12 Miles Below

The first signs of the true surface came as ice, formed on the dirt ground before us, crunching under our boots as we marched. Air temperature had been steadily dropping, pairing with the ambient drop in humidity. We took camp only once in this final accent, knowing it would be the last time we could camp out without helmets. Soon the enemy would be the traditional one, the climate above.

The surface was drawing near. Exhaustion closer behind.

Ankah and Calem took the time to affix their surface gear back on, checking each other’s gauges and metrics, making sure the environmental suits were powered and ready for the next leg of the journey. The rest of the knights took one last moment to consume the rest of their rations while they could freely keep their helmets off.

Once we were back in that icy embrace, it would be a death sentence to take off our helmets for any reason. The next time any of us could eat freely would be inside the safety of a powered airspeeder or inside an expedition heated tent.

“Hell of a dive.” Ironreach said, sitting down to my side with a thump, on the rough concrete block I’d picked as a seat. “It’s not usually like this, kid. I’ve been serving as a knight under the clan lord for just about seven years now, and that’s the first Feather I’ve seen. Heard stories ‘bout them though. Gotta say, they lived up to the tales. Gods, not a bastard I want to run into again.”

The ration tasted dry and dull in my mouth as I chewed, the crushed insect feet just as annoying as always to chew on. I offered the last few bites to my newly arrived guest. He shook his hand, telling me he was just as enthusiastic about the dry food as I was. “That just so happened to be my first time seeing a Feather.” I said, dryly. “Small world.”

He nodded, looking over at the assembled group. “I agree it ain’t the best first impression as a newly minted knight. Hopefully, the rest of your career doesn’t follow the same luck as today.”

“I think I might almost sell my armor just for a safe bed right now. Almost.”

He chuckled at that, which devolved into light coughing. The dry and cold air had that effect if it was breathed in too quickly. Might have been a better idea to set camp earlier, except we’d all been spooked after that last fight. The faster we left the scene the better.

He gave me a somber look, those unshaved whiskers of his starting to pick up ice crystals from his breath. “We keep going, kid. But. This is the home stretch, the safer part of the expeditions. At this level, the machines don’t follow. Don’t really know why they don’t come past a certain point, guess that’s how it’s always been. We’re done here, except for the climb up and trip home.”

He pointed up ahead in the tunnel, further into the gloom. “We’ll either find this direction exits out into a surface mountain, or it might be more of a hike first. Sometimes, we could even run into a half-buried site and find a stairwell going straight up. Depends.”

The shadowsong prime moved past us, hoversled trailing behind him. The glint of Breaker caught my eye, left where I’d stowed the clan lord’s ancient weapon. “Why did he toss his sword?” I asked.

“Probably so that machine git didn’t loot it from his dead body.” Ironreach said. “Deathless don’t disappear immediately after they die. It’ll be an hour or so before his body dissolves, and anything he’s wearing will dissolve with him only then. Never seen it happen myself, ‘cause the clan lord hasn’t ever died in recent history, but that’s what the others told me would happen. He don’t carry much on him for exactly that reason. Nothing that he can’t afford to lose anyhow. Armor is important to us, but to the machines, they don’t care one bit ‘bout that. Undersiders have entire armies of relic knights down here, it’d be like your enemy caring about looting that rebreather o’ yours. Occult blades are the same too. At least normally, ‘xcept I’d never seen a blade do that.”

He gave a significant look at the stowed blade as Shadowsong Prime filed past, already hooking his helmet back on. Ankah and Calem tagged along behind, while the other knights stood up from their break, helmets all being donned.

“He cut that Feather’s hand off. And that feeling, that pulse, you felt that right? I wasn’t just imagining things?”

“You mean that feeling of reality being bent over a knee and slapped around like it owed rent? Naw, no idea what you're going on about. Nobody felt that. We’ve all been walking silently this whole time for a completely different reason.”

“Now you’re just gaslighting me, you little git.” Ironreach huffed standing up and extending out a hand to me. I clasped it, letting him pull me up.

“There’s no such thing as gaslighting,” I told him sternly. “You’re just making that word up.”

Windrunner followed behind the pack, snickering. “Finally, you poor bastard, you finally have a friend to shittalk with.”

“Finally? Since when did you get so shy?” He turned back to me, pointing at Windrunner as he did so. “Look at that buckethead go, acting like he didn’t laugh at my jokes under his helmet this whole time. Hope he gets dunked in the white someday.” Ironreach clipped his helmet back on, securing it with a scoff.

“Go propose already.” Windrunner scoffed right back. “We’re on the home stretch, what could possibly go wrong?” He turned while walking and drew his hands out to the world as if implying everything around him was exactly what could go wrong.

