12 Miles Below

Book 3. Chapter 11: Talk is cheaper than snow

The Logi bumbled up into the cockpit, clearly uncomfortable in the evosuit.

Teed and I watched him waddle his way over, while Shadowsong remained focused on the white wastes beyond the cockpit window.

“Greetings, Winterscar.” The man said, huffing and puffing his way to a chair inside the room. It made sense for him to have difficulty, everyone started new at some point. It took a few months of wearing these things before anyone gets that ease of movement Retainers passively cultivate. And Logi’s don’t usually go out this far onto the surface. The only time most surface dwellers go out, if they aren't scavengers, was to praise the passing gods. And that was only a few feet out of the colony gates in perfectly safe conditions.

He sat down slowly, making sure he wasn’t crushing any part of his suit’s systems. Another mark to the tally. These suits were designed to take some good lighthearted beating. Good enough if you tripped, you didn't need to panic too much about issues. Different story if you get tossed against a wall by an angry machine of course, but I don't think the engineers who designed the suit had that in consideration.

“My name is Reginald, of House Cosign." The logi said, taking a nasally breath in between sentences. "I’ve the pleasure of being selected to assist you in negotiations.”

I gave him a quick head bow and shook hands, exchanging the traditional greetings.

“Before we begin, you’re familiar with sign language, correct?” He asked.

My fist raised in the air and I bobbed it back and forth, mimicking a head nod. He signed back, pleased. “As expected of a Retainer of course." He gave a few coughs, straightening out his rebreather slightly, and then sat up in the seat. "I will be advising you via sign language as to not interrupt your discussion with the Undersider knights. The objective is to have them peacefully surrender the hostage crew. Intelligence briefing let me know this is likely not going to happen, but an attempt should still be made on assumption it does.”

I shrugged, glancing over at Teed. He shrugged right back. "It's your show kid, I'm just the ride here."

"Now, we sh-" He was interrupted by a beeping noise at his side. A surface timer, with all the big buttons that came with it. A timer tended to be one of the more used tools up here as a scavenger, oddly enough. Everyone knows crowbars are the master tools, but smaller things like this end up being just as important. "Sorry, I need to run a check of my suit. The guidelines stated to do so every thirty minutes."

"Your N.I levels are fine, as is the pressure, sitting right at the optimal point, no deviations. Rest of the numbers check out too, no need to worry." I said.

"How can you tell?" He asked, puzzled. Then looked up sharply, "Oh, I forget myself. I know your profile. I suppose you know some of the signs to look for by instinct?"

"Some stuff I could guess at with experience. Like the ice forming on your rebreather right there." I poked at a section of his suit. "Size of it means you've got everything in line. If it grew to cover the tubes, then you'd know you're in trouble and there's something wrong with the heater. You pick up tricks like that over time."

Teed chimined in from his seat, "Also condensation on the goggles. If it starts to get fogged up in there, that means your vents are covered up, usually snow. But that means snow's probably covering up other things too if it got to the vents. Part of the top five doomsigns."

"Interesting. Doomsigns?"

"Scavenger jargon." I clarified. "There's a couple dozen small rules that you learn over time. You get a feel for things. Some are more important than others, hence the top five list." I guess as a knight I'll never have to worry about those things again. Kind of odd to think. I had a lifetime's worth of skills and experience for something I never needed to do again.

The Logi hummed. "I never read any of that in the guidebooks."

Teed laughed. "That's cause you're going by the books and checking your systems every half hour, like all good scavengers should be doing. You'll never have to worry about doomsigns. It's the lazy ones that don't follow the rules that need to rely on doomsigns as a shortcut."

"Somehow, I'm getting the impression you have stopped doing the routine checkups, or following guidelines."

Another fist bob from me. Teed didn't even acknowledge that, instead turning around on the chair, “Comms systems are warmed up and ready to go, kid. Let me know when I should give them a ring. They know we're here already, they haven't been subtle about their pings.”

“Well, let’s not keep them waiting. Is there anything else I need to know before we start?”

The negotiator shook his head. "No. You may begin."

I reached a hand out and flicked the comms switch. There was a crackle on the speakers as I spoke into the mic. “Undersider frigate Galstone, come in. This is Keith Winterscar, of Clan Altosk.”

The static flared up for a moment before the voice of a man came on. “Clan frigate Prowler, we have you on comms and read you, five by five. It’s a little cramped in the cockpit here with the folks, but we’re fine.” A warm cheery voice even. That was... odd.

