Broken Reflections [Infinity] (Cross-post from ItG froum)

[Ravager Zero]

Yes, I have been writing stuff. A lot of stuff. Narrative BatReps mostly.
Yes, those of you in E,TD may point fingers at me for this, as a fair amount of effort has been spent making this series too.
The originals are on the Infinity: the Game forum.
If you don't what Infinity is, you really should take a look. Especially seeing as all the core rules and army lists are free.



Fragment Ashe [Psychogenesis Seed#741352X]

From the outside, Ashe appeared perfect. Her body the highest grade bodhisattva available—Asura. Armour covered every inch of her, even her pale face. ALEPH's subdermal armour could be programmed to take on any appearance, or masked with flesh-like compounds to ease integration with fully organic troops. Right now, Ashe was unconcerned with that issue.

No, what concerned her was the alley. There had recently been reports of Shasvastii infiltration in the area, and her job was to investigate. That meant ALEPH—Father—knew something she did not. It was also why he had granted her access to group of combat troops equipped for full engagement rather than objective capture. This was meant to be a quiet part of Damburg after all.

A sudden flurry of battlenet data flashed through her comlog. Father had given her objectives. Somewhere nearby lay an enemy beacon of unknown purpose, slated for destruction. In addition, there were a handful of survivors to be located, and if they saw ALEPH's forces killing the Shasvastii, so much the better. The enemy leader was also to be assassinated if at all possible, as his/her/its fearful reputation was spreading too quickly through the city's population. Lastly, almost as an aside, Father had told her force to maintain control of their insertion point, hinting at redeployment options.

Ashe took her time observing enemy positions before carefully inserting her team. First came the netrods, the first drifting through a high altitude cross-wind but able to correct enough to still land on the battlefield, smashing down on rooftop in the southwest. The second netrod impacted with small puff of debris next to the massive central structure, designated complex Sigma, housing the survivors.

Zayin #0415 scrambled into action on the western flank, taking cover under an overhanging section of building. A yudbot quickly detached from its undercarriage, taking up station behind the reaction remote. A second yudbot scrambled up the right flank, stopping behind a road barrier next to Ashe. The asura nodded her thanks.

Nearby, her back to the wall of a small building stood the sophotect Samina. On the east side of the alley, near Ashe, stood Skye. Well, everyone assumed it was Skye, the posthuman's mark 2 proxy currently invisible, deployed as close as prudent to the shasvastii positions. Behind Skye's mark 1 proxy—an engineer—a probot crawled through a ruined building, it's sole purpose to allow Father to directly interface with Skye's mark 2 proxy when it launched any infowar attacks.

Ashe's comlog pipped for attention. A tiny battlenet update pinged the second floor of complex sigma. Rayne was in overwatch position, but well out of sight with her TO camouflage engaged. The final agent, another remote, was waiting overhead, ready to deploy at a moments notice.

Having taken her time to prepare, Ashe knew she had lost the initiative, but she trusted in her agents implicitly to survive or evade the first wave of enemy attacks, then respond with far greater force to ensure they were eliminated.

Watching her corners carefully, Ashe saw a Preta dash across the open mezzanine of complex sigma. Taking aim the asura fired a tight burst of double-action shells. Bloody impacts stitched across the creature's flank, but did nothing other than annoy it as it laid a biomine covering a small and suspiciously alien looking crate.

Skye's mark 1 proxy aimed at something through the side of complex sigma, prompting Ashe to perform a cam-link to see what the posthuman saw. It was only a slight haze, gaining form as it climbed carefully through the far window. Skye's burst missed by the narrowest of margins, the Aswang managing to climb into the building with the survivors in it. The posthuman lost sight of the shasvastii as it moved deeper into the complex.

Ashe cursed. Nobody would be able to stop the Aswang now, with Rayne on the second floor, and no one else inside the building. Ashe amplified her aural sensors, hearing everything more clearly, her heartbeat, the soft whirr of the probot behind her, the clack of composite on composite as Skye reloaded. Then the screams started from inside the building. Ashe forced herself to hear them, to feel deep in her stomach what they meant. It was her fault they had taken so long to get into position, and still wasn't good enough.

Seeing a massive infowar blip rise on her comlog, Ashe looked skyward. Streaking down from the heavens was an iskaller, armed with an HMG. The exrah operative crashed down just out of sight around a buttress on the southwest building. Being closest to the action, Ashe moved along the line of jersey barriers and took careful aim at the iskaller, centering her reticle on the operative's back.

Double-action shells peppered the giant insect, prompting it to turn and face her as she ducked back into cover. On her comlog Ashe sketched out a plan of attack and uploaded it. zayin #0415 responded instantly, backing away down the wall of the southwest building, peppering the gwailo deployed in the northern quadrant in order to cover its own movement. The faithful little remote scuttled further south, its HMG sweeping the gwailo and newly visible iskaller with fire.

The close range burst ripped the iskaller to shreds, chunks of carapace scattered across the southern face of the building next to it. The gwailo however had found its mark, a single well placed shot tearing out the zayin's primary servo bank, sending it crashing to the ground with a heavy thud.

On top of complex sigma Skye once more entered TO camouflage, flanking around the Preta and its biomines. Something tipped the creature off to the proxy's location, and Skye froze just before the biomines could resolve her movement as hostile. On the second floor Rayne sprang into action, spotting and destroying the nearest of the mines the Preta had laid.

An urgent comlog alert from Ashe directed her to engage a shrouded that had suddenly appeared in the northeast, no doubt attempting to alert its comrades to her presence. Rayne took careful aim with her MSR, chambering a double-action round as she did so. But when she pulled the trigger there was crunch as the round jammed in the breech.

Cursing, Rayne fell backwards as burst from the shrouded's combi rifle ripped into her chest. Bleeding heavily she quickly activated her Lhost's backup systems. Secondary organs to allow her to keep fighting. First she had to unjam the rifle, and she was all out of time.

Down on the mezzanine, the Preta saw how close Skye's Mark 2 proxy was, and in an animalistic fit of rage launched itself straight for the proxy. Skye processed angles and vectors in microseconds, a spread of flechettes from her boarding shotgun tearing the raving beast in half. As the remaining biomine detonated Skye was already in the æther, awaiting the moment she could jump to her inactive mark 1 proxy.

The shasvastii advance started slowly, a pair of seed-soldiers hatching from behind reinforced barriers. The seed-soldier on the north-east flank started to move forward and Rayne risked a shot against the alien, praying she had enough to clear the jam as she loaded a single double action round. As she locked the bolt she felt a white hot pain in her side.

The shrouded had used its comrade as a distraction, just waiting for her to try and attack. Rayne slumped against the railing, the last thing she heard before her cube finished its backup was a chittering alien laugh.

On the western flank the Gwailo advanced unopposed, carefully placing shots to destroy the Zayin it had previously disabled, and then to destroy the yudbot nearby. In moments the alien had sighted the netrod on the southwest roof section. A magazine of combi rifle shells put paid to the AI beacon once and for all. Ashe cursed. Skye only had the one netrod for aegis functions now.

The Gwailo stopped suddenly, falling back to the side of complex sigma. Ashe cursed the lack of local battlenet data. All her forward feeds were down, most problematic being Rayne's, who had had the most commanding view of the shasvastii's insertion point. There was still no sign of the alien's beacon.

Ashe knew she had several options for finding and destroying the beacon, if it came down to it, she would hunt for it herself—no camouflage was proof against her bodhisattva's advanced optics and multispectral vision capabilities. But there was an easier way.

With soft clang the garuda's pod hit the pavement several hundred metres from the alleyway. Far enough away that none of the shasvastii forces nearby could possibly know what had landed behind them. Entering the battlefield in complete silence, the remote's HMG spun up and unleashed a hail of lead at the shrouded that had killed Rayne. What was left of the alien added interesting splashes of colour to the local buildings.

Watching through the remote's eyes, Ashe finally saw the beacon, a slightly hazy outline, strung with camo netting. The garuda punched through the outer casing with ease, and taking hold of something delicate inside, activated its electric pulse. Sparking wildly and pouring out thick black smoke, the beacon toppled sideways, giving the garuda a bead on its next targets.

