To their credit, they at least made it look like they were trying. Under the looming shape of their stolen airspeeder, four knights were shuffling around the uneven ground, working on setting up a few poles where a makeshift tent was being setup.

The single most miserable looking tent I’ve ever seen.

Way too high to the point someone could walk inside upright, and still have head room above. First bit of wind would knock that down, only reason it was still standing was the geography of the area here. It was even worse on closer look, when I realized it had been been made from different perfectly functional habitat tents the knights snatched up aboard the airspeeder. Except that wasn’t what habitat tents were made for in the first place, and they certainly didn't connect to one another in any way that would offer a correct temperature seal.

Tents were supposed to be squat little square things, made to be low and close to the ground, heavily insulated and easy to warm up by reducing the area that needed to be warmed up. You'd crawl inside, eat and drink on your stomach or on your back if that was the preference, and take a breather in safety. Sponge bath and sleeping were also done the same way. With a bit of practice, it becomes a cozy little shelter from the deadly weather outside. The low profile meant easy storage and heavy winds would be a non-issue. Heavy metal beams would be capable of holding snow pile on, rated up to a few thousand pounds. If the wind did become an issue, you had bigger problems to worry about than the tent being ripped off the ground. The airspeeder you rode on is probably in more trouble.

The undersiders clearly didn’t get that memo, since they tried slicing a few different tents together in order to make a larger version I’d seen in old pictures from the third era. So the exact opposite of what the standard habitat tents were made for, and it wouldn't even work well since all the insulation was cut into pieces just to stitch them together in this unholy abomination. The scavenger inside me was outright seething at the waste of perfectly good habitat tents. Those aren’t cheap to make, areogel is a temperamental process. But the newfound knight I’d become was more in control, so I let this slide.

We didn’t try to hide our approach. No, that was the job for the other teams slowly sulking around the Undersiders.

“We’ve arrived.” Shadowsong said over the public comms, as our group marched up to the makeshift abomination. One knight stepped out, glancing at the assembled crew. Noticing we all had weapons drawn out. Shadowsong stared him down, as if daring the knight to ask us to put down our weapons.

The knight seemed to think for a moment, before shaking his head, and motioning us inside. He didn’t looked armed, rifle stowed away behind his back, while his knife was still firmly inside the boot holster. Instead, he had a rope with a triple pronged hook at the end tied to his waist and no other equipment I could spot.

Sagrius, my decoy, stood firm. Hands folding across his chest, head tilted to the side. He did not look impressed by the events here. I supplied the voice. “I think we can speak out here, in the open.”

The Undersider looked over at us for a moment, looked back inside the tent, and then paused. Likely speaking on private comms to his compatriots. A few moments passed, before the other undersider knights shuffled out. “Fine, doesn’t make that much difference to us.” One said. If they were miffed that their hobbled together abomination was going to go unused, they didn't voice it. All together, there were only the original four we were alerted to on our approach. No weapons out, and their gear all looked to be made for scaling walls rather than preparing for a fight.

“Who speaks for you?” I asked, keeping still while Sagrius shuffled around as if he were the one talking from the front.

They glanced at one another, before one stepped forward. “The captain’s away right now. We’ve been authorized to negotiate in his steed.”“Away right now? And what's he doing, taking a piss out in the freeze somewhere? Where’s he hiding at? Where’s the rest of your group?”“You’re the winterscar, right?” He said instead, ignoring the questions.

Sagrius shrugged while I spoke through the comms. “That’s me. Why are you all after me? What’s the goal here?”The knight shrugged back. “Golden tits if I know. I just do what they ask. Maybe you’re unlucky and got his attention, or you pissed him off at some point. Can’t say because I don’t know.”“Do you understand the situation you’re in? If I’m here standing before you, whatever plan you’ve got isn’t good enough. We know you’re not really here to negotiate, we’ve come prepared for a fight armed to the teeth, and you will not win this.”

The knight nodded as if that was obvious to him. He raised a finger, “For one, it’s not my plan so I don’t have much of a foot in if it works or not. Frankly, I kind of hope it doesn't, if only because I don't like the bastard any more than you will. For two, we know. This sort of hairbrained stunt sounded stupid to us too, but our boss doesn’t care if we live or die. Making up a solid working plan is beneath him apparently. But let me guess, you’ve got us surrounded and probably have a few war frigates hiding around with all kinds of weapons pointed at our heads that we don’t know about. Maybe you knew what kind of active scanning our frigate can do, and brought just the right counter to sneak an army around. Or you’ve got a clan missile ready to blow up everything. That’s what I’d do in your boots. How close am I?”

“You sound over your head here." I said, getting a feeling I might have a better hook with some diplomacy. "Work with me and we can find a way to keep you living through the day. Release the hostages, give up your armors, and we'll have you back home eating something warm."

