CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
They fulfilled their purpose
Maddie looked over at her sisters. All three wraiths crouched below the edge of the rock, careful not to peek too far over. She cringed at the crunching sound, tears rolling silently down her cheeks as the massive predator, no more than twenty-five feet away, tore one of her squad mates in half and devoured the little rogue.
A second predator moved up alongside the first, and the two fought over what was left of the dead wraiths.
The monsters had strange jaws. At first, their mouths opened like any other predator’s, but then the sides split apart too, widening until the whole front of the creature’s head stretched into a tooth-lined maw. It looked wrong.
The three wraiths and the remainder of their squads had barely managed to escape. One of the creatures had sprayed some kind of bile at Maddie and her squad. It had barely missed her, but when she phased through the stone to escape, her squad mates slammed into the rocky surface behind her, unable to follow, and were quickly torn apart.
The monster had a long neck and didn’t appear to have eyes. The creature was black, with iridescent purple and pink webbing across its skin. It stood on two legs and had massive three-clawed hands at the ends of lengthy arms, along with a long whip-like tail.
One of the creatures stood upright and turned in their direction. A thin frill of skin flared out from behind its head as it emitted a strange rattling sound. The other creature stopped eating long enough to answer through a series of pops and clicks, its own frill expanding behind its head a moment later.
“Don’t move.”
A new voice whispered between the girls.
Maddie startled when she saw ARi projection crouched behind the rocks with them. ARi looked back at Maddie and slowly shook her head. Then she pointed at the three wraiths and toward a nearby embankment.
She wanted them to run.
ARi disappeared and reappeared behind the creatures. She reached down, picked up a small rock, and hurled it at the back of one of the monsters’ heads.
Both alien predators turned toward her at once.
ARi immediately bolted in the opposite direction from the wraiths, and the monsters gave chase.
Erica reached over and grabbed Maddie by the arm while Maddie stared at what was left of her squad, sprawled across the ground in pieces and gore.
“We have to go!” Erica said. “You can’t help them!”
The three wraiths bolted for the embankment, phasing in and out of the rocks as they sprinted back toward the others. The remaining wraiths phased out of the canyon walls and followed.
The ground pounded as the creatures chased ARi farther up the canyon.
When the wraiths came around a bend in the rocky crevice, they ran past ARi again. This time, she was waiting for them herself. She raised both hands and pulled a massive stone barrier up between them and the monsters.
“Girls, get yourselves and the remainder of your squads up to Tonya, right now!” ARi yelled as she strained to keep dragging the stone out of the ground.
“Ward, I don’t think that’s going to stop them!” Tony hollered as she ran by.
“I know it isn’t going to hold them. Get back onto the constructs now!”
As the wraiths climbed the rope ladders that had been dropped from the sides of the constructs, the massive machines were already on the move. The stone barrier ARi had pulled up gave them just enough cover to protect the constructs’ legs as they positioned themselves.
All three were side by side now, packed tightly across the width of the canyon opening.
The monsters had stopped their pursuit of ARi’s projection and were quickly approaching the barrier from around the bend. The instant they came around the corner, the rapid-fire gas-powered guns and cannons erupted in a storm of fire. Bronze and brass darts tore through the air in a brutal strafe.
The creatures flailed and slid unable to shed their momentum, smashing into the canyon wall as the barrage hit them, but even through that storm of fire, one still managed to get back to its feet.
From the open doorway of the far-left construct’s main cabin, I watched the monster rise through the smoke and darts.
The sound it made was unlike anything I had ever heard before.
I barely managed to throw myself back inside before the thing sprayed a thick mass of bile across the construct and the gunners. The bile hissed and popped as it hit. The acid ate into everything it touched.
The construct crumpled on its legs and crashed down into the ground, suddenly depowered.
I hit the cabin floor hard and grabbed for anything bolted down as the whole machine lurched beneath me. I climbed back out onto the deck getting my first look at the carnage.
The second creature open its mouth, its frill spread wide, and just as it drew back to strike, three rapid bursts of fire ripped through the air and blasted the damn thing straight in the mouth. Garth stood on the forward platform of the center construct with his hand raised.
At the same time, a stream of ice struck the other creature across the neck and chest. It backpedaled, fighting against the force of it as Wayne drained his energy reserves, hammering the thing.
The sky dimmed as hundreds of pila arced overhead and drove down into the creatures while the legion behind us prepared another volley.
The predator that had taken the fire blasts to the mouth finally toppled backward. Its head seemed to melt and come apart as it crashed into the ground, but then its body began to split and dissolve. Hundreds of three-legged creatures burst out of the dying corpse.
They were each about the size of a large raptor.
The smaller monsters swarmed over the remaining predator, running up its side and back. They tore into it with wild jerking bites and sprayed that same toxic bile all over its body. The larger creature came crashing down under the attack, and moments later, more of the smaller things were bursting from it as well.
ARi raised a hand again and managed to repower the far-left construct. Its legs shuddered beneath me, then it pushed itself back to its feet.
I forced my way out of the cabin and climbed down as fast as I could. I dropped the last few feet and raced across the canyon floor to catch her just in time. The strain had emptied her reserves completely. Tonya and I pulled her back behind the constructs and handed her off to Red and Charlie, along with a couple dozen other soldiers who immediately started dragging her farther to safety.
I ran for the center construct, jumped, and barely caught the ladder. Hand over hand, I hauled myself up until I reached the platform. From there, I ran to where Garth and my fire mage were already preparing another volley.
I pulled up my menu as fast as I could and spent two of my last four control points on two additional fire mages.