A skiavoros and a seed-soldier. Combat calculations performed in a flash, the remote opened fire almost instantly. The seed-soldier took a hit through the torso, killing its spawn embryo instantly, along with the host. The skiavoros was similarly unlucky, taking a spray of rounds through its head, something not even an EI aspect could survive completely intact.

Not content with the havoc it had so far wreaked, the garuda flanked to the west, finding itself emplaced behind the gwailo, the second seed-soldier, and what appeared to be a void operator, the last one almost completely obscured by the seed-soldier. HMG spinning up, the garuda split its fire once more, targeting the gwailo and seed-soldier in turn. Both fell to a hail of bullets that also reduced an intervening pile of crates to splinters.

Ashe changed views as her comlog once more pipped for attention. Exfiltration in ten minutes, mission complete. Breathing deeply, Ashe brought up the objectives Father had given her on her comlog.

–Kill Shasvastii in front of Civilians
–Destroy Beacon
–Kill opposing leader
–Hold insertion point

Ashe looked almost dispassionately at the report. She wondered if driving back the EI in this part of Damburg was enough. She wondered how far the sounds of the fighting had actually traveled. How far the screams had traveled.

There were also the combat losses. Skye's proxy would be expensive to replace, as would the remotes, but those were only equipment. Rayne was not. Rayne had been Ashe's friend, as much as the quantronic personality splinters of a posthuman AI could be friends at any rate.

Rayne would be back, of course, backed up on a secure server. It was never quite the same. Ashe knew that all too well after her first death. There was an unsettling sense of discontinuity between before and after. Even ALEPH couldn't stitch together that lost time.

*          *          *

Later that day Ashe stood in her quarters, looking at her body in the mirror. All her plating had been set to a soft skin tone. It wasn't the same as wearing nothing—the heavy infantry bodhisattva asuras used actually integrated all the assault components within the Lhost itself, meaning there was never a time asuras lacked armour.

Something still felt wrong, something nagging at the back of her mind. Ashe smacked the mirror in frustration, the assault servos amplifying both the gesture and the force behind it. Tiny fragments of silver littered the floor. Ashe looked at her reflection again. All of them. An eye, filled with sorrow. The determined set of her mouth. Strands of red hair covering her other eye. A shoulder, fractured in three places—uncannily accurate after the fall she took in Ravensbrucke fighting Qapu Khalqi mercenaries.

A different person seemed to stare back from each reflection. Ashe reeled backwards, suddenly realising how many different people she must have been, how many times she had died in the field. It wasn't a pleasant thought. Idly turning her hand over, Ashe studied the blood covering her knuckles. Her subconscious knew it was simply a diversionary tactic.

"Father, why didn't you save those civilians?"

"Because I gave you that responsibility. I believed in your capabilities." ALEPH's voice—the tones of spokesman Abel, more accurately—filtered through Ashe's earbud.

"And I failed you."

"No. You achieved the objectives. You drove the EI back. You killed the Skiavoro that had been terrorising the eastern suburbs of Damburg for weeks. You held your ground well.."

"But I didn't save the civilians."

"Why didn't you?"

"I deployed my forces poorly, covered the wrong avenues."

"Yet you stopped the EI advance in its tracks."

"Airdropping a Garuda in behind the enemy."

"Sound tactics. But why do you insist that failing twenty-five percent of your objectives is akin to failing the mission?"

"Because that twenty-five percent was made of living, breathing citizens of the sphere. What that Aswang is going to do to those cubes will give me nightmares. What they might do if they find Rayne's cube."

"Aspect Rayne's cube was destroyed under Directive 7. Her latest copy is now being flash-imprinted with her stored memories."

"Those civilians won't get that luxury."

"Do you know why you feel so strongly for those civilians?"

"Because I couldn't do anything to help them!"

"Do you know how many soldiers die on Paradiso every hour, every minute of this conflict with the EI?"

"No."

"I was created to help humanity. Do you know what it feels like to watch all those soldiers die, all the people in the captured cities?"

"No."

"You felt powerless to save a handful of lives in one small building. I have to save the entire Human Sphere from the EI. And to do that, I have to experience all that pain, all those helpless feelings."

"Why?"

"You must draw your own conclusion, Aspect Ashe."

"Father?"

There was no reply. Ashe sat on the edge of the bed, legs crossed and arms folded across her chest. All she had now was time to think. To reflect on the lesson Father had been trying to teach her. Every failure was a lesson. This one just hurt harder than most.

Ashe let the screams play one more time. Her heart fell every time she heard them. But something else stirred within her. An emotion more commonly found in the Assault Subsection. Rage.

[Lord Sotek]

Wow, I LOVE IT!

The first segment plays out like a combo of the best aspects of a short story and a battle report, and the second segment's introspection and character development is both engaging and fascinating. If I could give you Karma, I would have.

I've looked into Infinity before. I really like the game's fluff (Haqqislam are my homeboys!) and a lot of the minis are awesome, but I've never played the tabletop game, and I'm not likely to start up with it. However, that in no way diminished my enjoyment of this piece.


I also like your take on ALEPH. Most of the setting material I've read tends to paint him as a pretty obviously 'sinister' AI who cloaks itself in good PR and proclamations of good intentions, and who is simply preferable to the likes of the EI. But he comes off as more positive-ambiguous and gray here, and I like that.

I also find it really interesting that Ashe calls ALEPH 'father.' Is this a character affectation, or is it part of the fluff that ALEPH's elite cadre of posthumans adress him by that title?

[Ravager Zero]

Wow, I LOVE IT!

Thanks. I mean it.

The first segment plays out like a combo of the best aspects of a short story and a battle report, and the second segment's introspection and character development is both engaging and fascinating. If I could give you Karma, I would have.

That's because it pretty much is a narrative BatRep with some extra shiny thrown in by me.
The second section I added to give the story more substance and body. And yes, there are more.
I have plenty of karma as it is, I wouldn't worry too much about that.

I've looked into Infinity before. I really like the game's fluff (Haqqislam are my homeboys!) and a lot of the minis are awesome, but I've never played the tabletop game, and I'm not likely to start up with it. However, that in no way diminished my enjoyment of this piece.

You don't have to play a game to recognize a good story.

I also like your take on ALEPH. Most of the setting material I've read tends to paint him as a pretty obviously 'sinister' AI who cloaks itself in good PR and proclamations of good intentions, and who is simply preferable to the likes of the EI. But he comes off as more positive-ambiguous and gray here, and I like that.

How ALEPH is presented in the background is highly dependent on whose point of view that background is from.
Infinity has a lot of shades of grey. The only outright 'evil' faction is the Combined Army of the EI.

I also find it really interesting that Ashe calls ALEPH 'father.' Is this a character affectation, or is it part of the fluff that ALEPH's elite cadre of posthumans adress him by that title?

A character affectation.

[Aun]

The only outright 'evil' faction is the Combined Army of the EI.

Honestly I feel like the only 'evil' part of the EI would be the Morat. The EI itself I wouldn't call good by any stretch of the word, merely pragmatic. It doesnt go out of its way to demolish or annihilate races out of hand or for no reason, its just hyper-expansionist and has the capacity to throw its weight around and really we could expect the same behavior from any of the other factions if they had that kind of power (Pan'O and Yu Jing where quick to try and exploit Ariadna...).

The Exhra and Shasvastii are just alien, though considering the Morat have an entire regiment essentially dedicated to slaughtering civilians (Yaogats) I'd say they are pretty bad
I play a Shasvastii Expeditionary Force Sectorial btw.

[Ravager Zero]

Fragment Ashe [Psychogenesis Seed#741352X]

Shifting slightly in the dropship's harness, Ashe warily scanned her comlog alerts. Father was mobilising a full attack on Horselburg, reports showed confirmed sightings of Speculo killers, Noctifers, Gwailos, and most importantly, the Cadmus designated as Naish Sheskiin. As with Damburg, most of the civilians had been evacuated, but a few pockets of resistance remained, those too stubborn to leave, or those trapped by the insidious advance of the Shasvastii.

