Chapter 36 – I Am Rather Tired Today. I Shall Rest Properly.

In an instant, the silent debris field became a place where iron and light tore through each other.

From behind rock formations, from the far side of drifting wreckage, from darkness too deep to track by eye--four-legged autonomous weapons, unmistakable in their alien silhouette, came streaking toward Arden and the others on tails of propellant flame.

The same small machines from the abandoned factory.

"Scoundrels! You cannot deceive these eyes!"

Letaria threw Arden's thrusters to full as she shouted.

The voice that had spoken directly into her mind a moment ago had sharpened every nerve she had to its edge. Her consciousness was deeply synchronized with Arden.

"Damn, they're too fast--can't get a lock!"

"Aah--get away, get away--!"

The voices of the other freelancers crackled through. One Makina had its left arm severed at the shield--a blade of light from one of the small units had taken both clean off. Two more units converged on the destabilized machine.

"Oh no you don't--back off, every last one of you!"

Arden's acceleration looked like it had simply skipped through space. Letaria kicked off a rock formation, used the inertia to cut a sharp angle, and drove the dark purple machine directly into the cluster of incoming units.

She drove Arden's leg into the nearest one as she went through.

The kick hit the core dead-center. The shockwave scattered debris; the small machine came apart in a burst of fire and scattered into space as fragments.

"One! Now--who's next?!"

"Good work, miss! All units fall back for a moment--bunched together you're just a target!"

Zein's sharp direction cut through the chaos. He was managing the field from his dual-seat machine, view above the fight.

"Fal--fifteen degrees right! Flush out what's hiding behind that rock! Handing you full fire control!"

"On it! Boss, just fly--I've got targeting! Multi-lock, all tubes open!"

At Fal's shout, a cascade of missiles poured from Zein's machine. The light trails threaded through the debris field and found the two units lurking in the rock's shadow with precision. Zein followed the blast-disrupted machines immediately with sustained Photon Rifle fire.

"Down!"

Two more gone--Zein and Fal in perfect sync.

The remaining units, however, increased their speed and began taking erratic, unpredictable trajectories--using the complex debris field as cover, hunting for blind angles to drive their light blades in.

"Stop darting around--!"

Letaria chased the presences. Something closing on Arden--

(--There!)

She wrenched the machine into a hard reversal.

Arden's fist came out.

A unit had driven straight into it.

The fist caught the machine's body and drove it into the rock formation behind--the rock shattered, and the unit was crushed beyond recognition.

"Fast--but not fast enough for me!"

The retreating freelancers let out stunned sounds as Letaria tore through the engagement.

The remaining units were silenced one by one--Zein's calm pursuit fire, the other freelancers' shots finding their marks as the enemy numbers dwindled.

Quiet returned to the sector.

"...Okay. Nothing still coming after us. That's it for survey work today--we head back to Seldia."

Zein let out a long breath of relief.

Through Arden's viewport, Letaria stared at the stillness that had settled back over the debris field. The enemy was finished. But it wasn't victory she was feeling. It was that voice--its origin, its nature--turning over and over in the back of her mind.

◆◆◆

Several hours later, the Seldia hangar was alive with the noise of returning machines and engineers calling to each other.

Letaria handed Arden off to the maintenance team and went directly to Milea's lab.

"Milea, I'm back."

"Welcome back. I heard through the corps' line. Those small units appeared again."

Milea turned in her chair to face Letaria, her expression composed but intent. Behind her, the combat data transferred from Arden was already being processed on the monitors.

"Milea... just before the engagement--there was a strange communication."

"Strange?"

Milea's brow shifted slightly. She turned to the terminal without a word and pulled up Arden's comm logs.

"...That's odd. I've checked Arden's records--there is a strong broadband electromagnetic noise event logged at that exact time. But there's no external receive log. No audio data. Not even a packet trace."

"That can't be right! I heard it clearly--'something dangerous is hiding here, be on your guard'--"

"I know, Letaria. I believe you. What this most likely means is that it wasn't a conventional radio transmission."

Milea set her fingers against her jaw and looked down in thought.

(Did the unknown black box in Arden interface directly with her brainwaves...? Someone chose her specifically, and made contact through it.)

Letaria watched Milea think in silence, and felt the unease settling in her chest.

"I can't say anything definitive yet--it's still conjecture. Let me go through the data more carefully. You--go back to your room and rest. ...Letaria. You did well today."

Milea's words were unusually gentle. Something in Letaria responded to that--and she offered her usual confident smile in return.

"...Understood. I am rather tired today. I shall rest properly."

She returned to her room, shed her clothes, and sank into the bed.

She closed her eyes. In the dark, Arden surfaced--and the black of open space behind it.

(...What was that voice...)

The question had no answer. She carried it down with her into a deep, quiet sleep.

The storm was drawing closer.