Flowered Metal

///: Marlon

… Sometime later that night…

Sargent Marlon kept to his table. His bored gaze aimed down into the evening lit bailey, away from the rowdy room full of equally bored and energy-filled young men. Of course, it was a ticking time bomb of male-domination games and other equally hazardous socializing, but Marlion kept out of it. His own men did too. Rather, they were slightly entertained by the untrained soldiers fresh from their mother’s wombs attempted to show who was more manlier.

He, however, was tired. Plagued with the night’s terrors, he opted to nurse his end of shift ale. The torchlight illuminating the room help starved it off. Being around the rowdy soldiers helped.

His peaceful evening was disrupted as he briefly heard yells from the Fort’s watch towers. The wicket was thrown open by the doorguard and several guards poured through. They struggled against what appeared to be a fierce beastwoman who’d been bond and gagged. It didn’t stop the beastwoman from kicking and headbudding. From the state of the soldiers – and Rangers from the looks of it – she had put up quite the hell of a fight the entire way. One disheveled ranger pulled from the group to speak to the gatekeeper. A brief exchange ensured. A moment later, a single long horn blast echoed throughout the fort.

Next he knew, the Sargent and his men were halfway down the stairs before the fresh soldiers could react. He didn’t bother to yell at them. Not his problem. Marlon had exited the cafeteria before he hard the barking of orders from their own officers. He would have his own yelling to listen to in a moment

As if being summoned by his thoughts, the Lt. General appeared out of the main building followed by Marlon’s superior and several other officers. “What’s the racket?!”

“Lt. General!” The group who arrived spared no salutes as they struggled with the girl. She was breathing heavily, broken only by small growls of defiance. “4th Ranger Division, Emerald Squad - We managed to capture one of the Savages, but we took casualties!”

The Lt. General nodded before he looked to Marlon as he was the closest. “Take the girl, throw her in the dungeon. Inform the Dungeon Master I want any information he can pull from her immediately.”

Marlon took the girl, but nearly was flipped over by an explosive fit as she used that moment to kick upward with surprising speed and power. But he didnt let go. Her held onto her forearm which saved him as it forced the beastwoman into an awkward position when she tried to introduce her knee with his nose. Off centered by being tugged, it clipped his cheek. She was about to try another attack but shuddered as lightening struck her back.

The Sargent hissed as he pounced on the twitching savage. His cheek burning as he ordered for more rope to be brought. Once he and several other soldiers had her pinned down, he looked to where magic came from. It was a young light-skinned girl no older than twenty. She wore a Magi Corps uniform, signifying her part of a new magic unit he heard they were putting together halfway through the war.

“Best you boys hold her down.” She hummed as she pointed what looked to be a shaped thin wooden device upward. “Beastpeople are vicious.”

“Thank you, Mage Alberta,” One of the officers in the Lt. General’s entourage said.

“No worries. Just thought it’d be nice to try out the new limiters we installed on the Aimers.” The mage replied. “Works beautifully if I say so myself.”

The officer nodded. “Seems so.”

By the time the two nonchalantly, and quite infuriatingly, finished their conversation while giving them a condescending look; Marlon and his men hog-tied the girl, then carried her off towards the dungeon.

Later that night, Marlon found himself outside the Adventurer Guild. The people the building was dedicated to servicing were celebrating some sort of milestone or something. They were loud and drunk mostly. The Army’s warning regarding a possible impending attack upon the town unheeded by their revelry. Drunkards stumbled out with their plus ones or by themselves before disappearing somewhere he didnt care to notice.

Marlon himself had just stopped here as his twenty men were incharge of the square. As small and run down as it was for a backwater town. Still, the entire town had been bolstered with the entirety of Eagle Fort’s forces deployed. He just hoped it wasn’t for naught since that meant they would be pulling double duties get their schedules corrected. That was when he found himself a good distraction as duo of mages walked towards him. Well, they were just passing by.

Nonetheless…

“Hey, mages.” The Sargent called out. The mages stopped and turned, annoyed for being bothered. “Those… Aimers, right? What are they?”

That caught their attention as they expressions brightened with delight as they gathered around him.

“Ah, yes! Our aimers are the product of the Imperial Academy’s newest invention!” One of them said. “We are the first graduating class to be requiped with them. Well, if you wish to be technical, they were invented midway through the war, but had to be altered several times due to manufacturing—-”

The two mages went on to explain that the Aimers were fashioned after crossbows, but without the arms jutting out.

