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The sun bore down, but only one of them. It would be dark in a few hours, and then the Gesshru would all be setting up to sleep. A race who’s night vision was even worse than that of a human’s, far too well adapted to their binary star system. All I had with me were my words, and the small child pretending to be a candy. \n\nWas it bad to say that Orchi had long ago lost her flavor? Now so slick with drool she didn’t even taste like rodent. \n\nTaua, in Samoan. Cogadh in Scots Gaelic. Pat in Serbian. Ntoa in Sesotho. Hondo in Shona. Vojna in Slovak. Dagaal in Somali. Guerra in Spanish. Perang in Sundanese. Vita in Swahili. Krig in Swedish. Savas in Turkish. Binha in Ukrainian. Urush in Uzbek. Chien Tranh in Vietnamese. Rhyfel in Welsh. Imfazwe in Xhosa. Orgun in Yoruba. Impi in Zulu. Oorlog in Afrikaans. Lufte in Albanian. Myharibe in Azerbaijani. Gerra in Basque. Banha in Belarusian. Rat in Bosnian. Guerra in Catalan. Gubat in Cebuano. Nkhondo in Chichewa. Valka in Czech. Krig in Danish. Oorlog in Dutch. Milito in Esperanto. Soda in Estonian. Digmaan in Filipino. Sota in Finnish. Guerre in French. Oarloch in Frisian. Kreig in German. \n\nIn the Gesshru common tongue it was a type of squeak followed by rapid tooth gnashing while breathing through the nose for a huffing noise. \n\nFor those speaking english, it was War. \n\nWe three people, the soldier and the weapon with a tiny stowaway, rounded a tall hill of packed sand and dusty red rocks to spot the ruined city of Scando. The tall spires of their coral towers, the equivalent of skyscrapers for these small creatures. It must have taken years, perhaps as much as a decade, for teams upon teams of Gesshru builders to carve and place these buildings. At some point before the war it was a heavily populated and bustling trade city close to the far ports of Cavni lands. I wasn’t around when Scando was overtaken of course, but the fact it was once a prosperous city was obvious to any who glanced upon its buildings. \n\nYet now it was in ruins. \n\nHouses crushed under my feet, the imprint of my armored boots still present in far too many places. The looping towers were snapped in half, most toppled over to block the streets or crumbled to multi-faceted chunks. There were a few that still stood tall. Mostly ones around the southern and eastern edge where survivors weren’t running toward, after all escaping the Gashn forces by trying to reach their front lines wasn’t the most sensible idea. While a number of the smaller buildings remained. \n\nThe city looked lifeless and dead. The streets were silent, the lights were gone, the roads cluttered with trash and dust from windswept sands. Even in this state someone was still trying to claim the city though. \n\nForces from Ontal remained stationed in a crude, makeshift camp just outside the walls. No … a gaze ahead, it was some ten or fifteen yards away, just distant enough to avoid the range of their spear throwers. Seems they did manage to move toward Scando’s ruins while I was trapped in recovery, yet their new base was …\n\nPathetic was the only word I could describe it with. \n\nInstead of the mud foundations and wooden buildings, cheap and fragile as those might have been by my own standards, now they were using simple tents and storage crates as buildings to rest in and parts of the wall. Their fortifications were makeshift, boulders dragged from around the nearby desert, bits of coral carried over and placed into a pile that lined the perimeter. This new base was roughly half the size of the old one and it’s survivors looked beaten, worn and hot and miserable. I could see what weapons they had stacked along the border, pebbles strung together to form uneven lines or mounds from which to duck behind or stand atop. \n\nThe place was better than nothing against ground forces and, for a time at least, might fend off an assault from raiders or maybe a scout group. But they weren’t going to hold out forever. It left me wondering what I was called out here for, perhaps to rebuild the walls? Build up a better fort than what these soldiers could manage? \n\nBut then why didn’t they just use the city itself like they’d planned on all those week ago …\n\n“Home!” Orchi squeaks. \n\nI could feel her in my jaws, crawling forward through slick spittle and across a rough tongue. Her still damp head squeezing between my lips. A tiny little paw extends out to tap against my visor just near a still visible crack. She was pointing at the coral. Pointing at the lifeless remains of a city that my body destroyed. \n\n“You took us home! I knew you could do it maxy, you got us all the way home! I’ll have to show my dad, ohcore he must be so worried about me. HOME!” the child’s happiness was infectious. \n\nBut she was less than a month old. If this was her home … \n\nThere wasn’t much time to ponder the implications when we maneuvered in to get a direct answer. Tasgal positioned me in front of the sun, deliberately making sure that my bulk and armor cast a long shadow over the entire meager compound. Frightened soldiers stopped in their tracks, a few stood up and stared. At least one man, my eyes involuntarily darted toward, picked up his spear thrower and took a defensive position behind a supply crate.\n\nNone of these people could see my face through the helm, and everyone could see where my armor was worn, where damage had scraped away green paint to reveal that shiny silver beneath. But that probably just added to the intimidation factor, leaving them all to wonder just what weapon could crack a Max’s helmet, and how tough must one be to survive such a blow regardless. \n\nDead silence. \n\nUntil one man, different from the last, clambers up onto a bit of coral and speaks through a tiny megaphone. \n\n“This is Kepa Elot, squad commander of the Scando military outpost. With honors, state your name and business.” \n\nThat was Kepa? \n\n… but Tasgal didn’t respond. \n\n“S-sir, um. This is Kepa Elot, squa- …”\n\n“Why is a mere squad commander talking to me.” Tasgal’s voice thunders through my neck, the microphone relaying his every word in an electronic monotone. Not a requirement or a technical deficiency, but a deliberate choice on his part to make the sound more menacing. \n\n“There has been a- …” \n\n“Answer.” Tasgal interrupted. A single word, a simple motion, my foot had already nudged forward and kicked at one of the boulders they had serving as a defense. With the smallest tap it rolls forward easily, feeling remarkably light to my touch. That was the thing though, most of the rocks here were coral after all. \n\n“Commander Galit pwant has died in combat, max unit. As the next highest rank I am to carry out his duties until such a time as proper replacements can be marched over. Sir.” The rodent’s voice was dripping with terror, and yet he carried himself well. His voice wasn’t anything like I remembered it, and disappointingly that left me wondering whether it was a different Kepa than the one I rescued. \n\nI never did catch his last name after all. One more name onto a piled list of many. \n\n“A pity” was all Tasgal said in response. The sheer tension in this air as I stood down a rodent’s playset, piles of tiny pebbles not even as heavy as proper rocks arrayed in this pathetic assembly of a fortress. \n\nSilence fell over every group as Tasgal waited for them to speak, simply allowed the forces ostensibly on his side to bask in their own fear. No one moved. I was almost certain no one breathed. I could hear the faint giggling of Orchi as she found all the distant and terrified faces so very amusing. I closed my lips and sealed her off from the world. Much to the child’s vocal alarm of course, but she was harder to hear when I kept my mouth shut. \n\n“The mission …” evidentially Kepa settled on accepting this lack of an answer, this refusal to even give a name. The commander technically held rank, but everyone in this sand box knew who held true power in this moment. “Is to retake Scando from the surviving easterners. Our previous raids didn’t deter them away from the city as planned, and those who fled our initial Max onslaught simply fortified their position. We were unprepared for an all out war against an entrenched force, and so we require you to spearhead our assault to clean up these natives while you draw the bulk of their fire.” \n\nThough the man explained it calmly, Tasgal curled my hands into a fist. This must be why he didn’t give a name, it was so this commander couldn’t connect the failings of their previous invasion with the Max pilot who performed the attack. After all it’s embarrassing enough to have to clean up your own mess, quite a different thing when people in lower stations are calling you out on it. \n\n“Will that be all.” The electronic voice thundered. This wasn’t a question but a statement, almost daring Kepa to say something more. I could feel my legs tighten and relax as if preparing for a step, and it was hard to tell if this was anger or simple incompetence.\n\nI opened my lips so that Orchi could breathe. \n\n“Y-yes sir, we hope to wait until nightfall when their forces are least effective while the Max unit itself will be perfectly functional. We’ve prepared a number of lightsticks for the event, but we are so low on reserve the makeshift lighting will have to be shared among four squads. Given the number of traps we know the- h-heeeeshaay!?” \n\nKepa’s voice devolved into incoherent babbling squeaks. I only just saw the man try to dive to one side as Tasgal forced my foot forward and down onto his position. Something crunched under my boot, and for the second time I was amazed by how this one poor man has been in danger from my feet for twice in his life now. I honestly couldn’t tell if what cracked was the commander himself or a bit of coral, or even the weapon that man carried. \n\nMy feet ground into the dirt, twisting without much care, and then simply stepped forward. Directly through the compound while tapping aside boulders with my toes, rending apart their little cloth tents and upturned sticks. I heard screaming, I saw many abandon the walls and turn away in terror. And then just like that my body was on the other side of this little forward and continuing toward Scando itself. \n\nHe didn’t look back.