We found the military quarter under siege, much the same as the city wall itself. Fortunately, whoever had designed this section of the city was a paranoid bastard after my own heart. There wasn’t a single building within twenty metres of the perimeter wall and there were none higher than the wall itself anywhere close. While not as over-designed as the city’s outer walls, it was a thick, high and heavily manned defensive emplacement.

  We were still on the rooftops, all four of us, and we stopped short of the cleared area in front of the main gate to observe. A full thirty-four mages and twice that in normal soldiers were holding hounds back. Thirty-three, rather, as one of the men got too closer and had his throat torn out by a jumping hound.

  Standing on the rooftops, we added our supporting fire to the magic and arrows being flung at the invaders. Attacking from two angles was effective, and their number decreased rapidly, but just as quickly more kept appearing from city streets and other rooftops. Where were they all coming from?

  They scampered around on the ground and tore at the walls and gates. Three of the hounds leapt from the backs of another three, but an arc of lightning reached out and split, slamming into all three of them at once.

  The three on the ground quickly returned to attacking the wall, undeterred by their charred lookalikes falling to the ground in front of them. Their attacks were vicious and there was an unforgiving steel in them, like a machine. They were… primal, savage and mechanical, all at the same time.

  For all that, though, the wall held. Stone and wood didn’t shatter or splinter, even though I had felt the force and musculature behind each of those strikes myself. The hounds should’ve ripped the wall to shreds, especially since I could count forty plus hounds with more arriving every second, seemingly. They should’ve ripped stone apart and splintered wood, flooding the entire area through sheer numbers.

  They didn’t though. Unsurprisingly, the ubiquitous application of magic was responsible, though the specifics of how the wall was reinforced was unknown to me. I was getting used to that though. Magic clearly worked. Figuring out how was a problem for future-Edward.

  Whatever these things were, lightning seemed to hit them and take them out for good, with fire being only slightly less effective. Their sheer numbers gave me some pause. The defenders’ normal technology by comparison, didn’t impress me nearly as much. Crossbow bolts just seemed to skitter and slide off their carapace, didn’t even leave a scratch, magic seemed to be the only thing that could do any damage.

  Their magic was definitely more advanced than their technology. It didn’t take a keen eye to see that the men defending the wall had pulled out all the stops though, even going so far as to use crossbow bolts and arrows that were entirely mundane. I’d noticed that some of their bolts had the telltale glimmer of runic inscriptions, but the ones they fired now had no such mark. They must’ve been desperate, or low on ammunition. Maybe both.

  My assessment complete, I signalled that it was time to move.

  “Don’t overdo it, keep light on your feet.” I said, backing up and putting more distance between me and the complex.

  It wouldn’t do to be too hasty and put a foot through the roof. They were solidly built structures, a lot of this city was, but the roof I was on wasn’t that solid. If we weren’t careful and didn’t pace ourselves the force of our footfalls would end in disaster.

  I walked backwards along the roof, back the way we’d came, then in one fluid motion, catapulted myself into a sprint. The whir of actuators and servos were drowned out by all the ambient noise, including my own breathing.

  For such large and heavy things, we moved faster in armour than you would think was possible. I was very aware of my own capabilities though and I knew that even though the wall was twenty metres away from the edge of the roof and about five metres below me, that was nothing to my augmented limbs.

  I reached the end of the roof and kicked off, flying into the compound. I arced gracefully down and past the oblivious defenders, too absorbed in their task to really notice me. I slammed into the stone ground and rolled, putting some distance between me and my initial landing point.

  Three prolonged clanks came seconds later as everyone made it inside, rolling across the unforgiving ground behind me. I turned to face the men on the walls, and my team.

  “Man the walls, I’m going to find someone in charge of this mess.” I told them.

  True to my word, I spotted the man giving directions and yelling orders immediately, as he barricaded the gate with anything he could find. Old furniture, broken weapons and armour, some large barrels, it was quite the collection.

  I walked up and got his attention.

  “You in charge here?”

  The noise and fury of the battle next to us necessitated yelling, well, at least for him.

