Changeling

(56)

(56)

There were no immediate bloodbaths, thankfully. Nestra’s mom would have probably fried the villagers where they stood if she were alone, but this was a diplomatic mission and so they let Tian handle it, and would probably keep doing it so long as things moved forward at a sufficient pace. Nestra hoped they would.

The first thing Tian did was gather and interrogate the villagers in a separate shed. She returned ten minutes later with a detailed map of where they would find the market, courtesy of a driver who’d been there once to deliver pu’er tea discs (Nestra was going to see if she could grab a few). By the time the interrogation was over, Tian was livid. She threatened the villagers, then melted the only local antenna with some angry fire spell to prevent them from using their phones. Nestra was willing to bet the whole village would be gone by the time the cops came for a ‘follow up’.

“Can we head there directly?” dad asked with a voice that wasn’t asking an actual question.

“Yes. By car it —”

“No car. We will run there. I will carry Mrs. Stibbons. Debbie dear, if you would take Nestra? Ulysses will take Helena.”

“She’s getting heavier by the year,” Ulysses complained, though he was smiling.

She gave him the finger.

“Wear proper armor and you’ll get proper muscles.”

“We are in agreement then?” dad pretend-asked again.

“I can carry you if you need assistance,” Vassily offered Tian.

She was clearly not interested. Nestra was grabbed and princess carried without a chance to protest, then she was in the air accelerating so quickly that it made her teeth click.

Up and down the hills they went, guided by Winslow who somehow had a great sense of direction. Nestra would have enjoyed the landscape of tall hills and lush valleys, alternating with plains of brown grass were it not for the great discomfort she was in. Her mom was doing her best, but she was still an adult carrying another adult of similar size, with little neck protection and a lot of gear digging into Nestra’s back. At that speed, it only took a bit over an hour to reach the city but it certainly felt like more. It didn’t help that her mom was tense and quiet the whole time.

There were a few pulverized corpses of monsters along the way. Dad was venting.

Nestra was more than happy when they finally landed at the edge of a picturesque walled town overlooking a lake of placid water, its old tiled roof glowing in the afternoon sun. She was out of breath just standing up again. A part of her wanted to draw oxygen supply from her suit, but something told her she was going to need it later.

“We need to learn where they are, exactly. One of the city’s officials ought to know. This,” Tian said, pointing at a curved roof building standing in the center, “is the town hall.”

“How about asking those guys?” Winslow suggested.

He pointed at a couple of foreigners standing around a nice car near a wall gate. They were busy talking and drinking, shaded under a few trees near what appeared to be some sort of restaurant. The fact there were structures right outside the walls was something Nestra still had difficulty accepting. If this were Threshold, that place would be a nest in under a week. This just felt so unsafe.

“Yes, good thinking,” Tian said, crimson eyes zeroing on Winslow with increasing suspicion.

The demure man just looked harmless and goofy though, so her anger didn’t last.

The two of them were gone a minute later. The rest of the team took the opportunity to munch on energy bars. Nestra made herself some instant coffee. It had been a very long thirty-six hours with no signs of slowing down. She couldn’t afford to be sleepy.

The two scouts returned some time later. The foreigners were conspicuously gone though their car was properly parked, and no cries of alarm emerged from the restaurant. Winslow confirmed they were in the right spot. As for Tian, she left to talk with someone on a huge phone with a long antenna, the kind that could probably connect to a wifi network on the moon. Her rapid-fire mandarin was so hasty that even Nestra’s visor struggled to translate it. There sure were a lot of requests being made though. After a while, she seemed to calm down as she listened to an answer. She was back in control by the time they hung up.

“Your attention please,” she says, and Winslow stood by her side with the smile of a fat cat who just caught a really stupid mouse.

The Palladians gathered around. They recognized the briefing voice.

It sort of annoyed Nestra that it worked on her too. It was like a pavlovian response to the promise of imminent, state-approved violence.

“Our interrogation has borne fruit. We have learned where your relative and quite a few other people are being held. The slave market will take place in the next valley north of the city, on the site of an abandoned five stars resort. There is only one access road from here, but the resort has a helipad and a road to a makeshift airport. The ‘buyers’ will be coming from there.”

Her nostrils flared with anger.

“I can only assume that they are using the fall monster purge as a cover for this... this violation of the borders and territorial integrity of our nation!”

No reaction from the crowd.

“My nation,” Tian amended. “The market was moved forward to accommodate the discovery of a... a special prize. I assume it is Claire.”