\n\nIt was obvious Tasgal didn’t care, and in the glaring sunlight he strode confidently toward a once proud and glistening city. The remains of what used to be a thick and bustling trade rout were wide enough even for my stride, and open roads meant for four lanes of wheeled carts easily accommodated me. \n\nMy movement was stuttered and awkward, but it never slowed. An intimidating, relentless march through ruins and crumbled coral. To those of age who survived, some might might be watching this was the return of a monster. Their boogieman coming from the ancient past to once more enforce Gashn rule. To those of a younger age, Orchi counted among them, this was the realization that those horrors of myth and lore were as real as the light of day. \n\nA crunch as my boots tear into a fallen spire, the hollowed structure snapping beneath my weight. \n \nTasgal pulls my fist back like a cocked hammer, then slams plastic knuckles of my gauntlet into the side of a building. There were now even fewer great monuments of life to match my own height. But no survivors. \n\nTasgal forced us forward, and I could all but hear the child tucked behind my lips whimpering at what was happening. Should I close them now? Is it better if she sees what I’m doing, or if she’s cut off from reality? She’s smart. She knows what’s happening even if she hasn’t articulated it. \n\nMy body bends at the waist, reaching down to scoop up what probably once passed for living accommodations. My arms raise it high over my head and lob none too gently in the general direction of half destroyed rubble. Some of it cracks, other parts crumble away, while still more of the light yet durable material holds together so as to simply bounce aside. \n\nThere was shouting behind me. \n\nMaybe the Galm forces upset at the thought of losing the ground they hoped to take, after all the spires weren’t much use as souleater protection if they were all destroyed. And this was on top of any damage or loss of life that occurred on the way through. But Tasgal either couldn’t hear them or didn’t care, he was set to finish this job. \n\nMy body bends at the waist, reaching down to collect yet another building in this robotic monotony. Presented with the chance to look I double checked my foot for any sign of blood or fur, even just patches of wet dust where pooled blood might have been buried over in this violent excavation. Nothing thankfully, but that didn’t mean much. It wasn’t hard for a Gesshru corpse to only be visible on the underside of my boot, and there’s no way Tasgal would bother checking. \n\nMy arms raise up again as I come to a stand. Stuttered turning as Tasgal decides which way to toss, what building to tear apart.\n\nThunk.\n\nThunkthunkthunkthunkthunkthunk\n\nCRASH! \n\nIt all happened in the span of a second, from everywhere and nowhere a barrage of spears flew out from behind cover. I saw the faint snatches of Gesshru firing a rubber band crossbow in the direction of my arm before falling back into the ruins. Every single one aimed at my left hand. One struck and bounced away, another struck and fell dead flat. Then another, and another, and another. Most deflecting off to one side, even the blows that land true being stopped outright by my armor’s outer shell, and two miss entirely to bounce off my faceplate. \n\nOnly one plastic spear dug deep enough to leave a hole in the plastic, but it was stopped by the foam padding before ever getting far enough that my arm could feel the pain. A max unit was simply immune to the conventional weapons of a Gesshru fighting force. If I were in the hands of a real fighter I’d have been carefully marking where each target ran off to. \n\nInstead I was nursing a head wound, specifically near the top back of my skull, and trying not to grit my teeth through the cloud of dust kicked up. Tasgal was not a competent pilot. \n\nYou see, my pilot had dropped that building in panic the moment shots were fired, and of course that building had to fall right on top of my head. \n\n“BLASTED CORE WHAT WAST THAT?” An electronic bass echoed across an urban battlefield. He was fighting Gesshru of course, and these were a people who changed and adapted quickly. Much faster than humans ever could. \n\nTasgal wasted time wiping away dust from the helmet and nursing that as if terrified something had damaged the latch to his cockpit. That’s where his body was after all, attack the back of the head and you can potentially kill or disrupt the pilot inside. But his delay meant all of these soldiers had enough time to reposition, and more time to reload their weapons. \n\nA single spear still jabbed into my arm Tasgal charged through the fray, wantonly stomping down the streets in a monsterous display of power. Boom. Crunch. Boom. ….\n\nFlop? \n\nWith each footstep that rattled the city proper and sent dust bouncing into the air, the buildings swayed and my foot started to sting. Then came the vertigo, the jarring crash as my face hits the floor and everything becomes a dull pain. My teeth rattle and I taste iron, my vision is clouded with choking dust even if the mostly sealed helmet kept my lungs clear. Lips closed I did my best to keep this safe for Orchi, but she was getting tossed about every bit as much as I was. \n\nOnly after the fact, when Tasgal jabbed my shoulder into the ground and twisted aside to look at my legs, did I catch on that he’d just stomped directly on top of a sinkhole. Wait no, it was a sewer system? Underground tunnels with tiny digging tools, a wide cavern more than big enough for my foot and about six inches deep even though the connecting tunnels on either side were only a fourth as wide. \n\nI had no reason to stay invested, and so it was with a detached awareness I realized what was happening. Even as my head jerks up at the sound of a warcry, a male Gesshru in civilian clothing brandishing an abnormally thick spear was already airborn. Already flying directly into my faceplate. \n\nThey had dug out the tunnels beneath their city. \n\nThese people set up an ambush, they were prepared specifically to fight a max unit. It was obvious that an actual human wouldn’t have been this clumsy or tripped so casually, but Tasgal was a pathetic pilot even by Gashn standards. \n\nA thrust, a jab …\n\nThe poor fighter just missed, not even tapping against my visor. Having apparently mistimed his jump, or not accounted for the range and weight of his unusual weapon. I saw the man up close, his frame lithe and muscular with brown markings down the outer sides of his thighs. He looked lightweight yet far too defined beneath the fur to be a weakling by Gesshru standards. \n\n“You’ll have to try better than that.” I breathed, gritting my teeth to keep Orchi from falling out and pulling my lips back so she could see. My body began to stand up, from a sprawl to a crouch, while this Gesshru fighter leapt up onto a bit of rubble and dived again. One hand gripping the spear and extending his shoulder fully for another thrust. I could see his determination, the mark of a valiant hero. \n\nI could feel the useless thunk as he taps against my helmet. The emotionless visor staring back, noise and bluster was all his efforts amounted to against plastic armor. \n\nHe wasn’t using plastic though. And this spear was a different color, a different thickness. It actually looked a bit like polished rock, but sounded too light to be granite. \n\nWas he fighting with sharpened coral? \n\nTasgal ignores the man, standing up to my full and dominating height. Eyes glancing about the horizon to try and spot where the spear throwers were, and with casual ease my foot steps forward. I didn’t get to watch as he tries to stomp on that brave soldier, nor was I afforded the luxury of knowing whether or not the man dodged. \n\n“Da … dad!” Orchi squeals, a breathless whisper that caught me off-guard. \n\nTasgal was silent and intimidating, he says nothing and acts as if he had no reason to care about the world. Presented and exposed, waiting. A glance back at the Ontal forces, that entire army was now in the process of surging forward. It wasn’t darkness of course, but Tasgal was grabbing attention and they knew that they had to do. This was their chance, this was their battle. \n\nThunkthunkthunk.\n\nThree shots fired out from a small group further into the city, away from the oncoming Gashn reinforcements. Distraction. A lure. There had to be more traps here. But Tasgal was heedless in simply stomping after them. Not even at a run. \n\nOne spear bounced aside upon impact with my chestpiece, the second one jabs into my thigh and breaks just enough plastic to penetrate, only to be stopped by the foam padding. A third one smacks into my shoulder and simply deflects. Two spears making tiny holes in this useless armor. And the rubber band spear throwers were the only handheld weapons they had which could even manage that. \n\n“Please. Come on people, you can do better than that. Surprise me, figure out a way to kill me will you?” I begged them in a gritted whisper. A tad thankful the child couldn’t understand what I said, but I honestly didn’t care if I died while she lived. That would put an end to my part in all of this, and I was looking forward to a proper ending. \n\nThe three Gesshru scattered, one trying to reload his weapon while the other two bolted for a different building each. Stomp, walk, crunch, even at a slow walk I could easily keep pace with their mad scramble. In moments my body was over at least one of them, just trying to make it to a doorway. \n\nStomp. \n\nThe doorway no longer existed. \n\nCrimson smeared into the dust and rubble, a man too slow to make it through and now smothered in the dusty cracked rubble of a ruined building. When my foot pulled away I could see the red stained tail drooping and still, I could see mangled limbs in twisted distortions of their intended shape. Even if he was alive, it’d take a while for the tiny rodents to pull the rocks and dirt off of his corpse. \n\nTasgal considered that a job well done and moved to the next. Didn’t bother checking for Gesshru to fight, he just kicked the building itself and sent slabs of coral spraying over the city like shrapnel. \n\nSwooshswoosh.\n\nTwo more shots, to the back of the head each. Both missing wide and flying past my face, almost as if they were firing to grab Tasgal’s attention rather than to inflict injury. Predictably Tasgal turned around to face them. Seeing two men on the ground with spent crossbows pointed up. They were all going to run out of ammunition soon, a single soldier could only carry three or four spears without being weighed down. \n\nThunkthunk. \n\nBut then came two perfect shots from about waist height. One deflects away from my right shoulder, the other jabs into my gut just between the plates. It’s stopped completely before touching skin, but goes in just deep enough that it couldn’t be plucked free with any ease. Cutting right through plastic to the point that foam alone was what saved me from a jabbing cut. \n\nThese two were on the spire. Hanging off the side of a window and firing down for a better angle. When Tasgal looked up at them in surprise I could hear the pitter-patter of those on the ground running away, making full use of this distraction obviously. But the ones in the spire had nowhere to go. One retreats into the building itself, the other drops his spear thrower and clambers up to the pointed tip of the building. \n\nHe was a distraction, trying to call attention to himself so that his allies could get away. Trying to keep my pilot from simply tearing the whole building down. \n\nTasgal just saw a target.\n\nMy arm swipes out toward him, feeling more like plucking at an apple rather than some attempt at combat. This combat civilian, not even in any formal uniform or body armor, attempts to swivel away from my grip. My fingers snag his left leg. I can feel him pitting his strength against mine in some vain attempt to hold onto that rough coral. My arm simply lifts up and the man comes with, there was no question about the victor. \n\nI close my lips so that Orchi wouldn’t see it.