They barely had time to realize where they were before Garth dropped back from the forward platform and ran to them, barking rapid instructions in kobold. All three mages moved to the front of the construct and started pouring searing flames into the canyon floor and walls just beyond the stone barrier.
The heat rolled over me in suffocating waves. My skin prickled beneath my armor, and every breath tasted like smoke, hot metal, and burning chemicals. We could hear the creatures screeching beneath the combined torrent of fire and darts.
Then shouting broke out from the ground behind us.
I ran through the interior compartments all the way to the back, and when I burst outside again, I saw more of the three-legged monsters pouring down the canyon walls behind us. They scrambled over the rock in frantic, skittering bursts, claws scraping stone as they rushed for the canyon floor.
Red and Charlie already had the legion in ranks, their formations turned away from the larger fight at the front. I watched as they pulled ARi into the center of the formation. More than twenty Praetorian blade guards closed around her in a moving wall, keeping her surrounded at all times.
The rear gun batteries on all three constructs opened up and began tearing into the creatures trying to outflank us, but from the angle we were at, they could only hit the ones coming down the walls. That left the soldiers on the ground to deal with the ones that reached the canyon floor.
I watched the smaller creatures slam into the kobold shield walls.
Spears thrust forward and punched through thick hide and carapace, but the blood and gore that spilled from the wounds was acidic. It burned everything it touched. The air quickly filled with the sharp reek of caustic chemicals and scorched flesh.
Hannah stood on the back of the center construct in her powered armor. Her cannon pounded semi-automatic rounds into the swarm, each blast tearing through the monsters in bursts of shattered carapace and burning acid.
Then one of the creatures broke through the line and started driving straight toward ARi, smashing and crushing kobolds.
Hannah jumped down.
She hit into the ground hard in her powered armor and charged through the ranks, her cannon never ceasing fire. The creature staggered under the barrage, then collapsed only a few feet from where she stood. ARi and the Praetorians tried to take cover behind Hannah’s armor as the thing thrashed and spat acid.
I heard Hannah scream.
Her armor, splashed in bile, began to come apart around her. Plates sloughed off, and she dropped into the puddles of acid as the suit deteriorated around her body.
Bishop blasted straight through the back of the construct I had originally been in, not even bothering with the door. He hit the ground hard, never slowing, and scooped Hannah up in two arms while in his utility configuration. He turned and carried her back toward Kyle and Tonya as fast as he could move.
ARi followed behind him, back on her feet but still flanked by the Praetorians.
By the time the fighting was over, we had taken heavy losses. From where I stood on top of the construct, I could see the carnage below.
I made my way down and back to the canyon floor. I raced over to find the stone-walled triage area that Kyle had created during the fight. Yumi stood outside. Protecting the makeshift structure with her shield drones while riding atop Lily. Inside, I found row after row of injured kobolds being tended to.
Tonya was in the back corner, running her hands over the side of Hannah’s face and arm where the acid had splashed through an open split in her armor before the suit had fallen apart.
“That stings!” Hannah screamed, fighting as ARi held her from behind. “It feels like fire ants are crawling all over my face!”
“Just hold still, Hannah,” ARi said. “Trust me, if you could see yourself in a mirror right now, you wouldn’t be moving around so much.”
“Is it bad?” Hannah suddenly stopped moving. “ARi, how bad is it?”
“She’s almost got it fixed now. But let’s just say you didn’t have to open your mouth for me to see the fillings in your teeth.”
Hannah’s eyes grew huge.
“Architect,” Charlie said as he ran up and grabbed my attention. “We’ve had to start putting the wounded outside.”
“How many were spirit-born?”
“I’d say almost half. A lot of the Praetorians got sprayed when that thing attacked Hannah. We also lost most of our Velites that were manning the front gun positions on the constructs.”
Tonya looked up from what she was doing with Hannah. “Gavin, I’m not going to have enough to heal everybody right now, but if you pull the spirit-born into stasis, I can focus on the others. We can heal the spirit-born later.”
I looked back to Charlie, who was already nodding in agreement. I pulled open my Architect window. I selected all of the critically injured spirit-born.
“I don’t like pulling them into stasis without warning,” I said, looking back down to Charlie.
“It’s okay. Trust me, they’ll understand.”
“Did we get all of those monsters?” I asked, hesitantly.
“We did. And I hope you don’t mind, but I sent the wraiths out to scout again. This time Tony said to tell you they’ll stick to the walls.”
I turned my attention back toward ARi. “How the hell could that crap they were spraying bring down one of our constructs like that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It was like it drained the energy reserve right out of it. It wasn’t damaged. I literally just had to repower it.”
“I can confirm that, Architect.”
A low voice called out from one of the rows of wounded. I looked down to find Garth and was shocked to see the little mage missing the lower part of his arm.
“Holy shit, dude. Tonya!” I hollered.
“Gavin, he’s fine. I’ve already stopped the bleeding, and I’m kind of doing triage here.”
“I’m okay,” Garth said. “When that vile substance hit me, I could feel it pull the energy from my core. That acid dissolved my arm in seconds. The other mages took more of a direct hit. They didn’t make it.”
Wayne stepped into the makeshift field hospital and sat on the ground, legs crossed, next to Garth.
“I’m sorry about the other mages.”
“They fulfilled their purpose,” Wayne said. “As grim as that sounds.”
I looked around at all the other wounded as Tonya raced from one injured kobold to another. Even though we had killed every monster that attacked us, this was no victory. We needed a new strategy before we pushed any farther.