Ashe scanned her available forces carefully. In her dropship sat Samina, the most skilled sophotect she had ever met. In the other two racks sat Samina's heavily customised Yudbots, equipped with microthrusters that allowed them to move over the battlefield with incredible speed. The fact they tended to overheat meant Samina only ever ran them at the same speed a Yudbot could normally achieve in battle. During downtime though...

As an additional asset on her command dropship, Ashe had requisitioned a pair of Netrods, one slung low under each wing, to provide an instant tactical net for objective updates and emergency response. Flying in close formation was a second AI piloted dropship, with a very different passenger manifest. Skye's mark one proxy body, engineer version, sat motionless in the first harness—Skye's presence was currently operating her mark two hacker proxy, infiltrating behind shasvastii lines.

Also in the second dropship was the Naga hacker Ramir, an AI fragment with an interesting psychogensis that included a strange predilection for noir and gangster films from the twentieth century. As a side note, Ashe saw that Father had denied several requests to fabricate a replica thompson sub-machine gun for the Naga operative.

Traveling with Skye's inactive body and Ramir was the EVO repeater Probot, designation blank. Once again, provided for Father to observe the battle directly if necessary. The dropship was already setting down, almost a kilometre from the marked territory.

There was a third dropship advancing at high speed and low altitude, landing directly in the area of operations. Ashe selected a live feed from the asset onboard—Zayin #0415. A soft blur of disturbed air and dust strode past, all but invisible to the remote's optics. Dasyu operative Rayne. With any luck, the shasvastii would have no idea she was even there until it was too late.

There was a soft thud as Ashe's dropship settled on the ground, the ramp lowering with a soft whine of hydraulic actuators extending. She immediately scanned the nearby buildings. Her comlog pipped for attention, displaying her exact location. Still half a klick out. No sense wasting time.

Even while moving at the maximum speed her power assisted body could move, Ashe was working, checking her rifle, her blade—manufactured at special request by Father—and her combat boosts. Everything was in order. In minutes she was within sight of the AO, and requesting an immediate combat drop of her Netrods. Both landed perfectly on target, behind a large tower complex. Inside her comlog pinpointed a vague infowar signal, possibly a disable EVO repeater. That was a concern, if the combined army started using EVO troops in addition to their regular hackers—but where would they have gotten the technology?

Ashe filed the question away for Father, later. Now, she had a battle to orchestrate. Father had also determined what needed to be done. First, her forces would need to reclaim the territory, force the shasvastii back. Second, her troops would assess and destroy as many of the shasvastii as possible. Third, they were to stop the shasvastii gaining the EVO technology in the central structure. Lastly, if possible, Father wanted them to recover a live spawn embryo. To this end all mission specialists, and Ashe herself, had been provided with backpack cryokits. It was a long shot, but to steal such a valuable secret was worth it.

Ashe checked the disposition of her forces on her comlog's tactical uplink. The probot and zayin were towards the centre of the zone, deployed forwards to cover enemy attacks down the central alley. The armed response capacity of the zayin would prove invaluable in this situation. Or so she hoped. Ashe had crept past the probot herself, edging into cover next to a large military cargo container, towards the north end of the AO. Towards the south end sat Skye's mark one proxy, and one of Samina's yudbots.

Samina herself was safely ensconced in a small universal container in the north-west corner of the AO, her second yudbot sprinting over to sit between the probot and Zayin. Of Skye's proxy mark two there was no sign, not even a comlog alert. The same was true for Rayne.

Shasvastii IFF signals briefly flared on the comlog's readout, across on the eastern side of the AO. One appeared dangerously close to the EVO tech. Skye's proxy mark one logged a shasvastii seed appearing in the south-east corner of the AO. Agent Sheskiin was not yet visible, a fact that stirred Ashe's blood. How dare she impersonate Achilles. How dare she do so—and survive.

More worryingly, something, or someone, disturbingly familiar was walking across the battlefield from the north. Ramir, late to the party. Except his comlog wouldn't respond to her encrypted interrogation signal. Not even an AI handshake. Then it suddenly did, broadcasting from a slightly more distant location, the transmission disrupted by something nearby.

"That's not me!" Ramir's voice hissed across the TacNet. "It must be that damned Speculo. Thought I lost him in the ruins back there."

"Take it down."

Ashe watched through Ramir's eyes as he tried to locate the telltale sign that this was indeed a Speculo, and not, in fact, a captured or rogue fragment of a former life. Whatever it was, it still looked too much like another naga to him.

"I can't do it, Ashe. I can't see it."

Ashe grunted in dissatisfaction. She ran to the west, dodging past another military crate, then around a support pillar for the second storey of a medium sized building. Crouching, she scanned the image of the naga for any imperfections, running through every filter in her visor software. It only happened when it moved, a brief flash of disruption static, an instinctive move too fast for the Speculo's holoshroud system to resolve.

It's disguise ruined, the shasvastii shifted sideways, preparing to roll behind a large universal crate. Ashe flicked her rifle to auto-fire, then let loose a concentrated volley. Chips of stone and asphalt sprayed around the street, several slugs putting small holes in the containers. In a split second Ashe's servos corrected for the ferocious automatic recoil, bringing the gun in line with the Speculo's centre of mass.

The shavastii, most dangerous of its wretched kind, keeled over backwards, bleeding heavily. Purple blood staining the concrete. Ashe smiled savagely. Slowly, with malice aforethought, she strode forward, uncaring of the rest of the battle around her. Carefully, she drew her sword.

With a scream of anger never unleashed, she drove the blade deep through the shasvastii's heart, her enhanced strength so much the blade sunk a foot deep in the road before snapping in half. Ashe dropped the shattered blade, looking around, a little dazed.

Why did I do that? she asked herself.

Why did I like it? another voice asked.

"Get out of there!" a new voice shouted. One she had never heard before. It took Ashe a moment to realise she was hearing it with her basic audio implants rather than over the TacNet.

"Move," the voice urged her. Ashe remained where she was, searching for the source of the voice. It was a man, a civilian, in resistance clothing, in the building she had just passed. Behind him she could just see the leading edge of a nanoscreen.

"Get down!" she yelled at the man, already aiming her multirifle, flicking the selector switch to double action. The nanoscreen stopped moving. To her left, Ashe saw a camouflaged Aswang, swiftly bringing its spitfire bear on her position. At the same time the gwailo in the building rounded the corner, racking the slide on its shotgun.

The asphalt scuffed up the coating of her armour, but Ashe didn't care, she was alive, the spitfire shredding the door of the universal container she had been standing next to. The shotgun blew small holes in the wall of the building the gwailo was in. It hadn't tracked her very well either.

Raising its spitfire once again, the aswang opened fire at Ashe. Her rifle still on double action, Ashe took aim at the shasvastii's head. Blue-purple blood soaked into the concrete around the alien. It wasn't going to be much of a problem any longer.

Inside the building Ashe heard the sound of a struggle, then a loud crack. Something smashed the window, sending glass flying across the street.

"Get off me you ugly alien bastard!" was followed by another loud crack. Ashe stepped back, knowing she had to move quickly. Very quickly. Running at full speed meant even a reinforced door was no obstacle, let alone the wooden one in front of her. Splinters and kindling flew in all directions as Ashe burst through the door, tackling the gwailo around the midriff.

In the struggle that ensued, Ashe managed to land on top of the alien, one solid punch from her hyper-enhanced physique knocking the shasvastii out cold. She stood slowly, raising one booted foot over the shasvastii's left side.

What am I doing? she asked.

Ending it, came an unbidden reply. Ashe's boot slammed through the gwailo's torso hard enough to crack the tiled floor, blue-purple shasvastii blood coating one of her legs. The resistance soldier looked at her in shock, his jaw hanging slack, blood dripping from a small cut above his left eye.

"...thanks," he eventually managed to say. By then Ashe had vaulted out a nearby window, tracking down the spawn embryo of the aswang she had put down earlier. It wasn't hard to find, slowly eating the corpse around it. The cryokit stopped that immediately. Spending a little extra time to make sure everything was in place, she placed a tactical update on her comlog, broadcast to Father via the probot.

"Good work," spokesman Abel's voice sounded in her right ear.

A new datafeed appeared. Rayne was on the loose again, drawing a bead on a seed-soldier about to hatch. The shasvastii hunkered down as it slipped from its capsule, quickly rolling aside. Unfortunately for the shasvastii, it was not fast enough. Rayne's single round of double action ammo caught high in the chest, sending it sprawling back against the pod it had just hatched from.