Ironreach grumbled. “But see, we just faced something that could scrap the fakin’ clan lord himself. And look who’s still laughing.” Then he beat his chest. “It’s me. I did. I’m the one still laughing.”

Shadowsong prime cut in, “Quiet. Have some deference to the fallen. I am no man to subscribe to superstition, and yet despite that fact, the two of you are getting my hair to stand on edge.”

The knights caught up behind, both nodding. We all marched in silence from then on. They were keeping moral high in their own way, I felt like I was only following the motions.

Kidra walked ahead, keeping a hand on her rifle. I pinged on my comms for a private discussion with her. She accepted, the channel opening up.

“I read. You have something on your mind?”

I debated how best to ask her, then decided to just go right for it. “The.. ahh, hard drive that we recovered. It seemed to have an effect on you. You paused in the middle of combat, nearly died for that too.”

There wasn’t any change in her motions, still following the flow of the group at their speed. I could tell she was contemplating how to answer somehow. Intuition.

“Something reached out to me. It felt like I had been... judged in some way. I find it difficult to put into words. It was as jarring to feel as when the clan lord cut that Feather’s hand, only more personal and not… violent. I saw memories of my life, moments of decisions. Some easy, some harder. If there was something inside that hard drive, it was pleased at what it saw.”

“Our mutual friend mentioned that Atius knew what was inside the hard drive.” I said, finding it easier to weave in the lies here. We were still in the underground, I didn’t want to break operational security. “Do you think he can shed some more light on this?”

“I intend to find out once we’re reunited.” She said. “I recognize you have a great many thoughts floating through your head right now brother, but for me, that event is the only one that I’ve been thinking on this entire march. Believe me when I tell you, I intend to seek answers.”

“Not afraid the clan lord will shut you down and say it’s not our crickets to worry about and then shut you out of the loop?”

“I’d like to see him try.”

The howl of wind, distant in the tunnels, was the first sign that we’d closed in on an escape from the land. The entire mission’s experience was teetering in the back of my head, roiling to break free into my mind. A deep exhaustion was settling inside my bones, the numbness receding into a dull ache. My calf felt like it was a pulsing tumor, and there was something deeply unsettling with the side of my ribs. I’d kept it all at bay so far with drugs and some gallows humor, but everything was being stretched.

Teed’s voice nearly undid it all, a lifeline that marked safety and the end of things. “This is recon twelve airspeeder to search party. Respond.”

The group halted mid-step, a new energy passing through us all.

“This is Shadowsong one to Recon twelve. We read you. We’ve returned with the package and need extraction soon. Atius and Winterscar prime KIA. No other casualties. Begin approach to our coordinates.”

If the comms from the surface were being picked up, that means there was an open hole somewhere by us that went into open air. Considering there was now snow all over the place, I’d say we were just about there.

“Affirmative, have your coordinates, punching engines now. Hard news to hear, see you all topside.” Teed replied, and the comms went silent.

The group cheered right after, moral rising up as we could all taste the end. Hope rekindled, we went back into the march, moving with energy in our steps.

In minutes, it became clear why his comm signals were coming through. The very next chamber wasn’t a chamber at all, but the deep bottom of a massive crevice.

And far above us was the night sky, filled with stars and the howling wind above, sweeping sheets of snow that occasionally obscured the view.

It was beautiful. A massive tapestry of shimmering white lights, blocked only by the the shadowy cliff-side. The only other source of lights were our headlamps. Just a little more. Escape was only a few dozen meters above us.

“We’ll need to scale the wall and lower a repel rope.” Shadowsong said to the side, examining the sides of the wall. It wasn’t rock, instead slabs of metal cubes made the bulk of it, and what looked to be the remains of a half-consumed structure. Warped and bent as the metal rock faces had slowly crushed and twisted it over time.

The Shadowsongs were already working as a team, the two scavengers unhooked their ice picks and passed it off to Shadowsong two. He spun them around in his hand experimentally as the prime packed up the rope up and handed him the filled bag.

Wordlessly, he scaled up the cliff-side, using both ice picks in tandem to pull himself up as the rest of us remained watching. Relic armor made the feat something quick and effortless. A few minutes and he’d made it to the top, pulling himself over the lip of the cliff-side and into the sleet of snow, bits of loose white ice falling down behind him as he vanished over the edge.

“Exit secured.” The second in command said. “No sign of anything but wind and the white up here, sir.”

From the darkness of the night sky and obscuring snowdrift, a rope rippled down, unfurling as it fell. It slapped against the side of the cliff a few times until caught in metal gauntlets at the bottom.