“Trust us buddy, this isn’t the first time we’ve found ourselves over our heads. Goddess fuck us up the arse, we've been getting the shit end of this deal ever since we left the city. If you make it out alive too, good for you. For the rest of us…" He looked behind him, to the other four who looked back. "We just want to live to tomorrow and we'll figure out what to do then if we make it. Nothing personal, just following orders.”

“You’re not--”

“Save your breath.” He said, cutting me off. The rest of the Undersiders were already taking out their ropes and hooks, like a message had just come on their comms. “Between you and me, Winterscar, I think you made the right choice coming here. No one out here to get caught in the crossfire like back at your clan. It would have been a slaughter of civilians. But you did piss him off by making him run here, and now, well he's here. Hope you do get the bastard but I don’t hold out much odds for that.”

A tremor shook the ground. The enemy knights looked at one another and then crouched down low to the ground.

I had a feeling that I'd seen this before. A wave happened, lifting up the center of the area up a few feet, and then spreading back out in a ring around. And the center caved in, a wide abyss growing as the ice broke apart and fell.

There was no escape. Not for me, nor the guards around, or even the Undersiders before us. They were also swallowed up by the fall.

The second time I’ve fallen down a hole. Nestled deep within the embrace of the soul fractal, I didn’t feel a sense of panic, or even that gut clenching rush of adrenaline at the start of a fall. My footing slipped as the ground crumbled to pieces under me, and down I went with the rest of the ice.

Relic armor is impressively durable against falls. So long as the velocity isn’t enough to squash your brain against the skull, any fall could be survivable. Not something people think of often, except I’ve been in that situation and I’ve seen someone live through this before. With all the ice chunks falling around, I could grab onto them and jump straight back up in order to reduce the fall speed right before hitting ground.

That same thought seemed to have flowed through all of us. Shadowsong was already grappling with a large chunk by his side, leaping from rock to rock until he had a more clear sight up. So were the rest of my guards. I joined in, pushing against the falling debris and clearing my way upwards. “Aim for the walls.” Shadowsong spoke over the comms. “We’ll scale back up.”

Physics of course would make jumping out of the sinkhole impossible, even jumping from rock to rock with relic armor. The Undersider knights had already tossed out their rope and grappling hooks, striking the far ends of the hole, where they raced through the air, landing feet first against the newly made cliffside. They swiftly worked on climbing and would reach the lip of the surface first, but that didn’t worry me.

We’d be behind them slightly, which would amount to no difference in terms of combat. Five of us against four of them, and we had the winterblossom techniques in addition to better occult weapons. If this was the extent of their plan, they’d seriously messed up.

A blue haze began to glow in the air around me, slowing down my fall and causing me to remain floating in midair. Turning around on myself, I could see the rest of us were also being caught in separate beams of blue.

I’d seen this before. The first time I’ve entered a machine nest. Three types of monsters lurked there. Spiders with six legs, ruthlessly hunting me down. Barnacle like turrets, stationary with only one glowing eye to target with.

And a third type I hadn’t been able to see in detail. Those would catch and hold prey for the turrets to shred. “Rifles out!” I screamed. “Open fire on whatever source of the blue beams are holding onto yo-”

That was as far as I could get before something slammed into the cliffside to my side. A massive wave of occult blue, like an arc, crushed into the wall. The power rippled into the rockside, causing more of it to crumble down, exposing what looked to be part of the underpass. A wide cavern leading deeper underground.

Rifleshots rang out, and I saw my guards were already freeing themselves from the blue beams. Turrets were firing out at them, but their shields were still holding firm. They dropped down further, down into the depths, surrounded by spots of white that were no doubt the machine spiders. I took out my own rifle and began to search for whatever machine was keeping me hovering in the air.

I never got the chance to open fire on the thing. Another wave of occult blue slapped into me, batting me out of the beam and sending me flying off, directly into the open tunnel. I landed on solid ground, feet landing correctly only for a moment before the rest of the physical forces threw me into a spin onto the ground. Journey and I slid further into the open tunnel, until finally all speed had bled out in scrapes and sparks.

“What the fuck was that?” I muttered, standing back up. I could hear distant sounds of fighting, deeper underground.

“Journey’s got records of a visual match. It’s seen something like this before.” Cathida said. “You won’t like the answer. I don't like the answer either.”

“Tell me.”

“Back underground, on your escape attempt.”

“Ahh ratshit.”

“Run now, swearing later deary.” Cathida said, a real note of worry in her voice. I started a full sprint, racing back to the tunnel opening where I could jump down and land among my retinue. Never got that chance. A shadow leaped up and landed right at the center of the tunnel mouth. The man landed hard on his heels, bending down slowly with the impact before standing back to his full height. The cracked ground by the bare feet clearly pointed to a much, much heavier weight than a regular human of that size should be at. The spear he carried lit bright occule blue.

He turned with a lazy gaze, back to the opening of the tunnel, and struck the weapon in an arc through the air. Another crescent of power flew out following his motion, hitting the roof of the tunnel and collapsing. Rocks and ice tumbled and covered the entrance, turning the world dark except for the dim glow of the underpass and Journey’s headlights.