\n\nIt left me wishing I could close my eyes, but of course Tasgal took far too much joy in seeing the pain he inflicted. One hand on the man’s left leg, one on his right, and already he was starting to pull. To pull. The defiant squeaks turned into panicked ones, and we both knew he’d snap before this was don- … \n\nCRACK! \n\nThat wasn’t a spear, that was an outright rock. Thrown hard and blindsiding me with it’s impact. My head rocks to one side, part of my grip looses so that this soldier is just dangling in one hand. I reel backwards from the sheer force of the blow and I’m left genuinely surprised that Tasgal didn’t tip me over. Teetering like a toddler and yet not actually falling down. My head turns. \n\nThere in the distance, down a long open corridor and flanked on either side by tall buildings, was a siege engine. \n\nWell, by Gesshru standards it was a powerful, deadly instrument built in makeshift from scavenged parts, something that could destroy ships or break through walls. Enough damage even to crack a Max’s armor, even if this shot didn’t quite injure me. \n\nTo me it was a slingshot. \n\nNot even a good one. Two long poles made of coral jammed into the ground and bolted in place with what looked like more plastic, four soldiers in total were holding the poles steady to keep the entire thing from falling apart. Duct tape could have made it more durable. Instead of a single long band like the professional Gashn or Cavni army might use, this was several strips of rubber all looped around each other stretched wide so that the bands could cover the ammunition and support. Down at the ground level was a ramp, set to help aim the shot higher. \n\nThere were two more good sized rocks that might be easy to throw set up at the back of this hastily built weapon, two more soldiers set about dragging them into place. Rolling them about, while a third and fourth are holding onto the rubber and stretching it back. \n\nIt took six people to load, aim, and fire this thing. This wasn’t a speedy endeavor, but they had a clear shot and plenty of motivation. This was the one isle, far away from ground forces who might back Tasgal up or tear apart the weapon, in which this slingshot could actually fire down. My body was walked directly into an obvious trap. \n\nWell … \n\nIt wasn’t going to kill me quickly, but maybe if they hit me hard enough it could knock me out of the fight? \n\nTasgal wasn’t going to let them. With a soft hunk of victim already in hand, he curls my arm back, walks forward into the line with that usual robotic monotony, and then throws. I could hear the high pitched screams, it was far too easy to feel Orchi tucking in against my cheek and pulling her arms over her eyes. I could feel the child shaking. \n\nAnd I could see the wet splat when one Gesshru collides into the strings of rubber and men, red smearing into the ground and two falling in a tangled heap. They landed hard and took out two members on support duty, but they simply carried on. Kept aiming. Kept staring down the face of death as I casually walked in their general direction. \n\nHeedless of their kill zone, confident that my body would crush every last one of them, and making a grand show of walking strait through their greatest weapon. \n\nTasgal was a fool. \n\nAnd when stepping between buildings left me with the faint sensation of suckers glued onto my plastic, I curled my lips up into a smile. \n\n“AIM FOR THE HEAD!” I heard a shout, a powerful yet effeminate voice by the rodent’s terms. Screamed not in victory, but in frightened desperation. \n\nI could smell ozone for a moment, the sound of gears whirring and electrical sparks filled the air on either side of me. Tasgal had just enough time to glance at a soldier, that same lithe frame wielding a coral spear shouting at the top of his lungs as he directed his forces, before suddenly my body decided now was the best time to breakdance. \n\nOh, there was pain too. Glorious and horrendous pain. A gripping scream at the bottom of my foot that welled into every fiber of my existence. My eyes burned from the inside, every hair across my skin jutted out and clung to the foam, it was hard to keep my eyes open and all I could do to grit my teeth and hope Orchi wasn’t bitten in half by the end of this. \n\nBut my limbs being outside of my control was something I was used to, and the electricity coursing through my veins and eliciting pained shouts from the pilot behind my skull was more fascinating than gripping. My arms flailed wildly, my legs stumbled forward, dropping to one knee, a single arm crashes into the side of a building but doesn’t break the coral foundation. Two Gesshru on top scrambling to hold onto their weapons. \n\nWires snapped. My body staggers up onto its feet at Tasgal’s behest. Gesshru didn’t even have electricity, at least not here and not at present, the art of such was lost when people decided it wasn’t profitable. But the knowledge was still there. And these people, these defenders, have just shot me with two makeshift tasers. \n\nThe rubber bands fire, a heavy CRACK as it smacks into my chest and deflects away into the street bellow. I was on my knees but trying to rise. Tiny pap noises, four Gesshru had just leapt off the spire and onto my shoulders. No, one was on top of my head. Another two down at my back. \n\nI rose and they tried to stay attached, one falling down to my waist as another clings to some bolt in the small of my back. Ontal forces were closing, I could see them, and I could hear them, coming up from behind, but the siege unit in front of me was loading up its last shot. My skin burned. Tasgal takes another step. \n\nThunk, thunk, scrape … \n\nThat fighter on my head bashed down once, twice, three times with the desperate flurry of a man trying to save his home. The first bounces off plastic and I can tell it’s the spear of coral, the second one sends cracks fracturing out from the impact but doesn’t penetrate deep, while the third contacts and scrapes to one side. He was tearing into the joints. He was trying to get at Tasgal himself. \n\nThe one on my shoulder does similarly, leaping up and jabbing into the side panels, but with his thin plastic spear I hear a wondrous rending sound, the frantic squeal of Tasgal inside as a spear jabs into his flesh. Making it past the plastic outer layer. But at that section for the control panel there was no cushioning padding as a secondary layer. \n\nI heard his scream. I could feel Tasgal’s blood leaking into my hair, coating over the buttons and knobs he used to control me. \n\nMy legs take another step, trouncing closer to their siege engine. \n\nCrumble. Crack, and another flop. Just as before their traps were perfect, the ground crumbles away into a six inch deep hole, my legs fail to correct for this new balance, and like a monster slipping on a banana peel I fly downward. The ground meets me with a generous enthusiasm and once more I’m left with the familiar sensation of stars before my eyes. \n\nWhen my vision clears and my head lifts up, jaw agape at the scene before me, it turns out the man on my head was flung forward. The ones on my back were crawling up toward my skull, and the sling shot was almost loaded. Aiming. \n\n“uhgm.” The lithe man stumbles up to his feet, still clenching a coral spear. “A-aim … AIM for the HEAD! Fire!”\n\nHe shouts like he means it. The man looks exhausted. And with a viscous jab comes up to slam the point of his weapon directly in front of my nose. I could see every bit of him while my face was hidden behind the orange screen. \n\nCrack. CRASH! An explosion of glistening shards, the painful jab of a pencil stabbing into my cheek, the taste of blood as it pools down my face and past my lips. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t shiver, forced to simply accept the pain. Tasgal was screaming, he was fumbling with bloodsoaked controls, putting all of his effort into just staying awake, and still I could hear it. Hear the tink and the tear as tiny plastic spears are tearing away his protection, pulling him from my skull.\n\nBy god they were winning. \n\n“Die monster.” The lithe Gesshru said as he pulled his spear from my face and started to aim again. Clambering through the shattered opening, looking me in the eye for the first time. I had no problem with this. The worst that could happen is he stabs me and I live through it, but something through the head or the neck would be nice … \n\n“Wait.” I thunder out calmly in their squeaky chirps, opening my jaws wide and shoving my tongue forward. Another stab, but I didn’t care about the bleeding. And as soon as he saw Orchi he didn’t care either. \n\n“Dad?” the child pipes up, crawling between my teeth. Blood drips down. My blood drips down to splatter her bare shoulders and she’s left looking up with a gasp.\n\nFor a moment the two of them stare at each other, close enough to touch, close enough to hug, and then without hesitation he drops his spear and scoops the child into his arms. Blood and spit didn’t matter to him, the warzone all around him, the screams of mice in rage and mice dying, the pounding footsteps of an army surging up through the city streets. The two embraced as if this was a miracle, and perhaps it was. \n\nMy head shifts to one side and the two rodents are tossed into the edge of my vision. \n\nThe lithe soldier slings his daughter over his shoulder, the child mumbling something and holding him close. Tucking her head beneath his chin and clinging to be sure they never part again. \n\nMy arm slams into the dirt palm first, lifting steadily, dragging me out of the ground. Even through the blood and the pain, the burning agony that goes along with electrocution, my body was still lethal to them. \n\nTasgal was panicking, I could feel it. No, I could hear his desperate mumbling as he slaps buttons randomly, some of them slicked over and useless as the design was never built to be waterproofed. Three Gesshru spearmen were all stabbing into the panel and jabbing into the cracks, trying to apply enough leverage to force the thing open. \n\nMy pilot’s only real hope was to knock them aside and then run, if he could even manage that. But already the next rock was aimed at my face and the armored visor protecting me was torn asunder. \n\nOrchi and her father leapt to freedom before my head was too high up, landing hard and walking forward. His spear abandoned completely to rest within my helmet, his voice cracking up in their equivalent of emotional tears. \n\n“F-fire. Take him down. Take t-the bastard down!” he shouts toward his men while running away behind friendly lines. \n\nMy arm reaches out to stop him, but I fight back. \n\nNo. I couldn’t close my eyes, but this is the moment where I choose to take a stand. Where I resist every command Tasgal gives with everything I had left. Stuttered shaking. Wild twitches. My arms start to move, but then pull away, then start to move again. \n\nStab, stab, tear, they were making headway at the back of my skull. If I could just keep this up until they make it to Tasgal they will shred him limb from limb. Keep him still, keep him useless, and he’s going to die here and now. \n\n“N-nnoo! NO! Defend me, save me! Kepa you useless starflung rust splotch, I need help!” that electronic voice boomed out from beneath my neck. They were already coming, but a Gesshru just isn’t as fast as a human, and these soldiers were no doubt bogged down by the ruins blocking their way, or the way this battle moved. \n\nMore tearing. I could hear the snap as parts of my control panel fly away, jagged bits of plastic revealing a small area from which to stab through. \n\n“REINFORCEMENTS! Get here now!” he desperately screamed, but nothing changed. This battle was lost for him, and if I had my way he was going to die here. \n\nHe was going to die screaming. \n\nI could see a sunset in the distance. I could see Orchi, in the hands of her father, tucked behind their slingshot of a siege engine. I was left wishing there was some way to force my eyes shut and simply let it be, let death take me as it inevitably will. But Tasgal was in control of my eyes and not really coherent at the moment. \n\nThe slingshot fires. \n\nA rock hurtles toward my face. \n\nPain, the taste of iron, stars swirling around my eyes, and then blackness. \n\nAs I passed into blissful unconsciousness, the lips I still held sway over were curled into a smile. \n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "My name is Freya Savitri, and I am apparently a boss fight.

