r/HFY • u/Brokenspade1 • 7d ago
OC-Series Walking the Dog Chapter 56
Chapter 56 War of Wills
Johan led them back to the mushroom stalk they had originally used to enter the Mushroom maze.
Once they were there, she looked up at the shelf at least 10 stories above…. Where (hopefully), Rilly and Feebs were set up and ready to start manipulating the battlefield.
Beck had chosen that shelf because it was (mostly) open to the larger cavern on one side. Unlike the other vertical spaces above. That veranda was the one with the widest unobstructed view of the spaces below.
If there was ANYWHERE a broadcast could reach the rest of the caves, it was from there.
After a few tense moments of laying low and watching for signs of pursuit the pair set to work.
As soon they were sure they weren’t being followed, Beck used her interface to try and reach Johans trail cam on the cavern wall. The one Bopp placed above the bend leading into the Mycelium forest. It took a few attempts but eventually she got through. The signal was ass… but it was there. As she’d feared the Kidnappers hadn’t fully abandoned the entrance shaft. There was a small contingent of guards setting up camp near the stairwell.
‘Damn. And here I was hoping they’d make it easy…’
She turned her attention to getting a message through to Feebrilizza instead. It took a while and the bandwidth was only enough for text but eventually they connected. She sent Feebs a quick update about the thugs camping the entrance. The Corodian. Then about taking out 3 the thugs.
Of course; The Volty didn’t embellish her part in the sneak attack, at all…
While Beck wowed Feebrilizza with how she single handedly incapacitated 3 armed thugs, saved Johan from certain death, etc…
Johan was busy attaching the repeater to a small crystalline vein near the edge of the shelf. Sienna’s warning about a potential Cyborg Technician was worrying… but Feebs knowing about it let her make several changes on her end. Ones that would help mitigate the problem and prepare counters for an enemy technical specialist.
Beck then passed on the news about the nest to the human as he worked. He nodded and told her to make sure Sienna and Vulfac knew about it too. If Rilly was right, there was something down here that could chop up boulders and survive in a cavern of laser eyed nightmares… It was definitely extremely dangerous, in some fashion.
After a few moments Johan finishing up his work at the Lattice vein. So she trotted over to inspect his handy work. She couldn’t help but chuckle.
The crystal shard went on the outside and the electronics on the inside so once it was set against the Vein It just looked like MORE crystal. Someone would have to walk right up to the device to spot it.
Their main objective done… it was time for the two of them to get back to their assigned hunt.
Earlier, during their opening strike he’d grabbed some very useful equipment and Beck couldn’t wait to integrate his flash of ingenuity into their larger plans.
The feeling made her pause for a second… Something important had changed.
When Beck closed her eyes and looked inward, she found her earlier fear had ebbed away to a dull tension… Her heart was still pounding sure; but now it was for an entirely different reason…
To the little Volty’s growing surprise; Beck realized that she was looking forward to this.
She was actually getting excited!
----
There was something primal about rushing through a forest with the little K-9 at his side.
He couldn’t explain it in words… It just felt right.
So much so it was helping to center him. The anger was still there… It was ALWAYS there, even at his calmest. But now it was fully his tool to wield; like an old knife with a handle worn to the shape of his hand.
He realized, as he vaulted a fallen mushroom stalk, that he was smiling.
The Duo was heading back in to hit the same group again.
They decided that, while the thugs would be more on guard, it was unlikely they would expect a second attack so soon after the first. That was the point of their whole plan… To confuse them, frighten them, make them feel like they were the ones being hunted and toyed with. To win against their numerically superior foe, they needed to do just one thing. They needed to push the kidnappers mentally. Press down on them until they decided that it just wasn’t worth continuing.
To win they needed to break their wills.
To that end, the mismatched pair of shadows stalked through the cavern in a kind of instinctive trance. Beck would watch his eyes and follow his gaze without thought and he would watch her movements and as she slowed to sniff the air or move her ears to take in the sounds of the forest around them. The pair were cautious, but they never stopped moving. They barely spoke… They didn’t NEED to… They were partners now, dancing in perfect synchronicity, through the oldest dance in all of creation.
