Ravens of Eternity

The city was dotted with massive manufactories, fabrication bays, machine printers, materials recyclers, and so on. Its coral buildings and streets and skyways were much dirtier than other cities’ buildings. Their normally bright facades were coated in thin layers of soot and filth and grease and dust.

All this was especially true the closer one got to the ground level. It was as though the city’s finest residues settled down there in countless unyielding layers.

In the daytime, the edges where the streets and the buildings met were often so grisly that they were practically blackened by years of accumulated machine grime.

At night however, it all blended together with the dark shadows that dominated streets.

Most of the dome’s residents found themselves in the vice-ridden underdome, which was oddly cleaner than the upperdome. Or, if they were tired of intoxicants and gambling and gaming and such, then they simply found themselves cozied up at home.

Very few were still out on the streets during the nighttime, unless of course they were working.

Two rather large drogar slinked through the shadows of one of the grimier alleyways in relative silence. Although both were wearing signal-dampening stealth suits, one of them was clearly more adept at it than the other.

.....

In fact, the larger one’s attempts were so clumsy that the more skilled one had to resort to constant hand signals to keep things under control.

And because they were trying their best to remain stealthy, they mostly communicated with each other through their DIs.

—

Orsethii: You really believe this Benefactor nonsense?

Orsethii: That someone somewhere controls the galaxy?

Orsethii: I think it’s all junk

Colviss: ‘Control’ isn’t the word I’d use.

Colviss: Influence is a much better fit.

Orsethii: I don’t see the difference

Colviss: Sometimes there isn’t.

Colviss: But I get what you’re trying to say – it’s all really hard to believe.

Colviss: Like you said, someone somewhere controlling everything? Sounds iffy.

Colviss: Then again if one drogar can command quintillions of us as an emperor…

Colviss: How different could this be?

Orsethii: What if it’s all just a smokescreen?

Orsethii: Some elaborate lie made for whatever reason

Colviss: Then it’s up to us to find out.

Colviss: And hopefully stomp it out.

Orsethii: I guess that’s where I come in?

Colviss: That’s where we all come in.

—

The two came up to a nondescript metal door at the end of a long and dirty alleyway. The door itself appeared nearly decrepit, as though it was practically about to collapse on itself.

But on further inspection Colviss realized that it was actually heavily reinforced and securely locked. After a few moments of searching and scanning, she quickly found a small hidden panel off to the side. She slid it open and revealed some kind of authentication system underneath.

It seemed to her some combination of digital, biometric, and passphrase security.

She could have perhaps broken open her bypass kit and worked through it normally, but instead she reached into a secure, shielded pouch and produced one of Raijin’s cottonball drones.

It floated up in the air and chirped at finally being free. Then it quickly turned to the auth system nearby and zapped it. The drone emitted another soft chirp right before the door CLACKED and swung open.

Before either of the drogar could pass on through, the cottonball drone zipped inside at speed.

“My turn now, right?” Orsethii said with a grin.

“Let’s give the little bird time to scout,” Colviss replied. “I’d rather have a full layout before we begin our assault. Neither of us wants our quarry to escape during all this.”

“Quarry? I haven’t heard anyone say that word in a long damned time.”

“Too passé?”

“Stop using old words.”

It only took a few moments for the drone to perform a complete inner scan of the building they were heading into, and passed all of its data to the two drogar. Both of them reviewed it quickly before Orsethii stood up to her full height.

She stretched out a bit, then ran inside with a devilish glint in her eye.

Orsethii ran past the small, empty entryway into the main hallway, and then out to some kind of prep area. There, a handful of workers were chatting with an armed security guard rather casually. They were simply shooting the shit and skirting their duties at the same time.

All were caught by complete surprise as the huge drogar barreled into the room. She stomped in, shoulder-checked the security guard into one of the workers with bone-breaking power. At the same time, she reached out with one hand, grasped one of the worker’s heads, and plowed it straight into the wall behind him.

His skull cracked from the impact.

She then performed a straight right jab at the fourth and shattered his cheek in a single blow. The force of it was strong enough to knock him unconscious, and he crumpled to the floor in a heap.

Brutalizing those four only took mere seconds to do, and not one managed to even slow her down.

Orsethii continued unabated through some open doorways and into the main manufactory floor, where dozens of workers, foremen, and security guards were currently working.

They were amidst one massive assembly line that snaked up and down and all around. And what they were building were simply hand-held weapons of various kinds. Rifles and launchers and such – standard tools of the standard soldier.

“High alert!” shouted one of the security guards. “We’re under assault!”

He ran over to a terminal and tapped the emergency response button. But nothing happened. He expected the entire building to lock down with klaxons blaring. And instead of getting bright flashing lights, everything instead turned dark.

