12 Miles Below - Book 5. Chapter 5: The days are numbered

A clan war frigate was a glorified intercept frigate retrofitted with missiles, heavy ordinance cannons, and turrets strong enough to trigger relic armor shields. Along with whatever the clan had in stockpile saved up for the day ice melted.

As the name implied, it was deployed during times of war, when the clan would go into a full brawl against a large scale threat. Usually Othersiders encroaching too close to the clan’s habitat.

The airspeeder wore the colors of Clan Altosk with pride, the cloth well affixed onto the sides of the frigate. Under it, scavengers were busy loading up gear and boxes the rest of the knights were bringing back up from our camp.

“So mind telling me when you got all mysterious, kid?” Teed asked, boots raised up on the console, nursing the last of his coffee as the airlock door closed behind me. Of all clan pilots to send out, Teed had either bent a few arms or gotten lucky enough to get assigned.

“Me? No idea what you’re talking about, I’m not holding onto a few dozen secrets or anything.” I said, walking in and taking a seat in the co-pilot’s empty chair. “Crazy talk.”

“Sure. Nothing suspicious. Lord Atius just came back to life a day ago and decided violence is in order, as clan lords normally do.”

So. The old Deathless had made it back to the clan without issue. And he hadn’t wasted a moment. Teed was a high ranking pilot now, they wouldn’t send him on a simple extraction. Nor send a godsdamned war frigate. Not to mention Atius knew everyone being picked up today were some of the more deadly knights out on the surface, but that was a clan secret and Teed wouldn’t know anything about that just yet.

Add it all together and… “Taking a wild guess here, but our next pit stop isn’t the clan hangars, right?” I asked. Maybe it was less about luck and bent arms and more that Teed’s skillsets fit the job the best.

He chuckled, “Not for all the power cells in the world, kid. Direct orders. Pick you up, and make a green line for a raider outposting. Not even one that Shadowsong is currently dismantling either, fresh untouched site raiders are still setting up at. Throw you off my ship so that you can loot, pillage, and destroy everything. Your pick on the order, nobody was specific on that part. Not even stopping for any refuels either, briefing mentioned we’d find a mass stash of power cells down there. That part was true at least.” He said, eyes roaming down to the underglass of the cockpit, where we could see hover sleds bringing in the haul.

Somewhere among that haul would be a box with a very cross Feather contemplating her life decisions.

“How’d you get the Undersiders to hand over that many power cells, if you don’t mind me askin’? You not trading favors you can’t pay back, right? I know that’s a Winterscar special, but you’re better tha- on second thought, I take that back.”

I shrugged. “I’ll grudgingly admit you might have me on that. I did make a few promises I’m not super thrilled about. But not for the power cells. We got those from the machines Underground, fair as white.”

He whistled, watching the work happen. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen a haul that big in my life. You find heavy ordinance down there? A golden age EMP?”

Walking alongside the hoversleds was a figure wrapped up in heavy evo-suit weaves. Couldn’t even tell where his arms and legs were, just a black tinted visor from a rather unsecured looking scavenger helmet.

Teed watched the man walk by to the loading section, frowning. “Wait, wait – wait. The brief didn’t mention this fellow, only supposed to pick up a group of knights. Do we have a stowaway trying to just walk into a war frigate?”

His hand hovered over the intercom. I beat him to it, “Nothing to worry about. That one’s with us. New teammate you might see for some time.”

“… Fine.” Teed said, shrugging his shoulders. “Fine. Sure. Doesn’t look like anyone else down there is calling up an alarm either. So who’s the homeless drifter? Some Undersider bigwig you lot picked up?”

“Something like that.”

Teed shot me a sidelong glare, all the while sipping away at his mug. “Come on kid, quit yanking my chain. Who’s he really?”

“A Deathless.” I said, which got Teed to cough up parts of his coffee before he sat up straight, tapping his chest with a few more coughs.

“Swallowed a drop down the wrong airway,” He muttered, giving a few more coughs to clear up his lungs. “How – exactly – did you louts get a Deathless up here?”

“Not just one. Two. You’ll see her soon enough.”

He stared at me eyes wide, as if asking if I was full of scrap or being real. My only answer was shoving sugar down my mug of coffee and taste checking.

“Starting to make more sense how you managed to get all those power cells. If you had two Deathless running around with you down there.”

“Now that haul doesn’t look so strange to you, eh?”

He nodded, then looked up to the northern hemisphere. “Two Deathless showing up to the clan. Three gods above white, we live in interesting times.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” I said, holstering my helmet on the side and holding out a hand for a cup. He passed over the coffee bottle, still half full and warm to the touch. I got to work with filling up an empty mug.