Reginald flickered through a few hand signs, all serious now. Coded messages. Five enemies spotted. Hostages isolated to cockpit section.

“Who am I speaking to?” I asked, a little puzzled why Undersiders would filter in some of the emergency codewords. My answer came back in moments.

“I am Cadrith, House Insight. Pilot, copper rank. The Undersiders don’t know how to handle things beyond steering, so we’re being held at gunpoint to operate in their stead. I have a lovely gentleman to my right who’s watching me. We’re finalizing the comms connection delta and I’ll pass you over to him.”

More hand signs. Unharmed. Unsure of enemy plans.

I could recognize some of those codewords. Small things like ‘Lovely gentlemen’ were buzzwords that could be tossed in seemingly innocent conversation but meant different things.

That’s about all the intel we could get as the voice changed over to someone more gruff. “You’re the Winterscar?”

“I am. I hear you wanted to talk to me directly.”

There was silence on the comms for a moment. “Uhh, sure. Give us a moment to… uhh, organize terms. And so... I need to talk to the captain.”

The comms went dead.

Teed spun around on the chair, glancing over at me, “Well, that’s a new record for you. How’d you manage to piss them off that fast? I had bets going with the gunner for at least a minute before the cussing started.”

I gave him a light shove on his chair, shutting him up. The negotiator on the other hand was twitching in his chair, thinking.

Shadowsong spoke for the first time. "Report." He said, looking at the Logi.

“Voice elevated. More filler words than natural. Either this knight is not a good speaker, or was rapidly coming up with things to say on the spot. Given it’s a negotiation, they should have prepared ahead of time. Unless they’re negotiating in bad faith without anything pre-planned. Something isn’t correct.”

"I see." Was all the prime replied, turning his gaze back to the window.

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach at all this, my head rapidly connecting dots. “The crew slipped us info they only saw five knights aboard. So where are the other eighteen knights? Trying to do a counter-surround?”

The negotiator gave a shrug. “The crew could be confined to the airlocked areas. They could have been isolated from the rest of the knights.” He didn’t sound too convinced however, more as if arguing for the sake of it.

“They asked for me specifically. Could they have done that to... spook the clan into keeping me locked in? And now we caught them with their suits half on, when I actually did show up?”

The comms clicked open again, and the undersider knight spoke. “Make your way on foot into the mountain crevices. We don’t have a white tent to place, but we’ll get some spare cloth and setup something similar enough. Bring four guards and yourself, we’ll be waiting.”

“What, we can’t discuss over the comms?” I asked.

“I don’t know how you clanners deal with truces and negotiations, but Undersiders always negotiate face to face. This is how it’s done in civilization.”

Well. Isn’t he polite? Reginald gave me a few hand signs. Technically correct. Biased, part of the majority belief from Undersiders that clans are savages. Has another agenda. Continue attempts to discover.

“You’re asking for a lot of trust here, considering where we stand.” I said, “Why can’t we speak over the comms and settle this here? That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. What’s all this cloak and dagger scrapshit for anyhow?”

Silence. I gave a glance at the Logi, but he didn't have anything new to give.

“Look, either you come in person and we talk, or you don’t and we’ll have to take more drastic actions to recover our people." The voice said. "Them’s the terms, take it or leave it. Conversation’s over.”

Comms clicked shut. At least the knights knew where the off button was.

“For a group that wanted Winterscar specifically to come as a neutral party, they sure don’t seem to appreciate him any more than us.” Teed whistled. “I’d almost say they sounded annoyed you came. How'd they get to know you so well already? Seemed like they skipped a few steps forward.”

I gave Teed a lazy finger, while the Logi continued as a professional would. “They had no true reasoning to ask you to come in person." He said. "When questioned, they flustered. They didn’t come up with any excuse and were forced to default. Not a good sign.” He shook his head again, thinking. Gloved hands straightening the rebreather again like a nervous tick. “Likely they’re trying to confirm that you are here in person rather than using a comm relay to talk from afar. I believe we've heard enough. It is my opinion that these men have no intention of negotiating anything, nor is it likely they even have the authority to do so. We were not speaking with their captain, he would have identified himself.”