The walk toward Scando wasn’t as arduous as Galm, mostly by way of dull monotony as Tasgal did his best to stay quiet and I wasn’t dealing with too much heat. The sun bore down, but only one of them. It would be dark in a few hours, and then the Gesshru would all be setting up to sleep. A race who’s night vision was even worse than that of a human’s, far too well adapted to their binary star system. All I had with me were my words, and the small child pretending to be a candy.

Was it bad to say that Orchi had long ago lost her flavor? Now so slick with drool she didn’t even taste like rodent.

Taua, in Samoan. Cogadh in Scots Gaelic. Pat in Serbian. Ntoa in Sesotho. Hondo in Shona. Vojna in Slovak. Dagaal in Somali. Guerra in Spanish. Perang in Sundanese. Vita in Swahili. Krig in Swedish. Savas in Turkish. Binha in Ukrainian. Urush in Uzbek. Chien Tranh in Vietnamese. Rhyfel in Welsh. Imfazwe in Xhosa. Orgun in Yoruba. Impi in Zulu. Oorlog in Afrikaans. Lufte in Albanian. Myharibe in Azerbaijani. Gerra in Basque. Banha in Belarusian. Rat in Bosnian. Guerra in Catalan. Gubat in Cebuano. Nkhondo in Chichewa. Valka in Czech. Krig in Danish. Oorlog in Dutch. Milito in Esperanto. Soda in Estonian. Digmaan in Filipino. Sota in Finnish. Guerre in French. Oarloch in Frisian. Kreig in German.

