12 Miles Below

Chapter 44: One last act of service

“Nearly half a hundred, m’lord.” Windrunner said. “As far as my sensors can detect.”

The Shadowsong prime grunted agreement, clearly displeased at the chaos outside. All the other relic knights had made their way to the weapon slits and begun clearing out some of the rabble. The sounds of rifle shots filling up this edge of the bunker.

Atius glared through the slits, a calculating eye leveled across the battlefield. “This isn’t some wandering patrol that stumbled on us. This is a kill order. More are coming each minute, we’ll need to storm outside and make our way to the blast door before the full reinforcements can join these machines. The longer we remain here, the dimmer our chances become.”

He turned and made his way to the side of the bunker instead of joining the fire line, however. “On my mark, retreat further into the bunker and hide. Given this is a sensory dampened bunker, they won’t be able to ping any of you while you’re inside. They’re after me, ultimately. I’ll cut a way through the side of the wall and make my way into the mite superstructure. Seal the path after I’ve gone through. With any luck, I’ll emerge much further to the west. They’ll assume we’re making a break for it in that direction. Once the enemy chases after me, open the door and make your way to the blast doors as soon as possible. Assume comms are breached anywhere outside the bunker. Communicate anything important with hand signs only. Understood?”

The knights all pinged acknowledgements. Atius drew out his sword and did exactly as expected, hacking his way through the wall, breaking down the bunker side.

I had a possible alternate idea. “Lord Atius,” I said, turning to him.

He gave a grunt of acknowledgement. “Any ideas are open to discussion, lad. Go ahead.”

Right to the point. Works for me. “They built this bunker with defenses in mind. If we could power them back on, we might be able to use the site itself to help clear a path out.”

“You think after all this time the defenses are still intact and functional? Even with the flooding?” He continued to hack at the wall, occult blade making long lines. He would then grab and yank out smaller chunks. They splashed at his feet as he worked to dismantle a way through.

“If these imperials are as meticulous as you say, they must have made the system modular and separated from the rest of the bunker. They probably made defenses far more durable than lab equipment.”

He paused for a moment, nodding. “Very well. Take a few power cells and see if you can find any way to reactivate the bunker defenses. If you can’t find any obvious systems make your way back here immediately.”

I gave him a salute and bolted into action. Calem had already shuffled over on the sled, unhooking two power cells by their handles and extending them out to me. The two had been using scrap poles to creep the sled closer to the weapon slits, likely to join in the weapons firing. Ankah only gave me a hard stare as I passed by. “Goddess be with you.” She said.

“She is. I think.” I chuckled back, yanking the cells and hooking them on my belt.

“Then don’t embarrass yourself.” She finished, drawing out her pistol and searching for a possible target through the bunker slits.

I left her to it, making my way through the old bunker once again, searching for the center room.josei

Surface dwellers often used turret defense systems for the home colonies, though it’s rare to find any in working conditions on surface scrap sites. Our own clan colony was rather rich in comparison and had a long line of defenses. I’d been shown how they work by Teed a few times. I knew what to look for.

There was a vertical ladder by the far side of the center room, leading down into the lower level.

The basement layer would be likely where the power was located, along with other critical systems. And it was completely flooded and submerged. I’d have more chances of tracking a cockroach in piping than to expect anything to have stayed functioning underwater for all these years.

Defense systems, on the other hand, were supposed to be insulated, and the bunker had a vat of water for a container. There had to have been built-in considerations for a possible breach and flood.

My hand grabbed the ladder and I stared down at the darkness. I could see the whole ladder with Journey's headlights strong enough to pierce the flooded chamber. Filled with sharp crystal like rust at every step, growing on the metal rungs. Giving a silent prayer that this would work, my hand grabbed the sides of the ladder and I sank down into the water, step by step, until completely underwater.

The gloom enveloped me, trying to breach the armor. Journey held it all back without issue.

A few more steps and I reached the bottom, feet landing into the soft silt with a muffled thump.

A small cloud rose on my landing, moving ever so slowly and hanging almost suspended in the water. I’d have to move slowly or else it would quickly obscure my vision.

Journey’s headlights flashed through the flooded chamber, showing a murky scene. Broken pipes, and a small coral reef of rust growing on every piece of metal filled the view. There was a sense of loss here, as if the bunker was truely well and dead, and I was only an ant scuttling around the dead remains. I shook the thought out of my head. Low chance as it was for this plan to work out, I had to give it a shot.