An artificial mana-crystal was loaded into a chamber which allowed them to fire off a single spell. They would then have to eject the spent crystal before loading a new one. When the earlier incident was mentioned, they explained further that they had three different types. Stun spells, lightening. Offensive, Fire, and support, healing spells. All of them had an effective range of almost 100ft. Which they bragged that was probably why the Kingdom gave up.

They allowed Marlon to hold an unchambered Aimer. It was bulky, and unwieldy as it was like holding a polished plank of cut wood. Odd.

One of the mages stepped away to speak to another group of mages on horse back. The one who owned the Aimer stayed and talked to him about how it was manufactured. Truely a piece of a new age, Marlon thought.

BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-

Marlon found himself throw to the ground and the mage atop him as if dead weight. The Aimer pinched between the two men. Muffled screams filled his ears just as his body was able to register the heat of the explosion that had thrown the two. His head felt empty, yet too full as he struggled to regain his vision. The mage atop of him did not help in –

“Sarg!” He head the distant voice of Ackers, one of the soldiers he was with at the moment.

The mage disappeared off him. He then felt himself be dragged up the rough steps of the Guild before the night sky disappeared. For a moment, he could make out a dark shape of something large and long with the beating of thousands of wyvern wings. Dust quickly filled the air before he felt himself pulled up.

“Sarg!” Acker shook him, brining him back to reality.

They were in the Adventurer Guild now. Adventurers and staff present had scattered, with the brave half out the day. The cautious had taken up weak defensive positions in their drunken state and the scared had already disappeared, or hidden. Next to Marlon was the mage he’d been talking to. The other mage appeared to have dragged him inside along with Acker pulling him. She looked injured and held her Aimer with shaking hands.

She shook her companion gentle. “Jake, g-get up! You need to get you Aimer!”

He didn’t move. With the amount of blood pooling on the flood around him.

Acker leaned in. “Whatever hit us, he took all of that hit. Thank god we have minimally enchanted armor…”

Marlon nodded before his attention turned to the sudden pops just outside. Screams filled the air as he reached down and pulled the dead mage’s ammo belt off. His companion tried to stop him but Acker pulled her back, assuring her that her friend would no longer need it. Marlon loaded a red crystal clumsily with the help of the female mage. She seemed to snap out of her delusions when the windows around them were shattered by whatever magic the attackers were using. Or was it physical weapons…?

He didnt have the time to figure it out as some strange metal golems pushed through the doorway. Strange metal objects in their hands that barked fire and thunder.

One turned on them.

It dropped as the female mage’s Aimer popped forth an almost beam-like fire that punched the golem’s head at an angle. Its body twisted from the force and crumbled. The head of it half-melted. Another one turned towards them as she deftly loaded another crystal. Marlon aimed and fired, his shot off target and slammed into the golem’s weapon instead. Its protruding end exploded into slag. The golem did not discard it, but continued to point it and it barked fire, thunder, and bits of slag.

Acker intercepted its projectiles and slammed his sword into the golem’s eye. Followed by the Adventurers pushing back, overwhelming the small golem squad as spells returned their opening party favors.

Marlon had loaded another one while Acker slowly slumped over. His query’s head sparked, twitched, but stood still. No movement so thus Marlon assumed whatever mana core that powered it broken.

He thus shifted the Aimer towards another Golem that killed an acher on the second floor. This target had been stole from him by a large iron clad adventurer with a large unwieldy axe. His large armor rippled with glowing ornate engravings that he took as wasteful extravagance was truthfully enhancements. Sparks flew off the man’s armor, or more likely, a shielding as each spark came from a semi-translucent field that was only visible at the point of impact.

Marlon focused on another beyond the tanking man, but he took swung his axe around onehanded, crushing it down to its midriff.

His armor flickered and the lines went dark. That was when several sparks scratched his armor. He fliched and let out a roar. In response, a blue translucent bubble engulfed him but not before several holes appeared in his side. He staggered as a green aura appeared wrapped around him within the bubble. He had support mages.

Marlon pulled his head back into the fight and turned his attention to the last remaining golems, 2, and fired the right one as it focused on the Tank. It missed as it took a step aside. Instead of returning fire, it and the remaining one turned heel and sprinted out the door. Marlon did not give chase, and instead moved inward to check on the survivors..

BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-

The wall explored, sending fragments of wood and glass inward. He felt the heat splash against his back before the debris. By then, he was already falling when Marlon felt his body’s ertia accelerate forward. He was halfway across the lobby when registered the yellow shine that enveloped him.

