12 Miles Below

The moment the Icon took command over all this scrapshit, it was like order was being restored one chamber at a time.

But her first orders to my core team was to clear out of the vault and leave me all alone in here.

Sagrius, the Chaptermaster and his Imperators, any spare Winterscar knights, Wrath (reluctantly) and every crusader that could have been a bodyguard were sent out following her direct orders.

Reasoning? If they could send a force strong enough to kill me, the additional defenders here wouldn’t significantly change the tide of that fight. That, and in the early stages of reclaiming the fortress, she needed to make use of every single soldier to their best potential.

And boy did she deliver on that part. She individually commanded every single soldier under our banner, marking who to attack, in what order, where to position, and even where to aim ahead of time. The actual combat never worked exactly according to plan, but she could adjust and recalculate instantly, all at once. Meaning the full fury of humanity crashing back out of the vault, spreading out into the citadel, moved like one hyper-coordinated assault force.

I got to see her planning in real time and she displayed the entire citadel map in three dimensions over my HUD. My only other job was to sit here with Urs, and eliminate anything within my occult sight running around with a unity fractal.

Machines several chambers away would get swarmed with ghosts attacking from every direction, occult spears built to kill gods getting thrown at even basic machine models, and a whole bunch of occult armguards slicing and dicing. And she’d help me out by showing me direct video footage of the chambers, so I could have finer control over my ghosts. Which meant every Keith from every other dimension was also getting the same advantage.

We really were a one-man infinite army, and our only limit was range.

But the Icon did not have that limit. I saw as she advanced squads forward, retreating others backwards, combining arms, moving ordinance around, the works. Even weapon handoffs, where Winterscar knights passed over rifles loaded with occult gel bullets and other Clan Altosk goodies we’d come up with. Sometimes midfight, she’d have Crusaders run in, grab what was needed, ignore everything else and run off to deliver their cargo to where it was more needed. Insane amount of micro-management.

The Winterscar knights and stolen Feathers I noticed were left with only their occult blades and nothing more.

As she explained, she considered the Winterscars a weapon all to themselves already, and adding more bullets and explosions would only increase their effectiveness by a certain percentage, and that percentage was insanely higher on anyone else.

Knightbreakers were her most relied on equipment, used in oddly creative ways.

They ended up not being used to destroy Feathers, those assholes had finally learned to take the ordinance seriously. But it did work excellent at cutting through any shielded targets or attempt to wall off hallways.

The shells being reusable became the single biggest item. That and bringing slightly damaged shells back to Wrath or a stolen Feather to rebuild on-site for reuse.

The Icon had nine entire hours learning on the job how to command humanity itself against machines on a global scale, and she had learned enough to be unstoppable.

As for me, once the initial bulkhead here was secured, there wasn’t much else to do other than remain in place near the terminal, and keep it protected in case Avalis tried something sneaky.

There was always the chance he tried going after me directly by spawning portals in here, but the Icon calculated that to be a double edged sword.

Avalis could throw bodies my way, but I could equally send ghosts right through the portals and continue to control them at a distance, flooding the enemy staging ground with completely replaceable forces. Range was my limit, and throwing portals my direction would be removing that limit.

And for all of Avalis’s planning, there were still a finite amount of portals and staging grounds he could have prepared according to Urs.

The old god was still digesting what he’d seen and felt from touching those portals. I could sense him picking apart lessons and concepts out, fitting them back together, toying around with them in his mind as he worked. There were hard limits to these portals, and while it seemed like Avalis was throwing them all up wherever he wanted, the truth was that all of them had required significant time and effort to make.

Just like the Icon had spent nine hours fighting for humanity, Avalis had spent his hours working on everything obsessively and without stop. He had prior planning, meticulous counter-plans, and a far larger army to throw at us… but the Icon had sheer golden age processing power.

And he hadn’t expected I would hole up and stay in one spot for the fight which left him scrambling for new plans to kill or squeeze me out. A lot of them.

Three attempts by teams of second generation Feathers.

One attempt to bait me out by falsifying a distress signal from Wrath.

One attempt where a portal opened up right in my face, and a small possy of Drakes were waiting on the other end to open fire at me all at once. Urs powered the fractal of resolve and shielded us both from the onslaught with almost barely a thought put to it, while my occult ghosts flooded the other side of the portal and ripped apart his drakes.

And one attempt to get the crusaders themselves to turn on me, which was probably the most laughable of them all. But I’ll give it to him on that part, he really was trying absolutely everything he could think of.

Which came to this final attempt just now: There was a massive explosion further off towards the center of the citadel, from the direction of the deactivated pillar heart. And immediately after, seventeen portals opened up within the vault, each only for a fraction of a second, closing immediately after.

Unlike before, there wasn’t a mass of beams trying to scour me away from reality. Only one thing passed through each portal: A power cell.