Journey scanned the room, overlaying a wireframe in three dimensions, across my visor. That helped me get a much better feel for where I was going.

By the center of the room was a massive concrete pillar, where the capsule had been housed. I could see piping and valves at the base, likely what had controlled the pool inside. Parts of that lay broken and half covered in the silt and rust, clearly the pressure had eventually ruptured the metal pipes at some point. There wasn’t a trace of a current anymore, everything inert.

Above, I could hear the muffled sounds of gunfire as the team continued to fight. Need to be fast about this. I made a round of the room, taking slow steps in order to keep the silt levels down.

Power cell inserts were easy to spot. They jutted from the wall, almost calling attention of anyone passing by. Once I’d made my way to the wall side where they’d been at, I unclipped my cells and got to work. The two replacement cells sank through the water and hit the floor with a muffled thud.

A layer of red rust-like crystal had formed, covering the panel over in a blanket. I gave an experimental tug and the whole thing snapped off easily, lifting and revealing a more well preserved system behind. Step one, going good so far.

With all visible obstructions removed, the wall panel should be accessible now. The maintenance lever was right by this wall access and I wrenched that down. The clicking sound of metal pushing on itself snapped through the water, making it sound like the walls themselves were crumpling bit by bit. I powered through and continued to push.

The wall opened up halfway before the lever suddenly snapped and lost contact with gearing. That left me with a broken handle in my hand. Not good. But not the end of the road either. All of this was purely mechanical gearing. So long as the power cells connected to the assembly, power should flow. Cells could certainly work submerged underwater so long as there weren’t leaks. Quite a lot of lost tech had no issues working in a vaccum, freezing temperatures, or completely underwater.

The big question was if the machinery on the other side of the wall still functioned, or if that side had also flooded. While lost tech was impervious by its nature, the majority of tech here was from the third or early fourth era, same as back home. That part will surely fail if exposed to water for long enough.

The doors on the sides of this level were all closed, which gave me some hope that the water hadn't managed to overflow anywhere in the lower levels. The upper floor were crew oriented, kitchen, bedding, command and control - not a huge loss to have water up to the ankles up there.

If the doors down here hadn't held off the water, there was little chance of anything working. But if it had…

I reached out a gauntlet and grabbed hold of the halfway opened wall panel and then pushed down. Since the lever had snapped off, I'd have to negotiate with this plate of metal more personally.

It groaned for a second and then cut free as the gearing sheared away inside. That covering was never going to be put back in its place after this. Still fine, cover panels were mostly for crew safety and to keep the cells from being hit by anything. Not technically critical, and there isn't any more crew that would be walking underwater here for the forseeable future.

From here, the panel exposed six slots for power cells. Four more than I had brought with me. I swore in my helmet. Now this here could be an issue.

Well, two were brought down so two would have to do. Assuming the machinery still worked somewhere.

I twisted the old empty power cells free and lifted them out of their canisters. As I pulled them out, water was sucked inside, filling the void. The new water current caused was clearly visible from the floating specks illuminated by my headlights.

I unceremoniously dropped the old cells through the water, letting them float down to the ground and bury themselves slightly into the silt layer. Normally empty cells were just as valuable as filled ones, as far as it concerned surface dwellers. I was handling a small fortune here. Two days ago I would have considered this expedition a major success if I could bring six of these empty cells back home with me. Right now, I was more than happy to just make it back home at all.

Making haste, the replacement cells didn’t have any issue fitting into the cell inserts, or the relic armor's sheer strength ground out any built up sediment or rust in the way without my notice. I’d have to hope that debris didn’t impede the power connection. Just as the cell chambers had sucked water in as I'd extracted the old cells out, they now pushed the water out as the new cells made their way inside. I saw specs of rust and debris get swept out into the open water as Journey pistoned the cells into alignment. With a final twist, I locked the first into place and held my breath. I could see the glowing gold-green liquid inside the power cell slowly get sucked inside the system, leaving the cell bit by bit.

Nothing happened.

But only for a moment.

The lights turned on a second later, illuminating the murky water. Flashing a few times on and off before settling on fully powered. Holy scrapshit raining from above, the long shot had paid off.