In the Gesshru common tongue it was a type of squeak followed by rapid tooth gnashing while breathing through the nose for a huffing noise.

For those speaking english, it was War.

We three people, the soldier and the weapon with a tiny stowaway, rounded a tall hill of packed sand and dusty red rocks to spot the ruined city of Scando. The tall spires of their coral towers, the equivalent of skyscrapers for these small creatures. It must have taken years, perhaps as much as a decade, for teams upon teams of Gesshru builders to carve and place these buildings. At some point before the war it was a heavily populated and bustling trade city close to the far ports of Cavni lands. I wasn’t around when Scando was overtaken of course, but the fact it was once a prosperous city was obvious to any who glanced upon its buildings.

Yet now it was in ruins.

Houses crushed under my feet, the imprint of my armored boots still present in far too many places. The looping towers were snapped in half, most toppled over to block the streets or crumbled to multi-faceted chunks. There were a few that still stood tall. Mostly ones around the southern and eastern edge where survivors weren’t running toward, after all escaping the Gashn forces by trying to reach their front lines wasn’t the most sensible idea. While a number of the smaller buildings remained.

The city looked lifeless and dead. The streets were silent, the lights were gone, the roads cluttered with trash and dust from windswept sands. Even in this state someone was still trying to claim the city though.

Forces from Ontal remained stationed in a crude, makeshift camp just outside the walls. No … a gaze ahead, it was some ten or fifteen yards away, just distant enough to avoid the range of their spear throwers. Seems they did manage to move toward Scando’s ruins while I was trapped in recovery, yet their new base was …

Pathetic was the only word I could describe it with.

Instead of the mud foundations and wooden buildings, cheap and fragile as those might have been by my own standards, now they were using simple tents and storage crates as buildings to rest in and parts of the wall. Their fortifications were makeshift, boulders dragged from around the nearby desert, bits of coral carried over and placed into a pile that lined the perimeter. This new base was roughly half the size of the old one and it’s survivors looked beaten, worn and hot and miserable. I could see what weapons they had stacked along the border, pebbles strung together to form uneven lines or mounds from which to duck behind or stand atop.

The place was better than nothing against ground forces and, for a time at least, might fend off an assault from raiders or maybe a scout group. But they weren’t going to hold out forever. It left me wondering what I was called out here for, perhaps to rebuild the walls? Build up a better fort than what these soldiers could manage?

But then why didn’t they just use the city itself like they’d planned on all those week ago …

“Home!” Orchi squeaks.

I could feel her in my jaws, crawling forward through slick spittle and across a rough tongue. Her still damp head squeezing between my lips. A tiny little paw extends out to tap against my visor just near a still visible crack. She was pointing at the coral. Pointing at the lifeless remains of a city that my body destroyed.

“You took us home! I knew you could do it maxy, you got us all the way home! I’ll have to show my dad, ohcore he must be so worried about me. HOME!” the child’s happiness was infectious.

But she was less than a month old. If this was her home …

There wasn’t much time to ponder the implications when we maneuvered in to get a direct answer. Tasgal positioned me in front of the sun, deliberately making sure that my bulk and armor cast a long shadow over the entire meager compound. Frightened soldiers stopped in their tracks, a few stood up and stared. At least one man, my eyes involuntarily darted toward, picked up his spear thrower and took a defensive position behind a supply crate.

None of these people could see my face through the helm, and everyone could see where my armor was worn, where damage had scraped away green paint to reveal that shiny silver beneath. But that probably just added to the intimidation factor, leaving them all to wonder just what weapon could crack a Max’s helmet, and how tough must one be to survive such a blow regardless.

Dead silence.

Until one man, different from the last, clambers up onto a bit of coral and speaks through a tiny megaphone.

“This is Kepa Elot, squad commander of the Scando military outpost. With honors, state your name and business.”

That was Kepa?

… but Tasgal didn’t respond.

“S-sir, um. This is Kepa Elot, squa- …”

“Why is a mere squad commander talking to me.” Tasgal’s voice thunders through my neck, the microphone relaying his every word in an electronic monotone. Not a requirement or a technical deficiency, but a deliberate choice on his part to make the sound more menacing.

“There has been a- …”

“Answer.” Tasgal interrupted. A single word, a simple motion, my foot had already nudged forward and kicked at one of the boulders they had serving as a defense. With the smallest tap it rolls forward easily, feeling remarkably light to my touch. That was the thing though, most of the rocks here were coral after all.

“Commander Galit pwant has died in combat, max unit. As the next highest rank I am to carry out his duties until such a time as proper replacements can be marched over. Sir.” The rodent’s voice was dripping with terror, and yet he carried himself well. His voice wasn’t anything like I remembered it, and disappointingly that left me wondering whether it was a different Kepa than the one I rescued.

I never did catch his last name after all. One more name onto a piled list of many.

“A pity” was all Tasgal said in response. The sheer tension in this air as I stood down a rodent’s playset, piles of tiny pebbles not even as heavy as proper rocks arrayed in this pathetic assembly of a fortress.

Silence fell over every group as Tasgal waited for them to speak, simply allowed the forces ostensibly on his side to bask in their own fear. No one moved. I was almost certain no one breathed. I could hear the faint giggling of Orchi as she found all the distant and terrified faces so very amusing. I closed my lips and sealed her off from the world. Much to the child’s vocal alarm of course, but she was harder to hear when I kept my mouth shut.

