"Fall back! Fall back! We've- The enemy is--"
An ear rending explosion sundered the snow and the line went dead. Boulders rained from the cliffside towering nearby, taking some of the squad that avoided obliteration over the steep cliff framing the other side of the mountainous border path. Her bulky winter uniform was painted red now, even though she'd been far back enough in her advancing recon squad to avoid being turned into red mist herself. She was, however, close enough to be launched sideways into the rocky mountainside for a momentary stun, mercifully avoiding the rocky debris. It'd be lucky if she believed in such abstract concepts.
Chaos. The world tilting back and forth before her was pure chaos. She didn't need to be able to hear over the ringing to know there were screams of both rage and pain, violent spells and the shrill staccato of snare drum bullets. 88, callsign Infinity and sometimes shortened to Finn, had never seen such concentrated destruction and death. The creature created with the sole purpose to obey and fight had found herself taken aback by the blistering reality of war, one she'd been unprepared to fight in. It was just supposed to be a recon mission, but they hadn't anticipated the blizzard. The frigid whiteout disoriented them, and as was obvious now, they had crossed the border into Pergrande territory. This battle wasn't between opposing sides that were giving everything they had for their homes, emboldened. Passionate. This was between one side that might be experiencing those feelings, but the other were merely allies to the other half of this war. Allies trying to survive. That was all Finn felt now. Gotta get up. Gotta move, but not so she wouldn't end up in pieces as a price paid in someone else's war, but so she could help her comrades survive and accomplish what they were sent to do and make it back to headquarters for dinner in the mess hall.
Then there were even more Pergrandians before. It was as if she blinked her pretty blue eyes and each one had multiplied two or three times over. There were more than there were of Rune Knights, on this particular battlefield anyway. Every one she cut down, there were two more behind her. They were stronger and stronger.
"Nero, what do we do? There's too many!"
"Staff Sergeant-- AUGH!"
The cries of her squadmates were unanswered by the leader of this unfortunate group, and Finn was desperate for orders. She didn't possess the ability to get out of this without being directed, and right now everyone was panicking. "Nero!" she called loudly into the comms, out of breath and in the middle of pulling one of her knives from a Pergrandian neck. "Nero, please, what do we do?" she nearly begged, but...
Others rose to fill the void, barking orders to the best of their ability, trying to plan a retreat that would work and save who they can. But it was already too late. It was far too late for that. They were doomed. They were casualties the instant they got lost in the snow.
The last thing Finn remembered was a mix of numbness, white-hot pain in her leg, and laying in the snow...in two pieces. Her darkening mind briefly wondered whose leg she was looking at, watching as the meat painted the white the color of the roses sold in the city square. It was just occurring to her that it belonged to her when her eyes rolled back into her head and the painless void took her.
How long had it been?
They'd long since stopped tying her up. With a missing leg she wouldn't be running anywhere, and as long as they didn't get too close while she was conscious, they were safe enough. The cuffs made of magic sealing stone robbed her of all but her natural formidable strength, and even that was largely missing due to malnourishment and bullet holes. When she did manage to reach that thick iron door, there was nothing she could do to it to get it to open. Not that she'd received the best of medical care, but between her natural resilience and a little first aid to make her worth imprisoning, Finn was definitely still planning an escape.
The POW facility did little more than keep them alive, though Finn wondered why they bothered. Day after day she sat uselessly on her cot, wearing little more than bandages and rags, her dark hair strung up in an unkempt ponytail. Though her appearance was rough, her expression was unruffled. Serenely blank and lucid. No one knew they were here, from what she'd gleaned from passing conversations by guards. Occasionally a medic was allowed into the rooms for welfare checks and he would make idle chit chat, since she was as helpless as a disabled lamb...or so he thought. A small part of her hated to accost the one person that feigned polite indifference, but he had something she needed. Something she'd been biding her time on taking. Finn needed this man to drop his guard and take the communicator, his lifeline, out of his ear. She needed to convince him she wasn't a risk, that she could be trusted. The day came when he did just that, and in the scuffle, she snatched it without him realizing.
When she woke up from the brutal beating, the device was still tucked securely in the waist of her dingy cotton shorts. With some modifications, she attuned it to the Rune Knight frequency. Unsure of how far the range would go, the clone started with vague but repeating messages, using the call signs of potential survivors in her squad and just asking for help. Perhaps there were still people on the Bellum side of the border who would pick it up and relay it to whom it concerned. No answer came, but it also didn't bring any guards into her room to take the device from her, so she risked being more specific. Hunched on her cot, 88 repeated her message again and again in a steady but low voice, refusing to entertain that she'd die trapped and pointless in a dirty stone cell but trembling all the same. Hope wasn't a native concept to the clone, yet she held a death grip on the small sliver she had within her.
"Rune Knight POW, callsign Infinity. Send rescue."