Giddy, I quickly locked in the second power cell and then gave the whole wall assembly a satisfied pat. Both cells were rapidly draining into the system now.

Looks like the guts of this bunker hadn’t been flooded, the door seals of this room had done their job as designed. The bunker architects must be rolling proud in their graves right about now.

“It all still works! Need four more cells down here asap!”

Silence. And then Journey chimed in. “Comms unavailable due to structure dampening.”

Right. This place jams communication. Dumb of me. I’ve got to go back and physically relay the news.

I was half expecting the ladder to snap off, given the weight of relic armor when I got back to it, but luck was with me here. On pulling myself out of the water, and back onto level ground, I saw Kidra had made her way into the center room. She came to a quick stop, holding the side of the wall to keep herself steady. “Atius sent me to assist. The lights have turned back, as well as a few consoles. However, the rest of the bunker remains offline. Anything I can help with?”

“Two cells weren’t enough, need a full six for this bunker." I said, pushing myself off my knee and out of the ladder hole. "But it's possible we don't need the other four. If I’m right, the last thing to go out are the defenses and life support systems. So the first thing to come back would be those. Still remember how to use turrets?”

She nodded, looking around the room for a possible console that still worked. We both found it at the same time. Easy really, since there were only three screens that had lit back up in this dead site.

One of them was ventilation and life support systems, as I’d expected. Which all showed red across the board. Another was a basic structural integrity and damage report. That one showed a more promising mix of green, grey and red. Mostly grey below ground, though the above ground portion looked intact.

The last console on the other side showed turret icons. In beautiful, wondrous green.

Kidra made a direct path to that console, she’d be the one with more experience on using defense systems back at the colony. I wasn't a slouch, but she was the clear better choice when it came to anything that could punch a hole into someone. She tapped a few buttons, navigating through the UI, then swore. “Auto targeting systems are offline. Server that was storing those isn’t connecting to the mainframe.”

“Too good to expect everything hadn’t gone untouched by the flooding. Any way to make it work?”

“Manual control.” She replied, typing out commands and reading the interface displays. “We’d need to get more consoles online so that more than one turret can be used simultaneously. There’s twelve on each side of the bunker in total. But I can only control one at a time. This isn’t good.”

No kidding. Time to cheat.

“Journey, any way to re-create a targeting software?”

“Negative.” It said, ruining my fun. “No template exists that can be modified to fit this architecture.”

“What, you can’t create something from scratch?”

I was sure Journey could create things wholesale. This screamed like a restriction of some kind.

“Synthetic programming module may not modify code outside pre-defined templates.”

“Let me take a wild guess. Another security issue?”

“Unknown. No reasoning was given.”

Too niche of a use maybe? People from Journey’s era probably had separate systems dedicated to generating programs for them then, or they never needed the armors to have such a feature? Focus. Not worth thinking about right now. Job to do.

“What have we got left to work with, Kidra?” I asked.

She kept her gaze on the console, opening up logs and system prompts with quick and practiced movements. “I don’t see any backup software. I'll take control of one turret on our side and use it to help thin out the enemy. If I find a way to get more online, I'll do what I can.”

“If we bring more cells, can we power the rest of the consoles?”

Her helmet tipped down, looking at the keyboard now. Thinking. “I don’t think the other screens here are turret emplacements. This console wasn’t built to be a manual override. More a central hub to command all of them. I would expect additional turret controls closer to each specific turret.”

It rubbed me raw that this brief excursion only ended up in semi-success. Had to take what we got, though. I drew out the rifle and Journey’s spirit ate any remaining water inside it without prompting.

Windrunner caught sight of me first on my return. “How’d the turret plan go?” He asked.

I gave him the quick brief and to the rest of the fireteam as well while I took my place on the firing lines.

"Better than I hoped." The knight said. "It could have been all for nothing at the worst."

Ironreach scoffed. "Did you see the size of the turrets, ye daft buckethead? I did. Got a good look at the buggers earlier. I don't think they fire small caliber shots, let me tell you. I'm thinking one turret is going to pay back more than just snow."

Above, I could hear mechanical whining and then deep grinding thuds as one of the turrets on this side rumbled awake. Right on cue.

Then it fired and the world exploded into color and sound.