The Shadowsong prime passed the secured rope over to Windrunner, ordering him up first.

Shadowsong had Calem and Ankah go next while the rest of us held the position. They took far longer compared to the armored knights, but none of us were pressed for time. One by one, we scaled the way up. No signs of trouble plagued us, no machines to chase after us one last time. Eventually it came to me.

I grabbed the rope and used my legs to scale up the wall with the rope as a guideline. Journey made everything effortless. Given the power of relic armor, I suspected even a fall from here wouldn’t damage me, or the armor.

Of course, following that thought, memories of Winterscar falling down a dark abyss rose unbidden.

With every meter I pulled myself up, thoughts of the mission floated by as my mind held me hostage.

Waking to alarms and pain. The joy of discovery, the mites, and the utterly relentless machines. Constantly hunting behind us, a shadow of death. Every event played through my head. Each length of rope I grabbed hold of and pulled, more thoughts swam past me.

And what they left behind were questions.

An icon remained on my HUD, blinking slowly, a notification waiting for my attention. Mission.mp3

Within that file, there would be instructions on using the relic at my belt, left by the goddess herself. I hadn’t dared to open it up down here, in the heart of the machine domain.

There were also coordinates to an old book she’d hidden away. Knowledge I wasn’t supposed to let the warlocks know about. If I had a guess at it: That book taught the occult arts. I saw a glimpse of my future, and it was tinged occult blue. Memories of the clan lord's fight floated through my mind, showing me what the true power of the occult was when wielded. And of course, memories of a dead man standing, hand reaching for me, occult streaks lighting a dark room. I had to find out what happened to Father. To Tenisent Winterscar’s soul. I had to.

The edge of the cliff approached. A few more steps.

Inside the book was something called the soul fractal. The Julia set she’d said.

Fractals in armor. That had to have been his last words to me. Inside these armors, those pattern designs must have been fractals etched into metal. He must have seen them somehow, realized something, and tried to get me on the right path with what little control or time he had left.

My hands finally reached for the cliff edge where the fingertips sank into the snow until catching hold of solid metal under it all. I lifted and pulled myself out of the underground.

The cold flowed past Journey’s plate, howling across the empty surface. Snowdrift flew by, curving around the unyielding metal armor. The white wastes stretched to all sides around me, hiding the Insanity that lurked below. In the distance, a massive silver pool of reflected moonlight glittered on the ice fields.

A churning snowstorm came from that distance, with an airspeeder at the vanguard. Faint lights as the only clue of its identity. Teed was on approach.

I took a few aimless steps, my boots sinking in the thin sheet of snow with that familar and welcoming crunch I knew time and time again. Realization truly hit me only then.

It was over.

The journey had ended. I had survived. Home.

I collapsed on my knees, half laughing, half crying. Soon I found myself on my back, now feeling truly free. The release of built up stress hit my system like a collapsing wall. Shakes coursed through my body, mixed with coughs and intermittent laughing. Journey quickly gave an annoyed squawk to halt all this rubbish, in the usual monotone. I wasn’t doing my fractured rib any favors according to it, as it clearly marked and displayed on my HUD the strain. All color coded in deep orange and reds. They blurred together in my sight, teardrops playing tricks with the light.

So instead I stayed laying down, getting slowly buried by the occasional gust of snowdrift.

Kidra hovered above my vision soon enough, a hand outstretched down to pick me up. I took her up on the offer and sat up. The rest of the knights had climbed up, with Ironreach last to surface. They had pulled the hoversled up at some point, all the power cells neatly lined up and glowing faintly with green gold liquid on the cell windows. All of them mostly charged and ready for use. Distant sounds of an engine were getting louder as each second passed.

The night air was so clear, the space so wide and open, all perfectly lit by silver moonlight. It was almost surreal how peaceful it felt up here.

There was nothing in every direction, save for the approaching vehicle and truly distant mountains.

The airspeeder looked strange with the lack of scavengers, almost naked. Normally, these would always be filled with people on the outside hull when in motion. The only times it’s not are inside a hanger bay, sleeping. I suppose for the leftover rescue mission they had distributed most of the overflow crew among the rest of the expedition. What remained behind were the ones needed to operate the craft.

It banked into full view, curving to the side, killing any extra momentum smoothly as it lowered into the soft snow, landing gear already unfolded and ready to carry the full weight.

We all made our way wordlessly. A small ragged line of relic knights and two scavengers marching forward in this moonlit night, soft lights from their own different suits twinkling, rapidly disappearing footprints left swept away behind in their wake.

Our little fireteam was packed inside and all tied down to the chairs within a minute, the hoversled being looted, cells passed over on a daisy chain into the storage compartments.

