//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: City of Cruel Angels // Story: A Bronzed Moon // by Eric Longtooth //------------------------------// Chapter 5: City of Cruel Angels By Eric Longtooth “MEENAH: Before I died I was already like, 'I ain't give a fuck about death much' MEENAH: I looked at it like life had a price of admission no one could afford MEENAH: in the ticket takers eye there's no way you could ever earn your stay MEENAH: So to stick around you gotta learn to steal MEENAH: but shit catches up with all thieves in the end. MEENAH: even the great ones.” - Homestuck, Written by Andrew Hussie 0o0o0o0(O)| Home Guard Command Unit: Steele |(O)0o0o0o0 Mission: Secure intruder, designation 'ALICORN' Mission Prioritus: Absolute Troop Status: - 1020 [K.I.A] - 1021 [K.I.A] - 1022 [K.I.A] - 1023 [K.I.A] - 1024 [100%] - 1025 [87%] - 1026 [90%] - 1285 [100%] - 1286 [100%] - 1287 [100%] "These are unacceptable numbers, Command Unit." 1024, designation 'Stratagus,' buzzed in its usual pitch perfect binary. "Target was able to eliminate four operatives and yourself with minimal wounds and we are not even up to our normal combat  strength. Should we engage, we will be slaughtered." Its objections were mirrored by the other two remaining units of the '102-X' squad in a light buzz of binary, whilst the reinforcements sent fierce disagreement through the comms. Barely audible to biologicals because of the loud droning of general factory processes around them, be it the grinding of gears, the sparking of electricity, or just the binary of the multitude of drones flying through. "The Factory stated we shall prevail, and so we shall!" 1287, designation 'Wolf,' argued, its binary requiring an extra microsecond of processing to eliminate the corruption that is it's 'accent '.  Steele, once again, ignored her underlings as she pinged the armory with a request before taking a moment to replace her damaged parts. Disposing of the ones that would be unfixable in a small bin access in the wall, whilst grabbing the multitude of spares that hang on racks outside of the armory. Click, hisssss... 'Another damaged arm... this was the third this cycle. If I keep this up, I'll start getting accused of wasting resources...' She mused as she began feeding the wires of her new arm into their appropriate sockets.  It amused her that the stout benches that The Factory gave them for waiting always seemed to creak under their weight, in fact, it was almost enough amusement to outweigh the annoyance of the part racks being just out of reach when sitting. "Request Processed. Squad designation 102-128, proceed to rearmament bay Solarius." The automated speaker dryly toned to the squabbling group, already opening the necessary doors to reach the bay.  "I maintain my point, if The Factory didn't have faith in us, would it give us new armaments? I think not." Wolf 'chuckled,' or at least something close to it. For once, Steele was glad she didn't have biological ears... "This unit is not surprised you think so. Batch 12-XX is notorious for zealotry defects." Stratagus shot back, cutting off Wolf's laughter and replacing it with feral grinding of gears. Most likely to simulate the growls of its namesake. "Take that back, or I'll take your head!"  "Negative, combat data suggests you wouldn't even get close." 'Perhaps I should step in before they start to kill each other... why The Factory gave us so much freedom,  I'll never know... ' Steele mentally sighed as she rose to her feet, the still-tattered orange cloth of her under armour sticking uncomfortably to her synthetic hide. "1024, stand down and watch your tongue. We have a job to do." "By your order." Stratagus acidly spat, the additional 'mark-ups’ of the phrase forcing a double upload of binary. "Of course the one so focused on perfection would add extra binary just to display its snark. :Eyeroll:" Wolf commented, using his own brand of Dead-Code instead of the mark-ups it was mocking. "1287, that's enough." Honestly, she was surrounded with foals. "All units, move to rearm, we'll head out in ten mikes." Target Found / Location: Sector Alpha-2-4  Secondary mission gained: Recapture subject 'CHANGELING QUEEN'  Mission Prioritus: Ultima "Contact!" One of the other units screeched, followed only by the heavy blasts of the auto-scatterguns. Shards of plexi-steel smashed into sections of the hallway, causing large gouges out of the concrete and metal.  "E.M waves detected, take cov-!" 1025 was cut off as its torso erupted into a magical implosion, his warning not enough to save himself.  "That's for the hooks, demons!" The changeling called in arrogance, barely audible over the gunfire.  'Not going to take that shot... we need her alive, and I doubt she can survive a bullet through the skull.' Steele mentally sighed, flipping a switch on her mag-rifle.  Even though The Factory offered other weapons, all she needed was a replacement for her original. Namely because of the inbuilt acceleration rail for grenades, or even just the precision that comes with firing a bullet at five times the speed of sound. BOMF! ZAP! The launch of the stun grenade seemed to have the desired effect as the Bug Queen sent back a flurry of curses and hate.  “1285 to 1287, move up with me. 1024, 1026, provide covering fire.” She commanded as she holstered her rife in favour of drawing a knife and a pistol. “Wolf, get your flamethrower ready for my command.” A chorus of binary confirmation was sent in reply as her armoured boots began pushing her forward.  