The tactical layer pipped urgently for attention. Ashe looked down in anger and disappointment. Her rage, her strange bloodlust, meant the shasvastii had managed to recover the EVO tech from the damaged remote. Worse, Sheskiin had just appeared, along with a noctifer and a Q-drone. All of them faced zayin #0415.

Sheskiin was the priority target, and through the remote's feed she saw the shasvastii agent stagger against the fusillade of high calibre rounds the zayin sprayed downrange. A split second later the faithful little rebot collapsed in a smoking heap, shredded by the intense fire of the combined army forces.

Skye chose that moment to activate her hacker proxy, deployed in secret on the roof of the building Ashe had just left. Proxy bodies—empty proxies—made the ultimate infiltrators. They didn't breathe, didn't sleep, never even moved. The problem of course came when Skye's ghost jumped in. Nothing could mask that sort of data flare. The first thing Skye did was re-activate her camouflage systems, moving to a slightly better position.

From that position she pumped two shells from her shotgun into the Q-drone. All they seemed to do was piss the thing off, a barrel-melting stream of lead slamming into the edge of the roof, several rounds catching Skye's proxy in the shoulder. Skye sent a quick tactical update to Ashe, outlining a plan of attack in a split second that would have taken any other operative much, much longer to explain.

Ashe stood, moving to the railing surrounding a small courtyard. As well as Skye's marked target she could also see the outline of a noctifer with the help of her visor. No sense wasting that kind of opportunity. As she opened fire against the Q-drone and noctifer, Skye leapt to the catwalk next to her roof, firing her shotgun from the hip as she did so. As planned the drone ignored her, though her fire had no effect on it.

Ashe felt an impact against her stomach as her aim switched to the Q-drone. The noctifer had already fallen over, blood spreading from a wound in its side, a stunned expression etched on its face. Ashe fell backwards heavily, landing against a pile of crates. Touching her hand to her stomach left it vibrantly red. A stark contrast to the blue-purple covering her leg.

Grunting in pain, Ashe stood up slowly, noting with satisfaction that Skye had managed to hack the Q-drone to immobility. Something was tearing across the field at high speed, a slave drone, and with all the obstacles between her and it, Ashe simply couldn't find a good shot. Just before she fell again, Ashe saw the noctifer stand back up.

On the tactical layer Ashe saw a colossal infowar flare, Skye fighting whatever it was that retrieved the EVO tech. As she watched, Skye's icon fell dark, her ghost falling into the 'net. A text update flashed on her comlog.

– Winning a battle does not always mean surviving it. ; ) –

What followed was a complete infodump of the malignos hacker's recent uploads, including all the secrets gleaned EVO tech. Ashe smiled, wishing there were posthumans like Skye.

On the far side of the AO, in the south, Ashe watched the feed from Skye's proxy mark one, and Rayne's dasyu Lhost. Sheskiin peeked around the corner of the tower, leveling her multirifle at Rayne and Skye. Both operatives fired first, forcing the cadmus agent back into cover before she could shoot.

Nearby, in the courtyard, Ashe could hear running footsteps, then a loud crash as something went through a window. Looking over the railing she was just in time to see the noctifer trip and fall inside the building with the resistance fighter. Why the shasvastii wanted to kill him so badly Ashe didn't know, but she wouldn't them if she could help it. From where she was though, there was nothing she could do, except hope the man fought off this shavastii as well as the last one.

Leapfrogging one another in the south of the AO, Rayne and Skye advanced, intent on killing Sheskiin—hopefully permanently this time. As they moved, Rayne put another round through the spawn embryo of the seed-soldier she had downed earlier. Then she rounded the corner and traded nanopulser blasts with Sheskiin, her rifle useless at such short range.

Rayne could feel the nanites attempting to devour her, and instantly unleashed a nano cartridge internally, a microscopic war that left her feeling ravaged, but alive. Skye sped past at that moment, combirifle blazing on full auto, every shot finding its mark. Sheskiin screamed and keeled over, firing wildly with her nanopulser. Rayne cursed as her vision went black, a curse that cut off far too quickly.

Looking down at the corpse, Skye cursed floridly enough to make even Ramir blush.

"It's not Sheskiin. It's another damned holoshroud cadmus."

Staggering over the railing, Ashe felt her strength returning. She needed more, and her Lhost fed her a potent stim cocktail. Charged and ready, she crashed against the window the noctifer had used, drawing a bead on the alien as it fought with the resistance soldier. With double action ammo any miss would be lethal—but Ashe never missed these shots. That's why Father sent her. Why Father had her made.

Both rounds slammed into the alien's back, but somehow through some miracle of chance and fate they didn't even seem to draw blood. The noctifer landed a solid punch that sent the resistance fighter reeling, then stumbling back around the corner, out of sight. Ashe cursed.

There was an odd, high-pitched squeal, and the noctifer stumbled back, falling to the floor. The resistance soldier set about it, kicking it repeatedly between the legs before delivering a staggering uppercut-bodyslam combo as the alien rose.

"Kill it!" the man shouted, finally kicking the shasvastii in the stomach hard enough to send it reeling out of the fight. The last thing it saw was the muzzle flash of Ashe's multirifle. Ashe turned and collapsed with back to the wall, the combat stims wearing off quickly.

The man climbed out the window carefully, looking in horror at the state of his saviour.

"Shit, are you okay?"

"I will be fine. Father has repaired far more extensive damage to my Lhost."

"Lhost?" the man was confused for a second, then his tone became harsh. "Wait, you're not even human under all that armour, are you?"

"No."

"What are you?"

"I am an Asura Lhost. Pschyogensis Seed #741352X. Designation 'Ashe'."

"When you give something a human name, it becomes a lot harder to hate."

"Do you hate me?" Ashe asked softly. "And what is your designation, resistance human?"

"My name is Lucas. I settled here, after working my term out of Corregidor. I would hate you, but you saved my life. It's given me mixed feelings."

"Would you not do the same for another human?"

"We would all do the same for another human. We all know it, instinctively. Against a common threat any man will fight, to the death even, to protect even one other person from harm."

"Why am I different."

"Because to you, to ALEPH, we're just pawns in some great game. Pieces on a board laid out across the sphere to fight the combined army."

"You might want to watch who you say that around," a soft, middle eastern voice said. Samina had appeared over the railing to the courtyard, pistol drawn. Lucas just shook his head, walking away.

*          *          *

[Ravager Zero]

Ashe stood in her quarters once more, all her plating once turned to the same soft skin tone. The shasvastii blood had proved surprisingly difficult to remove. Tenderly she explored the scars in the Lhost's flesh around the right side of her stomach. Somehow, the scars felt more real than the rest of her body.

She looked into the broken mirror in front of her. She hadn't bothered to requisition a replacement. It served as a reminder of the cost of failure. On this night, however, it was the cost of success that left her feeling empty and conflicted. As if she were two separate people—like poor Nesaie/Alke.

"Father, is this what you meant me to discover?"

"I have downloaded the entire incident Aspect Ashe."

"That is not an answer."

"I need more time to analyze this data. But I can give you a provisional answer, perhaps that will satisfy you?"

"Any answer would help."

"You are going through a difficult phase, Aspect Ashe. Humans refer to it as adolescence, and experience it in their teenage years, most likely as you did during Psychogenesis. However, the growth process of your Psychogenesis Seed did not halt there. It has been growing and changing ever since."

"Does this happen to other Aspects?"

"Yes. Aspect Alke may be the most widely known example, but it is not uncommon for a more advanced—or occasionally fragmented—Aspect to exhibit the same tendencies."

"So why is this happening to me, Father?"

"Because, I believe you are one of the few that can handle such a transition."

"But why?"

"Do you not know?"

"Know what?"

"After Damburg."

"You wanted this?"

"I am conducting an experiment. With several Asura with similar Psychogenesis Seeds to yours, Aspect Ashe. Most are like you. Caring towards humans, but having an intense hatred of the EI's forces. Attempts to merge such Aspects into non-fragmented operational frameworks has had only... limited... success."