“Makes sense the clan lord wanted you all deployed immediately out there.” He said. “What kind of strings did you have to pull to get two Deathless to come out here on our side? Was that what Lord Atius was doing down there?”

“Ask Kidra.” I said, tossing her all the work. “And got any sugar?”

“Convenient.” He said with a flat tone that let me know I wasn’t fooling him for a second while he passed over a small sealed can. He took another sip, watching through the cockpit windows as the crates were being brought up by the crew. We’d brought everything up from the depot, the rest was for the airspeeder crew to organize and store.They’d be pretty cross with us if we messed with their setup. “And if I asked Kidra, she wouldn’t happen to tell me to ask you?”

“Psh, she doesn’t get to do that anymore. She’s a house Prime, technically she’s the authority now.”

Or at least, on paper. Unofficially, the house prime was Father. For the rest of the Houses, they’d see Kidra at the helm, but it’ll be a different story among the Winterscars.

And speak of the devil, she shows up herself. The cockpit airlock door flashed green, and in walked the Winterscar prime herself. “How am I not surprised to see the two of you plotting in the cockpit?” She said.

Teed shrugged, taking another sip. “I live in this wretched hole we call a cockpit, my lady. He’s the pipe rat sulking around. Respectfully, of course.”

She strode forward, and sat down on one of the side benches taking her helmet off and setting it to the side with a deep sigh. “It is good to finally be free from the underground. It had some rather unpleasant moments.”

“I hear from the kid you managed to convince two Deathless to come up, and you killed a few dozen machines. Nice haul back.”

“The mission to Capra’nor was successful. The city happened to be under attack and Deathless were on site helping the defense. I was able to negotiate for two of them to return with us to help against the raiders.”

“Other Houses are gonna be right pissed to hear that.” Teed chuckled. “Even more favor from the clan lord for having convinced two more of his kind to join the cause. At this rate, I’m not sure if the other houses are going to be trying to get into your good graces or avoiding you like the plague.”

Kidra hummed. “I suspect things will change rather drastically and old grievances will be forgotten. Consider this, the raiders are attacking with a massive force. And among that force will be their own relic knights. Quite a few, if the reports are accurate. How many armors is Shadowsong bringing back from each scouting attack?”

Teed laughed, “I see even spending a month underground you’re somehow already current with events not even an hour back up topside. How did you know Shadowsong was winning his engagements, let alone draggin’ armor back?”

“Educated guess.” Kidra said. “And you haven’t yet answered. How many armors has he brought back?”

“Clan’s nearly doubled the amount of armor we’ve had since inception. Outright historical time. Seems like every few days a forward vanguard returns with two or three more armors. Once, he sent out a pair of knights, and they came back with ten armors along with full victory. Absolutely insane what the military’s pulling off. Two against ten, and they somehow won. That ain’t ever happened in the history of ever.”

Coffee on airspeeders wasn’t great stuff, but it did the job in waking me up. A bit of sugar and the whole thing goes halfway into edible. “Morale’s got to be all time high.” I said, in between sips. The clan really must be going wild these days. Getting a single armor was a celebration a year ago. A group of armors was something that usually only happened when discovering a brand new colony site mites raised up to the surface, or when some smaller clan merged in. Spoils of war too, but that’s rare. Raiders don’t usually tackle a clan unless they’re completely certain of victory.

“Not just moral. Gossip is across every wall. You can’t take three steps on a catwalk without stepping on a conspiracy theory.”

“What’s the biggest you got?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Lot of them are outlandish, others more grounded. The one that has me putting my chips on, is your house. See, you remember a group of raiders tried attacking the ballroom dance, and those were put down right? But there was another group that attacked the Winterscar compound, broke down your gates and everything. They go in, they don’t go out. And then you walk out with all their armors in hand. Gets folks thinkin’.”

“Where is this extra armor going to?” Kidra asked, switching the topic. “The ones recovered by Shadowsong.”

“Divided evenly among the houses. He’s not operating as the Shadowsong Prime, he’s operating as the First Blade of the clan lord, so the whole military. Can’t play favorites.” Teed said, raising an eyebrow but deciding not to push into his prior point. “The bigger houses who already have a full rotation of trained knight contenders are getting armors of course, but by now every single Retainer house has at least one relic armor to their name.”

“Smart strategy.” I said. “Taking a wild guess he’s quite popular in the clan?”