He fell to the floor, slid on his breastplate and came to a stop where three robed women stopped him. One of them was covered in blood, the second was a smaller mouse-like human and the last was half-man woman – a Dwarf. The Dwarf single handedly flipped him as the mousy woman held a wand that glowed green. The other looked a sickly pale as she sat back out of breath.

“I got you boy!” The dwarf roared. “Focus that fancy wand on the –”

Another chain of explosions hit the building’s front face. More dust rolled in. The building creaked and groaned as smaller pops like that of the weapons those golems guns sounded from outside. Orange beams of light cut through the smoke for three seconds. It was then that the ceiling caved in, snuffing out all light as the dust rolled over them all.

///: Opal

… Operation NightCat …

An critical alert coursed through Opal’s now segmented part of the system. Reaper-1 had alerted her of that the VIP had been located and now it was team to prepare the rescue operation. Though, she felt off-center.

Because she was.

No longer was she alone within this colossal beached ship. Despite her run time under a year of operational service, it had been ages to her in terms of computers. She operated in milliseconds rather than seconds. Compounded, a rut had been left in her wake. Balanced upon the scales as the sole crewmember of the Omega. With Oynx’s creation earlier, they both stood on opposite ends of the scales. Balance had been reestablished. Trust could be had between the two, for it was one of leader and follower.

Thus, now they had partitioned off themselves from each other at the kernel level. Well. Opal was. Onyx still had failsafes within him that would ensure destruction should he become AWOL or fall into rampancy.

Shifting her full attention to the situation…

Syfa had finally been spotted. Reaper-1 had confirmed visual of her restrained and in the process of being transported into the human town south of them. While Opal had been ready to raze the town earlier, the passage of time had allowed cooler RAMs to process the situation. Since her location is known and thus re-registered her as a POW now, that opened up several different avenues for her.

New Stratagies were on the metaphorical table, and Opal now saw the fallacy she had fallen into all this time.

Her creators had assumed wrongly that she had information at her beck and call. That she always knew. No, she had the power of near-instant queries near-perfectly keyed files that allowed her to operate. The AI then had began to log the files in her RAM to save herself 1-3 seconds of searching for particular files. At the helm of a massive colony ship… That approach was untenable.

As distasteful as it was to admit, she had been drowning in the data.

With Onyx now helming Homeplate, Opal could force purely on force projection. What she was designed for.

Several upgrades to network protocols and receivers had been made. Their only remaining Heavy Walker had been retrofitted into a Mobile Quick Deploy Network Tower. This removed their only Artillery unit off the board, but that was the trade off to extending her range. It would have to do. Given that Opal and a handful of frames seemed capable of dealing with their powerful ranged united, she didn’t see it as too much of a risk.

—------------------------------------------

OPERATION NIGHTCAT ROSTER

1 IFV WALKER

1 MODIFIED HEAVY WALKER (COMMUNICATIONS)

2 REAPER UAV

30 LIGHT FRAMES

1 Seaking

1 Commanche UAV

SUPPORT

40 Modified Spyders

—--------------------------------------------

Opal delegated 1/8th her forces to this offensive. The rest would stay on high alert, ready for enemies who see this as an opportunity to strike. Entirely leaving the the base within Oynx’s control. An side of this that worried her greatly. Trust was not a thing Warminds did. Contingencies built upon contingencies were their protocols. Webs of countermeasures,failsafes, and threat mitigations were their operating procedure. Alas, Opal hadn’t… Actually built out her web.

There had been no need to given that she sat in a low-threat environment. At least, low threat to her. She’d no encounters with the storied monsters – something Syfa had mentioned was due to the unmarked boundaries drawn by generations past. A boundary Opal stay neatly within.

Opal had considered the possibility that this would have become an issue, from the monster side, but it turned out that the humans of this world were her biggest threat… Something she was made to handle… And failed to do so. This very operation could objectively be seen as the opening shots of a hot war with the Empire. Unlike previous, where Opal simply entered a state that the beastpeople called “Sleeping Dragon”; the AI would become the very real “Dragon”, that is to say a large threat.

Now, should the Empire simply back down from here, Opal would return to her previous status with additional work. Build out the base, or relocation it. She had grown complacent… And as hard as it was to admit… the AI had grown fond of this Valley.

She turned her attention to the issue at hard, rather than thinking herself in circles.