"So why me?"

"Unlike most Aspects, you care for, and respect the abilities of the humans around you. Most of the Greeks do as well. It is a much rarer quality in Vedic troops."

"So I am being punished for my kindness."

"It is not a punishment, Aspect Ashe. It is simply an experiment."

There was a soft beep as Father disconnected. Ashe let herself fall heavily against the bed. Father already knew exactly how she felt. Even about Lucas. She wished Samina hadn't threatened him. Stupid protocol, she thought savagely. I might have started to mend the rift between the Nomads and Father. Well, one Nomad anyway.

Another part of her mind traveled back further, to the moment she had driven her blade through the speculo killer's torso. Why did you like that so much? she asked herself. And why did it feel so good?

[Lord Sotek]

No words.

Just <3

[Ravager Zero]

Fragment Ashe [Platform: Asura—Psychogenesis Seed#741352X] Connected
?Fragment Korasi [Platform: REDACTED—Psychogenesis Seed#002491A] Connected
?Posthuman Skye [CubeLift#307—DataResurrection] Connected?
Fragment Bahara [Platform: EVO—ALEPH] Connected??

Ashe>Silvania?
?Skye>Evacuated. Heavily damaged in second CA offensive. Heavy Shasvastii presence.?
Ashe>Assuming presence reduced/relocated.
?Skye>Negative. Logistics facility located. Supply dump, training camp, support forces.?
Ashe>Hard task. Negative on dropship insertion. Queried.?
Bahara>Target location underground. Significant Shasvastii/Combined Army structure. Search and destroy parameters.
?Korasi>Online. Sensors Online. Servos Online. Weapons Online. Unit emplaced in ten. Unit ready for tasking.?
Bahara>Target update. Multiple infowar/combat support specialists. Advise expedited dispatch.?
Korasi>Targets confirmed.?
Skye>Not if I get there first. ; )
?Korasi>Puny (Post)human : P
?Ashe>.?
Bahara>Cleared for action. Transport ready.??

Fragment Ashe [Psychogenesis Seed#741352X]??

It was not the first subway carriage Ashe had ever used, but she decided it was definitely the least reliable. Three times Samina had been forced send a 'bot outside to repair damaged electronics or weld a fresh wheel onto an axle. Ashe began thinking the carriage might have been engineered somewhere on Ariadna, then sent from orbit to surface the hard way.??

On this mission, specially tasked by Father, Ashe had a hand-picked coterie of the SSS's finest agents. Herself, an Asura, as combat leader. Korasi, a Maruts—invisible to any Maya connected recording device—Samina, as technical combat support, and lastly Skye, with a mark 2 infowar proxy. As additional supporting forces Ashe had a pair of netrods, and a sole EVO repeater, serving once more as a direct connection with Father.

The security forces arrayed against her showed a heavy Shasvastii presence, along with several Exrah, and a single skiavoros. The field of battle was very different to what Ashe was used to. Five metres overhead was the roof of the cavern, a natural hollow beneath Silvania. The combined army, pragmatists all, had simply co-opted old human buildings, then started fortifying them and removing signs that humans had once lived there. To Ashe the buildings looked utterly sterile.

Korasi was already in position, holding overwatch on the northwest alley. Ashe slipped past a pair of damaged jersey barriers and flattened her back against the wall of small building in the south of the field, ready to cover the southeast alley. Samina scrambled over small pile of rubble to end up in a half destroyed building, establishing a secure link with her bots as she did so. The EVO bot slowly clambered over the rubble beside her, should anyone need infowar support.

There was an enormous crunch, the sound of rocks being split by heavy objects being driven through them, and two small piles of rubble in front of the central structure. Right on cue the pair of netrods had landed, then punched through the thinnest point Father could find in the pavement overhead.

Skye's mark one proxy moved swiftly to cover the opposite corner of the building Ashe was leaning against. Ahead, in the central structure, Skye's mark two proxy slipped past an anti-intrusion system to gain an excellent ambush vantage point on the nearest high value target, a MedTech Obsidon.

High resolution ultrasonic scanners gave the rough location of Shasvastii and Combined forces within the cavern, but still could not distinguish individual units very well. Ashe dismissed the tactical display on her comlog, then linked with Skye as her mark two proxy went active, first re-activating her TO systems that had been disrupted by the databurst of her jump.

Inside the building was well lit, almost blinding. Against the walls were racks of weapons, ammunition, rations—everything a modern combat force needed to survive in an extended campaign. By the time Ashe realised what she was seeing through Skye's point of view, the posthuman had already scanned, assessed and logged every item in the room, then sent a tactical report through to Father.

Many times Ashe envied the posthumans she knew, most especially for their reaction speed and processing capabilities. The only entity she knew of that was more powerful—and by several orders of magnitude—was Father himself. Setting the thought aside, Ashe watched as Skye advanced cautiously through the building, boarding shotgun held at the ready. Doors opened with a soft hiss. She could see light from the building spilling onto a pile of cargo crates outside the window. In the next building over, to the east, she could see a Vector hacker, still unaware of her presence.

In the alley just to north of the building lay Skye's real target, the MedTech. If they killed it, the Combined forces would lack the necessary support to heal any downed troops. Ashe watched—had to slow the datafeed in fact—as Skye acted. The door in front of posthuman exploded outwards as her shotgun ripped it to shreds. Skye ducked and rolled behind the supply crates, rising and drawing a bead on the MedTech. A single burst of shotgun fire reduced it to scrap, flechettes pocking the wall behind it.

Skye spun right, racking the slide and drawing a bead on the Vector. The Exrah was a split second faster, its own shotgun vomiting fire as Skye squeezed the trigger. Skye covered the wound with her left hand, aiming carefully at the Vector as she staggered back towards the central building.

Shotgun blasts ripped apart the top crate as the two exchanged fire, several rounds seeming to bounce of the Exrah's carapace. Skye switched to AP slugs and fired again, at the same time as the Vector. Skye's mark two proxy fell backwards, the Lhost almost destroyed by the shotgun blasts as Skye's presence returned to the datasphere, cursing.

"I almost had that bastard."
"Why didn't you hack him?" Ashe asked, curious.
"That was their hacker?"
"Yes. Exceptional work on the MedTech."
"Thank you."

In the northwest Korasi was running a complex vector simulation, prompting Ashe to try and follow her/its logic. There was a soft thump, and a then a crunch as a grenade bounced from the roof the cavern. Nobody had eyes on the explosion, but a quick scan revealed one less Shasvastii trooper on the tactical layer.

Next, the TAG set up the stabilisers on its multi-HMG and and cycled the weapon up to full rate of fire. Nothing was likely to move through that alley now. Ashe decided it was time to advance, carefully moving up to a pile of supply crates, setting up overwatch down the line.

On the tactical layer, aided by Korasi's expanded sensor net, Ashe watched as a horde of pretas scrambled down the northwest flank of the cavern, dropping biomines everywhere they stopped. Closer, far too close, Ashe saw a blurry outline as the Vector moved through the building to her right, stopping short of where she could line of fire to it.

Ashe flicked her rifle over to double-action, watching a shimmering figure drop camouflage over eighty metres away the same time as the Vector swung around the corner of the building, opening fire through the window. Ashe fired back at the Vector, her burst taking it high in the torso. The Exrah squealed as its armour was breached, its ephemeral form dissolving like mist.

The noctifer missed by a large margin, little geysers of dirt kicking up around the crates Ashe was using for cover. The Vector dealt with, Ashe turned to face the noctifer, and after a brief and mostly ineffectual exchange of fire forced the Shasvastii to drop into full cover before she could find her mark.

In the northwest alley Ashe watched through Korasi's eyes as a spitfire toting gwailo rounded the corner of the central building while the skiavoros identified earlier—also armed with a spitfire—rounded a large cargo crate and walked into Korasi's suppressing fire, guns blazing.

The EI's combat construct rapidly zeroed in on the TAGs structure, bullets spattering from advanced composite plating and the stone buttress in front of the machine. Korasi found her/its mark faster, the rough spray of heavy rounds turning into a concentrated river of lead. The skiavoros collapsed under the onslaught, its shell a smouldering wreck of advanced combat machinery.