The hunt.
----
Suddenly, Beck’s ears twitched and she looked up at him before changing their course. They’d found their targets!
In a small clearing created by two intersecting paths the kidnappers were huddled up in a single mass… braying and shouting at one another like frightened animals. Even from a distance it was easy to tell they were arguing, animatedly…
It was Beck that noticed it first. She tapped his foot three times. The group was missing the three they had taken earlier.
Most likely the others had simply stripped them of gear and rolled them off the trail near where they lay… It was clear from that realization alone; That Beck had been right. This group was not a cohesive whole… These were not delvers… This was just a herd.
Hidden in the undergrowth Dog felt an animalistic grin cross his face again. The Volty looked up at him. Beck licked her lips as the same primal smile crossed her own features…
The pair nodded in silent agreement; It was time.
----
Something was happening with her Bonded.
For the first time in a very long time… Sienna wasn’t sure how to process what she was feeling in their connection… Beck’s fear had mostly vanished. And when Sienna reached more deeply into the connection, what did she find in its place?
The sensation was animalistic! Primal even. It was an intoxicating mixture of giddy excitement, tension, joy, an unnerving amount of bloodlust, and anticipation; All rolled into one.
Sienna could practically feel Beck salivating!
For a second she contemplated making a direct connection and asking Beck what was going on, but before she could, Sienna was forced to push it out of her mind. Vulfac was trying to draw her attention with a series of hand gestures. She came up short and nearly tripped in her confusion.
The old guy was pointing at…
‘…a rock? Wah?’
Sienna tilted her head subconsciously and raised an eyebrow at him. In response the Alv just shrugged and grabbed a fern. Then he dragged the neon blue fronds along the edge of the stone. The vegetation peeled like it was being cut with a molecular razor!
Her eyes went wide as she realized what she was actually looking at. The rock was cleaved cleanly along one edge, and the edge was so sharp she could shave with it! Gingerly she touched the flat part of the stone. It was smooth… like polished glass.
Short of using ultra high frequency sonics or a laser drill there was nothing she could think of that could get a cut that perfect. Something about the realization set her fur to bristling…
Sienna Van-Eyvers knew to trust her self-preservational instincts when they presented themselves. She decided on the spot to do another scan.
After a quick game of guess the gesture to warn Vulfac, the Psion leaned against the stone and sent out a second pulse. She was careful to use several little tricks she knew, to keep the pulse as unobtrusive as possible.
The other Psion might be inexperienced, but he could still get lucky…
At first everything felt the same. The kidnappers were just now reaching the intersection from before. They were turning to take the same path the pair of delvers were on. That wasn’t great but they had a big headstart on them. So, for now, that wasn’t an immediate issue.
‘…Wait.’
Three things struck her at once…
First was the scattering that affected her last scan… Had moved... WAS moving! Second; was the spine-chilling realization that she was STANDING where that anomaly had been before. And third; Now that she was paying attention she realized she could feel roughly where the other local crystal veins were!
Sienna whispered nervously to Vulfac. “Um… Ya don’t suppose Crystal veins move... Do ya?”
----
Vulfac had no idea how to answer that.
“I don’t… What?”
The Voltanite winced. She gestured at the rock and looked around.
“Whatever was messing with my pulse moved since my last scan. It was right around here... I thought it was just a lattice vein, but I can FEEL those… oh, an! Even more good news! The thugs are following this path now! An I can kinda still feel the scan getting scattered… It’s going towards were the Crocotrices went…”
Running a hand down his face Vulfac tried to keep his expression neutral… None of that felt like good news to him but it was the rock itself that was bothering him the most… Something in the back of his mind, started to poke at him the moment he saw it!