The temperature dropped a few degrees. Mom breathed deep a couple of times.

“The bad news is that I will not get reinforcements within the next six hours. The monster purge means that most of our raiders are engaged. For obvious reasons, I cannot trust local law enforcement — they cannot be unaware of what is going on here. I am unwilling to wait until slaves are sold and then taken out of the territory, as I am sure you are.”

“Correct,” mom hissed.

Tian nodded.

“As such, I propose that we... intervene. I was granted discretionary powers for this operation. That means two things. First a squadron of fighters is on its way here. They will cover our evac. Second, I am authorized to temporarily draft you into the PLA, with your consent of course. That would mean that you’d be legally authorized to use lethal force within our borders. Preemptively. You would be considered mercenaries for the length of the operation. I hope this is acceptable.”

The titan that was her dad moved forward with loud thuds that made Nestra’s body vibrate. He leaned forward.

“Lady. You have a deal.”

“I’d swear allegiance to the ghost of Christmas past if I get to save my sister.”

“This would dishonor my ancestors,” Sanae said, “However I don’t give a shit.”

“Let’s fucking go already,” Helena added.

“Language,” Mom said, but Helena just shrugged.

“Before we begin, there are two short details I need to clear. First of all, you must be paid a hiring bonus by law. The pay shall be...”

Tian checked her visors, then her pockets.

“Two hundred and seventeen kuai and five chocolate bars.”

“We’re rich,” Vassily said. “and well fed.”

“And second, you need to swear allegiance. I, uh, I need to translate it.”

Winslow stood forward, smile growing with every passing minute.

“Solemnly swear to follow the chain of command, rescue the hostages, and neutralize everyone else.”

Tian glared, then she shrugged.

“Well, that works.”

“The Threshold government approves of this agreement. House Palladian, if you would?”

“Follow the boss, save the goodies, kill the baddies aye!” Helena summarized.

Others followed suit with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Nestra wondered if she could nab one of the chocolate bars right away.

“Alright,” Winslow said. “Let’s get a good look at the prison.”

The group moved quietly up steep stone cliffs, hiding among the branches of dry pines. Mom and Winslow took point while Stibbs’ drones provided overwatch. They stopped near a ridge with a full view over the valley.

Nestra had to give it to the people who’d built the resort, they sure knew how to pick their spot. The main road traveled straight through lush low trees to a checkpoint that might have been the hotel’s lobby at some point, but was now fortified with machine gun emplacements and steel barriers. The mix of ramshackle fortifications and old but elegant tiled roofs was one of the marks of early post-incursion years. Low gleams and auged soldiers patrolled the outer edge.

Past that, an inner lake fringed by old trees shimmered at the foot of a tall pagoda, its dilapidated red floors taken straight from a history book. Rows of villas then stretched left and right along dry canals. Only half of them had been renovated. The rest had crumbled past guard towers and a hastily built concrete wall. Further roads led deeper into the valley, one to a visible helipad and the other out of sight, presumably to the airport. There were a lot of soldiers and gleams present, as well as quite a few luxury cars parked at the security checkpoints. Well dressed men and women strutted around near the lake, mingling and soaking up the afternoon sunlight.

Behind that, far in the far distance, were white mountains. They were gorgeous and majestic, backlighting the entire resort to offer a breathtaking view worthy of some high-budget vid’s intro shot.

Nestra had watched people skiing before. She wondered if it was possible to do it there, also.

The Thresholders surveyed the land in silence. Stibbs was the first to talk.

“Visors on please.”

The raiders complied. A map of the compound as seen from above appeared with red circles and signs where the important bits were. Nestra was familiar with the symbols Stibbs was using, but she explained them anyway in case the raiders weren’t.

“There are security checkpoints here, here, here, and there.”

Basically all approaches were covered, though the wall was not.

“I spotted security cameras in key locations and around the walls. There may be more. The barracks and motor pool are there...”

Nestra noticed the symbols for APCs next to two heavily armored vehicles. Those would clear the sky of D-class fliers and helicopters pretty quickly. They would also instantly kill Nestra if they got to fire on her. They looked old though. Like incursion old. She still didn’t think her rifle was up to the task.

“They have a radar system.”

The camera zoomed on a parked van hidden behind one of the villas. Rotating antennas were visible from up high.

“Have you been spotted?” Tian asked.

“Nope. I’m using Threshold state-of-the-art stealth drones. They’re too small to get caught by those antiquities. Your fighter planes are probably safe as well.”