Urs moved faster than I did, once more tapping into Resolve, feeding it into an occult dome of pure power that surrounded us and the terminal in every direction.

The power cells splashed into the surrounding shallow water with dull thunks before I could even utter a curse. And then rolled for a few more seconds before coming to an anticlimactic stop.

I could tell they had all been set to supercritical stages, and should have been set off before they even hit the ground. I could even see the engineering within the cells, firing off precise voltage, on a repeating trigger. About one hundred sparks a second, rapidly fading away as none of them were designed to keep trying to trigger a detonation after the first three hundred.

I thought for sure he’d finally got me with that. Seventeen power cells exploding around me wasn’t an easy thing to survive even with Urs here to help.

“Interesting.” Urs said, still holding the shield around us. “I had assumed your opponent had compensated for the pillar heart. Perhaps in destroying it in a manner I am unaware of. He has not, or his calculated attempt has failed.”

All seventeen cells remained inert on the ground. The trigger mechanisms that had been hastily attached on each were now getting short circuited by water leaking into the poor construction. Pretty soon they all stopped trying to detonate. Despite the fluid within being one bad spark away from blowing up.

“You’re going to have to explain that one to me.” I said, still worried about stepping even a foot in any direction.

“Ah. You are surface clan with little access to pillar hearts, understandable. And I believe your power cells are managed tightly already. Underside cities have a surplus of power cells, and this has been a trend among every city I have been to. Steps had to be put into place by Tsuya to account for this.”

The shield around us faded, and I carefully sent ghosts out to puncture the power cells, letting the fluid leak out into water. The moment they diluted with the surrounding water, the glow within faded. Soon, there were only seventeen husks of power cells, useless and inert.

“I don’t believe Avalis would have messed up detonating a power cell, let alone seventeen times.” I said, still looking over the failed attempt with a critical eye. “What prevented the explosions? What’s me being from the surface got to do with anything on that front?”

“Humans have many causes for their destruction, however the majority of their issues will be within their own community. And Tsuya designed pillar hearts with intent to allow humanity to construct and survive within.”

I gave the cells another quick look over, making sure they really were just dead metal. There was still a few occult fractals within each container, now that I was linked with Urs and could clearly see their concepts. But they were all connected with too much water around here. Power cell fluid remained powered so long as it wasn’t contaminated or diluted. Stabbing each had done exactly that.

It’s only after I was certain Avalis’s last ditch attempt to assassinate me had really failed that I fully processed what Urs said. Undersider citizens had tons of power cells to spare. Every knight already had two they ran around with by default. And since Tsuya thought on long term scales…

Urs could tell I’d come to the conclusion over the soul link. “Correct. A single power cell used by a human with a darker desire to eliminate their community would be the more direct cause of a city’s destruction in comparison to a machine onslaught. And statistically far more likely over the years. She set the pillars to dampen the occult part of the supercritical phase. None of these were ever in a true supercritical phase. They only appear to be to all other senses.”

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Basically every dial had to be at ten for these to blow up, and if even one was set to nine instead, there wouldn't ever be an explosion.

“All right, I see the logic there.” I said, picking up one of the dead cells, examining Avalis’s handiwork. He must be real pissed to not hear a boom go off. “But if someone was dedicated enough to blow the city up, couldn’t they explode the pillar heart and then detonate the power cells?”

It must have been accounted for by Tsuya when she made these pillars, given Avalis had blown up the citadel’s defunct one right before trying to throw a bunch of them into the sanctum here.

“Once they are destroyed, a few years will be required before cells within the region can now detonate, yes.” Urs clarified. “Generally by then, the city has fully evacuated as there is no longer any real defense against machine incursions. I had assumed Avalis discovered a counter to this when he destroyed the citadel’s pillar just now.”

So it was more of an aura in the area that was constantly being added to. Like the miasma that had affected Urs in his containment cube. The source could break, but the effects lingered.

I tossed the dead metal chunk back into the water. “Maybe he thought he had a counter, and it didn’t work. Or he was desperate and trying just about everything.”

The Icon answered that one: “Prediction models suggest desperation rather than methodical attempts. His troop movement and counter actions against me prove that he is currently compromised and rapidly losing focus. Prior movements were more prepared and logical, current ones show frustration and flawed emotional thinking. It is a vicious cycle as the more errors he personally commits, the more I abuse those mistakes and frustrate him further, causing even more tactical errors.”

“I can’t imagine him rattled by anyt-” I stopped. “Well, actually I can. I got him pretty good at the bridge and that’s half the reason he’s been after me ever since. What can I say? My true talent in all this is my excellent ability to piss off anyone to the point they shoot their own feet. Wrath, praise me please.”