“The mission …” evidentially Kepa settled on accepting this lack of an answer, this refusal to even give a name. The commander technically held rank, but everyone in this sand box knew who held true power in this moment. “Is to retake Scando from the surviving easterners. Our previous raids didn’t deter them away from the city as planned, and those who fled our initial Max onslaught simply fortified their position. We were unprepared for an all out war against an entrenched force, and so we require you to spearhead our assault to clean up these natives while you draw the bulk of their fire.”

Though the man explained it calmly, Tasgal curled my hands into a fist. This must be why he didn’t give a name, it was so this commander couldn’t connect the failings of their previous invasion with the Max pilot who performed the attack. After all it’s embarrassing enough to have to clean up your own mess, quite a different thing when people in lower stations are calling you out on it.

“Will that be all.” The electronic voice thundered. This wasn’t a question but a statement, almost daring Kepa to say something more. I could feel my legs tighten and relax as if preparing for a step, and it was hard to tell if this was anger or simple incompetence.

I opened my lips so that Orchi could breathe.

“Y-yes sir, we hope to wait until nightfall when their forces are least effective while the Max unit itself will be perfectly functional. We’ve prepared a number of lightsticks for the event, but we are so low on reserve the makeshift lighting will have to be shared among four squads. Given the number of traps we know the- h-heeeeshaay!?”

Kepa’s voice devolved into incoherent babbling squeaks. I only just saw the man try to dive to one side as Tasgal forced my foot forward and down onto his position. Something crunched under my boot, and for the second time I was amazed by how this one poor man has been in danger from my feet for twice in his life now. I honestly couldn’t tell if what cracked was the commander himself or a bit of coral, or even the weapon that man carried.

My feet ground into the dirt, twisting without much care, and then simply stepped forward. Directly through the compound while tapping aside boulders with my toes, rending apart their little cloth tents and upturned sticks. I heard screaming, I saw many abandon the walls and turn away in terror. And then just like that my body was on the other side of this little forward and continuing toward Scando itself.

He didn’t look back.

It was obvious Tasgal didn’t care, and in the glaring sunlight he strode confidently toward a once proud and glistening city. The remains of what used to be a thick and bustling trade rout were wide enough even for my stride, and open roads meant for four lanes of wheeled carts easily accommodated me.

My movement was stuttered and awkward, but it never slowed. An intimidating, relentless march through ruins and crumbled coral. To those of age who survived, some might might be watching this was the return of a monster. Their boogieman coming from the ancient past to once more enforce Gashn rule. To those of a younger age, Orchi counted among them, this was the realization that those horrors of myth and lore were as real as the light of day.

A crunch as my boots tear into a fallen spire, the hollowed structure snapping beneath my weight.
 
Tasgal pulls my fist back like a cocked hammer, then slams plastic knuckles of my gauntlet into the side of a building. There were now even fewer great monuments of life to match my own height. But no survivors.

Tasgal forced us forward, and I could all but hear the child tucked behind my lips whimpering at what was happening. Should I close them now? Is it better if she sees what I’m doing, or if she’s cut off from reality? She’s smart. She knows what’s happening even if she hasn’t articulated it.

My body bends at the waist, reaching down to scoop up what probably once passed for living accommodations. My arms raise it high over my head and lob none too gently in the general direction of half destroyed rubble. Some of it cracks, other parts crumble away, while still more of the light yet durable material holds together so as to simply bounce aside.

There was shouting behind me.

Maybe the Galm forces upset at the thought of losing the ground they hoped to take, after all the spires weren’t much use as souleater protection if they were all destroyed. And this was on top of any damage or loss of life that occurred on the way through. But Tasgal either couldn’t hear them or didn’t care, he was set to finish this job.

My body bends at the waist, reaching down to collect yet another building in this robotic monotony. Presented with the chance to look I double checked my foot for any sign of blood or fur, even just patches of wet dust where pooled blood might have been buried over in this violent excavation. Nothing thankfully, but that didn’t mean much. It wasn’t hard for a Gesshru corpse to only be visible on the underside of my boot, and there’s no way Tasgal would bother checking.

My arms raise up again as I come to a stand. Stuttered turning as Tasgal decides which way to toss, what building to tear apart.

Thunk.

Thunkthunkthunkthunkthunkthunk

CRASH!

It all happened in the span of a second, from everywhere and nowhere a barrage of spears flew out from behind cover. I saw the faint snatches of Gesshru firing a rubber band crossbow in the direction of my arm before falling back into the ruins. Every single one aimed at my left hand. One struck and bounced away, another struck and fell dead flat. Then another, and another, and another. Most deflecting off to one side, even the blows that land true being stopped outright by my armor’s outer shell, and two miss entirely to bounce off my faceplate.

Only one plastic spear dug deep enough to leave a hole in the plastic, but it was stopped by the foam padding before ever getting far enough that my arm could feel the pain. A max unit was simply immune to the conventional weapons of a Gesshru fighting force. If I were in the hands of a real fighter I’d have been carefully marking where each target ran off to.

Instead I was nursing a head wound, specifically near the top back of my skull, and trying not to grit my teeth through the cloud of dust kicked up. Tasgal was not a competent pilot.

You see, my pilot had dropped that building in panic the moment shots were fired, and of course that building had to fall right on top of my head.

“BLASTED CORE WHAT WAST THAT?” An electronic bass echoed across an urban battlefield. He was fighting Gesshru of course, and these were a people who changed and adapted quickly. Much faster than humans ever could.

Tasgal wasted time wiping away dust from the helmet and nursing that as if terrified something had damaged the latch to his cockpit. That’s where his body was after all, attack the back of the head and you can potentially kill or disrupt the pilot inside. But his delay meant all of these soldiers had enough time to reposition, and more time to reload their weapons.

A single spear still jabbed into my arm Tasgal charged through the fray, wantonly stomping down the streets in a monsterous display of power. Boom. Crunch. Boom. ….

Flop?

With each footstep that rattled the city proper and sent dust bouncing into the air, the buildings swayed and my foot started to sting. Then came the vertigo, the jarring crash as my face hits the floor and everything becomes a dull pain. My teeth rattle and I taste iron, my vision is clouded with choking dust even if the mostly sealed helmet kept my lungs clear. Lips closed I did my best to keep this safe for Orchi, but she was getting tossed about every bit as much as I was.

Only after the fact, when Tasgal jabbed my shoulder into the ground and twisted aside to look at my legs, did I catch on that he’d just stomped directly on top of a sinkhole. Wait no, it was a sewer system? Underground tunnels with tiny digging tools, a wide cavern more than big enough for my foot and about six inches deep even though the connecting tunnels on either side were only a fourth as wide.

I had no reason to stay invested, and so it was with a detached awareness I realized what was happening. Even as my head jerks up at the sound of a warcry, a male Gesshru in civilian clothing brandishing an abnormally thick spear was already airborn. Already flying directly into my faceplate.

They had dug out the tunnels beneath their city.

These people set up an ambush, they were prepared specifically to fight a max unit. It was obvious that an actual human wouldn’t have been this clumsy or tripped so casually, but Tasgal was a pathetic pilot even by Gashn standards.

A thrust, a jab …

The poor fighter just missed, not even tapping against my visor. Having apparently mistimed his jump, or not accounted for the range and weight of his unusual weapon. I saw the man up close, his frame lithe and muscular with brown markings down the outer sides of his thighs. He looked lightweight yet far too defined beneath the fur to be a weakling by Gesshru standards.