[wc: 1077]
An ear rending explosion sundered the snow and the line went dead. Boulders rained from the cliffside towering nearby, taking some of the squad that avoided obliteration over the steep cliff framing the other side of the mountainous border path. Her bulky winter uniform was painted red now, even though she'd been far back enough in her advancing recon squad to avoid being turned into red mist herself. She was, however, close enough to be launched sideways into the rocky mountainside for a momentary stun, mercifully avoiding the rocky debris. It'd be lucky if she believed in such abstract concepts.
Chaos. The world tilting back and forth before her was pure chaos. She didn't need to be able to hear over the ringing to know there were screams of both rage and pain, violent spells and the shrill staccato of snare drum bullets. 88, callsign Infinity and sometimes shortened to Finn, had never seen such concentrated destruction and death. The creature created with the sole purpose to obey and fight had found herself taken aback by the blistering reality of war, one she'd been unprepared to fight in. It was just supposed to be a recon mission, but they hadn't anticipated the blizzard. The frigid whiteout disoriented them, and as was obvious now, they had crossed the border into Pergrande territory. This battle wasn't between opposing sides that were giving everything they had for their homes, emboldened. Passionate. This was between one side that might be experiencing those feelings, but the other were merely allies to the other half of this war. Allies trying to survive. That was all Finn felt now. Gotta get up. Gotta move, but not so she wouldn't end up in pieces as a price paid in someone else's war, but so she could help her comrades survive and accomplish what they were sent to do and make it back to headquarters for dinner in the mess hall.
Then there were even more Pergrandians before. It was as if she blinked her pretty blue eyes and each one had multiplied two or three times over. There were more than there were of Rune Knights, on this particular battlefield anyway. Every one she cut down, there were two more behind her. They were stronger and stronger.
"Nero, what do we do? There's too many!"
"Staff Sergeant-- AUGH!"
The cries of her squadmates were unanswered by the leader of this unfortunate group, and Finn was desperate for orders. She didn't possess the ability to get out of this without being directed, and right now everyone was panicking. "Nero!" she called loudly into the comms, out of breath and in the middle of pulling one of her knives from a Pergrandian neck. "Nero, please, what do we do?" she nearly begged, but...
Others rose to fill the void, barking orders to the best of their ability, trying to plan a retreat that would work and save who they can. But it was already too late. It was far too late for that. They were doomed. They were casualties the instant they got lost in the snow.
The last thing Finn remembered was a mix of numbness, white-hot pain in her leg, and laying in the snow...in two pieces. Her darkening mind briefly wondered whose leg she was looking at, watching as the meat painted the white the color of the roses sold in the city square. It was just occurring to her that it belonged to her when her eyes rolled back into her head and the painless void took her.
How long had it been?
They'd long since stopped tying her up. With a missing leg she wouldn't be running anywhere, and as long as they didn't get too close while she was conscious, they were safe enough. The cuffs made of magic sealing stone robbed her of all but her natural formidable strength, and even that was largely missing due to malnourishment and bullet holes. When she did manage to reach that thick iron door, there was nothing she could do to it to get it to open. Not that she'd received the best of medical care, but between her natural resilience and a little first aid to make her worth imprisoning, Finn was definitely still planning an escape.
The POW facility did little more than keep them alive, though Finn wondered why they bothered. Day after day she sat uselessly on her cot, wearing little more than bandages and rags, her dark hair strung up in an unkempt ponytail. Though her appearance was rough, her expression was unruffled. Serenely blank and lucid. No one knew they were here, from what she'd gleaned from passing conversations by guards. Occasionally a medic was allowed into the rooms for welfare checks and he would make idle chit chat, since she was as helpless as a disabled lamb...or so he thought. A small part of her hated to accost the one person that feigned polite indifference, but he had something she needed. Something she'd been biding her time on taking. Finn needed this man to drop his guard and take the communicator, his lifeline, out of his ear. She needed to convince him she wasn't a risk, that she could be trusted. The day came when he did just that, and in the scuffle, she snatched it without him realizing.
When she woke up from the brutal beating, the device was still tucked securely in the waist of her dingy cotton shorts. With some modifications, she attuned it to the Rune Knight frequency. Unsure of how far the range would go, the clone started with vague but repeating messages, using the call signs of potential survivors in her squad and just asking for help. Perhaps there were still people on the Bellum side of the border who would pick it up and relay it to whom it concerned. No answer came, but it also didn't bring any guards into her room to take the device from her, so she risked being more specific. Hunched on her cot, 88 repeated her message again and again in a steady but low voice, refusing to entertain that she'd die trapped and pointless in a dirty stone cell but trembling all the same. Hope wasn't a native concept to the clone, yet she held a death grip on the small sliver she had within her.
"Rune Knight POW, callsign Infinity. Send rescue."
[wc: 1077]