Book 7. Chapter 11: The Dragon
“It is a human.” Odin’Erill’Skáld said, resolutely. “Triggering the final barrier line will kill our Icon-blessed progenitor, this time without fail. I will not be complicit in this act. The Icon will be my judge.”
Odin’Yill‘Hersir ruffled his feathers in disdain. “It only appears like human armor. Any kind of creature could be piloting that mech. Or it could be a machine infiltrator, built to blend in with humanity and now wandering around without a purpose. Regardless, the Víkingr have sent us direct orders to follow the Septimus protocol to the end. Execute the order or I will see you terminated from your post, Skáld.”
“Terminate me then.” Erill croaked out, feathers puffed out to the fullest.
Yill hissed, then shook a beak with a disdainful wing-slap, the order implicit. Three Thegns hopped to his side, although the Odin followed this order without complaint, jumping off and following the soldiers out of the control center.
Yill turned to the rest in the room. “Anyone else feeling sentimental? Leave now, I’ll allow a standard termination from service. I will not make that same offer a second time.”
Rather generous of Yill, but Rashant could understand. Having anyone in the control center grudgingly following orders meant that there was a sabotage chance. Yill would rather the traitors have a clean exit and remain unpunished rather than deal with treachery at every wingtip.
Three more Odin rose from their post and flew off to the doorway, exiting quickly without a word or even a glance at their commander. Rashant was surprised it was this many. The deadlands outpost was among the more hardcore military outposts, with everyone up here slightly on the zealous side of things given the distance from the Icon and the weight of responsibility with what lay on the other side of the deadlands. But all Odin had grown up with the Icon’s stories of humanity, so there were quite a few admirers. And many would see the target running around out there as human.
Like Erill, Rashant was equally convinced this really was a mythological human. The target had literally dodged every drone sent, and even slapped one out of the air with the flat of its sword. That kind of dexterity was absurd. Not to mention some kind of tech that he’d never seen had been used to both slice through the other drones and equally yank the power cell out of harm’s range. Human armor was a known quantity, the Icon had a few dozen to study from, so it wasn’t any surprise that the turret’s rotary cannon fire failed to even make the target flinch, but the human had taken only a few return shots that punctured through the entire thing and shut it down.
Machines were powerful. They were not this powerful. So either this was some kind of super machine - or it indeed was one of the old humans come back to life. Probably a legendary hero of some kind, kept in stasis. Perhaps even the Icon herself had found this human and reawakened it to save the Odin from the infestation.