Ironreach chuckled, watching the result. "Should have taken that bet. Fuck me. I'd have made off like a raider."

On seeing the destruction unleashed, I was a lot more satisfied with my actions in hindsight. Simple reason for that: The turret’s ammunition was explosive.

They didn't fire a few hundred rounds a minute, more single shot fire at a steady pace. The small explosions was shredding into the screamers and blowing them into pieces on impact. The machines couldn’t dodge these shots; Kidra was aiming at their feet, having already gotten a handle on the best way to use these turrets. The designers had picked the right ammunition for the right job.

A minute later, it got even better. Mechanical whirling sounds above me intensified, and then the entire surrounding was lit up in turret fire.

Kidra had figured out a way to command all twelve turrets on our side at the same time. It was a scene of fireworks outside now.

With the full bunker defenses online, the screamers were being whittled away far faster than more could show up. Even parts of the mite buildings were being chewed into.

“You see that Windrunner? My kind of music right there.” Ironreach noted, now only taking cleaning shots to break down whatever the turrets had left crippled.

"Stay focused." The shadowsong prime added in, putting down the chatter. "We're still in danger and there are civilians here without relic armor. No situation is safe enough to put our guard down."

The sound of splashing and footfalls behind us prompted me to glance behind thinking the machines had made it through. Instead, it was Atius, jogging up to the group.

He grabbed the side of my shoulder and leaned down to look through the weapon slit behind me. Scanning through the battlefield, silently updating his plan. “Your ideas paid off, lad. Excellent work. These turrets could cover our retreat in full even, we might be able to make a break for it all together. Far higher chance of success.”

“That’s all Kidra, my lord.” I said. “We only managed to get one working manually when I left. She must have found a workaround.”

“Are we abandoning the previous plan?” One of the knights asked.

The clan lord nodded. “We are, depending on if these turrets can remain active. Faster we get moving, the less time the machines have to swarm in. They have an infinite army, only they require time to muster it all here. We get past that blast door and it won’t matter how many machines they send at us, we’ll be home free and laughing the whole way, lads.” He turned to me, pointing away, back into the heart of the bunker. “Let's go get your sister, find out what she did and see if she can make her way here or if I need to take her place.”

Didn’t have to be told twice, and once more I was backtracking through the flooded bunker with Atius right at my side. This place was growing on me, already starting to get a hang of where everything was. If I had a bit more time, I might even pin up a wallpaper and see about which bunk bed was still in one piece.

Kidra found us halfway back. She looked panicked almost, having clearly rushed her own way through to here. “Winterscar did something.” She said the very moment she came into view, “Now there’s some sort of glowing sigil on the console. Do you know anything about this? Anything at all?”

"Glowing sigil?" Atius asked, intrigued.

“Winterscar’s spirit flew down on a metal part of the console and consumed parts of it to form a symbol of some kind. It looked like two spirals, with decorations on the side of each, my lord. Then that whole assembly glowed blue and the turrets all started firing.”

“So you weren't behind getting all the turrets?” I asked.

"No, that's something Winterscar did. I swear it by all the gods in orbit. Except the armor isn't answering when I ask it, it's only stating it was a security breach."

I was torn between going back to figure out what the gods happened, or the priority to evacuate.

Atius made the choice for me. “We don’t have time to investigate, lass. The video logs will have to do. I grieve with you about Tenisent, and anything that could involve his hand is something I would wish to investigate as well. However, it's more critical that we make an exit.” He turned, water swirling away at his feet.

Kidra understood. Whatever had happened, we’ll have to figure it out once we’re topside. For now, we had to thank our good fortune and make a break for it.

That didn’t mean I couldn’t shake the ominous feeling in the back of my mind. Occult scrapshit, like Atius had already determined, this was definitely Father. He’d done something.

The whole way back, I almost expected Winterscar to glow again, or otherwise take control from Kidra out of nowhere. Nothing of the kind happened. The armor continued to behave and react exactly as expected of relic armor. If I had more time, I would be interrogating that armor for answers.

Back at the firing line, the front doors were ready to open on command. From what little I could see, the entrance plaza was littered with machine fragments and small craters with rubble all over the place. Some of the turrets had stopped firing, likely from lack of targets.