  His hands were empty and the weak spindles of lightning flitting between his fingers marked him as a mage.

  “Charged with defending the foreigners’ equipment.”

  “We appreciate that, but I need to know if there’s a plan in place to get out of this alive. Who’s in charge of the city’s defense?”

  He finally turned to regard me, no longer eyeing the barricaded gate quite so darkly. His eyes brightened, appraising me quickly as he took my armoured form in.

  “Hells, I don’t know. We heard that the High Commander’s got a plan to end the battle in one spell but that was a while ago. We’re holding just fine and bringing up more crossbowmen, but there are a lot of innocent citizens out there. For their sake, I hope the woman works her magic quickly.”

  “Can you get them to safety?” I asked.

  “Can I get them—are you insane?” He scowled. “Have you seen what it’s like out there? We’re only safe in here because the walls are built to last. If you open that gate we’ll all die.”

  “Then we won’t open the gate. There are good people out there being slaughtered. We can’t just leave them there. My main priority is defending our equipment, it’s irreplaceable and could radically alter the balance of power across the entire planet… but, there are people out there who need us. You going to help us, or not?” I pinned him with a stare that could freeze water.

  He looked at me with an unreadable expression for a moment, then whirled and walked away. “If they mean so damned much to you, fine, throw away our lives!” He scoffed and made to turn and run up the stairs.

  “Just protect our supplies, we’ll get everyone we find to the gate outside. Can you get them inside if we do?”

  He turned back, seemingly undecided on that, but he nodded finally, then bounded up the steps to oversee the defense. I didn’t ask how he’d get them over the wall, I trusted he’d take care of it. If he was wrong, well, we’d improvise.

  I toggled my microphone. “Alright, new objective everyone, these fine gentleman have promised to hold the walls for us. We need to get as many civilians as we can out of harm’s way in the meantime. If we bring them all to the gates here they’ll be safe.”

  “That a good idea? Clearing this barricade seems counterproductive.” Chen sounded concerned, rightfully so in my opinion.

  “Apparently they’ll handle it. It looks like the defenses are doing most of the heavy-lifting. I agree though. We can’t leave things to chance. Carver, Larsen, secure our gear and lay down defenses as you see fit. Chen and I are going out to see who we can find.”

  We all moved off without comment. We had a plan and we intended to execute it. The lack of bodies to allocate to tasks was riding on my nerves again. I didn’t trust the safety of our gear to unproven allies but I also couldn’t just let a bunch of innocent people die. If I’d had even one extra team, I would’ve felt better about things, but I didn’t.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  I motioned for Chen to come with me. “I need a new S-99, and I know we’ve got spares.”

  The lack of weight in my hands was an unnerving feeling. It was like a persistent buzz between my shoulder blades and along my neck, it made me feel slightly manic. It was made worse by the fact I knew I would need a rifle before the day was done.

  “Wouldn’t be a bad idea to stack our pouches full, too.” Chen commented.

  “With how many of those things are out there? I insist on it.”

  The way to our base was well-defended, I was glad to see, but everyone let us pass quickly enough. Inside of three minutes we’d grabbed eight or so fresh magazines. I’d snagged a new rifle and we’d verified that our barracks and the pod were both locked down before we left.

  “Chen, you spent some time in the city, right? Anyone important we should get out? Important for us, I mean. I know you were involved in negotiating some of the contracts to get the raw minerals we need.”

  “We have a deal with some of the merchants and I know one old man—Ruthan Gorekson—who would probably appreciate being taken someplace safe. He’s something of a local legend, apparently.”

  “Lead the way then.” I said. Chen took the lead as we made our way back out onto the streets and past the fighting.

  “I hope we’re not too late.” He said a little bit later, as we moved into a deserted side street. We’d elected to stay clear of the rooftops this time and try to keep ourselves hidden as long as possible. It was a foregone conclusion we wouldn’t be able to do this without being spotted, but every second we weren’t fighting was a welcome one.

  “The city looks pretty fucked up. I think we were too late the moment we arrived. Whatever solution Lilith is working on better happen soon.”

  “What do you think? Is she going to teleport the city?”