Shadowsong nodded, helmet still looking directly ahead. Where the enemy lay. “Confirm your verdict with the clan lord, and have it logged into history that they held no peace. I want full permission to engage with hostile intent to collect their armor for our clan.” No, he wasn't staring daggers at the enemy. This was his prey.

The Logi nodded, tapping away at the comms and sending his message. “If I am to guess, I believe they consider House Winterscar the greatest threat of all the Retainer houses, considering the number of knights you now have on retention. It would be strategic to eliminate you and create a power vacuum.” He said as he worked.

Well, he was right, but for the wrong reasons.

Besides House Winterscar’s soldiers and some of Shadowsong’s people, no one else knew about the Occult I could manifest. Something Shadowsong wanted to keep under the wraps until it was absolutely vital. If the clan ever hit a low point on morale, I could be used to bring people back from the brink. So long as we eliminated any enemy that encountered me, we’d keep the advantage of having an occult user a secret for every fight. Five undersider knights were no match for Cathida and I alone, and all of them piled together wouldn't do a dent with both shadowsong and my own personal knights out on the field. They were about to have a really bad day.

A moment later, the negotiator got a message from the clan lord. “Orders confirmed.” He said. “You have the go-ahead to engage up to lethal force at your choice. We will have logged enough evidence to prove peaceful intentions were all tried and exhausted. Happy hunting, first blade.”

“Good.” Shadowsong said. “I have been searching for a reason to strip these Undersider scum from the moment I saw them.” He shifted his gaze to me. “Bring your captain of the guards to speed, Winterscar. He’ll be your decoy.”

Sagrius looked pretty good with a white cape, all things considered. There’s a limit to the sorts of cosmetics his armor could generate, since he isn’t an administrator. Times like these I realize I’d gotten carried away when designing my new look with Cathida. We’d done things regular armor couldn’t do. But from a distance he looked passable enough. And none of these Undersiders had seen me in person anyways.

It was out of the question to switch armors, especially since the source of my powers was quite literally inscribed inside Journey both in software and physically on metal. This was the best we could do.

He flipped the crusader longsword around, testing the reach and feel of it before sheathing it back. "A fine blade, master Keith. I am honored to wield it."

I patted my own belt, where one of my forged swords lay. "You know, I've never had the chance to use one of my own blades in combat with my armor yet. How do they fare?"

"Weight was everything when we lacked armor. The common guard are capable of organizing a viable defense with them. In armor, it's the crossguard changes everything, sir. Enables far more movements and counter options, since no knight has ever seen an occult weapon be locked down. So many new options I still find myself mulling over potential new techniques, mentally playing them in my mind, refining them."

On my part, Journey had no issues changing itself to look like a Winterscar Knight and did so without complaint. Cathida, on the other hand, complained the whole time. But that cranky old bat’s going to be cranky about anything so it didn’t come as much of a surprise. If she were alive, I’d have opted to bribe her with tea and crumpets. And she did confirm it would have worked too.

"As much as I liked the crusader blade, and the history behind it, getting to use my own swords has a charm to it. Can't say I'm not excited at the prospect to put this to the test."

The captain knocked on his chest, typical omen chasing superstition. "I pray that the test be swift and the outcome in our favor."

Teed brought us closer to the mountain. And mountain would be a generous term for this landmark, since it didn’t go that far up on height. It looked more like massive spikes of ice that were squeezed out of the earth, making all the terrain jagged. Given that the earth was made of metal and had different densities, the ice grew wide in size at some points and short for others.

As a result, the whole thing was honeycombed with steep valleys, almost like a maze a few miles in every direction. The clan had logged the whole place and mapped it out in detail. This isn’t the usual state of affairs to map things out, they don’t keep for very long so rough quick maps were more common. A few years down the line and the world would have shifted enough to make it obsolete. But this case was special: The ice mountain was exactly that - ice. Easy to cut, with hundreds of good spots accessible by airspeeders, depending on the size. This was the place we hauled meltwater from by the tons.

So it was well mapped in order to find where the best spots were to mine. Likely the reason the knights had picked this spot to camp out at. They probably had their hands on the same map. Not exactly hard to get hands on the ice mines maps, they’re not considered clan secrets after all.

“This is where I'll politely ask that you get the hell out of my ship, sir.” He said, giving me a quick fist bump into my shoulder pad.

“How dare you kick me out of your ship.” I said, patting him right back. “I take full offense and I’ll see you court martialed when we get back. What are you planning on doing in the meantime? Play a game of cards?”