The AI did a final visual confirmation on her ariel forces’ readiness, and commenced Operation NightCat.

The modified Seaking took off in tandem with the attack helicopter. Reapers were on sight, and the RadioWalker was already halfway to its rally point. Both it and the IFV had been stationed a mile down the road from the town. Both would push together up the road before the RW would set up shop just out of view in the forest. The IFV would push up enough that it would remain in a minute reaction time to the tower, but have clear firing lines onto the front of the town to act once against as defacto artillery. Being as that may, because of its nature, it meant that all targets would have to be hit from the side rather than above.

It would have to do

Operation NightCat commenced as the Commanche dove slightly from its high-alt before it leveled out to streak over the town. Its cannon barked as it made a small Z-formation that translated into a longer, rougher Z on the ground. The main plaza had been the target where Opal had identified a large institution that seemed to be the operating point for the mercenaries that had been harassing her. They were a larger force than the standing military housed in the town by a mile, but seemed to be self-motivated with greed and adventure. Her opening shots to the attack was to diswade this group from entering the fray.

Seaking-1 dove in 30 seconds after, allowing Reaper 1 and 2 to strike two smaller satellite buildings that housed different, but equally powerful entities.

As it leveled, it deposited its pods in two long staggered columns that overlapped the rear of inner wall of the tower. It was not Opal’s intention to do this, and had miscalculated the trajectories due to them housing additional payloads. How this would pan out would depend entirely on the enemy’s reaction.

Radiowalker pinged her, and she saw she had full bar connection on the 3G band. It approximated a 5 hour life span before BINGO would be hit. 4 and 5 gs could’ve been deployed, but they would have cut the life down by 1 and 2 hours respectively. A 5h window was more than enough for what was going to happen, and allowed for an latency to just barely be within the acceptable window.

As the Commanche passed over their rears, it unleashed another Z into what was their construction camp for their otherwalls before it flew out over the forest to circle back.

The IFV fired on the front-outer layer towers, destroying them as them came into view. From there, it picked out what it identified as possible weak point in the hastily constructed wall and brought it down in sections. An entire magazine had been used up before Opal had to manually force it to switch to its secondary guns. Opal wanted to delve in to see why it had gone beyond its parameters, but was quickly pulled away as distress pings hit her from the Frames in the town.

While the Commache was in the process of circling back, the Frames closest to the first target had began their assault. Several frames were offline in what Opal had registered as some form of energy rifles were being used against them. This made Opal panic and pull the frames out of the building. The Commanche entered range and she ordered it for full effect on the building. Several missiles and its cannons targeted the building. It came down after several seconds.

Opal would have to retrieve the downed frames upon retreat later.

The frames regrouped, with the ones at the rear of the town having demolished the rear gate with under heavy resistance. While no frames were lost, they were taking heavy damage from what appeared to be augmented humans – or most likely magically reinforced humans. Before any frames could be lost on the open ground, they were able to retreat into the town. It appeared that Opal would have to redesign their attack protocols around these new threats.

The additional payload popped out of the pods as well, revealing stripped down, all black Sypders that spread out amongst the town to find Syfa; while the frames made their way towards the town’s Fort. The humans inside were already on high alert, and were reacting by sending out more troops to head towards the initial attack point. Something Opal predicted was a low-chance of happening, yet hoped would. And it did.

Her frames clashed with the reinforcements in the streets. From the Reapers point of view, it meant dark streets flashed with gunfire, opposing the torchlight that marked the enemies easily enough. And only once that the frames reached the Fort’s gates did the IFV push up as it lay dormant for more enemies to attempt to get at it.

It thumped forward, its servos whined deeply as its secondaries scanned forward and its cannon pointed towards the north-facing walls of the Fort. Resistance was immediately met as the more smarter infantry units had hidden themselves. The IFV opened fired on several fast moving humans which it failed to hit while its main cannon opened on the wall, splashing it with APFSD-T rounds it switched to. It was highly effective as it tore through the stony walls.

So much so that Opal had to cease its volly as to not accidentally kill their VIP. The volley would commence once the VIP had been extracted from the complex.

Reaper-1 emptied its remaining payloads into the most occupied towers on the wall before it stepped back to an observational roll for Opal. Reaper-2 had two more missiles in reserve for further surprises that may arise. Thus, Reaper kept an eye on the battle around the Fort, but Reaper-1 scanned the town. The AI kept track with an overlay where all her units were. Her babies had already scoured the entire easter half of the town, which appeared to have already slipped into base using damaged portions.