  “What? Why would you think that?”

  Chen shrugged as he cleared the wall leading into the rest of the city. “Well, she’s some big shot witch, right? That just seems like her style. Some big magic display we disappear and reappear over the ocean or something.”

  I chuckled at the thought. “Put a beacon up, would you?” I said.

  The street we were on wasn’t familiar to me. I hadn’t spend any time in the city, besides when we’d passed through to Blackshire, though, so that wasn’t really a surprise. I had absolutely no idea where we were going, beyond some kind of shop.

  “Roger. Not far now.”

  Our armour logged location-based data frequently so finding where he’d met this Ruthan wasn’t a difficult task. Chen simply found the spot in his armour’s logs and put a big beacon over it. A strong vertical beam of light appeared over a part of the city. It was thin, no more than a few metres across, and a pale orange.

  It pulsed rhythmically, brightening and dimming every few seconds.

  The threat counter on my armour was going nuts. Visuals were clear, which really surprised me, but the sounds of enemy contact were enough to give rough estimates and mark potential danger zones and enemy positions. Without any direct visual confirmation, figuring out what was a ‘maybe’ and what was actually something to shoot was difficult. Therefore, my threat counter’s number was inflated somewhat. I had no doubt there really were ninety-eight of these things running around causing havoc in the city, but a lot of those wouldn’t be where my armour said they were.

  “Contact, ten o’ clock!” Chen snapped his rifle up and fired a burst into something on the roof. It fell into the street missing its entire head.

  “You think this guy’s still there?”

  “No idea, but he seemed to think he was well-protected. He might be.”

  My eyes flicked skywards for a moment. Not too far away. End of the street, hang right for a hundred metres, take a left somewhere along the main street and we’d e there.

  “Know anyone else we need to save? You said merchants, as in plural, right?”

  “Yeah, they’re on the same street.”

  “Good. What about the King, or just normal civilians?”

  “No idea. I haven’t seen the King at all, and most of civvies are probably either dead or hiding—the smart ones are, at least.”

  “We can’t save everyone, but this Ruthan guy sounds like he’s got connections. We’ll pick him up and anyone else we run into on the way.”

  “You thinking we search door to door, then?” Chen asked me.

  “No, it’ll take too long. Just turn your loudspeaker on and we’ll hope they don’t think we’re the bugs.”

  “I’m too good looking to be a bug, Edward, you know this.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, and I’m a world-class pilot.”

  “You are a good pilot, though. I’ve seen you in the sims.”

  “Yeah, but I’m no Maverick.”

  Chen neglected to reply, as we were coming up on the main street.

  “Take the right, if we don’t see anything, book it down to the right street. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Roger.”

  We’d found the narrow side street to be perfect concealment, and I hugged the corner of a shop as I leaned out to look down the main street. Like the rest of the city, it was a mess. Debris strewn about and buildings wrecked with all manner of possessions haphazardly spread around the insides of buildings. It was like a little city-sized apocalypse.

  Instantly my threat counter jumped from ‘78+’ to ‘98+’. When I saw nine or so hounds just milling about up the street, I instantly tried to locate the others. Helpfully, my suit highlighted the likely locations.

  The wall exploded next to me, and a mass of claws and teeth threw itself at me.

  “Engaging!”

  At this range it was both harder to miss, and easier to fuck up. If I missed, it would be on me quickly. On the other hand, it was so close only a blind man could miss with a modern rifle.

  I fired three bursts of into the centre of its skull and it tumbled towards me before the friction of the ruined cobblestone street halted it.

  I quickly glance at my wraparound vision told me that Chen was running up the street the other way. I waited a moment for any other surprises. When none were forthcoming I turned and followed him.

  “Which shop?” I asked. The beacon Chen put up was small and precise, true, but I wouldn’t have time to screw about looking at pretty lights on my HUD if things got ugly.

  “It’s a small shop sandwiched between two larger ones, two thirds of the way up the street. Green building.”

  I cast my gaze around the large main street, checking the telltales of my armour, then ducked into the indicated side street to our left. As expected, everything was green and nothing plagued my HUD besides the countless red threat indicators around me.