She was in the local area, and could easily hear me over the comms. I knew this because I could see her on a floor above me handling triage.

“You have shown excellent results in being able to undermine our opponents using only insults, yes.” She answered. “Feathers are particularly susceptible to this attack vector, I would agree it is a significant enough talent to be relevant in combat discussions.”

Being a Feather with another clan knight’s soul powering the time warp fractal for her, she could eliminate just about any other enemy Feather if she got in range. And yet, the Icon had assessed her abilities and determined her healing fractal was leagues more powerful in the battlefield than a handful of strategic kills Wrath could deal.

Because Deathless.

We had hundreds in this fortress fighting back. Occult power was being thrown everywhere in the citadel by their hands and occasionally kicks. They were from all different generations, and of different skill, but all of them were the real deal. The ones who’d lived and breathed the fight against machines and have been all their life.

They survived wounds that would have killed regular humans, and they didn’t need working relic armor to fight given their occult abilities. Meaning Wrath could almost always bring them back to life, even when every life sign about them had flatlined. So long as they didn’t dissolve into ash, they could be returned to life.

And they could hold on instead of letting their spirit go to the next active pillar heart, effectively being truly undying soldiers here.

Deathless really were resilient, and I knew that was beyond natural means: They had a variation of the fractal of Resilience affecting them, keeping them past death’s door.

The Icon was using Crusaders primarily to strike into lost territory, and drag back the bodies of slain Deathless, ferrying them right back to Wrath where they’d be brought back and sent off.

Just her being here healing Deathless back to their feet had already directly led to hundreds of victorious engagements all across the citadel. Easily out-doing anything Wrath herself could have done with two blades.

Also it was nice to have her right in range where I could watch over her too.

I turned back to the terminal. “So, commander, I’m guessing this is his last attempt at me?”

“He planned for your appearance in specific locations, such as the wall defenses or the center command centers.” The Icon said. “I believe this was indeed a final resort, his options to eliminate you in one location are limited.

Remain in position and continue to hold the centerline here. Keeping Miss To’Wrathh protected while she restores my forces is quite critical.”

“Order confirmed, tweedling thumbs and watching over Wrath until some scrapshit comes my way.”

It was about ten minutes of keeping the home front safe that the Icon specifically came to me for assistance again.

Up to now, the Icon had firmly turned the tides against Avalis and was just building her victories into more victories.

Deathless and wounded humans were constantly being cycled on the floor above me, but beyond that and what the Icon was showing me by courtesy on the HUD, she was beating back almost all of Avalis’s attempts.

I wish I could see his face right now. Hopefully once this is all over, I'll get a video log to watch.

“Mister Winterscar, and Miss To’Wrathh. I may require your assistance with my next objective.”

“Sure, tell us what you need.” I answered back, and Wrath equally sent an affirmative ping.

“The difficulty is the jammer staging grounds.” She said, the image appearing in three dimensions displayed by Journey. “As you can see, each time I send an away team to eliminate the outpost, Avalis collapses the portal connecting it, and thus separates me from these soldiers near permanently.”

I did feel bad about that, it was under my orders that I’d sent Father and a few knights through the portal the first time to wreck everything there.

The Icon had already nearly beat Avalis back to the wall defensers with just a handful of Winterscar knights and Captain Sagrius in play. If she had Tenisent Winterscar and his personal retinue of Winterscar knights from the start, I can’t imagine what kind of scrapshit she’d have pulled off with that.

“This could be managed,” She said, the image outlining multiple portals in strategic chokeholds. “However the scale of enemies beyond requires more resources than I have available.”

“Feathers, right?”

She had cleared a lot of chambers, but if she didn’t clear the staging ground, more jammers would be built and another portal would be spawned from Avalis’s backups, where he’d throw it into the chamber with a fresh wave of attacks and try to disrupt the Icon’s growing influence.

She’d eradicated a few staging grounds she’d considered critical, but it had always cost her the entire away team.

“There are generally one to five feathers holding position on the outposts beyond, which require at least deployment of warlocks, Deathless or multiple Imperators. Winterscar knights can also be trusted to handle two or even three Feathers if supported correctly, but they cannot be spared as they are the only ones capable of disrupting portals and sealing them. It would be far easier if the Feathers were no longer an issue, I could send conventional combat squads instead.”

“You have a potential plan?” Urs asked. “One that requires either Keith or To’Wrathh in specific?”

“I do. I have analyzed the forces Avalis sent, and their weaknesses. Specifically in terms of behavior hierarchy. The Feathers he sent to attack the walls and yourself earlier are highly methodical, very clearly capable of following orders and will retreat the moment the tide of war turns against them. They are holding my forces from making contact with the wallside defenses, and maintaining the jammers active. Other Feathers he has sent out in offensive terms are far more brazen and less disciplined. It suggests there is varying quality to Feathers.”