Violet glowing eyes turned in the dim darkness. More steps brought him further into the light. No mistaking who that was. The black shoulder cape. The floating metal halo. A massive shoulder pauldron, more like a flat shield held by his shoulder. And that spear, held in the claw-like disassembled hand of floating metal.

“You are a nuisance.” To’Aacar said.

“It’s… you.”

“How impressive, you have working eyes and some semblance of memory. Yes, it’s me.” He all but hissed.

It all clicked together. The slavers. The Chosen. They hadn’t come after me because I’d known about the Occult or had created cutting edge discoveries. There had never been a secret leak. The only thing this Feather was after is the golden sphere.

No, that didn’t make sense. He didn’t need me for that, the sphere was in possession of Atius, hidden away somewhere in the clan. “What are you really after?” I asked. “Why go all this way just to catch me out alone?”

“Sometimes, insects simply get squashed for being at the wrong place and time.” He shrugged. “You spoke with Tsyua. Anyone who speaks with her is hunted down. The pale lady is a jealous sort, if you haven’t already noticed. She’ll rip out whatever happened in that bunker and dispose of you after.” He took further steps into the light, lifting his spear to the side with a dim chime as the tip brushed the metal ground. “Now are you going to come with me quietly, or are you going to make a fuss about it?”

“How did you even single me out?”

“Clearly all the metal on my body is too much for your tiny head to wrap around. Let me help you out: I’m a machine, little human. No detail is too insignificant to me. Acquiring a picture of you was oh so difficult, given how often you pranced around your little hive. Did you think I wouldn’t notice the dozens of missing decorations? Did you think that you could hide among your rank and file from my eyes?”

“In my defense, I had no idea I was dealing with a machine at the time.”

The Feather laughed. “I don’t accept any defense, least of all ignorance. Although it is understandable coming from your kind.”

I drew out my blade. "If you think you're going to take me down easily, you've got another thing coming."

One eyebrow quirked on that smug face of his. “Really now? I was created to hunt down and kill deities. What hope do you have?”“Guess we’ll find out.” I shot back. Inside, fractals lit to life. I hadn’t mastered the other spells Atius had left behind for me, but I’d still inscribed them just in case. Time to learn on the job. “Cathida.” I hissed through the comms. “Take over. For this, we’ll need to hit him hard right at the start with everything we have. Don't let him adapt.”

“Journey’s returning some very low odds of success, deary. I think we should run. And if I'm suggesting that, you know it's bad.”

"We'll be fine." I said, confident in our chances. With the Winterbloom technique, some of the clan's better knights were able to beat Lord Atius himself in a fight. Atius went neck to neck with this scraphead and held his ground. That said, I did have a motto about fair fights. "We have a trump card on our belt. If all else fails, I'd like to see him deal with that."

I sank further into the soul fractal, letting go of my body before she could answer back. Occult senses rippled out, concepts growing around with more clarity. When my senses reached To’Aacar I was struck with how much of him was… well, machine. Artificial musculature, gold wiring, a composite skin of some kind, and hundreds of different electric systems all interwoven together. Most of the engineering concepts within the android were so far above my comprehension they only gave out a vague sense of the purpose. The only part of him that felt dead was his right arm, which just stopped being an arm. Despite having everything inside looking together.

The spear on the other hand grew into focus and I realized it was filled with circuitry. "Something's off with the shaft of his spear." I hissed to Cathida. I knew there had to be more to his weapon, spears were for mantlepieces and decorations. No one brings one out in a serious fight unless they've come up with a counter to main weakpoint.

"You don't say?" She snarked back, drawing out the Winterscar swords. "I'm old, not stupid. I'm not going to be surprised if that metal pole can suddenly block an occult blade. Not going to take the chance on trying to wrestle that out of his hands either. That's bait on a teacup."

To'Aacar took another casual step forward, blade lit as he held the spear in his left hand with a casual flick. "It seems you still wish to play. Futility is something your kind are well known for, after all. Fine then. Come at me with the best that you have. You'll need it."

Cathida drew into stance, but not any I recognized. To’Aacar stopped in his tracks, head tilted. The large halo above him floated by slowly in response. “Ohhh my, is that the stance of an Imperial Imperator?” He gave a grin. “That's your best plan? Your hidden ace? I suppose they would be rather rare and exotic to you surface humans. I’ve killed hundreds of them. Cheap little snacks. They’re quick enough to make an entertaining fight at least, for humans.”

Cathida spoke. Out loud into the air, elderly wobble and all. “My dear, who ever said you’d be fighting a human?”

She leaped forward before he could answer, at the maximum possible speed a relic armor could move at. We were a blur in the air, with one occult blade scything through at our side, directly for the surprised Feather’s throat.

Next chapter - Tackling apex predators