The sounds of Orsethii’s growling and thrashing filled the manufactory, which were soon followed by the sounds of screaming and pleading and gurgling.

Gunfire suddenly erupted all around as the various security guards panicked at the sounds and shadows all around them. They fired at whatever sound freaked them out, though most of the time all they struck were frightened workers or foremen.

And one by one, they were completely silenced. Whatever gunfire they made were quickly replaced with the wet sounds of bones being broken followed by choked, abrupt cries of pain.

Colviss stood just outside the doorway into the manufactory. From there, she watched as Orsethii ran from target to target and ripped them apart with her bare hands. Though it was dark, the both of them could easily see in the darkness.

Or at least, their natural night vision was much better than the drogar all around them. And as such, having all the lights completely off worked in their favor.

She heard one of the drogar workers moan and groan as he crawled his way over to where she was. Not that he seemed to even know that she was there. He was practically dragging himself along the floor on his belly – both his legs had been completely shattered and one of his broken ribs punched through his back.

It occurred to her that he was attempting his best to run away in the only direction he knew – out the front door.

Just as he reached the doorway, Colviss drew out her baton and smashed him across his head with a CRACK. The blow killed him outright, and the drogar let out a long, drawn-out exhale as his body perished.

By the time she looked up, Orsethii had moved on to an upper level where she continued her vicious assault on everyone inside.

Since Raijin’s cottonball drone had long since taken control of the building’s entire operational circuit, Colviss quickly issued a full lockdown command and sealed every single entrance in or out. Now that she was certain there was no way out, she stood up and followed after Orsethii.

And if Orsethii had only half-killed anyone along her way, Colviss made sure to finish off the job. There was no sense in leaving their prey in agony, after all.

In truth, she went down every nook and cranny to check each and every dead drogar, just to make sure everything was clean. That their deaths were assured.

Then once she was satisfied with everything, she followed Orsethii’s steps all the way up to the very top level. Bodies and corpses lined the path the entire way.

She opened the door to a rather heavily protected – or at least, used to be heavily protected – doorway. The bodies of a half dozen personal guards lay both inside and outside of the door. More than half of them had been literally torn in half, while the rest simply had their bones shattered and pulped.

Inside was a relatively posh and secure office with transparent metal windows. Even some parts of the floor were transparent, and they gave anyone inside the room unfettered views to the manufactory floor below.

Though this was a rather standard design in drogar society, Colviss couldn’t help but be bothered by it. It was one thing to be surrounded by reams of data, such as when commanding from a bridge. But it was another thing to be surrounded by distrust.

These windows were practically a symbol of that distrust – that if it wasn’t for the boss’ watchful eye, the workers below wouldn’t be as productive.

Well, not that it was any of their problems now. All had nothing left to deal with in this life.

Orsethii stood proudly in the middle of the office. Her body was bloodied and bruised from all the combat she had undertaken, and her breathing was hot and heavy but even.

In her grip was, presumably, the manufactory’s boss. He was well-robed, perfumed, and even manicured. And also, he was currently choking from Orsethii’s grip.

“There you are,” said the bulky drogar. “It’s your turn again.”

She then dropped the boss back down on the floor, then shoved him with a foot towards Colviss. The boss tumbled around on the ground with a yelp.

Colviss went over to the heap that was the boss, and pushed him right side up with her baton.

“Let’s have a little chat,” she said. At the same time, she toyed with her baton. It was as though she was insinuating that it would be part of their discussion.

Fear swept across the boss’ eyes at the sight of it. Also, on realizing that two drogar had gone through his entire operation in a matter of minutes. He knew right then and there that there was nothing he could do.

“Ask me whatever you want,” he said. “I’ll tell you whatever you wanna know.”

“You’re Machinefather Zelathii of Clan Fyrroth, yes?” Colviss quickly asked.

The boss nodded equally as quickly.

“Y-yes, that’s me,” he said. “I’ll tell you whatever you want, a-and if you want any krohn, I can open up -”

.....

“Regular answers will be fine,” Colviss countered. “Now, tell me everything you know about the Benefactor.”

Although he was just previously willing to spill everything, the boss suddenly hesitated. Hearing the word Benefactor filled him with a dread that far overwhelmed what the two drogar could exude.

“I… I…” he began. But all he did was stammer out word after word without any rhyme or reason. It seemed as though he was unable to speak in the first place.

“Take your time,” Colviss said. “We’ve got plenty of time to talk it out.”

She tapped him on the side of his jaw with her baton, very lightly. It was almost like a promise of what might come soon enough.

While he gathered up his thoughts and his courage, Raijin’s cottonball drone wandered into the room. It went straight towards the boss’ personal terminal, and zapped it with a single spark.