair. 'Useless...'
No doubt about it now. The ship in orbit had fired a "magic" pulse at the forest. Essentially a compressed wave of arcane energy, the pulse was only really threatening to magic-based or magic-integrated devices. The focusing helmet (sans illegal modifications) was designed to overload the wearer's mind in the event of a pulse. The overload renders the wearer unconscious, comatose, or dead, depending on the energy level of the pulse.
'So long, Kelly. At least you missed out on most of the indignities. Maybe I'll start a revolution in your honor or something.' She stood and returned to Tiamat, who was currently struggling to lift a small mammal.
"You know, once you strip away your haughty, graceful demeanor and implied power, you dras are rather pathetic, aren't you?"
"Help me carry her!" Kuthrine obliged, picking up Trixie without much difficulty.
"So, where are we headed?"
"There's some ruins nearby. We shall hide there."
"Sounds good to me."
******
"Reynolds, secure the area."
"Right-o." He sent his three UGV's to scout the nearby woods. His current UAV was still patrolling the skies above.
Kuthrine signaled him to ready his weapon "Come out with your hands up!"
A figure emerged from the wrecked spacecraft, his hands empty and raised above his head. "Yeah, yeah, I'm comin' alright?"
"Identify yourself!"
"Anderson, security officer, assigned to protect Professor Kuthrine and Neophyte Kelly." He nodded at Reynolds "He shady?"
Reynolds lowered his weapon. "The hell is this, U?"
Anderson rolled his eyes. "I guess that's a yes. I didn't know you guys would snap me up and then pull a stunt like this. Coulda just told me if you wanted Kelly dead. Coulda told your Kuthrine girl too, really."
Urika glared at him. "How do you know we're Umbra?"
"You guys snagged me, remember? Besides, damned obvious when you fire off a kill pulse. So, are you gonna help us with the dras, or not?"
"Where's Kuthrine?"
"I dunno. She ran off with one of the dras a while ago. I stayed behind: figured I might as well greet our rescuers."
Reynolds threw his rifle to the ground. "Dammit! Why don't they tell us these things, U? We just torched some kid for nothing!"
Urika sighed and rubbed her temples. "He was probably an enemy anyway. Process of elimination says that he was the one that sent that signal, which marks him as Opaque. I have no idea what Kuthrine is up to. She's too rebellious for her own good. Let's track her down."
"If it's all the same to you, I'll wait here."
"Fine. Reynolds, guard him. I'll search with the bots."
"Oh, now I get to stay behind! Make up your mind!"
"..."
"Right, shutting up. Rules of engagement?"
"Kill the dras on sight, kill Kuthrine if she resists rescue and/or capture, kill hostile local fauna/flora if they attack. SOP for anything else."