“This is it then." Atius said. "Windrunner, open the gate. Shadowsongs, grab your whelps of the sled. We’re sprinting at full speed the moment the door’s open.”

The knights worked as a team, unlocking the door and pushing it open. Within the first sliver of the outside view through the fortress entrance, I could see the massive blast door in the distance. Towering above the mite buildings, like the gates to another world. A sprint away to be sure, but reachable.

The Shadowsongs took both Calem and Ankah on their backs, and then charged into the door, adding their weight and power. In moments, the heavy bunker barrier had swung clear open and we had room to shuffle through.

"Knights!" Atius roared out, "Full speed, stop for nothing! Cut down anything in the way!"

The group didn’t waste a second. A Deathless, six relic knights, two scrappers and a hoversled filled with power cells rocketed out of the bunker at full speed. The ground blurred under us as all of us pushed the relic armors to their max. Kidra and I began to lag behind, simply not trained for a perfect sprint. The Shadowsongs stayed slightly ahead, also unable to keep a full speed with their hands holding onto the pair of scavengers.

Our group formed an almost unspoken formation, with Atius leading the charge at the front, followed by Windrunner and Ironreach at both his sides.

The blast door wasn’t in a direct line of sight, but it was close enough and large enough to spot above the mite buildings. It looked like a cathedral entrance, filled with inscribed decorations I couldn’t make out from this distance.

All around us, machine parts littered the street. A drake up ahead peeked around the corner, only to have two separate explosive rounds from the bunker turrets fly over us and strike it from far beyond the range of our own rifles.

The unfortunate drake collapsed, head reeling back and splintering into pieces while the decapitated body slumped limply into the ground.

Screamers emerged from what looked like a sewer grate and were just as quickly targeted and dispatched by the deadly turrets, taking out chunks of the road itself.

We were going to make it. A few hundred meters and we could already see the street turn into a large plaza that must connect with the destination.

And then, with a deep rumbling sound, the blast doors began to slowly close.

“Weapons out.” Atius called out, drawing out his occult blade. “We’ll be taking a right in the plaza up ahead. The turrets won’t have us on visual after that. If the doors have started closing, that means the enemy must have gotten there first and begun the process. Windrunner, Ironreach, speed up and help me clear out the path for the others.”

I knew what he meant. The bunker had done its part. Now the rest of the machines that came between us and the door were going to be up to us.

We raced into the plaza and ran to the right, approaching a massive set of steps that lead up to the door.

The blast doors were even more massive up close. If I had thought the doors looked like a cathedral of old, this view solidified the idea. It nestled deep into the cavern walls of this metal city, the wide plaza accepting all paths into the gently sloping steps.

I expected to run into an army between us and the door. Instead, only one lone target stepped out of the closing doorway.

He held a spear with a lazy grip on one hand. Stark white hair, short on top with a long braid at the back. A jawline covered in ceramic white, angled. Black lines split parts of his face, almost like war paint. What gave him away were the glowing violet eyes, watching us with befuddled amusement.

The man in white flicked his spear out to the side. As if he had silently sent an order with the motion, the blast door froze in its tracks, grinding to a halt. Only a crack remained, enough for three knights to fit through side by side. Left almost like a challange to us.

Atius slowed from his frantic sprint, back into a jog and then a full stop at the base of the steps. The rest of the team filled out behind him. We got a longer, more critical view of this new opponent.

The man had a loose relationship with armor. His right shoulder-pad wasn’t really armor at all, but one massive and narrow triangle-like shield. A tip going far past his shoulder.

His chest and legs were only partially covered, with the rest of his body on display, sculpted like marble. Black cape-like cloth draped over his left shoulder, obscuring the entire arm while his right held that spear. Somehow the spear didn’t seem to be hindered by the shield shoulder-pad he wore. In fact, that shoulder pad didn't seem connected to him at all on second look, instead floating a few inches away.

That wasn't the only part that floated. Above him, a massive ring spun slightly off tilt, like a metal halo. Glowing violet on the outer edges of the spikes.

All put together, he stood at the top of those stone steps with the aura of a monarch. As if the world was beneath him. Like a god that had descended from the mountaintops to deal with the rats that scurried under. Atius was right. There was no doubt about who - or what - this was.

The champion of the machines. The last barrier between us and the surface.

“Going somewhere?” The Feather calmly asked.