“Planning what bribe I’ll use to slip the judgment, of course. On the operation, I’ll see if I can find a way up to higher ground. That way I can swoop in from any direction. Save your sorry asses in case you mess up somehow.”

I gave a critical glance at the surrounding ice, eyebrows raised. The massive spiky ice, that looked more like teeth at the ends. And not the flat molars where Teed could plausibly land the ship. “I don’t see anything up there that could support a multi ton frigate like this one. More just pointy ends.” A bit further in things went back to normal, just a plateau of ice filled with ridges and cracked passages. Here though? The Undersiders clearly didn't want anyone to have the high ground.

“And the enemy thinks the same thing. So imagine their surprise finding out that’s exactly where I’m going to perch the ship. Find me a good pointy end to wait for the fireworks. Give me a good show, kid. Call if you need bigger guns to settle the discussions.”

Shadowsong grunted at that, “You claim to keep the airspeeder balanced on the tip of the ice walls, pilot? I haven’t heard of that being an option. It seems impossible.”

“With respect sire, if I tossed you a sword and told you to balance it on the tip of your finger, could you do it?”

The prime nodded. “Yes. Balance is necessary in combat.”

“Same for me. This ship is my sword, and I know how to wield it like no other.” Teed’s heavy gloves tapped the side of his head. “Reacher pilots don’t earn the gold earring lightly.”

“... Very well. I leave it to your hands. You were selected for a reason, I have trust the Logi’s behind that selection knew their numbers. Despite your... familiarity with house Winterscar.” He stood, turned and walked out the airlock, rifle in hand. "So long as the work is done well."

I gave Teed one last farewell, before making my own way out. “Don’t you dare bring back any snow on my ship.” He snarked. “I just had the deck polished.”

“It’s not even your frigate, you’re acting mighty big for your suit there, techie.”josei

He gave the side of his head another tap, and signed a smug grin, and then had the door close shut on me.

Ice has a way of crunching under the weight of a relic armor. Especially since we didn’t bother with the leaving the ship to land on the uneven ground. Instead, we just jumped off the side, down a few feet, directly into the surface. With me were four others. Sagrius taking the front, looking like me if you squinted a bit. Shadowsong, myself and two others all flanked behind him like escorts. The other teams all had a single Knightbreaker to share, while Shadowsong and I both carried one tucked behind our waist. Given the tools and skills this little group had, I’d probably be correct in saying we were literally the most dangerous force walking on the surface currently. Zero compromise was done here.

The slavers had wanted me alive, so we knew the knights would also attempt to capture me, which gave us some measure of security to be able to walk in like this. But we weren’t going to take chances either, the rest of the knight teams were slowly surrounding the place, creeping up and laying low. So long as the ice obscured line of sight, there wasn’t much the Undersiders could do to detect armor when it’s trying to be sneaky. No messages from any of ours about encountering Undersider knights, nor scouts or even surveillance tech. They either prepared enough to avoid any detection, or they hadn’t prepared at all.

“Basic objective is to buy additional time for the rest of the assault teams to complete the surround." Shadowsong said as our group crunched through the ice, climbing down occasionally, or leaping over ice boulders in the way. "Those teams only need a few more minutes to be in position. We have them in our reach, letting them escape is unacceptable. Primary objective above all is to ensure the hostages remain alive. The final team will be approaching from behind the airspeeder and will handle the hostages.”

“I take it you have a plan for keeping our people alive in between us making a scene and the rearguard doing their thing?”

He nodded. “Regardless of their motives, Undersiders have far less loyalty to any cause. They are infamous for such things. They will choose to protect their own lives over orders, and even abandon their leaders. We’ll give them a standing offer they won’t dare break in the middle of combat. Not if they wish to live.”

The site was quickly approaching according to my HUD. Knight armor made what would have been a difficult trek filled with ropes and climbing, about as easy as a stroll in the city. A few more jumps from one cluster of ice to another, and we were nearly there.

Flatter ground than normal here, which let me see their stolen airship for the first time. Landed, hugging the side of a cliffside. It looked dormant, and the different metal replacement plates gave it that weathered look. For something that had once been used by pirates, it still seemed sturdy enough. I suppose they would take good care of their ships.

“Ready blades. Keep them talking until everyone is in position.” Shadowsong hissed over the comms. “Prepare for contact.”

Next chapter - Deja-vu