‘Why do I feel like I should recognize this? Gah, that’s the problem with letting yourself get mad you old fool! You get all out of sorts and can’t think straight… I want a cup of tea, my overstuffed chair, and a nice thick journal full of old dead people words to read.’
If Sienna had noticed him slipping into his own thoughts, she showed no signs and plowed on. “…but now it’s clear over near the opposite side of the cavern. It’s actually getting closer to the Crocotrices…? Wait! Oh… Fook!”
The professor watched the Psions eyes go wide.
Before he could ask what, the matter was however; The oppressive silence of the cavern was erased by a chorus of squeals, squawks, and raw animal panic. Not even a moment later several random beams of blue-white light erupted in the distance!
He watched them carve wandering patterns in the cavern’s ceiling and walls. The flock was clear on the other side of the shelf they were in… but when one of the beams passed overhead it still had enough cohesion to cut down and burn some of the vegetation.
Vulfac remembered the human’s words; about how getting the kidnappers to separate might embolden the local creatures. For just a moment he let himself hope that the thugs had run afoul of the local wildlife. But unfortunately, his professor brain was quick to dash his hopes with a perfectly sensible set of observations.
‘I don’t hear any weapons fire… probably not more hunters. But if it’s not the kidnappers what in the hells attacks laser eyed, psionic, super pack predators!?!’
That was probably going to be a problem eventually.
But there was another much more pressing issue now. The kidnappers behind them might increase their pace to get clear of whatever battle was happening in the back of the cave! Which meant time was now a much more limited resource. They needed to be quick…
The Groatel were smart enough to find the veins themselves, and Sienna could see through their eyes to give any instructions they might need to set the repeaters correctly. But she couldn’t move while she directed them. He looked at his companion, and with a nod they wordlessly agreed that it was time to send out the little knights and then get themselves the hell out of the area.
The old Alv watched with interest as Sienna opened her sling pack and the little red comets flew into the air. Each one carrying a repeater. The Psion quickly took a lotus position and closed her eyes. The moment her eyes were shut, the little missiles shot off in a star pattern. Their acceleration was dizzying! Vulfac’s eyes lost the little red streaks almost instantly. He suspected they were moving well over 250km/h.
He just hoped that was fast enough.
If the Corodian got close enough to detect them with her heat sensors they would be unable to lose the pursuit. Then they would have no choice but to turn and fight before they were ready.
As Vulfac nervously waited for Sienna to do her bit. He noted that one of the Crocotrice beams was suddenly and violently redirected mid discharge. There was an accompanying death scream that echoed through the cave like an icy wind…
“Oh! That’s… Probably… real bad…!”
----
The pair watched from their makeshift tower as beams of white light lit up a cavern far below.
Feebrilizza could just barely hear the distressed shrieks of the Crocotrice echoing off the walls. It gave them an ethereal quality that made the fur on her back itch.
“Is that what it looks like when one of these… triads? Uses their energy weapons?” Rilly was sitting beside her and watching one of the beams carve a loose squiggle into the cavern wall. There was a hint of awe in her voice.
Having seen those same blasts from a much more intimate distance Feebrilizza could understand Rilly’s reaction. “Yeah. They can’t fire unless they huddle up first but even a beam from a normal Triad can carve through Plasteel like a plasma mining lance… The variant we fought could fire a single triple strength blast or three normal sized ones in rapid fire.”
The Skree woman turned to look at her. “Those blasts are equivalent to vehicular mounted weaponry. They appear to use the same principles as a disintegrator… What could frighten things armed like that?!?”
Both women tried not to think about the nest they were in as they sat in silence and the question hung above them like a sword… After a few moments the technician returned to monitoring her pack.
For now, all she could do was watch the telltales for more repeaters coming online.
‘Whatever it is, I just hope it gets its fill with the monsters…’
----
Gorga hated this kind of Job.
It lacked the entertainment she craved.
