“Seven targets incoming, southbound. Moving your way, Leah. Be ready to engage. Over.”

  Leah lifted the bolt of her rifle with slow precision. She loaded a round into the chamber and returned the bolt to its forward position. From her spot on the roof she couldn’t see the enemy yet, but would as soon as they turned a corner. In a few seconds, they did.

  “I see them. Over.”

  The group of Guardians moved carefully through the desolate streets, performing a thorough sweep. They glanced her way a few times, but she trusted her camouflage. They wouldn’t see anything, not even a glint of light reflecting in a scope. When hunting Guardians, she always used iron sights.

  Leah initiated a scan with her ocular implant. She fed all the relevant information into her rudimentary combat AI; from the small patterns of the enemy’s movement, to the subtle folds in their clothing. It deduced their fighting styles based on the way their muscles moved and analyzed their flow of divine energy to find out what marks they had. In the time it took them to examine a closed-off street, her AI finished its work.

  Two air mages, more than usual. The others were irrelevant, apart from one stone mage who could have enough reach to be a threat to Leah. They had no proper spotters, just like the Enclave’s intelligence reported. Amateurs.

  “Two breathers, one artillery, four melee.” Leah’s voice was muted by her mask, audible only in the comms. “Need someone to neutralize the artillery. Short, with brown hair. Permission to engage. Over.”

  “Emex, get the fucker. Leah, fire at will. Over.”

  She shifted her ear membranes, going deaf for a split second before pulling the trigger.

  The kick of the rifle vibrated through her reinforced bones. The sound must have been deafening, but before it could reach the unlucky air mage Leah pulled back the bolt again, ejecting the cartridge. A second one slid down her arm, feeding into the gun.

  The rifle kicked again.

  The two air shaper’s heads exploded in a splatter of gore, painting the snow red before they could even register what was happening.

  Blah, a waste of good ammo. They didn’t even have a barrier mage to slow her down. It was like shooting flaplings with a cannon.

  The remaining Guardians looked to their fallen comrades in a panic. One of them, the artillery, held her breath. Smart, this one. It didn’t help her when Emex thrust a dagger into her skull.

  The others didn’t even notice her dying—too panicked, too busy coughing their lungs out. They were dead soon after, the rest of Leah’s team joining the fight.

  Before the last one fell, she was already getting up. The heat from the gun sublimated all snow in a two-meter radius, leaving her damp in the middle of a steam cloud. Two shots in quick succession were pushing the limits of her rifle as well as her armor, but she didn’t trust the scouts to be able to kill breathing opponents. She stretched, feeling for any damage to her cybernetics. None found, she made her way to the ground floor.

  “Good work up there, Leah. This could’ve been trouble without you.” Faye, the squad leader, nudged one of the bodies with her foot. It was oozing blood from multiple puncture wounds. “This one was big. The fuck are they feeding them?”

  “From what I gather mostly crushed and baked grains, fermented grains, and boiled grains,” Coltin, team analyst, said. “Their biology is mostly a result of not growing up underground, not a matter of nutrition. We get plenty of calories.”

  “Fermented grains?”

  “Yes, served as a drink.”

  “Do they eat anything other than grains?” Max, the last and in Leah’s opinion, the least, member of the team, asked. “That can’t be good for them.”

  “Well, they do have livestock animals, but they can’t afford to eat them regularly. Only the richer ones do. The lower class supplements mostly with fish which is more widely available.”

  “The lower class?”

  “Ah, I forgot the depths of socio-economics elude you, Max.” Coltin’s amusement leaked into his voice.

  “Fuck you man, we can’t all be smart. Some of us have to actually get things done.”

  “Feeding habits aside, anything interesting on them?” Leah steered the conversation back on track. If she let Coltin and Max argue about the viability of an all-grain diet they wouldn’t get any work done, but Faye would have let them talk all day. Her infatuation with Coltin was inhibiting her ability to act as a leader.

  “Yeah, take a look at that.” Emex threw a scrap of paper her way. He must have calculated the trajectory because it landed perfectly in her hand.

  Leah liked Emex, as much as she liked anyone. He was the only slightly competent person in the group apart from herself. He also didn’t talk much.

  On the paper there were simple orders to scout the area and eliminate all threats. She raised an eyebrow. “They classified the area as D? Not only inept, but also wildly misinformed.”

  “Yeah, they didn’t know about our activity in the region,” Emex said.