“You’ll have to try better than that.” I breathed, gritting my teeth to keep Orchi from falling out and pulling my lips back so she could see. My body began to stand up, from a sprawl to a crouch, while this Gesshru fighter leapt up onto a bit of rubble and dived again. One hand gripping the spear and extending his shoulder fully for another thrust. I could see his determination, the mark of a valiant hero.

I could feel the useless thunk as he taps against my helmet. The emotionless visor staring back, noise and bluster was all his efforts amounted to against plastic armor.

He wasn’t using plastic though. And this spear was a different color, a different thickness. It actually looked a bit like polished rock, but sounded too light to be granite.

Was he fighting with sharpened coral?

Tasgal ignores the man, standing up to my full and dominating height. Eyes glancing about the horizon to try and spot where the spear throwers were, and with casual ease my foot steps forward. I didn’t get to watch as he tries to stomp on that brave soldier, nor was I afforded the luxury of knowing whether or not the man dodged.

“Da … dad!” Orchi squeals, a breathless whisper that caught me off-guard.

Tasgal was silent and intimidating, he says nothing and acts as if he had no reason to care about the world. Presented and exposed, waiting. A glance back at the Ontal forces, that entire army was now in the process of surging forward. It wasn’t darkness of course, but Tasgal was grabbing attention and they knew that they had to do. This was their chance, this was their battle.

Thunkthunkthunk.

Three shots fired out from a small group further into the city, away from the oncoming Gashn reinforcements. Distraction. A lure. There had to be more traps here. But Tasgal was heedless in simply stomping after them. Not even at a run.

One spear bounced aside upon impact with my chestpiece, the second one jabs into my thigh and breaks just enough plastic to penetrate, only to be stopped by the foam padding. A third one smacks into my shoulder and simply deflects. Two spears making tiny holes in this useless armor. And the rubber band spear throwers were the only handheld weapons they had which could even manage that.

“Please. Come on people, you can do better than that. Surprise me, figure out a way to kill me will you?” I begged them in a gritted whisper. A tad thankful the child couldn’t understand what I said, but I honestly didn’t care if I died while she lived. That would put an end to my part in all of this, and I was looking forward to a proper ending.

The three Gesshru scattered, one trying to reload his weapon while the other two bolted for a different building each. Stomp, walk, crunch, even at a slow walk I could easily keep pace with their mad scramble. In moments my body was over at least one of them, just trying to make it to a doorway.

Stomp.

The doorway no longer existed.

Crimson smeared into the dust and rubble, a man too slow to make it through and now smothered in the dusty cracked rubble of a ruined building. When my foot pulled away I could see the red stained tail drooping and still, I could see mangled limbs in twisted distortions of their intended shape. Even if he was alive, it’d take a while for the tiny rodents to pull the rocks and dirt off of his corpse.

Tasgal considered that a job well done and moved to the next. Didn’t bother checking for Gesshru to fight, he just kicked the building itself and sent slabs of coral spraying over the city like shrapnel.

Swooshswoosh.

Two more shots, to the back of the head each. Both missing wide and flying past my face, almost as if they were firing to grab Tasgal’s attention rather than to inflict injury. Predictably Tasgal turned around to face them. Seeing two men on the ground with spent crossbows pointed up. They were all going to run out of ammunition soon, a single soldier could only carry three or four spears without being weighed down.

Thunkthunk.

But then came two perfect shots from about waist height. One deflects away from my right shoulder, the other jabs into my gut just between the plates. It’s stopped completely before touching skin, but goes in just deep enough that it couldn’t be plucked free with any ease. Cutting right through plastic to the point that foam alone was what saved me from a jabbing cut.

These two were on the spire. Hanging off the side of a window and firing down for a better angle. When Tasgal looked up at them in surprise I could hear the pitter-patter of those on the ground running away, making full use of this distraction obviously. But the ones in the spire had nowhere to go. One retreats into the building itself, the other drops his spear thrower and clambers up to the pointed tip of the building.

He was a distraction, trying to call attention to himself so that his allies could get away. Trying to keep my pilot from simply tearing the whole building down.

Tasgal just saw a target.

My arm swipes out toward him, feeling more like plucking at an apple rather than some attempt at combat. This combat civilian, not even in any formal uniform or body armor, attempts to swivel away from my grip. My fingers snag his left leg. I can feel him pitting his strength against mine in some vain attempt to hold onto that rough coral. My arm simply lifts up and the man comes with, there was no question about the victor.

I close my lips so that Orchi wouldn’t see it.

It left me wishing I could close my eyes, but of course Tasgal took far too much joy in seeing the pain he inflicted. One hand on the man’s left leg, one on his right, and already he was starting to pull. To pull. The defiant squeaks turned into panicked ones, and we both knew he’d snap before this was don- …

CRACK!

That wasn’t a spear, that was an outright rock. Thrown hard and blindsiding me with it’s impact. My head rocks to one side, part of my grip looses so that this soldier is just dangling in one hand. I reel backwards from the sheer force of the blow and I’m left genuinely surprised that Tasgal didn’t tip me over. Teetering like a toddler and yet not actually falling down. My head turns.

There in the distance, down a long open corridor and flanked on either side by tall buildings, was a siege engine.

Well, by Gesshru standards it was a powerful, deadly instrument built in makeshift from scavenged parts, something that could destroy ships or break through walls. Enough damage even to crack a Max’s armor, even if this shot didn’t quite injure me.

To me it was a slingshot.

Not even a good one. Two long poles made of coral jammed into the ground and bolted in place with what looked like more plastic, four soldiers in total were holding the poles steady to keep the entire thing from falling apart. Duct tape could have made it more durable. Instead of a single long band like the professional Gashn or Cavni army might use, this was several strips of rubber all looped around each other stretched wide so that the bands could cover the ammunition and support. Down at the ground level was a ramp, set to help aim the shot higher.

There were two more good sized rocks that might be easy to throw set up at the back of this hastily built weapon, two more soldiers set about dragging them into place. Rolling them about, while a third and fourth are holding onto the rubber and stretching it back.

It took six people to load, aim, and fire this thing. This wasn’t a speedy endeavor, but they had a clear shot and plenty of motivation. This was the one isle, far away from ground forces who might back Tasgal up or tear apart the weapon, in which this slingshot could actually fire down. My body was walked directly into an obvious trap.

Well …

It wasn’t going to kill me quickly, but maybe if they hit me hard enough it could knock me out of the fight?

Tasgal wasn’t going to let them. With a soft hunk of victim already in hand, he curls my arm back, walks forward into the line with that usual robotic monotony, and then throws. I could hear the high pitched screams, it was far too easy to feel Orchi tucking in against my cheek and pulling her arms over her eyes. I could feel the child shaking.

And I could see the wet splat when one Gesshru collides into the strings of rubber and men, red smearing into the ground and two falling in a tangled heap. They landed hard and took out two members on support duty, but they simply carried on. Kept aiming. Kept staring down the face of death as I casually walked in their general direction.

Heedless of their kill zone, confident that my body would crush every last one of them, and making a grand show of walking strait through their greatest weapon.

Tasgal was a fool.

And when stepping between buildings left me with the faint sensation of suckers glued onto my plastic, I curled my lips up into a smile.

“AIM FOR THE HEAD!” I heard a shout, a powerful yet effeminate voice by the rodent’s terms. Screamed not in victory, but in frightened desperation.