“It still needs to go,” Tian said.

“Yes. There is also a large relay drone here.”

She pointed at the sky above the compound. It took some time for Nestra to find the small black dot hovering on a background of fluffy white clouds.

“Part of their com systems. The com center is probably in the villa next to the van, given the size of the antenna. There is an additional relay in the checkpoint leading to the airport... there.”

“If we destroy them it might hinder their communications,’ Tian said.

“I can do the checkpoint relay,” Nestra said. “And take care of the drone too.”

She patted her rifle.

“There is the matter of the prisoners. They need to be extracted first.”

“I have a suggestion,” Winslow said.

A group of three guards were approaching the hill at a dead sprint, coming from behind. Shit gear and shit augs, Nestra judged.

“Helena, with me.”

“Doyouneedhelpdarling?” her mom asked on the coms.

“Should be fine.”

“I got APCs coming from the airport too, aiming towards us,” Stibbs added.

Well this position was cooked. Four shots was all they’d get. Nestra dragged Helena to a copse of trees to the side. There had been a trap there.

“Let’s wait here.”

The guards were visible now: two auged riflemen and one shield-bearing gleam without affinities. They were vaguely aiming towards the top of the hill to Nestra and Helena’s left. Amateurs.

“Let them get closer,” she whispered to Helena.

“I get the gleam,” her sister whispered.

The guards vaguely spread out. Nestra leaned from behind a tree and calmly lined a shot with her window maker.

The first aug fell with a hole in his chest. The second was dead before he could fully turn.

Helena was on the gleam in a moment.

It would be inexact to say Helena didn’t have a sense of strategy. It was just that she also had an axe, a strength affinity, and a mana type so aggressively destructive it even messed with her body. The onus of stopping said axe was firmly on her opponent. This one failed spectacularly.

“Clear,” she said.

Stibbs climbed down the hill. She was already out of breath. Her eyes found the axe murder victim.

“Seriously? Nestra, what have you taught her?”

Helena hissed playfully. The sound was eerily close to an Aszhii taunt. Nestra gave her a warning look.

“Not in public.”

“Sorry.”

“Ok you two,” Stibbs said. “Tian and Winslow are heading this way. They got her.”

Excitement and relief filled Nestra’s heart. Winslow appeared a moment later, bleeding from a scalp wound. He had a familiar shape in his arms. The truck roared not far behind. It was Clecle. She was in a bad shape with more scabs than clean skin under her medical shift. Some of the flesh was missing under the bandages, and she was short a few fingers but that was nothing to a B-class. Winslow had a first aid kit in his backpack. He applied some spray to his scalp wound while handing Nestra an injector.

“Alright, shove this in her chest. I need to get back to Tian.”

A reanimator of sorts. Nestra thought Winslow was stupid to leave a baseline to puncture a gleam, but the needle somehow went in Clecle without issue. It had to be some sort of advanced stuff.

Clecle gasped, bolting upright. Her arm clamped on Nestra’s. It hurt through the armor.

“Ow ow ow ow ow HEY!” Nestra complained.

Clecle’s gaze zeroed on her. It was a bit frantic. Also, her right eye couldn’t fully open.

“Nestra? Where am I? Where is this?”

“You got portal dumped. We’re rescuing you from a slave camp in the ass end of China.”

“Slavers? They dare? Where’s my damn spear?”

The two sisters tried to pull their aunt down with reasonable arguments such as ‘you’re barely alive’, but it still took a few seconds before Clecle would calm down. Meanwhile, Stibbs’ horrified glare went from one of the relatives to the other. It was like she was having a revelation.

“What?” Nestra complained.

“It’s genetic. And hereditary.”

“Shit where’s the core? I need to get it back,” Claire yelled.

“You need to calm down,” Nestra objected.

They fought some more, until Winslow talked in Nestra’s earpiece.

“Please inform Claire that I have her gear in the truck.”

Of course the nitwit went for the truck. Nestra gave up. It arrived soon after anyway, an ancient diesel thing that stank to high heaven. There were dazed and sleepy people at the back, all looking completely lost. A great many were gleams, but there were also conventionally attractive people of various ethnicities. Some wore the togas Nestra had seen, others wore prison uniforms and a couple were naked. Tian was at the wheel and she didn’t look happy.

Something thrummed to Nestra’s right, coming from the top of the hill. Looks like something was firing at where she used to be.

“Nestra!” her mom’s voice came, panicked.

“What?”

“Oh thank God. You’ve moved?”