  “Well, may this situation serve as a reminder of the importance of proper threat assessment,” Faye said. “Our job’s done here, we’re going back to the Enclave. Leah, Emex, do you want to stay and make sure we aren’t followed?”

  Asking what a subordinate wants instead of simply issuing an order. Another sign of incompetence.

  The ‘order’ itself was correct though. In low-threat areas like this one the proper protocol was to set up automatic sentries or have someone hang back, and Leah was the only one capable of finding her way to the Enclave by herself. It was annoying though. She had things to do here, things she couldn’t do if Emex stayed behind with her.

  Leah was with this group as a punishment. She was too competent for simple scouting missions like this, but after the last mission, she had her solo runs permission revoked. That, and none of the actually good groups wanted to work with her. Stupid prejudice.

  Before she could protest, Emex nodded. “We’ll keep the comms on. When you cross the sea, we’ll follow.”

  “Good.” Faye returned the nod. “Let’s go.”

  “Leave us a bike or two,” Emex said. “Good luck.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  It took them a few minutes to gather their equipment and leave towards the outskirts. There was an armored personnel carrier waiting for them there, hidden in one of the empty buildings. As soon as they did leave, Leah picked her rifle back up. She should’ve left it on the roof, it was pointless to lug it up and down.

  “Emex, take care of the bodies. We don’t want any carrion feeders,” Leah said. “I’ll take the watch.”

  Emex saluted and got to work. He knew Leah expected at least basic military protocol when in charge.

  She got back to her birch and observed the horizon, taking a glance at Emex dragging the bodies from time to time.

  ?

  The watch was long and tedious. Just the way it should be.

  Leah treasured the peace and quiet of the wastelands. She never felt like she belonged in the cramped spaces of the settlements, with all the people and noise. Outside, she was free. Free of the underground hassle, of the damp corridors and claustrophobic rooms. Free of the unwritten rules one had to abide by not to offend people. Free of the tiring protocols of the military she was part of that only slowed her down. Though she had to admit, they were useful when she was the one in charge.

  At least Emex kept quiet. Leah kept a direct channel to him, muting the team wide communications. Max and Coltin were back to their grain argument, though why they felt it necessary to transmit it was anyone’s guess. If anything worthwhile was said, Emex would inform her.

  She kept scanning their surroundings. Emex was on the ground looking for threats within the city, while she looked south. From her perch she could see about forty-five kilometers out. Forty-five kilometers of nothing but flat, radioactive wastes.

  The tip of the Veil was peeking over the horizon. The view of the mirror-like dome always brought to mind her parents, and their life’s mission to take over that slice of paradise. One day, she would finish what they started.

  Movement shook her out of her thoughts, a few kilometers out. The lenses in her eyes shifted, letting her zoom in. The snow was disturbed by something passing underneath it.

  “Emex, diggers spotted. Report. Over.”

  “I feel them, a lot of them. Get down here. Over.” Emex’s voice buzzed in Leah’s ear. She put her rifle down and ran down the stairs, reconfiguring the springs in her legs on the way. She’d need all the speed she could get.

  On the street she could feel the characteristic vibrations beneath her. The diggers were mining robots, repurposed during the Last War. Thousands were let loose as the cities were lost, with their definition of precious minerals changed to human flesh. The vibrations were a byproduct of the way they moved and hunted; they mapped the city with them—a mechanism once used for them to orient themselves in the tunnels.

  They were somewhat simple to evade, once you knew how they worked. They had limits to what they could see—while they used vibrations to differentiate flesh from concrete by density, if you blocked the vibrations somehow, they wouldn’t notice you.

  Emex took out a small gun and shot, but instead of bullets a foam-like substance left the barrel, expanding rapidly on contact with air. Soon it covered a patch of ground wide enough to stand on.

  Leah joined him just as the first bots appeared. One by one they emerged from under the street, their forelimb-mounted mining lasers cracking the asphalt. They were small, barely reaching her knees. In addition to the lasers each had a bulbous metal sack resting on four arthropod-like legs, not unlike a pregnant spider.

  “Thanks for getting us cover,” Leah said. “It would’ve been dicey if they found me on the roof.”

  The diggers were busy examining their surroundings. One got close to their patch of foam before stumbling confusedly, its pathfinding algorithms stumped.

  “No problem.” Emex sat down on the foam. “Did you get the transmission? Faye and the boys got to the Threshold. We’re free to move out.”

  “No, I’ve got it muted. We can leave as soon as the diggers pass.”

  An indicator flashed in her peripheral vision. She snapped her head up, towards the sky.

  “Pterosaurs, north-west. Analyzing.”