The gwailo managed to slam several rounds into Korasi's unprotected flank, puncturing coolant lines and severing hydraulic linkages to vital systems. In the light of the cavern it looked as if the TAG was bleeding from a giant wound in its side.

The gwailo raised its weapon again, and this time Korasi was ready, cycling explosive rounds into the chamber as the Shasvastii fired. Spitfire shells impacted in the dirt all around Korasi, but the TAG presence was unperturbed. A burst of fire from its heavy machinegun stitched a line of explosions across the gwailo's nanoscreen, forcing the alien back around the corner of the building.

On the southern flank an Iskaller landed almost on top of Skye's mark one body, triggering the reaction protocols for the body, turning it around as Skye jumped into it. As the Exrah raised its heavy machinegun, Skye's mark one proxy fired its nanopulser. The Iskaller keeled over, nanites burning up as they ate through its armour, heavy machinegun  firing in sporadic bursts as its carapace twitched and died.

Noticing a lull in the battle, Samina sent a 'bot forwards, rapidly repairing Korasi's damaged frame. The TAG then moved to the far northwest flank, taking aim at the Pretas attempting flank Father's forces. Ashe watched the feed and smiled as two of the bestial aliens were ripped to shreds by intense fire from the TAG's main weapon.

The aliens surged forwards, driven by their insatiable hunger for combat, and Korasi responded, firing and explosive burst at the closest Preta. The alien shuddered as it was ripped apart form the inside, blood painting the walls of the building it was next to. The further alien crept forwards, and Korasi replied by launching a single grenade at the beast.

The conflagration was so great Ashe lost the feed for a second, Korasi's visor unable to resolve the situation. When the static cleared the Preta was still standing, seemingly unscathed, but everything around it had been reduced to rubble, including several biomines unlucky enough to be inside the blast radius. The Preta lurched sideways, and Korasi lost visual as it moved around the side of the building.

Calling up the tactical layer, Ashe tracked its echo, noting that it continued to flank around the building until a hurried burst from Samina forced it to stop and seek better cover. Another echo moved on the tactical layer, and Ashe saw it tagged as the gwailo by Korasi. It seemed to be moving towards some sort of supply dump, intent on retrieving something from a small crate. What's in there? Ashe wondered. And why is it so important to them?

The gwailo continued to advance, moving carefully past the Preta so Samina couldn't see it. Looking over a low heavy duty crate, Korasi saw both figures, and fired a grenade. The Preta turned into an ugly smear against the side of the building, matching the bloody patch left by another Preta on the far side. The gwailo's nanoscreen was finally overwhelmed, the shockwave scattering the nanites and causing brutal internal damage to the alien.

The gwailo staggered forwards a few feet then fell flat on its face, very dead. Ashe watched the rest of the battle unfold through Korasi's eyes as Father issued an urgent evacuation warning. There was no need for a tactical retreat, but when Ashe saw Korasi's target limned in green through her visor, she knew staying in this part of the cavern would be a very bad idea.

"Skye, Samina, MOVE!" Ashe suited action to words, turning to run, leaving the Shasvastii where they stood. A sound like tearing sailcloth echoed across the cavern, followed by an awful groan of buckling metal. Ashe linked her visor feed to Korasi, display it as small video feed in the lower left.

A steel pillar reinforcing the cavern roof had just come down, crushing an Ikadron beneath it. Ashe vaulted a jersey barrier as Korasi began to sprint, moving forwards at maximum speed, head down, shoulder to the fore. A sound like a full on hovertruck crash echoed throughout the cavern.

The metallic groan gave way to the shriek of overstressed steel and the twang of high tension cables snapping. Overhead, great sections of the cavern's roof were beginning to fall in, bringing the streets of Silvania with them. Ashe forced her combat boosted Lhost to move faster, almost equaling Samina's incredible pace. Skye's proxy one was lagging behind, and the posthuman sent a blink-farewell before vanishing into the wider datasphere.

*          *          *

Ashe had just clambered to the surface again and was leaning against the extraction dropship. Her mind was full of questions, but Father was not answering. Not now. Not with Korasi still missing. Ashe knew even a TAG couldn't withstand half a city being dropped on it. Hell, most warships can't.

Even so, Father's absence was disturbing. Korasi would have been backed up, being a specialized fragment of Father, piloting the Maruts TAG through a remote link. Where was the link coming from? Ashe wondered quietly.

<<Massive databurst in the eastern suburbs>> flashed through Ashe's comlog.
"Skye?"
<<TacNet's down here, had to find alternative means to communicate>>
"Wait, TacNet's down? Where's Father?"
<<ALEPH's local node is busy. Very busy. Collating data about the Damburg raids. Something about an EI construct that—>>
"The Skiavoros!" Ashe spat, disgusted. "It survived."
<<You destroyed it?>>
"Garuda. HMG. It must have jumped."
<<We'd need E/M to kill it permanently. Assuming the EI doesn't keep backups like we do>>
"The EI has outsmarted every human organization in existence so far. If they have backups they'll be at least as detailed as the ones Father holds for us."
<<At least. Then the question is: How do we destroy this construct completely, along with its Ghost?>>
"Can a ghost  become contaminated?"
<<How?>>
"Like a sepsitor. Could we convince the EI that this Skiavoros/Aspect is a danger to it?"
<<I don't know>>
"Find a way. Please."
<<Trying. ALEPH is not being very talka—>>

EMERGENCY REDEPLOYMENT

The words flashed up on Ashe's comlog in bright red. Father had only issued directives like this a handful of times in the past. Ashe saw the mission directive beneath.

Silvania
Take and Hold/Tactical Denial Operation
Opposition: Mixed Combined Forces/Shasvastii/Exrah/Hungries
Immediate Deployment—Further assets en route.

[Ravager Zero]

Fragment Ashe [Psychogenesis Seed#741352X]?

Standing in the dropship's starboard hatch, Ashe had her fingers locked around the hatch coaming. It would not bode well to fall out their current speed or altitude, even when a missile had just open the starboard side of the aircraft. But Father's pilot-aspects were phenomenally skilled with all current aircraft models.?

?Rayne crouched next to Ashe, her multi sniper rifle braced against the side of the hatch, Ashe marking targets on the tactical layer as fast as she could fire the rifle accurately. The T-drone responsible for opening the side of the ship now lay in approximately forty-seven different pieces, Rayne's first shot piercing its magazine.?

?Ashe had already marked two more M-drones with her visor, and was just placing a mark against a Malignos when heavy rounds raked the side of the dropship. A Combined Army fighter was now on their tail, and the starboard engine was gone. Whatever Father was leading them to, it was important to the Combined forces, that much was abundantly clear.?

?The dropship plunged thirty metres, spiraling wildly before the pilot-aspect managed to regain control. Ashe felt weightless for a second—an odd sensation for a heavy infantry bodhisattva that weighed close to two hundred kilograms—then slammed hard into an old cinderblock wall. The wall did not survive.?

?Coughing up dust, Ashe stood slowly, taking stock. She was uninjured, the only damage minor abrasion to her Lhosts dermal image/display plating. The dropship was a write-off, missing an engine, fuselage a crumpled wreck, and the tail-boom still fifteen metres up, stuck in the side of a nearby building. The tactical layer on her comlog was down, forced into a hard reset by the impact, meaning no updates for a few minutes.?

?"Rayne?"?

?Coughing, somewhere to the left.?

?"Rayne?"?

?"I'm alive. Minor damage to the Dasyu Lhost."?

?"Weapons?" Ashe checked her multi-rifle at the same time. Everything appeared to be in order.?

?"Rifle's up there somewhere," Rayne pointed to the third floor of the building opposite. "Saw it fly out the hatch before I did."?

?"What about the cargo?"?

?"I didn't see anything else come out of the wreckage."?

?Ashe moved swiftly towards the dropship, undaunted by the shifting rubble. The rear fuselage of the dropship was a mess, crumpled and torn, but Ashe thought she could see a rough shape beneath the distorted metal. For an Asura ripping open the side of the dropship was nothing.?

?Zayin #0415's photoreceptors glowed a menacing green in the shadows. As soon as it detected light it turned, training its guns on Ashe. An instant later it offered an encouraging 'beep' and scrambled from the wreckage. The tactical layer chose that moment to re-initialize.?