“Yes. We need to keep going though.”

“The assault squad can withdraw. We have secured the prisoners and need cover,” Tian said, voice tense.

“Sanae is dealing with the armored cars. Don’t worry... we’re almost done on our end.”

“What?”

But mom didn’t reply. Instead, Stibbs' feed showed the gleam battle petered out.

The resort was devastated. There wasn’t a building left, and everything was on fire, thick smoke climbing high. Ulysses stood near the half-dried pond, holding a woman in rich garb and a mask at the end of the threads he held in his left hand. Her body sometimes shook from the static. There were fried bodies impaled on ice spikes like ghastly decorations anywhere that wasn’t actively burning. Thick trees that were not here before showed where Vassily had taken position. Only one duel was still ongoing: her father against the chain user.

They were mostly moving too fast for Nestra to perceive but sometimes they slowed down enough that she could catch glimpses of the guard’s long black chain wrapped around her dad’s hammer’s shaft. He was an obsidian user, a rare and powerful affinity. Clearly his plan had been to disarm and crush dad and clearly, it wasn’t working well. Nestra was surprised. They were supposed to be super good against hard targets.

Actually, all of her folks looked alive and well. A few of the enemy B-classes were apparently fleeing towards the airport, but she couldn’t see the others. It had been... surprisingly one-sided.

It took only a few more seconds for the battle to draw to a close. The chain user was left on his knees, or what was left of them rather. Her father had slowed down enough that they could talk. He was sharing his feed. Maybe the slavers still had people or cameras on the battle.

He was doing it on purpose.

“You have no idea who you’re messing with,” the guard said in heavily accented English.

Dad just stood there like a metal titan, his armor covered in gore but otherwise inviolate. The background was a hell of fire, metal, thorn growths, and peoplecicles bleeding carmine droplets, but frozen in time. Only his eyes were visible: gray, and without mercy. His voice didn’t carry any either.

“We don’t care. We are here to tell whoever thought they could enslave one of us... that House Palladian sends their regards.”

His hammer crushed the man’s skull. The headless body fell to the side in a pool of blood.

Helena made some ‘woah’ noise, which made Nestra a little concerned. It took only a few more seconds for the assault squad to regroup with the truck. Claire disappeared under shameless hugs and shoulder pats. It was done, or so it seemed. Nestra wasn’t so sure. Her Aszhii self clamored to be let out to make sure, to track and kill anything the humans might have overlooked. She felt blinded and hobbled in this form.

“The heli will pick us up in Shangri-La since it appears the battle is... over?” Tian added.

She didn’t sound so certain. Nestra wasn’t either, but that was probably just paranoia and alien instincts. No one stopped them as they retreated down the south road, the only one still intact and free of cars after her dad had given the limo the trash compactor treatment. Most of the gleams plus Nestra went on foot while Stibbs joined the wounded with her drones — she just wasn’t in any state to run without some more oxygen.

Nestra had to wait for her mom to unglue herself from Aunt Claire before she could climb into the back to sit next to the woman. Clecle was already hard at work scarfing down raider food and taking sips of some sort of potion. She was healing remarkably fast, probably because her wounds were caused by ripping through space and not the mana-infused attacks of powerful monsters. She still looked like a mess and it made Nestra’s chest tight.

“Ok, so tell me. What’s so important about this core?”

“It’s got the perfect mix of electricity and ice, to the second decimal! I got it from a humanoid enemy too, as requested. It’s absolutely perfect.”

“As requested by whom? Perfect for what?” Nestra insisted.

She was getting pissed off.

“Look, it’s big news. Really big news. I wanted to save it as a surprise but I guess I need to tell you now. I was very busy because... I have found a way to repair your core! I needed some research done and a compatible core and... it’s all complete now! We’re flying to Zurich, Nes!”

She was ecstatic.

“So you were raiding so hard for that? Getting wounded on repeat and everything? For months?”

“Yes.”

Nestra slapped her aunt. Hard too. Stupefied, Claire didn’t even try to stop her.

The truck fell silent.

“I don’t want to be a gleam nearly as much as I want my aunt alive. Alive, you hear? You fucking idiot.”

Claire’s joy sobered up. She slowly pulled Nestra into a hug. Nestra allowed it, resting her head on the raider’s strong shoulders.

“Ok. I’m sorry. I was just... very worried for a long time.”

“Don’t die for me?”

“Ok, I promise.”

They stayed quiet for a while.

“It’s still very ‘cool aunt’ of me though.”

“Shut up.”