Shadowsong took charge again. “Pilot.” He called out over the comms. “Drive us back to the original site, that’s where we’ll find Lord Atius. He’ll be waiting for us.”

Teed’s voice snapped into my helmet. “Aye aye, setting coordinates now. Waiting for green light from all crew before takeoff.”

The pickup had been touch and go. Once the crew secured the cells and items from outside the ship, they took their seats and the metal behemoth took flight once more. I watched as the dark crack in the ground grew distant, our airspeeder speeding up and away. The little sliver of a doorway into a much wider and dangerous world.

Father was right, there were cracks into the underground everywhere, if you knew where to look.

“T minus five minutes until we reach the old site.” Teed said to the general comms as the scavengers aboard unstrapped and continued to organize the newly taken supplies. A request pinged in my helmet from him to join the Winterscar sub-group. I accepted.

“Keith! You sly little pipe weasel, I kept thinking this was it! That you were dead. Can’t tell you how happy I am to see you crawl into my ship one more time. And is that gods damned relic armor you’re bringing with you? The comms sign show your name, but the designation label… Had to lean up to look through the window just to be sure.”

“It is. The armor’s name is Journey, an old crusader’s armor left behind down there. I’d have died five times over if I hadn’t had the luck of the goddess and found it.”

In a literal way, but that wasn’t something I’d say out loud until after I got a full debrief from Atius.

Teed laughed, “You got some explaining to do. Tell me the stories.”

Kidra interrupted, done with stowing away gear and storming over to where I sat. “He will do no such thing. Keith, the only thing I’ll allow you to do is head directly to medical right now.” She jabbed a finger at the airlock. Winterscar’s helmet obscured all features, but that glare she sent me could be felt across walls. “You can both swap stories another time. And don’t say no. I will drag you kicking and screaming if I have to, the gods help me.”

I tried to object, but Teed of all people talked over me. “I reckon the lady’s right here, and she don’t sound in a negotiating mood. The stories aren’t going anywhere, yeah?”

“Traitor.” I shot back, but knew when I’d been overruled and meekly did her bidding.

The upper levels of an airspeeder were behind an airlock and isolated from the surface temperature. Past that cramped entrance, it was safe to take off my helmet. The feeling of warm air on my cheek was absolutely divine. The underground had been consistently cold to freezing, even if the air wasn’t deadly to breathe.

Airspeeders were large behemoths, however, their size wasn’t that massive. The rapid response room shared duties with quite a few other hats, including a direct doorway into the cockpit. Space was still a premium here. The medical crew in place quickly got the full report from Journey and began to unpack all the equipment they’d need, calling out instruments and instructions to each other.

They’d asked me to sit down on the bed in the meantime, but I’d been stubborn and gone to visit Teed instead. I’d never missed a chance to sit in the cockpit room and watch the world whizz by, and damned if I’d break that tradition now. Oddly enough I had no complaints or anyone stand in my way. The crew buzzed around, getting out of my way. Belatedly I realized the behavior was what I’d done all my life around relic knights.

The door pulled open and I walked right in, dropping down on the spare seat to his side, as if it had been made for me.

“Look good in that plate, kid.” Teed said, giving a quick glance before going back to his console. The white wastes flew by under us, the broken site slowly approaching in the distance. “I’ll ask for a closer look once we’re back home, maybe take a few pictures. Ladies will love it."

“Imperials always look good in their armors.” I shot back. “I like the gold too, fits my ego. And don’t think I’m going to forget you and Kidra double teaming earlier. Are you going to do that every time someone bats their eyes at you?”

He grinned, pulling the handlebars slightly to the side and banking the airspeeder. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Swear on my lift. And if I did, hypothetically, I’d only do it for the pretty ones.”

“Peh. You can make it up by buying the first round.”

He chuckled. “Already acting like a relic knight within the hour, right down to taking bribes. Can’t wait to see where you go from here, m'lord."

Teed’s estimation was on point. In a little over five minutes, we’d arrived at the collapsed site. The moon illuminated the whole gravesite, any sign of the expedition gone. The snow had already snuffed out the evidence.

The only thing that remained was a single silhouette of a person. As the airspeeder banked into a stop, I got a full sight of the anomaly.

Atius stood under that moonlight, a small fading trail of footsteps behind him, leading from the collapsed site, quickly being blown away bit by bit. His features came into detail once the airspeeder lights pooled over him, lighting him up. The armor was gone, only his under tunic remained, whipping in the wind of the landing airspeeder. I suppose the Feather must have stripped the armor despite what Ironreach had said, maybe out of insult? No sign of blood anywhere to show for his last moments underground. Even his tunic didn’t bear any marks of damage, only bits of caught snow.