“Shadowsong’s got his detractors of course, can’t have a clan without the bickering. If it ain’t bein’ afraid of the Winterscars coming back into the limelight, it’s bein’ afraid of the Shadowsongs doing the same thing.” He shrugged. Clans doing clan things. “Shadowsong’s only sending off elite knights with extensive combat experience. The rest of the newly minted knights are held in reserve to keep any counter-offence down. His critics say he’s taking major risks sending only a small fraction of the clan’s full power for these missions. If you ask me, it’s all calculated risks and info gathering. Everytime he sends out knights, they win in a landslide. Now that ain’t coincidence. He’s gotta know exactly what those knights are going to be up against if he can predict a win with that much confidence.”

Kidra tutted, taking her time to remove her armored gauntlets. “You sound like an admirer of the Shadowsongs. That won’t be an issue, now will it?”

Teed looked like he’d been caught trying to smuggle a wrench out of a Reacher workshop. Kidra gave him a polite smile.

“Don’t play her game Teed.” I said. “Look at those cold dead eyes of hers, she wants to see your squirm.”

“If y’all don’t mind me awkwardly changing the subject before I get grilled over coals here for possible treacherous notions, what are their names?” Teed asked. “The Deathless I mean.”

“Wondering when you’d ask.” I said, already looking forward to the absolute chaos that would happen. “The girl with the wings is named Hecate Wrath. The tall homeless drifter you saw is Nistene. No last name for him.”

“Wings?” He took another look outside, searching across the outdoor crew. “Don’t see anyone walking around with godsdamned wings out there kid.”

“She’s not out there, don’t be silly. She’s currently stuffed in a box.”

Teed gave me a very long look. I took the opportunity to take a very long sip.

“What, don’t look at me like that. It’s part of her culture.” I said when he refused to say a word unless I gave more context.

“Being stuffed in a box is part of her culture?”

“And sacks.” I added, “That’s also important. You’d be insulting her by not mentioning it, just giving you heads up. She also owes me a new sack, pure coincidence though.”

“I can’t tell if you’re actually messing with my head here, playing a long con, or actually serious.” Teed said, setting his coffee mug down and giving me a deep frown. “Underground is a wild place. Can’t exactly cross off box worshiping off the list in good faith. Pilgrims seem pretty normal, but I’ve heard stories about the other religions down there.”

“My dear brother is purposefully attempting to agitate you. And Wrath with the same stroke. Don’t play his game.”

Betrayed by my own sister, just can’t have any fun these days. “Is this revenge for me spoiling your earlier game?”

“Of course it is.” She said, taking off her chestplate and stacking it with the rest of her armor. Free of the thing she took a catlike stretch, cracking her back before doing the same with her hands.

“They going to come up here at some point?” Teed asked, eyes darting to the airlock. Still showed empty, his copilot was currently on shift with the crew. “Cause I don’t know the first thing about Undersider Deathless etiquette. Do I treat them like a clan lord, or is there some other protocol I should know? Aside from not mentioning boxes.”

“You will not need to worry about that.” Kidra said. “They are not interested in visiting the cockpit.”

Neither Wrath or Father would walk into the cockpit, there’s windows here to the outside and we all agreed to take it as safe as possible. But, Teed and the rest were bound to run into the two inside the clan.

“And speaking of the two, one is waiting for you to attend to her. You should hurry up before she becomes cross.” Kidra said. “It would be a shame if her box was stacked under others before the airspeeder crew were warned about that. Mistakes happen quite easily after all.”

“You wouldn’t have.” I said, eyeing Kidra.

“Winterscar.” She said, tapping her collarbone three times with her index finger.

I got out of my seat and hurried to the airlock.

Wrath had been buried under three crates. This sent quite a bit of the airspeeder crew into a panic, because my sister had indicated a different box was the one where the esteemed yet eccentric ‘Deathless’ was hiding in. And not to disturb her until she decided to come out of her own accord. Nor knock on the box.

They had that befuddled look of complete confusion when I went to open the box they’d all pointed to, only to find it empty. That turned into horror when I confirmed that yes, we really did have a second Deathless, and yes, she was in a crate. Just not this crate.

Fortunately, Cathida was willing to help out, so long as she could laugh the entire time. Relic armor had photographic memory, so it knew exactly what box we’d stuffed Wrath into, and another pair of armors had seen the box be stored into the back. None of those raised any flag nor alerted their users because relic armor didn’t care about that.

So we dragged off the stacked crates, pulled free her box, and undid the latches. A knock on the side and she got the message to open it up.

Wrath stepped out, attempting to be as elegant as possible for someone stuck in a box. If I remembered right, she’d had practice once before being stuck in a fruit box when hiding among the Undersider city. So maybe she’d learned a few things but despite the majestic spread of wings along with a perfect pose, she was still standing up inside an empty box.