  I rounded the corner and saw several snarling creatures, all the same hounds we’d quickly become familiar with.

  Chen raised his rifle and fired from the shoulder, tearing vital chunks of flesh from one of the creatures forelimbs and neck. I raised my own rifle and followed his example. A scant few seconds later and a storm of metal left shredded meat and bone further down the street.

  “You don’t think…” I frowned. The front of the shop was scratched up, but large steel shutters concealed the inside and had doubtlessly protected whoever was sheltering inside.

  “They were trying to get inside his shop. Some specific reason, do you think? Or was he just a tempting morsel?”

  We kept our weapons raised at the corpses as we approached, some of them still twitching. When we got close, I motioned with my head towards the shop, checking our six as I did so.

  “I have no idea. Go check on him and find out. I’ve got you covered.” I turned from the collection of dead creatures in front of me and took up position in an alcove on the opposite side of the street to Ruthan’s shop.

  So far, nothing had arrived to spoil our fun, but that could change quickly. While it was a big city, there were probably a lot of these things rampant and roaming the city. I was glad it wasn’t my job to clean up the mess.

  “Riley, we’ve got six civilians, plus Ruthan. Apparently he’s got something he needs to move.”

  “Something?”

  “A large crystal.”

  “Doesn’t sound so hard, tell him to bring it along.”

  An audible silence came over our open channel. “It’s a big crystal.”

  I scowled. “How big?”

  “We could move it, but one of us would be out of action for however long it took.”

  “Tough shit then, he’s leaving it behind.”

  “It’s important.”

  I groaned. “How important?”

  A few moments of silence later and Chen replied. “It’s some kind of repository of knowledge, his words, not mine. I gather it’s not some kind of commodity or something easily replaced, but he seems really insistent.”

  I shook my head. “He hasn’t heard of an off-site backup, I suppose? Are you sure we need to take it?”

  “Well, if we don’t he might cancel the contracts we have with him. I don’t know.”

  Disgusted, I scoffed. “Fine then, you carry it, I’ll shoot. What about the other six?”

  “Merchants. They’re happy to tag along back to the secure zone.”

  “I bet. Tell them to stay close and keep up. If they fall behind… well, just tell them they better not fall behind, okay?”

  “I read you.”

  Fortunately, I wasn’t the one wrangling a bunch of scared shitless civilians. I’d done it before, and I did have some experience with ordering irrational, terrified people from their homes and to safer areas, but Chen would be able to move faster than I could.

  Growing up in space onboard a freighter meant a punishing exercise regimen to maintain muscle mass and bone density since they didn’t have artificial gravity much of the time. The extra strength would help him bear the weight with more grace, and to be honest I just didn’t like the idea of slinging my rifle to carry around a paperweight.”

  Once I received confirmation that the civilians at the rear of our little formation were ready, we retraced our route. Chen was carrying a ridiculous dark and green rhombus. It was nearly as big as he was, and he had to use both hands. Fortunately, it wasn’t so big that he couldn’t see where he was going.

  I didn’t have time to brief everyone and hold their hands, so I just had to hope they would stick with me. I waved them forward and then took off at a light jog up the street.

  “Larsen, Carver, this is Riley, we’re on our way back with six civilians in tow. Situation?”

  Carver answered me with a growl. “These things won’t let up. They don’t seem to be able to get in, but they’re not retreating. We’re good, for now.”

  I snorted. “These things seem like they’re the type to block your lines of fire with mountains of their own corpses. I’m not surprised. Hold the line, ETA six minutes.”

  “Great. See you soon.”

  I scanned the area around me. Finding it clear was a welcome surprise, but I had no doubt that with how clear our route was someone else was having a really shitty day.

  All around me, chaos reigned as the city crumbled, but something gave me pause. Distant thunder. All along the horizon, storm clouds darkened the sky. Part of me hoped that was evidence that Lilith’s solution to this mess was going to happen soon, but I knew better. I wasn’t that lucky. Knowing my luck, it was probably just a sign of impending heavy rain and strong winds.