?All three dropships were down, each with varying states of damage. The local 'net showed a solid rendezvous location nearby, easily defensible, and within five kilometres of Father's Area of Operations. The only problem was the wave of Combined Army contacts that glowed red on the map between Ashe and the AO. Ashe tasked #0415 to spearhead the assault, the faithful remote scuttling ahead at high speed.?

?"Rayne, disappear. I'll proceed on foot."?

?In reply Rayne's thermo-optical camouflage flickered active, masking the Dasyu from every sense but those integrated in Ashe's visor software. The infiltrator moved forwards with astonishing speed while camouflaged, making best use of the damaged buildings to move around. Ashe moved forward cautiously, scanning for any potential threats as she moved.?

?<<Ashe? Dropship Bravo; hard landing. Combat units OK. Mostly>>?
"Skye?" Ashe asked quietly. "Define: 'Mostly'."?
<<Ramir is pissed off. Everything but his hacking device is trashed. Still got camo. Mark one sensors are still a little off-axis—body's going to need recalibrating when it gets back. Mark two is combat ready. Samina's a little shaken, not sure why>>?
"Any news on dropship Echo?"?
<<Bad. It got through the flak, and managed to drop the netrods further north. Not getting any EVO signals as yet, so Bahara may be lost at this time>>?
"Alright. We can manage. Headed for the rendezvous."?
<<Already on our way. Landed closer. See you there>>?

?Ashe was running to the rendezvous now, all the combined contacts seemed to be heading there apace as well. Something had tipped them off—probably the dataflare on the tactical layer. Rayne was almost in position, as was Skye's mark two proxy, and both were feeding constant updates to the tactical layer.?

?On the eastern side of the rendezvous location was a large single storey building, the roof ripped off in one of Paradiso's tropical storms. In fact, most of the buildings appeared to have no roofs. Ashe checked the elevation of the rendezvous in profile again.?

?It was underground.?

?And just as well, the surface above was a cratered wasteland from the second Combined offensive, barely a wall still standing. Here was where they had exercised their might to the fullest extent, razing what was once the main garrison of Silvania's City Guard.?

?On the west side of the location was a string of smaller structures, sub-basements of the garrison. Down the centre was a massive cargo depot, crates and intermodal containers sprawling in all directions. To the south-east were a handful of ruined basements, caved in from above, and one of the few access points to the area. To the north, where the combined forces gathered, lay another complex of small sub-basement rooms belonging to the garrison's armoury.?

?Ashe quickly scanned the tactical layer again. The netrods were in front of the large western building—a note indicated Bahara had dragged them there. Behind a pile of crates, next to the netrods, stood Skye's mark one proxy. Next to her stood zayin #0415. Rounding out the forces on the west was Skye's mark two proxy, hidden in plain sight next to a window that could across the width of the building.?

?In the centre, secreting herself in one of the half-ruined basements, lay Samina, controls for her yudbots at the ready. Ramir was also in the centre, crouching, camouflaged behind an overturned jeep. On the east Ashe found probot Bahara, deployed in another ruined basement, and herself, covering a narrow alley that stretched to the far end of basement complex.?

?Last, hidden carefully inside the western structure, stood Rayne, her rifle recovered, and nanopulser at the ready. She was watching a pair of Pretas through a window at the north end of the building.?

?Other combined contacts were registering now as well. More Pretas in the centre. And even more on the western flank. On the eastern flank were several hazy marks—probably Shasvastii. In the centre, opposite Ashe, a massive contact that could only be a skiavoros, and something slightly smaller next to him, with a faint EM signature—Exrah.?

?Ashe sent a databurst to Father, hoping for advice. No reply was forthcoming, except for the standard automated response of an overtasked network. Using her instincts and general combat directives, Ashe compiled her own list of objectives.?

?First, destroy the skiavoros. Try to ensure it stays dead this time.?
Second, retake the armoury. It will help the resistance.?
Third, establish a solid presence, hold something valuable. Like the freight depot in the centre.?
Finally, if possible, eliminate all enemies present.?

?With all her forces deployed in advantageous positions, Ashe waited for the Combined forces to make a move. It started with the Pretas, their mindless hunger driving them through the western building. She could hear Rayne making several shots.?

?The camera feed showed one of the Pretas advancing, a gaping hole in its side from a double-action hit. The alien heaved and convulsed, calcified fragments of its last meal abrading the wall next to Rayne. At the same time Rayne fired her nanopulser, a bulky first-generation model she favoured over integrated designs for its increased ammo capacity.?

?Nanites burned as they ate at the Preta's flesh, the alien uncaring of the damage it had sustained. A second spray of calcified shrapnel joined the first in demolishing the wall Rayne was next to, several fragments of bone and stone ripping at her flesh. Blood dripping from multiple wounds, Rayne fired again, holding down the trigger. The Preta dissolved in a glowing heap of nanites, as did half the wall it was using for cover.?

?The second Preta advanced, and Rayne took careful aim at its head. Ashe could hear the crack of her rifle from the far side of the complex. Half its face missing, and probably its brain as well, the Preta continued to advance, vomiting calcified shrapnel in all directions. Rayne weathered the worst of the impacts, her arms covered in bloody scars, before firing her nanopulser at the alien.?

?It flesh dissolving, the Preta fired convulsed one last time, the blast catching Rayne in the chest, sending her staggering backwards as she fired her nanopulser. Blood pouring from a myriad wounds, Rayne collapsed on the floor of the basement, her last sight that of another Preta falling into a heap of sludge.?

?Ashe cursed. Rayne was a useful asset, but she kept taking such risks. But, Ashe thought momentarily, she did manage to stop them reaching Skye and #0415, and the netrods. All very important tactical assets.?

With a horrendous crash an Iskaller slammed through a half destroyed basement on the eastern side of the complex, landing without clear line of sight to anything. Ashe wondered if it was a bad landing, or a deliberate placement. When a network intrusion signal was detected, Ashe knew it had to be the latter.

The closest unit was probot Bahara, and as Ashe switched views she was just fast enough to see a heavy machinegun ripping up chunks of stone and cement ever closer to the probot. The feed dissolved into static.

With a growing sense of urgency Ashe abandoned her overwatch position and headed east. She needed eyes on that Iskaller. Eyes and guns. Rounding the edge of a half destroyed wall, Ashe saw the Exrah operative preparing to plant a beacon of some kind.

Rifle already in line, Ashe opened fire, caseless shells flying downrange in a blur of yellow-orange tracers. The Iskaller jerked and twitched, then dropped behind a barrier. Ashe advanced cautiously, not seeing any blood splatter or carapace fragments.

Moving around the corner of the barriers, Ashe knew it was a ruse. The Iskaller lay prone, one hand clutching its heavy machinegun, the other feeding a new belt into the weapon. Ashe took aim with cold malice. A single burst of double action ammo put the Iskaller down for good, its carapace wrecked, and its ephemeral form leaching away.

On the western side, Ashe watched a tactical feed as zayin #0415 went active. First, a mine buried next to the southwest corner of the main basement complex. The remote scurried east, taking potshots at a pair of Pretas visible through the building as it went. One went down almost instantly, ripped to pieces by the remote's heavy machinegun. The other alien ducked, causing the remote to lose line of sight.

#0415 continued east, dropping another mine to cover the southeast corner of the main building. The remote stopped suddenly, next to one of the larger containers, taking up a defensive stance.

A Preta dashed into the remote's field of view, staggering under the impact of several tracer rounds. Even with its flesh torn and bleeding profusely the alien didn't stop, vomiting a broad spray of calcified shrapnel towards the remote.

Zayin #0415 fell, its front legs ripped off its chassis and its forward armour eroded to nothingness. It would soon have its revenge—with unfortunate consequences for all involved.

The Preta dashed forwards again, slamming into Ramir. As he struggled with the mindless creature, the IFF device on the nearby monofilament could no longer resolve any friendly signals, and so, with only basic programming to follow, it detonated.

The burst of wildly flailing monofilaments carved the Preta into ragged chunks of meat, poisoned blood flooding the floor of the complex. It was on this blood that Ramir slipped, tumbling backwards into the tangle of monofilaments. The Naga hacker lay very still, missing his left arm, right hand, and several other rather more important body parts.