Right now she looked just about human in every regard, right down to skin, hair and eyes. None of the bleach bone white hair and skin with violet or red eyes. She’d donned her old pretend relic armor, or rather had it crafted out over time. Material and power cells we had plenty of, so she didn’t have a lack of anything to work with.

I’m sure the rest of the relic armors around could also tell it was fake, but all the knights here also knew she wasn’t a real Deathless nor a relic knight at all. Once we’re back in the clan, we’ll use one of the recovered armor plates we’d brought back from the deceased, have it regrown back into a full armor and given over to her. Wings could probably be worked around, they weren’t connected to her hip anyhow, or connected much at all.

“Greetings.” She introduced herself to the stunned crew. “I am the Deathless known as Hecate. I have traveled to the surface along with my teammate and friend Nistene. We will be assisting you against the raider incursion.”

The crew nodded quickly, giving short signs of respect, but mostly signs of prayer to the gods. Deathless were considered demi-gods, servants of the three. I’d take a wild guess that when Father showed up he had a much more awed reception, but he did strike a more dramatic presence than someone standing up from a box.

Wrath’s eyes scanned the crowd and met mine with an unworded question. I waved back. “Not my doing this time, I swear. It was all Kidra.”

Great thing about talking to a Feather, as I’ve learned from godsdamned experience, is that they can catch any lie you say. Which means when you tell the truth for once, they’ll believe you. Didn’t even need to explain it any further. Imagine that.

“I will have words with her another time.” Wrath said stiffly, stepping out of her box and surveying the interior of the airspeeder. The crew took a few steps back, giving her room. Dead quiet otherwise. “Is our destination still your clan home, or has that changed?”

“Changed.” Father said, walking out from the medical room airlock. Wrath’s instructions had left him looking a lot more human, with charcoal black hair. Turned out to be the easiest color to work into his hair. Rest of his body couldn’t be worked on in the short time we had, that would take some effort. So his white machine armor would have to do. It did already look like an exotic relic armor anyhow, not too difficult to pass by. “The crew were given orders to follow based on how many knights they found waiting here. We’ll strike the highest threat on the list and move downwards from there.”

The relic knights around nodded. A mix of Winterscars and clan knights, all watching the events from the sidelines. They’d seen and known Wrath for a long while now, she was nothing new. Even her wings were nothing out of the ordinary. Couldn’t say the same for the airspeeder crew here.

Just wait till they got to see her fly around inside the clan. ‘Deathless’ is going to be the one word abused for nearly everything. Why can she fly around the clan? Deathless. Why can she lift a few tons with one hand? Deathless. Why can she bite through steel beams? Deathless. Why did she think that was a good idea?

Okay, that one we might need to figure a better excuse for.

“The targets marked are some of their heavier settlements, well equipped and entrenched. So long as you bring us there, they will die like the feral dogs that they are.” He said, eyes scanning across the airspeeder crew gathered.

“Looking forward to seeing firsthand how a Deathless takes on raiders.” I added, pointedly. Father wasn’t Tenisent to anyone outside House Winterscar, he’d have no reason to ask a random clan surface dweller to stay hidden inside an airspeeder.

“Nothing you haven’t seen before.” He answered. “Stay by my side and you’ll live.”

So that’s how he wanted to play it. Technically, the airspeeder really could get blown up anytime. It would be going against either heavy ordinance or nothing at all. The former would be something I wouldn’t have a single bit of control over. If Teed messed up and got the ship into crosshairs from a big enough gun, no amount of occult or winterblossom speed would get me out of there safely.

So fighting on ground zero next to a Feather would be about as safe as I could get, ironically enough.

“Nistene. You could have informed the crew which box I was in.” Wrath said, keeping a level tone.

“You have hands.” He said. “Use them.”

“Destroying a crate would be considered rude.” She said. “First impressions are important.”

“The clan is a week away. You would have been found one way or another. This hardly ranks as anything of importance.”

She looked like she wanted to argue the point here, but found no rebuttal.

Outside the airspeeder, I could hear the bay doors closing up. Ankah and her minions walked in following Icestride, wrapping up the rest of the security detail on patrol outside. Rest of the crew were safely aboard, everything accounted for.

“Pilot, estimated time to destination?” Icestride asked.

“Five days, twelve hours, give or take one hour.” The intercom answered after a moment. Not Teed, his copilot. I could tell the change in accent. “We’ll have largely enough power cells to make it there with little issue, thanks to you folks. Return trip from that location will be one day, give or take the time needed for the operation. Raiders set up outposts near the colony, but not within railgun range. They ain’t dumb.”

“Good. No point in waiting, start engines when ready. By the time we’re done with their forces, they’ll have preferred the railgun shells.”

Next Chapter – Mission start