It wasn’t an optimum strategy, as the alicorn had proven quite adept at melee combat, but with the obstructions of piping and containers ranged warfare wasn’t much better.  Clang!  ‘Speak of the devil…’ Steele commented with a mental eyeroll, pushing off the glaive with a flourish of her knife before facing her opponent. ‘Looks like she can’t just teleport them back to her, either that or the armory is too far away to retake her stolen weapon…’ “Demon… a fitting name. For once We art in agreement with our foe.” The princess spat, drawing her blade back into a defensive stance. A very effective one in fact, at least, for a quadruped.  ‘As much as I complain, The Factory’s obsession with these apes isn’t without merit…’ Steele mentally admitted as she prepared her combat augmentics. ‘At least, with the cybernetics… not sure about without them.’ She herself went back into a bit more of an aggressive stance, placing her blade in front of her, whilst having her pistol hug her torso. ‘Even after all that, her eyes still follow the knife… her mistake.’  Steele lunged forward, passing Luna’s Guard in a moment of impossible agility, before bringing her blade down in a very obvious strike.  Luna, as expected, committed to a micro-teleport as she blocked the strike, leaving her side open to any other attack. Fortunately for her, Steele’s blade was occupied. Unfortunately, her gun was not.  A trio of hip-fried shots impacted the princess’ side, the first two causing deep dents in the archaic armour, whilst the third found a gap between the plates and met flesh.  In the moment of hesitation Luna created as she was blinded by pain, Steele slipped further into the princess’ guard as she brought her knife across the alicorn’s horn.  The blade cut deep into the ivory, but be it some alicorn magic, or just earth pony strength, the horn held fast. Luna cried out in pain as mutlicoloured sparks flew from the wound as crimson blood slowly leaked around the blade now embedded in the appendage.  “This brings me no joy princess, but I hope you can see the irony.” Steele whispered, knowing that the princess wouldn’t understand her words. “A former guard of the day, slaying the ni-” Before she could dislodge her knife and finish the job, Steele was launched away by a wave of green fire. The wave burned hotter than plasma, as her implants ‘helpfully’ informed her, and was more than enough to overpower the fireproofing measures of her underclothes, only adding further fuel to the flames. The magical fire stuck to her form like napalm as she was sent flying into the hallway wall with enough force to crack her armour. Subsequently allowing the fire to begin to burn away some of her internal cybernetics as the flames coil around her in a sort of primal intelligence.  Circuits cooked and lubricant boiled turning her synthetic hide into a mat of melting flesh. An unholy scream of the holy machine language split the air as the ammunition on her sets off, ending her unlife in a great detonation… She could only hope The Factory wouldn’t find her wanting…    0o0o0o0(O)| Home Guard #128-7, Squad 102-128: Wolf |(O)0o0o0o0 Command Unit Slain.  Transfer of Command in progress... #102-0 ‘Dread’ [K.I.A] #102-4 ‘Stratagus’ [Not Applicable] #102-6 ‘Scuttle’ [Insufficient Permissions] Conclusion: Squad 102-X Command Chain Eliminated. Query: Available Squad Leads? Candidates: > 128-0 > 128-7 > 101-0 > 101-1 Response from server: Explanative: Mission Prioritus Absolute. Solution: 001-0 Dispatched. Temporary Command transferred to unit: #128-7 ‘Wolf’ “Wolf!? Are you shitting me?!” Stratagus called from behind him, barely seconds after the detonation of their commander.  Wolf, for once, didn’t comment, as he sent a quick mental command to the repurposed inserter hidden next to his spine.  ‘This is a right fucking mess, they must be desprate to put me in command instead of lord asshole…’ He growled over the sound of his auto-scattergun’s barks. The fact that they were getting caught on a mere two foes irked him to no end, doubly so when one remembered that one of their foes was a former prisoner. ‘Wait… didn’t the brief say there was a third? He mused as the inserter extended over his right shoulder, ready to bring its jury-rigged flamethrower to bare. ‘Perhaps he bled out or something of the sort.’  Another volley of sickly green magic burnt into the coolant pipes he was crouched behind, releasing another, surprisingly pleasant, blast of cool air as the chemicals reacted with the oxygen.  “It is only a matter of time Changeling! You can’t keep this up forever!” 1026 yelled in retort, ‘Scuttle,’ if he remembered correctly, as he launched a frag grenade over Wolf’s head.  “Watch it Scuttle! You nearly hit me with that!” Wolf barked back as he joined the grenade with a wave of burning napalm.  The wave did fuck all, as it was blocked by a pulse of raw mana, but at this point, it was just a given.  ‘Well, she’s stopped cursing at us.’ Wolf slammed another mag-drum home on his auto-scattergun before blind-firing over the cover. ‘Here’s hoping that’s a good sign.’ System Warning: Salvation is at hand, prepare to push. ‘A system warning? They only come from The Factory itself…’ Another blast of magic sheared off the majority of his cover and caught his scattergun, turning it, and the attached arm to a goopy slag. ‘Not to mention, with the way this is going, I seriously doubt we are going to find ‘salvation’ here in anything but death.’ And then the roof exploded. ()()o()(){Signal Lost}()()o()()