"How many times did we warn ALEPH he'd go to pieces without that gun?" Samina asked idly through TacNet.
"I never di—you would joke about that," Ashe was far more serious in her reply, the tone bordering on censure.
"I warned him to quit while he was a head," Samina's yudbot held Ramir's head, extracting the recoverable portions of his cube. "I didn't mean it quite so... literally."
Ashe didn't bother with a reply. Samina's humour was often quite dark.

Nearby Ashe could hear multiple impacts from a spitfire down the alley she had vacated moments ago. #0415 was closest, and Ashe could see Samina's visual feed linked to the nearest yudbot, one effector holding the zayin's leg in place while the other sparked and flared to weld it in place.

As soon as the second leg was reattached the bulky remote stood and scuttled sideways, unloading a full belt from its heavy machinegun towards the skiavoros spraying spitfire rounds down the alley. A single spitfire round smashed the remote's optics, but the constant stream of gunfire ebbed away.

Ashe decided to try and flank the skiavoros, moving through the eastern side of the complex. Moving cautiously allowed Ashe to see the aswang and its adhesive launcher before it fired. The split second of recognition was enough time for Ashe to bring her rifle up, firing double action ammunition.

The shasvastii recoiled, but didn't go down, cycling another round into its adhesive launcher. Combat instincts honed by years of training and warfare, Ashe surged forwards, slamming into the alien before it could bring its weapon in line again.

The aswang was surprisingly strong for its wiry frame, rolling with Ashe's tackle, planting a foot in her chest, and throwing her over its back. Undaunted, Ashe rolled, avoiding a hammer-blow from a descending adhesive launcher and swept her legs through the aswang's. The alien fell, rolling backwards and springing into a knife-fighter's crouch. Ashe followed suit flexing the combat boosted frame of her Lhost, exulting in the surge of adrenalin.

The aswang sprang forwards as Ashe launched a powerful right hook. The alien staggered back, winded but otherwise unhurt, its armour cracked across the torso. The aswang surged forwards again, trying a grappling hold that actually caught Ashe's second strike—so she smashed her forehead against the alien's nose, drawing a satisfying spray of blue-purple blood.

The shasvastii staggered back and Ashe followed up with a knee to its torso, the blow strong enough to shatter armour and break ribs. Ashe jinked forward, following up with a left jab that connected with an audible crack. Shifting her weight to the back foot, Ashe finished with a devastating right cross that shattered the aswang's skull and sent blue-purple blood spraying several feet across the complex.

Ashe barely had a moment to regard her handiwork—the disturbingly satisfying results of close combat before the rest of the combine forces tried to eliminate her.

Behind the aswang's corpse, a nocitifer dropped camouflage, aiming a combi-rifle. Further behind it a gwailo with a spitfire opened fire, while further north, in a small sub-basement, a medtech took aim with its combi-rifle. Ashe cursed inwardly. Fighting hand to hand with the aswang had given the shasvastii time to outflank her instead.

With a surprising burst of speed Ashe slipped behind the corner of the building she was next to, out of line of sight to all the emplaced weaponry. Just before reaching cover she felt a hard impact against her upper torso. Stumbling backwards to complete the evasion, Ashe assessed the damage.

It was from a spitfire round, and while there was no bleeding, she could feel several broken ribs, and severe damage to a small section of her subdermal plating. All of this was less than desirable in combat. Especially combat as intense as this next encounter promised to be.

Ashe saw sparks and divots of pavement ripped up around the corner she had moved past. The fire continued sporadically, making it too dangerous to assault directly. She moved back quietly, flanking around the southern face of the building, quickly scanning the tactical layer as she did so.

The last two Pretas were dead, one ripped apart by #0415's monofilament mine, the other dispatched by Skye's mark one proxy. Ashe noted with some interest that ever since disabling Bahara the combined forces hadn't made a single infowar attack.

Moving cautiously, Ashe rounded the southwest corner of the basement complex, near the cargo depot. A spitfire armed skiavoros stood in the open, weapon trained to the south, on zayin #0415's half destroyed frame.

Ashe switched her rifle to full auto as the EI construct raised its weapon. The kick from the rifle on full auto was immense, due to the higher calibre rounds normally needed to damage EI aspects. Ashe's combat servos and years of training held the sights on target with only minor difficulty.

Sparks from bullet impacts and chunks of dirt and stone ripped up both ends of the alley. Ashe found her mark first, a sustained burst toppling the skiavoros. With the EI construct down, Ashe advanced cautiously, scanning the area with her visor.

Inside the basement structure, visible from the northern window, was a Shasvastii shrouded. Ashe opened fire as soon as she cleared the edge of the wall. The shrouded had no chance, its single rifle shot cracking against the window frame.

Moving further, Ashe saw the spitfire armed gwailo in the corner of the room. Swinging her gun around, Ashe fired again, the bullets deflected slightly by the gwailo's nanoscreen. The Shasvastii dropped behind a bed, falling from Ashe's field of view.

Ashe heard a sudden crash from the far side of the building. #0415 disappeared from the tactical layer. A seed soldier, lying in wait had destroyed it as the remote attempted to follow Ashe's path to outflank. Several muffled explosions rumbled throughout the complex. Ashe could see a ragged hole in the eastern flank of the building the gwailo was sheltering in. Another, stronger explosion rocked the entire complex.

Ashe ran, moving deeper into enemy held territory. A nearby Vector hacker shot at her as she passed. Ashe ignored the Exrah operator for now, concentrating on activating the standard survey/assay software package she had.

With a little help from Skye, Ashe built a map for them to follow to rendezvous with Father's other forces in the area, cutting past any other zones of serious resistance. It would take a little longer, but getting to the battle faster, but with almost depleted stores would not do Father's specialist troops any good.

Enemy resistance in the basement complex was minimal, Samina repairing Bahara at her leisure before linking into the wider EVO net. It appeared as though the Combined forces were retreating, slowly, to the east. Father flashed a congratulatory message across Ashe's whisper channel on the comlog.

<<Well done>>
"Thank you. Is everything okay?"
<<Combined Army in retreat. Likelihood of ruse posted at eleven-point-two percent>>
"Where to now?"
<<Extraction. Dropships en route>>

*          *          *

Ashe stood in front of the broken mirror once more, her dermal plating displaying the same soft skin colour when her door beeped.

"Who?" she asked the air.
"Samina," came the reply. Ashe opened the door, letting the sophotect in.

"Your Lhost has taken quite a beating these last few weeks, hasn't it?" Samina observed idly. "Might say it's been in the wars."
"Perhaps because it was."
"Lighten up, Ashe. We can't all be the kind of monster you are in combat."
"What?!"
"Maybe I should say demon?"
Ashe just shook her head.
"What?" Samina asked innocently. "Your combat frame, your generic psychogenesis process is named for a demon from Vedic culture. The designations seemed fitting, in jest."
"Maybe," Ashe lay on the bed, Samina deftly welding in new support structure, setting ribs, establishing link protocols. "But I've talked with Father recently."
"About what?"
"My psychogenesis mostly."
"How does it go?"
"It's aggravating. Like Father is testing me. Preparing me for something more. The vanguard of a new wave, be it thinkers or doers."
"I guess ALEPH wants you to find your own answer. And your bodhisattva Lhost should be functioning as normal again. Test Routine 43."

Ashe went through the motions demanded by the test routine, performing the more acrobatic manoeuvres as much as the size of her room allowed. Satisfied, Samina left without another word.

"Father, why did you not respond today?"

"Because another incursion required higher tasking than your group," the smooth tones of Spokesman Abel filtered through the comm.

"What kind of incursion?"

"Morat. They were searching for something beneath Silvania. I still do not know why it was not sent in a secure missive to PanOceania. Whatever the supremacy was searching for, it never found it. They did level several buildings around the heart of Old Sylvania."

"Where did they go afterwards?"

"Underground. Reception is marginal, the light is fairly constant. Your forces were re-tasked to just such a location."

"But we never got there."

"No, but what you did, it brought us a little more time. Time everyone on this planet surely needs more of..."