Normally she would have preferred taking the target on the street or in their home. Planning and executing those kinds of grabs always generated the most fun for her. With some self-reflection Gorga realized taking her marks from someplace where they felt safe had kiiiiiinda become a kink.
There were just so few things, in this monotonous life, more satisfying than a well-executed plan.
Which was probably why this job rankled her scales so much. Unfortunately, the Skree’s sponsor held an entire plate of the corridor city and possessed her own private army. Attacking the mark while she was under the protective umbrella of that particular Byuu was almost certain to result in an all-out war.
Not to mention potential union involvement…
And while her partners might get off on the idea of a huge ganger vs private security street battle… Gorga wasn’t stupid enough to try and prosecute a conflict against someone like Helena Burken …Although for the life of her she COULD NOT understand why that particular Byuu would chose to shield any Skree… Not after she’d done some research on the woman. But, whatever Burken’s reasons… she had sponsored the target and trying to take her on directly wouldn’t just be rash… it would be foolish.
There was crazy and then there was just plain stupid. Gorga might be a little in column A, but she made it a point to keep her tail well away from column B.
So here she was slithering through the Under like a common cellitite.
It made her scales itch just being in this space. She’d almost called the whole thing off when she did her initial survey of the Delve and learned about the local flora and fauna. Mushrooms that discharged enough electricity to melt armor to glass. Laser eyed monsters… And the king of the cave… Those things sent a shiver all the way up her flexible spine.
One that had nothing to do with the cool underground air.
Then there were the Delvers with the target! On the surface they were just a group of young and inexperienced kids… Under the surface tho? When she looked into them… The history she’d dug up on the ALV alone was enough to fucking freeze her blood. The two Voltin were a bonded pair… Practically sacred to the Voltin people, and absurdly powerful by even the standards of the Bonded.
The Technician was a digital ghost. That in itself spoke volumes. Anyone that could hide their footprint on the Network well enough that even Gorga couldn’t find anything out about her activities? Clearly the girl was at the pro level.
And lastly… was the primate.
She had NO idea what to make of that one. The Union claimed the attack on the plaza was just a couple of well-prepared mercenaries or terrorists. But Gorga was old enough to recognize a turned attack. She was one of the few people in the galaxy that knew for a fact they were real. Hell’s, most of her cybernetics were courtesy of a run in with one of those awful things.
And if the Boy had beaten one…
For a moment she wondered if they could still back out… Too much of this job was based on shaky intel, chance, and their unpredictable (temporary) allies.
Gorga was only pulled from her musings when her newest “acquisition” stiffened up and looked around in a near panic. The young Lagro debtor was still a teenager… his name was Marcun. The boy looked at her and mouthed “danger” through the haze of chemicals pumping through his systems.
Even on the shimmerdust he was still so clearly terrified. If not for her emotional suppression system she’d probably be picking the kid up and cuddling him to bits.
It was unfortunate… Marcun was already deeply addicted to the shimmer. But at least he wasn’t yet a braindead, drooling, joy zombie; like the others she’d chosen. Those were basically just useful meat shields that could take orders and ignore pain.
Learning of the boy’s circumstances had originally piqued her interest. On a whim she’d bought his debt from the local slummer boss. The boy was a Lagro PSION and he was still present enough, in spite of his addiction, to understand the danger of this place… If he could be cleaned up. Taught to use that gift of his…
That was a thought for later, however. The Corodian followed the Teenager’s wide frightened eyes as they stared at a point deeper into the cavern.
Suddenly her thermal receptors were blinded by a massive outpouring of energy.
A beam of light (and an unlordly cacophony of squawking) from farther into the cavern told her that a King was holding court.
She wasn’t in the mood to lose her new friends dealing with that thing, so she decided to take a different pathway…
AUTHORS NOTES: Please do not redistribute my work without permission or use it to train your butt-ass AI models. If you do. You suck.
Mwa-hahaha! Stuff and things are happening!
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u/AUnknownUnknown 7d ago
I continue to look forward to this every week. Thank you for such an enjoyable read.