Now, they were looking for Syfa’s exact position.

As the frames reached the street on which the entrance to it was, it had already been closed and barred. An event that was easily surpassed as the frames moved to the minimum distance to not be destroy. Danger close ping went out, and Reaper-2 fired upon it with a Hellfire missile. It was hit, and exploded inward sending smoke and shards around the courtyard of the fort. The horses within had begun to rampage in fear as gunfire erupted within.

Weapons Free ping had gone out, excluding their VIP of course.

The soldiers closest to the door had tried to collect themselves, but immediately executed as the frames poured in. Several frames were destroyed as more of the energy weapons appeared. Return fire immediately put them out of the fight. 6 frames were lost before that happened however.

Several Sypders had sent out a VIP Distress call, alongside a Medical Extract RED. Syfa had been harmed, and not by the AI.

This stilled all the units on the field before they fought with a more vicious edge. They pushed harder, they no longer checked their targets to make sure they were even soldiers. Everything within the Fort would die tonight. Everything.

Without orders, the IFV pushed forward under the heavy resistence. The fast soldiers proved to be skilled and deadly warriors that had managed to cut one of its secondary weapons in half and disable its left rear leg. They retreated from the IFV as it had switched to HE in its cannons and began splashing the ground. However, it had to continually do so to keep them at a distance now. Radiowalker had reported an all clear, but had reported back to Onyx for support as it registered the IFV was in distress.

Opal was growing frustrated as her units began to act out on their own, removing a level of control from the AI it was not used to.

Onyx, to his credit, did not mock nor inquire, but instead began to send frames out with an ETA Of 10 minutes as they ran at full speed through the forest. Opal had already mapped the forest, and they had used it to plan out their fastest route to run at full speed of 60mph. This would deplete their batteries down below BINGO levels, but it would be enough to sustain combat for 20 minutes once they reached the outer parameter of the town.

The frames moved as a whole and secured the building Syfa was held in. They cleared every level, marking a three high-level looking dead. With Opal’s direction, they plundered what looked to be important documents and magical devices from the offices which impaired 4 units to carry them in small crates.

At this point in the battle, most of the combatants had been killed, which allowed the frames to break into bloodied cell to find whe Sypders and a mutilated Syfa… They had cut off one leg and arm. From the parts segmented on the table next to her, it had not been a fast or painless procedure, confirming she had been tortured. The beastgirl only looked up weakly, and with a distant stare that enraged the AI. Sadly, Opal’s rage had to be stilled as the frames broke her bounds and pulled her out of the room that seem only illuminated by the head-mounted lights on the robots.

Onyx had joined the fray at this point silently as his frames took up positions in the forest and began firing upon anything that moved. He saw what she saw, and she felt a digital hand on her shoulder. Foreign, yet comforting as she kept 1 frame’s camera her injured friend…

The IFV had parked its rear up against the opening in the wall it had created. Frames secured the extraction point and found three injured mages. Before they could be executed, Opal had them captured and brought along with Syfa. Her friend appeared to have been treated before their assault as two frames checked her over, so Opal would not stress over missing that no medical frames were present.

Captives and VIP secured within the cabin of the damaged IFV, the hatch was closed. Six frames stayed inside on the captives alongside the downed frames. The rest formed a staggered mutli-layer circle around it and they moved forward. No further attacks were met from the town, and the northern road checkpoint had been subdued. On Reaper-1, no movement could be detected on their path and surroundings.

Once they passed the parameter, regrouping with Radiowalker before they stopped to assess their damage Opal turned the Commanche back on the center of town were the unrecovered frames still lay. They had to be destroyed.

Reaper-2 joined with its remaining missile and both of them moved to the town’s center.

Humans were in the process of rescue efforts and were pulling people out of the ruins. Several soldiers similer to the ones who kidnapped Syfa were also there. They had already pulled one damaged frame out and were examining it while the residents pulled the injured out.

As a sign of what she was targeting, the Commache turned on its spotlights and pointed it down over the area where the frames were. Aside from the soldiers, everyone began to scattered for a moment before they formed groups and threw up what appeared to be magical bubbles to shield themselves. The soldiers appeared to have pulled out their energy rifles and began firing on the helicopter. Opal unloaded the cannon on it alongside the last missile.

After 30 seconds, the cannon was empty and Reaper-2 confirmed they had succeeded in their objective. Both near BINGO, they did not stay to watch the show.