There was a small slide show of different Feathers being pictured, those fighting off near the wall location looked grim, determined and actually working together as a synchronized unit. Where they went, the Icon was forced to either retreat or commit more forces to holding them off.

Wrath added the missing detail: “Those are all known second generation Feathers. They were built to work together in defeating dangerous opponents. They have great pride but in equal measures, the ability to set that pride aside in pursuit of the main objective.”

The Feathers sent to fight protofeathers. A57 had specifically made these assholes to work in teams so they could take down demi-gods. I remember To’Aacar being very proud of that fact.

“That is as my behavior matching programs concluded. Avalis sent in his more trusted and reliable Feathers into the citadel directly to fight, and has delegated more suicidal or strategically less important missions to Feathers that statistically have shown more impulsive behaviors.”

I saw where this was going. “You think he kept the completely unreliable ones outside the citadel?”

“From the snapshot glimpses I have of the Feathers holding position at the outpost, yes. I would like to confirm more.”

She sent seven images. Partial images with only hints of different Feathers from beyond the portals, before they sealed up and equally cut the connection. “Miss To’Wrathh, are you able to recognize any of these Feathers and give more details on who they might be?”

“I can pattern match two of the seven images.” Wrath said, and two of the images flashed green. “These both match to third generation Feathers. Their models were built shortly after complete victory and generated with far less guardrails. Mother wished to mock humanity with their construction. They are more prone to dramatics and toying with their enemy. Significantly more.”

“We had the pleasure of meeting one, actually the one in charge of your own strata.” I added in. “I can’t imagine trying to fit a giant pipe organ into the citadel would have been possible, or walking it through the biome outside the fortress here.”

“And he would have likely refused to engage in combat at all unless his particular requests would be accommodated for.” Wrath sent over the full details we had of the late To’Naviris. Along with his ridiculous pipe organ. “If that pattern of behavior follows all these Feathers, then they cannot be reliably deployed into combat.”

“So, the other end of these jammer portals all have the dredges of Feathers.” I summed up. “Not the weakest, sure, but the ones Avalis has no real way to control because they’re probably insane.”

The Icon gave a approving hum. “Despite that flaw, they remain a thorn on my side as I need to commit resources I cannot afford to guarantee the away team survives the encounter and destroys the outpost. I have potential ideas, but I would like opinions to confirm my hypothesis.”

Sure, I could probably rip them apart with Urs. But I couldn’t go out because the moment I stepped through the portals, I’d be instantly cut away from everyone. And if I tried to just get close to the portals and flood the other side with occult ghosts, that would technically work but it would require me making rounds outside the vault.

Which was a bad idea because Avalis had no doubt found out humanity’s true commander was sending signals from here. Cutting her off permanently from the citadel war here would probably be just as huge of a victory as getting me out of my hiding hole.

So I couldn’t go to them.

“What if we can drag the Feathers to us instead?” I asked. “I could probably stomp a dozen in the same room, if they were so kind as to actually come here on their… own. Oh. They’re all one insult away from turning on Avalis, aren't they? That’s why you’re talking to me.”

“I believe they are, but I wished to confirm with you and miss To’Wrathh first. Likely standing guard at the outpost while staring through the open portal is near the limits of their discipline.”

“To’Avalis is young as well, among the newer generation like myself.” Wrath added. “Many of these Feathers he’s ordering around would be several lifetimes his seniors. To be forced into following his orders is already a difficult insult to reconcile.”

“And they’re all just sitting there watching history’s biggest party happen without them.” I started laughing. “Okay, I see what I can do.”

I guess I did brag about having hidden talents earlier, I just didn’t think they would actually be depended on for a military operation.

“How are you going to deliver the payload without Avalis catching on?” I asked, more curious now. “I assume the moment he figures out what we plan to do, he’s going to counter it with extreme focus.”

“We will not give him any time to parry the tactic.” The Icon answered. “We cannot send data packages through the jammer interference. However sound waves are still perfectly capable of transmitting data. The citadel as a whole has a mass public announcement system that remains active. I will be soon taking control of that system, and will have your taunt broadcast through the entire citadel. The only defense Avalis would be able to do against this is to close the portals up to prevent the speech from passing through.”

“Which would basically hand us the victory anyhow. Hah, I love it. Screwed if he does, screwed if he doesn’t.”

“You will have only one chance at this. Avalis will likely find some noise canceling tech and wheel it within the citadel within five minutes. Or he will rip the wiring out of the walls in an attempt to disrupt the PA system itself. Regardless of how he does it, he will not allow this weak point to remain active.”

“Right. So the fate of humanity now rests on my ability to piss everyone off.” I cracked my neck, flexed my hands and loosened up. “Don’t worry, I’ve trained my whole life for this exact moment.”