  The results of the scan made her blood run cold.

  “We got Quetzalcoatlus incoming, a whole flock,” she said.

  “Fuck!” Emex cursed. “We need to get to cover. We can’t stay here!”

  Leah took off towards the nearest building. The digger pack noticed her immediately, turning towards her as one. Lasers flashed to life, but before they could hit her she discharged the springs in her legs, explosive momentum pushing her forward. She made it to the nearest building in seconds, busting through the door. With a roof over her head she was safe from the more dangerous threat.

  The robots didn’t follow her, turning their attention to the closest target. Emex was running towards her, but the pack was in his way and he was busy trying to break through with a sword in hand. Mining lasers flashed against his armor, stopped by a translucent force shield. It wouldn’t last forever though.

  “Help me out here, Leah!” Emex yelled out. “Clear me a path!”

  Leah took out her pistol, waiting for a clean shot. Emex cut through a digger, a spray of oil marking the passage of the blade. His enhanced muscles let him immediately pivot, slicing through two more. Another bot raised its forelimbs to shoot at him, but Leah was faster. Two bullets bit into the vulnerable cracks between limbs and body, and it fell.

  The robots surrounded Emex, attacking from all sides. Leah’s well-placed shots helped him not get overwhelmed, but it was only a matter of time. She had left her rifle on the roof and without the rest of the team they lacked the firepower necessary to cut through the diggers fast enough. It wouldn’t be a problem if they were the only threat, but they were on a time limit. In the skies, the Qs were circling their prey, waiting for a moment of vulnerability.

  Emex took a nervous glance at the sky and the moment of inattention cost him. Two lasers and a steel limb struck him at the same time and his shield cracked, overwhelmed.

  “Shit!” He jumped, in a desperate ploy to get to safety. Miraculously, he made it over the line of robots, the way towards the building open before him. As long as he was clear of the skies, they could make a stand inside.

  A laser lit up the ground in front of Emex. He tried to arrest his momentum, but didn’t manage in time. A digger emerged from under him and sliced cleanly through his leg.

  Time seemed to slow as Leah’s mind churned, trying to find a way to save him. Four percent chance to kill the diggers before a Q could grab Emex. Twelve percent to run out and grab him before a Q dove for her, ten percent chance of dodging the leftover bots afterwards. Two percent chance of harming the Qs with her pistol if one got close.

  Eighty percent of survival if she abandoned him.

  “Leah!” he screamed. “Help me, please!”

  She holstered her gun and turned, glancing back only once to see the first of Quetzalcoatlus make a dive for Emex.

  The pterosaur picked him up in its massive beak and took to the sky. Enhanced hearing let her clearly register the sickening crunch as the dinosaur dropped its prey from the sky. He was screaming all the way down.

  Leah ran up the stairs, scanning the rooms on the way. The diggers were burrowing through the walls towards her, their primitive programming forcing them to follow now that the closest threat was gone. She needed to find a safe space or be overwhelmed.

  A digger burst out of the stairs in front of her. She jumped to the side, dodging the attack. Her legs stored the kinetic energy as she landed and released it explosively, flinging her back towards the robot. The robot’s bulbous sack caved in as she rebounded off it. Two more took its place however, blocking the way up the stairs.

  Leah burst into the closest room and slammed the door behind her. It wouldn’t hold for long, but it would slow them for half a second at least. There was another entrance to the room, leading to a hallway and a second staircase. She could hear the diggers inside the walls, following after her.

  She had to get to her rifle, but it was still ten floors up. Desperate, she pulled the pin off a grenade and tossed it down the stairs.

  The shock wave launched her through the nearest wall. The building creaked and for a second she thought it’d fall on her head. She looked behind, dazed. Her armor protected her from the shrapnel and internal damage, but the same couldn’t be said for the stairs. There was a gaping hole three floors high, rubble and bot parts at the bottom.

  Leah got up as fast as she dared and scanned her surroundings. Most of the bots were caught in the explosion, and the few that didn’t seemed to lose track of her, their sensors overwhelmed and decalibrated. She was safe.

  Outside the window, a lone bot was cutting Emex’s leg into small cubes and packing it into its sack. Smoke trickled out of it, the flesh being recycled into energy. The remains of the other robots were already gone.

  Leah felt a pang of sadness at Emex’s death, but at least without him she could achieve her real objective. She turned the group comms on.

  "Leah, reporting in. Emex is dead. I'm going rogue. Over."

  "God damn—"

  She turned the comms off.