I could smell ozone for a moment, the sound of gears whirring and electrical sparks filled the air on either side of me. Tasgal had just enough time to glance at a soldier, that same lithe frame wielding a coral spear shouting at the top of his lungs as he directed his forces, before suddenly my body decided now was the best time to breakdance.

Oh, there was pain too. Glorious and horrendous pain. A gripping scream at the bottom of my foot that welled into every fiber of my existence. My eyes burned from the inside, every hair across my skin jutted out and clung to the foam, it was hard to keep my eyes open and all I could do to grit my teeth and hope Orchi wasn’t bitten in half by the end of this.

But my limbs being outside of my control was something I was used to, and the electricity coursing through my veins and eliciting pained shouts from the pilot behind my skull was more fascinating than gripping. My arms flailed wildly, my legs stumbled forward, dropping to one knee, a single arm crashes into the side of a building but doesn’t break the coral foundation. Two Gesshru on top scrambling to hold onto their weapons.

Wires snapped. My body staggers up onto its feet at Tasgal’s behest. Gesshru didn’t even have electricity, at least not here and not at present, the art of such was lost when people decided it wasn’t profitable. But the knowledge was still there. And these people, these defenders, have just shot me with two makeshift tasers.

The rubber bands fire, a heavy CRACK as it smacks into my chest and deflects away into the street bellow. I was on my knees but trying to rise. Tiny pap noises, four Gesshru had just leapt off the spire and onto my shoulders. No, one was on top of my head. Another two down at my back.

I rose and they tried to stay attached, one falling down to my waist as another clings to some bolt in the small of my back. Ontal forces were closing, I could see them, and I could hear them, coming up from behind, but the siege unit in front of me was loading up its last shot. My skin burned. Tasgal takes another step.

Thunk, thunk, scrape …

That fighter on my head bashed down once, twice, three times with the desperate flurry of a man trying to save his home. The first bounces off plastic and I can tell it’s the spear of coral, the second one sends cracks fracturing out from the impact but doesn’t penetrate deep, while the third contacts and scrapes to one side. He was tearing into the joints. He was trying to get at Tasgal himself.

The one on my shoulder does similarly, leaping up and jabbing into the side panels, but with his thin plastic spear I hear a wondrous rending sound, the frantic squeal of Tasgal inside as a spear jabs into his flesh. Making it past the plastic outer layer. But at that section for the control panel there was no cushioning padding as a secondary layer.

I heard his scream. I could feel Tasgal’s blood leaking into my hair, coating over the buttons and knobs he used to control me.

My legs take another step, trouncing closer to their siege engine.

Crumble. Crack, and another flop. Just as before their traps were perfect, the ground crumbles away into a six inch deep hole, my legs fail to correct for this new balance, and like a monster slipping on a banana peel I fly downward. The ground meets me with a generous enthusiasm and once more I’m left with the familiar sensation of stars before my eyes.

When my vision clears and my head lifts up, jaw agape at the scene before me, it turns out the man on my head was flung forward. The ones on my back were crawling up toward my skull, and the sling shot was almost loaded. Aiming.

“uhgm.” The lithe man stumbles up to his feet, still clenching a coral spear. “A-aim … AIM for the HEAD! Fire!”

He shouts like he means it. The man looks exhausted. And with a viscous jab comes up to slam the point of his weapon directly in front of my nose. I could see every bit of him while my face was hidden behind the orange screen.

Crack. CRASH! An explosion of glistening shards, the painful jab of a pencil stabbing into my cheek, the taste of blood as it pools down my face and past my lips. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t shiver, forced to simply accept the pain. Tasgal was screaming, he was fumbling with bloodsoaked controls, putting all of his effort into just staying awake, and still I could hear it. Hear the tink and the tear as tiny plastic spears are tearing away his protection, pulling him from my skull.

By god they were winning.

“Die monster.” The lithe Gesshru said as he pulled his spear from my face and started to aim again. Clambering through the shattered opening, looking me in the eye for the first time. I had no problem with this. The worst that could happen is he stabs me and I live through it, but something through the head or the neck would be nice …

“Wait.” I thunder out calmly in their squeaky chirps, opening my jaws wide and shoving my tongue forward. Another stab, but I didn’t care about the bleeding. And as soon as he saw Orchi he didn’t care either.

“Dad?” the child pipes up, crawling between my teeth. Blood drips down. My blood drips down to splatter her bare shoulders and she’s left looking up with a gasp.

For a moment the two of them stare at each other, close enough to touch, close enough to hug, and then without hesitation he drops his spear and scoops the child into his arms. Blood and spit didn’t matter to him, the warzone all around him, the screams of mice in rage and mice dying, the pounding footsteps of an army surging up through the city streets. The two embraced as if this was a miracle, and perhaps it was.

My head shifts to one side and the two rodents are tossed into the edge of my vision.

The lithe soldier slings his daughter over his shoulder, the child mumbling something and holding him close. Tucking her head beneath his chin and clinging to be sure they never part again.

My arm slams into the dirt palm first, lifting steadily, dragging me out of the ground. Even through the blood and the pain, the burning agony that goes along with electrocution, my body was still lethal to them.

Tasgal was panicking, I could feel it. No, I could hear his desperate mumbling as he slaps buttons randomly, some of them slicked over and useless as the design was never built to be waterproofed. Three Gesshru spearmen were all stabbing into the panel and jabbing into the cracks, trying to apply enough leverage to force the thing open.

My pilot’s only real hope was to knock them aside and then run, if he could even manage that. But already the next rock was aimed at my face and the armored visor protecting me was torn asunder.

Orchi and her father leapt to freedom before my head was too high up, landing hard and walking forward. His spear abandoned completely to rest within my helmet, his voice cracking up in their equivalent of emotional tears.

“F-fire. Take him down. Take t-the bastard down!” he shouts toward his men while running away behind friendly lines.

My arm reaches out to stop him, but I fight back.

No. I couldn’t close my eyes, but this is the moment where I choose to take a stand. Where I resist every command Tasgal gives with everything I had left. Stuttered shaking. Wild twitches. My arms start to move, but then pull away, then start to move again.

Stab, stab, tear, they were making headway at the back of my skull. If I could just keep this up until they make it to Tasgal they will shred him limb from limb. Keep him still, keep him useless, and he’s going to die here and now.

“N-nnoo! NO! Defend me, save me! Kepa you useless starflung rust splotch, I need help!” that electronic voice boomed out from beneath my neck. They were already coming, but a Gesshru just isn’t as fast as a human, and these soldiers were no doubt bogged down by the ruins blocking their way, or the way this battle moved.

More tearing. I could hear the snap as parts of my control panel fly away, jagged bits of plastic revealing a small area from which to stab through.

“REINFORCEMENTS! Get here now!” he desperately screamed, but nothing changed. This battle was lost for him, and if I had my way he was going to die here.

He was going to die screaming.

I could see a sunset in the distance. I could see Orchi, in the hands of her father, tucked behind their slingshot of a siege engine. I was left wishing there was some way to force my eyes shut and simply let it be, let death take me as it inevitably will. But Tasgal was in control of my eyes and not really coherent at the moment.

The slingshot fires.

A rock hurtles toward my face.

Pain, the taste of iron, stars swirling around my eyes, and then blackness.

As I passed into blissful unconsciousness, the lips I still held sway over were curled into a smile.
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