He stalked forward under the open sky, making his way without a care in the world. Shadowsong extended his hand out and the clan lord clasped it tightly. I lost sight as he entered the speeder.

“Everyone accounted for?” He asked over the comms, once they had given him one. It was business as usual.

It didn’t take long for him to confirm everything was as it should be. “Fine work. We’ll be setting camp here for the night, and then discuss over the morning on our next leg of the journey. Bring me spare standard evosuit over-armor in the meantime. All crew, dismissed. Get some good sleep. I think we can indulge ourselves for a bit. The expedition master isn't anywhere nearby to look over our shoulders after all."

That got a good laugh from the crew, and business as usual continued.

Soon another request to join the winterscar comms pinged. And not just any request, the clan lord wanted to talk to us. Kidra accepted it and Atius’s voice entered the chat. “You still have the hard drive, from the bunker, correct?” He asked, a far more serious tone in his voice.

“Yes, sir. I have it secured in my bag.” She said.

“Good. Follow me, we need to talk. In private.”

Both Kidra and him winked off the house comms. Guess Kidra got her audience with the clan lord much faster than expected and with less arm twisting. The perks of being a relic knight.

And talking of arm twisting, that’s when the medics opened up the cockpit door, looking to yank me out of a good time with Teed.

They ushered me to sit down on one of the few cramped bedsides within the airspeeder. This room clearly hadn’t been designed as a medical wing, which made it even more impressive given how many workarounds the medical teams had come up with over the years do strong arm the space into submission anyhow. Say anything about surface dwellers, we made things work.

This crew didn’t ask any questions, already swarming over me to remove plate after plate and calling out orders to one another. They moved as a team, well practiced and clearly having done this exact procedure a hundred times. Journey didn’t offer resistance, peeling off the moment their hands got close enough to any part. They moved with reverence, organizing each piece carefully on the side.

Things began to feel heavy. Like a return to gravity after months spent floating in water. I found myself settling down on my back, as I didn’t have the willpower or strength to keep sitting upright. Just how much of the suit had been moving me compared to my own body?

“How… how bad is it?” I asked one to my side.

He turned to give me a look. His eyes were blue and full of kindness. “We’ve seen worse before, don’t worry. You’re not in any great danger.” He patted my shoulder, then pointed at one of the crewmembers overseeing the operation like a stern captain. “Ammaris there is a master medical officer, and the rest of us are some of the best among the expedition. The clan lord had us transferred over to the search party airship in preparation for events like this one. It might look bad, but you’re not going to lose a leg or a hand, trust me.”

That was an odd speech. Giving a bit of effort, I lifted my head up to see my body. “Why would I worr… oh.” My calf had swollen up like a balloon, the medical team already cleaning off the wound. Uncovering the glint of metal still embedded inside. A fat clump of purple flesh, looking like it should have been pulsing waves of pain.

My hand looked just as bad, parts of it swollen up that same fleshy purple. Right where Journey had alerted me I’d fractured it during the overrides. I could see them cutting open my undershirt, already filled with rusty dried spots of blood. They examined my skin under their headlights, all the welts and wounds extra stark when revealed in the harsh light. A blue solution was being sprayed over bits of medical glue that were stuck over my skin, the standard solvent to melt the glue off. The team discussed with one another the whole time, preparing to tackle my injuries from the most important to least, pointing at different parts and delegating tasks to one another.

Sounds of suction tubes sounded out along with metal tools and calls between the medical team now pouring over the data Journey sent them.

Details began to blur in my mind. I could hear them talk, but simply couldn’t focus enough to understand what they said. It was gibberish. Medical jargon strung together with bits of recognizable words in between. The one with blue eyes shined a light into my own, reaching a plastic gloved hand and executing a set of tests over my mouth, throat and forehead. I complied with his instructions as best I could.

One of them jabbed a finger at my rib side, monitoring me as he did so. “Do you feel anything?”

“Uhh, not much.” I said. “Kind of a dull pain in the background. Not too comfortable.”

“Okay. The painkiller in your system is in the second late stage and will wear off soon. We’ll need to sedate you some more. You’ll want to be asleep for this anyhow.” He said, walking off and bringing back an injection. “When you wake up, you’ll be good as new, m'lord.” He aimed the needle by my arm. “A few weeks of bedrest and you’ll be back on the front lines like nothing happened.” I couldn’t feel the injection.

“All right. I need you to count to one hundred out loud for me,”

Giving a nod, I started the count. The world blurred by three. Sensations faded away by six. Darkness carried me off with tender hands by seven.

I’ve never slept better in my life.

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